The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Saved by the bell

    Saved by the bell

    News that scores of soldiers sentenced to death, life imprisonment or dismissal may soon be given a reprieve by the army authorities is indeed welcome, not only to the soldiers’ families, but to Nigerians at large. The case which had been handled by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, at the Court of Appeal, caught the attention of the international human rights community as the men were considered victims of circumstances.  As the Army Public Relations Director, Col. Sani Usman, disclosed last week, the authorities have now realised that the men were innocent. This is one of the major arguments against the capital punishment. Had the men been executed after their conviction, what would have happened? Could they be brought back to life again?

    This case is one reason why the statute books should be reviewed to drop capital punishment. It is also one reason why the court-martial process that had been abused many times in the past, especially when battles were being fought, should be reviewed. The immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was so furious following the outcry over the conviction that he told the press that they made a mistake making the court-martial  trial open. He said the soldiers could have been tried, sentenced, executed and buried – “all within five minutes” in the bush before questions could be raised.

    The military top brass should realise that the Rule of Law is the underpinning principle of all activities in a democracy. Military laws are also subject to the same doctrine. Any law whose provisions contradict the constitution, directly or indirectly, is null and void, at least to the extent of that contradiction.

    It is the more surprising that the same former Chief of Defence Staff confessed at the pull-out exercise organised for him last week that the armed forces had been underfunded over the years. He acknowledged that political considerations informed the decision to demobilise officers and men and deny the forces of needed weapons. He also said countries that were normally friendly had, for political reasons, become hostile such that purchase of weapons became difficult as the war grew fiercer. He attributed the heavy casualties suffered by the Nigerian military to these challenges.

    These were the same reasons that had been adduced in defence of the convicted soldiers, but dismissed by Badeh and the military board when the matter came up. The media pointed out that morale was low among the other ranks that bore the brunt of the battle as heavy losses were being recorded daily. As Marshal Badeh has now confirmed, too, there were fifth columnists in the officer ranks who leaked information of plans to the terrorists, thus exposing the men to avoidable deaths.

    At a point, realising that this was the case, some of the men on the battle field fired at their commanding officer who they felt had been compromised or was condoning the practice. At another time, wives of officers deployed on the battle field demonstrated against the deployment of their husbands because of poor welfare provisions and the inexplicable loss of ground by the federal troops.

    ‘As the Army Public Relations Director, Col. Sani Usman, disclosed last week, the authorities have now realised that the men were innocent. This is one of the major arguments against the capital punishment. Had the men been executed after their conviction, what would have happened? Could they be brought back to life again?’

    It is surprising that Marshal Badeh saw no contradiction in his undue vilification of the media at his valedictory speech. On the one hand, he was confirming media reports; and on the other, abusing the reporters. It is the pastime of leaders, military or civilian, to blame their failure on the media. This should change. They should realise that Nigerians are intelligent people who could see through whatever games being played.

    The Buhari administration should look into the statute books and forward executive bills for overhaul of the justice delivery system. A halt must be put to needless shedding of human blood in the country. A major question that Marshal Badeh raised, even if inadvertently, was the need for us to probe the trillions we budgeted for defence, especially in the past few years that the Boko Haram insurgency escalated. If weapons were not bought for the soldiers, then what happened to the trillions?

     

  • Quest for renewable energy

    SIR: The world marches towards December United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21) Paris Climate Summit to know what effort governments are taking on how to cut emissions for the post 2020 period. Ahead of the conference this year, Nigeria inaugurated a nine-man inter-ministerial committee to prepare the framework for its active participation. Nigeria’s commitment should go beyond attending alone but also ensure national implementation of the climate change policies with reference to its obligation under the climate change convention and also the development of national policy on climate change.

    Some countries have promised to cut their emission. EU for instance promised to cut theirs by 40% by 2030 and Switzerland has promised 50%. For now, Nigeria has not made any declaration on percentage reduction on its climate emission but awareness on the need to shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy is on to save lives and the nation’s economy. Nigeria cannot ignore the need to reduce harmful effects of climate change and the call for an end to human activities that contribute to it. Shifting from fossil fuel to renewable energy will directly contribute to poverty alleviation by providing the energy needed for businesses and employment. Renewable energy technologies can also make indirect contributions to alleviating poverty by providing energy for cooking, space heating, lighting and contributing to education by providing electricity to schools.

    Nigeria must begin to institutionalise its development of energy efficiency and renewable energy with appropriate goals and objectives to increase the use of renewable energy resources in areas where grid extension is too costly and where opportunities for the use of renewables is needed. Nigerian government does not need subsidies for fossil fuels as it impedes the pace of the transition to renewable energy use. Likewise, market transformation mechanisms similar to that adopted in the developed countries which will encourage more rapid development of its energy efficiency and renewable energy potential should be explored.

    Active participation of Nigeria in the global climate change deliberation to negotiate a better deal for Nigeria and Africa is therefore necessary. The suggestion that oil-producing countries should be compensated for their projected income losses in the event of their energy diversification should be vigorously argued and canvassed. Nigeria can only be sure that its interest is protected in the emergent global reduction strategy if it increases its level of participation in climate awareness.

    It is imperative that full attention be paid to ways through which the Nigerian economy can be diversified and steered away from fossil fuels both in terms of production and consumption. No oil spills, no climate change, no radiation danger, no nuclear waste – renewable energy is simply the energy we can trust. We can achieve a Nigeria with 100 per cent renewable energy.

    • Bakare Wale,

    Ilorin, Kwara State

  • Banned!

    • It’s not enough to ban the 113 oil vessels, government must lay charges against their owners and their local collaborators

    The focus of the Buhari administration’s battle against impunity and brazen criminality appears to have shifted to the legion of foreign vessels facilitating illicit trade in the nation’s crude. Citing a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in a letter dated July 15, banned 113 crude oil tankers from engaging in crude oil, gas loading activities in any of the terminals within the Nigerian territorial waters. The affected vessels were also barred from movements within the nation’s territorial waters with immediate effect. The letter gave no reason(s).

    However, industry sources listed among possible reasons, alleged sharp practices in outturn figures –differences between the volume loaded and the figures eventually delivered at the port of discharge, and perhaps failures to settle port and maritime charges.

    Indeed, the global oil tanker industry association, INTERTANKO, may have admitted to much of the infractions when in a note to its members, the association’s general counsel, Michele White, observed: “Our current understanding is that these ships may have been targeted due to a failure to provide official outturn figures at their last call and/or commercial differences between load and discharge figures for cargo and free water”.

    Interestingly, the note was sequel to its protest letter to the NNPC requesting that the latter rescind the ban in the absence of “evidence or grounds” for the ban. The relevant portion of the letter read – “INTERTANKO protests in the strongest possible way that these bans should be lifted with immediate effect until grounds and evidence for the ban have been given to each vessel and vessel owner/operator, and the owner/operator has had an opportunity to respond.”

    We think the issues are quite clear. Nigeria as a sovereign country not only reserves the right to determine those who can do business within its territory, but also under what conditions such activities can take place. If merely in the context of the ongoing clean-up of the oil industry value chain, particularly the mess known to attend the trade and transportation of Nigeria’s crude, the measure would seem both apt and timely.

    INTERTANKO’s position is no doubt understandable.  The issue is whether the protection and defence of the rights and interests of its members can be regarded as superior to the strategic interests of a sovereign nation. Would INTERTANKO have preferred that the vessels be allowed to carry on despite what the body itself admitted to as possible corporate derelictions?

    Can INTERTANKO claim to be oblivious of the industrial scale theft of oil that has gone on for so long almost unchallenged in Nigeria’s maritime environment involving its members?  Would it have been too much to expect that the global tankers body collaborate with the Nigerian authorities to end a scourge sapping the nation’s juices while giving its members a bad name at the same time?

    At this point in time, the message must come clear from the Federal Government, that whereas the culture of denial – or playing the ostrich – may have served INTERTANKO and other such vested interests in the past, such has no place under the current presidency.

    That is not to say that the Federal Government does not have more work to do in this regard. Indeed, the ban can only be a first step. We expect the Federal Ministry of Justice to lay out specific charges bordering on economic crime against the offending vessels and their local collaborators, either locally or in foreign jurisdictions. The justice of it demands that the owners and their collaborators have their days in court. The same goes for functionaries in the NNPC, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the maritime security agencies. For once, the nation wants to see the lid lifted on the activities of specific functionaries whose roles contributed to bringing the economy to the current state.

  • Access vs. quality

    •The Federal Government should not interfere in varsity admissions

    The Federal Government’s decision to overrule a recent directive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) does little to help resolve the admissions crisis currently facing the country’s universities, in spite of its avowed good intentions.

    In an attempt to streamline the near-chaotic situation in popular universities which regularly attract far more candidates than they can possibly admit, JAMB had, at its 2015 Combined Policy Meeting, directed that applicants for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) would be reassigned to other universities with lower numbers of applicants.

    Based on that decision, schools like the universities of Ibadan, Ilorin, Lagos, Calabar and Benin, as well as Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, were sent lists of candidates which excluded those who had been assigned to other schools which were not their first-choice institutions. In addition, the University of Lagos took the opportunity to raise its cut-off marks for the post-UTME to 250 from the 180-mark minimum approved by JAMB as a means of further reducing the pool of candidates to manageable levels.

    These measures have led to protests by parents, students and other stakeholders who argue that it is unjust to ostensibly change the rules in the middle of the game. It was apparently in response to this outcry that the Federal Government overruled JAMB.

    While government may have acted from the best of motives, it must be realised that intervening in the actions of a government agency with a specific mandate is not the best thing to do.  JAMB’s measures were aimed at partially resolving the so-called crisis of access that has continued to bedevil tertiary education. About 1.475 million students sat the UTME in 2015. There are places for only about 30 per cent of that number; in the 2012-2013 academic session, the nation’s then -128 universities admitted just 520,000 candidates out of the 1.735 million who sought admission.

    Government’s intervention does nothing to solve this recurring problem. Several schools have been swamped by far more candidates than they have the capacity to admit. About 85,495 UTME applicants sought admission to University of Ilorin; University of Benin got 60,020 applicants. Even if they exceed their admission quotas as they are known to do, none of these schools will admit up to 10,000 candidates each.

    It is clear that the issues are much more fundamental than just those of admission. Universities are by definition competitive entities reserved for those who have the intellectual ability to secure entry to them. The huge numbers seeking admission are indicative of an institutional anomaly characterised by the lack of viable alternatives like sound vocational education, the widespread disregard for other forms of tertiary education and the overwhelming preference for white-collar jobs.

    By compelling universities to reopen their gates to students who met the minimum cut-off marks initially specified by JAMB, government has simply reinstituted the problem without solving it. Once again, universities are going to witness chaotic scenes as post-UTME venues are forced to accommodate more candidates than they can cater for. Fraudsters and other criminals will have a field day ripping off desperate parents and applicants. Candidates who never had a realistic chance of getting into their preferred schools will see their hopes frustrated for yet another year.

    Nigeria can no longer afford to turn its annual university admission process into a mad rush in which thousands of hapless candidates suffer needlessly. Rather than interfere in the work of JAMB, government should simply scrap it and permit universities to set their own admission criteria. It should focus its energies on offering workable alternatives in vocational education, upgrade qualified monotechnics and polytechnics to universities, and expand the scope of other forms of tertiary education. Only then will the country no longer have to make the false choice between access and quality.

  • Unapologetically venal?

    Unapologetically venal?

    Rallying for its leadership, without addressing the alleged forgery at its election, only diminishes the Senate  

    Closing ranks for legislative sovereignty cannot be a bad idea. For one, the presidential system sits on a strong pillar of clear separation of powers; and its handmaiden, checks-and-balances. The legislature is therefore constitutionally primed as a bulwark against executive excesses.

    For another, by Nigeria’s unfortunate political history, the legislature is the least developed, no thanks to a relay of military coups that lay this polity prostrate in the past. Each time a coup d’état broke the democratic order, only the legislature got buried under its rubble. The executive continued in business — and even purported to constitute itself into some junta legislative assembly, rolling out decrees. So, did the judiciary, many times condemned to interpreting harsh laws.

    So, if the current 8th Senate of the Federal Republic is ultra-sensitive on its independence, the least it expects of other stakeholders is empathy. We grant the Senate that — so long as its angst is founded on solid legality, sound morality and crystal-clear conscience.

    Which is why we wonder what the Senate hopes to achieve by its current vote of confidence in its leadership, under Senate President Bukola Saraki, despite a police investigation which showed Senator Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, might have been elected by crooked procedure.

    Even with the slightest whiff of illegality, what is that vote of confidence worth? That the Senate, supposed bastion of law, embraces a leadership that came about via an alleged willful rape of its own rules? Or that, even with the unsavoury direction of police investigations into the matter, the majority in that distinguished chamber are unapologetically venal? We sincerely hope not!

    These are the allegations, which police investigation has all but confirmed as a “forgery”. On June 9, the extant Senate rule, at the legislature’s prorogation, was Standing Orders 2007 (as amended). For the Saraki/Ekweremadu elections however, Standing Orders 2015 (as amended) — the alleged forgery — was used.

    Thereafter, a segment of the Senate petitioned the police, alleging an illegal insert into “Standing Orders 2007 (as amended)”, gave birth to the “forgery” dubbed “Standing Orders 2015 (as amended)”, claiming no such amendment existed. Across party lines, many members of the 7th Senate confirmed indeed that the extant rule, as at the end of the 7th Senate, was Standing Orders 2007.

    Besides, the process to amend Standing Orders is clear: a senator pushing the amendment would write the senate president; his proposed amendments, if approved by half of the seated (after forming a quorum) would be debated at plenary. After the debate, two-thirds would then agree before the amendment is passed.

    So, if “Standing Orders 2007 as amended” was the signing-off rule at the 7th Senate, and the 8th Senate was prorogued the day senators Saraki and Ekweremadu were “elected” to their posts, who then sat to amend “Standing Orders 2007 as amended” to produce “Standing Orders 2015 as amended”?

    This is the notorious query awaiting an urgent answer — and not even a million “votes of confidence” can wish it away, if the Senate must retain Nigerians’ trust and respect.

    Now, let us get something straight: politicians play games; and we hold no brief for any of the blocs across the divide. The bloc that screams “party supremacy” as its war cry has its motive. So does the bloc that yells “legislative independence”.  None of them we dare say, from the configuration of Nigeria’s current real-politik, would probably bow to principle qua principle, if that principle is not laced with some current power exigency. That is unfortunate; and only further political evolution in the right direction would cure it — hopefully with time.

    But political rascality and alleged forgery, a willful and premeditated crime to illicitly and illegally skew the process, are not quite the same thing. That is the unflattering situation staring at the Senate, “vote of confidence” or not.

    That is why those trying to launder this alleged crime must clamber off their silly horse. Even if Saraki and Ekweremadu didn’t know of the forgery — if proven — that alone cannot clear them of culpability. At best, they would be receivers of stolen goods, and a terrible moral burden to the Senate.

    Even then, as motives go, they both would appear not beyond fair suspicion. Saraki “won” the election with the whole 49 opposition senators and a smattering of his own ruling party senators, at a time when majority of his own party senators were away at an aborted meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. Ekweremadu is a beneficiary from the alleged forgery; and he was, as former deputy senate president, also part of the National Assembly management under the ancien regime.   Former Senate President, David Mark, also among the bulk PDP senators that supported the Saraki-Ekweremadu election, is also in the loop. So, is the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikisuwa, the highest ranking bureaucrat in the National Assembly management.

    So, the least the Senate could do, for its own collective sanity and brand equity, is quietly letting the law run its full course — instead of some laughable bluff and bluster, masquerading as “vote of confidence”.

    If indeed forgery is judicially proven, there is technically no leadership to pass — or refuse — a vote of confidence. An election erected on a crooked law cannot stand. If, however, all within legitimate suspicion are cleared, the Senate would have demonstrated its robust commitment to law and due process.

    In ancient Athens, the Areopagus — the equivalent of the modern Senate — was peopled by nobles of high learning and even higher character. In Rome, the Senate, despite the proclivity of individuals, was home to the finest of Romans. The Nigerian Senate cannot afford a lesser pedestal, in this crucial era of building Nigerian democracy.

    That is why it must toe the path of patriotism and nobility, not venality and banality, in this latest scandal of alleged forgery involving its leadership.

  • A breakthrough indeed

    Discovery of vaccine for prevention of malaria among the young is a great relief, but a call to duty for African scientists and governments to adequately fund researches

    News that scientists have at last resolved the puzzle posed by malaria in the past centuries has been well received all over the world. The fact that Europe has endorsed the findings and a vaccine produced for the purpose by GlaxoSmithkline has been licensed by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) must have brought relief for many in Africa. By last year, not less than 20 researchers were said to be approaching a breakthrough in the quest to come up with a vaccine that could prevent the disease.

    Malaria has been a major source of worry for parents, especially in Africa, who usually have the unpleasant task of burying their children lost to malaria. The young ones are the most vulnerable as they are exposed to the fury of the Plasmodium parasite responsible for transmitting the deadly ailment that claims the lives of about 600,000 young ones in Africa every year because they are yet to come up with the immunity required. The high mortality rate made malaria the leading killer disease in the continent and thus a major challenge to all – governments, employers, workers, civil society groups, medical authorities, scientists, families, traditional authorities and the general public.

    In many of the least developed countries in the continent, treatment of the patients remains a huge challenge as the drugs are either unavailable or unaffordable. They are thus forced to rely on age-long herbs that have not benefited from advances made in science. While the efficacy of the herbs is not in doubt, there are genuine concerns about appropriate dosage, toxicity and side effects. There have been suggestions that multinational drug manufacturing companies in the West have blocked final endorsement of local researches, this might not fully explain the lethargy by the authorities and thus the slow pace of advances.

    Malaria is not ravaging only the young ones, adults have not been spared either. Although they largely survive, so many man-hours are lost by workers who come down with it. The continent loses so much of its inadequate resources to treating the sick, thus necessitating the quest for a vaccine.

    The endorsement by the European authorities is a critical step forward but it is not time to halt research. The adults, too, deserve a relief. Besides, the mosquitrix still calls for fine-tuning as it has to be regularly reinforced to be effective. Careless parents could forget to top it up, thus leading to failure.

    The region deserves to free resources for the challenge of development and the scientists must continue until they achieve a total breakthrough on an ailment that was once the nemesis of colonialists and missionaries from Europe. Many took ill and died before they could receive help. And, that was at a time that there was actually no potent cure.

    It is an irony that the theatre for waging the scientific war is mainly in Australia, Europe and North America; not much is being done, let alone achieved in this wise in Africa that is bearing the brunt. This attitude must change if we expect the world to respect us. African medical challenges deserve more serious attention by her scientists, backed by the governments. It is not enough to complain that research efforts were being frustrated by European authorities and the World Health Organisation. African leaders must take the lead in the crusade for relevant development. Local research efforts into other largely tropical diseases such as the sickle cell anaemia must be stepped up, while the spread of those ailments and diseases hitherto considered foreign, too, must receive adequate attention.

    While we welcome this cheering news, we note that the challenge is still enormous. It is not yet time to drop the guard.

  • Succour for a blind man

    •Governor Ambode’s humanitarian gesture for the columnist should be an example

    Apart from being a commendable demonstration of personal compassion, the intervention of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, in the sad situation of Mr. Wole Falodun is a striking expression of his understanding of institutional integrity. It is impressive that the Lagos State Government responded to the news of Falodun’s plight within 24 hours.

    After PUNCH Metro on July 22, 2015, reported Falodun’s troubles following a problematic eye surgery at the Lagos Island General Hospital, Ambode promptly directed that he should be invited for a discussion. Falodun, a former correspondent of Radio Nigeria and an ex-columnist who in the 1970s wrote the popular column Waka About in the defunct Lagos Weekend, reportedly went blind as a result of a surgeon’s error during a glaucoma operation in 1995.

    According to the story, Falodun had sought the help of the then Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and had a meeting with Tinubu in February 2002 following a letter he wrote to him in May 2001. Tinubu had reportedly promised that the state would take care of Falodun on humanitarian grounds, specifically through financial support and by ensuring the education of his three children through the “state scholarship board and other convenient options”. These promises are yet to be fulfilled 13 years after, the report said.

    It is a measure of the sensitivity of the Ambode administration that its immediate response came through a statement by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Tunji Bello, which said: “According to the Governor, the Secretary to the State Government is to establish contact with Mr. Wole Falodun and collect details of promises made by his predecessors in office and ensure that they are forwarded to him for immediate action. The governor said the promises were not personal, but made on behalf of the state government.”

    Significantly, the SSG’s statement also said: “This singular move is a demonstration of the commitment of this administration to the plight of its citizenry and it will ensure that promises made to Lagosians are fulfilled.”

    It must be appreciated that Ambode’s logic of sensible continuity is a remarkable departure from the familiar path of unreasonable discontinuity commonly adopted by political helmsmen in the country. It takes a humble appreciation of the reality of predecessors and successors in government for a governor to decide to give effect to promises made by a previous holder of the position. In particular, the beauty of Ambode’s intervention is that it is not driven by any implication of the liability of the state government arising from the alleged negligence of the doctor who performed the surgery that went awry.

    While Falodun’s present circumstances are unlikely to be the same as they were when the government at the time promised to help lighten his burden, it is expected that the Ambode administration will nevertheless address his current state of affairs with a sense of seriousness. It is unfortunate that Falodun’s eye problem was ironically and terribly worsened in the course of medical treatment. However, it is hoped that, with the assistance of the state government, he would be able to cope better with his physical disability.

    Certainly, there is a lesson for medical workers in Falodun’s pathetic tale. In the delicate business of surgery and in the delivery of medical remedies generally, health personnel cannot care too much or be too careful. The consequences of human mistakes in the context of health care can be agonising as Falodun’s case has shown.

    It has been a long wait for Falodun, and now that a listening administration is willing to act and give much-needed succour, there should be no further delay.

  • Resolving the Senate crisis

    SIR: It is disheartening to note that the credibility crisis befalling the Senate may not be over so soon going by the latest confirmation by the police of an alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders used for electing the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The report, which was said to have been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari, was said to have found the management of the National Assembly and the Clerk, Salisu Maikasuwa, culpable.

    Acting on a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi of the APC, the police had earlier quizzed both Ekweremadu and Maikasuwa over the allegation. The petitioner had claimed that some parts of the 2015 Senate Orders were different from the ones ratified by the 6th Senate in 2010, which was used by the 7th Senate as Standing Orders in 2011.

    Despite denial of falsification by the Senate leadership, some senators who served in the 7th Senate have disowned the 2015 edition of the Senate Standing Orders (as amended) just as members of the current 8th Senate across parties have denied being part of the amendment process. No doubt, the 8th National Assembly has been riddled with acrimony from day one thus affecting its credibility for a nation that is seriously yearning for good governance.

    The crisis in the Upper Chamber has created avoidable tension and wreaked havoc by putting the APC leadership in disarray, making it virtually impossible for the legislators to do any significant work since inauguration in June.

    We expect both the Senate President and his deputy to have stepped aside by now while further investigations continue since the police investigation has established that the rules used for their elections were allegedly forged. Unfortunately, politicians in this part of the world do not seem to be sensitive to such calls to allow for transparency and diligent investigation. Rather, what we heard after the police report was submitted was that the Senate unanimously passed a vote of confidence on its president, his deputy and other principal officers appointed by the various caucuses of the chamber following a motion sponsored by 81 senators from both the APC and PDP!

    The crisis in both chambers of the National Assembly could have been avoided if members had obeyed and honoured the arrangements put in place by their political party; afterall they were voted into the parliament on that platform. The principle of party supremacy should have faithfully been observed and upheld. What those who have decided to work against the instructions of their political parties fail to realise is that they are gradually destroying their political future in the sense that by such disobedience, many people would perceive them as being untrustworthy, inconsistent and over-ambitious. Hence, what looks like a temporary gain could actually be a colossal loss for them on the long run.

    As a way forward, the Buhari administration should ensure that those found culpable in the forgery saga are made to face the full wrath of the law within a reasonable time. The APC should explore a more decisive way to call their members to order in the interest of the nation as we cannot continue this way. The business of legislation is too sensitive, important and strategic to democratic governance that it should be sacrificed on the altar of mere party politics.

    • Adewale Kupoluyi

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Bad boys back

    Lagos Governor and Commissioner of Police should crush the new highway robbers

    Once upon a time, Lagos was a city as model for gangster robbers. Christmas season was a season of joy for them because they raided banks, markets and homes of the well-heeled. The major arteries like the Third Mainland Bridge, Ikorodu Road, Mile 12, Agege Motor Road and quite a few others were always parked with cars crawling in traffic snarls and rippling with fear.

    The hoodlums bore sophisticated arms and defiant hoods or naked faces. They shot into the air, broke into banks, hacked into private homes, held whole streets hostage or a whole swath of a major road. They operated for as long as they wanted and left without dread of any arrests of the police. Sometimes the police knew but recoiled from attack because they were ill-equipped for the sophisticated weaponry of the lawless men.

    With the deployment of heavy arms, other surveillance infrastructure as well as personnel, the gangsters have retreated and are rare. But a new set of bad boys now parade the streets and major arteries. They do harm. They threaten, steal, rob, maim, and introduce what was once a history to the profile of the city’s crime.

    But this trend has been on the rise in the past year. With the coming of the dispensation of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, they are trying to take advantage of a government about to settle down. They have been working with relentless defiance in some parts of lagos. They include, Oshodi-Oke and Oshodi –Isale, Mile 12, Iyana Oworo, Mile 2/Apapa axis, CMS, Apongbon and Ijora Bridge.

    The bad boys are quite clever and imaginative in their devilry. They take advantage of the general fear of traffic commuters. So they pick a car or van, and they ask the driver and the other occupants of the vehicle to wind down their side glasses. If they do not obey, they threaten to do harm. Sometimes they place their hands in a pocket and threaten to zip out a gun or knife. If the commuter does not oblige, they actually bring out the weapon and brandish it.

    This immediately inspires a mortal fear in the victims. Those who yield and wind down their glasses are compelled to do away with their valuables, including money, cell phones, laptops, jewellery and other valuables.

    Some of them hold guns and others knives. In quite a few happy instances, they have no weapons and the threats are nothing but bluster. But there is no way of telling an empty threat from a real monster.

    Their rhetoric often are loaded with street epithets and delivered in the base register of a warrior and faces of extreme skullduggery.  The irony is that this happens sometimes in broad day light in presence of other commuters or at night, also in the presence of other commuters. But the victim bears his or her ordeal alone as though on a lonely street.

    The worry about this trend is civil silence. Other commuters are afraid for their own security and so do not help the victim, who is painfully one of them.  The other point is that the cases are not reported to the police, and that creates official ignorance of the scale of crime as well as of the hot spots. Knowledge has been spread by word of mouth mostly, and that is how it is becoming common knowledge.

    The commissioner of police has started to step up police presence in some of the major places of horror, especially the Third Mainland Bridge. But a lot more needs to be done, as most of the areas are still nests of evil for the vermin of society. The governor will work with the police, and that is how the scourge can go away and Lagos can return to the quiet it deserves.

  • Arepo again!

    Arepo again!

    The pipeline vandals must be stopped before the place escalates to a state within a state

    Barely six weeks after the contract for the protection of pipelines at the Arepo area of Ogun State awarded by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to men of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) was terminated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a major fire incident erupted, following a clash between two rival gangs whose members stormed the corporation’s facility in the area to scoop fuel on July 22. Many of them were said to have been killed in the fire that erupted in System 2B pipeline. The NNPC subsequently cut off supplies to the affected pipelines.

    Arepo, Ogun State, has become notorious more for the activities of pipeline vandals that continue to ply their illegal trade there than for the peaceful settlement that it is supposed to be. Indeed, the activities of the vandals have continued to cause nightmares to residents there, some of whom had died in cross-fires between the vandals and security men.

    A similar fire incident occurred barely a month ago when vandals struck in the area, and another incident about six weeks ago when vandals ambushed and shot, in cold blood, five policemen deployed to secure the area. In September 2012, vandals killed three members of staff of NNPC who were sent to repair vandalised pipes there. Between September 2012 and April 2013, about four incidents of vandalism occurred in Arepo,  claiming several lives.

    The question now is: who is responsible for protecting the area after the pipeline security contract awarded to the OPC was terminated? Obviously no one appeared to be in charge and the vandals simply had a field day, given reports after the fire incident. Two examples buttress this point. One, rescuers reportedly had problems getting to the scene not only because of the raging fire, but also because of fear of attack by the vandals. Secondly, two photojournalists who went there to cover the incident were abducted by the vandals who mistook them for security agents. They were brutalised and merely escaped death by the whiskers. We do not know if there were others that were not that lucky.

    This impunity should not continue. The country cannot keep tolerating the existence of a state within a state. Why should hoodlums keep holding the country to ransom? How could the nation have been living with so many fires in the same place without the authorities seeking a permanent solution to the problem? Part of the reasons though is the government’s unseriousness. For instance, rather than see the problem for the security challenge that it is, the Jonathan presidency turned it into ‘job for the boys’ by putting the security of the pipelines in the hands of ethnic militias.

    Fuel pipelines are national assets and should be so treated by the government. Arepo has become a haven for pipeline vandals apparently because the illicit trade has been found to be lucrative by those involved in it. Yet, the nation loses whenever the vandals smile to the banks. But the situation in Arepo merely reflects the shoddy handling of the country’s cash cow, the oil sector.

    These impunities and corruption must stop now that there is a new government in place. The country cannot continue to bleed from all angles. So, the Buhari administration must give the marching orders to the relevant agencies to wake up to their responsibilities. Technology has made surveillance of such critical infrastructure like the pipelines easier. So, why is it not possible for the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to take advantage of this to monitor activities in the pipeline corridors?

    In addition, the government must be ready to arm the relevant security agents with the sophisticated weapons befitting of their assignment. Yes, the vandals are usually well armed; they cannot be seen to overwhelm the state which naturally should be in control of the instruments of coercion.