The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Teachers fail ‘own’ exam

    Teachers fail ‘own’ exam

    October 5 every year is World Teachers Day, a day set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1994, in recognition of the role of teachers in delivering quality teaching and learning.  Teachers play a great role in national development. As the saying goes, teaching is the noblest profession because after parents, the next most important molders of character are teachers.

    The three tiers of education — the primary, secondary and tertiary — have training benchmarks. In Nigeria, the Teacher’s Grade II Certificate used to be the minimum for those who teach at the primary school level. Then there are colleges of education and first and higher degrees in education for both secondary and tertiary institutions.

    There used to be a deliberate investment in the training of teachers in the country but, just like many other sectors, education has undergone negative changes. Over time, non-professionals started taking up teaching without the requisite training. Yet, training must meet passion and talent for an effective teaching to occur. Adequate infrastructure and good welfare packages are also necessary prerequisites.

    Given that successive Nigerian governments have never met the UNESCO education budgetary benchmark of 26 per cent, the sector has been impacted negatively, as less training funds mean that certain trainings are skipped and  more professionals are ditching teaching due to lack of satisfaction with the welfare of teachers and lack of infrastructure.

    The cliché that ‘teachers reward is in heaven’ has not helped as many young people now see teaching as a thankless tedious job without incentives. But, the unemployment situation has forced many in other fields to take to teaching, even with no passion or training. The effects have been manifesting in the quality of students and even teachers too as the latest result of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has shown.

    TRCN is an agency under the Federal Ministry of education established by the TRCN Decree No. 31 of 1993 (now TRCN Act CAP T3 of 2004). It regulates and controls the teaching profession in both the private and public sectors. TRCN registers, licenses and deregisters teachers who drop the ball literally through unethical and unprofessional conducts. Its aim is to maintain teaching standards to internationally accepted levels.

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    It was therefore a sad Professor Josiah Ajiboye, the council’s registrar, that announced to journalists that 3,043 teachers out of 8,740 examined across the country had failed the TRCN exams. That is 34.82% failure rate. Curiously, Nasarawa, Gombe, Sokoto, Niger, Kebbi, and Plateau states reported over 50 per cent failure rate.

    Nasarawa reported a 63.09% failure, Gombe had 61.68% failure, Sokoto (59.32%), Niger (57.39%), Kebbi (53.57%) and Plateau, 52.61% failure. The data also revealed that Lagos, Cross River, Rivers, Osun, Ogun, Imo, and Kano reported the highest percentage pass.  Lagos reported 84.44% pass, Cross River (82.31%), Rivers (80.68%), Osun (80.21%), Ogun (79.10%), Imo (78.76%) and Kano (78.73%) pass.

    We commend the TRCN for its focus and dedication to the values of the teaching profession, and for trying to maintain standards. We equally commend those teachers that have maintained the quality of good teachers. The quality of education is partly related to the quality of the teachers because no one can give what he or she does not have.

    However, we also recognise that good teachers and good education policies are not mutually exclusive. All three tiers of education are handled by the different tiers of government. The local, state and federal authorities must therefore do their parts in terms of providing the needed finance and infrastructure for the education sector. Owing teachers’ salaries and their entitlements have big psychological impact on teachers and prospective teachers. Also, teachers, like other professionals need training and retraining to keep them abreast of developments in the profession.

    Politicians must affirm the value of education to nation-building by the priority they accord the sector through policy formulation and execution. It is disappointing that public education is almost non-existent across the country as even teachers, in what is left of public schools, send their own children to private schools.

    No action speaks more eloquently about the state of affairs than teachers in the public schools sending their children to private schools and political leaders sending their children abroad for education. Governments must see education as the most important sector that guarantees development and participation in the global community.

  • A priceless confession

    A priceless confession

    It was a confessional that was at once breathtaking in its bare facts and its implications for Nigerian military and leadership. It came from the lips of Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s first lady.

    Mrs. Buhari took advantage of the ground-breaking ceremony of the Armed Forces PTSD Centre in Abuja to reveal that she had served as her husband’s psychotherapist when he battled with the affliction in the past. The centre is an inspiration of the Defence and Police Wives Association (DAPOWA).

    She said at the age of 19 when she married the then soldier, he was coming to grips with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because he had fought in the Nigerian civil war that lasted 30 months. As a young officer, Buhari fought in the war and, in his My Command, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who led the Third Marine Commando, recounted the young man’s soldiery.

    “It is a reality that soldiers and military families have to live with, despite its negative consequences. Being a soldier’s wife or a retired soldier’s wife and a wellness expert, I understand the challenges associated with PTSD and its impact on military families and the nation,” the first lady said.

    “My husband served the Nigerian Army for 27 years before he was overthrown in a coup d’état. He fought civil war for 30 months without rehabilitation,” she explained further. “He ruled Nigeria for 20 months and was detained for 40 months without disclosing the nature of his offence.”

    She was referring to his ouster in 1983 as military head of state. The Babangida regime detained him, and kept him in silence for over three years. He was neither charged nor convicted. That was when she married the soldier.

    “One year after he came out from detention, we were married, I clocked 19 years in his house as his wife, legitimately. I suffered the consequences of PTSD, because having gone through all these, and at the age of 19, to handle somebody, who was a former Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, to tell him that he is wrong is the first mistake you will make.

    Read Also: Dino Melaye’s confession

    “So, at the age of 19, I had to figure out how to tell somebody of his calibre that he was wrong or right and that was the beginning of my offence in his house, and contesting elections in 2003 and failed, 2007, failed and 2011, the same thing – all without rehabilitation – I became a physiotherapist.”

    It was a great confession. But she was doing a great service to Nigeria because she had just shown how the nation, since independence, has not deemed it necessary to care for our soldiers, whether those who served in the Congo, or under ECOMOG or those who dueled in the internecine crisis of the war for 30 months.

    We had military rule for most of our nationhood, and soldiers determined policies and implemented them. We shall never know whether it was impulse or deliberation or mental illness that engendered those policies and actions. Aisha, as a wellness expert, had to confront and work on her husband. He also suffered the trauma after losing three bids to be president. We are not sure of her extent of success but it is cheering that it was confronted.

    As regards the others, we do not know their status. Did they detain, terrorise citizens because of mental illness? Did some of their draconian policies arise from depression, suicidal thoughts, phobia or hallucinations? We shall never know.

    Yet, the military has cast a shadow over the country forever. Even after the soldiers left, they transmuted into civilians and even today, we still have them shaping our lives. It is important that the Mrs. Lucky Irabor-led DAPOWA has started the PTSD Centre. It ought to have been done long ago. We welcome it all the same.

  • Lagos’ worthy example

    Lagos’ worthy example

    Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, last Tuesday demonstrated in concrete terms what sets the state apart from the rest when he announced a pay rise for state workers as part of a move to cushion the effects of inflation and the high cost of living in the country. He also used the occasion of his working visit to the State Secretariat, Alausa, with his cabinet members to announce the first phase of a fleet of 100 official cars for directors in the state public service, the clearance of the backlog of pensions for retired workers, and then to restate his earlier promise of 40 per cent discount for a certain percentage of staff housing.

    He told the workers: “I have looked around; I know there is pressure and high level of inflation in the country. There is high cost of living everywhere. Last month at the cabinet meeting, I instructed the Office of Head of Service and Ministry of Establishment, Training and Pensions to start work on how we will increase the salaries of the entire workforce…

    “I know the pressure of inflation is on you; we will not wait for the Federal Government before we take this decision… We are going to review the salaries and ensure we take care of our public servants”, he told a throng of jubilant workers.

    For the records, the Federal Government – and this needs to be stated – had earlier in September, spoken of the need to adjust workers’ salaries to meet the current realities in the economy. That was during the public presentation of Nigeria Labour Congress publication titled, “Contemporary History of Working Class Struggles’’ in Abuja. Then, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had observed that the Federal Government was very much aware that the N30,000 National Minimum Wage had depreciated.  Although non-committal, the minister had acknowledged that in the context of worldwide inflation, wage adjustment was the way to go with a hint that this could come anytime between now and 2024.

    What Lagos has done is to take the lead. While the measure is commendable, that this is coming without the prompting of the workers makes it doubly so.

    With the general elections around the corner, some Nigerians are naturally wont to ask: Why now? Could it be politics at play or altruism?

    To flip the question: in the environment of shrinking accruals from the federally distributable pool, massive revenue shortfalls and a general below par performance of the economy, couldn’t the state be excused of choosing the more pragmatic path of inaction?

    Those are ordinarily legitimate questions; yet, in the circumstance of biting inflation and the concomitant decline in workers’ real incomes; particularly the general astronomic price increases in food, transportation and energy across board, the more pertinent question ought to be whether or not an administration which professes to care for the workers could afford to fold its hands and do nothing.

    The point really is that such measures are needed perhaps now more than ever before, not only in Lagos but also in every state of the federation. While some might argue that Lagos could do this because it has the means to do so, such claims merely offer a testimonial on the capacity of the state’s leadership over the course of the past two decades to take the hard but sometimes difficult decisions for the greater good of the people. The steady growth of its Internally Generated Revenue from less than a billion naira pre-1999 to N56 billion per month in a country where the tax to GDP ratio is at a paltry seven percent is one such proof of that. Such good thinking and hard work is something that other states, including the Federal Government, can borrow from.

  • Revisiting Oronsaye report

    Revisiting Oronsaye report

    Will the National Assembly’s attempt to prune, scrap or merge  Federal Government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) be far-reaching this time around? This is the question on the lips of many Nigerians who have been following the processes put in place to achieve this objective in about 11 years. There seems a consensus that some of these agencies have outlived their usefulness; or that some are mere duplications of existing parastatals or agencies. The problem, it would seem, is the political will to do the rightful, which is key if the much-desired savings that the government expects to make from the exercise is to materialise.

    The Goodluck Jonathan administration had in 2011 set up the Presidential Committee on the Reformation of Government Agencies to examine the enabling acts and mandates of the federal agencies with a view to determining the areas of overlap or duplication of functions. The committee, headed by Stephen Oronsaye, consequently recommended that 263 of the 541 statutory and non-statutory Federal Government agencies and commissions be reduced to 161, 38 scrapped, 52 merged and 14 others should revert to certain departments and ministries. The idea is to remove several layers of avoidable expenses.

    The report was however not implemented.

    Rather, the Federal Government, 10 years later in 2021 set up two committees to review the Oronsaye report. The first was headed by a former Head of Service, Goni Aji. Its mandate was to advise the government on the implementation of the report within a year. The other sub-committee headed by Ama Pepple was to review the report.

    Not much happened thereafter until last month when the Senate hinted that 400 of the MDAs might be scrapped in line with the recommendations of the Oronsaye panel. This was during the interface between the Senate Committee on Finance and the respective chief executives of the MDAs on revenue drive for the implementation of the N19.7trn 2023 budget. The committee chair, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, and other members of the committee were apparently irked by the paltry returns of some of the agencies despite huge budgetary allocations to them. For instance, the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority’s (SRRBDA) managing director told the committee that the authority could only generate N7million despite collecting about N7billion allocation from the Federal Government. The committee said this was unacceptable.

    It is good that the House of Representatives too has seen the need to revisit the issue.  Its Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Duplication of Functions of Agencies of the Federal Government has commenced the move to reduce the cost of governance and ensure efficiency by reducing the number of the MDAs. The committee had, at its inaugural investigative hearing in Abuja asked the MDAs to justify why they should remain in existence as individual entities. Chairman of the committee, Victor Danzaria, put the matter in perspective: “We have agencies, some doing the job of the other.  Some are intervening agencies, their lifespans have expired but they are still there and the government is still maintaining them by budgetary allocation. It is a waste for this country. We are looking at areas where we (can) shrink governance but increase productivity.”

    This is the critical assignment, especially at this time of dwindling revenue. So, that both chambers are on the same page on the issue is somewhat soul-lifting. It gives hope of an early harmonisation of the legislation to effect the necessary changes in line with the Oronsaye report. The country is losing so much servicing these multifarious agencies and parastatals. Personnel cost has been on the rise since 2017.

    Indeed, in four years, the Federal Government’s personnel cost increased from N2.29trn to N4.11trn in the 2022 budget, about 79.48 per cent. The N4.11trn, about 25.08 per cent of the nation’s entire budget, excluded allowances for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that are not medical doctors, contract staff and anticipated promotion projections of existing staff.

    As a matter of fact, economic experts, including the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry have been warning the Federal Government about its increasing recurrent expenditure which was about 40 per cent of the 2022 budget, for example. Its president, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, said “Looking at the 2022 aggregate FGN expenditure of N17.13trn, recurrent (non-debt) spending is estimated at N6.9trn, which is 40 per cent of total expenditure, and 20 per cent higher than the 2021 budget.

    “The government needs to watch the rising recurrent (especially personnel) expenditure.”

    The implication of this for the budget, for instance, is that only about 35 per cent of the total expenditure (N5.96trn) was allocated to capital expenditure. This is unsustainable.

    It is good that the National Assembly is looking in the direction of reducing the cost of governance.  We urge it to expedite action so the expected savings could go into more productive causes. But it has to beam the searchlight on other areas of waste for maximum benefits. We cannot make progress if we continue along the present lopsided allocation of resources that tilts in favour of largely unproductive agencies and parastatals..

  • Weighty allegations

    Weighty allegations

    What is going on in the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB)? Could it be that the hunter has become the hunted or that the hunter’s hunting dogs are in such a disarray that the job of hunting has been abandoned? Last week, six commissioners of the CCB petitioned the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions accusing the chairman, Prof Mohammed Isah, of blocking investigations on petitions against civil and public servants. At the senate hearing, five of the petitioners were present, while Prof Isah was absent.

    For the sake of the commission which he heads, Prof Isah must quickly and publicly answer the charges raised by the commissioners. He must bear in mind that The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act establishing the commission provides that: “the aims and objectives of the Bureau shall be to establish and maintain a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business and to ensure that the actions and behaviours of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability.”

    The allegation by the commissioners that Prof Isah has become a clog in the fight against corruption deserves an investigation by the senate and other relevant agencies of government. One of the petitioners, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, alleged that: “The N109bn loot linked to the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, was first reported to CCB through petitions, but prevented from being acted upon by the chairman.” It is bad enough to be accused of corruption, but to allegedly shield corrupt public officials is grievous.

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    The functions of the CCB are fundamental in the fight against corruption. Section 3 of the act provides the functions to be: receive assets declarations by public officers in accordance with the provisions of the act; examine the assets declarations and ensure that they comply with the requirements of this act and any law for the time being in force; take and retain custody of such assets declarations, and receive complaints about non-compliance with or breach of this act and where the Bureau considers it necessary to do so, refer such complaints to the Code of Conduct Tribunal established by section 20 of the act.

    The Senate must therefore, wield the big stick against Prof Isah if he fails to appear to clear himself. If he appears and is unable to exonerate himself, then, President Muhammadu Buhari must intervene. The Act provides in section 4(2) that “the power to appoint members of staff of the Bureau and to exercise disciplinary control over them shall vest in the Bureau, and shall be exercisable in accordance with the provisions of rules and regulations as may, from time to time, be made by the President.”

    The senate must not appear helpless in the exercise of their power in dealing with public complaints. It is within their remit to summon public officers, and where they fail to appear, to issue a warrant of arrest. The observation of the chairman of the committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, that “The commissioners are here, but the chairman, who is in the eye of the storm, is not here. We’ve gone through all the issues raised in the jointly signed petition by the commissioners and they’re very disturbing if eventually proven,”should spur the senate to action.

    The modest efforts of the Buhari regime in the fight against corruption must not be further tainted by the allegation that its hunting dog has become enamoured of friendship with devourers. Buhari’s military-era mantra that we must kill corruption before it kills Nigeria, should be pursued with all vigour. And we urge that there should be no sacred cows in the war on corruption.

  • Upping the ante

    Upping the ante

    Two events, both on October 4, have raised the stakes in the Federal Government- Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) tussle for the soul of tertiary education.

    Will the events restore sanity and stability in that sector — or further trigger the relentless wars to come?

    On October 4, Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, presented the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) its certificate of registration and recognition, as an academic union to rival ASUU.  The National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA), another elite bloc that was part of ASUU, also got approval to operate as a trade union.

    In basic economics term, the ASUU monopoly on campus unionism has been broken.  Since the duo, by their registration and recognition are entitled to the check-off dues of their members, ASUU would get less funds in its till.  This could well be a master-stroke to pare ASUU’s influence; and end its ability to embark on jumbo strikes, lasting several months, disrupting the university calendar.

    Still, to ASUU sympathisers, it’s clear realpolitik — the government showing its wiles and power to break the union.   But for ASUU’s own strikes-or-nothing rigid stance, it’s a very unfortunate juncture.

    So, might the advent of CONUA and NAMDA act as shock therapy to nudge ASUU to review and refine its tactics and strategies?

    Even if it did, that may not automatically guarantee sanity and stability in the university calendar. The government itself has to act more responsibly, and only enter into agreements it can fund.  Besides, it must try to earn the confidence of the tertiary sub-sector.  As conciliatory as CONUA and NAMDA are now, they are in for the interest of their members.  So, mutual good faith would do the three parties a lot of good.

    Besides, ASUU still appears to have the numbers.  But CONUA’s entry strategy is that it can engage the government without crippling strikes.  Except ASUU can pitch something more reasonable to tired parents and guardians, it could end up cooking its goose.

    But that need not happen, if this liberalisation of the campus union turf leads to  stakeholder consensus to banish long, disruptive and very costly strikes, as CONUA is promising.  That could open the way for a new beginning.

    Indeed, with everyone’s buy-in, the government should think of a law that banishes any tertiary education strike beyond two weeks. But again, only mutual good faith could midwife such a charter, after eons of barren strikes.

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    To commit to such a new regime, the government must give strict assurances that academics’ welfare would be assured; and reasonable funds committed to their working tools and working environment.

    But it’s in the area of funding that President Muhammadu Buhari further raised the stakes — at the second event of October 4 — claiming university and allied tertiary education administrations are steeped in rot and are hardly the paragon of integrity they expect from the government.

    The president declared that the main problem with university funding was not the quantum (as often alleged by ASUU and echoed in the media) but the universities’ accountability: comparable to a basket holding on to water.  Much of the funding going into universities, he declared, funds galloping sleaze, not badly needed amenities.

    Days earlier at a Senate inquest, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, had raised serious questions on university administrations’ accountability.  He suggested that unless they can show how frugally they spend their internally generated revenues, every university should pick the salary tabs of its entire staff, leaving the government with infrastructural investments.

    These are serious queries on which the university community must ponder and give adequate answers.  But aside from alleged grand heists, some dons have acquired notoriety for sex-for-marks, admission racketeering and the so-called “sorting”: collecting bribe from students to give them good grades, among others.

    It may well be that these vermin are a loud minority that give the conscientious majority a bad name.  But accusations as these should make everyone ponder and embrace best global practices that make the academia the bastion and paragon of everything good and decent.

    But back to the ASUU stand-off.  If ASUU can’t strike an agreement with this government, after nearly nine months, why can’t it, for the sake of its students, go back to work and try to negotiate with the next government?

    On the government’s side, it too should try and strike further compromises to break the deadlock.  ASUU might have its strike-happy faults but the government still bears the ultimate blame for lingering strikes, as the father of all.

  • Towards true honour

    Towards true honour

    The conferment of awards does not always have to attract universal acceptance or approbation because it often depends on the temperaments, visions and predilections of judges. Judges have specific tastes and backgrounds and, like beauty, the best honoree is in the eye of the beholder.

    Hence the most acclaimed award in the world, especially in the fields of literature and peace of the Nobel Prize, has sometimes provoked controversy.

    Same applies to the conferment of Nigeria’s top accolades, the National Honours Awards. Honour belongs to those persons who inhabit the sublime values of a society and exercise those values as models of honour. They advance such merits in the course of their duties and routine lives. They are archetypes of glory. The exemplify courage, consistency and integrity, and their marks inspire the present generation and the ones unborn. The men and women sauce the chronicles of a good society.

    The National Honours Awards have tended to be viewed as rights of those in high office. Or those persons who have become familiar in the spotlight of media and official attention. This is a wrong perspective, especially in a society where elections are rigged, cronyism persists, religious bias festers and the tribal titan rules.

    The result often is a list of honorees that conflates wrong choices with heroism, phonies with authenticity, lies with integrity and a craven spirit with valour. In the end, it despoils the original idea of the exercise.

    For perhaps the first time since those awards, we have seen the Awards honour some of the great underdogs in our midst. For instance, we applaud the recognition of Abdullahi Abubakar, an imam from Plateau State. It is instructive that he was nominated by both the federal government and his state Governor, Simon Lalong, who has been canvassing for him to get the recognition.

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    The man saved the lives of Christians on the path of mass execution by a horde of bigoted militants who stormed his community. He, the leader of the Muslim community, did not look the other way when the bands stormed his home village, armed with guns and machetes. He might have chafed under terror. His life was on the line. If the hordes noticed he hid the men, women and children, they might have charged him with perfidy and slaughtered him along with his fellow citizens and neighbours. The band was rumbling with blood-eyed deeds from village to village in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State in 2018. They lapped up ten communities. Abubakar’s act was one of the great acts of valour by anyone in Nigerian history.

    Recognising men like him is a great act. He is being given a Member of the Order of the Niger. Another person, Muktar Gulma, is a teacher who insisted on following his students who were nabbed by bandits from the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State. He, too, betrayed courage for not betraying his students. It was an act of honour. He, too, will receive MON.

    Here lies the problem. We still undersell people who encase our best mettle with the lower ladder of awards, while we festoon persons in high political positions, offices they corralled by force of electoral victory. They get the best of the cream. The danger of this perspectives on accolades is that it lifts public or political office over raw and simple acts of heroism. You must be a governor, a president or vice president, a minister or director general or a traditional ruler.

    We have observed with satisfaction that this year’s awardees also include a gateman, an airport cleaner and a bank security guard. Professor Wole Soyinka has tossed his CFR. Even a personage of his status deserves no less than the highest honour in the land. Greek playwright Sophocles got more awards and honour for his plays than his exploits as a Roman general.

    We are not foreclosing the value of men in high office earning such attention. They have to be such stories that will resonate with the people. A person who is in high office must enjoy a citation that stirs the nation’s heart, a people’s impulse to do good. It should evoke the epic quality of public duty and fidelity to their fellow humans and nationals. It must go beyond a routine hop from office to office without a dynamic of great moral exploits. What did the person do in those offices that translates into high virtue?

    The United States gives what the president sometimes awards to heroes. They have what they call Medal of Freedom. They could be soldiers, politicians, teachers, sculptors, media persons, governors, writers, entrepreneurs, pioneers, inventors, social workers, volunteers, etc. They do not become deserving because they fall into these categories, but what they have done in those positions.

    The problem with us is that so many of these accolades tend to mix the authentic with the phony, and it devalues the work of the persons who have deserved it. The bad ones are like dead flies on an ointment. It is not about the honour of the positions, but the positions of the honour.

    We must also state that a person is not defined by the honour he gets but by the value they have exhibited. We have seen many persons in history who have been overlooked by judges but have eventually earned more plaudits in the people’s hearts than the so-called official grandees.

    Our obsession with values account for this abuse. People have been known to pay to get chieftaincy titles, doctoral degrees, professorships, performance awards as public officers and elected men and women. Honour is turned on its head.

    We have even turned the cynical corner of regarding purchasing them as necessary. It generates peer and this compels them to hanker after their own awards with cash. It is an obscene fest. In fact, discerning citizens see some of the honorees already as endorsement of cronies rather jewels for work well done.

    It is high time committees are instituted that do not have any suggestion of political influence, and the stature of the committee should be such as does not suffer the taint of partisanship or cronyism. The rules must be changed to emphasise service of the highest quality and subordinate positions to honour.

    If this year’s awards have quite a few gems, both in the upper and lower strata, they have quite of few too that minimise the glory of the deserving, especially from the top.

  • An officer and gentleman

    An officer and gentleman

    It is a general belief at home and abroad that locating an honest Nigerian is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is even more difficult, by general perception,  in the Nigeria Police Force. But an exception was found in Daniel Armah, a Chief Superintendent of Police, who heads the Divisional Police Division in Bompai, Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State. Armah shunned an opportunity to benefit from the rotten system as he rejected a $200,000 bribe.

    He is, indeed, the proverbial white pap that was produced in a very black pot. The Nigeria Police Force is infamous for being the most corrupt institution in the country. It should be recalled that some officers have been convicted for participating in armed robbery or renting out guns to criminals, or deliberately muddling up investigation to frustrate justice. Others have been implicated in stealing from accident scenes. The probe panels instituted into the 2020 #ENDSARS riots that rocked the country did not do the institution’s image any good as witnesses came up with proofs of not just brutality, but other sordid acts. In other cases, exhibits are tampered with to enrich senior officers. Properties of suspects seized illegally were ordered released by the panels. It is a notorious fact that, while it is boldly written in all police stations that bail is a right and free, detainees are regularly made to part with hard earned money.

    Yet, the same institution produced Armah who rejected such a huge sum from a robbery suspect. This gives hope that the situation is not irredeemable. The case of Abba Kyari,  an Assistant Commissioner of Police once reputed to be a super cop in charge of the Inspector-General’s Response Team is well known. He is being sought to answer to charges in the United States of America, even as the anti-narcotics agency in Nigeria is prosecuting him for providing cover for local and international drug cartels.

    We commend the Independent Corrupt Practices (And Other Related Offences) Commission (ICPC) for its annual summit at which people identified as being of impecable character are given awards. This is practical advocacy to promote virtues in the public sector. Anywhere there are bad eggs, there must also be a few people who have refused to soil their fingers.

    It is commendable that President Muhammadu Buhari made it a point of duty to attend the ceremony to show his administration identifies with ICPC in the crusade .  This is expected to encourage more Nigerians to join the ranks of men and women of integrity.

    It should, however, be taken a notch higher by extending similar honours to such persons once identified. Equally, they should be encouraged in line of professional career progression. Nigeria deserves to have police officers who have distinguished themselves not only in the line of duty, but also of proven  integrity.

    The starting point is at the recruitment stage. Every intending officer should be probed with regard to character, learning and background. Never again should any arm of our security agencies be a dumping ground for just anybody. It must be realised that unless we get the investigation of crimes right, justice is already compromised.

    State governments and the private sector should join the Federal Government in promoting ethical behaviour in the public sector; the public should also join in ensuring that illicit acquisition is no longer applauded.

    The task of sanitising the society is for all. We need more Daniel Armahs.

  • Bullying servicemen

    Bullying servicemen

    Sadly, it appears that some Nigerian Navy personnel wrongly believe their military status empowers them to bully civilians. Such misguided servicemen have been linked with a case of alleged assault on a 43-year-old man, Dike Ogbunugafor, in Agale community, Badagry, Lagos State.

    According to Ogbunugafor, “Around 6pm on Friday, September 23, 2022, I was driving to my farm to feed my fishes, but a saloon car was obstructing the access road leading to the farm. I had to manoeuvre around it and parked to look for the owner.

    “I was directed to three guys drinking by a bar. I approached them, greeted them and asked them to adjust the position of the car. The owner of the car said since I was able to get there, then there was no issue. I explained that I had to manoeuvre around the car to do so. He eventually agreed to move it after finishing his drink.”

    But on his way back from the farm, he said, the car had not been moved and was still blocking the road.  He decided to video the scene “with the intention of reporting to the estate association.” It turned out to be a costly action.

    The men who had parked the car visited him at home later in the day, and it was an unpleasant visit. He said: “Around 8pm, someone knocked on my door and as I opened the door, a man grabbed me, while others who came out of hiding, descended on me. They slapped, punched, kicked, and dragged me away. The naval ratings were led by Fali Amin.”

    He also said they seized his phone, handcuffed him and took him to the naval formation at Akarumo, where he was tortured overnight. They even threatened to accuse him of terrorism, he alleged.

    It is noteworthy that his 83-year-old mother was reported to have corroborated this account.  “I begged them to leave my son, but they did not listen to me,” she was quoted as saying, adding that the men who came to their house wore military camouflage.  She said her son was set free the next day.

    It’s a sadly familiar story of bullies allegedly using their status as military personnel to oppress innocent civilians. The Information Officer, Western Naval Command, Edward Yeibo, was reported saying he was unaware of the incident.  But naval authorities should conduct an investigation based on media reports of the incident, and should not give the impression of accommodating such deplorable behaviour by navy men.

    The allegation that the servicemen took the man to a naval environment where he was brutalised drags the navy into the matter, and suggests institutional assent.  This is why naval authorities need to demonstrate that such conduct is not encouraged in the navy.

    The alleged abuse of power in this case shows yet again that some military personnel think they are above the law and can get away with acts of lawlessness against civilians.  This is an unacceptable mentality, and bad for the image of the military.

    Military bullies that oppress civilians, sometimes leading to their death, are an embarrassment to the armed forces.  It is unclear how much the military leadership is doing to educate military personnel that abuse of power, especially when civilians are the victims, is unprofessional and condemnable. There is a need for training and retraining of servicemen and servicewomen in civil behaviour, particularly in their interactions with civilians.

    “I did not insult, assault, nor commit any national-security-threatening offence to justify this attack aside from using my phone to take a video of a car obstructing access to a road,” Ogbunugafor lamented. This indicates that the said servicemen did not want the scene recorded. Then they should not have done the wrong thing.

    Sanctions are obviously useful for deterrent effect. This is why naval authorities should be seen to treat Ogbunugafor’s case with a sense of justice, and ensure that the servicemen who allegedly brutalised him are identified, proven guilty and severely punished.

  • Slum homes, new homes

    Slum homes, new homes

    It would seem a new dawn for the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, has begun the commissioning of about 198 projects, including 120 modern police stations, barracks and other vital police buildings across the country. A statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the projects were part of the initiatives of the inspector-general to fight crimes and criminality using morale-boosting welfare packages and anti-crime psychology of officers, all geared towards enabling them offer policing services in conformity with international best practices.

    Adejobi’s statement said “the IGP shall commence a duty tour of some of the states where these projects have been completed for commissioning starting from Tuesday 4th, 2022 to Sunday, 9th October, 2022, starting with the commissioning of the newly constructed Kurudu Divisional Headquarters, Abuja.

    “ The states to be visited in no particular order include the Federal Capital Territory, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe and Borno states, while other projects across the six geopolitical zones will be commissioned as soon as possible”.

    This is good news not only for the officers and men of the police force but for law-abiding citizens in the country. For far too long, our policemen have been neglected, perhaps due to the mentality of the military who held political power for several years during which they did very little to upgrade the police force. This neglect tells in virtually everything concerning the police. Their barracks are like pig sties; the police stations are not any better. The buildings in many cases are old and dilapidated; their general environment, whether in the station or the barracks are unkempt such that people wonder how any human being could cope in such filthy environment.

    There is hardly anything to work with, from papers to record complaints, to vehicles to transport them to crime scenes at very critical moments. Where there are vehicles, there won’t be fuel, thus compelling the policemen to ask for money from complainants in order to meet their needs.

    As if all these are not bad enough, our policemen are poorly remunerated. They are poorly kitted; poorly trained, among several other challenges. The other day in the Goodluck Jonathan era, Channels Television did a weeklong expose that embarrassed both the government and the police such that it caught the attention of the then president who expressed shock at what he saw at the Police College, Ikeja, the focus of the expose. Jonathan later paid a visit to the college after the documentary. The foremost institute had become a shadow of its old self, with several trainee policemen struggling to share a fish head, among other shocking revelations.

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    All these may sound incredible but it depicts some of the problems that policemen in the country face daily. This is why some of the exploits of the officers and men in crime busting look like miracles.

    It is against this sorry background that we commend the efforts of the IGP to improve the physical infrastructure of the police. We also commend the Federal Government for making available the funds needed to provide them. It is a recognition of the fact that these officers and men are human beings too and should therefore not be perpetually condemned to subhuman conditions. The projects put in bold relief Baba’s “commitment to ensuring that modern policing realities are emulated and deeply entrenched…and equipment aimed at improving the professionalism of the Nigeria Police Force, as well as grow a citizen-led and citizen-focused policing system for the nation” are provided for the police force.

    We enjoin him not to rest on his oars. He should continue to institutionalise and sustain policies that are geared towards providing adequate welfare packages to his officers and men. When policemen are provided with conducive stations and barracks, it tells on their psyche and also should reflect in their efficiency and effectiveness. The country at large benefits from such welfare initiatives.

    These projects should however, be seen as only a phase in the overall plan to improve the physical structures of the police. Funds should be provided to continue the improvement across board. In like manner, it must be realised that these buildings alone cannot make our police force modern and several steps ahead of criminals who are getting increasingly sophisticated by the day. The physical structures and police vehicles must also be fitted with the requisite modern tools and equipment to enhance their operations. Government should continue to work on their salaries and pensions even as they need training on reorientation so they would be able to change from the ancient practices that they have been used to, to the modern that the government is now providing for them.