The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • From the cell phone

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Yes, Ayekede should be allowed to go home. If not in the spirit of Easter, then in the spirit of moral justice or, at least because of his ingenuity. What of those using sea vessels to steal our oil or those raking in millions from oil subsidy? From Samuel Ekohimi (Lampese, Edo State)

    In a decent society where mothers teach there children the words of God and how to behave and relate well with people, moral revolution cannot be reversed. Today we in a society, where moral values have been abandoned, we don’t respect our culture any longer, we are no longer emulating our fore fathers, corruption has eaten up in to our system. Decency is no longer in our society. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Dockyard Apapa Lagos.

    Re-Reverse moral revolution: At first, one would want to disagree with the title of your write-up as encouraging moral decadence but having gone through the write-up, you were really saddened by what moral decadence had turned the society to. Teachers in Nigeria could not be apportioned any blame for children, pupils and students’ reverse moral revolution since our society copied the Western world by abolishing CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. That really built most of us, up both at Primary and Secondary schools. At the tertiary institutions, we were not taught how to be well-behaved. Lanre Oseni.

    Re: The world has become a global village with the internet as the village square. The media has a strong influence on the information age generation perception of morally right traditions and what is not nowadays. It takes a highly discerning mind for a youth of this information era to be able to know the difference between what may be wrong though a lot of people are doing it and what is morally right and be able to stand out of the crowd. Purposeful mentorship, laden with examples and not precept is the key. From Olumide Soyemi Bariga.

     

    For Olatunji Dare

    When you point an accusing finger at somebody, the rest for is pointing at you. Dismissing Awolowo as mediocre or the nobel as inconsequential says how small Achebe mind is. Anonymous.

    The literary vacuum Achebe left behind will be very difficult to fill. His Things Fall Apart inspired the whole world. May his gentle soul rest in peace. Good night. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Docyard Apapa Lagos.

    I presumed that when The Arrow of God (death) came calling, Chinua was No Longer At Ease. For him, Things have Fallen Apart and The Anthills of the Savannah stood up in awe for A man of the People. Indeed, The Trouble with Nigeria is that; There Was A Country and, There Was an Achebe. From Temitope Vincent, Akure

    Re-Achebe: A literary titan and his times. Late Chinua Achebe, the great. He popularised Igbo culture. He popularised Nigerian culture. He did those through his great prolific prose-writing. Late Achebe did his best but his best was inadequate to earn him Nobel Laurete. That was a matter best known to the Stockholm panelists. No doubt, almost all, benefited from THINGS Fall Apart and Arrow of God. May late Achebe’s soul rest in peace, ameen. I foresee a day, late Achebe would be posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize causing literary war songs between Soyinka’s fans and late Achebe’s admirers. From Lanre Oseni.

    Thanks for your piece on Achebe. The problem with Achebe was that he never believed there was a good person outside the Igbo. This tribalist tint tainted his literary status and reduced him to an Ibo town crier before his demise. From Kura Marcus, Kaduna.

    Your essay on Achebe in the nation of Tuesday, April 2,2013 was very remarkable and cultured but devoid of prose with which your essays normally portrays. Infact you wrote like Soyinka. From Engr Charles, Calabar

    “And what a teacher he was!” Achebe was a teacher of tribalism,bigotry and ethnic chauvinism who died a frustrated man because his tribe could not dominate other tribes in Nigeria. From Banji Fabiyi Akure.

    That Achebe wrote Awo was a tribal leader meant he was so in the real?Is it so all becus Achebe said it ? Opinions are opinions. From Nse Williams

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    April fool has long disappeared in Nigeria. It has become April bomb and gun shooting across the land. In those days, we did watched American film trick on television performing April fool, but in Nigeria ours is April shoot. We cannot longer go to the motor park for travelling, the fear of bomb has become the beginning of wisdom in travelling by plane, even walking with bear footed is no longer safe in Nigeria of today. April fool has become fools to Nigerians because is not longer at ease. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Dockyard Lagos

    Hmmm okay ooo! A call for change in orientation…somebody and nobody syndrome(swagz and learner tinz). Anonymous

    Indeed there is no April fool again. We Nigerians have seen and heard of terrible events and incidents. What more can we expect. Anonymous

    I like reading your write-ups. The story of have notes is not limited to Nigeria. Its really sad to see how men dressed in a little garb of authority make angels weep. Its worse in countries like India and other SE Asian countries! !!! Anonymous

    Gbenga, your editorial on April fool amid Easter blues is a true reflection of our society today.How about the police pension thief that got a slap on his back as his sentence by an Abuja judge for stealing N32bn. Lord have mercy. From Chief Benson Nwobum, Kaduna

    RE-APRIL FOOL AMID EASTER BLUES. April fools had been part of merrymaking of enjoying Easter festivities. However, that colouration was terminated in Nigeria consequent upon Boko-Haramic continued destructions. May President Jonathan get assistance from God to move swiftly to conquer unrest in the Nation and power electricity to the country, uninterrupted, ameen. Give him the help to conquer oil-thieves of 32.400 litres of petrol, drown kidnappers and stabilize justice. He should rise against Indiscipline and deal with corruption as well as thuggery of those who kill and destroy at will! From Lanre Oseni.

    Thanks for this wonderful write up. Nigeria is a very funny country where every day is turn to a mind boggling April fool. The real April fool has since been buried. Watch out, because that April fool may cost your life. From Wisdom I. From Doka, Kaduna

     

  • Murdered policemen: Jonathan’s Borno words return to haunt him

    Murdered policemen: Jonathan’s Borno words return to haunt him

    On Saturday, a boatload of policemen ran into an ambush along the creeks of Azuzama in Southern Ijaw local government area, Bayelsa State, leading to the death of 12 security agents. They had been deployed in the area for security purpose during the burial ceremony of the mother of an ex-militant, Kile Selky Torughedi, a.k.a. Young Shall Grow. The killings coincided with the warning issued by members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to resume attacks in the region following the conviction and jailing of their former leader, Henry Okah. In the warning, MEND had said: “…A series of attacks, codenamed Hurricane Exodus, will begin at midnight on Friday. (The attacks) will be a direct repercussion of a forged threat letter contrived by the Nigerian and South African governments purporting to have originated from MEND… We are now determined to conjure this imaginary trumped-up threat into a painful reality. The attacks will be sustained until an unreserved apology is offered to MEND and the Nigerian government shows its willingness to dialogue, the same way they are willing to dialogue with Boko Haram.”

    But in contemptuously dismissing the MEND threat, the Nigerian military had immediately offered this explanation: “The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has an outfit on the ground in the Niger Delta. Our structures are on ground in the area. They (MEND) should not reverse the hand of peace; nobody should threaten the peace in the area. The JTF is on the ground and is prepared to do their duties in defence of every interest of the nation. Anybody trying to threaten the peace in the area is advised against it.” The police also weighed in with a terse statement. “The police will not respond to threats by criminal elements,” they said curtly, “but suffice it to say we are ready to curb any acts of lawlessness or criminality in the country.” However, notwithstanding the assurances of the police and the military, some 12 policemen were murdered barely moments after the security chiefs finished responding to the MEND threats.

    It is not the seeming impotence of the government’s assurance that has unsettled the public; the problem is that the responses by the two security agencies are agitating the people. For the military, it appears, it is still a matter of muscle flexing. “The five sectors of the JTF covering the nine states of the Niger Delta region are on the alert,” its spokesman boasted. “Our maritime and air assets have also been mobilised and we have intensified our patrols to dominate both land and waterways to checkmate any assailant. We will not permit any lawlessness that will jeopardise the peace in the region.” Not to be outdone, the police, through the state police commissioner, Kingsley Omire, suggested that the killing of his men had nothing to do with MEND’s threat of last week. It was probably a misunderstanding over money matters within the former militant group led by Torughedi, who now works for the Bayelsa State government, and the ‘General’ Adaka Boro Jnr group, the police boss argued. But whatever the cause, the fact is that the killings have been carried out, and the noses of security agents have been rubbed in the dirt.

    President Goodluck Jonathan will now have to revisit the threat he also unwisely issued in March when he visited Borno and Yobe States. He had angrily told his audience that he had issued directives to his security agents of his unwillingness to hear that a security agent had been murdered by anyone, let alone militants of any colour. The presidential threat was widely interpreted to mean that security agents could use maximum and indiscriminate force to pacify restive regions, just like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did to Odi town in the president’s home state of Bayelsa when some seven policemen were murdered by militants. It remains to be seen what Jonathan will do to his home state now that 12 policemen have been murdered by militants, a classic case of the president’s words returning to haunt him.

     

  • Why Abuja land swap option is desirable

    Why Abuja land swap option is desirable

    SIR: Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed has evolved diverse policies and institutionalized several programmes tailored towards making the nation’s capital city of Abuja one of the best capital cities in the world. In spite of several challenges confronting the administration, especially population explosion, financial constraints and activities of land speculators, he has refused to budge and continued to forge ahead with single-mindedness of purpose and iron-clad determination to succeed where others had failed.

    One of the strategies and programmes for moving FCT forward evolved by the minister is the land swap policy. The policy involves the granting of land to competent real estate developers who will in turn provide infrastructure, such as good roads, electricity, portable water, storm water drainage, sewer lines and communication ducts to the residents, without any financial or technical demand to the government.

    The approach is not new. It is a land-based financing of infrastructure, which the World Bank has endorsed as suitable for any country that is experiencing budget crisis. Many developed and developing countries like France, Japan, the United States, China, Denmark, Egypt and India found it necessary to adopt land-based financing techniques during periods of rapid urban growth like we are experiencing now in Abuja. The underlying basic philosophy is infrastructure development to keep pace with urban growth.

    It is trite to say that a capital city devoid of infrastructural facilities is like a car without an engine. The proposed land swap option holds lots of benefits not only for Abuja, but also for the indigenes, Nigerians in general and even the investors. It will integrate real property development with infrastructure provision; aspire to keep pace with existing urban growth and to break the present traffic gridlock by opening up more districts within the FCT and also hope to correct the distortions occasioned by mass housing development in Phase III. Much more importantly, it intends to deploy global best practice in resettlement issues to such an extent that the economic aspects, social cohesion and cultural leanings of Project Affected Persons (PAP) are preserved and enhanced.

    All things being equal, the land swap initiative if implemented to the letter can rescue FCT from its current risk of being overwhelmed by a continuously burgeoning population arising from a maddening rush from ubiquitous troubled spots in the country. This is certainly one masterstroke that is sure to meet the expectations of the Federal Government to deliver standard housing to the people of Nigeria at a very reasonable rate.

    • Rogers Edor Ochela

    Abuja

  • Jonathan and Easter Sunday’s power outage

    Jonathan and Easter Sunday’s power outage

    SIR: It was fate that chose “Oga at the top” – President Goodluck Jonathan to experience the iniquitous show by the Power Holding Company on his Easter Sunday’s visit to Our Saviour’s Church, Lagos. A visit by the President to the commercial hub of the country to rejoice with fellow Christians on the death and resurrection of Christ is a pleasant thing. When leaders acknowledge the place of divinity in their personal lives as well as in good governance, such piety should be appreciated.

    However, when leadership failure and political incompetence force their way to disrupt the smooth observance of such religious rituals, it brings distaste to the matter. President Jonathan has been worshiping with the other faithful on this bright Easter Sunday and nothing bizarre seemed to be in the offing for him. Perhaps, if thought had been given to that, the Cathedral would have gone to rent a 10,000MW generator at N10 million daily usage charge to cover the shame PHCN eventually brought. But thank God they forgot. No sooner had the President started addressing the members of the church than the usual thing happened: PHCN interrupted the electricity supply, leaving the president holding a useless microphone and smiling to conceal his discomfiture.

    What the President experienced on that day, for those few minutes, is what common Nigerians experience for days, weeks and even months without respite. If a church service cannot continue without power supply, how much more the business of a welder, a tailor, a barber, a cold room operator and other small businesses and medium scale businesses?

    Good thing the President said by this time next year, there will no more have power outages; the bad thing is we no longer want to hear good things; we want to see them, experience them and enjoy them. Changing the Minister of Power is not the solution to the problem. Put a reasonable time frame to the start of effective power generation and distribution to the homes and offices in Nigeria and cease to give us the “next year” speeches. We want action!

    I hope that “by this time next year”, we will not be gathering at the Aso rock chapel, celebrating Easter with the President and have him tell us: “You can see we have uninterrupted power supply here”. He should randomly pick a Lagos church to attend again. Hopefully, things might have changed. President Jonathan, now that you have again tasted reality, make things better for the countless millions who thronged the polling booths 23 months ago to cast their votes for you.

    • Joshua Oyeniyi

    Lagos

  • Ekiti has seen enough

    Ekiti has seen enough

    SIR: The recent simulated political crises in Ekiti State is a reminder of the build-up to the 2007 gubernatorial election, before the ignominious impeachment of Ayo Fayose as governor and the April 25, 2009 re-run election between Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi.

    In 2006, the chances of Dr. Ayo Daramola, chairman of the state Poverty Reduction Agency to become governor of Ekiti State were bright. Having warmed himself into the hearts of many through the World Bank-assisted programme, he succeeded in building lasting blocs that could have come in handy during the governorship election. He was murdered in cold blood in his Ijan-Ekiti country home in the August of same year.

    Another governorship aspirant in the PDP who stood a good chance, having gained the loyalty of many party members, was arrested for this murder, which he knew nothing about.

    Before the 2009 re-run election, there was a rehash of this. The election was almost a done deal for Kayode Fayemi, but so were the several humongous harassments, amongst which one stood out, and that was the killing of one Ahmed Saddiq, an AC member, who was on his way to Ikole in the company of other AC members. Thugs who were said to have come from Senator Ayo Arise’s house allegedly swooped on the vehicle conveying the AC members, riddling the car with bullets. Sadiq died in the process while three others were injured. As it turned out, however, AC leaders ended up being arrested for this murder while not even a pin prickled Senator Arise or any PDP members.

    2014 is around the corner and the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has done enough to win re-election. His chances are bright and the killings seem to have started again, just like before 2007 and 2009.

    Recently at a PDP event in Erinjiyan, hometown of ACN State Chairman, Chief Jide Awe, a promising Ekiti indigene, Ayo Jeje, was killed. The event was supposed to have been the defection of some ACN members to the PDP got out of hand and the young man, who was in fact a brother to the ACN state chairman, was killed, allegedly by opposing PDP factions, but it was the ACN state chairman who got arrested even though he was not in the town when the unfortunate incident happened.

    Whatever the PDP may be planning for the 2014 election, they should leave the peace-loving people of Ekiti out of such plans. President Jonathan and security agencies should do their job by ensuring there is no more killing in our Land of Honour. Ekiti has seen enough!

     

    • Dimeji Daniels

    Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

     

  • Gambia’s Jammeh and HIV cure claims

    SIR: Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, continues to insist that he has a cure for HIV/AIDS. While people outside Gambia might think he is a lunatic and that his claims are bizzare and should be ignored, many sick people in Gambia take him seriously. They are trooping to the state house to receive ‘free treatment’with no proof of efficacy or effectiveness from his ‘Excellency’.

    Yahya Jammeh must be told to his face that the sham and shameful drama he’s staging, the dangerous precedent he is setting in Gambia, does not represent what Africa stands for. Africa is not a theatre of absurdity, insanity and inanity. It is not a continent where woo woo medicine is presented and brandished as “Africa”.

    Jammeh, who came to power in 1996 through a military coup, has repeatedly declared that he could cure HIV/AIDS(on Thursday) and Asthma (on Saturday)using natural herbs with some banana and peanuts and by reciting prayers and some verses from the Koran. He has refused to reveal the ingredients he used in preparing some of the concoction. Jammeh had no medical training. He claimed to have inherited the ‘healing power’ from his father.

    There is no evidence that Jammeh has inherited any form of healing power from anybody. He is a quack taking advantage of the situation of poverty, disease and poor medical care in his country. During his ‘healing session’, he carries a copy of the Koran and his muslim beads to attempt to give the process some legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the majority muslim population in the country.

    Jammeh’s cure claims have been dismissed by medical experts globally. And many people are particularly concerned that Jammeh’s reckless and irresponsible cure claims could undermine efforts to combat the AIDS pandemic in Gambia and in other parts of the region.

    Between 2007 and 2011, I visited Gambia several times. And during my visits I tried to find out about the efficacy Jammeh’s cure claims. I contacted some people living with HIV/AIDS to find out if there was any one who had been cured by‘His Execllency’. But there was no one. In fact there was not even a single person who said he knew someone who was cured by ‘Dr Jammeh’. Through a local NGO that worked with people living with HIV/AIDS, I met a woman. She was HIV positive and was on anti retroviral drugs. But she stopped taking her anti retroviral treatment in order to receive the presidential AIDS “treatment”.

    Some weeks later she went for a medical test and found out that her viral load had increased. She stopped going for Jammeh’s treatment and continued with her anti retroviral drugs. The father of another lady I spoke to wasn’t so lucky. The father was asthmatic and went to Jammeh for treatment but died some weeks later. And ‘President’ Jammeh sent the family some cash and food stuffs as condolence. It is difficult to know the number of people who must have died since Jammeh came out and started administering his unsubstantiated and quack cure claims.

    In Gambia there is lack of freedom of expression, most Gambians are afraid of saying anything critical of the president or whatever the president does. So those who are critical of Jammeh’s cure claims are reluctant to speak out. They fear they could be victimized. A UN official in Gambia was told to leave the country after she expressed doubts about Jammeh’s cure claims.

    Those of us who are concerned about the spread of HIV and AIDS and woo woo medicine in Africa should speak out against Jammeh’s cure claims and supposed treatment. Evidence, as always, is key and Jammeh has none.

    • Leo Igwe

    Bayreuth, Germany

  • Buhari’s 2011 tears

    SIR: Sometime in April 2011, at a world news conference called to round-off his electoral campaigns, the presidential candidate of the CPC, retired army general, Muhammadu Buhari choked with tears and publicly wept for Nigeria. Coming on the heat of electioneering activities, Buhari’s tears immediately became the subject of conflicting political interpretations; as supporters debated with detractors, and sympathizers with cynics. Pundits and spin doctors ranted the news houses with barrage of divergent insinuations and allusions carved out of it.

    While the naïve wondered, asking ‘why did Buhari cry before he was hurt?’ the farsighted counseled us to make much of one, as such tears are quite rare.

    On his part, the three times presidential aspirant did not feel mollified enough to defend his 2011 pre-election tears until a year later at a June 2012 media address. He had explained: “(I wept) having seen how rich this country is and how God really blessed Nigeria, the whole world is almost envious of Nigeria….”

    Did the farmer who cried in the face of a latent third year of failed harvest, do so out of fear of the impending emptiness of his granary; or the looming threat of starvation upon his community and the imminent famine in the land?

    Medically, a teardrop is seen as a sign of emotional overload, since by weeping the choking rage of passion is appeased or expelled. The human eyes shed tears to ease off the burden of the afflicted soul. Hence, General Buhari, known for his tough mind, was after all a human!

    Buhari shed tough tears in the face of that latent danger of missing it on the greater hope of uprooting corruption and suffering, by entrenching change and reforms. Alas, the series of mystifying events that haunted Buhari’s tears, from the post-elections violence, to the fuel subsidy strike of January 2012, the widespread flood disaster of the same year and the subversive kidnapping and insurgency that continued to date; were vindicating enough to the most carefree observer.

    However, quite unlike modern day critics and doomsday prophets who would rejoice when their predictions become vindicated, Buhari has affirmed that he is most dismayed by what is trailing his foreboding tears. Such is Buhari and what he stands for, which may be termed ‘Buharism’; an ideology that promotes low-key radicalism through honourable and principled defense of the masses, with an extremely disciplined and puritanical political stance.

    Buhari is not a bloodthirsty firebrand as he would never instigate any sort of Arab Spring or Russian Winter, when the masses have not been cured of their common reluctance to be armed with indomitable resolution of incorruptibility. The safest and quickest way to sustainable change is not found in a thoughtless resort to taking arms.

    Yes. Buhari wept! The great patriot wept because he foresaw defeat; but which? It was the defeat of the people’s power. He had seen that the masses could not stand and those standing could not count. In such a defeated circumstance, no language could be understood more than tears, and crying is the noblest language.

    In the end, only time will tell if Buhari’s great cry and burning tears were in vain. Although the truth is some tears are not shed more than once!

    • Mazhun Ya’u Idris

    Hanwa GRA, Zaria.

  • What’s the fuss about Nigeria Governors Forum?

    SIR: The Presidency seems to be losing its sleep over the affairs of the Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF). Not minding calls for its complete annihilation, meddling in the affairs of the forum is quite disheartening as it infringes on their constitutional right of association. What exactly is it with the NGF anyway, and why all these interests? After all they are just a couple of guys rubbing minds and comparing notes; so why the obsession with their affairs?

    Opponents of the NGF, those currently calling for the amendment of the forum’s constitution, are obviously crying more than the bereaved. As a think-tank, the NGF does not need outsiders to tell it what to do and how to go about conducting their business. The composition of this present forum is mind-boggling – SANs, doctors, technocrats and seasoned politicians – so they are intelligent and competent enough to make their own rules and how to live it; we doubt if babysitters are welcomed at the forum.

    Fitch, a global rating firm, has given Rivers State an AA+ in fiscal policy, and Transparency Nigeria voted Kano the best in budgetary implementation. Lagos, Edo and Rivers stand out in terms of infrastructure, Ekiti and Osun in education, Ondo, Imo and Akwa Ibom in social welfare. So, instead of crying wolf where there is none and creating an air of animosity, the Presidency should borrow a leaf and learn a thing or two about policy and governance from the governors.

    • Lloyd Robinson

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Bayelsa: From cynicism to confidence

    It is universally settled in the western world, that the chief business of government is to bring development to citizens. As Aristotle suggested, the critical benchmark for measuring development is people’s quality of life, not to be confused with wealth. It is the prospect of people to realize their full potential as human beings. As espoused by Mahbub ul Haq in the first Human Development Report, “the basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment in which people can enjoy long, healthy and creative lives.” Whereas, standards of living are difficult to measure, indicators of social development are available: – Employment, Agriculture, Health, Infrastructure, Investment, Safety and Security, Education, and Good Governance, among others.

    How does Governor Dickson’s administration fair measured against these universal standards? The primary obligation of any government is to protect the public, the lives and property of the people. This requirement cannot, obviously, be unqualified for the reason that there will always be those determined to breach the law or undermine whatever safety measures are put in place. But it is the government’s job to do its best in ensuring that in a free society, people can go about their lives facing the least‘ possible risk of crime or harm. The state government has been conscious of its responsibility in this regard. As it is said, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. As a direct strategy to prevent the youth from being idle and ensure security and safety for the people of the state, the government is taking aggressive steps to create opportunities for the youth by making Bayelsa State the investment magnet of the Niger Delta.

    The Bayelsa State Secret Cult and Kidnapping and Similar Offences (Prohibition) Law 2012, was proposed by the governor and has been passed and duly signed into law. The Anti-kidnapping law prescribes the death penalty for the crime of kidnapping.

    Considerable funds have been committed to strengthening the police force in the state to effectively discharge its obligations. The formation within its ranks of Doo Akpo, a well trained and equipped Rapid Response Unit, monitoring both the land and the waterways, has been well received by the people. In addition, there is a twenty-four hour, aerial surveillance over the entire state, which gives timely information to Doo Akpo.

    Also, the importance of health in personal life cannot be overemphasized. It has come to be regarded as a prerequisite for optimum socio-economic development of man. Health care as a right of every individual has been recognized in many countries.

    Apart from plans to upgrade the 500- bed Hospital in Yenagoa to a state-of-the-art specialist facility, comparable to any other in the world, modern General Hospitals are being built in each of the local government areas, thereby eliminating the need for people to commute outside their areas of residence for medical attention. With the global trade in fake drugs reaching several billion dollars yearly, the establishment of the Bayelsa State Pharmaceutical Company being handled by former DG, NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili, to procure, produce and distribute drugs, can be considered a key development, indeed, a huge boost to effective health care delivery.

    To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jnr. darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Ignorance cannot drive out ignorance, only education can do that. Progress in education is critical for human development in its own right and because of the links to health, equity and empowerment.”

    Here again, the Dickson government has been active in confronting the challenge. Free and compulsory education throughout primary and secondary tiers of education has been declared and is being purposely implemented. Schools are being renovated and new ones built. Science and laboratory equipment are being supplied to the schools. Uniforms and books are free and available. Arguably a major example anywhere else in Nigeria is the building and equipping of residential quarters for teachers and school heads. An agreement has been reached with a reputable Canadian institution to train teachers from the state. There is growing enthusiasm among young graduates to take up opportunities in teaching. There is a scheme that automatically assures graduates with a minimum second class upper division, scholarships to any institution of learning in the world for further studies. Impecunious but brainy children from the creeks of the state also have a special scholarship programme in place to school anywhere in Nigeria and abroad. This is commendable.

    Staying true to the traditional occupation of the people-fishing, the government is making significant foray into modern aquaculture. People are being trained to handle and manage fishing trawlers. Large scale fish and shrimp production is on stream. Rice farms in Isampou, Peremabiri and Yenagoa have been revived with the potential to produce enough grain for the entire West Africa market at full capacity.

    Infrastructure equally scored very high in current development in the state. The state capital and beyond, wear the look of a mammoth construction site. Winding road network linking all senatorial areas together and out of the state are progressing rapidly. The determination of the government to align the state with the standards obtainable in other jurisdictions is tangible.

    It was Barack Obama who said Africa did not need strong leaders, but strong institutions. Interestingly, one area in which Governor Dickson has shown strong leadership is the establishment of strong institutions. In keeping with his campaign promise, he insisted on the passage of the Bayelsa State Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility Law. This law, in effect, recognizes the fact that leaders are de facto servants of the people, by compelling the government to give monthly stewardship of the monies entrusted to their charge. This the governor personally discharges in the monthly Transparency Briefings before journalists and Bayelsans from all walks of life.

    A further requirement of the law is the compulsory savings of the state for the proverbial rainy day. Far from being mere window dressing, today government business is not shrouded in secrecy, indeed ordinary Bayelsans know how much the state receives, spends and saves on a monthly basis.

    Supplementary to the transparency briefings, a Committee on Information Management has been setup, with a view to affording people opportunity to call dedicated hotlines and make inquiries about government activities. All the above are impressive democratic ideals which we appreciate as institutional values in our organization and we see them as fundamental tom good governance.

    The foregoing has boosted the confidence of Bayelsans in the good intentions of their government and the investing public in the integrity of the state to protect their investments. The corollary of this is the record influx of investors into the state. The employment projection for the youth in this regard is pretty good.

    A major concern for many people trying to do business and engage with governments in Nigeria is where to direct inquires and get honest, reliable answers. The Diaspora/International Relations bureau, headquartered in the Governor’s office, is not an office in name only, but a fully equipped and functional Bureau. Here, concerns on bilateral ties to the government and business are promptly treated.

    Governor Dickson, the visionary of the new Bayelsa may be affectionately called “Countriman” as testament to his enduring affinity with the common man. There is nothing common about the robust agenda he has set for the state, nor in the determined fashion he has set about executing it. Many of his initiatives have been brilliant, bold and courageous. He has surrounded himself with the most discerning and astute minds, regardless of their state of origin. Most notable of all his policy directives thus far, has been his Transparency Initiative, fueled by his desire to change the governance culture in Bayelsa State.

    • Joffa is of the League for Accountable and Responsive Governance.

  • Harnessing regional abundances

    The sustained agitation for the manifestation of our regional selling points has never been this feverish. The preponderance of opinions is that it will herald a new vista for Nigeria, if faithfully embraced. Again, it appears to be a prescription, which will strengthen the professed indivisibility, which our country is desirous of protecting.

    Just recently, the former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr Alex Ekwueme steered a new body in town: Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (S.N.P.A) to advocate for a return to the six zonal arrangements which the generality of Nigerians sympathise with.

    Constant resonation of this reality had always featured in the charismatic devotion of some present-day gubernatorial stewards to inject life into some latent and comatose legacies of their regional heroes past. This is symptomatic of a renewed zeal in Abia State to strengthen Dr. Michael Okpara’s mile-stone in agriculture exemplified by the once vibrant Abia Palm at Ohambele in Ukwa East local government area. This effort is being complemented by a rare initiative of locating farms in each of the 17 local government areas of the state under project “liberation farms”.

    In my estimation, we stand to substantially reward Nigeria, if there is a deliberate regional effort programmed to maximize the mineral and agricultural competencies of a region devoid of federal encumbrances. A federal structure, which empowers component units to express themselves exploratively and pay economic homage to the centre will in my minds eye, engender healthy competition in the polity and herald a departure from our present monolithic and precarious arrangement which is hopelessly tied to uncertainties of the global oil market. A recent and widely reported decline in America’s demand for Nigeria’s crude drives home the point I am trying to infer.

    This submission is without prejudice to the demand for even distribution of state creation as against what presently obtains. If anything, it will fast track development in the six geo-political regions, given a foreseeable scenario of regional stakeholders going the extra-mile to maximize the potentials located in their domain.

    Lord Lugard’s unification of 1914 meant only the loose affiliation of three distinct administrations of Northern, Western and Eastern regions. Consequently, each region was still administered by a lieutenant governor, who bestrode independent government services. This latitude enabled each governor to coordinate virtually autonomous entities that had overlapping economic interests, but little in common politically or socially.

    However, our reception of democratic tenets as ingredients of political and economic development will make it imperative for its replication in all geo-political entities of the country. Consequently, while we seek to deregulate the economic atmosphere of each region, our shared democratic values will be administered nationally for constant promotion and maintenance of our national identity.

    As earlier on somewhere highlighted, the inevitability of synergy, in the face of dwindling economic resources, has become imperative. In a lecture, I, delivered, during the public policy forum of Business Hallmark, July 4, 2012, I did observe that the need to seek integration of contiguous states, especially those already bonded together by cultural and historical affiliations has become unavoidably expedient for states to be in a position to harness and accelerate their economic development. Having constituted a look at the past and how it compares with the present, it is obviously evident that at the point of independence, the colonial British and Nigerian nationalist routed for a broad based federal system of government.

    Each of the regions, through their inaugural heroes, sought to exploit their potentials to develop and this ushered Nigeria into the healthy era of celebrating regional competencies. The north covered up for agricultural deficiencies, prevalent in other regions, and we could hear of the groundnut pyramid, which featured prominently in Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.

    Same spirit of enterprise played out in the eastern part of Nigeria as it was widely reported that by 1960, Chief Michael Okpara, Premier of defunct eastern region, had laid a solid foundation, upon which the economy of the region stood without mineral resources. The strength of then eastern region motivated many political and economic permutations to posit that the region will ultimately actualize Nigeria’s long held desire to be among the most industrialized countries of the world.

    We could also hear of the cocoa merchants in the west ably piloted through the foresight arising from the well-established Odu’a Investment Company, in 1965. Odua’s blue-chip subsidiaries spanned publishing, manufacturing, and properties such as the Western House in Broad Street Lagos, Cocoa House in Ibadan Oyo State and other industrial concerns like Durosyn paint and Polyplast, Airport Hotel Ikeja and so on.

    A praise worthy resilience and tenacity of purpose have kept some of Odua Investments going, while many have also gone the way of others.

    Given the enormity of merits located in revisiting a reformed regional structure, it has become unavoidably necessary to stimulate a healthy debate in that direction. A broad based national conviction will usher in a sincere adoption, as investments will be directed to regions with comparative advantage for a significant rise in the nations’ productive capacity.

    Let us remember that at independence when regions prospered, it was simply because each of them found a reason to prosper through collaborations with the contiguous localities, and the federal government was undoubtedly the beneficiary in its transformed economy. Consequently, leaders of the regions saw no attraction in operating from the centre. We can, if we put our minds to it.

     

    • Orji, Governor of Abia wrote in from Umuahia.