Rich country, poor people

They should be told that the
electorate are aware that the subsidy
is an evidence inefficiency, poor
perception and a fallout of the
Federal Government’s inability to
harness the black gold under
Nigeria’s soil for the optimal benefit
of the people.
This is the 13th year of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) in power at
federal level, it is bereft of ideas to
make the nation’s four refineries
produce at full capacity not to talk of
building a new one.
Is it not a shame that Africa’s largest
oil producer is importing bleached
products to augment the shortfall of
home production for local
consumption. The governors want
to take back from workers the
increase in salary in form of hike in
fuel prices. They have forgotten that
those in the private sector and the
self-employed may have to wait for
sometime before the spiraling whirl
on the new minimum salary pool
reaches them.
As transport is central to the
economic activities of the nation,
any hike in the price of petroleum
products will undoubtedly kick-start
a fresh rise in inflation that may toe
the path of hyper-inflation that
would send the economy into tail
spin.
In a word, the Federal
Government’s incessant claim of
paying huge amount of subsidy on
bleached products consumed in the
country is a ruse and blackmail
against the people. If those in power
are proactive and proved
resourceful, Nigeria supposed to be
exporting bleached products and
not crude oil as it is the practice
now. Malaysia and Indonesia are
endowed with oil as Nigeria but their
people pay far less for fuel than
Nigerians.
From whichever perspective one
may look at it, the present system
of national cake sharing is not, to all
intent and purposes, fair. It is
lopsided. The executives at the
various tiers of government and the
legislators are taking the lion share,
leaving little or crumbs for capital
development and workers. Their
productivity is not commensurate
with what they take from the
nation’s pool.
The Central Bank Governor, Lamido
Sanusi’s declaration last year that
members of the National Assembly
– the Senate and House of
Representatives consumed more
than 50 per cent of the concurrent
expenditure of the federal annual
budget was an exposee. The
lawmakers’ only defence of
devouring the nation’s collective
wealth is that the ministers, aides
and advisers to the president are
also taking mind-boggling salaries
and allowances. In a word,
government in Nigeria is for profit.
Any other claim is nothing but
deceit.
In Britain, there are many
government workers earning more
than the prime minister not to talk of
other ministers tagged secretaries
and advisers.
Is it not regrettable that Nigeria is
rich but her people are poor.
Insensitive government you say.
•Concluded

The question of quality education in NigeriaThe question of quality education in Nigeria

Nigeria’s educational failure will
continue to subsist unless the
following variable, indices or factors
are challenged by a revolution and
revolution only.
Firstly, the appointment and
promotion of teachers from the
primarily schools through the
secondary schools to the
universities has been drastically
compromised since 1980s. Stake –
holders of education in Nigeria know
very well that people from no
where are lifted out of social or
pecuniary interest and appointed
lecturers whose primary
contribution is to became
professors and head of institutions
the way they were appointed.
Secondly the idea of institutional and
university autonomy is like a blanket
power vested on the heads of
institution to appoint lectures and
professors without merit, which at
any rate justified by the currency of
bourgeois autonomy constructed
where professorship is lacking in
international content in most
universities in Nigeria.
Thirdly that some universities reject
some professors for appointment
for sabbatical or substantive
positions only portrays quality of
Nigeria professors and teachers as
well as that teaching and learning is
questionable in some universities
Fourthly increasing population and
expansion of number of universe
are not being managed to
correspond in geometrical
proportion to the quality of
education instead it has brought a
rapidly alarming rate of educational
corruption; as this phenomenon has
released unmerited unwanted
lecturers and teachers who cannot
afford to sit down for at least one
hour to ponder, cogitate on
“problem predicate” yet our system
appoints and promote lecturers and
professors indiscriminately every
year.
Fifthly, sorting-out, bribery and
favoritism in higher institutions of
learning are a society induced , a
symptom of primitive and barbaric
capitalism.
A streaming population of
unrestrained youths fall into the lap
of ethnic , sectional and sectarian
generated corrupt lecturers in order
to grease the elbow of get certificate
quick syndrome.
The problem of Nigeria education
has passed the level of describing it
as facing challenges but is in a state
of near irreversible chaos which
however can be paradoxically and
mutably re-written in new
education history and constitution
for our country. When a piece of
history gets to its dead end only a
revolution can re-define it.
The jump to education organized
for industrial age without first of all
meeting the demands of education
based on knowledge economy is
fallacy: a blind action without
premise that has set African
educational system, especially
Nigeria on the perpetual teeth of
failure and somersaulting and fifthly
good governance is the bottom line
answer to educational failure in
Nigeria without which democracy
will not be sustained and corruption
triumphs. In a corrupt country even
private initiative in education will be
corrupt
There is a adage that says that
anything worth doing at all is worth
doing well. Democracy and good
governance must go along with
social responsibility and non-
governmental initiative and
participation in education. If the
government continues with its
lackadaisical attitude to education,
the wind of change that started
favouring private primary and
secondary schools in the 1970’s will
begin now to favor private
universities disbanding our primary
and secondary schools as well as
our polytechnic and universities as
republics of the poor and the never
–do- wells.

Ministerial nomination: : Will 35% affirmative for women work?

As President Jonathan is about to
submit list of ministerial appointees
to the National Assembly for
screening and confirmation,
Nigerian women from different
pressure groups and Non-
Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
are working round the clock to
ensure that they are not left out in
the scheme of things. RAZAQ
BAMIDELE reports:
In different fora, these women, who
have formed formidable
associations will complain to
whoever cares to listen that Nigerian
women are not being given their
dues in the political affairs in the
country. Some of the advocacy
groups formed and headed by high
fly professionals are Yoruba
Women Initiatives under the
leadership of a veteran journalist,
Dr. Doyinsola Abiola, Business and
Professional Women of Mr. Angela
Ajala and International Federation of
Women Lawyers of a lawyer, Dr.
Keziah Awosika.
Others include Nigeria Association of
Women Journalists(NAWOJ),
Women Arise of Dr. Joe Okei
Odumakin, Female Leadership
Forum of Mrs. Comfort Ogunye,
BAOBAB Women Human Rights as
well as Project Alert of Mrs.
Josephine Effah Chukwuma. In an
interview at one of her group’s
events, the founder and President of
Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei
Odumakin told Daily Sun that the
motive behind the establishment of
the forum is to advocate for the
rights of women within the society.
According to her, some women
don’t even know their rights,
explaining that her group is all out to
sensitise them to know their rights
on one hand and to know how to
claim it on the other hand. Dr.
Odumakin, who doubles as the
President of Campaign for
Democracy (CD) further stated that
the Women Arise is always in
collaboration with other like minds
in other women based associations
to advocate and fight for women
rights by organising series of events
like workshop, seminars, symposia,
lectures, protests and retreats.
When recently a One-Day Yoruba
Interactive Forum was organised in
Lagos by Lagos State Gubernatorial
Advisory Committee under the
leadership of a University don,
Professor Adebayo Williams,
former Managing Director of the
Concord Newspapers, Dr. Doyinsola
Abiola was there to make a case for
women recognition.
Dr. Abiola, who is the leader of the
Yoruba Women Initiatives
expressed delight over the
recognition given to the women by
the Forum, adding however that
“the recognition must be in
concrete, practical terms and not
only a lip service because of the
undeniable ability of the Nigerian
women in the scheme of things.”
The erudite scholar and wife of the
winner of June 12 presidential
election unjustly annulled by former
President Ibrahim Babangida made
it abundantly clear that credible,
competent and qualified women
abound for whatever category of
offices that may be allotted to them.
On Tuesday, the women, at a
forum in Lagos still continued the
agitation for their rights, this time
with particular reference to the
affirmative action about reservation
of 35% of political and appointive
positions for the women.
A socio-political pressure group,
More Women Movement (MWM), at
the forum urged President Goodluck
Jonathan not to forget his
electioneering promise about 35%
appointive position for women
nationwide.
The Movement’s Convener and
Secretary, Dr. Keziah Awosika and
Comfort Ogunye respectively urged
the President to “implement
affirmative action by reserving 35%
of all elective and appointive position
for women in his appointment and
in the forthcoming Local
Government elections.”
This, according to the women, was
in line with National Gender Policy
(NGP), which provides for 35%
representation for women in
governance, pleading with the
President “to implement the policy
without articulating any mechanism
by which this can be achieved.” The
Movement also demanded for
“establishment of a mechanism by
which Curricula Vitae of credible
women will be collected, screened
and appropriately fitted for the
appointive positions,” requesting
that “priority be given to women
that lost during the parties’ primaries
and the general elections.”
While appealing to Mr. President to
make sure that the appointment
transcend party affiliations, they
assured him that they were ready
“to make available to the relevant
authorities, Curricula Vitae of
credible women from our data
bank.” The women group lamented
the unprecedented reverses in their
electoral fortunes in the recent
general elections against the
previous ones stating that “we will
in due course investigate and find
out the root causes of the reverses
and then re-strategise and come up
with a workable blue print starting
from the forthcoming Local
Government elections.”
A retired Custom Officer, Mrs.
Mojisola Maciver, who aspired to the
House of Representatives on the
platform of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) in the last election told
Daily Sun that Nigeria could not be
in short supply of competent
women to occupy high political
offices.
She reminded that “the feats the
likes of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr.
Oby Ezekwesili and Professor Dora
Akuyili performed in office as
Ministers can not be wished away,”
therefore imploring the President to
give the women special
consideration in the day to day
running of the country’s affairs.

Ghost workers and national minimum wage

Within the past two weeks, there
have been no fewer than three
reports of discovery of ghost
workers fleecing the public treasury
of badly needed funds. Ghost
workers, for those who may not be
familiar with the Nigerian parlance,
are non-existent workers collecting
salaries from public institutions.
These ghosts are not the bodiless
spirits that scared children in the
folktales of old, but non-existent
characters for whom bank accounts
are opened and operated by some
unscrupulous people who pay
salaries into them in grand theft
schemes that have been an
albatross for government over the
years.
The public offices at which ghost
workers have been detected of late
are the National Identity
Management Commission (NIMC),
which confirmed that 4000 of its
10,300 workers are ghosts. This
problem came to light after
completion of the commission’s
biometric data capture system. The
Director General of the Commission,
Mr. Chris Onyemenam, said apart
from the 4000 ghost workers, 800
employees could also not show up
during a staff identification process.
Elimination of the ghost workers is
expected to save the Commission
millions of naira that would have
been paid out as salaries.
The Rivers State Universal Basic
Education Board (RSUBEB) has also
discovered 1,477 ghost workers in
the state’s Ministry of Education. The
chairman of RSUBED, Mr. Ali
Oruitemeka, said about N200 million
would be saved monthly following
the deletion of names of the ghost
workers from the ministry of
education payroll.
Also, Olusegun Aganga, former
finance minister now minister of
trade and investment, said about
43,000 ghost workers were
detected and removed from
government payroll in the last one
year. He explained that the fictitious
names were padded into the payroll
of 36 government ministries,
departments and agencies (MDAs)
but were discovered through the
newly introduced Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information
System (IPPIS).
He said the problem led to a
situation in which personnel costs in
the Federal civil service increased to
N1.3 trillion from N850 billion
between 2009 and 2010. About N12
billion, he said, was recovered as a
result of the discovery. The
Inspector General of Police, Hafeez
Ringim, also sometime ago
disclosed that about 30 per cent of
the entire police workforce of
337,000 are ghost policemen who
have been collecting salaries from
the government for many years.
He said an audit of police personnel
revealed that there are no fewer
than 107,000 ghost policemen in the
country.
With so many ghost workers in the
public service, it is no surprise that
all tiers of government are
complaining that they cannot fund
the wage increase.
To free funds for higher wages, all
tiers of government should
embrace the new Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information
System used by the federal
government to detect ghost
workers at the federal level.
Ghost workers should not be
allowed to cripple the nation’s
payment system. If ghost workers
are dealt with, it will leave more
funds that could assist in payment
of the National Minimum wage to
workers, and also fund
development of infrastructure
It is, however, necessary to go
beyond the frequent identification of
ghost workers on the government
payroll. It is also important to ask
how names of those ghost workers
got on the payroll in the first place.
For example, we have been told that
N200 million is being saved
following the discovery that that
amount was being paid to ghost
workers monthly at the Cross River
State Ministry of Education. But
now that the ghosts have been
detected, is it not possible to detect
the public officers, bank officials and
others that put these ghosts on the
payroll, and benefited from their
inclusion?
These ghost paymasters must be
brought to book to ensure that they
do not engage in such bad
practices, henceforth. It is necessary
to clean up the payroll system to
ensure that only genuine workers
take salaries. This should be done in
conjunction with reduction of waste
in public expenditure. Everything
should be done now to end the era
of ghost workers in the public
service.
The mass murder in Norway
My heart goes out today to Norway,
where a crazed man identified as 32-
year old Anders Behring Breivic
detonated a bomb in a government
office in the country’s capital, Oslo,
killing 7 people. He put on police
uniform and headed to a Labour
youth camp where he shot
indiscriminately into a crowd of
about 500 youths attending a youth
league meeting. At the end of the
crazy rampage of the man who
described himself as a “moderate
agnostic” who went on to become
“moderately religious”, an additional
85 people were dead, 96 injured
and many are still missing.
The mass murderer reportedly shot
many who tried to escape his
shooting spree by swimming away
from the island where the youth
programme was going on, with
many dying in the sea. A total of 92
people died.
This sordid incident has drawn
reactions from across the world,
including from America’s Barack
Obama and Nigeria’s Goodluck
Jonathan
The world is still seeking for
answers to the mass murders,
which the killer described as
“gruesome, but necessary.” What
could have gone wrong? What
button went loose in this killer’s
brain?
While the world searches for
answers, one can only condole with
the families of the dead. It is so sad
for them to lose loved ones who
were neither ill nor known to be
engaged in any risky activity. The
youths were only participants in a
youth camp when they were
gunned down by Breivic who has
confessed to being solely
responsible for the attacks.
At the time of writing this, he had
not given any reason for the callous
murder of 93 people. But, he
promised to do so in court. One
lesson that this saddening
murdering spree, and similar cases
of mass murders and suicides
across the world has thrown up is
the need for sensitivity to the
emotional status of people,
especially those who have access to
guns and other weapons.
Obviously, the man did just go
from being a good, moderately
religious man to a mass murderer.
There must have been signals that
were missed by those around him.
While the effort to make sense of
the dastardly killings continues, I
condole with the families of the dead
and ask God to grant them strength
to pass through this very difficult
time of their lives.

Complacement government and bogey of insecurity

Today, despite interdependence of
nations on economic and other
spheres of life, a sovereign state is
expected not only to be independent
in her relationship with other
countries in matters crucial to her
survival but also competent to
handle her affairs without resorting
to others.
Limitation to the interdependence of
nations becomes obvious in matters
on which a sovereign state cannot
compromise. The most important
of such matter is security. Without
security, there cannot be a
conducive atmosphere for
economic, commercial activities, not
to talk of learning, industrial
progress and development.
The government, as the agent of the
state, is charged by the 1999 Federal
Republic of Nigeria Constitution to
guarantee security of lives and
property. On Boko Haram sect
threatening national security, the
authorities responsible for internal
security and police routine duties
have woefully failed.
It appears the Federal Government
is complacent on issues of security.
The authorities are unrealistically
optimistic that nothing untowards
would happen. When it does, the
unprepared Federal Government
shivers, trembles and scampers to
other countries for assistance and
rescue.
After the bombing of Abuja last
October to scare away people from
attending the independence golden
jubilee of Nigeria at Eagle Square in
Abuja by the South-South militants,
the government sought assistance
of Mossad, Israeli security agency.
The Boko Haram, an Islamic sect,
opposed to Western education,
bombed the police headquarters,
Louis Edet House, in Abuja and the
Federal Government shamelessly
invited the United States (US) Federal
Bureau of Investigation to unravel
those behind the dastardly act that
claimed many lives and property.
Now, that the Customs and Excise
House in Maiduguri, Borno State,
has been bombed, which country is
the government running to for
solution? Complacence is the
mother of myopia in state’s affairs.
It, undoubtedly, begets perdition.
Complacence has infected the
gamut of Nigerian security agencies
and even political bosses.
Roman empire began its march to
collapse when the emperor and his
military subordinates resorted to
fighting their war with auxiliary
soldiers, who were not Romans. To
farm out Nigeria’s security
challenges is the worse crime
reasonable government will commit
against its people. Have the clowns
in the corridor of power forgotten
that the US has predicted that
Nigeria will fall apart in year 2015?
Last year, the south-south militants
invaded Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos.
If the buccaneers were an invading
legion, they would have overrun
and occupied a large expanse of the
country’s hinterland before the
complacent Nigerian Navy and its
Air Force and Army counterparts
would wake up from their slumber
to confront the enemy.
When the Boko Haram came out of
its lair in Bauchi 2009, killing,
maiming and vandalising property,
the police checkmated the sect’s
leader, Yusuf, and indiscretionally
killed him extra-judicially. What the
police did is wrong and indefensible.
Yusuf’s followers felt aggrieved.
Now, as a phoenix, the sect has
risen from the doziness of last
pummeling of the police. Its
members have adopted guerrilla
tactics riding motorcycles to unleash
murder and arson on the people.
Today, Boko Haram has created
fear, insecurity and uncertainty. The
sect has proved that its snake’s head
was scotched not cut. Surprisingly,
the army is mounting road blocks
and adopting conventional method
to fight them.
Robert Watt in an Essay on the
Polity, defines polity as a people and
a constable. The constable, which in
this instance, represents all the state
security agencies is to ensure order,
peace and good governance. The
Federal Government which controls
the army and the police should be
held responsible. May be. The
President gets his too and the heads
of the three tiers of government are
not accountable to the public on
how they spend the monthly
security votes. Have they been
spending the vote on security or
pocketing it as their cut of the
national cake?

AMERICAN-NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY

The meaning of the abbreviation ICT, I am sure, you know too well (Information and Communication Technology), but how about CS? You have no idea of what it means? Well, for the pregnant mother waiting in a labour room to be delivered of her baby through surgery or medical operation, it may mean caesarian section (CS) but at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, CS stands for Community Service. Tagged SSS, abbreviation initials it shares with Nigeria’s State Security Service or Senior Secondary School, at AUN, SSS stands for Students Serving Society. A totally new concept in the university- community relationship, endorsed by the President of the university, Dr. Margee Ensign, the spirit behind it seems to be driving every student and staff that you see on the university campus to go looking for whatever help they can offer to make themselves relevant in the lives of the people of their community. Such services include teaching the local school pupils, painting their schools, coaching them on some sporting skills, and lending financial help to indigent students where necessary, etc. “There was one school we went to, Miss Hashiya Sanusi-Bayero, grand- daughter of the Ado Bayero of Kano, recalls in a chat with Education Review. “The teachers there did not have enough chalk to write with. In fact, the situation was such that the whole school had only one packet of chalk, to which the teachers returned the rest of the chalk they wrote with at the end of the school day; otherwise they would not see the chalk to write with, the following day. We bought for the school enough packets of chalk to go round the classrooms. Coming from a fairly comfortable environment, this community service of a thing has opened my eyes to see the sufferings that others are going through and to see the way I can help. I find the experience very exciting.” “For me it is very exciting to see our students take to a programme that says you are not here in this planet just for yourself; you are here to share with others what you have,” Dr. Margee Ensign, President of AUN, remarks. “The vision here is to never have a separation between knowledge for own sake; the knowledge we have should be applied to make things better. So we are talking about reorienting our programmes to connect the theory with the application. The Social Entrepreneurship programme is a vehicle for doing that. “When I first came here I was told, ‘oh, Nigerian students didn’t do community service.’ It is not something they might be interested in. To the contrary, once we really opened up opportunities for AUN students they liked it. I think it is one of the exciting things on campus – our students serving society. They go into the community on Fridays. Last semester 270 students worked half of the day every Friday for the entire semester.” In Yola, the natives are grateful for the much-needed help they’ve receiving through the AUN’s community service. It was such Macedonian call for help that propelled Ebuka Ukwa, majoring in Communications, to, in October, last year, donate over N30,000 to 15 indigent orphans studying at Government Day Secondary School, Yola. Ukwa told AUN NEWSLETTER, an in-house publication of the university, that he was inspired to make the donation following a trip to the school where he was moved by the inability of the orphaned students to pay their school fees standing in arrears for two years. The beneficiaries, who are all in the Junior School cadre (JSS), were on the verge of withdrawing because of their parents’ incapacity to pay their fees. Ukwa said the donation was meant to clear the outstanding fees and pay in advance for another full academic session. “I think the community is really thrilled with these new initiatives,” Ensign said. “We have tremendous economic power in this community. We need to reach out more and I think the community is responding very favourably. So I see very positive reactions in what the students are doing.” “Impressions about us are beginning to change as they see a lot of our students going to do community service,” Abubakar Abba Tahir, Director of PR and Communications, adds. There’s another angle to the Social Entrepreneurship or the SSS philosophy and that is the angle of fellow students engaging in whatever menial job they can do or social services they can render, this time, for a fee, in order to raise money to, collectively, take care of the financial needs (including tuition and boarding fees) of indigent students among them. Sometimes, the more buoyant ones task themselves to raise some money from their pocket money, in order to help. “We are like one big family here,” Sanusi-Bayero, quips. Education Review discovered this to be true the week it visited the campus. Pasted by AUNHS (American University of Nigeria Honours Society), on one of the notice boards in Peter Okocha’s Hall was this notice. “Members of the AUN Faculty will be cycling from Numan to Yola on the 26th of February, in order to raise money for the AUNHS Scholarship fund for AUN students”, a part of it read. “Join us in creating the AUNHS SCHOLARSHIP FUND!!! 1 mile = 1.609km =N500. Then it adds that “donations are accepted per mile. No contribution is too small.” In case you don’t understand what you’ve just read, what the notice is saying in a nutshell is that financial proceeds from the “Cycling for Charity” event will be used to take care of the financial needs of indigent AUN students. In fact, sources say 10 per cent of the internally gen