Steel merchants have urged the Federal Government to develop a new mineral sector road map to boost the industry.
According to the merchants, Nigeria spends about $4.5 billion (N887 billion) yearly on basic metals imports, made of processed steel, aluminium products and other derivatives.
They urged the Federal Government to reposition the steel industry via a new roadmap to ensure that the industry is brought back to its rightful place in national development.
Speaking with The Nation, a steel merchant, Mr. Gboyega Tejumola said, for instance, that despite the country’s ranking in terms of iron ore reserves in the world, exploitation and steel production were still very low.
He said the government needs to replicate its policies in the sugar and cement industries in the steel industry to end over N887 billion the country is spending yearly on steel import.
Tejumola said there was the need for the government to address the issue and save the country the huge foreign exchange it spends on steel importation.
He noted that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was generating N700 million at the inception of the administration.
He commended the initiatives of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for creating the necessary environment that is making it possible for the ministry to remit N3 billion through payment of royalty alone.
“We are happy that Buhari’s administration identified the steel industry as one of the key components of the economic diversification agenda. Nigerian spends about $4.5 billion on steel imports yearly, which could be saved if we start its production locally,” Tejumola said.
The Federal Government, he added, needs to collaborate with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and other financial institutions in assembling a huge investment fund for the sector.
Tejumola noted that efforts at addressing the ease of doing business in Nigeria have led to improved ranking in sector specific assessment of the mining jurisdiction.
He, however, said such efforts need to be consolidated by the private sector, which should develop the mineral value-chain activities.
“For instance, the establishment of smelting facilities will add value to the minerals and generate huge businesses with attractive financial benefits.
“Steel remains one of the most important technologies of the industrial revolution and the most valuable industry that any nation that hopes to break through the barriers of modern technology must establish,” Tejumola said.
Private sector operators, he said, were ready to complement government policies by playing by the rules and promoting local contents.
“About 15 years ago, Nigeria was faced with a nightmare when it was only producing four million tonnes of cement, but based on the government’s reforms, the stake has been raised to over 40 million metric tonnes, thereby saving the country over $4 billion annually,” Tejumola said.
Workers and students of Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, jubilated last Monday following the appointment of Prof Lanre Fagbohun as the institution’s eighth Vice Chancellor (VC). It was a milestone worth celebrating, especially given the crises that characterised the tenure of the past two vice chancellors, Prof John Obafunwa, and Prof Akanni Hussain. They were not allowed to complete their tenure because of constant disagreements with workers and students.
With the way Fagbohun was received by the university community, many are optimistic that his tenure would put paid to crisis in the university and place it on the path of rapid development. They advised him to learn from the past and avoid the pitfalls that caused problems at the 32-year old university.
One of those optimistic of Fagbohun’s success is Prof Abisogun Leigh, the university’s fifth VC, because his emergence was transparent.
“I can assure you that Prof Lanre will perform,” he told The Nation. “Because for the first time, we departed from the old way of taking VC in LASU. The old way was they would probably present all those who qualify during the interview and the visitor who is the governor would then look at some other reasons and pick. He can pick number three or number two. This one, from the story I got, came first; and in spite of all the pressures, he (governor) still picked him.”
Prof Peter Okebukola, who acted as LASU VC in 1996, is also optimistic of Fagbohun’s success at the institution, describing his vision for the school as amazing.
“Early this week, he gave me a copy of his vision statement for LASU. I was amazed at the deep thinking-through in the document and I am convinced that he will deliver on his promises. How do I know? Prof Fagbohun is not a boastful person and is not known to craft highfalutin expectations to play to the gallery. He is superlatively energetic, clear-headed and a good mobiliser of resources, especially human and financial. In the next five years and by God’s grace, LASU will be completely transformed for good.”
However, optimism is not enough for the beleaguered university to get back on its feet and overcome problems of underfunding, regular workers strikes, and students’ unrest. Stakeholders say he must get the cooperation of workers and students if he is to succeed in his role, be resourceful in attracting and managing funds; develop infrastructure, and pay attention to welfare issues.
Once upon a time, LASU enjoyed all these. Pioneer vice chancellor of the institution, Prof Olufolabi Olumide, said he was proud of the institution he left behind after six years in the saddle.
“A university is established for attempts to achieve excellence on the part of the teachers, administration and students and we did that in LASU. To make LASU great again is a task that must be done. That was my slogan then. It was a challenge to start a university right from scratch. The challenge was to build an institution with the pursuits of excellence having in mind what we want to do to produce graduates who will fulfil that prospect. And to the best of my ability I did. I look back on those days with satisfaction. It wasn’t easy. I was assured that it would not be easy by the person who headed the government but with a lot of help from those whom I appointed at the time, foundation staffs and the students. I think we made progress.”
Redeeming LASU’s battered image
If Fagbohun is able to maintain peace and a steady academic calendar during his tenure, he would have achieved a deal, says Taofeek Sekoni, a 400-Level student of Psychology, who is urging the new vice chancellor to maintain peace.
“Since I have been in LASU, it has been one problem or the other, both internally and externally. Now that we have a new VC, I think the university’s condition should be stable and progressive. If he is able to manage the situation and carry out necessary reforms and projects, he may be fortunate to enjoy his tenure. For him to have a successful tenure, he should try to identify the bad eggs in the system and take care of them,” he said.
Sola Borokini, in her final year studying Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, added that he should repair the institution’s image.
“He should promote a good image for the institution and try his best to keep the school peaceful. He should find swift solutions to any rift or grievance. Swift solutions will avoid escalation to a full-blown crisis,” she said.
To promote peace, Okebukola said fagbohun should avoid what would make workers go on strike. He also advised the students and workers to avoid strife.
“Our new VC should foster industrial harmony so that the guns of strikes will remain silent at least for a long time to come, perhaps 20 years! This can be achieved through staff and student unions coming to the realisation that this is a new dawn for LASU where we all need to sheath our aluta swords and restore the good name of the university through exploring dialogue to the fullest,” he said.
Promoting healthy relationship with workers
From his experience dealing with workers’ union issues as vice chancellor, Leigh advised Fagbohun to be transparent and treat all unions as equal. He said he succeeded in getting their cooperation because he never hid the institution’s financial status from them and met their needs according to priority. This was important, especially as the school started running the part-time programme during his tenure.
“I made them to understand that all these unions I would treat as equal even if I belonged to ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities). So what I did was that I listened to all their demands. Thank God I was able to create school of part time and money began to flow into the account of the university. I asked my bursar every Friday before we left office by 4pm, the financial status of the university must be on my table and I would take it home and bring it back on Monday. I would distribute to my officers at the management meeting, so that we will take a firm decision, this is how much has come in, this is all our requests, which one are we taking first.
“After the meeting I would call the three union leaders and I would distribute the same documents round and analyze it with them. Records don’t lie. Then I would throw the question back to them, ‘out of all these requests, how do we prioritize?’ Prioritizing would make the unions to be equal.”
Having worked in LASU for 31 years, Mr Latif Rashidi, of the department of public law, said transparency would help the new Vice Chancellor succeed with workers and was a sore point between the unions and past vice chancellors.
“If the unions are saying N100 million is our arrears, he should tell us, ‘Look, LASU purse only has 10 million, so we can pay 10 million in 10 places; please take it like that.’ LASU workers are not lions, we know the situation in the country, and we would listen. It is not all about telling lies and postponing our issues. Don’t make false promises.
“The management would then claim there is no money and then you would see the management buying new cars worth millions of naira; VC buying new apartment worth hundreds of millions of naira and the unions have information and documents to this effect,” he said.
The issue of equality is what Pelumi Olugbenga, 200-Level, History and International Studies advised the new vice chancellor to promote in LASU. He said favouritism created problems for his predecessors.
“He can avoid the mistakes of the past by studying critically their errors and what made them fall. An important one is the creation of cronies and allies by the staff. Some of the past VCs gave preferential treatment to some staff members. It is widely known that a house divided against itself cannot stand. So prof Fagbohun should endeavour to treat all staff equally, without fear of marginalization and victimization,” he said.
• Fifth LASU VC, Prof Leigh
To promote equality, Prof Leigh advised Fagbohun to be humble in relating with workers and students.
“A vice chancellor is the leader but he is not an imperial king. Anybody who views himself as the know all and be all will fail. Some are older than you but by some reason you are the VC. You must be able to carry them along and in doing so, subjugate even your own interest. You have to amend your point of view to carry out some of the things. It takes a lot of diplomacy and ability to bring your personality down a little bit. If you want to show I am Number one here all the time, one will get into trouble. That is where I feel the last two administrations failed,” he said.
Mr Salman Yunus, who works in the university’s department of foreign language, believes that Fagbohun has started well in managing workers’ relations.
“He has started well. Unlike the previous VCs, he came in with the mind that he has come to meet human beings. With the mind of peace and that he welcomes new ideas. He has spoken and we have listened to him. We were happy about the plans he told us he has. He was concerned about peace and unity. If he can maintain his stand on that, he would be fine,” Yunus said.
Infrastructural development
LASU is in need of an infrastructural rejuvenation. Workers and students are urging the vice chancellor to work on the inter-campus road network, rehabilitate decaying facilities and provide new ones.
Ridwan Abdul-Kareem, 100-Level Law student, said: “I think the VC should prioritise the repair of our roads to facilitate easy transportation,” he said.
Pelumi seeks the rehabilitation of the Faculty of Arts, while Sola advises him to complete ongoing projects.
Prof Okebukola urged the government to help the university in this regard.
“Capital development also needs attention. I am sure the owners of LASU will not be delighted at the glorified secondary school look of the university. Governor Fashola did excellently well in laying the props for improved physical facilities. Governor Ambode needs to speedily complete the senate, library and other buildings that Fashola started,” he said.
Funding
For LASU to do well, Okebukola says the institution needs to enjoy funding better from the government, like in the past.
He said: “First is for Lagos State Government to narrow the funding gap between what the university needs to run as a world-class institution and what it is presently getting from its proprietor. Surely, the university should be able to generate funds to support proprietor subvention but not with having to look for a whopping differential of N50 million every month to augment salary grant from the state government! When I was acting vice-chancellor of the institution, the same government under Colonel Buba Marwa gave us N12 million every month when the wage bill was N6.5 million. Previous administrations in LASU before my time also had the total wage bill paid by the same Lagos State government. The university creatively sought additional funds for overhead (running) costs. That was why LASU could at that time, boast of the best Faculty of Law and several other academic programmes. So, we need Governor Ambode to carry the full wage bill of LASU and we will surprise him with our sterling performance in delivering quality university education.”
• First LASU VC, Prof Olumide
However, Prof Olumide also advised the vice chancellor to be creative about generating funds internally.
“Education is not cheap; higher education costs money, either side must understand that. They should find efforts where they can generate funds. We won’t leave everything to government.
“There should be commercial sector of the school. We had LASU farms. We had LASU Guest Houses. We were going to go into tourism on a high scale. When I drove past the guest house sometime back, I was almost in tears because it was no longer functioning and it was ridden with weeds and shrubs and then all I know is that we were aware.
“Under my leadership we had luncheons where business men and men of goodwill attended and at the end I spoke. Many of them brought out their cheque books and they were going to start writing cheques but the commissioner said no they would have this properly organised in the ministry to raise funds and so on, nothing came out of that, still we pursued other means of getting help. We continued with our commercial venture.”
Fagbohun’s plans
The VC has described his appointment as the dawn of a new era in LASU. Fagbohun, who spent 19 years as a lecturer in LASU before moving to the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in 2010, said he would revitalise the institution.
“There are some imperatives that are captioned in my vision, to bring peace to this environment so that we would be able to attract funds, the very best in the development of this institution. A critical component level of that strategic imperative of mine is development of scholarship across the board, faculties, colleges and schools of the university,” he said.
THE Federal Government has been urged to design a road map for the maritime industry.
Ship ownership, improved cargo and passenger volume, reliable utilities, security and a concerted war against corruption are some of the major means of developing the sector – according to the Sifax Group chief Dr. Taiwo Afolabi.
Speaking at the at the just-concluded Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) in Lagos, Afolabi, represented by one of his directors, Major Henry Ajetunmobi (rtd), spoke of the need to take advantage of the huge economic potential of the industry to enhance the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Based on the dwindling oil revenue, the government, industry regulators, agencies, investors, financiers, operators and other stakeholders should post resources to boost the economy
On the allegation that shipping companies and terminal operators are imposing arbitrary charges at ports, the Sifax boss called for a cautious approach.
“The issues, no doubt, calls for the wisdom of Solomon as well as random eclectic borrowings from the principles long adopted by other maritime nations, especially those in the advanced world that have made a huge success of privatization in their own ports and terminals.
But over and above this, is the need for the economic regulator, acting in full consultation with critical stakeholders, to seek to regulate the industry, with a clearly perceived passion to balance and protect the interests of all parties to avoid crisis.
“We must begin to take measures now to develop other critical sectors of the economy, particularly in agriculture and optimal exploitation of the vast deposits of our solid mineral and non-oil natural resources, to generate enough cargo that can challenge the present high volume of our import cargo throughput that has given us our present unflattering image as a chronic import-dependent nation.” he said.
He said that it wasn’t enough for the country to be contented with the huge natural endowments of long coastline and urged investors to finance the acquisition of vessels, particularly Nigerian-flagged ones with the capacity to participate in deep ocean-going international trade.
He noted that the revamping of public utilities would serve as incentive to current and prospective investors in the industry, adding that improved security that guarantees the safety of persons and goods around our maritime assets and a committed war against endemic corruption will lead to rapid development in the industry.
For well over two decades, there has been a growing concern about the deplorable social and economic state of the Nigerian nation. Successive governments in Nigeria have been condemned and variously described as corrupt, inept, incompetent, negligent, reckless, inefficient and unresponsive to the yearnings and welfare of the people. Because these governments appear ill-founded and the major actors seemingly bereft of ideas, they were unable to steer the ship of the Nigerian state out of murky waters of retrogression and move it forward. A lot of Nigerians lost faith or are rapidly losing faith in their country. A host of them migrate daily to other lands and contribute meaningfully to their host countries what they should have given to Nigeria on a platter.
Good governance cannot be taken for granted or undermined in the life of any nation. It is a major determinant of a country’s progress and most especially a determinant of a country’s success rating in the comity of nations. It therefore behoves any serious- minded government, authority and people to take it seriously. Everyone we have asked how Nigeria’s problem can be solved has promptly replied that we need focused people in leadership positions. Interestingly, Nigeria is blessed with achievers, persons who are patriotic and love Nigeria dearly. Persons who will work tirelessly for her without asking for any reward or recompense; Persons of integrity not of doubtful character, civil, conscientious and trustworthy. Unfortunately, most of them are often frustrated and obstructed from participating in government. Government College products easily and definitely fall into this category of people because of their enduring legacies of solid educational foundation, sound moral values and quality service delivery. In addition to possessing most of these virtues, they have been well-groomed through their top quality training to assume positions of responsibility in a credible society. They have been found to be reliable, dependable, altruistic, focused, hardworking, result-oriented and are most unlikely to yield to influences for evil or bad practices.
A few questions are germane here: Is the existence of this category of people known? Are they an endangered species? Can they be easily and readily identified? Are their tribes being properly utilised? Are they themselves readily available and accessible? Are they proactive, publicise or market themselves properly and sufficiently? Are they being well- branded and packaged to attract positive response? Questions, questions, questions.
It has also been observed that the pre-1980 Government College Ibadan Old Boys as indeed like-minded Old Students from other Government Secondary Schools of that era up and down the country have a lot to show for the education they received and they are eager to do so. Many of their qualities have remained untapped by the Nigerian society. However the authorities and the society have repeatedly and consistently exploited their good nature, dedication to work, modesty and candour without commensurable reward. Values other than edifying, deification of money, corruption, fraud and moral decadence rule the Nigerian waves. The Nigerian space is dangerously polluted in every facet and this unfortunately is in the public domain. Rumours of disruption, corruption and looting of the commonwealth, destruction of our psyche and humanness, ethnic jingoism and political jobbery and brigandage are rife and the authorities seem powerless to handle or halt their escalation.
Beyond 1980, after the cataclysmic disruption and overturn of the status quo, Government College Ibadan entrants have been drawn from a small geographical area (called catchment area) and it has had serious and telling effect on the standard of the school. It has also progressively eroded and limited the percentage of talents available at each year of entry. The boarding system, which was the adamantine bedrock of the great school tradition, mores and high values, has been virulently attacked, stiffed strangulated and finally scrapped. The real magic that once moulded and formed the boys’ character has disappeared. In its wake, a near death affliction on the College. The aftermath, confusion rudderlessness, ill-conceived and inconsistent policies from one administration to the other.
Today, many challenges knaw and strike repeatedly at the conscience of the college, its old boys and the education sector, namely: how to redeem the battered image of the school; rapidly halt and reverse falling standards in education and scholarship; overcome the glorification of mediocre leadership and enshrine meritocracy in all spheres of our endeavour. The race is starting with the Ideas Group.
As these challenges multiply and grow, our thinking and attitude must radically change to confront them. We have to react positively and meaningfully. Even in this hostile Nigerian environment which hardly recognises merits and rewards industry, hardwork and productivity, some GCI Old Boys have managed to excel and distinguish themselves attaining the pinnacle of their career wherever they have found themselves by dint of self determination and effort against daunting odds. Getting to the top would certainly have cost less if they operated from a well organized group equipped to support, encourage, succor, advise and mentor them. Such a group whatever name it carries is long overdue – a group that would constantly give a solid backing, pressure and IDEAS for nation building. Churches speak out, so do the mosques as indeed professional bodies, Labour Unions, Student Unions, Lecturers, Market Women, Artisans. The list is endless. They all speak out vociferously on matters that impinge on their welfare, lives, livelihood and national affairs. Should products of Government College and other responsible institutions remain docile for God knows how long? The time is now for them to wake up and speak out and chart a course for our nation. Speaking out requires a re-orientation dynamics and re-jiggling of a modus operandi in order to attain clearer objectives.
Public relations and regular commentaries will form the thrust. It is expected that this will gain recognition within the Nigerian society – its political and economic space. Its scope will cover and forge ahead with re-engineering, reconnection, networking and breaking the jinx of individualism and parochialism.
We have the new information order and the unhalting progress in the IT world to thank for rapid communication and networking. We hope to relaunch a bid for societal relevance.
To achieve this, the IDEAS GROUP will interact with like minds and other progressive bodies in the country at different levels. Additionally, men and women of integrity and high moral values will be wooed and encouraged for a good working relationship – to think along the same lines and achieve the same goals for the good of all our citizenry. The ultimate aim is to channel these activities to dovetail into creating an enduring legacy for all.
We strongly believe that our country Nigeria can and should be salvaged. Capable men and women abound – men of integrity, honesty and sincerity. When a level playing ground is created, this indomitable breed of Nigerians will emerge to extricate Nigeria from its quagmire and move it forward leveraging on purposeful leadership and informed and discerning followership
