The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 55

  • Police arrest ‘prophet’, 55 others for crimes

    The Ogun State Police Command has arrested 56 suspected criminals, including a “Prophet” Kehinde Onayiga, said to have abducted an 11-year-old girl for ritual.

    Police Commissioner Ahmed Iliyasu, who paraded the suspects yesterday at the command headquarters in Abeokuta, the state capital, said joint efforts of Operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Police Mobile Force (PMF), conventional policemen and Anti-Kidnapping/Cultism units led to arrest of the suspects.

    Iliyasu said the suspects were picked up at different locations, adding that the police command will continue to “deploy tactical and covert operatives to combat criminals in Ogun State”.

    Although Onayiga and his suspected accomplice, Musliu Jubril, were apprehended for alleged abduction, their victim has not been found.

    Onayiga, who was paraded with his fetish objects, including ram horns wrapped in a red piece of cloth, allegedly commissioned Jubril to abduct the girl for ritual on behalf of Yahoo Boys.

    The “prophet” told reporters that he was from the Cherubim and Seraphim Church at Agbotijesu Parish on Waterworks Road in Sagamu, but denied sending Jubril to abduct anyone.

    The cleric said he had been conducting spiritual matters in the last 18 years, adding that his clients often consulted him for healing.

    Onayiga said he never had Yahoo Boys as clients.

    But Jubril maintained that Onayiga commissioned him to look for a virgin for a ritual for some Yahoo Boys.

    The suspect claimed the “prophet” pledged to pay N20,000 if he could procure a young girl, besides helping him to travel abroad.

    According to him, he delivered the victim to Onayiga on July 21.

  • Police say Muslim man dies after being beaten in India

    The police India said a Muslim man who was recently attacked by cow protection vigilantes in the northern state of Rajasthan has died of his injuries.

    Pehlu Khan, 55, was among the group of 15 Muslims that was attacked by a mob on a highway in Alwar district at the weekend over suspicions that they were smuggling cows for slaughter.

    District police Chief Rahul Prakash said that Khan, who was admitted to a local hospital, succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.

    Hindus, a majority in the country, regard the cow as holy, and this is the latest in a series of incidents of cow vigilantes attacking people transporting cattle in various parts of the country.

    Hard-line Hindu groups, including those linked with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have called for a nationwide ban on the slaughter of cows and have been blamed for such attacks.

    Prakash said a case of murder has been registered but no arrests have yet been made.

    He said the police have launched a manhunt for the five main suspects.

    Police said the group of Muslim men was booked under the Rajasthan Bovine Act, under which the slaughter of cows can result in up to 10 years in prison.

    The attack comes amid a crackdown by several BJP-ruled states on cattle slaughter.

    The newly-elected BJP government in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh has already shut-down several illegal slaughterhouses, driven by suspicions that the abattoirs are used for the slaughter of cows.

     

  • NGO TO CELEBRATE NIGERIA AT 55

    NGO TO CELEBRATE NIGERIA AT 55

    ALAPOMEJI crooner, Abolore Akande, aka 9ice, is among artistes expected to headline a concert being organized by World Changers International, a youth-oriented Non Governmental Organisation.

    The concert, tagged Celebrating Nigeria at 55 will hold alongside a leadership summit on October 8 and 9 at the London Metropolitan University, London. According to the management of the NGO, the concert aims to foster synergy among the Nigerian youths both home and abroad.

    Expected to speak during the two-day conference are Tony Elumelu, Chairman Heirs Holding, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and musician 9ice amongst others.

    “Nigerians in Diasporas have associated themselves with the negative aspect of our dear nation. They don’t believe that anything good has ever come out of this country,” said President of the body, Tim Ayoola Abiodun.

    According to Abiodun who urged youth inclusion in government, “the programme aims at presenting the positive aspect of Nigeria nationwide.”

    The concert producer Anthony Dike said the event provided an avenue for Nigerians to deploy their talents.

    “The concert aims at encouraging Nigerians using their talents over there, to bring in their craft and contribute to the Nigerian industry,” said Dike.

  • Nigeria at 55: Whither education?

    Nigeria at 55: Whither education?

    Today marks Nigeria’s 55th Independence anniversary. It is the first Independence celebration by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    The anniversary is coming when the list of would-be ministers is being made public.  Expectations are high as Nigerians wait for the promised change by the government.

    Nigerians have divergent views on Nigeria’s achievements since becoming independent on October 1, 1960.  Some, like Mr Bode Adeboye, an entrepreneur, think there is nothing to celebrate about education, which he noted is plagued by corruption – like other areas of national life.

    “For me, I do not think education has really improved compared to where we are now.  The issue is certainly corruption; it has eaten deep into the affairs of the country. If only Nigerians and also people at the helm of affairs could see beyond selfish interest and greed, by now, we would have been celebrated as one of the developed countries in the world.

    “It is not as if governments have not been doing anything. A lot of money has been invested in the sector; but it has hardly been used to achieve its purpose. We are marking 55 years of independence when, in actual fact, it calls for no celebration,” he said.

    A lecturer of Lagos State University, Prof Biodun Akinpelu argues that education is in shambles.

    “Today, it is no exaggeration that education has crashed beyond imagination,” he said.

    Mr Abayomi Badru, who runs a tutorial centre in Ikorodu, Lagos, lamented that the deterioration in the education sector is evident in the increasing number of private institutions in operation while public schools are going down.

    It is not all bad news, says those who submit that there are milestones in education worth celebrating.  Prof Offiong E Offiong, immediate past Education Commissioner in Cross River State, said education today is better than two decades ago.

    “I would not say the achievements so far have not been commendable. It has marked departure from what we saw 20 years ago – and whether people want to see it or not – all indices point to the fact that there is improvement in education. But I think it may not be as what a typical Nigerian is expecting,” he said

    Mr. Kehinde Ojo, former Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in Ekiti State, said the education sector has expanded opportunities to many people since 1960.

    Ojo said the fact that many pupils and students produced by public schools in Nigeria are making waves in different fields all over the world is an indication that Nigerian education has fared well since independence, despite the many challenges.

    He said: “The goal of education at independence was to produce men and women who would take over from the colonialists and administer our country after the colonialists might have left.

    “It is also aimed at producing men and women to rub shoulders with their counterparts all over the world and free education was introduced in the Western Region and Eastern Region.

    “This gave every child of school age the opportunity to have access to education and many pupils were given the opportunity they wouldn’t have had in the first instance.

    “And this created more opportunities with the establishment of more schools like teacher training colleges, modern schools, secondary schools and primary schools which were financed by the government.

    “The establishment of these schools produced leaders in states, academia, business and church and this opened opportunities to Nigerians to take over from colonialists.

    “I want to say that education has fared well in Nigeria despite the challenges because the products of these schools are rubbing shoulders with the very best around the world”.

    Professor of Drama and Theatre at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), John Illah, agrees with Ojo.

    “It has been one tremendous growth in all sectors of Nigeria since independence. In the education sector in particular, great improvements have been recorded. For instance, in 1948, there was only one University College in the whole of Nigeria, but today, we are not only talking of government universities, we are also talking of private owned universities. All districts in Nigeria today have more than one secondary school; most villages have primary schools. The Nigerian education sector is meeting the country’s manpower needs,” he said.

    However, those respondents who agreed that education has improved noted that there were many challenges that needed to be addressed.

    Prof Akinpelu said the level of degeneration in education was deserving of rescue mission akin to the fight against the Boko Haram Insurgency.

    “For me, it is not about President Buhari looking for where to fix it, but rather declaring a state of emergency in the sector. Today the federal government is making progress in its renewed aggressiveness in tackling terrorism and I advise that education should be approached in the same manner,” Akinpelu added.

     

    Challenges to be addressed

    To remedy the problems in the sector, educationists have advised President Buhari and the new minister he appoints for the education sector, as well as government at the state level to focus on eliminating corruption, implement policies, re-train public school teachers, improving quality assurance, curriculum among other measures.

     

    Policy implementation

    Prof Offiong believes that policy-wise, Nigeria has the template to achieve excellence in the education sector.  Rather than formulating new policies, he suggested that the government focuses on implementation.

    “In my opinion, the policy and the manpower that we have in the country can successfully drive education and bring the Nigerian education system at par with what is happening in emerging developed countries. Some of these policies are well thought of and the experts we have in the country in education are people who are also making a lot of impact beyond the Nigerian shores. So we truly have what is takes, but what is lacking with due respect, is very strong political will. We must not politicize education. If we can separate education from politics, that will be able to pave way for a more enduring and relevant education system in Nigeria,” he said.

     

    Re-branding public school teachers

    Though Mike Johnson teaches in a private school, he wants the government to focus on improving public schools, particularly re-training their teachers or purging bad eggs from the system.

    He said: “My main focus is the public schools. The fact that it is a government school does not mean it should be taken for granted. Most of these schools do not have quality teachers. Government should not just employ anybody just to give him a job; we are talking about moulding our future. Most of these public pupils, even at SS3 level, cannot express themselves properly.  Some of the teachers too are not even fit for the job. The fact that all hands are not equal should not be used as an excuse to make the less-privileged pay for being poor. I want the government to really look into this, if you are subsidizsing education, place some value on it.”

    Offiong also called for training at the basic and secondary levels because they are the foundation.

    “At the basic level of education which is the primary level essentially, we still have a lot of teachers that need to be retrained and those who do not have what it takes to be in the system should be well advised. The foundation is very critical, because once the child is not given adequate foundation; he or she cannot also perform better in higher levels,” he said.

    For a teaching workforce that would deliver, Akinpelu suggested that the government should learn from former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who employed and trained over 13,000 teachers.

    “If the new government must walk its talk with its ‘change’ slogan, it should take a cue from former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi who, during his tenure, recruited  13,251 teachers into public schools in the state.

    “I was one of those recruited from Lagos to conduct training for those new teachers and we were on ground there (Rivers) for the exercise for a whole month. That is an example of a government committed to lifting education,” he said.

    Like Rivers State did, Dr Lanre Adeyuyo of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Ijanikin, urged the Federal Government and others to recruit more teachers to address the acute teacher shortage.

    “At the basic level, many of the public schools suffer congested classrooms. That challenge can be addressed if government recruits more teachers. Unfortunately, teaching job which used to be the last resort, is now becoming scarce. The situation is further compounded with government policy that once you are above 30 years, you cannot be employed for teaching,” he said.

     

    Monitor private schools

    Conversely, proprietor of Little Saints Montessori School, Ilupeju, Mrs Bukky Fadayomi, thinks government needs to do more about regulating poor quality private schools.

    “I think that right now, the government should not permit any new school.  Schools without standard should not be in operation.  The ones in existence, they should see that they are on their toes.  There should be a lot of inspectors going in.  I have seen Lagos State government training its teachers.  However, a lot of private schools are afraid to train their teachers.  Private schools should wake up.  The teaching profession admits any rubbish.  This should stop.  We have a lot of schools that government needs to say if you want to run a school, do it right; if not, close shop,” she said.

     

    Regular curriculum review

    The current curriculum has been lauded for its robustness and entrepreneurial bent.  Ojo said the curriculum should be reviewed once in seven years to keep it relevant.

    “Education should be tailored towards needs, and the curriculum should constantly be reviewed every seven years so that it can be relevant in this generation.

    “The planners should look into the issue of using local languages to teach pupils in their first three years in school.  In China, Chinese is used to teach their pupils, in Japan, Japanese is used to teach their pupils, in Germany, German is used to teach their pupils, in France, French is used to teach their pupils while in England, English is used as the language of instruction.

    “We are losing a lot by failing to use our languages to teach our children because before you know it, these languages may go into extinction.”

     

    Improve funding

    More funding for the education sector would go a long way to improve education, says Dr Lanre Aiyejuyo of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijanikin.

    He warned that continued poor funding would only result in poor quality education.

    “In recent times, we’ve had proliferation of public institution; unfortunately these institutions suffer poor funding and this results in poor quality. Only a few of our public institutions are consistent and devoted.  Unfortunately too, private universities are taking the shine off public institutions. Most of those in their faculty are retirees from public institutions, who are willing to work; therefore the quality of education is high,” he said.

     

    Learn from International best practices

    Mr Joseph Ayeni, CEO of Simplex Business Solutions, a software development company, noted that Nigeria’s education sector would develop if the government could learn what the top countries in education are getting right.

    “Development cannot just happen one day and it is not by chance.  It has to do with what we do. What are we ready to do? We talked about slogans: the youths are the leaders of the future. These children, are they going to be competing with their counterparts in other parts of the world, in South Korea, China, Poland, Finland, UK and others? Some of the countries I have called make up some of the top 10 countries in education globally.  We should look at what they have done to be among the top 10 position in the world and do it also,” she said.

     

  • Nigeria @ 55: What about the youth?

    Nigeria @ 55: What about the youth?

    It is that time of the year again when we do a recap of our achievements or otherwise as a nation. A nation that came to be not as a result of  necessity and need of the people but because of the egocentric delusion of colonial masters who wanted a wider dominance and control of a vast area of land and people.

    As is the norm, government at all levels have rolled out the drums to celebrate their achievements even though many of them are certain that they have failed in their mandate to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

    It is that time of the year when sycophants take to the media to sing praises of those at the corridors of power; their benefactors. These set of people, rather than allow the masses to heap praises on their bosses, are skeptical of what the people would say, hence their taking to blow their benefactors’ trumpet themselves.

    Over the years, however, Nigerians have become accustomed to these empty praises that lack the necessary ingredient of believability. The fanfare, pomp and joy that ought to greet a day like this has waned down into mere rituals that people only look forward to the work free days rather than the celebration of independence itself.

    These days, people are quick to point out that there is rarely anything to celebrate. Many a citizen has given up on the Nigerian state. Many now strive for survival and care less about the emancipation of the country from the various challenges besetting it.

    Sadly, successive governments have not helped to reshape the thinking of its citizens. People now look for various ways to leave the country, legitimately or illegitimately. The situation is appalling. The Nigerian situation is indeed a startling paradox. In spite of a robust endowment in natural and human resources, the level of poverty of her people stands in sharp contrast to the country’s vast wealth. The rich continue to accumulate more wealth at the expense of the poor whom they exploit and take the little that they have.

    The youth, the acclaimed leaders of tomorrow, have become pawns in the hands of the ruling elites. Even as they continue to wait for their tomorrow to come that seems to be more of a mirage than a reality, they need to survive and the political elites use them to feather their nests.

    Fifty-five years after independence, there is still no place for the Nigerian youth. The only place for them currently is the streets where they continue to roam in search of definition for their lives. The most daring and less ethical of them find alternatives in acts that are at variance with the Nigeria project and constitute a nuisance and a threat to the peace of the nation.

    Perhaps, the economist, Thomas Robert Malthus was referring to Nigeria when he noted that population will continue to increase at a geometric rate without a corresponding increase in economic growth if necessary precautions are not taken to control procreation. True to it, indiscriminate child birth has continued to increase the number of youths without the necessary skills needed to subsist in a society where less attention has been paid to them.

    For more than five decades, Nigeria still does not have legislation in place to control child birth. Parents give birth to children indiscriminately and allow the children to fend for themselves as they do not have any meaningful employment to take care of their large family. In most cases, the first child bears the brunt of the neglect of their younger ones. They are left to cater for their own needs as well as that of their younger ones. The child thus becomes a bread winner without a well-paying job while the parents are busy in their task of procreation.

    Thus, at 55, it is obvious that Nigeria has yet to find direction. Without an enforceable blueprint, the task of nation building with due consideration for the role of the youths and the relinquishing of power to youths and those young at heart will continue to elude Nigeria. A chronicle of the roles that the youths have played since the attainment of independence and the challenges that have plagued the country since 1960 should have made pundits to believe in the youths.

    Quite a number of Nigeria military rulers were youths at the time they assumed power and some of their efforts were commendable at the time. It was Gowon who ensured that the Nigerian state still exist as it is today. The advent of the 4th republic in 1999 brought a lot of hope that reprieve had finally come the way of its citizens. Sixteen years down the line, the much desired reprieve is still elusive.

    The level of youth participation in policy making and in both the economic and social issues is perhaps a better standard of comparison for the measurement of the growth of a nation. And if we apply such to Nigeria presently, it is obvious that 55 years since the attainment of independence, we are still very far from our Eldorado. Thus, the older generation is skeptical of the abilities of the present day youth.

    Truth is, 55 years after independence, the youths themselves have lost hope in themselves. Quite a number of the youths now see one another as second fiddle, fit only to serve under somebody hence there is the need for value reorientation. What the youths of today can do in the area of value reorientation is to champion the cause of changing the mindset of, first and foremost, themselves and then that of their friends, colleagues, associates, family members. This is expedient because there are quite a large number of youths who have lost hope in the Nigeria project and whose consciousness needs to be reawakened on this critical aspect.

    Also, the neglect of youths has led many of them to seek greener pastures outside the shores of the country, countries, some of which, for all intent and purposes, cannot be compared to Nigeria in terms of basic amenities. Yet, our youths abound in these places.

    There is the need to come back home and contribute to nation building. At 55 years, it is high time we took what belongs to us legitimately and stop the exportation of our best brains abroad to develop other countries at the expense of our dear fatherland. In essence, the challenge of brain drain that is currently inherent in Nigeria can be tackled and solved by the youths themselves.

    Perhaps a key issue for the youths of Nigeria at the country’s ripe age of 55 years is to take to vocations that they are skilled in. White collar jobs are rarely available and those at the corridors of power are always intent on giving the available ones to friends and relatives. Hence, it is time that youths of this dispensation took to entrepreneurship. If successive leaders have chosen to toe the path of neglecting the youths, the brain box of the future, then we must not neglect ourselves or the generation that would come after us.

    At 55, it is time for us to think outside the box and proffer bold solutions to our own problems. If the older generations, who are supposed to be the hawks to catch chickens for us, have failed to do so, then we must learn to catch our own chickens. The best time is now. Happy birthday Nigeria!

     

    • Philip is a graduate of Delta State University, Abraka
  • Nigeria: Nationhood still a daunting task at 55

    Nigeria: Nationhood still a daunting task at 55

    A Professor of History from University of Texas, Austin, Toyin Falola, has said Nigerians representative of the emotional attachment to their ethnic origin rather than national interest has continued to constitute a setback to attainment of nationhood 55 years after independence.

    He was the guest speaker at the Golden Jubilee of the Department of History University of Lagos.

    He spoke on the theme: “Ethnicity: Its organ and intestine,’ at the Afe Babalola Hall of the university.

    At the event were the university’s Vice-Chancellor Prof Rahman Bello, Prof Chukwu Obinnaya.

    Others were Dean of Faculty of Arts, Prof Yomi Akinyeye and the Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Imota Prof Ayodeji Olukoju.

    According to Falola, ethnicity has been too embedded in the collective psyche of Nigerians, which has made an average Nigerian  to see himself more as first belonging to his ethnic cleavage before being a Nigerian.”

    As a result, Falola said the task of attaining nationhood had remained a challenge since Nigeria’s independence for nearly 60 years.

    The fallout out of this, among other factors Falola explained, is the merit based progression in the social and political circuits which is now being supplanted by the quota system. According to him, the need to avoid dominance of one group against the other has forced decision makers to compromise standards in the quest to ensure that all segments of the country have access to power and social amenities.

    “In Nigeria, contestation for power by political gladiators in the nation’s political space has further accentuated the problem associated with ethnicity. The choice made by voters is mainly driven by the concern for how a given political party will serve the interest of a given ethnic nationality rather than the collective good of Nigeria. This trend presupposes that electorate will most likely form, organise and identify with any political platform that tends to accentuate and perpetuate their quest to dominate others,” he said.

    Falola lamented that some political space had been dominated by a particular group to the exclusion of others, thus bringing with it resentment and security issues that further threaten the nation’s collective fibre as a coercive and progressive unit.

    To Falola, ethnicity, which is now a commonplace syndrome in Nigeria, is also prominent in the creative sector as it has really helped in defining the persona of the Nigerian traditional being. He listed such areas to include music, film and literature.

    “The world has come to identify more with numerous works of creative arts from Nigeria majorly because the creators themselves rooted their creativity in the numerous cultures within the Nigerian landspace,” Falola explained.

    “The whole world celebrates the works of great literary icons like Professor Wole Soyinka and Professor Chinua Achebe because their works were rooted and steeped in the environments that produced and nurtured them. If you remove the cultural contents from the works of these icons, I don’t think there is anything the world will hold on to as being unique in their works,” Falola said.

    The Head of Department of History Prof Olufunke Adeboye said despite the challenges, the department has achieved a lot over the last 50 years.

    In order to remain more creative and relevant, the department designed new programmes aimed at to meeting up with trends.

    She said: “You don’t expect that we have to be where we were 50 years ago. Today, we have adapted to the reality of global trends in the way we carry out our mandate.

    “For instance, we had to change the name of the department from being Department of History to Department of History and Strategic Studies to cope with global trends, which emphasis the need to bring diverse focus to the study of history.”

    The nomenclature, Adeboye stressed, has paid off as enrolment surged at both undergraduate and postgraduate cadres.

    “Owing to the improvement in the course module for the areas of studies that we have had to focus on, the calibre of students that come to study here range from security agents, policy maker, who have found the courses very attractive thus enriching the pool of our alumni base.

    “Apart from these people that readily come to mind, I can confidently tell you that our products are doing well and holding their own in the different areas of society that they find themselves,” she added.