The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Adult content

    Adult content

    Moves to restrict web pornography will have little effect 

    David Cameron is not alone in being concerned about the ease with which pornography can be accessed via the internet. Sexually explicit material that was once concealed behind blackened shopfronts is now so widely viewed as to coarsen the cultural mainstream. Trafficking in illegal images has also gone online, where it is easier to perpetrate and more difficult to police.

    Mr Cameron is proposing new measures to shield children from potential harm. The first concerns the appalling and illegal images of child abuse. Here search engines are being asked to stop providing results for certain blacklisted queries, to help thwart the distribution of such images. In addition, to reduce the likelihood of children viewing legal but adult material, providers of home internet connections have separately agreed to block all pornography, unless customers request unfiltered access.

    There would be legitimate misgivings about censoring search results even if this delivered a surgical strike on child pornography. In practice, it is a blunt tool. In China, which has used similar means to accomplish the less laudable end of suppressing debate, many other websites also fall foul of the blacklists. Even then, online dissidence has merely been confined to discreet corners of the internet akin to those in which child pornographers already lurk. Shutting down servers that contain illegal images – as UK authorities have been doing for years – is far more effective.

    The case for filtering out legal pornography is also delicate. Many parents who would have struggled to set up safeguards by themselves will be reassured that their children cannot easily obtain explicit material, even if enterprising teenagers will inevitably find ways. On the other hand, adults who want to switch the filter off may resent having to disclose that preference. The government will in effect determine the extent of this taboo when it decides which content is so salacious that it should be blocked by default.

    Mr Cameron has highlighted legitimate public concerns surrounding internet pornography. The availability to children of sexually explicit material is undesirable, and the exchange of sexual images of children over the internet is abhorrent. Proposals that could contribute to eliminating these blights would deservedly command public support. But the measures suggested by the prime minister risk producing unintended consequences, and add little to what is already being done.

    – Financial Times

  • Arms importation

    Arms importation

    Zamfara State example reflects need for state police and exposes our loose attitude to arms

    Just because the police institution has failed in the discharge of its constitutional duties of maintaining peace and order, the Zamfara State government seems to be preparing to take over these salient functions. The Governor Abubakar Abdulaziz Yari- led administration in the state, in the desperate bid to checkmate the criminality of some unknown gunmen that are wantonly killing people, has imported 1,500 double-barrelled guns to fortify its vigilante groups. Yet, gun procurement is not one of the lawful duties of any state government. Also, such action is unwise at this challenging period in the north.

    The guns reportedly imported from Ukraine had been sequestered by the Federal Government because their importation was an infraction of the nation’s firearms laws. We know that Zamfara has been under the siege of armed bandits since last year and this has led to the wanton killings of 60 people in Kizara village in just one day by unknown callous gunmen.

    Notwithstanding this unfortunate incident, the state government at this tense security period should know that such procurement could jeopardise the efforts being made to douse security challenges in the north. No matter the degree of desperation about the hopeless security situation in Zamfara, the best approach for the state government would have been to ask for more police presence in the state. The governor’s touted ‘simple understanding’ with the state police and perhaps the police high command in Abuja without the express knowledge/permission of the Presidency is tantamount to sidetracking due process. But for the arms seizure, Zamfara would have sent a wrong signal to other states that they could also toe the same path of illegal importation of arms into the country. Now other states know that such conducts are forbidden by our laws.

    Over time, membership of vigilantes is based on free volition. And most of those freely chosen do not necessarily possess any skill in arms handling and operations. This exposes the public to danger when amateurs, under the guise of being members of vigilante groups, bear arms. This could lead to a situation akin to that of theatre of the absurd.

    Not only in Zamfara but other states, the governors must not be seen to be encouraging proliferation of arms under the pretext of arming vigilantes because of the dire consequences of such engagements. Most hitherto armed groups established by governors across the federation have gotten out of control at some point because the states’ leadership abandon the essence of setting them up. Some vigilantes have been deployed to harass and molest political adversaries of governors under the slightest provocation.

    We commend Senate’s rejection of the motion for legislative ratification of the idea of arming vigilante groups in Zamfara, especially in view of their history of meting out jungle justice to citizens across the nation. The matter should not lead to emotive dissipation; rather, interested governors should intensify efforts on the clamour for state police. In the interim, a call for the deployment of better equipped policemen not only in Zamfara but other states facing upsurge in crime will suffice.

    The latest Zamfara gun importation further exposes the failure of the police as an institution in its constitutional task of providing peaceful atmosphere in all parts of the country. This is a reminder to the national assembly and the central government about the imperative of creating state police. This seems the only honest path if order must be restored across the federation and if we are truly keen on ensuring that whoever handles a weapon is well trained.

  • Discipline in the police

    Discipline in the police

    Misconduct charges against AIGs and 191 other police officers breathes for the force

    Four Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and 191 other police officers are to appear before the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC) to show why they should not be sanctioned for various cases of professional misconduct. Deputy Inspector -General of Police, Suleiman Faka, who is in charge of administration disclosed this at a news conference. The FDC, which comprises all the Deputy Inspectors-General of Police and the Force Secretary who serves as its secretary essentially reviews disciplinary matters involving officers from the rank of ASP and above, who may have committed one offence or the other in the course of their duties.

    These are welcome developments, especially in our kind of environment where crime is hardly punished and where the police force is known more for its demeanours than in the display of professionalism and gallantry. We are also happy to note that the current police administration which inherited over 3,000 cases of indiscipline in January 2012 had disposed of all the cases. We cannot afford to look the other way on disciplinary matters, especially in the police force which is responsible for law enforcement. For them to perform their duties creditably, policemen must, like Caesar’s wife, be above board. However, given the atrocities that some bad eggs in the police force commit daily; at least the reported cases alone, it would seem the figures of those deserving of sanctions are underestimated.

    We are daily inundated with stories of trigger-happy policemen who shoot at the slightest or no provocation, resulting in the deaths of many innocent citizens. Police checkpoints have had to be banned on many occasions due to the activities of some unscrupulous policemen who have turned the checkpoints into honey pots where they extort money from motorists. Many policemen have been used for illegal duties by some personalities in the country, to settle personal scores. We have seen policemen who are drunk even while in uniform. In most police stations, police officers still collect bribe for bail, even though it is conspicuously pasted in the police stations that such services are free. We can go on and on to give examples of these atrocities by some men of the police force. If we reckon with these numerous cases, we would see that making 3,000 of them to face disciplinary action would just seem like a drop in the ocean.

    We must acknowledge though that acts of misconduct are not peculiar to police officers; it is an all-Nigerian challenge. And it is festering because the state hardly makes scapegoats of people, especially when those involved are well known individuals or people that are highly connected. We hope however that if the disciplinary process is routine, it will be possible for the impact of the sanctions to be felt by Nigerians because policemen would realise that they are being watched and that the big stick would be wielded if they are caught with any acts of indiscipline.

    All said, however, it is important to remind the government of the need to fund the police adequately if some of the vices associated with it are to become history. We agree that people whose middle name is misconduct in the force would continue to misbehave, but the tendency is there too for some of them to live straight if better remunerated and their welfare generally is enhanced.

    We are happy that those indicted have a chance to defend themselves through the FCD; that is how it should be, especially in a democratic setting. We hope the hearings would be fair to all in order to ensure that only the guilty are eventually punished. We hope too that those of them guilty of serious crimes would be prosecuted and be made to face the full weight of the law. That should be the spirit of the disciplinary actions if the appropriate lessons are to be learnt.

  • Congress needs to enact a shield law for journalists

    Congress needs to enact a shield law for journalists

    PRESIDENT OBAMA seems to be of two minds when it comes to freedom of information and the role of the press. On his first day in office, he committed his administration to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in government,” and he proclaimed in a recent address that a free press is essential to democracy. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s administration has conducted the most far-reaching campaign against leaks in recent memory, with twice as many prosecutions as in all previous administrations combined. While both of these ideas may be strongly held by the president, they are coming into conflict.

    There has always been a delicate balance between secrecy and the public’s need to know what the government is doing and how decisions are reached. The volume of classified information has exploded in the digital age, and so has the number of people authorized to access it. The urge of government officials to talk about such matters — out of dissent, or just a desire to spin — remains undiminished. We are firm believers in maintaining this balance between secrecy and openness, but we worry that, in all the hysteria over leaks, it may tip too much to one side.

    A discouraging sign came in the July 19 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which held that New York Times reporter James Risen had no privilege under the First Amendment that would allow him to refuse to testify about a confidential source in a leak investigation. Mr. Risen’s argument that he should not be compelled to testify in a case involving a former CIA official was supported by many news media organizations, including this newspaper, and he has vowed to appeal the ruling.

    If allowed to stand, the ruling could jeopardize the ability of reporters to protect the identity of sources, a vital tool for journalistic inquiry. As Judge Roger Gregory wrote in a dissent, “The public, of course, does not have a right to see all classified information held by our government. But public debate on American military and intelligence methods is a critical element of public oversight of our government. Protecting the reporters’ privilege ensures the informed public discussion of important moral, legal and strategic issues.”

    The Risen case underscores the need to write into federal law a shield for the news media. Some 49 states and the District have established media shield laws or recognized such privileges in court. A good place to start on the federal level is with legislation recently introduced by Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). While the proposed law would not offer absolute protection, it would introduce a “balancing test” for a court to use before compelling disclosure from a reporter. The test would take into account the public interest in the disclosure and in maintaining the free flow of information. This should restrain overzealous prosecutors from roping journalists into leak prosecutions and sustain the uneasy but essential balance between secrecy and openness.

    – Washington Post

  • Looting the loot?

    Looting the loot?

    • Retrieved properties must be tied to certain projects to prevent their being looted again

    What exactly are we doing with stolen public assets either recovered or seized from convicted persons by the country’s various anti-corruption agencies? When such assets are retrieved, so much publicity is done to the delight of a people who are simply numbed by the scale of the massive looting of the treasury at various levels.

    However, an increasingly cynical public is beginning to wonder if the country derives any benefits at all from the recovery of such loot. Since nobody ever gets to know what ultimately happens to the funds, the impression is created that it is a case of loot recovered simply to be re-looted. It is to address this critical issue that the House of Representatives Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes organised a three-day public investigative hearing to verify the status of all assets seized and recovered specifically by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since inception.

    Declaring the hearing open, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, made the startling revelation that assets recovered or seized by the agency between 2003 and now are valued at approximately two trillion Naira. These include over 200 mansions, large sums of money through 46 forfeiture court orders, landed property, business concerns, bank accounts, shares in blue chip companies, exotic vehicles, fuel stations, holdings, ware houses and shopping malls, among others.

    It is alarming, as the Speaker sadly noted, that most of these properties have fallen into disrepair as a result of vandalism, improper care, abandonment or sheer waste. We agree with Tambuwal when he declared that “We cannot allow a situation whereby over 400 cars seized through the diligence of the EFCC, for instance, continue to rot away. We have a vicarious responsibility to ensure that assets seized through forfeiture court orders are prudentially and carefully managed to avoid waste and to ensure they are maximally disposed of for the benefit of the public”.

    The Federal Government announced with fanfare in 2011, the recovery from the family of the late General Sani Abacha of the sum of 22.5 million pounds (N6.18 billion) stashed away in the tiny Island of Jersey, off coast of Normady in France. Millions of dollars and pounds had been reportedly recovered from the Abacha family during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The question is: what happens to such funds? Are they returned to the treasury? Are they captured in the budgetary process or a dedicated account? The fact that we are asking such questions is a reflection of the opacity that characterises the handling of recovered or seized assets and the opportunity created for such assets to be re-looted.

    Given the gargantuan scale of corruption in the country, Nigeria needs a fundamental, well thought-out policy on retrieved assets. When such massive assets are allowed to lie idle with anti-corruption agencies, it creates a source of temptation for members of such agencies to also enrich themselves at the expense of the public.

    Beyond this, what is the point in spending scarce public resources to recover stolen assets only for such property or monies to either go to waste or be stolen by a new set of looters? Indeed, it would be better for recovered funds to be expended on specific, identifiable and beneficial projects so that the public will become more enthusiastic in their support for the anti-corruption war.

    The House of Representatives should ensure that the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies have a proper, transparent, accountable and structured system of handling seized or repatriated properties.

     

  • Mastering malaria

    Mastering malaria

    •Africa must take its destiny into its own hands

    The welcome news that an anti-malaria vaccine could be in operation in Africa as soon as 2015 must be tempered by the fact that it is essentially a non-African initiative, sponsored by foreign funds, and directed by foreign agencies.

    Malaria is the continent’s most ruthless killer, accounting for about 900,000 deaths a year, most of them babies and children. This is far in excess of any other disease, and its crippling effect is widely regarded as a major factor inhibiting the continent’s growth.

    The new vaccine, designated “RLTSS,” is aimed at fighting the virulent falciparum strain of malaria. It is undergoing trials in seven African countries, including Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, and covers about 16,000 children. Previous trials conducted in 2008 have shown the vaccine to be about 53 per cent effective in young children and about 65 per cent effective in infants.

    Most of the research is being conducted by multinational pharmaceutical firms like GlaxoSmithKline and agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO), especially its Global Malaria Programme. It is hoped that RLTSS will be the harbinger of even more effective second-generation vaccines, which will have up to 80 per cent effectiveness.

    The tragedy is that Africa is almost nowhere to be found in all of these laudable initiatives. The continent’s clinicians, clinical epidemiologists and other researchers are involved in the trials, but very few nations appear to have taken up the fight against the disease as their own. Most of them are handicapped by dilapidated infrastructure, poor funding and administrative incompetence. Many have forgotten valuable strategies previously developed to curb the spread of mosquitoes, improve general hygiene and accelerate public enlightenment. The continent’s numerous wars and outbreaks of instability have further worsened the capacity of African governments to deal with the malaria plague, and the global economic downturn has shifted resources away from effective treatment of the disease.

    Nigeria features prominently in this alliance of under-achievers. The country accounts for more malaria deaths than any other nation on earth. About 97 per cent of its total population resides in malaria-prevalent areas. It witnesses about 100 million malaria cases annually; 300,000 of these are fatal. The disease accounts for 11 per cent of maternal mortality.

    African nations can no longer look on as outsiders continue to take the initiative in combating a disease that continues to decimate their citizens. It is not enough to beg for assistance; a true understanding of sovereignty implies that the continent must take deliberate measures to ensure that it assumes a more significant role in fighting malaria to a standstill.

    The first step in achieving this aim must incorporate a return to the fundamentals of public health policy: functioning healthcare facilities, increased sanitation, well-developed early-warning systems, and a vigorous programme of public enlightenment. The sanitary inspector must return to Africa’s streets. Unhealthy practices must be exposed and discouraged. More resources should be devoted to social infrastructure, especially the holy trinity of immunisation, nutrition and education, without which any sustained campaign against malaria will be meaningless.

    Indigenous pharmaceutical firms must be encouraged to carry out research into malaria, with an emphasis on modernising the many traditional remedies which have demonstrated their efficacy in the past. They can be encouraged by government grants and subsidies aimed at reducing the financial risk involved in such undertakings.

    Perhaps most importantly, the attitudes of Africa’s governments have to change. The callous indifference displayed by the continent’s ruling elite to the deaths of thousands of their compatriots annually cannot continue. Countries like Nigeria, where government officials rush abroad at the slightest ailment, should channel their resources into ensuring that their healthcare facilities are better-staffed and equipped.

  • Crude theft

    Crude theft

    •We wonder why govt appears helpless in stopping illegal bunkering

    We are losing revenue; 400,000 barrels of crude oil are lost on a daily basis due to illegal bunkering, vandalism and production shut-in … I have to clarify that it is not as if the entire 400,000 barrels is stolen. What happens is that whenever the pipelines are attacked and oil is taken, there is a total shutdown. All the quantity of oil produced for that day will be lost because it means government cannot sell it and it means a drop in revenue.”

    The foregoing official confessions by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy were made during her appearance before the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation/Finance. She was responding to a question on revenue shortfalls into the federation account.

    To us, a daily loss of 400,000 barrels of crude oil is condemnable. But a further ascription of such loss to illegal bunkering, vandalism of infrastructure and halt in production smacks of gross irresponsibility on government’s part. After all, all avenues mentioned by the minister are areas that could be blocked if only to show this government’s serious-mindedness, having been in-charge of security that should have curbed illegal bunkering. Once this is effectively checked, any halt in production activities, to a reasonable extent, becomes difficult.

    In mathematical terms, the daily loss of 400,000 barrels of oil at an international price of $117 per barrel, when converted to naira equivalent at an exchange rate of N157 to a dollar would mean that N7.35 billion is being lost daily. What this translates to is that the dwindling oil revenue accruing to the Federation Account is self-inflicted. Such is a consequence of absolute dereliction of duties by the government. It must do the needful in the oil sector.

    We are aware that the National Economic Council (NEC) at one of its meetings set up an Oil Theft Committee to look into this crucial issue. But the truth is that the effect of that committee is not being felt. The way to resolve the matter is not in convening stakeholders’ meetings; several of such meetings had been held, with well crafted submissions and recommendations that are gathering dust in the shelves in various government houses.

    The vandals and oil thieves are not bigger than the Nigerian state. Oil theft business is not one for the pauperised in the society; it requires huge capital and sophisticated equipment to freight and for trans-loading on the high seas where buyers that are usually rich and influential members of the society and outside it take illegal delivery. This trend cannot continue.

    Furthermore, the immoral award of pipelines protection security contract to people like Government Tompolo and other erstwhile militants, at a huge cost to the country, has not yielded any meaningful result. Rather, the infrastructure and architecture of violence is now formally institutionalised by this administration.

    We call for a more potent pursuit and prosecution of pipeline vandals and oil thieves. No doubt, when we add this illegal parallel production to state thievery, one should be enraged by what the country is losing to the oil thieves. But then, the recent setting up of an ad-hoc legal task force with a life span of one year by NEC to commence the prosecution of verified cases of oil-related offenders, using applicable laws, is unnecessary duplication of relevant security agencies’ duties.  It was reported that about 300 oil offenders are already in police custody. They should be arraigned by appropriate agencies to face the full wrath of the enabling Miscellaneous Offences Act which specifies a sanction of 21 years without an option of fine for offenders.

  • Ridiculous dependency

    Ridiculous dependency

    •How can the police perform when about 46 stations are allocated N500,000 running cost quarterly?

    The reported “confessions” of some Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) that they administered police stations with money from bribes and private philanthropy sounded like a joke carried too far, but they were actually serious, and the facts damning.

    The revealing press report highlighted a fundamental cause of such ridiculous financial dependency, quoting a police source at the Ogun State Police Command headquarters in Abeokuta who disclosed that the command’s quarterly allocation from the Force Headquarters for the administration of 46 police stations and five area commands in the state was between N450,000 and N650,000.

    An unnamed DPO in the command who allegedly claimed to be among the highest beneficiaries said his division received between N35, 000 and N40, 000 every three months.  This sum, according to him, was meant to cover fuelling of patrol vehicles, generators, stationery, communication and other expenses within the period.

    He was quoted as saying, “I get less than N40, 000 to cater for my running costs quarterly, and, as a matter of fact, to run a truly motorised patrol, for instance, you will need about 40 litres of petrol in 24 hours for a patrol van and these amounts to N3, 840 daily. In this division, we have four patrol vehicles and this makes it N15, 360 daily.” He added, ending with a telling rhetorical question, “If we decide to spend the allocation only on petrol, the money wouldn’t last more than three days. So, where do we get the money to make up for the huge shortfall?”

    However, it is pertinent to question whether this grim and lamentable picture of helplessness, which is not an isolated instance, should be a justification for the reliance on illegalities and charity. It is scandalous that police stations across the country reportedly look to community development associations, companies, small business owners, non-governmental organisations and even religious groups, among others, for funding and support. Well-intentioned and laudable as such assistance could be, especially when done under the umbrella of “corporate social responsibility”, there is no denying the fact that it could as well compromise the force and be counter-productive.

    Indeed, there were, reportedly, disturbing cases in which such helpers turned out to be criminals who merely used their ostensible generosity to mask their involvement in unlawful activities. It is definitely a dangerous development when criminals not only penetrate the police force, but also position themselves as patrons. This state of affairs, unfortunately, gives credence to the widespread view that the country’s police stations are places where absolutely anything is possible and nothing is impossible.

    The implications for law and order are negatively far-reaching. It goes without saying that such situation creates an undesirable breeding ground for official corruption, inefficiency and, ultimately, loss of public confidence in the force. No forward-looking society will allow this kind of rot. There is a worrying puzzle: What exactly are the Presidency and the National Assembly doing to address the urgent issue of police reforms, especially adequate funding, which is an indispensable factor in bringing about effective policing?

    Logically, the apparent underfunding and neglect of the police force, which is evidentially the result of a structural problem, should prompt yet another look at the country’s rather skewed interpretation of federalism. Isn’t it more practical to have state police, funded and controlled by each of the federating states, instead of the current practice of a Federal Government-driven police that is obviously unmanageable? Even beyond the evident practicality, state police belongs essentially to the concept of federalism in its undistorted sense, and that should be the ultimate path for the country.

    One example that demonstrates the incongruity of the current arrangement is the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), a public–private partnership project established by law in 2007, which makes contributions in the areas of acquisition of police equipment and patrol vehicles, and their maintenance. Such commendable complementary initiative, however, can never be enough. The very root of the problem of police underfunding and poor welfare needs to be tackled urgently by the authorities at the centre.

  • More loans

    More loans

    IF the nation hitherto harboured doubts about the Jonathan administration’s appetite for debts, the $1 billion Eurobond offer (which Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala earlier in the month gleefully announced its over-subscription by 400 percent), and the $1.1 billion loan deal with the Chinese government said to have been finalised during President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent visit to the country ought to have settled all pretensions. The $.1billion loan is part of the $3 billion loan package being considered for Nigeria by the Chinese government.

    Today, only the administration pretends that the trajectory of the debt is anything but worrisome. From the rather modest level of $3.5 billion post-exit of the London and Paris Clubs debts, the foreign debt stock has since ballooned to $6.9 billion as at June 30 – a figure that excludes the Eurobond and the latest loan from the Chinese government.

    What comes as even more frightening is the prognosis. Under the Medium Term Rolling Plan of the Debt Management Office (DMO) for instance, the debt for 2013 is projected at $12.165 billion; this figure is expected to rise to $14.585 billion in 2014 and $16.765 billion in 2015. No less scary is the domestic debt situation with its projection of $7.125 billion for 2013, $7.92 billion for 2014 and $8.44 billion in 2015.

    Now, the government’s argument is familiar: the current debt stock is sustainable as the nation is said to be under-borrowed. The extension of the argument is the nebulous rationalisation that the Debt –to- GDP ratio now at 21.50 percent still falls within acceptable limits. In this, the government has been quick to cite the corresponding figures for ‘similar’ emerging economies of Brazil and South Africa of 68.47 percent and 42.30 percent, respectively.

    We think that the government missed the argument. In the first place, the nation did not have to exit from the debtor cartel only to relapse into the bad habit of stacking up dubious loans for future generations. This is not only unacceptable, but immoral. Secondly, whereas the rate of debt accumulation has grown somewhat exponentially under the Jonathan administration; the obverse side is that citizens have had great troubles appreciating where the huge monies went. In other words, they see very little activities going on that could remotely match the scale of the debts known to have been contracted.

    As for the government’s rationale that some of the domestic debts were inevitable to the cause of deepening the domestic bond market, the position falls flat if only for the fact that the government has been known to use some of the proceeds for recurrent expenditures such as wage increases in the public sector.

    These, however are not the only grounds on which citizens continue to voice anxiety. Some of the loans are not known to be tied to specific projects, hence prone to misuse. The $1 billion Eurobond issue falls into this category. Even where, as in the case of the Chinese loan which is said to be tied to specific infrastructure projects, the choice of the projects has tended to come across as questionable.

    For instance, what makes the four airport projects “priority” at this time? Couldn’t the government have looked for alternative but less burdensome funding arrangements for the airport projects, more so as the infrastructure concessioning framework is not only in place but already has the backing of law? And just in the event that the government considers loans as inevitable, couldn’t these have been restricted to projects with high social and economic impact?

    The bottom-line is this: the Federal Government has not been entirely convincing on the rationale of taking more loans at a time when oil prices continue to surpass projections. And, has been said, it does not make any rational sense to stash our reserves abroad at nominal interest of barely one percent while shopping for foreign credit which attracts interest of six percent. Not only is it bad mathematics; it is also bad economics.

  • Another dream deferred

    Another dream deferred

    THE revelation by President Goodluck Jonathan that the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is not feasible by the target date of 2015 is regrettable. Speaking at a press briefing during the closing ceremony of the African Union Heads of State and Government Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, in Abuja the President said no African country had attained the MDGs yet.

    This, to say the least, is a sad reflection on the commitment of African leaders to developing their countries. Thirteen years ago, in September 2000 to be precise, world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York adopted the Millennium Development Goals, committing their nations to reducing extreme poverty and setting out time-bound targets with 2015 as its deadline.

    The goals are : the eradication of poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality rates; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

    To drive the achievement of the MDGs, the Nigerian government set up the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.

    Thirteen years after the UN mandate, how has Nigeria fared? President Jonathan has delivered the verdict. African countries, the President declared, have fallen short of meeting the target.

    In order to appraise the current status of the MDGs in Nigeria, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs in 2012 commissioned the National Bureau of Statistics to conduct a national household survey to report on the level of achievement of the MDGs . The Bureau sampled 22,200 households with around 75,000 respondents. The results show a prevalence of underweight children. “Net attendance levels for basic schooling has risen remarkably when compared with baseline data; the gender parity targets of primary and secondary education levels have been achieved. There has been a reduction for the less than five mortality rate of 157 deaths per 1,000 live births, to 94 deaths. This trend is similar to infant mortality rate.

    Data held by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS demonstrate that there is a continuation in the fall of the HIV prevalence, from figures as high as 5.8 to 4.1 in 2012″.

    President Jonathan confirmed this when he said Nigeria’s commitment in the last 10 years was to halt and reverse HIV and AIDS in the country. The President, however, lamented that “Of the 3.4 million people living with HIV in the country, only 491,021 HIV positive persons are accessing Antiretroviral Therapy. Furthermore, 1.6 million people are eligible for ART, meaning that an estimated 30 percent of the HIV populace is in need.”

    As the clock ticks towards the finishing line of 2015; a lot more can be done towards the attainment of the MDGs. To achieve this, we have to drastically reduce the high level of corruption in the country. The effect of corruption is felt on inflated government expenditures, including contracts. The result is that funds meant for the development of education, healthcare, infrastructure and other vital sectors of the economy are diverted into private pockets.

    Perhaps pogrammes like the NEEDS of the Obasanjo presidency, the Seven-point Agenda of Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda might have gone a long way towards alleviating poverty and addressing the Millennium Development Goals but for the institutionalised corruption in the system.