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Tag: approach

  • Jonathan: we’re changing approach to Boko Haram

    Jonathan: we’re changing approach to Boko Haram

    President Goodluck Jonathan promised yesterday that Nigerians will witness a new approach to the battle against Boko Haram.

    He said activities of the Islamic sect or other international terrorists “cannot disintegrate Nigeria”.

    Dr. Jonathan spoke while receiving a delegation on Easter homage at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Suicide bombers killed no fewer than 75 people last week in Nyanya, near Abuja. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Noting that the nation is going through some challenges, the President said there is hope and that the country would overcome them.

    The President also promised that his administration would do everything possible to continue to bring development to every part of the country.

    But he harped on the need for the three tiers of government to work collectively to solve the problems.

    He said: “Easter is the most important ceremony in Christian faith. Without His resurrection, our faith would have been in vain. His resurrection gives us hope. You will have tribulations but there is hope for you. Today we are marking that resurrection.

    “Yes, as a nation, we are having tribulations but surely, Nigeria has hope. Surely, we will overcome these tribulations. Even those who think that this country will divide, those who think the country will be divided into North, South, East and West, no way. Boko Haram will not disintegrate this country.

    “Most of you are aware that when Nyanya was bombed, Nigerians from all religions and tribes participated in the evacuation of people who were injured even before the security arrived. People donated more blood than required.

    “That shows that no criminal group, funded within or outside this country, can separate us. No criminal group will disintegrate this country. Boko Haram will come and go. We are working very hard, we are changing our approach, God willing, we will end Boko Haram.

    “To you my brethren, I thank all of you for your prayers and I promise that we will work to do our best to bring development to this country. We have challenges. We have the issue of unemployment. Not too long ago, there was this ugly development at the Immigration Service, because of the level of unemployment and partial employment.

    “Some are doing jobs that do not meet their qualifications; they are partially employed. So when you talk of employment in Customs or Immigration, you will see everybody rushing there.”

    On the need for cooperation among the tiers of government, he said: “States are semi autonomous. The President does not control states or local governments’ resources. Governors and local government chairmen control their resources. If all of us work in concert, we will solve most of our problems instead of trading blames. Government is one. God willing, we will get to where we want to be.”

    The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed, who led the delegation, presented an Easter card to President Jonathan.

    Senator Smart Adeyemi, chairman of the Senate committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said: “We are happy to have a President who trusts in God. Nigeria will triumph over its challenges. Mr. President, you will succeed.”

    In the delegation were: the Primate of Anglican Church, Dr. Nicholas Okoh, Senator Phillip Aduda, officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Chief Imam of Central Mosque, Abuja.

    First Lady Patience Jonathan was not at the homage visit.

    She also was not at the church service where the President recited the 2014 memory verse of the chapel from 1st Peter 5: 6 to 7.

    The first lesson was taken by the wife of the Aso Villa Chaplain, Mrs. Onwuzurumba, from the book of Leviticus 23: 9 to 14. Mr. John Kennedy Okpara took the second lesson from 1st Corinthians 15: 9 to 14.

    There was a prayer session for the first family, the congregation and Nigeria as a whole.

    The Chaplain, Ven. Obioma Onwuzurumba maintained that only God can make somebody president.

    In his Easter Sunday sermon he said it was not a position anyone could just wake up and desire to fill.

    In his message titled: “Let’s celebrate”, Ven. Onwuzurumba said there was every reason to celebrate despite the bad and sad stories in the media.

    He said: “It takes a lot to become a President. It is not easy. It is not something you desire; it is what God gives.”

    He took the congregation through Romans 5: 12, 1st Corinthians 15: 19 to 29 and Ephisians 2: 12.

    Continuing, Ven. Onwuzurumba said: “When we celebrate, it is a way of showing appreciation of what God has done. We are celebrating Jesus today because he is the hope of the world.

    “This world does not offer us any hope. It is only Jesus Christ that brought hope to the world.”

  • Be practical in learning approach, students told

    Be practical in learning approach, students told

    Students have been advised to be dynamic and practical in their approach to knowledge and learning. Provost of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education (AIFCE), Owerri, Imo State, Dr Blessing Ojioma, gave the advice during the matriculation of students admitted for degree, National Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes.

    The event, which was held at the college pavilion, was attended by lecturers, parents and students.

    In her address, Mrs Ojioma described the freshmen as “blessed” because they were admitted when the institution is celebrating its 50th anniversary. She explained that the jubilee anniversary was formally kicked-off with the induction of the freshers.

    She told the students to consider themselves privileged, warning them to report to any lecturer, anyone may want to extort or intimidate them. She said: “Privilege comes with sacrifice. You must endeavour to work hard in your studies; eschew exam malpractice, cultism, indecent dressing and conducts that are inimical to your academic pursuit. You must be well behaved and follow right procedures to make your complaints.”

    The Vice-Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof Barth Okolo, who was a guest at the occasion, urged the freshers to regard the ceremony as a solemn one that called for sober reflection. “Aim high, be the best in extracurricular activities and recognise challenges in order to overcome them,” Okolo said.

    One of the freshers, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, said: “I am very happy because this is one of the experiences I have looked forward to. Being a bonafide student has inspired me to start building my career.

    A 200-Level Biology Education student, Vincent Okereke, said: “Though I did my matriculation two years ago, I will advise the incoming students to be focused, work hard and abstain from vices that will jeopardise their future. One thing they should have in mind is that they must be punctual at lectures if they want to succeed in this school.”

  • Boko Haram abductions: The French approach

    Boko Haram abductions: The French approach

    In a terse statement issued shortly after Nigeria’s Boko Haram terror sect released a video recording of the seven French citizens its militants abducted from Northern Cameroun on February 19 and ferried to Nigeria, France has declared there would be no negotiation. Instead, said the statement, “France will use all possible means to secure the release of the hostages.” The statement is all the more interesting for the contemptuous manner it declared that “(France does) not negotiate on these bases with those groups.” In more than a dozen commentaries published in this place, Hardball had declared it was folly to negotiate with terrorists or kidnappers. Negotiating with Boko Haram, the column warned repeatedly, showed national weakness and mocked the memory of the innocent who were murdered in cold blood.

    After considerable dithering, the President Goodluck Jonathan government finally decided to negotiate with Boko Haram if leaders of the terror group would show their faces. And as an example of good faith, the government persuaded the rest of the world not to declare the sect a terrorist organisation, arguing that it would hurt the country and its travelling citizens more than the terrorists. Analysts even supplied the government the theoretical foundation for its indecisiveness. They urged the government to use stick and carrot approach to pacify the group and its splinter groups. Relying on economic arguments, they suggested that poverty triggered the uprising. During his recent visit to Nigeria, former United States President, Bill Clinton, also seemed to endorse this perspective, except that his endorsement was more nuanced.

    This column will not revisit the arguments he had made in this place against negotiation. But he will restate the imperative of defeating the group before an economic rejuvenation plan is enunciated for the poor regions of the country. To do otherwise is to encourage alienated groups to levy war against the state in order to wring concessions out of the government. But much more than this, the outright dismissal of negotiation by the French is relevant to the discourse to the extent that it showed character in the face of both extreme danger and direct threat to the lives of French citizens. The implication is that France will use all means to free its citizens, but that even if it feared failure was a possibility, it would still not negotiate. Nigeria needed to show this sort of steely resolve in the early days of the fight against terror. Instead, it displayed lack of national resoluteness in the face of danger. The country also showed lack of philosophical appreciation of what terror is all about and the dangerous precedents negotiating with it could set for future generations.

    By dismissing outright the possibility of negotiation, France indicated she would neither allow its policies to be undermined by fear nor its people and leaders to be blackmailed by terrorists. More, she seemed conscious of the need to set a proud precedent for future generations, and to indicate that the country was ready to rigidly stand by lofty principles rather than by expediency, no matter the cost.

    Instead of belittling the French approach, Nigeria should take a cue from that country’s spontaneous response, a spontaneity that by all considerations exhibits depth. Nigeria has seemed to stumble on what seemed to be a sensible approach against terror groups, but it is hoped that the tentative resolve to fight to the bitter end will not collapse in the face of Boko Haram raising the ante by indiscriminate and extensive projection of terror. Nigeria will also hope that the rather desperate decision of the sect to embrace a tenuous ceasefire would not be jettisoned. However, it is hard not to feel that the government has kept on fighting, no matter how inexpertly, not because it hopes to win the war but because it expects that at a point, the terror sect would lose steam either through attrition or age.

  • Tambuwal’s new approach to leadership

    Tambuwal’s new approach to leadership

    Over the course of the year, many within and beyond the National Assembly have been astonished at the new ideas being introduced in the running of the House of Representatives by the Speaker, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

    It is not as if many were not expecting new ways of doing things when the Honourable members among them gave him their mandate to lead the House in June last year. Rather, what is surprising to them, and to large swathe of Nigerians, is the frequency with which new and effective methods are becoming the order of the day in the legislative scheme of things in the country.

    The crux of the new approach to leadership is encapsulated in the House Legislative Agenda, which was introduced by Tambuwal to initiate a new order that fosters transparency, leading to institutional integrity in the legislature in particular and the country in general.

    As enunciated by the Speaker himself, the legislative agenda primarily seeks to restructure the management and functions of the legislature towards adequacy in capacity and improved productivity.

    In addition, the Agenda seeks to design and implement the electronic parliament (e-parliament) blueprint that elevates the National Assembly operations to international best practices and ensures public access to parliamentary information and process.

    Importantly, the Agenda seeks to review the legislative branch budget in line with the requirements of openness, effectiveness and accountability; review the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in all relevant areas in line with the aspirations of Nigerians; engage actively with other arms of government to restore public order and national security and finally to institutionalize mechanisms that facilitate effective engagement with various stakeholders including constituents and civil society organizations (CSOs).

    What are those things done differently by the House leadership to warrant this intervention? Let us begin with the composition of the committees of the House in September 2011. For all those familiar with how such endeavors were undertaken in the past, they will readily attest to the fact that seeds of discord among members get planted on the day the committees are announced largely because many always felt shortchanged by the outcome. Not so when Tambuwal announced the committees in the first test of his leadership acumen as Speaker. Not only did it go well, members openly praised the House leadership for taking their view points into consideration, but for placing square pegs in square holes in order to maximize potentials for the benefit of the polity.

    Take another example. The rot in the oil sector manifested in the shameful subsidy scam has been considerably unravelled to the extent that government has commenced prosecution of those indicted in the law courts. This did not just happen. It took the intervention of the House of Representatives, beginning with its historic January 8, 2012 extra-ordinary plenary session, to arrive at this junction. In spite of the controversy that engulfed the ad-hoc committee, the report of that panel laid the foundation for the rash of committees set up by the executive with the aim of cleansing the Augean stables.

    Holding that extra-ordinary session on a Sunday, the first of its kind in the country, set in motion various activites which have today led to stringent calls for more transparency and accountability to be institutionalised in a sector characterised by many underhand dealings. But for the bold move taken by the Speaker, we would still have been in the dark as to the true nature of the corruption that pervades the sector.

    Also of note here is the issue of the amendment of the 1999 constitution currently going on in the country. When the Speaker announced last September that all the 360 members of the House of Representatives will return to their constituencies to hear directly from their people on what they want in the new constitution, many did not envisage the kind of interest the move would generate.

    When the Peoples Public Session eventually held penultimate Saturday across the country, Nigerians did not only hail the transparency of the novel process, but identified with its overall objective which is to give the country a document (constitution) that was written with the input of the people.

    It is worth recalling here that each of the sessions in the 360 Federal Constituencies was organized by an independent Steering Committee of Stakeholders that included the member of the House representing the Constituency who served as the facilitator, members of the State House of Assembly in the particular Federal Constituency, the Local Government Chairmen within the Constituency and one representative of the following organisations in each Federal Constituency, namely the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

    Others were the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other Student Groups, the National Youth Council (NYC) and other Youth Organizations, the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) and other Women Organisations, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), and the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE). Stakeholders, such as Ethnic Nationalities, Women, Youths, Students, Town Unions, Professional Organisations, Civil Society Organizations, Religious Organizations, Traditional Institutions, Political Parties, Artisans, Labour etc, and indeed all Nigerians.

    No doubt, Tambuwal’s strong stance on discipline, accountability, and truth, and his penchant desire to do things differently, is now setting the bar and becoming an example for elected office holders in the federation.

    As we’ve seen times without number, his apparent willingness not to be encumbered by the political exigencies that had stunted our progress, is quite inspiring. For him, what matters is the nation’s interest. Call that an unyielding idealism and you won’t be wrong.

     

    • Imam is the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Speaker Tambuwal.