The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Degrees in prison

    • NOUN results of four inmates encouraging but there is room for improvement

    Unlikely news from the Nigerian Prisons Service shows that the country’s much-criticised prison system is not without redeeming features and not beyond redemption. The controller-general of the organisation, Dr. Peter Ekpendu, highlighted remarkable positives at a workshop on Prisons Welfare Insurance Scheme in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. According to him, “Four inmates of the Nigerian Prisons Service have graduated from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), with three obtaining 2.1, while the other obtained 2.2.”

    Noteworthy among these caged academic stars is Theophilus Adeniyi, an inmate awaiting trial who made a second class upper degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the NOUN Enugu Prison study centre. He received three awards for excellence, including N50, 000 cash prize as the best student. Indeed, it is a reflection of the possibilities, even behind bars, that Adeniyi was able to continue his education and take it to a logical conclusion. He was reportedly a final-year political science student at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) before his arrest in connection with a communal crisis.

    It is important to observe that the academic achievements of these inmates may have as much to do with their personal ambition and commitment to success as with an atmosphere conducive to learning. Significantly, Ekpendu was quoted as saying to other inmates during the convocation: “I heard a number of you registered for Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. We shall do our best to ensure that you are comfortable to the best of our ability.”

    The striking picture of academic accomplishments in prison is worthy of focus because it underscores the reformatory essence of imprisonment. More and more, the modern-day jail is envisioned as a place of possible reformation and reconstruction, and it is reassuring that this concept is appreciated and captured by the prisons chief. Ekpendu said: “There are six directorates in the Prisons Service, with one dedicated to the training of inmates in skill acquisition and productivity. One of the cardinal objectives for which prison is set up is to train inmates for worthwhile careers after their terms.”

    Against this background, it makes sense that the vision of improvement is not restricted to the academic activities of inmates, but accommodates their practical involvement in similarly useful areas such as farming, carpentry and tailoring, among others. This range of opportunities for personal development can always be expanded by the prison authorities for the benefit of inmates. It must be emphasised that at the end of the day, encouraging inmates to be better people not only morally but also vocationally is in the best interest of the society.

    To be realistic, coping with post-prison stigma will always be a predictable challenge for inmates; and the role and value of learning and training for life outside jail cannot be over-emphasised. In this connection, it is reasonable to consider parole possibilities for inmates who demonstrate a capacity for change based on academic attainments within the prison walls or other positive criteria.

    Certainly, the narratives of the new graduate inmates make a striking statement about the possible usefulness of adversity. However, the remarkable success stories should not make the authorities blind to the urgent need to re-imagine and restructure the country’s prison system. The problems of overcrowding, poor feeding, inadequate medical facilities, and generally rotten infrastructure, to mention a few, continue to discredit the prison system and deserve to be addressed with greater seriousness.

    The truth is that celebrating academic efforts and brilliance in the country’s prisons cannot obscure the bigger reality of the unacceptably primitive conditions inmates face during their terms.

  • Leadership lesson from Buhari

    SIR: Students of management and leadership across the world must be surprised at the criticism against the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the 2015 general election, Muhammadu Buhari, by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the leading opposition candidate shared leadership when he was Nigeria’s military head of state from 1983 to 1985 and chairman of the Petroleum (Special)  Trust Fund (PTF) from 1994 to 1999. Admittedly, Buhari’s deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, was in those days perceived to be so powerful that the military regime  was known in the popular media as the Buhari-Idiagbon regime. Almost all major government policies and decisions were announced by Idiagbon, who was chief of staff at the supreme headquarters.

    The world must be intrigued by the criticism against Buhari because contemporary leadership scholars, researchers and practitioners  are agreed that the notion that leadership is about one man bestriding the stage like a colossus is old fashioned and discredited. The notion is known as the messiah syndrome, according to Peter Guy Northouse, author of the famous book, Leadership: Theory and Practice. In place of the one-man hero idea of leadership which is referred to as personality and trait leadership, scholars now canvass what is called distributed or shared leadership. It seeks to bring on board as many people as possible. You can call it democracy in action.

    I have in a recent essay shown that Buhari has a reputation of empowering subordinates, stating that this is a good leadership practice. I cited the instance of Tam David-West, his minister of petroleum resources, who has on occasion stated that Buhari never for once interfered with his work by asking him to employ a particular individual or promote another or assign any a person to certain responsibilities or even to consider a firm for a contract award. He trusted his ministers and other aides, and so gave them a free hand to discharge their responsibilities. Interestingly researchers in management science, especially those involved in human resource development, now make a strong case for what is called employee empowerment. This is a concept which supports  granting employees a free hand to do their work but also assigning higher responsibilities to them, which will see them develop and grow in their career paths.

    Nigeria is essentially a traditional society, so a number of even professionals and intellectuals are still very conservative, if not out of touch with modern ideas and practice. This is why some of them are in this day and age still critical of Buhari’s shared leadership style, instead of praising it for being superior to some other leadership styles. These are elements still enamoured of the big man concept, the very leadership disease which has paralysed Africa for several decades. Rather than make our leaders feel that they are truly the servants of the people, these elements make  them feel like lords and conquerors of their own people.

    By seeking to paint him as an ineffective leader because he empowered competent subordinates and practised shared leadership as military head of state at a time distributed leadership had not become a popular concept, especially on a continent notorious for absolute dictatorship,  the PDP and its operatives have unwittingly  portrayed Buhari as a man ahead of his generation. Students, researchers and authors  will find Buhari a rewarding study in leadership even in a military regime. He does provide useful management and leadership lessons.

    • C. Don Adinuba

    Lagos

  • Teenager stowaway

    • More attention at airports will avert further incidents

    Security breaches have led to several cases of stowaways, especially teenage stowaways, at some of our airports. The most recent of such incident occurred at the private general aviation Execujet terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on February 1, when the commanding pilot of an aircraft detected a teenage boy in the tyre compartment of the aircraft operated by Tag Aviation. The aircraft was said to have flown in a former Minister of Petroleum, Chief Dan Etete, into the Lagos Airport the previous night, and parked at the private hangar from where it was expected to take off on February 1 before the teenager, Samuel Ogundeyi, was caught in its tyre compartment.

    The teenager was said to have been discovered at about 12 noon when pilots of the aircraft marked M-MYNA were carrying out a routine inspection on it. When Ogundeyi was interrogated, he reportedly said that he was able to cross the L18 runway over to the Execujet facility located at the international wing of the airport at night when he “noticed there was no flight landing or taking off on the runway”. The teenager also confessed that he entered the hangar through the facility of the Headquarters, Air Defence Corps of the Nigerian Air Force located next to the Presidential VIP Lounge in the airport, on January 31, with the help of somebody he identified as his brother.

    Arrests of teenager stowaways , usually boys, are becoming worrisome, especially as the incidents were caused by security breach in our airports. A few years back, we had a similar case of a teenager stowaway who was arrested in Lagos.

    Indeed, we have had several other cases of security breaches at some of our airports. For instance, some animals had strayed into the runways while even vehicles had crashed into some of the areas within the airport complexes. These incidents are bad advertisement for the country’s airports as they portray them as insecure.

    We are particularly bothered about the circumstances driving young Nigerians to desperately want to leave the country for abroad without minding the attendant risk to their lives. On August 24, 2013, a teenager stowaway, Daniel Ohikhena, followed an Arik Air plane from Benin to Lagos, thinking the plane was going abroad. He said he was disappointed when he eventually found out that the plane landed in Lagos. Although we can understand the cases of adults trying to check out of the country (as symbolised by “Andrew”) for greener pastures, the cases of teenager stowaways may portray Nigeria as a difficult country to live in, even by teenagers probably as a result of neglect, poverty and squalor.

    This is despite the fact that attractive as the idea of going abroad for better life is, the risks are equally enormous, because all that glitters is not gold. After all, the bodies of stowaways have been found in aircraft while some of those who arrived their destinations abroad safely were shamefully deported.

    The government’s job appears well cut out for it as far as these twin issues of security at our airports and unemployment are concerned. First, we need to provide adequate security in our airports because these security breaches have grave implications for passengers, especially in these days of insurgency and terror. So, the Nigerian Air Force and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) should wake up to see to it that our airports are safe.

    And, in order to prevent further occurrences of teenager stowaways in our country, our government should try as much as possible to make life worth living for all Nigerians, irrespective of age, caste, creed or colour. That is the only way Ogundeyi’s incident would be the last.

  • Is Mbu above the law?

    •Lawlessness begets lawlessness and an officer of the law who brims with impunity is a threat to peace

    What shall we have to do to get members of our uniformed corps thatinclude the police, military, paramilitary and security agencies, to respect the basic rules and laws governing the society? Over the years, we have been faced with the problems of unruliness and disdain for rules of engagement with members of the public in the daily run of business.

    Through the years, men and women in various uniforms have almost had as much run-ins with ordinary, law-abiding citizens as with outlaws. Hardly any week seems to pass without one reported case of infraction, bordering on intimidation, humiliation and unwarranted show of brute force. Often these altercations result in deaths, serious bodily injuries or unlawful detention.

    Recently, a police officer reportedly brutalised a couple with the butt of his gun, almost blinding them, over a minor argument. There was another recent case of plain-clothed security men suspected to be members of the Department of State Security (DSS) brutalising and indeed hauling off to an unknown destination, hapless workers at a tollgate within the precincts of the airport at Ikeja, Lagos.

    However, the incident on January 29, 2015 at Toll Plaza 1 on the Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos, must give every discerning Nigerian a cause for worry. It involved the newly deployed Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone 2, Mr. Joseph Mbu. As the story went, the new police boss was traversing the toll facility on this day at about 6.00 pm in a convoy of about six police vehicles and an armoured van. As reported, for failing to allow the convoy a speedy, unhindered passage, some men in AIG Mbu’s entourage invaded the ‘offending’ toll booth, manhandled the operator and bundled him and three policemen attached to the plaza into their vehicle. They were later detained for about one week at Makoko Police Station without charge.

    According to a release by the toll operators, the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), published on January 31, what transpired at the toll facility can be described as a blatant show of power and abuse of office. There was no demand whatsoever for the vehicles in the convoy of the AIG to pay toll, they were only required to allow a few seconds for the vehicles to be processed as exempt vehicles as the rules demanded.

    But the AIG and his men apparently felt affronted that the operator did not allow them unhindered passage. They would not suffer a moment’s ‘delay’ and no other explanation made sense than to ‘teach’ everyone in sight a lesson. Even fellow policemen on duty at the plaza had to be humiliated as well.

    AIG Mbu was just a few days in his new posting when this incident happened. What a comeback for an officer of the law who already bears the tag of ‘Mr. Controversial’, arising from his  barbaric role as Commissioner of Police in Rivers State recently! As a senior police officer, Mbu must crave to epitomise the very best of conduct at all times in order to maintain the sanctity of and serve as a shining example for the institution he represents.

    Mr. Mbu is also remembered for sending his boys to practically abduct a journalist of the African Independent Television (AIT) even as he was presenting a programme in the studio. The presenter had merely described him as a controversial police officer. These are very poor conducts not expected from a high level officer.

    Impatience, unruliness, disdain for rules and conventions and the kind of impunity that arises from a messiah complex seem to characterise the conduct of some senior security, military and law enforcement officers. Need we admonish that the law is the law and there are no separate laws for different people.

    We urge our officers of the law to always conduct themselves with utmost decorum and dignity, bearing in mind that their uniforms and even the arms they bear are veritable totems for maintaining the sanctity of the law and never for abusing the citizenry.

  • Ajimobi and second term jinx

    SIR: In recent political dispensations in Oyo State, what started as a mere political routine was allowed to be turned to a jinx. Unfortunately, that jinx has almost graduated to a taboo. That is the so-called second term syndrome. It is very ridiculous that those who are now attempting to turn it into a taboo did not deify it until they themselves failed in their second term bid. If it was a taboo, why did they themselves seek a re-election bid the first instance?

    First of all, the record must be put straight. Between 2003 and 2011, the PDP had a second term in Oyo State. If because of his administrative ineptitude, Rasidi Ladoja failed to get the second term ticket of his party, should the gods of Oyo State be blamed for that? Should the burden of his inability to manage his success between 2003 and 2007 be put on the people of Oyo State? Certainly not. His political indiscretion at that time indicated his inability to manage a cordial relationship with the state House of Assembly.

    In the case of ex-Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala his successor, his priority was the consolidation of his grips of the party structure in the state. He did that bearing in mind the fragile nature of his emergence from the moment of Ladoja’s impeachment. This was further complicated by his sudden political orphanage with the death of Adedibu. Suddenly, he found himself in the forefront of the battle against Ladoja.

    At that stage, he had to resort to extraneous agencies of political pressure groups in order to fortify himself on the political landscape. The first port of call was the drivers union – the NURTW. That group was not only factionalized but polarized. The state of unease in which the state was thrown into can never be forgotten by the good people of Oyo State in a hurry. It was in that state of socio-political insecurity that the 2011 election took place. The people of the state who were eagerly looking for a respite from their heightened anxiety found solace in the then ACN and Ajimobi, its flag-bearer.

    The question to ask in respect of the much talked about continuity in Oyo State is what is it for Ajimobi to continue in Oyo State. The first and the most precious is the peaceful serenity across the state at the moment. The point must be stressed that it is this serene atmosphere in which the state has been breathing that gives room to the socio-economic stride of the state in the last four years of Ajimobi administration.

    There is also the need for continuity in the road networks which Ajimobi had opened across the state. This can be quantified in various dualizations and over-head bridges which he had embarked on. Another area where continuity is desired is in the attraction of business investments. The Technical University which remains a pet project of the Ajimobi administration also needs to be brought to fruition.

     

    • Agboola Sanni,
  • On tape, a bastion of bandits

    On tape, a bastion of bandits

    •An independent body must probe the audiotape that suggests the Ekiti gubernatorial poll was rigged, if this democracy were not to enthrone scoundrels in government houses

    As gubernatorial candidate, he was brash and boastful, claiming he would, hands down, defeat the incumbent governor.

    As governor-elect, he inspired a mob to invade the courts, mug judges, batter lawyers and rend court documents, just to stall an ongoing case against him.

    As governor, he is the very epitome of gubernatorial banditry. He aided and abetted the subversion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, with scandalous collusion by the Ekiti State Police Command. Seven members (and three ghosts) purportedly “impeached” the lawful Speaker, in a House of 26 members. To start a House deliberation, the quorum is nine; and to remove the Speaker, the two-third majority required is 18. None of these two conditions was satisfied. Yet, he insisted on working with this legally non-existent legislature.

    Then, he placed the Ekiti 2015 Appropriation Bill before this apparition.  Finally, stranger than fiction, he signed into “law” this phoney document, vetted by legislative ghosts. That is a cardinal constitutional crime: the Appropriation Act is about the most important law in a democracy; for the executive may not touch public money, without the strict authorisation by the people, represented by parliament, their representatives.

    That, so far, is the gubernatorial profile of Ayo Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State. What spirit drives this governor into fatal distraction; and steadily, it would appear, into sure self-destruction?

    Rigging audiotapes

    The clue would appear the Ekiti rigging audiotape, which captured the alleged voice of two security ministers, a brigadier-general in the Nigerian Army and top hierarchs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), feuding on plans to rig the Ekiti governorship election, which Mr. Fayose eventually “won”. The tape was released by Sahara Reporters, an online news portal, which has since followed up the release with an interview of Captain Koli, the whistle blower, on Sahara Reporters TV, an online TV.

    The tape was leaked by Capt. Sagir Koli, an intelligence officer working under Brig-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, allegedly in charge of the rigging operation. Voices captured on the tape allegedly belong to Ayo Fayose, then PDP candidate for the Ekiti governorship, Musiliu Obanikoro, then minister of state for Defence (Army), Jelili Awosiyan, then — and still is — Minister of Police Affairs, Iyiola Omisore, former senator and PDP gubernatorial candidate for the State of Osun, later.  The rigging brew, allegedly being cooked in Ekiti, would also be used in Osun.  Then the voices of Brig-Gen. Momoh (mostly on the defensive, for alleged charge of ineffectiveness, and Capt. Koli.

    Another alleged principal actor in the saga was Chris Uba, the political wheeler-dealer from Anambra State, involved in the Chris Ngige kidnap saga, when he was governor of Anambra State.  Mr. Uba’s voice was not, however, captured in the tape, though his name was mentioned when a harried Brig-Gen. Momoh revealed that he “with Oga Chris” had made some illicit arrests of political opponents — All Progressives Congress (APC) members — of the PDP candidates.

    The virtual Tower of Babel, from the tape recording, emanated from irate complaints, by Mr. Fayose, that Brig-Gen. Momoh had not delivered on his mandate by the rigging plan, with his “boys” arresting the rigging moles, masquerading as plain-clothed security operatives, drafted to secure the elections.

    Fayose’s alleged voice accused Momoh of always arguing and prattling, when he ought to have followed rigging operational instruction. He claimed the brigadier’s action had led to needless embarrassments. Fayose lamented that he didn’t know Momoh from Adam; but it was the Chief of Army Staff that phoned him that Momoh had been contacted and contracted to do the job.

    “I was in my house when the Chief of Army Staff called me,” the voice told the gathering, allegedly at Fayose’s Spotless Hotel in Ado Ekiti, on the eve of the election, “and told me he has briefed him, and gave me his number, because I never met him before. He told me ‘you are in safe hands; he would perform and if you have any issues, call me …’ “

    To douse Fayose’s fury, the alleged voice of Mr. Obanikoro, said if the brigadier played ball, he would reap bountiful benefits. “I want you to go and work and deliver for us,” Obanikoro allegedly told Momoh. “Look here, you can’t get promotion without me sitting on top of your military council. If I’m a happy man tomorrow night, the sky is your limit … I’m not here for tea party. I’m on special assignment by the president …”

    To further appease Momoh, Mr. Adesiyan’s alleged voice told Momoh to perform so that he would handle the next rigging operation, probably at Osun: “…when next we have someone to send on a special assignment, it will be you.”

    Before then, Mr. Omisore’s alleged voice had told the feuding band to calm down, adding that whatever Momoh had failed to do could still be done between the election eve night and the morning on election day.

    All the alleged principal actors in this crass electoral subversion have denied any link. Fayose said he never met with anyone at Spotless Hotel or elsewhere; insisting that the audiotape was the handiwork of the opposition APC, allegedly working in cahoots with their Sahara Reporters media colluders.  Obanikoro also threatened to, in New York, United States, sue Sahara Reporters for libel.

    But in a follow-up interview with Capt. Koli, by Omoyele Sowore on Sahara Reporters TV, the army officer waved off the denials, insisting “They cannot deny the voices were not theirs; they cannot deny it!”  He said Fayose was allegedly wearing a stripped red-and-white tee-shirt, and he described where he was allegedly seated, vis-a-vis the others in the room. He also revealed how Momoh sent someone to arrest and handcuff him, how that officer (a friend of his) phoned him about the commander’s order, how he made his escape and fled into hiding abroad, and how the military authorities pounced on Adamu, his 14-year-old brother, living with him in the Owena Cantonment Barracks in Akure, Ondo State, and starved and chained the boy to the bed for five months, until a lawyer petitioned a court to get him freed.

    Bandits in government houses?

    Are these allegations true?  An independent body must urgently probe them. But while awaiting the result from such a probe, it is distressful that the name of the president, the army chief, two key security ministers, a top military brass hat, a sitting governor, another failed governorship candidate — who could have been governor, if the alleged rigging manual had worked in Osun — were fingered in the alleged plot.  Is Nigerian democracy then the bastion of bandits in Government House?

    Besides, the alleged involvement of Chris Uba is a provocation beyond belief.  So, in its many scandals, the Jonathan Presidency would allow Uba to import soldiers from the South East to come and rig elections in the South West? How can a government fall so low in hatching subversive plots against itself, even if it thinks it can get illicit partisan advantage from such plots?

    The Ekiti rigging leak should put the opposition — and indeed, all lovers of Nigerian democracy — on notice.  Even if with its flagging popularity and clear panic, the PDP still boasts it would win the presidential election, and en route to that President Goodluck Jonathan had instigated his top security officers to stall elections till March 28, it would appear clear some repeat of the Ekiti evil is afoot.

    Nigerians owe themselves a patriotic right not to be caught napping as the Ekiti people.  Besides, if there are not bad soldiers but bad officers in the military, in this case of military-aided election rigging, it is a question of no bad commanders, but a terribly bad commander-in-chief.

    Nigerians have a patriotic duty to decisively, with their votes, throw out this president, who has, by all these scandals, brought this country into odium and ridicule.

  • Elections and Impunity of The Prince

    Elections and Impunity of The Prince

    SIR: When the news of the postponement of the elections went viral in the social media, I dismissed it as a canard disseminated by the disingenuous and partisan online media sites.

    However, the verity of the news became confirmed when INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, made an official announcement of the shifts in polls.

    I’m galled, and deeply saddened at the abrupt change in the election timetable; I’m disillusioned and disenchanted with the postponement and Jega‘s breach of the pledge to conduct the elections in February. In our society, and even on the African continent, it has become expedient and necessary to keep record of political leaders’ words and statements so as to make reference to them when politicians deviate from, or renege on, their pledges. Jega had, prior to the postponement, maintained swashbuckling resoluteness and doggedness towards conducting the elections in February. He had appeared as a disinterested judge bent on achieving fairness in the elections.

    I hate to believe that the shift is borne out of pressure from the Presidency and the service chiefs. I’m inclined to accept the fact that the sudden change in the election timetable, especially when so many plans have been made and huge sums of money have been dissipated, is a stratagem by the ruling party to carefully orchestrate massive rigging in the elections. It is obvious, even to the sightless. With the groundswell of opposition against his re-election and seeing the not much prospect of ascending the throne of presidency again, the president, through the National security Adviser, press-ganged Jega into shifting the polls by presenting a rather thoughtless reason.

    The need to subvert insurgency in the north-eastern flank of the country is the flimsiest and most asinine excuse to have been thought about. It is also laughable and smacks of muddled thinking.

    The Nigerian space has been beset by the scourge of insurgency for more than five years, and the federal government has demonstrated no success in its combat against it. Instead, the terrorists’ attacks have continued unabated and unchecked, with more orgies of barbarous killings and kidnappings on an unprecedented scale. Now the electoral commission wants to hoodwink the rabble into believing that the Nigerian troops will stem the tide of insurgency in six weeks!  Isn’t that laughable? If anything, it is crazy. Nigerians are not as gullible and credulous as they think.

    The words of the prophets of doom are coming alive, for our geopolitical landscape is coming to the verge of a political maelstrom.  But why would a man be overwhelmed by such devouring quest for power as to unleash destruction upon the state over which he presides?

    The demons which underlie all these political troubles must be exorcised willy-nilly. That is our passport to a new Nigeria.

     

    • Kingsley Charles

    University of Calabar

  • Bow out now

    Bow out now

    •The service chiefs who blackmailed the electoral commission to postpone the elections should resign immediately

    The postponement of the 2015 general elections by six weeks will continue to agitate minds of Nigerians for long. Professor Attahiru Jega who heads the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told a bewildered nation last Saturday that the decision was forced on the election management agency by a piece of advice from the military. He explained that the service chiefs were unanimous in endorsing the National Security Adviser’s (NSA) recommendation that the elections be postponed by six weeks.

    This is a dangerous development capable of affecting the unity, territorial integrity and peace of the country. When the NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, first made the call for postponement of the election in London, he hinged it on the failure of the election commission to get majority of Nigerians to obtain the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). He said it would violate a central tenet of democracy if a large portion of registered voters were disenfranchised.

    Blackmail

    However, after Professor Jega met the Council of State on Thursday and declared that the commission was ready to perform its statutory function, the service chiefs were brought in to blackmail the commission. The military chiefs said they could not guarantee the safety of lives of those to be deployed for the ordinarily harmless task of conducting the elections.

    Heads of the armed forces whose duty it is to protect the nation’s territorial integrity have, ironically, sent fear down the spines of the people by declaring their inability to guarantee safety of electoral personnel should the general elections earlier fixed for February 14 and 28 be allowed to go on.

    The military that has failed to curb the Boko Haram insurgency in the past two years, did not tell the nation what magic it would perform to bring the situation under control within six weeks. After a series of meetings where he tried to sell the INEC position to stakeholders last Saturday, the commission’s chairman said his hands were tied as the security chiefs had unanimously told him a shift for six weeks would be needed to tidy up the action against insurgents in the North East.

    Ulterior motive

    It is obvious that the declaration was motivated by reasons other than the professional. The NSA was personally appointed by the President on whose behalf we believe he was acting in making the suggestion. Since then, the ruling party has consistently aligned with that position. By agreeing to be so used by a section of the political class and the presidency, the military chiefs have no basis to hold on to their positions. They have been so shamelessly used against the national interest, and, for subverting the electoral process, they should be relieved of their positions and tried for treason. It is ironical that their action came at a point that some officers and soldiers have just been tried and condemned to death for deserting the war front. By refusing deployment for election purposes, the armed forces chiefs have committed the same crimes for which the Chief of Defence Staff, Marshall Alex Badeh, gleefully announced that the sentence on the personnel would serve as deterrent to others. The service chiefs committed higher crimes of treason than the condemned mutineers since the constitution puts the armed forces in the charge of Badeh and his chiefs.

    Military has no role in polls

    We are miffed, anyway, that the military now regards electoral duties as its primary duty. It is the sole responsibility of the police to provide security cover for those on electoral duty. In the First and Second Republics, the armed forces were not brought into the picture at all. The police were trained and equipped for the task. This is the international standard. We are not aware that the police have requested military support. It is obvious that the insurgency in the country affects only 14 of its 774 local government areas. These could be isolated while voting takes place in the 760 unaffected. The excuse that the involvement of the military in the anti-terrorism action in parts of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states would make it impossible to perform any other roles in other parts of the country is at best a smokescreen for an invidious plan to force a shift of the polls dates.

    As a result of these men’s action, the country is on tenterhooks. The military has been brought to disrepute and, in the eyes of the international community; the country is on focus once again for the wrong reasons. It is believed that the cloud is gathering and the government is heavily influencing what is clearly beyond its purview. A time there was when the military was highly regarded. But, in recent times, heads of the armed forces have shown that they are more loyal to the President as Commander-in-Chief and politicians in the ruling party than the country.

    This is a dangerous development. In his state, Badeh at a point showed open hostility to former Governor Murtala Nyako when he dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The Nigerian people want peace; they also want a government that enjoys their mandate. The country once went through a gruelling civil war that lasted 30 months and left devastation in its trail. The electorate is aware of the consequences of a badly managed electoral process and division in the armed forces. These are frightening prospects that should be avoided at all cost.

     Despicable role

    The military chiefs should be told that they should not by acts of omission or commission drag the country along lines that could only leave it in ruins. The roles the military establishment has played so far in the Buhari certificate saga and the alleged rigging of the Ekiti State governorship election last year, as well as the militarisation of the electoral process in Osun State are enough to indicate that there is an agenda hidden from the public. The evident erosion of professionalism in the Nigerian Armed Forces is partly a result of its incursion into politics. This, ultimately, is not good for the country.

    So, let Badeh and his men go so that Nigeria may enjoy peace and be saved the heartache of undue politicisation of the military.

  • Nigeria’s last chance

    Nigeria’s last chance

    SIR: What entrenches and solidifies democracy is the ability of an opposition party to win a national election. It also goes without saying that a too large majority in any parliament is an anathema to an enduring democracy. These two vital factors have been clogs in the search for a truly democratic governance. The closest we had was in the second republic when a coalition of other parties made a disconcerted efforts to forge a formidable opposition to the ruling National Party of Nigeria. All the efforts made then by the leadership of the then Progressive Parties Alliance were prematurely aborted by the inordinate ambitions of the political gladiators of the alliance.

    In 2011, conscious efforts were made by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to have a formula to collaborate so as to upstage the ruling PDP in the presidential election. This again, dramatically unravelled at the most crucial moment. Perhaps, the loose alliance would have snatched the presidency from PDP. But who knows what would have followed then as there were mutual mistrust amongst the players of the alliance.

    Nigerians, for the first time; have been presented with a very credible alternative to the ruling political party. Every part of the country is buzzing in anticipation of the CHANGE that we all hope will bring back the nation’s lost glory. In fairness to the citizens of this country, we have all endured, for so long; the cluelessness and tardiness of the PDP government in proffering mitigating solutions to the multi-facet problems the country is grappling with. Nothing works again in this country. The national airline was sold, the refineries are grounded, the power supply is epileptic, the hospitals have gone from being mere clinics to mortuaries, roads are  in deplorable condition, insecurity pervades everywhere, corruption festers, infrastructural decay goes on unabated, unemployment rate skyrockets, education sector totally neglected, youth development stunted, ethnic jingoism keeps rearing its head. A myriad of problems!

    I don’t think anyone is under any illusion that all these problems would be solved in one fell swoop. But we need a government that will provide the platform for economic growth, prevent corruption, provide security and rebuild infrastructure. People at the helms of affairs must be positively creative and map out ways that will take this great nation out of the wood. The PDP has shown in the last 16 years, more so in the last six years; that it’s peopled by insensitive, clueless and retrogressive members.

    In his short stint as the Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated that he has capacity and ability to take tough decisions that will propel the country forward. He flatly rejected the conditions stipulated by the IMF for loans and instead looked inward for alternatives to secure more funds to run the government and implement developmental projects. In quick successions, he paid some of our outstanding loans. His decision to change the national currency, was a masterstroke as this made useless, the enormous cash that had been stashed away by corrupt politicians. No one will forget in a hurry the war against indiscipline introduced by his administration.

    In contrast, Goodluck Jonathan has shown that he lacks what it takes to take tough decisions. He does not have the wherewithal to think creatively on how to solve the many problems confronting this nation. He is clearly disinterested in moving this nation forward. His actions and body language are eloquent testimonies to the fact that he just wants to stay in office without doing the jobs the office requires of him. Not only this, he’s surrounded by people who have little or no interest of the common man’s welfare.

    So, fellow Nigerians, let us all go out on election days to effect the change that will usher in a purposeful and progressive government. This is our golden chance and I am afraid to add; ourlast chance at getting it right.

     

    • Dr. Oluwole Alabi,

    Republic of Ireland.

  • Police insurance premium

    •We can’t get the best from the cops when govt keeps delaying payment 

    We are astonished that a mountain is being made out of the Federal Government embarking on the needful by setting aside N3.5bn as insurance premium for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for the 2015 financial period. More outrageous is the fact that the newly approved premium expected to be paid to Custodian and Allied Insurance and 21 other insurance firms as underwriters for the police in 2015 had expired since December, last year.

    This is despite the fact that the underwriters had long sent reminder letter about the expiry date of the insurance policy to relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government. Yet, the MDAs have been apathetic despite their knowing that insurance companies, as provided by law, run a policy of ‘no premium, no cover’. The Insurance Act 2003, section 50 is explicit: “The receipt of an insurance premium shall be a condition precedent to a valid contract of insurance and there shall be no cover in respect of an insurance risk unless the premium is paid in advance.”

    The concerned authorities need to be asked about the fate of policemen faced with misfortunes in the intervening period of premium default for 2015 so far, in view of the volatile security situation in the country. Equally worthy of note is the observation that the police premium for 2014 is reportedly the same as 2015. The question: If premium is determined by claims made by the insured in the covered years, why is it that police premium has remained static despite reported increase in the number of incidents leading to more claims from the underwriters? Is the 2015 police insurance premium officially assumed or based on policy advice from the underwriters that are aware of the consequences of under-insurance when in the long or short run, the need for claims arises?

    We are aware of the demand for enormous insurance claims from underwriters by widows and dependants of slain police and other paramilitary men and officers engaged in battles with the Boko Haram insurgents in the north east and others in the line of duty in other parts of the country.

    The figures purportedly sent by the underwriters and the National Insurance Commission in September 2013 to the  office of Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly showed that a significant number of men of the armed forces and police were killed on duty.

    For instance, between January and June, 2013, claims of above N1.5billion were recorded from men that were killed on duty alone, without those that died from other causes. The reason for the static premium figures remains scary.

    We are also aware of provision for Group Life Insurance Cover under the Pension Reform Act which is meant to provide financial compensation to dependants/relatives of an insured worker who dies while still in service. But since the NPF gained its autonomy over its insurance matters and equally got separated from the civil service and other forces in 2013, we expect a better coordinated structure for all they do; something that is a far cry from its shoddy handling by the office of the secretary to government of the federation. This is today not the situation.

    It is sad that the nation is still grappling with how to sort out police insurance premium in an age and time when such an issue should be taken as given. It is equally disheartening to know that the same police that governments unleash on the society just to perpetuate themselves in power are not well taken care of. If the government is genuine and sincere about building a committed police institution, the police should be insured as a matter of law, and not as an act of favour.