The Nation Newspaper

Tag: letter

  • A letter to the Entrepreneur

    A letter to the Entrepreneur

    A lot of questions usually comes to my mind each time I find myself in the midst of entrepreneurs; Why are some entrepreneurs extraordinary and why are some just ordinary? Why do some entrepreneurs have visible results to show for their efforts and some have nothing to show? Why are some entrepreneurs rich while some are poor? Why do some entrepreneurs become global players even though they started locally while others who started at a similar time with similar resources remain local champions? Why are some brands built to last while some fizzle out after a while? Why some entrepreneurs are able to attract huge foreign investments while some struggle to attract small local investments despite their technical/operational expertise? What happened to brands like Okin Biscuits? What happened to Awe soap? What happened to brands like 2 minutes noodles? Where did they miss it? Why did these brands fizzle out?  I mentioned these brands because they were hot in demand while I was growing up but all of a sudden they just disappeared into thin air for reasons I do not know.

     

    Having observed winning and lasting entrepreneurs for a while, I found out that they have some similar traits in common, the first being their ability conceive a great vision and see it come to fruition regardless of their current circumstance. The greatest asset any entrepreneur could have is the ability to dream beyond his current realities. Vision is the ability to see things they way it could be and not necessarily the way it is at present. Few years ago, what we had was VHS but someone conceived the idea of CD players, someone conceived the idea of LCD Screens and monitors rather than the old big screens that we used to have, Someone thought we could have wireless microphones rather than the wired ones that was available then which doesn’t give the person using it mobility. Every other day I get to meet with different kind of entrepreneurs. Some have a great vision and you can see it in the way they run their organizations, unfortunately some don’t and it is also evident in the way they conduct their businesses. I have seen entrepreneurs who have no vision at all; they aren’t driven, they have no sense of direction. For these sets of entrepreneurs, all they want to do is to make money and just survive. If your only reason for being in business is to make money then you have no business being in business. I have seen entrepreneurs who cannot tell you the exact problem that their organization is

    attract huge foreign investments while some struggle to attract small local investments despite their technical/operational expertise? What happened to brands like Okin Biscuits? What happened to Awe soap? What happened to brands like 2 minutes noodles? Where did they miss it? Why did these brands fizzle out?  I mentioned these brands because they were hot in demand while I was growing up but all of a sudden they just disappeared into thin air for reasons I do not know.

    Having observed winning and lasting entrepreneurs for a while, I found out that they have some similar traits in common, the first being their ability conceive a great vision and see it come to fruition regardless of their current circumstance. The greatest asset any entrepreneur could have is the ability to dream beyond his current realities. Vision is the ability to see things they way it could be and not necessarily the way it is at present. Few years ago, what we had was VHS but someone conceived the idea of CD players, someone conceived the idea of LCD Screens and monitors rather than the old big screens that we used to have, Someone thought we could have wireevery entrepreneur needs money to stay in business but the money to be made shouldn’t be the principal driving force (of course money is needed to pay bills and stay in business) rather it should be the problem to be solved and the good to be done. The bad thing about not having a vision as an entrepreneur is that you are not likely to build a great organization and you are also not likely to assemble a great team (as any potential team member would usually ask where your organization is heading). I see a lot of people who come into entrepreneurship simple because they want to survive, it is true that the Nigerian terrain is harsh as there is no form of social security and you just have to survive but let me ask you, how long do you intend to just survive? When would you start thinking of building a great organization? It’s great that you are making some cash here and there butif you are not careful about building a sustainable organization and you put all your energy on survival you would never build something great.

    In a tough environment like Nigeria where most young people spend bulk of their energy on trying to figure out what they will eat and how they will pay their bills, if you are not careful and vision driven you would get caught in what I call the survival web – a zone where all you think and care about is how to pay your bills. You need to ask yourself some critical questions; what is your vision as an entrepreneur? What problems are you solving that qualify you to be called an entrepreneur? Where will your business be in five years? The way you currently run your business, will it survive in China if you run it that same way? Can it survive in Paris if you run it that same way? Can it survive in Silicon Valley with the way it is currently run? Can your business attract some of the brightest young talents? With the way you are running your business will you still be in business in the next five years? Would you patronize your own business if you aren’t the owner? With the current group of people you are hanging out with as an entrepreneur, can you develop the capacity to solve bigger problems? Would these set of people enable you to attract the right resources? These are questions you need to attend toif you are going to expand your influence as an entrepreneur.

     

     

  • Governor, read this letter

    Letters can be revealing. A letter by Tosin Adesile published in The Nation, January 10, revealed a thing or two about a governor and his media performance. It was titled “Issues with Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s media chat”.

    The governor in question was Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. Adesile wrote: “The media chat held on Sunday,  January 3, 2016, is a disgrace to the media profession because the governor forcefully used executive powers to jettison core media practice by declaring without consultation that the two-hour governor’s media chat will now end in three hours and not two hours as advertised.”

    The writer of the letter quoted the governor as saying: “Two hours cannot be enough, so I declare that it will now run for three hours.” Apparently, it didn’t matter to the governor that there is such a thing as a programme schedule. Or perhaps he just didn’t give a damn. He must have reasoned that as the state’s chief executive officer, he could do and undo. Or more specifically, he could schedule and reschedule.

    This was letter writing as reporting. The reporter said: “Still on media chat, it took a serious war before the presenters drawn from Vanguard, Ogun State Television, (OGTV), Ogun State Broadcasting Service (OGBC) and Rock City FM could go on a short break. The governor asked them why they were going on a break. It was after their insistence that it’s professional they go before he succumbed.”

    Wait a minute. Is this account true to life? Adesile wrote: “The most annoying and embarrassing thing is that all the argument was live and people were hearing it.” In other words, viewers got something extra.

    Before you ask why Adesile wrote the letter to the newspaper, it is noteworthy that he said: “My continuous watch on activities of the Ogun State governor and others is a step to make them better.” He added: “My advice to the governor is to allow professional ethics run always.” Is Governor Amosun listening?

  • A letter to the entrepreneur

    A letter to the entrepreneur

    A lot of questions usually comes to my mind each time I find myself in the midst of entrepreneurs; Why are some entrepreneurs extraordinary and why are some just ordinary? Why do some entrepreneurs have visible results to show for their efforts and some have nothing to show? Why are some entrepreneurs rich while some are poor? Why do some entrepreneurs become global players even though they started locally while others who started at a similar time with similar resources remain local champions? Why are some brands built to last while some fizzle out after a while? Why some entrepreneurs are able to attract huge foreign investments while some struggle to attract small local investments despite their technical/operational expertise? What happened to brands like Okin Biscuits? What happened to Awe soap? What happened to brands like two minutes noodles? Where did they miss it? Why did these brands fizzle out?  I mentioned these brands because they were hot in demand while I was growing up but all of a sudden they just disappeared into thin air for reasons I do not know.

    Having observed winning and lasting entrepreneurs for a while, I found out that they have some similar traits in common, the first being their ability conceive a great vision and see it come to fruition regardless of their current circumstance. The greatest asset any entrepreneur could have is the ability to dream beyond his current realities. Vision is the ability to see things they way it could be and not necessarily the way it is at present.

    Few years ago, what we had was VHS but someone conceived the idea of CD players, someone conceived the idea of LCD Screens and monitors rather than the old big screens that we used to have, Someone thought we could have wireless microphones rather than the wired ones that was available then which doesn’t give the person using it mobility. Every other day I get to meet with different kind of entrepreneurs. Some have a great vision and you can see it in the way they run their organisations, unfortunately some don’t and it is also evident in the way they conduct their businesses. I have seen entrepreneurs who have no vision at all; they aren’t driven, they have no sense of direction. For these sets of entrepreneurs, all they want to do is to make money and just survive. If your only reason for being in business is to make money then you have no business being in business. I have seen entrepreneurs who cannot tell you the exact problem that their organisation is solving, for them they just know that they are in business and provided they can make money then…

    Please don’t get me wrong, every entrepreneur needs money to stay in business but the money to be made shouldn’t be the principal driving force (of course money is needed to pay bills and stay in business) rather it should be the problem to be solved and the good to be done.

    The bad thing about not having a vision as an entrepreneur is that you are not likely to build a great organisation and you are also not likely to assemble a great team (as any potential team member would usually ask where your organisation is heading). I see a lot of people who come into entrepreneurship simple because they want to survive, it is true that the Nigerian terrain is harsh as there is no form of social security and you just have to survive but let me ask you, how long do you intend to just survive? When would you start thinking of building a great organisation? It’s great that you are making some cash here and there but if you are not careful about building a sustainable organisation and you put all your energy on survival you would never build something great.

    In a tough environment like Nigeria where most young people spend bulk of their energy on trying to figure out what they will eat and how they will pay their bills, if you are not careful and vision driven you would get caught in what I call the survival web – a zone where all you think and care about is how to pay your bills.

    You need to ask yourself some critical questions; what is your vision as an entrepreneur? What problems are you solving that qualify you to be called an entrepreneur? Where will your business be in five years? The way you currently run your business, will it survive in China if you run it that same way? Can it survive in Paris if you run it that same way? Can it survive in Silicon Valley with the way it is currently run? Can your business attract some of the brightest young talents? With the way you are running your business will you still be in business in the next five years? Would you patronise your own business if you aren’t the owner? With the current group of people you are hanging out with as an entrepreneur, can you develop the capacity to solve bigger problems? Would these set of people enable you to attract the right resources? These are questions you need to attend to if you are going to expand your influence as an entrepreneur.

     

  • Letter to Pastor Uguru

    Letter to Pastor Uguru

    Dear Sir,

    I recall with a sense of responsibility your experience at the Senate during your screening for a ministerial slot. You stirred controversy on the floor of the Senate in your introductory remark you told the Senate how you traversed the various parts of the country and built relationships among people across Nigeria. At a point, you were asked whether you had fraternised with members of the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP).

    You quickly denounced the PDP by saying “God forbid” and ignited uproar on the floor. The senators of the opposition party viewed your remark about their party as uncomplimentary.

    Senate Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio and others attempted to tear you apart. Akpabio cited Order 14 of the Senate standing rule to back his position that you had breached the privileges of PDP by Uguru’s remark.

    Akpabio noted that it was unfortunate that you could see the PDP as a forbidden thing long after you had served the PDP administration as a commissioner in the National Copyright Commission (NCC). He stressed that many current senators, including the Senate President, had all at one point or another served in different capacities under the PDP before defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Senate President Bukola Saraki asked Akpabio to take his seat and urged you to apologise. You did. But the opposition senators were not done with you.  PDP senators took their turns to expose the pereceived loop holes in your resumé.

    Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, PDP, Abia North, said: “All the tax clearance the man submitted to the Senate are obtained on the same day, the same date and at the same time. Mr Senate President, we should not ignore this. We should find out why tax clearance for a number of years were obtained on the same day and submitted to the Senate. I am a Christian, and this is submitted by a Pastor not a Malam. And we as Senate should not ignore this anomaly.”

    Senator Ehinnanya Abaribe accused you of not complying with Section 120 of the Senate rule which states that no nominee would be confirmed until he had shown proof of compliance with the asset declaration law.’

    But Senator Ali Ndume rose in your defence explaining that a nominee could declare his assets even after confirmation by the Senate.

    All the drama eventually ended with your confirmation and inauguration as a minister by President Muhammadu Buhari, who has posted you to the Niger Delta Ministry.

    Now, it is time to work. As a Niger Delta man, being from Cross River, you must be familiar with the problems of your people.

    But for emphasis sake, I need to bring some things I have noted in the past about the region to your attention.

    Niger Delta too still grapples with a lot of issues. Decades before the birth of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Niger Delta, where Nigeria derives the bulk of its revenue, witnessed agitations. The people expressed unhappiness over the way they were neglected. Their farms were polluted by oil spills. Their streams were taken over by crude oil. Their health worsened. And their existence was seriously threatened.

    Close to the year of the birth of the Amnesty Programme, the agitation had taken a new twist. Before the deadly twist, Ken Saro-Wiwa had been judicially murdered. Several other people had been killed by security operatives under one guise or the other. With intellectual activists, such as Saro-Wiwa out of the way, another generation of activists took over. This set believes if you make peaceful change impossible, you make violent change inevitable. They also believe it is illegal to be lawful in a lawless environment. So, they took to arms in their quest to prove a point.

    They damaged oil pipelines at a devastating speed. They bombed military boat houses. They siphoned barrels of oil.  No thanks to these dare-devils, oil installations were blown up and oil workers were afraid to go to the rigs and others. The economy bled. The country was losing billions of Naira daily.

    NDDC’s mandate was to develop Niger Delta. But, its activities meant nothing to the militants who were set to bring down the country unless the region was given control over its resources. The impact the NDDC could have made was limited by the fact that its dues were not given to it. The statutory payments that should be made to it were withheld by all arms of government. It ran into trillions of Naira and all efforts to get the money released for the betterment of the people did not work.

    Things were getting worse by the day. They were still in that terrible state when the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was inaugurated on May 29, 2007. That the then President was uncomfortable with the state of war in the Niger Delta soon showed. First, he created the Ministry of the Niger Delta. Pronto, the government set up a technical committee to review all existing reports on the region.

    The committee, headed by Saro-Wiwa’s right hand man and ex-President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mittee, recommended an increase of the derivation fund from 13 per cent to 25 per cent. It also recommended open trial for one of the faces of the arms struggle, Mr. Henry Okah who was then in detention in Angola. Another of its recommendation, which led to the Amnesty Programme, is that youths in the region must be disarmed through a credible Decommissioning, Disarmament and Rehabilitation (DDR) process.

    The late Yar’Adua knew something urgent must be done to rescue the situation. He needed to save the country from international embarrassment that the arms struggle had become. By then, there had been reports of militants partaking in piracy activities on the Gulf of Guinea, a development which had seen the governments of Equatorial Guinea and Angola complaining to Yar’Adua at international meetings. Okah was mentioned by the two governments as being responsible for the piracy activities against their countries.

    Okah was a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had claimed responsibility for many of the kidnappings and the attacks on oil facilities in the region.

    By April 2009, the then President dissolved the board of the NDDC. Timi Alaibe, who was the Managing Director, however, got another job. He was appointed Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs. His major job, it turned out, was to midwife the birth of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. Two months after Alaibe’s appointment, Yar’Adua breathed life into me.

    The programme did not immediately bring excitement. Okah’s detention was a major factor for the insurgency’s leadership’s apathy to embrace it. Yar’Adua recruited Chief Tony Anenih, Dr Koripamo Agary and Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, among others, to assure the agitators that he was truthful about not victimising them after dropping their guns.

    Alaibe traversed the creeks persuading hard-line militant leaders to embrace me. He did not do it alone. He got Kingsley Kuku, the Arogbo-born ex-member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, who had worked with him as Special Assistant at the NDDC, to get Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Mujahhid Dokubo-Asari, General Shoot-at-sight and many other leaders of the arms’ struggle to sign up to Yar’Adua’s offer.

    Okah, who had by then been repatriated from Angola and was standing trial for treason at the Federal High Court, Jos, was a major issue in the refusal of many militant leaders to accept the programme. But, because Yar’Adua wanted the programme to succeed, he agreed to drop charges against Okah and on July 13, 2009, Okah became a free man.

    Between June 25 and October 4, 2009, 20,192 militants embraced the programme by handing over arms in excess of 20,000. Others who did not hand over their weapons initially because of the fear of the unknown later did before the deadline expired. Even after the deadline’s expiration, 6,166 more people, associated with it. Through the programme, over 30,000 ex-militants have been given a new lease of life.

    My final take sir: The ministry, which you oversee, sure has its job cut out for it. The East-West Road is one major project many will see how you will handle. Your ministry also needs to work with oil giants to ensure oil spills are reduced to the barest minimum. Militancy, kidnapping and other criminalities in the region also deserve your priority.

    Bye for now sir.

  • Open letter to Amosun

    My name is Habeeb Whyte and I am still obliged with the responsibility that life placed on me to constantly suggest better pathways for achieving the desired development, especially as regards the youth constituency in general. I am writing this to you as a concerned youth of Ogun state, and not as someone who wants to gain cheap attention from your Excellency. I write this as a pen pusher that is ready to change the cause of his generation, using the pen and advocacy.  I hail from Abeokuta where residents do not speak out of fear, but where they speak so that changes could be effected. My purpose comes with justification – your administration cheated on my colleagues and I.

    Your Excellency, I want to say that your administration has in no doubt done a lot of good things in our beloved state. Beyond sentiments, my state is now enviable among states in Nigeria. The infrastructural developments are really worth the commendation, and they pass as adorable. I have no option than to say thank you for this. I guess this was part of the reasons why the good people of the state insisted that you are elected into power to continue the good work. I thank God you are elected again because if not, I would not be writing this letter to you.

    I want to state for the records that I was part of the Nigerian Law School students for the 2013/2014 session from Ogun State. I want to say that it was really a good thing to have hailed from the state that produced students from various universities in the country and still emerged victorious despite the fact that your administration gave no support to us. We are done with the Nigerian Law School and we are now lawyers. The struggles of our parents were never in vain.  We were never supported by your administration in any way and dare say that any attempt by your administration to boast that the law school students of the 2013/2014 session were aided with cash of any amount is nothing but a blatant lie and a grave attempt to deceive the populace. Your Excellency, I concede that it is not only a moral shame, but also a grave distortion of fact that such a release emerged and your revered office stands to garner encomium for such omission.

    I need to bring to your notice, that Your Excellency had misled the Nigerian populace in your address on Ogun State website. The piece is titled:Address Delivered by the Governor Of Ogun State, His Excellency, Senator IbikunleAmosun FCA, on the Second Anniversary of His Administration, where, in Paragraph 8, Line 12 – 13, your Excellency emphatically, but falsely said that: “we also invested N120million on Bursary, Scholarship and grants to 10,770 students of Ogun State Origin ranging from N100, 000 paid to students in the Law School to N10, 000 each pupils with special needs in primary school.”

    Sir, my concern in this letter is the aspect where you said your administration gave N100, 000 to Law school students. This information you sold to Nigerians across the globe is false sir. Your administration did not give us money as a form of bursary throughout and after our stay in the Nigerian Law School. No doubt you raised our doubts in your campaign that you were going to increase the law school bursary from the conventional 50,000 to 100, 000. This we only benefitted on papers, not in reality. I remembered during our stay at the Nigerian Law School at the Bwari campus, we had a particular meeting with the liaison officer of Ogun state in Abuja and he told us categorically that bursary was never our right and that we should not expect anything from the government. He said if the government has, we would be given and if not, we should forget about it. After several attempts from our executives back then, we did not get a penny. However, we know that the then Governor of Lagos State and his Kano counterpart did fulfilled their own promises to students from their states.

    Sir, this false statement made by you is very disheartening to us. It means that money were actually released from the state treasury but were not disbursed to us. Your speech, having proven to be false can be described as a gross demonstration of lack of accountability, and this has been reputed to haunt down a million and one institutions. If it is about the Nigerian Law School set of 2013/2014 which you claim benefited from your administration, I make bold to say that your Excellency lied. I would urge you to please respect us as not only indigenes of Ogun state, but as youths that believed in your governance even after you have betrayed our electoral confidence and sense of accountability. I would urge you to please in no time as you read this make an open apology to all Nigerian Law School students of the 2013/2014 session for alleging that you paid us when you did not. Such act is unbecoming of any man, let alone a person in whom the populace reposed their collective confidence via votes.

    I must let you know that all of us are now lawyers and we are doing well. The non-payment of the bursary never stopped God’s glory in our lives. I would urge you to please set the records straight for the sake of posterity. We can take all things, not lies that are made at our expense for the purpose of covering what is open to God. This is not an allegation on your Excellency but a fact devoid of falsity. I dare challenge anyone form your office or your Excellency to say boldly that we have been paid the money as stated in your speech. We take solace in the fact that we are where we are today by God’s grace, and for cheating on us, we forgive you. If others have not or cannot, I have forgiven you.  I would urge you to please endeavour to pay the 2014/2015 Ogun Law school students the bursary because I gathered authoritatively that they have not been paid also.

    Thank you.

  • Open letter to Buhari

    It is with great honour that I write Your Excellency, on behalf of the entire students of the University of Ilorin, to request for an interactive session with the students during your visit to the university’s 31st Convocation and 40th anniversary ceremonies slated for October, 2015.

    It is on record that all through the 16-year rule of the PDP-led Federal Government, only former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the university on Friday, May 25, 2007, to inaugurate the then newly-built Senate Building and University Auditorium. At no other time did any president deem it fit to visit the university, let alone hold talks with the students.

    The indication that Your Excellency will visit the university is particularly heart-warming but the students want to meet their beloved president. It saddens our hearts that we are not aware that the President has scheduled meeting the most peaceful students in Nigeria as part activities lined up for the visit. Our students are so sad and stressed by this and the psychological trauma will increase with time except the president graciously accepts to meet them.

    The cooperation of our students’ body has made the university and the nation proud on several occasions as evident in the stability of its system, impressive ranking inthe comity of institutions and, amongst others. This accounts chiefly for why our university is one of the most sought-after institutions in the country by admission seekers.

    I humbly appeal to Your Excellency to duly consider our request. All the students will be eagerly awaiting your visit with baited breath. A session will them will be the icing on the cake. We are ready and willing to listen and engage in constructive dialogue with the president of our country. This is the change we yearn for and this is the change we deserve.

     

    • Idris is Students’ Union Government (SUG) President, UNILORIN

  • Open letter to the president on the police

    This is to remind you on what Nigeria Police Force has been going through for more than twenty-eight years.

    You will recall that prior to the late eighties, the Nigeria Police Force was one of the most cherished and respected institutions due to the dignity and patriotism with which they discharged their onerous duties. But sadly, the reverse is now the case because successive governments have neglected the welfares of the men of Nigeria Police Force.

    Lack of accommodation for rank and files and also for many senior police officers: it is an eyesore that virtually all men of Nigeria Police force are left on their own when it comes to issue of accommodation. This sad development impedes effective functions of the police because most officers have no option than to compromise in the discharge of their duties.

    2 Abysmal salary packages: Notwithstanding always putting themselves in harm’s way, the Nigeria Police Force remains one of the least paid in the world. This trend has helped in no little way to dampen their morale, forcing most of the officers to engage in illegal activities in order to sustain themselves and their family.

    1. Lack of motivating insurance package: it is always heartbreaking seeing families of slain police officers going through excruciating hardship because their bread winners were unfortunate to pay the supreme sacrifice in the discharge of their duties. This has in no little way discouraged police officers from giving their best in the discharge of their duties.
    2. Lack of policing vehicles and gadgets: In order to fight crime this twenty-first century, the police force needs twenty-first century equipment. Sadly, our policemen are one of the least equipped in the world. This has hampered the effective discharge of their duties.
    3. Lack of funds and logistics: It is inappropriate that an organisation that works everyday lacks funds and logistics that will help in the effective and smooth running of their duties.

    Mr. President, we believe that some of the solutions proffer below will go a long way in ameliorating the sufferings of the Nigeria Police Force and gingers them to give their best in the discharge of their duties.

    1. The federal government should set up a scheme that will be funded through public and private partnership that will ensure that adequate and habitable accommodation are provided for the rank and files and also for senior police force members.
    2. Improved salary packages: we believe that a Nigeria Police Force that is well paid will give their best in the discharge of their duties. Therefore, we demand that the salary packages of the Nigeria Police Force should be improved.
    3. A motivating insurance package that ensures that families of slain police officers are not left to suffer will go a long way to motivate officers into discharging their duties without fears. We demand that an insurance package worth at least ten million naira be made available for families of slain police officers.
    4. We demand that security votes collected monthly by governors be channelled directly to the security forces in the country which the police belong to and also that a body be set up to ensure the judicious use of the money.
    5. The federal government should provide adequate communication gadgets, arms and other needed gadgets that will help the police in the effective discharge of their duties.
    • By Augustin Chukwudum

    President, Southern Nigeria Peoples Mandate (SNPM)

    Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF).

  • Open letter to NECO Registrar

    While I am not among those in support of the scrapping of the National Examination Council (NECO), it really becomes imperative to chip in a word or two on certain wrongs being made by the examination body, especially on wrong names of candidates that sat for the NECO examinations.

    A lot of candidates that sat for NECO had tales of woes to tell based on giving them wrong names in the examinations conducted by the body. I was a victim because my name was wrongly written.

    In 2007, I sat for the private November/ December examinations, having sat the previous year’s examination which I did not meet the requirement. On my registration, I used my full name: Usman Garba Santuraki. But on receipt of the time table for examination, I was confronted with a wrong name. Santuraki in my name was omitted and an abbreviation A was substituted with it. I confronted the officials at the Yola office, only for them to tell me that they are not in a position to effect any correction and that the best alternative for me was to travel to the head office in Minna and complain to the Registrar as he is the only person that could effect any correction.

    I really find this incomprehensible and so absurd, that the office in Yola cannot officially forward my compliant at this age of global advancement to the head office.

    A lot of candidates who sat for NECO examinations are in my shoes, but to their amazement, the usual answer to their problems is always the same.

    It is therefore in this light, that I am using this medium to highlight my predicament and that of others who have similar problems, but cannot travel down to Minna.

     

    • By Usman Santuraki,

    Demsawo, Jimeta-Yola.

  • Letter to new leaders

    SIR: Nigeria has never been in lack of leaders since she became an independent nation. However, Nigeria – like many other countries of the world – has been in lack of what Dr. Myles Munroe describes in his book, The Power of Character in Leadership, as “genuine leadership in their leaders”.

    No leader, no matter his level of educational attainment, oratory ability, charismatic prowess, giftedness, spirituality, or what have you; can ever go far and achieve meaningful and remarkable results in his period of leadership if he lacks in the right dose – the moral force of a noble and stable character – which makes it possible for such leader(s) to exhibit a huge of sense of morality and conscientiousness in their dealings; a high sense of decisiveness in their decisions making; as well as lead the people with humility, empathy, integrity and with the desired resilience needed to lead them unto the path of development and palpable growth in their economic, social, political cum cultural and otherwise well-being.

    Nigeria has over the years been mired in the muddy waters of corruption, nepotism/favouritsm, economic backwardness, ethno-religious crises, crimes and a high spate of moral decadence, infrastructural decay, youth unemployment, burgeoning insecurity of lives and property, just to mention but a few. And over this period of time, the country has also had leaders who had made lofty promises of tackling and/or ameliorating these challenges, all to no avail.

    If there’s really any aspect that our leaders need to work on, it is their moral character. Overtime, there seems to be a total negligence of the place of morality and sound character which has really been the brain behind the obvious endemic corruption on every facet of nation and our lives.

    It’s no news that, in spite of the huge budgetary provisions and investments so far made, for instance, in the power sector, all we’ve had is everything but desirable power supply. As President Muhammadu Buhari puts it in his inaugural speech; “it’s a national shame that an economy of 180 million people generates only 4, 000MW, and distributes even less. Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution, and close to $20b expanded since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery, and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on.”

    The above statement by our President is a true pointer to the fact that the leaders that who had managed the funds meant to make our power sector work lacked the moral force of a noble and a stable character to help make all the financial investments made on this very crucial aspect of our economy bring to fruition. The same is the case with every other aspect of the economy.

    Our leaders in this new dispensation must bear it in mind that leadership is a privilege given to them by we, the followers. It’s never a right! And this is the nature of a genuine moral character in leaders which entails that they must adhere to all the ethics of their offices.

    My dear newly elected leaders, now that the die is cast and the battle line of leadership drawn, would you want to go back on the campaign and otherwise promises you made to us, your followers, and mar your image and our trust in you? Wouldn’t you rather stick to the moral force of a noble and stable character and dispatch your functions in that line? Wouldn’t you rather stick to the ethics of your offices and conduct yourselves in most ethical manner? Well, you can choose to do or become whatever you want in the next four years this dispensation will last.

     

    • Daniel Ndukwe Ekea,

    Umuahia, Abia State.

  • Letter to Buhari

    Dear President Muhammadu Buhari, congratulations on your election and inauguration last Friday.  The entire process has renewed the hope of Nigerians that our country can really work.  You see, we have been pessimistic for a long time.  You cannot blame us.  It is because we have been disappointed again and again by past leaders.

    But right now, we are more optimistic that things can actually change – that we can see the Nigeria of our dreams come to pass in the present dispensation – in our lifetime.

    Sir, we know the task ahead is herculean.  However, we are counting on you to lead the change – give the direction we should go.  If this means we need to climb mountains, swim through swift rivers, and endure storms, it would be bearable with you leading from the front.

    All areas of national life are important, we know.  But we want you to take special interest in the education sector.  This is because we need education to develop as a nation.  And it is not just about spending years in school with little to show for it; it is about quality education available to the average Nigerian – not a privileged few who can afford it.

    This highlights the need for our public schools to be revamped.  The private sector must be commended for rising to the occasion in the delivery of high quality education (though not always) when successive governments neglected public schools.  However, the neglect of public education should not continue.  More recently, at least since the return of democracy to Nigeria, there have been efforts to revitalize public education.  But it has not had a blanket effect across the country.

    The need is great.  But that should not discourage you.  It can be addressed if funds are judiciously utilized.  While more funds should be devoted to education, it is also important that whatever is appropriated should be well monitored to ensure it delivers.  If this happen, we will have better school infrastructure, classroom and teacher furniture and laboratory and ICT equipment in our public schools.  We cannot celebrate success if only a few of our young population in school achieve the required learning outcomes.  It is when the average pupil/student – irrespective of socio-economic, religious or ethnic backgrounds – excels that we can indeed claim success.

    Sir, another aspect in need of serious attention is teacher training. Something urgently needs to be done to boost the quality of our teachers and motivate them to remain in the profession. We need a template that can identify cerebral and passionate teachers and professionals who are not morally deficient to man our schools. The template should motivate students to study education in school.  They should not feel inferior about their choice to teach.  It should also include how to retain them.  They must be respected.  To be respected, teachers must be well paid, get opportunities for further training, and recognised for their efforts and expertise when it comes to appointments.

    Your Excellency, perhaps you should also consider the agitation of private universities to benefit from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). The argument against their inclusion is that as private entities they charge high fees above what the average Nigerians can afford, so make profit. But they counter argue that since TETFund is funded by the private sector (two percent of the accessible profit of private companies), they deserve to benefit from the grant – especially as many of the students attending private universities are wards of the taxpayers that contribute to the fund. Moreover, as education is a social service, they insist they are supporting the government to offer education to Nigerians.

    We would want to reason for their inclusion from another angle. Even public school administrators argue that education is capital intensive so private schools must charge ‘high’ fees at the tertiary level. The Vice Chancellor of the Joseph Ayo Babalola University once told us that it cost about N800,000 to educate an undergraduate per session. Yet, many private universities do not charge that much. This notwithstanding, not many Nigerians can afford the average of N400,000 that they charge. As a result, many private universities are unable to enroll enough students up to their carrying capacity. Yet, yearly, about one million qualified candidates cannot get into the university because of limited spaces in public schools. What the government can do, Sir, is to allow TETFund to offer scholarships to indigent students to enroll in private universities to expand access to university education.

    TETFund has a template that has worked with public tertiary institutions that ensures that funds are not misappropriated. We trust that the agency can evolve a foolproof process to ensure that students who claim these scholarships into private universities really need them.

    Sir, as the writer of this column, I have taken the liberty to use the pronoun, we, hoping that I am speaking the minds of many Nigerians.

    We wish you the best in your efforts to revive our dear country.