The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Fuss over Abuja-Lokoja contract variation

    Last month, the Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen appeared before the Senate ad hoc Committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). He was summoned to shed light on the revision of the contract sum for the Abuja-Abaji–Lokoja highway, from the initial N42 billion in 2006, to N116 billion in 2011. Since the hearings, imaginations have run wild.

    Ordinarily, the basis for the indignation that oozes from these opinions is understandable, against the backdrop of public concern about accountability and judicious application of our commonwealth. But those who have expressed negative views on the issue are barking up the wrong tree, as a forensic examination of the subject matter of their outrage will reveal just how misguided and misleading the comments have been.

    In fulfilment of the federal government’s promise to dualise all roads leading to Abuja, contracts for the dualisation of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road were awarded in four sections to four construction companies in 2006. The contractors are: Dantata & Sawoe, RCC, Bulletine, and Gitto Construzioni. The length of the road is 196km and the scope of works of the original contract involved the construction of a new carriageway only, which is to run parallel to the existing carriageway, so that it becomes a dual carriageway on completion.

    The completion period was 30 months. However, by May 2011, that is five years after the award, the projects had attained only about 38 per cent completion. Nigerians plying the road can attest to this, because of the frequency of carnage then, and excruciating loss of man-hours as a result of traffic jams, especially during festive periods.

    Several factors were responsible for the non-delivery of the project on schedule. The most obvious of these was the grossly inadequate budgetary provision.  In five financial years (2006 – 2010), the total budgetary provisions for the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road project was N26.63 billion, representing 62.6 per cent of the total contract sum of N42.55 billion. Indeed, in 2006 and 2008, there were no budgetary provisions at all. While the project was starved of funds, the basic costs of construction materials such as cement, steel, bitumen, diesel, and cost of labour skyrocketed, owing to inflation and the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage. In the circumstance, the unit rates of the contracts became obsolete.

    Furthermore, the contractors encountered serious technical, geological and ecological challenges, including very unstable sub-soil, fine white chalk, clay and black cotton soils, high water table, crop outgrowths, and rock formations. This necessitated the contractors requesting for a review of the rates. In a sense, these challenges were traceable to the haste with the contract was awarded in 2006, because enough time and attention was not devoted to detailed planning, as well as detailed geo-technical and soil investigations. Indeed, some of the sections which the contractors had completed within the 38 per cent bracket in five years had begun to fail.

    It bears repeating that the original contract was for one carriageway only. There was no consideration whatsoever for the existing carriageway. However, with increased vehicular traffic and much heavier axial load, the existing carriageway began to deteriorate rapidly by 2008. So, the country was faced with little progress on the new contract, and a failed carriageway on the existing road.

    In November 2010, the Federal Ministry of Works constituted a technical committee made up of ministry officials and representatives of the contractors, to undertake a comprehensive appraisal of the road project, and recommend measures to facilitate its completion.  The committee submitted its report in January 2011. Key among the recommendations of the committee were the provision of adequate drainages on the new carriageway; and improving the existing carriageway by complete rehabilitation, where necessary. The committee also recommended the review of the contract sums to cater for the existence of extensive unsuitable soils and review of obsolete unit rates.

    Upon further consideration of the report and recommendations therein, including new costs, the Federal Ministry of Works forwarded the full reports to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) on July 26, 2011. The BPP reviewed the submissions and issued certificates of “No Objection” for the new cost, which totalled N116 billion. Memoranda were subsequently prepared and tabled before the Federal Executive Council, which approved the contracts at its meetings of September 28, 2011, and November 23, 2011.

    Contrary to some of the views being bandied, there is nothing “mysterious” about the variation of the contract sum from N42 billion to N116 billion. A mystery is inferable where there is no identifiable basis. Besides, the impression being created is that the variation in the contract sum is a 24-carat discovery by a Senate Ad Hoc Committee that is exposing cobwebs. To uncover implies some wrong-doing that was previously hidden from the relevant authorities, or those who should know.  As stated above, the variation was approved, first, by BPP, and then tabled before the Federal Executive Council, which considered and passed the memoranda. It is elementary that conclusions of FEC meetings are not shrouded in “mystery”.

    What is perhaps little appreciated is that the revision of the cost of the construction of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja dual carriageway is, in fact, a new contract, the scope of works of the earlier contract having been enlarged considerably. If the present administration, which inherited the virtually comatose project, had merely been content with the completion of the road contract as initially conceived, there is little doubt that, editorialists, public affairs commentators, and other well-meaning Nigerians would cry shrilly over why the government did not deem it fit and proper to deliver a truly brand new expressway, by not only constructing a new carriageway, but reconstructing the existing carriageway, which had begun to fail by 2008.

    It is obvious, therefore, that rather than jeopardise the national interest, the variation in the contract for the carriageway (through the expanded scope of works) is squarely in the national interest. What is even more significant is the value that is accruing on account of the new template for the dual carriageway project. Whereas the Jonathan administration inherited the project at about 17 per cent completion (that is, if evaluated on the basis of the new scope), today the job (including the expanded scope of works) is 70 per cent completed, with firm assurances that the project would be fully delivered in 2014. This calls for commendation, rather than condemnation under the guise of seeking probity in public contracting, an issue that, on a sober examination, is decidedly not at stake in the project.

     

    • kpasaja is Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Works.

     

  • Assessing Lagos’ investment in education

    South African legend, Nelson Mandela, just passed on, once described education as the ‘greatest engine for personal development through which the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor while the son of a mineworker can become the head of a mine and a child of a farm-worker can become the president of a great nation’. Education has been part of the human society from the very beginning and human societies throughout the ages have had vested interests in education. In fact it would not be an exaggeration to say that without education, in this modern day, most societies would find it difficult to survive.

    It is therefore a well established fact that good and well structured educational system is one of the vital factors in the socio-economic development of any nation. The educational sector is so germane to the development of any society to the extent that the level of education of any particular society mirrors its level of prosperity. It is for this reason and many others that every responsible government always place education on the priority list and also devotes a good chunk of its available resources to the development of its educational sector.

    In a state like Lagos, with a burgeoning population in excess of 20 million for instance, it is more challenging ensuring that its citizenry have good education in the best possible environment. Despite these seeming challenges, the state has continued to trudge on its responsibility of delivering a well educated citizenry. As at January 2011, the state had 1,045 schools with 466,201 pupils and 16,351 teachers in its primary education sector, while there are 317 junior secondary schools, 326,171 students and 9,215 teachers in the junior secondary schools. The figure for the junior secondary schools include the 12 established by the current administration in developing areas of the state or communities with growing population which hitherto had no such schools. The senior secondary schools consist of 319 schools, 322,242 students and 9,625 teachers.

    The focus of the Fashola administration in the educational sector include the rehabilitation and construction of classroom blocks, enhancing pupils performance and learning outcomes, human capital development and recruitment, quality assurance and standards and educational planning and management. Recently, the government recruited 10, 000 teachers to bridge the shortage of tutors especially in special subjects such as English, Mathematics and the core sciences.

    The state, in the last six years, has built 5,204 new classrooms to cater for the growing student population which has increased over the years to 1,198,624 (578,504 in primary and 620,120 in secondary schools). All these are housed in the 664 schools spread across the state.

    The state also rehabilitated 6,666 classrooms within the period, provided 197 schools with science laboratory, built ICT laboratory in 120 schools, supplied 212 schools with science materials and installed intro-tech laboratories in 73 schools. Also, 1,409,476 textbooks were distributed freely to students while 387,133furniture were provided to students to make them learn in conducive environments.

    Similarly, the government introduced a novel Lagos Eko project, an intervention programme with which it has fast-tracked the development of schools and training of teachers in order to improve learning outcomes in all junior and senior secondary schools.

    The Fashola administration continues to pay the WAEC examination fees of students in public secondary schools in addition to distributing free text books to pupils and students in public schools. In each session, a pupil/student receives at least five text books in the core subjects such as Mathematics, English Language, Biology, Economics and Computer Studies, to enhance their performance in their studies. This has impacted on enrolment in Lagos schools.

    Another major initiative of the administration to ensure the mental fitness and preparedness of the students is the restoration of uniformed clubs and societies in all public primary and secondary schools with a view to reawakening of values and leadership traits in them as in the days of old. Free uniforms were given to all pupils/students members as well as their teachers.

    With the reality that reading culture is fast dying in the society and indeed among the students, the state government upgraded all the major public libraries across the state. In line with modern trends and with a view to delivering prompt and efficient services, all these libraries are currently being automated. When completed, users will be able to access them on line with the new On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). It should be stated that two of the libraries, Herbert Macaulay and the Old Secretariat are now internet-compliant.

    The Fashola administration has also continued to give out bursary to deserving students annually. While scholarships are awarded locally and internationally to indigenes with exceptional academic performances, bursaries are given to indigenes in local tertiary institutions. In 2008, 513 students of the state origin in various institutions of higher learning that scored 4.0 aggregate and above were awarded local scholarships to the tune of N143, 819,772. The operations of the state Scholarship Board have been fully automated and all applications for the board facilities are applied on line. This has also enabled the board commence e-payment of awards to beneficiaries with the support of one of the new generation banks. This has eliminated the difficulties usually experienced by students in converting cheques to cash in the past.

    Mass education has also been taken to greater heights by the Fashola administration. The agency for mass education in the state has continued to, among others, increase awareness on the importance of literacy, among the citizens, provide functional literacy education, functional and remedial education for school dropouts. With the support of UNDP and UNICEF, the agency has 1,084 centres across the state and has so far graduated 47,226 from its adult literacy programme. Some of them are also attending the NTI Distance Learning Programme in order to become teachers. The Programme has also gained grounds, especially in mechanic villages in the state.

    The world is now a global village and learning and communicating in other languages is now in vogue. To this end, government has built and equipped six multi-lingual laboratories in each of the six educational districts for the teaching and learning of foreign languages such as French, Arabic and Mandarin.

    The initiatives of the administration have gradually been impacting positively on the sector. For one, the volume of jobs given out in the education sector of the state for the renovation and construction of classroom blocks, provision of teachers and pupils furniture has created several job opportunities. Also, the gradual but steady construction, provision and rehabilitation of schools and other educational infrastructure is gradually but steadily restoring confidence in public schools as shown in the higher enrolment figures in these schools either through transfers or new admissions into them. This increase is also noticed through higher cost of conducting the Unified Test/Examinations in public schools. Equally, through the reports of the Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics Unit in the Education Districts and SUBEB, steady improvement in pupils’ performance at examinations has been noticed.

    • Ogunmosunle writes from Ikeja, Lagos

  • Health professionals and NAFDAC’s boss, Orhii

    Health professionals and NAFDAC’s boss, Orhii

    Should President Goodluck Jonathan cut short the tenure of NAFDAC Director-General? Health professionals believe it is the wise thing to do.

    Dr. Paul Orhii’s tenure as Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) no doubt has attracted a swirl of controversies. The controversies appear not to let up. It’s all about what the statute books say are the qualifying credentials of whoever should occupy the position. The law prescribes the profession of who should be appointed Director-General, something that Orhii’s appointment seemed to undermine.

    Pharmacists in Nigeria believe that the law in question has pencilled down a professional pharmacist as the one that must be appointed Director-General of the agency. Nevertheless, since the position of power and authority in Nigeria could be used even to the subversion of the statutes, it appeared that some four years ago, when Orhii’s kinsman served as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the very sleight of the hand became too attractive that he landed the job. The precedent, against the declaration of the statutes, has been the subject of recrimination and professional controversies.

    Indeed, sensing that they were losing grounds professionally and in national relevance with each day that the appointment was sustained, relevant industry professionals have kicked and cried. Inevitably, as the recriminations continued, the administration and delivery of healthcare in the country have faltered steadily. Aggregately, the controversy seems to also be testing the will of the relevant professional group.

    Years ago, following the appointment of Dr. Orhii, a medical doctor and a lawyer from Ushongu Local Council of Benue State, as Director-General of NAFDAC, it seemed that the state had finally nailed the fate of the pharmacists in these matters. Why, for instance, a government would pick a medical doctor and a lawyer to run the affairs of NAFDAC, when the statute books had advised differently, beggars reason.

    Section 9, sub-section 1 of the agency’s establishing statute recommends that: “there shall be appointed for the agency by the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces on the recommendation of the Minister, a Director General who shall be a person with good knowledge of pharmacy, food and drugs.” Is it possible that in Nigeria, a person who so qualifies would altogether not qualify to register as a professional member of the professional association of pharmacists?

    Is it possible, drawing from the precedence, that the Federal Government could one day appoint someone who does not qualify to register as a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the professional association of qualified legal practitioners in Nigeria, as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice?

    Pharmacists and several other health sector professionals seem equally incensed that successive governments seem to have been sold the lie that only professionals registered with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the professional body for qualified and practising medical doctors in Nigeria, can be appointed Ministers of Health, a privilege that seems never extended to other health professionals.

    Pharmacists have repeatedly raised issues on this with both the Minister of Health and the presidency. It has neither yielded a word of contrition nor regrets from the government. Instead, in a clear disrespect of the provisions of fairness as well as the doctrines of the Federal Character, Dr. Orhii’s kinsman, Professor John Ibu from Oju Local Council of Benue State, was earlier in the year appointed chairman of the governing council of NAFDAC. Unlike Orhii, though, Professor Ibu is eminently qualified to chair the board of the governing council.

    A retired academic, Ibu is well respected both in the academic community as well as in his Benue State. A very devout Christian, Ibu has raised his family admirably in the purest traditions of the faith, and his daughter, a medical doctor by training, is today married to the senior pastor of the Dunamis Church, Pastor Enenche.

    With both issues of professional qualification dogging Dr Orhii, and the disrespect of the doctrines of the Federal Character in appointing Professor Ibu from Benue state buffeting the agency, it surely calls for an urgent remedy.

    Orhii, a medical doctor and holder of a degree in law from an American university, has argued that he holds a PhD in Neauropharmacology as a biomedical scientist. He, however, has refrained from stating whether he was qualified to register as a professional member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, as well as the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria. But clearly knowing where his bread is buttered, Orhii has taken advantage of the ensuing silence from the presidency to mount strong lobby initiatives for his confirmation as Director-General for a second tenure. Members of the pharmacy profession have argued that they have the law on their side.

    There seems to abound in the case both moral and legal issues. Following the position of the statutes, it means that anyone occupying the position of the Director-General of NAFDAC must be assumed to be a practising pharmacist since a “good knowledge of pharmacy” cannot be effective outside its practice. Yet, it beggars reason whether anyone is permitted to practise pharmacy professionally when the person is not qualified to be registered as a professional member of the PSN? Will the authorities in the presidency look carefully at the merits of this issue and in their quiet, silent refrain swiftly serve Orhii a notice of “service no longer required” to permit it to not only correct the anomaly but to also pick a professional who is from outside of Benue State?

    To have kept Orhii at NAFDAC these past four years is a mistake only excusable by the understanding that the government must not be made to lose face. But to stretch his stay in the place beyond one tenure is a grave affront on the rule of law and a disservice to Nigerians. On the legal implications of this, the Attorney-General has a duty to prepare a memo to the presidency on this. Dr. Orhii could, however, be redeployed to some agency that does not create professional misgivings on the overall programmes of government.

     

    •Onubogu is a public relations consultant based in Benin City.

  • 1080 days of Aregbesola administration

    In the context of the third anniversary of the swearing in of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as the fourth democratically elected governor of the state of Osun on November 27, 2010, the title of this essay would suggest that Aregbesola is posing a performance indicating an eventual rating of historical magnitude. That immediately raises a question of what constitutes history in relation to the role of individual. It is true that irredeemable idealists start out with a mindset to make history. But as Karl Max puts it, “Men make their own history but they did not make it as they please”. They do not make it under circumstances chosen by them, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past”. History making and the role of individuals in history is thus not a function of the individual’s wish to make history. Rather, it is the situation on ground and the creative interpretation of that situation in the context of balance of social forces that constitutes the making of history.

    Let me start with the proposition that no governor in Nigeria inherited a more horrible objective situation than Governor Rauf Aregbesola. Aside from the fact that the state is one of the poorest states in the country, there was a crisis of alienation in terms of a total disconnect between the government and the people with all its consequences. There is history in the speed and deftness with which Aregbesola regime was able to recognize this dangerous gap and successfully restore responsibility and responsiveness to governance. His arrival in the Government House on November 27, 2010 signaled a new dawn for a state hitherto ravaged by the locusts, savagely raped by interlopers imposed by do or die political brinkmanship and bogged down by a huge debt burden. Dilapidated infrastructures, an abysmal low workers’ morale, disorganized education sector, health sector which was on life support; unacceptably low internally generated revenue stared him in the face. With doggedness, determination, commitment, diligence and well thought out policies, Aregbesola tackled headlong the problems confronting the state one after the other. That Osun is now marching assuredly, proudly along-side other states in the Nigerian federation, is an Aregbesola achievement. This restoration is a product of a moral warfare against any elite attributes that goes against the grain of service, discipline, social commitment and honour; mass mobilization based on personal touch; social justice in which all interest groups such as farmers, women, traders, the elderly and workers are made the concrete objects of governance; the educational revolution of the regime and the heavy intervention in infrastructure development particularly, the development of Osogbo commensurate with the status of a state capital. As the leading provider of the perspectives and the key sustainer of the tempo of this praxis, Aregbesola emerges as an archetype of Plato’s Philosopher- King, not in the sense of an all-knowing leader but in the sense of the person whose experience and exposure in life is such that he or she is capable of informed and balanced decisions. Aregbesola draws attention to further reflections on Plato’s argument that leaders must be prepared for leadership. In a typical third world country like Nigeria, as Aregbesola always tell any one who has the patience to listen, leadership is beyond building roads, providing boreholes, renovating schools or rehabilitating dilapidated structures, important as these are. For almost any body can do that. Leadership is also and more importantly, about mass mobilization as the corner stone of governance. The situation in most part of Africa requires leaders who consistently alert the mass of the people on certain requirements of modernisation, however one understands the concept. That is one way of dealing with the problem of cultural constraints on development the way many African radicals and leaders like Nkrumah, Cabral, Nyerere have tried to do. All great modern leaders like Mao, Lee Kuan Yew, etc did so, including leading personal campaigns against things as little as people’s personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, inertia and lethargy, adventurism, drug abuse and so on and so forth. It is very good for instance, that it is gaining popularity, that it amounts to inviting Governor Aregbesola’s trouble to be seen by him or his aides on environmental sanitation that you are not cleaning your environment or throwing refuse indiscriminately on the street.

    It is also history-making anywhere in the Third World that a leader will provide monthly stipend to the poor, vulnerable elderly. The recruitment of50,000 unemployed graduates for community service, sending 30 unemployed youths to Germany for modern training in agriculture, re-training of 300 artisans, Information and Communication Technology training for 5000 unemployed youths through OYESTECH, selling of cheaper fertilizers to farmers, free training of 3000 youths in tailoring, giving loans to youths interested In agriculture, setting up of farm settlements to train unemployed graduates, free meal for primary school students, building of modern markets for traders and the farmers train project. These are encapsulated in the Aregbesola administration’s six-point integral action plan that seeks to banish hunger, unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional education and enhance

    When governments in developing countries are withdrawing social protection for their citizens in order to appease the market –oriented international community, the Governor of the state of Osun, Aregbesola, is reversing the trend by bringing back the idea of social protection for the elderly and the unemployed youths.

    Governor Aregbesola’s larger-than-life resolve to guard his hard earned integrity by fulfilling his constitutional assignment and social pacts with the people of the state is worthy of commendation by all and sundry. He has demonstrated the capacity to solve problems and make positive changes in the lives of the people. The innovations and ingenuity he brought into government business has translated into increase performance in all sectors. He understands the difference between being a politician and being a leader and that leadership must be marked by explaining, convincing and winning over the other half, not by intrigue, cynical manipulation and diabolical politics which explains the leadership disaster at all levels in Nigeria today. His reward is the popular surge that makes crowd control and arena management such a nightmare anywhere Aregbesola goes throughout the state. The bond between the government and the governed has unleashed the dynamism that defines the ‘The New Osun’ since November 27, 2010.

    It is true that a lot of these revolve around the Aregbesola persona, rhetoric, radius and dynamism; however, it is also acquiring a momentum beyond Aregbesola as a person. What is happening in Osun should interest all of us with particular reference to the leadership requirement for transformative politics in the present epoch. It must interest students of political development because it is history in the making. .

    • Aminu is the National Coordinator, Oodua Youth For Good Governance

     

  • The coming of Abia airport

    Very soon, an aviation infrastructure will be put in place in Abia State, thanks to the visionary template of His Excellency, Governor TA Orji whose desire is to build legacy projects for posterity.

    Stakeholders and deep industry sources agree that the proposed airport is congruent with all the technical, commercial and security considerations for its establishment. The business community, chambers of commerce and the aviation industry are all in favour of the project given its potential to enhance economic growth of the state. The airport in the neighbouring state is a cargo, single runway outfit with no night landing facility.

    The pivotal role of Aba, the Enyimba city as the centrepiece of Igbo enterprise guarantees support to a wide range of direct flight destinations and traffic volume at high frequencies. This is even more so with the city’s very strong commercial linkages to the Onitsha-Nnewi-Orlu-Ikom-Calabar-Cameroon-Centra-African Republic-Angolan and ECOWAS trade corridors. The development of the airport will help the South-east compete with other cities for business investments, which in turn will produce economic benefits for the rest of the region. As a matter of fact, the international business community estimates that the economic benefits would be in the region of $30 billion annually. Several of these economic benefit wills accrue by way of direct and indirect employment from the construction of the facility.

    Construction activities will include everything from demolition and utilities, installation to terminal construction and high-tech information systems installation. Direct employment in the neighbourhood of 20,000 jobs will be created vide engineering, architecture, and subsidiary companies, which will in turn, translate into effective demands from goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the “good” is a “bad”). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax.

    ….. Click the link for more information. from other local companies, which must then increase their employment to meet the expanded demand for their goods.

    Air intensive sectors of business include the financial, business, insurance, banking, printing, publishing, petroleum and aviation fuel, extraction, transport, communication, other business services, research and development, computer activities, precision and optical instruments sectors which often make the greatest use of air transport and for whom accessibility to air services will have the strongest influence on location decisions. This explains why the bulk of manufacturing companies are located in Lagos metropolis, while oil and gas industries are sited in the Port Harcourt matrix. It is therefore self-evident that airports serve as a magnet for business.

    And the trend is global. For example, 31% of companies relocating to the area around Munich Airport cited the airport as the primary factor in their location decision. A survey of businesses in the Hamburg area found that 80% of the manufacturing companies reported air service connections as important to getting customers to look at their products. In 2002, it was reported that 93% of the top Irish companies used Dublin Airport for business travel.

    It is envisaged that the Abia Airports will develop business parks to capitalize on the attractiveness of air service connectivity to businesses in Enyimba city, Abiriba, Ohafia and Umuahia.. Often these business parks are used by firms with some connection to the airport or aerospace industries. Otherwise they are chosen as locations for companies making intensive use of air transport.

    Professional critics who huff and puff about the venture being a middle class luxury toy, miss the point because in today’s globalized economy of which millions of Abians at home and Diaspora are key players, the use of air as a means of transport is increasing, particularly for high value, low weight goods, or those requiring urgent transport. Studies have estimated that up to a third in value of world trade in merchandise travels by air. That’s why Governor Orji has acknowledged the social benefits provided by the proposed Abia airport in terms of the freedom to fly.

    Apart from attracting core business operations, leisure visitors and, inbound tourism to Abia, it would generate humongous income and employment in the tourism industry. Tourism is the second main element of the catalytic impact. The proposed airport will play a major role in making the development of inbound tourism possible. Many holiday destinations would not be easily accessible without air services.

    It will also encourage investors to develop scenic spots and resorts around Abia tourist destinations which include and not limited to: Isiukwuato waterfall in Umuogwugo, Azumini Blue River in Ukwa East LGA, the Long Juju of Arochukwu, the War Museum, Amakama cave, Amakama Umuahia South LGA, the Ohafia war dance and the textile weavers of Akwete.

    Many caves are located within the state from Umunneochi to Arochukwu and these include the Ngodo cave at Ngodo Isuochi, which has both stalactite and stalagmite inside; the Uluchukwu cave at Ahaba/Imenyi in Isiukwuato in Isiukwuato LGA; the Uluchukwu Abiama cave at Amankalu Alayi in Bende LGA; the Eziofia cave at Amaekpu Ohafia and the Onuibina cave at Ihechiowa in Arochukwu LGA. It is believed that the Uluchukwu cave, Abiama cave and long juju cave (ibini ukpabi) were once residence of Chukwu Abiama/Obioha the kind-hearted deity that once wielded great powers of arbitration.

    The real icing on the cake would be the integration of the cultural and tourist calendar of the state like UGWU ABIA festival which the airport will be a veritable medium of utilisation. This is an organized festival of note which will be internationalized on a yearly basis in a bid to draw the attention of our people in the Diaspora, and modified to align with contemporary carnival tendency of festival so that it can attract a great number of people.

    A 2012 Nigerian country report, on the benefits of air travel, undertaken by the Oxford Economics Group in collaboration with the International Air Transport Association IATA indicated the benefits that accrued to the Nigerian economy were inter alia: opening up foreign markets to Nigerian exports; lowering transport costs, particularly over long distances; helping to increase competition because suppliers can service a wider area and potentially reduce average costs, through increased economies of scale; increasing the flexibility of labour supply, which should enhance allocative efficiency and bring down the natural rate of unemployment; encouraging Nigerian businesses to invest and specialise in areas that play to the economy’s strengths. Speeding the adoption of new business practices, such as just-in-time-inventory management that relies on quick and reliable delivery of essential supplies; raising productivity and hence the economy’s long-run supply capacity. It is estimated that the sector accrued N119 billion to the GDP of Nigeria.

    Because Abia State does not have an airport, it could not rake in a single kobo from this lucrative opportunity. The upshot of all these is that the economic footprint of the aviation supply value chain is a gravy train we can no longer ignore. Imagine the revenue receipts that would be scooped by local Abia businesses from aviation fuel, catering, repair and maintenance, ticketing, distribution, freight forwarding, business services, ground-based infrastructure, finance, construction, facilities management, electricity, water supply etc.

    This is one venture Abians must synergise and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our dear OCHENDO.

    Torti is a management consultant and public policy analyst

  • Tribute to Dr. Lekan Are at 80

    On a hot, sweaty May 1958 afternoon, two adults and one adolescent stood in front of a room on the balcony at Tedder Hall in University College, Ibadan. Posted on the door was the bold notice in capital letters: “OPERATION LONDON, 33 DAYS”.

    Silence and bewilderment; then solemnity.

    May the Lord God keep and protect him, intoned Ajoke Aboderin, wife of Chief Moyo Aboderin who had requested “Uncle Bayo” – an adult factotum at her Oke-Bola, Ibadan residence – and myself to accompany her on a visit to “Lekan”,  then a final year student. He was reported to be recovering from a serious leg fracture which he had sustained during a football match at the university.

    So, was he going to be operated upon in London and away from the country for all of 33 days ?

    Hoping to receive more information on this “disaster” from another student who was passing by, we told him our mission. The student then knocked hard on the door and, to our great stupefaction and evident  joy, it was opened from within and out came Lekan himself, leg in plaster, smiling and obviously as delighted to receive us as we were to find him there.

    He then explained that his injury, though serious, did not necessitate overseas intervention, that the notice on his door was his own daily countdown reminder to the other students of the number of days remaining to the commencement of the final degree examinations of the college – the operation. The examinations of the college were conducted in those days by University of London. On the day of our visit, it was 33 days to go.

    So, you see – to borrow Dr. Are’s own favourite jargon – his remarkable sense of humour is indeed of early origin.

    Although I had known “Brother Lekan” since my late primary school days during his visits to Oke Bola, it is that incident that has remained stamped in my memory among my earliest recollections of him.

    Of his mother, I have earlier consciousness. Mama Nihinlola, born into the Aboderin family, was a regular visitor to my mother, who lived at Oranyan, which was not far from Opomulero House where she then lived with “Brother Lekan’s” maternal siblings and her husband. She must  have been about 15 years younger than my mother.

    After completing my Higher School Certificate course in December 1963, I was considering whether to attend university in Nigeria or travel abroad as I had also gained admission to University of London. Brother Lekan firmly advised  that I should not go abroad until after my bachelor’s degree. He had obtained his Ph. D. in the U.S in 1962 and what he saw there had obviously led him into that belief about the stress implications of studying abroad at an early age. His advice was an important factor in my decision to drop London for Ibadan and it proved to be the right decision.

    Brother Lekan probably inherited most of his visible physical attributes, including his height and infectious smile from his mother, while the achievements of Alhaji K.O.S. Are in business and politics suggest that he may have passed on to his eldest son the genes of his hugely driven personality. But his son would probably prefer to trace this inheritance not only to his father, but to his father’s own grandfather, Latoosa, the 12th Are Onakakanfo (Generalissimo) of ancient Oyo Empire, from whom the Are dynasty and Oke – Are in Ibadan derive their names.

    After he returned from the USA with Sister Bisi, whom he had married before they traveled, and their daughter, Funke, I was a regular visitor to his residence at Ibadan until I completed my university education and went abroad for professional studies.

    Because my visits to their residence were often in the afternoon, the meals that I ate in their household were usually local food, but local food of oyinbo (expatriate) quality. As there were only very few   phones in those days, all visits were without prior notification. They both treated me like their own junior brother, and sometimes better. I, too, also saw him as a brother, a rising star within the Aboderin and Are families and a notable old boy of Government College, Ibadan.

    Although he goes to bed at 9 p.m and usually wakes up, naturally, about 6 a.m, he seems capable of finding the time to be anywhere he has and wants to be. Through social events within his and my own  extended family, his closeness to his cousins Chief Olu Aboderin and Chief Moyo Aboderin, his high visibility in Government College, Ibadan Old Boys’ affairs even before he became its president – a position he held for  many years with exceptional commitment and high distinction – and also my own impromptu calls on his family from time to time, we maintained a continuous and happy relationship.

    Then, in 1984, his cousin, close friend and founding chairman of Punch newspaper company, Chief Olu Aboderin, who was also my own maternal brother, died. Thereafter I became one of the new directors of the company, on whose board Dr. Lekan Are had been while Chief Olu was alive and of which he was also a shareholder. Chief Moyo became the chairman.

    I would like to record that he gave full support to the new chairman.

    During the time I was chairman for over 24 years, I not only enjoyed his cooperation, but often found him especially useful in resolving difficult situations. Above all, his contributions to discussions at meetings were consistently of high quality, informed by his wide experience in public service management, his membership of some private sector boards, and an analytical disposition.

    And I think there may also be a lesson for others to learn here. Give or take a few months, Dr. Are is of the same age as Punch chairman Olu; 15 years younger than Punch chairman Moyo; 10 and half years older than Punch chairman Ajibola; while Wale Aboderin, the present  Punch chairman belongs to the same age group as Funke, Dr. Are’s eldest child: in matters of  corporate business and money, what is of essence is the goal while hierarchy by age must take an inferior position.

    His example made it easier for me, as chairman emeritus, to decide to remain on the board of the company.

    Dr. Are is well regarded for his integrity, his straightforwardness. I have always known him to be assiduous and thrifty and he started investing early, which have greatly contributed to being the wealthy man that he is today.

    He values loyalty and never forgets past favours. He literally revered his late paternal uncle, Alhaji Amusa Olaniyi Lawal Are, who retired as a  principal manager from United Bank for Africa, for the helpful role he played at a critical juncture in his early life as a schoolboy; he retained special affection for his maternal uncle, Late Pa Emmanuel Layi Aboderin, who showed him more than avuncular love in his childhood days.

    I congratulate Brother Lekan for attaining the age of 80; an age at which nobody can still pretend not to be old.

    I convey my felicitations and, as his aburo, claim the right to express my gratitude to Sister Bisi, a nutrition and education expert in her own right and former school principal, not only for the love and care she gave our egbon, but also for, in our lingo, bearing him a daughter and two sons Funke (Mrs Igun), Ayokunnu and Damola all of whom any parent would be justly proud.

    While he was in his mid – 40s, he suffered from a kidney complication and, ill in London, he realized he would need to undergo an operation from which he thought he might not return. So, as is the custom among brothers and cousins of that generation, he in one of his low moments told Olu (Aboderin), who was beside him at the time – Olu, if I do not survive this, I know you will see to the welfare of my children.

    Olu, while still in good health, recounted this incident to me one evening about two years before his own death on February 28, 1984 at the age of 49.

    Observing now his steady gait as he moves around, and contemplating his essential vitality, let no one be then surprised if, in 10 years’ time, Chief Lekan Are is still around, on his own two feet, recounting the story of his 90 years.

    And, who knows, with Sister Bisi coming behind, standing beside and continuing to keep him in check as occasion demands, this proud and valiant descendant of a quondam generalissimo of a historic empire may, even beyond his own expectations, victoriously fight his way into the very exclusive order of Nigerian centenarians.

     

    •Chief Ogunshola is former chairman of The Punch

  • Impact of Fashola’s education reform

    Impact of Fashola’s education reform

    Given the universally acclaimed status of education as the strongest weapon to fight poverty and a useful pillar on which brighter and rewarding future is laid, the Government of Lagos state has accorded education the attention it deserves. Since assuming office, Babatundde Fashola has taken a keen interest in addressing the issues in the education sector because of his believe that it is the only weapon that can define the future of the country. This is why the regime has embarked on a lot of reforms to improve the sector.

    At a time in the state, the problem was that of access to qualitative and affordable education. However, in the last few years, alongside infrastructural development of the state, the BRF government has carved a niche for insisting on quality education. He has gone about this through creation of enabling environment.

    Today, just as we can talk about what the government has invested in terms of rehabilitation and construction of well-furnished new blocks of classrooms across the state, distribution of free text books, provision of well-equipped laboratories and libraries, provision of buses for teachers  to ease transportation problems, re-launch of uniformed voluntary organizations in the state’s public schools, implementation of  Teachers’ Salary Scale (TSS) for teachers in the state public schools among others, the impacts has also been enormous.

    The far-reaching achievement of Lagos state under Fashola has not just ignited hope on revival of value delivery in public administration in Nigeria, it also holds the template of assessing results on both quantitative and qualitative basis

    The recent improvements recorded in external examinations by pupils in the state are indicative of the positive result of the reforms and additional trainings of teachers in the state service. We can conveniently say that we have about the best teachers in the country courtesy of the heavy investment in training and re-training programme of our teachers.

    To keep the flag flying, the state government recently hosted the third Lagos State Education Summit with the theme, “Qualitative Education in Lagos State: Raising the Standard” at the Eko Hotels and Towers, Victoria Island.

    An integral part of the state’s educational reform is the EKO Education Project which has been a huge success thus far. The way the project has been adapted to suit the Lagos experience has promoted accountability and openness through its approval of discretional grants to schools.  The Eko Education Project enjoyed an unprecedented high rating from the World Bank, which is a partner in the project.

    One facinating aspect of the Eko Project is the volunteer teachers’ scheme which has injected about 20,520 hours per month into the schools system, an equivalent of 183 full time teachers. The spirit behind the Eko Education Project was to improve the quality of education, compel the government as regulator to monitor the performances of the students, the schools and the teachers and encourage others to challenge themselves for greater heights.

    Another innovation by the Lagos Eko Project is the provision of a Report Card for every school, with the card giving detailed account of how a school has performed in relation to other schools, Local Government Areas, Education Districts and statewide, a programme which is unique to the Nigerian assessment system. In its characteristic innovative style of governance, the state government, with a view to involving other stakeholders in the funding of education in the state, instituted the now popular ‘adopt a school policy’. Through this policy, well-meaning individuals, corporate Organisations, and religious bodies among others are encouraged to pick and develop a school in their choice location.

    The state government has since received favourable response from several stakeholders across the states that have been making massive contributions in this respect. Presently, the state government operates free education programme in all public primary and secondary schools across the state.  It should also be stressed that Lagos, unlike other states, does not limit its free education programme to only the indigenes. Consequently, the state spends more money in running its free education programme as it has to make provision for more pupils and students taking into consideration the cosmopolitan nature of the state.

    Aside running free education at primary and secondary school levels, the state government has equally invested heavily in the construction of multi-lingual laboratories, installation of ICT laboratories in 120 schools and installation of science laboratories in 170 secondary schools.Till date, the state government has provided  over 2,876 new classrooms in the state.

    In order to reduce the financial burdens on parents, the Fashola administration has sustained the payment of the West African Examination Council and the National Examination Council (NECO) for all of SS3 students in public secondary schools in the state as part of the support for education of the people. The special intervention programme for 495 trainee- teachers to assist WASCE candidates with extra coaching was also introduced.

    Similarly, the State Governor recently presented a cheque of N252 Million to 126 junior and senior secondary schools, which have displayed improved performances over a period of time in the first Governor’s Education Award. With the competitiveness that the award will bring into the educational sector, the result would be for the benefit of all stakeholders in Lagos State.

    Despite its huge investment in public primary and secondary education, the state government remains committed to creating an enabling environment where indigent students in the tertiary institutions would not in any way be short-changed. This is being done through periodic increase of bursary awards, scholarship and grants. Equally, government is currently working on the overhauling of facilities at all the state owned tertiary institutions in order to guarantee qualitative education. Guests at the 2200 days event of the state government, which took place at LASU few weeks ago, would readily attest to the fact that a new LASU is presently evolving.   True democracy cannot exist in a society incapable of supporting the aspirations of its youth, and indeed its people. A truly representative government must be able to create the enabling environment for its citizenry to freely express itself in positive ways so that the diverse potentials of its people could be easily harnessed for growth and development. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his immortal classic ‘Democracy in America’ (1835), insists that building the people is more necessary than creating wealth, for the value of the latter is tied to the existence of the earlier. As it is often said, great minds think alike. Undoubtedly, Governor Fashola was having Tocqueville in mind when he declared recently at a public function that “if this investment matures (the investment in the education sector), Lagos will be a better place because we believe clearly, without any doubt, that the greatest resource this country has is not oil but its people.”With the kind of reforms that has been started by the state government through its steadfast focus on upgrade of school infrastructure and teachers’ improvement, a significant progress has undoubtedly been made.

    Lawal,  writes from Festac Town

  • NNPC and politicisation of kerosine distribution

    It is not for nothing that the media is notably referred to as the Fourth Estate of the Realm. The other three Estates being the Executive, the legislature and the judiciary arms of Government.

    The media is the fourth and most strategic of the estates, to the extent that democracy and its successes or failure defends largely on the effectiveness and sense of responsibility and fairness with which the media holds the other estates accountable to the people. The framers of the constitution certainly did not intend that the Fourth Estate will be the problem other than its gate keeping role.

    Today, the Nigeria media has played significant and very notable roles in ensuring that our nation’s hard won democracy is not only jealously guarded and protected but nurtured. It is therefore in the vanguard of a citizens ‘army’ that must seek, identity and terminate all anti democratic practices wherever they rear their heads in the polity. It is indeed a herculean task.

    The media is consequently guarded by certain golden rules that remain sacrosanct and uncompromising. The first is that “News is sacred and opinion is free”, (Charles Scott of the Guardian). The other is that all report must entertain the input of all affected parties (Fairness). The media is not a court meant to try citizens. It is the court of public opinion where citizens are assisted to informed opinion after getting all the facts as presented by the media.

    Unfortunately this modest and universal ideal has not been so in the past few years in Nigeria where the media has clearly sought to become the accuser and the judge.

    No example best illustrates this claim than recent publications by some leading national dailies in which unwholesome and bogus claims headlined, “How subsidy graft cause kerosine scarcity” and “The kerosine subsidy scam” have been fed the reading public.

    Without going into the futility of the unfounded and untenable arguments presented in the stories and opinions aforementioned, suffice it to say that once an opinion writer has decided to close his or her eyes to the facts of the subject under treatment , it is the opinion so expressed that rightly becomes a scam.

    To be sure, the present leadership of the PPMC assumed office in February 2011. At the time only four depots were functional in the country namely satellite town, Mosimi, Ibadan and Ore. This is aside the depots attached to the Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt Refineries. It then became necessary to engage the services of depots to enable bridging to inactive depots especially the Northern parts of the country.

    However and not deterred by the plethora of challenges facing the new officers of PPMC at the time, they set out with uncommon focus and came up with a template to change the supply chain to all citizens of the country for good.

    The cardinal objective included but was not limited to:

    · Supply petroleum products to the domestic market at minimal operating costs

    Provide excellent customer service by efficiently transporting crude oil to the refineries and moving petroleum products to the market.

    The management of PPMC within the first year in office, recommissioned Kaduna – Suleja line, Kaduna – Kano line, Suleja – Minna line, Kaduna – Gasau and Kaduna – Jos lines. It is noteworthy that some of these depots had been unoperational and had not worked for 15 years prior to this time.

    The PPMC is unequivocal in its belief that the petroleum products subsidy on DPK benefits only the rich to the disadvantage of the average man on the street.

    Triggered by directives from the National Assembly, PPMC increased kero supply from 8millioin litres to 11million litres per day. The problem is and has always been distribution because there was ample evidence to prove that Kerosine meant for the masses was being diverted to the pharmaceutical industry. It is also a known fact that Kerosine was equally being diverted to the Aviation Industry, Road Construction and Manufacturing sector. Not least of all were the massive activities of smugglers of Kerosine across the borders. Then you had saboteurs who still mix Kerosine with Diesel for the purpose of increasing the volume of Diesel used for fueling.

    In the face of theses known facts, claims and velifications of a DPK cartel in the NNPC is not only grossly misplaced but unfounded and misrepresented falsehood.

    Since the tenure of late President Musa Yar’Adua and the confusion arising from who should pay the subsidy began, NNPC has had to bear the burden of solely sustaining DPK supply to the Nigerian market as marketers have refused to bring in the product due to the uncertainty already mentioned as to who pays the subsidy. The NNPC brings in the product with some contributions from the refineries owing to its statutory obligation to make petroleum products available nationwide.

    For the records, NNPC has supplied a total of 332,520,875 million litres of DPK from January 2011 – September 2013 to the Nigerian market.

    It must also be emphasized that the finance minister and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonji Iweala recently alluded to the fact that the Finance Ministry has not paid subsidy on DPK to NNPC for about three years now. This should be of concern to Nigerians who must question whether the absence of subsidy payment on kerosene to NNPC is a deliberate ploy aimed at crippling the organisation.

    With the recommissioning of the Aba and Benin Depots, NNPC has been able to make DPK available through pipeline and loading from these depots to Abia, Imo and Anambra states.

    Industry experts agree that the pipelines are by far the safest, most efficient, quickest and cost effective means to distribute products especially for a country as large as Nigeria.

    The Gombe Depot is ready for commissioning as indeed loading of products is already in progress. The Aba – Enugu – Makurdi lines and their respective depots will be ready before the end of the first quarter of 2014.

    Once all pipelines are available, NNPC is well poised to pump DPK and indeed all products to the depots located in all regions of the country for so long as there is guaranteed safety of the pipelines from vandalisation. If the activities of pipeline vandals are stamped out, NNPC is in a position to pump products through its pipeline network spanning the entire country to 21 loading depots attached to various segments of the pipeline network. Non availability of pipelines due to incessant acts of vandalism is what denies the NNPC the ability to effectively distribute products hitch free nationwide.

    On the vexed issue of the pump price of DPK, it is a known fact that the NNPC does not regulate it. The Ex Depot price of DPK has been consistent at N40.90. It is the statutory duty of DPR to regulate and enforce petroleum products prices and not the NNPC.

    It must be equally emphasized that those who are licensed by DPR to sell the product buy from either IPMAN, MOMAN, Deport Owners, NNPC Retail outlets and resell at inflated and outrageous prices over and above the recommended price N50 per litre.

    From the foregoing, is the NNPC culpable or guilty of all the allegations being heaped on it by a section of the media? Only NNPC mega stations sell the product for N50 nationwide. Why then blame the NNPC for the wrong doings of others, why are other stakeholders not taken up on accountability? And what about the regulatory agencies of PPRA and DPR.

    The management of NNPC is unrelenting in its efforts and desire to deepen the growth of the LPG as an alternative source of energy for domestic household use. In partnership with an NGO, Gas to Health Initiative, the NNPC is set to raise awareness and educate its populace on the use of LP Gas which is a more efficient energy for cooking than Kerosine.

    This switch from kerosene and other biomass to LP Gas is the new trend around the globe including third world nations.

    The use of LP Gas has the added advantage of reducing subsidy on Kerosine as well as saving the environment from degradation, create wealth and enhance the health of the average Nigerian, the continuous use of kerosene as household energy is a total waste of natural resource.

    Available records confirm that LPG production in Nigeria is in excess of 3,100,000 tons per anum. Consumption has only recently risen to 200,000 tons per anum as at December 2012. Further available records show the NNPC has rehabilitated all the Butanization plants in all six geo political zones with the exception of Ilorin.

    These are facts and facts are sacred. Nigeria and Nigerians must be encouraged to join the rest of the world in the use of LP Gas and the onus is on the nation’s mass media to educate, enlighten and sensitize our people. The inventions of scams where none exist will do the country and its citizens no good.

     

    Gwazuwang, wrote from Abuja.

     

  • Health professionals and NAFDAC’s boss, Orhii

    Health professionals and NAFDAC’s boss, Orhii

    Should President Goodluck Jonathan cut short the tenure of NAFDAC Director-General? Health professionals believe it is the wise thing to do.

    Dr. Paul Orhii’s tenure as Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) no doubt has attracted a swirl of controversies. The controversies appear not to let up. It’s all about what the statute books say are the qualifying credentials of whoever should occupy the position. The law prescribes the profession of who should be appointed Director-General, something that Orhii’s appointment seemed to undermine.

    Pharmacists in Nigeria believe that the law in question has pencilled down a professional pharmacist as the one that must be appointed Director-General of the agency. Nevertheless, since the position of power and authority in Nigeria could be used even to the subversion of the statutes, it appeared that some four years ago, when Orhii’s kinsman served as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the very sleight of the hand became too attractive that he landed the job. The precedent, against the declaration of the statutes, has been the subject of recrimination and professional controversies.

    Indeed, sensing that they were losing grounds professionally and in national relevance with each day that the appointment was sustained, relevant industry professionals have kicked and cried. Inevitably, as the recriminations continued, the administration and delivery of healthcare in the country have faltered steadily. Aggregately, the controversy seems to also be testing the will of the relevant professional group.

    Years ago, following the appointment of Dr. Orhii, a medical doctor and a lawyer from Ushongu Local Council of Benue State, as Director-General of NAFDAC, it seemed that the state had finally nailed the fate of the pharmacists in these matters. Why, for instance, a government would pick a medical doctor and a lawyer to run the affairs of NAFDAC, when the statute books had advised differently, beggars reason.

    Section 9, sub-section 1 of the agency’s establishing statute recommends that: “there shall be appointed for the agency by the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces on the recommendation of the Minister, a Director General who shall be a person with good knowledge of pharmacy, food and drugs.” Is it possible that in Nigeria, a person who so qualifies would altogether not qualify to register as a professional member of the professional association of pharmacists?

    Is it possible, drawing from the precedence, that the Federal Government could one day appoint someone who does not qualify to register as a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the professional association of qualified legal practitioners in Nigeria, as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice?

    Pharmacists and several other health sector professionals seem equally incensed that successive governments seem to have been sold the lie that only professionals registered with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the professional body for qualified and practising medical doctors in Nigeria, can be appointed Ministers of Health, a privilege that seems never extended to other health professionals.

    Pharmacists have repeatedly raised issues on this with both the Minister of Health and the presidency. It has neither yielded a word of contrition nor regrets from the government. Instead, in a clear disrespect of the provisions of fairness as well as the doctrines of the Federal Character, Dr. Orhii’s kinsman, Professor John Ibu from Oju Local Council of Benue State, was earlier in the year appointed chairman of the governing council of NAFDAC. Unlike Orhii, though, Professor Ibu is eminently qualified to chair the board of the governing council.

    A retired academic, Ibu is well respected both in the academic community as well as in his Benue State. A very devout Christian, Ibu has raised his family admirably in the purest traditions of the faith, and his daughter, a medical doctor by training, is today married to the senior pastor of the Dunamis Church, Pastor Enenche.

    With both issues of professional qualification dogging Dr Orhii, and the disrespect of the doctrines of the Federal Character in appointing Professor Ibu from Benue state buffeting the agency, it surely calls for an urgent remedy.

    Orhii, a medical doctor and holder of a degree in law from an American university, has argued that he holds a PhD in Neauropharmacology as a biomedical scientist. He, however, has refrained from stating whether he was qualified to register as a professional member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, as well as the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria. But clearly knowing where his bread is buttered, Orhii has taken advantage of the ensuing silence from the presidency to mount strong lobby initiatives for his confirmation as Director-General for a second tenure. Members of the pharmacy profession have argued that they have the law on their side.

    There seems to abound in the case both moral and legal issues. Following the position of the statutes, it means that anyone occupying the position of the Director-General of NAFDAC must be assumed to be a practising pharmacist since a “good knowledge of pharmacy” cannot be effective outside its practice. Yet, it beggars reason whether anyone is permitted to practise pharmacy professionally when the person is not qualified to be registered as a professional member of the PSN? Will the authorities in the presidency look carefully at the merits of this issue and in their quiet, silent refrain swiftly serve Orhii a notice of “service no longer required” to permit it to not only correct the anomaly but to also pick a professional who is from outside of Benue State?

    To have kept Orhii at NAFDAC these past four years is a mistake only excusable by the understanding that the government must not be made to lose face. But to stretch his stay in the place beyond one tenure is a grave affront on the rule of law and a disservice to Nigerians. On the legal implications of this, the Attorney-General has a duty to prepare a memo to the presidency on this. Dr. Orhii could, however, be redeployed to some agency that does not create professional misgivings on the overall programmes of government.

     

    •Onubogu is a public relations consultant based in Benin City.

  • APC and question of acceptance in Southeast

    I am writing this article to correct some misconceptions about the APC in the Southeast and its consequences.

    This is my personal opinion despite being aware that some people from this part of the country might not agree with me but they should also consider and have it in mind that what they consider as not good for the goose might be good for the gander and that’s life.

    The same APC they are blackmailing is the same party that has been embraced in other parts of the country. This week’s defection of five PDP governors to the party is a serious pointer.

    That APC did not win in Anambra does not mean that they cannot win in Lagos, Kano or Borno.

    Since the merger that brought about this party, it has suffered lots of onslaughts and blackmails that it’s a Yoruba party, Hausa party or a Muslim party and the deportation brouhaha.

    Peter Obi was exposed to have “deported” hundreds of other people prior to the Fashola “deportation” saga but it was the same Peter Obi who dubiously used it as a propaganda to blackmail APC and tarnish the image of the party in the south east in his desperation to deliver APGA at all cost in a dubious election that is still inconclusive after two weeks.

    All these allegations although unfounded and deceitful is being embraced by a section of the populace and this is very dangerous when some people who call themselves leaders despite knowing the truth but prefer to use falsehood to achieve their aim leaving their followers to suffer in ignorance .

    Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe has predicted in his usual manner that APC will collapse before the full merger .Today, its more than five months since the merger and the party has waxed stronger and stronger.

    Then some confused tribalistic minds came up with a theory that politicians from the east and west can never work together.

    Well, some of them have not cared to learn from history on how Micheal Okpara who was a leader of the UPGA, an alliance of NCNC and remnants of imprisoned Awolowo led AG in the 1965 elections.

    Some myopic minded individuals also hinted that there is no way that Buhari and Tinubu can work together or that Buhari cannot work with the Igbos.

    Please be informed that both Buhari and Tinubu are just members of APC and both are wise men that know where this merger is heading to.

    Recently, a former member of the presidential committee on the proposed national confab, Col. Nyiam revealed that Buhari has always preferred to work with Igbo military officers during his time in the military. Col. Nyiam as an outspoken person has known Buhari personally since the outbreak of the civil war.

    Then recently, another school of thought with their spokesman in the person of Senator Jonathan Zwingina hinted that the Yoruba can never agree with the north.

    He justified his position with the last horse trading accord of 2011 between Jonathan and Tinubu that helped Jonathan to win the southwest. It’s likely that Senator Zwingina will get the shock of his life.

    Back to the Southeast, there is no positive justification to vote against the APC with regards to these cheap and unfounded speculations.

    PDP has held firm here for 12 years and has nothing to show for it. It’s not a hidden thing.

    After all in 1999, we had in the APP (later ANPP) the likes of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Arthur Nzeribe, Ogbonnaya Onu , Ifeanyi Araraume, George Moghalu, Evans Enwerem and host of others but all of them excluding Ogbonnaya Onu and George Moghalu decamped to the PDP .

    The APP later metamorphosed into ANPP and later APC. These heavyweights could have been members of APC today if they have stayed back in ANPP with an example of Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and George Moghalu and their counterparts in Borno, Yobe and Zamfara.

    They were not chased out of the party but for reasons best known to them, they preferred to be with the party in power.

    The same was with the formation of AC, ACN and later APC .As a member of AC since 2006, later ACN and now in APC, I can give a small history of the Southeast participation in the party.

    AC was formed by most national stakeholders who took part in the successful anti third term project led by Atiku. After the unsuccessful 2007 elections, many of the foundation members who could have stayed behind to further strengthen the party in the south east retreated to the PDP. They are the Vice presidential candidate, Senator Ben Obi, John Nwodo, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Dubem Onyia and hosts of former national house members like Greg Egu and others whom I cannot remember went back to the PDP with Atiku.

    My argument is that lots of our Igbo brothers played major roles in the formation of these parties that later merged into APC but instead of staying to consolidate they left on their own accord to the ruling PDP.

    I want to know at what point that ACN/ANPP became a southwest, northern or Muslim party when prominent Igbos played major roles in their formations but abandoned them for “greener pastures” called PDP.

    They, together with their other compatriots spread all over the country went to PDP to either play national politics or to have a share of the “national cake.”

    An Igbo proverb says that it’s when you marry two husbands that you know which one is the best.

    PDP has never fielded any Igbo man as a presidential or vice presidential candidate but AC and ANPP had fielded Igbos as vice presidential candidates at various times in 2003, 2007 and 2011. So which formation really loves the Igbos more if we have to judge from this perspective?

    So, it’s really shameful when someone comes to say that Igbos don’t have a stake in the APC formation that has respected our aspirations in the past.

    One of my friends wrote that notwithstanding that Imo is APC, that PDP will win the presidential election there. I don’t want to argue but my argument is why some people are so much concerned about who wins in Imo state.

    Will Jonathan win the general elections if he wins only in Imo and the entire southeast?

    Also, remember that the northern states of Niger, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi, Jigawa though “currently” PDP states are likely going to vote against Jonathan.

    I keep on advising PDP supporters and reporters that they should not lose sleep about the east.

    I am not trying to dispute your Jonathan’s landslide or moon slide in the east. You guys should worry about what happens in other zones too, because the south south/southeast and some north central states with their weak numerical voting strength cannot deliver Jonathan.

    Ask yourselves these questions:

    1- Will Jonathan”s victory in the southeast guarantee him total victory if the whole north west/north east and southwest with their superior numerical strength vote against him?

    Go and check and compare the voting strength of current PDP controlled states ( 28 million plus including likely swing states of Niger, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi ,Jigawa) and APC controlled states ( 35 million plus).

    Note that I included the voting strength of those likely northern swing states to Jonathan despite the fact that they will vote against him.

    2- What’s the voting strength in Imo State and the entire southeast compared to only one APC controlled state of Kano?

    I hope that those myopic minds using the Anambra election to generalize the outcome of the 2015 elections will have a rethink.

    Since the election, I have been bombarded with attacks here in Owerri . It seems that some people were just waiting for the outcome of the election to erroneously pronounce the death of APC in the entire southeast and Nigeria on the whole.

    It beats my imagination on how some people can use the incident in Anambra to arrive to a conclusion.

    I have always maintained my stand that the perception and acceptance of APC in the Southeast falls short of the perception and acceptance of the party in other parts of the country and at the end it might be the perception and acceptance of the party in other parts of the country that might be the deciding factor.

    That the southeast will vote for “Ebele” ( chukwu) , but that will not save him.

    That’s my personal opinion.

    Last Tuesday, I was very busy and was not aware that the political landscape of this country has taken a new dimension.

    I went to watch a local football match in the evening and again I was “mobbed” by friends of how brother ” Ebele” will win landslide and moonslide in Imo State and south east.

    When I asked, they pointed out that I should ask the common man on the street.

    When I pointed out that the common man on the street of Owerri and the common man on the street of Lagos, Ibadan Sokoto, Kano, Dutse etc might not share the same idea, they absolutely refused to understand.

    It was when I reached home that I felt somehow vindicated when I heard the news that APC has gotten five PDP states without a fight.

    The “common man” in Sokoto, Adamawa, Kwara, Rivers and Kano had spoken.

    To my conclusion, many people have always had the view that all Nigerian politicians are the same despite their political affiliation but that should not make us to fold our arms and watch a handful of people hiding under the PDP to hold the nation hostage.

    We should vote them out and replace them with other people so that this will help our economy and democracy to grow because anyone that goes their will strive to work hard having it mind that failure to do so means losing the next election.

    It worked in Ghana, Kenya and lately Senegal and we hope to see this happen during our own days here on earth.

    Osita Chiagorom

    ositac@yahoo.com