Written by admin on 23 September 2009
Dr Abdullahi Sule Kano is the immediate past President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He teaches political Science at the University of Sokoto. Of course, he is on strike with all other Nigerian University tecahers.
Recently he was in Abuja for yet another consultation which has not brought the government back to the negotiating table. I caught up with him and he told me this heart rending story about a father’s inability to raise five hundred naira to treat his son of malaria.
According to him the young man had come down with malaria and his father had been unable to take him for treatment. He needed just five hundred naira to buy anti malaria drugs.
As the young man laid on his dying bed he turned to his father and asked why it was impossible for his father to buy or even borrow money to buy him the drugs. A tearful father watched his son die.
This actually reflects what problems majority of Nigerians are going through and no wonder Bok oHaram and all the other sects are having many followers!
Where is the seven point agenda?
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Written by admin on 20 September 2009
How serious president Yardaua is about electoral reform can be seen in the fact that Iwu is still presiding over INEC and he is planning for the 2011 elections. Some one needs to talk to Yara dua
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Written by admin on 19 June 2009
Perhaps President Umaru Musa Yar Adua ought to be told that Had the United States been giving in to demands of armed groups the world would have been very much unsafe .So All I need to do to get a presidential handshake is to steal and blow up oil installations?
Yes there is need to meet with all aggrieved groups..but really how do the militans of the Niger Delta represent the wishes and aspirations of the people?
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Written by admin on 13 May 2009
* Govt seeks $1b loan to fight malaria
From Mathias Okwe, Abuja
MORE Nigerians will fall into the poverty line this year, the World Bank has said.
According to the Bretton Woods institution, Nigeria will account for 18 of the 90 million Africans that will sink below the poverty line in 2009.
World Bank Country Director, Dr. Onno Ruhl, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, hinged the bank’s position on the worsening global economy.
He said economic forecast for 2009 might not be feasible because the current global financial crisis was getting worse and therefore difficult to predict how soon it would end.
“So far, every next step has been more negative than the previous. The average African will be poorer in 2009 because predicted growth rate of two per cent will be much lower than birth rate,” he asserted.
He also disclosed that the Federal Government has approached the World Bank for a $1 billion loan to fight the malaria scourge.
The World Bank announcement yesterday, came barely a week after the Senate accused the Executive arm of government of resorting to “recklessness borrowing from foreign institutions.”
Ruhl said the request was made by Nigeria at the just concluded Spring meeting in the United States of America (USA).
He said the World Bank was well disposed to the request because malaria accounts for the death of three million children yearly.
The board of the bank will soon meet to consider the request as Nigeria reportedly spends N12 billion yearly to fight the disease.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) recently put Nigeria’s foreign debt at $3.7 billion, in the proportion of 40 per cent indebtedness by the 36 states while the Federal Government accounts for 60 per cent.
Apparently fearing that the fresh borrowing could return Nigeria to the Paris and London Clubs debt trap, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Mr. Ehigie Uzamere, when he led his members to DMO on an oversight, said the Executive had not been complying with the provisions of DMO Act 2003 in contracting new loans.
But the World Bank official said the fresh loan being sought by Nigeria, would be under the concessionary window of the institution in the form of additional funding for the Roll Back Malaria project in seven states in which each household would be provided with two mosquito bed nets.
Ruhl’s statement is also seen as lead to claims that the Federal Government had initiated discussions on a loan from the World Bank to plug the deficit in revenue as falling oil earnings eat into its finances.
Guardian Newspapers, Lagos
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Written by admin on 27 April 2009
Last week South Africa Like Ghana went to the polls which even the author and finisher of the shameful charade of Nigeria’s 2007 elections General Olusegun Obasanjo considered very fair and Ok. Its shameful that we no longer have the culture of shame. How could Obasanjo monitor the elections and not buried himself in shame.
Its even more worrfying that we can not conduct even a rerun election. How could the elections in Ekiti hang?
Fact is that we need a reform that will include having news voters list.
Its so easy now to misbehave because may be a majority of name on the voters regsiter are fake..so anythig can happen.
Ghana and South Africa have shown the way….Just hope other Nigeria would learn
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Written by admin on 27 April 2009
A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Global Campaign for Education, has in Washington, said more than 774 million adults were illiterates across the world. The organisation said that 75 million children of primary school age were also outside the classrooms. A statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Washington DC said another 226 million children of secondary school age were not in schools. The statement was issued on the side line of the ongoing 2009 Spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.” Nearly all governments have promised ‘Education for All’ by 2015, yet the current global financial crisis threatens to worsen the global situation. The world’s poorest did not create this financial crisis, yet they stand to pay the highest price. Budget squeezes in education are threatening to reverse progress made in recent years. We cannot allow illiteracy to rise,” the statement said. It says the rich world has a responsibility to education, which is one of the best investments the world can make to combat poverty. “We are calling for $16 billion, a small fraction of the cost of the bank bailouts,” the statement quoted Assibi Napoe, Chairman of the Global Campaign for Education, as saying. As part of measures to promote education, the statement, said the CSO had launched The Big Read campaign, which features stories written in a book by prominent Africans like Nelson Mandela, is taking place across the world, in homes, schools, government buildings and public events.
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Written by admin on 03 April 2009
Harvard University announced over late last month that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, “When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution. ” If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free no tuition and no student loans! To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard’s financial aid website at: http://www.fao. fas.harvard. edu/ or call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 495-1581 .
SEND TO SOMEONE WHETHER THEY CAN USE OR NOT. THEY JUST MIGHT KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN.
Regards,
Mike Omotosho B.Pharm, MBA, MSP, MRP
Head, Programmes & Advocacy
CHAN Medi-Pharm Ltd./Gte
Re-Insurance Building (3rd Floor)
Central Business Area, Abuja
08055779543, 08030402033
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Written by admin on 30 March 2009
A friend sent me the following obituray and I think its good that you read it
An Obituary printed in the London Times – Interesting and sadly rather true.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn’t always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights,
I Want It Now,
Someone Else Is To Blame, and
I’m A Victim
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Written by admin on 21 March 2009
The temptation to regard the proposed electoral reform as the magic wand to cure Nigeria of all its ills stands so tall and big, that it threatens to close our eyes to the reality of the need for the people of Nigeria to take ownership of their problems and solutions. Conversely, the temptation dismiss the proposed reforms as another exercise in futility akin to the numerous presidential commissions whose reports are gathering dust also stalks us.
True the electoral system is not perfect but we all knew that if the letters and sprint of the 2006 electoral Act was adhered to the 2007 elections would have been near perfect. Of course, there is the need to tighten up loose ends and ensure that the people of the country have a more say in the running of elections. The unbundling of INEC and implementation of policies which would have the INEC independent of partisan posturing would have helped to stabilise democracy.
Unfortunately, several key recommendations have been turned down by the members of the Federal Executive Council who have shown, rather sadly that persons appointed by the executive may not rise above partnership another reason why the recommendations should have been upheld in the first place.
Again, President Umaru Musa, inarguably, the greatest beneficiary of the 2007 electoral seam is unable to rise to the occasion, and show that, were he the captain, the game would have played differently.
Besides, the President was very in politic. He would have sent the commendations of the Committee to the National Assembly and if, in the likelihood of National washing its hands off the recommendations, he would have been like Pontius Pilate, at least, a shed better than King Herod who chopped off the head of John the Baptist. Now history has recorded Umaru Musa YarAdua as the beheader of the recommendations of the electoral reforms.
Thank God, you may say, the ball has again been sent back to the court of the Nigerian people. By now, it should be clear to all Nigerian people that good governance, (including electoral reforms cannot benevolent awards from beneficiaries of the bad governance.
The people have to rise up to the occasion and refuse to be cheated. No law permits a policeman or soldier to snatch away ballot boxes. Nothing in the law today allows Local Government officials to control voting materials. No provision of any law allowed, Sam Egwu former Ebonyi State Governor and present Education Minister to take charge of electoral materials and distributed them.
Nigerians are used to passivity. It is a second nature to them. Otherwise, why would people be disallowed from voting and they would simply keep quiet?
The ball is in the court of the people of Nigeria, only the people themselves can stop electoral fraud and this will happen when Nigerians make a connection between their welfare and good governance.
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Written by admin on 21 March 2009
Death according to the Hausas of Northern Nigeria, rigan kowar simply put, death is the shirt or dress everyone will wear, no one really loves death even believers, who profess a better hereafter life dont want to die. The bible records the story of the Israeli King Hezekiah who was told by a prophet to put his house in order because he was going to die. The brave King, we are told turned hide face to the wall and wept. God heard the anguish of his heart and his life was prolonged by fifteen more years.
Fear or lure for death is irrelevant. Death usually comes unexpectedly. Of course, this is not true for those who commit suicide or persons who are executed. In the new age people have been clamouring for death and are campaigning to allow the state to allow them get help to facilitate death for themselves. For this category of people, death is preferable to the pains they are subjected to. Death for them is a relief.
Not so for majority of people. For the vast majority of people, death ought to be postponed, avoided and if possible even killed. If only we would not die or age how sweet, they think life could be. For some other people death is a finality, implies failure to achieve set objectives or a journey into the unknown. What with the fact that most religions, death is a passage to the judgement seat of God who is going to judge people for all they have said or done while on earth. For these people death only appears as a bailiff who ushers people into the court room of God.
For all these reasons, most people fear death. So morbid has been the fear of death that people do all sorts of things, including, you may say, selfishly killing other people that they may live.
It is a well known fact that people fear to go near corpses. Some traditions forbid traditions rulers from looking at corpses. At most funeral services the corpses remind us of our mortality.
Culture, they say, is dynamic even though people still fear death and dread the thought of dying, it is no longer strange for people to throng to homes of bereaved relations and stay there for days on end, eating and drinking free. A few years ago, it was the practice only in the Southern states of Nigeria that death became reasons to roll out the drums, eat and dance to overfill.
The economic crisis in Nigeria has introduced new forms of cultural norms. About two years ago, my uncles wife was shot dead by bandits near Wukari. Medical personnel who travelled with the wife to Taraba State Governor, she had taken bullets that may have been meant for someone else. Expectedly, my uncle himself a retired civil servant was distraught. I was shocked when we had to take turns to take pictures with the casket. Indeed so shocked was I that I refused to print the pictures taken.
I thought my uncle had lost it. Why would anyone pose for a photograph with a corpse in a closed casket? After a year, I had to print the pictures.
Now besides the strange posing of photographs with caskets, we now have been moving from one funeral house to another for sake of food. Unlike wedding ceremonies where besides eating food, people give gifts, for most people funerals are absolute losses.
Besides losing your relation, you may have to empty your pockets and barns to feed people who come. Of course, most people who come would simply eat and go.
Death now draws people together when it comes, money is forced out of the pockets of the bereaved to feed, sometimes, several tens of people for three to five days.
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