The Nation Newspaper

Tag: societal

  • Academia should set pace for societal growth

    Former Chairman, Leventis Group, Chief Joseph Oke, has urged the academia to guide policy makers in fashioning true federalism. He said Nigeria was at a crossroad in her democratic experiment.

    Oke, who was the speaker at a discovery lecture series organised by the Centre for General Nigerian Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), said successive governments had not been honest to Nigerians.

    The topic of the lecture was: “Can Nigeria survive another century as a corporate entity?”

    He said in the midst of crisis, the public had always counted on the ivory tower to be the torchbearer. He, therefore, called on LASU to lead the quest for solutions to Nigeria’s political misadventure.

    Oke added that the institution comprised tested academics, whose qualities and academic records put them in a vantage position to research on how to manage the unfolding political developments.

    Oke said the country had lost some opportunities to tell itself the fundamental truth on how to live together and avoid her present trouble.

    He added: “In fact, if it is not an error of commission, it must be a deliberate omission that a review of the Nigerian union was not undertaken in 2014 when the country was 100 years old.

    “Unfortunately, our successive governments have not been truthful to the people and to themselves by stage managing two or three previous meaningless national conferences. Is this because we are afraid to tell ourselves the truth?”

    He added that the survival of the country for another century is feasible, if only it embraced the call for Sovereign National Conference, look at issues of true federalism and cut the cost of governance.

    The speaker noted that the agitations from different parts of the country suggested that there was injustice where some groups see themselves as better than the others.

    He blamed the military for the flaws in the country, noting that the politicians have not learnt their lessons.

    “On hindsight, could one not be right to say that the military incursion in January 1966 that brought corruption into our political life, when the fact says that the military seized power to stop corruption?

    “This singular error has stunted the growth of Nigeria to the extent that 100 years after amalgamation, we are still looking to workable constitution that will drive our economy and political life.

    “Rather than address the issue of the union with some seriousness, our leaders deliberately ignored the call for a Sovereign National Conference, which to my mind is like postponing the evil days.

    “It is a pity that successive governments have behaved like our colonialists, who in 1825 drew lines on the map of Africa to indicate the areas that belonged to each European country,” he said.

  • Industrialist bemoans loss of societal values

    Industrialist bemoans loss of societal values

    Life National Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Chief Adebowale Omotoso, has said criminality and culture of sabotage are significantly reduced in any nation that treats its nationals as humankinds, with self-respect, dignity and whose needs and interests are jealously protected.

    Omotoso stated this in an exclusive interview at Awe Town, Oyo State. He noted that Nigerians are not inherent criminals but have capacities for self-determination and self-direction in good and noble things.

    He added that due to corrupt leadership, things have continued to fall apart, while the centre cannot hold.

    “Education should increase the consciousness level of Nigerian youths and socialise them into the national culture.  But what do we find today, education without morals due to lack of power monitoring and clear-cut policies devoid of political sentiments in regulating education or meaningful development.

    “Ideally, politics influences education through the policies and decisions that are made by the political leadership to ensure the realisation of national, state and party objectives. As a result of these  notions, there are many political problems that jeopardise educational management in the country,” he said.

    Advising the youth to make accountability, righteousness and justice their watchword, as prescription for nation-building, the industrialist pointed out that “the society has degenerated from a community of people with high moral values and dignity to a state of near madness, collapse of moral values and tolerance of immorality.’

    Continuing, he said: “Dignity has been thrown to the wind by both the young and the old. Our society now embraces immorality, just as sexual sin is freely committed without any sense  of shame. Indecent dressing mostly among ladies is now the order of the day. Many young ladies; even the mothers, dress to reveal their bodies. It is extremely indecent and very shameful for ladies to flaunt their breasts or expose other parts of their bodies in the name of fashion.”

    He also advised parents and guardians to inculcate in their children and wards the right type of values and attitudes for their survival, and the society.

    “Proper upbringing will not only foster respect for the worth and dignity of the children, but as well ensure the right moral and spiritual values in inter-personal and human relations. Parents should give their children the opportunity to develop whatever talents they are endowed within the context of the aims of their society.

    “Such opportunity does not come cheap and it is building on all responsible, including the societies, to make whatever sacrifices required, ensuring that their children and citizens have access to sound education.”

    Education, the Asiwaju of Afijio pointed out, is a very personal thing, and the benefit of it flows first to the individual before it can be of any benefit to the society.

    These benefits, he said, are indirect proportion to the level of education attained by each individual.

    Omotoso, a renowned Pharmacist, also described counterfeiting of medicines as one of the greatest atrocities of our time and the worst aspect of corruption which affects life directly.

    He noted that the evil of fake drugs is worse than the combined scourge of malaria, HIV and AIDS, robbery and illicit drugs.

    He said: “Fake drugs led to treatment failures, development of drug resistance and death of many people. Drug resistance occurs mainly in the areas of infectious diseases and malaria.

    “Before the 70’s, malaria was regarded as flu in Nigeria because of the efficacy of chloroquine. By the early 90’s, due to the development of resistant strains of malaria parasites partly induced by substandard anti-malarial drugs, we started shifting to second line drugs such as Fansidar and lately Artemisimin Combination Therapy (ACT).

    “The question now is if drug counterfeiters succeed with ACT, where do we go from there?”

    Omotoso,  who also expressed dismay at the general poor or total lack of record-keeping of health-related activities in various health establishments, wondered why the National Agency for Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has no data on drug use from hospitals and universities that do not carry out enough research in the area of drug use and treatment failures.

    “Due to this dearth of information, it is difficult to estimate, on annual basis, the death toll from fake drugs in Nigeria.”

    Attributing weak laws hampered by abuse of judicial process, granting of inordinate injunctions to counterfeiters, long delays of trials and other handicaps to some of the challenges facing food and drug regulation, he said that in most countries, laws against drug counterfeiting are very weak and consequently, criminals are shifting from gun-running and cocaine pushing to drug counterfeiting because it is financially lucrative but of relatively lower risk.

    “The rate at which drugs are either abused or misused by our people is alarming and disturbing. They no longer consult with qualified Pharmacists for whatever ailments they have, but rather patronise roadside medicine sellers and quacks to buy drugs without considering the attendant implications.”

    While stressing the need to develop, improve and adapt vaccines, drugs and diagnostic reagents locally, he also called for the establishment and maintenance of National Reference Centres, for pathogenic viruses and bacterial parasites.

    “It is also necessary to develop new techniques and strategies for the control of communicable diseases, especially malaria, measles, poliomyelitis, trypanosomiasis, hepatitis and onchocerciasis in order to improve health care system.’’

    Continuing, he said: “Government must also increase productivity in the local drug industry, by developing medicines and other new biological products, through a combination of genetic engineering, microbial fermentation and chemical engineering.

    “Also, the three-tiers of government must develop appropriate and effective health educational programmes, aimed at checking prevalence of drug abuse and misuse, as well as environmental filthiness.’’

  • Varsity to address societal issues

    Vice-Chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, Prof Barimen Fakae, has said the institution would soon become a solutions bank for societal issues.

    He said solutions to problems plaguing the Nigerian society would be addressed at the university’s annual international conference.

    Fakae said that this year’s edition of the conference would address the problem of erosion which is afflicting many parts of the country.

    The conference, which has as it’s theme: ‘flood and erosion prevention, protection and mitigation’ will hold November 3-5 at the university.

    Fakae who spoke in Port Harcourt during the institution’s 29th inaugural lecture, added that the lecture would become a monthly exercise as the school now “has an enabling environment for academic activities.”

    Fakae also said that the inaugural lecture will help to push the university higher in the ranking table.

    Commenting on the lecture titled “Appraisal of industrialization and environmental pollution: A Marine Biology perspective” which was delivered by Prof. Ikem Ekweozor, a Marine Biologist, Fakae said he was impressed because it touched on the very reason the RSUST was established.

    In his lecture, Ekweozor argued that since the Mangrove Forest provides nursery and feeding habitats for fisheries and other wildlife, and the traditional communities in Niger Delta depend on fish (up to 100 per cent for dietary protein) and for the fact that over 60 per cent of fish caught between the Gulf of Guinea and Angola breed in the mangroves of Niger Delta, it signifies the importance of this ecosystem to fisheries.

    For this reason, he advised that the marine department of RSUST should, “ identify how human activities has affected this important function of the estuarine ecosystem and seek mitigation to such influences.”

    He also advocated more funding for ecological studies.

    “Ecological studies should be encouraged and financially supported in Nigerian universities and research centres to enable the establishment of data based on indigenous species,” he said.

  • Fashola advocates promotion of societal values

    Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has enjoined parents and guardians to promote societal values among their families. He said whatever a state or country turns out to be is a function of the kind of families that constitute that state or country.

    Speaking during the Justice Muri Okunola Memorial Ramadan Lecture at the Eko FM Open Field, Agidingbi, Fashola noted that the art of governance starts from individual families, saying the people eventually become president, governors, legislators and commissioners as well as local government chairmen were first members of individual families.

    He said: “You should all know that government starts from individual families and the way and manner we handle or operate our families is how our state and our country will be.

    “There is nothing at all that Governors Tinubu, Fashola, Amosun, Aregbesola, Fayemi, Ajimobi and others can do in this case. They cannot enter every family to govern. The husbands and their wives are the governors and the deputy governors of their families. They have their budgets and they have those they cater for every month as the state also present their budgets.”

    Noting that the people who are armed robbers and suicide bombers today came from individual families, Governor Fashola declared: “When those children were born, everybody rejoiced with their families. It was the government of these children – the families – that have problems and this affected the children”.

    Obviously preaching birth control, Governor Fashola also asked: “If we say there is poverty, what exactly are we doing to put a stop to it? If a family has already had four children and later adds twins, it is then that they will be challenging government”, adding that it would be in the interest of both the individual family and the state to control the population.

    He dismissed the excuse by some men that the inability to have a male child prompts them to produce more children than they could hardle. The governor said every child, male or female, has the potential to attain the highest height in life.

    The two presentations delivered at the lecture were entitled: “Spiritual Rebirth Towards a New Nation” by Alhaji Shaykh Isa Akindele and “Building a Viral marriage” by Alhaja Sherifat Yusuf.