The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • That diversion by LAMATA, CCECC in Ikorodu

    SIR: The extension of the BRT corridor from Mile 12 to Ikorodu by the present administration in Lagos State could not have come at a better time. I am more convinced that the Babatunde Raji Fashola led government in the state is truly planning for the future of Lagos as mega city.

    No one can contradict the fact that the future of Lagos lies not in the fully built-up Ikeja or Victoria Island or Yaba but in the interior and developing localities of Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and others, and any government that is truly desirous of planning ahead must begin to expand and upgrade infrastructures around these places.

    Words may not be enough to convey our appreciation to the BRF government for this timely intervention in the road infrastructure and transportation system of Ikorodu. This project is truly timely.

    However, while residents of Ikorodu continue to bear the inconveniences that come with a project of such magnitude, it is pertinent to mention that the attitude of the major contractor, CCECC and the supervising agency, LAMATA, is making the whole project look like a waste of time and resources, financial and human.

    The road diversions and closures as well as the deplorable state of usable portion of the stretch are causing serious discomfort and unquantifiable waste of productive time to residents along that axis. On a bad day, people spend six hours driving to and from work on the road, arriving their various places of work already spent resulting in low productivity and dwindling economy on the long run.

    Agreed that the attitude of drivers, commercial and private alike, contribute to the problem we face but it is rather unfortunate that road traffic managers are helpless due to the nature of the diversions, which makes control and enforcement almost impossible!

    I must not fail to commend the efforts of LASTMA officials on this stretch. They are presently working in extreme conditions. Yes they are!

    The most worrying and disturbing part of the closures and diversions is the recent closure of the U-turn by Mallo Filling Station which leads into Fela Ahmed Street, the major entrance into Agric-Ishawo-Owutu. This closure is ill-conceived.

    The closure of this major U-turn can only be seen as a policy somersault on the part of LAMATA as a government agency and the supervising agency for this project.

    It is now a daily occurrence to spend an average of two hours between Ogolonto and the new U-turn some 800metres ahead at Haruna bus stop. It is totally a betrayal of common sense on the part of the initiators.

    God forbid a situation where an emergency occurs around Agric, and one must get to Ogolonto or Haruna bus stops to make a turn before getting to the Ikorodu General Hospital at Ota-ona, the only government hospital in the entire Ikorodu! Definitely, the victim would have reached heaven three times before getting any medical attention.

    The road is being done for the people to enjoy and they truly deserve to enjoy it when it is completed and the money expended will have come to waste if the people suffer for government’s commitment to their cause.

    While the governor and government has demonstrated and fulfilled its electoral promises to make life better for the people, agencies like LAMATA and its contractor, CCECC should not make mockery of government’s sincerity by not listening to the people and sharing their opinion on a facility they will be enjoying, after all, the people cannot not relocate to Beijing or Guangzhou or Shanghai even if their interest are not properly protected in the place of their birth!

     

    • Yomi Ajayi

    Ishawo Road, Agric-Ikorodu.

     

  • 1080 days of Aregbesola administration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • As Okotie sentences Catholics

    As Okotie sentences Catholics

    Reverend Chris Okotie is a child made in the public space. Now wait right there dear reader because this pregnant statement must be properly disambiguated before we take another step further. Hardball would be a child of mischief if he suggests by any chance that our new age man of God was conceived in the open space or anywhere for that matter because he has no fact about Rev. Chris’ conception. What Hardball is stating (rather awkwardly, I crave your pardon) is that Chris was made through the public, by the public and for the public. He is the democracy of the public sphere; a public animal. Think for a moment what Chris would be if he were to be banished from the public space!

    Chris invaded the public arena when as a law student in his early twenties he became an instant music star and celebrity upon the release of his first music album. This was in the early 80s. He went on to make many more hit songs even after qualifying as a lawyer. A life of a successful musician and show business personality was all laid out for him and his teeming fans were in for a good time with their rave-of-the-moment barrister-pop star. But they were soon disappointed. Not quite long after, Okotie announced suddenly to his fans that he had seen a new light. He was no longer going to prance about the stage singing and entertaining the world; he vowed to henceforth, sing the Word and preach Christ. Not a few of his fans thought he suffered a temporary seizure of the ‘spirit’ and that he would soon shake it all off and return to the ‘beautiful’ and electrifying world of wining, wenching and shin-digging.

    But such fans were disappointed. Chris never looked back. He never sang another song for the world; he preached the Word in his own peculiar way, he built a ministry that must have become the envy of some men of God if they had such vice in them. Household of God, Rev. Chris’ church at its peak, became the touchstone of Nigeria’s modern day Pentecostalism. It is a mark of Rev. Chris’ genius that in a short time, he became even more a successful preacher of Christ than he was a pop singer.

    But he was not done. He dove into politics headlong but heart-first; not as a fresher but as a founder, leader and presidential candidate of the FRESH Party. He has been the sole runner for his party for the past three or so presidential elections with little impact. He has discovered to his chagrin, that it is an obdurate political system and set up we have here in Nigeria. It yields to neither rhyme nor reason. Chris has also had a turbulent marital life which does not commend itself to the Christian faith and certainly not exemplary for a great man of God but we are willing to blame it on the carnal man in him.

    But to what do we put Rev. Chris’ recent and obscene outburst against Catholics and the Catholic Church? One hates to repeat it but you need to hear it to appreciate it: “The Catholic Church is a counterfeit church set up by Satan. Catholics bow to idols and crucify Jesus every Sunday when they eat bread claiming they are eating Jesus’ body.” He said also that Catholics will go to hell. The first time I read the statement which was purportedly made during a sermon last Sunday I was in a quandary whether it was me who had lost my mind or the clergy man. This really has gone out of the realm of normalcy and commonsense. Being a child of the public space, is it possible that he seeks controversy to regenerate his waning ministry as some people have dared to suggest? Is Chris preaching hate; is Catholicism the bane of humanity?

  • Who’s out to kill the auto policy?

    SIR; The general public has shown tremendous interest in the new auto policy since its announcement. Callers on national television and radio have expressed their support for the initiative, once they understood how the economic and national interest of the country will be served by the policy. They all expressed one sentiment: that the policy be diligently executed so that the nation and its citizens at large realize the objective of industrial development for which reason it has been formulated.

    The policy, if diligently implemented and supported with the development of auto components parks as proposed, will form the catalyst for growth of an industrial base that will extend beyond the production of auto components to other domestic and industrial appliances.

    Many international observers are shocked at the abject state of the Nigerian auto industry. They see a deep market, abundant natural resources, a creative and skilled workforce, but an undeveloped industrial base.

    On the flip side, they see a country inundated with all brands of imported vehicles, continuously gnawing at our foreign exchange reserve. As a matter of fact, Nigeria does not feature on a chart by the UN of over 100 auto and ancillary products manufacturers in 2012. Yet it continues to provide market for products of auto manufacturers’ world over.

    The question has been when would Nigeria step up and be counted?

    The Jonathan administration has accepted the challenge and boldly approved a pragmatic sector development blue print for the auto industry. The test is whether it will have the nerve to see it through.

    As with any attempt at change, vested interests in the status quo are already at work; they have vowed to do everything possible to truncate the auto policy. Indeed we understand intense lobbying has started to abort the policy by delaying its implementation. Opponents of the policy believe this is the first step in eventually laying it to rest permanently.

    Already small business owners who have invested in the components industry have started retooling to increasing the local content of cars produced in Nigeria. Nigerian engineering graduates see bright light on the horizon, as they may finally practice their trade and no longer look up to the banking

    industry for employment. Genuine auto assembly plants have entered into production agreements with global OEMs to operate in partnership within Nigeria. Irreversible activities have been set in motion.

    Still, they all watch with bated breath as the lobbyists go to work. They believe this government can be counted upon to complete what it has started. No amount of lobbying should be allowed to truncate the auto policy.

     

    •Esther Ogala,

    Jabi, Abuja.

  • FG bungled chance to end ASUU strike

    SIR;The Holy writ says that “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Prov. 25:28). It continues “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath” Eph. 6:4.

    It is disheartening that when the university teachers were at the verge of calling off the strike, the minister mismanaged the whole matter. In saner climes where leaders respect agreements, ASUU would not have insisted that federal government put in writing what it had promised to do. I expected the President to understand that ASUU leadership cannot spite the office of the President. What ASUU leadership wanted was to vouchsafe the agreement because once beaten twice shy. What the minister would have done was to use wisdom and reassure ASUU leadership that the President will not renege on his promise. Frayed nerves would have been calmed. But the military style of ordering lecturers and Professors to go back to their lectures or be sacked is like pouring fuel on a flickering fire that is about to die. Lecturers are Nigerians and should not be threatened with sack as if they are strangers.

    We have already noted with satisfaction the position of the Senate President that this is not the time to use force but the time to consolidate on the gains of the strike for the overall good of the education sector. We call on the Senate President to mediate once again to bring ASUU leadership and the Federal Government to seek a more humane, conciliatory and agreeable way of ending the strike. Threat to lecturers after the demise of Prof. Iyayi, is not a good way of pacifying anguishing souls of ASUU members. The President as the father of the nation should bend over backwards and still call ASUU leadership and chart an amicable solution to this almost ended strike. This new “ego” eruption on both sides will not do Nigerians, our students, parents, lecturers any good.

    To show goodwill, the outstanding salaries of lecturers should be paid and after that I am sure ASUU members will reciprocate by calling off the strike. Let us not cause more brain drain by prolonging this strike through unguarded utterances. The Holy writs says “A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger” Prov. 15:1. May reason prevail as we await the Federal Government to finish up the good work it has already taken very far.

    • Prof G. O. Ozumba,

    University of Calabar

  • Nigeria’s in our hands to make or mar

    SIR: Nigeria would be better if the leaders and the led change their attitudes, love one another, and turn to God, for Him to heal our land. We all need to turn around and sow in righteousness, so that Nigeria would see better days.

    We should not lose hope in the country, despite the socio-political and economic challenges, but should always be in fervent prayers, repent of our sins, look unto God, have faith in God, for God will shower His blessings and favour on the faithful-believers.

    Our economic management team should adopt policies that have human face and ensure effective utilization of the nation’s resources for the development of the country.

    The leaders and the led should shun selfishness as unbridled capitalism is returning Nigeria to the era of slavery. The antidote is to eschew greed and antagonistic competition in our economic relations.

    The federal government should find the political will to tackle the seemingly insurmountable power problems in the country to fast-track socio-economic and infrastructural development.

    The continued unity of Nigeria is in our hands to determine, Nigeria will be great if we do the right things, by embracing righteousness and Godliesss

    I want to plead that all of us should work seriously to ensure that Nigeria remains one united nation. By 2014 Nigeria will be 100 years old and we just have to make it work, as there is power in number as in China, India, USA and Indonesia.

    We cannot fold our hands and see our unity shattered. Let us all join hands to make Nigeria work. Also, we must all be concerned about the security of our nation that is under threat.

    •Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel

    Lagos

  • The coming of Abia airport

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Torti is a management consultant and public policy analyst

  • ASUU: Blackmail won’t work

    ASUU: Blackmail won’t work

    Hardball is often torn between frustration and pity for President Goodluck Jonathan. Frustration because he cannot seem to get the country going and pity because though he means well, in his incapacitation, he cannot muster the requisite acuity, charm and even wiles to cut through crap and get the kind of critical results that define administrations. Few examples will help explain. In the Boko Haram affair, it took him an age to understand that the very sovereignty of Nigeria was being threatened and there was an urgent need to stem the insurgence. But he has been incapable of doing the needful and Nigeria has continued to be held by scruff of her shirt by a band of desert militia men.

    Another example is the oil industry (including the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB) which has been in the mire since he took office. Now remember that this is Nigeria’s most strategic asset which ought to be the president’s top priority. But what do we have? A rotten state oil corporation; comatose refineries; fraudulent products import scheme; mindboggling fuel subsidy scandal and suddenly, oil theft racket. Nigerians don’t hear any good news anymore from our most prized sector. One can mention half a dozen other telling instances of k-legged inertia but what is the point?

    Back to ASUU, the issue of the day which is a raging example of presidential doodling, one is pained that Goodluck Jonathan could not gather up all the presidential powers at his disposal to break the six-month old impasse. The Academic Staff Union of Universities has been on a protracted strike. When it seemed all had failed, the president intervened personally, sitting through several meetings with senior members of ASUU executives. The last meeting reportedly lasted 13 hours yet came to naught. This has, apparently, enraged the president who in obvious frustration, reached for the rod: return to work or get sacked. But Hardball must advise that force and violence are the tools of stupid and cowardly people. They are, of course, not instruments for construction.

    Constructive engagement has been thrown out the window in place of arm-twisting, threats and blackmail. In a barrage of propaganda, ASUU leaders are being painted as recalcitrant, as saboteurs and enemies of Jonathan. Some columnists (some of who carry the tag of ‘professor’) make such loose argument that ASUU ought to go back to work just because of the fact that it sat at a meeting with the president for 13 hours. What did the president offer anew? It is calamitous, to say the least that Jonathan could not wring out some agreement from the lecturers at this critical moment in this ASUU affair; we had hoped that he wouldn’t fail after all else had failed.

    Hardball could have thrown in the entire country (including ASUU) if that was what it required; if he had it to do. And for heavens sake where is the presidential chutzpah? If the salaries of the last four months were the issue, the president could have ordered it paid immediately. Everything but trying to force the lecturers back to the classrooms would have been smarter.

    And whose advice was it to draw a line in the sand with the lecturers? Who thought it through? It is obvious that the Education Minister, Nyeson Wike is out of his depth here. He simply lacks the capacity to handle this one. Being a political weasel, he would insist and advise accordingly that ASUU members are ‘political enemies’ and that instantly drains the matter of all logic. But ASUU has a good case, they are simply asking government to live up to one of its promise and responsibilities; that is not too much to ask.

    As you read this, the lecturers would have defied the ultimatum of the presidency; the president has bungled it all up once again.

  • To Rasheed Gbadamosi @ 70

    SIR: Based on my association with Chief Rasheed Abiodun Gbadamosi over the past three decades, writing a concise tribute can be quite challenging.  During this period, he has meant quite a lot to me in many ways. From being a highly authoritative and distinguished resource person while I was Head of the Economy Desk at the Network News of the Nigerian Television Authority in the mid-80s, to becoming a highly respected boss at the erstwhile Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB), which is the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) precursor, where he served as its longest serving chairman between 1986 and 1994. Within that period, he also served as chairman of the National Committee on Industrial Development (NCID) charged with the responsibility of drawing up Nigeria’s Industrial Master Plan in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). I was similarly privileged to work with him on that epochal national assignment. He has since his post-NIDB days remained a big uncle and mentor. Shortly after witnessing his being sworn in as Minister of National Planning in 1998 at the State House in Abuja, I was given the honour of making input into the appointment of his ministerial aides. The mentoring has continued till date.

    I remain grateful to Chief Gbadamosi and Mallam Ibrahim Aliyu, the Managing Director and CEO of NIDB between 1989 and 1991 for jointly head hunting me from NTA News into joining NIDB in 1990.  Their inspiring and precious support for me then as a Senior Manager along with those of their colleagues on NIDB’s board, notably Victor Odozie, then Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria and Chief (Mrs) Nike Akande   who later became Minister of Industry and Alhaji Saidu Kasimu, who served up till August 2001 as the last Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIDB prior to the emergence of BOI in October 2001, prepared me for higher responsibilities. Based on the initial capacity building and the solid foundation that they provided, their successors in the post-NIDB era found me relevant and I was able to rise, over a period of 23 years, from middle and senior management grades to being appointed Company Secretary and eventually an Executive Director on the Board of the Bank of Industry.

    In the course of interacting with, attending official, social and family events with him as well as undertaking local and foreign trips with him, especially study tours and development focused fora, I have had the privilege of broadening my exposure within and outside Nigeria and tapping into his deep knowledge, wealth of experience and extensive network of domestic and foreign contacts. My maiden flight on board the Concord, with him, between London and Bangkok for the World Bank Annual Meeting in 1991 would remain unforgettable. Most of his sterling qualities that include insatiable quest for knowledge, hard work, drive, enterprise, philanthropy, penchant for excellence and perfection as well as values, ethics and beliefs have rubbed off on me considerably and have continued to propel and guide my career and family priorities particularly investing heavily in human capital development and paying considerable attention to the upbringing and education of ones children.

    As we join you and our dear aunty Tinu – your darling wife, Kunbi and her siblings as well as the entire SOG family led by its strong and charming matriarch, aunty Wonu Folami, in celebrating your 70 years of your very successful life, in the course of which you have continued to make phenomenal positive impact on nation building, humanity, different spheres of our society including the arts and music, private sector development and governance at state and national levels, may the Almighty Allah continue to prosper you and all yours as well as endow you all with long life, good health and happiness.

    • Waheed Abiodun Olagunju,

    Bank of Industry, Lagos

     

  • ASUU strike: Whose interest really?

    ASUU strike: Whose interest really?

    SIR: They say when two elephants fight the grass suffers. On July 3, academic life in Nigerian public universities was interrupted as ASUU commenced their indefinite strike. It’s the fifth month now and we’ve observed daily as ASUU and our government play hardball over who’s right or wrong, while students – the grass in this case – languish at home, hoping that the two elephants will have mercy on them.

    For those who do not know, ASUU is on strike again because Federal Government has not yet implemented all the terms of the agreement it ‘willingly’ entered with ASUU in January 2009 and subsequently re-negotiated in 2012.

    Well, as a product of the university system, I fully understand ASUU’s plight. Over 2000 engineering students squeezed into a 750 capacity lecture theatre, listening to a single lecturer and still expected to assimilate and pass is a sham. Having obsolete equipment in a technical workshop, or teaching a technology student to make a hoe and write computer programs using FORTRAN 1977 in the year 2013 is simply iniquitous.

    So in essence ASUU seems to be saying: Our schools are underfunded; our allowances must be paid; our union must be respected and our demands met.

    The Federal Government on the other hand has said neither it nor ASUU knew the exact cost implications of their agreement before signing. Yet 66 capable hands from both sides worked on that agreement!

    As this catfight goes on, the third and the most important party in this university business, the students have been conveniently forgotten! They’re not in the negotiation committee; they’re not involved in the debate!

    In chapter 2 of the 2009 agreement, the issues for renegotiation were clearly stated by ASUU as Conditions of Service, Funding, University Autonomy/Academic Freedom and then Other matters. Under conditions of service they stipulated their salary and listed lots of fringe benefits by way of welfare packages and earned allowances (e.g. graduate supervision allowance, field trip allowance, etc); allowances that represent payment for rendering the very service that makes them lecturers! There wasn’t much about the students and their welfare demands. My question is; is ASUU really fighting because students are having a substandard education or is this all about ‘unionism’ and monetary benefits? In any case, their salaries will still be paid for the months they did not work, unless the government is keen on implementing the no-work-no-pay policy which ASUU will definitely reject. Theirs is sweet vacation.

    What is in it for the students? How come students pay huge fees and still register courses manually, pay ICT dues, health insurance etc. A pre-degree student pays roughly N50,000 as school fees, and another N25,000 as acceptance fee in a federal university. My alma mater takes N10,000 to send a transcript to an institution abroad, and N5000 within Nigeria. Where are all the post UME fees and the IGR, the TET fund, PTDF fund, ETF, alumni dues, private sector contribution; what are they used for? And with all the injustices listed above, students have not shut down their schools. Their union has not held ASUU and federal government by the jugular to demand better education. Should ASUU not learn from the students? Now who is ASUU really fighting for?

    • Anyiam Nnaemeka,

    Abuja.