Ordinarily, having seven female vice-chancellors in the country’s 43 federal universities does not call for celebration. The call for gender parity in Nigeria is a long one and the women have not given up despite numerous obstacles on their way. Traditionally,  the society expects wives and mothers, irrespective of their career attainment, to play certain roles in keeping the home — their husbands and children. Culturally, women in Africa are more to be seen than heard in public.

The ivory tower is not spared of this expectation.  The rising number of female lecturers notwithstanding, the number one position appears, over the years, to have been reserved for men. While the laws and rules guiding selection of vice-chancellors are liberal enough, convention keeps the women in check. Many of them do not even see it as a possible attainment and thus do not apply, while others think the lobbying that necessarily attends the process exposes them to unwholesome influences.

Since Professor Grace Alele-Williams blazed the trail at the University of Benin by the General Ibrahim Babangida administration,  no federal university thought it appropriate to appoint another for more than three decades. It took the same institution to break what appears to be the glass ceiling when Professor Lilian Salami emerged under the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Five others who have come through the crucible include Professor Florence Obi of the University of Calabar, Professor Fatimah Mukhtar of Federal University,  Dutse and Professor Angela Miri who is in charge at the University of Lokoja. The others are Professor Nnenna Otti of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri and Professor Adenike Oladiji of the Federal University of Technology,  Akure. on the state level, we also have Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello as the vice chancellor of the Lagos State University.

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The appointment of Professor Folasade Ogunsola as vice-chancellor of the first generation University of Lagos this month opens another chapter. The 64-year-old medical microbiologist was saddled with the task of steering the university through a rough patch when her predecessor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe, was suspended in 2019. She now has the distinction of working with a female dominated management team as the two deputy vice-chancellors,  bursar and librarian are also women.

The appointments of these women vice-chancellors are worthy of note not because they are less deserving, but because, having such a number within six years is unprecedented. Only recently, as part of the ongoing amendment of the 1999 Constitution,  women, led by the wife of President Buhari, stormed the National Assembly to seek introduction of sections to promote gender parity in the grundnorm.  Suffice to say that all the five amendments were thrown out by the male dominated bicameral legislature. It is interesting that the seven vice-chancellors are distributed among the North, East and West, old and new generation schools. We expect the other institutions to continue from this point, as many people believe that women are calm and sometimes make better managers, especially in a serene academic environment.

More state-owned and private institutions should take a cue from the federal move. It is time we encouraged women in all facets of life to attain the highest positions in the larger interest of the society.

The seven federal vice-chancellors deserve the support of all. Just as Professor Olatunji-Bello in Lagos. Their success is our collective breakthrough.  Nigeria is in such dire straits that we cannot afford to keep half of the population,  some of our very best, down. Professor Grace Alele-Williams, the first female vice-chancellor of the University of Benin showed that the fear that women could be too soft to run such institutions is quite misplaced. When she felt she needed to wield the stick instead of the carrots, she did not hesitate, and where vulnerable sections of that academic community needed to be protected, she rose to the challenge. Questions, though, have risen that she overplayed her hand.

As the world is moving farther into the 21st Century, Nigeria should not be left behind. Many countries, even in Africa, have produced female Presidents and Prime Ministers, many multilateral institutions are run by women, and even the military is opening up to women. In a few more years, we should no longer be talking about seven out of 43 federal universities, but about half. Only the best, irrespective of gender, is good enough to run the schools with a view to promoting scholarship and thus spur development.

For 16-year-old John Oseni from Ogun State, providence has been kind to him. At 15 years old in 2021, he made his first million through the use of technology. However, there was no instant miracle to his early success.  A cocktail of events ‘conspired’ to lead him to what now appears like divine providence.  His story is as paradoxical as it is intriguing.

His present success with computer programming was not a deliberately choreographed affair. There seems to have been some element of the proverbial phoenix narrative to his little journey to success.  A company, Green Garage, had before the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown organised a computer competition for about 80 students and Oseni and another girl had come first. They expected their prizes which never came, so he decided to get to the company himself.

A visit to the company revealed not his prize but a pile of dusty computers that inspired him to action. He pleaded with the management for a chance to use one of their old computers to practice his passion, coding. They agreed, he did and his knowledge and hunger for more programming knowledge blossomed and he ended up learning and teaching others in the same company.

For the teenage tech guru, the lockdown period had its blessings; he was able to deviate from his childhood dream of joining the military having attended Command Secondary School, Akure, Ondo State, for his high school. He got more interested in programming and today he is making headlines as a teenage millionaire who works for more than a dozen start-up companies across the globe.

A comic angle to his blossoming tech life is the fact that his professor of biochemistry father and a retired civil servant mother initially thought their young son was possessed by some evil spirit. They are however very excited today at his progress and bourgeoning fame and fortune.

We commend the Green Garage company, the parents and the teenage wiz kid himself for the encouragement and dedication that brought the boy to global limelight. His success brings pride and hope to not only his family but Nigeria as a country. It is the miracle of technology that despite the lack of deliberate policy direction to stir the Nigerian students to the science and technology world, individuals and corporate bodies are investing in the field and the young people are changing the narrative in the field of technology despite all odds.

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It is encouraging to know that the young boy is not carried away by the sudden fame as he is known not to be jumping into offers from across the globe. He seems to be focused on expanding his knowledge through education which he says might be strictly online to allow him do his work. It is good that he values education. He says he wants to multitask and possibly get a Ph.D in Engineering.

It is equally commendable that despite his age, John has also been invited to different global events as a guest speaker and has also won numerous awards to his name. We hope Nigeria puts as much value to his talent as the global community as a way of encouraging other young people.

His beautiful dream of a future powered by nature is very enchanting and should be supported. He said he plans to use nature to power cars, phones and other things.  In a world battling the serious effects of climate change and global warming, he might just be the answer to a confused world.

John’s success has many lessons for both governments and parents.  Governments must invest more in education and parents must be careful not to insist on their career choices for children. It is always good to allow children make their choices based on their interests. Success must not always be about pure academics and acquisition of certificates. Ironically, many of the global billionaires do not bandy strings of certificates. Late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg , Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,  etc. are either college dropouts or just managed to get one degree. Ideas and technology rule the world and those who understand would always progress. Nigerian governments must see the value in education and fund it adequately to encourage the young ones to reach their full potential and help the country prosper.

We commend the Kogi State government for finally embracing decorum and the rule of law in its raging dispute with Dangote Cement Plc over the ownership of the Obajana Cement Plant in the state. Going by the statement of the state’s information commissioner, Kingsley Fanwo, at the weekend, the state government and other stakeholders have finally resolved to go to court to resolve the issues. That is how it should be.

We note that this is coming after nearly two weeks of tango during which brickbats, threats and violence were freely deployed. We further note that the state government did not come to this realisation without the specific order of the National Security Council on the state government to back off; and this itself after the state governor, Yahaya Bello, had rebuffed an earlier mediation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

We can only hope that the resolve is borne of good faith.

Here, Nigerians might want to recall that the drama started actually on October 5 when the Kogi State House of Assembly ordered that Dangote Cement’s Obajana Plant, originally owned by the state government but sold to Dangote Cement in 2002, be shut down on the grounds that the asset was not legitimately acquired by the firm. The house had insisted that the situation would subsist until the company presented it with credible evidence of a valid acquisition.

Curiously, a 10-member technical committee led by Folashade Ayoade, secretary to the state government (SSG), said to have been set up much earlier to evaluate the legality of Dangote Cement’s acquisition, would, a day after the house resolution, turn in its report claiming to have found “no evidence” that Dangote Cement paid any amount of money to the Kogi State government for the purported transfer of the facility.

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Expectedly, the company has since countered the claims. It insisted, among others, that the entity it acquired in 2002 existed merely on paper, and that the land which provided the fulcrum for its entire operations was properly acquired from the state government, with appropriate compensations paid to the landowners. Moreover, it says that the necessary mining licences and permits were obtained from the Federal Government which holds exclusive rights to them. And finally that not only was the state government’s allotted share of five percent not taken up as laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding, all the other obligations set out in the document were observed in the breach by the Kogi State government.

Of course, there can be no questions about whether or not the state house of assembly has the powers to inquire into the circumstances under which the shares purportedly allotted to the state disappeared.  What is seriously in doubt is whether the lawmakers could, in the exercise of their powers, order a private entity to be shut down over what is basically a commercial dispute – in this case by a minority shareholder.

More unfortunate is that some resident youths would exploit the unfortunate situation to cause mayhem in the company, with reports of injuries to staff and damage to company property.  As if to compound the comedy of errors, the state government, in a brazen resort to self-help and unwarranted overreach, would follow up with a 48-hour deadline for the company to also close shop, with reports of youths being mobilised across the state to support the state government.

Were the developments not to be so tragic, Nigerians would have found the posturing of the state government extremely comical. Here, the issue is not whether Dangote Cement is right or wrong; those would obviously be determined by the courts in due season. It is whether the state government and its functionaries could act as if they are laws unto themselves. Why the state government would wait for the National Security Council to lecture it on this elementary point as indeed on the grave consequences of its overreach is inexplicable.

All said and done, it is certainly not too late for the two parties to find amicable ways to settle the issues, particularly those that border on community relations and corporate social responsibility.

Some cadets of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) studying in The Philippines recently staged a botched protest in that Asian country. They had wanted to get into the Nigerian embassy in Manila, the capital, but were obstructed by Philippine security agents purportedly acting under instruction from the embassy to bar their entry. The incident was a damning commentary on how Nigeria handles her image abroad and looks out for her own.

The cadets said they had been in The Philippines for nearly 10 years under the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) of NIMASA on a scholarship meant for a four-year programme. The NSDP, which kicked off in 2009, is a NIMASA initiative to address the dearth of trained and certified seafarers in the Nigerian maritime industry. The cadets at issue belong to the 2013 set and were said to be 117 in number. During a protest staged on October 5, they accused the Nigerian government and NIMASA, the implementing agency, of abandoning them. In a visual clip that was viral online, the cadets noted that they were sent to The Philippines to study Marine Engineering and Transportation under the NIMASA-NSDP scholarship meant to last four years. “But this has lasted for 10 good years, I have wasted 10 years of my life and many of my colleagues also on this programme,” one cadet said on camera. He lamented that the embassy mandated Philippine security agents “to stop us here, that we are not allowed to go to our own embassy when we have a challenge.” According to the cadets, their programme is running into 10 years because there have been several delays and arbitrary extension of some examinations.

Reports said the cadets had in August similarly complained of neglect and non-payment of their allowances by NIMASA authority, making it impossible for them to renew their house rents and meet other obligations. But NIMASA was also reported announcing ongoing review of the cost of direct sponsorship of Nigerian cadets undergoing foreign training under the NSDP. The Director-General, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, said the review was necessary owing to global inflationary trends, especially in countries where Nigerian cadets are undergoing Certificate of Competency (CoC) training under the NSDP.

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The Nigerian embassy in Manila slammed the cadets as being unruly and badly comported. In a statement, the embassy said they failed to conduct themselves properly and acted in total disrespect of their native country. It further argued that they did not have any scheduled appointment with the embassy on the said date, which was in violation of rules of estate management in that country and hence “the Estate/Barangay reserves the right to prohibit persons from entering the premises without an appointment.” The embassy added: “Secondly, the cadets did not submit any formal notification of protest to the Philippine authorities before they embarked on the protest. This explains why there were a lot of police men present at the scene where the unruly cadets were disturbing the peace of the residents in the area and obstructing vehicular traffic. It is pertinent to mention that the officials of the embassy went to meet with the defiant cadets at the entrance of the estate to listen to their complaints which were delivered in a very insulting and demeaning manner with no regard for the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on whose sponsorship they were in The Philippines in the first place.”

NIMASA has since said it would embark on a fact-finding mission to The Philippines to address the cadets’ grievances. “As a responsible management, we must deal with this from an informed position as the matter far predates this administration. While we regret the embarrassment this may have caused all concerned, we urge caution…until the official outcome of the on-the-spot evaluation is submitted,” the agency said in a statement.

While the agency’s argument about the long history of the challenge is noted, it isn’t relieved of blame for allowing the matter to fester. Governance is a continuum and the red flags should have been confronted much earlier even under the current administration. Besides, is the programme being duly funded as at when due? If funding in any way accounts for the delay, explanation is required on what happened to funds routinely appropriated, and anti-graft agencies may indeed need to step in to interrogate the possibility of sleaze.

Neither is the Nigerian embassy free of blame. It is curious the embassy wasn’t upfront in engaging the aggrieved cadets and rather left them to stew in Philippine regulations, even when it is the representative of their home government in that country. This echoes reported attitude of the staff of Nigerian embassies abroad whereby Nigerians have a hard time getting attended to by officials whose primary duty should be to service them and look out for their interest in foreign land.

But the cadets themselves fell far short of required ethics. Nigerians abroad must learn to conform to the laws of their host countries, just so not to portray their native land as a den of the lawless.

The Philippine incident should be a wake-up call to all parties and a guide on managing Nigeria’s image better.

President Muhammadu Buhari is known to be taciturn.  Rarely does he communicate his views on burning national issues to the public. However, the National Summit organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on graft in the public sector provided the public a chance to peep into the inner recesses of his mind on the long-drawn strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities  (ASUU).

The President, whose charge it is to take the final decision on ending the industrial action that has crippled the nation’s Ivory Tower for about eight months, challenged the teachers to stop blaming the rot in the sector on funding, contending that the graft in the system must be curtailed if the universities are to deliver on their duties. He called on the lecturers to purge the campuses of the graft that has led to diversion of funds in the universities. The President may be correct as the universities cannot be detached from the entire system, nor is it realistic to expect that the lecturers would be immune from corrupt practices within the environment that they operate. As Chief Executive of the Federation and Visitor to all the federal universities,  he is regularly availed of reports on developments in the sector, but, the onus is on him to take concrete steps to stamp out the menace. It is not helpful passing the buck.

Besides, it is obvious from the annual budgets that funding is equally a major challenge to effective running of the tertiary institutions. It is undeniable that the teachers are poorly remunerated. It is in acknowledgement of this that negotiations between the two sides have always led to agreements that more money would be made available, only for the Federal Government to breach the pacts.

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It would be more useful if President Buhari conceded that government alone cannot bear the burden of funding the 43 federal universities. It is time to grant autonomy to the schools to improve on governance in them.

We, however, also call on the lecturers to go beyond focusing on matters of wages and emoluments only, and begin to advocate internal cleansing since they are substantially represented on the universities’ senates and governing councils. It’s unfair to point accusing fingers at the government only, when all vice-chancellors and deputy vice chancellors are recruited from their ranks.

The Federal Government has the duty to take urgent steps to revitalise our universities in the nation’s interest. The universities are supposed to be used in  cementing the unity of the various parts of the country, promoting scholarship and research as well as supplying genuine and nonpartisan advise. Sponsoring or promoting division among the academics as seen in the hurried registration of new unions to break their ranks will be counterproductive  eventually. The registration of Congress of Nigerian Union of Academics (CONUA) and National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) as the Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr. Chris Ngige, did last week, is quite suspicious and would yield the country no good.

While we agree that the right to free association is guaranteed by the constitution, the power of the minister under the Trade Union Act has to be exercised as spelt out by law. Besides, he must be seen to be above board in using the power because failure to do so would provoke dissension and conflict. As President of the Nigeria Labour Congress,  Mr. Ayuba Wabba, pointed out in a letter to the minister, a union  could only be registered where none exists. But whatever be the correct interpretation of the law on this,  the minister does not appear to have acted in good faith. The government should be seen to be promoting unity and amity, not acrimony. As the Buhari administration winds up, it should be concerned about the legacy it leaves.

If the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, Zaria, Professor Muhammad Yakubu, has his way, the consumption of cooked cow skin popularly known as ponmo would be banned in the country. He recently stated that the institute and other stakeholders are working towards convincing the National Assembly and state governments to enact the requisite legislation to ban what large numbers of Nigerians consider to be an indispensable delicacy.

According to Professor Abubakar, ponmo has no nutritional value and its consumption should be made illegal to save the leather industry and boost the nation’s economy. This proposed measure, he argued, is motivated by a desire to revive the moribund tanneries and leather industry in the country. While on the surface, this suggestion may appear to have potential positive economic effects, there are those who contend that banning the consumption of ponmo may also have negative implications for the economy.

For instance, large numbers of cow skin traders make their livelihood from trade in ponmo. Apart from those who sell the item, others earn their living from the processing of cow skin before it gets to the not insubstantial numbers of those who sell the actual processed and cooked ponmo to the final consumers. We are thus talking here of a large number of people along the value chain that will be rendered unemployed if the consumption is banned as proposed. Thus, banning its consumption may create more economic problems than the measure is designed to solve.

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Apart from this, if ponmo does not have any nutritional value as claimed by proponents of a ban of its consumption, the question is ‘does its consumption have any scientifically certified negative health effects on its consumers? We are unaware of any and Professor Yakubu did not make any such claim either. There doesn’t seem thus to be any strong and convincing reason for the proposed ban on health grounds. Some have argued that the chemicals used to process the item for consumption may be harmful to some body organs. Even if this is true, it is the responsibility of the various regulatory agencies to ensure higher standards of processing and preparing ponmo for consumption.

In any case, as a result of the current harsh economic climate in the country and the spiralling cost of food items, including protein products like fish, beef and chicken, millions of Nigerians consume the more affordable ponmo as a substitute. Banning its consumption may therefore compound the misery of those who rely on it as an alternative to more costly protein products. Some caterers and event planners are said to supplement protein with ponmo in order to reduce costs as well as be able to serve a larger number of people at events.

So, rather than the proposed ban on its consumption, we suggest that the importation of the product should be banned to protect the local industry. Since cow hide is amply available in the country, there can be no excuse to continue to expend scarce foreign exchange on its importation. Still, if the stakeholders in the industry desire to reduce the consumption of the product, they should resort to persuasion through intensive public enlightenment on the perceived desirability of desisting from eating ponmo. Even if its consumption is banned, how would such a measure be effectively enforced? Is there not a strong possibility of driving the market for ponmo processing, sales and consumption underground, thus creating a thriving black market economy?

The tanneries and leather industry can be revived by government and the private sector taking steps to ensure drastically reducing the importation of leather products such as furniture and footwear, for which there are local substitutes to boost domestic production. And the fact cannot be denied that even if it does not have nutritional value, ponmo has become an important cultural item which many people enjoy and they have a right to their choices.