The Nation Newspaper

Tag: environment

  • We’ll create an enabling environment for judges

    We’ll create an enabling environment for judges

    Preamble

    Peace is not the absence of conflict, war or disagreement. It is much more than that. Peace connotes that in the midst of conflict, or disagreement the established method of resolution is followed.

    There can never be peace without justice. Justice sector is key to the actualisation of peace. The recognition that where there is a wrong it can be redressed without discrimination is the beginning of peace. This redress is achievable only through the justice sector.

    This is where the judiciary is relevant for the actualisation of this vision. Every one occupies a position to make this vision a possibility. As judicial officials, legal practitioners and Judiciary Staff (JUSUN) we have a fundamental role to play in this regard.

    We recognize that the judiciary cannot function to achieve the goals or vision of our party except an enabling environment is created. Such enabling environment cannot be created when the security of life and property of judicial officers and judicial workers cannot be guaranteed. Such enabling environment cannot exist when the conditions of service are not conducive.

     

    WHERE WE ARE?

    Failure of Government to adhere to  rule of law.

    – The Constitution recognizes that there are three arms of government Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.

    Each arm of government is meant to exercise check and balances over the other.

    The Executive arm of Government in Plateau State has failed to accord the two other arms of government, its independence or obey the Rule of Law.

    It has been a total breakdown of the principle and spirit of separation of powers.

    For the first time in Plateau State, the Executive acting through the son of the Governor instituted an action against the House of Assembly seeking to prevent the House from carrying out its oversight functions on the SURE-P funds meant for the State. As the suit is still in court and in order not to amount to sub-judice we refrain from making further comment, but that shows the degrading state of Plateau. Where governance has been reduced to family tea party.

    Other Examples abound :

    a)  Failure to comply with judgments of the courts:

    b)  Judgment of courts are treated with contempt.

    c)  Monetary judgments are not paid

    d)  Declaratory and injunctive orders are not complied with.

    -By Executive fiat, the Government of Gov. Jang repealed Districts and Chiefdoms created by Law.

    Not even the judgments of the courts challenging the verbal abrogation of the Chiefdoms and Districts have made government reversed its position on the issue.

    There are three tiers of government- Federal, State and Local Government. The Plateau State Government at each election year since 2007 has severally passed laws to regulate the conduct of the elections. The law made provision for parties to file election petitions. The laws also provided for the judgments of the appeal Tribunal to be final.

    For the first time in our history as a people, even after the judgments of the appeal Tribunal, the government of Governor Jang had never swore in persons returned as elected by the decisions of the Tribunal voluntarily. Examples are- Wase, Langtang North and Mikang Local Government Councils which were only inaugurated few months to the end of their tenures.

    Embarrassingly, Judges and members of Tribunals and Appeal Tribunals have been sued for performing their judicial acts. Judges were sued by way of originating summons or certiorari only because they ruled against the interst of the government.

    Right now, in Langtang North, even after the judgment of the Appeal Tribunal, judges of the Appeal Tribunal have been sued and an Appeal lodged against a decision striking out the suit against them for want of jurisdiction. The Government of Governor Jang has not swore in the Chairman of the Local Government as ordered by the Appeal Tribunal.

    More worrisome is the fact that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  candidate removed from office is still functioning as the Chairman, superintending over the funds and affairs of the Council despite the orders of the Appeal Tribunal.

    We are worried and the rescue mission of Lalong and Tyoden will ensure that the rule of law is complied with. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)  has had its own bitter experience. As a professional body we have a duty to ensure that illegality is addressed. Am aware that when the Ministry of Lands and Survey issued a policy for the registration of Lawyers before they can undertake any practice, and when contrary to law the Government by Executive fiat provided a new method of payment of filing fees which had the effect of reducing the time limit for filing as the banks close to customers at 2pm when judicial closing time for filing is 4pm, the members of this profession took steps to address this  perceived illegality.

    The High court of this State courageously declared the policy of registration of lawyers by the Ministry of Lands and Survey and the policy of filing fees as illegal. An appeal by the State Ministry of Justice has been struck out, yet none of these decisions have been implemented. Lawyers are still being forced to pay and register at the Ministry of Lands and Survey or else you can’t carry out any business there. Lawyers are out through stress to make payments for the filing of their processes before close of work by the banks.

    We are also aware that even the judgment of the High Court in 2010 which had declared the tenure of Local Government councils under the Local Government Law to be three years was also disobeyed as the government dissolved the councils before the time of expiration even with the order that government cannot dissolve the councils to set up caretaker committees.

    The instances are numerous. Other cases abound of  – lack of infrastructure  -dilapidated buildings, court rooms. -Non functional Chambers for judges. -Judges on the Plateau deserve better chambers.

    Magistrate and Area Courts are a sorry sight! What manner of justice can be delivered in such environment?

    Human resources

    Plateau State is understaffed both on the Superior court- High Court, Customary Court of Appeal and Sharia Court of Appeal and the lower courts.

    -Judicial officers are overworked.

    Ministry of Justice:

    -Understaffed;

    -Non-functional Area offices

    -Underfunded Area offices

    -Absence of adequate logistics

    -Training

    *Judiciary Staff:

    -Judiciary staff is different from mainstream civil service, the conditions of service and working environment must be different.

    -No training for staff for effective service delivery

    -Lack of conducive working environment

    -Sheriff/Bailiffs-harassed in the performance of their duty.

    Our plans

    1 will ensure due regard  for the  rule of law:

    Judgments of the courts will be complied with. Once we exhaust the procedures provided by law, government will comply with the orders of the courts.

    a) in collaboration with the leadership of the Judiciary make the Judiciary independent subject only to the Constitutional provisions checks and balances

    b) ensure financial autonomy for the judiciary as prescribed by the Constitution

    (c) ensure that with financial autonomy the judicial officers operate within a conducive environment by-

    i ) provision of efficient vehicles befitting of the status of judicial officers commensurate with Judicial officers in other jurisdictions;

    ii ) our judges should not go for meetings or conferences and are hiding their cars

    iii ) provision of legal or research assistants

    iv ) make provision for ICT in judicial proceedings. Judges don’t have to take minutes in long hand. This is part of the reason for delay in the administration of justice. No matter how hard working a Judge is, there is a limit to the number of witnesses he can take daily. ICT will be of immense benefit.

    The condition of the courtroom in and outside Jos will be upgraded.

    v) Judicial officers should be able to access proper medicals when necessary.

    vi ) Magistrates and Area Court Judges will be given proper attention.

    vii ) allowances- wardrobe and other benefits will be improved

    vii ) enhance the powers, duties and functions of the Sheriff and Bailiff.

    viii ) Sheriffs and Bailiffs must be properly kitted and equipped to discharge their duties.

    Our action.

    Our Government will provide ; (a) Functional and effective office of the Attorney General who should be free to advise government appropriately. (b) Synergy with the Judiciary such that judgments of the Court are brought on first line basis for government attention. (c) adequate renumeration for staff. Law officers on special assignment, such as representation for PLASIEC in election petitions will be duly renumerated as provided by law. The PLASEIC Law recognizes the fact that legal representation should be made for the Commission and provide the payment of honorarium. Am aware that the law officers who participated in the defense of the Commission in the 2009 Local Government Election Petitions were not renumerated even though they had to work beyond normal working hours because of the special proceedings. Our government on rescue mission will ensure that all will be treated justly and with equity.

    We shall undertake the issue of appointments in the justice sector with dispatch and promptly. We shall take advantage of every available opportunity to get our quota or placement. As at today, there is no single Judge from this jurisdiction on the bench of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, or the National Industrial Court, and only one in the Federal High Court. It is not that we don’t have qualified personnel, but internal wrangling have been our bane.

    We shall pursue the creation of legal units in the local government councils in the State. The legal units will be manned by legal practitioners. Apart from creating jobs for at least 17 legal Practitioners who will head these units, other legal practitioners will be employed as legal assistant to build the personnel of the units. The units will be responsible for liaison with the State Ministry of Justice, and respective counsel for matters affecting the local councils. This will build capacity for the councils in legal matters.

    We shall also provide the legal and institutional framework for Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism in Plateau State. Apart from fast tracking the resolution of disputes, the ADR will afford the Plateau people the opportunity to amicably resolve their disputes. This will also result in the creation of job opportunities in the sector.

    We shall ensure that the State Prerogative of Mercy which is a Constitutional responsibility is made effective in addressing the plight of Prisoners.

    On this RESCUE MISSION, we shall ensure that the Law as an instrument of social engineering is made a basis for development of the State.

    Am not unmindful of the fact that the task is enormous. But as a team we realize that this mission is possible. We must rescue our State from this decay and contempt.

    I urge you beyond partisan consideration to join hands with us to make Plateau great again. We shall not only run, we shall pursue and overtake. Change is possible and the journey to change begins with you. Make that choice. Choose and vote wisely. We stand to be the agents for the actualisation of the change we dream and hope to see. Join us in this journey.

    VOTE LALONG and Tyoden, and let’s work together to make this vision a reality.

     

  • ‘How to improve environment’

    ‘How to improve environment’

    A lawyer, Mr. Adewale Sanni, has called for better implementation of environmental law to reduce climate change effects.

    He said while new laws that address specific environmental issues may be needed, the existing ones must be enforced.

    Sanni spoke during the first yearly public lecture of the Eti-Osa Heritage Organisation, titled: Climate change, ocean surge and sustainable development in Nigeria.

    He said: “I think that while the laws may not be very adequate, even the existing laws lack implementation owing so many factors, chief of which are paucity of finance and politics.

    “The government at either the states or federal appears to define ecological emergency in relation to the social status of the group affected. No wonder that they can hardly protect the very vulnerable people,” he said.

    On whether the extant laws are still relevant or need further amendment, Sanni said the major issue remains the political will to protect the environment.

    “Such laws are as relevant as we wish to make them relevant. The critical issue is the intention and capacity coupled with the political will,” he said.

    The lawyer also wants to see more people get involved in environmental activism to compel the government to protect the most vulnerable areas that have been neglected.

    “Environmental rights activism in Nigeria cannot be compared with more advanced societies in terms of effectiveness. Except for agitation to remedy certain wrongs usually by the communities directly affected, there are no sustained campaigns of national magnitude to raise awareness and consciousness,” he said.

    Sanni also believes areas prone to ocean surges deserve special compensation to victims where no preventive measures had been taken. Recently, the ocean overflew its boundaries and affected a number of towns and villages in Eti-Osa.

    “Coastal areas prone ocean surge like Eti-Osa need to be rescued and protected but this is hardly done now. The usual excuse is lack of fund. Even the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other agencies involved are poorly funded and trained,” he said.

    In his speech at the event, Sanni said Eti-Osa Local Government remains vulnerable to ocean surges, and urged the federal and state governments “to please do all necessary to save our community before it sinks.”

    “Urgent efforts must be made to arrest the current coastal erosion;, continuous depletion of what is left of our mangrove forests should also be halted,” he said.

    Sanni said communities which bear the brunt of development through constant displacements and loss of land “must be protected from the existential threat that is the bye product of the process.”

    The lawyer condemned the activities of illegal sand miners, adding that alternative employment should be provided for the perpetrators.

    “The Federal Government should give serious attention to this issue as it concerns Lagos State especially through the ecological fund. Eti-Osa is as essential to the economic prosperity of Lagos as it is to the socio-economic development of the nation at large,” he said.

    Lagos House of Assembly member, Abiodun Tobun, who chaired the event, said more effort should be made towards protecting the environment, such as by planting more trees “so that the environment can be healthy for all of us to live in.”

    Two lectures were delivered by a council members of the Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Desmond Majekodunmi, and Head, Department of Geography, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. S. I. Oni, represented by Dr Feyi Oni.

    “Nigeria the giant of Africa needs to be a leading voice in Africa for protecting the environment and particularly for cutting back on carbon emission. We should protect our low lying areas – shorelines – by developing groins and sea walls. The Federal Government must become involved, because it is an expensive project. We must stop beach sand mining and sea shell removal. We should be part of the solution, not the problem,” he said.

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Microfinance banks operating under harsh environment’

    ‘Microfinance banks operating under harsh environment’

    •Monitoring normal, say CBN, NDIC

    Microfinance Banks have accused the Central Bank (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) of putting in place harsh conditions for their operation.

    The banks urged the regulatory bodies to be more feasible and stop treating them like commercial banks.

    Chairman, National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), Kwara State branch Chief Joseph Adeyemi spoke on behalf of the banks in Ilorin, the state capital, at an end of the year party.

    Adeyemi urged government at all levels to see microfinance banks as agents assisting in solving some social problems that should primarily be government’s business.

    He said: “The government at all levels ought to assist these grassroots’ banks instead of passing more burdens on them from time to time. The general economic downward indices have affected profitability of most banks this year. But I think our greatest problem in the microfinance banking in the state is arbitrary and multiple taxation.

    “The CBN and NDIC are supposed to be our friends, but sometimes, their reports after routine examinations could be frustrating. Sometimes, the language of some of such reports could be highly provocative and discouraging. The business community ought to cooperate at a friendship level without any form of intimidation. Some of the requests and demands by these bodies cannot be met in view of our capital base.”

    But the Head, Development Finance Office, CBN Ilorin, Shiaka Omokhagbo Dirisu, said the CBN was not being harsh on the banks.

    His words: “Monitoring is part of our work to ensure the growth and stability of the financial sector. You just bear with the CBN. I want to also let you know that the CBN has great value for the MFB sector. If you look at the administrative team of the N220 billion, the International Association of MFB is there. If we do not recognise you, we will not make you a co-administrator of that fund.

    “We have every time realised that you are at the grassroots and that without you, our interventions would not move. Financial inclusion is coming; I want to tell us to prepare ourselves.”

    Also, the NDIC Management Assistant, Ilorin Zonal Office, Kamorudeen Alli, who represented the Zonal Controller at the event, Ferdinard Matthew Jego, said: “Monitoring is part of the job of NDIC and CBN. It is intended to ensure financial uprightness and stability. It is not meant to cripple the activities of the MFBs, but rather to enhance its growth.”

     

  • Energy and the Carbon economy: Global Environmental challenges

    Energy and the Carbon economy: Global Environmental challenges

    The seven critical issues that were brought up at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development included managing cities to ensure welfare of society without putting unnecessary demand on land and resources. Creation of jobs in the aftermath of the global recession, keeping environmental health in mind; “Green jobs,” was highlighted and natural disasters are also on the list.

    A gutter on a street in Lekki halfway through development is littered with rubbish leading to the usual environmental issues of blocked drained, putrid odours and the associated ill health.
    A gutter on a street in Lekki halfway through development is littered with rubbish leading to the usual environmental issues of blocked drained, putrid odours and the associated ill health.

    Throughout the world, 25 per cent of the land has suffered extensive degradation with enhancement of 10 per cent. Companies like Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd address Social & Environmental issues by implementing a systematic land restoration policy which repairs the environment they operate on to eco-friendly conditions.
    The Chinese whose ancient wisdom is respected worldwide have healing methods and techniques which are also known throughout the world. The Chinese have proven that items of waste such as a piece of paper lying on the floor of a room can cause ill health. This is part of a wider picture of corruption, degradation and pollution that follows West African nations in every sphere of society. We focus on the important issues and how they are all interlinked in resolving the desperate situation in which Nigeria finds herself.

    A flooded street on a Lekki road asks the question of which way Nigeria is headed; further development or further degradation?
    A flooded street on a Lekki road asks the question of which way Nigeria is headed; further development or further degradation?

    It is clear that safety with regards to certainty of returns is a key issue affecting investment of public finance. This is why major financial institutions in Nigeria are choosing to stick with the trusted oil (and now gas) economy.

    Carbon from an exhaust pipe from a 15KV generator
    Carbon from an exhaust pipe from a 15KV generator

    ​‘What you don’t know will not hurt you?’ goes the saying. Unfortunately, the preoccupation of the nation with oil and gas as well as solid fuels is an unhealthy one. CO2 (Carbon dioxide), CO (Carbon Monoxide), Methane (CH4), PAH’s (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) amongst other emissions are detrimental to human health (cancer, respiratory tract disease), destroy ecosystems and reduce atmospheric quality (air and Ozone).
    This is aside from the fact that we are depleting our non-renewable sources of energy without persistently pursuing development of more environmentally friendly and renewable sources of energy. ‘Optimizing use of limited resources is one of the biggest challenges facing any decision-maker’ according to the Health and Environment Linkages Initiative (HELI) of the World Health Organisation.
    As far back as June 6, 2007 The Ghanaian Minister of Local Government and Rural Development & Environment, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, repeated a call on Ghanaians to take up ‘sound environmental practices’. Brazil and Ghana have partnered towards developing a bio-fuel energy economy in Ghana as exists in Brazil. Nigeria has plans to embark on a similar route particularly if it proves economically and environmentally worthwhile.
    During the “Indabas” (Zulu for important meeting) in Durban which followed the Kyoto Climate Conference it was generally agreed that the Kyoto Protocol did not do enough to control the level of pollution from developing economies. Countries such as Barbados made pleas for “language instructing all parties to dig deeper into their carbon emissions to speed up the process, arguing that the survival of their countries and millions of climate-stressed people were at risk.” More recently the Climate Change Summit once again addressed these issues.

    Aftermath - residual carbon being pumped out into the atmosphere from a 15KV generator. Generators used for hotels and larger businesses and organisations are much larger and operated for much longer hours.
    Aftermath – residual carbon being pumped out into the atmosphere from a 15KV generator. Generators used for hotels and larger businesses and organisations are much larger and operated for much longer hours.

     
    Below is analysis from the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland: The organization claims that ‘evidence from epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to smoke from incomplete combustion of solid fuels is linked with a range of conditions including acute and chronic respiratory diseases’.

    WHO analysis

    Figures for Water, Health and Sanitation show that 61% of the Nigerian population had access to improved sources of drinking water up from 55% in 2005. Sanitation continued a downward trend in the 21 years from 1990 till 2011 down to 31% from 34%. These conditions resulted in a total of 177,806 deaths in 2004. The deaths account for years of life lost due to premature deaths as well as those lost to disease.
    The total number of deaths attributable to environmental health factors in 2004 reached 669,665. According to the WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository 74% of the Nigerian population used solid fuels whilst 58% used non-solid cooking fuels as at 2007. Indoor air pollution related deaths in Nigeria in 2004 amounted to 95,255. Outdoor air pollution exposure was at 124 PM10 ug/m3 (Particulate Matter in micrograms per metres cube), in 2006. The number of deaths resulting from outdoor air pollution was 2,547 in 2008. 57 deaths in ‘low-and middle-income countries of the African Region’ (WHO figures) were attributable to climate change.
    Information from the Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion Department, WHO reports 235 million asthma sufferers as at 2011. 3 million deaths in 2005 resulted from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) of which 2.7 million occurred in low to middle income economies.
    The hurdle is a requirement for a quantitative measure of the cost of environmental pollution which will help propel any proposed measures to address the issue. The bind is that majority of the costs can only be measured in terms of health due to ignorance and poverty in many of the affected nations.
    ‘Economic assessment is a vital tool that can enumerate potential costs and value the anticipated benefits of a proposed programme, policy or regulatory initiative, and reflect trade-offs inherent in alternatives’, says HELI.

    The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) report concerning ‘Research for Universal Health Coverage’ which includes ‘Investigations ranging from clinical trials to health policy studies can help chart the course to improved health outcomes and reduced poverty, but research needs national and international backing to succeed,’.

    Maria E. Amezaga, Global Strategy Manager – Brand, Social Media and Innovation at Shell asks if ‘taxing carbon emissions is a viable solution for reducing the carbon footprint and improving sustainability?’ In light of the pressures for energy efficiency, carbon trading would help the developing countries’ need to drive economic growth. It would also promote development of alternative energy such as solar power and wind energy.

    To make our economies stronger and protect the environment, energy, which plays a role in every aspect of our everyday lives, must be used efficiently and sustainably. ‘United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leads a Sustainable Energy for All initiative to ensure universal access to modern energy services, improve efficiency and increase use of renewable sources’.

     

    www.linkedin.com/groups/Future-Energy-Shell

    www.uncsd2012.org/7issues

    http://www.who.int/evidence/bod

    http://apps.who.int/gho/indicatorregistry/App_Main/view_indicator.aspx?iid=2256

     

    22A Adebisi Popoola Crescent Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1, Lekki, Lagos

    Tel: 08158433577

    Email: mideogungbemi@gmail.com

  • “IJN” scientists in a massively inhospitable environment for science – an epilogue

    “IJN” scientists in a massively inhospitable environment for science – an epilogue

    Religion is the opium of the people (but it is also) the soul of a soulless world.
    Karl Marx

    The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana is one of the best research and teaching universities in the U.S. and the world. It is a Christian denominational institution. Its leading social and natural scientists are first rate scholars and researchers. To teach and do research in this fine institution, it is not required that you should be a Christian, though of course if you are a Christian and also a top-flight scientist, Notre Dame will be very pleased to have you among its distinguished faculty. At this institution, both Christians and non-Christians have absolutely no obligation to attend church worship, prayer vigils or revivalist crusades since these are not part of the essential work and identity of the institution as is the case with our own Redeemer’s or Covenant University. As far as I know, there is not a single “IJN scientist” on the faculty of Notre Dame. In our country, “IJN scientists” are, by a long shot, the majority among men and women of science in our tertiary institutions.

    I openly admit it: I am being very, very deliberately provocative in coining this term, “IJN scientists”. This of course then necessitates providing a working definition of the term. To this, I say that an “IJN scientist” is a highly formally qualified, highly formally credentialized scientist who believes that since God is in control, since In Jesus’ Name nothing is impossible, you can still do science, you can still produce scientists of the next generation in an environment that is extremely inhospitable to science. This of course is total nonsense: you cannot do quality science, you cannot produce quality scientists of the next generation in an environment in which the absolute minimal conditions for doing science don’t exist – as in our country at the present time. The world has never seen and will probably never see scientific work of quality and usefulness to human beings where you have no infrastructures, no water, no electricity and all you have as a scientist is your faith that God is in control and somehow you will become and remain a great woman or man of science.

    Let me expatiate further on this term, “IJN scientists”. If there are no “IJN scientists” at Notre Dame, this is largely due to the fact that in the U.S. as in the other leading scientific and Christian nations of the world, there are no “IJN scientists”. These countries spend colossal sums on science and science education. And they have excellent environments for doing and teaching science. In a formal sense, they are Christian nations and indeed many of their top scientists are Christians. As a matter of fact, one can imagine that when such scientists that are also Christians submit grant applications to the National Science Foundation (NSF), they may pray to God for the success of their grant applications. But they know that if they don’t get the much-needed grant, no amount of prayers and vigils will advance their research projects. What is the basis of this assertion? Simple: in the leading scientific and Christian nations of the planet, you cannot simply say God is in control when your colleagues who get the prestigious grants are producing landmark scientific research while you produce nothing of merit, nothing of value. This means that “IJN scientists” are produced only  in a country like ours where you can be considered a great man or woman of science when your last scientific work of value was done years and decades ago when conditions were far less dire and inhospitable for doing and teaching science.

    At this stage, the careful reader might have noticed that I am making, indeed I am insisting on a distinction between “IJN scientists” and non-IJN scientists both of whom are Christians (or Moslems or Judaists) and both of whom believe in the existence of God. In this, I am returning to my insistence in my series on religion and science, faith and rationality, that though they are fundamentally different operations of the human mind and express often quite opposed dimensions of human thought and sensibility, religion and science are not incompatible. I am returning to this point here because I got many emails from readers who gave passionate arguments trying to convince me to change my view and accept that religion and science have little or nothing to do with each other. In fact one of such interlocutors went as far as to suggest that if great scientists like Newton and Einstein were also believers in the existence of God, that does not mean that science and religion are compatible. All it means, according to this interlocutor, is that Newton and Einstein managed to effectively keep God out of their scientific work!

    But I remain unconvinced by this argument, this insistence that the religion and science are incompatible. In their most penetrating and beneficial forms, both religion and science entail extraordinary feats of intellectual and psychic energy; they both entail hard toil and considerable creativity of thought and imagination. I think fellow atheists who insist on the absolute separation of the two misrecognize this fact; probably, they take all forms and expressions of religion as mystification, especially when, as in contemporary Nigerian Christianity, there are legions upon legions of charlatans, swindlers and impostors at the highest level of the pastorate. But religion has a rich, ambiguous and complex place in human affairs. Which is why I have nothing but the greatest admiration for such schools and movements of religious thought and action as Martin Luther King’s Southern Leadership Christian Council (SLCC), Liberation Theology in Latin America and the centuries of work that the order of Franciscans, with their vows of poverty, did among the poor and the wretched of Europe. In these expressions and movements of radical and progressive religious expression and activism, we are far from the laziness, the mendacity, the bad faith of our “IJN scientists” in invoking God while nothing of scientific value is being produced, while indeed the masses of laboring and suffering Nigerians are being looted dry to the skin of bare life.

    Of course, I am only too aware of the fact that the distinction that I am making between one type of religion and another, between, on the one hand, the true saints and intellectuals in and of religion and, on the other hand, the holy charlatans and swindlers is difficult to sustain in our country at the present time, with perhaps one or two notable exceptions. For any thinking man or woman of religious disposition in our country today, it is difficult to look at the total darkness, the complete decay that envelops religion and be willing to accept my insistence that not all that we have in the heritage of religion in this country and the world is rotten. For I suspect very much that this is why many of the fellow atheists who wrote me pleaded so passionately for me to not provide an alibi, a reprieve for the kind of religion we have in this country today. But as I have said on other occasions in this column, I have lived long enough to have known a time and a form consciousness when religion was not, by and large, the rotten moral and spiritual sinkhole that it has become in our country at the present time. At any rate, against certain schools of hidebound and narrowly defined atheism, I insist absolutely that at certain levels and forms of exertions and operations of the human mind and imagination, religion demands and gets the same kind of hard, dedicated and venerable work that we associate with science and scientists.

    This leads me to my concluding thoughts in this piece, thoughts having to do with belief in the existence or non-existence of God. Frankly speaking, while this issue has deep and fascinating intellectual, moral and social implications for us in Nigeria and all of humankind, it has not been of any particular interest to me, either in the series on religion and science or in this prologue to that series. I believe that it is not because of belief or unbelief in the existence of God that one is a either a good or a mediocre scientist. They may invoke God, but show me the man or woman who becomes a truly brilliant and great scientist who has not worked hard and long to reach that position and I will take back my words. If a given person scientist gives the glory to God, that’s fine with me; all I will say or do is tell such a person to become lazy and complacent and see what happens. Thus, the bottom line for me is human effort and inventiveness riding on the cusp of solidarity with the most oppressed and marginalized of our country, our continent and the world.

    This, by the way, is why in the piece on Dr. Adah Igonoh I did not bother in the least to raise and settle the question one way or another whether she was saved by divine intervention or by her rigorous and herculean pursuit of the remedies available through medical science. If she privileges divine intervention, that is her right and that’s fine with me, as long as readers of the piece did not fail to note the great emphasis I placed on the extraordinary work of rationality that she also expended. That is why, even though I suspect that she may not like this, I will still say that I do not see her as an “IJN scientist” who, even as the environment for doing and training scientists in our country worsens and worsens, are content to declare victory in the fading shadow of what science once was in our country: a practice, a tradition, an intimation that indicated that we were on our way to becoming one of the medium level scientific and technological powers in the world.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Ebola: Don advocates clean learning environment

    Ebola: Don advocates clean learning environment

    In response to the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, the Rector Abia State Polytechnic Aba, Elder Allwell Abalogu Onukaogu has advocated clean and healthy learning environment in both private and public institutions in Nigeria.

    In a chat with reporters in Aba, Onukaogu said the need for an improved hygienic, sanitary condition in schools is important , especially now  that the federal and state governments have embarked on campaigns against the spread of the disease.

    Praising the Abia State government for its pro-active move to checkmate the spread of the disease, he also commended the Federal Government for steps taken to contain the spread of disease, adding that as part of the institution’s commitment  to support the efforts of the federal and state governments in containing the disease and to promote a healthy working and learning environment, the institution has provided sanitisers for workers and students of the school.

    He said plans are on to make the sanitisers available at some strategic locations in the polytechnic community to ensure that students and visitors have access to it  in order to prevent contracting the disease. He further revealed that the institution has started equipping the medical laboratory to ensure that medical needs of its students and staff were met.

    “Students and members of staff come from all over the country. As the Ebola disease is prevalent in the country, we have to be careful. We don’t want our students, lecturers or people of Abia to suffer from Ebola disease.

    “We will involve the entire polytechnic community. We are also equipping our medical centre should there be an emergency. If there is an emergency, the first place to take the person to is the medical centre and if the medical centre is not properly equipped to handle such case, the casualty rate will be terrible,” he said.

     

  • MAN, govt seek conducive environment

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said would collaborate  more closely with governments at all levels  to ensure a conducive operating environment for manufacturers for increased capacity utilisation.

    The new MAN President, Dr Frank Jacobs, said the collaboration is expected to also increase employment generation capacity of the manufacturing sector and the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

    Jacobs said there is need to train the youths to appropriate technical skills that will meet the requirement of the industrial sector. He said the body plans to collaborate with tertiary institutions and research bodies to bridge the gap between the manufacturing sector and the academia, and thus improve the skill requirement of industries.

    He sais:”We want to also improve on our evidence –based information generation capacity. We will improve on our ICT compliant level such that data from member companies will be promptly analysed to enhance MAN’s advocacy activities . This will also assist us in the timely analysis of the economy.”

    He said the association plan to establish a centre for entrepreneurial studies which will train and develop entrepreneurs , add value to the society and reduce the yearning for paid employment.

    “We plan to overhaul and update the MAN resource centre which is the business development unit of     MAN to reposition it adequately towards assisting small scale entrepreneurs in developing or improving their business plans. This unit will also undertake clinical evaluation of ailing companies and proffer advice on how to improve their operations,” he said.

  • Group advocates clean, safe environment

    The National President, Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria (ATWAP), Ubina Ubi, has advised residents of the Federal Capital Territory to protect the environment. This, he said, they could do by not throwing away polythene bags, cans and other disused materials that are hazardous to the environment indiscriminately.

    Littering the environment with waste materials, he said, could lead to flooding due to blocking the drainage with them.

    Ubi, who spoke at a briefing in Abuja, said polythene bags when not properly discarded leads to environmental degradation.

    “Empty sachet water polythene bags do not have to end up in the streets or refuse dump or the neighbourhood. We can recycle them to generate jobs for our youths. Let our youths engage in the recycling of these bags as it obtains in other countries.

    “Government should enforce environmental laws on the use of polythene.  Most of our streets are littered with polythene bags and water cans. They can cause environmental degradation,” he said.

    He called on the media to help in mobilising and sensitising Nigerians on the need to imbibe the virtue of environmental friendliness.

  • ‘Be conscious of your environment’

    Community leaders, corporate organisations and residents of the Lagos Mainland Local Government Area have been admonished not to do anything that could erode the sanity of the environment.

    The chairman of the council, Hon Oladele Adekanye, who made the call yesterday, told The Nation that it is the responsibility of the residents to cooperate with the government to ensure the preservation of the environment in their interest.

    “Look at the efforts that the state government has been putting into lifting the environmental condition of the state; it is the same spirit that is passionately imbibed by all the local government councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs). The people must join the crusade by sustaining the right attitude to their surroundings for decent living.

    “The annual tree planting that we all participated in last week is part of the efforts aimed at preserving our environment. We are all generally involved. Also, we must be conscious of the way we treat our environment, especially the manner in which we dispose of wastes, our attitude to cleaning our surroundings and drains and how well we teach the young around us the ideal we should give our environments,” Adekanye said.

    To complement the council’s various efforts at monitoring the area, the council chief said he had been used to leading some of his aides to monitor his domain occasionally at nights to ensure that residents don’t dump refuse indiscriminately at wrong places.

  • Towards a safe environment

    Towards a safe environment

    Members of Entrepreneurial Action In Us (ENACTUS) have participated in a contest to promote environment-friendly innovations. HALIMAH AKANBI (200-Level Law) and IBRAHIM JATTO (400-Level Zoology) report.

    Entrepreneurial Action In Us (ENACTUS), Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) chapter, has evoked the innovative spirit of students through an entrepreneurship contest held at the institution’s auditorium.

    The competition featured the exhibition of innovative projects done by five teams. The projects were financed by First City Monument Bank (FCMB).

    The first team carried out an evergreen project, which involved the use of briquette – an environment-friendly biofuel that can be used in place of coal or charcoal – to reduce air pollution. The project was unveiled by the team leader, Friday Nwankwo, who explained the use of the substance. He said briquette was made from the mixture of saw dust and moist rice shaft moulded it into round shapes and used as fuel.

    The team approached residents of communities around the campus and taught them how to produce briquettes and use them in fueling energy-saving stoves. The project has economic value of saving the income that could have been used to buy firewood; the raw materials used in the production of briquettes are readily available.

    Members of Team B were trained by a couple in Sokoto on how to use animal skin to produce several leather products such as bags. The husband trained male students how to cut the material into various shapes and styles, while the wife trained female students how to decorate the pieces and sew them into varieties of bags and leather accessories.

    During the presentation, Team B explained that the vocation has economic value, which is to harness natural resources in the state to empower the people. The social value, it said, is the promotion of art and culture of the people of Sokoto. The project was said to be environmentally-safe as the raw materials used are hides and skin of dead animals.

    The project of Team C was tagged: “Rice Cereal for Infants (RCI)”, aimed at eradicating malnutrition in local communities. The team embarked upon a sensitisation programme in the university’s host communities. Afterwards, members came up with a cereal formula produced from rice, carrot and groundnut. The move was to reduce malnutrition in children and to save expenses of buying factory made cereals, which are not affordable to the poor residents.

    Team D’s project was Net School, which involved creation of a website for local schools to make communication easier between parents, students  and the school authorities. Teachers can also use the online medium to communicate students’ performance to their parents. The project was said to be environment-friendly, because it discourages the use of papers which is made from trees.

    The last team carried out tomato puree project, which involved grinding and boiling of tomatoes. The pulverised substance was stored in mayonnaise containers and exposed to intense heat by boiling the paste in the bottles in order to pasteurize it. The tomato puree can be safely stored for a period of six months.

    The idea was to prevent waste of tomato by peasant farmers, who could not store the produce because of their lack of adequate storage facilities. It would also discourage women to buy imported tomato pastes. The team estimated that 160 women would save ¦ N4 million every year. The project was evaluated to have environmental value as it would save people from littering the community with spoilt tomato paste.

    Before winners were announced by the panel of judges, Commissioner for Environment, Dr Jabbi Kilgori, praised the innovative spirit of the students in imparting on the people and empowering themselves. He also recognised the students’ effort to initiate environment-friendly projects to reduce pollution and environmental problems.

    The ENACTUS Staff Adviser, Mallam S.B Shamaki, said all the teams performed brilliantly and described all of them as winners.

    Team A, which carried out evergreen project, won the contest, while Team B with its leather project, came second. The winners were presented with trophies by the Dr Kilgori.

    The projects would be presented in national challenge of the ENACTUS  coming up in Lagos later this month.