The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Kudos to Chime on Enugu roads

    SIR: I want to commend Governor Sullivan Chime for building lot of roads in Enugu State, especially the political roads. That is roads that have been used by past governments to secure second term only to abandon them after being voted into power.

    A good example is Ugwuogo-Nike-Ikem road. When I was told that contract for the road has been awarded, I thought it was another political gimmick. But Chime proved me wrong. This road is nearing completion. Let me point out one remarkable thing about roads built by the present government in Enugu State: they are of high quality, more durable than two federal road contracts being built in the same Enugu State presently.

    One of such roads is the Amansea-ninth mile segement along Enugu-Onitsha expressway. Another one is the road which traversed Ikem to Obollo Afor. These federal roads have pot-holes despite the fact that they were ashpalted just months ago. But roads built by Governor Chime usually last for a long time because they are properly supervised and well built with drainages.

    Building many kilometres of roads as democracy dividend is one thing, another most important thing is the quality and durability of the roads. For a state government to use Arab Contractors who are reputable shows that it meant well for the people of the state.

    However, I must draw the attention of His Excellency to a road so dear to the good people of Enugu state which is the Ugwuogo-Nike-Neke-Ikem road. Work on that road was stopped abruptly in October last year and as this year’s rainy season is about to set in, if the road is not re-visited, it will wait till another dry season.

    This is a road a lot of people never believed will ever be built in this our generation due to the ruggedness of the terrain and the bridges that it contains. A man once whispered to my hearing that the road is the best thing to happen for ages. Other roads are still under construction but work has stopped on this particular road. Nothing will gladden the heart of the road users than the completion of the road.

    The good Lord will guide and protect Governor Chime as he positively touches the lives of Enugu people. Since the creation of the present Enugu State in 1991, we have never had it so good and we know our governor will not be a governor of abandoned projects because the norm in other areas is that second tenure is a time of laxity.

     

    • Gozie John

    Ikem, Isi-uzo, LGA, Enugu State.

     

  • Frank Mba and tinted glasses

    SIR: I wish to commend CSP. Frank Mba for his recent illuminating write-up on the use of tinted glasses.
    The write up has educated the public about the use of tinted vehicle glasses. What is puzzling however is while the punishment for using tinted glasses is N2,000.00 the cost of obtaining a permit for it is said to be N25,000.00. This is astronomical and appears unreasonable. This high cost will discourage people from applying for or obtaining the said permit.
    It is also said that the permission can only be issued by Police Headquarters in Abuja. The issuance of the permit should be reduced to about N5,000 or less and vested in Police Commissioners at state level. It is should not be a basis for raising funds for the police.
    Permit for cars with factory made tinted glasses should not be made prohibitive as many of them are gifts from friends and relatives.
    • Yemi Olajide
    Akure
  • Varsity lecturers should supervise WAEC exams

    Varsity lecturers should supervise WAEC exams

    SIR: What transpired in various centres in the recent West African Senior School Certificate Examinations shows that examination malpractice in the country has snowballed into an unimaginable proportion. If the ugly trend is not drastically checked, the aim of making education a sublime phenomenon and affordable to every Nigerian by the year 2015 would be a mirage. The scenario is now depicting a different ball game as teachers and supervisors are grossly involved in the heinous act.

    Students pay for signing fee to supervisors and invigilators before they could sit for their exams, while the invigilators reciprocate by allowing the teachers assist their students in the hall. On most occasions, the invigilators supply the answers themselves.

    Secondary education plays a very important role in the lives of students for it is the only forum where their characters could be moulded in order to place them in the right perspective for further academic pursuit. Government should therefore source another means of arresting the situation if the target to attain the 20:2020 status is in their master plan.

    The story in our tertiary institutions is not different. Students are now tied to the apron strings of some unscrupulous lectures who compel them to read only the text books authored by them if they must sail through in their exams. In most cases, assignments are not submitted without money changing hands between student and lecturer. The practice of confining students to only pages of their self-authored books would drastically affect their reading culture as they would no longer have the zeal to make research to improve their educational standard.

    However, in order to bring the unwholesome act currently going on in WAEC examinations to an end, the authorities concerned should adopt Professor Attahiru Jega’s formula by engaging university professors in the supervision of WAEC exams.

    I believe this measure would help in no small measure to bring the trend to minimal.

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt

     

  • What future for Nigeria’s youths?

    What future for Nigeria’s youths?

    SIR: “The youths are the future of this nation.” This has been a popular saying that has been used on so many occasions to re-create the impression that the youths hold the key to not just the future but a bright one.

    No doubt, this popular saying has been abused by all including the youths who realistically know that the future is out of their hands and that darkness has already set on their chances to change their destiny and that of their nation.

    With the plethora of challenges, problems and issues facing the teeming youths, it is conspicuous that they are no longer the future of the nation. They have been relegated to the seat of redundant spectators in the administration of the country hence the maladministration that characterises the day.

    The situation Nigerian youths find themselves in is saddening and disturbing. Their current status has confirmed that the future of the nation is bleak. The big question begging for answer is where does the future lie? Or with whom does the much talked about future lie?

    The worst scenario is that most Nigerian graduates remain unemployed. This is because they are the reflection of the decayed Nigerian educational sector. Universities on yearly basis churn out graduates yet, employing them remain a mirage. These graduates now compete for the little poorly remunerated jobs available.

    Consequently, fraud, armed robbery, prostitution and other criminal activities have become the order of the day. So sad, government has always sang the song “be self employed” even when they create no environment to realise this. The same government further turns these youths into thugs to achieve their objectives.

    My questions to our leaders at all levels are: were they brought up this way? Have they forgotten that posterity will judge them? Are their children also facing the same problems with majority of other youths whose futures are dwindling seconds after seconds? Why have they turned issues affecting or regarding the youths into rhetorical jamboree? I wonder if they know that those who live in glass houses do not throw stones. They have forgotten that the neglect of the youths has resulted into the abundance of problems that afflicts this nation.

    The time is ripe for leaders at all levels to admit their incompetence in handling youths’ issues and most importantly failure to provide the poor youths the future they deserved. They should know that the country was not handed over to them by their founding fathers the way they have made it to be.

    With the current scenario in the lives of Nigerian youths, they are so frustrated to the extent that they are no longer dreaming of the future not to talk of a bright one.

     

    • Owolagba Blessing

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State

     

  • Why is FG neglecting Gombe-Biu-Mubi Road?

    SIR: Adamawa North and Borno South senatorial districts are the most neglected region in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. My premise is based on the fact that despite repeated appeals which have been graciously published in most of the national newspapers, the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road has yet remained a death trap.

    My last letter of appeal about this road was in December 2010. It is true that since that letter, some sections of the road in Gombe State and some sections in Adamawa State have been patched by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA). But the whole of the part of the road in Southern Borno has been neglected totally as well as the section between Mubi and Hong towns in Adamawa State.

    What is amazing about the whole issue is the fact that virtually every week, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approves contract for the award of construction, rehabilitation, dualisation and re-surfacing of other roads nationwide but no mention has ever been made of the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road!

    From Gombe to Biu is approximately 129 kilometers, which should ordinarily take a motorist speeding at 100Km/h about one and half hours. But most road users of that road spend about four to five hours simply because of the many pot-holes on it. In fact some of the sections of the road are washed away. In the same vein, from Biu to Gombe is approximately 76 kilometers. This should take an average motorist just one hour at 100Km/h. But because of the bad nature of the road, it takes a motorist about three hours to ply it.

    The Gombe-Biu-Mubi road is approximately 200Km. At the World Bank standard of about six million naira for a standard road construction, all that is needed to rehabilitate the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road is just 1.2 billion naira.

    Considering the fact that Mubi is the commercial nerve centre of Adamawa State while Biu is the largest town in Southern Borno, expending 1.2 billion naira on the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road is justifiable.

    I also believe that by rehabilitating the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road it will be a source of employment for many teeming youths in that region that may be tempted to join the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The members representing the above local governments in the National Assembly should as a matter of urgent public importance appeal to the President of the Federal Republic to consider the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road for rehabilitation during the next Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

    It is also important to make it known that this region is the food basket of the north eastern Nigeria as people from all over the nation come to Michika Town for grains on market days. Mubi Town is well known for its cattle market in the West and Central Africa sub-region in addition to being home to the Adamawa State University and a Federal Polytechnic.

    Dear President, please come to our aid and rehabilitate the Gombe-Biu-Mubi road. After all we are stakeholders in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    When this road is rehabilitated, the politicians will find it handy and useful for their campaign in 2015.

     

    • Iliya Yame Kwache

    (Dan Lawan Michika)

    Hospital Road, Michika, Adamawa State.

     

  • Aviation minister’s sop to the North

    Aviation minister’s sop to the North

    SIR: Permit me to highlight the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah’s hijab attire at the commissioning of the refurbished Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano. As a Christian lady and minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there is no compulsion on her to wear a hijab for an official ceremony in Kano. Again the hijab has not been her normal mode of dressing as a public servant. The only safe assumption therefore is that she dressed the way she did as a sop to Northern culture and purely through self censorship.

    That is very shameful.

    At the psychological level, Nigerian politics is a battle of cultures. One culture is insular and conservative while the other is egalitarian and out-going. The tragedy of the Igbo who belong to the latter is that they go all out to court the others in the belief that they are thereby showing brotherhood.

    Ironically, this self-same thirst for camaraderie engenders more resentment against them. Historically, while the late Zik preached forgetting of differences, the late Sardauna preferred the understanding thereof. The portents haven’t changed today. It is instructive that at the same ceremony at which Princess Oduah tried to be full of unspoken apologies for who God made her, the CBN governor and Kano prince, Alh. Sanusi Lamido, came attired in full royal regalia the same attire he dons with petulant arrogance as a public servant.

    At some level therefore, the Kano event was a battle of two royalties, a prince and a princess. The princess came up real short and a disgrace to her culture, if you ask me.

    • Dr. Adighi Eme Ngene

    Akoka-Lagos.

     

  • Finally, the long overdue two-party system

    Finally, the long overdue two-party system

    SIR: ‘I stand to tell you that for the good of Nigeria, this must be the last and final convention of the ACN’.

    This statement was credited to the national leader of the ACN, Bola Tinubu as members of the party on Thursday last week, okayed the proposed merger of the party with the Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party .This legendary move by the opposition parties has sent shocking waves down the spine of the ruling party as to how to manage the consequence of the emergence of APC in the 2015 general elections, having earlier boasted that it would loom large on the trembling polity of Nigeria for the next 50 years. In the light of this development Nigerians begin to see the signs and realities of the possible emergence of a two party system.

    Political pundits believe that nations with two- party system such as the USA, Britain, Japan, Honduras, etc, are more politically stable than those with multi-party system and it is also believed that political stability can benefit economic growth. Again, many people consider the simplicity of a two-party political system to be an advantage. They say the system is simple for voters as they only have two parties to decide on. It is also argued that our national experience has proved that there will be more harmony and less unruliness in a two-party system than we have in a multiparty system. Moreover, two-party system offers an easy time when it comes to voting. This is because the voter does not need to take a lot of time to make a choice. Whenever Nigerians look at the ballot paper during any election, the array of party names and symbols are off-putting and, to say the least, confusing, especially to an illiterate or semi-literate voter.

    On the other hand the anti two-party System has argued that Nigeria cannot be compared to other nations of the world practising two-party system because of her peculiarity as being a nation with diverse cultures and ethnic groups. They further argued that the parties would turn out to be polarised on Christians versus Muslims lines, as well as North versus the South.

    It is my humble view that it is high time we stopped sacrificing our development and progress as a nation on the altar of our ethnic and religious differences. It is no doubt that the decision of the opposition parties to merge to save the nation from the 14 year inglorious rule of the PDP, is a giant step towards the right direction.

    Having studied the development of party politics since the First Republic, the country has always had the tendency of moving towards a two-party system. It is worthy of note that another history is about to be recorded with the emergence of APC, which to me is a rescue mission by the opposition at this critical moment in the history of our nation. This golden opportunity of joining the modern world in the practise of two party system should not be jeopardized.

    We just need one other strong party, a party that can compete intensely with PDP. If not, PDP will continue to rule this country and continue to swallow up some other weaker ones until the nation turns into a dictatorial one party system. This should never be allowed to happen.

    • Tolu Adekola Esq,

    Sulu Gambari road, GRA Ilorin.

     

  • These killings must stop

    These killings must stop

    SIR:In recent time, there have been reported escalation of violence in Plateau, Taraba and some parts of Kaduna State. The activities of Boko Haram in the troubled Borno, Yobe and Kano states have robbed these once peaceful states of their serene status. While the north has been battling and grappling with these unfortunate incidents, other parts of the country share their sorrowful experience of rampant cases of kidnapping, land disputes, militancy and political assassinations.

    Evidence abounds in the gruesome murder of 11 policemen in Bayelsa State, as well as the kidnapping and subsequent killing of former deputy governor of Anambra State. The developments attest to the dimension of insecurity in the country.

    The lingering questions agitating the minds of Nigerians are: why these killings? What are the perpetrators trying to achieve? What are the constituted authorities doing to stem the tide of insecurity in the country?

    From religious and cultural points of view, killing is abomination. Neither Islam nor Christianity encourages killings. Those who kill in the name of religion do it out of ignorance or they do not understand the content and context of our holy books. So also are the killings alien to our African culture. There exists a philosophical belief that the spirit of the dead person would haunt whoever kills a fellow human being. Nowadays, people kill with instinct and passion.

    The objectives of these evil-minded people or vampires are to promote disunity and hatred among Nigerians. To them, a divided Nigeria is the only way to achieve their parochial interests.

    It is agreed that no nation can develop in an atmosphere of rancour and instability hence the need for peaceful coexistence. Can this tall dream become possible? For optimistic people, a united and peaceful Nigeria is possible if we can eschew violence and love one another. Though conflict is inevitable, instruments of conflict resolution should be employed to tackle the frequent violence ravaging our country. The use of dialogue in resolving our grievance should be encouraged.

    Interestingly, the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, after several appeals from eminent Nigerians, has agreed to grant amnesty to members of Boko Haram. This gesture, in spite of the barrage of criticisms that trailed it should be commended. Government at all levels should pay more attention to the problems of unemployment. A situation where thousands of youths are roaming the streets is like a time bomb waiting to explode. The problem of corruption, now a hydra-headed monster should be confronted while good governance should be institutionalised!

    • Isyaku Garba (Matawallen Dass), Bauchi.

     

  • No time for APC to seek enemies

    SIR: The Yoruba say a prince should not ask who killed my father until he becomes the king, otherwise, he may be killed like his father. So, why is the All Progressive Congress (APC) said to be aiming at probing ex-Presidents? Indeed the Yoruba maxim that I would expect the APC to adopt is that a person should seek more friends rather than more enemies, particularly now that many conscientious members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) realize that their party has derailed and lost the moral justification to seek the votes of Nigerians in 2015.

    The PDP has been deceiving Nigerians about electricity and other amenities since 1999 till date. What else has the party got to say? You can deceive a people many times but not forever. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan went as far as promising he would transform Nigeria into paradise. But I knew he could not enjoy divine blessing, because God is opposed to destabilization which his truncation of rotational presidency represented.

    The APC has done well if truly it adopted whatever is good in the PDP’s manifesto. That would mean that the party is not sentimental. After all, nobody has monopoly of knowledge. Did the PDP itself conjure the manifesto? Only God knows the original author of each item in a manifesto. It is even possible that what the PDP is protesting is no more than certain coincidences in the APC’s manifesto.

    More importantly, of what use is a manifesto that the PDP has not made to benefit Nigeria but only its own self-aggrandizement? Note how all the major opposition political parties supported PDP’s rotational presidency, only for the PDP itself to truncate it after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua! I enjoin the APC to reinstate rotational presidency for order, peace, and progress.

    The APC should not hesitate in fielding General Muhammadu Buhari and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, because Nigeria needs their integrity for genuine transformation. A Buhari/Tinubu presidential ticket will mark the beginning of the end of religious bigotry in Nigeria. Henceforth, politicization of religion must stop; people must be judged by the content of their characters, not religious or ethnic sentimentalism. In rotational presidency, Nigeria must elect suitable persons from each zone (South-east in 2019, etc.).

    Towards success, APC must woo friends, not make enemies. The focus is not probe but transformation through eradication of corruption.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

     

  • Terrorism: Letter to the President

    Terrorism: Letter to the President

    SIR: According to Zimbardo, “Terrorism is all about psychology; it is about understanding the motives, values and ideology of terrorists to induce generalized fear, anxiety and helplessness in target populations”.

    Mr. President, your administration will be mistaken to be seen to be directly involved in extending blanket pardon to the members of an organized criminal group that had mercilessly embarked on “propaganda by deeds” to inflict sustained fear and fright on both the military and civil populace leading to the death of about 2000 persons. There is nothing under the heaven you can do to placate religious terrorist group. How can you grant amnesty to a terrorist who is in a hurry to be immolated or martyred? He or she is not interested in money or material things hereunder any longer. He or she is narcissistically enraged!

    Those people calling for amnesty for terrorists are lounge lizards or spongers: their values are not the values of the terrorists. They are simply tiger riders!

    Sir, let me humbly recommend to you what to do to reduce the menace of domestic terrorism in Nigeria in line with the global best practice.

    Declare Sheik Ibrahim Shekau, the leader of Al-Qaeda – Boko Haram terrorist group wanted as public enemy number one, with a promise to reward handsomely any move to arrest him.

    Scrap the Ministry of Niger – Delta to be replaced with the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should be rechristened Ministry of Home Security. More importantly, create a special anti-terrorist standing squad to be named NIGER FORCE to be well funded and disciplined.

    Please don’t dare granting amnesty to the terrorist group: but you can cut a deal with its leader through your National Security Adviser and other security people. For instance, deals were made to solve the problems of domestic terrorism in Germany and Italy in the seventies and eighties. You don’t set up commission on political evil to thrive. It is counter-productive to the current global moves to curtail terrorism. Al Qaeda, meaning the “base”, is a global terror network fuelling international terrorism using municipal cells.

    A long term solution to terrorism is to imbibe democratic values at all times. Terrorists hate democracy. Election must be transparent. Votes must count. Corrupt officers and people must be severely punished. Profane and sacred cows must be barbecued. The information ministry must be charged to combat the apparent winning streak of the domestic terrorist as far as strategic communication management is concerned. Terrorism has political, strategic, religious, ideological, economic, social, academic, financial, tactical, technological and narcotic dimensions. Mere setting up of an already frightened group to distribute money and job cannot curb the anomic phenomenon; neither will the northernisation of the landing ogre. Everybody must be concerned. The world powers are watching us. Any attempt to give blanket amnesty to terrorist group as erroneously ignorantly compared with the Niger Delta militant group, who the whole world know is fighting a legitimate cause against “environmental genocide”, will lead to balkanisation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. No sane person will want that.

     

    • Michael Angel Folorunso

    Alakia, Ibadan.