The Nation Newspaper

Tag: signal

  • Signal of insecurity

    •When an ACP dies and we cannot do anything about it

    When an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) dies after a gun attack by mysterious gunmen, it is a sure signal of insecurity. The death of ACP Usman Ndanbabo, who was in charge of Ughelli Area Command, should trigger a security alarm. A report said: “Security sources said the late Ndanbabo was shot twice by a gang of gunmen in a Toyota car who trailed him to the roundabout opposite the palace of the Ovie of Ughelli while driving in his Nissan SUV.” He died two days later.

    This is a grave development that deserves an urgent response. It is reassuring that the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, relocated to Ughelli in a rapid response. The police chief was quoted as saying: “I have relocated to Ughelli and moved a Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of about 57 personnel there. There is nothing for now and no arrest has been made. We have to be very discreet but we have a very good lead, and, by the grace of God, we will apprehend the perpetrators.”

    The tragic incident of May 7 is particularly alarming because it reportedly “came on the heels of kidnappings, armed robberies and cult-related activities in Ughelli.”  Two recent incidents that highlighted insecurity in the state are still fresh in the public consciousness.

    This report gives an insight into the chain of security minuses: “One of such attacks on policemen is the November 6, 2016, incident when a policeman from the Ughelli Area Command was shot dead at a roadblock along Agbarha-Otor Road, following an assault on them by a gang of suspected armed robbers apparently returning from an operation.”

    The report continued: ”Two months after that incident, precisely January 23, 2017, Ndanbabo took a bitter pill as a gang of herdsmen engaged him and a team of policemen in a gun duel at Ohoro in Ughelli North Local Government Area when they went to implement an ultimatum by residents of the community issued to herdsmen to vacate the community.”  A police officer at the Ughelli Area Command was quoted as saying:  ”A gun duel ensued between the herdsmen and the police team. At the end of the incident, we could not account for two police officers and three rifles while the late ACP, who mysteriously slumped, was rescued from the scene of the incident and taken to a private clinic in Ughelli for medical attention.” Two days after this clash, locals discovered the remains of one of the policemen; the decomposed remains of the second officer were discovered some days later.

    Evidently, the authorities need to tackle the developing climate of insecurity in the state. The situation suggests embryonic anarchy; it should not be allowed to degenerate into something worse.

    It is thought-provoking that the level of insecurity indicated by the killing of ACP Ndanbabo is connected with a state regarded as rich on account of its status as a major oil-producing state. It bespeaks a poverty of ideas at the leadership level, if the state, despite its resources, lacks a social plan that will discourage crime as well as ensure security.

    The government must respond to the undesirable insecurity not only by adopting tough measures against criminality but also by conceptualising and implementing a social development agenda that will help to prevent criminality.

    It needs to be emphasised that the police must take the investigation of Ndanbabo’s killing to a logical conclusion, which means his killers must not be allowed to escape justice. Apprehending the killers and making them pay for their violent crime are non-negotiable; the police must pursue these with focus. This must not happen again.

  • Danger Signal? Not Ogun State!

    SIR: The attention of the Ogun State government has been drawn to The Nation editorial published on Monday, November, 21.

    The editorial titled “Danger signal”, which relies on the report of BudgIT, suggests that Ogun is one of the 33 states unable to pay workers’ salaries. Nothing can be further from the truth.

    It must be stated with all emphasis that Ogun State is not among the 33 states in Nigeria that cannot pay workers’ salaries. The state under the leadership of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, pays its workforce as and when due. The government does not owe workers any salaries, despite the current financial crisis in the country.

    The financial meltdown, which actually began in 2013, drastically affected the monthly income from the Federation Account. However, due to prudent and sound financial management introduced by the Amosun-led administration upon mounting the saddle of leadership in 2011, Ogun State recorded an unprecedented rise in monthly Internally Generated Revenue from N750 million to a peak of N6.4 billion in early 2015. Although, this has now reduced to between N4.75 billion and N5.5 billion due to the current recession, we are affected but not overwhelmed by it.

    The Amosun-led government gives monthly grant to the local councils in order for that third tier of government to meet its recurrent expenditures. Otherwise the local councils won’t be able to pay salaries as income from the Federation Account is barely enough to pay the primary school teachers let alone the entire local council workforce.

    Despite the fall in Federal Allocation Account, we still ensure we meet our monthly recurrent expenditure.

    On the state governments’ loans bought over by the Federal Government (structured loans), it is public knowledge that it was only Ogun State that opted for a 10-year repayment period as against 20 years, thereby saving Ogun a whopping N84 billion! And we are meeting our obligations without default.

    Our diversification efforts remain enviable. Currently, we are fourth among the 36 states in terms of the growth in IGR.

    The fact that Ogun State, due to the enabling environment provided by the current administration, consistently takes over 70% of total investments in non oil sector in Nigeria, as revealed in the report of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria released towards the end of 2015, speaks volumes.

    Of course, even our ardent critics and the opposition acknowledges the massive infrastructural development of the current administration. Investments in free education, free health and other social services, including regular payment of salaries, have increased the bond and trust between the government and the good people of Ogun State.

     

    • Adewale Oshinowo,

    Commissioner for Finance, Ogun State.

  • Danger signal

    •That 33 states out of 36 can’t pay workers portends grave danger to the polity

    It must be that thing said about Nigeria’s peculiar resilience that has kept it afloat even at a moment like this. It is the Nigerian factor or X  factor if you like, which defies all socio-economic indices and debunks even the most dependable econometric permutations.

    The best economists and no less social anthropologists will have a hard time someday, when they come round to the study, fathoming how a polity survived when more than three quarters of its official working population were without wages and emoluments. Not as much as a whimper is heard in an environment in which workers’ salaries and pensions are not paid for months. It seems to us an eerie quietude that may well portend grave danger.

    This is why the recent report that 33 out of 36 states of the federation are unable to meet their recurrent obligations should worry us. According to BudgIT, the civic body which tracks government budgets and public data, in its recent “State of States Report”, only three states: Lagos, Rivers and Enugu can fulfill their financial obligations to their workers.

    About eight states: Zamfara, Gombe, Anambra, Niger, Katsina, Ebonyi, Edo and Kebbi are classified as having manageable shortfalls. This would mean that the remaining 25 states may well be basket cases. This suggests further that they owe arrears of salaries of no fewer than six months and perhaps with no inkling of a resolution in sight.

    We must state without equivocation that it is indeed a grave situation that signals danger when the state cannot pay majority of workers in public service monthly salary for many months. It calls for concern and urgent action from the Federal Government and all stakeholders.

    It is true that revenues have dwindled drastically in the last two years but then, that is time enough for all concerned to have readjusted, diversified and wrought some remedy.

    For the umpteenth time since the cash crunch began, we once again proffer some antidote:

    First, the Federal Government must immediately heed the now strident calls for a restructuring of the polity. It must resolve now to allow a bit more fiscal federalism: a reworking of the revenue-sharing formula; a review of some items on the exclusive list and a gradual ‘unbundling’ of itself.

    Second, again, state governments must cut their excesses, plan better and eschew financial recklessness. That some of the states can still meet their obligations regardless of the crunch is a testimony to frugality and a condemnation for errant states. Many state governors are known to act on their whims and have scant regard for the appropriation document which they prepare and sign into law annually.

    Still on wastefulness, if an erstwhile governor had not regaled the nation with the wanton imprudence that goes on in our government houses across the country and in the ‘offices’ of the so-called first ladies nationwide, we would be more sympathetic. But he did not only make an exposition, he proved by his conduct in office for eight years that poor funding may not be the issue with most of the now distressed states.

    Indeed, some have proved to be reckless, undisciplined and even corrupt that all the money in the federation would not be enough for them; they have become the problem of their states.

    All said, there is no alternative to diversifying the economies of the states and weaning them from the bosom of the centre. Most states have been unable to as much as scratch at the huge economic potentials in their domain. Such easy to develop sectors as tourism, ICT, human capital and entertainment are still nonexistent. And of course, agriculture which ought to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy seems only practiced in long official speeches made at conferences and seminars.

    We cannot say it enough that widespread non-payment of workers’ salaries is a danger signal requiring concrete steps immediately.

  • I showed her the signal that I love her very badly but …

    Good day Aunty Adeola, it is my pleasure to forward this text of bravo to you. I read your article in a newspaper and I was so, so impressed about the good and wonderful answers you give to people about their love life. Please, keep it up. I met a girl; I showed her the signal that I wanted her to be my girl whom I want to take as a future wife. She responds very well but she has refused to give me her phone number each time I see her. Please Aunty what should I do, I love this girl very dearly and I want her very badly.

    Even when girls are playing hard to get, they still give you a telephone number so that they can monitor your persistence and gauge your seriousness. But when people turn down the request to give you a telephone number, most often than not, they don’t want any disturbance from you. Don’t take her politeness each time she sees you as a sign that she is responding well, she may just be a well-brought-up girl. When you go after a girl (or a man in the case of women) always bear in mind that they may already be in a happy relationship and wouldn’t want an unnecessary distraction.