The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Free education bill

    Free education bill

    • What is required now are incentives, not force

    Last week, the Senate passed, for second reading, a bill that prescribes financial penalty as well as jail term for parents and other persons who have children of school age in their custody but refuse to enable them receive at least basic education up to Junior Secondary School 3. The new bill seeks to update and strengthen the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act of 2004 which imposes fines of N2,000 and N5,000, respectively, on parents and guardians who default in providing their children with basic primary and secondary school education.

    Thus, the fines in the amended bill have been increased to N20,000 and N50,000, respectively, while culpable persons may also face a term of imprisonment for one month in addition to the fine.

    The bill is no doubt motivated by the desire to ensure that no child of school age is denied the right of obtaining basic education as a minimal condition for acquiring the indispensable prerequisites to build on for success in life.

    This is reflected, for instance, in section 2 of the bill which states that “every government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age”. The legislation also mandates that “every parent shall ensure that his child or ward attends and completes his primary school and junior secondary school education by endeavouring to send the child to primary and junior secondary schools” and that “Every parent shall ensure that his child receives full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude by regular attendance at schools”.

    It is true that a situation in which more than 20 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school is clearly alarming and unacceptable. Such children are denied the opportunity of maximally developing their potential and will, most likely, become liabilities to society.

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    In cities and other urban areas across the country, hundreds of boys and girls of school age can be seen selling wares in traffic, serving as illiterate apprentices to artisans or perpetrating sundry crimes engendered partly by idleness.

    Will the punitive legislation proposed by this bill provide an effective remedy to this problem? It is unlikely. The bill assumes, for instance, that governments actually provide free basic education for children so that parents and guardians have no excuse for not sending children to school. But even in many cases where governments have formally announced the policy of free education mainly by abolishing tuition fees, children are still required to pay other kinds of assorted levies that add up to a considerable amount. At the root of the inability of many parents to send their children to school, therefore is the pervasive poverty in the land.

    This means that only a tiny percentage of the population are able to send their children to private schools, most of which charge high fees. Unfortunately, most governments have not lived up to their responsibility of providing qualitative, well equipped and attractive public schools to cater for those who cannot afford private schools.

    Provision of an effective, efficient and affordable public school system should therefore be the focus of governments rather than the premature imposition of fines or imprisonment for those who cannot send their children to school.

    However, governments should work in conjunction with stakeholders in communities such as traditional rulers, opinion molders, religious leaders and non-governmental organisations to help mobilise and encourage parents and guardians to send their children to school. The existing incentives to make education attractive to children such as the various school feeding programmes should also be improved and expanded. Efforts should be intensified, both by government and civil society groups, to overhaul the values of society and inculcate the virtues of hard work, honesty, discipline and sound character in people. The current prevalent penchant for quick acquisition of wealth by all means predisposes the youth to pursue ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ criminality, cultism, ritual killing or sexual perversion rather than education as a way to perceived success.

    In any case, the proposed bill is a federal law which can only be enforced if domesticated by state governments that have constitutional responsibility for basic education.

  • Obscene binge

    Obscene binge

    Procurement of vehicle fleet by NASS simply doesn’t fit with current realities

    Lawmakers in the National Assembly (NASS) are in the process of acquiring brand new vehicles to be used, according to them, for constituency outreach and oversight on government intervention projects, among others. The green chamber – that is, the House of Representatives – has openly confirmed the plan, while it is widely believed the red chamber – the Senate – has a similar plan afoot since they operate the same legislative budget. There were criticisms in the public space regarding the propriety and cost of the project, especially amidst current economic realities of Nigeria, but the lawmakers went on the defensive against such criticisms.

    The House affirmed in a statement, last Sunday, that it would soon begin distribution of sports utility vehicles to its members and plied passionate arguments as to why it is the proper thing to do at this time. Let’s hear out the arguments. Chamber spokesman, Akin Rotimi, said the National Assembly bureaucracy was in phased process of procuring and distributing operational vehicles to House members over the coming weeks and months, and that the vehicles were not luxury items to be gifted to members for personal use but work tools “tied to their oversight functions in the discharge of their duties in standing committees.” According to him, purchase of operational vehicles is not peculiar to the legislative arm of government, as executive appointees also get vehicles.

    There have been widespread speculation among members of the public that the chamber is procuring foreign brand of vehicles for its 360 members at a cost of about N130million apiece, totalling to N57.6 billion. But whereas the House’s spokesman, in his statement, would not dwell on specifics of project cost, he confirmed the procurement and described reported cost lines as exaggerated. “This development is in accordance with extant procurement laws and has been the practice in previous assemblies,” he said, adding: “It is also not peculiar to the Legislature, as unelected officials in the Executive arm of government from Director level upwards, in most cases, have official vehicles attached to their offices.” He further explained that for the duration of the 10th assembly, the vehicles shall remain NASS’s property; but at the expiration of the assembly’s tenure in 2027, “should the extant assets de-boarding policy of government still remain in place, honourable members may have the option of making payment for the outstanding value of the vehicles to government coffers before they (the vehicles) can become theirs, otherwise they remain the property of the National Assembly.”

    The Reps spokesman also argued that it was in the bid to ensure the Legislature’s integrity and independence that members of the green chamber “resolved to maintain a respectable distance from the Executive arm of government, especially in issues relating to logistical aspects of oversight functions, including reaching difficult terrains in the country.” He affirmed the legislative arm’s commitment to reducing the cost of governance in line with current realities, saying: “Those willing to research further would find a significant body of work with evidence that the percentage of the component of the Legislature’s budget as part of our national budget has been on a downward trend over the past decade, despite inflation and the expanding role and relevance of honourable members in the lives of citizens. It currently stands at 0.5% of the Federal budget.” According to him, stakeholders pushing for reduced cost of governance should look in other directions and not create disaffection for legislators “who want to discharge their duties effectively and be above board, without being susceptible to inducement when the enablement to function is impaired.” We can safely assume that the Senate would ply arguments for procuring vehicles for its own members – 109 of them – along similar lines.

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    Only that much as those arguments might seem persuasive, they do not remedy the reality that expenditures such as the one in question at the present time ring of the legend of ancient Emperor Nero fiddling away while Rome was burning. The Nigerian economy under the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been undergoing drastic reforms that mandate belt-tightening, and the steady call to embattled members of the public has been to make necessary sacrifices. Good leadership ideally should be by example and lawmakers, along with the entire leadership elite currently, are expected to lead the way with sacrifices as being demanded of the public. If lawmakers in the 10th assembly insist on having perks as those in previous assemblies, it is difficult to see what sacrifice is being made in line with present economic realities. The House spokesman, of course, cited the practice in other arms of government, notably the Executive. But that can’t be a valid justification either, because wherever public expenditure is not guided by present economic hardships faced by the majority, whether it be in the Executive arm or wherever else, it is offensive to public sensibility and unbecoming of expectations from leadership. Sauce for the goose, as they say, should be sauce for the gander.

    It compounds the opprobrium of the expenditure that the vehicles being procured  in such a large number by the Legislature are foreign-built. And this is so in rebuff of pitches made by potential domestic suppliers. The chagrin of domestic suppliers and the implication for the Nigerian economy can’t be better stated than was done by the founder of Nord Motors, Ajayi Oluwatobi, when he said: “The National Assembly buying foreign-built vehicles at this time is dispiriting, especially when you consider that we are all trying to promote ‘buy Nigeria’ to grow the Naira. A sad part of this is that we – assemblers and manufacturers of vehicles in Nigeria – actually proposed our vehicles and explained how it would make a lot of financial, technical and political sense to buy from us, but they did not even entertain the idea.” Oluwatobi added: “How can you represent Nigeria but refuse to buy Nigeria, especially when some of us have shown you that we would offer similar top quality at a better price? Why do you want to be seen driving a foreign brand when a Nigerian brand can offer you the same quality at a better price? No automotive sector can become successful without the support of the government. The Tesla we see today is the result of years of support from the US government. We want to create jobs but export the opportunities to create jobs to other countries at every chance we get.”

    In other words, buying foreign-built vehicles in such large number as the NASS is doing represents a missed boost for the Nigerian economy. It isn’t for nothing, for instance, that all members of Germany’s legislature, the Bundestag, ride Mercedes Benz. Economic wisdom dictates that you keep such huge funds within when you can, only that our lawmakers, sadly, weren’t so guided. Too bad!

  • Israel, Hamas fight over public opinion

    Israel, Hamas fight over public opinion

    • By Keren Setton

    It was only a matter of time before a tragic incident in the war between Israel and Hamas would become a battle of versions between the two adversaries and their supporters.

    Israel and Hamas have continued to trade blame on the explosion that rocked a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday.

    The terrorist group blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said a rocket that was misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad landed in Gaza rather than in Israel. The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, reported that 500 people were killed in the strike. Israeli officials did not immediately deny Israel’s involvement, saying, instead, that they would review the incident. They came up with proof of their non-involvement only hours later. For many Palestinian supporters, Israel’s investigative efforts made no difference; the adoption of the Hamas version of events was almost immediate.

    Hamas and similar terrorist organizations are quick to accuse Israel. Israel takes more time and, in the meantime, the narrative sticks.

    “Hamas and similar terrorist organizations are quick to accuse Israel,” Prof. Motti Neiger, from the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line. “Israel takes more time and, in the meantime, the narrative sticks.”

    He added: “Israel sees its credibility at stake. Because the fighting is expected to be long, it wants to maintain credibility.”

    According to Neiger, Israel learned this lesson from the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh over two years ago when it immediately denied involvement in the shooting and later had to admit she was likely killed by Israeli military fire. The incident led to widespread condemnation of Israel.

    Following the hospital blast, several Arab nations declared national days of mourning, with the Palestinian Authority announcing three such days. Demonstrations were held in several Arab cities in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan. In Lebanon, protestors rallied in front of the US and French embassies, criticizing them for their support of Israel. They also tried to break into UN offices in Beirut. In Jordan, angry citizens tried to storm the Israeli Embassy.

    “Gaza is considered an underdog by the Arab world,” Wadea Awawdy, a Nazareth-based political analyst from Radio Anas, told The Media Line. “The years of a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt have led to a lot of anger, even though there are reservations about what Hamas did to civilians in Israel.”

    According to Awawdy, “Israel’s attempts to explain the hospital incident are ridiculed in the Arab world. They claim the missiles in Gaza cannot cause such damage. There is no chance for Israel’s explanations to be accepted, there is no belief,” he added.

    Israeli media interviewed experts who said Israeli bombs would create a major crater in the ground, one that is not visible in drone or satellite imagery.

    “The more technology there is, the easier it is to fabricate things,” Professor Hillel Frisch, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told The Media Line. According to Frisch, the number of casualties reported by the Hamas Health Ministry does not align with footage streamlined live from Gaza, which showed no increased traffic of ambulances in the immediate aftermath of the explosion or movement of bodies from the site.

    The incident occurred just hours before US President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv on a visit to show support for Israel. After landing on Wednesday, Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he “was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears it was done by the other team, and not you.” Biden added that he had viewed intelligence shown to him by the Pentagon, alluding to the fact that the US had its own information.

    Denying responsibility, the Israeli military provided what it said was proof that it was not behind the deadly incident.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video statement released hours after the incident that “an analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired in Gaza passing in close proximity to the Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”

    He added: “Intelligence from multiple sources that we have in order hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch that hit the hospital in Gaza.”

    The IDF later released a recording and transcript of a conversation between Hamas operatives it had intercepted in which they acknowledged it was their own rocket that hit the hospital.

    “They are saying that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel,” said one of the participants in the conversation, as quoted by the IDF.

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    “There are two sides in the struggle. On the one hand, we have a state whose interest is not to hurt uninvolved citizens because that hampers its efforts to hit Hamas and continue the fighting. Such incidents only harm this effort,” Neiger said. “On the other hand, we have a terrorist organization that, just a week ago, committed a heinous massacre and is trying to destabilize the whole region-why should we believe their narrative?”

    There was some criticism in Israel as to whether the army should have refuted the claims quicker, in an attempt to counter the claims that it was responsible for the incident.

    “The IDF’s main goal is to win the battle and reach its goals. Propaganda is secondary in importance, and the army shouldn’t be preoccupied with that,” said Frisch.

    After visiting Israel, Biden was scheduled to stop in Jordan for a summit with leaders from the Arab world. The meeting was canceled shortly after the hospital strike before its circumstances were known.

    Biden was to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

    The anger among Arab leaders towards the US is so great. The repeated declarations of friendship by Biden for Israel and the almost complete adoption of Israel’s position, make them believe there will be no benefit in speaking with Biden. They don’t see him as someone able to extricate the region from this catastrophe.

    Immediately after images of the hospital explosion began streaming, Abbas said he was withdrawing from the summit, and Jordan announced its cancellation.

    For now, the reaction among Arab countries that have relations with Israel has been mainly condemnation. As the war persists and public opinion in Israel becomes harsher, this could shift.

    “The room for maneuvering will become smaller,” Awawdy said. “If the fighting intensifies, especially if there will be a ground invasion of Gaza, this will change the positions of these countries. Until now, they have acted only to fulfill what they see is their obligation.”

    The war comes after weeks of reports that there had been significant progress in normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The fighting has put a hold on that process and could derail it completely, along with recent relations that Israel forged with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain. After Hamas’ opening offensive last week, Bahrain and the UAE condemned the terrorist organization. After the incident at the hospital, though, the UAE, together with Russia, asked to convene a special UN Security Council meeting, which was held on Wednesday.

    “Even those who believed in normalization, have now lost hope. This conflict has killed the chance for compromise, distancing any opportunity for peace,” Awawdy summarized.

    •This article was first published in www.themedialine.org

  • Chris Ogunbanjo (1923 – 2023)

    Chris Ogunbanjo (1923 – 2023)

    • Departure of an industrialist of note

    He would have become a centenarian but died about two months before the milestone. Apart from his remarkable longevity, he had a noteworthy career in the legal profession and was considered a giant in corporate law.

    Chief Christopher Oladipupo Ogunbanjo, who exited the stage on October 7, aged 99, established one of the earliest indigenous law firms in Nigeria in 1952.  After his secondary education at Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, and Igbobi College, Lagos, he studied at the University of London where he earned a law degree in 1949, and was called to the bar in 1950.

    His specialisation in corporate law opened doors for him, leading to his appointment as “Retainer-Solicitor” to the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) project by the Nigerian government and International Finance Corporation. He was a vocal champion of strong private sector involvement in economic growth and, as far back as the 1960s, advocated local equity participation in foreign firms operating in Nigeria. He was an important shareholder in several Nigerian companies, including West African Batteries, Metal Box Toyo, Union Securities, 3M Nigeria, ABB Nigeria, Roche Nigeria and Chemical and Allied Products Ltd. Notably, he campaigned for domiciliary accounts in Nigeria, which was eventually actualised through the Foreign Currency Decree 18 of 1985.

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    His activities in the corporate world earned him grand appellations, such as ‘Captain of Industry,’ ‘Baron of Commerce’ and a ‘Patriarch’ of the organised private sector.  He authored books that reflected his passion for development: ‘Nigeria’s Economic and Industrial Development – Which Way?’ (1983); ‘Nigeria – The search for economic stability’ (1986); and ‘Nigeria’s Economic Reforms – Current Issues (1998)’

    He was former chairman and trustee, Ogun State Development Trust Fund; former president, Ogun State University Development Foundation; founder-member and former president and patron, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce; founder-member and patron, Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce; patron, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

    Ogunbanjo was also noted for his philanthropic activities. For instance, he built a 24-stall market in Eruwon, his hometown in present-day Ogun State, and handed it over to the Ijebu-Ode Local Government in 1989. Also, he built a police post beside the Anglican Cathedral (Epiphany Church) in Eruwon, to enhance security in the community, and handed it over to the Nigerian Police.

    As founder and chairman of the Chris Ogunbanjo Foundation, he demonstrated his vision for a peaceful and prosperous country.  The foundation’s principal objectives are: to promote the achievement of a stable society in Nigeria through proper analysis of causes of conflicts; and to encourage the promotion of industrial society and private enterprises generally, thus moving Nigeria forward from its present stage of under-development to an industrial society. To pursue these aims, the foundation has the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution and the Centre for the Promotion of Industrial Society and Private Enterprise as the operating arms.

    He received honorary doctorates from Obafemi Awolowo University (1987), the University of Lagos (1988), Ogun State University (1990), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (2001), where he was also a former chancellor, and was Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Education (1997).

    He had various titles that underlined the respect he enjoyed in society, including church-related honours and chieftaincy decorations. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred on him the Officer of the Order of Orange Nassau Netherlands (1981), which showed his worth beyond his country.  More significantly, he was a recipient of two Nigerian national honours, Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) 1982, and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) 2001. 

    According to him, the reason he did not enter politics, though he found it “very tempting,” was that his father had dissuaded him, saying, “You were brought up to see white and call it white, and see black and call it black. You cannot do that in politics.” His public life was exemplary, and a testimony to his integrity.

  • Beyond rhethoric

    Beyond rhethoric

    • Sultan, others proffer solutions to illiteracy in the North

    A conference organised in Abuja by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation undertook an exhaustive interrogation of the challenge of educational development in the North within the framework of the theme, “Education in Northern Nigeria: Status, Challenges and the way Forward”. An impressive array of dignitaries and experts from the region, including the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar 111, who was chairman of the occasion, chairman of the board of trustees of the foundation and former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Babangida Aliu, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, and a former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, were among those who shed light on diverse aspects of a problem that has become protracted and continues to be a considerable obstacle to achieving the goals of modernisation and poverty alleviation in the region.

    Professor Ruqayyatu’s presentation on the occasion vividly reflected the extensive work she had done as head of a team of researchers that had been set up to study the problem and proffer solutions on how the North could achieve a breakthrough in terms of the educational advancement of her youths. Some of the challenges plaguing the provision of qualitative, effective and affordable education in the region highlighted in her paper included inability to mobilise school age children to enthusiastically embrace the idea of going to school, poor release of funds even where budgetary provision had been made for such, non availability of offices and programmes for guidance and counselling services as well as inadequate political will on the part of requisite public office holders to propel a fundamental educational rejuvenation in the North.

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    Some of the suggestions for tackling the problem as advocated in Professor Rufai’s paper included the massive construction of new schools, expansion of the school feeding programmes to make education more attractive to children across states in the region, timely payment of salaries, provision of adequate numbers of requisite supportive non-teaching staff, creation of school inspectorate directorates and greater commitment to competitive recruitment of teachers.

    The JAMB registrar stressed the need for intensification of efforts to tap and maximize the potentials of higher education for the rapid transformation of Northern Nigeria. And in his presentation, Alhaji Babangida Aliu emphasized the need for state governments in the region to focus on ensuring that more holders of the National Certificate of Education (NCE), which is the minimum professional qualification for teachers, are trained to redress the present situation where “no northern state in Nigeria has 50% qualified teachers as the minimum qualification required is NCE”.

    In what was clearly the most critical, honest and forthright contribution at the conference, the Sultan of Sokoto pointed out the urgent need for public officers and other stakeholders in the North to go beyond rhetoric and unending talk shops to taking concrete, practical measures to actualize diverse policies suggested over the years to bring about an educational breakthrough in the region.

    While commending the rigorous work done by the committee headed by Professor Rufai, the Sultan recommended that a committee be promptly constituted to oversee the implementation of its recommendations in demonstration of a new commitment to the practical realization of stated goals.

     We commend the sense of urgency and impatience with endless conferences on the problem of educational backwardness in the North implicit in the stance of the Sultan. The continuously worsening of poverty in the region as reflected in such indices as pervasive hunger, malnutrition, mass youth unemployment, prevalence of diseases and gross inequality among others is fundamentally at the root of the virulent insecurity that has made life in most parts of the North no different from the Hobbesian state of nature.

    It is impossible to effectively, decisively and sustainably tackle this economic poverty and the insecurity it spawns without bringing about the much desired but lamentably delayed educational revolution in the North. This is why governors and other stakeholders in the region must heed the Sultan’s admonition that it is time to transcend rhetoric and begin to implement the well researched and documented policy proposals over the years to dispel the darkness of illiteracy and ignorance and shine the light of education and progress across the North.

  • Guilty as charged

    Guilty as charged

    • Corruption: Another army general falls

    How are the mighty fallen! That is perhaps an apt summary of the story of Umaru Mohammed, the two-star general found guilty of stealing by the Nigerian Army special court martial which sat in Abuja, Tuesday, last week. By the terms of his conviction, the former Group Managing Director, Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), will have to spend seven years behind bars in addition to paying back various sums totalling N3.7bn that he misappropriated, to the  NAPL.

    Initially arraigned on 18 counts bordering on forgery, misappropriation of funds, and conspiracy, among others, the court martial had found him guilty on 14 of the counts.

    Without prejudice to his rights to pursue the option of appeal, at issue here is the abuse of trust by an individual primarily charged with the performance of a public duty. A case of someone who, merely by his military rank ought to be an exemplar in discipline, probity and inscrutable integrity for which the military establishment is known, found to have engaged in disreputable conduct. It is shameful as it is regrettable.

    Unfortunately, while conducts like those of the convicted Maj. Gen. Mohammed continues to tar the image of the military institution with the brush, the truth is that his story is only one out of the many that have oozed out of the military in recent years. An earlier one, just as embarrassing as the current case, involved the General Officer Commanding 8 Division, Sokoto, Major Gen Hakeem Oladapo Otiki. He was said to have sent five soldiers in his detail to haul some cash from Sokoto to Abuja via Kaduna, only for the escorts to disappear with the cash. That was in 2019. Different accounts put the amount involved as ranging from N400 million to N800 million cash.

    A subsequent court martial which sat in 2020 found him guilty on a five-count charge and so was recommended for dismissal “with disgrace and dishonour”. He was in addition, required to refund various sums totalling N135.8million, $6,600 to the coffers of the Nigerian Army.

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    Most celebrated of them all is the now infamous Dasuki-gate involving billions of dollars of funds earmarked for defence spending that were either stolen outright or diverted for purposes other than for which they were meant. While the alleged prime actor was Col Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, service chiefs, the other notable star casts were Alex Sabundu Badeh, a former chief of defence staff, and the former chief of air staff, Adesola Nunayon Amosu.

    Clearly, if the singular running thread in all of the cases of financial malfeasance is the greed of a few, its obverse side must be the relative ease with which the systems are subverted such that huge sums can be plundered without triggering any alarms. For, even if the greed factor is sometimes inevitable, what about those controls designed to ensure that abuses of financial regulations cannot escape undetected? Or are we to assume that the military establishment does not have such systems in place?

    Military or not; which system that would allow millions of dollars of public funds to be taken out of the vaults by an individual without some layers of checks? Is it something that the financial guidelines of the military permit? If not, how could such breaches have gone on undetected to such a point that billions would be involved?

     While the military authorities ponder on these, it seems to us that the starting point in the journey to correction is for the military as an institution to overhaul its accounting infrastructure. In the circumstance, a new system of financial controls with multiple layers of triggers has become an imperative. There is at the moment still too much haemorrhaging of public funds going on at different levels of the military. The situation calls for drastic action.

    In the meantime, we urge the government to recover every kobo that has been stolen.

  • Disturbing menace

    Disturbing menace

    • Orgy of violence haunting Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi polls is an ill wind

    Insecurity is casting a long shadow on the off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states fixed for November 11, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has again voiced concern at the trend.

    The commission, in a statement last week, urged political parties and their candidates to shun actions and utterances that could heat up the polity ahead of the poll. Its spokesman and national commissioner in charge of information and voter education, Sam Olumekun, said: “The commission is concerned about the spate of insecurity and violence, including clashes among supporters of political parties and candidates in the forthcoming elections. In our engagement with political parties, the commission has constantly called on parties to rein in their supporters from actions capable of jeopardising the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria.” He added that the commission would continue to closely monitor the situation and sustain its engagement with security agencies and other stakeholders to ensure peaceful conduct of elections in the three states.

    Just as the electoral chieftain spoke, the commission scheduled another high-level parley with National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu and helmsmen of the security services to firm up plans towards ensuring safe conduct of the imminent polls. The meet, under the aegis of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), is being co-chaired by the NSA and the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the mock accreditation in Kogi State at the weekend, Yakubu was upbeat, saying: “We are on top of the situation in terms of security arrangement and deployment.” At an ICCES meeting in July, he called on security agencies to tackle perpetrators of the insecurity menace. “As we review the conduct of the last general election, we also need to focus our attention on the forthcoming by-elections and the three off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states… Already, there are ominous signs in the form of violent clashes between opposing political parties and candidates,” he had said, adding: “While maintaining strict neutrality, security agencies should take decisive action against purveyors of violence and other undemocratic activities such as vote buying, attacks on election officials and disruption of the electoral process.”

    The concern INEC voiced underscored the political culture in our country – in the present instance, in the three states heading into the November polls where campaign in the public kicked off on July 14 and is billed to end midnight on November 9, twenty-four hours before election day. Before now, there were a litany of cases of violence in those states. In Kogi, the political space has been characterised by inciting rhetoric, threats and actual incidents of violence involving key actors. For instance, both state governor Yahaya Bello, whose preferred candidate is All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer Ahmed Ododo, and Social Democratic Party (SDP) flagbearer Yakubu Ajaka have had their respective motorcade ambushed by gunmen, with each fingering the other as the mastermind. A radio station was looted and destroyed by hoodlums armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, after they beat up the staff and security guards on duty.

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    In Imo, there was a gory feast on September 19 when gunmen laid siege on a joint security team of soldiers, police, and civil defence corps personnel at the sleepy Umualumaku community, in Ehime-Mbano council area, and burnt them to ashes in their patrol vehicles. A separatist group calling itself ‘Biafran Revolution Army’ claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened more violence to ensure no election holds in the state or any other part of what it called “Biafra land” on November 11.

    And that wasn’t the only incident of violence lately in the state. Others include killings and sundry attacks on traditional rulers and security agents, and the July killing of 14 youths reportedly returning from a wedding to their community in Otulu, Oru East council area.

    Neither have political actors helped matters with their fiercely adversarial  rhetoric in the course of electioneering. In Bayelsa, there have been flashpoints of violence in Nembe, Brass, Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw council areas, with stakeholders – notably traditional rulers – canvassing civility on the part of political actors so as not to aggravate the already tense situation.

    Part of the challenge is that fomenters of violence were not apprehended and brought to book by security agents. It is reassuring, though, that they’ve said they are on top of the game for the coming polls. But it also helps if less desperation characterises the political culture such that gladiators do not see their participation in the elections as zero-sum, and they should rein in supporters. A toxic polling environment not only endangers voters who come out to exercise their franchise, but also electoral staff deployed for the conduct of the election. We cannot run democracy on those terms and it is in political actors’ enlightened self-interest to redress.

  • Buckle down

    Buckle down

    • Local governments in Lagos told to perform or be sanctioned

    Local government councils in Lagos State have got marching orders to perform or be sanctioned. Speaker of the state house of assembly, Mubashiru Obasa, charged the 57 local government areas and local council development areas in the state that, henceforth, their activities would be closely monitored to ensure they deliver democratic dividend to the people at the grassroots.

    The speaker, who spoke during a meeting with the local government officials, said it would no longer be business as usual.

    Obasa touched on several sore points of local councils in the state. He said: “I wonder how you sleep while your council cannot even build and equip a good maternity centre. You can’t justify the fact that in six months, there is no meaningful project done by you in your community.”

    He is also unhappy with the situations where some local government chairmen personalise their councils’ allocations to the detriment of their communities, and some others alongside council managers and treasurers constitute themselves into power blocs that run the councils without inputs from vice chairmen and councillors.

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    “Some councils have no single project for over two years, you treat the vice chairmen and councillors like they must be subservient even when you are going astray. Some of your councillors have not received official vehicles up till now”, Obasa said.

    He is not done yet. “Some of your councils do not have legislative chambers, meaning that the councillors have not been holding sittings. How then do you get approvals for the money you spend? We are aware of how some of these councils go ahead to borrow money up to nine-digit figures without approvals or due process, and how they lease council property without caution. We won’t allow these to happen again.”

    He also stressed the need for quality projects. He told the local government chieftains that if they build roads, they should be durable such that commuters who ply such roads would pray for them whenever they do.

    He added: “Going forward, each council chairman must, every quarter, show something to confirm that you are truly in office. Let there be something to inaugurate.”

    Good talk. Obasa seems to have carefully analysed the inadequacies in local governments in Lagos. But this is not a problem in Lagos alone; it is a national challenge.

     Indeed, some of the speaker’s observations, like some local councils securing loans beyond approved limits without authorisation, are weighty indeed. And if such could be going on in cosmopolitan Lagos, we can only imagine what would be the situation in local government areas in remote parts of the country.

    We want to believe that the speaker spoke for the majority of the members of the state assembly and in line with the oversight that the assembly exercises on the local governments.

     Indeed, we wonder how things degenerated to this extent in Lagos. It would seem the result of the slackness in the assembly’s duties; at least as far as local government oversight is concerned.

    But it is better late than never.

    Local governments are the closest tier of government to the people. They have specific duties that are listed in the constitution. Unfortunately, many of the councils in the country are prevented by governors from performing these duties as they only allocate whatever amount of money they feel like giving the local councils.

    In some states, governors run the councils with caretaker committees for years, as against the constitutional provision that they be run by democratically elected representatives.

    Obasa’s observations on the state of affairs of local governments in the state are too weighty to be ignored. They are a wake-up call on the local government officials to perform or incur the wrath of the state assembly.

    Lagos is not just a ‘Centre of Excellence’; it is role model to many other states in several respects. Its local councils must also be an exemplar of service delivery.  

  • Stiffer sanctions

    Stiffer sanctions

    • Schools and exam supervisors involved in exam malpractice don’t deserve kid gloves treatment

    The National Examinations Council (NECO) released the 2023 internal Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination results penultimate week. There was a 61.60 percent success rate with candidates getting credit in five subjects including English and Mathematics.

    Sadly, the examination body announced that 93 of the registered schools were indicted for cheating while 52 supervisors have been blacklisted, not just for poor supervision but for aiding and abetting cheating.

    Even though the success rate is above average unlike what had been recorded in the past, it is regrettable that as many as 93 schools were indicted for exam malpractices. The cheating did not happen in a vacuum, 52 teachers who are supposed to be gatekeepers and models for the young children were aiding and abetting it. This is one of the most terrible crimes that any human who is in a position to nurture, teach and guide the young ones can commit. But this criminality is not a novelty, neither is it isolated. Examination malpractices have always been reported but this scale is outrageous; 93 schools is a lot. The population of the students, if they are to be calculated, would be mind-boggling.

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    Examination at all levels of education is the only system through which students are tested for knowledge and competence, either to work thereafter or to further their education, some up to professorial level. If those that are supposed to monitor the examinations collude with students to cheat, then their certificates at the end would be questionable. This portends dire outcomes not just for those students but for the whole society.

    Cheating at any level is criminal and when young children are guided to cheat by those who in the first place are there to prevent cheating, then the future is totally bleak.

    Quackery in all sectors of human life does not happen by accident. It is a nurtured habit that children grow with. A young student who cheats from the junior level and is encouraged by adults sees it as the right thing to do. So, in the end, the society is faced with incompetent doctors, engineers, laboratory technologists, teachers, pharmacists, bankers, mechanics and just any profession on the face of the earth.

    In essence the unscrupulous supervisors and other enablers in the education system foolishly shoot themselves in the foot because, when the incompetent graduate through fraud, the whole society, including the dishonest supervisors, become victims of their greed.

    Our question then is, would the effect of their actions be commensurate with whatever profit they feel they are making?

    But this particular incident shows the loss of values in the society and how the seeds of evil are planted by adults. Teaching and learning, especially at the basic levels of education are very delicate and must be handled with care. In fact, teachers at those levels are often specially trained for the job. But the society seems to have lost its soul and the consequences stare us all in the face.

    The teaching profession is just one profession out of many in society. The values of honesty and hard work seem to be fading away as governments at all levels seem very lethargic about wielding the big stick. There seems to be loss of the weight of law and order and impunity seems to pervade every sector of public service. Those supervisors might just be scapegoats and they might equally have been adept at their crime; only that this time they were caught.

    Again, we are curious that ‘blacklisting’ seems to be the maximum punishment for the supervisors.

    Teaching as a profession is taken seriously in developed climes for obvious reasons. Erring teachers are often prosecuted according to the law and jailed if guilty. They are banned from teaching, sometimes for life. This is because imparting knowledge is more than standing in front of students. It is about character molding. If those who should be models are the ones corrupting the future generations, then the society is in trouble. The rise in crimes in the society is traceable to the failing education and parenting systems. Some parents have been caught aiding and abetting the criminal and dishonest behaviour of their children, especially for progression in academic circles. We recommend that the indicted schools should be further sanctioned and the blacklisted supervisors prosecuted and banned from teaching because they are not worthy in character and learning. Punishment and reward are the only ways to remodel behavior.  

  • Guilty as charged

    Guilty as charged

    • What is sorely needed now is a conducive business environment

    How are the mighty fallen! That is perhaps an apt summary of the story of Umaru Mohammed, the two-star general found guilty of stealing by the Nigerian Army special court martial which sat in Abuja, Tuesday, last week. By the terms of his conviction, the former Group Managing Director, Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), will have to spend seven years behind bars in addition to paying back various sums totalling N3.7bn that he misappropriated, to the  NAPL.

    Initially arraigned on 18 counts bordering on forgery, misappropriation of funds, and conspiracy, among others, the court martial had found him guilty on 14 of the counts.

    Without prejudice to his rights to pursue the option of appeal, at issue here is the abuse of trust by an individual primarily charged with the performance of a public duty. A case of someone who, merely by his military rank ought to be an exemplar in discipline, probity and inscrutable integrity for which the military establishment is known, found to have engaged in disreputable conduct. It is shameful as it is regrettable.

    Unfortunately, while conducts like those of the convicted Maj. Gen. Mohammed continues to tar the image of the military institution with the brush, the truth is that his story is only one out of the many that have oozed out of the military in recent years. An earlier one, just as embarrassing as the current case, involved the General Officer Commanding 8 Division, Sokoto, Major Gen Hakeem Oladapo Otiki. He was said to have sent five soldiers in his detail to haul some cash from Sokoto to Abuja via Kaduna, only for the escorts to disappear with the cash. That was in 2019. Different accounts put the amount involved as ranging from N400 million to N800 million cash.

    A subsequent court martial which sat in 2020 found him guilty on a five-count charge and so was recommended for dismissal “with disgrace and dishonour”. He was in addition, required to refund various sums totalling N135.8million, $6,600 to the coffers of the Nigerian Army. 

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    Most celebrated of them all is the now infamous Dasuki-gate involving billions of dollars of funds earmarked for defence spending that were either stolen outright or diverted for purposes other than for which they were meant. While the alleged prime actor was Col Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, service chiefs, the other notable star casts were Alex Sabundu Badeh, a former chief of defence staff, and the former chief of air staff, Adesola Nunayon Amosu.

    Clearly, if the singular running thread in all of the cases of financial malfeasance is the greed of a few, its obverse side must be the relative ease with which the systems are subverted such that huge sums can be plundered without triggering any alarms. For, even if the greed factor is sometimes inevitable, what about those controls designed to ensure that abuses of financial regulations cannot escape undetected? Or are we to assume that the military establishment does not have such systems in place? 

    Military or not; which system that would allow millions of dollars of public funds to be taken out of the vaults by an individual without some layers of checks? Is it something that the financial guidelines of the military permit? If not, how could such breaches have gone on undetected to such a point that billions would be involved?

     While the military authorities ponder on these, it seems to us that the starting point in the journey to correction is for the military as an institution to overhaul its accounting infrastructure. In the circumstance, a new system of financial controls with multiple layers of triggers has become an imperative. There is at the moment still too much haemorrhaging of public funds going on at different levels of the military. The situation calls for drastic action.

    In the meantime, we urge the government to recover every kobo that has been stolen.