The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme is yet another master piece and one of the most alluring programmes of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and of course one of the major achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The Programme covers 35 states in Nigeria and the FCT with Bayelsa state getting onboard soon and approximately 9.8 million students in 53,000 public primary schools nationwide, benefitting from the programme annually.
Since 2019 after the establishment of the ministry, the programme outshined every other School feeding programme in Africa by becoming the largest on the continent. The programme has earned accolades for the country and ofcourse the President Muhammadu Buhari administration being the first school feeding programme initiative of the country since 1999. Who would have thought that there will be a day in Nigeria when Federal government will be feeding pupils in public schools? Let me not forget that the meals served to the students is nutritious and programmed to fight malnutrition.
I met a lot of parents back then in 2010 and cautioned them on the negative effects and disadvantages of not enrolling their children in schools. However, my advocacy failed, especially as it applies to girl child education mostly. Their excuse was always not having the resources to enroll their children in schools. They will rather marry off the girls at a very young age and send the boys out on streets to hawk satchet water.
However in 2019, i was assigned on another advocacy to the same locations I went to in 2010 and to my surprise, the school enrollment of each increased by 90%, I thought I was the one that was not doing enough until I met an elderly woman who had five grandchildren all above the ages of 10.
I asked her if their whereabouts and she held my hands and said to me “my son, we have always believed in education but we never had the means of enrolling our children, God has answered our prayers. The government is now feeding our children and it is also saving us money”.
I then realized that the problem had never been educating them because Nigeria has for long, been on free education but the problem rather was strategy used to lure them to benefit from the free education.
The National Home Grown School Feeding programme has not only increased child enrollment in schools. It has made studying easier and fun, fought hunger and malnutrition and also addressed the issue of unemployment by providing more than 107,000 people who serve as cooks with sustainable jobs. When unemployment is addressed, the rate of poverty is also being addressed. In Kano State alone, the number of school enrollment increased from 1.2 million to 2.1 million after the introduction of the programme by Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in the State.
In 2010, the rate of School enrollment in Nigeria was 41.83% but in 2021, the gross enrollment rate in elementary schools in Nigeria stood at 68.3%. It made me say that our advocacy failed but Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development won the hearts of our children with an initiative from a generous woman like Sadiya Umar Farouq- a hot nutritious meal every school day.
The protection of human rights for all and the rule of law is essential to all and sundry, recognizing that the effective counter terrorism measures and the promotion of human rights are not conflicting goals, but complementary and mutually reinforcing.
However, the human cost of terrorism has been felt in virtually every corner of the world. Terrorism distinctly has a very obvious and direct impact on the human rights, with devastating consequences for the enjoyment of the right to life, liberty, and physical integrity of victims. In Addition to these individuals costs, terrorism can disintegrate Governments, undermine civil society, jeopardize peace and security, and even threaten social and economic development. All of these also have a sincere Impact on the enjoyment and freedom of the human rights.
Security of the individual is a basic human right and the protection of individual is, accordingly, a fundamental obligation of Government.
States as well therefore have an obligation to make sure that the human rights of their nations and others are safeguarded and protected by taking positive measures to protect them against the threat of terrorist acts and bringing the perpetrators of such acts to book.
I have been in the world over a decade ago, and in recent years, the measures adopted by states to combat terrorism have evidently posed serious challenges to human rights and the rule of law. Some states have engaged in torture and other Ill treatment to counter terrorism, while the legal and practical safeguards available to prevent torture like regular and independent monitoring of detention centres, have often been disregarded.
Other states have returned persons suspected of engaging in terrorism to countries where they face the Wrath of their life-threatening acts. Thereby, violating the international legal obligation. Moreover, the independence of the judiciary has been undermined in some places , while the use of exceptional courts to try civilians has had an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of regular court systems.
Repressive measures have been used to stifle the voices of human rights, defenders, journalists, minorities, indigenous groups and civil society. Resources normally allocated to social programs and development assistance have been diverted to the security sector, affecting the economic, social and cultural rights of many.
These practices, particularly when taken together, have a corrosive effect on the rule of law, good governance and human rights. They are also counter productive to national and international efforts to fight against terrorism.
Respect for human rights and the rule of law must be the bedrock of the global fight against terrorism. This requires the development of national counter terrorism strategies that seek to prevent acts of terrorism, prosecute those responsible for such criminal acts and foster, promote and protect human rights and the rule of law.
It implies measures to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, including the lack of rule of law and violations of human rights, ethnic, national and religious discrimination, political exclusion, and Socio economic marginalization as the case may be—to encourage the active participation and leadership of civil society; to criticize human rights violations, prohibit them in national law, promptly investigate and prosecute them, and prevent them; and to give due attention to the rights of victims of human rights violations, for instance through restitution and compensation.
What is terrorism?
To my comprehension as a university student,terrorism is commonly understood to the acts of violence that targets civilians in the pursuit of political and ideological aims. In legal terms, although the international community has yet to adopt a universal definition of terrorism, existing declarations, resolutions and universal sectoral treaties relating to specific aspects of it define certain acts and core elements.
According to the United Nation’s Organization, In 1994, the General Assembly Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, set out in its resolution 49/60,stated that terrorism includes criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons as the case may be for political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them.
However, ten years later, the Security Council, in its resolution 1566(2994), referred to criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or persons, intimidate a population or force the Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing the act.
However, In India as a sovereign entity , the laws related to terrorism has immensely affected India. The motive for terrorism in India as a country may be vastly from religious cause and other circumstances like poverty, unemployment and not being developed might also be a major factor as the case may be.
Even in Nigeria, its very unfortunate that terrorism is a common problem affecting the country, despite the effort of the government to stem the tide of terrorism in the country.
Nigeria is among the committee of states in the world bedeviling with terrorism. It has a deadly ideological group called Boko Haram who flagrantly attack their fellow colleagues, be it in the Place of worship, schools, workplace and other strategic locations.
The country needs a rescue mission, and how can that be done? It can only be done through change of power and governance. We need charismatic and altruistic leaders that will see to our cause, and pilot our affairs in a sophisticated and judicious manner.
However, i think what we need now in the country is for youths to take over the mantle of leadership . Subsequently, things might go the way it suppose to go.
Ishowo is a 200L Student of University of llorin, Kwara State.
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that only genuine increment in budgets for education between 20 and 26 per cent by the federal government as spelt out by the United Nations will be the solution to the current impasse with the university system in Nigeria. In this interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, the president of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, argued that introducing school fees would not solve the current crisis. He noted that while Nigeria’s resources are being mismanaged by government officials, education is being given priority in other countries.
Will ASUU consider the introduction of school fees in our universities as a solution since all your demands are financially related, so that they can all be met at once?
ASUU and the travail of Nigerian education Endless strikes: Why FG, ASUU fail to get it right
We will not encourage tuition fees in whatever guise. The government can meet our demands without tuition fees. What is the minimum wage for Nigerians? It is N30,000. If we start to charge N200,000 to N300,000 how will a parent earning N30,000 pay for two children?
It should be noted that education is a right, not a privilege, so we will never go for that! If they like, let them sack all of us.
But in other countries, education is a right only at primary and secondary levels, not at the tertiary level. In fact, some at primary level only. What’s your take on that?
Is that what our constitution states? Besides, the parents of these students are already paying so much. They pay for accommodation because there are no more hostels in universities, they pay for feeding and transport because they are not staying on campus. They pay for everything, including laboratory usage. So why should they pay for tuition again? Can the country afford it? The answer is yes.
How best do you think this current crisis can be handled?
Once the government makes up its mind to prioritise education over other things like other countries in the world, they would fund it. How much is Nigeria trying to borrow to pay for fuel subsidy? It IS $2 billion. You heard it when the minister of finance disclosed it.
What is the way out?
That is what I am saying; fuel subsidy is not something we should be talking about because it doesn’t exist. They said they would borrow $2 billion, which is over N1 trillion, to use on fuel subsidy. The amount that can build a refinery!
We need to amend our laws so that all these oil companies and moribund refineries can be resuscitated, but we want to spend this money on fuel subsidy to feed some prominent people who own oil companies. But we cannot push N200m, which is less than $50 million US on our education. Does it sound right? So, if the leadership of this country prioritises education, we will get it right.
In Ghana, their budget on education is between 15 to 20 per cent of their total, while Nigeria budgets six per cent. Does it make any sense? Not even in the United States where the minimum wage is high. If they try the introduction of tuition fees, children will rise against every person involved.
What are the solutions?
Nigeria should increase her budgetary allocations to what has been recommended by the United Nations Education and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which is 20 to 26 per cent as we have in other countries. Once it is increased to that percentage, it will fund it. That’s all.
In this country, we are aware that the president, Muhammadu Buhari, was in a conference somewhere outside the country and he said that in 2022 he would increase the education budget by 50 per cent, a year later, he said he would increase it by 100 per cent. We all watched him make that promise.
So, what happened this year; instead of increasing it as promised you reduced it. Those are the issues.
How many of your demands have been met out of the ones you listed?
None has been met fully.
Which ones have been met partially?
We want revatilisation of the universities and the government promised that on a yearly basis, as far back as 2013, we shall be receiving N220 billion, which they signed. Since 2014 till today they have only released N70 billion. Between 2014 and today is about eight years.
The last time we met in 2020 they said they would release N30 billion immediately as a sign of commitment to implementing the agreement. That is the commitment out of the N220 billion, but till now, they have not released anything.
Also, we agreed to mainstream Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) so that we will not be talking about it again, and they agreed, as if they would mainstream it in 2020 or 2021. 2021 has come and gone and in 2022, it is not in the budget, and they have done nothing!
They also said they were going to pay our promotion arrears. People were promoted four, five years ago, but till now they just paid few to create the confusion that people have been paid, which is not correct.
The fourth one is that they said they were going to accept the UTAS as an alternative to the IPPIS. It is about 10 months now and the UTAS has not been accepted. They kept on telling lies. We have done tests with them, which were all positive.
But they went to the public to tell lies that the UTAS failed integrity tests. We asked if the IPPIS they are using was even tested, and the answer is no. What they are using was never tested; and they don’t want to test it. We have told them to test the two together and see the one that is better, but they said they should not be addressed like that, just because there are some people feeding on the IPPIS.
All these were said during negotiation. We started this negotiation in 2017. This was an agreement in May 21, 2021; and now, they are telling us that they are going to set up another panel. Does it make sense? Those are the major issues we had in the agreement, and till now, none has been implemented, not even up to 10 per cent. I just pray they can do it within a short period if there is a commitment.
What is your message to students who are now at home?
The struggle is about the Nigerian university system. It is about the future of our students. The government is muting the idea of paying school fees, N1 million per student, then all of them will leave the school.
They should know that what we are fighting for is about them. If we ‘leather our guide’ they will introduce school fees of N1m per student. And you know the implication. How many Nigerian students would be able to afford N1m as school fees?
In Nigeria, politics is one of the most chancy professions. To attain political power, it is a survival of the fittest, politics is evil and money is the root. The routes to political offices are laden with sharp thorns, like the general maxim, one who wants to eat the yoke in the rock would not mind the edge of the axe.
The mantra of no permanent friend; no permanent enemy in politics is no more a convolution. Best friends today become worse enemies tomorrow. Best cliques and caucuses are now subjects of tantrums and ridicule. In politics, eniti ko niya Kii bawon de Igbo, meaning that ‘he who doesn’t have a mother would not follow others to the forest.’ The political forest in Nigeria is thick with conglomerations of malignant apparatus.
The superiority war between Tinubu, Oyeyola, and Aregbesola is not the first of its kind in Nigeria. We have had the case of Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel in Akwa Ibom, we have had the case of Adams Oshiomole and Obaseki in Edo State, we have had of Tinubu and Ambode in Lagos state among many others. These crop of leaders were allies. They wined and dined and took part in the decision-making of their respective states. Unfortunately, their relationship turns sour
One thing that usually stirs the fights between political warriors in Nigeria is superiority war. To political gladiators, the place of the godfather is sacred and should not be tampered with. Once that sacred position is tampered, the war is imminent. For sure, Aregbesola does not want his legacies to be tampered with in Osun State. He wants his one-time chief of staff to continue with all his legacies forgetting that, some policies cannot stand the thirst of time. Now that Oyetola is the number one citizen in the state of Osun, Oyetola as Chief of Staff will be different from Oyetola as Governor. Oyetola has his plans, goals, and agenda to achieve and to achieve them, he has to act like a governor and not as one time Chief of Staff. He did nothing wrong.
In my opinion titled: ‘What Wrong Did Oyetola Do” as published in Nigerian Tribune, I opined that Aregbe should embrace Oyetola’s policies as his idea. The reality remains that Tomorrow’s loyalty is not guaranteed.
The open tantrums and derogatory remarks against Tinubu’s personality by Aregbe was because of Tinubu’s support for Oyetola. Aregbe expects Tinubu to call his cousin to order when he changed some of his legacies. Tinubu’s refusal to caution Oyetola from reviewing some policies spurred the public denigration. Of course, Ogbeni can not deny Tinubu’s impact on his political career but his loyalty to Tinubu stumbled on the way. Aregbe decided to put his strength to test, he sponsored a candidate against Oyetola in primary election and the results were eyesore. Aregbe fought a lost battle as his revered sacred temple is being tampered. Better still, the time is still fresh to retrace his steps. The room for disagreement is allowed. What transpired is one of those things in politics. It is the irony of life.
I am not sure anybody knows what the outcome of these unnecessary conflicts will be. The solution I see is: first, a de-escalation of the conflict, a ceasefire by all sides, including in Eastern Ukraine, and a negotiated settlement… A resuscitation of the Minsk Agreements is a good place to begin. The United Nations (UN) should concentrate on these, rather than hold endless meetings seeking to blame one side or the other.
The eight-year war in Ukraine took a dramatic turn yesterday when Russian troops officially rolled into the country on the side of the separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine. It was also to insist on its position that Ukraine’s decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) threatens Russia’s security.
Ukraine, which since 2014 had declared itself at war with Russia, had on November 25, 2018 sent two gunboats, the Nikopol and the Berdyansk, and a tug boat, the Yani Kapu, into the Kerch Strait in the Crimea to confront the Russian Navy units. However, none of the previous confrontations compares with this week’s military conflicts, which Russia claims is a limited military operation to “demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine” but which the latter says is an outright invasion.
Months of claims by NATO of an impending Russian invasion had been capped this month by the United States deciding to send troops to Romania and Poland. However, events took a dramatic turn on Monday, February 21, when Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called an exraordinary meeting of the country’s security council.
Three things struck me about this meeting. The first was that its deliberations were public. Second, a conclusion that Russia had been pushed to the wall with the infliction of renewed Western sanctions and non-respect of Russian position on the Eastward expansion of NATO.
The third was a complaint about the non-implementation of previous agreements, including the Minsk I &II Protocols designed to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting, therefore, decided to recognise the two breakaway Ukrainian Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The next day, the Russian parliament, the Duma, voted to give Putin permission to use military force outside the country. On Wednesday, Donetsk and Luhansk formally requested that Russian troops be sent into their separatist republics.
The next morning, Russian troops began pouring, not just into the East, but also other parts of Ukraine. Putin’s announced intention is the protection of the civilian populations in the Eastern Region and regime change, while the Ukrainian government said it is an attempt to occupy the country.
American President Joe Biden claimed the Russian attack is “unprovoked”. What is his deploying American troops to the region for, especially Poland, if not provocation? The United States would not have allowed Chinese troops pouring into Mexico or Russia setting up missiles in Cuba; so how does it expect Russia to lie back as it is being surrounded by hostile NATO troops?
A major casualty in the war would be the truth, as all sides rev up their propaganda. Within hours of the attacks, the Ukrainian government announced it had destroyed five Russian war planes and an helicopter. On the other hand, the Russians, who denied the Ukranian claims, announced they had neutralised the Ukranian defence system. Eventually, the truth would lie in the rubbles of the war.
There are various declarations, such as the European Union’s, threatening to impose the “harshest sanctions ever” on Russia. But it is easier for those countries to issue threats from the safety of their countries, while the Ukrainians do the dying and witness their country and economy being destroyed by avoidable wars.
A major casualty in the war would be the truth, as all sides rev up their propaganda. Within hours of the attacks, the Ukrainian government announced it had destroyed five Russian war planes and an helicopter. On the other hand, the Russians, who denied the Ukranian claims, announced they had neutralised the Ukranian defence system. Eventually, the truth would lie in the rubbles of the war.
The wars in Ukraine have their origins in a country polarised between a war-mongering EU/NATO and an edgy Russian bear. The immediate trigger was the 2014 coup against elected President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician from Eastern Ukraine who, back in 2004, had been denied the presidency after winning a runoff.
This time, he was overthrown in a violent coup because his government preferred to sign a trade agreement with Russia, rather than with the EU. For the East Ukrainians who had put their fate in free and fair elections, this second coup against a political leader from their side seemed too much a price to pay and they made a battle cry: ‘To your tents Oh Israel!’
It is that civil war that has now festered into a full scale international war, with the Russians backing the rebels and NATO propping up the government in Kiev.
In my November 30, 2018 analysis of the Ukrainian War titled “Ukraine’s Farcical Drama,” I had written that: “The disputes in Ukraine are likely to go on for a long time, but I think the country shot itself in the foot by using the populace of one part of the country to overthrow the legitimately elected government led by politicians from another part of the country.”
I had argued that the military option adopted by Kiev would not lead to peace and that if Ukraine were to witness peace and reunite, “it may need to consider the restoration of the Yanukovych administration as part of national reconciliation; if this seems far-fetched, so does the reunification of the country.”
But the war on ground would neither be lost nor won on propaganda but by reworking the failed diplomacy that has led to today’s events. It might be fashionable or profitable to blame Russia, but what do you do with the so-called international community that has pretended for eight years that those dying in Eastern Ukraine never existed?
Fortunately, in May 2019, Ukraine was able to replace the infantile, warmongering President Petro Poroshenko with a more sensible President Volodymyr Zelensky who, in the April 21 rerun election, trounced the incumbent by taking 73.22 per cent of the votes, with Poroshenko clinching only 24.45 per cent.
Although a comedian by profession, Zelensky was dead serious about bringing peace. But apparently, the warmongers have had the upper hand and war has not only continued, but escalated. There are lots of propaganda around the conflicts in Ukraine.
But the war on ground would neither be lost nor won on propaganda but by reworking the failed diplomacy that has led to today’s events. It might be fashionable or profitable to blame Russia, but what do you do with the so-called international community that has pretended for eight years that those dying in Eastern Ukraine never existed?
I am not sure anybody knows what the outcome of these unnecessary conflicts will be. The solution I see is: first, a de-escalation of the conflict, a ceasefire by all sides, including in Eastern Ukraine, and a negotiated settlement.
A resuscitation of the Minsk Agreements is a good place to begin. The United Nations (UN) should concentrate on these, rather than hold endless meetings seeking to blame one side or the other. The UN Security Council should be put to better use, rather than turned into a debating club where accusations and counter-accusations fly.
The contending forces in Europe and America are far too gone in their politics of self-justification and blame to be useful in the process. Germany that had hitherto played a more reconciliatory role has now been sucked into the fray.
Perhaps other parts of the world, especially the underdeveloped world, might be more useful. Fortunately, Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is in Moscow; can he begin to lay the foundations for a peaceful resolution? At this time, we miss a leader like Nelson Mandela.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
I had vowed not to write about your presidential ambition yet. I was waiting for the time your protegee, Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor in the lush pasture of politics, would confirm his rife presidential ambition.
Honestly, I had patiently waited and hoped to show why both the lion and the lamb are misfits for the presidential villa located on the granite rock named Aso, derived from Asokoro, the name of the Abuja community.
C’mon, the heartless, hardness and stony imagery of the Aso Rock granite as a corollary to Nigeria’s political barrenness since 1991 when the nation’s capital was moved to Abuja never struck me until this very minute!
Seriously, I’ve never seen it this way before. I mean, I’ve never connected Nigeria’s leadership impotence to the rockiness of the Abuja seat of power. In light of the rocky consequences of Aso Rock, I ask two questions: Is it not a foolish nation that expects its fruitless leaders to germinate inside Aso Rock granitic edifice and produce bountiful harvests? Did the Son of God, Jesus Christ, not specifically warn against the futility of planting on rock?
I earnestly plead that the nation’s presidency should come down from the Asokoro Rock of barrenness and meet the masses on the plains of democratic deliverables, breaking away from the fruitless relocation of the seat of power by the bloody General Ibrahim Babangida, who ran up, tail between legs, to the rock 30 years ago.
Jagaban Borgu, National Leader, Kingmaker and Governor Emeritus, I greet you warmly once again, sir. As soon as 2023 politicking is airborne, I hope to remove the ideological caps worn by two contending Yoruba heads; shave the greyey head with a razor of words and paint the shiny skull with black tar.
However, there’s a matter of urgent national importance needing your quick attention at the moment, the great but waning Lion of Bourdillon, sir. It’s the issue of the Frankenstein monster which people say you bred as a self-preservation strategy. The monster is your son, Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, who has become terror by day and pestilence by night in the Oshodi community especially, and the whole of Lagos, in general.
Asiwaju, sir, I’ve seen many pictures of MC Oluomo hobnobbing with your esteemed self in a father-son relationship since your days as Lagos governor and governor of governors. So, I feel duty-bound to, as a patriotic duty, explain to Nigerians why the killings and violence perpetrated by the National Union of Road Transport Workers in Lagos make you a misfit for Nigeria’s presidency.
The god of Lagos, sir, you must have seen countless viral videos wherein MC Oluomo and his mob of roughnecks worship your holey name, showing off their closeness to the feet of the master, where crumbs fall, and vicious dogs wag their tails.
The closeness of the barbarian MC Oluomo mob to the Throne of Lagos located at 26 Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, probably explains why the state government failed to prosecute NURTW hoodlums who opened gunfire when the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, kicked off his governorship campaign on January 8, 2019, at the Skypower field in Ikeja GRA.
Three journalists, Group Political Editor, The Nation newspapers, Emmanuel Oladesu; New Telegraph correspondent, Temitope Ogunbanke, and Ibile Television cameraman, Abiodun Yusuf, were hit by stray bullets fired by warring NURTW thugs at the campaign.
Three persons died during the gunfire which occurred in the presence of the Lagos APC leadership that included incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, his wife, Bolanle; Sanwo-Olu, APC deputy governorship candidate, Obafemi Hamzat; Lagos State APC Chairman, Tunde Balogun, among other party bigwigs. Stabbed a couple of times in the fracas, the fearless MC Oluomo fled like the Yoruba comedian, Papalolo, his heels touching the back of his head as he escaped death by the skin of his teeth.
Exactly one year after the gunfight at the APC rally, MC Oluomo celebrated his survival in a literary effusion that was clearly not his, saying: “Looking back at that fateful day and the subsequent happenings that followed, I cannot but appreciate a man of many parts that has genuinely taken me as a son. I am referring to no other person than His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. My appreciation also goes to the entire members of Lagos State House of Assembly, APC Lagos State Executives and entire party members.”
Oh, how I breathed a sigh of relief along with your teeming supporters when the authorities of your alma mater, Chicago State University, finally confirmed a few days ago that you truly graduated from their citadel of knowledge with flying colours.
An MC Oluomo, who urged journalists to launch an ‘infestation’ instead of ‘investigation’ into a matter, cannot be the candidate Your Excellency would back for the post of Oba of Oshodi. Sir, if you, as it appears, back MC Oluomo for the post of Oshodi monarch, it means your purported antecedent to headhunt competent hands is a ruse, after all. And this action would confirm the allegation of your legendary penchant to pick and use people for selfish personal interests, and not for public good. After infecting the monarchy in Osun with two misfits, but prominent kings, should the APC, this time in Lagos, inflict royalty with a man of violence? Like the generality of the Nigerian populace, Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu and the APC know that violence and bloodletting are second nature to the NURTW. Just a few days ago, two persons were reportedly killed during a gunfight between two Lagos Island factions of the union headed by Adekunle Lawal aka Kunle Poly and Mustapha Adekunle aka Sagoe. Businesses hurriedly shut down as workers fled to safety in order not to be caught in the crossfire at Idumota and its environs. The actual number of deaths, injuries, economic loss and damage suffered during the bloody crisis has yet to be determined. Sadly, no NURTW member belonging to the killer factions has ever been brought to book over the ceaseless bloodletting wrought across the state.
If violence breaks out in Oshodi with an MC Oluomo as king, who do the blood-thirsty factions report to? To a king who is the head of a ruthless state-backed mafia called transport union?
The enormity of the calamity the Tinubu-led APC has inflicted upon Lagos State through NURTW lawlessness was brought home in March 2018 when a confessed serial killer and member of NURTW, Adeola Williams aka Ade Lawyer, confessed to killing over 100 persons.
Ade Lawyer confessed he was hired by a former Chairman, Lagos NURTW, Akanni Olohunwa, to kill Kunle Poly for a bounty of N1.5m. The assassin said Olohunwa paid him N500,000 as the initial payment for Kunle Poly’s life. Olohunwa, who denied the allegation, said he paid Ade Lawyer N500,000 out of fear when he threatened to wipe him and the members of his household out.
Olohunwa revealed that one day, Ade Lawyer opened fire and killed nine passengers in a bus in Lekki.
Ade Lawyer, who the police shamelessly lied was on their wanted list for five years, confessed he operated openly as a unit head of the NURTW in the Ajah axis of Lagos Island around 2001 and 2003 (when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State). He, however, later recanted the allegation of being sponsored by Olohunwa to kill Kunle Poly.
It’s the brazen manner of Ade Lawyer’s operations that showed Lagos State’s hand in NURTW’s lawlessness in the state.
While speaking with journalists, Ade Lawyer mentioned the names of MC Oluomo, Sagoe and the immediate past NURTW Chairman in Lagos, Tajudeen Agbede, as NURTW chieftains he had worked with. To be concluded…
Although it is painful, it is time for the suspended super cop Abba Kyari to say to the Inspector General of Police and Attorney General of the Federation, “I am ready to turn myself in to the American government. I no longer want to be a part of the back-and-forth internal probes and reports as well as remain the face of scorn and ridicule regarding this international concern circling around me.”
Furthermore, he should say the following: “Over and over, you investigated this difficult international wire fraud case, possibly trying to lay it to rest, but there was no way out, so I am turning myself in to the FBI.”
Kyari should tell his backers or supporters that he found out from this article about the case of one Leonard Rayne Moses, who had been on the run from the FBI for almost 50 years after escaping police. He was arrested on November 12, 2020, while attending his grandmother’s funeral. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, America’s global-based intelligence and security service, does not give up easily.
As a forensic and clinical psychologist who has worked with criminal suspects for decades, I realise that dealing with the psychological impacts of an arrest and prosecution is an emotionally consuming experience. There is no doubt that you are likely feeling anxiety from the prospect of going to an American jail while being tried and then prison if found guilty by an American court.
From the moment you wake up until you go to sleep at night, if you are fortunate enough to get a full night’s sleep, you are filled with thoughts about your case. As a police officer, or a super cop, as you are known in Nigeria and America, I know you are familiar with police ethics, which includes values such as duty and honesty. Basically, ethics is doing the right thing.
This is eating you up emotionally, especially when the FBI and the American judge will remind you of the moral part of you as a police officer. After all, you are Nigeria’s ‘super cop’, although now a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police.
There have been more Nigeria Police Force feted promotions recently, and I am sure your forced absence may have cost you a possible promotion and new posting. Emotionally, this could be hitting you hard. Oh, I once glanced at a book titled, “Strides Of Destiny: A Biography Of The Super Cop ABBA KYARI” by Edentu Oroso, published in 2019. The central theme of the text is the story of a man, meaning you, whose entire existence oozes out integrity and honour. Remember to tell your American judge about the book, as it may earn you some brownie mitigating or good points for your good deeds.
I understand that fear of the unknown is possibly your greatest worry, especially when this case is in America, far away from Nigeria, where it is not uncommon to hear a Nigerian judge negotiating a bribe to skew justice. Sorry, to use a local parlance, no amount of magomago, or bribe, can help you, not in the USA. It is all about fair play.
Kyari, I recall that a warrant was issued by Otis Wright, a judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, following the grand jury’s decision to approve charges against you and others.
You need to know this. The United States government has spent lots of time, energy, and money getting ready for your case. Nothing will stop your case other than letting the legal process take place. Here is a tip, write the judge directly, tell him you are worried about going to prison, but you are going to come before him.
For your information, he is a black judge. He might already have a cultural understanding that you are a black male with susceptibilities to social pressure. What I am saying is stop wasting time playing the game of ‘hide-and-seek’.
American judges detest misuse of their time. Sir, O’ boy, no more delay, quickly act now.
Within the Nigerian context, I see you involved in what is called a “hide-and-seek” game. As you likely know, the game of hide-and-seek promotes secretive play.
In this game, the FBI possibly doesn’t know where you are and what you are doing, but one thing is certain; they know you are a criminal fugitive who is hiding. The American courts and FBI will continue to seek you out, as they know you will never hide forever. Your hope for now is that the FBI agent from whom you are hiding doesn’t seek out your hiding place. But there are some who may know all the current hidden things surrounding you as you, for the moment, invade the American court and FBI. These may include authorities from the Nigeria Police Force, the Police Service Commission, and the office of the Attorney-General, or even supportive NGOs. We both know something about African culture, in terms of relationships between emotions, ethnicity, religion, and justice. That is why we have heard biased, favourable, and even protective words towards you. We all saw emotional words from the likes of Austin Braimoh of the Police Service Commission. “It sounds strange to me that a US court could order the arrest of a noncitizen, a Nigerian citizen resident in Nigeria…” We even saw a response from Police Affairs Minister, Muhammad Dingyadi of what Nigeria calls the Ministry of Police Affairs, stating that, “And we have also reported that the committee has submitted the report to the IGP, and we have submitted this report and recommendations to the AGF for legal opinion. Thereafter, we will take it to Mr. President for final consideration. So, you can see that this matter is a local matter here; it also has some international connotations.”
Then there was an application filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Northern Peace Foundation asking the Federal High Court to restrain the Nigeria Police and the Attorney General of the Federation from arresting and extraditing you, but it was rejected by a sensible judge.
We also noticed conflicting reports that the PSC will carry out a separate investigation apart from the one ordered by the Nigeria Police. Just some hours ago, there was a directive from the Attorney-General informing the Police Service Commission to inform the Inspector-General of Police to deepen investigations between you and Hushpuppi, who is due to be sentenced on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2022.
As you can see, all this game of hide and seek are all attempts to ‘help’ you one way or the other, but in the end, these Nigerian officials know that you cannot legally hide when a US court has issued an arrest warrant for you, in your status as a fugitive criminal. In this case, I plead with you to understand one thing; in the eyes of the American legal system, you have become a chronic runaway, which will not be a positive point when you finally face the judge in California. Kyari, you would enjoy California, known as the Mecca of celebrity culture in the USA. After all, you love celebrations!
Again, thank the Nigerian law enforcement authorities for all they have done to keep you in the country since July 2021, when you were declared wanted for fraud in the US. Just say to them, no more Nigeria type investigative probes and reports, ‘I am turning myself in to the FBI’. This stressful situation could be overwhelming you with shame, especially as a man of pride. It is not enough to fill your mind with suicide thoughts or self-destructive acts. Just believe the future is still positive. I wish you a happy journey and success in your case.
Prof Egbeazien Oshodi, an American-based forensic/clinical psychologist, via info@teuopen.university
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has given marching order to universities in the country not to accept National Business and Technical Examinations Board, NABTEB, advanced level certificate as an entry requirement for Direct Entry into tertiary institutions.
The Board said the directive became necessary following the discovery that relevant government policies on A/Level programmes do not permit NABTEB from conducting Advanced Level examinations.
The Board, in a statement signed by the Director of Admissions, Mohammed Ahmed, and which was made available to Vice Chancellors and other Heads of tertiary institutions in the country, said JAMB would not process the admission of any candidate with NABTEB A/L Certificate.
The statement read in part, “It has come to the notice of the Board that some institutions are accepting NABTEB A/L GCE as a qualification for Direct Entry Admissions. “JAMB is aware that NABTEB is not authorised to offer GCE and is, therefore, compelled to take appropriate action.”
The statement warned that “Any A/L GCE Certificate issued by NABTEB is, therefore, not registrable with JAMB and the Board would not process the admission of any candidate with such a result.
“Candidates who wish to enlist for A/Level examinations are to note.”
The hurt and hatred in us Like tantase in the sea, We asked, How did we get here?
The wile and guile in humanity Like an umbrella in the ocean We asked What is the need?
The whine and pretentious love Like the roses in pepper soup We asked Why must we be stupid?
Years and years of guerillas precariousness Like a fermented sombo (hot pepper) powder Gifted to the bride for a makeover How insensible shall we continue?
Will-o’-the-wisp For the love and light has lost their shine Humanity fading like unsaturated smoke Along the path of dereliction
I weep for the day a baby was born The day she knows not her death. If the debt of birth is death Shall it not be for a good cause?
Who are we to query the agent of death Perhaps it sticks around awaiting our head But if truth has a cudgel Why the wicked still rest needs an explanation
I cry for my insecurity As my safety scares me If our guardian becomes our guerrillas Who then is safe?
(Dedicated to Haneefah! Decrying the level at which humanity as gone sour… We love baby Haneefah! May Allah grant her family the fortitude to bear the loss. We hope we shall see the end of insecurity in this nation some days)
It emerged late last week that Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami (or his agents) possibly instructed Zamfara State governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle to place an advertorial in the Daily Trust to congratulate Pantami on his “promotion to the Rank of Full Professor of Cybersecurity” by an unnamed university.
(In the advertorial, Matawalle repeated the dishonestly hyperbolized claims Pantami cherishes and promotes, such as the claim that he has over 160 publications—which don’t show up in any scholarly repository—and that he was trained at Harvard, MIT, and Oxford even though he only attended a few days’ workshops there. He used the American English “full professor” that the Islamic University of Madinah where Pantami taught also uses to describe what is simply called “professor” in British and Nigerian terminology. Since Mutawalle isn’t an academic, it’s obvious that Pantami wrote the advertorial for him.)
I later learned that Pantami’s “professorship” was granted by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, where he has never taught. It doesn’t take much thought to see that the “professorial promotion” and, worse, its promotion in the media is some self-humiliating intellectual duplicity perpetrated by Pantami himself.
The last academic position Pantami held before he became DG of NITDA in 2016 was an assistant professorship (roughly equivalent to a senior lectureship in the Nigerian system) at the Islamic University of Madinah where he taught for two years after his PhD in 2014.
Before earning his PhD in the UK, he taught at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi as a junior lecturer. At no point in his academic career did he ever teach at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. So, only ATBU or the Islamic University of Madinah could have legitimately promoted him to the position of professor.
But he couldn’t possibly be promoted to professorship at the Islamic University in Madinah because, having terminated his contract with the school to take up a government appointment, he is no longer in the school’s employ. Plus, his last rank at the university was an assistant professor.
To be promoted to full professor he would first need to be an associate professor for at least 5 years, but he was assistant professor for only two years, and you need to be an assistant professor for at least 5 years to be promoted to associate professor.
At ATBU, he was either a Lecturer II or a Lecturer I—or perhaps an assistant lecturer— before he left the school for his doctoral studies. To become a professor there, he would first need to be promoted to a senior lecturer and then a reader (which is called Associate Professor in the North American system) before becoming a professor. That would take at least 6 years.
In other words, Pantami is not qualified to be promoted to the rank of professor in the two universities he has some associations with. Most importantly, though, he is not qualified to be appointed professor by and at ANY university in the world because he does not teach, research, or render service at any university now.
A professorship isn’t a flippant, honorary title that can be arbitrarily conferred on people who pay for it—like honorary doctorates have become. It is the crowning accomplishment and the highest professional rank that is bestowed on people who teach and research at a university. It’s like the position of permanent secretary for the civil service, editorship for journalism, ambassadorship for the diplomatic service, managing directorship or the position of a CEO for the private sector, or being a field marshal in the military.
You can’t be made permanent secretary and not work in the civil service, an ambassador and not work in the diplomatic service, an editor and not work for a media organization, a CEO and not be associated with the company that made you CEO, or a field marshal and be away from military service.
Pantami is a “professor” who doesn’t profess, who doesn’t teach, research, or render service at the university that supposedly conferred the title on him. That’s a down-the-line intellectual scam that he should be ashamed of. It’s one of the most intellectually violent vandalisms of time-honored academic conventions I’ve seen in a long while.
As a religious cleric whom many young people look up to, Pantami should know better than to perpetrate fraud, promote it through third parties, and then swank it himself with unabashed hauteur. If he has any honor and really desires a professorship, he should disclaim this fraudulent “professorship” and earn it the right way.
After his tenure in 2023, he should go back to either ATBU or the Islamic University in Madinah and spend at least 6 to 8 years teaching, researching, and rendering service. Then he might legitimately earn a professorship. Different universities have different criteria for promoting academics to the position of professor. Some prioritize teaching over research. Others prioritize research over teaching. Still others strike a happy balance between the two.
If he is too impatient to follow the conventional route to professorship, he can get the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, to make him a professor of practice in cybersecurity AFTER his ministerial tenure. This will, of course, require him to relocate to Owerri and actually teach students there. Professors of practice don’t have to go through the traditional protocols of academic promotion because it is their industry experience, not their scholarship or pedagogy, that is the basis for their employment.
My friend Kingsley Moghalu was a professor of practice at Tufts University in the United States. Although Nigerian universities don’t have a tradition for appointing professors of practice, there is always a first time. If Pantami can bludgeon a university into “promoting” him to the position of “professor” even when he has zero formal association with it, he can cause it to do anything.
But to pretend to be a “professor” when he isn’t qualified to be one—and when he doesn’t teach and has never taught at the university that conferred the position on him—is the sort of self-debasing fraud a religious leader shouldn’t be identified with.
To be sure, Pantami’s fraudulent “professorship” isn’t new. As I pointed out in my June 25, 2011 column titled “Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s Fake Doctorate and Professorship,” former Nigeria Stock Exchange boss Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, whose PhD is fake, got her “professorship” the exact way Pantami got his: through intellectual legerdemain. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka made her “professor of capital market studies” in 2007 without having ever taught a course at the university before and after her conferral.
The late Dora Akunyili’s path to professorship was less fraudulent than Okereke-Onyiuke’s and Pantami’s but it was also unusual. As I wrote in the June 25, 2011 column, “Although she taught at [UNN] for long, she left for public service when she was many ranks away from a professorship. Curiously, however, it was while she was officially away from teaching, research, and university service that she mysteriously skipped several ranks and became a ‘professor’.”
In my December 5, 2020 column titled “Ganduje and Fraudulent American ‘Professorships’ for Nigerian Politicians,” I called attention to the growingly maddening titular vanity among Nigerian politicians that causes them to want to be known as “professors.” “You see, bought honorary doctorates have lost their gravitas and the ‘Dr.’ title has now lost its sheen among Nigerian politicians, so they are moving to the next level, which is bought ‘professorships’,” I wrote.
A U.S.-based Cameroonian academic by the name of Victor Mbarika used to routinely scam Nigerian politicians into thinking they had been appointed to “professorship” at a historically black Louisiana university called Southern University. Ike Ekweremadu was told that he had been appointed “professor” at the university. Ganduje was also scammed by the same guy until his scam was unveiled.
Pantami appears to be leading a detour back to home universities for the conferral of fraudulent “professorship” on politicians who can pay compromised university administrators. Fortunately, the NUC is now headed by Professor Abubakar Abdulrasheed, a conscientious, ethically sound, thoroughbred academic who has a reputation for doing the right things.
I hope Professor Abdulrasheed will cause the NUC to sanction the FUT, Owerri, for the intellectual fraud it has perpetrated in “promoting” an undeserving non-employee to its highest academic rank and ensure that other mercenary university administrators don’t replicate this swindle in the future.
I also hope Pantami has enough decency left in him to renounce the professorial fraud he wears— in the interest of the sanctity of what remains of Nigerian university traditions.
