The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Advice

  • Prayers and advice to government

    In 1983, the Nigerian military after a disastrous federal elections marred by flagrant rigging took over power and chose the then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as head of state. He issued a quotable statement that we have no other country than Nigeria and that emigrating was not an option for young Nigerians and that we were going to stay in our country and solve our country’s problems together. History seems to be repeating itself bearing out George Santayana’s dictum that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The same Buhari is faced with how to get Nigeria out of its economic quagmire caused by mismanagement of national resources, stealing, squander mania and collapse of the international price of hydrocarbons on which Nigeria’s economy has unfortunately depended over these years. The first administration of Buhari ably supported by Major-General Tunde Idiagbon dealt harshly with those who were found guilty of financial roguery as any military regime would have done. Those who were accused were dealt with through the legal system and no special military tribunals were set up. Revisionist historians and commentators sometimes give the impression that the military government of that time operated without following the law. It was only in the case of drug smuggling that some two young men were made to face the death penalty by the wrong application of a decree that was made retroactive. The other dark spot of that regime was the law of sedition that made publication of government secrets punishable by imprisonment. His Attorney General, the Distinguished and reputable Onitsha lawyer, Chike  Offordile  ensured that necessary decrees were crafted to deal with terrible moral and financial turpitude of those days. Ganiyu  Fawehinmi who cannot be said to be a military apologist supported the steps taken by that regime to whip us Nigerians into path of discipline and rectitude.

    I am recalling those days to compare with today when the president seems to be taking his time to avoid repeating any mistake of those days. We of course do not have the luxury of time. We are a rather impatient country and rightly so. We have waited for good governance for too long and now that it seems we may have one we are rightly and justifiably in a hurry to see the dividends of good governance.

    The president himself told the BBC in a recent interview that when a fish is rotten from the head, it affects the entire body of the fish meaning that since he is not corrupt he would prevent others from being corrupt. It is not going to be like a previous regime that says stealing is not corruption implying that stealing is tolerable! This is the first time we are having a regime since independence that sees a nexus between underdevelopment and corruption. There is enough in this country to take care of our needs and not our wants and our greed. There is a commitment on the part of the executive for good governance and transparency. Perhaps its example will resonate with the legislative and the judicial branches of government across the country. Sometimes we neglect to focus on the corruption in the judiciary because  of the arcane nature of the institution. A corrupt judiciary is in fact more dangerous to the welfare of the state than corruption in the other two branches of government.  This is because of the finality of judicial pronouncement. After the Supreme Court has decided, there is no other body that can countermand that decision. This is why we say the courts are the final saviour and arbiter for the common man. If we can curb corruption in all the branches of government, then we can breathe a sigh of relief and hope for good things to come the way of our country.

    If there is minimal corruption then prudent management of national resources will automatically follow. Questions of misappropriation, misapplication and misuse of resources will be reduced to minimum. Funds meant for the military will not be given to politicians. Loans secured for railway modernization will not be diverted to politicians as happened in the last regime and any one caught doing the wrong thing will be dealt with according to law. Judges will not be bought to deliver judgement according to the illegal deposits in their banks and paid holidays for them and their families by criminals. There was a case of  corruption involving a former governor who was facing 40 allegations before a so called learned judge . He promptly threw out all the charges and pronounced the former governor innocent. This same governor was seized by INTERPOL at the request of Britain to face same charges in London. He was not only convicted, his lawyer, wife and two girl friends are serving term with him in Her Majesty’s prison. This reminds me what a friend told me in Lagos some years ago that if he had a case in court rather than hire lawyers, he would take the money for lawyers to purchase judgment in the judge’s chamber! While trying to uproot corruption from state institutions, we must not lose sight of the judiciary.

    The economic situation will present the greatest challenge to this regime. I sometimes get angry when I hear apparently educated people blaming this government for the falling value of the naira vis-à-vis foreign currencies. It is simple arithmetic. Crude oil on which we are hopelessly dependent has fallen from a high of 140 dollars a barrel to 36 dollars and it is still going down. This has led to a diminution of foreign money accruable into our foreign reserves with the consequence of more naira in hands than dollar reserves. To strengthen the naira, we have either to export more produce apart from hydrocarbons or drastically reduce imports. There is no magic in this. If you bring a professor of economics from Harvard or the World Bank, he or she would not perform any magic. So the way forward is to find other sources of revenue apart from oil. We can increase taxes and also the efficiency of tax collection. The easy one is to increase Value Added Tax which is tax on consumption which will largely fall on the elite. But everybody must be made to pay taxes no matter how small. This is the way to make the people feel they own the government. They will therefore be more vigilant in protecting government property and calling to order those who think government property belongs to nobody. All these measures are for home consumption. A strong government at home will be respected abroad. This is where in comes in the exploitation of our relations with the outside world.

    This government must use its contact through membership in OPEC to prevail on its Arab members not to flood the world oil market with overproduction of crude. It is not in anybody’s interest. Non OPEC countries like Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Russia and some of the countries in the Caucasus must be made to realize that the collapse of the oil economy globally will not be in the interest of all. If the world goes into another recession so soon after eight years of the last recession, we will all suffer. It will be a difficult sell but we should try by asking for an extra ordinary meeting of OPEC to discuss a coordinated rescue plan for the global oil market. But charity must begin at home. We should put all efforts to engender a disconnect from dependency on oil, find other sources of income from agriculture, light manufacturing, efficient tax regime and exploitation of solid minerals. We are not the worst hit of all OPEC countries. We can grow all we need to feed ourselves and to export. We therefore need not be desperate.

    These are difficult times. We need not deny it. Financing our budget through borrowing is not as strange as some economic illiterates who have been criticizing the government would make us believe. Japan has the highest rate of borrowing in the world at 356 percent of its GDP and nobody is wailing that the country would soon go under. The USA is a close second in the rate of borrowing. As long as borrowing is not for consumption, the country can grow its economy out of this short-term debt. Those who are shouting about deficit budget are the same people who brought us to our financial knees.

    Whatever government is going to do or is already doing cannot be achieved without hard work. Our people must be told that they have to work hard and there is no more free lunch anywhere anymore. They have to be carried along. Many toes would have to be stepped upon physically and figuratively. Because of this the enemies of Nigeria both at home and abroad would like to destabilize the country or even overthrow this government through fanning of the ember of religious and ethnic fanaticism and division. Eternal vigilance and survival is the first law of nature. While government must follow the rule of law generally, it must not lower its guard and allow its enemies to deal a mortal blow to it.

  • Advice for nominees

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has advised commissioner-nominees to see their appointments as a call to service.

    The appointees will be sworn in today.

    The party reminded them that the APC-led administration cannot afford to disappoint Lagosians, who invested their votes to ensure the party’s victory on March 28 and April 11.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, the APC urged the officials to put in their best and take the Centre of Excellence higher.

    The party said: “We see their appointments as a call to service. So, we’re challenging them to put in their best to ensure that Lagos is taken far in its quest for excellence.

    “We believe they are competent and well qualified for their appointments so we expect the best from the nominees.

    “Our party is aware that Lagos has set an enviable pace in governance. So, we believe the appointees will key into the template that has advanced good and quality governance in Lagos in the last 16 years.”

  • Advice for Mr. President

    It is a known fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in at a time our economy had been hopelessly mismanaged by the outgone Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government. In the last days of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the nation’s debt profile increased and despite our huge resources, we saw the country on its tow, struggling to meet up with its daily expenditure.

    The situation has left many people in penury and prices of food have skyrocketed to a level people cannot afford. Healthcare is shambles as our hospitals have been reduced to mere consulting clinics because of lack of drugs and necessary equipment to keep them running.

    Is the present state of our education is what we want? Rather than being a catalyst to solve joblessness among the abled bodies, the system has only compounded the unemployment in the country, which is increasing to embarrassing level. In some states, salaries have not been paid in the last 10 months; workers have been going through harrowing experience in catering for their families. Yet some of our leaders revel in affluence.

    The Buhari government came at a time the nation wanted change in the way its affairs were being run. Having being rejected at the polls three times, President Buhari appears to the messiah the people have been expecting to clear the mess of the PDP misrule.

    The president must make the people the focus of his administration. He must know that the same people voted for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, voted him out in 2015. The people are what political scientists called leviathan. They are the majority. They are the reason for government. The government, at all times, must know what they want and how to deliver them. Any administration that fails in this respect will be booted out.

    A careful analysis of the immediate past Jonathan administration would how that the former president surrounded himself with those feeding fat on our collective patrimony. The the overfed advisers and overpaid ministers who served President Jonathan became albatross on the administration; their greediness and excessiveness may have been responsible for his electoral misfortune. President Buhari must avoid toeing the same line in his interest.

    As president, Buhari must promote peace among the six geopolitical zones and see every zone as part and parcel of his presidency. The mutual suspicion among Nigerians, which was created by the political class during and after elections, must be cleared. This horrible lexicon of politics “he is our son” should be removed from our political parlance to bring out the best in people. Ethnic politics is a politics for the weak and mediocre. It is a politics that preaches violence and engenders underdevelopment.

    The president must heal the country of ethnic strife and we must join hand with him to make Nigeria an indivisible nation.

    “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” has been a quotable sentence in the president’s inaugural speech. He must show example by seeing every Nigerian as equal under the law of the land.

    Buhari inherited a country that is corrupt and badly mismanaged. Corruption has become a Frankenstein Monster in public offices and institutions. It is everywhere. If this scourge must be fought to a standstill, the president needs strong political will to bring powerful politicians to book. He must do this by not witch-hunting the opponents as his predecessors did.

    Insecurity is another major setback we have faced in the last five years. While it is good that the president is deploying his military tactics to solve the challenge, he must know that, as Aristotle observed, poverty is the parent of both revolution and crime.

    Before spending money on ammunition, President Buhari should also consider investing on human development, which I believe would reduce poverty and make people to stay away from crime.

    Insecurity scares away investors because no one is ready to invest their resources in a society where large scale violence is the order of the day. And without industries, development is unachievable. But, if the nation must be secured, investment is human capital development must be given priority.

    On Education, the president must know that the currency of this century is knowledge. It is this knowledge that will give birth to innovation and invention. By investing in education, the present administration would be making a progressive society. The state of our education brings tears to the eyes and renders society in incapacitated.

    Public education has been in bad state because of funds and bad policies. This must change and our education must take its departure from its current state.

    Since Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is a professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), we do hope that our court won’t open only for the wealthy people. The poor have been priced out of courts because of high legal fee by lawyers. The Buhari administration will do well if it reforms our justice system and make the poor have access to justice.

    Electricity is another major challenge that has arrested the nation’s development. It is a shame that a country with over 140 million people is battling to generate 4,000 megawatts, which is far from what it needs to power the homes and industries. We have resources, such as water, gas, coal and biomass to generate power from, but the country remains in darkness because of lack of foresight. This is a daunting task that requires urgent attention.

    It is disheartening that President Buhari came back decades after he ruled the country to face challenges, which he battled. We have had successive civilian governments since 1985, but the problems of the country persist. Now that the president wants change, he should know that people expect him to rise above board and place the country on solid footing. Like a saying goes, to whom much is given, much is expected. President Buhari must be the change we have been expecting.

     

    • Afees, 300-Level Political Science, OAU Ile-Ife
  • Tambuwal seeks advice on use of military

    Tambuwal seeks advice on use of military

    Amid growing concern of lawmakers on the deployment of military personnel for elections, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal yesterday opted to seek professional advice on the subject.

    Tambuwal halted a debate on a motion on military deployment for elections and directed the Committees on Justice, Judiciary and Business and Rules to appropriately advise him on the subject.

    His decision followed the objection of Sunday Karimi (PDP Kogi) to the motion by the Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, who sought a probe of the roles played by the military deployed in last June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.

    Gbajabiamila sought the House resolution calling on the Federal Government not to deploy military personnel during the general elections in compliance with the decision of the court.

    The Minority leader also asked the House to urge the Federal Government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), military authority and stakeholders to obey the decision of the Federal High Court.

    He noted with dissatisfaction the deployment of military personnel in polling units for election purposes, contrary to Section 217 of the 1999 Constitution

    According to him, the maintenance of public safety and public order anywhere in Nigeria, including all polling units and wars during elections, was a constitutional function of the police under Sections 214 and 215 of the constitution.

    “We are aware of a secretly-recorded audio tape involving some personnel of the military, now in the public domain, revealing or suggesting how the election in Ekiti State was allegedly rigged.

    “It is also disturbing that the presence of military personnel in polling units and wards is capable of generating unwarranted apprehension that will scare away innocent citizens, thereby preventing them from peacefully and willfully exercising their franchise.”

    Karimi objected to the motion in a point of order, saying that reference could not be made to a subject that is under litigation.

    The Speaker cautioned his colleagues, saying “In view of the sensitivity of the matter and the unfolding political events in the country, I want us to take this matter very seriously.”

    Subsequently, he mandated the three committees to work on the motion and advised the House appropriately on the status of the subject.

  • Advice to Nigerian youths

    Dear Nigerian youths,

    This letter was first written to you over a year ago. It is being addressed to you again today through this medium for an obvious reason. Nigerians of my age and beyond (60+) never had cause to be so addressed when we were like you because the situation that warrants the writing of this letter never arose in our youth days. Let it be known to you that except life and sound health, none of Allah’s bounties to man is as treasure-able as youthfulness. The definition of youth varies from place to place and from faith to faith. But generally, youthfulness spans from the age of puberty (at 16) to that of reasoning (at 40).

    That is the second stage of human life as it follows that of adolescence. It can be said therefore that the juiciest part of human life is what people call youth. And whoever is blessed with it is blessed with all hopes of life.

    Youthfulness is the spur of ambition and risk. It is the period of determination and resolution. It encourages attraction between genders and engenders association across ethnic and religious boundaries. All efforts in human life that yield results in old age are made at youthful age. To an average youth anywhere in the world, the sky is never the limit. There are still many other firmaments beyond the sky.

    Youth is the stage of hard work. It is the stage of planning. It is the stage of vision and mission. That is why the youths of any nation are seen as the bone marrow of such a nation and the beacons of the future. And fortunately, youths invariably constitute majority of the existing people at any given time in any given nation.

     

    The youth before now

    In the years past when life had meaning and culture had value, youths were seen as the pride of the nation. They were the natural arrows fixed to the parental bows which were often used to shoot through the iron gate of life. This was the case in Nigeria before and during the colonial era. And after the country’s independence, the youths constituted the glory and hope of their parents. Their role in the family encouraged the bearing of many children as they partnered with their fathers in tilling the farm lands and in harvesting the crops.

    In short, they formed the live wire of their families. When a father was said to be rich in those days, it was only because he had many children (male and female) who constituted the workforce of the family. The father’s pride then was not just the number of children he had but the volume of contribution made by those children to his wealth. Thus, children were considered as wealth.

    In those days, youths were not just helpers of their parents on the farms or in their trades they also assisted them in training the younger ones. Yet, they had the highest regards for those parents in their utterances and in their conduct. The level of discipline in those days was such that boys were handled by their fathers while girls were mostly handled by their mothers. And the mothers dared not utter a word while any child was being subjected to discipline by the father. In a nutshell the upbringing of a child was the main key to societal serenity.

     

    Change of trend

    Today, Nigeria is a different story altogether. The youth of yesteryear have become the elders of today. They have left the chord of discipline that escorted them into the world of decency to the new train of indecency. And that chord is no longer suitable for either today or tomorrow as the trend has changed dramatically. The current trend began in January 1966 when some uncultured youths in military uniform, spurred by blind youthful ambition, threw the value of age and experience to the winds and killed the then leaders of the Nigerian nation in what was called a military coup d’état. By that unfortunate act they plunged the nation into a precipitate civil war that rendered the youth wild and eroded the value of youthfulness.

    For 13 years thereafter, the vagabonds remained in power using whim in place of experience. And when a brief civilian interlude came on board in 1979 for only four years, the vagabonds perched on the governance again and like hungry vultures, they fed on the carcass of democracy to their fill. Through that unbridled usurpation of power, the so-called Nigerian military weaned themselves from the ladle of integrity and destroyed whatever was left of their nomenclature.

    Here we are today, looking desperately like a starved hawk and hanging restlessly in the balance like a gagged hyena. Virtually every Nigerian has forgotten the real cause of our calamity. The cry everywhere is now about the effect of that calamity on the nation. No one endeavours to look back and see where the downfall started from.

    And without looking back, there can never be any correction as to how to rise again. A Yoruba adage states axiomatically that when a toddler falls down while struggling to walk, he looks forward to see if there is any adult around to lift him up. But when an adult slips and falls down fortuitously he looks backwards to examine the cause of his fall.

    That is the difference between experience and potential. Banking on potential to govern a nation that requires experience as did the eaglet Nigerian military some years past can never bring any meaningful result. Both potential and experience have their role and chance in any society. But neither can take the place of the other.

     

    The difference

    You the youth of today are different from those of yesteryears in many ways and the differences are clear. The youth of the past were very hardworking and dedicated. They served their parents diligently and stood by them in all circumstances. They sought their parents’ advice and learned from the latter’s experiences. You the youth of today are very lazy, slothful, time wasting and lackadaisical in your attitude to life even as you are served by your parents from infancy to old age. Yet you despise those parents and treat them with disdain like nonentities. You believe that those parents had worked on your behalves and that you are only in the world to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

    The youth of the past were patient contended and full of respect for the elders. They were humble, obedient and always eager to learn as they queued up before the elders for knowledge. You the youth of today are very inpatient, greedily ambitious and you see yourselves as masters of knowledge when in actual fact you are slaves of ignorance.

    Unlike the youth of the past, you are mostly empty-headed, very arrogant, highly materialistic and hastily avaricious. You always want to start your lives from the peak of your parents’ achievements without asking about what those parents had gone through before reaching that peak.

    You spend money lavishly without working for it and you never think of bearing any responsibility either in the homes or in the society. You are generally characterised by all the conducts that were classified as shame in the past. To you, shame has its price. And as long as you can pay that price in coins by whatever means, you are important in your own estimation. Thus, shame, as far as you are concerned, is a vital aspect of culture which has no negative effect on your lifestyle. As a matter of fact you have taken shame for pride.

    If a few youths of the past can be described as a bunch of problems for their society, due to their public misconduct, majority of you today’s youths are the real cogs in the societal wheel of progress. To you, life has no meaning except it is heavily coded in money.

    Your slogan that “long life is irrelevant in the absence of money” is a testimony to this assertion. That life span in Nigeria has dropped so drastically is due to your disappointing lifestyle which often creates hypertension for your parents and leads to their early deaths.

    Few parents talk of heirs nowadays because those of you who are supposed to be their heirs have long thrown away the toga of worthy heirs. In the past, mothers were not known for staying with their daughters in the latter’s matrimonial homes while leaving their husbands behind without care. This strange but new trend that has almost become a part of Nigerian culture arose because of the incompetence of today’s young women, even after many years of training. Thus, despite the ubiquity of young men and women, there is scarcity of husbands and wives just as there is dearth of fathers and mothers.

    Virtually everything that matters to you today’s youths is devoid of our known core value. By your measure, the value of life can be found only in the volume of currencies.

     

    Causes of generational change

    Whenever there is cause to review the current generational trend with the intention of righting the wrong, you the youths of today are often quick in pointing accusing fingers mischievously at the generations ahead of you saying they caused the debacle. But while pinching the back of the elders you often forget that sooner or later you may become elders whose back will be pinched by the youths that may succeed your own generation. You have forgotten that most of the scientific discoveries and technological advancement of your age which lured you into roguery were not available for the past youths. There were no such things as hard drugs, cyber crimes, armed robbery, insurgency, sophisticated fraud through manipulation of figures and forgery of signatures. There were rare cases of rape, child trafficking, audacious prostitution and day light murder with impunity as are rampant among you today.

    To you, all these crimes are either professions or callings in which you actively thrive. Thus, you do not believe in the existence of any demarcation between decency and indecency an indication that ‘family name’ which was highly valued in the past has no meaning to you. This is why you are perceived as the most potent weapons of hooliganism by today’s Nigerian devilish politicians, who are mostly youths.

    Unlike most youths of the past, you were sent to school by your illiterate parents but your goal was mere certificate (as meal tickets) rather than knowledge (as propeller of quality life). And what you acquired in those schools in the name of education is hardly worth the paper on which your certificates are printed.

    For most of the years you spent in school, your preoccupation was either cultism or other frivolous activities that have no bearing with education. That is why most of you turn out to be unemployable university or polytechnic graduates. A few of you who secured public employments have been discovered to be sheer misfits on those jobs as your competence remains questionable.

     

    Implications

    The implications of all these are many. While most of you are not quite useful to the present you are also not hopeful about the future.

    There is hardly any major crime in Nigeria today that is not principally committed by you today’s youths all in the quest for money. It seems that the only language you understand is money and only those who can speak the language of money command your respect.

    Many centuries before our time, an Arab poet intuitively came up with a sonnet that fits perfectly into today’s Nigerian situation. He said:

    “Here is the era against which we had been warned through the admonitions of Ubayy Bn Ka‘ab and that of Abdullah Bn Mas‘ud; an era in which truth would be totally rejected while falsehood and insurgence would be glorified and held aloft; Should this era linger without any change (of attitude) neither cry at a funeral nor smile on the announcement of a new birth would be experienced”.

    Which of the situation expressed in the above poem is not applicable to Nigeria today. What impact does religion have on the society again?

    We used to know of motor spare parts. Today, spare parts are no more of motor but of human beings. And the most active merchants of this queer business are you the youth of today. When we talk of illegal oil bunkering, it is the business of the youth. When we talk of kidnapping, it is the business of today’s youths. When we talk of suicide bombing and terrorism, it is the business of today’s youths.

    And all these are for money and nothing else. Where is Nigeria going from here?

     

    Conclusion

    The aim of this expository letter is not to malign or denigrate the Nigerian youth of today. The children of this columnist are youths like you who do not inhabit an exclusive island. But preaching is like a muddy book surrounded by men and women of honour all of who are garlanded in immaculate regalia. No one of them will be spared if the mud is splashed either by accident or by design. As a onetime youth and now a father qualified to be called an elder, it is not expected of my type to start throwing stones at other peoples’ houses while residing in a glass house. But truth knows no boundary. It cruises on a track of frankness like a surging train which minds no gored ox. To rekindle Nigeria’s old hope or create a new one for the future, the youth of today must return to the established values of the past. It was through those values that the tranquility of the world was once solidly upheld. And it was through deviation from those that the world became as restive as it is today. If tranquility must return as wished by many, you, the youth of today, must change your loins for the better. And that is the only atonement that the world requires (from you) to return to a state of tranquility.

    Thus, the ongoing political campaigns in the country and the subsequent elections coming up next month, in which you are active participants will show the place of hope or otherwise of your future.

    We are all in the same boat of life. If you work towards wrecking it you have much more to to lose. Just remember that as you lay your bed so you will sleep on it. I pray God to guide you aright.

  • Yero’s good advice

    Any news item read in Pidgin English on radio is always interesting to listen to.  The presenters have a way of embellishing the stories in a most delicious manner that makes the listener feels as if he is eating a meal.  You almost always laugh.  Laugh I did when I listened to Wazobia FM’s delivery of a visit by the House of Representative Committee on Education to Governor Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State on Monday.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember the exact expressions well enough to share it with you.  Next time, I will take care to be more attentive.

    What caught my attention, however, was what Yero told the lawmakers to do to sanitise the public education system in Nigeria.  He called for a law that would bar public servants from sending their wards to private schools within the country and abroad.  Many others have called for a similar legislation so it is not novel.  Perhaps I was surprised such statement could come from a governor in the present dispensation.  Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s daughter, Mrs Tokunbo Dosunmu, attended one of the non-fee paying primary schools her father started as the Premier of the Western Region.  That era seems so far removed that it is like we cannot return to it.

    Some may argue that back then there were few private schools.  They are right.  However, such a Law may benefit the education sector if enforced.  If public servants are compelled to send their wards to the same schools as the commoners, they would be concerned about the state of facilities in the schools, the quality of manpower and their commitment to education service delivery, as well as the academic performance of the learners.  Just as everyone was concerned about checking the spread of Ebola because the disease is no respecter of persons, highly-placed public officers in the civil service, parastatals as well as the judiciary, executive, legislative arms of government would be concerned about the state of public schools if their wards have to go there.

    Then, we can hope there would no longer be schools without fences, roofs, windows and doors.  Classroom and teachers’ furniture would not only be available but adequate, sporting facilities would be top notch, laboratories, well equipped, and school buses would not be a luxury.  Also, schools that boast of influential people as parents should expectedly gain a number of benefits.  For instance, they would fall over themselves to donate to the schools, endow prizes or introduce laudable programmes.  But such a Law may never be introduced in Nigeria.  Its workability would be an issue because presently, there are more private than public schools.  So, on the excuse that there are not enough public schools, the public officers will just take their wards to private schools.

    On a lighter note, Let us imagine that indeed the law is included in the Nigerian constitution and public servants are compelled to send their wards to public primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions in Nigeria.  I am sure quite a lot of interesting things would begin to happen.  First, there would be worse traffic on the roads leading to schools as siren blaring state-of-the-art cars convey little ‘excellencies’ to school during rush hour.  There would be competition for parking spaces for these cars in the schools as the chauffeur and the bodyguards have to wait until the school closes.  Maybe these people would form a professional association (of chaffeurs and bodyguards) that would compare notes on their masters’ level of influence in the society.

    Everything would become a competition – even to the brand of school bags, shoes, socks and even pencils and pens used by the pupils.  We should also expect to have teachers be at their best in the presence of these big government men and women or favour their wards above others of lowly birth.  I once heard that a school in Abuja passed over the overall best pupil for a prize in favour of the daughter of the PTA chairman, who had donated a lot of money to the school.  Such things may be the order of the day when public officers enroll their wards in private schools – after all, this is Nigeria.  But do not take this picture I have painted seriously.  Tear it up and forget I wrote it.  It is just a figment of my imagination.  Governor Yero has suggested a good thing.  However, this is Nigeria.

     

     

     

  • Heathrow issues must-be-charged gadget advice

    Heathrow Airport has told passengers to ensure all electronic devices carried as hand baggage are charged before travel if they are flying to the United States (US).

    It posted details of the new rule on its website and Facebook page.

    The move follows a request from the US that “certain overseas airports” implement enhanced security measures.

    The UK government has also revised its rules to state that if a “device doesn’t switch on, you won’t be allowed to bring it on to the aircraft”.

    Affected passengers have been told they may also have to undergo extra screening measures.

    British Airways has said that its customers face being made to rebook if they are found in possession of an uncharged device. The Department for Transport declined to say whether other UK airports would enforce a similar restriction on flights to the US.

    American officials said last week they were aware of a “credible” terrorist threat, but have not linked the security changes to any specific intelligence.

    Heathrow alerted passengers to the new rules via its Facebook page and its own website

    Analysts, however, have suggested the action could be a response to efforts by Islamic militants in Syria and Yemen to build bombs that evade airport security checks.

    A spokeswoman for Heathrow said that it did not comment on security matters.

    But the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) understands that passengers flying to the US will be advised to remove relevant chargers from their hold luggage at check-in, so that they can top up carried-on gadgets if necessary. Alternatively, they can opt to place any powered-down kit in their stowed luggage.

    If they still arrive at the security point with a powerless device, they will directed to a nearby retailer that might be able to provide a recharging cable, and told of the location of airport charging points.

    If the traveller is still unable to power on their machine, it will be suggested they make use of MailandFly – an existing service offered by the firm Bagport, which is based at Heathrow’s security control.

    The US has said that mobile phones will be among the checked items It allows passengers to pay for banned hand baggage to either be shipped to them separately or be stored at one of the firm’s warehouses for up to 42 days.

  • A cop’s advice

    A cop’s advice

    “Don’t try to secure other communities. Just secure your own community and there will be peace everywhere,” said Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police Hilary Opara at a meeting with some communities on how to curb kidnappers.

    Like most states in the Niger Delta, Bayelsa has been battling kidnapping. It became serious recently with the kidnap of a relative of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    I believe there is a lot of sense in the advice of the police chief. If every community can monitor their own area very well, criminally-minded individuals around will be easy preys for the law enforcement agencies to catch. But, if communities look the other way round when their sons and daughters engage in nefarious activities, the world will be the worst for it.

    Law enforcement officers are not magicians. Without the people giving them information, they can never crack any case. They need the cooperation of all. Governments at all levels, be it local, state or federal, must give them all they require to do their work. A situation where they are given operational vehicles but no provisions for maintenance and others will continue to make a mess of our security agencies.

    Kidnapping has not only embarrassed us. It has ridiculed us before the world and the Niger Delta has played a leading role in the kidnap of foreigners and citizens alike for ransom. We must stop it and the best way to go about it is to heed Opara’s advice. Do not cover the bad boys. Expose them so that the law can grab them. They are not spirits. They live among us and we can help make our communities better by revealing the face of the evil doers so that they can be confined to where they truly belong: the dungeon.

  • Advice for Nigerians at Xmas

    The Group Managing Director/CEO of UAC of Nigeria Plc, Larry Ettah, has urged Nigerians to imbibe the lessons of Christmas which “are powerful, deep and fundamental.”

    In his 2013 Christmas message to the firm’s employees, Ettah said: “In a world where strife and chaos seem to tower over good sense and order, we cannot pretend that the world does not need the grains of the season’s lessons more than ever. No one can fault Christ’s insistent call for simplicity, restraint and contentment in a world that has become an apparent vanity fair. As we celebrate Christmas and look forward to the New Year, we must remember that the lessons of the season are still as relevant and timely today as Christ intended them for humanity centuries ago. We must seek to live together in harmony and do unto others what we want them to do unto us.”

    He added that Christmas requires people to do their utmost and contribute to giving hope to those in despair, love to those in need and comfort to those at loss.

    Ettah explained that at UACN, Christmas offers an opportunity to ponder, reflect and re-assess their activities within the year. He added that the concern of the company now is to ensure that it creates value by ensuring that its stakeholders, systems and processes key in fast into its growth agenda.

  • 18 pieces of advice for new grads

    The following is an imaginary commencement address to graduates about to work by the Chief Executive Officer of Accretive Solutions, Richard A. Moran, a social scientist and best-selling author. He’s an expert at organisation effectiveness (and recognised as a top LinkedIn Influencer!) He offers 20 pieces of amazing advice targeted specifically for new grads:

     

    1. Avoid “Reply All”. It is the most dangerous button on your screen. It looks innocent enough, a little envelope with an arrow. Hitting that innocuous looking icon can change the course of a career even at a tender age. Too often, the “Reply All” sends information to the people you least want to see it.

     

    2. Remember that there is no “Never Mind” icon.  I suspect this technology tip comes while many of you are laden with guilt that you don’t know how to code in Ruby on Rails or the latest language. You will always feel guilty about what you are unable to do technically. Get over it and enjoy the wonders of the technology that you do know even if it is only the on/off button.

     

    3. Enjoy everything you know how to do right now because in a minute the technology will change and you won’t know how to do anything. And make sure you figure out how to save those photos you’ve been taking on your phone. You will never look this good again.

     

    4. Carry extra power cords. You can never have too many and don’t let others borrow them. You will not get them back.

     

    5. Use the talk/voice function on your cell phone occasionally. The phone has a microphone that can come in handy when talking to Mom and Dad. They may want more details than a text can provide.

     

    6. Don’t participate in a conference call from a public bathroom stall. Everybody will know- it echoes!

     

    7. Facebook Friends may or may not be real friends. Know the difference and pay attention to real friends. And remember we are all stalked on Facebook. Social media is probably less friendly than you think. It may be very so for you, if not for most people.

     

    8. Be gentle with those who work around you. They are not “it”, even if they are so distant from you. Reheat burritos at work sparingly, they smell up the whole place.

     

    9. Never talk about pay or dwell on what early employees at Google or Facebook make. There will always be those who make more and those who make less. An African proverb says that you think your father’s farm is the biggest, until you visit somebody’s father’s farm. Pay is not everything. If you love what you do and you get paid for it, consider it a bonus.

     

    10. Assume that all things you do on your computer at work will be monitored and reviewed. Never let your guard down.

     

    11. Co-workers should never see you naked – either digitally or literally.

     

    12. Know what goes into a performance review and keep track of what you do during the year. No one else will keep track, not even your boss until appraisal time, except he is planning ‘evil’ against you.

     

    13. The world is a difficult one now. Be security conscious: mind the friends you keep, what you say, especially in public places, maintain good relations with your neighbors, juniors, domestic employees and others.

     

    14. Never go to more than two meetings a day.

     

    15. Play hooky. When your team wins, when your spouse is available for a special day, when things are slow, when you really need a day to regroup, call in sick. Check your email while you are out.

     

    16. Create a “Personal Board of Directors.” Since mentors are so difficult to find, make up your own board and imagine what advice they would give. My board is composed of three people who are no longer walking the earth.

     

    17. Treat every job as if you will be there for a long time, even if you know you won’t be. If you are seen as a short-timer, no one will invest in making friends with you.

     

    18. Where you work is like selecting a college. It’s not the best place that accepts you; it’s about the best match.