The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Missing-in-action governors

    Missing-in-action governors

    SIR: Many years ago, I read a work of fiction about a governor in Nigeria who was kidnapped. There was confusion everywhere and the Head of State ordered that he must be found either dead or alive. The book has become somehow prophetic because how can one explain the sudden disappearance of the governors of Enugu,Taraba and Cross River states? The only difference is that there seems to be quietness in high places giving a semblance that all is well.

    Nobody has seen or heard from the Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime for close to six months. He wrote a letter to the House of Assembly intimating them of his intention to go on accumulated leave for three months and mandated his deputy Sunday Onyebuchi to act on his behalf. Now six months down the line we have not heard or seen him with rumours that he is in India or as some say, London. The ship of state is gradually grinding to a halt with the acting governor afraid to carry out his responsibilities while the Chief of Staff is running the show behind the scene. This is reminiscent of the Yar’adua era. The ghost of Yar adua lives on.

    Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai was involved in a plane crash with his private jet near Yola, Adamawa State. He has since been flown to Germany for medical treatment but since then nothing has been heard from him. Two photos of him were released recently but instead of quelling rumours that he is brain dead and might be an invalid for life, they seem to reinforce it. In those pictures, he is expressionless and seems not to recognise those he took the pictures with. They include his wife and children as well as his fellow governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. His deputy who is now the Acting Governor has since taken charge but he is also afraid of carrying out his responsibilities. In fact on the day of the crash,a certain senator in the state mobilized thugs to chase him from the government house to prevent him from becoming governor.

    In Cross River State, the governor has also been gone for a long time allegedly for medical treatment. Nobody has seen or heard from him and the statement by the Senate Leader Victor Ndoma Egba that he was with him in the US and that he is hale and hearty looks more like a political talk.

    Many people have commended the Kogi State Governor Idris Wada for seeking medical treatment in Nigeria instead of abroad after he was involved in a fatal car crash. But he did that to preserve his office not because of patriotism. The fear of his enemies is the beginning of wisdom.

    The only reason our political office holders prefer to die in office is because of filthy lucre. Even when they are sick and want to handover or tell Nigerians their true medical state, they often face opposition from political aides, associates and hangers on whose source of livelihood depends on the political office holder whether legitimately or not.

    My advice to deputy governors in Enugu,Taraba and Cross River is that they should be patriotic and rule courageously irrespective of whose ox is gored. After all, their principals are second term governors. They therefore have nothing to lose.

     

    • Peter Ovie Akus,

    University of Port Harcourt.

  • Wake-up call on Isoko nation

    Wake-up call on Isoko nation

    SIR: Isoko nation is the third largest ethnic group in Delta State and second in the South-south region to discover oil and gas in 1958 after oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Nigeria in 1956 near Oloibiri, Rivers State. Yet the region has been totally relegated to the background.

    One of the problems confronting Isoko is inability for government to organize youth enlightenment programmes to build intellectual structure to counter the sponsored violence by unscrupulous and devious politicians in the land.

    Isoko nation only has two local governments, Isoko south and Isoko North with population of about three million people with 19 clans and over 40 villages. There is no presence of development in the region. Some Isoko communities are fast becoming troubled areas due to oil and gas business that some community leaders and elders now see as political business and nothing else.

    Since Isoko division was created in 1963 out of then Western region, and Delta State in 1991, it is totally marginalized by powers that be. Over 100 oil wells and gas flaring stations are sited in Isoko region, yet some unscrupulous politicians and individuals have decided to take the region to the cleaners through their sponsored violence in the region. Uzere community has been in conflict over leadership tussle among traditional rulers and others. Isoko community is into farming, fishing and trading while its land space is 1724 kilometers square and located in upland. Isoko people are industrious to the core. Though Delta State is one entity, unity is not binded as a result of ethnic conflagration in the region over the years.

    No Isoko man or woman has held sensitive political position in the federal level except in the state where Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan appointed some Isoko sons and daughters in key position of his administration.

    Even the Anioma people are strongly agitating for governorship in 2015 and their own state while Isoko region still waiting for Uduaghan’s government to fix Isoko leadership for them and the Urohobo nation is not left out in terms of political agitation for state governorship in 2015 too.Urohobo people are more enlightened and has the highest local government in the state out of the 25.

    It is time for Isoko nation to wake up from slumber and not to play second fiddle in Delta politics in 2015. Isoko politicians sponsoring thugs to abolish their political opponents should deviate from such acts and embrace unity in the region.

    • Godday Odidi

    Ajegunle, Apapa-Lagos

  • WAEC should brace up to their responsibility

    WAEC should brace up to their responsibility

    Sir: The recent comment by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) that school administrators are responsible for examination malpractices is like running away from the main issue. About 14 years ago I was involved in supervision of the school certificate examination under WAEC. With what I saw, I wish to say that the root of the failure and flagrant misconduct in examinations is from WAEC.

    The WAEC officials are as corrupt as the school heads and teachers. Examination malpractice is a network and a collaborative action between WAEC staff, school heads, principals and supervisors. After all, it takes two to tango. I agree that there are other principal agents in this malaise like parents, community leaders, ministry of education officials etc. WAEC is the owner of the exam and they should take responsibility for any failure. It is their duty to ensure proper supervision and the deployment of men and women of integrity on the field. Most WAEC field officers are simply corrupt and are just out to make money.

    I remember an instance when I supervised the exam. On arrival at the school, the school principal welcomed me thus “ we treat our supervisors well, sir I will like to know your terms.” He spoke to me as if it was a normal thing and I later discovered that it was really a normal thing for them. On further discussion, I learnt that most supervisors who had come earlier and even WAEC officials had their terms and were “treated well”. WAEC should mobilise credible and sufficient manpower to the field as supervisors and appropriate sanction should be meted out to defaulting ones. That means, strategies have to be in place to monitor their conduct.

    I strongly believe that if WAEC officials do their job well, it will go a long way to check exam malpractice. I must say that one of the things that gives school heads and teachers the boldness to continue in this act is the moral failure of WAEC officials. In the exam malpractice network are supervisory agents from state’s ministries of Education.

    There are another set of people government must handle squarely. Schools should only nominate teachers of integrity and repute for supervision not those who can make returns to school heads.

    There should be very stringent penalty for schools and head of schools involved in exam malpractice. Its a shame to see cases where teachers write on the board for students or dictate answers to them on exam day. If a school is closed down for such an act, I am sure it will serve as a deterrent to others.

    The question is, have WAEC in collaboration with the appropriate bodies come up with well defined and actionable policies to curbing exam malpractice? Charity, they say, begins from home. Let WAEC clean her house first before spreading the dragnet to others. This is not the time to pass blames. They must take responsibilty as the body empowered to conduct and supervise the Senior School Certificate Examination Pragmatism and leadership is required at this time from WAEC. The future of Nigeria’s educational sector is on the precipice and to salvage it, WAEC must play her statutory role well.

     

    Alexander Ighoro

    Warri, Delta State

     

  • Memo to Senate constitution review committee

    Memo to Senate constitution review committee

    We say no to autonomy for local councils. We also wonder at the apparent zeal to create more states despite prevailing realities. If our distinguished senators insist on autonomy for local councils as a third tier of government, let the states be abolished.

    Enlightened opinion has rejected attempts by our legislators to amend a fundamental document guiding their operations. Such exercise should be more appropriately handled by an independent ad-hoc body so constituted. Only such a detached assembly can produce a thorough, dispassionate and enduring constitution. The Nigerian state glaringly slides downwards as it now exhausts 70% of its annual budget on recurrent expenditure, a clearly unsustainable profligacy. For a nation dangerously tottering on the brink, autonomy for local councils, creation of additional states, should only be treated as incidentals after much more critical and urgent agenda. Our distinguished senators need to rise above narrow partisan interests to produce a befitting document.

    The only genuine reason for constitutional review now is to redefine our nationhood, so that a proper nation-state can evolve to give Nigerians hope. We want devolution of power back to the regions, or zones, as it was in the First Republic. We want to control our own resources, insignificant as they may be. We want to determine our own future within the context of a properly structured federation. In short, we want a truly peoples’ constitution, so that the Nigerian project can stand. Only our elite who earn their living directly from government may be pretending all is well, when the house has all but collapsed.

    A properly structured federation cannot tolerate the cynical, derogatory six-zone imposition which the committee has assumed as sacrosanct. Nigeria consists of over 250 ethnic nationalities. The southern minorities herded into the so-called south-south zone number over 100, with as many distinct cultures and languages. If, for example, Izon land were geographically contiguous, nothing prevents Nigeria’s 4th largest ethnic group from having its zone. The Mid-West Region stood on its own in the First Republic. It can do so now. So also can the minorities of the former Eastern Region. Your amendment should, therefore, incorporate a minimum of five regions from southern Nigeria alone, please.

    The argument between indigene and resident should never arise. The distinction between them is clear and should be left as already constitutionally provided for. Our worry is that abrogating one for the other suggests a subtle attempt to impose unitary government through the back door. A multiethnic secular state should forever abhor and reject the unitary system of government. Let the review committee prove its critics wrong. We plead with our distinguished Senators to strive to let the authentic wish of the people prevail, so that Nigeria can celebrate her centenary in one piece, and in peace.

    John Ingwu,

    4, Winners Way,

    Calabar, Cross River State

     

  • Sovereign Wealth Fund a necessity

    SIR: For nations such as Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Congo[Kinshasha] Gabon, Angola among others where natural resources endowed to those entities are explored and the revenue accruable from the export of those rare resources stolen by successive political administrations and diverted to private pockets, it would be imperative for such countries to consider establishing Sovereign Wealth Funds. There is therefore need for

    strong institutional and legal frameworks to be enforced for the national assets saved in form of sovereign wealth funds used to build functional infrastructure to promote better life for the greatest number of the citizenry.

    The decision by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to push for the establishment of the sovereign wealth fund is indeed a push for the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to be respected especially if the objectives of establishing the fund are strictly pursued.

    It is universally acknowledged that one of the sure ways that government ensures respect for the fundamental human rights of citizens is the promotion of measures that give rise to good governance, zero-tolerance to corruption, and respect for accountability and transparency.

    The primary purpose of establishing the sovereign wealth fund by most developed societies is the creation of quality infrastructure designed to make life meaningful. If members of the political entity are provided with qualitative infrastructure to better their lives as citizens, it is safe to say that the sovereign wealth funds are necessarily established for the promotion and protection of the fundamental human rights to life; dignity of the human person; freedom of association; freedom of movement and other basic freedoms and rights that are inherent, universal, and also the right to development.

    According to a publication on wikipedia.org, the very first SWF was the Kuwait Investment Authority, which was established in 1953 before Kuwait secured its independence from the United Kingdom. The Kuwaitis’ Fund was created from crude oil revenues and is reported to be currently valued at about $250 billion. Kuwait is one of the best places to live in the world due to the aggressive infrastructural development achieved with the sovereign wealth fund.

    I must however conclude by stating that the attempt to collect over $9 billion from some international creditors including China as contemplated by the Federal Government is retrogressive and will return us to position of a slave nation.

    • Emmanuel Onwubiko

    Abuja

  • Restoring the lost glory of Apapa

    SIR: The Apapa axis of Lagos, being a major gateway to the country’s sea ports, is very strategic to the economy of Nigeria. The major share of government’s revenue comes from both the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports. More than 75 per cent of the goods imported into the country come through the ports in Lagos and the major ports in the country are based in Apapa.

    Unfortunately, in recent time, motorists, commuters as well as business men moving towards the axis have been subjected to untold hardship occasioned by perennial traffic gridlock that has become a recurring decimal along the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway.

    The issues involved along the axis are multi-faceted. One, the Apapa-Oshodi road, a federal government road, is in bad shape and in need of urgent rehabilitation. Second, the nuisance of trailer drivers on the road is becoming a major concern. Not only that they drive recklessly, but they equally park their trailers indiscriminately along the road. The indiscriminate parking of trailers on either side of the road is a serious factor in the painful traffic gridlock that commuters regularly suffer on the road. Third, incessant cases of abandoned vehicles equally constitute a major hindrance to motorists on the highway.

    Also, the unprecedented upsurge of petrol tankers on the road is closely tied to the continuous importation of locally consumed fuel in the country. There are more than 50 depots in Lagos, which means there are between 50 and 400 trucks that load in one day. Consequently, a minimum of 3,000 trucks travel to Lagos on daily basis to lift petroleum products. Over 80 per cent of fuel supplies in the country are from Lagos. Hence, tanker drivers come from all over the country to source the products.

    To reverse the ugly trend along the axis, the Lagos State Government made spirited efforts to liberate the access roads. In May last year, the state government embarked on a massive clearing exercise, which led to the removal of trucks, demolition of shanties under the bridges and eviction of hangers-on in and around Apapa. At the end of the exercise, no fewer than 120 tankers were seized by the monitoring team. This intervention, no doubt, offered momentary respite to road users especially residents of Apapa, Festac and Badagry. But the tankers have since returned causing greater havocs.

    There is an urgent need for relevant government agencies to put in place a more institutionalized framework. For instance, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) should stop issuing loading ticket for tanker drivers when adequate preparation has not been made for them, in order to reduce indiscriminate parking on the highway by the drivers. So, it is important that NNPC do not issue out tickets for drivers to come and load in Lagos when adequate preparation for them to lift fuel in Lagos has not been made.

    Similarly, it is important that more tank farms are constructed along this axis to contain the over 3,000 tankers that come into Lagos on a daily basis. Tanker drivers often complain of the distance between the Orile terminal and the depots as a major setback. Presently, only two tank farms owned by Capital Oil and MRS are in operation along the axis and their capacity is not enough to accommodate the numerous tankers.

    Perhaps more importantly, there is an urgent need for the construction of more refineries across the country. A greater proportion of the petroleum product is consumed in Lagos because the refineries outside Lagos are not working. It is, therefore, imperative that more refineries are built while existing ones are urgently rehabilitated to ease the stress on Lagos.

    No nation that is desirous of economic development and growth will handle with levity such an important road like the Apapa Oshodi Expressway. To put the Nigerian economy on the lane to speedy recovery and growth, all stakeholders must be committed to a result-driven programme that would make the road a driver’s delight and investor’s friendly.

    Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Re: North misapplied N8.3trn

    SIR: The Nation editorial titled “North Misapplied N8.3trn” dated January 16, was a delightful masterpiece. It calls to mind the statement by Ellen G. White that “the greatest want of the world is the want of men who cannot be bought or sold with money, men who call sin by it right name; men who in their innermost heart are ready to say the truth though heaven fall”.

    Nigeria and the world are in dire need of the likes of Shehu Sani (President of Civil Right Congress), who in an uncommon display of rare political sagacity and fearless audacity spoke truth to power. According to him, “the resources allocated to states (of the North) are not commensurate with the level of development on ground. The scandalous looting of the state resources (in the north) is a product of thieving and venal governors and compliant and placid state assemblies”.

    It is imperative to submit that the solution to the problem of the north is not 2015, but in the prudent management of state resources with absolute probity. My northern brothers and sister must begin to hold their leaders at all levels of government accountable and stop blaming other geo-political regions for their problem. Accountability is the answer.

    As a matter of urgency, those who kill in the name of religion, education and other socio-economic divides in the north should end the on-going hostility and look inward to determine how to find a lasting solution to their grievances. They should please note that those who congregate in various places of worship and our security agents are not the cause of their perceived problem. Just as they must not forget that those who told them that the Ijaw man is their problem lied to them. If they think I am wrong, they should please see Mallam Shehu Sani for details.

    • Godfrey Ehi O.

    Benin City.

  • NNPC’s reckless comments against Amosun

    NNPC’s reckless comments against Amosun

    SIR: It amounts to sacrilege and gross misconduct for an official of a government agency to insult or disparage elected public office holders. It is even worse when the object of such reckless comments is an elected governor.

    This is a serious matter as it touches on the fundamentals of our democracy. The NNPC officials could only get away with such insults against a man who holds the mandate of the electorate with their letters of resignation accompanying their reckless comments.

    In its reaction to the comments made by Governor Amosun that the negligence of the corporation was responsible for the regular pipeline vandalism at Arepo, the NNPC through Ms Tumini Green, acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the corporation was quoted to have said: “It is sad that the governor of Ogun State who should know the importance of national assets like pipelines and do everything in his power to protect them is engaging in a blame game when every responsible Nigerian citizen is wondering why Arepo which is in his domain has become such an attractive spot for oil thieves and pipeline vandals.”

    The meaning of this comment is that the governor of about five million people of Ogun State, according to Ms Green, is “irresponsible”, for if he was a “responsible Nigerian citizen” he should have been “wondering why Arepo which is in his domain has become such an attractive spot for oil thieves and pipeline vandals.”

    Green was not done with her insults as she urged Amosun “to protect the pipelines in his domain to sustain product supply to the state rather than engage in unnecessary rhetoric.”

    For a government worker to declare that an “elected” Governor of a federating state in Nigeria is engaging in “unnecessary rhetoric” is the height of infamy, worse from a corporation that is noted in Nigeria as the epicentre of monumental corruption and inefficiency.

    This really goes against the grain in a democracy, for public servants to disparage “elected” office holders, worse of the status of a governor.

    I do hope the unguarded comments of officials of the NNPC will attract appropriate sanctions from the appropriate quarters.

    • James Ikechukwu

    Owerri

  • Football: A potent symbol of unity

    Football: A potent symbol of unity

    SIR: There was nothing the international community did not do to stop the fighting during the Nigerian civil war. But with the arrival in 1969 of the Brazilian football legend Pele to Nigeria there was a three-day ceasefire. The Nigerian government and the Republic of Biafra agreed a truce so that Pele’s team Santos could play two exhibition matches against teams in Nigeria. Such is the power of football. And now, another football fiesta beckons.

    From January 19 to February 10, attention will be shifted to South Africa where the 29th edition of the African Cup of Nations will be played. Libya was earlier billed to host it, but it was moved because of the civil war in that country. Sixteen countries will be competing. And there will be only one winner. After missing out on the last Nation’s Cup, the Super Eagles will be present to stake a claim to the trophy they last won in Tunisia about 20 years ago, their first ever triumph being in 1980 on home soil. They have come so close to winning a third time, notably that heart breaking final against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun in Lagos in 2000. Nigeria has won many bronze medals and the joke is that Nigeria has rested that medal. For gold-starved Nigerians, only the best will do. But more than what will be won, the game reminds us all of our oneness.

    Nothing unites like football. While the football fiesta lasts our differences will be forgotten. Sworn enemies will hug themselves in celebration of goals. Chinua Achebe’s book There was a country which has generated a lot of controversy will not matter anymore. Even our disdain for our leaders will be pushed to a corner. Even those who throw bombs may not remember where their cache is. That is the power of football.

    It is not only in Nigeria that this game unites. We will recall that in Ivory Coast there was a civil war that wracked the once stable country following a military coup in 1999, and the power tussle that followed reawaked ethnic divisions. Before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the country was already divided in two – one part was controlled by rebel army, another half was controlled by government forces. With the qualification of the Ivorian team to the competition, the Elephants became a symbol that united all the warring parties.

    The ball is round, so is our world. Indeed our world can be a better place. Let us enjoy this beautiful game, a game with the power like no other to unite¯and still hope the Super Eagles do us proud by bringing the elusive trophy home. And however it turns out, in all we do, let the thought of the round leader game always nudge us to treat our fellow humans well, let us always make sure the mantle of love remains worn in our churches, our mosques, our offices, our market places and everywhere we meet. And let the games begin!

    Dr Cosmas Odoemena

    Lagos

  • Nigerian farmers and 10 million phones

    Nigerian farmers and 10 million phones

    SIR: The Federal Ministry of Agriculture is reported to have earmarked a whopping sum of N60 bllion for the purchase of about 10 million GSM phones to be distributed to farmers all over the country.It is undoubtedly trite to assert that for the first time in the post-military life of our country, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is being superintended by a World Class Nigerian Scholar, Dr.Adewunmi Adesina. However, what bothers one is how the same ministry headed by this outstanding Nigerian, would be associated with a kindergarten policy of this nature.

    No matter how hard the ministry may shop to repair the situation, Nigerians are left wondering again where this sort of thing is coming from.

    Is this the best the technocrats in the ministry can come up with in the 21st century where ground-breaking ideas daily contest amongst themselves to win the attention of an enlightened world? Do we excuse them as simply part of the Nigerian majority already burdened by the near total collapse of infrastructure, so much so that this collapsed state can only sustain shallow policies of this nature as against long-lasting institutional reforms?

    The solution to our agricultural challenges does not lie in a cosmetic approach anchored on buying and distributing GSM Phones to rural farmers. What has happened to our very many faculties of agriculture, which today only exist in form but definitely not in substance, simply occupying space without the required funding and facilities to power it to produce 21st Century driven ideas and innovations that has taken the foreign universities that our leaders all troop to for advice and intellectual salvation to where they are today?

    What has also happened to the many agricultural research institutes annexed to our universities, which ordinarily were established years back with billions of naira, to serve as Centres of Excellence in terms of scientific researches and agricultural revolution, but which today has all been run aground by decades of serious underfunding and neglect?

    What has happened to the research section of the very many government agricultural agencies that at a time used to have the best of hands, even some trained in some of the best institutions in the world? What has happened to the many university farms spread all over the country once equipped with some of the best implements, that if well run would have just been enough to feed the states in which they are located and even beyond?

    But can anyone of us be surprised, in a country where government is known for buying books for primary school pupils instead of empowering their parents by creating jobs, why won’t the same government also think of buying phones for farmers. Maybe tomorrow, we would again be jolted from our sleep with the news that the federal government has set aside another N30Billion to help recharge these farmer’s phones.

    Suffice to say that it’s only around here that government’s policies continue to run as a stream of unending of jokes, rather than as matters of national importance.

    Nigerian farmers need not be given fish as handouts from the government; rather focus should frontally be to teach them on how best to fish. If only the faculties of agriculture in federal universities will get just half of this N60 billion, they would achieve in one year what these 10 million China Phones will not achieve in 10years.

    • Olusola Adegbite, Esq.

    Kubwa,

    Abuja.