The Nation Newspaper

Tag: leadership

  • Royal Exchange chief urges school prefects on leadership

    Royal Exchange Plc has urged secondary schools’ prefects to consider leadership in their schools and in future.

    Its Group Managing Director Chike Mokwunye gave the advice at the yearly leadership conference for secondary school prefects in Lagos.

    He said there was no better time and place to discuss the topic ‘Leadership’ than now, considering the evolutional stage of the country and, most appropriately, the prefects place in schools.

    He said: “As prefects, God has placed you in the position of leadership in your various schools and I want to believe that the authorities must have seen something unique and adorable in you before selecting you as prefects.

    “At the national level, it is often said that God has blessed this country with abundant resources. All we need is to put the right leaders in place and we can begin the march towards national prosperity. All of you here represent the future of the nation. That is why we, at Royal Exchange, believe that any investment in the youth is an investment in the future greatness of our nation.

    “As prefects, your colleagues look up to you as a beacon for direction. As a leading light, each of you has been invested with a responsibility to do the right things and to point the right way for others to follow.”

    The Royal Exchange boss said the conference was one of those initiatives designed to impact in the pupils, the virtues of honesty, diligence, hard work and empathy.

    He urged the prefects to respect constituted authority, such as government and the schools management, saying it is their duty to regulate activities either in the schools or in the larger society.

    “So, I enjoin you to continue to show exemplary conducts and to uphold high ethical standards that will make you all good ambassadors of your school and the nation at large.

    “Royal Exchange Pic is Nigeria’s first insurance company, founded in 1921. After 92 years and have since diversified into providing a wide spectrum of financial services which include general and healthcare insurance, life assurance, finance and asset management as well as microfinance banking.

    “We are here to identify with your aspiration as future leaders of this great nation because we believe in the potential of youths to be the best in their chosen field of endeavour, be it sports, music, engineering or medicine,” he said.

    He praised the Lagos State Government for its investment in education, which has seen the elaborate renovation of school infrastructure and sustained human capacity building of the staff.

    It is this focus on education that has attracted our firm to support the training of pupils, Mokwunye added.

  • ‘Only leadership is wrong with Nigeria’

    ‘Only leadership is wrong with Nigeria’

    The nation will continue to wallow in lack until the right people occupy leadership positions, the general overseer of Love of Christ Chapel International Ministries, Lagos, Prophet Peter Olowoporoku, has declared.

    He stressed that nothing is wrong with Nigeria apart from leadership challenges.

    Olowoporoku spoke last Wednesday with reporters ahead of the annual convention of the church slated for 3rd November 2013.

    The theme of the convention is ‘Emergence of champions”.

    He said a nation devoid of real champions is doomed to fail, urging Christians with passion for politics to join the fray to save the nation.

    Olowoporoku urged them to take their rightful places in the affairs of the nation and stop being back benchers.

    According to the cleric: “The right way to be a champion of God is to abhor corruption, have integrity and be truthful.”

    The chairman of the planning committee, Pastor Kunle Akinbowale, said the 20th edition of the convention is significant.

    Ministers expected include Rev Albert Oduwole of Triumphant Assembly; Pastor Femi Emmanuel of Living Spring Chapel and Pastor Laitan Aromolaran of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and Rev Bolaji Akinyemi.

     

  • David Mark not providing leadership

    David Mark not providing leadership

    PRESIDENT of the Senate, David Mark, surprised the public last week when he launched into a caustic attack on those who were party to the 2009 agreement between the federal government and university teachers. Both sides, he said trenchantly, were ignorant and mischievous. But his blistering attack suggested something much more insidious. In a subtle way, it indicated his underlying impatience with the unresolved Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, and it also reflected his worldview, one inextricably connected with or subordinated to the futile worldview of Nigerian leaders in the past three decades or so. That worldview, however, transcends party affiliation, and is driven more by his innate desire to cooperate with the country’s leadership than by his desire to promote good governance and stability.

    After considering the issue of the university strike last week, the Senate mandated its president to mediate between the striking teachers and the federal government in order to resolve the dispute. But it is not clear to what extent his unguarded remarks about the university teachers, whom he described as opportunistic, and the federal government team whom he called outright ignoramuses, had weakened his own hand as a mediator and diminished the respect the teachers should have for him had he been more temperate and magisterial.

    Hear Senator Mark at his fulsome worst: “Listening to the agreement that was signed by the Federal Government, as Comrade Uche Chukwumerije read it out, I was really wondering whether this was signed or it was just a proposal. But when he concluded, he said it was signed. It only shows the level of people the executive sent to go and negotiate on their behalf because ab initio, people must be told the truth what can be accomplished and what cannot be accomplished. If a leader says I am going to accomplish this, he is morally duty bound to honour it. But even if you decided immediately after that you could not accomplish it, I think it is only proper for you to go back and start renegotiating…On the other hand, I think ASUU simply took advantage of the ignorance of those who were sent and simply just allowed this agreement to go on because it is obvious that this is going to be very difficult piece of paper to implement. They found that those who were sent there simply didn’t know their right from their left and they just went ahead.”

    Put simply, Senator Mark does not believe the 2009 agreement between the government and ASUU can be implemented, nor will he get the Senate to help the process. In addition, he thinks nothing of the quality of minds on both sides of the negotiating table that produced the 2009 deal. It is instructive that the president is of the same opinion, though he was as vice president an indirect party to the deal. And to underscore the paralysis that has made the Jonathan cabinet detached from reality, most members of the cabinet think the same way too, not the least vociferous among whom is the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. However, Senator Mark’s tirade is more significant for what it does not say than what it says. His remarks go far beyond his opinion on the ASUU strike, or his unsavoury view on the teams that negotiated the 2009 agreement, whether they were competent or not. I’ll prove this assertion amply.

    I concede that for the more than six years Senator Mark has been president of the Senate, he has brought stability and order to the upper chamber of the National Assembly. His temperament, perhaps also his military training, and his ability to transform status quo into a dignified thing, are not altogether unsuited to the role of leading and guiding the legislature, whether at the lower level or at the upper level. Indeed, they help him check the adventurousness of senators, some of whom have a fondness for whimsically baying for blood. Elected to head the Senate in 2007, some say with the help of the (then) just departed President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Mark, I must acknowledge, seems both able and eager to continue in that position for a few more years, even beyond the 2015 polls. He has mastered the art of doing nothing significant regally.

    Indeed, there are many people who would want Senator Mark to continue presiding over the affairs of the Senate ad infinitum. President Goodluck Jonathan is one. So, too, would both Chief Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, had they continued in office. To these three presidents, Senator Mark represents the archetypal Senate leadership upon which they would have felt comfortable and even enthusiastic to build their hopes, their programmes, no matter how ephemeral, and their unadulterated conservatism. The basic elements of Senator Mark’s political worldview are unrepentantly opposed to any form of surprise or radicalism. Had he been president of the Senate in the burdensome but insular days of the Obasanjo presidency, it is almost certain the former president would have had little desire to instigate the kind of leadership changes that convulsed the upper chamber and whittled down its prestige.

    As this column suggested last week, Nigeria is battling with the twin evils of leadership incompetence and creeping fascism, with the latter promoted and rendered lethal by the former. Though the Jonathan presidency has not given the impression it fully understands the weight of the problems afflicting Nigeria, and so cannot proffer the appropriate panaceas, few Nigerians doubt how perilously close the country is to the precipice. There is the unending Boko Haram revolt in the Northeast, sundry crimes such as kidnapping and armed robbery in the Southeast and South-South made worse by the most sustained piece of grand thievery of oil resources amounting to close to a billion dollars monthly, a host of socio-economic and political crises that are robbing every part of Nigeria of a great future, and a series of disaggregated but potent malfeasances enacted by ministers, commissioners, police and other security chiefs. The stark truth is that Nigeria has not had it so bad, no, not even in the larcenous days of the hedonist, Sani Abacha.

    It is precisely at this time of an underperforming presidency sustained by lies, propaganda and a grievous assault on the constitution in Rivers and other states, that the country requires the services of a wise, patriotic, visionary and courageous legislature. Sadly, it is at this time that the Senate is led by a pro-establishment, if not entirely reactionary, leadership, whose full-grown conservatism makes the moderating and restraining efforts of the House of Representatives look like sophomoric radicalism. Recall that the House of Representatives had to risk its credibility to restrain the Jonathan presidency from declaring a vicious and autocratic form of state of emergency in the Northeast, after the Senate had virtually given the president a carte blanche to do as he pleased. And now, the Senate under Senator Mark, is angry that ASUU sticks to its guns. How deep in ignominy will the Senate plumb before it reaches the bottom?

    It is time Senator Mark recognised that posterity is calling on him to build a legacy. But that legacy will not be built on the foundation and altar of a cosy relationship that has made the Senate under him indistinguishable from the executive. Even if he comes back to the Senate for a record fifth time, Senator Mark must realise he is unlikely to return as Senate President, no matter which archconservative takes Aso Villa and promotes his candidature. He should reflect on his tenure and those of his predecessors, recognise that a vibrant and knowledgeable Senate could have checked the misdeeds of the Obasanjo presidency, especially the former president’s mindlessly raucous and retrogressive privatisation policy (which stand in sharp contrast to his crazy nationalisation policy of the late 1970s), and that it is time the Senate was made to form an ironclad partnership with the House of Representatives to protect the constitution, checkmate fascism and destroy any appetite Dr Jonathan might have to undermine the veneer of federalism still sustaining the country’s unity.

    Senator Mark’s antecedents do not give hope that he can manage the needed transition, for apart from being thoroughly elitist, as his military days showed, he is not even a natural or artificial democrat, as his time in the Senate is showing effusively in all its unedifying colours. But I hesitate to write him off. Perhaps, he will view this admonition as the honest, plaintive cry of someone who cares about what legacy he would leave behind, and not the writing of one whom Dr Jonathan and his aides habitually denigrate as a destructive critic.

     

  • Leadership at last?

    Leadership at last?

    PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has apparently belatedly woken up to the fact that under the presidential system of government which we practice, his office plays a pivotal leadership role in the executive arm and the buck stops at his table. He is at liberty to hire and fire his aides and the responsibility for the achievements or lapses of any department of his administration ultimately rests with him.

    Dr Jonathan gave an indication of this realisation when the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) led by its President, Dr Osahon Enabulele, met him at the Presidential Villa last Tuesday. Speaking assertively, the President promised to end the on-going strike by both the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD). Exhibiting an uncharacteristic sense of urgency, the President said he would do everything possible to resolve all issues responsible for the industrial disputes.

    In Dr Jonathan’s words on the occasion, “I believe that we must manage both sectors in such a way that nobody engaged in them will think of going on strike again. We will continue to proactively evolve measures that will help us to permanently overcome the problems that lead to strikes by health and education professionals”. Belated as his gesture may be, the President’s new stance is at least a welcome departure from his unhelpful insinuation during his last Presidential media chat that the ASUU strike was politically motivated.

    Yet, it is inexcusable that Dr. Jonathan is seemingly waking up to his leadership responsibility in this respect after ASUU has been on strike and public universities paralysed for almost four months, and the NARD for over a week. A truly proactive, responsible and sensitive government would have acted decisively to prevent the grievances from degenerating to strike in the first place. This is clearly a case of unpardonable negligence and lethargy on the part of the responsible government departments and President Jonathan cannot absolve himself of ultimate blame for this deplorable situation.

    Matters are worsened by the fact that at the root of the industrial disputes is the failure of the Federal Government to honour agreements it freely entered into with the affected unions. ASUU’s grouse is the non-implementation of the agreement reached with the Federal Government since 2009 on diverse issues, including welfare of its members and the revitalisation of the country’s critically ailing tertiary institutions. According to the union, “The negotiations for the 2009 agreement took three years (2006-2009). As was agreed in 2012 evidenced by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Federal Government promised to release N100 billion immediately in 2012 and N400 billion in 2013”. Only 20 per cent of these sums have reportedly been released till date.

    On its part, the NARD is demanding, among others, payment of the outstanding salaries and allowances of its members as well as the release and implementation of the stakeholders’ agreement on residency training programme reached on July 5 and 6, 2013. These are issues which a serious government would vigorously and meaningfully address to avoid the kind of industrial crises currently plaguing the country’s health and education sectors.

    We hope that President Jonathan lives up to his promise of providing the necessary leadership to end these strikes. But this will be possible only if he becomes more focussed on governance and less distracted by the politics of 2015. It is as a result of the President’s example and indulgence, for instance, that the former Minister of State for Education who is the current supervising minister of the ministry, Mr NyesomWike, is more preoccupied with his unhidden gubernatorial ambition in Rivers State than the onerous responsibilities of his office.

  • ‘No plan to change House leadership’

    ‘No plan to change House leadership’

    House of Representatives member Hon. Teejay Yusuf, who represents Kabba-Bunu Constituency, Kogi State, is the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Information Communication Technology. He spoke with MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crises.

     

    Few weeks ago, there was fracas on the floor of the House over the visit of G-7 governors. What do you make of such development?

    Ironically, that incident confirmed the fact that we have done well. For the first time in about three years, that was the first time such a fracas happened. In every democracy, the parliament is always a fulcrum of ideas. The House is a forum for the contention of ideas; there is always a contending stream of ideas and opinions on the floor. The Parliament in Britain, America and other places is always a place for the resolution of conflicting ideas. The way you handle such conflicts determines how well you come out or how bad you come out. What happened in the House of Representatives was in tune with parliamentarians’ tendency to openly express their displeasure about certain things.

    The G-7 and other governors and leaders of the party have a right to be in the National Assembly, and nobody contests that fact. Alhaji Kawu Baraje, the purported chairman of a faction of the PDP, has a right to be in the National Assembly. But what was challenged was under which guise or which authority are these persons doing what they are doing. Are you coming as a former National Secretary of the party? Good. Are you coming as a former Acting Chairman or coming as governors of the ruling party? Fantastic. But, if you are coming as a ‘chairman’ to address a caucus of the PDP, we are legislators and lawmakers and we cannot sit and watch such an aberration being encouraged. What we are saying is this: can anybody wake up anywhere in the world and call himself the governor of a state with just a press conference? Will that be a legitimate claim? I am not denying the fact that they could have legitimate grievances that they want to express. But, how you go about it is a different thing all together. What happened on the floor when they came was that a member of the PDP caucus raised a point of order to say “I want to know what the modus operandi of this meeting is”.

    On what grounds are they here? Secondly, how come I, as a Parliamentarian, I’m standing while hangers-on that came here with these people are sitting. It is supposed to be a PDP caucus meeting, but PDP parliamentarians were standing. So, the intention of the Point of Order that was raised was to draw attention towards ensuring that this anomaly could be taken for what it was and corrected. If you observed very well, when the Speaker of the House was speaking, no other contrary voice was heard. But when it was Baraje’s turn to speak, the members said no, let us clarify this. Who are you?

    But the impression that many people now have is that the so-called PDP faction which initially claims to have 57 members, is now strong enough to claimed that it can effect a change in the House leadership. What do you say to that?

    You see, it is natural for those who are disadvantaged to seek unnecessary attention to bolster their ego. You want to encourage and psyche yourself up. If you watch a boxing bout, as the boxer is going into the ring, he has somebody by his side saying to him ‘You are the champ, you are the best’. So, whoever has made such claim is only trying to encourage his co-travellers or colleagues. Unfortunately, our politics, as it is now, the state governors have a huge role to play in who emerges or re-emerges as House of Representatives members. Those who know will always understand that. If you take that away, most of them will not be with those governors. So, they can go with their governors now, but others will not go with governors, who work against their party. We have 288 (PDP) members. The whole of the states, where we have these pockets of agitations, have a total number of about 58 members (in the House of Representatives). So, how can they have 108? Where are they producing it? By every political calculation, is it not logical that it should be us that should have more numbers? But I don’t join issues with such illusions. I can assure you that when we get to the river, we will cross it.

    The PDP House of Representatives members are intact. We are solidly behind the party and we are advising anybody, even our leaders, who have genuine grievances, to go through the right channel of the party. It is not the first time that parties will have issues. All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), for instance, had theirs for about four years. It’s not possible for you to have cleavages and interests struggling for relevance and not have these challenges. But when has it become a National Assembly issue? Was APGA issue brought to the National Assembly? The idea of bringing it is to seek relevance and do some bit of propaganda to help in negotiating and get some mileage for themselves. But we want to say that the business of governance is very important. The House of Representatives is committed to that under the able leadership of the Speaker and we will not allow any distractions whatsoever, to move us from the focus of delivering to Nigerians, the dividends of democracy that they deserve.

    It is also said that many members of the House of Representatives, including people in your group, the Unity Forum, are working underground towards effecting a change in the leadership of the House?

    What has the leadership of the House of Representatives got to do with the issue on ground? Just because some people addressed the press and said they have a new party?

    I’m talking ‘about the’ PDP Patriots’ and the Unity Forum’, the groups to which you belong.

    I thank God that you used two words now, patriot and unity. If you are a patriot, is causing confusion on the floor of the House in any tandem with being a patriot? Is causing disaffection and trying to rock the boat in the House in tandem with the position of unity? I will tell you very loud and clear that there is nobody interested in removing the leadership of the House as it is constituted right now. We believe that we will achieve more, if we do not delve into such distractions. The 7th House of Representatives has been able to achieve this milestone because of the level of harmony that we have enjoyed and the intention of the Unity Forum. For most members they want the House to be insulated from the shenanigan, the needless intrigues that is going on.

    Come to think of it, who amongst us in the House of Representatives was part of these challenges when they occurred? Whose interest were those people serving? If they are resolved, how many of us will be called? So, why should they turn the House to the theatre of the crisis? Of a truth, if you belong to a political party, is it showing loyalty and love for that party to move a party issue on the floor of the National Assembly? Of course, it’s clear they have a different thing in mind. However, I can speak based on the privilege of the group I have had meetings with, that there has never been an issue in our agenda to think of the removal of any principal officer and we encourage the leadership to remain focussed and not be distracted.

    We understand that, once you take 2015 away from this, all the crisis will cease. So, one thing we sincerely appeal to our leaders is to ensure that they do not allow what is in the hand of God, what no man has ability or capacity to determine how it goes and where it does not go, rob us of the privilege and the result we can achieve now. God, ultimately rules in the affairs of men. Posterity will judge us. Posterity will record us. Posterity will play back whatever role we play today. This country emerged from a very agonizing, painful military rule.

    I was privileged to be in the thick of the action as a student union leader and I don’t pray we should return to those days again. We might not value what we have now, but God forbids, if we lose it, that’s when we will understand that we have moved beyond what we can imagine. Power and whoever has it, is in the hand of God. The 7th House of Representatives has a responsibility to continue to give direction and leadership. I believe that the House, as presently constituted, will shape how Nigeria will be in the next 20 years. We have a real opportunity and a real privilege. What we do with it will determine the result we get. What you sow today will bear fruit tomorrow. If you plant the right seed, you will reap the right fruit. You can’t plant cocoyam and reap cassava. They might look alike; they are both tubers. But they are not the same.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • ACF to Jonathan: It’s time to show leadership

    ACF to Jonathan: It’s time to show leadership

    The pan northern socio political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has told President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who are currently at each other’s throat that the time has come for them to show leadership to the rest of the nation.

    The Forum also said that the continued clamour for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is capable of creating more confusion than it can solve.

    Spokesman of the Forum, Anthony Sani told The Nation that it was unfortunate that party that was given the mandate to lead a united country is currently overwhelmed by internal crisis. He, however, expressed confidence that the situation was not beyond redemption.

    He said “It is unfortunate that we have to watch a ruling party with a mandate to preside over a united Nigeria, being overwhelmed by its own internal politics at the expense of providing order and direction to what appears a dysfunctional nation.

    “Yet, the situation is not beyond redemption since great leaders are defined by great challenges like we have now. This is because such great men often pursue causes higher than themselves as worthy impulse. This is time to demonstrate leadership”

    Sani said that there is currently no consensus on the number of ethnic nationalities in the country let alone how they should be represented either on equality or by population.

    He added that it was wrong for people to conclude that Senate President, Senator David Mark was in support of the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference, adding that what the Senate President supported was a National Conference.

    The ACF, he said has never opposed any genuine dialogue by Nigerians aimed at moving the country forward, saying that what the forum has always insisted on was for such dialogue to take place as a national conference and not undermined the nation’s constitution.

    He said “there is a difference between Sovereign National Conference and National Conference. While the resolutions of the former are sovereign and not subjected to National Assembly, the later is not.

    “The Senate President has endorsed national conference and not sovereign national conference because that would amount to passing a vote of no confidence on our democracy and its institutions.

    “ACF has never opposed national dialogue through national conference. As to the sovereign national conference of ethnic nationalities to bring about a new ‘peoples’ constitution’, there are obvious complications.”

    He pointed out that there is yet no consensus as to the number of ethnic nationalities in the country.

     

     

  • Ineffective leadership, bane of Nigeria’s development, says NIM President

    Ineffective leadership, bane of Nigeria’s development, says NIM President

    The Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) (Chartered) has identified ineffective leadership as the bane of the country’s development since independence.

    The NIM President, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, said this yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 2013 annual National Management Conference of the institute in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

    He spoke on the theme: “Essentials of Good Governance in the Progressive Transformation of Nigeria.”

    Olawale-Cole said Nigeria’s problem had never been paucity of funds and resources, but lack of the political will to do the right thing.

    The NIM president said the best democracies in the world thrive on good governance.

    He regretted that despite being blessed with abundance of natural and human resources, Nigeria has not got it right in leadership.

    His words: “While other nations, which are not as equally blessed have moved on due to purposeful and committed leadership, Nigeria has stagnated in almost all facets of its national life due to leadership ineptitude, widespread corruption and other social vices that stall every attempt at effective leadership.

    “You will agree with me that it takes a lot of commitment and focus to deliver good governance. The problem of Nigeria has never been that of paucity of funds and resources, but lack of political will to do the right thing. The best democracies of the world thrive on good governance.”

    Dr. Olawale-Cole said the theme of the conference was chosen because the institute came to the painful and sad conclusion that more than ever before in the history of its existence, Nigeria needed an urgent solution to the many leadership and governance challenges besetting it.

    He urged the citizenry to be active participants in ensuring good governance rather than criticising government and passing the buck.

    Olawale-Cole went on: “Instead of sitting by, criticising government and trading endless blames on why the nation has come to this pathetic leadership crossroads; the institute, which believes in supporting government in finding solution to the problems of governance is using the opportunity provided by this conference to contribute its quota by proffering viable and workable roadmap to the leadership question through the focus on ways to deliver good governance to Nigerians.

    “The institute decided to lead the way in getting the nation out of the quagmire it has found itself because it believes that the task of getting the country up and running should not be left to government alone.”

    President Goodluck Jonathan described the theme of the conference as apt, adding that the institute has further demonstrated that it is always committed to supporting the Federal Government in achieving its drive to reposition and turn around the nation’s economy.

    President Jonathan, who took time out to outline some of the achievements of his administration, said through the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN), about 100,000 jobs have been created.

    He was represented at the event by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Bukar Aji.

     

  • OAU’s leadership in software engineering

    Obafemi Awolowo Uiversity, Ile-Ife continues to engrave her name in the psyche of global reckoning as a centre of academic excellence. She remains the best and the number one university in Nigeria. She has retained this position for two consecutive years. In the latest Webometric ranking of world universities released by the Cybermetrics Lab of Spain – a world renowned Research Council and which was circulated around the world, the university was ranked the best and number one university in Nigeria and the entire sub-region of West Africa. She also moved from number 14 position to number eight in the Africa. This makes her the first university in Nigeria to be among the best 10 universities in Africa.

    This break-taking achievement has been made possible because OAU as the leading ICT university in Nigeria continues to be the trail-blazer in other ICT initiatives in the nation’s educational landscape. Her researchers developed and established the first i-Lab in Africa, South of Sahara, after, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) started its pilot programme in 2005 with three African universities namely OAU, Makerere University, Uganda and University of Dar a-Salaam, Tanzania. I-Lab is a scientific innovation which enables students and researchers carry out experiments over a network without being in the same geographical location. Her Central Science Laboratory with the assemblage of state-of-the art equipment, including Varian Mercury 200 NMR Spectrometer which is the only one in the entire Nigerian university system is the best not only in Nigeria but in the entire West Africa. It attracts researchers and scholars from the sub-region. In furtherance of the determination of the administration of Professor Bamitale Omole to make ICT and other related innovations the fulcrum of her developmental strategy in teaching, research, administration and service delivery, she is now the pace-setter in software engineering.

    Recently, with the financial support from Step-B/World Bank and Skye Bank Plc, a multi-million naira Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering was commissioned in OAU in July. The facilities in the centre will greatly impact in the teaching and research efforts of the university and make her retain its enviable position on the ranking of global universities by Webometric as the best university in Nigeria.

    The centre’s Telepresence Environment which is fully equipped with Huawei TP 3118 product will enhance the delivery of lectures for large classes. Lectures will be delivered to students located in different auditoria in real-time over the internet. OAU researchers will also have web-conferencing and interactions with other researchers all over the globe in real time via the internet. There exists a Cloud Computing Environment (CCE) with 7.7 TB cloud server for applications and OS, and cloud storage of 96TB with 500 virtual Terminals.

    The objective of the centre which is well-equipped with highly sophisticated equipment is to address the paucity and dearth of educational software which will utilize teaching aids in the teaching and learning of Science and Technology (S & T) post-basic courses. It will also enhance the capacity of post-basic teachers to develop, deploy and evaluate teaching and learning of S & T using modern ICT facilities with a view to facing the 21st century S & T challenges. The programmes of the centre will build national capacities through postgraduate trainings, post-doctoral researches, short-term trainings, conferences and workshops in software engineering in S&T courses such as software development and application, networking, development of internet and web applications, simulations, graphic, remote experimentation, hardware design, implementation and maintenance.

    The centre will impart knowledge to students in these areas using ICT driven participatory and student-centred teaching and learning approaches that would produce graduates who will be practical-oriented and serve as the catalysts and purveyors of the technological development of the nation.

    For the centre to move abreast with modern trends in software engineering, it will leverage on some international and national partners which OAU has working relationships. The international partners include Abdusaalam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy for the provision of network backbone and hotspots, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) U.S.A in the area of S&T training and research in internet and remote experimentation, Hewlett Packard (H.P) in the area of modern methods in teaching S & T courses, CISCO Academy and Oracle Academy, USA in capacity building in networking and database management. CHAMS PLC, OMATEK Computers Plc and Main One Nigeria Computers Plc which are the local partners will also assist in software development, hardware design and implementation as well as in the provision of internet bandwidth respectively. Already, Sir Demola Aladekomo, Group Managing Director of CHAMS Plc and an alumnus of the university has graciously agreed to build a Software Development House (SDH) to be located beside the centre to expand the software studio.

    The centre also has a software studio where developers can interact to enhance their development skills with a view to developing various applications in software for local and international consumption. The software studio has started producing results. Within the last six months, a group of students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering trained at the centre as software developers have been able to produce two major innovations: the “‘Akowe” and the “Kedu” software. The Akowe is an application software that enables lecturers deliver lectures over network either via the internet, or the Intranet, and for students to receive the lectures remotely from different locations. The “Kedu” is a network based on real-time communication system that leverages on the existing network facility of the University. It enables users communicate over the Local Area Network (LAN) even without the internet.

    The i-Lab project has also made significant impact in teaching and research efforts by OAU. Firstly, it has solved some of her basic needs in experimentation. Another significant benefit of the project is the opportunity OAU students have had in working with leading global companies in the domain of the project. Through the i-Lab project, OAU staff and students have free access to majority of the lecture notes, audio, video and presentations of MIT Professors under that Institution’s Open Course Ware (OCW) which is the most popular Open Educational Resource (OER) project. This is because OAU is the only university in Nigeria which has the server of the OCW of MIT. Staff and students of OAU have leveraged on the accessibility of the MIT Open Course Ware to conduct research activities including porting the i-Lab platform to mobile phones, developing servomotor lab which allows students to carry out experiments in control engineering, and developing Emona Datex laboratory which enables experiments to be carried out in telecommunications.

    As a result of the immeasurable benefits from interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of research and training, OAU will extend the immense benefits of both the i-Lab project and the software engineering to other universities in the country.

    • Adefemi is of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

     

  • APC: Nigeria deserves new, not recycled leadership; Suffering: Nigeria is an Emergency

    APC, the new political party should not accept just anyone from other parties, particularly PDP which has ruled since 1999. Al Mustapha will be a huge negative for the APC. PDP’s political deadwood will not perform better in APC. A change of party will not change these people. The APC already has many forward looking politicians. Give them space and do not tie them up in ‘political favour’ knots. The new electorate is more discerning and desperate for good governance. Romancing with Babangida, Abdulsalami and players like Danjuma who is not a democrat though wealthy may empower APC with money but will that bring change to save Nigeria from destruction? Buhari’s and Tinubu’s reputation means they should take to the sidelines! No to recycled leadership. We need new leadership!

    Hurray, the FRSC has moved its Ogere checkpoint 100metres to where stopping a vehicle will not shut down a lane. Who authorises procedures, supervises, reviews situations and plans for eventualities in FRSC? Strangely, though such hawking is illegal, we see both hawkers and FRSC waving their arms frantically to attract you to stop. The FRSC should now carve out an FRSC area, free of hawking, for vehicles to be interrogated.

    One day the FRSC will remember its old ‘Observe Speed Limits’ and ‘Keep Right’ campaigns. Professor Soyinka will tell them that slowing down vehicles by speed limits and keeping slow traffic in the slow lane except when overtaking or avoiding dangerous road surfaces was the primary goal of the original FRSC. Such actions are more effective than randomly stopping vehicles for vehicle and driving licence ‘particulars and fire extinguisher’.

    On Saturday at 9.06am a brand new government issue Ibadan based yellow and deep red commercial vehicle overtook us, four kilometres outside Ibadan on the way to Lagos, at about 140-150kph.  That is our problem. Someone is driving at a speed that could kill us and we sit silently praying for a ‘Safe Journey’. That is a threat of GBH, ‘Grievous Bodily Harm’. We must inform the FRSC that commercial vehicles are driven, with impunity, by members of the NUTRW who make commercial vehicles into WMDs- a ‘Weapons of Mass Death’.

    What is FRSC waiting for? Mega deaths? The Highway Code shows road safety signs. Even potholes have no warning signs. The FRSC needs new strategies in order to tackle speed and as well as ’particulars and fire extinguisher’ enquiries. The new big multimillion naira billboards sponsored by an oil company, Exxon Mobil I think,  encouraging the speed limit are a small very expensive step. There are cheaper ways of enforcement. Passengers are often too intimidated by the NURTW reputation for violence to report ‘Endangering The Lives Of Passengers’.

    Who is there to report to, anyway?  FRSC should please add phone in and internet ‘Name and Shame Anti-Speed Campaigns’ where passengers are encouraged to report erring vehicle drivers by ‘Motor Park, Time, Date, Route’ for FRSC to place on their website and investigate. Speed can be controlled by convoys led by demarcated ‘FRSC Convoy Leader Cars’ driving at 100kph.

    I and tens of thousands of others suffered silently, but angrily, in yet another totally preventable nearly five hour massive traffic jam on the Ibadan-Lagos on Saturday. Apparently unknown to FRSC leadership, the FRSC was actually specially set up to deal with, and possibly prevent and then manage major traffic emergencies and rescue the citizenry from their misery through novel approaches to traffic control through short diversions, information dissemination, preventing overtaking on shoulders et cetera. But none of this happened. Nothing happened. The members of the FRSC could not be seen at any of the problem areas in over 30km of traffic. The FRSC made little or no effort beyond trying to arrest a few miscreants around ‘Redeem’.  There was no alarm raised by the FRSC.

    Did the FRSC members report up the chain of command and higher authorities to request assistance for the six vehicles and maybe 15 FRSC members we saw clustered around turnings and junctions? Was any order given to recall FRSC members from other areas and off-duty officials to help deal with the problem? Why were no FRSC members deployed automatically every few hundred metres along the 20km traffic jam to inform citizens and implement solutions to the massive problem and also keep order and keep vehicles from driving on the road shoulders?

    During this emergency, it was a serious if unrecognised emergency, the few FRSC who were seen were casual, disinterested and lackadaisical in attitude and showed no real concern to actually solve the traffic problem. They were not on their phones discussing with superiors and implementing any plan like the ‘FRSC 20KM Traffic Jam Plan’ at panic stations. FRSC knows that one of Nigerian drivers’ major problems is inability to follow the queue. Queue jumping is congenital among commercial and most other road users. Over 1,000 vehicles overtook us on the shoulders. If they had stayed in line we would have moved faster. If everyone was forced to stay in line on the two lane road the traffic problem would reduce dramatically. This can be done by placing some blocks every 20 metres on the shoulders which will allow parking but discourage driving on the shoulders. Perhaps the designers of the new expressway need to take this up. The suffering of Nigerians is preventable. Nigeria is an emergency waiting for treatment.

    PS : Give Nigerians emergency electric power NOW!

     

  • Advice for APC leadership

    The Ekiti State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Jide Awe, has urged the leadership of the party to rise above partisan interests to win majority support and acceptance across the country.

    The party chairman said the APC must “live its name and prove its progressive stand” by ensuring that every Nigerian has a sense of belonging under the new political arrangement”.

    Awe spoke on Monday at the inauguration of the party and hoisting of its flag in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

    He said: “We further appeal to the leadership of this party to put aside whatever has been dividing us in the past for us to forge ahead as one united entity. Together, we must champion a new course for the development of all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. I think this is our obvious demand to our leaders and I know they will not disappoint us.”

    Insisting on the “unanimous” choice of Governor Kayode Fayemi “as the party’s standard bearer in next year’s election, Awe said: “I thank God Almighty that today the arrowhead of our struggle, the governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has been trying as much as possible to put things right.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The party has unanimously taken a decision that come 2014 we are going to hand over the new flag of the APC to him as the standard bearer of our party.

    “We have taken a decision on this. We are not relenting. Whatever is going to disturb this decision, all of us must fight it, no matter the angle it is coming from.”

    Hailing Fayemi for taking the state to greater heights, Awe said: “We are realising this (Ekiti’s development) at this particular hour when one of us, who has been adjudged as one of the best political administrators of the 21st century, is now at the helm of affairs in the state. The contributions of our forefathers have not been in vain in the realm of politics.”

    The party chairman also acknowledged the commitment of the Fayemi administration and the party to ensuring a “delivery of democracy dividends to the people of the state”.