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Tag: decay

  • Niger primary schools in state of decay despite N9billion sunk

    Niger primary schools in state of decay despite N9billion sunk

    Despite a whopping N9billion sunk into rescuing the visible decay in primary school infrastructure in Niger State, Justina Asishana reports that facilities remain in deplorable conditions, with pupils receiving lessons on bare floors and under trees.

    ROOFLESS classrooms, broken floors, over-crowded classes and lack of furniture are some of the common features of primary schools across Niger State. As a result, pupils are forced to take lessons, sitting on bare floor and at the mercy of the elements.

    At Kwangwara UBE Primary School in Kontagora, Niger State, it was a pitiable sight. In Class 2A, which offers a slightly different sight, the ceiling and roof have been cut into half, obviously by rainstorm. The Nation’s finding revealed that the situation has been like that for at least three years. When the reporter visited the school, the sun rays fell directly on the pupils sitting on the bare floor.

    This school is one of the 3, 034 primary schools in the state; but unfortunately more than half the number bear similar features. Not less than 2000 of these schools have dilapidated classrooms without furniture, forcing nearly 500,000 pupils to take lessons sitting on bare floor. This is more than 80 per cent of the entire primary school population in the state put at about 635,747.

    The level of infrastructural dilapidation in primary schools in Niger state can be said to be shocking, in view of the quantum of funds that has purportedly been expended on upgrading schools in the state.

    Huge Education Budgets

    Out of a total sum of N17 billion allocated to the education sector between 2012 and 2016, not less than N9 billion is said to have been spent on infrastructure development in primary schools in the state.

    A breakdown of the budget for primary education in the five years under review shows that in 2012, N1.7 billion was budgeted;  N1.4 billion in 2013, N1.4billion in 2014, N1.13 billion in 2015 and N90 million in 2016.

    Meanwhile, an additional sum of N8.8 billion was budgeted for the construction and provision of public schools between 2013 to 2016 while N3.93 billion was budgeted for the rehabilitation and repairs of public schools during the period under review.

    However, there is no evidence on ground to show that these funds were spent on any of these capital projects. A good number of schools visited in some local government areas in the state do not appear to have benefited from these funds as they had nothing to show as evidence. Not only are the schools dilapidated, pupils are forced to take lessons in classrooms without roofs and on bare floors. And whenever it rains, there are no lessons, as pupils have to hobble together to avoid being drenched.

    The tale of decaying infrastructure remains the same from Niger South through Niger North to Niger East.

    Lack of furniture, falling roofs and ceilings

    In Kontagora, Niger North Senatorial District, 30 out of the 53 primary schools in the local government council are in dire need of urgent rehabilitation. Eleven of the schools have classroom buildings but no desks and chairs while 37 lack adequate seats and desks. Three of the schools have no building at all and pupils have to sit under the sun each day to take their classes.

    In Zango Primary School, a school with a pupil population of 1,320, lessons are held under strenuous conditions. Although there is a block of classrooms constructed by SUBEB, the school still lack adequate furniture and some pupils have to stand or sit on bare floor during lesson periods. Even the available furniture was not supplied by the government; they were supplied by the Parents Teachers’ Association of the school.

    The school was one of those starved of government attention for years until 2017, when the state government did some renovation and provided it with some furniture. But still, the intervention was too little to have positive impact on the condition of teaching and learning in the school.

    In Kwangwara UBE Primary School, Primary One pupils sit in the sand inside the few classrooms available, as the floors are not cemented. The roofs of some of the classrooms had long been blown away by violent rainstorm. The school has only 405 pupils, but it has to practice shifting to ensure all pupils can be accommodated during lesson.

    Standing inside the school compound is a SUBEB classroom project which has been left unfinished for some years, and is already showing signs of dilapidation.

    The Head-teacher, Adamu Abubakar said complaints made to the Local Education Authority (LEA) have gone unanswered, adding that every year and every term, supervisors from SUBEB and the local government are sent to the school to ascertain what they needed but things remain the same.

    A Primary One teacher, Owolabi Lola, who teaches in a class where the only sitting option for the pupils was the bare sandy floor, narrated her unpleasant teaching experience. “It is difficult to teach the children without desks and chairs; even with their writing materials, it is difficult for them to learn fast. In Primary one in Kwangwara UBE Primary school, we are facing a lot of difficulties; as you can see, there is no cemented floor, and the blackboard is nothing to write home about. Even the windows are not good anymore.”

    At the UBE Primary Schools in Dankashimo, Baturewma and Ugulu in Kontagora LGA, this reporter came away with sordid images. They were all without any classroom building, and pupils hold classes under trees. However Nagwamatse Primary School is ‘lucky’; it has 21 classrooms built through the government intervention. But that’s where the good fortune ends. The classrooms are without furniture, not even for the teachers. As in several other schools visited, the pupils have to sit on the floor to receive lessons.

    The Head teacher said: “The buildings were built without provision for furniture, which is the problem we are encountering now. Before, when they build or renovate a class, the furniture will follow; but this time, it is not like that. Even a new class will be built without furniture.”

    The Education Secretary of Kontagora Local Education Authority, Bala Bello confirmed that there are actually some schools in the local government area without buildings and some without chairs and desks. He explained that the LEA has not received anything as far as school maintenance is concerned even as he lamented the state of decay in primary school infrastructures. “The decay in infrastructures is very bad. More than 30 of the schools need urgent attention and intervention in so many ways. Some need increase in structures; there are some schools with more than 250 pupils in a class, and it is unfortunate that you did not meet the children in class; you will weep for them.”

    On SUBEB intervention, the Education Secretary confirmed that most of the new buildings being constructed were not given furniture. He however pointed out that the local education authority does not have any control over the contractors, stressing that this is what has resulted in execution of shoddy jobs.

    The same situation obtains in Borgu Local Government Area. In one of the schools visited, Tamanai UBE Primary School, some blocks of classrooms without roofs and ceilings were noticeable. Many of the classes had no chairs, and where they had chairs, they were largely broken down.

    Yangba Primary School is one of the 30 schools in the local government area where classes are held in the open due to lack of suitable classrooms.  According to Suleiman Yabagi, a teacher in the school, pupils cannot sit in the classrooms because the roofs have been blown away and pupils have to sit under trees to take their lessons.

    This reporter gathered that 600 pieces of furniture were distributed by the current administration in the state in December 2017 to address the infrastructure decay. But in a local government with about 130 public primary schools, the intervention was like a drop in the ocean.

    No longer ‘Child-friendly school’

    In Niger South, the situation is equally pathetic. A school once designated by UNICEF 14 years ago as Child Friendly School, Takawanga Primary School in Mokwa Local Government Area, is now a danger to school children. The school has a pupil population of 536 but only one block of three classrooms is in use.

    According to the Headmistress, Hajiya Fatima Mohammed Safu, each of the three classrooms is divided into two so that all the pupils can be accommodated. “Please don’t ask me how they will learn in that situation because I too don’t know. If we don’t do it like that, our other option would be that they learn outside; and I am not ready to subject them to that.”

    It was learnt that there has been no form of intervention in the school in a long time. Janaidu Mustapha, a Primary Six pupil confirmed that they are made to sit on the floor to learn, and that he, like many of his fellow pupils, has never sat on a chair and desk since he started school there. Hajiya Safu said all complaints to the appropriate bodies have yielded no response or result.

    Although, the scope of this investigation was to visit only primary schools in the local government, however, curiosity due to comments from community leaders took the reporter to Government Secondary School, Bokani. GSS Bokani is a mixed school but only the girls stay in the hostels while the boys return to their homes daily. The hostel does not look like a normal boarding facility-no fence, poor sanitation and not conducive for human habitation.

    The Labour Prefect of the school, Felicia Ezekiel took the reporter round the ‘hostel’ where there are about five dormitories with only double spring beds without mattresses. Felicia said mats are used in place of mattresses and no storage facility, electricity or fan. “We use torchlights to read if the need arises at night,” she said.

    The bathrooms were infested with rodents making most of the students to bathe outside and when they want to defecate, they carry out the business in nylon and throw it outside the building. But anyone without nylon would have to visit the bush. As for security, there is no perimeter fencing, no gate and no security personnel to watch over the girls. Also there are no dining rooms, the girls are served their food in their food cookers in the cubicle called kitchen and they take it to their hostel to eat.

    ”We do not have water, no mattresses and our hostels are not conducive and liveable and we need more teachers in the school. We also do not have light, we use touch in the night and most times the battery died before we can finish reading for the night. Torchlights are our main source of light in this school,” one of the students narrated.”

    One of the school officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said there has never been any government intervention in spite of series of complaint from the school authorities. The source added that officials from the Secondary School Board had visited the school several times to assess the situation but nothing was done.

    In Bida Local Government, the situation seemed a bit better as renovation works were on-going when the reporter visited. Many of the primary schools in the town were under renovation while in some, new classroom buildings had been completed. Schools were on holidays and there was no way to find out whether furniture was also provided for the schools.

    However, some schools in the town are also in need of urgent renovation and additional classroom buildings. One of them is the Bagudu Waziri Primary School which had classrooms with falling roofs and dilapidated structures. Most of the classes also had no furniture.

    Another school worth mentioning is Bagudu Shettima Primary School where the renovation of a block of two classrooms is not adequate to address the decaying infrastructure in the school. Broken chairs are being used by the pupils.

    Niger East – where urban schools are gives preference over rural schools

    In Niger East, there seem to be partiality in addressing the decay in dilapidated structures of primary schools. This senatorial district boasts of two major cities in the state, Minna and Suleja. Most of the schools in the urban towns have been renovated and some turned to model schools. But the case is different in the rural areas, where pupils still sit on the floor in classrooms without furniture, and sometimes in the open air under trees.

    In Chanchaga Local Government Area, which is where the state capital, Minna, is located, many of the primary schools show glaring evidence of dilapidation. The reporter visited Barkin Sale Primary School, where two classroom buildings were renovated in 2015. However, the classrooms, which were in use, had no chairs or desks for the pupils, as they sit on the floor while the other building was still under lock and keys.

    The head teacher’s office was an eyesore, with a little chair and table. Efforts to get information and details about the school proved abortive. When the reporter got to the school, the head teacher expressed joy that someone had finally come to see first-hand, the disturbing state of the school.  “It is people like you we need.  Thank you for coming. Things are in very bad shape. You need to see it for yourself. ”

    Limawa Primary School, which is also in Minna, was recently renovated by SUBEB to the standard of a model school. Although some of the children still sit on the floor, a teacher in the school said they recently received some classroom furniture, which would be used when the pupils resume for second term.

    Nikangbe Primary School is one of the schools located on the outskirt of Minna. The school had no chairs in any of the classrooms despite having 14 classrooms. A peep into some of the classes revealed that the classes each contained no less than 60 pupils.

    One of the teachers who called herself, Aunty Sofia said the issue of dilapidated structures and lack of classroom furniture is a general problem facing many of the schools, adding that the head teacher of the school had written to SUBEB and the Local Education Authority but nothing had been done.  “We know supervisors are sent here regularly. Each time supervisors come here and ask us what we need, they come and assess what is needed but yet nothing is done,” she said.

    Matha Shikeri, a Primary five pupil in the school said she had spent five years in the school but only sat on a chair when she was in primary 3. “I have been in this school for five years and I only sat on a chair when I was in primary 3. I have not seen government bringing chairs for us. I am in Primary 5 now,” she said in a tone full of lamentation.

    New Tunga Primary School,  Kwalkota Primary School,  Chachanga Primary school are some of the schools that have renovated classrooms but few furniture.

    In the rural areas of Paikoro, 80 schools are in need of major repairs while 143 are in need of classroom furniture. In about one hundred primary schools, pupils still take lessons in the open air due to lack of classrooms. This is one local government that have felt the least impact of government intervention in schools.

    The schools in very bad shape are in the rural areas of Kafinkoro Central, Farin-Doki, Baida, Kwakuti amongst others. In the opinion of the Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu,” all the schools need overhauling and urgent attention.”

    This was where this reporter learnt that not all new school buildings in the local government were built by SUBEB. Some were built through community effort, like in the case of U.K Bello Memorial Nursery and Primary school, which was started by the community and completed by a politician in the area. However, the classrooms had no furniture when the reporter visited.

    The Head teacher, Adullahi Tanko confirmed that some of the buildings in the school were not done by the state government. He said it was the PTA of the school that started the project.

    The dilapidated four blocks of classrooms in the school are so bad that carpenters were said to have rejected any offer of repairing the blown-off roofs.

    In Zubairu Primary School, there were evidences of SUBEB intervention but the school lacked classroom furniture and pupils have to sit on bare floors.

    The reporter learnt that parents in Paikoro had long decided to take the destinies of their children in their hands after prolonged government inaction in schools in the area. In other to ensure their wards learn under conducive conditions, the PTA in the schools taxed parents to contribute funds for renovation of classrooms and provision of furniture

    To further confirm this development, when the reporter visited Tangopi Primary School, she met the PTA holding a meeting where they were discussing how to repair one of the classes which roof had been blown off. It was learnt that the PTA expended N500,000 on recent repairs in the school. The PTA Chairman, Ibrahim Audi, said they always meet to discuss on how to take care of the dilapidated structures.  ‘We usually raise money and renovate anyone that needs urgent attention. The structures are in good shape now and we are happy with it.”

    The Paikoro Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu disclosed that a list of schools that needed intervention had been compiled and sent to SUBEB, but the response has not been adequate.  “Our powers are limited. We cannot do anything more than compiling and sending the lists. We don’t have the financial wherewithal to do anything even if we want to,” he said, bitterly.”

    In Suleja, 22 out of the 83 primary schools in the local government area are in need of major repairs while 50 require classroom furniture. The environment in many of the schools is also unhygienic. For instance at the Suleiman Barau Primary School, an open drainage that had not been cleared for months runs in front of a classroom building oozing bad odour.

    At Ibrahim Dodo primary school, a classroom was infested by bats, and one had to cover the nose before entering because of the smell. In another school, out of 32 classes, only 8 were functional with little or no chairs. Most of the doors of the building had been removed and the buildings were gradually collapsing.

    This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.

  • Ogun doctors protest decay in health sector

    Ogun doctors protest decay in health sector

    Doctors in Ogun State, under the aegis of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), yesterday marched on Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s office to protest the decay in the health sector.

    They demanded regular payment of their salaries and dues, recruitment of more personnel, procurement of adequate and modern equipment  as well as improved infrastructure.

    The doctors, clad in their lab coats,  were addressed by the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa.

    They also  “visited” the House of Assembly.

    They sang solidarity songs and carried placards.

    Speaking at the Governor’s Office, NMA Chairman Abayomi Olajide admitted the governor “has been doing a lot but he is doing nothing in the health sector”.

    Olajide said the number of health workers in the state “is abysmally poor and infrastructure is nothing to write home about”.

    He explained that the union decided not to go on  strike in order not to worsen the deplorable state of the health sector.

    Adeoluwa admitted  the health sector is facing challenges, but said :”It is uncharitable to say the government has not done nothing in the health sector.”

    The SSG recalled that the Amosun-led administration inherited a bad sector in 2011, but has made improvements.

    Adeoluwa blamed the challenges on paucity of funds, assuring the union the governor will soon address the challenges.

    He said: “Most of what you have said are true. We are not the government that derives joy in telling lies.

    “It is not as if we have done nothing, please. We are not where we should be, I admit. More should be done, we admit.

    “But it is entirely uncharitable, please pardon me, to say the government has done nothing.

    “We have more than doubled the number of health workers we met on ground in 2011. We want to do more.”

    At the House of Assembly, the Clerk, Bisiriyu Lanre, collected the NMA’s letter and promised that the Assembly would intervene.

  • Multibillion naira DELSUTH goes into decay

    Multibillion naira DELSUTH goes into decay

    The imposing Delta State University Teaching hospital in Oghara, Delta State, is going through trying times owing to neglect Okungbowa Aiwerie who visited the facility reports. 

    Teaching Hospital in Oghara, Delta State took a turn for the worse following a decision by consultants in the hospital to embark on an industrial action.
    Since inception the growth of the hospital has been hampered by incessant strike actions embarked upon by the stakeholders at the quaternary health facility.
    The current industrial action embarked upon by the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) on August 22nd has grounded activities to a halt.
    At the beginning
    Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) located in Oghara, Ethiope West L.G.A is the apex autochthonous health institution in the state which basic functions include training, research and medical services provision.
    The institution was established primarily to provide skilled health care through the undergraduate training of medical students, residency training of doctors and paramedics.
    But this mandate appears threatened as the quaternary health facility is fast losing its best brains and skills to better run hospitals around the world.
    Since inception five consultant neuro-surgeons, two orthopaedic consultant surgeons, four (each) internal medicine and general surgery consultants have left the employment of the hospital.
    Also, 36 resident doctors dispersed among internal medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, urology, paediatrics, gynaecology and obstetrics, Ear, Nose and Throat and radiology have left the health facility.
    That is not all critical stakeholders in the hospital including local consultants are often at loggerheads with the board of the hospital over a catalogue of issues ranging from inimical government policies, lack of funding, and the huge disparity in salaries and other emoluments between Diaspora consultants and local consultants.
    Other issues include infrastructural decay, non-existent power supply, unavailability of consumables, lack of stationery and sub-optimal functioning of theatres at the hospital.
    The atrium, a huge cathedral-like waiting room is desolate and empty. A musty smell hangs in the air, devoid of the clean, crispy air associated with well run hospitals; fetid smells from broken toilets and urinary wafts into all the atmosphere of the hospital surroundings.
    Dilapidated facilities
    Large splotches adorn walls crying out for a fresh coat of paint; broken chairs litter the atrium begging to be replaced. There are also surfeits of broken window panes covered in a thick layer of dirt with dirty window blinds staring shamefacedly at passers-by.
    The abandoned extension hospital building and library complexes are stark reminders of the unconscionable waste of resources by the management of the health institution.
    Thick crusts of green algae grow from crevices on the outer walls of many buildings creating a most depressing environment for patients. Swathes of the surrounding fields in the hospital grounds are overgrown with thick bushes, the veritable abode for dangerous animals and reptiles
    But how did this apex institution come to this sorry state in a short space of six years?
    It was gathered that the hospital was conceived by the James Ibori administration as a Specialist Hospital in 2001, but was hurriedly converted by an act of parliament into a Teaching Hospital in 2009 by the Uduaghan administration following an outcry from medical students of the state-owned university who could not write their professional examinations.
    Chairman, Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MDCAN), Dr Yahaya Obiabo, a consultant neurologist, in an interview carpeted the state government for neglecting the hospital despite its huge financial investment in the hospital.
    He questioned the rationale behind the huge disparity in salaries between local consultants versus Diaspora consultants, adding that over N50 million was spent monthly for just 17 Diaspora consultants ( these are consultants who were recruited from abroad) while government has withdrawn its N40 million subvention to the hospital.
    According to him, the Diaspora consultants earn between N3million and N5million.Other category of Diaspora staff including nurses, pharmacists, laboratory personnel and radiographers earn between N1.5 million to N2.5 million.
    But local consultants with the same requisite professional experience earn an appalling N300, 000-N500, 000 in monthly salaries.
    He said the Diaspora arrangement has become sore point in their agitation, adding that no significant contributions to the development of the hospital has been recorded since they were engaged.
    He said, “Since we embarked on this industrial action why have they not stepped in? The hospital is at a standstill. One would have expected them to call our bluff and taken over control of the hospital. This has not been the case yet they are paid humongous salaries to the detriment of all.”
    He, therefore, called on the state government for a termination of all Diaspora appointment status at the expiration of the contract in October 2016.
    Dr Obiabo noted that withdrawal of subvention by government has impacted negatively on the hospital, stressing that basic consumables are in short supply.
    He said, “Methylated spirit, cotton wool are diamonds. Doctors contribute money to buy soaps to wash their hands after assessment of patients.”
    Government’s interference
    He faulted government’s role in appointing the chief medical director (CMD) of DELSUTH.
    He said the laws establishing the institution requires an election among the consultants in the institution where three nominees are sent to the governor who was at liberty to chose from the list, but added that at the expiration of the tenure of CMD’s elections are held but the list of nominees were jettisoned due to political considerations, which often lead to the appointment of outsiders.
    Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, (DELSUTH) Prof Lawrence Omo-Agoja was unsparing in his criticism of government over the withdrawal of subvention and the collapse of the tertiary institution.
    He said it was wicked for government to ask the hospital to be self-sustaining because ordinary Deltans cannot pay the high service charges obtainable at the hospital, stressing that this has led to low patronage of patients with the attendant negative impact on clinical training.
    In his words, “There is a minimum duration for training in which students must be exposed in order to gain critical competencies to enable them treat patients. Clinical training is practical and not theoretical. We cannot take 200 deliveries annually, yet we say we are training medical students.”
    Prof Omo-Agoja who was derisive of the appointment of Diaspora consultants claimed that the Diaspora doctors did not possess any sophisticated knowledge, adding many could not even operate the CTSCAN, MRI machines at the hospital.
    Dr Patrick Okonta, a soft spoken Associate Professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, wants government to take dispassionate decisions devoid of political considerations, while urging that the thorny issue of headship of the institution be addressed.
    According to him, “Plans are underway to appoint a new CMD from the Diaspora group; this is the fourth CMD that would be employed from this group of people, the hospital has crumbled under them. You are now taking a decision to appoint another one and pay so exorbitantly for someone with no administrative experience. What are the criteria for making such a judgement? We are key stakeholders, our careers are here. We love this hospital. We want this place to work. Government should look at issues dispassionately. There should be no political undertones. Every decision made by government and management is tainted with political considerations.”
    He says government must fund the teaching hospital as is the practice elsewhere by restoring subvention in order for it to meet it’s the mandate.
    “Government should ask itself what it wants DELSUTH to be. You cannot say you want a teaching hospital and you do not treat it as such. I do not know anywhere in this country where some form of subvention is not given. A teaching hospital is saddled with the responsibility of training, research and medical services. The service part can generate some fund, but the training and research rather consume funds. But they are important components. If they want a teaching hospital they must be ready to fund it.”
    Dr Okocha Innocent, President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) harped on the need for a restoration of subvention to the hospital, stressing that except the situation is reversed the institution will in no distant time turn out half-baked medical and post-graduate students.
    He says, “You can see that medical students are having lectures powered by a portable generator. This is a shameful thing. These lapses affect our training and medical services provision. In the last five days we have not had electricity, and the hospital is designed to function on power. Though the resident doctors are not on strike but we cannot function because you cannot function without light. If we do not have light we cannot see our patients. We cannot perform surgery in the theatre because most of the equipment is electricity dependent. If there are issues of government’s non-commitment on issues of welfare it will affect us negatively. In order to garner the requisite skills, many post-graduate students go to private health facilities to get ourselves updated. If this situation persists we will soon begin to have half-baked medical and post-graduate students.”
    The Delta State University Medical and Dental Students Association, (DUMSA), alumni, in a communiqué on the near collapse of the institution, and threat to sack consultants for requesting a revival of the hospital, demands an overhaul of the hospital to manage all cases that the hospital is built to cater for.
    Dr Harrison A.E, and Dr Adebayo G, its President and scribe respectively in a jointly signed statement urge government to as “a matter of urgency and for the good of Delta restore the subvention in line with its prosperity agenda.”
    The group warned that an attempt to impose another CMD would be “ill-advised, undemocratic anti-people and, self serving and thus election to the position of CMD of the hospital should be respected and honoured by the hospital board and the Governor.”
    In defence of government
    Delta State Information Commissioner, Patrick Ukah while responding to the issues raised by the striking medical doctors stressed that the Okowa administration took the decision to withdraw subvention to the hospital because it believes the internally generated revenue has increased to a level where it can be self-sufficient.
    According to him, “The monthly IGR of DELSUTH has increased tremendously to a level that government believes they can be self sufficient.”
    Another key demand of the striking doctors is the issue of pay disparity between local consultants and Diaspora staff, Ukah noted that at the expiration of the contract in October, “Government plans to reduce the contract sum downwards remarkably. Contract renewal will be based on performance, skill, and capacity in the areas where the hospital will need them, especially in areas where other doctors cannot perform, and those who agree on the new terms.”
    On none availability of electricity at the apex health institution, Ukah said “Government has given them a 33 KVA transformer that can guarantee power supply for at least 23 hours daily.” To lay to rest the incessant industrial unrest bedevilling the health facility, he added, “A full scale stakeholders meeting is to be convened by the government to sort out the problem to fashion out a way forward to resolve it.”
    How soon this would be no one can say, but as the government dithers the facilities continue to sink into rot and decay.

  • Fed Govt: past govt responsible for decay in education

    Fed Govt: past govt responsible for decay in education

    The Federal Government has blamed the poor standard of the education sector on successive administrations.

    Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammed Musa Bello, said this while declaring open a training programme for teachers in the Korea International Cooperation (KOICA) supported FCT Model School in Abuja.

    The FCT minister advised the government to continue to invest on human capital development in order to deliver the country out of the woods.

    Bello said education was the bedrock of development, adding that no nation desirous of meaningful growth could afford to neglect the vital sector.

    “If we are to meet our potentials as a great nation, we must refocus our energy to the education sector by redirecting our efforts towards ensuring that it once more takes its pride of place in national development agenda,” he said.

    In his address, Republic of Korea Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Noh Kyu-duk, said his country was interested in providing support to Nigeria’s education sector based on the realisation that human capital remained key element to any development initiative.

    He said Korea embarked on establishment of Model Schools in Abuja to underscore the importance of quality basic education as well as providing access to millions of Nigerian children who are out-of-school.

    According to him, Korea through KOICA has invested more than $32 million in Nigeria.

    Kyu-duk noted that the Abuja Model School Project which was based on the bilateral agreement between KOICA and its implementing agencies would be a public school of reference in terms of high quality education, motivated teachers, quality students, standard infrastructure and operations.

    He said the training programme for the teachers was designed to enhance their capacity in ensuring quality learning outcomes among pupils.

    The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) had disclosed KOICA has so far supported basic education in the construction of 21 additional classrooms in Katsina, 16 additional classrooms in Kogi State, construction of 2 Schools of 15 classrooms each and administrative block in Gombe and Adamawa States.

    The agency has also been involved in the training of teachers and educational administrators in Korea, and supply and installation of IT equipments among others.

    The Country Director of KOICA, Mrs. Sook Hyum Park, said, since inception in 2008 KOICA Nigeria Office has implemented series of Projects ranging from Technical and Vocational Education, Basic Education, Health, Agriculture and various short and long-term scholarships to over 1000 public servants in Nigeria.

     

    End

     

  • Political decay, development and change

    To  say  the least the  last few weeks  have  been  very hard days for Nigerians all over the nation. No  light, no water,   no  fuel, and  traffic snarls  caused by those buying fuel blocking the way  of  those   who  have and  wasting the rare fuel  in their tanks.  That   sounds  a  bit like Shakespeare’s ‘ As  You like  it ‘  on the last stage of the seven stages of the life of  a man. Without eyes,  without  teeth, without  anything. The  difference here being   however   that we  are talking of the life of a man and that is quite  distinctly  different  from the life of a nation. Yet  there is no denying that even if  a nation  is like a cat with nine lives there  must still be a limit to the suffering and  forbearance  of its  people.  Honestly  Nigerians  have survived  so far on one crucial gruel  and that is hope  and the  fact that we have just elected a new government on a platform  of change. That single fact and the  fight against  corruption together  with  the heady  spectacle  of the revelations    from  the EFCC on the massive looting of our treasury with impunity  by the high and mighty  of the last administration,  keep  Nigerians going, in the hope  that God  is not finished with Nigeria  yet.  Like Jesse  Jackson loudly  reminisced  when  he lost the presidential  nomination of the  Democratic  Party  in the  US some time ago.

     So  in a way  Nigerians seem resigned to their fate which  fortunately is not hopeless.  It  is simply a teeth  gritting admission that things have got to get worse before getting better.  In  essence some political  decay is necessary  and  admissible before we can make progress and realize  our  hope.  You  may  say that is poor consolation or even  accuse  me of exaggeration of the plight of the masses because  I  am  a journalist and  the  EFCC has  accused journalists of being against the war on corruption  like lawyers .But let me tell  you  what happened at  the  launch of  a professorial  chair funded by the a traditional  ruler with an intellectual  bent, the illustrious Awujale of  Ijebu  Ode , Sikiru  Adetona Ogbagba  11    and  you  will see  that even  the high  and  mighty know  that there is political  decay  in the land.  You  will   see  that they  know  there is need to change not only our present style of leadership  and institutions but   our political and socio  economic values  and orientation to create meaningful  development  for our people.

    Let  me also  add here that bad  leadership  creates political decay and corruption just  as weak leadership engenders threat to the political system,  its   security  and it stability. That  in essence is  what  Dasukigate  has  been  all  about  with  its sordid revelations  on looting, abuse  of power  and fraudulent  diversion  of state  funds.

    However  at   the  professorial chair  launch the  former Governor  of the Central  Bank and now Emir of Kano, the cerebral Muhammadu    Sanusi reportedly  said   that 80%  of  the enormous  resources of the nation are  being squandered   to maintain the leadership  infrastructure  of the political  class  while the remaining 20%  is what is left  to cater for the needs  and wants of over 165m    Nigerians remaining. The  guest lecturer at the  launch a well  known  and  brilliant Urban  geographer  gave an analysis of the  Nigerian problem  as that of decayed institutions that have  not moved Nigeria forward in terms of progress and development. Also  at  that  launch Obas  from  Ijebu  were said  to  have  donated 125m  naira as  first instalment  of the 250m naira  they  have pledged  to fund the chair.

    Apart  from  these events and issues at the chair  launch there was an interesting suggestion  from the Senate leader Senator  Ali  Ndume  worthy of our attention and comment here with regard  to the topic of the day. The  Senate leader reportedly said  that   the last president should be tried by the EFCC if it is found that he secretly  gave the order that the funds meant for arms should    be  used  for campaigns. This  according to the senate  leader was  because he suffered as a result  of this as his house  was burnt in the insurgency. He  wondered if arms were  ever bought at  all. Yet  his most interesting  observation  and challenge was that  the  trial  of the Senate  president was given  publicity whereas his own  trial  for being a sponsor of Boko  Haram  has  been in court  for four years and  has not  been given much  attention.

    These  then are the issues  I  want  us to  digest  today   to  see a way  forward from  our present  predicament as a nation which I have  highlighted with due acknowledgements from those  who should know. I will  also  bring in the comment by  Donald  Trump  that Islam  hates America and similarly look  at the visit of the S African  president to  Nigeria  and the importance  I attach  to his addressing the Nigerian  National  Assembly.

    First  let  me start with the events  at the professorial chair  launch at  the Oriental  Hotel in  Lagos. The choice  of venue  is  instructive  for a university chair  for a university  located  in  Ago  Iwoye in Ogun state. I commend the Awujale for his promotion  of governance  and education but this  chair  must  be one of the best funded in the world. It  surely  must  be the envy of other chairs  in the university but  really part of the fund could  have  been used  to  develop a new  university  altogether. In  addition  I know the Ijebus  are bound to ask their  Obas  how they  managed  to pledge  so  much  and  have even paid  half  of it in a land with  so much poverty  and neglect  of social  facilities  and infrastructure.

    Similarly  the  observation  of the Emir  of Kano cannot  be ignored and it is in that light that  I wonder  why the  visiting President  of  S Africa  was accompanied  to the  National  Assembly  by  our president. Who  initiated that  and  for  what  purpose?  It is a well known  fact  that the president is at  logger heads with the  senators  over the new  luxury  official  cars they want  to purchase  and the case  of the senate  president is in court over false  asset  declaration. Would  the senate  president  attend court  after receiving  a head of state led to the senate  by  the president?  I doubt given our separation of  powers and  the earlier  excuse  of political intimidation.

    On  the lighter side  however I would  say  that the S African president was in good  company as   opposition  legislators who heckle him  on  corruption and  diversion  of  public  funds, anytime  he addresses the S African  National  Assembly  are  normally  thrown  out and  many  of  our own legislators  too are  on the books of the EFCC  for  similar offences. Which  brings  in the comments  of  the senate  leader  on  publicity  competition between  the senate leaders trial  on sponsoring Boko  Haram  and the Senate president’s trial  on false  asset  declaration. My  view is that both are the same side of the same  coin. It  is only  in Nigeria that both can still  be in office in  spite of going to court for their  trials. It is a potent sign  of our political  decay as a nation and as a people but both are trials we  must  see through in the courts in spite of booby traps, mines  and obstacles in the way  of justice to  see the right thing done to clean our legislative  Augean stable.

    On  Donald  Trump’s  provocative and insolent remark  that Islam  hates  America one   can only attribute that to the mentality  of Americans  that the whole  world  is made  up of  Americans and  no  one else. Are  there not  American Muslims and do they practice a faith  that hates  them?  Certainly  that  statement  does  not  make sense.  But  Trump  has  said he does not want  to  be politically  correct  but  just  correct. This  time he got it wrong  and  is not  correct, even  if that has  not affected his  popularity rating which  is soaring as the primaries  continue. Donald  Trump  has  become the enfant  terrible of  US  politics and is getting popular  by  the day. Whether  that is a good  thing or a sign of political  decay is for the Americans to decide on their own.  What  we know and say is that the world is  bigger  than  the US  and  Trump needs  to be educated on that before  it is too late.  Again, long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Pdp, APC and the party decay thesis

    Pdp, APC and the party decay thesis

    A school of political analysis adumbrates the interesting thesis of party decay. As Professors Rod Hague et al put it in their book on comparative politics, “This theory suggests that parties will eventually outlive their usefulness. They arise in response to important problems – integrating the mass electorate into politics, say, or hastening the departure of colonial rulers. Once successful in overcoming the problem, the party loses its purpose”.

    The scholars cite the example of defunct communist parties of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which successfully industrialized and modernized the countries under their jurisdiction. However, “with this mission largely accomplished, ruling communist parties lost heart and drive. Instead of leading society, they became a brake on its further development. Once the prop of support from the Soviet military was removed, they fell down dead”.

    Does the party decay thesis offer us some insight into the trajectory of political parties in Nigeria’s post-colonial political evolution and particularly the pathetic position in which the hitherto invincible People’s Democratic Party (PDP) currently finds itself?

    The mass parties of the First Republic, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Action Group (AG) and Northern People’s Congress (NPC) in particular, were key constituent elements of the anti-colonial nationalist movement. They succeeded splendidly in achieving nominal ‘flag independence’ for the country in 1960. In the first six years of independence, these parties were at the vanguard of impressive developmental strides under a genuine federal arrangement that fostered competitive transformational dynamism.

    However, the primordial ethno-regional fissures masked by the pro-independence euphoric illusions of a common nationhood soon bubbled to the surface and incrementally undermined both stability and development. The party system began to decay rapidly with corrosive implications for democracy and political order. The first republic parties had apparently fulfilled their historic purpose as they became too organisationally and ethically exhausted to stem the country’s slide to anarchy.

    In January 1996, the military intervened. It was the historic mission of the military to keep Nigeria one and seek to engineer her transformation from a mere ‘geographical expression’ to genuine nationhood. In pursuit of this objective, the military fashioned Nigeria’s federal structure in the mirror image of its unitary, hierarchical organisational configuration.

    After over three decades in power, it was obvious that the military had largely failed in its self-imposed historic mission of the socio-political and economic modernisation of Nigeria. The assumption that it possessed the organisational attributes of discipline, efficiency, focus and patriotism that could foster unity and rapid national development proved illusory. National cohesion and progress cannot be decreed ‘with military alacrity’.

    The military had become horrendously infected with the corruption virus it had promised to extinguish. Its organisational cohesion had been badly fragmented by divisive intra-organisational politics as well as primal ethno-regional, religious and partisan influences. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the military had become too morally, psychologically and professionally famished to effectively and sustainably resist protracted civil society agitations for its return to the barracks. Organisational decay had set in. it had fulfilled its historic purpose on the political terrain and withdrew in disarray in 1999.

    Enter the PDP. Its historic mission was to provide a transition from military dictatorship to democratic governance in Nigeria. Fashioned in the organisational image of the military, the PDP established an emphatic dominance of the polity by winning not just the presidential election but 21 of the 36 state governorship elections in 1999.

    It was certainly not fortuitous that a retired General and former military Head of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, emerged as President in 1999 on the platform of the PDP. But then, in the bowels of the PDP’s electoral supremacy lay the seeds of the incipient and insidious decay that culminated in its electoral implosion in last year’s general elections and its continuing organisational, moral and psychological unravelling today.

    First, the PDP had a unitary organisational structure, which was quite incongruous within the context of a complex plural and federal society like Nigeria. Just like the deformed Nigerian federal polity, the PDP had an excessively centralist structure that stultified its internal flexibility and dynamism. Second, the PDP was subsumed under the asphyxiating grip of the Obasanjo imperial presidency. Intra-party democratic structures and processes were thus undermined resulting in enervating organisational sclerosis.

    Third was the PDP’s active attempt to transform the party system from a one party-dominant to an absolute one party state in which it exercised a totalising control of the polity. The resultant destabilization and decimation of the opposition compounded the complacency and lethargy within the former ruling party engendered by the lack of internal intra-party opposition. It also accelerated the process of the party’s organizational desensitization that worsened steadily climaxing in the electoral rout of April 28 last year.

    Today, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) sits atop the country’s political structure. Its historic mission is to preside over the transition from mere civilian rule of the last 16 years to a genuine democracy. Ironically, to achieve the feat of ousting an incumbent government from power at the centre, key opposition parties – ACN, CPC, ANPP and a faction of APGA – had to come together to fashion themselves in the centralist organizational image of the PDP!

    Thus, the APC’s essentially unitary organizing ethos is not reflective enough of the country’s federal diversity. Furthermore, the new ruling party seems to be following the PDP pattern of subordinating party to government in a way that immobilises and incapacitates the latter. Again, the National Assembly leadership election fiasco, the on-going Kogi governorship election debacle and its unimpressive management of the economy thus far suggest a paralyzing policy ambivalence as well as philosophical and ideological dissonance capable of hobbling the APC’s change agenda.

    Has the APC begun the process of decay even before settling down to govern effectively? Will the APC, like the monstrous child in the novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born?”, vault straight from childhood to old age without experiencing the invigorating and exhilarating intervention of youth? We are watching.

    HURRICANE OBY EZEKWESILI

    She is fiery. She is feisty. She takes no prisoners. Former Federal Minister and Vice President of the World Bank, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, this week in a widely published article, aimed missiles against the economic policies of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. As far as she is concerned, Buhari is trapped in a time warp dating back to his first coming as military Head of State when he resolutely but wrongly (in her view) refused to devalue the Naira or throw the economy to the invisible hands of the market.

    Ezekwesili does not consider that it was the succeeding Babangida regime that adopted the IMF/World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), massively devalued the Naira and enthusiastically embraced free market doctrines that did incalculable and enduring harm to the economy. The Naira has ever since never regained its pre-SAP vibrancy and the economy has remained inextricably prostrate.

    For some strange reason, Mrs Ezekwesili believes that a so obviously conservative President Buhari is a socialist or communist ideologue of sorts! She is also under the illusion that the received neo-liberal economic nostrums she espouses are not ideological after all but embody what she characterises as ‘economic pragmatism’. Nothing can be more untrue. It does not occur to her that the communist parties of China, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which she so contemptuously deride, laid the industrial and infrastructural foundation that facilitated their countries’ latter transition to market economies on a viable and sustainable basis.

    Ezekwesili wants Buhari to devalue the Naira and subordinate the economy to market forces. But as Professor Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)   has noted, “At least since the work of Alexander Gerschenkron in the 1950s, it has been widely recognised by economic historians that “late development” has been critically dependent on state intervention. Japan and the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) on its periphery are standard contemporary examples”.

    Commenting on the role that strong state intervention played in the “early development” of the United States, Chomsky writes “High tariffs and other forms of state intervention may have raised costs to American consumers, but they allowed domestic industry to develop, from textiles to steel to computers, barring cheaper British products in earlier years, providing a state-guaranteed market and public subsidy for research and development in advanced sectors, creating and maintaining capital-intensive agribusiness, and so on”.

    It is certainly not for nothing, for instance, that Donald Trump, the leading American Republican presidential candidate promises if elected to compel Apple to produce its computers in America rather than China to safeguard American jobs. As far as he is concerned, national interest must take precedence over market forces. That should tell Mrs Ezekwesili something.

     

    Ambode silent as Lagos pupils abducted?

    Was Governor Akinwunmi Ambode ‘silent’ and by implication insensitive to the news of the abduction on Monday of three girls from Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary (BMJS) in Ikorodu as reported by a national newspaper? Luckily, a media colleague (name withheld) is a Minister of the Anglican Communion and his child attends BMJS. He told me: “When I got wind of the incident, I naturally rushed down to the school. I got in touch with my Bishop and I am aware he called Governor Ambode. The governor immediately called the Commissioner of Police and security agents were swiftly deployed to the school”. Well, governance is not showbiz. It would have been most cynical for Ambode to seek media mileage out of the sad and unfortunate occurrence. Let us pray that the girls return safely to their families.

  • Akwa Ibom’s 78-year-old hospital: Neglect, decay… now rebirth

    Akwa Ibom’s 78-year-old hospital: Neglect, decay… now rebirth

    It was established in 1937 by the Medical Missionaries of Mary, as an arm of the nunnery of the Catholic Church. St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital was where the action was. Even with its initial twelve-bed status, it was moving mountains.

    However, decay set in. Systemic recession over the years made it a shadow of itself. From being a major regional medical hub, St. Luke’s Hospital diminished in status and facility. In the recent past, it became more like a primary health centre.

    Yet, for decades, it was the foremost medical outpost in the then South Eastern State, and earned a considerable reputation for herself as a major maternity port.

    The Medical Missionaries of Mary founded the hospital to help the mother and child.  Mother Mary, who led the body, was concerned about the number of fatalities recorded during childbirths. It was endorsed by the General Medical Council in Lagos and London as a centre for training pre-registration House Doctors.

    Later, the School of Nursing, Anua, was established as an auxiliary of St. Luke’s Hospital, to attain the equal status as the Nursing School in the United Kingdom. St. Luke’s Hospital thus became the sole hospital recognised for training of nurses in the whole of the then South Eastern State of Nigeria.  The institution’s strategic importance was such that it became the spine for subsequent and complementary medical outposts, including St. Mary’s Hospital, Urua Akpan, Mount Carmel Hospital Akpa Utong, St. Theresa’s Hospital Use Abat, and other rural clinics and Dispensaries in places like Eman Uruan, Ibiaku Uruan, Idu Uruan, Mbiaya Uruan, Mbak Etoi and Idoro. St. Luke’s Hospital released its bulk of   Doctors and Nurses routinely visited at regular intervals to deliver healthcare services in these satellite health outposts.

    The hospital is the birthplace for an awesome percentage of Akwa Ibom people and beyond. Beyond maternal healthcare, the hospital also became renowned for other medical services.

    It was in its dilapidated condition of the facility that drew the attention of Governor Udom Emmanuel, who was born in the hospital. It was not surprising therefore, that on the third day after taking his oath of office with a pledge to sustain superior performance, the governor visited the once celebrated St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua. On June 2, the governor assessed the extent of decay in both medical equipment and infrastructure. He almost broke down in tears by the realities that confronted him after inspecting the theatre, Gynaecology, Children, General, and Paediatrics wards, among others. Accompanied by the Secretary to State Government, Sir Etekamba Umoren, and received by  the Administrator of the hospital, Rev. Fr. Charles Essien, the governor made a pledge to turn around the institution. He welcomed discussion and unfettered co-operation with the management of the hospital with a view to rewriting the story of the institution.

    Emmanuel said: “This tour around the hospital is to show that the present government is interested in the well-being of its citizens. It is our concern and focus to have quality medical care in the state, which is why we would partner the hospital. The hospital has been a long-standing hospital that has served the nation and the people, which is why we need a partnership that works and not the partnership of ego or sentiments. Because we need this hospital to work and for the people to see progress, I am not interested in changing the name of the hospital but only to see that the hospital works.”

    He said he was looking forward to holding more discussions with the Catholic community, and appealed to the Catholic Church to get on the same page with Government sans sentiments.

    Emmanuel, as part of his government’s intervention in the missionary facility, directed immediate commencement of work to rehabilitate dilapidated structures in the hospital, as well as a remedy of the threatening gully erosion at the School of Nursing, adjoining the hospital.

    And the much needed intervention began. In addition to rehabilitating and refurbishing the Paediatric and Male blocks, a brand new block was constructed in the hospital. The new 300-bed capacity block, called Dr. Ann Ward, Gynaecology, was in honour of Irish missionary, Dr Ann Ward, a frontline gynaecologist who earned legendary status for her expertise, dedication and distinguished service in the hospital for decades until her retirement.

    On September 22, as part of activities lined-up to mark the 28th anniversary of the creation of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel kept a personal vow he made, while seeking office as governor, that if God gave him the opportunity, he would revamp the hospital.

    Inaugurating the projects, which also encompassed landscaping, internal roads and a retouch of the perimeter fence, Emmanuel stressed that with the upgraded facilities, the hospital would render complementary healthcare services alongside the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. He added that, as people from within and outside the state come calling, medical tourism will be boosted, given that services rendered in the hospital will hold a prime place in the hearts of the people who patronise it.

    Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Communications Mr. Aniekan Umanah, who took some reporters on a tour of the facility, said he was not surprised at all. According to him, “those who know Governor Udom Emmanuel will attest to his integrity and penchant for doing the right things in excellent ways.”

    Umanah added that “the turnaround at the hospital is a foretaste of the many good things the Governor has in stock for the people of the State. I can tell you that on the first anniversary of this administration, come May 2016, Akwa Ibom people will be more than grateful to God for having His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel as Governor.”

    He said he was very happy that the renaissance in the health sector started with St. Luke’s Hospital, being a facility with rich history of excellent reputation in medical care.

    Catholic Bishop of Uyo Diocese Most Reverend John Aya, who expressed appreciation to the governor for renovating the hospital, said the facility would stand as a testimonial to generations unborn, assuring Emmanuel of their prayers for the success of his administration.

    The Deputy Superior General and member of the Medical Missionary of Mary, Rev. Sister Ekaette  Ekop, emphasised the sentiment associated with the construction and naming of the newly built Gynecology Ward after Dr. Ward. According to her, Dr. Ward, now aged 80, offered blessing to the governor from far away Ireland, as she is deeply touched by the recognition and honour accorded her by the State.

    Very much like the overwhelming number of the good people of Akwa Ibom who trusted the governor with their mandate,  youths and people of Anua Offot, where the hospital is located, in particular, and Uyo in general, thanked and celebrated the Governor for accomplishing the feat within a record 78 days in office. Nurses and other members of the hospital community expressed their happiness about the positive development through various dance steps that said more than a thousand words could.

    Now restored to its lost glory and occupying a pride of place, St. Luke’s Hospital Anua is a testament of the recently launched dakkada initiative, a clarion call on Akwa Ibom people to rise to excellence and greatness in every field of endeavour.

    The hospital, which is now 500-bed capacity, is just one of the many interventions of the Emmanuel administration. The governor has performed the groundbreaking for the establishment of a number of industries. Also, to he has flagged-off the construction of many roads across the three senatorial districts of the state, among other remarkable accomplishments.

     

  • Governors urge action against regional decay

    Governors urge action against regional decay

    For over one and a half decades, the North has had little to cheer. Its economy has tanked, development hard to see and the region torn apart by war and ethnic strife.

    The good part, though, is that when the region’s governors met in Kaduna, they sought action, not lamentation.

    The residents would be happy because they want the governors to bring back the glorious days of the region.

    With about 14 governors and two deputies in attendance, the meeting of the Northern Governors Forum under the chairmanship of Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima expressed concern about the economy of the region which has lagged behind in recent years. Addressing his colleagues, Governor Shettima said, “Things have become so bad, so much so that we can say without fear of contradiction that in Nigeria today poverty glaringly wears a bold northern face. We have turned our region into a laughingstock, derided by friends and foes alike, and, not without justification, as having dragged the rest of the country down with us. Regrettably today, our region has become a thriving nest for war, terrorism, deep seated social divisions, senseless violence, mind-boggling intolerance, injustice, destitution, joblessness, and all manners of other social vices, the height of which is the madness called Boko Haram.”

    He warned that lamentation, which has become the order of the day in the north, will not solve the problems if necessary action is not taking, adding that it is time for all hands to be on deck and move into actions that will address the challenges.

    He said, “No amount of lamentation will, of course, solve our many problems. We need to act, and fast too. This generation of Northern leaders, led by us the governors, have both a moral and constitutional responsibility as well as a historic opportunity to reverse the negative fortunes of our people. We must do everything in our power to restore and entrench the lofty values of unity, understanding, tolerance, mutual respect, empathy, justice and mutual coexistence in the minds of our people and region. We must firmly and decisively commit ourselves to fighting poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, terrorism and other forms violent crimes in the North. I dare say that there is no better time to do that than now, when a sequence of events over the last few months is showing that a silver lining is beginning to appear in the dark clouds that have hovered over the North for so long. I urge us to take full advantage of this development and dedicate ourselves to, beginning from this meeting and within the shortest possible time, developing a comprehensive blueprint that will take our region and its long suffering people out of the woods. I solemnly enjoin all of us to put our heads down, get to work and come up with an agenda for the speedy transformation of Northern Nigeria from its current travails into a well modern, well developed, prosperous, progressive, just and united polity for the good of its people and the entire Nigeria”.

    Shettima recognised the efforts of the government in trying to reposition the country for good governance which he believes will give the region a new lease of life.

    He said “For the first time since the early 1980s, the political leadership of the Northern states seem poised to reverse the negative trends that had so readily sown the destructive seed of mutual suspicion, distrust and animosity among the teeming people that occupy the vast lands of of our states. I can see the signs of sincere effort and genuine optimism to draw strength in our diversity and change the narrative of our troubled history in the interest of our region’s history, and indeed,the rest of Nigeria. As leaders of our people at this crucial epoch of our history, and democratically elected ones at that, we are left with no choice but to rise up to the occasion and live up to people’s perfectly understandable expectations. We must seize this moment, for history is beckoning at us. The first generation of Northern leaders -May God Almighty bless them – bequeathed to us a polity, though vast in land mass and complex in its diversity, that showed enormous promise, and was indeed beginning to live to that promise: A polity where the social mantra was unity in diversity, where justice, fairness and equity reigned, where exemplary peaceful coexistence was the order of the day. Not only did succeeding generations of leaders including – sadly – our own, fail to sustain the benchmark handed over by our heroes, they let things to progressively and rapidly deteriorate, in the process exhibiting base irresponsibility of the worst kind. Thus, from those dizzying heights of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s when the North was the cynosure, if not the envy, of all eyes, we plunged to the nadir of the social ladder.”

    The Forum however identified unemployment amongst youths, high illiteracy level, arms and drugs proliferation, poverty, inactive preaching, Almajiri phenomenon, lack of recreational facilities and sporting events, inadequate use of traditional institutions and lack of cottage industries to engage the unemployed as major causes of insecurity in the region. It commended the Buhari government for taking proactive measures to end the insecurity especially in he north and for prioritising the fight against Boko Haram and for initiating of the joint Multinational task force and security agencies for the continued onslaught on insurgents and terrorist in the north east. On their part, they agreed to constitute a committee of Attorney Generals of the Northern States to look into criminal justice system taking into cognisance the current security challenges so as to proffer strict punishments to crimes such as cattle rustling, kidnapping, terrorism, rape and domestic violence.

    The governors are also concerned about the state of industries in the north especially companies where they have joint investment such as the New Nigeria a Development Company, Kaduna Textile and the New Nigeria Newspapers. They spoke of the need to recapitalize the New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC) and build it into a profit oriented industry and a breeding ground for youth of Northern extraction to be professional in all facets of human endeavour. They also agree to resuscitate the Kaduna Textiles Limited to operate in line with international best practices and agreed to have bilateral and multilateral cooperation with organizations and international institutions in order to explore the opportunity of reviving textiles industries in the region. They also acknowledged that the challenges facing the New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) limited is beyond mere injection of working capital and directed Secretaries to the northern state Governments to carry out an indepth study of the company and present a report for consideration at the forums next meeting.

     

     

  • Ivory tower of decay, confusion

    Ivory tower of decay, confusion

    •Sorry state of Bayelsa federal polytechnic 

    From a citadel of learning, the Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe, the only polytechnic owned by the Federal Government in Bayelsa, the state of President Goodluck Jonathan, has gradually become the Ivory Towers of decay, corruption and confusion.

    The polytechnic is located on the bank of the River Nun in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. It has a mandate to produce middle and high level manpower in Aqua Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Applied and Enviromental Science programmes.

    The institution’s journey to destruction started last year during the tenure of its former Rector, Dr. Eneyi Ekpebu. The school then erupted with allegations of financial fraud against Ekpebu and the then bursar, Mr. James Neminebor.

    The school was said to have only admitted 48 students since its establishment in 2009. Despite its lean student population, the school reportedly maintained 100 employees on its payroll.

    It was discovered that the institution might have been crippled by inefficient management and perhaps gross and deliberate financial misappropriation. It was as if some persons vowed to destroy the institution by making it their personal cash cow.

    Irked by the development, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANP), engaged Ekpebu, the bursar and other management staff in a protracted labour dispute.

    The union wrote petitions to the then Supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, detailing the woes of the institution and calling on him to bring sanity to the polytechnic.

    They complained among other things of infrastructural decay, unpaid arears of salaries, allowances, minimum wage, first 28 days allowance and implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and pension scheme.

    Maybe, as some persons said, the minister was embroiled in the politics of Rivers State and turned deaf ears to the cries of SSANP. Ekowe continued to burn. The crisis claimed its first casualty, Mr. Frank Moses, a 35-year-old senior administrative employee of the institution.

    Moses was assassinated in his home in Yenagoa. SSANP accused the rector of killing Moses alleging that the deceased became a target for exposing N1bn fraud in the institution and for dragging the rector to court over allegations of embezzlement.

    Petitions were further written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) by the union. Ekowe suddenly became a campus of reproach as officials of the anti-graft agencies turned their satellite on it.

    In fact, officials of the institution including the former Rector, Dr. Douglas Ekpebu, were summoned by the EFCC. They were invited to appear before the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as part of investigations into alleged financial scam in the polytechnic.

    Ekpebu was requested to come along with the institution’s Bursar, Mr. James Neminebor; Head of Audit, Mr. Denson Ojigbare; Mr. Abadani Woyengikuro; and Mr. Zechariah Owutuamor.

    A letter of invitation dated January 20, 2014, and signed by the EFCC’s Zonal Head, Mr. David Inyang, said the rector and other officials would be interrogated by the Officer in charge of Economic Governance.

    The letter reads: “This office is currently investigating a case involving your school in which the need to obtain certain clarifications from you and some of your officers have become imperative.”

    The letter also requested them to come along with a list of academic and non-academic employees showing their ages, sex, state of origin among other things from 2009 till date.

    The rector and others were also requested to furnish the agency with the list of all contracts awarded and executed by the institution from 2009 to date.

    The contract list, according to the invitation, must show “contract sum, contract type, date of award, status, contractors, locations, award letters and bill of quantities.” Other requirements are “mode of payment, vouchers, cash books, income and expenditure, and cheques from 2009 to date.”

    The investigations continued until Ekpebu proceeded on his terminal leave after the expiration of his tenure.

    The Governing Council, on February 20, appointed Mrs. Emilian Bribena as Acting Rector.  Bribina, before her appointment, was the Librarian.

    Despite the change in the mantle of leadership, the rot in Ekowe has festered. Sadly, the institution has been abandoned and it was allowed to become a thick forest.

    Now, administrative and academic activities are grounded at the school. Vegetation, long shrubs and grass have overgrown many buildings and facilities in the school. Some of the buildings are in disuse and are locked.

    Academic, non-academic, senior and junior members of staff are no longer reporting for duty at the polytechnic.

    “The ugly situation has left the students in a very terrible condition in the campus,” a source, who pleaded for anonymity, said.

    “The school clinic is locked up due to the fact that all the drugs have expired. No lectures are going on, there’s no medicare and what have you,” he added.

    Indeed, indications emerged during the week that Ekowe was going from bad to worse. The acting rector’s desire to bring changes to the university appears to have been frustrated by a cabal. The acting rector was said to have uncovered a grand conspiracy to keep the polytechnic wailing in its knees. She has petitioned the EFCC in respect of the discovery.

    The acting rector in the petition accused the Acting Registrar, Mr. Woyengkuro Abadani; the Bursar, Mr. James Nimenebo, whose tenure was said to have expired; the immediate past Registrar, Mr. Williabo Apelebiri and the Chairman and some members of the Governing Council of conniving to swindle the institution of funds running into hundreds of millions of naira without her knowledge and authority.

    The petition was dated October 23 and titled, “Petition on Gross Mismanagement and Embezzlement of the Funds of Federal Polytechnic Ekowe and addressed to the Zonal Head, EFCC, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    She alleged that the bursar cunningly made himself the compulsory signatory to the polytechnic accounts right from the beginning of her appointment in order to perpetuate the embezzlement of the school’s funds.

    She said : “They have made the functioning of the Polytechnic difficult due to the cabal and syndicate this trio – the Chairman of Council, the Bursar and the present falsely appointed Ag. Registrar have formed.

    “Sir, it may interest your Commission to note that  the Chairman of Governing Council never responded to any of the distress calls or letters written for his intervention as Chairman of Council because he is their backbone and the kingpin behind the financial woes of the Federal Polytechnic.

    “The bursar should produce my approvals for every withdrawal he has made so far for salary and overhead accounts and other accounts of the Polytechnic.

    “By Section 9, Sub-section 2 of the Polytechnic Act, Laws of the Federation 1993, ‘the Bursar is responsible to the Office of the Rector for the day-to-day administration and control of the financial affairs of the Polytechnic’.

    “In order to fulfill the tenements of administrative law, I issued the Bursar queries and even reminder without any response. I have also chronicled these developments to different federal quarters without any immediate response.”

    She added that the trio held a kangaroo tender board meeting, awarded contracts to themselves and later tried to force her to sign the document.

    “ I humbly petition that the finances of the Polytechnic be investigated between January 20, 2014 to date. That the Bursar should bring all his financial books and approvals given to every withdrawal and posting/transfer he has made so far.

    “The Bursar has ceased being the Bursar of the Polytechnic as his tenure expired since 27th of September, 2014 without any renewal known to me.

    “By regulation, he was meant to have proceeded three (3) months to this time on terminal leave. I have directed him to handover to the next most senior officer in his department (Mr. Steve Otobo) in writing but he has refused to hand over because he wants to continue in his craft with his cohorts”, she said.

    She prayed the commission to apprehend the suspects and prosecute them for fraudulent conversion of Polytechnic funds and for misrepresenting her as being present in a crucial Tenders Board meeting as the Chairperson of that board to award hundreds of millions to their personal companies whereas she was not present at that purported meeting.

    She insisted that the persons mentioned in the petition should be prosecuted for the forgery of documents relating to the tender meeting; gross misconduct and abuse of their offices as public office holders against anti-graft laws of the country.

    She said: “They should be prosecuted for threat to my person and family by using different pseudo names and fake GSM numbers to send threat messages and threat calls to my family members due to my holding of the truth against them in terms of the financial crimes they commit and keep committing till this moment.

    “And they have gone berserk now because I have written to freeze all the Polytechnic accounts.”

    Following the moves by the rector to sanitise the institution, Niger Delta Report gathered that the the Chairman of the Governing Council was plotting to replace her.

    But the students are appealing to President Goodluck Jonathan, the ministry of education and other responsible agencies to quickly wade into the crisis rocking the institution in the interest of their future.

    They have also suggested radical change in management and maybe compulsory retirement and prosecution of persons accused of stalling institution’s progress. They have also asked the persons mentioned in the petition to explain their roles in the scam.

    When contacted, the bursar, Mr. Mimenabo, asked the Niger Delta Report to direct its enquiries to the Public Relations Officer.

     

  • Saving prisons from decay

    Saving prisons from decay

    Old. Decrepit. Overcrowded. Broken down. These are words that have been used to describe many of Nigeria’s 227 prisons. Some of those who have experienced them have described them as “a taste of hell”. And ordinarily, it should not be. Prisons are supposed to be for reformation.

    The situation could even have been worse but for the likes of the 20-year-old Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), a human rights organisation active in Nigeria and many other African countries. This organisation, since 1994, has been at the forefront of prison reforms. It provides psychological rehabilitation and medical intervention to victims of torture and prison inmates.

    Its Director, Dr. Ugo Agomoh, said: “In light of the prevalence of torture committed in prisons and in the course of police interrogations, we also carry out capacity building of healthcare departments in prisons, police officers and members of academia on the prevention and documentation of torture.”

    PRAWA, in 2010, entered into partnership with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), the African Correctional Services Association (ACSA), the International Corrections and Prison Association (ICPA) and the Prisons/Correctional Services in the piloted countries. Through this partnership, the group started the Prisons Reform Interventions in Africa (PRIA) Project. This was a three-year project supported by the Dutch government in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project promoted effective and sustainable prison reforms in Africa. It aimed to make the prisons comply with international human rights standards.

    PRAWA is involved in many other key projects, such as the Human Rights Training Integration (HRTI), designed to improve the awareness and observance of international human rights principle and good prison practices in Nigeria; Illegal Migration Awareness Project (IMAP), which purpose is to increase the awareness of Nigerian youths on the effects of illegal migration and positive life planning skills; Justice For All (J4A), which has the mandate to speed up criminal Justice in Enugu State; and the OAK Project, which is expected to stand up against the long-standing practice of torture.

    On November 5, PRAWA will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in Abuja with the theme ‘Transforming Public Safety and Security in Nigeria: An Integrated Vision for the Criminal Justice Sector’. The speakers will include the Chairman, National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria (NHRC), Dr. Chidi Odinkalu; and the Executive Director, International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology, USA, Dr. John Gannon.

    PRAWA said: “This event is quite important because it does not only provide an opportunity for the organisation to review its activities; it also presents a platform for it to kick off its plans for the future. The organisation understands that any reform worth having must be comprehensive and sustainable. Hence, in coming years, PRAWA hopes to consolidate its work in meaningful ways by becoming: a reference point for social development intervention for crime prevention in Africa; a champion in building a critical mass of personnel and institutions in community corrections; and a leading resource centre for sustainable, social entrepreneurship research and social development models for both rehabilitative and crime prevention purposes targeted at youths, prisoners, ex-prisoners, and victims of torture.”

    The event will witness the launch of an Endowment Fund for PRAWA youths at risk projects; the Public Perception Survey Report on the Nigeria Criminal Justice System— an action plan for an integrated approach to security and justice sector reform.

    Dr Agomoh said that the organisation’s work in the sector underline certain areas in need of discussion. She questioned the achievements within the sector, especially when awaiting trial inmates account for over 70 per cent (and in some cases over 80 per cent) of the total inmate population in Nigeria. She added that the youths who are supposed to be the future of the nation, account for about 50-90 per cent of prison inmates in Nigeria. With about two-third of ex-prisoners re-offending, the highlighted issues are further worsened by the existing high level of recidivism, which places a question mark on the efficiency of society’s way of processing offenders.

    She also bemoaned the prevalence of torture and violence, but added that even in the midst of all these there are still reasons for stakeholders within the criminal justice to celebrate. Reminiscing, she stated that formerly, little or no free hand was given to NGOs within the prison sector, but now many government agencies are even extending invitations to NGOs as partners in the process of development.

    To date, the organisation has visited over 150 prisons and intervened in over 39 countries. From only two members of staff, it now has over 30. Dr Agomoh said the organisation has a strong interface with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, with a designated desk at the office of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Places of Detention – a feat yet to be achieved by an NGO.

    Agomoh noted that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice is an important forum for victims of torture in the sub-region.

    She said: “It is very important for victims to be able to make themselves heard beyond their own legal system, as otherwise they may not have a remedy, for instance, in cases that are indefinitely delayed. The ECOWAS Court of Justice can provide an alternative forum for torture victims in Nigeria and elsewhere in the sub-region. It may also be easier for victims, especially female victims, to file a case against the State outside Nigeria because of their fear of reprisals by law enforcement agents and the absence of witness protection mechanisms in Nigeria.”

    She added: “Not many victims in Nigeria know that the Court exists, and lawyers are often not trained in seeking a remedy from the court either. Most legal representatives in Nigeria are not aware of the five different forms of reparation that can be requested when submitting a case on behalf of a torture victim to the court.

    “It is important for lawyers and others assisting torture victims to know that the court only decides on what the parties request. If the legal representative fails to request a specific form of reparation, such as rehabilitation, the Court will not award such reparation, even if it finds a State responsible for torture. This is a somewhat limited approach that fails to take into account the rights of victims to reparation under international law.”

    Head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said Dr. Agomoh has done a lot to better the lot of prisoners in the country and beyond.

    He wrote: “Uju Agomoh, the Executive Director of one of Nigeria’s best known credible civil society organisations, Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, has done a lot of advocacy activities around the issue of the illegality of prolonged detention of mentally challenged persons in the heavily dilapidated, derelict and decrepit archaic infrastructure we today call prisons in Nigeria. In several speaking events around Nigeria, Uju Agomoh, who is vastly travelled globally, has canvassed an end to the unconstitutional practice of detaining persons who are mentally challenged in the antiquated prison facilities in Nigeria that are lacking in medical and/or psychiatric facilities. Sadly, the political administrators heading the highly incompetent ministry of interior don’t give a damn about what to do to change this evil status quo.

    “Many years after, Agomoh kick-started her campaign to end the impunity of detention without medicare of persons afflicted with mental retardation, this tireless human rights advocate, may have finally got the institutional support of the Federal Government because a recently released 2012 prison audit report by the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria which was publicly validated by the National Assembly of Nigeria and other leading human rights stakeholders, disclosed that there are many persons that are mentally challenged who are detained in prisons across the country who ought not to be there in the first instance.”

    Agomoh and her likes still have a lot to do. Despite their efforts, the prisons still need more help.

    The 2012 prison Audit report paints a grim picture of the prisons. One sore point was the presence of mentally-challenged people. It shows that in the Northeast, four of 37 prisons had 20 mentally ill inmates. In the Northwest, there were 50 mentally-challenged; while in the Southsouth there were 79. For the Southwest, there were 121. 289 mentally-challenged inmates were found in the Southeast, with Enugu having 136.

    The sanitation is also poor. The report noted: “Though there is every effort by the inmates to keep the cells clean and tidy, the age of the infrastructure (some of these prisons were built in 1925) and overcrowding in some cells frustrated the effort. In most of the prisons, the water cistern toilets were broken and there was no water to flush after use in some instances. In some, they used the bucket system and that created a lot of stench in the cells. Some of the prisons where the bucket system of toilet is still in use are Gassol and Serti prisons in Taraba State, and Misua prison in Bauchi State; Otukpo in Benue State, Pankshin in Plateau State and Ilorin in Kwara State. In some other instance there exist sewage system, the sewage systems were either broken or filled up. The prisons also lacked basic toiletries like soap or disinfectants.

    “The UN Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of prisoners and other international, Regional or National laws have set a benchmark for the treatment of prisoners. In each of these human rights instruments, it is stated that prisoners are to be accorded with dignity and human being shall not be treated in a dehumanising manner, even when his/her freedom to liberty has be taken away by the instrument of law.

    “The standard of facilities in the Nigerian prisons are appalling, to say the least. Most of the prisons audited lacked facilities that would aid the wellbeing of the inmates as well as the reintegration of inmates back in the society after their release from prison.

    “The dignity of the human person is an inherent right. In Furtherance of that, the need to adhere to minimum standard in protecting the welfare of inmates cannot be overemphasized. Despite the fact that the inmates are legally deprived of their freedom of movement, their right to the dignity of the human person cannot and need not be compromised. Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), provides that ‘every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person’. Similarly, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provide as follows: ‘All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human persons’.”

    With this grim situation, PRAWA’s work is not done yet. Its life may just begin at 20.

    The country’s over 200 prisons play host to inmates who need help seemingly out of government’s reach. The Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), which is now 20 years old and others are helping out, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU