The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • WAEC should brace up to their responsibility

    WAEC should brace up to their responsibility

    Sir: The recent comment by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) that school administrators are responsible for examination malpractices is like running away from the main issue. About 14 years ago I was involved in supervision of the school certificate examination under WAEC. With what I saw, I wish to say that the root of the failure and flagrant misconduct in examinations is from WAEC.

    The WAEC officials are as corrupt as the school heads and teachers. Examination malpractice is a network and a collaborative action between WAEC staff, school heads, principals and supervisors. After all, it takes two to tango. I agree that there are other principal agents in this malaise like parents, community leaders, ministry of education officials etc. WAEC is the owner of the exam and they should take responsibility for any failure. It is their duty to ensure proper supervision and the deployment of men and women of integrity on the field. Most WAEC field officers are simply corrupt and are just out to make money.

    I remember an instance when I supervised the exam. On arrival at the school, the school principal welcomed me thus “ we treat our supervisors well, sir I will like to know your terms.” He spoke to me as if it was a normal thing and I later discovered that it was really a normal thing for them. On further discussion, I learnt that most supervisors who had come earlier and even WAEC officials had their terms and were “treated well”. WAEC should mobilise credible and sufficient manpower to the field as supervisors and appropriate sanction should be meted out to defaulting ones. That means, strategies have to be in place to monitor their conduct.

    I strongly believe that if WAEC officials do their job well, it will go a long way to check exam malpractice. I must say that one of the things that gives school heads and teachers the boldness to continue in this act is the moral failure of WAEC officials. In the exam malpractice network are supervisory agents from state’s ministries of Education.

    There are another set of people government must handle squarely. Schools should only nominate teachers of integrity and repute for supervision not those who can make returns to school heads.

    There should be very stringent penalty for schools and head of schools involved in exam malpractice. Its a shame to see cases where teachers write on the board for students or dictate answers to them on exam day. If a school is closed down for such an act, I am sure it will serve as a deterrent to others.

    The question is, have WAEC in collaboration with the appropriate bodies come up with well defined and actionable policies to curbing exam malpractice? Charity, they say, begins from home. Let WAEC clean her house first before spreading the dragnet to others. This is not the time to pass blames. They must take responsibilty as the body empowered to conduct and supervise the Senior School Certificate Examination Pragmatism and leadership is required at this time from WAEC. The future of Nigeria’s educational sector is on the precipice and to salvage it, WAEC must play her statutory role well.

     

    Alexander Ighoro

    Warri, Delta State

     

  • Memo to Senate constitution review committee

    Memo to Senate constitution review committee

    We say no to autonomy for local councils. We also wonder at the apparent zeal to create more states despite prevailing realities. If our distinguished senators insist on autonomy for local councils as a third tier of government, let the states be abolished.

    Enlightened opinion has rejected attempts by our legislators to amend a fundamental document guiding their operations. Such exercise should be more appropriately handled by an independent ad-hoc body so constituted. Only such a detached assembly can produce a thorough, dispassionate and enduring constitution. The Nigerian state glaringly slides downwards as it now exhausts 70% of its annual budget on recurrent expenditure, a clearly unsustainable profligacy. For a nation dangerously tottering on the brink, autonomy for local councils, creation of additional states, should only be treated as incidentals after much more critical and urgent agenda. Our distinguished senators need to rise above narrow partisan interests to produce a befitting document.

    The only genuine reason for constitutional review now is to redefine our nationhood, so that a proper nation-state can evolve to give Nigerians hope. We want devolution of power back to the regions, or zones, as it was in the First Republic. We want to control our own resources, insignificant as they may be. We want to determine our own future within the context of a properly structured federation. In short, we want a truly peoples’ constitution, so that the Nigerian project can stand. Only our elite who earn their living directly from government may be pretending all is well, when the house has all but collapsed.

    A properly structured federation cannot tolerate the cynical, derogatory six-zone imposition which the committee has assumed as sacrosanct. Nigeria consists of over 250 ethnic nationalities. The southern minorities herded into the so-called south-south zone number over 100, with as many distinct cultures and languages. If, for example, Izon land were geographically contiguous, nothing prevents Nigeria’s 4th largest ethnic group from having its zone. The Mid-West Region stood on its own in the First Republic. It can do so now. So also can the minorities of the former Eastern Region. Your amendment should, therefore, incorporate a minimum of five regions from southern Nigeria alone, please.

    The argument between indigene and resident should never arise. The distinction between them is clear and should be left as already constitutionally provided for. Our worry is that abrogating one for the other suggests a subtle attempt to impose unitary government through the back door. A multiethnic secular state should forever abhor and reject the unitary system of government. Let the review committee prove its critics wrong. We plead with our distinguished Senators to strive to let the authentic wish of the people prevail, so that Nigeria can celebrate her centenary in one piece, and in peace.

    John Ingwu,

    4, Winners Way,

    Calabar, Cross River State

     

  • Changing face of Gombe under Dankwambo

    Changing face of Gombe under Dankwambo

    On May 29, 2011, the call on Alhaji Ibrahim Hasssan Dankwambo to lay aside his Accountant General of the Federation for a direct service to the people of Gombe state was eventually consummated with his inauguration as the Governor of Gombe state.

    Since then, the Governor has taken pragmatic steps to demonstrate focused and determined leadership that Gombe state needed to attain the next level of development. Accordingly, virtually every sector has received good attention as the ultimate intention of enhancing the socioeconomic wellbeing of the citizenry.

    He begun by constituting twelve committees to through all sectors look into the problems hampering from achieving its full potentials and to also proffer solutions to them. As indicated during his inaugural speech, youth rehabilitation, reorientation, and empowerment was the first to come under the spotlight with the graduation of 320 youths trained on seven different skills from four skills acquisition centres across the state.

    They were resettled with tools of their trades and N200,000:00 cash to enable them start-off while the programme itself was thereafter scaled up to 520 youths and thirteen trades.

    In addition to that, 1,200 youths, most of whom used to be recalcitrant were camped for a three-week rehabilitation reorientation exercise. They graduated into Environmental, Traffic and Ward Marshals and were put on monthly emolument. They have since been of great help under the relevant agencies with 300 of them that have distinguished themselves sponsored for leadership training in plateau state.. Their presence has also culminated in the demise of the disturbances the state was once notorious for.

    On the formal front, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has holistically tackled the decay in the state’s educational system with enviable results to show for his efforts. First he embarked on the reconstruction of ten schools (five primary and five post-primary) and transforming them into model schools.

    Going on together with this is the construction of new classroom blocks or rehabilitation of dilapidated ones in some other schools with the intention achieving a ratio of one class teacher to fifty pupils/students in the long-run. 1,000 qualified teachers have been engaged out of the earmarked over 3,000 needed for impactful teaching and instructional materials like books worth over N 500 million, classroom furniture and others are being promptly provided and distributed free of charge to pupils and students.

    The ultimate aim is to train 30,000 youths, place them on N6,000 : 00 while being trained and resettle them with kits of the trades that have learnt as well as an interest-free loan of N200,000 : 00 to enable them take-off .

    To mop up the teeming secondary school graduates with defects in the results, the present administration in Gombe state entered into an agreement with the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) to remediate the youths in batches of 1,000 until pressure from that category f population reduced to the lowest ebb. The arrangement is such that candidates will be remediated in Gombe by UNIMAID staff. They will also write the same examination as their campus colleagues but on-line.

    Those that pass the remedial (entrance) examination as well as score the Joint  Matriculation Examination (JME) cut-off point of 180 and above would be admitted into any course of their choice in UNIMAID. The ones that made the entrance exams but failed JME would retain their result for the next session and retake JAMB. Candidates who fail both examinations on the other hand would enjoy the privilege of being admitted into Certificate Courses specially introduced by UNIMAID.

    Still determined to make tertiary education more accessible, Gombe State University’s School of Remedial Studies was expanded into a full blown campus with a capacity to admit at least 1,500 per-session. The school is designed to remediate candidates for both Junior and Senior Secondary Schools.

    Candidates that gradate from the remedial and are not keen in furthering their education could be trained on their choice trade out of the thirteen skills available in the school. Similarly, a robust sports facility is provided, not for leisure, but for the sports inclined ones to develop their talents for future challenges while being remediated.

    As we speak, the foundation stone for the State College of Education has been laid in Billiri while State Polytechnic and School of Islamic and Legal Studies have been earmarked for establishment at Nafada and Bajoga respectively, just as the State School of Health Technology and the State School of Nursing and Midwifery have been lined up for complete overhaul

    So far, Governor Dankwambo’s administration has equally shown great commitment towards lighting up the rural communities. Justifying this is its ordering for machineries and earthmoving equipments to fast track rural development. Same is the procurement and distribution of 50 unit of transformers to rural communities while still waiting to take delivery of 55 more. A good number of communities have benefitted from rural electrification projects and so many others have been earmarked for similar intervention.

    But the block-buster electrification effort is the Balanga Dam Electrification Project which is capable of powering the entire Gombe South Regional Water Supply Scheme and all the unlit rural communities within Balanga local government and beyond. This milestone three-in-one Balanga Dam project is also housing a gigantic water work tagged Gombe South Regional Water Supply Scheme. When completed, it will supply water to Balanga, Billiri, Kaltungo and Shongom local government areas in Gombe south district and Akko in the central senatorial district.

    The Dam on the other hand supplies water through a well over 30-kilometre stretch of irrigation canal thereby making possible an all-year-round farming within the belt. Further in the area of agriculture, 35 grounded tractors have been refurbished and the same number procured. Government still not feeling satisfied ordered additional 200 unit of tractors from Pakistan.  with the aim is to make the implement more available and affordable at the State Tractor Hiring Unit.

    In the interim however, an unprecedented 34,000 metric tons of assorted fertilizers were made available for last year’s farming season just like improved seedlings have been made available for the present farming season. In the same vein, the moribund Poultry Production Unit has been put back on track with 500 workers working to regain the unit’s lost pride.

    Within the period under review, Gombe state government has constructed 55 stone-base asphalt laid roads in the state capital. The semi urban areas have enjoyed about 20 roads of the same quality with the same number of regional roads designed to open up the mostly agrarian rural communities.

    In order to take advantage of the central location of the state in the Northeast sub-region, project for an International Conference Centre that will seat over 1,000 with an annexed 150 room hotel and other ancillaries has been flagged-off. Also to be flagged-ff later in the year is Petroleum Tankers’ Bay with a capacity to hold close to 200 long vehicles; and a Mega Motor Park would will harness all five motor parks in the state capital with the state-owned transport service. Features would among others include police station, banks, lock-up shops, fire station and others.

    Among other invisible achievement of the present leadership of Gombe state is the disbursement of N 250 million revolving loan to 74 groups across the state. The loan is jointly funded by Bank of Industry on a 50 – 50 basis. Similarly, another N 750 million loan has bee set aside for distribution to Gombe Market Traders and Gombe Village Market Traders Associations. All packages are targeted at reigniting the dying embers of commerce in the state.

    Dankwambo and his team may have stayed briefly, but have left a mark that will forever remain in the sand of time for good. Space may not accommodate the listless achievements wroth in just one and a half year in office, but if there is any place where value for money and justified use of public funds is exemplary, it is certainly Gombe. And to quote the Governor, it is indeed, “not the amount of money available, but how it is spent”

     

    •M. L. Ismail writes in from Bolari Quarters in Gombe state.

     

  • How razed Alaafin’s place broke barriers

    How razed Alaafin’s place broke barriers

    THOUGH it has constituted a grave cultural and traditional setback to the ancient kingdom of Oyo, the January 8, 2013 early morning fire that razed down some parts of the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, has broken some traditional barriers that have existed between the monarch and some of his superiority contenders in the South West.

    Shunning the age long rivalry and no- love- lost relationship between them and the Alaafin’s stool, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II and the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade last week paid sympathy visits to the Oba Adeyemi in his palace.

    The two monarchs joined many other royal fathers and eminent personalities, who have shown their empathy for the foremost traditional ruler, who lost three apartments belonging to three of his wives to the fire.

    The apartments, which comprise 21 rooms, were razed by the inferno caused by electrical surge, just as two important apartments housing two deities: Ori and Ifa, were also destroyed including the artefacts therein.

    Alaafin and the Ooni of Ife had about three months ago engaged each other in an altercation over the celebration of “Oranyan Festival” by the Alaafin, to which Ooni claimed exclusive preserve, but which like similar face-offs, Alaafin denigrated the status of the Ooni and his insubordination among the children of Oduduwa.

    The relationship between the Alaafin and the Olubadan has also been frosty with the latter contesting the permanent chairmanship of the Oyo state Council of Obas and Chiefs with the former, leading to the comatose state of the council till date.

    In spite of the scathing and vitriolic media attacks against each other, the Ooni on Saturday, the 12th January, 2013, sent a powerful delegation of his council members to the Alaafin to express his heart-felt sympathy for the irreparable loss incurred through the conflagration.

    Delivering the message of the Ooni, which was appreciated by the Alaafin, was His Royal Highness, Oba J.A. Awe, the Onisare of Ife, who led two of his counterparts, A.O. Fabunmi, the Laadin of Ife, and Chief Adeyoye Adekola, the Sarun of Ife.

    The Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran from Osun State, also sent emissary to the Alaafin. He was represented by High Chief A.J. Oladele, the Odole of Ilesa and High Chief Risewe of Ilesa.

    On behalf of the Olubadan and the Olubadan-in-Council, the Osi Olubadan, High Chief Lekan Balogun on Sunday, 13th January, 2013, led Dr. Femi Olaifa, also a High Chief to the palace sympathising with the Alaafin on the ugly fire incident, which he said took them by surprise.

    Having delivered Olubadan’s letter, one of the Kingmakers, the Samu of Oyo, however expressed Alaafin’s displeasure at the late coming of the Olubadan’s representatives, saying that “We had expected the Olubadan to have sent delegates to Oyo to oversee things for himself before now. After all, all Ibadans are Oyos. Many of you people migrated from here to Ibadan”.

    Responding, Balogun, a Senator, said he was not around, reason for the late-coming, which according to him, the Olubadan-in-Council felt uncomfortable about. He nevertheless thanked God on behalf of the Alaafin that no life was lost in the inferno, which took fire fighters about three hours to put out.

    Niger State governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, represented by Hon. Hassan Abdullahi, led delegates to the palace, while Oba of Benin, Omonoba Eredieuwa represented by Chief Nosa O. Egharerba (The Uso of Benin Kingdom), Chief Benjamin Iredia (The Osayuwanoba of Benin Kingdom), as well as Dr. Adebayo Adewusi, Oyo state governorship aspirant in the April 26, 2011 election, also pledged their loyalty and commiserated with the Alaafin.

    The Alaafin, in appreciation of the concern of Nigerians for him, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan, who asked the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government area of Ondo State, Oba Fredrick Obateru Akinruntan, Okoro Ajiga 1, to represent him in delivering the commiseration message, thanked them, praying for peaceful co-existence among all Nigerians, as according to him, “we are all brothers. Many of us have the same blood”.

  • Abia: No longer goons’ own

    When one is entrusted with the people’s confidence, resources and fortune, one would need the amazing grace of God to discharge one’s responsibilities with utmost care, prudence, transparency and equity.

    In 1999, Orji Uzor Kalu was, elected Governor of Abia State. His mandate was to impact positively on the people of the State using the common wealth of the people.

    Odimegwu Onwumere, wrote a piece that is full of incoherence on page 21 of Thisday of Monday 31st December, 2012. In the said write-up, Odimegwu Onwumere, fruitlessly and unethically expressed his grouse over the ‘claim’ by one of Governor T. A. Orji’s aides that the governor has restored the dignity of the Abia person? Kalu, being conscious of the havoc he wrecked on Abians, would not want to hear of the restoration of the ‘dignity’ of Abia people. Hence he has continued to cry wolf where none exists.

    For purposes of educating Kalu and equally calling him to order, let me talk on ‘dignity’ and its restoration in Abia State. Because of his crude and uninformed background, Kalu does not know that ‘dignity’ is that intrinsic quality in one that earns or makes one deserve respect. Dignity does not necessarily flow from wealth. Rather, it is an inalienable associate of character.

    When a person’s ‘dignity’ is restored, the person enjoys enhanced positive image. By virtue of constitutional democracy, every Abian is entitled to certain fundamental human rights such as:

    (a) Freedom of thought,

    (b) Freedom of association and

    (c) Freedom of worship

    Any time that fundamental right of an Abian or any other individual is violated or denied, it goes a long way to cause psycho-social depression. This, certainly, affects the individual and, therefore, impacts very negatively on his or her character and, by clinical extension, his or her ‘dignity’.

    I am saying it for the umpteenth time that during the tenure of Kalu as Governor in Abia State, the fundamental rights of many Abians were deliberately and consistently trampled upon. Today, Governor T. A. Orji has given appointments, contracts and other life-support incentives to many Abians without subjecting any of them to any form of oath-taking. This is restoration of ‘dignity’.

    For the eight years that Kalu presided over the affairs of Abia State, he never gave any quantifiable consideration to the health of Abians, hence he did not think it necessary to erect even a one-bed clinic.

    That Governor T. A. Orji, a quintessential administrator and an accomplished alumnus of Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan, has been able to build and equip 250 health centres spread across the State and two functional diagnostic medical centres in Umuahia and Aba, has definitely tormented Orji Kalu who now perceives the governor’s performance as a deliberate design to dump him in the dust bin meant for non-performance.

    Abia is an oil producing state, courtesy of Ukwa-West Local Government Area. Throughout Kalu’s tenure, every plea made by the people of Ukwa-West for his administration to set up an Oil Producing Area Development Commission naturally fell on a deaf ear. He did not grant the request because, true to his nature, Kalu hates the progress and comfort of his fellow human beings. But no sooner did Chief T. A. Orji become Governor than he set up the Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission. That commission has helped immensely in the development of Abia State, particularly the Oil producing areas of the State. Many Traditional Rulers from Ukwa-West had no vehicles but today are proud owners of jeeps that have, for sure, enhanced their status. Kalu has always been a victim of ignorance and, so, will not realize that an elevation of this magnitude for Traditional Rulers in Ukwa-West would go a long way to give impetus to their ‘dignity’. Does this not justify the Governor’s aide’s claim?

    Kalu’s eight-year governance of Abia State did not witness any quantifiable empowerment of the Abia youth. His administration only recorded donation of ‘Tokumbo’ motor-cycles and wheel-barrows to Abia youths. On the contrary, the Government of Ochendo has motivated Abia youths with more than five hundred cars and more than two thousand tricycles, otherwise known as keke-Napep. The beneficiaries of this unparalleled benevolence of the Governor have subsequently become self-employed and are living very responsible lives and discharging their social cum community obligations. For youths that could only dream of motor-cycles and wheel-barrows during the administration of Kalu to have their taste redirected and their status radically upgraded, Kalu, would not perceive any meaningful restoration of ‘dignity’ in this context. What a pity!

    In order to address the problem of youth unemployment and its attendant youth restiveness; a twin problem that was unattended to during the era of darkness which Kalu’s Government represented, the T. A. Orji’s Government has offered employment to four thousand and five hundred Abia youths and is encouraging them to acquire useful skills with the money they are paid in order to guarantee a stable future for themselves. Because Kalu would not wish or see anything good in Ochendo’s Government, he would not agree that youths that were hopelessly abandoned by his administration but are now being rehabilitated by Governor T. A. Orji have had their ‘dignity’ restored.

    While the Federal Government of Nigeria legislated eighteen thousand naira as minimum wage for the Nigerian worker, the Abia State Government, under Ochendo, pays twenty thousand and one hundred naira to her lowest public servant. It is only the devil that will not see restoration of ‘dignity’ in this vivid expression of humanity.

    In this piece, I do not intend to mention the numerous legacy projects initiated and being executed by the administration of Governor T. A. Orji in the State. Should I talk of the civil servants’ secretariat complex that is eighty percent completed or the five thousand seat capacity International Conference Centre, also eighty percent completed?

    If Kalu should claim he has not seen the new functional Industrial market before the University of Agriculture Umudike, would he be justified to say he has not seen the modern Umuahia market at Ubani-Ibeku, which is just conspicuously along his Ohafia-Umuahia Road? There are too many projects to be mentioned that space and time may not permit here. I, however, challenge Orji Kalu for an open contest on the issue of restoration of ‘dignity’ for Abians by Governor T. A. Orji.

    To ascertain how myopic Kalu and his uninformed Odimegwu Onwumere are, one has to compare and contrast between their preposterous claim that there is no restoration of ‘dignity’ in Abia and their contradictory questioning of the source of money with which the wife of the governor, who through her Non-Governmental Organisation; Hannah-May Foundation, has been touching the lives of the less-privileged by building a three-bedroom bungalow, with provision of water and furniture for such people in the State. It is for the reading public to assess and evaluate if indigenes of a State who, hitherto, had no shelter of their own but through the milk of kindness of the Governor’s wife now own their own houses should be said to have been impacted positively on or otherwise.

    • Chief Ubani, KSC, JP, writes from Aba

  • Public security and Lagos Traffic Law

    The recent murder of 27-year-old medical doctor, Irawo Adamolekun, by a gunman operating on a motorcycle at the Anthony Village end of Ikorodu Road, Lagos, has once again brought to fore the need for Lagosians to support the state government’s implementation of Traffic Law as it particularly affects the activities of commercial motorcycles operators.

    According to the report, Irawo, who was driving in a black Kia Sephia II saloon car with Lagos number plate GP 388 AAA, was shot in front of the traffic warden spot linking Access Road to Ikorodu Road. It was learnt that the victim that had just left Osuntuyi Medical Centre, Obanikoro, where he works, was shot after he declined to part with valuables when the gunman attempted to rob him in traffic. The gunman, who was reported to have shot the deceased at close range, mounted a waiting motorcycle on the other side of the road and fled the scene.

    A recent police report shows that out of the 30 armed robbery incidents recorded in Lagos between July and September 2012, 22 involved commercial motorcycles. According to the report, it out of eight robberies that occurred in July, seven involved the use of Okada while it was also used in 10 out of 14 robberies in September 2012 and five out of eight robberies in August of the same year. Looking at available facts and figures, there should be no controversy about the fact that the operations of commercial motorcycles in the state need to be regulated.

    Aside constituting serious threat to security, the misery and grief that commercial motorcycles has brought into several homes in Lagos is un-imaginable. Statistics from the Lagos State Management Authority (LASTMA) reveals that not less than 619 people were killed or seriously injured in commercial motorcycles accident in the last two years. The breakdown shows that 107 people died while 512 sustained serious injuries. Among the dead were 71 males and 36 females. In 2011 alone, 47 people were killed while 98 others sustained serious injuries from commercial motorcycles accidents. Between January and October 2012, 63 people were killed while 59 sustained serious injuries.

    Fortunately, the security situation across the state is now getting better. Thanks to the meticulous implementation of the traffic law, especially the part that restricts commercial motorcycles from plying certain parts of the metropolis. Going by the available facts and figures, it is quite obvious that the restriction order placed on Okada by the law has helped, in no small measure, in stemming the tide of robbery cases in the state.

    Consequently, the urgent task before every Lagosian is to give the new law a chance since it is mainly enacted to protect the people. Lawlessness and social disorder don’t bring any good to any nation. A nation whose citizens derive pleasure in reckless and disorderly behaviours cannot achieve rapid social-economic transformation. Indeed, governance becomes easier and cheaper in a lawful and orderly environment. A few of the complications we experience in the polity today are the direct effect of the unruly and disorderly state of affairs in the country.

    As the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has always said, the state’s road traffic law is for the safety and security of the life of citizens. It is about safety and security. It will be recalled that the governor once apprehended a commercial motorcyclist riding against traffic only to discover that the culprit was in custody of a gun and, a lady’s hand bag and a baby’s sanitary pad. The Lagos Police Command has continued to tell those who care to listen that one of the serious security challenges in the state is robbery with motorcycles.

    Being one of the most important pre-conditions for human existence, the state government has always placed high premium on the security of lives and property in the state. This explains the setting up of the State Security Trust Fund which has become a model for other states in the country. The main objective of the fund is to effectively fund the security needs of the state on a sustainable basis. In its determination to make the state crime-free, the Fashola administration has opened up most hide-outs and joints that hitherto served as bases for fraudsters and armed robbers and turned them into beautiful environment.

    Other steps that have been taken by the state government at boosting public safety and security include establishment of the state surveillance and command centre, re-organisation and strengthening of the state’s anti-crime outfit, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), procurement of new telecommunication equipment, bullet proof vest and uniforms, and additional patrol vehicles, establishment of Nigeria’s first dedicated Emergency Call Centre which can be reached toll-free on‘767’ and ‘112’ numbers on all networks, beefing up of the Neighbourhood Watch ( a complimentary community security outfit), introduction of the Community Security Assembly (CSA) among others. Another major component of the state’s security programme is the ‘SAFE CITY PROJECT’ which is a comprehensive security programme, whereby a fixed wireless monitoring device will compliment a Central Security Surveillance (CSS) from a command post with the aid of surveillance cameras.

    In-spite of the state government’s investment in the security sector, it is vital that every segment of the society partners with it to ensure that the investment yields fruitful dividends. An effective public security cannot be obtained without the active involvement, participation and support of every segment of the society because public security is the responsibility of all individuals, groups, communities, organizations and other units that constitute the state.

    It is a known fact, in Lagos State for instance, that despite the magnitude of government investment in public security, there are still herculean challenges that government’s resources alone cannot tackle. In as much as everyone in a state pursues varied interests, the pursuit of public security should, nevertheless, be the common goal of all. The involvement and participation of individuals and non-governmental actors in the issues of public security is, therefore, a necessity for the actualization of a secured society.

    • Ibirogba is Lagos Commissioner for Information and Strategy

  • Sovereign Wealth Fund a necessity

    SIR: For nations such as Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Congo[Kinshasha] Gabon, Angola among others where natural resources endowed to those entities are explored and the revenue accruable from the export of those rare resources stolen by successive political administrations and diverted to private pockets, it would be imperative for such countries to consider establishing Sovereign Wealth Funds. There is therefore need for

    strong institutional and legal frameworks to be enforced for the national assets saved in form of sovereign wealth funds used to build functional infrastructure to promote better life for the greatest number of the citizenry.

    The decision by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to push for the establishment of the sovereign wealth fund is indeed a push for the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to be respected especially if the objectives of establishing the fund are strictly pursued.

    It is universally acknowledged that one of the sure ways that government ensures respect for the fundamental human rights of citizens is the promotion of measures that give rise to good governance, zero-tolerance to corruption, and respect for accountability and transparency.

    The primary purpose of establishing the sovereign wealth fund by most developed societies is the creation of quality infrastructure designed to make life meaningful. If members of the political entity are provided with qualitative infrastructure to better their lives as citizens, it is safe to say that the sovereign wealth funds are necessarily established for the promotion and protection of the fundamental human rights to life; dignity of the human person; freedom of association; freedom of movement and other basic freedoms and rights that are inherent, universal, and also the right to development.

    According to a publication on wikipedia.org, the very first SWF was the Kuwait Investment Authority, which was established in 1953 before Kuwait secured its independence from the United Kingdom. The Kuwaitis’ Fund was created from crude oil revenues and is reported to be currently valued at about $250 billion. Kuwait is one of the best places to live in the world due to the aggressive infrastructural development achieved with the sovereign wealth fund.

    I must however conclude by stating that the attempt to collect over $9 billion from some international creditors including China as contemplated by the Federal Government is retrogressive and will return us to position of a slave nation.

    • Emmanuel Onwubiko

    Abuja

  • Restoring the lost glory of Apapa

    SIR: The Apapa axis of Lagos, being a major gateway to the country’s sea ports, is very strategic to the economy of Nigeria. The major share of government’s revenue comes from both the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports. More than 75 per cent of the goods imported into the country come through the ports in Lagos and the major ports in the country are based in Apapa.

    Unfortunately, in recent time, motorists, commuters as well as business men moving towards the axis have been subjected to untold hardship occasioned by perennial traffic gridlock that has become a recurring decimal along the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway.

    The issues involved along the axis are multi-faceted. One, the Apapa-Oshodi road, a federal government road, is in bad shape and in need of urgent rehabilitation. Second, the nuisance of trailer drivers on the road is becoming a major concern. Not only that they drive recklessly, but they equally park their trailers indiscriminately along the road. The indiscriminate parking of trailers on either side of the road is a serious factor in the painful traffic gridlock that commuters regularly suffer on the road. Third, incessant cases of abandoned vehicles equally constitute a major hindrance to motorists on the highway.

    Also, the unprecedented upsurge of petrol tankers on the road is closely tied to the continuous importation of locally consumed fuel in the country. There are more than 50 depots in Lagos, which means there are between 50 and 400 trucks that load in one day. Consequently, a minimum of 3,000 trucks travel to Lagos on daily basis to lift petroleum products. Over 80 per cent of fuel supplies in the country are from Lagos. Hence, tanker drivers come from all over the country to source the products.

    To reverse the ugly trend along the axis, the Lagos State Government made spirited efforts to liberate the access roads. In May last year, the state government embarked on a massive clearing exercise, which led to the removal of trucks, demolition of shanties under the bridges and eviction of hangers-on in and around Apapa. At the end of the exercise, no fewer than 120 tankers were seized by the monitoring team. This intervention, no doubt, offered momentary respite to road users especially residents of Apapa, Festac and Badagry. But the tankers have since returned causing greater havocs.

    There is an urgent need for relevant government agencies to put in place a more institutionalized framework. For instance, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) should stop issuing loading ticket for tanker drivers when adequate preparation has not been made for them, in order to reduce indiscriminate parking on the highway by the drivers. So, it is important that NNPC do not issue out tickets for drivers to come and load in Lagos when adequate preparation for them to lift fuel in Lagos has not been made.

    Similarly, it is important that more tank farms are constructed along this axis to contain the over 3,000 tankers that come into Lagos on a daily basis. Tanker drivers often complain of the distance between the Orile terminal and the depots as a major setback. Presently, only two tank farms owned by Capital Oil and MRS are in operation along the axis and their capacity is not enough to accommodate the numerous tankers.

    Perhaps more importantly, there is an urgent need for the construction of more refineries across the country. A greater proportion of the petroleum product is consumed in Lagos because the refineries outside Lagos are not working. It is, therefore, imperative that more refineries are built while existing ones are urgently rehabilitated to ease the stress on Lagos.

    No nation that is desirous of economic development and growth will handle with levity such an important road like the Apapa Oshodi Expressway. To put the Nigerian economy on the lane to speedy recovery and growth, all stakeholders must be committed to a result-driven programme that would make the road a driver’s delight and investor’s friendly.

    Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Dilemma in Mali

    Dilemma in Mali

    Nigerian troops are finally departing for Mali, ahead of the September 2013 date originally planned by the United Nations to put an intervention force in Mali. This column had twice counselled Nigeria not to go into Mali until there was indication the complex and fundamental problems that precipitated the secessionist crisis were understood and concrete efforts made to tackle them. Any intervention, the column warned, was bound to focus mainly on achieving quick, morale-boosting military victory without a corresponding plan to win the peace.

    However, by restarting and intensifying their efforts to cut a wider swath of the country than the northern half they had controlled for more than six months, separatist Tuareg groups, in particular, Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), inadvertently triggered French intervention (Opération Serval) nearly nine months early. The now increasingly activist France leads the cavalry with the deployment of ground troops in Mali, and is in direct combat against the separatist al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups which control the northern half of the country and had purged the moderate Tuareg rebels, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), from their ranks.

    But France’s direct involvement, contrary to its earlier stand not to put ground troops in Mali, is certain to complicate the crisis, and probably internationalise it in ways unanticipated and injurious to the long term peace and stability of Mali and even to the interests of France itself, as the Algerian hostage crisis briefly indicated. Jihadist forces always love the opportunity to take on the West in any guise, whether it is equal or unequal combat. The gusto with which Ansar Dine announced to the media early in the week that they were locked in combat with France and the “Crusaders” is a testimony to this bizarre, sanguinary predilection. Yet, by launching an invasion southwards believed to be capable of threatening the capital, Bamako, it was the rebels that provoked the spontaneous French intervention. In fact, going by the speed of the rebel attacks and the near collapse of the Malian Army, it was feared last week that Bamako could fall in weeks. To prevent such a catastrophic collapse of the entire country and the imposition of Afghanistan-type Islamic rule that nurtures and sponsors terrorism, France decided to act. It had become clear that the UN September date for the regional intervention force to intervene in Mali was unrealistic.

    France has received encouragement from fellow European Union (EU) countries, which fear Mali could be turned into a terrorist haven by the rebels. ECOWAS forces have also mobilised. The rebels who number less than 2,000 fighting men have inexplicably decided to take on 2,500 French troops and 3.300 ECOWAS troops, with Nigeria contributing 900 men and commanding the regional force. For as long as the rebels stick to conventional war tactics, it is unlikely they can get the better of the multinational force, no matter how inhospitable the terrain. The better armed and numerically stronger intervention force is expected to achieve easy victory. But the problem is winning the peace in a country that is poor and more than half of which is absolutely inhospitable and vast.

    While the French-led intervention force was inevitable given the rebel advance on the south and the appalling indecision and weakness of ECOWAS in tackling the crisis when it began in March 2012, the UN must not lose sight of the factors that predisposed Mali into crisis and rebellion. Economic growth, which was trudging on at a manageable five percent or so, had by last year slowed down agonisingly to a little over one percent. Importantly, too, and in spite of Mali being a poster child for regional democracy, it had become insular, allowing the problems in the north to fester. More crucially, the coup d’etat led by Captain Amadou Sanogo was a disaster that aggravated the country’s crisis. The coup truncated democracy, worsened economic crisis, and offered no useful initiatives in tackling the rebellion in the North. Indeed, the rebels used the coup as a casus belli.

    France and the regional intervention force may win the war – and there is no compelling reason for them not to do it soonest because most northerners are reluctant to host al-Qaeda groups in their territory – but peace will not be secured until the fundamental problems are addressed purposefully and intelligently. If peace is to be restored, disaffected but moderate groups in the North will have to be encouraged to embrace negotiation, an economic rejuvenation programme will have to be drawn up by the UN, coup leaders will have to be forced out of the power loop and democracy re-established, perhaps with some sort of autonomy for parts of the country, and France must quickly relinquish control of the intervention force in order not to create a worse backlash. The country is too vast and too barren for outsiders to impose durable peace by force of arms.

  • Re: North misapplied N8.3trn

    SIR: The Nation editorial titled “North Misapplied N8.3trn” dated January 16, was a delightful masterpiece. It calls to mind the statement by Ellen G. White that “the greatest want of the world is the want of men who cannot be bought or sold with money, men who call sin by it right name; men who in their innermost heart are ready to say the truth though heaven fall”.

    Nigeria and the world are in dire need of the likes of Shehu Sani (President of Civil Right Congress), who in an uncommon display of rare political sagacity and fearless audacity spoke truth to power. According to him, “the resources allocated to states (of the North) are not commensurate with the level of development on ground. The scandalous looting of the state resources (in the north) is a product of thieving and venal governors and compliant and placid state assemblies”.

    It is imperative to submit that the solution to the problem of the north is not 2015, but in the prudent management of state resources with absolute probity. My northern brothers and sister must begin to hold their leaders at all levels of government accountable and stop blaming other geo-political regions for their problem. Accountability is the answer.

    As a matter of urgency, those who kill in the name of religion, education and other socio-economic divides in the north should end the on-going hostility and look inward to determine how to find a lasting solution to their grievances. They should please note that those who congregate in various places of worship and our security agents are not the cause of their perceived problem. Just as they must not forget that those who told them that the Ijaw man is their problem lied to them. If they think I am wrong, they should please see Mallam Shehu Sani for details.

    • Godfrey Ehi O.

    Benin City.