The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Averting

  • Averting creation of another wasted generation

    Obi got a job at are a research institute at the beginning of July, a week after finishing his final year degree examinations, which he passed at a respectable class of Second Class (Lower Division).  With this job, Obi had a tremendous transformation from a jeans-wearing indigent undergraduate with uncertain future, to a respectable civil servant, albeit in the lower rung of the senior service ladder, and he could then plan with confidence his future.  Within a week of getting this job, he was a given a furnished accommodation and other perquisites attached to his new post. He was given a loan to purchase a car and within three months after leaving the university, he was a proud owner of a saloon car and he could be counted among many of his mates who came in November to their graduation ceremony in their brand new saloon cars. Obi was just 24 years when he accomplished these feats.

    To thousands and thousands of our unemployed graduates roaming our streets nowadays looking for jobs, the above narrative would appear to be a pure fiction, but it is not as it happened in the later part of the sixties. This was the situation in this our beleaguered country at a time that could be regarded as our golden past, before the inglorious era of economic structural adjustment ushered in by the inglorious regime of General Ibrahim Babangida  in the early eighties. The country is yet to be out of this debilitating economic quagmire which has blighted our economic growth leading to massive unemployment of our youth irrespective of academic qualifications. The level of youth unemployment in our country which is now in millions, is now at a frightening and dangerous level, and as somebody who was involved in training manpower for the development of our country for over 40 years, I lament at the situation where millions of our youths in the productive age bracket of 20 and 40 years are wasting away for lack of meaningful jobs.

    Many of these virile and highly endowed youth, some of whom had left universities and other higher institutions more than 10 years ago, are now engaged in all sorts of devices to keep souls and bodies together. Some  of them are using rickety okada machines as taxis, some resort to nefarious means  like fraudulent  ‘yahoo yahoo’ system and ‘419’ to stay alive and some still depend on their parents at the age when they should  be tending their own  families.  Some have become deceitful ‘men of God’ using religion to deceive people. We also have pathetic situations, where those who want to contribute to the society through self-employment are assailed by lack of opportunities and enabling environment as a result of government ineptness. The tragedy of our nation is that the few jobs available at both public and private sectors are shared without due process and fear of God among the over- pampered children of the potentates of the land, who in many cases are not well qualified.  Sometimes ago, when the situation of youth unemployment was not as acute as we have today, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who can correctly be referred as one of the builders of Nigeria and who was in position to tame this virus eating at the foundation of the country when he was in power, said in his usual expansive and excited mood during one of his pontificating speeches, that the country was sitting on a keg of gunpowder as a result of high youth unemployment.

    Our national icon, the highly revered Professor Wole Soyinka sometimes ago described his generation as a wasted generation. The respected professor is not known to be frivolous and he must have had a cogent reason for making such a serious statement but presently in our country we have well trained young men and women with requisite skills necessary to lift Nigeria from squalor wasting away in anger and frustration.This generation of Nigeria will soon be another wasted generation if nothing drastic is done to stem the blight of youth unemployment now ravaging our country with its attendant social and economic dislocations. As it is written in the Holy Writ, there is nothing new under the heaven. Many countries in recent history had faced similar dismal economic situation like the one we are facing now in this country, and with determination they overcame their travails.

    I will like to highlight in this piece two countries in which visionary approach of their leaders helped the country to combat the scourge of unemployment.

    In the early thirties, the United States of America faced the great depression. The stock market collapsed and there was dire economic dislocation with massive unemployment. It was a terrible time in USA and the president of the country at that time Franklin D. Roosevelt rose up and launched the ‘New Deal’ between 1933 and 1936. The main thrusts of the ‘New Deal’ programmes were relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy back to normal and reform of the financial system to prevent the repeat of the depression. It involved series of programme of public work projects, financial reform and regulations.

    The ‘New  Deal’ of the visionary Roosevelt was so successful that, it led to the present situation in the world where the United States of America is the economic power house of the whole world with the majority of the enjoying life more abundant. The second example is that of the defeated West Germany after the Second World War. This part of the defeated Germany embarked on what was termed ‘Wirtschaftswunder’. (German economic miracle) which was the rapid economic reconstruction and development of the economy of West Germany and Austria. This programme was overseen by the government led by West German Chancellor, KonardAdenaeur and his economic minister, Ludwig Erhard who succeeded him in 1963. The miracle centred on great increase in productivity and growth which enabled the disciplined Germans to have significant increase in their living standard through availability of jobs. The Germans achieved this breakthrough at the time the United Kingdom, the country that won the war was facing economic stagnation which led to the defeat of Winston Churchill, the war hero at the 1945 general election in UK.

    I will be the first person to admit that wholesale implementation of the ‘New Deal’ programme and  ‘ German miracle’ in Nigeria is not possible because of the abysmally low level of discipline and pervasive humungous corruption in our country coupled with our unstable economic terrain. However, I think that our leaders past and present should have tasked their economic advisers to study these programmes critically so that they could pick out items that could be adopted to help us out of our present economic quagmire and acute youth unemployment. If people feel that the programmes that lifted USA and Germany out of economic stagnation may difficult for us to implement in a third world country, why is that our leaders cannot study and adopt programmes that lifted Malaysia and Singapore out of poverty, after all, these countries were in the same poverty league with us at independence in 1960 and they have left us behind groping in economic blind with little hope of getting out?

    It is not rocket science to know that the panacea for future sustainable employment for our teeming unemployed youth lies in the establishment of enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.  This sector has been stifled like public sector with our unbridled corrupt practices.  One major problem to me that is preventing massive provision of jobs for our unemployed youth can be located in the huge and obscene amount we use in governance at all tiers of government in this country. I cannot imagine how our legislators, governors  both serving and retired, can in good conscience feel comfortable with the obscene financial perquisites attached to their offices while millions of our youth, the future of the nation are roaming about the streets without jobs. If our leaders can live moderately like their counterparts in other climes especially in Europe, there will certainly be enough money to embark on projects that would generate jobs for people of all categories. Nigerians want to know in this period of goodwill if the politicians are comfortable going to their banks to cash their humongous salaries and allowances for their luxurious living when virtually all the governors are already complaining that they cannot pay the proposed minimum wage of N30000. Our leaders should do something to stem this suffocating youth unemployment and prevent the creation of another wasted generation. They should remember that an unemployed youth in Tunisia triggered the ’Arab Spring’ which dislodged some of the oppressive regimes in the Arab world.

     

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

     

     

  • Averting the impending strike

    Sir: The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the United Labour Congress (ULC) have threatened to resume strike action on November 6, if the federal government fails to heed the demands of workers for increase in minimum wage.

    In September, NLC declared a nationwide strike over the stalled process of providing a new national minimum wage but was hurriedly suspended after a few days because an agreement was reached to resume negotiations by reconvening the tripartite committee set up to find a lasting solution to the problem. The 30-member tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee was set up by the federal government to negotiate a new wage for workers by reviewing the current one and recommending another that takes care of the current conditions of living in the country.

    Unfortunately, the federal government could not get the nod of state governors to present a proposal for an acceptable minimum wage to the committee leading to the log-jam.  Workers had initially demanded for N56,000 as the new minimum wage, now reduced to N30,000 while the federal and state governments are offering N24,000 and N20,000 respectively. Governors are insisting that they should be allowed to set their own minimum wage, as many of the states were hardly able to pay the subsisting one. Labour unions are saddened that state governors could work against the N30,000 minimum wage while still expecting workers to vote for them under the current political dispensation.

    The issue of new wage negotiations would have been over by now had government been consistent or had labour leaders been tactical and focused like some of their predecessors of old that sacrificed their personal comfort and interests in their campaign for get better package for workers. To put an end to the persistent unrest, the federal government should stop foot-dragging and playing antics that would further delay the implementation of a new wage regime for the many starved Nigerian workers.

    Come to think of it; can N18,000 adequately feed, clothe and cater for an adult working in our country today? The answer is simply ‘no’. The devaluation of the Naira, increase in the price of petroleum products and inflation have rendered the income of an average worker useless. Many workers in the country are perpetual debtors because of their weak purchasing power. They often rely on loans to get basic needs for themselves that should ordinarily be provided for by the state. That is why many of them are not financially stable. Many of them are just working; they have nothing to show for it because of the bad shape of the economy. To make government perform its constitutional duties to the citizens, a number of fiscal rejuvenation initiatives have to be embraced almost immediately.

    Federal, state and local governments should look inward and realistically manage their bureaucracies for better service delivery without increasing costs. They should undertake radical reforms hinged on public expenditure template such that elected officials and political appointees would no longer live big at public expense bearing in mind that we all go to the same market. Public funds should be allocated and spent on social services and critical infrastructure while leaving business ventures to the private capital in the form of public-private partnership. Senior citizens and pensioners should be accorded great priority by paying their entitlements on a regular basis. More focus should be placed on reducing public debt, overhauling the taxation system to make taxes the main source of public revenues and getting more informal sector operators to pay correct taxes by dragging them into the tax net. More importantly, the labour minister should be unbiased, perform his duties objectively and stop fuelling the impasse.

    Standard practice in federal systems supports minimum wage legislation by the different tiers, though none should be lower than the federal rate. Nigeria could adopt what is obtained in other developed countries by separating minimum wage from general salary review and allow federating states to set their own pay based on capacities and capabilities. As an enlarged meeting of stakeholders holds on the matter, the nation cannot afford to witness another strike at this crucial time when the nation is still battling with ripple effects of economic recession. Therefore, the government should urgently do the needful by engaging the workers in sincere dialogue and negotiation that would pave way for the actual implementation of a living new minimum wage for our workers.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Averting the gathering storm in Imo

    Sir: Imo State sits at the heart of Igboland and is usually referred to as the Eastern Heartland. But recently, the state has been in the news not for its rich Igbo cultural heritage or her great human and material resources but for the wrong political reasons.

    Whether it is about erection of effigies of foreign leaders or politics of nepotism and exclusions, the truth is that all is not well with the state. With the palpable ominous signs in the political ambience of the state, caution should be the watch-word.

    In Nigeria, intra-party crises are always carpeted as family affairs but it is yet to be seen how APC will handle its current myriads of political intransigencies and the corollary parallel political structures in many states.

    Either as a way of punishing the incumbent governor of Imo  State who had  denounced the tenure elongation of the out-gone National Working Committee of the party or an attempt to stop the imposition of his son-in-law on the party, some party members became willing tools used to humiliate him.

    In Nigeria, it is an acceptable norm since the inception of the fourth republic that heads of the executive arm from the ruling party also double as leaders of their parties whether at the state or the federal level. But in what was generally seen as an aberration in Imo State, the incumbent governor was even denied the privilege of either knowing the venue of the said congress or sighting the electoral materials.

    This situation informed the press briefing by the governor with heads of security operatives in the state where he declared that there was no congress in the state. But the party’s appeal panel ignored all that and went ahead to affirm the congress and the controversial party officers were sworn in amid all legal encumbrances.

    But the outcome of the party’s national convention has left no one in doubt about who still calls the shot in the party. It was therefore too early and of course infantile for some people to have boasted that they have washed the governor’s hands from the politics of the state.

    Though with his imperfections and indiscretions, the governor, Rochas  Okorocha would still remain a reliable bridge which the party would find very useful to access not only Imo State but the entire geo-political zone.

    The governor may have felt betrayed as those he had fed ended up biting his finger, but what makes great leaders is not the pound of flesh taken from the offenders but how much they are willing to forgive.

    While vengeance is sweet when an opportunity presents itself but the late anti-apartheid legend -Nelson Mandela taught the world an important lesson as he forgave those who incarcerated him for more than a quarter of the century.

    The reconciliation committee set up by the state government elated many of us who are friends of the state. But the gale of suspension now blowing against perceived enemies in the state assembly and the rumoured plot of impeachment of the deputy governor should be handled cautiously.

    Yes, this is obviously about the next election but one should not be oblivious of the next generation. The current callous blood-letting in the country should call for restraint as the hapless citizens would be at the receiving end of all these needless political tussles.

    We still hope that reasons will prevail over vengeance and true reconciliation would engender the much needed peace in the state.

     

    • Itaobong Offiong Etim,

    Calabar.

  • Averting untimely deaths

    •Corps members must shun avoidable travels even as governments should fix bad roads

    With about 60 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members lost to road crashes in different parts of the country in the last year, it has become necessary to warn corps members against frivolous journeys even as it is important for governments, state and federal, to ensure that our  roads are motorable. NYSC director-general, Brigadier-General Suleiman Kazaure, told corps members during his visit to the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp in Wannune, Tarka Local Government Area of Benue State that they should avoid making unnecessary travels, and that when they must travel, they should get the approval of their state coordinators or the director-general as the case may be.

    “Do not embark on unnecessary journeys. Any journey you want to embark on, especially if it is outside the state, make sure you get the permission of the state coordinator and if it is outside Nigeria, get the permission of the DG because so many corps members are dying. Last year, we recorded not less than 60 deaths of corps members.”

    Obviously, the figure excludes the two youth corps members who died on Tuesday alongside other passengers that were travelling home to reunite with their relations for the Yuletide. The two had just completed their orientation camping in Enugu and Taraba states when the accident occurred. One of them, according to reports, broke his spinal cord in the tragic accident that left the vehicles involved in the accident mangled. Also, in February, at least two 2016 Batch B Stream 2 corps members died in a road accident.

    This has always been the trend. It explains why the admonition by the NYSC authorities is necessary. In our part of the world, most parents train their children with the hope that the children so trained would take care of them in old age. Therefore, no parent would be happy to see their children on whom they had invested a lot of money and care to just die without fulfilling their destiny.

    However, the issue goes beyond asking youth corps members to avoid travels. There will sometimes be compelling reasons for them to travel. At least, many of them have to travel to their states of deployment and back. These cannot qualify for frivolous travels.

    The point is that some of our corps members have only been unfortunate to experience what many other Nigerians experience daily on our roads. Many Nigerians have died in avoidable road crashes, unsung and, perhaps, unreported.  But the corps members cannot be treated as mere statistics when they are involved in road accidents because of their peculiar circumstances that make it imperative for those watching over them to keep tabs on their movements. s

    Governments must be ready to play their part in reducing road accidents. They should fix the death traps that pass for roads in many parts of the country. Road signs appear to be going out of fashion even as many drivers exhibit so much indiscipline on the roads, without sparing a thought for other road users. This manifests through over-speeding, dangerous and drunk-driving, especially on the part of commercial vehicle operators. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other government agencies charged with ensuring sanity on the highways have to wake up to their responsibilities.

    We sympathise with the relatives of youth corps members who died in road crashes and pray that God will give them the fortitude to bear the loss. We hasten to add, too, that since we have known the inadequacies on our highways, prevention is better than cure: That is to say, our NYSC members in particular, and Nigerians generally, should avoid unnecessary travels. Information and Communication technology has revolutionised the way we do things such that it is possible to avoid journeys that are not compelling.

  • Averting suicides

    sIR: Suicide is fast becoming a quick fix to intolerable depression. While we try to preserve the only life we have; every one hour, some other people are trying to lose theirs—intentionally. Stories of suicide could seem a bit like fiction. Can people hurt so bad that they resort to killing themselves? Well, you never know if you don’t feel the hurt the way they do.

    “Why is life so complicated?” was the brief suicide note of the bravest 17 year old I’ve ever met who was almost successful in his second suicide attempt. Having lived with an uncommon speech disorder for the most part of his life, young David had a torrid time finding acceptance among his teenage folks. Often categorized by his classmates as “the duff” of the class, and once referred to as an “incomplete human being” by his dad after a severe scolding, David figured he may had overstayed his welcome on earth, and chose to end his life by drinking an awful lot of rat poison with hopes of dying in his sleep. Fortunately, he survived yet again, but how much longer before a third attempt?

    The deliberate killing of oneself is the least solution to problems. Although, we can attribute a bit of poor judgment or mental illness to some cases of suicide, our bankruptcy in love and genuine care for people with special needs are great stimulants for suicide. A few times, we’re privileged to be pre-informed by suicidal persons on their impending desire for death. How do we react to such information? Laugh off in mockery?

    People carry different degrees of pain as they casually walk past us everyday. Some with fatally bruised emotions, severe loneliness, intense depression from failure or financial wreckage, unexplainable sadness from lack of fulfilment or personality crisis; while some other people are stuck between enduring a traumatic terminal ailment for the rest of their lives, or putting themselves out of misery through suicide.

    We can cut down figures on the high casualty rate of suicide by doing very simple things like treating others nicely as often as we can, genuinely getting involved in the lives of people through lending a listening ear, or politely offering words of encouragement and hope. Suicidal tendencies are more tempting in the absence of consistent love and care.

    If we can kindly provide good reasons for suicidal persons in distress why they should live longer, maybe they will… However, since we can’t always tell who’s likely to be suicidal and who isn’t, we can commit every day of our lives to showing love and bringing hope to people—whether our input is requested or unsolicited.

     

    • Nimi Princewill,

     princewill.nimi@yahoo.com

  • Averting gridlock

    •Container transfer from Apapa to Ebute-Metta may work but…

    With effect from Monday, Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) will fully commence container transfer from the Apapa Port in Lagos to its Ebute-Metta Junction (EBJ) station. If well managed, the arrangement will ease the traffic gridlock that has become a permanent feature on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. Needless to say, it will also boost the revenue of the corporation, thereby putting it in a better stead to finance its operations. The corporation is presently doing skeletal movement of containers from the port to the station.

    NRC’s Director of Operations, Mr Niyi Alli, who briefed newsmen on the development said: “We have started container shuttle services. We intend to run a number of dedicated trains into the port and bring out containers to Ebute-Metta with the intention to help decongest the ports.

    “When the initiative finally comes on stream, we shall be running about three trains a day, each carrying about 20, 40 feet containers just to relieve the congestion at the port. This was done by NRC initiative to bring succour to Lagos residents.”

    Shuttle services from the port to the corporation ought to have been a continuous thing over the years. But, somehow, the rail lines were abandoned and road transportation became the only mode of moving containers from the ports to their respective destinations. It was only a matter of time for the adverse effects of this to be felt. Lagosians, particularly those with businesses in the Apapa axis, as well as those who have one reason or the other to go there soon began to dread the place as a result of its often chaotic traffic situation, which appears to have defied the palliative measures put in place by successive governments. Even the expressway literally became a victim, as it began to collapse under the weight of the heavy duty trucks plying it with containers of imported items and fuel from the ports. What usually started as potholes over time metastasized to craters on the road with many trucks usually getting stuck in them.

    This has been the experience for years until a few weeks ago when the Federal Government awarded the contract of the Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway to the Dangote Group. This has more or less compounded the traffic situation in Apapa because, as some people would say, sometimes some things have to get bad to get better.

    It would appear the rehabilitation of the road was the eye opener that the NRC needed to commence the new experience whose impact will hopefully be better felt from this week when the new scheme becomes fully operational. Jerry Oche, Lagos Railway District Manager (RDM) said in an interview that “Another major activity is the ongoing road construction in Apapa that has created more challenges for the commuters. Because of that, we had to look inward to see what we could do. “

    Expectedly, freight forwarders and importers are already buying into this idea. But, beyond that, and commendable as the initiative is, we must warn that careful planning is essential in making it work without a transference of the traffic congestion from Apapa to Ebute-Metta. It is clear the rehabilitation of the road will amount to nothing if there are no alternative means of moving goods from the ports to their destinations. But we do not have to create more problems while trying to solve one.

    We are happy that the railways have already liaised with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), to ensure effective management of traffic along Murtala Muhammed Way in Lagos. There should be stiff penalties for importers who fail to take away their containers within the stipulated two hours because that is one way to ensure a disciplined and seamless operation. It is important for the corporation to get it right so that it can move to the next level of having similar bays at Ijoko, to serve importers in the Abeokuta, Sagamu and Agbara axis, and Dagbolu, an Ibadan, Oyo State capital suburb.

    Ultimately, the idea should be to get the train service to all parts of the country. Even then, the government must consider dredging the ports in other parts of the country to enable ships from abroad berth there with their cargoes. This is the only way to end the nightmares on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and ensure stress-free movement of goods into and from the country.

  • Averting environmental disasters

    SIR: Being the commercial hub of West Africa, Lagos has obvious environmental concerns. But then, over the years, subsequent governments in the State have endeavoured to make sustainable environmental regeneration a core part of the ultimate goal of transforming the City-State into a Smart city.

    The effects of harmful actions on the environment are unwholesome and we all consciously or unconsciously responsible for it. When we purchase stuffs either in traffic or elsewhere and indiscriminately fling the remnants on the road or other such inappropriate places, what we do is to desecrate the environment. Unfortunately, what we fail to realize is that our seemingly harmless actions have far-reaching consequences as it might take close to 900 years for such remnants to actually decompose.

    Environmental degradation can turn a bustling metropolis into a cluster of slums and a bustling crime zone. People need to realize that individuals who live in overcrowded spaces are more likely to be exposed to scenes of violent schisms that inspire wild reactions like domestic and verbal abuse among others. Though these acts are not really limited to these areas, but they are most likely to occur there due to psychological effects of being deprived of private space.

    The cost of our damaging behaviour against the environment is by no means minimal. For one, it makes government spend unnecessarily while trying to undo the harm done. And really, such fund could have been expended in meeting other crucial societal needs. Also, public health is sometimes seriously hampered as filthy practices tend to lead to outbreak of tragic epidemics which could lead to needless waste of lives.

    The economy also takes a hit with instantaneous effects manifest across all sectors. Tourism, for instance, cannot thrive in any place where the environment is treated irresponsibly. Equally, potential investors will not make such a place a destination of choice. The bottom line is that insensitivity towards environmental issues would do us more harm than good.

    What then can be done to positively alter our attitude towards the environment?

    First, we need to get a proper grasp of the way the environment works and the elements that form that complex whole. It is only when we truly understand what our environment means to us that we could see the danger inherent in its unwholesome treatment. In as much as the bulk of the responsibility seems to hang on the shoulder of all tiers of government with greater need for investment on infrastructural development alongside environmental rehabilitation, nevertheless, without the corresponding attitudinal change from the public such investments would amount to little or nothing.

    Presently, in Lagos, the state government has come up with the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) to address solid waste management through massive emphasis on sensitization, regular checks and inspection, landscape beautification and rehabilitation and replacement of outdated machinery and infrastructure. With this new policy and many others, the Lagos State government has no doubt invested much into environmental conservation, preservation and development.  It is, therefore, baffling to see some residents denigrate the environment in such abysmal manner.

    The implication of this is that for our environment to sufficiently reflect the enormous government investment on it, both the government and the governed must be mutually involved. Japan did not get to the enviable position of having the cleanest cities in the world by leaving the business of environmental rehabilitation to the government alone. No! It really began when Japanese began to take responsibility over their environment.

    Like Japan, with the needed discipline and conscious determination, we could also turn most of our cities into amazing haven of cleanliness. This could begin with a simple habit of not throwing dirt in unauthorized places; not urinating in public places; not patronizing illicit waste disposal agents, and not turning parks and gardens into cattle ranches or party spots.

    If advanced nations of the world such Australia, United States of America, China and others that pay utmost attention to environmental issues could be threatened with massive environmental hazards as some of them currently experience, it is a wakeup call for us to turn a new leaf by treating our environment fairly.

    We must jointly resolve to save our environment and, indeed, ourselves from the dreadful effects of environmental degradation. We must understand and appreciate that the survival of future generation depends on how well we treat the environment now.  So, for everyone, this is the time to work and walk together in a renewed commitment to preserve our environment.

     

    • Sade Padonu,

    Badagry, Lagos.

  • Averting incessant strikes

    SIR:As a former active participant in the academic life of University of Ibadan for more than three decades, I cannot in good conscience fault the current Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leadership for embarking on series of strikes to back the demand for improvement in the university system in our country. In fact, it is heart-warming to listen to the confession of the Federal Minister of Education when he said that the government has failed ASUU.  It is obvious to any discerning Nigerian that our university system is on the verge of collapse due to monumental neglect of our universities by successive military and civilian administrations in this country. The neglect has led to the establishment of many ill-equipped private universities all over the country which pay premium to what the students can pay rather than the attainment of high academic standard

    The country inherited from Britain at independence a sterling university system which was comparable to the best in the world. The standard at University College Ibadan latter known as University Of Ibadan and other universities that followed in the sixties and seventies was very high. The environment for learning was very conducive in these universities as libraries were equipped with latest books and journals; the laboratories had the state-of-the-art equipment for meaningful research. University campuses were like monasteries in term of serenity, orderliness and beauty. They were all then beacons of all that we’re good in the society.  The well trained students of these universities had easy passage to postgraduate training in overseas universities in Britain and USA effortlessly. It was at this time that Ibadan established itself as the premier centre for African History through its world-renowned Ibadan School of History and global leader in haemoglobin and natural products research in its department of Chemistry. The University College Hospital at Ibadan (UCH) was the best in Africa and one of the leaders in the Commonwealth of Nations.

    The reputation of University of Ibadan was so high that in 1987 at the University of Western Australia in faraway Australia, a student from a lesser known university in Nigeria was admitted to do straight PhD instead of going through the Masters programme just because I intervened that the standard in this student’s university was comparable to that at Ibadan. Strikes at universities were very rare in those days. The pristine situation in our universities gradually deteriorated during the long stay of the military in the governance of our country. The university system was emasculated through shortage of fund, unwarranted interference in the university governance, unbridled expansion in the student population without corresponding increase funding and expansion of infrastructure and the taking over of hitherto regional universities by the federal military government which in effect made the government to bite more than it could chew.

    The net results of these ill-thought government actions led among others to a decline in the academic standard, deterioration in learning environment, overcrowded classrooms, empty bookshelves in the libraries, desolate laboratories and a neglect and underfunding of research activities. The morale of staff and students sagged and as a result brilliant academicians left our shores for other countries where academic activities are cherished. The reputation of our universities as citadels of learning with high academic standard fell in international academic arena. Our students are now denied automatic admission to postgraduate training in overseas universities where they are asked to undergo remedial courses. This happened in my presence at the University of Fort Hare Alice South Africa in 2001 when a student with an honours degree from a first generation university was asked despite my intervention to join the honour class for a year before he could proceed to a Masters programme.

    We are again at the cross road with present ASUU strike. The current government with the mantra of change should take the bull by the horn by taking measures that will permanently put an end to incessant ASUU strikes, so that we may have in place of strike in our universities, stability in the university calendar, efficiency and academic excellence.

     

    • Prof. Olabode Lucas,

    University of Ibadan.

  • Averting another caged presidency

    Averting another caged presidency

    Following his shock and clearly unanticipated defeat in the April 28, 2015, presidential election, especially in the light of the unbroken electoral invincibility of presidential incumbency in the country’s political history, former President Goodluck Jonathan was ushered back from the dizzying heights of intoxicating glory to the sobering realms of reality. In perhaps the most reflective and philosophical mood of his 16-yearsojourn in public office, Jonathan told members of the Christian community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, who paid him a post-election Easter homage at the presidential Villa, that he had actually been in a cage during his adventures in power at various levels from Deputy Governor to Governor, Vice President and ultimately the country’s apex office since 1999.

    In his words: “From 1999 I have been in the hands of government. I am yet to see somebody luckier than I was in the hands of government for 16 years, not in government as a parliamentarian, because if you are in the National Assembly or House of Assembly, you take care of yourself in your house. I was in a cage being taken care of by the government. But I think it is enough and I am happy. Help me to thank God for that”.

    Of course, Dr Jonathan could not have been more mistaken as regards the true nature and essence of the cage. I am reminded of the gripping autobiographical novel, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, by the late African American writer, Maya Angelou. She writes with a combination of zest, verve and pathos about how, growing up in segregated America in the 1930s and 40s, she was ‘imprisoned’, her self-esteem entrapped in the limiting cages of racial discrimination, gender repression and class deprivation.

    The song of the caged bird is not a rousing, thrilling, joyous Hallelujah chorus. It is a dirge, a pitiful, mournful monotone. For, the cage is not a space of liberty and dignity. It is a humiliating place of confinement. It is a restrictive prison. It is a suffocating cell. Feed the caged bird as much as you want. It will always thirst for the freedom to flap its wings, hop from tree to tree and soar freely in the skies. By its very nature, the cage constricts, distorts and devalues the true nature of its trapped occupant.

    The defining essence of the quintessential occupant of public office particularly in a democracy is to pursue the Benthamite ideal of the greatest happiness of the greatest number of the people. He is fulfilled only by a passionate commitment to fulfilling his social contract with the public and promoting the general good. To do this, more so in a presidential system where governmental effectiveness depends largely on the energy of the executive arm, the Chief Executive must be free to soar in what Eugene Peterson would describe as the ‘wide open spaces’ of respect for the majesty of the law, dogged commitment to truth, unimpeachable transparency and fierce fidelity to the public trust. But the Nigerian presidency is deliberately designed to negate these values; to effectively cage the occupant of the office, imbue him with an exaggerated sense of his own infallibility, while crafty minders of the presidential zoo feather their nests to their heart’s content.

    You must give it to Jonathan. Yes, he has his own faults like all of us. But he is at heart a good natured man who can be sometimes amazingly naive in his utter simplicity. This is why he at least honestly admitted he was in a cage even if he himself betrayed a manifest misunderstanding of the nature of his confinement.  The Nigerian presidency is tailor made to take maximum advantage of the weaknesses of a man like Jonathan. Thus, while he theorized leisurely about the very intricate differences between stealing and corruption, the delighted minders of the presidential zoo kept him endlessly distracted while, as is becoming ever more glaring by the day, they engaged in a looting spree of epidemic proportions. But then, the problem is not with Jonathan. It is with the Nigerian presidency, which transformed an ordinarily humble school teacher into a most unwilling Nebuchadnezzar.

    It is my humble submission that every President in this dispensation has been effectively caged by the excessive and intoxicating powers of the Nigerian presidency. General Olusegun Obasanjo is an able man. It is not for nothing that he has played historical roles at key moments of Nigeria’s political evolution. His patriotism and nationalism are beyond dispute.He was really passionate about fighting corruption. Towards this end, he takes the credit for ensuring the creation and strengthening of such anti-corruption agencies as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC).

    At the end of the day, however, Obasanjo’s legacy was indelibly stained by the aborted Third Term Agenda, aimed at illegal and immoral tenure elongation. This ranks among the worst forms of political corruption perpetrated in this dispensation. The excessive and intoxicating powers of the Nigerian presidency fed the Messianic streak in an otherwise well- meaning President making him vulnerable to the antics of  essentially self-seeking sycophants.

    The late President UmaruYar’Adua was a man of impeccable integrity as well as uncommon dignity and honour. But for the ill health that dogged his brief tenure, there were indications that he would most likely have easily ranked among the greatest Presidents of our time. Not only did he frankly admit the flawed nature of the polls that brought him to power, he took concrete steps to initiate fundamental electoral reforms. He set the precedent of publicly declaring his assets without prompting. Yet, a vicious and rapacious cabal, capitalising on Yar’Adua’s ill health marginalized the legal and legitimate institutions of state and practically hijacked the reigns of presidential power until death mercifully intervened.

    Now, President MuhammaduBuhari has his work cut out for him. His integrity is legendary. His zero tolerance for corruption makes him an iconic moral avatar. The Daura General’s austere lifestyle stands him out in the putrescent crowd of the country’s indulgent and hedonistic political and economic elite. Buhari cuts the enigmatic figure of the conservative General as radical reformer. In a short span of time in office, he has demonstrated convincingly that his redemptive zeal has not flagged. Yet, it is unlikely that the change agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which Buhari embodies, can transmute into the enduring transformation desired even if he spends two terms of eight years in office. The rot and decay have set in too deeply for an instant cure to be effected within such a short time frame.

    The change Buhari and the APC promise should, in my view, begin with the presidency itself. The President must curb the monstrous powers of an institution that perverts and taints virtually all who sit at the apex of presidential authority. Within the context of a demobilized civil society, an inchoate party system, a deformed federal structure that is essentially unitary, an ineffectual and morally incapacitated legislature and an economically famished and ethically challenged media, the Nigerian presidency is institutionally ‘overdeveloped’ and a veritable source of systemic dysfunction.

    Buhari must thus strive to enhance and institutionalize the relative autonomy of critical institutions of state – the police, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), anti-corruption agencies and Directorate of State Security (DSS) in particular – from the suffocating grip of the presidency. This is to ensure that if less restrained, decent and principled persons occupy the office in future after him,  they will be less able to wield presidential powers in the kind of politically detrimentaland disruptive ways we have witnessed in the last 16 years.

    Two other critical ingredients necessary to avert the possibility of another caged presidency under Buhari are first, decoupling the ruling party from the unhealthy dominion of the presidency. Luckily, President Buhari has shown a commendable reluctance to immerse his presidency unduly in internal partisan party matters. As the sobering experience of the PDP shows, when a ruling party at the centre becomes no better than just another parastatal of the presidency, its vital energies are sapped, its internal structures and processes begin to atrophy and it is only a matter of time before it collapses under its own dead weight. It is up to President Buhari and the APC to choose another path.

    Secondly, the APC must pursue a fundamental de-concentration of power from the centre to the states and local governments in a process of systematic re-federalization of the polity. The Buhari administration deserves commendation for its dogged prosecution of its anti-graft war. However, theover-concentration of power, responsibilities and resources at the centre, must also be a cardinal part of the APC’s change agenda in order to tackle the menace at the no less important structural level. As it is, the Nigerian presidency still remains very prone to being caged by ethno-regional cabals, unprincipled power cliques and shadowy cartels of graft with negative consequences for the polity.

  • Averting EVD recurrence in Nigeria

    Averting EVD recurrence in Nigeria

    The resurgence of Ebola in Liberia has raised the fear that the deadly disease may find its way back to Nigeria, write WALE ADEPOJU and FARUK HAMZAT.

    There are fears that the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) could recur in the country, following its resurgence in Liberia whose national, the late Patrick Sawyer, was the first index case here last year. The fears are real because the level of precaution is waning. Many people no longer practise hand washing, even in schools and other public places. Sanitiser canisters are no longer refilled at entrances of public utilities and halls. The ports- land, sea and air- are no longer screening for EVD. The resurgence of the dreaded disease in Liberia underscores the need for tightening of security and proper scrutiny at ports and borders.

    At the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, passengers are being checked in with hand-held temperature monitor devices by officials, but sanitiser canisters have disappeared. Most port officials no longer wear hand gloves.

    Nigeria was certified Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on October 20 last year. The disease was brought into the country on July 20, last year, by Sawyer, who died in Nigeria five days after he landed. No fewer, than 19 persons were infected. Seven died.

    An expert, Dr Ngozi Murphy-Okpala, said EVD was still a major public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa and, as such, Nigeria should beware. “Nigeria has been declared an Ebola-free country by the WHO. Although, Nigeria is safe today, but we must understand that this safety is only relative because EVD is highly communicable,” Murphy-Okpala said.

    Dr Murphy-Okpala, who is the Director, Health and Life Africa Healthy-living Initiative (HALA), said the disease is now more complicated with its recurrence in Liberia after the World Health Organisation (WHO) had placed the country on vigilance after declaring it Ebola-Free on May 9, this year.

    Liberia, she said, is midway into the 90-day vigilance period set up as a preventive measure to test EVD-like feverish illnesses and do post-mortem swab for EVD.

    “The other two most severely affected countries so far have been its neighbouring countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone because they share land borders,” she said

    Nigeria, she said, got its own share of EVD via air travel the same way the disease got to the United States (US).

    She said it took the nation a combination of effort and courage for the disease to be tackled, adding that the country’s intensified unity made it possible for it to be contained. “Preventive measures, especially in the area of hand washing and use of sanitisers were vital in containing EVD. Some companies and schools even used temperature monitors when the rage was on, we should all still be on guard, again,” she added.

    Personal hygiene, she said, is poor in Nigeria unlike many other developing countries where hand washing is paramount.

    This, she said, explains why preventable diseases are turning to highly infectious ones. She added: “An example is diarrhoea, which is directly caused by using unsafe water and poor sanitation.”

    She identified hygiene as the number one challenge.

    According to her, hygiene as a matter of fact should be people’s lifestyle. “Therefore, it is deeply interwoven with the people, educational level and culture. Others are basic health illiteracy and lack of awareness among the public. They all constitute the primary underlying factors here,” she said.

    Dr Murphy-Okpala urged Nigerians not to ignore the hand-washing habit because Nigeria is EVD free, but increase its tempo.

    “I am not aware of any specific research that has been conducted to prove that the rate of hand washing has reduced. It is important to take into consideration that a percentage of people, who developed hand-washing as a new habit, may have retained the behavior. But I noticed that not too many people move with sanitisers again, unlike when EVD was on,” she noted.

    She charged the Federal Government to improve on safety at the nation’s airports and allocate more equipment to them in order to advance EVD screening.

    She said: “Maximising the media with effective behavioural health information was one of our strongest points last year and containing Ebola in Nigeria was a milestone indeed.”

    She said presently, there is no known cure, drug, or vaccine for EVD.

    Ebola’s treatment, she said, is purely supportive. “It is to alleviate the symptoms of fever and loss of body fluids,” she said.

    The focus, according to her, should be on prevention, which is better than cure, adding that, it is expensive and difficult to achieve.

    Her tips on prevention include avoiding funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of someone who died from the disease, avoid touching items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood, urine, vomit, breast milk, semen, and body fluids in any form.

    “Avoid contact with bats too and finally, practice careful hygiene of hand-washing with soap and water and use alcohol-based hand sanitiser,” she said.

    Her advice to healthcare givers: “In addition to engaging in ideal infection control and sterilisation measures, wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and timely notifications of the appropriate health officials of any suspected case of EVD is important.”

    According to her, there should always be a swift response with health education, adding that Ports Health is of uttermost importance with regards to EVD.

    “Ultimately, a holistic approach to improving our healthcare systems is imperative. However, I do not think the government alone is responsible for fixing all our healthcare challenges, but I expect well-thought out policies that clearly articulate a blueprint for a way forward.

    “There are several indigenous and international non-profits working in the healthcare sector. These can be harnessed rather than every new government attempting to create a new set of programmes with every new administration,” Dr Murphy-Okpala said.