The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • On the rumoured hosting of foreign military bases

    On the rumoured hosting of foreign military bases

    • By Amb Dapo Fafowora

    Sir: I thought the issue of not allowing foreign military bases in Nigeria was settled a long time ago. In 1961, we, the students of the then University College, Ibadan, fought successfully for the abrogation of the Anglo/Nigeria defence pact. During our civil war, we were careful enough not to allow any foreign military bases in Nigeria or enter into any military alliance with foreign powers. We bought weapons from all of them, except France, without entering into any formal military alliance with them. The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a wholly Nigerian-led military formation in West Africa. The US and its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies promised military assistance which did not materialise.

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    One of the primary objectives of Nigerian foreign and defence policy has been to get French forces out of Africa. Now the French are being forced to leave the Sahel. Are we going to allow our country to offer France a military base in Nigeria when it has always been our strategy to get all foreign military bases out of Africa? Was this objective not one of the reasons why we joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)? And how can we qualify for membership of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries if we offer the US and France military bases in Nigeria?

    I don’t even believe that this government will even think of this kind of military engagement with the United States and France. I am confident that this government will not entertain or seriously entertain this sordid idea. If it does, it will be digging its own political grave as it will be confronted by massive domestic opposition.

    Nigeria does not deserve to survive if it needs to bring in foreign forces for its security. This will be a negation of what this country has stood for in its post-colonial history.

    •Amb Dapo Fafowora, OON, FNAL

    Lagos.

  • Why power sector doom is imminent

    Why power sector doom is imminent

    Sir: The future of the power sector is inevitably doomed and damned with National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC and the present distribution companies (DISCOS) at the helm of energy distribution.

    After complaining to NERC severally and repeatedly about how Ikeja Electric has been extorting, oppressing and depriving us, NERC has done nothing to stop this robbery.

    We are customers on tariff plan B -non MD (11-Oke IraINJ-T2-Kayode) band B feeder paying for 16-20hrs of daily electricity but instead we are supplied 0-4hrs of electricity and subjected to all night daily blackout since late December 2023 even till present while neighbouring streets on 11-OgbaINJ-T2-Agege band B feeder and tariff plan B-non MD (same plan B as ours) are averaging 20-24hrs of electricity like those on plan A.

    If neighbouring streets on 11-OgbaINJ-T2-Agege band B feeder and tariff plan B-non MD are averaging 20-24hrs of electricity daily, then it only shows that there are only two tariff plans which are plan A and the rest. The idea of naming the rest as plan B, C, D and E is an act of deception otherwise why is it only customers on plan A that both NERC and DISCOS are giving attention to?

    For example, only the list of customers on plan A are found on both NERC and DISCOS website and their record of daily power supply is published online. Why has NERC failed to instruct all DISCOS to publish on their website and online the record of daily power supply to other plans such as B, C, D and E? Why is it only for plan A customers alone as if they are the only existing customers?

    This shows that there is no transparency from both NERC and DISCOS, only deception to fool the nation they are active.

    Why are all customers not on a single tariff plan? Why the classification and discrimination of customers? Why can’t customers choose their plan and mode of electricity supply (when they need or want power supplied)? Why force various plans on them and when you feel like supplying them electricity? Why are some customers paying same money for same tariff as their neighbour and getting inferior and unequal service in comparison? Why are some paying more for a tariff plan and those paying less get same service as those who pay more? For example, why are those paying for plan B getting same service as those paying more for plan A? What rights do customers have because even when they complain it falls on deaf ears?

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    Why is there no transparency and accountability from NERC and DISCOS despite the regular and frequent complaints of customers about paying for a particular plan but instead receiving the service of the lowest or non-existing plan? Today, nobody is being held accountable for the ongoing duplicity from these DISCOS. This is why the DISCOS are encouraged to keep up the duplicitous act of cheating, extorting, oppressing and depriving customers of their rights and what they are rightfully entitled to.

    How can NERC and these DISCOS explain or justify this fraudulent act of rendering non-existing plan service (the lowest plan E still get 4-8hrs) to customers paying for plan B, yet these companies are quick to fault and penalize customers on grounds of illegal connections, bypassing and etc. Of course, they are free to rob their customers with no clarification and explanation as to why they fail to provide adequately the services they are paid for.

    They believe they are untouchable and above the law. It baffles me why EFCC and other anti-graft outfits are turning blind eyes to the huge corruption rocking the power sector.

    Honestly, if these DISCOS are not stopped, then the future of the power sector is definitely doomed and damned because the big problems today were small problems that kept growing due to negligence.

    •Tolulope Oyebanjo,

     <tiiboy@yahoo.com>

  • Social media and artificial intelligence

    Social media and artificial intelligence

    • By Ganiu Bamgbose

    Sir: Whatever be the discussion now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the icing on the cake. There is the AI dimension to virtually every topic. Even though artificial intelligence is not as recent as many think, its tentacles have, certainly, got broadened beyond imaginable limits. Britannica defines artificial intelligence as a term “frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience”.

    Studies and positions abound on the use, misuse and even abuse of artificial intelligence but issues concerning AI and social media usage have not enjoyed inquiries.

    In his article, Mike Kaput described the relationship between social media and AI as a match made in heaven. He further enlightens that every social media platform on the planet uses AI in some way to function. This is to the extent that AI dictates what content surfaces in your feed and it moderates comments and content to improve user experience. From marketing, to creating publicity for contents, the social media platforms serve as relevant outlets which AI algorithm can boost. It is deserving of mention that there is no venture that does not have a market on the social media– you teach, preach, sing, sew, make hair, make people laugh… someone on social media is waiting to have your craft as their craze. And with AI, you can do the feasibility study for whatever your product is on social media, generate contents for your products, boost visibility for what you do, among many other benefits. Networking opportunities also abound on social media for anyone who can make the best use of them.

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    On the other side of the discussion, one disturbing thing with the social media is how it regularly creates so much to engage viewers through the help of AI while disengaging them from their own life. From apps that make you finer than how you are in real life and clothe you without having to pay, to the ones that predict your looks at old age, the social media have got so much for everyone to relax with that you may forget you owe your life the responsibility of growth. If you would have loved to be a judge but didn’t get the chance to study law, social media present you with numerous disputes to adjudicate on. From why Yul Edochie had to get a second wife, to who did what between Comedian Ay and his wife before their marriage ended, you would always have cases to attend to on social media that the only case you may forget to treat is your own life reality.

    To be a literate person in the 20th century was to have a properly sharpened brain from reading novels, magazines, the holy books, articles, textbooks and so on. With the advent of social media in the 21st century where fake, false and fabricated news are all many read online, a literate person might even be more myopic than someone who is unable to read and write. From reel, to status, to story, it is amazing how Facebook and other social media have grown in less than two decades, giving us so much to engage us while disengaging many from things that concern them. Like other AI devices, the social media can help you do a lot for yourself and can help boost an idle, lazy and unproductive life for the unconscious ones.

    The discussion on artificial intelligence remains narrow without a proper exploration of the concept from the perspective of social media. And like scholars say, the discussion continues.

    •Ganiu Bamgbose PhD,

    Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos.

  • Between Umahi and Obi  

    Between Umahi and Obi  

    In the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, and its conspiracy theories by tribal champions, you clearly see the essence of Peter Obi, that just loves to jive; and David Umahi, that just loves to do.

    Incidentally, both were former South East governors. 

    In Obi’s Anambra, razed to virtual ground zero during the Chinwoke Mbadinuju years (1999-2003), but which gradually got its life back during the nullified tenure of Chris Ngige, Obi the eternal grand pretender, dazzled with what he called “savings”.

    He never believed in any grand infrastructure.  Instead of building expressways that would push the Anambra economy to new heights, he was fixated with patching small lanes that led nowhere, because he wanted to “save”. 

    But thanks to the Pandora Papers!  That expose would later prove the “savings” were Anambra trove cleverly funnelled to fund his private and family business but later returned as “savings”, to cook his political saintlihood, during his gubernatorial days. 

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    But for his family’s brewery, he left hardly any public landmark in Anambra — no great road, not even built a single school.  His contrived “greatness” is by word of mouth: spewing false statistics from China, buttering himself up with false claims, and talking down others with demonstrable records.

    Pray, if Obi says the Lagos-Calabar coastal road is a “white elephant project” just to talk it down, just know that envisioning real “elephants” that “shake up” the economy is simply beyond his ken. Again, the gels with his Anambra record of hardly any legacy.

    Now, to Umahi.  In four short years as governor, he pulled Abakaliki, the Ebonyi capital, from its eternal phrasal moniker: “as dusty as Abakaliki”, to a sleek and alluring modern capital.  But Abakaliki was only the mother metaphor for a long-neglected state. 

    In Umahi’s penetrating roads, deep into Ebonyi’s most interior food baskets, he “patented” the concrete roads, which gospel he now preaches as Works minister.

    Umahi doesn’t have to talk.  His eternal “do” — clearly visible to even the blind — does the talking for him.  But Obi is self-condemned to eternal ranting.  Poor guy!

    A final, telling contrast: Umahi’s radical infrastructural push is why Ebonyi now trumps its “mother state” and old East capital, Enugu, in GDP contribution to the South East, by BudgIT stats just released, just as Obi’s infrastructural barrenness makes Imo to out-perform Anambra. 

    Which is why Umahi should shun the bitter moans of Obi and his ilk. Obi will do that until the public gets tired of his lamentations — a clear public nuisance.  Meanwhile, Umahi will build new legacies on the federal front, cementing his rich Ebonyi records in public works, while Obi moans and cries himself into re-confirmed irrelevance.

    It’s a glorious Babatunde Fashola-Dave Umahi parallel.  Fashola, after excelling in Lagos — by doing — went to the federal front, as Works and Housing minister, to cement his legacy.  Umahi is towing the same path, and it’s getting clear he’ll even surpass the successes of the Fashola federal years.

    It’s the distinct class act of consummate doers — against arid talkers, as Obi and co!  The difference, as the famous 7Up commercial crows, is clear!

  • When is Nigeria’s industrial revolution happening?

    When is Nigeria’s industrial revolution happening?

    Sir: Available data suggest that the contribution of manufacturing to Nigeria’s GDP has been on a decline for nearly four decades – Nigeria is said to be less industrialized today than we were 40 years ago. With oil and gas as the dominant source of our revenue and export earning, we abandoned our national drive for industrialization, dating back to the 60s under the first National Development Plan that embraced import-substituting industrialization, with the objective of mobilizing national economic resources and deploying them on a cost/benefit basis among contending projects as a strategic attempt at industrial development.

    According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2018, manufacturing contributed 9.2% to GDP, 9.06% in 2019, 8.99% in 2020, 8.98% in 2021, 8.92% in 2022, and 8.23% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

     To accelerate Nigeria’s industrialization strategy and unlock our economic potential beyond oil and gas, which accounts for over 90% of export earnings and about 65 % of government revenue, Nigeria must go beyond talks, to building an economy of improved commodities and increased share of global manufacturing output. Notwithstanding the constitutional and structural contradictions in our federal framework, both the national and subnational governments must actively promote industrial development beyond just “putting in place” enabling environments and conditions for industrialization, including infrastructure, favourable investment climate, security, and a skilled workforce – to creating systematic approach to identify and nurture infant industries.

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    To nurture and support industries that focus on agro-allied, metals and solid minerals, oil and gas, construction, light manufacturing and services, the 2014 Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan was designed as a policy framework for Nigeria to become a preferred source for supplying low and medium technology consumer and industrial goods domestically and locally, thereby create wealth, jobs and import substitution. Ten years after the policy was unveiled, the plan has not been implemented to achieve the target objectives. This is not far from the fact that we lack industrial revolution governance that can seriously define and give direction on Nigeria’s decade of industrialization.

    Industrial revolution governance is required to put in place the essential elements for industrial transformation that will develop our manufacturing capability, improve economic management, promote macro-economic stability and better use of state resources. It is purposeful governance that led to China’s industrialization success, which resulted to her overtaking the United States to become the world’s largest producer of manufactured goods in 2011, creating jobs for millions of Chinese, lifting 700 million people out of extreme poverty, creating wealth, improving living standards and ensuring food security for all.

    How then can Nigeria fuel the fundamental factors for industrialization?

    The first step in the right direction is to conquer procurement and contract corruption in the infrastructure development sector. Inadequate infrastructure is the most pressing constraint on Nigeria’s industrialization and unless money allocated to building roads, power projects, water and other enabling infrastructure for industrialization are properly utilized, Nigeria can hardly achieve her industrialization objectives.

    Contract and procurement fraud is estimated at approximately N2.9 trillion over the period of 2018 to 2020 alone, which accounts for 10% of the total budgetary allocations for that period – funds that could have provided critical infrastructure for many communities. Nigeria needs adequate infrastructure and energy to power our industrialization. If we reduce corruption, then such industrialization enabling legal and policy frameworks like the Electricity Act will be fully implemented to ensure that relevant stakeholders: states, companies, and individuals, empowered by the Act to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, do not only invest in power projects that will power our industrialization but must ensure corporate governance that will sustain a healthy energy ecosystem.

    Another variable for Nigeria’s industrialization is quality education. Almost all industrialized countries were able to harness education, research, technology, technical and vocational education as a tool for growth. Britain prioritized new scientific inventions, developing the steam engine; Germany and Japan focused on solid engineering education and technological development; Singapore shows Asia’s greatest success stories in transforming from a developing country to a modern industrial economy in one generation, and this was due to her investment in education.  

    Talks on Made-in-Nigeria will remain in the pipe line unless we get our politics right, to be able to prompt consistent industrialization policies, provide good governance that will ensure macroeconomic stability, and make Nigeria’s desire to produce what she eats and eats what she produces a possibility. Nigeria has all the variables for industrialization, we only need leaders with clear vision to know that Nigeria’s greatness cannot be achieved with foreign aid but our local productivity.

    •Ekpa, Stanley Ekpa Esq,ekpastanleyekpa@gmail.com

  • 2024 JAMB results and matters arising

    2024 JAMB results and matters arising

    Sir: Reactions have continued to trail the recent release of the UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) results for university hopefuls by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). According to JAMB’s Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, over 1.94 million candidates registered and sat for the examination in 118 towns and over 700 centres across the nation. This is significantly higher than the 1,595,779 candidates who registered for the 2023 edition.

    He also mentioned that 1,402,490, (76 percent) of the candidates, scored below 200. The performances of the candidates are undoubtedly below par, and many Nigerians are understandably disappointed and baffled. On various social media platforms, many people have attributed the record-breaking disastrous performance this year to the proliferation of social media.

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    Although this year’s results are not quite different from last year’s, the attention that one needed was diverted to the case of Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, who infamously forged her UTME results to gain adulations for being the candidate with the highest scores. But then, after announcing the scale of this year’s poor performances, the registrar made an even more shocking disclosure that should have sparked more outrage than Mmesoma’s forgery scandal, but unfortunately caused barely a ripple. During an inspection of the examination proceedings at the Kaduna State University CBT Centre, Kaduna, Oloyede informed newsmen that a father was caught impersonating his son, and that both of them were promptly detained for prosecution.

    The father’s conduct shows how deep immorality has eaten into the moral fabric of our society. Nigeria is notoriously an “anything goes” society, where illegality is permissible, even encouraged, so long as money is involved. As such, it does not come off as much of a surprise that parents who are supposed to be their children’s moral guardians are even engaging in unethical acts which undermine the integrity of our educational system. There are several instances where parents take their children to so-called ‘miracle centres’ for WAEC and NECO, or hire individuals to write exams for them.

    One doesn’t need a prophet or soothsayer to see just how much this rate of illegality contributes to the intellectual rot and academic decline of students and youths. Also factor in the belief that “school na scam” and you can understand why most students barely bother to read. After all, they have ways to navigate past the rules of education which encourage merit and excellence. After all, social media offers much glamorous opportunities for fame, wealth and social respect, thanks to examples set by an industry of influencers, entertainers, fraudsters and moral degenerates. Nowadays, it is hard for an impressionable Gen Z to understand that academics can be a pathway to a stable career.

    However, despite the poor performance and the startling revelation by the registrar, there are still some positives from the 2024 UTME. For instance, a student from a public school in Kwara State scored above 300. Olukayode Olusola’s outstanding performance in the 2024 UTME is proof that all hope is not lost in public schools. His academic achievement serves as a flicker of hope and inspiration, especially at a time when confidence in government schools has waned. Such remarkable success from a public school student should undoubtedly ignite a much-needed revolution in the education sector.

    Another positive from the 2024 UTME is the number of females that applied this year. According to the JAMB registrar, 982,393 males, representing 49.4 per cent, enrolled for the 2024 UTME, as against 1,007,275 females, which is 50.6 per cent. This is a huge boost for girl-child education in our country.

    That being said, the 2024 UTME should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. Parents need to wake up to their duties as the primary guardians and educators of future generations. The shameless conduct of the father caught impersonating his son is a moral indictment on parenthood, even though it does not capture the general approach to parenting here. There is also a need for us to revive our public schools, so they can compete and be at par with their counterparts abroad.

    •Zayd Ibn Isah,lawcadet1@gmail.com

  • Unlawful treatment of journalists

    Unlawful treatment of journalists

    Less than two months after Segun Olatunji, Editor of FirstNews, an online medium, was unlawfully detained and tortured for two weeks by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), another journalist, Daniel Ojukwu, who works for the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), was reported to be in detention at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Lagos, in circumstances that were against the law. He was reported to have been arrested by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police for alleged cybercrime on May 1.

    FIJ said Ojukwu’s whereabouts were initially unknown, but it was later discovered that he was in detention at Panti, accused of violating the Cybercrime Act. His relative was reported saying the police had indicated that he would be transferred to Abuja. At the time of the report, he was said to have been “held incommunicado for three days, with no access to legal representation.”

    There are disturbing similarities between the two cases. The arrests of the two journalists can be described as abductions. In Olatunji’s case, soldiers invaded his Abule-Egba home in Lagos State, and took him away. The military denied knowledge of his whereabouts. They flew him to Abuja blindfolded, and detained him for two weeks under harsh conditions before eventually releasing him following public and professional outcry.

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    Olatunji said they asked him about certain stories published in FirstNews, concerning the Chief of Defence Intelligence and the Chief of Staff to the President. Even after the International Press Institute (IPI) found out that the DIA was responsible for his detention and torture, according to the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Iyobosa Uwugiaren, “they lied that the journalist was not in their custody. Yet our sources were telling us we needed to act fast to save our colleague.”

    Lawlessness by state actors was also evident in Ojukwu’s case, which the FIJ initially treated as possibly a missing person case before locating him at Panti.  The police have not officially clarified his detention.

    In both cases, the lawless actions of the state actors involved are condemnable. In a democracy, state actors are not expected to resort to lawlessness in response to alleged wrongs committed by media practitioners.

     Nigeria’s security agencies must not create a climate of fear in the media by carrying out oppressive operations against journalists. The authorities must avoid giving the impression that state actors are above the law and can get away with unlawful treatment of journalists. That is unacceptable.

  • From Chairside to Compliance Champion: A story about Dr. Kingsley Obanubi’s relentless pursuit of sterile excellence

    From Chairside to Compliance Champion: A story about Dr. Kingsley Obanubi’s relentless pursuit of sterile excellence

    Cleanliness may be the visible standard in dental practice, but true sterility is an invisible discipline, one that determines whether a clinic protects or endangers its patients. In Nigeria’s evolving oral healthcare sector, where varying levels of infrastructure pose real challenges to infection prevention, Dr. Kingsley Oluyomi Obanubi has distinguished himself as a practitioner who refuses to compromise on safety. His work reflects an understanding that sterilization is not a checklist; it is a culture that must be built, taught, and continuously reinforced for every procedure that unfolds in a clinical environment.

    His commitment to elevating infection-control practices began with a simple observation: many clinics relied on improvised routines rather than structured systems, leaving room for cross-contamination and preventable risks. He responded by developing a set of robust, evidence-based infection-control and sterilization protocols now adopted by more than 15 private dental clinics across Lagos and Ogun states.

    The protocols are comprehensive, covering everything from the pre-cleaning and segregation of instruments to autoclave calibration, environmental decontamination, and regulated biomedical waste management. By integrating documentation checkpoints and workflow sequencing, he ensured that each step reinforces the next, creating a safety loop that minimizes human error and strengthens compliance across the board.

    Beyond designing these systems, he recognized that adoption would only be sustainable if clinical teams were empowered with practical knowledge. His hands-on workshops, designed for dental auxiliaries and junior clinicians, bring infection control to life in a relatable, operational way. Participants learn the reasoning behind each process, the consequences of lapses, and the techniques required to maintain aseptic conditions even in high-volume settings. Many clinics report not only fewer contamination incidents but a new sense of professional pride among staff who now understand their role as custodians of patient safety.

    His influence has also extended regionally through informal collaborations with safety officers and clinic managers seeking guidance on how to modernize their processes. His willingness to review setups, assess gaps, and recommend tailored improvements has made him a trusted resource for facilities hoping to align with global best practices. Whether he is validating sterilization cycles, reviewing operatory turnover procedures, or helping clinics adopt more structured documentation habits, his approach remains grounded in practicality and integrity.

    His leadership demonstrates that when a practitioner prioritizes sterility with consistency and conviction, entire networks of clinics rise to a higher standard. In the effort to strengthen Nigeria’s dental safety landscape, his voice and his work continues to set a benchmark for excellence that is both timely and indispensable.

  • Oyo LG poll: What manner of election?

    Oyo LG poll: What manner of election?

    • By Ademola ‘Bablow’ Babalola

    Oyo local council polls have come and gone, but the negative impression and series of controversy that accompanied the election will forever remain in the archives. From what transpired during the voting activities, Oyo State residents can confidently testify to some irregularities during the exercise and how poorly the process was executed by the state umpire, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC).

    People can confirm whether or not the words of honour and assurance that the OYSIEC chairman, Isiaka Olagunju (SAN) gave before the conduct of the elections were brought to bear.

    In the polling units across all the local councils in the state, OYSIEC officials were not available in many of the units where they were assigned to. And this undoubtedly led many who were anxious to vote for the candidates of their choice, after waiting for so many hours without any sight of electoral materials, to lose hope of casting their votes. They were frustrated and returned to their homes to attend to other things.

    In some polling booths where OYSIEC officials were available, ballot papers were insufficient. For instance in Ibarapa, it was reported that in a ward which had about 250 registered voters, only 50 ballot papers were available to the electorate. This means that 200 voters in that particular polling booth were disenfranchised.

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    Talking about the elections that OYSIEC conducted years back, opposition parties always boycotted as a result of the irregularities that normally went along with the polls. But with faith in the sincerity of the OYSIEC chairman, Isiaka Olagunju, 18 political parties agreed to participate in the polls. They believed the ballots would be different from the ones that had before been conducted, but reverse turned to be the case as only the ruling party, PDP, and the OYSIEC chairman were satisfied with the contest. Other political parties and millions of the electorate were displeased.

    Now that the faith and hope the electorate have in the OYSIEC is dashed, how would the state which is full of local councils that are managed by selected but not elected council chairmen develop?

    Who exactly controlled or manipulated the OYSIEC in the just concluded elections? Is the commission truly independent? What precisely is the essence of an independent body whose financial capacity is determined by the state governor? Unless the OYSIEC is financially liberated, I do not foresee a free, fair and credible election anytime soon in Oyo State.

    •Ademola ‘Bablow’ Babalola,

    babalolaademola39@gmail.com

  • Varsity lands and land encroachers

    Varsity lands and land encroachers

    • By Kazeem Olalekan Israel

    The federal government must, at this point in time address the issue of encroachment on university lands once and for all. Many a time, we have been fed with news of encroachment of university lands by grabbers; yet, the government has not for once made any attempt at arresting the situation in order to ensure that it does not degenerate into a crisis.

    In 2020, we read of how violence erupted at the University of Jos over nefarious activities of land grabbers. They had even gone ahead to erect structures on the university land. Meanwhile, it is important to guide our people that the fact that a university has not developed all its lands does not give anyone the express right to invade it and then start erecting structures on it.

    In fact, the government must do everything to address the situation once and for all. Yes, we might say whenever the government is ready to utilise those lands, the people will vacate it. But, we must put into consideration that structures have been erected already. What is the point of demolishing structures when we can ensure there was no invasion in the first instance?

    The issue of encroachment of university land is a very serious problem bedevilling our ivory towers today. In fact, the situation at Obafemi Awolowo University is a case apart, not just a case study. The dynamic of the invasion is so disturbing and alarming that the federal government must wade in to immediately put the issue to rest once and for all.

    On April 2, a supposed group of Ife indigenes went to the university with a bulldozer to create a pathway behind Poplat Fuelling station. The group claimed that they had been mandated by Ife community to build a wall fence to demarcate Ife land from that of OAU.

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    As this is being written, they have gone ahead to erect a fence on the university land. It is even more disturbing that part of the land they are laying claim to has a 3-block students’ hostel which the Ife community has not allowed the university to utilise since 2018 while the federal government has looked the other way. It is the height of insanity for anyone to start erecting fence on a land which has a students’ hostel built with taxpayers’ money on it.

    It has become clear that these intruders have special interest in government land and properties considering how recalcitrant they have become in encroaching on university land. It is a case of impudence and criminality.

    The university management must ensure that the fence being erected by these elements does not stand. And the federal government must not just give a last warning to encroachers who have become so bold but they should be arrested and prosecuted. Encroaching on a land that has been gazetted for the university by some elements who are now occupying some seats which should ordinarily symbolise and promote decency is highly disturbing. The federal government must urgently wade in to stop these land grabbers from encroaching on the university landed property which was built with taxpayers’ money.

    •Kazeem Olalekan Israel, (GANI)

    OAU, Ile-Ife.