The Nation Newspaper

Tag: jeopardy

  • Averting double jeopardy

    Averting double jeopardy

    • Police have to be careful in handling the case of the two-year-old girl raped to death

    The circumstances that led to the death of a two-year-old girl, discovered within

    the premises of a mosque, in Ningi, Bauchi State, is heart-rending. According to media reports, the girl may have been raped to death, and her corpse wrapped in a cloth and abandoned. As part of the investigation to unravel the culprit, the police have arrested four persons. They include the parents of the deceased, a chemist and a courier who reportedly brought the victim’s body home.

    According to the spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command, Ahmed Wakili, the persons arrested are the 17-year-old mother of the child, Lauratu Saleh, the 23-year-old father, Abubakar Usman, as well the chemist who provided initial medical aid and a relative who took the corpse to the father. The police said the arrests were made after a thorough investigation.

    We hope the police investigation was thorough enough, and those arrested are genuine suspects, as it would amount to a double jeopardy if the parents are merely arrested on flimsy excuses. 

    While we agree that the parents deserve to be questioned if police investigation showed they were negligent in taking care of the two-year-old child, it would be an overkill if on the premise of mere negligence they are arrested and charged for the murder of their own child, in such a gruesome manner. Such murder by the parents looks most unlikely, considering the alleged circumstances of her death.

     We therefore urge the police to take all necessary steps to unravel the rapist, who most likely was responsible for the murder.

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    As part of efforts to protect every child, we urge states which have not yet done

    so, to enact a Child Rights Act. While that in itself may not protect the child, it provides the parameters and expectations for the protection of a child. It particularly provides the responsibilities of the society and the guardian/parent to the child. Such an act also specifies the punishment, when a child is abused, which puts parents and the entire society on notice, on the expectations and responsibilities owed the child.

    It is sad that the communal living which is one of the hallmarks of the African society has eroded so much that adults have ceased to see child care as a community effort. In times past, every adult person who saw a child unaccompanied by an adult immediately assumed the role of a protector, until the parents or relatives of the child were identified. Sadly, what prevails now is a strange uncaring attitude that is not African.

    The worst case is the prevalence of the community as spectators who are more interested in taking pictures of incident situations, rather than going to the aide of the victim. With the advent of smart phones, those who should play the good Samaritan prefer to snap pictures for the social media. This new impediment to communal living and social care for the neighbour must be checked, if our society will not descend into the abyss. 

    We also call out on the administrators of the mosque, in Ningi, where the child was allegedly murdered. We urge them to also discreetly investigate what happened to the child, and how come their mosque featured in the bizarre incident. They should be willing to join forces with the police to unravel those who have dented the image of their place of worship. Going forward, they should take steps to ensure that their facility is protected as much as possible, from such perpetrators of evil.

    The rape and murder of the two-year-old child must not go unpunished. The police and the community affected by the incident must keep track of the investigation until those responsible for the dastardly act are apprehended and prosecuted. That is the only way the society can maintain its common sanity.

  • Varsities in jeopardy

    •Minimum academic standards must be ensured at all times

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has withdrawn accreditation from five academic programmes at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife: Law, dentistry, fine and applied arts, botany, and family nutrition and consumer sciences. This decision is within the mandate of the commission “to lay down minimum academic standards and to accredit degrees and ensure that quality is maintained within the academic programmes of the Nigerian university system.”

    OAU, which started as the University of Ife about half a century ago, had worked hard in the past to become a brand in higher education, not only in Nigeria but worldwide, ensuring that its alumni and faculty made waves in universities across the globe. It must be, therefore, depressing for its stakeholders: alumni, faculty, parents, and students to hear the sad news about the dent to the university’s hard-earned brand, especially in law, dentistry, botany, fine arts for which OAU was famous. It is a shame that students in the dis-accredited programmes have been saddled with problems that could have been avoided had OAU’s academic culture been managed proactively and its reputation guarded jealously, as it used to be.

    Globally, accreditation is an effective means of academic quality assurance. It also involves a process that gives ample notice to institutions to enable them avoid dis-accreditation. It is thus the responsibility of individual universities, especially those, like OAU, that have established reputable programmes to be fastidious about sustaining their brand. Academic reputation is hard to achieve, and protection of academic brands ought to be on top of priorities of academic managers — from the vice-chancellor to every member of the professoriate. There is no excuse for the dereliction of duty that must have brought embarrassment to OAU and its catchment communities.

    The pledge by the university’s public relations manager to “work assiduously to restore the programmes by November” is noted. But the excuse that NUC does not allow back to back interim accreditation is not a professional response to the failure of the institution to address all the lapses that led to interim accreditation in the first instance. Two years should have been enough to do this, had OAU insisted, as it should have, on efficient internal academic audit at the right time.

    The many months wasted on appointment of vice-chancellors during which many programmes were under interim accreditation could have been avoided, had external and internal processes of appointing vice-chancellor been followed to the letter.OAU has no reason not to fulfill its promise to stakeholders that its dis-accreditation will be over by November. And henceforth, the university needs to use the mechanism of self-evaluation to prevent recurrence of the disruption and embarrassment that have arisen from the dis-accreditation of the five programmes.

    Relatedly, the threat to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, owned by Oyo and Osun states, is more worrisome than that of OAU. Gross lack of proactive governance by the two states is a factor in what the leader of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described as imminent collapse of LAUTECH. For many years, LAUTECH has been in the news for negative reasons. It was on strike for over one year between 2016 and 2017, for underfunding and apparent neglect by the two governments that own the institution. Academics who went on strike last week to prevent students from sitting for second semester examinations have blamed cessation of normal academic functions on poor funding, non-payment of salaries, inadequate facilities to sustain learning, and ingrained insensitivity by the governors of Oyo and Osun states to cries for immediate remediation that can guarantee the university’s survival.

    The irony about the problem of LAUTECH is that the two states that own it have also established two universities: Osun State University and Oyo Technical University, apparently at the expense of LAUTECH. Although both governors are already lame ducks, there is still a lot that stakeholders: ASUU, students, parents, and opinion leaders can do to make the two governors see reason why money invested in LAUTECH must not be allowed to go to waste. One logical consequence of continued neglect of LAUTECH is that the university can lose, both programme and university-wide accreditation, if needed intervention from the governments continues to be elusive.

    It will be a paradox with unpleasant political consequences in the region for Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, named after the second premier of Western Nigeria for his contribution to the growth of education in the region collapses, because of neglect from the states that established it. It seems hypocritical for both governors to continue sto wax eloquent about the importance of education to development, while they are not forthcoming on developing the first university established by them.

  • Assembly of jeopardy

    Perhaps Nigerians should plead the defence of double jeopardy against the determined effort of the National Assembly to clean off our national treasury even as they foist on us, misbegotten legislations. With the official confirmation that our senators and representatives are engaged in taking what does not belong to them, in the guise of running cost, I was hopeful that some of them would own up and openly canvass at least for institutional amendment, if not restitution. But alas, those who have spoken on the issue, tried to explain away their illegal conducts.

    Nigerians have Senator Shehu Sani to thank for confirming what we have all suspected – that this National Assembly has become a double yoke on our sagging body. How can our lawmakers pretend that they don’t know that the constitution expressly barred them from fixing their salaries and allowances? How can they try to justify the perfidy they are engaged in? How can they take so much from the commonwealth, and give so little in return by way of constitutional duty?

    Section 70 of the 1999 constitution, as amended, without equivocation states clearly: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission may determine.” Without amending this provision, I have always wondered under what guise the National Assembly try to appropriate the power to determine their salaries and allowances.

    No form of ingenuity can change this constitutional provision, and any senator who collects any income not determined by RMAFC by whatever name called is engaged in unconstitutional conduct. Such a person is taking what does not belong to him. Of note, all the criminal laws of the country, whether federal or state, defines stealing as taking what does not belong to the taker. I have no doubt in my mind that if our country has the will, every kobo taken by any senator whether in this assembly or in the past could be recovered.

    While we know that a senator in this current assembly is taking what does not belong to him to the tune of N13.5 million, we have no idea of what the members of the previous assemblies were hefting from our commonwealth. Of course this would be in addition to what they can clean from the so-called provision for constituency projects. Since the projects are to be sited in their domains and since it is them who gained the provision, they are in a position to front their surrogates to further take more of what does not belong to them.

    Perhaps because the executive is knee-deep in the double jeopardy that is our lot in the hands of the political class, they are unable to stare down the legislators as envisaged by the constitution. Or is it because our democratic institutions are weak that the courts cannot declare without hesitation that what the National Assembly members are engaged in the name of salaries and allowances are manifestly unlawful? Or could it be that the executive does not appreciate its powers under the constitution or is afraid to exercise it?

    What is the driving force that has made the three arms of government to allow the mockery of the supremacy of the constitution? Yet, section 1(1) of the constitution states clearly that: “This constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” To give effect to the provisions of the constitution, it provides in section 5(1) “Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the executive powers of the federation (b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has for the time being power to make laws.”

    By the above provision, the president has executive powers for the execution and maintenance of the constitution, and so it behoves on him to ensure the execution and maintenance of section 70 of the constitution. To allow what is going on in the name of salaries and allowances being hefted from the national treasury by the National Assembly, he is abdicating his constitutional responsibility. A simple reading of the constitution should reveal that to him. In the current circumstance silence is not golden, and if the president has any doubts, he should approach the courts.

    The president can ask his attorney-general to approach the courts to seek the interpretation of section 70, vis-à-vis the decision of the National Assembly to decide what to pay its members. If politics precludes the president from squaring with the assembly directly, he could ask the RMAFC to approach the courts to enforce its constitutional mandate. To do nothing should be completely unacceptable to a president elected on the platform of zero-tolerance for corruption, and this should be so, even if there are unresolved allegations of taking what does not belong to them, by some aides of the president.

    What is going on is a great disservice to our country. Those in power must know that the joke is on them. If they doubt, they should talk to our youths. Most of them have lost faith in the country. They refer to such cruel jokes as snakes swallowing money, money being kept in the cemetery and such bizarre tales as confirmation that we have an unserious country, whose leadership is out of tune with reality. Now with the confirmation that members of National Assembly are brazenly taking what does not belong to them, it will be further cemented in their sub-conscious that known humans are also involved in swallowing pieces of the commonwealth without any consequence.

    Those who believe that they can stop the craze to get-rich-quick amongst our youths, those believe that buying tons of arms and ammunition is what is needed to stop sundry criminality, those who model a few patches of oasis as signs of a national revival, those who take what does not belong to them ad use same to make their children comfortable and refer to those children as exemplars of progress are living in denial and playing the ostrich. It is inexcusable that those engaged in public service will be entitled to brazenly break the supreme law of the country without any consequences.

    Without any equivocation, a monthly take home of N13.5 million for a senator by whatever name it is called is both unconstitutional and amoral. To try to explain it away or justify it under any guise is reprehensible. Those of them in the National Assembly with any modicum of respect for their integrity should own up their mistakes and make amends. Even if they will not engage in restitution, they can turn a new leaf, and cease to be an assembly of double jeopardy.

  • More than double jeopardy

    •Rescued Boko Haram wives and daughters should not be rejected, but reintegrated with love

    Nothing could be more distressing for the hundreds of girls and women freed from the Boko Haram insurgents by gallant Nigerian soldiers than the rejection by their very own; the people that should have gladly received and congratulated them for surviving their ordeals in captivity.

    A United Nations report released by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, International Alert and other non-governmental groups, published last week, examined the perceptions of children and women exposed to sexual violence and Boko Haram attacks in north eastern Nigeria. The report, aptly titled “Bad blood” says: “As they (freed captives) return, many face marginalisation, discrimination and rejection by family and community members due to social and cultural norms related to sexual violence. There is also the growing fear that some of these girls and women were radicalised in captivity”.

    The children who are products of the sexual violence are, according to the report, worse off because they “…are at an even greater risk of rejection, abandonment and violence.”

    To worsen matters, many of the women survivors had been divorced by their husbands. “Victims’ husbands and fathers whose views and feelings carry more weight in highly patriarchal societies such as the one in Borno – also have mixed feelings about their wives and daughters … Some husbands are not willing to take their wives back and have divorced their wives on their return”, the report added.

    We know that stigmatisation is virtually everywhere. People are discriminated against on account of being victims of certain diseases. This is common among people living with HIV/AIDS and rape victims, among others. For the latter category, most victims refuse to report simply due to fears of being stigmatised.

    Whilst discrimination is generally bad, it is particularly troubling for people who are recovering from the trauma of terrorism. Indeed, this is more than double jeopardy. These were people that were forcibly taken away from their homes by complete strangers with whom they had been forced to live for various periods until help came their way. All through their days in captivity, the only thing on their minds would be to have a reunion with members of their families, a dream that looked rather far-fetched, considering what they had suffered in the hands of the terrorists and the experiences of many of their co-captives who were not as lucky as they are. Some of them were mercilessly killed by the terrorists; some died in various cross-fires between the Boko Haram members and soldiers, many have died of various ailments due to lack of good medical care.

    The least that those of them who were lucky to return home to their relations alive expect is to be warmly received. They need to be shown love by their own who should have so missed them that rejection should not have been an option. In the first place, it was not their making that they became captives in the terrorists’ camps.

    However, now that they are facing rejection even by their families, the government must come to their rescue. The only ground that could warrant some hesitation, particularly on the part of the husbands, is on health grounds; for instance, fears that the returnees might have contracted some serious diseases. Even at that, it is still the duty of the government to allay such fears after taking necessary measures to diagnose and treat the victims.

    As advised by the researchers, the Federal Government should do more by way of psychological counselling for the survivors. For the victim communities, the government should implement a conscious, deliberate and sustained mass enlightenment programme, to reorient them on how to reintegrate traumatised terror-returnees.  It should also expand its facilities for them, in view of the researchers’ observation that these are grossly inadequate, even for those that have returned, given that more people are expected to join them.

    The local populace too must also be enlightened that anyone could have been victim of the Boko Haram insurgents and stigmatisation would not help their cause. It would be a disincentive to those making a case for some of the missing victims like the Chibok girls if the likelihood of their being rejected is this rife. Or, of what use is the campaign for government to find and bring them back if they are not sure of having the desired reception at home?

  • Double jeopardy

    Double jeopardy

    •Internally-displaced Nigerians suffer needlessly in Taraba State

    The tragic news that some 4,723 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) have been virtually abandoned in camps in Taraba State contradicts the Federal Government’s efforts to ameliorate the predicament of IDPs and calls into question the capacity of its agencies to deal with the situation.

    The revelations were made by Professor Bem Angwe, Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), after an official visit to the state as part of an ongoing tour of IDP camps in north-eastern Nigeria.

    The living conditions of the Taraba IDPs, who are mostly from Borno and Adamawa states, discredit Nigeria. Shamefully left to their own devices, allegedly for over a year, by the Federal, state and local governments, they are scattered across some 11 camps in various parts of the state.

    The Taraba IDPs are bereft of food, mattresses, toiletries and even security, to say nothing of medical, counselling and educational facilities. The camp in Gullong, which serves 259 people, is an abandoned dispensary that was not rehabilitated in any way. Their water supply comes from streams where animals drink. They have no money and no jobs.

    The only assistance they receive comes from the periodic interventions of bodies like the T.Y. Danjuma Foundation, the Taraba secretariat of the National Youth Service Corps, and faith-based organisations.

    In a world where European nations are taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East, Nigeria has absolutely no justification for the disgraceful abandonment of its own citizens who are at the mercy of circumstances they are in no way responsible for.

    A major problem appears to be that of determining which level of government has statutory responsibility for the upkeep of the IDPs. Due to their location in Taraba State, it appears that the state government has primary responsibility for their welfare. However, the permanent secretary in the Taraba State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Nugalga Dan-Habu, claims that the state government was unaware of the existence of the IDPs whom he said had integrated themselves into their host communities.

    It is difficult to accept Dan-Habu’s excuses. The Taraba State government cannot say it was unaware of when the IDP camps were set up, or that it did not know when thousands of IDPs came into the state from Adamawa and Borno states. Indeed, this ludicrous denial simply underlines the outrageous negligence that the state government has demonstrated in regard to the IDPs located within its borders.

    The Federal Government must also accept its share of the blame. The accommodation and upkeep of IDPs is clearly within its remit: that is why it has agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which routinely works with other stakeholders to formulate National Contingency Plans aimed at assisting IDPs. Why was there so little coordination with the Taraba SEMA on the welfare of the IDPs located in that state?

    There can be no more excuses for this appalling situation. The Taraba SEMA must carry out an urgent needs-assessment survey of all the IDP camps in the state to determine their immediate, short and long-term needs, and liaise with NEMA in ensuring that they are met. Logistics for the distribution of food, medicine and other requirements must be worked out and put into action as quickly as possible. There should be formal agreements with NGOs to ensure the provision of medical, educational and recreational facilities for the IDPs.

    The Presidential Initiatives on IDPs must begin to accelerate the process of rehabilitating the homes of the country’s IDPs before facilitating their return. Since Boko Haram has been pushed out of most of the territories they had hitherto occupied, there can be no excuse for further delay in repatriating IDPs. The Federal Government would also do well to officially adopt the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons which has been ready since 2011.

  • Double jeopardy

    Double jeopardy

    •We cannot reward a government that failed to run an airline and oversee private ones by giving it a new one

    The plan to set up a national carrier for air travels in Nigeria and abroad reels back memories of the defunct Nigeria Airways. And it is no fond recall.

    It was racked with inefficiency, nepotism, chaos and ultimately a disgraceful failure. The President, Muhammadu Buhari, had lamented during the presidential campaign season that Nigeria had not succeeded in managing its national carrier as well as such other establishments as the Nigerian National Shipping Line. His diagnosis was right. Not so his solution.

    The Nigeria Airways failed because it had no obligation to make profit. So long as it flew, it had fulfilled its purpose. It did that at the expense of public funds and national morality.

    It was also an indictment on government and its top office holders, especially during the military era. In local and international flights, purchased tickets did not guarantee assigned seats. Assigned seats did not guarantee flights. Punctuality did not place one ahead of late passengers. It was common to see passengers run to the planes to secure seats. Some weak and older people brought sprinters with them to the airport who secured seats for them first and then rose for the rightful owners.

    Anxiety of the rebirth of a national carrier trailed a recent decision by the Federal Government to inaugurate a 13-member committee to intersect with international partners to facilitate the establishment of a national carrier. The terms of reference include: “reviewing previous consultants submission and recommendations; to invite submissions from the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria on the debt profile of the domestic airlines; and to consult widely with stakeholders on the establishment of a national carrier.”

    The committee is expected to x-ray why the Nigeria Airways failed, and, cheerily, to explore the prospects of setting up an airline on public-private partnership basis. The membership of the committee gives room for cheer since it encompasses persons from both public and private sectors, including those who have managed private and public airlines.

    ‘Airlines outside Nigeria, especially in the developed world, whether it is the British Airways or Lufthansa or United Airlines, all thrive on the virtues of free enterprise. If the government has a zeal for it, it should run on a public-private partnership model. That will ensure that the private stocks hold the government accountable’

    Nigeria has had enough experience to know that we should not make public decisions based on the present crop of leaders’ integrity. Some have argued that under President Buhari, a national carrier will be marked by efficiency because the present leadership is serious. This is not the way to build institutions. It turns the nation into an enclave of men and not of laws. But our desire is to ennoble our institutions, so that they expose and convict the bad and ride on the integrity and efficiency of the wise and upright.

    Airlines outside Nigeria, especially in the developed world, whether it is the British Airways or Lufthansa or United Airlines, all thrive on the virtues of free enterprise.

    If the government has a zeal for it, it should run on a public-private partnership model. That will ensure that the private stocks hold the government accountable. The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. is a good example of how it can be profitable. Yet, it can also be fraught with corruption, as evident in the lack of remittance of hundreds of billions of Naira to the national coffers.

    We also know that part of the logic for considering the national carrier option derives from the inefficiencies of some private airlines. Some of them are mired in debts and a few have brought mourning to homes because of crashes traced to inefficiency.

    We cannot, as they say, throw the baby away with the bath water. One of the reasons for the crashes was a lack of strict regulations by the aviation authorities. These same government bodies cannot be asked to run an airline. It will be double jeopardy.

     

  • U.S. sanctions put Gazprom, Shell plans in jeopardy

    Shell and Gazprom signed an agreement in June to develop a strategic alliance in the gas sector, ranging from upstream–exploration and production, to sales, including possible asset swaps.

    Development of the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field on the island of Sakhalin in the Pacific, a project known as Sakhalin-3, has been seen as central to that alliance as it would allow the two companies expand their sole existing LNG venture, Sakhalin-2, located nearby.

    State-owned Gazprom was believed to be considering selling a stake in Sakhalin-3 to Shell, which confirmed only last week that it was interested in buying a share, possibly through an asset swap, according to Bloomberg. It may now have to rethink those plans.

    The U.S. government said it was restricting exports, re-exports and transfers of technology and equipment to the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field.

    Shell, with considerable assets in the United States, would face consequences if it went against the sanction, as would other potential foreign investors.

    U.S. officials have repeatedly said that sanctions on Russia’s energy sector – part of broader penalties imposed since 2014 over Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine – would target new projects, not existing supplies as that could cause a spike in global energy prices.

  • Double jeopardy

    Double jeopardy

    • Nigeria risks health hazards by consuming smuggled poultry products and also loses billions annually to smugglers

    It should not be surprising that smuggling of poultry products has continued unabated in the country despite the health hazards in consuming them and in spite of the huge resources this is costing the country. The reason is simple: local supply cannot catch up with demand for the products.  Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, who made this known, also disclosed that Nigeria loses about N532bn annually to smuggling of poultry products. “While the local demand for frozen chicken is above two million metric tonnes annually, Nigerian farmers are only able to produce 300, 000 metric tonnes, leaving a wide gap of more than 1.7million metric tonnes.” Since nature abhors a vacuum, this gap must be filled, somehow.

    But this situation cannot continue forever, if not for the impact of smuggled poultry products on the country’s economy, but because of the dangers they constitute to human health. According to the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), research has shown that poultry products smuggled into the country were partly responsible for several cases of digestive and intestinal health issues among consumers. Also, according to Dr. Oduntan, it has been discovered that the products “contain high level of bacteria”. In addition, toxic chemicals and solvents are used in preserving the frozen chickens so that their importers can get them into Nigeria to be sold at cheaper prices.

    Moreover, a newspaper report said that a recent study carried out by Nigerian scientists in various markets in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt confirmed fears that smuggled chicken products contain substances that are dangerous to health. According to the research finding, “imported processed chicken and turkey were preserved with high level of formalin, a chemical that could be injurious to health when consumed in high quantities”.

    Indeed, one of the researchers, a nutritional enzymologist, Dr. Okhiomah Abu, said that the poultry products imported into Nigeria “contain toxic and heavy metals that could worsen the occurrence of food-borne diseases”. According to him, these heavy metals are concentrated in the kidney and livers of the chicken, which becomes injurious to health. Yet, another researcher, Prof. C.I Alamira, has also carried on some studies which, according to him, showed that processed products like chicken and turkey “were loaded with harmful microbes such as Salmonella, which has been linked with life-threatening food-borne diseases”. In fact, he stated that Salmonella infection has been the leading cause of food-related deaths among those eating processed meat.

    It was in realisation of these dangers associated with consumption of smuggled processed meat, chicken and turkey that NAFDAC has agreed to embark on a nation-wide campaign to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers of consuming them. We have nothing against this; except that the poultry products produced locally fall far short of demand. So, the admonition that Nigerians should switch to Nigeria-produced chicken cannot amount to much. Not even the suggestion by stakeholders across the “poultry value chain” that the Federal Government should take far-reaching measures “that could end the menace of smuggling as it was killing local industries” can change the situation unless the supply side is addressed.

    It is indeed unfortunate that we can allow this quantity of smuggling of poultry products in the country. The discrepancy between local consumption of poultry products and what is locally produced constitutes a huge gap that must be bridged by supporting local producers of poultry products as a first step towards checking smuggling. The Nigeria Customs Service too has to be strengthened and made more alive to its responsibilities. But its job would be better facilitated when there is significant increase in the quantity of poultry products produced locally. When we have enough of the products at home at affordable prices, smuggling will be minimised ; so will the health hazards.

    ‘The discrepancy between local consumption of poultry products and what is locally produced constitutes a huge gap that must be bridged by supporting local producers of poultry products as a first step towards checking smuggling’

  • Ebola: Why Osun festival celebration will be low key-Commissioner

    THE celebration of this year’s edition of the annual Osun Osogbo festival would be low key as the state government has said it will not allow tourists from outside the State to participate in the event.

    The reason for the low key celebration is based on prevention of the spread  of Ebola virus disease in the state.

    Speaking at a press conference, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere,  said the measure was necessary and in the interest of the people of the state.

    The commissioner called for the understanding of the people, particularly Osun worshipers and devotees as well as the traditionalists, saying their cooperation is a sacrifice they must pay for the well being of the residents of the State.

    However, he said in spite of the low key nature of this year’s Osun Festival, all traditional rites and sacrifices by the Osun devotees in Osogbo would be observed.

    He explained that the state government has restricted movements of non-residents of Osun, saying this would help to prevent the spread of the disease to the State.

    Akere informed that only traditional worshippers and well wishers who are resident in the State will be allowed to partake in the celebration of the Osun Festival to minimise bodily contacts among the people.

    He said: “We are determined to take all necessary steps to avert Ebola epidemics in our State. Consequently, scaling down this year’s celebration of the Osun Festival is a sacrifice we must make in order to prevent a crisis that will put human lives in jeopardy.”

  • Double jeopardy

    Double jeopardy

    •MEND’s threat will put the govt in a tight corner as it has to battle many enemies simultaneously

     

    A  chilling countdown has begun, with all eyes glued on May 31, the date fixed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to launch Operation Barbarossa. “The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassination of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said in an e-mailed statement. The motive, according to the militant group, is “to save Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation.”

    It is intriguing that the group claimed it was speaking “on behalf of the hapless Christian population in Nigeria.” Clearly, the immediate questions raised by this posture are: Who made MEND protector of the Christian faithful? What are the group’s credentials qualifying it to play the self-assigned defensive role? What is the basis for the premise that the Christian faith is in grave danger? Why is Islam the target of the planned campaign?

    Certainly, it is more than a coincidence that MEND spoke out following the dramatic rejection by Abubakar Shekau of the idea of a governmental amnesty for Boko Haram , the Islamist group terrorising the northern part of the country. The leader of the religious fundamentalists stunned the Federal Government, arguing that his group had done no wrong, and that it was the government that should be considered for pardon.

    Inspired by an unrealistic dream to Islamise the country and enthrone sharia, Boko Haram has become increasingly radical since 2009, and its terror tactics has resulted in a reported death toll of 10,000 victims. In its reign of terror, the group has been particularly hard on churches, a fact that helps to put MEND’s reasoning into perspective.

    However, it is not difficult to detect an opportunistic angle in MEND’s new-found love for Christianity. Before the announcement of Operation Barbarossa, there was Hurricane Exodus by which the group resumed open hostilities this month against the government, prompted by the trial and imprisonment of its leader, Henry Okah, in South Africa, on charges related to terror acts carried out by the group in Nigeria. True to its threat, the group claimed responsibility for the killing of 12 policemen on the waterways of Azuzuama in Bayelsa State, and the destruction of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited Well 62 at Ewellesuo community, also in Bayelsa.

    Now that the reversal triggered by Okah’s fate has been expanded to accommodate what is obviously conceived as a counter-punch against Boko Haram, the development casts a reasonable doubt on the group’s actual motive and the sincerity of its pro-Christian campaign. It is instructive that the group named Okah among those who could intervene to arrest the operation. Will he do this from jail?Also, it is noteworthy that the group clarified the status of Hurricane Exodus, saying that it is on-going and would be carried out side by side with Operation Barbarossa.

    If MEND gives bite to its threat, the consequence will be a balance of terror. It remains to be seen, though, whether such development would tame Boko Haram. It is indeed remarkable that MEND was itself a beneficiary of governmental amnesty and its renewed insurgency demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the pardon approach as a deterrent for champions of terror.

    For the government, this is, without doubt, a case of double jeopardy; and the situation will certainly put it under immense pressure as it struggles to find solutions. Dubious self-help, which is what MEND’s move represents concerning the Boko Haram challenge, is definitely out of the question. Equally defective is the government’s insistence on considering amnesty for Boko Haram, which has rubbished the thought.

    There is no escaping the fact that the government will have to address the security challenges with all the creativity that it can summon. However, in the final analysis, nothing succeeds like good governance, with all the positive implications for political and socio-economic development. That is the way the government should go.