The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Another mass failure in WAEC exams

    SIR: With yet another dismal story of students’ failure in examinations, it has unequivocally become crystal clear that the standard of education in the country will never regain its lost glory unless the government and other stakeholders reached a consensus on the necessary drastic, if not draconian measures to take in order to redirect students attention to serious reading. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has released the last Nov/Dec senior secondary certificate examination result. According to WAEC, only 86,612 out of 308217 candidates were able to make five credits, including English and Mathematics. In other words, only 29.17% of the whole candidates scaled through.

    This result, when compared with the previous ones happens to be the worst. If this unwholesome trend continues unabated, the probability of getting a better result among the students in the near future is absolutely zero.

    Something has to be done to stop the trend. But let me sound it loud and clear that unless the mantra: DUTY BEFORE PLEASURE is emphatically drummed into the ears of our children, letting them understand the need to forgo pleasure and other frivolities capable of distracting their attention from their books, this syndrome would never stop. The present situation is just a tip of the iceberg.

    The misuse of cell phone by students has done more harm than good. We send our children to school to learn, read their books, and participate in other extracurricular activities and not to manipulate their phones and watch films at home to the detriment of their studies. You cannot serve two masters at a go. You either love one and hate the other.

    During our days, what used to occupy our minds was how to cover the syllabus before the exam. And in the long run we always had success story to tell. But now the scenario has changed. Not all the students know what the syllabus is, let alone striving to cover it.

    Much as we emphasize on the need for students to take their studies serious, I am not comfortable with the foot dragging attitude of government towards renovating dilapidated structures in our public schools and the provision of necessary reading aids for students and teachers. For instance, most of our public schools do not have libraries, science laboratories and other educational facilities. Teachers attendance is not monitored by inspectors and this create room for lackadaisical attitude on the part of teachers towards their profession. Most of them have sidelines that distract their attention from concentrating on their teaching. All these short comings should be appropriately addressed by the government.

     

    •Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt

  • Firm foundation for growth of Nigerian universities

    The pictures of the formal agreement between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, are now historic and a sign-post of a greater future ahead for the nation’s public universities. A majority of Nigerians watched with happiness as the Supervising Minister of Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the ASUU National President, Dr Nasir Fagge, and the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, presented a united front in the overriding interest of the nation.

    That remarkable event proved that despite the tension that characterised the negotiating process, all the parties were fundamentally interested in the development of the nation’s university education framework. Though all parties used different methods to achieve the ultimate goal, the end threw up the fact that everyone wanted the best for the system.

    As has become the unfortunate trend in the Nigerian space, most politically exposed persons who oppose President Goodluck Jonathan took advantage of the prolonged strike to further create an unfriendly environment that further elongated the industrial dispute. These individuals and non governmental organisations that support their political interests only saw political mileage out of the dispute and nothing more.

    Despite the deliberate false information being dished out by politically interested persons and their associates, the parties in the dispute kept their eyes on the goal. Therefore, they moved from one negotiating room to the other seeking concrete solutions to the developmental challenges that have bedevilled the nation’s public universities for over three decades.

    For those involved in these negotiations, it was clear that the issues to be resolved were deeply entrenched; hence they required high level commitment for their solutions to be found. These solutions were certainly not found in the lackadaisical approach adopted by the previous administrations.

    President Goodluck Jonathan insisted that he would not be party to the past practice where agreements were signed without any intention of the federal government implementing same. Such attitude of the past administrations led to the scepticism that greeted the process from the very beginning.

    But the truth is that this scepticism was not founded on any action of the Jonathan administration. Since assuming duty, he changed the face of government’s investments in the basic and tertiary education levels, making good his promises with high class physical achievements across the length and breadth of the nation. He, therefore, stressed that he would have nothing to do with mere paper-based agreement. For him, whatever agreement entered into that would be entered into with ASUU must be cash-backed.

    As such, this particular negotiating process was completely different from what Nigerians were used to. In this case, the president expressed his willingness to go all the way to change the face of Nigerian universities. At the first phase of the negotiations, the administration placed on the table N100billion for infrastructural development. He also kicked off the payment of earned allowances with the setting aside of N30billion. Though, this did not resolve the conflict, it clearly indicated the president’s unflinching commitment to the development of public universities.

    In the long run, the federal government and ASUU have reached an agreement that is acceptable to all parties. The joy of this is that the nation will witness an unprecedented growth in the revival of our public universities.

    NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, at the resolution signing meeting highlighted the historic role played by President Goodluck Jonathan in the entire process. He pointed out that the fact that the president devoted 13-hours of his tight schedule to personally negotiate with ASUU indicated his rating of university education. He attributed this to the fact that the president holds a doctorate degree and appreciates the importance of a functional university system to the development of the country.

    Another major player in the resolution of the dispute is the Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike. He took over the negotiating process on September 12, 2013 and since then has introduced a hands-on pragmatic approach into resolving the challenges presented by the strike.

    The Supervising Minister of Education used his unique political diplomatic skills to change the pace of engagement between all parties, setting the negotiating process on the fast lane. He held several meetings with ASUU, the National Universities Commission, NUC, the Committee of Vice Chancellors and the Committee of Pro-Chancellors. Some of the meetings were held in his office, and other key locations.

    Having set the framework for the final lap of negotiations, the minister facilitated the involvement of the presidency in firming up agreements reached at the ministerial level of negotiations. This was how both Vice President Namadi Sambo and President Goodluck Jonathan participated in the conclusion of this process.

    Though the process has been tortuous, we now have an agreement that details everything that the federal government will put into the system to ensure that we have a public university framework with infrastructure that all Nigerians will be proud of.

    Beyond the expected massive infrastructural development that will follow the investment of N1.3trillion in public universities, there is the need for the university lecturers to reciprocate by investing massively their mental resources in the system. The Supervising Minister of Education said that a greater commitment by university lecturers to the system would lead to a successful revival of the nation’s public universities.

    Nigerians expect quality improvements in the contacts that lecturers have with their students and the complete turn-around of the academic set-up in the universities. The investments of the federal government must be matched by the needed commitment from the academic staff. This is the role that the ASUU leadership at all levels must enforce.

    With the constitution of the Implementation/Monitoring Committee of the revival of the nation’s public universities, the Jonathan administration has set in motion the process of a firm foundation for a viable future for the nation’s citadels of learning.

    By Simeon Nwakaudu,

    Abuja.

  • Is Kwankwaso Nigerian?

    Is Kwankwaso Nigerian?

    The governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, does not appear to me as a full-blooded Nigerian. His actions never cease to amaze me each time I reflect on leadership in Nigeria. Denied the right to exemplary leadership for so many years in this country, Kwankwaso’s quintessential character has provoked in me some kind of inquisitiveness about his identity. I must warn though that you should not expect any scientific proof from me, regarding his identity, because I lack the capacity for such technical and professional exercise. My simple proof is only through some documentary exhibits, which some of us would probably have been ignoring in our newspapers because of their squint-faced lettering.

    Every week, this man publishes in the newspapers the minutes of his Exco meetings thus indulging the public with an insight into his government operations and decisions on certain issues, projects, programmes and policies. He has been doing this for some years but a 6 plus-month sampling will suffice for my discourse. Starting from June 3, 2013 to the time of writing this piece (Dec. 16), the minutes of his 27 Exco meetings were all advertised except for the 11th meeting (officially the 111th Kano State Exco meeting) which is missing. It should have come between August 19 and August 26.

    I do not know if there is any provision in the constitution compelling this kind of action. But what I do know is that, for the first time in the chequered history of governance in Nigeria, a leader has elected to submit himself to his people by being accountable to them. Even if it is a constitutional obligation, that he is the only one doing it speaks volume of his exceptional leadership. It must be noted that Kwankwaso has been doing this before the Freedom of Information Act came into existence.

    In a nation immersed in reprehensible impropriety, moral bankruptcy, frightening impunity and political irresponsibility, Kwakwaso’s leadership style remains a revolutionary salvo for national leadership revival. It is a paradox that an action like this, which should elicit a whirling vortex of emotion and support for its uniqueness, is being treated with indifference and marginal adoration.

    In one of the samples under scrutiny, the minutes show the number of memoranda brought to the council for deliberations, the presenting officers or ministries, the projects and items that are up for deliberations, their cost implications, the discussions, the decisions and the final approvals by the council. For instance, at the 120th Kano State Executive Meeting held on Wednesday, 23rd October, 2013, the office of the Head of Civil Service presented a request for funds for the absorption/conversion of qualified casual, non-pensionable and contract staff of the defunct Triumph Publishing Company to permanent and pensionable status.

    In the course of the deliberations, the Head of Civil Service “respectfully reminded the council, through contents of this memorandum of its resolutions contained in council… which directed him to submit a proposal for the engagement/absorption of the Triumph staff”. In complying with this directive, a 4-Member Technical Committee was set up to work out the modalities for the absorption. It was the report of the committee that was deliberated upon by the Exco. This was finally approved by the council after formal deliberations.

    Also at the same meeting, the Ministry of Higher Education informed the council that “53 Kano State indigenous Law students were able to scale through for admission into the Nigerian Law Schools from ABU Zaria and University of Jos despite the incessant strikes by ASUU”.

    As such, the Kano State Scholarship Board submitted a request for the release of the aggregate sum of N16,960,000 by council as special grant to sponsor registration for the students at the rate of N320,000 each (i.e. N320,000 x 53 = N16,960,000). This was also approved.

    What could be more transparent than this! I am here in Lagos dissecting the activities of the government of Kano based on the information retrieved from the minutes of the meeting of the governor and his cabinet members published in national newspapers. The government of Kano State has adopted a “lying-in-state” approach to governance whereby all and sundry can come and have a view of its operations and activities for them to commend or to condemn. The important thing is that the government is telling its people that it has nothing to hide. When a government goes to this extent with its citizens, the dividends for the government come in the form of the confidence and trust invested in the leadership to continue to manage their affairs.

    Besides, democratization of governance is a fundamental feature of democracy. It is nothing but sheer arrogance that makes our leaders think that the people do not deserve to know how they are being ruled. Any government operating on the mandate of the people is under very strong moral obligation to act responsibly and one of the ways to do this is to let them know and understand how their government is being motioned. The citizens are more appreciative of a government that shows them how important they are. But they become frustrated, neglected, isolated and psychologically demoralized when they have no idea about what government thinks of them. This is why they have the impression that government only remembers them during election. You can imagine how the Triumph staff that were absorbed and the Law students whose registration fees were approved would feel after reading about their cases in the newspapers. By this action, the government of Kano State and its citizens are conjoined in a covenant of faithfulness and emotional bonding.

    By stating in clear terms the various sums of money being expended on projects and items, the Kano State government is also making itself accountable to the people. They (the people) have an idea of how government is spending their money. Since details of deliberations and funding of projects are made public, government officials are wary of the implication and the damage it will do to their career and reputation if they ‘load’ or ‘bloat’ any project or items. I am sure that under a different operational circumstance, the N320,000 for the registration of Law School students would have been inflated to about N500,000 or even more. But because everything is now for public consumption, the officials have put themselves in check. They know that the authorities of the Law School and the affected students would call the attention of government to any discrepancies in figures. The contractors are also aware of how much was approved for any project and this makes it difficult for government officials to bamboozle them with different figures. In all, the people can always object to or protest against the government if their money is not being spent judiciously.

    In addition, because every citizen knows they can always monitor or get information about their cases in the advertised Exco Minutes, they have no cause to put civil servants under unnecessary pressure to leak information to them. When a government does not allow its citizens access to information, they become desperate to obtain it at all cost and by any means. Since he became the governor of Kano State Kwankwaso has published more than 127 Minutes of his Exco meetings and heavens have not collapsed. Rather, this action has in fact given some deserving credibility to the man and his government.

    Our leaders should be made to understand that government is not run like a secret cult or a cabalistic organisation where initiation rites and other ritualistic practices are shrouded in secrecy. The rituals of government can be performed in the open where the people can also participate. No one is saying that government is not entitled to some degree of confidentiality, I am only advocating for the demystification of the mystery around government bureaucracy so that this lapse is not exploited by its officials for capital appropriation and pecuniary benefits. The crowds thronging government secretariats nationwide could be reduced if government liberalizes its information management by allowing citizens access to certain harmless information through the media.

    Another thing that fascinates me about Kwankwaso’s style is the fact that these Exco Minutes were advertised with religious commitment every week. It is as if the government is under a compelling obligation to honour an agreement whereas it is only a commitment made by the government to convince its citizens of its steadfastness to a creed that binds them together. This consistency and regularity was what caught my attention. Bewildered that a government could show such consistency to a commitment that carries no constitutional or legal punishment, I felt that such a leader deserves a national mention.

    Though I have not been to Kano nor have I met Kwankwaso himself to know if the efficiency that reflects in the published minutes is reproduced in terms of development on ground, I have two reliable witnesses who had visited Kano before and I stake my honour to rely on their evaluation and assessment. The first is Wale Edun, a polo freak, who has been to Kano on several occasions for polo tourneys. In a private discussion we had on leadership in Nigeria, in the presence of another national leader that I will not mention, he confessed to me that Kano is almost at par with Lagos State in terms of road network and other infrastructural development. Edun, a former Commissioner for Finance under Bola Tinubu, is not someone that is generous with encomiums. But when he was talking about Kwankwaso, he was so excited. He said the roads in Kano have walk-ways, good drains, medians and street lights. What more evidence of development do I need if the roads in Kano State have walk-ways? End of discussion!

    The second person is Kemi Rotimi, a history lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. Rotimi, a restless cerebral scholar of unassailable pedigree, is an expert in police history. He is currently on a national assignment with the Federal Government. This itinerant task has taken him to most parts of the country, including Kano. In one of our regular telephone conversations on private and national affairs, without the slightest hint on what I was doing on Kwankwaso, Rotimi told me how beautiful and neat Kano is. He was full of praise for him (Kwankwaso) and his leadership perspicacity. For Kemi Rotimi to have scored Kwankwaso this high, it shows he can pass any leadership test because Rotimi is not a magnanimous lecturer.

    Kwankwaso’s defection from PDP to APC along with his other four compatriots, was therefore not an accident. It was a natural switch. While in PDP, he was in the same vehicle with political misfits who can never appreciate his progressive posturing. The PDP is not the correct party for a man like Kwankwaso who respects his people, who cares for his people and who is responsive to the problems of his people. It is a party with unlimited liability from head to tail. In a not-too-distant time, the PDP will discover that the goodwill it used to enjoy with the people has gone into deficit and that its slogan: “PDP is the Biggest Party in Africa”, is nothing but a stale and impotent catch phrase. Now that he is in APC, Kwankwaso can begin to operate in a natural habitat where his vision of a greater and saner Nigeria can be achieved. His political aspiration for a higher position and office can also be realized in a party that allows for healthy competition of ideas, visions, and ambitions among its numerous members that can boast of competencies in diverse spheres.

    However, Kwankwaso’s recent identification and alignment with the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not sufficient enough to dismiss the case of identity riddle against him. His incredible leadership humility and submissiveness is a very strong evidence to show that he is a very strange leader in this nation called Nigeria.

    It may seem invidious to single out Kwankwaso out of the many progressive leaders of worthy exploits. But let me say without any equivocation that Kwankwaso is being appraised not only for his achievements but for recognizing and acknowledging the inviolable right of the people to access information about the activities and operations of his government with an unparalled accountability and unprecedented consistency.

    When a nation that is agonizingly soused in predatory leadership hallows a leader with a messianic potential, it is a way of showing God, that we can be appreciative, in case, the problem we have as a nation is the pilatic persecution of leaders who could have saved us in the past from our national rot.

  • The Nation of the nation

    The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people. The very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.”— Thomas Jefferson 1787, the 3rd President of the United State of America.

    The above excerpt was part of Jefferson’s message to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788, on the significance of a free press with a view to keeping the government in check by educating, informing and enlightening the citizenry on the practice and processes of good governance. Why would Jefferson prefer newspaper to government? The same reason many avid Nigerian newspaper readers would prefer The Nation newspaper to any other dailies within the Nigerian print media. This assertion is not unconnected to the different categories of the media awards won by some of the members of the organisation’s leadership. The Nation’s “widest circulating newspaper” has really proved its worth within the Nigerian print media as a nation. This conclusion is devoid of any atom of prejudice or partisanship.

    The just concluded 21st Nigeria Media Merit Awards (NMMA) in Ekiti marked a remarkable reward for professionalism in the print media. The bedrock of Jefferson’s vote for good governance was anchored on the actualisation of the dividends of democracy. This can only work where key sectors of a nation’s economy is at optimal. Customarily, the editor of a newspaper organisation is primarily responsible for the final output of news and information dishing out to the public by the organisation. Hence the general acceptance of a newspaper organisation by the masses, having met the standard and expectation of the majority is contingent upon the adroitness and resourcefulness of anuncompromising nonconformist editor.

    Little wonder the robust and ever-smiling Gbenga Omotoso-led editorial team performed exceptionally in this year’s merit awards. The Dele Giwa Prize for Editor of the Year would not have been awarded to any other person other than Gbenga Omotoso. Frankly, his dexterous hand and inventive mind was justly rewarded by the NMMA. When he was presented with the award, he said: “I thank God for these awards. They are dedicated to all those unseen hands, the production editors and sub-editors, who are never heard of, yet they are the architects of a good newspaper.”In addition, the opinion section of the newspaper with top writers is the depository of knowledge. Little wonder its’ Editorial Board won the prize for Editorial Writing, aside other laurels it won previously.

    There is no doubt that the power sector has been a major malady plaguing the Nigerian economy over the decades. Nigerians would not have known the rot in that sector prior to privitisation if not for the incisive reports and constructive criticism made possible by The Nation newspaper in its energy coverage. For this exceptional performance, the Nation’s Assistant Editor (Investigations), Joke Kujenya won the Peter Odili Prize for Power Reporting. Also, another critical sector of Nigerian economy where total transformation is urgently needed is the oil and gas sector. Many mind-blowing revelations relating to high level of corruption have been published by The Nation. Kudos to the organisers of the NMMA for recognising and rewarding excellent effort of the Assistant Editor, Emeka Ugwuanyi for runner-up in the Oil and Gas Reporting category.

    Furthermore, it is indisputable that the activities in the banking industry, money and capital market play a crucial role for business to thrive. As a result, local, foreign investors and marketers, to a large extent, depend on the media for informative, educative and enlightening report in their day-to-day decision-making process. In these all-important sectors, The Nation’s reporters have performed exceptionally.

    Olamide Bakare is of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos

  • New governance paradigm for 2015

    The unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable —John F. Kennedy, former President of the USA.

    Those are words on marble and their timelines or relevance to our present confused polity is most obvious in the conflicting opinions we are currently having over the proposed National Conference or Dialogue being midwife by President Goodluck Jonathan. The sore point here is that, whether it is a conference or dialogue, there’s an on-going desire to talk. I dare say, given the complexity of our nation’s predicament, it is time to act, but we must talk sense if we are to talk at all.

    However, if this Jonathan sponsored jaw-jaw is not about a dramatic shift of the governance paradigm as often canvassed by Rev. Chris Okotie, the conference is a barren exercise. At the special Independence Anniversary service of his Household of God church recently, the pastor-politician correctly diagnosed Nigeria’s ills and made invaluable suggestions on the way forward. This is not different from the points he made in his excellent article on Thursday, October 3, 2011 in the National Mirror where he argued that it is not enough to keep celebrating “national survival” as a major achievement; but that our leaders must begin to think outside the box and provide good governance.

     ”We should never succumb to the deceitful argument of the corrupt ruling elite who try to justify their hold on power by saying, “well, we have kept the nation together all this while. Nigerians now demand much more than that. We ask our rulers to up-the-ante, and take this resource-endowed nation into the league of vibrant, performing economies, where it rightly belongs. In the 56 years since oil was discovered at Oloibiri in the Niger-Delta, we have earned $800 billion, twelve times more than what the American government used to rebuild Europe after it was devastated by the Second World War.”

    How can you fault this argument? At 53, Nigeria is like a child who has refused to walk; a man whose mind is trapped in a child’s body. Such a man needs serious medical attention. Perhaps, our leaders realized that, which is why the clamour for a Sovereign Nation Conference, SNC, has been on the agenda of media debates for almost two decades. Now, President Jonathan and his PDP leadership have suddenly decided to give it a shot in the mould of a dialogue of ethnic nationalities. But I doubt if the President is the right physician to carry out a delicate, life-threatening surgical operation on our ailing nation.

    With all due respect, based on his antecedents, Mr. Jonathan does not have the presidential grit that is required to take landmark decisions that could reposition this nation. He is unable to fight the powerful, corrupt cabal and hawks in his government. A man who cannot implement his own Transformation Agenda wants to restructure Nigeria! If this dialogue is not just a clever way to buy time for his 2015 ambitions, then what is it?

    The concern of this writer is that with the limited or restricted mandate in the shape of no-go areas hanging on the conference, the governance paradigm, which is supposed to be the key component of any major directional shift in the proposed restructuring of the nation as envisaged by many, may not happen at the end of the day. This may be another charade and colossal waste of public funds.

    This conference is being viewed with skepticism by many opinion leaders because the President may not have the political will to implement its outcomes. Moreover, what concerns the common man is how to enjoy the dividends of a democracy that, for 14 years, have only benefitted the venal rich and the powerful cliques on the corridors of power. The Nigerian masses are still in bondage of lack. Even, a basic modern necessity like education is getting beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian whose children cannot get into the university.

    We must never forget that the demand for an SNC is as a result of the failure of governance; the federal structure that runs like a unitary system; inability of our rulers to utilize the huge national resources to transform the nation; the damage done to the localities where our extractive recourses are taken from etc. To rectify all these, we need a shift in the leadership paradigm. A game changer must come on board. That’s the great take-away from Rev. Okotie’s arguments which he continually canvasses in his various articles in national newspapers and social media platforms.

    Many opinion leaders are buying into his argument because of its logical realism. Do we need just a dialogue or a leader who can walk his talk? Obviously, dialogue has never been the problem. What we regularly contend with is what comes out of our dialogue. There’s a lot of debate going on in the National Assembly and other government fora across the country. What has come out of them?

    The debate we should be having today is how to change the governance paradigm. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that unless we shift the emphasis from party to individuals, we’d find it difficult to get the right people into positions of leadership. Our party system has been hijacked by money bags and political godfathers, whose stock-in-trade is political merchandising. The practice in most of these parties is to give party tickets for key elective offices to the highest bidder. This has corrupted the electoral system and brought all sorts of shady characters into our polity.

    Until we begin to look critically at the personalities and antecedents of those we put forward for elective positions, we cannot rid the electoral system of mediocrity, thuggery and miscreants that dominate the political space. We may recall that certain politicians of questionable character made Anambra and Oyo states almost ungovernable at a time. These elements, acting as godfathers, became political monsters with private “armies” who terrorize opponents and even went as far as hounding an elected Governor out of the State House in one of the states.

    One way to change the governance paradigm is to consider independent candidacy. It is apt that there’s provision for this in the 1999 constitution under review “The people must come first,” Rev. Okotie often argues. If the people do not come first, democracy would cease to be the government of the people, by the people, for the people as defined by the great former American President, Abraham Lincoln. Any government that fails to touch the people directly with its programme is not worth the name. For too long, we have been electing leaders in this country based on political party structures that have no ideological relevance to the problems of the nation.

    After 53 years of roaming in the wilderness of underdevelopment under a group of political dinosaurs, we need a new set of leaders who have what the pastor-politician called “connectivity of empathy”, meaning roughly, compassion for the people that translates into practical provision of good governance dividends.

     •Chidi wrote from Anambra.

  • Still on the missing $50 billion

    SIR: The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and the Central Bank of Nigeria are it again. The latter accused the former of fund not remitted to the government account. The former came out publicly to clear the air. $50 billion is a lot of cash anywhere on this planet; it shouldn’t go missing with so much audit and control instituted by the government in continuous checkmating effort. The watchdog of the government shouldn’t have been at sleep in such critical time to bolster doubt about fund transmission in that figure.

    Though Nigerians are not surprised about the missing fund, larger amounts in cumulative sum had gone down the drain in conspicuous consumption and unexecuted contracts since the last 10 years.

    If the CBN said such figure is yet to be remitted by the NNPC, what prevents a joint audit of account between the two? Could it have been too early of whistle-blowing or unnecessary distraction in talk to divert our attention from the main and cogent issue at hand?

    Nigerians are very intelligent; some of them could be deceived for some time but not all of them all the time. The truth will come out in a way. The $50 billion is a lot of money that can change lives, build roads and other infrastructures.

    This is Nigeria; there is still hope that the cash will come to a new discovery. Ship misses in this country and they get found. If this money is not found, the whole country might go missing next time in audit slack or mistake.

    • Unekwu Peters Onyilo

    dovorovo@gmail.com

  • Vandalism of power facilities: Battling an invigorated monster

    SIR: It is difficult not to notice the polished air in Ambassador Godknows Igali, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power. Princely, urbane, debonair, cool and calculated. Of course, as a seasoned diplomat, it is not an acceptable part of his trade for one to lose his cool at any point, no matter the humongous nature of the problem at hand. He doesn’t, having seemingly learnt and perfected all the arts in that exclusive realm. It is perhaps as a result that it is difficult, almost impossible to capture the deep pain his voice betrays each time he speaks about one of the most significant and enduring problems in the power sector for a long time now – vandalism.

    But on each occasions in the recent past, when he had had to speak about the issue in public, a practiced study of his countenance would always unveil this unsavoury emotion. It is almost microscopic, but there – covered with the veneer of cultured language and good mannerism.

    As the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power and number two officer in the ministry, it has become his lot to introduce his principal, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo at some of the public events involving the top echelon of the ministry. While so doing, he never fails to use the opportunity to chip in some words or raise issues that reflect the impetus and drift in the power sector in recent times, one of which is the debilitating effect of vandalism.

    On October 22 at Karu, a suburb of Abuja, during the commissioning of the $6.6 million World Bank assisted 2x60MVA, 132/33kV Transmission Sub-Station, while bemoaning the phenomenon, he spoke of how critical the trend has become, as perpetrators appear to have changed gear and upped the ante in their desperate bid to undermine the power reform programme of the federal government.

    “How could someone go under water and blast gas pipelines channelling gas to turbines built to generate electricity? Recently these unscrupulous elements went under water and blew up these pipelines with dynamites. At six points under water. These are some of the problems we have been battling, but which we are not letting out to the public. Can these acts by be explained or justified by any stretch of argument? Are these people who perpetrate these acts not some of the worst enemies of the country? Is this not the most classic case of cutting your nose to spite your face? These people must be fished out and dealt with. They are not just ordinary people, because it takes a lot to carry out that level of activity”.

    “President Goodluck Jonathan has been doing a lot to fulfil his promise of giving uninterrupted power to Nigerians. The evidence of the success is already everywhere. But there are people who are determined to ensure that these efforts do not succeed. We must stop these people because they are dangerous to the society,” he said.

    The Minister on his own, expressed no less worry. In fact, he gave a more damning but graphic description of the degeneration of the ugly situation. He narrated a particular situation in which vandals cannibalised a transformer, to steal an item worth less than N10,000 and in the process plunged millions of electricity users into darkness for days. At the end of the day, by the time repairs were carried out, the cost ran into hundreds of millions of Naira. Such huge amount of damage for a paltry benefit, the minister believed was neither explicable by any stretch or argument nor acceptable by any standard.

    The message was the same on Friday, November 8, at Ayede, Ibadan, Oyo State, during the commissioning of a similar project where the two most important personalities in the power ministry again launched the campaign of eradicating vandalism within the power sector.

    While introducing the minister, Igali had this to say: “Let Nigerians be assured that this country has entered a time in our history that nobody can take our hands back in power supply. Nigeria will no longer be dark. Our private sector has shown its energy in other sectors. There were days when you go to the bank, queue up and collect a teller, then you go to your house and sleep and keep somebody there to find out whether it is your turn, but today you go to the bank if you have to and within few seconds you are through; today, from your mobile phone you can conclude all transactions. It was not angels from heaven that came to do it, it was Nigerians. It is the same thing with telecommunications. Today you can pick up your mobile phone and call anywhere in the world. It was not angels from heaven that did it, it was Nigerians”.

    Amplifying the message, Nebo also reminded Nigerians about past doubts over the possibility of a successful privatisation of the power sector and how they have effectively been dispelled and banished to history forever by the huge success the exercise eventually became.

    Now from the foregoing, it is not difficult to underscore the fact that the phenomenon of vandalism has taken a new and dangerous dimension with far-reaching undertone. If perpetrators could dive into the deep sea to blow up pipelines, which could only be achieved with rare expertise, then the story has changed.

    Of course explanations for this are quite varied. Those who suspect that it is political believe that the current issues in the power sector are going to be key in determining the tenor of 2015 politics. Others who suspect economic motives, say it is the handiwork of the demons Nebo promised the nation he was going to exorcise from the sector. The argument here is how could generator importers, for instance, who had thought that the privatisation exercise was a huge joke that would collapse like a pack of cards, like similar past ambitious projects, give up so easily with the prospect of constant electricity staring them in the face and their warehouses still fully stocked? Fight they must.

    But whatever is playing out, the larger picture is that Nigerians are like the grass that stand to suffer in this seeming proverbial battle of two elephants. Whichever way, they stand to gain in quantum leaps if the dream of constant power supply in the country is achieved and would be the losers; the ones wincing from the sharp pains of mosquito bites at night; the parents that would keep awake because their children could not sleep due to heat; the relations that will wail because generator fumes have wiped off their family members if it fails. That they become whistle-blowers and armour bearers against these vandals is not too much to ask of them.

    This is the new message.

    • Igboanugo wrote in from Abuja

  • Not a time to fall ill

    It sure must be tough for doctors in public hospitals in Nigeria, especially from the moral point of view. Their predicament was correctly captured by one of them while speaking on the five-day warning strike by members of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) working in government-owned hospitals across the country, which started on December 18. The obviously disturbed doctor was quoted as saying, “We are tired of these frequent strikes. As I am talking to you now, many patients will die today due to lack of attention. We have been trained to save lives. Their blood will be on our heads, if we fail to save them because of our disagreement with the government.”

    Reconciling their passion for professionalism with their demoralising working conditions must be a huge challenge for these physicians; and perhaps nothing demonstrates their constant frustration more than the perennial wars and warnings of war involving them and government. Predictably, the latest action is to protest unacceptable operational circumstances, alleged inadequate funding and abysmal infrastructure in the country’s health sector. These complaints have the quality of a familiar refrain; unfortunately, there appears to be no end in sight. Of course, it is no news that quite a significant number of professionals in this sector have relocated overseas to retain their sanity.

    While the doctors’ definite strike has unsurprisingly paralysed public hospitals nationwide, it is fair to observe that the country’s health care system has almost always been on the verge of total collapse or paralysis. It would be dreamy to picture a different scenario under the present constrictions. Fundamentally, it appears that government is getting exactly what it bargained for, considering the unhelpful policies that have governed the sector for as long as anyone can remember. You may pause for a moment to reflect on a worrying comment by a senior resident doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Dr Peter Ogunnubi, who was quoted as saying, “The budgetary allocation of five per cent to the sector also falls short of the World Health Organisation’s standard that stipulated at least 15 per cent.” Obviously, the difference between five and 15 is no joke.

    If the government is wiser in reverse, it cannot be for lack of resources, the same wealth that ends up regularly in private pockets in mind-boggling instances of official corruption. The incredible truth is that the country’s leaders just do not care a damn. With positive political will, the country’s health care system can be developed to rank among the very best in the world. To stretch the optimism, it is even possible for Nigeria to become a medical tourism destination.

    In the meantime, however, the people continue to suffer on account of short-sighted leadership. It is distressing that in complying with the NMA’s strike directive, doctors were forced to recommend private hospitals to patients needing emergency treatment. Also, the situation meant that hospital admission cases had to be discharged unceremoniously.

    Tragically, the doctors’ strike means little or nothing to a class, speaking of those who can afford to hop on a plane at the slightest sign of physical discomfort, or even mental unease, to seek treatment abroad. Ironically, many of those who belong to this privileged circle are the very ones officially positioned to effect desirable changes in the sector without the desired result.

    It promises to be another hell of a time. According to President of Association of Resident Doctors, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife, Osun State, Dr Adeolu Ajibare, “We will resume after five days, but if the government refused to respond to issues at hand we will embark on a total and indefinite strike from January 6, 2014.” Certainly not a time to fall ill, is it?

  • Architect of new Ogun

    Quality is never ubiquitous. It is always for the discerning. The event was not particularly grandiose. Even the organiser doesn’t pretend it was meant to be. They however made their point in a manner very succinct and unambiguous.

    Members of Freelance and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (FIBAN), in the South West conferred on Governor Ibikunle Amosun the award of the ‘Architect of New Ogun State’’ .The award wasn’t their design. It was the product of a survey conducted across the South-Western part of the country. Nigerians residents in Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti states were asked to vote for a first term governor they found most impressive and impactful. At the end of three months of voting, Senator Amosun emerged the most preferred.

    Interestingly, 24 hours before the FIBAN award, the South West Zone of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) had similarly named the Ogun governor as ‘the best first term governor in the zone’. The zonal leadership of the NUJ, said that going by several developmental projects, the government of Senator Amosun remains the most impactful in the zone.

    Shortly, before the two awards, the BusinessDay Newspaper, a highly influential and authoritative business news tabloid, had adjudged Ogun State as “the fastest growing economy and the destination choice for industrialists and entrepreneurs in Nigeria”. Indeed, the deluge of awards and commendations is the fallout of the deliberate effort by the state government to strategically reposition the state and prepare it to take advantage of its proximity to the already congested Lagos. Governor Amosun, has never left no one in doubt of his intentions to make Ogun state what New Jersey is to New York in USA.

    He actually set out to accomplish the goal by erecting the requisite structures. Security became an immediately priority as robbers, on assumption of office, practically rode rod-shod over the state. The government responded gamely investing heavily in that once-neglected sector.

    In one fell swoop, the state government purchased 14 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC’s), bought 400 patrol vans fitted with communication gadgets,500 bullet proof vests,500 bullet proof helmets, 1000 AK-47 rifles as well as two million rounds of ammunitions for the use of policemen operating in the state to equip them to face hoodlums.

    The government also established the ‘Quick Response Squad’, Operation MESA (Police/Military joint Patrol) as well as raised the Ogun State Vigilante service to complement the effort of the conventional security outfits.

    Crime statistics crashed in the state with Ogun state becoming one of the most secured states in the country. The investors suddenly found the state a good place to sow while Ogun has become the hosting venue of conferences and seminars for local and international associations.

    The administration also broke all known records in rural electrification with the purchase of a whooping 500 electricity transformers for the use of communities in the state. Remarkably, this was first since the inception of the Gateway State as any administration close to that was the purchase of 160 transformers by the administration of the late Bisi Onabanjo.

    The governor also put his experience as an accountant into bear as he enthroned a financial re-engineering model that has been grossly beneficial. He put in place measures to increase the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state from the paltry N730 million to over N4 billion under 30 months in office. Part of that effort is the activation of the Residency Rule law which promises to revolutionize the IGR of the state.

    The governor introduced prudence into public financing and blocked leakages in the financial system of the state. He also slashed salaries and allowances of political office holders and blocked leakages to free funds for developmental projects.

    To tackle the problem of derelict classrooms in its secondary schools, the government immediately renovated 200 blocks of classrooms. It also ensured that the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) paid its counterpart funding which opened the door for thousands of classrooms to be constructed and renovated across the state.

    The government also laid the foundation for the 14 of the 26 model secondary schools in a determined move to permanently resolve the face-off occasioned by the return of some secondary schools to missionaries by the last administration.

    Besides, the government also gave true expression to free education as it supplied free textbooks and instructional materials to its students in secondary and primary schools. The move was a re-enactment of Pa Obafemi Awolowo’s free education policy as executed by the late Bisi Onabanjo. The top-up was the distribution of school bags for students to keep the books safe.

    Urban Renewal programme is perhaps the sector where the government of Senator Amosun has drawn the most applause. With 16 major road construction projects going on simultaneously across the state and other reconstruction works on some other smaller roads, Ogun State, is actually undergoing a road revolution.

    The government commenced this urban renewal programme with the reconstruction of the 2.4 kilometre Ibara-Sokori-Totoro road which was used as a model for what is now known as ‘Ogun Standard’ roads. The already completed road came with road furniture including walkways, drainage, median with street lights and flower beds, bus stop, flyover at the Ibara junction and pedestrian bridge.

    Presently, construction work is on-going on the 7-kilometre Sagamu-Benin Express Junction/Oba Erinwole Junction road, the 4.8 km Ilo-Awela road in Ota, 8.7 km OGTV-Brewery junction road, 6 km Moshood Abiola Way, 34 km Ayetoro- Lafenwa road, 9 km Ojere-Asero road, 5.6 km Somorin – Ajebo road, 2.2 km Madojutimi — Muda Lawal Stadium, 850 metre Moriamo–Olorombo road, all in the state capital, are under construction.

    Other roads being reconstructed by the government are the 107 km Ilara-Ijohun-Eegua-Oja Odan-Ilase road, the 25 km Ilishan-Ago Iwoye road, 29 km Mowe-Ofada-Ibafo road, 9km Ejinrin-Oluwalogbon junction in Ijebu Ode, 12 km Magboro-Underpass road, Isheri road and the key 32 km Sango-Ijoko-Agbado-Ojodu Road.

    Most of these roads are at different stages of completion ranging from 5 to 60 percent. All the roads, except the Sango-Ijoko-Agbado-Ojodu road whose reconstruction commenced just this October, are to be completed before December 2014. The reconstruction of the derelict Sango-Ijoko-Agbado-Ojodu Road was flagged off in October and it was aimed at bringing to an end the years of suffering and problem of neglect of residents of the border towns with Lagos.

    With the road construction effort, the problem of unemployment plaguing a continuously growing state like Ogun is equally being tackled. The construction firms are encouraged to employ thousands of skilled and unskilled workers like carpenters, iron benders and bricklayers while several food sheds are also springing up around the various construction sites. And now with the road revolution has come the boom in sales of moulded bricks, sand and gravel supply as well as car-washing business in Abeokuta and other cities where construction work is on-going.

    • Balogun writes from Abeokuta

  • OBJ’s letter: Nigerians await President’s reply

    SIR: The letter by the ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo asking President Goodluck Jonathan to wake up, as it were, from the slumber land, did not throw up any surprise to Nigerians, especially to those who have keenly followed this regime. It suffices also to state that the contents of the letter have not disclosed any new fact to what Nigerians already know, as far as one is concerned, save for the allegation that the Presidency now turns itself to “nest of killers” by “training of snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely”.

    The ex-President’s labelling of President Jonathan as a clannish “Ijaw man” whose attitudes have created ethnic divisions in the country is not questionable. The duo of Edwin Clark and Asari Dokubo know very much about this. Not too long ago the ex-militant (Asari Dokubo) threatened, to the delight of the Presidency, to make the country ungovernable in 2015 if his fellow kinsman, President Jonathan, was not re-elected into office. In the same vein, some South-south “elders” while on a visit to Edwin Clark recently, threatened to go nude if the president failed to contest the 2015 election and so many other inflammatory statements from the president’s kinsmen threatening other parts of the country of the consequences they would face come 2015. So, the ex-President has not added to the existing knowledge as far as this issue is concerned; or have we not witnessed in recent times the preferential treatments some of these persons from “Ijaw Nation” have received from the nation’s seat of power?

    The ex-President also accused the President in that letter of lacking in honour for not keeping to the “promise” he made with some persons to run for single term in office. It seems the former president does not know his estranged political son too well when it comes to keeping to promises; for if there was one thing this administration has gained popularity for, it is its penchant for breach of every gentleman agreement. Perhaps, the Academic Staff of Union of Universities (ASUU) would offer better explanation to this assertion. The president’s 2015 ambition is not only “fatally morally flawed” (as Obasanjo put it), it is equally fatally legally flawed, as our grundnorm, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) permits only twice taking of oath of office. One is not unaware that the judiciary is trying to give the president some legal backing. However, the fatality of that legality flaw cannot be cured by such impetus.

    The allegation of corruption raised in the letter by the ex-President against the administration is an open secret which every Nigerian knows. Nigerians know too well that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation under the present administration reeks of graft. Presently the corporation is yet to explain the allegation of non remittance of $49.8bn into the federation account from January 2012 to July 2013. The pension scheme scandal, the oil subsidy fraud, the sudden disappearance of N500bn from the SURE-P account and other numerous corrupt scandals are all classical instances of squandering of the nation’s resources which the president indirectly has condoned by not taking decisive actions against the characters behind them. This was the frustration the Speaker of the House of Representatives was trying to address recently when he accused the Presidency of doing little or nothing to curb this menace.

    As we wait patiently for the President’s reply, it is important to state that Nigerians will not want to hear such things as “when you were there, what did you do?” Or “you do not have the moral right to criticise this government”. If these are the contents of the anticipated reply from the president, it is better he does not reply at all. This time around, the Presidency should tackle the message and not the messenger. Agreed that the ex-President does not have the moral justification to level such allegations against President Jonathan, in view of his antecedents, but it suffices to say that the issues raised in that letter are too grievous and germane to be ignored, therefore, Nigerians urge the president to reply to those issues as soon as possible.

     

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos