Three years after my article, the security situation has escalated to a higher level, with kidnappers demanding billions of Naira as ransom as they operate in broad daylight with impunity. So, I am paraphrasing and updating my article with recommendations for the way forward.
Browsing: Prof. M.K. Othman
Three groups of terrorists are holding and squeezing the nation making it move in a calamitous movement (manner). In the northeast, Boko Haram is calling shots. With the possible exception of Maiduguri town, no town or village is safe in Borno state.
The legislature is the most influential and powerful compared to the other two. The legislative arm is the heart and brain of government, as it can make and unmake the two different arms because it can have an overbearing influence on them, even though the judiciary is always a judge in a tussle between the executive and legislature. The executive formulates, implements, and funds government policies, projects, and programs in line with constitutional provisions, while the legislature regulates and oversees the executive and judiciary.
Obasanjo is a survivalist par excellence. At barely 24 years old, he developed his first survival instinct in 1961. Obasanjo was captured in the Congo Republic by the mutineers while he was evacuating Roman Catholic missionaries from a station near Bukavu. The mutineers considered executing him but mysteriously released him.
Nigeria, as a developing country, has a pocket of rotten eggs but is endowed with kindhearted people who give a helping hand to people in need. Hajia Salamatu Garba is a benevolent personality who founded the Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) to provide hope to the hopeless. The story of WOFAN creation is a heartwarming and motivational tale of how an act of kindness from one person can spark a lifetime dedication to helping the unfortunate and rescuing those in need.
On Saturday, February 14th, 2015, my phone repeatedly rang in the middle of my lovely squash game. I cursed myself for not putting the phone on silent mode. I hesitatingly answered it. The distance caller said, “Prof, you are in the court playing, so you didn’t hear that Malam Falaki (as we fondly called him) is dead; he was assassinated.” Shockingly, my phone fleetingly fell out of my hand, momentarily confused. After confirmation, I witnessed Falaki’s burial in Kano on the same day. Today, Wednesday, February 14th, 2024, marked the ninth year since we lost Professor Mustapha Ahmad Falaki through cruel and gruesome murder in cold blood by yet-to-be-identified assailants. My esteemed readers, I am dedicating my column this week to pay tribute to my excellent mentor, teacher, and farmers’ General, Prof. Falaki, again. I am paraphrasing my earlier tribute, which was written some years ago.
As time ticks, our university system’s perilous situation is deepening, creating an unpleasant scenario. The current administration seems irresponsive to the happenings on our university campuses. Apart from the sweet-coated but unfulfilling statements, award of 25/35% salary increase, presidential amnesty to release four months withheld salaries of the striking workers, approval to remove payment of university workers from IPPIS, etc, the hopes of the university workers for a brighter tomorrow are dashed. The students are oblivious to the flight of their teachers; they are only interested in graduating even if they will be “half-baked” and join the labour market. Why is society unconcerned about the deteriorating quality of Nigerian university graduates? The academics are under exacerbating economic pain, and their Union, ASUU, cowed by the past administration through a judicial technicality, is confused about deciding on the following line of action. ASUU’s rhetoric is in limbo. Is there an alternative to industrial action – strike? Can the university workers embark on another strike with the entrenched government policy of “no work, no pay”? Should they continue to teach their students under unbearable conditions with a peanut as a monthly pay?
In 2001, during my postgraduate program in Montpellier, South France, one of the most observable features of banks in France was the sparse population in banking halls. You can hardly see ten people in the banking halls, comprising bank workers and customers. The only reason for a customer to be in the banking hall is to open a new account or negotiate a loan, not to withdraw cash or make a deposit. ATMs perfectly serve these functions. Even when you need a bank statement, a printing machine is poised at the gate for the customer’s self-service. Then, banking operations in France were about 70% digital. I am happy today in Nigeria; we are almost reaching where developed countries like France were over twenty years ago in banking operations. The advent of ICT has globalized all developmental sectors and made banking services effective, efficient, and timely. Nigeria has the potential and wherewithal to be on par with any nation in ICT and innovative technologies for the nation’s development. However, we still face poor infrastructure, human resistance against change, sabotage by the beneficiaries of the old order, and other mundane and archaic reasons to slow down progress. The plan to relocate the Central Bank of Nigeria from Abuja to Lagos can be viewed within this context.
Professor Gbolagade Ayoola is an obscure personality among the downtrodden Nigerians, the category of people he has doggedly fought for all his life. If Nigeria is a country that recognizes and celebrates heroes and fighters of human rights, Ayoola would have been the Mahatma Gandhi of Nigeria; his portraits and objects immortalizing him would have littered every nook and cranny of Nigeria. Today, we are grateful for Ayoola’s success in drafting the Food Right Act, which allows Nigerians to hold their elected officials accountable and even take them to court if they go hungry. The government is not required to provide food for the people free of charge. However, the government has a constitutional responsibility to formulate and implement policies to ensure all Nigerians’ Right to food and food security. Failure of government policies to guarantee people access to qualitative food empowers the people to take the government into account. It means the government of Nigeria bears legally enforceable obligations to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the Right to food for citizens based on treaty obligations and existing laws. The Right to food is in tandem with the Right to life, as access to food is necessary for human survival. It is also part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end hunger in all its forms worldwide before the year 2030. Prof. Ayoola resigned from his teaching job at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, when he realized the enormity of the fight to draft the Right to Food Bill and transform it into an Act.
My last week’s piece closed with a poser: Are the two Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Senators Kyari and Abdullahi, capable of breaking the jinx of poverty and hunger associated with Nigerians? Answering this question requires an in-depth analysis of Tinubu’s policy and direction toward achieving food security for Nigeria. Petroleum subsidy withdrawal skyrocketed the fuel price by 217% that caused astronomical cost of living. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a state of emergency on food security on July 14, 2023, to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal. As I wrote in this Column, the declaration of emergency is the best policy pronouncement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT).