The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

From the cell phone

For Gbenga Omotoso

I believe the dialogue on the back page of The Nation last Thursday “Obasanjo meets Tukur “was your creation? If it’s not, then, OBJ deserves a medal for telling that Tukur the truth and nothing but the truth. From B.F. Odugbemi, Osun State

Obasanjo remains unshakeable in PDP and in politics. He said anybody that is not performing, elected or whatever, should resign. It is now clear to Tukur that, the wind of OBJ is blowing and anybody that dares him would be blown away. Tukur has forgotten that the President is a product of OBJ and the President cannot ignore him. The President and his cohort should resign honourably because the problem of PDP is the problem of Nigeria. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Dockyard Apapa Lagos.

Your ‘truly reliable source’ didn’t give you the full gist of what OBJ did. I also know someone who knows someone who was there. He said OBJ also performed one of those famous Egba songs: ‘Ohun e ri ewi. Ohun e ri, ero. Obasanjo seun e pe ko se e e!’ My source said he did this with his legendary scintillating circling dance steps with his flowing agbada almost hitting Tukur. He said although Tukur managed a wry smile, that was enough for the PDP Chair to know the conversation was over! I dey laugh o! Regards. From Olu.

Re-Obasanjo meeks Tukur. The meeting between the two was well covered. It was a moody and funny session. I give kudos to the coverage. From Lanre Oseni.

Your piece was up to par as usual. But, I didn’t know when you became a comedian but your ‘cracker’ could not crack my rib. From Emeka Onwujiobi.

The Super Eagles played well in the first-half but went to sleep in the second-half. They felt that they had won and relaxed their play. They must wake up in their remaining games or stand the risk of not qualifying to the second round. Anonymous.

How Obama took his second oath of office, notably, is instructive – one hand on legendary Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and the other on Tita NicMartin Luther King Jr’s. It’ll be wise for Obama and other leaders not only to lean on Bibles of his/their great worlds, but LEAN on their Jesus-God for daily strength/guidance. Anonymous.

For Dare Olatunji

Re-Obama: Retrorpect and prospect. God destined Obama to be in his present position. He further destined him for a second term, despite all odds. I am convinced he did not disappoint Americans and I am sure he won’t, this time, too. That is democracy in action rather than the money-baggism and thuggery tendencies. May we get there. Amen! From Lanre Oseni.

I appreciate your write up entitled Obama 2.0. You didn’t mention the killing of Osama bin Ladin as one of his achievements. May be you avoided it for security reasons. Thanks. From Dele Ajayi, Ado Ekiti.

Your Editorial on Cash trafficking failed to tell us what the law says on limits and punishment. If people are declaring hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first instance, even when they have more, then, something must be terribly wrong. You cannot take more than $10,000 in or out of America, the richest nation on earth, without going through the ‘pressing iron’. Sanusi has a lot to tell Nigerians on why our forex market has become such a huge casino. Anonymous.

Sir, I have just read your article. It was both fascinating and incisive. God bless you. From Adeniyi, Nasarawa.

Your column At Home and Abroad really inspired me. The story of Obama and some American-racial extremists has the same bearing with the Nigerian situation. Here, in Nigeria, it is not racial but ethnic dominance. It’s a crime for any minority ethnic group to aspire to produce the president or governor in Nigeria; any one who tries incurs the wrath of those who think it’s their birthright to rule Nigeria. This is why there is chaos everywhere in Nigeria because of bad governance and insecurity. But, one day, our story will change for good. From Andrew Ortesegbegi, Benue State.

Your Obama 2.0 was simply fantastic. How I wish you could see a good Nigerian leader on whom policy-based articles of this type can be replicated. You have done a good job. More ink to your pen. From Folabi Fayeun, Akure.

Mercifully, President Obama won the election for a second term, not on emotion or sentiment but on solid and verifiable performance. Somebody once said:“Where evidence is compelling, and overwhelming, conviction is inevitable.” Nigerian politicians and the electorate should be more analytically rigorous and less emotive, henceforth, for the benefit of the country. From Adegoke O. O, Ikhin, Edo State.

For Segun Gbadegesin

Re-The national interest in education. I was moved by ‘What Nigeria fails to put into the education of her citizens, she cannot expect to get out of the economy’. One hopes the President, Vice President, Senate-President, Speaker, House of Representatives, Minister of Education and all the state Governors read the write-up and revamp their concerns on the state of public education; the decay and backwardness and reenforce the national interest in education. The nation must take interest in the education of its citizens; upon such rest national integration, development and productivity. The totality of education is of public interest; yet the totality of education needed not be funded by the public treasury.

Government, representing the public, must regulate, mobilise and provide an enabling environment for education of the citizens. Government may subsidise, pioneer and invest in public-private partnership for education. Certainly, private enterprise on education would be encouraged and promoted to reduce the financial burden and mitigate the inflexibility and slow responses associated with decisions of governments. Government shall supervise and regulate education based on feedback data-gathering. Basic syllabus and other standards should be decided by the government, subject to negotiation and affordability by citizens and the entrepreneurs.

It must know and share the responsibility for the standard of citizen-education. It is better to have citizens in control than finance education with taxes, royalties or booties and spoils, accruable from resources forcefully appropriated by governments. Nigerians do not have sufficient trust in governments, acclaimed to be corrupt, alienated and self serving. The problem in the present, is that government hijacked the responsibility for education as an excuse for misappropriation of public funds.

There are opportunities in other sectors for squandering our money; education is the least attractive. Government financing of education served the few in governments and their contractors much more than the citizens. Governments are not sincerely interested and are not committed to public education. They are not representing the citizens and the claim to public representation is false and a hypocrisy. The politicians bargained for power and short-changed the citizens because of pervasive ignorance, arrogance, rudeness and crudity. Education is the panacea. Good and empowering education would upset the status quo and would liberate the exploited citizens: milked sheep, goats and cows.

Governments are not going to embrace your sensitisation of the public on education. You need to mobilise the citizens to take their destiny into their hands and wrestle their education from the government. Let’s not look up to governments or rely on them for education that liberates and emancipates citizens. Governments and their contractors are not as stupid as we wrongly presume. They do not need your preaching. The masses need more than preaching, praying and fasting to be delivered. They need a Moses (Prophet) to lead, without the desperation, confusion and deception of Boko Haram. You may study the history of Western education from the Greek and Roman times to contemporary trends in education. Our national population and resources are sufficient to make contributions to the world. We need committed mobilisers who may not be in government as it were. Please, let us strategise. From Engr.A.I. Adewumi, Ilorin.

For Tunji Adegboyega

I have read through your ‘Osun: Two years on’ in The Nation on Sunday of January 27. Kindly send a copy to my mail. I believe it is a must-have document. Many thanks. From Geoffrey.

Sir, I agree with you totally with respect to the achievements made so far by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. But I disagree that he should tone down his radicalism. You know it is good to have such radicals at home because of the radicals outside. I think it is good for Osun. Anonymous, The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

I am an Ijesha man trying to come back home some 37 years after in another part of the country. I am very happy with Ogbeni Aregbesola. But the uniforms were brought to Osogbo in trailers. Can’t these be sewn in Osun? Please praise and criticise when necessary. This will make the man not to lose focus. From Tona.

Re: ‘Osun: Two years on’, so far , with the ongoing two-carriage-roads in the state, I say kudos to Ogbeni Aregbesola. However, His Excellency should talk less, increase the pay of the OYES from N10,000 to N20,,, because N10,000 cannot take such workers home. That kind of pay could lead to inefficiency, low standard of living and, consequently, corrupt tendencies!. So, which problem have we solved? By the massive indebtedness of N40 billion that Ogbeni Aregbesola announced he inherited from his predecessor, how did he (Aregbesola) miraculously have a savings of N10billion? From Lanre.

Tunji, do you honestly think that for a state like Osun, it makes sense spending N3billion annually on free lunch for pupils? Can’t this money be injected into the agricultural revolution of the state? From Chijioke Uwasomba, OAU, Ile-Ife.

Honestly, people in Osun have now truly seen the difference between Oyinlola and Aregbesola. If there were to be a contest between the two, there may be surprises. Anonymous.

Re:’Thank you, Deacon Ositelu’ and ‘Well done, worthy cops’ (The Nation on Sunday of January 13). I appreciate you for showing gratitude to the late Deacon Ayo Ositelu. His name rang a bell in my secondary and tertiary education years (1974-1986). He was a popular, simple man. May his soul rest in peace (Amen). In your first paragraph, you mentioned 70 years on April 6 and in the second-to-the-last paragraph, you said it was March, please correct as appropriate. Secondly, sometimes, some of those policemen impress. I agree. From Lanre Oseni.

Sir, you too should help groom journalists that would speak truth to power and change Nigeria; and thanks for recognising those cops. From Feyi Akeeb Kareem.

Ayo Ositelu passed on on January 9, 2013, not December 9. Printer’s devil? From Ayo Ojeniyi.

January 30, 2013
Kano and the inevitable pill of ‘Okada’ ban

While working on the official data released last year by the police on the serial killings taking place in Kano State, which stated that between March and June 2012, a total number of 45 people were killed by bike-riding gunmen, another sad news filtered in.

Gunmen, the news report stated, riding motorcycles, stormed Dakata area of Kano and shot dead five people. This January alone, a conservative estimate shows at least 21 people were killed by gunmen on motor bikes.

Apart from being antithetical to ideal city transport system, the environmental hazards and dangers the trade poses to the health of the rider and the passenger, the bike is now used by hoodlums — given its runaway pliability — to kill innocent people.

But Nigerians seem to be at home with the country’s underdevelopment. We loathe changes but love development. We seem so averse to progressive changes, yet we always yearn for changes. We are good at making comparison with advanced countries on issues of development or sanity, yet any attempt by leaders to bring sanity into the system is criticized by the same critics of underdevelopment.

Any leader who is not progressive in his approach in this age, he is, obviously, doomed for failure. Our social system is ailing. It is the responsibility of a leader to provide the antidote or required pills needed to relieve the indisposed system — however bitter the pills may taste.

While some people wrongly argue that Kano State government is alienating the people’s “rights to movement” (as if government has banned motorcycles completely) as ‘guaranteed’ by the constitution, they blink over the fact that the right to life is also guaranteed under section 33 (1) of the 1999 constitution. “Every person,” says the 1999 constitution, “has a right to life and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life save in the execution of a sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria”.

That aside, the responsibility of securing the life and welfare of the citizenry rests squarely on the government. This truism is boldly highlighted by section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution which states: “The security and welfare of the people shall be the PRIMARY purpose of government”. (Emphasis mine). Now, how will you score a leader who makes no effort to discharge his PRIMARY purpose? In a serious clime, failure to do this can spark impeachment sessions in the legislative chambers.

Until the late 80s (some say early 90s), Nigerians never knew achaba/okada, and the transport system was less chaotic as it is today. We boarded taxis and buses in those days and nothing happened to us. Where, in any advanced society, is achaba/okada operating? It is a sign of chronic underdevelopment.

Statistics at the emergency units of our hospitals however shows that most of their patients are either the commercial motorcyclists or their passengers. In just Murtala Mohammed Hospital Kano alone, a total of 8,428 cases of male accident victims related to motorcycles were recorded from January to December 2012. Within the same period, 2,367 female sustained injuries through motorcycle-related accidents. And now the sad story: a total of 2,018 people lost their lives last year through road accidents —90 percent related to motorcycles— in just one hospital!

Given this ugly record, any right-thinking person should applaud a leader who is making efforts to reverse the trend and discharge his PRIMARY constitutional responsibility.

I hear varied arguments from the sophistry commentariat, with some people arguing that government should have taken some palliative measures before taking the decision in order to forestall the domino effect. Let us first look at what the present administration so far put in place. An abridged overview of government’s empowerment policies reveals not just mollifying measures but a solid empowerment bedrock.

As part of sanitizing the transport system and empowering the teeming youths, Kano State government established Kano Road Transport and Traffic Authority (KAROTTA). So far KAROTTA employs nearly 1,000 personnel, and soon it’s manpower strength would hit 1,500. A total of 4,004 people have been employed in the civil service. Government has procured 1,000 ordinary taxis, 1,000 luxury taxis (brand new Toyota Corollas under the Graduate Drivers Scheme), about 700 buses in order to sanitize, ease and provide employment opportunities to people.

The present administration, in terms of providing micro credits is second to none. The CBN stated this when the governor of the bank pronounced Kano highest in terms of provision of micro-credits last year. In terms of empowerment initiatives, Kano also tops the index as the administration received various local and international awards. Toward building a solid empowerment bedrock, the present administration has established 44 craft schools and 44 micro-finance banks in each of the 44 local governments of the state. These craft schools are open for interested indigenes of Kano to enroll as no qualification criteria is emphasized. There are also 21 training institutes established by Governor Kwankwaso on assumption into office. In terms of education, one can boldly say Kano steals the limelight. Now, what better palliative than government’s commitment to education and vocational trainings?

A grotesque elevation of commercial bike business also gives government worries as findings show that most of them are coming from other states. Take a tour to our major motor parks and see how motorcycles and their owners are transported in trucks into Kano in the morning. Take a detour in the evening and see how they are transported back to their abodes. They come from neighboring states in trucks in the morning and return to their base at night. Ban on motorcycles in Jos, Abuja, Lagos and four other states, has brought about the influx of motorcycles into Kano State, further bringing chaos into the system.

No doubt there is good intention in government’s decision to bring sanity into the system and safeguard the lives of the citizens.

I just hope the critics now see the merit —and the merit— of Kwankwaso’s decision.

• Jaafar is Special Assistant to Kano State governor on Media & Public Relations

January 28, 2013
On parties’ merger and realignment

The ultra-democratic supposition that majorities necessarily midwife the truth has few enthusiasts these days. We can be grateful that almost the sum of Nigeria’s opposition parties have thus far averted many blatant errors in their bid, this time around, to merge as a progressive party to replace Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), but there is always the danger that it could someday force a compromise that will prove fatal.

The history of all the parties involved in the ongoing merger talks abound in examples of this process of merger cum renewal. The Action Congress (AC) under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu before the 2007 Presidential and gubernatorial elections absorbed and gently domesticated the populist impulse that gave birth to the ACN. Much later, the ACN after 2007, co-opted most of the views that had been championed by Asiwaju Tinubu’s progressive thoughts and action in that year.

These were the acts of a party out of national power, seeking to make fresh alliances for the struggles ahead. It was not surprising, therefore to find certain elements in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) South-west zone, in the early 2007s during a period out of power, reaching beyond its previous power bases and seeking to join hands with new socio-political forces in the South-west.

The evidence is fast accumulating that the time for a party realignment that will accommodate the progressive elements within the PDP may at last be ripe. In the National Assembly especially, the failure of the present ruling party to reflect adequately the political desires of a majority of voters is painfully manifest.

Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the Peoples’ Democratic Party has had majorities in both the Lower House and the Senate, yet this overwhelming predominance has resulted in few policy initiatives that can with any seriousness, be regarded as expressing the will of a majority of the Nigerian people, or even any specific proclivities of the party. The opposition parties with the National Assembly spectrum reaching from ACN to CPC and others have stood for just about everything for our nation, while the PDP in their generality have responded by standing for practically nothing. The result has been that neither of them, taken all in all, has stood for much of anything.

In presidential terms, the performance of the ruling party at the centre has been proved to be the worst in the annals of governance in Nigeria.

Might not a realignment of the parties be brought about in which the “liberal/progressive” values endorsed by so substantial a proportion of the population find expression in a party specifically designed to express them?

It is not a new idea, on the contrary, I shall demonstrate that exactly such a political movement has been on the very verge of success in this country slouching around Bethlehem, as it were, trying to be born. Once it came to the brink of realization only to be thwarted by the black mischance of the PDP assassin’s bullet. On another occasion the liberal/progressives themselves, momentarily yielding to the temptation of what appeared to be expedient compromise, threw away a golden opportunity. The attempt being made now for all the liberal/progressive forces to unite and promptly sweep everything before it is welcomed as this is certainly the right time to build a new party together to reflect the true distribution of political forces. Many observers believe the time is opportune for a new major party consciously designed to free PDP’s hold on the jugular of the Nigeria masses’ vein.

Ideally, the new party to be announced with whatever name that will be attached to it, should originate and grow spontaneously, without reference to the presidential candidacy of any particular individuals. Certainly it must never be allowed to become merely the lengthened shadow of a single man. But in practical terms, the party ought to be able, almost from the very outset, to point to reputable and responsible individuals who at least might, if the circumstances were propitious, accept its presidential and vice-presidential nominations. “You can’t beat somebody with nobody” is one of the oldest and soundest rules in politics, and such essential tasks as recruiting personnel and raising funds for the new party will be well-nigh impossible if there is no one visible on the horizon who at least might make a plausible race for the presidency under its banner.

Above all, let us restore to generations yet to come, the old and all-but forgotten pride in this country and its heritage. Let us give still further solid and visible grounds for that pride, by making the nation’s streets safe, eradicating corruption from our systems, and let there be light perpetually in the country. Let us make way for ability wherever it exists and remember our obligation of compassion, where it does not.

We reject the counsels of demagogues who promise something for nothing, and will speak instead the truth, even when it hurts. Above all, we will restore to the Nigerian political process some part of the joy and optimism it has lost.

For if we succeed, we will have accomplished a mighty thing. We will have reversed in Nigeria, where it counts most – the whole downward-spiraling tide of the 21st Century. There is no reason why this century’s great experiment with freedom must end in failure. It was men and women who created the opportunity, and they who have botched it; and they can rescue it, even now, if they only will. It is up to us, and the means are at hand, a large and devoted majority of the Nigerian people, and a new majority party, under tested leaders, ready to express their will. Together they can save, and formidably reinvigorate our beloved and imperiled country.

• Engr. Shoyebo is the author of the book: “WANTED – Genuine and Patriotic Nigerian Politicians”

January 28, 2013
Waiting for Lagos’ light rail

To live and work in Lagos can be rewarding. Those in the know appreciate why the state is tagged the ‘centre of excellence.’ With active seaports, airports, and markets, Lagos is magnet for commerce. From all parts of Nigeria and abroad, people flock to Lagos. And the successful Lagosian in some quarters is seen as a conquistador. There is a saying that if one can make it Lagos, one can ‘make’ it anywhere in the world. Day to day living in Lagos is challenging and hectic – very different from other cities in Nigeria. And one very glaring cause for this is the characteristic bottleneck traffic on Lagos streets.

From dusk to dawn, when the over 15 million inhabitants of the state unleash their presence, the major roads become jam-packed and sometimes, a journey of two kilometres could last for over two hours. The traffic does not care whether one is in town for business or leisure, whether it is routine or an emergency, or whether millions are at stake or just another opportunity to earn a daily bread. In Lagos, the traffic snarls, crawls, and experiencing it can have a draining effect on the body. It is for this reason many people prefer to live outside Lagos and only come into the state to do their business whenever the need arises.

While the perennial traffic has become the bane of Lagos, the state government over the years have worked on how to reduce the stress on the roads. While traffic lights, overhead bridges, and creation of special law enforcers in the mould of men and officers of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) have come to assuage the situation, many still agree that for the traffic to become more ‘bearable’, more still needs to be done. In fact, original thinking is what is needed. And in Lagos, these have come in different ways. For instance in 2003, the administration of former governor Bola Tinubu created the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), a bus service which had its own dedicated lanes. Though, the BRT ensured rapid mass commute, given the fact that the buses still competed with other road users, the success in terms of reducing bottlenecks on the roads were marginal. Even the water transportation; while it commercially served those living in places like Ikorodu and worked on the Island, it lacked a mass appeal as if served only those close to the waterways.

With such challenges, it didn’t take much time for the Lagos State government to consider the option of light rail. Well, the idea of a light rail system in Lagos State was originally conceived in the 1980s during the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande. Sadly, this scheme was scrapped by the military government of General Muhammadu Buhuari. But, upon being elected governor of Lagos State in 1999, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had revisited the idea and it became a pivotal work of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA). However LAMATA in its earliest years of creation concentrated on implementing the BRT scheme. But, by the time there was a change of baton in the administration of Lagos in 2007 and Babatunde Fashola (SAN) became governor, the light rail project started taking shape. In April 2008, the Fashola administration signed a N70bn deal for a Blue Rail line from Okokomaiko to Marina, a distance of 27.5km and with 13 stations in between. Fashola has promised that this light rail which is being built by the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation, CCECC, would be completed this year. And upon completion by June this year, an end-to-end journey will be approximately 35 minutes.

With this, Lagosians plying that route can envisage how the transport bottlenecks which have come to characterise Lagos could abate. For one, I can imagine the relief of workers that troop out en-masse every early morning to Lagos Island and backwards in the evenings. Already, I’m thinking of relocating to Badagry. I can picture myself, five years from now, a proud owner of a bungalow with a backyard facing the Atlantic Ocean, hosting friends and family to routine weekend barbeque parties. Of course, it is, for I envisage that will be my house, where I live. For someone whose hustles take place on Mainland Lagos, I know you must be thinking I’m going bonkers contemplating going to live in Badagry. Yes, I would have thought so too. But, once the light rails come into existence, I know I can enjoy the best of both worlds. Considering some other persons would be thinking like me, I want to bet traffic congestion is closer to being a thing of the past on the ‘infamous’ Mile 2/Seme expressway.

And, contrary to some thinking, the Lagos Light rail project is not only planned for the Lagos/Badagry axis. In a partnership with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, Lagos stat government will provide light rail coaches to cater for passengers from Alagbado, bordering Ogun State to Marina also in Lagos. This service will complement already running train service being provided by the NRC.

Surely, with improvement in transport situation expected when the light rails become functional in Lagos, there is bound to be increase in commerce and Lagosians would begin to benefit from easy and fast intra-city movement. Man-hours lost in traffic would reduce, thereby making Lagosians more productive. Also, the social life is bound to increase dramatically as many people on purpose ‘waste’ valuable time either being trapped or waiting to avoid traffic jams.

In order for the light rail to however become a reality, the Fashola administration needs the continued co-operation of all property owners whose properties could affect the take-off of the project. Also, Lagosians nay Nigerians desirous of progress must gear up to ensure this move to step up transportation in Nigeria’s busiest city is frictionless.

• Thomas writes from Ikeja, Lagos

January 25, 2013
From the cell phone

For Segun Gbadegesin

I just read your article on ‘Responsibilities of citizenship: The youth in focus(3)’. I stumbled on the second instalment today at work. I had to look for the third. I’m from Ogun State but born and bred in Oyo. How do I relay to you sir, the good ideas and intentions I have for Oyo State and Nigeria? Anonymous

Re-The Nation and the education of the public. Both the traditional and city styles of getting the youth educated are very necessary. They are interdependent which is why the rural-traditional places crave for infrastructure to move on. The near -excessive infrastructure in cities cause migration, crimes and quicker civilisation. But of what benefits are rural areas with less infrastructure, less education but abundant peace as well as cities with amenities, good education but high rate of unemployment and crime? Anonymous

Your piece Jonathan in the hot seat was quite interesting. It is true that President GEJ inherited some problems but things would be better if he can listen to the wise counsel of the patriots. Most of the problems are carefully analysed by these respected elders I think the President should not ignore these solutions From Ojo A Ayodele Emure Ekiti

I agree that colonialism and neo-colonialism is at the root of our problems in all fields, including education. The way out is to jettison the existing neo-colonial state that strengthens underdevelopment. Thanks. From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna.

Thank you so much for your concern about our country Nigeria. The state of education today gives me concern. And our leaders are not bothered. None of them have their children in public schools, from local government councilor to president. The painful one was recently, Mr President gave Bayelsa’s scholarship and took all of them to private schools. What is the future of those that don’t have money to take their children to private school? They should stop budgeting money for education, because I don’t see the need for it anymore. Thank once again, God bless you, sir. From Bello Abdulkareem, Karamajiji, off airport rd Abuja

I always read your Back-Page column judiciously with commitment and attention. We really thank God for still leaving Nigeria with some patriotic people to check the excesses of a few privileged Nigerians. The conclusion of your “Jonathan in the hot seat” of January 17, was equally interesting.. I totally agree with you… If we must have a national conference, then it should be sponsored and financed by those calling for it, …”Anonymous

Do you know that it will be easier for two heads of cattle to pass through the eye of a needle than for the PDP- led Fed Govt of President GEJ to fight corruption in Nigeria? “Sit down look” From Chief Barr GA Mohammed From Ekpoma, Edo State .

The failure of public education in Nigeria is symptomatic of leadership deficit that has become the nation’s albatross in every aspect of its life. Our education system tells its own story everyday. An ill-defined system that jeopardises the quality of its graduates. How do we define a federal system where its the central government that should be concerned with policy, buys exercise books for schools in the states. What a joke! Regards. From Olu.

Jonathan on the hot seat. It is perfect truth that presidential seat on which Jonathan sits is hot. But Jonathan would survive the heat of this seat subject to his attitude towards the following: fear of and closeness to God, fairness, justice and transparency in all his dealings. Thank you. From Ishaq Sanni, Lugbe F.H.A, Abuja.

I commend your piece on The Nation and the education of the public. I agree with your views and nowhere is this monumental failure more glaring than in the core north with its failure to integrate Islamic ethics with the modern and thereby create a society so advanced in human endeavour and development that could have been the envy of all transition societies. Now, we trade our values for only God knows what and result is glaring us in the face; we are left running without focus, no goal, utterly in disarray to say the least! Anonymous

For Olatunji Dare

Just read your fine piece. I would say elsewhere the goddess of justice dispenses it while she’s blind folded. In Nigeria, she works wide-eyed so that she can count her cash correctly. From Makurdi.

I painfully count down to the next election. At least for a better change. Anonymous

Re-Unequal justice as state policy. pdp led government doesn’t believe in justice not to talk of equal justice on crimes being committed in this country. The oil subsidy scam is already a dead issue,oil bunkering is unstopable; and others. The culprits are big wigs thus untouchable; hence no justice. The government is interested in arresting small minds at the expense of big wigs who are party loyalists, The government is unserious hence unequal justice for criminals.this must stop-past Odunmbaku. anonymous

Unequal justice as state policy: They broke the eleventh commandment’ thou shall steal enough to share or you’ll be caught’. From Bode, Abuja

Sir, you are 100 percent right, the main oil thieves are very powerful and they do their business everyday without a problem. They have full protection of those in power. We are in a sick country. Only God can deliver us. Anonymous

Sir, Inequality before the laws of the land is primarily responsible for the abnormal situation in the country today. Easy money had become possible for a great many and the ideal for most. Everyone knows that there is one sure way to being elected into a political office or being acquitted in a court of law and nobody cares. Must a person commit a crime to be somebody in Nigeria? Are our leaders too weak to stop doing what is wrong and too weak to start doing what is right? From Adegoke O O, Ikhin, Edo State.

Dare, my worries are that Nigerians don’t read articles on burning national issues such as this (your column of January 15) Please, let not your pen run dry for your piece like the sword of the spirit recreates many a mind. Revolution is never planned, but when it comes by reason of corruption and injustice, those who will survive the tsunami in Nigeria will now live and never forget that injustice is neither good for the governor nor the governed.. From Ikenna P, Yola

Re-Unequal justice as state policy. Sometimes, some judgements might look inequitable, however, crime is crime and criminals remain criminals! Let perpetrators of crime halt crime in whatever form first and allow peace to reign in our society; then, we can talk of Unequal justice as state policy. There is no little crime as any crime will affect individuals in the society, whether drug, heroine, steroid, petroleum theft, goat-theft or/and armed robbery, election-fraud and others. Punish! Punish!! From Lanre Oseni.

I agree with the piece that Nigerians are not equal before the law. What is behind, it is the socio-economic structure. The question is, can it be changed?. From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna

That the purported ‘amalgamation’ was purely for the administrative convenience of colonialists, especially to facilitate easy access to the ports for export commodities from the North. The aftermath of that insanity is what the nation is battling with till now with no end in sight. That, as Hardball pointed out, is the nonsense they want to celebrate! Regards. From Olu.

Thank you for your constructive contribution to the National Debate. From J.D. Chinade.

I agree that what the nation needs is a good government. I ask, is it possible to achieve it under the existing socio-economic structure that is based on crude individualism? Can the bourgeois class deliver a democracy that will erase oppression and exploitation? From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna

When people say President Jonathan inherited problems, I fail to understand why anybody at should expect anybody in office not to inherit problem. The creation or existence of an office presupposes the existence of problems that office is to solve. So what we should echo is not the inheritance of existing problems but the creation of new problems or the exacerbation of existing problems by the new occupant of the office. To me writing about Jonathan, his presidency and pdp is a waste of time, energy, ink and paper. Come to think of it, if your writing will change someone and a system, you can be sure you are making a worthwhile contribution to nation building. But Jonathan and the PDP have demonstrated that they do not need the electorate to rule this country. If they don’t get the figures through the ballot box, they write it, and if they don’t write it with the hand, they declare the result and the PDP subsidiary endorses! How can Jonathan or anyone at all, operating in such a set up care about what is happening elsewhere? This is my summary of the Nigerian situation and the reason I say no need to write your piece. From. Sergeant T. A. Gov. Makurdi.

January 23, 2013
Capital Market: When bad behaviour pays

It is important to lend additional voice and question the rationale behind the federal government N22.6 billion bail-out of some capital market operators. It is tantamount to rewarding bad behaviour and excessive risk-taking at public expense. For the stock broking firms that will benefit from this largesse, if their investments have been profitable and they made a kill in the capital market, they would not have shared their profit with the public. The action of government is therefore tantamount to endorsing the privatization of profits and the socialization of losses if you have the lobby and the political connection to dump your losses on the Nigerian people.

By setting this precedent, the government has further ossified the moral hazard problem in our financial system. If an investor taking an investment risk knows that he can appropriate his gains but can pass his losses to another party, he will take excessive unreasonable risk as he has nothing to lose. This moral hazard problem was at the heart of the misbehaviour of investment bankers in the recent global financial crisis, when they could make huge bonuses if their bets worked out but pass the loss to shareholders if it didn’t. This coupled with the implicit guarantee of their risk by the public especially if they were “too big to fail, essentially a public subsidy of their risk, further compounded their bad behaviour. They created a tower of complex financial instruments that had little bearing to their underlying assets, played roulette and casino at public expense, made initial huge gains which they pocketed until their financial derivative instruments fell like a pack of cards.

Where these investment banking businesses shared a common capital base with retail banking as one organic financial institution, essentially leveraging public deposits in their banks to trade, they created assets that wiped off the bank’s capital and public retail deposits in their institutions. Where they were big banks, sometimes with a century of public retail deposits, the financial system was put at systemic risk of collapse and the state had had to intervene to bail them out largely to protect public deposits. This experience has fuelled calls for the full organic separation of investment and retail banking in the financial system. It is difficult to understand how this logic of bail-out applies to the stock brokers who will enjoy N23 billion government largesse. A public bail out of a financial institution is justified only if they pose a systemic risk to the financial system should they fail. A systemic risk is the risk that the entire financial system will fail and collapse and it is different from the risk of financial failure of an individual or group within the financial system.

The first question to ask is whether the failure of the selected stock-broking firms being offered this government largesse can pull down the entire financial system or pose a systemic risk. Certainly not! These stock broking firms are not banks and their size relative to the whole financial ecosystem poses no fundamental systemic risk. What then is the rationale for the bail out?

Two fundamental conditions must exist for the public bail out of financial institutions. They must either be either be “too big to fail – the TBTF test – or, must be “too interconnected to fail” – the TICTF test. The TCITF test measures whether a group of institutions represent critical connected dependencies with no existing market alternative in size and function such that their failure will pull down the financial system. The public bail-out of a financial institution or a group of financial institutions must pass these two tests to justify the test of a systemic risk. It is difficult to see how the group of stock-brokers who will enjoy these N23b public largesse could pass the “too big to fail” or the “too interconnected to fail” test. Their collective size does not pose significant systemic risk to the financial system. In the last three years, since these firms have had to deal with their margin loan challenges, the financial system has carried on. The capital market measured by the Nigeria Stock Exchange All Share Index has witnessed a year to date gain of more than 25 percent. This is because there are alternative market transaction agents whose collective size moderate any potential “too interconnected to fail” effect of the stock-broking firms being bailed-out by government. Whither then is the logic of government action?

Capital market operators, specifically stock-broking firms’ operators are no banks. They are capital market transaction agents. They do not warehouse public assets or owe public liability like the banks that hold public deposits that could create a collapse of the financial system if a critical number of them fail. The stock asset that the public buy is not warehoused by the stock-broker but by the public themselves directly and the company from whom the stock was bought with a clearing system maintained by the independent Central Security Clearing System (CSCS). Stock sales are transactions between the company, the stock seller and the stock buyer with the stock-broker acting as intermediary, a broker and a transaction agent. It is the same relationship as that of a real estate agent who collects a fee brokering a deal between a house seller and a house buyer. The real estate agent, just like the stock-broker should ordinarily not warehouse housing-stock unless he decides to use his market knowledge for additional private gain and become an investor, acquiring his own housing stock. Would it be right to use state fund to bail out or forebear the loans of a group of real estate agents who took a bank loans to buy houses and kept, hoping to make a kill when the house stock appreciates, and unfortunately house prices fell?

If the state does that, should the same logic and largesse not be extended to every citizen investor who bought housing stock when house prices fell? Therefore apart from rewarding bad behaviour, the action of government also raises public equity and fairness issues. For the ordinary retail investor who also lost money on the capital market like the stock-broking firms who took margin loans, where and what will be his own bail-out or loan forbearance? What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander.

There have been attempts to justify the bailout of the stock-broking firms as a special intervention in the capital market as it has been done recently in aviation and agriculture. Special sector intervention funds in Nigeria have largely not delivered tangible results as they work against market logic. Have we seen yet the tangible and visible gains of the recent special intervention funds in agriculture and aviation? Such intervention funds have largely festered a regime of crony capitalism with all its attendant ills, where you get access to funds below market rate if you are connected to government and can even divert them to other more profitable sectors outside the intervention fund. The market punishment of bad investment decisions is critical to the effective functioning of markets. Special intervention funds where there are no proven market failures, where it cannot be proven that markets lack the mechanism to self-correct and cleanse itself in its organic cycle of bulls and bears that ensure that resources are efficiently allocated to those who will best utilize them, can only but lead to more imperfect market outcomes.

Government has done very well by intervening and bailing out the banks whose failure truly posed a systemic risk to the financial system. It has however overreached itself in the N23 billion bail-out of selected stock broking firms. The logic and rationale of its decision fail public interest, fairness and social equity tests. If the concern of government is about the liquidity of the capital market, it cannot be addressed by rewarding excessive risk behaviour that could further jeopardize the future health of the financial system..

• Akanmu, a company executive writes from Lagos

January 21, 2013
Dickson: 365 days after

It is now almost a year since Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson took the oath of office as the fourth elected Governor of Bayelsa State. Yet, it gladdens the heart that within this short period, substantial achievements have been recorded in actively reforming and transforming the apparatus of government and institutions to an acceptable standard and in fulfillment of the Restoration Agenda.Admittedly, the last one year has been mixed within the context of unforeseen natural disaster but it is assuring that the government has also been quite pro-active in managing the situation and delivering on its promises to the people. Of course, it has helped that the Dickson administration had a clear agenda and understanding of what needed to be done to get the state out of the messy past. The myriad of problems confronting the state are being tackled headlong and the people can now see visible results. Government has been forthcoming in promoting basic human rights while also creating and enforcing basic laws and implementing policies and programmes needed to deliver on its campaign promises. Quality services are now the rights of the people because government believes it is the people’s entitlements in a democracy. Today in Bayelsa State, many people can attest to the fact that a new and rising paradigm has taken root. Indeed, if there is anything this administration is known and appreciated for, it is that it is dreaming big dreams, sometimes far beyond what its resources can accommodate in the short run. For this noble objective, some critics have accused the administration of taking on too many projects but the good thing here is that we are breaking new grounds with lasting footprints. The huge strides undertaken by the administration in the last one year effectively strikes a chord with the essentials of Governor Dickson’s leadership vision: an ambitious template which would ensure an impressive stewardship that satisfies the basic, broad interests of the people of Bayelsa State, creating great economic opportunities as well as making a beautiful statement in infrastructural development. The various policies and programmes now being implemented across the state come with great benefits to the people who are equally thumping applauses in appreciation. Of note is this administration’s feat in the area of security. The dizzying pace with which it was able to turn around Bayelsa State from a haven of cultism and violence and criminality to a situation now where the state is clearly adjudged as one of the most peaceful and secured states in Nigeria is amazing to behold. Even more salutary is this administration’s ability to ensure that the ingredients of good governance are firmly in place – formidable institutions, transparency, accountability, popular participation and consensus-building. It is worth recalling that Governor Dickson spent the better part of his first 100 days in office laying the foundation for good governance. Now, we have in place some sets of policies which are products of courageous and progressive decisions that have further institutionalized the concept of good governance necessary to run an integrated agenda which truly works for the common good. A critical offshoot of this concept of good governance is transparency, accountability and prudence. Without fail in the last one year, every month, Governor Dickson has kept faith with his promise to engage the people of Bayelsa State to brief them on the income and expenditure of government in line with the law which makes it obligatory for all tiers of government to publicly declare all revenues that accrue to them as well as a summary of expenditures. It is on record that major construction firms such as Julius Berger, Setraco and Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCEC) have all been mobilized and are currently on site working round the clock to deliver the roads and bridges that will open up the state for improved investments. As at now, the Dickson-led administration, given its commitment to delivery and action in all matters, has contracted out the construction of over 275 km of roads across the state, in addition to 18 bridges and two flyovers – all under construction in its first year in office. More road contracts were also recently awarded and the contractors duly mobilized to begin work in earnest. Recently awarded to CCEC with due mobilization is the road from Yenagoa to Oporoma that was abandoned several years ago. The contract has also been awarded for the construction of Sagbama-Ekeremor road and clearing of that road is in progress. This administration within the last one year also took the decision to review the road from Nembe to Brass. As a result of the flood disaster, government decided, with the advice of very competent technical team, to raise the height of roads in the state to seven metres. With a difficult terrain, the cost of construction is about four times of what one will ordinarily get in most states outside of the Niger Delta, yet this government is wholly committed to keeping to its promise and the mandate of restoration. Conceivably, the airport project clearly stands out as a notable developmental stride undertaken by this administration within the last one year. The Dickson-led administration is seriously partnering with the Federal Government to construct an airport of international standard in Yenagoa within the next two to three years. Meanwhile, the Dickson administration took the initiative to award Dantata and Sawoe, the contract to construct an airstrip that would be ready for use within a year pending when the bigger airport will be ready. Governor Dickson surely in the last one year has left no one in doubt that he is fully in charge. His approach has been to adopt a stern and unremitting administrative policy of living within the state’s means and income. This was one of the reasons which informed his decision to launch a stringent regime of fiscal policy as well as the need to institutionalize a savings culture. This ultimately led to the opening of two separate strategic bank accounts. The first is the Bayelsa State Strategic Development Account, which today has a balance of N24.5billion. This account has since been put to use to fund strategic investments in infrastructural development, agriculture, tourism, education, health and security.The built up reserves of the Strategic Development Account placed the state in a vantage position to award various road contracts as stated earlier and it is in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which requires that contractual commitments by government should have adequate funding provided. Even with the payments issued to contractors for the all the roads, schools, hotels, airport, hospitals and other public infrastructure currently under construction, the credit balance left in this account stands at N17.5 billion to date. The second account is the Bayelsa State Strategic Reserve and Savings Account – an interest yielding account dedicated to providing savings for the rainy day. This account readily became handy during the flood disaster, as the sum of N1.5billion was immediately approved by the State House of Assembly which was released to the State Emergency Flood Relief Committee to address the immediate challenges posed by the flood. It is to the credit of the Dickson-led administration, for its ingenuity in creating this account to serve as a form of stabilization for the state’s economy in the event of unforeseen shock as was the case with the flood.

January 21, 2013
A template for youth empowerment

In the 21st Century, the measuring stick for literacy is no longer the ability to read and write. It is the ability to interrogate knowledge using the computer. Modern literacy is a measure of information communication technology (ICT) competencies and internet presence. Institutions (universities, polytechnics etc) are ranked on the basis of their deployment of the basic tools of ICT for operations, teaching and administration.

One of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to propagate the culture of computer literacy among the young. The most effective vehicle to propagate this ICT culture is the e-library project. Global initiatives for e-learning deploy the e-library concept to engage in ICT evangelism. Institutions like the World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO) and universities across the world have their respective e-libraries as a tool for imparting and disseminating ICT knowledge.

In Nigeria, the concept of e-library in its pure form is yet to gain ascendancy. This is most unfortunate. The few that dot the landscape make a mockery of what e-library should be. However, a recent visit to the Akwa Ibom e-library in Uyo raised hope that at least, the nation can point to a fully-fledged e-library complete with all the digital appendages of a knowledge ecosystem. It seems essentially designed to address the needs of the youths, lecturers, children and researchers. It mirrors other e-libraries in the world, namely: the South Africa Rural e-Libraries Program, National e-Library of Serbia, National e-Library of Singapore, Bridgewater State College e-Library USA, National University of Malaysia e-Library and the Lima State e-Library in Peru.

Though similar to other e-library projects in Africa, its uniqueness in terms of volume of interactive e-content, volume of resources, adaptability and ease of customisation to suit specific needs for all categories of persons stands it out. Critical security measures guarantee protection of users from assault by online crooks including paedophiles.

Officials of the Akwa Ibom e-library said it has digital collections of over 16 million e-documents all accessible simultaneously by all users. Again, it will be the first public library in Africa to offer the world’s largest collection of downloadable electronic books and audio files in MP3 format. It is said to offer users the opportunity to download over two million electronic books in full-text without restrictions. It has over 14.5 million electronic research e-journal articles full-text viewable without restrictions.

Its interactive e-content resources include 1,260 Educational Games to develop children skills, about 1,000 Simulations and Math Practice tool to build Sciences Proficiency,80,000 Questions and Answer Tertiary Exams Practice Tool, WIKI collaborative e-content development tool and Interactive social blogging and forums. This is a delight for science students, budding engineers, teachers at all levels and professionals.

Core features of the library’s web portal include customized graphic designed web portal to convey the values of a “state-of-the-art” world-class library, search capabilities with events calendars management tools, blogs for general library information (separate ones for kids, teens, and seniors). RSS (Rich Site Summary) Feeds Aggregation to provide summary of content and updates of associated libraries. Others include video conference facilities, built-in electronic whiteboard to support online tutoring, unlimited chat rooms for users, authors, publishers and librarians and many more.

For a state with its own university, a federal university and other tertiary institutions, the Akwa Ibom e-library is very strategic for the honing of ICT skill set and moulding a generation of ICT-savvy youths. Bill Gates and Paul Allen did not have the benefit of e-library before they made a success of Microsoft. Ditto for other successful techies who individually and collectively re-defined informatics. Except of course for Mark Zuckerberg, the latter day ICT billionaire who maximised the internet resource to engineer Facebook, most of the billionaire techies who dominated the digital space including Steve Jobs of Apple and Michael Dell of Dell Computers never had as much exposure to computers and internet before they created their respective products.

It means that the youths of this age including this writer are better privileged. In Nigeria, going by statistics from the National Population Commission, there is a significant youth portion of the 167 million citizens. They are in every state; they are in the universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other institutions of learning. Some are even out of school with no jobs and worse yet with little skills. These youths are hungry for knowledge. But how much of this knowledge are they getting and at what expense? A nation with an active youth population of over 50 million (far more than the population of many countries) should be a super power if those youths are digitally equipped for the age they find themselves.

These youths must be given the right sense of digital orientation. Globally, there is a digital shift. Nations are empowering their youths both for leadership and for competitiveness in a highly dynamic and demanding global knowledge economy. It is in response to this challenge of harnessing the rich potentials of youths globally that the United Nations launched the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID), initiative in 2006. One of the objectives of the initiative is to muster global awareness on the need to use ICT for development via well thought through youth-based initiatives across the world. GAID was conceived to engender collaboration and cooperation among countries and institutions. It is premised on the belief “that a people-centred and knowledge-based information society is essential for achieving better life for all”.

Many countries in the UN family have since keyed into the GAID initiative. Not much is being done in Nigeria in this regard, that is, to evolve schemes that would drive youth development using ICT. Most of our graduates are largely analogue. Those who are ICT-savvy do so at great cost. They spend so much in private ICT institutions while in school to get as much ICT knowledge as they would require post-graduation. In an ideal situation, every graduate irrespective of your course of study should be ICT-literate. The India model should engage our leaders.

India curriculum is numerate-driven. Irrespective of course of study, an average graduate in India is expected to acquire basic computer and numeracy skills. Little wonder India is today the outsourcing capital of the world and a super power in software engineering. Nigerian governments at every level must begin to think in this direction. What we have in Akwa Ibom e-library comes closest to the Indian model. By availing the student, research and academic communities in the state of the limitless resources in the e-library, the state is on its way to producing the next generation of inventive techies and digital masterminds.

• Ugbechie studies Physics Electronics/IT Applications at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.

January 21, 2013
Changing face of Gombe under Dankwambo

On May 29, 2011, the call on Alhaji Ibrahim Hasssan Dankwambo to lay aside his Accountant General of the Federation for a direct service to the people of Gombe state was eventually consummated with his inauguration as the Governor of Gombe state.

Since then, the Governor has taken pragmatic steps to demonstrate focused and determined leadership that Gombe state needed to attain the next level of development. Accordingly, virtually every sector has received good attention as the ultimate intention of enhancing the socioeconomic wellbeing of the citizenry.

He begun by constituting twelve committees to through all sectors look into the problems hampering from achieving its full potentials and to also proffer solutions to them. As indicated during his inaugural speech, youth rehabilitation, reorientation, and empowerment was the first to come under the spotlight with the graduation of 320 youths trained on seven different skills from four skills acquisition centres across the state.

They were resettled with tools of their trades and N200,000:00 cash to enable them start-off while the programme itself was thereafter scaled up to 520 youths and thirteen trades.

In addition to that, 1,200 youths, most of whom used to be recalcitrant were camped for a three-week rehabilitation reorientation exercise. They graduated into Environmental, Traffic and Ward Marshals and were put on monthly emolument. They have since been of great help under the relevant agencies with 300 of them that have distinguished themselves sponsored for leadership training in plateau state.. Their presence has also culminated in the demise of the disturbances the state was once notorious for.

On the formal front, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has holistically tackled the decay in the state’s educational system with enviable results to show for his efforts. First he embarked on the reconstruction of ten schools (five primary and five post-primary) and transforming them into model schools.

Going on together with this is the construction of new classroom blocks or rehabilitation of dilapidated ones in some other schools with the intention achieving a ratio of one class teacher to fifty pupils/students in the long-run. 1,000 qualified teachers have been engaged out of the earmarked over 3,000 needed for impactful teaching and instructional materials like books worth over N 500 million, classroom furniture and others are being promptly provided and distributed free of charge to pupils and students.

The ultimate aim is to train 30,000 youths, place them on N6,000 : 00 while being trained and resettle them with kits of the trades that have learnt as well as an interest-free loan of N200,000 : 00 to enable them take-off .

To mop up the teeming secondary school graduates with defects in the results, the present administration in Gombe state entered into an agreement with the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) to remediate the youths in batches of 1,000 until pressure from that category f population reduced to the lowest ebb. The arrangement is such that candidates will be remediated in Gombe by UNIMAID staff. They will also write the same examination as their campus colleagues but on-line.

Those that pass the remedial (entrance) examination as well as score the Joint Matriculation Examination (JME) cut-off point of 180 and above would be admitted into any course of their choice in UNIMAID. The ones that made the entrance exams but failed JME would retain their result for the next session and retake JAMB. Candidates who fail both examinations on the other hand would enjoy the privilege of being admitted into Certificate Courses specially introduced by UNIMAID.

Still determined to make tertiary education more accessible, Gombe State University’s School of Remedial Studies was expanded into a full blown campus with a capacity to admit at least 1,500 per-session. The school is designed to remediate candidates for both Junior and Senior Secondary Schools.

Candidates that gradate from the remedial and are not keen in furthering their education could be trained on their choice trade out of the thirteen skills available in the school. Similarly, a robust sports facility is provided, not for leisure, but for the sports inclined ones to develop their talents for future challenges while being remediated.

As we speak, the foundation stone for the State College of Education has been laid in Billiri while State Polytechnic and School of Islamic and Legal Studies have been earmarked for establishment at Nafada and Bajoga respectively, just as the State School of Health Technology and the State School of Nursing and Midwifery have been lined up for complete overhaul

So far, Governor Dankwambo’s administration has equally shown great commitment towards lighting up the rural communities. Justifying this is its ordering for machineries and earthmoving equipments to fast track rural development. Same is the procurement and distribution of 50 unit of transformers to rural communities while still waiting to take delivery of 55 more. A good number of communities have benefitted from rural electrification projects and so many others have been earmarked for similar intervention.

But the block-buster electrification effort is the Balanga Dam Electrification Project which is capable of powering the entire Gombe South Regional Water Supply Scheme and all the unlit rural communities within Balanga local government and beyond. This milestone three-in-one Balanga Dam project is also housing a gigantic water work tagged Gombe South Regional Water Supply Scheme. When completed, it will supply water to Balanga, Billiri, Kaltungo and Shongom local government areas in Gombe south district and Akko in the central senatorial district.

The Dam on the other hand supplies water through a well over 30-kilometre stretch of irrigation canal thereby making possible an all-year-round farming within the belt. Further in the area of agriculture, 35 grounded tractors have been refurbished and the same number procured. Government still not feeling satisfied ordered additional 200 unit of tractors from Pakistan. with the aim is to make the implement more available and affordable at the State Tractor Hiring Unit.

In the interim however, an unprecedented 34,000 metric tons of assorted fertilizers were made available for last year’s farming season just like improved seedlings have been made available for the present farming season. In the same vein, the moribund Poultry Production Unit has been put back on track with 500 workers working to regain the unit’s lost pride.

Within the period under review, Gombe state government has constructed 55 stone-base asphalt laid roads in the state capital. The semi urban areas have enjoyed about 20 roads of the same quality with the same number of regional roads designed to open up the mostly agrarian rural communities.

In order to take advantage of the central location of the state in the Northeast sub-region, project for an International Conference Centre that will seat over 1,000 with an annexed 150 room hotel and other ancillaries has been flagged-off. Also to be flagged-ff later in the year is Petroleum Tankers’ Bay with a capacity to hold close to 200 long vehicles; and a Mega Motor Park would will harness all five motor parks in the state capital with the state-owned transport service. Features would among others include police station, banks, lock-up shops, fire station and others.

Among other invisible achievement of the present leadership of Gombe state is the disbursement of N 250 million revolving loan to 74 groups across the state. The loan is jointly funded by Bank of Industry on a 50 – 50 basis. Similarly, another N 750 million loan has bee set aside for distribution to Gombe Market Traders and Gombe Village Market Traders Associations. All packages are targeted at reigniting the dying embers of commerce in the state.

Dankwambo and his team may have stayed briefly, but have left a mark that will forever remain in the sand of time for good. Space may not accommodate the listless achievements wroth in just one and a half year in office, but if there is any place where value for money and justified use of public funds is exemplary, it is certainly Gombe. And to quote the Governor, it is indeed, “not the amount of money available, but how it is spent”

•M. L. Ismail writes in from Bolari Quarters in Gombe state.

January 19, 2013
How razed Alaafin’s place broke barriers

THOUGH it has constituted a grave cultural and traditional setback to the ancient kingdom of Oyo, the January 8, 2013 early morning fire that razed down some parts of the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, has broken some traditional barriers that have existed between the monarch and some of his superiority contenders in the South West.

Shunning the age long rivalry and no- love- lost relationship between them and the Alaafin’s stool, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II and the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade last week paid sympathy visits to the Oba Adeyemi in his palace.

The two monarchs joined many other royal fathers and eminent personalities, who have shown their empathy for the foremost traditional ruler, who lost three apartments belonging to three of his wives to the fire.

The apartments, which comprise 21 rooms, were razed by the inferno caused by electrical surge, just as two important apartments housing two deities: Ori and Ifa, were also destroyed including the artefacts therein.

Alaafin and the Ooni of Ife had about three months ago engaged each other in an altercation over the celebration of “Oranyan Festival” by the Alaafin, to which Ooni claimed exclusive preserve, but which like similar face-offs, Alaafin denigrated the status of the Ooni and his insubordination among the children of Oduduwa.

The relationship between the Alaafin and the Olubadan has also been frosty with the latter contesting the permanent chairmanship of the Oyo state Council of Obas and Chiefs with the former, leading to the comatose state of the council till date.

In spite of the scathing and vitriolic media attacks against each other, the Ooni on Saturday, the 12th January, 2013, sent a powerful delegation of his council members to the Alaafin to express his heart-felt sympathy for the irreparable loss incurred through the conflagration.

Delivering the message of the Ooni, which was appreciated by the Alaafin, was His Royal Highness, Oba J.A. Awe, the Onisare of Ife, who led two of his counterparts, A.O. Fabunmi, the Laadin of Ife, and Chief Adeyoye Adekola, the Sarun of Ife.

The Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran from Osun State, also sent emissary to the Alaafin. He was represented by High Chief A.J. Oladele, the Odole of Ilesa and High Chief Risewe of Ilesa.

On behalf of the Olubadan and the Olubadan-in-Council, the Osi Olubadan, High Chief Lekan Balogun on Sunday, 13th January, 2013, led Dr. Femi Olaifa, also a High Chief to the palace sympathising with the Alaafin on the ugly fire incident, which he said took them by surprise.

Having delivered Olubadan’s letter, one of the Kingmakers, the Samu of Oyo, however expressed Alaafin’s displeasure at the late coming of the Olubadan’s representatives, saying that “We had expected the Olubadan to have sent delegates to Oyo to oversee things for himself before now. After all, all Ibadans are Oyos. Many of you people migrated from here to Ibadan”.

Responding, Balogun, a Senator, said he was not around, reason for the late-coming, which according to him, the Olubadan-in-Council felt uncomfortable about. He nevertheless thanked God on behalf of the Alaafin that no life was lost in the inferno, which took fire fighters about three hours to put out.

Niger State governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, represented by Hon. Hassan Abdullahi, led delegates to the palace, while Oba of Benin, Omonoba Eredieuwa represented by Chief Nosa O. Egharerba (The Uso of Benin Kingdom), Chief Benjamin Iredia (The Osayuwanoba of Benin Kingdom), as well as Dr. Adebayo Adewusi, Oyo state governorship aspirant in the April 26, 2011 election, also pledged their loyalty and commiserated with the Alaafin.

The Alaafin, in appreciation of the concern of Nigerians for him, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan, who asked the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government area of Ondo State, Oba Fredrick Obateru Akinruntan, Okoro Ajiga 1, to represent him in delivering the commiseration message, thanked them, praying for peaceful co-existence among all Nigerians, as according to him, “we are all brothers. Many of us have the same blood”.

January 19, 2013