Sounds of several explosions and gunfire are being reported by residents of Nyanya, a suburb in the heart of Damaturu, the Yobe state capital.
It is not known at this time where is being targeted but state commissioner of Police, Mr. Patrick Egbenife has told Weekly Trust that men of the Joint Task Force have been deployed to the troubled location and are trying to repel the attackers.
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Source: Weekly Trust
By Godday Odidi
The recent suspension of Nigerian Universities from running Part- time Programmes by National Universities Commission(NUC) by the Executive Secretary Prof Julius Okojie is an indication of unbiased and political undertone in the Nigeria’ s education sector.Over the years, the education sector has suffered several setbacks on inconsistent policies by education policy makers in the country.
In 2000, precisely, the then Minister of Education Prof Aborishade Babalola under the then administration of chief Olusegun Obasanjo suspended Part-time programmes from the Nation’s Universities which was tagged as “Satellite campuses”. Prof Aborishade directed all the Nigerian Universities to cancel its distance learning and set up the Part- Time programmes within 200km away from the main University which many applauded as a welcome development. Though that brought some education standards to the then mushroom campuses called Universities.Many of these Satellite campuses were closed down after the holistic decision taken by the commission to revive the education sector. Although some of these Satellite campuses were operating like perfect markets with desperate education capitalists who were only interested in the returns of students school fees and nothing else.Over the the past years, the standard of education in Nigeria has collapsed as a result of regular strikes by Universities’ lecturers and other challenging factors confronting the University system in the country. The high profile brain-drain among Nigeria lecturers and students patronizing foreign universities on yearly basis has called for great concern towards the education sector. It is sad that Nigeria’s certificates are not recognized in the international communities due to the low score-card in the sector. The fact remains that Nigerians do well in foreign universities which system is regulated by the educational authorities over there.
Prof Julius Okojie meant well for the Nigerian students that patronize the so-called Part- time programmes but the decision was abruptly suspended without much consultation from the Nigerian universities.This unpalatable decision has created uncontrollable comatose on the lives of the Nigerian students that are the victims of the commission not University stakeholders.The economic hardship in Nigeria which invariably prompted many Nigerians not to attend the conventional universities but attend the Part- time programmes as to complement the late pursuit of education in the country.The country is presently having over 120 universities including private ones, Colleges of education, Monotechnics and Polytechnics. Licenses are being issued to private individuals to set up universities which are not in the reach of the poor.
Though some of these Part- time programmes being run by some of these nation’s universities are not accredited by the NUC but still in operating illegally while degrees are being awarded to students.It is even difficult for NUC to monitor the academic activities of these higher universities in Nigeria.For NUC to approve 30 courses out of 31 of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) indicated that the commission is playing politics with the education sector.The commission has continued to increase the approval of private universities while the existing ones are nothing to write home about.The commission has told Nigerians who cares to listen that the increase of students enrollment in the Part-time programmes are more than the full time programmes. That shows the increment of adult education in Nigeria in recent times. How many Nigerians can afford full time university or Masters degree?If these so-called excuses by the commission is nothing to go by while not the Nigerian universities not rated as the best in the world.
Not quiet long ago when the University of Lagos(UNILAG) was renamed after the late democratic chief MKO Abiola Moshood Abiola Unversity (MAULAG) by President Goodluck Jonathan as part to commemorate May 29 as Democracy day which decision is still pending in the court till final verdict.Education in Nigeria from the primary to the university levels needed to be overhauled because of the high profile corruption that has crept into the system. Though Nigeria has the best lecturers and students but the system is unprofessionally mismanaged by desperate education policy makers and nothing else.President Goodluck Jonathan on his assumption as number one citizen of the country established nine federal universities to boost the education sector which many political observers assume he would have restructure the existing ones across the country.Most of these policies being carried out by the NUC on the Nigerian universities on yearly basis needed to be scrutinized by the federal government.The present Education Minister Prof Rufia is silent on the decision of the NUC.The NUC also embarked on monitory some of the nation’s universities over the accreditation of programmes which some universities were greatly affected and published in national newspapers as defaulters.The NUC has directed all the universities not to have more than 20 percent of their student population on Part-time with excess capacity to teach. All Part-time programmes must be located on campus. The universities must score over 70 percent in all areas of assessment including the provision of library facilities before it would be accredited. it is good that NUC streamline some Satellite campuses being run by these so-called desperate education operators. Some of these lecturers in these Part- time programmes are not qualified to teach by being conscripted on the students. Even there is no formidable union to monitor the academic activities of these institutions of higher learning. These Part-time programmes generate revenue to the main universities in the country.Most of the leaders of these country are beneficiaries of these Part-time programmes.
Finally ,National Assembly must intervene in this situation to save Nigerian students from NUC unjust policy to the education sector. Even foreign universities operate Part-time programmes . Most of these universities are not operating Satellite campuses which operation is not different from the main universities.
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By Godday Odidi
Public Affairs Analyst 08058124798, 08063458693,
20 Oro Street Ajegunle Apapa Lagos
EFCC Press Release
Justice Ibrahim N. Buba of theFederal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, on Thursday 28thJune, 2012, convicted two brothers, Collins Avoaja and Ikechukwu Avoaja to seven years imprisonment each on the 13 count charge of fraud and obtaining money under false pretence preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The sentence which starts counting from June 29, 2012, is without an option of a fine. It will however run concurrently. Their company, CeeCee Concept Multiple Nigeria Limited which was the channel through which they carried out their fraudulent transactions was also convicted.
The court ordered the accused persons to pay back the worth of the bank guarantee in the sum of N25, 000,000.00 (Twenty Five Million Naira) to Fidelity Bank Plc as restitution.
It would be recalled that in October 2008, CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited was availed a Bank guarantee to the tune of N25, 000,000.00 (Twenty Five Million Naira only) in favour of Globacom Limited, Warri Branch, for the purchase of Globacom recharge cards.
Collins Avoaja who was the Marketing Manager of Globacom Limited at the time he committed the crime, also doubled as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of CeeCee Concept Multiple Nigeria Limited, a fact that Globacom Limited claimed it knew nothing about until the crime was discovered.
Investigations also revealed that Ikechukwu Ovoaja was a co-director of CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited and conspired with his brother, Collins Avoaja to commit the crime.
According to the petitioner, Collins Avoaja used his position as the Marketing Manager of Globacom Limited to order stock to his company, CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited, without complying with the terms and conditions spelt out by Fidelity Bank Plc in the Bank guarantee.
CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited issued several post-dated cheques to Globacom Limited, but all turned out to be dud chegues as CeeCee Concept Limited account was not funded.
However, the timely intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in January 2010 caused Fidelity Bank Plc to pay Globacom Limited, the cash equivalent of the total amount of stock released to CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited after Globacom called in the Bank guarantee. This prompted Fidelity Bank Plc to petition EFCC on the activities of CeeCee Concept Nigeria Limited as well as the two convicts, Collins and Ikechukwu.
In a related development, Justice Buba also convicted Gbadagesin Yinusi and sentenced him to two years imprisonment without an option of fine for illegal oil bunkering and dealing in petroleum products.
Yinusi’s sentence, according to the judge should run from July 27, 2010, when he was first remanded in prison custody. The Judge also ordered that the Mercedes Benz Tanker that the accused person was arrested with, be forfeited to the Federal Government along with its content, 40,000 litres of automotive gas oil, AGO.
Yinusi and Femi, now at large, were arrested on July 27, 2010, at Aladja, near Warri, Delta State, in a Mercedes Benz Truck with registration number Lagos XL 203 JJJ for illegally dealing in Petroleum Products, an offence contrary to Section 3(6) and punishable under section 1(17) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap M17 of the revised edition Law of the Federation 2007.
Wilson Uwujaren
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
30th June, 2012
The Obama administration is considering a new gambit to restart peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan that would send several Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials told The Associated Press.
Under the proposal, some Taliban fighters or affiliates captured in the early days of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and later sent to Guantanamo under the label of enemy combatants would be transferred out of full U.S. control but not released. It’s a leap of faith on the U.S. side that the men will not become threats to U.S. forces once back on Afghan soil. But it is meant to show more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency that the U.S. is still interested in cutting a deal for peace.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others have said that while negotiations with the Taliban are distasteful, they are the best way to settle the prolonged war.
The new compromise is intended to boost the credibility of the U.S.-backed Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai and U.S. officials are trying to draw the Taliban back to negotiations toward a peace deal between the national Afghan government and the Pashtun-based insurgency that would end a war U.S. commanders have said cannot be won with military power alone.
The Taliban have always been indifferent at best to negotiations with the Karzai government, saying the U.S. holds effective control in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has set a 2014 deadline to withdraw forces and is trying to frame talks among the Afghans beforehand.
Under the new proposal, Guantanamo prisoners would go to a detention facility adjacent to Bagram air field, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, officials of both governments said. The prison is inside the security perimeter established by the U.S. military, and is effectively under U.S. control for now. It is scheduled for transfer to full Afghan control in September.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta would have to sign off on the transfer and certify that the men did not pose a danger. He would not confirm details of the new proposal at a Pentagon news conference Friday, but he said discussions continue to try to promote a peace deal.
“There are no specific commitments that have been made with regard to prisoner exchanges at this point,” he said. “One thing I will assure you is that any prisoner exchanges that I have to certify are going to abide by the law and require that those individuals do not return back into the battle.”
Any such transfer is unlikely to include the five most senior Taliban figures held at Guantanamo, the subjects of separate negotiations with the Taliban that have stalled, a senior U.S. official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the transfer is still under discussion and no offer has been made.
Afghan officials and other diplomats said it is not yet clear whether the new proposal could include those five, but said it has not been ruled out. Republicans in Congress bitterly opposed the plan to send those men to house arrest in Qatar, a Persian Gulf nation that has emerged as a key broker with the Muslim Taliban. The opponents feared the men would be set free and endanger the U.S.
The latest proposal was a topic of recent discussions in Washington with members of Karzai’s peace committee, a group of elders charged with reaching out to the Taliban on the government’s behalf.
“The possibility is strong,” for a transfer to Afghanistan that includes the five top figures, said Ismail Qasemyar, international relations adviser for the Afghan High Peace Council.
Afghans involved in the discussions were still angling to get all 17 prisoners, including the five most senior men, released or transferred. The Taliban has demanded release of all the Guantanamo detainees as a condition for talks.
The Taliban abandoned direct talks in March, accusing the U.S. of reneging on several promises. The United States considers the talks suspended, not dead. The U.S. and the Afghan government are pursuing several new avenues to restart talks, including the use of proxy emissaries to the Taliban, diplomats said.
Karzai has long sought the return of all 17 Afghans imprisoned at Guantanamo, men he sometimes calls brothers, as a point of national pride. He has argued that their imprisonment at the detested Guantanamo prison undermines his credibility as a national leader, and that Afghanistan’s own institutions should deal with captured insurgents.
The U.S. has said publicly that, in regards to the five senior Taliban, they would be transferred to another country’s control, not released. But terms for the proposed transfer to Qatar were fairly loose. Officials briefed on the discussions said the men would have to agree not to return to fighting, forswear any ties to al-Qaida, and submit to a ban on their travel. Beyond that it was not clear how closely they would be controlled by the Qatar government.
The Taliban would have been asked to release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. prisoner of war from the Afghan conflict.
Qatar recently sent a letter to U.S. officials with proposals to rekindle talks, a U.S. official said, but it was not clear whether the new proposal for transfer to Afghanistan was among them.
The latest Bagram proposal would appeal to the Taliban, Qasemyar said.
“The High Peace Council could use that opportunity as a goodwill gesture,” he said in an interview.
Qasemyar said that the proposal may have benefits for the U.S. beyond boosting his organization’s bargaining power with the Taliban.
“What I gathered from what I heard in Washington is the U.S. government was afraid that if they released a prisoner and he went back to fighting,” the Obama administration “would lose faith before the Congress or before the people of the United States,” he said.
A way around that concern, Qasemyar said, is “to send them to the Afghan government. Then that responsibility would be shifted to our side.”
Karzai supports the new proposal, Qasemyar said, despite some concern in the Afghan government that the five could become a rallying point for ethnic tension in Afghanistan.
Mullah Norullah Nori, for example, could be a problem for Karzai. He was a senior Taliban commander in Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought U.S. forces in late 2001. He previously was a Taliban governor in two provinces in Northern Afghanistan, where he has been accused of ordering the massacre of thousands of Shiite Muslims.
The Oba of Benin, Om n’Oba Erediauwa, yesterday shunned the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) delegation which paid a courtesy visit to him in his palace.
The Oba who normally receives visitors to his palace personally yesterday asked the Iyase of Benin, Chief Sam Igbe to receive the delegation on his behalf while he stayed in his inner chambers.
In his prayers, the Iyase said “our son, the president came on a courtesy visit and after his visit, he should have a safe journey home.”
The President was thereafter asked to proceed alone to the inner chambers to see the Oba while others, including the PDP Candidate, Maj-Gen Charles Aihiavbere (rtd), were asked to vacate the palace hall.
It will be recalled that the Oba had at various times thrown his weight behind the candidature of Governor Adams Oshiomhole who was declared as the Benin candidate by the palace.
The Esogban of Benin, Chief David Edebiri while speaking on behalf of the Oba during a visit of Governor Oshiomhole to the palace, with the Oba in attendance had said: “Adams Oshiomhole is the Benin candidate. He is the one who wants Benin City to join other modern cities in the country, so he is our candidate. Some people said the palace is playing politics. What is politics? The Oba himself is an embodiment of politics.
“If you have a house and you are old and your children did not come to paint the house and somebody from outside came and painted it and decorate it for you. Will you leave that person? Once again, we are voting for Adams Oshiomhole.
“As the Odionwere of Bini Kingdom, and I am speaking on behalf of the Oba, you are going to win. The Oracle has spoken. Anyone who disputes it or fights against the oracle, then let him fight on, we will wait and see the result.”
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There were hints yesterday of the reasons behind the cofidence exuded by the embattled former Chairman of the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on the Management of Fuel Subsidy, Mallam Farouk Lawan.
A National Assembly source told our correspondent that Lawan is set to shock Nigerians with proofs of his innocence. Lawan had once said he would be vindicated at the end of the investigation.
The House Committee on Ethics and Privileges on Thursday commenced investigation into the sum of $620,000 Lawan allegedly collected from the Chairman of Zenon Petroleum, Femi Otedola.
Lawan, who entered the investigation room at 1:06pm on Thursday appeared unruffled by the media attention the allegation of bribery levelled against him has gained in recent time. On sighting the more than 50 newsmen who had waited earnestly for his arrival, he said, “Mr Chairman, it is a full house.”
However, contrary to earlier promise by the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, that the session would be open to media coverage, the Chairman of the Committee, Gambo Dan-Musa asked journalists to leave after he had read his address.
Mohammed later defended the Committee’s decision to hold the investigation behind closed door. According to the House Spokesman, the decision was to avoid distraction as other investigations on the same matter were going on.
He said the Committee would not want media attention to create a situation where evidence of one investigation would affect the course of the other.
According to the source, the lawmaker, who was also relieved of his chairmanship of the Education Committee, was not only relaxed throughout the session, he was very cooperative and was ready to assist the committee in its assignment.
Saying that Nigerians are in for a shock concerning the bribe, the source affirmed that the issue of the whereabouts of the money would be laid to rest by the time the report of the Committee is tabled before the House.
Asked about the disposition of Lawan to the Committee’s questions, the source said: “He was confident in the way he carried himself, because he has proof. He did not fidget and he gave us the relevant things we requested from him.
“You know he was Vice Chairman of Ethics committee in 1999. So, he knew the extent the Ethics Committee could go. So, he was quite open. The reality is that he has all the text messages. He has evidence that will shock everybody with the little we got from him.”
The source also revealed that the Committee was cautious but firm about the whereabouts of the cash, going by past experience. “Nobody saw any money with the former Speaker Adolphus Wabara. Where he fell into the trap was that he allowed himself to be deceived. They cajoled him that he should accept that he took the money and that he should pay back and that there won’t be any problems. He fell for it and went and dropped the money. As soon as he dropped the money, they nailed him.
“As for Farouk, he did not deny collecting the money as he seemed to be aware of the consequences, but the whereabouts of the money is what the investigation should determin.”
He also said that the main focus of the Committee is to ascertain the relationships between the alleged bribe and the outcome of the report.
“Our own job basically is to find out if he went out to take bribe to influence the report in any way. You should not forget that Otedola has three companies involved in the case.
“One can recall that the report was tabled on the 19th. If they had taken money from anybody, why would they be indicted. You know their mandate was PMS. This is a very simple matter. If your company was not involved and you have documents to back it up, then present it.
“In the case of Zenon, he made documents available. But as for AP, he did not present any document and that was why AP was still there. He started helping the committee by giving them information. At the end of the day, it turned around. The story changed and started with some threats, but Farouk went to get that money to save himself, not knowing at that point too, the man was also looking for how to blackmail him.
“That is basically how far I can go with you until the man appears before us to have a look at another angle to the saga. But from what he has, Nigerians will be shocked.”
Source(Channelkoos News)
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has reopened an old oil pipeline built by Iraq to bypass Gulf shipping lanes; giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude from Red Sea terminals should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources told Reuters.
Riyadh took the step as international pressure grows on Iran to curb a nuclear programme that Western powers say has a covert military purpose. A European Union embargo on buying Iranian oil takes full effect on Sunday, cutting Tehran’s income.
With the sanctions regime tightening on Iran, grains traders said its attempts to secure millions of tonnes of wheat through barter deals with India and Pakistan are failing, and Tehran is about to pay premium prices on international markets to secure food supplies and stave off popular unrest.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili warned world powers on Thursday against adopting “unconstructive measures” that harm talks, state television reported. “Those who replace logic in talks with illegitimate tools are responsible for harming the constructive trend of talks,” Jalili wrote to EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton.
The effects of tensions have been diverse, with Saudi Arabia’s decision to widen its export routes the latest evidence of states in the region preparing for difficulties.
The Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA), laid across the kingdom in the 1980s after oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf by both sides during the Iran-Iraq war, has not carried Iraqi crude since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Saudi Arabia confiscated the pipeline in 2001 as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad and has used it to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country in the last few years.
Iran threatened in January to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and European sanctions that target its oil revenues in an attempt to stop the nuclear programme.
An EU ban on Iranian oil starts on Sunday and Israel has threatened military action against the country’s nuclear facilities if talks with Western powers fail to stop uranium enrichment.
Alarmed, Saudi Arabia has now quietly reconditioned IPSA to carry crude, test pumping along the line over the last four to five months, several sources with knowledge of the project say.
“The testing started because Saudi Arabia wanted to secure alternative routes to export oil,” an industry source in Saudi Arabia said.
Western industry sources said the tests through the 1.65-million barrel-a-day line had delivered into storage facilities at Mu’ajjiz near Yanbu on the Red Sea for at least four months.
More than a third of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz from the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Qatar’s liquefied natural gas exports are all shipped through Hormuz.
Petroline
Worried about its reliance on Gulf shipping, Saudi Arabia increased its capacity in 1992 to pump oil from fields predominantly clustered in the east across the country to the Red Sea. Capacity rose to about 5 million barrels a day through two parallel pipelines known as the Petroline.
Saudi crude exports run as high as 8 million bpd but rising demand for its crude in Asia, shipped out of the Gulf, and falling demand from Europe, usually sourced from Red Sea ports, meant Petroline’s pumping capacity was never fully used.
The smaller Petroline pipeline was converted to carry natural gas from the east to booming industrial centres in the West a few years ago, slashing Saudi’s east-west crude transport capacity to Red Sea ports.
Saudi Red Sea industries are now reliant on gas fed from fields over 1,000 km away and the prospect of cutting them off to export crude through Petroline during a Gulf shipping blockade is not an attractive option.
Until recently the Saudi government had considered the risk of such a disruption in the Gulf too small and its western gas needs too great to switch Petroline fully back to oil. But as tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme rose, it decided to put IPSA on standby to transport more crude west in an emergency.
The United Arab Emirates has built its own Hormuz bypass pipeline, which is due to start exporting from the Gulf of Oman next month.
With its oil income crimped by embargoes and its ability to import essential products curtailed by sanctions targeting its banking system, Iran had turned to India and Pakistan for wheat to meet some of its needs, but grain traders say talks with both Delhi and Islamabad are deadlocked.
Food is not targeted under Western sanctions aimed at deterring Iran’s nuclear programme, but in recent months it has paid high prices for grain to work around a freeze on financial transactions due to the measures.
“There is great doubt in the market about whether the Indian deal will happen. They are never going to get the phyto- sanitary standards worked out,” a European grains trader said. “The Indian wheat cannot reach the standards the Iranians traditionally demand.”
As Iran’s second-biggest crude client, India hoped to reassure Tehran on quality and secure wheat sales to help settle part of its $10 billion a year-plus oil import bill through a barter-style mechanism using rupees. India said last week it can export up to 3 million tonnes of wheat if supplies are requested.
In Washington, sources said the Obama administration is expected to extend exceptions on Iran financial sanctions to China and Singapore, perhaps as early as Thursday.
“There should be an announcement today,” on China – Iran’s top buyer of crude – and on Singapore which buys fuel oil from the OPEC member, said one of the sources who works in the US government.
Earlier this month the administration granted exceptions to India and six other economies. Japan and 10 EU countries got the exceptions in March.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi warned South Korea on Thursday that Tehran would reconsider ties with Seoul if the country stopped importing oil from Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
South Korea announced on Monday it would halt imports of Iranian crude from July 1 due to an EU ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil, becoming the first major Asian consumer of Iranian crude to announce suspension of crude imports.
The northern Nigerian State of Bauchi appears reeling from an unending tailspin of financial administrative maladies that have plagued the Yuguda administration from the inception of the administration in 2007. Information available to 247ureports.com through a source within the government house in Bauchi State reveals that while the state government battles financial insolvency, the state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda has embarked on a N2.5billion project for the construction of his private home.
The Governor of Bauchi, Malam Isa Yuguda, according to a principal source within the Yuguda administration, had purchased two units of land area from the government of Bauchi State at the piece of N1million each – two years ago. The land was purchased at a heavily discounted rate. Real estate speculators pegged the actual land price to be magnitudes higher.
Governor Isa Yuguda, shortly following the purchase of the property, moved to demolish the structures standing at the property. He began erecting 6-unit structures at each of the land area – one for his private use and the other for the use of his children. Both complexes are described as luxurious edifices and are located along Sir Ibrahim road inside Bauchi metropolis. The Governor is said to be erecting both complexes against the end of his governorship tenure in 2015.
[The Secretary to the State Government is said to be erecting a complex near the governor’s complex – stay tuned for the publication]
According to the source, the two complexes are value at a minimum N2.5billion – with the governor private complex valued at N2billion while that of his children is valued at N500million. The construction work at the two sites is presently ongoing.
It is noteworthy that the Bauchi State treasury appears regularly in the red – steadily running a monthly overdrawn balance of N300million for the State’s main account housed at FCMB in Bauchi.
Independent inquiry carried out by 247ureports.com revealed that the financial squalor within the Bauchi State administration may arouse the inquisitive attention of the economic and financial crimes commission [EFCC]. As learnt, the main bank accounts of the Bauchi government are said to be drawn down immediately following each payment of monthly allocation from the federal government. “Within days of payment into the State accounts, it is drawn down to messily N1million”, confirmed a source who continued to add the state government withdraws the monies to pay for loans and bonds Yuguda took during his first tenure as governor. It was learnt that the Yuguda administration has, as a result, turned its attention to federal funds allocated to the local government areas [LGA] for monies to run the government. It was gathered that out of the average N80million received monthly by the various LGAs, only N5mllion left with the LGA while the remainder is housed by the Yuguda administration.
In talking to the Yuguda administration, through the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Michaels, they confirmed that the governor was indeed erecting a complex at the said location. Mr. Michaels however denied that the complexes were worth the alleged amount. The Chief Press Secretary recalled that the Governor had been in top executive positions at two major banks –and had served as a federal minister prior to his accession to the seat of Governor. “The Man, Isa Yuguda can afford to build his home without help” said the chief press secretary who went to state that the issue was a private matter – that should be left alone.
At creation, all souls were with God in heavenly places and to each soul, God assigned some works to be done either in heaven or elsewhere. Souls that must come to earth to do their works must wear the human body and become human beings. So on earth, each human being is made up of the soul and body; but the soul bears the work-seed. That work-seed is the purpose of a person’s sojourn on earth and it gives meaning to the life of the human being and differentiates one person from the other. The work-seed is domiciled in the human talent. People describe it severally as “your calling”, “your anointing”, “your gift from God”, “your purpose on earth” etc. All these refer to your talent which defines who you are and what you should do while on earth. Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners defined talent as “the natural ability to do something well”. Note that “natural ability” here refers to God-given competence. Talentism is derived from the word talent. Talentism insists that the state, through its educational system, must discover, train and equip every talent into an organized business to provide utilities for the satisfaction of human needs, increase and sustain national development.
Talents can be identified in different faculties or work-cells of life. They include natural abilities to talk well, clean well, be the best messenger, best clerical worker, best singer, best teacher, best curator, best stylist-fashion designer, leader of leaders, best artist, best entertainer, best engineer, best accountant, fastest sprinter, best writer, best footballer, best architect, best medical scientist, best project manager, best person who can ask questions and extract truths, best farmer, best scientist/technologist who can transform natural things into higher usable values, best businessman, best thinker, etc. In every nation-state, these abilities cannot all be found in one person because one person cannot do all these works of God; hence God distributed them among different peoples in different places as it pleases Him.
Again talents were created to be applied on latent resources to meet human needs and develop the state. Therefore it is the duty of state leadership to think through and provide policies that can harness these various talents into a sustainable national culture. To be able to do this, some countries adopted certain ideologies ranging from communalism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism to socialism. Except the first, none of these ideologies had been able to effectively resolve the problem of unemployment (especially among the youths). Some politicians have capitalized on this to promise creating million-million jobs for their people. This surely is not true because nobody can create work except God. God’s work domiciled in human talents is the most viable pathway to national development. Let us illustrate this by examining a publication on page 27 of the Daily Trust (a Nigerian Abuja-based newspaper) of 22nd June 2012, titled “I want to be a nuclear physicist”, said a 15 year old student of Zaria Academy, Master Salisu H. M. Bunkure.
In the said publication, Salisu was the subject matter and we are interested here in his engineering talent. The paper said “when he fabricated his radio station, nobody taught him how to do it.” That shows a natural ability. Salisu went further to state that, “because of the love I have for engineering…” The fact is that those who know their talents are always passionate about them. Again, talents define a person’s expertise or profession. Salisu helps us here when he said “…from then on, I became a radio repairer.” This means he has got his profession and already employed (at less than 15). One question to ask here is: could Salisu become unemployed after studying engineering at the University? The obvious answer is no.
Like other talents-bearing human beings, Salisu initially had problems working in line with his talent. We must note that Salisu’s primary challenges were mainly exogenous. For example, he said “… soon after, my mother banned me from repairing radio because of arguments that clients raised either before or after the repair had been completed”. Whether knowingly or not, parents or guardians sometimes discourage and shade away children from their talents. But the other challenge from clients was positive because if properly resolved, those arguments can lead to improved service quality delivery. Very instructive here is that at about 15 years of age, Salisu already had clients and indeed had started building his business empire.
Furthermore, and most times, talents work on latent or wasting opportunities and resources to produce things of greater values. For example, Salisu said he “…picked pieces of amplifier that one of our teachers brought. It had been lying there for more than two years… I was just trying to detect why the amplifier did not work”. Latent wealth always lay wasting, especially in Third World countries, waiting to be transformed by appropriate talents. Thus, talents work on latent wealth to produce manifest wealth. In God’s design, requisite talents are usually located near every latent wealth to change the later into manifest wealth which has utility for humanity. The relationship among requisite talent, latent wealth and manifest wealth relates to the issue of the law of comparative resource advantage in Developmentalism.
Salisu went on to say that “after I had joined the relay from the speaker with that of the battery to the aerial of the speaker, I was just saying to myself, can this thing work? Then I heard what I was saying from the radio set…It was then I knew I had set up a radio transmitter”. When talent works on latent wealth, it results in greater manifest wealth and this output will always come to people as a surprise or miracle. Talent-driven output, when coalesced for over one million people from different works, results in huge manifest wealth called national product and as this process continues with the aim of consistently increasing this wealth, the nation can experience development. This is the true meaning of development.
Free education is crucial in capturing talents for national development. In our instant case, Zaria Academy should be applauded for sponsoring Salisu’s secondary education. To underscore the importance of free education for talent and indeed national development, Salisu himself noted: “ … if he could get scholarship, the sky would be his limit in his zeal to move his state in particular and Nigeria in general in technological development to higher heights.” Thus nations would lose and waste their talents if they do not put in place a free educational system that can discover, train and equip talents for greater productivity. Besides free education, the curricula of the entire educational system should be talent focused.
“As a student in the academy, Salisu managed to write a physics handbook…he was among the students that constructed an electrical inverter… invented car security alarm that can be connected to a handset…and the establishment of a radio station at the academy.” These are greater and higher products made possible by the talents of teens in a secondary school. Every child is so differently talented and if every child can be so identified and encouraged, why should youth unemployment and violence overtake nations of the world in the 21st Century?
In seeking to resolve the unemployment challenge, most nations have turned to the so-called idea of creating employment for the youths. They have invested directly in the areas of skills empowerment that could enable youths establish small and medium scale enterprises. To nations, these are about creating jobs to reduce youth unemployment and increase national productivity and ultimately national development. Yet, youth unemployment keeps increasing by the day. Why? It is because talents are being neglected. Government needs to determine whether or not these youths have talents? If they do, what exactly are their talents? Do nations have a formal educational system or process that can seamlessly discover, train and equip these talents?
In seeking answers to these fundamental questions, I have come to discover that no government can create jobs; rather government can provide enabling environment to get jobs done. When people engage in areas of their talent(s) within an enabling environment, there is always instant joy in doing the work and the work is effortlessly done well. The work is creative, innovative and driven by decent ambition to take it to the highest level by achieving extra-ordinary feats that create quantum value for national development. Working in tune with your talent means working according to God’s purpose for your life. But when government attempts to create jobs, which is fallacy, they cause people to engage in works that are unrelated to their talent(s), even within an enabling environment (like in advanced economies). Such people struggle a lot to achieve and most times, despite some successes, they are unhappy, unfulfilled and constantly dissatisfied.
Salisu himself acknowledged that “his talent is a gift from God”. Therefore, a talent-focused free educational system and a talent-driven political economy are needed for true development where we can have employer-youths not unemployed-youths, positively engaged youths not idle youths armed robbers, religious fanatics and social miscreants whose stock in trade is violence.
How can we have a talent-focused education in a talent-driven economy? It starts with the free educational system that must be able to discover the talents in children, train them along their talents and convert the talents into industries. This way, every work-profession is peopled with persons of like-talents. They may be capitalists, but not the mindless profiteers; they may be socialists but not idle Marxists who want to enjoy the sweat of others by depending on the state; they may be communists but not extreme advocates for an economic system that is too utopian and capable of re-instating the Hobbesian state of nature led by totalitarian workers.
Thus, the meaning of the Salisu example is that all human work activities should be based on talents. When those leading all the sectors of a nation have requisite talents, true professionalism and expertise will reign. Such leaders may not be driven by greed or Machiavelli’s ruthless Realism Theory, but by some humane principles that seek to achieve genuine progress with less contradictions and conflicts. For example, to be a political leader, you must have been created and born with political leadership talent and you had gone to school to study the science of political leadership ( that is Political Science), refined and passionate to lead. But what we have across the world today is political leadership without requisite talent, where misfits now lead nations and the resulting dismal failures include the recurring economic meltdown across the world, the current Eurozone crisis and bailout politics, ever rising rate of inflation, youth unemployment ( being idle, they organize themselves into sectarian secret groups that at times hide under popular doctrines or unresolved issues to unleash mayhem on society), consuming corruption, extreme greed and stealing and violence in all strata of society, meaningless class struggle and conflicts, wrong theories and ideologies, human and material wastages and the underdevelopment of 2/3 of the nations of the world. A non-talent led world must regale in constant turmoil.
We must note that in the post Second World War world, capitalism and socialism have failed. Developmentalism (development through Talentism)) will take over to drive human progress. Political leaders of all nations must key into Developmentalism to improve on the strengths of capitalism and socialism while rejecting their weaknesses thereby ushering in a more humane and decent development paradigm with the human talents as its driving force. Therefore, the World should quickly aspire to have talent-driven economic, social and political systems that must give every human being the opportunity to optimize his/her talent-potentials, reduce youth unemployment, consistently grow national productivity and move up national development in ways that are decent to sustain the earth forever.
Okachikwu Dibia
Abuja, Nigeria.
28th June 2012.
Demolition of a structure inside NUJ Secretariat premises by Development Control,FCT and attacked on Photojournalists,of Vanguard National Mirror Newspaper in Abuja on Friday.
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