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Tag: Ezekwesili

  • Ezekwesili, Eastern Assembly, HURIWA knock Buhari’s broadcast

    Ezekwesili, Eastern Assembly, HURIWA knock Buhari’s broadcast

    A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday described the broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari as a “missed opportunity”.

    “I can give an instant citizen’s feedback to President @MBuhari that his speech this morning was a a terrible case of missed opportunity,” she twitted yesterday.

    The Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA) faulted the President’s position on the unity of Nigeria, which Buhari said was not negotiable.

    In a statement by its secretary Elliot Ugochukwu Uko, the ECA said the “shocking position of the president is a confirmation that he is clearly the wrong person to govern Nigeria”.

    It added: “Nigeria is tottering at the edge of the precipice, bursting at the seams and sitting on a combustible keg of gun powder, and Mr Buhari and his speech writers are the only people who are unaware of this self-evident fact.

    “If Mr. President does not immediately as a matter of urgency set up a constituent assembly to draft a new people’s constitution that will be affirmed at referendum before the end of 2017, there will be no Nigeria by 2018.

    “We also implore Mr. President to apologise to Nigerians without delay on his very provocative position on Nigeria’s very fragile unity.

    “It is a tragedy that we are ruled by a man who is completely out of touch with reality. This means that the disintegration of Nigeria is inevitable, as only an early return to true fiscal federalism anchored on regional autonomy in an immediate consensual restructuring may save Nigeria now.

    “Those who are yet to come to grip with that are living in another world.

    Nigeria must be negotiated or Nigeria will die.”

    Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA),  the presidential address is “not far-reaching and re-assuring”.

    HURIWA also said Nigeria’s unity is not cast in iron and is open to continuous negotiations, restructuring and reworking since ab initio the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, which produced the geographical entity called Nigeria, was done by the British colonial overlords without the democratic input of our forefathers.

    The group reminded the President that even the United Kingdom that: “gave us the independence is open to the possible break-up through the democratic referendum by one of the component parts known as Scotland.” In life, one basic fact that is permanent is change,” it said.

    In the statement jointly signed by National Coordinator  Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Director of Media Miss. Zaniab Yusuf, HURIWA said:  ”May we respectfully remind President Buhari that Article 1 of the international Covenant on civil and political Rights states thus: ”All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right that freely determines their political status and freely pursues their economic, social and cultural development. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights avers that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and no one may be compelled to belong to an association”.

  • Varsity teachers’ demands unrealistic, says Ezekwesili

    Varsity teachers’ demands unrealistic, says Ezekwesili

    A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has said the demands by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were unrealistic in light of Nigeria’s economic situation.

    Ezekwesili spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan while reacting to the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.

    The former minster said lasting solution to the crisis bedevilling the education sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU and evidenced based policies.

    “Money is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key.

    “There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding.

    “You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.

    According to her, a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments should be integrated into the university system.

    “If you remember, the ASUU negotiation started in 2007 when I was the Minister of Education and we constituted a government negotiation team, led by the late Gamaliel Onosode,

    “Even though that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure that we were being evidenced based in the way we were solving the problem.

    “We considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in emerging economies,’’ she said.

    The former minister said the team also considered what could be done by the public and private sectors about university funding among others.

    “Those are the kinds of evidence that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our negotiation at that time.”

    Ezekwesili urged both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find lasting solution to the dispute.

  • Economy: Buhari’s government confused, adamant, says Ezekwesili

    Economy: Buhari’s government confused, adamant, says Ezekwesili

    Former Vice President of the World Bank for Africa, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has described the economic policies of the government as “confusing,” expressing regret that in spite of the confusion, the government remains “adamant.”
    Ezekwesili, convener of the Bring Back Our Girls and former minister was speaking in the current edition of The Interview magazine.
    Answering a question on the call for diversification, she said: “I am not a fan of the economic policies of this government so far; I feel it’s too tentative in making even the right policy decisions and even when it tries to make the right policy decisions, it has been in the breach. It has been very confusing.”
    In a statement, the MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Azu Ishiekwene, described the interview as “a no-nonsense call to reflection. Oby is not treading on eggshells. It’s bareknuckle stuff.”
    Ezekwesili said: “It’s not that the government is timid; it’s about doing the wrong things and being adamant about them.”
    She cited the government’s monetary and fiscal policies as key areas of denial of “empirical evidence” and called for structural reforms and better citizen engagement.
    In the interview, conducted before the BBOG’s visit to Sambisa, Ezekwesili wept over the fate of the remaining Chibok girls, saying the episode had exposed the Federal Governments in their “worst form.”
    She spoke on what she would do if President Muhammadu Buhari invited her to serve; her perception of former President Goodluck Jonathan and her relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
    Also in this edition, the founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership, Prof Pat Utomi, spoke, among other things, on why he is not in Buhari’s cabinet and on Nigeria’s “self-inflicted recession.”
    Entrepreneur Mo Abudu; leadership capital enthusiast, Linus Okorie; and pharmacist-turned-bag designer, Maureen Obayewa, also share their experiences.

  • Air Force flies Ezekwesili, others to Sambisa forest

    Air Force flies Ezekwesili, others to Sambisa forest

    Troops discover bodies of Boko Haram fighters

    Two Air Force Beechcraft planes yesterday flew military officers, government officials and leaders of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaigners on a surveillance of the Sambisa forest – the former stronghold of the terrorist group Boko Haram.
    Aboard were BBOG members former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwezili, coordinator Aisha Yesufu and Dr. Manasseh Allen.
    On the flight were Minister of Defence Brig.-Gen. Dan Alli (retd.) Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and Information Minister Lai Mohammed  …
    BBOG leaders made the trip after declining to do so and giving the government conditions which were rejected.
    On Sunday night, the BBOG wrote to Mohammed on its decision to join the surveillance.
    The contingent was flown to Yola, the Adamawa State capital, from Abuja on an air transport plane Hercules C-130 before the surveillance flight.
    They returned from the trip at about 6pm. Another team, comprising of journalists, were on night surveillance.
    Also yesterday, troops discovered a mass grave where insurgents who escaped with injuries during a battle with soldiers, but later died, were buried.
    To Gen. Alli, the capture of Camp Zairo in Sambisa forest is “end of Mission” and not the end of the campaign against Boko Haram.
    The minister spoke in Yola at the Command Centre of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) during a briefing for members of the BBOG team.
    The BBOG group had been invited by Mohammed on an operational visit to Sambisa forest to have a first- hand view of how the military had been fighting the war on insurgency and the efforts to rescue the abducted Chibok girls.
    The minister was responding to questions from Ms. Ezekwezili on why the military was still conducting operations in Sambisa when it claimed to have captured it.
    “Camp Zairo is the spiritual headquarters of Boko Haram. It doesn’t mean when you capture that all of them will disappear, but it is significant because it was thought that the place was impregnable.
    ”Capturing Camp Zairo is the end of the mission to capture the place; we are not saying the campaign is over but we have dominated Camp Zairo.” the Minister said.
    Leading the briefing, the Air Officer Commanding, Tactical Air Command, Air Vice Marshal, Nurudeen Balogun, said NAF Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance  (ISR) missions over Sambisa forest revealed women and children trying to flee Boko Haram.
    Also at the briefing was the Chief of the Air Staff.
    “We have intensified our ISR to ensure displaced Boko Haram members do not regroup. Since January 1 to 15, 2017, we have flown a number of sorties and there have been some sightings of abductees,” Balogun said.
    He recalled that on January 7, some women and children were seen fleeing from a Boko Haram hideout near Dure village, Njimia, Tumbun Rego, Arege, Dogon Chuku and Yuwe villages.
    “On January 8th, our Mi-17 aircraft picked up eight women and 11 children from a location close to Dure village. The women were taken to Maiduguri airbase and thereafter to the air force hospital for medical check-up.”
    CAS Sadique Abubakar said the rescue of the Chibok girls and other abductees is one of the major aims of the NAF. He said the NAF has procured four aircraft dedicated to ISR and is working on the fifth one.
    “Until 2015, we had only one aircraft doing ISR, but now we have four and about to fit one of the most sophisticated cameras into the fifth.
    “We want you to know that we are careful not to bomb people who have no business fighting us. If we are fighting Boko Haram because they are killing people, we can’t go on and do the same. There are times when the pilots would return to base with their bombs because they sighted women and children.
    “I am glad you are here, you will go on board with us and see how much our personnel have put in this. Sometimes they leave by midnight and don’t come back until 4:am just looking for all abductees and the Chibok girls,” Air Marshal Abubakar said.

  • Ezekwesili to IGP: Nobody can threaten BBOG group

    Ezekwesili to IGP: Nobody can threaten BBOG group

    Leader of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy, Oby Ezekwesili, on Thursday said nobody can threaten members of the group since they are bonafide citizens of the country.

    Ezekwesili, who said they are guaranteed their rights by the constitution, advised the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to educate himself properly about democracy and citizens’ right to peaceful assembly.

    She also said the previous administration used similar tactics to violate their rights, but those (rights) were upheld by the constitution and court.

    Speaking at the group’s gathering in Abuja, Ezekwesili said, “our response is that he (IGP) should ask for the file that recorded our advocacy between 2014 and 2015 when the previous administration used all kinds of tactics similar to this one to try to violate our constitutional liberty. Not only did the constitution uphold that right, the court also upheld our rights. He should just read this files, he should be able to find what he needs in order to educate himself properly about democracy and citizens’ right to peaceful assembly.

    “We are a peaceful movement as everyone knows, so we are not changing anything, no retreat, no surrender. Are our girls back? If the government says that we are unreasonable in demanding for our Chibok girls in the way that we have been demanding for them since 2014, they need to show the evidence that counters our stance.”

     

  • Why Nigeria’s education is failing, by Ezekwesili

    Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said that the current education system in Nigeria does not meet the needs of the society.

    She said the time spent on education by Nigerians and the value placed on that time does not match.

    Ezekwesili, who spoke in Abuja at the opening of Nigerian Education Innovation Summit (NEDIS) 2016, called for an overhaul of education by the Federal Government.

    The former minister, who admitted that the rot in the sector had been there even when she was a minister, warned that the country would be in serious trouble if nothing is done.

    She said: “You have to look at education as a system that has got the input, the output, the outcome and your measurement of what the impact and the outcome really stands for. When you do that, then you realise we are in serious trouble.  We have been in serious trouble since the time I was minister of education.

    “The fact that access to education eludes tens of millions of our children; that for those that do get education, the quality and relevance does not match the needs of the society and therefore there is a mismatch between their own time spent on education and the value that is placed on that time by the market that should be demanding for their skills, knowledge and competences, shows you that whether it is access or value of education, we have a systemic failure and we must overhaul it.

    “When we did the diagnostics to the problems of education as of 2006, we had to generate 436 elements of reforms that you will need to do in order to move the Nigerian education system from the dysfunctionality that it was then – still is now if not worse – to a system that produces world class human capital for our country.”

    Earlier, Managing Director, The Education Partnership Centre, Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, urged Federal Government to scale up the sector to have impact on Nigerians.

    “We want to draw attention to the importance of scaling up as a process. You know we have so many education innovations that are being implemented across the country, but for those innovations to make a significant difference in the education sector, they really have to become more impactful,” she said.

  • Chibok girls symbols of our failure, says Ezekwesili

    Chibok girls symbols of our failure, says Ezekwesili

    Former Minister of Education and convener, Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) Movement Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili has said the abduction of the Chibok girls symbolises “our failure as a nation”.

    She said a nation could only afford to ignore its citizens when it sees no value in them.

    “Citizens’ lives mean nothing because there is something that substitute for them — in our case it is oil. The Chibok girls could be ignored because they are not oil pipelines. They could be gone and yet money will enter the treasury. Our humanity was deadened by an elite obsession with the benefits of oil. Our elite showed us as citizens how to be dead to our humanity.”

    The former minister spoke yesterday at the Daystar Christian Centre, Oregun, Lagos.

    Her words: “Chibok girls are valueless because they are not oil or pipelines. They are symbols of our failure as a nation. Our humanity has been deadened by our obsession with oil.

    “It is time to define a new nation where everyone will be important than any other thing. God is reminding us that life is not about acquisitions.”

    Tracing the event, Mrs. Ezekwesili said the abduction happened almost two months after the murder of 29 school boys in Buni Yadi, Yobe State.

    “The boys’ massacre occurred on February 23 2014. When the news broke, I was devastated.  I told myself this has to be a turning point in the war against terrorism. I screamed and screamed and in response to my scream all we did was hold a centenary dinner.

    “Some of my colleagues in the global community who attended the ceremony queried our humanity. They didn’t understand why the event went on. I thought to myself if Boko Haram gets away with this, then we may have a bigger problem in our hands. I put myself out there and said there was something called moral hazard- if a person behaves badly and isn’t punished, he has a licence for even worse behaviour.

    “My thoughts came to pass on April 14 2014 when 219 school girls were kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State. When the news broke, we pretended like nothing had happened. Life went on. No one in government seems concerned.

    “I told myself I wasn’t going to stop talking. I will talk till they are rescued. Justice must be done for those girls because they symbolise the failure of governance in a nation that doesn’t understand that God looks at government as an institution that exists because of the needs of the poor. The rich and mighty can do without government.”

    The former minister added that the girls would have been rescued if they were the daughters of the elite.

    “If they were the children of the rich, a search party would have gone forth immediately. But it is unfortunate that this has to happen to 219 innocent school girls from poor backgrounds.  From April 15, 2014 till date, cries for justice have continued for them.

    “Many have said to me it is time to move on but I told them about the pledge I made to their parents. I remember when I saw the parents for the first time; they held onto me and said I should promise that I won’t keep quiet.

    “For us, we stand to declare that our Chibok girls represent a thorn in the flesh of our nation. A nation can afford to ignore its citizens when it sees no value in them. Nations that have made economic progress and achieve development value their citizens. It is time for us to define a new nation. A nation where anyone, no matter their rank or position, will be more important to us than any other thing. What God has done with this situation is to remind us that life is not about acquisition. “

    On the BBOG movement, Mrs. Ezekwesili said: “It is a citizens’ funded movement. We made it a principle not to accept donations from anyone or organisation anywhere in the world.”

  • Ezekwesili: Buhari must keep his promise to bring back the girls

    Ezekwesili: Buhari must keep his promise to bring back the girls

    Former Minister of Education and leader of the BringBackOurGirls movement Oby Ezekwesilli spoke with Grace Obike on the expectations of the group, two years after the girls’ abduction.

    When you started the fight, did you ever dream of it getting to two years?

    How could anyone have? I mean there was no way. As a matter of fact, you will recall that I started the advocacy on social media the very next day after the abduction. From the 15th of April, I started screaming that they should please run after these people and get the girls back and it was on the 30th of April that we embarked on our first march but between when I started online and we had our march, I had continued. In fact, on the 23rd of April, the reason that we had the caption #BringBackOurGirls was because on the 23rd of same month, I was at an event in Port Harcourt for the world book capital launch and I had said to the audience that we should all rise and show solidarity for the girls and say that our government should bring them back and it started the hastag bring back our girls. There was no way in all of these that I could have imagined that we would still be talking about them two years on.

    On the day we marched, on the 30th of April and the whole world joined us and continued to call for the girls release, my thought was a minimum of two to three weeks.

    The Federal Government promised to deal directly with the Chibok parents. Has there been any form of communication since then?

    Not that I know of, both the Chibok community as well as the Chibok parents have not heard any interaction with government since our meeting in January, which is very tragic. I think that the government of Nigeria has successively and consistently treated citizens in a very undignifying manner. The way that our Chibok community and parents have been treated both under the previous dispensation and the current one, it just leaves much to be commended at all because when you think of the fact that a nation places little dignity on the life’s of citizens, then you can understand why other nations will hold your own citizens in contempt, you can’t treat your citizens in this manner and expect the rest of the world to consider them.

    Does it mean that you are not satistifed with the government’s actions?

    We are absolutely not satisfied; we feel like our Chibok girls are being let down. You have to understand that the earlier days of the abduction where the more probable period for their rescue that notwithstanding, the current government took over when it was already a year plus of the abduction but if after seven months of the new government, we met with the President and the response to us was no credible intelligence. For whatever that meant it just didn’t come out the right way, not the right thing to say to parents who when they met with him, together with our movement previously in July, a few months after he was inaugurated into office, he gave that assurance that he was going to do his utmost to rescue our Chibok girls. Seven months after, you were then told of lack of credible intelligence. I’m sorry the government of Nigeria exists to find credible intelligence. So, there is no credible intelligence, so what next? Are the parents supposed to take no credible intelligence and just walk away? No, the government owes much more than that and the President needs to keep his promise to these parents and community of Chibok and to our movement that he will not consider Nigeria to have won the war against terrorism without bringing back our Chibok girls and other abducted citizens of the country.

    It’s been two years already, do you believe it is possible for everyone of them to be accounted for? Taking into account the environment they are in with the fighting going on around them?

    It is quite possible that all manner of things would have happened to them by now but the truth is bring ten, twenty, thirty, forty, bring even one to show that the government of Nigeria is totally committed to its citizens. You see, it is so sad but a society that has always functioned not on the basis of the talents, productivity or capability of its citizens but on the basis of money from oil has a tendency to behave as if those citizens don’t matter; that is what we are saying. If we were a country where citizens mattered and depended upon to drive the process of development, they will care about the citizens and do everything for the citizens because to lose 219 of them that went to school to acquire the best knowledge that they can get would be a material loss for the country and it will not be able to take it. So, it will do everything to bring them back. That is why, for example, if one American is in distress, the entire American government would rather shut down and get that person out than allow that one American to be gone without a fight.

    What advice will you give to the government at this point?

    The government must find the credible intelligence. The parents are saying, is it that the government cannot even tell us the story of what happened to our daughters. That is amazing two years on and the government of Nigeria cannot intelligently tell the story of these girls, cannot put together the tracing of where they could possibly be. It’s all about rumours and counter rumours. No, that is not how a country functions. So, get the credible intelligence, bring back all the countries that once came here and were frustrated. Until they left, they had some of the capabilities that we don’t have. In a world of intrusive technology, surely we should be able to figure out what happened to 219 young women. I mean if it was one person, it will be less likely but 219 for goodness sake, we can, so let’s find that credible intelligence and then when we have located that this is exactly the story of what happened to the girls, then we need to acknowledge that it is the responsibility of government to take the risk of a negotiated release of the girls or a military rescue of the girls whichever way. There must not be inaction or tentativeness; it was tentativeness that made the girls stay this long. This is not going to be an open-ended tragedy. There needs to be closure. One of the mothers of our Chibok girls after we met with the President said: ‘I have no closure, why is anybody thinking that just telling me there is no credible intelligence would be a source of closure for me?’ And the President did not say what next, after saying lack of credible intelligence, what next? In this second year of this girls being in abduction, what the government owes the parents, community and those of us who are interested in the matter of these girls’ rescue is what next, it cannot be open ended, it will be irresponsible for it to be open ended.

  • Sagay, Ezekwesili contemptuous of Unilag students

    Sagay, Ezekwesili contemptuous of Unilag students

    At a roundtable organised by the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Lagos, tagged “Winning the War Against Corruption”, ideological schisms on the anti-graft war have manifested on a scale that should begin to worry the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Controversial Vanguard columnist and scholar, Femi Aribisala, drew the first blood when he took on Oby Ezekwesili, a former World Bank vice president, and shredded her viewpoint on the subject to the admiration and applause of the students in the hall.

    According to Mr. Aribisala, “Corruption cannot be narrowly defined the way Dr. Ezekwesili defined it, only relating to public institutions. We are corrupt in Nigeria. The plumber, the tailor, the whole society is corrupt…The 2015 election was not an anti-corruption election. We did not have any political party that presented an anti-corruption mandate to us. The party that won the election was just a makeover of the PDP, I mean the PDP people moved from the PDP to the APC. If they were corrupt when they were in PDP, they became clean when they were in APC.”

    For the students to dare to applaud this trenchant criticism of President Buhari’s anti-graft war, Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, fumed in response: “We are not here to make students clap…We are here on a very serious business. And students, don’t behave like American voters who are ignorant…The appreciation of unserious people shows ignorance. How can someone come here and say there’s no war against corruption and there is clapping?  “

    Also angry and exasperated with the students applauding Mr. Aribisala, Mrs. Ezekwesili thundered:  “I wasn’t surprised that some of you were clapping. The reason you were clapping is that you are a page in your own level of corruption. There are many whose exam malpractice is the basis upon which  they have come to school. So when you are talking about the need to wage a war against corruption, they are completely disconnected from it…There is no comedy session going on here. We are talking about something that can be destructive.”

    Not only were Prof. Sagay and Mrs. Ezekwesili haughty, they were contemptuous of the students. The students, most of whom are studying law, and have thus learnt the basis of law in a society, have a right to appreciate any point that makes sense to them. Rather than counter with superior arguments and also perhaps elicit more vociferous applause from the students, Prof. Sagay and Mrs. Ezekwesili churlishly attacked the students without proof or foundation. They were wrong to do so. They should be worried that when the students applauded Mr. Aribisala last Thursday, it probably presaged a silent but demonstrable shift away from the president and his party, not necessarily that the audience failed to recognise that the controversial columnist was cleverly politicking for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

     

  • Ezekwesili preaches integrity at Abuja 2016 awards

    Ezekwesili preaches integrity at Abuja 2016 awards

    Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, the former Minister of Education has called on entrepreneurs and private companies to adopt ethical values of integrity and transparency in conducting their businesses and also ensure consistency of these values.

    She gave the advice while delivering the keynote address at the 2016 presentation awards by the Abuja Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

    She also complained about the cost of running a business in Abuja as high and dangerous for competitiveness and this will continue to hinder the growth of the city if the situation remains the same. Echoing similar sentiments, president of the ACCI, Mr Tony Ejinkeonye said some companies compromise their integrity in order to reduce cost and increase their profit.

    Dangote Cement, Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) ,Airtel Nigeria Limited were announced as winners of the 2016 excellence award on outstanding company.

    ACCI’s Excellence Awards is a platform to celebrate businesses and corporate organisations that have contributed to economic development of Nigeria.