Category: Editorial

•It is bad faith for state govts not to honour their promise to the council 

News of heavy debts, in the region of N3 billion, owed the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) by some state governments may be interpreted as yet another evidence of a political tendency to pay lip service to educational development, which is indeed sad, considering the great gains the country is likely to enjoy from progress in the education sector.

Even more disturbing is the information that the debts, connected with the body’s examination fees, have delayed the release of the results of the candidates whose states owe WAEC. Expectedly but unfortunately, the situation has bred worry and confusion, especially among the candidates and their parents and guardians, as they reportedly tried unsuccessfully to access the results.  It is quite possible that withholding the results may negatively affect the educational progression of some of the candidates who need them for the next stage of their academic pursuits.

Also alarming are the details about how the state governments involved incurred such debts in the first place.  The Head of Office (HNO), WAEC Nigeria, Mr. Charles Eguridu, was quoted as saying, “For us, it is a normal thing to give credit facilities to register their candidates because we expect them to pay up soon after the registration.” This background suggests bad faith, or at least, an inattention to obligation, which deserves condemnation, particularly because of the adverse consequences suffered by the apparently considerate creditor.

Eguridu painted a picture of the difficulties experienced by WAEC as a result of such debts. According to him, “At a point, all the debtor states were owing WAEC about N3 billion. As an organisation, we need money to function. And because of the indebtedness, we have to take loans from banks to pay the examiners to mark the papers as paying our staff was becoming a problem.” He further said: “When we take loans from banks, we have to pay the interest that accrues because the examination papers must be marked, and we can’t come up to tell Nigerians that we could not mark examination papers because state governments are owing us.”

Although the candidates from the “debtor states” ultimately bear the brunt of the governments’ default, it would appear reasonable that the examination body adopted the approach of withholding their results pending payment. As Eguridu perhaps rightly observed, “If we had released the results, they may end up not paying. Being politicians, some of whom are even campaigning, they may lose elections and the new government may tell you right away that they don’t have anything to do with what you are talking about.”

Interestingly, this observation highlights the possible political colouration of certain ideas that are currently projected by a number of governmental helmsmen in the country. Specifically, it has become fashionable for state governments to take up payment of WAEC examination fees for candidates in public schools in their territories, as a way of showing that they are interested in educational development, which may be a creditable position. However, as the debt problem and its fallout have shown, talk is miles away from action. It is cheap populism to mouth so-called people-friendly policies that are not positively supported by deeds.

It is instructive to note the case of Cross River State which, Eguridu said, has been paying WAEC fees for candidates since 2008 in line with its declared educational development policy. “Cross River State government was indebted to WAEC to the tune of N300 million for 2013 and 2014 WAEC examination fees,” he stated. However, it is reassuring that some states have reportedly paid up, and it is hoped that others will do the same. Eguridu said: “I got a report that Kebbi, Sokoto, Borno and Akwa Ibom states have also paid up.”

It is a shame that such a drastic measure, “no payment, no results”, had to be taken to stir up the concerned governments. Hopefully, the relevant authorities have been awakened to their commitment, and such a situation will not rear its ugly head again.

•The sector is too important to be neglected

Steel development is recognised worldwide as the bedrock of economic development; and understandably so. This is why many countries that are blessed with the raw material for steel make sure that they sustain the industry even as those which are not so blessed import to keep their steel industries going. Of course, countries place so much emphasis on steel because virtually everything we use today, from aero planes to ships and cars, even wristwatches, etc. all have steel components.

Nigeria seemed to have realised the importance of the sector at a time in its history and established four steel rolling mills – Osogbo Steel Rolling Mill in Osogbo, Osun State; Jos Steel Rolling Mill in Jos, Plateau State, Katsina Steel Rolling Mill in Katsina, Katsina State, Delta Steel Company in, Ovwian-Aladja, Delta State, as well as the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Ajaokuta, Kogi State. We also have the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) Limited, Itakpe, Kogi State. Sadly, as with most other things Nigerian, the steel sector was neglected after the country had invested heavily in it.

The lack of commitment, corruption and politicisation of the sector, were responsible for its ruin and has led to the present situation where the country is importing steel products on the scale that it is today. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, revealed at a one-day stakeholders’ forum with the theme, ‘Transformation of Minerals, Iron and Steel Sub-Sector for Industrial Revolution in Nigeria” that the country spends a whopping $3billion annually on steel importation. The bill is this high because annual steel production in Nigeria is estimated at about 3.5million tonnes while the country imports about 17 million tonnes of steel and allied products annually.

This, surely, is one of the perplexing absurdities of governance in Nigeria. Other things being equal, the country should have no business importing steel, given the investments it had made in the sector. Ajaokuta alone had gulped about $7 billion while only about $1billion was needed to complete it before it was abandoned.  However, government eventually privatised the four steel rolling mills after discovering that it could not run them efficiently. Interestingly, as of today, only about one or two of them are producing.

This situation cannot continue. The steel sector is too important to us as to any other country, to be left in a comatose state. It  has great potential in terms of employment generation. Ajaokuta alone is said to be capable of generating about 140,000 direct jobs with between one to two million ancillary jobs. Moreover, the government is talking about reviving the automotive industry; this cannot  work well without a vibrant steel sector.

So, rather than carpet the private steel firms in the country for wholesale importation of steel products as Aganga did at the forum, he should ensure that the problems being faced by the steel firms are addressed by the government. These include infrastructure challenges, electricity, security, inconsistent government policies and unbridled importation of cheap steel products competing with the ones produced locally at outrageous costs. When the problems are addressed, the steel manufacturers would stop coming to Abuja to look for waivers which Minister Aganga frowned at. The point is that we have made many mistakes in the past on the steel industry and it is only by the government coming out with the right policies that those can be redressed.

Many other oil-producing countries like Nigeria with excellent reserves have viable steel industries. But Nigeria has refused to diversify its economy, relying solely on oil revenue with its attendant volatilities. The government must retrace its steps because the country is losing a lot by not having a viable steel industry.

SIR: The three arms of every democratic government are the executive, legislature and the judiciary. While the executive is vested with the responsibility of policy making and implementation, the legislature makes laws or amends or changes existing laws as the case may be, while the judiciary interprets these laws and punishes offenders.

In the hierarchy of power in Nigeria, the executive comes first, then the legislature before the judiciary but fair enough, the excesses of each arm could be checked by the others. The judiciary enviably plays the biggest role of checks and balances since it is constitutionally vested with the power of determination and execution of the validity or nullity of the actions of other arms of government and indeed other components of the society. It is quite glaring that the judiciary is an indispensable tier of any fair system of government and without it, even with a fair existence of other arms of government, the society would turn violent and lawless.

Conventionally and for equity’s sake, it is expected of one to describe the last in a group of equals as “last but not the least”.  Unfortunately however, away from the patronizing idiom, the judiciary in Nigeria is the “last and the least” infrastructure-wise. The state of the structures that house our judiciary is nothing to write home about. Save the structures in the capital and major cities, where the affluent executive and legislature seek their own justice, our courts of law are ramshackle, grossly dilapidated and tumbledown, urgently  in dire need of repair if  not complete reconstruction. I have a specimen to dissect!

This piece  was inspired by my visit to a magistrate court in Urualla, the headquarters of Ideato North Local Government Area in Imo State. The court is located behind Mainstreet Bank, Urualla, few metres away from the council’s headquarters complex and opposite a ‘state-of –the-art’ police officers’ quarters. The situation at the Urualla Magistrate Court led me to further investigate the state of other neighboring courts. They weren’t any better! The courtroom is a mere shed of rusted corrugated roofing sheets, boarded by dwarf walls with a no-door entrance at the south. Insecurity! The building is surrounded by giant spear grasses as tall as the dwarf walls so that a harboured reptile feeling uncomfortable one hot afternoon could conveniently run into the courtroom for shelter. It is even worse inside – the room has no power supply and there is no sign of any source of water. I wondered how documents are produced in the court, maybe an old typewriter is located somewhere.

Furniture in the room, right from the old rustic and dusty benches for the jury to the magistrate’s bench; it is the same- ramshackle! Old and negatively attractive.  The witness box has one side collapsed and the remnant standing feebly, ready to fall. The holy books for oath-taking are worn out and possibly some pages out. One wonders the  efficacy of oaths taken with them. The ceiling roof is so low and with the raised platform for the magistrate, a tall magistrate would find it hard to stand comfortably without bending.

Such judicial environment could actually encourage the flouting of court orders and judgment. Is cleanliness and orderliness not said to be next to godliness?

The judiciary should be given its rightful place in the country. A society without justice does not deserve to exist.

• Uzoaganobi Ebuka,

Imo State.

•A good start; but it should be sustained and indeed extended to other areas of pollution

LAGOS State Government’s declaration of October 15 as Horn-free Day is novel in the country. The significance of that day cannot be downplayed in view of the excessive use of vehicular horns by motorists plying roads, not only in the state but all over the country. The mostly unbearable noise pollution that has become habit to motorists constitutes a serious nuisance to passers-by and,  more importantly, to the health and general wellbeing of the entire citizenry.

The initiative, which was unfurled by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola at the 1st Lagos Drivers’ Appreciation Day which held on October 9 at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry House, Alausa, Ikeja, was quite successful – at least for creating awareness about this menace. Governor Fashola put the  essence of the initiative succinctly: “It is for our own good, it is for our own health, it is for our own life. It is not because Governor Fashola said so. It is not because Lagos State Government said so. It is simply because it is good for us. Doctors have told us it is for our own ultimate good.”

The idea is not meant to be accompanied by any coercive instrument of state but to be achieved through persuasive technique as adopted in better developed climes across the globe. The idea, as reportedly made by the governor, was to make motorists operating in the Lagos environment realise that there is a better way to live than indulging in noise pollution which has been medically proven to be harmful to human health.

We agree that if the state must live up to its status of a mega city in the west coast sub-region, one of the conditions it must  meet is to drastically reduce noise pollution; also, the adoption of yearly horn-free day is a good one but it could be improved upon. After all, Koramangala in India reportedly adopted a ‘No Horn Mondays’ initiative in association with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, with impressive results. Rather than making it a yearly thing, we call on the state government to follow the same path so as to ingrain the idea easily into the psyche of motorists plying its roads.

While we agree that the horn-free day is a good idea, noise pollution is not  restricted to vehicle nuisance alone. This fact was acknowledged by Governor Fashola when he said that the idea was also a response to petitions and complaints of “citizens and tax payers who, on daily basis, write and petition government that somebody is preventing them from sleep either from the noise they are making or from other uncharitable activities they are carrying on without regard for the wellbeing of their neighbours.”

We state without equivocation that it is not only motorists that pollute the environment but also music sellers blaring different songs at very high decibels in streets across the state. Churches and mosques are not left out of this unbearable noise pollution. More cynical are some fabricating industries sited in residential areas, using deafening generators with fumes that pollute the environment and expose residents to harmful effects. The state’s physical planning organ needs to do something urgently to stem this ugly tide so as not to mess up its mega city plan.

Although the Horn-free Day could over time make motorists in Lagos develop the consciousness of minimising the use of their horns, we strongly believe that other forms of pollution should be robustly combatted and reduced to the barest minimum by the state government, because of their harmful effects on human beings.

•Lassa fever, another hemorrhagic disease, threatens Nigeria

In the justifiably triumphant mood after overcoming the influx of Ebola Virus Disease into Nigeria about three months ago, the country runs the risk of becoming complacent in the face of similar public health challenges. Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever (LHF) is one of the more significant of these challenges.

Like EVD,  its better-known counterpart, Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever. It is transmitted through the urine and faeces of rodents, and thrives in situations of poor environmental sanitation and personal hygiene. Discovered in Nigeria in 1969, LHF has witnessed several outbreaks in the country, as well as in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Within Nigeria, Edo, Nasarawa, Plateau, Ebonyi, Oyo, Taraba, Ondo, Lagos, and Benue states have had cases of Lassa fever in the past. However, the disease has begun to spread and now threatens some 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In 2012, a total of 1,944 cases were diagnosed in those states, out of which there were 207 deaths, many of them being medical personnel.

The clear and present danger posed by LHF is a sobering reminder that Nigeria is yet to really come to grips with the health issues that confront it, even though its defeat of the Ebola threat is a magnificent achievement. The Federal Government has itself acknowledged as much, with the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Khaliru Alhassan, admitting that Lassa fever had not been given the attention that it deserved. The minister stated that as many as 29 million Nigerians are threatened by the disease, and warned that medical personnel needed to be better-protected from the disease if any campaign against it was to thrive.

It is surprising that successive administrations have done so little to effectively counter a disease that has been a matter of public knowledge since 1969. Unlike EVD, Lassa fever is not exotic; it was named after the town in Borno State where it was discovered. The ways in which it is contracted, the ease of its spread, and its relatively high fatality rate should have all compelled greater interest in combatting it over the years, but this has not been the case.

The lessons learnt from the successful campaign against EVD must now be deployed in the fight against LHF. Sustained and comprehensive public enlightenment campaigns must be at the heart of any anti-Lassa fever effort, especially given the fact that it is transmitted by rodents. Environmental sanitation and personal hygiene drives which were ramped up during the Ebola scare must not be allowed to die down.

Vaccines are being developed outside the country; several of them are currently at the animal-testing stage. Nigerian universities and research institutes should be given grants to develop local vaccines and methods of treatment. Given the role of rodents as primary transmitters of Lassa fever to humans, better methods of storing agricultural products must be developed. The safer such storage facilities are, the lesser the likelihood that infected rats will be able to get into them.

The country would also do well to develop better strategies for coordinating the efforts of state and federal governments in the campaign against the disease. Clearly-outlined reporting systems and procedures would make it much easier for state ministries of health to liaise with their federal counterpart and ensure that human and material resources are effectively deployed against the disease.

Lassa fever’s continuing threat is a reminder that the post-Ebola era in Nigeria cannot be one in which the country rests on its oars. Rather than retreat from the high levels of public awareness and bureaucratic efficiency that characterised the EVD emergency, the government and the citizenry must realise that the battle against disease is a never-ending struggle.

•Another sad reminder of the deplorable condition of our prisons

Riots can be a legitimate protest on matters affecting the rioters, especially if it concerns their welfare, health care and survival. It is in this light that we view the riot by some inmates at the Kirikiri Prisons in Lagos on October 10, over the alleged seizure of a ceiling fan belonging to one of them.

An eye witness said that “someone brought in a ceiling fan for an inmate referred to as the ‘general overseer’ of the prisoners’ Christian denomination. But the fan was seized by the officer in-charge of the prisons who also allegedly ordered the inmate detained”. It was after the explanation by the inmate, that he was the owner of the fan which he only sent out of the prison for repairs, that he was later released. But by that time, the other prisoners had become violent and started throwing stones at doors and windows. It was at this time that soldiers stationed at the prison reportedly began shooting sporadically at the inmates as they ran into their cells. Many of them were allegedly hit by bullets.

Although there was no confirmation of the actual number of prisoners killed, a source claimed to have seen bodies of a number of inmates and some injured prisoners with bullet wounds as they were being transported to the hospital within the prisons. In the character of the police, army and the security agents who always play down the casualties in incidents, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Ope Fatinikun, confirmed that the riot took place but denied that any prisoner died. To him, “no inmate was shot at, but 12 of them who sustained minor injuries have been given treatment”. The prisons however later admitted that one person died.

The Kirikiri riot is a sad reminder of what has become common in our prisons. Successive governments have always made pious promises to reform the prisons, to no avail. It is sad that our leaders who have travelled far and wide, and are familiar with the relatively comfortable atmosphere under which prisoners are kept, are the ones treating our own prisoners so cruelly for the simple misfortune that they are prisoners.

In most civilised parts of the world, the only thing denied prisoners is their liberty. But in Nigeria, to be in prison is to be in hell on earth! If not for the reason of discomfort in the prison, why should a prisoner provide for himself a ceiling fan which is the responsibility of the government to provide? The inmates might well have been expected to provide themselves other things like potable water, beddings, etc. that they need in the prisons!

Although there are different accounts of what led to the riots this time, the prisoners said it was due to the inhuman conditions in which they live. While the prison authorities said that only one prisoner died, the inmates alleged that it was more than that. But the fact is that nobody should have died.

The prison is supposed to be a corrective place and not a place for punishment. With many of the inmates awaiting trial for decades now, there is need to reform our judicial system to prevent inmates from remaining in prisons for so long without trial. In the same manner, the Federal Government must pay more than lip service to prison reform. It should realise that those there deserve at least minimum comfort and make adequate provision for them.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Prison Service owes Nigerians a comprehensive account of what transpired tat the Kirikiri Prisons on  October 10, especially in view of the conflicting reports about the number of casualties.

•Falling oil prices: another warning that Nigeria must diversify its economy

MUCH as the Federal Government may have been unfazed by the acclaimed industrial scale theft of crude said to have shrunk national revenue by nearly 40 percent; there is however, a new reality that it must have to deal with: the downward trajectory in global oil prices. The prognosis can hardly be more disconcerting. Between mid-June and September 30, oil prices in the international market fell by more than 18 percent. Indeed, the price for September 30 was $94 a barrel – the first time it would fall below $100 per barrel since June 2012; last week, it plunged further to a four-year low of $87.74 a barrel before making a recovery to $88.46 per barrel.

No thanks to the crawling European economy, the slow growth in China, and the shrunk US domestic fuel consumption – all of which have left global supply outstripping demand – the prognosis would appear grimmer than was perhaps feared.

Consider, for instance, that the International Energy Agency projected the growth for world demand for oil this year at a mere 1.5 percent; when contrasted with the fact that total production of crude and liquid fuels actually grew by 10 percent in the last five years, one is left with no other conclusion than to say that the continuing downward pressures on crude prices would endure for a while.

The implication for the Nigerian economy must be seen as particularly dire at a time the accruals into the distributable pool have also been shrinking steadily – no thanks to the menace of crude theft and production shut-ins, both of which have made nonsense of annual projections of crude output. With actual oil prices already hovering around the $80 per barrel band, the possibility of convergence between the benchmark price and the actual price – or worse, the latter falling below the benchmark price at some point, would no longer seem far-fetched. Were that to happen, the nation would most certainly be presented with a novel scenario after more than a decade of pontificating over what to do with the so-called Excess Crude Account.

No doubt, the situation is not only predictable, it has long been predicted. Presently, with perhaps the exception of the Federal Government and a handful of states, most states and local governments are today barely able to fund their activities on account of their vastly reduced allocations. Already, capital projects across most states are known to be on hold, thereby constricting their capacity to regenerate and renew critical infrastructure. The situation is likely to get worse in the coming months as the reality of declining oil prices bite harder.

Far from suggesting that the doomsday is here, there are good reasons to worry about in the latest development. For the macro-economy, the picture cannot be anything but grim. The implication of the falling oil prices means that inflow of foreign exchange would be curtailed. Given the import-dependent nature of the economy, there would be more relentless pressure on the foreign reserves and with it the prospects of further battering of the national currency. Of course, we have seen what unmet revenue expectations have done to successive budgets in the record number of abandoned projects currently littering the landscape.

Obviously, we knew that a moment like this would come. That was why in several editorials, we admonished the Federal Government to spend wisely and to focus on developing those infrastructure that would give the economy a lift, particularly those that could serve as a springboard to diversify the economy. Rather than heed our counsel, the Federal Government seems to believe in stacking the nation’s money away in foreign banks in the guise of saving for the rainy day –funds that could have been better deployed to boost the nation’s competitiveness.

The choice facing the nation remains essentially one of diversifying the economy to reduce the current dependence on oil. Unfortunately, we do not see how the nation can achieve this without substantial improvement in power and transportation infrastructure. A good complement to this is to curb the import of fuel by boosting local refining to reduce the pressure on the foreign reserves.