The Nation Newspaper

Tag: standards

  • Students discuss declining standards

    The University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Social Sciences Students Association (SOSSA) has held its maiden annual conference. The event brought together students from all departments in the faculty.

    The event with the theme: The university system in the 21st century: Expectations, misconceptions, challenges and prospects, was initiated by Kunle Onikoyi, the association’s president, to address declining standard in tertiary education.

    Dr Nkem Onyekpe of the History and Strategic Studies Department, in his lecture, noted that the universities in contemporary times must conform to the realities of the century, which, he said, was being affected by globalisation, neo-colonisation and cultural imperialism, amongst others.

    The don stressed that standards were declining because of the underfunding, low remuneration, corruption in employment procedure and politicisation of staff promotion. Management of higher institutions, he said, spend invest more on infrastructures rather than human capital development.

    Dr  Onyekpe asserted that the withdrawal of the state from its obligatory duty of funding school turned tertiary institutions to commercial centers for profit making.

    Proffering a solution, the don said tertiary institutions must stop playing politics with academics. He urged schools to return to scholarship and tackle intellectual laziness.

    He said: “When these challenges are solved, we, in the system, would be able to achieve the three fundamental aims of scholarship, which are to seek the truth, to teach the truth and to preserve the truth for the good of society.”

    Dr Olukayode Eesuola of the Department of Political Science stressed that university was supposed to be a place, where there should be mutual interaction between students and lecturers. He said higher institutions must discourage anything that could dampen the purpose.

    “University is not a place of religiosity; it is a place where ideas flow,” he said, urging lecturers to use conflict of opinions to creates knowledge.

    Dr Franca Arthur stressed that the students should get involved in unionism, saying: “If you don’t participate, you have no right to complain.”

    Comrade Shiyanbola Loremikan, a former National Public Relations Officer of Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) stressed the need for good character. “Let us promote good citizenship and let people know that Nigerians can succeed with hard work,” he said.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Rahamon Bello, represented by his deputy, Prof Babajide Alo, hailed the students for the initiative, which he said discussed germane issues affecting tertiary education in the country.

     

  • ‘There’s need to maintain standards in LPG sector’

    The government and stakeholders are making efforts to develop the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector in the petroleum industry. But the plan by operators to reduce standards is akin to sitting on a keg of gun powder for unsuspecting and ignorant consumers and should be resisted, writes EMEKA UGWUANYI Assistant Editor (Energy).

     

    The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector, undoubtedly, requires investment, incentives and encouragement, not only from the oil and gas industry, but also from the Federal Government to deepen the country’s consumption level and support for existing and new investors to grow the sector.

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, at the LPG strategic workshop and conference held in Abuja in December, said Nigeria is ranked among the lowest consumers of LPG in Africa, having just 110,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum as national consumption. It is in view of this that she said growing the LPG market is a critical component of the nation’s Gas Master Plan.

    She said as a result of infrastructure challenges, the country cannot consume the 150,000 metric tonnes of LPG per annum earmarked for the domestic market. She noted that upstream gas suppliers were directed to dedicate an agreed volume of LPG product to the domestic market, which made the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) to release 150000 MT of LPG per annum to the Nigerian domestic market.

    In an effort to address these challenges to open up the LPG market for increased utilisation and economic growth, the government came up with the LPG National Strategic Policy, which stressed safety, affordability and logistics but the Nigeria LNG Association plans to rubbish the efforts by reviewing the standards set by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) had also told importers of LPG cylinders to have a definite programme for maintenance of cylinders with trained personnel that will be inspecting and re-qualifying the cylinders. It said all importers of cylinders should sign an undertaking for taking full responsibility of the maintenance and requalification of such imported cylinders, adding that all importers seeking the renewal and approvals should meet the requirement.

    SON also directed that the expiry dates of cylinders shall be engraved or embossed on all cylinders. Cylinders have 15 years life span, it said.

    But the way Nigeria LPG Association is going about it showed it plans to alter the standards to the detriment of consumers of the product, which could endanger lives of users and the economy.

    The Nation gathered that members of the association plan to meet this week to discuss how to adjust the requirement set by SON in terms of mixture of components that make LPG.

    The two major elements that make up LPG are propane and butane. Propane has high pressure but it is about 45 per cent cheaper than butane, which has low pressure, but more costly. The SON’s requirement is that butane and propane should be mixed on equal measures of 50 per cent each. But investigation by The Nation showed marketers can mix the two elements at any percentage, or can use one element wholy, that is, either 100 per cent propane or butane.

    The danger in this, is that propane exerts a lot of pressure on the cylinder and considering the age of most cylinders used in Nigeria, this could spell doom because the likelihood of cylinder explosion will be very high.

    Investigation also revealed that using only propane or butane or a mixture of both at unspecified mixture is not the issue, but the danger is in the age of the cylinders. Experts in the industry said that the standard across the world is that all cylinders be built to propane specification. The safety in this measure is that if a marketer mixes the two elements on equal or different measures or 100 percent propane or butane, the end-user is guaranteed of his or her safety.

    Why the oil and gas industry regulators and SON should take the acquisition or importation of standard cylinders seriously is that there have been reports of seizure of imported sub-standard cylinders into the country by unscrupulous entrepreneurs. The regulators including SON should also refocus attention on the existing cylinders in-country and find a way of phasing out or stopping re-entry of old and expired cylinders into circulation and the market.

    It was also learnt that there was a time the SON directed that the cylinders that should be used in-country should be the propane standard so that whatever LPG a marketer imports or buys would be safe for use but most of the operators that import and use substandard and aged cylinders kicked against the directive. They insisted that the 50-50 propane and butane mixture should continue to apply, however, many of them, it was learnt, are not faithful to the specification in order to make more profit putting the lives and homes of end-users in danger.

    Now that the Federal Government wants to intervene on sustainable basis to grow the LPG sector with the promise of importing cylinders, which will be sold to Nigeria2ns at a giveaway price to deepen consumption and ensure penetration of usage into the rural areas, standardised cylinders specified to take only propane should be the best option so that whatever grade of LPG would be safe for consumers.

    Therefore, as the Nigeria LPG Association, meets this week to deliberate on the review of SON’s requirement on LPG, SON, Department of Petroleum Resources and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources should insist on importation and use of cylinders that should take 100 percent propane so that whatever grade of LPG sold to end-users should guarantee their safety. It is also good coincidence that the Nigeria LPG Association invited the SON to the meeting this week. SON should refuse to be compromised because the standards were laid down for use in Nigeria was produced by experts. The technical committee that worked on the Standard for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) done under the Nigerian Industrial Standard had representatives from companies such as Petroleum Academy Limited, Mobil Oil, Chevron Oil Plc (now MRS), Total Plc, Oando, DPR, Consumer Protection Council, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Conoil Plc, among others.

    Besides, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources’ LPG National Strategic Policy had made provision to enhance growth of the LPG sector by creating programmes that will lead to phased reduction in subsidy, reduction of use of kerosene and increase in use of LPG, as well as subsidy for LPG, among others.

  • Bar standards crashing, says AGF Adoke

    Bar standards crashing, says AGF Adoke

    The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), yesterday raised an alarm that the standard of the Bar is declining.

    He said corrupt practices and ethical problems are more pronounced at the Bar unlike in the past decades.

    He also expressed regrets that the quality of legal education being offered by some universities is poor.

    Adoke, who spoke at the 4th edition of the Alumni Reunion of the Nigerian Law School (NLS) ’88 Class at the Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu, said it was time to bring the discourse on ethics and discipline at the Bar to the front burner to purge the profession of its present decay.

    He said: “The underlining objective is to sensitise members of this noble profession to the need to uphold high ethical standards and discipline in the practice of law in the country.

    “We have for too long relegated these issues to the background to the detriment of our profession. I, therefore, believe that the time has come for us to continually and collectively interrogate issues relating to ethics and discipline at the Bar with a view to repositioning the legal profession in Nigeria.

    “A disturbing trend by which some legal practitioners now engage non-lawyers or touts to scout for briefs and enter into sharing arrangement of the legal fees must be loudly condemned as crass and ignoble.

    “Rules 3 and 4 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (RPC) of 2007, clearly provide that a lawyer shall not share the fees of his legal services with non-lawyers, nor should a lawyer employ the use of intermediaries or aid a non-lawyer in the unauthorised practice of law.

    “As Attorney-General of the Federation, I am astonished at the manner businessmen and women now approach my office for patronage. When I question them as to the impropriety of their conduct, they often answer to the effect that it has been done before and that they had in the past secured brief, which they handed over to other lawyers to handle on their behalf.

    “The point being made is that some members of the profession now make use of intermediaries in their quest to secure briefs.”

    Speaking on a wide range of issues, the AGF decried situations where “some legal practitioners have instituted suits primarily to chalk up appearances at the Supreme Court for the purpose of elevation to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) or merely for the purpose of keeping the chambers busy.” He said this is clearly unprofessional.

    “It should be appreciated that while the rank of SAN is no doubt, justifiably sought after as a pinnacle of the legal profession, it is, therefore expected that those privileged to be elevated to silk should display the highest professional standards. The reality, however, is that there is a growing mercenary perception of the rank in popular discourse within and outside the profession.”

    He charged lawyers to adhere to the strict rules of the profession, while bemoaning the falling standard of legal education. He said, “I regret also to observe the vastly declined standard of legal education in the country. I observe this as part of a general trend in education at all tiers and across subject areas, but urge specifically for legal education that the Nigerian Bar Association should move decisively and work closely with the National Universities Commission and the Council of Legal Education to restore sanity in the system.”

    He advocated that lawyers whose disciplinary offences are pending should be excluded from holding NBA offices or the conferment with the SAN class.

    Adoke added: “It is my humble view that where a lawyer has a disciplinary case pending against him, he should be excluded from holding any office of the NBA or the conferment of the rank of SAN. The rationale for this is to prevent the lawyer from initiating frivolous applications so as to frustrate the process. However, I am not persuaded that this is desirable particularly as suspension is in fact one of the penalties under the Act. I would rather suggest that courts should be mindful of such time-wasting ploys and stand firm against delaying the process by interlocutory injunctions.”

    On his part, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, said: “I want to say that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice should not be out for government policies and government cases alone. They have done that job very well. But the DNA of the Office of the Attorney General must change at the federal and at the state levels.

    “It must change to become the chief prosecutor of all those who violate our laws in this country. From that way I think we will not begin to see those charges that will ridicule the attempt in my view to bring criminals to justice.”