The Nation Newspaper

Tag: shame

  • Show of shame

    Show of shame

    Supremacy battles are indications of rank indiscipline in the armed security services. But these keep recurring among Nigeria’s security agencies for reasons that beggar belief.  That was the case with the recent faceoff between personnel of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

    Air Force personnel penultimate Friday stormed the Kaduna State zonal office of the EFCC over arrest of some suspected Internet fraudsters said to include serving military personnel. The soldiers reportedly arrived at the EFCC office on Wurno Road, in the state capital, at about 10a.m. in three Hilux patrol vans and cordoned off the main gate, preventing EFCC officials from entry or exit from the premises. The standoff soon degenerated as the Air Force men and policemen attached to the EFCC engaged in a shouting match, threateningly brandishing their guns at one another. The NAF personnel were said to have stormed the anti-graft agency office in a bid to forcibly release their colleagues earlier arrested by EFCC operatives.

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    EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale gave his agency’s narrative of the encounter in a statement. He said operatives of the Kaduna zonal command had on November 13 arrested five suspects at a fun spot in Kaduna following credible intelligence about their alleged Internet fraud activities. “However, after the sting operation, six military personnel who witnessed the operation…stormed the Kaduna command and attempted to forcibly release the arrested fraud suspects. They were subdued and detained over the security breach,” he added. The intruders, according to him, are four Air Force personnel and two students of the Air Force Institute of Technology. Oyewale further explained that while the men were in detention, there was inter-agency engagement between the leadership of EFCC and the Air Force to resolve the issues. “Unfortunately, dialogue on the release of the combative Air Force personnel broke down on Friday, November 17, when some unruly NAF officers stormed the Kaduna command in commando-style to forcefully release their detained colleagues,” he said.

    EFCC released the detained Air Force personnel same day on administrative bail, but insisted they will be charged to court. “The officers were released to their service in strict adherence to the bail procedures of the commission,” Oyewale said, adding: “The commission reiterates the fact that no one is above the law and the due process will be followed in bringing the case to a conclusion.”

    NAF neither gave its own narrative nor refuted EFCC’s account, and so it’s all we have to go on. If it is true that Air Force personnel were nabbed for Internet fraud, and some others assayed to free them forcibly, the security agency needs to undertake internal disciplinary procedures separate from the judicial line of action being pursued by EFCC.

  • Pope faces calls for action over abuse ‘shame’ in Ireland

    Pope Francis expressed “pain and shame” over the Catholic Church’s failure to deal with abuse and met with eight victims during a visit to Ireland on yesterday where the prime minister pressed him to take action.

    Francis said the “failure of ecclesiastical authorities… adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.

    “I myself share those sentiments,” he said in a speech in Dublin Castle, speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

    The pope later held an hour and a half meeting with victims of abuse at the hands of clergy or in Church-run institutions, including Marie Collins, who was, at the age of 13, abused by a priest while being treated in a hospital in Dublin.

    Collins, who last year resigned from a Vatican commission for child protection over its inaction, told reporters that the pope’s speech was “disappointing” and “nothing new”.

    One of the victims of Fr Tony Walsh, a priest and serial abuser who assaulted hundreds of children over nearly two decades, was also present but preferred to remain anonymous.

    Paul Jude Redmond, who was adopted illegally from a Catholic-run home in the 1960s where his mother had been interned for being pregnant and unmarried, was among those who met the pope.

    Redmond said the pope “lifted his hands to his head in shock” during the closed-door meeting after hearing stories of ill-treatment in Church-run Mother and Baby Homes.

    “We feel hopeful there will be more movement from the Church,” Redmond said in a statement put out by the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors.

    Varadkar, an openly gay leader and a symbol of Ireland’s liberalising culture, demanded from Pope Francis “that from words flow actions” for victims in a strongly-worded speech.

    He said Ireland’s multiple historic scandals were “stains on our state, our society and also the Church.”

    “Far too often there was judgement, severity and cruelty… people kept in dark corners, behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard,” he added.

    “There is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors. Holy Father, I ask that you use your office and influence to ensure that this is done here in Ireland and across the world.”

    Francis’s visit was the first by a pope in this former bastion of Catholicism since John Paul II spoke to a crowd of 1.5 million people during a visit in 1979.

    Irish society is virtually unrecognisable from that time.

    A new generation has shed Ireland’s traditional mores, electing Ireland’s first gay prime minister and voting to legalise same-sex marriage and abortion — both once unthinkable.

    In Dublin, tens of thousands of people lined the streets to cheer Pope Francis on as his Popemobile made its way from St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, where he gave marriage advice to couples, to a hostel for homeless families.

    “I just think he is an inspirational man. He has a difficult job to do to try and bring around a lot of changes in the Church but he is doing his best I feel,” said Eileen Grier-Gavin, who came from County Mayo in western Ireland to see the pope pass by.

    The pope later attended a Festival of Families in Croke Park Stadium with more than 82,000 people in attendance.

    Earlier this month, the Vatican was rocked by a devastating US report accused more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania state of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1950s.

    The pope wrote a letter to the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics vowing to prevent future “atrocities” but also conceding that no efforts “to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient”.

     

    Ireland has grappled with its own history of abuse, with multiple probes finding Church leaders protected hundreds of predatory priests over the decades.

    The Argentine pontiff was in Ireland to close the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMOF) — a global Catholic gathering that takes place every three years.

    The highlight of the trip will be an outdoor mass in the city’s Phoenix Park on Sunday, which is expected to draw 500,000 people.

    Priests and nuns from across Ireland have flocked to the capital, although merchandise sellers said business was sluggish.

     

     

  • Shame of African continent

    A significant news item in most Nigerian newspapers over the weekend was on the tragedy that befell African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe looking for better life. According to newspaper report, the Spanish coast guard rescued 933 migrants. Among those rescued were pregnant women and sick people of different ages and sex. In addition to those rescued, four migrants who attempted to cross the perilous sea in flimsy boats were also found dead. For the past two years or more, this reported episode has been a recurrent event involving mainly migrants from African countries like Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia Kenya and Eritrea. The recurrent wave of migrants illegally flocking to Europe in recent times is now becoming a political issue used for electoral purposes by far -right parties in European countries like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Gibraltar and the electorates are listening to these anti- immigration parties.

    No self-respecting African would be happy at the plight of these hapless Africans on the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to the plight of these Africans, who manage to leave Libya for the perilous journey to Europe, the dehumanizing treatment of those migrants still in Libya by the Arab slave traders is a case for adjudication at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague Netherlands. The recent CNN documentary on the dehumanizing plight of Nigerian migrants in Libya assailed our national pride. The documentary showed able-bodied Nigerian men and women being sold in slave market by fiendish Arab slave traders which to me, was a re-enactment of the slave trade by the Arabs which boomed in the 19th century and which ravaged and depopulated Africa. The Nigerians and other African men were forced to work as labourers and servants while the women were used as concubines and prostitutes. There was a belated and very tepid protest on this mistreatment of Africans on African soil by the ineffective continental organisation called African Union.

    Since inception of mankind, migration had always been part and parcel of human existence. In the Bible we read in Genesis 12, how Abraham obeyed God’s instruction and left his homestead to go to Canaan where he prospered. The history of Europeans is littered with migrations to other places. They migrated to other parts of the world such as the Americas, Australia, Asia and even Africa. The Europeans also enforced migration of Africans to the Americas through slave trade, a heinous trade which had also been carried out by the Arabs earlier. Africans in those days were forced to leave their God-given abode against their wishes, but this unfortunate situation is in sharp contrast to the present situation in Africa where virile and young Africans both male and female are migrating willingly to other parts of the world, especially to USA and European countries some which are less endowed than many African countries.

    Decision to voluntarily leave once homestead for another unknown place with all the risks involved does not come easily. One is usually forced to migrate to other places because of unpleasant and dire situation one encounters at home.  Presently in Africa, years of misrule by African rulers without exception had turned Africa into a hell on earth for African citizens. The otherwise endowed continent is ravaged  by wave of poverty, political strife, civil war, religious persecution unbridled corruption in high and low places and acute youth unemployment. The future of youths in Africa has been blighted by high level of unemployment, dysfunctional educational system and socio- political dislocation.  In short, the future is bleak at present for youths in Africa. In view of this depressing situation, youths in Africa have no alternative but to look for greener pastures outside the continent where their lots can be better even at a great risk to their lives. Louis Gates the black American historian once cracked a joke that if American slave ships were to be brought back to Africa now, millions of young African would willingly enter them for modern day slavery in USA because of the dire situations in the continent! The present unsavoury situation in our continent is a shame on our political leaders and the African Union for not finding a way to give hope to millions of youths in Africa.

    African continent could not have suffered the present socio-economic dislocation with the attendant blighting of the future of the youths in the continent, if our African leaders from independence had been less selfish and as patriotic as leaders in other parts of the world. Africa is a well-endowed continent and huge resources from the continent had been unscrupulously siphoned to other parts of the world especially to Europe and USA. The huge money siphoned from Democratic Republic of Congo by its late dictator Mobutu Seseko, who was reputed to be richer than his country is still in Switzerland banks out of reach of his damaged country, and his many mansions in different parts of Europe are decaying while his traumatized people are wallowing in abject poverty. The same story can be told of many African leaders like the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, late Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, late Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and others. In Nigeria our country, the humongous amounts now revealed to be stolen by politicians and civil servants is mind-boggling. In most African countries, money that could be used to improve the lots the down trodden people in Africa had been stolen by the so-called political leaders and their cronies and Africa is in a pathetic state because of this.

    The situation cannot continue like this. The time like this calls for visionary leadership in Africa. There is a need for a concerted effort to reverse this unsavoury trend in Africa, and put an end to shame of our youths leaving the continent in droves instead of staying to develop the continent. Our leaders through the African Union should come out with a blueprint on this nagging problem facing the continent. I understand the European Union has suggested an initiation of support for African employment agencies so that more jobs would be created for youths in the continent. To me, in order to put an end to dire socio-economic situation  in Africa, I think Africa needs something similar to the Marshall Plan initiated under President Harry Truman to help Western Europe after the Second World War. Under this plan which was named after George Marshal the USA Secretary of State under President Truman, the government of USA, from 1948 to 1952 spent $13 billion (nearly $110 billion in value in 2016) in economic assistance to rebuild western European economies. This initiative, apart from improving the infrastructure of war- ravaged European countries, helped to stem unbridled migration of war-wearied Europeans to USA after the war. The African Union in conjunction with United Nations should initiate this programme in Africa with massive financial support from European countries who are suffering from the brunt of the uncontrolled migration of Africans.  After all, a rich man will not be able to sleep well from the groaning of his hungry neighbour. Africa is at present a hungry neighbour of European countries. Africa needs infrastructure and industries in order to generate jobs for millions of unemployed youths in continent.

    In making this suggestion, I am not unmindful of the fate of other previous initiatives to help Africa by foreign donors.  Most of these initiatives came to grief as a result of lack of accountability and transparency in the execution of projects associated with these initiatives. In this new initiative, the donor countries should be given free hand to execute the projects and African leaders should not scuttle the initiative by protesting that their countries’ sovereignty would be eroded. After all, was the sovereignty of European countries, compromised under the Marshall Plan? The present dire economic situation in Africa can only be ameliorated through massive inflow of investments as witnessed in Europe through the Marshall Plan after the World War II. We cannot be wasting our virile youths in slave camps in Libya and in the perilous Mediterranean Sea.

     

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

     

     

  • GOtv Boxing Night 14: I’ll shame Skoro, says Nyawade

    Kenya’s Michael “Shaka” Nyawade, who is billed to fight Waidi “Skoro” Usman of Nigeria for the African Boxing Union (ABU) featherweight title at GOtv Boxing Night 14, has boasted that he will make his opponent dizzy within the first three rounds.

    The event, which holds at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos, provides Skoro another opportunity to lay his hands on the continental title, following his loss to Uganda’s Edward “Shaka” Kakembo in December 2015. Speaking from Nairobi, Kenya, Nyawade, who has won 18, lost four and drawn two out of his 24 fights, said he is coming to Nigeria to shame Skoro on his home patch.

    “I saw his fight against Kakembo, who defeated him. I am better than Kakembo. He will be dizzy within the first three rounds. It is time to show the world that Kenyans are as good in boxing as in long distance races. Skoro does not stand a chance. That is obvious to everybody, who understand boxing, except him. He probably does not understand the sport,” he said.

    Skoro’s fight records are by no means shabby. The West African Boxing Union (WABU) champion has won 13 and drawn two of his 15 fights, some of which include masterclasses in demolition of opponents.

    Both boxers look evenly matched for a contest that promises to be explosive, especially with Skoro’s keenness for redemption after his loss in 2015.

    In another international title fight billed for the event, the hugely promising Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde will seek to extend his unbeaten record and win first international title when he takes on Djossou “Agoy” Basile of the Republic of Benin for the West African Boxing Union welterweight title. Baby Face won the national light welterweight title last year. Equally billed to hold at GOtv Boxing Night 14 is the national lightweight title fight between Rilwan “Real One” Oladosu, winner of the best boxer award at GOtv Boxing Night 13, and Kazeem “Ijoba” Badmus.

    The fight line-up is completed by four fights. One of these will see incumbent ABU lightweight champion, Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph, in action against the tough policeman, Prince “Lion” Nwoye in a challenge contest. In the cruiserweight category, Abiodun “Finito” Afini will take on Razak “Hyena” Ramon. The super middleweight category will feature Chukwuebuka “Wise King” Ezewudo will confront Sulaimon “Jagaban” Olapade, while Majesty Maduka will face Sulaimon Adeosun.

    The best boxer at the event will go home with a cash prize of N1million.

  • Adeosun on VAIDS: Fed Govt’ll name, shame, prosecute tax evaders after March 31

    Adeosun on VAIDS: Fed Govt’ll name, shame, prosecute tax evaders after March 31

    The Federal Government will name and shame tax defaulters after the expiration of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has assured.

    She said the government will go a step further to prosecute whoever failed to take advantage of the tax amnesty programme – the VAIDS –  to regularise his/her tax profile.

    The minister was quoted to have assured foreign countries that any information volunteered to “the Federal Government would strictly adhere to the confidentiality of the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, in line with the guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).”

    In a statement, Mrs. Adeosun’s media aide,  Oluyinka Akintunde, said the minister made disclosure at a symposium orgarnised yesterday in Kaduna for VAIDS stakeholders.

    Adeosun stated that the government has the political will to prosecute tax evaders after the expiration of the tax amnesty programme by March 31.

    She said: “We will close VAIDS at the expiration of the programme on March 31, 2018. And once the programme is closed, we will name and shame and also prosecute tax evaders.

    “The Federal Government has the political will and data to go after tax evaders who fail to take advantage of the tax amnesty programme.

    “Many Nigerians cannot explain their lifestyles or match their lifestyles, assets and income with their tax payment.

    “We will close VAIDS at the expiration of the programme on March 31, 2018. And once the programme is closed, we will name and shame and also prosecute tax evaders, since they refused to take advantage of the opportunity.”

    On data sharing with foreign countries, the minister noted that the information sourced would be strictly used for tax purposes.

    “The guideline requires that the automatic exchange of financial account information must be specifically designed with residence jurisdictions’ tax compliance in mind rather than be a by-product of domestic reporting for it to be effective”, she said.

    She added that the automatic exchange of information had become necessary to combat tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems.

    The VAIDS, according to her, has been strengthened by the data on financial accounts, property and trusts shared by other countries.

    The urged offshore asset owners to utilise the VAIDS window to regularise their taxes before the end of the amnesty programme.

    Her words: “The offshore tax shelter system is basically over. Those who have hidden money overseas are being exposed and whilst Nigerians can legally keep their money anywhere in the world, they must first pay any taxes due to the Nigerian Government so that we can fund the needs of the masses and create jobs and wealth for our people.”

    In his remark, Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir el-Rufai said he had declared his assets last year, he lauded the collaboration between the federal and state governments on tax.

    He pledged to provide land ownership data to tax authorities at the federal and state levels, as part of measures to bring more income earners and asset owners into the tax net.

    The governor assured that the revenue from taxes would be judiciously used in improving the lives of residents of the state through investment in infrastructure, primary healthcare and education.

    The FIRS Executive Chairman, Babatunde Fowler reinforced the need for Nigerians to join hands with the federal and state governments to improve the standard of living through compliance with tax payment.

    Dignitaries at the event include, Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Idris Ahmed, captains of industries and business owners.

  • Camps of sorrow and shame

    Camps of sorrow and shame

    In bold relief, Nigeria has once again been portrayed as a basket case in the eyes of the world. The lead front page story of The New York Times, international edition (Saturday-Sunday, December 9-10) tells a heart-rending story of sorrow and shame in Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camps.

    A longish story of about 40 paragraphs titled: “Fleeing from Boko Haram, to cruelty”, is a damning report not just about the state of the IDP camps in the north east but also signposts the overall situation in Nigeria.

    The report tells in graphic details, the harrowing experiences of women and girls in the hands of men in the camps – men who are supposed to protect them.

    One of such examples is the case of a young girl, Falmata. At 11, she was abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists, raped, abused and even impregnated. At 14, she managed to escape from the Boko Haram bandits and was picked by soldiers who took her to Dalori IDPs camp outside Maiduguri, Borno State.

    As Falmata’s story goes, it was in this camp that her real ordeal started. For the two months she spent in the camp, she was serially raped nearly every day by people she described as soldiers because they bore guns. According to the report, “it was unclear whether they were members of the military, the police or another security force. She said they carried weapons.”

    “I felt it would continue forever,” Falmata said of the abuse. She had to flee once again, this time from those who were meant to protect her.

    As reported by The New York Times, Hadiza, 18, is another victim of security officials’ cruelty in the IDP camp. According to her, one method the security men deploy is to pick on the girl they desire to cook for them.

    Soon, the lot fell on Hadiza and her worst fears were confirmed. After cooking, she was asked to serve water to four security officers in their room. One by one the officers left until only one remained. He dragged her into a separate room and raped her, Hadiza said.

    “She tried to keep low profile for a couple of weeks, but officers spotted her and raped her again. She said she had been raped as many as 20 times in the camp.”

    “Once they identify you as a girl they wanted to have sex with, they would hardly leave you alone a single day,” Hadiza said. Soon word about the rampancy of rape and other atrocities in Teachers Village Camp spread far and wide across the city of Maiduguri.

    The stories are the same in the 13 camps across the country – rape; sex-for-food and materials, rampant pregnancy and abandonement of the mother and child. There is also pilfering of relief materials and extortion.

    But the Nigerian authorities did not seem to notice. Mid-2016, Human Rights Watch had reportedly written to various government agencies requesting comments on the various allegations emanating from all the camps. But it never received any response.

    About 13 camps holding over 2.5 million inmates is one of the scourges of the Boko Haram insurgency which turned for the worse in 2009. While the group has been largely decimated, the displaced persons in the camps seem to be neither reducing in number nor are there serious plans to resettle them in their homesteads.

    Issues in the camps escalate and get more complicated. Apart from paucity of food, drugs and other basic daily needs;  HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are ravaging the camps. Very high rate of pregnancy and traumatised young women pose fresh problems.

    Though the Federal Government set up the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) about five years ago, results in terms of rebuilding the region and managing the IDP camps seem insignificant so far; what with the initiative being hit by fraud at the highest level of government, almost taking the wind out of its sail.

    We suggest a complete rethink of the entire Boko Haram episode in its entirety. Both the leadership as well as the military-security-intelligence architecture need to be overhauled if not changed completely.

    We suggest that the PINE must immediately be imbued with a notable and respectable face to drive it; someone who must be given targets and who has the requisite capacity to render monthly briefings of his activities.

    The same goes for the IDP camps. We are of the opinion that government must immediately institute a proper task force with a notable head to manage the camps. It must be someone who will be answerable for the happenings in the camps. His overriding mandate would be to return the inmates to their homestead in the shortest possible timeframe.

    We doubt that any other country has this number of people displaced within their boundaries. Not even countries in the midst of full blown war.

    This littering of wretched IDPs in Nigeria has become a source of global odium and it is of course, a marker as to the nature of the leadership in Nigeria.

     

  • Port Harcourt show of shame

    SIR: One was bemused by the tragedy of the anarchy that was let loose upon the street of the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt between the security details of the governor, Nyesom Nwike and the former governor and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amechi; two giants and political leaders from Rivers State.  The clash is a sad reflection of what leadership has become, especially in that part of the country.  The place of a governor of a state and minister of the federal republic is an exalted office which should not be honoured with brigandage and hooliganism. The office of a governor and minister should carry with it sobriety and moral capital.

    The combatants sadly were men of the Nigeria Police Force on both sides from the same agency of the federal government.  The security details of the two officials have unprofessionally descended into the arena of political battle field to fight a proxy war.  This show of shame should be of concern to every Nigerian.

    The street brawl in broad daylight between members of the same Police Force is an eloquent testimony of the decadence, lack of professionalism and discipline amongst its rank and file. It should not be about whose convoy was right or wrong but a gross professional misconduct on all sides.  If it is not dealt with as such by the Police High Command, there would be greater bloodbath in days and months ahead on the streets especially given the tempo of political activities towards 2019.

    The same is a reflection of the two individuals involved who were not able to rein in their security for the sake of decency and morality of the office they occupy.  A leader should be imbued with good carriage, sobriety and sublime language.  What was on display was acute lack of self-respect for the office they occupy.  Rivers State is gradually assuming the notorious reputation of a haven for hooliganism and banditry where supporters of political leaders draw lines on territorial control. The state and people certainly can produce more reputable leaders than those currently parading the corridors of power and giving bad name to the state in their manners, behaviours and language.

    Official convoy and security details are to ensure the safety of the officials without terrorizing other road users and chasing citizens into avoidable accidents and denying them rights of way.  They are to respect the rights of other road users and obey traffic laws.  Government officials must begin to show good examples by setting off in good time for appointments so as not have cause to use their security details to beat up other road user to meet up their schedule.

    The signature and official seal of our leaders is to go late to scheduled programmes and keep people waiting for them for hours on end.  Wherever we got this from, it does not show responsibility in any way.

    In responsible climes, the incident like that of last Saturday in Port Harcourt deserves to be given a serious attention that it deserves through an official inquiry.  It is shameful and an abuse of office to employ the security paraphernalia attached to officials to engage in settlement of personal animosity. Beyond condemnation in the court of public opinion the two officials deserve sanction.  If it is a political brand and culture they are promoting, it is certainly the wrong brand and too bad for the state and the society at large.

    The Nigeria Police Force need to do more to deploy and arm only personnel with professional competence and not street fighters who would not be able to differentiate between a criminal and his comrade in arms. The conduct of the two government officials and the street brawls between their security details does belong in the 21st Century democratic environment; it is a shame!

     

    • Mike Kebonkwu Esq.

    Abuja.

  • The shame of varsities’ toilets

    Nigeria is arguably the champion of Africa, given its enormous, robust human and material resources as well as population size of 180 million or thereabouts.  Therefore, it should be a vivid beacon of hope and excellence for the other countries in the continent.  This is achievable through the lenses of world-class educational systems particularly at the university level.  Nigeria is not doing badly, in terms of sheer weight of numbers.  Thus, for example, the country has over 40 federal universities and at least 38 state-owned ones.  But sadly enough, the morphology and content of the grammar of standard of the learning environment are very poor.  My emphasis here is on the university hostels including toilet facilities that are in a sorry state.  The university is a special institution committed to the development or nurturing of refined personalities capable of combining knowledge in a myriad of disciplines with good character. The essence of all these engagements is the improvement of the human condition across scales.

    Every university needs a pleasant, clean learning environment in order to produce gentle ladies and men in the final analysis.  The campus is not supposed to be a breeding ground for dirty, violent and rascally graduates.  The impact of the physical and social environment on students same as other Homo sapiens is certainly monumental.  Refined university graduates will plough back their vibrant knowledge into the larger system or society.  This is the cornerstone of social sustainability among other things.  Therefore, it is not a luxury to ensure that clean hostels and by extension, toilets are provided for students.  Indeed, clean hostel facilities are a necessity as opposed to an option.  This reality also determines to a great extent, the academic performance of each student in the long run.

    In my own opinion, provision of clean hostels including toilet facilities is part of the process of character building embedded in profundity.  University education should not be reduced to the sphere of mere awarding of certificates to students after completing their studies.  Every human being is to a certain degree, a product of his socio-physical environment.  Suffice it to say, that after training, education is what is left as a perpetual legacy.  That is the beauty of university training.  This underscores the reason why each university management team must develop a new narrative of total commitment to cleanliness.  Thus, for example, the motto of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan is “Knowledge and Good Character”.  Other universities have their own too.  The motto of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife is “Learning and Culture”.  “Naturally Ahead” is the motto for Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

    The founding fathers of these great universities knew what they were saying and doing because they had visions and were no doubt, on a mission.  Therefore, each management team must search its mind or heart to find out, how its university stands today, in terms of living up to the high ideals of the founding fathers.  Much can still be done despite the current lean budgets.  But this will entail careful re-prioritisation of the needs of students and the university as a whole.  Today’s public universities (with a few exceptions), have very dilapidated toilet facilities leading to several unhygienic practices by students – the movers and shakers of our tomorrows.

    It is shocking to say here, that most of the toilets cannot be directly used by students due largely to high population quite above the carrying capacity of each hall and/or the university in general.  No running water!  No functioning boreholes! Where there are a few boreholes, electric power supply is not available!  Not unexpectedly, the whole place stinks to high heavens.  For goodness sake, is this the kind of milieu needed for producing future leaders?  It is time to begin to rescue Nigerian public universities from the swamp of filthiness into which they have been sinking fast, at least in the last 15 years or so.  It is laughable (though painful too) that our often maligned students (victims of a system bereft of ideas, proactivity and financial prudence) now use potties like very young children in Day-Care centres.  No student, no matter how careless will directly use a toilet where maggots and flies among other harmful organisms are permanently “holding meetings”.

    Unfortunately, contemporary Nigerian university students are becoming more voiceless on a daily basis, in the face of high-handedness, insensitivity and unwarranted arrogance on the part of the management team.  The vibrant culture of academic democracy – a reflection of checks and balances, is on its way to extinction.  This culture of intellectual retrogression can hardly be found in smaller West African countries like Benin and Ghana.  Parents whose children or wards are readying themselves for resumption in these universities must not forget to buy potties for them.  Potties are some of the new valuables.  Young ladies use more potties than men in their halls or hostels.  You and I can guess the coping strategy of male students in this connection.  This is definitely an eyesore and indeed, a mind sore as Professor Niyi Osundare once said, in a public lecture he gave many years ago at the University of Ibadan.

    This relatively recent development diminishes our students especially the female gender.  But they have no choice, if they want to reduce the risk of infection to the barest minimum.  The management does not need to look the other way, because this problem or challenge is not insurmountable after all!   Companies producing potties should please bear with me.  They should not be angry with me because currently, they are smiling to the bank more regularly than hitherto.  This is because more potties are in demand by students across the board.  This is a blessing in disguise for the companies.  However, this blessing may be short-lived, once university management teams see my lamentation here, as a genuine effort to liberate our hostels and by extension, students from the abyss of filthiness.

    The popular rhetoric of inadequate funding of universities is not a solution.  The real solution here is prudent management of resources and the consciousness to make positive history for posterity.  Certainly, more funds will have positive expansionary effect on the university system generally.  But this will only be possible if the managers change their current narrative.  That is to say, that if they get their priorities straight.  It is on record, that a lot of federal universities were well funded during the last administration headed by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.  How was the money spent?  What was it spent for?  What were the priorities of each university management in the face of such largesse?  Problems or challenges of over-crowded hostels and over-used toilet facilities can be successfully addressed, if the management has the political will.  But if those in charge didn’t see anything wrong with dirty toilets, then positive change would be difficult to make.  It is dangerous to continue to gloss over this issue, thereby sending a wrong signal to our students and of course, the wide world that hygienic culture has no space in the contemporary university consciousness.  I will illustrate here, the seriousness of this matter, in order to help those few self-seeking, myopic, unpatriotic academics and administrators who might want to trivialise the subject, by pretending that there is no fire on the mountain.

    Some five years ago or thereabouts, a few students from the University of Ibadan were lodged in an unoccupied palace during an archaeological field training in Osun State.  Within the two-week period, the surroundings of the sacred building – the heart and soul of the host community, were in a thorough mess.  Human faecal and other material wastes turned the palace into a filthy space.  Consequently, one of the high chiefs holding the fort while the community was searching for a new king (oba) cursed the students for offending their sensibilities through the lens of desecration.  As a result of this poor behaviour, the departmental authorities could no longer use the sites in the community as a field school.  Although this behaviour is condemnable by all standards, we should not forget in a hurry, the centrality of physical and social environmental determinism in the evolution of human personality.  It is against this backdrop, that all public universities in the country must begin a behavioural revolution with a special emphasis on hostel facilities.  This is doable, in the face of unalloyed commitment to the common good, and indeed, our tomorrows.  The current narrative of lack of proactivity and near-complete indifference to the sufferings of Nigerian students has to change.

     

    • Professor Ogundele writes from University of Ibadan.
  • The shame of a diminished Senate

    The shame of a diminished Senate

    INCREASINGLY obsessed with sleaze and scandals, it is unknown how many of our conniving senators still have the presence of mind today to ponder history. Those who do would perhaps have encountered the name Oliver Cromwell, the British general, who turned England a republic and taught it puritan values.

    Convinced the parliament had transmuted to the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah by the middle of the 17th century, the new lawgiver did not hesitate to dismiss the assembly. But not before he made a searing speech at the House of Commons on April 20, 1653, the echo of which must have haunted the buccaneering lawmakers for the rest of their lives. His words:

    “It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

    “Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? “Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

    Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. “In the name of God, go!” Well, the perfidies and iniquities Cromwell lamented in the Long parliament in the 17th century Europe would seem very much alive in Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber today as personal interests are shamelessly camouflaged as public cause.

    To be fair, even in mature democracies often held up as model for the fledgling ones, the legislative chamber is never always the best place to find angels. But elsewhere, there is always a concerted effort to hide, to conceal the dirty linen, out of respect for public sensibilities and shared commitment to preserve the corporate integrity of that very space. Certainly, nowhere is venality and rascality so glamorized as we are beginning to see in the Nigerian Senate lately.

    Legal titan, Professor Itse Sagay, is the latest to be dragged into the seedy arena. The chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Tuesday took an unprecedented step by issuing the Senate an ultimatum to eat its words, failing which he would slap it with a suit for daring to as much as contemplate subpoenaing him over an earlier comment that the senators acted “childish and irresponsible” by refusing to screen 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners over President Buhari’s retention of Ibrahim Magu as acting head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Predictably, the law professor has meticulously outlined the futility of Senate’s plan in a statement, citing legal authorities to back his argument. Whether the Senate sticks to its guns and Sagay resorts to court is, however, not the issue. Rather, what is invariably exposed is the obsession of certain elements at the Senate to impose their own will on the nation and the ridiculous length they will travel in pursuit of a personal agenda.

    To be sure, this writer is sold on the imperative of the independence of both the legislature and the judiciary as the surest institutional valve against executive tyranny. But in the present circumstance, those deploying such fine argument in defence of the ongoing Senate intransigence however suddenly turn dumb when reminded of the underlining certainty of blackmail in the Magu blockade.

    By describing the senators as “childish and irresponsible”, Sagay could, in fact, be accused of being too charitable. By harbouring a nest of former governors standing trial for massive theft while in office, failed contractors, certificate impostors, a practising bearded pedophile, a fugitive who jumped bail in London and one “drug baron” absconding from American justice, Nigerians who choose to view the red chamber as presently constituted as a den of shifty characters cannot therefore be accused of libel or hyperbole.

    It is, therefore, more in the interests of these “suspects” that a hard-tackling Magu is prevented from continuing at the EFFC than the advertised fixation on the so-called disabling memos by the DSS. To argue otherwise is to assume all Nigerians are big fools.

    Last week, Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno South, was thrown out of the chamber based on the report of the Ethics Committee that he had raised a false alarm over the imported bullet-proof SUV belonging to senate president Bukola Saraki and Dino Melaye’s counterfeit academic claims.

    In short, they seemed to accuse Ndume of exaggeration. But exaggeration, as Khalib Gibran tells us, is only a truth that has lost its temper. What’s more, Ndume also happened to be Magu’s only vocal advocate in the chamber. What a clever way to silence that dissent once and for all. But without Ndume’s raising the red flag, how would we have known that an SUV imported for Saraki was cleared with forged documents?

    Without SaharaReporters championing the public scrutiny of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) records, how would we have known that loquacious Dino entered the school with “incomplete” result and spent record eight years to graduate with a pass, yet again in the most shadowy circumstances, in what would have taken even a poorly endowed student four years to finish?

    And that the chain of “Harvard, Oxford degrees” he used to flaunt on social media were actually not more than glossy letters acknowledging attendance of nothing more than a week seminar? For the temerity to impound on the highway the SUV meant for the use and comfort of the Senate president, our almighty senators had summoned Customs boss Hameed Ali and, to exact a pound of flesh, thought of the harshest humiliation possible for him.

    He would not even be allowed a seat in the chamber until he wore the service uniform. Again, the Senate is diminished when the other side of Lawal Babachir’s grass-cutting scam is told. Sure, the yarn spurned by the Secretary to the Federal Government to absolve himself of complicity in the contract scandal is hard to believe.

    Conversely, it does our senators no good either when Babachir’s apologists squealed that the Senate chose to blow the bugle and, in fact, asked Buhari to fire the government scribe only because he had insisted it was not the job of federal lawmakers to execute constituency projects. To be fair, among the irredeemable in the red chamber are a few conscientious senators.

    But as the upper legislature continues to hobble from one scandal to another, they, unfortunately, are also vicariously liable and so lose respect in the eyes of the Nigerian people.

  • Abuja Airport closure: Shame of a nation

    SIR: Since the idea to close the Abuja International Airport was first mooted, and the alternative palliative measures hurriedly being lined out to ensure the smooth completion of the repair of the ONLY airport runway, coupled with the furore that ensued among Nigerians for and against the whole affair; I have been enveloped in deep thinking about the place of ordinary Nigerian citizens in the scheme of things generally.

    For instance, it took the unfortunate death of a serving minister of state, Mr. James Ocholi, courtesy of the potholes-infested Abuja-Kaduna highway, for the same road to be given a sudden facelift way back in 2016. And that, had the minister miraculously survived the accident, nothing would have been done to reduce the wasteful human carnage that would have continued unabated!

    What a shame that one of the busiest highways in the country, and the gateway to the capital city from the far Northern states, had to be repaired at such supersonic speed in order to impress and satisfy the yearnings of a particular class in the society. As it appears, those for whom it is being undertaken care less about the huge amount being committed to the project, but for the less-privileged the amount would go a long way in meeting their numerous needs like water supply, food, medicine, etc.

    Pitifully, the same highway bedevilled by all sorts of criminals that have been terrorising innocent citizens on a daily basis has all of a sudden come under the limelight with 24/7 joint security watch, all for the sake of the VIPs.  And all the potholes and craters that have been causing avoidable killings, maiming and damaging of vehicles have suddenly disappeared because the crème of the society would be using the renovated Kaduna Airport, albeit temporarily.

    We are no doubt happy that some part of Kaduna, the former capital of Northern Nigeria; a state that was subjugated and degraded by years of bad governance is now wearing a new look. That the Kaduna western bypass, otherwise known as the Nnamdi Azikiwe Road, reported to have had over 701 potholes for many years, has been repaired with newly installed solar street lights to boot, remains however as a source of worry to me personally and other lower-class Nigerians. This unfortunate class stratification and subjugation engenders nothing but inequality and injustice which must be redressed and done away with for the sake of peace and tranquility in Nigeria.

    This development keeps me thinking because Kaduna-to-Kano high-way and many similar highways across the country that are currently in terrible shape, but which unfortunately will not be used by the high and mighty in the foreseeable future, will remain neglected and will continue to remain death-traps, consuming the hardworking breadwinners who daily ply the roads in search of daily means of survival for their families.

    The new realisation to the effect that N10 billion earlier budgeted and captured in 2016 budget was never utilised by FERMA to repair roads, according to reports, for reason best known to them is also depressing reality of the shameful situation of Nigeria. Does that mean that Nigeria’s ordinary poor only have value during elections, political campaign and routine Immunisations?

    I’m not happy at all for my inability  to decipher what really made me and members of my social class less important than the so-called VIPs to warrant extreme concern for them and total neglect  of my immediate basic needs as an equal and bona fide  citizen of Nigeria.

    This politics of Abuja Airport closure reminds me of the famous saying by Charles Dickens in his famous fiction-Animal Farm – that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”  This is true in the contemporary Nigerian context, most unfortunately.

    Indeed, the closure of the only gateway to the nation’s capital just to allow for the repair of a single airport runway would remain one of the many shames of our nation. And the on-going frantic effort by Federal Government to provide alternative measures to ease the suffering of only the VIPs is, to say the least, most crude and a shameless display of crass insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary and hardworking citizens of this country.

     

    • Kabir Tsakuwa,

    Kano