The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Military veterans and national conversation

    When societies honour their military veterans wholeheartedly, they do so in appreciation of the valuable services this class of citizens rendered to their fatherland. Where servicemen and women who have fought and died to secure social, political and economic progress of their fellow countrymen, honouring them becomes a totally cultural, high-minded gesture expressed in numerous ways and forms. But where the military violates its codes of honour or soils its own uniform, serving and retired members tend to be treated with resentment and scorn.

    Public perception of serving and retired military personnel varies from country to country. So do opinions on how to honour them seem to flow from the history of a given society. Under ideal state of affairs, ex-servicemen are celebrated in ways and manners that buoy their sense of citizenship. Retired soldiers are members of a unique professional group whose services to their nation fill with evident pride.

    In some countries, military service, knowledge, skill and experience often stand ex- servicemen and women in relative advantage in election into public offices and matters of employment in general. In other climes, veterans are especially sought after in recognition of the tremendous civil applications of the various skills they bring from their years in military service. In those places, the notion that retired servicemen lack capabilities with which to contribute to national well-being or that the relationship between military service and civil responsibility must be necessarily adversarial stands wholly rejected.

    If any was ever required, the commemoration of Remembrance Day in this country every January 15, is proof that up to a point, Nigerians celebrate their military retirees. ‘Up to a point’ in the sense of a seemingly unending divergence of public opinion on the subject considering, especially, utterances from some quarters suggesting that our ex-servicemen do not deserve to be honoured with ceremonies of the kind held nationwide on that date. In response to this, retired soldiers insist that, given their sacrifice, they deserve more honour and respect than they currently get from the nation. If only military retirees are willing and ready to state their case by telling their extraordinary stories as only they can! But they do not. And yet, to do so would help lift the veil on the many issues involved in this matter the discussion of which must start urgently especially at this time when our nation is on the threshold of charting a new course for itself.

    Like their counterparts worldwide, Nigerian ex-servicemen have a keen awareness of the hazardous and matchless nature of their duties. As witnesses to losses of lives and limbs in unspeakable circumstances, they have a sense of entitlement to respect, honour and care from a country to which they have given so much. It explains why so well organized, respected and influential is this demographic group in other climes that politicians pay special attention to them by campaigning for the votes of ex-service men and pursuing legislations for the social welfare of defence personnel and ex-servicemen. Witness the domino effect that followed General Collin Powel’s endorsement of Barack Obama forward to his election as the 44th President of the United States.

    In Nigeria however, the view in some powerful quarters is that, regardless of their sacrifices, ex-servicemen deserve no special attention than do other citizens. ‘‘After all’’- so the argument goes- ‘‘retired soldiers are not different from other citizens. As such, they are parts of civil society who are supposed and required to be dealt with according to the laws of the country.’’ Many give the prolonged involvement of its military in politics as the ostensible reason for this posture.

    But because it can yield information capable of enriching the glue of national unity, peace and progress for which ex-servicemen sacrificed their lives in the first place, those with genuine interest in understanding the issues involved in the welfare of serving and retired military personnel beyond superficial limits recognize as imperative the need for informed discussion of the subject.

    In recent times, difficulties with the payment of retiree’s pension, allowances and related entitlements have caused Nigerian ex servicemen to embark on demonstrations in protest against what they regard as tardy handling of matters affecting their well-being. Consequently, Nigeria’s retired soldiers have been created in the image of ‘Oliver Twists’ in certain minds, robbing members of the public of the opportunity to hear the true stories of their ex-servicemen in many of which are to be found matters of greater interest to military retirees and by extension, to Nigerians in general.

    Pedestrian as it may seem, foremost among issues that dominate the thoughts of our military retirees are democracy, national unity, integration, peace and progress. This is based on the conviction that, it is only under such conditions that enhanced, prompt and regular payment of their pension, access to the type of medical care suitable for them, improved housing, affordable and qualitative family education as well as opportunities for post service employment, etcetera, are feasible. Apart from the harrowing tales they have to tell arising from the frustratingly abortive pursuit of such necessities, Nigerian ex-servicemen have a rich repertoire of stories with which to inform, educate and entertain their fellow countrymen.

    The quality of recent interviews of their members published in the media attest to this. So do the books some of them have authored on the Nigerian civil war. The Tragedy of Victory by General Alabi Isama is among the latest in the impressive list of such offerings. So is Major Debo Bashorun’s Honour for Sale. Max Siollun is not an ex-serviceman. But his work, Soldiers of Fortune, is replete with intimate, insider accounts of some of the coups d’état in Nigeria. In it, some of the key actors and diverse events in the years of military involvement in governance are chronicled in a style that reflects how the military was itself the main victim of some of its ill conceived and often misguided initiatives in governance.

    The human angle dimensions of international peace-keeping operations and domestic internal security operations; how military retirees perceive the disposition of their serving colleagues, the political and academic elite towards them are among the issues Nigerians could be better informed citizens coming into the knowledge of. Even with the stories that have been told so far, there may be strong reasons to believe that as at today, the most revealing tales known to Nigerian ex-servicemen are yet to be told.

    The natural disinclination of military personnel to talk to the media even in retirement may well have something to do with this. But concerns about whether or not the nation is ready for such narratives account to a large extent for the silence being contended with at the moment. What purpose telling such stories would serve the nation at this point now may be a reasonable question to ask. But then, so would what purpose not telling it serves would be.

    Against the background of roles that the military has played in the history of our country, the immediate and long term value of ex-servicemen’s contribution to the ongoing resort to national reinvention need not be played down. Arguable as it may be, Nigeria will lose nothing to encourage them to tell their stories for the fact that their telling could serve to catalyse the healing process that our country sourly needs at this time.

    Thanks to more than 15 years of democratic rule in our country, views are today being freely and increasingly expressed in relation to who did what and for what motives in the years of military rule. Thus, no discussion of what they have been through for fatherland’s sake and therefore the form of honour, or how much gratitude the nation actually owes those who have served their country as professional military men and women can be out of place at this time. Without the nation hearing the ex-servicemen’s side of the tale, there can be no enduring closure on this matter as the Nigerian public will persist in the error of perceiving pension, allowances and other sundry payments as the dominant thoughts in the minds of Nigeria’s military retirees. On their part, ex-servicemen need to understand that this cannot be achieved except they tell their story the way no one else can.

     

    Olaniyan, a retired Colonel, was former Director, Army Public Relations

     

  • Globalisation, transformation and imperative for change through entrepreneurship education

    delivered by Ekiti State Deputy Governor Prof Modupe Adelabu at the Third Distinguished Lecture of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State.

    future vocational activity, which may bring them into close contact with commercial or social enterprise. In other words, at the family and individual levels, a university education is to enable the beneficiary to have a good and sustainable employment. In the immediate past, that has been the case of university graduates in various professions. However, in the wake of rapid growth in the number of universities in Nigeria, and the global market competition experienced by employers of labour, there is urgent need to re-engineer our educational curriculum to make it truly functional.

    Re-engineering University Education

    Re-engineering university education is the technical application of the re-thinking process. As earlier mentioned, attempt must be made to break new grounds, by moving away from well-trodden paths, in this case, education for white collar jobs and a rigid curriculum that fits into it.

    Re-engineering university education in Nigeria would require a strong emphasis on curriculum enrichment which would involve the following:

    i. modification of existing course content (sometimes in response to employer’ssuggestions),

    ii. the introduction of new courses,

    iii. the introduction of new teaching methods, and

    iv. expanded provision of opportunities for work experience -all intended to enhance the development of employability skills and/or ensure that the acquisition of such skills is made more explicit. (Obanya, 2002)

    Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Institutions

    In the developed countries like United Kingdom (UK)and United States of America (USA), many Universities are already offering an impressive and sophisticated array of entrepreneurship activities. Incidentally this cuts across all disciplines. It also implies that entrepreneurship activities could be part of the curriculum of every discipline.

    Entrepreneurship education has been embraced by almost all the developed countries and its capabilities and efficacy in springing up economies is not in doubt. It is believed that refocusing education system will immensely contribute in developing the spirit and culture of entrepreneurship in the country. The methodology here involves review of the current situation especially the existing education policies and highlights the need for departure by studying some models that can be applied. It was discovered that the current education system is deficient in providing the necessary impetus for development. It has also been found out that same problems keep escalating despite various efforts by the government to review policies and programmes in the past.

    The incidence of Poverty in Nigeria is on the high side, where 70% of the total population has been classified as poor (Ewhrudjakpor, 2008) This rate of poverty is however accentuated by the increasing rate of unemployment, high level of illiteracy, corruption and bad governance among others. Therefore, as a panacea to this problem, entrepreneurship has been identified as a means of providing employment and income generation in the country.

    Education should be a veritable tool for securing employment and emancipation of people through the provision and acquiring of necessary knowledge and skills to make lives more flourishing.

    Challenges facing Entrepreneurship Education in Nigeria

    The challenges facing entrepreneurship education in Nigeria are multi-faceted. The first is that entrepreneurship education curriculum is ineffectively implemented hence the difficulty in achieving its goals (Garba, 2004) neither could its curriculum objectives like other specialised education been translated into practical realities at the implementation stage for the benefits of learners (Okebukola, 2004, Onyeachu, 2008)

    The second challenge facing entrepreneurship education in meeting its policy goals is traceable to lateness in starting entrepreneurship education at any level in Nigeria. This is premised on the argument that introduction of anything new in human society takes time to develop. Available facts in the literature indicate that United States of America introduced entrepreneurship into the curriculum of higher education as far back as 1947 (Kuratko, 2003). In the early 2000, the number of tertiary institutions that mounted entrepreneurship programme increased to 1,050 schools, as against 300 in the 1980s (Solomon, et al., 1994;Kuratko, 2003).

    Another key challenge stifling the growth of entrepreneurship education is dearthof lecturers in the field of entrepreneurship to make the course practically interesting and goal-oriented as opposed to too much focus on theoretical instructions and the commonly use of traditional talk-chalk method of communicating knowledge and information as well as rote learning. According to Ajibola (2008), this form of instruction and learning hampers creativity and does little to equip students with problem-solving and decision-making skills

    Deficiency of instructional materials such as textbooks and others could also be a challenge at the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. If there is absence of standard learning materials/text-books on entrepreneurship education, students would have no option other than to fall back on scanty hand-outs/training manuals made available by course instructors. Moreover, if functional infrastructures are not available in the schools, entrepreneurship education will not be effectively implemented and the goal of equipping the youths with skills and knowledge of trades will not be achieved.

    Entrepreneurship education requires the use of active learning methods that place the learners at the centre of educational process and enable them to take responsibility for their learning. Such methods have been known to make learning experiences richer and to have positive benefits for students in terms of improving their motivation with positive effects on their engagement with learning and long-term attainment.

    Poor funding of entrepreneurship education in particular and the education sector in general has been a serious challenge to entrepreneurship, both at the institutional level and the nation at large. This funding constraint has adversely affected the implementation of entrepreneurship education curricula, a fact attested to by National Universities Commission and counterpart supervisory agencies (Gabadeen&Raimi, 2012).

    Lack of adequate orientation and sensitisation of students in our tertiary institutions can cause a dis-interest in entrepreneurship education, resulting in wrong mind-set and very weak participation in entrepreneurship activities.

    Equally, unpleasant feedback from preceding self-employed graduates sends wrong signals to undergraduates taking compulsory courses in entrepreneurship education in several tertiary institutions (Gabadeen&Raimi, 2012). Some of the negative feedbacks from self-employed individuals to those still in school include: multiple taxes, harsh business regulations, inadequate infrastructural facilities for small businesses, high rate of inflation, labour regulations and stringent laws on starting/ running a business (Kisunkoet. al, 1999)

    Other challenges are lack of access to bank credits, lack of government interest in promoting small businesses, poor state of infrastructural facilities and poor telecommunication system, epileptic electricity, corruption and fraud such that will discourage investors.

    Entrepreneurship: A Strategy for Sustainable National Transformation:

    No country can move forward technologically, industrially and economically without developing strong private partner initiate in the creation of wealth, poverty reduction and employment generation, with required skills. These skills include managerial, comparative, communication, technical, human and special skills to cope with the challenges of the future. Since entrepreneurship is vital to the sustainable advancement of any nation, entrepreneurship thus:

    •Serves as learning and training centres for the translation of dreams and ideas into successful ventures;

    •Facilitates the identification, creation and utilization of non-existent saving;

    •Brings self-fulfilment;

    •Checks Rural-Urban drifts;

    •Alleviates and eradicates poverty;

    •Creates employment.

    •Leads to technological advancement;

    •Creates more jobs per unit of invested capital and per unit of energy consumed;

    •Mobilizes resources that ordinarily would have remained idle in the hands of people and employ them productively and by doing so, capital formulation is encouraged;

    •Strengthens locally produced product for perfect competition;

    •Links up the various sectors of the economy and constitute the market for agricultural extractive and industrial output as well as providing source of material and labour input for big industries;

    •Builds skills such as managerial, human, technical and conceptual skills in the individuals by teaching and allowing them to start businesses with little or no money for themselves;

    •Reduces poverty and idleness;

    •Attracts Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Investors will flood the economy, which will move the nation towards industrialization (Akpomi, 2009).

    The role of entrepreneurship in na tional transformation globally as experienced in many countries of the world, mostly the Asian continent such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, shows that entrepreneurship contributes substantially to national development. In Nigeria, where poverty is on the high side, this actually presents a persuading factor. Industrialization strategy can mostly be a way of inducing entrepreneurship development. Our society is not static; it keeps changing. In the past, graduates in Nigeria had the problem of choosing among the various opportunities waiting for them. Then possession of a good certificate was synonymous with obtaining a very attractive white collar job. But today, the story has tremendously changed, there is a high rate of unemployed and employable youths in Nigeria despite Governments investment in education; perhaps the investment has been on wrong form of education.

    Despite having been independent since 1960, Nigeria is one of the nations with highest rate of unemployed youths in the world (UNESCO and ILO, 2006). Nigeria‘s economy is still crawling because the education system has, over the time, failed to address the issue of human capital development. In other words, Nigeria is yet to join the league of countries that have used entrepreneurship education to drive their economies and overcome mass poverty as has been done in other developing Nations such as United Kingdom, United State of America, Scandinavian Nations and even some African countries like Egypt and Tunisia have been teaching entrepreneurship education in their school systems and have all produced specific and separate national entrepreneurship education strategic documents as their programmes are dovetailed into their national development plans (Chukwuma, 2006).

    Globalisation necessitates that irrespective of country, having the right mix of knowledge and skills is now critical for young people, especially those living in rural and urban areas. Those without any employable skills, out dated skills or low skills are more likely to miss out on opportunities in the economic and social mainstream of their communities (UNESCO and ILO, 2006).

    Recommendations

    In the light of the crucial issues discussed and associated challenges highlighted above, the under listed prescriptions are for implementation by policy-makers.

    Entrepreneurship education should be incorporated into the curricula of secondary schools and tertiary institutions and made compulsory because many might find themselves self-employed after school. This will help shift the youth from being job seekers to job creators and also from social dependence to self-sufficient people, since there are too many people with certificates but no clue as to what to do with their lives.

    Vocational and technical education should be introduced at all levels of education. It is an indisputable means of reducing youth unemployment since it is skilled-oriented and employment motivated.

    Career guidance services should be made compulsory and provided for all levels of education to help students in making realistic career choices. The efficiency of any career guidance effort will be dramatically enhanced if it begins early in life and becomes a way of thinking.

    In our universities, many undergraduates are clueless as regards what they really want to study; others are studying courses that they are not passionate about, sometimes, because their friends talked them into it or their parents forced it upon them. Most times, these students choose these courses because they were given inadequate or no advice before they did so.

    Another way to tackle this menace is to revisit the departmental syllabuses which are usually filled with irrelevant and out-dated courses. The government should furnish universities with the needed basic and academic amenities. A glimpse into a Nigerian university will reveal lots of inadequacies both academicals and infrastructural; the laboratories, better described as dumping rooms, are full of cobwebs sleeping with out-dated and unusable equipment. The lecture halls are dilapidated and most of them cannot even accommodate the number of students admitted. Some students help themselves by sitting on the floors.

    The Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provost overseeing the affairs of the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education respectively should ensure that course instructors/lecturers assigned to teach entrepreneurship education are specialists in the field. However, where there are difficulties in getting experts, non-specialists lecturers with relevant background in academia should be engaged and sent for accelerated training within and outside Nigeria. Experts with practical experience in entrepreneurship from the industry could also be engaged on full or part-time arrangement.

    In order to enrich the curriculum of entrepreneurship, the tertiary institutions offering entrepreneurship education should organize periodic field trips, industrial tours to developed nations, mentorship programme, hosting of exhibitions/fairs, coaching/grooming, seminars/conferences/workshops and exchange programmes in order to inspire undergraduate students and learners to imbibe entrepreneurial traits.

    There is the need for periodic review and assessment of the contents of the entrepreneurship education curricula. The school curriculum should be pragmatic, that is, inculcate in the undergraduate students practical enterprise-building skills which should be turned into viable business opportunities during and after graduations, thereby reducing youth unemployment in Nigeria.

    National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme should be refocused as a period for acquisition of Entrepreneurship skills and implementation of those skills during the service year. After passing out, it is expected that the trainees will establish personal businesses.

    The Federal government should evolve a national culture of entrepreneurship by supporting, training and rewarding self-reliant graduates across the tertiary levels in Nigeria. This approach would help foster among students offering entrepreneurship innovation, invention and creativity.

    The government should refocus Education Trust Fund (ETF), Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PTDF) and Federal Ministry of Education (FME) to earmark substantial portion of their budget for funding public universities/polytechnic and colleges of education offering entrepreneurship education courses. The funding should cover training, research, infrastructural development and programmes for academic and administrative members of staff in charge of entrepreneurship education across the three levels of tertiary institutions.

    The various micro-finance banks should be alive to their obligations by providing the needed financial and advisory services to graduates and non- graduates that have pass through entrepreneurship education and who possess viable business plans and zeal of establishing innovative small-scale businesses.

    Conclusion

    The world is developing in an unprecedented speed and the rate of unemployment is growing fast which Nigeria is not able to cope with. Various sound economic programmes have been instituted by the Federal Government primarily to reduce poverty, unemployment and encourage entrepreneurship in Nigeria in the last three decades, yet none has worked. The real solution is mostly in our leaders and partly in the followers. We shall get result when we all think right, act right and take up challenges to develop entrepreneurship which, in turn, will lead to national transformation. Nigerian graduates should be encouraged that it is better to be a small head than to be a big tail.Hence, to be an employer of people is better than to be a servant, whether civil, public or modernized servant.

    Graduates of higher education in Nigeria should not sit on the fence. With entrepreneurial education, the nation’s graduates will become employers of labour not job seekers. Their skills will enhance business expansion and reduce the level of poverty. The availability of white-collar jobs compared to the massive turnout of graduates from universities as well as the Nigeria Youth Service Corp (NYSC), shows a negative ratio. The available jobs cannot meet the needs of the over one hundred tertiary schools in Nigeria (Federal, States, Private Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, etc.).

    However, in view of the dwindling national revenue the burden of educational matters cannot be shouldered by Government alone. Since the community and the private sector are equal stakeholder, there is need for all patriotic citizens, institutions, agencies and communities to support schools so as to make Entrepreneurship Education succeed in our schools. If Nigeria is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, as well as become one of the world’s biggest economies in the world by the year 20:20:20, her entrepreneurship sector must receive adequate funding.

  • President Abraham Lincoln – 1850-1862

    President Abraham Lincoln – 1850-1862

    Black History Month

     

    The 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to both his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal. His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land. The Emancipation Proclamation that he signed freed American blacks from bondage.

    The Emancipation Proclamation

    January 1, 1863, By the President of the United States of America:

    Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

    That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

    That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

    Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

    Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

    And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

    And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

    And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

    And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

    In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

    Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

    By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

    WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Is Governor Jang serious?

    Is Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State a serious leader?

    How reasonable is it for a king whose domain is at war to be preparing for an installation ceremony? This is exactly what the governor is doing by fighting for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), it is like leaving leprosy to cure eczema.

    Plateau State is burning every week with killing and maiming of innocent souls unabated but what bothers Governor Jang is to be the chairman of NGF at all cost.

    I feel he should be deeply touched by the plight of the people who witness this unending calamity during his tenure. A thoughtful person who finds himself in a situation that he finds himself in his state will reject the NGF position even if it’s entrusted to him.

    What should be top on his priority list is how to rescue his people from this mortal storm that decreases them in numbers daily and weekly. Will he be fighting for the position if any of his siblings was affected in the incessant bloody crisis?

    He should realise that the king that rules and his people enjoy peace and stability, his name will be written in gold and he that rules and the people suffer untold hardship and ruin will be remembered for his failure to find solution to the problem afflicting his people. Jang is wining and dining with the powers that be in Abuja while Plateau State burns. It is absurd; he is a replica of the biblical Jonah who sleeps when there was trouble in the sea

    Israel Oyegbile

    Sabo Tasha, Kaduna.

  • Tinted glass dramas and police extortions

    A coin normally has two faces. However, in some climes and under certain circumstances, it may appear that the coin may be multifaceted. Therein lays the paradox of the faces of a coin. Or is that why we find it difficult to accept the coin as a currency denomination? Otherwise, the note too has two faces. Encounters with some members of the security forces that are the true faces of these agencies or may not be reveal that indeed we are faced with many faces of the same coin. Whether good, bad or ugly, an experience with them reveals the level of professionalism and indeed the rot that many systems in the country have had to contend with. The purported saying that the police is your friend or not is best captured in the experience I had while travelling from Ibadan to Benue during the last yuletide. It is a well known occurrence during festive seasons that all manner of personnel dot the roads in search of prey whom they will devour or exploit, as there is always a fault to be found on the vehicle or particulars. On this fateful day, at the exit from the expressway from Ojoo into the state roads at Iwo Road we were flagged down by an armed policeman. Our papers were okay, but one of them took me on since I was wearing my ID tag. Having asserted that we were driving in a factory-fitted tinted glass vehicle, he went on to inform us that we had broken the law which was a high court offence and therefore we must follow him to the station or settle him with N10,000 cash. We pleaded to no avail. As if we were the cause of the rot in the force, he vituperated further that we lecturers fail students unjustly and massively. I thought maybe he must have failed woefully in one of those institutions, so I told him that it was not in the character of a lecturer to fail a student and that the University of Ibadan where I come from is above board and that is why we don’t even sell handouts and force students to buy our books. Not satisfied, he went on, pontificating that the chaplet in our car was attacking him spiritually and he was not himself again. But who can argue with an armed robber, certainly only one out of his/her mind would argue with someone with a gun. For many have been allegedly gunned down by these friends of the public and proclaimed as robbers or much less victims of robbery attacks for failing to accede to their demands. Previously, he had played the ethnic card by speaking with my wife in his language so as to gauge the lever of extortion. We had no choice but to part with our hard-earned money to an armed man using the powers of his gun to preach to us on every subject that presented it directly or indirectly. We had broken the extant rule on tinted vehicular glass long outlawed during the military era, but a product of intensive research from the developed world to protect passengers from harmful solar radiation and for purposes of right of privacy even on the road. No wonder since we have a paucity of research products, our very agencies are destroying the products of hard-won research gotten from other lands for health benefits as factory-fitted tinted glass are meant to protect from harmful solar radiation while on the road.

    Like most draconian legislations that do not consider the sensibilities and responsiveness of the hapless citizenry, vehicle owners of factory-fitted tinted glasses have been on the receiving end through police extortions and intimidations on the highways. A market has been created for the extorting police to rake in between 10-15K from their victims.

    However, on the same fateful day, there was an exception in Ondo State at the boundary with Edo towards Okene. This particular police officer on seeing that all our papers were right with the exception of the permit on vehicular tinted glasses, having identified ourselves, cautioned us to make use of the next opportunity to obtain the permit without us begging him. This was no doubt a hard reminder that good men are still in the police having been extorted by the same force member with abusive statements on the same day in Ibadan. It is quite possible that the sensible police man in Ondo thought about the cumbersome nature of obtaining the permit, the unnecessary cost of replacing the factory-fitted glasses, the recklessness of the resurrected extant rule and the rightness in all our other papers in deciding to wave us through without demanding a bribe. This showed how sensible the rank and file of the force can be.

    Nigerians and other vehicle owners with tinted glasses need to be treated with dignity and respect. The force should stop treating everyone as a suspect and criminal. Give the citizenry the time to do the ‘’new’’ right thing on vehicle tinted glass.

    By Emmanuel Tyokumbur,

    Department of Zoology,

    University of Ibadan

  • African-American history month

    African-American history month

    Introduction:

    To celebrate African American History Month 2014, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate Lagos in partnership with The Nation, is pleased to present every day, throughout the month of February, events and people who have shaped U.S. democracy.  The right to vote and to be counted in a free, fair, and transparent electoral process is a privilege that has been attained through a long tough struggle.  Efforts to refine and perfect the process continue throughout the world.  Each day in February, we will highlight in chronological order an event or a leader who has made significant contributions to universal political franchise.

    We share these stories to highlight historic events, history makers, and ordinary people who “spoke and marched and toiled and bled shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary people who burned with the same hope for a brighter day.  That legacy is shared; that spirit is American. And just as it guided us forward 150 years ago and 50 years ago, it guides us forward today” (President Obama, February 2013).

    “Today, because of that hope, coupled with the hard and painstaking labor of Americans sung and unsung, we live in a moment when the dream of equal opportunity is within reach for people of every color and creed.  National African American History Month is a time to tell those stories of freedom won and honor the individuals who wrote them.  We look back to the men and women who helped raise the pillars of democracy, even when the halls they built were not theirs to occupy” (Presidential Proclamation 2013).

    Saturday, February 1, 2014

    U.S. Declaration of Independence Adopted – 1776

    The United States Declaration of Independence gave equal rights and political franchise to white men and this was not extended to black men until 1870 and to women until 1920.  Here is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence that relates to political franchise and people’s right to elect and get rid of their leaders.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

    Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

    Reference: The African American Desk Reference, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Copyright 1999 The Stonesong Press Inc. and The New York Public Library, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pub.ISBN 0-471-23924-0, http://saintpaulrepublicans.us/

  • How to build a united society, by Fashola

    How to build a united society, by Fashola

    For Nigeria to be one indivisible nation of diverse ethnic nationalities, there must be values and character that must propagate ideals of unity among the people, the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has said.

    While pushing for national development, Fashola said it was imperative for children and youths to be inculcated with the right “social and religious values” to engender the kind of nation the people crave.

    While urging missionaries to teach progressive religious knowledge to the youth, the governor noted that the nation’s history could not be separated from church activities.

    Fashola, who spoke at the annual General Conference of the Cherubim and Seraphim Unification Church of Nigeria, said God’s purpose for His creature was clear but the challenge, he said, remained the purpose of the people themselves.

    He said: “Nation-building is a continuous undertaking that passes through phases of processes. After we gained independence, nation-building was in the context of developing human capital and keeping Nigeria one. At another time, nation-building was in the context of economic development and managing our resources. It has been about enthroning democracy at one time but at this time, it is about speaking with one voice.”

    “It is through the mission schools that the first seed of nation-building is first planted in the minds of children. It is a share responsibility between the state and church. On Sundays when parents take their children to asalatu (Muslim prayer) or Sunday school, learning the way of God and how to worship. This is where they imbibe the fear of God. The question is: are we playing our responsibility very well to make us a one nation? This is the area we have to focus on and we must pay attention to character of mankind in reforming the society.”

    Fashola, who declared the conference open, said the theme: “I will make them one nation” could not have come at the appropriate time, given the efforts to make Nigeria a one nation.

    The governor, who said it was his first time in a white-garment church, commended the Spiritual Head, Olorunfunmi Basorun and the Supreme Head, Abel Akinsanya, for organising a conference seeking to promote unity among the people.

    The week-long conference would also focus on development of the church’s Ecumenical Centre and proposed Moses Orimolade University in Omu Aran, Kwara State.

    There will also be seminars and human capital development programmes for the youth.

    At the ceremony were Adeboruwa of Igbogbo land, Oba J.O Fatola, Commissioner for Rural Development, Hon Cornelius Ojelabi, and representatives of Senator Gbenga Ashafa.

  • CHAN-pions still

    It ended as it had started – in a cold and anti-climactic manner but we enjoyed it while it lasted. We refer to the African Nations Championship (CHAN) football tournament that is on-going in South Africa. The Nigerian team, the Super(?) Eagles, started on a most dour note, playing the scrappiest kind of football ever, were defeated in the debut game against Mali. But between that first match and the last against Ghana, our men gave us so much to cheer and believe in these grim times: enough to insist that they remain our champions in spite of their ugly ouster last Wednesday.

    We are happy with our team’s performance in CHAN for numerous reasons. First, being a tournament for Africa’s home-based footballers, what is on display is football ‘born and nurtured’ on patched African soils. In that regard, Nigeria, big as she is, is probably the worst training ground in Africa for footballers. Well you may add that it is so for everything else but we are dwelling on football now. Nigeria’s football league is perhaps the worst managed and organised. While leagues across the world are about halfway through now, Nigeria’s is yet to start even as you read this.

    Those players went to such a major continental tournament bearing months of match rustiness. Most of our league matches are played on balding pitches where teams hardly lose on home grounds because match officials are often compromised. Whereas teams are sponsored by groups and corporate bodies in most other climes, Nigeria’s football clubs are usually the extensions of the political machinery of state governors who run clubs like political parties instead of the big business it ought to be. Players’ wages for instance, often depend on the mood and temperament of the big man resulting in our home-based ‘professionals’ looking weather-beaten and worn all the time.

    Even though we enjoy the English Premier League (currently being sponsored by the Barclays Group); the Spanish La Liga, and the German Bundesliga, to name the top three European football leagues, which are run like the big business that football has become today, we do not seem to learn from them. Government hardly has any business in owning clubs and managing major sports across the world today. Not so Nigeria; we still approach it all in a left-handed and awkward manner. Like every other natural endowment of ours, if only we knew the enormity of what we have; if only we knew how much foreign exchange countries like Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Portugal earn from football talent export. This is because they have managed to harness what providence has thrust upon them.

    We are happy with the CHAN Eagles knowing that the team in South Africa is not our first eleven for as they trained for this tournament about half a dozen of them fulfilled their professional dreams when they found greener pastures in Europe to ply their trade. What it means is that Nigeria’s second best is Africa’s near best. South Africa and perhaps Morocco have facilities as good as you can find in Europe but our boys, some of whom have never played on a standard pitch before humiliated them. This is why we think they are champions regardless… but if only we can take the lessons from CHAN.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon