The Nation Newspaper

Tag: needs

  • The emergency that Nigeria needs

    Whenever the President, the Senate President, the Speaker House of Representatives, the Governors and the Speakers of the state Houses of Assembly and other top political office holders smile into the camera at public functions, I am tempted to believe that they are not aware of the grave security challenges, that Nigeria under their care faces. Consider that those of them from what is called the core north cannot freely take a walk in their constituencies for fear of the cruelties of the Boko Haram; neither can those from the south-east and southsouth do same for fear of kidnappers and attacks by armed groups. Compare these calamities with the emerging kidnap scare in the south-west and the religious/cattle hustlers’ induced mayhem in the middle-belt, to appreciate how violence and insecurity is gradually running a ring around Nigerians.

    Add the degeneration into armed robbery and gangsters by our unemployed and unemployable youths to the mix, and you will appreciate that unless our leaders wake-up from their sleep-walking, the Nigerian state is heading to hell. The problems are well beyound the current efforts of President Jonathan and other political actors, considering their partisan interests. What is urgently needed is for the Presidency, the National Economic Council, the National Assembly and the state assemblies to patriotically declare a state of national economic emergency, to stem Nigeria from self-destruction.

    To lead the charge, the political leadership across board must first exorcise itself from the cruel and criminal self-aggrandizement and appropriation of our common resources, just because they can get away with it. It must then gather a crop of competent non-political actors to draw an action plan to galvanise a national political-economic revival. One quick way forward is to create massive employment opportunities, by using direct labour for infrastructural and agricultural development, at every level of government. Our country must then force temporal exemption from World Trade Organisation, created to exploit the tenuous economies of third world countries; to boost our agriculture and local production. I have little doubt that unless there is a massive increase in economic opportunities for our youths; forced restraint on corrupt enrichment and practices by our political and economic elites and a fair and equitable spread of political and economic opportunities for all ethnic nationalities in the country; similar patches of emergency situations as we are witnessing in the northwest will keep reoccurring in other parts until the whole country is engulfed in crisis.

    In the meantime, President Goodluck Jonathan acted well within his powers to declare emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, under the provisions of Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. Unfortunately it is also the only immediate option open to the country, even when the current insurgency is substantially the consequences of years of mismanagement at all levels of governance.

    While the enabling factors for the crisis in Nigeria were not created by the current political actors, it has been exacerbated by the criminal impudence of some of them. I can bet that if you call the local government administrations in the states now under emergency to account for just 25 per cent of their receipts from the federation account in the past ten years, they will not be able to. Reports show that the local authorities merely gather at the end of every month to share the receipts.

    As many commentators have rightly argued, the constitution did not expressly authorise the President to remove elected state officials after declaring a state of emergency, as former President Obasanjo did in Plateau and Ekiti states. Indeed under Section 305(4), the governor of a state may with the sanction of the two-third members of the House of Assembly request the President to issue a proclamation of a state of emergency, in a state. But it can also be rightly argued that where the elected officials are prima facie the cause of the actual or potential breakdown of public order and safety, their powers can be swept away by the emergency declaration. Of course the constitution provides the circumstances under which the President can declare an emergency, and gives authority to the National Assembly to approve such declaration.

    While the President has exercised his constitutional prerogatives, it must be presumptuous for him to think that he has solved the problem of insurgency in the north-east, by what the Americans would call military-surge in that area. The simple reason is because the objective circumstances that gave rise to the crisis cannot be solved militarily. One reason is because the protagonists of the crisis as in other climes have craftily engraved its foundation on a shifty ground – religion. Second is that the crisis has grown beyound Nigeria’s boundaries, and also that the warriors having been schooled on self-immolation can not easily be overwhelmed as in modern warfare. The greatest tragedy is that many ordinary folks in the north-east pummeled by poverty and state neglect may have out of frustration joined the insurgency.

    To any discerning observer the Nigerian project is a huge tragedy so far. The northern power elites, who held power longer than all the other regions combined, left the north the most underdeveloped part of the country. The southsouth, which has political control for the first time under President Jonathan, is hell-bent on taking an overdose of the lollypop. The south-east which has been crying against political marginalisation, despite being one of the big three groups in the country, has seen their mantra appropriated by other zones and is now acting frustrated. The tepid attempt to carve a politically independent north-central is under serious religious/ethnic conflagration. The southwest seethes in angst, as their early lead after Independence has been wasted. The result is a divided country run on templates of blackmail.

     

  • Between NEEDS and needs (2)

    The salient issues embedded in the 189 recommendations by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and his team is not strange but glaring for all to see. What it did was that it elaborated on the fault lines within our university system which ASUU has over the years been calling on the authorities to fix; but unfortunately, successive governments have been led to believe that the association is mainly concerned about the welfare of its members. Take the issue of funding for instance. The N426.53bn budgeted for Education in the 2013 appropriation bill is about nine per cent of the total budget, previous budget hovers within this percentage. This is not close to the UNESCO recommended 26 per cent. We still have policy formulators who believe that it is “impossible” to budget such percentage without our house falling down, yet Ghana budgets 31 per cent of its annual estimates for education. Any wonder that the country is now the choice destination of Nigerians in search of quality education?

    As with reports of such nature which are bound to be controversial because of some elements, the government set up a Presidential Review Committee on the Report where a Technical Committee that would review the recommendations and come out with workable solutions was raised headed by Prof. Yakubu, who also chaired the main committee. The committee has 12 Vice Chancellors: two each representing the six geopolitical zones in the country; one Commissioner for Education also from each of the six geo-political zones; the Federal Ministry of Education, (FME); National Planning Commission (NPC); National Universities Commission (NUC); and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The Chairman of the Committee and Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi said the decision to set up the review committee was to enable the proprietors of public universities in the country both at the federal and state levels, have actionable recommendations that would make enforcement a reality.

    It will be appropriate to further review some of the recommendations here. Part of the committee’s recommendations says that overall administrative costs, including the cost of any out-sourced functions, such as cleaning and security, should not exceed 18 to 20 per cent and that managers, who failed to access and properly utilise their universities’ allocation of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) subventions for research, staff development and scholarships, conference attendance, publications, and so on, should be sanctioned.

    The committee maintained that no university should be allowed to remain without a governing council, whose members are appointed purely on merit and to stay in office only as provided by the law and that, vice-chancellors should be transparent, accountable and result-oriented in their dealings (the federal government constituted governing councils two weeks ago). Moreover, all non-establishment positions created by some vice-chancellors; such as Personal Assistants and Special Assistants and any similar to these are to be banned in the university system and that the council of each university should ensure compliance. All abandoned projects are to be completed, or continued with before new ones are started by incoming vice-chancellors.

    The explosion in undergraduates’ population on campuses which was not commensurate with facilities on ground also brought about some abnormalities. For instance, refectories, sporting complexes, convocation squares and other areas designated for other functions were converted into ‘lecture halls’ but the committee said varsities should revert to the status quo. Furthermore, it was revealed that less than 10 per cent of the universities have video conferencing facility, whereby less than 20 per cent use interactive boards while more than 50 per cent do not even use public address systems in their lecture halls.

    On the regulatory body, government was advised to empower and re-strengthen the National Universities Commission, to enforce all accreditation criteria and ensure objectivity and patriotism in the conduct of its activities. To this end, any university that falsified records, hired equipment or mercenary staff just for accreditation purpose should be closed down for a minimum of five years. The report also called on the government and other funding agencies to support teaching, learning and research and university managers should pursue the mission, vision and core values of their institutions.

    These objectives can be achieved – according to the committee – if and when universities train and produce all-rounded graduates and technical experts in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, high-tech engineering, medical sciences, agricultural sciences and natural sciences, among others. To strengthen the importance of universities to national development, the committee recommended that government should get the appropriate power agency to put all Nigerian universities on dedicated electricity lines and be accorded priority consideration during distribution.

    To ensure that all university academics have the minimum teaching qualification, the government would have to direct the appropriate regulatory agencies to issue a moratorium of five years, when all teaching staff in the university system are expected to have acquired their doctorate degrees and that while this is on, all new employments into academic position must meet the academic requirement of having, or pursuing their doctorate degrees while visiting lectureship should be regulated.

    One of the most controversial recommendation raising dust at the moment is the section calling for the conversion of all non-teaching staff in Nigerian universities into the staff of Federal or State Ministry of Education with full control over their employment. This controversial recommendation has been seriously criticized by the non-teaching staff of universities. To them, the report is unfavourable, cruel and untenable, as they called on the government to jettison it, noting that non-teaching staff were strategic to the running of the university system.

    I will reserve comments on this pending when the presidential review committee comes out with their recommendations, but meanwhile the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) threatened to go on strike to stop the implementation of the report. The association accused the Federal Government of insincerity in the payment of its members’ allowances. At the forefront of this allegation is the association’s Federal University of Technology, Akure branch Chairman, Mr. Benedict Chukwuma, who said the NEEDS report was targeted at retrenching non-teaching staff of the nation’s public universities. According to him, the association is rejecting the report because it aims at downsizing members of the association.

    Chukwuma is of the opinion that the transfer of non-teaching staff to federal and states ministries of education “was made in bad fate and therefore leaves much to be desired.” Preempting the adoption of the recommendation, the Joint Action Committee of the non-teaching staff met with Senator Pius Anyim, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, where it submitted its reaction to the report.

    There is little doubt that this report makes a very depressing reading and calls our sanity as a nation to question. Reflecting on it I discovered that mediocrity has dealt us a massive blow than we previously thought. How do we expect to develop when our citadels of higher learning are nothing short of glorified secondary schools? How and when did we descend this low and how do we expect to hold our heads high in the comity of 2st century nations when our graduates are half baked? How in God’s name do we hope to compete in a technologically driven world when some of our graduates have not even touched a computer!? Most of our policy formulators travel to other countries and institutions to “understudy” their systems, what have they been “understudying” over the years? Yet they would be the first to shout themselves hoarse whenever the depressing ratings of our universities are released.

    While it took years for us to get where we are today, taking the right step to correct these anomalies should start immediately and the political will to back it up should be there. Leadership is all about boldness in doing the right thing even if it may be painful and unpopular, we must fix our university system if we want to truly develop. The ball is now on the court of the review panel, we are waiting anxiously for their recommendations as we sift the NEEDS from the needs.

  • Between NEEDS and needs (1)

    Fourteen years ago (1999), Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka clamoured for Nigerian universities to be closed down for a year or two in order to fix the rot in the system. A through bred scholar and academic, he had seen the level the system had degenerated to call for a shutdown. We should bear in mind that even the most casual observer know that things are even worse today than it was back then. Many – scholars, parents, employers and concerned stakeholders – have also called for a state of emergency to be declared in the country’s education sector. Given the decay in Nigeria’s university system, it is not surprising that no Nigerian university ranks among the best 1,000 in the world. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife was ranked best in Nigeria at 1,511 in the world by Webometrics, a global ranking organisation.

    Concerned about the state of our varsities following a groundswell of public outcry, the Federal Ministry of Education on November 1 2012 set up the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led Committee on NEEDS Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities; four months later the committee submitted its report to the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i. The committee’s report revealed that public universities are grossly mismanaged; engage in activities at variance with the National Policy on Education and are lacking in human and material resources. The varsities were accused of being incapable of supplying the nation’s manpower needs and are said to be bogged down by corruption of various kinds while offering education of poor quality, among others.

    For the benefit of readers who may not know, a NEEDS assessment is a systematic process for determining and addressing needs, or lacuna between status quo and desired conditions or “wants”. The discrepancy between the status quo and desired condition must be measured to appropriately identify what the needs are. The need can be a desire to improve current academic performance or to correct infrastructural deficiency.

    A NEEDS assessment therefore is a part of planning processes, often used for improvement in individuals, education/training, organisations, or communities. It can refine and improve a product such as training or service a client receives. It can be an effective tool to clarify problems and identify appropriate interventions or solutions. By clearly identifying and isolating the problem, resources can then be channeled towards developing and implementing a feasible and applicable solution. NEEDS assessments are only effective when they are ends-focused and provide concrete evidence that can be used to determine which of the possible means-to-the-ends are most effective and efficient for achieving the desired results.

    Prior to the setting up of the committee, which was part of the 2009 agreement between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, a vote of no confidence had since been passed on our varsities with the country losing billions of naira through education tourism. Recall that ASUU had in 2009 embarked on a four-month strike that had paralysed the entire public universities sector. On October 21, 2009, ASUU and the Federal Government reached a truce by signing an agreement. The fallout of the signed agreement include the approval of about 50 per cent salary increase for the university lecturers, administrative autonomy for the universities, 70 years retirement age for university professors and enhanced funding of the universities.

    To state that there are crises in Nigeria’s education sector; from primary to tertiary is to state the very obvious, the evidences are there for all to see. What with lack of adequate infrastructure, high rate of school dropout and out-of-school children, mass failures in external secondary school examinations, brain drain of lecturers and now students, perennial industrial actions by various unions in the education sector, etc. A non-governmental organisation, Exam Ethics International, says Nigeria loses a whooping N1.5tn to education tourism. Of this sum, N160bn is spent by Nigerian parents on their children and wards’ education in neighbouring Ghana while they spent N80bn on same in the United Kingdom (this is however issue for another day).

    The recent NEEDS assessment report shows that majority of the universities are grossly understaffed, rely heavily on part-time and visiting lecturers, have under-qualified academics and have no effective staff development programme outside the Tertiary Education Trust Fund intervention and the Presidential First Class Scholarship programme. The report also affirmed that there are 37,504 academics (83 per cent of which are male) in the country’s public universities. This shows that only 17 per cent of academic staffers in public universities are female. That’s food for thought.

    Also revealed in the report is that only about 43 per cent of Nigerian universities teaching staffs have doctorate degrees; instead of 75 per cent of the academics being between senior lecturers and professors, only about 44 per cent are within the bracket. Only seven universities have up to 60 per cent of their teaching staff with PhD qualification. Also, the ratio of teaching staff to students in many universities is 1:100. For instance, it is 1: 363 at the National Open University of Nigeria; 1:122 at the University of Abuja; and 1:144 at the Lagos State University.

    Good, so how is the statistics measured in other climes? In Harvard University, it is 1: 4; Massachusetts Institute of Technology- 1:9; and Cambridge-1:3. The report also stated that there is numerically more support than teaching staff in the universities, instead of the other way round. In some universities, it was discovered that the non-teaching staff double, triple or quadruple the teaching staff. With regard to infrastructure, the committee found that physical facilities for teaching and learning in the public universities are inadequate, dilapidated, over-stretched and improvised.

    As we daily clamour for the resuscitation of our comatose industries which we know is critical for sustained job creation, do we have the manpower if this happens? It doesn’t appear so as the report also indicted our varsities in that regard. It says laboratories and workshops equipment as well as consumables are either absent, inadequate or outdated. Kerosene stoves are being used as Bunsen burners in some! Some engineering workshops operate under zinc sheds and trees, and many science-based faculties are running what is referred to as “Dry Lab,” due to lack of reagents and tools to conduct real experiments. The committee also documented that 163 of the 701 physical uncompleted projects it found had been abandoned.

    That is definitely not all as there are still more to come in a Nation that wants to be counted among the top 20 economies by 2020. Take the issue of students’ enrolment; the report revealed that there are a total of 1,252,913 students in the public universities: 85 per cent undergraduates; five per cent sub-degree; three per cent postgraduate diploma; five per cent Master’s and two per cent Ph.D. As against the National Policy on Education that stipulates 60:40 enrolments in favour of science-based programmes, 66.1 per cent of them are studying arts, social sciences, and management and education courses.

    Only 16 per cent of students are studying science and science-education courses; 6.3 per cent, engineering; five per cent, Medicine, while 6.6 are studying Agriculture, Pharmacy and Law. It beats my imagination how the ratio 60:40 science bias enrolment could be achieved given the deplorable state of science laboratories and workshops. It is noteworthy that enrolment continues to be a big issue in our universities.

    Before completing the first part of this all important piece, it is pertinent to point out that the NEEDS report has already been submitted to another committee for “review”. However, I would like to pose a few questions. Where were the regulators when all these malpractices and sharp-practices were being perpetrated? How are we sure this report will even be acted upon? Already, NASU and other unions within the system have started kicking against sections of the report that does not favour them. These notwithstanding, most Nigerians are familiar with the problems of the university system in the country, what we lack is the political will to address and redress the situation. For how long will we continue to move in circles as the problems await us?

  • Bauchi needs N50bn to provide water

    Bauchi State Government needs about N50 billion to adequately provide water for residents of Bauchi, the state capital and its environs, its Commissioner for Water Resources, Hon. Sani Mohammed Burra, announced yesterday.

    The state government also appealed to the residents to exercise patience over the water shortage in the state, particularly those in Bauchi metropolis and its environs, “as the government is concerned about the unfortunate situation”.

    Burra, who addressed a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, with Engr. Mohammed Damina, the state Commissioner for Information, assured that the Isa Yuguda-led administration was working round the clock to address the problem of water scarcity and ensure adequate water supply in the interest of the people.

    He attributed what is being described as acute shortage of water in most parts of the state capital to the rusty nature of pipes whose life-span had expired, adding that some of the pipes had worn out.

    The commissioner, however, revealed that ”the state government has purchased new pipes that would help pump adequate water into the metropolis and a new system of reticulation is being designed, besides arrangement with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) for the supply of adequate power to improve water supply to the Water Works in the state.

    According to Burra, Yuguda had already approved the purchase of additional diesel and other lubricants to ensure that the generators pump enough water to the over-head tanks for domestic consumption.

    Besides the old age of the equipment including pipes, Burra noted that the recent increase in the state capital’s population and its environs had further increased water consumption.

    As a panacea to the current shortage and long term planning, engineers are undertaking a comprehensive study of communities within and outside the state capital to access water demands and to fix faulty pipes for improved water supply.

  • Girl, four, needs help to survive cancer

    The was discharged from hospital for being what the management called a “pauper”. Four-year-old Margaret Agogo, who now goes about with a life-threatening ailment, is a walking corpse. Even, her parents according to her grandmother, “are waiting for her to die because they have exhausted everything within their capacity on her medical bill”.

    Margaret was hale and hearty until around April, last year. She was a paragon of beauty at the Little Flower Nursery School, Ipong-Obudu, Cross River State, which she attends. She had already already begun to give an account of herself.

    Her story changed when her health suddenly deteriorated. She was diagnosed with round blue tumour, a form of soft tissue cancer, at the Paediatric Ward (Haematology/Oncology Unit) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).

    Ever since, she has become a problem to her aged grand-mother, Mrs Felicia Agogo, an amputee who walks on crutches.

    Mrs Agogo told The Nation that Margaret was on June 25, 2012, “declared a pauper in UCTH, where she was undergoing treatment,” adding that in July, she was officially discharged as a patient (with tag number 305941) for lack of funds.

    She regretted that after spending more than N300, 000, Margaret’s condition did not improve. Thus, she was referred to a hospital in Enugu for further treatment, but she lacked the funds to go there.

    Now, Margaret, who carries a heart-rending mouth protrusion, can hardly ingest solid food.

    Mrs. Agogo said Margaret’s parents, who hail from Igwo in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, are in Lagos, living from hand to mouth and searching for jobs

    “They are unable to afford further medical bills for her, having exhausted everything within their capacity. In other words, they are waiting for her to die,” the grandmother said.

    Children of Rural Africa (CORAfrica), an organisation founded by Rev. Fr Peter Obele Abue (who is also the Parish Priest in Igwo), is now seeking financial assistance for Margaret’s surgery here or abroad, if the need arises.

    Dr Godwin Abeng, who is handling her case, said surgery would reverse Margaret’s condition if the funds are there.

  • ACN, Ogbomoso North needs Ajimobi’s attention

    ACN, Ogbomoso North needs Ajimobi’s attention

    SIR: This piece is a clarion call on the ACN leadership, and particularly, the governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi to wade into the crisis rocking the party in Ogbomoso North before it is too late. This call becomes imperative because of the disunity, over ambition and personality clash among the leading members of the party. The show of shame between two members of executive council which culminated in fisticuffs on Thursday February 20 and disrupted the meeting calls for urgent attention. As the hotbed of politics in Ogbomoso zone, and with the overbearing influence of the PDP, failure of the party to unite could jeopardize the prospects of the party in Ogbomoso zone.

    Four important factors are responsible for the problem rocking the party in Ogbomoso North. First, there is no leader in Ogbomoso North ACN that can serve as rallying point and provide effective leadership for the party. The decisions that affected the party in Ogbomoso North are being taken by leaderships of other local governments in Ogbomoso zone, which often times are not in the best interest of the majority members of the party. Secondly, the factionalization of the party is so entrenched that any appointment or patronage is distributed on factional basis, while members who belong to no faction are disregarded and excluded from any appointment or patronage. Consequently, the loyalty of party members is not to the party but factional leaders. Therefore, unity has eluded the party. Third, the chairmen of the caretaker committee appointed since the inception of this government are alien to the party. They were not in the party before and during the last election, which would have afforded them the opportunity to know in and out of the party. Consequently, they cannot unite the party but rather finding means of consolidating their power by courting the friendship of the dominant factions to the detriment of the party. Fourthly, very few among those who have been given appointments at the state level attend party meeting at ward or local levels. Instead of coming together to provide effective leadership to the party, they are behaving like the lords of minor and are parochial.

    With the situation of ACN in Ogbomoso North, it cannot go into election and make any meaningful impact because many party members are disillusioned. Therefore, the leadership of the party in the state is advised to wade in because a stitch in time saves nine.

     

    •Adewuyi Adegbite,

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • Nollywood needs to die

    THE later is a remark from a random Caucasian I shared corner with, curious at a canon 7D that hung on my neck at the lounge of Doha International Airport (U.A.E), while waiting for a connecting flight to Lagos.

    Exchanging contacts, we swapped blackberries; a certain lady and I. A minute passed, and I still hadn’t found the BBM icon.

    A second look at the phone, and it was indeed a Black’barry’.

    Whilst the Doha Airport incidence as well as a few other related utterances from more bewildered spectators put me in a “niche carved by others” the fake Black’barry’ reminds me of the unoriginality of the brand ‘Nollywood’; she needs to die!

    But no idea is original to anybody right? Well Let’s focus then on aspect which “fellow students” of my school of thought find even more baffling; the mentality.

    Imagine a fellow whom without skill or training sees boxing as a hustle; an easy means to an end, rather than a passion driven by professional career; such fellow is destined to die in the ring. Likewise, until those who “run things” make “running things” an affair born out of passion (not just a cheap money spinning venture. After all, carpenters do make money too) and continually make efforts to improve the art… Nollywood needs to die!

    Her Nomenclature, so kindergarten, it beats me hollow; “Passions of my destiny”… How passionate can one’s destiny (inanimate) be huh? Blackberry Girls, Facebook Babes (I’m looking forward to seeing Twitter Dames), Royal Blood, Royal Blood 2, End of Royal Blood, Snake in the Royal Palace, End of Snake in the Royal Palace, Palace Fight, Palace Fight 2, End of Palace Fight. The list of baffling home video titles is just endless; Fighting for the Prince 1, 2, 3, End of Fighting for the Prince 1,2,3. The King is Mine Alone… *phew*. If I see one more film poster with any ‘Royal’ connotation, I’m surely going to puke! …Nollywood needs to die!

    Round pegs in square holes? Welcome to the industry where unseasoned actors, products of the same mentality in a bid to re-invent themselves turn ‘Directors’.

    They churn out same old standard wishy-washy ‘films’ only this time, paying more attention to PR; kudos to that by the way. But seriously, we all must not call the shots. Directing involves a little more than holding unto a megaphone and screaming ‘action and cut’. And I totally understand artistic freedom of expression, plus the feeling of being the “brain” behind a successful work of art but the keyword is “success”.

    And as cinema is concern Success implies ultimate satisfaction of the cinema goer or as is the case, of “Nollywood” VCD/DVD buyers. Either ways, I hardly get value on money spent. Yes, I’m a consumer too, an optimistic but dissatisfied one whom is of the opinion that… Nollywood needs to die!

    Whilst morals is a given, Morality on the other hand is relative to place and time, as such don’t speak for or against ‘nudity’ on screen, so long as the scenes are essential to telling a good story, Keyword ESSENTIAL!

    A rather annoying trend about a few Nigerians is our indiscriminate hijack and bastardization of anything seemingly “trendy”.

    That Ghollywood (abeg what’s with the woods anyways?) adopted indiscriminate showcase of scantily dressed female actors as a ‘marketing’ strategy; must Nollywood join in the show of shame?

    Granted, the actors give consent. Plus, the movies are rated 18, but it gives cause for worry when ‘soft porn’ posters flood the streets in the name of home videos. Last I checked, it’s an offence branded ‘denuding the public’. Nudity without a striking significance to the plot is porn. And It’s just appalling that some so-called producers would resort to pornography just to force their poorly baked so called films into the market. Our kids are casualties.

    To think that the censorship board “scrutinized” poster before approving film releases is a case to ponder. What’s more annoying is the absence of correlation between the nude actress in the poster and any scene in the so called “movie”. Bastardization of my profession! Somebody, please kill Nollywood!

    So the other day Madam Bisi was sold fake penicillin by a roadside drug shop, she had NAFDAC to complain to. My friend Alexx Ekubo wouldn’t pay for services when he realized he was served cold food in a supposed upscale restaurant. Inyene Ben only recently filed a law suite when a supposed brand new car he purchased malfunctioned within the company’s warranty period. Archi Sam…oh Archi insist on N97 per litre and would never pay a dime more! Madam Bisi, Alexx, Inyene and Archi; all of them consumers demanding qualitative service and customer satisfaction, but it wouldn’t come to me as a shocker when as a result of my expressing dissatisfaction (being there isn’t a public complaint office) I risk being ‘black potted’ for “dissing my industry”. Be that as it may, though my opinion being solely mine, remains unchanged and its simple: … Nollywood needs to die, then resurrect PROFESSIONALLY.

    —OTU NJAMA III is a trained stunt cinematographer, filmmaker and film critic of Nigerian decent

  • Keshi needs a team leader — Oliseh

    Keshi needs a team leader — Oliseh

    SuperSports guest analyst at the Africa Cup of Nations, Sunday Oliseh says the Super Eagles urgently need a motivational leader.

    He has therefore advised Chief Coach, Stephen Keshi to work on his players’ confidence.

    He said it would help to spot their leadership qualities.

    “I am sorry to say but the coaches are not building players but personalities. In my opinion, they should make the players talk during match conferences. It should not be the technical crew alone. That way you are helping them to overcome their fears,” he said.

    Comparisons have been drawn between the 1994 side that won the Nations Cup trophy in Tunisia and the present squad.

    “That was what Westerhof did in our time by developing players. That is why people can always refer to our team as being blessed with born leaders,” he added.

     

  • Oshiomhole: The man Nigeria needs

    Oshiomhole: The man Nigeria needs

    I am deeply convinced that this piece will generate a lot of dust, especially from sections of the country who believe it’s their turn to occupy the presidential villa. However, I owe nobody or group of persons or any section no apologies. As a free born citizen and a full-blooded Nigerian at that, I have the right to hold and express opinions  on any issue, it may not be palatable to the other party. Aside the constitutional backing, its part of the fundamental human rights.  The presidency is an issue that concerns us as a people bounded by a common destiny. So, we must start discussing it now; put the possible materials in one basket for proper assessment before the year 2015.

    In fact, I am happy that the foot soldiers of President Goodluck Jonathan kick started the campaign in Abuja early this month with the posters of their principal littering the entire landscape of the city, the feeble denial of the Presidency notwithstanding. As a trade unionist cum journalist of over two decades, I will not beg the issue, rather, I will say it the way I feel and strongly believe it is. If we must get to the Promised Land and stand tall in the comity of nations, we need a leader with very  strong character, detribalised, a   moderate, not a religious bigot or a fundamentalist, a bridge builder who sees Nigeria as his constituency, etc. Without mincing words, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole perfectly fits into this mould. A hard core trade unionist of great repute whose popularity resonates beyond the shores of this country. This political strategist and master negotiator who led a unified labour movement at  a very critical time in the history of this great country and left  unblemished, is the one  we  need. The Nigerian work force, a critical segment of the voting population placed their trust in this man and he did not disappoint them.

    This comrade can be the Lech Walesa or the Lula da Silva of Nigeria. Walesa, a Nobel Prize winner was the foremost charismatic trade unionist in Poland who successfully steered the labour movement in that country, becoming a thorn in the flesh of the Soviets. This dissident union activist  later won a popular vote in the 1990 presidential election to become the second president to rule the former communist country.  Lula da Silva on his part led the worker’s party in Brazil and eventually became a two term president of the country having been elected in 2002 and in 2006. He served his country meritoriously till December 2010. Today, Silva is about the most popular politician in that Latin American country. These can be replicated here in Nigeria if majority of us resolve that enough is enough and invest in this selfless comrade come 2015. Electoral investment in Oshiomhole is a worthy and highly rewarding one. The Edo example is a test case. The people invested in him heavily, today, they are reaping the gains of that investment. The gains are simply overwhelming. Edo will never be the same again after the exit of this human dynamo who came at the right time to salvage our dear state. Comparatively, Nigeria is at the critical state  akin to where  Edo pitiably found herself before the coming of Oshiomhole in November  2008 .

    Despite his radicalism and a no-nonsense disposition, Oshiomhole is seen as a strong political brand across the country. Born in Edo, South -South region and lived all his working life in Kaduna, North West region, he speaks Yoruba and Hausa, two of the three major languages in the country. He is by all standard , a religious moderate and about the only governor across the country who appoints non indigenes into very sensitive positions in government. The late Olaitan Oyerinde, an Osun State indigene, was his Principal Private Secretary until his brutal murder in July 2012. He appointed Comrade Yakub, from the core north to replace him. Only last week, he announced a retired army major, Ondo State indigene, Lawrence Oloye, as a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment.  The man who heads the youth and students affairs arm, a Senior Special Assistant, SSA, Comrade Musa  Alechenu, is from Otukpo in Benue State. These are just samplers of the kind of leadership  Nigerians desire. Oshiomhole is one  leader who abhors   nepotism, tribalism and all other primordial vestiges that tend to stagnate us as a people. Fully convinced that he was doing the right thing as a leader, Oshiomhole closed his hears to the barrage of criticisms and protests that greeted those actions.

    On what platform is this Oshiomhole presidency realisable? Again, I will say categorically that for now, nowhere other than the rampaging Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.   I said for now, because politics is dynamic and highly fluid.

    I believe it’s high time we did away with tribal politics. The ACN has risen above a mere tribal party to a truly national and robust political party. A party that won senatorial seats in Anambra and Benue States aside other legislative offices cannot be tagged a tribal party.   About 15 unbroken years of our democratic governance, tribalism should have no place in our political lexicon; rather, we should be discussing and scouting for the best candidate to lead us as a nation. It is either now or never.

    • Musa is a Benin – based Public Affairs Analyst.

     

  • Why Kano needs additional universities

    Why Kano needs additional universities

    With over 9.4 million people, according to the 2006 census figures, Kano is the most populous state in the country. Yet, access to tertiary education has always been a challenge for its teeming youth. Year in year out, hundreds of secondary schools across the state churn out thousands of students eligible for university education, alas only a fraction of this huge number get to see the four walls of university lecture halls. Why?

    Up until last year, overwhelming number of such students could only be accommodated by Bayero University and Kano state University of Science and Technology, Wudil, established by Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso during his first term in office between 1999 and 2003. However, the vice chancellor of Bayero University had told Governor Kwankwaso that of over 50,000 that apply to the university, it could only admit about 5,000. The bottom line is, the overwhelming percentage of the 45,000 students are from Kano state. At a time when youth restiveness is gaining ground, to say these rejected admission seekers are a time bomb is to belabour the point.

    I was with a friend last week Tuesday when I saw a newspaper advertorial, placed by the Kano State government, calling for private partnership for the establishment of a conventional university and a medical one. I spent a few minutes reading, or more appropriately, pondering over the content of the advert. And my friend, perhaps seeing the keenness with which I looked at the page, interjected. He asked if I thought additional degree-milling institutions, as he called them, are desirable in present day Kano State. I have heard similar question as my friend’s since the first move by Governor Kwankwaso, upon his return, to set up additional university in Kano which he successfully started and named Northwest University, Kano.

    The concern of my friend and his co-travellers is not something that one can easily wave away especially knowing well the manner state governors complain of inadequate fund to run the machinery of governance. Close home, the previous administration is an apt example of such trend. As a government that personified ineptitude, they spent eight years squandering people’s common vault on seeking political patronage and obscurantist ‘human development’ projects that ended up developing nepotism and perpetuating gargantuan corruption.

    In contrast, in Kwankwaso we see strict financial discipline that is unmatched in recent history. Thus, by sharking off the culture of profligacy and closing in all avenues of ‘authority stealing’, government’s coffers is now brimming with enough money to do all the things that we were told could not be done by government. At a point, during those uneventful years, common government duties of payment of salaries and pension benefits became something of a Herculean task. However, with minimal expenses on dispensable projects and government programmes, Kwankwaso has made things that we could only dream of three years not only possibilities but realities.

    To answer my inquisitive friend, I first reminded him that the two new universities being considered are going to be under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. Thus, the state government is not the one to sponsor the universities and convolute its payroll by employing additional staff.

    The PPP arrangement would see the government contributing physical structures to support any private investor willing to finance the running of the proposed institutions, including staffing. Government’s role is basically to provide enabling environment for the operation of additional universities that would benefit the teeming admission seekers from the state.

    Kwankwaso’s ultimate aim in this venture is to close a gaping void in access to education. While realizing that the government cannot shoulder all the responsibility of catering for the need of thousands of students who are thirsty for university education, the government evolved the idea of this noble partnership in providing tertiary education.

    The governor had recently paid a visit to the world renowned Gulf Medical University in Dubai where he discussed the possibility of the university partnering with the state government to establish a private medical university in Kano to be fashioned after the one in Dubai. The governor tabled before the university management the option of using any of the three new hospital facilities in Kano for the purpose. The proposed sites are the Centre for the Control of Infectious Diseases located at Kwananr Dawaki and constructed by Pfizer Inc, the Paediatric Hospital along Zoo Road and the general hospital at Giginyu.

    Meanwhile, for the conventional private university, the government is looking at the possibility of using the magnificent Ado Bayero House, located in the heart of the metropolis. Already, the newly established Northwest University is using part of the building as a temporary site, pending the completion of the permanent site at Kofar Kabuga, which is going on a healthy pace.

    It is a known fact that in comparison of its huge population size, the number of Kano indigenes that get admitted into the university per annum is not anything to write home about. Many qualified students cool their feet at home not because they don’t have requirement or cannot afford the fares but because there are simply no space to accommodate them. This initiative would therefore go a long way in ameliorating this dangerous trend. If ideal mind is called a devil’s workshop then ideal mind of a young person is more fertile a workshop than that of an elderly person. Therefore, getting the young people engaged through academic pursuits is not only commendable but something that all well meaning citizens of Kano should encourage.

    With the success story of the Northwest University, which has already admitted its first set of students for various degree courses and employed hundreds of job seekers from Kano and beyond, establishing two additional universities will further strengthen this drive of educational empowerment.

    Lawi wrote from Kano.