YAHAYA MAHMOOD SAN: A QUINTESSENTIAL GENTLEMAN GOES HOME

"Nigeria is a Great Country. Nigerians are a Great People. We got Independence as a Divided People. The Military further divided us. They handed Power to Divided Politicians. The Constitution is not helping matters. I am not sure a National Conference or Dialogue will help. What may help is Purposeful Leader and Leadership. I have faith in God Almighty that it is possible." -Yahaya Mahmood SAN, 14 November 2013. I do not consider this article a tribute for two reasons. First, I think myself unworthy and not qualified to write a tribute on the man Barrister Yahaya Mahmood SAN. Secondly, I find it difficult to believe and come to terms with the fact that he is no more. My reason is hinged on the above quoted comment by him on my facebook post just a day before his death. As a young boy I have always wanted to study law. This quest drove me to read a lot about lawyers and people who have succeeded in the profession. Yahaya Mahmood SAN happens to be one of the lawyers I read about because he stood tall among his peers and was highly principled when it came to issues bothering on national development. I longed and prayed for the day I would meet this beacon of light in the noble profession. Destiny would bring us together through social media, because immediately I discovered he was on Facebook, I sent a friend request to him, and to my surprise, he accepted to request almost immediately. That would be the beginning of great and wonderful experiences for me, because I tapped immensely from his robust knowledge of law and issues bothering on the Nigerian state. From my discussions and conversations with him, I discovered he is a man with great love and passion for this country, and desires to see Nigeria better than where we are currently. Barrister Yahaya Mahmood would go out of his way to explain everything in detail to me until he is satisfied that I have adequately understood. His desire for a great Nigeria, blended so well with my quest for a better country and he has been a pillar of support to me, in the struggle I have been doing on Facebook and other social media platforms. His death is a heavy blow to me as I have lost one of my greatest pillar of support and encouragement, both in the struggle and in my pursuit of becoming a lawyer. One area where Barrister Yahaya Mahmood SAN and I, have discussed extensively is in the ongoing process to convene a National Dialogue or Conference. My argument is that the we do not need a National Dialogue before we can have good governance and purposeful leadership, and he agreed wholeheartedly. In fact he told me that the Dialogue was a distraction by President Jonathan, and I completely agreed with him completely. It is also his view that we cannot convene a National Conference with our current Constitution still in place and the institutions of government. This is again another truth. Hear him "those who convinced the President to initiate this at this time had in mind to divert our attention from 2015, PDP crisis, Boko Haram, Kidnapping etc. The conference biggest problem will be its legitimacy in view of existing structures." He espoused his view again on Thursday evening, 14 Novermber, 2013, exactly a day before this death, and I have quoted him above. That is the man Yahaya Mahmood SAN for you, he was never afraid to hold an opinion even if he will stand alone. On the ongoing strike by ASUU, Barrister Yahaya Mahmood SAN, was never happy that the strike was allowed to last this long. He did not particularly like the comment attributed to the Senate President that those who signed the agreement on behalf of government were ignorant. Hear him "I listened to the debate at the Senate. I think the Senate President did not follow the arguments. There is a difference between saying they were 'wrong' and they were 'ignorant'. For not understanding that, he is the one who is ignorant". There are many other instances where I have tapped from the fountain of knowledge of this great man and legal giant that I cannot relay here, for want of space. Although he is no more, we owe it to his memory to ensure that we get our country back on the track of development, something he strongly believed in until the day he breathed his last. On the National Conference, like he said, we do not need a Conference before we can develop as a nation. What we need is a good leader and purposeful leadership. Despite several years of independence, Nigeria is yet to have a leader with genuine love for her. Until we find such a leader, the we shall continue to feet drag as a country. It behooves on us not let the ideals he stood and worked tirelessly for, die with him. And if the National Conference must hold, it must not be anything short of a Sovereign National Conference. Let me use this medium to call on the appropriate authorities to immortalize this great Nigerian. Like every mortal being, Barrister Yahaya Mahmood SAN may not be perfect, but he tried his best. He came, he saw and he conquered. To his dear wife, children, friends and admirers, the Almighty God who created Barrister Yahaya Mahmud SAN, without consulting us, has decided to call him to himself still without consulting us. We pray the Almighty Allah will lighten his grave, forgive his sins and welcome him into Paradise. Adieu my mentor, friend and to a large extent, father. Allah ya jikan shi. Amin Frank O. Ijege Kaduna, frankijege@yahoo.com

The Rule of Law or the Law of the Ruler? By Ismail Ahmed

From time immemorial, man has always strived to create a balance and equality in what appears to be an increasingly unbalanced and unequal world; a community out of a society, an order out of a chaos, a structure out of a barren space, a governor from the ungoverned, freedom from tyranny and democracy from monarchy. In a democracy, somehow man thinks he has found a balance that will equalise all persons; the Rule of Law. The notion that all men who are equal before the same thing should be equal unto each other gave birth to the idea of a set of laws not men, to govern societies. Democracy, at least on paper, guarantees some certain benefits that no other type of structural governance does; the right to determine how you are governed but most importantly, who governs you. The biggest selling point of Democracy by its most ardent proponents is the cardinal principle of the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law basically means the superiority of laws over men. The  subjectivity of every individual, group or institution within a defined parameters to a set of laws and rules that is blind to privileges and titles and that confers an equal status to all and sundry within its domain. It is this selling point that has won over many countries to the fold of democratic rule of which Nigeria was among them in the 1960?s. 53 years on however, in a democratic dispensation the true definition of democracy and it’s foundational principle of Rule of Law has been tested and stretched to limits that will make even the most despotic regimes envious. There are numerous situations to cite as examples of the aberration of the principle of Rule of Law in the last fourteen years of civilian rule; the Salami saga will go down in history as one the most disgraceful acts of aberrations, not only the superiority of the law, but even the sanctity of justice. The Bola Ige murder, where the prime suspect who was under police custody won a senatorial election and was released to go and serve his full term in the senate. Then there is the Chris Ngige- Ifeanyi Ubah debacle in Anambra, where a sitting president admitted to a confused country that he called for a truce between a kidnapped incumbent Governor and the kidnapper, who was clearly more powerful than the Governor even in the eyes of the president. The most recent of this ignominious acts is the attempt by the Nigerian police to stop some INCUMBENT governors who are tagged “rebels” to their party, not their country, from holding a meeting in a residence owned by a state government. I am a lawyer albeit a young one, but I do know there is no section or provision either in the constitution of the FRN or the Police Act, that empowers a police constable (DPO) to force himself into a private residence (a Governors lodge is privy only to a sitting Governor) to disrupt a meeting of a peaceful association of like minded individuals who are immunity-clad by the way, on a subject of which is still before the court and without a search warrant. Now, I know politics can be nasty and petty, but when law enforcement agents are involved then it becomes a matter of standard procedure and rule of law. Law enforcement agents are by default suppose to obey the letters of the law not the utterance of the ruler. Where the ruler, in a civilian dispensation feels that his words and ways are laws, the dangerous trend of a chaotic decay has been set that may result in to the crumbling of the democratic infrastructure and brutish state of a lawless society. For even in the jungle, the Lion became King by hunting out of need not out of greed. It is only when the rule is superior that the ruler is secured. ————————- Barr. Ismaeel Ahmed holds a Law Degree (LL.B) from University of Abuja, a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America. Ahmed also holds a Masters of Law (LLM) from the University of Chicago, USA. He is a lawyer and a politician. He is currently the chairman of the All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), a Youth body under the newly registered APC.

Nigeria: Nation Under The Captivity Of Hurricane Corruption By Odusote Oluwakayode

As the flood waters of corruption refuses to recede in Nigeria and the survivors of poverty continue to wallow in penury, one truth has become achingly clear over the past few weeks: Our government is not ready to go into war with corruption and save its own citizens from a catastrophe. As usual, the Nigerian people have always forged ahead with courage in a fate that “one day e go better”.  But despite the courage, this can-do spirit has been stifled the more by a can’t-do government that seems to think it has no role in solving great national challenges or rallying a country to a cause. The National Conference is a typical example. I guess Nigerians forget easily, at least, by the continuous silence to acts of corrupt practices by persons in position of authority. By the last count, the number of “Gates” in the life of the present administration is alarming. Public funds are stolen at will and due to a possibly controlled judiciary; justice is always merciful with those sometime described to have misappropriated money – There are several definitions for theft and stealing when it is being perpetrated by officials of government. When elite steals, they steal with preparedness to fund the aftermath. The end result will be several adjournments upon adjournment, a people of a nation will shout and brag, journalist will write the ink dry, opposition camps will condemn till the throats are thirsty and the “mumu” society will let go to face another political distractions. I guess the masked man (Lagbaja) was right about the “Two Hundred Million Mumu”. We have a government that’s content with simply protecting the interests of alleged corrupt associates than protecting the lives of the governed. A government that’s content with giving tax breaks to corporate industries loyal to the government without considering the feeling of its own people. Corruption is not new in our political landscape, it is not a challenge peculiar to Nigeria, it is a general problem which had existed in societies for a long period of time. It is killing and the way to stop it from further destruction is to stem the tide of its incursion in our society. That is how developed nations have reacted to it. Developed nations aren’t immune from corrupt practices but they have a system devoid of personal handling to challenge it. We have allowed corruption to eat deep into our national system and it has become a cancer. Corruption is robbing the nation of the opportunities to develop and progress, create jobs, social and basic amenities, good road networks, rural development and success the people deserve. We have heard of strong defence by the Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy that our economy is strong and buoyant, alas, in the midst of all these reports and emotional defence, the vast majority of people in this country desperately stagnate in poverty. Poverty has even become a rhyme. It doesn’t move the government to tears, to them, it your choice to be poor or rich. It is painfully obvious that corruption stifles development – it siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It stacks the deck so high against entrepreneurs that they cannot get their job-creating ideas off the ground. Corruption in itself has become a career which costs millions to sustain. It is a choice of career that the rich and poor have taken to. Corruption pay some salaries, it secures judgements and enters into plea bargain. The judiciary system is totally messed up with sound administers of the law that take time to twist the law just to satisfy the survival quest of corruption. The enforcers of the law have also taken the poisoning apple of corruption with their services rendered to pervade such practices at will. The arm of corruption has also provided succour for criminals. Communities have stories of armed robbers arrested, taken to the police station and later released by the police only to go back and hack down the patriotic minds that arrested them in the first place. Corruption takes care of criminals – the stories of the former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun and his six month imprisonment for corruption and money laundering; the two-year imprisonment of ex-governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State for corruption and money laundering – a criminal that eventually got pardoned by President Jonathan; James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, who was surprisingly set free by Justice Awokulehin , only for him to be found guilty and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment by the British authority; the six-month imprisonment with an option of N3.5ml ($23,000) fine for ex-governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, for corruption; and the 30-month imprisonment of Bode George, former Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, and national vice-chairman, southwest zone, of the People’s Democratic Party for contract fraud are reference points. Erastus Akingbola who is being charged for money laundering is still playing the legal game of hiding away from justice with the huge funds he siphoned – by seeking safe haven for a time and robbing all humanity of the opportunity to bring the criminal to justice. Cecilia Ibru had a stint also, after all acts of fraud; she spent most of her sentence on hospital bed. The list is limitless. Hon. Farouk Lawan In January 2012 chaired the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Nigerian government’s fuel subsidies.The committee was set up in the wake of nationwide strikes in Nigeria after President Goodluck Jonathan removed a fuel subsidy that resulted in the doubling in the price of fuel. The Committee’s report released in April the same year revealed a huge scam in which Nigerian fuel companies were being paid hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies by the government for fuel that was never delivered. It was estimated the scam cost the country $6.8 million. In February 2013, Lawan was charged with corruption after he allegedly accepted $500,000 from Femi Otedola, as part of a $3 million bribe Lawan had solicited from Otedola. Otedola claimed that Lawan demanded the bribe in order to have his company, Zenon, removed from the list of companies that the committee had implicated in the scandal. The initial fuel subsidy report said that Zenon owed more than $1 million to the government, but legislators later voted to remove the firm from the final report. Lawan said that he accepted the money in order to expose blackmail and informed the committee and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Till today, a supposed “Honourable” Farouk Lawan is still legislating and making laws. Officials in positions of governance and Civil servants are most confronted by the serious temptation of bribery especially when the take home pay is not enough for just basic needs. Government contracts are awarded without recourse to due process, even when it is called due process, the process is tainted by undue hand from above. It has been suggested that to curb corruption, government should be downsized by reducing ministries, especially the ones that are not necessary and duplicating efforts. Government should not be seen as a payback time for good deeds of political followership. Government should be about employing merit for needed performance. Offices should not just be created from the blues; a situation where the elected officers would have multiple PAs and SAs doing nothing but occupying capacities to steal. The Boko Haram insurgency which has shed innocent blood of Nigerians are facilitated by unscrupulous officers who can be paid off because they are so crippled by corruption that they do not care for the personal safety of Nigerians they swore to protect. These kinds of movements germinate as a result of endemic corruption. The people are the sufferers of these consequences of corrupt practices and in the end, if the people cannot trust the government to protect them, promote good governance and provide basic amenities, insurgency may increasingly surface. The recent scandal involving the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah is a clear case of corrupt practice that will, as usual, be swept under the carpet. When a serious government, committed to work, employ people that are judged by merit, not connections, when a country have responsible and noble men in the Legislature and a legal system have incorruptible judges, then the best and brightest can lead the country, people will be committed to working hard, there will be productivity, economic growth and development. Odusote Oluwakayode Twitter: Actionkay

NANS Is Sick and The President Is Confused; Don’t Take Him Serious By, Maxwell Adegbenro

NANS, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have had different presidents leading them cutting across zones. I have had an engagement with Past Leaders as a students and activist in Ekiti, Ogun, and Edo State. Cataloguing from Femi Osabinu, Lekan Soyombo, Jude Imagwe and all seems to have gotten it far fearer below the best the students movement can produce. NANS was birthed in 1980 as a successor to the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) has been terribly ill and in sequence abused, exploited, factionalized, and wickedly politicized. The emergence of Mr. Yinka Gbadebo a.k.a Ayefele was to be breather been the only President whose emergence was not marred by chaos and electoral discrepancies as the 26th president of NANS until the recent activities popular at the unfocused leadership is gradually becoming an embarrassment to the movement and the student, a mistake of history. Ayefele is of course a house hold name in student movement, having played the game with previous national leaders like Saddam and Nwoye. He was before now an utter example of student’s liberation leading and following rebellious policy of management and government to grave in his days at EKSU. Though, rusticated from the Ekiti State University (EKSU), for assaulting the University’s Vice Chancellor is currently a diploma student of Local Government Studies at the OAU. Thus, one would have expected him to take cognizance of the historicity of his emergence as NANS president. But nay, under the watchful eyes of Yinka Gbadebo as NANS president, the blood of innocent Nigerian students have been the root of his pride and fame with atavistic impunity. A historical foreclosure of events that characterized the last few months under the watchful eyes of a student Leader turned Politician may re-open a can of wounds and hatred against their national officers especially those that housed demanding worries for the future of Nigeria students within the periscope of his terrain. In adverse ordinate not to defeat the purposes of this piece one must at least mention few examples in suffice. On 25th February, 2013, four students of the Nasarawa State University were gruesomely murdered while protesting against water scarcity and power outage. About seventeen students were arrested, one would have expected a rigorous investigation by the President and prompt checks on the IGP, Abubakar in line with defending the right and welfare of its students but this seems to be far from his consideration. Two days after, on February 28, 2013, Seyi Fasere, a 400 level student of the Ekiti State University was shot dead by the Police. He had gone to his home town Ilupeju to collect his tuition and on his way back, the bus conveying him ran into armed robbers at Oye Ekiti. All occupants disembarked and fled into the bush. Several minutes after the armed robbers had left; Police came, found Seyi Fasere hiding like all others. However, the one hundred thousand naira he had collected from his parents for his school fees was found on him and this as far as the Police were concerned was enough evidence that he was an armed robber. He was taken to the Police Station and shot dead by a Police man notoriously known as “Akobi Esu” (Devil’s Firstborn). Again, on 27 May, 2013, Ahmed Dayo, an ND I student in the Department of Accounting of Kwara State Polytechnic was shot inside a cab by Police men escorting a bullion van belonging to a first generation bank. Reportedly, the armed Police escort stopped the taxi and attempted to shoot at one of its tyres because it was getting too close to the bullion van. Unfortunately, instead of the bullet hitting the tyre, it hit Dayo in the vehicle and damaged one of his legs. On 12th June, 2013, students of University of Uyo (UNIUYO), during a peaceful protest, anti-riot police men supposedly invited to suppress the protest claimed the life an innocent student through the fired teargas canisters and live bullets endlessly leading to the death of Kingsley Udoette, a 200 level Zoology student of the University. 44 innocent and poor students were indiscriminately arrested mostly at the male hostel of the University at Udi Street in Uyo which is situated outside the premises of the University and on the streets. I did not see any reaction of Yinka Gbadebo till date instead he reneged; he totally turned a blind eye and deaf ear to this case. Many more students have been murdered in cool blood under the dispensation of Yinka Gbadebo, including those killed by the Boko Haram sect in the Kano College attack and other places like Nassarawa. Yinka Gbadebo-led NANS has done practically nothing to arrest the lust for blood of Nigerian students by the Police or bring the culprits to justice except pockets of compromised protests and empty press statements. I doubt if NANS has a record of these killings. With developments grating in our faces and the catastrophe of misrepresentation before the scavenge, Asuu face off with Federal government; It is not stunning to state that the movement have fallen into abyss of derailed and confused leader whose major interest is found in the culvert of selfish intents and greed. Obvious, that nothing to the best of my knowledge, in memory, has been heard from the NANS in the “democratization” process that is currently taking root in Nigeria. Instead the seal of power vested in the hands of Ayefele has been daunted by his whip of interest in negotiating positions and interest among political leaders, Governors and Senators and the hard question asked, therefore, is whether NANS  and its leadership have not loose is focus? Nigerian students and Nigerians in general should stop taking Yinka Gbadebo and his gang seriously. He had since lost the legitimacy to remain in office. Whenever the history of student’s movement in Nigeria is told, the name Yinka Gbadebo will be remembered not for accountability, integrity or principles but for treachery, indiscipline and inanities. In the 80s, NANS was organizationally and operationally effective, efficient to the core, and, was the most feared and respected entity within the Nigerian body polity. When it comes to mobilization, operations against societal-ills, military tyranny, national challenges, capacity building and capacity retentions programming[s], NANS, is indefensibly a force to count. Additionally, within the Nigerian civil society community, internationally and domestically, you cannot do without NANS organization and its operational mobilization grid-lock.  I am afraid, things seems to be on a downward spiral if not total collapse. Under the military dictators from the 80s came with it challenges and difficulties, with its constraints, NANS, was there knavery, unfettered, battled these national challenges explicitly. This it did regardless military spruce of illegal massive arrests, massive secrete killings, massive secrete tortures, massive disappearances, and heavy handedness across the Republic. Yet, NANS remained action parked, equal to these tasks, difficulties and why not now when the weather has changed to a democratic dispensation. We still have the interest of students trampled and mortgaged. A close shave with Ayefele in one of his usual visit to Ekiti when begging for money to finance his ambition to lead the students under the tree at Ekiti State Governors office, Yinka Gbadebo allured with determinism to rescue the students from the shackles of intimidation and oppression given the Ekiti State University dilemma under his Vice Chancellor a surgical illustration where students leaders fall victims. That impression if I were to be a senator of NANS is enough to defeat my diverse interest, he was in company of Yomi Oso, Williams (willie), Sunday Asefon and incumbent JCC Noah to meet with a top notch in the state for support. Apparently forgotten the trail of support petted on his dream, he loudly make commotion of a killing in Emure charging the human right activists to launch an investigation into the crisis, an attempt that will have tamed public love and sympathy if said without political coloration. A HOUSE THAT DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF WILL FALL In swift reaction to his outburst on Gov Fayemi, the zonal leadership remarked heavily to sound a note of warning to students that the President is not to be trusted and taken serious. “Although, we accept that our organization at the national structure is fast losing its credibility and reputation considering the Anambra Election in which the same President of NANS, Mr. Yinka Gbadebo, declared the organization support for Ifeanyi Uba of the Labour Party and just yesterday has also declared support for the former NANS President Tony Nwoye. This is a clear justification that the statements made by Mr. President of NANS shouldn’t be taken so serious, because information at our disposal is that Mr. Gbadebo may be charged for legal actions. One of the reasons why we appealed to the Governor and Government of Ekiti not to take him serious, was primarily because, some few months ago, Mr. Gbadebo, under the guise of being the President of NANS, having communicated the Ekiti State Government in writing, notified Ekiti State leadership that he wants to give Governor Fayemi an award as the Best Governor in Nigeria* based on his style of *GOOD GOVERNANCE, EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT and REDUCTION IN THE UNEMPLOYED ARMY OF YOUTHS” which Gov Kayode Fayemi rejected is believed to have angered Mr President coupled with the defeat invoked on his political interest not to have supported the appointment of Adeolu Oyebode as the Special Assistant Students Matters to the Governor. Of logical sympathy while piling the piece together was a reaction of South-West leadership of Nans to the lousy vituperation of Com Yinka Gbadebo aka Ayefele online where the Zone D leadership quickly ascribed that Nans is Sick and under siege. Of course the killing of students and all the money usurp by mortgaging the interest of students will speak volume after his tenure. Instead of taking a responsible and pro-student stance in the likely to be ended four months old ASUU strike, he chose otherwise, the oppressor. He is now bred by propaganda and blackmail of a government that does not appreciate the inviolability of agreements from. Today, we have a NANS president who speaks out of the abundance of the stomach, a NANS president without integrity, principles and accountability, a NANS president who is a tool in the hands of a corrupt political class. Evidence of his porous and confuse state of mind was evident in the Onitsha, Anambra State endorsement of the candidature of Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State (a man linked to fuel subsidy fraud and whose company, Capital Oil and Gas, has been taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria because of his indebtedness). Also just last week as embedded in the press statement of his lower comrades (officers), Yinka Gbadebo is retorted to be ignored for endorsing Tony Nwoye again after several criticisms from his media aide and facebook agents. “Yinka Gbadebo finds it pertinent to issue a strong worded press statement castigating the political killing(s) in Ekiti State which he blamed on Governor Kayode Fayemi but cannot secure the release of UNIUYO students in custody or bring to justice those who take delight in shedding of innocent blood of Nigerian students. Of particularity, is, the recent grave and sad events this past months, the suffering of Nigerian-students is increasing, there is no end in sight and there is no fixed route in respect to planning and effective leadership in the land. NANS has not sent condolence letter to the Parents and students its government on the recent grave killing disaster. Also the students have been on season long loan back to their homes owned to Industrial action. I stand to be corrected, and my question is why and will the able leadership accept his mistake and take correction? Lives could have been saved if our hospitals were refurbished and equipped, life of our late comrade Oyebode aka Ibile could have been saved, if the roads were refurbished and paved; lives could have been saved if our Aviation Rescue Management Committee or Department were properly trained and equipped; lives could have been saved if this administration did its part, the Odua-gate perilous corruption is not dutiful for Mr President concern. The stealing and corruption log in Aviation, Oil industry seems not to appeal to Yinka Gbadebo but because a Governor refused his forlorn attribute form dolling cheap award on him, it broke his camel back and is willing to retaliate shamefully and the students leaders in South West refused to find that funny. My question is what has become of NANS today? Who leads NANS today in Nigeria and what are SUGs actions and inactions on these disturbing national challenges and difficulties? Let me end by re-writing minds of Yinka Gbadebo that the government and good people cannot be moved by your vile and torment against the person of Fayemi and the student leaders who does not belong to his cast of mind trading with the blood of innocent, watering the tree of his administration with innocent students blood. There is a ghost of stewardship that will hunt them in the fullness of time. MAXWELL ADEGBENRO writes from Ado Ekiti A public Affairs Analyst and Journalist.NANS, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have had different presidents leading them cutting across zones. I have had an engagement with Past Leaders as a students and activist in Ekiti, Ogun, and Edo State. Cataloguing from Femi Osabinu, Lekan Soyombo, Jude Imagwe and all seems to have gotten it far fearer below the best the students movement can produce. NANS was birthed in 1980 as a successor to the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) has been terribly ill and in sequence abused, exploited, factionalized, and wickedly politicized. The emergence of Mr. Yinka Gbadebo a.k.a Ayefele was to be breather been the only President whose emergence was not marred by chaos and electoral discrepancies as the 26th president of NANS until the recent activities popular at the unfocused leadership is gradually becoming an embarrassment to the movement and the student, a mistake of history. Ayefele is of course a house hold name in student movement, having played the game with previous national leaders like Saddam and Nwoye. He was before now an utter example of student’s liberation leading and following rebellious policy of management and government to grave in his days at EKSU. Though, rusticated from the Ekiti State University (EKSU), for assaulting the University’s Vice Chancellor is currently a diploma student of Local Government Studies at the OAU. Thus, one would have expected him to take cognizance of the historicity of his emergence as NANS president. But nay, under the watchful eyes of Yinka Gbadebo as NANS president, the blood of innocent Nigerian students have been the root of his pride and fame with atavistic impunity. A historical foreclosure of events that characterized the last few months under the watchful eyes of a student Leader turned Politician may re-open a can of wounds and hatred against their national officers especially those that housed demanding worries for the future of Nigeria students within the periscope of his terrain. In adverse ordinate not to defeat the purposes of this piece one must at least mention few examples in suffice. On 25th February, 2013, four students of the Nasarawa State University were gruesomely murdered while protesting against water scarcity and power outage. About seventeen students were arrested, one would have expected a rigorous investigation by the President and prompt checks on the IGP, Abubakar in line with defending the right and welfare of its students but this seems to be far from his consideration. Two days after, on February 28, 2013, Seyi Fasere, a 400 level student of the Ekiti State University was shot dead by the Police. He had gone to his home town Ilupeju to collect his tuition and on his way back, the bus conveying him ran into armed robbers at Oye Ekiti. All occupants disembarked and fled into the bush. Several minutes after the armed robbers had left; Police came, found Seyi Fasere hiding like all others. However, the one hundred thousand naira he had collected from his parents for his school fees was found on him and this as far as the Police were concerned was enough evidence that he was an armed robber. He was taken to the Police Station and shot dead by a Police man notoriously known as “Akobi Esu” (Devil’s Firstborn). Again, on 27 May, 2013, Ahmed Dayo, an ND I student in the Department of Accounting of Kwara State Polytechnic was shot inside a cab by Police men escorting a bullion van belonging to a first generation bank. Reportedly, the armed Police escort stopped the taxi and attempted to shoot at one of its tyres because it was getting too close to the bullion van. Unfortunately, instead of the bullet hitting the tyre, it hit Dayo in the vehicle and damaged one of his legs. On 12th June, 2013, students of University of Uyo (UNIUYO), during a peaceful protest, anti-riot police men supposedly invited to suppress the protest claimed the life an innocent student through the fired teargas canisters and live bullets endlessly leading to the death of Kingsley Udoette, a 200 level Zoology student of the University. 44 innocent and poor students were indiscriminately arrested mostly at the male hostel of the University at Udi Street in Uyo which is situated outside the premises of the University and on the streets. I did not see any reaction of Yinka Gbadebo till date instead he reneged; he totally turned a blind eye and deaf ear to this case. Many more students have been murdered in cool blood under the dispensation of Yinka Gbadebo, including those killed by the Boko Haram sect in the Kano College attack and other places like Nassarawa. Yinka Gbadebo-led NANS has done practically nothing to arrest the lust for blood of Nigerian students by the Police or bring the culprits to justice except pockets of compromised protests and empty press statements. I doubt if NANS has a record of these killings. With developments grating in our faces and the catastrophe of misrepresentation before the scavenge, Asuu face off with Federal government; It is not stunning to state that the movement have fallen into abyss of derailed and confused leader whose major interest is found in the culvert of selfish intents and greed. Obvious, that nothing to the best of my knowledge, in memory, has been heard from the NANS in the “democratization” process that is currently taking root in Nigeria. Instead the seal of power vested in the hands of Ayefele has been daunted by his whip of interest in negotiating positions and interest among political leaders, Governors and Senators and the hard question asked, therefore, is whether NANS  and its leadership have not loose is focus? Nigerian students and Nigerians in general should stop taking Yinka Gbadebo and his gang seriously. He had since lost the legitimacy to remain in office. Whenever the history of student’s movement in Nigeria is told, the name Yinka Gbadebo will be remembered not for accountability, integrity or principles but for treachery, indiscipline and inanities. In the 80s, NANS was organizationally and operationally effective, efficient to the core, and, was the most feared and respected entity within the Nigerian body polity. When it comes to mobilization, operations against societal-ills, military tyranny, national challenges, capacity building and capacity retentions programming[s], NANS, is indefensibly a force to count. Additionally, within the Nigerian civil society community, internationally and domestically, you cannot do without NANS organization and its operational mobilization grid-lock.  I am afraid, things seems to be on a downward spiral if not total collapse. Under the military dictators from the 80s came with it challenges and difficulties, with its constraints, NANS, was there knavery, unfettered, battled these national challenges explicitly. This it did regardless military spruce of illegal massive arrests, massive secrete killings, massive secrete tortures, massive disappearances, and heavy handedness across the Republic. Yet, NANS remained action parked, equal to these tasks, difficulties and why not now when the weather has changed to a democratic dispensation. We still have the interest of students trampled and mortgaged. A close shave with Ayefele in one of his usual visit to Ekiti when begging for money to finance his ambition to lead the students under the tree at Ekiti State Governors office, Yinka Gbadebo allured with determinism to rescue the students from the shackles of intimidation and oppression given the Ekiti State University dilemma under his Vice Chancellor a surgical illustration where students leaders fall victims. That impression if I were to be a senator of NANS is enough to defeat my diverse interest, he was in company of Yomi Oso, Williams (willie), Sunday Asefon and incumbent JCC Noah to meet with a top notch in the state for support. Apparently forgotten the trail of support petted on his dream, he loudly make commotion of a killing in Emure charging the human right activists to launch an investigation into the crisis, an attempt that will have tamed public love and sympathy if said without political coloration. A HOUSE THAT DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF WILL FALL In swift reaction to his outburst on Gov Fayemi, the zonal leadership remarked heavily to sound a note of warning to students that the President is not to be trusted and taken serious. “Although, we accept that our organization at the national structure is fast losing its credibility and reputation considering the Anambra Election in which the same President of NANS, Mr. Yinka Gbadebo, declared the organization support for Ifeanyi Uba of the Labour Party and just yesterday has also declared support for the former NANS President Tony Nwoye. This is a clear justification that the statements made by Mr. President of NANS shouldn’t be taken so serious, because information at our disposal is that Mr. Gbadebo may be charged for legal actions. One of the reasons why we appealed to the Governor and Government of Ekiti not to take him serious, was primarily because, some few months ago, Mr. Gbadebo, under the guise of being the President of NANS, having communicated the Ekiti State Government in writing, notified Ekiti State leadership that he wants to give Governor Fayemi an award as the Best Governor in Nigeria* based on his style of *GOOD GOVERNANCE, EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT and REDUCTION IN THE UNEMPLOYED ARMY OF YOUTHS” which Gov Kayode Fayemi rejected is believed to have angered Mr President coupled with the defeat invoked on his political interest not to have supported the appointment of Adeolu Oyebode as the Special Assistant Students Matters to the Governor. Of logical sympathy while piling the piece together was a reaction of South-West leadership of Nans to the lousy vituperation of Com Yinka Gbadebo aka Ayefele online where the Zone D leadership quickly ascribed that Nans is Sick and under siege. Of course the killing of students and all the money usurp by mortgaging the interest of students will speak volume after his tenure. Instead of taking a responsible and pro-student stance in the likely to be ended four months old ASUU strike, he chose otherwise, the oppressor. He is now bred by propaganda and blackmail of a government that does not appreciate the inviolability of agreements from. Today, we have a NANS president who speaks out of the abundance of the stomach, a NANS president without integrity, principles and accountability, a NANS president who is a tool in the hands of a corrupt political class. Evidence of his porous and confuse state of mind was evident in the Onitsha, Anambra State endorsement of the candidature of Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State (a man linked to fuel subsidy fraud and whose company, Capital Oil and Gas, has been taken over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria because of his indebtedness). Also just last week as embedded in the press statement of his lower comrades (officers), Yinka Gbadebo is retorted to be ignored for endorsing Tony Nwoye again after several criticisms from his media aide and facebook agents. “Yinka Gbadebo finds it pertinent to issue a strong worded press statement castigating the political killing(s) in Ekiti State which he blamed on Governor Kayode Fayemi but cannot secure the release of UNIUYO students in custody or bring to justice those who take delight in shedding of innocent blood of Nigerian students. Of particularity, is, the recent grave and sad events this past months, the suffering of Nigerian-students is increasing, there is no end in sight and there is no fixed route in respect to planning and effective leadership in the land. NANS has not sent condolence letter to the Parents and students its government on the recent grave killing disaster. Also the students have been on season long loan back to their homes owned to Industrial action. I stand to be corrected, and my question is why and will the able leadership accept his mistake and take correction? Lives could have been saved if our hospitals were refurbished and equipped, life of our late comrade Oyebode aka Ibile could have been saved, if the roads were refurbished and paved; lives could have been saved if our Aviation Rescue Management Committee or Department were properly trained and equipped; lives could have been saved if this administration did its part, the Odua-gate perilous corruption is not dutiful for Mr President concern. The stealing and corruption log in Aviation, Oil industry seems not to appeal to Yinka Gbadebo but because a Governor refused his forlorn attribute form dolling cheap award on him, it broke his camel back and is willing to retaliate shamefully and the students leaders in South West refused to find that funny. My question is what has become of NANS today? Who leads NANS today in Nigeria and what are SUGs actions and inactions on these disturbing national challenges and difficulties? Let me end by re-writing minds of Yinka Gbadebo that the government and good people cannot be moved by your vile and torment against the person of Fayemi and the student leaders who does not belong to his cast of mind trading with the blood of innocent, watering the tree of his administration with innocent students blood. There is a ghost of stewardship that will hunt them in the fullness of time. MAXWELL ADEGBENRO writes from Ado Ekiti A public Affairs Analyst and Journalist.

Bullet-proof Corruption By Ogaga Ifowodo

It was bound to come to this. The moment our “zero tolerance for corruption” president decided to fight tooth and nail against the public declaration of his assets, the moment he chose to declare instead “I don’t give a damn!” about any such nonsense as probity and leading by example, you knew the day was just around the corner when a minister could import bullet-proof luxury cars as personal gifts to herself. I say personal gifts as all the facts known so far about the “scandal de jour,” the current atrocity before another has us foaming at the corners of the mouth with unappeasable anger, point inescapably to that conclusion. Unless, of course, you believe that the said cars, which promptly disappeared from proper custody, were meant for visiting dignitaries. Yes, it was bound to come to the point where all that it would take to order, import, evade customs duties and take possession of bullet-proof luxury vehicles at prices so stupefyingly inflated you would think the whole thing was a prank is for a minister to say to her subordinate, “Do the needful.” That is all Minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah, says she did. And if she believes this pathetic attempt to save face — because she has a face to save, unlike the hundreds who have perished in several plane crashes under her watch — then how tragic is it that she is a minister? I won’t bother with the shocking details of this latest act of daylight robbery, of the unending pillage and dispossession of the people. What would be the point? To establish that the armoured vehicles — BMWs, Germany’s vaunted “ultimate driving machines,” two Lexus limousines, and more, just in case you have been living in Mars for the past month or so — were bought without the “honourable” minister’s consent or knowledge? That transporting visiting dignitaries of international aviation regulation organisations from one point to another requires armoured vehicles, as if they would even come if Nigeria were at war, and if so to tour the war fronts? Or that it was all the fault of due process for failing to spot anything dubious about a transaction whose every line item screamed CORRUPTION! CORRUPTION! in red letters? Or that the number and price of the vehicles — N255 million or $1.6 million for two BMWs alone — can be justified even by a lunatic? No, the facts, such as we already have, are sufficient to hang a dog; no need to first give it a bad name. To my mind, the most worrisome thing about the seemingly untamable catastrophe of official corruption has to do with the abject failure of President Jonathan to lead anything close to a war against corruption, whatever his protestations to the contrary. Recall, for instance, the president’s only action so far. On learning that his minister in charge of aviation, and, so, of air safety, had very likely been embezzling or misappropriating huge amounts of public funds while planes have been falling out of our sky like so many tattered paper kites flown by children, the latest being the Associated Airlines tragedy of 3 October 2013, what did he, enraged, do? Well, he set up a three-member panel to probe the minister. And then he proceeded on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem during which he took time from his personal devotions to perform some official business. (Sanctimonious officials are, of course, part of the problem of Nigeria. Their inability to separate the state from religion, their personal pieties from governance, will be the subject of my next column.) The only remarkable thing about that action which unmistakably expresses the president’s incandescent rage is that one of the persons to probe the minister, National Security Adviser Colonel Ibrahim Dasuki (rtd), travelled with Jonathan, while the minister to be probed had preceded the pilgrims-cum-public-servants to Jerusalem! It is quite possible Jonathan is embarrassed that bullet-proof luxury vehicles are now the poster-image of his war against corruption.  Perhaps the irony is plain to him, seeing that he has yet to fire a single bullet, even one filled with hot words, in this war. Rather, he has been far happier to be a nurse, binding the wounds of convicted corrupt politicians as shown by the state pardon to his mentor, D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha. But why armoured cars? Security for her many important foreign visitors, says Mrs Oduah, though Nigeria is not at war, but how grateful she must be to Boko Haram! We know, however, that security was only a crude and clever ruse, and I hazard that this new trend among our politicians in high public office symbolises something else: armoured luxury vehicles as a triple-meaning metaphor for corruption: unabashed ostentation; a sign of their sense of invincibility, of absolute protection from prosecution; and protection from the people whom they so shamelessly dispossess and impoverish. Deep down, our politicians know that a thief lives in perpetual fear of being discovered by the owner, in this case the masses of the Nigerian people pauperised and dehumanised by official kleptomania. And our politicians know that the masses, unlike our president, give a bloody damn about corruption, and that a day of reckoning looms. But do our bullet-proof politicians know that no armour is proof against the rage of the people when they are finally roused to action?

State of the Nigerian Nation: Matters Arising By Jaye Gaskia

Where do we begin from? This is going to be a running commentary on some of the issues agitating us as Nigerians, and that have been contributing to the undermining of the effective realisation of our citizenship! Let us return to the vexed issue of corruption in high places; and the culture of impunity by highly placed persons which enable this to happen. Since the return to civil rule in 1999, with the current major parties [in their various manifestations] having held sway at the different levels of government; there have been literally a thousand and one cases of corruption that has unravelled without much having been done about them. So we have had both the Federal Government and state governments announce with fanfare how they have discovered/uncovered tens of thousands of ghost-workers; stopped hundreds of Billions of Naira in ghost-payments to ghost workers; and yet in none of these ‘celebrated cases’ has any one single official been implicated, let alone indicted, and prosecuted. To put this in perspective; the more than N100bn saved by the Federal Government is more than the annual budget of some of the states of the federation; it is in fact more than the 2013 annual budget of the Federal Ministry Of Agriculture and Rural Development [FMoARD]; a ministry that supervises the agriculture sector, which contributes more than 35% of GDP, and is responsible for 60% of those in employment! How can the phenomenon of ghost workers and ghost payments have existed and survived for several years, without anyone official being in the know; and without any official, and or politician and political appointee, being the beneficiary of those ghost payments? Who were the operators of the ghost accounts into which the ghost payments of ghost workers were regularly paid? Let us take another example; the fuel subsidy scam, as well as the scam around the Turn Around Maintenance of the moribund refineries. How was it possible that Trillions of Naira were paid to big and small time crooks, operating legal and illegal businesses; with withdrawals made from the federation account; without any single official being in the know of this grand theft? How could ghost tanker ships have offloaded ghost petrol, with money claimed for unsupplied thousands of tonnes of products without any officials of the respective agencies and ministries knowing, and being beneficiaries of the fraud? How come a few minions who stole comparatively little are being prosecuted, without any single one of the officials who must have aided and abetted their crime being in the dock with them? Again to put things in perspective; the more than N2.5tn lost to fuel subsidy thieves in 2011 alone, is more than half [that is 50%] of the annual federal budget for any given year since 1999! What is more; it is in fact more than double the size of the annual federal capital budget in any year since 1999! How can the political leaders of a nation lose more than half of the annual budget of the nation to theft, and feel unconcerned about the loss, with business continuing as usual? How can this happen if the ultimate beneficiaries of the scams are not located in the highest political offices across the country? And why are we in this subsidy mess in the first place? Because we import refined petroleum products, although we are the 6th largest producer of crude oil; and because the price of oil is denominated in USD, against which our own currency is floated. We have made the point before that, as long as these two conditions remain, the landing cost of imported fuel will always have a tendency to rise! The higher the price of crude, the higher the cost of refining and transportation, and the stronger the USD gets against the Naira; the higher will the landing cost of imported refined products get. The implication of this is that no matter what you do about stopping fuel subsidy; if you want to keep prices low and or stable, over a short period of time a gap will build up between the landing cost and the pump price; and you are then forced to either seek to maintain stable pump prices through covering the differential cost in a subsidy; or simply allow pump prices to rice with market prices! And we all know that petrol is a factor of production given the moribund nature of the power sector; and that the highest contributor to the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, is the expenditure of fuel for generators for all category of business – small, medium or large scale! So why is that we cannot return to the situation when we had self sufficient domestic refining capacity, which is the only solution to the problem of high cost of fuel and subsidies? Why is that after spending more than N120bn on Turn Around Maintenances of the 4 domestic refineries since 1999, none of them is producing above 35% of installed capacity? Who were the beneficiaries of the failed turn around maintenances? Why are they not in the dock or in jail? Who were the officials that facilitated this grand looting of the treasury? Or should we cast our look at the related crime of crude oil theft? How come crude oil theft is increasing, and has spiked inspite of several hundreds of billions of naira in security vote; as well as the more than N30bn annual security and surveillance contracts to 5 + 1 ex-militant generals? Are the contracts and defence expenditures for security and surveillance, or for protection of the large scale organised criminal gangs running the crude oil theft business? Again we are forced to ask the question, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of these grand scale monumental thefts? Could the nation be losing $6 $12bn annually to crude oil theft without the protection of personnel at the highest level of governance? This $12bn lost to crude oil theft annually is just about 25% of the country’s external reserves at $48bn! How come crude oil theft spiked from less than 200,000 barrels a day to roughly 400,000 barrels a day, at a period coinciding with the period covered by the Oil pipelines  security and surveillance contracts? And oh yes the energy sector! After spending more than $35bn in investments on increasing power generation capacity [to initially 10,000MWs, and then subsequently 15,000MWs] since 1999, all that we have managed to do is increase generation capacity from barely 2,500 MWs in 2000 to just about 4,500MWs in 2013! In addition to this, after more than $35bn investment, we have now earned $3.5bn from the privatisation of the sector! So we sell the assets of the sector $3.5bn after a recent investment in upgrading the assets of $35bn? And some people are advertising this as a success story? Why would the value of these assets remain dismally low at $3.5bn just after an upgrade investment in the assets worth $35bn? Besides, any significant improvement in power supply depends not only on significant increase on power generation capacity; but also on equally significant increase in investment on power distribution capacity. This is because, with the carrying capacity of the National Grid remaining steady at just about 4,200MWs, no matter how much more power is generated, the national grid will be unable to transmit it. It will just amount to dormant and wasted generation of power! It is for this reason that in every year since 2010 there have been more than 15 general system failures of the National Grid. Whenever the transmission capacity of the National Grid is breached, or the amount of generated power being transmitted is close to the transmission capacity; the system shuts down, and leads to either significant partial or total system failures. What has happened with the Faroukgate scandal? Where is the $620,000 in collected bribe? Why is the annual salary of the federal legislator, not only the second highest in the world, but also 116 times the per capital income of ordinary citizens? Why did the Daily Consumption Rate for petrol which had steadied around 30 million litres per day by 2010 suddenly spike to 60 million litres per day in 2012; and then return, after the January Uprising to 38 million litres per day in 2012 and 2013? Who were the beneficiaries of the fictitious 30 million litres per day excess throughout 2011? We can go on and on and on, the list is endless, the situation nauseating! The more inexplicable part of the problem, which enables the culture of impunity to be sustained; is the attitude of some ordinary citizens! Every thief caught red-handed and exposed quickly retrace their steps into the ethnic, and or religious cocoon, and begin to sponsor with our stolen funds, ethnic and or religious ‘mass’ defence of their light fingeredness! Inexplicable because it is the ultimate victims of their gluttonous greed and treasury looting who are also mobilised, and given uniforms in rented crowds who dare the rest of us to leave their son or daughter alone! It gets even more appalling when educated elites and youths are the ones at the fore front of this ethno-religious defence of petty thievery! Unless and until we have a growing and intensifying movement of those who refuse to justify injustice in whatever form; unless and until we understand our own interests, and understand that these interests which bind us as victims, are different from, and antagonistic to the interests of those who steal from us, and as a result are collectively responsible for our underdevelopment; then for so long shall we continue to remain impoverished as a people! It is our country, let us together take it back from the death and vice grip of this treasury looting ruling elites. Let us take our destiny into our collective hands and together take collective action to Take Back Nigeria. Visit me on FaceBook: Jaye Gaskia & Take Back Nigeria; Follow me on twitter: @jayegaskia & @[DPSR]protesttopower

The Untold Story of Greedy, Covetous ASUU Demands By Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye

I coined this piece because it is obvious that most Nigerians are ignorant of the root of the ongoing nationwide industrial action embarked on by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).  It is necessary I do this because lies are currently triumphing over truth, Propaganda is currently wining over reality, and most pitifully, misinformation is at the moment, singing victory song in the media against accuracy and sacredness of facts. Let me assert that one of our major problems in Nigeria is the fact that we don’t take time to analyse issues for ourselves. Rather, we flow with the tide of public opinion which is most often defined by a few opinion shapers. Nonetheless, for the sake of the already wheedled, coaxed and cajoled general public, the analysis of the ASUU’s demands from federal government (FG) goes as thus: Duty free importation of education materials: If this is approved, Nigerian custom Service will stop collecting duty from those importing education materials into Nigeria. However, I wish to tell the public one thing that they have never heard: ASUU want FG to recognize her company called ASUU Holdings as the only organization that will be importing education materials into the country. Can you see greediness? ASUU Holdings want to be importing education materials without paying duty to the Nigerian Custom Service. Can you see selfishness? Is that what will turn Bayero University, Kano to Oxford? Post graduate supervision allowances: ASUU is demanding for the payment of one hundred and fifty seven thousand Naira (N157, 000) from the federal government on each of the post graduate student’s research project supervised. I.e. Post graduate diploma, masters and doctorate degrees’ students. It has been confirmed that this has never happened in the world. However, If this is approved, a lecturer with five research students go home with N800, 000 per session. Teaching practice and industrial allowances: according to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), ASUU is demanding for the payment of fifty thousand on each student on teaching practice supervised. A lecturer that supervises forty students per session go home with N2million. Same goes to those on industrial attachment. It is commonsensical for Transportation allowance to be paid to Lecturers in this regard but I doubt if FG can pay the amount being demanded by ASUU as teaching practice allowance. In addition, as I write, education students are not being paid allowance by varsities management whose most members are part of ASUU. READ: Strike: ASUU President Bares It All, Exposes Okonjo-Iweala, States Condition For Call-Off Transfer of landed property: ASUU want federal government to transfer all the landed properties in public varsities to ASUU holdings. The man who owns a land own the building(s) erected on it. Lawfully, giving all the landed properties in public varsities to ASUU is like FG dashing out all the buildings in public varsities to ASUU. That is the constitutional interpretation. That will never happen till Jesus Christ comes back.  It has also been revealed by NANS that FG has given ASUU national leaders two hundred and fifty million Naira (N250million) as the take off grant of ASUU holdings. ASUU want government landed properties so that by the time their allowances are paid, her members will start building hostels accommodation on the lands and rent them out to students. What a lucrative business! Honorarium for external moderation of undergraduate and postgraduate examination system: ASUU is demanding for the payment of twenty thousand Naira (N20, 000) per each examination paper supervised. That was what they told the federal government. Execution of NEEDs projects: ASUU is demanding that the one hundred billion Naira (N100billion) already made available by the FG for infrastructure development in public varsities should be managed by ASUU holdings. Please were lecturers employed to serve as contractors to government? How does that benefit Nigerian Students? Study grants; external assessment of readers or professors, Call duty and clinical duty and hazard allowance and excess workload allowance: A lecturer could be paid excess workload allowance. That is tenable. Hazard allowance could also be paid. That is justifiable. However,study grant, external assessment of readers or professors, call and clinical duty, if approved, are privilege, not the rights of ASUU. Non-salary condition of service, which includes clinical loan, car refurbishing and housing loan: All these are privilege if approved. They are not the rights of ASUU. Aren’t lecturers being paid monthly salaries? Research leave, sabbatical leave, sick leave, maternity leave and injury pension: sabbatical leave is already in place. The rules say a lecturer on sabbatical leave should be paid for the first six months. Anything after six month doesn’t attract payment. Double payment is wrong. Take for an example, a lecturer employed by the University of Calabar (UNICAL) but presently on leave of absence at the University of Ibadan (UI) will be collecting salaries from UNICAL for the first six months and also from UI from the first day he got there. ASUU is demanding for the payment of salary from both institutions throughout the period of sabbatical leave. That is impossible. Research leave is a just one. Very necessary. However, I make bold to say that shutting down of universities for more than four months because of such demands is height of heartlessness. Provision of office accommodation and facilities: No sane mind will counter this demand. The present state of office accommodation in most of our campuses is a blot on the landscape. I support this demand without any reservation. Pension of university academic staff and compulsory retirement age, National Health Insurance Scheme: the retirement age of professors has already Been  increased from 65 to 70 years. To me, this demand ought not to have been approved because Considering the alarming rate of youths unemployment in Nigeria, approving this kind of demand is like delaying the breakthrough of Nigerian youths. I consider the students that supported ASUU over this as being naive. Patronage of university services: this is not by force. It is not a right. Patronizing varsities services is necessary and good for encouragement but it is not compulsory. Shutting down of classrooms over this was wrong. Funds from alumni associations: please how does this concern government? Private Sectors Contribution:  A right is different from a privilege. No government can force a corporate organization to do what it doesn’t want to do once he’s paying it’s tax  accordingly. Take for an example, the government of Ekiti state cannot force Coca-Cola to donate classrooms to Ekiti State University. The company can only be lobbied. This is not a military reign, democracy  has taken over. Last on the list of the demands is the one that ASUU sold to the media to gain public sympathy: the release of N1.5trn within four years for infrastructure development in public varsities. Country people,  If that is approved, how many trillions will polytechnics and colleges of education be given beside their normal monthly grant and the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)? What of primary and secondary education? What of the other sectors of the economy such as roads, health, security, water, transportation, housing, etc? Why is ASUU insisting on executing the projects in which the N100, 000 already released via NEEDs are meant for? ASUU want to become government contractor, and If this scaled through, soon, election into ASUU leadership positions will be like the Nigeria’s governorship, presidential and national assembly’s elections. Sanity will be lost. Money bags will take over. Capitalists will take over. Brigandage will be introduced. It will be fire for fire. Everybody will want to chop. Infact, ASUU President will become richer than the president of the federal republic of Nigeria. More also, why are lecturers in states-owned  varsities on strike? Is it the FG that will offer them all the allowances listed above? I believe we are still having federalism as a system of government in Nigeria. Furthermore, let me re-echo that ASUU is no longer on strike because of Nigerian Students and the reviving of the Nigerian Universities. Firstly, the over four months wasted for students by ASUU can never be regained. It is not possible. ASUU members ought to have resumed since august if truly they on strike because of Nigerian students. The general public should note that ASUU has never had it so good like this since the union was founded in 1978. The 25% of what the Jonathan led  government has offered ASUU have never been offered by government since the advent of democratic rule in Nigeria. Secondly, the statement issued on the 1st november by the national executive councils of the Senior Staff association of nigerian Universities ( SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities ( NASU) in respect of the ongoing strike embarked on by ASUU was an outright vindication of my humble self in relation to my earlier position which says that ASUU is greedy and selfish. The Statement goes as thus: “The three Non-Teaching Staff Unions of NAAT, SSANU and NASU are opposed to any extraneous demands by either ASUU or any group in the university which are prejudicial to the welfare of our members. Our stand is that government should jettison the so called ASUU’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU being referred to by ASUU is for their selfish end and it is bound to generate more crises in the university sub-sector. The Non-Teaching Staff Unions in the universities will stoutly resist any attempt to ‘sell’ the universities to ASUU.” Consequent upon the forgoing, i wish to ask that, assuming without conceding that myself and NANS had been bribed by FG as some ASUU Activists had been saying without any evidence, were SSANU and NASU also bribed? Compatriots, it is an affirmation of reality that the only thing that is sacrostant in life is truth. Truth hurt pass lies. The signed agreement is a moral burden on FG but legally, it is not binding. Nigerians should carefully peruse the 2009 agreement with knee interest before judging. God bless Nigeria! Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye, Magodo, Lagos. Maxwell_adeleye@yahoo.com

I coined this piece because it is obvious that most Nigerians are ignorant of the root of the ongoing nationwide industrial action embarked on by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).  It is necessary I do this because lies are currently triumphing over truth, Propaganda is currently wining over reality, and most pitifully, misinformation is at the moment, singing victory song in the media against accuracy and sacredness of facts. Let me assert that one of our major problems in Nigeria is the fact that we don’t take time to analyse issues for ourselves. Rather, we flow with the tide of public opinion which is most often defined by a few opinion shapers. Nonetheless, for the sake of the already wheedled, coaxed and cajoled general public, the analysis of the ASUU’s demands from federal government (FG) goes as thus: Duty free importation of education materials: If this is approved, Nigerian custom Service will stop collecting duty from those importing education materials into Nigeria. However, I wish to tell the public one thing that they have never heard: ASUU want FG to recognize her company called ASUU Holdings as the only organization that will be importing education materials into the country. Can you see greediness? ASUU Holdings want to be importing education materials without paying duty to the Nigerian Custom Service. Can you see selfishness? Is that what will turn Bayero University, Kano to Oxford? Post graduate supervision allowances: ASUU is demanding for the payment of one hundred and fifty seven thousand Naira (N157, 000) from the federal government on each of the post graduate student’s research project supervised. I.e. Post graduate diploma, masters and doctorate degrees’ students. It has been confirmed that this has never happened in the world. However, If this is approved, a lecturer with five research students go home with N800, 000 per session. Teaching practice and industrial allowances: according to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), ASUU is demanding for the payment of fifty thousand on each student on teaching practice supervised. A lecturer that supervises forty students per session go home with N2million. Same goes to those on industrial attachment. It is commonsensical for Transportation allowance to be paid to Lecturers in this regard but I doubt if FG can pay the amount being demanded by ASUU as teaching practice allowance. In addition, as I write, education students are not being paid allowance by varsities management whose most members are part of ASUU. READ: Strike: ASUU President Bares It All, Exposes Okonjo-Iweala, States Condition For Call-Off Transfer of landed property: ASUU want federal government to transfer all the landed properties in public varsities to ASUU holdings. The man who owns a land own the building(s) erected on it. Lawfully, giving all the landed properties in public varsities to ASUU is like FG dashing out all the buildings in public varsities to ASUU. That is the constitutional interpretation. That will never happen till Jesus Christ comes back.  It has also been revealed by NANS that FG has given ASUU national leaders two hundred and fifty million Naira (N250million) as the take off grant of ASUU holdings. ASUU want government landed properties so that by the time their allowances are paid, her members will start building hostels accommodation on the lands and rent them out to students. What a lucrative business! Honorarium for external moderation of undergraduate and postgraduate examination system: ASUU is demanding for the payment of twenty thousand Naira (N20, 000) per each examination paper supervised. That was what they told the federal government. Execution of NEEDs projects: ASUU is demanding that the one hundred billion Naira (N100billion) already made available by the FG for infrastructure development in public varsities should be managed by ASUU holdings. Please were lecturers employed to serve as contractors to government? How does that benefit Nigerian Students? Study grants; external assessment of readers or professors, Call duty and clinical duty and hazard allowance and excess workload allowance: A lecturer could be paid excess workload allowance. That is tenable. Hazard allowance could also be paid. That is justifiable. However,study grant, external assessment of readers or professors, call and clinical duty, if approved, are privilege, not the rights of ASUU. Non-salary condition of service, which includes clinical loan, car refurbishing and housing loan: All these are privilege if approved. They are not the rights of ASUU. Aren’t lecturers being paid monthly salaries? Research leave, sabbatical leave, sick leave, maternity leave and injury pension: sabbatical leave is already in place. The rules say a lecturer on sabbatical leave should be paid for the first six months. Anything after six month doesn’t attract payment. Double payment is wrong. Take for an example, a lecturer employed by the University of Calabar (UNICAL) but presently on leave of absence at the University of Ibadan (UI) will be collecting salaries from UNICAL for the first six months and also from UI from the first day he got there. ASUU is demanding for the payment of salary from both institutions throughout the period of sabbatical leave. That is impossible. Research leave is a just one. Very necessary. However, I make bold to say that shutting down of universities for more than four months because of such demands is height of heartlessness. Provision of office accommodation and facilities: No sane mind will counter this demand. The present state of office accommodation in most of our campuses is a blot on the landscape. I support this demand without any reservation. Pension of university academic staff and compulsory retirement age, National Health Insurance Scheme: the retirement age of professors has already Been  increased from 65 to 70 years. To me, this demand ought not to have been approved because Considering the alarming rate of youths unemployment in Nigeria, approving this kind of demand is like delaying the breakthrough of Nigerian youths. I consider the students that supported ASUU over this as being naive. Patronage of university services: this is not by force. It is not a right. Patronizing varsities services is necessary and good for encouragement but it is not compulsory. Shutting down of classrooms over this was wrong. Funds from alumni associations: please how does this concern government? Private Sectors Contribution:  A right is different from a privilege. No government can force a corporate organization to do what it doesn’t want to do once he’s paying it’s tax  accordingly. Take for an example, the government of Ekiti state cannot force Coca-Cola to donate classrooms to Ekiti State University. The company can only be lobbied. This is not a military reign, democracy  has taken over. Last on the list of the demands is the one that ASUU sold to the media to gain public sympathy: the release of N1.5trn within four years for infrastructure development in public varsities. Country people,  If that is approved, how many trillions will polytechnics and colleges of education be given beside their normal monthly grant and the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)? What of primary and secondary education? What of the other sectors of the economy such as roads, health, security, water, transportation, housing, etc? Why is ASUU insisting on executing the projects in which the N100, 000 already released via NEEDs are meant for? ASUU want to become government contractor, and If this scaled through, soon, election into ASUU leadership positions will be like the Nigeria’s governorship, presidential and national assembly’s elections. Sanity will be lost. Money bags will take over. Capitalists will take over. Brigandage will be introduced. It will be fire for fire. Everybody will want to chop. Infact, ASUU President will become richer than the president of the federal republic of Nigeria. More also, why are lecturers in states-owned  varsities on strike? Is it the FG that will offer them all the allowances listed above? I believe we are still having federalism as a system of government in Nigeria. Furthermore, let me re-echo that ASUU is no longer on strike because of Nigerian Students and the reviving of the Nigerian Universities. Firstly, the over four months wasted for students by ASUU can never be regained. It is not possible. ASUU members ought to have resumed since august if truly they on strike because of Nigerian students. The general public should note that ASUU has never had it so good like this since the union was founded in 1978. The 25% of what the Jonathan led  government has offered ASUU have never been offered by government since the advent of democratic rule in Nigeria. Secondly, the statement issued on the 1st november by the national executive councils of the Senior Staff association of nigerian Universities ( SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities ( NASU) in respect of the ongoing strike embarked on by ASUU was an outright vindication of my humble self in relation to my earlier position which says that ASUU is greedy and selfish. The Statement goes as thus: “The three Non-Teaching Staff Unions of NAAT, SSANU and NASU are opposed to any extraneous demands by either ASUU or any group in the university which are prejudicial to the welfare of our members. Our stand is that government should jettison the so called ASUU’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU being referred to by ASUU is for their selfish end and it is bound to generate more crises in the university sub-sector. The Non-Teaching Staff Unions in the universities will stoutly resist any attempt to ‘sell’ the universities to ASUU.” Consequent upon the forgoing, i wish to ask that, assuming without conceding that myself and NANS had been bribed by FG as some ASUU Activists had been saying without any evidence, were SSANU and NASU also bribed? Compatriots, it is an affirmation of reality that the only thing that is sacrostant in life is truth. Truth hurt pass lies. The signed agreement is a moral burden on FG but legally, it is not binding. Nigerians should carefully peruse the 2009 agreement with knee interest before judging. God bless Nigeria! Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye, Magodo, Lagos. Maxwell_adeleye@yahoo.com