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Tag: institutions

  • Between ourselves and our institutions and between Marx and Rousseau: election eve reflections (1)

    Between ourselves and our institutions and between Marx and Rousseau: election eve reflections (1)

    Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances but under existing circumstances
    Karl Marx

    Man is born free but he is everywhere in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but he remains more of a slave than they are.
    Jean Jacques Rousseau

    The thing caught in Nte’s trap is much bigger than Nte.
    Chinua Achebe

    It is of course pure guesswork whether or not we are actually on the eve of the 2015 election cycle in our country. On December 24 every year – and after year – we know we are at the eve of Christmas. But there is no such natural certainty with the current election cycle in Nigeria. We were on the eve of the institutionally fixed presidential election on February 13, 2015. But ten days before that date, the elections were postponed for six weeks. Now as we move closer to the postponed dates of March 28 and April 11 for the presidential and governorship elections, the only certainty we know is that institutionally, the elections can be further postponed only at the risk of moving too dangerously close to open and blatant flouting of the Nigerian Constitution. This is because constitutionally, elections in our country MUST be held no less than 30 days before May 29 that is the date for the reinstatement of the incumbent government if it is returned to power or the inauguration of a new administration if the opposition candidate wins.

    In a country in which the institutional foundations of governance and accountability are so weak as to be virtually non-existent and so dysfunctional as to be close to what we see in the failed states of the world, we cannot be certain that we are now finally on the eve of the 2015 elections. The question that arises from this tragic dilemma on which the future, indeed the very survival of our country depends is the classic one of whether the problem is with our institutions or with us as Nigerians and, more fundamentally, as human beings. Put differently, the question we might ask is this: Is it in ourselves as Nigerians in particular and human beings in general, or is it in our institutions that must look for the reason why, with all our wealth in human and natural resources, there is so much violence, insecurity and suffering in our country, especially for the majority of our peoples? If we improve our institutions, will Nigerians behave differently and be on the whole a happier people, or do we first have to change who and what we are before we can expect to see meaningful and beneficial changes in the functioning of our institutions?

    It is very important to raise the discussion of this question to the level of the phenomenon of humanity itself because Nigerians are, for perfectly understandable reasons, quite often too predisposed to see all the things that are wrong with us as a people and with the functioning of our institutions in isolation from what has happened and is happening in the rest of the world. We may not be used to hearing this said or written about us, but we are part and parcel of some of the worst things in human beings all over the world and in the functioning of the institutions of society in modern history. Let me explain what I mean by this observation.

    Although for a completely different set of reasons and with also very different ends in mind, I am for instance struck by just how similar Republican politicians in the United States are to Nigerian politicians in general in how far they were willing to go beyond and against their country’s political institutions when they recently brought the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address the U.S. Congress in order to both embarrass Obama and weaken or even cripple the Presidency. As I write these words, I have in mind the last ditch battles that the Presidents of both Brazil and Argentina are waging to save their careers from the gargantuan political and moral corruption that has totally engulfed their administrations. It is true that that neither of these two ladies – yes, the incumbent Presidents of Brazil and Argentina are both female – has gone as far as Goodluck Jonathan in corruption, waste and squandermania, but the similarities in the weaknesses of both human and institutional foundations of governance and accountability are quite striking. And if it is the Nigerian military on which you wish to focus for the brazenness with which it has allowed itself to be used by thugs, charlatans and moral cretins in power, there are many countries around the world in which you will find fellow travelers with our corrupt generals, Pakistan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan being examples that come readily to mind. And on perhaps the most important issue of all, this being the terrible and often unspeakable suffering that the great majority of the citizens of a country experience from the combination of human and institutional failings of a cynical and criminal nature, Nigeria is in an unholy league with other countries of Africa and the world as the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Libya, South Africa, Haiti, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq to name just a few countries which might be deemed to logically belong in this particular morally and institutionally maladjusted league of nations.

    I make these comparisons for both pragmatic and philosophical reasons that actually happen to be closely linked. On the level of pragmatics, it is very important, I believe, to trim the likes of Ayo Fayose, Musiliu Obanikoro, Doyin Okupe and Chris Ubah to size. These are among the most arrant of the self-identified, maniacal kingpins of the nefarious PDP struggle to make our country’s 2015 election cycle either a non-event or a total failure. It is important, I believe, to let Nigerians know that such power-crazed people have surfaced in other countries of the past and the present throughout the world and have often been soundly defeated. When you tear off their masks of invincibility and reveal the mere human faces and failings of such unconscionable brokers of unjust, corrupt and brutish power, you raise the bar of their success far above their capabilities. Philosophically, it is important, I think, to realize that much has been said throughout modern history about the question that drives these reflections, the question of which do we change first, ourselves or our institutions. For this reason, we do not have to start from scratch; we do not have to reinvent the wheel. All we have to do is add to the inherited discourses. Permit me, then, to approach this topic through the three epigraphs of this essay from Marx, Rousseau and Achebe respectively. Since charity, as the saying goes, begins at home, let us begin with our own writer and thinker, Chinua Achebe, and his fascinating parable of Nte and the thing caught in his trap.

    The symbolic brilliance of Achebe’s parable of Nte and the thing caught by his trap that is far bigger than himself is revealed by the fact that in the novelistic setting of this parable, the character in the tale sees things only or primarily through his or her own perspectives and interests – as we all do in life. This is why what starts as a potential good fortune – catching a very big quarry in his trap – turns into a nightmare for Nte because the trap is his and his alone. However, if Nte is willing to share the meat of the ensnared quarry with his neighbors, he can call them to his aid and the quarry is no longer frightening. Before the collective will, guile and wisdom of the entire community, the thing that is caught in Nte’s trap loses its terror. Projecting to a wider frame of reference from this particular reading of the parable, we can say that like Nte, nations and the human community as a whole will always catch something in our trap that is bigger than anyone among us. In the crises of the 2015 election cycle in Nigeria we seem to be deeply afflicted by this Nte conundrum in which the collective unity that could avert a potential catastrophe eludes us. This where Marx and Rousseau come into the discussion.

    It used to be thought that Marx and Rousseau stand at two extreme polar opposites in the debates over which is more primary, human nature or the institutions of society, in how happy or unhappy we are. Marx, as may be seen from the quote from his famous monograph, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, placed the emphasis on objective circumstances: we do not make history, we do not achieve our happiness as political and historical subjects on the basis of our individual wills or desires. On the other hand, Rousseau in the famous opening sentences of The Social Contract emphasized an original freedom in our natural condition which, having been ensnared by social institutions, must be won back by a new social contract that places maximum value on this original freedom. We know now that things are far more complicated than the dichotomy between these two views indicates. We know now that we are both objects and subjects of history and politics. Furthermore, we know that being object and subject each entails both positive and negative things. For this reason, our opening or driving question turns out not to be a matter of “either or”. In other words, it is not a matter of you have to change from within before you can change social institutions or vice versa.

    I hope I am wrong, but in my opinion, far many more Nigerians think that the change has to come first from within before we can get our rulers and our compatriots in their tens of millions to obey laws and act justly, decently and in the public good. I see the present moment as a uniquely auspicious moment in which to begin to change this unspoken but iron-clad predisposition of Nigerians. Thus, concretely, I pose the question of who among genuine, independent-minded patriots in our country today think that we first have to change a Fayose, a Chris Ubah or a Musiliu Obanikoro from within before we can make the constitutional and institutional arrangements that we have give us fair, clean and credible elections? This will be our starting point in next week’s concluding essay in the series.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • State of Kano’s tertiary health institutions

    SIR: The efforts of Kano State government in establishing new schools/colleges that will add value to the socio-economic status of the state is commendable. I refer to the coming of the School of Nursing, Madobi; School of Health Technology, Bebeji; School of Midwifery, Dambatta, and others.

    However, what is obtainable in the School of Nursing, School of Hygiene, and School of Health Technology, all in Kano in the area of human resources and laboratory equipment leaves much to be desired. It can only result in the production of half-baked graduates.

    The School of Nursing, Kano has few qualified and competent academic staff majority of which are diploma holders, which fall below the minimum requirement for teaching. Graduates’ lecturers are an insignificant few. Laboratory and other instructional media are also lacking. Where they exist, they are obsolete or dilapidated, hence the need for new and modern ones.

    The School of Health Technology shares the same fate. Indeed, the actually lost its accreditation to run community health for some years. As for School of Hygiene, though there are many graduates lecturers, majority specialise in physical  and health education or general health education which cannot satisfy the different specializations in environmental health, which the school is running. Besides, many new courses like ‘Diploma in Epidemiology’ and others were introduced even when there were no competent lecturers to handle it, thus jeopardizing the future of students who could not get the best in their chosen course. In fact, the school still lacks a well-equipped laboratory.

    For these schools to remain relevant, the state government should as a matter of urgency dig into the activities of the schools and do the proper things by overhauling the management.  In an age of globalisation, our health institutions should not be in the hands of those who cannot see beyond their noses. Let the proper things be done by getting the best hands to run the institutions. I am sure, Governor Kwankwaso is more than committed to leaving worthy legacies for the state.

     

    • Musa Zubair,

    Kano

  • Strike grounds four Edo tertiary institutions

    Strike grounds four Edo tertiary institutions

    The industrial action by workers of four Edo State-owned tertiary schools has stalled academics for the past two months.  The workers insist they would not return to work until the government pays salary arrears and increases subvention to the institutions.  But the government insists it is not owing the workers, reports OSAGIE OTABOR.

    Academic activities have been grounded for over two months in four tertiary institutions owned by the Edo State Government.

    They are the College of Education, Ekiadolor, College of Education, Igueben, Institute of Science and Technology, Usen, and College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi.

    Lecturers and non-academic members of staff of the institutions have been on strike since August over alleged failure of the state government to pay the differentials of 16 months of salary arrears arising from the implementation of Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges Academic Salary Structure (CONPCASS) and the Consolidated Tertiary Educational Institution Salary Structure (CONTESISS).

    Workers of the College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi are, however, on solidarity strike with the schools.

    Managements of the striking institutions have enforced the no-work-no-pay rule the workers’ salaries have been stopped.

    The strike, led by lecturers of the institutions, began in June when the students were about to write their examinations. The lecturers earlier went on a three-day warning strike followed by a two-week work-to-rule.   In August, the students of the College of Education, Ekiadolor were sent home on a mid-semester break because they destroyed vehicles and property while protesting their teachers’ refusal to return to work at a time they were about to write examinations.

    They blocked the Benin-Lagos highway and reportedly attacked the convoy of Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin kingdom, who was on his way to Ibadan to attend a function to mark his birthday.  However, his security attachés fired tear gas to drive them away, an action that upset the students and led to the rampage.

    However, a student, Enabulele Ugbesia, said the protest was peaceful.

    “Our lecturers went on a three-day strike. After that, they went for one week and now they began a work to rule strike. We are about to write our examinations and they are delaying us,” he said.

    Following the expiration of the work-to-rule strike, the workers embarked on a full strike after several meetings with the government ended in a deadlock.

    Last Wednesday, they took their protest to the streets of Benin and marched to the Government House bearing placards with various inscriptions.  They wore black attires to mourn the dwindling fortunes of their institutions.

    In a position paper addressed to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, the workers under the aegis of Coalition of Unions of State Owned Tertiary Institutions, listed other issues in dispute to include the non-payment of salaries for periods spanning between one and four months, and the use of pension and cooperative funds to pay salaries.

    It reads in parts: “The dilapidation of infrastructure in all the concerned institutions has culminated in the non-accreditation of courses and programmes in these institutions. Hence, government should as a matter of urgency provide adequate funding for the purpose of meeting accreditation needs and standards.

    “Government should not only condemn but sanction the unilateral management practice of using cooperative, Trust Savings and Check-Off dues of our unions to pay staff salaries.”

    “Government should adequately fund these institutions to enable them meet their statutory obligations of paying pensions and gratuities to deserving retirees. We demand our members not captured in Horne Edo State Pension Scheme as a result of non-gazetting of their institutions to be listed.”

    President of the Coalition Mr. Fred Omonuwa said they could no longer bear the pains after a series of engagement with the state government through the Commissioner of Education.

    He condemned the resort to blackmail and harassment of their members by managements of the institutions.

    He criticised the decision of the state  to pay their counterparts in Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, regular monthly pension and gratuities as well as increased subvention while they were left unattended to.

    Omonuwa, who called for a resumption of negotiations with the state government and all agreements duly signed, urged the government to restore peace and harmony to the institutions.

    However, contrary to the workers claims, the Commissioner for Establishment, Labour and Special Duties, Comrade Didi Adodo, said the government was not owing them as an agreement signed in 2010 indicated that the government would not pay arrears if it implemented the new salary structure.

    Edo State Head of Service Mr Igbaeremen Obazele said a team headed by Rev Peter Obadan, a former Deputy Governor, has been constituted to look at the issues raised by the unions

    Obazele attributed the delay to failure by the managements of three out of the four institutions to make the required statistics available.

    He said: “You don’t hold meetings without computation. You cannot negotiate without adequate records. The summary of this issue is money. The summary of your demand is increase in subvention and the government cannot make increase subvention without knowing what is on the ground”.

    However, Provost of the College of Education, Ekiadolor, Prof Amen Uhunmwangho, said his institution has submitted all the required documents to the state government.

    He said he was particularly worried over the strike action and said the state government intention was to check the records to enable it act fast.

    When The Nation visited the college, the students lamented the poor state of their hostels. More than eight students stay in a room, while the surrounding was filthy.

    Meanwhile, the management of the Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, has told its striking workers not to expect their October salaries if they continued to stay away from work.

    It said its workers have been paid up to date and that they have no excuse to be absent from work.

    A circular signed by the Acting Registrar, O. Osawemwenze, said the management was committed to full implementation of the no-work- no-pay rule.

    It was gathered that other institutions have stopped the salaries of the striking workers.  The students have been asked to go on mid-semester break.

  • Govt directs mortgage institutions to process 66,400 applications

    Govt directs mortgage institutions to process 66,400 applications

    The Federal Government has instructed primary mortgage inistitutions (PMIs) to process the applications of the over 66,000 Nigerians who applied for the 10,000 Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) housing programme.

    Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said “due to the over subscription (for the scheme) a decision has been taken to give all applicants to the lending members of NMRC to share on a pro-rata basis. Lending members of NMRC are expected to have the refinancing window of up to 20 years.”

    The initial offer of 10,000 mortgage application was over subscribed by 66,402 Nigerians who showed interest in the home ownership programme of the NMRC.

    Okonjo-Iweala directed the 17 PMIs and four commercial banks involved in the mortgage exercise to share the 66,402 applications among themselves and prequalify those who meet the criteria for accessing mortgage facilities under the NMRC initiative and get back to the government in eight weeks.

    According to her, President Goodluck Jonathan is monitoring the implementation process and assured both mortgage institutions and applicants that there is enough money to fund the 66,000 applications for now.

    Applications for the 10,000 housing programme under the NMRC closed on the 5th of this month this year with 66,402 applications received from “exceedingly excited Nigerians with applications coming from the 36 states and the FCT”.

    She said 63 per cent of the applicants were male while 37 per cent were female. She said people “tend to apply individually as 89 per cent applied in their own names while only 11 per cent were joint applicants as couples.”

    Those in the 31-40 years age bracket submitted the highest number of applications suggesting interest among the actively working group of Nigerians.

    Nigerians she said “showed that we prefer three bedroom flats/houses, with 62.7 per cent of applicants applying to acquire this property type. 32 per cent wanted two bed flats and a small percentage applied for one bedroom flats and one bedroom self-contained flats.”

    The programme she noted is for people who do not own a home, and from the information given by the applicants, “96 per cent of applicants are living in rented houses; most people (51 per cent) applied for buildings in Abuja with 18 per cent of applicants opting for Lagos. 92 per cent of the applicants have stable jobs while eight per cent are self employed.”

    Already, mortgage lenders have pre-qualified some people and asked them to look for their houses. She commended mortgage institutions for keeping to the time they said they will need to use to process applications which is eight weeks and also reducing the criteria for accessing the mortgage from 15 pages of information to just two pages.

    The mortgage lenders are expected to sift through the applications and analyse and pre-qualify all applicants culminating in the amounts each lender is willing to advance to the applicant.

  • ‘Journalists must partner with institutions’

    ‘Journalists must partner with institutions’

    The Head of Department (HOD) of Mass Communication at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Mr Mahmud Abdulraheem, has called for more collaboration between journalists and academic institutions. He said the partnership would be mutually beneficial.

    The HOD made the call when members of the Organising Committee of this year’s Press Week of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) paid him a visit. The journalists were led by union chairman, Mallam Abiodun Abdulkareem.

    Mahmud said partnership between NUJ and the academics was necessary because there was a need for both to come together and generate ideas, which would enhance professionalism among journalists and academics.

    “The collaboration will be a mutual benefit for both the academics and NUJ, because when we begin to to witness such partnership, a lot of things would be introduced that will enhance the activities and performance of journalists,” he said.

    He added: “From time to time, we will invite journalists to talks and share their experiences with our students. We believe that they are mentors to students of journalism.”

    Mahmud, a former General Manager of Radio Kwara, disclosed that post-graduate programmes would soon commence in the department, which at present offers undergraduate programmes in Mass Communication only.

    The visit, according to chairman of the NUJ Press Week Committee, Mr Alli Mohammad Robiu, was aimed at strengthening relationship between the union and the department and seek the advice and support of the HOD for the Week.

  • Fed Govt to push equity capital institutions for MSMEs

    • Inaugurates NEDEP, MSME Council in Ogun

    The Federal Government has said it will fast-track the establishment of vibrant and efficient venture and equity capital organisations that will help provide cheap funds for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

    The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, said this during the launch of the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) and inauguration of the Ogun State Council on MSMEs in Abeokuta.

    The programme, which was organised by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria(SMEDAN), in partnership with the Ogun State Government, is in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan.

    “We want to build a new sector called Venture Capital and private equity sector to support small and growing businesses in Nigeria, Aganga said, adding that there will be “changes in our laws and regulations that will promote the development of venture capital organisations to provide equity, debt capital and business support services to those sectors.”

    He noted that the inauguration of SME Councils at the state levels would enable both the Federal and state governments to identify the peculiar challenges facing MSMEs in each state so as to fashion out workable strategies to holistically address them.

    He said:“We are currently changing the structure of MSMEs development in the country. One of our new initiatives is the development of the National Enterprise Development Programme. NEDEP is being spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and its three parastatals – the Bank of Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and the Industrial Training Fund.

    “This is the first time ever that these three parastatals under my ministry are coming together to develop and implement a programme that will revolutionise the growth of the MSME sector in Nigeria.”

    He added, “In terms of the new structure of MSMEs in Nigeria, I want to see a situation where we can have SME Councils in every state of the federation. We launched the first one in Kano (in the North), two weeks ago, while Ogun State is the first one we are launching in the South West.

    “The State SME Councils will have representatives of the Federal and State Governments, trade associations and members of the Organised Private Sector as members. The reason for having State SME Councils is to enable us understand the peculiar challenges that MSMEs are facing at the grassroots level and see how we can work together to address them holistically.”

  • Development Finance Institutions coming, says Okonjo-Iweala

    Development Finance Institutions coming, says Okonjo-Iweala

    The Federal Government is set to float Development Finance Institution (DFI) within the next 18 months.

    The initiative stemmed from the dearth of institutions that could support the private sector to access long term loans to grow businesses.

    Speaking in Lagos at the weekend during the tour of the ultra-modern factory of Omatek Computers at Alausa, Ikeja, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the government was working with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Development Bank of South Africa and other developed countries to give birth to DFI.

    The minister lamented that the greatest development problem of the country was the lack of institutions. She also lamented that for 50 years, Nigeria was run without key institutions, a development she argued, had hampered the development of the country.

    Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said the DFIs will help bridge the gap in long-term finance to businesses in the country, adding that mortgage institutions have been built. “We lack long institutions for long term finance. That is why we are developing a wholesale finance institution. We need a wholesale finance institution. This country must build key institutions. We must stop relying on intervention from the government,” she said, adding that DFI will make facilities available for private entrepreneurs to expand their business for a 15-year period.

    She noted that no nation grows without strong institutions, lamenting that the country was run for half a century without institutions.

    She said institutions, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Debt Management Office (DMO) were recently created, wondering that for 50 years, Nigeria didn’t have a DMO. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala commended the persistence, integrity, honour and the spirit of perseverance displayed by the Group Managing Director of Omatek Computers, Mrs Florence Seriki, urging her to keep the firm flying in spite of the harsh operating environment.

    She pledged the Federal Government’s support, saying that Omatek Computers was not only helping technology transfer, it is also creating employment opportunities for the youths.

    According to her, the Nigeria market is particularly a challenging one, adding that in a nation where the culture of after sales service has not taken firm root, it was exciting to her seeing the professionals that were assembled by the firm to offer after-sales services to customers.

     

  • Attitude of governments, philanthropists and relevant institutions not helping matters

    Continued from last week

    As is often whispered, those who have paid their dues should be given a break. That was unusual compared with an incident that occurred not too long ago in one of the Hospitals in the South South geopolitical region; the wife of a medical Doctor developed abnormal vaginal bleeding at eight months of pregnancy, ultrasound scan done about the sixth month had revealed that baby was presenting breech and so the area of the buttocks which usually do not help in the gradual opening of the cervix would make first contact . That was not considered to be any major challenge, but the scan report also showed her Placenta was located at a point dangerously close to the neck of the womb(grade 3 placenta praevia).

    She had registered for Antenatal care(ANC) with the Teaching Hospital and a holding decision had not been taken before problems declared them selves, Unfortunately a warning strike by, Doctors in the Teaching Hospital began that day and so she had to be rushed to the state owned Hospital. She had lost close to 1500mls(about three bags of blood)of blood and had begun to show signs of shock. For reasons better known to the Anesthetist, he was reluctant to put the patient to sleep. Doctors from other Hospitals had to go talk to him and he dragged on and on for as long as he could delay, even when the Consultant Surgeon and assistants were in their full theatre gowns, his attitude took time enough for the baby to die in the womb. While she hung between life and death, as she watched herself bleeding helplessly, the patient wondered how shocking, how un imaginable it would be for any one to hear that the wife of a Medical Doctor died with her unborn baby after getting to Hospital with both alive, in the depth of her mind she wondered whether her decision to marry a medical Doctor had been a good one. She was sectioned to save her own life and the baby was lost to arrant negligence. She vowed to spend the rest of her life taking good care of the ones she had, and never to think about getting pregnant. While this gory scenario lasted, the hospital had no other Anesthetist in that Hospital to call, coupled with ethical issues of getting someone from outside to administer an anesthetic agent to a patient in another Hospital. Anesthetists have become very few, and in rural surgical practice, the surgeons do more to ensure they have successful surgeries. Quacks of course who are less inclined the principle of do no harm (primun non nocere) will simply open op what ever cases, with a readiness to blame any unfavorable outcome on paranormal or spiritual forces of darkness.

    The are two of the thousands of situations that can be encountered by any one and when you are not affected you may never know how bad things can really get.

    It is difficult to know precisely when the summersault occurred in the life of this country.

    The choice of medicine as a career is not so much the desire for money as is the joy and fulfillment of having life entrusted to your care from the time of conception, through birth, and finally to the grave. The attitude of the policy makers in the period before now was informed by the understanding that a Medical doctor will not exist in a vacuum, but amongst people, with his nuclear and extended family. There were well furnished Doctors’ quarters for House officers ; Medical Doctors during youth service had bungalows and duplexes, well furnished, so they could take call duties with very little stress. Job satisfaction was remarkable and with it was a huge sense of patriotism and the spirit of belonging. Governments placed maximum priorities on health, people’s health, shelter and education. Post graduate training was available to those who showed interest at home and abroad with grants for research and scholarship provisions. Most of those who went abroad came back and others who remained here contributed in one way or another to the growth of the Medical profession. People now talk about Post Graduate Medical Training overseas in very special circles, because getting positions or centers for newly graduated Medical Doctors to do internship so they can complete the first stage of their medical career, register and do other things is now a problem, applicants are now expected to know some one who knows some one who knows, Where to stay and commence the post graduate residency training has also become infiltrated by the cancer of tribalism, where you are told to your face that certain areas are simply for indigenes. What is really biting now is that with regards to what the future holds, the medical profession except for those from affluent background is increasingly becoming unattractive in this country and this is in spite of the pains, denials sacrifice that an individual puts in from secondary school through the long uncertain road of the MB; BS program and the additional years it takes to specialize approximatel 15 years

    The initial training of a medical doctor takes seven years, (eight during my time); six years in pre clinicals and then one year as a preregistration intern. He then goes for youth service or is exempt. Depending on his age.

    Usually Doctors in the Teaching Hospitals are expected to partake in academic activities no matter how many patients they have to care for. This is in addition to the mandatory requirements of either passing regular exams or being sent out. To do this effectively they travel long distances for updates and exams. Apart from risks of death through road or Air accidents, there have been cases of attacks by armed Robbers on the journeys and in Hotel rooms. The entire costs of exam fees, feeding, hotel room charges, transportation and others are borne by individuals, it is only in very few instances and very hospitals that refunds are made

    In the past, many people were scared out of the path to become Consultants because of many issues, what you don’t see actually remains mysterious to you, Doctors who by their youth service posting served in places where exams were routinely conducted ,saw that all they needed to do was read and see their patients in the wards, and these exams became demystified; they knew and defined what they wanted and charted various courses for them selves; majority are the medical consultants of today. For those living far away from these centers, travelling to these places with very little to hope, was like the head of a camel passing through the needle. Those who didn’t have to travel, enjoyed writing the exams, encouraged by teachers who though felt strongly that post graduate medical training should indeed be very strict were equally convinced that the exams should be given a human face .Some students during undergraduate training had the misfortune of coming under people who took them as invincible and un teachable in a manner much like what American blacks suffered under Whites. The Students were given the most unfavorable environment (centers to learn and prepare for exams, in fact some were given the impression that God designed post graduate specialist training for some particular tribes in Nigeria. Fortunately, evil machinations don’t last for ever and in these places, human beings have taken over these positions, they eat and dine with residents just as people do when the feeling of one family is there. Unfortunately however, Nigeria is a country where certain people continue to remain in circulation in very active capacities. They are there and have carried the same mentality of assuming that some certain human beings are there but don’t exist in their scheme of things. To be continued

  • ‘Banks not most profitable institutions’

    ‘Banks not most profitable institutions’

    Over one year after its introduction, how has cash-less banking fared? It has done well, says Mr Tunde Lemo, Deputy Governor (Operations) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who is responsible for driving the policy. In this interview at the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington D.C, United States, last month, he tells Group Business Editor AYODELE AMINU about the hitches in the policy’s implementation and how they are being tackled; consolidation in banking; the credibility and sustainability of banks’ profit, among other issues.

     

     

     

     

    By the first week of July, the next phase of the cashless policy is expected to start in some states; how prepared are the CBN and the banks? Are you anticipating any shift in that date?

    Well, first and foremost, there is not going to be any shift. Recall that we started this programme actually in January, last year and we are only just continuing. We are only just moving to Phase Two, so we have learnt all the ropes in phase one in cash-less Lagos and we believe we are ready to roll out to other six locations in Nigeria. We are actually working in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee. We have a subcommittee headed by the MD/CEO of UBA, who is the cashless champion among the banks’ CEOs and together with the other institution like the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), we are working very hard to ensure that we dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. I can tell you that we already have our road map and we are not going to shift the implementation date of the Phase Two, which is 1st of July 2013.

    What are the current and previous challenges and how are they being solved?

    The most important previous challenge was connectivity; we have over 150,000 Point of Sales (PoS) machines in Lagos area where we had the cash-less Lagos. However, only 25 per cent of them are active largely because we don’t have General packet radio service (GPRS) and connectivity alive in some of the clusters and because of that, it has affected the rate at which those machines are used. However, we believe very much that it is getting better because we monitor the transactions on daily basis and we are beginning to record large volume and value of transactions done under the PoS. So, rolling into Phase Two, we believe that there may also be a challenge. However, we are not even looking only at the PoS as a major of channel for cash-less; we are looking at all the other major channels for cash-less. That is to say that apart from the PoS, we have the mobile telephone, which we will use all the malls, particularly in PhaseTwo because, of course, you know that the teledencity in Nigeria is very high and we have over hundred million mobile phones now, which then makes hundred million Nigerians potential users of mobile money. So, we are also driving cash-less through that, don’t also forget that high volume of frequency of transactions done by banks and through the high corporate end also go through the cash-less channels. There is a product managed by the NIBSS that they call the NIPS (Nigeria Inter-bank Payment System) instant payment. NIPS records over N20 billion values per day. And in terms of volume, it is over hundred thousand (number of transactions that occur). There is also the NIBSS Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) that goes through the clearing house; you get value the following day. That also has increased in volume. Between NIBS and NEFT, we record over N80 billion transactions per working day and they both now account for more than twice the volume of cheques. In fact, the share of cheques as a proportion of non-cash transactions is down to 20/21 per cent on a daily basis and I think this is quite remarkable. So, this is the kind of thing we want to emphasise. When we talk about cash-less actually, we are looking at the retail end. The wholesale end is already very cash-less, so we are quite happy at the progress we have made in the area of NEFT and NIBSS. As we roll out to other six locations, we are going to engage the customers on the need to use more of the NIPS and NEFT if they are high networth individuals and also there are other card and electronic payment services or products that banks have developed that also should be seen as part of the programme. But the PoS machine will also be installed in key locations and we will also monitor the use of mobile phones. So, these are the channels that we are encouraging and, of course, we’ve been able to get a lot of customers to embrace ATMs. I was going through the papers a few days ago, there was a survey done by KPMG where they said about 80per cent of the respondent said they regularly use ATMs, which is good. But you know ATM is not cash-less, because you are still going there to collect cash. We want to encourage people to move away from cash. As efficient as ATM may seem, we want to leap-frog and then get more people to move away from cash and embrace cash-less.

    Going by the guidelines of the cash-less policy, banks are not supposed to be directly providing Cash-In-Transit for their customers. It is supposed to be outsourced, but some banks are still  doing this. What is the CBN doing to stop such banks and what sanctions await erring banks?

    Those who do it do so outside Lagos. You will recall that we said cash-less started from Lagos where we said banks should no longer do cash pick up activities. When we move over to other six locations, banks will also step back from cash pick up activities. We have registered four cash-in –transit companies that should do that on behalf of others and we are also happy that filling stations themselves and other big supermarkets are embracing cash-less. There is a company called Easy fuel, they get the filling station to install that capability at the filling station, whereby you just drive in and use your card to buy fuel. They are even going beyond that now to make it fairly more contactless –meaning that you can even fill your car with fuel without the use of card. That will also ensure that you don’t even build up cash not to talk of having CIT company to evacuate.

    What is the CBN doing in a situation where you are using your ATM or PoS and they debit you, without you getting value for it?

    We have put in place a dispute resolution mechanism. Banks have been told that at every point where you have ATM or PoS, there is a number you can call as a customer if you have a problem and that problem should be resolved within 48hours. In other words, if you are wrongly debited, may be because of a fault or an issue, the bank is expected to resolve it. If, however, by seven days it is not resolved, you can escalate it or actually escalate it to CBN. We have set up a full-fledged department called the Consumer Protection Department, that department will ensure that the banks are not only sanctioned for delaying the resolution of the problem, they will also ensure that the customer is refunded the money that was wrongly debited. But we don’t even want it to get to that point. We want a means by which disputes are resolved as they occur and I must also say that we have seen tremendous improvement because we keep tab of complaints from customers. There are less and less complaints now even as we continue to see the volume grow around ATM transactions.

    Why did the CBN increase the number of states for the second phase of the cash-less project to five?

    Yes, we actually had five before; we added Ogun State because of Ota. You know that Lagos and Ogun are almost in the same territory now in terms of the fact that the two states, the residents now criss-cross at different territories. In order to avoid arbitrage – a means by which, of course, there is cashless in Lagos and there is no cash-less in Ota, Ota is as close to Lagos and so many other places in Lagos. So, to discourage arbitrage, it is important to add Ogun because it is very very close to Lagos and we don’t want a situation whereby banks then use territories that are very close to Lagos to side-track or to avoid the strict conditions of cash-less. But apart from Ogun, we also have Anambra, which is there because of Onitsha, which has a major market. You know Onitsha also has a large market. Abia is there because of Aba market. Rivers is there because of Port Harcourt, Abuja and, of course, Kano. So, those are the five other locations. But when you add these locations to Lagos, you are accounting for around 90 per cent of the volume of cash within the country. These locations are major cash centres. The other states will be added in Phase Three. But we believe if we get it right with these six locations in addition to Lagos, we would have covered 90 per cent of the volume of cash.

    When will the Three Phase be implemented?

    Let us look and see to the success and implementation of Phase Two first. I don’t want to hazard any guess, but I reckon that in no distant future, we will get to other parts of the country.

    Why did the CBN reverse itself by abolishing all off-site ATMs not directly operated by banks?

    There was no reversal. Recall that at the time the Central Bank said banks should not put branded ATMs outside their premises in offsite, it was because then, when you get to some key locations like Hilton, you see 25 ATM machines, virtually every bank is there and yet other areas are not well-serviced. So, we felt that instead of wasting resources, why not then get licensed Independent ATM Deployers (IADS) to have those equipment there that will serve the entire industry. The IAD, then were just three and so we had three in those important locations as opposed to having 20-25 different machines, just to save cost. But recall that at that time we didn’t have cashless exercise. But when we came up with the cash-less programme, we decided to look away from that to encourage banks because, then, we had told banks to invest heavily In ATM machines. So, it was the cashless programme that made it unnecessary to do that and, of course, we discussed with the IADs and we have since ensured that they were compensated for the change in policy.

    Let’s move to the banking industry. Given the number of banks in the country, would you say Nigeria is over-banked or under-banked?

    I don’t want us to be looking at whether Nigeria is over-banked or under-banked in terms of the number of banks. For instance, the biggest bank in India has more branch networks than the entire banks in Nigeria; so, if that bank were to be in Nigeria, probably we would think that Nigeria is under-banked, because it is only one bank. Banking penetration in Nigeria today is monitored in terms of the number of Nigerians who have bank accounts and the number of bank branches. Today, we have around 6,000 branches of banks all over the country and we believe that we can do better. However, we are asking banks to look away from the traditional means by which they deploy their services, because it is not cost effective; technology has made deployment of banking services cheaper. You don’t have to have the physical presence of the brick and mortal type banking before you can conduct banking business. Today, if you go to Kenya and you go to a normal grocery shop, the grocery shop combines with his core business about two, three or four banks. And most of the people outside the city, what do they do when they go outside the city? They either go to deposit, save or open accounts. So, these normal three not-too-complex services can be rendered without the physical presence of a bank. That is why we came up with a regulation around agency banking and we have since released guidelines and, of course, before long we are going to license or register accredited agencies of banks. Through the agencies, we expect that we will be able to get a lot of people into banking network. So, access to finance, banking services is a better barometer now to measure banking penetration as opposed to brick and mortal presence of banks or the other numbers of banks. Today, I will not be surprised if these numbers shrink and yet with wider network of branches. If a bank can have 60,000 branches in India, why can’t we have a mega bank that will have the same number of network that the entire banking industry has? So, we should look at penetration in terms of the number of people who have access to banking services and that is improving and we will continue to improve on that.

    Do you foresee further consolidation in the industry?

    That should be driven by business exigencies. Banks are free to discuss that among themselves if there are opportunities. What we are telling banks is that they can achieve a lot better by sharing facilities, which is the shared services’programme that we have put in place in the last three years and we are beginning to see a lot of transactions there. The banks’ cost to serve ratio is going down. Going by the results published by banks, they are returning very good profits and the customers are beginning to get the benefit of that in terms of lower interest rate. Only last month, the Bankers’Committee came up to say that they were going to reduce interest charges on the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and, of course, they are by that introducing the benefit of the cost to service ratio. Banks, on their own, can choose to merge, but the CBN is not going to force that. It is not going to be regulator induced. However, it may bother us when we begin to see a cluster among two-three banks. But the anti-trust issues are there. How far can they go? Can we just sit back and look at the whole thing shrink to one or two? May be not. But today, so long as they can still get a lot more mileage by combining resources and reduce costs, we will encourage mergers and acquisitions up to certain level.

    We have seen about two banks posting over N100 billion in profit. How credible and sustainable are these results?

    Credibility first. Of course, with all the strict regulations around integrity of data and strict regulations around prudential issues, I am not sure any bank will take the risk of playing games anymore. Don’t also forget that we have the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) – a new accounting policy that ensures that all the risk you have in your balance sheet is well-explained to investors and that you also make enough provisions. You mark to market if you have real sensitive assets in your books. So, because of that, I believe that all the numbers that are being shunned out are real and they are good.

    On sustainability, I think the public thinks that these banks are making super normal profits. You are just looking at the numbers, you are not looking at the capital that is employed. I think that at the end of the day, banks are not the most profitable institutions in Nigeria. Take, for instance, oil companies and telecoms. They are having superior arrow eyes on returns to investment. Banks’ return on investment is at best 20-21 per cent; that is not abnormal in terms of the risk that they take. So, talking of sustainability, I believe it will remain sustainable to the extent, of course, that the business climate is good, that we continue to fix infrastructure and continue to de-risk the business environment. Don’t forget that we have not even yet seen enough penetration that we expect in Nigeria. When you look at the total financial assets relative to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), I think there’s a lot more that banks can do.

    With inflation decelerating to about 8.6 per cent, do you foresee the CBN changing its monetary stance at the next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting this month?

    Well, first and foremost, you cannot expect me at an interview like this to begin to tell you the direction that the MPC will go. First, I don’t even have all the facts with me to tell you the way my mind is working and yet I am just one in 12 members. So, you can see it is difficult for me to sit down here and tell you whether or not when we meet, rates will go up or come down. It all depends on so many things. But don’t forget, we are happy that we are beginning to see traction in the area of lower interest rate, but how sustainable are these? And then you have not yet removed the base effect. These rates are low, because if we look at year-on-year, there were spikes this time in February/ March and when you consider that as a denominator, you can then understand why year-on-year the rate is low. Although if you check month-on-month, there is some deceleration of interest rate, but it is not yet time for you to begin to say that it will be sustained; we need to wait a little bit longer.The reason, again, is because of what is happening in shale oil and in the international scene. There are still some downside risks that are there, that may not make it expedient for the MPC to look at loosening the monetary stand now. However, we don’t yet have the facts on the table; so, it is too early to make a judgment on whether or not the rate will come down. But, of course, when we meet and we will see all the figures, we will then be able to know where things should be.

    The Holding Companies are burdened by double taxation. How is this being addressed by the CBN?

    Fiscal issues are not under the Central Bank purview. When we talk about taxation and tax concession; these are matters for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The Central Bank together with our colleagues in the Financial Sector Regulators Coordinating Committee (FSRCC) are helping to talk to the relevant tax authorities on the need to look at these areas where there are double taxation so that they we can at least have some concessions and some understanding, so that banks are not unduly penalised. We can only advocate and push for a consideration, because it is not within our control. So, I cannot be upfront on whether or not they will get it.

    Looking back at CBN’s intervention in 2009, would you say it was justified, given what some critics had said?

    I think if there is any doubting Thomas or anybody who doubted the veracity or the importance of what we did in 2009, they should by now be convinced that we did what we were supposed to do and if we didn’t do it, it would have been a lot more devastating. We had a similar problem with Europe. Europe was in denial and you can see what began to unravel in Europe after all the actions that we took. Everybody thought that we went overboard, but we are glad that two years after the action, Nigeria’s case even became a very interesting case study in the United States to the point that the governor of the Central Bank was even invited by the Congress to share his experience and his thoughts and at the end of that meeting, he received a very good commendation. But, again, what is happening in Greece and other places in Europe now confirms that had they done what we did in Nigeria three or four years ago, the problem wouldn’t have gotten that bad. So, like the proverb says, “A stitch in time saves nine.” We tried to stitch our own problem in time and that is why it has saved us a nine that we are beginning to see in Europe.

     

  • Paradox of faith-based institutions

    Paradox of faith-based institutions

    A few months ago, the media was awash with the report that the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) has completed its university – Mountain Top University. This is somewhat cheery news for Nigeria, especially the Christian population. The burgeoning youth population is in urgent need of more institutions to satisfy the desire to acquire tertiary education.

    It is often argued that many faith-based universities are better equipped than public institutions. Backed by churches with deep pockets and sincere commitment to improving the society, no expense is spared in the bid to acquire state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for the universities. The efforts have paid off as some universities are now ranked higher than many government-owned schools.

    Faith-based universities are also unique from another perspective. They profess to focus on the simultaneous development of the mental, spiritual, moral and physical make up of students – setting themselves apart from secular universities, which have no business catering for spiritual needs of their students.

    However, in the long run, this emphasis on spiritual training may prove to be their undoing. Public universities are training schools in moral and mutual respect. Apart from providing academic training, students – many of whom have lived with their parents all their lives – are brought in close contact with people from diverse backgrounds and belief systems.

    Sharing rooms and bunks with Christian northerners and Muslim southerners, for instance, facilitate a better appreciation of the diversity that exists in Nigeria. It creates room for respect and integration of people with strict backgrounds into society.

    Students in public schools are exposed to the many challenges of time and finance management, which help them to see how their choices directly affect the quality of their lives and how their choices affect their grades.

    However, this, to a large extent, is not the case in many faith-based universities. In a bid to ensure spiritual and moral development, the administrators of these institutions have taken over the business of making personal choices for their students. Young adults, who should ordinarily be left to decide how to spend their time and to take responsibility for their choices are made to live regimented life.

    Students in some of these universities only have access to school-controlled phone lines; they do not dare to be seen talking to ladies or holding hands in public. Exit from school premises is strictly controlled, and some of them attend up to seven services a week.

    This, in my opinion, defeats the very purpose of university education. University graduates are expected to have learned some wisdom by themselves in order to live independently in society. They must be balanced people, who can tolerate and live with people of different backgrounds and beliefs. They must be responsible people, who can make informed choices and live with the consequences.

    There is a need to strike a balance. The desire to provide faith-based qualitative education must be balanced with a healthy appreciation of the need to train responsible and tolerant graduates. Until this balance is reached, faith-based institutions will continue to contribute to the imbalance in the society.