The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Why standard of education keeps falling

    SIR: The standard of education started taking a different shape when labour unions began to embark on a litany of strike which lasted for several months without the union reaching a consensus with the federal government. Students were left to their fate as they could not return to their studies. Consequent upon that, parents, especially those that could afford the bill resorted to sending their children abroad to complete their education,

    This development helped to kill the interest of teachers, especially those in the primary and secondary schools who saw teaching as non rewarding profession. The scenario saw a mass exodus of male teachers who joined other businesses with a view to providing for their families. Little wonder in our public schools today, female teachers far outnumber the male.

    The military dispensation with its attendant strikes has come and gone but the citizens of this country are yet to be convinced that democratic dispensation places more value to education than the military as our schools and tertiary institutions are nothing to write home about in comparison with their overseas counterparts in terms of infrastructure and academics. Most of our public schools are in a very bad shape. They are not conducive for learning as the classrooms are without doors and windows and enough seats for the pupils and students. Office of the head teachers and principals are like animal pens. More worrisome is that the classrooms have become havens for hoodlums where they settle themselves with wraps of cannabis and other drugs.

    Teaching is not the only factor that impacts positively on students. The environment and other factors like well equipped library and laboratory etc matter a lot. But unfortunately these facilities are lacking in our schools and the hope that they will be made available before 2015 is very slim as the country is now battling with the challenges of insecurity and the tussle for leadership in 2015.

    The utopian year when education is expected to regain its lost glory is fast approaching but so far the score board is blank. It would be foolhardy for the present government to over flood its program with politics instead of embarking on meaningful projects like revamping the education industry that would determine our stand with other climes in future. A nation without education is a dead one. Government should therefore focus on this very important issue instead of having many irons in the fire.

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt

  • Tribute to Alhaja Abibat Mogaji

    SIR: Death has once claimed a woman of substance; a true Awoist, a formidable business woman (Iya’Loja). Alhaja was politically literate and highly enlightened. I remember her glorious past as leader of leaders of Iya’Loja that supported my ambition to contest the Federal House of Representatives seat vacated by late Hon. Ajimotokan who was made commissioner by Alhaji Lateef Jakande in 1979.

    That I won the primary and general election on the platform of UPN to represent the then Ikeja Federal House of Representatives seat in the Second Republic was largely due to the support of Alhaja Abibat Mogaji-led women support.  History will remember her as one of those who ensured women are not relegated to the background but given equal opportunity and she helped to produce women trailblazers in elective positions in Nigeria. Alhaja Mogaji lived a fulfilled life and deserves to be well celebrated in death. She left good legacies and stood as a role model and mentor for young women.

    After the second Republic, our political path did not cross but I always remember her with fond memories. Alhaja successfully added value to Lagos State political legacy and by inference the nation. She never contested any election but no one wins an election without her support especially in her area. She was a political ‘Guru’; and an ‘Amazon’ well loved by her people.  Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu gained prominence and acceptability under her as his mother.

    Rest in perfect peace with Allah that you served well on earth. I commiserate with the children and the immediate family members. May the good Lord console them. Adieu my dear political Mama; your good deed of the past can never be forgotten. God will give you your due eternal rest.

    Hon. Josephine Olatomi Soboyejo,

    Fmr. member, Federal House of Representatives;

    &Fmr. Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development, Ogun State

     

  • Point missed by Oshiomhole on NGF election

    SIR: Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, will be remembered as one of the best Presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress. Oshiomhole explained, recently, how 35 governors were present for the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum (NGF) election. “They counted 35 papers; we voted one by one in the open ballot, and counted the votes one by one; Jang got 16 votes and Amaechi 19. However, immediately, the very people that voted said no, no, no, we are going to walk out.”

    Understandably, “the very people that voted” refers to Jang and his co-losers, including Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party.

    Did Oshiomhole lie? No, he simply confirmed what every conscious and conscientious person already knew. From the end of the election until now, only 16 governors recognise Jang as their chairman, while all the others remain with Amaechi. Oshiomhole rightly chided the NLC for appealing to the two parties to behave, instead of telling the losers point blank to repent. But, why did Oshiomhole himself not identify President Goodluck Jonathan as the one beating the drum for the reed dancing on the ocean, while (rightly) expecting the NLC to call the spade a spade?

    Most Nigerians saw nothing wrong with rotational presidency among the six geopolitical zones, as good for order, equity and stability, until President Jonathan’s inordinate ambition in 2011.

    Yes, my hope is the All Progressive Congress (APC), and I pray all reasonable and well-meaning Nigerians will unite to reposition Nigeria along the path of order, peace, and stability.

    Those who brought the rotational idea meant well. Every zone certainly has presidential materials, and rotation connotes equity and inclusion. It will end arbitrariness in our highly heterogeneous society. Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Audu Ogbe, Oshiomhole, and all of us must reinstate it.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

     

  • A factory is a factory

    Late last week, the State director of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) in one of the Southeast States made yet another discovery of a baby factory. He arrested a medical doctor who was running a foundation that keeps girls and even women who apparently make babies for a living. The doctor was of course arrested and according to the DSS, he will face prosecution.

    Hardball, using his special device, listened in to the proceedings of the interrogation of the doctor: Why have you, a trained medical doctor, decided to delve into this heinous and immoral act? The doctor delved into a long, winding explanation to the effect that: See officer, this is between us and I am talking to you as a friend and brother. I will give you the low down because I have not committed any offence against the law. I am only helping these people and helping myself too.

    He continues, I have left medical school for nearly two decades now and I could not make any head way. Even when I set up my own hospital, nothing tangible was coming in because of our crushing operating environment, even the little you make goes to overhead like diesel and generator repairs. Then the local herbs vendors took over as more people patronize them and fewer still came to the hospital. You remember we used to make up with what is popularly called D&C or abortion, but that one too was not forthcoming. We later found out that some smart people now warehouse pregnant young girls, nurse them to delivery and buy the baby off them. They found that babies are in high demand all over the world. In fact new born babies are the hottest merchandise you can ever have today.

    Between us, this business is far bigger than you know and new methods are devised daily. It is like drug peddling, the money in it is too tempting so it is not going to stop soon. But one point you must realise is that some of these pregnancies could have been flushed out with the attendant complications and even deaths because young girls who get mistakenly pregnant in our society are treated like taboo, nobody cares for them; not even the government that is shouting about baby factory.

    But the reality today my brother is that a factory is a factory o. Things are so difficult in Nigeria today, especially in the hinterland that any factory at all will help. You must have noticed that there were even women, 35 to 39 years old women in my foundation (please don’t call it factory again) when your men came. Some of them are widows. Do you think I forced them to come; they need the money. Some of them have not touched N50,000 in their entire lifes. In fact some of them will not be able to count N100,000 if you hand it to them, they can even go crazy if they see such money.

    So when you people shout baby factory, baby factory, we just laugh at you because you do not know the good we are doing the society. We are saving new born babies, we are giving succor to traumatised young girls, we are providing ‘employment’ for virile young men who could have turned to kidnapping or robbery. By the way, when was the last time any government opened a factory in the Southeast? All these teeming youths how are you going to engage them? When was the last time you saw any economic activity in any local government around here?

    You see officer, this so-called baby factory is just the symptom of a dying society. Even if you manage to close down all the baby factories around here (which is impossible) other kinds of factories will spring up. As they say, nature abhors vacuum. When a few people cart away funds meant for the generality, the generality will have to make a way for themselves…He went on and on.

    Officer was short for words just as Hardball, the eavesdropper, was dumbfounded.

     

  • Leave the Interior Minister alone

    SIR: In the recent past, I have read series of write-ups – the good, the bad and the ugly about the Minister of Interior, Patrick Abba Moro, and I wish to crave the indulgence of all to leave this man alone to focus on his job in our national interest.

    Much as this piece is not intended to hold brief for the Hon. Minister in any way over his actions and/or inactions, I think it is of utmost importance that we take into consideration the enormous task of maintaining the internal security of the country before him, particularly now that we are beset with so many security issues like never before in our history as a country.

    Gradually, Nigeria is scaling negative heights in terrorism against efforts by the Federal Government to tame this man-made monster. Apparently defying solution, President Goodluck Jonathan was recently compelled to declare a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Also towards this end, a new Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service has just been sworn in.

    What could be more germane to a nation than an issue that threatens the safety of the citizenry and ultimately her national unity? As it stands today, youth corpers, other natives and even natives dread parts of Northern Nigeria. Imagine Jos that was hitherto the number one choice city of so many Nigerians and foreigners alike, has become ‘a no go area’.

    While Boko Haram constantly showcases man’s inhumanity to fellow man in the North, kidnapping is becoming a big business for hoodlums in the East and spreading like wildfire across the nation. The costs of these security challenges bedeviling the country are manifold: difficulty in attracting foreign investors, unwarranted security budgets, distraction from President Jonathan’s transformation agenda and many more.

    It stands to reason that it is difficult if not impossible to find a lasting solution to these challenges without the active involvement of the minister charged with the responsibility of maintaining the internal security of the nation. It is on record for instance, that the minister has made remarkable progress in the various agencies under his ministry deserving national commendation. These achievements include but are not limited to the following: deportation of over 19,000 illegal immigrants, efforts towards the deployment of modern electronic surveillance equipment to help man our porous borders, provision of facilities for e-passport in Lagos and in our missions abroad, training of over 1,000 officers and men drawn from public and private organizations across the country to combat fire and his initiative to construct 227 fire service stations across the country.

    Others include significant reduction in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country, his initiative to implement the expatriate quota (part of the labour law of 1963) aimed at creating more jobs for Nigerians and the prison reform which led to the construction of modern block of buildings for prisoners in so many states of the federation. Interestingly, it also charts a course for inmates. Whoever thought in this country that serving prisoners could go to University, write WAEC, farm and accumulate salaries to be paid after serving their terms?

    It is in the light of the aforementioned responsibilities placed on the minister, the glaring achievements so far recorded and in recognition of the fact that safety comes first, that I am imploring all patrotic Nigerians to leave Comrade Abba Moro alone to focus on his job as he has capacity to do more.

    Godwin Otache Abah

    Lagos

     

  • Plight of drivers plying Onitsha-P/Harcourt road

    SIR: Who does not know that good roads play a vital role in the transportation system of a country? Efficient modes of transportation are incentive to the economic growth of a country as cash crops and goods are transported from remote areas to markets in urban towns.

    Road transportation is the commonest type of transportation in Nigeria, although most of our roads are death- traps that are filled with pot-holes and craters, which cause road mishaps. Not a few drivers have lost their lives while conveying goods and passengers from one major city to another.

    Lorry drivers in Nigeria encounter problems while engaging in their business. In the past, policemen would mount roadblocks on major highways to extort money from commercial lorry and bus drivers. Thankfully, the Inspector General of Police, M.D. Abubakar ordered the dismantling and removal of roadblocks on major highways and thoroughfares in our major cities. This measure has led to the easing up of traffic on our roads.

    Just when the drivers thought that their problems were over, another problem has cropped up. Now, jobless and violent touts have constituted menace and threat to the safety of lives of lorry drivers. These criminals who masquerade as agents of the government have been causing sleepless nights for motorists plying major roads, especially the Onitsha- Port-Harcourt route. They claim that they were hired by the state governments of Anambra, Imo and Rivers to collect dues and levies from lorry drivers. These lorry drivers are groaning under the exploitation of the so-called road workers. The monies or profits they realise from hauling goods from Onitsha to Port Harcourt are used to appease those men who harass them daily on the roads. From bridge-head, Onitsha to Port-court, these lorry drivers are coerced to pay illegal money to people who claim that that they are agents of government. They print many different tickets, which thy issue to motorists.

    Sadly, the crime happens in the full glare of policemen and soldiers. So, it is an indisputable fact that those touts work in connivance with policemen to brow-beat lorry drivers into parting with their money.

    As we are in a democratic era, no Nigerian should be exploited and denied his human rights. These lorry drivers have been suffering indignities and abuse of their rights for a long time. However, being law –abiding citizens who do not want to create anarchy, they have not resorted to violence to redress the ugly situation.

    So they are beseeching the government to investigate the activities of those hoodlums who perpetrate crime under the guise of collecting levy for the government. A stitch in time saves nine. • Chiedu Uche Okoye

    Obosi Anambra State.

     

  • My take on police extra-judicial killings

    It was a rude shock after turning to CNN recently to see that Nigerians are on the street protesting thus shutting down once again the nation’s economy.

    All the airports, seaports, road transports, banks, schools, markets, shops, offices have all been closed down in protest of the rise in killing of Nigerians by people that are supposed to be protecting them. The demand of the protesters is just one thing, reforms in Police sector.

     

    In response to Christiana Amanpour reporting live from Lagos, Nigeria, “The NLC chairman has declared that they are not going back to work until all the police officers that perpetrated this criminal act are brought to justice.”

    “Festus Keyamo, Pastor Tunde Bakare of Save Nigerian Group (SNG), leaders of all civil society groups and members of opposition in Nigeria, had vowed that occupy Nigeria will not stop until the police men face trial and significant reforms are carried out in the Nigeria Police….”

    Despite the fact that more than 15 Nigerian students have lost their lives to Nigeria police bullets this year alone, the so called activists, opposition groups and trade unionists are only interested in issues that deal with politics, corruption of a lawmaker, useless Governors Forum Elections among others that can only serve their interest.

    After the death of four Nassarawa state University students during a protest 3 months ago against lack of water in their hostels, no reasonable action was taken to put a stop to this madness, even no comments from the fire brand activists and oppositions warming up for Aso Rock in 2015.

    Just last week, four University of UYO, students were killed by police officers in another protest against a hike in transportation fees by the school authorities. Yet the so called hope of Nigeria sees this event as non-relevant, they preferred to be paper tigers.

    Same story goes for Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, student victims of police arbitrary and illegal act of impunity in Ogun State and the recent University of Benin final year student that was killed.

    The only reaction to this madness came from the Education Right Campaign (ERC), issuing statements to condemn the killing and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who actually protested the killing of Nigerians with little or no support, even though NANS as an organization is battling with credibility problem

     

     

    Imagine that ASUU, NASU, NLC, NBA, NMA, TUC, SNG, NURTW, PENGANSAN, CIVIL SOCIETIES, Opposition Parties, Nollywood stars and a host of others joined hands with NANS in the campaign against police brutality and extra-judicial killings, my dream news on CNN might come true.

    Also, the dead five students’ leaders which include the Senate President of NANS might be alive today. There would have been no reason for them to respond to the urgent call from UYO after the killing of 4 students by Nigerian police force; they would not have died in that accident on their way to UYO.

    Police brutality is not only against student,  it also affect the whole populace as No section of the society can claimed that they have not lost members to the brutal killings of the Nigeria Police Force(NPF) and yet, it was greeted with silence and energy was directed toward frivolous issues

    I think it is high time NANS realized that, they have no allies in the struggle with all these so called mushroom civil societies and opposition groups. How many times have students joined ASUU, NLC, Anti-corruption crusaders, to stage protest marches?  It is uncountable and students have even lost comrades in the process or spent times in prisons. But when it came to issues that pertain to students, all these fire brand activists and groups that mobilized students for their own cause always abandon them and left them to dance to the music of sorrow alone.

    Talking to many of these people both in Nigeria and in Diaspora always makes me sick. They address you with little respect because you carry the tag of student as if students are different from human beings; the students killing cannot be treated in isolation and the NLC, TUC and others should stop acting as if being a student is a crime. I know some people will argue that, the culture of killing innocent students is not just something that started today, but my concern is why Nigerians don’t make use of this type of event to demand for reforms in relevant public institutions so that people that died will not die for nothing.

    Turkey has been witnessing a massive uprising that started from a peaceful protest on relocation of a garden. But they quickly make use of the event to demand for reforms in many sectors when the police responded with force which in turn has threatened the Prime Minister’s job. We don’t need to wait for fuel subsidy to be removed or till free and fair elections are nullified before we realize that killing of students that are the hope of the country is the beginning of the end of Nigeria.

    The increasing rise of the spate of police brutality in Nigeria, not only poses dire consequences for the stability of the Nigerian polity, but also undermines the policing and judicial processes. The situation appears to have significantly deteriorated today.

    A detailed new report catalogued by many international organizations, demonstrates that the assault, brutality and extra-judicial killings are still going on under the watch of the Nigerian police. Widespread corruption in the Nigeria Police is fuelling abuses against ordinary citizens and severely undermining the rule of law in Nigeria.

     

    On a daily basis, countless ordinary Nigerians are accosted by armed police officers who demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting money. These abuses range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including sexual assault, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Police also routinely extort money from victims of crimes to initiate investigations and demand bribes from suspects to drop investigations.

    I am so sad to even go to the in-depth analysis of the decadence in the Nigerian Police Force because it will become boring, a street vendor can give adequate summary on the characteristics of Nigerian police and the danger it poses.

    According to Robert F Kenndy “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring whose ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”.

    I hope the Nigerian opposition groups; human right activists, labour unions and civil societies will come back to their senses of reasoning and understand that in any society, the hope of the people hinges on their ability to act according to the interest of the masses and not their own selfish interest.

    Rest in peace the NAN’s five. I just hope you don’t die for nothing.

    Egbeleke, is a masters student in development studies at the Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University the Hague, Netherlands

     

     

  • The N40b doppelganger, by Danny D. Dainty

    Dear readers, Hardball has the rare privilege of bringing you a sneak preview of a blockbuster, unputdownable book by one of the richest and most illustrious Nigerian carpet-bagger, ex-convict and manipulator, let’s call him Danny D. Dainty. Now, mind you this book (also to be made into a film) has not been written but Hardball through the instrumentality of a special device (patently his), read the book right there on Danny’s mind and here reviews it just for your pleasure dear reader. The first point to note is that Danny had trouble choosing a suitable title for his book. When he landed his megabucks (N40biggies) and he contemplated writing a book, the first title that came to his mind was: Capitalist Art: How to Mint Money From the Comfort of your Paris bedroom, surrounded by all the good things Paris can offer.

    Danny boy loved the title but even his illiterate mind (literarily, that is) was able to figure out that that is damn too long if not tautological. No book ever had such a long title he told himself. He thought to himself, how about: How to Kill a Country and Squeeze the Balls of Smart Oil Multinationals. No, still long, he deleted it. How about, The Poor Boy Who Took the World by Storm or… He eventually settled for the above title (adopted as the title of this piece) which he believes has all the right elements – short, concise, adequately highfaluting and carries the cash tag.

    The moving but doctored-to-suit- tale is a personal account of how Danny who was oil minister in a bumbling country ruled by a dumb dictator 15 years ago proved that you can make not one or two but 40 billion cash without as much as registering a proper company. It is a story of an extremely clever fellow who used the white people to determine the juiciest oil block of the time; it is the story of a master manipulator who corralled the small dictator and all involved in a 9 billion barrels crude oil worth of oil block and converted it to his own using a bogus company. The book regales readers with how he put some of the largest foreign oil firms through the hoops, baiting them into cleaning up the block at huge expense while he waited for them at the corner to clobber them with the malleable law courts of his country.

    At the end stage of the epic drama when he had to go for the kill, he co-opted his country’s top-notchers including the chief law officer who was his legal leg man in his earlier days. The soup made in a cauldron was ready indeed and Danny had a fill. A whopping $1.3 billion was extracted from desperate oil companies that wanted Danny’s phantom company which hijacked one of the richest oil blocks in the world for itself. It was a form of obtaining by false pretense (419) except that in this case, a valuable commodity changed hands but at a black market rate. The book ends with how the billion dollars was disbursed, who got what and how. Especially, how the monies made winding trips all over the world before returning to their owners in Danny’s jungle of a country. Danny tells us how he got $250 million which translates to an obscene 40 billion in his native currency. It is indeed a doppelganger, whatever that means.

    Danny lives in France now (or on top of the world if you like) where he was convicted four years ago for laundering huge sums, corrupt proceeds from a political office. He lives large and boisterous, full of bonhomie. He ends the book mocking the very country of his which he raped and suggests that the government officials he had suborned are a greedy, stupid lot.

  • FERMA and Osun’s federal roads

    SIR: On Thursday June 20, the House of Representatives committee on works visited Governor Rauf Aregbesola in his office in Osogbo. The week before, the governor turned the sod on the dualisation of Gbongan-Akoda road and the planned interchange at Gbongan.

    However, to my chagrin, I saw FERMA signboards on various spots on the road and the evidence of the patch-patch job the Federal Ministry of Works pretends to be doing on this road.

    This to me does not make sense. Osun State got the licence to rehabilitate the road under former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola who could only complete the project halfway from Osogbo to Akoda, leaving the other half a death-trap. Concerned with the condition of this important road, Governor Aregbesola decided to fix it from the meagre resources of the state. What is expected of any decent government is to commend Aregbesola and support him in every way possible.

    This road has failed and it is evident patchwork can no longer work. Even with the patching, a ride on this road is always dangerous and bumpy, the greatest danger being the narrowness of the road and its inability to cope with the volume of traffic on it.

    Everyday, vehicles from opposing sides run into each other while trying to avoid the bad portions leading to avoidable accidents occasioning deaths and injuries.

    It is therefore shocking to see FERMA still pretending to be patching this road. FERMA is hereby advised not to waste scarce funds patching a road that is being scraped in preparation for a brand new dual carriage way. It is foolish, unreasonable and insensitive.

    There are sleuths of federal roads scattered in Osun State that have become impassable. A good example is the Osogbo-Ilobu-Ogbomoso Road where at least a quarter of Osogbo residents are quartered. There are federal roads in Ilesa, Ife, Iwo, Ede, Ejigbo and so on begging for attention. Please, FERMA, go to these bad roads and not on a road being reconstructed by Governor Aregbesola on behalf of the good people of the state.

    There is no room for bad politics here.

    • Mike Opatola,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Governors, private jets and states’ treasuries

    SIR: In Nigeria, the culture of impunity continues to assume frightening dimensions. We have enshrined mediocrity and selfishness as a nation. Those privileged to occupy one position of trust or the other have seized such opportunities to glorify absurdities. Some practices hitherto considered as alien to our system of governance and even to our lifestyles have become the fads nowadays. These practices have crept into our system of governance eroding values.

    Particularly, state governors have since constituted themselves as purveyors of financial recklessness and perhaps scandals. I have always argued that state governors remain one of the biggest challenges to development.

    Their Excellencies have unarguably become clogs in the wheel of progress. They have become so powerful and utterly influential that they decide whatever goes on in their domain. Governors control so much money that some of them now buy jets as toys. Clearly most of the governors are competing when it comes to the class of jets.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in October 7, 2012 acquired a Bombardier Global 5000 jet for the state government. The jet was said to have been bought at the sum of $45.7 million (N7.4 billion). In 2012, the state’s Embracer Legacy 600 jet was traded off to the Cross River state government. Recall that in 2005, former governor of the state, Sir Peter Odili bought two aircrafts, one an air ambulance and the other a private jet. The aircrafts were procured in the name of Rivers State government.

    In June 2011, the Akwa Ibom State government bought a $45 million jet. The state-of- the- art aircraft was manufactured in 2011.

    Former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori was also enmeshed in a private jet case. Elsewhere in Bauchi State, former Governor Alhaji Ahmed Muazu acquired aircraft for N3 billion. Taraba State governor Danbaba Suntai also crashed the state-owned Cessna 28 aircraft into a farm near the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot in Yola, the Adamawa State capital recently.

    Besides the purchase of these aircrafts, most state governments have embarked on the construction of airports and airstrips. Even some states that are battling with road challenges have gone on to construct private airstrips.

    What is the justification for such humongous expenditures on jets when the people battle with penury and poverty? In states where majority of the people are feeding from hand to mouth and where living daily has been an uphill task, wasting millions of dollars in private aircrafts is rather unwise, selfish and uncalled for.

    This kind of scenario tells what happens with our treasuries. How people who have access to our funds appropriate monies. It is clear that our treasuries are ‘loose’. The age-long question about the relevance and otherwise efficiency of the states’ Houses of Assembly comes into play here. What was the input of the states’ Houses of Assembly when these jets were purchased?

    This gross misplacement of priorities show how our governors spend monies perhaps to suit their jamborees, merry go round, et al. The purchase of jets by states at this time is unfathomable. We must curb the impunity before it becomes a natural order.

     

    • Stanley Ibeku,

    Africa Regional Centre for information Science,

    University of Ibadan.