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I had a good laugh
when I read the reports of ‘surprise’ that many youth corps members did
not know how to operate the laptops being used with the Direct Data
Capture machines for the voter’s registration exercise. I say that I
laughed, but I was laughing with despair, not with happiness.

For the past 10
years, at least, academics, students, parents, educators, and employers
have raised concerns, expressed alarm, and lamented the state of
education in our country.

In our secondary
schools, classes are over crowded, with about 100 pupils per teacher in
the worst cases, rendering whatever teaching that takes place almost
completely ineffective. Some classrooms are labeled laboratories but
have no Bunsen burners or other basic Science equipment.

I am glad to report
that in recent years, the situation has improved a lot. But not too
long ago, in many of our colleges of higher education, some graduates
of Computer Science were experts in programming but did not have access
to functioning computers in their faculties. They learnt the theory and
had to pick up the practical themselves after graduation.

I recently listened
to a re-intepretation of Bobby Benson’s famous song, ‘Taxi Driver’,
performed during the Ajumogobia Foundation Concert in December by Ibiai
Ajumogobia and Nimi Akinkugbe. The sheet music for the pianos and all
the other classical and African musical instruments was composed by a
professor of Music in Ife. The composition was a virtuoso piece of
music combining high-life, jazz, and classical genres in harmonious
accord.

That this kind of
overwhelming talent and skillful expertise could exist in our public
university system that has suffered such resource neglect with old and
faulty equipment and poorly stocked libraries is a marvel; and our
dogged graduates are a marvel too.

The youth corpers
should be congratulated for having learned within a week how to operate
the machines and get the job done in the face of infrastructure
challenges such as incorrect software, insufficient power from the
batteries, from the grid, or from standby generators; and inordinate
pressure managing large numbers of impatient and irate voters who queue
up mostly in outdoor locations to register. The fault does not lie with
them.

Let me go back to
my laughter. I laughed because it really seems as though our fellow
citizens in positions of power, influence, or in the civil service do
not have a realistic idea of what the prevailing conditions of life are
for the people they serve. If that is the case, then it makes sense
that they would not have planned adequately for the logistics of the
exercise.

In opting to close
all schools down so that public schools could be used as centres for
the registration exercise, perhaps the Ministry of Education is unaware
that the bulk of educational institutions are private not public.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in Lagos the ratio is approximately 80% private to 20% public.

In closing down all
schools, they have interrupted the education of 80% of our school-age
children in the so-called ‘interest’ of the 20% in public schools who
would be affected.

To respond to some
of the accusations of ‘elitism’ that I have been reading in the press
about the drive to keep the private schools open. 80% means that
students from every and all economic groups are educated in private
schools. The children of street sweepers, cleaners, drivers,
messengers, and domestic staff also attend private schools.

They also want
their children to be taught in classrooms without holes in the roof,
and to be seated on chairs and not on the floor. Since they have to pay
‘unofficial fees’ for their children’s education in our ‘free’ public
schools, they choose to pay official fees in private schools and have
some measure of comfort, care, and a guarantee that teachers will turn
up to teach provided for their children. Get the facts right! Open your
eyes and look around, ask questions.

I am not saying that all public schools are like that, but too many to be comfortable are.

Yes, we have
graduates who enter the National Youth Service Corps. Yes, almost all
of them have a facebook page and one of the popular internet email
accounts. No, most of them do not have a computer at home, have never
plugged in a computer, let alone turned it on, or used multimedia
software other than to upload their electronic passport photographs.
They use computer in internet cafes where they are already switched on
and all you have to do is click on the appropriate icon on the desktop
screen.

Yet, these are a
bunch of very smart, very ambitious young people who are hungry to
learn and to be exposed to the many experiences that a working life can
offer them.

I salute them and
their parents for their mere participation in this major exercise in
democracy that brings them in close contact with their fellow citizens
everywhere in Nigeria, that exposes them to the wide range of
professions, cultures and backgrounds in the neighbourhoods they serve.

I salute their
courage in the face of general insecurity in our country, and the added
risk of political thuggery. I envy them the experience of real
down-home Nigerian care and hospitality.

The neighbourhood
old folks who express concern for their welfare and protect them from
the ‘area boys and girls’. The mamas and babas who bring them cool
drinks, snacks and food unasked for, and unrewarded. The good souls who
keep them company and share the local gossip with them, who keep their
belongings safe while they are otherwise occupied. The homes,
businesses, and umbrellas that are offered to them when it rains or the
sun gets too hot. The laughter, the jokes, the camaraderie, the
arguments, the posing, the fronting – such a diverse and enriching
experience that they will never forget as long as they live.

May they live long, and may this registration exercise, these
elections, and the next administration be better off due to their
participation. Let’s give them all the support and encouragement that
we can.

An Oyo State High
Court, on Wednesday, ordered the dethronement of Oba Samuel Adebayo
Adegbola, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, 13 years into his reign.

The presiding
judge, Muktar Abimbola, in a three-hour judgement, hinged his verdict
on his findings that the name of the current occupant of the throne was
proposed by a faction of the Ajao Alapinni family, in contravention of
the custom and chieftaincy declaration of the town.

The court also
ordered that the Oyo State government, the state attorney general,
Ibarapa East local government, and the chiefs of the town stop
recognising the deposed monarch as the Eleruwa.

It also ordered the
conveyance of a meeting of the kingmakers of the town within seven days
from the judgement where a list of recommended candidates to the stool
will be produced. The judge also said that the list must include names
of Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao and Joseph Oke, who approached the court for
inclusion in the list.

In spite of
protests by other ruling houses that it was not his turn then, Mr.
Adegbola was recommended by the kingmakers to the Oyo State government
which later installed him in 1998.

The court submitted
that he should not have been nominated for the throne since he was from
the Akalako ruling house where his predecessor, Bolanle Olaniyan, also
came from. Mr. Olaniyan died in 1994, and Laribikusi and Akalako, the
two ruling families, had been struggling to produce the next
traditional head of the town.

James Olatunde
Idowu and Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, who approached the court for redress
over the ascension of Mr. Adegbola, joined the governor of Oyo State,
the AG, Ibarapa LG, Mr. Adegbola, Jacob Adewusi, Femi Atanda, Idowu
Okeowo, E. Ojebisi and Mr. Kasali I in their suit.

They prayed the
court to declare the selection and approval of the monarch by
kingmakers ultra vires, null and void, and give an order to set aside
the purported nomination, selection and approval of the first defendant
(Mr. Adegbola) as the new Eleruwa of Eruwa.

The plaintiffs also
sought an order of the court to restrain the 2nd-10th defendants from
recognising or continuing to recognise Mr. Adegbola as the Eleruwa of
Eruwa, as well as an order directing the 2nd-6th defendants and the
Ikolaba of Eruwa, if any, to reconsider the nomination made by the
Laribikusi Ruling Quarters and select a candidate to the stool of
Eleruwa for approval of the 8th defendant.

Presenting the
summary of his findings on the suit, the judge granted all the eight
requests of the plaintiffs and gave judgement in their favour. He
punctured the claim of the deposed monarch that he hails from the
Ajao-Alapinni royal family, saying that the evidence before the court
proved otherwise as minutes of meetings of the family and records of
attendance of their meetings did not show that he ever attended any of
their meetings.

The judge also said
he discovered that the meeting that produced Mr. Adegbola was factional
and that it gives recognition to Mr. Sanusi Alao as the eldest person
of the ruling house, saying it was unlawful for Mr. Sangotiku to summon
a meeting since he was not recognised as the eldest.

“The exercise by
the kingmakers is ultra vires, null and void. The first defendant is of
female line… I hereby hold that there is merit in the plaintiff’s
case and it subsists that the first defendant being the member of
Akalako which produced the last king, it is a bastardisation of the
customary law of Eruwa. The approval of the first defendant by the
eigth defendant (Oyo State government) is hereby set aside and that it
should not accord recognition to him as the Eleruwa of Eruwa,” the
judge said.

Lasun Sanusi,
counsel to the plaintiff, praised the judgement, describing it as
“brilliant, comprehensive and incisive”. According to him, the verdict
had confirmed the saying that though the machinery of justice grinds
slowly, it grinds surely and fine. The judgement also attracted wild
jubilation at the court premises as those who came from Eruwa burst
into songs of victory as the news was broken to them.

Meanwhile, the deposed monarch had vowed to challenge the judgement
at the Appeal Court. Describing the court’s position as a miscarriage
of justice, Mr. Adegbola told journalists that he had instructed his
legal team to proceed to the appellate court to seek a reversal of the
judgement.

Nigeria might have
lost 130 billion dollars from 2000-2008 to illicit financial flows, a
new report issued by US-based group, Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
said. The report entitled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing
Countries: 2000-2009,” said Nigeria has the 10th highest measured
illicit outflows in the developing world, an average of 15 billion
dollars per year.

The GFI report
ranks countries according to magnitude of illicit outflows and
according to the report China is ranked the highest country of measured
illicit outflows in the developing world with 2.18 trillion dollars,
followed by Russia, 427 billion dollars and Mexico, 416 billon dollars.

It also shows the
annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two
categories of drivers: trade mispricing and “other,” which includes
“kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official
corruption.” Others in the top 10 are Saudi Arabia, 302 billion
dollars, Malaysia, 291 billion dollars; United Arab Emirates, 276
billion dollars; Kuwait, 242 billion dollars; Venezuela, 157 billion
dollars; and Qatar, 138 billion.

Primary findings
from the report said illicit outflows increased from $1.06 trillion in
2006 to approximately $1.26 trillion in 2008. It found that that
approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from
2000 through 2008. According to the report, average annual illicit
outflows from developing countries averaged 725 billion dollars to 810
billion dollars per year, over the 2000-2008 period measured.

“Illicit flows
increased in current dollar terms by 18.0 percent per annum from 369.3
billion dollars at the start of the decade to 1.26 trillion dollars in
2008.

“When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7 percent,” it said.

The report put real
growth of illicit flows over nine years in the African region at 21.9
per cent, compared with 24.3 per cent in the Middle East and North
Africa, 23.1 per cent in developing Europe, Asia 7.85, and Western
Hemisphere 5.18 per cent.

The report’s
author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said
bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion were the greatest conduit
for the illicit financial flows.

He said oil-exporting countries were becoming more important sources of illicit capital.

GFI director
Raymond Baker said every year developing countries were losing 10 times
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remitted for
poverty alleviation and economic development,” “This report measures
the quantity and pattern of these harmful outflows and provides stark
proof of the impact of these illicit financial practices,” Baker said.

GFI said the authors of the report used a World Bank model to calculate developing countries’ missing billions.

The Jigawa State
governor, Sule Lamido, on Wednesday, dismissed the resolution of the
Arewa Consultative Forum, which criticised the recent People’s
Democratic Party presidential primary election that produced President
Goodlcuk Jonathan as the candidate of the party. The national working
committee of the ACF met in Kaduna on Tuesday during which it rejected
the emergence of Mr. Jonathan as the PDP flagbearer in the April 9 poll.

According to the
communiqué, “In particular, ACF is disappointed with the outcome of the
primary elections in the ruling party, the PDP. The emergence of Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate is legally and morally
wrong because it is a violation of that party’s constitution which
clearly requires that under the zoning/rotation formula, a northerner
be returned as candidate in the 2011 general elections.

“In this regard,
and in the light of its principled stand on fairness and rule of law,
the ACF rejects the outcome of PDP presidential primaries.”

But speaking with
journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, Mr. Lamido said
there was no fear about the resolution of the northern organisation,
saying it is free to meet and make observations on national issues.

According to him, there are over 60 parties in the country and every party cannot clamour for a northern president as ACF.

“They (ACF) are
free to meet and discuss like Ohaneze Ndigbo or Afenifere,” Mr. Lamido
said. “There are 60 parties in the North so there can’t be 60 parties
all clamouring for the North. They can meet, they can advise, there is
no problem. There is no fear over anything. Just relax, stop getting
worried.”

Like Mr. Lamido,
the governor of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda said that the ACF had the right to
meet just like the Ohaneze and Afenifere. Mr. Yuguda also stated this
in Abuja while answering questions from journalists at the PDP National
Secretariat.

“ACF has the right
to meet just like Ohaneze and Afenifere; they are free to do that,” he
said. “Nigerians should stop getting worried over these things. We went
through a civil war and came out still united. It can’t get worse than
that.

“There is no cause
for worry; these things are about your future and we will secure your
future. Nigeria is a country united by God,” Mr. Yuguda said.

Be warned

According to the
Citizens for Change and Advancement (CCA), the ACF should be warned
against actions and statements that could tear the nation apart, saying
what Nigeria needs now is peace and unity.

Its national
coordinator, Maxwell Abaji, in a communiqué issued, said: “Nigerians
should condemn any attempt to drag this country to another civil war.”

Another group, the Media for Ethnic Equality, in a statement issued
in Lagos yesterday by its publicity secretary, Iyiola Johnson,
described the ACF’s statement as “an unnecessary heating up of the
polity by the northern political group for selfish reasons.” It also
criticised the ACF for putting the unity of the nation in jeopardy.