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Tag: questions

  • Questions on Abia Workers Award

    It was David Gemmell in his book Shield Of Thunder who said: “I may be stupid, as you say, to believe in honour and friendship and loyalty without price. But these are virtues to be cherished, for without them we are no more than beasts roaming the land.”

    The above aphorism is axiomatic. One cannot attract friendship, honour and loyalty with paying price for it. The price for it is personal sacrifice and selfless service to humanity at all the time. That is what attracts an honour to be cherished by all. It was this sacrifice that Governor Theodore Orji has made right from his days as a public servant and still making now as governor of Abia State. With outstanding track record in public service that spanned for over two decades, Governor Orji on assumption of office in 2007 made the reformation of the state civil service top priority. This was not only because the sector was his primary constituency, but because he had always known and believed that a strong and refined civil service is a pillar for successful and good administration.

    Appreciating Orji’s remarkable achievements in the state civil service and other sectors of the economy, the Abia civil and public service workforce under the aegis of Consolidated Abia State Public Service (CASPS) recently rolled out drums in grand style in Umuahia, the state capital to honour of Governor Orji for job well done.

    The event which was well-attended by the workers in the state took off with an interdenominational service and ended with an award of “Icon Of Public Service” to Governor Orji by the workers.

    One may ask or wonder: what has the governor done for the civil servants in the state to deserve such honour which is rare and unprecedented in government/civil servants relationship in the country?

    Having been part of the civil/public service before becoming governor in 2007, there is no doubt that Orji has deep knowledge of the sector and the problems bedevilling it.  Tackling the rot and internal squabbles orchestrated by its politicization and lack of transparency, Orji’s government brought the core values of merit, transparency and professionalism into the service.

    To start with, several workers that were due for promotion over the years, but had their promotions stunted for political reasons were expressly and meritoriously promoted and paid their entitlements without minding whose ox is gored. Those due for retirement, but have continued to manipulate their records to remain in the service illegally were properly investigated, retired and paid their entitlements without delay or victimization.

    Workers in the state started attending periodic training and workshops that were being sponsored by the state government to acquire new skills and competences to improve on service delivery. With the national minimum wage of N18,000 signed into law, some state governments across the country could not pay their workers the minimum wage till date giving flimsy excuses of lack of fund. The Abia government even though not among the richest states in the country, started paying her workers N21,000 as minimum wage as against N18,000 national minimum wage.  The state government tackled the menace of ghost workers which was an age-long tradition and a conduit pipe in the service by introducing compulsory biometric data capturing of all workers in the state civil service. Major beneficiaries of the rot in the service who wanted the status quo to be maintained tried everything to resist the reforms by inciting other workers against the innovation.

    But the state government remained undaunted, and insisted on the compulsory biometric data capture of all the workers to eradicate the ghost workers’ syndrome and leakages. It was during the process that the state government discovered that in different council areas of the state not less than 1, 727 workers were ghost workers. These were numbers of workers that did not show up or report for capturing during the verification exercise that lasted for months, whereas they have been receiving salaries and allowances for years from the state government.

    According to the Chairman of the Biometric Data Implementation Committee and Chief of Staff to the governor, Cosmos Ndukwe, Aba South Council area with 245 ghost workers topped the list, followed by Isiala Ngwa South with 153, and Osisioma Ngwa with 138 ghost workers.

    Others were Ikwuano, 117; Umuahia North, 123; Umuahia South, 101; Isiala Ngwa North, 92; Umunneochi, 65; while Ugwuanagbo Local Government Area had the least with 28 ghost workers.

    The development also tackled the problem of truancy in the civil service as most workers especially in the commercial city of Aba before now only come to collect salary at the end of the month without working. Today workers in the state receive their salaries and entitlements as at when due. The state government has also started housing scheme for workers at Amuba Housing Estate where several houses have been constructed by government to be occupied by the workers on the owner/occupier basis. Payments for the houses will span for some years to enable the workers to meet up with the payment and their other financial obligations.

    Before the coming into office of the present government, workers in the state have no befitting and functional secretariat to operate from. State ministries were scattered in different makeshift locations in the state. The old workers’ secretariat that was built many years ago was dilapidated and uninhabitable. That was pitiful working condition of an average worker in the state then.

    But immediately after Governor Orji won his second term in office, the state government embarked on the rehabilitation of the old workers secretariat and the construction of new ultra modern workers secretariat with modern facilities. Presently, rehabilitation has been completed at the old workers secretariat and is occupied, while the new one which is a five-storey building with an elevator and other modern facilities is nearing completion and would be soon commissioned. Since the present government came on board in the state, workers have not for once embarked on strike for any reason. The government has been able to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding and harmonious relationship thanks to Governor Orji’s pragmatic leadership approach and utmost concern for workers’ welfare all the time.

    So clearly the workers’ award to Gov. Orji is well deserved and befitting, because his government has done well for workers in the state.

    • Dr. Uwa, a medical practitioner wrote from Aba, Abia State

     

  • CBN’s unanswered questions

    CBN’s unanswered questions

    •If the apex bank cannot account for its expenses, we are in deep trouble

    THE encounter between officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives as reported in the media last week is intriguing. According to the reports, the committee had summoned officials of the bank to explain a number of audit queries raised against the Central Bank by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation. The committee wondered how the CBN could expend N2.8 billion to renovate its Port Harcourt branch. It also demanded answers to the conflicting sums of N23 million and N50 million quoted as cost of renovating the residence of the Governor of the bank.

    The audit raised a number of other reckless and unaccountable expenditures, which the bank officials were unable to defend. Unfortunately, the media reports failed to name the Governor/s under whose tenure those reckless expenditures were incurred, as it covered several years audit of the apex bank. Indeed, the bank’s deputy governor, corporate services, Mr. Suleiman Barau, while promising to search for the documents to back the expenditures, claimed that he had not joined the bank when the expenditures were incurred. The director of procurement, Mr. I.O. Gbadamosi, on the other hand, reportedly claimed that if the documents were more than five years old, then they must have been destroyed, as the bank usually clears its shelves every five years.

    We recall the gratuitous battles that top officials of the bank waged last year to stop the legislators from amending the Central Bank Act, to make the bank accountable to the legislature. In their reaction to that controversy, many informed commentators had insisted that the bank needed its autonomy to guide the national monetary policy. While we support that the bank’s operational autonomy should be maintained, we call on the National Assembly to quickly put in place laws to ensure administrative oversight of the bank. As we had argued in the past, the legislature has overriding power of oversight on all incomes and expenditures made on behalf of the country.

    To show their indignation, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Solomon Olamilekan Adeola had insisted that the pattern of expenditure and the absence of documents gave indication that due process was not followed. While berating the officials of the bank, he asked them to either produce the requested documents or the legislature will demand that all the expended sums be refunded into the coffers of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

    We have no doubt that many Nigerians will be shocked and dismayed that its Central Bank is also accused of operating in the cesspit of corruption. Indeed, it should be unheard off that a country’s apex bank is unable to answer routine audit queries; and is reasonably accused of engaging in mindless expenses of the very national resources it is constitutionally empowered to guide and protect.

    While the legislative enquiry is going on, it is also necessary that law enforcement agencies wade in to find out the officials of the bank responsible for bringing the country to this miserable disrepute. If officials of our central bank cannot keep an account of the outrageous sums it claims to have expended to renovate the residence of its Governor, among other disgusting inaccuracies, many will genuinely doubt their capacity to keep appropriate account of the reckless infringements by the commercial banks under their supervision. We note the CBN’s denial of salient aspects of the committee’s proceedings. We can only hope the bank would be able to produce the appropriate documents at the committee’s next sitting.

     

  • CHINUA ACHEBE The one who asked painful questions

    Professor Chinua Achebe’s life and career reflect the growth and development of Nigeria itself. Son of first-generation Christian converts, he grew up at the very crossroads of cultural change, when the novelty of western culture crystallised into a desirable way of life. As one of the brightest minds of his generation, he was at the core of that critical mass of intelligent and enlightened Nigerians who made observers so confident in the country’s prospects as an African superpower.

    And he certainly lived up to those lofty expectations. His Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, is widely accepted as the most influential African novel ever written: its delineation of the complex interactions between indigenous and foreign cultures has rarely been bettered. His reputation was cemented with the subsequent publication of novels like No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah, as well as several thoughtful essays which sought to explain his understanding of Africa and its culture.

    Given Achebe’s primary identity as an author, it is perhaps fitting that it is a book which has made him one of The Nation’s Men of the Year. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, his memoir of the Nigerian Civil War, has stirred controversy, inflamed passions and whipped up sentiment to a degree unheard of in Nigerian writing.

    Like the book itself, Achebe’s choice of title is provocative. “There Was a Country” raises obvious questions.Was there a country? What animated it, gave it life and form? If “There Was a Country” in the past, “Is There a Country” now? What kind of country is it, particularly compared to the country that “was”?

    Achebe’s book revisits a crucial aspect of Nigerian history in an attempt to understand what happened, why it happened, and what its consequences are. What distinguishes his effort from others is the depth of feeling and the courage he brings to the topic. Ever since the last shot was fired, there has been a conspiracy of silence on all sides, a determined attempt to forget that the conflict ever happened. It was first seen in the pious mantra of “No Victor, No Vanquished” peddled by the Gowon administration and was entrenched in the complacent attitudes that quickly developed in reaction to it.

    In a country where it is far more profitable to ignore the past, There Was a Countryhas dragged Nigeria, kicking and screaming, back to a history it would prefer to forget. The ensuing debate, raucous and unmannerly though it has been, has compelled Nigerians to look more intensively at themselves than before. In a country where questions of justice and equity are often subordinated to the “turn-by-turn” ethos of Nigeria’s cake-sharing political process, Achebe’s book has compelled a new focus on fundamentals. The questions Nigerians now ask themselves are as terrible as they are necessary: To what extent did ethnic animosity and private ambition turn an avoidable conflict into an inevitable war? What does genocide mean? What is a war crime? How did the conflict affect the country and its people?

    While much of the discussion has degenerated into a heated argument over the actions of specific personalities and ethnicities, the book’s main thesis is incontrovertible: the fallout of Nigeria’s Civil War cannot be glossed over, or forgotten, or ignored, or wished away, or put aside. It is simply too significant to a coherent understanding of how Nigeria is, who Nigerians are, and what they can be. The war speaks to the country’s skewed structure and the tensions that characterize relationships between its constituent ethnic groups. The manner in which it was prosecuted carries harsh lessons about the dire consequences of political and military overreach. Its lingering after-effects carry grim portents for Nigeria’s future stability.

    The simple truth is that no nation can overlook a conflict that resulted in between one and three million deaths, most of whom were non-combatants. The very enormity of the tragedy cries out for attention: far too many innocents on all sides died for their deaths to be in vain. If the Americans and the Spanish are looking into the causes and courses of older civil conflicts, there can be no reason why Nigeria should not do it. Hard truths will be told; guilt and innocence, culpability and exculpation, victory and defeat could become so intertwined as to be indistinguishable from one another. But the country will have made progress in the vital task of understanding itself, and will thus be the better for it.

    For asking hitherto-unanswered questions, for uttering the supposedly unmentionable, for demanding that Nigeria live up to its own noble ideals, Chinua Achebe is The Nation’s Third Runner-Up for Man of the Year, 2012

  • Maduka/Ubah face-off: Questions, more questions!

    Maduka/Ubah face-off: Questions, more questions!

    SIR: The drama that is currently playing out in the media, involving two ‘heavyweight’sons of the industrial town of Nnewi, in Anambra State, is becoming interesting by the day. From all indications, the Maduka/Ubah face-off does not appear to be an issue that will soon go away. The ‘’war” is being fought in the electronic and print media, with indications that it would soon become a communal issue.

    It does appear, however, that the matter has passed the stage at which the traditional ruler of Nnewi and his cabinet can handle, contrary to what Dan Ulasi, who would like to be seen as a trouble-shooter in the ongoing war, recently hinted on Sunrise, the Channels Television breakfast programme.

    Ifeanyi Ubah, the chairman of Capital Oil, had, for several weeks, been in the news for the wrong reasons involving subsidy collection allegations. And just when the public was trying to find answers to the whys of the allegation, Cosmos Maduka, president of the Coscharis Group, came into the picture, raising an alarm to the effect that a brother, Ubah, whom he bailed out of trouble, had turned around to bite the finger that fed him and, in a curious twist, allegedly plotted a sinister move to put him (Maduka), in trouble. Ubah has, since been crying foul, alleging a grand design to run him out of business.

    The point must be made that both men in the centre of the current war are what we usually refer to as ‘men of timber and calibre’ in the Nigerian economy. One is an industrialist of no mean repute, with significant contributions to the growth of the Nigerian auto industry and the transport sub-sector, while the other is a major player in the downstream sector of the oil industry.

    From what can easily be discerned, there was a business relationship involving Maduka and Ubah, over the importation of fuel. Maduka says he intervened to assist Ubah secure a facility from a bank in which he is a director, when no bank would grant him facility, on account of the alleged bad record he has across the financial sector.

    All went well with the business of importation of fuel, with the first six consignments delivered and the proceeds properly accounted for, and both parties smiled in satisfaction, well, until something happened to the seventh consignment!

    Maduka says one year after the vessel conveying the fuel was supposed to have berthed in Nigerian waters, following in the footsteps of the first six, there has been no trace of the ship, its cargo or the proceeds that should accrue from the sales. He contends that even if Molue, the popular Lagos mass transit bus, was used to convey the fuel from its point of purchase, it would have arrived Nigeria a long time ago. Ubah argues that the consignment arrived quite all right, was sold, and the proceeds deposited in the vaults of the loaning bank.

    The Maduka/Ubah saga is nothing other than a business transaction gone awry. It is typically what happens when transparency is in short supply in business dealing or, for that matter, any dealing. In analysing the fallouts of the multi-million dollar fuel importation business that has now obviously fallen on its face, there is need to ask some salient questions.

    With about 38 years’ active involvement in the Nigerian economy, Maduka is not known to have ventured into any business and failed. Indeed, he has been a pace setter in the different sub-sectors of the auto industry which he has been involved in. If he found attraction in the fuel importation business, why would he need to climb on Ubah’s back to achieve his aim? Who helped who? For a man whose name opens doors within and outside Nigeria, including financial institutions, why would Maduka need Ubah’s assistance to secure a loan facility in a bank in which he is a director? It cannot be that Ubah has exclusive knowledge of the intricacies of fuel marketing, such that a Maduka would need his help to navigate the rough waters of the industry. If children of politicians and other money bags are using their fathers’ names to succeed in the sector, Maduka, who has been around for a long time, would hardly need Ubah to succeed.

    What is the interest of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Aig Imokhuede and Maduka in running Ubah out of business?

    We are watching a battle whose end is certainly not in sight. But while the war rages on, what has become apparent is that the truth is buried somewhere beneath the propaganda, to be unearthed only by the truly discerning.

    • Yinka Adeleye lives in Lagos

  • More questions than answers

    More questions than answers

    THE termination of the N89.53billion design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) contract, awarded Bi-Courtney Consortium, a Nigerian firm on May 26, 2009, has resonated well among the longsuffering travellers daily exposed to the avoidable death trap the important artery has become.

    But the termination of the contract, and its re-award to the pair of Julius Berger and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), does not automatically solve the problem. The challenge facing both the Federal Government and Bi-Courtney is to avoid a situation where the see-saw would lead to total paralysis. But that appears easier said than done, with threats and counter-threats of legal action flying all over the place.

    The charges against Bi-Courtney, as reeled out by Mike Onolememen, the works minister, included an alleged serial breaching of its contractual terms, despite alleged constant reminders that it keep to the terms, so much so that six months to the end of the agreed contract duration (May 2009 to May 2012), no work had taken off on the all-important road. Because of the daily carnage on the roads, the minister reasoned, the Federal Government had no choice but to revoke the contract. The carnage bit might appear an emotional pitch when the full details of the contract are undisclosed. But it has been well received by the public.

    The counter charges from Bi-Courtney included allegations that the Federal Government, which though calculated the contract duration from 2009, took a whole of two years to approve the design of the road. If that were so, who now pays for the two years spent on design approval? Bi-Courtney also alleged government’s bad faith by changing tack when the company had already secured the commitment of foreign firms to execute the project, aside from Abuja allegedly folding its arms while Bi-Courtney battled some South West governors for alleged right of way.

    How all this would stand in court, should the company resort to legal action as it is threatening it would, is not clear. What is clear is that court proceedings would further slow down work on the road. And should Bi-Courtney secure an injunction, it would be near-paralysis for a long time to come! Besides, it is doubtful if either Julius Berger or RCC would go ahead and execute any work, with a legal threat hanging in the air. That is why both sides must come to a compromise, in the interest of the suffering public.

    But aside from the legal overhang, there seems to be more questions than answers in the reported re-award of the contract. Aside from breaking the 125-kilometre road into two, with Julius Berger handling the Lagos end to the Sagamu interchange and RCC handling the Sagamu-Ibadan end, the Federal Government’s announcement has been rather vacuous.

    The works minister talked of “emergency re-construction” of the expressway – pray, what does that mean? The DBOT contract envisaged adding two more lanes on each side, making it an eight-lane expressway, at least from Lagos to the Sagamu interchange. Is the “emergency re-construction” sticking to that model or just retaining the road as it is now? If it is sticking to the DBOT plan, it cannot obviously adopt the Bi-Courtney designs without running into legal mines. That means it has to come up with a new design. If that is so, how then can the two firms begin immediate and emergency re-construction? If it is just to reconstruct the road as it is, how sound would that decision be, given the explosion of traffic in that axis?

    The revocation of the contract, for what appears non-performance, looks good on the surface. But the government must volunteer more information to show the problem is being solved for real. Right now, there are simply more questions than answers.

  • Six questions to ask before you change your career

    So, if you are feeling stuck and starting to dread going to work every day, a career change would seem to be the answer. You can also get a career change through employment agencies. You can dream of doing something better or more important and probably making more money too. But are things really that much better on the other side of the hill?

    You need to ask yourself some crucial questions, answer them truthfully, and only then do a self evaluation of where you are now and what you can improve with a career change. So, is it time for a change?

    These are the six key questions you should be asking yourself:

     

    Why do I want to change careers?

     

    Try to be very clear about why you want to leave your present job so that you are able to avoid whatever is the root of your discomfort in a future job. The most common reasons people quote are that they:

    • Feel bored and frustrated, from being in the same job too long;

    • Have lost interest in the work and its importance;

    • Feel undervalued or not important to the organisation;

    • Believe they are being underpaid for the work they do;

    • Dislike changes made after reorganisation and restructuring;

    • Are making no progress, lack any future prospects;

    • Feel as if they are in ‘dead men’s shoes’;

    • Don’t get on with their colleagues or managers;

    • Simply need a new challenge or fresh start.

     

    Do I really want to change my career?

     

    Is it really your career that you want to change or is it something else associated with your job? Your boss for instance? What would improve your day to day satisfaction with your work? If it isn’t your career as such, but just something to do with your job then a career change may not be the answer, when what you need is to continue your career, but with some changed conditions.

    Perhaps you could satisfy your desire for career change by:

    • Changing to another job in the same sector but with a different employer;

    • Moving from the private to the public sector where the career remains but the principles/values may be different;

    • Negotiating with your employer for a fairer salary package;

    • Applying career management principles to seek some agreed changes with your present employer.

    The notion of career change throws up all sorts of ideas about doing something completely different so what does your ideal role look like? Are you able to describe it in terms of the level of responsibility you want; the amount of influence; strategic input; work structure; internal/ external contact; reward and recognition; status; pace and pressure that make for a satisfying and challenging job role?

    What about location, permanent or contract; work / life balance. How do family, school or spouse career issues affect you? What organisational culture suits you best?

    When you’ve defined your ideal role with as many dimensions as possible, you’ll always have something to compare new opportunities against. This type of benchmarking helps you avoid the rushed and possibly regrettable later decision being made.

    So, you can only decide on your career options when you’ve thought about:

    • Exactly what you want;

    • What you really enjoy doing;

    • What you’re good at and want to continue doing;

    • What’s important to you;

    • And how all this affects those close to you.

    • To give you my personal example:

    What transferable skills do I have?

     

    You should spend some time to analyse your skills gained through every job, course or leisure activity you have been involved with. These are the transferable skills that are potentially of interest to most employers. With the following list of key skills, try to record examples from your work experience, college or other academic studies and don’t forget to include aspects of your social or home life.

    a) Functional: Analyse your skills which you use to deal with the world around you e.g. people, data, things, ideas.

    b) Personal: Analyse the skills that you use to manage yourself.

    c) Technical: Analyse the skills that you use and develop for aspects of your job. I recommend that you read this section carefully because you will need to be able to write a persuasive career change cover letter to accompany your CV or Resume when you are ready to start applying for new jobs in your chosen career.

    d) For improving all areas of your life, you may need to think about your own Personal Development needs as well.

     

    How do I want to use my existing skills?

     

    You may not need to go for a complete career change where you do something different. Because most other roles or jobs overlap in their skills requirements, you can almost certainly use the knowledge, skills and capabilities that you already have. Network with other people to find out if there are opportunities in your own line of work: personal contacts, past colleagues, customers or suppliers or members of a professional group you belong to. Nowadays, networking is a skill in itself and one of the most productive ways to find a new career or job.

    If you decide to go ahead with a career change, please make sure you go for something that you really are interested in, otherwise the same scenario will set in again and you will be back where you started from. Learn how to adapt your CV for a career change.

     

    Can I change career at my time of life?

     

    Of course you can!

    A career change is possible at any time of life if you have the desire and motivation to do it. A midlife career change may be just the right thing for you. Now, if you are over 50 and looking for a new job, you may well mistakenly think that everybody is against you or that there are no suitable jobs for older workers like you. I have thrown some light on what older workers, people like you who are over 50, can actually do to help themselves get back to work – even if you took early retirement.

    As you get older, new passions are often ignited and could be the basis for a new career. So, if it is time for a change read my latest article to help you decide how you can transform your dreams.

     

    What do I need to change my career?

     

    There are no secrets to winning a new job, but if you don’t follow an ACTION PLAN that WORKS, you may find it much harder to get the job you want. As a Career Coach and Job Search Expert I have developed a career counselling plan that thousands of men and women just like you have used and it has been proved to work!

    • You need to know what job you actually want;

    • You need to know how to find jobs; including the hidden and unadvertised jobs;

    • You need to know what skills are most in demand;

    • You need a first class CV or Resume;

    • You need customised cover letters;

    • You need to practise your job winning interview answers; and

    • You need to be determined.