The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • ‘Why Premarital sex is not immoral’

    ‘Why Premarital sex is not immoral’

    The subject matter of premarital sex whenever it pops up in social discussions is one that is bound to engender loads of altercations and contentions especially as regards the rightness or wrongness of it. This simple yet complex social issue is one deserving of utmost attention, especially in our contemporary social setting that is fraught with decrepit logic and unsubstantiated justifications for the positions adopted by the opinionated segments of the society.

    The question as to the justification of premarital sex or sex wholly, is one that ought to be answered or approached from the aspect of morals or naturally negative/positive consequence(s). When one relishes in a vista of what is obtainable in our society today, the reverse is the reality.

    However, a problem arises when we either as individuals or as a society, try to appraise practical social issues that borders on the natural existential conditions of man in the society with arcane religious/metaphysical abstractions. The consequence is a logical error which takes the form of a naturalistic fallacy. This is because the question of “sex” is one that is intrinsically tied to the individual’s personal choices and natural freedom and constitutes one of the fundamental individual/human right(s). Sex, matrimonial or pre-matrimonial, is similitude to freedom. It is one of the things the freedom to exercise which gives the individual person a sense of humanity and natural self realization as an entity.

    Denying a self actualizing and free moral agent the freedom to make this choice is similar to slavery. This is because you enslave a particular aspect or element of the individual person and this very act has deeper psychological consequences on the individual and for the society at large. It is inhibitive of the individual’s natural potential seeking manifestation/realization in spatiotemporal reality and degrades the worth of the human person in the same way that slavery does.

    Perspicuously, to the question – “Is premarital sex wrong?” my answer is in the negative, there is nothing wrong with premarital sex. When the question is further rephrased and presented in religious terms –“Is premarital sex a sin?” I will say that the latter is not a question because it has no sociological or natural basis in the comity of morals. Supposed it was, and then the answer will be a capital NO! The justification for this is because one cannot use relative religious prejudices as a yardstick for appraising or judging issues that has universal natural underpinnings.

    This is because religion is relatively arcane and seats atop cerebrumendiformity (an epistemic state in which a person sees his/her own ideas as being perfect and absolute, thereby rejecting any form of criticism, opposition or opinion to the contrary. It is a form of epistemic bigotry). We should be addressing the question of premarital sex in the light of morals because it has to do with the negative/positive consequences of the act and the effects of such actions on the human society.

    Consequently, premarital sex is not wrong because the very act is the actuality of a natural potential inherent in the human person and involves two consenting individuals exercising their natural rights to self actualization. More so, there is no reasonable argument or prove to substantiate that two individuals making use of their natural endowments or exercising it to seek self-realization is contrary to nature.

    As some would have us believe that premarital sex is inherently bad and religiously gross, there is no rational or biological prove that shows that when two consenting individuals engage in premarital sex, that something contrary to nature happens or that the laws of nature becomes violated. Premarital sex can only be wrong if we can be able to establish with logical and empirical facts that having sex or sexual gratification is not a natural phenomenon. Otherwise, a religious basis that denies consenting individuals their fundamental right to sexual self-realization constitutes a metaphysical superfluous. It is a crime against nature.

    Premised on the above, premarital sex only becomes bad or immoral when the consequences of the act brings about unnecessary burden on other members of the society or just like rights when it becomes a problem and or infringes on the rights of others. Otherwise, any claims to the contrary are illogical and unfounded. Denying individuals their right to sexual liberty base on religious or cultural conventions or for any other reason similar to, can only be justified by intellectual poverty.

    On the contrary, virginity till after marriage is not a thing of pride; it only reduces the entire worth and dignity of the human person down to their sexual organs. The human being is worth more than that. In a civilized epoch like ours, such deprecate make-believe systems that attaches greater value to the sexual organs more than the human brain with all it has, can and will still achieve is a debase and morally crass way of thinking that deserves to be done away with.

    Conversely, the supposed terminus ad quem of this clumsy religious and social make-believe system which was to tame the sexual urge/disposition(s) of the young and single stratum of the society has conspicuously been defeated, hence, a need to be practical and realistic in our approach to this natural phenomenon. The uncouth act of painting the natural disposition of sex among the unmarried groups in our societies and the need for enjoying sexual self-realization has resulted in many, engaging in unsafe sexual practices clandestinely in this disease ridden age for fear of being castigated upon by the society, resulting in the spread of many sexually transmitted disease(s) (STD) like gonorrhea, syphilis, staphylococcus aureus, HIV, etcetera.

    In Latin, it is often said: “Nemo dat quod non habet” which means “no one can give what he does not have”. It logically follows that sexual self-realization is not a disposition characteristic of exclusively married couples, but it is something that can also be found within the unmarried ones. These dispositions are not imagined like the make-believe systems that proscribes them. The characteristics are expressed because they are natural in the first place. If the unmarried were devoid of this characteristic, it would have been axiomatic that sex is restricted to married couples. You can only give out what you have.

    The preservation of one’s sexual organs till after marriage under the linguistic and cultural cloak of virginity has no special benefits on the individuals neither does it contribute to societal development or entail high moral standard. One can be a virgin and be both socially and morally vile. One can also be freely having sex and still maintain high moral standards. In a sense, the arguments for virginity being the mother of religious and social ethos only hypes hypocrisy and augments the individual’s delusional level when it comes to morals. If there is any part that should and really counts in the human body then it is the human brain.

    This is where morality and reason resonates and not between the legs. People are respected for their ideas and what they can contribute to the development of their societies and to the betterment of the human lot at large, and not for being the longest conscious or unconscious virgins. I’m not kicking against virginity for being bad; my point is it should never be used as a yardstick for judging an individual’s moral standing, neither should any individual be denied natural sexual self-realization on the basis of sex being exclusively reserved for the married.

    Proactively, having proved to a reasonable extent the moral justification for premarital sex, and defending it in the light of it being a natural characteristic of the human person, and also taking into cognizance the highlighted excesses resulting from the practices of it, seeking how we can ensure a sexually safer society becomes what is pertinent as opposed to the denial of it. What we should be doing is carrying out both private and public orientation and re-orientation as regards the issue of sexual intercourse. We need to educate the masses both the married and unmarried on how to practice safe sex instead of expending energy to deny the reality. It is colossally hypocritical and foolish for one to think that the unmarried stratum of the society should stop engaging in sexual activities simply because cultural or religious conventions tag it “BAD”.

    The family, the religious and educational institutions, private/public organizations all has a role to play in stopping this menace. We can save millions of lives annually by giving people proper sexual education rather than acting in a bigoted manner and ignoring the obvious. Sexual discussions should be encouraged within the family, peer groups, the school classrooms, etcetera in order to promote sexual literacy and for us to be able to build a more progressive society. The subject matter of sex shouldn’t be something that is regarded as a taboo or sacrilege and thus excluded from the circles of public discourse only to be talked about in the closet.

    We need a revaluation of what we qualify as morals. We need a radical social shift when it comes to our view of sex. What we should be talking about is ensuring that it is consensual, and not something that is forced by one party on another. And also that the persons involve be ready to take full responsibility for whatever be the outcome of their choice, rather than wasting time and energy to deny the natural. Choice is a fundamental right of every individual person and no individual deserves to be robbed of this fundamental right so long as it does not infringe on the choices of others.

    I’ll submit by calling on people of all nations to rise, unite and fight against that which denies any individual person his/her fundamental liberty to utilize and to express his/her freewill.

     

    By: Patrick Benblag

    The Concerned African

    He writes from Calabar, Cross River State.

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  • APC gives supporters nightmare

    APC gives supporters nightmare

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) rode to power in 2015 on the heroic, almost superhuman feats of its doting, fanatical supporters, and on the unprecedented seismic political and electoral shifts never before felt in these parts. Now, the seismic shifts seem fated to unravel via similar but destructive superhuman feats of its spurned and disillusioned supporters. The party achieved a miracle in 2015 barely two remarkable years after its formation; it has spent fewer dramatic months to wilt. Neither its extraordinary achievement nor its dreadful wilting, following hard after each other, complied with the normal punditry of politics. It does in fact now seem that both its friends and enemies are alike dismayed by the unusual trajectories the party has followed since February 2013. The party’s enemies will be unsparing, as indeed they have been in the past few months, despite battling their own private demons. Its friends and supporters, on the other hand, will remain sullen.

    It is necessary for the APC to remind itself why its supporters fawned over the party so fanatically in the build-up to the last general elections. Perhaps, then, it can profit from its own cautionary tale. Quite apart from being generally tired of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had then ruled for some 12 exhausting and theatrical years, the public had become suspicious of both the party’s ideology and ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s ability. The former ruling party exaggerated its strengths and denied its weaknesses. Not only was it capable of the worst mendacities, it spoke arrogantly of ruling for six more decades and of extirpating the opposition. And those it could not hope to extirpate, it boasted it would try to compromise.

    But the APC faithful spread a different gospel. They propagated the private and public morals of their candidates, particularly candidate Muhammadu Buhari, denounced Dr Jonathan’s lethargic approach to fighting insurgency in the Northeast, railed at his seeming indifference in rescuing the 219 abducted Chibok schoolgirls in the face of frightening stories of Boko Haram’s ill-treatment of the girls, and chafed at his inability to rein in the brigades of larcenous public officers roaming the corridors of power in borrowed majesties. Convinced that the lethal combination of incompetence and treasury looting would doom the country, the APC faithful went to town assured their message would resonate powerfully in the ears of the unconvinced whose number was shrinking in direct proportion to Dr Jonathan’s failing style and measures.

    It seemed to the APC and the country that Dr Jonathan’s government was divisive. Campaigners therefore suggested that the rainbow coalition, which the APC had instantly become, was the perfect antidote to any fear of fragmentation and political and social alienation. Their candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, an ex military head of state, was not perfect and had a history of dictatorship, they admitted; but his decades out of power and the mollifying attributes of age had both tempered and transformed him into a benign and unifying democratic force. There was little proof of the purity of the goods they tried to sell, but the failings of the Jonathan government had amplified public hopes of a new beginning and shredded whatever doubts they had about the gangling but hesitant APC presidential standard-bearer.

    The margin and solidity of the APC victory in 2015 was beyond cavil. For the party faithful who had burnt their bridges and thrown in their lot with the lanky and taciturn former army general, there was nowhere else to return or turn to. Their metaphoric Newfoundland must willy-nilly be transformed into El-Dorado. Nothing else would do. But barely a year into their ascendancy, the party began to face revolt within its ranks. Power sharing formulae, it turned out, had not really been agreed on before they went to war. And party ideology, if indeed party leaders and supporters knew what that was, suddenly became an arcanum no one had a semblance of nor was willing to embrace. But their troubles were just beginning.

    In addition to its internecine battles, the now divided party became itself an agent of division. It had promised a magic wand in governance; but it soon became obvious the party was as befuddled as the nitwits they derided in the PDP. It groaned over the plummeting economy, blamed the Jonathan government for everything, and offered no concise or coherent measures to extricate the poor and unemployed from the stranglehold of disease and want. Worse, there were seemingly no future plans for anything, whether economic, social or political. Its cabinet choices, whether kitchen or general, were questioned, and no one seems clear what the party’s bona fides were any longer. Party supporters who a few years ago spoke glowingly of their party and exuberantly proclaimed the sterling attributes of their leaders began to speak in whispers, their voices enfeebled by anxiety and disappointment, their confidence shaken by the realisation that the dilemmas they confront would test their resolve to the limit.

    A worse nightmare however lies ahead for party supporters in all its menacing ugliness. The party has less than two years to prepare for the next elections. Except the Northeast where the ruling party’s militaristic measures have successfully stanched the flow of blood, and the Northwest which has gained tremendously from prominent appointments, no other part of the country seems so far willing to fall into a swoon over the Buhari presidency. After many months of denouncing the calls for restructuring, the party cannot suddenly turn around to sell that programme in 2018 and 2019. Indeed, given the apparent polarisation of the country into two broad, antagonistic camps, it will be difficult to get a consensus among APC supporters to back party leaders in their opposition to political and structural transformation of the country.

    More damagingly, since the APC assumed office, virtually all economic indicators have fallen. The country is not richer, but poorer; not more democratic, but more authoritarian; not safer overall, but enduring a widening gyre of insecurity; not more cohesive, but more divisive. Unlike early and middle 2015, when APC supporters were clearly excited and giddy about life and politics, and had the whole world before them, they are now less boisterous and more nervous. How to rekindle their confident pose and verve, and turn them into the fearsome army capable of achieving the impossible, will occupy party leaders in the coming months. Success in that endevour will depend on how successfully the party turns the economy around and heals the wounds that have festered for months.

    The APC is already discovering how unnerving it is for the shoe to be on the other foot. The party is in fact also assailed on all sides for its poor response to the unfavourable economic climate. Unable to summon the imagination and daring needed to repair the damage inflicted on the country by the PDP, the APC has instead succumbed to grumbling about the past. This approach has neither endeared the party to critics nor even to its supporters, many of whom are groaning under the harsh economic conditions. If the party is not to be limited to only one term in office, the worst nightmare its supporters now fear, it will have to display a more productive sense of urgency than it has shown so far, even far more than when it schemed adventurously for electoral victory. So far, sadly, there is nothing the party or its leaders have done to show that they still possess that urgent sense of resolve.

  • Maintaining the momentum: Building on year one of the SDGs

    Maintaining the momentum: Building on year one of the SDGs

    One year ago, leaders of 193 countries came together to commit to ending poverty, combatting climate change, and fighting injustice. They agreed a plan for the future of the world and its people. The plan—the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, offers a better future for billions of people around the world and for our planet as a whole.

    Turning its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals into reality before the 2030 target date will be one of the most ambitious undertakings the global community has ever taken. But I am confident that if people are at the centre of all actions, if the commitment of stakeholders is maintained and if the spirit of partnership prevails, there will be no shortage of success in the next fourteen years.

    I am optimistic is because of the nature of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goals are underpinned by 4 powerful principles.  First–they are connected and indivisible, linking development, human rights, peace and security.  Second–they are universal. They apply to every person everywhere. Third–they are to be implemented through inclusive participation of all of society.  Fourth – as they are implemented no-one should be left behind. The SDGs have created a common purpose for the well-being of coming generations and for a planet that is fit for the future. This is why we have seen a fast, strong, and even urgent shift from all sectors toward more sustainable practices and policies.

    In this first year anniversary—“SDG Year 1” —more than 50 governments, and also numerous businesses, scientists and civil society organizations have stepped up their efforts to make the SDGs a central framework for their policies and actions, and have increased their focus and investment on data collection and analysis to guide decisions and leave no one behind.

    At the local level, hundreds of cities and municipalities are adopting their own plans to achieve the goals. And thousands of communities from different sectors of society have accelerated actions under the SDG banner.

    All these steps have built momentum to limiting climate change, advancing gender equality, mitigating natural disasters, addressing mass migration, and reducing inequality.

    This past July, twenty-two governments presented to the United Nations their SDG plans. They showed how they have made the SDGs a central framework for national development. They help ensure that actions are aligned, that programmes work in synergy and that finance is used as efficiently as possible. This means that development cooperation will be aligned with the SDGs.

    The momentum behind the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is also accelerating and so far governments of twenty-seven nations have ratified the agreement—including the world’s largest emitters of greenhouses gases, China and the United States.

    Other sectors are building momentum too. There has been a noticeable transformation in how businesses are done with greater focus on social, economic and environmental dimensions of development. And the UN has shifted to joint working in support of aligned policies from focusing on projects to convening stakeholders, and aligning efforts so that partners can work together in an efficient and effective manner.

    It is clear that enormous strides have been made.

    But much more has to be done to implement the SDG plan.  The SDGs lay out specific targets for all to solve the challenges our planet and people around the world are facing.

    How do we stay on this path and realize a sustainable future?

    That is where the most important stakeholder—the people—comes in. Public support and public pressure will be essential for transforming the SDGs from aspiration into reality. My aim is for 2 billion people around the world to be aware of the SDGs by the end of 2017 and for another million people to become activists—to be change-agents who press decision-makers and who hold them accountable until we have transformed our world and made it more sustainable.

    Children and youth have a particularly important role to play, as the face of social movements, the drivers of social change and the torchbearers of a more sustainable future for generations to come.

    The first anniversary of the adoption of the SDGs is an opportunity to celebrate all achievements made, to do more to make SDGs a reality and most importantly to thank the governments, businesses, civil society groups and young people around the world for all their efforts.

    If all the relevant stakeholders continue to work towards building a sustainable and resilient world, achieving the SDG targets in the next fourteen years and transforming the way we live really is a feasible objective.

    And let’s face it- we really do not have a plan B. There is no planet B.

    Dr. David Nabarro is Special Adviser to the Secretary General for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change.

  • Osun and its investment in education

    The epigraph to this piece by the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, speaks appositely to the significance of education in the development of a country. His view correctly implies that investment in education will always yield the highest dividends. If quality investment in education produces the highest dividends, it is incontestable that a country which invests hugely and consistently,and substantially and not symbolically in education cannot become bankrupt. In any case, human beings remain the surest agency of development. If their capacities are purposefully enriched, meaningfully enhanced, and consistently improved, they will creatively initiate workable ideas and contribute considerably in driving the multifarious engines of sustainable socioeconomic development.

    Education, for any society which privileges and prioritises it, becomes the sub-stratum of itsdevelopment which will always set it apart from those that do not invest in education. This is the core lesson that the informative book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012), co-authored by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, persuasively teaches. According to the authors, consistent and hefty investments in education and the necessary infrastructure is one of the reasons that explain why some countries are developed and prosperous while many others come a sad cropper. Access to education facilities contributes greatly in enabling people to move forward and become useful for self and society. No nation whose political and economic institutions are unviable can invest in education and provide motivation for the people to be educated.

    It is against this backdrop that the inspiring efforts of the OgbeniRauf Aregbesola administration in reforming and investing in education in Osun Statecan be appreciated. The conviction of the administration that education holds the key to the realisation of the all-encompassing transformation it envisions for the state informs the undistracted attention it accords educational development right from 2010 when it assumed office. The administration makes education the bedrock of the various policies it has designed and been executing to improve the existential condition of the people of the state.

    The priority the administration gives to the development of education in Osun has inspired many initiatives that have brought marked differences to the grooming of minds there. The blueprint that emerged from the Education Summit the administration organised in the first year of its assumption of office provides useful direction for its drive to reposition education in the state. From huge investments in instructional materialsand teaching aids, crucial changes in curriculums, corrective restructuring of schools into Elementary, Middle, and High in conformity with international best practices in school management, to the construction of mega schools, the administration manfully moves on to ensure that public schools in the state become virile emporiums of sustainable capacity-building. In the last six years, remarkable successes have been recorded and rich lessons distilled from low points.

    What stands out in the administration’s unwavering pursuit of educational development in Osun is the humongous amounts it continues to invest in it. It does not consider any amount too prohibitive if the task is educational development. Like Aristotle, Governor Aregbesola understands that ‘[t[he roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet’. Accordingly, the princely price of investment in education has to be paid for the grand prize of enduring socio-economic development. Nothing can be more important than creating the right environment and emplacing the needed infrastructure for the building of human capacity, the agency and gateway of societal development.

    Clearly, this accounts for why Osun is still able to pluck new fruits of educational infrastructure development even in the face of the disruptive hurricane of cash crunchsweeping furiously across the Nigerian federation. The notable reduction and desultoriness in cash flow have not discouraged Osun from going with its school infrastructural development project. On the first day of September, the state commissioned the Osogbo Government HighSchool in a memorable ceremony witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari and many other dignitaries.

    Conceived and constructed in line with international standards, the building has the capacity to seat 3,000students; it has 72 classrooms, each capable of sitting 49 students; and is capable of graduating 1,000 students annually.Its other facilities include six offices for study groups, six fully furnished laboratories, 60 toilets (30 apiece for boys and girls), one fully furnished science library, one fully furnished Art Library, one facility manager’s office, one bookshop, one sick bay, one bursar’s office, three furnished principals’ office, three general staff office, one furnished senior principal’s office, one record storage, one security shed/reception.

    More, it has an Olympic-sized football field, a seven-lane sprinting tracks for 100 meters and 400 meters, a pavilion and an outdoor basketball court that doubles as tennis court. It has parking space for 75 cars,and examination hall to sit minimum of 1000 students.This hall has a stage, office space, storage for documents, and 10 toilets for males and femalesrespectively.

    Students of Grades 10-12 (SSS I-III), between ages 15 to 17 years, will be using this school sited on a-10-hectare land. The Aregbesola-led administration has a tidied plan to build 20 mega High Schools across the state and in places where the old, dilapidated buildings that were not healthy for modern-day poultry once stood. The Osogbo Government High Schoolis one of the 11 that have been completed.Of the 100 school buildings planned for the elementary level, 14 have been completed, and 15 of the 50 forthe Middle school have also been finished.

    For Osun State government, the functional education the children of the state must receive has to take place in befitting structures, which have advanced facilities, are conducive for learning, and enhance human dignity. By embarking on these projects, the state government is simply saying the culture of excellence that guide the affairs of standard private schools cannot be impossible for it to attain. The quality, sound education vouchsafed for the children has to take place within modern facilities. What exists in Osun in terms of educational infrastructure development is not symbolism but substance.

    About 12,000 teachers have been added to the already existing pool of teachers across the schools in the state. It is not just about physical infrastructure; the human infrastructural is also seriously taken into cognisance, for no educational system can rise above the quality of the teachers.

    The idea of education for development motivates Osun to prioritise education. Governor Aregbesola underscores this in the address he delivered at the opening of the Osogbo Government High School. In his words, ‘Education for us, therefore, is the path to development. We are 25 years now, but we are looking at the next 25 years and we want to create and determine the next 25 years through education.’

    That education, he adds, is the sort that sees to the full development of the personalities of the learners. ‘The overall aim’, he explains,‘is to develop the new man intellectually, socially and morally. This new man is placed in the centre of society who views his own development as part of and for the development of society.This is a non-parasitic and non-oppressive man who views his existence in light of the growth of others; he views whatever is acquired to be subsumed in the overall interest of others. He is a man in himself and a man for society.’

    In spite of the financial constraint it has, Osun refuses to give up its walk on the path of educational development. It continues to invest in it because it is persuaded that doing so has many invaluable benefits and not bankruptcy.

     

    • Ademola is of the Features Unit, Bureau of Communications& Strategy, Osun.

  • Edo now, unlike then

    Have we been here before? I know it feels as if virtual reality – politics, election, campaigns and governance – good or bad among others, constitute a change with precedent – negative or positive. But we’ve actually been through an extra-ordinary rapid transition like this before in history, both as a nation and in Edo State – a transition we can learn a lot from.

    We’ve heard, “No Vacancy” in Osadebey Avenue. This was when Chief Tony Anenih had teeth to bite. We also overheard, “when a child fails exams, he or she must be allowed to repeat”. This was the sermon according to St. Gabriel, the Esama of Benin on why his son, Chief Lucky Igbinedion should have a second tenure.

    In 1999 and 2003, there were transitions – so also in 2007. We had another during 2012 and just around the corner, we are about to experience another.

    Although in those days, there are certain awkward orders, the ones you have no right of reply or complain – infact, a cough could earn you suspension or expulsion from the party, when these ‘revered orders’, authoritarian in nature are handed down from ‘above’. But all those seem to have vanished away in recent times – the ones such as, “Anenih say!” “Leader say!” among other threatening ‘commandments’ from the leader’s bedroom; we were there before. Not anymore.

    Campaign of calumny – Oh yes! This is the season – not new. What about intimidation – “we are in power!”; “We have federal might!”; “We control INEC and security apparatus!”

    All these you hear when the umbrella party resided in Abuja. This time around, it is to your tents O Israel – INEC is its own man.

    Little wonder, we read headlines such as, “I made Oshiomhole Governor – Ize-Iyamu”. Just the other day, Chief Tom Ikimi said, “Oshiomhole knelt down to beg me to become Governor…” and all those trash. We’ve been here before! The man who would win the election must just win, irrespective of the drumbeats from Ikimi, Ize-Iyamu, Dan Orbih and there co-travellers.

    There are lessons we can draw from the period 2007 to 2016, when Edo State made series of great leaps forward, propelled by Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole with a clear-headed-visionary, Godwin Obaseki in the boardroom – who reshaped governance, politics, mentoring, and leadership.

    Oshiomhole, who provided the trigger for our renaissance, our age of political discovery in Edo State, democratized leadership and opened up governance. He did not only demystify it, he made the people to embrace popular participation, and mass movement, just as incentives to be literate, which includes social infrastructure among others.

    How we, the citizens guard these achievements from being eroded remains yet-to-be seen because events unfolding from the opposition typifies one – a party and its chieftains who kept running from pillar to post, just to escape judgment from the avalanche of their past by employing the instrument of blackmail and outlandish propaganda to confuse the electorates.

    Now, unlike then, Oshiomhole has shown that good governance is possible, and therefore, amplifying the voices of those who felt they have been injured in the upheaval. Then unlike now, politicians failed to keep up with rapid change, and popular trust was deeply eroded. However, now, unlike then, this is the best moment in history to be alive –health care facilities, education and literacy infrastructures quadrupled; a business friendly environment resulting in massive industrialization, road construction, employment, fiscal responsibility, transparency among others which are the flourishing elements of good governance.

    Then, unlike now, when inequality grew and the masses felt worse off – they held us, not only by the fist but by the jugular and castrated our collective patrimony – socio-economic life being fundamentally dislocated, as sizeable majority of electorates were side-lined in the governance process as against the immense improvements we are currently experiencing in terms of choices and accelerated innovations which have distributed wealth across the larger spectrum of the state.

    Now, I am sure the PDP felt-left-behind – politically, even more so, economically, hence their resort to sermons of change-the-change.

    Trust, APC is never moved by PDP-crawler’s activities; we’ve been here before. The party is focusing on the people – the vast majority with constant innovations of how to better their lots than handful-ancient-fellows who refuse to quit the stage.

    Oshiomhole knows that more risk-taking is required when things change more rapidly, both for workers and businesses. Government’s duty is to strengthen the safety nets and infrastructure so that individuals and companies can be as daring – in terms of learning, adapting and investing in themselves as they need to be.

    In finishing times like this – Oshiomholexit – we are not carried away. We are more, not less, engaged with vast majority of the people because the threats posed by the achievements of this administration by yester-years men, will not be doused by withdrawing the owners – the people.

     

    • Mayaki writes from Benin City.

  • Fashola: Why is no one talking?

    I have in the last few months been travelling to my hometown of Achina in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State at a high frequency for reasons which need not be stated here. I have been going by road because the road is today much better and safer than, say, this time last year. Another reason I travel by road is to have a first-hand experience with a view to reporting to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, BabatundeFashola, who always solicits for such frank reports with a view to taking appropriate action.

    Whereas the Onitsha-Asaba-Benin-Ore sections of the Lagos to Onitsha Highway have in the last few years been generally good, the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections are in a mess. One is glad to report that tremendous reconstruction work is currently taking place in the worst of all the failed sections. Reynold Construction Company (RCC) has divided the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections into four parts and is working on them simultaneously in a rather frenetic manner, even in the rains. In a fashion reminiscent of the mass attack principle, RCC is reconstructing what remains of the Ondo State section of the highway, the Ijebu Ode part, the Sagamu end as well as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. When I was driving from Anambra State to Lagos few days ago, I had to stop briefly at the Ijebu Ode site because what is going on there looks more like new construction rather than rehabilitation. Rev Sister Christy Okonkwo, an impressed Catholic nun who is from Nnewi in Anambra State and works with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Congregation at Epe in Lagos State, remarked after watching the massive deployment of equipment, machines and human resources: “There is still hope for Nigeria”.

    In the past, such massive reconstruction which always resulted in the closure of at least one side of the highway had invariably led to traffic gridlock. Reverend Sister Christy narrated how she and her colleagues spent three hours on one spot while going for the funeral of a colleague’s relative. Like the rest of her colleagues, she consequently developed a phobia for travelling by road to the South-east and South-south from Lagos. But this time traffic is directed professionally not just by the RCC workers and Federal Road Safety Corps officials but also by teams of police and army personnel whose presence injects discipline and order in the heads of commercial motorists, especially those of minibuses whose irresponsible driving exacerbates traffic gridlock. What is more, the conspicuous presence of soldiers in particular has driven away armed robbers and kidnappers from the highway. Capitalizing on the failed portions which naturally forced motorists to stop, kidnappers on one occasion shot an Igbo priest with the Warri Catholic Diocese in the hand and took away a young boy with him and on another occasion took away nuns of the St Louis Congregation in Ondo State who were travelling on a bus and hid them in a thick forest for a whole 10 days. Today all this criminal nonsense on the Lagos-Onitsha highway is history.

    Lest I forget, while driving through Benin, we noticed there were two awfully failed sections of this extraordinarily busy highway. One is directly opposite the NIPCO filling station on the Benin-Agbor section of the road while the other on the Benin By-pass. Fashola was contacted on his personal phone, and he quickly began to ask questions about the exact locations and extent of the failed portions. It was evident that the officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had yet to report the state of the road to him. When he was satisfied with details of the failed portions, he promised to immediately get in touch with the contractor to assess the rehabilitation and revert to him. Talk of responsive leadership. Talk of working with passion and commitment.

    A few weeks ago when it was brought to his knowledge that the Asaba end of the Lagos-Onitsha Expressway had collapsed, he immediately directed Julius Berger which was working on another project in the neighbourhood to move to the site of the failed part. Work is going on there right now. The rainy season has always been cited by various state governments and the Federal Ministry of Works as the main justification for suspending road construction or rehabilitation by this time of the year, but this explanation cuts no ice with Fashola who, as we have seen right from his days as the Lagos State governor, works all year round.

    One has not in the last few months been travelling to other parts of the country, but one understands that road reconstruction is taking place all over the federation everywhere there is a provision in the budget for it. Even the most awfully failed part of the Okija-Ihiala-Uli-Egbu-Oguta-Ahoada linking Anambra, Imo and Rivers states which is not in the captured in this year’s budget is being rehabilitated because it is considered a national emergency.

    It has to be noted that RCC, Julius Berger and Integrated Services Ltd are among several companies which moved to sites before the release of the first quarter of this year’s budget. They went to work without the payment of mobilization fees in these economically hard times because of their trust in the integrity of the minister. As management experts have long noted, integrity or character is a most invaluable asset in business transactions whether in the private or public sector. In other words, as more releases are made, both the scope and intensity of road work by the Federal Government will escalate.

    Fashola assumed duties as the Minister of Power, Works and Housing only last November, that is, less than a year now. Before he could settle in office, take stock of things, make his own projections and then mobilise funds, critics had gone to town, with some wondering if he could run this enlarged ministry successfully. If Fashola could excel as the Lagos State governor in a way which earned him great praise and awards from the greatest global media and think-tanks, he should be expected to continue on the trajectory of high service delivery. Now that work is going on even in the rainy season on federal roads, why have even the media been shy to report it?  Well, if the media fail to report these developments, frequent road users like us who feel and experience the massive work daily cannot deny the evidence of our eyes.

     

    • Umenzekwe is immediate past President of Odunade Building Materials Dealers Association, Lagos.

  • Buhari, APC and road to 2019

    All things considered, I think Nigeria has been punched intocoma and only God can bring her back to life!

    From the man who opted for a bag of rice in exchange for his son; to the pregnant woman who stole N300 to answer the call of a normal symptom of pregnancy, there is a rise in Nigeria’s socio-political temperature and no one really knows where Nigeria is headed. Warningly, inflation rate is on the high side and our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate is unsmiling either. From the cosmetic to the substantive, politicians have chopped our country into pieces with each of the parts selfishly kept to themselveseven as the gladiators continue to fight in another person’s corner. Dollar gets worse with each passing day, which in turn deeply traumatizes the fortunes of our country.

    Even as a Buharist whose fierce support for ‘Change’ has been unflinching, I believe it’s time government clipped the wings of this trajectory of sham and uncertaintythat is capable of corrupting our national cohesion and national peace. The threatening trend of poverty-inspired suicide cases among Nigerians calls for concern and the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must find resourceful means of destroying thisdeadly templeofwant and turpitude before it springs into something else. In strict terms, Nigerians are tired of the ritual of wringing hands in lamentation. So, relevant authorities must devise creative means of putting value on intentions before a line damages an entire song.

    2019 is around the corner and ahead of this politically-charged and highly volatile socio-economic environment lies a fiercely-loyal-but-highly-critical support base.  As we are aware, one of the biggest challenges in running Nigeria’s socio-economic landscape is that of ensuring that best practices are employed in creating ventures for the economy to pick up. However, the irony of our policy somersault in this part of the world is that it sympathies with the criminals but penalizes the victims. Basically therefore, the fear of failure should encourage the Buhari to travel back to the past, look at the risks, weigh benefit options, then make decisions which show greater consistency, courage and determinationin preventing ‘Change’ from being a threat to our survival.

    I am not an expert on economy-related issues. But, beyond economic jargons, being in a state of recession, in my own view, is not the end of life. Instead, what matters is what is done  tonavigate through the temporary setback. United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada, have at one time or the other in their chequered history hit this bottom but they all came out of it, possibly bruised but unbowed. South Korea, incidentally, Asia’s fourth largest economy, is currently having her technical dose of it while South Africa, Africa’s touted largest economy, narrowly escaped it in the second quarter of this year. So, what Nigeria needs at a time like this is a bit of creative wake-up by introducing higher dimensions of consciousness into the complexities of governance.

    With the benefit of hindsight, Buhari comes across a very different, special leader with a magnetic and personable charisma, divinely positioned to rescue Nigeria from the damaging and dangerous remnants of the past. But, in his efforts at righting past wrongs, he should always remember that rumblings of dissent or wrangling of misery among members of his party can gravitate into a catalyst for implosion. So, he will be doing internal democracy a great deal of good if, within the dictates of the law, he dines with situations that are incapable of promoting unity within its rank with a long spoon.

    Nigerians are also never in doubt of  the president’s ability to move the country up out of  the fantasy of ancestral authority and the excitement of collective captivity that have become predatory threats to her survival into a hub of business and cultural opportunities. Along this line is the saga of unpaid salaries which is currently rocking no fewer than 27 states. Government needs to proactively solve this problem before the next General Elections if the ruling party must retain the confidence of this integral part of the electorate. Also in need of renewed vigourin its prosecution than it is witnessing at the moment is the anti-corruption war, lestpolitical principalities, terrorists and businessmen short-sightedly exploit its manifest weakness as a bargaining tool for access to power in 2019.

    Contrary to claims in some quarters, Nigeria’s large and diverse voting public is not always the classroom professoror the parasitic analystbut the poor folk out there who is even ready to die for a cause he believes in. So far, this class of Nigerians has been the president’s strongest pillar of support and most-treasured asset. The toxic truth is that things are currently not looking good for them and this is as a result of government’s rather biting policies. It is therefore in the president’s interest to roll out practical solutions that can help lighten their yokes and give them some sense of direction before things get out of hand. If he succeeds in doing this, then, Buhari will be chasing a place in the record books as the best president Nigeria ever had!

    The way the rulingAll Progressives Congress (APC)ispreparing for the battle of 2019 has not been all that encouraging and the party has to address this particular temptation, especially, now that ovation is still ascending.  Elections in some parts of the country have shown that infrastructure development without an accompaniment of its human complement often carries along with ittremendous negative consequences and this may not be the best for a party that is seeking relevance in the consciousness of the people. In my considered view, a situation in which committed members are treated as permanent beggars precariously scrambling for crumbsunder the table of some clique is not a strong point in the defence of progressive party politics. It is interesting to note that quite a large chunk of its patriots who committed financial and material resourcestowardsits success in the last general election are still out in the open, with their innocence shattered and their expectations plummeted. Unfortunately, there has been no strong statement coming from the president or the national chairman of the ruling party who by law is its operational head.

    By the way, will Buhari seek a second term in office? For now, the sky is cloudy and response can be confusing! Constitutionally, it is his right! Yet, it is his call! Well, while opinions may differ as to the propriety or otherwise of adventures in power,  Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Lee Kuan Yew,Robert Mugabe, Nelson Mandela, Jerry Rawlings, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, even, Goodluck Jonathan have provided varying shades of opinions on this topical issue

    Reckless temperaments! Hateful instincts! Appearance of impropriety! Why are the people hungry and angry? Why are they poor and unfed? How come we have suddenly become a decadent and polluted society swimming, irresistibly, in a dysfunctional economy, culture of recklessness and pattern of hypocrisy? For God’s sake, why do people delight in profiting from others’ misery and why are the led preferably kept in perpetual poverty for them to continue slaving and serving the purpose as dictated by the master? On the other hand, how come the abolition of Navigation Act, which ship-owners had once predicted would be the ruin of British Shipping, eventually turned out to be one of the greatest periods of expansion in the history of shipping in Britain?

     

    • Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.

  • Varsities and Buhari’s change mantra

    It is indeed, not an over-statement to claim here that a deep crisis or near-complete anarchy is imminent on many of the university campuses in Nigeria.  Such a nightmare or unpleasant scenario is an anathema to the expected leadership roles of this geo-polity within the African continent and even beyond.  Inevitable (incessant) strike actions certainly lead to truncated academic calendar with attendant negative consequences for the future of Nigeria in several respects.  The time-tested university culture of probity and fine-grained intellectualism coupled with unparalleled good character is gradually disappearing from our consciousness.  The university normally is a centre for the larger society to draw inspirations, ideas and ideologies from, in an attempt to engender robust life and living within the confines of sustainability and global relevance.  It is a unique space for eggheads including some of the finest minds.

    But sadly enough, the Nigerian university system today is generally failing with respect to crisis management in all its ramifications.  This is traceable to the new but ugly culture of avarice, pure greed and insensitivity to the pains and problems of members of staff as well as students.  It would not be an exaggeration to say here loud and clear that many academics and political class members (with a few exceptions) are gradually becoming moral equals.  Incessant crises on the campuses are a reflection of deteriorating relations between the management team and workers as well as students.  Contrary to what existed in the past, mindless hedonism, arrogance, stubborn resistance to change and unfettered parochialism are the guiding principles of many contemporary university managers.  Not unexpectedly, our collective integrity is now in grave peril.  Blatantly unfair, obnoxious decisions by these almighty university managers inevitably lead to a chain of protests and reactions by the oppressed and exploited workers and students.

    Leadership at any level is a combination of gains and pains.  Nigerian leadership particularly at the university level today recognises only the former.  University management must necessarily strike an equilibrium between it and the followership in order to pave the way for sustainable peace and progress. Leadership is not about silencing the followership especially those who direct the affairs of staff unions.  It is too easily forgotten that the management team cannot silence everybody with “brown envelopes” or “juicy” but vanity positions outside the statutory duties of workers.  The socially acceptable and honourable thing to do is to learn to chart the pathways of peace through the lens of inclusiveness coupled with transparency.  Currently, profound knowledge productions remain at their lowest ebb as good quality time and money are wasted on endless, but largely unprofitable meetings.  This situation further irritates the followership that is already frustrated as the management stubbornly continues to offend its (followership) sensibilities. It seems to me that only very few universities in Nigeria do not suffer from the above absurdities.

    Anybody with the faintest idea of social justice and/or sanity will not jump into the conclusion that NASU and SSANU (non-academic unions) are irresponsible for agitating.  “Baboons” are ravaging our “collective corn field”.  They have to be chased away before the innocent, committed workers begin to die of starvation. In other words, agitation is the inevitable consequence of oppression and economic exploitation of the masses. This is a bio-social universal! No matter how monstrous a university management team is, truth will finally prevail. Our managers of the university system must quickly begin to appreciate and appropriate this age-old fundamental of good governance.  This is how we can successfully nip complete anarchy in the bud.

    Today, there is disequilibrium in the Nigerian university system basically because of integrity flight. Therefore, uncritical castigation of traumatised workers and students alike whenever they protest/agitate is a big disservice to Providence and fellow humanity.  It bothers me a great deal when I see many Nigerians regardless of their academic attainments and/or social statuses behaving like a funny lot!  Indeed, we are second to none in this connection.  This unwarranted passivity underscores the reason why our leaders through time and space relate to us with contempt.  We pray more than those saints in the heavenly kingdom but very poor in matching our prayers with action.

    Union leaders are now becoming more radicalised than ever before in the face of undeserved material poverty of monumental proportions.  A hungry man does not listen to a sermon.  This is a fact!  It is indeed a dead wrong assumption that workers who are being regularly short-changed and therefore disenchanted with their jobs would remain docile at all times.

    It has become a fashionable style of administration on most varsity campuses in relatively recent times, to cripple Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) so that the dreaded culture of impunity can go on unabated.  We are losing some of the finest segments and values of the academia due largely to unthinkable avarice, greed and unbridled appetite for vanity positions!  Things are rapidly falling apart as most university lecturers suffer in silence even when their legitimate allowances are not paid up by the management.  So ‘the man dies’ in most professors and their junior colleagues who have fallen into a state of despondency.  Thus, for example, this writer is yet to receive his first instalment of monetisation arrears since 2009. The second instalment was paid to me without the first.  Over 100 workers of U.I. belong to this category.  What a wonderful system!  Both the management and ASUU continue to look the other way even when they were approached several times on this matter.

    Therefore, commentators on the varsity crises in Nigeria must not forget that the issue of causality has to go hand-in-hand with effect(s) in order to pave the way for a robust, scientific explanation.  Denying staff members their legitimate allowances and/or arrears is a reflection of godlessness at its peak and by extension, an invitation to anarchy.  Every Nigerian including his friend(s) is free to contribute to the critical reflection on ways to salvage the Nigerian university system that is in a coma but this engagement has to be located within the domain of logic.  All interested persons must find out the fundamental reasons why non-academic staff unions have become so radicalised recently since ASUU has been put to sleep.  It is a negation of the principles of natural justice and of course, common sense to castigate NASU and SSANU who are now the last hope of workers that are being consistently cheated by those who are supposed to show exemplary leadership!

    From Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife to University of Ibadan, things were/are falling apart as councils’ meetings could or cannot resolve fundamental issues and problems.  It may interest you to note that these meetings are accompanied with fat honoraria while workers groan with pain.  This ugly culture of hedonism and self-indulgence must stop in the overall interest of Nigeria.  Thank you to President Muhammadu Buhari for returning sanity to OAU, Ile-Ife recently. Those who condemned the sacking of the OAU governing council and the controversial new Vice-Chancellor need to do a rethink.  No responsible, responsive president as Visitor to all federal universities in Nigeria would fold his arms in the face of imminent danger of total collapse or anarchy.  Now, there is peace at OAU, Ile-Ife. Workers and students can now focus on their duties and studies. Both President Buhari’s timely intervention and of course, the dogged determination of SSANU and to a limited extent, NASU did the magic.  Where was/is ASUU?

    It is a deceit to be expecting peace in any university or organisation in the face of injustice and transparency flight.  Our common thought-scape (the university system) is feeling comatose.  One tragedy in human society is to be in bondage without any incorruptible leadership to approach for freedom.  Now the story has begun to change as Buhari is ready to kill corruption in our geo-polity including the university. There is no time and need for empty rhetoric or sterile, shallow theorising.  In saner climes and cultures, public office holders normally resign in the face of complete or near-complete cluelessness about sensitive issues.  Unfortunately, this aspect of leadership behaviour is alien to the Nigerian people across socio-economic scales.  They would rather continue to pontificate to the chagrin of people with good conscience and profound integrity. Given this scenario, President Buhari cannot afford to keep quiet as most of our varsities today are gradually sinking into the mud of maladministration.  This is how we can save Nigeria from remaining on the losing side of the existing world educational system and modern development.

     

    • Prof Ogundele, is of Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • The pains of economic recession

    After several months of living in self-denial, our political leaders have summoned the courage to tell the nation what we feared to hear.  With the rate at which the services are jumping and hitting the roofs, no official is in the position to cook-up abstract figures that the economy is still rosy. Such an official may incur the wrath of the masses. This is because the incidence of hunger that is prevalent in the country now does have regards for gender, ethnicity, religion or party affiliations. In other words, hunger is a leveler except someone has the means to appease it.

    And this is not an act of God as some people will make us to believe. Rather it is a self-inflicted challenge as a result of high wired power- play among the nation’s politicians in and outside of government. It is also occasioned by the dynamics of intricacies of Nigerian homemade politics.

    Our mono-economy which relies heavily on the petroleum resources is another factor. And this is where some disgruntled politicians who may be having a case or two to answer regarding their past stewardship to the nation have allegedly taken an undue advantage to consistently hit the nation below the belt with a view to make the country ungovernable for the government in power. The allegations being repeatedly made by some militant groups from the South-South geopolitical zone of the country that some key Opposition party leaders from the area are behind the boys that are vandalizing the nation’s pipelines and oil installations may be true after all especially when viewed against the backdrop of the anti-corruption war being wage by the government. The resulted in a very drastic reduction in our earnings from our petroleum resources due to low output of crude oil and sharp fall in the price of the same product in the international market.

    While the nation may not be in a position to determine the price of our crude oil in the international market with a view to increase over earnings, we can at least raise the volume of the product we take to the market if the political logjam in the South-South is resolved as early as possible. In an effort to gear up our local output, the government is being forced to look elsewhere in other parts of the country for the black gold and hence the current frantic exploration activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the North-Eastern and other geo-political regions of the country using the available scarce resources that could be expended on other critical infrastructures.

    Besides, the lapses or the inherent sharp practices allegedly observed in the management of our foreign exchange market is another factor that has contributed immensely to our economy downturn and consequently responsible for the valley location where the nation has found herself now – economic recession.

    In order to come out from this self-inflicted problem, our government should spread its tentacles beyond its political affiliates and make herself open to receive ideas/suggestions from men and women of goodwill who may be ready to assist the government with their expertise knowledge in their respective fields. In other words, even expertise ideas/contributions from the so-called opposition figures can be welcomed, distilled and considered so far such ideas can help the country move forward and get out of our present economic doldrums and wilderness.

     

    • Gbemiga Olakunle, JP

    General Secretary, National Prayer Movement

    gbemigaolakunle@yahoo.co.uk

  • Danbazau and the challenges of internal security Jide Adebayo

    Ever since the eruption of the murderous attacks of the terrorist Boko Haram insurgents in North-East Nigeria in 2009, internal security has become a major challenge in the most populous African nation.

    While the nation’s military forces were battling to permanently subdue the Boko Haram mindless killers, the Niger Delta Avengers erupted from the creeks, unleashing debilitating blows on the nation’s oil installations with fatal socio-economic consequences.

    As if those are not enough national malaise, secessionist agitators for Biafra are baring their own fangs in the South-East.

    The attendant human and material casualties and dislocations arising from these insurgency-induced internal security breaches have inflicted mortal wounds of the national economy.

    Nigeria, hitherto the peace haven for many West African refugees, thus suddenly became a nation of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) wholly dependent of food hand-outs in emergency resettlement camps set up in many areas of the North-East/west  geo-political  zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Available statistics from the Internal Displacement  Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Geneva-based Non-governmental and humanitarian organization, showed that there were 2,152,000 IDPs in Nigeria as at December 31, 2015.

    Officials of Nigeria’s Interior Ministry, at a recent media forum in Abuja, said that there are currently more than 300,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon and an additional 80,000 in Niger.

    Those are just official figures. There are certainly more, given our very porous borders and velocity of Boko Haram attacks until last year.

    The escalation of Boko Haram violence in 2014 (when 10,849 killings were recorded) and the superior fire power of the Nigerian military forces drove many of the Jihadist terrorists into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republics where their violent actions were are effectively curtailed by the Multi-national Joint Task Force of Nigeria and those countries.

    Since the inception of the Buhari administration, however, the free-wheeling territorial aggression of the Islamist insurgents has been undoubtedly check-mated, making peace restoration possible in many communities earlier overran by the terrorists’ ‘’army’’.

    While the military forces are winning the war against Boko Haram, the Ministry of Interior under the leadership of retired Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, is spiritedly struggling to win the peace in the troubled zones, using the police, National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the immigration service.

    At a recent media chat in Abuja, the Interior Minister said that more than 3,000 policemen and 2,000 civil defence operatives had been deployed to the communities freed from the grips of Boko Haram in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

    Gen. Danbazau, an acclaimed criminologist and former Chief of Army Staff (2008 – 2010), said that there is need for greater capacity building in the interior ministry and all its agencies – police, immigration, civil defence and prison services — if they must live up to their billings.

    He lamented that many officers in the aforementioned services had not undergone any professional career training in the last 20 years.

    ‘’This does not help the intelligence gathering aspect of modern internal security operations,’’ Danbazau said.

    He said that total transformation of the various agencies remained top on his card and assured that all obstacles in the course of achieving that goal will be dismantled.

    Perhaps what the minister should not leave out of his priority list is the total re-orientation of the internal security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force, where professional ethics are observed largely in the breach.

    There is also an urgent need for a radical change in the retirement age policies of the armed forces and the police.

    A security service crying of low human capital cannot continue to throw scores of its top brass into forced retirement at every appointment of a new service chief.

    The Nigerian army and the police today probably have more retired able-bodied generals and assistant/deputy Inspector-Generals respectively than serving ones. It’s a monumental waste of scarce human resources.

    The recent strikes of the terrorists in the North-East and threats of their onslaught on key southern states underscore the need for both the military and all internal security agencies to strategically harness their human and material resources to give Nigerians their most desired protection.

    Until the poor peasant farmers in Gwoza, Biu, Bama, Nguru and Michika are able to bend their backs on their farms without trepidation, no peace can genuinely be claimed to have been restored in their areas and local economy revived.

    Danbazau surely has all it takes, professionally and academically, to make our internal security agencies walk their talk.

     

    • Jide, Media Consultant and Ex-Executive Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)