The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PLANNING

  • Let’s stop talking and planning violence

    Many Nigerian politicians these days are talking and planning, not elections, but violence. Some are threatening war by their own particular nationalities against all other nationalities of Nigeria. Some are issuing threats of religious wars, though in veiled phrases. Altogether, it seems as if, come mid-February, the real event in Nigeria is not going to be elections but horrific conflicts and pogroms.

    As the rest of the world absorbs these fearsome vibrations from Nigeria, worldwide apprehension about Nigeria has risen to fever pitch. What one would describe as the peak came early this week when the American  Secretary of State, John Kerry, hurried to Nigeria to appeal to Nigerian rulers and leaders to stop planning for violence and start planning for free, fair and peaceful elections. If the government of America feels compelled to take that kind of action, then the situation must be a lot worse than most of us, ordinary Nigerians, know.

    It is therefore critically important for us all to warn our politicians. Tempers are such in Nigeria these days that if violence starts as is being threatened and planned, it is very likely to develop to extents beyond the wildest imaginations of any Nigerian and any Nigerian political leader. In country after country in Black Africa, political violence usually starts small, but by igniting pent-up angers, fears and hostilities, it then sets up horrendous conflagrations that seem to go on forever – often consuming and destroying lives and properties indiscriminately. Nigeria is more combustible today than most Nigerian politicians seem to know or care to know. They are wrong in thinking that another Nigerian civil war will proceed and end neatly, or be spatially limited, like our first civil war.

    It will help if our politicians watch videos on the civil wars that have wracked the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) off and on since 1960. The political storm started as a small incident a few days after the celebration of independence. Then it rolled forward and ballooned out until it engulfed most of the country, led to the assassination of its first Prime Minister, generated a viciously corrupt military dictatorship, and then concatenated in an even larger second civil war. This second war became so massive that it involved all the countries of Central Africa and became known as “Africa’s World War”. An estimated 5.4 million people have died in this war – the largest human casualties of any one war since the Second World War of 1939-45. Today, in spite of United Nations and African Union peace-keeping efforts, rebel forces are still alive in parts of this country.

    I have academic colleagues who saw some parts of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. As they tell it, there was not much of a sign of impending trouble in the days before. But once the mass killings started, it was as if everybody had long been preparing to kill their neighbours. Within days, virtually everybody in sight was a machete-wielding desperado and killer. A journalist on the spot reported, “There are no devils left in hell; all of them are on duty in Rwanda”. Within 90 days, over 750,000 people had been killed, and over two million had been forced to flee from their homes.

    Virtually every country of Black Africa is prone to these political wild fires. Last week, I told the story of the mass killings now in progress among the 40 different nationalities of South Sudan where, in only two years of independence, between 50,000 and 100,000 people have been slaughtered. Somalia slowly slid into confusion in 1991, and it continues to live in that disorder till today. A few days ago, the United Nations and the African Union agreed to increase the number of international peace-keeping forces in Somalia. The political hurricane goes on and on all over Black Africa, generating horrific destruction, loss of lives, and blood-curdling human deprivation and suffering.

    The truth behind these patterns of madness is that our Black African countries are very fragile. The disorientation started when our various peoples were forced into countries that were not their own choosing; and it has become very profound in our time. Our peoples feel trapped and deprived, and are therefore often on edge. Little conflicts have a tendency to blow up into mammoth disasters. Therefore, it is a serious crime to start violence in any of our countries – because it is impossible to tell how far and wide it will go.

    As I have said in various ways in this column, the disorientation of our many peoples in Nigeria has been compounded by the folly of concentrating power and resource-control in the so-called “federal government”. We have called into being a demon that we can never, on our own, peacefully send away. No Nigerian who enters into the limitless powers of the presidency and the limitless ocean of money under the president’s control can ever choose to do the right thing and return Nigeria to a sane federation. The disorientation, sense of loss, anger, bitterness and mutual animosity among our various peoples have risen very high and are escalating fearfully at this point. It is therefore a very wrong time for our politicians to play with any idea of conflict.

    Whatever else they may choose to do with our country, our political leaders must seriously commit themselves to the avoidance of violent conflicts. The candidates in the coming presidential election have agreed to conduct their election campaigns, and run the election itself, in peace, and to prevail on their supporters and activists to do the same. We do not see the effects of that agreement in the conduct of the campaigns yet. Threats of violence are still being hurled from virtually all sides, and politically motivated conflicts are still being reported in various places. The informed world still continues to worry. Governments and international agencies are considering how to help Nigeria to prevent violent conflicts generated by election.

    But whatever help the international community may offer, it is we Nigerians that must bear the ultimate responsibility for the destiny of Nigeria. In the context of our senseless accumulation of power and resource-control into the federal centre, we have evolved a political culture that conceives of elections as do-or-die wars. If we really intend to sort out the future of this country in a peaceful manner, we must get rid of this essentially criminal approach to elections.

    For our 2007 elections, many countries and international agencies sent pre-election observers, and then sent countless observer teams at election time. Yet, we made that election one of the most criminally rigged elections in our history. I fear that we are going to do exactly like that with our February election – and that if we do, we will almost certainly have the violent conflicts that the world fears. And judging from the moods of these times, I fear that the violence of 2015 may be our final folly together. Those thinking of rigging elections, and those thinking of responding with violence – both are, in the atmosphere of today, planning to ride on a tiger’s back, and they are taking the risk of ending up in the tiger’s belly.

  • Mothers relish family planning

    The World Health Organisation preaches it. The government makes some pronouncements on it, not that everbody believes everything it says. Now, here is the best part: mothers are keying into it. They are planning their families and are the happier for it.

    One of such women is 32-year-Margaret Michael. As soon as she got married, she agreed in principle with her husband to have only three children, which they believe will form a manageable size family for them. But she was not been able to keep faith with the plan. She started giving birth almost on a yearly basis. Although she would not say when she got married or the number of children she has, she was quoted as saying, “For a very long time I have been hoping to see how I will plan my family by spacing my children but I keep giving birth almost every year. This is how fertile I can be…I don’t want to get pregnant. This has been a major worry in my martial home”.

    Margaret, a resident of Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, was scared of family planning because she had a very vague notion of it. The information she heard was coupled with scary stories of strife and side effects.

    She said, “I used to think that family planning destroyed the womb and made one to add weight. In short, so many side effects even our forefathers forbade it because a woman was meant to give birth to as many as she can”. However, Margret said that a chance meeting with a team of social mobilizers representing the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) changed her notion and today, she said she is better off. The team, she said referred her to a health facility and “I am happy now and my oga (husband) are happy. Now we can enjoy ourselves without worrying about pregnancy.”

  • ‘PDP planning to flood Osun with soldiers’

    ‘PDP planning to flood Osun with soldiers’

    •Omisore denies allegation

    OSUN State All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Federal Government controlled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of alleged plans to flood Osun State with  soldiers  one week before the August 9 election.

    The APC, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy Kunle Oyatomi, alleged that the PDP governorship aspirant, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, was recorded on tape threatening to deal with the state’s ruling party’s  leaders in a bid to paralyse the party’s operatives and take control of the electoral process.

    The party also added that “to divert public attention from its evil plot, the PDP rushed to press shortly after Omisore’s outrageous revelation at a rally in Ifetedo, Ife South Local Government to accuse the APC of being behind terrorism and violence in the state in the run-up to the election.

    “Besides, the PDP has added the allegation of gun-running against APC fingering the political support group named ‘state boys,’ as those causing mayhem in Osun at a press parley in Osogbo yesterday.

    “APC will like to make it abundantly clear to the PDP that Osun cannot be taken by violence. The consequences will be too devastating to contemplate.”

    The APC has called on the international community to take “very keen interest” in the campaign process leading to the August 9 election.

    The campaigns, according to Oyatomi, would be a reflection of what to expect at the election.

    The APC, in a statement by Oyatomi, said while the party and Governor Aregbesola “are hyper-active on the campaign train” with tumultuous crowds daily, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is lacklustre with scanty crowds.”

    It accused “PDP propaganda machine” of telling Nigerians that plans had been concluded to remove APC and its governor from office, against the popular will of the people.

    It said with the desperation of the PDP to retain the presidency at all costs as well as the party’s experience in Ekiti State, “the world and all stakeholders should be on the alert to forestall any undemocratic method the PDP may have the intension of using to cause another mysterious upset that could go terribly wrong.”

    But Omisore, through his spokesperson, Prince Diran Odeyemi, denied the statement credited to him by the APC.

    Odeyemi, in a telephone interview, said Omisore never said any such thing at any point in time and would never say it.

    He said: “What I said was that people of Osun State should not be afraid of Aregbesola’s ‘state boys’ and that the Federal Government would provide adequate security for them through soldiers and police, just as it was during the last Ekiti State governorship election. Since Aregbesola always threateningly refers to ‘state boys,’ his thugs, as those to cause trouble in the state, I said the soldiers would be on hand to help the innocent people.

    “He (Aregbesola) keeps inciting the people against the security agents. He said they should arm themselves with charms during the election. But we have nothing to fear since there would be security for the people just as the Federal Government provided for the people of Ekiti State in the last election. I never said the soldiers would terrorise anyone or the APC leaders.”

  • ‘Comply with climate change laws in town planning’

    ‘Comply with climate change laws in town planning’

    Environment and building experts have called on Town Planning authorities in the country to respect climate change provisions in our town planning laws with a view to reducing the harmful effects of climate change.

    They made this call last week during a roundtable on “Urban and Town Planning in the eyes of Climate Change” organised by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) at the Old Court Room of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in Abuja.

    Introducing the roundtable, the Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) said the aim of the roundtable was to distil and discuss to a large extent, the consequences of not planning our urban cities well. He noted that compliance with our Urban and Regional Planning laws will reduce the harmful effects of climate change and improve the quality of life of Nigerians.

    Speaking on Urban Planning Strategies as intervention against climate change, Mr. Philip Iyortyer said: “Urban and town planning will emphasis on climate change as it affects the built environment.”

    He blamed weather and water changes on deforestation, agricultural activities, transportation, tourism and a lot of factors mostly human activities, which result in carbon dioxide and water emission”

    Iyortyer said: “When the hot air rises, we invariably have green house effects.” He blamed industralisation as a major cause of greenhouse emission and atmospheric pollution.

    Prof. Lanre Fagbohun, in his paper on adaptation strategies for climate change in urban areas, said: “Adaptation is an adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.”

    He said climate change adaptation comprises of spontaneous responses taken to cope with impacts of, or reduce vulnerability to a changing climate, Planned action taken to cope with impacts of, or reduce vulnerability to a changing climate and that daptation strategies can be anticipatory or reactive”.

    He said: “Example of adaptation measures include using scarce water resources more efficiently (rain harvesting; regulated use of underground water; management of waste water) adapting building codes to future climate conditions and extreme weather events, building flood defenses and raising the levels of dykes, developing drought-tolerant crops, choosing tree species and forestry practices less vulnerable to storms and floods.”

    He defined urban environment as the environment of a city, usually characterised by many buildings in a limited amount of space, with a high per capita per square mile, sheer population size, ratio of population to space is disproportionate (density or concentration), saying that urban environment should be distinguished from a megacity

    On the importance of adaptation, Fagbohun said: “Obvious from the salient facts and interactive effects of climate change is that without adaptation, climate change is likely to bring ever-increasing number of deaths, serious injuries and increasing serious damages to people’s livelihoods, property environmental quality and future prosperity.”

    He described the scope of the responsibility of government in adaptation to include: “Finance, engineering/public works, development planning and development control, environmental health public health, social, community, safety services, emergency Services and administration”.

    Fagbohun said: “Hazard reduction from climate change depends on major changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns among middle and upper income groups.”

    High risk urban areas have largest deficiencies in adaptive capacity.

    Dr. Theresa Iloegbune spoke on the Land Use Act and Urban Planning. She blamed high level of anti climate change behaviors on non compliant with the provisions of our laws. She noted that the Land Use Act, which was promulgated in 1978, did not contemplate the current global harzards of climate change

    Moronike Aguda discussed climate change and the built environment while Dr. Emmanuel Okon discussed “The failure of Urban and Town Planning authorities in effecting urban planning laws and control”, using Lagos State as the case study.

    In her paper on ‘Building a sustainable urban development in the eyes of the climate change’, Ona Osanakpo defined Sustainable Development as the “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

    Sustainable development, Osanakpo said, recognizses that growth must be both inclusive and environmentally sound to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity for today’s population and to continue to meet the needs of future generations. It must be efficient with resources and carefully planned to deliver both immediate and long-term benefits for people, planet, and prospe

    The three pillars of sustainable development – economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social inclusion – carry across all sectors of development, from cities facing rapid urbanization to agriculture, infrastructure, energy development and use, water availability, and transportation.

    Osanakpo noted that urbanization is a two fold movement from the rural to urbanised areas and the expansion of already existing urban areas to accommodate the influx of people.

    She said: “The world is undergoing a profound demographic shift from rural to urban areas. Urbanization—if managed properly—offers the potential for poverty alleviation, prosperity, and economic growth. Almost 80 percent of global GDP is generated in cities. Importantly, no country has ever reached middle-income status without industrializing and urbanizing, and none has reached high-income status without vibrant cities, which are centers of innovation, entrepreneurship and culture.

    Osanakpo defined climate change as a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time, regardless of cause.

    She said: “The term sometimes is used to refer specifically to climate change caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth’s natural processes.In this sense, especially in the context of environmental policy, the term climate change has become synonymous with anthropogenic global warming. Within scientific journals, global warmingrefers to surface temperature increases while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas levels will affect

    Climate change is a fundamental threat to sustainable economic development and the fight against poverty.

    The impact of climate change can be vast. In Nigeria, this means that some stable ecosystems such as the Sahel Savanna may become vulnerable because warming will reinforce existing patterns of water scarcity and increasing the risk of drought in Nigeria and indeed most countries in West Africa. As well, the country’s aquatic ecosystems, wetlands and other habitats will create overwhelming problems for an already impoverished populace”.

    In discussing sustainable Urban Development, Osanakpo said: “Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the short term. For example, industrial growth might conflict with preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for sustained industrial growth far into the future.

    “Today’s urban population of about 3.5 billion people is projected to reach 5 billion by 2030; fully two-thirds of the world’s population will then be urban. Ninety percent of this growth is taking place in developing countries. Around 5 million people migrate every month to cities in developing countries, in search of jobs and better access to services. This rapid urban growth is increasing the demand for basic services, infrastructure, land, and affordable housing. These needs must be met, particularly for the nearly one billion urban poor, many of whom live in informal settlements with limited access to services.

    “Cities need to build resilience because of their vulnerability to extreme weather events and other natural hazards. For example, almost half a billion urban residents live in coastal areas, increasing their risk of exposure to storm surges and sea level rise. If climate change is allowed to continue unabated, the world is likely to warm by 4° C by the end of this century, and the corresponding impacts are expected to exacerbate many existing urban vulnerabilities. Within cities, the urban poor are the most vulnerable as they tend to occupy locations that are more exposed to hazards and have limited adaptive capacity.

    “Cities are critical for achieving sustainable and inclusive green growth. Fifty-two percent of the world’s population is urban. Cities occupy 2 percent of the world’s land, yet consume 75 percent of the world’s resources and are responsible for as much as 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Denser, energy-efficient cities with integrated transport and land-use development can deliver economic, environmental, and social benefits, including improved mobility and accessibility to services, housing and jobs, better air quality, and increased quality of life

    She warned that: “The need for action is immediate, and delay is costly. The physical structure of cities—buildings and infrastructure—lasts for decades or more. Getting the ‘right’ solutions is not only important for making cities successful today, but also for creating a sustainable foundation for future generations to build on at later stages of development. Sustainable Urbanism, as a defined term, is application of sustainability and resilient principles to the design, planning, and administration/operation of cities. There are a range of organizations promoting and researching sustainable urbanism practices including governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, professional associations, and professional enterprises around the world. Related to sustainable urbanism is the Ecocity movement (also known as Ecological Urbanism) which specifically is looking to make cities based on ecological principles, and the Resilient Cities movement addresses depleting resources by creating distributed local resources to replace global supply chain in case of major disruption. Green urbanism is another common term for sustainable urbanism. Sustainable development is a general term for both making both urban and economic growth more sustainable, but is not specifically a mode of urbanism.

    “Sustainable urbanism aims to close the loop by eliminating environmental impact of urban development by providing all resources locally. It looks at the full life cycle of the products to make sure that everything is made sustainably, and sustainable urbanism also brings things like electricity and food production into the city. This means that literally everything that the town or city needs is right there making it truly self-sufficient and sustainable Osanakpo recommended the following solutions to the current problems Proper town planning , re– orientation, tearing down pre existing non compliant structures and Mandatory use of environmental impact assessment in all projects the seriously impacts the environment.

     

  • Still planning–and polling-without facts

    Still planning–and polling-without facts

    Back in 1966, the American economist, Dr Wolgang Stolper, on secondment from USAID to help prepare Nigeria’s First Development Plan (1962-68) accented the difficulty of the task, with a book appropriately titled “Planning without Facts.”

    This past week, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Marie-Françoise Marie-Nelly, warned during a workshop in Lagos for statisticians that there could be no meaningful development or evaluation of national strategies without quality statistics to identify socio-economic challenges.

    Little seems to have changed during the nearly five decades between.

    They have continued to draw up plans on practically every aspect of national life without facts. without even knowing how many people they are planning for, nor how they are constituted.

    The point of departure for serious national planning is the population census. It is the body of data – the sampling frame – from which field investigators draw up a representative sample for the kind of study and analysis that will make it possible for them to apply their findings to the general population with confidence.

    But nobody knows the population of Nigeria to the nearest 25 million. From the 1950s, the population census has been padded, for political reasons. Instead of rectifying the errors of the preceding census, every subsequent census has reinforced and even amplified them. Each exercise has been in effect an exercise in programmed inflation.

    So much for the population size.

    When it comes to the distribution of the population, especially the pattern of distribution, census after census has been marked by a sharp departure from the laws of demography. The Sahel, much of it semi-arid, is credited with a larger share of the population than the coastal, forest and savanna regions.

    It is true that the North occupies a much larger area than the South. But even this larger area does not satisfactorily explain the population distribution as manifested in the national census. Neither the ecology nor the economy can support the large populations with which vast stretches of the North are credited.

    Even where there is a large population as in metropolitan Kano, not to be confused with the rest of Kano State – it still defies reason that, after Jigawa was excised from it, Kano is still credited with a larger population than Lagos.

    Nobody, it is necessary to insist, knows the size of the national population to the nearest 25 million, or, to be quite generous, the nearest 15 percent. Now, if a study reports findings with a margin of error of plus or minus 15 percent, we would reject it on the ground that it is no better than guesswork. Even if the findings fall within the acceptable margin of error, they would still be questionable because it is impossible to use flawed data to arrive at valid findings.

    But we continue not only to plan with the census figures confected every ten years, but also to invest them with the sanctity of actuality. This is the aeronautical equivalent of flying blind.

    And it explains, in some measure, why nothing in Nigeria works the way it was designed to work. To be sure, corruption and incompetence play a large part in the national dysfunction, but the dearth of reliable facts and figures must also be accounted a major contributory factor.

    Take as an example the oil industry, the lifeblood of the economy. Nobody knows how much oil is extracted from our waters or shores. In 1980, Professor Ayodele Awojobi, the University of Lagos polymath, revealed that the barrel used for lifting oil in Nigeria was four gallons larger than the standard barrel. The situation may well have been rectified, but the fact remains that nobody knows how much oil is actually lifted.

    When they say that as much as one-fourth of Nigeria’s oil output is stolen, that is just guesswork based on guesswork.

    Just as nobody knows how much oil is extracted, nobody knows how much oil is consumed. During the last oil ‘subsidy” crisis, the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources gave wildly different figures for national daily consumption. It follows that, if consumption of petroleum products was indeed being subsidised, it was impossible to calculate the amount of subsidy. Yet a trainload of projects was rolled out, to be funded with the money that would be realised from cutting the alleged subsidy.

    Hardly a day passes without one official declaring with certitude how many billions would accrue to the federal exchequer from ending rice or wheat-flour or cement or sugar or poultry imports, and how many billion tons of cassava would be harvested in the next season as a result of improved seedlings provided by the government.

    Whenever they put out the inflation rate, you have to ask: “In what country do these people live?” For the figure bears almost no correspondence to the experience of the people. And just the other day, two government agencies gave different figures for the rate of unemployment, each of them guesswork at best.

    Because there is no reliable census data, and thus no reliable sampling frame, it is impossible to draw a probabilistic sample – one in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being represented. In the absence of such a sample, it is impossible to conduct meaningful public opinion polls in Nigeria. Yet, results of opinion polls conducted by the media or third parties are routinely reported in the news, especially during elections.

    In one notorious instance, a newspaper lavishly published “exit polls” on an election that was yet to be held. In another instance, the forecast for the presidential election published by the same newspaper, in conjunction with a foreign polling agency that refused to submit its methodology to scrutiny, was matched in every particular by the outcome. Nate Silver, the statistician who predicted Barack Obama’s victory in the 2102 presidential election with near-perfect accuracy, could not have done better.

    But given the flawed sampling frame on which the Nigerian poll was based, it is perfectly permissible to infer, as many commentators did, that the election result had been determined, and the task before the pollsters and the newspaper was to fix their findings to that result.

    The entry on the Nigerian scene two years ago of NOIPolls, a partner with Gallup USA qualifying itself as “the No. 1 for country-specific polling services in the West African region,” promises to improve opinion polling in the country. NOIPolls says it enhances decision-making across all sectors of the Nigerian economy by delivering “forward-thinking research and relevant data,

    Dr Goodluck Jonathan will no doubt be heartened by the finding in its August 2013 poll that that six of every 10 Nigerians (the actual figure is 57 percent) approved his job performance, up four points from the previous month, and the highest since January 2013.

    Not bad for a month marked by tumult within the ruling PDP, nationwide strike by university teachers, and killings the Boko Haram on a blood-curdling scale.

    He will most certainly be surprised to find, however, that his approval is strongest not in his South-South redoubt (66 percent), but in the South East (76 percent), followed by the North- Central (70 percent).

    To borrow the language of election analysts in years past, could Dr Jonathan’s strong approval rating in the South East be due to the Anyim Pius Anyim Factor – Anyim being the dynamic and high-achieving Secretary to the Government of the Federation? By the same reasoning, Dr Jonathan’s impressive approval rating in North Central will have to be attributed to the Namadi (Vice President) Sambo Factor.

    General Muhammadu Buhari, where are you, sir?

    No prizes for making it out that Dr Jonathan’s less-than-robust rating in the South South has got to be a manifestation of the Amaechi Factor.

    Dr Jonathan has nothing to fear concerning the Southwest, where 33 percent of the residents were neutral about his job performance, unlike the Northwest where 36 percent disapprove his performance. Could that be the Babangida Aliyu factor?

    NOIPolls is a huge improvement on what previously passed for opinion polling in Nigeria. Its latest poll, conducted from August 12 through 15, was based on a random sample of 1009 phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 and above in the six geopolitical zones. The reported margin of error is a healthy plus or minus 3 percent.

    One question arises from the survey, however. Do the findings also reflect the views of the 30 percent of the population that, according to a previous NOIPolls investigation, does not own phones?

    By the way, is it true that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, owns the outfit wholly or substantially?

  • 2014: ‘PDP is planning to rig Ekiti election’

    The Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is planning to rig the 2014 governorship election.

    Speaking with reporters yesterday in his office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Awe said PDP gave the hint in a statement by its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    He said: “The declaration by Tukur that the 2015 general elections would be a war in Nigeria is an indication that PDP was planning to rig the 2014 election in Ekiti.

    “Such a statement is unbecoming of the chairman of a ruling party, especially at a time when the country is facing security challenges.

    “I wonder how a party that has been in power for 14 years can still be dependent on force as a method of retaining power.

    “This indicates that the party has failed in its responsibilities to the people and is desirous of covering a past of failure.”

    Awe cautioned Tukur and the PDP against “declaring war on Nigerians because of their selfish interests”.

    He said the State PDP Chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, also boasted that “his party would pull all strings to wrestle power from Governor Kayode Fayemi in 2014”.

    Awe said: “We are going to fight them with the last blood in our veins to prevent rigging. Ogundipe and his cohorts should not be emboldened by Tukur’s encouragement. Ekitti is no Odi.

    “Declaring an election a war is worse than unbecoming of the chairman of a ruling party.”

    He urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to ensure that the elections are free and fair.

    The ACN Chairman cautioned the President against withdrawing oil subsidy, saying such a move would exacerbate the already worrisome condition of the people.

  • Planning for natural disasters

    Planning for natural disasters

    SIR: Nigeria experienced one of the world’s deadliest weather induced natural disasters in year 2012. The devastations of the flood was so much in areas along the river Niger banks that people were beginning to wonder if the Biblical time of Noah where flood was used to destroyed the earth was here again. In all, 27 states in the country were affected by the flood.

    There is no doubt that this singular occurrence had put to test our perceived physical planning initiatives, environmental management and planning policies, our prompt adherences to adverse weather warnings from relevant agencies as well as our collective readiness for natural disasters since they are ways the earth seems to bounce back when pushed to the walls by our day-to-day activities without any regard for replenishment. It is a reminder to all and sundry that climate change is surely here with us and urgent steps needed to be taken to mitigate its effects. Most importantly it is sort of wake-up call for us that we need to be on our toes anytime the rainy season begins to knock at the door.

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), a Federal government agency saddled with the mandate of forecasting weather, advising the government and informing the populace about weather issues deemed it fit to organise a pre –rainy season conference on weather issues where several issues bothering on the roles of meteorological information in risk and disaster management and its utilization for national development planning was discussed. Indeed all speakers at the conference were of the unanimous opinion that, timely weather information is required for planning in all sectors, most especially agriculture, water resources, construction and transportation sectors, with an admonition for NIMET to make extra efforts to ensure the accuracy of their predictions. They advocated for a government policy that will make it mandatory for every sector to make weather framework an integral part of their policies. It was also submitted that NIMET should make concerted efforts to take the information to the real people that needed the information, that is, the common man on the street, farmers, transporters, traders and other important stakeholders rather than the government

    Perhaps, the most important question is what are the implications of the NIMET’s 2013 seasonal rainfall predictions? One, the prediction that most parts of the country will have normal rainfall amount indicates that, barring any abnormal rainfall in the Cameroon leading to the opening of their dams, states at the Niger banks would experience normal experiences they’ve been experiencing when there are normal rainfall. It should be expected that, aside the opening of the Cameroon Dam, every river, including the Niger, Benue and the Atlantic Ocean is likely to over-flow their banks during the raining season, this is assumed to be a normal situation known to the natives of these regions. Lagos and parts of Ogun state and other state capitals should also expect normal floods arising from improper physical planning, blocked drainages and environmental demeanours.

    Two, to the farmers, early onset of rainfall in parts of Niger, Anambra, Delta, Northern Cross River, parts of Ogun and Ondo states means that the planting season is expected to commence earlier than usual while the cessation of rainfall earlier than usual in parts of Ondo, Delta and Cross River states means the farmers have to plant early enough to avoid shortage of rainfall. However, it should be remembered that these states are located along the coasts and the rain forests zones and thus receives high rainfall most times in excess of requirements for annual crops; early cessation of rainfall may therefore be a good omen for maize farmers in these zones.

    Disasters will definitely be averted while food security would be guaranteed if the right attitudes are adopted towards the weather information provided by NIMET.

    • Zannu Ajibola Emmanuel

    Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Abuja.

  • Oke: LP planning to rig Ondo poll

    Oke: LP planning to rig Ondo poll

    The Ondo State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olusola Oke, has said the ruling Labour Party (LP) was planning to rig, intimidate and destabilise opposition parties in the October 20 election.

    Oke addressed reporters at the party’s secretariat in Abuja after the inauguration of the Ondo State PDP Campaign Committee.

    He accused Governor Olusegun Mimiko of perfecting plans to use the Judiciary, the police and other security agencies to harass, arrest and detain prominent members of the opposition parties before the election.

    Oke said: “As at today, there is a conspiracy between the Judiciary and the Labour Party (LP) administration in Ondo State, such that without provocation, PDP members are attacked and, before you know it, they would use the Judiciary to detain them indefinitely.

    “I am aware today that there is a grand plan by the LP to arrest prominent members of the PDP, detain them and are not to be released until after the election.

    “What may be of concern is the attitude of the public to the antics of the incumbent LP government to manipulate the electoral process in Ondo State. As I speak with you, the LP poses greater threat to free and fair election in Ondo State than the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    “…The level of orchestration, antics and strategies for manipulating the electoral process by the LP is unprecedented. It is alarming and it is worrisome.”

    The PDP candidate alleged that the LP had tried everything to manipulate the voters’ register which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had compiled.

    It expressed doubts on the credibility of the electoral process under the INEC.

    Oke added: “There are gangs of hoodlums deployed by the LP at different locations in preparation for the day of the election. As I am talking to you, they are training thugs. And while they are doing that, they are giving the wrong impression to the security agencies that it is the ACN and the PDP that are sponsoring thugs.

    “Beyond this, I am also aware that the grand plan of the LP in the areas of their weakness is to ensure that there will be no election in these places. They will ensure that wherever they are weak there will be no election.

    “On the other hand, wherever they think they are strong, that is where election will be allowed to hold. They are planning to chase away PDP supporters and maximise their returns. Contrary to the perception of some people, the LP is more of a threat to free and fair election in Ondo State than the ACN.”

  • GMS for Lagos planning agencies

    Lagos State Government has appointed Messers Rotimi Toyin Abdul and Mr Kehinde Benedict Olawunmi as the General Managers of Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) and Lagos State Urban Renewal Authority (LASURA).

    Abdul until this appointment , according to a statement, was the Director, Transportation Policy and Co-ordination Department, Lagos Ministry of Transportation. He is a member of the American Planning Association, Nigeria Institute of Shipping, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Institute of Transportation Engineers and Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria.

    He attended the Molusi College, Ijebu Igbo between 1966 and 1970 for his secondary education before proceeding to Yaba College of Technology, Lagos for his National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma in Town Planning.
    He thereafter proceeded to University of the District of Columbia, Washington D.C, United States for his Bachelor of Science (BSc) programme in Urban and Community Planning and later Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, where he bagged a Master Degree in Transportation Planning in 2003.

    He joined the service of Lagos State Government on 6th March, 1978 and rose to the post of full Director Grade Level 17 in 2007.

    Abdul since employment has worked in virtually all Urban Planning departments and agencies of the state, some of which include: Deputy Director, Ministry of Transportation (2003 to 2007) etc