The Nation Newspaper

Tag: policies

  • On Aregbesola’s education policies

    An opinion article titled ‘Aregbesola, education and election promises’ written by Tade Adekunle from Osogbo on September 24, makes an interesting reading but still leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The author does not sound familiar, but it matters little.

    His main concern is on his perceived state of education in Osun which he used the last result of the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination to buttress. According to him, Osun pupils’ performance which was 22nd out of the 36 states that sat for the examination was worrisome and an indication that the state’s educational policies are not working. He then stacked his cards with the issues of merger of schools and standardised school uniform.

    The author tries hard to be civil but the piece is riddled with cynicism and thinly disguised mockery of the state’s education summit chaired by the revered Prof Wole Soyinka, that had recommended comprehensive review of the education policies of the state, early in the life of the administration.

    Adekunle sounded like the voice of one of those who stoutly resisted the education reforms in the state from the standpoint of opposition politicians, religious former school owners, disgruntled teachers or an old student revelling in past glory, even when the alma mater had fallen into disgrace and disrepute. They forged a coalition of the disgruntled with the opposition in the August 9 election and were thoroughly trounced and disgraced. He might just have resumed where they left, considering his conclusion that the policies should be reversed.

    It should be pointed out, however, that the immediate result of an examinationis not and cannot be the right yardstick to measure an education policy. Those who wrote the last examination in question must have been in the school system at least for 11 years (assuming they spent five years in primary school and six at the secondary level) in the school system. The result you have today is a cumulation of all the inputs and efforts within that period.

    We all know that it is not the day you plant a crop that you harvest it. What is being harvested today could not have been planted yesterday. The result of today is the reflection of the neglect and putrefaction that had crept in. That is not Aregbesola’s making and it will be illogical to blame him for this.

    And it could have been worse, since the problem is longstanding. Governor Aregbesola noticed this and cried out when he was inaugurated upon observing that less than five percent of those who took the WAEC and NECO of 2010 passed. This actually informed his convoking the education summit early 2011.

    The state government is doing everything needed to turn education around. This includes hiring over 10,000 teachers, training and retraining them, kitting them and giving them all necessary motivation. It also involves building new state of the art schools, rehabilitation and equipping existing ones and providing 150,000 computer tablets to senior pupils and their teachers (out of which 50,000 has been delivered and distributed). Do not forget that elementary pupils now enjoy free feeding and medication in all public schools, to which the government commits N3.6 billion every year.

    For school furniture alone, the government, as at last year, had committed N2.5 billion. Grants to schools was jacked up to N856 million from the N122 million inherited from previous administration. Before Aregbesola’s coming, no school had instruction materials, but his administration has committed N506 million to providing these. These are verifiable facts.

    Beyond those still sulking because the reforms had cut off their extortion channels in the schools, even the teachers and other stakeholders are full of praises to the governor, claiming that they feel proud to be teachers for the first time.

    The central basis of opposition to the reforms is the inability of some stakeholders to reconcile to the facts that the state government owns all the schools in question. They are still living in denial since the takeover in 1975 or thereabout. The tragedy is that eight out of 10 agitators, when asked, still think that the schools belong to the old missions and the reforms are superfluous government interference.

    The government had explained countless times that the mergers were brought about by the policy of classifying schools into elementary, middle and senior categories. The mergers are therefore necessary to streamline these schools into the various classes for operational and administrative purposes. These policies do not affect private schools.

    What the governor promised, due to much agitation, was that some of the schools would be returned to their original owners. This is after some of the mega schools being built are completed and the pupils moved into them. At no time did he promise that the policy would be reversed. It is high time all the agitated were reconciled to this. Those hoping for a reversal are only engaged in wishful thinking.

    The governor, being a student of history, does not wish to erase the memory of any school. However, mergers and closures are part of the history of education. Even in the affluent world, when the caretakers can no longer maintain a school or it is no longer relevant to the need of that society or community, it will be merged with others or shut down. Plato’s Academy no longer exists, but it is etched permanently in the books, in the philosophy and the memory of those who have acquired western education. Where a school is closed, a monument will be left as its physical legacy.

    What is more important, however, is its intellectual legacy and how it has affected our time and society. Those still sulking over the carcass of a dilapidated and ruined physical structure should let go and embrace positive change.

    On school uniforms, the government has explained that the uniform distinguishes those in public schools from others. Even in the United Kingdom, this is the norm – uniforms are the same and can be picked in any convenient store. What mark them differently are the badges, cardigans and berets branded for each school. In our neighbouring Benin Republic, all school children wear khaki as uniform.

    Aregbesola has carried out a revolution in education in Osun. I am of the firm belief that with the policy direction, funding, equipment, motivation and technology, all driven by the passion and will to change things for better, Osun, within the shortest possible time, will be producing the best school leavers and world beaters in all fields.

     

    • Fasure lives in Osogbo
  • Union calls for gas-to-power policies’ implementation

    Union calls for gas-to-power policies’ implementation

    Proper execution of policies on gas will boost  power supply, the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has said.

    SSAEAC’s National President, Comrade Bede Opara, said: “I think if properly implemented, the policy would in the medium to long-term trigger additional investment in the infrastructure for gas to power.

    “The submission by the Petroleum Resources Minister  that inadequate infrastructure for gas supply has been the bane of the sector since it was privatised, and that a detailed tariff is being worked out by  the Ministries of Petroleum Resources and Power, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to find a lasting solution to the problem  through the  review of gas pricing, will in the short-term, anticipate that this will quickly boost gas supply and in turn, power output, is a welcome development.”

    The union, he said, had urged the Federal Government to build a national gas grid owned by Nigerians, or executed in partnership with credible private sector players in a public-private partnership arrangement.

    “The grid can be put in place in four years, and should have capacity to handle gas volumes far in excess of the present limited domestic and regional demand. Such gas infrastructure will stimulate further domestic demand for expanding electricity requirements and various industrial purposes as well as facilitate domestic gas competition.

    “This is because the Nigeria Vision 2020 Economic Transformation Agenda has it that the overall target for the power sector is to grow installed power generation capacity from 6,000mw in 2009 to 20,000mw by 2015 and 35,000mw by 2020,” he said.

    He said the pronouncement by the Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, that Nigerians may witness another hike in electricity tariff without improvement in power supply to justify another increase, was unfortunate.

    “Hiking tariff is not justifiable because the burden on citizens is enormous, as they also have to battle with scarcity and high cost of kerosene, diesel and cooking gas. And if the hike is aimed at pleasing investors, it subjects Nigerians to more suffering, indeed, double jeopardy.

    “People should not pay for what is non-existent. The ideal thing is to work towards putting power first. Thereafter, it would be clear to all and sundry that there is a change that could warrant tariff increase. I am of the view that Nigerians need a respite from the unbearable economic hardship in the country,” he said.

    He said there was still an outstanding payments to workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), adding that a review shows that the sub-committee on the processing of staff benefits said the screening was cubersome.

  • Plastics makers seek better policies

    You should ensure that plastics makers do their business under an agreeable environment.

    That was what the Managing Director of Lemmy Plastics Iyana-Ipaja Lagos Mr S. O. Daramola, an engineer, told the Federal Government in Lagos.

    According to the India-trained engineer who spoke to reporters at a press briefing, so many factors have made business in the industry very difficult.

    Though he acknowledged the efforts being made by the Federal Government to encourage the manufacturing sector, he however, opined that more still needed to be done.

    He said one of the factors militating against their business is the plethora of tax regimes which they experience on regular basis. Investigations indicated that manufacturers in the plastic industry pay five per cent extra duty on importation, five per cent levy and five per cent VAT.

    Commenting on these facts, Daramola affirmed that the tax regimes have made business very difficult, stressing that if things continue the way they are, some of them may be forced to downsize in order to survive.

    According to him, there is no business sense in keeping employees and paying their wages when one is not breaking even.

    Proffering solution to this dilemma, engineer Daramola advised the Federal Government to make raw materials for the plastic industries duty-free to enable them to make their products affordable to fellow Nigerians. He also observed that making the raw materials duty-free would encourage more investments in the sector, from which, he said, more employment opportunities would be created.

    While stressing the need for the Federal Government to encourage more companies that are into the production of raw materials for the plastic industry, Daramola bemoaned the exorbitant rate at which raw materials are procured from Eleme Petro-Chemical Company.

    According to him, in spite of huge payments made to Eleme Petro-Chemical Company by companies in the sector, the company has not been able to meet up with their demands, hence forcing them into importing the required raw materials.

    For him, the plastic industry needs at least five more companies like Eleme Petro-Chemical Company to be able to ensure profitability in the sector.

    In a letter dated January 24, 2013 and entitled SAVE OUR SOUL, Engineer Daramola had appealed to the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) to prevail on the Comptroller-General of Customs to review the heavy tax imposed on them as well as the activities of smugglers who have made their products unmarketable.

    In the letter, he noted that the epileptic electricity supply, among other issues, has made cost of production high, thereby giving smugglers from neighbouring Benin Republic the leeway to flood the Nigerian market with cheaper products. Daramola also advised the Federal Government to fix the country’s power problem, observing that it is pathetic that Nigeria is losing her industries to Ghana and Benin Republic.

    He urged the Federal Government to take steps in making the business climate worthwhile so that many Nigerians will not be thrown out of jobs.

  • Life policies outpace rest of industry

    Life insurance was the largest segment in the overall United States insurance industry in terms of gross written premium from 2007 through 2011 but the industry’s book of business shrank during that time, according to a new report from market research firm

    The report, “Life Insurance in the US, Key trends and opportunities to 2016” reviews both historical data and examines the industry’s prospects through 2016, according to a statement.

    The total written premium value of the life insurance segment decreased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.7 per cent during the review period. The report examines written premiums, incurred losses, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, and also analyses the various distribution channels for life insurance products, according to the publisher’s statement.

    A separate financial analysis prepared by SNL Financial reported that while industry revenue grew by eight per cent between 2010 and 2011, it has been nearly flat over the five-year period.

    Revenues totaled just over $815 billion in 2007, grew to $844.7 billion the following year, then slipped during the financial crisis before rebounding to $835 billion in 2011.

    Net income declined 8.8 percent between 2010 and 2011, and at $14.4 billion in 2011 was slightly less than half of 2007’s $31.6 billion, according to SNL Financial.

    The decrease is attributed to high levels of unemployment, which depressed the demand for group life insurance products and the uncertain economic environment, which resulted in a decline in gross written premiums in the term life category, researchers found. In addition, the low investment returns due to low interest rates represented losses to the earnings of life insurers.

    Other industry watchers have said life insurance companies face a broad array of headwinds, from the demographic to the financial. Accounting giant Ernst & Young’s 2013 industry outlook noted, “Insurers are competing in a market where average household expenditures on life insurance have declined 50 per cent over the past decade.” Deloitte, another large accounting firm, issued its own pessimistic US life insurance predictions for the year: “With millions still out of work or underemployed, and many more focused on repayingdebts, a lot of consumers have shorter-term financial priorities to worry about other than life or annuity protection.”

     

     

     

  • Mimiko’s policies are lopsided, says ACN

    Mimiko’s policies are lopsided, says ACN

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State has criticised Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s call on residents to start producing 30,000 babies yearly.

    It described it as “misleading, myopic and an aversion to sustainable development in the face of gross youth unemployment and decayed infrastructure”.

    In a statement by its Publicity Director, Mr. Idowu Ajanku, ACN said the call, which was made by Mimiko during the inauguration of the Mother and Child Hospital in Ondo town, was that of a man who has lost touch with reality.

    It said: “Why is Mimiko not thinking of how to create jobs for unemployed youths, who are still being catered for by their tired parents, who are peasant famers, traders or civil servants.

    “He is not looking at the infrastructural decay, but is quick to beat his chest that he is providing free maternity services to women, so that they can deliver his targeted 30,000 children annually.

    “What does it hold for the people, if not the multiplication of poverty, or is he saying his government would care for these children from cradle to adulthood?

    “The ACN is saying government should provide a holistic health care solution for all members of the society and generate employment through the provision of an enabling environment for private sector investment.

    “Mimiko should open up the riverine areas for serious business with global impact, like is happening in Ajah, Lagos State, under Governor Babatunde Fashola’s leadership.

    “He should invest the state’s resources in providing sustainable development, and not projects that cannot be sustained, which are sectional and of no direct bearing on the majority.

    “We are not surprised by the way and manner Mimiko is still running the state, which shows that nothing has been learnt and we should expect nothing new. After all, all through his electioneering campaign, he kept saying he would continue what he was doing.

    “It is clear that this government is only prepared to continue to build market stalls, glorified maternity houses and boreholes, which they will continue to celebrate.”

  • Revisiting our unification policies (4)

    Revisiting our unification policies (4)

    Negotiated constitution is imperative for unity

    In the last 14 years of post-military rule, very little has been done (apart from restoration of election as a means of selecting members of the power elite in executive and legislative branches of government) to de-militarise the polity that has been shaped or distorted by decades of military dictatorship. Beyond civilianising governance, very little effort has been made from the administration of Obasanjo to that of Jonathan to democratise governance fully by subjecting decrees, policies, and constitution inherited from military rulers to scrutiny and transformation. Nowhere is the fear of interrogating military legacy in the governance of the country more evident than in efforts by post-military rulers to argue that there is nothing wrong with the constitution, laws, and policies inherited since 1999 from military dictators.

    We argued in the last three weeks that many of the policies created by military regimes have become anachronistic and of little value to the promotion of unity of purpose in the country, stating that no matter how well-meaning the military regimes were in making policies such as centralised police force, unity schools, national youth service corps, the reality today is that there is no evidence that these policies have worked. Nothing in the situation of general security in the country or in the culture of cooperation across ethnic groups has indicated that efforts to unite the country through policies created without thorough debate by citizens have worked. The bellicosity that attended rotation of the presidency or zoning is an illustration of how little the country has been united since 1966. Ethnicisation and regionalisation of power in 2011 is cruder than what it was before the first the coup.

    Had the country gotten a truly democratic government in 1999, perhaps, it would have produced government leaders that would have the courage to re-examine pre-1999 policies and jettison any of them that has ceased to be useful. Those who created many of the policies under discussion in the last three weeks and those that believe such policies were made to promote their interests thought more proactively than those who spent their life and resources to struggle for an end to military rule. They quickly organised to bring one of the authors of de-federalization of the country to power after the death of Abacha and at the end of Abubakar’s transition programme. General Obasanjo came into power and spent eight years scheming about how to defuse the struggle for a people’s constitution. He quickly labeled those calling for national conference secessionists. At the end of his two terms, he also picked his successor, Umaru Yar’Adua, in a way similar to how he was picked to succeed Abdusalaam Abubakar, and the rest is history.

    Fourteen years after the exit of the military from direct governance, the country is still saddled with a president who does not think that there is anything seriously wrong with a constitution without any input from citizens, a constitution that was invisible until after the election that brought the first post-military government to power in 1999. Just like Obasanjo before him, President Jonathan also attempts to preach to citizens that there is nothing substantially wrong with the 1999 Constitution. To President Jonathan, nothing is too wrong for ad hoc committee members not to have the wisdom to rectify without any input from the citizenry.

    If anything, the fear of civilian presidents to support those calling for a constitutional conference to produce a democratic constitution has encouraged those who see themselves as the policemen of Nigeria’s unity to seize media space to warn that any attempt to change most of the policies and laws created by military dictators (including the 1999 Constitution) is capable of destroying the country’s unity. Several northern leaders including elected governors have said pontifically that any attempt to move away from the system of federal monopoly of law enforcement is synonymous with plans to break the country. Only recently, the Arewa Consultative Forum said that any call for people’s constitution is tantamount to casting a vote of no confidence in the country’s democracy.

    President Jonathan himself appears confused about what the country needs to do with a constitution that has been taken to court as a fraudulent document in its claim to have been written by the people of Nigeria. He even says without any empirical evidence that the country is not ready for state police, despite the fact that under his watch, police work is contracted out to private citizens like Tompolo. He is even now in the process of sending a bill to the national assembly to detach local governments from the states that house them, seeing local governments solely as a receiver of federal grants, rather than as cultural and political units within states which constitutionally have governors and legislators to govern them.

    It must, however, be remembered that it was first under military dictatorship that the idea of three tiers of government came into the nation’s political space and lexicon. Most federations in the world have two tiers of government—federal and state or provincial. Ironically, the axe to destroy the federalist origin of independent Nigeria has since 1999 been getting sharper in the hands of post-military civilian rulers. Consequently, citizens calling for restoration of federalism in the country are seen as forces of distraction and secession by spokesmen for federal power and sectional cultural leaders who see themselves as enforcers of national unity.

    The current constitution and many policies inherited from military dictatorship in 1999 have not enhanced national unity, despite repeated claims by those who believe the current unitary current system is the best way to guarantee the country’s unity. The unity that exists in Nigeria today is not an outcome of any constitution or policy. It is a sign that citizens from different sections of the country believe that the country has tremendous economic potential as one country, particularly the huge manna from oil and gas. It is more of unity of economic purpose than anything else. To turn the country into a union of affection, leaders will do well to listen to citizens calling for a negotiated constitution through the mechanism of constitutional conference, rather than relying on policies crafted by few soldiers and sustained by few civilian rulers to confuse homogenisation with unity.

  • Chukwumerije hails Osun’s education policies

    Chukwumerije hails Osun’s education policies

    The Senate yesterday hailed the educational policies of the Osun State Government. It said other states should take a cue from it.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerijie, said this while on an oversight visit to the state.

    He said others must drop their party affiliations and sentiments because what is happening in Osun is capable of rescuing the country’s rotten education sector.

    “The states and the country owe Governor Rauf Aregbesola a lot of gratitude for promptly laying a formidable foundation for education in the state. I will like to use this opportunity to advise other states, irrespective of your political affiliation. You must drop your ego and learn from the people-oriented projects and programmes of Governor Aregbesola.”

    Aregbesola said for the country to progress, the interest of the people must be considered before any decision is taken.

    He said parliamentary system of government is the essence of democracy.

    He said: “The best form of political activity is in the parliament, our nation will not make appreciable progress if it focuses only on the executive, at least the parliament is where ideas are generated, they have the total support of the people.

    “Parliamentary system is the essence of democracy. The assembly of the people must not be an expression but it must be put into practice.

    “For a country to have meaningful development, it must not be a one-sided means of power.”

    Speaking on education, Aregbesola said when he assumed office, his intention was to close down schools for about a year because of what he met.

    “What was on ground was dilapidated school buildings not fit for human habitation. The conditions of teachers were nothing to write home about plus the condition of other infrastructure.”