The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Gov Amosun, let’s enjoy your good works

    SIR:, we the entire indigenes and residents of Simawa Town in the Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State appreciate the good services being rendered by the Ogun State Government under the leadership of Governor Ibikunle Amosun. We want his government to extend such to our communities by providing us with basic amenities including recreational facilities, schools, pipe-borne water, electricity and motorable roads. All these among others will bring Simawa Town to equal level of development with other towns in and outside the state in the interest of the people.

    Governor Amosun should as a matter of fact, not wait any longer to bring basic amenities to Simawa Town and its environs; we need good roads for free flow and transportation of our goods to other states; our children need recreational facilities and the entire town is thirsty for pipe-borne water among other good things of life.

    The giant strides of Amosun’s administration in road infrastructural development are awesome. We want him to do more for the people. However, as a person, the governor cannot do it alone with his lieutenants. This is why we believe that everyone, notably all traditional rulers, elders, spiritual leaders and other stakeholders should join hands with his government to genuinely move Ogun State forward to the desired destination.

    When the history of the Amosun-led administration will be written, we want it on record that Simawa is among the lucky towns that enjoyed the magic wand of the hard-working and people-loving governor. This is why we want him, his commissioners and the state legislators to consider us in the scheme of things as we are ready to continue to perform our civic duties as law-abiding citizens.

    • Prophet Francis Taiwo Olaseinde,

    Praise and Apostolic Church (Oke Agbara), Simawa.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Osun: Putting education thrust in proper perspective

    Osun: Putting education thrust in proper perspective

    Against the needless controversies and sabre-rattling over peripheral issues in Osun’s bourgeoning education policy, there is now an urgent need for a summit of all stakeholders to address the spate of misrepresentations and tension being created around the Osun public school policy. Hopefully, all stakeholders would be availed of the opportunity to dissect all the components of the policy and scrupulously prevent a situation in which an otherwise excellent public policy document will be compromised by a miasma of scurilious political intrigues and parochial religious predilections.

    It is sad and unfortunate that a unique and rich policy that could have translated into a national strategy for bail-out of the shambolic public school sector, has suddenly assumed religious and political colourations, fuelled largely by mischief and partisanship.

    The current trend of discussion relating to the Osun school system in circles expected to churn out informed opinions continues to focus solely on the reclassification of schools and aggressively attempt to rubbish the wider public spirit and mission of the policy. It is strange that the vocal minority raising hell over fringe issues in the policy conveniently forgets the holistic beneficial impact of the various components of the policy such as the OUniform, OMeal and Opon Imo, O School etc which have been adjudged as revolutionary concepts in public school management approach in the country.

    The on-going rejuvenation of the public school sector in Osun is at once a strong rebranding project that has begun to impact positively on the state’s overall education management profile as well as the state’s economy in key areas like job creation, empowerment and agricultural development. It is providing a much-needed fillip and boost for children to inculcate, ab initio, a frenetic and unflagging desire to excel in life through a prism that provides easy elbow room for initiatives and exemplary conduct and scholastic aptitude.

    It is against this backdrop that all well-meaning Osun indigenes must shun base sentiments and support the effort to create a new public school order in the state for the future of Osun children.

    The proposed symposium must seek to dissect the various components of the much maligned Osun policy on public school management with a view to enhancing public understanding and appreciation of its desirability. The symposium will also serve as a platform for constructive engagement of critical stakeholders to ensure the non-derailment of the noble vision behind the policy formulation.

    It would be recalled that while counting the modest gains recorded by the state’s new education policy in less than two years of its implementation, the state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, had posited that the need for the policy as a comprehensive and holistic response to a scandalous educational rot, which had threatened the socio-economic growth of the state, was non-negotiable.

    “Our education policy is tailored towards making the Osun public schools system produce the complete child, to become the complete youth and grow up to become the complete citizen, empowered in learning and in character, in the best tradition of the Yoruba Omoluabi.  That way, they would be equipped, culturally and academically, anywhere they find themselves in the world, aside from becoming patriots, to take care of their state and country that had earlier taken care of them,” he explained.

    He equally noted then that the reforms have had tremendous multi-level impacts on the Osun educational competitiveness. For instance, in the area of funding, the reforms have led to a radical increase in grants and subventions for the administration of public primary and secondary schools as total grant for the 1378 pubic primary schools in Osun jumped from N7.4 million a year to N424 million a year.

    Additionally, Osun, from a 34th placing among Nigeria’s 36 states in 2010, moved to 18th position in 2011 and 8th position in 2012, in performance rankings in the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE).  Pupils from the state have also chalked up improved performances in national and international competitions, according to compilations by the Osun Ministry of Education. In addition, the reforms have earned a partnership with UNESCO to build a regional teacher training institute in the state, and a fresh programme in the area of adult education.

    And since the critical success factor for any reform is sound management and welfare, at the heart of the new education reforms is a restructured Education Administration Modality which involves creating specialised agencies to address key components in public schools management. According to Aregbesola, one such special agency created by the new education policy is the Teachers Establishment and Pension Office (TEPO).

    “As the name clearly implies, aside from teacher recruitment, TEPO takes charge of human capacity development in Osun public schools: teachers’ career advancement, training and retraining, teaching incentives, promotion, prompt payment of salaries and allowances. TEPO not only tackles teachers’ welfare while they are in active service; it also looks after their pension after retirement,” governor Aregbesola further explained.

    Let it be also resoundingly noted that the role of the Opon Imo initiative is an integrative approach to providing qualitative learning aids by the instrumentality of ICT. Unquestionably, the initiative has been hailed as a masterstroke by many education pundits within and outside Nigeria. It has also received the commendation of the United Nations as a revolutionary learning innovation to help Africa and the rest of the Third World improve its educational capacity.

    A word on the standardised school uniform is most pertinent here. The concept of standard uniforms for Osun public schools, branded O’Uniform, was conceived with an eye to rebrand public schools in the state as well as reflate the Osun economy to employ as many designers, tailors, local textile workers and allied artisans as possible, in the production of school uniforms. This culture-fired indigenous and standardised uniform for 750, 000 public school pupils, which the Omoluabi Garments Factory is currently implementing, has received international commendations from UNESCO, just as the first sets of the uniforms produced under the scheme were distributed free to the pupils. It is difficult to imagine that a peculiar school uniform will prevent indiscipline in each respective school as some interests laughably pontificated. Uniform or no uniform, a child with impaired impulses will always turn out a miscreant; contrariwise, a child well nourished, properly husbanded and deliberately cultured through a full-orbed school policy can always be trusted to excel. The issue at stake is not about a parochial attachment to a uniform or to a school; it is about an egalitarian approach, all-embracing, that must provide the generality of students with the boost to excel in life. This cannot and must not be left to chance.

    On the school feeding scheme, branded O’Meal and currently being implemented in the elementary schools with nearly 255, 000 pupils served highly nutritive daily lunch on school days, the idea was founded on the principle of good nutrition as incentive for learning readiness. The scheme has helped to boost public school enrolment figures in the state, in addition to serving as a catalyst of backward integration for a renewed Osun agricultural programme. It is on account of its eminent and laudable underpinnings that Aregbesola was invited to Westminster, London about a month ago, to share the Osun concept with other like-minded interests.

    Let us dissect the issues as dispassionately as it is required, especially for the sake of our children. If there are contentious issues that truly need a review, no one can reasonably oppose that. But we must be careful never to allow the chicanery of petty politicians or the folly of religious bigots to derail a policy that is sure to stand out the crop of present students as truly distinguished and accomplished citizens a decade from now.

     

    Oke is a public policy analyst based in Osogbo.

     

  • ICPC: A new approach to fighting corruption

    he hydra-headed monster called corruption seems to be waxing strong so far. It does not seem to be affected in any manner despite the conscious efforts to bring it to its knees. As a debased moral value, it is amazing how its apostles are arrogant and shameless in their scandalous behaviours, its foot soldiers stomping like a terminal disease through the system and across the land. Shrouded in moral paralysis, corrupt elements demonstrate a brazen bravery, unabashed in their hope of never having to retreat in the war to further entrench corruption. Perceptively and evidentially, this remains a paradox in a society achingly seeking systemic integrity.

    It is like the more Nigerians talk about this and try to fight it, the worse the situation is getting. The culture of genuinely exposing acts of corruption as a duty to the country has not really taken any root among Nigerians. Rather, exposing acts of corruption still manifests as periodic acts of vendetta against any form of enemy, perceived or real. In addition, the political, social and economic systems prevailing in the country seem to preserve corruption rather than checkmate it.

    While not totally discountenancing the psycho-social necessity and impact of going after the symptoms as in isolating corrupt elements, investigating, indicting and trying them where necessary, Chairman Nta seems convinced that undue belligerence could and would always lead to missing out on some relevant systemic challenges that have helped and continue to sustain the incubation of corruption. Thus, his calm and calculated approach to isolate these systemic challenges, evaluate them and put in systemic corrective mechanisms that would serve as incorrigible obstacles to embedded variable acts of corruption is worthy of being evaluated.

    The ICPC thus seems to have consummated conscious and relentless efforts to take the ICPC and the fight against corruption to the next level, starting with institution of preventive mechanism, anchored largely on effective monitoring of the Nigerian systems with a view to plucking all loopholes which had hitherto been exploited by public officers to perpetrate acts of corruption. It is examining, reviewing and enforcing the correction of corruption-prone systems and procedures of public bodies.

    Instituting what he called System Review is first on the list of such preventive mechanisms. For instance, over the past few years, the ICPC had silently conducted system studies and reviews on different public and private institutions and had successfully blocked avenues for officers to engage in acts of corruption. For instance, the ICPC conducted system study and review on the 2012 budgetary allocation and expenditure profile on personnel cost of 234 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    In the process, it recovered a total of N24.8 billion in cash, “being irregular payments from MDAs paid to Sub Treasury of the Federation (STF).” In the same vein, a total sum of N14. 4 billion was returned to the STF by MDAS in 2012 as unspent balances on personnel costs with a directive from ICPC. More interesting was the intervention of ICPC in the payment of civil servants salaries direct from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Through this, the commission has removed the temptation of physical cash left in the ministries that can be shared the end of the year.”

    Results were not much different when the ICPC conducted System Review on the Pension Funds. It succeeded in “closing down illegal bank accounts used in siphoning Pension Funds through 40 banks, with lodgements of the sum of N23 billion. The ICPC also discovered the sum of N469, 325, 25 accrued interests in the Pension Accounts, and had since remitted that to the STF.”

    The Nta-led ICPC also launched a Corruption Risk Assessment initiative in collaboration with TUGAR, UNDP and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). “The Commission gathered 69 corruption Risk Assessors drawn from the Federal, State, Public services as well as from the Civil Society Organisations.” In 2013, the Assessors conducted Corruption Risk Assessment in the Nigerian Ports with a view to discovering old and new avenues for perpetration of acts of corruption, while plugging them completely in the process.

    Added to the above is the ICPC grassroots programme that has given birth to a coordinated volunteerism. Founding and nurturing the National Anti Corruption Volunteers Corps (NAVC) across the 36 states of the federation has served the objectives of the ICPC very well as members of the corps had assisted severally in bursting corruption related crimes in different organisations leading to the arrest of culprits.

    ICPC staffs across the federation are well enlightened, having been exposed to training and re-training programmes. While collaborating with international organisations such as UNDP, UNODC, DFID, J4A to improve and bring its work process to international best practices, “the Commission is convinced that before long, the rest of Nigeria will fully align with the initiatives it had put in place for taming the incubus of corruption in the country.”

    It is also important to note that the Commission’s proactive strategy in fighting corruption necessitated the new plan to adopt surveillance approach, as a step to reducing time spent on investigation, in the fight against corruption. This is coming along with planned strengthening of the Commission’s Asset Tracing and Monitoring Unit (ATMU) as well as training of senior officers who will head its Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in the MDAs. The cost – benefit analysis of this approach is not only encouraging, it is very rewarding. It saves time, energy and money. The results coming in are great while much is still being expected.

    It is reassuring that the ICPC is recognising that fighting corruption is a war that requires depth of understanding, anatomical analysis, comprehensive accost and gradual but unhindered annihilation of the insidious debased moral value, its prowling apostles and its cavernously ensconced soldiers. The device of appropriate mechanisms and operational modalities will help in closing in on more of those corrupt elements in the public sector; checkmate them before they inflict any damage while amassing enough evidence to bring them to justice. Eventually, this will pan out to permeate the private sectors and other facets of our political, social, economic and religious spectrum.

    Oyeyemi writes from Abuja.

  • Fayemi has restored Ekiti’s core values

    SIR: Ekiti State was carved out of the old Ondo State on October 1, 1996 alongside five others by the military dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha. Before the creation, it had about twelve local governments under the old Ondo State. Upon creation, it took off with sixteen (16) Local Government Areas and the status quo is still being maintained.

    Though, lacking in industrial development, the state is reputed to have produced the highest number of professors in Nigeria. Among several renowned academics from the state were Professors Adegoke Olubummo (the 1st Nigerian Professor of Mathematics), Adeyinka Adeyemi (1st Professor of Architecture in West Africa). Others include renowned academics like Profs J.F. Ade-Ajayi, Niyi Osundare, Sam Aluko and others too numerous to mention.

    From the foregoing, it is lucid that the sobriquet FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE, now LAND OF HONOUR, is not misplaced. Ekiti is historically, culturally, geographically, religiously and linguistically homogeneous. This homogeneity reflected in every son and daughter  of Ekiti in their stand for  industry, honesty, uprightness and justice. From the primitive history to this modern time, Ekiti people naturally loathe and always revolt against injustices and marginalisation being a socio-politically conscious race. It is on record that in the course of the struggle for the Nigeria’s independence, the position papers presented by the representatives and opinion leaders from Ekiti, were one of the adopted documents at the constitutional conference for the realisation of the Nigerian independence.

    But for good governance, all the good virtues, attributes of real Ekiti persons and core value that had been deeply rooted in our customs soon became history. In August 4, 2009, Ekiti State Command of the National Drug Law

    Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) rated the state as a leading producer of Marijuana a.k.a. Indian hemp in African continent, following the discovery of the largest single seizure  of Indian hemp in the state by the Agency and had earlier In February 2008  discovered about 53.7metric tons of cannabis in a storey building at Ise-Ekiti among other seizures which nearly eroded our dignity and cast doubt on the much-touted acronym, Fountain of Knowledge.

    Over time, education which was part of the prides of an Ekiti man was in shambles. More disheartening was the rating of Ekiti students as the 35th in WAEC, NECO and UTME in recent rating. Ekiti was fast losing her integrity, and were noted for election rigging. People no longer afraid or feel ashamed of being tagged election riggers. Ekiti became a state where truth was no longer the order of the day, no justice, no peace, the respect for individuals and elder became history.

    No wonder the speed of development in the state became very slow because where there is no justice there cannot be peace and consequently there cannot be development. The state, therefore, became notorious for ‘one day one trouble’ as violence of all kinds including killings became entrenched in our body politic. Apparently troubled by this worrisome situation and in his desire to bring back the lost core values of Ekiti, Governor Fayemi, upon

    assuming office, emphasized the need for Ekiti renaissance and put machinery in motion to actualize the objective.

    Firstly, he changed the Fountain of Knowledge cognomen to Land of Honour through rebranding with orientation that re-established and re-awakened the people’s consciousness.

    The Fayemi-led administration has done much more in ensuring that the culture of fairness, justice, hospitality, purposefulness and moral integrity are brought back. This was evident in the geometric increase in the rating of Ekiti from the abysmal 20 per cent recorded in 2012 to 70 per cent in Ekiti Senior Secondary School/West African Examination Council. It is noteworthy to conclude that Governor Fayemi’s three years in office, when he commissioned innumerable developmental projects had already eclipsed eight years of political upheavals, violence, uncertainty and anxiety that characterised the governments of his predecessors.

    The peace that had long eluded us has returned to Ekiti and the much-needed justice and honour to really revamp our values followed.

     

    • Gbenga Sodeinde wrote in from Ado Ekiti.

  • Re: “Good riddance”

    SIR: Dear Tunji,You happen to be one of my favourite columnists, which include a sizeable number of those with the Nation newspapers. The above title, which appeared in last Sunday’s Nation, not only made my day, I consider the ideas espoused, therein, scholarly and factual, as they emboldened my long held notion-that leadership in today’s highly sentimental Nigeria, requires a lot of courage if success  is the goal. There is so much to be done with the mindsets of the people constituting a cog in the wheel of progress, even when they pose as party supporters.

    I have my doubt if courage, not a desperate effort to impress OBJ did the trick, finally, on the issue of Oduagate.

    Politicians, with their satanic (not only greedy) desires have constituted themselves as cogs in the wheel of administrative (governance) progress, even when faking as party supporters/party loyalists/friends of government/governor. They make selfish, yet, unsalutary and anti-people demands of government, making governance uneasy and holding governors hostage. This is a dilemma, which makes leadership, in government, a no-go area for the spineless/a person who would rather be a good-boy than step on toes. This President isn’t the no-nonsense type of person, for obviously-understandable reasons.

    You would recall, Tunji, the tumultuous welcome given the APC governments in the south western region. It was, understandably, out of a collective desire for a change from the non-performance of previous years-not anything, whatsoever, to do with political party. The governments started well in what looked like we are “On the march again”, years after our journey to stardom, started by Obafemi Awolowo was brutally truncated, by the military. What do we, now have to show: abandoned projects with haphazard implementations suggestive of remote-controls/sinister motives, here and there. For example, a beautiful road project, over which people had being jubilating, getting stopped abruptly, for no visible reasons, after it has crossed a “big” politician’s community etc, in manners that are most suspicious.

    Permit me to quote for you, one of your passages, most striking to me “he (Mr President), would not have to lose sleep over whether his party’s lawmakers and governors are defecting; all he would lay bare for Nigerians is his score card which should be speaking for him now”. I always believe that this is one strong premise upon which democracy thrives. It reminds me of the River state fellow on Channel TV, (during the recent Rivers/Mbu scenario “talk your own make we talk our own, let the people choose”-here is a grass root person, defining, most- accurately, democracy. What do we have today, here and there: non-performing governors seeking re-election by harassing us with deceitful jingles using their states’ funds.

    I knew and predicted, long before election, that it would be hard, if not impossible for any one born of human to stop the second term bids of Fasola (Lagos) and Adams (Edo). The same would, under normal conditions, happen with Kwankwaso’s Kano, Akpabio and would have happened in Ngige’s Anambra, but for the orchestrated “kidnap” by Raphael Ige. To me, it takes a really bad governor to lose a bid for second term, under normal conditions in Nigeria.

    Truth is that the people know who serve them- politics apart. Chief Awolowo and the LOOBO governors were no angels but their names became indelible in the political history books, all on account of exemplary performance. All of these were possible because an individual/group of men, of impeccable character, were willing to call the shot, in what I call benevolent dictatorship or authoritarianism. We would need to have this if we are to move forward-I know you might quarrel with me, here.

    The Options before APC or any party willing to make a difference and avert a fast-approaching state of chaos is to acknowledge this un-usual fact. Chief Awolowo ordered (NOT advised/appealed to/pleaded with) Ambrose Ali, then governor of Edo, to first pay back the state money he (Ambrose) used to bury his father,(about 500,000 naira ONLY!) into the state treasury, before coming to see him (Chief Awolowo), for further directives-it was like a case of a senior prefect overseeing the lesser prefects. It is the only way to move forward taming the excesses of individuals with anti-people desires/intentions and guarantees, more than any of these gangsterist methods, the electoral fortunes of the political party and the enduring reputation of governors and governance.

    In summary, there must be an impeccable central command structure, respectable and possibly “feared”. That centre must be benevolent, noting also that, unlike in a parliamentary model, what we have, gives enormous powers that can be abused by the unscrupulous.

     

    •Ade Ayeni

    Ade Ayeni

    wuleemu@yahoo.co.uk.

  • Still on President Jonathan’s cabinet shake-up

    There is no denying the fact that the country is not exactly where she should be as a nation in terms of meaningful development. It is also an undeniable fact that so much genuine efforts must be injected if only to show seriousness about putting the nation on the right path of progressive movement. Analysts and development experts have at various times blamed an appreciable percentage of our problems on awkward and faulty leadership recruitment system which has led to the emergence of incompetent leaders across different levels of government. This is just the ideal observation that the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan must strive to address.

    To a very large extent, the latest rounds of shake-up in the President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet should ordinarily serve a direct pointer to the fact that the old way of doing things are perhaps, gradually giving way to new ideas and innovations. The old order of not daring to tamper with certain public officials with questionable records or fingered in corrupt practices may possibly be a thing of the past. What we are currently witnessing, though after a lot of public hullabaloo, is all about doing the right thing for the good of all and the country as a whole.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led Federal government appears to be taking landmark steps in its bid to redeem its name and image. The party, owing to the lackluster performance of its representatives across different levels of government appears more determined and prepared to fix things right in other for it to maintain its pride of place among top rated political parties across the globe. Meaningfully leading this well thought-out campaign of ensuring the emergence of a performance-driven, people-oriented and issued-based PDP is President Goodluck Jonathan. He has demonstrated these new thinking through his latest appointments into boards, ministries, departments and agencies. This time around, merit, competence, capability, interest and track records are largely the criteria adopted in selecting people for various positions. Aside ensuring that all political appointees under the party’s platform are people of exceptional quality and sound character, they are also expected to display rare commitment and readiness to serve the people unreservedly.

    Could recent changes in the federal cabinet part of efforts to inject life, seriousness and professionalism into the way and manner government businesses are handled by functionaries. Is it a sign that it will no longer be business as usual? With this development, can we take it that no serving government official found to have soiled his or her hands in corruption would be shown the exit door? The recent changes except for obvious political undertone may indeed be good and healthy for the already existing systemic rot in the country as a whole. Those who think they can get into public office and indulge in primitive accumulation of our collective patrimony are no doubt still living in the past. The message is simple and direct. This government unlike ever before should be ready to name, shame and prosecute any public official caught abusing his or her office.

    The President Jonathan’s administration should have realized that time is of essence and that the era of allowing unwilling hands and minds to be part of his government are far over. Nigerians are no doubt desirous of witnessing landmark changes in all spheres of their national lives. For the doubting Thomases and cynics in our midst, these changes should no doubt change their impressions about this government. The government is showing a bit of direction in what it is doing. We will have no reason whatsoever to doubt it on whatever plans it intends to carryout or execute.

    Many, including this writer doubted the sincerity of President Goodluck Jonathan in the handling of the controversial bullet-proof armored car scandal that rocked former Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah. I had personally written off the possibility of the President having the guts to show Princess Stella Oduah the red card, though now belatedly done. This is no doubt a legendary and commendable step by Mr President. He indeed earns my respect and those of other Nigerians on this particular issue and others. This is the time to rally round Mr President and give him the necessary support and encourage his avowed determination to roll out realizable programmes and policies capable of putting Nigeria on the path of economic prosperity, political stability and above all as one of the peaceful and united nations across the globe. The challenges confronting us today are all surmountable. This particular horrific phase shall pass and Nigerians shall all smile at the end of the day. I see bright light at the end of the tunnel. Where others see disaster, I see peace and tranquility. Where others see failure, I see success.

    The President, like never before should by now have had a good understanding of what Nigerians seriously expect of his government. He ought to have realized that good and enviable legacies are far much better than promoting narrow interests. His administration’s resolve to improve our current power generation capacity is yet to be seen. The agricultural sector is doing commendably well, especially as it pertains to ensuring that we produce enough food to meet local consumption demands before thinking of exportation.

    To other cabinet members, this is the time to redouble their efforts to make the President’s Transformation Agenda a reality. This is not the time to allow distractions by bystanders and onlookers. This is the time to walk the talk. Those whose pastime is to make more enemies for the system through careless and unrefined comments should have a rethink. The challenges before the system are so enormous that it shouldn’t be dragged into unnecessary face-off or altercation with anyone or group of persons. You guys should focus more on your jobs.

    Finally, I wish to call on Mr President to think more of the verdict of history. He should be more interested in the legacies he plans to bequeath to generations yet unborn and give deaf ears to those beating the drums of war and disunity. Sir, you were duly elected as Nigeria’s President and not a sectional President. Destiny has placed in your hands the unique opportunity of etching your name on the sands of time. Sir, you have the yam and knife, kindly slice a piece for yourself.

    • Labaran Saleh

    Salelabaran@yahoo.com

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Chinese Language: Nigeria’s new mother tongue?

    English is becoming a mother tongue in Nigeria as Nigerians prefer the use of English, in communication, to the 646 Nigerian original mother tongues spoken by 250 ethnic nationalities.  Mandarin – a language of the Chinese – is another foreign language Nigerians currently have their eyes on, and it might be one of the new Nigeria’s mother tongues in the future.  And one thing explains this new love for Mandarin – the economic prosperity of China. This was alluded to by Mr Raji Fashola, the governor of Lagos State, during the celebration of his 2,000 days in office, “Whether we admit it or not the Chinese are taking over the global economy and we are only preparing our pupils for the opportunities that the use of Chinese language as the possible language of the future might provide.” The learning of the language is yet to kick off in Lagos public schools as it is being debated; but Confucius Institute – the centre for the learning Mandarin – has been established in some universities in Nigeria. Lately, University of Lagos admitted 25 students to study the language at degree level.

    This move – the study of the language – has been widely criticized by Nigerian languages protagonists especially because of the recent Federal Ministry of Education’s policy which made the three major Nigerian languages – Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa – optional in senior secondary school. As painful as the latter may be, the global economy status of China, and Mandarin as the possible language of the future, remains a food for thought.

    For the Nigerian languages protagonists, let us follow the America example. America is a multi-language society with at least 15 Commonly Taught Languages, and 244 Less Commonly Taught Languages in higher institutions as reported by The Modern Language Association of America. These languages are accommodated in the American society by the American native languages which include: Navajo, Cree, Ojibwa, Cherokee, Dakota, Apache, Blackfoot, Choctaw, etc.

    No doubt, our institutions have accepted Mandarin; nonetheless, I enjoin China and her language community to take a cue from the Occident by investing in the development of the Nigerian languages, and Nigerian language industry. The contributions of the Occident are quite many and enormous, but for reference, a few will do. Roy Clive Abraham, an Australian, was the author of The Grammar of Tiv, The Principles of Idoma, Dictionary of Modern Yoruba (the most comprehensive Yoruba dictionary till date), The Principles of Hausa (which clearly identified Hausa tonal system as three) etc. Wycliffe – a US-based organization – has translated the Bible into majority and minority Nigerian languages. United States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through its programme – Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) – yearly, takes Yoruba and Hausa native speakers who are language arts oriented to US to teach Americans learning the languages for a period of one year. Similar investments and developments are required of the Chinese.

    2012 Report on China’s Language Services Industry and 2012 Report on China’s Cultural Translation and Publishing Development – reports by the Institute of China Translation Development and Translators Association of China – put the value of China’s language service industry at US$ 20 billion in 2011. According to the reports, the number of employees in the industry which stood at 1.19 million in 2011 would hit 2 million by 2015. By 2015, the turnover of companies in the industry is set to exceed 260 billion Yuan. Nigeria needs this kind of vibrant language industry. Language Service Providers (LSPs) who constitute the translation and language industry in Nigeria require the technical know-how on the structure and management of LSPs for effectiveness and profitability. Knowledge transfer and certification in Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tools like Trados and SDLX, Word Fast, DejaVu etc. are part of the needs of Nigerian LSPs. This kind of intervention will not be effective if it is done through government’s academic institutions, rather, the LSPs should be directly engaged.

    To Nigerian government and its institutions, our partnership with China on the study of Mandarin and the spread of the language is a noble one. Novelty demands that we make this relationship mutual – following the Occident example. The development and investment of China in the Nigerian language sector should not be compromised. It remains a demand!

    It is February 21, a day commemorated worldwide as International Mother Language Day.  On this day, I take a stand not to allow my mother tongue go into extinction. Take a stand as well!

     

    • Olugboyega Adebanjo, Lead Translator at XML Language Services Limited Phone: 08028958497 Email: adebajoolu@gmail.com

  • Ode to Ojo Onikeke

    Look at Ojo Maduekwe, veteran ex-minister of many portfolios, under different governments, and you would probably see a living proof of the Biblical saying that a prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, among his own people.

    That quote came from Jesus the Christ himself, when faced with saucy stiff-necked Jews, who always questioned the bona fides of the lowly son of the lowly Joseph the Carpenter.

    And just as Christ begot Christianity, one of the globe’s foremost religions, to show just how the ancient Jews were so wrong about him and his divine mission, the Pan Africa Bicycle Information Network (PABIN) literally swooned on Ojo’s bicycle heroics.

    Just a sampler: “In a refreshing departure from the “Webenzi” (a local colloquial term for African civil servants who travel in Mercedes Benzes) Maduekwe and his staff can regularly be seen pedalling through the streets of Abuja, en route to meetings, with their formal clothes and papers strapped to their rear carriers.” Mr. Maduekwe was Transport minister then, from which Olympian heights he advocated his lowly mass cycling theory.

    PABIN even put a spin to many Maduekwe’s close shaves. When the heavens broke, and a minister of the Federal Republic was drenched to his bones, PABIN quoted the minister to have gamely declared: “Rain doctors did their worst, I defied them. In this business, rain does not really matter.”

    And when the minister was run into a ditch, by two vehicles on a major Abuja highway, on account of his cycling heroics, PABIN put another spin on it: “In June [2001], Maduekwe was even hit by a bus and into a ditch while cycling to work. This only led him to redouble his efforts to establish bicycle route networks in Abuja and Lagos.”

    That spin suggested Maduekwe’s cycling scheme survived much longer after the accident. That was not exactly true. Indeed, the Nigerian media back then report the accident with a jeering, we-told-you-so temper. Take this Vanguard July 19, 2001 report, with the headline — Nigeria: Bus knocks down Ojo Maduekwe on bicycle — “Current campaign by Transport Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe to popularise the use of bicycle as a means of transportation almost claimed his life yesterday after he was knocked down by a bus while he was riding a bicycle to the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).”

    With the upsurge of bicycles on Lagos roads, however, following the Lagos State Traffic Law of 2013, Ojo Maduekwe is all but justified. With the ban on the menace called Okada (commercial bikers on Lagos roads), it is a common sight to see youths on bicycles, many on neighbourhood roads, but not quite a few too on those highways, from which Okada had been banned.

    The dare-devil but quiet question from the daring riders would appear: Na Okada dem don ban, abi?, as these youths manoeuvre, not altogether different from the dare-devil Okada bikers which, by the way, had dispatched not a few to early graves or condemned them to tough limbless lives!

    So, those who pooh-poohed Ojo Onikeke on his bicycle philosophy must now realise: a prophet is not without honour …