The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Youths and struggle for relevance

    Youths and struggle for relevance

    SIR: The recent unveiling of the much-awaited ministerial list of President Muhammadu Buhari has generated much controversy as much as the waiting. The issue that is of concern to me as a youth is the brouhaha about the marginalisation and non-inclusion  of the vibrant Nigerian youths whose contribution to national development and political advancement of the nation is undeniable.

    Obviously the non-inclusion of the youths on the list cannot be justified by whatever reasons because the youths of this nation have proved beyond reasonable doubt their capacity and capabilities to contribute meaningfully to national development as available records of achievements has shown that the youths of this country both in the private and public sector as well as at national and global stage are resourceful.

    But as much as we want to criticize the Presidency for this inexcusable neglect of the youth, it is important to remind the youths that the much awaited tomorrow which they are the leader may never come if we continue to be a tool in the hands of politicians and political jobbers as instruments for winning elections, while also justifying wrong acts because of ethno religious sentiments.

    According to Robert Nef: “Those who nourish the hope that it will be possible to keep central government free of the corrupt tendencies of power and to staff it with a freedom-loving elite, overestimate the virtues of both the electorate and the elected, and underestimate the normative power of structural processes even over well-intended functionaries”.

    I want to use this medium to remind fellow youths who shared the same emotion of marginalisation and grave betrayal of the youths of this nation by the ruling class who have held sway to position of leadership for decades and denied the youths of their tomorrow, that freedom is never given; it is taken and with the practice of democracy in Nigeria, the youth has the power through unity of purpose, active participation and the ballot box to cause a change and take their rightful position in the political arena of the country.

    “Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compound of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation”. John Quincy Adams

     

    • Akintunde Martins

    Abuja.

     

  • Quiet heroes

    Quiet heroes

    • In the course of daily work, the evil Boko Haram has claimed more than its fair share of teachers’ lives

    On the face of it, it would appear odd that the Boko Haram anarchists have killed as many as 600 teachers in different states in the north, teachers not being soldiers in the direct line of fire, in the war against insurgency.

    But thinking deeper, it would appear not so odd.  If Boko Haram thrives on the radicalisation of the ignorant and the hopeless, teachers stand at the opposite end: beaming the light of knowledge in the pitch darkness of ignorance; and radiating a torch of hope to the hopeless — hope of a better future.  This activity would appear even more potent, than blazing guns, against Boko Haram’s hoped-for empire of darkness.

    If Boko Haram has killed 600 teachers and displaced another 19, 000 therefore, it is all in the chequered history of teachers as a nation’s quiet but often unappreciated heroes.  That should teach a moral: a country should always appreciate its teachers — and not on Teachers’ Day alone.

    Still, it is to Teachers Day 2015 that we thank for this piece of heroic statistics.  In an address at Ado Ekiti, which Samson Akinlade, a senior official of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) read on his behalf, Michael Olukoya, NUT national president, broke down the grim statistics.

    “It is on record that  over 600 teachers  lost their lives  to the terror attacks.  These include 308 in Borno, 75 in Adamawa, 18 in Yobe, 25 in Kaduna, 120 in Plateau, 63 in Kano and two in Gombe.  This is in addition,” he added, “to 19, 000 teachers displaced and suffering great losses due to the barbaric activities of the insurgents.”

    It is proof of how teachers have come to be taken for granted that even as the world focused attention on the still missing Chibok schoolgirls, hardly anyone is talking about the trauma of their teachers.  Even less attention is being beamed on the daily heroism of this special breed of Nigerians who must man the schools, even in the most insecure of places in the troubled north east and catchment areas, so long as the schools stay open.

    That is why the Federal Government, with hefty support from the states, should hearken to Mr. Olukoya’s appeal for a more secure schools environment.  No matter what happens on the shooting fields, Boko Haram would have won if, for insecurity, schools are closed down.

    For this not to happen, however, security should be tightened around the school environment.  That way, further attacks are prevented, teachers quietly do their jobs of nation-building as they are wont to do; and each community, as much as possible, would have as much a sense of normalcy as possible, even as the last bastion of insurgency is being rooted out.

    But it is not in insurgency alone that teachers show heroism.  Imparting knowledge, on a virtual tabula rasa, is everyday heroism.  The children who know nothing today soon rise to become leaders, a good number of them earning far more than their teachers have ever, or ever hope to earn.  That is the heroic state of teachers nationwide.

    That is why governments, federal and state, should do everything possible to boost teachers’ welfare.  They should shun delayed salary payments; and give the teachers the necessary training and retraining to equip them to build, for their country, a 21st century workforce, than can compete with any other people, in a globalised world.

    If teachers are well motivated, and deliver on their basic services, then Nigeria would get it right, in terms of development.  Besides, teachers’ reward need not be in heaven.  It can start right here on earth.

    But to who much is given, as they say, much is expected.  So, teachers too, particularly the unmotivated among their ranks, should show extra devotion and love for their jobs.

     

  • Freedom from polio

    Freedom from polio

    •A great feat but it calls for more advocacy

    This year’s World Polio Day on October 24 coincides with the deletion of Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO).  The good news, reported on September 27, marks the first interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus in the country, bringing it and the African continent closer to a polio-free status. It is a measure of the significance of the development that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, described it as a “historic achievement” in global health.

    According to official statistics, Nigeria has not reported a case of wild poliovirus since July 2014, and 12 months have passed without any new case. Considering that in 2012, only three years ago, the WHO said Nigeria accounted for over half of all polio cases worldwide, the remarkable change in the narrative represents a great positive leap indeed.

    The journey to this juncture, the WHO noted, involved a plurality of factors that worked for good. The organisation said:  ”This success is the result of a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers. More than 200,000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunised more than 45 million children under the age of five years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.”

    Notably, Nigeria’s success means only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain on the official list of polio endemic countries. Although removal from the list is not a definitive indication of freedom from polio, there is cause for optimism that the two-year wait to qualify for full polio-free certification by the WHO will perfect Nigeria’s polio-free status.

    However, it must be appreciated that eradicating polio in the country will require sustained focus and effort. Relevantly, Rotary International District 9110 Governor Bola Onabadejo was quoted as saying at a forum in Lagos: “We have two more years of hard work to ensure that Nigeria is out of polio.”  Given the conditions that promote the polio virus, there is a need for intensification of advocacy and awareness programmes in the country, apart from greater funding of immunisation schemes.

    According to medical information: “People living in areas with limited access to running water or flush toilets often get the virus from drinking water contaminated by human waste that contains the virus. Pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems, such as HIV+ people, and young children are the most susceptible to the polio virus.” Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, “is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death.”

    Against this backdrop, the country’s political and health authorities have their work cut out for them. It is necessary to provide unrestricted running water to the people, and to ensure hygienic human waste disposal, among other important actions.

    Rotary International established the World Polio Day over a decade ago in reinforcement of the work of Jonas Salk, the leader of the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. It is a testimony to the effectiveness of international polio eradication activities that the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 resulted in a rising number of polio-free countries.  The spread of poliovirus was internationally recognised as a public health emergency in May 2014.

    It is a big plus for science, and a credit to international cooperation, that global polio eradication is looking increasingly achievable. Nigeria must win the battle.

  • PMB should head agric and steel ministry

    PMB should head agric and steel ministry

    SIR: There have been a lot of discussions about the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint himself as minister of petroleum resources, leaving a junior minister to take charge of the running of the day-to-day affairs in the sector. The President has vowed that corruption in the oil sector would be given the priority it truly deserves forthwith.

    Although many have hailed the decision, the fact that President Buhari has singled out the petroleum ministry to get the lion-share of his attention runs totally contrary to the campaign promise of the APC-led federal government. The APC and its presidential campaign team promised to diversify the Nigerian economy away from a mono-economy of oil dependency by tapping the vast opportunities in mines and agriculture to turn the economic fortunes of the country for the better. The present exigency of dwindling oil prices has made it imperative for serious-minded people and government to seek for new opportunities to revamp the economy. Diversifying the economy into various non-oil sectors like mines and steel, agriculture, manufacturing tourism and hospitality is surely the way to go. Instead of focusing most of his energy on the oil sector, the same mistakes made by previous administrations whose economic policies instead of being diversified, became more straight- jacketed and narrowed into smaller ducts and vents of the oil industry, President Buhari should focus more on the sectors that will create the most jobs and make Nigeria a manufacturing rather than a consumer nation.

    Previous federal governments over the years mismanaged the revenue that accrued from oil and failed to use them as a springboard to develop other sectors of the economy for enhanced revenues. Due to the pathetic level of unemployment and poverty across the country at the moment, the only way to put the nation’s economy on a sound footing is for the President to stick to his campaign promises of fully and totally diversifying the Nigerian economy through mines, steel and agriculture. It is no longer news that the country’s over-dependence on oil as our chief revenue earner is what has brought us to this backward and retarded state; therefore, wasting much of the president’s energy  on a sector that has brought us to our present economic predicament would only be tantamount to repeating the same mistake made by the past leaders.

    Mines, steel and agriculture alone has the capacity to employ over 40 million Nigerians, while tourism and hospitality, and manufacturing would employ about 25 million more and give this country revenues that would be more than what oil can ever give to the economy. President Buhari should rather appoint himself as minister of mines, steel, agriculture and manufacturing instead of petroleum.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

     Ilorin-Kwara State.

  • Curb this menace

    Curb this menace

    •The abduction of Chief Olu Falae, and threats of reprisals, call for
    prompt security measures nation-wide.

    The resurgence of kidnapping and other forms of insecurity show that Nigeria still has a long way to go, in making the country safe. In many parts of the country today, people have to keep glancing over their shoulders to keep safe.

    Whereas the terror grip of the North East is the worst form of insecurity in the land, others, including kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling and rape, have become so common place that it could be said that life, as Thomas Hobbes contended, has indeed become short, nasty and brutish.

    It is unfortunate that the state security agencies have failed to come up with measures and mechanisms to bring the situation under control. That is why we call on the Federal Government to come up with adequate security measures that would reassure the populace.

    In the South East, kidnapping, which was once the order of the day, is back, forcing the Anambra State government to embark on demolition of the houses of those believed to be the kingpins, as a deterrence. This is a desperate measure that might offend the sensibility underpinning a modern justice system.

    In the South South, too, prominent people are again being abducted as a means of getting rich quick. The recent abduction of Ms Donu Kogbara, a renowned journalist, called attention to the ever-present danger. Almost always, the distraught relations of the victims are left to seek accommodation with the abductors, with the Police feeling helpless.

    The release of Chief Olu Falae, a former secretary to the Federal Government under the Babangida military government, after four days in the kidnappers’ den, calls for concern and reflection. His age, non-flamboyant lifestyle and resort in retirement to farming made his case attract public sympathy. It drove home the fact that all Nigerians could really be walking in the shadow of death.

    Falae, snatched at his farm near Akure, the Ondo State capital, made President Muhammadu Buhari to order the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to secure the release, forthwith, of the elder citizen and leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

    When, therefore, Chief Falae was released, only after four days in captivity, the police was quick in taking the credit. But the Afenifere chieftain has contested the police claim that his family paid no ransom. He insisted that his abductors released him after obtaining proof a sanction had been paid, and even threatened to come back for him should he run his mouth!

    The release of the 77-year-old’s farmer was enough to open a new phase of danger to national cohesion and unity. Chief Falae alluded to the possibility of Fulani herdsmen, with whom he had been having a running battle, over the grazing of cattle on his farm, might  have been his kidnappers — six in all: four armed and only two barely literate.

    But his expose has incensed the Afenifere and the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), both Yoruba ethnic nationality lobby groups, which  reflects the anger among the Yoruba.

    Reports that Fulani herdsmen constitute the most potent danger to public safety in many parts of the country has pushed both groups to threaten that self-help could become inevitable, if the Federal Government failed to put together holistic plans to ward off the danger.

    Still, the herdsmen, too, have legitimate concerns about grazing rights. There are no ranches and land acquired for grazing. Just as farmers like Chief Falae,  in the North central, west or East, have the right to protect their crops. It is therefore left for the government to put in place plans that would guarantee the rights of both sides. The situation should be checked before it spins out of control.

    Nigeria already has enough problems.  So, it can ill afford being  drawn into an inter-ethnic discord on this score. Self-help as a security measure is an indication the state has failed in its primary responsibility. Those known to have infringed the law by abducting law-abiding citizens should be apprehended and prosecuted to assure that all are equal under the law, as well as reassure the people of the capacity of the state to guarantee the lives and property of all.

    Unless this is done, the future would remain bleak.

     

  • See Hongxing and die

    See Hongxing and die

    •Workers’ gory tales of death and slavery in Chinese firm

    In its sad report on September 28, the Punch gave a vivid picture of what is happening in a Chinese firm, Hongxing Steel Company Ltd, in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos State. There were reports of deaths of workers in this firm on a regular basis.

    First in the report was the death of a certain Emeka Umoh who lost his life at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital after liquefied iron spilled on his body, on September 23. Another worker, Adebayo, was reportedly squeezed to death by a compressor sometime in February.

    From another report, there was almost a face-off between the management of the company and the workers, when the management decided to take the remains of Adebayo, a father of three, to the mortuary in a tipper!

    Some workers in the Chinese firm said that Umoh and Ajiboye were just two among many Nigerian workers who had died or sustained permanent disability resulting from accidents on duty. The workers complained that such accidents occur on a regular basis as a result of faulty machines and absence of safety standards.

    Yet there are many more of such victims in the firm. Obina Eze, aged 23, saw the compressor chop off his three fingers, while Eze complained of regular accidents from where workers sustain lifelong deformities.

    When contacted, the spokesman for the Chinese company named Udomson, attributed the deaths and injuries in the company to industrial hazards, which the company “was not immune to”. He said the firm was already negotiating with Emeka Udoh’s family, and that the company had a policy on workers’ welfare.

    It is a pity that some companies, especially Indian and Chinese companies, are notorious for discriminating against the workers of their host country, Nigeria. When we put this side by side with the notorious discrimination of the Chinese against black citizens, like Nigerians, in their home country, we are miffed that they have the temerity to extend such discrimination to Nigerians in their own country.

    This nefarious conduct is unacceptable, and should not be allowed if Hongxing Steel Company and its ilks are to be allowed to remain and operate in Nigeria. The whole situation is a slap in the face of the Federal Government which ought to have warned the Chinese company of discrimination against Nigerians, not to talk of employing its citizens as slaves in their own country.

    We also see the whole scene as failure of our Labour Unions who are also in a position to put a stop to this wicked exercise, and unwholesome attitude of a foreign company in Nigeria, like this Chinese firm.

    In this connection, there is the element of corruption, because those who are supposed to monitor the activities of the companies vis a vis their treatment of Nigerian workers, are likely compromised. They get cozy with the managers and therefore look the other way, even when they see glaring infractions going on in the companies.

    The same is true of the law enforcement agencies. These Chinese companies hire too many workers in unhygienic situations and in a factory with faulty machines which make the workplace prone to frequent accidents.

    Obviously Indian and Chinese firms in the country take advantage of the acute lack of jobs to cheat Nigerian workers. It is now up to the Ministry of Labour, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), civil society groups, and others to sit up and make foreign companies operating in Nigeria to respect our laws and appreciate the dignity of labour attached to workers in Nigeria, as they do to workers in their own countries.

     

  • Make them work

    Make them work

    •It’s high time the Federal Government did the needful on our refineries

    GOING by what the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Ibe Kachikwu, told journalists, to the effect  that Nigeria loses N40bn annually to poor performance of the country’s four refineries; it is high time the Federal Government took another look at what exactly to do with the refineries. Kachikwu told journalists during an interactive session in Lagos that “… We are losing N10 billion for each of those refineries. That is where we need to move from the areas of emotion to the areas of business”.

    Dr Kachikwu also stressed the need for  the NNPC to be run as a business entity. “The day NNPC is called NNPC Social Services, then, I would not have to have this conversation. But if it is called a corporation, it means that the country expects them to make a yield, make profit and manage the company profitably so that people can benefit,” he said.

    The NNPC boss is not saying anything new, though, the point is; we have reached the situation where the Federal Government must come up with a clear policy that will make the refineries work. It is because of policy flip-flops and the lack of political will to address the specific issues that we have  failed to make progress on the matter, thus denying the country the huge benefits that would have accrued from their functioning at reasonable capacities. Without doubt, the refineries are faced with a lot of challenges, including ageing facilities, pipeline vandalisation and massive corruption, which is responsible for the pumping of billions into their turn-around maintenance with little or nothing to show for it.

    It is up to the NNPC to isolate the problems and seek solutions to them. Here, we know that the government’s support is key to whatever the corporation wants to do to make the refineries work because they belong to the government. But the NNPC must first put its house in order. The oil corporation that Dr Kachikwu inherited was enmeshed in corruption even as it operated without respect for transparency or accountability, and unless the corporation first removes the log in its own eyes, it cannot seek to remove the speck in the eyes of its subsidiaries.

    Clearly, we need a comprehensive programme on the refineries which must be unambiguous and investment-friendly. We have nothing against the government selling them if they are too old or if the government feels the challenges facing them are beyond it. What we are opposed to, and which we restate,  is deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry based on importation of petroleum products. Apart from helping to create jobs for people in other countries, to the detriment of Nigerians, even in an area where the country has comparative advantage, it also gulps a lot of the country’s hard-earned foreign exchange that could have been used to develop other sectors of the economy.

    Therefore, if the government believes that selling the refineries is what would bring an end to the nightmares associated with their being public concerns, so be it. But the process of sale must be well thought-out so that it does not end up repeating the mistakes of the past. It is an embarrassment that a major crude producer like Nigeria depends on fuel importation to meet its domestic needs. The situation can be likened to that of a butcher whose child is eating bones, or a cloth seller whose child is going about in rags. If successive governments failed to see this as an embarrassment, the Buhari administration should and take appropriate measures to put an end to the shame.

     

  • Investing in inventing 

    • Nigeria’s inventors must be given financial backing

    As Nigerians continue to develop ground-breaking inventions and innovations, it is crucial that they receive the financial backing,  crucial in ensuring that their research positively impacts their society as well as themselves.

    Two recent instances of Nigerian inventiveness have made this issue even more pressing.

    The first is the invention of a mobile medical battery back-up system by Miss Jaiyeola Oduyoye, a Product Design Engineering graduate from a British university. The second is the building of energy-efficient cars by students of the University of Benin, the University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University for participation in the Shell Eco-marathon, Africa (SEMA) in South Africa.

    In both instances, the inventors demonstrated perfect understanding of the way in which scientific research and innovation must be relevant to social needs, if they are to be truly worthwhile.

    Miss Oduyoye’s invention is a viable solution to the problem of inadequate power supply for medical procedures in developing countries, profferring a simple but durable device that can be relied upon when public power systems fail.

    On the other hand, the energy-efficient vehicles, which the universities forged, represent a useful contribution to the ongoing search for environmentally sustainable means of transportation in an era of increasing population and climate change.

    However, while the relevance of these scientific innovations is not in doubt, there is very little guarantee that they will ever make the transition from the laboratory to the market. Nigeria as a country simply does not devote enough financial resources to research.

    World Bank figures show that the United States spent 2.79 per cent of its GDP on research and development between 2010 and 2014; China spent 1.98 per cent within the same period. By some estimates, Nigeria spent just 0.2 per cent on research in 2007.

    It is significant that Miss Oduyoye’s research was carried out overseas, and that the energy-efficient vehicles are being sponsored by a multinational oil company.

    Worse still, when funds are available, they are not fully utilised: as at November 2014, only 30 per cent of the N10.052 billion set aside for research by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) was accessed by federal and state-owned tertiary institutions.

    Problems of funding metamorphose into scarcity of investment when scientific prototypes emerge because Nigeria cannot properly facilitate investment in the refining, mass-production and marketing of the products of scientific research. The country is yet to develop a business incubation process whereby investment is linked up with invention, to the benefit of all parties and ultimately, that of society.

    All this must change if Nigeria is to take its place among the industrialised nations of the world. Those who engage in scientific research must be availed of the institutional support systems that facilitate their work: standard laboratories, proper mentoring and adequate funding.

    Government agencies, non-governmental organisations and businesses should work to establish science fairs, competitions, sponsorships and internships, which will enable budding inventors to develop their talents.

    At the governmental level, there should be conscious effort to encourage indigenous scientific research. The use of locally-developed processes and procedures is being encouraged in the oil industry; it should be spread to other sectors of the economy. A comprehensive policy of import-substitution should be encouraged in the areas of light manufactures and agro-allied business.

    Perhaps the most fundamental step Nigeria needs is to undertake a reconfiguration of prevailing social attitudes to scientific research. It is ridiculous that a society which worships footballers and musicians should be so contemptuous of scientists.

    A nation that abandons scientific research in an era of global technological innovation condemns itself to perpetual dependence on others.

     

  • Flying without wings

    • Nigeria’s economy must be deemed wingless if first quarter capital votes are just being released

    While 2015 will go down in the annals of Nigeria’s history as the turning point of her democracy; the year a powerful ruling party lost an election, her political success may well be at the expense of her economic wellbeing.

    There are so many reasons for this supposition but the most glaring, and indeed the most significant, is the status of her 2015 Appropriation Bill. A report last week stated that the Federal Government has just ordered the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to release the first quarter capital allocation of the 2015 budget.

    There is no doubt that withholding capital votes meant for infrastructure development up till the last quarter of the year is bound to have serious deleterious effects on an already flailing economy.  But reasons such as late passage of the budget (in second quarter, April 2015) and political transition programme early in the year have been adduced for the current dire situation.

    However, both the out-gone government of President Goodluck Jonathan and that of his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, would be deemed culpable for treating matters concerning the economy so lightly.

    That this year’s budget was passed only last April says something about the last government, including the National Assembly (NASS). And that nothing was done till now, not to mention the 2016 budget, is also a pointer to the mindset of this government as concerns the country’s economy.

    Further, with capital votes just about being released, the implication is that all had been cold and quiet in terms of building requisite structures for economic development through the year. It may also explain why the economy has been slow; almost lapsing into recession.

    But more troubling is the suggestion that the economy may have been on auto-pilot throughout second and third quarters after the general elections. No key agency of government has deigned to raise an eyebrow or call attention to it. It was as if the economy did not matter.

    Also significant is the fact that 2015 capital expenditure figure is quite paltry: only about one-fifths of the recurrent expenditure. While N2.6 trillion was approved as recurrent vote; only about N567 billion was voted for capital expenditure. What this suggests is that the bulk of the N4.5 trillion 2015 federal government fiscal projections would go for salaries, wages and overhead.

    With a fiscal deficit of about N1 trillion and debt service vote of approximately N1 trillion as well, the unspoken sad spectre is that there may not have been any cash backing for capital expenditure until now. Even as paltry as the capital vote is, no cash backing could be made as the federal government had to borrow cash to pay even workers’ salaries just before the election.

    All of these suggest that Nigeria’s economy is in dire straits. We can only urge the Buhari administration to pay more attention to the economy and give it the urgency it requires. For instance, the 2016 draft budget ought to have been submitted to NASS now for deliberation.

    According to the practice and tradition in most countries, the president presents the national budget on the first day of the year. Previous administrations never achieved this in the last 16 years. The current government must endeavour to change that. A lot of difference is made when each year kicks off with the economic and fiscal plans of a country well laid out.

    Another point to note is that the budget is perhaps the most important document of any government. It must never be treated with levity. The performance of an annual budget in measurable terms, is a mark of the quality of government in place and a measure of the level of economic development a country achieves.

    We ask that the debacle which the 2015 budget has turned out to be should never happen again. You can only fly so high without wings.

  • Nigeria: Can we do without each other?

    The gospel truth is that every part of Nigeria, regardless of tribal differences, religious affiliations or ethnicity is as important as the other and is fully dependent on the others for survival and economic activities. It is no longer news, that one of the factors that led to the surrender of the Biafra soldiers and later ended the war was the partial closure of the Niger Bridge, which hampered free flow of food and services from the rest of Nigeria to the East. This shows that no part of this country can “stand” without the others. All over Nigeria, the industry, resilience and business sagacity of an Igbo man is known, felt and daily appreciated. They are found in every nook and corners of this country, doing their legitimate businesses and adding value to their host communities through trade and commerce.

    The endurance, aggressiveness and patience of the Hausa-Fulani man who are found almost every where in Nigeria has not only increased the quality of lives and meet the nutritional requirement of Nigerians, but the legitimate activities of Hausa farmers and businessmen, and Fulani herdsmen have greatly boosted the economy of Nigeria. The intellectual prowess and administrative acumen of the Yoruba man is a luxury that the rest of Nigeria cannot do without, their businessmen and women who are scattered across the length and breadth of this country and beyond is a source of pride to the nation and is adding values to the quality of lives of Nigerians.

    Just like a vehicle, in which all the component parts plays important roles in ensuring a smooth and hitch-free movement from one point to the other i.e. the steering, the tyres, the side, rare and front mirrors, the head light and every other lights, the clutch, brake and accelerator, the cooling fan and after parts of the engine etc, Nigeria is a moving “vehicle” in which every part of this country, across tribes, religion and ethnicity is a component part of this “vehicle” and has important roles to play at ensuring a smooth and hitch-free “journey”. No part is superior or inferior to the others, as every component is equally as important as the others in a vehicle. Close the Niger Bridge for only one week and you will realize how “bad” we all need each other. Nigeria is indeed one big family!

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Ilorin, Kwara State.