The Nation Newspaper

Tag: bad

  • Can every Nigerian be bad?

    Permit me, dear reader, to pose the above question. It is meant to prick the conscience of some of our people who are so fatalistic in thinking that nothing noble, brilliant, sensible, sane or patriotic can ever be a Nigerian.

    I’m enamoured of the social media for their wide range and immediacy of their information dissemination and some of us do intervene here and there, as not to allow the total pollution of our polity and the erosion of our values.

    Such intervention is provoked today by a post that’s almost gone viral about the gubernatorial aspirants from some states. To be specific, it is about Ogun State. And when I first stumbled on it and scanned through the first few lines, something welled up inside me to dismiss the post as the handiwork of the sitting governor’s detractors.

    But that feeling melted by the time I read a few lines down. It became crystal clear that the enemies of Ogun people from within or from without are at work. And I feel so sorry for this country and some of her citizens who are reeking in mischief.

    The post did not spare any party or any political leader, past and present; and it makes me wonder whether in this “desert of uselessness” there no oasis of good people at all. If that is so, what is God waiting for to wipe this land clear of its inhabitants?

    Of course, like I replied the sender of that post, if the state is, to the author or authors of that post, bereft of any good material to succeed Amosun, since all the touted names are presented in that condemnable post as unfit for the high office, such pessimists should go scouting for alternative gubernatorial materials from either Asero Motor Park in Abeokuta or Obalende “motor garage” in Ijebu Ode.

    In case anyone says that’s triviality taken far, I urge such thinkers to cast their minds back to the Second Republic when, either out of its inability to spread its dragnet wide for better stuff or for lack of quality materials in its ranks, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) settled for a top urchin at the Oshodi motor park in Lagos, to fly its flag and contest the Federal House of Representatives seat for Oshodi Federal Constituency. And, as if you didn’t know, the man better known in his time as “Bayo Success”, was adjudged winner of that controversial election. He drove ”Shagari Mercedes Benz”, bedecked with the NPN and Nigerian flags on its sides, as status symbol for the Honourable Member, in that era.

    That was possible because the absence of good people would not deter any society that values democratic politics from thriving. A factly matter that made Edmund Burke postulate that what good people suffer by abstaining from politics is to allow fools and charlatans to rule them.

    However, before we lose the essence of this piece, it needs to be emphasised that people should not be so negative, pessimistic and/or extreme in their thinking, to believe that all citizens who aspire for elective political offices are crooks and criminals. Bad as the situation may be, I want to believe there are still credible men and women around who can run this race with impressive credentials.

    Like the jingle of the state urged, “omo Ogun ise ya”, meaning all who care for the continuing wellbeing of the Gateway State must get cracking and ensure we have good and credible people, to wear the gubernatorial tiara, come next year’s general elections.

  • Airlines cancel more flights over bad weather

    Domestic airlines on Thursday canceled more flights over poor visibility on major routes from Lagos  and Abuja into Enugu, Calabar and  Benin.

    Arising from the bad weather airplanes scheduled to fly from Abuja and Lagos into airports in South Eastern and South South routes could not leave their aerodromes on account of en route weather indicating less than 800 meters, the minimum prescribed by regulatory authorities.

    Investigations by The Nation revealed that many passengers remained stranded at airports nationwide as airlines oscillated from delayed , rescheduled to cancelled flights .

    At the Lagos Airport general aviation terminal one, hundreds of passengers remained stranded for hours awaiting when airlines will announce their scheduled flights.

    Same sour experience prevailed at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two , Lagos where airlines continue to either cancel or reschedule flights.

  • Oil and gas: The good, the bad and the unpredictable

    Oil and gas: The good, the bad and the unpredictable

    For stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, the outgoing year is a mixed bag of blessing. AKINOLA AJIBADE examines events that shaped the sector during the year.

    Increase in crude oil prices

    The year started on a very good note, as prices of Brent crude, rose to $58 per barrel from $44. 73cent per barrel, a development which excited stakeholders as well as rekindled hope in them that better days were ahead in the global oil sector. Though the price slipped to between $45 per barrel in August, that has not in any way doubted the future of the market, as the price hits an all-time high of $65.88 per barrel this December. As usual, the issue elicited positive response from stakeholders, including the government, as they projected that crude oil price will hit  $68 per barrel by the first quarter of next year.

     

    Pipeline vandalism

    Like a recurring decimal, pipeline vandalism kept on resonating in the Nigerian petroleum sector. In the first two quarters of 2017, cases of destruction of oil and gas installations by militants were on the increase, a development which necessitated the declaration of Force Majeure on such facilities, by the Federal Government. The issue made crude oil output to fall below 2.2 million barrels per day, even as a group known as Movement for the Emancipation of Niger-Delta (MEND) claimed responsibilities for some of the attacks.

    In November, Nigeria’s crude oil output slipped to 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) as exports of Bonny Light crude were under force majeure for part of the month. This, no doubt, affected earnings since Nigeria derived 70 per cent of its revenue from oil imports. In all these, the Federal Government, local and foreign oil companies were badly hit by the development.

    For example, Seplat Production Development Company reported a net loss of $98 million (N24 billion) in the first nine months of 20I6, compared to a net profit of $69 million (N14 billion) in 2015, following the shut–in of the Forcados terminal and suspension of exports from mid-October, and combined with the effects of lower prices of crude oil.

    Also, Oando Energy Resources (OER) during the nine months, which ended on September 30, 2016 recorded a 20 per cent decrease in total production of 12.0 million barrels oil equivalent (MMboe) (average 43,617 boe/day), compared to 15.1 MMboe (average 55,154 boe/day), in the company’s gross profit, which decreased by 52 per cent, N28.7 billion compared to N60 billion it recorded in the previous year. The company said it faced operational challenges due to the unrest in the Niger Delta. Lekoil also recorded a net loss of $8.1 million during the first half of 20I6.

    Besides, oil majors including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 2016, reported their lowest quarterly profits since 1999 and 2005, respectively, due to attacks on their operation and other issues.

    The former country President, National Association of Energy Economists (NAEE), Wunmi Iledare, said incessant attacks on oil facilities affected operations in the industry in 2017, adding that production and exploration activities are worst hit. He added that despite talks on how to end unrest between leaders in the region and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in May, attacks on oil facilities persist.

     

    Passage of Petroleum Industry Bill

    The passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) by the Senate has rekindled hopes in the sector. The bill, which suffered delays in the National Assembly for almost 17 years, due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, is expected to  transform the industry in future.

    Through the PIGB, a new agency, known as the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NPRC) will be established with a view to take over the functions of the Petroleum Inspectorate (PI), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). The Commission will also administer and enforce  policies, laws and regulations relating to all aspects of petroleum operations as  spelt out in the provisions of the Act.

    In the PIGB, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources will be renamed Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated, while the Minister of Petroleum Resources, on the recommendation of the new Commission, can grant, amend, renew, extend or revoke any licence or lease facilities required for petroleum production, pursuant to the provisions of the Act or any other enactment.

    The bill also proposed that when the commission is created, it shall be vested with all assets, funds, resources and other movable and immovable property, which immediately before the commencement of operation of the new commission,were held by the PI, DPR and PPPRA. According to the Senate, the move was geared towards unbundling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the petroleum industry.

    An expert in energy law, Dr Ayoade Adedayo, said the bill will revolutionise the industry, as well as ensure competitiveness among operators. The industry, he said, will be competing with its counterparts abroad when the bill is finally passed, urging operators to prepare themselves for the task ahead.

    Adedayo, who lectures at the University of Lagos, said changes, which have eluded the sector, will start manifesting now that the PIGB has been passed by the Senate.

     

    Fuel scarcity

    Fuel scarcity in the industry has become a perennial issue and unpredictable, as Nigerians experience it yearly. The country is still going through its throes caused by both human and material factors such as distribution bottlenecks and differential prices paid by marketers for the product. The scarcity pitched stakeholders against one another as they trade blames on the issue.

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Southwest Chairman, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, said the fuel scarcity was caused by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), which according to him, connived with the  Depot and Private Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) to shortchange its members.

    He said the problem was instigated by the NNPC, which supplies fuel to DAPMAN at N33.80 per litre, while DAPMAN sells the product to them at N42 per litre.

    According to him, the development has left little or no gains for the marketers, which he said, are struggling to survive.

    But DAPMAN Secretary, Femi Adewole, said the allegations are plausible, accusing marketers of crying foul because they are unable to get direct supply from the NNPC.

    While this lasted, the NNPC intervened by increasing fuel supply to Lagos and its environs.

     

    PENGASSAN strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), fixed December 18th for its nationwide strike, following inability of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to broker peace between PENGASSAN and Neconde Energy Service Limited.

    PENGASSAN had demanded the re-instatement of some sacked workers by Neconde management, a request which the company was not willing to grant. This informed the decision by PENGASSAN to embark on the strike. It was, however, called off by the Association earlier in the week at government’s intervention.

     

    Power sector

    The sector is plagued by poor power generation, distribution and transmission, a development, which has worsened the situation in the industry. Generation was increased by 687megwatts(Mw) of electricity from 3,000 megawatts (Mw) in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 3,687 megawatts (Mw) in the first quarter of 2017. Similarly, the country increased its generation capacity to 6,803 megawatts (Mw) of electricity in August.

    The Power, Works and Housing Minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola, attributed it to the resolve by the Federal Government to substantially improve the sector and the economy. At the 18th monthly power sector meeting in Kano, Fashola said: “As  at August 10,  6803Mw  was  recorded  as the current available generating capability, with a wheeling capacity of 6700 Mw by the Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN), currently constrained by the inability of the power distribution companies (DisCos) to take load.’’

    Commenting further, the Minister said the Federal Government was doing its best to ensure improvement in electricity supply, adding that the government has embarked on serious expansion of transmission capacity with some power plants already completed, while others have reached advanced stage of completion.

     

    DisCos problems

    The eleven power distribution companies (DisCos) tried their best to improve electricity supply in the country, but were limited by problems of poor distribution networks, meters supply,  shortage of transformers and other infrastructural facilities. More worrisome are issues of epileptic power supply and scarcity of meters.

    Despite the decision by power firms to conduct enumeration exercise and provide meters to their customers, the problem persists. To solve metering problem, Fashola urged operators to democratise the process of supplying meters to customers.

    He said meter provision is not a monopoly of DisCos, but is open and regulated by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission( NERC), adding that the democratisation of meter provision is intended to reduce the conflict between customers and DisCos and reduce losses to the sector.

    Ikeja Electric (IE) Chief Executive Officer,  Anthony Youdeweoi, said the firm has distributed meters to its teeming customers, adding that meter is a problem in the sector. He said the firm has lined up programmes in 2018 to meet the yearnings of its customers.

    ‘’We at (Ikeja Electric) are aware of problems facing customers in the industry. Of importance is shortage of meters; an area where we have been doing our best and will continue to do our best in the years ahead,’’ he said.

  • Bad loans

    Bad loans

    •CBN must check the rising incidence and prosecute culprits

    It is a cause for worry and these figures should set off the danger alarm in any economy. It is not only that the level of bad loans in Nigeria’s banking system has risen rather dramatically by 50 per cent in less than one year, but it took another agency and not the apex bank to take note and bring it to public knowledge.

    Last Monday, the Director, Banking Examination Department of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Mr. Adedapo Adeleke, disclosed the dire state of banks in Nigeria going by the quantum of bad loans in their portfolios.

    Adeleke made this troubling revelation in a presentation: “Curtailing the Growth of Non-performing Loans in Banks – The role of Regulators and supervisors.”

    The report, which reviewed the status of bank credits up to last September notes that while the ratios and volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) continued to grow, the total loans advanced decreased in volume as banks curtailed further lending in their quest for loans recovery.

    Holding back on fresh credits on its own portends serious deleterious effects on an economy which is still in the throes of recession. But since December 2015 to the end of third quarter (September) this year, NPLs have risen astronomically by about 50 per cent, amounting to about N2.4 trillion.

    According to the data emanating from the NDIC, NPLs grew from N1.639 trillion in December 2016 to N2.424 in September, this year. Though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stipulates that banking industry NPL-ratio- to- capital should be five per cent, this capital adequacy requirement has been overshot and it now stands dangerously at 15.8 percent. What this means is that for some banks, their shareholders’ fund is far below the amount of bad loans in their books.

    This is truly worrisome.

    The issue of bad loans in Nigeria’s banking sector has almost always been a cause for worry. Just about one year ago, the CBN had to order banks to publish the names of customers with non-performing loans. That exercise was carried out in national newspapers causing so much rumpus in the public space.

    But instead of denting the volume of bad loans in the system, many banks merely ended up with a trail of litigations and a few public apologies were issued to certain individuals and companies. The list was mired in controversies, meaning that books had not been properly kept by banks. More remarkable, the real big fish defaulters could not be named for obvious reasons.

    While banks are their own worst enemies, so to speak, depositors’ and shareholders’ funds are the victims of bankers’ insouciance. Banks hardly respect the statutory obligor limits which stipulate certain maximum level of exposure to one particular client or sector.

    But in banks’ books, sectors like oil and gas and telecommunications are given the chunk of loans.

    Again, directors-related loans may be said to be the bane of banks in Nigeria. A most recent example is Skye Bank whose  former chairman had allegedly  accessed loans almost far in excess of the bank’s shareholders’ fund.

    The CBN must come down hard on the issue of insider abuse if it must end the malaise of bad loans. We suggest that loans by any individual or firm serving in any bank must, as a matter of regulation, be made open to the CBN and put under special scrutiny by a body comprising of the CBN and NDIC.

    We also susggest a special documentation by the credit bureau or such agency that must warehouse director-related loans.

    All said, some of the directors who have been found to be remiss recently and have abused their positions should be prosecuted and jailed if found to have fallen foul of the law. This will send a strong message to others and help curb the rampaging impunity of bank directors who trifle with other people’s money.

     

  • Bank directors with bad loans to go

    Bank directors with bad loans to go

    Bank directors with non-performing loans (NPLs) are to quit or be sacked, according to a new Code of Corporate Governance approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Director, Bank Examination Department at the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Adedapo Adeleke, said the new code was instituted to address the rising cases of insider bad loans, which not only represent a conflict of interest, but are against the prudential guidelines for the industry.

    He described corporate governance as an essential pillar in financial system stability.

    Banks’ assets have depreciated in the last three years, with provisions for NPLs hitting N856.9 billion, due to the drop in crude oil prices. A large part of these bad loans is owed by bank directors and are in most cases unsecured.

    Besides, the economic recession showed that the financial industry still harbours weaknesses in governance, as seen in insider non-performing loans, unreported losses, huge exit packages for directors, over-domineering executive management, contravention of regulatory/prudential guidelines and lending limits, poorly appraised credits and weakening of shareholders’ funds, among others.

    Adeleke, who spoke at the weekend in Kano during a media workshop organised by NDIC for finance reporters, said the Corporate Governance Code for Bank Directors is signed by all bank directors at the point of their appointment, and has a section that empowers the banks’ boards to remove any director with insider non-performing loans. That section says: “If you are having non-performing loans, you will be removed. It is already being enforced except that the regulators are not being dramatic in publishing the names of affected directors,” Adeleke said.

    Speaking on the theme: Curtailing the Growth of Non-Performing Loans in Banks: The Role of Regulators and Supervisors, he  said that delay or non-payment of workers’ salaries by government and private companies is  worsening the level of non-performing loans in the industry. He said the rate of non-performing loans is in excess of 20 per cent as against the five per cent regulatory threshold.

    The NDIC director said when salaries are delayed, workers who have borrowed from banks, especially through consumer loans, always find it difficult to pay back. “If the economy is improving, and government can help to fulfill its responsibilities, including prompt payment of salaries, the level of non-performing loans in the industry will drop,” he said.

    “If people working in companies that are troubled borrowed from banks, it is important that the loans be provided for when their employers can no longer pay salaries,” he said.

    He however, expressed confidence that the current rise in crude oil prices will impact positively on the banking industry and businesses and help reduce the rising cases of bad loans in the industry.

    Adeleke said the establishment of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria II  (AMCON II) to buy up non-performing loans as being suggested can only be private sector led. “If there is going to be AMCON II at all, it is going to be private sector-led,” he said.

    He said the CBN Prudential Guidelines allows banks to review  their  credit  portfolio  continuously  (at  least once  in a  quarter)  with  a  view  to recognising  any deterioration in  credit quality. Such reviews, he added, should systematically and realistically classify banks’ credit exposures based on the perceived risks of default.

  • Bad leaders behind Mushin crisis, says ex-lawmaker

    What happened in Mushin during the last local government election does not give cause for alarm, a former lawmaker, Muyiwa Fedeyi has said.

    Fadeyi, who was in the Lagos State House of Assembly between 1999 and 2003, said the controversy over who got the ticket to run, was uncalled for.

    He praised former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for re-directing Yoruba politics and putting the Southwest in the mainstream of national politics.

    He urged the Yoruba race to rally round Asiwaju in his plan for the Southwest region recently occupy in the political setting of the country.

    “Ordinarily, I refrain from commenting on issues that are controversial in nature, but l am now being forced to comment because those who are in a position to intervene when things seem to be going wrong but decided to keep quiet, are themselves culpable when eventually the walls come down collapsing,” Fadeyi said.

    “What goes around comes around, most of the people shouting imposition are themselves past beneficiaries of imposition. That’s the truth,” he said”.

    He noted that in the past, the Yoruba had always been in opposition while other ethnic group enjoyed the spoil of controlling the Federal government, especially during the first and second republic.

    “Indeed, at the inception of the present dispensation, despite the fact that a Yorubaman in the person of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the president, a large percentage of the states in western region were in opposition, including our beloved Lagos State. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu redirected the western region politics and what we have now is a situation where you have the Yoruba at the thick of things in Abuja we even have a Yorubaman as Acting-president.

    “To my mind, Asiwaju is a personality to be respected and put in the highest esteem by every right thinking Yorubaman and other Nigerians. It is therefore appalling to read on the pages of newspapers, our fellow Yorubamen writing rubbish about Asiwaju in the press. If the ladder they used to get to the top is weak, they should rally round such ladder and make it stronger,” Fadeyi said.

  • Bad marriage

    Bad marriage

    I have been waiting for a while to witness a colloquium on Biafra by Biafrans for Biafrans. From such a fest of loyalists, I expected to hear each of them define the word for themselves and the world. But such a thing would never happen because it would ignite a dynamic no Biafran or Nigerian, for that matter, desires.

    They will hit a deadlock. One man’s Biafra may be the next woman’s nightmare. For a few people, Biafra may mean Biaxit, or exit from noisome Nigeria. To others, it means simply an Igbo identity, which connotes tribal pride, music and dance, cuisine and couture, romance and rites. It is anaemic until stirred, like old wine lost in a decanter.

    To yet another set of people, Biafra simply signifies rebellion, a Pavlovian reflex to defend an identity wherever the matter arises. It could even mean flicking out a knife or toting a gun. It bears no special political register or temperament, but an instinctive assertion of a cultural forte.

    Yet for another set, it is rebellion all right but one shorn of a separatist impulse. These are the forces for restructuring, who loathe secession but whose emotions align with the Nnamdi Kanu’s.

    Part of the problem is that Biafra is not an Igbo word. Unlike similar agitations, like The Kanaks of New Caledonia or Party Quebecois of Canada, Biafra draws its name from a bight that abuts on the Atlantic Ocean. From merely a bight, Biafra evokes a blight of identity. If it were an Igbo word, its meaning might be specific. Yet, there is nothing more specific than the fact that, in its earliest incarnation, it meant secession. Ojukwu evoked his people’s pride, a pride that led to a theatre where they fought and died. But the idea now exhales an ambiguous life.

    If it failed then, it has undergone metamorphosis. Some will say metastasis. But whatever form it takes depends on the individual Igbo man’s perception of Nigeria today. So, when Nnamdi Kanu and his other cohorts blare out imprecations about Nigeria, the implications are sometimes lost on us. Is he speaking to the secessionist or the “restructurer”? After any deconstruction, we shall arrive at these two main divides in Igboland. The secessionist, who wants to go. The restructurer, who would stay but in an ambience that affirms his rights.

    This kaleidoscope of personas does not come up on the burner of national discourse, or Igbo dialogue. Biafra has been slammed into one bracket: exit from Nigeria. We have to understand this if any progress will furnish our engagement with the southeast.

    So, when Acting President Yemi Osinbajo gathered elders in Aso Rock, which Biafra did the invitees stand for. The assumption was that they stood against Biafra, and that the elders held a clue to the quelling of the distemper. The point, though, is that the Igbo elite needs to winnow the disquiet and identify the various groups and see how a meeting of minds can help create a semblance of consensus. Or if a consensus is not possible, we need to know what proportion of the Igbo reject any dialogue.

    What we see now is a sort of schizophrenia. Now for Biaxit, now for Nigeria. But no true dialogue is going on. During the American revolution, Benjamin Franklin said, “the revolution is in the hearts and minds of the American people.” Yet, only a third of Americans wanted to leave. But it was strong enough to edge out England. During the country’s civil war about a century later, the south fought to secede because of slavery. Some of them were also fighting for a cultural identity, the southern idiosyncrasy, the way they speak, eat, love, die and play. The majority did not want war.

    This is a serious matter. Those Igbo leaders are clearly afraid of the maelstrom in the east. They are afraid to speak truth to the kanus while the false demagogue rails at his fellow Igbo who worship in a Yoruba man’s church. He speaks about war. He peddles hate and hate words. He asserts Igbo identity only at the expense of others. He “others” the others. Like Jean Paul Sartre, he believes “hell is other people.”

    Yet the governors and political elite pivot towards decency of language and a serenity of vision. These people cannot speak to the turbulent hordes within their region. This tension creates a paralysis for all of us. It is even a bad omen because it allows the reptile in the sewer to morph into a monster. Then it might be too late.

    Few remember that the Middle East of today, with such countries as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, etc were part of the Ottoman Empire. They roiled quietly, sometimes violently, against the state. The empire swaggered, especially under Kemal Attaturk. But it staggered and fell at the end of the First World War. The Allies broke it under the League of Nations, and the countries secured their independence.

    We cannot pretend to keep the peace when there is genuine tension. Those calling for secession know that the federation is a fraud, and it needs urgent work. We cannot solve it with the fragile plasters of the rhetoric of reconciliation.

    So what is clear is that Biafra suffers from an identity crisis. Until that is resolved, we shall go giddy in a circle. Some of this problem lies in the hypocrisy of the Igbo elite. They know this identity tension, they merely keep quiet. A professor like Ben Nwabueze receives Kanu and tries peevishly to recast him as a restructurer rather than a treasonous bumbling.

    They see Kanu go along like the Shakespearean music as the food of love. But they are in thrall while the country “sicken and so die.” What we have is a bad marriage in the east. The sort in which the Biaxiteers and the restructurers are cohabiting as though divorce is remote.  In Twelfth Night, the clown Feste quips, “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”

    Unless the bad spirit is hanged, the bad marriage will lead to a divorce action whose consequence no one can predict. In the play, there were a number of comedy of errors as people fall in love with the wrong people until the fairest of all finds out she is in love with a woman disguised as a man.

    To hang the bad spirit, a dialogue, open and urgent, is imperative. Or else, they will encourage the other treason peddlers among Arewa youth to issue their own versions of instability. The last time such tension happened, a pogrom burned in the north with many Igbo and southern minorities wiped out. Biafra followed.

    This is the time to cut through the disguises. We should know who stands for what. The Presidency must serve as catalyst in this. We cannot continue as liars to ourselves.

  • Bad For Law

    •About one-third fails Bar Exam. Need for holistic approach to academic and vocational training for lawyers 

    The rate of failure in bar exams has been discouraging for the past three cycles. In April 2016, failure rate was 23.6%; in September 2016, 17.8%, and 28% in April 2017, with 6.4% obtaining conditional pass. Out of 2,125 candidates for the April 2017 examination, 1,393 passed and 596 failed. Given that admission to the Bar is a precondition for practicing law and that Law School exam is a test of competence of law graduates to practice the profession, taxpayers deserve to worry about cost-effectiveness of funds allocated to law schools to prepare students for the important exam. This year’s result calls for scrutiny of causes of failure of nearly one out of three examinees.

    What in the distant past was taken for granted by citizens: government’s financial and moral commitment to quality across the spectrum has declined to the point of becoming a perennial national problem. High failure rate in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO) and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations was the first to surface, now followed by growing rate of failure in higher-level professional examinations.

    With about 30% failure rate in qualifying exam for admission to the Bar, people should shudder about true level of competence in other professions that do not conduct pre-practice qualifying exams, such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, engineering, etc. With 66% success rate, it is logical to assume that the problem must go beyond the Law School. It signals serious cracks in the educational system, especially guarantee of quality in academic training of law graduates in the country’s universities.

    The saying that nobody plants hot pepper and harvests cool cucumber is now in evidence in the country’s educational sector. Inadequate attention to the sector now shows its negative effects in professional fields. For instance, while UN benchmark of 26% of national budget of developing countries applies to Nigeria, federal/state allocations to education for the past decade average 15%. Federal allocation to the sector for 2017 is 6.01% (N448.01 billion out of a budget of N7.30 trillion). Budget allocation to education has never been higher than 8% for the past two decades. Universities are underfunded and teachers are under-motivated. Poor funding of universities sparks intermittent strikes and closure of campuses. Despite this, policy about structure of tertiary education changes by the day. With over 100 universities, the federal Government remains enthusiastic about converting polytechnics and colleges of education to universities, mostly without national debate.

    Furthermore, private universities that account for majority of tertiary institutions, like public ones, are not regulated efficiently. Lack of adequate facilities in both public and private universities are too obvious. Academic quality assurance processes that used to be hallmarks of rigorous undergraduate training are now in decline. For example, most universities have jettisoned external examination system, which had served as quality control mechanism in undergraduate training for decades. Libraries are shadows of what they used to be while opportunities to supplement library facility with digital library are smashed by lack of electricity, despite drop in cost of information technology across the globe.

    In addition, academic regulatory mechanism is perceived by most stakeholders to be inefficient and unreliable. Anecdotes about accreditation of universities and of specific disciplines, such as law, medicine, and engineering are not complimentary. Budgets allocated to hospitality by institutions awaiting accreditation are typically outlandish. Every year, candidates for admission are waiting for new cut-off for admission to tertiary institutions, which usually turns out to be lower than in previous years.

    These lapses point to neglect of the source of development and excellence: high quality education and training that produces high professionalism. Governments relish creating high rhetoric about importance of education, without paying adequate attention to what makes education important in the modern world: adequate funding of hardware and software to facilitate teaching and learning.

    Nigeria cannot afford to waste resources on professionals: lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, technologists who need to take many re-sit exams before qualifying to practice. We call on federal and state governments to provide immediate leadership for comprehensive reform of education. Good rhetoric about education may be easy politics, but it is not good policy.

  • Bad debts

    Regulatory agencies must be proactive if these are to be checked

    At a time the economic management team already has its hands full managing the current eco- omic meltdown, the spiralling waves of bad loans in the financial services sector would ordinarily be one headache that the country would gladly do without. Yet, the problem has assumed such a worrisome dimension that the managers of the economy can only ignore it at great peril to the survival of the economy.
    Managing Director of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, recently voiced out his concerns this way: “All of us are concerned. Even the banks are concerned. There are a lot of factors that culminated into this. Some of them have to do with the state of the affairs of the economy, falling oil prices, foreign exchange issues, issues relating to energy, the prevailing economic conditions that have made it difficult for borrowers, big and small, to meet their obligations to the banks. There are some internal factors that have to do with the quality of the loans. The way and manner they were granted and so on and so forth…”
    So is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its Financial Stability Report which covered the first half of last year: “The industry ratio of non-performing loans net of provision to capital increased significantly to 30.9 per cent at end-June 2016 from 5.9 per cent at end-December 2015, depicting weak capacity of the sector to withstand the adverse impact of non-performing loans”.
    Significantly, the apex bank had observed that “industry-wide nonperforming loans (NPL) ratio rose to 11.7 per cent in June from 5.3 per cent in December 2015 – exceeding the prudential limit of 5.0 per cent”. From N649.63 billion at end-December 2015, it grew to N1.679 trillion at end-June 2016 – a leap of some 158 per cent.
    Clearly, if we worry about the trend, more alarming however is that the CBN has neither addressed the problem in any significant way nor devise a comprehensive strategy to deal with it several months after.
    Several factors are of course responsible for the problem – many of them, unfortunately beyond the lenders and the borrowers. We understand, for instance, that the steep devaluation of the naira has rendered it nigh impossible for the borrowers of foreign currency denominated loans to meet up with their obligations. Only last week, newspapers reported fuel marketers as expressing their frustrations over the non-payment of a whopping $1 billion debt by the Federal Government, a huge chunk of which were owed the banks and which are said to be outstanding from the 2014 import cycle. Then of course is the current slump which has affected all sectors of the economy and by extension the ability of the debtors to meet up with their credit obligations. All of these, troubling as they are, no doubt deserve appropriate regulatory response.
    Yet, we know that at the heart of the problem of bad loans is bad credit decisions and flagrant disregard of relevant credit guidelines by the lending banks and some of their corrupt officials. Indeed, it would appear that the nation’s banking chiefs have neither learnt nor forgotten the lessons from the sweeping regulatory action of 2009 which swept away the careers of dozens of their members, going by recent revelations of massive abuses of credit by bank directors.
    Question is – whatever happened to the risk-based supervision once touted by the apex bank as elixir to the problem? How could the huge loans have been amassed without triggering alarms in the system?
    It is certainly not enough for the CBN and NDIC to bemoan the problem. Rather, we expect firm and proactive action on their part to halt the potential contagion. To the extent that the current efforts to stimulate the recovery of the economy are inextricably linked to the presence of a virile financial services sector, we expect the regulators to rise up to the challenge. It is the least they can do to prevent such abuses that could plunge the system into avoidable ruin.

  • Avoid bad companies, graduands told

    Graduating pupils of Livingstone College Ikorodu, Lagos have been advised to keep off bad companies, as the kind of people they interact with will either bring them fulfillment or sorrow.

    The school’s founder Dr Kola Christwealth spoke during the school’s valedictory and graduation  at Ikorodu Town Hall.

    He said: “As you go into the world, you will come across different kinds of people, the good, the bad and the ugly; the generous and the stingy, the optimist and pessimist.

    “The runner, walker, crawler and the consistent. You will come across the dynamic and the fixated, the neat, the dirty, the organised and the disorganised, the spiritual, free thinker and the atheist.”

    He added:”There is power in association and you will be influenced by such people. Whether you like it or not, your association will either speed up or delay the realisation of your vision.”

    Christwealth urged the graduands to seek those who would inspire them to greatness as well as encourage their progress.

    Four hundred and sixty graduands across the senior secondary school cadre passed out from the school.

    The school’s Administrator Mr Abayomi Adeniyi, charged students on the advantages and disadvantages of their new- found freedom and independence.

    “You are gradually taking your own destiny in your own hands. Owing to your freedom, you are bound to flow amid many co-travellers with their various types of influence. It is up to you to decide what suits your purpose and ambition,” Adeniyi said.

    Adeniyi said aside academics, other students that excelled in extracurricular activities would similarly be encouraged.