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target=_blank>Injustice In Ivory Tower: The Abandoned Project Called Tai Solarin College Of Education (III)
Main entrance of Tai Solarin College of Education.
The School of Education
The college’s medical centre is an annex of the Degree Complex.
Dr Lukman Adeola Kiadese, provost of Tai Solarin College of Education. Credit: Facebook/Adeola Kiadese
Main entrance of Tai Solarin College of Education.
The ICIR.
THE Nigerian government customarily situates institutions of higher learning in rural communities in order that they may serve as catalysts for development. Tai Solarin College of Education, TASCE, is no exception. Established in 1978, the Ogun State College of Education is located in Omu-Ijebu, 10 kilometres southwest from Ijebu-Ode.
The college was separated from the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, in October 2008, and was relocated to a new campus. Since the move, Omu-Ijebu, a somewhat remote community, has started developing, though slowly. But, the same cannot be said of the college itself.
The Act establishing Tai Solarin College of Education provides for the inauguration of Governing Council, but since its disarticulation over a decade ago, this provision has not been upheld by the state governor, who is empowered to appoint the chairman and most members of the council.
The council is meant to be the supreme administrative authority, relate the interests of the staff to the state government, and be responsible for the general management of the college’s affairs and control of its finances and properties.
It is also the Council’s function to determine college fees, appoint staff, and “regulate the salaries and determine the conditions of service of all staff of the College”.
Though Amosun has only three months left to complete his second tenure, he has not paid any visits to the campus.
The government has not provided the school with facilities, buildings, and general infrastructure needed to ensure its smooth running. The school has a total of 17 buildings.
The administration of former governor Gbenga Daniel built two of them: the college hall, lecture rooms, a mini hall, and offices.
Other structures have been put in place either through support from philanthropists or the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
The college library, for example, was funded using a 2015/2016 merged maintenance intervention fund from the federal agency. The structure housing the School of Education was built using merged normal intervention funds for 2011 to 2013. Also, a 250-seater auditorium is presently under construction and is paid for using merged intervention funds for the years between 2014 and 2016.
“Since Senator Ibikunle Amosun became governor, he has never done any project here,” says Daniel Aborisade, chairman of the Coalition of TASCE Staff Unions.
“He has never come to our aid in any form,” he adds.
“We need more offices. We need more lecture rooms, we need more laboratories, and other things. So we want him to really act as our proprietor and do something on this campus.”
This claim is substantiated by Bankole Oluwasegun, another senior college lecturer. “All the buildings you are seeing here are being funded by TETFund,” he says.
The School of Education
These are not the only problems arising from inadequate resources and neglect from government. Convocation ceremonies have also not been held in the past 10 years; students are simply graduated and certified yearly without any rite of passage.
Aborisade laments that previous proposals written to the state governor for assistance with graduation ceremonies were not approved.
Similar requests made for help in getting accredited by the National Commission for Colleges of Education and in establishing an affiliation programme with the Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, were also not granted.
The college’s medical centre, like other institutions, has equally suffered great inattention. Funds are not regularly provided by the management for its upkeep and it has taken the resilience of clinic workers to keep it running for basic drug administration.
The clinic occupies a three-room bungalow initially meant to serve as a kitchen for a student hostel. None of the rooms, as a result, have cross-ventilation.
“If you go there now to see the beds, we have only six or seven beds in the whole school,” reveals Mutolib Abdullah, a doctor working as one of the college’s healthcare providers.
The Ogun State government ranks very low in terms of transparency and public access to information. It is among 17 states in the country ranked least on the Public and Private Development Centre’s 2018 Open State Government Ranking—performing poorly on indices about citizens’ access to budget and contract information and having failed to sign up for the Open Government Partnership.
Its 2013 budget proposal, however, shows that N556 million was proposed for TASCE for recurrent expenditures and N140 million for capital expenditures. It is not clear what percentage of the monies were eventually approved and released to the college.
The college’s medical centre is an annex of the Degree Complex.
What happened to the college’s IGR?
In the face of declining financial assistance from the top two tiers of government, Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have had to increasingly fall back on options for generating revenue internally. Those in Ogun State make use of their IGR not just to fund capital projects but in complementing government subventions for recurrent expenses such as payment of salaries. For OOU, this was confirmed to our reporter by the registrar, Femi Ogunwomoju.
Kola Abiola, chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, said the polytechnic, like TASCE, has not been generating sufficient IGR to pay staff’s salaries.
“At the end of this February, the government will be owing staff four months’ salary, 17 months of pension that has been deducted but not been remitted, about 15 or 16 months’ union dues that have not been remitted. I cannot say we are different from Tai Solarin College of Education,” he adds.
“I don’t know where you want the institution to generate IGR. Can the IGR pay the salaries of all the staff? Even the stipend the government is meant to pay, they don’t give it to them. So what do you want to augment with it?”
However, because it started on a fresh slate after its renewed independence and relocation to a new campus in 2008, the situation at TASCE is much worse.
It was estimated that the college generated only N150 million in 2013, compared to OOU’s N2.6 billion, Tai Solarin University of Education’s N1.5 billion, and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic’s N1.3 billion.
“Others are not shouting the way we are shouting because they have many students that can bring IGR, and they use the IGR to augment their salaries,” Aborisade discloses.
“So tactically, most higher institutions in Ogun State are glorified private institutions. OOU, TASUED, MAPOLY are admitting many students into certificate, diploma, higher diploma and other degrees. The universities have postgraduate programmes and they charge something substantial; so it is this money they gather.”
The union chairman observes that other schools in the state charge exorbitant fees as acceptance fees and tuition levies and, because of their large student population, they are able to use this for salary payment.
OOU has an estimated population of 30,000 and gets revenue also from annual dues from alumni, public donations, agricultural products, hostels, commercial ventures, laboratory services and so on. For the 2018/2019 academic session, the acceptance fee required by the school was N60,000, while its school fees ranged between N72,000 and N179,000. TASUED has close to 20,000 students, and MAPOLY has roughly 25,000.
As a way of pushing up the college’s IGR, a degree programme was started in May 2018, in affiliation with Olabisi Onabanjo University. A structure on campus meant for use as a student hostel has been converted for the purpose, and through the programme, a lot more students have been admitted and higher revenue is made from student levies.
Dr Lukman Adeola Kiadese, provost of Tai Solarin College of Education. Credit: Facebook/Adeola Kiadese
Allegations of mismanagement, ‘reckless spending’
In September 2016, when Lukman Adeola Kiadese was set to assume office as the new provost of Tai Solarin College of Education, workers of the college resisted, insisting on the payment of at least two-thirds of the arrears owed. Kiadese, at a general congress held with them, appealed for cooperation and promised to resume the payment of full salaries within six months. But this is yet to happen.
Meanwhile, the provost has been severally accused of mismanaging funds belonging to the college, particularly in connivance with the acting bursar, Gbenga Olusanya. Though IGR is expected to have naturally increased over the years, staff members complain that they have not seen improvements in developments on campus or in staff welfare.
While the former administration of Abiodun Ojo paid up to seven months of net salary arrears, Kiadese has only paid arrears for one month.
“And we know he is having more money than the other administration had,” says Aborisade.
“How has he spent that money? What has he been using the money for, we want to know. Those are the questions we are asking. Like I told you the other time that other institutions are using IGR to augment their salary. Why is he not doing that?”
He adds: “Of recent, we stumbled on documents that show us that he is just wasting our money on unofficial things, on things that do not even concern the college… money they are supposed to pack together and pay one or two backlogs or use to augment what the government is paying, but he is not interested in that.”
Copies of these documents, payment vouchers from the college’s bursary, were obtained by our reporter. The vouchers are stamped and signed by the school’s internal auditor and head, Salary and Wages Department. According to two of such vouchers, on January 9, 2019, the sum of N315,000 was approved for release to Akinola Ademola and Adedayo Temidayo, from the provost’s office and Centre for Degree Programme, for an official trip to the University of Ilorin two days earlier.
According to another voucher dated December 28, 2018, the sum of N67,500 was released to Amuludun Tosin of the bursary department for the “additional purchase of rice and turkey for the members of the House of Assembly for end of the year gift”.
Also between December and January, N50,000 was approved for the payment of security officials regarding “ongoing staff agitation and restiveness within college community”, N100,000 was approved “for National COEASU College of Education Academic Staff Union Executive visit to the college”, and N40,000 was approved for the transportation of Akinola “from Ijebu-Ode to Abeokuta” — a distance of 74 kilometres.
Payment vouchers
In a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission dated January 30, 2019, the college’s union also alleges that Kiadese has lately released the sums of N350,000, N300,000 and N320,000 respectively to Tosin Amuludun, ‘Mrs. Banjo’ and ‘Mrs. Adebambo (Ipaye)’, all workers at bursary department, for their personal use.
The provost is also accused of making illegal payments to college’s former provost and registrar, and failing to remit staff’s pension deductions.
“Adeola Kiadese and Mr. Gbenga Olusanya connived to pay the sum of N600,000 each to Dr. Abiodun Ojo and Mr. Tunji Kanimodo, former Provost and former Registrar of the college respectively, monthly for close to one and a half years, claiming it is meant for sabbatical that was not observed,” the petition claims.
“The Provost and Ag. Bursar failed to remit pension deduction as and when due to staff retirement savings accounts. They also did not remit the government quota of our pension to our accounts in contravention of Pension Reform Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004 (as amended).”
In 2017, the petition continues, there was a TETFund-sponsored trip to the United Arab Emirates and the provost and acting bursar allegedly took out the names of certain college lecturers who were originally scheduled to travel. The names were replaced with those of Modupe Mujota, former Commissioner for Education Science and Technology of Ogun State; Olakunle Oluomo, Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly; the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Education Science and Technology; among others from the ministry and state legislature.
“They were all sponsored illegally from TETFund’s account, paid some amounts ranging from N300,000 to N500,000 each and few college staff members who went with them and were paid the same amount were compelled to pay the money into Mr. Temidayo Adedayo’s FCMB account for no reason,” the letter adds.
“We urge you to thoroughly investigate the legality of the trip and the financial transactions that followed. Also we pray that you investigate whether it is proper for the Provost and the Ag. Bursar to compel staff of the college that could not attend TETFund sponsored conferences to pay back the fund collected to a special account not known to TETFund.”
Mujota, in a phone interview with The ICIR, however described the accusation as absolutely false, “in my estimation”, adding that she has never been to the UAE.
“I don’t know why anyone would suggest that he took me to the UAE. I am well-travelled, seasonally so. I travel very frequently and I have travelled to most of the continents of the world. But I have never had the pleasure to go the United Arab Emirates, so I don’t know why anybody would suggest as much,” she tells our reporter.
But two of the lecturers who were part of the trip, under the condition of anonymity, insisted otherwise and confirmed they were instructed to refund money given to them by the management.
Provost avoids interviews
When our reporter called for his reaction to the allegations, Kiadese repeatedly said he is not willing to comment “for now”. He also said The ICIR should not bother sending him a text.
“I will let you know. I will save your number,” he replies to the question of when he should be contacted again.
At a later time, he asked our reporter to travel to meet him in Ogun State. But when this instruction was followed and he was informed, he ended the call and did not answer subsequent calls to his phone. His phone was switched off the following day.
The college’s bursar also declined to comment on the allegations.
“I don’t have any comment because I am not aware of all what you are saying,” he responds after the reporter shared with him some of the workers’ allegation. He instead ended the call abruptly.
Calls placed to the state governor were not answered at the time of filing this report. The Secretary to the State Government, who was involved in a road accident on Friday, February 22, said he regrets he could not attend to official requests as he was out of town. He directed our reporter to “please speak to people in the Ministry of Information” but calls placed to Adedayo Adeneye, the state’s commissioner for information, were not answered. He also did not reply a text message sent to him.
Olaniyi Oladunni of Gboyinde Chambers, the lawyer who assisted in drafting the letter and is offering professional help to the coalition, confirms that the petition was also submitted to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). He is expecting a positive outcome from the commissions’ independent investigations, and if the presented facts are found to be true, he adds, “they are very strong grounds for prosecution if need be”.
Time ticks on a new promise
Following the National Labour Congress’s planned but shelved protest in Abeokuta, the state governor promised to make amends respecting workers’ welfare, including those at TASCE.
“The governor has magnanimously asked that the sacked NLC chairman be reinstated and all other issues, including payment of outstanding gratuity, contributory pension scheme and Tai Solarin College of Education subventions have been amicably resolved,” said the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba.
Amosun himself told the union members and journalists he would clear all backlogs before he hands over to the next governor.
“I will not owe any worker any of their entitlement before I leave office,” he assured.
Come May 29, it will be clear if the governor’s statement on March 4 is another hollow promise or not.
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target=_blank>Dilapidated Nation And Its Decrepit Education System By Erasmus Ikhide
The axiom designating readers as leaders can’t be more sacrosanct in the face of dubious governmentality in Nigeria. It further explains why supersonic nations that have made education basic, compulsory and criminalized illiteracy are zooming into the moon and making heaven on earth for themselves and the unborn generations why backward-looking nations like ours are receding into the caves and caverns.
Little seven years old Miss Success’s literally eviscerating video/story in Sapele, Delta State that has been tweaking globally is the actual Nigerian state and story. The decadent state of the Primary school where pupils sit on bare floor in open roof and dilapidated structures with teachers bringing their own chairs from home, typifies the rot in Nigeria’s educational system. It certainly amplifies the truism that no nation can be greater than the sum total of it teachers.
My spirit sank in January when I visited my alma mater, Holy Trinity Grammar School, in Owan West Local Government Area of Edo Sate on the auspices of my Old Boys Association. Shockingly, the government of the state has only four teachers in the senior secondary school and five teachers in the junior secondary school. Painfully, neither of the two sections of the school has Maths or English teacher on the payroll of the Edo State government!
Tragically, the School Management of Holy Trinity Grammar hinted that it is one of the best schools in Edo State, regardless of the obvious decrepit and convulsing state of the school. Shamefully, the school has been left in the hands of Old Boys/Girls Associations to provide important subject teachers like maths and English, chairs and tables, bolehole and white boards and markers for writing.
The virtual collapse of Holy Trinity Grammar School and its boarding system is not different from the Holy Aruosa Primary school at the heart of Benin City and many others in videos posted by one Mr. Pharez Okpere where children between the ages of 6 and 14 years were spotted sitting under the rain on the bare floor in open roof class rooms. The scene in Pharez’s video wreaks of a broken government and a society intent upon breeding terrorists and butchers in a cannibalized atmosphere for political survival.
Ironically, this is Delta State that has been swimming in oil wealth – the Devil’s excrement that has become more of a curse than blessing to the region and the nation – as the political elites ferry away their kids and loved ones to be educated overseas with the people’s patrimony!
Strictly speaking, successive PDP governors and governments since 1999 in Delta State should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The governors of that state and the principal actors in the education sector should be fastened to the stake and shot for the virtual rape of the state and its people. If the late Prof Folorusho Ambrose Ali could make education basic and compulsory in the then MidWestern State, then the present government in Delta State and all the others in Nigeria who deadened their conscience against the global outcry that nations and governments should dedicate 26% of yearly budgetary allocations to educational development do not deserve to live.
Available records have shown that Delta State Government has collected N30 trillion from the federation account since 1999, yet several hundreds and thousands schools are worst than places where pigs are kept; without teachers and the available teachers have never been trained in the last twenty years and most of them have never seen what a piece or set of computer looks like!
In 2013, UNESCO reported that 13.2 million Nigerians between the ages of 6 and 11 years are out of school. They declared that Nigeria held the “world record” for the number of children who are out of school and declared it “world illiteracy capital”. At the time, the government was run by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party PDP.
Ever since, more alarming number of children of school age are out of school, courtesy of the self-decieving All Progressives Congress APC that has now abandoned the vague and empty sloganeering gambit of “CHANGE” that creates more jobless illiterates and dynasties of the poor.
Aren’t you surprised that Buhari is the Nigerian President, yet more than 95% of the number of Nigerian kids who are hawking and begging on the streets are from the same geopolitical zone as himself? Are you surprised that ASUU went on strike for three months over unpaid N61 billion legitimate demands and were left unattended to, at the same time President Buhari hurriedly approved N91 billion for the establishment of cattle colonies where Fulani Herdsmen will forcefully take over other people’s farm lands? What are the Fulani Herdsmen doing in our forests with AK47 guns when the 21st Century economy demands that they’re in school? Have you asked yourself?
President Muhammadu Buhari and those bootlicking around him are yet to come off the deception. One of the reasons Mr. Buhari has refused to tackle the rot in the education system is because he, himself, is an illiterate like the national chairman of his party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.
Till date, the President has not come forward with his WEAC certificate and has been doing everything within his power to truncate the suit challenging his eligibility for the office of President.
The national chairman of his party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole who claimed to have attended primary school that was not established at the time he attended it, was the Governor of Edo State when the Ministry of Education was set ablaze to obliterate the record, while the perjury case was preferred against Oshiomhole.
At the twilight of 2018, Nigeria was declared the “World Poverty Headquarters”! I hope you have not forgotten the correlation between illiteracy and poverty. Next time you’re told about “Next Level” ask if it includes free education and poverty reduction. ikhideerasmus@gmail.com Follow me on Twitter @ikhide_erasmus1
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target=_blank>Kenyan President Kenyatta Deactivates Social Media Accounts After Suspicious Anti-Corruption Tweet
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has deactivated his social media accounts.
Hours before the deactivation, he had tweeted a warning on corruption, stating that his allies found culpable in allegations of corruption would not be spared.
“If you are corrupt we will fight you. You can be my brother or my sister or my closest political ally, but if you are corrupt we will fight you,” Kenyatta had tweeted.
According to Daily Nation, William Ruto, Kenyatta’s deputy, had claimed that the ongoing war on corruption was targeted at him and his ambition to become President in 2022. As such, there were speculations that the administrator of the social media accounts may have tweeted the said message to pitch Kenyatta against Ruto.
Kenyatta’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were taken down. He had 3.62 million followers on Twitter, with 12,300 tweets.
After speculations that Twitter was taking action against the President following his tweet on corruption, Nzioka Waita, his Chief Of Staff, confirmed that the accounts had been deactivated.
Confirming the deactivation, Waita said: “On account of unauthorised access to the official social media handles of H.E the President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, all official social media handles for the President have been temporarily suspended to allow for the necessary remedial measures to be undertaken.”
In July 2018, the social media accounts of the President, State House and office were taken down.
During that incident, Waita had said: “In this regard and with immediate effect, the only official digital media channels that will convey information for and on behalf of the President, Her Excellency the First Lady and State House are as detailed below: Twitter: @StateHouseKenya, @UKenyatta, @FirstLadyKenya @KanzeDena; Facebook: State House Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, @Office of the First Lady Kenya.”
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target=_blank>Domesticate Kampala Convention On IDPs To Curb Abuse, Norwegian Refugee Council Tells Nigerian Govt
Aisa Kache, 35, holding her infant son inside the GSSS camp in Bama, in Nigeria’s Borno State, on August 15, 2018. Photo: NITIN GEORGE/MSF
Aisa Kache, 35, holding her infant son inside the GSSS camp in Bama, in Nigeria’s Borno State, on August 15, 2018. Photo: NITIN GEORGE/MSF
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in conjunction with civil society groups from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, have urged the Nigerian government to urgently domesticate the Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).
At a conference in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on Thursday, facilitated by NRC, critical stakeholders identified escalating sexual exploitation, rape and other forms of violations of the rights of the IDPs as drivers for the urgent call.
Kampala Convention, among other things, seeks to promote the dignity of IDPs irrespective of their status. The convention clearly stipulates that displaced persons are entitled to normal lives that enables them to access education, human development, medical facilities, social amenities, among other social services.
The convention, which Nigeria is one of its key signatories, enshrines that an IDP has a right to employment and choice of when to return to their original homes.
Mala Abdulaziz, Dr. Tina Olayemi and other CSO leaders, who jointly addressed the press after the conference, decried the rising abuse of the rights of IDPs, especially sexual offences.
Human trafficking issues involving IDPs was also discussed, and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was charged to rise to the challenge.
“NAPTIP and institutions protecting against sexual assault and referral centres must be strengthened. Massive awareness to make the public and IDPs alike become aware of such institutions and relevant laws by all stakeholders, should be carried out,” a statement on the resolutions at the conference read.
Another key issue of concern as stressed by the CSOs is the growing IDP population without corresponding resources to cater to their needs.
“There is a need to focus proactively on local integration of IDPs. At the same time, resources and capacity of local host communities are overstretched; economic and commercial activities cannot sustain the current influx of people. This might lead to more crime and insecurity.”
The stakeholders also deliberated on how supply of aid is drastically waning for IDPs in Adamawa State in particular.
“Although camps have closed officially in Adamawa State, we still have IDPs in Malkohi, Fufore and even here at the main camp, and supply has virtually stopped,” Mala said, adding that there are large scale needs in many LGAs across the three Northeastern States (Borno, Yobe and Adamawa) affecting both IDPs in camps and IDPs living in host communities.”
The CSOs urged the Nigerian government to urgently find ways to domesticate the Kampala Convention.
“Domestication of Kampala Convention is critical and urgent in order to encourage authorities to be responsible in situations where the rights of IDPs are deprived,” the statement added.
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E2%80%94-apc-vows-appeal-pdps-osun-tribunal-victory target=_blank>‘This Verdict Cannot Stand’ — APC Vows To Appeal PDP’s Osun Tribunal Victory
The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will appeal the tribunal judgment that declared Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the September 2018 rerun governorship election in Osun State.
Disclosing the party’s next move, Kunle Oyatomi, Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy for the APC, said the verdict would not stand superior legal scrutiny.
“The verdict cannot stand superior legal scrutiny. Therefore, we will appeal against it,” he told journalists on Friday.
The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, had on Friday declared Adeleke winner of the 2018 governorship election in the state.
At its sitting, the tribunal voided the cancellation of elections in seven polling units in the state, therefore holding that Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not win the election.
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target=_blank>Keyamo: Anyone Who Thinks I Bribed Charly Boy Should Have His Head Examined
Festus Keyamo, spokesman of the President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, has denied the claim that he paid an amount running into “nine figures” to Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy.
Charly Boy made the allegation in a video interview, after an earlier claim by Deji Adeyanju, Convener of Concerned Nigerians, that he collected money from Keyamo.
In an attempt to clarify the supposed circumstances under which he collected the money, Charly Boy had alleged that Keyamo paid the said amount to him for a song he composed against Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, taking to Twitter on Friday evening, Keyamo debunked Charly Boy’s claim, stating that anyone who believed he paid a penny for any song by the latter needs to have their heads examined.
In a series of tweets, Keyamo wrote: “1. I’ve been having some good laugh. Whoever thinks that I would pay a penny for a song by @Areafada1 that disses both the APC and PDP must have his/her head examined. If the quarreling parties want to hurt their egos by bandying phantom figures, they should leave me out of it.
“2. As we’ve said before, some of us ran the PMB campaign on zero budget as volunteers whilst the opposition was paying $90,000 monthly to an American lobbyist (N400 million per year). It’s therefore preposterous to suggest that a 9-figure amount or any at all was paid for a song!
“3. In the world of entertainment, it’s the culture of most (not all) entertainers to raise their stock in the public by bandying phantom figures for their engagements & some others display phantom acquisitions on social media to attract attention and raise their worth for clients.
“4. I’ve always encouraged @Areafada1 & @adeyanjudeji, who are my long-time friends & clients to continue on the path they chose for themselves. I will hate to see them fall apart. Therefore it behoves us all to work together to put things right. I always enjoy vibrant opposition!”
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target=_blank>Climate Change And The Future Of Food Security In Nigeria By Churchill Okonkwo
Expert value judgment about potential risks of drought due to climate change/variability and what should be done is not the role of scientists, but policymakers. Yet, it is the scientists that will lay out the elements of risk to help policymakers evaluate what ‘critical’ drought that could result from climate change entails. This piece, to mark the 2019 World Water Day, will focus on the future of food security in Nigeria in the face of climate change.
The theme of the 2019 World Water Day, marked on 22nd of March is ‘Leaving no one behind’. This theme was adapted from the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit. As we make progress in the agricultural sector, the question on my mind is whether these agro-farming improvements are sustainable in the face of climate change. Will the peasant farmers that produce over 80% of Nigeria’s agricultural output be left behind in the climate change era?
Per the estimate by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA) of the United Nations, Nigeria has a very low level of irrigation development (less than 2 percent of cropped land). Thus, there is a high reliance on rainfed agriculture. In the absence of irrigation, rained lands, especially those in the semiarid and Savannah agro-ecological zones of Nigeria will remain fragile, threatened and unsuitable for sustainable food production. What will be the impact of climate change on the more than “7 million” Nigerians that are currently actively employed in agriculture?
Extensive studies on rainfall variability show that regional climate change and associated climate variability is likely to affect the availability of water from the year 2032 across West Africa, especially the Sahel. This climate information on future drought is the foundation that should guide our current investment in agro-business.
During a severe and prolonged drought in a new climate era, will there be sufficient water/moisture to support the current investment in the agricultural sector on a long-term basis? Will the agricultural sector in Nigeria have the capacity to respond?
During drought, some surface water will dry up, groundwater will be depleted, threatening food production in across the Sahel and Savannah regions, the present food basket of Nigeria. This will result in the collapse of the current agro-based economy. It is only this understanding that can precipitate informed discussion, then, informed policy directives that will empower relevant authorities to take meaningful action.
The failure of the farming programs, such as the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) and the “Green Revolution” initiated under Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Shagari should be a reminder that a well-intended agrarian revolution can go wrong. A holistic framework and strategy for sustainable water governance systems for an agro-based economy are thus essential.
With only about 40% of the 84 million hectares of arable land in Nigeria cultivated, the challenge for the government is, therefore, not how to improve on this per se, but doing so in such a way to withstand prolonged severe drought. The key to this readiness is the maximization of the use of ground and surface water for irrigation purposes where applicable.
Chinua Achebe wrote that “A man who lives on the banks of the Niger (river) should not wash his hands in spittle.” The good people of Nigeria that live on the banks of Rivers Niger, Benue, Imo, Cross River, Gongola, Hadejia, Kaduna, Katsina-Ala, Ogun, Osun, Owena, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara Rivers etc. should not face food scarcity under any climate change scenario.
The development and execution of a master plan that will involve the efficient use of perennial water resources across Nigeria is a shortcut to ensuring food security. In the face of increasing population and uncertainties from climate change, these enormous water resources potential should be fully utilized by the state and federal governments.
All we need to do is take advantage of technological innovations to tap these untapped water resources at our backyards. Think of the capacity (cubic liters) of irrigation water we can easily harness from these untapped resources. The promotion of large-scale water management schemes to provide water resources for agriculture can thus guarantee enough water for year-round farming under present and future climate change scenarios.
The lesson from the glitch in the production of tomatoes in Nigeria in 2016 that resulted in an astronomical increase in prizes with untold hardship is that any prolonged drought in the Savanah belt northwards will be catastrophic. Therefore, in addition to developing the agricultural sector in the northern parts of Nigeria that are more prone to severe drought, the federal and state governments should also invest heavily in the food baskets in the south.
The antiquated mindset focused on developing agriculture in a drought-prone region without adequate irrigation facilities should be modernized. The Nigerian government should push for, develop and harness the irrigation potentials of our water resources. They should provide policy guidelines aimed at strengthening all River Basin Authorities for integrated water resources management at the sub-regional and watershed scale.
In the face of climate change, managing surface and groundwater through small-scale irrigation will be essential in sustaining food production in rainfed areas. This irrigation programs should be tailored to the local and ecological peculiarities of watersheds. Water availability for agriculture during severer drought will give farmers the security they need to risk investing in other productivity-boosting technologies, such as fertilizers and improved seed. This is how to put the nation on the road to food security.
Finally, per the Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA) of the United Nations, “Food security exists when all people, always, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for a healthy and active life.” For Nigeria to have access to sufficient food, always, we need a new paradigm in food security.
Such a paradigm should be aimed at guaranteeing food security by creating an agricultural sector that is equipped with irrigation facilities to withstand years of drought. It’s only after we have done this, that we can guarantee food security for all Nigerians in the climate change era.
Churchill Okonkwo, Ph.D. African Center for Climate Change Science and Policy Research, Washington D.C. follow him on Twitter @churchillnnobi
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target=_blank>JUST IN: Bauchi Commissioner For Finance Resigns Just Before Supplementary Election
Honourable Garbi Mohammed Akuyam, Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development in Bauchi State, has resigned.
In his letter of resignation released on Friday evening, Akuyam said he was compelled to “resign in view of recent developments and political realities of present day Bauchi State”.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said the supplementary governorship election earlier scheduled to hold in Bauchi and Adamawa states would still hold, even though the issue has become a subject of litigation.
The litigation on the Bauchi governorship election, INEC said, was initiated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Mohammed Abubakar.
Garbi was the Director-General of the campaign team of Mohammed Abubakar, Governor of Bauchi State, in 2015.
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target=_blank>NBC Issues New Non-Negotiable Working Conditions For GOtv
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has issued new conditions for GOtv to continue its operations in Nigeria.
The commission cleared the air on the reports that it had issued an ultimatum to Details Nigeria Limited over the operations of GOtv in Nigeria.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, the NBC Director-General, affirmed that the Digital Terrestrial Licence issued to Details Nigeria Limited is scheduled to expire in a few days and a notice had been issued in January 2018.
According to Kawu, the claim that NBC had plans to close down GOtv was never the commission’s intention, as several meetings are ongoing between both parties.
He said a “definitive meeting” held on Thursday, and it was resolved that the licence would be renewed for three years. Present at the meeting was General Babagana Monguno, the National Security Adviser.
“Yesterday night, we were able to use the good offices of the National Security Adviser (NSA), to break the logjam in respect of the renewal of the Digital Terrestrial Licence issued to Details Nigeria Limited for the operations of GOTV. Most of you might be aware that in January 2018, we had issued a notice that the said licence was not going to be renewed at expiration.
“That licence is actually expected to expire in a couple of days on. We took the decision not to renew the licence, because the new architecture of Nigerian Broadcasting in the digital era separates the roles of the content provider from that of the signal distributors. This is according to the government White Paper on the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.
“Against the backdrop of the notice that we issued in January 2018, there was a lot of misinformation put out in the public space that NBC had taken a decision to close down GOTV. But that had never been our intention. We realise the place of Details Nigeria as a critical stakeholder in the Nigerian Broadcasting industry, the huge amount of investment they have made in the industry and the jobs that they have created directly and indirectly.
“But the NBC is irrevocably committed to the Digital Switchover (DSO), and the policy guideline in respect of the separation of Content Provider and Signal Distributor. That is the reason for letter to Details Nigeria Limited. But over the past couple of months, we have held several meetings with representatives of Details Nigeria Limited on the appropriate way to keep them in business in Nigeria, while we also enforce the position of government in respect of the White Paper on DSO. Finally, yesterday, we held the definitive meeting under the auspices of the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno, during which we were able to resolve the main obstacles.
“Yesterday’s meeting resolved that GOTV would have its licence renewed for a period of three years, but with certain provisos. The separation of Content Provider from Signal Distributor is non-negotiable! That means that GOTV, going forward, in the near future, will no longer combine the two functions. So in the three-year period of licensing that we are issuing, they would be expected to begin discussions with any of the two licensed Signal Distributors, Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Pinnacle Communications Limited, on the preferred platform to carry their content. These resolutions came on the back of often, difficult days of negotiations, that involved several stakeholders. As I said earlier, we want to thank the National Security Adviser for the role that he played in helping us resolve the impasse. The resolution of the issue recognized the role of investors in the broadcasting and other sectors of the Nigerian economy. And in resolving the issue, we realize the importance of investor confidence in the Nigerian economy, as well as the efforts to take Nigeria to the next level, by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
NBC also issued strict warning to broadcast media organisations in the country on covering elections, stating that anyone that flouts the regulations would face strict sanctions.
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‘The Dawn Of Light’ — Davido Congratulates His Uncle Adeleke On Osun Gov Tribunal Victory
Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has taken to social media to congratulate Ademola Adeleke, his uncle and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2018 governorship election in Osun State.
SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja ruled that the returning officer had no powers to cancel the election in seven polling units, which led to a rerun election.
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In a tweet on his Twitter handle, the singer wrote: “IMOLE TI DE!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GREAT PEOPLE OF OSUN STATE.”
He also posted a picture of himself and the older Adeleke dancing.
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