The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Child marriage gone awry

    Those who revel in forced marriages to juveniles must be shocked to the marrows by recent events in Kano where a child-bride, Wasila Umar allegedly poisoned her husband and three others in protest against the union. Reports had it that Wasila 14, who had just been forced into a marriage 17 days earlier opted to poison her husband Umar Sani to register her disapproval for the marriage.

    According to the child-bride, on that fateful day, the senior wife had prepared the meal and passed over to her as it was her turn to serve her husband in keeping with the polygamous family tradition. Instead of serving the meal as it was presented by the senior wife, she rather bought rat poison for N100 and mixed it with the local delicacy. Even the return of her husband with some of his friends could not persuade her to abort that deadly plan as she went ahead and served them the poisonous meal.

    Umar and three of his friends died on the spot after the meal while 10 others who partook of the meal were hospitalized. Recounting what led her to the devilish act, Wasila said “I have never enjoyed the opportunity of going to Islamic school or acquiring western education. My father forced me into this mess by stubbornly forcing me into a relationship I was not prepared to live in”. Blaming her action on youthful exuberance, she said it dawned on her shortly after, that it was a joke taken too far to resolve a forced marriage question.

    The child-bride, who said she felt normal and slept after the incident, confessed that the gravity of the offence dawned on her only after she was picked up by the police and promised to rededicate her life in seeking Allah’s forgiveness.

    A very chilling and heart-rending story indeed! It is very puzzling that a girl of that age could contemplate killing for whatever reason. But that is the uncanny reality that has played out in the instant case. As condemnable and indefensible as Wasila’s action is, it has brought to the fore the inherent contradictions in forced marriages especially those involving the underage.

    It is obvious from the account of the suspect that she embarked or her mortal mission without realizing the overall consequences of her action. Or how else do we rationalize the fact that even after administering the poisonous meal, the young girl still went to bed and slept very normally. The same reason accounted for why she did not discontinue the evil plan when it dawned on her that rather than her target husband, other innocent people were going to suffer from her action?

    Perhaps, had she the maturity of mind, she would have come to terms with the futility in going ahead with her plan now that some other people were going to take the poisoned meal. But that was not to be. She went ahead, served the meal and went to bed as if nothing had happened. We are now left with the unfortunate situation where apart from her husband, three others died while 10 were hospitalized from her act of indiscretion.

    What can be discerned from the above narrative is that Wasila was desperate to do away with the marriage irrespective of its mortal consequences. So if it took getting rid of her husband and any other who constitute an obstacle to the plan, so be it. That was why she went ahead with the plan despite the fact that some other innocent souls will die in the process. That is the bestial level some juveniles can go to show their resentment for being forced into early marriages. There are hard lessons from the above even as despicable and inhuman as the action is.

    Wasila has been charged to court where she pleaded not guilty. She may at the end of the day be convicted for the offence. But the reality of this case must draw our attention to the inherent dangers in forced or child marriages.

    By no means, child marriages are not peculiar to Nigeria as UNICEF rates it a global phenomenon. By the accounts of the Fund, about one third of women aged 20-24 in developing countries were married as children. Most of this people are in south-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Child marriage is a serious human rights and pressing global development concern.

    It is largely associated with high incidence of domestic violence and serious health complications arising from early sexual activities and child bearing.

    Many countries of the world have laws and other civil society incentives to delay early marriages. It is also very instructive that those countries where child marriages are the order of the day rank very low in the development matrix.

    Child marriages are more prevalent in societies with high level of poverty. That is why Asian and African countries rank very high in this index. Even within a country, the practice varies from one place to the other. In Nigeria where Wasila comes from, the north is more prone to this practice than the south. And the reason for this can be located in their culture, belief systems and religion. Northern elite have for the umpteenth time told who cares to hear that much of the socio-economic and political problems in that part of the country stem from debilitating poverty. The current insecurity in the north-east has been rationalized along the same lines. That has been the main reason the federal government has been encouraged by the northern elite to engage the insurgents. The whole idea is for the government to identify those objective conditions that give rise to violence and address them. In effect, they are saying that military force alone without addressing the material conditions of the people cannot prove a successful therapy to insurgency. And there is some point there.

    It is a trite statement to say that there is ravaging poverty in the north. It is for the same reason that a high percentage of children of school age there are out of school. Child marriage thrives abundantly within such settings. And as can be seen from the case in point, part of Wasila’s anger was that her father neither sent her to Islamic school nor exposed her to western education. What she got instead was a forced marriage to a man she did not like.

    Her protest against that union is the deaths we have now harvested. This writer condoles with the families of those who died from the unfortunate incident. My sympathy also goes for the 10 others who survived the food poison. The action of the young girl stands to be condemned in very strong terms as it shows scant regard for the sanctity of human life.

    But even as we condemn the action, society would have gained nothing if we do not internalize the lessons this tragedy serves humanity. It is a hard way of drawing attention of governments especially in the north to the debilitating poverty and attendant practices in that region that accentuate forced marriages of juveniles. Wasila’s case has shown that child marriage has become a time bomb. What it requires are proactive policies and programs that discourage the kind of circumstance that put Wasila into her current pass.

  • Who saw Jesus rise?

    Since the days of the Pharisees, so many have not been so comfortable with accepting the fact that Jesus Christ is divine. In fact, the controversy over Jesus’ divinity started right within the Jewish community of Jesus’ time. The Pharisees did not find it funny that the little son of a poor carpenter, whose descent was well known by his kinsmen, would all of a sudden be called a Messiah come from heaven, the liberator of Israel. Within the framework of the Messianic expectations of their time, the assumptions of Jesus Christ that He had come from heaven was at best annoying to every average Jew. In the first three centuries of the Church, the controversy regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ rocked the Church like a ravaging tornado. In the modern and contemporary era, there have also been several attempts, especially among the modernists and the secularist humanists, to deny the divinity of Christ at all levels, as well as extinguish the mystery of religion in modernity.

    Most times, whenever the divinity of Christ is attacked, the resurrection is always an interest zone. As many as there are who deny the divinity of Christ, so also are there millions who do not find any reason to believe that after three days, an already dead Christ rose from the dead, without any devious aid. So many scholars provide many arguments to buttress the point that Christ did not actually rise. I have once read a book in which the author in analysing the events of the passion peddled the thesis that everything that happened during the drama of the passion of Christ aided Christ’s possible release or escape. According to him, the knees of Christ were not broken like that of other thieves and, as if that was not enough, He was buried in another person’s tomb. Some few years ago, a group of some modernist archaeologists in Italy claimed (although falsely) that they had found the tomb of Jesus Christ and had in fact unearthed some of Jesus’ skeletal remains. If that were to be true, then the resurrection would have been proven to be a farce. And, the truth is this – destroy the resurrection, then everything goes down, including Christianity. And this explains why it is under attack. The mystery of the resurrection remains a very strong foundation upon which the Catholic Church (and indeed, modern Christianity) is built. In the face of all these rationalistic attacks, the question that remains to be answered therefore is “why does the Church insist that Christ rose from the dead on the third day.” Who saw Him rise? Can the Church be emphatic about her claims regarding the resurrection?

    Yes, the Church is certain that Christ rose from the dead. No wonder she has continued to teach this to her children across the centuries. The Church has received her motif for the belief in the resurrection from what God has revealed of Himself (especially of His death and resurrection) in the Sacred Scriptures. There are around four major areas from which the Church has drawn her motif for the belief in the mystery of the resurrection.

    The first is known as the “pre-resurrection predictions.” Before the death of Christ, Jesus Christ told his apostles many times that He would be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and that He will be killed and buried, and that on the third day, He would rise from the dead. The Christology of the Gospel of Mark brings this out very clearly at the climactic point of that Gospel.

    There is a second motif for belief in the resurrection – the evidence of the empty tomb. All the synoptic Gospels are in agreement with the Gospel of John that on the third day being the Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb (as she had been doing since Christ’s burial) but could no longer find the body of Christ. In the first case, the stone used to close the tomb was rolled out; the clothes used to wrap His sacred body were separated apart, no longer cladding the body. Matthew, Mark and Luke record also of the presence of the angels wearing white robes at the tomb explaining to Mary Magdalene who was in a confused state the implications of what she had seen at the tomb: He is no longer among the dead, He had risen; He is alive! So many things have been said about the absence of Jesus’ body in the tomb that early Sunday morning, apart from the thesis of the Church over the years. Starting with the Jews, and even up till today, there are still so many who still believe that the body of Christ was stolen by His disciples after the burial. But there are also many arguments proving this to be false. One must remember that due to the fact that Jesus predicted His resurrection, the news went round among the Jews that He said He would rise. As a result of this rumour, after the burial of Jesus, Jewish soldiers were placed to guard the tomb to prevent any of the apostles from coming close. The question is: how come they came and stole Christ away without being caught? It must even be remembered that by this time, the apostles had dispersed out of fear in hiding. How come those who had no courage to defend their master alive now summon so much courage to defend His body after His burial? But the truth of the matter is that the presence of the soldiers at the tomb further enhances the mystery of the resurrection. All physical powers could not stop the power of the Spirit with which Christ rose. No human power could stop the resurrection.

    There is also a third motif for the belief in the resurrection. If the conviction of the Church stopped merely with the evidence of the empty tomb and nothing was heard again about Christ thereafter, the resurrection may have been defended with lesser vehemence. But there is also the evidence of “post-resurrection appearances.” Speaking about Christ, the Acts of the Apostles (1:3) intimates us that ‘for 40 days after His death, He appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that He was alive.’ After the resurrection, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, many times to the apostles, including the appearance at Lake Tiberias and to the two disciples travelling with disbelief to Emmaus in Luke 24. He ate with them and He allowed Thomas touch His wounds (which He retained in His transfigured body as tokens of His triumph over death). He was in fact with them until the day of His ascension. The apostles saw all these and believed. They were eyewitnesses and this could explain the way they spread the Good News with conviction and were able to give their lives to be killed for the sake of the Gospel. The post-resurrection appearances confirm the Church’s belief in the resurrection.

    Lastly, the presence of Christ in the Church is the final motif the Church has for her belief in the mystery of the resurrection. In Luke 24, Christ appeared to the disciples going to Emmaus and disappeared when they recognised Him at the breaking of the bread. After the Pentecost in Acts 2, the presence of Christ amongst the Church manifested itself in the different miracles which He performed in the midst and with His community. This started with the healing of the lame man by Peter at the gate of the temple, at Joppa and the great work at the house of Cornelius, and the works done by God through Paul. Christ was alive in the New Testament Church and in fact fed them with His own body. The living presence of Christ in the Church continues to be the source and centre of the Church’s vitality and ministry.

    • Uche writes from Surulere, Lagos.

  • Rebasing highlights Nigeria’s inequalities

    Some time around the time of independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria began to be referred to as the Giant of Africa, a promise that soon fizzled out in the wake of a civil war and a succession of military dictatorships.

    Today Nigeria is once more hailing itself the continent’s new colossus. An update of its gross domestic product estimates places it as Africa’s biggest economy, overtaking Johnny-come-lately giant South Africa. The country has become a favourite among international investors including Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, and Atlas Mara, a venture of former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond.

    Much attention has been paid to the restructuring of the national economy revealed when the government nearly doubled estimates for GDP. The services sector is now thought to contribute half of GDP while agriculture and oil and gas have fallen significantly. Nollywood, the homegrown film industry, has finally been officially acknowledged. Manufacturing has also increased.

    But this is only part of the story. Differences in poverty and unemployment rates across the country’s 36 states are remarkable. Ninety per cent of the total value of cash transactions in Nigeria are accounted for by only seven states, according to the central bank. Ali Mohammed Pate, a former health minister, points out that there is a 14-year gap between life expectancy across the country’s states. Average poverty rates range from 30 per cent in the wealthier south west, where cities such as Lagos are located, to 60 per cent in the impoverished north east.

    When the rebasing is interpreted on a state-by-state basis, the disturbing gap between the country’s frontline states and its laggards – of which there are several – will become even more stark.

    Consider Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest state economy and the hub of the banking and telecommunications industries, home to the country’s biggest port complex, and also its most populated state. Renaissance Capital, the investment bank, estimated that it contributed about 12 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP between 2009 and 2011. That statistic may have changed as a result of the rebasing exercise. But if not, it implies that the Lagos economy is worth $61bn. That is one-and-half times Kenya’s output, and larger than all but a handful of African countries.

    In Kano, the commercial hub of northern Nigeria built around agriculture and manufacturing, rebasing indicates that the state economy rivals Ghana’s. This might make investors rethink the widespread view of the north as nothing more than a benighted haven for the Islamist terrorists of Boko Haram, blamed for this week’s deadly bomb attack in Abuja and the kidnap of more than 100 girls from a school in Borno state.

    But securing a perch as Africa’s largest economy means little to the tens of millions struggling with routine power cuts, recurring fuel shortages, persistent unemployment, and rising inequality. The country’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, rose from 0.429 in 2004 to 0.447 in 2010. In GDP terms Nigeria may have shoved South Africa to second place, but the real achievement will lie in jumping up 32 places needed to meet South Africa on the UN Human Development Index.

    The new GDP figures shine a spotlight on the alarming gap between Nigeria’s potential and its reality. It is, for example, a glaring anomaly that the world’s 26th largest economy has one of the lowest levels of electricity consumption per capita, well below the African average, and occupies 147th position on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index for 2014 – nine spots down from 2013. The percentage of the total population living below the poverty line is far higher than in the major emerging economies. Fewer than 10 per cent of Nigerians have any form of health insurance.

    Nigeria needs to focus less on economic abstractions and more on improving the lives of ordinary citizens. Even if government claims that 1.6m jobs were created last year prove accurate – youth groups are not convinced, and are demanding evidence – this would hardly make a dent on an unemployment rate approaching 24 per cent. Forty thousand households can now claim conditional cash benefits, but this too is a drop in the ocean.

    If Nigeria is to become a real economic giant, it needs to stand on its own two feet. At the moment, this colossus is shuffling along on feet of clay.

     

    • The writer, a Lagos-based journalist contributed the piece to The Financial Times

  • APC: The Buhari challenge

    Iran into a friend at the 75th birthday reception of Chief Bisi Akande, the interim National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Eko Expo Centre a few months back. Knowing how my friend is intricately connected to the country’s political power grid both in the past and present on either side of the ideological divide – if ideology is not an oxymoron in the nation’s body politic – I quickly engaged him in a political discourse during the munching period. As someone always on the move around the world and not knowing when I would run into him again, I had to quickly pick his brain as I asked him, among other things, how APC will keep the political ‘rock stars’ in its fold from violently colliding with themselves in their efforts to become the party’s presidential flag-bearer in order to prevent a rupture in the party. I also asked him in whose direction he thought the pendulum for the president will likely swing among the key political actors in the party.

    “It’s going to be Buhari’, he deadpanned.

    The formation of a political organization, or any human organization for that matter, is to advance either some identifiable monolithic interests or to bring into fruition a multiplicity of disparate interests under an organizational umbrella. ThereforeAPC cannot be any short of a gathering of people seeking political power of various kinds in which there is bound to be different groupings with similar interests, jockeying for political advantage against other groups whose interests seems dissimilar and vice-versa.

    Although he has not made his intention publicly known as to whether or not he will vie for the country’s Number One seat, General Mohammed Buhari has become such an enigma that has since metamorphosed into a cult personage so enthralling that his decision to or not to run in 2015 is bound to have some ripple effects not only on APC but the polity itself. As a result of this image that the General has carved for himself – wittingly or unwittingly – his decision either way will most definitely arouse a significant amount of intensity from just about all strata of society.

    With Buhari joining the presidential fray in 2015, being indifferent or non-committal by Nigerians will no longer be an option or a luxury. But whether this will bode good or ill for our democratic experience will remain to be seen. While ordinary Nigerians with good grasp of the ills of the society but knows who among the present top echelon of the political class they think would likely make a big difference would be greatly agitated if Buhari is unable to get the presidential ticket, Nigeria’s small but very lethal economic and political elites would no doubt heave a huge sigh of relief if Buhari decide to take a pass in 2015. To them, preventing Buhari from becoming the country’s chief of state once again is the beginning of their financial wisdom.

    While the people should not expect General Mohammed Buhari to be that messianic democrat they’ve been waiting for (if elected) given his military antecedents, the institutions and laws that are necessary for nurturing democratic ethos in the citizenry –the political class inclusive – has been missing for far too long, and General Buhari cannot be an exception to this fact. But Buhari can make up for this democratic deficit by the party’s insistence that he’s surrounded by avidly democratic ‘Young Turks’ to guide him about those little but extremely important nuances of democracy that he may consider to be irritants due to his military background. One must, however, also be cognizant of the fact that Nigeria is most definitely on the brink. Either because of the happy-go-lucky nature of the people or the crass incompetence of the leadership almost since independence, the country is structurally weak and morally depraved that she needs someone who stands relatively morally a shoulder above the rest of the political class who can pull her away from the precipice. General Buhari fits this bill.

    That corruption is now believed to be the single most important problem capable of ultimately destroying the country if not checked on time in a country in which her people hardly agree on anything except their national football team, the opposition All Progressives Party (APC) presidential flag-bearer must be seen by the generality of Nigerians as having the moral authority to wrestle with this hydra-headed monster that they’ve concluded that President Jonathan is unwilling to address, let alone effectively tackle. Aside from corruption, institution-building is another critical element that nations that are placed on sound socio-economic and political pedestal has also been drumming into our ears that we also need if we desire a sustainable society.

    So, since it’s almost a foregone conclusion that President Jonathan – who has demonstrated that he would rather not be bothered with corruption, let alone building institutions – will run for re-election, APC, as part of its winning formula may have to settle for Buhari as its presidential candidate. As a known quantity in the north, most specifically in the North-east and North-west geo-political zones where the votes will probably decide who wins the presidential election (barring rigging from the ruling party), Buhari’s candidacy will probably make much sense for the APC and voters more likely to see that the party is serious about stabilizing the drifting ship of state with his candidacy.

    Even if it wins the presidential election, APC should be under no illusion that the battle has been won as the real test of the ‘new leadership’ then will be how intelligently corruption is being fought. In order not to get too bogged down thereby becoming lethargic within a short period, the ‘new leadership’ may first have to stabilize the country’s runaway corruption by putting it on a leash. This it can do by compartmentalizing this social behemoth into what can be termed the ‘old’ and ‘new’ corruption. A “carrot approach” may first have to be deployed for those villains of the ‘old corruption’ to encourage them to voluntarily relinquish their loots to the state for job creation and other developmental agendas, while stringent laws are being put in place, existing institutions strengthened and new ones created to handle them (if they refused) and those that falls into the ‘new corruption’ category. It means that the four years of the APC government will be a period of legislative renaissance for a ‘New Nigeria’ with radical overhauling of existing laws and reforming the judiciary. Therefore aspirants to the National Assembly in 2015 without sound minds may not contest.

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com.

  • Orji Kalu’s endorsement of Aregbesola

    Reports filtered through a few days ago in all the major newspapers across the country that former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu broke with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to endorse Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of State of Osun for a second term in office. Kalu is a respected political actor who served two terms as Abia governor between 1999 and 2007.

    His visit to State of Osun coincided with two major political events in the state.

    First, it was the day his political party, the PDP, conducted primary election for its governorship aspirants in the state: namely, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi a former Minister of Youth Development and Honourable Wole Oke former chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Defence. Earlier, Senator Adeleke, the first governor of Osun had withdrawn from the race with a proviso: “I don’t want the blood of my political supporters to be shared because of my governorship ambition.”

    The Senator alleged that he and his supporters were thoroughly beaten by the thugs of Senator Omisore and those of the Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan. “There is a likelihood of a breakdown of law and order if I participate in the primary election. Therefore, I am announcing that I will boycott tomorrow’s primary. Why should I allow somebody possessed by the devil to waste the lives of our people because I want to be a governor?

    “A minister has continued to threaten that he would waste so many lives in the primary. I am boycotting the primary; I will participate when our party decides to conduct a free, fair and violence-free primary. But I will work for the success of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.” Senator Isiaka Adeleke has a reason to be circumspect for not letting down his guides.

    The PDP candidate in Osun, Omisore has yet to explain satisfactorily to the people of Osun state and Nigerians at large, his alleged involvement in the murder of Chief Bola Ige, then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. If he did, it’s likely that Nigerians are not satisfied with his explanations, even though he has been exonerated by the courts.

    Kalu may have been disenchanted by the PDP’s inordinate strive for bloodcurdling politics. He sees in Ogbeni a model of civil political buffer and a transformational figure whose commitment to good governance goes beyond merely gloating over a reconstructed kilometre of road by the previous administration. More so, he saw no reason to be wild about an Omisore’s candidacy.

    The PDP leader, therefore endorsed Governor Aregbesola’s continuation in office, saying: “You don’t change a winning team”. He made the endorsement on Saturday, April 5, at the 15th edition of the Walk-to-Live in Ipetumodu, Osun State. Walk-to-Live is a monthly physical exercise that involves trekking of at least, eight kilometres by interested citizens of the state after which a round of various other physical exercises follow to ensure that the citizens remain physically fit and mentally alert.

    The programme – in no small dimension – appears the best in closing the gap between the people and the government. Each edition of the programme sees excited citizens who cannot join the usually long and winding procession either staying in front of their houses; climbing topmost parts of their buildings to catch glimpses of the governor, movie actors and actresses and sportsmen who have become regular features of the event.

    Young mothers who cannot stay at home strap their babies to their backs. Physically-challenged persons waddle their ways through the crowd to ensure they complete the ‘race’. Students, market men and women, old and the young want to be part of what they see as an engaging event that help them regain their self-confidence. It is common scene to see excited, ordinary citizens wanting to get handshakes with the governor and other top members of his administration.

    Under the six-point development agenda of the state administration, which he calls “My Pact with Osun”, promotion of healthy living is one. “There can be no healthy living without constant physical exercises.” Ogbeni is always quick to remind his people each time people troop out to partake in what is appearing the biggest platform for mobilizing the people to action in the state.

    Apart from other benefits now accruing from the event such as raising the political consciousness of the people, Governor Aregbesola has never failed to remind enthusiasts at the events on monthly basis that “Walk-to-live exercise was introduced because we realised that we have all forgotten the need to physically exercise ourselves. We are highly sedentary and socially wild; we must compliment this with engaging in physical exercise. Osun is promoting Walk-to-Live to ensure that we have a healthy people in a healthy state.”

    This was what attracted the sport-loving former governor of Abia State to Osun that led to his endorsement of the governor of the state. He would later enthuse: “I am a statesman and PDP man. I made a promise a month ago to honour this Walk to Live event. Omisore is a personal friend of mine. Aregbesola is my friend as well. Governor Aregbesola has worked for the people of Osun. You don’t need to change a winning team. I also wish to express my support for our President, He is trying. Let’s pray for President Jonathan and let’s pray for Aregbesola.”

    He would also add: “I want to thank the Governor for making today’s Walk Exercise in a way I have never done before. Governor Aregbesola has done well. I am not here on party basis. II am a bona fide member of my Party (PDP) …When someone has worked, we should learn to recognise performance in Nigeria. Governor Aregbesola has worked. There are few governors that can walk as we have walked today, without pure water being thrown at them. If what I have seen today is a test of popularity, then Aregbesola is indeed popular.”

    Dr Kalu has engraved his name in gold as one individual who turned his back on inconsistent characters with moral deficits within the same political party to pitch his tent with a progressive candidate who can deliver the goods to the people – just the same way General Colin Powell broke with Republican Party to endorse Barack Obama’s presidency.

    But when twinned with the partisan blindness in Nigeria political orientation, his endorsement of Aregbesola does reflect a significant shift. Kalu studiously spoke the minds of Osun citizens after several years of inelegant style of governance and outright despondency.

    It’s obvious that the people have been delivered from the grip of an administration and a political party that has little or no socio-political and economic direction for them. Being permanently welded to acidic politics of bloodletting cannot change the people of Osun’s resolve to remain on the part of change. That is what Orji Kalu’s endorsement of Governor Rauf Aregbesola for continuity in office is about.

     

    • Ikhide wrote in from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Different colours of money

    I do not know how many people out there know of a community in Ondo State known as Ilara Mokin. What I know is that neither myself nor the other members of the touring party that visited Ilara Mokin from April 4-6, would have had any business undertaking a four-hour drive from Lagos to Ilara Mokin but for its  magnificent golf course ( Mokin Smokin Hills). For many months now, there has been talk in the air especially in the Nigerian golfing community about a new world-class golf course ‘near Akure’. Given the typical golfer’s notorious inclination for fanciful description of not only his golfing prowess but familiarity with international golf courses, I was initially dismissive of excitable utterances like ‘The only championship course in Nigeria!’ ‘Finer than all the golf courses I have played in Spain!’ and so on! The increase in not only the decibel level but the number of golfers making these claims prompted the touring party aforementioned.

    At this juncture let me state and quite emphatically too that this piece is not about golf. In the context of the times we live in Nigeria, that will be an insensitive and meaningless elitist literary venture. But before making my point, I need to finish with the touring party. Ilara Mokin also boasts a private University, Elizade University, so the touring party was told. Having been so pleasantly surprised with the quality of the golf course and its awesome scenic beauty, we were curious to see what the university will look like so we undertook a tour. Again we were pleasantly surprised by a large well laid out university campus with very impressive robust facilities including high rise faculty buildings, modern sports facilities, staff and student quarters all connected with well paved roads!

    Both the golf resort and Elizade University are owned by Chief Michael Ade Ojo. Ordinarily and without the benefit of seeing the  investments in the golf resort and university, my categorization of Chief Ade Ojo would have been as a wealthy car dealer albeit self made. This piece is also not about Chief Ade Ojo so I will not bother about coming up with a more appropriate nomenclature. However my categorization as a car dealer is clearly an unfitting misjudgement perhaps based on popular (mis)perception. From my limited interaction with his kith and kin who populate the workforce in the golf resort, guest house and university, his people will obviously have a more befitting nomenclature for Chief Ade Ojo and given the talent of the Yoruba for flowery adulation, the translation into English will obviously lose some colour but hopefully not the translucent essence.

    Now to the main point of this piece. Our touring party was led by the captain of Ikoyi Club Golf section, Ted Iwere and consisted of very fine, exposed gentlemen, distinguished professionals and wealthy businessmen. In addition they all see themselves as patriotic Nigerians. Beholding the golf course and university were therefore very thought-provoking as is perhaps to be expected from a group of that colouration. The investments Chief Ade Ojo has made and sited in his ancestral community would evidently albeit without  scientific accuracy cost several billions of naira. You do not need to be an investment guru to know that there are more profitable ways to invest that kind of money. That kind of money deployed as a political godfather will certainly yield quicker and much greater financial returns. And if an ego massage is the motivation, one could buy an English Premier League football club! Also clearly no bank funding would have been involved, as most credit analysts would have laughed off any such requests. Our touring party had long healthy debates and general rubbing of the minds and a few facts are given. Chief Ade Ojo is not the wealthiest Nigerian, neither is he the first to found a university or build a golf resort. What we were most impressed about was that these investments have evidently not been made for personal gain. Apart from putting Ilara Mokin on the world map, it is in the future that the full impact of those investments will manifest and the fortunes of that community have been positively affected forever.

    Obviously comparisons with other men of means cannot be avoided and that is indeed the essence of this piece. My late father was a great fan of my opinion pieces but was always uncomfortable with my practice of using real people as examples and advised against what he considered as being unnecessarily provocative.  My memory fails me as to whether I ever categorically promised to heed that advice. Many years ago, I was in another touring party and we happened to be guests, though not of, but at the mansion quarters of Chief Arthur Nzeribe. The sheer opulence and majesty left me awestruck for long afterwards but I had since stopped thinking about it. For some reason, that experience came back to me during my visit to Ilara Mokin. The idea of having two tennis courts with spectator stands, Olympic- size swimming pool, private luxury suites for up to 50 guests, acres and acres of lush green lawns and gardens along with a long stretch of private approach road lined by geometrically spaced trees as in Chief Nzeribe’s edifice is no doubt also an appealing way of enjoying ones money. The colour of that money though is not transluscent, its colour is different and of the kind that dazzles into opaqueness and ultimately tarnishes into distasteful colourlessness.

    I have made several trips to Oguta since my first visit, I have had no interest in beholding the edifice again and there is no other evidence of the impact of Chief Nzeribe’s wealth in his ancestral community. Nzeribe is not the only wealthy man with that colour of money. I never had the privilege of visiting Alhaji Mai Deribe’s house but legend has it that it was something to behold.  Unfortunately for Nigeria the number of wealthy men with that colour of money far outstrips those of the translucent variety. And perhaps therein lies a major cause of our social dislocation and mass poverty. Our wealthy people create poverty by the way they spend their money. Buying expensive overpriced assets abroad, leaving the money in foreign banks for foreign access and mindless luxury in the midst of grinding poverty have certainly not helped the course of national development which is meaningless without the personal development of a greater number of people. Yet most of the wealthy in Nigeria have made their money by exploiting their people. The same people they profess to love and represent when it is time for politics or sharing the national cake. Asari Dokubo is a newly created man of means. Shockingly he has invested  and built a university in another country! The same people that complain that Ijaw oil money is being unfairly used to develop other parts of Nigeria are developing other parts of the world with the same Ijaw oil money! There is however no irony, because that colour of money is for self-development. All the warmongering and divisive rhetoric are just tactics for self-development. Their people are mere pawns!

    Chief Ade Ojo is by no means the only wealthy businessman who has been practical in his exhibition of love for his community and humanity in general -love that will manifest in communal transformation. However many wealthy people claim to be philanthropists and whilst that is commendable, it is solid investments and not philanthropy alone that will transform communities – a badly needed component of national development.

    • Ukpong is a Lagos based Legal Practitioner

  • Graduate unemployment and the rest

    With due respect and heartfelt empathy to the families of all the graduates that lost their lives, and those that were injured in the recently aborted, Abba Moro’s profiteer-wired Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment exercise, I beg to bring to the notice of all caring Nigerians, the unpalatable and one-sided statistical and biased presentation of the unemployment crisis in Nigeria. Whenever unemployment is mentioned in today’s Nigeria, what comes to the mind of majority of the people, is the Nigerian graduate!

    Hear the indefatigable Minister for Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: “I am happy to tell you that last year we were able to create 1.6 million jobs. So, we are getting close to 1.8 million that enter the job market.”

    She would add: “We also have a pool of 5.3 million unemployed graduates that have been accumulating over the years.”

    It appears that out of the conflicting statistics of the jobless and the under-employed, which are put at 51.18 million and 41 million, by the National Population Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics respectively, the Nigerian graduates, are the major focus of Nigeria’s policy makers, and the employers’ of labour. It shows that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has become so high that if you do not belong to the elite club of “Nigeria’s unemployed graduates union”, you had better forget it! And to stretch it further, there are also more classifications, as the so-called sanctified graduate job seekers search for the highly competitive and elusive white and even blue collars’ jobs in the labour market. The Polytechnics’ and Colleges of Education graduates are not as venerated as the “special ones”, called the Nigerian university graduates! The discriminations go on, as “certificates and grades” considerations come into play in determining who gets a job or not; without minding whether the holders of the so much sought-after top-grade certificates are worth the pieces of papers on which the scores are written on.

    When few vacancies are advertised in the media, that is, after the greater number of the jobs had been given to some persons whose names are “favour”, through the backdoor, there are always “caveats”  on the method of application, which most times favour those with upper decrees, higher grades of First Class Division, Second Class Upper Division, years of experience etc. Does anyone spare some thoughts for the non-graduates unemployed, who make-up the greater battalions of the army of the unemployed in Nigeria?

    The case of Nigeria’s artisans and petty traders, who if we dispassionately and objectively assess the Nigerian economy – even with the rebasing of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, which Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, has just informed Nigerians that we are now the largest economy in Africa, and the 26th in the world – we would benevolently agree that they are the ones who are basically shouldering the economy, even as the dregs of the Nigerian-world. And most of these artisans and petty traders are into these existential struggles mainly because of exigencies, rather than by preferences. And no matter how you recalculate the GDP, they would still see Nigeria’s economy, as “foundationally artisanal and petty”, unless those who have rebased the GDP would be sensitive enough to make policies that would be favourable to all Nigerians, who are fit to work.

    The non-graduate unemployed are mainly school leavers, those who have ingenious minds, creative, inventive, and innovative geniuses, without tertiary education, or the type of ‘certificates”, that would qualify them to earn a living, by the standard of Nigeria’s policy makers and labour market Czars. If one may ask, are they not entitled to job opportunities, with or without requisite “paper” qualifications?

    Do graduates have higher stakes in Nigeria than all other Nigerians? Are the good things of life not meant for everybody? Considering all the absurdities romancing Nigeria, does it follow that all Nigerians, who must be relevant in the Nigerian unemployment statistics must be graduates of tertiary institutions? Now, we know the reason there is a mad rush for tertiary education, especially university education in Nigeria, whether the seekers of this type of education are academically equipped, intellectually sound and mentally fit, to pursue and endure the rigours of learning, is out of the question. Nigeria being a “certificate” worshipping country, as a norm, one must get a degree or diploma, either by hook or crook, to belong to the elite club of the respected, even as an unemployed citizen.

    If only Nigeria’s policy makers and employers’ of labour know what they are doing to the psyche of non-graduate unemployed citizens, they would become more sensitive to the rights of the citizenry. We know there are programmes like, YouWin, and Sure-P which are geared towards creating jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths, by President Jonathan’s administration. According to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, “Sure-P is for those youths who may not have gone through school or did not complete their education.”

    Really!

    If we investigate or probe further, are we sure we will not discover that Sure-P has been hi-jacked by those who need jobs most, in the Nigerian policy makers’ conjecture? Be that as it may, it is an incontrovertible fact that every citizen has a right to work or earn a living etc, through indiscriminate opportunities provided by policy makers, but when those in authority lay more emphasis on one group of people, at the expense of the others, they end up insulting the sensibilities and abuse the rights of the rest, who deserve to live as much as those who might have higher opportunities, because of their training. With high unemployment rate ravaging Nigeria, the graduate and non-graduate unemployed are both time bombs that must be vigilantly handled.

     

    • Ohaegbulam writes from Port-Harcourt.

  • Memo to National Conference

    I predicted in 2005 that the then National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) would end up in the dustbin of history because the delegates deliberately failed to tackle Nigeria’s fundamental problem, namely, an appropriate geo-ethno-polity for the country. Till date, there is nothing from that conference that forms a strategic part of the Nigerian political economy despite the huge sums of public money and man hours expended on it. The ongoing National Conference will suffer a similar fate if its delegates play the ostrich and ignore this nagging problem. In fact this conference should be concerned with only one question: What kind of geo-ethno-political structure will facilitate Nigeria’s development? This conference will not turn Nigeria around for the better without the restructuring of the country from the current 36 states to at the least a six geopolitical zone structure.

    The current 36-state structure is extremely expensive. Cut Nigeria’s clothes according to her cloth. The current 36-state structure has created more avenues of corruption. Contract the states and reduce avenues of corruption. The current 36-state structure makes politicians out of people who do not have the credentials and personal qualities to deal with the daunting problem of Nigeria’s development. Come to think of it, no one in mainstream politics today, federal or state, comes close to the commitment, dedication, vision and developmental acumen and courage of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, M. I. Okpara, Ahmadu Bello, Dennis Osadebey, J.S Tarka, I. U. Akpabio, Anthony Enahoro, to mention a few. The quality and achievements of ministers, parliamentarians, and bureaucrats of the pre-civil era were far superior to what we have today. They had their own weaknesses, but nothing close to the degree of political, economic and developmental incompetence and societal disorganization that Nigeria has witnessed since their exit. They were saints and outstanding agents of development compared to what we have seen of Nigerian politicians and bureaucrats since the last 30 years. Contract the current 36-state structure into six zones. This will widen the geographic space from which politicians are drawn. This will help to reduce tout politics.

    Some delegates in this conference have indicated their interest in new states. Creating new states will increase Nigeria’s economic and social problems by enlarging the number of waste pipes by way of new governors, legislators, councilors, and bureaucrats most of who have no sense of urgency to change things in a country where more than 70% of the people either suffer from abject poverty or are managing to scrape-by in a land of plenty. Look at Nigeria’s development indicators over the years. One can extrapolate that the more the number of states the more dismal the national economic indicators.

    Yes, Nigeria was recently named one of the 26 largest economies in the world because it posted an impressive GDP. It overtook South Africa as the largest economy on the continent, yet thousands of Nigerians regularly stream to South Africa, or die at the borders of lesser economies in search of basic sources of sustenance. GDP does not put food on the table. Gainfully employed people do. GDP does not, in and of itself, create and/or enlarge employment opportunities. Competent, imaginative and courageous governments pave the way through pro-growth policies that harness the private sector to diversify economic activity.

    Some other delegates have suggested a six-year single term for the presidency rotated among six geopolitical zones. The concentrated decentralization resultant in a six-zone geo-political structure is a good start in the blueprint for geo-political restructuring. But you should remember that the rotation of the presidency and the number of years of incumbency are not as important as the amount of power embedded in the office. Dealing with the latter, that is, decreasing the power of the presidency is therefore part of the real restructuring endeavor.

    Remember also that the idea of a National Conference has a history. Restructuring the geo-ethno-polity was the primary reason for agitation for a national conference by its initial proponents. This conference should not forget that history. The 2005 conference relegated that primary reason to the margins of its deliberations. Restructuring was hardly discussed and those who talked about it were like voices in the wilderness. Hence the outcomes of that conference also ended up in the wilderness of history.

    Put more directly, a six-zone regional structure as federating units will reduce cost of government and save a lot of public money, reduce avenues of corruption, provide a better chance of selecting better people into government, create a sense of regional ownership, and enhance the developmental consciousness that comes with that sense of ownership and economies of scale.

    Yes, the delegates of the 2014 National Conference have proposed or created committees on social welfare, the environment, national security, science and technology, labour and sports, etc. Be informed that these are mere administrative issues. Failures in these areas occurred because the executive and legislative branches of government and their ancillary agencies failed in their duties over the years.

    What haven’t we heard, or what don’t we know, about the Nigerian economy, national security, energy, elections, science and technology, agriculture, transportation and the like that necessitate a national conference on them? I bet that volumes of reports on some of these issues have been gathering dust on the shelves of libraries of higher educational institutions, government agencies, private consultancies, and domestic and international non-governmental organizations, These issues which can easily be hashed out by a task force of the National Assembly occupied primacy in the 2005 conference and rendered that conference redundant and useless.

    So think of restructuring the geo-ethno-polity, that is, the intersection of geography, ethnic identification and political expression, as a more strategic issue. Think of restructuring as the path to your legacy in Nigeria’s history. Consequently, only two committees in the 2014 National Conference are worth spending the people’s money on. They are, The Political Restructuring and Forms of Government Committee, and the Devolution of Power Committee. The other committees are a waste of the people’s money.

    The devolution of power in a six-zone regional structure should be such that regions will intrinsically own and shoulder the ultimate responsibility for their development. That is what strong regions do all over the world. The present national psyche which sees the federal government as the ultimate instrument of national development is counter-productive and must come to an end. Geo-political restructuring holds the key.

     

    Ukaegbu, Professor of Sociology & Development Studies, currently serves as Distinguished Senior Lecturer at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL USA

  • Lagos, Ehingbeti and accelerated power delivery

    In the words of Harvey Firestone, foremost American Business man, “Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.”

    The Ehingbeti Summit is one of the several innovative ideas that the Lagos State government has initiated to enhance sustainable growth and development in the state. The Summit is a platform through which the state engages the organised private sector to serve as vehicle for the formulation of innovative ideas and policies that will enhance the state’s socio-economic development. It is also designed to attract local and foreign investors just as it showcases the various investment opportunities that abound in the state.

    Since the first edition of the summit in 2000, it has developed into a constructive intellectual  forum for the stimulation of economic growth in Lagos State, and indeed Nigeria. As a result of the need for realistic assessment of implementable goals against set benchmarks, the summit, which started as an annual event when the first edition was held, was to later become a biennial event in 2008. The first three editions of Ehingbeti were deliberately, for obvious reasons, planned to be diagnostic in nature. This was to ensure that the challenges were properly identified and articulated so that short, medium and long term solutions could be found for them. Hence, experts and consultants in various fields were brought on board to share experiences together. However, by the fourth summit in 2008, which was the first edition to be held under the present administration, a blueprint had been developed for implementation. The state government has since implemented over 100 resolutions reached at past editions of the summit.

    A review of the implementation of the resolutions and recommendation of the 2012 Summit with the theme, ‘’From BRICS to BRINCS: Lagos Holds the Key” by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for the areas of concentration revealed that a lot of success has been recorded with achievable targets in full focus. The core areas of the summit in 2012 were Power, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing, which gave rise to the acronym PATH. Massive investments and initiatives have since been undertaken by the state government in those sectors in conjunction with the private sector and other development partners. This is a clear evidence of the resolve on the part of government to ensure that the summit is not just another talkshop.

    It is not surprising; therefore, that Lagos, in the last 13 years, has become a model for governance in the country. Novel attainments such as the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRT), Independent Power Plants (IPP),  the on-going Lagos Light Rail System and the pattern of road designs with pedestrian walk ways are products of key decisions reached at past Ehingbeti summits. Similarly, the transformation of the Lagos Island Central Business District, CBD, Badagry and Lekki corridors, Yaba, Surulere, Alimosho to mention a few are parts of the success story of Ehingbeti over the years. Today, all over the state, the state government is living up to one of its basic responsibilities to provide critical transport infrastructure by building new roads.

    In order to sustain current pace of development in the state, this year’s Ehingbeti Summit with the theme: ‘Powering The Lagos Economy: Real Opportunities, Endless Possibilities’, focused mainly on the crucial issue of constant and sustainable electricity supply in the state. The essence of the 2014 summit’s focus on power is for the private sector to draw the attention of the government to places where its activities would enable the private sector achieve its potential in terms of delivering of service, provision of opportunities and growth of the economy. On its part, the state government has been working tirelessly in pursuit of a new power agenda for the state. Presently, the state government is working on a plan to set up a one-stop shop to fast-track the handling of all issues relating to right of way and power infrastructure development in the state. Similarly, apart from the three functional power plants in Akute, Lagos Island and Alausa, the state government is currently working to install two other plants in strategic locations of the state.

    Being an integral part of  PATH (Power, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing), the state’s new developmental direction, the Lagos State government’s resolve to evolve  new strategies that will enhance stable and constant electricity supply in the state is quite logical.  For instance, regular and stable power supply will enable the state  to unleash the possibilities of the economy beyond  imagination.  Small businesses within the state will, no doubt, thrive better if more creative schemes are put in place to guarantee un-hindered power supply. Equally, multi-national firms that have closed shop in Lagos because of the epileptic nature of power could be lured back if the power situation improves. This would not only bring back lost jobs, but will certainly restore lost ones. Similarly, regular power supply will, no doubt, lead to a much safer Lagos where every inch of it is lit up at night.

    From the various discussions at the 2014 Ehingbeti summit, it is quite clear that the country would not be able to accelerate its socio-economic growth unless, concerted efforts are made to develop creative initiatives that could confront and overcome current power situation. As the most populous black country in the world, we need to do more in respect of adequate power generation and effective distribution. The top 20 countries of the world such as China, which is currently the world’s largest producer of power, South Africa and Mexico, among others, generate power in excess of their demand.

    For the power need of the Lagos to be effectively met, efforts must be made to ensure proper alignment of the entire value chain of power generation, transmission and distribution. Equally, the development of emergency power system, increased partnership with Independent Power Plant (IPP) producers, the creation of necessary institutional frameworks and facilitation of an enabling environment would go a long way to accelerate power delivery to the state.

    Undoubtedly, if effectively implemented, the various recommendations of 2014 Ehingbeti summit would help accelerate the socio-economic development and growth of the state, since effective power delivery is central to the realization of the state government’s Ten Point Agenda.  Given the centrality of Lagos to the overall economic prosperity of Nigeria, it is essential that the state government continue to support new initiatives, ideas and visions that could improve power delivery in the state and, indeed, the country at large

     

    Ogunbiyi is of Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Lagos.

  • Abia’s war against illegal taxation

    Recently, two commissioners in Abia State government were suspended indefinitely for allegedly flouting the state government’s directive against illegal taxation and extortion of money from people of the state.

    The affected commissioners are Chisom Nwamuo, Commerce and Industry, and Ikechukwu Emesiombum, Transport. Their suspension by Governor Theodore Orji was made public via a statement issued in the state capital, Umuahia by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo.

    Before now, the state government had expressed worries at the negative image created for it by multiple revenue agents, blocking traffic and harassing innocent citizens all in the name of collection of taxes and levies. To arrest that ugly development, the state government decided to streamline taxes and levies in the state.

    As part of the implementation process, the government set up a State Internally Generated Revenue Committee, which is expected, among other things, to organise annually, the State Revenue Economic Summit (SRES) to interface with the tax-paying community and chart a roadmap towards acceptable tax procedure. The committee will also organise advocacy programmes to sensitise the people and corporate organisations to draw their support as well as review the existing state laws and compare same with the recommendations of Joint Tax Board/Ministerial Implementation Committee (JTB/MIC).

    It is expected that with the operation of the committee, there would be enhanced revenue and less acrimony between the state and its citizens on the one hand, and private investors and their associations on the other hand on collection of levies and taxes.

    Besides all revenue generating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were compulsorily integrated into the IGR committee to ensure uniformity in the execution of the new policy. As the government moves in that direction, it also evolved the policy of conducting all its businesses through the electronic payment system. Taxes and levies are now paid into banks to check fraud.

    However, instead of operating in line with the government directives for the final harmonization processes, those who have been benefitting from the illicit act and those hell-bent on continuing with it without minding the consequences on the people and image of the government went ahead to collect the illegal levies with impunity.

    Unfortunately for them, their cup filled recently following reports by concerned stakeholders that some officials were imposing unauthorised taxes and charges on traders and other people in the commercial city of Aba and environs, coupled with the protest by some aggrieved Aba market women who took to the streets in protest of what they described as heavy imposition of taxes by government officials.

    The development is not peculiar to Abia State. It is and has been a common problem and practice in the states across the country which has been partly responsible for the dwindling IGRs. The case of Abia is somehow unique because the people are not fond of, or disposed to paying taxes and levies. They had always wanted government to do everything for them free. They had argued that they did not see the outcome of the ones they have paid to the past governments in the state.

    It took the developmental strides of the present government in all spheres in the state to convince the people to start paying levies and taxes again.  But instead of the agents to be collecting the little ones that are being paid, some of them in their desperate quest for personal enrichment started engaging in illegal collection of taxes from citizens. It is obvious that people and agencies saddled with the responsibility of collecting revenues for governments at all have devised all sorts of illegal means of extorting money from them, while diverting them into private pockets without government’s knowledge. The practice has become part of the problems bedeviling governance in the country and has proved hard nut to crack for successive governments at all levels.

    The most annoying aspect of the ugly trend is that those who are not in the know-how of how government revenue is being derived or collected would always heap blames on the doorstep of the man at the helm of affairs of government in the state. This is even when such man may or may not be aware of what his commissioners and other tax collectors are doing in the field with the citizens.

    While it is true that the buck stops on the table of the governor in the state, the governors cannot be everywhere at a time or do everything by himself. He must assign responsibility to people and that is why he appoints commissioners, special assistants and other aides. Those appointed into positions in government at various levels should always see it as a call to service, and not avenue for personal enrichment to the detriment of the people they are serving, and the government that appointed them.

    Although, the suspended commissioners in Abia have not been found guilty of complicity in the alleged harassment and extortion of citizens over tax payment, Governor Orji’s decision to suspend them will not only pave way for proper investigation into the matter, it will serve as a deterent to other appointees that may be nursing such ambitions. It has also shown that the state government was not directly or indirectly involved in the whole mess as many were made to believe in the past. If after the probe, the affected commissioners are found wanting, they should be made to refund the money they have collected illegally to government coffers. Such should not be seen by anybody as government’s witch-hunt of the affected commissioners, but rather as a move to sanitise the system of wrong persons.

    Governor Orji’s action is commendable and exemplary and should be emulated. For the stakeholders and market women who summoned the courage to resist it and actually brought it to the attention of the government, their action is no less commmendable. Sometimes some people in government believe that the governor or president will not be easily accessible to the ordinary citizens hence they take advantage of that to engage in all sorts of impunities. Such attitude is not only bad but needs to be discouraged. Governor Orji, a renowned public servant has chosen to operate an open door policy in governance since he came into office. Citizens have the repsonsibility to make their voices heard.

    • Ukonu, a businesswoman wrote from Aba, Abia State