The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • ASUU: Was Okonjo-Iweala quoted correctly?

    SIR: I was deeply disappointed with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala after her comment regarding the on-going ASUU strike in the country. The media on August 14 quoted the minister saying that the Federal Government has no money to meet ASUU demands.

    So, the Federal Government has money to squander for elected leaders but has no money to meet the ASUU demands?

    For goodness sake, no amount of demands should be considered too-much in-respect to education. I listened to US President Barack Obama, in one of his inaugural speeches promise education for Americans and that is exactly what he is doing. Obama makes it a point to emphasize the importance of having a strong educational system, for you to know how important education is. I wonder why the Nigerian government has refused to adopt the same mindset and policy to that of the US in making the education sector vibrant.

    I watched and listened to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl was shot in the head by the Taliban speak on her 16th birthday anniversary on You-tube. She said: ‘Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one school, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the best.” Education first’.

    It is very surprising that the 16 year old Malala knows the power and the importance of education, advising the world to use pens and books as powerful weapons to fight evil. But our leaders who are all beyond 30 years don’t understand the power and the importance of education. If they knew, they would not allow our teachers and lecturers to go on strike. However, if the government is spending money on things that are not relevant, such as funding of Hajj and Pilgrimage, paying too-much salary to elected leaders and so on, then, there should be no complaint about ASUU’s demands.

    Our leaders do not appear to be fazed by what is going on with our education system; perhaps it is due to the fact that the majority of their children go to school abroad. I wonder what the education system is going to be like in the near future. It is a pity that we have illiterates who have benefited from adequate education running our country. The earlier we fish them out, the better for Nigeria. I apologize if my comment comes off as offensive or rude, but the fact is, if you beat a child, you won’t stop him or her from crying. The problems of this country are beating us, the citizens, most especially the one that necessitated this writing (ASUU strike).

    • Nane-Awunah Pius Terwase,

    Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna

     

  • Obasanjo deserves pity

    SIR: It is not uncommon to see ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo mount the soapbox and make a gaffe. Many Nigerians are also very aware that the former president is narcissistic and has a method to demonizing his opponents, or better put, the opposition.

    Following his recent inglorious outing in Ibadan where he referred to some political personalities as being leadership failures on account of lack of probity and integrity, it is bewildering if the former president would rather see himself as a model for leadership. Nothing more defines Obasanjo as a leadership disaster other than the fact that in both 1979 and 2007 when he exited power, he delibrately left Nigeria with less suitable replacements to the presidency.

    The principal character deficit of Obasanjo is that in his own mind, no other Nigerian has the capacity to direct the affairs of the country better than him; and so, he wastes no time to demonize anyone who attempts to beat him to that claim.

    Be it Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the dexterity and the audacity with which these two politicians challenged the Obasanjo’s sense of invincibility is the reason why they are not fit for leadership.

    In the case of Tinubu, it can be well understood that the mere title of Asiwaju that goes before Tinubu’s name is a myth that cannot escape Obasanjo’s envy, and of course, his venom too.

    But the truth of the matter is that Tinubu is more a leadership success than Obasanjo as governor of Lagos State, the same time Obasanjo was the president of Nigeria.

    Tinubu not only created the template for the development and rebranding of Lagos as a model state in Nigeria, he also powered his dream for Lagos State by encouraging a suitable successor to take over from him as governor of the state.

    Tinubu’s integrity dwells in his spirit of forgiveness and his probity lies in the fact that no probe after he left office as governor of Lagos ever indicted him of improbity. The same can’t be said of Obasanjo, who is legendary for his vindictiveness and whose record of probity is tainted by his indictments in both probes of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the power project by the National Assembly.

    In the case of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, there is a sort of sarcasm in why Obasanjo had to speak negative of him in Ibadan. It will be recalled that Obasanjo was an observer to the presidential election in Zimbabwe and seeing Robert Mugabe sworn in for his 5th term as president of that country, Obasanjo cannot but ask himself questions on how Mugabe has been succeeding where he failed. And, there is only one answer. Atiku.

    How has Atiku fared in probity and integrity? Well, no single probe has indicted Atiku of any wrongdoing while in government. In fact, it is on record the Senate probe on the BPE apologized to the former vice-president for wrongful investigations. It is also on record that unlike Obasanjo whose daughter was fingered in a corruption case, no one knows who Atiku’s children are, and none of his associates has ever been fingered in any probe, including the fuel subsidy scandals. Unlike Obasanjo also, Atiku has been responsive to every investigations where he was accused of any wrongdoing and that is why he is legendary as the most prosecuted public servant in Nigeria, and he has come out unscathed, even when he has not been a friend of any government in power.

    It is therefore high time Obasanjo knew his limits while he makes his usual gaffes and never to cast aspersions on people whose records of public service is without blemish.

     

    • Babajide Balogun

    Ibafo, Ogun State

  • Africa and China: Walking together towards a healthy future

    In a previous life when I was a National Immunisation Programme Manager in Ghana, I saw firsthand the challenges that many African states face in delivering healthcare. Last week, while attending the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development, representing the GAVI Alliance, I was struck by the common legacy that China and countries across Africa share in overcoming such obstacles, and the important gains that have been made.

    China and African countries also share a vision for the future: one where all citizens have a chance to lead healthy and productive lives. Our governments understand the African proverb that if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.

    To forge the path ahead, dozens of health ministers from across Africa and high-level Chinese government officials met at the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development in Beijing, China last week. Along with representatives of international organisations including the United Nations, they explored ways to strengthen their partnership towards greater health gains across the continent.

    Ministers at the Forum also signed the Beijing Declaration of the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development, which sets a vision for a continued partnership to address a number of pressing health issues that affect Nigeria and other African countries disproportionately. Among these are HIV, malaria, schistosomiasis, reproductive health, immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases. The declaration also highlights efforts to address the shortage of healthcare workers and increase joint research efforts. Moving forward, China-African cooperation will aim to align with African countries’ priorities as well as national and regional development plans.

    These new actions at the forum build on the long-standing health partnership between China and African countries, which began when China first sent medical teams to the continent 50 years ago. Since then, China has worked with countries to establish hospitals, clinics and malaria control centers in many African countries as well as sharing technical expertise to help address health issues.

    Recognising these past efforts, officials at the forum emphasised that they are entering a “new era” of Sino-African health cooperation that will meet the health needs and priorities of African countries more effectively, including Nigeria.

    By working together as partners from the Global South, China and African countries can help develop sustainable, local solutions to health challenges. Addressing shortages of doctors, nurses and health technicians and improving health facilities are just some of the ways that the partnership can drive greater health impacts across the continent. Additionally, China and African countries are exploring ways to increase access to high-quality, low-cost health technologies produced in China that can make a public health impact.

    China’s partnership with Africa draws on the lessons it has learned from improving the health of its own citizens, and is generating solutions to many health issues, issues which continue to affect millions of Africans.

    Although many countries on the continent have made progress in increasing access to vaccines, many children still remain unimmunised. Through advances in disease surveillance, service delivery and research and development, China has reduced childhood deaths and illness from diseases such as polio, which was once widespread.

    Another example is China’s partnership with the GAVI Alliance to increase access to immunisation against hepatitis B, a disease that can cause chronic liver infection and cancer. Just a decade ago hepatitis B infected one in 10 Chinese children. Today, less than one percent of children under five are chronic carriers. Such an improvement shows the dramatic gains that can be achieved by expanding access to immunisation. Through sharing best practices, technical expertise and innovations, China and Africa’s partnership can work towards addressing other health priorities across the continent.

    Chinese and African leaders at the forum further pledged to develop a strategy that is responsive to the needs and priorities of African countries, and which invests in country-led development. The Nigerian government, like many of its counterparts across Africa, aims to create a health agenda that is led by African leaders and health professionals and which puts the country on a path toward sustainable progress. In May, when I joined African and Chinese officials at the International Roundtable on China-Africa Health Collaboration in Botswana, we engaged in similar consultations to help inform policies and initiatives for the partnership moving forward.

    Chinese and African partners will work closely with multilateral and international organisations to help strengthen and scale-up joint efforts. The GAVI Alliance is committed to supporting China-Africa health cooperation to drive even greater impact.

    Health plays a key role in reducing poverty and helping the world’s poorest communities build self-sufficiency and accelerate their own development. When people are healthy, they can reach their fullest potential. Through collaboration on health, China, Nigeria and other African countries will help advance the well-being and prosperity of all of their citizens. China and African countries have built a strong partnership over the past 50 years and, together, they can achieve even more in the decades to come.

     

    •Dr. Ahun, Special Representative for GAVI eligible countries was formerly the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) manager of Ghana.

  • What I am not

    Those that call me a tribalist are simply misguided. Perhaps they do not know the meaning of the word or its true import. Those that know me well can confirm the fact that I am not a tribalist, a racist or a bigot and that I consider such sentiments as being unworthy of a man of class, good breeding and culture. I abhor hate and violence and I would be the last to incite others to hate their fellow Nigerians. I am however a firm believer in the propagation of truth and I appreciate the value and importance of history. Sadly many of our Igbo compatriots do not believe in that. For them history consists of only one thing- how other Nigerians have always marginalised them and treated them badly.

    If only they knew their own history, where they are coming from, what they used to be, where they were 100 years ago and what their forefathers did to the rest of Nigeria over the last 80 years they would know why they have always had such a hard time in this country. Sadly because they don’t know any of these things they cannot learn from them. And if they cannot learn from them they will continue to make the same mistakes. That is why they can come to another man’s land and territory and call it their own and when we say ”no” they tell us to shut up, call us tribalists and ask for our arrest.

    I was not a tribalist when I wrote a tribute to Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu after he died or when I condemned the ’60’s pogroms that took place in the north in which their people were slaughtered. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against my good friend Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima and child marriage in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote essays defending the rights of the Igbo and every other Nigerian nationality to exercise their right of self-determination and leave Nigeria if that is what they wanted to do. I was not a tribalist when I consistently wrote that Nigeria must have a Sovereign National Conference where the rights and obligations of all its various nationalities would be clearly defined and agreed upon. I was not a tribalist when I fought and spoke up for the establishment of true federalism in Nigeria. I was not a tribalist when I employed more Igbo people as a Presidential spokesman and a Minister of the Federal Republic than even my own Yoruba. I was not a tribalist when I wrote an essay extolling the virtues of Igbo women and telling the world about their sudden and meteoric rise and how far they had gone in the power circles of this country in the last 10 years. I was not a tribalist when I condemned the bombing of predominantly Igbo and catholic churches and the killing of the Igbo and others by Boko Haram in the north over the last three years.

    I was not a tribalist when I risked my life by consistently writing against Boko Haram and urging our President to do a better job at protecting the lives of all Nigerians even though I live in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against political Sharia in 2001 and I participated in protracted and sometimes acrimonious debates with Islamic fundamentalists and Islamists. I was not a tribalist when I was in NADECO and when we fought against military rule in Nigeria. I was not a tribalist when I fought for a President from the south-south or the south-east. I was not a tribalist when I wrote in defence of the Igbo when it came to the abandoned property issue. I was not a tribalist when I wrote about the excesses of the Federal troops during the civil war. I was not a tribalist when I commended Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and the virtues of the NCNC in Nigerian history. I was not a tribalist when I wrote that it was unfair and wrong for the Federal Government of Nigeria to leave the Igbo with only 20 pounds each after the civil war. I was not a tribalist when many years ago I attended and gave my life to Christ in a church called TREM which was established by a great Nigerian of Igbo extraction by the name of Bishop Mike Okonkwo. I could go on and on. Yet now I am a tribalist because I spoke the truth about our history and who the Yoruba are.

    These people have very short memories and anyone that does not agree with them all the time or that says one word against them at any point in time is labelled a tribalist for life. They called Chief Obafemi Awolowo a tribalist, an Igbo-hater, a genocide maniac and a child-killer simply because the man refused to join sides with them in the civil war yet they forgot that on one of the occasions that Awolowo ran for the Presidency his running mate was from the east and not from the north. They called Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chief S.L Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello Igbo-haters and tribalists simply because they saw through the Igbo agenda at a very early stage in our history and sadly they marked and killed them all for it. They called General Yakubu Gowon a genocidal maniac, a child-killer, an Igbo-hater and a tribalist simply because he opposed Biafra, stood up to Ojukwu and insisted on keeping Nigeria together and even though he declared that there was ”no victor and no vanquished” at the end of the war.

    They accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of being a tribalist and an Igbo-hater even though he appointed an Igbo man as the first GOC in the Nigerian Army since 1966 and even though he appointed more Igbo into key positions in his government than any other President before him. They accused President Shehu Shagari of being a tribalist and an Igbo-hater even though he pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return back home after a long period in exile. They accused the Nigerian people of being tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because we have not had an Igbo President since 1966 forgetting that Nigeria was magnanimous in victory and that she not only gladly welcomed them back into the fold after the civil war but that she also gave them the Vice Presidency of the country only ten years later. They have labelled the northerners as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because the north has refused to tolerate their excesses and accept their complicated ways. They have labelled the Niger Deltans as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply due to the ”abandoned property issue” and because historically many of them have always resisted the idea of Igbo domination.

    They have labelled the Yoruba as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because we have refused to accept their claims to our land and territory and even though we were more charitable, hospitable, accommodating and generous to them than any other nationality in Nigeria after the civil war. The Yoruba particularly have been very kind and gentle with them. That is the problem. They see our liberal and accommodating nature as stupidity and weakness. That is why they always call the Yoruba cowards forgetting that the history of the Yoruba proves otherwise. It is now time to tell the truth. If speaking these bitter home truths and yearning and fighting for a better Nigeria where life would be better for all makes me a tribalist then it is a toga that I would be happy to wear. I will not sit by quietly and allow my people, the Yoruba people of south western Nigeria, to be rubbished, insulted and cheated by anyone no matter how aggressive and given to extremities that anyone may be. I make and offer no apology for any of my views. My numerous assertions stand and they will stand till the end of time.

    Meanwhile, I have read all sorts of strange submissions in various newspapers and blogs that have held themselves out as rejoinders to my two articles titled “Lagos, The Igbo and the Servants Of Truth” and “The Bitter Truth About The Igbo”. Since this debate began two weeks ago my staff have read no less than eleven formal responses which have come in the form of essays. Sadly other than the usual abuse and unedifying clap-trap not one of them has been able to address any of the issues that I raised in either of the two articles, answer any of the questions that I posed in them or successfully challenge my presentation of historical facts. How I wish the masters like Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Adebayo Williams, the late Megaforce, Chinweizu and Sad Sam could give them a few lessons in being refined and polite yet clinical and devastating in their approach. If they had one of those great writers in their corner I would have offered my surrender long ago. Yet sadly they don’t.

    The bellicose nature and sheer crassness of these so-called rejoinders goes to prove two things. Firstly that those that I have described as being collectively unrestrained and crude in all their ways really are all those things and a lot more and secondly that they cannot put up any reasonable or serious argument to discredit or refute the message so instead they are attempting to destroy the messenger.

    Unfortunately for them, the message is clear and it is already out there. It cannot be called back in. The horse has bolted from the stable and the falcon has left the nest. No matter how hard those that are attempting to intimidate us into silence may try it will not work and we will not be cowed. The genie has already slipped out of the bottle. The child has already been born. Those that seek to continue to denigrate and belittle the Yoruba and lay claim to what is rightfully theirs should desist from doing so. They should grant us our peace and give us our due respect and they will get the same in return. If they do not do so those things surely will elude them.

    Meanwhile, when anyone reads a rejoinder that addresses the issues that I raised in either of my two essays and that has some level of scholarship and intellectual content they should please let me know and I may well dignify it with a response. The shameless and emotional thrash and disjointed verbiage that have been published and described as rejoinders so far are just not up to scratch. They are bereft of any logic, reason or rhyme. They also invoke pity in me for the individuals that wrote them and those that they claim to be representing. When my adversaries find a real champion that can cross swords with me and give me a good run for my money either in a literary debate or a verbal one someone should please let me know. And I am not referring to any of those excitable individuals whose emotions have beclouded their thinking and who have called me a ”scallywag” and all manner of other interesting and unsavoury names and who have said that I ought to be in jail or in a drug rehabilitation centre. Please don’t tell me that those are your champions. I am itching for a real debate with a worthy adversary on this issue.

    Like the great Achilles I feel that I have no match. Are there no Hector’s out there? Sadly it appears that my accusers and haters cannot find one. All they have is their hate, their ignorance, their insults and their inbred crudity and vulgarity.

  • Obasanjo and the younger generation

    Obasanjo and the younger generation

    It was vintage Chief Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo at it again while giving a keynote address on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at the fourth Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit organised by Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, in collaboration with African Sustainable Development Network. In the course of his presentation, he seemingly threw caution to the wind when he sordidly and haplessly declared: “Then we are jinxed and cursed; we should all go to hell.” It was like the erstwhile President who was highly favoured to lead Nigeria twice in a rather bizarre and unprecedented fashion: first, as a military Head of State and second, as a two term democratically elected President. The erstwhile president even went as far as saying that Nigeria as a country is apparently failing in producing outstanding leaders from the young generation almost 53 years after obtaining independence from Great Britain!

    Is Nigeria, made up of about 160 million (guess-estimated, no one is really sure; part of Chief Obasanjo’s albatross as a leader whose government failed to conduct credible and acceptable population census) people unable to produce real transformational, charismatic, servant, visionary, exemplary, strategic or ethical leaders as other climes boast of theirs? While the erstwhile President was having a field day castigating the likes of his erstwhile Vice President for eight years, Alhaj Atiku Abubakar; former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaj Salisu Buhari; former Bayelsa State Governor, Mr Deprieye Alamieyeseigha; former Governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion; and others as younger generation of leaders, the former president seemingly, in the content of his keynote address exonerated himself! He behaved like a peacock that perched on a high tree standing alone in Utopia-like savannah vegetation while in his Olympian height disdained and looked down on other birds perching on the elephant grasses that are being carried hither-thither by the harmattan breeze!

    From the outset, I want to state that there were certain impacts of Obasanjo years especially as a democratic president. I will highlight a few here. He was able to brace all odds in giving Nigerians the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication in 2001. Today, Nigeria boasts the largest market in Africa with hundreds of thousands of jobs and many more still coming. In addition, it was his government that really erected institutions such as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to fight corruption. Even though accused of being selective in using these institutions to harm, hunt and hack his perceived enemies, many Nigerians could attest to the fact that corruption was checkmated though not crippled during Obasanjo years compared with this era of impunity reigning unchecked as both the EFCC and ICPC seem to have gone to sleep! Which public officer, past or present, has been prosecuted for corrupt practices during this present administration of Dr Jonathan Ebele Goodluck? People who are more knowledgeable can help me out! However, there were equally some things that were left unattended to in the Obasanjo era. I do not want to open the Pandora Box here as that will be out of the context of what I want to address in this piece. Nevertheless, one cannot but mention issues like the failed power projects with attendant billions of dollars down the drain! Equally, it was the Obasanjo era that saw the sitting President and his Vice supposedly owning private universities while the mass of Nigeria’s docile followers saw nothing wrong!!

    To this author, who has resided in the South East Asia nations of Singapore and Malaysia for seven years, Obasanjo, had the singular opportunity to do more from 1976-1979 (three years) and 1999-2007 (eight years); altogether making 11 years! The duo of Obasanjo’s friends, Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore) and Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia), led their nations through troubled times to achieve titanic transformational strides. These were contemporary leaders with him who braced all odds to make their countries enviable in the comity of nations. Today, Singapore, a nation of less than five million people, is a first world (developed) country, that was once referred to by Indonesia as “tiny dot in the sea and fishing village”. If there is anyone in Nigeria’s chequered history so positioned and peddled up to inculcate and institutionalise many transformational changes, I opine it was Obasanjo.

    In the Ibadan summit, there are lots the erstwhile president touched on relating to leaders, leadership, followers and followership within the Nigerian context. As a researcher, with keen interests in servant, leadership and followership, whilst still chewing and ruminating over Obasanjo’s keynote address at the Ibadan summit, I cannot but be challenged to engage him and other elders who are in the same school of thought with him. In the Yoruba custom, it is often assumed that elders are always right, or that they can invariably not be faulted. The notion is that grey hairs should exhibit or exemplify wisdom. Ironically, it is the same Yoruba wise saying that states: “Omode gbon, agba gbon la fi da Ile Ife” (meaning, the combination of wisdom of the children and elders led to the establishment of Ile-Ife, the acclaimed origin (source) of the Yoruba race)! In leaning on this wise saying and pleading with Baba Obasanjo to painstakingly read, ruminate and respond roundly to these salient and succinct questions I will want to ask as a child even though I am in my early fifties:

    How many leaders, whether at state or federal level, have given opportunity to teenagers and youths for leadership development, succession, role modelling and mentoring a la

    Singapore, USA, Malaysia, etc?

    Chief Obasanjo castigated Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and others while excluding himself from the lot; has Obasanjo, as a self styled exemplary leader sitting aloof on high pedestal, modelled the way in having a visionary leader to succeed him as Tinubu did in Lagos in discovering Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) like one will discover gold in the rubble?

    If one is not from a renown or elite family or possessing enough cash to prime his/her way up politically,  what chances can one have at getting to leadership positions in Nigeria despite possession of unique leadership traits, values and virtues?

    In the game of football, potential best footballers are scouted for all over the globe irrespective of race or colour, when Obasanjo was in power, was there an institution established to scout for, empower and unleash the youths into the public service of this nation to groom them and prepare them for vintage leadership positions in the future?

    In conclusion, I will want Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and other leaders who saw nothing good in the young generation to carefully and conscientiously answer these questions. I hope that Baba Obasanjo is not surreptitiously or clandestinely selling his candidate come 2015 to Nigerians by firing this salvo at the seemingly failed young generation of leaders. I believe that there are many Nigerian youths who are hungry and thirsty to serve but have been denied access as most appointments these days are not by merit; rather they come as a result of connections. The old generation has not changed from recycling non-performing elders and their relatives instead of reinventing servant leadership to better the lots of yearning and longing followers.

    Can we scout for our leaders as footballers are scouted for globally?

    Dr Ekundayo, a leaderhip/management consultant and researcher writes from Lagos; he can be reached through his email: drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com

  • Kudos to CBN Governor on dud cheques

    Whenever the history of the banking industry in Nigeria is written in future, the tenure of the present Central Bank Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido, would go down as one with a remarkable difference when compared with the previous holders of the office. He has taken steps in the past to check the rot in the banking system and his latest directive, as broadcast during the 9.30pm news hour on the Murhi International Television on Monday, 5th August, 2013, to the effect that all banks in the country should compile the list of issuers of dud cheques and forward same to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for necessary action. It is indeed another milestone in the string of laudable achievements recorded by him since his taking over the control of the Apex bank in 2008.

    It would be recalled that a day after this directive, the case, among several ones previous reported in the newspapers, was that of a 29-year-old hairdresser, Mrs. Joy Jegede, who was sent to prison in Ilorin over issuance of a dud cheque to the tune of N620,000, as reported on page 3 in the P.M. News edition of Tuesday,06 August, 2013.

    There is no doubt that this is the first time that this nefarious action that has continued to add to the already dented image of our country is being brought to the limelight and addressed. The Central Bank Governor is, however, enjoined to nip in the bud any possibility of circumventing or frustrating this laudable directive by providing a means through which victims of issuance of dud cheques can reach him directly. By doing so, the room for any cover up or collaboration with any bank customer by any of the banks in the country would have been closed. In addition, the directive should cover the period the last five years since he began the cleansing of banks nationwide. He should borrow a leaf from the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, who out of an act of exemplary leadership, volunteered the direct email address through which he can be reached by the public all in a bid to sanitise the Nigeria Police Force, an effort that is no doubt yielding good results.

    The CBN Governor is also advised to go a step further by publishing the names of issuers of dud cheques in the newspapers as was done in the past when the identities of chronic bank debtors, bank directors and defaulting companies that wrecked some Nigerian banks were unmasked to the public at the beginning of his tenure in office. In addition, any branch of any bank that is found to have compromised the directive in any way should equally be exposed to the public and sanctioned accordingly.

     

    Odunayo Joseph

    Tel: 08053488121

    Email: odunayo_ joseph2006@yahoo.com

  • Re: Igbo presidency and the Yoruba example

    read the article with the above title by Dapo Thomas in The Nation Newspaper of Sunday 21st July 2013 with a lot of trepidation, and I am particularly at a loss to the generational dispensation this commentator belongs to. The essay read like some kind of road map for the Igbo race, the dos and don’ts that will give the Igbo the much sought after Nigerian presidency – the crowning glory of Nigerian politics. He made the quest for this trophy sound like the proverbial gold medal of excellence in the murky and often treacherous path to the most coveted prize in the land.

    Part of my worry stems from the fact that history and truth was liberally doused with a fair sprinkling of half truths and outright fiction to say the least. The office of president was made to look like it belonged to any specific tribe or ethnic group for that matter. The allusion is that there is an Ijaw presidency for the minorities, the Obasanjo -Yoruba presidency and the Umaru Yar Adua Hausa-Fulani presidency. Far from it, we need to begin to look at the Nigerian presidency beyond the musical chair formula whereby the lucky person serendipitously stumbles on the prized chair.

    As an individual, I think the Igbos stand eminently qualified to occupy the Aso Rock villa any day. More so, there are so many men and women of Igbo extraction who have distinguished themselves in the service of the motherland. It is equally important to state that, so also is any other Nigerian with the mental capacity and other attributes desirable in a Nigerian president. The present template for aspiring to the most exalted office in the land sounds like a sharing of pie which is done turn-by-turn. This being the case, Nigerians cannot really demand for much from the man or woman who gets the pie. The reasoning becomes -after all, it is our communities turn to ‘enjoy’ what your people enjoyed before!

    As a Nigerian who had my formative years in the post-civil war era, and raised in a multi-cultural and plural ethnic environment, my affinity for any particular ethnic world-view is tinted by the other cultural influences of my growing up days. Therefore I look at the postulations and counsel of the writer to be quite out of sync with the present realities and global trends. The advise to my Igbo brothers is to embrace a bigger Nigerian dream that transcends your ethnicity. A Nigeria or world where everyman like Martin Luther King saw many years ago, will not be stereotyped and confined to any ethnic straitjacket with its numerous encumbrances. Dapo Thomas may have expressed genuine concerns about the frustrations of a richly endowed group like the Igbos, failing to utilize their abundant skills and resources to claim the presidency 43 years after the civil war. The means and method he advocates runs against the grain of the typical Igbo man and indeed the political ideology of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik). Zik never preached tribal politics, but embraced a politics of nationalistic inclusion which saw him building bridges across Nigeria’s diverse ethnic divide.

    For the records, the Igbos never set out to divide the country through a war, due to any perceived neglect or marginalization. The Igbos and others of southeastern extraction were visited with a pogrom in northern Nigeria as a result of a coup d’etat lead by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. After the counter coup which ousted General Aguiyi Ironsi, it appeared as if there was a latent agenda to eliminate all Igbos in parts of the then northern Nigeria. The police and security organizations appeared hapless in the face of the heinous crime of terror unleashed on my fellow Igbos. The Igbo was left with no option than to flee from the north as their safety was no longer guaranteed. The sense of insecurity within the Nigerian state led to the declaration of Biafra and subsequent decimation of over 1 million easterners and southeasterners. The rest is history like they say.

    Nigerians should advocate for a country built around ideologies rather than individuals and ethnicity. Ideas outlive men. I must admit that Awoism is primarily about an idea, not about Awo the man. What the Awoist need to sell to Nigerians is the ideology. The Igbos and any other ethnic group for that matter can embrace any progressive idea that can better their lot within the federating states of Nigeria, in as much as that idea does not promote ethnic dominance over national interest. The ideological platform should guarantee equal access to the highest office based on ability and capability to lead.

    The Igbos will become ultra suspect if they go ahead to create a definitive pro-Igbo agenda, I will like the Igbo to come up with ideas that can embrace all Nigerians irrespective of tribe, tongue, gender or religion. That way they can begin to shed the weigh of suspicions and prejudices that has dogged their every move and pronouncement since the civil war.

    What this generation of Nigerians need is to promote a Nigeria where the best are recognized and rewarded rather than a patronizing kind of politics that promotes tribal candidates over more qualified and capable leaders.

    Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr. Azikiwe reigned in a totally different era. The writers claim that the Igbos has not been able to produce an Igbo politician with the intellect, clout and credibility of Zik is a distortion of truth to a near seismic proportion. You can as well say the same for India since Mahatma Gandhi. The Igbos has suffered all type of prejudices within the Nigerian state. Suffice it to say that the dynamics of Nigerian politics has moved beyond the traditional tripod of north-east-west. Failing to read the handwriting on the wall will be a major political miscalculation on the part of any politician vying for relevance at the centre.

    The road map for the Igbo and any Nigerian interested in leading Nigeria in the future is to make a firm commitment to work with the rest of Nigeria help create one indivisible Nigeria where everyman can be evaluated based on the content of his character rather than the state-of-origin. The dispensation of ‘kparakpo’ politics will soon be consigned to the museum of political relics. MKO Abiola I must equally state for the records did not single handedly win a mandate like the Dapo Thomas insinuated. Easterners and northerners lined up behind him and the then Social Democratic Party (SDP). He MKO did not sell himself as the Yoruba candidate, he worked with other Nigerians, and his ability to carry others along gave him overwhelming appeal at the polls. We should not forget that his running mate Babagana Kingibe was equally a formidable force in the north and Nigerian politics. This helped to sway the core north to endorse MKO. To give the impression that MKO Abiola was a tribal candidate diminishes the myth of that sacred mandate and the man himself.

    – Otuchikere, a geologist and businessman writes from Calabar

  • Towards improving supply of power by PHCN

    Indeed, Nigeria, manacled in total darkness, ravaged by the cosmic power of this dark age, personifies all the poetry in noise-making, vanity, necromancy and mysticism.

    Is the PHCN epileptic power supply not enough challenge to elicit a brain storming that could end the nightmare of inefficiency in the power sector? Many challenges besetting this country ought to pre-occupy the attention of our engineers, individually and collectively. Had this been the case, Nigeria won’t be swimming in darkness of underdevelopment up untill now. Our engineers are not sleeping on how to swim out of the quagmire, instead they are throwing unprofitable challenges to their innovative rivals. Hear Thomas Edison, a renowned American Electrical scientist: “Everybody steals in commerce and industries, I have stolen a lot myself, but I know how to steal.” (Thomas Edison, 1847 -1931). Many Nigerian scientists trained abroad through government and community scholarships. What did they bring back to Nigeria, either by way of transfer of technology, copying or even stealing, as Thomas Edison averred? There is even an Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers for outstanding scientists. Nigerians are dying and falling sick due to emission from generator fumes and noise. Let our engineers sleep on this challenge and come up with a solution once and for all. The ASUU should please end their strike now as our children are suffering. Some legendary inventors died in penury without any government assistance in funding their research work. Self-sacrifice is the key to solving most of the challenges in Nigeria today.

    John Jimoh

    Ijebu-Ode

    Ogun State

  • Sit tight syndrome and mandatory retirement age

    SIR: From the days of missionary public servants, who served Nigeria in  words and deeds, before independence and about three decades after, the civil service has witnessed its high and low periods.

    The worst era in the history of the service was the military years, when professionalism, integrity and accountability, was depleted to zero level. In fact, it was under the military that the seed of flagrant disregard for rules and regulations which created the room for manipulation and wanton corruption that is commonplace in the civil service today was sown.

    Even when efforts have been made to professionalise the service since the return of civil rule in 1999, such moves have not recorded appreciable success due to entrenched perverted value system that was inherited from the military command structure and jackboot mentality.

    An online news medium recently, to the utter shock and disbelief of many Nigerians, broke a story on the refusal of an acting director general of a federal parastatal, to proceed on retirement, even after he had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60.

    The extant rule of career progression in the Federal Civil Service on retirement of public officers clearly stipulates that all officers in the public service of the federal government must compulsorily proceed on retirement consequent upon the attainment of 60 years or after putting in 35 years of service. The exception to this rule, are academic staff of universities and judicial officers, whose retirement age has been fixed at 70 and 65 years respectively.

    As self-explanatory as this rule is, some career officers in the civil service with the active collaboration of their minister and board members, plot tenure elongation schemes by deliberately looking the other side in flagrant disregard of the rules to keep their cronies in office.

    For the civil service to discharge its duty as the engine room of growth and development, the political heads of ministries must run away from interference on matters of rules and regulations of the civil service. Also, career officers who have reached the peak of their careers should refrain from stunting the growth of their colleagues by scheming to stay beyond the statutory retirement age.

     • Olufemi Fafore,

    Mowe Ogun State

  • IGP and the Sgt. Omeleze case

    IGP and the Sgt. Omeleze case

    SIR: The news was hot as television stations aired the video of a police sergeant in uniform soliciting through mobile phone, for a bribe of N25,000 from an alleged suspect. As expected Nigerians did not withhold their indignation and disgust at the despicable scenario.

    Every institution is infested with bad-eggs; these Judases have chronic ailment that only flushing them out of the system is the only remedy before prosecuting them. No right-thinking Nigerian would not thumb-up for the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar in his determination to combat the odious problem of corruption in the police. When the news of Sergeant Omeleze got to him, he immediately ordered for his arrest and after investigation approved of his sack.

    The amount of clean-up exercise being conducted by the Inspector General of police is a clear indication that with time, the desired police force would be attained. Was it not just last month of July that over 193 police officers including an Assistant Inspector General of Police(AIG)were arraigned to face the police high command disciplinary committee in Abuja?

    We have we suddenly forgotten how on his assumption, he stopped the nagging corruption at road-blocks, a feat that was near impossible with previous IGPs. It is on record and heart-warming to note that promotion and posting which hitherto were clouded with corrupt practices are now based on ability and records of officers. It is only a corrupt leader that would turn the other eye when issues of corruption is alleged, not MD Abubakar that many of us know.

    The Nigeria Police predates many other security institutions in the country. If the truth must be told, there is no personnel of the police that is a foreigner neither were they imported from the Mars and so, it can be argued that every one of them is a true reflection of the corrupt society in which they operate. Nevertheless, majority of the personnel have high integrity and like their civilian counterparts are not tainted with the virus of corruption.

    It is not a sound argument to classify all security personnel as corrupt and bad. This is why the government of Nigeria frowns at the label foreign countries place on every Nigerian traveller as corrupt and bad. A reference point is the police contingents annually sent on foreign mission abroad, you hardly hear or receive any evil report about any of them.

    What the Police need is cooperation, not condemnation

    • Ben Okezie

    Lagos