The Nation Newspaper

Tag: poor

  • Policing the poor and the elite

    The attitude of the leadership of Nigeria and its security institutions to the safety of the poor and vulnerable is condemnable. In the same system, the social structure ensures the securitisation of the rich. While the tenets of the rule of law prescribes equality before the law, supremacy of the law and fundamental human rights, the practicality of these in Nigeria is gradated to one’s social position. The poor are worse off in security of lives and properties, food security, health security, education security, road security, human rights security among others. Impliedly, Nigeria is a country that is elite designed, structured, formed and governed. Nothing implicates a genuine concern to take care of the hoi polloi who are the majority. The masses occupy flip side of the pyramidal structure of the goodies fondly labelled democratic dividends. Unfortunately the masses’ support is sought during elections to enthrone the minority that mostly abandon them when they get into office. The elite minority mindlessly corner public patrimonies to themselves and their cronies.

    In Nigeria, it is not only poor to be criminal; it is also criminal to be poor. Undoubtedly, there are differential treatments in who gets policed as against who gets secured. In 2017 alone, about 549 lives were lost to Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ violence (Amnesty International). The year 2018 may surpass this figure as over 200 have been killed within two months across Benue, Zamfara, Adamawa, Ondo, Kaduna and Taraba. In all these, the poor gets killed while the care-less elite ‘condemns’ the killings. I draw on these to examine poor policing, policing the poor and the securitized elite in Nigeria. This is because within and outside government, the elite have secured their present and future. In government, they ensure they put structures in place that outlives them. These structures (in the police, judiciary, civil service etc) cover their tracks when out of office. Highly placed politicians allocate to themselves undeserved severance packages endorsed by the ‘ball-boys’ in the legislative chambers when leaving office. They use the structure they put in place to fight the system when being probed when out of office. Whenever their hegemonic control over the country is threatened, they form alliances to oust the incumbent to sustain their hold on the country not necessary to better the lots of the masses. In and out of office, they personalise public services. Imagine the lamentation of the chairman of Police Service Commission, Mike Okiro, a former Inspector General of Police that out of about 305, 597 policemen (2015 data), over 150,000 are attached to VIPs and unauthorised persons in the country. The people enjoying these security personnel included those who have left government in the last 10 years! Yet, over 180million individuals are to depend on less than 150,000 for the protection of their lives and properties. They use the limited number of police left for the rest of us to protect their children and parents. Even Abdulrasheed Maina claimed to have been secured by the DSS when he came in through the ‘door of influence’. When the rich get kidnapped, they get jet-speed reaction and the deployment of the IGP Intelligence Response Squad to rescue them. When they have case in court, they get soft-landing.

    The elite (most of them) are parasitic. They milk Nigeria; they hardly plough back and when they do it is temporary and these are mostly in months preceding an election year. They use the ideological state apparatuses to oppress the poor and make them perpetually subservient. To them it is the poor that is dangerous and must be policed. That is why only the rich enters plea bargaining. To hell with the poor in jail!

    Rather than focusing on poor policing, the leadership of President Buhari and other state governors are interested on policing the poor. Poor policing as against policing the poor is the inability of the police to check growing insecurity. Mis-governance is responsible for why herders are pampered and cow ‘constitutional’ rights are enthroned. While the courts are quick to sentence a boy who stole N10, 000 to 15 years imprisonment, the same court granted a corrupt pension fraudster who cornered billions of naira into private pocket an option of fine of N750, 000! The same system polices the opposition party and allows culpable inner caucus members (Babachir Lawal, Abdulrasheed Maina) of the ruling party and in the process rubbishing its policing of public funds. The institution that turned deaf ears to intelligence report supplied by governors of Benue and Zamfara alerting it of impending attacks mocks the victims by putting the blame on the law enacted to regulate people’s behaviours. Obviously, you are criminal if the state thinks you are criminal and saint at the pleasure of the state. The body language and the interest of the ‘oga the top’ apparently endorse inequality in the Nigeria policing system.

    Ideally, the nature of crime ought to determine how policing resources will be distributed. Nobody ought to tell the police that they need to strengthen divisional stations in rural areas. This is because, the police as an instrument of the state is urban-based. The media thus beams light on happenings in the urban areas where are they based while many people suffer violence and criminality in the rural areas. Since 2009 when Boko Haram became lethal in its campaign, it has operated more in rural areas with its ‘homeland’ located in remote spaces of northeast Nigeria. Kidnappers kidnap and take victims to forest using the waterways to get to their hideouts. Armed robbers return to the rural area after a major operation to keep low profile. Fulani herdsmen carnages had occurred in remote rural areas where poverty is endemic and policing is scarce.

    The have-nots are therefore at the mercy of the haves whose actions and inactions determine to a larger extent their life chances. The criminalisation of the have-nots on the one hand and the securitization of the elite and poor policing represent a contradiction. Apparently the fate of the Nigerian poor is that of proverbial hen than lays the golden egg but becomes forgotten, malnourished and ill-treated. The poor are secured by the ill-equipped police personnel while less than 100,000 elite take the properly kitted officers for personal use only to shed crocodile tears and call for python dance. The poor, as soft targets of violence, terrorism, rape, kidnapping and carnage deserves better security system that factors their peculiar location and vulnerability into the Nigeria police design. If President Buhari’s directive to the IGP to withdraw police officers attached to VIPs and unauthorised associates since 2015 is ineffective and no sanction has been meted out for flouting presidential orders, it shows lip-service to public security. Going forward, there is need for the establishment of rural police security divisions with capacity to quell deviance and criminality. The inequality in Nigeria’s security system needs to eliminate class influence in the protection of lives and properties. Otherwise, the poor who are in the majority should use their strength in 2019 to bargain for better protection.

     

    • Dr Tade, a sociologist sent in this piece via dotad2003@yahoo.com

  • Pupils decry poor learning environment

    Pupils of Special School for the Blind, Opefia, in Izzi Local Government of Ebonyi State have solicited government’s assistance to improve the learning environment.

    They told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Opefia that the school was not conducive for learning and called for government’s attention.

    Christian Anyigor, a visually-impaired pupil at the Senior Secondary School section, said the library was unequipped, while the compound lacked perimeter fencing.

    He said the situation posed danger to teachers and pupils, making the school vulnerable to attacks.

    Anyigor said: “We also lack modern text books, writing materials, computer facilities with brail and even a vehicle to convey pupils to participate in academic competitions.

    “We appeal to the state and federal governments to assist us by providing these facilities.”

    Master Obinna Agbo and Miss Favour Onele, SSS3 and JSS3 pupils, who affirmed the challenges, asked for more teachers to enable them perform well in their studies.

    According to them, the school is yet to get attention from the government.

    Agbo condemned power outages, which forced them to go outside the school to charge their tape recorders and other appliances.

    “We have received food items from the government, but that is not enough. We are appealing for assistance to improve our welfare,’’ he said.

  • ‘Remember the poor’

    The Provost, Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, the Anglican Church, the Very Revd. Adebola Ojofeitimi, has challenged Christians to continue to remember the poor, helpless and victims of disasters and violence in our country.

    Ojofeitimi said this at the Christmas Carol of Nine Lessons organised by the Island Club, Victoria-Island, Lagos.

    The carol night tagged Carol of Unity and Good tidings brought together members of the club, families, friends, clerics and featured bible teachings, music, orchestra and prophetic prayers. The choir members who were dressed in English wears led the worshipers in different Christmas songs with sound instrumentalists. Leaders of the club were also on ground to take some of the songs to the admiration of the audience.  Clerics from different denomination took the lessons.

    Ojofeitimi said that Christians should spread the act of love that brought Jesus Christ to the world to save the world from sin and its impeding judgment of hell fire.

    He said: “Let us remember the hungry, the poor, jobless, the oppressed, the sick, the lonely, the aged, little children, the bereaved and those who know not the Lord Jesus or those who love him not and who by sin have grieved his heart of love.”

    He advised that Christians must continue to light their environment with the teaching and life of Jesus, adding that “Let us continue to remind the world that Jesus is coming back again and for those that refuse his love today will end up in damnation when he comes.”

    In his words, the president of the club, Mr. Olabanjo Oladapo, said that the Christmas Carol is to remind members that Christmas does not end with eating and drinking but the lessons and life of Jesus must be evident in daily living of the believer.

     

  • Does your business improve lives of the poor?

    A father gave his little boy 50 cents and told him he could use it any way he wanted. Later, when the father asked the boy what he had decided to do with the money, the boy told him he had lent it to someone. Who did you lend it to? His father asked. I gave it to a poor man on the street corner because he looked hungry. The boy responded.

    Oh, that was foolish. You will never get it back. The father chastised his son. But, daddy, the Bible says that people who give to the poor lend to the Lord. The boy fired back. His father was so pleased with his son’s reply that he gave the boy another 50 cents. “You see,” the son retorted, “I told you I would get it back. Only I did not think it would be so soon”.

    Giving in itself can seem foolish at first whenever it is done. But the dividends usually outweigh the investment. However, not only is the act noble, it can be done in a variety of ways. For instance, you can give your time, talent and treasures. Whenever and whatever you have chosen to give does not matter. What matters is your intent.

    That boy gave what he had. But it was invested, and such investment usually reaps bountiful harvest. However, giving transcends personal level. Organisations get involve too. As a company does your business gives to the poor or takes from them? Let us examine two companies that have taken giving back to another height recently.

    In Nigeria, the level of unemployment is more than 60 per cent as over 1.8 million graduates are joining the labour market yearly. The National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) data showed that the unemployment rate was at 14.2 per cent in the last quarter of last year, up from 13.9 per cent in the preceding quarter.

    It’s the ninth consecutive quarter that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has increased. The government agency reported that the rate rose from 13.9 per cent in the third quarter to 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.  So, what is the way out of this logjam?

    Inlaks, a specialist organisation that deploys dynamic and highly scalable IT infrastructure, established ATM Academy to train youths. It focuses on giving the youths the right skillsets and capacity to become self-reliant and thus curb the rising unemployment rate. Located in the belly of Ikeja, Lagos, ATM Academy trains several Nigerian youths on how to build, repair and service ATM, power solutions, printed circuit board and software installation.

    To encourage the youth recruited from different parts of Nigeria, Inlaks chose to pay the trainees monthly stipend to attend classes for six months. After graduation, Inlaks absolved the youth into its workforce where they continue their learning and development. One of the standout students told me he had earlier thought the programme was a scam.

    Now, this graduate is one of the ambassadors propagating the good works of Inlaks ATM Academy. As a leader of his class, he and his course-mates are now proficient, and can conveniently install, repair and service an ATM, even when blindfolded.  Inlaks ATM Academy is a multi-million naira, multi-class project that has become an avenue for removing restive, unemployed youths off the streets. Another class is in session. Ring my bell if you are interested.

    As if that is not enough, Airtel Nigeria is also into the act of uplifting the downtrodden and the less privileged Nigerians through its corpoprate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, Airtel Touching Lives, aimed at promoting the culture of giving among Nigerians.

    Airtel Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Segun Ogunsanya, said the company is committed to helping the poor in line with its vision of creating empowerment opportunities and making life better for Nigerians. To demonstrate this, it has touched the lives of Olusegun Aina’s family.

    The family lost three children and their belongings in an inferno. They were homeless. Through Airtel’s platform, the family now owns a multi-million naira, ultra-modern two-bedroom apartment. Airtel paid outstanding medical bills incurred by the surviving family members.

    Your business can improve the lives of the poor by training or drying the tears of bereaved Nigerians. As Ogunsanya said: “We can make our society a better place if we join hands and collaborate to uplift the downtrodden around us.” Like the boy, you would get it back.

  • Poor result

    •It is disappointing that states are not taking advantage of the Federal Government’s incentives to improve health care delivery

    It is a novel and commendable initiative by the Federal Government of Nigeria working through the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to accelerate health care delivery nationwide.  But the first-year experiment has not been salutary; no thanks to lethargy in most of the state governments of the federation.

    According to a release by the FMoH, “In 2016, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGON) disbursed $1.5 million each to all the 36 States and the FCT as supplement to their health budget. The intervention funds are to be utilised towards the goals of improving the lives of mothers and children in Nigeria under the Save One Million Lives Programme for Result (SOML-PforR). Anticipated disbursements will be based on improvements from baseline as measured by national surveys.”

    In other words, the rationale for the initiative is to support states and the FCT to improve maternal, newborn and child health care. The technique is to do a baseline survey in the opening year (2015) based on five indicators:  HIV Counseling/testing during ante-natal care; Full Vaccination; Contraceptive Prevalence Rate; Skilled Birth Attendance and Insecticide treated Nets use by Children under five years old.

    With cash disbursed to states, these indicators are surveyed again at the end of one year (2016) to check improvements in performance made by each state.

    Going by the result published by the FMoH in national newspapers this month, only about 11 states and FCT showed marginal improvements from their 2015 baseline. As a result of the security challenge in the Northeast, especially Borno State, representative data could not be gathered to draw reliable conclusions in that state.

    However, in all other states of the country, not one made up to 50 percent improvement over one year. Indeed, only 12 states, including the FCT made positive gains based on the above-mentioned five indicators.

    Twenty-four states were in the red, depreciating from their 2015 baseline in spite of cash donation of $1.5 million provided for this specific purpose.

    The best performing states, according to the survey result, are: Zamfara, Adamawa, FCT, Katsina, Yobe, Cross River, Kwara, Rivers, Benue, Bayelsa, Kogi and Edo.

    The laggards are: Jigawa, Ogun, Abia, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Plateau, Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Oyo, Ekiti, Delta and Akwa Ibom.

    We know that no survey is perfect and devoid of a certain margin of error, especially in a country as vast as Nigeria and lacking in the right technological architecture for large area surveys. It is expected that the survey techniques will improve as the years go by. It is also noteworthy that some prime states like Lagos, Anambra, Oyo and Enugu did not make the cut in this first year.

    We believe that any state that conscientiously deployed $1.5 million in the specific area of health care stipulated by this project is bound to record tangible improvements. Maternal and child health issues have been subjects of prolonged debate in Nigeria over the years with little or no improvements recorded. The statistics are dire as far too many women are lost during child birth in Nigeria and an unacceptable number of children still die before age five.

    We think this result-based method of improving the health care system in Nigeria is commendable and we urge the FMoH not to be discouraged by the mass failure of states, so to speak, in the first year. They should relentlessly pursue their goal while improving the methodology.

    We urge the FMoH to increase awareness of this initiative to engender more competition and improvements. It may also consider improving the cash support as time goes on. We hope that this scientific data-based and result-oriented approach to social development would be brought to bear on other important areas.

  • Workers protest poor, discriminatory pay

    Members of the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOP) have protested against the unfavorable working environment foisted on them by the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers (AFTBE).

    It said it could ot continue to work while others get the gains from their works and that the gradual casualisation of their industry evident in the near rejection of their demands by AFTBE was unethical.

    President, Comrade Quadri Olaleye spoke at the joint peaceful protest organised by the union simultaneously in selected companies in Apapa and Ikeja, Lagos State.

    Olaleye said the collective agreement for the review of salaries and other fringe benefits for his members had been due since August this year. He lamented that despite  sending proposal to AFTBE since July, negotiations  only commenced in October which showed that AFTBE is executing  an agenda against his members.

    FOBTOP said the narrowing of their demands down to two from seven by the employers with a refusal to discuss other items contained in the proposal having delayed negotiations for so long is against good labour acts.

    Olaleye said: “It is regrettable that despite the fact that five consecutive meetings were held with the employers, it appears that the employers are not willing to discuss in good faith with our union based on the realities on ground.

    “Currently, overlapping salaries between the cadres in the industry has reached an extent that some junior staff are reluctant to accept promotion to senior staff cadre as they enjoy more benefits than their senior colleagues such as overtime allowance, not extended to us and as managers, we are being cheated despite our input in the business.”

    He lamented the domination by expatriates in the food, beverage and tobacco industry, which he said is unfortunate in a country where there is no proper social security.

     

    The expatriates, he alleged,   are paid salaries and allowances that are outrageously high for jobs which they lack the requisite expertise to perform.

    “The number of years for an expatriate to stay and be understudied is four in the country but the situation  is not so here as some of  them are so powerful and connected  that they have exceeded  the number of years to stay,” he said.

    FOBTOP want AFBTE to tackle the issue of illegal and unqualified expatriates that have flooded the industry under fictitious titles.

    It also wants an end to the victimisation of its members through various redundancy exercises and also maintained that the offer from

  • Reason for power sector poor regulation

    Politics, not lack of manpower has stalled every effort to regulate the power sector and further reposition it for growth since its privatisation in 2013. The Association of Electricity Distributors of Nigeria(ANED), Executive Director, Research and  Advocacy, Mr Sunday Oduntan has said.

    He said the inability of the Federal Government to demonstrate political will by appointing a substantive Chief Executive Officer for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission(NERC), has frustrated efforts to regulate the market well, ditto the delay, by the government to  constitute the Board of the agency.

    In a visit to The Nation last weekend, in company of ANED’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Azu Onya,  said the sector would have by now have a strong regulation, but for the failure of the government to constitute the Board of the agency.

    Oduntan said:’’ For eighteen (18) months, no  commissioner was appointed by the Federal Government to regulate the NERC. The agency is still without a substantive Board. All these are afffecting the regulationof the power sector. The issue bordered on politics in the sector, and nothing else.Does that mean that the country does not have competent and skilled workforce to steer the ship of the sector? Does that mean that the government can only get qualified personnel, when it shops outside the shore of Nigeria. At a time, an acting Chief Executive officer was appointed to run the affairs of NERC. In view, such officer does not have the power to regulate the sector well’’

  • How poor quality threatens non-oil export target

    How poor quality threatens non-oil export target

    The United States (US) has rejected 72 tonnes of yam from Nigeria. It was the latest in the series of rejection of agricultural products from Nigeria by the US and the European Union (EU). Experts blame this on dearth of infrastructure and Nigeria’s export regulatory agencies’ failure to adopt a quality management approach to improve the quality of agric produce exports. They fear that this could hurt Nigeria’s target of $100 billion annually from non-oil export. Asst Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, is crest-fallen. Amid fanfare, his ministry flagged off the exportation of yam to Europe and the United States (U.S) on June 29. The first consignment of 72 metric tonnes of yam left Nigeria through the Apapa Port to U.S. And with the shipment, Ogbeh was euphoric.

    It couldn’t have been otherwise. To him, and indeed, other operators and stakeholders in the non-oil export business, it was an indication that Nigeria’s efforts at stimulating non-oil export to earn foreign exchange and also facilitate economic diversification was gaining traction.

    Encouraged by the feat, the Minister announced that the Federal Government targeted about $8 billion annually from yam export to other countries.

    In all, the government, under its Zero Oil Plan, which targets to replace oil as a major foreign exchange earner by boosting non-oil export, targeted the realisation of $100 billion revenue from non-oil export yearly.

    Working through the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the government identified 22 countries as markets for Nigeria’s 11 products with high financial value to replace oil under the plan. It targets about 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a repositioned non-oil sector.

    However, both the realisation of the $8 billion from yam and the $100 billion from non-oil export annually have come under threat. Three months after the widely-celebrated June 29 yam shipment to the U.S, the authorities there rejected the yam, citing poor quality of the consignment.

    A livid Ogbeh has vowed to investigate the exporting company and officials of the ministry’s Department of Quarantine for allowing such sub-standard good to leave the country.

    “Some consignment of yams was exported from Nigeria to the U.S and according to reports we have, they were found to be of poor quality. We will be investigating both the company that exported it and our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here,” the minister fumed.

    Ogbeh, in what was seen by not a few stakeholders as unnecessary blame game, sought to exonerate his ministry from the embarrassment when he said the ministry was not an exporter; the exporters are private people.

    The Nation learnt that local and international exporters involved in the yam export programme included Messrs Wan-Nyikwagh Farms Nig. Ltd, Gboko, Nigeria, and Oklanbest Limited, Ibadan, Nigeria.

    There were also off-takers including Messrs ADES African Foods and Drinks, United Kingdom, Horizon Beeps Associates Ltd., Texas, US, Glorious Expression, Georgia, US, Vine Global Import & Export, Georgia, US, Zuka Trading and Distribution Co Inc., California, US.

    U.S explains

    Although the minister said investigations had begun, the authorities in the U.S have clarified that the rejection was due to poor transportation facilities.

    According to the Consultant to United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Nigeria,) NEXTT Project, Mr. Aderemi Osijo, biodegradation of perishable foods takes place naturally unless strategies are adopted to prevent, or delay the process.

    He said yam, being a perishable good, needed to be placed in controlled-atmosphere, at a temperature significant biodegradation could not take place. Osijo is the managing director, RBS Consulting Limited.

    He explained that when product temperature rises above the threshold for carriage, the risk of biodeterioration becomes greater, and biodeterioration can begin with eventual detectable effects. According to him, the yams may have spent a long time on the road and at the container terminal, which eventually affected the quality of the cargo.

    Osijo said transporting yams entailed expensive logistical operations, transport and Customs clearance expenses which represent a significant cost of the exports. To protect the food, he said the packaging has to be suitable for the purpose, the duration and the complexity of the storage and journey.

    He was emphatic that said if the government and the industry were serious about boosting agro exports, they needed to pay greater attention to the role of transportation and logistics to mitigate the impact of climate change on cargo for exports.

    National Cashew Association of Nigeria President Mr. Tola Fateru agrees with him. He said many agro export commodities were perishable, and failure to ship them on time would cause them to perish, resulting in huge loss of income, livelihood and export revenue for exporters and the nation.

    Fateru, who spoke at a press conference on non-oil export with the theme: “Nigeria’s economic diversification under threat,” warned that if Apapa Road linking export terminals at the port were not fixed on time, exporters may stop buying agric produce from farmers.

    He said export warehouses were filled with commodities which should have been promptly shipped; and that they were rotting way.

    While suggesting that priority should be given to exportable commodities, in line with the Federal Government’s economic diversification agenda, Fateru said all roads dedicated for export should be made absolutely for export only and nothing more.

    However, last week’s rejection of Nigeria’s yam by the U.S over poor quality was not the first time rejection of export-bound agro-allied products would rob Nigeria of the benefits of a vibrant non-oil export-based economy.

    In fact, this has been the case since Nigeria started its strategic refocus on the non-oil sector, following the crisis in the international oil market where the price of crude oil has been crashing.

    For instance, the European Union (EU) ban on Nigeria’s beans is yet to be lifted. The EU had banned the beans because they contained high level of pesticides which are unhealthy.

    Although relevant export regulatory agencies said they were working to get the EU to lift the ban, the European body said it was not impressed by measures taken by the Nigerian authorities to resolve the issue. Accordingly, it extended the ban by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.

    “The continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria and maximum residue levels of pesticides shows that compliance with food law requirement as regards pesticide residual cannot be achieved in the short term.

    “The duration of the importation prohibition should therefore be extended for an additional period of three years to allow Nigeria implement the appropriate risk-management measure and provide required guarantees,” the EU had said.

    About 67 processed and semi-processed food products of Nigeria origin exported to the EU were said to have been rejected in 2015 and last year. The rejected food items included brown and white beans, melon seeds, palm oil, mushrooms, bitter leaf, ugu leaves, shelled groundnut, smoked catfish and crayfish, among others.

    The Republic of Ireland also rejected and returned five containers of beans from Nigeria. The products were said to have been received with heaps of weevils. The U.S also recently banned the importation of Nigeria’s cocoa into its market.

    The U.S authorities were said to have taken the action because Nigeria’s cocoa did not satisfy the standard required for exports into the country.

     

    Lack of quality assurance remains a sore point

    While Ogbeh, and, indeed, other authorities in the Nigerian non-oil export sector are obviously embarrassed by the barrage of rejection of agro-allied commodities, the preponderance of opinion is that the rejections were, to a large extent, self-inflicted.

    Those who hold this position argue that Nigeria consistently shoots itself in the foot by refusing to put in place appropriate and adequate measures to guarantee the quality of her agric products.

    They argue that Nigeria put the wrong foot forward when it moved to leverage on the sector to grow the economy without first putting in place functional laboratories for testing and certifying products before export.

    For instance, the founder, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Mr. Robo Adhuze, noted that lack of seriousness by the Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS), the agency responsible for checking and certifying agro-allied products leaving the country, was hurting Nigeria’s non-oil export economy.

    Adhuze said: “Quality standards have moved from physical standards to biological standards, but FPIS appears not be up to speed with this reality.”

    He recalled that for about five years, Ghana suffered the same fate as Nigeria’s when over 2,000 metric tonnes of her cocoa beans were rejected by Japan.

    He said following appeals by the Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan to the Ghanaian authorities to take immediate steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in cocoa beans, Ghana, a country famous for its very high quality cocoa beans, rose to the challenge by putting in place measures to guarantee the quality of her cocoa products for export.

    He expressed disappointment that while Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities took steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in their cocoa beans, Nigeria was unable to do so. The result, he said, was the harvest of export ban now threatening the non-oil sector, especially on agro-allied products.

    Curiously, the threat is coming despite assurances by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) that it had come out with strategies to stimulate export of agric products by ensuring that they met international standards, and would not be rejected by the importing country.

    The agency had announced that it was developing standards for select priority produce from farm to storage, cutting across soil composition, soil preparation, kind of pesticides to use, seed improvement, harvesting, packaging labelling and storage.

    SON said it had developed codes to guide producers and farmers of the selected products that are of high priority so that Nigeria could deliver safe and affordable agro allied products to the international community.

    The agency also said it had strengthened capacity for lab testing and certification of produce eant for export. It added that the products were tested only in the countries of export.

    According to the former Acting Director-General of SON, Dr. Paul Angya, Nigeria does not have control over the results, “because we don’t have much of the facilities for testing in Nigeria. The facilities are what we call quality infrastructure. The testing laboratories are one of the major components of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI).”

    He said there were only two of such laboratories in Nigeria, with SON and National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) having one each for testing food products. Angya, however, said SON was developing a large lab complex in Ogba, Lagos, which is over 85 per cent completed, noting that when completed, Nigeria should be able to test all standards and parametres for food products.

    Apart from SON and NAFDAC, other agencies charged with ensuring that export products are properly checked and certified include Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

    Others agencies that will come under the minister’s searchlight in the course of the investigation include NEPC, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC).

  • Tragedy of Nigerian poor’s herd mentality

    What President Muhammadu Buhari was persistently ridiculed and condemned as a failure even before his second year in office, was a direct consequence of his inability to uphold the corrupt but highly lucrative systemic bazaar of the past. Although Buhari’s leadership suffers the affliction of crooked men and women, his glamourised aversion to corruption and his ongoing anti-corruption campaign, resonates dangerously to the country’s crooked divide. Too many men and women accustomed to pocketing and spending money that they didn’t earn are suddenly aghast and petrified by their inability to conduct ‘business as usual.’

    That former President Goodluck Jonathan took God for a fool also attests to the plague and degenerate sway of money. Jonathan, in abject desperation for acceptance and goodwill of Nigerian masses, travelled from the presidential villa in Aso Rock, Abuja, to stage a dramatic communion with God, on his knees, before Enoch Adeboye, a respected cleric.

    Cut to another hodgepodge of the ex-president on his knees, before Ayo Oritsejafor and other self-appointed “men of God” in faraway Jerusalem, Israel. Jonathan in flagrant disregard of religious tenets advising that man’s communion with his Creator should be personal and unpretentious, deserted his abode in Abuja to embark on a spiritual jamboree of his self-styled ‘humility’ and communion with God across the country and overseas.

    Predictably, psychologically and materially-impoverished loyalists cum the ex-president’s media aides argued that he simply loved to ‘lead by example’ thus politicizing his “humility” and “love of God” to the fascination and appreciation of all. It is however, unclear by what standards they will prove that heartfelt prayers muttered by the former president on his knees, in the corners of his room, would have been less significant than his theatrical communion with God.

    Were these spiritual shows emblematic of Jonathan’s unpretentious love of God or were they symptomatic of a desperate wish to perpetuate him in power for the attendant fiscal and material perks? Cut to Stella Oduah, aviation minister’s N255 million bullet-proof automobile scandal Sambo Dasuki’s $2.1 billion arms purchase scam and Abdulrasheed Maina, former pension boss’ N21 billion pension fund racket to mention a few, and you have an interesting picture of the Nigerian ruling class’ inexorable lust for money and other material things.

    There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent malaise on capitalism; however, attractive as such sophistry may resound, the impulse for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money in fact, has nothing to do with capitalism – it is merely a symptom, like perverse capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of eejits, tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.

    The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money, the country’s recurrent tragedies and propensity to self-destruct, reveals an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity. Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.

    Through decades of moral perversions and self-inflicted disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate. While many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.

    Today, the fear of poverty as the irrepressible lust for money, drive too many to commit gross acts of dishonesty and irresponsibility. Personal greed is pervasive and poverty is endemic. It represents the triumphal punch delivered by the proverbial system against the country’s poor, hopeless masses. Nigeria suffers the consequence of the supremacy of money. Money elevates and ennobles the possessor of it; whatever the nature and import of the rich’s membership of society, as long as he has money to flaunt and throw around, nobody cares what value he adds to and denies society.

    Thus the pardon and acquittal of several corrupt politicians and deposed bank chiefs; even after insurmountable evidences were marshaled against them by prosecution, they got off too easily with court sentences that were tantamount to a pat on the back.

    The poor, on the other hand, epitomise more of what is wrong and contemptible with the society. They represent that segment of the society that is easily swayed, viciously condemned and trodden by the power of money.

    The power of money is indeed frightening and overwhelming. Like Okwudiba Nnoli notes, it uplifts and crushes, enhances and debases, exhilarates and disenchants, dignifies and dehumanizes, enlightens and blinds, unites and divides. Under the influence of money, humaneness and the quest for the collective good are ferociously smothered by disruptive and selfish considerations. Materialism is fostered and greed is ennobled in the mad dash for money. Consequently, justice, freedom, equality, dignity and other human rights, are sacrificed.

    More worrisome is the reality of the poor in Nigeria being unquestioningly docile to the power of money. This impoverished lot is hardly impressed by humaneness and promising leadership. To them, these are manifestations of weakness. Their loyalty and sympathies are reserved for tyrants that treat them like dogs on a leash. It is to these latter that they exhibit the greatest obsequiousness and erect the greatest statues.

    While it is true that the poor would often trample maniacally on the despot, who by a poetic twist of fate – be it by class politics or masses revolt – gets stripped of his power and authority, they do so because having lost his strength, the despot becomes relegated to an ignoble spot among the weak and repressed, who are to be loathed and not feared.

    This is emblematic of Gustave Le Bon’s philosophy of ‘The Crowd,’ which was valued not only by Pareto, Freud, Mussolini, and de Gaulle, but even by Horkheimer and Adorno. Le Bon contends that the type of  “hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear…Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy.”

    Democratic ideas are therefore in profound disagreement with the psychology and experience of the Nigerian poor. It is unsurprising then, that materially and mentally impoverished folk would distrust democracy and its promise of collective good, to covet and pursue the vain and ephemeral perks of socio-political harlotry.

  • Chidoka promises succour for poor

    Chidoka promises succour for poor

    Anambra State United Progressive Party (UPP) governorship candidate.  Chief Osita Chidoka has promised to establish a highly competent, resourceful and prudent government that will resurge productivity and create a system that empowers the ordinary people to create wealth.

    The former aviation minister   commended the leadership of the UPP for upholding the ideology of the party to serve the interest of the people.

    Noting that the ordinary people in Anambra have suffered neglect,  Chidoka said one of the cardinal aims of his administration is “the empowerment of the ordinary people through a special wealth transfer policy; the first of its kind, that grants hardworking people of Anambra State direct access to government guaranteed facilities, opportunities and connections to excel in their respective fields.”

    He added: “I want to restate our commitment to run a highly transparent people-based government driven by a knowledge economy that resurges our innovativeness and wealth-creating abilities as a people.

    “Our driving force will be our competence, sense of duty and honesty. We will not run a government where only a few individuals have access to state resources and opportunities while the rest of the people suffer. No! That will not happen under my watch. Anambra state belongs to all Anambra people and everybody must be carried along and afforded equal opportunity. I want to create a situation in Anambra where the children of the poor and the forgotten have equal access and opportunity in our development as a state. Once I do this, I would have been true to my calling and vision.”

    The former Corps Marshal of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC)  said the time has come for Anambra to restore the integrity of governance “by voting not on the basis of divisive arguments but for a person of proven competence, character and required commitment to lead the state at this trying time.”

    Chidoka said the people are not only aware, but also solidly behind him in the patriotic quest to restore their rightful place in governance. He therefore, urged them to get their permanent voter’s cards in preparation for the election.

    While receiving Chief Chidoka at a stakeholders meeting in Orumba South, a community leader in the area, Ichie Nwagboso Onyeagba, commended him for standing with the people and championing their interest at all times.

    Onyeagba urged Anambra people to support Chidoka, adding that the November election offers the people the golden opportunity to ensure that incompetent, dishonest and compromised persons are not allowed to foist themselves on the state.