The Nation Newspaper

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  • Abuse of power

    The joke last week was on the deposed President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the Kaduna State teachers. With Mugabe suddenly morphing from hero to villain, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State is lucky that Mugabe’s statute is not amongst those he is erecting in Owerri, the state capital. Any way, if Okorocha’s detractors are to be believed, his pain will subside, if Zuma’s erection falls. At the height of the self-induced pain, Okorocha told those scandalized by the waste of public fund, to get lost.

    But as the Zimbabwe National Force demobilized Mugabe, the penultimate weekend, his rise and fall is a lesson for political office holders, everywhere, including Nigeria. Hailed until few days ago as a national liberator by Zimbabweans especially the by ZANU-PF, an iconic party through which he rode to power in 1980 and held it for 37 years, he has become an iconic laggard.

    In the build-up to his ouster, the leader of the Independence war veterans’ association, Christopher Mutsvangor, said: “we want to restore our pride… we can finish the job which the army started.” He went further: “There is no going back about Mugabe. He must leave.” Because Mugabe stayed for too long, he became an embarrassment, even to his colleagues who were in the trenches with him, during the liberation struggles.

    But it hasn’t always been so. Up to 2008, Mugabe still engaged in reality checks, even though by then he had messed up the economy. With inflation running at 231 percent, Mugabe said: “if you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics.” But shortly after, he came second to Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of elections, and instead of leaving, he roused the war veterans to unleash terror on Tsvangirai and his supporters sparking a stalemate. He boasted that only God could remove him from office.

    The crisis that ensured forced him to share power with Tsvangirai for four years after which he regained his dubious bounce. After 37 years in power, and at 93 years of age, Grace Mugabe, his wife, egged him on, on the power-brew. His last undoing was the sacking of his long-time ally, then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, also a war veteran like Mugabe. To his chagrin, Mnangagwa has been elected leaders of his party.

    But Mugabe was not always a villain. He gained popularity at independence because of his involvement in the liberation struggle, which included an imprisonment in the hands of the British colonialists. A man with huge academic laurels in many fields, it is a measure of human hubris that he fell so thunderously.

    Witty and gregarious, Mugabe is credited with funny and insightful quotations. On society, he said: “when one’s goat gets missing, the aroma of a neighbour’s soup gets suspicious.” On xenophobia: “South Africa will kick down a statute of a dead white man but won’t even attempt to slap a live one. Yet they can stone to death a black man simply because he’s a foreigner.” On indulgence: “Cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled in a piece of paper with fire on one end and a fool on the other.”

    Unfortunately Mugabe didn’t figure out that cigarette and abuse of power are similar. He smoked the entire cigarette, and continued smoking until fire burnt his fingers. What a tragedy. In Nigeria, Governor El-Rufai has started a maelstrom in the name of test for teachers. And like old Mugabe, many are egging him on that he has found the final solution to the mess that public schools have become in many states across the country.

    Instead of employing the help of professionals to chart how state public schools in Kaduna State could be revived, El-Rufai has resorted to strong arm tactics and abuse of his privilege as the state chief executive. If as he claimed, 70 percent of the teachers in public primary schools in Kaduna are ignoramuses, who taught the 25,000 new teachers he is threatening to employ to replace the 22,000 he wants to sack?

    Indeed, who taught the officials of the state Ministry of Education who conducted the much advertised primary four standard test used to determine the quality of teachers in the state? Are most of those emergency examiners not likely to be products of the same public schools, which the governor is unwittingly further destabilising with his ambush tactics?

    If El-Rufai is interested in saving public schools in his state, he should take a holistic view of the challenges. He must first ask himself why is there no scandal in the employment of teachers, like when the Central Bank of Nigeria or Immigration Services are conducting employment interviews. Why it is that primary school teachers are amongst the most poorly paid civil servants in the country? Why is it that most of his colleagues who are malignantly incompetent, see it as a fad to owe primary school teachers, several months’ salary?

    Having been in power for two years and a half years, what remedial programme did he put in place to retrain, motivate and enhance the welfare of primary school teachers in the state before he subjected them to this public ridicule and odium? If he had planned to employ 25,000 new teachers this year or early next year, what programme did he put in place to produce the quality teachers he plans to recruit?

    Or is it possible that El-Rufai somehow believes that there must 25,000 qualified idle teachers, waiting in the wings for El-Rufai to wake-up one day, and decide to sack 22,000 teachers in the state’s employ and then, kaput they have jobs? Or is El-Rufai planning to raid other states or foreign countries for the teachers of his dream? If I may ask, what happened to the notion that primary schools are under the purview of local governments?

    The only explanation could be that El-Rufai is overwhelmed by the rot in the education sector; but even if that is the case, to efficiently solve the problem, he has to be methodological. Sacking 70 percent of primary school teaching staff is not the same thing as ridding Abuja of illegal structures or heaps of refuse or auctioning public companies. In this instance, you must take into consideration, the human interests.

    To show how odious El-Rufai tactics is, governors who have failed woefully by all standards are threatening to copy his dubious model. Governors who are owing teachers several months’ arrears of salaries, have reportedly sent their officials to learn how to set primary four questions, how to mark same, and how to stare down the labour unions in the name of reformation.

    I have little doubt that if our public officials are subjected to the same test, allegedly flunked by majority of Kaduna primary school teachers, many of them would fail more comprehensively; yet the monthly emolument of an average public official will pay for a cluster of schools’ teachers.

     

  • Becoming a production nation

    Nigeria has descended into a nation that imports the most basic of agricultural and manufactured goods and services. This nation that imports goods that is within its ability to produce I am hereby describing as a consumption country. This is a country with a large population of poor people that has taken an affectation to luxury manufactured goods for which it has neither the financial capacity to pay for, nor the industrial capability to produce. Prior to 1986, Nigeria earned more than half of its revenue from agricultural commodity exports – mainly cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil, and palm kernels. In 1955, 98 percent of Nigerian exports were primary commodities, 92 percent in 1975, and 98 percent in 1985. During that period Nigeria imported secondary products such as chemicals, machinery, and transportation equipment to facilitate the production of the export commodities. However, since 1986, at the introduction and failure of Structural Adjustment Programme, Nigeria transformed to a consumption nation. Today, Nigeria imports virtually all goods under the earth including agricultural products, plant and machineries, clothing, fertilizer, aluminium, automobiles, pharmaceutical products, sanitary products, building and construction materials, iron and steel. By 2009, the country spent $42.1billion on the importation of machinery, heavy equipment, consumer goods and food products from UK, France, Germany, China, USA, and South Korea. These countries from which we import I describe as production nations.

    How did these countries become producers and Nigeria a consumer? The production country empowers a company to invest say X000 dollars to establish a factory to manufacture a certain product (say steel) within its own national borders. To make one ton of steel, the company needs iron ore, limestone, coal and a few other minerals mixed together at very high temperature similar to making a good soup whereby you need pepper, onions, tomato, salt and so on. The difference here is that the latter is “cooked” at a much lower temperature compared with the steel “cooking pot” which we call a blast furnace. This furnace works at about 1000 degrees centigrade. This factory therefore needs electricity constantly. To bring all these raw materials together for processing, several companies employing hundreds of workers are required to be in place mostly within the country. Each will invest its money to mine these materials from the ground, pay for labour (thereby create more employment and feed families). These companies require a network of transportation (road, railways and waterways) to move all these goods additionally employing more people prospering more families. On and on it goes. This X1000 dollars suddenly triggers thousands and millions of dollars in investment, create several jobs, and get more skills trained.

    Downstream, these employees must eat, live in a house, and wear clothes; so companies and farms to provide these goods and services are established. For example farms release cassava which is converted not just to garri but industrial starch. Palm oil refined, cocoa to chocolate, shea butter to beauty products and so on. That steel plant, a foundry, machine tools or Aluminium plant, all form the basis to build the machines to carry out these other activities. By now this X000 dollars has now triggered a huge multiplier effect and suddenly hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of primary production are added to the Gross National Product (GNP) of our country. Imagine this activity recreating itself in thousands of locations on different scales and sizes within the national borders of Nigeria. This is how production nations get rich.

    However, when a consumption country like Nigeria decides to its spend its meagre oil money in another country, the activities we just described and the flow of money as well as the employment created all go to the country from where we are importing designer clothes, private jets, cars, toothpick, fish, jam, starch and so on. That country gets rich and Nigeria becomes poor. When oil prices fall as happened recently, our shame was multiplied. People lose jobs and families cannot feed. This is why we call production nations advanced and rich; and why consumption countries like Nigeria, despite oil remains poor and backward.

    The industrialized nations export what they manufacture after buying commodity like the iron ore above from Nigeria, Liberia or Angola for example. No matter how much crude petroleum oil, bauxite (for making aluminium) or iron ore a country exports to the production country, the latter will gradually become wealthy and the commodity-exporter will forever be underdeveloped and manufacture product-importing. Commodities and minerals have a lifespan; they get exhausted!! The reason a producer multiplies wealth is as follows: one ton of bauxite is about US$50-60. When converted to aluminium, this product sells for US$138,000 (1 Kilogram is $138)!!! One ton of iron ore is about $50-65 but once converted to steel, a ton of wire steel is US$790.

    Production nations have become very rich by selling manufactured goods like cars, steel, computers, and smart phones to ignorant but boastful people like us, Nigerians. Nigerians know (I think some folks memorize these names) the latest brand of cars, watches, phones but we have no clue how these are made and the implication of our profligacy is that the army of poor people among us swells by the day. This is why we are at the mercy of oil price volatility. This is why imbalance in trade expands the inequality gap between these rich countries and our poor country. These wealthy countries understand the secrets of wealth creation; they sell us products to be consumed, because we do not care for tools to produce them by ourselves.

    This is why we destroyed Ajaokuta Steel, Delta Steel, Aluminium Company of Nigeria without as much as a thought. I recall as a young engineer when our board members visit for “board meeting” in Ajaokuta in the 1980s, once they leave, they take away the vehicles made available for their temporary stay never to be returned, the company was always broke each time they visited!!! In our ignorance we have helped perpetuate the monopolization of the tools of production in other countries while our appetite for consumption got out of control. We are reaping the whirlwind of corruption sowed decades back. Our children will reap the evil wind of the current mindless consumption economy unless we change course now.

    Today the countries with which we started the race for development have left us far behind; by my estimate we are now 30-40 years behind South Korea and China and falling behind the recently war-torn countries of Asia like Vietnam. Today some companies started about the same time as ASC like POSCO of South Korea produces over 35 million tons of steel per year; Tata of India, 23 million tons, ArcelorMittal SA has become the largest producing over 98 million tons per year. Nigeria produces ZERO because we have no primary steel producer. China is now second to the USA in global wealth (GDP) because it turned itself into the “factory of world”; China produces 50% of global steel.

    Myriad sectors in Nigeria have gone into decline due to company re-location to other countries like Ghana. Cases of industrial closures have become common in Nigeria; according to MAN, over 800 manufacturing companies shut down their operations in Nigeria between 2000 and 2008. Most of the firms relocated to Ghana largely because of constant power outages and excessive taxation. The likes of Cadbury, Unilever, Dunlop, Michelin, Booth Pharmaceuticals and many other pharmaceutical companies left the country over the last decade. The abnormal becomes normal and we just shrug.

    The history of our missed opportunities reads like a horror story and is depressingly sad. The investments that collapsed (steel, aluminium, paper plants, and so on) were of strategic importance to the Nigerian economy and were expected to provide the foundation of several spin-off enterprises providing widespread employment. The fertilizer companies were expected to contribute to increased agricultural productivity and supply of food. The machine tools company was expected to service the informal sector as well as the large and small-scale industries whose contributions to the economy were enormous while the paper mill was expected to facilitate literacy in the country. There are many more examples of large technological projects that failed in Nigeria. Clearly, the failure of these strategic projects contributed significantly to the poor state of the Nigeria’s jobless growth today.

    But we can make the choice to change our ways. I believe in the Nigerian spirit. Can we give ourselves just 10 years of redemption season, and total dedication to excellence in order to rebuild our ruined industrial landscape?

     

    • Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka is professorial fellow, United Nations University, and former Director, Regional Officer for Africa, UN-HABITAT.

  • Exit Mugabe

    With his ouster from the presidency of Zimbabwe last week, old man Robert Mugabe’s dream of dynastic reign in a republican setting came to a rude closure. His iron grip on power was broken and his hope of posthumous rule through forced spousal succession – what his former allies in the war veterans association dubbed “coup by marriage certificate” – was upended.

    The 93-year-old had the record of being the world’s oldest president, and that isn’t counting his being the most enduring ruler in Africa’s peculiar club of power gnomes, having held fort for 37 years. His sole peer in the cohort is Angola’s Eduardo dos Santos, who stood down from office a few months back. Mugabe had been the only leader his country ever had since independence from Britain.

    The nonagenarian actually planned to hold out for much longer. He was already served up by Zimbabwe’s ruling party as its candidate in the general election due next year. The ticket positioned him as the world’s oldest contender on the hustings – and that, without formidable challenge from the country’s splintered opposition. And with the inexorable swamp-in of degenerative elements of mortality, Mugabe schemed to install his overly ambitious but upstarting wife, Grace, as successor. He progressively sidelined veterans of the anti-colonial struggle like him, whose credentials resonated with the power elite, so to entrench his wife who had nix exposure to that historical cause. At the last count, he sacked his long-time ally and next ranking member of the ruling party, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as deputy president at the open bidding of Grace. His swing was widely construed as a ploy to install the wife in Mnangagwa’s office and, thus, position her as heir to the presidency.

    Curtains fell on the Mugabe universe last week when soldiers rolled out their tanks to seize the country’s nerve centres. The same military had over the years been the spine of his political clout and sustained affront on basic democracy norms, obviously owing to a shared history of resistance to Britain’s colonial hegemony that was cast off in 1980. Mugabe at Independence assumed republican leadership of his country, but subsequently slipped into despotic trenches where he hoped to cement a dynastic reign over the country. What he seemed not to have reckoned on is that for every representative who veers off into the narrow and self-serving corridor of despotism, there always comes a breaking point where co-travellers get to reappraise the journey. And when that reappraisal shows the despot up as too far gone on his solo trip, he gets taken off track, unless he has formidable structures of his own to overawe the original base.

    Mugabe crossed that breaking point last week, and he apparently didn’t have a counter-structure when his erstwhile power base – the military – moved to cut him out. His final point of departure with the military, as it seemed, was his emasculation of liberation struggle veterans within the ruling party, which peaked with the removal penultimate week of 75-year-old Mnangagwa as deputy president, just so to empower a factional band of youths loyal to 52-year-old Grace. He had in 2015 sacked another deputy president, Joyce Mujuru, without incurring repercussions; but there is always a red line not to be crossed.

    The putsch in Zimbabwe left unique imprints on global benchmarks for the practice of democracy and tolerance level for its interruption by sleigh of arms. For instance, coups are by their very nature ambush crafts. Zimbabwe’s is the first in common knowledge of which advance notice was openly served before it was carried out. Less than 48 hours before the act, the country’s military chief announced to a press conference in Harare that his squad was poised to strike if the purge of Independence veterans within the ruling party continued. But the jackboots couldn’t wait for that warning to register before they butted in.

    Of course, the Zimbabwean military has insisted its intervention was a cleansing act of sorts, not a coup, and it has managed to conduct the country’s affairs since then as a dicey balancing act. Whereas it effectively severed Mugabe’s hold on power and kept him under house arrest while negotiating his future with him, the old man was retained in nominal status of leadership, such that he made a public appearance on Friday to open the graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe’s Open University in Harare where he is chancellor. The word as at the weekend was, he doubled down on remaining president until the upcoming elections.

    But Zimbabweans, almost without exception, were euphoric over the military intervening to terminate Mugabe’s autocracy that has seen their country from a great promise of prosperity at Independence to the basket case it is now. Perhaps in effect, the international community seemed thrown out of step on the standard tack of rejecting putsches against constitutional governance for whatever reason offhand. And that is really unhelpful for securing the culture of democracy against military adventurers in restive climes like we have in Africa.

    In response to the Zimbabwe putsch, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari glibly called for preservation of the constitutional order, which the military action seemed anything but. Not that he was alone. The leader of Zimbabwe’s neighbour and regional powerhouse, South African President Jacob Zuma, initially rejected “unconstitutional changes” to the government in Harare offhand; but he dialed back soon after to canvass amicable resolution of the impasse, while urging the Zimbabwe defence forces to “ensure…maintenance of peace.” He has since headed up regional mediation efforts to ease Mugabe out. Also, the African Union (AU), which in the past summarily kicked out countries like Mali and Mauritania because of military coups, is quavering for now on declaring Zimbabwe’s as a coup and acting accordingly.

    Further afield, former colonial overlord, Britain, just about cheered the removal of Mugabe, even though by force of arms. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in a statement to the House of Commons last week, flayed the old man’s legacy and suggested that a transition offered a “moment of hope” for Zimbabweans. And the United Nations (UN), as at the weekend, was unsure what to make of the Zimbabwe experience. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported Secretary General Antonio Guterres to have described the situation as confusing, saying: “I never like to see the military involved in politics, but I have to recognise it’s a confusing situation. I hope first of all that there is no bloodshed, that this is done peacefully. I hope that (it) will…lead to a political and democratic solution, and that the next elections that are scheduled are free and fair elections for the people of Zimbabwe to choose their own future.”

    The point here is, Mugabe did so much damage to the economy and democratic culture in his country that the method necessitated to get him out now in some way imperils democracy across the African continent. That is the legacy the nonagenarian is bequeathing to posterity.

     

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • Towards a better democratic culture in Nigeria

     For many Nigerians, democracy in our land has not really lived up to its universally acclaimed status. Indeed, not quite a few people are of the view that democracy has failed the nation. So glaring is the failure and so painful are the betrayals of the true fathers of democracy in the country, some of whom had to pay the supreme price in order to ensure that democracy is deeply entrenched in our political culture.

    In a land that is abundantly blessed with enormous resources and potentials, it’s only a few that are connected to the powers that live in affluence while the majority wallows in abject poverty. Poverty , maternal deaths, unemployment , insecurity, corruption, electoral malpractices, unstable power supply, lack of good drinking water and poor road network among others have continued to be the blight of our beloved nation.  In some states, workers are being owed months of salaries while pensioners suffer same fate, leading in a few cases to needless deaths.

    Considering all this, it becomes quite essential for one to take another look at Abraham Lincoln’s simple, concise and universally recognized definition of democracy as: “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.  Lincoln’s definition is a theory that emphasizes the nitty-gritty of democracy, which is all about the people.  Hence, a democracy is built on the equality of the people; the freedom of these people to associate with one another for the realization of their ideals and the defense, promotion of their interests, giving the freewill to citizens to exhibit their legitimate rights. It is, therefore, a system of government that is absolutely centered on the people.

    The literal meaning of “democracy” comes from a combination of two Greek words, demos (people) and kratos (rule), and at its core is a concept that emphasizes “democracy is a form of government in which the people rule”. The term originated in Athens and was a part of the standard classification of regime forms that distinguished rule by one (monarchy), several (aristocracy) and many (democracy). However, beyond the literal meaning of democracy, there have been considerable debates over the criteria that distinguish democracies from non-democracies.

    It can be argued that democracy is a system of government that makes the opportunity to participate in the process of decision making open to all who are willing and interested. It is also a system of government that recognizes individual rights, as well as a system of representation and electoral system based on the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value.

    When the phrase “dividends of democracy” came in the nation’s political lexicon in 1999 after the termination of military rule, many did not realize its power to affect and infect the possibilities for political perception in Nigeria as well as Nigerians’ view of obligations and responsibilities in a democracy. Today, however, the phrase sits atop the hierarchy of politically significant and oft-deployed concepts; it enjoys the acceptance of pro-government propagandists and opposition intellectuals alike.

    The unfolding democratic experience in Nigeria provides a practical theory of autocracy being craftily deployed along with other performances of power that bastardize or mimic the democratic concepts of popularity, consent, and public acceptance. The mix of these symbols have forced blackmail and insinuation which led elected officials to invent and reinvent ways of performing power that are a depressing throwback to military rule and one-party dictatorships.

    When power is fully personalized as is gradually becoming the case in Nigeria, the result is that the destiny of the person of the leader and that of the state are conflated. And this is manifest not just in the occasional rhetorical outbursts of self-interested political officials, having at the back of our minds that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Corruption constitutes one of the greatest challenges and threats to the consolidation of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The incidence of corruption in the country reached a crescendo in 2004 when a German based non-governmental organization called Transparency International in its 2004 Corruption Perception Index(CPI) report projected Nigeria as the 2nd most corrupt country in the world(132nd out of 133 countries surveyed).

    The way forward is for the war on corruption to be pushed beyond political propaganda, nepotism, intimidation and witch-hunting of political opponents. Government must muster sufficient political will to punish any corrupt public officer, irrespective of his or her status in the society. In addition, legislation should be enacted by the National Assembly, stipulating stringent penalty for corruption related offences.

    Also, aside tackling corruption headlong, our democracy must be able to guarantee all universally accepted norms of freedom. Democracy will not bear the expected dividends when voices of dissent are muzzled and government cannot be held accountable. Transparency in governance, freedom of expression, freedom of choice, respect for the rights of the minorities, and the legitimacy of opposition are among significant features of democracy. Therefore, everything must be done to ensure that these critical elements are well preserved in our democracy.

    It is also important that the people, who in real essence are the embodiment of democracy, take control of the entire process. They must understand that democracy is not just about election. Most often, the electorates go to sleep immediately after an election. But then, this is wrong. The people need to be alert and ensure that elected public officials do not take electorates for granted.

    The people must always insist on good governance while also putting on creative cap of self-empowerment. The family unit, social organisations, schools and colleges and the media must help people to overcome the shackles of helplessness in the face of our daunting problems.

    Yes, it is true that our expectations are not really being met in terms of dividends of democracy. Nevertheless, our democratic setbacks may not yet entitle us to reject democracy altogether or to be receptive to non democratic options. If democracy is working for other nations, it should for us. All we need to do is to play the game according to the rules and we shall get expected results. God bless Nigeria.

    • Erezi is a student of National Broadcast Academy, Ikeja, Lagos

     

  • Anambra: Willie wins! Plus, national purloining by networks and other matters

    The answer would have been to airlift Ekwueme to Abuja – straight to the State House Clinic of Obloquy!

    Anambrarians went to the polls yesterday to elect a new governor out of 37 contestants.  For the rest of us, it just seems weird, in a non-election year to be at the polls for such an important election.  But this is what Nigeria gets for all the cheating, rigging, election tribunals, some dirty cops and corrupt judges assigned to electoral tribunals and on and on down the line.

    It is hoped that electoral reforms will be adopted soon to authenticate our democracy.

    Anyway, I personally do not like one thing: political debates.  Neither does Buhari!

    But Anambra’s was a marked departure from other states (which held one at all) where most of the candidates took part.  There was one, on the ticket of a ‘correct’ party, but still an underdog in the race.  Cool and collected, even his name Willie seemed understated.  (I am Dr. William Soromtochukwu Obiano, PhD would have been more in form!).

    Completely self-effacing, he marshaled his points out syllogistically, yet with such simplicity that within me, I began to wish, for the sake of Anambra that he would win.  My wish came true; Willie Won!

    Since then, news reports from Anambra indicate notable achievements so far.  Anambrarians like Ibos majorly, are a mercantile people, but robbery and kidnapping was rife in Anambra.  Obiano’s strategy on crime fighting was as radical as it was hard line.  And it worked!  Now not just Anambra but the entire nation is the better for it.

    Before the current agric revolution championed by the central APC government, Obiano was a forerunner in the practice of boosting agric development.

    Most endearing to me is that in spite of the frosty relationship between him and his predecessor, Obiano has completed projects of the last governor, including those in Peter Obi’s locality.

    This trait in Willie Obiano and Nyesom Wike, Rivers State Governors is highly commendable and of special note as they are 2 Governors in this dispensation whose handover was acrimonious.

    Obiano as I see practices Politics Without Bitterness.  He was one of the first few Governors to visit the APC President-elect Muhammadu Buhari and has been cordial with the central government ever since.

    For the other 2 top contenders, the APC and PDP candidates; both have adopted the methodology of GODFATHERISM; a mode that Anambrarians had suffered under for long, with dire consequences.  To name the godfathers: Arthur One – Thousand is backing the APC candidate and the PDP candidate is linked with ex-Governor Peter Obi.

    Whoever emerges Anambra Governor has my best wishes, but here on Princess Files we never shy away from making predictions.

    For Anambra – Willie Will Win. Again!

    Ekwueme treatment dilemma

    Ailing second republic Vice President Alex Ekwueme slumped in his Enugu residence in October and fell into a comma.  That’s no longer news, neither is the rumour that he is dead (he isn’t).  Six days after he collapsed, President Buhari approved the immediate medical treatment of Ekwueme abroad.

    This, I do not get.  With the life expectancy of a Nigerian reduced officially from the initial 54 to 48, Ekwueme has lived the whole of TWO life times!  Ekwueme, who is Nigeria’s first democratically elected Vice President has been in the corridors of power throughout.  He was a founding member of G34, the PDP, and then was a presidential candidate in the party’s 2003 primaries.  That’s nearly 25 years after being Vice President.  He now says the party has humiliated and neglected him.

    Just as I was basking in the relief that the medical tourism offer was not taken up, last Sunday morning Ekwueme was flown to London in an air  ambulance that had even parked at the airport in Enugu all Saturday night, till Ekwueme was brought in the next morning.

    Releasing an air ambulance to take him to London is one option, even where medical costs are not being borne by the government.  Or are they?  Everyday the information changes.  However, now that the man, at the end of his 85th year and in a coma is ferried abroad, it is for the doctors there to do what, A MIRACLE? Urgently produce an elixir to grant Ekwueme 15 more years, to depart at 100?!

    The President should have just asked me, I had the perfect solution to the Ekwueme ailment/treatment dilemma.

    The answer would have been to airlift him from Enugu to Nnamdi Azikiwe airport and ferry him straight to the State House Clinic, of obloquy!

    Stealing by networks

    A friend of mine called me once and after we had talked for hours his call card ran out.  I called back and we spoke on till mine ran out as well, so I decided to “borrow credit” as the network call it.  Big Mistake.  The next day I topped up my card and was duly debited for borrowing.  But from that day on, every single time I recharged my phone, money was taken for the same card borrowed just that one time.  And so they kept “repaying” themselves, I had to get out of the trap.  By then it had happened about 8 times.  I called the 3 digit helpline and was put on hold for ages.  When they finally decided to attend to me – they assured that the deductions would end.  Oh how about all the ones wrongly deducted?  Ah, those had already been programmed bla bla bla.

    Their computers are programmed to fleece PAYING subscribers.

    Then come the texts about now your subscription to xyz has been “renewed”.  Bad enough the call rates are crazy on Nigerian networks.  Who hasn’t noticed that international callers go on and on until the death of your phone battery?   Because calls are CHEAP outside our shores!

    And text messages in the 15 countries or so I’ve visited are free.  Here it costs N4 or so they say.

    Because every time your network connects your number to one of Its platforms, they subscribe You with N100; sometimes N50, depending entirely on THEM.  Nigerians scream, write and cry all the time.  In September, I heard an NCC officials on Radio Nigerians saying they had dealt with the problem of unsolicited texts.  Juts text STOP to the message, he instructed.

    For heaven’s sake, what was he talking about?  Everyone who has a phone knows this is not even the point.  WE LIVE WITH UNSOLICITED MAILS, here.  I even paid some money for a “special line”, like all the politicians have, just to get some deliverance.

    I am talking here about outright stealing from subscribers, Mr. NCC.

    Already a former governor, Col. Abdullahi Umar had sued one network (MTN) in a class action, for all its illegal deductions.

    Still, nothing has changed.  My nephew loaded a call card to go on a data plan, He then clicked on his N1,000 and met N726 available.  The network just sits and waits for you to recharge then helps itself to your money at their whim.  Weekly and monthly.  Yes every now and again, you will receive data bonuses and free data days.  But like Osuofia says in one commercial, they give you one, and take away five.  He’s so right.

    Say you lose N400 a week, my modest estimate, that’s N1,600 each month.  Multiply that by the number of subscribers who have fallen for the grandmasters of data.  That’s a gargantuan lot of stealing going on; since we are probing Deziani, we need to go after this mega national stealing too.

    Stella Obasanjo

    I shall not write anything more than what I have done here, the rest including the story BEHIND the stories, is in a book, to be released in 2018. Please look out for it and get yourself a copy!

    • 07055547031 sms or Whatsapp

  • Wise men still come from the East

    At his incarnation, wise men gifted in astronomy came from the East, all the way to Bethlehem, in the south of Jerusalem, to worship Jesus Christ. They are today known as the Magi, who gave the newborn gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

    There is a lot to say on the significance of each gift item, but that is not the purpose of the writing today. Maybe, another day, as the need arises. What we need from that nativity story is that the wise men came all the way from the East, following a star that led them to Bethlehem. In our country Nigeria, we have the geo-political zone called the South-east, and wise men still come from there. In plenty numbers. This week, it was brought out in bold relief.

    President Muhammadu Buhari was in two states of the South-east on Tuesday and Wednesday, and what a delightsome, myth-shattering visit it has become. It is one visit that has torpedoed the negative narrative deliberately conjured by some mischief makers over the years, that President Buhari does not like people from the East, and neither do the people like him.

    Now, that assertion is fiction, pure apocryphal, conjured and concocted by some people to serve narrow political ends. In his first shot at the presidency in 2003, who was Buhari’s running mate? Dr Chuba Okadigbo. Where did he come from? Ogbunike, town of the famous cave, in the South-east. And in 2007, candidate Buhari looked towards the East again. He picked Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, as running mate. And in 2011, I remember very clearly. Buhari was on the march again, and needed a running mate. Socio-political leadership of the South-east forbade any of its sons from being running mate to anyone. Their candidate, they said, was Goodluck Jonathan, who then was completing the term of Umaru Yar’Adua. So, Buhari looked westward, and picked the cleric, Tunde Bakare. But did he demonstrate any animus towards the East? Not at all.

    In 2015, the man, easily the most colourful politician, greatest crowd puller of this season in Nigeria, threw his hat into the ring again. The East was still in bed with Jonathan, completely besotted, vowing to swim or sink with their brother, Ebele Azikiwe.

    Buhari looked westward again, picked Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as running mate. A large part of the East was dug in, not minding to play what may be called ‘poor politics’ in the process. When the dust of the elections settled, Jonathan was holding the shorter end of the stick. Buhari coasted to the presidency, but the entire East had given him just about 180,000 votes, less than what some local councils gave in other parts of the country. To make matters worse, the East had refused to re-elect its own son, Dr Chris Ngige, as senator. If Ngige had been given a mandate, he would have effortlessly emerged Senate President, and see what the region would have benefitted. But the large number opted for self-immolation, voted Ngige out, and later began to scream marginalization. But if you ask me, it was a self-inflicted wound. Result of poor politics.

    That was the background that some people twisted, and used to paint the scenario that President Buhari does not like the South-east.

    But happily, there had been voices of reason from the region, pre-2015 presidential election. The Ralph Obiohas, Chris Ngiges, Festus Odimegwus, Fr. Ejike Mbakas, Orji Uzor Kalus, Osita Okechukwus, J.C Ojukwus, and many others, had warned their people not to put their eggs in one basket. And they have turned out to be wise men, being joined today by thousands of other wise people.

    You know what the mistakes of 2015 did to Ndigbo? It consigned them to perpetual opposition politics, playing in the periphery. For such an illustrious and enterprising people, that was unfortunate, if not tragic. If they continued that way, there was no silver lining in the sky for the future. Nigeria is configured in a way that the person who builds the largest coalition is the one who can emerge President. The Igbo should naturally produce the President one day, that is what fairness demands. But how would that ever happen, if they continued to play poor politics? If you continue to swim in small pools, you stand the risk of being submerged in bigger waters. But now, things are changing. The wise men are making a difference.

    Back to Ebonyi, the famed Salt of the Nation, where we arrived last Tuesday. Governor Dave Umahi is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and he is also Igbo. If he were to play narrow politics, he should have nothing to do with President Buhari. But the Ebonyi State helmsman has proven himself a wise man from the East. He has cultivated a good relationship with the President, and achieved the feat of being the first state in the South-east to host the President on a State Visit. President Buhari consented to the visit, thus showing him to be a pan-Nigerian leader, true father of the nation. If overriding sentiments had prevailed, then the President would not have chosen a state controlled by the opposition PDP for his visit, and definitely, not a state in a ‘hostile region.’ But not President Buhari, who has always maintained that no part of the country would be treated unfairly under his watch.

    Landing at Enugu airport, before proceeding to Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State, by chopper, was the first breath of fresh air. The airport was gaily decorated, with banners, billboards and posters of the President and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, who was also on hand to receive the President. He is also of the PDP, but a wise man from the East. You don’t play the politics that shuts you out of the national grid, lest you get sentenced to perpetual half current, or no current at all.  The reception at Enugu airport, and , indeed, in all the places we visited, Abakaliki and Awka, would make you relish and savour the aroma of brotherhood and national cohesion.

    Before the visit, there had been attempt by those behind negative narratives, to frighten the President away. They forgot he was a General, and such people don’t scare easily. However, the  reception and applause  all round gave a true picture of what subsists in the country. This is a President widely and massively loved-in the North, the South, East and West.

    Not only is Gov Dave Umahi a wise man from the East, the royal fathers in his state are of the same mind. They gave President Buhari the traditional title of Enyioma 1 of Ebonyi, meaning Trustworthy Friend of Ebonyis. Commendable.

    Also joining the train of wisdom, are the traditional rulers of South-east, as a body. They gave the President the title Ochioha Ndigbo, meaning Leader of Igbo People. I tell you, this is the way to build a cohesive nation, promote brotherliness, and guarantee fairness and equity, rather than the poor politics of the past. More than at any other time, the wise men from the East have given a handshake across the Niger, and only the future will show the positive impact of that initiative.

    Former Ebonyi State governor, Sam Egwu, immediate past governor, Martin Elechi, former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Culture Minister, Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu, former senator, Julius Ucha,  and many others, were part of the healing process in the East. Ogbuewu said President Buhari, by the visit, had proven that he was  not truly for some people, but for all Nigerians. Egwu, on his part, disclosed that Gov Umahi had charged those of them currently in the National Assembly from Ebonyi, to always give support to policies of the Federal Government, despite belonging to different political parties. That’s the way to go.

    The traditional rulers of the South-east, through their leader, Eze Eberechi Dick, commended the President for fighting insecurity, for fighting corruption, promoting agriculture, and generally bringing hope of a better future.

    “You are a great leader. We love you so much. We are solidly behind you,” the monarch said.

    Trust the President to throw in a wisecrack. After being decorated with the paraphernalia of chieftaincy, he said:”I will tell my personal photographer to frame the picture, and I will put it in my sitting room in Daura, where I will eventually end up.” That’s a man who knows the transience of power and official positions. East or West, home is the best. Daura would always be home.

    When the President entered the township stadium in Abakaliki, the applause was inspiring. One was tempted to ask, is this not in the South-east, where they say they don’t like Buhari? The same thing was to repeat itself in Awka, when the President entered the Alex Ekwueme Square, where the campaign for Anambra governorship holding this Saturday was being concluded. It was applause all the way, signposting the fact that the East was ready to jettison poor politics, and return to the mainstream. It was a roll call of who is who in Nigerian politics from the South-east, who have now teamed up with the All Progressives Congress (APC). Emeka Ojukwu junior, son of Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who used the occasion to publicly join the APC, summed it all up, by pointing out that when his father came back from exile in the early 1980s, he did not join a regional party, but opted for a national one. He concluded: “It is time to stop operating in the periphery. It is time to leave the shadows for light.” Home truth for all Nigerians, and for Ndigbo particularly, if you ask me.

    There is no way you can tell the Igbos not to aspire for presidency of Nigeria at a time in future. It will be contrary to fairness and justice. But then, the region must start playing astute politics. It must leave the shadows for light. It must sustain the hand of fellowship it has extended to the rest of the country, as shown in the warm reception for the President in Ebonyi and Anambra states. Wise men abound in that region, I say again.

    During the reception in Ebonyi, Gov Umahi announced a gift of 2,000 bags of rice, 2,000 tubers of yam, and a white horse for the President. I saw the Enyioma 1 of Ebonyi open his mouth in amazement. While thanking his host for the gift, he promised to send the cargo to Daura, his hometown, for the people to share. Trust me, I told Mohammed Sarki Abba, the President’s senior aide, seated beside me: “I’ll ask Mr President for 50 of those bags of rice, before you send them to Daura. I’ll then distribute them to my own friends in the name of Ochioha Ndigbo.”

    And that’s exactly what I’ll do. The Enyioma 1 would surely oblige. Lol.

     

    • Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari
  • Your positive attitude can save Nigeria

    Your positive attitude can save Nigeria

    Do you sometimes think Nigeria is a failed state? You are not alone but I have good news for you. There is hope and the hope is you! It’s bad enough that Nigeria is perceived and rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Frankly what I can’t fathom is the perception that Nigeria is not just a corrupt nation but a ‘corrupting nation’(Hmm…the virus of corruption is fast infecting even the righteous in the land). God!!! how many are the remnants in the land who stand for truth and refuse to compromise their chaste values regardless of the pain of standing alone? I see the bad egg syndrome as an analogy for corruption. Do you know the reason why eggs go bad? Recently, I conducted a field survey to find out and it will amaze you to know that the major reason why some eggs go bad or are more prone to rottenness is that the quality of feed given to the mother hen was poor, in other words if the quality of the feed given to the mother hen was poor then the quality of the eggs the hen hatches will invariably be poor. The bad egg syndrome, is a mental state likened to a rotten egg, just like the bad egg, it is offensive and could be as a result of poor feeding. The quality of your decisions or actions are directly related to what you feed your mind with and the company you keep. Truth be told, you are what you feed your mind! The offshoot of a corrupt mind is a corrupt value system which leads to corrupt behaviours.

    The opinion of Bobby Udoh, the author of ‘Nation Building’ is an eye opener ‘It is not the efforts of government (alone) that builds a great nation but rather the thoughts, words and actions of the people….whatever progress we seek to make in our democratic dispensation will be interrupted by the deterioration of the quality of the Nigerian, and this is where the political leadership originates from. We are fast becoming a people with no values-style(perception) and little or no substance(reality).’ I agree absolutely with Bobby. Recently I watched a Nigerian comedy (video) which reflected our eroding moral values.  A head teacher of a school negotiated with a photographer(for passport photographs) a sum of N100 per student. She later called the class teacher and told her to collect N150 from each student. The class teacher got back to class and instructed her students to collect N200 each from their parents. A student got home and she told her mum, N350, mum went to her husband and demanded N500 …what a generation of fraudsters! It’s really pathetic but all hope is not lost.

    I salute the courage of exemplary leaders like the late Dora Akunyili whose life showcased honesty and personal integrity.  When the name Dora Akunyili is mentioned in Nigeria and all other parts of the world it is remembered for good. Late Prof. Akunyili can never be counted among the corrupt instead her name will be forever carved in gold in the hall of fame of the noble men and women.

    Have you ever wondered how Prof. Akunyili rose to the top and became the director of NAFDAC? Record shows that back in 1998 while serving as the South-east Zonal secretary of the Petroleum Trust Fund(PTF) under the leadership of Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, she took ill and was given a scary diagnosis in a medical facility in Nigeria which necessitated her going to the United States for treatment. The PTF gave her the medical expenses, but upon arriving in the US, she was told that she was misdiagnosed and that she would be all right without treatment. Her exceptional virtues were evidenced when she returned to Nigeria and refunded the medical expenses($12000) to the agency. The story got out and the then president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo heard about it, in 2001 he appointed Dora as Director General of National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC). There are still citizens of this country who have not yet soiled their integrity and I count myself as one however, we have fought as individuals for far too long, we need to step forward and form a strong coalition not proliferation of new breed political parties.

    • Continued online
  • Gov. Ajimobi: Shaping the future of Oyo through collaborative efforts

    Gov. Ajimobi: Shaping the future of Oyo through collaborative efforts

    Under  Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s watch, good governance and exemplary leadership have grown to become an attitude, a settled way of thinking that continually gives fillip to growth and development in Oyo State.

    Indeed, good governance has been so well entrenched and institutionalized that it presents a picture of the people’s unwavering trust and confidence in the governor’s specific ability to conduct public affairs and manage public resources in the best interests of the generality of the citizenry rather than a privileged few.

    Against this background, it is on record that Gov. Ajimobi consistently makes quality choices that guarantee social, political and economic inclusion of the majority of the citizenry and which over the years have ensured a greater improvement in the quality of life among the citizens.

    A typical wise choice was the adoption of Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative as a robust strategy for oiling the wheels of governance and a veritable springboard for accelerated socio-economic development.

    For a fact, the governor is unalterably committed to strategic partnership with relevant stakeholders on particular projects or programmes, having realized that the immense benefits accruable from such collaborative efforts, especially with the private sector and development partners cannot be over emphasized as they are usually profound and qualitative in an engaging manner.

    In more ways than one, collaborations help to pool resources together for project funding and execution, create synergy that deepens knowledge and increases capacity which in turn results in quality and timely service delivery.

    All these attributes of strategic partnership apparently informed Gov. Ajimobi’s decision to reactivate forthwith the synergy between Oyo State government and private organizations on assumption of office six years ago. According to him, ‘’one of the first things we did when we came into office was to immediately begin to oil the rusty hinges of partnership between government and development partners.’’

    So, six years down the line, Gov. Ajimobi, a quintessential leader admired for his in-depth perception and reputed for sound judgment, has been consistently guided by this principle of partnership with appropriate stakeholders, a cost effective and feasible option that serves in great measure to solve monumental development issues confronting the state such as infrastructural shortages, high rate of unemployment, debilitating effects of poverty, a rising tide of sundry criminal activities in the society, depreciating standard of education, poor access to affordable and quality healthcare, among others.

    Certainly, this is an intelligent choice in view of harsh economic realities in Nigeria today that has made access to funds for development programs and projects hellish.

    An instance of such interface between government and appropriate stakeholders was a collaborative effort on peace and security, an endeavor geared towards reducing criminal activities in Oyo state to the barest minimum.

    The objective was to ensure a crime free state. The first phase of the Public Private Initiative gave birth to Oyo State Security Trust Fund (OYSSTF) and the formation of Oyo State Joint Security Patrol Squad – ‘Operation Burst’ in 2012.

    The OYSSTF Board of Trustees comprising of notable private sector personalities and supported by heads of security agencies in the state, achieved so much that it was able to significantly stem the tide of prevailing series of political killings, armed robberies, arsons, brigandage, among other forms of insecurity and therefore successfully moved Oyo from a state of anarchy and disequilibrium to a peaceful and tranquil society within a very short time.

    Today, Oyo State proudly occupies the enviable position of one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria, a feat that has over time contributed substantially to the successful regeneration and transformation undertakings of the Ajimobi administration.

    The second phase which took off with the recent inauguration of a new Board of Trustees of OYSSTF is now to be solely private-sector driven in order to address operational hindrances and make room for better efficiency that would ensure even a safer and more peaceful Oyo State.

    Going further, Gov. Ajimobi in his characteristic manner of thinking out of the box came up with the novel idea of setting up the Oyo State N50 Billion Healthcare Endowment Fund, a public-private sector initiative that would help secure adequate funding for healthcare projects and programs.

    This unique initiative which is being managed by a credible Board of Trustees is surely another laudable effort by the Ajimobi government to overhaul the healthcare sector for better service delivery that would further bring qualitative and affordable healthcare services to the doorsteps of the common man on the street.

    Also in an attempt to address the rot in the education sector, the Governor set up the Oyo Education Trust Fund, a collaborative strive that was launched recently with a mandate to its Board of Trustees to seek funds from appropriate stakeholders with a view to assisting the government in completing its intervention projects.

    This move, according to the governor, would go a long way in restoring the fading education glory of the state and therefore put in place a conducive learning environment, excellent instructional materials, an upgrade of infrastructural facilities to an acceptable world standard, as well as quality and well motivated teachers.

    Further to this was the creation of School’s Governing Boards (SGB) that will provide management functions for each public secondary school in the state to enable them meet performance targets.

    • Continued online
    • Mr. Ogunremi wrote in from Ibadan

  • Change begins with education

    Welcome Address delivered at the Presidential Retreat on Education for Ministers held on November 13, 2017 at Old Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja

    It is with great respect and gratitude that I welcome His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to this important Presidential Retreat on Education for Ministers. Your Excellency, your presence at this important and historic event is a demonstration of leadership and your personal commitment to education and the passion and commitment of this administration to revitalize our education sector and develop the nation’s human capital.

    The education family respectfully welcomes you to this retreat; and, with your permission, I would also like to welcome His Excellency Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members of the National Assembly, Ministers of the Federal Republic and other invited personalities who have graced this occasion.

    Permit me, Your Excellency, to also specially thank the Vice President for the initial directive, for his interest and continuing support. I would like to also thank all my colleagues in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the robust discussion at the FEC meeting of June 25, 2017 that has now culminated in this Retreat. I thank you all and I hope that at the end of the Retreat, we will all come to better appreciate, and place even higher premium on, the necessity to rejuvenate and overhaul education provisioning in the country.

    As we all know, no nation can rise above the standard of its education, because it is education that serves as the springboard for every kind of development. If education is weak or dysfunctional, society and its development will also be weak and dysfunctional. And all change – including our very Change Agenda – begins with education; because it is education that shapes, corrects and restores society.

    But to be able to restore order to society, education has to be made a national priority. This truism is valid for every society and is of particular relevance for our own society which, we all agree, is confronted with a litany of challenges and deficits. Education offers us the knowledge, tools, skills and attitudes with which to address and surmount these challenges, to correct and overcome inhibiting deficits, and to put our country on the path of accelerated development and sustainable change.

    Your Excellency, permit me to share a story I read about the Chinese. In their determination to build, and live in, a peaceful society, they built the Great Wall believing that it would keep invaders at bay; because they thought it was impossible for anyone to scale it, given its insurmountable height. However, within the first century of the construction of the wall, the Chinese were invaded three times. Every time the invaders came, they had no need to climb over the wall; because each time they came, they were able to bribe the guards on duty at the gate, and the gate was opened 2 | P a g e  for them. The Chinese took pains to build the wall but they forgot to build the character of the guards who were supposed to secure the walls. The great lesson of this story is that character-building precedes wall-building.

    And character is everything: as one of the Orientalists once said: “If you want to destroy the civilization of a nation, there are three ways of doing so: 1) destroy the family structure 2) destroy education and 3) lower role models”.

    In order to destroy the family, all you need to do is to undermine the role of the Mother. To destroy education, you should give no importance to the Teacher so that the students despise him. Then, to demean role models, you should undermine the scholars, cast doubt on them until no one listens to them or follows their teachings. For, when a conscious mother disappears, and when a dedicated teacher cannot be found, and when role models are ignored, who is there to teach the younger ones values?

    If the foregoing story indicates anything, it is the strong message that the entirety of civilization is at risk and in great peril when access to proper and quality education is denied the majority of its citizens. Such a denial can lead to a number of undesirable consequences, the most pernicious of which are value erosion and character failure among the youths who are supposed to become leaders of the society.

    The signs of such value erosion and character failure in our young population are already there for us to see. The rise in the incidence of corruption, moral decadence, juvenile delinquency, examination malpractices, cultism and drug abuse among our youth is symptomatic of this malaise, and indicative of such value erosion. This is enough warning that indeed for our nation, the enemy is already at the city gate. The advancement of this enemy must be checked now.

    Education alone offers us the tool to confront this enemy, to defeat its armies and bring about and institutionalize change. Yes, education offers us the way out of our current vicious circle, and to the emergence of an equitable and stable society characterized by inclusive development and driven by positive values. Education is our collective responsibility and its failure can well be taken as the failure of the entire country. We are all involved in education because it affects us all.

    But from what has happened to our education since independence, it is clear that our educational system has failed our people, and has been unable to prepare our children for life as responsible and creative citizens of the twenty first century. Our recent poor performance in meeting our commitments to the Millennium Development Goals adequately illustrates the extent of such a failure. In short, our education is not achieving the desired results and there is a need for urgent action.

    Your Excellency, it is trite to bore you with the challenges that face education in Nigeria. We all know them: and they are there at all levels – basic, secondary and tertiary. Basic education constitutes the foundation and it has to be given all the attention it deserves. We need to ask questions on what we teach and who does the teaching. As it happened to the Chinese, our national security itself may be in grave danger unless we give priority to education in our national 3 | P a g e  reckoning. At the same time, we must also create the enabling conditions that would enable tertiary institutions to play crucial roles as the engines that drive national thinking and lead the application of research and development to all facets of national development.

    It is also high time we paid attention to teachers and to teaching as a profession. Mass literacy, adult education, distance learning, nomadic education and the rest are all important; but we cannot deliver them without giving respectability and renewed stature to the teacher. We must learn to make education attractive to the best brains, make its study free, its outcome lucrative – and accord it the respect it deserves. That is why we must attract and retain the best brains in to the classroom as it is done in many other nations of the world.

    In Germany and Finland, for example, the highest paid professionals are teachers. They are better paid than judges, doctors, engineers, accountants, and so on. When Chancellor Angela Markel, was asked by the engineers, doctors and judges to pay them the same salary as teachers, she told them, “How can I compare you to those who taught you?” This is the logical perception and attitude that Nigeria’s leadership should have of education. I am strongly persuaded that if we offer automatic scholarship to students who take education, and automatic employment and a preferential compensation package to those who take to teaching as a profession, our system will improve tremendously. If we give regulatory agencies the teeth to bite and do their work, mediocre teachers will soon disappear from our classrooms. If we insist on professionalism with appropriate deadlines set for those who teach, the situation will improve phenomenally. We can minimize and in due course eliminate mediocrity in the education sector.

    There is need to harmonize the learning and teaching that transpire in our tertiary institutions as well as re-define our national goals periodically. Since independence and up to the time Your Excellency was military head of state, this nation had had National Development Plan and we must return to development planning if this nation is to develop; or else, it will remain one vast landscape of unconnected contracts, and disconnected researchers unable to connect their work with national development policies and vision.

    Already, the Federal Ministry of Education has commenced work in all three areas with the publication of our Ministerial Strategic Plan on education, which anticipated, and is therefore in line with, the recently approved Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

    Our education should drive our national development objectives and we need to carry the universities and other tertiary institutions along. We have to revive our vocational training centres and give our technical schools adequate and requisite attention.

    Mr. President, to achieve the desired change that education needs, there is need for improved funding and a measure of political will in national governance. Such is the weight of the problems that beset our education and the deleterious effect it has had on our national development efforts that I believe that this Retreat should end with a declaration of a state of emergency in education so that we can face the challenges frontally and squarely. 4 | P a g e.

    These challenges are not insurmountable: what is needed is vastly improved funding accompanied by a strong political will. The strong political will needed to do all this is present in this government. What this government must now do is to make the funds available.

    You Excellency, nobody has the moral and resource capacity to intervene promptly, substantially and sustainably in all areas of education provisioning better than the government. Unfortunately, from 1999 to date, the annual budgetary allocation to education has always been between four per cent and ten per cent. None of the E9 or D8 countries, other than Nigeria, allocates less than 20% of its annual budget to education. Indeed even among sub-Saharan Africa countries, we are trailing far behind smaller and less endowed nations in terms of our investment in education. There is therefore need for a major investment in education in the national interest. A clear guide, Your Excellency, is the costing of the APC campaign promises in education which shows that a minimum of one trillion Naira per annum, over four years, would be required to fulfil your thirteen promises.

    Mr. President, Honourable Ministers, I want to once again welcome you all to this Retreat and I thank you for coming to be part of it. I earnestly hope that by the end of this Retreat, we will have arrived at actionable strategies and, hopefully, the declaration of an emergency – that will change the fortunes of education in Nigeria. All change must begin with education, because, if we get education right, other areas of our national life will be right and they will fall in line.

    Finally, I also want to appreciate the team of experts that worked strenuously on planning this Retreat. The Team is chaired by His Excellency, Prof. Michael Omolewa, with an array of distinguished stakeholders in the education sector as members. I have not seen more intimidating CVs than theirs – in education or in any other disciplines. We feel dwarfed by their mere presence, and we were all too pleased that they accepted to help. In preparing this Retreat, they have considered the recommendations of every report ever written on education in Nigeria; because they or their students have written them. And if there is a last ditch effort to rescue education, this is it.

    Your Excellency, I do not want to be a barrier between you and what they have to say. I will therefore promptly sit down. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your attention and I wish us all successful deliberations.

     

    • Adamu Adamu is the Minister of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria

  • Stupidity may be another word for hypertension: it also kills!

    I came across a publication this week that made interesting reading. It coincided with a season of defences and denials, with people taking positions either aimed at deflecting flaks away from their principals or defending the indefensible or mis-reading or misunderstanding or mis-reading other people’s motives.

    In most of these cases, downright imbecility is it. In a few, deliberate mischief at re-inventing events or obfuscating issues is at the core of their behaviour. But however, you look at all of these, they mostly worsen the woes of those they set out to defend or protect, to be fair, without realising it.

    When you hear some people complain to you that they are fatigued, knackered or completely stressed out,  their undoing is not about pneumonia, toothache or such sundry ailments; it is about a self-inflicted judgemental indiscretion which is now identified as a major threat to people’s health.

    Some people, whether in workplaces or in politics, prefer to surround themselves with imbeciles, (to solid, well-baked morally upright and devoted individuals), who are too willing to play lackeys but sooner or later, the realisation dawns that these imbeciles are liabilities than assets; who betray without batting an eyelid, commit unforgivable perfidies and blunders that hasten their benefactors degeneration to human vegetables or, even their untimely deaths.

    If anyone doubts the veracity of this assertion, that person is either unaware of goings-on in certain places or has not heard about the outcome of a recent research carried out in a society where betrayal or perfidy is not as bad as in this clime.

    The research, by some researchers at the Swedish Lindbergh University Medical Centre, has revealed that dealing with stupid people who by their actions qualify to be regarded as imbeciles, can be as death-inducing as high blood pressure, hypertension and diabetes.

    Two of the results of their research highlight the point that “very many people have poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity – they feel there’s nothing they can do about it, so they internalise their frustration until they finally explode and die”.

    One example was a woman who had to be rushed to the hospital after her stupid assistant shredded important tax documents instead of copying them; the other was the case of “a man who spent a whole week rebuilding clients records because his female clerk put them all in the recycle bin of her computer and then emptied it – she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again.”

    If these occurred in far-away Sweden, there are one or two examples of idiocy or stupidity or imbecility at home one can refer to, to know what heartaches this death-inducing flaw can cause to the not-too-strong-hearted.

    Four years ago, I hired a driver who was to prepare my vehicle for a trip to Ibadan from Lagos. It was elementary to expect that he would fill up the radiator with a bucketful or more of water. But he had a different idea, no thanks to his idiocy. He took a sachet of water, drank from it and emptied whatever was left into the radiator, in the stupid belief that that quantity was enough for that vehicle to run on; but what eventually happened? At a point before the Ogere tollgate, the temperature gauge of the car had gone to its limit to indicate that the gasket of the Honda Accord had got burnt. It cost some dough to fix the car and resume the journey.

    There is another case of a supposedly intelligent fellow somewhere in the city who believed his dim-witted errand-boy on anything he was told, hook, line and sinker; and before it dawned on him that the idiocy of the aide he so much believed and trusted was rubbing off so badly on his public goodwill and self-worth, the horse has bolted from the stable, as it were.

    Bottom line: It is not just the hypertension or diabetes alone that may be ravaging your body, the stupidity of your workers can also kill.