The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Abati’s concept of service

    Abati’s concept of service

    SIR: Just recently the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Dr.Reuben Abati was on a live programme on one of the popular TV channels, and for close to one hour he strove to defend the regime of his principal, Dr.Goodluck Jonathan. It wasn’t the first time Dr.Abati would be taking advantage of a popular media platform to do his job, however as it has always been the case, it was another episode of a government person helplessly trying to inspire the people to nowhere.

    Dr.Abati cut the image of a man finding answers to an empty jigsaw of a government he is now a part of. Throughout the length and breadth of the interview, it was one very confounding scenario, as he was either answering the questions asked him with questions or at best pretending to answer them. Matters got to its head when he was confronted with that very stubborn issue of corruption in the oil industry via the NNPC and the attendant oil subsidy scam, and all Abati could do, perhaps trying to be quick-witted, was an attempt to reduce such a burning national issue to a trivial jibe by responding that anyone with “hard evidence” against the NNPC and the petroleum ministry top-shots should come

    forward, claiming they are all baseless allegations.

    Maybe Dr.Abati forgot he wasn’t talking as lawyer to the Federal Government, but as a spokesperson who is expected to bear truthful information at all times.

    One must say that finding an answer to this riddle is however not far-fetched. That the payment of over N4trillion oil subsidy money to fraudulent marketers aided and abetted by top officials of government today appears differently to Abati can only be found in the jurisprudentially evoking words of the literary giant, Prof.Chinua Achebe who once said, “Of course, it is very impossible for a man to talk well, while eating”.

    It was very nauseating watching Abati turn very serious issues touching the heart of millions of Nigerians on its head, attempting to window-dress the profile of his master all in a fruitless frolic.

    Abati claims his government is fighting corruption at the institutional level, yet as a government spokesman he amazingly failed to remember how this government in close to two years has not found enough “hard evidence” to fight the institutional corruption called bureaucracy in the Civil Service that has since occasioned a catalogue of very many avoidable made-in-Nigeria disasters. He forgot to tell Nigerians how his government chose to ignore the “Hard evidence” that saturates the House of Representatives Report on the Oil Subsidy scam choosing to quickly come up with their own “soft report” to help soft-land the indicted friends of government. He forgot to inform Nigerians of the massive scam in the Pensions Fund and how one indicted Abdulrasheed Maina appointed by his government as Chairman of Pension Taskforce has since been acting out all manner of insulting scripts to prevent his appearance before the Senate. He chose to forget so many thing preferring the microscopic few which really goes to no issue.

    I say with all sense of modesty that service to the people is far bigger, inspiration laden, and more eternally rewarding than service to any government. So where would Abati signpost his concept of service as he opined on TV, is it service to the people or service to the government? Abati’s newfound line of thought simply suggest that were the sitting government to quietly descend into malevolence, he will still claim service and continue to speak as he does at the moment.

    Like it is said, today we are all on the side of history; tomorrow whether history will be on our side is only a matter of time.

    • Olusola Adegbite, Esq.

    Kubwa, Abuja

     

  • Lessons from the Indian gang rape

    Lessons from the Indian gang rape

    SIR: The recent case of gang rape in India brings to the fore the cruelty, wickedness, violence against women as well as the failure of the state to protect its citizens from abuse and danger.

    This woman, though unnamed, has become a symbol of all that Indian women had suffered for so long with no respite. IT has energiSed them to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence with series of mass demonstrations, candle-lit vigils, street protests with placards, chants and road blocks.

    This assault has increased the call for speedy trial of the five men charged for the alleged murder as Indian rape cases could drag on in courts for years, with hearings repeatedly postponed, which rape survivors say prolong their ordeals.

    Just like the story of the Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi, who was also publicly gang-raped and allegedly held captive for three weeks by higher-caste Hindus. To avenge the trauma, she became a bandit and was eventually able to exact some measure of revenge against her gang-rapists. At the end, Devi served 11 years in jail and was thereafter, elected into the Parliament from Utter Pradesh, the same region where the latest victim came from.

    Rape, a form of Gender Base Violence (GBV) against women, according to the Beijing Declaration, is defined as violence against women that results into or is likely to lead into physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

    In 1995, and for the first time in history, the United Nations-convened Hague Tribunal attempted to prosecute rape as a war crime but could still not stop the rape atrocities in Iran, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Kosovo, Congo, Rwanda and Sudan.

    For now, India imposes death penalty only in the ‘rarest of rare cases’, although, it recently executed a man convicted in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

    Congress has already put forward plans for chemical castration and 30-year jail terms for all rapists, as a draft Bill has been put together and will soon be handed to India’s chief justice.

    All legitimate efforts should be deployed that the five men apprehended and charged for murder were given the deserved punishment, to serve as deterrents to others.

    Law enforcement agents should be above board and be up and doing to apprehend criminals whenever they infringe upon the rights of law-abiding citizens by embarking on regular patrols and intelligent gathering – to fish-out perpetrators of rape. The Indian police were blamed for not doing enough to apprehend the culprits.

    The assault has already forced the country’s higher education regulatory body, the Indian University Grants Commission, to review the safety of women in higher education institutions.

    In a letter to 568 university vice-chancellors and directors of higher learning institutions, the UGC said institutions should ensure women’s security on campus and recommended that all universities and institutions should set up a task force to ensure women’s security and keep it informed of actions taken.

    This is a welcome development. Our girls and women must always be cherished and protected!

    • Adewale Kupoluyi

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta,

     

  • Rehabilitate old rail lines first

    Rehabilitate old rail lines first

    SIR: The federal government should discard the idea of building more 10 rail lines and concentrate on rehabilitating the existing ones. Rail transport contributed in no small measure to the development of the country and wellbeing of the citizenry. During the first republic it was the major means of transportation, especially in the area of conveying foodstuff and other goods across the country. Cost of living then was very low because people were not spending much on feeding as foodstuff and other goods were easily affordable and at very cheap price. People, especially the down-trodden were able to provide sufficient meal for themselves and their families. In short life was easy going for the masses.

    But unfortunately this cheapest and safest means of transportation collapsed after the Nigerian/Biafran war thereby truncating people’s opportunity of travelling by rail. Now the present government has succeeded in making some portions of the rail lines functional, a task their predecessors could not achieve after spending billions of naira on it, it therefore becomes absolutely necessary for her to rehabilitate the entire network before venturing into new ones. As flagging off of the Lagos/Kano line was greeted with excitement by Nigerians, people, especially the southerners look forward to seeing the Port Harcourt Maiduguri route follow suit.

    Building of rail lines is not the same thing as constructing a road. The promise to complete three new rail lines this year seems unrealistic if it is taking the country more than 30 years to labour on the already built rail lines, the probability of completing three new ones within a year is absolutely zero. So government should jettison the idea of embarking on a similar project and endeavour to restore the usual hustle and bustle that was characteristics of railway stations in the past.

    Moreover, it has become a tradition in the country that any project started and unfinished by the incumbent government would not be continued by their successors. So it would be foolhardy for the president to start a job he cannot finish while in office; insisting on the mission would definitely mean leaving a white elephant project legacy.

    Rather, the President should divert the fund to resuscitating myriad of moribund industries scattered all over the country. For instance, outfits like Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill, Delta Steel Company, Nigerian Airways and many others whose workers are still left to their fate need immediate resuscitation in order to reinstate their workers.

    If railway transport and power become effective in the country, Nigerians would begin to see light at the end of the tunnel.

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt.

  • Still on the immigration recruitment exercise

    Still on the immigration recruitment exercise

    SIR: The recent report of the spat between the Minister of the Interior and the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service as carried by some dailies including The Nation of Friday, December 28, 2012 over an alleged surreptitious recruitment exercise is symptomatic of the general malaise and decadence in both the Ministry and Immigration Service.

    The Comptroller of Immigration Service (CGIS) had refuted the allegation that she was recruiting officers and men into the Service without following the due process. According to her,the Minister couldn’t have stopped an exercise that was yet to begin. In other words, there was no recruitment going on in the first place. The Minister was lying! Her defense was all sophistry for all I care. Those who know and are close to the workings of the Service know better.

    In August,2011, according to an Abuja based local newspaper The Road, Thursday August 18, 2011, similar recruitment exercise was carried out clandestinely by the same CGIS where it was alleged that out of the 2700 vacancies available for that year, 1000 slots went to the Presidency while copious allocations went to the Interior Ministry, the politicians, the Board of the Service, CGIS cronies and top functionaries of the service etc. Up till now nobody has refuted the allegation.

    Apart from this, recruitments have continued to be made into the service through the process tagged ‘replacement’. Nobody knows those who are being replaced in the first instance. But it would appear that you must know somebody ‘who is somebody ‘ before you could be recruited or pay your way through as alleged. And to imagine that the majority of officers at the service headquarters don’t know about this much less those at the state commands. These have been going on for the past two years.

    Whether you are talking about promotion, transfer or appointment, it’s now a matter of ‘cash and carry’. The recent promotion released in the last quarter of last year nearly tore the service asunder. It was a parody of injustice whereby subordinates and juniors were promoted far and above their more qualified seniors. The dissatisfaction therefrom is already causing ripples in the service.

    The CGIS is therefore not speaking the truth. It was alleged that the recruitment exercise had been designated to hold in a primary school somewhere in Asokoro before the minister wielded the big stick. Even if the CGIS succeeds in deceiving some people, she should understand that she couldn’t deceive those who actually bought their ways through and those who came on the back of godfathers and godmothers.

    I think what may have triggered the recent altercations between the minister and the CGIS was that the latter probably outfoxed the former hence the hammer. Absolutely,both the ministry and the service are culpable.

     

    • Ogidi Martin,

    Asokoro, Abuja.

  • A vote for capital punishment

    SIR: The French revolution of the 18th century featured the introduction of “Madame Guillotine”, which not only helped France, but helped the entire European world in general. Many aristocrats that ruled in France during the time of the revolution were executed, including Louis XVI, the King. This was so because the long-oppressed proletariat which comprised mostly very poor people in France had simply had enough of the nobles who were making life unbearable for them.

    The English civil war also saw the death of Charles I, King of England and Charles II, his son who felt they could do what they wanted and were prepared to forgo the rights of the people to get what they wanted. Whether what they wanted was right or wrong, the truth remains that the leaders are there to serve the people and not to be tyrants over them, not to impose their own desires on them. Vox populi, vox Dei.

    China has made corruption a capital crime, and believe it or not, it is helping them. Once found guilty of corruption in China, there is every possibility that death is around the corner. Corruption is at its minimum in China, and so the people are living a good life – at least better than Nigeria.

    Nigeria has become a hotbed for revolution of sorts. A new order should begin. One corrupt power holder can bring about the death of at least 100 people. If a man steals a purse from one woman at the market, he is instantly burnt to death. Then what is the man who steals from over 170 million people still doing alive? The man who drove another man to steal by stealing from him is still alive, while the man who stole because he had been stolen from is dead.

    We need a Ministry of Death. It will be like the Ministry of Justice, but unlike the Ministry of Justice, the members will actually be incorruptible judges. Once a power holder is suspected of corruption, he is tried for treason against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and if found guilty, is sent to the world beyond.

    Nigerians should think about it!

     

    • Alapade Pablo

    OAU, Ile-Ife.

  • Jonathan and his 2013 promise

    Jonathan and his 2013 promise

    SIR: Assailed by the harsh criticisms that have trailed his administration since coming to power almost three years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to be developing cold feet. At every opportunity, he won’t fail to point out that his government is being lashed at by opposition parties, the media and others.

    Somehow he has admitted his administration’s sluggishness. Many Nigerians were very optimistic and expected much from Dr Jonathan when he was elected. Many believe he has so far achieved little in the much-touted transformation of Nigeria. That his government seems so slow in the dispensation of dividends of democracy is no news. Dr Jonathan seizes every moment to defend his slow pace. Speaking in Abuja at a church service to mark the New Year celebration; he remarked “Sometimes, people say this government is slow. Yes, by human thinking, we are slow”.

    At another occasion, at the foundation laying ceremony of the Living Faith Foundation Bible College in Kaduna, the president sued for encouragement and support from Nigerians and promised a better 2013. He spoke of improvement in power, job and wealth creations among others.

    As a nation, 2012 was quite challenging. Sad occurrences seemed to have over shadowed the gains of the year. Corruption cases soared high. The nation recorded three air mishaps. Remember the June 3 air crash that took the lives of about 153 promising persons. The Police helicopter crash that claimed the live of DIG Haruna John and others. The Bayelsa doomed Helicopter. How about the countless road mishaps?

    While President Jonathan may relish rhetoric and theories about the goods of 2013, it is trite to remind him that if he doesn’t change his tactics and adopt more courageous and effective approaches, the year 2013 may be worse than 2012. The manner in which corruption cases are being handled is not encouraging. The scourge is rising daily. Insecurity seems to be one of the country’s biggest challenges. Bombings, suicide attacks and other acts of terrorism continued with the government labeling the perpetrators “faceless”. The president must not continue to tag them “faceless”. He must utilize every workable avenue to stem the tide of terrorism. Cases of kidnapping resurfaced with the kingpins smiling to the banks while causing pains and trepidation in the land.

    President Good luck Jonathan’s cabinet seems to be embroiled in many controversies. Some of his ministers are having one corruption cases or the other hanging on their head. Some are inefficient and redundant. For much impact to be felt this year, the President must sack some of his cabinet members and bring on board patriotic and qualified Nigerians who will help in redefining governance. The nation’s oil industry is fraught with tales of monumental fraud and back- hand deals.

    The subsidy imbroglio still remains a test case for the President. If much is not achieve in “cleansing” the sector, then the promise of 2013 will remain what they are- promises. If he continues with his “go-easy” and “go- slow” style of governance, the New Year may not be different from 2012.

    Nobody is expecting the government to perform magic, but courageous and well articulated deeds could transform to great achievements. Promises are not enough; we must match them with realities.

    • Stanley Ibeku

    Africa Regional Centre for

    Information Science,

    University of Ibadan.

  • Re: Go-slow government

    Re: Go-slow government

    Our friend Festus Eriye and his friends on Sunday Nation dated 30/12/2012 wrote an editorial titled “Go-slow government” and their peroration reads “the dangers ahead is that if President Jonathan continue at this pace, it will take eternity for Nigeria to witness positive change.”

    At this point, it is pertinent to ask Festus and his friends what they understand as positive change? I think their conceptualisation of the term differs from what the dictionary holds. If Festus and his friends are allowed to define positive change, I think Nigerians will go with the definition stated in the dictionary.

    Whether Festus and his friends lack the capacity to understand what constitute positive change. That I do not know, but I do know that the improvement in our electoral system is a visible indicator of positive change. It is on record that in Nigeria votes now counts. Perhaps, Festus and his friends forgot that this administration has successfully sent ‘riggingticians’ on compulsory retirement.

    O yes! They also forgot that those hired species of homo sapiens whose’s sole duty is to transmute voter’s cards into death certificate on election day via materials of war are now on indefinite vacation. I think we should remind Festus and his friends that those who transmogrify ballot boxes into magic boxes so that it can disappear from polling unit and to re-appear at collation centre are also out of trade courtesy Mr. President. If these electoral progress does not fall within positive change, then what does it fall into?

    It’s all record that power has improved for the first time in Nigeria. There are also visible signs of improvement at our airports, agric sectors, transport sector and work are on-going on some of our roads. Are these not omens of positive change? If I am wrong, please correct me.

    God Bless Nigeria.

    Onehimare G. O.

    Benin City

  • Cabinet rating: Go back on Oduah

    Cabinet rating: Go back on Oduah

    The recent rating of Ministers in President Jonathan’s cabinet published in your Sunday issue of December 29th, 2012 made an interesting reading. Not so much for its content or its veracity, but for the simple fact that evaluation and scoring of performance of public officers fall within the role of all responsible media and meets public expectations. Be that as it may, because of the high premium the public places on such evaluations, Media houses are expected to do a thoroughly incisive professional job that leaves no one in doubt about the scores, given acceptable margins of error. This process becomes more critical when the basis for scoring is founded on the empirical and the usual consideration of “where we were and where we are now.”

    In the face of concrete realities and categoricals, philosophical serenades, effusions and opinionisation become absolutely irrelevant. Not taking cognisance of the above is the fundamental flaw of the scores that led to Stella Odua’s low rating by The Nation. While I do not know how the scores of other ministers were arrived at, I therefore cannot comment effectively on them, more so as I always like to stay on my areas of core competence of which aviation is one. If, however, other scores were arrived at the same way that of the Aviation Minister was arrived at, I will humbly suggest that The Nation, with utmost sense of humility, given its leapfrogged profile and skyrocketing readership, should go back to take a second look at its ratings.

    For want of better words, it is lazy and unprofessional to hinge the conclusions of a very serious national issue on the interview of just one industry analyst, protagonist or antagonist. It is worst when such an analyst is a sworn antagonist who holds an uncompromising publicly advertised disdain that bothers on the personal, for the minister. Such an assessor, under all circumstances, will never have any thing good to say about the assessed. This is the fundamental flaw of your rating of the Aviation Minister. If your staff knew the industry well or cared to check out, he would have found that the aviation analyst he took on, in spite of his analytic competence and long-standing experience, was already fixated and with a mental spectacle that permanently constructs and reconstructs every action of Stella Odua into negatives.

    In the same vein, it would have been prejudicial to choose a protagonist for such evaluation as positive conclusions will lead to the same fault of jaundiced rating even when it is high. In consequence, therefore, I will not attempt to rate the minister, since I am a protagonist.

    But since to be fair to yourself, the minister and Nigerians, you must re-do your assessment, I ask you to send your reporters to check out what is happening to the ramshackle terminals of yesterday at Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Benin, Calabar, Owerri, Jos to mention but some. Send your reporters to interview airlines on whether the runway lights in Lagos domestic airport and Enugu, which for over a decade, were not allowing night landings, are now on. Send them out to find out for Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) whether it is true that approval for removing all duties and taxes on aircraft and spares which they cried for over years without success, have now been granted. Please let your reporters go find out whether it is true that the construction of five new modern terminals by the Chinese in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu with finance from Chinese EXIM Bank will commence in 2013. The Nation should then do a historical or trend analysis to situate these developments in time and consider whether such strides in under 18 months merit a D,F,B or A.

    In conclusion, I need to point out that for all of us in the industry, we have over the years watched the industry wallow in ministerial inaction even as the ship of the industry floated rudderlessly on the fluctuating tide of Nigeria’s sea of economic development without sense of direction talk less of a Master Mariner, being in-charge as it now is.

    In the last decade or two, aviation has been in need of sector-specific reform to no avail. But today, there is, at least, a roadmap to follow. Haba! Have we lost our sense of judgement?

    I cherish my copy of “The Nation” daily. Hence, as a discerning reader, I demand or request as of right, that you go back to re-assess Odua and any other minister that may have been inadvertently maligned or misjudged. It is only fair on all as the Rotarians say.

    Chris Aligbe

    Aviation Consultant.

  • Nigerians need a new work ethics in 2013

    SIR: Our attitudes towards work must change positively this year if we must develop and if we must actualize our vision20:2020 et al.

    The lack of enthusiasm is very glaring in the attitude of many workers who see their jobs as dull, laborious, repetitious, tedious, irritating, risky or dangerous.

    The lackadaisical attitudes toward work by both high-ranking and low-ranking workers has become a great obstacles to the development of the most of the Third World countries, because poor quality work reduced productivity and declining services cripple economic growth of any nation.

    After World War II, Japan was greatly devastated. Many of her buildings and people had been obliterated by atomic bombs. The United States and other nations offered help to rebuild Japan. Computer experts, agricultural specialists, scientists, teachers, business people etc. from different nations offered to help Japanese reconstruct their country but with a condition: They demanded that the Japanese will work more and earn less than workers in United States were paid and the Japanese agreed with that condition of work because they wanted to rebuild their country as soon as possible. Today Japan is a power to be reckoned with. Her might is based on economic, not military strength.

    In Nigeria, most of us want jobs but we don’t want to work; we want the money but we don’t want to expend the energy and this is one of the reasons Nigeria is not progressing because nothing is as depressing and frustrating as having someone on a job who is not interested in working.

    Too often we allow the pain and perspiration of work to hide its blessings; we assume work is a necessary evil without looking for the good it brings. We always prefer rest, relaxation and holidays to a good work, but unfortunately, all these are false assumption because rest is only sweet after a good work.

    When God created the world, He worked for six days and rested for one day (Genesis: 2:2). He also instructed us to work six days and rest for one day (Exodus23:12). But our desire to work one day and rest six days has caused us backwardness and unhappiness.

    In this New Year and henceforth, Nigerians must change their orientation to work. We must see work as a gift from God and not as a burden. We must know that work is profitable and honourable and all hard work brings profit for the workers by allowing them to meet their financial needs.

    The young unemployed must not just fold their harms or be sleeping at home; they must think, move around and look for something positive they can do with their lives.

    Governments on its part must also encourage the young unemployed by empowering them financially and make the society favourable for the small scale industries. The working condition and remuneration of the workers must be improved to motivate the workers to put in their best and to discourage brain drain.

    Workers must stop stealing from their bosses or government. Coming late to work, taking extra long lunch hours, going home early, collecting double salaries, converting company properties to personal one etc. are all acts that is tantamount to stealing which must be stopped.

    Governments must stop undermining the power of workers because the power of productivity is evident in the influence of Labour Unions. Unions control the workers, who control the productivity, and as a result, they can cripple a country, destroy an economy through industrial strike and other means. The leaders must know that they can not run a country when people are not working because you can’t force people to work.

    Governments can’t legislate obedience, nor can they force people to cooperate when they are moving in a wrong direction and workers will rebel if they feel they are working for nothing.

    Therefore it is high time we put a stop to an era of”monkey they work, baboon they chop”.

    • John Tosin Ajiboye

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Amnesty programme deserves support

    SIR: Contrary to the thinking in some quarters that the amnesty programme for ex-Niger Delta militants is a total failure, I make bold to say that the programme remains the most successful programme ever run by the federal government.

    Amnesty declaration remains the most genuine, valiant and profound effort made by any federal government since the country’s Independence to tackle the agitation for fairness, equity and development in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

    Of recent, several write-ups containing unsubstantiated allegations of fund mismanagement have been made against the leadership of the Niger Delta Amnesty Office. Some have even suggested that the programme should be brought to an end on the ground that Kingsley Kuku and his team are only enriching themselves from the fund meant for the amnesty, arguing that there is nothing to show for the allocations they have received since inception.

    I do know that many discerning and perceptive Nigerians would agree that such argument is illogical and therefore cannot hold water because the gains of the amnesty programme are there for everyone to see. Although there were doubts at the incipient stage as to whether the programme would yield any fruitful upshot, today, the amnesty programme ably and adeptly coordinated by Hon. Kingsley Kuku has made significant impact in the restoration of peace in the Niger Delta.

    Upon completion of their oversight/inspection visit in September 2012 to the Afrika Union Aviation Academy in Mafikeng and the Flight Training Services in Midrand, South Africa, where 53 Niger Delta youths were being trained as pilots, members of the Senate and House Committees on Niger Delta commended the Presidential Amnesty office for what they termed the judicious utilisation of funds meant for the programme.

    The National Chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), Allen Onyema, also agree that the Amnesty Programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta has been a monumental feat. Onyema while speaking to newsmen noted that the programme is celebrated the world over, as the international community seems to be bemused as to how Nigeria was able to get it right from the stage of disarmament, through demobilization to re-integration.

    According to the FEHN boss, the level of crude oil production prior to the programme was about 700,000 barrels a day, but since the commencement of the programme, the level of production has risen to over 2.6 million barrels per day.

    We must continue to encourage the amnesty office to build on the successes recorded so far in the running of the amnesty programme, which involves 30,000 Niger Delta youths.

    For a programme that has been saving about N34 billion per day for the country, it is only appropriate that we all support it to further stabilize our economy.

    • Michael Jegede,

    Abuja