The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Ebola emergency

    Ebola emergency

    •All hands must be on deck to deny the virus a place in Nigeria

    It is alarming, to say the least, that the deadly Ebola virus has officially found its way into the country.  The horrifying news of the death of Patrick Sawyer, a naturalised American of Liberian origin, from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) at First Consultants Medical Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos, on July 25, was a wake-up call.

    This incident, no doubt, reflected the scale of the epidemic that has thrown the West African sub-region into understandable apprehension, which is highlighted by the fact that an emergency committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is scheduled to meet on August 6 – 7 to determine whether it constitutes a public health crisis of international concern, and to recommend measures to tackle it.

    Of relevance are startling figures released by WHO, which indicate that so far, related to the current outbreak in West Africa, 1,201 cases of Ebola have been recorded, including 672 deaths. The virus, which first appeared in Zaire in 1976, causes a haemorrhagic fever that can kill infected people in a week, although patients reportedly begin to show symptoms within three weeks of infection.

    It is a positive development that medical experts have been able to identify the possible sources of the virus and how it is transmitted. Current knowledge indicates that the animal-borne virus can infect humans through contact with or consumption of the host animal; this is apart from the possibility of infection from the blood or bodily fluids and secretions of people who have the virus.

    Certainly, it is reassuring that officials of federal health and aviation agencies as well as state governments across the country, particularly Lagos, Oyo, Ondo,  Edo, Bayelsa, Ebonyi and Anambra, have launched enlightenment campaigns and taken preventive measures against the virus.

    Fortunately, Sawyer’s case, the first known Ebola death outside the three West African countries initially linked with the outbreak of the disease, was treated with uncommon and creditable professionalism, which demonstrated that the country’s health personnel, despite peculiar contextual challenges, are not necessarily lagging behind in the application of global standards of practice. Before it surfaced in Nigeria, EVD was limited to Guinea, where it is believed the epidemic began, Liberia and Sierra-Leone; and it fits the narrative that the United States-based Sawyer was coming from Liberia to attend an international  conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

    It is instructive that the 40-year-old Liberian diplomat who reportedly fell sick on board a Nigeria-bound plane was subjected to a thorough diagnostic process that eventually revealed his health status. A statement by the centre’s medical director, Dr. B.N. Ohiaeri, and its senior consultant physician, Dr. A. S. Adadevoh, said: “We immediately isolated/quarantined the patient, commenced barrier nursing and simultaneously contacted the Lagos State and Federal Ministries of Health to enquire where further laboratory tests could be performed as we had a high index of suspicion of possible Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).”  The commendable extent of the centre’s diagnostic efforts was defined by the fact that it went as far as the WHO Regional Centre Lab in Senegal.

    Perhaps more importantly, it is significant to note that the centre also said: “We refused for him to be let out of the hospital in spite of intense pressure.”  Considering how it all ended in Sawyer’s death after a five-day hospitalisation, it is unimaginable what could have followed if he had been left to interact with others outside the hospital, with the high possibility of spreading the virus which kills 90 percent of infected people.

    With this background, there are good reasons to commend the hospital for taking proactive steps, which include, “orderly temporary shutdown of the hospital with immediate evacuation of in-house patients; the appropriate professional removal of the body and its incineration; and full decontamination exercise.”

    However, it must be emphasised that the situation calls for continuous vigilance not only by the people, but also by the political and health authorities. Ebola must not find a place in the country.

  • 250 power containers!

    250 power containers!

    •Those responsible for their abandonment at the ports for 11 years must be punished

    WHEN will Nigerians learn to spend public funds judiciously? When will we have accountability and transparency beyond the lip service paid to them by government officials? These questions become pertinent in view of the scandalous and belated receivership by Professor Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power, of containers of power equipment from Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), 11 years after their abandonment by the ministry at the Apapa port in Lagos.

    The abandoned containers, reportedly 248 in all, had been at the port since 2003. The issue was well captured in its being rightfully described by the minister as a “waste of national asset.” We are saddened that it is most probable that most of the equipment in the containers would have become obsolete. Thus, the several billions of naira spent on their importation would become another case of money wasted, even as Nigerians are still in unacceptable darkness, consequent upon the unstable state of power supply in the country.

    Nebo reportedly confessed that the indefensible abandonment of the equipment had stalled the completion of   10 major power projects. These include Kano-Hadejia Combusto substation, Obu Morewa substation, Omotosho-Egbin substation, Ascon 330 KVA line and Ikorodu-Odogunyan substation, among others. It is equally undeniable that the equipment, when released to the sites of the stalled projects may not be of any immediate use because of decrepitude that would have set in over the long period of slipshod neglect. The huge bill and scarce expertise necessary to put some of them that are not yet obsolete into use can only be better imagined.

    The belated delivery of the containers had, no doubt, contributed immensely to port congestion and especially traffic problems witnessed in Apapa ports of Lagos. The NCS released the abandoned containers to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that took over from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), after writing off accumulated demurrages and charges running into billions of naira that the company cannot afford. The release of these containers, coming about four years after the ascension to power of President Goodluck Jonathan is a serious flaw on his power reform initiative.

    Government is a continuum and the current administration ought to have taken stock of what it met on ground in the sector before commencing its own power reform. Failure to do that might largely be responsible for the tardy state of power reform without steady power supply in the country. The on-going power sector reform might have, after all, been pursued without any clear-cut roadmap necessary to achieve the desired end.

    We call on the government to ensure that accountability does not suffer in this particular case. If this case is treated with the usual levity, it would give impetus to others in other ministries to repeat this barbaric and carefree handling of public property. Nebo has promised investigation into the matter so as to ensure, according to him, that “…no such thing occurs again in the sector.” We demand the publication of the names of those responsible for the heinous waste of public funds and property. It is important to know who ordered these equipment in the first instance, and, were there no auditors in the ministry to keep tab on the procurement and financial administration of the ministry? Why is it that for 10 years, nobody asked questions regarding the abandoned containers?

    This is another national shame caused by official recklessness that has largely contributed to the country’s backwardness. The only thing that can do in the circumstance is to let Nigerians know those responsible for this abandonment as well as get them prosecuted, if only to serve as deterrence to others.

  • Old wives’ tale

    Old wives’ tale

    •Ex-NNPC boss got it all wrong to say that we spend money on our ailing refineries again 

    ANDREW Yakubu, until last week the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was penultimate week on hand to spin a familiar yarn on the state of the nation’s refineries. He told a town hall meeting after a facility tour of the corporation’s Research & Development Centre, the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), and the Port Harcourt Refinery, penultimate week, of how the corporation was strategising “for  temporary solutions to revive the ailing refineries”.

    He told his listeners that this became necessary because the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), – JGC of Japan – refused to come into the country to undertake the scheduled Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) owing to security challenges. He stated that the corporation was currently in negotiation with the companies nominated by JGC for the overhaul, just as NNPC itself continued to take measures to keep the plant running.

    Nigerians are by now familiar with all manner of alibis usually put forward to explain why the refineries are not working optimally. While these range from the outlandish to the utterly ridiculous, what has remained constant is that billions are pumped annually into maintenance and allied costs. Ordinarily, this would not have mattered were the refineries anywhere near their installed capacities. The reality however is that the four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are said to deliver 20 percent of the 225,000 barrels per day refining capacity.

    We had recommended in an earlier editorial that the Federal Government sell the refineries not only because of the mess the corporation had made of their management over the years but also for what is now acknowledged as their obsolete technologies. The statement from the former NNPC helmsman merely reinforced our earlier position. In fact, there is no better time to do that than now.

    Clearly, it serves no purpose to pretend that the NNPC can ever make the refineries work. For evidence, all that the citizens need to point at are the different cycles of TAM in the last 14 years, all of which have left the refineries not better, but actually worse.

    It is worth recalling that the Obasanjo administration, on the eve of its departure, sold two of the refineries – the 210,000 b/d Port Harcourt refinery complex for $561million, and the 110,000 b/d Kaduna refinery for $160 million – only for the sale to be reversed by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. How much of public funds have been sunk since that botched sale? With hindsight, we now know that there is wisdom in the sale, after all.

    For how long will the NNPC have to wait for JGC or its nominee to have the refineries in shape? And, while the nation waits for the latter to put its acts together, how much more of public funds would be sunk into the bottomless pit – something that is as good as guaranteed will never truly deliver value? And if we may ask: why throw millions of dollars annually into maintaining those contraptions instead of sticking with the earlier plan to build three Greenfield refineries?

    Whose idea is it to keep the refineries on perpetual life support; are they not the beneficiaries of the endless “temporary solutions”?

    Our earlier point bears restating: it is not only the refineries that should be sold; the national oil corporation – the NNPC, itself needs to be dismantled. Its business practices, for want of better description, are just as anachronistic; the sole reason it remains as a going concern is because the nation has huge reserves of crude to pump without the NNPC bothering about its accounting.

    The Federal Government should spare the nation further haemorrhage by halting the so-called “temporary solutions”. The time has come for it to put up the refineries for sale.

  • The West must prepare for a wounded Putin to become even more aggressive

    The West must prepare for a wounded Putin to become even more aggressive

    A MONTH ago, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin appeared to be successfully executing his campaign to destabilize Ukraine. While Russian-backed insurgents consolidated a breakaway republic, weak and divided Western governments ignored their own deadlines for imposing sanctions. Now, suddenly, Mr. Putin faces twin reversals: relatively tough sanctions from the United States and European Union on Russian banks and oil companies, and a string of military defeats that have pushed back his proxy forces. It’s a dangerous moment for Mr. Putin — and, perhaps, an opportunity for Ukraine and its allies.

    The Obama administration and European governments deserve credit for agreeing on joint action against Russia after months of haggling and hesi­ta­tion. But Mr. Putin is mostly responsible for his own setbacks. Having recklessly supplied his Ukrainian proxy force with advanced anti-aircraft missiles, he was surprised when one downed a Malaysian passenger jet, causing a heavy loss of European lives. Even then he might have avoided significant sanctions, but his response to the tragedy was to stonewall and deny responsibility even while escalating his weapons deliveries to the flailing insurgents.

    President Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders have bent over backward to avoid a full rupture with Mr. Putin over Ukraine. Mr. Obama said Tuesday that the sanctions did not represent “a new cold war” but rather was “a very specific issue” related to Ukraine. Yet the combination of economic losses from the sanctions and Ukraine’s potential defeat of the rebels could pose a threat to Mr. Putin’s hold on the Kremlin. Having whipped up nationalist passions over Ukraine with his state-directed propaganda apparatus, the Russian ruler might have trouble explaining the rebels’ eclipse. While the effect of sanctions will take time to sink into the economy — the Russian stock market and ruble rose Wednesday — Mr. Putin has already been on thin ice with Russia’s middle class and its private-sector businessmen.

    It’s not yet clear how Mr. Putin will react to these reversals. He is capable of surprising shifts of direction — such as his sudden offer last summer to help strip his ally Syria of chemical weapons. Ukrainian officials, like some of their counterparts in the West, worry about a reckless lashing out by a ruler who feels cornered. Mr. Putin, they counsel, still should be offered a face-saving way of retreating from Ukraine. President Petro Poroshenko and the interim government, which have been offering such compromises all along, are set to renew negotiations with the Russian-backed forces this week.

    While such initiatives are worth trying, the reality is that Mr. Putin is more likely to escalate than back down. Ukraine and the West must be prepared for a more forceful and overt Russian military intervention. That should mean more support for the Ukrainian military, which is seeking drones and better communications equipment from the West, and more economic support for the new government, which has been forced to spend heavily on the armed forces. Russia should not be allowed to permanently entrench its proxy forces in eastern Ukraine, creating a “frozen conflict.”

    The West also should not shrink from the destabilization of Mr. Putin’s regime. Once considered a partner, this Kremlin ruler has evolved into a dangerous rogue who threatens the stability and peace of Europe. If he can be undermined through sanctions and the restoration of order in eastern Ukraine, he should be.

     

    – Washington Post

     

  • Close shave

    Close shave

    Buhari assassination miss saved Nigeria from catastrophe. So, it’s time to unite against terrorism   

    It is a season of high insanity. That is emblematised by the claim by former Niger Delta warlord, Asari Dokubo, that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, former military head of state and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, might have staged his own botched assassination.

    Another rogue supposition, this time from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) camp, suggested the assassination bid was a fall-out of an APC in-fighting. A Buhari elimination, it hinted, would have rid Buhari’s APC rivals, perhaps for the party’s presidential ticket, of their nemesis, once and for all.

    Yet, another rogue conspiracy theory suggested the Buhari elimination plot could have arisen from the Jonathan Presidency. Child’s-death-after-a-witch’s-cry version, these theorists wondered why the Buhari attack came a few days after the former head of state’s widely reported criticism of the president.

    Still, a voice of reason has come from Col. Dangiwa Abubakar Umar, the highly principled and respected former military officer: any supposition that the suicide bomber could have had government’s prompting was pure nonsense, since it was the same Federal Government that had upgraded Gen. Buhari’s security infrastructure, after his famous lampoon of Boko Haram. It is also reassuring that the Presidency has distanced itself from the theory of Olisa Metuh, the PDP national publicity secretary, though it has stayed loudly silent on Dokubo’s rather reckless claim.

    But whatever claims, warped and reasoned, and responses to them, a chilly reality is here: terrorism, with its mass slaughter of innocent citizens, is getting out of hand — if it has not already done so. That should awaken everyone from their partisan stupor; and force a united front against a menace that would eliminate everyone if it is not first eliminated. That is the stark reality facing Nigeria today.  However it is tackled will determine if, for us, there would be a tomorrow as a country.

    Still, while aiming at that tomorrow, it is good to look back at yesterday; and trace how this hideous menace has crept on us. That would help us adjust our today, in order to secure our future.

    Nigeria at independence had a near-zero record of political assassination. But then came the long spell of military rule, with its mass violence, wide-spread impunity, devil-may-care injustices, and militarisation of the Nigerian psyche. All these had built the fundaments of Boko Haram, with its mass disorientation and hopelessness; not to talk of pervading youth joblessness that gives Boko Haram’s murderous philosophy such fillip. All these have not been helped by the advent of military-minded politicians in democratic garb, proud and eager to project power, even if that power brazenly subverts the law and murders due process. That is what has got us to this sorry pass.

    By their anarchic philosophy, Boko Haram terrorists would seek to hit high profile targets, set the country ablaze and set afoot the confusion, anomie and eventual anarchy they need so badly to thrive.

    That was as close to peril the country got in the botched bombing of Gen. Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, the leader of the Tijjaniyyat in Nigeria, one of the sects in the mainstream Sunni Islam, as distinct from the Shia.

    The death of both could have set the country on fire, both on religious and political fronts — and only God knows if Nigeria could have emerged from it unscathed as a united country. That narrow escape notwithstanding, it still puts Nigeria at a very grave juncture, in the gallop to terror-induced anarchy.

    Can this gallop to doom be halted? No doubt, even if it would take some doing; for the country has reached a dangerous phase in terror killing. Still, the first step to halting this catastrophe is for the Jonathan Presidency to start — and fast — its promised probe into the attacks on Gen. Buhari and Sheikh Bauchi.

    A very dangerous mindset is to assume that only Boko Haram could have done it. Yes, Boko Haram has logged fearsome notoriety these past few years, such that any bombing is automatically adduced to its unending capacity for evil. But it is also true that, as Boko Haram is a good cover, there might well be other small but no less vicious players in this unfortunate era of equal-opportunity terrorism and anarchy. The earlier the government gets to the root of this bombing, the better it is for everybody; and for its own confidence level, as an effective bastion against terrorism and needless slaughter of innocent souls.

    But beyond getting to the root of this twin-bombing, the Jonathan Presidency needs to pick itself up and demonstrate to Nigerians that it does, indeed, have the capacity to checkmate the terrorists. After all, before the audacious attempt on the duo, there had been near-countless bomb attacks — and there is no guarantee that there would not be more in the future.

    Unfortunately, the sound bites from inside the government are less than reassuring.  Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, the chief of Army Staff, practically said the other day that his troops were ill-trained to face Boko Haram. By requesting for a US $1 billion foreign loan, President Goodluck Jonathan himself would appear to be at the end of his own tether. More unfortunately, the president has not demonstrated how the crippling corruption in the system, that had spectacularly undid past spends on the military, would not undo his proposed new loan.

    However, one thing is sure. Beyond immediate sentiments and excuses (no matter how genuine or sincere), President Jonathan has the ultimate duty to checkmate Boko Haram; and secure Nigerians under his charge. That is why he must tap into as many minds as possible — including the opposition APC’s, which has often accused him of unwise insularity — to save our country from destruction and disintegration.

    This is the time to unite and live; than divide and die. It is time to unite against terrorism.

  • Regional force

    Regional force

    •The plan to establish a four-nation defence mission to combat growing Boko Haram threat is laudable

    The decision by defence ministers of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun and Chad to contribute 700 troops each to a multinational force to be exclusively devoted to fighting the scourge of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria and neighbouring countries is a step in the right direction. The insurgents have become more daring in recent times, expanding the scope of their operations not only in Nigeria, but also in the cooperating countries.

    Many military tacticians had recommended such a cooperation to stamp out the evil in the sub-region, as some cells of the group are said to be located in the neighbouring countries. Some of the Chibok girls snatched in April are even believed to have been taken to some of the countries. It is therefore a relief that the countries have realised the need to share intelligence, bring their defence chiefs together periodically to review operations and progress being made, as well as match the terrorists in anticipating strikes.

    Given the outrageous abduction of Cameroun’s Vice Prime Minister’s wife and the blow-up of the Ngala Bridge that links North eastern Nigeria and Cameroun last week, it behoves the countries to quickly work out the modalities for the multinational force and swing into action to exterminate what the Niger defence minister, Karidio Mahamadou, described as “this evil curse.”

    Boko Haram’s persistent attacks have not only located Nigeria at the centre of the global terror map, it has also continued to threaten the country’s economy, made life miserable for people in the North eastern Nigeria and distorted national defence plans.

    It is equally gratifying that world powers like France and Britain have pledged their support to the action. The defence summit on Nigeria’s security held in Paris in May had recommended such a line of action and it had been further endorsed by a follow up deliberation in London in June. It is believed that, the cooperation of these military giants that have huge political and defence influence in the West Africa sub-region, would assist in establishing such a compact and focused force.

    Terrorism is such a new phenomenon in the region and it would require the backing of leaders of the Western countries to combat the scourge and redirect energy to development. We hope, however, that, in all this, security is not being defined in narrow terms as the deployment of military hardware and soldiers to engage in shooting campaigns. The people of the border areas should be brought into the picture. Their confidence is needed for a successful war on the murderous gang. Abubakar Shekau’s men are no spirits. They live among the people, have families, buy food from markets and move their equipment in ways that could not have been lost on the people of the areas. It is therefore imperative that they are mobilised to join the war against terrorism.

    Although the Lake Chad Basin Authority, like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is primarily for economic cooperation in the areas covered, it should be noted that the two organisations could also be useful in building up support for the move to isolate the insurgents and terminate this disruptive tendency, realising that instability in Nigeria portends great danger for the entire sub-region.

    However, it is the Nigerian political authority that bears the ultimate responsibility of initiating strategies to stamp out Boko Haram. And the time to effectively tackle the menace is now.

  • Very Catholic

    Very Catholic

    •We commend the efforts of the Maiduguri Diocese of the church in supporting widows affected by the insurgency

    The Catholic Church has shown once again that it is an institution that is attuned to the needs of the society and not just a propagator of the word of God. While the Federal Government dilly-dallied for about five years before it could fashion out a scheme to support the victims of terror in Nigeria, the Catholic Church had long taken the initiative. Only a few days ago, President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the Theophilus Danjuma-led terror Victims Support Committee charged with raising about N30 billion to ameliorate the pains of Nigerians caught in the cross-fire of insurgency.

    However, the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri which covers Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa states has proved to be far ahead of the government in this regard. It recently rehabilitated about 2,000 widows whose lives were seemingly mired by the ongoing insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria. It was a sobering event at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Maiduguri, where the widows gathered as the mission helped them to pick the remains of their shattered lives.

    The widows who are from Borno, Yobe and part of Adamawa states have been taken through trainings and workshops and talks. The church trained them in basic handworks, survival skills as well as assisted them with rudimentary equipment and token sums. But perhaps more important was that they were taken through soul-touching talks on how to overcome the pains and agonies of losing partners and even children in such gruesome circumstances like the Boko Haram insurgency and the cattle-rearers’ crises.

    According to Fr. Gideon Osagie, head of social communications of the diocese, “It is not an easy thing for any woman to lose her husband, but the church believes life must continue. As a church, we feel concerned about the condition of these widows and we therefore swung into action to get the statistics of affected women. So far, we have registered over 2,000 from Borno, Yobe and some parts of Adamawa under the Maiduguri Diocese of the church. It is going to be a continuous exercise.”

    He noted that the initiative was a programme of hope and rehabilitation to train the widows in some vocational skills that would help them live a better life and handle financial challenges. Equipment and financial support are part of the scheme; as well as proffering them advice designed to guide them to the right path and make them to see hope even in grief.

    Bishop of the diocese, Most Rev. Oliver Dashe Doeme noted that, “Widows suffer a lot once their husbands are gone. They are mostly neglected, most family members hardly show love to them, let alone give them helping hands. We have obligation to take care of the poor and the needy. So, we call the widows first for the workshop to give them little assistance to make them take care of themselves. We want them to be able to go back to establish small businesses.” He added that the church also sought to be able to help them in taking care of their children by affording them some form of income.

    There is no doubt that this is a most worthy and commendable example coming from the Catholic Church. The human calamities arising from the violent crises in most parts of the north of Nigeria will require a lot of input from all quarters; especially so in a situation that various governments have been derelict for so long in managing the victims of Nigeria’s raging terror. We call on other religious bodies, corporate organisations and wealthy individuals to initiate schemes or work through the Catholic Church’s programmes to bring succour to victims – especially women and children.

  • Stronger sanctions on Russia, at last

    Stronger sanctions on Russia, at last

    After lengthy and difficult deliberations, the European Union agreed on Tuesday to a new and higher level of sanctions against Russia, including the closing of European capital markets to Russian state banks, an embargo on new weapons sales and the transfer of sophisticated oil drilling technology.

    The United States followed suit shortly with measures meant to match the Europeans’ and further added a Russian shipbuilding firm to the list of companies banned from doing business with Americans.

    These punitive and carefully orchestrated actions go considerably beyond any previous sanctions. They are designed to exact a heavy price from President Vladimir Putin, and deservedly so. Russia’s behavior since the downing of a Malaysian jetliner with the loss of 298 lives has been a string of lies and a sharp escalation of direct involvement in the Ukrainian fray.

    Russia, Mr. Obama said, “is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of genuine progress. It didn’t have to come to this. It doesn’t have to be this way. This is a choice that Russia, and President Putin in particular, has made.” Compounding the case against Russia are public charges by the United States that Russia has violated a fundamental arms control accord, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile. According to a report in The Times on Tuesday, Mr. Obama conveyed the finding to Mr. Putin on Monday. So far, there has been no public response from Moscow. The I.N.F. treaty, signed in 1987, bans testing, producing or possessing such missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.

    Economic sanctions are a flawed and double-edged weapon, but, short of armed force, they are the only tools at the disposal of the West to make President Putin and his revanchist-ruling clique understand that breaking the rules of international behavior carries a cost, and, further, that there can be no business-as-usual when Russia carries out armed aggression against a sovereign state while enabling proxies in eastern Ukraine who shoot down an unarmed passenger plane.

    Europe’s readiness to strengthen its earlier response — which has consisted mainly of restrictions on individual Russians — and to join the United States in striking at the Russian economy shows that Europe’s leaders have now grasped the magnitude of Mr. Putin’s threat. It shows also a commendable willingness to confront that threat despite the difficulty of coordinated action by 28 European Union members, Europe’s heavy dependence on Russian natural gas, and the potential cost in lost jobs and contracts.

    This change of view makes all the more troubling France’s continued determination to deliver at least one of the two Mistral-class warships it is building for Russia for 1.2 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion. The Mistral is not heavily armed, but it is a serious military asset as a forward command post and helicopter carrier. It is, in short, a formidable weapon, and the very idea that France is building two for Mr. Putin at this time is deeply troubling.

    President François Hollande of France and other French officials have reacted angrily to American and British calls for the deal to be suspended. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has been especially sharply assailed in France for criticizing the French while keeping Britain’s doors open to Russian oligarchs who park a lot of their loot in London. Certainly Britain cannot be exempt from making sacrifices in any future round of sanctions; nor Germany, with its extensive exports to Russia, nor any other European Union member. But financial sacrifice is one thing; arming Russia is another. That is what the French should focus on at this juncture, not the supposed slights of their allies.

    At this point, it appears likely that France will go ahead with the delivery of the first Mistral, the Vladivostok, in October. But Mr. Hollande has left open the possibility of at least delaying the second one, which is due for delivery late next year. One warship less may not hurt Mr. Putin as much as economic measures that shrink his economy and hurt his cronies, but a decision by France to suspend the deal would encourage other European countries to accept whatever sacrifices future sanctions might entail. It would also make a powerful statement about Western resolve not to appease Mr. Putin — and about French honor.

    – New York Times

  • Intellect without character

    Intellect without character

    •It is sad that brilliant youths would take to fraudulent means to survive

    It was an ingenious and elaborate scheme carefully crafted to defraud thousands of job-seeking Nigerians of millions of Naira. The six suspected fraudsters behind the crime are young Nigerians between the ages of 25 and 27. They are all well- educated and clearly have the talent and creativity to earn a living by decent and legitimate means, even in Nigeria’s admittedly difficult employment climate. Yet, they chose to apply their intellect, time and energy to defraud their fellow citizens and have now fallen foul of the law.

    The criminal minds, that have made confessional statements to the Special Fraud Unit (SPU) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Milverton, Ikoyi, are all products of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).  They include the suspected ringleader, Oluwapelumi Ayotunde, a 500 level Estate Management student; Asaolu Victor, a graduate of Mining Engineering; Awote Temitope Emax, another 500 level Estate Management student; Emmanuel Onaopemipo Bolatiri, a graduate of the institution who deals in handsets and Adebomi Oluwatosin, a computer graduate who works with Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, as a Programmer 2.

    Clearly the most embarrassing of the lot is Fajobi Olalekan, a Mechanical Engineering student of the institution  with first class honours, who was the best graduating student in his department in 2012, and is currently working with Dee Xecutor Concept.

    These brilliant but misguided and depraved youths exploited the plight of at least 2,000 desperate job applicants to criminally enrich themselves to the tune of over N5million. They specialised in designing websites of different companies and using such sites to lure innocent job seekers to apply and pay application fees for non-existing lobs. The crime was uncovered when the Special Fraud Unit of the police in Lagos received a petition from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countr ies (OPEC) Fund for International Development dated August 22, 2013, alleging that a website designed as OFID Scholarship Website with OFID name and logo was being used to defraud unsuspecting Nigerian applicants.  The victims were required to pay N2,500 as application fee through the First Bank account number 2020814607 and Access Bank account number 005941009, with the fraudulent name OFID WSAS NG.

    This sad incident is another poignant reminder of the deep moral quagmire into which our society has sunk. When a society worships at the altar of crass materialism, the end of making money is what matters, no matter how foul the means. In a situation where the most venerated members of society are those who flaunt obscene wealth, even when the source is known to be criminal, there is little or no incentive to seek to earn a living through decent industry and ingenuity. It is thus not surprising that a Fajobi Olalekan with a first class university degree, which suggests brilliance, focus, industry and a capacity for disciplined study, would rather choose the easier, crime-ridden route to wealth acquisition.

    Olalekan and his accomplices are unfortunate examples of intellect without character. Yet, the degree of any higher institution is awarded both for learning and character, since the educated individual who lacks moral scruples is a danger to society.

    The unsavoury unemployment situation in the country has rendered millions of desperate job seekers vulnerable to the antics of fraudsters and extortionists.  At least 16 applicants lost their lives and scores of others were injured during the recent fraudulent and ineptly organised recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). Hundreds of thousands of applicants were made to pay N1,000 each as application fees for no more than 4,000 job vacancies. Till date, no one has been brought to book for this atrocity and neither are we aware that any money has been refunded to the applicants as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan. Why then won’t other syndicates be emboldened to criminally exploit job seekers?

  • Whither espirit de corps?

    Whither espirit de corps?

    •It’s time to stop frequent military/police clashes

    It could have passed off simply as a case of ‘two fighting’ but for the institutions involved – the army and the police. At the end of it all, one soldier and four policemen were killed. According to report, the incident happened on Sunday when the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Zuru Local Government Council of Kebbi State was returning from an outing, only to be overtaken by a fast-driven car in a reckless manner.

    This provoked the police officer who as a matter of duty, caught up with the car and blocked it. It turned out that the occupants of the car were soldiers from the 242 Light Tank Battalion of the Nigerian Army in the town. The soldiers reportedly gave him a thorough beating; notwithstanding the fact that they knew he was a police officer.

    This naturally drew the anger of two other policemen who were on guard duty at one of the banks nearby. One of them reportedly fired a shot that hit and killed one of the soldiers. The fence-mending trip of the police area commander to the commanding officer of the battalion led to the killing of the four policemen that went with him by some angry soldiers, apparently on revenge mission.

    We deplore the lack of restraints on both sides. Ordinarily, one may be tempted to say it serves both the police and army right because the attitude of both arms is indeed deplorable. They molest those they regard as ‘bloody civilians’. But then, we cannot sanction a situation where uniform men would capitalise on the force of arms they bear to terrorise either themselves or any other law-abiding citizen. But it is particularly worrisome that clashes between the soldiers and policemen are becoming too frequent.

    In December, last year, soldiers of the 31 Artillery Brigade, Minna, reportedly invaded Minna Police Station in Niger State, molested the DPO and others over an alleged molestation of a soldier by policemen on patrol duty. The Brigade denied that any such thing happened. In Ibadan, Oyo State, police and army officers engaged themselves in a shoot-out about a year ago. The army personnel were reacting to the attack on one of their men at Mokola by some policemen, following an assault on a female police. A similar clash in 2005 in Lagos left four dead and 60 charred vehicles in its wake, while many police buildings in the Area ‘C’ Command of the Police Force, at Surulere, Lagos, were razed.

    The question begging for answer in all these is: whither the esprit de corps which normally should exist among the two institutions? However, since neither the military nor the police seems ready to bring this about, especially as the many panels set up to investigate some of the past clashes have failed to check the unfortunate trend, it is the government’s duty to ensure that each does not go beyond its bounds. Soldiers must be told in clear terms that their uniform is not a license to break the law while policemen too should be civil in their enforcement of the law.

    Many years ago, soldiers were hardly seen in public in the country; these days, they are involved in nearly all cases that the police should ordinarily handle, often on government’s invitation. The frequent clashes they are having with the police are probably part of the result of that role conflict. Yet, there should be no rivalry between soldiers and the police as the constitution is clear on what their respective roles are. It appears both arms of the force have been drained of the discipline that comes with their strict professional trainings.

    A society where might is right can never progress. So, we call on the authorities to investigate the Kebbi incident. We cannot expect a stop to these sad occurrences until scapegoats are made – and seen to be made – of those responsible. Both the soldiers and the police must know the lesson in subordination to democratic institutions.