The Nation Newspaper

Tag: government

  • NGO seeks government partnership

    NGO seeks government partnership

    A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for charity, Peter Ukwa Foundation has said that they will be partnering with government bodies and local councils to initiate projects that support less privileged in society through social outreaches and welfare programs.

    According to the founder, Mr Peter Ukwa, the foundation which is dedicated to engaging in Christian missionary projects is inspired by James 2:27, which emphasizes the importance of assisting orphans and widows in their times of distress and maintaining a pure, faultless religion.

    Read Also: NGO makes case for competent  humanitarian minister   

    “Our vision is to improve the lives of the impoverished and less privileged children across the world. Since its inception on August 8, which happens to be my birthday, the Peter Ukwa Foundation has successfully undertaken its first social outreach of visiting the less privileged children at their orphanage home with food items and other aid supplies. The foundation has lined up initiatives to continuously support orphans and widows in need, as well as welfare programs for impoverished children.

    “The foundation commits to continue its social outreaches and welfare programs. We also plan to expand our reach, collaborate with other organizations, and implement new initiatives in line with our vision of improving the lives of disadvantaged children globally. This may include educational opportunities and scholarships.

  • When the government should be worried

    Innovative thinking has been absent from the leadership style of Nigerian governments. This has created and perpetuated a visionless leadership in the country’s affairs since independence.

    Recently, I got a post showing a country unveiling its new train, which they claimed was the fastest in the world. I also saw the same country unveil what it called the longest bridge in the world. I looked at the pictures wistfully, wondering when Nigeria would unveil ‘something best’ in the world other than corruption or killing. Many modern and gladsome breakthroughs are going on in saner climes without us …

    Rather, what is going on in my insane clime is worrisome. I received a post on the social media in which a community leader got up at a cross-tribal meeting and declared that the incursion of Fulani herdsmen into his community was causing too many deaths. What was worse, he noticed that they were armed to the teeth with AK47s which they were using to carry out the many kidnapping incidents reported in his area, yet no one was holding them accountable. Could anyone therefore help him and his community procure their own AK47s please?

    Honestly, I was shocked. Not that I receive my news from the social media. No, not by a long shot. For news, I go to the news organs. However, the idea that that particular post had crossed many hands, or phones if you like, before getting to mine sincerely had me frightened. Something is clear from all the goings-on: someone is deliberately trying to set Nigeria on fire and the presidency is not worried. That is what has had me worried!

    There are many things about the current happenings that have really befuddled those of us who are not too bright in the head. First of all, in the last twenty-four months, this country has witnessed many herdsmen/farmers clashes with high fatalities usually on the farmers’ side. Yet, despite all the hues and cries, not one of the assaulting group has been arrested or prosecuted. Whenever the public has complained about the activities of herdsmen, for instance, the presidency has gone into pyrogenic dances of words producing heated, unbelievable excuses that beg the question and beggar belief all at once.

    Clearly, there have been many disappointments all around but the most for me has been with the president of the country. When he was sick, we prayed for him and waited for him to return and handle the affairs of this state with his customary firmness. Alas, that well-known firm hand appears to have been washed too many times in softening shampoos. The president’s hand has gone unaccustomedly soft. And I know it did not come from the hand lotion I use.

    Rather than deal firmly with the phenomenon when it first broke, the presidency gave every excuse in the book except the right one. First the excuse of desertification came, followed by the failure of the media to situate the events in their proper context. For the correct information, the people were left to guess and read between the lines, or president’s lips if you like. The people therefore guessed wrongly or rightly that there was a covert government-supported attempt by the Fulani to take over the country. It is so bad now there is a post of a Nigerian international passport page bearing a Fulani herdsman standing with his cows, rather than of me in the classroom with my students! Imagine that!

    Unfortunately, the president has not helped matters by keeping mum over his intentions. Rather, he has left the public to interpret his actions and pronouncements, and I tell you this in confidence, their conclusions are not good. Take the RUGA thing for instance. Many people have seen it as not only an attempt to steal people’s land but actually to plant the Fulani in those communities for a future politico-religious take-over. They are probably correct, I don’t know, but I see it as an outright, bare-knuckle and bare-faced robbery on the government’s part, if the government is indeed behind it. If the government is behind it, then the government is wrong. It is as simple as that.

    Three facts cannot be ignored. One is that there is desertification in the north, particularly the routes covered traditionally by Fulani herdsmen. This desertification did not start in a day. It started many years back, when there was time enough to arrest it if there had been sufficient political will and vision. True, you might argue that it might have resulted from the global warming effect, and I would argue that many countries are also affected but their governments have not asked those affected to move and then arm them against their host communities. That would be a lazy, thoughtless solution that negates modern innovative thinking.

    Two is the fact that the governments in the north appear not to have taken the matter too seriously and have approached it the way governance has typically been done in Nigeria: swallow the money and let the people find their way like blind men. Innovative thinking has been absent from the leadership style of Nigerian governments. This has created and perpetuated a visionless leadership in the country’s affairs since independence. We have not been able to pull ourselves out of that mould of ad-hoc and lazy solutions to problems. No one, for instance, is asking, what happens when desertification strikes those places where the government wants the herdsmen to run to? Will everyone now run into the lagoon?

    The number three fact is that there now appears to be, according to reports, a coalition of herdsmen from surrounding countries who are taking advantage of the fact that the president of the country is friendly. The government, however, cannot will out other people’s lands to others who come from God-knows-where, no matter how well-meaning it is. Governmentally doling out other people’s lands for others to occupy, whether or not they are of the president’s own ethnic group, is no longer feasible in this twenty-first century. To give out any land freely, the government has to grow its own land, either in space or in the sea, certainly not on the land which genealogies have owned for centuries even before Nigeria became Nigeria.

    Goat, sheep or cow herding is an economic activity like any other such as trading, doctoring, etc. Until now, I have not heard of any trades group or crafts group that were allocated land by the government free of charge to practice their trade or craft. I am not aware of any instance even if it has been done. To my knowledge, most people have had to purchase what land they have needed from each other in personal transactions. The government has almost always only been invited to witness the transaction through its agencies with one eye. People should buy the land they need.

    Besides, having encouraged herdsmen to kill and kidnap, would they automatically be cured of killing by the RUGA thing? Most often not. When people taste blood, they do not forget it easily. Herdsmen have tasted blood and have not been prosecuted for murder or kidnapping. I honestly do not expect that to end.

    Many countries have developed home-grown solutions to their problems. Adopting the line of least resistance to the desertification problem is the most uninventive, unimaginative, uncreative and original (please stop me) way to go. We need to be more original.

    The government should concentrate on stopping who is arming the herdsmen for sinister purposes or I’ll begin to seriously think about getting my own AK48, and then get a herdsman to teach me how to use it. Seriously, there are better ways of solving this problem other than letting the people loose pointing AK47s or AK48s at each other. When groups begin to demand their own AK47s, the government should be very, very worried about the potential conflagration.

  • Master Bakers call on government to check flour price increase

    MEMBERS ofAssociation of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) have called on the Federal Government to check incessant price increase of wheat flour in the country. Flour millers, under the umbrella of Flour Milling Association of Nigeria, have just increased the price of 50kilogramme-bag of flour to between N11,500 to N15,000, depending on the variant and brand. There are four variants of wheat flour in the country and four principal millers. They are Honeywell, Dangote (Dangote flour), Flour Mills (Golden Penny flour) and Olam (Mama Gold).

    According to a statement by AMBCN’s National Secretary, Jude Okafor, he  said according to the Forex rate, the price of a 50kg flour should not be more than N8,500 but it is being sold at N10,500.

    “As partner in business, 90per cent of our members are heavily indebted and produced at a loss because they are not allowed to cut standards in order to break through” the statement reads.

    The association also noted that the latest increase will lead to closure of many bakeries, which will lead to unemployment.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Shall we help the President?

    Nigerians are a complex and complicated people; corruption is the norm of the day. It is not only in government circles but in the private and even in our family units. It’s so embedded in the fabric of our psyche.

    In order to eradicate it or bring it to the barest minimum level, it needs a total turn round in the way we see, do and perceive things. Imagine this scenario: A house wife goes to the market to purchase foodstuffs and she makes something for herself. Have you ever imagined why our roads are in a sorry state? Because the contractors cut corners, by using sub-standard materials and also settling those awarding the contracts.

    Why are trailers and tankers still parked on the Apapa axis of Lagos state, despite the control measures put in place by the government?

    What all these boil down to is that President, Muhammadu Buhari in all his wisdom cannot do it alone. Don’t get me wrong; I am neither an APC nor a PDP member.

    In fact, I am apolitical. However, as a bonafide Nigerian, I have a constitutional right to air my views on the abnormalities of our lives.

    My humble submission is that the President of our beloved country, Nigeria, needs help and that help must come now.

    The Abadingo Abadango Family an NGO, whose members are resident all over the country would henceforth proffer solutions to the myriad of problems bedevilling the country and her people at no extra cost to the government but as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

    For starters, the number of unemployed youths especially graduates is so alarming. These youths need to be positively engaged, no wonder some of them have taken to vices as a result of hardship and unemployment. This is in conformity with the adage that says, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”

    Furthermore, a life without dreams and decision is a playground for the devil. But strong dreams and desires, coupled with determination and strong detestation for poverty and mediocrity, should motivate one very early to set deadlines in order to attain a certain level of financial freedom and excellence.

    More so, a life vacant of dreams and deadlines is a life void of drive.

    The said Abadingo Family shall preach the gospel of love and must allow it to sink into the minds of all irrespective of religion especially the youths, the so called future leaders of tomorrow. No matter what damage has been done in the name of love, we are incomplete without it because ultimately LOVE comes from GOD.

    The Family shall introduce some empowerment initiatives to cushion the hardship resulting from unemployment. These could be in the form of skill acquisition, soft loan/capital/workshops.

    It might interest you to observe that the present Trader Moni initiative of this present administration is quite commendable and a genuine step in the right direction.

    Ours is to add colour and spices to it most especially as it is coming from the private sector and an NGO for that matter.

    This laudable initiative of ours will seriously address and bridge the gap of unemployment as they in turn shall eventually become employers of labour. So let’s begin by loving others as much as we love ourselves. This is because the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.

    One area the present administration must urgently focus on is the power sector. Needless, to talk about the painful wastages of yesteryears as regards to power generation and distribution and the building of new power plants. Let’s talk about now and the future and that’s where this administration must come in because they are in the driver’s seat.

    Nigerians are generally a happy people despite the associated problems in the country. However, they will become happier if the present administration implements some of these projects that inadvertently touch everybody.

    • By Kenny Okotie

    Founder/Chairman,

    Abadingo Abadango Foundation

  • ‘Why government, church must empower women’

    Senior Pastor Fountain of Life Church, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, spoke with Omolara Akintoye on the Discovery for women outreach he founded over 20 years ago, which has become a rallying point for the empowerment of women. Excerpts:

    What do you have to say about politics in the nation?

    Politics today is fine at least we see more people getting interested, including the youth and the women. They may not make marks now but the interest is building. I believe we are in a positive direction of course.

    Then another thing is that we need to pray for our politicians and that there will be unity in Nigeria. That it does not matter who gets there but the fear of God and love of brethren should be uppermost in their minds. If we don’t see these two qualities in a man or woman, then they are not qualified to govern us.

    What should be the role of women in nation building?

    When your home is stable then the nation is stable. But when homes are not stable, there will be problems. There is no future because they will raise vagabonds so the women must be equipped. Yes I’m interested in my children. I stay with them and I oversee what they do.

    But much more, my wife and I could remember when our children were growing up. Some were trained here and some abroad. I’ll call them once a week but my wife (of blessed memory) will call them every day. So most of the things I didn’t know about them she knew everything.

    We must educate the women. Mind you a woman that is not educated can only take the child as far as she has.

    What inspired the discovery for women outreach?

    First, it was an inspiration. Then second, while I was growing up I saw the way my father handled my mother. They didn’t have much and they were not also highly educated but they were able to complement each other.

    My mother was such a strong woman. She put her hands into everything that could sustain the home while my father went to work. Then I asked myself what if the two were better educated?

    So I made up my mind to put in my very best to sustain my marriage. That is why if you could recall my late wife, not only was she empowered, she also empowered others.

    Even my current wife is doing similar things and my daughter as well. So we have quite a number of women in the church who are very strong. I love to see strong women.

    What is Discovery for Women all about?

    It has been ongoing: It is aimed at encouraging women, reminding them of the reasons for their existence. A woman is created to be a helpmate for man. So the woman was created adequately to provide the support that the man needs and to have dominion here on earth.

    Even the United Nations has realised that women are not being given the needed attention. You want to change the society, you want to stabilise the economy, then educate the woman because that will in turn educate their children as well as nurturing their children.

    So that is why we give a lot of attention to the women. What we do is to help them be the best they can be, supporting humanity and making humanity to do what God has called us to do here on earth.

    What will be different with this year’s edition?

    This rally is tagged New Possibilities: Never believe that because your life is defined by ebbs and flows and usually when you get to the ebbs there is tendency for you to get stuck. But the good news is that you don’t have to get stuck, you can have a continuous flow in Christ.

    So we want to encourage people that if you experience setbacks, disappointment or things are not measuring up as planned, this usually truncates a lot of people’s dreams and drive for the future. We don’t want that for our women, even though they suffer setbacks. Ours is to encourage and equip them adequately with all that they need to know.

    At the end of the programme what kind of women do you expect to see?

    We expect to see women who will rise above challenges of the moment, not just rising above the challenges but also carrying the children along and community as well. Take for instance Rwanda, in the beginning of the genocide it is amazing to discover that it was the women who decided that they with revive their country.

    For the first time they have a National Assembly dominated by women and today talk of development and progress in Africa, you want to point to Rwanda. That is what women are created for: fill in where there are gaps, help the man to realise his stands again to forge ahead. So the man goes fighting, the woman stays back to stabilise things. So the woman is a true help meet.

    What Nigeria has to do is go give her people proper education. In the North, especially the women otherwise the problem that is perennial in North will persist. Our women need proper education.

    Take for instance where villages were attacked by terrorists in the North. The men go to fight once they are gone but the women are left behind with the children. You want to preserve posterity, want to project into the future, develop and advance, empower the woman.

    Every woman should be empowered. She should be able to stand for herself and by herself before she even gets married. So when she is married, she is empowered in all areas, submitting to her husband. The two are one and they have a formidable front.

    Then you can imagine the future of their products and their children. Unlike now that with the exception of very few of them, most Nigerian women are just subservient, which is very bad. They are being used as baby factories but when a woman is educated they will know that they are not baby- making machines.

    She has her life and she has her future. These are the kinds of teachings that we give them in the course of the programme. Take hold of yours from a biblical point of view. Deborah, for instance, when the nation had completely lost direction, Deborah stood up and began to lead her people. So you begin to understand why God says a man needs a true helpmeet.

    Yes the man needs a helper but any plan for the men as well?

    Oh yes we have ‘Discovery for Men’ and our first rally for this year is being held this March. We have been running this programme for over 20 years. Yes it is important that while you are talking to the women, we also need to talk to our men as well.

    As a matter of fact  we have two rallies which will be organised in the church, then we are taking it to the communities to encourage men who are already trained, to rise up and nurture other men. Men needs to be encouraged because they get easily discouraged much more than women.

    What is the church doing to ensure that government empowers women as well?

    Well, we do our best in the sense that we advertise our programmes and also collaborate with government as much as possible. For instance, we have a foundation where we reach out to young girls that are battered and abused.

    In fact, most of them were sent to us from Alausa, here in Lagos. Also we have the Fountain Initiative, where we empower women in Business. We also take off men, women and children under the bridge to empower them and reunite them with their family members.

    Today we have success stories of many of them that have graduated from the universities through the church scholarship programme and some are still in school.

    We also partner with UNESCO and through the Lagos State government we go to prisons, providing men and women with advocacy programme for them not to lose hope while in prison and when they come out of prison, some of them come back to us and we do all we could to re-integrate them properly into the society by empowering them all round.

  • ‘Government should review suicide law’

    A Non-Governmental Organisation, Mind and Souls Helpers Initiative, has urged government at all levels to review the law on suicide offenders.

    The Initiative’s Project Director, Dr. Promise Adiele, stated this yesterday in Lagos, during a mental health lecture, which addressed depression and suicide among adolescents.

    Convener of the Initiative and Chairman of its Board of Trustees (BOT) is Prof. Hope Eghagha.

    According to Adiele, anyone attempting suicide is not in the right frame of mind and therefore needs help.

    He said: “Somebody wants to kill himself, you catch the person, you say the person has committed a crime, you take the person to court and put him in jail; does it make sense? This is somebody who does not want to live anymore; he feels suicide is the best option.

    “Government should reverse the law, because anyone who attempts suicide needs help; nobody will attempt to commit suicide in the right frame of mind. Nobody wakes up one day and says he wants to commit suicide; it takes a process of weeks, months and years to conclude on committing suicide.

    Read also: Benue council worker commits suicide over unpaid salaries

    “You don’t need to arrest somebody who wants to commit suicide and jail him. Those who came up with the law should readdress it. To say somebody attempting suicide is a criminal is wrong.

    “The way out of depression is education, motivation, talking to the right people, seeing the right side of life and knowing that depression or suicide is not the best option.

    “People are depressed because nothing is working. It is difficult to live in this country; the country itself makes you depressed. The government adds to depression from the traffic to poor electricity. Not having money, not being married is not the end of the world.”

    He also urged parents to take it easy on their children, saying they should not use wrong words on them.

    “Parents expect too much from their children and this makes them the biggest destroyer of children. We all have to learn from each other, no one is equally gifted; each child should be allowed to be what they want to be and they must not be abused.

    The guest lecturer, a Clinical Psychologist at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Ibiyokun Olawale, noted that when depression sets in, most people do not know how to handle the situation.

    He said: “People to work on their mental health so that when depressed, they will know how to handle it. This lecture is to let the youths know that depression and suicide are real; depression can lead to suicide and they must know that suicide is not the ultimate. They should talk to the right person which can be a relation or teachers; but they must know how to manage themselves so as not to have suicide as an option.”

     

  • ASUU, government and development

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) formed in 1978, was preceded by the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) which began in 1965. However, unionisation of university staff is a universal component of life and living. Thus, for example, in the UK, there was the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) which came into existence in 1904. It merged with the Association of University Teachers (AUT) in June 2006.  The merger is now christened, the University and College Union (UCU). In Ghana, such a body is called the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG). This is in addition to the Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG). All these unions or associations are basically for promoting professionalism and welfare of staff members within the confines of national and trans-national understanding including relevance.

    Protests and/or strike actions are common to all unions in order to force government or its establishments to respect the views of workers. However, unions differ in terms of their modes of operation from one country to another. For instance, the longest strike embarked upon by UCU in the UK was in February 2018. It lasted for 14 days. The affected lecturers were protesting against obnoxious changes in their Pension Scheme that would make them worse off by about 10,000 pounds in a year. At least 57 universities including such world-class institutions as Cambridge, Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) took part in this strike. All the stakeholders never slept until an amicable settlement was reached. Again, AUT (prior to the merger) was not too bookish to get involved in regional or international politics.  This underscores the reason why in April 2005, AUT wanted to isolate Israeli academics. This was intended to force Israel to change aspects of its foreign policies embedded in maximum discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians. This boycott was with a special emphasis on the University of Haifa and Bar-llan University. The above scenario shows that university lecturers are the conscience of the society. Indeed, profound intellectualism is firmly rooted in borderless-ness.

    It is interesting to note that UTAG (University Teachers’ Union of Ghana) does not embark on strikes that would in most cases, be longer than five days. All the main stakeholders are conscious of the need to maintain a stable academic calendar and by extension, academic integrity and healthy society. Nobody wants to rock the boat. This is unalloyed patriotism in action! The central government speedily attends to the demands of UTAG. There is no room for superiority complex, unlike in Nigeria. This patriotic mentality paves the way for robust exchange programmes with such countries as UK, US and parts of Asia. Proportionally, Ghana spends much more on education than Nigeria despite the fact that the latter was a larger economy. One-third of the total national budgets of Ghana goes to education. The leaders know that without thoroughgoing education sustainable economic development remains a mirage. In Nigeria, only seven percent of the total budgets in 2018 was allocated to education.  The largest budget for education between 2009 and 2018 in the country was 9.94 percent of the total budgets of N4.962 trillion in 2014. This amounted to N493 billion. Nigeria had the lowest budget for education in 2010 with 4.83 percent. This amounted to N249.09 billion out of N5.160 trillion. UNESCO through its document christened, “Education for All” (EFA) has suggested at least 17.5 percent of the total budget of a country for education.

    Out of a total budget of N55.19 trillion in the last one decade, only N3.90 trillion (7.07 percent) went to the education sector. It is little wonder that Nigeria’s illiteracy level is the highest in the global village. In a plain language, more serious security challenges arising from abject poverty and hopelessness are imminent. Nigeria despite its huge natural resources remains a neo-colonial economy-packaging cassava and yam tubers among other crops for export to Europe, America and parts of Asia in the 21st century. The processed natural resources are then returned to us at exorbitant prices. We badly need local intermediate technologies for processing the available resources.  So far we are merely promoting Western and to some degree, Asian industrialisation at the expense of Nigeria’s economic development.  Therefore, good quality education is a necessity as opposed to an option. As far as the Nigerian leadership is concerned, education is a triviality, in a country where a single politician recently bought 40 buses in a day for electioneering campaigns. This is our dear country where over 80 million people are desperately poor and homeless.

    The federal government must learn to respect and implement agreements entered into with ASUU. Political administration is by its nature, an exercise embedded in transformation and/or continuity. It is to some extent, a continuum. Government can easily re-negotiate with ASUU who is always ready to prevent strike actions in the overall interest of Nigeria. But those representing government must have genuine humility and enormous administrative capacity in order to pave the way for robust, corporate bargaining. Arrogant and primitively over-zealous persons can only escalate the matter into a full-scale crisis because ASUU is not a zombie or lifeless organization. ASUU abhors strike actions because of their debilitating effects on the larger Nigerian society, but unfortunately the snobbish attitude, egoism and nonchalance of our government remain a big encumbrance to peace and progress on a sustainable scale.

    The behaviour of the Nigerian political class stinks to high heavens! Consequently, no Nigerian university belonged to the first 1000 universities by the recent world ranking and yet the country has 146 universities many of which are of course, near-complete, glorified secondary schools. More “universities” are in the pipeline. Every politician wants a university in his village for political gains. Unstable academic calendar, caricatured research facilities, poor welfare of staff and intellect-unfriendly environment are contributing to the current capital flight. An average of $2 billion is spent yearly for the overseas education of young Nigerians. Painfully, the Nigerian students who are the first victims of poor funding of education as well as incessant but inevitable ASUU strikes are yet to show sufficient concern. They are busy paying self-seeking visits to the political leaders/rulers who are consistently short-changing them and their parents. I feel pity for them because of their superficiality and unthinkable ignorance anchored to our relatively new social environment crafted and ruled by lust for positions, unbridled materialism and fractured values including value-systems. All these scenarios are a testament to the fact that Nigeria badly needs an ethical revolution.

     

    • Professor Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Enact laws to cater for widows, cleric tells government

    •advocates more elective positions for women

    The President/General Overseer of Amazing Grace Pentecostal Church Lagos Bishop Dr. (Mrs.) Chioma Dauji has called on governments to show interest in the plights of widows by enacting laws that will cater for their welfare and wellbeing.

    Dauji, whose ministry runs a foundation which focuses on widows’ empowerment among other programmes, spoke with reporters in her office at the Church premises last Sunday during the 2018 annual convention and Thanksgiving of the Church.

    The foundation Great Changers Foundation International, (GLIFIN) has as its core focus rehabilitation of destitutes/ex-prison inmates/prostitutes; orphanage;  youth empowerment scheme; prison visitation; skill acquisition and scholarship scheme; community based services; educational support and scholarship scheme etc.

    She said widows are suffering a lot because of wrong traditional beliefs.

    According to her: “They are being humiliated and it is high time government started looking into widows matter; they don’t have accommodation or even what to eat, most of their children are on the streets, they should be remembered.

    “Let there be laws against maltreatment of widows, they should be treated fairly, most of them are sickly and they need medical attention but they cannot afford it. The government should put laws in place to take care of them.”

    Speaking on the theme’s convention ‘Reversing the irreversible’, she counselled no matter the situation Christians find themselves, they should not look down on themselves because there is no situation God cannot reverse.

    “Even as a nation no matter what Nigeria is going through now, we must not lose hope. We should look unto God because He can reverse our situation and make it better.

    “Forget about yesterday, as an individual and as a nation, look to the future, don’t look unto any man, look unto God and trust and have faith in Him and God will reverse the irreversible,” she said.

    Dauji also advocated women should be considered for more elective positions because they always perform better.

    “Women know how to organise things better and we are more compassionate. Allow women to surface, give them chance.

    “Women are ready but tradition is keeping them down and that tradition must be done away with so that the women can come up,” she said.

  • ‘We need the best brain in our education sector’

    Alhaji Tajudeen Ibrahim, an expert in Civil Engineering and Construction Management was into Construction business for many years before he became the CEO FUNTAJ International School in Asokoro, Abuja.
    In this interview with Omolara Akintoye, he speaks about the role of education to national development and good education.

     

    Your educational background?

    I went to Omolewa Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan. After all the sojourn of my father politically where he was grounded to zero during the Operation Wet e, in those days, it was big trouble to get out of the village and come to Ibadan.

    Later I went to Children Home School and spent a short period there before going to Ibadan Grammar School. I also attended Adeola Odutola College in Ijebu-Ode.  I didn’t complete my Higher School
    Certificate (HSC) before I proceeded to America where I obtained my first and second Degree, first in Civil Engineering in Washington University, second in Construction Management before I came back to Nigeria.

     

    Your growing up

    I was born in 1960 and my parents are still very much alive. I’m a lucky one and they reside in Ibadan. I’ve gone through the thick and thin to get to get to the position I am today. I was not born with silver spoon because my parents, particularly my father was just coming out of civil service as a forest guard in our hometown, Ikire in Osun State.

    So I did not see any qualification of silver spoon in that for the fact that as a civil servant, he only relied on his salary, and struggles to make ends meet but as he was growing old, his life was getting better and I woke up and grew with his rise in achieving success.

    I got quite a lot of inspirations from my father.  He was a very hardworking man who never gives up on anything and his watchword is work hard and you will make it.  Just believe in yourself whatever you want to undertake, so I will say I really learned a lot from that.
    His own wish is that everybody, both biological and non-biological children must get the best of education and equal opportunity for everyone despite the polygamy setting.

    What was the first business you ventured into?

    I worked with my father in his construction company.   As a Civil Engineer, I had to help him shape up his company.  I had to inject some new ideas into the company which was quite challenging, but later we started getting contracts, we constructed political parties’ offices in Ondo and Oyo states.

    Eventually we got a very big contract to build one of the three primary secretariats under ACON Nigeria Limited, in Abuja.  He was the Managing Director of the company then and I was the Contract Director.

    Why did you venture into education?

    When I came back from America, I said I needed to get some qualitative experience so I worked with Strabag Construction in 1984/85 and I was transferred to Abuja. That was when I solicited contracts for my father’s company and since the jobs were many, I needed to pull out and resign from the company after taking a lot of contracts from the Federal Capital and Ogbomosho/Ikirun road aside other small contracts.

    After that I decided to be on my own because polygamy in the long run I would be looked at as if I
    was the one sitting on the chair of my father’s wealth so I had a discussion with my father and I registered my own company UJAT Nigeria Limited in 1986 which is my first name Taju spelt from the back.

    Then FUNTAJ came out of inspiration from my sojourn in the construction industry where I now know that there are challenges doing government contracts.  If you have pride, you might not be able to survive in the sense that bureaucracy is not something I would say I enjoyed even working with my
    father.

    I have passion to make sure children are getting the best out of their lives so education came to my mind. Fortunately for me, I have a wife I could put on line to run the school because I am an engineer, but I have passion for education and luckily for me she shared the passion with me.

    So we formed the school FUN stands for her name Funke and TAJ for Tajudeen; FUNTAJ International School which is 22 year old.

     

    What were the initial challenges you faced establishing the school?

    It wasn’t challenging because it was when the government had lost it at the trial period of government where the private schools were not doing well and we had a lot of elites all over Abuja yearning for qualitative school.
    So we came embraced properly and it was a very interesting story.  We started with 10 classrooms in Asokoro, we had a focus, vision and of course it’s the darling school in Abuja.

    What gives FUNTAJ School an edge among its contemporaries?

    Our belief is to make sure that whatever talent you have, we help you bring it out and develop it.  Not only about education, our orientation is to give the child total package in terms of moral confidence to stand on his or her own.  Our alumni base is very outstanding and I’m really proud of what they have done
    over the 22 years.

    In terms of teaching personnel, how do you ensure that your teachers are not among those that consider teaching as the last option which is the general practice today?

    We are noted for standard because when you get a qualitative teacher, you get a qualitative student. We don’t compromise on the standard we have set and that has really spoken for us till today.

    We ensure total quality in whatever teacher we employ and they also go through rigorous process before
    being employed and we train and retrain them.

    Talking about examination malpractice, private schools have been labeled as major culprits.  What is your response on this?

    I have a very high integrity on that particular subject.  I hear some schools do it, but it never existed to the best of my knowledge and it will never happen here. We’ve seen cases where parents would come but we tell them this is our own discipline here, if you cannot abide by it then you are free to go elsewhere. Maybe that has tagged us a pompous school but we are not moved. My pride is that the school has never produced any failure in whatever examination we partake in.

    What is your advice to the government on how to attract best brains to teaching profession?

    It’s a long journey but we need to first of all go back to the rudiments and fundamentals. We have to go

    back to the basis. We have gone off the track, educational wise and social development wise.  Corruption has grabbed the whole system and so on. The attention to what a teacher is supposed to
    give is already challenged and it starts from the government, politicians are self-centered and are not interested in any progress.

    Their manifesto is a bunch of lies.  If you want to grow a nation, you start from the education path.  It’s unfortunate that 90 percent of all our good quality professionals are outside because that’s where they can get job security and maintain all the challenges of life, because life is short and you have
    to make hay while the sun shines.

    The brain drain can be addressed if we go back to re-chart our course, give the correct infrastructure and  give the correct template for people to develop on.

  • Government to support local manufacturers

    Government has been tasked to encourage local manufacturers and give them the necessary support to boost the economy.

    This was said by the presenter of Proudly Naija Show, Udeme Udom, at a rally to promote made-in-Nigeria products which was held in Lagos.

    According to Udom, local manufacturers need help and encouragement, information and financial input to position their products for maximum profit.

    Udom lamented that ever since the discovery of oil in commercial quantity, Nigeria veered away from locally made products, including agricultural products which had given the nation much foreign exchange.

    “For the federal government to diversify the economy from oil, it must encourage local manufacturers and give them necessary support to help the economy. That is why we are out today to drum up support for locally made products.

    “For several months we have featured brands and businesses that wouldn’t have been able to access the media and we intend to work with bigger brands to support the programme so that smaller brands can also

    come up,” she said.

    Also at the rally was the Chief Executive Officer of Valborge-Selma Limited and one of the sponsors of the event, Mr Peter Oloje, who expressed optimism about the revival of made in Nigeria products.

    According to Oloje, “Nigerians have to patronise local products in order to encourage our own brands which can also compete in the international market.”

    The rally, which was held to commemorate Nigeria at 58, drew massive crowd for the support of made in Nigeria brands. Several brands which identified with the road show had their jingles played and fliers were distributed along the train.