The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Politically

  • Youths urged to be politically active

    MEMBERS of the Lagos State Youth Parliament have called on their peers across the country to take active participation in next year’s general elections.

    Parliament Speaker Seriki Muritala, who spoke for others, spoke of the need for the youth population to leverage on their huge numbers to effect desired changes in the 2019 polls.

    He urged youths to register with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and obtain their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in readiness for the elections.

    Describing as regrettable that a larger percentage of Nigerians do not vote during elections, the speaker said that assembly members embarked on a road show to sensitize the public, especially the youth about the importance of voting and the need for them to get their PVC before the elections.

    According to him, the youths have important role to playing in ensuring free, fair and credible elections, hence the need for them to be vibrant and vigilant.

    He urged youths to stay away from violence and shun other social vices that could compromise their prospects in life and truncate their future.

    Muritala said: “All hands must be on deck to complement the efforts of the state government especially in ridding the state of all social vices that is assuming an alarming rate in recent time.”

    The speaker called for public support for Lagos State Kicks Against Drug Abuse (LASKADA), an anti-drug abuse campaign recently launched in Lagos by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to address drug among youths.

    According to him, the LASKADA campaign should be a clarion call and a reminder to individuals, oganisations and societies at large to safeguard the future of the country.

    Enjoining parents and guardians to give good parental care to their wards, he said: “Parents must be very observant and pay cursory attention to their children’s behavior and be on the look-out for strange attitudes and behavioral changes that may be drug-induced.”

  • Group wants youths to be politically conscious

    Group wants youths to be politically conscious

    A social political group, Buhari-Osinbajo Solidarity Front (BOSF) has urged Nigerian youths to be more politically aware and be more involved through opportunities provided by the government.

    The group also praised  President Muhammadu Buhari for achieving so much in his three years at the helm of affairs and declared support for his re-election in 2019 during the press conference held at Surulere Aguda LCDA secretariat, Lagos.

    It maintained that the president remained the perfect candidate and must be supported in the 2019 election.

    The group argued that the present government cannot be compared with the past administrations and it will be equipping the general public with verifiable facts about President Buhari’s achievements.

    “Part of the objectives of this solidarity is to encourage the Nigerian Youth to be politically aware and get their facts correct to enable them evaluate where the past has led us, what the present is and the positive the future presents,” Comrade Liberty Olawale Badmus, convener and National President of the group said.

     

  • Banks reject deposits from Politically Exposed Persons

    Banks reject deposits from Politically Exposed Persons

    Many commercial banks no longer accept deposits from Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), it was leant yesterday.

    A PEP, who is entrusted with a prominent public function, generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of his position and the influence that he may hold.

    Banks’ stoppage of taking hard-sought deposits from PEPs followed the rising regulatory surveillance and high risks involved with such transactions. Lenders had, in many cases, suffered huge monetary losses whenever illicit funds are traced to them.

    The Group Chief Conduct and Compliance Officer of Access Bank Plc and President, Compliance Institute of Nigeria (CIN), Pattison Boleigha, who confirmed the development during a meeting with reporters in Lagos, said banks, had adopted global best practices against money laundering and corruption.

    “We have placed ourselves on the pedestal of compliance. If you want to do business with international community today, you must ensure you are compliant in fighting corruption and money laundering. Each bank operates a defined structure. So, when these foreign investors come to Nigeria, they know the structure each bank has put in place,” he said.

    “We want to ensure that foreign investors realise that when they come to Nigeria, it is a very good ground for professionalism. When they do that, they have the assurance that when they do business in Nigeria, they are dealing with credible organisations.”

    Also speaking, a Bank Examiner with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Buhari Isa, said many banks mortgage compliance issues by setting unrealistic targets for their staff .

    He said there was need to look at why bank staff bring in bad deposits into lenders’ vaults. “For example, we are talking about integrity. If you see someone that does not have integrity, there is nothing you can do about it. But you can make sure there are controls that discourage such behaviours in an organisation. For example, you can conduct research on how some staff, connive with high net-worth individuals to bring in deposits without carrying out due diligence,” he said.

    Isa, who is also the  Vice President of CIN, said a bank staff will provide reasons why he is conniving with a PEP to bring in huge deposits. That, he said, may arise from the bank’s dysfunctional policy.

    “For example, you set unrealistic target for bank staff insisting that within the next one week such staff should bring N1 billion deposit. A PEP who collected bribe of N100 million comes to the bank staff, such target will make the staff to quickly take the money without doing proper Know Your Customer for the depositor,” he said.

    In Isa’s view, addressing the high deposit target set for bank staff will help boost compliance.

    Boleigha disagreed. The Access Bank Group Chief Compliance Officer spoke of the challenges faced by lenders. He said that banks do not commit crime but the people within the bank commit crime.

    “The targets were not set so that people will go and commit crimes. Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, financial institutions will receive good money, and they will also receive bad money. There is really nothing you can do about it because that’s where the money should pass through. In fact, if this bad money is not kept in the banks, it will be more difficult for government authorities to track  people that are committing these crimes,” he said.

    To Boleigha, it is good to have all Nigerian financial transactions pass through the financial system so as to have financial record of all bad monies. He said that although bank staff have targets, that should not stop them from complying with set rules. “So, if you know that you are bringing a customer that is high risk, of course you should know, the first thing to do is to conduct a risk assessment of the customer.

    There are some banks that even said they will not bank PEPs. So, if you decide you are going to bank PEPs, you must have risk management structure that will enable you manage those PEPs,” he said.

    “And those risk management structures are crafted from the rules and regulations of the CBN. There are CBN’s guidelines on how to manage PEPs. If you follow the rules, it means that when bad money comes, account officers of the banks should be able to know that it is bad money.

  • This is socially and politically incorrect…but you will say, ‘Amen!’

    I know. You know. We all know that nobody cares how brilliantly this article is articulated for or against the interest of the citizenry or the Nigerian ruling class. The jury will always be out over the perceived victimhood, tyranny, humaneness and monstrosity personified by the country’s citizenry and leadership. It depends what side of the divide you inhabit.

    Just like everyone else, you are inclined to protect the source from which your bread is buttered. You will defend the source of your ‘hard-earned’ or ‘ill-gotten’ wealth. It’s a human thing – a foible most are vulnerable to.

    Everybody pays lip service to ‘Change.’ Even President Muhammadu Buhari selectively effects ‘Change.’ He had good intentions no doubt, he is simply too flawed to prosecute a flawless anti-corruption fight. But this is hardly about the ‘true intent,’ ‘honesty,’ ‘noise’ and ‘posturing’ of Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign.

    Now that it is glaring that soapbox rant, contrived marches and social media protests will never be enough to save us from corrupt leadership and the rigours of the Nigerian wilderness, we could initiate action by chanting heartfelt ‘Amen’ all through this piece, while we plot to reclaim our nation from the predatory ruling class.

    I could advocate that we change our leadership at election time but our people have perfected the art of substituting tyrants with savages and vice versa. The youth dream of a revolution; they talk of ‘benching’ the incumbent ruling class with the spite of a serpent and the spunk of a fraidy-cat. As we have hordes of youth mooting a ‘take-over’ of government and advocating leadership by Nigeria’s youth, so do we have gangs of youth mounting the soapbox to rant and state candidly that, Nigeria is unripe for a youthful leader and youth-driven political platform.

    Some interesting character recently advised that rather than start a youth movement, the Nigerian youth should stage a hostile take-over of existing political parties – I wonder how the youth are expected to review and overhaul the cancerous bulk of existing parties’ predatory ‘philosophies.’ Too many of such arguments are brilliantly put together and published across the mainstream and new media by beneficiaries of the nation’s corrupt structures.

    Having acquired some wealth via patronage of the corrupt ruling class, they desperately model their existence after the vulgar lives and guilty pleasures of the same ruling class they once vented and spat at. Who cares how they made money or attained acclaim? Ki ‘won’ sa ti lowo as the folk artiste, 9ice, would say.

    This leaves us in dilemma. How do we identify youth by whose exploits and honest exertions Nigeria may progress and attain freedom from the predatory ruling class? This is conundrum for other fora but this minute, I charge you to chant ‘Amen’ with the passion you put in the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge,’ “Wehdonesir Challenge’ and so on…

     

    The citizens’ heartfelt prayer

    Eledumare o! The One who is never deceived by the furor of our hastily conceived citizens’ protests on Facebook, Twitter and the streets of Lagos and Abuja; the One who is never perturbed by the duplicity of our revolutionary slogans and feeble mass actions, our backs are no longer against the wall, we are crawling into the wall like irritating geckos.

    Our accidental revolutionaries, labour leaders and columnists of note are quietly eating up their words in the wake of ‘crucial’ meetings with the ruling class. They tell us to ditch the placards and save our chants till more auspicious hour. Whispers of currency smother our rant and revolutionary cry. At the end, everything remains the same. Our fates are bent and broken according to the whims of our predatory ruling class.

    Thus we seek the comfort of your infinite mercies against the scourge of merciless leaders and duplicitous, self-serving rights activists. We pray that you repay our leaders and their ‘influencers’ back in their own kobo. Dear Author and Finisher of faith, please rewrite our pitiful fates as the Christians pray. And even though “The pen has been lifted” as the Muslims say, kindly rework our fates as you do to your most favoured faithful.

    If our leaders are truly on the right path…if truly, they lead honestly and with unpretentious fear of You in their hearts, treat them the way you would treat your most favoured among humankind. However, if they lead us with disdain and deceit in their hearts, treat them the way you treated Abu Ashram and the Abyssinians when they rose against Mecca.

    Afflict their mansions to tear down the comfort they build to our discomfort. Upset their bellies and purge them of the provisions they gorge like gluttons. As we spend our finest moments in darkness, make their access to light a luxury of the past. Reorder their fates that they too may go to sleep and rise in everlasting darkness.

    Make their wives hiss and fret for want of fresh air like our wives do. Make their kids and grandkids flail and choke in the grasp of unforgiving heatstroke, like peasant kids do. Bless them with noontime heat and bedtime heat even in the rains. And every time they seek from you the mercy they fail to accord us, treat their prayers the way you would, the wantonness of the gluttonous and accursed. Make their prayer points and praise-worship trail off in confusion. Smite their patronising prophets till they become not much in sight.

    They claim that money they save from anticorruption campaign and fuel subsidy removal would be used to improve infrastructure, agriculture and health sectors; if they fail to live up to their words, make their kids expire to indecipherable sickness and malnutrition right before their eyes, like peasant kids dying in agrarian communities for lack of infrastructure, balanced diet and good primary health care.

    Deny their trophy wives and newborns of oxygen and the best medical care as they deny kids of poor folk breathing their last, while their mothers are still ‘pushing,’ in hospital labour rooms and corridors of death, nationwide.

    Bless their kids with gifts of patricide and mindless violence like they do to our jobless youth for political gains, every day. Turn their swimming pools to raging deeps to drown their progeny and trophy wives, like our clogged waterways do for lack of government intervention.

    Subject their lives and those of their loved ones to the elements of bad roads as they do to us. Blind their pilots’ to the safest course every time they flee our land for overseas medical checkup. Make their planes plummet to crash on humid rocks and plunge in the sea, as our beloved’s in the throes of bird-strike, and our dreams in the face of stillbirth.

    Let them not enjoy the fruits of their labour. Make their Ivy League educated wards eternal sources of their everlasting sadness. Make them the bad harvest of their inordinate lust for wealth at our expense. Despite their wealth, afflict them with the poverty of good health, peace and contentment. And for every one of them condemning this piece, we pray: “Faja’alahum ka’asfin m ma” kulin.” Amin.

  • ‘How to empower women politically’

    ‘How to empower women politically’

    The Director General of National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), Abuja, Dr Ladi Hamalai, is an associate professor and the pioneer Project Coordinator of the Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP) at the National Assembly. The recipient of many national honours spoke with Sunday Oguntola on women in politics as well as the activities of the institute.

    How were school years for you?

    School was fun and a lot of hard work. I have fond memories of my school days. In school, I received best student commendation at graduation and was nominated for the Federal Ministry of Education Merit Award in 1980.

    I attended University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, one of the top ten universities in the USA between 1984 and 1985, where I obtained a Masters Degree in Political Science with a focus on Policy Studies and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K. from 1989 and 1993.

    IDS is one of the most referred to Institutes of Development Studies in the World. The Association of Commonwealth Universities sponsored me. I obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies. I worked on economic policy making in Nigeria with a special focus on Government-Business Relations within the context of Economic Reform from 1986 – 1990.

    In 1976, I was nominated for the Federal Ministry of Education award while I was at Bayero University, Kano (BUK).  In 1980, I got the Department of Political Science best student commendation and in 1981 the Association of Commonwealth University Scholarship Award as well as   the 21st Century Trust Fellowship, 1990.

    What remarkable career paths have you taken since graduation?

    I started work as NYSC Graduate Assistant at Bayero University Kano on the special request of the Department of political science where I graduated, I proceeded to University of Maiduguri as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of political science on completion in 1982 and rose to the rank of Lecturer 1 in 1996.

    I assumed duty on transfer of service at the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1998 as Senior Lecturer. I was favourably assessed for the rank of Associate Professor with effect from October200 1 before I left to assume duty as a Director in SMEDAN.

    I started work as the Director, Planning, Coordination and Monitoring in SMEDAN, The Presidency from January 2004 though I assumed responsibilities at the Agency since November 2003.

    I was appointed as Project Coordinator, Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP), National Assembly 2004-2011 after which I was appointed Director General, National Institute for Legislative Studies from 2011 till date.

    I was a visiting Associate Professor at the Jubilee University Taraba State in 2009 and currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna.

    Many are wondering what actually the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) is all about. So, what is the justification for the establishment of the institute?

    The National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) is an organ of the National Assembly established by an Act of Parliament. The Act establishing the National Institute for Legislative Studies was passed by both houses of the National Assembly and signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 2, 2011.

    NILS builds on the successes of the Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP). PARP, a capacity building institution of the National Assembly, with the financial support of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) was established in 2003.

    For over seven years PARP’s programmes strengthened the capacities of legislators and legislative staff through requisite research and analytical support and projected the positions and proposals advanced by the National Assembly.

    What is the vision of the National Assembly concerning the NILS and its responsibility to legislators?

    The institute seeks to promote and disseminate among the Nigerian Legislature the practice of science- based methodologies of law-making while improving the capacity of Legislators to sustain and consolidate democratic governance through deliberation and policy formulation.

    We also want to improve the technical capacity of legislative staff, committee secretaries and political aides to process appropriation bills and assist in policy oversight of the executive and assisting the National and State Assemblies in their efforts to formulate and draft bills.

    In special terms, what are the trainings and the essential services available at the institute?

    Some of the key services provided by NILS cover the following capacity building, teaching and research, publications etc.  In terms of capacity building, the NILS organises two types of training programmes for the legislature, national programmes and international programmes.

    The national courses are those organised within Nigeria and target legislators and parliamentary staff in the National and State Assemblies and Local Councils. These take the form of supply-driven open programmes and demand-driven tailored programmes.

    Are there publications the institute can boast of?

    Presently, the NILS has over 50 titles published on different aspects of legislative practice in Nigeria. Some of NILS’ important publications include the Nigeria Journal of Legislative Affairs.

    The Nigerian Journal of Legislative Affairs (NJLA) was established in 2011 with the sole aim of being at the forefront of cutting-edge research in all aspects of legislative research and development, particularly as they pertain to emerging democracies and legislatures.

    It provides a forum for publication of timely, rigorous, technically sound and scientific research manuscripts that focus on the legislature. The activities and functions of the National Assembly are information and data based. There must be a data bank.

    Why is the number of females in the National Assembly low?

     Women are nation builders. Although the female representatives are forthright and vocal, their low number compared to their male counterparts stalls the level of influence they wield in the House.  There is need to sensitise women on policies that will advance the course of women in the country.

    On women empowerment and the visibility of women in elective positions, the factors militating against women seeking elective positions would be greatly minimised if women support each other more. The effort given by the political parties and by the President to women is pushing women more to the forefront.

    The National Assembly has experienced some stability in the last couple of years. To what will you attribute this?

    What you are seeing is legislative memory. Once legislators come in and they are given one, two years learning experiences, they begin to gain confidence, understand the system and understand their works. They develop the confidence to represent their communities better.

    The difference between the National Assembly of 1999 and 2014 is capacity building. The National Assembly leadership has done a lot of work on capacity building, which is why the reason for the stability and maturity that is now being witnessed in the Assembly.

    The National Assembly had the wisdom of establishing PARP, which is funded and supervised by the African Capacity Building Foundation. PARP has done so well in building   capacity after successful tenure of two terms that the National Assembly still went ahead and established the NILS and processing the National Assembly Budget Office and several donor agencies that give training on capacity.

    We now have several PhD holders as members. About 20% of Senators have Masters. There is a steep decline in members who have secondary school certificate as their highest academic qualifications. Those who have been in public service even those who have served as governors, ministers are now coming into the National assembly.

    So definitely, you cannot compare the first Assembly with the current ones. In fact, each assembly is better than the previous one. So no two Assemblies are the same. And the facts are there for people to see.

    Why do we have less female lawmakers, especially at the National Assembly?

    Women are late – comers to politics. And we must look at them in that way because women are just waking up and getting started in these key functions and participating in them only very recent.

    These are traditionally male dominant functions in our society. This is not intended to make women feel low or discouraged but this is stating the fact of the matter. And if women are late comers, you don’t expect women to perform magic and get to the desired place over night. It doesn’t happen like that.

    You can’t expect women to start competing with the men or rubbing shoulders with them overnight. You can’t expect them to learn to sit, crawl, stand and walk in the same day. Yes, those things will happen but those things take time.

    Traditionally, women have always depended on men. Women depend on men for their financial and welfare resources. If you are dependent on men, you cannot compete effectively.  Even globally, women are at the level of 5%. Even in all the top executive positions in Nigeria’s private sector or owners of industries or big businesses, women are less than 5%, so how can they compete favourably?

     So if you don’t assist women through legislation, or election, you can’t expect them to succeed. What you see today is political parties reserving positions for women and giving them support all the way.

    Except the parties take decisive action and take extra measure to deliberately help women through legislation and politics, you won’t expect them to learn to sit, crawl and walk and run at the same time. This is the only way to improve the chances of women into appointive positions.

    How do you rate women politically?

    Our women politicians are trying. They are performing excellently. You can see that they have distinguished themselves.  They had to go through the labyrinth, because it’s a labyrinth because of all the means and corners that you have to manuvouer to go through to find they way up and get your bearing.

    You can see that quite a number of strong women have emerged in our system in the executive arm, the legislature arm. They have made useful impact and made value additions in our institutions.

    Can you imagine what would have happened if these women were there to contribute all that they have brought into governance? They have made meaningful contributions to their constituencies. So we should support them. Women should learn to support them.  It is the least we can do for ourselves.

  • Politically-motivated armed robbery in Ogun?

    Politically-motivated armed robbery in Ogun?

    SIR: Permit me a space in your widely-read newspaper to comment on the killing of police officers in Ogun State allegedly by armed robbers, as reported in the media on Tuesday, October 23. It has never been heard of for armed robbers to put a distress call through to the heavily armed officers of the Quick Response Squad or the Joint Police/Military Patrol Team in order to lay ambush for them and kill them.

    I smell a rat here. The whole operation smacks of conspiracy when armed robbers are no longer interested in robbery but killing of security agents. Can we still call that robbery? The timing of this tragic incident and other reports in the social media (on alleged breakdown of a new APC at Ijebu-Ode) since last week when it became public knowledge that Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State would be honoured in Ghana as the Best Security Conscious Governor in West-Africa, lend credence to the theory of politically-motivated armed robbery, orchestrated to fault the well-deserved award to Senator Amosun.

    I therefore call on the Commissioner of Police, Director of State Security Services and other relevant agencies to look beyond a mere robbery incident and establish if some politicians in Ogun still engage in keeping a “Killer Squad” to perpetrate heinous crimes in the state.

    From my little experience, you may trail or monitor a person or group for up to 3 or 5 years before making them to face the full wrath of the law. You just have to cast your net wide.

    The police should also investigate their men to ensure they are not being used by the opposition, beside the need for professionalism in crime control.

     

    • Chief Ayodele Adesanya

    Sagamu, Ogun State