Google Mail - Dream Manifesto - A New Article Is Available For You - onyebueze@gmail.com: "The Effects of Gratitude on Your State of Mind
Posted: 16 Apr 2009 07:11 AM PDT
Here are some reflections on what science has to say about gratitude, which has been called the “forgotten factor” in happiness research.
Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, are foremost researchers in field of gratitude. What they have learned so far is that gratitude is good for you, really good for you.
In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). It doesn’t end there.
Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based). And there’s more. Young adults who practice a daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) had higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to the group that focused on hassles or thinking of how they were better off than others. The researche"
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
ABIA COFFIN FINALLY NAILED
The 2007 Election Appeal Tribunal sitting in Port Harcourt has just nailed the coffin in which the former governor put the people of Abia State. For 8 years, the people of Abia State suffered in the hands of people who in the name of leaders marauded the State and left it in the hands of their cohort, Theodore Orji (Uzor Kalu), in a state of comatose.
When the (s)election result was announced, one man quiped, "for 8 years the people of Abia State have suffered in the hands of two people who are are at the head of ruining the state. Now we have another group who would worse upon our head".
The people though they did not appear prepared to fight for themselves had foolishly hoped that they would be protected by the Courts. When the lower court gave judgment in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, their hopes were raised. Today, that hope is dashed.
As they saying goes, "nobody gives you power, you have to take it by yourself if you want it", the people of Abia State may well wake up from their slumber and take their fate in their own hands by rising up against the criminal neglect and underdevelopment of the State.
There is total government failure in Abia State. There is only a rule of the touts in all facets of our governance. The roads are filled with big time touts and agberos of all sorts extorting money from the people. The no-government of Abia State has the effrontery to levy pupils in private schools.
Workers are owed continuously more than 3 months salary in arrears all the time.
The only thing remaining is for Abians to rise up and and say no to the ongoing robbery of the State by the so-called government "of the touts", or wait for the time of its burial as the Appeal Court today nailed the coffin.
When the (s)election result was announced, one man quiped, "for 8 years the people of Abia State have suffered in the hands of two people who are are at the head of ruining the state. Now we have another group who would worse upon our head".
The people though they did not appear prepared to fight for themselves had foolishly hoped that they would be protected by the Courts. When the lower court gave judgment in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, their hopes were raised. Today, that hope is dashed.
As they saying goes, "nobody gives you power, you have to take it by yourself if you want it", the people of Abia State may well wake up from their slumber and take their fate in their own hands by rising up against the criminal neglect and underdevelopment of the State.
There is total government failure in Abia State. There is only a rule of the touts in all facets of our governance. The roads are filled with big time touts and agberos of all sorts extorting money from the people. The no-government of Abia State has the effrontery to levy pupils in private schools.
Workers are owed continuously more than 3 months salary in arrears all the time.
The only thing remaining is for Abians to rise up and and say no to the ongoing robbery of the State by the so-called government "of the touts", or wait for the time of its burial as the Appeal Court today nailed the coffin.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Electricity, Roads and the Demise of Nigeria
Provide electricity for the people of this country at any cost and build roads. Do nothing else, and yours would have been the best government ever.
The people of this country are the most enterprising you can get anywhere in the world. There is a large population to be served. All we need is electricity to power our machines and thoughts and it is done. “Let there be light, the good Creator said, and there was light”, the holy writ said. Light is the beginning of all things and all creation and creativity.
Nigerian industries are all dying because of lack of reliable power supply. They cannot continue to run the diesel powered generating sets and still have profit space. Cost of goods and services are made exorbitant because of lack of adequate sustainable power supply.
Next to power are roads. If people can move about easily and freely, there would be so much power in the economy that people would be busy and be mindless of government resources. Everybody is waiting for the crumbs falling from the politicians and highly placed civil servants stealing public money because there is no where else to go. If there are roads to use to evacuate agricultural products, if there are roads for people to go and come, the issue of rural urban migration would reduce drastically. Many people would be content to come into the urban centers to transact their businesses and go back if they could do so. There are no roads for them to go and come.
There are parts of this country that do not have any roads at all. Their state governments have been complete frauds. The federal government could come to the rescue of these people be building the federal roads in those states. How can some states in this country stay with neither state nor federal roads?
Obasanjo had many ideas for the solution to the electricity problem - the independent power projects(IPP). He could not pass the litmus test of corruption, so all the 16billion dollars U.S. voted for the project were stolen right in his presence. The independent power project system was a good idea gone awry. In it lay the salvation of the people of this country in so far as power problems were concerned. How this great idea died an unnatural death lends credence to the long standing but muted assertion that there is a cartel of Indian/Lebanese businessmen and Nigerian civil servants sabotaging all efforts at public power generation and distribution to enable them sale their imported power generating sets otherwise known as generators.
Regrettably both the EFCC and the House of Representative Committee on Power, who have variously enquired into this mega-fraud, could not find anybody liable for stealing US$16billion meant for electricity from 1999 to 2007. As usual, we have to leave that behind us. If the history of Nigeria is anything to go by, it is already forgotten.
I, however, advocate that we may ignore, but we should not forget; because of tomorrow, because of our children and our posterity. More urgently, it seems to me, is ourselves. What if we live for 80 to 100 years in this speedily degenerating country? What becomes of us in those ages when it is not possible for us to do any better than we are doing today for ourselves without electricity? For myself I act. For myself, I write to advocate the following ideas. These are not entirely mine. It is a synthesis of discussions I have held in different times and places with some helpless Nigerians like most of us are.
First premise:
The following Nigerian cities have no business staying on the national grid of power supply – Lagos (State), Ibadan, Aba, Onitsha, Kano, Warri, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Enugu, etc (as may be judged by sustainability and industrial activity).
Second premise:
The power needs of these industrial/commercial nerve centres can be estimated without much technicality.
Third premise:
The successful deregulation of the communication sector of our economy is a basis for anticipated success of this idea wherever it may be applied.
With a clear picture of the above premises, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) can go to work on exactly the same scale that the Nigerian Communication Commission did for communication that brought about the GSM and the attendant products and economic activities. This time NERC would focus on select cities with high population and industrial and commercial activities, determine their power needs and call for public bidding for those with capacity to provide the required power for each city of their choice. At the onset, growth factors would be considered by both the NERC and the bidders and providers. If a city would presently require 240 kilowatts, projection for 350 kilowatts would be the target at the first instance, incorporating plans for future expansion. The same thing that is done with the communication sector is what is being advocated here. Power providers would necessarily introduce the prepaid system of billing. They can invest on the prepaid meters and install them and deduct the cost from the purchases people make periodically and over time, they would recover the cost of the meters.
NERC, if I understand their present operations, are concerned with the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the building of government operated independent power projects. Only a few private providers have been given licenses to provide power in some cities. The only one known to be showing signs of finally making it is the Aba Power Plant by Geometric Limited. NERC is probably swimming in the murkiness of the US$16billion spillage and is in dire need of unbundling itself from that monumental corruption. This NERC can be swept under the carpet with its spillage as we have done in previous cases and a new one charged with replicating communication sector reforms in the power sector set up.
All over the world, there is no country that is running national grid the way Nigeria is doing it. There is total diversification of the sources of power and also localization of the power supply system. This is the way to go. If this idea is followed up, it would work out and, even smaller urban centres can have investors jostling to provide them with their 50-100 kilowatts of electricity profitably.
This is a make or mar situation. It is either we take this step or we have no electricity to power our economy in less than 10 years time. Then the calamity would be upon us sooner than later.
Government failure at all three levels of government in Nigeria is already obvious to all Nigerians. Let’s not shy away from this path of salvation pretending that it would appear as if we are not serving our people again. Nobody is waiting for the government for anything again in this country. There are generators everywhere including ones secondary school children can carry and keep in their dormitory and people keep in their bedrooms which have led to fuel fumes killing whole families. Water borehole dots every space in the country. The communication sector reform has helped us know what we have to pay for our bills.
Nigerians now know that the era of free this and free that is gone. The reason militancy and dependence on government is still evident in some states is because the government is reluctant to unbundle responsibilities it cannot meet. My people say if a man does not say exactly how things are with him, he would be carried beyond his father’s compound.
Let’s face the facts.
Francis O. Nmeribe
Visit my blog: NIGERIA TRAVEL & RESIDENCE SECURITY
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
HAS GOD ABANDONED ABIA STATE?
The answer to this question appears obvious.
The physical, social, security and political rottenness that the state has become seem to be clear evidence that God has abandoned Abia, ostensibly known as “God’s Own State”.
If cleanliness is still next to Godliness, then Abia State cannot continue to be God’s own state. It must have been abandoned by God to have come to the point it is today. In 2005, my six year old son, after traveling from Aba to Calabar asked on our return to Aba and I quote: ‘is Aba the dustbin of Calabar?
When Olusegun Obasanjo garrulously worked this country as his vineyard as President for 8 years, he made one light touch-down visit to this state throughout that period. Even as Obasanjo who is considered to have wasted more resources of this country than the worst corrupt governor has done against any state, he practically hounded state governors whose corruption level could not even match his own presumed corruption level. He took issues with many governors on development of their states. In all the 8 years, Olusegun Obasanjo never said a word about Abia State. Once when he was asked about Federal roads in Abia State, he was heard saying: “ask your governor”. The truth is that he never bothered.
There is a truism that says ‘leaders are given or allowed by God,’ and ‘a people deserve the leaders they have’. On these premises, one can conclude that ‘if Obasanjo and Orji Uzor Kalu were given or allowed by God and are the leaders that Abia people deserved, then God must have long abandoned this state to these two deadly worms to canker Abia State at the same time and in the very threshold of development. It is doubtful that God would work in league with these two men.
Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State in the last 9 year now has not had a grain of sand added to it on what the late Sam Mbakwe did when he was governor of Imo State.
Aba, the commercial nerve center of Abia State has been tagged the “’ABA’ndoned” city. It has physically decayed as wood abandoned in the rain for several years would. Major roads have been cut into two or three impassable spots by erosion in the middle of the city without being fixed in 9 years. Federal, State and Local Government roads have remained unmaintained and no new ones have been constructed in Aba since Sam Mbakwe. Where any road has been built or repaired at all, the quality has been so criminally poor that they wear out with the very next rain.
If you travel to other states in Nigeria, you cannot but conclude that God has abandoned Abia state. In Imo State, Governor Achike Udenwa made a few imprints in other areas. But he took his senatorial zone – Orlu Senatorial Zone – that had received little or no development in the past and transformed it into an evidence of God’s presence among men. Roads were built, water projects were built and kept running till date, electricity projects were completed and commissioned.
In Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu impacted on the people as to their needs for roads, agricultural infrastructure and education. He built a University and a teaching hospital and equipped them. He gave out post-graduate scholarships to many indigenes to produce manpower for the university and the new state that has been disadvantaged over many years of neglect. At the end of his 8 years tenure, the people called him Emmanuel meaning God with us.
In Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige who should have had no qualms to get anything done since Olusegun Obasanjo paid all his evil-supervisory attention on him for reneging on the sale out of the State to his cronies, built roads and bridges and open up several Anambra State villages and communities connecting them in the circle of oneness which is evidence of God’s love among men.
Architect Obong Victor Attah transformed Uyo from one blind capital city with one inlet and few narrow outlet roads into a State capital connected by roads to all the major centers and local government council headquarters in Akwa Ibom State. His successor, Godswil Akpabio is doing much more proving that he is God’s will for the people. He has opened up the whole of Akwa Ibom State in a matter of 18 months with superb roads built by no less a company as Julius Berger.
Donald Duke transformed Cross River State from a sleepy civil servant State to the center of the world in Nigeria. If you lived in Calabar during pre-Duke time and came back now, you cannot recognize any road or location. They have all changed for good. Streets lined up by trees, paved roads with pedestrian walkways, refuse bins decoratively pinned to trees. On return to the South in 2005, but for Cross River State, I was about to conclude that God has shifted base to the Northern part of Nigeria. Donald Duke did not stop at roads; he provided running public water system that is functioning. He built up five other cities that had been in doldrums for decades. He transformed Ugep, Obubra, Ikom, Ogoja and Obudu. He brought the world to Obudu. Cross River State has far lower revenue allocation from the Federation Account and internally generated than Abia State. Donald Duke deserves a development established in his name. The only other governor in Nigerian history who can be considered close to Donald Duke is the late Sam Mbakwe of Imo State.
If cleanliness is still next to godliness, then Cross River State is truly the Canaan City of the God.
In this season of governance 2007 to date, some State Governors are already making giant strides either to improve on the achievements of their predecessors where they achieved anything or to break away from the circle of doom of the past and bring developments to their people. Notably among these are Godswill Akpabio in Akwa Ibom State, Fashola of Lagos State, Chibuike Amaechi of River State who in 18 months broken the Odili jinx that had indicated that Port Harcourt could not be developed.
As these giant strides are noticed all over Nigeria in this present political dispensation, just look around and or ask what is happening in Abia State. Well the only thing that is visible is the painted yellow cars and buses and “free” school mini-luxury bus with the picture of Governor T.A. Orji emblazoned on them. This is clearly reminiscent of days when all Abia State Government contracts awarded not by the State Government but by “His Excellency, the Governor”. All institutions are named after the Governor, all evidence that God is not among the people again.
The Niger Delta Militants in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta States started kidnapping as a means to protest exploitation and provide resources for their military operations. Kidnapping, unjustifiable as it is, is a weapon employed by militants who are fighting for a cause. However, in Abia State, kidnapping has become a major criminal business and has become a daily scourge. Nobody is safe - little children, housewives, rich men and women and anybody considered to have money or someone who could spend money on their behalf. It started with targeting these people. These days there is no targeting. People are accosted on the road and abducted and ransom demanded. This is happening on daily basis. There are probably over 50 rings because of the number of kidnappings recorded in one day. They drive through the streets with their victims and are not challenged.
Recently, chiefs of one community visited another with items of customary warning to tell their children to stop kidnapping their sons and daughters; otherwise, it would be war.
Do we need to look for any further evidence that God has abandoned Abia State?
I sincerely wish to be wrong.
Francis.
The physical, social, security and political rottenness that the state has become seem to be clear evidence that God has abandoned Abia, ostensibly known as “God’s Own State”.
If cleanliness is still next to Godliness, then Abia State cannot continue to be God’s own state. It must have been abandoned by God to have come to the point it is today. In 2005, my six year old son, after traveling from Aba to Calabar asked on our return to Aba and I quote: ‘is Aba the dustbin of Calabar?
When Olusegun Obasanjo garrulously worked this country as his vineyard as President for 8 years, he made one light touch-down visit to this state throughout that period. Even as Obasanjo who is considered to have wasted more resources of this country than the worst corrupt governor has done against any state, he practically hounded state governors whose corruption level could not even match his own presumed corruption level. He took issues with many governors on development of their states. In all the 8 years, Olusegun Obasanjo never said a word about Abia State. Once when he was asked about Federal roads in Abia State, he was heard saying: “ask your governor”. The truth is that he never bothered.
There is a truism that says ‘leaders are given or allowed by God,’ and ‘a people deserve the leaders they have’. On these premises, one can conclude that ‘if Obasanjo and Orji Uzor Kalu were given or allowed by God and are the leaders that Abia people deserved, then God must have long abandoned this state to these two deadly worms to canker Abia State at the same time and in the very threshold of development. It is doubtful that God would work in league with these two men.
Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State in the last 9 year now has not had a grain of sand added to it on what the late Sam Mbakwe did when he was governor of Imo State.
Aba, the commercial nerve center of Abia State has been tagged the “’ABA’ndoned” city. It has physically decayed as wood abandoned in the rain for several years would. Major roads have been cut into two or three impassable spots by erosion in the middle of the city without being fixed in 9 years. Federal, State and Local Government roads have remained unmaintained and no new ones have been constructed in Aba since Sam Mbakwe. Where any road has been built or repaired at all, the quality has been so criminally poor that they wear out with the very next rain.
If you travel to other states in Nigeria, you cannot but conclude that God has abandoned Abia state. In Imo State, Governor Achike Udenwa made a few imprints in other areas. But he took his senatorial zone – Orlu Senatorial Zone – that had received little or no development in the past and transformed it into an evidence of God’s presence among men. Roads were built, water projects were built and kept running till date, electricity projects were completed and commissioned.
In Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu impacted on the people as to their needs for roads, agricultural infrastructure and education. He built a University and a teaching hospital and equipped them. He gave out post-graduate scholarships to many indigenes to produce manpower for the university and the new state that has been disadvantaged over many years of neglect. At the end of his 8 years tenure, the people called him Emmanuel meaning God with us.
In Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige who should have had no qualms to get anything done since Olusegun Obasanjo paid all his evil-supervisory attention on him for reneging on the sale out of the State to his cronies, built roads and bridges and open up several Anambra State villages and communities connecting them in the circle of oneness which is evidence of God’s love among men.
Architect Obong Victor Attah transformed Uyo from one blind capital city with one inlet and few narrow outlet roads into a State capital connected by roads to all the major centers and local government council headquarters in Akwa Ibom State. His successor, Godswil Akpabio is doing much more proving that he is God’s will for the people. He has opened up the whole of Akwa Ibom State in a matter of 18 months with superb roads built by no less a company as Julius Berger.
Donald Duke transformed Cross River State from a sleepy civil servant State to the center of the world in Nigeria. If you lived in Calabar during pre-Duke time and came back now, you cannot recognize any road or location. They have all changed for good. Streets lined up by trees, paved roads with pedestrian walkways, refuse bins decoratively pinned to trees. On return to the South in 2005, but for Cross River State, I was about to conclude that God has shifted base to the Northern part of Nigeria. Donald Duke did not stop at roads; he provided running public water system that is functioning. He built up five other cities that had been in doldrums for decades. He transformed Ugep, Obubra, Ikom, Ogoja and Obudu. He brought the world to Obudu. Cross River State has far lower revenue allocation from the Federation Account and internally generated than Abia State. Donald Duke deserves a development established in his name. The only other governor in Nigerian history who can be considered close to Donald Duke is the late Sam Mbakwe of Imo State.
If cleanliness is still next to godliness, then Cross River State is truly the Canaan City of the God.
In this season of governance 2007 to date, some State Governors are already making giant strides either to improve on the achievements of their predecessors where they achieved anything or to break away from the circle of doom of the past and bring developments to their people. Notably among these are Godswill Akpabio in Akwa Ibom State, Fashola of Lagos State, Chibuike Amaechi of River State who in 18 months broken the Odili jinx that had indicated that Port Harcourt could not be developed.
As these giant strides are noticed all over Nigeria in this present political dispensation, just look around and or ask what is happening in Abia State. Well the only thing that is visible is the painted yellow cars and buses and “free” school mini-luxury bus with the picture of Governor T.A. Orji emblazoned on them. This is clearly reminiscent of days when all Abia State Government contracts awarded not by the State Government but by “His Excellency, the Governor”. All institutions are named after the Governor, all evidence that God is not among the people again.
The Niger Delta Militants in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta States started kidnapping as a means to protest exploitation and provide resources for their military operations. Kidnapping, unjustifiable as it is, is a weapon employed by militants who are fighting for a cause. However, in Abia State, kidnapping has become a major criminal business and has become a daily scourge. Nobody is safe - little children, housewives, rich men and women and anybody considered to have money or someone who could spend money on their behalf. It started with targeting these people. These days there is no targeting. People are accosted on the road and abducted and ransom demanded. This is happening on daily basis. There are probably over 50 rings because of the number of kidnappings recorded in one day. They drive through the streets with their victims and are not challenged.
Recently, chiefs of one community visited another with items of customary warning to tell their children to stop kidnapping their sons and daughters; otherwise, it would be war.
Do we need to look for any further evidence that God has abandoned Abia State?
I sincerely wish to be wrong.
Francis.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Leveraging information technology for south east economic renaissance
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Being paper delivered by Engr Ernest C. A. Ndukwe, OFR, FNSE, FNIM executive vice chairman/ceo nigerian communications commission at the South East Economic Summit on Thursday, December 4,2008
Introduction
Let me first thank The Sun Newspapers for convening this very important summit that affords us the opportunity to reflect on the status of economic development in the South East and to consider the best options for the full exploitation of the resources available to improve the well being of society.
I believe that it is in the place of good leaders at all levels to always consider, design and implement programs that would lead to the socio-economic development of their people. Indeed Nigeria is a blessed country that can rise to become a great country if her leaders can, with honesty and sincerity, galvanise the people to release their full potential.
I am therefore delighted to be here to discuss the role Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can play in the development of this region that is blessed with very enterprising, resourceful and industrious people.
It has been widely established that the economic development of a nation can be accelerated by improvements in the country's ICT infrastructure. That is to say that no modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure. This is because ICTs provides a veritable platform for development across the social, economic and other sectors if well harnessed ICTs not only contribute to the development of education, health and governance, but are also key enablers of sustainable human development in a more general sense.
It is this realisation of the importance of ICTs to human and economic development in the modern society that propelled the UN General Assembly through Resolution 56/183 (21 December 2001) to endorse the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003 and the second phase took place in Tunis, from 16 to 18 November 2005. The main objective was to develop and foster a clear statement of political will and take concrete steps to establish the foundation of an Information Society for all, reflecting all the different interests at stake.
Also, a recent publication by the Global Knowledge Partnership organisation based in Malaysia had also concluded in a publication that "the power of ICTs can most effectively be harnessed through the participation and cooperation of all stakeholders in all sectors of society, government, civil society and private sector. Only by combining their particular competencies and resources can the massive roll out of innovative ICT-based services and the scale up of development interventions be achieved, all of which are necessary to make a lasting developmental impact".
In the new world order that is driven by knowledge and exchange of information and ideas, surviving in today's information age therefore depends on access to national and global information technology networks and full exploitation of such access for enhancing human life generally.
ICT development in Nigeria
Back home, telecommunications networks, are now making it possible for Nigeria to participate in the world economy in ways that simply were not possible in the past - by enabling the people to take fuller advantage of their intellectual, human, material and cultural resources. There is no doubt today that deployment and usage ICT resources in the South Eastern and indeed many part of today's Nigeria, has been boosted by the quantum leap that has been witnessed in the telecom sector in the past seven years. Within this period, subscriptions to telephone services has risen from just about 400,000 to the current status of about 59 Million active connected lines. This is in addition to rapidly expanding deployment of internet and broadband facilities. This growth and advancement in telecommunication within the last seven years has improved the nation's teledensity from 0.4% to about 42% and has positively impacted all sectors of the nation's economy.
Nigeria has thus become one of the world's fastest growing telecommunications markets. These achievements can be attributed largely to the foresight by government and the enabling and conducive environment with respect to government policies and regulatory regime. The Nigerian Government has thus proven its commitment to promoting a regulatory environment that is independent, fair, transparent and predictable within nationally and globally defined agenda for sustainable development.
ICTs in development
Computer networking has taken over localized computing all over the world to allow for resources and information sharing. The interconnection of computers and internet has brought about greater efficiency and better information sharing and management.
Clearly, ICT is driving the new global economy. People, businesses and communities with ready access to information technologies are better equipped to participate actively in the global economy.
Nigeria can leverage the tremendous benefits of ICTs to improve on the performance of various sectors of the economy.
Health Care
The development of mobile communications, teleconferencing facilities and multimedia capabilities of telecommunications, has been of immense benefit especially in healthcare delivery. By employing these technologies, limitations traditionally imposed by spatial differences between medical specialists, medical centres and patients have been eliminated.
It has also now become a common phenomenon for doctors on call duty not to be restricted anymore to their homes waiting for a call or within the coverage distance of a local paging facility. Today the doctor on call can move freely with his mobile phone and can easily be reached, in case of emergency, to give initial instructions on how to manage the patient while he is on his way to the hospital if necessary.
With broadband facility becoming available in Nigeria, video conferencing facilities will enable doctors and hospital staff in one part of the country, or in any part of the world for that matter, consult with other specialists in any part other world on any medical case of interest.
Education
With ICT facility, a number of educational institutions are not only able to run courses concurrently, but lectures can also be received simultaneously, as they are being delivered, in different lecture rooms that are located in places far away from the actual points of delivery.
The Internet has also become a Universal Library, where books, journals, articles and other materials can be sourced right within the confines of individual's homes in any part of the Globe.
At many Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics and secondary schools, students, lecturers, etc, are afforded the benefits of constant and easy access to updated information on different subjects via the internet.
ICT also enables private tuition and learning outside the classroom. Open Universities and distance learning facilities depend heavily on ICTs to succeed. The South East is known for unsatisfactory male enrollment in schools. With the cooperation and support of the governments in this part of the country, the impact of this negative trend can be reduceded with the application of ICTs. This is because ICTs can enable them receive education even while gainfully employed.
General Development
The place of telecommunications and information technology in the development of businesses and communities is generally appreciated. At all levels, concerted efforts are being made at improving access to telecommunications services in the urban and rural areas, hence the various Urban and Rural Communications and Universal Service initiatives.
ICT's enhances businesses generally. With ICT s entrepreneurs are able to buy, sell and transact businesses from locations far from their homes and locations
The availability of ICT services to all communities is essential to Nigeria. With about 80% of our population located in rural areas, improvement in communications links to our rural areas will bring the following benefits to the populace:
i. Improvement of the living conditions of the people in the rural areas by allowing them to communicate easily amongst themselves and with relatives, friends and business associates living elsewhere.
ii. Easier and faster access to up-to-date market and price information thereby assisting farmers and rural-based traders in their businesses.
iii. More rural businesses and better employment opportunities that can greatly reduce the problem of rural-to-urban migration.
iv. Better access to agricultural extension services such as prompt information on improved seeds, availability of fertilizers, weather forecasting and pest control.
v. Improved health services including remote diagnosis and treatment advice.
vi. More efficient handling of civil emergencies and natural disasters.
vii. Wider access to education resources, especially through distance learning.
viii. Easier access to government and wider awareness of government programmes and activities.
ix. Enhanced security of lives and properties.
x. Improved patrolling and monitoring of border villages and towns.
xi. Reduction of rural to urban migration.
Governance and Government service
Governance and the delivery of public services can be performed more efficiently through the use of ICT, which may include mobile/fixed telephony, internet, broadband and wide area networks. ICT opens the door to e-commerce, eeducation, e-health, and e-government.
A number of government agencies at both federal and state levels are deploying ICT facilities to improve service delivery, sharing of information, and reduce delay.
The Role of Government in Fast tracking ICT Development
If it has been widely acknowledge that ICT is a base infrastructure for socioeconomic development in the modern society, then governments at every level must of necessity be seeking was to encourage faster deployment of ICTs in their states and local governments. Let me therefore enjoin governments of the South East from the State to local and Community levels to assist the operators in achieving faster network rollout to enable their citizens reap the benefits that accrue from ICTs.
The Commission has received reports about some areas of the country where the governments at various levels create bottlenecks in the deployment of ICT facilities by the operators, either by imposing taxes arbitrarily or obstructing the right of way for the operators. leT infrastructure should be treated as essential public infrastructure and should be protected by the communities and states where they are installed.
Since 2001, the telecommunications industry had experienced exponential growth, as well as rapid progress in policy and technological development, resulting in an increasingly competitive industry which has reduced and continues to shrink the nation's digital divide.
Commitment to the future
To move to the next phase of the nation's ICT policy direction in line with Mr President's seven point agenda, emphasis shall have to be placed on an leT for economic growth policy. Such a policy framework should foster improvement in the following key areas:
• Continued Increase in teledensity to stimulate corresponding increase in productivity, social interaction and commerce, and consequently translate to increase in GOP.
• Further attraction of foreign capital (foreign direct investment) into the country;
• Stimulate of the release and activation of some local capital base and ICT talents;
• Create hundreds of thousands of new ICT-related jobs in both the public and private sector of the economy;
• Emergence of new professional fields and practices and therefore - new employment opportunities (for Software Engineers, Network Engineers, Telecom Engineers, and other ICT professionals and experts);
• Develop of new economic frontiers and opportunities within the country to foster e-commerce, e-business and e-trading to the citizens;
• Increase in government revenue from Income Tax and import duty as a result of increased business activities; and
• Increase in employment opportunities which will to drop in unemployment rates. So also will crime rates and security threats to human life and property reduce.
• Such favourable socio-economic atmosphere will encourage international community to do business with the nation.
Conclusion
As policy makers and regulators, government is committed to providing a level playing ground to all investors so that the nation remains attractive to investors. We must also continue to create an environment for the widespread and successful implementation of digital technologies and services. To ensure that technology is adequately harnessed to maximize the reach and depth of services, the Commission will continue to pay special attention to the key parts of our regulatory framework that facilitate investment and technological innovation.
As the Federal government does its part, States and Local governments must take responsibility for ensuring that their citizens have access to this vital tool of the modern age. I hereby call on governments in the South East to do what ever is necessary to ensure that this region is not left behind in the information revolution of today. Our leaders must ensure that all schools colleges, polytechnics and Universities are adequately equipped with computers and internet facilities. In today's world no one can claim to be educated without the knowledge of the use of ICT tool. Literacy is no more defined as the ability to read and write but now includes the ability to use the computer.
This must go side by side with ensuring that all part of the states are adequately covered by telephone, internet and broadband signals. By so doing our people can be empowered to use their full potentials. Thank you
Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, OFR
culled from Daily Sun Newspaper
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
WHITHER STATE SECURITY SERVICE (SSS)?
Where are you when we need you most?
I have been associated with this service for more than two decades now. From the days it was named the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO) – can you still feel the dread at the mention of those names! Those were the days “when men were men and women were married by those men who deserve them” (Cyprian Ekwensi, ‘Passport of Mallam Illia’).
I have watched SSS perform wonders - miracles for Church goers and magical arts for those who look at life from other perspectives. I have watched the service take knocks from the authorities, get rubbished - and also seen it resurrect with honour and majesty, doing what it knows best - provide care and protection to the people of this country, a thankless society of high magnitude, you could say.
I have seen the SSS save governments. I have seen its hand preserving the Nigerian polity. No other agency in this country can boast of a better place in the stability of this country than the SSS.
It gives destabilizing feeling today to observe that while this country is speedily advancing in criminality both against the state and the individual citizen, the one hope of years past; the SSS seem to be nowhere to be found.
Kidnapping is a heinous state crime. When armed robbery, highway or home invasions, become rampant, it becomes a state crime. When bullion van robbery and robbery attacks directed at banks and large corporate institutions increase to some level, it moves to realm of state crime. By this implication, the SSS gets involved in the only way it knows best “intelligence collection” to curtail these nefarious activities. At this point, Police methods fall terribly short of the criminal capabilities. The only solution is found in intelligence gathering and special operations. These are the realm where SSS and its progenitors have excelled.
In the last two years, we have watched criminal elements graduate from orchestrated bank robberies, bullion van targets to kidnappings. Kidnappings have now replaced the regular armed robbery incidents both of highway and home invasions. The later seem to have gone out of vogue and given way to kidnappings which has made everybody vulnerable. Little children are picked from their homes and schools. Wives and old parents of those considered to have money are kidnapped. Huge sums of money are paid out as ransom. Some communities in Abia State have visited their neighbouring communities warning to ask their children to stop coming to kidnap their sons and daughters or risk communal wars.
Before 2007, kidnappings were the preserve of the Niger Delta militants and other criminal elements. Now no state in Nigeria is immune from kidnapping. From Uyo in sleepy Akwa State to nondescript Borno State. From Ibadan to Awka in Anambra State. From Enugu to the ABAndoned city otherwise known as Aba in Abia State. Kidnapping is the unending nightmare. Nobody knows when we can wake up from it.
The only way to deal the death nail on this menace is through the instrumentality of intelligence gathering and management. No other organization in this country has the requisite training, expertise and statutory responsibility for this aspect of national security but the state security service.s
At the present, the operations and activities of the Nigeria Police and their military joint operations partners harm rather than protect the people of this country. We have more shootout with unarmed civilians at checkpoints than with the robbers and kidnappers. About 95% of Police arrests are of innocent persons and most times the victims of the crimes for which they are arrested. This is why the “awaiting trial” bank is swelling everyday. They don’t have charges for the majority of the people they have put in awaiting trial, hence they rot or die in prison without trial.
Violent revolutions have served mankind well some of the times in the past. I abhor violence for whatever intents and purposes. The only way to avoid violent revolution in this country in the next five to ten years of continuing criminality of the magnitude we witness today is to wake from the slumber it presently appears to be, the STATE SECURITY SERVICE. There are enough resources available in this country to have a formidable intelligence outfit that would surpass the efficiency of the criminal elements in this country.
The men and women I have associated with the SSS are the best crop you can find in any organization, nation or continent. Their present state is getting worse than a comatose. They can ill-afford education for their children, transportation to their offices, not to talk of the resources to get about and collect information. Years ago, one officer remarked that in this service, people are left to the point that they could go to the person they have under surveillance to borrow money. One local government chairman once said and I quote “your organization cannot you send you here and maroon you here”. You can imagine where that is coming from.
Those remaining in service these are those who have nowhere else to go. Yet there was a time that this organization was the destination of all the best materials in this country. People scrambled to transfer their services from all other services to the SSS.
WAY FORWARD
Some Truism
The SSS and its statutory role and other roles it could be called upon to fulfill in this country are unavoidable.
The SSS as it is at present is dangerous for Nigeria.
Nigeria needs a virile SSS.
Nigeria needs a funded SSS.
Nigeria needs motivated SSS personnel.
Nigeria needs a trained and retrained SSS (not just training and re-training on tradecraft but there is need to invite guest speakers on all fields of endeavour (quarterly and or bi-annually) – motivational speakers, professionals and experts in the field of engineering, technology, telecommunication, arms and ammunition, industrial security practitioners, research scientists in several fields, drug experts, life coaches, health and fitness coaches, etc to speak to personnel on regular basis)
Nigeria needs SSS personnel who have multiple sources of income (MSI) (not gifts or bribes. Not doing business with stolen hours that should have been put in service. The SSS leadership can help officers and men acquire skills that can help them use their spare time to make money. MSI is also Multiple Sources of Information. MSI would provide both legitimate income for officers, cover for their operations and opportunity for intelligence gathering.) MULTIPLE SOURCES OF INCOME TRAINING CAN BE PROVIDED BY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT/LIFE COACHING EXPERTS. WE HAVE MANY OF THEM IN NIGERIA NOW.)
Nigeria needs Life Insurance covered SSS personnel fully paid for by government providing resources for the education and re-establishment of the family of personnel who die in active service.
Nigeria needs SSS Personnel who are willing to die for this country. (For this to happen, Nigeria need to be made a country for all Nigerians and if that is not immediately possible, for the SSS personnel. After all, they are carrying the burden of keeping the country one until it could evolve into a country for all.)
Historical Incidents Justifying Need
Murtala Muhammed, military head of state from 1973 cared little about security intelligence. The then Police “E” Department which was the progenitor of NSO was ignored. Their warnings on the need for security protocol for the head of state were discounted. Buka Suka Dimka came calling one early morning and the head of state was felled on the street. His successor, Olusegun Obasanjo got wise. He created the NSO out of the “E” Department. We are all witnesses to the history that he made. He handed over power to a civilian government in 1979. He came back from death row in 1999 to become President of Nigeria for two terms. Obasanjo’s tenure was inglorious for the rest of the country. But he invested heavily in the intelligence community, even if the pervading corruption of that time did not allow his investments to water down to the field officers.
President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida wanted to wish away the then NSO. He curtailed its operations, destroyed the morale of its officers and men. When Orkar came calling in 1990, it was SSS that saved him. He then decided to resuscitate the service. The damage was already done. His efforts and that of Abacha, Abubakar (heads of state) and their civilian successor Obasanjo hinted earlier tried hard to re-orient the damaged service. It had not really gone far but went a long way.
Military coups may not be our challenge now given that the Military have fully discredited themselves as all their nationalistic claims have been proven false by unbridled corruption and power drunkenness; we have a challenge today more than that of military take over – kidnapping.
Tomorrow! I love you for Yar’Adua
I love tomorrow for many reasons among which are the good but for nothing excuse it provides me. Best gift of tomorrow for me is the opportunity to hope to do a new thing. However, I love today best. Today is the day of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He has done the first best thing by the appointment of Mr. A.A. Gadzama as the Director General of SSS. An insider as Director General is a moral booster of its own. It has the hopes and possibility of engendering commitment in officers and men. The service suffered much under the hand of non-members. When the Police, Military and Foreign Service personnel have been saddled on the SSS, they have proven to be a saddle indeed. As a watcher of the security industry, I would like to add that there seem to have been no other thing done to make the service work other than the appointment of an insider as Director General.
More need to be done. Many a serving members of the SSS feel that instead of the service being left the way it is now, it is rather better to disband it. The is a dangerous tune, albeit, a true testimony of the state of affairs with the service at this time.
MY PROPOSAL
My proposal, fellow countrymen and dear President Yar’Adua is for a powerful REJUVENATION COMMITTEE made up of elements from all strata of the service, national policy experts/advisers, retired officers of the service who are still updating themselves in industrial security practice and or academic pursuits, presidency representative, etc. Their job would be to come together in a well funded intensive meeting of 6 weeks or thereabout to fashion out sustainable motivational elements for the effectiveness and efficiency of the service.
I fear strongly that we may regret the abandonment of SSS sooner than later.
Francis
I have been associated with this service for more than two decades now. From the days it was named the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO) – can you still feel the dread at the mention of those names! Those were the days “when men were men and women were married by those men who deserve them” (Cyprian Ekwensi, ‘Passport of Mallam Illia’).
I have watched SSS perform wonders - miracles for Church goers and magical arts for those who look at life from other perspectives. I have watched the service take knocks from the authorities, get rubbished - and also seen it resurrect with honour and majesty, doing what it knows best - provide care and protection to the people of this country, a thankless society of high magnitude, you could say.
I have seen the SSS save governments. I have seen its hand preserving the Nigerian polity. No other agency in this country can boast of a better place in the stability of this country than the SSS.
It gives destabilizing feeling today to observe that while this country is speedily advancing in criminality both against the state and the individual citizen, the one hope of years past; the SSS seem to be nowhere to be found.
Kidnapping is a heinous state crime. When armed robbery, highway or home invasions, become rampant, it becomes a state crime. When bullion van robbery and robbery attacks directed at banks and large corporate institutions increase to some level, it moves to realm of state crime. By this implication, the SSS gets involved in the only way it knows best “intelligence collection” to curtail these nefarious activities. At this point, Police methods fall terribly short of the criminal capabilities. The only solution is found in intelligence gathering and special operations. These are the realm where SSS and its progenitors have excelled.
In the last two years, we have watched criminal elements graduate from orchestrated bank robberies, bullion van targets to kidnappings. Kidnappings have now replaced the regular armed robbery incidents both of highway and home invasions. The later seem to have gone out of vogue and given way to kidnappings which has made everybody vulnerable. Little children are picked from their homes and schools. Wives and old parents of those considered to have money are kidnapped. Huge sums of money are paid out as ransom. Some communities in Abia State have visited their neighbouring communities warning to ask their children to stop coming to kidnap their sons and daughters or risk communal wars.
Before 2007, kidnappings were the preserve of the Niger Delta militants and other criminal elements. Now no state in Nigeria is immune from kidnapping. From Uyo in sleepy Akwa State to nondescript Borno State. From Ibadan to Awka in Anambra State. From Enugu to the ABAndoned city otherwise known as Aba in Abia State. Kidnapping is the unending nightmare. Nobody knows when we can wake up from it.
The only way to deal the death nail on this menace is through the instrumentality of intelligence gathering and management. No other organization in this country has the requisite training, expertise and statutory responsibility for this aspect of national security but the state security service.s
At the present, the operations and activities of the Nigeria Police and their military joint operations partners harm rather than protect the people of this country. We have more shootout with unarmed civilians at checkpoints than with the robbers and kidnappers. About 95% of Police arrests are of innocent persons and most times the victims of the crimes for which they are arrested. This is why the “awaiting trial” bank is swelling everyday. They don’t have charges for the majority of the people they have put in awaiting trial, hence they rot or die in prison without trial.
Violent revolutions have served mankind well some of the times in the past. I abhor violence for whatever intents and purposes. The only way to avoid violent revolution in this country in the next five to ten years of continuing criminality of the magnitude we witness today is to wake from the slumber it presently appears to be, the STATE SECURITY SERVICE. There are enough resources available in this country to have a formidable intelligence outfit that would surpass the efficiency of the criminal elements in this country.
The men and women I have associated with the SSS are the best crop you can find in any organization, nation or continent. Their present state is getting worse than a comatose. They can ill-afford education for their children, transportation to their offices, not to talk of the resources to get about and collect information. Years ago, one officer remarked that in this service, people are left to the point that they could go to the person they have under surveillance to borrow money. One local government chairman once said and I quote “your organization cannot you send you here and maroon you here”. You can imagine where that is coming from.
Those remaining in service these are those who have nowhere else to go. Yet there was a time that this organization was the destination of all the best materials in this country. People scrambled to transfer their services from all other services to the SSS.
WAY FORWARD
Some Truism
The SSS and its statutory role and other roles it could be called upon to fulfill in this country are unavoidable.
The SSS as it is at present is dangerous for Nigeria.
Nigeria needs a virile SSS.
Nigeria needs a funded SSS.
Nigeria needs motivated SSS personnel.
Nigeria needs a trained and retrained SSS (not just training and re-training on tradecraft but there is need to invite guest speakers on all fields of endeavour (quarterly and or bi-annually) – motivational speakers, professionals and experts in the field of engineering, technology, telecommunication, arms and ammunition, industrial security practitioners, research scientists in several fields, drug experts, life coaches, health and fitness coaches, etc to speak to personnel on regular basis)
Nigeria needs SSS personnel who have multiple sources of income (MSI) (not gifts or bribes. Not doing business with stolen hours that should have been put in service. The SSS leadership can help officers and men acquire skills that can help them use their spare time to make money. MSI is also Multiple Sources of Information. MSI would provide both legitimate income for officers, cover for their operations and opportunity for intelligence gathering.) MULTIPLE SOURCES OF INCOME TRAINING CAN BE PROVIDED BY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT/LIFE COACHING EXPERTS. WE HAVE MANY OF THEM IN NIGERIA NOW.)
Nigeria needs Life Insurance covered SSS personnel fully paid for by government providing resources for the education and re-establishment of the family of personnel who die in active service.
Nigeria needs SSS Personnel who are willing to die for this country. (For this to happen, Nigeria need to be made a country for all Nigerians and if that is not immediately possible, for the SSS personnel. After all, they are carrying the burden of keeping the country one until it could evolve into a country for all.)
Historical Incidents Justifying Need
Murtala Muhammed, military head of state from 1973 cared little about security intelligence. The then Police “E” Department which was the progenitor of NSO was ignored. Their warnings on the need for security protocol for the head of state were discounted. Buka Suka Dimka came calling one early morning and the head of state was felled on the street. His successor, Olusegun Obasanjo got wise. He created the NSO out of the “E” Department. We are all witnesses to the history that he made. He handed over power to a civilian government in 1979. He came back from death row in 1999 to become President of Nigeria for two terms. Obasanjo’s tenure was inglorious for the rest of the country. But he invested heavily in the intelligence community, even if the pervading corruption of that time did not allow his investments to water down to the field officers.
President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida wanted to wish away the then NSO. He curtailed its operations, destroyed the morale of its officers and men. When Orkar came calling in 1990, it was SSS that saved him. He then decided to resuscitate the service. The damage was already done. His efforts and that of Abacha, Abubakar (heads of state) and their civilian successor Obasanjo hinted earlier tried hard to re-orient the damaged service. It had not really gone far but went a long way.
Military coups may not be our challenge now given that the Military have fully discredited themselves as all their nationalistic claims have been proven false by unbridled corruption and power drunkenness; we have a challenge today more than that of military take over – kidnapping.
Tomorrow! I love you for Yar’Adua
I love tomorrow for many reasons among which are the good but for nothing excuse it provides me. Best gift of tomorrow for me is the opportunity to hope to do a new thing. However, I love today best. Today is the day of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He has done the first best thing by the appointment of Mr. A.A. Gadzama as the Director General of SSS. An insider as Director General is a moral booster of its own. It has the hopes and possibility of engendering commitment in officers and men. The service suffered much under the hand of non-members. When the Police, Military and Foreign Service personnel have been saddled on the SSS, they have proven to be a saddle indeed. As a watcher of the security industry, I would like to add that there seem to have been no other thing done to make the service work other than the appointment of an insider as Director General.
More need to be done. Many a serving members of the SSS feel that instead of the service being left the way it is now, it is rather better to disband it. The is a dangerous tune, albeit, a true testimony of the state of affairs with the service at this time.
MY PROPOSAL
My proposal, fellow countrymen and dear President Yar’Adua is for a powerful REJUVENATION COMMITTEE made up of elements from all strata of the service, national policy experts/advisers, retired officers of the service who are still updating themselves in industrial security practice and or academic pursuits, presidency representative, etc. Their job would be to come together in a well funded intensive meeting of 6 weeks or thereabout to fashion out sustainable motivational elements for the effectiveness and efficiency of the service.
I fear strongly that we may regret the abandonment of SSS sooner than later.
Francis
Monday, December 22, 2008
ARRIVING AT THE DOOR-POST OF NIGERIAN NATIONAL RENAISSANCE
Dear Readers,
Welcome to door post of the Nigerian National Renaissance. Renaissance means rebirth. Nigeria has so decayed that there is only one choice left for its continued survival. That is the hard choice of rebirth. This blog is created to kick-start a state of consciousness that would bring about the rebirth.
This blog would not be confrontational with government in power. We would be more interested in helping Nigerians start their day with a new mindset. So government and its security agencies are implored to read with kin interest the posts and comments on this blog and resist the urge to kill it with arrests and closures but instead get involved in having their own mindsets changed for the good of all.
We are all aware of the obvious government failure in all facets of our national life. This is not to be blamed on the people in government only. The blame of where we are so far is the result of our thoughts, words and actions in the years since independence. We have viewed our corporate existence with skewed up, warped and beclouded mind. Our hearts have not invested a dime in the Nigerian nation. Those of us who have opportunity to lay hands on the reins of power have only scavenged and milked her dry. Those of us who have not got our hands to power have only hawked around for "our chance" to do the same.
Our common refrain has been that the country is not doing this or that for us. This is in spite of the fact that the great American President John F. Kennedy had warned his people long ago to our hearing, to 'ask not what your country would do for you, but ask what you would do for your country'. The genius of President Kennedy's philosophy is in the fact that we gain more in every sense when we invest than when we consume. Think about it.
The overall target of this blog is to re-educate us, Nigerians and our friends, to change our psyche, to redirect our efforts, to find the problems of this country in our individual attitudes, approaches and activities; and to find the solutions in our individual attitudes, approaches and activities.
We invite you to talk back to us as you read our blog entries. It is a Nigerian parliament of not only ideas but proposals and actions by all for the survival of our fatherland.
I have tried to wish away Nigeria and it seems indelible now. Our choices are limited - Sink or Swim. It is preferable we swim.
Francis
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