The Nation Newspaper

Tag: misrepresentation

  • Lagos Assembly condemns misrepresentation of memo to commissioner

    The Lagos State House of Assembly has said the “misrepresentation and misinterpretation” of its memorandum to the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami, on the appointment of Supervisors to the local governments (LGs) and local council development areas (LCDAs), is a deliberate falsehood.

    The Assembly’s reaction was yesterday through a statement by Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade, titled: Re: Lagos State House of Assembly Kicks Against Ambode’s Imposed Local Government Exco List (Assembly’s true position).

    Agunbiade said the attention of the Assembly was drawn to the “mischief currently making the rounds especially in the print and social media”.

    He added: “The sensational falsehood stems from the calculated, subjective and tainted misinterpretation and misrepresentation of a statement by the House of Assembly, dated November 3, (which was) directed to the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami.

    “The letter, titled: Appointment of supervisors to the local government councils/local council development areas, was solely predicated at guiding the newly positioned chairmen of councils on the need for appropriate procedure as well as intimating them with the relevant provisions of the operational administrative guidelines which require the approval of the legislative arms of the respective councils to validate appointments into the local government executive committees.”

    The memo, the Assembly said, was deemed necessary to avoid bickering and unpleasant corollaries that might be the consequences of an abridged process or procedure.

    The statement said: “It is needless to say that the Lagos State House of Assembly has unreserved esteem and regards for the office and person of the governor. The thoughtful guidance routinely issued was not in any way intended to denigrate, dissipate or disrupt the processes but rather to enrich, enhance and further establish democratic tenets and institutions by ensuring that the principles of checks and balances are replicated in the renascent Local Government system.

    “In the circumstances, therefore, the misinterpretation accorded the harmless action of the House of Assembly is regrettable, unreasonable, misleading, unacceptable and is hereby condemned. The three arms of Government are clearly separated yet intricately and delicately fused. Consequently, they are inter-regulatory and inter-complimentary.

  • OAU NASU/SSANU and misrepresentation of facts

    It is with a heavy heart that I write in response to the open letter jointly written to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Obafemi Awolowo University branch. The referred advertorial, signed by the branch chairmen and secretaries, was published in the March 24, edition of The Nation. The crux of the misconceived article is the call on President Buhari to dissolve the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) on the invented pretext of ‘deliberate and irreparable violation of the statue and laws for the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor’ in a bid to enable the outgoing VC’s successor to cover up the former’s ‘numerous allegations of corruption, vindictiveness, non-transparency …’.

    Any discerning mind who reads that boondoggle will not fail to note that the authors are out to distort fact, in fact, project bald falsity as concrete truth all in an attempt to mislead the public. For the avoidance of doubt, the ongoing process for the selection of a new VC to succeed Prof. Bamitale Omole whose five-year single-term tenure ends on June 23, conforms thoroughly with the OAU Statue 6, Sections 3a to e. Whatever NASU/SSANU perceive as violation is at best a figment of their fevered and febrile imaginations.

    As stated in Statue 6, Subsection 3a, it is the responsibility of the Governing Council to advertise the vacancy, outline the qualities of the applicants for the post, and ‘thereafter draw up a short-list of suitable candidates for the post for consideration’. But rather than stick to their claim that the Governing Council has adhered to the stipulations of that statue, they descend willingly into the abyss of specious reasoning by claiming that that highest ruling organ of the university drew up another criteria other than the advertised one to assess the applicants for the position of the VC.

    Except the OAU NASU and SSANU, every other group on campus, and, indeed, keen followers of the country’s universities’ affairs know that the teaching experience, international exposure, publication, ability to attract funds, years of being on the professorial cadre, supervision, and referees of the candidates vying for the post of a VC are exceedingly important. They constitute vital components of the eligibility criteria. Therefore, it is absurd that some groups, which should be in the vanguard of championing the emergence of competent administrator through an excellently rigorous process, view this as an infraction of the law. Since in the current process the OAU Governing Council operates within the ambit of Statue 6, it is entirely out of place for NASU and SSANU to dictate or insist on different course of action.

    It is against the foregoing backdrop that the call by those bodies for the dissolution of the OAU Governing Council comes clearly as misplaced and ill-conceived. That OAU NASU and SSANU are comfortably inured to unlawful processes also manifests vividly in their request to President Buhari to violate the law by dissolving a lawfully constituted Governing Council. To argue that those two bodies are unaware of the recent apologies and reversal of the Federal Government’s decision on the sacking of some universities’ governing councils is to excuse their calcified penchant for reckless mischief, wounding misinformation, and bizarre illogic. Those bodies would do anything, including having the federal government undermine the integrity of the university autonomy agreement, in order to both misinform the general public and project themselves as conscientious watchdogs that they lack the character to become. The university autonomy agreement, which the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) laboured mightily to wrench from the federal government, makes it impossible for the Visitor to dissolve the governing councils of any federal university. It also invests the governing councils with the power to hire and fire VCs. But ask the OAU NASU and SSANU, they will tell you it is right to throw out the baby together with the bath water.

    Additionally, given their stance on serving falsehood as sacred fact, both the OAU NASU and SSANU have decided to see the continuing process of appointing a new VC for the institution as flawed. It is remarkable to reveal that about two weeks ago, the OAU branch of ASUU expressed deep satisfaction with the selection by the Governing Council of six out of the 11 candidates for the position of the VC. While NASU and SSANU are flailing about concocting grand untruths, ASUU is adding value to the selection process by organising an interactive session with the six contenders. The committee to see to that laudable initiative is supervised by Professor Sat Obiyan.

    Again, the myopic and puckish minds of the OAU NASU and SSANU apparatchiks must be tutored and attuned to the fact that allegation of corruption on the pages of newspapers can never conduce to hard, irrefutable evidence. Rather than the inaudible calls by the imaginary ‘staff and students of the university for investigation by the EFCC’ to willy-nilly find the outgoing VC guilty of misappropriation of funds, NASU and SSANU will do well to compile a dossier detailing the VC’s acts of corruption and dispatch it to the EFCC for action. It is insulting and maligning for these unions to insinuate that the ongoing appointment process is being done to deliberately violate existing laws so as to throw up a successor that will conceal and wipe off the misdeeds of his predecessor. If, as it has been explained in this piece, the OAU NASU and SSANU are wrong in their claim that the OAU Governing Council is violating the law, it is pointless to further contend that they are insincere and reckless in howling that ‘The Vice-Chancellor is allegedly working together with the Pro-Chancellor to manipulate Council and ensure imposition of a successor, who would cover up his atrocities and continue on his track to the detriment of OAU’.

    It worries the mind that entities who advertise themselves as being ‘highly responsible unions’ feel no qualms and are happily at peace baking the bread of disinformation for the unsuspecting public. Unable to contribute sensibly to the appointment process of a new VC for the school, those amalgams infested by certain characters of oily manners deliriously choose to fire the darts of fantastic untruths, thinking inanely that their constructed edifice of distortion and perversion will take on the hue of truth and sense. The OAU NASU and SSANU must gravely note that just as it cannot convince any serious minds except theirs with misinformation on the smoothly-going process, so also will they become unhelpful in the efforts towards the development of this lighthouse of learning as a truly modern emporium of significant human capacity enrichment.

     

    • Alawode, a public affairs analyst, writes from Ile-Ife, Osun State

  • Ohanaeze warns branches against misrepresentation

    The apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has warned its affiliates which make statements on its behalf without clearance.

    The group spoke during an Ime Obi meeting in which members brainstormed on issues affecting Ndigbo.

    The President-General, Gair Igariwey, deplored the situation whereby branches issue inciting statements, which they credit to the national body.

    He said: “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo branches in Kano and Lagos states are particularly guilty of this.

    “We have resolved that a circular should be issued that all national issues regarding Ndigbo must come from the national secretariat.

    “There was misrepresentation of facts by the leadership of Ohanaeze Kano branch on the recent bombings in Kano that killed some Igbo.

    “Members were amazed at the exaggeration of the number of Ndigbo killed as claimed by the Ohanaeze leadership in Kano.

    “Contrary to what was being dished out by the Ohanaeze leadership in Kano, many other ethnic groups were killed in the bombings.

    “The Yoruba, he said, were the next that suffered heavily in the bombings as well as Edo and Kano indigenes.”

    Anambra State Governor Peter Obi yesterday presented a cheque of N2 million to the Anambra State Chairman, Chris Eluemunor, for accommodation and other logistics.

    Obi thanked the group for the sacrifice in promoting the Igbo cause but appealed to it not to relent even in the face of great odds.

    He called on all Igbo sons and daughters of taxable age to contribute to the running of the organisation.

    “I suggest that everybody pays the annual levy of N100, while the rich ones should contribute according to their riches,” the governor said.

    He added that the time was ripe for Ohanaeze to chart a new course for the people by evolving a plan that will include getting a permanent secretariat.

  • Achebe’s misrepresentation

    Achebe’s misrepresentation

    SIR: Chinua Achebe’s latest book ‘There was a country’ which the literary icon described as a personal history of Biafra has generated a lot of heated comments especially on the uncharitable diatribe on the role played by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Yakubu Gowon during the unfortunate Nigeria civil war.

    Achebe accused the two Nigerian leaders during the war of pursuing deliberate policy of genocide against his ethnic group the Igbo. He predicated his conclusion on the statement of Chief Awolowo who was the Commissioner of Finance and Vice-Chairman of Federal Executive Council during the civil war period. The chief is reported to have stated inter alia “all is fair in war and starvation is one instrument of the war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order to fight harder”. Chinua Achebe felt that Chief Awolowo pursued this policy of decimation of the Igbo ethnic group for his political advantage and that of his ethnic group, the Yoruba.

    My concern in this piece is not to comment on the veracity of Achebe’s claim. Many knowledgeable people like Odia Ofeimum, Alhaji Femi Okunnu who was in the Federal Executive Council with Chief Awolowo and others had vindicated Chief Awolowo. My only worry is that some northern leaders like Alhaji Shehu Shagari who was in the Federal Executive Council like Chief Awolowo had not come out to defend Chief Awolowo and tell the world that the policy of not sending food to the rebel enclave by air was a collective decision of the council and the government of General Gowon.

    My task here is to correct an historical fact truncated by Achebe in his book. On page 67 of the book, Chinua Achebe referred to Dr. Okechukwu Ikejiani as the Chairman of Nigeria Coal Corporation and amplified this point on page 273 as follows: “Ikejiani was well known for his attempts to end nepotism and clannishness in the coal corporation, fully integrating the organization that he ran with qualified Nigerians from all over the nation. His efforts drew great ire in many quarters”.

    With greatest respect to the literary icon, this is not correct. First of all Dr. Okechukwu Ikejiani was never Chairman of the Nigeria Coal Corporation. He was the chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation. The chairman of the Nigeria Coal Corporation was Chief C. C. Onoh, the father of delectable Bianca Ojukwu, the late Odumegwu Ojukwu’s young widow.

    With regard to the efficiency of Dr. Ikejiani eloquently touted by Achebe in his book, the tenure of Dr. Ikejiani was very controversial with rampant accusation of unbridled nepotism. It was the “Ikuriniani Ikejiani era”. This was very evident during the Justice Adefarasin inquiry into the Nigerian Railway Corporation set up by the military regime of General Aguiyi Ironsi in 1966. At the inquiry, Dr. Ikejiani without any qualm during the cross examination told all Nigerians the popular phrase “I love cars”, which was a reflection of his absolute control of the corporation resources in all ramification.

    Going through the book, I can see a strenuous effort by Chinua Achebe to launder the images of people belonging to his ethnic stock while putting down people of other ethnic stocks in Nigeria. In doing this, Chinua Achebe truncated many unassailable facts.

     

    • Prof. Olabode Lucas

    Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti