The Nation Newspaper

Tag: problem

  • N100b textile fund: How solution became problem

    N100b textile fund: How solution became problem

    Despite the challenge of unbridled importation of cheap and substandard textile materials and the infrastructural deficit in the country, the Federal Government went ahead disbursing the N100b Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) Revival Fund. Stakeholders say the government may have put the cart before the horse thus nailing the coffin of the ailing textile industry, reports Assist. Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA.  

    It a generous interest rate of six per cent and a repayment period of five years, operators in the textile industry ought to be falling over themselves to access the N100 billion Cotton, Textile, and Garment (CTG) Revival Fund. But this has not been the case. Rather than scramble for the loan, most textile companies are said to be avoiding it like plague. Only about 20 textile firms have so far accessed the loan, according to the Director General, Nigeria Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), Mr. Jaiyeola Olarewaju. He also disclosed that very few cotton and garment firms have taken the loan, which sought to revitalise the CTG industry along the entire value chain, including textile, cotton, and garment production.

    Olarewaju told The Nation that the fund introduced in 2010, and currently managed by Bank of Industry (BoI), recorded some noticeable improvements in the fortunes of the CTG industry such as the re-opening of United Nigeria Textiles Limited in Kaduna, and Arewa Textiles, which indicated interest to come back. Besides, the industry, he said, recorded relatively less factory closures and redundancies, as some of the 20 textile companies who took the loan deployed it either as working capital or used it to refurbish their machines.

    Olarewaju however, expressed regrets that those who took the loan got their fingers burnt when they discovered, shortly after accessing the loan, that over 80 per cent of the market has been taken over by cheap imports from Asian countries. According to him, the influx of foreign textiles into the country made locally produced textiles less competitive, as they are often costlier than imported or smuggled ones. The result, he said, was that other companies yet to access the loan chose to avoid it. Most of them became afraid that they may not be able to repay the loan considering the prevailing unfriendly operating environment particularly with regards to lack of infrastructure.

    As far as the textile firms are concerned, government put the wrong foot forward when it failed to first reduce smuggling and address the more fundamental challenge of lack of infrastructure particularly power supply before coming out with the bailout fund. Because of Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit particularly, inadequate and unreliable electricity supply, manufacturers, including textile companies, are forced to rely on generators at huge cost, resulting in rising cost of production.

    Cost of manufacturing textiles in Nigeria is considered too high partly because of high energy cost. For instance, the price of gas was increased by 15 per cent from January 2014 and price of black oil, which is an important input in the production process, remains high due to scarcity. In textile production, companies either use gas or black oil. But in a state like Kaduna, there is complete absence of gas. What is found is black oil, which is often in low quantity. Besides, the insecurity situation in the country especially in the Northeast made nonsense of the intervention fund, as most textile companies in that part of the country could not operate.

    “We are stagnated now; the problem goes beyond money,” says President, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Comrade Oladele Hunsu. Hunsu toldThe Nation that although, there was a significant improvement in the industry, as 1, 500 jobs have been saved through the intervention, efforts to put the industry back on track have been frustrated by government’s policy inconsistency. He said before the introduction of the fund, government had banned the importation of textiles into the country, which was why operators hailed the initiative and also embraced it. He however, lamented that the same government pulled the rug off the feet of operators when it again unbanned the importation of textiles, thus opening the floodgate for cheaper textiles to come in from Asia.

    Comrade Hunsu lamented that the situation is regrettable considering the fact that the real sector rather than the service sector remains the real growth diver. He said the textile industry is the second largest employer of labour after government, which is why government must put necessary measures and policies in place to salvage the industry. His position was in line with the communiqué issued at the end of a three-day workshop for union organisers and self-employed tailors and small scale garment makers organised recently by his union in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Ilorin, Kwara State.

    The communiqué noted, for instance, that the performance of the Nigerian textile industry remained at low ebb in the first half of 2014 due to lack of an enabling environment and inconsistency in government policy. NUTGTWN observed that there are 25 textile mills employing about 24,000 workers, while capacity utilisation in the industry remains below 50 per cent, with growth remaining stagnant since 2012. The communiqué noted that government had talked about a new textile policy in February 2013, but regretted that there has been no progress. It therefore, argued that unless government takes effective steps to revive the industry, gains achieved in 2010 when the revival fund came on stream would be lost, resulting in job losses, which would aggravate the unemployment situation.

    One of the effective steps the union is canvassing to breathe life into the comatose textile industry is to immediately checkmate the influx of smuggled goods, which the union insistsoccupy over 90 per cent of the market. “It is estimated that Nigeria ‘imports’ N300 billion worth of textiles and garments annually, most of which are illegally imported without paying any duties and taxes. The total amount of revenue loss on account of Customs duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) on this volume is estimated at N75 billion. Such rampant evasion of taxes lost to smuggling when the government is running from pillar to post to mobilise revenue should be an eye opener,” the communiqué read.

    The communiqué further noted that the huge backlog of Negotiable Duty Credit certificates (NDCCs) accumulated over last two yearsunder the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) has thrown the CTG industry into serious financial crisis, which the N100 billion funds has so far failed to resolve. “This has been caused by an arbitrary suspension imposed by the Federal Ministry of Finance on utilisation of the certificates, issued by the same ministry, for duty payment. Textile manufacturers who exported their goods by factoring the grant in their price are facing a severe liquidity crisis,” the union observed.

    However, textile companies are not the only ones lamenting over liquidity crisis induced by the backlog of unutilised NDCC. Earlier, manufacturers under their umbrella association, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) had cried out that the same issue had virtually paralysed their operations and simultaneously affected their image as reliable international partners. MAN said the shoddy implementation of the EEG, a Federal Government’s incentive introduced to help manufacturers for export compete favourably with their counterparts in the international market, created continued reluctance in the acceptance of NDCC for duty payment since 2010.

    The Nation learnt that under the EEG, benefitting exporters are entitled to some claims based on the value of export proceeds received, duly certified by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while the approved claims are paid to them by government through the use of a negotiable instrument known as the NDCC, which entitles the exporter to offset part or whole of subsequent Customs and Excise duties payable to the government.

    But members of MAN and NUTGTWN have been expressing concern over the administration of the EEG scheme, which they say created challenges for their members who are actively involved in the export business. They associations therefore, called for timely policy pronouncement on rendering the backlog of unutilised NDCC by the Federal Government. “This will go a long way to stem the frustrations of majority of the genuine exporters who are desirous of growing their businesses and creating  value addition in the economy. It will also address the issue of leakages in government revenue and bring sanity into the administration of the scheme,” MAN argued, for instance.

    In the case of textile companies, the liquidity crisis caused by the backlog of NDCCs made it extremely difficult for them to pay the interests on the loan from BOI due to low capacity utilisation. The tenure of the loan matures in 2016. Already, the textile companies, in the communiqué, jointly signed by Hunsu and General Secretary of NUTGTWN, Comrade Issa Aremu,appealed to BOI to extend the repayment period of the loan by 10 years. They also requested flexibility to redeem the EEG certificates in lieu of loan instalment.

    These, NUTGTWN noted, became necessary due partly to the havoc wreaked on the industry by smuggling and partly due to lack of patronage of made in Nigeria textiles as a result of lack of effective policy enforcement. The union observed that most government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) such as police, customs, immigration and army still prefer to use imported fabrics rather than those locally made.

    While emphasising that there is need for some sort of protection for the CTG industry, Hunsu told The Nation  that Nigeria should borrow a leaf from developed countries of the world including some African countries that have been highly supportive of their textile industry to improve their competitiveness. He cited the United States of America, which he said dished out a whopping $75 million to bail out General Motors. Also, while Ghana has three large textile mills and allows import of all raw materials, dyes & chemicals and spare parts at zero per cent duty, Kenya continues to be a hub for readymade garment exports.

    Curiously, while textile manufacturers are groaning that the N100 billion CTG revival fund has not significantly improved their lot, BOI’s records appear to paint a picture of an industry on its way to recovery. For instance, BOI says that over 60 per cent of the fund has been committed to 52 companies in the CTG industry as at March, 2013. The bank cited the re-opening of United Nigeria Textiles Limited in Kaduna as one of the numerous positive impacts of the scheme.

    BoI also said that a mid-term evaluation of the CTG industry commissioned by BOI/UNIDO to evaluate the impact of the scheme reveals that over 8,070 jobs had been saved through the intervention, while capacity utilisation for most beneficiaries increased from below 40 per cent to about 61 per cent. Besides, over 50 per cent of those making losses has started reporting profits.

    But the textile companies are not swayed by BOI’s statistics. While saying that “BOI must be commended for the way it has so far managed the fund, Hunsu however, pointed out that the figures churned out by the bank indicating the success of the fund do not reflect the reality on ground. He said while only about 1, 500 jobs have been saved through the intervention, capacity utilisation remained very low. He reiterated that financing is just one out of the numerous challenges facing the textile industry in particular and manufacturing industries in general.

    The textile industry was once the bride of the nation’s industrial sector. In its heyday, around the1980s, the textile market was acknowledged as third largest in Africa, with over 160 vibrant textile mills and over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. By 1985, the number of textile mills had increased to about 180, engaging about one million workers. The country’s textile capacity accounted for 60 per cent in West Africa.

    However, the fortunes of the industry started nose-diving in  early  1994 when most of the textile firms started caving in under the weight of smuggling, unstable business and political climate, and high production costs due to poor infrastructure. By 1995, government, according to experts, plunged the industry into deeper crisis when it pushed the country into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

    The WTO adopted Agreements on Textile and Clothing, which states that all quotas on textile and clothing will be removed among WTO member countries. For Nigeria whose industrial base was considered as very weak, the agreement was seen by many as a fundamental error, as it opened the floodgate for the importation of inferior and cheap textiles in Nigeria.

  • Mass failure, mass problem

    Mass failure, mass problem

    The May/June 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) result was poor. It was mass failure as 31.28 per cent passed. Last  year, 36.57 per cent passed and in 2012, it was 38.81 per cent, showing a steady decline in the past three years. How can Nigeria wriggle out of this problem? ask ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, PRECIOUS DIKEWOHA (Port Harcourt), DAMISI OJO (Akure), ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE (Kaduna) and NICHOLAS KALU (Calabar).

    IT did not start today. It has been happening for years. But the mass failure in this year’s May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) seemed to touch a raw nerve in many. The cry, nationwide, is why this kind of result again?

    About 529,425 (31.28 per cent) of the 1,692,435 candidates that sat for the examination  made five credits, including Mathematics and English

    Although the West African Examinaions Council (WAEC) claimed Nigerian candidates did better than their counterparts in the sub-region, many believe that the 31.28 per cent pass is nothing to crow about.

    The figure is a slight decline from the 36.57 per cent and 38.81 per cent recorded in 2013 and 2012.

    WAEC Head of National Office (HNO), Mr Charles Eguridu absolved all tiers of government of blame, saying parents are culpable for their children’s performance.

    Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education are worried over the development. They have vowed to “engage WAEC authorities for an explanation to Nigerians on the abysmal performance of candidates in the examination.”

    The committee’s Chairman  Aminu Suleiman, said he hoped that through such interaction, the committee would know where the problems lie rather than blaming WAEC.

    Speaking last week when the committee visited the National Universities Commission (NUC) as part of its oversight function, he said reversing the perennial failure required concerted efforts.

    Said Suleiman: “Well, it’s quite unfortunate. Incidentally, we will be visiting WAEC  and it will form part of our engagement with the body. But I want to believe that WAEC should not be held solely responsible for this.

    “We wish to go and interact with them (WAEC) and hear from them what is actually responsible for this alarming rate of failure, which was put at about 38 per cent in a percentage of a 100. It is disturbing and totally unacceptable in a country like Nigeria.

    “Whatever it takes, we will do the little we can as government and I believe government has done the best it could; but if there are areas we need to hold government accountable, we will encourage government to do, but where it is the responsibility of those who have to be in charge of the process, we will look at that.”

    But, Eguridu is optimistic, hinging his optimism on the fact that Nigerian candidates performed better than others in the West African examination.

    He said: “Nigerians performed very well comparatively to candidates, especially in Mathematics.” But many Nigerians are not impressed with his submissions.

    Majority of parents, teachers, and other opinion moulders nationwide described the May/June WASCCE as a sign of rot in education. They blamed the mass failure on  pupils’ addiction to the internet, laziness, pupils and parents’ culpability in examination fraud, teachers indifference to work, poor teaching methodology, poor teachers motivation and government’s unwillingness to address the problem among others.

    To Chikere Ordu, a Mathematics teacher at Omuagwa Community Secondary School, Rivers State, technology and other social interactive sites constitute part of the problem.

    Ordu believes that teachers should share less of the blame as their work is to ensure that pupils acquire basic knowledge of the subjects they will take during examination.

    ”Look, in a situation where teachers cry like babies before they receive their salaries, a situation where the government has failed on their own way to provide the necessary teaching aid, then  what would you expect of WASSCE result? We need to go back to the drawing board,” Ordu said.

    School owners, according to her, also have a key role to play.

    “I think teachers have done their best by ensuring that they play their role as teachers; it is now left for school owners or managers to provide the enabling environment, because you cannot expect good result or good performance from students if the environment is not conducive.”

    Mrs. Godknows Ogbulu, Head of Education Desk, Tide said the rot in the education and teachers’ attitude, especially in public schools, may have compounded the WASSCE results.

    ”How many teachers in public schools are ready to teach nowadays?” Mrs Ogbulu asked.

    She added: “Everybody wants to make money without working for it. Teachers are the ones to rouse the children from examination failure, but they are relaxing. Today, a student, who wants to write WASSCE and pass, pays a certain amount of money. As a result, teachers feel it is unnecessary to labour much in imparting knowledge to students.”

    A teacher at the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), in Ondo, Dr. Zaccheaus Olupayimo, believes everybody is culpable.

    Olupayimo, who is the Head of Department of History, told The Nation that the implication of  the result is that it could kill the dreams of students who hope to use same for admission into tertiary institutions in the 2014/2015 academic session.

    He identified poor infrastructure in public schools and government’s inconsistent policies as two factors largely responsible for the candidates’ dismal performance.   Olupayimo expressed concern over the attitude of some parents towards their children education.

    He urged stakeholders to join the fight against mass failure, saying the government should redouble its efforts at providing  infrastructure and decent learning environment.

    A school principal in Akure, the Ondo State capital, who spoke in confidence, accused students of unseriousness.

    According to him, with the coming of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), most students devote more time to frivolities.

    He tasked parents to monitor their children and ensure they attend to their studies, especially when preparing for major examinations.

    Proprietor of Adeyemo College in Kaduna, Mr. Niyi Adeyemo, argued for more funding of education by the government. He said:

    “From my experience, education is capital intensive and any government that is not able to spend as much as is required will not be able to get the right result. The attention that is being given to education differs from school to school; some give little attention and want to achieve much and when you aggregate the intellect of these children you find that a larger percentage of children, today, do not have the skills that is required of them when you talk of education.

    “When you look at education, the level of demand of an average child in the modern world is far more than what it was in the past. So, the rate of development is slower than what it ought to be. That is why our children find it difficult to meet the capacity of the global world. That is what is perceived as low quality of education, and responsible for the mass failure.”

    Adeyemo berated schools, which tax their pupils’ parents in order to pass examination.

    “For God’s sake, where are we going? They (schools) use the money to bribe supervisors and hire instructors that will help them write answers on the board. A student that is supposed to sit down and write with his own ideas will only be copying answers from the board. But, as God will catch them, some of the instructors they hire cannot even interpret questions correctly; and that is why you see mass failure.”

    Adeyemo implored government to resuscitate the Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Education and employ people with sound experience to inspect government and private schools.

    “When you talk of examination malpractice, it starts from inspection. Who inspected those schools that are cheating? Who gave them approval? And how many teachers do you see there that are qualified?” he asked.

    “So, the government must go back to the old days and bring back the inspectorate team that has the fear of God to visit both public and private schools unawares, and any school found wanting should be dealt with. If government can start from here, some sanity can be put in place for a start,” Adeyemo stressed.

    A parent and journalist, Alhaji Tajudeen Tijani Ajibade’s argued that military’s incursion into politics started the prevailing education challenges.

    “Unfortunately, the civilian government has followed that (military) direction. Education is not the priority of those in government, today. That was the mindset of the military in those harrowing years. For example, when Prof Rukayyat Rufai (immediate past minister of Education) was in the saddle, she did well. Suddenly, Mr. President woke up one day and replaced her with another person, a politician, who was busy fighting perceived enemies while the ministry under him suffered.

    “Now, we have a teacher, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, as education minister. But, even at that, the circumstance that brought him up appeared to be more political than purely merit. There are people who can be better ministers outside the party. You can play politics with many other ministries, but not education,” said Ajibade.

    He expressed concern over the high coast of WAEC scratch cards. Parents, who have to pay N9000 to enrol their children, will definitely want them to make their papers at a sitting.

    “You can even imagine how much they (pupils) buy WAEC scratch cards. I wrote the first West African Exam in 1967 and what we paid then was seven shillings and six pence. Today, it takes a rich family to enrol its children in these examinations.”

    He stressed the need for the government to go back to the drawing board.  “Those who gave education to people like us did it with their whole heart. Today, a teacher doesn’t get his salary when it is due; even when he gets it, how much is the salary? So, he comes to the class and just marks register and goes out to sell his goods.   “We must also recruit professionals as teachers and pay them good salaries, because they are also aware of what other people are receiving outside,” Ajibade said.

    An  SS 1 pupil in Zamani College, Kaduna, Muhammad Thanni, said poor facilities in most schools affect examination success.

    “I am not surprised with the outcome of the WASSCE, because most of the things we have done at junior level in my school, others have not done it at senior level. In most cases, if you enquire further, you will find out that, most schools, especially government-owned ones, don’t even have the type of facilities we have. So, the implication is that, they will not do things that they ought to do with those facilities,” he said.

    Mr Bob Utsu, a teacher in Community Secondary School, Akpabuyo, said: “It is a very worrisome development, indeed. One of the reasons is the pupils’ attitude towards examinations. Pupils believe so much in the fact that, most times, the WAEC questions leak online. So, in the event that those things are not there or a fake, as they mostly are, they feel frustrated and fail as a result.

    “Again lack of facilities in the school is another problem. Teachers don’t have a conducive environment where they can stay and do their job effectively. Like in the school I teach, we don’t even have a staff room, not to talk of chairs for teachers to sit on.”

    Utsu added: “Parents also have a stake.  Many parents pursue money at the expense of their children’s education. They don’t even bother to look at their children’s books to see their performance; or whether they actually went to school or not. When they come from work, they are tired and have no time for their kids. “

    Another parent, Mr Tony Unor,  said: “We cannot attribute it (examination failure) to only the teachers. Parents, the school and government are all involved. When a teacher is done in school and the child comes back home, he or she is supposed to revise what was taught. But what you find now is that they are browsing irrelevant things on the internet or playing video games and their parents often look the other way.

    “Also the government has a role, too. If you go to some schools, you see students still sitting on the bare floor in this 21st century; so, how do you expect that kind of student to learn very well? The government too must ensure proper infrastructure are in place.”

    David Iso, a school principal in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, is also angry that parents approach teachers or school management on how to bend the rules with respect to examinations.

    “It is really very bad. I would like to place the first blame on parents and this is because, as a principal, I cannot count how many times parents have come to me to see how their children can be assisted to pass examinations. But I always tell them the only way is for their children to study and write their papers and pass. What this means is that the children are not in any way prepared to write their examination. So, when you see outcomes such as this (mass failure), I am not really surprised. How can parents discourage their children from reading in such a manner?

    “The students themselves are no longer studious. I don’t know how; but somehow they have come to get this belief that there is really no need to ‘punish’ themselves by studying for the examination, when answers can be made available to them through dubious means. They just keep money to get answers to the questions; and, more often than not, this fails them. How are they even sure the solutions to the questions given them are even real? I often wonder,” Iso said.

  • ‘Election a major problem in Nigeria’

    The political class said Nigeria’s problem since independence begun with flawed elections.

    They noted that the failure of the country to conduct free and fair elections led to various military take over.

    This, they agreed, marked the beginning of the country’s problem.

    They, however, failed to mention whether the electoral umpire or politicians was responsible for flawed elections in the country.

    But a former Presidential aspirant, Emmanuel Iwuayanwu, however, agreed that the struggle in handling the elections led to successive military takeovers.

    Iwuayanwu spoke in Abuja at a book launched titled: Jinx Breaker: The installation of a new political order in Nigeria.

    The book, which takes a look at the country’s electoral history and the contribution of a former Independent Electoral Commission Chairman, Dr. Maurice Iwu, was written by Elvis Ned Iwuajoku.

    Iwuanyawu said: “Any problem we have in Nigeria started with election. The entire crisis we had from independence been as a result of election.

    “Iwu inherited a very bad electoral process that was capable of destroying our democracy.”

    Also, a former governor of Abia state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu said even the Pope can’t guarantee free and fair elections.

    Prof. Iwu in his remark also said it was important to pen the country’s electoral history because Nigeria doesn’t take proper documentation of events.

    Iwu said the book was necessary for because it will help to sustain the country’s democracy.

    Iwu said: I don’t even have a sense for vindication because I work for the future. The present has never been my preoccupation. The future is mine.

  • ‘Ex-NIM chief urges govt to solve economic problem’

    ‘Ex-NIM chief urges govt to solve economic problem’

    A former President of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Dr Lugard Aimiuwu, yesterday advised the Federal Government to profer urgent solutions to its economic challenges.

    He spoke at the NIM Chartered’s 2014 Centenary Distinguished Management Lecture with the theme: “Resetting Nigeria: Applying Transformational Disciplines” in Abuja.

    His wordse said: “More than ever before, Nigeria needs an urgent solution to the many leadership challenges besetting it which are threatening the nation’s economic, infrastructural and ethical revolution and the role of the transformation in making these lofty ideals realisable cannot be over emphasized.

    “The nation urgently needs vibrant, proactive and people-oriented transformational policies to stimulate visible and sustainable development in the critical sectors of national development.”

    He urged Nigerian leaders to utilise the opportunity presented by world powers to better the lives of its citizenry.

    The expert said:”The world is interconnected, interdependent, and competitive. Globalisation has raised the stakes, and is increasingly intolerant of failure. You cannot expect those who cannot handle a pole to do well at pole vault. The globe is now technically one market, and this market waits for no-one.

    “It takes leadership awareness to know that things are not alright under his watch. It takes sensitivity to want to do something about it. It takes professionalism to know what to do about it. It takes wisdom to know how to rein in the forces against change. It takes courage to get the job done.”

  • The problem with Omisore, by lawmaker

    The problem with Omisore, by lawmaker

    A MEMBER of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ipoola Omisore, has said the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, is not as bad as being painted in the public.

    The lawmaker, who spoke yesterday at the weekly “Time out with the press” organised by the House of Assembly Correspondents in Alausa, Ikeja, alleged that the governorship candidate lost his bearing because of his ambition to be a governor.

    Ipoola Omisore, who claimed to be an uncle to the PDP candidate, said the Omisore family had always been of the progressive genre.

    According to him, the patriarch of the family, who was his grandfather, co-founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in the 40s.

    He said the Egbe Omo Oduduwa later transformed to Action Group.

    Iyiola, he added, was also a deputy governor under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the party’s financier.

    “But because of his ambition to be governor and because he was not patient enough, he left for a conservative party.

    “Omisore family is a very large family and is a political family of the progressive genre and Iyiola himself was also in the progressive camp. But his ambition took him to the conservative camp,” he said.

    The lawmaker added: “Iyiola is displaying the attributes of the political party he belongs to while I display the attributes of my party.

    “He is my brother. I am not saying he cannot be governor, but he should wait and come back to his family party, the progressive party, where our father belonged. He has strayed away to a strange land. He should come to the party where he can be governor and not a party that does not care about the people.”

    On the Osun governorship election, the lawmaker said: “We know that PDP is not more popular than us in Ekiti. There were so many lapses in that election, like the over-militarisation of the entire process, the permanent voters card issue, which INEC skewed in favour of PDP and other tricks of Fayose and, of course, we played into their hands.

    “But we have learnt our lessons. We can go to court to stop soldiers from being part of the electoral process henceforth. In Osun, we have to block all observed loopholes.

    “But Aregbesola is closer to the grassroots, he is more grassroots than Omisore. All this latter day Okada road shows cannot help him. I pray that one day, Iyiola will come to my party and I will support him to get whatever he wants.”

  • The problem with our youths

    SIR: The youths constitute about 70% of the Nigerian population. We can, therefore, say that youths have a greater role to play in moving Nigeria forward, or vice versa. We cannot dispute the fact that most of the atrocities that have been committed in Nigeria today are not done through the youths. Our power-hungry politicians use youths to rig elections or snatch ballot boxes. When we talk of evil activities such as armed robbery, terrorism, violence and snuggery, youths are the active members. Even the majority of the members of Boko Haram are youths.

    The crucial question, therefore, is why should youths allow themselves to be used as agents of destruction rather than bringing development to our country? Youths ought to understand that they are the leaders of tomorrow, and therefore, should do nothing that would undermine their chances of becoming good ambassadors of the country.

    The underlining fact is that, many parents have failed in their responsibilities of proper upbringing of their children. Majority of the population of youths of nowadays lack adequate home training that would groom them to know how important they are to their immediate societies and development of the country in general. We must not shy from stating the fact that politicians have, over the years, taken the advantage of poor home training to brainwash the younger generations and use them as political thugs and agents of religious, regional and ethnic crises. These poorly groomed children today have constituted more problems that would cost Nigeria more than she had expected in terms of human lives lost, resources spent and her image that has been battered across the world.

    Now that President Jonathan has confirmed that Nigeria is not a poor country, why not then use our wealth to improve the lives of the citizens?

    True, Nigeria is not poor because she lacks human and material resources; it is poor because leaders have failed to harness these rich human and material resources to the advantage of the common man. It is worrisome how citizens continue to sink into poverty while the few rich continue to develop fatter stomachs through the resources that should be used to improve the well-being of all.

     

    • Hauwa Isa Gogo,

    IBB University, Lapai-Niger State.

  • Building problem solvers

    Building problem solvers

    About 400 students from over 30 tertiary institutions converged on the Kwara State University (KWASU) in Malete for the annual national Enactus Leadership Training Programme, which lasted four days. HAMEED MURITALA (400-Level Mass Communication, University of Ilorin) and CALEB ADEBAYO (400-Level Law, Obafemi Awolowo University) report.

    For three days last week, the Kwara State University (KWASU) in Malete hosted students from 32 institutions across the country. The visitors came for the annual leadership training of the Enactus Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

    The training is organised for selected student-members of the organisation yearly. Formerly known as Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), the Enactus Nigeria seeks to imbue academic and business leadership traits in students, who will use their entrepreneurial approach, creativity and innovation to solve problems in the community.

    The event began with a welcome address by Michael Ajayi, the programmes coordinator, who spoke on rules and regulations of the organisation.

    On Wednesday, Ajayi opened the training session with his lecture on Effective leadership using video presentations. “There is a difference between empowerment and effective empowerment,” Ajayi said, explaining 10 leadership strategies, which project managers follow to lead people to achieve effective results. A question-and-answer session followed the presentation, where students inquired about strategies of project implementation.

    The Country Director of Enactus Nigeria, Mrs Adesuwa Ifedi, who spoke on Seeing possibilities changes lives, said the organisation was building blocks for students to succeed as businessmen. Explaining the challenges of leadership in the 21st century, Ifedi urged participants to open their eyes to possibilities and engage in creation of ideas on quality projects that could impact on people’s lives and sustain development.

    She said: “Think of ideas and innovations that can change the country. We challenge you to solve problems in your various communities and be great stewards of a great future. You are living in new time and era. Don’t fall asleep, you have to keep your brain alert to understand the strategy to succeed in this time.”

    Ifedi engaged the students in brainstorming sessions to test leadership skills. She urged them to be innovative, dynamic, environmentally aware, socially responsible and globally competitive.

    The Director for Center for Entrepreneurship Development, KWASU, Dr Muritala Awodun, who took over from Ajayi, described the campus as centre of entrepreneurship and community development.

    The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, represented by the Provost of College of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Prof Innocent Okoye, assured the participants of the management’s supports for the programme, saying: “We want you to be job creators and not job seekers.”

    On the third day, a personality test was conducted on the participants to discover their personality types. Ifedi, discussing with the students, said: “Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage or balance personality types and get tasks done.” She also highlighted the attributes of a leader to include emotional intelligence.

    In the course of the programme, Prof Na’Allah made his appearance. There was excitement in the hall when the VC walked into the venue. Prof Na’Allah, in his short speech, told the participants not to lose hope in Nigeria.

    He said: “I always disagree with people who say Nigeria is not going to change for better, because I believe in the power of the youth in transforming this country. The youths have the opportunity to make a change. When they tell you that there is no hope for Nigeria, tell them that you will be the solution in making Nigeria a progressive nation. Tell them that you have the capabilities to move the nation forward.”

    Ifedi announced that the organisation in partnership with Accenture Nigeria, would, on May 1, launched an online employability training platform, LearnEx, which will prepare undergraduates for life after school.

    According to her, the electronic platform would give students skills that would make them employable and teach them how to write business plan. Ebuka Ezeji, the ICT coordinator of Enactus Nigeria, explained the operation of the platform to the participants.

    The event ended with presentation of awards to some persons and schools. Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Samuel Ajayi Crowther University and Babcock University were honoured for arriving early to the programme.

    Participants were, thereafter, given certificates of participation.

  • Goal scoring problem of Insurance —Eguavoen

    Goal scoring problem of Insurance —Eguavoen

    The Sole Administrator of Insurance FC of Benin, Austin Eguavoen, on Thursday said that goal scoring had been identified as a major challenge facing the club.

    Eguavoen spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin against the backdrop of the goalless draw with visiting Globacom Premier League team, Warri Wolves in a friendly game.

    The match was played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin on Thursday.

    He said that though the club was improving by the day, goal-scoring was still a major challenge.

    Eguavoen, a former Super Eagles Head Coach, pledged to work on the team’s goal scoring ability before their Nigeria National League match against Prime FC of Osogbo at the weekend.

    He expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the match saying: “I think we are improving every day, we must give it to Warri Wolves, they are more mature.

    “It’s expected of them because they played the Federation Cup final last year and going continental, they are expected to fly Nigeria’s flag. `We are happy with the result; we still have a lot to improve on. I strongly believe that the boys have all it takes to improve,’’ the administrator said.

    Paul Aigbogun, Coach of Wolves said the friendly match was meant to put his team in the right frame of mind for their first away continental match in Cameroon.

    “You know our first continental game in the CAF Confederation Cup is away from home, and so we came here with a team structured to play away from home. `We were a bit unfortunate that we could not slot in a goal but we came here to win,” he said.

    According to him, his team will do their best and ensure that they get a descent result when they travel to Cameroon.

    “We are going there to do our best and try and make everybody proud, no matter what. We will give it 100 per cent attention.

    Aigbogun, however, wished that the league had started before their continental game.

  • Will this problem ever go away?

    Right from day one, poor quality of service has been an issue with GSM operators. Despite 10 years of operations, they have not found a solution to the problem. LUCAS AJANAKU writes.

    It is a challenge that has confronted the sector since the coming of the global system of mobile communication (GSM) in the country.

    Everthing has been done to address it, to no avail. Rather than abate, it is persisting.

    Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government (SSG) Udom Gabriel Emmanuel situated the problem on context at the Telecoms Stakeholders’ Forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos. He told the gathering of GSM and lone Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators that the situation was so bad that subscribers now blame everything on “poor network services” just as they used to do with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). It has become popular even among the uneducated to hear phrases such as ‘network palaver’, ‘network wahala’ and such comments when they make fruitless efforts to make calls as it was with the National electric Power Authority (NEPA).

    It is not only the SSG that share the pains and anguish of the subscribers who toil day and night to buy recharge cards to make calls for which they hardly get value, Minister of Communications Technology Mrs. Omobola Johnson and NCC share the same feeling.

    On Monday, Mrs Johnson, the NCC and the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), held a strategic meeting with operators in Lagos, with quality of service topping the agenda. The meeting unanimously agreed that the service quality had fallen to unacceptable levels.

    Mrs Johnson is unhappy that despite all she had done to provide an enabling environment for the operators to roll out base transmission stations (BTS) and optic fibre cables (OFC), the problem still persists.

    Some of the challenges confronting the subscribers include poor network service delivery that has made it impossible for consumers to make/receive calls, drop calls, calls diversion, cross-talking and other such frustrating experiences on the network.

    The meeting agreed that rather than face the issue of poor service quality squarely, the operators are pre-occupied with sending unsolicited text messages at odd hours, unsolicited calls, deceptive broadband speed adverts general failure to deliver services without compensation to consumers. According to telecoms sector experts who spoke on the issues of quality of service degradation (network reliability, network availability, call drop, call set-up, denial of service and others) being experienced by consumers of mobile services, are caused by network congestion. It causes poor reception, drop calls, poor voice signal as well as blocking of interconnect routes between networks. “Since GSM technology is based on time division access, so when one person is talking on the network and there is no space for another call to enter, the other call will be aborted,” an expert said.

    Poor service quality is not peculiar to Nigeria. Though there could be occasional service disruption in services in matured telecoms markets like that of South Africa, it is common in emerging markets.

    According to figures released by the NCC, active mobile subscribers have passed the 121 million threshold while total installed capacity is 240, 679,159. This capacity, according to a telecoms lawyer, Paul Usoro (SAN) is far in excess of what the industry is currently working with. So why is the industry usually facing the problem of poor service quality?

    President, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbnega Adebayo said since the operators do not operate in a vacuum and since the operators do not operate in isolation, the fundamental environmental challenges affecting the country have to addressed by the government. He said he had to stop and caution a contractor working who ignorantly vandalized OFC, adding that there must be synergy to stop such incidence in the future.

    Such challenges are the bureaucracy around the grant of right of way (RoW), multiple taxation/regulation, premeditated vandalism of OFC and BTS, theft of fuel at BTS and crushing cost of running the networks on fuel. Others are resort to shutting down of BTS by officials of government ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) and lack of incentives to drive service penetration to the remote and rural areas.

    General Manager, Regulatory Affairs, MTN Nigeria, Oyeronke Oyetunde, said most of the issues concerned with service quality cannot be divorced from the high incidence of fibre cuts. According to her, MTN alone suffers a minimum of 70 fibre cuts every month. She said the issue of ‘emergency calls only’ that appears when a subscriber is trying to make calls is also a function of network problem.

    The EVC of the NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, complained that he had been inundated with complaints from subscribers about the declining quality of services by the operators. He disagreed with ALTON on the point of addressing what he described as environmental challenges, arguing that though there has been issue with power, operators have made provision through the provision of generators. Juwah insisted that service quality is also a function of the business models of the operators.

    He said the NCC lowered the key performance indicators (KPIs) after a fine was slammed on the operators. According to him, the operators complained, leading to the lowering of the KPIs adding that so far, the operators have kept to the lowered KPIs while the subscribers have continued complain over the poor service quality.

    Juwah promised that the NCC will revert to the previous KPIs next month.

    But Ministry of Communications Technology is not folding its arms on the issue. To tackle quality of service issues in the industry, the Ministry in partnership with the Ministry of Works developed new Right of Way (RoW) guidelines for Federal Government roads to enable operators have unencumbered means of laying fibre optics which is critical for infrastructure development and quality of service. To remove arbitrary charges and eradicate multiple taxations that impede telecoms development across the nation, Mrs Johnson for the first time in the history of Nigeria’s telecoms revolution got state governors and relevant authorities at the state and federal level to address the issue of multiple taxation and adopt measures that will remove arbitrary charges and eradicate multiple taxations to enhance service delivery across the nation. At a closed door meeting with Governor Babatunde Fashola last week, the Ministry facilitated a landmark agreement to remove constraints to the installation, rollout and deployment of BTS and OFC in the state. Lagos State at the meeting agreed to reduce taxes and levies by over 40 per cent while RoW fees were reduced from N3000 to N500, a reduction of over 85 per cent.

    Reiterating that the Federal Government will no longer condone poor service delivery to subscribers, Mrs Johnson reiterated that henceforth, it’s no longer shall be business as usual, and operators must rise up to redress the current poor state of quality service delivery.

    Mrs Johnson said: “We are concerned the poor quality issues still abound. I am inundated with complaints about quality of service and the seemingly uncaring attitude of our telecoms operators to resolve these issues on a regular basis. We will continue, through the industry regulator to apply sanctions when operators fail to meet the required standards in terms of service quality breaches. Consumers cannot continue to bear the burden of poor service delivery. Though we are mindful that the operators are facing issues in deploying or maintaining infrastructure, we believe that operators can do better in delivering acceptable quality of service which they are clearly not doing.’’

    The Director -General of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs Dupe Atoki, said: ‘’The challenge of doing business in Nigeria is the usual justification for these violations by service providers. However, as far as CPC is concerned, as long as a business is in operation, and consumers pay for the service or product, Nigerian consumers must get value for their money.’’

    She said: ‘’Under the Consumer Protection Council’s Act, CPC has the power to sanction, prosecute and compel any product or service provider, to answer a lawful inquiry, disobedience of which are all criminalised.

    Atoki said the operators also risk prosecution and jail terms of up to five years if investigations on-going reveal current investigation shows that they have deliberately short-changed their customers in poor service delivery. “CPC can make orders in the interest, and protection of consumers and disobedience is also criminalised by law. While NCC can impose fines on an offending operator , CPC can in addition commit such recalcitrant offenders to jail terms for contravening any consumer protection enactment.’’

    It is hoped that the CPC which has largely been seen as paper tiger, will walk its talks so that subscribers can heave a sigh of relief.

  • Graduands challenged to be problem solvers

    The 2013 Valedictory Service/Prize giving of Wellspring College, Omole Phase 2, gave the Principal, Mrs Oluwayemisi Oloriade the opportunity to celebrate the school’s performance in the 2012 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

    In her speech, Mrs Oloriade said the school recorded 100 per cent credit passes in 65 per cent of the 20 subjects written by its SS3 candidates. Only Mathematics recorded 54 per cent and she promised parents that performance in the subject will be better this year.

    She said: “In the midst of dwindling academic performance across the country, analysis of the 2012 WAEC result of the school shows 100 per cent credit in 13 subjects (Literature, Commerce, Physics, Agricultural Science, Technical Drawing, Accounts, Christian Religious Knowledge, French, Visual Arts, Government, Food and Nutrition, Music and Geography) above 90 per cent in four subjects (English Language, Biology, Economics and Yoruba) 89 per cent in Igbo Language, 87 per cent in Chemistry and 54 per cent in Mathematics. By the grace of God, the result of Mathematics in the just concluded 2013 WAEC examination will be very impressive.”

    Pupils from other classes defied the rain to present cultural songs and dances to bid their beloved SS3 seniors farewell at the event. The graduands, looking resplendent in black suits and blue sashes draped across their shoulders also joined in the dancing. Some of them stood out during the programme, including a set of triplets, Chimdike Okebugwu and his sisters, Ihunayachi and Olumachi. They are the first set of triplets siblings to graduate from the 10-year old school.

    In an interview with The Nation, the trio said they have gained admission to study in different universities in Ghana.

    Overall best graduand, Oluwatobiloba Alatise also stood out for his brilliance. The teenager told The Nation that he was leaving Wellspring very motivated to be the Valedictorian of the Covenant University(CU), Ota, where he has been accepted to study Accounting.