The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MARSHAL

  • Corps Marshal sensitises Ebonyi motorists

    Corps Marshal sensitises Ebonyi motorists

    Ebonyi State has hosted Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Boboye Oyeyemi in his nationwide campaign to cut road crashes in the country.

    Since his appointment, he has not only expressed his desire to reduce fatalities on the roads but has seized every opportunity where he went to sensitise road users on safety.

    Oyeyemi says he wants to reduce crashes by 50 per cent next year.

    To this end he has been touring the states of the federation to sensitize stakeholders, road safety officials on the policies and programmes being put in place by the Corps to meet the target.

    The tour also provides him the opportunity to strengthen inter-agency cooperation with other bodies like the police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), military and National Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), among others.

    It was the turn of Ebonyi State last week to play host to the Corps Marshal and his team.

    Oyeyemi was received by the state commandant of the Corps, Mrs Ann Abhiele alongside leaders of other agencies at the Command Headquarters along the Enugu-Abakaliki Expressway.

    From there he went to the Peoples Club Resort Auditorium where he addressed stakeholders on the policies of his administration.

    The FRSC, he said, will install what he called “speed governors” in all commercial vehicles in the country, adding that the enforcement of the speed checkers will start by June next year.

    The Corps Marshal noted that the installation of speed governors will reduce road traffic crashes in Nigeria.

    He added that the enforcement of the installment of speed governors in all commercial vehicles was born out of the need to curb overspeeding.

    Oyeyemi explained that the command is mounting advocacy and enlightenment campaign at motor parks, adding that the Corps has made plans to provide logistics for effective operation.

    He said that the Corps has notified all the transport workers’ associations in the country and appreciated the cooperation between them and the transport workers’ associations.

    He said, “The most important thing is for us to recognize that we are all working together to lift the nation and ensure peaceful coexistence and development. I am happy with the inter-agency co-operation existing among all the security agencies in the state”.

    ”The NDLEA has been helping us a lot; in the process of arresting people dealing in fake drugs they also arrest people dealing in fake number plates and promptly hands them over to us. It shows we are all working together. From what I have seen here, all the agencies are working together and this is how it should be because we are working together and it shows that we are making progress.

    “What road safety is all about is safety on our roads that is why we say safer roads safer life for us to reduce crashes. From the data I have received here I could see an appreciable reduction is road crashes but yet just like Oliver Twist I’m not yet satisfied.

    “What I want to see is zero crash; I know it is a big task but I’m sure with more strategies we can achieve that. We are in the ember-months now and we are putting the appropriate machinery in place for the end of year patrol operations”.

    “We will provide more logistics to the command; we are also increasing our advocacy, education and enlightenment with more campaigns at local parks. We have seen that speed violation account for 39 percent of all total road crashes and also loss of control accounts for about 15 percent that means that over 50 per cent of crashes is as a result of two factors alone.

    “Because of that we evolved a policy. We said that to cut down the speed we must compel all commercial vehicles and high capacity buses to install the speed governors. With the stakeholders we have already signed a memorandum of understanding. By 1st of June we are going to commence enforcement of participation and installation of the speed governors on all the commercial vehicles, high-capacity buses, trailers, tankers, trucks. And the unions have been very cooperative. Because they are buying into it and with the installation we believe if we can cut down the speed we will go a long way to reduce road crashes substantially.

    “This is one critical area where there is no going back. We must crash the crash by compelling all commercial vehicles to install speed governors. And we are not the marketing officers, anybody wishing to install the governors can go and get the cap number from the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and with these you can install it. We are hell bent that next year we must cut down the rate of crashes. We are targeting reduction of fatalities by 50 percent in 2015 and to reduce fatalities we must cut down the crashes”.

    “Also the UN decade of action stipulates that fatalities must be reduced by 50 per cent and having signed on to this decade of action which is a UN mandate for all member nations of the UN we must bring about the instrumentalism to get this done.

    ”We are also working to ensure compliance to all the statutes laws and regulations is complied with by all road users. On vehicle maintenance, we don’t allow all un-road worthy vehicles to be on the road for the end of the year patrol, so all road users should make sure that their vehicles are road worthy. Any rickety vehicle will not be tolerated.

    “On overloading we are not going to compromise our stance on this issue of over loading. All vehicles should carry the number of approved passengers. All these lives we are losing are human beings we need the understanding and full collaboration of everyone to ensure that we stop it. Everyone is planning for 2015 already but the only way to ensure we are alive to achieve our goals in 2015 is by being road safety conscious at all times and obeying all traffic laws and regulation”.

  • US marshal’s syringe attack

    It is difficult to ignore the widely publicized story on the alleged attack on a United States of America (US) federal air marshal at the Murtala Muhammed International airport Lagos. Not with the dangerous insinuations that have come with it especially in the foreign media.

    Reports had it that a US federal air marshal was screened and quarantined for Ebola virus in Houston, Texas US after he was injected with a syringe full of unknown substance in an insecure area of the airport. Though the assailant could not be apprehended as he was said to have vanished into the thin air, but other air marshals traveling with the victim were able to secure the needle and bring it on the flight for testing in the US.

    US law enforcement officers were said to have been alarmed by the bizarre and unprovoked attack because the assailant was able to inject the unknown substance into the back of one of the air marshals who was traveling under cover.

    The US federal air marshal service is a law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration.

    Sequel to the incident, the US Embassy in Lagos, at its request, met with the airport joint security team and viewed footages of the movements of the said marshal captured in the airports CCTV cameras.

    “Preliminary observation from the CCTV footages did not show evidence of such occurrence. Relevant security agencies have since commenced investigations into the matter”, the Federal Airport Authority said in a statement denying the alleged attack. The statement further reassured all travelers of the commitment of the authorities of the airport to their safety and security.

    The alleged attack, as worrisome as it is, raises many questions that hinge on its credibility. Good enough, the airport authorities that viewed footages of the movements of the said air marshal in the presence of the US officials have come out to say no such a thing was evident from the recordings of the CCTV. They have however promised further investigations just as the US authorities are investigating and testing the needle said to have been secured by other air marshals on the traveling team.

    Without prejudice to whatever may turn out as the final outcome of the inquiry, it is rather curious that such an attack could take place within the vicinity of the airport without the victim or any of his colleagues raising serious alarm. The overall impression that comes to mind from the way the matter has been presented, is that all the air marshals did was to secure the needle only to board their flight and report the matter on arrival at their home country.

    That does not seem to tally with the high efficiency for which US security operatives are well known. There is also no evidence that the matter was reported either to the airports’ array of security personnel or the police. Matters are not helped by the revelation of the airport police command that the duty officer in charge on the day of the alleged incident did not record any such report.

    This casts a very big slur on the entire story. This is more so with the expert knowledge, skills and training of the marshals in security matters. The least expectation from such a very knowledgeable group is that they would have raised alarm to alert the airport security and all those within that vicinity. Had they done that, there could have ensured some hot pursuit for the assailant not only from the law enforcement agencies but other sympathizers within that vicinity. Nigerians are good at showing sympathy in such circumstances.

    Beyond that, the scramble that would have ensued would have left no one in doubt in the CCTV footage that such an attack took place. It takes some time to administer an injection with a syringe. For, apart from piercing the tissue, the liquid substance will have to be administered into the body. How possible is it to accomplish these without being caught?

    Again, the information we got was that the other marshals were able to secure the needle. So what happened to the syringe? Or was the assailant also able to unlock the syringe before fleeing?  If that was the case, then he must have spent some time with his victim such that the chances of his arrest were quite high.

    The point being raised by these posers is that there is more to the story than ordinarily meets the eyes. These are the issues to ponder as investigations into the matter progress. The way they are resolved will take us closer to untying the riddle presented by the incident.

    But we must get out of stereotyping and profiling if we are to get at the veracity or lack of it of the alleged attack. Two speculated motives that have featured in the matter are terrorism and the intent to spread the deadly Ebola virus. The US law enforcement officers feared the injection could contain the Ebola virus. For Jon Adler, national president of the federation law enforcement officers association, it is a “reminder that international cowards will attempt to take sneaky lethal shots at our honorable men and women abroad”.

    Even as no evidence has been adduced to show that the attack was real, such profiling will do the investigations no good because it gives the miserable impression of a people working from a predetermined end. But for the Boko Haram insurgency which is a relatively new development within the Nigerian shores, it would have been an exercise in hasty generalization to feature terrorism as a prime motive for the alleged attack.

    Perhaps, with the exception of the bomb attack at the United Nations building in Abuja, insurgency targets in the country have largely been confined to our local people. Records of attacks on foreigners especially US citizens have been rare if not completely non-existent.

    Moreover, since the air marshals were traveling under cover, it would have been nigh impossible to detect their citizenship. It would have been safer to suspect that the alleged attack was based on skin pigment. The theory that the attack was targeted at US citizens seems a remote possibility unless the assailant has a working knowledge of the activities and movements of the air marshals.

    The other scaring dimension is the suspicion that the substance injected on the air marshal contained the Ebola virus. It is true that Nigeria has in the last two months been battling to contain the spread of the Ebola virus. Before then, little or nothing was known of the scourge in the country. Could we have progressed from coming to terms with the reality of the Ebola virus to perfecting the lethal technology for exporting it to other countries through unwholesome means? Or has this profiling got to do with the recurring references to Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer as the sole source of all identified cases of the virus in Nigeria? These are the issues to ponder.

  • My Marshal Plan for Imo, by aspirant

    My Marshal Plan for Imo, by aspirant

    Okey Ezeh is the CEO of Savvycorp Limited and Chairman of Okechukwu Theodore Ezeh Foundation (OTEF), a non-governmental organisation. In this interview with OLUKOREDE YISHAU, he says he has developed a Marshal Plan to improve the fortune of Imo State, which he hopes to govern on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Excerpts

    What is your assessment of the current state of affairs in Imo State?

    Imo State today is in economic dire-straits with no new meaningful private sector investments in the last three years; heavy debt overhang estimated to be in the region of N100 billion region, dwindling federal allocations owing to strangulating first-line charges on various loan repayment schedules; over 800,000 unemployed youths (by a recent National Employment Survey estimate);  rampant poverty; rising wave of crime and creeping insecurity; scandalous decline in educational quality with 11 faculties in the state university and the Polytechnic in Umuagwo unaccredited and the worst ever student performance in NECO and WAEC recorded in its history a few months ago.

    Worse still, there appears to be no coherent plan or programme designed towards ameliorating this state of anomie as the government of the day is busy executing white elephant projects such as street gates, roundabouts, squares, new government offices; quarters and inaugurating vigilance squads to the detriment of the productive sectors of the local economy which has been completely neglected.

    What are you going to do differently?

    I will immediately re-order priorities to squarely face the existential threat of poverty in the land. We will funnel resources away from non-regenerative, cosmetic schemes to agro-based industrialisation drive using the industrial cluster model that will be spread across the three zones of the state. We will run a transparent and accountable, value-for-money administration with zero-tolerance for corruption, ineptitude and cronism.

    This alone will free up huge resources that will be applied to harnessing our virtually limitless agricultural potential. I will invest in high-yield fertilisers and introduce organic, high-yield seedling varieties to not only shore up food security in the state but also to create the capacity required for the agro-industrial transformation of the state.

    I will bring back the Farm Settlements of the Michael Okpara era. I will revamp our near-comatose educational system with improved funding, better learning tools and training and re-training of teachers. I will attract grants for our tertiary institutions and enrol them in offshore support programmes, exchanges and linkages that will promote skills and knowledge transfer with institutions of international repute.

    Why should Imo people trust you?

    When your vision and ideas resonate with the direst needs and fondest desires of your people, when your track records illuminate your path like a brightly-lit stairway, when you have the creativity, character and conscience to pull consistently on the side of your people, you engender trust every step of the way-from Mbaitoli to Nwangele to Ihitte-Uboma to Ezinihitte and to the remotest clan in Imo. People hold out their hands to you and lock you in warm embrace.

    Why do you believe you have what it takes to govern a state like Imo with so many “big men”?

    Big men are not averse to progress. If anything, part of the process of belonging to that rarefied circle is the possession of a certain level of fastidiousness. That is, you don’t go near them with a plain vanilla offering or mediocrity. You must come with a premium package to gain their acceptance.

    Okey Ezeh is a thorough-bred professional and technocrat conversant with global best practices both in governance and private sector practice. He has the unique blend of skills, energy and drive to take Imo to the Promised Land.

    He is the only aspirant in the horizon that has fashioned out a critically-acclaimed developmental blueprint that will transform Imo from a backwater, allocation-dependent state to an agro-industrial powerhouse and third largest state economy (both by GDP and per capita income indices) within the next five years. That document is christened the I-Map (Imo Marshal Plan).

    What do you think are your chances of securing the APGA governorship ticket?

    You know our party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), arguably, has the best track record in internal democracy among all the parties in the country and that is the first guarantee we have that the most acceptable aspirant with the best prospects of leading the party to victory will emerge.

    In my own case, my aspiration is quickly crystallising into a mass movement not only within the rank and file of the party but also among the general Imo populace where we have a near-cult following among the youth and women groups, the key demographic strata that decide all elections.

    The simple reason is my age, personality, professional pedigree and  track-record which most Imolites agree all add up to the profile of the leader they look up to re-invent Imo in 2015.

    The Court of Appeal recently restored Victor Umeh as the National Chairman of APGA. What is the implication of that judgment? 

    It was salutary even if long-awaited. That judgment has provided the respite the party requires to forge ahead with planning for the forthcoming general elections. Members of APGA can now come together with confidence to fine-tune strategies not only for victory at the polls in several states where we are in the ascendancy but also for safeguarding such victories.

    Do you think APGA has a chance in Imo, with the APC as the ruling party and almost all the “big men” in PDP?

    All students of modern political history in Nigeria know that APGA always wins in Imo because the cockerel is the symbol that is intrinsically enshrined in the hearts of every Imolite. Forget all the propaganda; APC is like the proverbial seed that falls on parched ground and is scorched almost immediately it germinates.

    The Imo ‘big men’ you talk about in PDP, more often than not have APGA sympathies and pedigree. They are like Little Bo Peep in the popular English nursery rhyme that lost her sheep and did not know where to find them but would eventually come home wagging their tales behind them.

    What is your assessment of the Jonathan administration?

    In all fairness, the Jonathan administration has done reasonably well, given the difficult circumstances under which it has had to navigate the ship of state. If not for anything else, the administration is frontally tackling the hydra-headed energy monster with a focused implementation of the power sector reforms which I believe will define his legacy.

    One is also elated at his administration’s 35 per cent Affirmative Action Plan for women in politics as well as the 30 per cent Youth Empowerment Charter all of which I think will help re-define Nigeria as a country where anyone can live up to his or her full potential without the glass ceilings of gender or age.

    Do you think he has a chance in 2015?

    Oh yes. I think those who are right now mounting a spirited challenge to his continuing in office do not portend a better future for Nigeria and Nigerians. Most are mouthing inanities about zoning and flexing muscles about how far away power has wandered away from them rather than sell a superior governance vision to Nigerians. That is the surest guarantee that Jonathan will ride to victory in 2015.

  • Greece needs a 21st Century Marshall Plan

    At their White House meeting last week, U.S. President Barack Obama assured Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of his support as Greece prepares for talks with creditors on additional debt relief amid record-high unemployment.

    The U.S. should also endorse a new blueprint for recovery based on one of the most successful economic assistance programs of the modern era: the Marshall Plan.

    It is clear by now that the European Union’s policies in Greece have failed. Projections that government spending cutbacks would stop the economy’s free-fall proved to be wildly optimistic. The 240 billion euro ($319 billion) bailout from the euro area and International Monetary Fund has shown little sign of success, and Greece is experiencing its sixth year of recession.

    The spending cuts and tax increases, along with the dismissal of huge numbers of public-sector employees, demanded as a condition of the loans and assistance have only deepened the economic pain.

    Instead of changing course, however, euro-area economists have responded to bad news by revising their forecasts to reflect lower expectations. Those numbers document a staggering record of mistaken assumptions that has led to today’s failure.

    In December 2010, the so-called troika of lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — predicted that their measures would move Greece’s unemployment rate to just under 15 percent by 2014. A year later, it changed the forecast to almost 20 percent.

    This month, the Hellenic Statistical Authority reported that unemployment rose to a record in May, with a seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 27.6 per cent. The rate was 64.9 per cent for people 15 to 24.

    Bold declarations that belt-tightening would produce growth have been pared back, too. Since 2010, the troika has gradually dropped its forecast for 2014 gross domestic product (in money terms) by almost 40 percent. IMF staff reported last week that GDP contracted 6.4 percent in 2012 and will drop 4.2 percent this year before expanding only a little in 2014.

    Yet, despite admissions that mistakes were certainly made, no consideration is being given to ending austerity measures. Nor has there been effort to devise a renewal agenda for Greece. The Marshall Plan offers a spectacularly successful model that could easily be adapted.

    Greece last faced economic ruin immediately after World War II. By 1949, the country was bankrupt, with virtually no industry; transportation networks, farmland and villages had been devastated, and about a quarter of the population was homeless.

    Marshall Plan funds allowed Greece to rebuild, start power utilities, finance businesses and aid the poor. And, because social chaos had created an opening for communist and extremist parties, the U.S. hoped the stimulus would stabilize democracy, even as it created wealth.

    Like other Marshall Plan nations, Greece experienced growth on a scale it had never known. The astonishing transformation was widely hailed as an “economic miracle,” and the nation continued to surge more than 20 years after the assistance ended.

    With that enormous achievement in mind, the Levy Economics Institute has constructed a macroeconomic model of what a Marshall-type recovery plan could do for the Greek economy today. We assumed a modest stimulus from EU institutions of 30 billion euros between 2013 and 2016 that would be directed at public consumption and investment, and particularly jobs.

    Here is how an EU-funded plan for recovery could succeed. Although past bailout funds benefited banks and financial institutions, with a large portion devoted to interest payments for creditors, the new program would focus on debt forgiveness, and then turn to reconstruction projects to rebuild national infrastructure and create public projects at the local level.

    A rebuilding plan could address Greece’s tremendous need to renovate schools, hospitals, libraries, parks, roads and bridges. Forests need to be replenished: Catastrophic fires have led to deforestation. Tourism once accounted for more than 25 percent of the economy; now, extraordinary beach cleanups are badly needed to attract visitors.

    University graduates, after having been trained at public expense, are now forced to seek opportunity outside Greece. They could make valuable contributions, introducing information technology and other know-how to the government, health and education sectors.

    These efforts could draw an idled, but ready and trained labor force, to construction, education, social service and technology. More employment would increase aggregate demand, which is now severely depressed. In turn, the multiplier effect of these expenditures would increase GDP substantially.

    Instead, Greece is applying “expansive austerity.” The idea is based on a contested theory, and the real-world results have been a humanitarian disaster. These policies are lowering demand by reducing incomes, which cuts into tax revenue. The inevitable result is higher deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios.

    For comparison, we modeled what we expect to happen in the coming years if Greece stays on its scheduled fiscal diet. The government has consistently been unable to meet troika-mandated deficit-reduction targets, and the lenders have consistently required further cutbacks.

    The results of our modeling exercise were clear: Under today’s policies, unemployment would continue to increase, reaching almost 34 percent by the end of 2016. Under a Marshall Plan scenario, the rate would fall to about 20 percent.

    Similarly, if Greece institutes the currently planned austerity measures, we calculate that its gross domestic product would reach about 158 billion euros by the end of 2016, compared with 162 billion euros projected for 2013. That would be more than 15 billion euros short of the troika-mandated target.

    If, alternatively, government squeezes harder to meet the required deficit-to-GDP ratio goals, the endgame will be even worse: A poor and increasingly out of work population, among other factors, will push GDP to about 148 billion euros, more than 30 percent below its 2008 peak. A Marshall Plan scenario would put GDP a little above the troika’s target.

    The first Marshall Plan wasn’t an act of charity or a bailout: It was an effective investment strategy to create a vibrant European economic market and prevent political disintegration. To institute a modern version, we need to revise discredited austerity theories — or the euro-area institutions that promote them.