The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Something worse than imagined is happening in the North

    Something worse than imagined is happening in the North

    On Monday night, 18 people were reported to have been shot dead by robbers at Kabaru village in the Dansadau emirate, Maru local government area of Zamfara State. Since last year, more than 60 people have lost their lives in robbery attacks in that emirate alone. Each attack costs dozens of lives rather than a few. In October 2011, about 19 people were reported killed by armed men at Lingyado village. And at Dangulbi, 27 people lost their lives as robbers moved from house to house shooting and maiming, and with plenty of time to spare. It will also be recalled that last month, at Dogon Dawa village in Kaduna State, armed men believed to be robbers killed about 24 people. Some Fulani herdsmen later claimed that the Dogon Dawa attack was a revenge mission against villagers who robbed and murdered nomads returning from annual grazing expeditions. Sadly, everyone is becoming beastly.

    In May, robbers also reportedly shot dead 34 traders at the Potiskum cattle market in Yobe State. The traders had earlier in the day foiled a robbery attack and caught one of the assailants whom they quickly lynched. To avenge the dead robber and to punish the traders’ effrontery in foiling the robbery, scores of attackers using explosives and dangerous weapons staged a raid on the market killing 34 people, though unofficial estimates put the figure at more than 50 victims. In addition, in a feat of brazenness, the robbers razed the market.

    A pattern is beginning to emerge from these daring robbery raids. One is the ease with which the robbers operate; and two is the viciousness of the raids and the large-scale killings that accompany them. This worrisome pattern, which no other part of the country seems able to match, probably indicates deeper fissures in the North than previously imagined. In the first instance, it is possible that the police are understaffed and poorly equipped to counter the attacks; or that, as a few reports show, they are probably compromised. Second, as the Boko Haram terrorist phenomenon also shows, the scale of alienation in the North may in fact have reached an extreme level, such that criminals really can’t be bothered anymore if the society goes to seed or not. Third, it is also likely that, like the rest of the country, proliferation of small arms and light weapons has reached crisis point.

    Whatever the situation, the federal and state governments must appreciate that the problem, as indicated by the creeping anomie in the North, has gone beyond what mere deployment of policemen and logistics can address. We have a major crisis in our hands, as increasingly larger swathes of the country are becoming more and more ungovernable.

    This column has warned repeatedly that notwithstanding the platitudes issuing from the National Assembly and the presidency, the country is manifesting the early stages of deep structural decay. If the decay is not checked soon, and if a restructuring of the country is not undertaken urgently and honestly, it is a question of time before the country slips into something much worse, something intractable. Now is the time to discuss; now is the time to do something concrete about the reigning paradigm that has proved impotent in the face of mounting and complex challenges.

  • FROM THE CELL PHONE

    FROM THE CELL PHONE

    For Dare Olatunji

     

    The call for Sovereign National Conference, weak centre and state police are all centred on imbibing true belief in the entity called Nigeria with the hope to proffer solution to our age-long ethnic rivalry. Postponement, procrastination for the fear of unseen, not to allow Nigeria to break into parts is not comensurate with honest search for Nigeria lasting solution. Consultations needed be made to review our amalgamation if going our separate ways, which some people may not like to hear, is the solution, so be it, or better still option, Sovereign National Conference should honestly be considered for a wise avoidance of the adjourment of the evil days. From Mr. Abey

    Unlike the position in the US, UK and Europe, politics and governance in Nigeria are not about the people but about the ego of those who had or have their hands on the levers of authority. Mechanisms aimed at finding out the will of the people like referendums and free, fair and credible elections will only tamper with their free access to what they believe is theirs for the taking. Whatever will restrict their unhindered access to the treasury must be prevented or presented in bad light to ensure they remain in control. We only pray that it will not degenerate to what happened in France or Russia before things change in favour of the people. Anonymous

    The clamour for state police by state governors is to enable them collect more revenue and amass more security votes with which to marry more wives and revel in stupendous affluence afterall, those who got oil derivation cannot justify it. From Kenn Okonkwo

    Thanks for your write-up on “The news from Scotland”, and as much as I agree with your submission sir, I disagree on breaking of that 1914 mistake but strongly believe in giving more power to the present six regions and if possible self government and weak central that is to say that government at the centre will be in control of foreign policy, armed forces and currency. Then we go back to palimentary system of government. The present crop of leaders are politicians not statemen. A politician thinks of next elections while a stateman thinks of next generations. Thanks. From Dare Bello.

    Dear Dare, your discussion on the topic, “The news from scotland”, is nothing but a succint summary of our problems in Nigeria. Misfits and people who knew little or nothing about governance and how to formulate governance policies are at the head of affairs.The public lecture by Philip Asiodu is just one in the list of such valuable documents/reports (e.g.Oputa report) that are dusting away in our National Archives. I make bold to say that until we come together, discuss and agree that we actually still want to continue to live together as one indivisible country, we will continue to decieve ourselves. Even the Holy Bible asked a very pertinent question, ‘can two walk together unless they agree?’ From Mmayienwata, Anambra

    Thanks for the article “The news from Scotland”. Those insisting that they can die for the unity of Nigeria with the present fraudulent federal constitution, are not sincere. What they want to die for is the oil money from Niger Delta. Selfish interest has blinded some people’s eyes. They do not see but that it is right to believe good of all evil; and as the inevitable result, they will finally believe evil of all good. All eyes are on you sir, Mr President. From Adegoke O. O., Ikhin, Edo State.

    Before Abuja people can listen, we need fuel subsidy kind of protests. From Uche Lawson, Aba

    This is a country that the selected leaders keep runing away from reality. Something serious will/must happen to correct the present situation. Things will not remain like this forevever. From Dogara Jimgba, Kwali-Abuja

    Dear Sir, please note. The analysis of the Ondo election on Pg 7 of today’s The Nation by Segun Ayobolu is clearly meant for the cover page but not Page 7. Thanks! Anonymous

    Whether the President forfeits his free meal ticket to the freebies in Aso rock or not, he would still be entitled to the welfare rain from the flood… He has already announced that his “personal house is under water” in Bayelsa. Whichever way, the public official always wins. That is the normal thing’ in Nigeria, emergency or not…! From Momoh Suleiman, Abuja

    Our politicians prefer to doctor our ‘unity’ than allowing Nigerians choose their destiny and constitution. Our constitution is a skewered document. One day we will wake up to truth and know that we are delaying our own progress. From Eronini Chyke.

    Yours today clearly demonstrated that Nigeria still has true men of conscience. Majority of those who find themselves into leadership positions seem not to know that only God, (time) Himself does not change. This is an opportunity for Mr. President to right the wrong of colonialism and neocolonialists who, instead of accepting their failures while in office, continued to persuade and mislead present day leaders to adopt their chicanery. God and posterity are watching Mr. President, National Assembly and the governors and states Assemblies. I wish they love themselves so as to give Nigeria and Nigerians love, which we lack as a country. From Owhor Kinika Friday, PortHarcourt

    Re: The news from Scotland. The State Police and Sovereign Conference are not solutions to our problems in Nigeria. Killing ethnicism, tribalism, adopting merit rather than sharing positions and killing corruption are solutions, through our State and National Assemblies, period. Scottish case differs from Nigeria’s. From Lanre Oseni

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    Segun I disagree with your summary statement in fact if Christians were intolerant, especially in Nigeria this country would have been history. Anonymous

    If we all emphasize Godliness and truth instead of religion, the society would focus on the right virtues and true worship. But God will judge everyone. Happy day! Anonymous

    Re: Making religion work for peace. In achieving religion-for-peace, the Preachers evangelising in both camps should desist, talking and announcing of one’s superiority over others. Who had gone and returned from Heaven? None. There must be a law, banning preaching by all faiths in public vehicles. Finally, governments must determine the location and sites of both mosques and churches. Above all, governments must be imapartial in penalizing the side/faith, breaching the laid-down rules and laws. From Lanre Oseni.

    Please note that Christ is the son of God and not a prophet as wrongly mentioned in your article in The Nation Newspaper on 26th Oct, 2012. From Ubon Usoro

    Listen again to your statement in The Nation of yesterday ‘Both Prophets Muhammed and Christ could not have intended their injunctions to evangelise to result in conflict and violence’ Point of correction,Jesus Christ is the name of the Son of God, he is not, and would never be a prophet. He is the messiah. Anonymous

    I read your comment and the debate in The Nation Newspaper of yesterday and I am well pleased with it. The observation I made is that you have made some Biblical and Quranic refrences to butress your write-ups. Keep it up. Anonymous

    The piece is thought-provoking. The truth is that religion is a criterion for sharing public offices at all levels. What I think will defoliate weird religion is to change the existing economic structure of Nigeria. From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna

    For over 14 years, David Mark has deceived his improverished Idoma people. As Senate President, for about five years he has presided over the most corrupt senate in the history of this nation. One wonders why in spite of his much publicised competence, controversies continue to dodge his every move. For us his native Idoma people we leave him to God. But we can assure him that his vision to a super Mark family in Idoma land where the rest of us will gather every morning at his gate, bowl in hand, for our daily ration will never come to pass. The resilient spirit of the Idoma man, God willing, will prevail. Anonymous

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

     

    Re: ‘These irritants called Okada riders’. The way Lagos State is going about it is not the way to make people comply; neither is it the way to return to the village. Lagos State government should cooperate and collaborate with the Federal Government to check insecurity if that is it’s fear about the ‘Okada’ riders. If it is the route-plying issue, let the state government provide more roads, water transport means and rail transport to ease out ‘Okada’ riders. Lagos State government should provide jobs through industries rather than beautification projects. From Lanre Oseni.

    Ha, Mr Adegboyega, I have just read your column on ‘Okada’ riders. God bless you. I hold the same opinion as you and I had an exchange with one of your colleagues on this issue, requesting him to please encourage us by his writing to think and act right. I said the ‘Okada’ that were destroyed were plying illegal routes and that instead of vilifying government for enacting laws for the common good, we should admonish ‘Okada’ riders to be disciplined and obey the laws. I added that the side effect of unemployment should be a temporary problem whilst they think of other means of livelihood or migrate just as they did coming to Lagos. I concluded that taking to crime should not be the fallout of a government policy. We should not encourage such thinking as if it is an option. No wonder this has led most criminal suspects to claim unemployment as the reason for committing crime. Anonymous.

    This kind of comment is not humanitarian. I can’t be surprised; you are part of the bourgeoisie in this nation, because you are privileged to have a car, that gives you the guts to be saying such a thing. You don’t have any reason to blame the ‘Okada’ riders because it is not their fault. You advised them to go back to the village, I think for farming? How easy do you think it is to be a farmer? Please in all your endeavours, try to have feelings for your fellow countrymen. From Samson, Abuja.

    I read your column and concluded that you don’t have the fear of God. The governments you are backing, what have they done? Graduates are riding ‘Okada’. Anonymous.

    Sometimes, I laugh my heart out when some of us expect to put something on nothing and expect it to stand. While you have hope of eating and surviving tomorrow, many ‘Okada’ riders do not have such expectation. ‘Okada’ economy is a by-product of irresponsible, corrupt and insensitive leadership that has always thought that what goes round certainly does not come around. Do you think that those of us who need a decent, clean and orderly environment can have it if the government decides and forcefully muscles all ‘Okada’ riders to their respective villages and towns? It is dangerous to fight a man whose one and only hope of keeping his breath is in serious jeopardy. While the government would be fighting for survival, the hopeless ones of the society would be fighting to destroy everyone alongside themselves. This mindset is what propels the Boko Haram onslaught. From O. Ifeanyichukwu, Abuja.

    Your article on ‘Okada’ riders refers. Try the Iyana-Iba to Abule Ado Road (both going and coming) at whatever time, even those who choose to trek will get to their destinations before those in a car/bus. What’s the cause? Bad roads, large craters, etc. So, is the ‘Okada’ not necessary? Tomorrow, take a ride about town and see how many people are stranded. You are supporting a bad government; you want to be the only one driving on our roads. Anonymous.

    Why is it that you people that call yourselves journalists have nothing to write but only on ‘Okada’ instead of writing on governments that cannot construct a single good road in the last six years. If we have good roads, the citizens will have no need to patronise’ Okada’ . You even wrote that they should go back to the village; this is Fashola’s slogan since he became the chief tenant at Alausa. Anonymous.

    Mr Adegboyega, your brilliant write-up captured my view. God bless you. Let us all support the Lagos State government to ensure a successful regulation of ‘Okada’. They are a plague that must be dealt with. From Tunde Adio, Lagos.

    Your write-up on’ Okada’ riders in Lagos is a very good one. I pray that many people will read it. Well, I am a soldier serving in Warri; I can tell you from security view that out of 10 ‘Okada’ riders, seven are criminals. You sound very pained; it’s like they have broken your side mirror before. Good day. Anonymous.

  • Omoruyi’s second journey

    Omoruyi’s second journey

    No one should ever again have to cry so plaintively for help as the former Director-General, Centre for Democratic Studies, Prof. Omo Omoruyi, did two days ago before he was flown abroad a second time to treat his recurring cancer. For someone who served his country well at a fairly high level, it was heartrending to see him bemoan his state of utter abandonment. He singled out his former boss and ex-head of state, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, and some of his friends for being indifferent to his plight. They didn’t contribute to his first journey to the United States to treat the cancer that ravaged his body, he said, and they were again uninterested in assuaging his misery as he embarked on what he described as the second journey. Speaking in Benin City shortly before his departure, he also revealed that he had unsuccessfully asked President Goodluck Jonathan for help through Chief Edwin Clark.

    Hear the professor in his own words: “I have been used and dumped, especially by Babangida. Some politicians who don’t like me were also preventing the President from giving me assistance, after I sent a message about my health predicament to him. My cancer is back and I don’t know how it will end. Governor Adams Oshiomhole has graciously come to my aid again. He is the one making it possible for me to commence my second journey. In my book, My journey Back To Life, that is journey number one. It will appear I am starting a second journey, and how this second journey will end, I don’t know. I am going to hospital in the United States to commence a new treatment plan and that treatment plan, how it will end, I do not know… I am going back to the hospital. President Goodluck Jonathan should help me. I cried to him through Chief Edwin Clark. There is vindictiveness in the land. I have paid my dues to this country and the country is unfair to me. What did I not do?”

    There are yet many people who appreciate the erudite professor’s contributions to nation-building, and who hope he would make it back alive and still enjoy life for many more years. But if he does not return, his parting words should haunt Nigeria for some time. In a tone heavy with anguish and despair, Professor Omoruyi had asked this rhetorical question: “What did I not do?” The problem is not what he didn’t do, or what anyone else needed to do. The problem is that it rarely matters what anyone does in Nigeria. After all, he would not be the first top Nigerian to be abandoned to his fate. Many sportsmen, artists and intellectuals have also suffered untold privations, sometimes directly at the hands of the government and its agents, and at other times indirectly as a result of unavailability of facilities. The shocking truth about living in Nigeria is that every citizen is on his own. Professor Omoruyi does not need more education to know how alone the Nigerian is. What worried him instead was the undependability of his friends, which his very desperate circumstances made him to appreciate anew.

    It is possible the friends the professor said gave him cold shoulder would have something to say in their defence. But even if he exaggerated a little, he should be forgiven, for the parting words of this distraughtly sick patriot described such pathos that only someone with a heart of stone could fail to yield to.

     

     

  • Osun deserves more from N17.6 billion flood package

    Osun deserves more from N17.6 billion flood package

    SIR: In the past few weeks, millions of Nigerians in about 25 states in this country have suffered from the deluge that destroyed their property and washed away their means of livelihood like farms. While there is still nothing serious to cheer in our response ability to emergency situation of such magnitude, the Federal Government has slightly roused itself from its accustomed lethargy and characteristic hesitation and has availed the affected states some succour in monetary terms.

    But even at that, this latest gesture has some question marks clearly hanging over it. I make bold to say that the FG is quite unfair to my state, Osun, in the paltry amount it gives to it. Considering the huge amount the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola committed to fighting flood in the state between 2011 and this year, I am of the opinion that Osun deserves special consideration.

    In his nationwide broadcast sometime ago, President Goodluck Jonathan announced the release of N17.6 billion as direct financial assistance to the affected states and some Federal Government agencies responsible for disaster management. The states were grouped into four categories: Oyo, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Adamawa, Delta, Bayelsa and Anambra come under category A; Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba, Cross River, Edo, Lagos and Imo States fall under Category B; Kwara, Katsina, Gombe, Ogun, Ondo, Ebonyi, Abia and Rivers make the Category C; and Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Yobe, Enugu, Ekiti, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Borno and Federal Capital Territory are grouped into Category D. According to the President, N500 million goes to each of the states in Category A, N400 million to each of those in B; N300 million each for states in Category C, and each of those in the last group receives N250 million.

    This classification is based on the level of damage wrought in the states –Categories A and B are regarded as the worst hit, while those of the remaining two categories are considered as less affected.

    The seeming defect in the FG’s intervention has to do with the inclusion of Osun State into the last group. It is on record that prior to the assumption of office of Aregbesola, many towns in Osun were known to be terribly affected by floods. In fact, the government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola unbelievably saw the disaster as insoluble and so asked the affected people to learn to live with it. But not so with Aregbesola’s government. This government saw the plight of the people and got cracking without hanging fire. In the state capital for example, the government deployed both money and men in ensuring that the inhabitants were free from the nightmare of floods. Blocked canals, rivulets, drainages, rivers, and streams were thoroughly cleared for water to flow freely. The exercise was repeated a number of times. It was this effort that saved the state from being affected by the latest flood calamity.

    Therefore, if the FG wants to help states affected by flood, I think states like Osun that have shown seriousness in the use of resources to check disaster should have been considered for the biggest package. This is important when the facts that the state is not among the states whose allocations and internally generated revenues are on the high side. The FG would have successfully given the state a great encouragement if it had grouped it among the states with the fat package. I don’t think the government has demonstrated any serious sense of fairness to Osun. What it has done is to handsomely reward indolence and chastise industry. Encouraging states which are proactive in their response to issues bordering on the wellbeing of citizens has its way of inspiring healthy relationship between the centre and the federating units. Sincerely, I think Osun should have got more than it is given.

    • Bidemi Adegbite,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Bring Obahiagbon back to the House!

    Bring Obahiagbon back to the House!

    SIR: My constituency, Oredo Federal Constituency once enjoyed public visibility and conspicuous admiration in the sixth assembly, but today, one can hardly tell whether it has a member representing her in the house. I was represented by Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, the Anglo-Latin lexical cognoscenti in the sixth assembly.

    Igodomigodo, as he is popularly referred, to rose from unus inter pares to primus inter pares in the House of Representatives of 360 members in a short time. Sincerely, it takes only a man of uncommon profundity to attain such enviable feat. No wonder the growing army of Nigerian youths sees him as a role model.

    I have been an ardent fan of live proceeding of the house broadcast in the media but have since resigned my “fanship” because the house has metamorphosed into a cocoon of rubber-chicken-circuit. I want to suggest that those who must vie for the office of a legislator should first consult vocational experts before venturing into it.

    To excel, a legislator ought to process a well lubricated mental engine with sound erudition and uncommon parliamentary diction. Nigerians must not forget how Obahiagbon went on a one-man-riot against the constitutional hugger-mugger that erupted at the terminus ad quem of late President Yar’Adua’s administration. He stood in the defence of constitutionality.

    Igodomigodo belongs to the class of men Francis Frangipane wrote of, when he said “some men have the future already in their spirit. They are the leaders who will guide us into the realities of tomorrow”.

    Ipso facto, I call on President Goodluck Jonathan to honour the Great Igodomigodo with a national merit award in view of his ineffable and conspicuous legislative delivery in the sixth National Assembly.

     

    • Ehimare Godfery

    Benin City

  • Ensuring compliance with Lagos Traffic Law

    Ensuring compliance with Lagos Traffic Law

    SIR: The decision of the Lagos State government to ban the operation of commercial motorcyclists on major roads in the state has generated a lot of misgivings. The restrictions of okada on the routes and the worsening fuel scarcity have made many Lagosians stranded as they were forced to trek to their destinations.

    No doubt, every attempt to sanitize and restore order to the chaotic roads should be embraced, especially, going by the traffic situation in Lagos. That is what any responsible government should do.

    But in doing this, the necessary environment should be put in place to ensure that the introduction of the new law is not an attempt at paying Peter to rob Paul.

    Presently, the available modes of transportation infrastructure are inadequate for a city of about 20 million people. The existing road is seriously under pressure as the Bus Rapid Transit services passengers often cramped onto the buses while many would-be commuters are always held-down in long queues awaiting the BRT buses for the next turn that may never come.

    The Keke-NAPEP is just a bigger okada and does not offer much.It has only succeeded in increasing the average cost of transportation and traffic congestions within the city. They are equally operated by the same people of the same brains behind the operation of okadas, in terms of traffic law compliance. Hence, in the absence of sufficient cars and buses, commercial motorcycles remain the most practical and easily accessible means of transportation which a large percentage of the populace rely on.

    Banning them at the moment portends grave social and psychological consequences. As a way forward, there should be concerted efforts by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Lagos State Traffic Management Agency and the Nigeria Police to ensure high compliance with traffic regulations. Over the years, what have bred lawlessness in Nigeria are simply impunity and endemic official corruption and bribery. Some law enforcement agents are themselves law-brakers and clogs in the wheel of sanity. They flout the law of the land with impunity. LASTMA officials are not an exception and so,there is the dire need for a shake-up in LASTMA.

    The role of media and public enlightenment should be fully engaged in conjunction with the commercial motorcyclist unions and relevant stakeholders to bring about the necessary sensitization. The government should play its part by putting in place, the necessary infrastructure – good roads, clear street markings, functional traffic lights, road signs, safety and emergency measures as well as educational and instructional materials prepared in English and major Nigerian languages –to make the people respecters of law not law breakers.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi,

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Mark and creation of more states

    Mark and creation of more states

    Senate President David Mark has announced his readiness to join hands with those campaigning for the creation of additional states in Nigeria. He reiterated his view on the subject at the Ojude-Oba annual cultural festival of the Ijebu people where he was a special guest on Sunday. There he argued that, contrary to what many thought, the demand for more states had nothing to do with separatist or isolationist tendencies of Nigerians. The desire for more states, he added, was simply a device to move governance closer to the people. As he put it: “I support the creation of (more) states in this country. And the National Assembly must work towards that. When we create states, it is not because we cannot live together, but because we want to bring governance closer to the people. A lot of people desire and deserve to feel a sense of governance in this country, and when we create states, that is what would happen.” If he offered any other rationalisation for the exercise, the media did not report it.

    In his remarks, Senator Mark also indicated that the National Assembly was in support of additional states, and was already working on the matter. If he had any other reason for the creation of more states, the Ijebu-Ode festival was most suitable for him to educate the people. His hosts asked for Ijebu State, to which Mark was well disposed, but his rationalisation for more states was rightly a general one. However, his statement was more notable for the questions it did not answer than the questions it answered. Governance needed to be moved closer to the people, Mark admitted, but at what point would such a movement become unrealistic and indefensibly atomistic? When would creation of states reach its equilibrium point and anything outside that become unreasonable and impracticable? In fact, as far as practicality goes, why would an 18-state structure be better, not more burdensome, than a 12-state structure, or a 36-state structure bring government closer to the people than a 21-state structure?

    Judging from past experiences, the agitation for the creation of more states will never end, even as the reasons for the campaign will more likely become less and less plausible. It is also unlikely that the states campaigners and their legislative supporters will ever offer truly convincing arguments regarding the optimum point where governance could be said to have achieved the goal of nearness to the people. The argument, indeed, will always boil down to a struggle between spatial nearness and efficiency nearness. Some larger polities, such as India (Pop, 1.2bn) with 28 states, have fewer states than Nigeria. One state in India, Andhra Pradesh, has a population of 84 million people. The third largest country in the world, the United States (Pop, 312m), has just 50 states, a numerical feat Nigeria seems bent on equaling at the rate it is going.

    Senator Mark and the National Assembly should not just be preoccupied with satisfying the yearnings of the people for more states, or of doing justice to all in the exercise, or even of bringing governance closer to the people, with all the dubieties involved. They must convince themselves of the economic wisdom of replicating the cost of governance in increasing number of states, which new administrative units entail, at a time of shrinking revenue vis-à-vis population growth, and seemingly interminable global economic crisis. The times, it seems, call for more prudence in management of economic resources, not careless dissipation.

     

     

  • Our kids and the internet

    Our kids and the internet

    SIR: We live in a world that is a global village- thanks to information technology and its user friendly facilities that offer its users links with the world and people in all nooks and crannies literally at our finger tips. Daily we try to keep up with the innovations and counter innovations thrown at us promising to keep us connected in “real time.” Thus, we find that we hardly get to analyze these technologies and the implications its use could and would have on our lives.

    Nigerians being lovers of modern gadgets and the latest fads have caught on to this trend thanks to the introduction of the mobile phone technology and ICT in the late 1990s. Being constantly on the move trying to eke a living its becoming the new normal to find parents handing their kids and teens mobile phones, iPods, I pads, laptops and other communication gadgets to stay connected with them or even as a tool for spending “quality time” with their kids.

    As you hand over that communication gadget to your child, please pause and think through the implication this gift of love could have on your child’s growth and development. No doubt, the internet is a great place to hang out. It’s not only fun, but it lets you keep in touch with friends and family and provides an enormous amount of information. Cyberspace is like a big city. There are libraries, universities, museums, places to have fun and plenty of opportunities to meet wonderful people from all walks of life. But like any community there are also some people and areas that you ought to avoid and others that you should approach with caution. By knowing the dangers and how to avoid them, you can take advantage of all the positive aspects of the internet, while avoiding most of its pitfalls.

    The recent gruesome murder of Miss Cynthia Osukogu reveals that even adults are vulnerable to the dangers posed by criminals on the social web. It is a wakeup call for all parents, men and women of goodwill, government information dissemination agencies, schools, NGOs and other stakeholders to rise up to the challenge of educating our kids and teens on safe internet use. The government regulatory agencies such as the National Communications Commission (NCC) need to wake up to its role of regulation and putting in place systems of checks and balances to protect internet users. Countries such as China recognized from the outset the dangers of unrestricted, unregulated internet use and thus put in place measures to protect and monitor it users.

    There is no doubt that the social web has come to stay, so all stakeholders adults and children alike need to get educated on surfing the net suavely and safely too. Apart from safety education, monitoring internet use both in content and time spent on these technologies is also a way to go. Isolating our kids from these technologies is certainly not the solution, for these technologies are the new normal of our lifetimes.

     

    • Angela Odah,

    Centre for Gender Education Abuja.

     

  • Many puzzles on Aluu Four killings

    Many puzzles on Aluu Four killings

    SIR: I scribble feebly with a heavy heart and with a sense of shame. Shame for the country I find myself in; shame on the people we live with. Shame on the faces I am familiar with; and on the breed of humans we are gradually turning into. I write to a generation I do not know- neither am I certain of their awakening. I write even if history shoves this journal in her archives. I write even if these pages may be blown up in a timeless memory hole.

    I never realised the magnitude of the killings of the Aluu Four till I went online.

    I could not even bring myself to watch the video: the pictures were real enough to make me sick. I mean it could be anybody; anybody’s child; anybody’s friend, lover, neighbour, brother, uncle, or nephew.

    I saw four naked bodies – stripped of all sense of dignity, hope, and confidence. Bare and vulnerable under the watch of the whole community. Helpless to an inevitable end that was before them.

    I don’t care what they -supposedly-did. That is not how to treat a fellow human. There have been rumours, insinuations and speculations. There have also been whispers, silent arguments, and even loud protests that provide a foundation of excuses and defenses – blowing a cover of “jungle justice.” That sure is ‘jungle’ behaviour, but “justice?” No!

    That is not justice – that is brutal, hasty, anti-society, and selfish. It is murder.

    Let’s take a closer look at this incident -or event- because the whole thing seems pre-empted, premeditated, and calculated. There were willing parties involved; the whole community of Aluu seems to me a group of people observing a familiar ritual. Nobody seemed disturbed, rather it looks like an event where every party had defined roles, and played those roles efficiently. All factors in Aluu collectively ensured the killing of four young men in broad daylight – undisturbed!

    From the person who had the nerve to capture the whole killings on video: the anonymous and silent eye that made the whole world know about the injustice that took place in Aluu. Heroic you might think, but what were his/her intentions? What did he intend to achieve? What emotions was he/she trying to provoke? Did he have underlying motives? There is something definitely missing here – a big hole that needs to be filled. Why did he not use the same power – the media- to source for help? Why did he wait till the whole thing ended- only to replay those horrors on the internet?

    Certainly someone stripped them naked- and just like Saul in the Bible-their belongings were laid at his feet. Someone brought the fuel; someone beat them up; someone in that community was well prepared to kill!

    Ready hands ignited the flames that engulfed the hope of a generation. What about the owner of the local store they patronised? The compound cleaner? Their landlord? The flatmates? For goodness’ sake where was everybody? I could imagine the feeling of betrayal as they pored into those familiar eyes for a clue or hint for their hopeless defeat. Where were their friends? Why didn’t word go out before their brutal end? Where were the students of UNIPORT? They sure could not have killed over 5,000 students? I can feel what seem close to their heartbeat. Inside felt lonely, betrayed and defeated.

    Would this just be another closed chapter buried in our archives of injustice? Would we talk for a while, then say to ourselves “What’s my own?” or “Na dem sabi?”

     

    Oyindamola Adegboye

    Lagos

     

  • Tribute to Sheila Solarin

    Tribute to Sheila Solarin

    SIR: On Sunday, October 21, the co-founder of Mayflower School, Sheila Solarin passed away. Sheila like the late husband, Tai Solarin, was an educationist. She devoted her entire life to working and campaigning to improve the quality of education in Nigeria. And through her Mayflower Schools, she provided that high quality education to Nigerian children. I encountered Sheila not so much in her capacity as an educationist but more in her role as the matron of the Nigerian Humanist Movement(NHM). Very few Nigerians know about Sheila’s humanist credentials especially that she continued the tradition left behind by Tai of supporting secular education and also promoting the humanist outlook.

    In 1998 I travelled to Ikenne to see Sheila and to inform her of the formation of the Nigerian Humanist Movement. I invited her to be the matron of the organisation which she readily accepted. I can still recall vividly my joy and excitement on getting Sheila’s endorsement of the Nigerian humanist project. Sheila was visibly worried by the damaged caused by superstitions especially the way religious fanaticism was hampering the growth and development of the nation.

    She was not anti-religion or antitheism. She was of the view that organized religion fulfilled some social good and that with more knowledge, the god-of-the -gaps would fade away.

    Sheila was unequivocal in her support for an alternative to dogmatic religions and superstitious beliefs and for the promotion of reason, science and critical thinking. She bemoaned the collosal waste of lives by violent extremists and the way Nigeria had been turned to a religious supermarket at the expense of human development.

    Mrs Solarin was a pillar of humanism not only in principle but also in practice.

    When she was asked, at one of her last outings at the Tai Solarin memorial lecture in Lagos, to deliver a short message to the Nigerian youths. She simply said “Think ahead”.

    Sheila was so many things to so many people. She will be missed by both humanists and religious folks alike. Sheila. like her late husband Tai, lived and died in service of humanity.

    Leo Igwe

    Lagos