Today, 17th June 2023 is exactly 20 days since Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu took instrument of power from President Muhammadu Buhari as the 16th Head of State and 8th democratically elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Globally, the performance of leaders is assessed after their first 100 days, then one year in office, and so on but BAT set the ground rolling with a gigantic stride that shook the socioeconomic bone marrow of the nation immediately. From the day he took over, 29th May 2023, several things started happening in quick succession that makes waiting for 100 days to write the BAT scorecard a herculean task with the possibility of making mistakes. Nevertheless, his earth-shattering policy of petroleum subsidy removal needs a thorough discussion in this Column.
Browsing: Prof. M.K. Othman
I am on break this week to publish the views of some of you, my esteemed readers on the various issues in this Column. Some of the views are edited for clarity, space limitation, and conformity with my style of writing. Happy Reading.
Law is an ass, idiot, and an insane blind woman with a sword, ready to swing in any direction. Like a pregnant woman of those days when nobody could predict the sex of the fetus but today’s technological advancement has invalidated this maxim. The complexity and limpidity of the law have created a dreary concern to many whenever a judgment is to be pronounced. The regimented and conservative court procedure with its perceived supreme power has distanced the common man from the court, which is opposite to the adage “last hope of the common man”. Self-esteem and superiority complex of the law practitioners, the lawyers further compound the misunderstanding of the law by the generality. I remember when a lawyer was assigned to teach us a topic “company’s law” as part of a course called “Engineer in Society” in my undergraduate days, one of his first statements was “I am sure you aware that we lawyers are ‘learned people’ while all of you are educated people”. We were silent as we lacked the argumentative capacity to challenge his audacity. We all gazed at him with a big question mark, what is the difference between learning and education?
I was taught and have taught/still teach in many institutions of learning within and without but two of such institutions are uniquely occupying the center stage of my heart. These two are so dear to me that I can give all I have to advance their causes. Government Secondary School (GSS) Funtua and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria are the two exclusively pricey schools I cannot but continue to hold close to my heart. Coincidentally, my age and the age of these two schools marked our Diamond age in 2022 as they were established in October 1962 while I was born three months earlier. I paid a glorious tribute to ABU Zaria, titled “ABU@60: Giant, Still Briskly Walking in the Right Direction” published on 13th October 2022. This article can be accessed via my blog; https://deepthoughtwithmkothman.blogspot.com/2022/10/abu60-giant-still-briskly-walking-in.html
This article attracted mammoth reactions from my readers. It is a sign of goodwill for the Katsina State governor-elect, Dr. Umar Dikko Radda, a round peg in a round hole, an agricultural extensionist in an agrarian state dearly craving salvage. What a timely happening. In the next few days, he will be inaugurated as the first PhD holder, democratically elected to occupy the seat of Katsina state governor. Can he make a positive difference in the lives of Katsina people? Can he outshine others who came before him? He has a catalog of overwhelming challenges but he is also well groomed, educationally, administratively, and experience-wise. May the Almighty Allah see him through. Now, here are selected readers’ comments on the Article, “Irrigation Glorious Future for Katsina State”. Happy reading.
This week, I honored an invitation sent to me in November 2022. I was invited to make a keynote address at the 48th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Society for Plant Protection, tagged “Kano -NSPP 2023” with the title “Plant Health, Crop Improvement, and Sustainable Food Security in Nigeria”. I was hesitant about accepting the invitation but the caliber and personal relationship with the members of the organizing committee could not allow me to reject it. With all the eggheads in crop protection and plant science around, why invite me, an agricultural engineer to talk as a keynote speaker? I later realized the wisdom behind the invitation, someone outside the profession should tell the professionals, his impression, thoughts, and the impacts of the profession on society. It is also an opportunity to talk about the GMT, the question of safety, and so on. This opportunity came on Monday, 15th May 2023 when I faced over 200 participants in the Plant Protection Conference and presented my thoughts on GMT, Food Security, Biosafety law, and public discourse on GMT.
Confessionally, Katsina state is among the luckiest states to have acquired five multi-billion Naira irrigation projects littered across the state. Conservatively, these projects – Zobe, Jare, Dallaji, Sabke, and Jibia dam projects have gulped over 150 billion Naira from the Federal government in the last three decades. For instance, Zobe water supply project Phase I and II alone was appropriated N3.227 billion in the 2017 Appropriation under a budget line, FMOWR64053426. This is in addition to the “little chip in” by the Katsina state government, “now and then”. For example, in August 2003, the then-governor Umaru Yar’adua’s government allocated a princely sum of N317 million for funding a 16-kilometer supply of water from Zobe Dam to Dutsinma town. One can only appreciate the staggering huge resources allocated to these projects after going through their financial audits. These projects, like all other civil engineering projects, have lifespan whether utilized or unutilized, and it will be a colossal loss of public resources, and a disservice to the nation if they attain their lifespan without reaping the expected benefits. Katsina state government must do everything possible to derive the maximum benefits from these projects. So, the major concern is how to make these underperforming, almost abandoned projects perform excellently for the benefit of Katsina state and the nation at large.
Nostalgically, my hope of a better tomorrow for Katsina state was kindled in 2008 when I joined experts from ABU Zaria who were commissioned to make a project proposal for revamping agriculture in the state. On that note, I subconsciously dreamt of Katsina state gloriously galloping ahead of its peers at the envy of Kano and Kaduna states. The revamping project took us to all nooks and crannies of the state and dug out the actual and potential of agricultural resources littered across the state. I led the Irrigation team that appraised 25 selected irrigation schemes/projects under State and Federal Governments. The state has 36,200 ha of potentially irrigable land in the Fadama and over 10,000 ha of land that can be developed for irrigation under the irrigation projects of the Federal government for the Zobe, Jibia, and Sabke dams. Irrigation provides meaningful employment during the dry season, intensifies land use, and provides food during periods of scarcity. It is also a source of foreign exchange when food crops are exported outside the country. Additionally, irrigation prevents rural-urban migration with its consequent social ills and sure way of reducing poverty.
Peter Gregory Obi, a 1984 graduate of Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is a dogged political fighter and appears to be a committed nationalist struggling to take Nigeria out of economic doldrums and developmental stagnation. His political sojourn is full of ups and downs, with each down making him a stronger and more ferocious fighter for the next round of fighting. As written in this Column, a few months ago. His tenure as the governor of Anambra state was marred by upheavals. Obi’s victory in the 2003 governorship election of Anambra was awarded to Ngige, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi assumed office on March 17, 2006, but was impeached On Nov. 2, 2006, by the State House of Assembly after seven months in office and was replaced by his deputy Virginia Etiaba. He was re-instated on Feb. 9, 2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. In April 2007, Obi was removed from office after a new governorship election was held by INEC, but the judiciary intervened again and ruled that he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term. In 2010, he won re-election for a second and final term in office as the governor. Despite these happenings, Obi was able to perform “wonders” in Anambra. His testimony is full of fantastic stories.
The second part of this article was published on 8th March 2023 and then two key political issues crossed my mind, which made me discontinue this article. My esteemed readers, please, pardon my break and now, I am back to continue on the subject. Recall, the last line of part II of this article ended with two pertinent questions. Can Africa afford GMT? What is the viable strategy for Africa to benefit from cutting–edge technology?