The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • What Nigeria can learn from Turkey

    Despots are not born. They are made. History is replete with examples: Idi Amin Dada, Vlad III, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-Il, and many more. And according to a recent report by four senior British lawyers, President Recep Erdogan of Turkey has forced himself into the fold.

    The 95-page report was authored by Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, Sir Edward Garnier QC, the Conservative MP and former solicitor general, Prof Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC, the director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, and Sarah Palin, a barrister specializing in media law.

    According to the report, the corruption scandal which fingered then Prime Minister Erdogan and his cabinet members ignited the abuses. The scandal engulfed four principal government officers and their sons, and almost swept away Erdogan’s regime. But how did he survive the heat? He resorted to blackmail. Even though many officials were arrested during the scandal, he accused famous cleric, Fethullah Gülen of fuelling the crisis.  Thus, he immediately removed the prosecutors leading the investigations from their positions and reassigned 350 police officers, including many senior officers.

    The report said on 25 December 2013, the police refused to carry out orders for the arrest and detention of a further tranche of suspects and the prosecutor leading the second investigation was removed from the case. On the same day, the four ministers who were accused resigned from the Cabinet. Thousands of police and hundreds of public prosecutors, judges and civil servants, perceived by the Turkish government to be followers of the Hizmet movement, have since been dismissed or reassigned, and in some cases arrested and detained in custody.

    In September 2014, all charges against the suspects in the corruption investigation were dropped by the newly appointed public prosecutors. Mr Erdoðan attempted to deflect the accusations against him by ascribing them to Fethullah Gülen, and his followers in the state apparatus, mainly those in the police and the judiciary, and accusing them of an attempted coup d’état and of forming what he described as a “parallel structure” which had infiltrated the state to work on Mr Gülen’s behalf.

    Since December 2013, the report said, the government has taken unprecedented steps to exert executive control over Turkey’s judiciary, to interfere with and derail the corruption investigation, to stifle criticism in the media and on the internet and to purge supporters of the Hizmet movement from public life and to obstruct their humanitarian and educational institutions and business and professional associations. The government has brought the main institution responsible for the judiciary, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, under its control by purging its members of anyone suspected of opposing the AKP government, including those believed to be supporters of the Hizmet movement and replacing them with loyal supporters. It has introduced a more restrictive internet law, and after leaked audio recordings supporting the corruption allegations emerged on Twitter and YouTube, blocked access to both sites throughout Turkey in the run up to local elections in March and April 2014 and the general election in 2015.

    The crackdown practically has its tentacle spread to all sectors in the country. Even members of the bench were not speared. In fact, two judges who released ‘suspects’ because they had no cause to do otherwise, where removed and branded terrorists. According to the report, on May 1, they were arrested and detained in custody by the Bakýrköy 2nd High Criminal Court on charges of “attempting to overthrow the Turkish government or hindering the government’s operation in part or full” and “being a member of an armed organisation”.

    Even the voice of the people, the media, was also attacked. The highpoint of this drama was the arrest of the editor of Today’s Zaman, the leading newspaper in the country. Deliberate attempts were made to gag the press. Any media practitioner or organisation that shows any independent spirit has itself to blame. Little wonder Turkey took the front seat among the league of countries that suppress press freedom.

    Other individuals also felt the cold firm grip of Erdogan, including members of the civil society. In fact, a young schoolboy that allegedly said uncomplimentary things about Caliph Erdogan was arrest and prosecuted!

    Of course Erdogan is doing this to get back at Gulen, the head of the Hizmet movement, a civil society movement consisting of a network of loosely connected individuals and religious, humanitarian and educational institutions. So he has not only called members of this group violent people, but has labelled it a terrorist organisation. And he is telling anyone who cares to listen to him, including Africans, and, if possible, Nigerians.

    But I know our people are wiser. Are we not witnesses of the benevolence of Hizmet and its affiliated organisations? Nigerian students have stood tall in international academic contests, particularly the world maths Olympiad, thanks to the Nigerian Turkish International Colleges. Hizmet-affiliated charity, Ufuk Dialogue Foundation, has tried to contribute to peace in the country by promoting interfaith dialogue and unity.

    Beyond this, Nigeria should learn from Turkey. Its present president, Erdogan, gained power through a popular mandate. And he initially kept faith with it. But he allowed his initial achievement to get into his head. Thus, he began to attack the very system that threw him up – democracy and the people. And he has taken the battle abroad. He not only called the bluff of the EU and other blocs, he is being accused of supporting international terrorism. And he is working very hard to confirm it.

     

    • Ibrahim writes from Lagos

     

  • Africa: ‘Decisive Moment for Democracy’

    WASHINTON, DC — Last May, I shared in an extraordinary moment. I had the privilege, together with many leaders from across Africa, of bearing witness to the first peaceful, democratic transition of power between two parties in Nigeria.

    I traveled to Lagos earlier this year to emphasize that for the United States, Nigeria is an increasingly important strategic partner with a critical role to play in the security and prosperity of the region. I also said that it was imperative that these elections set a new standard for democracy across the continent.

    There is no question that this is a decisive moment for democracy in Africa. Later this month, four countries – Guinea, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Central African Republic – are scheduled to hold presidential elections, and soon after we hope to see elections in Burkina Faso. People across Africa must seize this opportunity to make their voices heard; and leaders across the continent must listen.

    The challenges are real. For decades, poverty, famine, war, and authoritarian leadership have held back an era of African prosperity and stability.

    These and other challenges should not be underestimated, but neither should we ignore the gains that are being made.

    In Africa, as elsewhere, there is a deep hunger for governments that are legitimate, honest, and effective. We should have no doubt that progress in democratic governance will lead to gains in every other field about which we are concerned.

    In Burkina Faso, brave and determined citizens twice asserted their will in successfully opposing efforts to curtail the democratic process: last year, when the former president sought to alter term limits and extend his 27 years in office; and again last month, when Burkinabes rallied against a failed attempt to seize power by elements of the Presidential Security Regiment.

    In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have seen citizens speak out, sometimes at great personal risk, to push for transparent, timely, and credible elections.

    And we have seen that same hunger for democracy outside of Africa. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Panama all recently held inclusive, well-organized elections that brought new leaders to power and strengthened democratic institutions.

    The challenge in Africa’s upcoming elections is to meet this demand for democracy and live up to the standards that Africans expect and deserve. The countries scheduled to go to the polls vary widely in their history and circumstances, but each has an opportunity to enhance its democratic credentials and advance economic growth and shared prosperity.

    Côte d’Ivoire can put a difficult and violent election in 2010 firmly in its past and resume its position as a regional leader.

    Tanzania is preparing for its fourth transition of power between elected Presidents since independence. By respecting the Tanzanian constitution’s two-term limit and stepping down from office, President Jakaya Kikwete is creating a dynamic and healthy competition among potential successors.

    Guinea is emerging from the scourge of Ebola, but its citizens are also calling for an electoral process that allows their voices to be heard.

    Meanwhile, the transitional government in Burkina Faso is working towards cementing its commitment to democracy through timely and transparent elections.

    Elections are vitally important, but make no mistake: elections cannot be the only moment for citizens to shape their future. People must be able to engage with their government and with their fellow citizens in political discussion and debate not just on Election Day, but every day.

    Just as important is respect for term limits. No democracy is served when its leaders alter national constitutions for personal or political gain. Furthermore, a losing candidate owes it to his or her country to accept the outcome and play a constructive role in finding and implementing solutions to shared challenges.

    A free, fair and peaceful presidential election does not guarantee a successful democracy, but it is one of the most important measuring sticks for progress in any developing nation. The countries soon holding elections have an opportunity to bolster their democratic credentials and to bring an entire continent closer to realizing the firmly held – and eminently justifiable – aspirations of its people to have their voices heard.

    The United States remains committed to helping make those aspirations a reality.

     

    • John Kerry, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been the U.S. Secretary of State since 2013.

     

  • If I were President Buhari

    President Buhari can rightly be described as a lucky and committed man who worked himself to a right position at the right time. When the going gets tough, they say, the tough gets going.

    The words “commitment and luck”are responsible for the exalted position he occupies today. But President Buhari is not the only lucky man in Nigeria or the only politician who had persisted in their quest to occupy the Presidency of the country. The late Aminu Kano, Alhaji Waziri, MKO Abiola and several others never accomplished their dreams of becoming the nation’s president. Even the most revered Chief Obafemi Awolowo asked to be made president “even for a day”. The former occupant of the office, Goodluck Jonathan, was not only lucky but had the word “luck” embedded in his first name. Yet he failed. Buhari’s commitment, hard work, integrity and tenacity of purpose had won him and the APC a Pan-Nigerian success that money and ordinary luck could not buy. How I wish they would realise this?

    Success is one thing, and management of success is another. The question in everyone’s lips since the inception of this administration has been whether the Buhari government and the APC can successfully manage their success?

    In answering this question two things come to mind. One is the gargantuan expectation of Nigerians; two, is the capacity and stuff of the man called Buhari.

    No doubt, even the enemies of Buhari, including the opposition admit the impeccability and integrity of the man called Buhari which unfortunately, has placed so much burden on him. Burden ranging from high level corruption, ineptitude, favouritism, terrorism, growing youth unemployment, the crashing naira and oil price that breakdances, battered economy that lies unto itself,  social disequilibrium, political brouhaha, religious turmoil to disenchanted citizenry. Our own dear native land was comatose, a near failed nation state that lost her bearing in regional leadership of the continent. Therefore, the need, and urgently too, to re-claim our country from captives and re-launch her as a regional force and leader in the world map cannot be over-emphasised. Depending on the path he chooses to tread, President Buhari would go down in the annals of history as that leader to whom so much was given and so much gotten. Or forever be despised as that man who lost a wonderful opportunity to write his name in gold. The leader that failed to place Nigeria on a pedestal of growth and reckoning. God forbid.

    If I were President Buhari, I will be wary of praise singers. I will run from those with the penchant to clap saints to hell. That is the easiest way to lose integrity. Consequently, I will apply the four way test in all that I do. I will ensure that I am fair to all irrespective of colour, race, sex, religion or class. I will strictly abide by section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution as amended in my appointments, be they “personal” or constitutional. These saints falling from monasteries clapped your predecessors and indeed the nation to this pitiable situation we are in today.

    I will be creative and think out of the box for these are not normal times. Finding a lasting solution to the leadership as well as structural question of Nigeria would occupy me. I will restructure the country. I will introduce executive bills that seek to abolish the state structure and return the country into a six regional structure. I will scrap the House of Representative as presently constituted and return the country into a unicameral legislature made up of 18 members only. This will be three per region. The House of Representative upon its abolition would be replaced by a 36 member House of Speakers drawn from the various regions that would sit on part-time basis. Only sitting allowances will be paid. I will strengthen the local governments to become the engine and centres of development and excellence.The advantage of this module of governance are three folds: Nigeria will no longer spend over 70% of her earnings on recurrent. There will be massive even development of the grass-root aided by quality representation. I will further unbundle the Federal Government by reducing the number of ministries to six. They are, Finance, External Affairs, Defence, Internal Affairs, Justice and Works. I will merge or abolish or transfer most parastatals to the regions or under these six broad ministries. Duplication of ministries and parastatals and some quasi institutions are nothing but a drain pipe.

    I have continued to wonder what business the Federal Government should have with a road in my village called federal road, or what she is doing with agriculture at my backyard or primary education at my village square, or health or aviation without a single plane? Or their duplicate copies called transport or trade and investment or tourism or the whopping other 48 ministries and ministers that are nothing but drain pipes. Since all federal roads are in wards and local governments, I will transfer all roads to states.

    I will introduce resource control. Introduction of the resource control policy will among others place wealth on the doorstep of every region and food on every Nigerian table. This would engender hard work, commitment, employment, reduce corruption and ignite competition. This means wealth distribution as every region will run their affairs, control their resources and contribute 30% to the Federal Government. Every region will utilize 70% of their God-given resource to develop their region at their own pace. This in-turn would mean, less attractive centre, less corrupt regions and rapidly developed grassroots.

    I will introduce anti-trust law. No individual or company shall invest more than 25% in any sector of the economy. If we must regulate our economic activities, at all, it must be holistic.

    The Army and Police, Immigration and Customs shall remain in the hands of the Federal Government as the ombudsman and as a symbol of unity. This will gradually thin off after 50 years.

    I will fight corruption. In fighting corruption, I will carry out a dissection cum anatomy of corruption in Nigeria and Nigerians to enable me arrive at a lasting solution. First I will ensure that I am ready, willing and able to fight corruption. Two, I will acquit or condemn myself. For he who goes to equity must do so with clean hands. With this done, I will proceed to prosecute all persons who had looted the treasury, aided and/or abetted corruption.

    The anatomy of Nigeria’s crime and criminality will reveal that Nigeria is many countries in one country. The urge to amass wealth and the greed to steal-to -conquer is huge and unprecedented. The anatomy will also reveal that it is not questionable that every Nigerian is endangered specie perpetually under the jackboot of government impunity. This makes him hostile to the nation and loyal to himself and himself alone. The restructuring or unbundling or devolution of powers would restore sanity, hope and freedom to our system, re-ignite spirit of patriotism, and sense of belonging. The problem with Nigeria hitherto is that she has been one big no man’s orchard where people mercilessly pluck fruits that allegedly belong to no one. The conspiracy among persons, groups and regions to steal the country blind would be drastically reduced under a regional government. Tendency is for all to be watchers of all under a common patrimony. Then and only then would people see stealing from a common prism of evil and crime which must be condemned. The temptation to join in the looting of a no-man’s cake would be drastically reduced; just as in its defence. Such terminologies as witch-hunt, nepotism and marginalization would vanish from our vocabulary. We shall be our brother’s keeper indeed. The ripple effect of power devolution is not only monumental but the requisite antidote to wipe away large scale corruption, idleness, greed and nepotism. It is also a lasting solution to unemployment, general economic rejuvenation, and one with capacity to diminish ethnic jingoism and up the political ante.

    I will strengthen the structures of government and regulate government personnel and make them truly independent and accommodating. No Nigerian will hold further positions after serving for 10 years. In this era of unemployment where life expectancy has been reduced to less than 40, it is criminal for our parents to keep recycling themselves in power to the detriment of our youths. Consequently, I will introduce a two-term structure in all elective and appointive positions. All governors who had served for two terms, for instance, should retire to private sector life. Maximum tenure in the Senate, House of Representative, Presidency, and State Assembly will be eight years and without migrating to other arms of government. Aspirants to public office must choose a path. All public officers should return to the society they have made. All serving officers must resign six months to an election as a qualifying condition. This will drastically reduce the level of impunity at elections aided by state goons. I will not appoint the Chief Justice of Nigeria or Chief Judge of a state. The Inspector General of Police would be appointed by the Police Service Commission, the chairman of INEC by the National Judicial Commission. The same organ will appoint the Chief Justice of Nigeria and other judges.

    I will scrutinize and redress injustices meted out to Nigerians by government. It is not all Nigerians that have innate unpatriotic tendencies. The Nigerian state has knocked down so many Nigerians and companies and helped to nurture several unpatriotic acts of Nigerians.  Like General Idi Amin of Uganda once said, “In Africa, each time there is a change of guard, heads must roll”. In Nigeria, heads do not only roll each time there is change of government but each time there is erratic change of policies.

    I will not be a Buhari that would feed Nigerians with scorpion when fish is desired in abundance. I will strive to remain a Buhari who followed due process, rule of law and justice. I will be a Buhari who came, saw the problems of Nigerians and conquered them all. Happy independence.

  • Of responsible and responsive leadership

    I have at various forums and through variegated platforms canvassed a new regime of rectitude in public service and commitment to the wellbeing of the greater number as the permissible minimum expected of leadership. Incumbent on leadership is the ability to find the best men at all times to entrust with private or public trust. The tragedy of power however, is that it attracts men and women of variegated tendencies and proclivity. Power to the vain is opium, to the sane a vehicle to do God’s will and make lives better. To the present crop of leaders that bestride the Nigerian political kaleidoscope, I would that you make the minimum a regime of responsible and responsive governance.

    Jesters and praise singers will sing discordant and nebulous tunes to power; supporters will urge and nudge that certain steps be taken indiscriminate of how it resonates; social and political commentators will say it doesn’t matter so long as things change for the better; and the one in power always confused because a cacophony of voices trading bias and prejudice dominates the politico-social amphitheatre; to those found in this cesspool I leave the ageless reprimand of Niccolo Machiavelli to wit ‘The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him’; from court jesters and praise singers depart.

    The psychology of responsible and responsive power is far less complex than the journey to power itself. Responsible and responsive power sits on a time tested tripod which is justice, equity and fairness. Revenge and revanchist propensity is how not to lead. Exclusion as opposed to inclusion by any guise or logic is how not to lead. The sacrifice of excellence at the altar of mediocrity is how not to govern. To sacrifice the major for the minor will tilt the balance against the scale of justice, to a true leader the led indiscriminate of creed or clan must count as one.

    I have argued in many of my writings that when the bias of region and religion counts for little to leadership; that when tribesmen lose to statesmen in the order of protocol; that when leadership sees in ‘us’ greater benefit than it sees in ‘I’; and when electoral pain and inconvenience is diminished by the call to nationhood, our journey to prosperity and progress shall have begun.

    However in our socio-political debate, mischief makers have exploited our gullibility and have chosen to misinform. Across the electronic and print press as well as on the social media, I hear and read several positions like ‘it doesn’t matter whether the President or the Governor’s appointees are his brothers or kinsmen so long as they deliver’, some argue ‘that it does not matter whether Indians and Haitians are appointed to serve, so long as things work’ and others would conclude ‘that the only thing that matters is what puts food on the table for the people’. This sadly is the position of the bandwagon but certainly untrue.

    This fallacy must fail because there is nowhere in God’s universe where responsible leadership buys into such hokum. Justice is the call on leadership to justly dispense of the rights and liabilities of public trust. Equity is the inevitable demands of balance and spread across the social, regional and ethical divide that obtains. And fairness is the age-tested moral minimum incumbent on leadership.

    When the craftsmen of the Nigerian Constitution talked about the Federal Character normative in Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution as in the others before it, they did not vote for mediocrity but placed a heavy responsibility on leadership. They entrusted leadership with the challenge to at all times grow and nurture men and women of excellence and integrity across the length and the breadth of the nation. For those who lampoon the Federal Character normative but like our sisters support affirmative action and the Beijing Conference normative on Women empowerment, now is the time to demolish your hypocrisy.

    I believe that the reality of our history makes the present organizational minimum even more strident; leadership at all levels must search out the best from the divides that inhabits the space. Excellence cannot possibly excuse exclusion, and to those who think otherwise there is nowhere in the world where the Chief Executive of a public trust is told that it does not matter who and where his staff come from, excellence is not the exclusive preserve of any stalk, colour, creed, clan or tendency.

    The failure of leadership to search out the best hands across the geo-political divides should not be blamed on the federal character normative. Like successive leadership paid lip-service to the true intent of that normative, we witness almost an organic relegation of youths in choices for governmental trust. Rather than grow the youths through serious responsibilities in governance, leadership thinks them best as aides and menial staff, sooner than later those who lampoon the Federal Character normative shall begin to canvass for 30% or 40% youth involvement in leadership, another hypocrisy waiting to rupture.

    May I state without equivocation that there is nothing wrong with the Federal Character normative. Every nation upholds same whether in a written or an unwritten format. May I state without fear of querulous critics that the Federal Character normative does not excuse mediocrity but engenders balance, peace, brotherhood and inclusivity. May I also state that there is no region in this country that suffers the dearth of competent and credible hands, jesters and praise singers must therefore spare us the kindergarten dialectics that blames the quota system or the federal character normative for our chequered history.

    In this era of change where the preponderant number of those who berthed the ballot based revolution of March/April are youths, the commensurate quid pro quo is for President Mohammadu Buhari to search out young men and women of unrivalled passion, proficiency and patriotism to drive the nation state to the place where the promises of democracy will become true and the change we promised made real.

    In Lagos State, this Centre of Excellence that has become the halcyon memento of our brotherhood, my candid advice to my big brother Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is to reflect on the beautiful historicity of Lagos and return from the air of revenge that colours his appointing nuances. He should not forget that the wisdom displayed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and sustained by Babatunde Raji Fashola who both had non-Yorubas as commissioners and aides are not only commendable but exemplary.

    Governor Ambode is father over a cosmopolitan state of variegated peoples and tribes, he therefore should engage the best of his children, maybe not like the Federal Government but at least like his predecessors. You cannot advance the argument of a metropolitan Lagos only when you need more resources from the Federal Government and discountenance same in your appointments.

    Power bestows enormous responsibilities and Leadership connotes parenthood; revenge, payback, segregation, nepotism and selective nuances must be treated as Shibboleth by he who must be documented amongst the greats. Without doubt a responsible and responsive leader is one who fixes square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes knowing that justice, equity, fairness, power sharing, resource control and inclusion are the organic minimum for peace, progress and prosperity, need I say that mutual trust and confidence is the turf on which the best must play to make Nigeria great again.

                                           

    • Prof Nwaokobia Jnr is the D-G of Change Ambassadors of Nigeria.

  • Lagos, traffic robbery and state police

    It was like a scene from a typical Nollywood movie. The setting was the ever busy Ojodu-Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was in the evening and traffic was expectedly heavy. Vehicular movement was almost on a standstill. The intermittent outpouring of rains complicated the situation for motorists and commuters. This, coupled with the irritating blares of horns by obviously agitated and exhausted motorists gave rise to a feeling that hell was already here. Suddenly, in the midst of the whole confusion, a skinny teenager, obviously using the sale of ‘gala’ to conceal his actual mission, dipped his hand into the dashboard of one of the vehicles trapped in the gridlock. With the dexterity of a professional thief, he made away with a cellphone and wallet stuffed with cash. The whole episode did not last for more than 30 seconds. It was so quick that it left both the victim and other motorists and commuters in the gridlock bewildered. Before anyone could say jack, the boy had dashed to the other side of the road and vanished into thin air. Welcome to the world of Lagos traffic robbers!

    In recent time, there has been an upsurge in the incidence of traffic robbery in Lagos State. The barefaced audacity with which these criminals perpetrate their evil act has become a source of great worry to commuters, motorists and residents alike. Some of the hoodlums who carry out the act occasionally place themselves on both sides of busy Lagos roads and attack unsuspecting motorists. Their mode of operation varies, depending on the exigency of the moment. Sometimes, they could bang on the vehicles of unwary motorists in order to lure them out of the car before pouncing on them. In some other instances, they knock at the glass of any car of their fancy to raise a false alarm of either a punctured tyre or that of a leaking fuel tank. The idea is always to ensure that motorists are tricked out of their vehicles or left off their guard to pave way for their dastardly act. However, the criminals could even be more daring as to break side glasses of vehicles, rob with unimaginable boldness and leisurely walk away as if nothing has actually happened. Everything usually happens in a twinkling of an eye such that the victims are often left baffled and speechless. The hooligans, who are mostly youngsters, prefer their victims to be female mainly because women’s resistance level is usually very feeble in such situations.

    Major routes where the dastardly act has become more widespread include Mile 2 –Badagry Expressway, Iyana-Ipaja/ Agege , Ikotun-Egbe road, LASU-Iyana Iba, Gbagada- Oworonshoki- Ketu routes, Ijora, Oshodi Oke, Ojuelegba, Murtala Muhammed Airport Road,  Ojota, Ojodu-Berger, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway among others. In most cases, traffic robbers, who operate in a commando fashion and in broad daylight, take advantage of the typical Lagos traffic gridlock which often hinders free flow of vehicular movement to rob commuters and motorists, sometimes at gun-point, of their valuables. Some of the criminals sometimes pretend to be road beggars in order to fool their victims. One aspect of the act that is quite worrisome is the fact that victims are often left on their own to deal with their plight. Other motorists and commuters, out of fear of being molested by the hoodlums, often stay put in their vehicles to mind their own business. The typical African brother’s keeper tradition amounts to nothing in this matter.

    Many have linked the fresh trend in traffic robbery to the current harsh socio-economic realities, rising unemployment, inflation, breakdown of societal values, moral decadence, drug abuse among others. Naturally, in discourses that concern such anti-social issues as traffic robbery, the tendency is always to blame the police for incompetence and slackness. But then, the truth is that the police like every other state’s institution are a part of the larger society and as such is not immune from the fallouts of major societal challenges. It is no longer a secret that our country is currently grossly under -policed. Therefore, expecting the Nigerian Police Force, which is made up of less than 400,000 men and officers, to efficiently contend with rising wave of criminality in the country, amounts to expecting the devil to embrace the gospel? The present policing ratio of 205 police officers per 150,000 people in the country is grossly inadequate.

    The current situation, therefore, brings back to the fore the contentious issue of the imperative for state police. The current trend where the Police Commissioner in a state will have to take orders from Abuja concerning security issues is quite complicated.  Ironically, almost all the governors in the country are investing heavily in the various police commands in their states. In Lagos State, for example, the government in the last 15 years has invested billions of naira on the state police command as well as other security organs in the state. In fact, one of the earliest tasks of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was to meet with individuals and corporate organisations that made commitments of over one billion naira in cash and kind towards advancing the course of a safer Lagos.

    Now, does it not amount to double standard that a governor bears such a huge responsibility, which in the first place should be that of the federal government, only for the system to turn around and deny him unhindered control of the same institution? It has been argued in some quarters that state police is nothing but a recipe for anarchy. The reality, however, is that the present centralized police structure has, over the years, been subjected to limitless abuse by the central authority. Nigeria is too large and complex to be policed centrally. In an ideal federal system, the issue of state police should not be a contentious matter. In order to enhance security in the country, the issue of state police must be urgently addressed.

    Meanwhile, motorists and commuters in Lagos are advised to always be on alert and keep valuables out of sight. They should always lock the doors and wind up glasses of their vehicles at flash points. They should also shun buying things in traffic for safety consideration.  They should be wary of ploy by miscreants who raise false alarms on the road with the intent of dispossessing them of their valuables. Everyone is a stakeholder when it comes to security. An effective public security cannot be obtained without the active involvement, participation and support of every segment of the society because public security is the responsibility of all individuals, groups, communities, organisations and other units that constitute the state.

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

     

     

  • Power and Independence

    Once, in the Second Republic, while the then President Shehu Shagari was delivering an Independence Day broadcast on national television, an unplanned power outage occurred, knocking off power supply nationwide, inevitably interrupting the broadcast and its reception by the citizenry.

    When power was eventually restored to an embarrassed nation and long after the president had concluded the broadcast, an explanation for the outage emerged. It was that a snake had climbed up the tower members of a transmission line and bridged one of the phases and a tower member, causing a temporary earth fault that forced the line to trip.

    The Second Republic lasted from October 1, 1979 to December 31, 1983. But that incident, occurring over 30 years ago, is probably a good symbolic illustration of how long our political independence as a nation has yet to be complemented by freedom from the many natural, man-made and accidental causes of our lack of adequate and reliable power as a nation.

    For while we can be said to have received our political independence from Britain, our colonial masters, it might not be wrong to describe us as a nation still being colonised by darkness – the symbolic and summary objectification of our perennially inadequate power generation and supply .  And the result of this inadequacy, as we all know, continues to manifest as the chronic distress and underdevelopment of which we have only recently begun to see sustainable signs of their reduction with the relative stabilisation and improvement of power generation and supply nationwide.

    It is heartening, though, that President Muhammadu Buhari appreciates the challenges posed by this situation, like Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan before him – who, through their reformist interventions in the power sector, laid the foundation for the improvements currently being experienced in power generation and supply as a result of what some have – I think rightly – termed President Buhari’s “body language” or the Buhari effect.

    To drive home the fact of the recent improvement with a combination of facts and symbolism: The peak power generation value in the country on October 1, 2013 and 2014 (our last and penultimate Independence Days before that of this year) was 3,166.6 and 3,687.9 megawatts respectively. However, from the May 29, inauguration of the present government, the country has recorded several new different peak generation values, i.e., 4,662 megawatts on July 29; 4,748 megawatts on August 25; and 4, 810.7 megawatts on August 26. Prior to this, the last peak generation value of 4,516 megawatts had been recorded three years earlier, in 2012.

    If the above progressive trend is sustained – as I believe it will – then we can expect to have inched further to freedom from our symbolic colonisation by darkness by generating more power on this year’s Independence Day than we did on the previous one. This optimism is founded on our having already maintained a power generation value higher than what we had on the 2104 Independence Day for most days in September, the month that precedes the Independence Day.

    However, even as President Buhari has repeatedly promised to give priority attention to power, the perennial lack of which he has described as intolerable, the real challenge, I think, is in sustaining the current improvement in power beyond this year’s Independence Day, and making it a lasting condition. This can be achieved if, beyond relying on the President’s “body language” as a stimulant for improved power, active steps are taken by his government to develop the power sector sustainably, such that the factors that make for improved power become features of the power system – factors such as quality personnel, reliable infrastructure, dependable equipment, efficient sectoral management, etc.

    Indeed, as the President was quoted as saying during a recent engagement with the Ministry of Power, “The problems besetting our power sector are not difficult to identify. Therefore, priorities can be easily set in order to tackle them. The problems are more with transmission than generation, and we equally need to secure the power infrastructure round the country.”

    So there is an indication that even the President understands that, to sustain the current gains in power, there is a need to reinforce his “body language” with multi-pronged action to develop the power sector and secure our decolonisation, as it were, from darkness (or the paucity of electricity) and the general distress and underdevelopment it continues to foist on our nation.

    But as even the President would admit, what has often been lacking is not the ability to identify such problems. It is the will – political and otherwise – to tackle them in spite of the vested interests that benefit from the dysfunction in our power sector. And I am persuaded that, beyond developing the power sector, it would require our leaders continuously sending a message of zero-tolerance to such interests through their “body language” for any improvement in our power sector to be sustained without the possibility of reversal.

    And by “body language”, I mean a psychological disposition whose impact does not necessarily depend on its being deployed consciously. For its can also be an unconscious expression and yet be no less effective as, I think, in the Buhari case and the power sector – the way a cat’s mere presence can check the harmful activities of mice, which are likely to react instinctively to the sight of the cat even without the cat being aware of it.

  • Between Shehu Sani And El-Rufai

    Right from his days as Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has carved the image of a no-nonsense, incorruptible and industrious public servant who knows what he wants and goes for it without delay.  When he held sway at the capital city, Abuja, and he worked assiduously to restore it to its original plan.  He demolished illegal structures belonging to the low, the high and the mighty, including churches and mosques.  He personally supervised demolitions of  houses of Senate President, PDP chairman, the Inspector General of Police and those of prominent Nigerians and dared anyone who stood on his way.

    When he offered himself to run for the governorship of Kaduna State in the 2015 General Election, he promised to turn the fortunes of the state for the better. He promised the people free education  and creation of over 3,000 jobs, among others. He allayed their fears that he would not use his Abuja style to run the affairs of Kaduna since they are different.

    The people believed him and overwhelmingly voted him into power.  And on assuming office, he did not tarry a bit. He constituted his cabinet and hit the ground running when other governors were still basking in the euphoria of their victory at the polls.

    First, he reduced the number of commissioners in the state from 23 to 13. He scrapped some ministries and merged some others. He banned all allocations of fertilizers to traditional rulers and politicians and distributed them to real farmers in the state.

    El-Rufai blazed the trail in reducing his salary and that of his deputy by 50 per cent. He stopped annual Ramadan welfare packages  and ordered biometric verification for civil servants in the state.

    In no time, El-Rufai bagged Governors’ Performance Award from a Lagos based Centre for International and Professional Studies which conducts monthly performance review of governors in the country.  The group used such criteria as readiness for office, innovation in office, ability to be in tune with the mood of the nation, security and leadership to score him first.

    But one thing that has pit Governor El-Rufai and the ordinary people of the state is his decision to take beggars off the streets of Kaduna.  After the bomb blast of June 11, in the midst of civil servants crowded for the biometric verification in Sabon Gari Local Government Area which left 26 dead and 35 injured, El-Rufai perhaps thought that the beggars posed a security risk, that terrorists could use them to cause mayhem and so banned begging in the state.

    Since then the state has known no peace as beggars staged public demonstration and challenged the governor to a contest of will.  They threatened him with legal action to force their fundamental rights of freedom of movement and association as well as spiritual attack.  The people lamented that contrary to El-Rufai’s promise during campaigns to stamp out poverty, he has visited them with hardship and misery. They accuse him of threatening their livelihood, demolishing their shops, houses and their businesses in the name of making Kaduna the Dubai of Africa. They therefore swore to bring down his government unless he rescinds his decision. The physically challenged persons dared him and returned to the streets.

    El-Rufai seems to  have come to terms with the implications of the obnoxious policy and reversed himself by appointing a visually challenged man as Special Assistant to the Governor on Disability. The beggars returned to the streets.

    Even then, the people seem not to be assuaged by that action. And one man who has consistently challenged El-Rufai is Comrade Shehu Sani, the Senator representing Kaduna North Central in the National Assembly.  Comrade, an APC Senator, is also President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, a human rights organisation based in Kaduna.

    Comrade Sani  insisted that El-Rufai must understand that he is presiding over human beings that have suffered enough and must not add to their hardship.  “I do not mean anything harmful or bad to him. I feel pained; in some parts of Kaduna today, you will see groups of people sitting down and saying they regretted voting for APC and even some of them came out to be praising Ramalan Yero (former governor) and other PDP people. It gives me a lot of pain…There is no way I would like to see my people saying that if they had known they wouldn’t have voted for  us because, we came in and that we were oppressing them, denying  them, demolishing their houses and all that we said we were coming to do, we refused to do,” he said in an interview recently.

    Some have said he is attacking Governor el-Rufai because he wants to be governor in 2019.  But he said it is only El-Rufai’s supporters who could say so because he knew that if he (Sani) had wanted to be governor when he came out to contest, El-Rufai could not have become governor.

    Sani insisted: “Our people need socio-economic liberation. Our people need jobs, they need medicare  and education; they need to be freed from economic bondage which they have found themselves in. So if you are in government, your priority should be how to make life better for people, from the position you met them.”

    He said that El-Rufai’s programmes and policies are clearly alienating the people and attracting anger and condemnation on APC and anybody associated with the party.

    But whatever is the motive, the point has to be made that while trying to develop Kaduna he should not sacrifice the very people who voted him into power.  He should provide alternative means of survival  for the victims of the quantum demolition, alternative markets for traders, and rehabilitation centres for the beggars.  He should provide shelters for handicapped, create jobs for those adversely affected by demolitions and pay compensation for those who have lost their houses of abode.

    This reminds me of a story I read recently about a blind boy.  The blind boy sat on the step of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help me.” For hours only few coins were dropped in the hat. A man passing by noticed it; he took the sign, turned it around and wrote some words and put it back so that any passer-by could see it. Soon many people  started giving money to the boy.

    The man who wrote the words came around to see what was happening. The boy recognised his footsteps and asked,” Are you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?” I wrote, “Today is beautiful, but I cannot see it.”  The first sign simply said the boy is blind but the second told the people that they were so lucky they were not blind.  We could have been like any of the less-privileged. Their condition is no fault of theirs. We should have pity and provide solution to their problems rather than compound them.

    • Okafor writes from Lagos.

  • Impunity as maiden test of Tobacco Act

    Not many know that there is a new law known as the Tobacco Control Act. Recently passed by the 7th Parliament and signed into law a few months ago, the Act seeks to bring order into the manufacture, promotion and distribution of tobacco products in Nigeria. The reason is simple: Tobacco has long been found to have dangerous public health implications. For instance, while smoking may be legal, such that an adult may choose to smoke and damn its consequences, cigarette smoke can potentially also affect non-smokers. The government has an obligation to its citizens to protect public health, ensuring that access to potentially dangerous products like tobacco by the under-aged for instance is outlawed and that innocent non-smokers are not subjected against their will to passive smoking and its after-effects, among others.

    The Tobacco Act is by many accounts, now a much stronger piece of legislation than its predecessor. Stakeholders including legislators and health sector workers are unanimous in the view that it will, to a large extent control the production, promotion and distribution of tobacco products across the country and in the process help to safeguard the lives of Nigerians.

    Having been passed into law, the Act is currently being gazetted into the country’s statutes by the Supreme Court.

    It is shocking that while the Tobacco Control Act has attained this degree of progress, to the commendation of several anti-tobacco NGOs, a certain manufacturer of tobacco products with a manufacturing factory somewhere in Senegal, has been granted a licence to import tobacco products into Nigeria, by the Standards Organization of Nigeria. Using the platform of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, which avails members the prerogative to export their products within the West Africa sub-region, the tobacco manufacturer will in due course import cigarettes and other finished products to Nigeria.

    At face value, the issuance of this import licence may appear laudable, one aimed at promoting trade and commerce within the West African sub-region. On deeper interrogation however, it raises a number of issues, all of which further question the rationale or motive behind the action.

    For instance, whereas the Tobacco Control Act clearly stipulates that a licence to import tobacco products may only be granted by the Federal Minister of Health, it would appear that perhaps taking advantage of the absence of ministers, the Standards Organization of Nigeria may have gone ahead to issue the licence itself. If as reports indicate this is true, then SON would have acted in clear contravention of the new Act, and mortgaged the lives of Nigerians, by literally opening Nigeria’s borders to the influx of tobacco products, especially at a time when the country is still grappling with a suffusion of internally-produced tobacco products as well as smuggled ones. In fact, not long ago, SON itself advertised the presence of several non-registered foreign brands of cigarettes that are to be found on the shelves of retailers across the country, warning that these cigarettes are dangerous.

    In stipulating that “no person shall manufacture, import or distribute tobacco products except the person has obtained a license or is authorized in writing to do so by the Minister”, the Tobacco Control Act obviously seeks to put a systematic leash on the influx of tobacco products in the country, in so doing, making the availability of cigarettes far more restricted and controlled than it currently is as one way of managing the public health challenge of tobacco.

    Granting a license to any importer of cigarettes in the face of this clear regulation therefore raises a number of questions, chief among which is what is the motivation of the officials of the Standards Organization of Nigeria who have granted this manufacturer a license? Is the Standards Organization of Nigeria ignorant of the Tobacco Control Act? Has its action been predicated on a need to enhance its coffers by the massive licence fees and charges which it will obviously slam on the importer on an annual basis? Tobacco is renowned globally as big money business. Are there mouth-watering counterpart underhand deals as an accompaniment to this hurriedly awarded licence to import cigarettes?

    The licence awarded by the Standards Organization of Nigeria, if true indeed raises yet another issue; it brings to light the question of lack of congruence and disharmony in Nigeria’s policy making space. For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria only a few weeks ago issued regulatory guidelines that seek to conserve our foreign exchange regime through strategic restriction of the importation of spurious items. Items like toothpicks, plantain chips, wooden doors and others were placed under this systematic restriction in a manner that makes it easier for the legendary camel to pass the eye of the needle than for them to be legally imported. Why issue a licence to anyone to import cigarettes when the country is strategically restricting the importation of non-essential and spurious items, anyway? It raises the question of whether or not Nigeria’s regulatory agencies bother to talk to themselves and understand the rationale behind various government policies.

    The current Standards Organization of Nigeria scenario is the reason why government policies often seem to contradict one another. While one agency may understand and have a far-sighted view of the problem and institute policies with which to manage it, another agency may have a completely different understanding if not a total misunderstanding of the same issue and act in such a way as to undermine well-thought out policy. Ultimately, in the bedlam of confusion, well-intended policies and programs are jettisoned and the country starts from point zero all over again. This has been our lot for decades in Nigeria.

    The happenings regarding this reported issuance of a license to a tobacco manufacturer to import cigarettes and other tobacco products to Nigeria in contravention of the Tobacco Control Act, should pique the interest of all Nigerians and very importantly President Muhammadu Buhari who in the last few months has embarked on a painstaking mission to return Nigeria to a culture of doing things right. Many Nigerians are positive that the era of corruption and impunity is in fast retreat to be replaced by an era of transparency and purpose in governance and public affairs. It would be a disservice to all Nigerians if Standards Organization of Nigeria were to pull the hands of the clock back in an attempt to return Nigeria to an era which it is struggling to shake off. To make matters worse, it would be an even greater disservice to Nigeria, if its platform for doing this is the importation of cigarettes and tobacco products which have been proven to be dangerous to the health of smokers and non-smokers alike and which therefore ought to be rigorously controlled.

    • Ms Obi is of the Centre for the Promotion of Enterprise and Business Best Practice, Abuja.

  • Orji/Kalu rift: 1999 Constitution to blame

    General Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the world’s most powerful military commanders ever, once quipped that he had better face a hundred bayonets than a single newspaper. Obviously, what the French General wanted to point out was the lethal nature of the power which the press wields—even a single newspaper; no one can afford to face it.  It is ironic therefore in Nigeria today that a particular citizen can beat his chest as it were and say “I have done what Napoleon could not do” because for eight years the man has been forced to face the onslought of a particular news media. That man is Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji, the immediate past Governor of Abia State, who has been having a running battle with his predecessor in office Dr Oriji Uzor Kalu, publisher of the Sun newspapers. Please note that I only know both men by reputation.

    Not for one day have we read any pro-Orji news or commentary in Kalu’s media. Nor have they ever published a rejoinder from Orji’s side to balance an ugly, skewed publicity equation. Thanks however to the open-heartedness of other media like The Nation, ThisDay, National Mirror, The Guardian, The Punch, Vanguard, Tribune etc. that have been the saving grace; otherwise T.A Orji would have been undone long ago. Those of us watching from a distance can no longer afford to keep quiet. This is media tyranny writ large. This is man’s inhumaniy to man. It is an abuse of privilege which William Shakespeare said manifests when people “disjoin remorse from power”. It’s also abuse of freedom—freedom to own or establish a medium of communication, which the framers of our Constitution purposely married with the right to Freedom of Expression, in Section 39. We should feel concerned because the abuse or denial of one man’s right anywhere is the abuse of other people’s rights everywhere. It is T.A Oriji today; it may be the turn of Abubakar or Adeyemi tomorrow. Why do we face this problem today? Marrying freedom of expression with freedom to own and operate a press or medium is a very good idea because it makes them a couple.

    But then, like in every marriage where no law forbids abuse on either side, the marriage of the two freedoms in one and the same Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution is liable to abuse or selfish exploitation such as we are witnessing today in the Orji/Kalu drama. Therefore, in order to deal with such situations or prevent same, it is necessary to amend the constitution and add a fourth sub-section to Section 39(1) which says “every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”The amendment being proposed here which should come immediately after sub-section (1) or after the existing sub-section (3) is as follows: “Because it is impossible for everybody to establish their own medium, every medium or press established pursuant to sub-section (2)of this section, for the purposes of dissemination of information, ideas opinions and news shall enforce the Fairness Doctrine by ensuring feedback mechanism so that without discrimination in any form anyone reasonably feeling injured or hurt in anyway by the activities of the medium/media can exercise the right of reply in or through the same offending medium/media possibly in full measure.”

    Be that as it may, this intervention was not necessarily prompted by any urge to seek remorse or relief for Orji. Far from that; essentially this intervention became necessary in order to condemn a worrisome trend that ridicules Nigerian journalism as exemplified in two recent write-ups credited to Ebere Wabara, Dr. Kalu’s media adviser. In the first write-up in Daily Sun of September 1, entitled “Koos James, Orji & Kalu,” the author wasted valuable space penning a high-falutin piece that bordered on ego-trip in the name of a rejoinder marred by poetic licence, empty grandiloquence and an attempt at rogue intellectualism with a disastrous result. In fact, the very second paragraph of the piece made up of 40 odd words had no finite verb and therefore ended as a meaningless phrase. The second in Daily Sun of September 7th entitled “Justice Abang blasts T.A Orji” proved more disastrous as it raised serious doubts about his grasp of basic principles guiding judicial reporting. One doesn’t need to be an egg in order to recognize a bad omelette. Although I am not a journalist, I can always point out bad journalism any day. If Wabara and his team have run out of issues in their self-declared fight with T.A Orji there is no sense in resorting to unprofessional hara-kiri. The right thing to do is to call a truce and move on. Kalu no longer needs all this ridiculous fawning by Wabara who delights in addressing him as “FIFA President” even when he is yet to enter the race proper; not an adviser who delights in addressing him as “Forbe’s billionaire” or “Pillar of sports in Africa” – all in a useless attempt to curry his favour. Rather what he needs now is a media adviser who knows that in writing a rejoinder to an unfavourable publication by your opponent, you don’t go about repeating the same offending negative words used against your boss. For example Wabara said in his full page verbiage of 1/9/2015: “Government is a continuum. There is hardly any former governor who never left a conflagration of debts”, (column 4, line 10). Really? So Kalu left not just a huge debt in Abia but a “conflagration of debts”? Well, we are hearing this dimension for the first time. All we knew all this while was that the man left a huge debt amounting to N55 billion. Anyway, Wabara may be right because leaving N55 billion debts in 2007 with nary a legacy to account for it in a poor state like Abia could have sparked off a conflagration but for the mature way T.A Orji handled the matter. Wabara also argued in his ego-trip that because Kalu contributes to the anti-corruption debate in Nigeria the man could not be grouped among the corrupt—a position that contradicted Kalu who in his write-up in Saturday Sun of 12th September 2015 clearly grouped himself among corrupt Nigerian civilian rulers thus: “what we have witnessed rather sadly within the few years that civilians have been in the saddle of leadership in Nigeria is endemic corruption. And with corruption came other vices”.

    So what was Wabara trying to tell us?

    • Mr. Agarzue writes from Abuja.

  • Jambaforiti is Nigeria’s JAMB

    When the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was established by a Decree in February 1978 by General Obasanjo’s Military Government following the presentation of Angulu’s committee on the same subject I screamed in a headline titled JAMBAFORITI as my instantaneous reaction to the bogus idea. I recognized from Day One that the godfather of JAMB was politics and not in any way concerned or related to solving tertiary education admission problems in the country.

    JAMB came into being ostensibly to reduce instances where a candidate might apply to and gain admission to about three universities thereby creating confusion in the admission system. And that was when the total number of universities in Nigeria was less than 10. In August 1988, the Federal Military Government led by President Babangida amended the decree of 1978 and included polytechnics and Colleges of Education admissions thereby compounding the already nasty situation.

    I had no doubt in my mind that the whole concept of centralising admissions process and procedures to tertiary institutions like all the other centralised bodies and agencies in the country was only headed for catastrophe.  Till tomorrow, it is Obasanjo alone who could answer why he centralised television broadcasting, the country’s stadia, the universities and other glorious landmarks which were proud legacies of their founding fathers.

    No sooner than a few months after JAMB was created and forced down the throats of university administrators that insinuations started to fly about that the ploy was to bridge the growing gap in education between the Northern region and the Southern region of the country. And within a year, reports had started streaming in of JAMB results being manipulated and the children of the rich and influential were receiving excellent JAMB results for examinations they did not write.

    Hundreds of thousands of students who did not write JAMB examinations and those who were merely awarded huge marks found their way to the universities only to be found wanting at the first tests conducted in their respective departments. Year in-year-out, thousands of fake students who gained admission fraudulently were expelled from tertiary institutions. The whole scenario became a huge mess.

    Poor parents who are desperate to get their children and wards into tertiary institutions resorted to all unimaginable tactics ranging from hiring people to write examinations for their children to outright offering their bodies to lecturers and JAMB officials so that their children and wards could be rigged in.

    But that is not the worst part of the story. The more unwholesome problem of the JAMB palaver is the serious frustration it has imposed on millions of aspiring candidates over the years. In some years, only 20% or less of over a million candidates who sat for the JAMB examinations got admission to tertiary institutions. This figure gets multiplied year-in year-out with a result that today in Nigeria there must be over seven million frustrated young men and women who have had the misfortune of being edged out by the almighty JAMB; some of them more than seven times!

    Bright and brilliant teenagers with excellent results in their WAEC Examinations sit for JAMB or GCE examinations only to find out that the poorest students in their respective classes and schools are the ones adjudged the best by corruption-ridden JAMB.

    The All Progressives Congress and the President it produced with the clarion call for change must stretch their light to other problems beyond fighting corruption. Even though corruption is enough reason to scrap JAMB, the entire education policy of Nigeria needs overhauling.

    JAMB might be considered at a point in time to be a probable cure for some anomalies in our admissions process, it has now become clear, as it has always been clear to me from Day One, that the idea is a gross anomaly in its entirety. You do not bridge education imbalance from the top. The bridging, if there is ever a thing to be called so, must start from elementary school.

    In our good old days and very much before my time 50 years ago when I gained admission to the prestigious University of Ibadan, qualified students were admitted directly into the universities and technical colleges by the authorities of such institutions. There was no interference of any type from any quarter. In the 50s and 60s the Prime Minister or Premier or Minister could not get their dull children admitted into any tertiary institution. If their children failed their qualifying WAEC or GCE Examinations, the best they could do and did do was to employ private teachers to coach such children until they were able to make the grade.

    In my generation, once you got the prerequisite grades in your WAEC or GCE examinations, you submit your application to any university of your choice and within a month or two your admission letter was in front of you. Our parents did not have to lobby any lecturer or Vice Chancellor. Our mothers did not have to rendezvous with a randy lecturer at Point Zero hotel!

    Nigeria has tried JAMB. JAMB has failed her. There is no shame in retracing one’s steps if one finds out that he or she is going astray. Nigeria must go back to the old glorious days, tried and trusted days of Higher School Certificate course to prepare our teeming youth for tertiary education. We should go back to our WAEC days where students with good grades were admitted to do Prelim preparatory to their undergraduate programme.

    Government must also take a second look at NECO or whatever the tortuous duplication is called. WAEC and GCE are just enough. JAMB and the so-called Post-JAMB should be scrapped today. Our youth are suffering. They are grumbling. They are disenchanted with the country’s confused education policies. And care must be taken to avoid inciting them to wage unending war on the society at large.

    JAMBAFORITI has done incalculable damage to the psyche of our youngsters, who have now been driven to drugs and other hallucination inducing agents,

    Nigerian youths are frustrated and dissatisfied with JAMB which has ruined the future of millions of them. And I say without fear of contradiction that many of the youths whose bright hopes had been shattered by JAMB have found ready succour in kidnapping and armed robbery ‘professions’. Since JAMB declared them unfit for tertiary education, they found their way to the Heartless College of Kidnapping and the Murderous University of Armed Robbery!

    • Jambaforiti, perish with your woes!