The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria’s woes

  • ‘AfCFTA’ll worsen Nigeria’s woes’

    THE National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has warned the Federal Government against signing and implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), saying  the deal would worsen unemployment among farmers and farm workers across the country.

    Its President, Ken Ukaoha, who stated this at the weekend in Lagos, said this was based on the outcome of a research by the association, which examined the effects of the tariff cuts on the country’s agricultural output, investment and employment of manufacturing products/industries earlier classified by initial tariff levels as five per cent, 10 per cent and 20per cent under two scenarios.

    “The change in domestic outputs for all the three broad sub-sectors is negative and as high as between -14.5 per cent and -49.9 per cent in two sectors.

    “Significant changes in employment that cut across all the three broad sub-sectors were estimated in the two scenarios ranging from -1.51 per cent -5.9 per cent.

    “Thus, the implementation of the AfCFTA implies increase in unemployment of farmers, farm workers and other associated workers.

    “The simulation also shows reduction in investment in the agricultural sector across all the sub-sectors for all the scenarios, and is as high as -7.61 per cent for vegetable products.

    “This is worrisome given that the sector is constrained by lack of investment, thus suggesting that implementation of AfCFTA would virtually wipe off the current meagre investment in the sector,” he said.

    He said he was not bothered that signatories to AfCFTA had increased from 44 to 52, with only three African countries left. He said Nigeria’s refusal to sign the trade agreement was in the best interest of the country.

    “The research took note of the fact that the signatures to the AfCFTA have risen from 44 to 52, with only three African countries remaining.

    “For the ECOWAS (Economic Community of African States) region, 13 of our 15 member states have so far signed the AfCFTA and eight (out of 21 ratifications so far) of our member states have also ratified the agreement,” he said.

  • Sagay: predatory elite responsible for Nigeria’s woes

    Sagay: predatory elite responsible for Nigeria’s woes

    Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Chairman Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) has delivered the 27th convocation lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) in Niger State. He blamed the political class’ greed for Nigeria’s woes. MAHMUD ABDULSALAM, OLARENWAJU FASASI, MARIAM OYIZA and IBRAHIM OLADIPUPO report.

    how did Nigeria find itself at a crossroads? What factors stunted the country’s socio-economic growth and its march to nationhood?

    The Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Chairman, Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) provided the answers. He blamed the greed of the political class for the nation’s woes.

    He stated this at  the 27th Convocation lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) in Niger State, which had as theme: Nigeria: The travails of an Animal Kingdom.

    The constitutional law professor said the “deadly predatory attitude” of the elite bled the nation’s fortunes. He said the elite bestiality could be illustrated by the indifference they showed towards the masses’ plight, pointing out that the political class had been infected with an incurable greed and corrupt tendencies.

    Sagay, a former of dean of Faculty of Law, University of Benin (UNIBEN), noted that looting by politicians entrenched poverty in the land and impoverished the masses. He said the elite lacked good values, honour, integrity, and compassion for the downtrodden.

    He argued that the lust for diverting public funds by government officials and political appointees typified the “dog eats dog” narrative and “survival of the fittest” theory.

    He said: “Public funds are for executing developmental projects. But, when deceitful public servants conspire to milk our national treasury, it is the masses that bear the agony of dehumanising unemployment, moribund health facilities, dilapidated infrastructure, erratic power supply, and ‘killer’ roads. The alarming rate of ethnic conflagrations, insurgency, kidnapping, suicide missions and militancy among other problems are spiral effects of the elite’s predation.”

    The Senior Advocate expressed concern over what he called “warped perception” of Nigerians who see public service been an avenue to “come and eat” rather than service to the nation. He said once people get appointed into public offices, they embark on frivolous jamborees, stealing and stashing huge  cash in banks and acquire several properties.

    Sagay said about $7.5 billion allegedly stolen by public office holders between 2007 and 2013 would have constructed 635 kilometres of roads, 36 ultra-modern hospitals in each state, fund the education of 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level and build 20,062 units of two-bedroom houses.

    The PACAC chairman observed that “irrepressible frustration” drove young Nigerians to dare the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert to seek greener pasture.

    He said: “As far as Harvard, the Cambridge, Oxford University and other Ivy League schools across the world are populated by children of wealthy Nigerian elite, the dangerous expeditions to Europe by disillusioned youths will not be checked.”

    Sagay appealed to the judiciary to support the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government by speedily adjudicating on corruption cases.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that 62 out of the 3,741 graduating students finished with a First Class. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdullahi Bala, said the institution had achieved remarkable feats in the areas of research, academic performance and infrastructure despite challenges.

    The VC advised the graduands to “enterprisingly” apply the knowledge they acquired in school and be job-creators.

    The immediate past Students’ Union Government (SUG) president, Lateef Hamza, who was among the First Class graduands, told CAMPUSLIFE that he set his priorities from the outset, which enabled him combine union activities with academics.

    He said: “It is absolutely amazing to graduate with a brilliant result. Obviously, it was sheer determination, hard work and prayer that made this feat possible.”

    Goodwill messages were received from the university Pro-chancellor, Prof Femi Odekunle, Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, who represented the Visitor, President Muhammadu Buhari, at the event.

     

     

  • Dons attribute Nigeria’s woes to corruption

    The Vice Chancellor of the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete and President, Nigeria Association of Mathematical Physics (NAMP) Professors Abdulrasheed Na’Allah and Garba Babaji, have attributed Nigeria’s current travails to corruption and the ‘African Time’ mentality.

    Pro Na’Allah lamented that it was shameful that Nigeria despite its enormous human cum natural resources is incapable of paying its workers salaries.

    The pair spoke in Malete at the 26th annual colloquium and congress of NAMP which was hosted by KWASU.

    Na’Allah charged academics to collaborate with industries through research in finding solutions to the nation’s myriad problems.

    Said Na’allah: “Academics should work with government to move the society forward; question is: ‘What the result of those meetings that we have had with governments?’

    “In Nigeria no extraordinary things happen. As academics, we must understand that our responsibility is to make life better. It is a shame that a nation as rich as Nigeria cannot pay its workers salaries. We are the largest in Africa. Human resource alone is very huge.

    “The country cannot pay workers’ salaries because we have almost totally been swallowed up by corruption. We have failed to tap the 24 hours information technology to move the nation forward.

    “I challenged all of us here to use our theories to collaborate with industries to move this nation forward. The responsibility of engaging in research and development rests squarely on the shoulders of academics.”

    On his part, Babaji said: “The way forward is what individuals can do to make life better for all Nigerians. As mathematicians and physicists, we must make sacrifice for the nation.

    “We must bear in mind that Nigeria can only experience positive change by Nigerians, therefore, we must individually and collectively utilise our resources in executing useful work.

    “Mathematically, the most important factor that determines the output of any transformation is the operator. We Nigerians are the operators for the much needed positive transformation of our country.”

     

  • Ex-military leaders responsible for Nigeria’s woes, says Opadokun

    Ex-military leaders responsible for Nigeria’s woes, says Opadokun

    Former Secretary General of pan Yoruba social organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Opadokun, has attributed the pervasiveness of corruption in Nigeria to the misadventure by the military.

    The fiery activist also blamed the late General Muritala Ramat Mohammed/General Olusegun Obasanjo regime for the elevation of corruption in Nigeria.

    Opadokun, who is the Convener of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), spoke in Offa, Offa local government area of Kwara State after delivering a lecture as part of activities to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Offa Descendants Union (ODU).

    Opadokun spoke on the topic titled, ‘Offa: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.’

    He said: “Generals Mohammed Ramat Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo made corruption to become a phenomenon, while General Ibrahim Babangida came to institutionalised corruption.

    “The starting point was the wrong measures, the un-well rehearsed measures Murtala/Obasanjo regime took by sacking public officials on radio with immediate effect. That is what led people to always prepare for their tomorrow as they perceived that their jobs were no longer permanent.

    “Since then, you can hardly organise a project or contract that the senior civil servants will not have their world built up around it. Babangida only came to institutionalise corruption, no doubt about it.”

    Speaking on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption agenda, the former member of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) said while “the body language” of the president has begun to send fears down the spines of some people, the federal government must also come up with a clear policy direction that would address the myriad of challenges confronting the country, adding, “There must be policy measures put in place to guide the next phase of our lives. So I am of the opinion that the President ought to fasten his belt.”

    On the perceived frosty relationship between Buhari and current Senate, Opadokun is of the opinion that the president is vested with enormous powers to function, saying, “The president has all the powers the constitution has empowered him to enable him preside over our country. There are so many things he could do to ensure that he makes his appointments without having any problem with the Senate.

  • State creation not solution to Nigeria’s woes, says Fashola

    State creation not solution to Nigeria’s woes, says Fashola

    Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has said state creation will not solve Nigeria’s problems.

    He described as dangerous the recommendation by the National Conference that more states be created.

    Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch, Fashola, who was represented by the Attorney-General and Justice Commissioner, Mr Ade Ipaye, said the creation of more states would do more harm than good, since it would lead to the increase in administrative cost of government.

    “Creating more states will further emphasise Nigeria’s diversity and fragment the country. The more states we have, the weaker the federation because we would have a central government that is too strong.

    “When you fragment the states, a lot of resources would go into administration. You would have governors, commissioners, ministries, all of which positions are currently being run by executives of the states from which these new states would be crafted.

    “I think we have learnt a lesson from the past that there is no end to state creation. Every time you create a new state, a new group within the new state would start agitating for their own state.

    “Remember that the Nigerian Constitution provides for states to create local governments, so if the argument is to bring governance closer to the people, we should then look at the possibility of creating local governments where necessary.

    “Creating more states would do more harm than good because a lot of states are barely surviving. Some do not have internally generated revenue (IGR) to rely upon and rely solely on the federation account. So, if you fragment them with no clear point for their survival, we may be doing something quite dangerous,” he said

    In his keynote address titled: “Lagos-melting pot or no man’s land?-setting the example for Nigerian unity”, the governor said that diversity was not responsible for the nation’s woes, adding: “Our diversity is not new, it has always been there and the colonial governments and the early indigenous governments functioned well.

    “Diversity in Lagos is amazing. With an estimated population of about 20 million from all over the country, the continent and the world, and six percent national population growth rate, Lagos has the lowest incidence of issues of ethnic tensions, conflicts.

    “Lagos belongs to everybody; it is not a no man’s land nor a melting point but a blend of the two. Lagos’ diversity has yielded up to 60 per cent of corporate organisation having their head offices here. We have built this key economy together and we cannot afford anything that would upset it,” he said.

    Also speaking, the Chairman of Access Bank, Gbenga Oyebode, said it was obvious that the limit of federalism was being pushed, adding that it was time the country took a second look and focused on important things, adding “the National Conference lacks enabling legislation”.

    The NBA Lagos Chairman, Alex Muoka, said it was as though Nigerians have agreed the solution to the nation’s problems lie in continuously emphasizing its diversity-a constant breaking down into smaller units, with the obvious attendant gross duplication of the apparatus of government.

    He stated that Lagos should be emulated as a model in achieving peace and unity amid diversity, since it has remained unbroken for over a century despite all odds.

  • ‘We’re all to blame for Nigeria’s woes’

    ‘We’re all to blame for Nigeria’s woes’

    The parish priest of St Peter’s Anglican Church, Lekki Lagos, Rev. Asoliye Douglas-West, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on national issues. Excerpts:

    Do you buy the insinuation that Nigeria will change once the church is fixed?

    I will not subscribe to that shade of opinion or sentiment. Such insinuation is preposterous and incautious. There is nothing absolutely wrong with the church as an established institution. It is dynamic and it is connected to the world. If there is any problem, then it has to do with a fraction of the people who populate and operate the instrumentality of the church.

    The church is simply a microcosm of a larger system that is dysfunctional almost approaching a simmering atrophy. It is the individuals that operate the Nigerian system that need to fix their orientation and method of doing things to be able to change Nigeria.

    As a people, do we have ethos? Yes. Do we have values? Yes. Do we have creed? Yes, I could enthusiastically say we do but acidic decadence has eroded our values and mores. Do we fear God? No, we do not fear God and we do not love ourselves.

    Some say the church is part of the problems in this country, do you share such sentiment?

    The church is an integral part of the whole and the sum of the whole has been denuded of its moral fabric and malnourished of its character content. Now it requires the entire composition of our society to reconstruct its orientation and methods of doing things. In commerce, people pursue profits without morality; In governance, politicians pursue victory and operate the system without principles; similarly in the church people appear to be fanatically religious without a content of spirituality.

    If there is a fundamental problem bedeviling the sustainable progress of the country, we have all in diverse ways contributed to the failing and failure of the society. At some points, individually or collectively, we had acquiesced, connived, collaborated, compromised or benefitted from a dysfunction and degeneracy of the system.

    If Nigeria is to change, what are things the church should start doing?

    The challenges facing Nigeria cannot be written off by the goodwill of one institution. The desire to change Nigeria for good has to be a collective action. Nevertheless, the church has not ceased from performing its statutory role in contributing effectively to nation building. It is a moral barometer of society.

    Deviations occurring in isolated incidence of irreligious rascality and recklessness perpetrated by some wolves pretending as members of the church do not and cannot repudiate the important role played by the church both in spiritual and physical terms.

    The church has neither stopped praying nor working. We connect with the world and attempt to influence the environment by remodelling people’s orientation to follow the standards of God and set good example. We must accept the fact that there is an attitudinal bankruptcy and performance deficit in the balance sheet of the nation.

    As a player in the oil and gas sector, why are ordinary Nigerians yet to benefit from the so-called petrodollars?

    What obtains in the socio-economic framework is an aberration. We have a reverse order of the 80/20 rule working in our situation. Less than 20% of the population reaping more than 80% of the resource harvest. Conversely more than 80% of the people are economically stringed up because they are perpetually excluded from the mainstream of economic paradise.

    There is an institutional weakness that supports this obnoxious structure. What is the meaning of FAAC? Federation Accounts and Allocation Committee. It is a system whereby treasury secretaries from the states converge under the chairmanship of the federal exchequer to receive revenue allocation on a monthly basis.

    Such revenues when collected are surrendered to the governors who solely determine how the funds should be misappropriated and expropriated according to their whims and caprices without recourse to the fiscal prescriptions of the appropriation budget. The governors are running the states as though public governance is a private sole proprietorship enterprise.

    No legacy to bequeath and no communal aspirations to fulfill. There is no sense responsibility and accountability. In the manner of existing structure and dispensation, petrodollar benefits cannot be extended to the vast majority of the ordinary people. They are hewers of woods and fetchers of water. We have a system where the operators of the institution of governance perceive themselves as feudal lords while the governed are treated as vassals.

    For instance, nobody or group has ever careered themselves to challenge the governors (incumbent or expired) how well or badly they have spent the funds accruing from the 13% derivation and/or ecological funds to benefit or detriment of the various communities where oil is mined.

    There are plans to revive debates on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), what are your thoughts on how the bill can work?

    Strong currents of conflicting interests, bad faith, and mutual suspicions have permeated the debate. The supposed good intents and purposes of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) are being threatened to be extinguished. Further enlightenment and assurances might be required.

    Don’t you think you could have done more for God if you were pastoring on a full-time basis?

    I continue to maintain my position that a full time practice in the pastoral ministry would have rendered me underutilised and limited in my capability. I have acquired a professional training and exposure that had sufficiently equipped me to assume a versatile role. Doing more or less for God depending on the robe or collar I wear at any point in time borders on the perspective a bystander would evaluate my function.

    Secular or pastoral, I am doing the work of God and accruing benefits to humanity for as long as I demonstrate competence, diligence, commitment and passion. Realising the amount of energy and potentials I possess, it is expedient to engage myself in multitasking enterprises as effectively as possible promoting the work of God.

    Your church is one of the emerging forces in the Anglican Communion, what do you really do differently?

    There is really nothing to be done differently. We are not acting a script. The church is absolutely one foundation where Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. The prescriptions and standards governing our conduct and expectations have been clearly spelt out in the Bible.

    The service we render is homogenous without distinction and the result being anticipated is universally the same which is the message of salvation. What you describe as doing things differently may be essentially contained in the manner of delivery and approach or packaging which may be orthodox or neo-orthodox or evangelical or a hybrid of different classifications.

    Regardless of the methods and perspectives, keeping the eye on the ball requires us to focus on the one irreducible truth – preaching the gospel to enable adherents of the faith earn salvation.

    What is on the mind of God for Nigeria at this time?

    Let those entrusted with the mantle of leadership tear down the stronghold of pervasive corruption and set the people free from the captivity of poverty and deprivation. We pretend to know God but we do not love and serve Him. We shall continue to grope in the dark and remain the woods not until we turn to God and seek His righteousness.

    In the heart of your heart, do you believe genuine Christians can survive in the murky waters of Nigeria’s politics?

    I know only one type of Christian. I do not know which genre is genuine or counterfeit when it comes to practicing Christianity. Performance is of universal application because there are defined indices or criteria to measure it.

    The murkiness of the water was deliberately created to subvert and retard the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.

    A Christian who earnestly desires to serve God can survive in the murky waters of Nigerian politics. The path to honour and enduring success cannot be easily short circuited. There must be unfeigned willingness and preparedness backed by capability to do the right thing on the part of those seeking for political inclusiveness.