The Nation Newspaper

Tag: misplaced

  • ‘The struggle for Biafra is misplaced’

    ‘The struggle for Biafra is misplaced’

    Chief Ndukwe Iko is a former Abia State governorship aspirant. In this interview with Oziegbe Okoeki, he speaks about the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOD), Nnamdi Kanu, the chance of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 election and other issues. 

    Many people believe that Nnamdi Kanu got the Biafra agitation wrong. What is your position?

    I will not say specifically that this is where he got it wrong, but I will point out a few things. The Biafran struggle started in late 1967 by the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu with a serious concept which was very clear to all.

    It was built on the fact that people are marginalised and not allowed to maximally develop their potentials as it were. There was this serious issue of ethnic distrust which led to the attempt to break away from Nigeria.

    Nnamdi’s course on this is a little divergent from the original concept of Biafra. If you ask me, Biafra wasn’t an Ibo course, it was a course built on the feelings of people in the South that they were being short changed and were not allowed to maximise their potential. So, reducing the struggle to an Ibo struggle is one of the places Kanu got it wrong.

    There was no articulate plan to push the secession drive to the right places. There is no how Ibos could secede from Nigeria without a very strong representation at some of the world and regional bodies like the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). I don’t know what effort he may have put in to attract such sympathies from these world bodies, but he also got it wrong there.

    He also got it wrong by not galvanising the support of Ibo leaders both elected and elders. What effort did he put in place to ensure that such leaders both inside the country and outside the country are on the same page with him?

    There was also no serious or articulate engagement and he ended up causing a lot of nuisance, especially in the Southeast. Be that as it may, I think his voice has been heard clearly that there is something wrong with this nation and that is where I will say kudos to him.

    What lesson is there in all this; first for the Southeast and Nigeria as a whole?

    The lesson is straight for the Federal Government, which is that there is no unity in the country. The truth remains that nation building has failed to the extent that people are not proud to identify themselves as Nigerians, but instead they identify themselves with their ethnic groups. Tribal sentiments is still very high; we do not like ourselves as a people.

    Another lesson is that there is no social, political and economic justice, which has been the cry of so many for a long time. People should be given the opportunity to develop their potentials to the fullest not minding their ethnicity.

    For the Southeasterners, because of the level of depravity in the Southeast, every person that preaches the gospel like Kanu becomes a hero automatically. The Ibos should organise themselves properly, Ohanaeze should rise up to their responsibility by ensuring first that there is good governance in the whole of Southeast.

    Do you think Southeast governors did the right thing by proscribing IPOB?

    They did the right thing to the extent that they saw the guy as a threat. Politicians saw him as a threat. One thing about politics is that you have only one loyalty at a time. All contending politicians would think that this boy has a certain loyalty or the order, so I think they worked against him. Secondly, there is no government in a government. Government is a very strong institution that hates or it is very jealous of its existence. Kanu went to the extent that Southeast governors began to feel threatened. However, proscription, python dance or what have you in the Southeast will not end the clamour for good governance. The benefit of democracy must be made to reach the people, otherwise we will keep struggling and Nigeria will keep driving very speedily towards disintegration.

    Many people have said that restructuring remains the only solution to stop such agitations. What in your opinion is restructuring?

    I am a good apostle of good governance and I preach it and want everybody to embrace it. Without good governance, restructuring will be messed up. Restructuring means reducing items on the Federal Government’s Exclusive List and devolving such powers to the regions. For instance, education; I don’t see the reason why states or regions should not have educational policies that they feel will suit them. Zamfara State, for example, may not have similar educational needs as Abia State.

    There are other issues in the Exclusive List that should still come down to the regions or states. Some people call it true federalism, which is some elements of restructuring people are clamouring for.

    I don’t know why people should be afraid of resource control. It simply means you develop what you have for the best of your own use and that of the country. It does not mean being selfish with what you have. Every section of the country is endowed. It means you develop what you have, maximize it and throw such for the use of the country.

    Nigerians voted the PDP out in 2015 but, two years after, they appear to be disillusioned with the APC…

    Let me tell you something, the biggest tragedy of a nation is going back to its vomit. Just two years after ditching former President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP, people are clamouring for them to come back. This is a tragedy in itself; that means we don’t know what we want as a country.

    It is not about election, Buhari or Jonathan, but the poor foundation on which Nigeria was built. Nigeria was built on a very poor foundation full of lapses and terrible. No matter who you bring here, he can not perform; that is the truth. That the APC has not been able to do much in over two years is due to structural defects. Where every contractor and businessmen as well as industrialists want to identify with the government in power for their patronage is structural defect.

    Now Buhari is sick and everybody knows that; still you see some people asking him to vie for a second term. Seriously, something is wrong with this country. If we don’t change the current Nigerian structure, I’m afraid 2019 holds little or no hope for the country. Yes, Buhari is good; I campaigned and voted for him, because of his integrity. But governance or leadership does not revolve around integrity; you need everything, including physical strength.

    What are the chances of Buhari in 2019 election?

    If his decision is not influenced by what I will call centrifugal forces, of course he has the right to decide to contest. Why not?

    But election has a lot of unresolved issues in Nigeria. The ethnic, religious and money questions are very serious. Ethnicity and religion play important roles in Nigerian election and politicians play that card and that is part of our problem.

    Nigeria is the only country where you have 50 per cent Christian and 50 per cent Muslims. Ethnicity, even more than corruption, is the biggest problem Nigeria has now. It is also fuelling corruption, because people say, I come from this place and that place. So, let me use the opportunity I have in government to grab this or that and go and help my people.

    So, the chances of the president coming back to power in 2019 are high on the strength of where he comes from. Ethnicity and religion will help Buhari come back to power, because the Southeast that is clamouring gave him less than 10 per cent vote in 2015; although that could also make a lot of difference in an election. But, in terms of performance and the aspiration of Nigerians that he has failed to meet, it will be a very big injustice to political development for him to come back.

    What are the issues surrounding the Paris Club refund to states?

    If you bring $1billion everyday to the governors, they will waste it. I have been opportuned to be very close to some of them and I can tell you that what you think is not what they think.

    Every month, they look forward to the funds that come from the Federation Account and even before the funds arrive, they have already appropriated it to things, largely on selfish purposes. Remember when this administration came on board, the first thing they did was to intervene in some states that were not paying salaries. How many of the states used the intervention fund to pay salaries?

    Some of these governors are not serious and think differently from the electorates. They have their private matters that they use state funds to take care of. For instance, a high-rankimg commissioner once came to my village town hall meeting and boasted that the state government was owing only two months’ salaries. When he left shortly, my uncle collapsed at the local government secretariat where they went for teachers’ verification exercise. As at that time, they were owing six months.  The governors do not have the interest of the masses at heart; it is their private interest. Every time they receive money, like ecological fund, they buy new houses abroad. That is the trend and there is competition in that trend. That is why we have to think of the way to nip corruption in the bud through restructuring.

  • Okorocha’s misplaced priorities

    Okorocha’s misplaced priorities

    SIR: The erection of a statue by the Imo State governor, Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha in honour of the South African President Jacob Zuma has attracted criticism and condemnation from all quarters. Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong in building a statue to honour an accomplished and deserving individual but the personality involved is what is making many tongues wag.

    Jacob Zuma does not deserve to be honoured in any way whatsoever by Okorocha. This is a man that is generally perceived to be corrupt by his people because of the numerous corruption cases that he has faced and is still facing. He is also seen as an immoral person due to the rape case that he faced some years ago and the defence which he gave. The fact that there have been seven attempts by the South African parliament to get him out of office is further proof of the fact that he is loathed by not a few in South Africa.

    Governor Okorocha not only erected a statue in his honour, he also directed a traditional ruler in the state to give him a chieftaincy title. He awarded him the Imo Merit Award, named a road after him in Owerri and held a lavish banquet all in his honour. All these were done with taxpayers’ money yet the governor owe workers’ salaries and pensioners for as many as seven months.

    He ordered the destruction of a popular traditional market in Owerri which led to the destruction of several properties and the loss of three lives a few months ago. Governor Okorocha owes contractors in the state to the tune of several billions of naira which he has been unable to pay till date. He spent hundreds of millions of naira constructing billboards all over the state depicting him shaking hands with the then US President Barack Obama some years ago. The fact that many Igbos have been killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa most of them Imo State indigenes does not seem to bother Okorocha. Rather, he seems fascinated by Zuma’s love for education. Yet, news report emanating from South Africa indicate that there have been protests by students in South Africa in recent times owing to the government’s poor funding of education.

    Many Nigerian leaders from Murtala Muhammed to Ibrahim Babangida, private individuals like Chief M.K.O Abiola and musicians like the late Evangelist Sunny Okosun contributed money, sweat and blood to make South Africa free from apartheid. Yet, there is no monument erected in their honour in a free South Africa today, 23 years after the death of apartheid. What Okorocha has done is akin to a governor in America unveiling a statue in honour of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. That is impossibility and should it happen would only sound the death knell on the career of such a politician. But in Nigeria, all things are possible.

     

    • Peter Ovie Akus,

    Ifo, Ogun State.

  • Biafra: Call for election boycott misplaced

    SIR: I encourage the people of South-east to apply common sense and logic as it concerns boycotting elections in the region. We must not adopt a militaristic approach on issues of this nature. Calling for a referendum or independence outside the official channel is treason, and we have seen this backfire. We must encourage our people to register en masse and elect those Pro-Biafran assemblymen and women that will do it differently. They must show that they can do better than the current crop of politicians by serving the people and representing them well.

    Agitators must be ready to offer an alternative. It is not enough to reject the process without offering or showing the light as an alternative. Have we ever elected someone based on his/her conviction on Biafra independence and campaigned on that? Let this phase of election be the season to start doing that if we feel so strongly about Biafra. Some say what of APGA? I ask: Did APGA at any point indicate in their manifesto that they were for referendum or self-determination? Did they ever promise to fight for Biafra restoration?

    Remember that Pa. Anthony Enahoro moved a motion for Nigeria self-governance from Britain in 1953, and it took seven years for that to be granted. Would Pa Enahoro have done that if he was not duly elected in the parliament? A voice of a senator in the red chambers talking about Biafra carries more weight than marching the streets of Aba, Onitsha, Port Harcourt or Asaba.

    Would the Scots have moved a motion to break away from the United Kingdom if they had no Pro-Scottish MPs? Who would have presented the motion for a referendum on their behalf?? Would marching the streets of London or Edinburgh have helped the Scottish get a referendum from Britain? They got the referendum because they had Pro-Scottish MPs who went to Westminster to demand referendum. Let the Pro-Biafrans do same and stop the self-inflicted injury called election boycott.

    I believe many of us agree on one thing, that the current system in Nigeria is not working. In wanting out, we must be realistic in our demands bearing in mind all workable solutions. I do not speak out of emotion but from the standpoint of a pragmatist believing that boycott is not going to help us in any way. The South-east is still suffering from the boycott of the 2006 census championed by MASSOB. Eleven years later, we are still part of Nigeria and still use her passport. It is time to create that change within the system.

    My final submission, register and vote for Pro-Biafran assemblymen and women and task them to go and demand referendum or self-determination on your behalf. That is the way it is done in the 21st century. Wake up and smell the coffee.

     

    • Maazi Tochukwu Ezeoke,

    ezetochukwu@yahoo.com

  • Kogi’s misplaced priorities

    Kogi’s misplaced priorities

    SIR: Whoever advised Governor Yahaya Bello that prioritizing developmental projects at the expense of the well-being of workers is unwise, an enemy of the state and government. The past days has witnessed misplacement of priority and lack of feeling and respect for workers in the state who are experiencing the most dehumanizing condition since creation of the state.

    Kogi workers were subjected to the most gruesome torture and unnecessary hardship in the last one year all in the name of screening that would never end. Workers who had to travel from long distances across the state to be screened did so at their own financial expense and risk of their lives, just as a number of accidents were recorded with lives lost. The state government had couple of days ago constituted a “screening appeal committee” – another round of an unending exercise. Some persons have said jokingly that after the screening appeal committee finishes their job, the state government will still inaugurate a screening supreme committee. For many Kogites, this is only but another ploy and tactics by the state government to delay the payment of genuine workers for a few more months, waste the state’s money on paying needless allowances to the individuals who have been picked and continue to put workers through the stress of having to travel around on empty stomach to be screened for the umpteenth time.

    Getting priorities right is the hallmark of a sane and a competent government. That is the reason why Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos stands out amongst his peers. Kebbi State has become the modern rice hub of the nation. Taraba State has become a rallying point in terms of modern tea production and Kwara State has remained the most peaceful state in the federation. Subjecting the state’s workforce to abject poverty and severe hunger only to be gallivanting around and flagging off projects has exposed the fact that the Yahaya Bello administration is one that is inhumane and lacked the capacity to get its priorities right.

    How does the government expect people who find it extremely difficult to feed, workers who cannot afford to pay their light bills, medical bills not to talk of paying the school fees of their children and wards to appreciate any construction of projects? Given the nature of Kogi State as a civil service one, any right thinking person should know and understand that the best and only way to put smiles on the faces of the people is through prompt payment of worker’s salaries and pensions. Many workers have lost their lives during the last marathon screening and many more lives may be lost in days to come when the so-called “screening appeal committee” finally commences work.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    oseniobaro@yahoo.com

  • NYSC demand for medical certificate misplaced

    NYSC demand for medical certificate misplaced

    SIR: I learnt that National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) authorities have made it compulsory that every prospective corps member must come to the NYSC camp with a medical fitness certificate from any government hospital. Although I have no problem with the new demand considering the deaths of corps members in the last stream, my problem is that the body has technically avoided the issues that should be addressed first.

    Have NYSC authorities addressed the poor sanitary conditions in their camps nationwide? This is important because if an NYSC camp, for instance, has 10 toilet units, and there are 3000 corps members expected in the camp, then on the average, 300 corps members would make use of one toilet unit. That will be very unhygienic for corps members from different social statuses and with different health challenges.

    Concerning the camp clinics, what are their levels of preparedness in tackling health emergencies? Although the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA) national president, Prof Mike Ogirima, has urged NYSC authorities to engage the services of at least one medical consultant in each state NYSC camp, my own further suggestion is that the Director of Medical Services (DMS) of each state Ministry of Health, the state NMA officials with other relevant bodies in each state should as a matter of urgency visit each state NYSC camp clinics to ascertain their levels of preparedness in managing medical emergencies. This is important because even if NYSC authorities contract the services of 100 medical consultants but fail to procure emergency medical equipment and drugs, the medical consultants with their junior colleagues will only turn to prayer warriors when any medical emergency crops up in the camp.

    The Director of Public Health (DPH) in each state ministry of health should equally visit the NYSC camp in their states to ascertain the level of preparedness of the camp in preventing or handling public health issues. This is important because the medical certificate demanded by NYSC authorities can certify a corps member clinically fit but the poor sanitary conditions of the NYSC camps are enough to break down such corps member. I need not tell the DPH that there are diseases that can be contracted in crowded places or in places best described as slums. Those that prepare their foods and the places the foods are prepared should also be inspected. I need not talk about the quality of their food since there is an alternative of buying from private food vendors.

    Finally, some of the strenuous (not moderate) exercises organised by the military officers in the camps should be dropped or reviewed. The conditions that the  corps members are meant to pass through while in the camps are enough harrowing experiences, then introducing another strenuous exercise is what Hooke’s law calls the elastic limit , beyond which we expect both the yielding and breaking points.

     

    • Dr Paul John,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Misplaced priority by politicians

    SIR:‘He who fail to plan is planning to fail’ said Benjamin Franklin. It is so unfortunate that 50% of our politicians in Nigeria don’t have a concrete agenda or plan for the communities and states they represent.

    They either get to the post by accident or by chance and now depend on whatever their self-interested advisers bring on board for them to act on.

    Let’s take the educational sector as a case study.

    Most governors place priority on building beautiful schools and giving students meal; this is excellent if they could complement it with teachers’ welfare that will make the teacher stay passionate about their jobs and be able to deliver optimally as expected.

    Physical infrastructures in educations system no matter how beautiful and well equipped, cannot make brilliant student. Good teachers working in conducive environment with good welfare package guarantees the level of intellectual development of children under their care.

    A good building and meal for the students with a wearisome mentor is just like a beautiful car with a visually impaired driver.

    Let’s quickly answer the questions below in our mind; Are the brilliant students in the secondary schools encouraged to attend the Nigerian College of Education? How many times in a year do we send our teachers for training? Do we encourage the teachers to do more than they are doing presently?

    Can you allow your child to go to a College of Education or become a teacher?

    For education sector to be improved in Nigeria, I urge the governors, the federal government and proprietors to prioritize the motivation/ development of the teachers and reawake the literary and debating club to motivate and boost the confidence of the students.

     

    • Ademola Adesoji,

    campusscope@yahoo.com

     

  • Fayose’s misplaced priority

    SIR: The recent flag off of the construction of flyover in Ado Ekiti shows that Governor Ayodele Fayose is not a good leader and economist who should know how to prioritise the state’s needs.  The flyover project could be necessary but not at the expense of workers’ salaries.  Workers in Ekiti State have not been paid since the beginning of the year, and Governor Fayose is not feeling the pulse of the people. Instead he has decided to channel the fund that should be used to pay workers’ salaries to construct a flyover.

    The governor should as a matter of urgency pay the workers because he who has been beaten to death by hunger will not have the opportunity to use a flyover.

     

    • Taiwo Nelson ‘Toba

    Ojodu Berger, Lagos.

  • Misplaced largesse

    Misplaced largesse

    • Automotive policy: doling public funds to private firms never works

    Aminu Jalal, Director-General, National Automotive Council (NAC), recently revealed Federal Government’s just concluded disbursement of over N11 billion to 33 companies in vehicle assembly sector of the economy. Through what we see as misplaced priority, the government is trying to create the erroneous impression that the largesse will lead to a successful kick-start of the highly controversial new automotive policy of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. Aminu Jalal further disclosed that out of the companies that benefited from this largesse, only five are assembly plants while the remaining are all local content handlers that would engage in the production of tyres, motor cycle spare parts and sundry vehicle components.

    What the government considers its intention for doling out this intimidating sum to mostly hitherto redundant automobile related companies might afterall be difficult to attain. To the government, the largesse would create a financial baseline for the companies so that they can produce affordable vehicles for Nigerians. In government’s view, their benevolence will induce production of affordable cars that would eventually engender interests of Nigerians in new vehicles assembled in the country for as low as N1.7 million per unit.

    Government’s contention that industrialisation is of high significance to any serious country is never in doubt. Its position, through Jalal, that vehicle importation only created jobs in other countries other than Nigeria, thereby making Nigerians jobless and poor may not be completely true. This is because Nigerians engaged in auto business going by whatever name – be it vehicle assembly or import and others in ancillary sectors – equally employ people to perform different shades of jobs. It is the number employed and the quality of jobs that might vary.

    The NAC’s figures regarding what Nigeria expend on vehicle importation is no doubt scandalous. For instance, Jalal reportedly said that in 2010, Nigeria spent $4billion and in 2012 – $3.5billion on vehicle importation excluding the amount spent on tyres and spare parts importation. But under the new arrangement, most important components of vehicles including engine blocks among others would still be imported from abroad only to be assembled in this country by these companies including local content handlers that engage in production of tyres and motor cycle spare parts. We challenge government to publish the names of these components producing beneficiaries considering the fact that major manufacturing companies like Dunlop and Michelin have left the shores of this country for neighbouring Ghana?

    More importantly, the N11billion that was shared out, in our view, should have been used to tackle challenges faced in the areas of power and infrastructure without which a solid industrial base could not be built by any country. Nigeria without these basic facilities should not delude herself on this difficult task of becoming a vehicle manufacturing country. Also, the issue of cheap cars with minimum selling base of N1.7million looks fallacious in a country where the minimum wage stands at N18, 000 with poverty ravaging a larger percentage of the populace. Another fact that cannot be ignored is that the nation’s public transportation is in shambles. The mass of investors in public transportation-intra and inter city -rely mostly on realistically affordable fairly used foreign vehicles below one million naira. The thrust of this policy should not be elusive affordability but quality so that at the appropriate time other countries can buy and export vehicles assembled in Nigeria.

    We believe that the packaging of the new automotive policy looks suspicious. And to think that the entire programme might be muddled up and abandoned after billions of scarce public funds would have been wasted in funding phantom companies makes it even scarier. The automotive policy could succeed if systematically worked out and gradually implemented. A headlong rush may backfire and frustrate the automative market it is apparently designed to save.This is why we query the haste behind this payment and its hazy implementation.

  • Sponsorship of pilgrimage a misplaced priority

    SIR: The Federal Government delegation to last year’s Christian pilgrimage, headed by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, reportedly listed seven northern states among those who refused to sponsor Christian pilgrims. Their displeasure was the bias that has been institutionalized in the policy of the states mentioned. However, President Jonathan had a wise word that gladdened me to some extent. His assertion was that it was left to the states whether or not to sponsor pilgrims, but whatever their decision, they must remember that what applies to Christians must apply to Muslims and vice versa.

    My concern, however, is the religious and economic implication of federal and states continuing sponsorship of Christian and Muslim pilgrimage to the holy land. In the first place, neither the Islamic nor Christian religion suggests that the common wealth of the people could be used to pay for the pilgrimage of a privileged few even where they are state religions. That some countries of the world practice this policy does not absolve us from considering how different our circumstance is.

    I certainly encourage pilgrimage. However, individuals should not be deprived of the spiritual benefit that accrues from the process involved in preparing and actual performance of the pilgrimage. However, when the government decides to pay for all expenses, that process, in my opinion, is interrupted and the full benefit of the pilgrimage is not achieved. On the contrary, the pilgrim’s spiritual riches are, so to say, switched for whatever is received as sponsorship. .

    Economically, what we do every time we sponsor pilgrims to either Saudi Arabia, Israel or Italy, is transfer our meagre resources to help enrich countries that are already far richer than us through tourism spending, the fastest growing economic venture in the world.

    If the same amount used in sponsoring individuals for pilgrimage was given to poor but industrious citizens, Nigeria would have been better for it. The idea of sponsoring pilgrims may be aimed at helping the citizens to grow holy but the reverse, in my opinion, seem to be happening. In a country of 160 million people, even if 10,000 citizens are sponsored every year, that will make up only 0.0062% of the total population and in a 100 years only 1,000,000 or 0.62% would have been sponsored, not even 1%. How long do we expect the other 99% to wait for their turn supposing it is a right? What this later group is seeing is the misappropriation of the common treasury to favour a very minor class of citizens based on their political or family affiliation to the detriment of the majority. The scenario would have been different if the one percent that will be sponsored will return to radically change the moral and socio-economic situation of the remaining ninety-nine for the better; then it would have be a worthy investment. Unfortunately, the security and economic situation in the country today is pregnant with so many questions that demands answers from all responsible citizens.

     

    • Patrick Kanang Nyam

    Department of Development Control,

    Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Wuse, Abuja.