The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Is Benue governorship exclusive to the Tiv people?

    I strongly believe there’s a grand conspiracy by the world powers to force-feed the world with the gay bug before the turn of the new decade.

    It’s no mere coincidence that two of the world’s most revered religious leaders, the Pope and Desmond Tutu, made ‘disturbing’ statements in support of ‘Gayness’ in a space of three days. While the Pope’s was veiled, Desmond Tutu’s was brash; the Nobel laureate threatening not to go to heaven if he finds out God is homophobic. Now, if God was in support of homosexuals, why did he destroy Sodom and Gomorrah as written in the Bible? This is in addition to the aggressive pro-gay campaign the leaders of both the United States of America and Britain have embarked on in recent months.

    I see no reason why the people of the world shouldn’t clamour for the legalisation of present day sexual vices such as incest, child marriage, bestiality etc. After all, homosexuality was once seen as a crime by the same people at the forefront of the campaign for its acceptance.

    What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Gay rights activists should henceforth include the aforementioned ‘sex crimes’ in their checklist of rights to be fought for.

    I still insist that homosexuality is an abnormality that can be corrected, either medically, through psychological therapy or through exorcism. It’s important to note that I don’t and can never hate gays; it’s only the act I detest.

    I pray God heals the world.

     

    Simon Utsu

    08094982226

     

  • Two years after the UNEP Report: Ogoni still groans

    Two whole years after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) issued a damning assessment of the Ogoni environment, the Ogoni people are forced to continue wallowing in the toxic broth that their lands and waters have been made to become.

    Ogoniland was once a land that supported productive farming, fishing and related activities.  That was so up till the moment the oilrigs began to puncture holes in the land and crude oil began to be spilled on lands, forests and rivers. The air was clean but that changed when gas flares belched like dragons out for the kill.

    Today, twenty years after Shell got excommunicated from Ogoni, thick hydrocarbon fumes from sundry pollutions hang in the air.

    From the late 1980s, the Ogoni people raised alarm over the wholesale destruction of their environment. They followed this by careful and robustly peaceful organising.

    With the Ogoni Bill of Rights of 1990 they catalogued their demands for environmental, socio-economic and political justice. Although the Bill of Rights was presented to the Nigerian government, till date there has not been a whisper by way of response to, or engagement with, the document.

    The Bill of Rights became an organising document for the Ogoni people and also eventually inspired other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta to produce similar charters as a peaceful way of prodding the government into dialogue and action.

    The Bill noted that although crude oil had been extracted from Ogoniland from 1958 they had received NOTHING in return. We reproduce articles 15-18 of the Bill to illustrate some of the complaints of the people:

    15. That the search for oil has caused severe land and food shortages in Ogoni – one of the most densely populated areas of Africa (average: 1,500 per square mile; national average: 300 per square mile.)

    16. That neglectful environmental pollution laws and sub-standard inspection techniques of the Federal authorities have led to the complete degradation of the Ogoni environment, turning our homeland into an ecological disaster.

    17. That the Ogoni people lack education, health and other social facilities.

    18. That it is intolerable that one of the richest areas of Nigeria should wallow in abject poverty and destitution.

    This Bill of Rights was the precursor to the Kaiama Declaration of the Ijaws, Ogoni Bill of Rights, lkwerre Rescue Charter, Aklaka Declaration for the Egi, the Urhobo Economic Summit Resolution, Oron Bill of Rights and other demands of peoples’ organisations in the Niger Delta.

    The UNEP report of presented to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 4 August 2011 completely confirmed the claims of the Ogoni people “That neglectful environmental pollution laws and sub-standard inspection techniques of the federal authorities have led to the complete degradation of the Ogoni environment, turning our homeland into an ecological disaster.”

    The report found that, without exception, all the water bodies in Ogoni was polluted by the activities of oil companies – Shell Petroleum Development Company (Shell) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Indeed the report stated that some of what the people took as potable water had carcinogens, such as benzene, up to 900 times above World Health Organisation standards. The report also revealed that at some places in Ogoniland, the soil is polluted with hydrocarbons to a depth of five (5) metres.

    The UNEP report revealed that the Ogoni homeland had indeed been turned into an “ecological disaster,” as the Bill of Rights asserted. We remind ourselves that the UNEP report made recommendations that most of us saw as low hanging fruits that government could easily have responded to assuage the pains of the people and commence a process of restoring the territory to an acceptable state. The apparent inaction is nothing but a squandering of opportunities to rescue a people and for impactful political action.

    A total clean up of Ogoni land will take a life time or about thirty years at the least. That is the length of time UNEP estimates it would require to clean up the water bodies in the territory. And it would require an additional five (5) years to clean up the land. How is that a lifetime? Well, life expectancy in the Niger Delta stands at approximately forty-one years.

    At the eve of the first anniversary of the presentation of the UNEP report, the Federal Government hurriedly cobbled up an outfit incongruously named Hydrocarbons Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP). The project was set up basically to hoodwink the Ogoni people into thinking that action was being taken to implement the UNEP report. A year after the setting up of HYPREP under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources – a major polluter of Ogoni land – the only visible acts of implementation of the UNEP report has been the planting of sign posts at some places informing the people that their environment is contaminated and that they should keep off. You could almost laugh, but this is sad and serious. Keep off your environment! No options given. The people still drink the polluted waters and farm the polluted lands. Seafood is still being scrounged from the polluted waters and community people still process their foods in the crude-coated creeks.

    Two years after the UNEP report, we believe that it is not too late for the government to act. President Jonathan can:

    • Declare Ogoni land an ecological disaster zone and invest resources to tackle the deep environmental disaster here.

    • Urgently provide potable drinking water across Ogoni land

    • Commission an assessment of the entire Niger Delta environment. An assessment or audit of the environment of the entire nation should equally be on the cards urgently.

    • Those found guilty of crimes against the people and the environment should be brought to book and made to pay for their misdeeds. Blame for oil thefts must go beyond the diversionary focus on the miniscule volumes taken up by bush refiners.

    • The major crude oil stealing mafias must be uncovered. Crude oil and gas volumes must also be metred as demanded by groups such as the Environmental Rights Action (ERA).

    • Engage in dialogue with the Ogoni people as to the time-scale and scope of actions to be taken to restore the environment. Issues raised in the Ogoni Bills of Rights and the UNEP report provide good bases for dialogue. Extend this all over the Niger Delta.

    • Ensure that the actions to tackle the ecological disaster that the Niger Delta has become are not seen as opportunity for patronage or jobs for the boys.

    • UNEP should play a key oversight role, to ensure quality and to build confidence in the process.

    • The body to tackle the problem should be domiciled in the Ministry of Environment and should not by any means be under the polluting Petroleum Resources Ministry.

    • Shell should be ordered to urgently dismantle whatever remains of their facilities in Ogoni land along with toxic wastes they dumped in the territory.

    • Shell should also be required to replace the Trans Niger Delta pipeline that carries crude oil from other parts of the region across Ogoni territory.

    • Clean up the polluted lands and waters.

    These are just some of the steps that must be taken urgently. The UNEP report gives a good list of several things that need to be done. The time has come to halt the ostrich posture and to face the national environmental challenges squarely. Two years is long enough. Our peoples have patiently lined up to fall into early graves.

    Twenty-three years ago several Ogoni people were sacrificed because they dared to speak up concerning the state of their homeland.

    A stanza of the Nigerian National Anthem urges, “The Labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain.” We cannot continue to sing those lines mindlessly while the ecological disaster persists and our heroes groan in their graves.

    Bassey is Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

  • Ladoja’s tar-brush propaganda against Ajimobi

    Ladoja’s tar-brush propaganda against Ajimobi

    Former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, may not strike you as a brilliant man at first sight. But those who misread his brand of politics often live to regret it. His major strength is the tendency of his traducers to take him for granted, equating his looks with the strength of his political machinations. But those who take him for granted never remain on the political front to tell the story. He makes a mince meat of them with his deadly political punches.

    But Ladoja could be dour and uncompromising when he chooses a particular path. Perfecting the Adedibu school of politics—tar-brushing political opponents, making them unworthy and ramming in the final nail—he seldom has a rival in the mastery of this political weapon. It is a methodology that is serviced by falsehood and crude mudslinging.

    For instance, aware of the populist disposition of the Lam Adesina Alliance for Democracy (AD) government and desirous of making an inroad into the government of the time, Ladoja began the systematic tar-brushing of the governor as an Ebira man. His disciples, who cut across a broad clientele, were summoned to spread the gospel of this mudslinging throughout the nooks and crannies of Oyo State. Before Great Lam could wake up from his defence that his great grandfathers’ umbilical cords were interred on Ibadan soil, Ladoja’s lie had festered in the consciousness of the people like cancerous cells. During the April 2011 elections, his group also spearheaded the campaign round the state against Adebayo Alao-Akala. They alleged that he served school children poisoned bean cakes. The rest, as they say, is history.

    Right now, Ladoja is fighting the political battle of his life. Calculative and wily, it must have occurred to him that at age 72 in 2015, if he fails to make an appearance at the Government House in Agodi, his political fate would be sealed forever, hence the obsessive desperation to hone his political skills and make ample use of the wiles of his trade. But, at a point, Ladoja was in a dilemma. Virtually in every nook and cranny of Oyo State and even beyond, the popularity of his cousin and nemesis, Ajimobi, was becoming unbearable. Indeed, the encomiums freely poured on Ajimobi are a great indictment on Ladoja’s stint in office as governor.

    Undoubtedly the most debilitating of the punches rained on Ladoja by Ajimobi’s strides is the construction of the Mokola fly-over in Ibadan. Because Mokola is critical and strategic in the transportation network of Ibadan in terms of commerce and being one of the earliest roads in that part of the country, it was necessary to have the fly-over. Also, travellers commuting from Lagos to Oyo had to pass through this route while transportating their goods. This has thus caused a traffic implosion that renders the intersection extremely busy and jam-packed. This fly-over is thus a tool to reduce traffic conflicts, reduce accidents, loss of lives and wasted man-hour. Hence, this fly-over is mindful of the historical import of the route and takes into cognizance the trajectory of the Mokola-Sango-Dugbe Road.

    Administrations had come and gone and none found the need to break this logjam expedient. But as soon as Ajimobi began the construction of the bridge, Ladoja realised the shine it would take off him, so he tried to appropriate it. On a radio interview, he told his audience that he owned the fly-over blueprint, as it was one of the bridges he had dreamt of constructing. Assailed by the deluge of kudos to Ajimobi over it and the massive encomiums he is receiving for restoring the beauty of the state, Ladoja began his usual campaign of hate and calumny targeted at weakening the support base of the Ajimobi government. And he has been making a good job of it.

    His attacks are based on a quartet prong. One, that the fly-over is substandard. Second, that its price was inflated and third, that it was not necessary. On a different level, he attacks the government as not having a human face for, in his words, removing traders from markets without alternatives. To buttress his argument on the first charge, he wondered why barriers would be placed on the fly-over, maintaining that it means the bridge is not strong enough.

    Even though the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State sees the weakness of Ladoja’s arguments as unbecoming of an engineer, it failed to see the Ladoja gambit in totality. The truth of an argument is inconsequential in Ladoja’s tar-brushing propaganda.

    Widely travelled persons will intuitively mock Ladoja on the first score of his criticism. Even Lagosians would laugh him to ridicule. That a barrier was put at the foot of a fly-over indicates that it is weak? You do not even require the rigour of an engineering school to realise the falsity of this assertion. Down there in Lagos, the Amuwo-Odofin/Festac, Kodesoh, Mobolaji Bank Anthony, Yaba, Airport Road bridges, etc all have barriers at their feet to discourage articulated vehicles. That a former governor of a state in this century, who claims to be an engineer, would level this kind of allegation speaks volumes of the retrogression that befell Oyo State in the years he held sway as governor.

    That it was unnecessary? This contradicts even Ladoja himself. If it was, why did he, according to him, have the blueprint for it in the first instance? If it is unnecessary, why does he now advocate that the bridge should have been dual carriage? The truth is that there is no need for the fly-over to be a double lane bridge, otherwise it would amount to colossal waste. Even the Molete fly-over is not necessary as a dual carriage bridge as there is sparse traffic on it.

    Ladoja’s mischief is most vivid on the cost of the fly-over. On a recent radio programme in Ibadan, he stuck at this dross shamelessly while comparing the one in Abeokuta with the Mokola fly-over. Again, was the falsehood being peddled by Ladoja as a result of mischief or naivety? For instance, rather than the length of the Ibadan bridge being 550 metres, he called it 470 metres and the Abeokuta bridge that is 400 metres, he says it was 620 metres. It is the usual Ladoja misinformation machinery.

    But the most significant answer to his caterwaul of naivety and mischief is that while the Abeokuta fly-over truly costs N1.5 billion, Ibadan’s cost N2.9 billion but the variances in their packages make the difference. First, before the award of the constructions, the two governments never came together to compare notes and as such do not have same Bill of Quantity. Second, being a rocky town and sited on a rocky foundation, the Abeokuta bridge apparently requires less cost on its foundation. But Ibadan does not have a visible rocky outcrop as the foundation of a bridge should be based on solid rock strata. Thus, the foundation type of the Abeokuta bridge requires less rigour than Ibadan’s. Again, the Ibadan bridge goes with several ancillary furniture, which the one in Abeokuta does not have. These are 500mm water mains of steel pipes of about 2km, as the old water pipelines were replaced. Second, there is a 1.2 kilometre road network that was rehabilitated and widened beside the Ibadan bridge, which is included in the costing. There is also the cost of relocation of NEPA (electrical) and telecommunications facilities. Also included in it is the cost of compensation for demolished buildings and beautification around the fly-over.

    Not done, Ladoja has intensified the campaign to paint Ajimobi’s government as inhuman due to its removal of street traders. He cited the example of the Bola Ige government which relocated traders from Old Gbagi to Old Ife Road. Again, the Ladoja misinformation is that Ajimobi never relocated traders from any market but street traders, for whom he has constructed an ultra-modern shopping complex and is still building more. But the question to ask Ladoja is, while he was governor and he pulled down shops, did he construct any in replacement? Why the escapism of citing Ige when he could have given the examples of himself? And why would a man who, as the Ashipa of Ibadanland, is close to being the Olubadan of Ibadanland, relish such misinformation? This, apparently, is why the Olubadan recently sought to bar his chiefs from politics.

    To achieve the aim of acting as the dissembler of the panagyrics heaped on his cousin, Ladoja has sent his henchmen to the streets; mechanic workshops and the nooks and crannies of the state, on a mission to tar-brush the governor and odorize him. For this, he made up with a major hatchet man of his successor and sent him on the errand to achieve this in the media. Also, anyone who runs foul of government’s environmental policy and is made to pay a fine, his henchmen are always on hand to pay, exchanging Ladoja’s call card instantly. What a coy politicking!

    A psycho analysis of Ladoja is that of a man desperate for power, thus making him a mamba provoked and ready to sting. But why would a man who should be a statesman embark on such Samsonic Pull Down the House campaign that can be likened to the proverbial Yoruba rat which vowed that rather than not having a bite of the cowpeas, it would scatter the beans tray?

    •Hassan teaches English Literature in a secondary school at Monatan, Ibadan.

  • Jonathan’s many controversies

    Jonathan’s many controversies

    President Barack Obama gave some useful insights into Africa’s problems during his three-nation visit to Africa recently. At his town hall meeting in South Africa which was beamed live on satellite TV to a global audience, the American President blamed poor leadership and corruption for the collapse of infrastructure and the consequent youth restiveness in Africa. This was a response to a question from a lady from Nigeria, who sought Obama’s intervention to the problems of education in our country.

    This was the same position Rev. Chris Okotie maintained when he reviewed Nigeria’ s 14 years of democracy recently: “Although President Goodluck Jonathan has been fighting a tough battle in the area of insecurity in which he deserves full support of all Nigerians, it is very disappointing that he failed to fight corruption with as much vigour and determination. Corruption has soared to new, unprecedented levels under his watch.

    “Contrary to his campaign promise, he has not been able to fight this monster which is now a great impediment to our development efforts. In the next two years, President Jonathan must address the infrastructural deficit with emphasis on our collapsed educational system and the power project, if he truly hopes to transform Nigeria in the remaining 24 months of his presidency.”

    The confluence of ideas between Mr. Obama and Rev. Okotie on the way forward for Nigeria reflects a broad recognition of our nation’s predicament, when viewed from the prisms of a local and global perspective. It is a wake-up call for Mr. Jonathan to inject active purpose into his administration which has grown lethargic due to his own lack of political savvy to rein in the various contending forces on the Aso Rock corridor.

    Truly, the Jonathan presidency is embattled on all fronts; from the northern elites who are working to frustrate his 2015 ambitions and disparate armed groups led by Boko Haram who have created the biggest security challenges ever faced by any sitting president to the weak leadership of his party, the PDP, which is unable to unite the various power blocks within its ranks. Anyone in the Presidential Villa at this time will face an uphill task running the affairs of state.

    Nonetheless, Mr. Jonathan ought to show himself as a President who can rise above these challenges and govern effectively. This requires an imaginative leadership manoeuvre that will make his Transformation Agenda work at the national level inspite of the disquiet in the polity. That’s the stuff great leaders are made of. Nobody says turning this country around is ever going to be a tea party.

    Mr. President may do well to reflect on the views canvassed by Rev. Okotie who argued that Aso Rock could use a special juicy package of agricultural and educational reforms to develop the north where Islamic fundamentalism is rife as a counter-force against the hypocritical Ulamas who are quietly championing a theological commitment to the promotion of political sharia.

    As some have said, we can look back to look forward. The pastor-politician recalled how early in his presidency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo barely settled in office when the northern Muslim clergy instigated some governors in the core north to introduce the Islamic penal code, sharia, despite the secular character of the Nigerian constitution. But the wily OBJ was able to stare down the sharia governors and went on to govern effectively, drawing a red line the governors dare not cross.

    Consequently, the sharia scare died a natural death. It was only when President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came on board that Boko Haram reared its ugly head. It is on record that Yar’Adua, on settling down in office, promptly summoned the Niger Delta militants to the negotiation table. That was how the amnesty programme was born. Needless to say that it brought peace to the troubled south- south region.

    Many have said that the peculiarity of our problems which are aggravated by a defective federal structure would require a mercurial type of leader in the mould of OBJ or ex-military President Ibrahim Babaginda for the nation to run smoothly. While that may be true, the laid-back President Jonathan may use his task force style of governance to drive his political outreach to all the six geo-political zones, by addressing their peculiar problems. An example of this is his prompt intervention in the 27-year old Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is finally being rebuilt after dilly-dallying by three previous administrations.

    This has gladdened the hearts of the south-westerners and the Igbos who use the strategic vital link road between the North and the South. Jonathan could do same for the East-West road, a second Niger bridge at Onitsha and the lingering security challenges in the north. He was elected to solve problems. He can not run away from this task despite his many controversies that continue to hurt his two-year presidency which again Rev. Okotie highlighted in his article titled: Jonathan’s Many Controversies.

    President Jonathan must also find the courage to engage the corrupt elements in his government in a direct head-to-head combat to restore his appeal as a leader with zero tolerance for corruption. All the encumbrances hampering the functions of the anti-graft agencies must be removed and the so-called untouchable cabal be put under the transparent trail they have always evaded because of their connection to the Presidential Villa.

    •Ayodeji wrote from Lagos.

  • Torture by re-validation

    The virulent witch destined to perdition would give birth to even more female children. This nifty speak of our fathers captures the state of the ruling PDP today. We thought they reveled only in kakistocratic tendencies but they have revealed that they also love a dash of recidivism in their repast. We may then safely conclude that the fellows at the Peoples Democratic Party have elected to hurtle down the road of no return willy-nilly. The recent drafting of the old war horse, Alhaji Umaru Dikko into the party’s ceaseless affrays is a pointer. He has been appointed chairman of the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) of the PDP.

    What will these people do next, you must be pondering? The PDP hierarchy seems to derive an especial pleasure in teasing and taunting Nigerians as they huff and puff through what has become a most onerous task of managing even there own affairs. And we ask: if you can’t run your party, how can you deign to be governing a country? The other day, it was a certain school drop out, certificate and age forger, Salisu Buhari who was exhumed from his well-deserved state of obscurity and hoisted on the governing council of one of the country’s better regarded tertiary institutions, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). Why would any group of people inflict such injury on itself? If you thought self-annihilation does not manifest in cruder form, wait for this.

    Alhaji Umaru Dikko was the face of Nigeria’s Second Republic’s ruling house, the National Party of Nigeria, (NPN) and that face was shaped like the medusa. Dikko was the champion, the kingpin and fixer of that atavistic era. He was the steel hand in the gloves, the repugnant enforcer and the bogeyman in a Republic manned by a supine and flagellating president. Though he was merely a minister (of Transport), he happened to be a power wonk who noticed a large vent in the nation’s power equation and simply occupied it. Dikko soon became the soul and spirit of the bumbling NPN (not unlike today’s PDP) and he was more regarded and feared more than the president, Shehu Shagari, a modest and self-effacing gentleman. Such was the story that at the peak of his power, both the party, NPN and even the country was virtually run through the orbit (or office if you like,) of Alhaji Umaru Dikko.

    Because he controlled the thought, the purse and much of the contracts of that shambolic era, he was not the most loved man in the land. When the military finally moved in to help themselves and also to relieve NPN (and Nigeria) of their misery, Dikko was their prime target. But in the way of cowards, which he turned out to be, he escaped to Britain to bask in the cusps of a free, egalitarian and ordered society which he was too dim to engender in his homeland. Just as bullies are the worst cowards, despoilers are innately vagabonds. The military regime under General Mohammadu Buhari would not let him go scot free, he was required to come clear the heap of crap he left in his homeland, he would be crated like toxic cargo for export to the 3rd World but was saved at the port of exit by eagle-eyed British Customs officers. What inglorious history Dikko would have earned had Buhari pulled off that patriotically gung-ho expedition.

    It was not to be. The humgruffin got away lucky, he never answered; he never gave account of the blight he brought upon our generation. He was soon to be pardoned; he sneaked back into the country and has known better to stay quiet and silent for quite a while now. It is not even known if he carries the card of any party. Now this: the PDP has dredged up this relic of our sad past to head its disciplinary body! Is there a more sadistic way to scrape an old wound and to visit pain on a people; is there a worse punishment to a people’s battered psyche than to inflict torture by revalidation?

  • Still on Abati’s metamorphosis

    SIR: Read Chief Afe Babalola’s column in the Tribune, and you will find that he remains the same old man, always saying, “Welcome, my Lord”, not only to Judges, as a seasoned lawyer and long-standing Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, but also to whoever wields the sceptre in government.

    Afe belongs to the ideological school which teaches you don’t say a ruler is not ruling well, but praise him/her and advise by way of embellishment.

    By always showing reverence to whoever is in power, Afe has made a lot of fortune as a fierce lawyer to reckon-with. While Chief Gani Fawehinmi (of blessed memory) was always suing erring rulers, Afe and the late Chief Rotimi Williams, always defended. That was basically why Gani earned “SAM” (Senior Advocate of the Masses) long before earning “SAN”, for which he was as qualified as anybody that qualified; he was as fierce as anybody that was fierce. But, imagine the success of someone swimming against the current!

    That notwithstanding, Gani was highly blessed with patronage, and was always there for both the able and the unable who had a legal grievance to settle with the powers that be. (I congratulate Afe also, because he is known to be a philanthropist in my view in recent times. My reminiscence is motivated by the current image of Dr. Reuben Abati, who for a long time was a fierce anti-government critic, but now a government apologist.

    To me, and possibly to most of those who used to read his column in those days, Abati is like nightmare. The past and present of Abati are two diametrically opposed images! But, he is not fierce any more, because he is now on the defensive side; having to defend President Jonathan’s indefensible policies and actions, including reneging on promises, e.g. not to run for a second term as President, increasing fuel price rather than retrieving the stolen wealth and blocking loopholes.

    My more serious concern is the utterances of those we expect to lead us out of the woods; unguarded statements that help the likes of Abati to speak triumphantly, insulting our collective intelligence. Imagine such statements as “Jonathan is not to blame for the crisis rocking the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum”.

    Why say “Jonathan is not to blame for the crisis rocking the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum”, when he left nobody in doubt that he didn’t want Amaechi, and has embraced the loser, Jang?

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • SOS to President and governors

    SIR: I wish to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan, and the governors of the 36 states. Your Excellencies, in the first place, I wish to commend the effort of governors like Peter Obi of Anambra State who pay monthly pensions regularly since assumption of office.

    This appeal is for Your Excellencies to administer the old pension in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution rather than abandon the civilian pensioners in the lurch through failure to adjust the old pension.

    Military pensioners suffered the same fate until Brig-Gen. Bitrus Kwaji was appointed chairman of Military Pension Board. General Kwaji relied on section 173 of the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 to recognize that the 12.5 percent and 15 percent salary increase granted to workers in 2003 and 2007 respectively and the 23 percent increase granted to the military in 2008 should be applied pari passu with pension. The total percentage increase which was 50.5 percent was accordingly added to military pension in 2010 with the payment of the resultant arrears. The “idle” civilian pensioners now got better understanding of the message of George Orwell’s Animal Farm as their pensions remain unadjusted even after the hullabaloo and riot over the controversial petroleum products price increase in January 2012 and the enactment of a new minimum wage by the National Assembly thereafter.

    Your Excellencies, at the peak of the Roman empire, fervent admirers of Rome volunteered to sacrifice their lives at the Roman forum (market place) to save Rome in accordance with injunctions of the oracle. In exhibition of patriotism and love for their country, they proudly exchanged cheers with the by-standers at the scene of the supreme sacrifice.

    As Nigerians look forward to the centenary of nationhood, what will be the basis for the pensioners and their relations with growing feeling of disenchantment go out there at the Eagle Square and stadia across the nation to cheer? What is the encouragement to the pensioners and their children to rise and obey the call by Nigeria?

    A nation that cannot fulfill mutual agreements with its citizens and where 20 percent of our common resources is spent annually by the leadership to combat crimes and lawlessness but would resort to selective application of the provision of the supreme law of the nation which they swore to uphold.

    Your Excellencies, the prevalence of inertia in the conduct of human affairs with timescale does not augur well for the future of society. Please help to build a nation where no man is oppressed.

    • Chukwuma Nwene

    Obunagu Village, Ndikelionwu,

    Anambra State.

  • Anambra guber: The odds against Ekwunife

    SIR: The slogan of Anambra State is the Light of the Nation. The slogan aptly fits the state and captures its essence and what it represents. It is the home-state of late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, foremost Nigerian nationalist. Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, the former African sprints queen of the track hails from the state. John Mikel Obi, mid-field maestro and the engine room of the Super-Eagles, is native of Anambra. The roll-call of iconic figures who come from Anambra state won’t be complete without mentioning the eagle on the Iroko, Chinua Achebe, the indisputable father of modern Africa literature.

    It is time for politicking and the election of a new governor. So far, more than 30 politicians have indicated interest to contest the next Anambra governorship election. Each of these politicians is with qualities that can tilt the race in his or her favour. In the Anambra politics, intrigue, religion, political clout and money are factors that will determine the next occupant of the government house, Awka.

    Among those running for the governorship post are Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former CBN governor; Ifeanyi Uba, oil magnate; Uche Ekwunife, a serving law-maker in the National Assembly and others.

    APC will use the Anambra election to test its popularity and solidify its roots and foundation. Dr. Chris Ngige will likely carry the flag of APC in the epic battle.

    Male chauvinism reigns supreme in Anambra State. Are the people ready to have a female governor now? Onitsha based traders are wont to say that a lady whose urine does not flow in a jet straight line will not rule over them.

    More so, Anambrarians are chiefly Christians. Christianity and Igbo culture subordinate women behind men. Among those who will urge Ekwunife to shelve her political ambition are women. They will copiously quote the Bible passages and pepper them with Igbo proverbs to prove that a woman should not contest for a political post with men. These are attitudes and sentiments, which Ekwunife will battle in order to win the APGA ticket and the governorship election.

    But, let us work on the assumption that securing the APGA ticket will be a cake-walk for her. Can Honourable Ekwunife defeat the governorship candidates of APC, PDP and Labour party in the governorship contest? Some people opined that APGA died with Chief Emeka Ojukwu. Late Ojukwu commanded huge followership during his life-time. He used his charisma to sway people to his side. Governor Obi rode on the coat tail of Ojukwu’s popularity to win the governorship election. Now, APGA has emerged from a bitter judicial fight between Obi and Chief Victor Umeh, the national chairman of the party. So, can APGA governorship representative beat APC, PDP and Labour Party flag bearers in the governorship election?

    More so, the presidency would like to add Anambra to the list of PDP states in preparation for the presidential poll in 2015. Anambra PDP is fractured by quarrels, intrigues and betrayals. Can Anambra PDP bury their political differences, unite, and present a formidable and consensus governorship candidate? Only then can the party thwart the efforts of APGA flag-bearer and derail the APC’s march to victory.

    These are hurdles that Ekwunife must clamber over.

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye.

    Uruowulu-Obosi,

    Anambra State.

  • Oshiomhole’s town hall meeting: Matters arising

    Oshiomhole’s town hall meeting: Matters arising

    It was a stinker, just as it was heart-rending, when Edo State government during a town hall meeting last week, opened a can of worms on the goings-on in the state primary schools. The picture was one of widespread, across-the-board falsification of ages among primary school teachers in the state. Part of the bizarre revelation was that 789 out of 1,379 teachers obtained their primary school leaving certificates before the age of 8 or 9.

    Incredible – you say? That unfortunately was what the audit of the state primary schools undertaken by the Information Communication Technology Agency, under the instruction of Governor Adams Oshiomhole revealed! Thanks to the agency, the exercise confirmed the moral degeneracy by those charged with preparing our kids for the future. So bad was the situation that the duo of the Comrade Governor and the ICT Managing Director, Mrs. Olayemi Keri would lament that the society has degenerated to a point that our forefathers could never have imagined.

    The story of the rot in the teaching cadre reminds of the analogy of the baker of bread who wanted everyone in the society dead; all he needed to do was to add a pinch of a deadly substance to the flower and the deed is done. This time, the catastrophe is even more unimaginable given that we are dealing with teachers who have the responsibility to mould the future of our young ones.

    The statistics of the rot is certainly as interesting as it is revealing. Only 1,287 teachers representing 9% out of 14,484 teachers have proper and accurate records in the system. The rest 91% have various forms of discrepancies in their records. Another 1,379 teachers representing 11.5% claim that they obtained their primary school certificates after they had been employed as teachers. In fact, some obtained their primary school certificates not more than two years ago, from the school in which they were employed as teachers!

    Indeed, merely going by what the records suggest, some of the teachers may have gone to Teachers’ Training College or obtained National Certificate of Education (NCE) before they went to primary school. The governor also gave out statistics on the teachers-student ratio in all the local governments as 30 students per teacher, a figure that is much lower than the UNESCO recommendation on student-teacher ratio, suggesting that there are more teachers in the state primary schools than needed.

    And like the governor would also observe at the town hall event, monies arising from the exit of teachers by way of voluntary resignation, death, and otherwise simply vanished without trace!

    We can therefore understand the governor’s exasperation when he avers that “It would not be helpful to the cause of education and our resolve to deliver quality education to our pupils if we do not deal with this issue decisively”.

    No doubt, there were some positives from the audit. For instance, it showed that there are more female teachers than male teachers in the state. On this, the governor would observe: “in some cases, we have more female pupils in schools than male and that is very encouraging, because some states, are still battling with how to get their female children to school, but that is not the case in Edo.” He attributed this to the number of steps taken to restore confidence and integrity into the public schools system – the result of which is the steady increase in enrolment in public Junior Secondary Schools in the state.

    Speaking on why the town hall meeting on education became necessary, the governor explained that it was to find a solution to the problems. He told the gathering: “a school with all the necessary infrastructure without qualified teachers is like an empty hall. The solution to this problem, I may not know, but I am sure, before the end of this all important meeting, the solution would come. But, before knowing the solution, there is need to understand the severity of the problems”, since according to him, “The future of our children lies in sound educational foundation. Edo State government can not afford to leave the future and training of our children in the hands of incompetent teachers”.

    He also made the point repeatedly that the government was open to suggestions on the way forward just as he reaffirmed his determination to put in place a mechanism to check corruption, bribery and malpractices in the recruitment of teachers, particularly by the state Post Primary Education Board (PPEB).

    According to Walter Scott, “The best part of man’s education is that which he gives to himself”. Often times, columnists, critics and commentators in the country have tended to focus most of their attention on the leadership problems bedevilling the nation, leaving out the sector that determines what entire generations become to fend for itself. It is no longer news that the nation’s standard of education has nose-dived, worse than anybody can possibly imagine if the investigation by Edo State government is anything to go by.

    As it is, the fight to restore dignity and respect to our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions should not be viewed as one man’s fight, but, it should be viewed as a fight thrown at all men of goodwill in the nation. If we allow the flame that was handed down to us by our founding fathers to quench in our hands, posterity will never be kind to us!

    Though, Oshiomhole has allayed teachers’ fear of possible mass sack, he stated that he needed to get all stakeholders alerted on the issue so as to find a lasting solution to the malaise.

    If I understood Oshiomhole correctly, he is simply saying that the primary school system, which is the foundation of learning, needs a turnaround, not cosmetic, but in real sense, a complete change – a real transformation.

  • Why Nigeria remains backward

    SIR: The British people without consulting us amalgamated diverse ethnic groups together and christened the union Nigeria. So, a revered northern monarch called the union the mistake of 1914; and, Chief Awolowo referred to Nigeria as a mere geographical expression. Since Nigeria came into being, we have always been conscious of our ethnic origins. In the 1950s, during our struggle for political emancipation, the northerners wanted to secede over the nine point programme.

    More so, the political parties that existed in pre-independence era and first republic were ethnic-based political parties. They were not national in out-look. The AG was to the Yorubas what NCNC was to the Igbos, while NPC was owned by the northerners.

    When the intractable crisis in the western region prompted and motivated the five majors to topple the regime of Sir Tafawa Balewa, it was branded an Igbo coup. Consequently, a counter-coup happened some six months, later; and, the Hausa-Fulani carried out a genocidal decimation of the Igbo population in the north. This led to the 30-month Civil War, at the end of which Yakubu Gowon declared that neither side emerged as the winner in the Nigerian-Biafrian civil war. It was no victor and no vanquished. He formulated some programmes, like the NYSC that will help us to achieve national integration and cohesion.

    But, true peace and unity has continued to elude us since then. We are retrogressing in Nigeria because the issue of ethnic origin is one of the factors that determine those who will occupy exalted positions in our super-structure. When merit is sacrificed on the altar of ethnic origin and religion, backwardness is guaranteed. Nigeria moves in circles as old and tired and incompetent people are recycled into power in order to ensure balance of power among the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. Is Nigeria being led by her first eleven? Mediocre leadership yields infrastructural decay, dysfunctional educational system and others.

    Were Obama to be living in Kenya, the Kikuyu and Luo ethnic rivalry would deny him the opportunity of actualizing his political ambitions and aspirations. Americans de-emphasize their differences, but have been harnessing their diversities and potentials to achieve economic prosperity and technological advancement.

    It is apparent that Nigeria is not practicing true federalism. The pseudo and lop-sided federalism we are practicing cannot cater to the exigencies of the time and our peculiar problems. This pseudo-federalism accounts for our stunted national development.

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye,

    Uruowulu-Obosi,

    Anambra State.