The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • State of Abia’s schools

    SIR: Education is one of the key areas where the administration of Governor T.A. Orji has taken radical steps to restore its glory. As at today, Abia State government has embarked on construction and reconstruction of over 154 classroom blocks, in both the primary and secondary schools across the 17 LGAs in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). The state government had paid the counterpart fund of N1 billion.

    Some of the renovated and constructed classroom blocks across the state include: Owaza Secondary School Obehie, Ukwa West LGA; Akanu Ngwa Community School, Obi Ngwa; Holy Rosary Girls Secondary school, Umuahia; Amigbo Central School, Oguduasa, Isuiwuato LGA; Isuikwuato High School; Lokpaukwu Central School, Umunneochi; Akirika Obu Primary School, Ndoki, Ukwa East; Central Primary School, Umunteke, Ukwa West; Obinolu Secondary Technical School, Umunneochi; Okporo Ahaba Secondary school, Aba; Amizi Olokoro Primary School, Umuahia South; and Ibeku High School, Umuahia.

    Currently, the state government is building three gigantic and model one-storey classroom blocks of 28-Room capacity in each of the three senatorial zones in Abia State. For Abia North, it is located at Ovim (Technical) Secondary School, Isuikwuato; for Abia Central, it is located at Government College, Umuahia while the one of Abia South is located at Abayi Girls Secondary School, Aba.

    Abia State has maintained a tuition-free education in public primary and secondary schools since 2007 and that naturally increased school enrollment. Over 1000 students of tertiary institutions have continued to receive the annual bursary awards since 2008. Government has periodically acquired and distributed free textbooks, thousands of exercise books and teaching aids to schools across the state. These encouraging packages have been yielding outstanding results. In 2012, three Abia students won the NNPC organized science quiz competition for secondary schools in the country. In the same year, ASOPADEC equally organized quiz competition for the best science schools in the 12 LGAs of its operations to encourage hardwork and excellence among secondary schools in the state.

    The Federal Ministry of Education’s study of literacy rate and drop-in-school enrolment, ranked Abia first in having done well in literacy rate and enrolment of children in schools.

    To boost the capacity of teachers, government has invested heavily in organizing workshops, conferences and seminars to enhance efficiency, productivity and expose them to the modern teaching techniques. Resource centers and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) centers were established to improve the knowledge of teachers in a fast-changing globalised world. Governor T.A. Orji is also building a gigantic modern library complex at Ogurube Layout, near the State House of Assembly Complex, Umuahia.

    The state government also took the decisive step in returning some missionary schools to its original owners as a pilot phase. This is done to facilitate and kick-start a rejuvenation of the dwindling standard of education especially in public schools. The tertiary institutions in Abia State have not been left out in the robust education policies of Governor Orji. Abia State University was enabled to attain full accreditations in virtually all the courses approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the students have fared better in competitions with other universities. The state Polytechnic at Aba has proved through the performances of her students that the institution enjoys enabling environment that promotes academic excellence.

    No quantum of propaganda will diminish the high performance rating of Abia State government by those whose stock in trade is to engage their connections in the media to disparage a purposeful leadership acknowledged by a wide spectrum of enlightened minds.

     

    • Moses Nna

    Ukpakiri, Obi Ngwa LGA, Abia State.

     

  • Children and cell phones

    SIR: Our children are now very much interested in the manipulation of cell phone, watching films and other thrillers every day. They are deep rooted in the act in such a way that they often forgo doing their home work, reading their books and attending to other home chores. More worrisome and disturbing is that those in the secondary schools go to school with the gadgets which they browse in the class even when lessons are going on. The frivolous activities have in fact contributed in no small measure to the massive poor performance in examinations by students.

    Unfortunately, this syndrome is manifesting at the time the government is setting every thing in motion towards achieving quality education for all by 2015. All the same, the situation is not completely out of hand as the government, especially the school authorities, can do something to remedy the situation.

    I suggest that the government, teachers, parents and other stakeholders do everything within their strides to correct these aberrations. Otherwise, our nation would be infested with bunch of illiterate graduates in the near future.

    The last UTME witnessed massive poor performance by students ever known before in the history of this country as only 10 out of 1.7 million candidates who sat for the examination scored 300 and above.

    Such a poor performance should move stakeholders, especially the government to find a lasting solution to the problem,

    Regrettably, the deadline projected for making education in the country superb clashes with the next general election. I have the eerie feeling that government wouldn’t do much on the issue since the campaign for governance in 2015 has dominated the polity.

    Nigeria has all it takes to bring back education to an enviable height like in the days of our famous trio of Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe of the blessed memory. My heart bleeds whenever I see the poster, STUDY IN GHANA in our major towns and cities. Imagine Ghana that was sent packing decades ago now, like the biblical Joseph feeding us educationally. Nigerians now go to Ghana to study. Is not shameful?

    Parents should do something about their children’s indulgence in frivolities because they are the first to feel the impact of their misbehavior. The bottom line is parents should not buy their children cell phone until they finish their secondary education.

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

     

  • Abia scores another first in health sector

    SIR: All is now set for the Abia State government to score another first with the commissioning of the first Dialysis Centre in the South-east zone of the country.  The centre which is at Abia Specialist and Diagnostic Centre Umuahia was made possible by the state government when it acquired the defunct Alaoma Hospital on Aba road through private-public partnership with international health and specialist organization’ MECURE of India to construct the centre.

    The centre was part of the numerous completed and ongoing projects embarked by the present government in the state. After inspecting the equipment installed there, the Governor Theodore Orji happily said that all the facilities needed for the take-off of the centre are ready, adding that government is waiting for the technical partners from India who will man the machines. The state government had also concluded plans on how indigenous health professionals will be trained to work there.

    With the take off of the centre, it is obvious that the centre will bring succour to many people suffering from renal problem as they do not need to travel far or outside the country or spend so much money on dialysis.

    Another good thing about the centre is that majority of doctors and nurses that will be in-charge are Nigerians who will undergo training. There are also enough machines to attend to several patients at a time, unlike the case in several public hospitals where there is inadequate machines for dialysis. No wonder recently Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) approved the centre for medical students’ internship.

    Since 2007, the Theodore Orji-led administration has recorded massive giant strides in the area of health care delivery in Abia. So far, the government has equipped and upgraded one hospital in every three senatorial zones of the state into a referral hospital for specialist treatments and diagnosis. It has also undertaken a massive re-equipping and modernization of the Amachara General Hospital as the pilot hospital for Abia Central Senatorial Zone and the Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba to serve the people of Abia South Senatorial Zone, while the Umunnato General Hospital is to serve as the Specialist Hospital for the Abia North Senatorial Zone.

    With the completion of centre, the state government has set another pace in the health care delivery in the country.

    • Dr. Romanus Uwa,

    Aba, Abia State

     

  • The upsurge of religiosity

    SIR: The way religion is practiced in Nigeria today borders on the absurd.  Every corner you walk, there is a place of worship.  At any given time of the day or night, people are shouting on top of their voice.  I understand they are casting out demon afflicting their life.  Since when have there been so many demons in the world?  People are beat up with guilt for sins they have committed whether knowingly or unknowingly.

    The upsurge of religiosity seems to be a manifestation of vacuity in the social structure.  Not that the world was ever without religion.

    I believe religion has a place in our life.  There are so many things in life we cannot understand.  Believing in a Supreme Creator that has the supernatural power over the affairs of His creation has a pacifying quality.  I can go to sleep at night consoled that evil in the world is part of a spiritual design.  In other words, what I considered evil may be a function of a Higher Order to exercise a divine will.

    I might have accidentally made a case for the excesses of religion by believing in a divine will.   However, it is hard for the intelligent mind to give credibility to the masquerade of churches claiming spiritual authority over people’s life.  Except for gullibility of mind borne out of ignorance and poverty, what these churches are preaching are nothing a psychologist cannot treat in an advanced culture.  Especially when you factor that most of these pastors are not versed in the deeper inclinations of spirituality.  I believe they flourish because their followers mistake charisma and clairvoyance for spiritual power.

    How else can one explain the materialism of most these pastors? It reminds me of a typical Nigerian politician; once they get established, they become overweight.  Next thing, they overdress and buy luxury cars.  Recently on the news was the case of a Bishop of Bishops in Cross River State who was arrested by the police for raping a 15 year old girl he was supposed to be praying for.  The boundary of ethics and immorality gets blurred in their mind when they become intoxicated with their purported spiritual power.

    I implore people to be inspired by the truth and not clever antics by these nowadays pastors because that is the only way their life will have meaning.

     

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

     

  • Ahoy! Lagos girl, IBB wants you

    Ahoy! Lagos girl, IBB wants you

    Wow, our own IBB (General Ibrahim Babangida, rtd) has done it again. The fellow we love to love and hate with equal passion has just given us one fat dollop of matter to chew again. Last Sunday, he granted what we mischievously call a full-dressed interview in the industry to the Sunday Tribune. The chit-chat lived up to its top billing running into five long pages. It also lived up to the quintessential IBB-speak. It was all wind, and a lot more wind with little sense or sensibility.

    Hardball took time and tallied up 55 questions thrown at the dangerously genial gap-toothed general and he gobbled them all up giving nothing in return. The only answer that made any sense whatsoever is to the question: “… people are wondering why you have refused to remarry?” In answering even this question he went on his usual trips and de-tours before returning to the matter thus: “If I will remarry, I will go to the Southwest. I will go to Lagos and get a Lagos girl. I was in Lagos for 18 years. I know much about the girls and women.”

    Jeez, did you hear that? This general has been to the East, he has been to the North and he has been to the South but Southwest is the best and he is not shy to say it, indeed he wishes to take the woman of his evening from there. Well in case dear Lagos Girl, you missed the interview, Hardball hereby gives you the tip of your life: you are wanted by the greatest general alive in Africa today, a coup-meister, the only African president in army fatigues; the great annuller who organised the best election ever in Africa and then went ahead and quashed it. The spirit who lives in a 50-room mansion on a hilltop (he had the opportunity to debunk this claim in this interview but he side-stepped the question).

    Such is the peculiar genius of this Nigerian statesman that he would field 55 questions yet would have said nothing to his compatriots. Not a word of particular wisdom or edification; not an incisive critique of extant policies to guide the people at the helm; not any insightful drawing from experience and hindsight to light up the path to the future. After wading through pages of rich equivocation and worthless verbiage, Hardball was of one mind to pronounce a no-interview ban on IBB. It was an exercise in shadow boxing of the well-practised type.

    Once again he had the opportunity to shed light on the historic June 12, 1993 election he botched, but as he has done over a dozen times in the past, he missed it. Here is a sampler. Asked if he has any regrets about annulling the election, he responds: “…As a military president, at that time, I organised the best, free election for the first time in this country. Nobody is asking me how I did it. Many are shouting that I should be crucified. You still complain. You complained in 1999; you complained in 2003; you complained in 2011. And you will complain in 2015. Mark my words. Nigerians accepted the June 12 election; the world accepted it.” Phew! If you understood that answer dear reader, you will understand astrophysics.

    Well, suffice it to say that this general still doesn’t get it, in which case we must move on and leave him to his woes. One cannot help but feel some pangs of pity for the aging general. Twenty years after June 12, IBB comes across like a man permanently fitted into a gabardine of lies that have become him. He doesn’t even know the difference anymore. Just say June 12 to him and he goes on a blabbering spree. IBB’s last act, hardball dares to suggest, would be to come to terms with June 12 and SPILL IT, lest he returns to his maker bearing a fat hunch on his back.

     

     

  • The President and his promise on power

    SIR: To say President Goodluck Jonathan is showing disdain for the plight of Nigerian masses is an understatement. Nigerians are tired of the President’s promises that have since turned a national swindle. His assertion last year in several quarters that there would be additional 4,500 megawatt in the next six months and that power would continue to increase progressively has turned out to be a ruse.

    Early last year, the President told a newsmagazine: “ By the middle of next year, you will dash me your generator. I will send it out of the country, because we won’t need it anymore”.

    This year, on January 24, President Jonathan told a bewildered world in an interview anchored by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Davos, Switzerland that power generation and supply under his administration had reached a peak that no previous administration had attained. He drummed his chest that Nigerians are impressed with the current level of improvement in power, and that if there was one area ordinary Nigerians applauded his administration for, it was power.

    The President would enthuse: “I would have loved that you ask ordinary Nigerians on the street of Lagos, Abuja or any other city this question about power. This is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with the government that our commitment to improve power is working. So if you are saying something different, I’m really surprised. That is one area that even civil societies agree that the government has kept faith with its promise”.

    His claim was immediately perforated on Twitter by Nigerians who were following the interview in Nigeria with many tweeting that they were monitoring the interview with generators. When Amanpour put that forward to the President, he buckled and acknowledged that his administration had not achieved the target it set for itself and promised to deliver results by the end of the year. Surely, darkness is visible indeed!

    Granted that electricity crisis is not entirely President Jonathan’s making, but the question on every lip is “what effort is he making to redeem the nation from the throe of darkness?” The other question is, does the troublous electricity deficiency defy all antidotes? The earlier the Presidency comes to term with the power responsibility and that the solution to electricity crisis resolution is beyond sloganeering the better for us all. Nigerians didn’t elect him as a national historian to tell us how much successive governments before his failed on account of power generation and other intractable maladies.

    How can the future of the country be bright if we are aspiring to be one of the 20 biggest economies in 2020, yet we are aspiring to produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity next year?

    Nigerians are patiently waiting for President Jonathan and Professor Chinedu Nebo, the Minister of Power to deliver on their power promise if that means climbing up to the pick of Mount Nebo to actualise it.

     

    • Erasmus Ikhide

    Lagos.

     

  • Tunneling down

    Witnessing yet another fantabulous episode in the long-running sitcom (let’s title it ‘Morbid Obsession’) was at once exhilarating, raucously hilarious and foreboding. Hardball achieved the odd feat of shedding tears of joy and sorrow all at once. Don’t ask how he pulled off such dexterous feat because it is beyond description; the only remedy is to attune oneself to the narrative of the series.

    Last Thursday, July 4, 2013, a certain Prince Felix Obuah, a mobile, tactile installation (life follows art sometimes you know) in the PDP universe, Rivers State branch, raised his game and upped his profile in infamy. A stringed underling in the ruling party, call him State Chairman, he broke ranks and transported his self unto the presence of the President of the Federal Republic right in his Court, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. Prince Obuah led a delegation of the party chieftains of his state to ‘solidarise’ with the president. It seems a grand reversal of roles and starkly anomalous that in a state endowed materially, historically and politically, a certain Prince Obuah would lead and speak for the likes of Peter Odili, Sergeant Awuse, Chibudom Nwuche, Austin Opara, Abiye Sekibo, Lee Maeba, to name a few, to the Villa.

    Is this a new low or a new high? Is this the new, emerging PDP; the shape of the party to come? Is this the rise of the unknown quantities and underlings? Is it the rule of the tail or the thumb? Now that this Obuah fellow has broken the floodgate, the other state chairmen must take their cues quickly and their turns immediately to lead their state chapters (with their governors and other leaders in tow) to the Villa. The challenge of any other state chairman however, will be whether he will be able to match Obuah’s performance before the president. Obuah, it seems, was fully prepared and well rehearsed with a speech tucked in his pocket. Like a minnow in the presence of a barracuda, he threw in everything in the mix and could have driven home his point with Ahahowaian back-flips if necessary.

    He played the worm first by wriggling through the soft side of the president. You are our son in-law and Rivers State should be your home of comfort, he declared. They had just received their sister, the president’s wife and by the joy and contentment she exuded, it was evident that he was a dependable and loving husband she a dutiful and loving wife. Wow! Obuah dug in: they the political leaders of PDP in the state support the Transformation Agenda, they support the president and would do anything to make sure he sleeps with two eyes closed.

    Then like Ali Baba, he reached for the dagger and aimed at the jugular of the enemy: “We are pained and our heart bleeds today that the main champion of opposition in the country against Mr. President is Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    “We do not know what has come over the young man. Is it that he wants to destabilise the PDP before his eventual movement to his new party, having been handed over the ACN/CPC structure in Rivers State.”

    Great performance and “Mr. President” bit into the ‘bait’ hook, line and sinker, he immediately railed against “somebody who is in a political party and his faith is in another party…” What an orchestra of dirges, drawing and redrawing of battle lines as fresh scenes are played out in the running drama, we have titled, Morbid Obsession. Hardball can’t figure out why he uncannily tends to liken Obuah as some kind of burrow rabbit tunneling into the ground.

    On a last note, Obuah sounds like and reminds of a burrowing rabbit tunneling down into the ground.

  • Her ‘Executive’ First Lady

    SIR: Whether one likes it or not, Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of Nigeria’s President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is one figure in the nation’s political terrain that cannot be ignored.

    The Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State is almost always in the news. If she is not making headlines for the good reasons, she will be sure making the delight of news editors for the really controversial and quite unusual reasons.

    Mrs. Jonathan continues to attract more attention than some key political office holders under her husband’s administration. Sometimes she gets praised for her act of kindness and show of love. Remember her pet project- Women and Child Initiative, which is being replicated in most states of the federation.

    To her credit also is her push for more women to get political positions and making the women’s voice count more in the affairs of the country. But on the other side, Mrs. Jonathan’s conduct has become controversial and contentious. Indeed, her demeanor lately is becoming a source of concern. Anytime she is visiting a city or state, there will be apprehension and panic. The city is almost locked down because First Lady is in town.

    Do you recall when she visited Lagos sometime and the city was shut down causing traffic jams and agonies for the members of the public? At times the airspace is shut while awaiting the arrival of Her Excellency.

    Just last month, Dame Patience was in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital for a week for some private functions. According to reports, the First Lady attended a wedding of the daughter of a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The First Lady’s security blocked many places. It was even said that the state governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi abandoned a function because his convoy couldn’t gain access to the road because the First Lady was in town.

    Why would a city be shut down because the wife of the President is in town? Why would the First Lady’s convoy cause pains and make the people panic? For an office that is not bestowed with any executive or any other functions to constitute a discomfort to the people is disdainful and rather snooty.

    Asides the shutting down of roads, the First Lady has engaged in tactless utterances and has remained impervious to the obvious resentment her comments attract. We are witnesses to the verbal assault the First Lady gave Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi. At an occasion she blasted the governor for ‘sacking’ her Okrika people. At another time, she lampooned the governor for not ‘transforming’ Port Harcourt; according to her the city has lost its former glory. She compared the state of city now with the tenures of past governors.

    When the First Lady was abroad for what some describe as medical tourism, she made some rash comments. Besides these distractions, the nation must be spending a lot on frequent travels and tours on the First Lady and her entourage.

    President Goodluck Jonathan must step in and save us all from distractions coming from the office of the First Lady. A First Lady must show high level of discipline and be a model for the people. The conduct of such a person must be in line with exemplary principles. Every form of thoughtless and offensive comments must be abhorred as the office should not cause us unsolicited ripples. The office must not cause tension. If the office must remain, it must focus on helping the people and providing opportunities.

    • Stanley Ibeku,

    Africa Regional Centre for Information Science,

    University of Ibadan.

  •  Ekiti’s model of brain drain reversal

    SIR: The recently concluded Ikogosi Graduate Summer School (IGSS) held at the famous Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort in Ekiti State was another attempt by the administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi to the restore the state to its rightful position as the nation’s intellectual powerhouse. Fifty postgraduate students of Ekiti origin made up of 15 doctoral students and 35 Master’s students drank from the intellectual fountain provided by Nigerian academics drawn from various parts of the world.

    The IGSS scholars enjoyed free tuition and accommodation at the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort which provided the best environment conducive for learning away from the hustling and bustling of the city centre. The programme exposed the participants to modern methods in research, theory, methodology, issues relating to civil society, culture, literature, culture and society, politics, economy, among others.

    The governor, in mooting the idea of IGSS believed that relocating the Nigerian-born foreign-based university teachers to the country in one fell swoop won’t be possible, conceived a programme to bring them home in the summer to share knowledge and experience with young Ekiti intellectuals in the summer.

    Although the IGSS has come and gone, its impact would continue to be felt in Ekiti and other parts of the country where the beneficiaries would find themselves in the nearest future. The forum has offered the participants an opportunity to create and nurture relationships with scholars abroad and also enriched and expanded the training of postgraduate students in Nigeria. It has provided external mentoring to the participants and provided the best traditions of scholarship and networking and has brought back the universe to the university in Nigeria.

    The IGSS has helped to reinvent the image of Ekiti from a state that was in recent past associated with brigandage, violence, electoral malfeasance and impunity to a state renowned for peace, development, academic excellence and enthronement of accountability and good governance.

    What is happening in the state should not surprise other Nigerians as it is only leaders who value education that can formulate policies which can make the sector a catalyst of development.

    It is worthy of note that the governor himself is a doctorate degree holder, his deputy a professor, the House of Assembly speaker a medical doctor, the governor’s wife holder of two Master’s degrees and a cabinet that is made up of achieves in various fields.

    I hereby urge other governors in the country to copy the IGSS initiative in their respective states to prepare the young ones for the future and this will help address the critical problem of leadership that is currently plaguing our country.

    One of the major problems of the contemporary youths is dearth of role models among the present generation of leaders and one if the best ways to mentor the young ones is through quality investment in education as being done by Governor Fayemi in Ekiti.

     

    • Odunayo Ogunmola

    Ado-Ekiti

  • Kudos to the President on Abuja/Kaduna fast rail

    SIR: There are three phenomenal factors that are indispensable for quick recovery of   the country’s ailing economy. And if the president sticks to his decision to take them on board, as he is just doing now, Nigeria would,  in no distant future regain its lost glory. These factors are: steady fuel supply, constant power supply and rail transportation. As soon as this goal is achieved, other trailing sectors of the economy would stabilize.

    Constant fuel supply and at a moderate price would contribute in no small measure in harmonizing the cost and standard of living in the country as fuel is one of the indices that determines the price of goods and services. So if the price of these items becomes cheap, stable and affordable as a result of constant fuel supply, people’s confidence would be restored and life would become easy going.

    The need to have steady power supply in the country cannot be over emphasized as this is in fact the pillar of any country’s development.  Without steady light industries cannot work at full capacity, artisans and numerous other users of power would be stranded and consequent upon that they cannot break even

    Finally, when the rail transport becomes functional, apart from making it possible for prices of foodstuff and other goods to reduce, people will be able to travel to distant places without incurring much cost and our roads would be sustained as heavy commodities like steel, cement and other goods whose weight impact negatively our roads can be easily transported to their various destinations by rail.

    From the look of things, Jonathan’s administration is leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of these virtues. Last December the Lagos/Kano rail line was commissioned, six months later another track, Abuja/Kaduna fast train track has been flagged off by Vice President Architect Namadi Sambo. This scenario underscores the importance this administration attaches to the welfare of her citizenry.

    Possibly, the Port Harcourt/Maiduguri rail line would take the next turn and that could be made functional by the end of this year. I therefore urge Mr.  President not to rest on his oars but continue with that tempo so as to attain the 20:2020 target.

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt