The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Transformation

  • Community praises Ondo Poly transformation

    Community praises Ondo Poly transformation

    The Owo Community in Ondo State has commended the state government for improving infrastructure at the state-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO).

    The community spoke through its monarch, Olowo of Owo, Oba Victor Olateru-Olagbegi, who led a delegation on a visit to Governor Olusegun Mimiko in his office in Akure.

    On the Olowo’s entourage were the Asuada of Isuada, Oba Rufus Aladetanye, a member of the State House of Assembly from Owo, Hon. Olatunji Dairo, Chief Imam of Owo, Alhaji Ahmed Aladesawe, the Caretaker Chairman of Owo Local Government Area, Tunde Fadimbola and the Rector of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, among others.

    He said the infrastructural deficiencies in the polytechnic before Mimiko’s administration is a thing of the past as the institution boasts of world-class facilities, quality lecturers and uninterrupted academic calendar, among others.

    Olowo said: “I am impressed by what the Ondo State Government has done in recent times. The last time I visited (the polytechnic) was shortly after my enthronement and I must confess, not much was there to be showcased. But on my recent visit, I saw massive development and interventions that are worthy of commendation. I must say you have done well,” the Olowo said.

    Oba Olagbegi said the Federal Government, the polytechnic community and, indeed, all stakeholders in the institution must also be commended for the new vista that has been opened in the polytechnic.

    The Rector, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun and Fadimbola noted that the people of the town and members of the polytechnic community would never forget the dividends of democracy brought to them by state government.

    Mimiko thanked the team for the visit. He congratulated the Owo community and the institution for poly’s recent rating as the best in the country.

    The governor said this was good news in an era when the Adekunle Ajasin University,Akungba Akoko(AAUA) got ranked as the best state owned university in the country.

    Mimiko expressed delight that both the state-owned Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko and the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo had been adjudged the best state institutions in the country by the Transparency International in the United States.

    He said the successes recorded by the institutions are the result of deliberate injection of funds, in a quantum that had no precedence in the history of the polytechnic, and the professional imprint of the first class Rector.

     

  • The transformation of Ekiti State university

    The transformation of Ekiti State university

    The above quote by Malcom X may have prompted the present administration in Ekiti State to embark on putting Higher Education on the right track more so when the state is reputed as the Fountain of Knowledge, Land of Honour and home to uncountable professors who had made their mark in various fields.

    The citadel of learning known today as the Ekiti State University, has undergone many transformations especially in name.

    The institution was established on March 30, 1982, by the Adekunle Ajasin administration and was called, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ado-Ekiti at inception with Professor I. O. Oladapo, as the first Vice Chancellor. The military administration of Navy Commodore Michael Bamidele Otiko, changed the name of the university in 1985 to the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, and cancelled the multi-campus and non-residential policy of the institution.

    Following the creation of Ekiti State, by the military junta in 1996, economic assets, institutions and establishments previously owned by the Ondo State were shared with the newly created Ekiti State. Hence, the ownership and proprietorship of the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, came under the joint administration of the governments of Ekiti State and the Ondo State respectively.

    However, the joint management irretrievably broke down understandably in 1998, necessitating the creation of Ondo State University at Akungba by the Ondo State government and years later, under the Agagu administration, a University of Science and Technology at Okitipupa. Subsequently, the government of Ekiti State took over the ownership, full administrative control and funding of the Ondo State University at Ado-Ekiti and enacted a law to rename the university as University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The Ekiti State government also took steps to ensure that all records and properties of the university remained intact.

    In the year 2007, a new civilian government led by Mr Segun Oni was installed in Ekiti State. The government, in addition to the existing University of Ado-Ekiti, established two new state owned universities in controversial circumstances; University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti and the University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti.

    These two universities, along with the existing University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, were funded from the public treasury; this took a great toll on the public purse and led to the polarisation of the educational system. In October 2010, there was a change of government in Ekiti State and the new government under Dr. Kayode Fayemi, convened a statewide Education Summit in 2011, to consider the best ways to sustain tertiary education and to fund public institutions owned by the government of Ekiti State.

    Part of the decisions taken at the summit was to merge the three state-owned universities as a single public institution for better funding and management. In June 2011, the Ekiti State government, merged University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria; University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti and University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti as a single university and following the assent of the governor to the Ekiti State University, Law No. 11 in July 2011, renamed it, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria (EKSU).

    In order to appreciate the state of the university today, it is necessary to know its trajectory in the last 32 years of its existence. The university, which today has a population of 25,000 students started off with a student population of 136, at an old catering rest house in Akure, Ondo State with three faculties; Arts, Social Sciences and Sciences.

    The Faculty of Education was added in 1983/84, when the population rose to 724, and new courses such as Geology, Biology, Chemistry, French, Yoruba Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Political Science and Psychology were established to strengthen the faculties.

    In the 1985/86 session, the Faculty of Engineering (Civil, Mechanical and Electrical) and a Department of Banking and Finance, were established. The Faculty of Law was established during the 1991/92 session, and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences was established in 2001, bringing the faculties to eight in total and a student population of 10,000. The student population is now in excess of 25,000 (49% male and 51% female), spread across the various academic progr-ammes. There are 555 teaching staff and 1,500 non-teaching staff. The libraries boast of over 150,000 volumes in journals and books apart from virtual library, while there are over 1,000 titles.

    Today, the university is running degree programmes in 67 fields of academic specialisation, which are domiciled within the 11 faculties, one school of Postgraduate Studies and a College of Medicine.

    The other academic centres that run faculty programmes are, Directorate of Continuing Education, Directorate of Part-Time Programme, Directorate of Sandwich Education Degree Programme, Affiliate Colleges, Institute of Education, Institute of Science Laboratory Technology, Directorate of Pre-Degree Programmes, General Studies Unit, Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Centre for Research and Development, among others.

    The university had its fair share of the travails that afflicted universities in the late 80s and early 90s, more so when it was a new state university at that time. The problems of the university which ranged from lack of funding to absence of infrastructures did not make the environment conducive for learning.

    In terms of infrastructure at that time, there was no good access road as the Ado-Iworoko road was very bad, such that commercial vehicles avoided the route like a plague; lack of students’ hostel; lack of regular electricity and pipe-borne water, which made the university looked like a glorified secondary school with a campus environment that became a fertile ground for cultism. Although, cultism was not peculiar to the university as it was a national phenomena, it was worse with the then University of Ado–Ekiti, where cultists killed and maimed one another in broad daylight on campus.

    Today, cultism is gradually fading away as the incidence of cult killings is becoming a thing of the past. One lane of the Ado-Iworoko road that leads to the campus has been completed by the Fayemi administration and this has made access to the university by commuters easier and faster.

    Electricity has become more regular because the institution has been connected to Ado-Ekiti electricity grid. The university was ranked 17 by webmetric from its previous 79 position in 2012, after it was repositioned under the Vice Chancellorship of Professor Oladipo Aina, and the governing board headed by Professor Olajide Osuntokun, a respected world acclaimed scholar.

    The Statewide Education Summit, which recommended the consolidation of the three existing universities into one was a turning point in the life of the embattled university whose fortune changed for the better in 2011.

    The transformation and change of fortune became noticeable a year after the recommendation of the education summit were adopted and implemented by the state government. The first noticeable change in the university was that the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND), former Education Trust Fund (ETF), of which the state is a contributor and which was not easily accessible because of the multiplicity of universities became easily accessible by the consolidated university.

    The arrears of the TETFUND was made possible through the intervention of the state government. Another change was that fake students were shown the way out as well as some lecturers, who were involved in examination malpractices and admission racketeering, thereby sanitising the academic standard of the institution.

    Unlike in the past, when graduates of the university waited for donkey years before they could collect their certificates, they now do so on convocation day. The institution has become a promising and emerging centre of research. Discipline was restored amongst the staff and student of the institution.

    Talking about structures, apart from facilitating easy access to TETFUND, the state government released a capital grant of N400 million (N100 million of this is meant to facilitate the upgrading of the College of Medicine building), which made the construction of the buildings possible.

    It is worthy of note that this was the first time in the history of the university that the state government would release a capital grant. Similarly, the state government increased the monthly subvention of the institution from N210 million to N260 million.

    Today, Ekiti State University is such a beauty to behold as many state-of-the-art buildings have been completed, while others are still under construction. The buildings that have been completed with the capital grant are; the Biochemistry/Pharmacology building, the Medical Library building and the Clinical Students’ hostel. Other buildings that have been completed are, Faculty of Agriculture, Entrepreneurship Centre, New Faculty of Education, Physiology Department, School of Post Graduate Studies, Social Sciences and Anatomy Department, 1,050 seater lecture theatre and a twin auditorium.

    A new SUB building, donated by an old student of the institution, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, is almost completed. The Library, Faculties of Arts and old Education were renovated in 2012, from the IGR of the university. Engineering equipment worth millions of naira was procured for the Faculty of Engineering, from the capital grant released to the university.

    Apart from the mentioned structures, this is the first time that the state government would be constructing a 2-kilometre road inside the campus. It is pertinent to mention and acknowledge the contributions of many individuals, organisations and philanthropist to the development of EKSU, over the years.

    Philanthropists, such as Dr. Lawrence Omolayo, shall never be forgotten. He donated the administrative block, consisting of 271 offices, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), constructed and fully furnished a 350 seater Law Auditorium, Dr. Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha, built a 400 seater Lecture Theatre, while Ado-Ekiti community built the administrative block for the Faculty of Law.

    The Kole Ajayi-led Alumni Association built an Alumni Centre for the university in 2002, while the Jadesola Babatola-led Alumni Association constructed the Faculty of Law Moot and Trial Court in 2009. Shell Petroleum, recently established an Information Communication Technology Centre (ICT), in the university apart from the donations of NUC virtual library and Access Education, which also donated computers and server to the university.

    Out of the 67 academic programmes run by the university, 52 are fully accredited, 11 are accredited in the interim, while 4, including the College of Medicine are yet to be visited for accreditation. Though the courses in the College of Medicine have the approval of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), and Nigerian Medical Council (NMC).

    The university has joined the ICT age, as almost all its academic activities are linked to one on-line facility or the other. The university is undergoing an institutional accreditation exercise, as a selected institution in South West, Nigeria.

    The council of the university also recently set-up an endowment fund for indigent, but brilliant students with an initial contribution of N1million, pointing out that the problem of indigency has become real in the university because of the poor economic situation and the rising cost of university education. The university has a limited number of residential and sports facilities for staff and students within and outside the main campus.

    The university will embark on building of students’ hostels before the end of this year. Also, the state government has pre-qualified and recommended about six private companies to partner with the university in the construction of students’ halls of residence on Build Transfer and Operate (BOT) basis. Recently, the university set up the University Advancement Centre, chaired by Prince Julius Adeluyi.

    The centre is to further enhance the advancement of the university by collaborating with other established institutions across the world and can enter into negotiations that can further enhance the fortune of the university.

    It is a thing of joy and pride for all Ekiti citizens and stakeholders to know that Ekiti State University is now a higher institution to be proud of. EKSU students had the best result in Law School in 2012. The campus is gradually taking shape and looking like a real university environment, though a lot of work is still required.

    With the current steady pace of development going on in EKSU, in no time, the university will compete with the likes of UNILAG and OAU. Little wonder, an alumni of the school, who had not visited the school in 8 years, but did this year exclaimed and asked no one in particular, Whaooo! Is this UNAD? A student answered him, no sir, it was UNAD before but now, it is EKSU! This was underscored by the governor in his own words,

    “I want EKSU to be of the standard of the UNILAG that I went to. That is my obligation to you. For the first time in 30 years, this is the first government in Ekiti to give capital grant. The government has just given EKSU N100 million for the accreditation of medicine.

    Anyone who knows what EKSU used to be knows there is an improvement. Roads are being tarred. I am not doing that to curry favour. I want our tertiary institutions to be of good standard. I want all our institutions to be institutions that can compete with good ones all over the world.”

     

    •Jamiu is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Research & Documentation.

  • Transitions and transformation

    Transitions and transformation

    When the freshly minted President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan announced that his regime would be marked by a transformative agenda, not many compatriots believed him. Nigerians have heard too much of such promises in the past only for them to turn out a damp squib. Let them just get on with the job and forget the stirring heroics, cynical Nigerians would be heard grunting. From Shagari’s Ethical Revolution to Yar’Adua’s Servant Leadership, our people seem to have heard enough.

    So it is then that a prophet is not without honour, except in his own land. But it is also in the nature of prophecies to manifest in curious and unexpected ways. Last week as the shouting match in River State finally descended into a full scale shooting war, and as illustrious scalps tumbled from the Wadata Plaza and the military redoubt, the real transition and transformation finally unfolded before our eyes. It is not about the political and economic society. It is the transition and transformation of Goodluck Jonathan from a meek and diffident political apprentice to a full blown civilian caudillo.

    The interesting thing about a fascist terror machine is that it acts with impersonal rigour recognising neither its original owners nor its temporary custodians When in a moment of vengeful hubris you hand over such a torture instrument to a man weighed down by the ancestral memory of persecution and torture, a man whose cultural conditioning has not accustomed him to an automatic obeisance and deference to hierarchy and a feudal pecking order, you must be ready to reap the whirlwind.

    Jonathan may well be the nemesis of the old Nigerian power coalition, just as Abacha turned out its military nemesis. In human affairs, political advantages are not designed to last forever. Somebody is bound to lose concentration at a critical point and make a stupid mistake.

    The Nigerian post-colonial state and its hegemonic power brokers have had it coming for a long time. Good luck normally intervened. Now, the real Goodluck has intervened, and it is about time, too. Even political insanity has its statute of limitation. You cannot spend decades preparing for madness. Madness does not condone permanent deferral.

    As readers will attest, this column is not given to hurling invectives and personal insults. When we focus on particular individuals, it is to highlight their importance in and to the impersonal process of history. For many, Jonathan may appear as an errant personality and historic misfit, but sometimes individual actors are often helpless and hapless agents of the remorseless and relentless turns of history.

    In order to understand just what is going on, we must return to the nature of colonial and post-colonial transition in Nigeria and the kind of anti-developmental state and nation we have been saddled with by both our colonial and post-colonial overlords. A state and nation do not exist in vacuum. They are products of a specific political and cultural milieu and a determinate historical process.

    Last week, we noted in this column how the military transition programmes often mirror the colonial transition itself in their emphasis on continuity rather than radical change, and their obsession with personnel replacement rather than a fundamental re-engineering of the structure of the state and the nation itself.

    It is therefore appropriate to look at the nature of the military rule that Nigeria has had and their fixation with the status quo rather than the radical agency which would have rapidly transformed Nigeria’s political and economic fortunes. We need to understand the nature and character of the millennial incubus we are dealing with. It will then be possible to situate the Jonathan presidency within the lineage of civilian despotism. General Obasanjo who has been directly involved in two of the transition programmes both as a beneficiary and benefactor is a central figure in the historical tragedy.

    Two of the military regimes did not even bother about transition programmes. In the case of General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, he was completely consumed with tempering and negotiating the radical momentum the military uprising of January 15 1966 had unleashed. The fallout would eventually consume him. General Mohammadu Buhari could not care a hoot. His natural disdain for Nigerian politicians coupled with the violent mood of the country against politics and the political class at the end of the Shagari regime made the climate very hostile.

    After initially agreeing to a broad based transition to civilian rule programme, General Gowon suddenly changed his mind in 1974 on the grounds that the political class had not learnt their lesson. We may never know the intelligence available to the temperate and mild-mannered general who had done extremely well in healing the hideous wounds of the civil war.

    But with Chief Awolowo on the prowl and the Ikenne titan acting with the majesty and assurance of a king in waiting, the odds were too unpredictable. Gowon himself would famously admit that he had rebuffed all entreaties to put Awo away. Even after the civil war, the fear of Awo was the beginning of wisdom. The following year, Gowon was swept out of office by his colleagues.

    Despite all the chicanery and grand deception of the Babangida Transition Programme and the frantic war-gaming on behalf of the status quo, the dominant military faction bared its fangs as soon as it was confronted with the unpredictable outcome of the end election. They panicked and summarily annulled the election as soon as it became clear that MKO Abiola and the coalition of unaccustomed and irregular fellows were coasting to victory in a momentous landslide. For his temerity, Abiola would perish in captivity.

    In the case of General Abacha, the obsession with the military, political and national status quo assumed a venomous dimension. After forcing himself on the nation even against the wishes of majority of the armed forces, Abacha came to the conclusion that only he could succeed himself.

    His self-succession project had developed an unstoppable momentum when it became obvious to the protocol of power that the cost of acquiescing in his murderous siege on the nation might prove prohibitive. A sultan’s scalp was already in the blood-dripping kitty among many other illustrious apparitions, and the goggled one was beginning to eye the hilltop castle in Minna for the definitive endgame. An outstanding military terrorist, Abacha had bludgeoned the nation’s traditional power centres into submission and was on his way to becoming the country first truly maximum ruler when death intervened.

    The two transition programmes involving General Obasanjo are classic examples of how to politically railroad a whole nation into compliance using the military tactics of camouflage and deception. The hapless and clueless Nigerian political class allowed themselves to be led into a well-laid political ambush before being electorally slaughtered. Only the deeply cunning can call to the deeply cunning.

    As it was in 1979, so was it the case in 1999. General Abdulsalaam Abubakar, who as a colonel commanded the hand over parade by Obasanjo in 1979, appeared to have mastered the ropes very well. As usual, the obsession of the military hierarchs was with continuity and the preservation of the status quo. The political class served as ancillary and accessory to a well-oiled plot which caught them completely flatfooted.

    Like its NPN forebear, the PDP was designed as a broad based national party teeming with men and women of calibre and timber who could deliver the bloc votes while guaranteeing continuity and the status quo even as they indemnify the departing military against loss of face and humiliation. An ideological blueprint for the rapid development and transformation of the country was a less urgent and pressing need in the face of antagonistic and anti-military forces of change. As usual with “non-ideological” posturing, it is based on a masked ideology of a conservative stirring of the most virulently reactionary kind..

    In 1979, Obasanjo famously boasted that the best candidate do not always win elections. Twenty years later, the same man after wondering aloud about how many times Nigeria wanted to make a president of him willingly yielded to a draft “ambush” by noting that generals do not walk away from an ambush. They romp through it. Unknown to the kingmakers, the king had already been chosen somewhere else.

    With the benefit of cruel hindsight, it is now very painful watching the AD chieftains hopping from one party to the other when their fate had already been sealed. Their participation in the Abubakar transition programmes served to confer legitimacy on a chicanery concocted somewhere else. But it could have been worse. The 1999 cliff hanger was more dire than 1979, the military having exhausted its political and historic possibility as an agent of change.

    If one takes a long term perspective or what the French call la longue duree on this matter, it may be possible to see some good in evil and some merits in the PDP, given the balance of power at that particular point. It was a holding device put in place to work out the contradictions of military rule as the army beat a disorderly retreat back to the barracks. It did brilliantly well in that. Only men of Obasanjo’s nerve and verve, T. Y Danjuma’s steely and strategic brilliance and Aliyu Gusau’s arm twisting spooky genius could have achieved that feat of demilitarization without provoking a monumental backlash.

    But eventually, a monstrosity can only beget another monstrosity. In a cruel paradox, the same road that leads to demilitarization also leads to a democratic gridlock. A holding device is just that. It is not designed to move the country forward economically and politically. We can now see the trail and the obsession with “safe” status quo that led to the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan. The PDP military-inspired hoax has lasted fifteen years. The Jonathan presidency is its defining end product.

    Being politically and ideologically bereft, the PDP can neither transform itself not to talk of transforming the nation. As it is at the moment, the party is a rudderless hulk that is about to transit Nigeria into another major disaster. The Titanic is approaching its titanic iceberg. Unfortunately having overdrawn their political and professional IOUs, the old Junker generals and masters of the Wehrmacht are no longer in a position to sort things out. Unless care is taken, it is going to be an apocalyptic meltdown and a nightmare for the Black race.

  • Agriculture: Transformation via foreign investments

    In the past year, Nigeria’s agricultural potentials were tested, with food production rising significantly. Although there is a new economic growth momentum, there are regional disparities. To optimise the potentials, better coordination is needed among government agencies, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    In the past one year, Nigeria recorded reasonable economic growth. The agricultural sector contributed to the growth through boosting food production, encouraging the private sector participation and improving the investment climate.

    While growth patterns were pronounced and outlook of commodity prices remained favourable for food and agricultural raw materials, there were low rural wages and insufficient government spending on rural development and obsolete infrastructure which are key determinants of rural poverty. Over the year, however, the World Bank supported the government to improve involvement in rural economic activities.

    $300 million credit for agric

    The World Bank announced a $300 million credit for Nigeria, to boost the Federal Government’s efforts to expand its agriculture sector, enhance food security as well as improve nutrition for the rural poor.

    The bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved two International Development Association (IDA) credit facilities to support the transformation of the sector.

    The IDA credit of $100 million is expected to fund the Nigeria Agriculture Sector Development Policy Operation, the first of two projects that would support government’s agricultural transformation agenda. The operation includes efforts to strengthen policies and capacity to raise yields, promote market access among farmers, and improve overall management of the country’s rapidly expanding agriculture industry.

    World Bank unfolds fresh N32b facility for agric scheme

    To further boost its objective of assisting in reducing poverty at the grassroots and also sustain its investment in agriculture through the Third National Fadama Development Project (NFDP), the World Bank plans to give additional $200 million (N32 billion) to some benefiting states in the country.

    The bank’s Country Director, Mrs. Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said the additional fund was approved because the bank was impressed about progress of the project in Ogun State and the other benefitting states.

    $8 billion into agricultural projects

    Private sector investments in agriculture increased appreciably, with the private sector investing about $8 billion into various projects in the past two years.

    Observers attributed the renewed interest to invest in the agricultural sector to the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), designed to promote “ agrobusiness’’, while boosting food security and wealth creation in the country.

    The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr AkinwumiAdesina,said that an additional $4billion was being injected into the sector by companies like Dangote Group, Indorama Chemicals and Notore Chemicals, among others.

    Leading global institutions such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had been investing in the country.

    Adesina said the World Bank invested $500 million, Bill and Melinda Gates $5 million, IFAD $80 million, while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) invested $1.5 million, among others.

    A report released by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also said that the United States -based multinational food security company, Blumberg Grains, planned to invest $250 million in large scale food storage facilities in the country.

    Indonesian fertiliser company ,Indorama will invest $2.5 billion in new plants,Adesina said durng a visit to South Africa for the World Economic Forum on Africa. Dangote Group is investing $3.5 billion in what Adesina said would be Africa’s biggest fertiliser plant. Major multinational agri-businesses are also moving in.

    Govt partners Brazil on rice, poultry and soya bean production

    The Federal Government has also entered into partnership with Brazil on rice, poultry and soya bean production.

    The former Minister of State for Agriculture, BukarTijani, said that the partnership would encourage the transfer of agricultural technology to Nigeria.

    Tijani, who spoke when Luiz Fernando Mainarde, the Secretary of Agriculture of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, led a delegation to the ministry earlier in the year, said: “The total demand of rice in Nigeria is about five million tonnes per annum and our farmers produce just over two million tonnes per annum.”

    Agric export hits 822,000 tonnes

    Agricultural produce export hit 822,000 tonnes last year, against the government’s target of 364,000 tonnes.

    Adesina hinted that the export figure for this year might rise, as the nation is expecting more bountiful harvest, following the provision of improved farm input to farmers, saying that the land area cultivated with improved seed varieties has increased from 400,000 hectares in two years to four million hectares.

    The minister attributed the low inflation rate in the country to higher domestic food production,which led to significant drop in food price.

    Farmers and bankers

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) appealed to the Federal Government to give the Bank of Agriculture the same level of attention currently being given to Bank of Industry.

    Immediate past President, LCCI, Mr Goodie Ibru, said the agricultural sector presented a striking paradox in the economy and accounted for 38 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and less than five per cent of revenue.

    “This underscores the low level of productivity and efficiency in the sector. The return on investment is very low and the income per head is also very low, which is why there is ravaging poverty in the agricultural communities, which are basically in the rural areas.

    “It is therefore important to enhance productivity in the sector through improvement in market access, linkages with other sectors of the economy, investment in all year round farming and acceleration of mechanisation, Land reforms and access to funding.”

    Southwest states mainstream mega million agriculture investment blueprint

    States in the Southwest are working on a multi-million agricultural development plan to revamp the sector to secure food supply, protect the environment and ensure rural areas are developed sustainably.

    Speaking before the meeting of Commissioners of Agriculture in the South west in Abeokuta, the Director-General, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, Mr Dipo Famakinwa, said states were working a common agricultural policy and plan that will help farmers adapt to the market’s changing needs and secure a sustainable food supply.

    Famakinwa said states in the Southwest were pleased to resume engagement in agriculture as part of a broader engagement to support private sector investment across the region.

    He said common agricultural policy (CAP) would support the diversification of economic activity in Lagos, Edo, Ekiti, Oyo and Osun states and contribute to improved processing of agricultural products.

    He said strategic alliances in agricultural supply chain would play a crucial factor supporting the success of agro industrial development.

    Famakinwa said the regional agricultural plan would forge greater collaboration across the sector to maximise opportunities around the five states.

    As part of the action plan, the state governments are looking to work with companies in evaluating and opportunities.

    He said agriculture is the backbone of the region’s economy and new investment in the sector is essential for creating new jobs and economic growth.

    He said there were opportunities available for food businesses in the Southwest states to encourage consumers to eat healthier and more nutritious diets, to invest in more sustainable manufacturing and distribution systems and to develop procurement systems based on more sustainable forms of agriculture.

    Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs Ronke Sokefun, said the meeting of agriculture commissioners in the Southwest was established as a part of the regional development plan to stimulate a broad range of investments in agric infrastructure.

    Economic Summit canvasses investment in agric

    Participants at the 19th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja said “to successfully diversify the economy for enhanced growth and development,” the agricultural sector had to be developed to create jobs, secure food supply, lower inflation and expand foreign exchange earnings.

    It was the first time the summit would focus on the agricultural sector to discuss the on-going reforms. There was particular attention on the provision of infrastructure, staple crop processing zones, agricultural financing, right policy framework, among others, which are fundamental and foundational to the full exploitation of agricultural value chain and attainment of food security, employment generation and wealth creation.

    The summit said agriculture needed attractive economic incentives as well as supportive operating environment, besides the need to provide basic infrastructure such as roads, rails, ports, storage facilities and review of land reforms.

    Lagos boosts food production with N16 million

    The Lagos State government granted a credit facility of N16 million to five farmers’ cooperative societies just as it distributed farming tools to over 200 farming households in the state to boost food production.

    Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, made the presentation last year during the celebration of the Farmers Field Day in Ikorodu, with Senator Gbenga Ashafa representing Lagos East senatorial district.

    The lawmaker said 20 cooperative societies of about 200 farming households benefited from such farming tools as knapsack sprayer, compost plus, water pump, wheel barrows, cutlasses, JK file, rainboots, big hoes, drums, manual movable scale, digital movable scale and big plastic bowls that were distributed at the event.

    Govt earmarks N15 billion for farmers

    Vice President Namadi Sambo said the Federal Government approved N15 billion for disbursement to farmers during last year’s farming season through the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) at single digit interest rate.

    He also said the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had been granted approval by President Goodluck Jonathan to privatise the BoA with the aim of unbundling it, so as to provide cheaper funds for agriculture and also to allow other investors to participate in the sector.

     

  • The road to a police state

    The road to a police state

    Just to be absolutely certain that I wasn’t missing something, I inspected President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation – or is it Transformative?—Agenda before writing this piece.

    The Agenda, I can report with the highest confidence, does not include turning Nigeria into a police state.

    Yet, that is what has been happening lately, sometimes brazenly and sometimes insidiously.

    With each passing day, Nigeria bears a closer resemblance to a state in which the activities of the people are strictly controlled with the help of a police force, in place of regular operation of administrative and judicial organs of government based on publicly known legal procedure.

    That is the definition of a police state.

    This ominous process probably has an earlier origin, but I would date it from the time relations between Dr Jonathan and Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi turned sour and Dr Jonathan sought to bring Amaechi to heel and to impose on the Nigeria Governors’ Forum a chairman who would be more complaisant than Amaechi and help clear the path to a second presidential term.

    To attain the first objective, he could not have found a better instrument than the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, who owes his appointment to and takes his orders from Abuja. At every opportunity, Mbu countermanded the elected governor of the state, enforced Abuja’s will, and carried on as he was for all practical purposes the leader of the opposition.

    For the second objective, Dr Jonathan found a willing tool Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio to engineer a split in the Governors’ Forum, in the hope that a majority fraction beholden to him would emerge. In the showdown election, Akpabio failed to deliver the majority he had promised. Undaunted, the minority crowned itself the new National Governors Forum, with the pathetic and utterly deluded Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang as chairman.

    Then came the rupture at the PDP mini convention. Seven governors elected on the party’s platform , as well as some senior party officials, broke ranks. A faction calling itself the New PDP, having no illusions about the petulance of its parent, had to confect a lie to secure a place to hold a meeting. It declared that the hall was to be used for a wedding reception. If the police had so much as suspected that the meeting was being held to elect officials of the breakaway faction of the PDP, the police would have moved swiftly to block it.

    That much was clear from the swiftness with which the police blockaded the headquarters building the new PDP rigged up. For good measure, the authorities of the Abuja Federal Capital Territory suddenly discovered that the house had been constructed in violation of the building code and would have to be pulled down. If and when the FCT gives the order, the police will be on hand to supervise the demolition.

    As for the seven dissident PDP governors – the so-called G7 — rarely have they been able to hold a meeting even in private premises without the rude intrusion of the police. The most recent of such intrusions, in Abuja, drew nation-wide condemnation. The Inspector-General of the Police, Mohammed Abubakar, told a committee of the House of Representatives that it had been carried out without his instructions.

    If this is true – and there is no reason to believe that he had perjured himself –it raises the alarming prospect that the Nigeria Police has indeed become the armed wing of the PDP, as the opposition APC has charged.

    Last Tuesday the police, kitted as for battle, sealed off the conference room of the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja where the Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project had planned to discuss Nigeria’s freedom of information law, with scheduled speakers from Europe, the United States and Nigeria.

    With Dino Melaye, a former federal legislator turned anti-corruption crusader among the organisers, there was no doubt that the participants would discuss the scandal that the Federal Government desperately wants suppressed: the illegal purchase of two armoured limousines worth $1.4 million by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria for the use, and most likely at the behest of, Princess Oduah.

    As was the case with the intrusion on the G7 meeting, also in Abuja, senior spokespersons for the police have been quoted as saying that the authorities had “no knowledge” of the operation. This only goes to support the thesis that Nigeria is being transformed into a police state. In whatever case, the political calculations behind the intrusion point unmistakably to the self-styled “biggest party” in Africa.

    The PDP is even more deeply implicated in turning Nigeria into a police state than the foregoing suggests. Last week, the courts ordered the re-instatement of former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as PDP national secretary, finding that his purported removal from that office was ultra vires.

    No sooner had Oyinlola served notice that he was set to resume work at the PDP’s Wadata Plaza national headquarters in Abuja than he was suspended afresh and the place was surrounded by battle tanks and police armed for combat. It was almost as if Boko Haram’s elusive high command had served notice that its forces had landed in the neightbourhood.

    There, you have fresh intimations of the making of a police state. I will not be surprised if the police authorities were to declare again that they had played no part in sealing off the PDP’s headquarters.

    To be sure, the court order was going to create all kinds of problems. Oyinlola was not merely one of the founders of the New PDP; he is its national secretary. To which faction would he answer if he resumed work at Wadata Plaza, which had vowed to treat him and other deserters as “criminals?”

    The brusqueness with which the PDP brushed aside the court order reinstating Oyinlola is of a piece with the impunity with which it suborns the police to do its dirty work. It is all the more disquieting that the PDP is the ruling party and its national leader is President Jonathan, who took an oath to uphold and defend the law and the Constitution.

    Only a few days ago, in the run-up to the incurably flawed gubernatorial election in Anambra, the police command in Imo State announced with breathless excitement the arrest of 180 “thugs” and “hoodlums” and “bandits” from Osun on their way to Anambra for the purpose — what else – of rigging the election.

    It claimed to have recovered from them voter ID cards and other election documents, not forgetting “other dangerous weapons”. A far more credible source insists that the 180 were accredited election monitors belonging to the Justice and Equity Organisation.

    If there was any merit at all to the arrest of the group from Osun, there was none whatsoever to the confinement of Nasir El-Rufai, to his hotel room in the Anambra State capital, Awka, by agents of the secret police. The APC chieftain was in town to monitor the poll. This shabby recourse to false imprisonment is yet another manifestation of the drift toward a police state.

    We can now understand why, against the express provisions of the Constitution, retired Inspector-General of Police and a failed senatorial candidate in the person of Mike Okiro was appointed chairman of the Police Service Commission. It was certainly not on account of his stellar performance. For, as IGP, he showed a brazen disregard for conflict of interest and, as we now know, connived in hounding Nuhu Ribadu out of the EFCC and the Police Force.

    By act or omission, Okiro contributed to the dysfunction in which the police force is mired today. They did not appoint him Police Service Commission chairman to lead a determined effort to chart a path out of that dysfunction. And he knows it.

  • ASUU strike and FG’s transformation agenda

    SIR: In 2011, When President Goodluck Jonathan contested for the presidency, the bait he brandished was the transformation agenda- a delusional promise to transform all sectors in the country. Close to three years after, Jonathan has not been able to transform Nigeria as it continues to wallow in socio-economic backwardness, with the spate of degeneration in the country reaching an alarming rate.

    The latest casualty of Jonathan’s regressive leadership is the close-to-four months strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over unpaid allowances and unfulfilled agreement the federal government reached with it in 2009.

    A perusal of the treatment of the strike by the federal government shows that the Jonathan administration does not see education as priority. While the president is busy with his ambition and party business, the educational sector is in shambles. He has planned personal meetings with the so-called aggrieved governors but has not deemed it fit to show commitment to the future of the country by having a meeting with ASUU leadership. This underscores the level of recognition accorded education by our President.

    ASUU’s demands are not selfish or are they political as insinuated by some mischief makers in the presidency. ASUU is campaigning against the high level infrastructural decadence of Nigerian universities. This stance is the reality as most universities in our country are not better than prison yards.

    What of the 87 billion naira unpaid allowances owed ASUU? Is it not a show of inhumanity and irresponsibility for a government to owe its workers such amount of money? It is noteworthy that amidst these and other reasonable demands by ASUU, the federal government tends to be unmoved. Rather than display maturity which is a requisite virtue of competent leaders, the presidency adopted childish approach making outrageous statements. One of such is the platitudinous statement credited to the Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the federal government cannot meet ASUU’s unpaid allowances demands. It is understood that she may want to please her boss; however, doing that at the detriment of the future of the country is grossly unfortunate.

    The latest stoppage of lecturers’ salary attests to the notion that the President has not gotten it right. That is a demonstration of immaturity in handling avoidable crisis.

    It is worthy of note that the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) is also on strike while the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is ready to join ASUU as a means of solidarity. Yet, the presidency has not done enough to convince Nigerians of its concern.

    A president who is not alarmed at the suspension of academic activities in virtually all tertiary institutions in his country cannot be said to be transformational. I fear if the articulated but passive transformation agenda is not deformation agenda in disguise. It is pathetic that this situation tends to replicate in virtually all sectors- not education only. The status quo in the country is a celebration of beautified deformation with no transformation history to tell.

    The government should address ASUU’s demands soonest and wake up from its slumber concerning other sectors. Personal ambitions should be shelved and the future of the country prioritised. A country cannot attain the height of glory in a garment of shame and indirection. Else, a massive alignment with the emerged viable progressives won’t be a bad idea.

    • Simon Godwin

    University of Lagos

  • ‘IT students’ payment will stop in 2014’

    ‘IT students’ payment will stop in 2014’

    When in 1971, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) was established by Decree 47, it was charged with producing skilled manpower, among others. Its Director-General, Prof Longmas Wapmuk, in this interview with TOBA AGBOOLA and OLUWAKEMI DAUDA, speaks on the workings of the fund and its role in achieving the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.

     

     

     

    How long have you been at the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and what is your experience?

    Well, I was appointed in August 2006. This means that I’m slightly above seven years in the organisation now. When I came on board, many companies, particularly, the foreign ones were not interested in training at the ITF. They believed that our staff were not very competent. We addressed this problem by training many of our people overseas. And today, in Lagos, we have many training programmes given to us to implement by major companies. A proof of the rise in training consciousness, on account of ITF intervention, is the increasing request for reimbursement by employers registered, and the remitting of training contributions to the fund. Reimbursement of training contributions is done on condition that ITF’s guidelines on training are met. Therefore, the number of employers that request for and get reimbursed, indicates that training consciousness has really increased.

    One of the visions of the ITF, when it was established in 1971, was to be one of the foremost field training and development organisations. Would you say your organisation has achieved this aim?

    I believe the organisation has achieved its aim. The ITF was little known before I took over as the chief executive. We had problem of poor funding. The budget of the organisation was around N3.6 billion, which was too small to achieve all we wanted to achieve. Also, the members of staff were not happy because there was no motivation and the salary was very poor. The relationship between ITF and corporate bodies was not good. My management was also dissolved. These and many more are some of the challenges.

    So, how did you address these challenges?

    The ITF currently is a household name. First of all, I took a trip to Lagos. I met with stakeholders in the organised sector. We discussed on the way forward. This, of course, enhanced our relationship. As I said, my management was dissolved, so I had to set up a new management. Restructuring and re-organisation took place; and today we have about six vibrant departments in the organisation. I was able to get an improved salary structure for the staff and all the outstanding promotions were implemented.

    How did you address the issue of poor funding?

    We discovered that, over the years, the money available for training has been very small and we thought that there was the need to improve the level of funding. When I came, I started by soliciting for money from government. I drew up a plan and followed it up by going to the supervising ministry, the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and many other places but I could not generate any revenue from my efforts. So, I decided to look inwards to see areas to generate revenue from, if we are to function properly as provided in the law that set us up. I found out that in many countries I visited, they have similar laws but with no reimbursement clause because they use all the money to train. But in our own case, we reimburse 60 percent to the industry and 40 percent is left for us to pay our salaries and do the training.

    On assumption of office as the Director-General, I found out that there was a law establishing a Fund. The law provides for the collection of some money to sustain the activities of the ITF. As I said earlier, when I came in, the level of fund generation was very low. Apart from the fact that the budget of the ITF was around N3.6 billion, the law stipulates that ITF should collect one per cent of firms’ and government agencies’ annual staff salaries. ITF is sustained by contributions from the organised private sector. But, when they contribute this money, ITF does not keep all of it. We require them to train their own staff; so part of the training is done by them. When they train, in accordance with our new law, we refund 50 per cent of what we collected from them. So, we do not keep all the money. What is left is not enough to fund us, and to equip our centres. That is why, of recent, you see that we have been making a lot of efforts to collect revenue.

    Have you started collecting the one per cent of workers’, and what is the level of compliance?

    Yes, we have started collecting the money but what we have collected so far is not much. This is because we are just implementing the legislation and there are so many things in the amended Act. If you look at section six of that law and the subsection, the level of compliance is not high, but it has improved. For instance, the number of companies have improved from 5,000 to 20,000. Our revenue has increased to about N18 billion now. Mind you, about 800,000 companies are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). So, you can imagine 20,000 companies out of about 867,000 companies. If we can get hold of at least 300,000 companies, it will solve most of our problems. We still have a long way to go, though, but I know we will get there.

    The mission of ITF is to set and regulate training standards and offer direct training intervention in industrial and commercial skills and technology. How have you been able to achieve this?

    Since I assumed office as the Chief Executive of the Industrial Training Fund, we have scaled up the training of our staff both locally and abroad with the objective of enhancing their professional competence. We trained members of our staff internationally, particularly in the area of technical vocational education. The objective here is for them to come back and impart knowledge to those at home, so that we would be able to build a core of highly trained technical manpower. At the home level, we have organised short courses for our staff.

    Consequently, the ITF has created a crop of well-trained development officers, some of whom are certified and recognised internationally in their areas of specialisation. For instance, we’re very good in the areas of occupational safety, health and environment. Also, we are involved in productivity and efficiency improvement training.

    Can you tell us about your training centre? How are they functioning?

    The ITF training centre, particularly our model skill training centre, which is located in this compound, has become a ‘Mecca’ for Technical Vocational Education. We have centres in Lagos, Jos and Kano. We have a modern one in Abuja. We have been able to complete the one in Lokoja. When people come around we start to showcase our centre, which we built with technical support from the Institute of Technical Education Services of Singapore. The ITF also is always at the cutting edge of technical vocational skills training in Nigeria. In addition to bringing people for training, the ITF takes training to the people in the nooks and cranny of Nigeria by deploying a number of mobile training workshops decked with the state-of-the-art modern equipment tools and facilities in eleven trade areas.

    So, when we have these mobile workshops, we would be able to take training to the doorsteps of our people. All these attest to our technology-driven processes, functions and programmes in the ITF. And definitely with all these efforts of offering direct intervention in industrial and commercial skills training and development with competent staff, we believe that we will be doing a good service to our country.

    We also proposed something to government, which we presented to stakeholders known as National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) which is an aspect of the national industrial development plan for the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

    This plan envisages that we will have industrial skills training centres in the 36 states and Abuja. And in each of these centres, we have provision for training people in 24 trade areas. We have also made provision in this plan for Centres for Advance Skills Training for Employment (CASTE) and these are bigger centres that have provision for about 45 trade areas and these will be located in the six geo-political zones of the country.

    How much does it take to establish each of the centres?

    The skill centres are very costly to establish because some equipment can cost up to N15million. We have estimated that the Industrial Skills Centres in the 36 states and Abuja will have provision for 24 trades and will cost about N3.5 billion, while the bigger ones, the advance skills centres in the six geo-political zones, will cost about N5.5 billion. So, if you cost it, you will realise it’s a lot of money. But we have envisaged that with our amended Act, we will be able to generate the required money over time to help us establish the centres.

    Enlighten us on your other programmes, such as SIWES?

    We have been organising the Student Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES) for students and there is hardly any technical person in Nigeria that has gone through tertiary education that does not know about the ITF. We have been able to pay some of our SIWES students. We have paid about 430,000 participants between 2007 and now. However, the issue of paying students by the government will stop next year. We want to focus on the training. In fact, we have recommended that government should de-emphasise the payment of money and focus on training.

    What role is ITF playing in the economy, especially in the Transformation Agenda?

    The ITF is one of the major parastatals of the Federal Government. It is one of the organisations being used by the Federal Government to achieve the Transformation Agenda of this administration. The ITF, according to the Act establishing it, has the responsibility of providing, promoting and encouraging the acquisition of skills in commerce and industry. It is to generate enough manpower to meet the needs of the economy. Over time, the ITF has been performing these functions. Human capital development is a sine qua non to the economy of any country. Without identifying and developing technical manpower, most of the industries and organisations will not be able to function and that is where the ITF comes in. We are charged with developing and training and providing technical manpower. And you can see that most of our activities are geared towards this noble objective. So, you cannot say the ITF has lost its relevance – no! In fact, the ITF has rather become even more relevant in the light of the Federal Government’s aspiration to meet up with the leading economies of the world.

     

  • ‘Productivity critical to transformation agenda’

    ‘Productivity critical to transformation agenda’

    The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Emeka Wogu, has said productivity is critical to the actualisation of the Vision 20:20-20 and the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He stated this at a symposium to mark the observance of the 13th National Productivity Day/Conferment of National Productivity Order of Merit Award.

    The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Clement Illoh, said the theme of the symposium, ‘’Productivity and competiveness: Determinants for Achieving National Transformation”, was not only relevant, but also apt.

    He said the observance of productivity day was a sign that the present administration was poised to harness all ideas and actions that would meet the aspirations of Nigerians.

    “As you are aware, this government is committed to ensuring that Nigeria becomes one of the largest economies in the year 20:20. Nigeria cannot afford to ignore the importance of productivity and efficiency in all our undertakings. In every country, the main source of economic growth is increased productivity. Productivity can be considered as the comprehensive measure of how effectively resources are used to generate useful output,” he said.

    Wogu said government would leave no stone unturned in ensuring the development of productive mindset that would engender development of the country.

    The Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said the National Productivity Day was instituted to ensure productivity consciousness and excellence in public and private service.

     

     

     

  • Aregbesola’s real ‘Transformation’

    Aregbesola’s real ‘Transformation’

    Even the most casual observer of the country cannot help but notice the huge gap between President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2011 campaign slogan of “Transformation” and the facts on the ground; in spite of his administration’s bravest efforts the country has been anything but transformed for the better. On the contrary it has, in spite of all the brave claims to the contrary by the president’s men (and women), been on a slide in almost all sectors of society; employment, education, infrastructure, health, good governance, name it.

    The gap between the presidential rhetoric and the substance of the word has so much discredited it in the public eye that even the Peoples Democratic Party would look foolish to stick with it as its slogan for the next general elections in 2015. Yet there are governors, some PDP, some in the opposition parties, who can credibly use the word to describe the impact their policies and programmes have had on their states since their ascension.

    One such governor is the State of Osun’s Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. Since coming to power three years ago the man has provoked much gratuitous attack from PDP as the leading opposition party in his state and from some sections of the media variously for adopting a state flag and anthem, for his urban renewal programme and for declaring the first day of the current Islamic year a public holiday, among others.

    Of all the criticisms he has come under, the most reasonable-sounding are about his urban renewal programme. This has involved extensive demolition of buildings and removal of containers used as business premises by road sides. However, as any fair-minded critic would agree, such demolitions and relocations of mobile structures are inevitable; as the chef said, if you want to make omelette you must break eggs.

    And as the governor said on the occasion of his interactive session with the media only last week, urban renewal is not just about the beautification of our cities. More importantly it is also about the health and safety of their residents.

    “Those of you who think I am a Lagosian, I am not a Lagosian,” he said on that occasion. “I was born and bred in Ikare (fifty six years ago). But interestingly, when I was born there and bred there, I found out that there was nothing like what we have now. The colonial masters left a tradition that made it impossible to erect any illegal structure to occupy the frontage of any building. As it was in Ikare, so was it here…It was everywhere in the Western Region.  Then what happened to us? Why was this decline and degeneration? Was that the effect of Independence that there must be a decline? No!”

    The abandonment of proper planning for our towns and cities is obviously what has led to the kind of devastations from floods experienced in recent times and to the easy spread of epidemics occasionally.

    What is important, therefore, in trying to recreate and, of course, improve upon the safety and healthy environment of our colonial past is that no governor hides behind his urban renewal policy to illegally demolish the property of his adversaries or to refuse to pay adequate compensation for properties that have to go. So far no one – not even his worst traducers – has accused Aregbesola of either. Nor has anyone accused the man personally of inflating contracts for selfish reasons.

    One important element of his urban renewal policy is the airport he is building on the outskirts of Osogbo, the state capital. The first time I heard of it, my instinct was to dismiss it as one of those things politicians do more for their symbolism of statehood than for their economic value. Later, however, I found out this one was with a difference; it is mainly to provide West Africa with its only facility for helicopter repair and eventually also for the repair of aeroplanes. Right now, all the aircrafts operating in the country go abroad for such repair.

    One of the marks of effective governance is a leader’s ability to attract direct foreign investment to his charge. Until the last three years under Aregbesola, no governor of the state since its creation in 1991 had attracted any such new investment. Since then, however, three companies have set up shop in the state, the first, a garment company in Osogbo that will employ 3,000 workers, the second in Ilesa that will produce flat screen television, laptops, iPads and phones, and the third, and for me the most important, to produce the potentially revolutionary Opon-Imo (Yoruba for tablet of knowledge) for use not only in the state’s primary and secondary schools but also possibly elsewhere in the country.

    Of all the tools any leader can use to lift the people of his state or country out of their ignorance and poverty none has the effectiveness of this tablet of knowledge. The reason is simple and obvious; knowledge is power and countries all over the world have increasingly come to adopt and adapt the new information technology as the most effective tool for imparting knowledge.

    As a lengthy article in The Economist of June 29 pointed out, even a country as literate as America has had to resort to this new information technology to stop its slide in the international ranking in education during the past three decades from first to tenth of the educational level of those leaving high school, and from third to 13th for college students. The magazine’s earlier editorial piece on the same subject in the same edition showed how the new education technology, edtech for short, has been making a big difference in the learning curve of children and adults alike both in America and elsewhere.

    The wisdom and foresight of Aregbesola in investing much of his state’s lean resources in the new edtech lie in his focus on primary and secondary school education. As a journalism teacher at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the last five years I can attest to the alarming semi-literacy of undergraduates in this country. The single biggest source of this problem, whose most dramatic manifestation are the scandalous rates of failure in West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) examinations, is obvious; the inexplicable abject neglect of primary and secondary education since the First Republic.

    The economics of Opon-Imo alone should recommend its use all over the country. As the governor pointed out to reporters in defence of his spending on the gadget so far, the accusation that he was being wasteful is laughable.

    “The charlatans,” he said, “bribed their way into our system, stole a document and published it. You all read it. They said we bought all the textbooks, digital textbooks for two hundred million, and that is all we spent for the over fifty-six books that are in Opon-imo. If you are good in mathematics divide 56 textbooks costing 200,000,000 from Evans by 150,000, the cost is 26 Naira. Tell us where you can buy a book for N26. Opon-Imo is a world beater!”

    My own arithmetic showed the unit price was actually N23.80. But the beauty of the tablet of knowledge is not only in its economy but in how effectively it can raise the quality of primary and secondary school education in the country the way it is already doing elsewhere in the world.

    In an article entitled “Pass the Books. Hold the Oil” in The New York Times of March 10, 2012, an article which should interest Nigerians as citizens of a major oil producing country, its columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, said when asked every so often which country was his favourite outside his own, he always mentioned Taiwan.

    “‘Taiwan? Why Taiwan?’ people ask. Very simple,” he said. “Taiwan is a barren rock in a typhoon-laden sea with no natural resources to live off of — it even has to import sand and gravel from China for construction — yet it has the fourth-largest financial reserves in the world. Because rather than digging in the ground and mining whatever comes up, Taiwan has mined its 23 million people, their talent, energy and intelligence — men and women.”

    Almost alone among the country’s leaders Aregbesola seems to have appreciated the significance of mining the talent, energy and intelligence of the children of his state for its future development by massively investing in their education. The dividend of his faith in the youth as tomorrow’s leaders has already manifesting itself in the latest statistics from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics which shows the state as the first in primary school and girl-child enrolment throughout the country.

    “Steve Job,” as he said in his final words during the media interactive, “was not a super human. He only had early interactions with computers. Bill Gates is not a super human. He only had early encounter with technology. Who says our own pupils cannot? That is our vision.”

    Of course, gadgets alone cannot bring about the realisation of his lofty vision. Along with gadgets you need good teachers, something he has also been investing in. Above all, you need good leaders who teach by example. As I have cause to say on these pages not too long ago, Aregbesola, by his simplicity, humility and uprightness, among other virtues, is among this breed of leaders that are rare in the country.

    Hopefully, he can persuade the citizens of the State of Osun that he is the man to beat at next year’s governorship election in the state.

     

     

     

  • Is transformation agenda on course?

    Is transformation agenda on course?

    Two years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan unfolded his Transformation Agenda during the presidential election campaigns. AUGUSTINE AVWODE, LEKE SALAUDEEN and MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE examine its implementation in the light of current realities.

     

    THE transformation Agenda was a popular catch-phrase during the 2011 presidential campaigns. It was what President Goodluck Jonathan presented to Nigerians. The aim was to change the way things were done and give the country a new sense of direction. Though there was nothing magical about it, the campaign slogan took on a life of its own. The Transformation Agenda elevated President Jonathan to a would-be messianic figure. Expectations were high. Nigerians went into the election and voted for him.

    The President has appealed to Nigerians to be objective in scoring his administration. He was speaking during the presentation of a mid-term report of his administration as part of the programme to mark the Democracy Day celebration. The government, through its functionaries, gave the administration a pass mark. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, the the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman said the government has lived up to expectation.

    At the ceremony, President Jonathan, said: “Today, we are marking the end of the first 24 months, which is our mid-term review and my duty is to formally present a document that all Nigerians will be able to read and assess us.

    “The idea is to formally present a document to all Nigerians about the activities of government in the past two years. I plead with all of us, especially those who want to assess and write about it, to develop criteria because without a marking scheme, you cannot mark any student’s paper. Two years of a government, this is what we have done, develop your marking scheme and score us.”

     

    Critical sectors

     

    Job creation

     

    Unemployment has been a major social problem globally. An army of unemployed youths roam the streets in major cities across the country. The government was expected to pursue certain policy measures to reinvigorate important sectors of the economy such that employment opportunities would be created. But from mere observation, aside the indices reeled out by the government as signs of an improving economy, many unemployed youths still roam the streets looking for what to do just to keep body and soul together.

     

    Public expenditure

    management

     

    One common malaise of the government public expenditure has been that recurrent expenses are more than capital expenditure. The argument has been that if the government is desirous of making appreciable impact in infrastructure development, it should be able to free the budget from the vice like grip of recurrent expenditure and so make more funds available for that purpose.

     

    Power

     

    Notwithstanding the billions spent by previous administrations on the power sector, the economy remains dangerously dependent on generating sets that are imported.

    The government has said it will hit 10,000 megawatts by December this year. But for now, the situation is, perhaps, the worst in recent years.

     

    Infrastructure

     

    Nigerians have been grappling with several years of infrastructure decay. The transformation agenda was supposed to address this in a holistic way. This sector includes transportation, housing, Information Communication Technology (ICT),Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) and Niger Delta.

    These are very critical sectors to national development. The Niger Delta, for instance, has suffered such neglect for many decades that it resulted in militancy against the economic interests of the country. It took the declaration of amnesty for such militants to restore peace in the areas. But as we speak, the issue of infrastructural decay that has plagued the region for so long is yet to be substantially addressed. The West-East Road has become a subject of controversy.

     

    Transportation

     

    This is one area in which the government has earned some kudos and knocks.The government has made some investment in railway, roads and inland waterways airports and sea ports. In roads rehabilitation, more is still expected from the government even though it has tried much, particularly, the once notorious Benin – Sagamu expressway. The achievement of the government in the rehabilitation of airports across the country is all well too known. Nonetheless, more still has to be done.

     

    Low score

     

    Nigerians, however, have scored the government low on the transformation agenda.

    A chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and former Minister of Police Affairs, Dr Ibrahim Lame, told The Nation in a telephone interview last week that Nigeria currently lacks three basic things that are fundamental for transformation to take place.

    “If you are asking me what I have been able to make of the Transformation Agenda of this administration, sincerely speaking, I will tell you that I don’t know what the transformation programme is all about. But one thing, which I know, is that there are three basic things that are very fundamental for any transformation to take place anywhere in the world.

    “Unfortunately, these three things are lacking in our own case. That is, if it is granted that what we are talking about is socio-economic transformation that will make life more abundant for the people. Without them, there can be no transformation. The first is the security of lives and property. But today, we have never witness a period where we have a serious problems of security of lives and property like we are now. Second is what I call the viability of economic infrastructure. In my opinion, our economic infrastructure is not working. Take the transport sector, take the energy sector or even the social sector. Have you been to any of our schools lately? Try and go there and see things for yourself.

    “What about our hospitals? Just go to our hospitals and see for yourself and come and tell me their performance.

    He also criticised the current state of energy supply in the country today as appalling, saying the most critical area where the transformation should have been felt is the energy sector. “It is a very, very serious issue. No society can develop without power or energy and we have always been hearing we would give you this today, we will give you that tomorrow. So we don’t know what is being transformed.”

     

    Evading reality

     

    A lawyer, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), said the self adulation by the administration was expected. He said the judgment of the government cannot be the same as that of the people.

    “The self appraisal of the administration is expected, but the people know where the shoe pinches. Lagos and Abuja are the most expensive cities to live in the world. A colleague of mine went to Port Harcourt for a week and when he returned, he said the cost of living is outrageous. How much is flight from Lagos to Abuja in 2011? And how much is it today?

    “I don’t blame Mr President because he flies at the expense of taxpayers, he feeds and clothes at the expense of taxpayers. If he can come down to where people are living, he will know what the ordinary people are going through. What is the value of $50 billion foreign reserves when Nigerians are dying of hunger? When all local industries have closed shop? When millions of Nigerian graduates are jobless. Mr President and the Finance Minister should stop deceiving Nigerians with false statistics”.

    “In terms of security, this administration has not fared better and socially, it has not done well. It is actually fuelling instability in the country. The administration masterminded the inability of Timipreye Sylva to return as the governor of Bayelsa State for a second term. And a dangerous scenario is playing out in Rivers State,” Akintola said.

     

    Deformation agenda?

     

    Also, President of Civil Rights of Nigeria (CRN) Mallam Shehu Sani described what is going on as a deformation rather than a transformation agenda. He accused the government of presenting misleading statistics, saying those who presented them are cut off from the reality on ground in the country.

    “President Jonathan’s transformation agenda is more of a deformation agenda. The President seems to be cut off from the realities of Nigeria today. There are three indices by which government can be assessed, namely political, social and economic.

    “From the political angle, this administration has overheated the polity more than any other administration in the history of Nigeria. His government has progressively dissolved the mutual ties among the divergent religious and ethnic groups in Nigeria. His government has proven to be more interested in empowering ex-militants and political cronies than addressing the basic issues of under development.

    “Economically, Nigerians are worse off. Despite the huge oil earning, it has not reflected in the quality of live of Nigerians.

    “Socially, the level of poverty in the country is alarming and is threatening the peace and stability of the nation. He has impoverished Nigerians and has created a class of beggars.”

     

    False claims

     

    Former President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Olasupo Ojo echoed what Lame said. He said the agenda is simply surreal.

    “As far as I am concerned, you have to know where you are coming from to be able to decide where you are going to. This administration has not transformed anything and to the best of my knowledge there is no transformation agenda.

    “Government is living on false claims; they are not telling the people the truth. They are only pretending that there is a project they are executing which is not real. If anything, it is a strategy at siphoning public funds.

    The only thing the administration is concerned about is to be in power. They do not care whether the people are hungry or not. Between you and me, you know that there is so much hunger in the land, between you and me, you know that graduate unemployment has never been this high, between you and me, you know that crime rate has never been this high. There are all kinds of criminal acts going on, some we never heard before. I think all they are interested in is just to remain in power. That is why you hear things like ‘I don’t care’. To me, there is no transformation agenda anywhere”, he said.

    Lagos lawyer Festus Keyamo said the administration should focus on the two major challenges facing the country. He identified them as security and power.

    “I would want to advise the government to focus on two very challenging areas. These are security and power. The government has not been able to transform these sectors that it promised to address”, he said.

    The critical question, however, is whether the Transformation Agenda is on course. If it is, where will Nigeria be in 2015? If not, what should President Jonathan do to steer it back on course? Nigerians certainly want answers to these questions sooner than later.