The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Intellect and infrastructure 

    Intellect and infrastructure 

    •First-generation universities must lead the way in facilitating
    rehabilitation and expansion

    Perhaps nothing so completely symbolises the decline of Nigeria’s tertiary education sector than the infrastructural decay that has become so rampant in the country’s first-generation universities.

    Led by the venerable University of Ibadan, and including Ahmadu Bello University, Obafemi Awolowo University, the University of Lagos, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, these institutions are confronting development challenges that have caused them to stray from their avowed aim of cutting-edge research, relevant and committed teaching, and beneficial community service.

    While it is true that the dearth of facilities, poorly-paid and badly-motivated staff and burgeoning student populations are formidable problems, the obsolete, crumbling and decrepit infrastructure, which characterises all of the nation’s oldest universities, stands out as the most urgent problem. For one thing, poor infrastructure is the biggest single issue they all face. For another, many of their other difficulties are in one way or another related to the infrastructural challenge.

    The terrible condition of student hostels is a case in point. In their early years, first-generation universities were renowned for the elegance and comfort of the student housing that was on offer. Today, far too many of them are now degraded by filth and overcrowding. Recently, one school witnessed the embarrassing spectacle of enraged students displaying bedbug-riddled mattresses for the world to see. Similar tales can be told of lecture theatres and classrooms, libraries, laboratories and sports facilities.

    Funding is at the core of the infrastructural problems the first-generation universities face. Severe shortfalls in financing, accompanied by the explosion in student intake, have put enormous pressure on existing facilities. Increases in student fees and other charges have been implemented against fierce student opposition, and are not enough to cover the cost of infrastructural rehabilitation and expansion.

    Successive negotiations between the Federal Government and the Academic and Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have failed to solve the problem, mainly due to the former’s bad faith and lack of funds.

    It is time for Nigeria’s first-generation universities to lead the way in the adoption of creative and viable long-term solutions to the problem of infrastructural decay. In seeking to do this, they must build on their acknowledged strengths, of which the two most important are their reputations and their alumni.

    Despite the depredations of recent years, first-generation universities have built global reputations as centres for excellence in several disciplines. Ibadan’s contributions to African History can never be forgotten. The same is true of ABU’s path-breaking research in Theatre for Development and Public Administration, OAU’s study of African Languages and Political Science, UNILAG’s scholarship in Education, Mass Communication and Medicine, and UNN’s giant strides in Literature and the Natural Sciences.

    In essence, they all possess a residual credibility that they can build on, most profitably in creating more durable ties with corporate organisations based in the country, with the aim of facilitating scholarships, the endowment of professorial chairs and sponsorships of research programmes.

    First-generation universities can count many of Nigeria’s most distinguished and influential individuals as ex-students, and must do more to ensure that they contribute meaningfully to their respective alma mater. The odd commemorative fund-raiser is simply not enough; it must be honed to a science.

    If the benefits of reputation and alumni are to be properly exploited, the universities will have to undergo a comprehensive reconfiguration of their administrative, accounting and bureaucratic processes to meet the highest ethical and performance standards. No one willingly donates to a perceived cesspool of incompetence, laziness and corruption.

    When Nigeria’s oldest and most distinguished universities are able to make verifiable progress in meeting their infrastructural challenges, their achievements will have a salutary effect on tertiary education in particular and education as a whole.

  • Amnesty without end?

    Amnesty without end?

    •The Buhari administration should overhaul the project

    At the height of the Niger Delta insurgency between 2008 and 2009, the oil-rich region had descended into utter chaos and anarchy. Apart from the proliferation of arms and daily damaging attacks on the country’s oil facilities, kidnapping, particularly of expatriates was rife and had become a thriving business with humongous amounts being paid for the release of such kidnap victims.

    So severe were the consequences of the Niger Delta insurgency that it is estimated that Nigeria’s oil output fell by over 50% and counter insurgency operations were costing the government about $19 million per day.

    The Nigerian military launched a full-scale offensive against the militants involving heavy land, water and air bombardments.

    While this military effort inflicted a heavy toll on the militants, the collateral damage in terms of innocent lives lost and even more damage done to the environment was extensive.

    It was at this point that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in an astute move, offered the militants a 60-day unconditional amnesty for the belligerents to lay down their arms and renounce militancy.

    On its part, the Yar’Adua administration promised to institute programmes to assist the disarmament, democratization, demilitarization and the re-integration of the repentant militants in a post-insurgency period.

    One of the measures taken by the administration was the payment of rehabilitation assistance to ex-militants who turned a new leaf. For some inexplicable reason, during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was transformed from a time- bound intervention effort to what has become a permanent and extensive bureaucracy.

    Even though he has appointed a new Special Adviser on Niger Delta and coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Mr Paul Boroh, fears have been expressed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration may wind down the Amnesty Programme as part of its comprehensive plan to sanitize and reduce the costs of governance in the country.

    In a recent interview, the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Buhari would sustain the Programme only after thoroughly studying the current state of the Amnesty initiative.

    According to him, “There are lots of issues about the Programme, which the President is studying. After he has carefully studied them, the package on amnesty will be unfolded.

    We cannot agree more. There is the need to critically scrutinize the finances of the PAP as well as undertake a cost-benefit analysis to show if the country is getting value for money with this initiative.

    For instance, a report indicates that as at March 2015, only 151 out of the 15,451 graduates from the training programmes have been gainfully employed.

    It has also been observed that there is little linkage between the training programmes given the ex-militants and the availability of the suitable jobs they desire in the oil, gas and aviation industries. It is believed too that the monthly stipend of N65,000, which is far above the minimum wage of N18, 000 has demotivated many of the militants from seeking paid employment.

    The Muhammadu Buhari administration needs to carry out a holistic evaluation of the previous administrations’ approach to addressing the Niger Delta ecological and developmental crises.

    Why, despite the 13% derivation fund accruing to the oil-producing states from the Federation Account, the creation of the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NNDC) as well as the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, is the region still contending with unacceptable levels of poverty, youth unemployment, environmental despoliation and inadequate infrastructure?

    Does the existence of multiple bureaucracies to deal with Niger Delta issues not create avenues for corruption, waste and unhealthy rivalry thus ultimately sabotaging the purpose for which they were set up?

  • Unworthy entries

    Unworthy entries

    • Adequate proof that lack of structure affects literary quality

    At bottom, the decision to withhold the 2015 Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), on account of unworthy entries, speaks volumes about non-performance in the country’s book publishing industry. It is alarming that the jury failed all the 109 books entered for the contest, focused on children’s literature this year.

    The head of the panel of judges, Prof. Uwemedimo Enobong Iwoketok, said 89 entries failed from the beginning of the assessment process. “A disturbingly large number of entries were dropped at the initial stage of shortlisting because of grave editing and publishing errors,” she noted.

    At a September 25 press conference in Lagos, an event that proved to be a non-event, the  organisers of the contest emphasised the importance of stylistic excellence.  “Unfortunately, the entries this year fall short of this expectation as each book was found to manifest incompetence in the use of language,” they said.

    It is noteworthy that the international consultant for the prize, Prof. Kim Reynolds of the Newcastle University, United Kingdom, corroborated the judgement of the local judges. She observed: “The entries lack the lyricism, vision, and authority to become classics that will be handed down from generation to generation; and that have the potential to reach out across cultures.”

    In this case, whether the said failure of craft and art is attributable to self-publishing or conventional publishing, the critical point about a failure of publishing cannot be ignored, or dismissed.  In the context of self-publishing, the lure of winning the NLNG $100,000 prize money could have provided inspiration for many of the writers who participated in the literary competition, much more than any noble passion for literature. Of course, this approach has demonstrable drawbacks, particularly because it usually downplays the place of competent professionals like editors, designers and proofreaders who help to improve book production in traditional publishing.

    Against the backdrop of identified production disadvantages of self-publishing, it would be even more worrying if books published conventionally were among those rejected by the NLNG jury.

    Talking of getting the publishing structures right, and the resultant benefits for writing and writers, the shortlisting of a book, The Fishermen, by a Nigerian writer, Chigozie Obioma, for this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction, is a testimony to structural efficiency. Six books out of 156 entries were shortlisted for the international prize first awarded in 1969, and now open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK. The winner will be announced in London on October 13.

    It is food for thought that the NLNG prize assessors also blamed the anticlimax on ignorance, suggesting that the writers of the assessed works didn’t understand the essence of children’s literature.  Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo who led the Advisory Board for the prize was quoted as saying: “Children’s literature entails cultural norms, milieu, values of any given society; it moulds, teaches, corrects, entertains, and crucially inspires the next generation of readers and writers. Most of the entries for this year were discovered to have inappropriate prominence given to the follow ing: violence, eroticism, mediocrity, cheating in examinations, bullying, exploration in mysticism and negative peer pressure. Distinctions need to be made between children’s literature and literature about children.”

    Commendably, to address the observed lack of knowledge, the General Manager, External Relations, Nigeria LNG, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, said the organisation would invest the withheld prize money in a capacity-building workshop on children’s literature.  But the plan should not be seen as a magic bullet.  In the circumstances, the work required is wider.

    In the 11-year history of the NLNG Prize instituted in 2004, this year is the third time without a winner. In 2004 (prose) and 2009 (poetry), there were no winners. According to Eresia-Eke, “This prize, which we bequeath to Nigeria, will be awarded for no other reason than excellence.”

    Positive talk.  There is no doubt that, ultimately, the expressed commitment to literary excellence is in the best interest of the country’s literary progress.

  • Ghana shows the way

    Ghana shows the way

    •Nigeria should follow; and do whatever it takes to rid the judiciary of
    corrupt judges and other elements

    Ghana, that relatively smaller neighbour, appears to have a better handle on the fight against corruption than Nigeria. The most recent example, is the suspension of seven, out of 12 High Court Judges, following a documentary by a journalist, showing intermediaries, accepting bribes on behalf of the judges.

    Said the Ghana Judicial Council, according to news reports: “The Judges’ suspension follow the establishment of a prima facie case of stated misbehaviour against them by Honourable Lady Chief Justice (Wood)”. Not long ago, a minister was sacked by the Ghanaian President, when she was caught on tape boasting of her intention to corruptly enrich herself.

    In Nigeria, many glaring cases of stupendous corrupt enrichment, by public officials, have been languishing in the courts. Specifically, some judges who were indicted, over allegations of corruption, got mere slaps on their wrist. Not long ago, a judge who was indicted for corrupt practices, ran home, to become a top traditional ruler.  Another, who gave a well-heeled defendant a ridiculous sentence for grievous financial crimes, got a mild indictment. In some cases, allegations of corruption against judges in Nigeria end up in a haze of litigations, despite the enormous powers of the National Judicial Council (NJC)

    So, the suspension of the seven judges in Ghana have been particularly interesting, and is worthy of emulation by Nigeria, perennially plagued by corruption in high places. There, the investigative journalist who covertly filmed the alleged agents, accepting bribe on behalf of the seven judges, released the video to the world. Following a public outcry, after the three-hour video was aired on television, the judicial council first suspended the 22 junior judges, who appeared in the video, before proceeding to investigate the seven senior judges, who have now been suspended.

    Depressingly enough, Nigeria’s National Judicial Council (NJC) appears to have made whistle-blowing against corrupt judges even more strenuous. While we do not advocate unfair and unfounded allegations against judges, or any form of victimisation, we think that NJC should encourage any person, who has any serious allegation, to forward same, without undergoing any rigorous procedure. The rigour should apply to the investigation of the allegation.  For that, the council could train a crop of investigators from security agencies, to always expeditiously conduct the investigations, without tainting the officials, unless a prima facie case is established.

    Luckily, the fight against corruption is a major agenda of the Muhamadu Buhari administration. So, if NJC decides to imitate its neighbour in Ghana, it should have an ally in the executive branch. We believe the council should have no hesitation to rein in corruption in the judiciary. As we have argued severally on this page, corruption is at the root of nearly all the major national challenges. These include the challenges of infrastructure, arising substantially from misappropriation of budgetary allocations over the years. The same cause is applicable to challenges of insecurity, unemployment, high illiteracy and many others.

    Even the war against corruption by the present administration would be dead, before long, if corruption remains endemic in the judiciary. Because over the years, politically exposed persons have abused the judicial process to their own gain, the judiciary labours under some integrity crisis.  This is not good at all. So, a radical approach is required.

    We commend the Ghana press for its robust reportage that helped to blow the judges’ cover.  But we call on the Nigerian media to do its own bit too, to expose corrupt judges here.  So should the Nigerian civil society.

    Beyond all that, however, Nigerians must rally in support of the war against corruption; and shun the current plague of ethnicizing cases of sleaze and graft.

    A corrupt judiciary is the worst plague that can befall any nation.  It should be weeded out, with the support of all.

     

  • Tightening the noose

    • All government agencies must learn to run budgets of discipline

    It must have come as good news that the Buhari administration is resolved to tighten the noose on the culture of unbridled spending in the federal bureaucracy. At the one-day sensitisation session on the 2016 budget and 2016-2020 Medium Term Plan of the Federal Government held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja Tuesday last week, the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo told the civil service’ top brass that all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be expected to cut costs under the 2016 budget. He told his audience that this had become necessary to control expenditure of the Federal Government which he observed was too high.

    According to him: “The greatest challenge to us is controlling ballooning recurrent expenditure and freeing up resources for growth-related capital expenditure. We need to cut overheads too; we can’t spend as we used to spend. We need to block leakages, increase accountability and transparency. This is an absolute necessity, the level of corruption is an outrage and we have to deal with it”.

    The statement by the number two citizen merely acknowledges the realities that the Buhari administration is called to face at this time. To be sure, if the singular factor of dwindling revenues – particularly from oil –has since severely constrained the capacity of government to deliver on its programmes, the other leg of the current problem must be located squarely in the pork and earmarks disguised as overheads year in year out for thieving officials.

    It therefore goes without saying that the measure has become apt. For if there was a suitable time to tame the monster of profligacy that has reduced the annual budget exercise to a charade, that time ought to be now. At this point in time, we can only advise that the federal government should neither see the exercise as an end in itself nor allow it to go to such an extreme as to constitute a cog in the wheel of the service. The bottom-line is to ensure that Nigerians get value for every kobo spent; and if we may add – to ensure that the budgetary process is made very transparent.

    Moving on, we daresay that what the bureaucracy – whether federal or states –need more than anything at this time is a disciplined vision of what the nation wants from it. Yes, the image of the MDAs as cesspit of corruption and waste has endured for far too long with very little done about it. We note that the obverse side of that image is perennially reflected in the intolerable mismatch between recurrent and capital expenditures which has now become a burden too heavy to bear for the national economy. At the same time, we must observe that these are merely a mirror of the rot that has been allowed to fester over the years. Evolving a new vision for the service and getting the right hands to drive it should, in our view, constitute the core of the challenge that the Buhari administration must take on.

    Yet again, we commend the federal government for introducing the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to harness its revenue. We see the TSA and the move to trim spending as complementary. For the federal bureaucracy, both measures offer it a fresh start to clean up its acts and to become the true engine of development that it should be; for the federal government, they enable more funds to be released to bridge the yawning infrastructure gaps, particularly of power and transport as well as the social infrastructures of health and education. Overall, both have the potential to help address citizens’ rising expectations if faithfully implemented.

  • A case for ministers

    • Not ‘noise makers’, but policy geeks to give bureaucrats direction

    The nation heaved a sigh of relief when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded the list of his nominees as ministers to the Senate for approval.

    However, long after the list had been in the possession of Senate President Bukola Saraki and its content declared, words of the President in France that ministers are mere noise makers, while bureaucrats run government departments continue to reverberate.

    At a point, that declaration tended to overshadow the qualities of the 21 men and women that made the list. It did not matter to some Nigerians, including senators, that on the list are former governors, former political party chairmen and ex-senators. They felt, by the statement of the president, ministers would not occupy a pride of place in the administration.

    This would be unfortunate. Ministers are key officials of state who assist the Chief Executive in the formulation of policies and explaining the position of government to the populace. They sit in the Federal Executive Council and have a general overview of the philosophy of the government; and use that in performing the task of reorientation of lower officials and bureaucrats in their departments.

    To claim, therefore, as the president did, that the work of governance is performed by the bureaucrats is misplaced. We believe it was Freudian slip, if jocularly made. It came in response to the pressure for ministers to be named in accordance with provisions of the constitution.

    It is expected that those to be appointed ministers are men of integrity; qualified in their own rights to run the administration of the country. They are men and women of stature who have distinguished themselves in other spheres of life and might have contributed immensely to the making of the government. To dismiss them as noise-makers is to lower their esteem in the eyes of the public and the civil servants.

    We expect so much from President Buhari and his team of ministers. During the election, the president and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) promised to give the entire gamut of public administration a facelift. He pledged himself to offer change. Many of those whose names have appeared on the list before the Senate were involved in the campaign.

    There can be no excuse for failure. We hope the presidential slip would not lead to unnecessary competition and friction between the ministers and the top bureaucrats in the ministries, especially at a time that the president has also promised to restructure the ministries, departments and agencies. They have to work in harmony and it must be made clear that the ministers are the bosses.

    We call on President Buhari to seize the opportunity offered by the administration of oaths  on the new ministers to clear the air. The task ahead is quite enormous. All the ministries must begin to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals which the developed world has already achieved; and moved to attaining the newly launched Sustainable development Goals.

    Aside probity that President Buhari promised in his inaugural speech, and to which the world has identified him, clearly formulated policies and efficiency are also expected in a bid to make the country a real giant of Africa.

    The president’s denigrating remark must have informed the view of some senators that the minister-nominees are crooks. This was done without adducing a shred of evidence. Anyone found to be  a crook among them should be dropped during the screening period that we expect to be thorough.

    We support the Senate in committing itself to putting an end to the “bow and go” syndrome. But, as many as pass the test deserve honour. For too long cynicism has trailed the performance of every public official from the day he is sworn in.

    President Buhari has a duty to end this. He needs to assure the country that he was able to come up with the best materials after four months of search, if an anticlimax. It is on this template that he stands any chance of declaring after four years that he has delivered.

  • Buhari right to head petroleum ministry

    Buhari right to head petroleum ministry

    SIR: Since President Muhammadu Buhari dropped the hint that he will serve as the minister for the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, there has been a fusillade of criticisms from a particular section of the public. It is not difficult to decipher those agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as being the ones rolling the wheels of these criticisms.

    For far too long, the Nigerian economy has been held comatose by a few who have continually raped and reaped our oil sector of fortunes that should have been used to improve the standard of living of the Nigerian people. It is for the reason of the rapacious disposition of this few that a vast majority of Nigerians in both urban and rural areas have a daily high cost of living, without a high standard of living. It is no wonder then that the youths of this country have creatively made a parody in different social media platforms of stealthy and obstinate goats that are always going to steal from our yam barn. The goats in this parody are the corrupt public officials and the yam barn is our oil wealth.

    And then, in the midst of this state of anomie in public accountability comes a President Muhammadu Buhari – a president who came to the rein of power with his shoulders very burdened by the hopes and expectations that Nigerians, especially the youths, have in him.

    If the Buhari administration is to deliver on the hopes and expectations of Nigerians, the president needs to take the bull by the horn by being the one directly supervising the oil and gas ministry. Anything short of this is too much of a risk to take.

    With due respect to the integrity of men and women around the president, it is absolutely not advisable for the president to run the oil and gas sector of the economy by proxy. Apart from the fact that doing so runs the risk of putting another goat as the custodian of our yam barn, the man Buhari himself isn’t a novice of the Nigerian oil and gas architecture.

    As a matter of fact, it can be said pointedly that at every turn when Nigerians have had to enjoy some social benefits from the nation’s oil endowments, Buhari has always been the one driving such benefit to the people. He has first-hand knowledge of the construction of many of the crude oil refineries in the country. Recall also that during the days of the late General Sani Abacha administration, he manned the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) successfully.

    With such rich background knowledge of the nation’s oil and gas sector, one needs to ask: what else does the president require to be eminently qualified to administer the Ministry of Petroleum Resources?

    For those who feel that it is business-as-usual in the management of our oil resource, let them be reminded that this new president is a ranger, and he is going to hunt down any stealthy goat.

     

    • Babajide Balogun,

    Ibafo, Ogun State.

  • The home front

    The home front

    The UK arrest of Diezani Alison-Madueke is serious signal that the anti-corruption
    war must open on the Nigerian turf

    The arrest in London, of Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Petroleum Resources minister and four others on bribery and money laundering allegations, is as good an augury as any, that President Muhammadu Buhari’s corruption war must start here.

    But that augury is also reminiscent of a rather disturbing déjà vu: despite recurring Nigerian anti-corruption storm and thunder, foreign capitals have always heralded the opening of the corruption theatre of war.

    James Ibori, convicted former governor of Delta State, got his judicial comeuppance in London for proven sleaze, after a Nigerian court, under Justice Marcel Awokulehin, cleared him of all charges.

    Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, tried, convicted but granted presidential pardon here in Nigeria, followed the same trajectory.  His travails started in London where the Metropolitan Police arrested him, even as sitting Bayelsa State governor in 2005; from where he reportedly jumped bail, before a suspect impeachment process hallmarked the start of his trial and conviction.  Now, the British authorities want Alamieyesiegha back in their capital: to resume his trial from the time he allegedly jumped bail, and fled to Nigeria.

    The ongoing saga of Buruji Kashamu, presently an Ogun State senator, also started in the United States.  Now, Uncle Sam is demanding his extradition for alleged drug offences.  The Diezani affair is following the same path.

    Yet, the funds in contention, in the proven sleaze involving Ibori and Alamieyesiegha; and the alleged one involving Mrs. Alison-Madueke, are Nigerian money.  So, why do we tend to show less zest, than foreign governments, to recover our own stolen money and gaol the thieves?

    The answer would appear the structure of the country’s criminal justice system: ponderous and frustrating; and also skewed against the state, which appears pathetically powerless against its own laws, no thanks to elite cynical manipulation.

    But there is even a more deleterious angle to it all: milking ethnic emotions to justify sleaze, and threatening thunder and brimstone, should an accused be rightly punished.  Such cant, driven by rotten values, is playing out in the incipient campaign against a possible Alamieyesiegha extradition to Britain.

    But first, there is a plausible case to be made against Alamieyesiegha’s extradition.  The charges he will face — are they the same ones for which he was tried, convicted but pardoned after he had served his term in Nigeria; or another set of charges?

    That appears the basis of the opposition of Senator Forster Ogola, chairman of the Bayelsa State caucus in the National Assembly: “What is the basis,” he queried, “of this new extradition, having gone through all legal processes culminating in a presidential pardon”?

    To be sure, the bit about presidential pardon is irresponsible stacking of cards, for the propriety of that can be questioned.  What serious anti-corruption president would, as former President Goodluck Jonathan did, grant such a pardon, in a milieu as morally reckless as the one in which he operated?  Would he not be fairly charged — as indeed he was — for boasting a corruption-tolerant body language?  Still, legally a pardon wipes the crime clean; and a fair legal system cannot, in all good conscience, revisit that crime again.  On this score, therefore, the anti-Alamieyesiegha extradition ensemble do have a legal straw to clutch.

    But not so Serena Dokubo-Spiff, Bayelsa Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, who went on a binge of empty appeal to victimhood: “They plotted against our son, former Mr. President [Jonathan] and denied him the opportunity of returning to power.  Now, they are after another noble son of ours, in the person of DSP Alamieyeseigha.  This injustice will not stand.”

    What injustice?  And is stealing state funds noble — or was Alamieyeseigha not convicted of sleaze?  And wasn’t the graft responsible for the mass poverty and underdevelopment of his own people?  How does this ethnic equivalent of cutting your nose to spite your face help the Alamieyeseigha campaign?  Does nativity automatically cancel felony in our statue books?

    In fairness to Mr. Dokubo-Spiff, such silly sentiments are not exclusive to his locality.  It is a pan-Nigeria menace, which tends to rationalise corruption under ethnic cover.  Now, if a people stand up to defend corruption which is sure to eventually kill them, are they not merrily digging their collective graves?

    That is why President Buhari must realise that in his anti-corruption war he faces not only the degenerate elite who have a notorious penchant for manipulation.  He also faces a largely misguided mass of people who daily rig the finest points of their own cultural essence, by defending a rogue son or daughter caught with his or her hand in the cookie jar.  To successfully fight corruption, therefore, his presidency needs to be resolute and clinical.

    But the job would be half done if state institutions are strengthened to do their job as and when due, with absolutely no regard to the perceived status of the one in the dock; or the tantrums of his or her misguided people, including traditional rulers.

    So, neither the EFCC nor the ICPC need observe a president’s body language before routinely doing their job.  That alone would be a corruption of the process — either under Jonathan, whose body language condoned graft; or under Buhari, whose body language hates sleaze.

    With strengthened and well-funded institutions, investigations would not take an eternity.  Even after, these investigations would not be wilfully bungled, as it is with many cases; and the court system would not be cynically manipulated by celebrity suspects; and their celebrity lawyers.

    Incidentally, the Administration of Justice Act of 2015, ironically signed into law by President Jonathan, has taken care of the basic procedures.  All President Buhari needs to do is ensure the law’s rigorous implementation and capacity building.

    The president should move fast to ensure all of these.  It is not good that the West is leading the charge to recover Nigeria’s stolen money, while Nigeria itself watches from the sidelines.

    The war on corruption must start here now.  We must make the point that stealing public money has grave consequences: with gaol and disgrace as fair comeuppance.

  • Stimulus and stimulants

    Stimulus and stimulants

    • Boko Haram still thrives on money and drugs

    Two events happened in the past week to highlight the state of the war on terror. The first was the explosion in the nation’s capital, Abuja. The second was the arrest of a financier of the Boko Haram sect. The financier, whose name was given as Mohammed Maina, possessed the sum of one million Naira as well as stimulants in his possession.

    The two developments indicate both a reinforcement of old tactics and a tweaking of it. The war on terror has recorded a significant success in the area of dislodging the militants as standing army; and a horde of rampaging young goons dispatching town after town and hoisting flags. That aspect of their pride has bowed to the sort the world witnessed last week in Abuja.

    The attack on Abuja was not only unexpected, it reflected a lax in the security infrastructure in Nigeria’s iconic city. The last time such a sanguinary moment struck the city was about a year ago, and the happy lull in between betrayed a military that had not only swept the place clean of the vermin but also had to focus elsewhere. It seems the shift of the centre of gravity to the northeast had left a lacuna and opportunity for the criminals.

    They struck two populated areas of the capital city, namely Kuje and Nyanya, on the night of October 4 and left at least 18 persons dead and several others wounded. A few days after the country marked its 55th birthday, we crouched with sorrow and funeral wreaths.

    Female partisans detonated the bombs in both places. They used their accustomed improvised explosive device, which shows that they have access to scraps of materials they assemble into the lethal device. They had used this with great impact since they inaugurated terror in the North, and it seems they have seen this as a potent, if sometimes unassailable, strategy to kill and maim Nigerians as well as frustrate the army. If it speaks to their acumen in the technology of war, we cannot deny their attribute as a cohesive and well-organised group with potential to inflict more tragedies in the coming months.

    In his inaugural speech to the nation as President, Muhammadu Buhari announced to national cheer the decision to shift the command centre to the Northeast where Boko Haram held sway and crippled Nigeria’s military strength. But the Abuja tragedies only remind us of their amoebic capacity for slaughter.

    The arrest of the financier shows that sympathisers still litter the Northeast. The financier, according the military, had travelled around the region to amass contributions.

    A war of such sustained malevolence and swath cannot thrive without local backing. This is a call to improved intelligence work. The army had accused some of the elders of not cooperating with them in flushing out the brigands. Where evidence is adduced, such persons should be prosecuted.

    The money flows that energise the sect can be stemmed with greater vigilance by locals who support the war on terror. The recent arrest can help the war if the army follows Maina’s trails and fishes out his collaborators.

    The financier also possessed stimulants, especially cola nuts. The narrative of stimulants has been a constant in the lives of the militants. It keeps them alert. Our army intelligence should monitor and shut down the arteries of stimulants trade and trafficking all over the North. Success in that area will disable the activities of men like Maina.

    The army is working towards ending the war in December. They do not have much time.

  • A professional and a gentleman

    A professional and a gentleman

    • Engineer Vincent Ifeanyi Maduka, one of the thoroughbreds, turns 80

    Upon joining the exclusive class of octogenarians, his friends and associates who truly know him would be unanimous in echoing: deservedly so. It is not because good people are imbued with any special gift of longevity or deserve to live longer for that matter, but for the simple reason that he is a man of immense grace and gravitas. And because he is unobtrusively so, he is such comfortable company to all.

    A man without cant, he can be said to be among the last of Nigeria’s well-groomed and well-educated personages – the thoroughbreds, if you like. He turned 80 last Monday.

    He studied at King’s College, Lagos; Leeds University (B.Sc. Hons. Electrical Engineering, 1959) and University College of Dublin, Ireland. He took a Masters in Engineering Science (M. Eng. Sc.), specializing in Applied Acoustics. He joined the leading broadcast outfit in Africa then – Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) and Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service, (WNBS) as Broadcast Engineer in 1961. He rose to be Chief Engineer in 1969 and was appointed General Manager in 1973.

    The year 1977 must have marked the turning point in the career of Engr. Maduka (as he is known by all today) when he was made the pioneer Director-General of the newly restructured Nigerian Television Authority, (NTA). The military government led by General Olusegun Obasanjo had raised the status of the state television into a national network, comprising about 40 broadcasting stations and 21 production centres, spread across the states of the federation.

    It was this new television behemoth that Maduka was drafted to run. With staff strength in excess of 7000 spread across the country, NTA was bigger than many ministries and government agencies.

    That Maduka held sway at the helm of this new Federal Government information machine for about nine years unblemished, is a mark of his character and professional acumen.  That he survived the political dynamics of the time, riding the tide of regimes from military to civilian and military again, will provide materials for a pithy study in corporate brinksmanship.

    How did he manage these epochal eras in an illiberal age when government had almost absolute control of the major media of communication? In a period when heads of state and key government functionaries did not only wish to occupy the entire screen and space, but made decrees to protect public officials from scrutiny as well as control information flow.

    It was a time that running a media organization was akin to walking a landmine and required skilful balancing and utmost professionalism. It was in this delicate period of Nigeria’s nationhood (1977 to 1986) that Maduka held sway at a fledgling NTA.

    All who knew him, both contemporaries and subordinates, attest to Engr. Maduka’s rigour, equanimity and range. He was an inspirational leader who gave room for talent to flower. And not even this modern day of internet leveraging has surpassed the effusion of quality content of that era. It was a period that gave us such unforgettable programmes like Cock Crow at Dawn, Mirror in the Sun, Mind Bender and quality documentaries. Some shows like New Masquerade and New Village Headmaster were reintroduced. He arguably presided over the golden age of Nigerian television.

    A thorough and dexterious manager, he is said to have created special funds for special projects. A former staffer who around during Maduka’s time thinks there has never been another helmsman at the NTA: “He was a great engineer among engineers, he was a programmer among programmers; he knew well enough about every department which may explain why he ran NTA so well.”

    Some of his critics have however noted that he may have impugned the sanctity of news reporting through his commercialization policy of ‘let them pay’. It is a policy in which television stations charged fees for the coverage of commercial news events.

    After retiring voluntarily in 1986, he had returned quietly to his core profession, engineering helping to impact in its growth for nearly three decades. Apart from presiding over the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE (1993), he is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineers as well as playing important roles in the Council of Registered Engineers (COREN) and the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEN).

    He was conferred the national honour of Officer of the Officer of the Niger, (OFR), in 2003.