The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Why Nigerians should be patient with Buhari

    FOR so many years, Nigeria has been bedeviled by a cankerworm called bribery and corruption. A country blessed with human, mineral and natural resources, especially the petroleum resources, cannot unfortunately boast of meaningful progressive development with attendant robust and durable infrastructure as a result of mismanagement occasioned by bribery and corruption. The economy as a result has become worse off. From the time of independence to this time, instead of better condition of living, the situation has been in the downward trend, a situation that not only makes Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations but also made it acquire a pariah status.

    This worrying state of affairs once prompted the Catholic Bishops conference of Nigeria to a special prayer called “Prayer against bribery and corruption” which is said in almost every Mass celebrated in the Catholic Church in Nigeria. This prayer has consistently been said for several years. The belief of the Catholic Church has been that somehow, someday God will heed to our prayers and bring a solution to this problem of bribery and corruption which has been crippling the nation economically, politically and socially. The situation later became worse, making Nigeria to become a nation in distress, thus prompting the Catholic Church to add another prayer to the existing one called “Prayer for Nigeria in distress”.

    The Catholic Church relentlessly continues to say these two prayers during the Mass alternatively with strong faith. Like the Catholic Church, other Christian groups and religious bodies have been praying and yearning for a country free from bribery and corruption and a country out of distress. Yes Nigerians were yearning for change of status – quo, because Nigeria was dying, being “killed” by corruption. Then came Muhammodu Buhari in May 29, 2015 as the President of Nigeria, who before his emergence had premised his campaign on three cardinal issues – fight against corruption, fighting the insurgency and revival of the Nigerian economy.

    No sooner had PMB emerged and assumed office as Nigeria head of State than he swung into action and began to tackle the problem of Boko Haram. Those cities, towns, local government areas captured by Boko Haram have been recovered and people who fled their homes are now returning. Boko Haram has practically been routed and defeated. As the ongoing fight against insurgency begun so also was the fight against corruption initiated. Revelations of massive and unimaginable proportion of looting began to emerge, lootings never heard and known in the history of Nigeria.

    The obvious and open truth is that PMB is fighting bribery and corruption which has long eaten deep into the fabric of the nation. He is also at the same time fighting Boko Haram – insurgency and we are all seeing the positive effects. That the fight against bribery and corruption is selective is laughable. Much as I am very appalled that we seem to close our eyes to the successes recorded in the fight against insurgency, I’m utterly sad we close our eyes to the successes that are being recorded in the fight against bribe and corruption. We ought to appreciate and thank God for these successes so far recorded within a year and half and at the same time pray to God to grant our president more courage and steadfastness in the handling of the affairs of the nation especially the economy. About the state of Nigeria economy, I am also appalled that some Nigerians, even the educated ones blame PMB for the poor state of the Nigeria economy. Some religious leaders to my surprise blame PMB too.

    I don’t know why any Nigerian will blame PMB for what we are passing through today. I can excuse the unenlightened and illiterate Nigerians but what about the educated elites who should have known that what we suffer today was partly a fallout of the magnitude of looting in all tiers of Nigerian state for several years. Yes any educated person including those with sound economic knowledge will know that when an economy is mismanaged or looted, the effect does not begin immediately, it is felt later. There is always a lead time between when an action takes place and the result.

    The economy that has been mismanaged and looted for several years is now negatively manifesting its effect on us all, most especially the mismanagement of the crude oil revenue of several years running. Unfortunately, the price of crude oil in the international market has drastically come down, but people tend to ignore the effect of this fall of oil price, which is the mainstay of Nigeria economy as a major contributor to Nigeria economic problems.

    They tend to ignore the fact that the same oil which price has fallen is not allowed to be explored and exported to earn foreign exchange because of the destructive activities of the Niger Delta militants against oil companies’ wells, pipelines etc. Today we cry foul that the price of dollar is on the roof top. How can we, in all honesty blame PMB for the actions of the Niger Delta Avengers and their cohorts whose objectives are to cripple the Nigeria economy? Truth must be told and be acknowledged too. Can we still blame PMB for the comatose state of the refineries after several times and several years of turnaround maintenances by previous administration? Another worrisome and ironic scenario is the fact that those who led us to this present condition we face are now the same people using the hardship they created to campaign for election victory. They are warming up to come back in 2019.

    And some Nigerians seem to be asking them to come back to drag us to a more damning state. See what these Nigerians are texting and asking fellow Nigerians to pass on to others. I quote; “# we are no longer asking President Buhari to develop Nigeria, at this point, we are only asking him to return Nigeria to the state it was before he (Buhari) became President on May 29, 2015…” unquote”. Reading all these, I felt dismayed. How can we be so ignorant? Imagine asking that we go back to the days when people stole money recklessly and nothing happens. Imagine asking that we go back to the days when INEC staff were bribed to rig elections. How can any sane person be asking that we go back to the days of terror when Boko Haram were killing and maiming citizens, when cities, towns, Local Government Areas were taken over and people were rendered homeless? Is it not callous for anybody to ask that we go back to the days when court judges would collect bribe to obstruct justice; asking that we go back to the period when parastatals, government agencies, ministries would refuse to remit revenue they generate but instead loot same.

    Imagine asking that we go back to the period when Nigeria was made a laughing stock in the comity of nations because of bribery and corruption, when a head of state of another country will label Nigeria a “fantastically corrupt” nation; asking that we go backward and not forward! No! No!! No!!! God will not allow that, I pray with all my heart. God who made it possible for PMB to come to power will make it possible for him to complete this rescue mission for our nation. We are lucky that God gave us a man courageous enough to tackle corruption head on. Yes we Nigerians should be thankful to God, especially, the Catholic faithful who have been saying the “prayers against bribery and corruption” and “prayers for Nigeria in distress” for some years now.

    I have a firm belief that these prayers I partook in saying as a Catholic has been answered by God in PMB when He made him win the election in May 2015. I am thanking God, even though I partake in the present hardship and suffering which is not the making of PMB. PMB is addressing these problems like a loving father who, when his children are confronted with sickness administers bitter pills. These bitter pills are temporary. I have faith that better days are coming for us in Nigeria. All well meaning Nigerians will have to give full support to this administration and pray that our President doesn’t lose focus in this noble course of rescuing us from the clutches of terrorism bribery, corruption and recession. We Nigerians must display the virtue of patience, patience and patience, because the task is enormous. Important also, Nigerians should eschew all manner of insults on our revered PMB. • Uba, is a public commentator, vingeorge2000@yahoo.com

  • Defining new paradigms in Nigeria’s tourism development

    NIGERIA’S economic outlook is gloomy. Her over dependence on crude oil as the only veritable source of foreign exchange earnings has become an albatross due to vandalisation of crude oil pipelines by militants in the Niger Delta region. This has made it impossible for the nation to meet its projected 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production, thereby losing big money. While immediate remedial actions have been launched, including Niger Delta region stakeholders’ consultations, to put an end to pipeline destruction and restore the nation’s production output to the 2.2 million bpd of crude, there is a national consensus that the federal government should urgently work towards diversifying the nation’s economic base in order to create multiple streams of earnings. This position is unassailable. Various options and propositions are receiving consideration from government.

    Some of the propositions that are primed to benefit from the diversification enterprise are agriculture, solid minerals, and culture and tourism development. It is, however, baffling that government has not done the needful, over the years, to bolster investments in these sectors. While it is more surprising that government has not maximally explored the agriculture and solid minerals sectors, given the tangible yields derivable from them, with humongous potential to build the nation’s economy, it is understandable why the culture and tourism sector has been largely under-developed: lack of deliberate investments and structured development in the sector has been fingered; whereas, if properly harnessed, it can boost the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

    The sector, especially the tourism component, has been adjudged, globally, as a money spinner. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO), an agency of the United Nations, which is mandated to promote access to tourism, not too long ago, published figures that showed that in the last six decades or thereabouts, there has been consistent global expansion of the tourism industry. According to the WTO, “international tourist arrivals increased from 25 million in 1950 to 1.13 billion in 2014 while earnings moved from $2 billion to $12.45 billion in 2014.” Arrivals worldwide, at the time the statistics were published in 2015, were expected to hit 1.8 billion in another decade or thereabouts. Significantly, emerging economies, which capture Nigeria, are expected to get 57% of this market share.

    This should interest Nigeria’s federal government. Appropriate ministry and agencies of government, especially the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) should be concerned about how much percentage the nation can slice out of this 57 percent market share. The issue becomes more pertinent considering the fact that there is competition among African countries to position themselves for the immense economic benefits inherent in exploration of latent tourism potential within their domains. Nigeria, presently, does not rank among the first ten most tourism-ready economies in Africa. The World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 ranking showed the following realities: South Africa was 48 in global ranking; Seychelles (54), Mauritius (56), Namibia (70), Kenya (78), Cape Verde (86), Botswana (88), Tanzania (93), Rwanda (98) and Zambia (107).

    Where was Nigeria? Since the countries were ranked on the basis of factors and policies that were emplaced to enable the sustainable development of the sector, as well as to help countries adapt their policies towards achieving their travel and tourism potential, Nigeria has the task to rejig her tourism policies and retool the administrative infrastructure that will drive the development process through the sector. Retooling the administrative infrastructure entails putting an end to inconsistency and undue political influence in the appointment of outsiders or politicians to head an agency that should strictly benefit from the know-how of technocrats working within the sector to ensure consistency and organisational discipline. The acting Director General of NTDC, Mrs Mariel Rae-Omoh, a thoroughbred tourism sector professional, who has been a strategic player in the Corporation for more than two decades, is an asset and a round peg in a round hole to redirect focus in the sector that has incredible potential to generate growth, create jobs and spin mega bucks in foreign exchange into the nation’s coffers.

    The ball is, therefore, in Rae-Omoh’s court to come up with new paradigms that will help transform the tourism sector potential into practical realities. She must define the scope of the paradigms that her leadership has packaged to make Nigeria a preferred tourism destination. Reports from the grapevine said her leadership is committed to reclaiming the lost glory of the NTDC as a formidable rallying point for coordination, direction and implementation of tourism policies. Many moribund and still initiatives are expected to come alive. The 2006 Tourism Master Plan, whose objective was to launch the sector as a viable economic alternative, is one of such initiatives.

    The “Tourism House”, that has purportedly gulped millions of naira in funds mobilisation and yet has remained in the realm of imagination, is yet another. The new leadership of NTDC has what it takes to generate funds for the nation from tourism sector development, considering the fact that the Corporation no longer enjoys the free rains of funds that President Olusegun Obasanjo made possible through the setting up of a Presidential Council on Tourism under the superintendence of a previous leadership at the Corporation. Sadly, there are no legacies of sustainable revenue earning initiatives in the tourism sector that can, arguably, be attributed to the previous leaderships of the Corporation. They were outsiders who benefitted from appointments to the headship of the NTDC on the altar of political considerations. Therefore, decisions were taken to suit political interests at the expense of professional and institutional interest. Consider, for instance, the matter of internally generated revenue (IGR) from regulation, classification and grading of hotels. Under a previous leadership, the NTDC, working with Lagos along those lines, was said to be generating more than seventy percent of its IGR from the state. The NTDC and Lagos State Government purportedly agreed to share the IGR 50 percent apiece.

    The NTDC, for three years, allegedly reneged. Lagos instituted a court case against NTDC on the issue up to the Supreme Court and won. The Corporation consequently lost a critical source of IGR. As it is now, the Corporation is solely dependent on budgetary provisions. And this is one issue the new leadership, according to feelers, has decided to address by planning to go into Public Private Partnership (PPP) to develop potential tourism sites across the country to generate revenue. Besides, Rae-Omoh was recently reported to have set up a seven-member committee to work with the Institute for Tourism Practitioners (ITP) to facilitate the Corporation’s access to the United Nations’ Tourism Intervention Funds to ensure sustainable tourism development in Nigeria. Rae-Omoh, going by the report, said that the Corporation needed the intervention fund to facilitate adequate development and promotion of the tourism assets in the country, as according to her, “we cannot depend on the budget alone to do the needful in the industry.

    That is why we must maximally explore Private Public Partnership (PPP) and other international funds and grants.” There are also feelers that the new leadership, which has promised to be transparent in the administration of the Corporation, is at the moment stepping up a number of things including working in synergy with the National Assembly for necessary legislative support; organising tourism fairs at weekends on the premises of the Corporation, and promoting youth and student tourism, among others. All hands seem to be on deck; there seems to be leadership focus, commitment and sincere disposition to transparent administration. Is the tourism sector in for a new lease of life? The answer is in the womb of time. •Mr Ojeifo, journalist and publisher, sent in this piece via ojwonderngr@ yahoo.com

  • The professions, management consultancy and institutional reform in Nigeria

    My induction as a Fellow Institute of Management Consultant (FIMC-Nigeria) underscores a double imperative. On the one hand, given my nuanced researches into the professions, professionalism and the concept of service as a calling, I do not take inductions and Fellowship with levity.

    They constitute a burden of responsibility to reassess what one (at an individual level) and the professional body (at institutional level) have done so far, and what more is required to push forward the frontiers of institutional reform and professional practice. On the other hand, being a Fellow also gives one the needed platform to further advocacy and reform agitation within a recognized body whose institutional template has a lot to do with the reform of the public service that I have dedicated more than twenty years of my career life pursuing.

    Nigeria is in a huge quandary. And every one who retains some pride and patriotic attachment to this nation ought to feel some measure of alarm at the direction things are moving. Politically, economically and administratively, things are falling apart, and the centre has lost its stabilizing effect. I will situate my worry within the context of the failing mandate of the civil service in a failing state, because I have long held the staunch belief that the public service constitute a sine qua non for democratic governance in Nigeria.

    In fact, if we are to succeed as a nation, the public service must first succeed through an inviolate reform framework that will enable the civil service system deliver on its briefs. But between the present institutional predicament and the objective of optimal productivity that will give functional teeth to Nigeria’s experiment of democratic governance, we need to address and combat the breach in expertise and professionalism which has turned our institutions to mere generalist congregating point.

    In generational terms, the most critical of Nigeria’s problem is the protracted failure to harness her professional and expert knowledge, skills and competences required to transform her institutional worries. From one generation to the other, in our very eyes, we have laid the talents and potentials and endowments of our great nation to waste.

    And this is where management consultancy, and the IMCNigeria, become a critical force in the (re)articulation of what is to be done. All across the globe, management consultancy has always been one of the core competence that supported innovations in high performing public services. Indeed, within the context of the Nigerian public service and public administration discourse, management consulting professionalism became the proxy by which modern management techniques, smart, good and best practices are imported, deployed and institutionalised in the public sector. Permit a brief historical excursus to ground the significance of management consultancy within the framework of the reform of the public service in Nigeria. As a strategy of dealing with reform management which, right from independence, had always been on ad hoc basis, there was a concerted effort at establishing some permanent or quasi-permanent organs to strategize and manage reforms on an on-going basis.

    This led to the setting up of the Organization and Method (O&M) Unit in the Treasury shortly after independence. The setting up of the Public Service Review Unit (PSRU) in 1975, as a management structure, followed with the report of the Udoji Public Service Review Commission. The Udoji Commission recommended that the O&M Unit be rechristened the Public Service Reforms Unit (PSRU) which should then provide technical support to government in the implementation of the new public service management system conceptualized by the Udoji Commission and the Unified Grading System that the Commission recommended. It would be recalled that the PSRU’s establishment derived from the prevalence, in the 50s, of the organization and methods (O&M) framework in the public service.

    The PSRU eventually metamorphosed into the Management Services Department (MSD) and later into the Management Services Office (MSO). The PSRU’s core mandate was management consultancy support to install new systems for MDAs as well as introduce Job Standard Development and Grading. Some component of the latter responsibility of MSD was subsequently upgraded with the establishment of the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC). Yet, the PSRU and the MSD never really served as a proactive reform outfit in a holistic sense other than undertaking specific structural reviews as requested by MDAs or directed by government. I have had the opportunity to write a lot about the mismanagement of the Udoji Commission Report. There is more to say about it because it constitutes, for me, a significant watershed in the attempt at transforming the public service in Nigeria through the installation of a performance management system that would have pushed the system towards optimality and productivity.

    It is however grossly unfortunate that even in the 21st century knowledge and technological age, the core of management consulting skills and strategic HRM is yet to be adopted widely in the Nigerian civil service through the professionalisation of human resource function and the adoption of known though dynamic professional skills for running government. Apart from the many public education articles on the civil service that I have dedicated myself to on the reform of the civil service system, I have recently embarked on another “Key Drivers of Change” series that is meant to highlight those significant issues, dynamics and reform processes that are at the core of transforming Nigeria. One of such is productivity, and specifically, public service productivity.

    I have highlighted the severe absence of a core of competences and expertise required to shore up the gradually eroding professional template that is crucial for reinventing the civil service in Nigeria. To achieve this reinvention of professionalism, we require urgently a scheme of re-professionalisation that will not only stem the competence and skill flight to the private sector, but provide proper and solid incentives for such skills and talents to stay and restore the civil service professional status. And this is where the IMCN and all its Fellows become strategically relevant as a key player and stakeholder in the mandate of advocacy to reinvent and ignite the critical structural shifts the civil service institution require to beef up policy intelligence and deliver efficient and effective service to Nigerians.

    The array of mission and objectives advertised on the IMCN website play right into the critical need for a paradigm shifts that must happen if the public service will become strategic partner in the development process and overall national transformation. And IMCN provides a community of professional partnership that could be deployed to backstop the imperative of making Nigeria work. For instance, the Institute could initiate a strong relationship with a reconstituted National Association for Public Administration and Management (NAPAM) and in concert with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and other relevant professional bodies, to further widen the community of expertise and professionalism that could be deployed to deepen advocacy and reform activism to rejuvenate the public service in Nigeria.

    There is a lot that these professional organisations can do to redefine professionalism and the responsibility of rethinking the intellectual foundation of knowledge, skills and practices in the running of the business of government as the critical inner dynamics to reinvent the public service and its operating system. While once again appreciating this unique institution for this landmark honour, I want to take the liberty of pledging, on behalf of all the honorees, our unreserved commitment to the codes of service of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria. This is indeed an organisation whose wide range of expertise should play a significant role in re-professionalizing the public administration system in Nigeria. •Olaopa, Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government & Public Policy (ISGPP), delivered the above at his investiture as Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria (FIMC-Nigeria) at Ikeja Airport Hotel, Ikeja on Wednesday. tolaopa@isgpp.com.ng;

  • NCC, Danbatta and public intellectualism

    Distinct commonalities often stand out in bold relief about most academics and intellectual heavyweights who find themselves in public service. They are usually transformational, out-of-box thinkers who swiftly roll out comprehensive blueprints, which encapsulate their vision and mission for new challenges.  Exuding supreme confidence is another trait they share, which perhaps explains why they could be daring in decision-making. Nonetheless, they won’t shy away from chipping in quality contribution to public discourse – which their intellectual cutting-edge enables them to do rather effortlessly.

    Prof Charles Chukuma Soludo probably shocked the nation’s banking industry with his audacious consolidation policy. Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s out-of-box strategy provided the shield we badly needed as a nation during the 2007 global financial meltdown. Akinwumi Adesina boldly attempted to revolutionise our agricultural sector with his business model. And, Malam Nasir el Rufai was fearless both as the Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and as the Minister the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    However, while Soludo as the number one banker in the country chose to consolidate, el  Rufai as the man spearheading the privatisation of the nation’s public utilities was busy unbundling the behemoth energy corporation that was supplying meagre amount of megawatts of electricity to the giant of Africa. He also midwifed the telecom sector reform we currently enjoy.

    Yet, we now have Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who announced his entry into the telecom industry with yet another big-bang decision.  No sooner had President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him than he wielded the big regulatory stick in the nation’s telecom sector. He would follow that with his 8-Point Agenda, a roadmap of aligned strategic management policy of NCC.

    Interestingly – like Soludo or other intellectual giants mentioned above – that Danbatta has managed to mix his time-consuming assignment at the NCC with public intellectualism is something worth underlining. Indeed, it is not only the nation’s broadband that is witnessing a quantum leap in terms of expansion under Danbatta’s leadership of the NCC – growing from 10% to close to 21% as revealed by ITU-ENESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, but  his contribution to public discourse cannot go unnoticed.

    Danbatta received a standing ovation of respected colleagues last year when he presented a lecture titled, “The National Broadband Plan as a Catalyst for Social and Economic Transformation: The NCC Mandate”, at the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

    It wasn’t the first time though that he would receive this kind of appreciation.  It is on record that the professor of telecommunications engineering was the first NCC boss to address the executive course of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). Just last week, Danbatta wowed the academic community of University of Nigeria Nsukka after joining the league of eminent Nigerians like former President Olusegun Obasanjo to deliver the convocation symposium of the revered varsity. He spoke on the Role of ICT Infrastructure in Tertiary Education in Nigeria: NCC Intervention.

    However, it was much more than what the title suggests.  Danbatta referenced the works of renowned economists and social scientists to buttress points. He would intermittently quote from Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, Rodrick or Joseph Schumpeter.  Indeed, while the presentation was generously spiced intellectually, in terms of statistics and academic citations, Danbatta chose to draw the curtain on it with a clarion call for all and sundry to begin to see the role of digital transformation beyond the realm of statistical figures churned out by the industry.

    “We talk about the benefits of ICT and we normally do this by dishing out e-readiness indicators. We say broadband penetration is 21%, internet penetration 97%. All these are ICT-readiness indicators that do not tell the entire story,” he observed.

    He went on, “We can go beyond that and explain how ICTs have impacted to provide shared and sustainable prosperity; how ICTs have succeeded in reducing poverty; how they improve learning and make the society more open, more mobile and cohesive. And, above all, how they encourage the economy to be more competitive and innovative. These are the ends of digital transformation and not the input-output figures we normally reel out.”

    For Professor Danbatta, “It is in Nigeria’s national interest to harness potentials that exist in the information-driven age through the deployment and exploitation of ICT to facilitate socio-economic development and improvement of the human condition.”

    He said the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are now grappling with a broadband divide in addition to infrastructure, knowledge and information divides. “Of the world’s over five billion broadband subscriptions, North America and European Union control over 50% while South America and Sub-Saharan Africa, where Nigeria belongs,  account for only 3% of this global share,” he lamented.

    Yet, as Danbatta continues to use the platforms of different public forums to spray us generously with his intellectual perfume, we must not lose sight of the fact that the industry he superintends over has also shown remarkable performance during his tenure.

    Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (BPE) shows that in spite of the challenging waters of economic downturn the nation is waddling through, the telecom sector was, last year, contributing between N 1.4 trillion to N1.5 trillion to the GDP, the highest it has recorded in its history.  The industry is hoping that the trend will be sustained for a very long time. And it has Danbatta who is not short both the passion and the blueprint to ensure that.

     

    • Musa, Special Adviser (Media) to the EVC-NCC wrote in from Abuja.

  • The Lion Roars for Pastor Adeboye

    The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was agog on Tuesday January 24. It was a special convocation ceremony solely packaged for conferment of Honorary Degree of Divinity (Honoris Causa) on Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). On entering Nsukka town in the early hours of the day, one would notice from the security architecture that a big fish was being expected. And from the campus main gate, to the heart of the University, the tenor and fragrance that exuded heightened the curiosity in the ivory tower. Of course, the influx of the foot-soldiers of RCCG Enugu Region 6, the intimidating entourage of Daddy G. O. as the pastor is fondly called, and an array of masterly technical crew on hand to life stream the proceedings, signaled the triumphant re-entry to the university he left about 50 years ago.

    With nostalgic feverishness, Pastor Adeboye recounted his first contact with the university at the age of 20 in 1962, when he, along with other secondary school students came for an excursion. Their visit to the cafeteria – Margaret Ekpo Hall, which now serves as the Convocation Hall, was inspiring. The glittering infrastructure, the serene ambience and the decorum of the students who were served jollof rice with chicken parts during the lunch time, made him resolve to study at UNN. He had picked up a pebble from the school premises and prayed to God to grant him admission in the next academic session to enable him bring back the pebble to Nsukka.

    By 1963, he joined the campus as an undergraduate. His matriculation number was 1800 while he stayed in Room 108 in Awolowo Hall. The years at UNN were the best and informative in his life. He participated in sporting activities like volley ball, long tennis and swimming, to the extent that he was part of the team that represented the university in the volley ball event at the National University Games (NUGA), hosted by the  University of Ibadan, and came back with a gold trophy. At the West African University Games, they also won a silver trophy.

    However, his stay at UNN was truncated in 1966, in the build up to the Nigeria civil war. He recrudesced at the University of Ife where he graduated with a B.Sc in Mathematics in 1967. For him, the honorary award was symbolic in two respects. One, it was a home coming to a place where he started his academic career. Two, it afforded him the opportunity to still have a certificate from UNN which eluded him five decades ago. The delectable Governor of Enugu State, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, was on hand to welcome Daddy G. O. It is indeed historic that a man who was sent packing from UNN under the orders of a military governor as the Nigeria’s civil war drums were beating, was also warmly welcomed by a sitting governor many years after. Indeed, when a man dedicates his life to serve God, honour will pursue him even from unexpected quarters.

    The vice chancellor of the University, Benjamin Ozumba, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, who delivered the good messages of the chancellor and the pro-chancellor at the auspicious occasion, was overwhelmed with joy. He informed the ecstatic audience that the rationale for Pastor Adeboye’s decoration was, a reward for excellence, a fact corroborated by the 2016 ranking of UNN as the best University in Nigeria by Webometrics. At the Akanu Ibiam Stadium, within the campus, where the Holy Ghost service tagged Divine Visitation was held immediately after the ceremonies, the vice chancellor confessed that his long time quest to meet Pastor Adeboye had been fulfilled that day. He informed the audience that his emergence as the vice chancellor was a product of prophecy and called for special prayers for the university, which has witnessed relative peace after Pastor Adeboye’s declaration, under the tenure of Prof. Chinedu Nebo, that the university would no longer witness strife.  For sure, the life of Pastor Adeboye represents a man salted by God. His salvation and acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal saviour altered his ambition to become the youngest vice chancellor in Africa and thus, he capped his academic trajectory with a PhD in Applied Mathematics in 1975 from the University of Lagos. Hardly had he resumed lectureship at the University of Ilorin and also at the University of Lagos, that the mandate for full time apostolic ministry became compelling.

    Besides the status of mathematician with international repute, Pastor Adeboye is a pride to Christendom and an inspiration to countless workers in divine vineyard across denominational divides. His modesty and humility are exemplary. A man of few words, but when he speaks, wisdom and fresh insights illuminate the paths of the simple and the learned. His Holy Ghost-inspired messages are likened to J. P. Clark’s good driver, “who arrives the market again and again with fresh vegetables”. Souls have been lifted with dumbfounding miracles; deliverances from the yokes of the powers of darkness have been recorded; healings, like in the apostolic days are common, and numerous lives have surrendered to Jesus Christ under his awesome ministrations.

    To his credit, over 60 books have been published, including the powerful devotional – Open Heavens, which is translated to no less than three international languages with over a million copies sold annually. Under his charismatic superintendence, RCCG has grown in leaps and bounds with over 40,000 parishes in about 190 countries across the globe. In Nigeria alone, about 300 parishes are operational and more in the offing, with the ‘Let’s Go a Fishing’ programme designed to establish RCCG parishes within a five-minute walkable distance in the cities and towns across the country. Before now, he had received honorary doctorates from three universities in Nigeria; honorary citizenship from four cities in the United States of America and two national honours awards from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His church has built a world class university – Redeemer’s University, produced the incumbent Vice President of Nigeria – Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and above all, managed to steer and insulate RCCG from destructive scandals ravaging some care-free Pentecostal movements across the world.

    Despite his lofty attainments and unparalleled focus on his divine mandate, he has remained the target of fifth columnists, who strive to strike the shepherd in order to scatter the sheep. Recently, he jolted the RCCG congregation with his unexpected resignation from the office of the General Overseer on account of a mischief framed through the incendiary Corporate Governance Code of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN). The opprobrium and barrage of criticisms from many informed quarters including Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, the House of Representatives led by Leo Ogor, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and many others; as well as the sledge hammer from the presidency are indicative of the biblical charge that no one should touch the anointed or do any harm to the prophets of God. Indeed, Pastor Adeboye is a gift to this generation and that was why the governing authorities as well as the lions and the lionesses – an appellation for students and alumni of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, rose in exceptional unanimity to celebrate the iconic personality. May God strengthen him as he clocks 75 in March this year, and raise God-fearing leaders   like him, to lead the church to the imminent wedding with the Lamb.

     

    • Dr. Uche writes from Enugu.

  • Is Ofili-Ajumogobia on trial for jailing ex-NIMASA DG?

    These are indeed strange times. These are times when the rule of the thumb has become the normal. And nothing we know is as it should be. For the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), you cannot be sure what is right and what is not as they are determined by variables outside the reasoning of the law and common sense.

    In the fight against corruption embarked on by President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, it is difficult to understand the motive or even why the administration would choose not to maintain a standard understandable rule in the so-called fight. From targeting perceived enemies or opponents, the government has since moved to judges, organising sting operations and putting some people almost perpetually under lock and key.

    But I am still at a loss as to why the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has put the duo of Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia and Godwin Obla (SAN) on trial. It really beats my imagination that the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, a lawyer could give his nod for such a charade to go on.

    Of course, the EFCC has filed a 30 count charge against the Federal High Court Judge and Godwin Obla, who until recently, a Counsel of the anti-graft agency. At the heart of the charge is the allegation that Obla offered Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia the sum of N5 million to pervert the course of justice in FHC/1/C/482C/10. Interestingly, the EFCC has included such other charges as corrupt enrichment, money laundering and conspiracy to fit into a regular pattern of all other cases before the courts so as to give the media and the general public enough to chew while the high drama lasts.

    However, it should be a cause of concern for all lovers of democracy as well as those who voted for the President to pause awhile and ponder why the government decided to prosecute Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia and Obla ostensibly for alleged bribery. Could the government truly be sure that it is doing this as part of its anti-corruption agenda?

    While the government wants us to believe that the trial is as been presented at the Federal High Court where the two suspects have been charged, I make bold to say that deductions from the courtroom point to a different direction.  Perhaps, some elucidation may be necessary. If indeed Obla bribed Ofili-Ajumogobia, it means the former had a case before the latter, the outcome of which was manipulated through the bribe to perpetrate injustice. Anything short of this is incongruous and does not stand to reason.

    It beats the imagination that the said senior advocate could be said to have offered bribe, ostensibly on behalf of the EFCC to have Omatseye jailed. Why would he have done that? Was it the EFCC that provided the said N5million? Why must monetary inducement come in before conviction could be secured? So many questions begging for answers.

    More importantly, if indeed Obla bribed Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia to have the ex-NIMASA DG jailed in case no FHC/1/C/482C/10, should the EFCC not be contented that a conviction, no matter how it was obtained, was the outcome of the case? Magu ought to be excited that despite alleged frustrations in the judicial process; at least his agency was able to get this case through. And in the same manner, Obla and Justice Ofili-Ajugomobia ought to be toasts of the anti-graft agency.

    Rather than get commendation for diligent prosecution, the EFCC decided to put the duo in the dock for alleged corruption, an action which undoubtedly deserves close scrutiny. Nigerians need to know why the tables suddenly turned against them.

    Already, there are suggestions that Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia has been put up for the guillotine mainly because of her blunt refusal to play ball in some high cases before her court. She is also said to have courted the wrath of the powers that be in Abuja when she let go a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.  If this was not the case, I do not see what other motives government can proffer as explanation for its present cause of action. In any case, why would the EFCC present separate facts to the media during so called investigation from what it has taken to the court?

    Notwithstanding that the government would want us to believe otherwise, it has become obvious that the travail of Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia is not isolated. That it follows after an established pattern that has seen other judges and justices being put on trial for alleged corruption.

    Two Supreme Court judges namely Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro are today under investigation or being tried for corruption. Others are the suspended Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya, who was picked up in Sokoto; Justice Adeniyi Ademola (Federal High Court); the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice I. A. Umezulike;  Justice Kabiru Auta of Kano State High Court;  Justice Muazu Pindiga (Gombe State High Court);  Justice Bashir Sukola and  Justice Ladan Manir from the Kaduna State High Court.

    Plausible as the trial of the judges may seem, it is more than a coincidence that almost all of them had at various times in the past dished out judgements against the APC. Those who did not fall into this category had earlier been indicted by the National Judicial Commission (NJC) and recommended for prosecution, making the action of government a somewhat overkill.

    Sadly, the Buhari’s government has often gone after straws and haystacks in the fight against corruption. Media trial and self-help, including the use of brute force and outright intimidation have become indices and standard gauge for measuring all it has done so far. You don’t have to look far to see this negative imprints in the activities of the EFCC, department of State Security Services (SSS), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), etc.

    Yet, the administration seem unperturbed by the myriad of criticisms against the style adopted so far in the fight against corruption, daily losing credibility and the support of millions who voted for it in 2015. Neither is it bothered that even the international community has taken note of its approach and tokenism in a critical sector where transparency and absence of bias should be the abiding mantra.

    If only President Buhari and the anti-corruption agencies are aware of the consequences of their actions.

     

    • Garba, a Public Affairs analyst writes from Gusau.

  • Teaching in age of communication technology

    Without a doubt, teachers are pretty important to the society. Teachers hold the key to the future since they help to mould future leaders. They don’t just teach, they are critical personalities who nurture the young folks to mature, to understand the world and to understand themselves. Evidence shows that teachers, their professional knowledge and skills are the most important factor for quality education in any society.

    Today, teaching has become easier and yet, more difficult because of the ubiquitous availability of communications technology. Whether it is social, business or instructional, technology now makes it easier, faster, more affordable and more intuitive to communicate. Teaching is essentially about communication and the attractiveness of communications technology in an educational setting is difficult to resist.

    While some forms of these technologies may constitute distractions, there is broad consensus that, if properly harnessed, the adoption of communications technology in an educational is advantageous in a number of ways. Thus, the question that confronts the 21st century policy makers is the extent to which existing and rapidly evolving technologies should be adopted and utilized to facilitate the communication between a teacher and his/her students.

    In considering this question, Rick Delgado, a leading thinker on educational innovations, identified a number of reasons why policy makers and schools will do well to ensure that teachers are capable of utilizing available communications technology to impart knowledge on students. First, the use of technology ‘levels the field’ between the so-called ‘high end’ schools and the so-called ‘low-end’ schools. This then brings about equality in the treatment of students in our societies as technology ensures access to significant skills and relevant information by all students and virtually all schools.

    Second, technology prepares students for the future. The world is moving towards technology at a breakneck pace and educators have a responsibility to introduce, encourage, and help students master technology as it applies to school and the future. Technology will be used in every aspect of the future professional lives of current students.

    Third, technology ensures that the classroom can be taken anywhere. This, indeed, is the age of the mobile life. Adopting the use of technology means that the classroom can be taken anywhere. With all the knowledge and resources contained and deliverable on demand in mobile devices, students can learn at home or in the “field”. Mobile technology also allows for greater collaboration between students thus promoting strong foundations in group work.

    The social component of existing communications’ technologies also serves to motivate students and ensure healthy competition among students. Indeed, creating a social element to educational technology can allow for healthy competition amongst peers either in the same classroom or across the country. Performing well and earning badges to gain virtual social status is at the heart of many social applications today and using technology to make education have social elements can make learning very addictive.

    While our society may not be there yet, it is now a known fact that technology can replace infrastructure and thus result in huge savings for the government and for parents. Desks, books, laboratory equipment and other items are a heavy cost burden on schools everywhere. Technology and devices can help save on these costs. In addition, geographically isolated or economically disadvantaged children can benefit from access to online software or resources which would otherwise be cost prohibitive.

    Technology can also help in addressing one of the most urgent problems in our schools today. That is, the problem of reliance on obsolete textbooks that are not regularly updated. Some reports say that students sometimes continue to use textbooks that are up to 10 years old. This is not acceptable and technology can help in ensuring the timely updating of academic information because updating software and educational content is not as expensive or cumbersome as updating textbooks. With the help of technology, course curriculum can reflect real world data and in some applications, students can be exposed to real-time information.

    Technology ensures that students, classrooms, schools and teachers can be connected to anyone in the world instantly. Devices coupled with the Internet can allow for a free way to communicate globally. The opportunity to understand international or different cultural perspectives on the same topic is invaluable and incredible.

    This requires stronger training upfront and continual professional development and support, to enhance performance and learning outcomes. It is for the reasons above, amongst others that the Lagos State government under the leadership of His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has resolved to prepare and equip teachers for the challenges and excitement of adopting modern communications’ tools and methods of delivering instructions in the classroom. As the ones entrusted with our children’s future, this government places huge premium on the training of teachers. Our teachers must be properly trained and subjected to continuous training such that our schools and the products of our educational system will rank amongst the best in the world.

    In this technology-driven world, teachers are pacesetters, role models, disciplinarians, restorers of values and above all as agents of change equipped with communications’ tools and instructional aids for efficient and effective service delivery. It is in view of this that the Lagos State government has continued to invest in the training and retraining of teachers in its public schools to ensure that they are properly equipped to deliver premium, relevant and globally-competitive instructions.

    The overall intent is to raise excellent faculties for various courses taught in our high schools, colleges and learning institutions in Lagos State. These faculties will be defined as: teachers of exceptional ability; teachers capable of adapting the basic tools of effective communications at imparting knowledge; teachers who will be dexterous at optimizing Microsoft PowerPoint as a tool of instructional delivery; teachers of great learning capabilities with enhanced competencies in instructional deliveries and teachers who will make learning fun for adopting “hands-on” methodology in imparting knowledge.

    It is expected that public schools teachers in the state will in return reciprocate this kind gesture by rededicating themselves to the core values of the noble profession, eschew indiscipline, disloyalty and nonchalant attitude, utilize what they have learnt in at various trainings to enable them be at par with their colleagues all around the world.

    It is only when teachers are effectively positioned to produce students that are capable of launching the state and, indeed, the country into league of industrial and technologically powered societies that ‘Itesiwaju Ipinle Ekol’o je wal’ogun’, (the progress of Lagos State is paramount to us) which is the mantra of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration can amply become a breath taking reality.

     

    • Dr. Benson Oke, FCArb, is Honourable Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Lagos State.

  • Issues in local government reforms

    The question of local government effectiveness in the present democratic dispensation has continued to agitate the minds of Nigerians. There is the widespread view that the impact of local governments has not been felt across the states of the federation since the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, leading to clamour for reforms to make the local governments accountable and service – driven. Proposals for local council reforms have understandably heightened in the face of the ongoing constitution review process. While the subject has constitutional, legal, political and administrative implications, this essay is concerned mainly with a tripod of the debate, namely, local government autonomy; state – local government joint account; and service conditions of elected office holders in the local government.

    By the common interpretation of constitutional and legal experts, the framers of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] conceived of local governments as extensions of state governments and accordingly granted only semi-autonomous status to local governments. This subordination of local councils to the authority of the states, especially via sections 7 [1] and 162 [5] of the constitution has however been cited as hampering effective operations of local governments. It is argued that the control exercised by the states over local governments has left the latter vulnerable to the manipulations and arm-twisting of the states. With this structural limitation, local government leaderships are under pressure to see their councils as accountable to state governments rather than the constituency that elected them. This is seen as a negation of the principle behind the establishment of democratically elected local government system. The strong need to insulate the local governments from undue influences of the states therefore, forms sufficient basis for granting the former full autonomy.

    The aggregate response to the above demand has centred on the traditional concept of federalism as a political system with only two tiers of government. Thus, local government autonomy is objected to on the ground that it is only the federal government and states that are recognised as the coordinate entities of the Nigerian state. Local governments do not qualify as federating units of the Nigerian state. They lack the institutions and structures of authority such as the judiciary and ministries which the recognised tiers of government are endowed with. Consistent also with the two-tier structure of Nigeria’s federalism, the constitution has vested states with the power to create local governments and regulate their activities. Consequently, to seek to upgrade local governments to autonomous councils would amount to creating a third tier, a perfect condition for endless conflicts between states and local governments.

    While acknowledging the merits of these positions, it is to be noted that we cannot speak in absolute terms in human affairs. It seems to us that the constitution is clear enough about the status of local governments and there is nothing inherently wrong with its provisions in this regard. Local councils should be free of encumbrances to play their roles in governance. There may be need for reaffirming the inviolability of the democratic order of local governments in the constitution. However, a system of checks and balances is necessary to preserve the overall system. Where there is clear evidence of the breakdown of governance, law and order in a local council, the state government should in our view, be empowered to temporarily intervene in the administration of the council in question.

    The state joint local government account has proved to be another source of controversy in the relationship between the councils and the states. There have been calls from some quarters for abrogation of section 162 [6] of the amended 1999 constitution which establishes the said joint account for eroding the fiscal freedom of the councils. The joint account has been criticized as detrimental to the interests of the local governments as its operation has allegedly been attended by diversion of council funds; sundry deductions; as well as delay in release of council funds. These factors may have had the cumulative effect of weakening the system and discouraging bright people from wanting to serve in the local government.

    The other perspective to the issue of state joint local government account is arrived at from an understanding of the constitutional intent for this system of governance. Local governments as earlier observed, underscore the decentralization of the state into smaller units for closer administration. And a principal means of this grassroots administration is the financial control exercised by the state over the local councils. The case for a joint account is further captured by the combined provisions of sections 1 [a] [i] [ii] and 2 [a] [b] [c] of the fourth schedule of the constitution which itemizes functions of local governments to be carried out in collaboration with state governments. With such extensive joint ventures, the issue of joint account becomes a given. What should be of concern then is devising ways of facilitating operations the joint account to ensure that the councils receive what is due to them accordingly.

    It would be worthwhile to have a fixed tenure for elected council office holders. The continued tinkering with the tenure of local governments by state legislatures is retrogressive and an unnecessary display of power.  A two-year term of office will hardly achieve anything for obvious reasons. Let the local governments have a constitutionally guaranteed three-year mandate.

    In view of the limited functions of local governments, their lean geographical size and financial capability, it makes sense to consider a system of part – time councilors to be paid only sitting allowances and other working expenses. It should be enough to have only the chairman and deputy chairman on full time basis. This view is canvassed mindful of the fact that part of the council’s sphere of responsibility also falls within the terrain of traditional rulership and town unions. Part – time councillorship would discourage those who have no value to add to governance from crowding the process.

    Focused and committed leadership can make the difference at the local government level. But above all, the electorate must take their destiny in their own hands. The various town unions, interest groups, community associations etc have a duty to periodically demand a report card from the local political authorities. The local governments will be compelled to sit up when the electorate insists on verifiable stewardship.

     

    • Afuba is a political scientist and media consultant.

  • The menace of academic corruption

    I recall my father’s house with raffia palm thatched roof. During the rainy season it used to have one or two small leaking spots here and there; but as time went on, the leaking spots grew in number and size because they were left unattended to. The corruption in Nigeria is akin to the tiny hole on the roof of my father’s thatched house, which reared its ugly head more noticeably in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Each military regime that came up about that time and beyond surreptitiously used corruption as an excuse for the takeover.  Probes were conducted and some highly placed individuals in ministries and agencies identified as corrupt were either retired or dismissed as the case may be. In some cases, the entire establishments were reorganized and the top management replaced.  In some others the names of the establishments were changed as in the case of ECN that was changed to NEPA, PHCN, and finally to DISCO. Those who were left in the system continued from where their predecessors stopped, particularly after the dust of retirement had cleared. The funny aspect of this fight against corruption is that everybody is deemed corrupt “except” the “commanding officer” in-charge of the war on corruption. The commanding officer may in turn, be accused of corruption when he had left the scene, and not while he is still in command.  What also baffles me about this crusade on corruption is that all government agencies have been raided except the universities, our Ivory Towers.  This may be because university workers have no such huge amounts of money to embezzle, or that people think that corruption is only about embezzling government fund.

    Let us digress a little and consider the life of termites where everyone has a responsibility. There are the leaders, soldiers, builders, and food procurers among them. In order to eliminate these ants, you have to eliminate the queen mother. The same applies to corruption; to tackle corruption headlong, we have to identify and eliminate the breeder of corruption.  There are two sources where these corrupt individuals are bred.  These two sources appear different but complementary and perform the same function. They are the family and the university; these two carry out the function of moulding the character and teaching our youth.  It is worrisome to note that high profile corruption in Nigeria is high among the highly educated government officials.  And there are hardly any of these corrupt elites that did not pass through university education.

    It is in the university that I would like the government to focus her energy on the fight against corruption for it is at this level that our children, the future elites appear to learn the act of corruption. You cannot give what you do not have, corrupt lecturers produce corrupt graduates. Wait a minute, if you are itching to hear how much a lecturer embezzles in a session, forget it.  And asking the soldiers of corruption to declare “operation crocodile smiles” against financial corruption among university lecturers is like trying to kill a menacing mosquito with a cricket bat.  The real danger in the university which I would like the government to tackle is academic corruption; this is more deadly than financial corruption. There is now unwarranted and baseless depravity in our universities.  In recent times, if you glance through the national dailies, you discover that most of those accused of financial corruption are graduates of our universities and mainly those around 60 years of age at the time the offence was committed.  The question is what has the university got to do with corruption?

    Let me take us down the memory lane.  Since 1980s after the Udoji national salary review committee, the university lecturer was placed under the Unified Salary Structure (USS). This brought down the salary of university lecturers relative to other public servants.  Then the lectureship job became financially unattractive, uninteresting and unrewarding.  As a result of this, strikes became the option for lecturers to regain their place in the society. Between late 1980s and 1990s there was mass exodus of well-qualified, morally upright and hardworking university lecturers because of the ugly trend.  Some lecturers left the shores of Nigeria never to return; some joined the private sector; others sought more “juicy” public service appointments.  To make matters worse, it was impossible to find replacement for the calibre of lecturers who checked out.  But those lecturers who, out of patriotism, stayed back in the system were overworked and underpaid. At that time some lecturers took to subsistence farming, some became part-time taxi drivers to augment their income.  It was so bad then that an unmarried male lecturer could not win a girl’s hand in marriage; as many young ladies wished to marry persons in any profession except lecturing. Moreover, many talented and promising young graduates shunned teaching career.  It therefore became the vogue to accept all manner of graduates who wished to join academics.  It was like in a war situation when any available able bodied bloody civilian was conscripted into the army; hurriedly trained and pushed into the war front only to be killed at his first operation.

    Having painted this scenario, one can see from where water entered the broad-leaved pumpkin, as the Ibos will say. The lecturers were in a terrible financial situation.  It is better imagined than lived.  Those who could not resist the temptation and bear the hardship and some of the newly hired mercenaries descended on the students under their care like a hawk will pounce on a chick, or became agents of the academically corrupt older ones.  In order to augment salaries, sale of hurriedly assembled pamphlets called books and hand-outs, and sale of grades surfaced in the universities. Some unscrupulous lecturers made the purchase of hand-outs and books a condition for passing a course.  In some cases, pass in a course was financially graded; female students either paid in kind or cash depending on the level of moral decay of the lecturer. There are instances where those who failed were passed depending on the place of origin of the students. Money for hand back for ground became the dictum.  Most lecturers were no longer, morally speaking, role models for the students. They no longer acted as good parents to these students; but became teachers of corrupt practices by turning them into research materials for monetary or sexual benefits.  Some students became the agents of the lecturers who do not want to be detected.  We can now see the relationship between corruption among our educated elites and the moral decay of some lecturers in our universities.  To be fair to all, not all lecturers are guilty as depicted; many still maintain their integrity.  However, those innocent ones say nothing and do nothing.  What makes the evil to thrive is that the majority of the upright lecturers remain quiet in the face of this great decadence.  There is a conspiracy of silence in our universities and this makes academic corruption to persist.  This silence may be because those academics who are still morally upright are cajoled, blackmailed, alienated, treated as outcasts, and even have their life hanging in the balance.  They do not have other option than to keep quiet. Others presume that since the society is already bad there is nothing one man can do; or that even if you report the offenders that the university administration will do nothing, since most of these corrupt lecturers win the heart of the administration.

    There are other instances where the lecturers through academic corruption unknowingly teach the students corruption practices. In the first place, there are lecturers who will not teach the courses allocated to them until towards the end of the semester.  Such lecturers only appear two or three times, tell stories and they are done.  But some students like them so long as every student eventually passes. The second group comprises those who arbitrarily allocate marks to course work they did not conduct (tests, quizzes, seminar papers, etc.). Even when examinations are conducted, marks are still awarded arbitrarily without actually grading the examination scripts with well-structured marking schemes. The category of lecturers usually has agents who collect money for them in place of class assignments.  Our students observe these fraudulent practices among the lecturers; but are happy because every student normally passes the examination; only few unfortunate ones will fail in pretence that the course was graded. The third category, though very few in number, is made up of those who see the female students as ‘bush meat’ and demand sexual gratification from them for a pass. The worse aspect of this is that those who fail to comply are seriously victimized. Such lecturers wriggle out of the problem, if caught using his high profile connections. Some lecturers even go to the extent of helping the students to rewrite an examination that has already taken place. Are we not in these ways showing our students that corruption pays?  Won’t the students imitate their lecturers when they graduate and find themselves in positions of authority?

    The last group is made of lecturers who turn the other way while invigilating examinations, allowing students who wish to commit all forms of examination malpractices a free hand to do so.  Many of us are in this group either due to laziness or to appear popular among the students.

    The impact of academic corruption in the society should not be overlooked. In Nigeria today, those who graduated using fast lanes easily get ‘juicy’ positions in the society.  When our students are exposed to all manner of academic corruptions, they tend to replicate them when they find themselves in official positions of authority, especially in government.  Lecturers should be forced, if possible, to live the ethics of their profession or be flushed out of the system.  The negative impacts some of these corrupt lecturers have on our students is unimaginable.

     

    • Prof Okafor is of the Department of Statistics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
  • NDDC rides on new vision and steam

    NDDC rides on new vision and steam

    On Thursday, January 26, the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, held its inaugural meeting at the commission’s headquarters, to begin a robust and vigorous implementation of its vision for Niger Delta development. It is not the first time the board would be meeting.
    Earlier in November 2016, they had held an extra-ordinary meeting where far-reaching decisions were taken and the commitment to develop new strategies, within old platforms of engagement, was affirmed. Within this commitment is what the board calls the 4-R Initiative. Rising from that Abuja meeting, the board’s chairman, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, had reassured it would not be business as usual and everything would be done within law, within budget and pursuant to its mandate, to change public perception of the 16-year-old interventionist agency and set forth a new narrative.
    “The Commission has not had the most edifying of public images,” Senator Ndoma-Egba said, “and that is because the procurement processes were opaque. That is why many contributors to the NDDC fund are in arrears. We will persuade those who are in arrears to pay and one of the easiest ways of getting them to pay is by ensuring that our processes were transparent.”
    At the meeting in Port Harcourt, the 4-R Initiative was expanded into a 21-Point agenda, in which the board reaffirmed the commitment to making the commission’s systems and processes more transparent for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region. Senator Ndoma-Egba reiterated that it was imperative to create opportunities “for public participation to engender confidence in the activities of the commission by all stakeholders in the region.”
    Other points in the agenda include curtailing the indiscriminate award of contracts in the commission and that the board’s approval must be obtained for all procurement of projects and programmes. He said: “The board must adopt policies that would moderate or streamline the number of new procurements in the commission, given that as at today, NDDC has over 9000 (nine thousand)ongoing projects, most of which are experiencing funding, implementation and other challenges.
    “The board must determine the status of ongoing projects and programmes and put in place a mechanism to re-evaluate the viability of some projects, revise the scope of others, re-negotiate the cost of some and relocate or merge others, as well as evolve a strategy for settling verified debts.”
    Now, the journey towards the Niger Delta, promised in the NDDC Act of 2000, cranks into new gear. And to drive its implementation is the commission’s managing director and chief executive officer, Mr. Nsima Ekere, a man of uncommon vision, proven track record of achievement, humility and known commitment to ideals and improving the living conditions of the people of the Niger Delta and beyond.
    “We would have to do things differently,” Nsima Ekere says, “to improve the transparency of our processes, leverage technology to increase accountability and efficiency, consult stakeholders frequently, engage proactively and be creative about the programmes that we design, to uplift the people and the region.”
    Mr. Ekere, who comes with a rich pedigree in public administration, is brimming with energy, enthusiasm and ideas and gradually, they are beginning to crystalize into operational models for the transformation of the Niger Delta of over 40 million people, spread across 40 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages and dialects.
    At the core of the new thinking at the NDDC is a compass for change articulated by the governing board, anchored on restructuring the commission’s balance sheet, reforming the governance protocols, restoring the commission’s core mandate and reaffirming its commitment to doing what is right and proper.
    Ndoma-Egba, former Senate Leader, leads a field of high caliber professionals with track record of achievements, whose antecedents are already giving hope and confidence to many people in the region. It also heightens expectations.
    One of those who have expressed confidence in the team is Mr. Clement Ebri, a former Governor of Cross River State, who declared: “Ndoma-Egba and Nsima Ekere have the requisite experience required to perform creditably. I think we should be expecting a lot of development of infrastructure in the entire nine states of the Niger Delta. I have confidence that under their watch, every part of the region will witness tremendous development.”
    Since inauguration on November 4, 2016, the board has been engaging with stakeholders and familiarising itself with existing programmes and projects. And at each visit, new commitments are made to ensure that the new path being fashioned for the commission becomes clearer and is strengthened. And Mr. Ekere has also taken the opportunity to reflect on what must be done.
    While visiting the new headquarters of the commission, the managing director pointed out that the completion rate of NDDC projects was not encouraging. “I remember that shortly after our appointment, I met with some international funding partners and other stakeholders and everybody seem to be very concerned about the state of abandoned projects in the region.”
    Then he declared: “It is important to determine to determine the projects that the commission could afford to complete, depending on the ones that have the highest impact on communities. I don’t believe that there is any sense in starting a thousand projects and completing only one. So we will check the number of new projects and then concentrate on completing on-going ones. We want to complete our projects.”
    One of such projects is the 23.5-kilometre Otuasega – Obedum – Emelego road and bridges linking Bayelsa and Rivers states, through some of the Niger Delta’s more fertile lands. The opportunities and possibilities the road presents are enormous for the regional economy. Besides reducing the time of travel tremendously, the rich agricultural produce of the area will find an easier route for evacuation to bigger markets. That portends more socio-economic activities and wealth for the region’s predominantly farmer population, and improved livelihoods. That fits quite well within the global concept for sustainable development, and helps in the new board’s determination to restore the commission’s core mandate.
    Other such physical infrastructure abound, crying for attention. And that is what the NDDC, under its new leadership, is determined to do, underlying its mantra to make a difference in the Niger Delta, a region with a long history of false starts and failed promises. This time, with Nsima Ekere and the management piloting affairs, there is a stronger reason to hope. And the governing board just set the tone.

    •Amu-Nnadi is Head, Corporate Affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.