The Nation Newspaper

Tag: curse

  • The dry season is not a curse!

    Did you know that trees lose their leaves in order to conserve resources? It’s a survival strategy!  In temperate regions, deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn season while in the tropical regions, at the onset of the dry season. Generally, the term deciduous means “the dropping of a part that is no longer needed” and the “falling away [of a part] after its purpose is finished”. This divine insight opened my eyes to the wisdom of how to survive my “dry season. Metaphorically speaking, the dry season is a time of drought…could be economic, spiritual or emotional… much more, we are most vulnerable to temptations during this season of our lives. Temptations come bribing us to fulfill legitimate needs through illegitimate means, but we don’t have to fall into temptations. When you violate your conscience, it’s hard to live in your own skin, when you trade your core values for money, your success can be hollow and your guilt heavy. Some people are emotional wrecks today because of the way and manner they got their money.

    Please understand that the way of escape out of temptations is simply the wisdom of shedding leaves.  You will survive your dry season when you see yourself as a tree and go ahead to shed the leaves of gluttonous desires, obsolete knowledge, bad friends, parasitic relationships…mind you, not everyone asking you for help is a parasite. Arrogance makes you think everyone around you is there to feed on you. Anyone who enjoys himself/herself at your expense is a parasite! Frankly, wrong associations fuel bad habits, wrong pursuits and false visions which ignite envy, jealousy, bitterness, and all sorts of inhumane desires. The dry season teaches you the principle of concentration of power. The words of a renowned author, Anthony Robbins, comes handy “I believe most people fail in life simply because they major in minor things”. Dry season teaches you to major in the major things! It demands that you conserve the little resources available to you hence you will be able to optimize your most precious resource which is time. Your energy can be focused on more profitable ventures instead of gallivanting around pretending to be busy…hmm…busyness is not business o! Many of the so-called friends or business associates hanging around you now may just be mere parasites eating you up gradually and once they are done they move on to their next victim. Remember, parasites kill their host and move on. So if you are experiencing a dry season in any area of your life right now, count it all joy because it’s an opportunity for you to see the underlying parasites injurious to your total well-being. Love yourself and others but please choose your associates wisely!

    Another golden truth is that during the dry season the tree does not only shed leaves but also it doesn’t produce fruits! The nature of the dry season demands that the tree retains its little water to sustain its weight and stability lest it is blown away by violent winds/storms. The wisdom behind this is that during your dry season, you will be working like an elephant and eating like an ant. So don’t be befuddled if you have been working so hard and smart and yet nothing to show for it, or much worse nobody even acknowledges or recognizes your efforts, it only indicates you are in your dry season. The good news is that the dry season will not last forever; it’s only a time frame in the divine calendar. The wet season will surely come…a season of vitality and abundance of rain…resources…where new foliage sprout……unfortunately some committed suicide or died just before their wet season came…hmm…my prayer for you is that you will be alive and well to enjoy yours! Allow the dry season perfect you making you wiser, please discern and preserve divine relationships but cautiously cut-off the parasites in your love-life, work-life, financial-life…yes, shed them or else their unhealthy weights on you will bring you down and leave you damaged!!!

    I remember the very first guy I dated on campus, he was every inch my kind of man…I truly loved and respected the young man…I believed he did too. However over a few months, I had to admit that our values and perspectives on salient issues of life differ greatly, in short, we did not agree especially on the value of sexual abstinence before marriage, which for me was paramount. He was not a bad person but we weren’t compatible. After struggling with my strong instinct for over a year, I had to face the truth… Yes, I had a face to face conversation with him and told him it would be better we go our separate ways. It wasn’t easy because I had always felt I could not live without him…hmm… I had to choose either to oblige his sexual advances or hold on to my values and walk away. I thank God I let go of him…of course I got my compensation when I met my husband a few years later…my perfect fit. Prevention is always better than cure…in case you have been hurt, please give yourself some time to heal and take in the right counsels so that you can make healthier choices. Keep your hope alive but learn from your mistakes.

    God ordained dry seasons will basically teach you virtues of patience and humility; however, ignorance or even wickedness can make the dry season tarry longer than necessary. Much more evil works attract curses…yes; it causes unending dry seasons until such a heart becomes broken and contrite and cries to God for mercy. Your greatest enemy is not that implacable witch in your village but your own ignorance concerning your spiritual and human rights. I strongly believe that one major reason human rights violations are on the rise worldwide is due to the rise in the death of human consciences. God has installed conscience as a policeman in every human…but some wicked humans decided to arrest and kill theirs. People are becoming more merciless therefore you must secure yourself in God. Your spiritual rights are far weightier than your human rights. When the veil tore apart, the stock market of heaven opened up for human beings to become stakeholders in God’s kingdom…are you a shareholder?  Your spiritual weight determines your battles and also the measure of victories you would enjoy on earth, often spiritual warfare is either at the root of our problems or exacerbating them.

    To achieve the maximum benefits God intended, we must move from merely surviving and settling for mediocre lifestyles to living-abundantly. So tarry during your God-ordained dry season, it’s not a curse but rather a blessing in disguise.

  • High fertility rate: Blessing or curse?

    Nigeria has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, provoking experts worry about a ‘demographic time bomb.’ In this piece, VINCENT IKUOMOLA examines the role of family planning in population control and the government’s efforts at addressing the country’s unmet needs.

    With a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of 5.5 per cent per woman, Nigeria has one of the highest fertility rates, making it one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

    If global demographic statistics and trends are anything to go by, Nigeria may  overtake the two most populous countries – China and India – by 2050.

    Although this revelation ought to be a good news, because of its economic value, the looming population explosion has become matter for worry.

    Just like the discovery of crude oil in the country many years ago, which many believe has turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing, Nigeria’s ballooning population is being described in many quarters as a “demographic time bomb”. For some, it is one of the reasons the country, also notorious for various disease outbreaks, is  ranked the world capital of extreme poverty.

    To address the population growth and  its strain on resources, experts say there is a need to reduce fertility rates through family planning. Family planning methods, such as contraceptives, can protect women against pregnancies, thus reducing the number of unsafe pregnancies and abortions. Experts say that family planning  can eliminate high-risk pregnancies, which in turn, could halt maternal mortality rates by about 25 per cent.

    Yet, the experts lament that contraceptive intake remains tenuous. Due to the low prevalence of contraceptive use, the rate of unintended pregnancies is still high, and as many as 50 per cent end up in elective abortions with  25 per cent resulting in serious complications which account for 20-40 per cent of maternal deaths.

    Unfortunately, Nigeria is yet to make family planning and reproductive health a  priority. A national family planning programme addresses maternal, reproductive and child health as well as harnesses the demographic dividends.This has led to a huge volume of unmet needs in family planning as the country still depends on donor partners for contraceptives. Despite the investment over the years, intake of contraceptives in Nigeria has remained relatively slow.

    Ordinarily, a national family planning programme should be implemented across the country. However, this has not been the case as unmet needs have increased to 16 percent. While unmet needs for spacing remain at 12 percent,unmet needs for limiting are four percent.

    During the July last year’s FP2020 London summit, the Federal Government set a target of 27 per cent modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) by 2020. To achieve this, the government planned, among other things, to expand the family planning services by Community Pharmacists (CPs) and Patent and ProprietaryMedicines Vendors (PPMVs). However, one year after, access to modern family planning services is still a problem as women still lack access to quality healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services.

    The country, according to a survey report, has achieved only 19 per cent of modern CPR. But the  Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria-Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PSN-PAS) project stressed that family planning remains key if the country is to address the issue of maternal and child mortality.

    Ayuba Ibrahim, a pharmacist, said access to safe, voluntary child spacing is a right; it empowers women and helps to support optimal health decision-making. Ibrahim, who was represented by Dr. Edwin Akpor, senior programme officer, maintained that family planning is key to safe motherhood.

    “Family planning is universally acknowledged as one of the key pillars of safe motherhood. We want to reaffirm that family planning is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent maternal, infant and child mortality as it can reduce maternal mortality by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, the number of abortions, and the proportion of births at high risk.

    “Access to safe, voluntary child spacing information and services is a human right, which will empower women and help support optimal health decision-making for themselves and families, thereby helping to strengthen communities and lay the groundwork for a more prosperous, just and equitable future. Unfortunately, many women in Nigeria lack access to quality healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services,” he said.

    Ibrahim was, however, hopeful that the country could achieve the 27 per cent target with concerted efforts by all. “We are optimistic. However, we need concerted efforts and innovation to achieve this goal. One of the innovations is to properly train and empower community pharmacists and patent and proprietary medicines vendors to provide expanded child spacing services,” he said.

    To safeguard the health of Nigerians, especially mothers, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Nigeria) says there is an urgent need for the Federal Government to increase domestic funding for health services and care, especially in family planning. According to the foundation, this has become necessary as donor funding is dwindling and healthy people still remain the greatest assets of any nation.

    Paulin Basinga, the Nigeria Country Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “For Nigeria to reach its full potential, it needs to prioritise its greatest assets, its people, by investing in their health, education and equal opportunity which ensures prosperity that is sustained from generation to generation. By investing in a strong primary health care system, by delivering diverse essential family planning services, medicine, vaccines and nutrition services, the country can efficiently and effectively take care of 90 per cent of people’s health care needs.

    “Nigeria has the resources and knowhow to get this right. More funding is needed and also data as well as strong and bold leadership to accelerate progress. The donor money is shrinking and it is urgent to increase domestic funding for health and, more specifically, for family planning,” Ms. Basinga, who was represented by Ms. Diallo, said.

    “The right investment in family planning that the conference advocates is a critical step to achieve demographic transition and reap demographic dividend. Investing in family planning is one of the smartest investments a country can make and Nigeria should not be an exception,” she said.

    Ms. Basinga explained that contraceptives, which are part of family planning measures, can help save lives as well as reduce poverty. According to her, this will translate to more days spent in school, more women who are freer to work outside their homes, earn an income and contribute to the economies because “also fewer women will die in pregnancies and more children will survive childhood”.

    Besides being an instrument for population control, the PSN-PAS project officials see family planning as a panacea for addressing maternal, infant and child mortality in the country.

    Nigeria contributes about 15 per cent of global maternal and child mortality with fertility rate of 5.5; maternal mortality ratio is 576 deaths per 100,000 delivery and 111 women and young girls dying daily from preventable pregnancy and child birth-related complications, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) .

    At an event, however, Vice President  Yemi Osinbajo said the nation failed to plan when it raked in fortunes from oil and other revenue sources.

    “In the absence of basic social safety nets, and pro-poor policymaking, tens of millions of our people were left stranded, observing the statistics of economic growth from a distance, completely untouched by it. The sad reality is that for most of our history as a country, periods of economic growth have somehow managed to leave out the majority of our population,”  Osinbajo said.

    He however assured that the government was committed to making family planning commodities available to those who need them.

    Speaking on the theme, ‘’Investment, innovation and inclusiveness’’, he said: “This is how I see the three “I’s”: Investment, innovation and inclusiveness are three very critical keys for unlocking the very beneficial contributions of family planning to Nigeria’s ambition of reaping all of its potential demographic dividend.

    “This demographic dividend is, of course, the catch-all term for the benefits and potential realisable from attaining the optimal age structure in a population. In the case of Nigeria, this optimal age structure would mean a combination of declining fertility and a simultaneous rise in the working age population.Our main challenge, evidently, is with our current fertility rates.”

    For the Vice President, high fertility rate is a problem for the country, stressing that the nation risks having more 68 million people by 2030.

    Represented by Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Vice President said: “If Nigeria’s prevailing annual population growth rate of 3.2 percent persists, we will have an additional 68 million people by 2030, and will be the third most populous country in the world by 2050.”

    Osinbajo argued that investing in family planning has been proven to be smart, cost-effective, and life-saving; and is, especially, critical in a country like Nigeria with a very young and rapidly-growing population. He  added that estimated 63 percent of Nigeria’s population is below 25, with a significant segment of the population being sexually active and needing education and guidance to navigate equality, choice and contraception.

    Osinbajo, a Professor of law, also argued  that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 depends on how well sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and youths were prioritised. He however promised that apart from the fact that the government’s economic policies were aimed at making life comfortable, the administration was committed to making family planning commodities available to those who need them.”Family planning and population management generally are not just life-saving interventions, but actually critical tools for economic and social development,” he said.

    For this to happen, Nigeria needs to devolve the financing of its national  family planning programme to the state level, improve availability of and access to sexual and reproductive services and commodities, and slow the rate of its population growth.

    The world’s seventh most populous country will be on the path to a healthier future for her women and families if it dispels myths and misconceptions about family planning, expanding the provision of family planning services and supplies to the last mile, and enabling an environment in which women and girls make informed choices on their sexual health.

     

     

  • A crisis like a curse

    Something interesting   happened in Benin, Edo State, on March 9. “Hundreds of native doctors converged on the Oba of Benin’s palace,” a report said. The Benin king, Oba Ewuare 11, was quoted as saying: “You native doctors whose business is to subject people to oath of secrecy and encouraging evil acts in the land, you have to repent, stop doing it. This is not a joking matter and if you do not repent, you’ll see the repercussions.”

    Oba Ewuare 11 said Governor Godwin Obaseki had pleaded with him to do something about the state’s negative image as the number one state for international human trafficking. The embarrassment had become unbearable, said the respected traditional ruler, adding that while the palace had nothing against the practice of native medicine, it would not accept a situation where native doctors used their positions to “perpetrate evil in the land through aiding and abetting human trafficking.”

    The report said: “He cursed human traffickers and native doctors who subject Benin sons and daughters to oaths of secrecy…He then directed the native doctors present to revoke the curses and oaths already placed on trafficked victims.”

    It may well be a major moment in a major battle. According to the report, “Those who took part in the swearing exercise were priests from various shrines in the state such as the Ohen Okhuae, Ohen Ovia, Ohen noriyekeogba, Ohen Ake, Ohen Niwuo, native doctors, Ohen Sango,  Odionwere, Iwueki and the  Enigies.”  Afterwards, Oba Ewuare 11 declared: “We want to use this medium to tell those who are under any oath of secrecy that they are now free. We revoke the oath today.”

    Governor Obaseki commended the king’s move, saying, “It is a royal endorsement of the state government’s fight against human trafficking, illegal migration and other crimes in the state.” He added:  “Some priests and native doctors will adjust their ways because there are instances where some of these priests and native doctors have breached their codes of practice and are involved in the illegal trade.”

    It is an open secret that victims of international human trafficking are usually under oath administered by priests and native doctors to ensure that they remain under the control of the traffickers who usually exploit them. It is also an open secret that  priests and native doctors provide services to human traffickers to protect them and boost their evil business.

    The UN Protocol on Trafficking defines trafficking in humans as “all acts related to recruitment, transport, sale or purchase of individuals through force, fraud or other coercive means, for the purpose of exploitation.”

    A  Roundtable on Migration and Human Trafficking organised by the Nigerian Senate in Benin City on February 26 gave further insight into the scale of the problem. Senate President Olusola Saraki, who said the Senate was ‘losing sleep’ over irregular migration and human trafficking in the country, painted a thought-provoking picture at the event:  “Human trafficking is third in the ignoble hierarchy of the commonly occurring crimes in Nigeria, according to UNESCO…Nigeria accounts for the world’s highest number of irregular migrants going through the Agadez Route. Our citizens represent the fifth largest number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.”

    Saraki also said: “The number of Nigerian females arriving in Italy alone increased 600-fold in just three years. 10,000 Nigerians are estimated to have lost their lives on the perilous journey in five months of last year alone. We have seen the bleak images of coffins of 26 Nigerian girls, who were laid to rest in Italy last November. This is what brings us today to ancient Benin.”

    It is a measure of the crisis and a measure of the need for remedial action that the Senate’s forum was followed by the king’s intervention. An account said: “Many hundreds of young Nigerian girls are trafficked to Europe and Asia every year, where they are put to work in brothels and strip clubs, or sent out to prostitute themselves in the streets… These victims of trafficking often have to endure physical and psychological abuse and are under continuous threats of physical harm or deportation.”

    It is noteworthy that a Nigerian victim of international human trafficking narrated her harrowing experience during the Senate’s forum which featured victims’ testimonies.  A report said: “The victim was 19 when she was trafficked from Edo State to Russia and forced into prostitution for two years… Prostitution is illegal in Russia… “They told me I was going into prostitution for six months,” she said. “I was going there to make money to further my education. We had to sleep with different kinds of men. It was on the street. We were standing on the road.”

    The report continued: “The victim said she, alongside other trafficked Nigerian girls, usually left home by 3 p.m. to stand on the streets, soliciting for sex, till 3 a.m. the next day…They were forced to have sex even when on menstruation, she said…“We paid our madam for food, clothes, and also contributed money for the house rent. We bought the condoms ourselves.” The victim said she eventually decided to quit prostitution, and was able to escape to Nigeria without her international passport through the help of a Nigerian she identified as “Mr. Ken”. But before then she was able to pay her “madam” $15,000 out of the $50,000 she was expected to pay in order to buy back her freedom in Russia.”

    Usually, there is a priest or native doctor in the picture whose role is to administer an oath to make the victim keep to her “madam’s” terms in the foreign land. The victim would have been made to believe that breaking the oath would bring terrible consequences. Victims have said that they took oaths involving parts of their bodies, which were supposed to keep them tied to those who facilitated their journeys mainly to Europe where they became sex workers and had to buy back their freedom.

    The report further said: “She said she regretted her trip to Russia, adding that she wouldn’t have thought about it in the first place if she had had the opportunity to go to school in Nigeria. She appealed to Edo State government to encourage young girls to go to school or learn skills.”

    The paucity of opportunities is at the heart of the matter. It is obvious that domestic socioeconomic conditions need to be improved to win the war against international human trafficking.

  • ASUU strike: Blessing or curse?

    ASUU strike: Blessing or curse?

    The national strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has once again disrupted the academic calendar.  While students and their parents groan about the impropriety of the strike, ASUU leaders defend their decision to shut the classrooms until the Federal Government honours the 2009 Agreement. 

    After a three-year break from prolonged national strikes, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) started an indefinite strike on Monday, causing concern for students and their parents.

    The lecturers are not to return to the classrooms or laboratories of public universities until the Federal Government honours the 2009 agreement with the union.

    The unfulfilled agreement the union is fighting for include the non-payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the failure to complete modalities to set up the Nigerian Universities Pension Commission, withdrawal of funding from staff schools, and the non-injection of the agreed N200 million funds yearly into the university system to support infrastructural development.

    The directive had immediate effect in many public universities were classes stopped abruptly and examinations suspended.  In others, academic activities slowly grounded to a halt – with some schools cramping the examination timetable to conclude the academic session with minimal damage. However, some other institutions could not salvage the session as they were scheduled to start examinations in a few weeks.

    The strike was in full effect at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Ibadan (UI), Ekiti State University (EKSU), Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), and Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Calabar, among others.

    At BUK on Tuesday, students were seen leaving the campus with their suitcases. The situation was similar at EKSU and FUOYE with a good number of students travelling back home while those who did not travel were holed up in their hostels both on campus and off-campus.  At UNILAG, where examination was scheduled to commence in two weeks, many students hung around waiting for directives to vacate the hostel, while at UI, students were forced to stop examination midstream.

    When our correspondent visited the Federal University Lokoja (FUL) on Monday night, examinations were ongoing in some of the departments. While the 200-Level Economics students sat for one of their papers on Tuesday morning, others in 100 Level had theirs in one of the courses at 11.30am.

    A student in the History Department, who gave her name as Blessing, said she was billed to finish her end-of-semester examinations by Saturday, but that the papers were crammed, to make all end by Thursday.

    However, not all public universities may join the strike.  The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, which usually always complies with ASUU strikes, and the Delta State University (DELSU) are not on strike because of problems in the local chapters of the union; while the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has a tradition of not joining ASUU strikes for over a decade.

     

    Students: strike not fair

     

    Students were unanimous in describing the strike as unfair, particularly coming at a time institutions are about conducting examinations to complete the 2016/2017 academic session.  For some others, such as FUOYE, the Benue State University and Kogi State University (KSU), where students recently resumed after various local strikes that kept them at home for long, this one is a sad blow.

    A BUK student, Silver Dada, said: “These ASUU people are not trying at all. They did not consider the hardship our parents are facing in this economic meltdown. For a course of five years, with this strike, which is indefinite, I may end up spending six years in the university. They are doing this because all their children are schooling abroad. Please, help me to tell ASUU and the Federal Government to settle their differences because we are going for another round of suffering. I cannot just imagine what is actually happening in the academic system and education system of Nigeria.  This is quite unfair.”

    Another BUK student, Joshua Enenche, who was on his way out when he spoke with The Nation, described the ASUU strike as a big disappointment and big shame to Nigeria.

    “I am going back to my parents without knowing when I am coming back because the strike is indefinite. The government must rise up and do something urgent to resolve the crisis in the shortest possible time because an idle mind is the devils playing ground,” he said.

    A UNICAL student, Jane Okwocha, said students were idling away time in school.

    “We came to school on Monday morning for lectures but no one came to teach us. There were no academic activities the entire day.  Today, Tuesday, again nothing is happening. Some of us you have seen are those who belong to study groups or have tutorials among themselves. I think it is quite unfair to the students. What this means is that there is hardly any academic session that does not gets disrupted by these strikes.”

    A student of KSU, who had already spent five months at home, said the situation at the institution would become even worse with the national strike.

    The source said: “We are in a quandary here, and just when we were hoping that some miracle will unknot the issues, it has gotten worse. We are in double jeopardy. Our ASUU has problem with the state government, and, now this!”

    Peter Abah, a 400-Level English student at the Benue State University (BSU) also recently resumed school after a strike.  He expressed concern about the incessant strikes and called on the Federal Government to tackle the matter once and for all in the interest of young people.

    Nigerian Youth and Students Organisation (NYSO) National President, Comrade, Tonye Tom-George, at a briefing on Tuesday said the strike was untimely.

    “It is unfortunate that at this crucial time that our universities just started recuperating from the damages done by the same strike in the previous years, that the same ASUU is embarking on another indefinite strike.”

    Niger Delta Students Union Government, National President, Edom Smart, appealed to ASUU to consider the  recession affecting students and their parents/guardians, urging the Federal Government to expedite action in the implementation of the ASUU agreement.

    However, another group, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), backed the strike.  Its LASU Coordinator, Akorede Dhikrullah, urged students to look beyond the effect of the strike, saying it would benefit them, if well implemented.

    A statement by the group accused public servants of spending money that would have been used to meet the lecturers’ demands.

    “For us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), we find it unacceptable that while the government finds money to buy exotic cars for lawmakers, finance the outrageously expensive treatment of President Buhari in London and guarantees insanely luxurious lifestyle for political office holders, it is unable to find money to fund public education and meet the needs of academic staff,” it reads in part.

     

    Parents: strike an expensive venture

     

    A parent with three students at BSU, Mr Terna Ugande, said the strike was costing him too much money.

    “I am at loss over the current strike because I have three children in the university. It has cost me enormous money.  My hope was that this year they would graduate,” he said.

    A mother, Mrs Angela  Obodo, who has three daughters at the University of Port Harcourt, said she almost collapsed when her children called to inform  her that they  might be returning home  because of another strike.

    Obodo said: “This is sad news for me. I cannot afford to have them at home.  What is the problem? If they owe the lecturers, the government should settle them because at the end, it is our children that will suffer. They are about to write their exam; they should allow them to finish this semester first before anything.”

    Another parent, Mr Paul Adebamito, whose daughter schools at EKSU, said he was saddened that the strike commence at a week students were supposed to start their examination urging ASUU and government to reach an agreement to prevent a lengthy face-off.

    He said: “What pains me most was that the lecturers went on strike a week the students were supposed to start their examination. With this situation, many of the students will be doing a lot of negative things.”

    Mr Archibong Andinam, a parent with a child at UNICAL, urged the government and lecturers to resolve the impasse to limit the negative effect on students.

    “These issues have lingered for too long and it is never a pleasant experience when our children have to come back home and just stay like that. The negative impact is so much. The constant disruption of their academics is not the best for their entire teaching-learning process. There is a calendar that should be adhered to for effective teaching and learning, but with the constant disruptions, I really wonder how effective the whole process would really be.”

     

    ASUU: recession no excuse

     

    While both parents and students have urged ASUU to consider the poor economy and not insist on getting all its demands, members of the union do not agree.

    ASUU Chairman at EKSU, Prof Olufayo Olu-Olu, said there was nothing wrong about the timing of the strike as the university teachers had endured a long wait to have the agreement implemented.

    Olu-Olu revealed that part of the agreement was the setting up of a pension scheme to which ASUU as a body had contributed over N1 billion.  However, members who were retiring could not access the funds because the Nigerian Universities Pension Commission had not being licensed.

    He said: “You (government) have an agreement with a body since 2009 for God’s sake; it is a long time because this is 2017 and that makes it eight good years.

    “We kept on reminding them and within these eight years, there have been changing governments and you are hearing how they have been embezzling money and spending huge amounts of money on elections every four years.

    “Those in the Executive arm, those in the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly members, are earning huge sums of money, despite the recession in our country and the same government has refused to implement our agreement.”

    The immediate past chairman of Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike chapter, Comrade Uzochukwu Onyebinama, said contrary to insinuations by many that persistent industrial actions by the lecturers was having negative effect on the education system, he said it had brought huge benefits the system.

    Onyebinama, who spoke to our reporter at the institution on Tuesday, blamed the government for being insensitive to the plight of students and lecturers.

    “Well, the strikes are not the reasons for the fallen educational standards. The reason is really lack of facilities. You are here in my office and as you can see, I don’t even have light. I cannot even engage in any meaningful activity today. The essence of this strike is to redress these inadequacies to enable us perform.

    To end persistent strikes, he said the government should be alive to its responsibilities.

    “This strike is to get the outstanding agreement of 2009 implemented. If they have done that, we won’t be talking about the strike.

    “They should address the issue of salary shortfall. It began in 2015 actually, but since this January, we have not received our salaries in full. It is eight months as we speak. Our earned allowance from 2014 till date hasn’t been paid. When we were on a week strike last year, the leadership of the National Assembly intervened and made an offer to clear the arrears after they concluded the forensic audit of the money already released, we said that we don’t want the money to be paid in piece mill, that we will wait for the next 6months to allow them finish what they were doing, that ended in June and government hasn’t written to tell us if they have concluded with the audit.”

    ASUU Chairman of UI, Dr Deji Omole, said it was sad that after the last major strike in 2013, which lasted six months, the Federal Government only realeased N200 billion to improve facilities in public universities once instead of annually. He said the government is owing federal universities N880 billion intervention fund and N128 billion fearned academic allowances.

    Spokesperson of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities, Prof Michael Faborode, faulted the government’s handling of its negotiation with the union.

    He said the issues ASUU has raised were cogent and should not be treated lightly.

    “The ASUU strike is a result of mishandling and non-demonstration of sincerity by the government. There should have been no strike with forthright engagement with the education sector, but we have been playing to the gallery.

    “While serious apprehension persists about the state of our education from primary to tertiary level, the NEEDS Assessment conducted in 2012 did not tell a lie about how bad things were. Yet, government after government played around with the future and destiny of the country, while more and more government officials and the rich send their children abroad, including to West African countries, with the implied capital flight.

    “It makes no sense, as in the health sector too, that we allow our own facilities and institutions to decay, while we scamper overseas draining the already dwindling resources to sustain other economies, and our own continue to rot.

    “We are too eager to complain about quality of education and that no Nigerian university is highly-rated globally. The way forward is a visible pragmatic commitment to taking the issue of knowledge-driven economy that accords proper priority and focus on quality and functional education very seriously. It is very obvious that the nation is handling education with levity and disturbing insincerity and we have to face the reality. Pretending or hoping that we can continue to patch-patch without serious soul-searching and redefinition of purpose will be wishful thinking,” he said.

     

  • Lagos flood: Curse of a neglected environment

    SIR: For years, the Lagos State government invested in various efforts to preserve the environment recorded in the areas of education and series of actions geared towards environmental sustainability awareness, including proper waste management, a heavily-sustained tree planting exercise and an annual environmental conference which purpose was to highlight issues, discuss current researches and proffer solutions to burning environmental problems.

    These activities are no longer top priority and clear reasons have not been advanced as to why renewed efforts have been halted. Today, most Lagos residents are concerned about the never-ending dumping of waste on major roads and around the inner cities, which in the event of the slightest rainfall, blocks the drainage systems causing serious hardship for residents.  The services of the waste disposal agency seem inaccessible in most parts of the city and the potential danger of this development can only be left to the imagination.

    To make matters worse, following a recent court ruling, the monthly environmental sanitation exercise was terminated. The impact of this legal action on the environment is yet to be fully contextualized, but will certainly lead to further degradation of the environment. Some had argued that the monthly sanitation exercise was an unnecessary action by the state government to restrict movement. But, put side by side the benefits to the well-being and health of the environment, this decision needs to be revisited.

    For some climate change deniers, the effort and monies spent in raising environmental awareness in order to reverse the growing impact of climate change is, to their way of thinking, wasted resources. As concerned citizens of a planet in trouble, we should recognize that this position is not in the best interest of humanity. Every human being on earth is expected to show some level of concern about the environment as the only sustainable factor to human existence.

    It should be emphasized that to slow down the negative impact of climate change, the effort to reverse the burning of fossil fuel and reduce carbon emission must be sustained. All efforts, including political efforts and lobbying, must be focused on building alternative energy models, new and green production processes and working towards a cleaner planet through investment in clean energy and green production technologies. Industrialization should no longer be carbon-based or carbon-driven.

    The effort to substitute high-carbon technologies with low-carbon ones has begun and should be properly keyed into by all levels of government and non-government institutions. The cost of neglecting the environment is huge and has implications bordering on health, food security and security of lives and property. The health aspect is the most troubling. With the recent outbreak of cholera in Lagos, resulting from contaminated drinking water due to flooding, serious attention is therefore required from all concerned.

    There is an urgent need for the Lagos State government to encourage researchers, who are interested, to investigate and proffer solutions to wide ranging causes and consequences, and to provide clear cut mitigation strategies to deal with environmental disasters as resulting from climate change.

    The annual climate change conference should be sustained and improved upon, with partnership extended to global agencies like R20, an agency founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger with its objective being to help sub-national governments around the world to develop and communicate low-carbon and climate-resilient economic development projects. In Nigeria, only Delta and Ogun state governments are members of this agency.

    Teaching of environmental sustainability in mostly secondary schools must be revisited as a way to galvanize the young and future policy makers into the broad consciousness of the need to preserve the environment. There used to be Climate Clubs in schools. These initiatives should equally be supported by corporate organizations in an effort to fulfill corporate citizenship responsibility to Lagos State.

    Climate change is not just an environmental problem. It is a development problem that is directly linked to and responsible for multiple crises plaguing the world today.

     

    • Victor Ikem,

    Environment Communication and Research Group, Lagos,

  • Victory as a curse

    Genuine football playing nations are proactive when they set goals for the beautiful game. They look at all the indices surrounding competitions, including historical slants, if they exist. Rather than celebrate the German Machines’ feat of lifting the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia, some Germans are ruing the achievement, preferring to point at the Mundial’s history in mirroring their chances of winning the world Cup back-to-back.

    Did I hear you say that the Germans are Oliver Twists? Is someone saying they are just bluffing because they have used two squads to lift two of the world’s biggest soccer competitions at the senior level? The Germans are the defending World Cup champions, having clinched the trophy in 2014 in Brazil, beating Argentina in the nail-biting final game. The only trophy at the senior level not in Germany FA’s wardrobe is the Confederations Cup diadem, which is being held by the Brazilians.

    Ordinarily, cynics who didn’t give Joachim Low any chance of lifting the Confederations Cup diadem ought to be celebrating his achievement. They ought to have aligned with most soccer greats who have praised a hitherto unknown Low, who rose from coaching obscurity to win the World Cup and Confederations Cup within three years.

    Indeed, Low has guided Germany to lifting the Confederations Cup for the first time in the country’s and competition’s history. But the pessimists have not backed off. They are postulating that no Confederations Cup winner has won the next World Cup. Shouldn’t that be the challenge for Low instead of the defeatist submission that Germany under the quiet workaholic doesn’t have the character and tactical savvy to win the Russia 2018 World Cup?

    Records are meant to be broken by those who understand what they are doing. Besides, records are myths which usually don’t stand the test of time. Real Madrid smashed the record of winning the UEFA Champions League trophy back-to-back. The players and the manager are big in Europe. They were determined to quash the thought of back-to-back trophy feats for previous winners. And they did it in style. If Real Madrid returns next year to set the record of a treble feat, not many historians will doubt them.

    I align with Low’s stoic’s silence. He is quietly plotting his path to winning the 2018 Mundial, given the intimidating list of over 40 players to pick his squad from.

    At the Confederations Cup, not only did the Germans emerge as champions, two of their squad members were honoured. Julian Draxler, the team’s captain, was adjudged the best player of the competition. Timo Werner clinched the highest goal scorer award; Chile’s goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo, won the golden gloves prize. Draxler, 23, plays for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in France. Werner is a home-based player (using the Nigerian parlance). He plays for German Bundesliga side, RB Leipzig. He is 21.

    The feat achieved by these young Germans is no mean achievement, given the quality of opposition they faced in the competition. Most of the countries came with their ‘A’ team. Besides, the achievement should be enough joy for Germany in that with the Confederations Cup, they already have the luxury of having in place an experienced bunch of players who will form the nucleus of a future team when the country’s leading and established stars grow dim in later years.  The implication of this is that while other countries experiment or struggle to raise another team upon the dimming lights of their ‘superstars’, the Germans will simply glide into a regime of the experienced and tested team in the nearest future. This will give the Germans a domineering advantage over opposition for some time.

    Germany’s victory in Russia makes them crowd favourites at next year’s Mundial. They would be playing on familiar grounds.

    They won’t need to do any form of acclimatisation. Good thing Germany didn’t beat the host nation at the Confederations Cup. The Germans kept their game simple. Passing the ball and allowing the ball’s movement to dictate the pace of their matches. Today, Germany is the number one nation in soccer, according to FIFA’s Ranking for June 2017. This development is the first big move for the Germans in the world ranking in the last two years. What it shows clearly is that the Germans have built on the gains of hosting the 2006 World Cup competition.

    They are best in almost all levels, including women soccer. And these feats arose from a discerning template anchored on producing talents from their domestic leagues, leaving the best Germans to seek greener pastures in other European leagues. Germans who ply their trade outside Germany return to their national teams to provide the antidote for neutralising other European countries, including the big boys who play in their European clubs’ leagues.

    The big question: does the German Bundesliga tolerate the mass influx of other countries’ nationals? Yes. But since the Germans have a workable template to produce talents, most German teams would rather give openings to their nationals than foreigners. Even when foreigners get such first team shirts, it doesn’t take time for the Germans understudying them to dethrone them. Iheanacho’s unending transfer Since the European season ended in May, as many as 11 clubs have been bandied as showing interest in Kelechi Iheanacho. No surprises for this long queue, given Iheanacho’s meteoric rise in the game since he shot into limelight in 2013 as a member of Nigeria’s U-17 World Cup winning Golden Eaglets squad. I have enjoyed reading the stories but the one that caught my most attention was that of Arsenal FC’s quest to sign the Nigerian. I was excited because Arsene Wenger will polish Iheanacho’s game and make him a world class striker. Please join me in praying that Wenger truly wants Iheanacho.

    He will be Nigeria’s surprise package at the Russia 2018 Mundial. I look forward to watching Wenger establish a goal-scoring link for Iheanacho, with Alex Iwobi supplying the defencesplitting passes. I trust Wenger when it comes to bringing the best out of Africans, albeit Nigerians. Simply put, Wenger revived Nwankwo Kanu’s career and made him one of the legends of the English game with Arsenal. If Iheanacho and Iwobi strike the right chord in Arsenal’s attacking onslaughts this 2017/2018 season, then the world must truly wait for the Super Eagles in Russia next year. Rohr is German and has set the rebuilding of the Eagles around what the Germans are doing.

    I hope the rumour of Arsenal looking for Iheanacho is true. Let’s laugh at Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola, who keeps listing Iheanacho as a transfer candidate, yet includes him in all his pre-season plans, making the Spaniard a laughing stock in Europe. Guardiola must be prepared to free the Nigerian when the January 2018 transfer window opens, if he fails to give Iheanacho a regular first team shirt. The World Cup year is 2018 and talents such as Iheanacho must be allowed to play for clubs where they will be regulars instead of cameo appearances for their European teams which translate to average outings for their countries. Very few foreign clubs discover talents for any country. The norm is for these clubs to send scouts to fish out budding stars, most times those who are playing for their countries regularly. Rohr’s noble initiative My views on the Nigerian coaches have not changed.

    No surprises that Nigerian clubs have been eliminated from all the continental cup competitions for clubs. Nigerian coaches must learn to acquire knowledge through remedial courses. Learning is a continuum, if they hope to compete with those who upgrade their skills. Readers of this column also know my views about our coaches who we sent to Europe to visit our players. They return with tales of headiness with some of our Europe-based stars. I have always found it difficult to understand why a coach sent to England to see our players end up in a hotel making calls to them. I also considered those who refused to recommend stiff punishments for those who didn’t return the manager’s messages after their complaints were sounding like a refrain. I couldn’t understand how a manager gets to London and is reluctant to take a cab to see our players in Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham. I didn’t see the sense in asking them to see their managers in their London hotels. I have been vindicated with the coming of Rohr. Rohr visits our players wherever they are. Rohr takes pictures with the players and their European managers.

    These pictures give vent to whatever they reveal to us about what transpired about them. No stories of players refusing to pick Eagles’ coaches’ calls or refusing to return several messages placed on their answering machines. The two matches against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon are crucial and require our best players to prosecute them. Predictably, Nigeria has dropped on the FIFA Rankings for June by one point, no thanks to the devastating 2-0 loss to Bafana Bafana inside the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo last month. But there is hope that the Cameroonians are just fifth on the chart in Africa, with Nigeria occupying the sixth position. Such close setting explains why the September 1 or is it August 31 clash in Uyo is one for those who can withstand shocks. The Indomitable Lions are beatable. Our players owe Nigerians a good game against the Cameroonians for them to celebrate. Nigerians who will be inside the stadium should cheer ceaselessly the players, even when they are not pulling their weight. Such vociferous support has swung the game in the Eagles’ favour in the past.

  • African leaders and the curse of power

    SIR: South African President, Jacob Zuma, is a controversial figure. In the past few days, the maverick politician has faced lots of opposition from the home front. He has severally faced calls for resignation after it was found out that he has misused 246m rand (£13.73m) of taxpayers on the upgrade of security in his country home. The discovery is an injurious blow to President Zuma, whose presidency has been characterized by copious scandals. While his village lacks access to electricity or potable water, Zuma’s country home project demonstrates audacious but implausible affluence. He was equally accused of uncanny arrogance of power and gross insensitivity as his neighbours were ordered to move home without proper authorization, thereby costing government millions in public fund. Zuma was also indicted of conflict of interest by engaging his private architect who earned a mind boggling 16.5m rand (£922,796) from the project.

    Since the post-colonial era, impunity and astonishing acts of recklessness have, no doubt, become the hallmarks of many African leaders. Though most African nations now operate democracy, but in sharp contrast to democratic principles, most African leaders act in defiant of democratic engagements. In Gambia, the president has been in power for over 25 years. His fresh bid ended in a fiasco at the weekend.

    In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, 93, remains the country’s ruler since 1980. Various opposition groups, opposed to his prolonged hold on power in the country, have had to contend with serious realties of his iron hold on power. Sadly, a large chunk of Zimbabweans  have continued to live in abject poverty as all economic indicators keep pointing to a nation on the brink of socio-economic collapse. The assumption that no one else but him could steer the ship of the country, at 89 and after 36 years in the saddle, is nothing but a charade as he is no super human.

    The tragedy of the African continent is that most of its leaders, especially those who have little or nothing to offer the people, have continued to tow the ignoble path. Is it not funny that most of the leaders’ whose stay in power have pauperized their people would rather prefer to die in power rather than giving opportunities to others with fresh ideas to rule? For those who argue that Mugabe’s prolonged hold on power is as a result of the love and affection his people have for him, they need to be reminded that Mandela was equally held in high esteem by South Africans and he still voluntarily relinquished power after just one term in office.

    African leaders need to wake up to the frightening poverty situation in the

    This is the time for African leaders to uphold the right concept of power for the good of the society. Government does not exercise power; rather, it is the concept of government, upheld by law, which exercises power.  Democracy will be endangered, when political power actors assume that they wield power, and not, that power wields them.

    In the meantime, Africans should rise up and make their leaders accountable and responsible.

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi,

    Min. of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Akwa Ibom rides the ‘Resource Curse’

    A couple of years back, precisely in 2010, when he was Chairman of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Professor Asisi Asobie gave some damning and damaging statistics on the state of the nation’s oil and gas sector. Damning because it indexed the wastefulness and lack of vision among managers of the nation’s resources in years past; and damaging because it speaks volume of the rot in the sector that has over the years remained the goose that lays the proverbial golden egg. The occasion was the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference hosted by the Rivers State government.

    Here are a few of the statistics. Between 1999 and 2005 (six years), the Nigerian federation realised $109 billion (N15.67 trillion) from the oil sector 42.2 percent ($46 billion) of which was from taxes, royalty etc while 57.8 percent or $63bn was from export and domestic crude sales. Out of this, $21 billion was invested by way of Joint Venture cash calls. Gross revenue realized for the federation was $140bn (N19.6 trillion). These amounts, said Asobie, were based on NEITI’s audit findings. They were strictly oil-sector specific flows plus non-oil sector specific flows from oil companies. They do not include income tax from other sources, customs revenues, VAT, etc; meaning receipts into the federation account for the period far exceeded the afore-stated figures when you compute earnings from other non-oil sources.

    To effectively get a handle on how the money was spent, let’s look at how the various tiers of government and in fact the different zones benefited from this huge volume. For the period under review (1999 – 2005), a total of N15.8 trillion was paid into the federation account if you add revenue from other sources including customs duties, VAT et al from the oil companies. Out of this, the federal government got N5.138 trillion representing 32.5 percent; states shared N10.671trillion or 67.5 percent. Let’s break it down further according to zones. During the period, the South-south zone got a hefty N1.259 trillion; North-west, N627.888bn; South-west, N550.526bn; North-east N458.195bn; North-central N425.398bn, and bringing up the rear was the South-east with N374.503bn.

    Again, reflect on this. Approximately 80 percent of the oil revenue is concentrated in the hands of one percent of the population; and 70 percent of Nigeria’s private wealth is held abroad. In fact, the guest lecturer at the conference and then Executive Secretary of the Local Content Development Commission, Ernest Nwapa, drove the nail deeper into the psyche of the editors when he said that out of every $100 made from oil and gas, only $5 is retained in Nigeria while $95 is stashed away overseas. This is beyond capital flight. This was sheer robbery by the oil ‘super-majors’ with of course connivance with corrupt public office holders in the country.

    Nigeria, truly, is a victim of the “Dutch Disease” as well as the “resource curse”. Both are symptomatic of monoculture economies where the nation relies heavily if not solely on crude cash. Whereas the ‘Disease’ leads to poverty in the midst of plenty, the ‘Curse’ tends to make a people lazy, uninventive and largely unresourceful.  “The ‘disease’ kills agriculture and the primary industry; the ‘curse’ makes the people docile”, Asobie postulated.

    So, why are Nigerians suffering when their country is rich? Why are her teeming youths wandering the streets in hopeless swagger as they endure the yoke of unemployment? The answer is corruption.  In addition to that is a clear lack of vision from the leadership.

    This is the context in which one is enthralled by the new push coming from Akwa Ibom State, one of the major oil-producing states of the nation. At a time receipts from crude oil sales are dipping, the governor is envisioning a new Akwa Ibom anchored not on the props of oil money but underpinned by industrialization, wealth creation, agriculture and hospitality.  The governor, Udom Emmanuel, never ceases to voice his admiration for nations which became successful through the application of knowledge to create an oasis of productive knowledge economy. He talks with passion about the exploits of China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, among others.  These are countries that pulled through the ruins of war, poverty and despoliation to become world industrial powers. They became industrial hubs because at a point in time, their leadership re-engineered the people’s psyche, making their citizens understand that sustainable development does not come from importing food, drinks and just about everything but from building a strong industrial base powered and propelled by knowledge as the chief resource.

    The governor launched the Dakkada (rise up) value creed, first to redefine the identity of the people and second, to rekindle a new thrust of hope and self-belief among his people. Then, he turned to the youths to make them believe that they are the change they want to see; not just with rhetorical stimulation but pragmatic empowerment with contemporary tools. Last year, he commissioned Oracle Database Administration training in the state. Today, Akwa Ibom is host of the globally recognized Pearson VUE e-Testing Centre, meaning Nigerians and indeed Akwa Ibom youths need not travel far to acquire relevant ICT certifications. Already, the first batch of Oracle Database Administration trainees has graduated from the centre and Governor Emmanuel has armed each one of them with a brand new laptop.

    This gesture may be lost on some of the youths; but what the governor is saying to them is ‘create your own future’. No man can create his future except he is empowered with the relevant skill set. The average Akwa Ibom youth, especially those Oracle graduates kitted with a laptop, has been set on the path to wealth creation. The likes of Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation in 1977, Michael Dell of Dell Computers and even Bill Gates of Microsoft did not have such opportunity yet they forged ahead, broke through the ceiling of convention to beget to humanity ICT monuments.  Today, they are the change we know. We all live in the tomorrow they created yesterday.

    This is why Governor Emmanuel’s style of governance that seeks to teach the people how to fish rather than feed them with fish crumbs is admirable and a template worthy of replication across the country. Besides, the governor has dispatched 200 youths to Israel for training in agriculture and another 200 for capacity-building in power engineering and management.

    All of this point to his overall vision for the state: industrialization. In just 12 months, scores of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) have been signed with strategic investors and partners. Not one to stop a vision at mere scribbling on paper, Governor Emmanuel has ensured that the investors have taken practical steps to set up shops in his state.  The automobile assembly plant, electric meter manufacturing plant and the fertilizer blending conglomerate to mention but a few are the emblems of a state on the path to industrialization.

    Yet, in spite of these accomplishments, the governor has remained shy of public attention and would not engage in self-adulation, either. Instead, he chooses to let his works speak for him. This is the stuff of good leadership. In the midst of scarce resources, Governor Emmanuel is building hope and a future for his people. Reed Markham, the cerebral author and writer once said: “Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.” This is what Governor Emmanuel epitomizes: turning the difficulties of the moment to oases of opportunities.

     

    • Olali writes from Uyo
  • ‘In Bonny, we suffer the resource curse of the Niger Delta’

    ‘In Bonny, we suffer the resource curse of the Niger Delta’

    Mr Simeon Wilcox, a lawyer, is the youth leader of Bonny Kingdom and spokesman of Joint Niger Delta Youth Movement (JNDYM). In this exclusive interview with Precious Dikewoha, he examines  the  activities of the  multinationals in the oil rich Bonny Kingdom and the Niger Delta region and also speaks on the burdens that come with it, the needs to engage the youths and so on.   

     

    Will you say the rich environment is a blessing or curse to the Bonny people?

    A professor wrote a book and titled it “The Resource Curse”; what he meant is that having everything you need under your table by nature makes you lazy. Having everything you need under your table removes that aspect of life that makes you struggle because by implication it gives you that impression that after all you are the owner so what are you fighting for. I will not deny the fact that the resource curse in the Niger Delta and particularly in Bonny kingdom is the biggest challenge the nature has brought for us. It is a blessing having the resources but what you do with it is what determines if it will be a curse or a blessing.
    In our own case we have everything we need and everything we pray to have but we don’t have the benefits therein. Our people are still unemployed, largely unskilled. The social cultural activities don’t show the presence of the multinationals that are there. Something has got to be done, which is the right management of the resources that we have. And in terms of developing new frameworks to work with the communities and these multinationals and at the end of the day there has to be a meeting point for the benefit of the region.

    The multinational companies operating in the region have always complained that our youths are unskilled do you agree to that?

    Far from that, the Amnesty programme is a programme that started based on the perception that the Niger Delta youths are not skilled. If you think back, you will realize that the youths were trained, they got scholarships but when these scholarships comes up the non-indigenes will be the ones to benefit. Before the Amnesty Programme, vacancies were being announced secretly and before it gets to the knowledge of the host communities they’ve already brought those that will be employed. So that was how the youths started agitating against such method of neo-colonialism. While these youths were agitating they took them to Abuja for negotiation, Amnesty was given but has it changed anything. The only thing I know is that they know now that we have the capacity to resist them and win the war. But as to the number of persons that have been trained, I will give kudos to former President, Goodluck Jonathan and late President Yar’Adua because the Niger Delta region is not as it uses to be. We have a lot of trained youths, the Amnesty Programme trained quiet a large number of people like pilots, pipe welders, Engineers and so on. Now the level of skill development in the Niger Delta region has increased.
    The next question is, is it matching the number of jobs being created? The companies operating in the region cannot be giving the same excuses of yesteryears that the people are not qualified. It is not true; we have lots of qualified youths in the region. I know quite a number of people that the Federal government trained that are still looking for jobs. Let me narrow it down to Bonny that has NLNG base, the NLNG trained some persons but they still say the youths are unskilled. We gave them a list of persons to employ but when they got there they deliberately failed them and the next minute they brought in their own people. There has to be a meeting point, the Federal government has to come in. We can’t keep these things the way it has always being, it won’t work that way.

    With many multinational companies operating in Bonny, one would have expected the area to be will developed

    Bonny is the third highest revenue producer in Rivers State, NLNG gives the Federal government N7 billion annually, now they are building more facilities they are going to employ more people. I know the state government is only responsible for income tax; Shell is in charge of 35 percent of Nigeria’s crude oil. In all these Bonny has no roads; it has no Federal government presence. The only Federal government presence is the Federal Polytechnics of Oil and Gas. NNDC approved contract to link Bonny roads together but till today that project has been abandoned, in fact they have squandered the money. We had a press conference and we gave an ultimatum but till today nobody has reacted. Bonny is the only community that produces so much yet has little. If you want to travel to Bonny you need to prepare for one hour rough riding on the sea and get attacked by pirates. If you travel to Bonny and you don’t go with NLNG boat or a private boat mounted with securities then you are not safe how then do you expect us to be happy? NLNG has 1,200 staff only 90 are from Bonny and out of that 90 we have people who are not staffs. Bonny people are getting blind because of the constant gas flaring, our shores are washing off, our youths are unemployed Shell pays N37 million as rent while NLNG pays N140 million to state government.

    From when oil was discovered in the Niger Delta region till date what different does it make to the people?

    Without oil Niger Delta region would have been also developed. It might not be as accelerated as oil has made it to be. Places without oil still have some scanty development because nothing remains static in life. But the development in Bonny is not commensurate. If you put it on a scale of 100 it is not up to 10. Before they started NLNG they took my people to Bintu in Mali and showed them how it is properly organized and promised them that Bonny will be like Bintu, a paradise on earth but guess what 20 years after that Bonny is still a shanty town. The light they gave to us is fading away they even want to privatize it. The light you hear about in Bonny is not free, we still pay bills and tariffs it’s just that they subsidized it. The Bonny master plan has failed; it was only last year they tried to revive it through the Amayanabo of Bonny. Although they have contributed to the development of the area but as an oil producing area it is not commensurate, a place where Nigeria has its resources, those that don’t have oil are far more developed than us.

  • The curse of casualisation

    The curse of casualisation

    They suffer in silence, working as slaves in big firms. They do all the work, but receive peanuts as salary. Some of them are graduates, who, for want of jobs, ended up on factory floors as casual workers. To labour experts, the exploitation of these workers is inhuman and against social justice. What is the government doing to address this problem and create more jobs? TOBA AGBOOLA reports

    Babarinde Olujimi, a university graduate, could not secure a job years after he left school.

    After a long and fruitless search, he enrolled with a private contract firm, which helped him secure a job as a factory worker. For all his hard labour, Olujimi was paid peanuts. In addition, he parted with substantial part of his salary to the job resource outfit. But six years after joining the company, Olujimi remains a casual staff. With his employment status, he has no right to any benefit from the company.

    Olujimi is not alone in this dilemma. The experience of Bassey Nkanang, who works as an operator in a chemical company owned by an Indian businessman in Ota, Ogun State, is even more pathetic. Early last year, Nkanang’s two fingers were chopped off by a machine. Following the accident, he was summarily dismissed, without compensation.

    Despite Nkanang’s experience, he could still be considered lucky to have left the company alive. The late Sunday Olatunji, who worked as an electrician in a Chinese company in Ikeja Industrial Estate, was not that lucky. He died in the line of duty. The late Olatunji, the breadwinner of his family was electrocuted in May last year in an accident that could have been averted, if not for his employer’s alleged negligence.

    The Olatunji’s colleague, Biodun Bello who witnessed the incident, narrated how he was killed because of lack of first aid in a company with a staff strength of over 500. “The man in question was never a trained electrician, but he was employed as a casual and the employer turned him into an electrician with what it considered a little training on the factory floor. On that fateful day, we were all working and one of the big fluorescent bulbs was reported bad, so Sunday was called upon to change it,” Bello said.

    Bello alleged that the company uses substandard materials and never provides workers with safety kits. “So Sunday instead of using ladder to climb, was lifted up with a forklift and without a hand glove to do the repair, but what happened stunned all of us, because no sooner was he lifted than he was electrocuted and he fell down from the forklift. We all rallied round him, but before we could move him to the gate, he died. It was unfortunate, there was no first aid, no clinic, no ambulance that could have saved him from such premature death,” he said.

    Bello, a school certificate holder, joined the company in 2011 as a casual worker on N12, 000 monthly salary, half of which is paid fortnightly. He works for 12 hours instead of the globally approved eight hours, Bello said the firm’s working conditions could be considered as slavery. He said: “We work from 7am in the morning to 7pm in the evening and while we are in the factory, nobody is allowed to go out for any reason, except for a few minutes break time. After working as casuals for three months, they will come with a form for us to sign, telling us that we are now employed as trainees and now on N15, 000 monthly salary. They would go with the form and come back after another three months with the same form for us to sign, saying that now we are their staff. This time around, the basic salary would be N6,000, transport would be N5,000, housing- N4,000 and others. Everything would add up to N22,000.

    He said the working hours still remain 12 hours and irrespective of the years or your position in the company. All the workers considered as staff earn same amount. But they never allowed the workers have a copy of the makeshift employment form usually brought to them. But are the workers truly earning this amount monthly? Bello who further painted the scenario of the condition under which they work daily said “No! “Hardly can a worker earn the amount. For example, I was promoted a supervisor, but earned the same amount as a newly confirmed staff. Beside, salary arrangement was done so that they would say they are paying the national minimum wage. But what you see in a month can be N17,000, N19,000 and at times N20,000,” he explained.

    That was not all. Bello said if a worker does not come to work in a day, even if he was sick and they see him, N3, 000 would be deducted from his salary. If it’s two days, N6,000 would be deducted. If the worker comes late, the hours will be deducted from his salary and nobody dared report. “While working in a factory, a worker is not permitted to talk to a co-worker. If you mistakenly drop anything on the floor and the Chinese managers see you, you may be slapped or kicked and called ‘Marakepi’, which means a slave in their (Chinese) local language,” he further said.

    Bello however, noted that the girls at times are not allowed to work in the factory, but engaged in the kitchen to assist the ones brought from China to cater for the teeming population of Chinese nationals brought in to do several chores that Nigerians could have done easily. The company, he stated, has over 50 Chinese workers, while the highest position occupied by a Nigerian in the company is that of a receptionist or a supervisor. Investigations also revealed that Nigerian girls working in the company have had cases of sexual exploitation and harassment by the employers.

    A visit to the industrial area in any part of the country reveals many factory workers queuing as early as 6am at the entrances of these companies, mostly owned by Indians, Lebanese, and Chinese to be absorbed, either for daily or weekly appointment, but never for permanent employment. The employers are only looking for cheap labour. Workers in these companies work between 10-12 hours daily as most resume as early as 7a.m and close about 6-7pm.

    The National President of the Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association (CANMPSSA), Comrade Abdul Gafar Mohammed whose union has lost substantial number to this recent menace in the work place stated emphatically that casualisation is more terrible than unemployment, as it only provides short term relief. His words: “Casualisation is evil, worst than unemployment. An unemployed is free, but a casual is limited in freedom. Anywhere we find it, we confront it headlong. In most cases the workers themselves are intimidated by their managements and in such instance we go in to give management ultimatum and we have achieved quite a lot in confronting the menace.”

    He further said, “In most of these companies, workers’ pay is not commensurate with what they do, no adequate compensation. We have several of them. There is NUChemical Agbara as well as Industrial Milleium Chemical in Sango, just to mention few, where we have taken up a case of a worker who lost part of his hand and was dismissed without compensation. Though, he is not our member, he is a Nigerian worker and it is our duty to protect him. All these companies need proper monitoring by the government and that is why we clamour for minimum wage. But what the workers earn in these companies are peanuts, not a living wage, it cannot even take them anywhere.”

    Mohammed said workers in the companies, though are well disposed to joining the union, but are afraid of losing their jobs, as the employers always take advantage of the unemployment situation in the country to coerce the workers to sign documents denouncing the union. He lamented that jobs meant for Nigerians are now being taken over by foreigners as the expatriate quotas have been largely abused by Indians, Pakistanis, Lebanese, Chinese and others.

    “Because of the complexity in the manufacturing process, there is need to bring expertise into the country who then transfer the technology to Nigerians, but what we have now is expatriates abuse, which our agencies have failed to checkmate. As these people have taken over the jobs, more Nigerians are now in the unemployment market and are being forced to take any job that comes their way. They take casual jobs while less qualified expatriates boss them around. The scenario you see in most of these companies is that there is no defined structure,” Mohammed said.

    The labour leader also accused the government of being responsible for the workers’ plight having failed to provide the enabling environment for the companies to operate. He said: “Government itself encourages casualisation, having recognised contract agencies without any defined penalty for those who contravene the laws. Most Nigerians who have industries also indulge in this dehumanising act of casualisation, while most of these companies are backed by politicians, traditional rulers, which made it difficult for the unions to win the battle against them.

    “The Ministry of Labour is supposed to keep tab on the operations of these companies, but the factory inspectorate has failed woefully in this dispensation, or how can we say we have government when workers are being locked into work for unreasonable hours with low pay, have their hands, limbs amputated without compensation. The ministry officials should go to the companies to see what Nigerians are passing through in the hands of these employers, our government should be seen to be taking responsibility,” he pointed out.

    A spokesman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Jerry Amah, is of the view that although many workers are simply slaving and wasting away due to the casual status imposed by their jobs, most of them are scared of walking away from the slave labour conditions in which they find themselves, owing to the high unemployment rate and economic uncertainty in the country. He said while owners of most multinational organisations import their foreign brothers into the country to take up full time employment with all the stipulated benefits attached, they, however, find it more rewarding to place the Nigerian workers on casualisation in order to deny them the benefits attached to the job.

    “Apart from the fact that this has increased the rate of capital flight into the country, it also renders the citizens, who are supposed to be the major beneficiaries of such investment impoverished and completely hopeless,” he said.

    Much as the NLC has tried to stem the anti-labour practice through picketing and other measures as allowed by the law, the Federal Government has actually been passively concerned about the development. Even with a promise to ensure workers in the country are given their due, the Federal Government can only promise to reduce the monster called casualisation rather than putting a stop to it completely. Though there are efforts by government to boost employment generation in the country, this has not been followed by assurances of decent work and worker protection given the increasing number of casual and contract-based employments in the country.

    During one of the meetings with the leadership of the NLC and the TUC, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, charged them to make inputs to the Federal Government’s campaign to eradicate casualisation and other forms of exploitation of workers by some foreign and local employers of labour. Wogu reminded the NLC President, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had demonstrated its interest in workers welfare through the constitution of a number of committees on workers’ issues.

    Though the Ministry of Labour had actually instituted a committee on casualisation, which had hitherto submitted its report, labour and Nigerians are still awaiting the implementation of the committee report and only hope that it will not go the way of several reports initiated by the government in the past.

    Director-General, Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) Mr. Segun Oshinowo, charged Federal Government to enact a law that will make it impossible for employers of labour to casualise workers, noting that many employers use casualisation to dehumanise their employees. Oshinowo noted that most employers deliberately casualise workers to deprive them of benefits, insisting that the government should do well to terminate casualisation of workers as the trend has impoverished rather than enrich a lot of Nigerian workers.

    The massive shift from regular employment into temporary work or jobs through agencies and labour brokers is having a deep impact on all workers, their families, and on the society at large. According to stakeholders, the erosion of the employee-employer relationship, often the basis of labour law, is leading directly to a growing number of violations of workers’ rights.

    The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has emphasised that the expansion of precarious forms of work and deregulation of the labour market are not the answer to the employment crisis.

    The international labour centre maintained that the insecurity of working people in recent decades was a significant contributor to the recession. Moreso, it has been established that agency hires and temporary contracts destroy job security and undermine all other rights and promote gross exploitation of both the temporary worker and the permanent employee working alongside them.

    This is what is happening in nearly all sectors of the economy – manufacturing, construction, banking, telecommunications, oil and gas where contract staffing and casualisation has become the order of the day as workers in these sectors no longer have regularised employment terms.

    However, there is still hope for Nigerian workers as the bill to outlaw casualisation of workers passed Second Reading before the House of Representatives last month. If the bill is eventually passed into law, it will peg the time frame allowed for an employee to work as a casual staff in any organisation to two years.