The Nation Newspaper

Tag: material

  • Material scientists meet in Abuja

    The 2017 special lecture of the Material Science and Technology Society of Nigeria (MSN) will hold next Thursday at RMRDC Auditorium in Maitama, Abuja. The event organised in collaboration with Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) and Pan-African Materials Institute (PAMI).

    Six prominent scholars and academics are expected to speak on contemporary research and developments on the field of material science. The facilitators are led by Executive Vice-Chairman of National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Prof M.S. Haruna, who is expected to speak on Materials in artificial intelligence development.

    Others speakers are Executive Director of Rubber Research Institute in Edo State, Dr A.I. Aigbodion, Prof P.B. Onaji of the Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH) in Yola, Adamawa State, Prof B.I. Imasogie of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Mr Isah Onobere of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited in Kogi State, and Prof Peter Kanu of the Florida State University in the United States.

    A statement by the MSN’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Dr Baba Alafara, said tomorrow is the deadline for regular registration, after which participants would be made to pay additional N5,000 for the registration. It said certificates of participation would also be issued to attendees.

  • Suspected toxic material in Delta community

    Another Delta State community, Egbeleku in Okpe Council Area, now hosts a foul-smelling substance believed to be toxic waste. It is being brought in by a yet to be identified firm.

    The Nation gathered from a community source that leaders of the community, who are suspected to have been compromised by owners of the unidentified object, warned members of the community not to raise any alarm over the development.

    When The Nation visited the community, a new haul of the  suspected toxic materials was being pushed into a dugout pit by an excavator.

    “A company came and settled some leaders in the community some weeks back and have since been hauling in the foul smelling brownish waste through the community into the site.

    “Some of us meant to raise questions as the tact and secrecy with which they control movement of the unknown product into the community tells even the uninformed that what is being brought is toxic.

    “Before we could say what’s going on, some community leaders issued a warning vowing to sanction anyone who exposes the shady deal. It is obvious some persons have been settled to endanger our lives. We call on relevant authorities to come and stop this dangerous business,” a community source said.

  • Fajuyi shunned material accumulation, says son

    Donald Oluwaseun Fajuyi, eldest son of the lateAdekunle Fajuyi, the first military governor of the defunct Western State, speaks with Jane Kolade on how the family has been coping since his father’s assassination.

    How has it been over the years, especially, growing up without a father?

    Thankyou.We all live in Nigeria, and are subject to the same vissiccistudes of life, and shop in the same market. I just thank God that my father was good enough to leave some money behind, and that was the money with which the children went to school with. I struggled and went to the university. I must thank General Adebayo, retired for getting me admitted into Comprehensive high school, which was a Western region government school. Coincidentally, it was only recently that I discovered that the school was established by my father. I thank God that I didn’t lose balance, here I am today; all glory be to God.

    How old were you when your father died?

    I was sixteen plus.

    How many children did he leave behind?

    At the time, my father had other children apart from those by my mother. And she died in 2013. And I thank Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for reconstructing the family home; changing it from an old mud house to a modern building. I also thank the present minister of Solid Minerals Development; Dr Kayode Fayemi for giving my mother a befitting burial. Those are the people who supported the Fajuyi family.

    I am not a member of the APC, but we support him (the president) absolutely. He is of the old army brigade, the old generation that had ethics and morals. He belonged to the old block that had the training of the British and Americans who were professional soldiers (of which my father was made); unlike the political soldiers we have today. I must also mention the anti-corruption crusade of the president, Major General Mohammadu Buhari, which is well known to all. That is why we all need to support him. And that is why anyone involved in corruption should be tried, and if found guilty, be made to face the full complement of the law, and we look forward to it. So all those in the country who have are against it/him are just hiding, but Nigerians are very sensible people and will not allow it.

    Compare Nigeria now and back then?

    When we were young, the country was buoyant; there wasn’t this megalomania; which is what we have today. Our government did its job, people were honest. Today, we see that our governors are just there to dupe us.

    Do you believe that the philosophy your father stood for as a solder and Nigerian is still in place?

    Yes, to a certain extent. In a recent interview, I mentioned the fact that my father believed in integrity. As a child, when he wanted to punish me, he made it clear the offence you committed, and the reason for the punishment, so that I would not forget. I remember three incidents of being caned by him. In January 1966 after the first coup, immediately he became governor, he instructed that construction work on his house (which was at foundation level) be stopped until he left government house, so that there would be no suspicion that he was using state resources to build his personal house. That was the standard and ethics of that time, and the morality of the times. In the seventies, while in Law School, we were taught that public office was not meant for the office holder to benefit from his position, but to serve the people. The position is not personal to you; rather you are holding it in trust. But what happens today? They go there and within six months, have amassed so much wealth, own three or more houses, very sickening! If Fajuyi was not killed, if he had been allowed to impose his ethical standards and sense of morality on the society, I think Nigeria would have been in a better place today. People need to visit China where public officers can be jailed for wearing wrist watches or suits that are not made in China. That is why China has attained the position it has in the world today, making it able to contend with the United States.  Nigeria has to take that bold step.

    Is any member of the family involved in the army?

    I did try to enlist in the army but my mother would not allow me, and my late younger brother; Dayo also attempted to enlist in the Customs, but it did not work out.

     What is your take on the structure and function of the Nigerian army today, compared to the old era?

    Back then, the army was professional, and were trained, so that they could do a good job. The widows and children of fallen soldiers were taken care of, for instance, my father’s pension and other gratuities were paid. Today that is not the case, there is need to provide training and tools for our soldiers, and also take care of their families should anything happen to them.

    Are there any plans by the family to honour the memory of your late father this year?

    The family is organizing a thanksgiving service for fiftieth anniversary of our father’s death which will hold on Sunday the 31 July at the Catholic Cathedral in Ado Ekiti, and a small reception afterwards. And we urge all those who have supported us over the years not to abandon us. Prior to that, another group had informed us that Adekunle Fajuyi will receive the Adekunle Fajuyi shield of honour as the first recipient. Thereafter, it will be annually awarded to deserving Nigerians.

  • Politics solely for material gain

    The Nigerian political landscape has continuously manifested a dangerous pandemic. That is the intractable struggle for power solely for material gain. Among the present contenders for power the constitutional admonition in section 14(2)(b) “that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government” is of lesser import. Instead the majority of the power-mongers are ensconced in an unconscionable struggle for power at all cost, even at the detriment of the very survival of the nation itself. This political disease is akin to the dreadful Ebola virus, which is highly contagious and with infinite capacity to annihilate.

    Unfortunately instead of isolating those already infected by the disease, we have reminiscent of the Liberian Ebola virus export to Nigeria, Mr. Amos Sawyer, carelessly allowed the intermingling of the contagious and the innocent, thereby expanding the carriers of that deadly affliction. The result is that as the 2015 elections approach, our country may already be experiencing her death pangs, unless a miracle happens. What with the multiple symptoms of this dreadful disease, with corruption as the most manifest. Another is the polarisation of armed insurgency; while the most recent is the demoralization and demystification of our national army. Now, unless a miracle happens to stem the pandemic, the next manifestation may be total anarchy.

    As I said, the root symptom of this political disease is corruption. Unlike other successful democracies, ours have become not significantly different from a conundrum of organized robbery. From local council administrators to governors, to the presidency, there is total lack of accountability, which democracy espouses. Tragically, whether in the public or private sector, there is no substantial difference. And like the Ebola virus which spreads without warning; despite the pretences and fraudulent claims of the political actors, the recent West African School Certificate examination has shown manifestly that our educational foundation is a travesty of the false claims of huge investment in that sector.

    So, while those in authority set up a special purpose vehicle, called State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to improve our education; for many of those entrusted to deliver the dividends, it is actually a conduit to steal the nation blind. So, instead of the fund intervening to gift our nation qualitative and sound primary and secoundry education, those entrusted with the intervention funds, cynically use it to better their personal lives. Thus the recent WAEC results show that just a little above 30% of the candidates have been successful in their exams, meaning that we are merely training those who will be permanently incapacitated to take to the different professions, and will as an alternative take to all manner of economic shenanigans to ‘succeed in life’.

    Of course the effect of corruption is also at the root of the failed national infrastructure that we perennially lament about. So whether it is the bad roads that wreck our lives and our cars; the supply of darkness in exchange for electricity bills by companies protected by institutional authority; the dreadful public hospitals, that see health providers engaging in a relay of strike actions, like those contending for medals or the fake but yet regulated products that you unsuspectingly buy for huge costs at your own detriment, the simple cause is corruption. Most probably for every kobo of our loss, one public official or a private citizen has seized a reward, in one form or another. And in several of those cases, the institutional authority set up to protect the citizens, despite the private accumulation of bribes in lieu of service, also deep their hands again into the state funds as salaries and emoluments.

    Corruption is also at the root of the latest manifestation of our endangered polity, that is, the despondency of our army in the face of armed insurgency by members of the Boko Haram. If truly as the protesting wives of the army officers and men recently claimed, their spouses are not supplied with efficient fighting ammunitions and machineries, and yet they are ordered to the war front, to defend our country, the reason can only be a result of corrupt tendencies within our defence establishment. Indeed, the Boko Haram insurgency, like her predecessors in the country, is a product of politics sorely for material gain. As has been claimed without substantive contradiction; those who started the armed groups that eventually metamorphosed into the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, where merely desperate to keep power as the means to personal aggrandizement.

    The road to our political redemption can only come from our political actors making a determined effort to practice democracy as other democratic nations across the world do. To attempt as we are currently doing to pretend to be practicing democracy, while we ignominiously ignore the universal tenets of democracy, is only an invitation of ruin into our lives. For the sake of clarity for our practitioners who are either hard of hearing or are completely ignorant of what they signed up to, democracy can only thrive in an atmosphere of accountability. That is the defining content, when we define democracy as government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

    Luckily for us, the demands of democracy are not rocket science. Even our constitution, with all its challenges, contains the basic requirements of an accountable society. Indeed between chapters 2 and 4 of the 1999 constitution as amended, the basic requirements of a republic “based on the principles of democracy and social justice” is clearly provided. What has been lacking is the political will to enforce the provisions of the laws. Unfortunately instead of our political actors struggling to have the opportunity to outdo one another to promote such a society, we are entrusted with a class, who see politics only as a means to criminal aggrandisement.