The Nation Newspaper

Tag: abandon

  • Sanwo-Olu won’t abandon ongoing projects, says Ambode

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has assured that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s general elections, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will not abandon ongoing projects.

    He said Sanwo-Olu would complete and build on the enduring legacies his administration had put in place.

    Ambode, who spoke yesterday while inaugurating an ultra-modern lecture theatre donated to the Lagos State University (LASU) by businessman and philanthropist, Mr Remi Makanjuola, stressed that while efforts were on to complete major projects initiated by his administration, Sanwo-Olu would complete those he is unable to deliver before the expiration of his tenure next year.

    He said: “I am so excited about the fact that Mr Sanwo-Olu has actually come out here and he has issued a promissory note. What that means is that we are going to have a government of continuity.

    “For whatever structures that we have in LASU right now – and I’m going to also convince our chief negotiator, Dr Wale Babalakin – we are already doing the Senate building here; we are doing Students’ Arcade. We are also doing the Library. I hope I will be able to complete and finish them. But if I am unable to complete them, I speak on behalf of Mr Sanwo-Olu that he will finish and do the Staff School.

    “We are not campaigning yet, but truly, that is the spirit of the kind of governance we bring to Lagos; that is the spirit we really want to see. Then, we should be able to show leadership in all spheres of life that we find ourselves.” On his administration’s intervention in the Educational sector, Ambode recalled that in the last three and a half years, at least N15 billion had been invested in revamping infrastructure in schools across the state to ensure that students can learn in a conducive environment.

    The governor also said 3,400 primary and secondary teachers were employed to improve the teacher-to-student ratio as well as quality of learning in schools.

    He added that beyond the upgrade of infrastructure, his administration developed innovative solutions to bridge the gaps in education system to position Lagos State for a technology-driven future, including the ReadySetWork and CodeLagos initiatives.

    According to him, while 34,000 students have graduated from the former, the latter is geared towards teaching one million Lagos residents to code.

    Ambode said: “At the grassroots level, faced with the realisation that about 3 million Lagos residents could not read or write in any language, we commissioned Eko Nke Koo (Lagos Is Learning), an initiative aimed at raising the literacy rate in Lagos State from its current 87 per cent to 95 per cent.

    “Through Eko Nke Koo, the Lagos State Agency for Mass Education increased the number of adult literacy centres across the state from 532 centres in 2016 to 782 as at January 2018.

    “We have also recorded improvement in enrolment and retention rates of learners in the programme. In 2017, 98 per cent of enrolled learners graduated from the programme.”

  • Importers abandon 150 containers, 100 vehicles at Tin Can

    Over 150 containers and 100 vehicles worth over N1 billion have been abandoned at Tin-Can Island Port and other bonded terminals in Lagos because  of  bad roads.

    Source said the importers were also finding it difficult to get loans to fund their business.

    The devaluation of the naira and the bad roads are said to be affecting their operations.

    A source said the Federal Government is not helping matters

     by not getting terminal operators and shipping firms to reduce their charges.

    The President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu,  gave five reasons why importers abandoned their goods:

    • the ports are the most expensive in West Africa;
    • bad roads;
    • high exchange rate;
    • non-availability of trailer parks and holding bays for empty containers and
    • poor mechanism in controlling trucks and tankers that are coming to the ports and its environ

    Banks, an importer, Mr Festus Owolabi said, has stopped lending to importers because of the fall of the naira and the increase in the prices of goods.

    “There is no doubt that activities at the ports have reduced because of the exchange rate. The terminal operators and the shipping companies are also not helping matters. Our port is the most expensive in the sub-region. Most importers are not making profit and that is why they have decided to abandon their goods at the ports.

    ‘’The roads are bad. Many goods are trapped at the port; there is bound to be congestion, most of the importers borrowed money from the banks; before they collect their Bill of Lading, they must make the payment, but what is happening now is that, with the exchange rate, they are finding it difficult to get the balance and pay back to collect the papers and clear their cargoes.

    “Many importers with Bill of Lading are also finding it difficult to pay Customs duties because of the value of the naira and that is why goods worth billion of naira are trapped at the ports.

    “As the situation of the road is now, there is no cargo that does not go into demurrage in Nigeria because the shipping companies start collecting money immediately the cargo arrives at the port.” he said.

    He said importers pay N360 to N370 as official rate to a dollar for Customs’ transactions.

    A Customs officer, who pleaded anonymity, said many goods were trapped at the ports because of the bad roads, the exchange rate and the inability of the government to find solution to the traffic on the roads

    He said: “We are aware that many importers are finding it difficult to pay their duties, but there is nothing we can do because that is the revenue we are asked to collect by the government. Once an importer brings an item into our port, he must pay the necessary duty unless he or she was given waiver before the importation commences.

    “Except he pays the amount required by law, the only alternative opened to him is to abandon the goods. And that is why we are having so many containers, trucks and vehicles in the ports that have not been cleared by the importers. But my advice to them is to look for money, pay the duty and move their vehicles out of the ports before they become over-time cargo and confiscated by the government’’.

  • Runaway brides:Why they abandon their grooms at the altar

    Runaway brides:Why they abandon their grooms at the altar

    The lights and drapes glittered as various colours of aso ebi (ceremonial uniform) added aura to the ambience of the church hall. The organ played slowly in the background as the officiating pastor tried to fill the waiting time with some announcements. Soon, it will be time for the bride and groom to walk into the hall to tie the nuptial knot.

    The groom, smartly and expensively dressed, was already within the premises awaiting the arrival of the bride believed to have been held back by the long hours she needed to be fully dressed. After all, it was her day and the people could wait. However, impatience began to set in as minutes turned into hours, with no sign of the bride in sight. The pep talks from the altar began to dry up.

    The bated anxiety soon gave way to confusion as the bride’s mother let out a shout and slumped. Then the gruesome reality dawned on everyone: the bride had absconded.

    The foregoing is reminiscent of the scenario in Ondo town penultimate Saturday when Miss Taiwo Orimoloye failed to show up in her church for her wedding ceremony, leaving not only her husband- to-be but the guests who had come from far and near disappointed and confused. It was learnt that the couple had begun their wedding rites as far back as December last year at the residence of the bride’s parents where members of both families had met for the traditional wedding. There also was the decision made to fix the church wedding for April 9, 2017. On the said day, however, the bride failed to show up, stalling the consummation of the holy matrimony.

    But the Ondo incident was just one in a list of similar ones that had occurred before then. In Delta State on October 29, 2016, for instance, a 41-year-old man identified as Julius got a rude shock when his supposed bride abandoned her martial vows midway into their wedding ceremonies, leaving everyone in shock at the wedding reception in Udu Local Government Area of the state, as she shouted, “I am no longer interested!”

    Although the bewildered husband and the bridal train ran after the bride named Roseline, pleas for her to return to the reception did not yield results. It would later come to light from information offered by a close friend of Roseline that another man who had promised to marry the bride showed up at the reception. “We heard that he had promised to marry the bride, but he later travelled to Lagos and never showed up again,” the friend reportedly said.

    A hilarious dimension to the phenomenon occurred in Akwa Ibom State where a bride reportedly stormed out of the reception on discovering that the husband was not an employee of Chevron, a popular oil exploration company, as he had made her to believe. The incident, it was learnt, occurred in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The relationship, it was gathered, was fostered on the social media and the details didn’t emerge until the wedding day. However, the bride could not go far before the groom and some guests caught up with her and forced her back to the reception venue, according to a Facebook user who broke the story.

    Considering the trauma and pain their action is capable of causing family and friends, what really could make a bride or groom to abscond on their wedding day?

    Prof. Mabayoje Aluko of the Department of Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said there cannot be a single explanation for the ugly phenomenon. He identified some reasons why a bride may choose to abscond from a wedding. One of them, he said, is the fact that a bride/groom may disappear if there is a negative discovery which portends grave consequences if the marriage contract is signed.

    He also said a runaway incident could occur if one of the parties kept a secret about an important issue from the other for a long time during courtship. Instances can be having a child in school, having a serious health challenge or history of insanity, a drug addict, even HIV/AIDS or unmatchable genotype.

    The don also did not fail to mention spiritual influence, saying that in the last minute, some people would consult spiritualists, astrologers, prophets, star readers and the likes, who may tell them not to go ahead with the marriage.

    “It could be purely a spiritual matter as it could be circumstances which cannot be explained in the ordinary. One of the partners could be under a spell or spiritual attack and then will begin to do things for which he or she may not have ready justification or explanation,” he said.

    Identifying other factors, Prof Aluko also fingered double dating, which he said could make either party to renege on the D-day. He said: “These days, people no longer involve their parents or the family in the selection of a partner. In the past, the parents and members of the family on both sides would do a thorough background check on a would-be suitor and some very vital information would be uncovered. Nowadays, people do it alone and sometimes start dating online with a person they have not met physically.

    “Another factor could be religious differences such as one being a Christian and the other a Muslim. They may not be able to reach an agreement on which religion they will stick to after marriage.”

    Pastor Mrs Tinu Oyenuga, an educationist and member of the clergy, is of the opinion that like deep waters, there are many warring thoughts on the minds of people who make last-minute moves that could leave mouths agape.

    Citing lack of genuine counselling of intending couples as one reason why such could happen, she stated: “Irrespective of faith, age, prosperity, intending couples should go through at least three months of marital counselling. Anxieties and doubts would have been discerned by experienced counsellors and couples could be advised to defer marriage until issues are resolved. In most runaway bride or groom cases, significant persons in these people’s lives are so absorbed with preparations that they are blind to failing emotions.”

    A relationship coach, Mrs Adetutu Bola-Adesanya, said a bride/groom may walk out of a wedding at the final minute owing to revenge, which might be because of a past hurt or lack of interest. She did not fail to mention spiritual influence, taking into cognizance African culture and traditions.

    What’s psychology got to do with it?

    Since marriage is an affair attached to emotions, it will not be out of place to explore the state of the mind in dissecting the runaway bride/groom phenomenon. The factors which stood out from the psychological perspectives are stress and mental health.

    Mr Femi Agberotimi, a practising clinical psychologist at the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), is of the view that since marriage is one of life’s major events that lead to a long term/permanent change in an individual’s status and self-concept, the preparations and ceremony can lead to a high tendency of stress and negative emotions.

    “It is therefore not surprising when some individuals respond to stress in a way that reflects a significant change in their thinking, mood and behaviour. More often than not, however, such responses that could range from irritability to discontinuing/running away from wedding are distressing to significant other people in the life of the bride or the groom.

    “Similarly, some people take decisions that are considered irrational, such as running away on wedding day because of their prevailing mental state at the time of the event. Such people may have history of mental illness or suffering from a particular psychological dysfunction that is either undetected or untreated because of poor health care behaviour.”

    Agberotimi added that people with certain deficiencies like non-assertiveness, poor problem-solving skills, maladaptive personality traits like high neuroticism, personality disorder like borderline or avoidant, are known to cause distress to self or others as a result of their deficiencies, which negatively impact their thinking, mood and behaviour.

    He said: “From another perspective, some people with healthy and functioning mental state can as well take decisions like running away from a wedding because of their sense of freedom of will. This set of people may have been in a relationship because of pressure and suddenly realise a greater risk such relationship poses to their freedom of will and mental wellbeing. Such could make a drastic decision at the last minute in a quest to finding meaning

  • ‘It’s dangerous for PDP to abandon zoning’

    ‘It’s dangerous for PDP to abandon zoning’

    Sola Ebiseni is a former Commissioner for Environment in Ondo State. He is among the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants, who picked their nomination forms from the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction, ahead of the November 26 election. In this interview with reporters in Akure, the state capital, he speaks about zoning and the party’s crisis. LEKE AKEREDOLU was there. Experts.

    What will you do differently from the present administration, if you become the governor?

    I am proud of our achievements under Dr Olusegun Mimiko, my leader, elder brother and friend. I come not to abolish the law but bring it to greater fulfilment under a fresh anointing, combining the experiences garnered under previous administrations. Every administration has its own priorities defined sometimes by its peculiar challenges. While issues of access to quality education and health services are given, I intend not to pay lip service to the diversification of the state economy in this critical times. My experiences being in charge of the Ministry of the Environment and Mineral Resources, which spread across the state, is a plus. Our territory is replete with all conceivable minerals ranging from quarry rocks from Ore through Idanre, Ondo, Akure, Itaogbolu, Ifon, Supare, Ikare, lime stone at Okeluse and iron at Akunu not to mention our bitumen and crude oil and agriculture in which we undoubtedly have comparative advantage. We have the longest shoreline among the littoral state. Yet, we are the only state yet to explore and exploit its coastal advantages and resources a factor which makes states like Lagos and Rivers thick. Proximity of Ogun to Lagos gives Ogun its industrial advantage and revenue from basically two local government areas  of Ado Odo/ Otta and Ifo. It is amazing to know that Ondo state to Lekki along the coast is less than an hour drive. Our unique state drags the Yoruba into the Niger Delta territorially and ranks fifth among the nine oil producing states. In our development blueprint to be launched as soon as we secure our party’s ticket, we intend to demonstrate in details how these resources will be translated to our advantages as a state.

    What’s your take on the clamour for the zoning of the ticket to a particular senatorial district?

    Honestly, that is an issue I would ordinarily not want to discuss because Iam involved. Yet, like I said earlier, certain ingredients are becoming noticeable in our political culture, which any political party may ignore to its own peril. Such ingredients like zoning as a  guarranty of equitable access to power by stakeholders in the polity are rooted in the peoples political consciousness in both our traditional and democratic political practices.  In my experience as a lawyer, I have seen and been involved in  protracted chieftaincy litigations against monopolistic tendencies. In my area I know a chieftaincy that has been vacant since 1989 and the ruling family in court on issue of zoning. In our modern politics, particularly in this state, there are unwritten conventions engraved in the minds of the people of every council rotating their chairmanship, and their parliamentary positions. In all states, except where a group is dominant and takes such advantage like Ibadan in Oyo state, Igala or Kogi East in Kogi State or Tiv in Benue, there is understanding among stakeholders for equitable access to the governance of their respective states. Even in a seemingly monolithic and urban state like Lagos, after the tenures of Tinubu and Fasola who are Muslims, there was subtle agitation for both a Christian successor and for a Lagos East consideration. In spite of his known grip on Lagos politics, Asiwaju kowtowed to the sentiments of the people culminating in Ambode’s governorship from Epe. At a time, Tinubu had to jettison his ambition for the Senate in favour of Ganiyu Solomon to put an end to the disquiet in his party. The greater consideration for support for Jonathan’s second term presidency by all groups in the Southsouth was what made particularly the Ijaw and other riverine people of Rivers State tolerate the succession of Amaechi by Wike, his Ikwerre compatriot. Jonah Jang was not that lucky on the polyglot Plateau when he went for a successor from his senatorial district after his own eight years. The people showed their resentment by voting PDP in other elections, except the governorship. That was similar to what happened to our party, the SDP in Lagos in 1992 when Sarumi was given the governorship ticket, instead of Agbalajobi favoured by party members. The resultant was Otedola of the NRC.   Ondo, more than any other state, has shown determination against dictatorship and the incumbent governor in his political career has been a veritable source of inspiration to those averse to lack of internal democracy.

    The national leadership of our party PDP has just come up with its zoning arrangements for the National Convention such that both the presidential candidate and the National Chairman shall not come from the same zone, North or South. The rise and fall of empires and even modern states are almost directly attributable to agitation for justice in access to governance. Even in America, blacks and the coloured all over the world celebrated the election of Barack Obama.

    The people of the South are clamouring for the governorship slot. do you see the party giving the ticket to the area?

    That agitation is legitimate. The party members and ultimately the electorate will decide the tenability of such agitation based on the political history of our state and other criteria. In addition to verifiable issues in our political history, as it is in warfare or even in soccer, it behoves  every political party to consolidate its stronghold. That is what the South represents as the soul of PDP in Ondo State. In all of these, the place of a free and fair primary, if we still can have one, is fundamental.

    If you fail to win the primary, would you opt out of the party or support the candidate of the party?

    Interesting. Primary or delegates’ election is a technical one that is almost  predictable. All things being equal, particularly ensuring free and fair process, there is no way we won’t win.

    Your recent  resignation from office as Commissioner was sudden and dramatic. Any special reason for that?

    Well, I don’t understand what you meant by sudden. It was a political and not a civil service appointment and required no statutory or administrative notice. Besides, part of creating level play ground for all aspirants is ensuring that no one has undue advantage using government facilities or resources either for his own use or in mobilizing stakeholders.

  • Doctors abandon hospitals in Abia

    Doctors abandon hospitals in Abia

    AS the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) strike entered the second day yesterday, many patients were left unattended to at Federal Government hospitals in Abia State.

    The Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Umuahia, the state capital, patients begged reporter for treatment, thinking he was a doctor.

    Many of the patients were writhing in pains.

    One of them, Sir Fynecountry Ogbonna, said: “I came to see my doctor, according to the appointment he gave me three weeks ago. Incidentally, the nurses told me that doctors are on strike.

    “I’ll have to go to a chemist to buy the drugs that will keep me for another seven days, when I hope they (doctors) will be in their offices. In fact, I don’t know what to say. Someone is sick, the doctor gives him an appointment but when he comes, they say the doctor is on strike. That is very disappointing.”

    Another patient, who had surgery last Friday, was abandoned at the FMC in Umuahia.

    She was said to be in pains because the surgical point had loosened and was oozing fluid to her legs.

    Relatives of the patient told our reporter that they were asked to take her home, despite  the freshness of the wound.

    But at the Abia State Specialist and Diagnostic Hospital on Aba Road in Umuahia, house doctors were seen attending to patients.

    Senior doctors and consultants were not on duty. The situation was the same at the General Hospital in Amachara.

    The state’s NMA Chairman Dr. Dan Uzoaga said the unions in the hospitals had been fighting to be at par with the doctors in the past three years.

    He said: “Other medical workers have been making things difficult by asking for things that do not belong to them. And the government has been dancing to the tune they have been playing…”

  • Nigerian media abandon coverage of Mali War to foreign media

    Nigerian media abandon coverage of Mali War to foreign media

    An estimated 150 journalists from 40 different news organisations have been travelling with French troops since the intervention in Mali began on January 11. Of the lot, none is Nigerian. Many of the reporters are embedded with the French forces, though they do not get near 100km of the fighting in a country so vast and so arid. No Nigerian journalist is embedded with the Nigerian troops, and so Nigeria’s role will not be accurately reported, as the recent report of Nigerian soldiers’ inadequacies by The Guardian (London) showed. There will be no news of display of valour, nor any story of sacrifice, bravery and passion for a noble cause. Indeed, the absence of Nigerian media in the Malian conflict is a terrible reflection of the decline of Nigeria, its leaders’ loss of self-confidence, and the disorientation of its foreign policy.

    Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders had the golden opportunity to stamp their authority and vision on the Malian crisis a few weeks after Captain Amadou Sanogo and his band of coup plotters struck on March 21, 2012 to remove the elected government of President Amadou Toumani Touré. The coup truncated the election that was due in June, three months later. While the regional body swiftly imposed sanctions in April and tried to force the restoration of Toure’s government, that effort, which was unfortunately half-hearted, only ended in partial success as Sanogo merely formally resigned. Sadly, as part of the compromise, President Toure was also compelled to resign. But by the following month, it was all but clear that Sanogo still retained effective control.

    It was at that point that Nigeria missed it. It had the power and leverage to persuade ECOWAS to sustain sanctions until Sanogo and his fellow coup plotters were arrested and tried for treason. If that had been done, and the regional body had gone ahead to contribute troops in sufficient number to battle the secession in the North, they would have secured international support. If the battle against the secessionists had been led by Nigeria, and if we had got our priorities right, Nigerian media could have accompanied the troops and reported from the war front. But when sanctions were hastily lifted and Sanogo held on to effective control, it emboldened Tuareg rebels in the North to declare secession, capture many key northern towns, and in early January began their ill-fated advance on Bamako. The frenetic events that started some 10 months earlier naturally culminated in the drastic French intervention of January 11 and the imposition of news blackout.

    It is humiliating to Nigeria in particular that France assumed the leadership of the Malian War. It in fact indicates Nigeria’s lack of vision. In addition, it will be remembered that the interventions in Liberia (1989-1996; 1999-2003) and Sierra Leone (1991-2002), which were led by Nigeria, attracted more foreign reporters than ECOWAS media. Since a country can’t give what it does not have, the poor relationship between the local media and the Nigerian government has continued to reflect badly on the coverage of Nigeria’s foreign adventures and the international image of both the country and its faltering and spasmodic media. The times call for urgent change. Where is that Nigerian leader who will champion the needed change and restore African pride?

    Meanwhile, for a conflict taking place in West Africa, and in which some 20 people were alleged to have been extra-judicially murdered recently by vengeful Malian forces in the northern town of Sevare, Niono and Mopti, Nigerian media can only regurgitate the news and accept foreign media analyses on postwar Mali. An article in DigitalJournal.com made the following observations: “The French have not organised a single press conference in the capital of Mali, Bamako. The sole French media official in Bamako is apparently there mainly to refer media questions to Paris. The Malian army has banned journalists and human rights organisations even from areas that had been in their control for a number of days…Whenever operations are underway, communications are cut off… An Al Jazeera article speaks of Mali as a war without images.” Future crises will show whether Nigeria has learnt some lessons.

     

  • Robbers abandon N6m in Sagamu

    Robbers abandon N6m in Sagamu

    A robbery gang yesterday abandoned N6 million in Sagamu, Ogun State, while trying to escape from the police.

    It was learnt that the robbers blew open the Automated Teller Machine (ATM)of a new generation bank, using methane gas and other objects, and stole N6 million.

    Sources said the hoodlums abandoned their loot and escaped into the bush behind the bank as policemen in an Amoured Personnel Carrier (APC) approached the scene.

    Other items abandoned by the robbers were two gas cylinders containing methane.

    Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said the hoodlums attacked the bank in the early hours of yesterday, but a police patrol team foiled the operation.