Steeped in uncertainties

WITH all the vaulting ambitions of our governments to make Nigeria a great nation, they overlooked the uncertainties that rule the land. They have either not recognised them or given up on doing anything about them.

One day, we wake up in Lagos and queues for fuel block the streets. Mercifully, the explanation is that truck drivers are on strike. There is fuel, but no trucks to lift them. This situation is not new, the current incident will not be the last.

A nation that lays ambitious claims to greatness cannot guarantee supply of critical products like fuel to its users on a regular basis. It thinks that truck drivers embarking on a strike is an acceptable excuse to shut the country down.

For years, truck drivers have become a law to themselves, what did the government do about it? Like other Nigerians, who are looking up to the authorities to act, government officials just bemoan the situation.

It is, to say the least, sad. No country can thrive on waving uncertainties around vital products and services. Nigerian authorities seem not to bother.

The streets are jammed with workers, who cannot get to their destinations. Factories that depend on self-generated power (public power supply is a myth) are halting while travels for business or pleasure are suspended.

At times like this, government's concerns for this country are in doubt. Why should we have the same problems for years without solutions in sight?

The monopoly of truck drivers in the distribution of petroleum products has created a powerful cartel that places itself above laws whether they are for its own safety or for others’ well being.
At the least insistence that they obey laws, truck drivers strike, fully aware that as fuel scarcity looms, the public would ask the authorities to let the truck drivers have their way.

We do not support Lagos traffic officials harassing the truck drivers, or anyone else, for money. It is, however, important that truck drivers obey municipal laws on public safety, these including their restrictions to certain parts of the city, parking and speed limits.

On their part, the authorities must explore other methods of transporting petroleum products to all parts of the country. Are the pipelines, built at great expense, finally abandoned? The rails used to be the mode of transporting these products. The rails are dead.

Products that are critical to the workings of the country cannot be left in the hands of truck drivers, who have perfected holding the country to ransom. Moreover, it makes no sense that all the petroleum products we used are imported through a single port, Lagos.

The latest strike hints again at the fragility of the petroleum products distribution system we have used for decades. It is not working and cannot work for as long as it has become a veritable blackmail instrument for truck drivers, who relish the relevance systemic inefficiency has carved for them. Only a decisive reversal of their importance can stop this.

High Rate of Bank Robberies

If proper statistics are taken, nearly 100 lives of security personnel, bank officials and customers as well as money running into billions of naira must have been lost in countless bank robberies and bullion van attacks in 2008 alone. From Lagos to Aba, Port Harcourt to Kaduna, Ibadan to Enugu, Ilorin to Ile-Ife, the spate of bank robberies has become so alarming and the criminals so daring that it would seem as if our police authorities have gone to sleep as their personnel on sentry duties at the banks often present feeble resistance to the invading robbers’ onslaught. In most cases, these policemen get killed for the robbers to get access into the banks.
Mostly operating in broad daylight during business hours, the robbers would descend on their targets, holding bank officials and customers at gunpoint as they empty the vaults without any form of resistance.
The latest of such bank raids took place in the ancient city of Ile-Ife when daredevil robbers launched Rambo-style attacks on four different banks within the same vicinity. At the end of the operations, no fewer than 10 persons were killed and about 40 others wounded while an undisclosed amount of money was carted away.
Also, bullion vans used by banks for cash movements have become juicy targets of daredevil attacks by robbers who use various means, including unthinkable ones, to accomplish their mission. Stories were told of how brigands riding on motorcycles waylaid a bullion van and succeeded in robbing it in Port Harcourt while another incident was reported where robbers blocked a highway with trailer to rob a bullion van.
So overwhelmed were the banks by these incessant robbery attacks that at a stage they had to lock out their customers for several days in Ibadan and Aba to draw government’s attention to what is fast becoming the growing insecurity of banking services and personnel in the country. They are especially peeved by the police’s obvious inability to curb the alarming trend of bank robbery.
To be sure, the current alarming upsurge in bank robbery in the country cannot be totally detached from the sociological context of the general reasons for the upsurge in most other forms of criminalities in the society. And these include biting poverty and chronic deprivation. Added to these is the stupendous display of affluence by some goons whose source of wealth nobody bothers about. While these are not in any way a justification for social deviance, they are definitely contributory to its prevalence in recent time. This problem is even compounded by the fact that most of the jobless youths, who were engaged as political thugs during past elections but have relapsed into idleness at the conclusion of the elections, now resort to armed robbery with even more daring boldness as they still have with them most of the arms procured for them by their old principals – the politicians.
Also, it is difficult to overrule the possibility of collusion between the invading robbers and some of the target bank officials, bullion van escorts or even policemen on sentry duties at the various banks. This is because most of the attacks are too precise to be mere coincidences.
To get round this problem, the banks need to strengthen their security preparedness. This is why we support the recent directive by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, that banks must procure bullion vans that are not only bullet-proof, but are also fire and bomb resistant.
There is also the urgent need for Mr. Okiro to find the current situation worrisome enough for him to erase the fear of people in words and more importantly, in action. He should bring the police up-to-date on modern crime detection, prevention and control measures. This, first and foremost, calls for adequate equipment and training of the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force. It is worrisome that most of the robbery operations are successful as the police are always out-gunned and out-manoeuvred by the obviously better prepared robbers.
Policemen should be adequately remunerated while the compensation package, in case of on-duty death and injury, should be reasonable to encourage the operatives to be more committed to duties. For, it is only logical that if we are to expect any tangible improvement from our law enforcement agents, their conditions of service should be.

Showing Love This Christmas

Once again, it’s Christmas, the most celebrated feast in Christendom marking the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. At Christmas, we are invited to re-live that landmark and historical event which took place more than 2000 years ago when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be born in a relatively humble city of David called Bethlehem.
The circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ are a salutary lesson in humility, self-abnegation and love. Emperors and Kings are born, amid pomp and fanfare, in special hospitals. But when peaceful silence lay over the face of the earth, and the night had run half of her swift course, God chose to be born in a place where animals are kept in Bethlehem, a comparatively insignificant and humble city. Everything in the Holy family of Jesus, Joseph and Mary bespeaks the family values of love, concern, service, dedication and altruism.
To re-live these exemplary virtues which featured at the first Christmas, we must truly love our fellow human beings. The greatest obstacle to the building of a true nation bound together in mutual reliance, true love, and fraternity is man’s inhumanity to man. Therefore beyond the exchange of Christmas greetings, gifts, hampers and singing of Christmas carols, we must learn to see Christ in our neighbours. We must eschew hatred, rancour, greed and avarice. We must build an ethic of human solidarity aimed at promoting the common good and the welfare of fellow men and women.
Regrettably, in the last one year, life has become harsh for many Nigerians. Basic necessities of life are lacking in many parts of the country. Many Christmas travellers probably did not get to their respective country homes to celebrate the Christmas due to the deplorable condition of our roads. Many Nigerians are celebrating this Christmas in darkness due to acute power failure. And security of lives and property is not even guaranteed. Armed robbers are on the prowl, looking for whom to devour. Besides, prices of foodstuffs keep on skyrocketing.
Yet, instead of seeking joy in the true meaning of Christmas, many seek it in drunken orgy. Therefore, this Christmas is a good time to embrace a new humanism rooted in sincere love for our neighbours and positive attitude to life. Our political leaders, in particular, should reciprocate Christ’s love and dedicated service. They should understand that power entails service to the people, not self-worship or self-deification. Many Nigerians are dying of hunger, illness, frustration and poverty today because our leaders have stopped caring. If Christ was born to save mankind, we have no right to turn our back on the deprived and needy in our midst. Christ showed what selfless service entails by giving His own life for the salvation of mankind. We should emulate Him.
Christmas, brings with it the good tiding of peace. But unfortunately we live in a world completely torn apart by hatred, political wrangling, corruption, violence, wars, suicide bombings, natural and man-made tragedies. There is no peace even in many homes, there is no love. This is a good occasion to show love and make peace.
Let us all make love our key to peace and success this Christmas. Christmas time is an invitation to build bridges across the troubled waters of political, ideological, tribal, racial and personal differences. As we make merry today, let us not forget to show love now and always towards a more peaceful world as envisaged by the King of Peace, Jesus.
Wishing all our readers a joyful and trouble-free Christmas

The Mathematics Challenge

Mathematics is certainly not one of the popular subjects among Nigerian students, and mathematics teachers are not some of the popular teachers in the schools. But it is like a bitter pill that must be taken for well-being and growth.
All over the world, there is growing emphasis on Mathematics and science subjects in general because of the strong correlation between the level of development of a nation and the study of mathematical sciences.
Mathematics, the root of the sciences, is important for the advancement of science and the understanding of the workings of the universe. It is also important for personal development both mentally and in the workplace. The computer, key to growing information technology, is itself a machine built upon the principles of mathematics. Mathematics is used to create the complex programming at the heart of all computing.
The establishment of the National Mathematics Centre is a laudable decision. The National Mathematical Centre was established by Decree 40 of 1989 to develop and deploy appropriate initiatives and resources of international standing to rekindle and sustain interest in the study of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences in general at all levels as a response to the decline in the production of mathematical scientists in Nigeria.
The mandate of the centre is long. It is to: Train and develop high-level personnel in the mathematical sciences, namely mathematics, mathematical sciences education, statistics, computer science and theoretical physics; create a resource centre to serve national and international communities as a focal point for advanced research and training in the mathematical sciences and its application; identify and encourage young talents in the mathematical sciences; and stimulate enthusiasm for the physical sciences in young Nigerian students and scholars.
The Centre is also to: prepare Nigeria for a leading role in the mathematical sciences; encourage and support activities leading to the improvement of the teaching and learning of the mathematical sciences at all levels; and to attract good mathematical scientists from all over the world into the service of Nigeria.
In the words of former Education Minister Dr. Igwe Aja -Nwachukwu, the Centre has so far done well. He said at the award ceremony of the second Nigerian Universities Computer Programming Contest last September that, “The Centre has surprised the world severally with its almost perfect handling of many groundbreaking achievements in Nigeria’s participation in International Mathematics and Science Olympiads. It is on record that Nigeria has won laurels and medals, including Gold Medal, at some of these Olympiads, through the efforts of the Centre”.
“The Centre,” he continued “has been able to sustain the annual participation of Nigeria in these capital intensive competitions in spite of its meagre resources. And, above all, Nigeria has been adjudged the best organizer of the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad by the organizers, all through the efforts of this Centre”.
Yet we are concerned that Nigeria currently ranks as one of the least mathematically literate nations, according to the International Mathematical Union.
The Centre must increase its efforts in trying to demystify mathematics. Beyond its many national competitions to spike up interest in the subject, it has to work more closely with teachers at various levels to ensure that the subject is taught in a way to ease understanding. This is a lot of work that should start right from the nursery schools. It could also work with authors of mathematics textbooks to make them more attractive to students.
But it is obvious to us that the Centre requires proper funding to achieve its set mandate. It has to be fully equipped to be a benchmark centre for the study of the subject. Government needs to continue to accord mathematics education the urgency with which it established the Centre, by investing in it. If, as Dr. Sam Ale, Director of the National Mathematical Centre, said the country needs to spend US $31 million over 13 years to achieve its goal of being in the top 20 world economies by year 2020, we believe the country should be able to afford it.

High Rate of Bank Robberies

If proper statistics are taken, nearly 100 lives of security personnel, bank officials and customers as well as money running into billions of naira must have been lost in countless bank robberies and bullion van attacks in 2008 alone. From Lagos to Aba, Port Harcourt to Kaduna, Ibadan to Enugu, Ilorin to Ile-Ife, the spate of bank robberies has become so alarming and the criminals so daring that it would seem as if our police authorities have gone to sleep as their personnel on sentry duties at the banks often present feeble resistance to the invading robbers’ onslaught. In most cases, these policemen get killed for the robbers to get access into the banks.
Mostly operating in broad daylight during business hours, the robbers would descend on their targets, holding bank officials and customers at gunpoint as they empty the vaults without any form of resistance.
The latest of such bank raids took place in the ancient city of Ile-Ife when daredevil robbers launched Rambo-style attacks on four different banks within the same vicinity. At the end of the operations, no fewer than 10 persons were killed and about 40 others wounded while an undisclosed amount of money was carted away.
Also, bullion vans used by banks for cash movements have become juicy targets of daredevil attacks by robbers who use various means, including unthinkable ones, to accomplish their mission. Stories were told of how brigands riding on motorcycles waylaid a bullion van and succeeded in robbing it in Port Harcourt while another incident was reported where robbers blocked a highway with trailer to rob a bullion van.
So overwhelmed were the banks by these incessant robbery attacks that at a stage they had to lock out their customers for several days in Ibadan and Aba to draw government’s attention to what is fast becoming the growing insecurity of banking services and personnel in the country. They are especially peeved by the police’s obvious inability to curb the alarming trend of bank robbery.
To be sure, the current alarming upsurge in bank robbery in the country cannot be totally detached from the sociological context of the general reasons for the upsurge in most other forms of criminalities in the society. And these include biting poverty and chronic deprivation. Added to these is the stupendous display of affluence by some goons whose source of wealth nobody bothers about. While these are not in any way a justification for social deviance, they are definitely contributory to its prevalence in recent time. This problem is even compounded by the fact that most of the jobless youths, who were engaged as political thugs during past elections but have relapsed into idleness at the conclusion of the elections, now resort to armed robbery with even more daring boldness as they still have with them most of the arms procured for them by their old principals – the politicians.
Also, it is difficult to overrule the possibility of collusion between the invading robbers and some of the target bank officials, bullion van escorts or even policemen on sentry duties at the various banks. This is because most of the attacks are too precise to be mere coincidences.
To get round this problem, the banks need to strengthen their security preparedness. This is why we support the recent directive by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, that banks must procure bullion vans that are not only bullet-proof, but are also fire and bomb resistant.
There is also the urgent need for Mr. Okiro to find the current situation worrisome enough for him to erase the fear of people in words and more importantly, in action. He should bring the police up-to-date on modern crime detection, prevention and control measures. This, first and foremost, calls for adequate equipment and training of the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force. It is worrisome that most of the robbery operations are successful as the police are always out-gunned and out-manoeuvred by the obviously better prepared robbers.
Policemen should be adequately remunerated while the compensation package, in case of on-duty death and injury, should be reasonable to encourage the operatives to be more committed to duties. For, it is only logical that if we are to expect any tangible improvement from our law enforcement agents, their conditions of service should be.

Dismissal of Ribadu

THE reasons for the dismissal of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu from the Nigeria Police Force are seemingly weighty. Nevertheless, the authorities sacking him with several matters in court on his relationship with the police is wrong.
Mallam Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), whose current police rank is a subject of a legal dispute, has been at loggerheads with the authorities since he was sent to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), in Jos last year. His supporters claimed he was removed for government to water down the war against corruption.

Government’s story was that Ribadu had to attend the course which he missed through his rapid promotions to an Assistant Inspector-General of Police.

After the rank reversal, there were suggestions that he should withdraw from NIPSS, as he was no longer qualified for the course.

His graduation from NIPSS ended the same way as his admission — in controversy. On graduation day, security personnel hurled Mallam Ribadu out of the ceremony. His offence? He was improperly attired.

The police had reverted Mallam Ribadu to his former rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police, in a mass reversal of promotions that did not pass through the Police Service Commission. Mallam Ribadu turned up at the NIPSS graduation in mufti to avoid wearing the DCP rank. He was already in court with the police over his rank.

Other things followed in quick succession. The Presidency ordered NIPSS to award him the certificate. Mallam Ribadu was posted to Edo State, the EFFC invited him to hand over properly and the police asked him to appear before a disciplinary committee in Kaduna.

Mallam Ribadu raced to court to halt these moves. He wanted the court to stop the EFCC from arresting him. He then alleged that there threats to his life.

While all these were going on, Mallam Ribadu rode on the crest of a legal pressure group that insisted on the rule of law in handling his case.

However, some think Mallam Ribadu, considering his own seeming aversion to the law while at EFCC, was getting more than a fair deal. They would have wanted him treated in the same manner he treated suspects as EFCC helmsman.

The point must be made that the law does not thrive on revenge. The government erred in dismissing Mallam Ribadu while he has cases pending in court on these same matters.

Government could ask for accelerated hearing of the matters if it wanted. Impatience was unnecessary and unhelpful.

The temptation to deal swiftly and conclusively with Mallam Ribadu could have been overwhelming, but government erred in treating the courts contemptuously. It should reverse itself immediately to restore respect for the rule of law and discourage others from acting lawlessly

Is this Christmas?

MERRIMENT and excessive living have taken over the essence of Christmas. The manner of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to save mankind, according to the Christian doctrine, turns the reason for the season upside down. Nigerians dedicate most of December to the celebrations. The noise envelops the message of the season — God’s abiding love for mankind, manifested in sending His Son to die for a world that celebrates sins against God and against itself.

Thoughts of God’s love are hardly associated with this season of excesses. The worldly celebrations of Christmas are steadily eroding its religious content. Frauds, greed, selfishness, drunkenness, immorality have been elevated to the reason for the season. Those who excel in these boast about their ingenuity.

More pains are inflicted on people through Christmas — the road accidents, the broken hearts, the split family and national resources that are wasted in promoting an affair that started in the poorest parts of Bethlehem, in a manger.

Jesus Christ, who we are celebrating, was born in dreary surroundings with animals because his poor parents could not afford a better place in a crowded city that was bustling with its people, who had returned to be counted in a census.

Any show of poverty this season is not for Nigerians. They have gone to great lengths, against any economic logic, to acquire new cars, new clothes, bigger country homes (that would be the abode of rodents after the festivities). These achievements are announced nosily for effect. The ordinary people look on in wonder. Is this Christmas?

The rich and mighty would send Christmas messages to themselves. Our leaders would regurgitate the message of Christmas on their way to merriment while workers' salaries are not paid. Some pensioners — old people, who have given their youth to this country — missed making it to this Christmas, as they died queuing for their pittance. They hardly get paid.

Christmas presents a great opportunity to explore God’s unfailing love. We should also think about those who our national policies hurt the most. Jesus Christ, who we are celebrating, cared for the poor all the days of his life.

It was not a show to be put on and off at certain times of the year. Caring for the needy, the challenged, the disadvantaged, the poor, the weak, the sick, the oppressed, the widows, the orphans is not about photo opportunities. It is a life long commitment that should endure after the season.

Please spare a thought for the ordinary Nigerian beyond the season. Life is getting tougher by the day. Ordinary Nigerians watch as the opportunities elude them due to the selfishness of those who want everything for themselves.

This definitely is not the spirit of the season. As you celebrate, do something to spread the joy.

Merry Christmas Nigerians!

Unemployment and bulging youth population

The United States National Intelligence Council has raised the alarm that Nigeria is one of the parlous economies that are expected to remain on rapid population “growth trajectories” by the year 2025, when the nation is projected to add 55 million people to its present population. The bulging youth population, according to the NIC report, is a demographic feature that is linked with the “emergence of political violence and civil conflicts.”

Indeed, the urgent need to expand the economy in order to accommodate the rising youth population is already a big challenge. According to official sources, over 80 per cent of the nation’s youths are unemployed while 10 per cent are underemployed. These statistics are grim for a nation whose children of age 0 – 24 constitute 60 per cent or 80 million of its over 140 million population.

The youths have no avenues to expend their mental and physical energy. As a result of this, the nation is constantly under siege. Armed robbery is a daily affair as banks and individuals are constantly under attack. The mounting wave of prostitution, banditry, thuggery, kidnapping and other crimes, is directly related to lack of gainful employment. Crimes blossom in an environment of frustration and despair.

Apart from rising youth unemployment, the nation has not been able to provide enough facilities for education, sports, health and other essential services consumed by young people. A 2008 UNICEF report says approximately 10 million children of primary and secondary school age are out of school. At the tertiary level, the nation is only able to admit less than 15 percent of applicants into the various universities.

At the heart of the unemployment crisis is an economy which became introverted with the coming of oil as its mainstay. The unprecedented inflow of petro dollars in the ’70s and ’80s suddenly drove up the value of the naira, making domestically produced goods uncompetitive. All structural adjustment efforts by the military were insincere and therefore failed to reverse the trend. Import dependence and a shrinking real sector have led to massive loss of jobs to foreign producers.

The challenge before the Yar’Adua administration, therefore, is how to foster a conducive environment for wealth creation. A stable macro-economic milieu backed by fiscal prudence is the first step. And that has to be achieved by pruning the escalating cost of running government. It is almost impossible to rehabilitate infrastructure and reduce the cost of doing business when more than 80 per cent of public revenue is being consistently used to pay the salaries and emoluments of public office holders and the little allocated to capital projects is being largely swallowed up by graft.

A leaner and effective bureaucracy can also be achieved through privatisation and other market reforms. The liberalization of the telecommunications sector by the Obasanjo administration instantly created thousands of jobs. The Yar’Adua administration should replicate this success by opening up the energy and other major sectors to private investment flows. The importation of refined petroleum products, for instance, does not make sense as it only helps to create jobs for foreign refiners. Millions of jobs can also be created by encouraging the local production of fertilizers and other farm inputs, with which the nation is richly endowed.

To drive down the cost of doing business, the nation’s decrepit infrastructure should be rehabilitated. And this can be achieved more quickly through private sector participation. The road network and the rail system can be fixed through an appropriate public-private sector arrangement. All anti-investment laws should be repealed to open up all sectors of the economy to private investments.

More importantly, the education curriculum should be restructured to empower the youth with the knowledge and skills required to convert the nation’s huge potential into goods and services needed at home and abroad. The teeming army of idle youths is a time-bomb that should be gradually defused.

CBN and banks’ offshore branches

The recent prudential/statutory requirements rolled out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to Nigerian banks with offshore operations and others intending to do so, is a timely necessity that can help protect and strengthen the financial base of the banks at home. The requirements can also act as safety nets for the subsidiary banks in times of financial turbulence.

The CBN, in a circular to that effect tagged, “Banks Offshore Expansion,” signed by its Director, Banking operations, Mr. Ignatius Imala, listed some conditions that Nigerian – owned banks with offshore operations must meet.

These include a sound financial balance sheet and free funds or excess liquidity that can meet emergency situations. Such banks, CBN’s circular added, should have operated profitably for at least two consecutive years, and this performance must be reflected in the banks’ audited accounts before such branches could be opened.

In addition, the new guidelines mandate such banks with cross border expansion to submit a detailed “Enterprise Risk Management” framework of the proposed subsidiary. It said the framework should, among other things, state the possible impact of the offshore operation on the parent bank in Nigeria and how the offshore operations would be monitored. The banks are further required to submit to the apex bank, their strategic expansion plans, covering at least five years, stating the phase(s) and time of implementation.
We welcome these new guidelines by CBN. They are in the best interest of Nigerian banks and investors. These measures may have become even more expedient because of the current fad by Nigerian banks to open offshore branches.

Perhaps in this rat-race for offshore operations, the parent banks, wittingly or unwittingly, ignore to maintain at home, a sound financial base, capable of absorbing the uncertainties and volatility of the international financial markets. We agree with the CBN that the aggressive offshore expansion by some Nigerian banks involves additional risks that require strategic planning. Therefore, safety and soundness of the financial institutions, both at home and offshore, are imperative. This, in our view, is also in line with current realities in the banking sector.

Although there is need for banks to angle for financial cash flows that come with offshore branching, that should not be at the risk of other imperatives such as sound liquidity and asset base at home. Shareholders’ confidence is secured when these indices are factored into such expansion drives.

What the apex bank has done is to remind the banks of the need for these requirements in order to minimise their risks consequent upon such operations. This is also in line with the Banking and other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) which stipulates that no subsidiary of any bank (whether foreign or local) would be allowed to open another subsidiary without the express permission of the CBN. Arguably, some banks are reported to have ignored this essential requirement. Also, the BOFIA requires that the parent bank’s aggregate investment in any offshore operation should not be more than 25 per cent of paid up capital and statutory reserves.

We urge the banks to comply fully with these requirements. The CBN should periodically monitor how these banks do this. While offshore operations can net in huge foreign funds for the banks and enhance their corporate image, the need to tighten the noose on such operations is necessary. It requires constant surveillance by the regulatory authorities.

Just before Adegoroye's crucifixion

THE Guardian (December 21, 2009) contained a story which claimed that the presidency has disowned a speech which was delivered by Dr. Goke Adegoroye, the permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education. Dr. Adegoroye had gone to deliver the speech at the behest of the minister of state in the ministry who was to have represented the president at the occasion of the convocation of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife. Some problems had been mentioned in relation to protocol which would be unhelpful to focus on now so as not to distract from the importance of the message in Adegoroye's speech.

The purported speech by the president was said to have lambasted university dons and accused them of corruption which in consequence has eroded the quality of university education in recent times. Assuming for a moment that it was true that the message was unauthorised in that it was not endorsed by the presidency but can it be said to be a reflection of the prevalent situation in our universities?

Permit me to state that Dr. Adegoroye must have been around in the civil service for a while and must be at home with procedure for clearance of presidential speeches or of the speeches of their other excellencies. Secondly, he must have some glimpses of the ways the president's mind works and must have been inspired by the president's anti-corruption zeal and had thus, though, wrongly this time, come to the conclusion that the president wont spare the university dons were he to make the Ife trip. Of course, there are others in the university who are as guilty as the dons.

I would like to highlight some frightening implications of the presidency's reported attempt to emasculate, intimidate and crucify Adegoroye over the Ife speech which was said to have been well received and elegantly delivered. First, can it be assumed that the university is not a reflection of the larger society in which it is constituted? Should the society be an ethical island in Nigeria's sea of decay and scoundrels? Should the university only be for saints that the lecturers are not? The world over, the university is known not to have risen substantially above its society except in research and the fitness of mind, and only in rare cases. It is impossible to think of the ills and moral lapses of the larger society that have not been reproduced and sometimes perfected with some intellectual and intimidating touch in the ivory tower. Really, how many universities and their chief executives can deny instances of sex or bribe for marks (quid pro quo) and of lecturers who indulge in absenteeism, of undue interferences in promotion cases, of intellectual fatherism whereby known lay-about lecturers are shielded from the university rules? Are there not university leaders who are aware of the presence of these impostors and still tolerate them for their nuisance value of being able to embarrass the perceived enemies of the university chief executives?

Can the university honestly deny that there are heads who divert funds or promotion cases that had attracted controversies in that the due process was not followed? I have been around the university for close to three decades and l know that not many of us can cast the first stone. Some of us indeed live in a glass house. Secondly, even, if only some of the above posers cannot be falsified, then should the university be unduly celebrated and treated as an island in the midst of decay? Adegoroye should not be prosecuted for being an alarmist. The truth is that the university in Nigeria is sick.

Supposing some optimists would rather excuse it on other grounds but, not on cases of sex or bribe for marks, this alone, as it relates to the core essence of a university - the enthronement of merit - is more than enough to sound the system's death knell and for which it must be lambasted. Thirdly, there is a danger in not being self-critical in that it would encourage complacency, and a life of uncritical reflection is not worth much. The impression must not be given by the presidency that all is well with our universities.

By these statements, it must not be inferred that the holocaust is total. There are honest and committed scholars who respect the rights of students and those who defer to logic and dissent. The truth is that these are an endangered species and their population is thinning out. There is proliferation of impostors, those who are really incapable of adding value to scholarship. The system is not sufficiently self-cleansing and this is what makes the alert sounded by Adegoroye to be appropriate.

The university is expected to produce future leaders in sectors of the modern world and the lecturers should inspire their students as role models. But if it is too busy in the pursuit of mundane things, then it is ham-strunged to so lead. It has so patently cultivated the habits of the town and in fact of the worst dwellers of the town.

The Uwais Committee report on electoral reform

Sixteen months after its inauguration, the 22-member Electoral Reform Committee, headed by former Chief Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, recently submitted its six-volume report and recommendations to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. The conclusion of the committee's assignment marks a major milestone towards the realisation of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's promise at his inauguration on May 29, 2007, to sanitise the country's electoral process. The President had been honest enough to admit that the process by which he emerged "victorious" a month earlier was flawed.

Indeed, it was not until a day after the former Chief Justice and his committee submitted its report that the Supreme Court finally resolved, by a slim split decision, the dispute arising from last year's presidential election. Other petitions and appeals thereon are still pending, while several others had either been upheld or upturned. And when neighbouring Ghana successfully conducted its fifth successive general elections on December 7, this year, it served as an urgent reminder of the compelling need for Nigeria to emulate and enthrone the best practices in the conduct of elections.

The Electoral Reform Committee has made a number of far-reaching recommendations. On the basis of their current deficiencies which compromise their independence and capacity to deliver free and fair elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the various State Independent Electoral Commissions have been recommended for unbundling by the re-allocation of some of their functions. This proposal will necessitate the creation, by legislation, of three new bodies, namely, Political Parties Registration and Regulatory Commission, Constituency Delimitation Commission and the Electoral Offences Commission. Under this arrangement, the primary business of INEC will be the conduct of elections simpliciter.

The committee also calls for the re-introduction of independent candidature in all elections. In this respect, there are requirements for nomination and payment of deposit, which will be forfeited in the event that the candidate does not score a stipulated percentage of the votes cast at an election. Furthermore, there is an extensive proposal for Proportional Representation (PR) in elections to the legislatures and local government councils. In opting for the PR system, the committee states its rationale as follows: "It promotes universal adult suffrage by ensuring that all votes are of equal value, that no valid vote cast is rendered useless, ineffective or wasted as votes cast nation-wide or state-wide or local government area-wide, as the case may be, are taken into account. It also facilitates representation of women and other disadvantaged groups in the legislatures and the local government councils." Specifically, the committee wants an assigned percentage of seats for women and the physically challenged. It also wants a situation where seats are allocated on the basis of a party, or candidate's relative showing in the election, rather than the current winner-take-all.

Other than the snippets that have been published in the media, there is a necessity for a much wider circulation of, at least, the executive summary of the committee's report and recommendations. Granted that the immediate business of the Federal Government is to deliver a White Paper on the report, the White Paper will invariably be an aide memoire to the crucial process of translating the recommendations into law.

The more widely accessible the report, the more likely there will be informed contributions to the policy options and legal clauses. To achieve this, it is suggested that the government post a downloadable version of the executive summary on a website which is publicised for all concerned to access. This should not be construed as a re-opening of the functions of the Electoral Reform Committee, which received 1,466 memoranda from within and outside the country, invited experts from 11 countries and held public hearings in 12 selected states and the Federal Capital Territory during which some 907 representations were made.

It is possible that there may be superior or more workable ideas than the final recommendations of the committee. The Federal Government and the lawmakers can benefit from such ideas. For instance, it is sound judgment, as the committee has suggested, that no legislator shall be sworn in until any litigation involving his/her election is resolved. Yet, it is open to question whether it is a reasonable length of time that all elections shall be held six months before the elected persons are due to take the oath of office, so as to allow for the disposition of any election petitions related thereto. Also, it is a pertinent question whether the country can afford the cost of the additional bureaucracy that will arise from the creation of three brand new commissions in addition to INEC. Straightaway, we do not think so.

Certainly, a number of the proposals will require amendments to some provisions of the 1999 Constitution. The Uwais Committee has done some commendable preparatory work in this respect by including in its report draft clauses of the proposed amendments. This is the case, for instance, with independent candidacy, which at present is prohibited by the express provision of section 221 that stipulates that only a political party can present candidates at an election. What is not so clear is whether the grafting of the electoral reform proposals will await the omnibus review of the Constitution by the National Assembly and its ratification by the state Houses of Assembly.

Obviously, electoral reform will be meaningful if it guides the next round of general elections in 2011. Considering the contentious nature of some of the provisions of the Constitution that have been slated for amendment, there might be a logjam that could frustrate the enactment of new provisions in the country's supreme law. What is required, therefore, is that lawmakers must have a clear focus and, where advisable, separate and deal expeditiously with the proposed amendments that are consequential to electoral rebirth that Nigeria so badly needs to deepen its democracy.

Women and the Bank PHB's Pink Account

I read an article published in The Guardian of Monday, December 1 2008 by one Mr. Chidi Odinkalu titled: 'The Unbearable Sexism of Bank PHB's Pink Account'. I am surprised that Bank PHB has not responded to the article which I think is a golden opportunity by the bank to further educate the public, which includes its existing and potential customers. I am particularly irked for two reasons,

My first concern stems from the fact that I have been a customer of the bank since the era of Habib Bank which preceded the merger. I know enough about Bank PHB to understand that the writer had spent so much energy and time doing that which he ought not to have done at all. Secondly, I am awed by the opportunities offered by the product not just for the bank but for other business linkages to the account. I make bold to say that I have on account of the business partnership opportunities, started seeking ways to benefit from this growing but captive women market.

Talking about the launch of the account, which held in Lagos, I had until recently distanced myself from the colour pink; relating it only to a shade which is founded on feminity as shown in such activities as: the Breast Cancer Awareness, teen fashion and accessories. The business value of a pink colour never evoked any interest in me.

I had alongside many women present on that Friday evening at the venue of the Pink Account launch been daunted by the thought and timing of such a product. One has to be open-minded in order to appreciate the creativity that went into the design of the Pink product. Such is the type of creativity that informed the introduction of the bank's UK Educational loan, the bank's interest-free account for pilgrimage and Hajj. Like most other banks, Bank PHB also has children's account, including the account for cooperative societies. It simply takes a male chauvinist to chip away at such a virtuous endeavour that the pink account offers. The increasing prominence of the 'working woman' has led to a considerable rise in the financial enlightenment of women in recent decades.

Such genre of women has become more sophisticated with an increased appetite for independence, style, and glamour. These are the features that define the contemporary Nigerian woman which the Pink Account seeks to address. It takes a whole lot of creativity to understand this trend including the economic benefits in it. In the media for instance, there exists several specialised publications on parenting, glamour and fashion and the likes, including some weekend newspapers in the country which have one form of special pullout or the other targeting strictly the 'working class woman'.

The fact that Pink account is an emotion-based product which dangles such benefits as financing for a new kitchen, arrival of a new baby, and special discounts at some fashions stores for fashion items deserves a round of applause. Pink Account does not make any pretension of being a product for Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs nor is it a credit line. The idea of an account holder possessing a Pink Cheque book for instance is to add colour, style and uniqueness to a Pink status. I simply see nothing wrong with this juicy opportunity for women. And responding to the writer's query: 'Would any bank dare to put out a product designed exclusively for men to buy Rolex watches or designer-labeled Y-fronts?' the answer is capital yes, if the market dynamics so dictate.

In a bid to sell ice to the Eskimos, Mr. Chidi Odinkalu's piece sought simply to engage the readers in a binge of sophistry, drawing unparalleled analogies in feminist utopia of the 18th century and making reference to the country music legend, Kenny Rogers.

For instance, while the writer was confident in cobbling together an alarming title, 'Unbearable sexism', he however, showed no respect to the reader by deliberately refusing to define sexism, or how it relates to the so-called Pink account. According to Mr. Odinkalu, 'A theory or model of risk underlying the Pink Account is difficult to fathom. A person whose desire for ornamented trinkets overwhelms their domestic economics may be in the throes of a cash flow crisis, advanced escape from reality, or congenitally conspicuous existence'.

I find in this expression a self-styled soliloquy of a troubled mind which does not in any way resonate with the thoughts of the average woman. Perhaps, a very simple definition of sexism will assist the reader to determine the relevance of sexism here. Sexism is simply referred to as discrimination on the basis of sex, based on the assumption that one sex (generally females) is innately inferior. Although, space will not permit a deeper explanation of the sociological weapon of discrimination or domination through sexual identity, but very important to note is that the objective of Pink Account which was themed 'Because you are a Woman' is different from sexism. To say the least, it is a celebration of womanhood, similar to even what the religious institutions have over the years done through such practices as Mothering Sundays.

It is always very disheartening that oftentimes when issues relating to women come up in the news, men who have no traceable investment in women development and empowerment seek front rows and become activists for women affairs. The search for greater roles, responsibilities and empowerment for the average woman is a global concern that affects health, human rights, politics, and commerce. And for the business-minded, in a world where women population is improving qualitatively including verifiable indices of women and teens controlling over 80% of all consumers purchase across every brand category, understanding why women buy is vital to a brand's success.

Women are the majority decision-makers today, not only in the traditional areas of fashion, food and cosmetics, but also for such big-ticket buys as automobiles, financial services, home improvement, computer electronics and travel. With the growing rise in brands, womanhood is not a mere gender, but a status with clear preferences in products, services and lifestyle. It is therefore commendable that Bank PHB in realization of the purchasing power of women has designed a product that not only caters for their needs but celebrates the contemporary Nigerian woman.

A few research findings about women will interest any business-minded product Manager. Research shows that the average woman irrespective of her socio-economic class loves shopping hence, in addition to their huge numbers - women are especially good valuable customers. Women typically ask for recommendations from friends and acquaintances before they buy and, if they are happy with a product or service, will talk it up and recommend it to others. Women can also spray a perfume sample and try shoe sizes without making a purchase.

One reason it takes women longer to make a buying decision, is that women want the "perfect answer." Men will buy a workable answer rather than continue to shop, while women will continue to shop in hopes of finding that perfect answer.

Women, especially working mothers, lead time-pressured lives and therefore appreciate products that simply relieve anxieties. Women would rather have product warranties, service guaranties and all forms of discounts than just being told a product is "cool;" they want to hear specifics about how the product serves their needs and their families' needs. One simply needs to stand in front of the popular Balogun Market in Lagos, say near a shop that sells household items, children clothes, kitchen wares and jewelries to appreciate this shopping traffic. The same rule that applies to say Tejuosho market in Lagos applies to Sabon Gari Market in Kano and will likely apply to Wuse market in Abuja. The only difference here is in the social class.

I believe that the creation of rhe PHB pink account may have been informed by the need to take advantage of these budding opportunities. Whilst Mr. Odinakalu may wish to call it sexism, I will rather see it as sheer innovativeness. The most underpinning factors in this Pink Account product are: opportunity, choice and pricing. This does not however, take anything away from the men wishing to support their wives to acquire these assets.

Contrary to Mr. Odinakalu's claim, women are not asked to show evidence of consent of husband or 'male principal' as he calls it to access a product or facility. The terms of every product or credit extension are very clear. To further determine this, one only needs to look through the window to observe the traffic of brand new cars plying our roads, most of which have women driving them. The acquisition of household items and funding of property are some of the things women are fast embarking on without the statutory consent of their husbands.

Before I conclude this piece, I will refer us to three books which I believe will assist the likes of Odinakalu in understanding such basic issues as product innovation and target marketing: Martha Barletta: Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the Largest Market Segment; Lisa Johnson & Andrea Learned: Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy -- and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market; Martin Lindstrom: Buyology. The benefits of reading at least two chapters of each of these books will offer redefining insights to Mr. Odinkalu not just in appreciating why women buy, but also in connecting with a growing resource in scientific marketing whose application cuts across all professions including legal practice.

Christian and Moslem relations

RECENTLY, the city of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, the home of "peace and tourism" was in the news for all the wrong reasons. So many factors, religious, political, ethnic and even economic have been adduced as causing the incredible violence that engulfed some parts of the city on the morning of Friday, November 28, 2008.

There is no denying that in Northern Nigeria, religion, ethnicity and politics are inextricably bound in ways that boggle the imagination of even the ordinary onlooker. Politicians especially have been disingenuous in taking recourse to or employing religious sentiments to divisive effect. It is also pertinent to observe that, our society has become not only cosmopolitan but also multi-religious. The necessity and urgency of Inter-Religious dialogue and relations therefore can not be over-emphasised.

In the past, in the Catholic Church, it was affirmed that outside the church, there is no salvation. Today, we know better than that! I think we can equally say with the same degree of conviction that without an inter-religious dialogue or relation that is sincere and worthy of the name, the salvation we hope for would only be "a pie in the sky". After all, we are all Children of the one God whom we address as Father.

However, barring any recourse to Scriptural and Theological debates and controversies, there are series of facts that we must face and try to address as Christians and Moslems alike, if we must engage in any serious conversation.

To begin with, in October 2007, 138 Moslem officials from around the world issued a statement titled, "A Common Word Between Us and You", addressed to the Pope and other Christian leaders, the "Letter of 138" proposed a dialogue based on the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. While we see this as a welcome development, the question to ask is, can Christians and Moslems speak frankly about such "abiding realities" of the human condition as forgetfulness of God and rebellion against him, or oppression in the sense of exceeding the appropriate limits of behaviour in dealing with others, while violating their essential human rights? Is instruction in the dual commandment of love of God and love of neighbour sufficient to overcome the human propensity for wickedness toward the "other"?

In other words, do Christians and Moslems share an awareness of our need to be liberated by God into the freedom of his gift of love? Are we agreed that we must all repent of the times when coercion has been used to advance the cause of God? Besides, is self-criticism part of our spiritual self-awareness as Christians and Moslems?

Secondly, is it possible for Christians and Moslems to study their sacred texts with piety and critical rigour? In other words, is it possible to create a critical Christian-Moslem scholarship marked by the will to understand out of love? Does the application of modern scholarly methods to analysis of the origins and character of ancient texts involve a betrayal of faith?

The reformation has meant for Jews and Christians, a minimal willingness to reconsider their Holy writings and subject them to literary and textual scrutiny. Today we know, for example, that the Christian term "Jehovah" is a mistranslation of the unuttered spaces between the letters of the Hebrew "Yahweh". Yet, no comparable project has ever been undertaken in Koranic scholarship.

Thirdly, do we agree that God himself has inscribed human rights, "into the nature of man"? Are we agreed that human rights and divine rights cannot be played off one against the other? And if what we mean by human rights is the recognition and protection of the minimal conditions under which human dignity, due to the human person as creature of God is protected, then can we agree that, to recognise and respect human rights is nothing but obedience to the will of God. In this light, therefore, the protection of human rights is tantamount to a fulfillment of the dual commandment of love God and love of neighbour. If "Islam" means "submission to the will of God", and if respect to the dignity of the human person is the will of God, then does Islam by its very nature require Moslems to recognise basic human rights?

Fourthly, doesn't the love of neighbour require, as a religious obligation and not merely a practical political accommodation, respect and legal protection for the religious convictions of others, so long as those convictions do not compromise the common good? Do Moslems agree that this principle holds even if Moslems regard what the "other" believes is false?

As Christians and Moslems, can we agree that the institutional separation of church and state, religious and political authority, enshrined in our constitution, is ultimately good for the state? The reason is obvious, it prevents the state from sacralising itself and the misuse of religion for political purposes and above all, it creates social space for faith and the workings of conscience.

Christians have developed, over the past centuries, a deep theological critique of past attempts to advance Christianity coercively. They now recognise that the attempt to create "Christian States" was a failure that involved great costs on all sides. Are Moslems prepared to recognise that the attempts to create "Islamic States" will likely lead to the same bad results, for both justice and faith?

Fifthly, it is affirmed that "Islam is a religion of peace that respects human life". Can Islam, therefore, understand its faith in such a way that Moslems reject violence in the name of God, not only in terms of a cleansing of conscience about the past but also a commitment to the future? Can this commitment also extend to those who leave the house of Islam for other faiths? How willing are the leaders of Islam to challenge, discipline, and, if need be, dramatically marginalise the jihadists who preach and commit murder "without the sanction of God, his Prophet, or the learned tradition? The Koran teaches that no one may be forced to believe; "there is no compulsion in religion". The Moslems should agree that this principle only comes to fruition if it guarantees the freedom also to abandon the faith, to understand it differently, or even to despise it.

Unless Islamic leaders find the intellectual resources and the moral courage to condemn, on religious grounds, those who would murder in the name of God, more than a billion Moslems will be held hostage to the fanatics among their co-religionists. So will the rest of the world. It is long past time for Moslem leaders to stop quibbling over the meaning of "jihad" and to condemn the jihadists who are turning the planet into a free-fire zone - and imagine that they're doing God's will in the process.

These posers are pertinent in any attempt at inter-religious dialogue or relation and the way we answer them will determine the depth and dimension of our efforts towards imbibing a culture of tolerance in a multi ethnic and religious society like ours. I have no doubt in my mind that as Nigerians, we can live together irrespective of what faith or creed we profess. As human beings, our needs are basically the same; food, shelter, peace, prosperity. I agree totally with Martin Luther King who once observed that, "we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or die together as fools".

It is important therefore that we begin to ask ourselves some serious and soul-searching questions as Christians and Moslems. We should leave the matter of deciding which religion is true and which one is false to God alone, that is his prerogative. I think that when the chips are down, it does not matter whether we have the fullness of the faith, what is paramount is whether we live the fullness of the faith. This, to my mind, amounts to an inter-religious dialogue or relation that is robust, sincere and responsible.

Revving up the anti-graft war

Amidst perceived lull in the fight against corruption, the Federal Government has, for the umpteenth time, affirmed its commitment to crushing the monster. Restating his aversion to pervasive impunity among public officials, President Umaru Yar’Adua recently called for the abrogation of the immunity clause from the Constitution. The President called on all Nigerians to join him in persuading the National Assembly to remove the immunity cover for some categories of political leaders. “Nobody in Nigeria deserves the right to be protected by the law when looting public funds. Let us expunge the immunity clause from the 1999 Constitution,” Yar’Adua said.

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EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri

While speaking in Abuja at the launch of the Anti-Corruption Revolution Campaign(ANCOR) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the President also charged the anti-graft agency “to be ruthless, totally energetic in the pursuit of corrupt officials, prosecuting them and sanctioning them and bringing them to justice”.

The EFCC’s ANCOR is, among others, aimed at sensitising all Nigerians to corruption and its negative effects and mobilising opinion leaders and all Nigerians both within and outside the country against corrupt tendencies and practices. The EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, had with equal passion condemned the undue delay in getting justice in corruption cases. The most daunting challenge, according to Waziri, is how to bring corruption cases to quick conclusion in the courts.

However, the new anti-graft stance is up against rising public cynicism that the government may not be totally committed to taming the monster. The overhaul of the EFCC and the travails of its former boss, Nuhu Ribadu, have been interpreted as a grand plot to cripple the agency. While the President’s call for the removal of the notorious immunity clause is welcome, it is the political will to prosecute the anti-graft battle that matters.

Section 308 of the Constitution only protects the serving President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors from prosecution. While the nation awaits the removal of the controversial clause, there is need for a holistic approach to the war. Ministers, commissioners, top civil servants, heads of corporations and even local government officials that are not covered by the clause should come under a more vigorous searchlight of the anti-graft agencies. The Police and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have been described, in recent global reports, as the two most corrupt institutions in the country. Others like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigeria Ports Authority are equally infested with maggots. Sadly, the nation’s anti-graft institutions are looking the other way.

Besides, many Nigerians have been implicated in various international scams including Wilbros, Halliburton and Siemens. Over one year ago, a court in Munich, Germany, had indicted Siemens and awarded 201m Euros against it for paying bribes to government and industry officials in Nigeria, Libya and Russia to win telecommunications contracts. Eighteen government officials, including four former Communication ministers and a senator were accused of receiving 10million Euros. While those involved in these fraudulent acts have been punished in Germany, nothing has happened to the indicted Nigerian officials. Likewise, the on-going prosecution of some ex-governors has been in fits and starts, giving the negative impression that some of the indicted governors are being shielded by the government. Yet corruption has remained the nation’s Achilles’ heel.

Beyond the removal of the immunity clause, the most potent weapon against graft is to open up government files to public scrutiny by promulgating a Freedom of Information law. The Senate should also prescribe the modalities for accessing the assets declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by the Constitution. To win the battle against graft, the nation must be ready to enthrone openness and transparency.

Steeped in uncertainties

WITH all the vaulting ambitions of our governments to make Nigeria a great nation, they overlooked the uncertainties that rule the land. They have either not recognised them or given up on doing anything about them.

One day, we wake up in Lagos and queues for fuel block the streets. Mercifully, the explanation is that truck drivers are on strike. There is fuel, but no trucks to lift them. This situation is not new, the current incident will not be the last.

A nation that lays ambitious claims to greatness cannot guarantee supply of critical products like fuel to its users on a regular basis. It thinks that truck drivers embarking on a strike is an acceptable excuse to shut the country down.

For years, truck drivers have become a law to themselves, what did the government do about it? Like other Nigerians, who are looking up to the authorities to act, government officials just bemoan the situation.

It is, to say the least, sad. No country can thrive on waving uncertainties around vital products and services. Nigerian authorities seem not to bother.

The streets are jammed with workers, who cannot get to their destinations. Factories that depend on self-generated power (public power supply is a myth) are halting while travels for business or pleasure are suspended.

At times like this, government's concerns for this country are in doubt. Why should we have the same problems for years without solutions in sight?

The monopoly of truck drivers in the distribution of petroleum products has created a powerful cartel that places itself above laws whether they are for its own safety or for others’ well being.
At the least insistence that they obey laws, truck drivers strike, fully aware that as fuel scarcity looms, the public would ask the authorities to let the truck drivers have their way.

We do not support Lagos traffic officials harassing the truck drivers, or anyone else, for money. It is, however, important that truck drivers obey municipal laws on public safety, these including their restrictions to certain parts of the city, parking and speed limits.

On their part, the authorities must explore other methods of transporting petroleum products to all parts of the country. Are the pipelines, built at great expense, finally abandoned? The rails used to be the mode of transporting these products. The rails are dead.

Products that are critical to the workings of the country cannot be left in the hands of truck drivers, who have perfected holding the country to ransom. Moreover, it makes no sense that all the petroleum products we used are imported through a single port, Lagos.

The latest strike hints again at the fragility of the petroleum products distribution system we have used for decades. It is not working and cannot work for as long as it has become a veritable blackmail instrument for truck drivers, who relish the relevance systemic inefficiency has carved for them. Only a decisive reversal of their importance can stop this.

The Mathematics Challenge

Mathematics is certainly not one of the popular subjects among Nigerian students, and mathematics teachers are not some of the popular teachers in the schools. But it is like a bitter pill that must be taken for well-being and growth.
All over the world, there is growing emphasis on Mathematics and science subjects in general because of the strong correlation between the level of development of a nation and the study of mathematical sciences.
Mathematics, the root of the sciences, is important for the advancement of science and the understanding of the workings of the universe. It is also important for personal development both mentally and in the workplace. The computer, key to growing information technology, is itself a machine built upon the principles of mathematics. Mathematics is used to create the complex programming at the heart of all computing.
The establishment of the National Mathematics Centre is a laudable decision. The National Mathematical Centre was established by Decree 40 of 1989 to develop and deploy appropriate initiatives and resources of international standing to rekindle and sustain interest in the study of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences in general at all levels as a response to the decline in the production of mathematical scientists in Nigeria.
The mandate of the centre is long. It is to: Train and develop high-level personnel in the mathematical sciences, namely mathematics, mathematical sciences education, statistics, computer science and theoretical physics; create a resource centre to serve national and international communities as a focal point for advanced research and training in the mathematical sciences and its application; identify and encourage young talents in the mathematical sciences; and stimulate enthusiasm for the physical sciences in young Nigerian students and scholars.
The Centre is also to: prepare Nigeria for a leading role in the mathematical sciences; encourage and support activities leading to the improvement of the teaching and learning of the mathematical sciences at all levels; and to attract good mathematical scientists from all over the world into the service of Nigeria.
In the words of former Education Minister Dr. Igwe Aja -Nwachukwu, the Centre has so far done well. He said at the award ceremony of the second Nigerian Universities Computer Programming Contest last September that, “The Centre has surprised the world severally with its almost perfect handling of many groundbreaking achievements in Nigeria’s participation in International Mathematics and Science Olympiads. It is on record that Nigeria has won laurels and medals, including Gold Medal, at some of these Olympiads, through the efforts of the Centre”.
“The Centre,” he continued “has been able to sustain the annual participation of Nigeria in these capital intensive competitions in spite of its meagre resources. And, above all, Nigeria has been adjudged the best organizer of the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad by the organizers, all through the efforts of this Centre”.
Yet we are concerned that Nigeria currently ranks as one of the least mathematically literate nations, according to the International Mathematical Union.
The Centre must increase its efforts in trying to demystify mathematics. Beyond its many national competitions to spike up interest in the subject, it has to work more closely with teachers at various levels to ensure that the subject is taught in a way to ease understanding. This is a lot of work that should start right from the nursery schools. It could also work with authors of mathematics textbooks to make them more attractive to students.
But it is obvious to us that the Centre requires proper funding to achieve its set mandate. It has to be fully equipped to be a benchmark centre for the study of the subject. Government needs to continue to accord mathematics education the urgency with which it established the Centre, by investing in it. If, as Dr. Sam Ale, Director of the National Mathematical Centre, said the country needs to spend US $31 million over 13 years to achieve its goal of being in the top 20 world economies by year 2020, we believe the country should be able to afford it.

Lessons from oil price crash

The recent report that Nigeria has recorded a huge loss of N177.52bn in revenue accruing to the Federation Account for November is not a cheering news at all. The loss is as a result of the current flunctuation in oil prices in the international market. Oil earnings account for about 90 percent of revenue accruals to the Federation Account. By any reckoning therefore, the loss has far reaching implications for the revenue and expenditure profile of government and the economy in general.

According to a statement by a sub-committee of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), accruals to the Federation Account witnessed a heavy drop from N530.86bn in October, to N353.34bn in November. The FAAC is a government agency charged with the duty of monitoring the collection of revenue to the Federation Account as well as revenue sharing among the three tiers of government. The statement signed by the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwabo, says the slump in revenue from the oil source is worrisome.

This piece of news is a mixed grill for Nigeria. This year alone, oil prices have reached an all-time high of about $170 per barrel. As at last week, crude price hovered between $36 and $45 per barrel. This amounts to a drop of about $125 per barrel between June and August, this year. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that it intends to cut production in order to raise prices, saying its member nations lose N2.8bn daily as a result of the dip in prices of oil in the international market. This is not unconnected with the recent global financial meltdown, shrinking capital flows and tightening credit conditions that have brought some economies of the world into a recession.


However, the FAAC report should be an eye-opener that requires fiscal ingenuity by government for the rainy day. This development, it seems, has come with its foreboding implication, which must not be lost on the managers of our economy. What this means is that the 2009 budget may run into troubled waters even before the implementation begins. The budget was based on a benchmark of $45 per barrel.

With the expected shortfall in revenue if the slide in oil prices persists, government may find it difficult to meet the broad objectives of the 2009 budget. The likely consequence is that government may resort to drawing down on the external reserve which currently stands at $58bn, from $62bn in September. This could lead to excessive borrowing from external agencies and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Also, this could result in higher inflation rate and deficit financing of the budget.

None of these augurs well for the economy, both in the short and long term. How, therefore, can government keep an even keel without a desultory effect on the economy that is much dependent on oil? This is the time for government to put on its thinking cap and begin to look for other alternative sources of revenue that are not subject to the vagaries of the international oil market.

The government, as a matter of national expediency, should also drastically reduce the expenditure on political office holders. At present, so much is voted for perks of office at the detriment of matters that require immediate national attention. Due to the drastic drop in oil revenue, government’s overheads need to be reviewed downwards in line with the realities of the present oil price fluctuation.
More than ever before, prudent fiscal management is imperative. That, to us, is the lesson from the uncertainties that beset the global oil market.

The 2008 National Honour Awards

THE National Honour Awards were given two days ago to a total of 275 persons who, according to the Minister for Special Duties, Elder Godsday Orubebe, were said to have contributed 'immensely' to the unity and development of Nigeria. The latest batch of awardees reportedly brings the membership of 'this elite group' in the words of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, to 3,447 since the inception of the National Honour Awards in 1963.

To recognise, celebrate and publicly honour deserving persons for outstanding deeds - of courage, of ability, of ingenuity, etc in the wide range of human endeavours is indeed a worthy and time-honoured act in all nations of the world. No one would contest this. Besides, when persons are honoured with public acclaim, they are encouraged to do more in the public sphere. It also encourages other persons to emulate them.

But for a national award to retain its special value, the public - on whose behalf national awards are given, must be convinced that the right persons have been honoured, and that public interest has been well-served. Thus, the reason for giving each award must be incontestably obvious to most citizens in the nation. Going by this simple criterion, we think that for some years now, the award of Nigeria's national honour has gone to too few manifestly deserving persons and too many that are arguably so.

A nation, it is said, reveals itself - values, ethics and all - by the people it honours. Judging generally from the lists of awardees of the past few years, we regret to say that our nation is presented in poor light. In this connection, the rejection by Chief Gani Fawehinmi of the offer of an OFR this year is instructive. Without any doubt, there are many deserving persons on this year's national honours list, but still the list is dominated by persons who do not seem to be so deserving. What is the point in decorating so many traditional rulers and civil servants with national honours?

Every year, the national honours list tends to be too long, unwieldy and does not make consistent statements about 'honour' in the fullest and broadest sense of the word. The 2008 list of awardees is not in any way different. There does not appear to be clearly defined yardsticks which had been used to assess, across the board, individual achievement and integrity that clearly advances public interest. That a citizen has done very well for himself or herself in his chosen field does not, and should not, automatically qualify him or her for the nation's honour until it is obvious to all reasonable persons that he or she has translated his or her good fortune into some means to serve the common good.

In this class is Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, who has made 'immense' contributions to his profession and through it, to his country. Similarly, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has played an unquantifiable role in the spiritual upliftment of Nigerians, besides other contributions to society. Francis Cardinal Arinze has served God and man in a wide range of capacities at home and abroad. There are others too in this year's list whose presence helped to redeem the exercise.

Part of the problem every year is that the process of selecting awardees is cumbersome, with the consequence that genuinely deserving persons do not get a mention. Some members of Nigeria's contingent to the last Paralympics, for example, did not merely represent their country but brought glory to the fatherland. No one has considered them for national honour. The search for honourees every year must become more rigorous. When the Federal Government relies heavily on nominations by state governments in drawing up the National Honours list, the danger is that the exercise may be hobbled by local party politics. There should be a properly constituted search committee whose duty would be to look for deserving Nigerians in all walks of life, beyond those highly placed persons who get nominated on an annual basis.

Quite a number of national honour recipients this year were upgraded from one category to another. Can these 'promotions' be justified by new 'acts of greatness' in the public interest? Hardly ever. Indeed, what this proves is that neither well articulated criteria, nor rigorous consideration of personal qualities, personal achievements, illustriousness, etc. goes into the process that leads to the award of Nigeria's national honour. Put differently, it does not appear that the National Awards Committee were fully guided by, in the words of President Yar'Adua, "faithfulness to the principles of integrity and scrupulous adherence to the pursuit of excellence which underlie the national award scheme". If persons must however be upgraded, this could have been done administratively.

There is even some contradiction in the ranking of these awards vis-?-vis the beneficiaries. More careful attention should be paid to grading and classification.

A National honour in any category is the highest form of recognition that a people, as represented by their government can give for distinguished service in the interest of the Common Good. It must not be dispensed as a means of political patronage or reward for being close to the corridors of power, or loyalty to narrow causes. And there is no law that compels the Federal government to give out so many awards, every single year.

National honours should be given with "the greatest sense of responsibility and to persons who have shown towards society, the utmost sense of belonging and altruism." To identify such persons, the proposed research-oriented search committee should look beyond retired and serving public officers, and cover otherwise overlooked stakeholders and constituencies in society who are nevertheless contributing to the making of the Nigerian story. The true value of a national award, or indeed, any award, is the respect accorded -or denied - it by the larger citizenry.

What kind of Christmas?

TO many Nigerians, the Christmas period is a season of celebrations when loved ones reunite, communities engage in cultural activities and festivities, families remember their dead by means of memorial services, and many intending couples fix their marriage solemnisations in order to attract high turn-out. This is also a period when people catch a physical glimpse of old friends who they have not seen for quite a while and exchange of gifts, cook-outs, barbeques, etc mark such gatherings and reunions. In the spirit of the seasons, people go out of their way to do some home makeover, do shopping for new clothes, adorn their houses and surroundings with Christmas trees and lights, and literally burn out every savings they have made since the year began.

This is also a period of high social events like coronation ceremonies and chieftaincy conferment while money hunts in form of launchings/fund raising for different projects take the centre stage. Communities especially in the part of Igboland where I come from, revive their age-long cultural festivals like the Ekpe and Ikoro dances. In the midst of these celebrations, people find time as well to indulge in orgies and moral recklessness thereby leaving in the wake of the New Year, a high incidence of unwanted pregnancies and contraction of deadly diseases like the dreaded HIV/AIDS. In the name of this season, people engage in many nefarious activities just to be like others in terms of materialism hence, increased cases of armed robbery, abduction, burglary, fraud and all forms of petty thieving simply because, everybody wants to celebrate the season as a 'big boy' or a 'big chick'. Most of the owners of flashy cars that will adorn the roads this season do not have any visible means of livelihood and one wonders where the proceeds came from. Most of the girls that will get pregnant will not even be able to tell the actual paternity of their unborn babies because it was difficult to keep count of partners in the fun-crime.

At this juncture, it will be pertinent to ask: are all these done in the spirit of Christmas? If so, what then is the meaning of Christmas? It is heart-rending to see that Christmas has been so bastardised that it has almost lost its original essence. We rather see Christmas as a season of the year rather than the birth of the Messiah that it is. We celebrate with utmost ignorance of the reason for the season. We relegate Jesus Christ to the oblivion of our memories while we relish in things that would ordinarily be considered as a desecration of the season by the Author of the season. We revel and engage in so much debauchery than we ever do at other times of the year forgetting the fact that what makes Christmas tick is not the amount of fun we have but the reality that the child Christ came to bestow on us an unprecedented, unconditional love. He chose to forfeit the glory of heaven just to bring us back into a relationship with the Father, a relationship that was lost by our forebears - Adam and Eve. It is this advent of Christ that gradually culminated in the suffering at Golgotha which ultimately brought us the glorious hope that we have today - the hope of eternal bliss in His presence.

If only we can take a moment and ask ourselves what the essence of Christmas is and how best to celebrate Him rather than how to celebrate it. Does He not desire that we, at this period, revisit our relationship with Him, make amends where needed, visit the orphans, the prisoners, the less privileged, the sick, the helpless elderly, the dying and the lost? Should we not at this time try to take stock of our lives to see if we are at peace with Him as well as revisit our broken relationships with a resolve to rebuild them? Have we forgotten so soon that we are only living a borrowed life that can be surrendered to the real owner at His bidding and time? Will everybody that will hit the roads this season come back alive? Certainly not! Some will not even make it to their final destinations while some will not see the end of the celebrations and others, will surrender just on their way back to business as usual. If and when this happens to us, what will become of our eternity? Does it mark the end of business as usual for others simply because we are no more? Certainly not! Life continues for others as they make their way gradually to the exit point as well.

My beloved, it is so easy to whisk away the message in this piece but before you do, put yourself in the shoes of this season's would-be deceased and imagine how many of their dreams and aspirations will die while the Nunc Dimitis is played at their grave side. The real reason for this season is Jesus the Christ and He desires to take the centre stage of our celebrations deserves to be the centre-piece of our dreams and life goals. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Peace upon earth and goodwill to men!!!

Remembering Demas Akpore

ON December 26, 2008, people of goodwill shall gather in Ughelli for a memorial lecture in honour of Chief Demas Akpore, one time Deputy Governor of the Old Bendel State (1979-1982), the greatest Orogun son in modern times, and one of the most selfless Nigerians that ever lived. He rose through dint of hard work to overcome daunting existential obstacles to write his name, and that of the entire Orogun in the chronicle of humanity. He gave the greatest legacy any man could give to another when he personally built Orogun Grammar School in 1966. The height of his public record came when he became the first Deputy Governor of Bendel State in 1979.

One of my earliest childhood book encounters that is yet to be lost to the vagaries of memory was the one I had of the late Chief Demas Onoliobakpovwa Akpore, then His Excellency and Deputy Governor. That encounter took place on the pages of my primary five social studies textbook. The year was 1982. Chief Demas Akpore dominated the consciousness of children of my generation in the early eighties. He was a much-talked about personality in positive and superlative terms. He was to some of us a symbol of hope and regeneration albeit undefined in our then callow minds.

My next symbolic encounter with Chief Akpore was again on the illuminating pages of a book entitled: The Good Student written by the educationist per excellence Edwin Oruma in 1984, my first year in secondary school. The book was made a compulsory read for my generation of students. In a chapter entitled: "The Dignity of Labour" the author cited the example of Chief Demas Akpore who together with a handful of pioneer students built what is now Orogun Grammar School, Orogun in 1966. Chief Akpore and his team with machetes, spades, wheelbarrows, cleared the forest, dug and laid foundations, erected blocks and did everything including mortgaging his future finances to build the school for his people.

Chief Demas Onoliobakpovwa Akpore was born in April 1928 in Warri. A descendant of redoubtable Orogun ancestry, the young Demas attended the Christ Missionary School in Warri for his elementary education. When the prestigious Government College Ughelli was founded in 1945, Demas was among the pioneering students, and it is on record that he was the third student to enrol. His potentials as an academic wizard and a great leader of men blossomed at Government College. After Ughelli he proceeded to the then University College, Ibadan to study the then doyen of all disciplines, Classics. His decade at Ibadan also saw Bola Ige, Gamaliel Onosode, Iyalla Joseph Iyalla, Christopher Okigbo, among other cerebral geniuses reading Classics. Demas, we were told, was non-pareil. He wrote and spoke Latin as if it was the language of his forebears.

Having deconstructed Graecoromen Scholarship at Ibadan, Demas sailed across seven seas to the Western world in search of more knowledge. He berthed at the University of British Columbia to study for a Master of Arts Degree in Classics. He graduated with Distinction in 1958! Demas returned home to render selfless service to his fatherland just getting ready to get sovereignty from British rule.

One his return to Nigeria he became the Principal of United College of Commerce in Warri. His most historic moment in the annals of education was soon to follow. In 1966, enraptured by the dignity of labour he single-handedly founded Orogun Grammar School. He was inspired by a mission which was to bring education to his people. That mission was powered by a vision which held that only through education can a people be fully emancipated. When in the early 1970s, his alma mater Government College Ughelli was in dire straits, it was Chief Demas Akpore that was beckoned at to restore the school to the path of greatness. Thus in 1972 he became the first old boy to be Principal of the school. He was a disciplinarian, exemplary teacher, great sportsman and motivator of people. He took the college to the peak of glory.

By 1978 when partisan politics was given the nod, Chief Akpore pitched his tent with the progressive Unity Party of Nigeria, led by the sage Papa Obafemi Awolowo. However, this was not Akpore 's first foray into politics. He was indeed a nationalist who distinguished himself in the Zikist Movement. He had in the First Republic attained political visibility when he played the enfant terrible and neutralised the unholy alliance between the NCNC and NPC. He emerged from the schism a hero and eventually championed the formation of the Midwest Democratic Front (MDF). Chief Akpore was an intellectual and philosopher in politics. He was cultured beyond his time. In league with Ambrose Alli, Bola Ige, Michael Ajasin, Bisi Onobanjo, Lateef Jakande, under the patriarchal tutelage of Papa Awolowo, Akpore used his erudition, energy and will power to expand the frontier of progressive ideals. But, the Nigerian turf could be traitorous to good men, and soon some of Chief Akpore's party men started scheming to undo him. He resigned his post as Deputy Governor in 1982.

Chief Akpore's credentials bestrode Africa. He was a consummate Pan-Africanist who was at home with Jomo Kenyatta (after whom he named his first son), Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Nwalimu Julius Nyerere, Leopold Seda Senghor, Sekou Toure, and other flag-bearers of African Liberation. Chief Akpore's involvement in Pan-Africanism went beyond contact with the proponents of the concept. He read so much about Pan-Africanism, and also wrote several tours de force.

Unlike many of his contemporaries Chief Akpore was incorruptible. The story was told of a Lebanese contractor who offered to build him a mansion in Lagos or Warri or any place of his choice. Chief Akpore politely refused. He had only two houses, his country bungalow in Orogun and a storey building built through mortgage loan in Warri. He was a decent man, too decent and too ideal for his Nigeria. When the military regime arrested and jailed thieving politicians in 1984, Chief Akpore was apologised to for being invited for interrogation after investigations revealed that he was as clean as a whistle.

He was a great family man. Together with his wife Mrs. Grace Akpore, they bore six children, Stella, Jomo, Boye, Kevwe, Enaite and Newman. Boye went the way of Bola Ige, A.K. Dikibo, Harry Marshall among other victims of politically motivated killing. Chief Akpore was a great musician, deft with the use of both hands. Nevertheless, inspite of Chief Akpore's enduring and endearing sacrifices a tiny but vicious cabal in the society plotted his undoing. He was brutally attacked in December 1982. He was not to fully recover. He struggled to live and shame his detractors. His will power saw him through eleven years before he succumbed to the cold hands of death one winter afternoon in Illinois on December 28, 1993.

Men like Chief Demas Akpore do not die in the hearts and minds of men humanity. Chief Akpore lives in Orogun Grammar School. He lives in the heart of every child and man or woman who passed through the portals of that school. He lives in the many treatises he wrote. As we attend the memorial lecture a few days. Hence, let all especially the present brigade of capering, cavorting, yodeling and light-fingered politicians who toy with our future imbibe the many lessons inherent in Chief Akpore's story. Leadership is not about stealing or personal aggrandizement. It is about service to humanity. We have had enough of political chicanery and visionlessness in this land. Let us think critically, and remap our future as we gather in Ughelli remembering Demas Akpore.

Xmas, dons and other matters

IT'S time again to celebrate Christmas, a season like no other, for its universality. More importantly, it would be time to celebrate Jesus, literally the greatest brand in the world. There's something unique about the season that seems to make it so special to humankind, adults and children alike - the year-end activities, festivities, the spiritual content, change in weather, discounted sales by businesses and other factors. By about December 15, the hustle and bustle in towns and cities are enough signs that Christmas is in the air, preceded by the Thanksgiving festivity in the United States. Many companies too wind down at that time of the year to take stock. For kids and the parents, there's always an unwritten rule that the former must update the wardrobe by at least a piece of whatever material, to make a difference among peers.

For many, travel to the native place used to be the norm. But then, things were relatively and economically more convenient. Not any more. They have been so traumatised by economic meltdowns at every level that all they do is to live for the day. The present is so bleak they don't even want to contemplate tomorrow for some fleeting moments; they only hang on to hope which is always deferred. The essence of Christmas is lost on them because the season is not accompanied by the expected joy. Even if it comes for some, it soon fades away like the morning dew.

Times like these try men's souls. Against our wills, we, the people, have been forced to a situation we are compelled to celebrate this season of goodwill in darkness because some faceless people have mismanaged the huge resources once allocated to boost electricity throughout the country. Worse still, our representatives in Abuja who investigated and submitted reports on how the allocated funds disappeared are no longer bothered about what happened to their findings even though the people are still much interested in knowing the truth and their oppressors. A culture of silence is being nurtured gradually to cover up suspected misdeeds.

Over the years, quite a number of us have made it a tradition to return home to reconnect with our roots and acquaintances. That tradition is seriously threatened not because Nigerians are tired of travelling but because the roads have become death traps. If many of the travellers manage to overcome the ordeals, there is the problem of time it takes to get to the destination. It is also assumed that there would always be plenty to eat and drink for everybody in the spirit of the season but it has remained at the level of assumption. Things are so difficult for most families that there is not enough to share again.

Yet, by God's design, Nigeria is a land of plenty, one in which her citizens have no business to beg for food. But that is the reality. Our leaders are virtually vision-less, only self-serving. That leadership touch has been the missing link in the nation's affairs and regrettably would continue to be until the system throws up a man or woman of character who is worthy to take the people to that promise land. Not jokers or peddlers of penury who see the exalted seats of power as birth rights for a minimum of 60 years. They are mere men without honours.

Since inception in 1963, no fewer than 3,447 persons have been decorated with national honours in recognition of their contributions to, and faith in the enterprise called Nigeria. That is commendable. But it is doubtful if a few names that featured here and there actually deserved to be recognised although that is a matter for another day. It may interest the committee saddled with screening and recommending potential recipients that there are people of lesser status in the society who have equally done marvellous things to lift their country's image positively. In this light the government may to consider a sub-committee to monitor events all the year round and to search diligently around the country to make a case for such persons who don't have people to recommend them for honours. The dragnet must be spread wider than what obtains at present. This I think is what President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua meant as he urged the committee to uphold the principles of integrity and scrupulous adherence to the pursuit of excellence.

Last weekend was the 36th convocation ceremony of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife. The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr Goke Adegoroye, who represented Yar'Adua as the visitor to the institution in a speech purportedly given by the president lashed university teachers for alleged corruption plaguing the academic system and sexual harassment of female students by some of the dons. The speech had alleged that some lecturers collect monetary reward from students - about N250,000 in return for unmerited grades.

The bombshell was almost becoming a statement of truth until the president, himself a member of the constituency, disowned the speech. Had he not done this, one would have thought that Yar'Adua has seen a lot while he was in the system to make such declarations. But Adegoroye too was reportedly once in the system. So, the smoke from Adegoroye must have come from a sure fire.

It would be unacceptable to totally throw away his claims. It is not impossible he has one or two evidences to back up the claim. I was expecting the teachers to fight back almost immediately but that won't be necessary again as the president has saved the permanent secretary and the government the embarrassment of providing evidence. Let's face it, Adegoroye might not be totally off course or blabbing. The allegation of corruption can not be proved easily but we have seen instances of female students who have been so harassed coming out in the open to expose some lecturers. A general interest national publication Daily Sun once published the case of a student who was forced to set up a Lagos State University(LASU) lecturer in an hotel where they fixed as the meeting point. Of course, the randy lecturer was caught, pants down. Photographs they say don't lie because the images were telling enough.

The permanent secretary may have been indiscreet in presenting a speech that was not vetted. That was unfortunate. But he has provided a lead for the government to work upon. That could save the majority of the dons in the academic world still with integrity the seeming blanket accusation Adegoroye made at Ile Ife.

Power indeed is transient. Or how else do we describe the lot of Fani-Kayodes, the el-Rufais and before them the Ribadus of this world? These are some of the men of yesterday who held power as a matter of life and death for their mentor. Can you imagine a one time special adviser on public communications whose verbal assaults on critics of his master almost became issues for psychiatrists to examine or a minister of the FCT who does the master's bidding of unwittingly pulling down structures of certain institutions like AIT in the guise of contravention of planning laws. Why are they all now targets of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),an agency of government once headed by one of those under the searchlight? They all probably forgot tomorrow could come. That is a lesson for incumbents of the offices.

Kidnappers are gradually turning the country into a place of fear, and themselves into a terror force that cannot be tamed, just like the so-called militants in the creeks. What could an eighty-two year-old man have done to warrant murder after he was kidnapped, in anticipation of a ransom. But that is the trauma they have inflicted on the Odivwri family in Emonu Orogun in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State. Octogenarian Chief Jacob Odivwri Edjesa had his head smashed with a sharp object according to his family who said the body was discovered later in the neighbourhood. But who are the kidnappers trying to settle scores with? The nation needs a tough sanction against this madness, and urgently too.