The Nation Newspaper

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  • Free the Cameroonians

    Quite easily, the law can be made to negate its very spirit. That is what we are experiencing in Nigeria with the arrest of some Cameroonian nationals residing in Nigeria.

    The citizens of Cameroon did not commit murder, rape a Nigerian or disrupt life in their country of residence. They are not arrested because they subverted our politics or are plotting to overthrow our democracy.

    They are under arrest because they seek secession in their country and are perceived by the state of Cameroon as criminals. The victims include Julius Ayuk Tabe, Prof. Che Awasom, Nalowa Bih, a lawyer; Ojong Okongo, Dr. Fidelis Che, Dr. Nfor Nfor, Dr. Henry Kumeng, Elias Eyambe, a lawyer; and Dr. Cornelius Kwanga.

    The persons were whisked away peremptorily as though this were a military government. For instance, Tabe was arrested at about 19:00 hours in an unnamed hotel by about 15 armed men in military gear.

    The arrest of the men is against the background of the declaration of autonomy in the English-speaking parts of the republic of Cameroon. They call the new secessionist area The Republic of Ambazonia. Since its declaration in October last year, the streets of Cameroon have erupted with protests and dozens of its citizens have been killed, including police officers. Out of fear of arrests and persecution, some activists have left the country. About 40 are believed to be in Nigeria at the moment.

    The English-speaking people want to assert themselves by separating from Cameroon, which is predominantly French-speaking. Its leader, Paul Biya, has been at odds with the movement and wants to treat the secessionists as treasonous.

    Civil rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) raised the alarm and called for the release of the Cameroonians. Hear Falana: “Since the Cameroonians entered Nigeria legitimately, the arrest and detention by the Federal Government cannot be justified under the law. As Africans, the detainees are entitled to human rights, to personal liberty, freedom of association and freedom of expression guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.”

    The barrister, who is standing for them as their lawyer, is right. The arrests were another chapter in official impunity under attorney general Abubakar Malami. The families of the victims have not been able to reach their loved ones, and this is a charge that Falana lodged in the heart of this government. Malami and the Federal Government have not been able to offer an explanation for this in a democracy.

    “You will agree with us that by not disclosing information on the abduction to the relatives of our clients, the State Security Service (SSS) has violated section 6 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act,” noted Falana. He explained that the act imposed on any authority “having custody of a suspect to notify the next of kin or relative of the suspect of the arrest at no cost to the suspect.”

    If the relatives cannot see them, even the lawyer is also denied access. This is a sort of de facto double jeopardy for the arrested. To arrest them is wrong, and to hide them only equates with the activities of banana republics.

    The Cameroonians have been meeting in Nigeria under a body known as the Governing Council of Ambazonia. As Falana explained, they are entitled to the protection of the fundamental rights provision according to Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights that Nigeria and Cameroon ratified.

    The charter says, “1. All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen. 2. Colonised or oppressed peoples shall have the right to free themselves from the bonds of domination by resorting to any means recognised by the international community. 3. All peoples shall have the right to the assistance of the State Parties to the present Charter in their liberation struggle against foreign domination, be it political, economic or cultural.”

    This should be clear to the attorney general and the SSS. But what is going on is the escalation of impunity that we have seen visited on the leader of the Shiite group, Ibrahim El-ZakZaky and the former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki. Both men have been arrested for many months without trial.

    Some analysts have advanced the view that Nigeria should not be seen to counter the leadership of Cameroon because they are cooperating with Nigeria in the war against Islamic insurgency. But that has nothing to do with the rule of law. Both countries are signatories.

    Again, we should not forget that Nigeria is not the only country that hosts secessionists around the world or persons regarded as treasonous. Recently the Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont left Spain and was not harassed in Brussels where he fled.

    We should not forget that our democracy is a beneficiary of so-called subverts who rallied Nigerians and the international community against military dictatorship under Sani Abacha. Our fellow citizens were accommodated and even encouraged in Europe and the United States.

    Arresting the Cameroonians is a case of malignant ingratitude and amnesia.

     

  • The teacher palaver

    The recent action of the Kaduna State government under Mallam Nasir El Rufai to sack unqualified teachers in his state has generated lots of furore. The move has stirred the hornet’s nest and is now at the front banner of national discourse. The fundamental question of teacher competency and pedagogy in general has for long been a major aspect of the decay in the educational system. While critics are loathsome of the governor‘s insistence on sanitizing the quality of teachers, it as well remains an axiom that what the governor did is in the long term interest of education. Many a critic argues that in the prevailing harsh economic situation where unemployment is a major factor, sacking thousands will add more to the social malaise.

    This position cannot be dismissed at face value, but the counter argument in the circumstance, is much superior and supports the governor‘s stance. To tolerate the presence of teachers who will put the future of millions of our off springs at jeopardy is tantamount to breeding semi-illiterates that will benefit neither themselves nor society. Put in another way –it is better, and a lesser crime to see those teachers off than retaining them. It is a subsisting fact that lots of teachers at the primary school level, especially in the northern states are wanting in terms of their knowledge competency to prepare the children for the future at this their impressionable years, where a solid foundation for the kids must be taken seriously.

    And, one can imagine if such a huge number of teachers- 20 thousand, can be discovered in the North‘s most cosmopolitan state and hence, expectedly more educated; the numbers in other states will be outrageously higher. Since the problem is not an isolate to Kaduna State or localized, it must be seen as a pervasive one and needing urgent measures to ameliorate the situation. While it is apparent that there are a plethora of problems facing the primary education sector, to wit: overpopulation of pupils, inadequate classes, equipment et al, all these problems become insignificant compared to lack of competent teachers because in the end it is what the pupils learn that matters. A whole range of factors have combined to contribute to both paucity of good teachers and even the willingness of otherwise good teachers to teach.

    First, recruitments are influenced by the interests of those who have a ‘say‘ in the running of the schools; therefore, there are ubiquitous teachers recruited on the basis of relationships-emotional or otherwise. And to add insult to injury, promotions and other motivations are most times preserved for those who have somebody to recommend them rather than being outcomes of their being diligently devoted to their works. In effect morale is low among the competent teachers and they always perceive they are there for a while; as they continue to search for other jobs and ready to leave whenever an opportunity arises. And, deductibly, it is seldom one sees the professional teacher of yore, committed and enthusiastic to his/her job.

    There is also the problem of funding to primary education compared to other levels in the sector.  While one could say there is some significant improvements in funding tertiary institutions, a corresponding financing of primary and to some extent secondary education remain poor. Thus, primary school funding is mostly left to the lowest tier of government- the local governments whose allocations are often tampered by their states and whatever trickles down to them are mostly misappropriated such that a backlog of months of teachers’ salaries are owed the poor teachers. Given the situation, how can good teachers be poached and retained with pittance as salaries and with almost zero motivations.

    Now that Kaduna has led the way, other states should take a cue and do their audits in order to sift the chaff from the wheat. Leaders, political or bureaucrats must be bold to take difficult decisions even as vocal and selfish members of society use the political card to dissuade such moves. There is always the tendency to stymie such efforts in view of the‘ next‘ election. For instance, El Rufai‘s opponents want us to believe the sack of teachers as inhuman and sending thousands to the unemployment market; and therefore, a gamble on his part in respect of 2019! It is sheer blackmail and dishonesty as none of these critics want to dwell on the weightier consequences of leaving the future of those children in unsafe hands.

    The governor cannot be faulted on motive, but method. Methinks a further opportunity be given those teachers by way of intensive training especially during vacations and further tests and retests could be conducted such that those who can sail through are retained and those that cannot cope are weeded out. And every disengaged teacher be given his due entitlements promptly; that way the pain of sacked teachers along with those of their dependents can be taken care of.

    The need to audit teacher performance and competence must extend to beyond Kaduna State in respect of public primary schools especially and perhaps beyond that level of education. It is a long overdue need, in order to correct a major contributory factor in the despicable decay of education.

    • Bulama writes from Mairi Village, Maiduguri, Borno State.

     

  • Why prepaid meter may never go round

    Being a new unmetered customer, my monthly electricity bill in July 2014 was roughly N3000. This was with the assumption made by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) that I consumed 140 kWh in the month, which was far from the reality going by the gross inadequate supply of power in the country. In August, IBEDC increased the assumed electricity consumption to 160 kWh, giving me a bill of N3400. However, it was a rude shock to me when in September of the same year, I received a bill of N5200 with estimated energy consumption of 280 kWh. To play a smart game, IBEDC attached to the month’s bill the following note:

    “Good day my esteem (sic) customers, the increase in your current charges is due to an increase in energy received from the grid as at August 2014. Please kindly pay up your charges and outstanding debt if there is any. Thanks and God bless.”

    I was upset. How does the increase in the energy received from the grid translate to the amount supplied to me as a customer? This is a clear demonstration of how defective the billing method used by our electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) is. I picked my phone, composed and sent a message to the marketer in charge of my area to register my grievance of the “crazy” bill. What she simply replied was that I should try and get a prepaid meter, as if it was that easy to get even upon payment. Thinking that the following month billing will go back to the status quo, I received another N5000 plus in October. I then resolved that there was no option than to procure a prepaid meter by all means.

    I applied and paid the necessary charges for a prepaid meter but was made to realize that thousands of customers who have applied and paid the charges were on a long queue. Lots of consumers have made down payment for the meters for several months or even a year without being supplied by DISCOs. This has exposed consumers of electricity to the user-unfriendly estimated billing system otherwise called “crazy’’ bills. Luckily I had a Master’s degree project student who connected me to one of the top ogas in the company and was instantly issued a prepaid meter out of the five reserved for the VIPs.

    With a recharge of N3000 that month, I realized I did not exhaust it until three months later. Wow! When I could have paid nothing less than N15000 for the same consumed energy since power supply was usually far from being regular. It was then I realized the immediate benefit of the prepaid meter and how it makes life easy for customers. As side from that, there was no fear that my service cables, which I had been guarding jealously, would be disconnected and carried away by the company’s technical staff.

    The question that keeps bothering one’s mind is that are there no manufacturers to supply the meters? The simple answer to this is “Yes”, there are. Is it only the customers that benefit from the usage of prepaid meter? The answer is “NO”. The benefits are both ways.

    As a customer, using prepaid electricity allows you to more accurately budget for your monthly electricity. You cannot be over-billed by the electricity company beyond your monthly budget for it. Unlike the conventional postpaid metering system where the customer will get billed at the end of the month since he/she is not aware of how much energy is used on a real-time basis, prepaid meter has a readout display of your rate of energy consumed and the units left. This feature of the meter enables you to continuously monitor and control your electric energy usage more efficiently.

    Another benefit enjoyed by a prepaid meter user is that you never have to worry about being disconnected at your home or business and later be surcharged the payments required for reconnection. Again, it is more convenient to reload credit into the meter. You could purchase prepaid credit from vendors who provide 24/7 service to their customers at any time of the day. When your prepaid electricity token is loaded, your electricity units will be added to your account instantly, whatever time of the day or night.

    DISCOs too benefit tremendously when all customers use the prepaid meter. For example, in the traditional postpaid electricity metering system, a meter reader from the electricity company would come to your premises to take the readings on the meter. Unfortunately, there are lots of security risks associated with meter readers these days. These risks are removed when DISCOs no longer require their services in that regard. Not only this, the expenses incurred on this system are eliminated when all customers use prepaid meters.

    Again, the issue of non-payment of electricity bills on time or at all by the customers can no longer arise. So revenue collection is made much easier for the DISCOs, as they are presently unable to collect sufficient revenue to pay their full market costs. In 2016, for example, all DISCOs in the country were unable to achieve beyond a collection rate of 57% from their customers. It must be emphasized that it is most critical for the distribution companies to have enough revenues to settle their wholesale obligations, meet their operating expenditure requirements and invest in new capacity, so as to improve their service delivery to the customers.

    Despite all these mutual benefits, so why is it that power distribution companies in Nigeria still don’t like meters to go round? The answer to this is not farfetched.

    First is energy theft. Once you have a prepaid meter in your premises, DISCO staff would rarely visit your house to take any reading. For this reason, a number of customers usually seize that opportunity to make illegal connections that could bypass the meter. Some are so smart that they connect only the light current appliances to the meter while heavy current equipment are connected directly to mains supply without passing through the meter. In fact, manufacturing companies are not left out of this unwholesome practice. But because DISCOs suspect there is this possibility, they place a heavy fine of N50,000 on whoever is caught in the act of illegally stealing their commodity. Despite this, how many customers engaged in the fraudulent practice has been nabbed? Is this to say people are not involved in it? The truth is that the DISCOs technical staff collects bribes from those caught in the act. It is only God that knows how much revenue that has been lost by these power distribution companies in this form.

    Second is low voltage power supply.  A number of prepaid meters, if not all, are so designed that whenever there is a low voltage supply from the supply authority, even though the customer can still power some low voltage appliances in the house, the energy meter will not read. For example, I have personally noticed that when the supply voltage is barely 50% of the nominal voltage value of 220 volts, the prepaid meter will not read, even as electricity being is consumed. In other words, while energy is being drawn from the grid, the DISCO cannot recoup the entire money spent from the customer since the meter does not read at that period of time. Lots of revenue, classified as collection loss, is lost by these companies this way. Perhaps, this circumstance would force the distribution companies to supply good quality power supply to the customers to avoid the power loss caused by this phenomenon.

    Sometime a customer would purchase credit token but would be unable to load it into the prepaid meter. It has happened before to a number of people I know. A particular case study is a woman who was unable to load the purchased credit on her meter. She went back to complain at the office and a technical officer was assigned to follow her to her house to rectify the problem. The problem could not be solved but she was not disconnected. So she used free energy for almost one year. Another scenario is when the customer would actually load credit but the credit will remain unburnt even for a long period of time, without actually tampering with the meter. Perhaps this is due to a fault on the meter, but the bottom line is that the customer keeps enjoying free energy supply for that time period.

    Revenue generation target is probably the main reason why the DISCOs are afraid to provide adequate number of prepaid meters to their customers. For these companies to be able to meet up with their monthly financial commitments, they traditionally resort to giving regional offices and business hubs a monthly revenue generation target to meet. To know what to give out to their offices, what the heads of these offices simply do is to deduct the amount collected via the prepaid meter users from the set target. The balance will then be spread on all other unmetered customers. This practice is no longer secret as regards how DISCOs meet their revenue target. But this is an abnormal and unacceptable practice!

    • Dr. Akorede is Senior Lecturer, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, University of Ilorin.

  • Nigerian academia: Crooked walk through wilderness

    It is no longer news that the Nigerian educational system is in doldrums. What may be an update is that many of the academics, especially tertiary, are in denial. They do not want to admit that there are fundamental crises bedevilling the institutions they occupy and systems they are meant to administer.

    While succeeding public governments, at all levels, have apparently been determined to kill public education, through humiliation, harassment, hunger, nay, starvation, disorientation and ultimately self-annihilation through inter-union implosions, the academics have continued to contribute, in no small way, to fast-track the process. They have assumed either the complacent approach or become catalysts. The former via adopting the maxim – ‘if heavens must fall, everyone must be a partaker of the resulting calamity’, and therefore gone to sleep or the latter, whereby they actively participate in the horrification that has overwhelmed the system.

    We have a failing system, where everyone goes about his work as business as usual, while in reality, departments that require equipment for their work of teaching and research do not have them. Yet, science-related professionals graduate every year from the institutions. As what, how really do we ask? But we are certain, and appropriately apportion blames, that unemployment is on the rise.

    When academics embark on strike, as well as their non-academic counterparts do, they are quick, persistently so, to list a myriad of demands that must be met before the strike would be suspended or terminated. Meetings, negotiations and time down the line, the strikes usually come to an end and nothing changes except that academics, and sometimes other staff, are buoyed with some ridiculous offer of long-deserved, hard-earned emoluments; as if that was all we were after in the first place.

    This goes on in circles of government neglect, unions’ strikes, offers of palliative peanuts, end of strikes and continued graduation of certificate-wielding citizens. It goes on in circles but the standard of education sinks into an abyss with no hope of recovery. At least, not that we are continuously passionate about.

    Nigerians are forgetful and we move on too quickly. At the end of many of such strikes which were touted to be messianic for the revamping of the educational system, we do not demand accountability from those that teach us as likewise, we do not from those that lead us, rule us, preach to us, sell to us, enslave us, cheat us, ride on our ignorance and laugh at us.

    It is all an irony that, like churches founded on the make-believe that they are meant to free the ‘people of God’ actually enslave them, academic institutions set with an overarching principle to liberate minds, enrich brains and set the hands to work accommodate academics who do the reverse of this principle. In actuality, you’d find so so and so professor, who had done everything it took, from especially slander, chinwags to active politicking in order to attain that ‘exalted’ position of professor for the sake of it. Neither that it mattered that research endeavors do not contribute meaningfully to national growth and awareness nor the researchers themselves prepared to put to pragmatic test their results. “I must become a Professor and then, everyone will take me serious”, an illusion that describes the value placed on self.

    Against the reality that more Nigerians than we are ready to admit are active participants in stalling the ‘national project’, as well as academics perpetually being the albatross we seek in the other, we are always in denial, like a madman who will never admit his condition.

    Permit me to recall the legend of a millennial professor, who prior to and allegedly against his professorial coronation, he saw himself as a victim of an oppressive and discriminatory academic system.  Against this background, he advocated amongst his students some form of defiance, even if for self-preservation and the safeguarding of personal sanity; providing admonitions against the shackles of shacklers. How noble! But who would have thought that the shackled would one day become the shackler? Power, or the smell of it, makes all the difference! Millennial professor, years leading to his coronation, became the shackler, obsessed with power opportunistically.

    Students who merited his favours were those who would allow themselves to be shagged or who daftly became willing participants or gossipy in a complementary way. In the end, it is either you become shackled or forever remain a defamed character in his ever-evolving, but inconsistently so, oeuvre. The millennial professor is commonplace in our educational system, where academics see their positions as that conferring an authority to be lorded over others rather than that to be wielded to raise the bar of universal knowledge and awareness for the advancement of humanity. Far from it! While the rest of the forward-pacing world has an academia that constantly adapts herself to changing realities, without prejudice to moral questions, discovering and mastering new technologies, further moving mankind away from the stone age; we are delighted to be stuck in ‘man against man’.

    Other people are usually the cause of our personal and systemic problems. Individuals find it hard to locate in themselves elements that contribute to our national and institutional malaise. It is always the other person. This is not to excuse the role everyone plays in the creation and nourishment of stagnation or backwardness of the public space, while the individual lives of these players progress, usually at the expense of the collective. More accurately, with the individuals taking advantage of the loopholes in the system rather than wishing and working for a better system, who cares, as long as it is better for me and mine? The system deteriorates and we scout for who to blame.

    The fallouts of an educational ambience riddled with sadistic politics, making appearances in order to appear functional and the celebration and elevation of titled mediocrity include a gaping dichotomy between the realities of the advancing worlds and ours, a studentry disillusioned with the infallibility of the ivory tower, an academic staff union polarized along the lines of base instincts, eggheads demystified and peeled to their core-interest, money and power; and the public perception that what can qualify as education has died, especially with the millennial professor.

    Here, almost daily, citizens who passed through universities are handed their certificates, but usually not until they part with huge sums of money the same way many of them are forced to pay tithes in order to ‘qualify’ for heavenly blessings. Thereafter, like tithe-payers subsequently realize blessings and life-challenges are equally shared by all humans, irrespective of the significance or otherwise of your having paid tithe, graduates realize their certificates may after all not be worth more than the paper their degrees are printed on. No job! Better, some get employed to work their asses out.

    Only a parlous few graduates get to apply their knowledge in creating wealth and yet, this cannot be entirely ascribed to the education they received from the millennial professor because even those who did not go to school apply similar knowledge for wealth creation and the promotion of the common good.

    There is no equipment in many public institutions in Nigeria, with a dearth of teaching aids, lack of adequate funding including personnel remuneration if at all deserving and so, maybe this justifies the low motivation of the staff, who go to work because they must. Yet, it is business as usual. Comfort in the face of what is a travesty of education at all levels. So much unsaid has been taken for granted, deliberately so.

    Like the primary school teacher who is compelled to teach, chalk-in-hand, bathed with the white powder, not because he enjoys it but because there are no alternative and has succumbed to the status quo, the tertiary millennial academic, chalk-in-brain, rather than merely succumb has taken it a notch further, participating actively in killing what should be the prideful oasis for our nation.

    It is news that the government has empanelled a “high-powered committee of very credible senior academics” including former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola and former chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, among others, to review the  university system in the country. This will only fly, and not go the way of near-moribund, routine course accreditations and NEEDS assessment, if the recipients of such a gesture were willing and ready for a stretch.

    Until we all pause, look into the mirror to make better whatever is crooked, we will continue in circles of being fed crumbs because it is believed by blind leaders that it is what is needed in the ivory towers; scared graduates will continue to load out of the institutions unsure of what to do next because even their teachers are not absolutely certain of the currency of the knowledge passed on; academics will continue to have chalks in their brain until it is admitted a need for an overhaul and the country will continue to suffer until we, government and all stakeholders, become more sincere with the fate of our educational system.

    • Jaiyesimi writes from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

     

     

  • Africa and theory of cosmos balance

    Labelled as ‘’Dark Continent’’ by the West many decades ago, Africa is still playing out this name considering the slow state of its development.

    What is Africa’s problem? Why are things not working? Why are people living in abject poverty eating below the breadline standard?

    Recently, a 15-year old boy died because his parents were unable to afford hospital bills. After five days under oxygen of N17,000 per day, he was withdrawn from hospital because there was no money to pay. Nothing kills in Africa like poverty!

    Now, how many young boys died daily in Nigeria due to imbalanced diet or lack of good medical attention? Yet, in this same Nigeria, some children have private doctors attending to them whether they are sick or not.

    Today, many young people are jobless where jobs are waiting for some. Was there a secret sin committed by those jobless? Young people are drifting about without hope? They are ‘perishing’ without vision for living. Darkness has become visible in Africa!

    Yet, after many years of self-rule, others still consider Africa as “Dark Continent?” Look at the disparities between the rich and the poor; look at the oppression by the few meted to the many; is it not so disturbing to see a high population of lowborn been sentenced into a life of perpetual enslavement? Is it not extremely worrisome to see some children being ‘born to rule’ while many others are being sentenced to serve as slaves.

    I got to a highpoint of angst and confusion about the disparities between the haves and the have-nots before Franz Fanon opened my eyes to see the deliberate attempt of the oppressors to destroy the oppressed in his book “Pedagogy of the oppressed”. Eric Blair made me to know that some animals are more equal than the others in his book “Animal Farm” and, through his book “The Prince’’, Nicolo Machiavelli, gave me insight into the perspective of the dictators that if leaders want to rule a people perpetually, they must not be educated.

    From books I understood the world is being structured to favour some people and disfavour some others. But, who did the structuring? Was it God or man? I got answer to this question few years ago when I learnt about ‘Cosmos Balance’. This subject stemmed out of a discussion concerning the said discrepancies between the Whites and the Blacks. I might not have been to Europe, America and Asia, but I learnt they have good roads, good hospitals and good schools. Nigerian roads are death-traps, the hospitals are mortuaries and the public schools look like poultries.

    ‘Cosmos Balance’ said the discrepancies between the White and the Black was God’s wisdom to create a balance in the world. Africa is rich in everything except in wisdom. Europe and other continents are rich in wisdom but are not as rich as Africa in other resources.

    Could one believe the theory of ‘Cosmos Balance’? With all the opulence in Africa – the fertile land, plenty mineral resources, rich vegetation, malleable climate, energetic population – ‘Cosmos Balance’ is saying: if Africa still possesses management cum leadership wisdom, the world would queue behind her. This theory sounds logical and convincing, if we support it with some other positions.

    Firstly, one old myth said the Whiteman covered his face with fingers without closing his eyes while the Blackman closed his eyes when God asked them to close their eyes at creation. This myth supports why the White seems to be wiser than the Black which is all what ‘Cosmos Balance’ is saying.

    But, it is not logical to say that God who loves obedience has favoured the disobedient White and disfavoured the obedient Black?

    Secondly, the Bible interpretation that traced the origin of the black race to ‘Ham’, the son Noah cursed for exposing his nakedness could be responsible for the trouble of the Blacks. If this was true, can we say God was racist? Considering the potential blessing of Africa vis-a-vis its backwardness, won’t one draw a conclusion that Africa is under a curse?

    But, God is not partial, neither is He a racist! The God of the White is the same God of the Black. What always happens is that God has respect for man’s choices. If Africa chooses to be backward there is nothing God can do about it.

    Truly speaking, Africa is blessed with all things except wisdom. But, wisdom is not a gift, it is an acquisition. May be, because of her surplus, Africa has not considered wisdom as ‘the principal thing’. Crisis is a precursor of wisdom. Pain is mother of gain! Suffering is the womb of success! Necessity is the mother of invention. Upon these principles, the White man began to seek for wisdom at all costs. Bad weather, volcanic eruption, land-shifting, sudden snow, hurricane, tornadoes and other natural catastrophic occurrences, etc. were the ‘necessities’ that forced the White to move out in search of solutions to their problems. They found that solution in slave trade and colonialism!

    But, instead for Africa to learn from slavery and colonialism, she has learnt nothing. Hence, it remains backward, still being addressed as the ‘Dark Continent’. Is it not appalling to remember that civilisation began from Africa, yet Africa remains in the dark? Africa ‘has been at ease’ for a long time. She has settled on her ‘lees’ or ‘dregs’, and ‘has not been emptied from vessel to vessel; nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore, ‘her taste remained in her; and her scent has not changed’.

    Africa wakes and sleeps with potentials, but has become so complacent. Africa doesn’t harness her resources to create wealth for her people. The solution to Africa’s problems will begin when she believes in herself and harness her God-given resources for the benefits of all her citizenry.

    Until we ‘kill’ corruption in Africa, life will continue to be hard for our people!

     

    • Adewoyin, a company executive writes from Lagos.

  • As the kids return to school

    The vacations are over and children are back in school for the commencement of second term academic session.  As usual, this development, especially considering the closeness of the resumption date with the just concluded Yuletide season, is eliciting challenges and excitement among parents, guardians, teachers and of course, pupils.

    For parents whose wards particularly attend private schools, the fear of school fees is always the beginning of wisdom.  Agonizingly, in most private schools, school fees continue to soar high while most parents and wards’ take homes remain poor. For those whom for one reason or the other the wards have to change school, the situation becomes more complicated.

    School resumption can actually fill the parents with dread and anxiety because of its huge financial implications. This is why some have cultivated the habit of paying ahead of the school resumption to forestall embarrassment. Sadly, many cannot really help the situation because their income is just too low.

    Consequently, most parents are forced to go cap in hand, begging from friends and relations that are considered better off financially for assistance towards tackling this perennial problem.

    Parents and guardians alike apply for all forms of loans, overdraft and so on from banks and other financial institutions in order to meet up with their huge financial demands of educating their wards. The advice is that parents and guardians should not be engrossed in this problem to the extent of contributing to out-of-school children phenomenon. If private schools are not affordable, public schools are to a large extent free in most states in Nigeria. In Lagos State, for instance, the government runs an inclusive educational system aim at ensuring all children complete nine years of basic education.

    No doubt, many kids will find it difficult to get back to the school routine, notwithstanding that it was just a three weeks holiday. They’ve been accustomed to watching late movies, playing computer games and the social media. Yes, it’s easy for kids to become night owls when they can sleep the next morning. These habits can make the first week of resumption quite challenging, even for the most motivated student. With holiday festivities over, the kids need help to get back-to-school mode. We have to give them the tools they need to have a “ready, set, go” attitude in the New Year and academic term.

    Before sending him/her back to the classroom, cut on screen time and ease back to a reasonable bedtime. Take inventory of your child’s school supplies. Does he/she need refills on exercise books or pencils? Help him/her return to school with pencils sharpened and notebooks organized. Parents should not send their children to school like a farmer going to farm without farming tools. It is not just right.

    While it is true that you may have had a PTA meeting just before the break, but then if not, you need to take a moment this month to check in with your ward’s teacher about your child’s progress. It is still early enough in the year to work on behaviour or skills that could hold your child back from reaching his/her full potential in his current grades. In achieving this, there is a need to constantly keep the line of communication open. Just like at the start of the year, your child will have to get back into the habit of regular homework. The more often you can make yourself available to help your child, the better.

    If we have done our part, then questions can now be asked about what governments and school proprietors have done in preparing for the resumption. We can ask questions like, what has been done regarding problem of inadequate teachers, water and sanitation challenges where they exist. In the area of security, have they cut the overgrown grasses and also do something about collapsed or collapsing school fences? Has anything been done to improve on the quality of public education? How much are governments across the nation concentrating on improving schools until they meet the highest ideals in the current budget and the long run.

    Despite the overwhelming challenge of school resumption to many parents, it is painful to note that the transporters usually see this time as a period to add to the pains. It is not a wild assertion; the reality is that transport fares are often hiked throughout the early weeks of resumption. It is another unwelcome tradition. The ‘Okada’ and ‘Danfo’ bus business will boom but it is a time everyone must be ready to caution unruly behaviour of transporters in the aspect of zebra crossing, over speeding especially along school roads.

    For the philanthropists and few politicians that have made provision of free school bus a project, it is a legacy that will definitely live after them. It’s time for more people to come into the fold because every investment in our children is a sure venture into the future of our dear nation.

    Meanwhile, parents and guardians alike should continue to do the best they could to ensure that their children are well educated while governments across the country should continue to invest more in education. This is where the future lies.

    • Musbau is of Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Yobe: Of recession and development

    With a record 82 percent budget implementation rate and more in the lived reality of the people’s lives – 2017 will go down as a tipping-point year in the annals of Yobe State’s socio-economic recovery.

    First, the economic recession in which the country was stuck for most of the year was a pivotal, defining moment. The recession depleted the nation’s revenue earning and meant that many states across the country, at some point, were unable to meet certain basic obligations to their people, including obligation to workers who are at the front and centre of every service delivery effort. With less going into workers’ pockets, local businesses took a hit as well resulting in many of them finding it hard to replenish their inventories.

    How Governor Ibrahim Geidam successfully navigated Yobe State through that difficult period still puzzles many keen observers of the state’s socio-economic development. The governor, for instance, not only did not take any bank loans to finance expenditures, such as salary payments, he towered above with visible impact in the lives of the people while never slowing down on the projects he was executing. Projects in healthcare, road construction, school renovation and expansions, waters supply in communities across state, etc., were carried on with unbelievable consistency and panache.

    Part of this has to do with his background as an accountant and auditor who knows what it takes to maintain a balanced sheet but most of it is about his commitment to the values of transparency and accountability in the conduct of government business. These ensured that the governor remained faithful to the provisions of the 2017 budget and the budgets before that; they ensured that he measured every single move that the government makes according to the strength of its purse and resulted in never invoking any expenditure or spending unless he was sure the government could properly finance it.

    As a consequence of these measures, Yobe emerged stronger because of the governor’s leadership.

    In healthcare, for example, 2017 marked the formal opening to the public of the brand new Yobe State University Teaching Hospital (SUTH) that Governor Geidam has built. The government recruited more than 500 doctors, nurses and other professionals to work in the hospital well ahead of the commencement of clinical services.

    The year also marked the completion of most of the rehabilitation and expansion works carried out in major government hospitals across the state. It marked the procurement and installation of new and badly needed equipment that those hospitals in Gashu’a, Gaidam, Potiskum and Damaturu need to provide quality services to the people in those areas. It marked the start and completion of the construction of a new College of Medical Sciences complex based inside of the Yobe State University campus in Damaturu.

    More significantly, the year marked the expansion of Yobe’s drive in maternal and child care, topping the third straight year in which no case of polio was reported throughout the state because of the measures being taken to prevent its resurgence and those of other child-killer diseases. Indices for maternal and child health also improved significantly. In short, in 2017, Yobe’s healthcare sector got better than in the previous year.

    Professionals wowed by the governor’s effort to transform a sector so vital to the lives of everyday people expectedly took notice. First, the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) conferred its honorary membership on the governor for his effort at improving the health of women and children in the state. Then, two weeks later, the umbrella body of all medical and dental practitioners in the country, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) through its Yobe State branch, followed suit by honouring the governor at a well-attended ceremony in Damaturu.

    Outside of the health sector, 2017 was also historic for Yobe’s education sector. It’s the sector that was the hardest hit by Boko Haram violence. So much of Yobe’s education infrastructure was destroyed during those insurgency years by a ragtag army of crazed fanatics who hold fundamentally distorted – and demonstrably wrong – notions about the place of western education in Islam.

    As a result of these setbacks, primary and secondary education, for the most part, had to be rebuilt across the state from the ground up. Progress, of course, wasn’t easy. But because of Governor Geidam’s determination, many primary schools have been rebuilt and expanded and provided with the basic learning tools and supplies that the pupils enrolled in them need.

    In secondary education, five secondary schools were selected and worked upon by the Geidam administration. The schools were totally rebuilt, expanded and furnished with new classroom, staffroom, hostel and staff quarter furniture, laboratory equipment and chemicals and other vital supplies at over N2.8 billion.

    Six more secondary schools are slated to be totally rehabilitated and equipped this year. This means that by the end of 2018, an environment more conducive and more amenable to great teaching and learning would be fully secured for a lot of Yobe’s secondary school students.

    The preceding year also marked the start of Yobe’s International Cargo Airport project. When completed in November this year, the airport will not only be Yobe’s first, it will be the first of its kind to be wholly dedicated to cargo and freight services in the Northeast, a move likely to accelerate business and other economic activities in a region now recovering from so much devastation from Boko Haram attacks.

    Governor Geidam will surely build on these and other milestones of his administration in this ‘legacy’ year. As he nears the end of his eventful two-terms in office and the start of the rest that he so richly deserves, the governor will seek to make even more impact in the lives of the people by, amongst others, completing ongoing projects and starting new ones. He will consolidate on his feats in security, healthcare, education, water supply, agriculture and the civil service, amongst others, and make the APC, his political party, even stronger political platform around which to rally the people.

    He’s already started the year strong with a donation of vehicles worth N350 million to the military as they make their final push to defeat Boko Haram. He’s paid N1.1 billion as gratuities to retired workers. He’s saying, by these actions, that 2018 will be as action-packed as the preceding year and the years before that.

    • Bego sent this piece from Damaturu, Yobe State.

  • Letter to President Buhari

    I was born a few years after your reign as Nigeria’s military Head of State from December 1983 to August 1985. Growing up as a precocious child with a prodigious talent for reading every and anything in print, I started to read the defunct Concord newspapers owned by the late business mogul, Chief M.K.O Abiola, at the age of seven though infrequently. It became more frequent at the age of 10 when my aunt who was living with us at that time secured a job with the Guardian newspapers so she always brought one free copy home every day which I earnestly devoured with pleasure. Quite naturally, I developed a passion for politics and began to have several discussions with my father about the state of affairs in Nigeria. One a certain day, while I was lamenting the inability of past Nigerian leaders to make the country great, my father suddenly interjected and uttered the magical words which birthed the feelings that later transmuted into my extreme love for you: “The only people who came close to making Nigeria a great country where everything works was the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. They paid back almost all of Nigeria’s foreign debt and those of us who were living in Lagos then, came very close to having 24-hours uninterrupted power supply daily. Though they were poor on human rights, their administration’s War Against Indiscipline and Corruption was on course to making Nigeria a corruption-free nation but they were short-lived in power”.

    Instantly, I knew I had found a hero, a mentor and a role model. Someone I could look up to in my quest to see a better Nigeria during my lifetime. I was in secondary school when you joined politics in 2002 and contested for the 2003 Presidential Elections alongside the colourful, vibrant, and bombastic politician, the late Oyi of Oyi, Dr Chuba Okadigbo as your running mate. I did not hesitate to give you my support even though I did not have the franchise. I was laughed at, scorned and was the butt of derisive jokes by my family, friends and classmates because of my support for a man many termed “unelectable”. I was undeterred and continued to support you in the 2007 and 2011 elections with the same cycle of events(with my friends) repeating itself over and over again until mother luck smiled on you in the 2015 elections when you were finally elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Dear President, you promised to do three major things for Nigerians if elected into office: fight corruption, rescue the economy from recession and fight insecurity. You have succeeded in the anti-corruption war by recovering trillions of naira of stolen funds. You have rescued the economy from recession. You have decapitated Boko Haram, recovering territories from the hands of the insurgents. But there is one thing that you lack or have failed to do which not only has the capacity of destroying all your achievements in office or making you lose the 2019 elections but also make posterity pass an unfavourable judgement on your tenure in office as President of Nigeria. This is the issue of insecurity in parts of Nigeria due to the massive loss of lives and destruction of properties by marauding bands of Fulani herdsmen.

    I know you are very much aware of their atrocious activities but permit me to cite a few examples. In Benue State, on New Year Day, over 50 people were sent to the great beyond by Fulani herdsmen who attacked several villages and communities. In 2016, in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, Fulani herdsmen killed over 500 in a wave of attacks on villages and communities that lasted several days. An international agency once wrote in one of its reports which was made public that close to 6000 people in Benue State have been killed by Fulani herdsmen between 2011 and 2017. The South-east has also not been spared of the venom of this murderous group. Many villages in Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi have been ransacked by the herdsmen with thousands displaced, women raped, properties looted and many lives lost.

    Permit me to highlight some of the implications of your silence on the menace of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria. First is that while you were busy solving the security problems in the core North by fighting Boko Haram, you have deliberately turned a blind eye to issues of insecurity in other parts of the country. It also reinforces conspiracy theories that you are not in charge of the government; that you are a weak, ineffective and indecisive President who has effectively ceded power to a cabal which now superintends over the affairs of Nigeria. Attacks by Fulani herdsmen in the Eastern Nigeria have served to further alienate the Igbos reinforcing several conspiracy theories promoted by secessionist groups like IPOB and MASSOB. These conspiracy theories include but are not limited to; that you hate Igbos and are hell-bent on punishing them for not voting for you in 2015, that you are out to destroy them at all costs using the Fulani herdsmen and your 97/5 development theory for Nigeria which you allegedly talked about in London is a confirmation of these conspiracy theories. Do you now see the reason why IPOB, MASSOB and other secessionists groups in Eastern Nigeria have cult following alongside several covert and overt sympathizers even among the political class?

    Dear President, your predecessors in office did all that they could to fight insecurity in Nigeria even when such acts were perpetuated by criminal gangs who were from the same tribe with them. Olusegun Obasanjo issued the famous “shoot-at-sight” order to security agencies to kill any member of OPC found disturbing the peace in Lagos or any part of Nigeria. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan used federal patronage to silence most of the militant groups in the Niger Delta. The recalcitrant ones among them were silenced by force of arms. Umar Musa Yar’Adua forcefully crushed the Boko Haram rebellion in Maiduguri, Borno State which led to the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf in 2009. Sir, why is your own case different?

    I support the call for the immediate proscription of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore just the same way IPOB was proscribed by the Nigerian Army and the South East Governors Forum. Time to fish out the criminal elements among them who derive joy from shedding the blood of the innocents and haul them before the temple of justice for immediate prosecution. The security agencies should also be empowered with the latest and up-to-date intelligence gathering gadgets to forestall future attacks by herdsmen on innocent citizens. If you can do all these, it will save me from future shame and embarrassment from family and friends who taunt me daily about the inability of our president to bring an end to the violence perpetuated against innocent and defenceless civilians. Thank you sir for taking out time to read so long a letter. I still love you.

    • Akus, a blogger writes from Ifo, Ogun State.

  • ‘Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense’

    The caption of this piece is an intellectual property of afro beat legend and activist, the late Fela Anikulakpo Kuti. ‘Teacher, Don’t Teach Me Nonsense’ is one of his evergreen hits. In the song, Fela decries the ills embedded in the polity. In one of the verses, he labelled our brand of democracy as ‘Demonstration of craze.’ He questioned where the authorities acquired the culture of corruption and flagrant abuse of power, and sought for attitudinal change. According to him, vices will die in the polity if they aren’t promoted or nurtured by the powers that be: ‘‘…as soon as teaching finish, yes, the thing go die.”

    In his time, Fela was the conscience of the nation. The armed forces literally reduced him to a punching bag, beating him to pulp on countless instances. Fictitious charges were often cobbled just to put him behind bars. To worsen issues, on the night of April 30, 1974, over a thousand military men raided his house. In the ensuing drama, the soldiers threw Fela’s mother Funmilayo from the first floor of the storey building before setting the edifice on fire.

    She later died from injuries sustained during the incident.

    Inhuman treatment notwithstanding, Fela remained vibrant in activism. He propagated evergreen messages in his lyrics. A little over two decades after his demise, these lyrics remain so relevant. Take for instance a developing issue involving Governor Udom Emmanuel, the governor of Akwa Ibom and Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Minority Leader of the Senate. Akpabio held sway as governor of Akwa Ibom for eight years which elapsed in 2015 when he passed the baton to Emmanuel.

    Brought in from one of the leading commercial banks in the country, Udom had a brief stint as Secretary to the State Government under the Akpabio administration. He was understudying his boss, I hear you say. Well, it later went beyond mere suspicion to full blown evidence. A kindergarten rhyme apparently remixed by Akpabio’s wife, Unoma, bared it all: ‘What did you, I know; what did you, I know; Godswill Akpabio, a great teacher who taught Udom Emmanuel.’

    Campaign grounds were serenaded by the weird song. Akpabio, then in the dying days of his reign as governor, was packaged as a great teacher who taught Udom the art of governance.

    Now, Udom has become an ‘alumni’ of ‘Akpabio School of Politics.’ But what did he really learn from the ‘great teacher’? Well, few days ago at the Abak Independence Hall, we heard from the horse’s mouth. The ‘great teacher’ spilled his mind. For out of abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, so says the Holy Bible. The great teacher himself revealed Udom’s report card.

    Sampler: “2018 is less than one year to election, all is not well o; don’t allow anybody to deceive you that all is well. If the hotel in Ikot Ekpene (Four Points by Sheraton) rots after so much money had been expended, would that be a good thing?

    “That road from Uyo to Ikot Ekpene, is still the way it was (when I left office). In the 2018 budget, what is the percentage for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District? My job is to say the truth because if at this level I cannot say the truth, then I am not doing well. So please I want us to start the hotel because when the Commissioner for Works addressed the youths in August, he assured them that the hotel would be opened in December, it will soon decay if urgent intervention is not given to the facility.

    He wasn’t done: “Please, let us check the budget to know what has been earmarked for that place. I am not interested in what I did and what I did not do; I am only interested in what I am going to do.

    “The truth is that Godswill Akpabio expects us to set our path straight so that we can take one route. Even when you are going for communion, you must be in a state of grace, so let us have something from the Senatorial District to use in talking about election; to use in convincing the people to stand by us. We are in opposition, we don’t have government, we don’t have Police, we don’t have INEC”, he warned.

    Akpabio told us what we knew, what we should know and what we didn’t know. ‘The great teacher’ pointedly accused Udom of marginalizing Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. He painted his political son as a tribal bigot.

    Is nemesis not catching up with ‘the great teacher?’ Yours truly observes that Udom isn’t doing anything that Akpabio didn’t do. Permit my bluntness. Akpabio as a ‘great teacher’ was setting a dangerous precedent for his ‘student’ cum successor.

    Under Akpabio, the maxim ‘government is a continuum’ was abolished. His predecessor, Obong Victor Attah, having messed up with the Science Park project left office in 2007. However, given the strategic importance of the project, the yearning was for Akpabio to complete work on the project. He however shut his ears and abandoned it. Today, the remains of Ibom Science Park have become a den of criminals. The Ibom Science Park is just one in a long list of the Attah era projects abandoned by Akpabio.

    Akpabio demonized the Attah administration covertly and overtly. A man who became a hero in the resource control agitation was reduced to a pathetic case study. Obong Attah whined severally in the media, but received barrage of insults. Akpabio himself and his allies verbally whipped him for fun.

    Who forgets the infamous government sponsored ‘What does Obong Attah Really Want?’ advertorial on The Nation wherein few spent forces were fronted as signatories just to spite Attah for daring to question the rationale behind the Ibom Tropicana Project? That project which was a conduit pipe. Today, Ibom Tropicana lies in waste.

    From 2007 to 2015, tribalism bore its poisonous fangs. Akwa Ibom became a tribal cauldron. The 2011 gubernatorial poll particularly was more of an Annang versus Ibibio contest. I choose not to narrate several incidences here for the sake of allowing the proverbial sleeping dog lie.

    To cap it all, Akpabio was covertly and overtly accused of favouring the Annangs and commandeering the state’s commonwealth to his hometown of Ukana Ikot Ntuen. Today, Udom has followed suit, empowering his Onna brothers and turning his native Awa Iman hometown into a haven.

    The governor isn’t doing anything that his predecessor didn’t do. Governor Emmanuel as an ‘alumni’ of the ‘Akpabio School of Politics’ is exhibiting what he learnt with dexterity. Even the ‘great teacher’ is in awe. Akpabio abandoned Attah’s projects, today, Udom is abandoning Akpabio’s projects. Akpabio was severally accused of marginalizing the Ibibio’s; today, he is accusing an Ibibio son of marginalizing the Annangs (Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District).

    ‘They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind’, so says the Bible. Akpabio is harvesting his investment in Udom. Forget the fake smiles and hugs, ‘all is not well’ as Akpabio confirmed.

    Permit me to conclude this short piece by positing that nonsense must surely give birth to nonsense. You reap what you sow. To avoid becoming a nuisance, when you are taught nonsense, reject it promptly. Don’t hesitate to boldly say: ‘teacher, don’t teach me nonsense.’

     

    • Honesty is Public Affairs Analyst. He writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

  • Prospects of China-Africa cooperation in 2018

    This would be the third year, since after the historic second summit of the heads of state and government of the Forum on China-Africa cooperation (FOCAC), which held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015. At the summit, Chinese leader, President Xi Jinping outlined 10 cooperation plans which would essentially drive the China-Africa cooperation in the three year period before the next FOCAC ministerial meeting which holds this year. Identifying infrastructure, industrialization and agricultural modernization among other 10 as the main focus of China’s support for Africa in the three-year period, President Xi Jinping provided a funding support of USD60 billion. Since that historic summit, most of the funding have been disbursed and key infrastructure projects, industrial parks and free trade zones, with quantum leap in agricultural modernization have been accomplished in different parts of Africa. However, the good news is that steady momentum of the Sino-Africa cooperation would experience a quantum leap as China positions more strategically as a major power to assume more responsibilities on the global scene.

    With the successful convocation and conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last October, China’s national development has transited to a new era, with implications for China’s broad and deeper involvement in world affairs and China-Africa cooperation gaining more momentum.

    Summing the experience of China’s national development and the wider global outlook since the 18th national congress of the party in 2012, a resolution of the 19th national congress of the party on the report of the 18th Central Committee, held that “on the basis of an analysis of the developments in the international and domestic environments and a review of the party’s work and the historic change over the past five years, the congress forms the major political judgment that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era.” The congress further elaborates on the party’s historic mission in the new era and establishes the historical position of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.”

    These conclusions of the epochal 19th national congress of the CPC was not lightly arrived and not the largely vacuous rhetoric of any political gathering. They derived from thorough going and scientific interrogation of China’s and international realities at a key historic juncture and the outcome is the strategic framework and road-map that would guide the work and activities of the government and party in the next five years. The discerning feature of China’s global engagement would certainly be guided by her dutiful commitment to build a community with a shared future for mankind. The practical framework of China’s bold vision to build a community with shared future for mankind has already been outlined in the Belt and Road strategy of international cooperation, which has entered crucial stage of execution and implementation.

    Africa and Nigeria in particular is strategically placed to integrate to the thorough-going process of global connectivity through overland, maritime and digital infrastructures, which are the defining and dynamic paradigm of the Belt and Road international cooperation. The Belt and Road international cooperation is underpinned by real actions and concrete projects that have produced over 270 specific results under 76 broad categories across five key areas. According to Chinese foreign minister, Mr. Wang Yi, “the Belt and Road has become the most popular international public goods in today’s world. Its success lies in the fact that by focus on the dual deficits in development and governance and the dual challenges of anaemic global cooperation and lack of drive in global cooperation, the Belt and Road initiative has responded to the shared desire for accelerated development, and sought to pool the economic factors and developmental resources form wider areas following an approach of pursuing shared benefits through consultation and collaboration.”

    In a recent exchange of congratulatory messages with South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relation between China South Africa, Chinese leader, President Xi Jinping said that the two countries have achieved tremendous success in their bilateral cooperation. He further noted that the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which the two countries co-chaired its historic summit in 2015 have left indelible mark in the annals of cooperation between two sides. According to President Xi Jinping, the 2018 summit of FOCAC would hold in Beijing, China, this year in September. The Beijing venue of this year’s FOCAC summit is in line with president Zuma’s suggestion and meets the aspiration of other African leaders.

    Also speaking at a symposium on international developments and China’s diplomacy in 2017 in Beijing last December, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “Another significant event on China’s diplomatic agenda for 2018, will be hosting the Forum on China-Africa cooperation.”

    According to him, the forum will discuss plans for future development with our African brothers and sisters and roll out new cooperation measures and explore new growth areas, to lift our cooperation to a new level. In particular to meet the aspirations of African countries, we will work to further synergize the Belt and Road initiative with Agenda 2063, making the Belt and Road cooperation a new, strong driver for China-Africa all-dimensional cooperation.”

    The dynamism of the Belt and Road international cooperation initiative, when mainstreamed to the existing mechanism of China-Africa cooperation, especially the multilateral framework of the Forum on China-Africa cooperation (FOCAC), would produce a profound insight to the new era of China-Africa relation which can be glimpsed with considerable degree of sure-footedness. The decisive impact of the 10 cooperation plans outlined by President Xi Jinping in 2015 at the second summit of FOCAC has transformed the state of infrastructure in Africa in the past three years and 2018, marking the start of new cooperation arrangements to be blended to the momentum of the Belt and Road international cooperation strategy, would certainly turn into a major game-changer in addressing Africa’s infrastructure’s deficits.

    At his new year address to Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari outlined a framework of strategic infrastructure networks to aid Nigeria’s economic recovery and drive the process of sustainable and inclusive economic development. The road and rail networks that he identified across the country, including key power infrastructure would in his own words, “spearhead the recovery and lead millions back to employment.”  Among the key power infrastructure projects, he mentioned the “landmark project, which Mambilla Hydroelectric power project, which has been on the drawing board for 40 years but now the engineering, procurement and construction contract for 3,050 MW project has been agreed with a Chinese joint venture company with a financing commitment from the government of China, with completion targeted for 2023.”

    Identifying key and strategic infrastructures, the decisive instrument to put Nigeria’s economy on the path of sustainable development is very important and to identify and locate the critical international support for it, is even more urgent and compelling. The China’s initiated Belt and Road international cooperation strategy is well placed to support the challenge of filling Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit. The Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Zhou Pingian has in several fora and platforms reiterated the commitment of his country to support Nigeria in building the requisite capacity for sustainable and inclusive development.

    Nigeria should properly hedge its bet to the global public good of the Belt and Road process; integrate it to her national agenda to overcome her infrastructure deficit, using its open, consultative and collaborative mechanisms to advance her economic reconfiguration and stable growth.

    China-Africa cooperation, especially in 2018, promises major and strategic inputs to Africa’s efforts to overcome the structural gridlock of infrastructure deficit in key areas of transport networks, energy, industry and agricultural modernization that would create and facilitate the enabling environment to drive an sustainable and inclusive development.

     

    • Onunaiju is of Centre for China Studies, Utako, Abuja.