22032021 - Govs, APC, PDP, othersrally against attack on Ortom

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16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com The truth in the DNA of falsehood BANDITS have taken over parts of the country, especially the North West, in a determined effort to make banditry the most lucrative industry in the country. While they are united in their efforts and are growing bolder, the governors of the states are divided. Some governors see the bandits as victims of ethnic cleansing, others argue that there should be negotiations, amnesty and compensation for them. However, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, disagrees, arguing that bandits are criminals who must face the wrath of the law and justice. He said rather than negotiating with them, bandits and other criminal elements “must be degraded and decimated to a state of unconditional submission to constituted authority”. His submitted that criminal gangs, bandits, insurgents and ethno-religious militias in making a conscious decision to challenge the country’s sovereignty and terrorise the citizenry must be wiped out immediately and without hesitation. He says banditry has driven farmers from their land, putting food security at risk, displaced PDF Compressor Free Version communities, stolen property and deprived people of their right to life and that a stop must be put to these criminal acts so the people can live in peace. To achieve these objectives, El- Rufai advocates better training and equipment for the security forces, increasing their numbers, upgrading them technologically and modernising their armaments. He argued that the security of communities depends on the robust projection of state power and the ability to overawe and deter criminals. He emphasised that: “The prerogatives of the state need to be asserted, not merely proclaimed. The people we put in uniform must never be placed in avoidable danger, outgunned or outnumbered by non-state actors.” He also made the sensible argument that policing a large country like Nigeria with a 923,768 square-kilometre landmass in a unitary manner is not pragmatic. So, the establishment of state police and other levels of policing, is inevitable. He regretted the lack of synergy among the governors in the North West on how to fight banditry, pointing out that a: “State like Zamfara adopted a policy of dialogue with the gunmen, giving them amnesty, which I don’t believe in. With this, we have differences on how to tackle the situation.” He submits that: “It is deceitful to believe that a person who is now counting millions as gains from ransom will embrace dialogue and return to his previous lifestyle where he saw little money occasionally.” He warned his fellow governors who are prevaricating that if they do not unite and let the Federal Government provide the states with soldiers and police to go after the bandits in the forests and Should El-Rufai’s position be taken on face value when less than five years ago he had a completely different position? eliminate them, it will be difficult to defeat banditry. I was so enamoured with El- Rufai’s principled, foresighted and statesmanly position that I almost hit the road to Kaduna to go shake his hand, salute his courage and pledge my support. The only restraint was that owing to activities of bandits on the Abuja- Kaduna highway, I needed to go into days of fasting and prayers. Then, doubts started creeping in; should El-Rufai’s position be taken on face value when less than five years ago he had a completely different position? In 2016 as bandits ravaged Kaduna State, El-Rufai as the governor rather than use or rely on the security forces to restore law and order, choose to negotiate and pay off the killers, in some cases sending state funds to pay them in neigbouring countries. He told journalists this rather bizarre story himself: “For Southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (retd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post-election violence. "Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains start around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries. "Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them. Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle. So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge. So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria... "We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing. "In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some.” There is no record that like the foreign herders, he also paid the local farmers and citizens, some of who were also killed with their farms and homes destroyed. The identity of the killers El-Rufai paid and how much they were paid is not certain. It is also not known if they used the so-called compensation to buy more arms. However, what is certain is that the terror <strong>attack</strong>s did not abate. So which of the El-Rufai positions is his true position? Is it the one five years ago when he presented the bandits as victims for whom he crossed borders into countries like Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal not only to ask them to forgive Nigerians, but also pay them to stop coming to kill Nigerians, or what he is espousing now which is that these killers are mere criminals with whom there should be no negotiations, no amnesty given and no ransom paid? Did he have a change of mind, in which case he needs to so express and explain why? I think as humans, we can make mistakes, but he should own up to his mistakes and not to act as if this has always been his position. I am trying to work out in my mind whether El-Rufai’s current position that banditry should be taken headlong and stamped out is a principled one or one dictated by the 2023 presidential election which he is rumoured to be interested in either as candidate or running mate. If you know the truth, please tell us. The changing face of Awka By EJIKE ANYADUBA UNTIL the inception of the Obiano administration, not much, in terms of development, was seen in Awka. Previous administrations in the state seemed concerned with efforts to improve development in other sectors of the economy with little or no attention to structural deficit in the state capital. For a time the state of infrastructural decay in Awka seemed certain of continuing unabated. The road to its attaining the status of a capital city became one hell of a winding path. Awka was so barren of growth that it almost became a byword for stagnation and underdevelopment. State capitals created alongside it took time to develop while it stalled. Landmark projects were virtually non-existent. It was so bad that travellers - even passersby - claimed they passed Awka unnoticed. At a point journalists from Lagos who were in Anambra State for official assignments expressed the same concern about the bleakness and lifelessness of the capital city. In almost one breath, they asked where the state capital is. To rub it in, when they arrived Onitsha North council headquarters they declared it as more befitting of a State House. It took almost a rehash of the story of large scale destruction of government properties, including the State House sometime in 2003, to explain away the poor condition of Awka. As was expected very few of them were taken in by the explanation. Most demurred and dismissed the story as lacking in merit. The story of Awka capital city was one told with a tinge of regret. Perhaps, a lot of people took for granted that the capital of Anambra State must rank among the best in the country. Unfortunately, that was never the case as the famed blacksmith town tottered in progressive decline. Policy framework of the previous administrations appeared not to favour development of Awka just as some known factors also militated <strong>against</strong> it. Neither its prime location (Awka is located midway between Enugu and Onitsha) nor its rich history as an administrative centre for the defunct colonial administration in the East could advance its fortune. But more than that, private developers (at least Anambra has a surfeit of them) appeared unimpressed with the idea of pitching development in the town. Lack of physical infrastructure, Even if everybody will not admit the effort of this government in changing the face of Awka, it will be churlish of any to <strong>attack</strong> that effort insecurity of life and property as well as land racketeering contributed to deny Awka the attention of investors. What is more, a good number of potential developers headed west and pitched tent in Asaba. The hope of developing the fledgling capital has been dashed. However, nothing lasts forever. The problems are gradually easing off. The decisiveness of the Obiano government in handling the situation has ensured gradual, but steady development of what should be one of Nigeria's foremost state capitals. It can be said with a measure of pride that no traveller can claim to pass Awka again without noticing it. A change has occurred that nestled Awka on a comfortable range among the best in Nigeria. But for the speed of transformation, many would have dismissed the governor’s promise of transforming the state as a political talk. Truth is that he is yet to renege on the promise he made to ndi Anambra when inaugurating members of the board of Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, ACTDA, early in his administration. Among other things he charged the board to draw up a capital city that would favourably compete with the best in the country. So far, three state-of-the art bridges have been built in Awka to alleviate severe traffic situation in the town and for aesthetics. The bridges were designed with floodlights that illuminate dark ends of Arroma junction and beyond. Elsewhere in the capital city, a 1000-seater International Conference Centre is nearing completion, as is the Awka International Stadium complex. Even with a surfeit of sports men and women the state has no standard stadium. A lot of interconnecting roads within the capital city like Esther Obiako, Ifite, Stamford, Ekwueme were reconstructed with beautiful kerb sides to give access to otherwise inaccessible areas and to take traffic off problem points. The State House was also refurbished to reflect the authority it wields in the political administration of the state. New estates are also emerging either at the instance of the government or in partnership with private developers. The icing on the cake was lightning up the entire capital city through installation of streets lights. This has returned night life which died with years of violent crime in the state. Economic activities have since moved some notches higher with new areas like Club Road offering social and economic services all through the night. Arroma and Government House, two areas known for fruit markets, have also witnessed a burst of nocturnal activities. Greengrocers now defy time to stay up the night to ply their trade. It has been argued that but for the uncommon commitment of the Obiano government to change the face of Awka, the capital city will still be without marked distinction. If the administration did not insulate itself from the disease of procrastination as seemed the tradition, Awka would still look like a glorified local council headquarters. It did not just rouse itself from the infectious indifference, but it has worked its hands off to sustain the development effort on the double. By March of next year when the government would have completed its two terms of eight years, Awka, the blacksmith town, hopes to develop to a certain level where no one, be they in favour or <strong>against</strong>, will dismiss Awka as less of a state capital. Regardless, more effort should go into renewal of the city in order to move it to the level that befits the quality of human capital that composes the state. With the interest shown in building up the city, it does not seem subsequent administrations will treat the capital city with levity. Awka has come to take its place and favourably compete with others noted for their excellence. Even if everybody will not admit the effort of this government in changing the face of Awka, it will be churlish of any to <strong>attack</strong> that effort. Truth is that the administration has shown uncommon statecraft in attending to all aspects of the state economy under an excruciating economy. If progress were the reason behind the clamour for the creation of Anambra State, it behoves everybody, including naysayers, to commend government effort evident in virtually every aspect of the economy. The Obiano government has demonstrated both in speech and in action that it is determined to leave the state better than it met it. It only needs support to finish strong. •Anyaduba, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Abatete, Anambra State C M Y
Vanguard, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021 — 17 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com NOBODY will live forever. There is a time and a season for everything under the sun, says the Preacher. A time to be born and a time to die. John Magufuli, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, passed away on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 after a protracted illness. He was aged 61. His deputy, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has been sworn in as his successor; the first woman in the country’s illustrious post-independence history. He had not been seen in public for about a month. It was rumoured that he had contracted the evil virus; but it transpires that he died of a cardiac arrest. He had been battling with a heart condition for years. It is the end of an era. John Magufuli was one of the most outstanding leaders of our New Africa, alongside Festus Mogae, Meles Zenawi, Pedro Pires, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Joaquim Chissano, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Paul Kagame. Tanzanians have been thrown into mourning. It is rare for ordinary people to speak of an African leader with genuine love in their hearts. Niccolo Machiavelli recommended that if a prince has to choose between being loved and being feared, he would be wise to choose the latter. Most of our leaders are more feared than loved by their citizens. Magufuli was a rare exception in this regard. He was a genuine servantleader who was truly beloved by the ordinary wananchi of Tanzania. But he was also feared – some would say, reviled — by elites who PDF Compressor Free Version Magufuli as a servant-leader live in gilded privilege by sucking the blood of the people. He was following in the footsteps of the founding-father of Tanzania, the illustrious Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922—1999). Scholar, statesman and pan-African socialist, Mwalimu Nyerere was a humble and incorruptible statesman. He gave Tanzanians a sense of genuine pride in their nationhood. Tanzania today is different from neighbouring Kenya where ethnic animosities are bitter and toxic. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was born in Chato district on the shores of Lake Victoria on October 29, 1959. He came from humble stock. During the campaign trail in 2015, he declared: “Our home was grassthatched, and like many boys, I was assigned to herd cattle, as well as selling milk and fish to support my family…. I know what it means to be poor. I will strive to help improve people’s welfare”. A school teacher by training, he studied Education and Science at University Dar es Salaam, earning a doctorate in Chemistry in 2009. After a stint in teaching, he joined the Nyanza Cooperative Union as an industrial chemist during 1989- 1995. He successfully stood for election as MP for Chato under the platform of the ruling Chamacha Mapinduzi (CCM). His abilities caught the attention of the then President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, who appointed him to a succession of ministerial cabinet positions: Lands, Livestock and Fisheries; Works, Transport and Communications. Magufuli gave Tanzanians renewed confidence in their sense of nationhood; he left the scene at a time when things were looking up and the country was poised to register bigger milestones in economic development senteeism that had been so rife among civil servants. That same week he announced a blanket ban on all foreign travels for public servants in order to conserve scarce foreign exchange; saving in the process as much as $430 million for the treasury in 2017 alone. He also scrapped the rather costly traditional Independence Day celebrations that hold every December 9. He declared it, instead, as a day for cleaning up the country. He was often seen picking up rubbish outside State House in the capital In July 2015, he won the CCM presidential primaries <strong>against</strong> rivals Asha-Rose Migiro, former UN Deputy Secretary-General and veteran diplomat Amina Salum Ali. He went on to clinch the national elections and was sworn in as the fifth President of Tanzania on November 5, 2015. He won a second five-year term in October 2020, under circumstances that were somewhat more controversial. It was claimed that opposition groups were muzzled and that the elections were marred by a general “climate of fear”. One of the first decisions he took as president was to slash his own monthly salary from $15,000 to $4,000. On his first day in office, he made a surprise visit to the Ministry of Finance to find out how many people had actually turned up for work. He made it clear that he would not brook the traditional abof Dar es Salaam. He said it was unseemly to spend so much on mere festivities “when our people are dying of cholera”. He also trimmed the cabinet from 30 to 19 ministers. Magufuli was nicknamed “the bulldozer” because of his prowess in infrastructural development – highways and bridges, port facilities, aviation, energy, mining and railways. But he was also not one to shy away from controversy. He was criticized for human rights abuses by Amnesty International and others. Churches and civil society groups cried foul about the alleged muzzling of opposition voices. In July 2016, he banned shisha smoking, pointing to its bad effects on the youths. He upheld the legislation on a 30-year jail term for same-sex liaisons. He expelled groups campaigning for LGBTQ rights. A devout Catholic, the late president was also staunchly opposed to abortion and family planning. He accused those opting for family planning of being “lazy” and not wanting to “work hard to feed a large family”. He was also a contrarian regarding COVID-19, which he dismissed as a global scam. When the first test kits were brought to Dar es Salaam, he had them secretly tested on goats and chickens. When a goat tested positive, he was derisive. He was also opposed to the generalised lockdown, especially on places of worship. He was quoted as saying: “Corona is the devil and it cannot survive in the body of Jesus”. To his last day, he continued advocating for home-grown steam and herbal remedies, including the concoction from Madagascar. Magufili was among a new breed of African leaders who do not suffer from the innate inferiority complex that afflicts many of our people when they are faced with our new Roman proconsuls. He must have inevitably made powerful enemies within and outside Tanzania. He expelled the UNDP Country Representative. He denounced the EU-East African trade deal as a form of “neocolonialism”. The EU broke diplomatic relations and stopped bilateral aid. In 2017, he accused the British gold-mining company, Acacia, of tax evasion, slamming an unprecedented tax bill of $190 billion after 250 of their containers were intercepted at the port in Dar es Salaam. The company settled for a payment of $300 million as well as concession of a 16% stake for the government. The government passed a new law empowering it to terminate or renegotiate a mining contract in the event of proven fraud. Magufuli famously dismissed the offer of a $10 billion Chinese loan with a remark that only a “madman” could accept the terms. The late president scores high on macroeconomic management. Tanzania for decades operated a poverty-stricken, centralised command economy. He successfully engineered a new prosperity. Economic growth averaged nearly six percent annually. He gave Tanzanians renewed confidence in their sense of nationhood. He left the scene at a time when things were looking up and the country was poised to register bigger milestones in economic development. In defending the honour of Tanzania and the dignity of our glorious continent, Magufuli undoubtedly incurred the wrath of powerful enemies from within and outside his country. No man is perfect. The highest wisdom of statecraft is to know that even the saint will occasionally get his hands dirty. Magufuli was no saint. But he was the quintessential servant-leader. He served his people with compassion and justice. According to Joseph Warioba, a former Prime Minister, Magufuli could easily have become one of the richest men in Tanzania. But it is to his eternal credit that he never succumbed to that temptation. He lived a strenuous and austere life, like a Trappist Monk. God and History will absolve him. His will be a rest of the righteous and the just. Is the future of our educational system not imperiled? By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE NOBODY can gainsay the fact that education is the bedrock of national development, globally. Any nation-state that is keen on and desirous of achieving sustainable economic growth and technological advancement should place much premium on issues bedeviling its educational system. The super power countries which have military might, economic wealth and technological culture, have great educational institutions. And their schools are bastions of scientific knowledge and studies in the arts and humanities. Regarding countries with great schools, America readily comes to my mind. Doesn’t it have Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others? And, in England, there is the Oxford University. Now, some Asian countries have evolved their technological culture with help and inputs from their universities. And their scholars have formulated variants of democracy that suit their respective countries’ cultural peculiarities. National development is dependent on functional educational system. Not surprisingly, Nigeria brings up the rear on the ladder of global national development chiefly because of its dysfunctional educational system. It is an irrefutable fact that there is a correlation between the growth of a country and the effectiveness of its educational system. Until the mid-1980s, universities in Nigeria used to be the educational Mecca for foreign students who sought quality education. However, the rot in our educational system as well as the dip in the quality of education obtainable in our schools came in the wake of the military adventurism. We still remember how a military dictator deported Dr.Patrick Wilmot, a lecturer at Ahmadu Bello Universtity, Kaduna to his home country. Other progressive-minded intellectuals and lecturers were hounded out of the country too. The brain-drain that ensued in Nigeria became the brain-gain of many European countries, Canada and America. Now, from Asia to Antarctica and from Europe to America, many topnotch doctors, lawyers, lecturers, scientists and astronauts, who are contributing meaningfully to the development of their host countries, hail from Nigeria. Back home in Nigeria, our academics and scientists in the citadels of learning do dish Education should take its pride of place in Nigeria as only skillful and knowledgeable people can drive our national developmental initiatives out recycled 30-year old lecture notes to their students, not to talk of their pushing back the frontiers of knowledge in their areas of specialisation. But the lecturers’ lack of creativity and lukewarm attitude to their jobs are caused by the government’s utter and criminal neglect of the educational sector which has become both normative and phenomenal. Luckily, and thankfully too, some corporate organisations have instituted prizes to honour and reward secondary school teachers who are outstanding in their core duties of moulding the personalities of students and imparting knowledge and skills to them. Gone are the days when people would always say that teachers’ rewards are in heaven. But we are not unconscious of the stark fact that giving teachers prizes is an incentive and recognition that will boost their morale and spur them to give their best. And it should be noted that since 2015, the Nigerian Breweries Plc, the organisation that instituted the Maltina Teacher of the Year Prize, has been honouring and rewarding teachers yearly for their splendid performances in the field of teaching. In the maiden edition of the Nigerian Breweries Plc Maltina Teacher of the Year Competition, Rose Nkem Obi, a selfeffacing petite Chemistry teacher from Federal Government Girls’ College Nkwelle-Ezunaka, won the national teaching diadem. Mrs. Obi attributed her victory to a blend of her faith in God and sedulous disposition. She said that her winning the teaching diadem has boosted her enthusiasm for teaching and given her a huge voice to offer suggestions to government at different levels on how to revamp our comatose educational system. Her winning the award gave her an opportunity to undergo an educational programme at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, where she was taught effective methodologies of teaching. Lately, I visited her at Federal Government Girls’ College, Nkwelle- Ezunaka, and she offered her suggestions on how we can tackle our educational problems. “Our school curricula should be expanded to include skill acquisition programmes/courses into them, and what is not necessary should be removed from the curricula," she said. I concur with her on this as students who are equipped with practical skills can deploy them in doing jobs from which they can eke out their existence. Again, regarding the welfare of postprimary school teachers in Nigeria, the Federal Government has formulated some educational policies that are designed to better the lot of teachers. But, it seems that only teachers in Federal Government secondary schools will benefit from that welfare package for teachers. Against the background of state governments going cap in hand to solicit money from the centre, can they implement the Federal Government’s newly approved welfare package for teachers? Again, Mrs. Rose Obi, gave her take on the thorny issue: “What is happening in most of the states is mismanagement of funds. If funds are managed properly, the states won’t have problems in paying civil servants their entitlements and salaries. The money used to run political offices is too much; much of it should be channeled into executing educational initiatives." In Nigeria, education is on the concurrent list, which imposes the responsibilities of handling educational matters on both the state and federal governments. But the sad, pitiable and execrable condition of most secondary schools owned by states in Nigeria is a true portraiture of state governments’ utter and criminal neglect of education. And alongside teachers in Federal Government-owned schools, teachers in state-owned secondary schools are poorly remunerated. They receive mere pittance at the end of every month. Political leaders at the state level should know that education is very critical and pivotal to the development of Nigeria. Education should take its pride of place in Nigeria as only skillful and knowledgeable people can drive our national developmental initiatives. No nation desirous of achieving sustainable economic growth and prosperity, and technological advancement neglects the issues troubling its educational system. •Okoye, a poet, wrote from Uruowulu, Obosi, Anambra State C M Y K
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22032021 - Govs, APC, PDP, othersrally against attack on Ortom

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