The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Ministry of National Re-orientation?

    SIR: Nigeria has remained undeveloped not because she does not have institutions and resources and some measure of capacity, it is because of mismanagement of the people’s resources. The parent of that mismanagement is indiscipline. Corruption is a direct child of indiscipline. Indiscipline has grandchildren, great grandchildren etc. But Corruption is the most progressive and flamboyant child of indiscipline.

    There is need for the creation of a Ministry of National Re-Orientation (MNR). The creation of such a ministry is borne of the need to sustain the fight against indiscipline. If this is not done, who will continue this all important social fight after Buhari has left office?

    It will be the continuous responsibility of the ministry to insist that Nigerians do the right things in the right ways. We recall that in the 2015 elections, Nigerians agreed that corruption had eaten too deep into our blood and institutional systems and that it was time to check it. There is therefore every need to flush corruption out of our blood and institutional systems. In this regard, it will be the duty of the ministry to design subtle ways and means to make Nigerians hate and avoid corruption without coercion. It will also be its responsibility to regularly enlighten Nigerians on government’s policies, programmes and decisions. Such enlightenment should be to explain to the public the reasons and means of achieving government policies. Through this means, government will be able to provide detailed political, social and economic explanation for its actions. Presidential Media Advisers may not be able to do this.

    With the ministry on board, what happens to the existing National Orientation Agency (NOA)? NOA and all such similar government-owned agencies should be dissolved and absorbed by the ministry. Given what Nigeria has suffered to  indiscipline, a Ministry of National Re-Orientation should be the most important ministry.

    I therefore do not have any doubt that if it is created and it does well, even after Buhari, indiscipline and all its tentacles would have been uprooted from their strongholds in Nigeria so that the country will have strong relief. That will be the forerunner for change and true progress.

     

    • Okachikwu Dibia

    Abuja.

  • Another feather to Fearon’s cap

    Another feather to Fearon’s cap

    Controversial and capacious Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon goes to Lambeth

    Lambeth in London is where the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury is located; this is the official headquarters of the Anglican Communion worldwide and it is where Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop formerly of the Province of Kaduna Diocese, will reside for the next seven years. He has just been appointed Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion Worldwide with headquarters at Lambeth, United Kingdom.

    By this appointment, Idowu-Fearon, nicknamed the “Muslim Bishop,” is the second most important Anglican after the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the first African to hold this prestigious position.

    The 66 year-old clergyman who hails from Kerinye, Kogi State in Nigeria’s middle belt was until this appointment the Bishop of Kaduna diocese and Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna. He was previously the Bishop of Sokoto.

    Controversial, versed and with a capacity for wide-ranging learning, he had his calling while in a military school training as a soldier. He narrated the story recently: “In my fourth year, it had become very clear that the Lord was calling me to be a soldier in His Army, to the extent that in spite of a direct entry to the Nigerian Defence Academy, I was given a sympathetic discharge by the late General Hassan Katsina in Lagos.” This was to be the channel through which the Lord saved him, he surmised.

    His priesthood started effectively when he enrolled at the foremost theological institution, Immanuel College, Ibadan, Oyo State. He later attended Birmingham University for Master’s Degree and the University of Jordan, Amman.

    While other Christian clergymen may have been incommoded by preaching and propagating the Christian faith in an overwhelming and sometimes volatile Muslim environment, Idowu-Fearon was led to finding space and accommodation for the two contending faiths.

    It seems both a ministry and mission beyond his powers. Right there at Immanuel College, the hallowed centre of Christian learning, he had been introduced to what he described as the world of Islam. This led him to study a ‘strange course’ at the University of Birmingham – Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations.

    Like a man whose path is paved by unseen hands, he proceeded to study Arabic Language at the University of Jordan. While bishops would ordinarily impart into fledgling priests, the finer essence of Christian theology, Idowu-Fearon was a visiting Islamic lecturer and Faculty member at both Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Canada and at the Canterbury International Centre, United Kingdom.

    What might be the driving force behind this curious and controversial meshing of Christianity and Islam? This is his explanation upon his encounter with Islam at Immanuel College, “my interest was aroused, I pleaded with the Lord for a scholarship to do some further studies in Islam; I felt the need to carefully study how the Koran represents the nature of Jesus Christ.”

    Idowu-Fearon would appear enigmatic to both Christians and Muslim faithful but, he seems like a man made for this season and environment. Former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi, in a farewell toast, noted that the cleric was a reliable and dependable partner in the search for lasting peace, harmony and tranquility in Kaduna State; especially in the turbulent years between 2000 and 2002.

    Idowu-Fearon co-established in his diocese, a Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity, which runs certificate and diploma programmes.

    In spite of barrages of attacks from some of his colleagues and even parishioners, he continues to preach open-mindedness and accommodation in religious practices. He notes that the Anglican Church is a group of churches comprising 38 different churches coming together; which is why it is a communion.

    He also makes a distinction between the visible and invisible church. The invisible church, according to him, means Heaven and that is in the realm of God. On the other hand, the Bible teaches that whoever believes in Jesus Christ and is baptised is a Christian and belongs to the visible church.

    Driving home his point, he opines that in the visible church, you have liars, thieves, adulterers, cheats and you cannot deny them membership of the church because all they need is confession of their sin.

    The crucial point he preaches and perhaps his essence is that, “in order to create and promote a culture of respect for differences within our Communion, I encourage our bishops…to cultivate the habit of understanding positions other than their own.

    With a PhD in Islamic Studies and his inter-religion activism, he is considered a moderate conservative. Though he subscribes to the traditional Anglican stance on homosexuality, unlike the official stance of the Church of Nigeria, he is opposed to the criminalisation of gays. For his stance, the Church of Nigeria tacitly distanced itself from his nomination for the Lambeth job though it wished him well.

    Here indeed is a path-breaker and a spirit in flight. We wish him a happy sojourn in Lambeth.

  • Wood carving endangered

    Wood carving endangered

    •We need to save the Benin phenomenon for its cultural and commercial values

    It may indeed be a sign of changing times that a land noted for its fascinating sculptural treasures made in various media is reportedly facing a crisis of sorts in the production of wood carvings. It is a cause for concern that Benin in Edo State, which formed the core of a famous ancient kingdom, may be losing its distinctive wood-carving capacity. This may well be true of carvings in other media too.

    What makes the development particularly deserving of attention is that it is the wood carvers themselves that are sounding the alarm. A concerned university-trained Benin sculptor, Mr. Festus Enofe, who provided a history of the problem, was quoted in a report as saying: “Wood carving used to be carried out by Wood Guild called Igbesanmwan, when it was under the control of the Oba of Benin. Then, the carvers were working for the Oba. It was a part-time work, as the carvers did their farming occupation to survive.”

    Enofe said: “After the Guild era, when carving became commercialised, it was booming – tourists were coming to Benin to buy carved works – but it has dropped now.” He blamed this on, among other things, the lack of an enabling environment for carvers. “There are no incentives, no encouragement to those involved in producing artworks,” he said. For a country that aspires to gain from cultural tourism locally and internationally, this is not the path to follow.

    Other factors in this narrative of decline, according to Enofe, include negative taxes imposed on art patrons at the country’s international airports where customs officials allegedly often seize contemporary artworks under the mistaken impression that they are antiquities.   Enofe also said: “Religion is a barrier to artwork. These days, people tend to see carvings as images of demons, which can attract bad spirits. It is an erroneous perception.”

    Perhaps more fundamentally, another Benin sculptor, Mr. Emmanuel Uwumwonse, identified a critical learning gap as a contributory factor endangering the wood-carving trade. According to him, “When we started learning, we normally did it after school hours, especially during holidays. We went to the workshop to work with our father, to raise our school fees. These days, you hardly see children doing that. Children no longer do so because they do not see any future in sculpture.”

    Clearly, modern conditions and consequences are at the heart of the problem. The economy of culture has not been modernised in tune with new realities. The truth is that the age-old traditional craft can no longer be realistically practised in the old ways. The practitioners need new perspectives and fresh approaches.

    Furthermore, the promotion of culture requires promotional space that is sustained by the relevant authorities. The importance of an enabling environment for the craft to thrive cannot be overemphasised.

    Certainly, it is not that carving has gone out of fashion, considering that art schools and centres in the country still teach the skill and students still learn it.  The missing link is that the structures of cultural promotion are weak and wobbly.

    It is counter-productive that the concept of Arts Endowment Fund remains largely alien to official cultural managers at the various levels of administration in the country. That is the right path to take.  As things stand, the fortune of fine art and artists, and by extension, the performing arts and artistes, is unduly tied to narrow commercialism which stifles a desirable flowering of talents.

    It is a noteworthy testimony to the rich artistic ambience of the old Benin Kingdom that the internationally celebrated Queen Idia Mask Head, symbol of the 1977 African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held in Lagos, is credited to Benin sculptural tradition. The original artifact was among those carted away by British invaders in the 19th century, and a replica had to be produced for the festival.

    Regrettably, this richly creative tradition has been impoverished over time and may yet further decline without urgent remedial steps.

  • Okagbare and Rio Olympics

    Okagbare and Rio Olympics

    •Though an alleged Okagbare ban has been dismissed as fake, it underscores the often prickly relationship between Nigerian athletes and sports administrators

    Just as well the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has denied a reported Blessing Okagbare ban from next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The purported ban, on whatever grounds, would have been knee-jerk, unwise and counter-productive.

    That is why AFN should be commended for its swift denial of the alleged ban; and for the reasons it gave.

    “Why would a reporter report that Okagbare has been banned from Rio Olympics and will not attribute such an important story to a staff of NSC [National Sports Commission] or AFN? The story is not true”, Olukayode Thomas, AFN board member and head of communication and media declared. “Even if Okagabare has done something and we intend to punish her, the [AFN] secretary general will first write her a letter inviting her to face disciplinary committee where she will defend herself against the allegation. After a fair hearing, the disciplinary committee will make a recommendation to the board, and the board will then decide.”

    Again, it is nice AFN has developed a rigorous sense of justice; and a nuanced attitude to managing athletes some of who, to be honest, often are mavericks, on account of their touted talents and huge media approval rating. On such accounts, not a few athletes have been dismissed as “undisciplined” by their sporting federations; and branded “unpatriotic” by the often emotive Nigerian sporting media.

    There is therefore a steady fare, in the media, of sporting federations threatening to crack down, errant star athletes with necks on the virtual chopping block and a furious press dismissing the athlete as unpatriotic and selfish, with even some reports spicing the news with personal insults, as if the reporter has a personal axe to grind with the athlete. The Okagbare “ban” report, which mercifully turned a hoax, evoked this ugly scenario.

    Okagbare was a flop at the just concluded China Athletics World Championships, when she came eighth — and last — at the 100 metres ladies final. She also didn’t run the 200 metres final race, reportedly due to some cramps. But a few days later, she grabbed second position in an International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) Diamond League 100 metres dash. A day or two after this race, the news came that she had pulled out of the Congo Brazzaville All-Africa Games; and an apparently outraged AFN, reportedly barked at her to race in Brazzaville or forget her Rio Olympics slot.

    Such trajectory would appear very typical of Nigeria’s quicksand sporting world. Therefore, Okagbare became an instant devil for flopping at the World Championships, just as she soared into sainthood when she completed a double sprints gold, at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

    With the media patriotically raining fire on the failed athlete, the federation becomes more stentorian and brazen. But often, this only goads the athlete to further rebellion. And with IAAF window sanctioning switch in nationalities, a few athletes have been lost to other countries, just as Nigeria, at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, benefited from such influxes.

    But it need not hit that extreme. Okagbare, for example, should have no cause not to run for her country. If she has a psychological burden, it is left for the AFN and allied stakeholders to come to her aid, and lift her spirit — after all, no human is a machine. But AFN cannot do this, if there is a gulf in communication; and both parties are mutually suspicious. As for the media, they should facilitate improved communication, not make themselves an additional layer of the problem.

    So, the Nigerian sporting family should dispense with empty threats and embrace mutual understanding and sensitivity. If the sporting media discharge their functions with this frame of mind, Nigerian sports should weather any storm that comes in its path.

  • Making a blur in history

    Making a blur in history

    SIR: The last administration was marred by lack of monumental progress.  It is not even long since President Goodluck Jonathan left office and one cannot remember a single bold achievement he made.  The mark of a leader is the legacy he left behind.  The name of the person makes an indelible print in history books.  Masses treasure his or her memory for the uncommon good he or she did to elevate society.

    One is forever in awe of Nelson Mandela for his selfless struggle to liberate South Africa from racist apartheid regime.  One admires Jerry Rawlings for his seriousness of mind in clearing Ghana of lecherous politicians and thereby, turning the country into a modern state, and even our own President Olusegun Obasanjo for surmounting entrenched interests to bring GSM phone system to Nigeria; look how our lives have changed.  Many other names in the modern times are worth mentioning outside Africa.

    Today, all one hears about the last administration is corruption.  We bathe in the euphoria that the Buhari administration will be a model of excellence.  Though, if we can relax our sense of optimism a little, we will recognize the small progress made by the last one.   Our airports have been spruced up, even if, superficially.  The horrendous Benin to Ore highway is now a comfort to travel on.  These and some others are examples of incremental accomplishments by the President Jonathan’s administration.

    Many view these endeavors as window dressing.  The president had ample opportunity to make history with the oil boom during his era.  The demon played a trick with his mind and planted a boneheaded ideology.  President Jonathan has to explain to Nigerians in broad daylight that corruption is a form of wealth creation.  This justification is just as equal to giving rogues license to loot the treasury.

    The leadership exceeded expectation by siphoning mind blowing sums of money into their private bank accounts.  Every landmark project became a scheme for self-enrichment.  Devil may care if the masses are suffering from abject lack their billions of dollars must be off-loaded to their foreign stash.  Power supply that was promised the people never materialized.  Second Niger Bridge is still a mirage.  The administration toyed with the hope of Nigerians.  May the land never allow such evil to happen again!

    President Muhammadu Buhari should take note on how not to govern: corruption is criminal.  One cannot achieve monumental progress by sabotaging the process.  History will judge him harsher if after descending on the political landscape like a white cloud he soils the ground worse than his predecessor.  Expectations are running high and Nigerians are living on the margin.  Fighting corruption is a moral cause.  He will be remembered kindly if he gives Nigeria steady power supply.  Completing the construction of Second Niger Bridge will be a game changer.  The Igbo will believe the war is over.  That is history!

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Asset declaration

    Asset declaration

    •Saraki and Dogara should emulate Buhari and Osinbajo

    The information that President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his assets four times in the course of his public career is soothing, considering that many public officers circumvent this constitutional requirement. Even more ennobling is that the declarations of assets by the President and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, have been made public. Unfortunately, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) provided for by the Third Schedule, Part 1a, to maintain standards and ensure public morality and accountability; and The Code of Conduct Tribunal established by the Fifth Schedule, Part 1, paragraph 15, of the 1999 constitution, to enforce those standards, have not lived up to their obligations.

    President Buhari stated the number of declarations while in Ghana, early this week. He also challenged the media to seek out his declarations, as he has discharged his constitutional obligations. The President further stated that the governors, ministers and permanent secretaries must declare their assets, as required by the constitution.

    We identify with the challenge thrown to the media by the president, and extend same to the civil society, as a collaborative watch-dog of the society. As the president observed, the media should demand from the bureau, the information in the assets declaration form; under the purview of Freedom of Information Act.

    As we have seen over the years, the bureau and the tribunal established by the constitution to help rein in the conduct of public officers have been more of laggards. Were the organs to be alive to their responsibilities, all the state officers named in Part 2 of the fifth schedule to the constitution, would “immediately after taking office” declare their “properties, assets and liabilities and those of unmarried children under the age of eighteen”. This should be followed with another declaration “at the end of every four years” or “at the end of term of office” as provided by the constitution.

    The idea behind the constitutional provision is to create a public trail of the assets of public officers while they are in public service. As provided in the fifth schedule, an unexplainable acquisition, while in public service, has serious consequences. In paragraph 18(2), these include vacation of office by the culprit, disqualification from membership of legislative house, and from holding any public office for 10 years or less, and seizure and forfeiture to the state of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office.

    We urge all the public officers listed in Part 2, paragraphs 1 to 16 of the schedule, to immediately declare their assets, in accordance with the law, if they have not done so by now. The constitution makes the declaration mandatory ‘immediately after taking office’; so there should be no further delay. The officers listed include the president, vice president, Senate President, deputy senate president, speaker and deputy speaker, House of Representatives, speakers of states houses of assembly, members and staff of legislative houses, governors and deputy governors of states, justices of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, ministers, commissioners, permanent secretaries, director-generals, chairmen and members of local councils, police and military chiefs, among others.

    As provided in paragraph 18(3), the sanctions that can be meted out by the tribunal shall not prejudice ‘the penalties that may be imposed by any law where the conduct is also a criminal offence’. In our view, a vibrant bureau and tribunal, will help reduce corrupt practices, and even preclude corrupt persons from further accessing public offices. It would also create employment, should they build the necessary capacity to perform their constitutional obligations, which include verifying the assets declared by the public officers, at the beginning and the end of public tenures.

    With president and vice president as shining lights in this case, the Senate President and House Speaker should do same as well as governors. So others can follow.

  • Chadian example

    Chadian example

    •Nigeria’s neighbours in the war against terrorism seem to have a better handle

    The recent execution by firing squad of convicted members of the Boko Haram sect (eight Chadians and one Nigerian) in N’Djamena, capital of Chad is one more pointer to the notion that Nigeria’s prosecution of the war against terrorism is less than holistic.

    Apart from the case of Kabiru Sokoto who was tried and convicted for master-minding the bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, near Abuja in 2011, hardly any significant convictions have  been recorded. And no official execution of convicted terrorists is known since 2009 when the Boko Haram sect metamorphosed into a fighting ‘army’.

    However, late August in Chad, the nine insurgents were reportedly tried and convicted and executed within 48 hours after it was said that “the accused recognised and accepted the sentence”. The militants had master-minded the June 15 double suicide attacks on school and police  buildings in N’Djamena in which 38 people were killed and 101 were injured.

    They were accused of about half a dozen assortment of charges which included; criminal conspiracy, killings, willful destruction with explosives, fraud, illegal possession of arms and ammunition as well as using psychotropic substances.

    It is of note that unlike in Nigeria where the violent Islamist sect has caused the death of about 15,000 Nigerians and inflicted various shades of bodily injuries to hundreds of thousands, Chad cannot be regarded a hotspot in the insurgency until about two years ago. In fact, incidents of suicide bombings in the land-locked country only became rife after she had joined Nigeria in a regional force to combat the menace.

    Chad may well have shown Nigeria the way to achieve closure, especially in most of the notorious cases of unbridled carnage. For instance in such celebrated cases like the Police Headquarters bombing, the UN office, the Nyanya Motor Park in Abuja, to name a few, such cases ought to have been brought to a logical closure, and publicly so if only to serve as deterrence in the war against insurgency.

    But Nigeria’s government seems not to have the will or the capacity to take justice to the rampaging terror group in the last five years. The Nyanya Motor Park bombing which killed no fewer than 88 people and injured over 200 was a case in point. The suspected master-mind, Mr. Sadiq Aminu Ogwuche and seven others have been on trial since November, 2014 without much head way made. At the outset of the trial, both the Police and the Department of State Security were at loggerheads as to which body would be in charge of prosecution of the suspect. This turf ‘war’ delayed the process for many months.

    The lack of will from government; judicial inertia and procedural incoherence have stymied the fight against the Boko Haram sect, especially from the ‘back room’ end. This has led to the overflow of prisons across the country by numerous suspected terrorists.

    Early in the life of the Mohammadu Buhari government last June, there was an up-roar over the keeping of Boko Haram terrorists in prison facilities in Anambra State. The people of the state had protested for many days, wondering why such violent detainees would be moved all the way from the northeast of Nigeria to the southeast. They also argued that the Anambra facility, being a minimum security prison, was inadequate to hold such caliber of detainees.

    It is not only in the aspect of a lack of judicial closure on arrested terrorist cases that Nigeria lags behind her other neighbours in the fight against fundamentalists, there are numerous other issues. For instance, affording fallen military and security men public and symbolic state burials; the keeping of decent war cemeteries; the process of relaying sad tales from the war-front to families and issues concerning compensation of officers and men.

    The point we make in essence is that war is not only prosecuted at the war front but indeed, the fallouts from a war could sometimes prove more arduous to manage than the main show. We urge the Federal Government to take an even more holistic look at the on-going war.

  • Haba, Mr. Senate President!

    Haba, Mr. Senate President!

    SIR: Ordinarily, it would not be out of place to commend the gesture of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki in awarding N1million scholarship to two first class law graduates from University of Ilorin, but no! The subterfuge and deceit embedded has made the whole exercise a worthless one. Is it not curious, not to mention suspicious that the same person who has failed to use his position as an influential public officer and a behemoth in Kwara politics to persuade the Governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed, to award a similar scholarship to successful law students from Nigerian law school has suddenly found it necessary to award same to a select law students? It seems to us that someone is clearly trying to crawl back to public reckoning. We have seen this handwriting before.

    The truth of the matter is that the government of Kwara State has continued to pay lip service to the award of scholarship to law students. It would be recalled that the government of Kwara State in March 2014 undertook and promised to disburse bursaries to successful 2012/2013 law students from Law School. The government never fulfilled that promise. It is shameful and shocking that a constituted authority could tell a barefaced lie to its citizens in an orchestrated plan to pull the wool over their eyes. Worst still, the government has not deemed it proper to explain the reasons behind its failure to fulfil its promise. Where is the morality and accountability in governance? Where is the conscience in good leadership? For the record, we are disappointed.

    While we congratulate the two awardees for a scholarship well deserved, we hasten to state without any fear of contradiction that the exercise is neither complete nor sincere until Kwara State government settles other outstanding scholarships due to others since 2013. This is the only way to demonstrate that this piece-meal award of scholarship is not political and one meant to launder personal image.

     

    • Taofeeq Nasir & Bakare Idris

    Lagos

  • Prison scholars

    • The example of inmate-students at Kirikiri should be followed across the country

    It is truly heart-warming that a small minority of Nigerian prison inmates have decided not to let themselves be overwhelmed by fate, social stigma or their very limited circumstances in their attempts to broaden their educational horizons. It fulfils the prison’s promise as a department of correction.

    Their stories are as inspiring as they are gratifying. There is the case of Kabiru, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and who has spent 13 years in jail. He has a post-graduate diploma in Human Resource Management and is currently rounding off a Master’s degree programme in Business Administration with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He hopes to eventually acquire a doctorate degree and become a teacher.

    Then there is Oladipupo Moshood, whose nearly 24 years at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison have been distinguished by similarly remarkable intellectual achievements. He obtained six As and three Bs in the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary-Level examinations, and followed it up with a Bachelor’s degree. He is now a Master’s degree student.

    These sterling examples are imitated by other prison inmates, many of whom display an eagerness to learn and a diligence in their studies that would put their free counterparts to shame. These are individuals who appear to have come to terms with their unenviable situation, but have refused to let it overcome them.

    The inmates do not educate themselves for want of something better to do, and the fact that their numbers are so few clearly demonstrates that they are not doing it in order to become popular. The better-educated prisoners teach those who are not as advanced for free, showing their desire to use their educational abilities to benefit the lives of others, regardless of whether they ultimately leave prison or not.

    These outstandingly positive qualities are fittingly complemented by the generosity of the religious bodies, non-governmental organisations, institutions and individuals whose donations have made the burden of learning in Ikoyi and Kirikiri prisons a little easier than it otherwise would have been. NOUN is especially worthy of mention: its study centre at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison features computers and other information-technology accessories that would not be out of place in Nigeria’s top universities.

    Such demonstrations of faith in the capabilities of incarcerated citizens are a welcome departure from the hypocrisy and judgmental attitudes that have disfigured the nation’s prison system and crippled its ability to live up to its avowed aim of rehabilitation rather than retribution. The majority of inmates in Nigeria’s 240 prisons are not in fact prisoners: out of the total figure of 57,121, 39,577 are awaiting trial while only 17,544 have actually been convicted. Most prisons are overpopulated, lack adequate healthcare, sanitation and recreational facilities. There are very few opportunities for vocational and other forms of training. The end result is that inmates leave jail as vengeful criminal minds with little incentive to become law-abiding citizens.

    The fact that educationally-proficient inmates exist in the country’s prison system shows that the current deplorable situation need not continue. Nigeria’s prisons must expand their capacity to make their inmates better citizens who are able to take up their obligations as responsible members of society.

    Prisons must be comprehensively rehabilitated and should include educational, vocational training and related departments which enable inmates to develop themselves morally and intellectually. Government should develop policies that enable inmates to earn a legitimate living behind bars; those who teach fellow-inmates, for example, can be paid for their work. More tertiary institutions should follow NOUN’s example and expand their distance-learning programmes to cover the prisons in their catchment areas. Parole should become a viable option for inmates who genuinely demonstrate their preparedness to change their ways.

    If Nigeria’s jails become the centres of rehabilitation that they ought to be, everyone will reap the benefits, including society itself.

    ‘The fact that educationally-proficient inmates exist in the country’s prison system shows that the current deplorable situation need not continue. Nigeria’s prisons must expand their capacity to make their inmates better citizens who are able to take up their obligations as responsible members of society’ 

     

  • Boko Haram in Lagos?

    Boko Haram in Lagos?

    •All hands must be on deck to check the group’s incursion to Lagos, other cities

    News that the terror group, Boko Haram, might have penetrated the security ring around major Southern towns like Lagos and Enugu, among others, is an indication that there is a constant need to review the security situation in all parts of the country. One major achievement recorded under the Jonathan administration was the restriction of the terrorist strikes to the North East.  Earlier forays to the North West and parts of the North Central had led to panic that the group could expand its operations to other parts of the country.

    In recent times, the Nigerian Armed Forces had recorded further gains that have incapacitated the group and reduced it to a band of marauders. This has raised hopes that the military might succeed in winning the war within three months as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    We call on the military to step up their acts in view of the latest news .A single strike in Lagos would be a major moral booster for the murderous sect. It could be used by them to indicate that they have the capacity to take the war beyond their traditional atria. It could also send fear through the spines of the people in Lagos and the South West. Realising the pride of place that Lagos commands as the country’s industrial and commercial nerve-centre, one set to join the league of mega-cities soon; all efforts must be made to frustrate the devilish plans of the group. Anything that undermines the security of Lagos would disrupt the country’s economy. The Lagos airport remains the busiest and the seaports make the city a major maritime hub not only in Nigeria but the West Africa sub-region.

    The people, too, should realise that they have major roles to play in securing their neighbourhoods. Intelligence gathering plays a major part in any war. Since the suicide bombers are no spirits, vigilance on the part of the people and their willingness to cooperate with the fighting forces would help in checkmating the feared Boko Haram incursion to Lagos and other Southern cities. The vigilance groups, Neighbourhood Watch units, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the police and community development associations should be immediately incorporated into the war. Suspicious movements and actions in neighbourhoods should be promptly reported to the security agents through the emergency lines.

    State information agencies should be more actively engaged in sensitising the people to what is expected of them in times like this. Heightened awareness has been observed in Jos, the Plateau State capital, where abandoned parcels had been reported to the police, thus averting imminent bloodshed.

    Security around important public buildings such as the air and sea ports should be tightened, as should places of worship, markets, shopping malls and motor parks. In addition, as training of personnel is being stepped up, it should not be limited to the North East.

    We commend the Fashola administration in Lagos State for the Lagos Security Trust Fund and advise that more investment be made in purchase of surveillance gadgets. The Federal Government, too, should deploy some of the equipment being bought to securing the former capital city.

    We also call the Federal Government’s attention to the need to break the terror ring by disrupting the supply chain and its fund channel; it is not enough to dislodge the foot soldiers and lower rank agents, efforts should now be made to apprehend the godfathers. Nigerians are tired of the corrosive effects and costs of the war at a time of economic emergency. All Nigerians, military and civilian, young and old, living in the north or south, male or female must come together to defeat this latest challenge to Nigeria’s corporate existence.

    ‘Security around important public buildings such as the air and sea ports should be tightened, as should places of worship, markets, shopping malls and motor parks. In addition, as training of personnel is being stepped up, it should not be limited to the North East’