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I have read or
heard such recurring negative comments over the past five years and
each time, I shudder. Out of curiosity and displeasure, I set out to
find out for myself what may be wrong. I had long perceived that our
state-run schools could be at the root of the problem, so I started to
volunteer my time and resources, and supported by friends and
colleagues, at a neighbourhood junior secondary school.

What I have learnt
is instructive and as I write this article, it must be 14 months since
I first stepped into the school to the warm reception of the school
authority.

Literacy and
numeracy are, in my opinion, at the core of every intellectual pursuit.
I even consider literacy as the foundation for numeracy, which is why
language is what the child first learns before all else. The students
were in JSS1 at the time and after introductions, I made each person
write a simple essay about her or himself and this gave me an insight
into their backgrounds. You’d imagine that many of them are from
economically challenging environments. Rightly so.

Notwithstanding, I
came away with a strong impression of their enthusiasm and high
aspirations. Musa Yahaya, for instance, had long adopted Aliko Dangote
as his role model. But in order to succeed, preparation must match or
even exceed aspiration.

Can state run
schools, as they are today, therefore be said to equip students with
tools they need to succeed in life? I dare say no. As I corrected the
essay scripts, there was no content, neither was there good structure
or organisation. Many sentences were poorly constructed and the
grammatical flaws were shocking. Some students could not even write
their names properly.

The vice principal
rightly pointed out that things were in a sorry state and that her
students will be expected to compete with others from private
establishments within and outside Nigeria!

Over the past
months, my friends and I have organised motivational sessions,
mobilised supply of learning materials, and actively sought to impress
on the students the need to take their studies seriously. But it’s not
only the students that need to sit up.

I have, at some
point, had to teach the students under a tree in the school compound,
because the dilapidated classroom block was being refurbished. I had my
fair share of experience in the poor classroom infrastructure. While
delivering a ‘Brighter Grammar’ lesson one morning, a ceiling square
almost fell on my head.

The school lacks
discipline. Students stroll in leisurely at 9am, sometimes later (I
hear the “elites” may be complicit because some of the students are
domestic hands who are not allowed to prepare for school until
“madam’s” children have been picked by the school bus).

Teachers look
de-motivated, distracted, even uninterested – for good reason? I was in
class one day and I asked the students “why do you all speak pidgin
English?” One of them – a young, bold girl, stood up and said rather
angrily, “the teachers teach us in pidgin.” Most of the students agreed
with her, but at the same time out of fear, queried why she would say
such a thing!

The school
environment is not conducive for learning. The vice principal, whom I
respect for her long years of service and ability to roundly motivate
the students, once said that if she had her way she would ask the many
food sellers to stay out of the school premises, at least until
break/lunch time. This is because she finds that students eat rice,
beans, plantain, and so on in class while teachers deliver lessons.

Ill prepared for future

It is useful at
this juncture to present the outcome of an analysis I did using average
scores for vocabulary tests that I dispensed. 270 students were tested
over five (5) class sessions, using 50 words each time (I came up with
the test words from a pool of about 10,000 words which the students
themselves drafted). From the population of 270, I selected a sample of
81 students – those who had record of at least 3 scores out of the 5
test sessions. (70% did not qualify for the sample) 32 students scored
average of 50% and below, while the remaining can be said to have
passed.

40% failure rate is
still “positive”, when compared to the over 98% failure rate in 2009
SSCE. However, if I analysed the scores of all 270 students, about 70%
would have failed – failed simple vocabulary tests for which the
students had at least one week ahead to prepare!

There’s no doubt
that with an ill-educated, ill-prepared population, Nigeria’s internal
security, and its economic growth and development aspirations, are
gravely threatened and our country risks being relegated to the
background in the comity of nations.

Mayowa Amoo lives and works in Lagos and can be reached on mayowa_amoo@yahoo.com

The Nigerian
government yesterday refuted reports indicting its citizen in the
recent bomb blast which claimed the lives of 76 people in Kamapala,
Uganda.

Three viewing
centres were simultaneously bombed in Uganda during the final of the
South Africa 2010 World Football competition between Spain and Holland
on July 11th, leading to 74 deaths and over 50 injured. A Ugandan local
newspaper in Kampala had, on Wednesday and Thursday, reported that a
Nigerian was among the 43 suspects so far arrested over the bombing
incident. The paper however did not mention the name of the Nigerian,
but it was gathered that one Emmanuel Nweke was on Tuesday reported to
have been arrested in Busia, a town not far from Kampala and has since
been transferred to Kampala for interrogation. Other nationalities
listed among the suspects include those of Pakistan, Uganda and Somalia
and seven others whose nationalities are yet to be identified. A group
in Somolia, al-Shabaab militants has already claimed responsibility for
the attack stating that it was a retaliation.

Immigration offence

But the Nigeria
High Commissioner to Uganda, Fidel Ayogu said from his investigation,
Mr. Nweke was arrested over immigration-related offence. “The Nigerian
they arrested in Busai was not linked to the incident and so could not
have been a culprit in that bomb blast. From all indications, the
suspect has immigration problem,” he said. He also noted that the
consular has written officially to the Ugandan government demanding to
know the level of involvement of the said Nigerian and has not gotten
any reply yet.

“We have written to the Ugandan Foreign Ministry to inform us
properly where and how the Nigerian is linked to the bomb blast and we
have not gotten any reply. We took immediate action we wrote to the
Minister of Foreign Affair to inform us on how a Nigerian photographed
in the newspaper was connected,” Mr. Ayogu said. “Our observation is
that the problem he has is immigration and not necessarily linked to
the blast. From the investigations we have done, because we went to
where the suspect is, we interrogated him and we interrogated the
Ugandan immigration officials and he hasn’t been linked to the bomb
blast. We are not pre-empting their investigations. If a Nigerian is
arrested, we should know the charges. We have written for clarification
to know what he has done and until they do that and reply we cannot
accept the report as true.”

Five
civil society groups have presented the report of the investigations by
the House of Representatives on the power sector to the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC), and to
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking them to
“urgently take action on the reports.”

Also presented to
the anti-graft agencies was the report on the non-remittance of
received public revenue into the federation account by ministries,
departments, and agencies between 2003 and 2008.

The reports were
also submitted to the director of operations of the Economic and
Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Salawu Bello, who represented the
agency’s chairperson.

The groups, which
made the presentation in a meeting with the chairman of ICPC, Olayinka
Ayoola, demanded that the people indicted in the power probe report
must be prosecuted forthwith.

The groups quoted
the recommendation made by the report that both the ICPC and EFCC
prosecute former president, Olusegun Obasanjo; the former minister of
power and steel, Liyel Imoke; former minister of state for energy,
Abdulhamid Ahmed; and former minister of power and steel, Olusegun
Agagu.

Other former
government officials the report mentioned for prosecution included the
former managing director of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN),
Joseph Makoju; the chief executive officer of Transmission Company of
Nigeria (TCN), C. E. Ifesie, and his assistant general manager, G.O.P.
Osakue.

The NIPP’s project
manager, Mike Ezeudenna; the chairperson, technical committee of NIPP,
C. N. O. Nwachukwu; and the managing director of NIPP, J. A. Olotu, and
others were all asked to face the law for the mismanagement of funds.

The House of
Representatives in 2008 mandated its committee on power and steel to
conduct a comprehensive investigation into how huge sums of money was
expended on power generation, transmission, and distribution between
June 1999 and May 2007, without any commensurate result as the nation’s
power generation fell to a meagre 2,500MW.

The last
administration claimed to have expended $16 billion on overhauling the
nation’s power sector via the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).

The groups added
that the committee submitted its report at the end of the
investigation, in which it revealed that “the sum of $13.28 billion was
expended on the power sector during the period, with further unfunded
commitment of over $12 billion” and nothing has been done on the report
till date.

“Specifically, the
report concluded that looting of the national treasury through the
National Power Project (NPP) and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) greatly diminished national capacity to provide electric
power…” the groups noted.

Crimes against humanity

They also quoted
the report as saying “what senior officials and politicians did is an
economic crime against humanity, which has caused Nigerians not only
financial loss, but also inestimable mental and physical suffering.”

Some companies on
the indicted list are Rockson Engineering/ Rockson International; Pivot
Engineering; Marubeni West Africa and Marubeni International; Lahmeyer
International; and ABB Powerlines.

The second report
submitted by the groups, alleged that “between 2003 and 2008, about N4
trillion, collected by various ministries, departments and agencies in
the area of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE),
Withholding Tax (WHT), Value Added Tax (VAT), and Operating Surpluses,
were not remitted into the Federation Account” as dictated by the
constitution.

Reaction to groups’ demand

ICPC chairperson
promised to “urgently work on the reports”, while the EFCC director
noted that he was not sure whether the reports were already submitted
to the agency. He promised to make enquiries and get back to the group.

The civil groups
championing this call includes the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP); Committee for Defence of Human Rights
(CDHR); Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch; Center for the
Rule of Law (CENTROLAW); and the National Association of Democratic
Lawyers (NADL).

In keeping with its
promise made to teachers, Association of Senior Civil Servants of
Nigeria, and the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the Federal
Executive Council, yesterday, approved the restoration of the junior
secondary component into the federal unity colleges (FUCs).

The junior school
was scrapped from the unity colleges in 2008. Minister of Information,
Dora Akunyili, told journalists, at the state house in Abuja, that this
approval follows a recommendation made by the committee set up by the
immediate past minister of education to re-introduce the Junior School
component into the FUCs, since it does not contravene the UBEC Act. The
Education Minister, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, thereafter sought council’s
approval for the restoration of the Junior School component into the
colleges with effect from the academic sessions commencing in September
2011.

“The 104 Federal Unity Colleges were established to promote national
unity, academic excellence and serve as model to states and other
proprietors,” said Mrs Akunyili. “Until 2008, each of the Federal Unity
Colleges had both junior and senior components, but the junior
component was cancelled as a result of wrong interpretation of the NCE
decision of 2005 on the disarticulation policy arising from the
application of the UBEC Act. Since the FUCs were not benefiting from
the UBEC intervention funds, they should have been disarticulated in
the first place. There had been outcries by the members of the public,
parents, other stakeholders, including trade unions, calling on the
federal government to re-consider its decision on the junior component
of the Federal Unity Colleges.” She added that the restoration was
approved because of the need to improve skills and enhance standards
and to answer the yearnings of parents. “The National Council on
Education had already adopted this in their 2009 meeting,” she said.

The Federal Road
Safety Corporation and road transport unions, yesterday, supported a
new law that will guarantee a mandatory compensation of N1m to families
of people who die in road crashes.

According to the
bill under debate by the lawmakers, commuters travelling by commercial
vehicles, who are injured, permanently incapacitated, or get killed
will be entitled to N1million in insurance compensations. The current
package for the three categories of casualties range from N5, 000 to
N50, 000 only, and the amounts are often left unclaimed, according to
lawmakers who spoke at the public hearing for the bill yesterday. The
new rates, when operational, will target the victims of fatal road
crashes in the country. Between 2006 and 2008 for instance, FRSC
figures say 29,000 road accidents resulted in the death of 16,278
persons; with only five states – Ogun, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and the
Federal Capital Territory – responsible for about 42% of the total.

The criticisms

Insurance experts
however expressed fear that the new figure will lead to a rise in
already hiked transport fares around the country. “The bill is
unnecessary, because its real intent has been taken care of by the
Insurance Act of 2003, motor vehicle and third party Act,” said Talmisi
Usman, who represented the National Insurance Commission of Nigeria at
a public hearing organized by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

One of the insurance experts, Thomas Olundare, also attacked the
proposed compensation margin as being “too high” and certain to have a
multiplier effect on the cost of goods and services. But the FRSC, the
National Union of Road Transport Workers, the Road Transport Employers
Association of Nigeria, and the Road Accident Prevention Society of
Nigeria, welcomed the provisions of the proposed bill, and hoped it
will help reduce the pains of victims of such crashes. The Corps
Marshal of the FRSC, Osita Chidoka, said the bill was ‘timely.” He,
however, said insurance companies could be made to award separate
claims based on the degree of casualty.

Nigerian combatants
who helped end the bloody years of Liberian civil war between 1989 and
1996 left behind peace, and about 250,000 children, a senior Foreign
Affairs official said yesterday.

The Director
General of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, Sule
Bassi, told the House of Representatives Diaspora committee yesterday
that Nigerian soldiers, who almost single-handedly restored peace to
the West African nation, had affairs with the local women which
produced the large number of children. Thousands of Nigerian soldiers,
under the ECOWAS monitoring group force (ECOMOG), deployed to the
nation in the nineties after violent clashes broke out between
government forces and a rebel group led by a former president, Charles
Taylor. The conflict is said to have claimed more than 200,000 lives,
and displaced millions more. Mr. Taylor has been accused of war crimes
during the period and is standing trial at the International Criminal
Court. But the our forces did not only fight. According to Mr Bassi,
they also engaged in dalliances with the locals and the children
produced are in hundreds of thousands, with majority of them left back
in the country.

“Many of the kids
have undergone registration and naturalization as Liberians, having
waited for years without seeing their fathers,” he said. “The mothers
are trying to make sure they are properly documented as Liberian and so
on.” Many of the mothers too, according to him, have been undaunted in
locating the fathers to the children and are said to be continuing with
the search. He however assured that although his agency is only
concerned with the issues of experts and professionals in the Diaspora,
the Nigerian embassy in Liberia is offering the matter attention and
has made effort to assist with the situation. “Definitely, you can’t
run away from your our people there are our people; they are still
young and they need schooling and they will also need to be nurtured
just like every other Nigerian,” he said.

Expulsion from Gabon

The House committee
on Diaspora, headed by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said its members will visit
the country on a “fact finding mission.” Meanwhile, the Nigerian
community in Gabon say they face expulsion threats by the Gabonese
authorities who have allegedly warned that legal and illegal Nigerian
residents will be forced out of the country in response to rising
migration to the oil-rich nation. Over 210,000 Nigerian would be
affected if the threat is carried out, the Chairman of the Nigerian
Community in Gabon, Babatunde Yekini, told the House committee. Mr.
Yekini said that the Gabonese authority complains that large number of
Nigerians has continued to drift into the nation inspite of repeated
representations to the Nigerian government for an intervention.

The federal government said it has set
up 80 Rural Information Technology Centres (RITCs) across the six
geo-political zones of the country and has deployed the services of a
private Information Technology (IT) firm to manage them.

Wahab Jimoh, director of information
and communications technology at the Ministry of Science and
Technology, made the announcement at an event launching the
government’s partnership at Mambilla Barracks in Abuja on Wednesday.

Mr. Jimoh, who represented the
minister, Mohammed Abubakar, disclosed that the government, through the
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), had signed
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a local IT firm, ChamAccess,
to outsource management of the centres to them.

Mr. Jimoh implored the management of
ChamsAccess to diligently implement the terms of its partnership so
that the model could become a framework for managing other RITCs across
the country.

Two-way partnership

Cleopas Angaye, the director general of
NITDA, said the company would be required to provide facilities and
capabilities to effectively manage six mobile internet units and 80
RITCs for the next four years.

“They are also to advise NITDA on the
business development capabilities of subsequent beneficiaries, which
may still be handed over to them based on [their] management of the
sites that are being handed over to them today,” said Mr. Angaye.

He noted that the scheme was an attempt at providing all Nigerians with access, especially in rural areas, to ICT facilities.

Following increased
kidnappings and crime rate in the country, the federal government has
decided to acquire 90 Peugeot 407 vehicles to assist in combating
crime, the minister of information, Dora Akunyili said yesterday.

She said the
project will be funded from the budgetary provision of N79.20 billion
earmarked for the reform programme in the 2010 budget.

This is coming even
as the federal government announced plans to have 36,518 members of the
police shipped out to training schools.

Briefing
journalists after the 23rd session of the weekly federal executive
council meeting which was chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan and
vice president, Namadi Sambo with almost all the ministers in
attendance, the minister of state for information,

Labaran Maku and Mrs Akunyili said the project will gulp a total of N581.5million.

Minister of Police
Affairs, Adamu Waziri, speaking during the meeting which lasted for
about two hours, tendered a memo before council for the award of
contract for the procurement of the vehicles.

“Another memo by
the minister of police affairs got council’s approval for the award of
contract for the procurement of 90 nos Peugeot 407 executive extra for
the Nigeria Police Force, in favour of messrs Peugeot Automobile
Nigeria (PAN) limited, in the total sum of N581,

805,000.00,” Mr
Maku said. “The commitment of the present administration to reposition
the Nigeria Police Force in order for it to perform its constitutional
duties and the need to fast track the implementation of the Reform
Programme of the Nigeria Police Force cannot be over emphasized”.

Mr Maku also stated
that FEC also approved the training of members of the police force as,
without regular training, most police are unable to perform their
duties adequately.

“Efforts are being made to upgrade the capacity of the police through regular training,

which have been
neglected. Currently, 45 courses for different grades for various
levels of police officers have been approved and this year, about
36,518 members of the force will be trained, most of this will go to
the regular police colleges and a few abroad,” he said.

Construction in FCT

Speaking on the
other approvals by Federal Executive Council, Mrs Akunyili said the
minister of the Federal Capital Territory presented a memo to Council
seeking approval for the award of contract for the construction of
Karshi-Ara Road in the FCT. The road is one of the major roads linking
Nasarawa State to the South Eastern part of the FCT. Ara is an
agricultural town in Nasarawa State.

“The Construction
of Karshi-Ara Road will enhance transportation of much needed
agricultural produce to into the FCT and also ease the transportation
of workers in the FCT who reside in Karshi and the neighbouring towns
of Nasarawa State,” she said.

She also noted that
provision of engineering infrastructure to Karshi Town is already
ongoing and attracting many settlers thereby contributing to the
decongestion of the FCT.

She also told
journalist that there is a provision of N2billion in the 2010 statutory
budget of the FCT for construction of the Karshi-Ara Road.

“After considering
the economic benefits of the project, Council approved the award of
contract for the construction of Karshi-Ara Road in the FCT, Abuja, in
favour of Messrs Mangrovetech (Nig) Ltd., in the sum of N4.097bn” the
minister added.

The completion period for the project is 20 months.

The FEC also
approved the ratification of the second revision of the Cotonou
Partnership Agreement which was brought by the minister of planning, Shamsudeen Usman.

The new Agreement, Mrs Akunyili said “will facilitate EU support to climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

This agreement will commit the EU to re-define the millennium Development Goals”.

The Action Congress
(AC) has said the plan by the Osun State Government to organise fresh
local government elections would be illegal since the last council
polls have remained nullified by the courts.

In a statement
issued by spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, the party said the government,
led by Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has blatantly ignored the Court of
Appeal’s ruling. The court had declared that the last council polls in
the state were illegal because they were conducted without following
regulations, and ruled that the election’s results should not stand.
However, the party said the governor has yet to comply with the
judgement, even though his government’s appeal for a stay of execution
was turned down by the court 18 months ago. “A major threat to our
democracy today is the rising, flagrant disregard for the rule of law,”
stated the party. “This is a recipe for anarchy. If the foundation of
democracy is the rule of law, then we must absolutely obey court
rulings.”

Profiting from illegality

The party said a
major reason the last council polls in the state were declared illegal
was because the government failed to give the prescribed 150 days
notice before the elections were held. It accused the governor’s plan
to give a 150-day notice for the fresh council elections, which it
plans to conduct before the end of its tenure, as a charade.

“We say no to this, because it amounts to profiting from a crass
disobedience of the court,” said the party. “The governor cannot and
must not benefit from being in perpetual contempt of court. It will
send a wrong signal to others like him who willfully disobey court
rulings.” The party subsequently asked the governor to dissolve the
councils in accordance with the court’s ruling. “Anything else would
amount to continuing to make a mockery of the legal system.”

The Cross River
State Police Command has arrested a retired Master Warrant Officer in
the Nigerian Navy for defiling his two-year-old daughter. According to
the Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Ahmed, the suspect was arrested
following a petition to the police by the Chairperson of the
International Federation of Women Lawyers, Rosemary Onah.

He said the petition was filed on July 19 at the instance of the
girl’s mother and that the victim’s mother had reported to lawyers that
the suspect had defiled his daughter. “The testimony of the little girl
and the medical report from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital
confirmed the defilement,” he said. “The report also confirmed that the
girl was defiled severally.”