The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Just before the proposed HND/B.SC parity

    THE news of the inauguration of a committee by theFederal Government (FG) to bridge the gap between Higher National Diploma (HND) and university degree is relatively a cheering one. At least, after ten months of academic shut down by polytechnic lecturers across the states of the federation, the FG is planning to put a ‘lasting ‘solution to one of the major demands (removal of HND/university degree dichotomy) of the aggrieved lecturers.

    As much as I wouldn’t want to pre-empt the report of the committee, I wish to state that removing the disparity or bridging the gap between graduates of the two programmes would be more akin to the wisdom of a man that ignored leprosy only to dissipate his energy to treating ringworm.

    First, all stakeholders will agree that the Walter Elliot Commission of 1943, Eric Ashby Commission of 1959, Dr A. Skapski‘s report of 1962 and other conferences sought to engender the development of technical manpower in Nigeria. Therefore, the polytechnic education was not illconceived, but misunderstood to date. The wrong perception of polytechnic education is evident from the way lecturers are recruited to the admission process of prospective applicants; from the curricula development to the relevance of the courses; from the government regulatory agencies to the ownership (state, federal & private); from the employers of labour to several policy somersaults. The list is endless. Hence, for the stakeholders, a rare cognitive restructuring or pragmatic approach towards tackling these problems is necessary before anything good can come out of the polytechnic education reforms.

    Second, if really the private sector is the major employers of labour in Nigeria, then the removal of the disparity would be a mere effort in futility. The government may decree that public and private sectors should give polytechnic graduates and their university counterparts equal opportunities to work with the same entry levels and promotional growths, however, can the government mandate private companies from which schools they should recruit from? Subsequently, the problems would be far from being solved and would greatly affect the private sector. Three, FG may need to tackle a bigger disparity that may endangered the socio-political and economic systems of the country in the nearest future if this committee does not extend its dragnet to tackling disparities amongst private , state, federal and foreign universities especially from the neighbouring countries.

    Government may not see the need for that now until another five years when the products of these neighbouring countries’ universities flood Nigeria. The attention would then shift from the army of unemployed graduates to unemployable certificated individuals.

    Unofficial visits to these universities in Republic of Benin, Ghana, etc could be of great assistance in this regard.

    In furtherance to my little modifications, I will toe the line of the Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology (COHEADS), in their memorandum submitted to a Presidential Technical Committee on the Consolidation of Tertiary Institutions in 2007. The recommendations include; consolidation of tertiary institutions by converting and upgrading polytechnics and colleges of education into campuses of proximate universities to address carrying capacities issues; with additional 1,000, 000 admission spaces estimated, HND should be scrapped. The National Diploma (ND) programmes should remain in all universities of technology (new & old). With the reform, middle level technical manpower will henceforth be clearly defined by ND qualification.

    The largest federal and state polytechnics in each of the six zones should be converted into full fledge universities. These institutions should remain technical institutions where 90% of all enrolment must be in core technical programmes. The ND should be the entry qualifications to the universities of technology and the new universities. The main focus of these institutions should remain inculcating technical skills and competences at very high level. The curricula in these institutions must be thoroughly reviewed to reflect need- oriented, contemporary and futuristic courses. The curricula development should involve 50% end users, 35% practical-oriented Lecturers, 10% education specialists and 5% genuine Nigerian educators in the Diaspora. This should not be made ‘food for the boys’.

    The other polytechnics should remain but affiliated to the newly established or existing universities. However, they should be allowed to produce technicians only at the ND level. Those wishing to further their technical training would then enroll into the universities of technology or the newly established universities. The entry qualifications for the ND programmes should be five credits in parity with conventional universities.

    The ND programmes should be a comprehensive three-year programme as proposed by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The regulatory framework that already exists for polytechnics should be upgraded to take charge of the proposed universities of technology.

    The committee must ensure that modalities for improving capacity, both human and physical, at the new universities be put immediately into place. A fiveyear moratorium should be given to all the new universities to enable them improve capacity. There must be a strategic plan for aggressive staff development and upgrading of facilities while funding should be provided to implement these plans.

    With regards to the current holders of HND certificates, windows of opportunities should be opened to them to convert their certificates to university degree certificate .This would even serve as additional Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the universities to develop at a fast pace. The committee must ensure that the introduction of the reforms will not lead to retrenchment of staff. These can be ensured by allowing the staff sufficient time to upgrade, reskill and upskill.

    • Adesemoye is a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication of Lagos State Polytechnic.

  • Halt shame of subjugation in Osun

    As this my article goes to press, the forces and individuals within the progressive fold in southwestern region of Nigeria that could (and in my opinion ought to) put a conservative political action in the field in time for the August, 2014 gubernatorial election in Osun State, are already in motion: Caucusing, coalescing and laying careful plans for actions that will take place before, during and after the election day.

    Though, it is not within the power of this writer as a patriotic Nigerian from the southwestern part of Nigeria, even if it were my place, to describe in details the probable sequence of events, or to describe the innermost thoughts or speculations of Nigeria’s leading progressive politicians and columnists in most leading Nigeria’s print media.  But the calendar and election laws in Nigeria impose certain inexorable requirements on the hopes and plans of men, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that might compromise with the hawks in the national ruling party (PDP), to rig the forthcoming election in Osun State.

    To take care of the southwest, Prof. Femi Orebe, writing in his weekly column in The Nation of Sunday, May 18, 2014, stated that “Not only has the presidency assembled the usual political outcasts in the region, it has successfully breached what has hitherto an impregnable regional elders redoubt with the result that men you could count on a few years back have completely sold out”.

    Mustering one-fifth of the south-west’s population and 30 percent of its natural resources, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s government in Osun is rapidly consolidating a new force, both moral and material, with which to raise the living standard and erect adaptations of the design of modern progress to their own distinct cultural environments. Whether one adheres to the concepts of southwestern Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) document or not, this is the direction of Osun State progress and thousand of Iyiola Omisores and Abdul-Jelili Adesiyans in combinations cannot stop it.

    It is corrolary to the shift of the south-western economic frontiers, as the whole epicentre of former Western Region affairs rotate back towards the area it started, i.e. pre-Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s administration. In this situation, it becomes vital that our own country orient its policies in consonance with this basic evolutionary condition rather than pursue a course blind to the reality that the PDP era in Osun could be reinvented as Osun people now covet the right to shape their own destiny.  What they seek now is friendly guidance, understanding and support, not imperious direction; the dignity of equality, not the shame of subjugation.

    Their pre-PDP government standard of life, pitifully low, and it could be infinitely lower if the devastation plan of the hawks in PDP is allowed to manifest, God forbid.  There are those who are possessed with satanic spirit and desperately determined to capture Osun by any means.  Nigerians know them, the people of Osun are vigilantly watching out for them.  The incidence that led to the brutal murder of Chief Bola Ige over a decade ago is still very fresh in the memories of most Nigerians.  The perpetrators of this heinous crime were allowed to get away freely to come back again and do their thing as they know best.  That is why the PDP hawks in south-western states, particularly in Osun and Ekiti states, are developing a new phenomenon of criminal intent, and anyone who does not understand it will not be able to understand the chaos that contemporary Yorubaland has become or the potential anarchy the PDP hawks, in collaboration with the Presidency, are threatening to bring to all of us again.

    Nigeria will be absolutely in despair if Oduduwa Nation deserts it. But the thing is inconceivable. Osun is not going to desert it. The people of the southwest are not going to desert it. The job is to get that into the consciousness of men who do not understand it. The job is to restore some of our fellow citizens to that large sort of sanity which makes a man bigger than himself.

    It has always been regarded as a blot on Yoruba political sophistication that the PDP hawks and retrogressive elements in Yorubaland be allowed to hold in unwilling bondage of the people in southwest; it has seemed to argue a lukewarmness in matter of socio-political order on the part of the national ruling party, and it has always been apparent that the people in the other five geo-political zones in Nigeria were more opposed to PDP political domination of Nigeria and consequently, more in sympathy with the opposition parties. State policy, begotten of national jealousy and national rivalry has always held the governments in check. The people, overlooking or despising reasons of state have seen only the injustice.  But for the jealousy of what has been called the national ruling power, there can be no doubt that PDP rule would long since have ceased to exist in the southwest of Nigeria.

    For Ogbeni Aregbesola, Governor of Osun State, who is the architect of vibrant domestic policy of the state from year 2010 until this present moment, and, hopefully beyond, nothing would serve the state consolidation better than a long period of peace. Hence, Aregbesola deserves a second term to complete the good work he has begun.

    To their own minds of course, the trio of Iyiola Omisore, Abduljelili Adesiyan and Musiliu Obanikoro, nursing the sentiment of revenge was the chief threat to the state and by extension, the stability of the southwest.  May be the enemies of progress within our midst should be reminded of the crisis tagged Operation Wetie, of which this writer, a septuagenarian who was an eye-witness at Mushin voters’ collation centre of election that was not to be in Mushin, and that which consequently triggered the crisis that engulfed the whole of Western Region as a result of the rigged election that took place on October 11, 1965, which led to the first coup of January 15, 1966.  I believe that Omisore and his co-hawks should learn from the lessons of the past and behave.

    Ogbeni Aregbesola no doubt, is committed to a better, egalitarian society.  Although, he is fully anxious to build a society with massive physical infrastructure that promotes better living, believes first in pursuit of those human values that can pave the way for the emergence of that total man who is socially responsible.  Hence, his dogged pursuit of extra-curricular schemes such as the Calisthenics, Omoluabi Boys and Girls Club and other schemes aimed at re-orientating the youths to channel their energies towards a society where the promotion of the common, collective good will dominate the crazy pursuit of the good of the self.  He stirs the hornet’s nest often, usually in his determined attempts to break the norms to achieve extra-ordinary results.

    To date, he has ignited debates on federalism, restructuring of education towards functionality, equity, justice and fairness in all spheres of life.  Even in the face of mounting criticisms, Aregbesola holds tenaciously to his ideas, convinced that opposition to them is a product of long years of military rule, ignorance of what is even good for humanity and the acute manipulative capacities of those whose interest it is to keep the ordinary people perpetually subjugated.

    • Engr. Shoyebo, an Author and Publisher wrote from Mushin – Lagos.

  • Private sector and education development

    Many people grossly underestimated the level and extent of the socio-political and economic decay of the country when the ongoing political dispensation came into being in 1999. One of the worst-hit areas was the education sector which, in spite of the fact that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressly gives citizens the right to education, suffered from many more years of deliberate neglect.  This state of affairs was further compounded by inadequate or outright derelict attention to policy frameworks within the sector by those who are responsible for their execution.

    A conservative estimate rates the national literacy level at below 60 percent while over 50 percent of the teaching force is either unqualified or professionally- deficient in some of the areas of learning they are detailed to teach or supervise.  The provision and installation of basic infrastructure, equipment, teaching aids etc is either inadequate or palpably non-existent at all the levels of education within the country.

    To make matters worse, access to basic education is grossly hindered by gender issues and diverse socio-cultural beliefs, mores and practices among other issues. With an educational system that places premium on theoretical knowledge at the expense of technical, vocational and entrepreneurial education, there is an urgent need for a radical review of the intent and purpose of the present system of things to make the various school curricula relevant and practice –oriented. The education sector has the responsibility for producing and supplying the manpower required to propel, pursue, attain and sustain the critical goals of employment, wealth creation, poverty reduction and value reorientation.

    Conventional wisdom indicates that government (at whatever level) cannot, adequately, shoulder all the responsibilities and foot the bills alone in the provision of the education needs of the people without the active participation of the private sector and its citizens who can afford to do so. Globally, governments have begun to withdraw from its dominant role in the economy by privatising, liberalising and deregulating certain services – the education sector inclusive. Innovative schemes like Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT), Rehabilitate-Operate-Transfer (ROT) and other platforms of private sector engagement are being encouraged in the key areas of pre-school, kindergarten, nursery, primary, secondary and even tertiary education.

    In recent years, there have been a gradual paradigm shift from the old orientation of stifling bureaucratic control and checkmating; risk avoidance; personalising of governance through suffocating tax regimes and unproductive patronage, to a new era where some of the governments are now providing the enabling environment for private sector investment in education to thrive. Now, the private sector has become a pacesetter in providing qualitative education for the youths of this country. The establishment of good quality and adequately-staffed privately-owned educational institutions at all levels, have come to fill the yawning gaps in the provision of sustainable education in Nigeria, while achieving linkages between government-owned institutions and the private sector.

    Hitherto, there was this laid-back and laissez-faire attitude to investments in the development of education in Nigeria due to many factors.  Some of the factors included prohibitive legislations and bureaucracy; restrictive and cumbersome registration requirements and the belief that there was slow pace of returns on investment in the sector, as opposed to some others which yield profits without the strains, regulations and oversight associated with the education sector.

    Quite recently, Aduvie International School, an integrated educational institution in the Federal Capital Territory organised a launching and fund raising dinner during which speaker after speaker made references to the need for the private sector to help in the development of educational facilities in the country as a way of bridging the gap between educational institutions in Nigeria and their counterparts in other parts of the world.

    One major constraint militating against quality education in the country has been the high cost of doing business in Nigeria which include policy uncertainty; inadequate basic infrastructure; poor access to and high interest rates on take-off and working capital; stifling procedures and regulations and lack of relevant information on investment opportunities in the education sector. It is in this wise that many governments have liberalised the processes of setting up private educational institutions at all levels through the provision of vital enabling environment such as waivers; tax holidays; easy acquisition of land and Certificates of Occupancy; unencumbered access to finance at affordable interest rates; critical basic infrastructure like motorable roads; constant electricity supply; potable water supply; sector-friendly legislation etc.

    Over the last decade, governments have established effective and efficient monitoring systems of both public and private education institutions to enhance and ensure strict adherence to and compliance with global best practices and standards.  In addition to this, there have been attempts at the review of curricula needs of both public and privately-funded schools at all levels of education to enhance relevance while making them competency-based in line with global challenges and the needs of the job market.

    Another major role of private sector involvement in the development of education in Nigeria is that it is principally complementary to that of the various levels of government whose engagements in other critical areas of providing succour to its citizens place a lot of pressure on available resources. The intervention of the private sector in education development of Nigeria reduces, to a manageable level, the yoke or burden placed on financial out lay of the various governments who have hitherto been solely responsible for funding education, at all levels.

    As profit-oriented concerns, many private sector-led educational institutions tend to cut corners in the provision of advertised in-house edges which they claim to have over the competition. Reacting to this despicable practice that is very rampart within the sector, Professor Steve Azaiki, Chairman, Governing Board of Aduvie International School, opined that parents and guardians should be more diligent and discerning enough to do background checks on those privately-owned schools with claims to dubious and highfalutin “excellence” that are rather mirages and not verifiable.  In his words: “It is criminal for school proprietors or administrators to make dubious claims or trumpet achievements that are far from reality”.  He added that: “The relevant government organ and other sectoral agency with oversight functions over these institutions laying claims to non-verifiable achievements and facilities should sanction them and restore sanity and honour to this sector”.

    Professor Azaiki further explained that another reason for the involvement of the private sector in education development, at any level in Nigeria, is “to deploy scarce funds to provide those basic infrastructure; learning aids, tools and equipments; qualified and well-informed cadre of teachers and instructors in the privately-owned institutions at the service of the community in the areas of functional instruction methods and purpose-driven total education of the Nigerian child”.

     

    • Umar is an Abuja based Public Affairs Analyst.

  • Senate versus Tinubu

    The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Thursday, June 26, mandated its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate comments allegedly made by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) which was said to have disparaged members of the Senate. She was said to have accused leaders of the Senate of providing uninspiring leadership and always pandering to the whims and caprices of the executive arm of government. The committee, headed by Senator Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central) was given two weeks to conclude their assignment and report back to the Senate.

    Specifically, Mrs. Tinubu, the quiet and easy-going wife of the former governor of Lagos State Senator Bola Tinubu, a leader of the opposition All Progressive Congress (A.P.C) was accused of saying, “The Senate is not a place I really want to go back to except APC becomes the majority. But if it is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, I don’t think it is the environment I want to be again. I have had my fill”. She then allegedly said that the Senate had failed Nigerians.

    There have been insinuations that the swiftness with which the matter was tabled before the Senate by the Majority Leader Senator Ndoma-Egba a member of the PDP before the presiding officer, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu also of the (PDP) has a political coloration. It has been suggested by some women activists that the action is driven by male chauvinism. Others are of the view that the whole probe is targeted not at embarrassing Mrs. Tinubu herself, but her husband, a frontline leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu.

    This writer is not interested in the above insinuations but is greatly disturbed that  the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria sitting in Abuja which should be addressing serious national issues including the debilitating insurgency threatening to destroy the fabric of the Nigerian nation, crude oil theft, mass unemployment, kidnappings, armed robbery, crisis in the education sector to mention but a few, should busy itself with a comment made in faraway Lagos by a politician which should have attracted little or no attention if they were actually busy addressing critical  issues affecting the common man.

    In the first place, the probe is a gross violation of Mrs. Tinubu’s right to freedom of expression as enshrined in Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution. Section 39(1) provides, “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinion and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference”. The point to note here is that the constitution being the supreme law of the land is far and above any other law including the Rules of the Senate.

    Secondly, since the allegation against Mrs. Tinubu is coming from the Senate itself, is it right for the Senate to sit in trial against her? One of the cardinal rules of natural justice is expressed in the Latin Maxim “Nemo judex incausa sua”. In other words, one cannot be a judge in his own case. Here, apart from the constitutional violation of abridging Mrs. Tinubu’s right to freedom of expression, the Senate is the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge. It is doubtful if the committee can turn in a fair and impartial verdict under the circumstance.

    Further, the Senate should be aware that Nigerians have overtime been worried about the parliament, including the House of Representatives and how they have been using their time to serve Nigerians. Budgets have never been passed on time for several years. Important Bills like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) have been in limbo for many years without receiving due attention, while they focus on unimportant issues. It is like the proverbial adage of a man chasing rats while his house is on fire. A classical case of misplaced priority.

    Is it any wonder that there have been calls that the parliament should be made a part-time institution and that their salaries and emoluments should be slashed considerably relative to the national minimum wage? Some have even suggested that the number of the people in the parliament should be reduced or be made unicameral instead of bicameral to reduce wastages. In other words, many people do not think the parliament deserves the wages they earn due to this attitude to work and insensitivity to national issues.

    In the United States of America that practices the presidential system of government just like Nigeria, the issue of freedom of expression is taken so seriously that it is enshrined in their constitution. In the first Amendment to the Bills of Rights, it provides, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the exercise of speech or of the press or the right of the people to peaceable assembly and to petition the government for a relief of grievances”.

    In England, the Prime Minister normally comes under attack from the opposition whenever he makes his weekly appearance on the floor of the House of Commons. Just last week David Cameron was verbally attacked and heckled by the opposition members for hiring the jailed Editor of News of the World. The point here is that it serves no useful purpose to loose valuable man hours investigating a speech made by a member of the parliament, outside the parliament to her constituents when critical national issues are begging for urgent attention.

    Indeed, Mrs. Tinubu’s probe by the Senate is nothing more than what the English playwright; William Shakespeare would refer to as much ado about nothing. It is a storm in a tea cup and does not portray the Senate in good light.

    • Njoku is a Lawyer.

  • Reflections on Essays in Honour of Wole Soyinka at 80

    He cannot heap enough words of praise on Ivor Agyeman-Duah and Ogochukwu Promise for initiating Crucible of the Ages: Essays in Honor of Wole Soyinka at 80, and also for bringing the project to a successful completion. At a time when Africans worship the wrong gods, with deluded and demented congregations, who praise those who are neither historical figures nor human beings, these two co-editors have done what is both essential and right by honoring the right person and worshiping the right god! For it must be said that the gods that this new generation of Lilliputian Africans worship must be first and foremost, inhuman with profound capacity for callousness and emptiness; second, arrogant cannibals whose stomachs are never full yet forever constipated with greed and lucre; third, self-absorbed juveniles who validate the distasteful characterization of primitivism as depicted in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; and fourth, righteous Jezebels who give Satan (the devil himself) a good name in order to continue to idolize it. Shockingly, I have even come across praise for terrorists, cold-blooded and ruthless murderers, comrades of deceit, wolves in sheep’s clothing, infantile inventors of hoax literature, and intellectual lightweights and pirates who adorn their clumsy signatures with viperous abbreviated numerals and viperish alphabets. Another layer of generation that comes after us will as well see the imprint of these demonic hagiographers, yet we refrain from casting the first stones because we want to claim a higher moral ground.

    In over 200 pages, a variety of opinions, views, reflections and interpretations on the indomitable Wole Soyinka have been given by a cast of talents in diverse fields, from notable literary figures to credible politicians, both from the older as well as newer generation of men and women. There are even new poems that will lead to new essays, and new essays that will lead to new critical appraisals, and new appraisals that will generate new dialogue. I do not want, at least for now, to expand on these spaces of engagement on Soyinka, other than to add, inter alia, two additional paragraphs:

    One can hold the view that human beings are fundamentally evil, and that the best way to conquer them is to be fundamentally good. In Soyinka’s engagement with many African leaders, the reality that we are daily confronted with evil means that life, if we are overwhelmed by those characters, loses its meaning. To restore that meaning, I think that we have to be fundamentally so good that we purify ourselves of any evil thinking—it is the very purity of our own minds that sustains us and emboldens us to speak the truth. We can be angry at those men who have destroyed millions of men and women, but Soyinka refuses to translate that anger into that what can be defined as evil, as I sincerely believe that by doing so we complicate all lives, both innocent and non-innocent, making life itself irrelevant.

    Art, as we know, is life, and its essence must capture all that is good and not so good about life itself. The subject of this tome, Professor Wole Soyinka, is a spiritual wanderer in the land of the living as well as an expert hunter and of the ghosts. That wandering, on the one hand, does say that we are all products of history, whether we are proud of it or not. In this inter-subjectivity of being a “product,” the artist may be assumed to be offering subjective art and narratives. But that subjectivity can be representational of something fundamental as in the defense of poor people. Intellectual inquiries, even in the paradigm of autobiographical subjective narrative, can frame the objectivity of a place, a person, and, in the end, of a race. In Soyinka’s case, the subjectivity of the permanent state of transition from one chaos to the next becomes the art of liberation, manifested from one text to another.

    Life, when viewed objectively, is art, insofar as it has to be represented in content and form, in reality and drama, in words and body language. Even when the representation is fake, it speaks to that which is real.That, obviously, is why art converts us into dreamers, speculators, and interlocutors. We become migrants, even when we are fixated on a point or occupying an immoveable chair. We are converted into something, as while watching Soyinka’s drama, but that “something” in all its coloration and individualistic expression, is a form of mobility that is mental but also physical. We locate and relocate, mentally and emotionally, creating a spiritual restlessness.

    My own spiritual restlessness is to wander back to this book, as I read it for the purpose of this commentary. The co-editors are themselves distinguished. For example, Promise is an award-winning poet, a scholar, and a painter. Ivor is a famous writer, a cosmopolitan gentleman, and a consummate diplomat. The skills and competence of the two of them reflect clearly in their choice of authors and in their careful attention to detail. A tremendous accomplishment, the book provides an accessible set of ideas to understand Wole Soyinka, allowing a new generation of Africans that seek role models to reject the mythology that we are doomed to failure, the deepening counter-narrative of pessimists that we have no hope now and forever more.

    The celebration of Wole Soyinka at the ripe and seasoned age of 80 is much deserved. The unquestionable hero in the condemnation of the post-colonial state, sometimes as a lone ranger and other times as a member of the collective whole, is Wole Soyinka, who has been the continent’s foremost writer and critic for over half a century. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s title “The Conscience of Africa” for his piece in the book, captures a long history of battles. The most multitalented of them all, the preeminent public intellectual, all his writings, irrespective of the genre, carry a compelling universal message, applicable not only to Nigeria but to all countries where similar conditions exist. A crusader with uncommon skill and talent, his prolific energy has been used to oppose injustice, cruelty, and corruption. He can be emulated but not imitated, and this genius cannot be intimidated—not even by the most evil of rulers!

    This publication, in its totality, is a majestic master stroke, which has been nurtured to become a major scholarly enterprise, rather than merely an ordinary adulatory exercise. It illustrates in brilliant chapters the useful connections between art and politics, and between individuals and society. It is emblematic in showing how one person can be a force of change, putting literature and performance in the context of larger politics.

    Most certainly, the book is crackling great; a well-packaged agglomeration of views on a great man. It shows how a commitment to a just culture of politics can expose poor governance and political graft. We are not slaves of power, prisoners of crooks, passive victims of murderers, but agents of change. Full of positive words and passion, the arguments, built on elevated ground, are compelling in showing the relevance of intellectual work.

    Above all, this commemorative volume represents the struggle for our dignity, for the Africa we want, and for the type of person we want to become, both as individuals and, indeed, as a race. Celebrating Wole Soyinka through this serious publication is a most worthy undertaking, as it honours one of the intellectual giants, an octogenarian of stunning repute, who conducted the interception between the 20th and 21st centuries. This book, in the final analysis, is not just another literary festschrift but, most certainly, a notable testament in the annals of modern social and intellectual history! It is a publication that will certainly stand the test of time and human history for its subject— Professor Wole Soyinka— to be acclaimed forever more!

     

    • Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and Distinguished University Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

     

    • Prof. Osuntokun returns next week

  • Community and Consensus My hope for Anambra

    Anambra is a state that has produced great writers. If Chinua Achebe and Flora Nwapa and Chukwuemeka Ike had not written the books they did, when they did, and how they did, I would perhaps not have had the emotional courage to write my own books. Today I honour them and all the other writers who came before me. I stand respectfully in their shadow. I also stand with great pride in the shadow of so many other daughters and sons of Anambra State.

    But the truth is that I have not always been proud of Anambra. I was ashamed when Anambra became a metaphor for poor governance, when our political culture was about malevolent shrines and kidnappings and burnt buildings, when our teachers were forced to become petty traders and our school children stayed at home, when Anambra was in such disarray that one of the world’s greatest storytellers, Chinua Achebe, raised the proverbial alarm by rejecting a national award.

    But Anambra rallied. And, for me, that redemption, which is still an ongoing process, is personified in our former governor Peter Obi. I remember the first time I met him years ago, how struck I was, how impressed, that in a country noted for empty ostentation, our former governor travelled so simply and so noiselessly. And perhaps he is proof that you can in fact perform public service in Nigeria without destroying the eardrums of your fellow citizens and without scratching their cars with the whips of your escorts.

    I was struck by other things – how he once arrived early to church, because according to him, he tried not to be late – in a society that excuses late coming by public officials – because he wanted young people to see that governors came to church on time. How he visited one of the schools handed over to the missions and gave the school prefect his direct phone number. How Government House here in Awka was often empty of hangers-on, because he had a reputation for what our people call ‘being stingy,’ which in other parts of the world would be called ‘prudently refusing to waste the people’s resources.’

    Anambra was and is certainly one of the better-governed states in Nigeria. We measure good governance in terms of accountability, security, health, education, jobs, businesses. All of these, of course, are important. But there are other values that are important for a successful society. Two of those in particular are relevant to ndi Anambra and ndi Igbo in general: the values of community and consensus.

    Some years ago, I met an academic in the US. An Igbo man. He wrote articles about Igbo culture, organized conferences about Igbo history. We had an interesting conversation during which he bemoaned the behaviour of Igbo people in America.

    This condition is sadly not limited to the Diaspora. I once ran into a woman here in Nigeria, an old friend of my family’s, and her little son. I said kedu to the boy. His mother quickly said no, no, no, he doesn’t speak Igbo. He speaks only English.

    I deeply love both English and Igbo. English is the language of literature for me. But Igbo has a greater emotional weight. It is the enduring link to my past. It is the language in which my great grandmothers sang.

    Igbo is not perfect, no people have a perfect culture, but there are Igbo values that we can retrieve and renew. The values of community. Of consensus.

    Conscience and integrity are central to Igbo culture, and to any culture that has strong communitarian principles. Conscience means that we cannot think only of ourselves, that we think of a greater good, that we remain aware of ourselves as part of a larger whole.

    Some years ago, my cousin from Eziowelle told me a story that his grandfather had told him, about ISA ILE, where people in a dispute would go to a god and swear that they had not lied, with the understanding that whoever had lied would die. My cousin said, ‘thank God we no longer do that.’

    Have we become, I wondered, a people now overly familiar with falsehood? Are we now allergic to truth? Should we not continue to have a metaphorical isa ile as a guiding principle? Should we not have a society where wilfully telling lies that cause harm to others will have real consequences?

    The Igbo are famed for their entrepreneurial spirit. But at what point did we decide that we will no longer sell goods and services, but instead sell the safety of our sisters and brothers? How did we come to a place where people no longer sleep in their ancestral homes because they are afraid they will be kidnapped for ransom by their own relatives?

    Igboland was once a place where people were concerned about WHERE your money came from. Now that is no longer the case. Now, it matters only that one has money. As for where the money came from, we look away.

    In Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart, Unoka consults Agbala about his poor yam harvests.

    Every year, he said sadly (to the priestess), ‘before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to AnË, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed…’

    ‘Hold your peace!’ screamed the priestess, her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. ’You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.’

    So while we, ndi Anambra, till our fertile soil with strength, let us also be sure that we have not offended our fathers or our mothers. Let us retrieve and renew the values that once were ours. The values of conscience and integrity. Of community and consensus.

    Let us disagree and agree to disagree but let us do so NOT as separate fractious groups fighting against each other constantly, but as people who ultimately have the same goal: a better community for everyone, a better Anambra State.

    • Excerpts from speech delivered by Adichie during the celebration of Obiano’s first 100 days in office in Awka, Anambra State

  • Ekiti and Osun governorship elections

    From historical background of party politics in South-west, Ekiti and Osun states are progressives, from the days of the Action Group to the Unity Party of Nigeria under Chief Obafemi Awolowo when the entire old Western Region, consisting of the present Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Edo and Delta States, were no-go areas for the conservatives. This had been the case until money politics and rigging polluted the states’ political landscape. The then Alliance for Democracy (AD) had a firm control of the entire South West States until Olusegun Obasanjo cunningly came into the picture.

    As a Yoruba man and a compromise candidate to appease the Yoruba for the wrong done to the late M.K.O Abiola, Obasanjo sought and got the AD’s support in his re-election bid in 2003.  Obasanjo would later overrun the South as incumbent President by which he rigged out all the South West governors, with Asiwaju Tinubu of Lagos State as the only governor who survived what was then described as PDP’s TSUNAMI in the South West.

    Asiwaju had fought gallantly to retain his position as governor of Lagos State and, since then, there was no holding him back and his political party.  Today ACN, now APC, is in control of Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and Ogun States hitherto lost to the PDP during Obasanjo’s regime. The former two states were recovered from the PDP after their electoral victories at the Courts of Appeal in 2010 while the ACN went ahead to take over Ogun and Oyo from the PDP in 2011 at the polls. It is expected that, by its recapturing of its lost states the ACN, now APC, has taken permanent control of the South-west states, and Edo State to the bargain. It is under the above scenario that we expect good showings by Ekiti and Osun States at this year’s election.

    What is going on for Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State is the popularity of the APC against PDP which is very unpopular at home and abroad. So, Fayemi should cash on this to his advantage. His achievements as documented and reported in the news media showed clearly that he truly belongs to the league of APC’s performing governors who have endeared themselves to the people of their respective states. I believe it would be difficult to unseat any of these governors in their respective states, no matter the circumstances in which they find themselves in the hands of their political opponents. The defection of ex-governor, Segun Oni, from the PDP to APC, is a psychological boost to Fayemi’s electoral fortune. Above all, the PDP made a tactical error by using the police to disrupt and teargas a peaceful rally said to be part of APC’s “sensitization programmes” a day after the PDP held a campaign rally in the same city (The Nation, June 9, p.7). In civilized countries, such an act could draw sympathy for Fayemi and protest votes against the PDP’s candidate.

    However, one problem I foresee – and this is a serious problem – is the tripartite contest between three formidable candidates, each of them wanting to outdo the others at a keenly contested election. From the position of strength and incumbency, Fayemi is expected to have an edge at the polls, unless there are some hidden factors not known to outsiders. It is a pity that the togetherness of APC has been eroded by a faction of ACN/APC, now the LP, under Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB).

    What is going on for the State of Osun is also the popularity of the APC, but more especially the popularity of Aregbesola as a person. There is also no division within his party in the state. In spite of his shortcomings, like any human being, the people of Osun love him, even with passion, as they did his mentor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Like Awo, Aregbesola is bombarded everywhere he goes with shouts of  “Ogbeni” “Rauf” “Aregbe” or “Oranmiyan” (a Yoruba deity) as they shouted “Awo” for Chief Awolowo in the First and Second Republics. Like Kayode Fayemi, there is no governor anywhere who enjoys 100% support of the electorate. But it would be difficult for one to fathom the incredible popularity of Aregbesola in Osun State. In some places visited by the Awo Centre, people said his laudable achievements in the areas of education, health, roads and infrastructural development are there for all to see. This is apart from his charisma which they compare to that of Awo, and also to Asiwaju Tinubu when he was governor of Lagos State, and Babatunde Fashola, the current governor of the same Lagos State. Like in Ekiti State, the recent defection of the first civilian governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke from PDP to APC, is like scoring a vital and decisive goal that often seals victory for a winning football team.

    While the probability of winning the coming elections as incumbent governors is very high (other things being equal), there is still quite a lot to be done to avert possible electoral disasters on 21 June and August 9. The following are what should be done, and not done.

    • Do not underrate your opponent but try as much as possible to outsmart him.

    • Get as much information about the plans and activities of your opponent as much as possible.

    • Try to maximize your expected utility and minimize your loss under the uncertainty of the outcome of the election.

    • Think not of victory alone, but consider the possibility of losing, which is the thing that would spur you on to positive actions.

    • Watch the INEC officials for bad eggs.

    • Since late delivery of election materials to the polling centres is the beginning of rigging, insist and ensure that election materials get to the polling centres at 8am on the dot. Election materials could be delayed in particular areas which are your strongholds. Take note that delay in bringing election materials to these centres is a manifest disenfranchisement of the electorate and loss of votes to your disadvantage. This is rigging par excellence!

    • In cases where electoral materials are not brought in time, insist and ensure that the number of hours when the materials did not arrive must be added to the total number of hours allowed for the constitutional duration of the election. Under no circumstances should an election which is to last seven to eight hours be allowed to last for only four or five hours just because of delay in delivering the materials by colluding INEC officials. The remaining hour or hours must be accounted for, otherwise there would be crisis as electorate could go on violent protest against their disenfranchisement.

    We should learn a lesson from the notoriously flawed Anambra election where many electorates in Senator Ngige’s strongholds were disenfranchised through lateness in bringing the electoral materials to the polling centres. Above all, any possible avenue of rigging must be stopped while people must use electronic surveillance to record cases of rigging. Talk to yourselves, party agents and party supporters and the electorate that rigging of election is possible, but not easy, in a state where party and candidates for election are popular. Therefore, where a political party and its candidates are both popular, the combination of this is a sure guarantee for an electoral success. While we wish the APC in Ekiti and Osun states their much desired and deserved victories at the coming elections, we must ask for forgiveness of our sins and then pray that God would destabilize the evil machinations of election riggers so that the best candidates would win at free and fair elections come June 21 and August 9, respectively in Ekiti and Osun States. So help us  God!

    • Prof Makinde, FNAL is DG/CEO,  Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo.

  • Time for INEC to put its acts together

    There is no end in sight that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC will ever change its previous grandstanding that has brought the election body into disrepute. The article published by The Nation recently, written by Kayode Robert Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega may have put all the possibility of a contrite INEC to rest.

    The INEC chieftain, in his response to The Nation’s earlier editorial on the necessity of the usage of e-card reader in both Ekiti and Osun governorship elections strove valiantly to gain balance and sense perspective, presenting tantalising fables targeted at hypnotising unsuspecting voters that their votes will count.

    INEC under Prof Jega has proved utterly feckless and the electoral body itself disappointed the hopes of those who believe it will bring about ballot revolution. There is no doubt that lack of access to authenticated voters’ card impinges the civic right of the people. It creates the feelings of inequality, of social exclusion felt by majority of Nigerians who see themselves as nominally citizens.

    INEC’s refusal to deploy electronic card readers in the Ekiti and Osun is said to be basedon the lesson it said it learned from the Ghana’s election: “The wisdom of this incremental procedure should be obvious from lessons learnt from other countries; for instance, the 2012 general election in Ghana where challenges that arose from simultaneous introduction of voter smart cards and card readers compelled the country to shift voting in some areas to the following day before the election could be concluded. Experiences are meant to be learnt from, and one way of learning from experience is to redesign approaches towards the same objective.”

    While it is true that Ghana’s election did spill over the second day on account of double usage of both e-card readers and PVC, it was because Ghana’s Electoral Commission insisted that every single vote must count.

    One would have expected that Idowu would provide answer to the question raised in The Nation’s editorial: “how did unscrupulous persons get to register more than once?” His response is quite instructive: “They did so by going to different polling units in different geographical locations to register, for whatever political gains they had hoped to make; because no one could register twice on the same Direct Data Capture (DDC) machine given the software loaded on the machines by INEC. But the Commission has been able to check this abuse with the use of AFIS at the progressive levels of data consolidation and de-duplication. The Commission has the records of persons who engaged in the malfeasance and will prosecute as many as is possible within its limited capacity under the subsisting legal framework”, he said.

    That is part of the lies INEC has been wafting contemptuously on the faces of Nigerians as if we are still living in the Stone Age. The Commission can easily detect multiple registrants if the so-called Direct Data Capture, DDC is scientifically synchronised as we have it in the banking industry or any social media portals where double entries of the same names are rejected or revealed in whatever location one finds him/herself.  This shouldn’t be rock science for INEC owing to the huge allocation the commission has received from the treasury.

    Idowu made further caricature of the commission when he wrote: “For avoidance of doubt, cases of multiple registrations have been eliminated from the register, with only one instance retained for the culprits so that they are not completely denied the opportunity to vote. But they are ripe candidates for prosecution; and they would have only themselves to blame if they show up at polling units where the duplicates have been eliminated, because they will not find their names in those polling units. The painstaking processing of the registration data by INEC is what assures the integrity of the current National Register of Voters and makes it among the best that could be found anywhere on the African continent”.

    The question is, why wait for vote manipulators to appear at polling units on election day before they are apprehended, given the chaotic scenes such occurrence have created in the past? This strategy gives room for possible disruption of otherwise peaceful polling units when notorious electoral robbers storm such area with the intention to criminally vote multiple times only to find that their names were not on the voters’ list. It is then a case of the “thief calling the farm owner a thief”.

    To further demonstrate the ignorance of the commission, Idowu asserted that multiple registrations that had not been eliminated as at the time the 2011 elections were conducted did not necessarily translate to multiple voting, given the Re-modified Open Ballot System (REMOBS) procedure that was adopted for the elections. If you had to queue up in one particular polling unit at a particular time simultaneously with every other voter across the country, you could not have gone around to other polling units and profit from your malfeasance even if you registered more than once.”

    Any fourth grader would acknowledge that we are in for serious crisis if INEC’s thought process, as exhibited by Idowu, is all we can get. It shows that the commission is unaware that more than three or four polling units are concentrated in one polling centre. Aside that, INEC is not also conscious of communities where polling units open for voting between the hours of eight in the morning and close at 4pm and polling officials had to practically wait for more voters to show up and vote. INEC is not likely to know that their officials share the remaining ballot papers to polling agents of various political parties – this is where manipulations occur – to tally with the numbers of registrants in the units and wards levels.

    Nigerians are not unmindful of the fact that political institutions evolve, often very slowly and painfully, over time, as human society strives to organise themselves to master their communities. We are obeying animals by nature; born to conform to the social orders we see around us, and entrench those rules with often transcendent meaning and value. Once the environment changes and new challenges arise, there is usually a disjunction between existing institutions and the immediate needs. But these institutions are negatively supported by legions of entrenched stakeholders who oppose any fundamental change.

    Francis Fukuyama pointed out the foreboding omen in his all time The Origins of Political Order: from Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, “that political decay takes root when political systems fail to adjust to changing circumstances while pretentiously resorting to a host of short-terms fixes that erode and eventually corrupt the entire institution.”

    As far as I am concerned, there is in fact a curious blindness to the importance of electoral institution-building that has dampened justice governance in Nigeria.

    Yes, impulses, vigorous native intelligence, the spontaneous wisdom of INEC are important components of a working democracy, but none can ultimately replace the functions of a strong, reformed institution. There has to be a broad recognition that institutions matter and that poor countries are poor not because they lack resources, but because they lack effective political institutions.

    The long sedated Aso Rock tenant will not be obligated about the “unwarranted” need to transform INEC, since many an authoritarian government had no interest in reforming democratic institutions that would dilute or throw them out of power. But the danger in it is that INEC situation may continue to grow worse over time and will someday give room to powerful force that will knock the system off its current dysfunctional institutional equilibrium.

    • Ikhide wrote in from Lagos.

  • Case for cement standardisation

    While the incidence of building collapses increases, same set of manufacturers and experts come up with new themes on how to explain away the shortcomings of the building sector. They bring up new ways to curb these incidences, organize seminars to sensitize the general public, blame substandard and shoddy planning, absolves the sector of blame (shifting it to a few bad, unregistered eggs) while, as usual in Nigeria, we move on and several more buildings join the queue. Maybe it is a conspiracy; maybe not!

    Without mincing words, the standards we have come to assume for buildings have come from proselytized views milking our ignorance. For someone like me who have never taken the ‘cement talk’ very serious except for the price conspiracy, it is important to share my newfound understanding. To some, it will be elucidative while to others – who understand a thing or two about it – it will support whatever knowledge they already have. Let’s shoot!

    What exactly is Cement? “Cement is a fine, gray powder which sets after a few hours when mixed with water, and then hardens in a few days into a solid, strong material.” Cement is made from the mixture of heated limestone, sand, clay and/or shale. Its usage as the major component in constructions means it has to be subjected to strict standards with each individual type/grade used according to the prescribed standards.

    There are several types of cements with needs dictating their usage for specific purposes. Ultratech Concrete lists the types  of cement as Ordinary Portland Cement 32.5, 42.53, 52.5 grade (OPC); 53-S (Sleeper Cement); Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), both Fly Ash and Calcined Clay based; Rapid Hardening Portland Cement; Portland Slag Cement (PSC); Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement (SRC); Low Heat Portland Cement; and Hydrophobic Cement.

    Here, we are majorly concerned with the OPC and its three main grades namely 32.5, 42.5 and 52.5 as they are mostly used in construction. It is important to note that one cannot say a certain grade or type of cement is the best because usage, construction environment, construction method, nature of work to be done etc. dictate the best type of cement to be used in constructions. Each type of cement has to be chosen based on usage.

    The 32.5 grade OPC is suitable for general concrete works, block making and plastering where the structures are not taken to very high stresses. According to GharExpert, “It is not suitable where ‘Sulphate’ is in the soil or in the ground water”. 42.5 grade OPC on the other hand is notably “used in general civil engineering construction work i.e. brick masonry, plastering, pointing, flooring and in RCC Work”. 52.5 is used where high early strength in the first 28 days is required and it is basically utilized by builders of heavy infrastructure such as bridges, fly overs, large span structures and high rise structures where such structures take on high tensile strength.

    There has been a raging storm in the country recently due to the request by professionals for Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) to standardize the cement market. Cement is not cement as we were made to believe. There are instances where 32.5 grade OPC (that several professionals are bandying against) is the best; there are also situations where cement much lower in strength than 32.5 grade OPC is advised. Such examples are majorly in non-structural usage like masonry and plastering mortals.

    The unique Nigerian terrain also ought to be considered. Here is where I identify with and accept these clamours. In a country where adherence to standardization is not a common language, where professionals and hired supervisors cut corners to maximize profit, it is important to have minimum cement grade strength. With all the seminars and sensitization campaigns that have gone into this exercise in the past, the result of such aggressive campaigns have not been seen as most building engineers resort to the cheapest grade in the market for building projects they are not suitable for.

    The Nigerian businessman is profit oriented. Profit is his first worry and as such, having two minimum grade strength of cement encourages him to prioritize profit by plucking for the cheapest which in most cases is ill-suitable for the construction he intends to embark on. Here is where SON’s 42.5 grade OPC standard makes the most sense. As we can see in the different usages highlighted earlier on, the 42.5 grade can effectively substitute in most cases where we may require the 32.5 grade.

    As a template in the Nigeria terrain, policies are not what we lack but the required will to effectively make these policies work. How do we enforce the 42.5 grade strength when all the needs of standardization have been taken care of? Who enforces standardization in manufacturing plants? Who supervises building constructions to ensure that the policy on right grades are adhered to (test case is our aviation industry where we still struggle with enforcement)? Are there plans to involve insurance companies (to request for all standardization documents before insuring a building)? Should we be afraid that it would go the way of everything else in Nigeria, where with enough cash; you get all required documents irrespective of adherence to laid down rules or policy thrust?

    We should all understand that cement standardization is the first step in a long list of procedures aimed at stopping the incidences of building collapses that must be taken serious. The government shouldn’t go to sleep thinking the job is done with standardization as the real war on misapplication of standards starts then. The public must be effectively enlightened on the new standards; made to understand that this policy is about safeguarding their lives and properties and as such must buy wholly into it.

    Remember that in building and construction, it is SAFETY FIRST! All other considerations follow.

     

    • Olajiga lives in Lagos.
  • NBC: The need to be vigilant

    NBC: The need to be vigilant

    Nigerians tend to think certain things cannot happen in their country. Until two years ago, when suicide bombing was premiered in Abuja, precisely at the headquarters of the Nigeria Police, it was widely assumed that no Nigerian, given our fun-loving disposition, would consider killing himself in a bid to kill others. We are wiser now.

    We still need to be a lot more, as there are some other things, while not here yet, that may take root here. One of such is pornography- delivered to us at home via pay-television. For now, it seems far-fetched. Soon, it may creep in on us. Why do i think so? Well, I recently returned from South Africa, where the decision of the country’s broadcasting regulator,  the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), to licence pornographic channels is causing massive public resentment.

    On Digital Media (ODM) is on StarSat’s pay-television platform (backed by the Chinese-owned StarTimes) in South Africa.

    Last November, ODM started broadcasting two pornographic TV channels – Private Spice and Playboy TV – in a separate StarSat sex TV package. This was shortly after being granted a licence by the South African broadcasting regulator. It is widely believed in South Africa that pornography was added to the viewing menu in a desperate bid to shore up flagging subscriber figures. Subscriber figures for the four-year old South African pay-TV operator, currently in business rescue, have dipped to between 100 000 and 120 000 from 150 000 a few years ago.

    The newest face of the opposition to

    the porn broadcast is the group, Doctors for Life, which represents 1, 400 doctors. The non-governmental body has filed an application at the High Court in Pretoria, the country’s capital, seeking a revocation of the broadcast licence. Its application has since been joined to the applications of the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA) and the Cause for Justice organisations, which submitted separate applications in the Western Cape High Court.

    JASA and Cause for Justice contend that South Africa’s broadcasting regulator,  which initially rejected ODM’s porn channels application before approving it a year later, acted illegally in its failure to consider that the constitutional rights of children outweigh the rights of StarSat’s freedom of expression.

    In its application, Doctors for Life, contends among other things, that pornography is addictive and has the potential to be harmful to the human brain in ways similar to those of substances like heroin, cocaine and LSD. Doctors for Life appear to have based its position on a recent study by German psychiatrists, which suggest that watching pornography may result in reduction in the activity of certain areas of the brain.

    The study discovered that men who watch a lot of pornography tend to have less gray matter volume as well as less activity in the region of the brain linked to rewards.

    The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, which analysed a relatively small sample, but offers the first evidence that could lead to the establishment of a link between exposure to pornography and brain size.

    Authors of the study questioned 64 healthy men aged 21 to 45 about their porn watching habits. They also examined how their brains reacted to pornographic images and took images of their brains in order to measure volume.

    The results show that the brain region activated when people view sexual stimuli is less active in men who watch a lot of pornography. It also shows the part of the brain associated with processing rewards is smaller in men who view pornography more often.

    JASA’s application requests the court to review the broadcasting regulator’s decision in granting a licence for porn television channels to StarSat, formerly the TopTV brand, and for ICASA to ensure a correct application of the law and broadcasting regulations.

    The current wave of anger is a continuation of what began last year, when ODM (operating as TopTV) was licensed to broadcast three adult content channels—Playboy TV, Desire TV, and Private Spice in South Africa. Late last year, ODM’s shareholders voted to accept the business rescue plan offered by StarTimes, following a slump in fortunes.

    The rescue plan was, however, immediately hit by a gust of public disapproval, chiefly from South African religious organisations, which argued that the pornographic channels could expose youngsters to explicit materials and could breed a society of perverts and increase sexually related crimes.

    South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council, MJC, which described ICASA’s decision to grant licence for pornographic broadcast as as “inconsistent”. Nabeweya Mallick, spokesperson for the MJC, said the council was “disappointed,” at ICASA’s insensitivity to the rights of tastes of religious and race groups and cultures.

    ”We feel they have really failed the standards set by ICASA. If one is sensitive to the rights of these groups… what about the rights of women?” she questioned.

    South Africa’s Family Policy Institute, FPI, also railed against the channels and supported calls for a boycott. Its spokesperson, Errol Naidoo, said the channels stand to increase the rate of gender abuse in a country that already has one of the highest rates of sexual violence against women and children.

    ICASA argued that there is no law of general application prohibiting the production and distribution of adult content in South Africa. “Only the production and distribution of child pornography is expressly prohibited by the law,” it argued.

    Offering largely unfettered access to pornography in a country with a high incidence of gender abuse is sure to be an invitation to chaos.

    Is there a chance that Nigeria may one day have to face this kind of problem? I guess most Nigerians would answer in the negative-as we did before bombings and kidnapping got woven into our social fabric.

    Rape of minors has already become a problem here. So is that of adults, including women in their 70s. StarTimes operate here. While the Chinese company has not suggested it may serve us pornography (in fact, it categorically told a newspaper last year that it has no such plans), we need to keep an eye on it and other pay-TV operators so that they don’t damage the minds of our children. The National Broadcasting Commission needs to follow what happens in other lands and ensure nothing is sneaked in.

    Kwabeh, a statistician, lives in Abuja