The Nation Newspaper

Tag: shame

  • What a shame

    The strength of country’s soccer team is gauged by the number of players who ply their trade in the local league. In fact, most football nations deemphasise the need to win age-grade tournaments. What such countries’ Football Federations (FF’s) chiefs do is to have the right calibre of players in age-grade sides. They always look at the bigger picture, which age-grade competitions offer beyond wining laurels. This is why they stand out at the senior level as against those who field over-aged players to win tournaments meant for kids (young boys and girls).

    In the last two weeks, I have focused on the domestic game, knowing that it is bedevilled by all manner of shenanigans which puts a lie to some of the pyrrhic feats being ascribed to those who beat their chests that they have turned the game around here. Easily, the best measurement for growth, if our league chieftains must be fair, is how well our representatives at the continental level perform. Rather than tackle the hydra-headed problems in the league, they have opted for the cosmetic treatment, feeling that the way to change things is for the league matches to begin early. While it is true that early commencement is good for blending of the boys in the teams that represent us at the continental level, what is of utmost importance is how we get these teams to qualify for top tournaments. Nigeria should qualify for the crucial stages of any continental soccer fiesta, instead of what have been achieved – failure.

    A situation where a critical committee in ensuring fairness in the way the game is run here goes cap-in-hand to state governments and club proprietors for cash to run its operations, to say the least is shameful. Reason: those state governments and proprietors have teams participating in the league. Last week, I talked about a key official of the domestic league whose home town team didn’t get a point from the 19 away games it played last year. That team won all its corresponding home games, raising posers of corruption.

    We have no respect for ethics. We always feel that there is a Nigerian way of doing things, which is ridiculous. In the Interim League Management (ILM) era, the incumbent Chief Operating Officer (COO), Salihu Abubakar, fought hard to stop league club owners and officials, especially state government chieftains, from being part of the league administration. Salihu, who was then Special Assistant to the Sports Minister Musa Mohammed (sir, where are you?) failed because some club owners advanced the warp reason of them being involved since they pay the players’ wages. But, are these club owners not owing their players, coaches and ancillary staff?

    For peace to reign, especially with tales that smack of blackmail, the then Sports Minister, Musa Mohammed allowed, the club owners to have representatives in the ILM, not for the running of the league board to be wholly their show. Of course, when that ILM’s tenure ended, the wolves in the league clubs ensured that nobody outside the league clubs or their sponsors and friends had anything to do with its operations. Attempts to do things properly were sabotaged by club owners so much so that club officials ran week 20 fixtures with non accredited match officials, not minding the fact that the results wouldn’t be recognised by CAF and FIFA. The matches were eventually replayed, weeks to the end of the competition. Don’t ask me if some of the results didn’t affect how teams were placed at the top and bottom of the league rung.

    I was bowled over by the initiative of the League Management Company (LMC). I trusted those behind this laudable idea to play according to the rules. I knew they wouldn’t spend a day above what the rule provides for. However, my worry was that with the backstage taken by the initiators of the LMC, the rot of the past will return. It was just a matter of time. No wonder the first two weeks of this season have been flooded with tales of the unexpected. And I’m glad that the body recognised by FIFA to run the game here has taken the bull by the horns in dishing out rules that will checkmate some of these flaws, many of which are disgraceful.

    I must commend the NFF chiefs for this prompt response. They should also insist that anyone who wants to be an administrator must have a means of livelihood. A jobless person will bend the rules to make him relevant. Such a person will be so desperate that the rules of neutrality and fairness will have no impression on him. Dear reader, please read through these new directives for you to appreciate how mindless some of our administrators are. Does this not explain why the game is ugly in the domestic league? Is this not why the fans have opted to watch the more organised European matches on television? Did I hear you say why is the NFF just reacting? Good question. But let’s correct it now.

    The NFF swung into action on Wednesday by rolling out the first measures aimed at sanitising the game within the Nigerian territory when it barred members of the Match Commissioners Appointment Committee from officiating games.

    In a nine –point circular issued to all Members of the NFF Board, Chairman of League Management Company, Chairman of National League, Chairman of Women League, Chairman of Nationwide League, Chairman of NFF Referees Committee, Chairman of NFF Match Commissioners Appointment Committee, Football Associations of the 36 States and FCT and All Members of NFF, and signed by the General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, the NFF said that “the Integrity Unit has commenced the implementation of the Strategy Guideline” and has “identified some areas that require immediate attention to avoid all forms of conflict of interest”.

    Isn’t it strange that members of the Match Commissioners Committee didn’t see anything wrong in appointing themselves as Match Commissioners in our League Games? Does this not portend great danger in terms of transparency and prevention of any possible exploitation? Why would members of the Referees Appointment Committee condescend to the level of being match assessors in this era of transparency?

    How can a club manager be appointed to handle matches involving other clubs in the same league? Is that how it is done elsewhere? This is fraudulent. I don’t want to believe that State Football Association Secretary have been  appointed as a Club Secretary, considering the fact that the State FA Secretaries in most cases are chief organisers of matches within their territories. It would have been appropriate for the NFF to name such people or their states?

    Since when has it become the tradition for State Football Association Chairmen to be appointed Independent Directors in our Leagues? It is laughable that they even went further to be appointed as Match Commissioners. I support the decision to stop such acts.

    Good decisions if you ask me. But will they be implemented? Those club chairmen who have documented contracts with players, especially national team stars, will laugh off these decisions because they have a right to do their businesses. They could also hide under the designated companies to continue with this illegality. I hope we won’t be told of the laws of Nigeria being weightier than FIFA’s statutes? Why would state FA chiefs who don’t have teams in the league be allowed to benefit from the exercise? Should they be challenged to nurture theirs to prominence? No wonder State Football Association Chairmen now perform dual roles  as Football Club Chairmen. Glad to know that this has been stopped. What won’t people do to remain relevant? Or how do you reconcile a State FA Chairmen being made  a memberof a Football Club? How would he be fair to smaller teams in his state when they meet in the Challenge Cup competition?

    You can see why everything stops when it is time for the NFF elections. Those who perpetrate these heinous acts will want to sustain them. Those who know what’s going on will also want to partake in it. The game suffers because the key actors (players and coaches) are kept in the dark. Even the simplest task of paying their salaries and entitlements only get done when they occupy the government houses across the country.

    The domestic league can attract massive sponsorship packages from within and outside the country. What these investors need to identify with the systems are mechanisms, such as those above which will checkmate corruption. No credible organisation will identify its products and services with a system that condones corruption. Officials of the domestic league board must imbibe the culture of seeing their assignments as a business, not a job for the boys.

    Football-loving countries generate incredible revenue from all the facets of soccer, such that others, such as China, have started to emulate them. The cash being splashed on twilight stars coming to the Chinese League is incredible. Soon China will be a soccer power bloc while our game will nosedive because of the itchy fingers of some of our administrators. I hope that these new rules will signpost change in the domestic league. It is about time the real actors of the game benefitted from the proceeds of proper planning by the organisers. I can’t wait for that day.

  • Shame on you, America

    Yuck, you suck, you suck like hell! The big, bad guy we all hate to hate has finally gone whacko. You finally stood up to us in your live image: America, your name is Trump, yes, Donald Trump. You didn’t cast your vote – no, for that would be the craziest election ever – you merely cast yourself in your true mould which is Donald Trump. The cyber age cowboy; half honcho, much bravura like a street college graduate!

    Gee, there you go – a scowling, swashbuckling 70-year-old with a shock of annoying hair. And aren’t you annoying? You are largely half-illiterate and you don’t even know it. Not because you are not about the sharpest mind around, but because of your limited world view and your awkward methods.

    Now how can it be that in your so-called election, the majority voice, the popular vote does not win at the polls but a college of about 600 people decides the fate of about 300 million people? Isn’t that a travesty?

    Now thousands of shell-shocked citizens are on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Houston Texas and numerous other beautiful corners of this land, chanting “Not my president!” He ain’t my idea of a Prez either. Oh, what a calamity, America you are at war with America. Ah, America you are now confronted by your own very Jekyll and Hyde moment; a moment your soul is rent in two. Today, you are Hillary (America) Clinton and Donald (America) Trump – the very best of your system and the very banal and warped. You have chosen banality over rationality and you are gonna have to deal with it for at least four years. What a pity.

    You sure have a caper in your hands don’t you? I wager that if you are lucky, you might just get away merely bruised and dented, otherwise, you may just have suckered yourself into the beginning of the end of the American age. What an ominous coincidence: 9/11 and 11/9.

    Oh what a disgrace! How could you America, vote a president who is friend with that diminutive dictator? How could you vote a president who is a tax evader? I thought that was enough to disqualify anyone? How did the FBI split many hairs about the silly matter of private emails and allowed tax-dodging?

    Oh America, how did you trump (yes, trump) yourself so and blew a chance in a millennium to make history; to install a great woman POTUS; the first and probably the best of her kind. More baffling is the statistic that more women voted Donald than voted Hillary. And how could that be? Yet women speak of gender equality and here they fluffed a chance to take the number one seat on earth?

    Why did I think no American woman would vote Donald, the self-confessed p—sy-grabber and who is proud of it? To think that you, American woman voted a woman abuser; who can fathom the wondrous ways of the feminine gender? It’s true after all that bad guys win fair hearts; read fatal attraction.

    Well, so long as it isn’t a fated election for you, America. But you sure sucked it to the rest of the world, America-crazed world. If it were up to my country Nigeria, Hillary would have been president-elect last year not last Tuesday. You won’t believe it but some of us here shed a tear too for Hillary. For reasons not quite clear and rational to us, we are Democrats here.

    You burst the asses of our prophets and pundits here as well, showing them up as profit (eers) and junkies. And shall we say that American stupidity has its own uses too. Next time our prophets speak, we now know to cross-check with the Chinese monkey that predicted this Trump tragedy right… against 150 to zero odds.

    But hey Yankee, now that you’ve got everyone one’s monkey up, what are you gonna do? Ha, ha!

     

    Senate and the Magu travesty

    It will amount to a travesty of justice and a taint on the 8th Senate if Mr. Ibrahim Magu is not confirmed as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is almost a year since President Muhammadu Buhari sent Magu’s name to the Senate.

    Not a word from the Senate and Magu’s acting status would soon elapse automatically, making his position a nullity. This is not acceptable. The Senate of the Federal Republic cannot choose and pick who to confirm or act based only on its own whims. We suspect foul play here.

    Magu is not without flaws of his own, but he is eminently qualified; he has done a damn good job of his extremely tough assignment so far. He should not only be confirmed, he should get a written commendation if our Senate were peopled by honourable men.

    So much to say yet, but let’s just note for now that the Magu matter is deeper than it seems and may well define this Senate’s life more than any other issue.

  • Amosun’s ‘Gateway of shame’

    •Yet another reminder to a bungling governor

    Lies are the oxygen of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s ‘Change.’ This time last year, the governor’s media aide called to plead on his behalf. He said the governor has promised to hearken to his people’s cry and make the state more habitable for them, in the spirit of good governance. But Amosun seems incapable of ‘Change’ and good governance. Hence his jarring mediocrity and excruciating performance. Amosun has mended some roads, built new ones and constructed bridges. Among other schemes, he has initiated a ludicrous 15-unit model school project. But tempting as it is to paint a glowing portrait of his administration, the purpose of this piece is to draw his attention to the maggots of neglect, arrant duplicity and underdevelopment still infesting his government and the state, like a mind tumour.

    Tumour has been known to cause its victims to hallucinate or descend into psychosomatic degeneration until death, particularly if located in the brain. But Governor Amosun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has never been diagnosed with any such affliction, physically or metaphorically but like an ill-fated administrator, leading a government afflicted by nerve and ideological tumour, Governor Amosun is incapable of fulfilling the promise of his party’s philosophy of ‘Change.’

    This moment, Amosun’s version of ‘Change’ resonates as a corny phrase he had to chant to achieve an epic sweep at the polls. No doubt, it worked for him. After all, he remains His Excellency, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State for a second term. It’s however, interesting to see him  bluster through his second spell in office, chanting ‘Change’ yet denouncing it in conflicting tenor and undertones.

    Amosun camp parades him as the people’s governor, a humane leader, yet he is stonily deaf and conveniently blind to the townships’ grief and the peasants’ sighs. There is a death trap at Owode junction, just before you get to Ifo; recently it claimed lives and property in ghastly vehicle accidents. And poor, helpless residents of Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, continually die, slowly and accidentally, from the perils of plying their muddy and badly cratered roads.

    There is devastation in Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, to mention a few and to residents and traders of Lusada, Atan-Ota and Igbesa in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state, the roads leading to their communities are nightmarish and inimical to growth.

    At the point where the Lagos ghetto of Ayobo meshes with Ogun state, a hideous kind of filth palpitates. There is ugliness in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode and various communities along Itele road. More roads present an eyesore at Oju-Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke-Aro. At Toll-gate junction, Joju, Temidire and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in devastating craters along the bypasses because these hotspots and scenes of multiple deadly accidents are allegedly inconsequential to Governor Amosun. Really?

    Lest we forget the people of Ewekoro who are dying slowly from the dangerous fumes persistently discharged into their communities by neighbouring multinational cement company, LafargeWAPCO Plc. Persistent reportage of LafargeWAPCO’s dangerous commercial activities in the area have been randomly scorned and condemned by the incumbent government of the state in the past, until a five-part series by The Nation spurred the government to stage a theatrical intervention that has so far, produced a remedy that barely addresses the health and developmental challenges incited by LafargeWAPCO in the area.

    A certain Barr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, who identifies himself as Secretary to the Ogun State Government, in an article published on September 5, 2015 by online medium, Opinion Nigeria among others, enthused that: “Of course, it is impossible to list the achievements of our government within this limited space. I must add that, Amosun, like our revered sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is a man that is conscious of his place in history. People like that are men of vision who will devote their all to the welfare of their people.”

    Governor Amosun is incapable of living up to the full measure of Adeoluwa’s hyperbolic cant. It’s about time the governor and his peers, stopped misappropriating substance by channeling it from the exploits of late Obafemi Awolowo. Is it so hard for Governor Amosun to become an icon by his own terms? It needn’t be too difficult for him to aspire to greatness by his handiwork, good deeds to be precise. Until then, no quality of spin or PR blitz would dull the jarring notes of sorrow and the portraits of death presented by Ogun State’s neglected townships, on his watch.

    It is even more heartbreaking to see schools in the state deteriorate rapidly. Governor Amosun will do right by devoting greater attention to public schools on the decline. Consider for instance, the sad case of Salawu Abiola Comprehensive High School (S.A.C.H.S), built in 63 hectares of land in Osiele, Abeokuta; it is ironical that Governor Amosun continually commemorates the life and death of the school’s founder, late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O) Abiola on June 12 of every year, even as the school founded by the late politician and philanthropist, withers away in abject neglect.

    It need be said that while Abiola was alive, he traveled with friends and family on his birthday, August 24th of every year, to celebrate with students of the school. That day also happened to be ‘Abiola Day,’ a day set aside for rewarding outstanding students of the school with prizes.

    As you read, S.A.C.H.S is virtually dead. The hostels are derelict and the classrooms and school laboratories are severely impaired. Yet Amosun plays to the gallery, celebrating Abiola’s life and politics every June 12.

    There are other public secondary schools like S.A.C.H.S deserving Governor Amosun’s urgent intervention. While alumni of Abeokuta Grammar School, Baptist Boys Secondary School and African Church Grammar School (of which Gov. Amosun is an alumnus) to mention a few, have been staging progressive interventions to rescue their alma mater from neglect,  S.A.C.H.S alumni have fared terribly in this respect. The latter’s intervention would have been a saving grace for the school since the Abiola family apparently considers it the government’s burden, and Governor Amosun conveniently neglects it and other diminishing schools, to actualize his mega-schools fantasy.

    “Hundreds of school buildings have been renovated, but the governor will not waste the scarce resources of the state to maintain buildings that ought to be demolished…We will not deceive our people with cosmetic changes,” stated Adeoluwa in his fawning piece on Amosun’s model school project. No doubt, Adeoluwa and his principal, Governor Amosun, need to visit S.A.C.H.S, Egba High School, Egba Odeda High School, Methodist Grammar School, Arigbajo, and other schools within Abeokuta, Ijebu and the outskirts of Ogun State to determine if they are actually worth saving or not. So doing, both Amosun and his underling may see the error, wastefulness and pitiful grandstanding in expending millions of tax payers’ money on building new ‘model schools’ while several schools in the state suffer excruciating decline.

    No one wishes that Governor Amosun deceives the citizenry with what he and Adeoluwa considers “cosmetic changes” but since he is been paid handsomely with tax payers’ money for running the state, he is duty bound to provide cost-effective education with justifiable infrastructure, good roads and safety of lives and property in the state. It is a way to fulfill the promise of “Change” we can believe in and prosper by, that he made to the electorate at election time.

  • Monument of shame

    Monument of shame

    •It is sad that Bayelsa abandoned hotel seized from Alamieyeseigha for seven years

    Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, who handed over Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, to the then Governor Timipreye Sylva of Bayelsa State in September 2009 as part of the assets seized from former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha must be surprised that the state government has left the N2.8billion edifice to rot away, seven years after. But if Mrs Waziri is surprised at this development, we can only imagine how Nuhu Ribadu, the commission’s boss who toiled day and night to bring the former governor to justice would feel.

    Chelsea Hotel was seized from former Governor Alamieyeseigha after a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered that the hotel be forfeited to the state government, following Alamieyeseigha’s conviction for corruption in 2007.

    Neither Waziri nor Ribadu would have imagined that the hotel would be left to rot away as it is when they were doing their bit as anti-corruption czars. The thinking then was that the state government would sell it if it could not run it, and money realised from the sale would be used for developmental purposes.

    The hotel was a money spinner before its forfeiture. The duo must be wondering now why the state government allowed their efforts to be in vain. Of course, since the government has not shown any interest in it, the edifice, like most abandoned buildings in the country, has become haven for miscreants who do all forms of shady activities there, thus constituting security risk to some shopping malls and banks in the Central Business District.

    There cannot be a better way to kill the anti-corruption war. Indeed, the state government’s handling of the hotel is aiding corruption by some other means. It is even worse than the original sin committed by the late Alamieyeseigha. The idea behind the EFCC’s efforts was to discourage public officials from pilfering public fund. As a matter of fact, it was not only Chelsea Hotel that was seized from the former governor. The commission also sold some of his other assets in the country and realised N3, 128, 230, 294.83; $441,000; E7, 000 and £2,000, which was handed over to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for onward delivery to the state government as ordered by the court.

    Yet, nothing suggested that this was the fate awaiting the hotel when then Governor Sylva took possession of it in 2009. Indeed, the governor spoke glowingly about the EFCC’s recovery efforts as well as what the state government intended to do with the proceeds handed over to him. The governor hinted of the possibility of selling the hotel and other assets: “The Bayelsa State Government will not be able to manage the assets by itself. The fund that the state government will receive will also go to building what is called the Transparency Plaza, in the middle of the Yenagoa Central Business District, so that this plaza will be a monument that will be a constant reminder of today”. He was not done; he added, for effect:”as soon as the fund is accessed, we will like to ask you to come to Bayelsa State to lay the foundation of this plaza.”

    Perhaps the invitation will come tomorrow.

    Sylva left the stage in 2012 without fulfilling his promise. Even the incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson who is in his second term of four years has not found it expedient to take action on the hotel. Yet, the state government has been unable to pay salaries and render other services due to lack of funds. If the state government could leave such a vital edifice to rot away despite its cash crunch, we do not know how many other assets it is wasting away.

    Bayelsa State should halt this disincentive to the anti-corruption war. If the government does not do something on the hotel, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should apply the necessary laws since it now constitutes a security risk to the neighbourhood. We must encourage those at the vanguard of the war to energise and motivate them to do more. This cannot happen when they work in vain as is the case with the abandonment of Chelsea Hotel these seven years.

  • What a shame

    By the last week of this month, I and some other Nigerian journalists should have played host to some colleagues from South Africa and Kenya at a media fellowship seminar.

    The Lagos seminar is supposed to be the class three of the programme following the first in South Africa and second in Kenya. The South Africa seminar was good, Kenya was better and Nigeria was supposed to be the best. Unfortunately, there will be no seminar in Lagos as earlier scheduled.

    Instead of the Lagos seminar, which our colleagues from Kenya and South Africa have looked forward to, we all are flying to Kigali, Rwanda, for no other reason than the inability of the organisers, based in South Africa and fellows from the country to get visas to travel to Nigeria.

    While the Kenyans can easily get visas ahead of their trip or on arrival in Nigeria, those from South Africa have applied for visas for months without approval earlier enough to ensure that the meeting holds in Nigeria.

    To ensure that the seminar holds in Nigeria like it did in South Africa and Kenya, everything possible have been done to get the officials that could hasten the issuance of the visa without success.

    I understand the need for necessary immigration procedures to be followed in issuance of visas, but I don’t know why it should be so difficult for South Africans to get Nigerian visas when two sets of Nigerian fellows on the programme got South Africa visas in less than two weeks.

    I submitted my application for visa to attend the seminar in South Africa in Lagos last year and got it within a week. I was not interviewed and was not asked for any extra ordinary document apart from the letter of invitation and basic papers.

    Considering the status of the South African applicants for the visas, there is no justifiable reason why processing of their applications should take so long that the organisers had no choice than to shift the venue of the seminar to Kigali.

    I should not have been surprised that applicants for Nigerian visas go through lots of unnecessary hassles and bureaucracy following my futile attempt to assist two American journalists based in South Africa and Kenya to obtain visas to attend the inauguration of the new administration, last May.

    After months of not getting response to their applications, they contacted me to help with contacting the officers at the Ministry of Information who they have been told needed to approve their request.

    I did my best and reached out to top government officials and despite their intervention the visas were not issued. One of them had to resort to applying for tourist visa to visit the country after the inauguration.

    Concerning the aborted Nigeria seminar, I can imagine the disappointment of the organisers and participants about our immigration policy and bureaucracy. The seminar is yet another lost opportunity, for no good reason, to showcase Nigeria.

    At the Kenya seminar, I remember the excitement of some participants about coming to Lagos. They were looking forward to seeing some of the places and people they have heard a lot about: The Lagoon, the clubs, Nollywood and many more. Our loss is Rwanda’s gain in many ways considering how much would have been spent by the organisers to host the seminar.

    I’m sure the country would have missed the opportunity to host other programmes due to immigration issues like in the case of the Lagos media fellowship seminar.

    It is high time we got our immigration service to improve on their operation to enhance efficient processing of visa applications like other countries.

    To enhance better unity on the continent, more bilateral agreements that allow for issuance of visas at points of entry should be signed. It is bad that in some cases, it is easier to get visas to some developed nations than within the continent.

     

  • Shame on you

    So Daar Communications, the owners of African Independent Television (AIT), can eat the humble pie.  On February 5, the company made the headlines with the news that it had apologised to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in connection with   the controversial documentary ‘Lion of Bourdillon’ aired on AIT ahead of last year’s general elections.

    Tinubu had filed a N150 billion suit, claiming that the documentary,   which was first aired on March 1, 2015, was aimed at tarnishing his image. Daar Communications had responded by filing a counter claim of N200 billion as aggravated, punitive and exemplary damages against the claimant. The matter was referred to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in December last year.

    When Mike Ozekhome (SAN), counsel to Daar Communications owner   Chief Raymond Dokpesi, told the court that his client had opted for an out-of-court settlement, it reflected a forced humility.

    More importantly, the terms of settlement were humiliating for Daar Communications. The terms of agreement adopted as judgement of the court include a retraction of the broadcast by AIT and an apology by AIT which should be aired three times, once daily on AIT.

    The apology letter said:  ”Daar Communications Plc, acknowledges that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is an outstanding political leader of unblemished character and integrity, as well as a leading public figure and opinion moulder who has made and continues to make immense, colossal and gargantuan contributions to the progress and development of the nation in general and Lagos State in particular.”

    The letter continued:  ”Daar Communication Plc admits that in airing the said documentary, it had no intention whatsoever to embarrass or diminish the high reputation of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu which it respects and attests to. Daar Communications Plc hereby makes a public and unequivocal retraction of the said documentary titled ‘Lion of Bourdilon’, which was broadcast on its television station, AIT. Daar Communications Plc hereby tenders unreserved apology to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the broadcast of the documentary on its television station, AIT. Daar Communications Plc prays that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will live long to make more enormous contributions to the advancement of our nation, Nigeria, Lagos State and the world at large.”

    This apology letter was an admission of professional misconduct. But more fundamentally, it was an admission of unprofessional behaviour. Daar Communications and AIT should hang their heads in shame.

  • Hall of shame

    •Port Harcourt Airport wins a global award – the worst in the world!

    Airports must be modern man’s closest thing to the sacred groves of yore. It is even more so with international gateways through which peoples from all over the world enter and exit a country. Therefore, apart from perhaps, presidential villas, the pristine seat of every country’s power, international airports and their entire precincts are the best kept and best guarded places in the world today.

    It is trite that most up and doing governments would be fastidious about their international entry points — especially airports — for the simple reason that they afford the visitor the first impression about the country being visited. An unkempt arrival and departure lounges as well as smelly, crowded and rickety facilities would immediately reflect the quality of the government and people of the country being visited.

    It is for this reason that we are troubled by the recent damning assessment of the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), situated in the heart of the oil-rich Niger Delta, Nigeria’s southern-most end. The facility is probably Nigeria’s most important entry point for foreigners being the convenient route for expatriate staff of oil companies in that zone.

    The 2015 survey report by Sleeping in Airports, an affiliate journal of CNN, has named PHIA the worst terminal in the world to ply. The poll had requested fliers to indicate the worst and best aviation terminals they encounter in their trips. The criteria considered are comfort, conveniences, cleanliness and customer service.

    But PHIA, Nigeria’s number three airport, earned the global prize as the worst route to ply because fliers found its staff unpleasant and unhelpful, found corruption rife in transactions at the airport, found lack of seats and endured broken down air-conditioners.

    It must be noted, however, that work has been on-going at the airport for quite a while and a good part of the facility is in a make-shift state. That much, the report acknowledged; stating that some parts of the terminal have been recently renovated and that improvements are being made.  It, however, added that these improvements were a far cry from the norm. And no less telling point: efforts by the pollsters (CNN) to get comments from aviation authorities in Nigeria were to no avail. Perhaps there may be some plausible reasons why PHIA is in such deplorable state, but the authorities could not be bothered.

    Whatever the case may be, this scandalous rating of an airport in Nigeria is a tar on the Federal Government and an indictment of the management of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). It is worthy of note that petty politics may have got in the way of the renovation and upgrade of the facilities of the PHIA, which has been stalled for a long time.

    Recall that the former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi and former President Goodluck Jonathan had been locked in a feud for about two years culminating into the general elections early in the year. This is one example how political conflicts could have a direct negative impact on economic development.

    Beyond politics, however, the Federal Government, especially in the last 16 years, has not lived up to expectations in the development and maintenance of the nation’s strategic infrastructure.

    For instance, for over a decade, the major road leading to the nation’s premier gateway, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos has been a poor advertisement for whatever good Nigeria represents. But government could not muster the will to revamp that all important road. It remains an eyesore till today. It is the same attitude towards such strategic infrastructure like oil pipelines and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to name a few.

    We demand a complete change of attitude by government towards major public facilities. It is indeed a shame that Nigeria’s PHIA leads a class of infamy made up of such countries like Nepal, Haiti, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

    Not the best league to be in, is it?

  • Arochukwu Road, a shame

    SIR: The Umuahia – Uzuakoli- Ohafia- Arochukwu federal road constructed by the then PTF about 1996 was by the influence of  two prominent Arochukwu sons who were in very high-ranking positions in that organization. They were late Prof. Chimere Ikoku, an executive member of the PTF Board and Dr. Ochi Achinivu who served PTF as Director of Programmes. The pain Arochukwu is passing through today is that these Aro sons did not commence the project from Arochukwu and proceeded towards Umuahia. They were not selfish. They commenced the project from the state capital, Umuahia, moved to Uzuakoli through Isuikwuato, Igbere, Abiriba by-pass to Ohafia. Unfortunately for Arochukwu, the PTF was disbanded just the moment the road construction project was to progress from Ohafia to Arochukwu, its final destination. The pain we suffer today is that the 27 kilometres portion of that project that could not be done by the PTF has remained abandoned since 1998.  Unknown to many, the worst part of the road is even found in Ohafia axis. But one needs to pass through Ohafia to progress to Arochukwu where the fate of indigenes who must use the road currently hang in the balance.

    In November 2012, the Jonathan administration awarded a contract for reconstruction of the road to one indigenous company, BEKS KIMSE Nigeria Ltd, at the cost of about N4.8 billion.   The project was expected to be completed within a period of 24 months.  We in Arochukwu, Ihechiowa, Ututu, Isu, part of Ohafia, went into jubilation believing that a “Daniel had finally come   to judgment”. Unfortunately, Beks Kimse Nigeria Ltd failed to deliver. They demonstrated clear incompetence and insensitivity to our plight. They were only able to do less than a kilometre after two years on the site. We have no idea what the problem of the company was. Were they not paid or was it budgetary provision or sheer incompetence? The company also did not communicate with anyone. Latest reports indicate that the company has abandoned the job after creating more problems on the road than they were invited to solve.

    To worsen our situation, there appears to be some   conspiracy of silence around this project. All those who should speak out have chosen to keep quiet while Arochukwu, and other benefitting communities suffer greatly on that road daily. The only hope left now is on the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari. Arochukwu is appealing to President Buhari’s administration to institute a full investigation into circumstances that has led to this failed project.  We are also appealing to President Buhari to consider the engagement of a competent contractor to take over the Arochukwu – Ohafia road project supported with good budgetary provision.  And this is not difficult, because the project is only 27 kilometres without any obstacles like bridges or difficult terrain. We also appeal to the Abia State Governor, Dr Ikpeazu to come to our rescue. The state government needs to come to terms with the reality that the era where states look the other way on the excuse that a road in their domain belongs to federal government has gone. Many states have gone beyond that. We expect Abia under the regime of Dr Ikpeazu to embrace this approach, do things differently and assist Arochukwu. At the moment, an urgent intervention by FERMA and the Federal Ministry of Works is needed to make the road passable. Until this is done, Arochukwu, a historical community in South Eastern Nigeria, is currently cut off from the rest of humanity. The condition of Ohafia – Arochukwu road   remains the worst in Nigeria today. It has become a state and national shame.

     

    • Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Abuja, member of the National Executive Committee of NzukoArochukwu.

  • Bank debtors: Beyond “name and shame”

    From the onset the name and shame campaign by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sounds too ordinary to come from such a technocratic organization. The phrase lacks sophistication and sounds and reads like something coming out from die-hards of a political party wanting to get even with their rivals. Reducing a matter as serious as debt recovery (running into hundreds of billions of naira) to mere emotional expression reveals the weakness of the banks and the regulatory authorities.

    Although it would be wrong to say categorically that the programme is politically motivated, it will also not be wrong to argue that the phrase is in sync with the current political mood in the country. Coming at a period when the new regime is making a song and dance of anti-corruption and fraudulent economic and financial practices, there can be no doubt that Nigerians will be more interested in its political implications than the economic. And that is the danger, albeit the fact that the final objective of the name and shame exercise is laudable.

    Not unexpectedly, the exercise has already sparked off so much controversy bordering mostly on rebuttals by the affected organizations and individuals of their inclusion on the name and shame lists published by some banks. As it is, almost every company or director named in the lists has denied owing the banks. Although it is tempting to say that such denials are to be expected, the overall result is that beyond the “Political Effect” of the publications, the CBN and the banks might have failed, at least for now, in achieving the initial objective. For, in the face of the denials, the onus of responsibility now lies with the banks to prove that they are owed by the organizations concerned. And since the mere publication of names does not make the debtors culpable, it means that they will remain innocent until it is proved otherwise. And if the matters ever get to the courts, then we should forget it.

    In my view, a situation where almost every so–called debtor has put up a vehement denial shows that the lists published might not be error-proof. But they should be, given the assumed sophistication of the banks and the implications – political, social and economic – of the exercise. For me, it would be quite unfortunate if any of the banks published any of the debtor organizations and their directors without being 100 per cent sure. Yes, 100 per cent, because there should be no room for such laxities in that sector. That disputes have already arisen shows that the sector has, either by design or default, become part of the pervasive malaise in the Nigerian system. It is something we can ill afford.

    As I noted at the beginning, the first sign that the exercise might have been poorly conceived is the appellation given to it. Shame? Shame who? Shame who you do not have an incontrovertible evidence against? Agreed, the banks may still come up with such (fool proof) evidence but that   may take some time. As things stand, it would not be out of place for critics to accuse the CBN and the banks of playing to the gallery. The idea might have been mooted before the current political dispensation but the apparent tardiness of which the banks are being accused has given room for critics to see some political contents, however marginal, in the exercise.

    In spite of the haziness of the exercise so far, it should be hoped that it will overcome the initial setbacks to go ahead to realize the objective for which it was embarked on; which is to sanitize the banking system. Still, something tells me that the name and shame exercise might have been conceived as a one-sided effort. If we assume, at least for purposes of argument, that so much rot exists in the banking system, then it is proper to ask the following questions: Where were the banks? Where were they when things were going from bad to worse?

    We understand that most of the debts are accumulations of unpaid interests on the principal money borrowed. But that also raises the question as to whether the businesses where going concerns. Where the companies operational and at what capacity when the loans were granted? At what point did the banks notice that the facilities had become non-performing?

    If a company has ceased to carry out the business for which it obtained a loan, should the bank still go ahead to charge interest from a non-existent business ? How thorough were the appraisals before the loans were granted?

    There is no attempt here to teach the bankers their job but we believe that given that the banks also operate in a larger environment that has been be-devilled with several flaws, it would be wrong to assume that they (the bankers) cannot share in the blame. In any case, stories of sharp practices amongst bankers are quite familiar. Not too long ago, some bank chief executives were jailed for presiding over the granting of loans to companies in which they had huge interests.

    The point being made here is that while the overall objective of the name and shame exercise may be theoretically attractive, it also offers an opportunity for the banking sector to re-examine its modus operandi.

    There is this story that one of the cases involved arose because a certain bank manager was fond of dipping his hands in the money of his customer. He had approved an overdraft (OD) but each time the customer came to draw from the OD, the manager would also take out from the money and prepare the documents to read that it was the customer that took away the extras. Eventually, the bubble burst. A dispute arose over the figures and inevitably, the facility became problematic. Curiously, this particular debt is among those listed by the bank in the ongoing name and shame exercise.

  • Shame of our nation

    It’s always hard to resist the temptation of lamenting the sorry state of our development each time one travels out the country. I usually try not to get despondent about our situation believing that as Christians usually say, all will be well sooner or later, but the rate of progress is not as encouraging as it should be.

    Too many things are just not right in the country and one is not sure how soon we can recover from years of missed opportunities for the overall development of the country.

    A trip to South Africa penultimate week once again got me thinking about how much we need to do to catch up and take our rightful place in the comity of nations, at least in the continent.

    Right from the road leading to what we call our  international airport in Lagos, one is confronted with the shameful decay of our infrastructural facilities. Potholes and overgrown weeds dot portions of the road)

    A foreigner who drives along the airport road on his first ever visit to the country is immediately confronted with the image of a country in a state of disrepair.

    I remember that former president Goodluck Jonathan was alarmed by the poor state of the road during a visit to Lagos and he promised to direct immediate repairs. As usual, nothing happened till his tenure ended.

    Reconstruction of the car park has remained uncompleted for years and has resulted in indiscriminate parking and inconvenience for passengers.

    Inside the airport, the air-conditioners were on holiday due to ongoing repairs, while the conveyor (+belt) managed to work with some parts falling off.

    The toilet facilities were also below the standard of an international airport. I tried to use the electric hand dryer and it didn’t work.

    There is simply no basis for comparing our airport with that of Johannesburg and Cape town which I passed through during my recent visit.

    The trip also reminded me of the shame that while other African countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and others still had their national airlines, the Nigerian Airways is no more. Some of our private airlines which fly international routes unfortunately do not have good reputation.

    With all the money allocated to the aviation sector by successive governments, the state of our airports is nothing to be proud of. It is not unusual to hear foreign passengers loudly complain about the poor state of our facilities and wonder why we have remained a giant with a feet of clay.

    With the change promised by the new government, one can only hope that the aviation sector and others in the country will witness real transformation as quickly as possible. For too long, our governments have paid lip service to implementing the right policies needed to turn the situation around for good.

    We cannot afford to continue to be the laughing stock among other nations, some of which do not have the kind of resources we have to provide adequate infrastructures. President Muhammadu Buhari must make good his promise of ensuring that the right persons are appointed as Ministers and heads of  other agencies. There is a lot that needs to be done to redeem the image of the country. It is better late than never.