The Nation Newspaper

Tag: coming

  • Nigeria’s first ocean terminal coming

    Nigeria may soon get its first ocean terminal that will facilitate oil and gas trade.

    The terminal, which will be in Akwa Ibom State, where its promoters have acquired 245 hectares, of waterfront land for the project.

    The terminal is expected to help investors in the shipping of oil and gas vessels.

    Such vessels cannot berth at the regular ports and related terminals because of their depth.

    The coming of the ocean terminal will enhance Nigeria’s status in the maritime world.

    The multi-billion dollars offshore maritime infrastructure was conceived 10 years ago in conjunction with some Nigerian/Akwa Ibom professionals and foreign maritime experts.

    To facilitate its birth, its promoters, Port Notel, have asked Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel to grant them a Certificate-of-Occupancy (C-of-O) for the land at Ntafre Community.

    It is believed that the C-of-O will be proof of the government’s commitment to partner with the private sector on development.

    Port Notel Limited (PNL) Manging Director,  Victor Akpanika said such partnership will turn the country into a major regional maritime hub with a vibrant shipping cluster and trans-shipment mode capable of servicing the various continents.

    He said the involvement of more private investors in the state would do it good in the short and long run.

    Akpanika spoke when a delegation of Ibeno leaders visited the governor.

    Akpanika said Nigeria’s maritime domain was large enough to accommodate many players, especially when it is considered as the gateway to West and Central Africa.

    According to him, the country’s economic strength lies in its ability to freely transport goods by sea, but owing to its deficiency in facilities, it is unable to interface with the global maritime marketplace.

    He said: “Nigeria currently has sufficient maritime market demand space that is very attractive to port developers, operators, financiers seeking to invest in port terminal and jetty facilities.  Several littoral and hinterland states are pushing themselves forward to attract local and foreign investors to come and invest in ocean, coastal, river or inland dry port facilities.

    The governor said the Ibom Deep Seaport has gone far with the technical procurement processes completed, adding that the Port Notel project is still at its early planning development phase.

  • ‘Science, tech bank coming’

    Federal Government’s drive to move the economy out of current dependence on mineral resources to a knowledge-based economy, will soon get further push with the proposed establishment of the Science and Technology Bank.

    When in operation, the bank will develop venture capital system for the purpose of commercialising research and development (R&D) results from research institutes and other higher institutions in the country.

    Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who spoke at a world press conference on the Presidential Executive Order No.5  in Lagos, yesterday, said venture capital system is very low in the country making it necessary to float a bank for this purpose.

    He said: “There is a very fundamental change going on in the country. A change from dependence on mineral resources to dependence on brain power (on intellect) that come up with R&Ds that transform into physical products.”

    “The bank will be useful for all researchers in both the government and the private sector agencies and this has become very necessary as the current administration wants to speed up commercialisation of research and development in the country.”

    The minister said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is making very important reforms that will grow the economy with special recognition of the role of science and technology and participation of indigenous professionals which forms the basis of the Executive Order 5.

    Onu saidPresident Buhari is very serious in changing Nigeria for the better, saying since independence, Nigeria’s direction towards development has been wrong because they are directed towards commodities whose prices are determined by outsiders and when there is a drop in price the economy catches cold.

    “But we are now changing this and working towards a new direction by using science and technology to add value to the abundant resources at our disposal, adding that in the history of any nation, there comes a time when critical decisions have to be taken in order to quickly move to a new level of development of the nation so as to more effectively protect and secure the citizens.”

  • Airtel’s books for underprivileged kids coming

    Airtel Nigeria will commemorate the World Book Day with public primary school pupils across various locations in the country with the donation of 5000 books and hosting of book-reading sessions.

    Its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, flagged off the initiative with an interactive session with primary four and five students of one of the telco’s adopted schools, Oremeji Primary School 2, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Ajegunle, Lagos.

    During the session, Ogunsanya shared stories to inspire the kids, hold a reading session that will have many of the kids as active participants and donate reading books to the children to instill and encourage a culture of reading.

    Airtel says the book reading sessions and book donation exercises will also hold in different locations across the country.

    The book reading and donation sessions will take place on April 25 in Kaduna; April 27 in Abuja; May 8, in Anambra and May 10 in Kwara State.

    Commenting on the World Book Day Initiative, Airtel’s Director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Emeka Oparah, said the telco is committed to supporting underprivileged children and creating platforms that will inspire young Nigerians to succeed.

    “We believe in investing in young Nigerians as they are our future leaders. The World Book Day provides a fine opportunity for us to support underprivileged children and inspire them to read and do so much more.

    We are confident that with the right support young Nigerians will do well,” he said.

    World Book Day is celebrated to provide the people with many ideas and plans to make them aware about the situation and condition in the World. WBD is celebrated to provide the people to gather knowledge about many types of Books which makes them to get the specific knowledge about their requirements.

     

     

  • The coming debates

    The coming debates

    What would life be like without politicians? It is all dull, drab and damp, no doubt.

    Politicians are like the ocean and its rippling waves. When they blow their top, the effects reverberate all over the land. When they tear at one another at the National Assembly, the media bring us the scenes live in the comfort of our homes. We are entertained and for a while there is no talk of being shortchanged; we get value for our votes – and cash into the bargain, sometimes.

    Forthrightness is not their defining attribute. When they cause trouble, they tell us it is all for peace. When they are blinded by ambition, turning against their benefactors, they claim it is all in the interest of the people. When they award themselves hefty allowances and salaries, they call it service.

    Our politicians are in their best elements when they are provoked to strike at one another, hurling invectives like some Balogun market traders who have not sold anything all day. They exhibit uncommon creativity, waxing lyrical and philosophical – all at the same time. Besides, they could deliver their anger with the savagery of a lion dared by a goat, sinking their teeth into their opponent’s body.

    Consider the encounter between Imo State Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha and former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, who claimed the visit of some governors to President Muhammadu Buhari in London was a fluke. The governor called Fani-Kayode “unintelligent” and “disrespectful”. He said Fani-Kayode was living on his father’s and grandfather’s glory.

    Besides, he called him an “overpampered child”. A pampered  child at over 50?

    Who is a pampered child?

    The obese one who swims in ice cream and gobbles pizza like a hungry workman? The one who, even though of age and mature, still treats everything of value like the toys of his childhood days?

    Does this description fit the former minister? Does he behave so? Is this a fair comment or a blow below the belt?

    The former minister picked up the gauntlet. He joined battle with Okorocha, describing him as a “sociopathic self-hating Igbo who is suffering from a terrible and debilitating inferiority complex”. He challenged His Excellency to a public debate for Nigerians to decide who between the twain has “native sense”.

    What is native sense? Even before the big debate that Fani-Kayode proposed, some public commentators have launched their own unsolicited and unrestrained debate. They have been describing and defining “native intelligence”, saying: “Is it collecting N1.7b (according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)) from the arms cash and telling the judge, “yes I collected, but it’s all in the line of duty and I don’t think I owe anybody any account”?

    No date has been fixed for the debate.

    No love is lost between former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan and university teacher cum businessman Pat Utomi, a professor who is aspiring to be governor of Delta on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Uduaghan advised Utomi to start his aspiration as a councillor.  A professor as a councilor, of all things? What aberration, Utomi may have thought.

    He lunged at Uduaghan, asking the former helmsman to account for N20b Independent Power Project (IPP) funds.  He  accused Uduaghan of plunging the state into a N600b debt onto which his successor Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has piled some N60b. The professor would like a public debate on how to use scarce resources for the benefit of the people.

    The former governor described Utomi as “the last managing director of Volkswagen Nigeria”, which he accused him of running aground.

    A former commissioner, Chief Paulinus Akpeki, weighed in. He recalled that Utomi was an honorary adviser to Uduaghan. “Ask him the project that he said they should do in his village, what happened to it? What role did he play on the project? It is very sad that people who have skeletons in their cupboards should begin to make noise.”

    Even as we are yet to hear from the ebullient professor, the busybodies masquerading as public affairs commentators have been making all manner of insinuations,  Did Utomi corner some juicy contracts? What was the project meant for his village and what happened to it?

    Perhaps Utomi is waiting for the proposed debate to shed light on these and other matters.  Step in, please, event planners.

    The other day when the Presidency released the picture of recuperating President Buhari and some governors, it sparked off a bitter argument. Some, among them Fani-Kayode, said it was all some abracadabra.

    Fani-Kayode said the picture from London was “old and fake” because it was indeed taken on another occasion, His proof: he was “reliably told” and “curiously, all the drinks on the table are Nigerian products and Nigerian-made”.

    “Did the governors take all those drinks along with them to London to see the President?” Fani-Kayode asked.

    Instead of simply calling for a debate, those who do not like Fani-Kayode dismissed the former minister’s argument as “illogical, puerile and foolishly mischievous in conception and plainly stupid in delivery”.

    Is it difficult to find Nigerian drinks in London, which is the second home of many Nigerians? they queried.

    A source close to the former minister has just told me that despite everything the Presidency has said, he insists that the photograph was fake all through. He will soon issue a challenge for a full town hall-type debate on the picture.

    Apparently taking a cue from Fani-Kayode, one of its most valued members, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined the fray. It described the photograph as “an insult on Nigerians”. “They don’t even think that it is necessary for the President to send message to Nigerians or for themselves to come and tell us what happened during that meeting,” PDP spokesman Dayo Adeyeye said.

    Some of the governors came on television to talk about Buhari’s health. Alhaji Al-Makura, the Nasarawa State governor, swore that he made the trip to London. He said whoever was in doubt was free to inspect his travel papers.

    Against the background of people saying only APC governors were on the trip, the Presidency facilitated another trip to London. Two PDP governors joined the delegation. Was the PDP persuaded?  Doubtful.

    I wonder why the PDP and Fani-Kayode have not called for a debate on this sensitive matter. That must have been a big oversight.

    Even before the PDP joined the fray, one of its men whose public image many would argue is a true testimony to all that the party stands for had challenged the APC to show proof that Buhari was alive. Ayo Fayose, the governor of Ekiti State, threatened to release what he said were the authentic photographs of the President who he swore was on life support.

    After the governors’ London trip, all has been quiet. What went wrong?

    Is Fayose in possession of some strange photographs, perhaps taken by some sophisticated electronic device planted somewhere at the hilltop mansion in which His Excellency lives in Ado-Ekiti? Was Fayose scammed? Who did?

    If indeed he had been scammed as some of his opponents have been saying, then the scammers must indeed be among the world’s first eleven in the business.

    We are really looking forward to when His Excellency will put this sensitive matter behind him at a well organised public debate.

    In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, so much has been going on. The governor’s ability to perform despite his belligerency has been hailed as a rare gift of nature, which His Excellency Nyesom Wike continues to bask in. His former boss and predecessor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation, says Wike continues to stack up documents to push the charge that he (Amaechi) is corrupt. Wike keeps threatening to unleash such documents on the public space.

    Why not a well-structured public debate to settle this matter once and for all?

    Senate President Bukola Abubakar Saraki has been talking about how and why the upper chamber refused to clear Ibrahim Magu for the EFCC job and why the budgetary allocation for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was slashed. Minister Babatunde Fashola says the slashed votes went into some boreholes and such community projects which the lawmakers consider more crucial.

    Motorists continue to die on this road as if it was built to take lives. Now the contractor Julius Berger, has left the site because it has not been paid. Southwest leaders are up in arms against the lawmakers. They do not have to be.

    They should simply call for a debate on why they think this road deserves attention. The lawmakers will then have the chance to state their grouse against the road.

    Isn’t that the way of democracy?

  • The coming army

    SIR: It’s more than a ticking bomb; it’s a combined army, an army of uneducated population plus another more dangerous army of unemployed educated youth; indeed no amount of bullets can stop their march.

    The maestro of rhetoric himself once said “A day will come when the Nigerian masses from the North and the South, Christians, Muslims and Animists will merge as a force of progress and unity, and kick against rigging, corruption and tyranny”. I wonder what late Chief Obafemi Awolowo saw when he said this.

    Indeed, it’s going to come very soon like a flash, like a dream, nightmare of dreams, the call by pastors would be ignored, Imams won’t be listened to, and parents will turn the other way. An army like no other, sophisticated, intelligent, idle, hungry and above all angry.

    They will rise like a morning sun, climb above all on their path, they will be shot but won’t stop, they will be injured but won’t get tired, when it starts, those at home will hear about it, those in the bush too will feel it- the sun won’t set at the west, but set everywhere it wishes, not even nature can control such.

    A time to say NO to the oppressors, No to those who have become what they used to fight against, an emotional day where every form of reason would be thrown into the canal. Someone said the military will crush them, I said the children of the military men are among them, retired military men are there, even the military men are not left behind, they all have brothers and sisters who have gone to school, and just sitting at home and watching the children of the oppressors flaunt their wealth on the social space of the Internet. The military men are hungry and angry.

    This is not a civil war or a secessionist agitation; it’s a war of conscience. Real calls for change, a call for solidarity from all sides, not even a call to arms because the armed will call themselves. A time when the enemies’ call to divide them by tribe, religion, and language will fail. A time when they will realise that they are suffering the same thing and they have a common enemy, and it’s not about tribe or religion.

    The West will realise that her enemy is not the North, the North will realise that her enemy is not the East, the East will realise that her enemy is not from the West. They will put aside their differences and focus on a common enemy.

    A time when those from the land of the rising sun will say that they will not run away and will stay to fight for their right, those in the land where the sun sets will wake from their slumber, those who lives up there will reject the crumbs from their slave masters, and those in the oil rich deep will also rise to their feet. I am not talking about a time to crown a “hero” or a “general”. The general and commander is inside each person, the commander of the army lies right there inside each of them, he is being bred by anger and hunger, two of the most dangerous influencers.

    A time will come when the golden estates shall be taken by the desolates; the oppressors will run away. A war like no other, you don’t need to predict such, just make sure you live long enough because it is inevitable, it will just happen.

    It will happen very soon, very very soon unless something change.

     ‘Wole Fasina,

    <fasinaadewole@gmail.com>

  • The Russians are coming

    Many years ago, Hollywood released a hilarious movie entitled The Russians are coming, depicting the paranoia that surrounded American-Russian relations during the anti-communist campaign championed by Senator McCarthy. Not Senator Gene McCarthy, but Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the infamous movement between 1947 and 1956. The thrust of McCarthyism was to see communism in every liberal idea and to persecute and prosecute those who had what was regarded as “Un- American” or perhaps anti American proclivities.

    Quite a few decent academics and talented left wingers in the arts suffered unjustly from this campaign before wise counsel prevailed. But in spite of the more rational view of Russia that followed, distrust of Russia persisted. Any politician who broached the idea of rapprochement with Russia was treated with disdain and distrust. This was understandable in the Cold War years of 1949 to 1994 before communism collapsed in Russia and the Russian empire disintegrated into fifteen ‘’independent states,’’ some of which, like the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia,  have become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).  Ukraine, the biggest in terms of population after the Russian federation, and having its own nuclear weapons, surrendered them for the right of independent existence guaranteed by the big powers of the USA, France, Great Britain, Germany and the Russian federation.

    Unfortunately, Russia violated this solemn pledge by seizing the Crimea from Ukraine and supporting secessionist forces in Eastern Ukraine, apparently in its pursuit of protecting “Russians abroad.” Vladimir Putin, Russia’s eternal ruler,  has not reconciled himself with the reduced stature of his country from being a super power to a second-rate power in possession of nuclear weapons enough to bury the world several times over just like the USA . He forgets that power is not measured by how much destructive power a nation has, but how much soft power it has. The Russian economy is not more than ten percent of the American economy and is way behind its Chinese counterpart. Indeed, if we are to look at the world today, it is a unipolar world and may, in the nearest future, become a bipolar world of the USA and People’s Republic of China.

    Russia nowadays survives on export of oil and gas and armaments, which exposes its economy to the vagaries of changing commodity prices.

    In spite of this scenario, the Russian federation continues to hanker after big-power status. This is why it is defending unto death its naval and military bases in Syria, in spite of damage to its own economy, and in spite of laying waste Syrian territories and lives just to maintain a murderous Bashar -al-Assad in power.

    The same tendency is manifesting in its hostility to the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, as well as to Georgia, Ukraine and any successor states of the old Soviet Union that tries very hard to be independent in fact and in deed, by toying with the idea of joining NATO like Georgia and Ukraine would wish if left alone.

    Russia is, technically speaking, a “democratic “state, perhaps more like a state of “guided democracy,” to use a terminology popular in the 1960s and 1970s. What the antagonism between Russia and the USA in recent times has proved is that beneath the veneer of ideological differences between communism and capitalism, which characterised their struggle during the Cold War, were geopolitical contestation and consideration of power. Russia had expected the withering away of NATO after the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, as a mark of amity or, at least, understanding that things have changed. After all, even an anti-communist like Great Britain’s communist hater, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, had described Mikhail Gorbachev as somebody she could do business with.

    What was left of communism was dealt a death blow by Boris Yeltsin who created the Russian federation. It was the expansion of NATO to former Russian area of influence in Eastern Europe that seemed to have irked Russian rulers that nothing has changed. But can Russia embark on a new arms race without permanently damaging its economy?

    This was why Putin favoured Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton in the last U.S. election. He seemed to have thrown at it all possible effort, including throwing caution to the wind. Putin’s hands are all over the place in the secret meetings between Trump surrogates and Russian operatives, including Russia’s long-serving ambassador in the U.S., the suave and avuncular Sergei Kislyak.

    The Trump people were rather naive that they were not being watched by American intelligence. I was on official visit to Russia in 2005 with a colleague from the presidential Advisory Council. We were well received and lodged in an official hotel by the Russians. I made several calls to my daughter in Canada. The Russians wanted me to know that they were listening! Whenever we went for meeting, someone would go into my room to open my box and scatter my clothes on the floor.  I got the message and I stopped phoning.

    Now that Trump has won,  the latent American Russophobia has been soused and is fighting back,  and seeing Russia meddling with and plotting against American democratic system of government.

    There is nothing wrong in Trump wanting to reset Russo-American relations and allying with Russia to stamp out international violence and terrorism and reduce general tension in the world.  Some of the people around the new president who are alleged to be white supremacists also want to forge a “white power “alliance in what some of them see as a future racial struggle for world domination.

    It seems to me that, at least temporarily, the Russians have miscalculated and this is seen in Trump’s desire to increase arms buildup by a ten percent increase in military budget, which neither the Russians nor the Chinese can match.  Trump is doing this to blunt any attack on him as being soft on Russia. But, at heart, Trump, for whatever reason he has, wants to reset the relations between his country and Russia in the nearest future on the grounds that in international politics there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but permanent interest.  He said this much in his recent speech to Congress when he said some of the current American allies were its enemies in the past. He was apparently referring to Germany and Japan. However it must be said that a Russo -American rapprochement will not be bad for the world.

  • 27,500 sanitation officers coming

    27,500 sanitation officers coming

    As part of its solid waste management reforms, tagged Cleaner Lagos Initiative, the Lagos State Government is to engage 27,500 community sanitation officers.

    Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, who spoke with reporters at Alausa, Ikeja, said the officers would be posted to their communities, adding that they would be equipped to sweep the inner streets and take care of  their communities.

    He said: “This initiative will further guarantee the vision of the Lagos Sate Government’s commitment to the realisation of a sustainable and habitable environment.”

    Adejare said the year promised to be very eventful as it marked the beginning of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, designed to take solid waste management to a higher level. He said  the government planned to create an environmental sanitation corps to enhance the enforcement of laws.

    “As we await the new horizon in solid waste management which is characterised by the infusion of technology, resources and technical know-how as well as creation of jobs for multitude of the unemployed, we remain undaunted in ensuring massive evacuation of wastes, cleaning and clearing of drainages/canals, beautification of the environment and enforcement of pollution control measures,” Adejare said.

    Stressing that an average of 80 people enter Lagos hourly, he blamed the influx for the volume of refuse being generated. He said  the government was poised to intensify advocacy and enlightenment among the people, especially to sensitise waste generators on the value of solid waste and the need for sorting.

    “We need to let our people know that refuse now has commercial value; refuse can be bailed and exported like every other commodity and can also be used to generate power,” he said.

    Adejare gave a breakdown of wastes generated by his ministry in January. “Within January, a total of 33, 338 metric tonnes of waste was evacuated from highways and other public places in Lagos, while a total of 135,406.00 metric tonnes of refuse were deposited in various dumpsites across the state.

    “To control environmental nuisances/ infractions noticed across the state, a total of 122 nuisance abatement notices in 194 locations across the 20 local governments areas, while continued advocacy and enlightenment was sustained to reorientate people towards positive environmental behaviour,” he explained.

    He restated the government’s commitment to ensuring the smooth delivery of potable water supply to Lagos metropolis and its environs.

    “The government has commenced the process of the award of contract for the construction of Adiyan Water Treatment Plant Phase II with 70 million gallons/ day (MGD) capacity which is to benefit a population of about three million people. Similarly, the state government has given approval for development of 100 mgd Odomola II Water Treatment and Distribution Network Project to commence on Public Private Partnership mode,” he said.

    The ministry, he said, also progressed with its landscaping and beautification projects propagating 5,458 local and Indian plants at Lagos State Parks Agency (LASPARK) nurseries in Oko-Oba, Agege and Erikorodo-Ikorodu.

  • Coming in Nicodemously…

    This is the first article in my new column of speaking to our country under the title of  Building Our Nation wherein I hope to engage our most serious and relevant concerns about our irritating but beloved country while we speak pleasantly and reason together. Hopefully we might even enjoy the interactions, learn something while we share some knowledge. A Yoruba proverb says pointedly for our attention here: Nibi ere lati  nmo ooto oro  that could translate into: It is in the midst of play that we discover or perceive the truth. I am sure we can find other adaptations of this adage in our variegatedly beautiful African continent and surely in other human collectivities.

    In that spirit of play, I use the word nicodemously in my title to describe my entry into public commentary. In Ghana, you will hear the word timeously. Doing something timeously meant doing it in time. In the South of our country, Nigeria, I encountered ‘nicodemously’ when I was welcomed. I was told I could not come into the country nicodemously. Many of us might remember the anxious, physically height-challenged but committed listener to Jesus who went to Him in the dead of night to enquire, to ask close questions. Such an admirable trait in those who wish not only to know but also do follow-up research! Making up such a word based on the name of Nicodemus also impressed me with its natural genius of Africans for humour, especially in Pidgin and Nigerian English that are now two internationally and academically recognized forms of the English language.

    Our responsibility as users of the two languages is only to recognize the characters of the Pidgin and Nigerian English while we differentiate them from Standard English that is the language of a native first language speaker of English, agreed upon by the educated members of his/her society as standard and correct. We, therefore, have several forms of first language English such as the British, the American, the Australian, and the New Zealander etc.

    Then come the second to tenth or more language speakers of English. I was impressed by the linguistic genius of some Ghanaians who quietly and easily speak at least several indigenous languages at once in addition to foreign English. Such gifts must exist here too with our oh so smart! Nigerians. In Accra, the capital, you might find a person speaking easily four indigenous languages or more, for example: Twi, Ewe, Sabarumo and Ga. I met a Gonjan, of the people of Goja who speaks six Ghanaian languages so he would be a seventh language speaker of English. Then we have forms of English that are not native to a country but are correct and nationally accepted by the country as standard for educated speakers of the language. These are called Nigerian English, Indian English, Spanish English and so forth. So what is the point of all this? I am gently moving towards what behoves us as users of human languages which is to be aware of when we are speaking each type of English and be faithful to the rules, formulations and beauty or ugliness of each form. We should also know and respect the various venues and situations when we can appropriately use the forms. You will not go to a bank interview, for instance, and address the panel in pidgin, would you? Nor would you speak bad grammar in a speech to welcome the governor or president, hopefully.

    Simply put, we should learn to recognize the appropriate venues and moments where we use each form of English while we can be creative in such usages too. Where linguistic laziness overrules either, we might find ourselves harming ourselves as ambassadors of our country and educators of our children. Educating our children and our communities will be one of the main and pressing concerns of this column. As the education of a country is not a mean task, there will be a series on that subject in this column.

    Pidgin for me is loaded with humour and rhetorical cleverness as you find on some of our radio stations that give the news in Pidgin. Some linguistic teachers of English bemoan such newscasts, however, for interfering with and retarding their main task of teaching to Nigerians correct Standard English that we must use internationally and in the world of business, global politics and education. Sometimes, I wonder whether the newscaster is not running away with his focus on his own ingenuity at creating pidgin terms rather than telling us the news. One wonders whether the news is not partially lost in the web of imaginative rhetorical creations over and above the news. Nonetheless we could enjoy our cultural gift of humour as an aspect of our genius when we listen to that version of the news for we do have genius which unfortunately often translates into many warped attitudes and actions as we shall discuss later. Yet without humour, would we survive the lives we lead or are forced to lead in our country?

    I keep speaking of ‘country’ above, if you notice, rather than nation for good reason because several questions are and remain pertinent. Do we have a nation? Are we a nation? Such questions have occupied many Nigerians before me and not nicodemously either. If we do not have a nation, then the title of this column becomes very arguable as we must then apply our energies and intelligences to building one. Do we have to? We might ask. We might then consider that some established and current assertions that political formations are beyond nationhood   or should be; that we live in a borderless global economic and political “village,” (perish that cliché), making it depasse to even speak of building a nation. Yet deliberation on the concept of nation becomes most necessary these days in Nigeria when it seems the rage to speak of breaking up and rejecting the structure of the country as it is now, which may not be an indefensible and unnecessary objective. We, however, have to do more thinking, more pondering and analysis than simple and mere emotional and ethnic, even personal interest reactions to such grave matters.

    We could begin with some basic questions: how are nations built (without yet speaking of ‘great nations’ as we like to think of ourselves for no cogent reason with respect to the rest of Africa as ‘the big brother’), how do nations become great? What are our definitions of greatness as we must choose and construct our own versions of nation and greatness rather than imitate as we love to do? A foreign politician recently called our elite lazy? If so, can they be entrusted with building a nation? We shall take these matters up next week.

  • 500,000 pre-paid meters coming

    The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) is to instal 500,000 electricity pre-paid meters in the next three years.

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abiodun Ajifowobaje, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    He said the installation would begin in December.

    The CEO said IKEDC would ensure effective metering for customers without meters to stop estimated billing.

    He told NAN that the company was faced with challenges of adequate meters and insufficiency of energy from the National Grid.

    Ajifowobaje, however, said IKEDC was working out modalities for a lasting solution to the problems.

    The CEO said the company had established a customers’ forum’’ in all its business units.

    “Our first phase plan is to ensure that about 300,000 pre-paid meters are rolled out by December while the others will be installed to replace faulty ones in the next three years.

    “The IKEDC receives 350 mega watts to 450 mega watts instead of a daily energy supply of 1,250 mega watts from the National Grid.

    “I am, however, happy to report that IKEDC is involved in talks with several partners to explore supply from embedded power generation, independent power projects and other sources, to improve supply.”

  • IPP coming for Lagos schools

    IPP coming for Lagos schools

    The government of Lagos State is to set up an Independent Power Plant (IPP) to provide 24-hours electricity in state-owned tertiary institutions.

    Governor Babatunde Fashola broke the news yesterday at a meeting with students and the managements of the Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Lagos State College of Education (LACOED), Lagos City Polytechnic, youth organisations and members of the State Executive Council.

    The meeting, which was held at LASU’s Main Auditorium, was to commemorate the governor’s 2,200 days in office.

    Fashola said the Alausa IPP project, which would supply electricity to the Alausa Secretariat, government offices in Ikeja and its environs, would also service state-owned tertiary institutions.

    He urged youths to access the government’s N1.5 billion Research Fund and come up with innovations to solve societal problems.

    The governor said he has inaugurated a committee to set guidelines for accessing the fund.

    He called for a review of the training methods in schools to “retain critical building blocks” and meet the needs of the society.

    Lamenting that no one has applied for the research fund in the last six months, Fashola said the country’s future rests on the ability of the present generation to come up with new ideas for solving problems.

    He said: “The training of our doctors must adapt to what we are seeing today. We must find ways to address public health issues and treat life style diseases, such as hypertension, heart and kidney diseases and cancer cases, locally to keep the jobs here.

    “Our medicine must also focus on sports medicine, which is a growing area of need and which requires specialisation. We must stop thinking about treating malaria and start thinking of how to eradicate plasmodium or create a vaccine for it. We have put a research fund there. Please use it.”

    Fashola urged those interested in accessing the fund to come up with a well detailed plan specifying what kind of research they intend to do, the current state of affairs and what they have done thus far.

    “This is to justify the need for the fund and what we expect to see, if the funds are available”, he added.

    The governor said the need to start building a generation that will solve local problems with local ideas prompted the government to start a school of transportation at LASU to train a new generation of professionals that will become transport planners, managers and operators.

    He said: “The reason is simple. Transportation is a global problem and it is no less so in Lagos or any other part of Nigeria. Major cities and countries, including our state, are building transport facilities, such as the rail project on the Badagry corridor and the expressway expansion.”

    “But how many Nigerians have the knowledge of rail construction and how many are involved in building our bridges and highways? We need to build more water works. But how many of us even know how the current water supply is being produced?

    “We need constant power supply. But how many of us have visited our power generation, transmission and distribution facilities? How many of us know how cars are made from design to assembly?”