The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • No one is above the law

    No one is above the law

    •Ajaero learns the hard way. He should treat state institutions with utmost respect

    Democracy is a web of puzzles, many of them diametric opposites.  For instance, which is worse: state impunity or citizen impunity?  Both are bad. 

    State impunity leaves the citizens as mere slaves in a territory theoretically their own making. Citizen impunity leaves the state at the mercy of a few.  That baits anarchy, and leaves both state and the majority of citizens in jeopardy.  Both are terribly bad — and should be avoided.

    But this is no tutorial on basic theories of state and governance.  It’s rather a good window into the (mis)adventures of Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Organised

    Labour’s wrong-headed whoop that such a brush tears at its collective integrity. 

    That is acute delusion that borders on arrant hubris.  It’s bad for Ajaero as a person; even worse for NLC — and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) — as a collective.  The more Organised Labour continues to conflate individual frailties with corporate health, the less they would deliver on their workers’ mandate.  Workers need not hold the short end of the stick for the folly of their leaders.

    But how did this all start?  Maybe it’s better to start from when it grabbed the latest media attention: Ajaero’s arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS) — Nigeria’s secret police — while jetting out to London, on September 9, to attend a UK TUC parley.  Ajaero, among his other global peers, was billed to speak there.

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    On the arrest, there are conflicting claims.  A source claimed the DSS had invited Ajaero which he allegedly shunned, only for him to make to travel abroad.  But NLC, per Benson Upah, its Head of Information, countered that claim, insisting that both DSS and Ajaero indeed had a mutual understanding on Ajaero’s September 8 travel which, after he missed his flight, he rescheduled for the morning of September 9.

    Still, the problem with NLC releases is that it’s always a pot-pourri that you don’t know which is information to inform, which is propaganda to confound.  Perhaps that’s the best NLC way to be earnest on all fronts.  But it lays itself open to fair charges of muddying the waters, so it could always play the victim.

    Besides, if Ajaero had not developed a recent history of choosing — for whatever reasons — to pick when to honour police invitations, the DSS would not have seized on that habit to press its right of lawful arrest which, in any case, is beyond dispute. 

    As at the last count, Ajaero had delayed a police invite: invited for August 20; honoured the invite for August 29, with all the road razzmatazz that he could do and undo, so long as he had behind him the might of Labour; and the counsel of his battery of lawyers — hardly a crime.  In the same token, he is yet to honour a follow-up invite.  For both invites, the NLC always made a row it would go on strike should Ajaero be arrested.  Pray, is he above the law?  Or does he enjoy constitutional immunity?  Yet, both have to do with alleged serious security breaches.

    In the civic space, those are exceedingly bad conducts, which mock routine security management and administration, failure of which put the rest of us in jeopardy.  What security infrastructure worth its name would live with the ruinous optics that its legal powers were in vain, simply because Ajaero is NLC president?  What happens if two, three, or four other bodies copy such dangerous conceit?

    Without prejudice to facts still unknown on the matter, DSS did well to push its power of lawful arrest.  But as NLC itself hinted, that might just have arisen from a watchlist, arising from Ajaero’s most recent see-saw with the police.  The DSS was clinical and professional too, during the detention, granting Ajaero administrative bail after.

    That’s a good start.  But the critical point is fairness.  Inasmuch as the DSS — and the open police — have power of lawful arrests, such must be exercised with squeaky fairness.  Ajaero — or any citizen for that matter — must be treated with decorum and dignity, whenever they interact with the law.  Citizens too must discharge their duties by fully cooperating and aiding proper investigations.

    The point is; the law is the law.  Obeying the law is mandatory, not optional.  So, let Ajaero tell the police what he knows.  Let the police themselves play by the rule.  If they fail, Ajaero’s lawyers will not fail to claim his rights under the law.  Democracy would be nothing without checks and balances that are the soul of due process.

    While that re-set goes on, let the NLC purge itself of the arch-delusion of hostile railings, each time the police invite Ajaero.  The police cannot sustain trumped-up charges against Ajaero any more than an NLC bluster can spring him if there is solid evidence.  So, let Labour face its core mandate of protecting workers as the security agencies do their job of protecting everyone.  Any other thing is empty din that helps no one.

  • Maiduguri flood

    Maiduguri flood

    •There is little proof that our governments sufficiently prepare for such tragedies

    Nigeria may have been a country locked in a vicious mode of tragedies, yet, the flood which swept through Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State on September 9, cannot but stand out among the many. Aside the number of the dead put

    at 30, the no fewer than two million people displaced said to be taking refuge at various camps, should ordinarily stoke alarm.

    It would be the third major incident in 32 years – the first being in 1992 and the other in 2012 – linked to the Alau Dam on the Ngadda River in Borno State. The dam, said to be under the management of the Chad Basin Development Authority, was constructed in 1984 to supply water for irrigation and domestic use in Maiduguri while doubling also as a means to control flood in the area.

    In the 1992 incident, the dam was said to have reached its maximum level and spilled over, occasioning the flood in the Jere Bowl. In 2012, it was a case of the dam opening its evacuation valve, following heavy torrential rain, and thus the release of massive amounts of water that caused flood in the state capital and surrounding areas.

    Whereas some accounts attributed the Tuesday incident to the collapse of the Alau Dam, the Federal Government countered that the flood was actually caused by overflow of the Ngadda River.

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    As would be expected of a major tragedy of that scale, it has been an orgy of lamentations and solidarity visits to the governor and the camps of fellow Nigerians sheltered in the IDP camps. Those visits, while in order, actually beg larger questions about whether or not the tragedy could have been averted.

    First, it is a well-known fact that the first major incident linked to the dam occurred more than three decades and the next one more than two decades after. Could we in the circumstance then reasonably say that any lessons have been learnt from each preceding tragedy?

    Second, our governments at all levels have spoken of the  reality of climate change and the need to have mitigation measures in place; could we say that they have invested sufficiently as they should, in flood abatement measures to minimise the occurrence of such tragedies?

    What of new dams to ease the pressure on the existing ones, particularly the question of their integrity, given what we know of the notoriety of our institutions in maintenance and safety? In other words, are those dams being maintained as they should?

    Whereas the story today is about Alau Dam and the overflow of the Ngadda River, the same story could be said to be true of other dams across the country. Fact is, the potential for associated tragedy is everywhere across the entire flood plains of the Niger and Benue troughs. After all, Nigerians are only too familiar with the perennially looming overflow of Cameroun’s Lagdo Dam at every successive cycle of rains, and with it the unending nightmares for the inhabitants of the vast Benue trough, right up to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital; same in the Southwest, where Oyan Dam has since constituted a rod of affliction with its perennial destruction and dislocation of communities along its path. In all of these, the common thread is the story of a nation neither truly ready nor equipped for disasters, even when these are in plain sight.

    The main point of course is that the usual calls by government on citizens to evacuate their abodes with every cycle of heavy rains are no longer sufficient. To the extent that our dams are neither sufficient nor could the state of their integrity be guaranteed, the Federal Government in particular, has a huge role to play in remedying the situation. We suggest that the government begin with an audit of the dams, with a view to determining their current state. And given what has become the perennial crying need for the government to build receiver dams to relief a number of the existing dams of the burden of excess water, our expectation is for the government to move swiftly in this direction without further delay.    

  • Nigerians need attitudinal change

    Nigerians need attitudinal change

    • Vincent Uba

    The current economic challenge the country is currently facing has given rise to strikes and protests intended to drive points home, but instead of making the situation better, worsened it.

    Nigerians are always prone to heaping blame on the leadership of the country over whatever problems we face, looking at them from narrow perspectives, instead of from global outlook.

    But what many have failed to realise is that these pockets of economic crisis are not peculiar to Nigeria. We do not seem to remember that the world is a global village, which implies that anything that happens in one country affects the others. How do we expect Nigeria to be better off or smiling economically when the whole world is embroiled in a multidimensional crisis? 

    Covid -19 and its devastating effects on the entire world came and somehow gone, but many countries are still trying to recover and find their feet. Then came the Russia -Ukraine war, and later the Middle East brouhaha.

    Countries like Venezuela, Sudan, Haiti, Kenya and some European countries, are going through economic challenges. Ask any Nigerian you know residing outside the country, whether in that country, things are rosy as they used to be, the answer will be in the negative.

    Take for instance the USA, one of the superpowers of the world, where the economy is nose-diving and the citizens are currently complaining of high cost of living. The government there has not done any magic to make things easier for the people overnight.

    The current situation in Nigeria is rather unfortunate, given in addition ,the perennial security crises occasioned by the boko haram terrorism attacks, kidnappings, conflicts between farmers and herders as well as the problems of corruption that makes the matters worse.

    I remember how Nigerians were crying of bribery and corruption and complaining of Nigeria being in distress, which made churches and some other religious bodies to resort to prayers. Two of such were ‘prayer against bribery and corruption’ and ‘prayer for Nigeria in distresses,’ introduced on June 27, 1993 and on June 19, 1998 respectively by Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, and till date, these prayers are still ongoing in the churches.

    As long as the global crises continue, the Nigeria crisis will not easily abate.

    Again, for as long as we Nigerians continue to remain enmeshed in hypocrisy, blaming, castigating, cursing and insulting the leadership in government, without taking care of our own individual unscrupulous behaviours in our private lives, Nigerian problems will remain.

    Have you not heard that before you attempt to remove a big log in someone’s eyes, you must first all remove a bigger one in yours? But we, in our individual sinful acts in our private lives, throw decency to the wind, while openly insult and abusing constituted authorities. 

    Prayers are good, even the Holy book, the bible, recommends that we pray for our leaders and those in authority. But on the contrary, we rather abuse, insult and curse them, forgetting that “he who comes to equity, must come with clean hands.”

    Let me say this, and I say it without making any bones, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu means well for Nigeria, and unlike previous presidents, he is in the face of global crisis and inherited internal problems, relentlessly  and courageously trying to steer us from long term problems by putting in place, hard and hurting policies that will eventually save Nigeria from total collapse.

    You can also see in him a President who is concerned and means well for Nigeria, putting in place students loan schemes, signing into law the regional development commissions, such as Southeast Development Commission, construction of coastal roads, revamping the rail transport system, fighting corruption without minding whose ox is gored.

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    To cushion the effects of these hard policies, he approved N70,000 as minimum wage, which some state governments are reluctant to pay; and distributed palliatives, which also some state governments were diverting for self- interest.

    More importantly, he knows the importance and impacts of the local government system to the masses, hence he championed the course of the  local government financial autonomy, which state governors are fighting hard to jeopardise, for them to continue to mismanage the local government funds for their selfish reasons.

    Fellow Nigerians, it is high time we looked inward , realised our failings and bad  behaviour, and changed our attitudes towards the leadership of the country. Let’s show some understanding to the President and rally round him for the realisation of the benefits of his reforms.

    The pains of the reform policies of the current administration are excruciating, no doubt, but the eventual benefits will be more enjoyable and long lasting. These pains can only be compared with the pregnancy and labour pains that disappear when the mother hears the cry of the baby and feels warmth on her body.

    When this administration came on board, Nigeria was like a building with a leaking roof that has been patched over the years without any positive results. Now, the leaking roof has been pulled down for replacement with better and more modern roofing materials.

    Certainly, there will be discomfort during the period of renovating the building with very little and scarce resources. With commitment and sincerity on the part of the government, the job will be done for the benefit of the people.

    Let us refrain from cursing and abusing the president or even lying against him. Let us appreciate his good policies and decisions aimed at improving the living standards of the people.

    Let us remember what the Israelites went through In the wilderness to access the promised land. It is a similar journey that Nigerians have embarked upon, under the guidance of the current administration.

    • Uba is the  National Coordinator of  No Alternative To Tinubu/Shettima 2023, & Former President, Catholic Brothers United.
  • Nigeria’s patriotic paralympians

    Nigeria’s patriotic paralympians

    • They should be honoured for their patrioism

    Nigerian paralympians have again pushed forward the paradox that exists in the Nigerian sporting history. They have always done themselves, their families and the nation proud in winning medals at global sports competitions, including the Olympics. This year’s Paris’ 24 games saw them winning two gold, three silver and two bronze medals, placing Nigeria 40th on the medals’ table.

    Onyinyechi Mark broke the paralympic record in the women’s 61kg powerlifting category by lifting the record-breaking 145kg. Folashade Oluwafemiayo won gold in the women’s over 84kg powerlifting. Bose Omolayo won silver in the women’s 79kg para-powerlifting . Flora Ujunwa won a silver medal in women’s F54 category with a throw of 19.26m while Esther Nworgu won in women’s powerlifting 41kg category. Isau Ogunkunle made history by becoming the first Nigerian player to win an individual medal in para-table tennis since Sydney 2000. It is interesting to note that more than 98% of the medalists are female paralympians.

    On the contrary, the Nigerian contingent to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games came back with no medals despite an array of 88 athletes that competed in 12 sports, with alleged millions of Naira spent by the sports ministry. Curiously though, this year’s Olympics, like most sports competitions in the past, has been dogged by controversies and evidently tacky preparations that saw Favour Ofili‘s name omitted for the Women’s 100m race.

    She suffered a similar fate in Tokyo 2020. Ironically, Annette Echikunwoke who was affected by the tackiness of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) in Tokyo 2020 returned this year competing for America, winning the country’s first medal by a female in hammer-throwing. Ese Ukpeseraye, a track and road cyclist had to borrow a bike from the German team. These are mere metaphors that define the systemic dysfunction of the careless sports ministry that keeps trading blames with various sports federations and the National Olympic Committee (NOC).

    We find the feats of the paralympians admirably patriotic and inspiring. In a country where even the able-bodied find participating in sports locally and internationally a herculean task, given the blatant lack of seriousness of those that manage our sports, these valiant sportsmen and women with their achievements continue to eloquently re-affirm the saying that there is ability in disability. To achieve such sterling results with little national support for their conditions says a lot about their spirit, courage and patriotism.

    We congratulate all of them and those who have supported them individually and as corporate bodies.

    It is a known fact that sports is not just a global money spinner for individuals and countries but is also a great social and global unifier that is as much a fitness tool as it is a way of socially uniting humanity at different levels, a tool for global unity. This then means that most nations that understand the soft power of sports in global terms deliberately invest and promote the sports that they are physiologically fit for and economically able to fund.

    We therefore see the consistent achievements of many Nigerian youths in different sports, both for Nigeria and for their adopted countries as an eloquent testimony of what the country can achieve if they can show some commitment to sports development, not just at the grassroots but as a national route to achieving unity. Hosting the different sports competitions earns nations not just revenue in foreign currency but is a route to the nation’s quest for global reckoning and consistent infrastructural upgrade.

    While we celebrate the successes of our paralympians, we must dig into the reason for these, despite all odds. We can’t stop learning from them as our fellow citizens. Those living with disabilities in Nigeria are some of the neglected demographics. As a developing nation, the laws and the constitution talk about equality of citizens, yet, the people living with all forms of disabilities are often flagrantly discriminated against because the laws are often not implemented to protect them. They are under-represented in policy making.

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    In a country like Nigeria, disabilities are often seen as curses from the gods, rooted in the superstitious beliefs in the African traditional religion. From birth therefore, they are seen as less humans and so, most parents either abandon them or hide them away from the public. There are no investments in special education for them, so most of them are illiterate and unskilled in any trade because of the rigours of going through schools with the stigmatisation and bullying often encountered.

    The success of the paralympians should re-awaken the nation to their unmet needs, to the capacity of the human spirit when supported to achieve dreams, the patriotism of this group of Nigerians even when the country gives them the shortest end of the stick, their determination to excel despite all odds and the value they bring with their talents. They make little demands and their demands are legitimate. They just want to be treated fairly and for their different situations to be part of the national planning consciousness.

    While we congratulate the victorious athletes, we urge the different tiers of government to invest in inclusive infrastructure and to make provisions for the different and varied forms of challenges of citizens that form a huge percentage of the population. Nigeria is the most populous black nation, and as such has her fair share of those living with disabilities. They must be given a seat at the table so that they can represent their communities and advocate at the policy-making levels of governance because clearly, the able-bodied have failed them.

    By the way, we hope that besides the Minister of Sports, Senator John Enoh, revelling in their achievements, having come under fire for the failure of the Paris ’24 contingent to win a single medal despite the alleged huge financial allocation, these victorious Nigerians must get the needed recognition and rewards as a means of encouragement and support, while we hope he can introduce a total overhaul of the sports ministry to be more functional in a world where sports has become a multi-billion dollar business.

  • Federal govt should apologise

    Federal govt should apologise

    •The National Institute for Cultural Orientation ought not to allow Mr. Flag Man’s body to remain in the morgue for 371 days

    It is difficult to conceive that a national hero can ever be forgotten. But in Nigeria, it is not hard to conceive anything because anything is possible, including the desecration of a memory.

    We witnessed it in the funeral of the designer of this country’s national flag, Pa Taiwo Akinkunmi, who passed on over a year ago, precisely on August 29, 2023.

    After a tortured wait in vain for the Federal Government to fulfill its promise to bury their beloved and national hero, the family went ahead to bury their dead on their own terms and date.

    No one described the kind of farewell that Pa Akinkunmi deserved more than the Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade. He said, “The commemoration of the death of an iconic figure like Pa Taiwo Akinkunmi, who designed the Nigerian flag 64 years ago at the age of 23, should be treated as a national festival.”

    He almost descended to mother earth without a song. But for the Oyo State government that was compelled to intervene. Pa Akinkunmi, also known as Mr. Flag Man, was also a local hero and native of Oyo State. What should have been a national farewell shrank into a parochial fare.

    His son, Akinwumi Akinkunmi, articulated the right sentiment: “The fact that Pa Akinkunmi hailed from this part of the country does not diminish his status as a national hero.”

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    When he died, the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, paid a condolence visit on behalf of the state and the nation. They even openly thanked the minister. “We thanked the Federal Government for sending the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Idris Mohammed, to pay condolence to the family when the incident happened.”

     It was at that time that the Federal Government promised to take over the funeral. A grateful family was pleased that their patriarch would get a befitting end. But, apart from one call from the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), it was all quiet on the federal front.

    They had to wait. The last call was a tease. The body of the hero remained in the morgue for 371 days. To prevent the wait from being an eternity, the Oyo State government intervened. According to the family, it cost the family N2,000 a day to keep the body in the mortuary.  They also thanked the state legislature. “While the family is waiting for the government to fulfill its promises, it appreciates the roles played by members of the 7th Oyo State House of Assembly, the Chairman, Oyo State Advisory Council, Bolaji Ayorinde, and members of the council for standing by the family,” the family stated as a hint that the lawmakers was the consolation in the period of neglect.

    It made no sense for NICO to keep the family waiting for so long. It was a desecration of the man, his lofty contribution and the institution of heroism. It was a disgrace and abuse of goodwill. If the family had gone ahead early, they would have pounced on them for diminishing the honour the nation wanted to bestow on their son. But it is the Federal Government that diminished the man. They might have saved the agony of grieving for one year by informing the family of their withdrawal of intent. The Federal Government, through the institute, ought not only to apologise to the family but pay some form of symbolic compensation. The wrong done to him and his family was a wrong done to the nation, the sentiment of heroism and the man who brought honour to the most visible symbol of our nationhood.

  • Articulated disasters

    Articulated disasters

    •All hands must be on deck to reduce accidents involving this category of vehicles on our roads

    At least, three fuel tankers and a trailer crashed within eight hours’ interval in three different states of the country between September 7 and 8. The first occurred at Ajia Junction on the Ibadan-Ife Road on September 7 while the three others occurred in the early hours of Sunday, September 8; two at the Maryland axis of Lagos State and the fourth in Agaie, Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State.

    The one in Ibadan, Oyo State, involved a petrol tanker which caught fire while trying to cross over from one lane to another and exploded at about 4.45p.m. on September 7. Mercifully, ‘’we thank God that all the occupants of the affected vehicles and motorcycles escaped from the scene before the explosion,” Mr Abiodun Ayoola, an eye witness said. A mini truck, one commuter bus, a car, one tricycle and two motorcycles were however burnt.

    But three people died in the multiple accidents in Maryland, Lagos.  The Head, Public Affairs Unit of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Nosa Okunbor, said that the first accident occurred when a diesel-laden tanker experienced brake failure and rammed into several vehicles, resulting in the deaths of the three people and injuries to others.

    Okunbor said it was when they got there around 1.00a.m. that they discovered another crash involving a containerised truck that had collided with a MACK truck, leaving the container truck driver with a leg injury.

    The Agaie incident was however the most gruesome. At least 48 people and about 50 cows were reported burnt when the tanker crashed with a truck conveying passengers and cattle from Wudil in Kano State. The incident happened at about 12.30 a.m. on September 8. The victims were given mass burial, as they were burnt beyond recognition.

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    It is immaterial whether people died in all of these mishaps or not. But, that four articulated vehicles could be involved in accidents in different parts of the country within about eight hours should worry us. And that was for the ones reported. How about others that might not have been reported? The accidents tell the usual tell-tales about road mishaps in the country, from bad roads to reckless driving, over-speeding, brake failure, monitoring on the highways, etc. 

    For example, Okunbor explained that the first accident in Maryland occurred due to brake failure, causing the tanker to ram into other vehicles. The second crash was attributed to reckless driving and speeding.

    The Agaie mishap was however attributed to the bad state of the road. Indeed, people in the area said the road has been in bad shape for years and that the September 8 accident was not the first; it just happened to be the worst in recent times. We  urge the Minister of Works to conduct a census of such bad roads across the country, with a view to planning how they would be fixed. Some of those roads have become death traps and the earlier they are fixed, the better.

    With regard to roadworthiness of vehicles on our roads, particularly the articulated ones, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has to redouble its efforts. We acknowledge the efforts of its officers and men but there is always room for improvement. One observation we have made though is that the drivers and owners of most of these articulated vehicles bring them out in the night when the FRSC personnel would have closed, in order to escape their vehicles being inspected. Perhaps we may have to emphasise that for those of them loading fuel or containers, for instance, they should be inspected and certified fit before being loaded.

    And for passengers that perch on loaded trucks due to lack of money to board the appropriate vehicles, as in the Agaie incident, they need to be enlightened on the need to stop being penny wise, pound foolish. Life has no duplicate, even if body parts that are not damaged beyond repairs in accidents can still be replaced.   

    Road mishaps on our roads can surely be reduced to the barest minimum, but that is if only we all play our parts responsibly.

  • Indefensible rejection

    Indefensible rejection

    • Turning back technical students at NYSC camps over IT is wrong. The matter should have been sorted out with the school authorities

    The question should, indeed, be asked, “how bright is the future of education in our country?” Education has been so befuddled in recent times that it calls for urgent attention. When it is not about the age at which students could gain admission into tertiary institutions, it is when a secondary school student could be allowed to take the senior secondary school examination. And, on both occasions, officials are too willing to take a somersault, following some resistance, giving the impression that the policies were not well thought out.

    However, the latest of such development that has been generating intense debate is the refusal of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to register polytechnic graduates for the mandatory one year national service. The latest batch of the graduates was shut out on the ground that they did not participate in the one year industrial attachment (IT) at the end of the national diploma programme. The essence of the IT is to allow them gain practical experience before proceeding for the Higher National Diploma programme, which has now been accepted as an equivalent of the university degree after many years of disputation.

    The NYSC has reportedly discovered that many of those mobilised for the scheme were not qualified by the policy. Many of them sent from the schools were thus sent back from the camps. Implementation of the policy appears shoddy as the graduates were not informed that they should come to camp with attestation from companies to which they were attached. Many of them and their parents were therefore left distraught when they were turned back from the camps, having travelled over long distances. Did the NYSC authorities inform the schools that it was about taking a hard stance on the policy, having ignored the requirement for so long?

    The difficulties faced by the national diploma graduates is known to most Nigerians. They are usually turned back by companies even when they indicate that they would be willing to undertake it without any form of payment. What has government done about this? Government should take steps to compel such firms to accept a number of students in the national interest. Punitive action could be taken against such firms that fail to align with enhancing the educational system.

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    Otherwise, if the requirement is no longer feasible, it should be officially scrapped, not left to agencies like the NYSC to take the decision.

     It is time Nigeria took the educational system seriously if only to improve national development. Lip service has always been paid to technical education, be it at the university, polytechnic or technical college levels. The workshops are poorly equipped, teachers are hardly empowered to go for retraining programmes, theory is given priority over technical aspects of the curricular. A nation that lags behind so many others in terms of progress should take serious steps in ensuring that students are equipped to contribute to industrial development. We call on the ministers of education and other bureaucrats in the ministry to urgently call a meeting where policies would be reviewed and aligned.

    What oversight functions are the education committees of the National Assembly performing if the gaps in the system could not be identified and fixed? It is time for them to sit up in justification of the huge emoluments they draw from the public purse.

    This plight of polytechnic graduates should be quickly addressed by all involved. It is not in the interest of the country to add to the frustration of the youth who are increasingly getting exasperated, and some even getting depressed.

  • A metaphor for hardship

    A metaphor for hardship

    • The sad tale of a girl who was impregnated at 16 and feeds her children with chicken feeds

    For 22-year-old Grace Udeme Esenowo, a farm attendant in Okon-Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, life can neither get more difficult nor more complicated. She became pregnant at 16, stalling her education at Senior Secondary 1 (SS1). Her parents and the society exacerbated her tragic teenage life by further victimising her with rejection and stigmatisation. With no option about where to go, she cohabited with her unborn child’s father, for whom she later had four kids, aged between four and one.

    As if her suffering was not enough, her partner was recently beaten to death for allegedly stealing some potatoes, apparently to be able to feed their kids. Grace herself got a job as a co-attendant in a chicken and fish farm owned by one Pastor Uzoma. In the milieu of all the tragedies in her young life, she lost her mother. Seemingly unable to feed her four children, she resorted to feeding them with fish and chicken feeds. Her co-workers noticed the aberration, reported her to the owner who luckily pitied her and gave her some plantain and N2,000.

    If there was any value the social media has added to the lives of humans, the action taken by the daughter of Pastor Uzoma in telling Grace’s story on her Instagram page seems to have brought her very difficult life to the public domain and, luckily, the attention of the public, including the wife of the Akwa Ibom State governor, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, who has called for her mental evaluation first.

    We feel touched by the story of Grace who has been through a lot in her barely more than two decades life. First, her story is a mere metaphor for the lives of many girls in a country with no strategic social plans to guide and protect young girls. She didn’t choose to get pregnant at 16 and in school.

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    There must be a missing link in the kind of sex education our young people get if ever they get any at all. Then we have the parental and societal warped issue about victimising the victim. She possibly might have had a better life if her family had supported her in that first pregnancy. She might have been able to go back to school, complete her education and be a better and more productive woman in her community. Again, in a patriarchal society, there is no mention of what responsibilities the society imposed on men like the father of Grace’s children. Why was he not made to realise the dangers of having sex with a minor? Why did he have the liberty to take in a victim of his and go ahead to have three more kids with her, even as both were unemployed and financially incapable?

    The societal hypocrisy often shifts blame to the victim. It is possible that the father of her children was an adult that ought to have been held accountable for violating her innocence after she got pregnant. The rejection from her parents is a social constant; they wanted to be seen as ‘not condoning immorality’ but no one cares for their failure to educate the young lady about her reproductive health. What is the national school curriculum approved as sex education even if it is not a one-solution step?

    There are multiple angles to this tragic story. We see a society that treats symptoms instead of the disease. Sex education can be more intentional and structured. An SS1 student should be availed more information not just about her body but about her rights. The Nigerian society seems too liberal with sexual offenders and male predatory behaviour.

    The First Lady of Akwa Ibom State did well to demand for mental evaluation of Grace but where are the social welfare/youth development institutions of the state?

    Pastor Uzoma must be commended for empathising with the young lady and her children, taking her back to work against the protests of her colleagues that felt she must be told not to bring her kids to the farm, as she depletes the feeds feeding her kids instead. The pastor must be commended for escalating her story through his social media-influencer daughter. Now we expect the government and their agencies to swing to action in helping not just the woman but the four innocent kids. There are millions of Graces across the country. It is not only about poverty or insanity, it is about dysfunctionality of our socio-cultural beliefs and denial of realities. Let the right things be done to educate, provide for and groom our young so as to minimise similar tragic outcomes.

  • Doctor’s abduction

    Doctor’s abduction

    Parley, not strikes, can resolve the issue

    In recent years, medical doctors in Nigeria have found reasons to embark on industrial actions that led to premature discharge of patients in public hospitals. As they dropped their stethoscopes and scalpels again in the last week of August to call the Federal Government’s attention to the insecurity in hospitals that led to the kidnap of Dr. Ganiyat Popoola at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna, there were wailings in public hospitals nationwide.

    At the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, patients and their relations could be heard bemoaning their fate as they were sent home as a result of the strike, since very few private hospitals in the city could provide some specialist care. Even at that, most of those at the hospital could not afford such private clinics.

    Dr. Popoola was kidnapped in her home within the precincts of the Eye Hospital on December 27, 2023, alongside her husband and nephew, leaving five children, including an infant, without adequate care. However, upon payment of the ransom demanded by the kidnappers, the husband was released. It has been suggested that doctors are in high demand by the bandits ravaging the upper tip of the Nigerian landscape because of their expertise needed to treat any of them wounded in gun duels with security operatives, or victims who may fall ill before ransom got paid.

    Whatever may be the reason for the rampant abductions, the doctors have a right to cry out for protection by the state. Indeed, the state has a duty to protect the lives and property of all citizens as provided for in section 14 of the 1999 constitution. Having noted the high demand for the doctors’ skills, security agencies have a duty to step up surveillance at their residences and work places.

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    It is, however, unfortunate that many lives were lost in the process of the physicians making the clarion call. Both the doctors and government ought to prevent this by putting the interest of the public ahead of every other consideration. The caregivers should realise that all Nigerians are affected by abductions. For some time, farmers have been unable to freely access their farms where they had invested so much. Schools have been violated many times, with many students and teachers abducted at will. Many of them had, in the process, paid the ultimate price. Even the Nigerian Defence Academy was invaded and soldiers picked up. In Abuja, a General lost his life to one of such criminal escapades.

    If the Nigerian Bar Association, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, associations of architects, engineers, clergymen and others were to call out their members each time there is an abduction of a member, there would be no peace in the country. Even politicians, public officers and civil servants have not been spared the agony. We therefore call on the doctors to rather engage the government in meaningful engagement, with a view to finding out what steps were being taken in such circumstances.

    The Federal Government should also step up its game in a bid to ensure that all Nigerians, young or old, educated or not, privileged or underprivileged, are protected and criminals reined in. Otherwise, where doctors are expected to respond to calls at odd hours of the day, they may refuse to hearken to such calls. Those on duty at night may be too fearful, always looking through the window; that they may not be in the right frame to provide adequate care.

    We appreciate efforts being made by the Federal Government through the Office of the National Security Adviser and the various security agencies, but more needed to be done to guarantee optimum performance by all Nigerians in their respective trades and professions.

  • Yobe horror

    Yobe horror

    •Another grim reminder of the need for state police

    Tuesday, last week, no fewer than 34 Yobe villagers, killed in the September 1 attack by Boko Haram terrorists in Mafa village, Yobe State, were given a mass burial at Babangida, headquarters of the Tarmuwa Local Government Area of the state. The bodies were said to have been recovered in a search-and-rescue operation led by the Nigerian Army, supported by local vigilantes.

     Dungus Abdulkarim, the police spokesman in the state, gave an official account of how it happened: “Around 150 suspected Boko Haram terrorists armed with rifles and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) attacked Mafa ward on more than 50 motorcycles”. He claimed that the attack was in apparent retaliation for the killing of two suspected Boko Haram fighters by local vigilantes.

    “They killed many people and burned many shops and houses. We are yet to ascertain the actual number of those killed in the attack”, he was further quoted to have said. However, Daily Trust, quoting one of the survivors, Umar Abubakar, claimed that over 50 decomposed bodies were buried in Mafa and the surrounding villages out of the recovered 87 corpses, even as people were still searching for relatives who escaped to the bush with bullet wounds.

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    It is unfortunate that Yobe and Borno states have in the last two months witnessed renewed wave of insurgency despite the notable advances in the war against terror, particularly in the northeast.  During the period, four devastating attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been recorded, during which an estimated 122 people reportedly died. And these are largely from communities whose inhabitants are said to have enjoyed several years of relative peace. Clearly, if their resort to hitting soft targets is an indication of the degree to which the terrorists have been degraded, the relative ease with which they are still able to move their terror machine around without local intelligence raising the alarm is a grim reminder of the battles still ahead.

    Unfortunately, with the spate of attacks increasingly frequent, so have the nightmares of the people returned in full force. The same Daily Trust also quoted one of the villagers in Mafa, Ali Musa, as lamenting the return of the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents: “We live in a perpetual fear now knowing that the terrorists can strike at any time. Some of us were forced to abandon our farmlands due to the activities of the insurgents.

    “Many of us are forced to pay Jizya tax (a type of taxation historically levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law) to the insurgents before we get access to our farmland. Now that it’s the harvest time, we fear for our lives. If enough security is not provided, most farmers will not be able to harvest their crops”.

    The possibilities are as dire as they are grim. After more than 15 years of the insurgency, the country, surely, ought to have gone beyond this point. The point has certainly been made from the very beginning about the current security infrastructure as being inadequate in the face of current realities. Not only is the military stretched thin, its current preoccupation as the first and the last line of defence has proven unhelpful. As for the police, their over-centralisation, not to talk of their equally palpable lack of sophisticated hardware, has reduced them to passive agents at a time they ought to be playing the lead agency.

    What seems so obvious in the circumstance is the need for strong police presence in the local communities. We are here referring to policemen, employed by the state government and stationed in those communities. Surely, they would have made a world of difference. Because they know the terrain and the people so well, and because they have their boots firmly on the ground, they are most likely to enjoy the confidence of the people. More than that, they would be in the position to thwart a number of the direct threats faced by the people, aside gathering and sharing critical intelligence with the federal police, the army and other security agencies.

    Clearly, if there is anything to be taken from the latest massacre in Yobe, it is that the country can no longer afford the luxury of clinging to a unitarist, over-centralised police structure.