The Lumine News

Category: Opinion

  • The Travails Of Ben Ayade BY PHYLO MODLIN ODU

    The Travails Of Ben Ayade BY PHYLO MODLIN ODU

    The Travails Of Ben Ayade

    Upon the release of the ministerial list, many Cross Riverians were ecstatic not so much at who was appointed, but at who was not appointed. The jubilation at the absence of Ben Ayade’s name on the list has not been so subtle. People are happy that Ayade did not make the list. His demagoguery only held sway in Cross River, he couldn’t cry his way to the ministerial list. Reality should have dawned on him, for a man who left office as governor just yesterday to have earned such disdain and ignominy with which he is being held today.

    His administration was a catastrophic disaster, characterized by dubious incompetence and greed that will take several years of deliberate governance to recover from. It is not that people hate Ayade but if they do, he earned it like a medal in Olympics. For 8 years, he abused the sensibilities of the people. Given an opportunity to be governor virtually on a platter, he blew it in a frenzy of high grammar, ridiculous budget nomenclature, bogus and dubious projects that were never completed. They were not aligned with the immediate priorities of the people, even if completed.

    He must be a sad man if he has a sense of introspection. He didn’t know that all through the 8 years he held sway and surrounded himself with cheerers and aiders of ineptitude, the real people saw through his sophistry. I hope he gets to now see clearly the condition of the State’s capital, the Ranch, Tinapa, the State’s library, the charade of an Airport in Obudu of which he snatched farm lands, demolished houses and rendered hapless villagers homeless without any means of livelihood and ended up doing nothing. He should introspect on these and all others that he brought to ruin in 8 years and see for himself that, he doesn’t deserve to get any position of service in the name of the State.

    Ayade only realized on the morning of his handing over that, his two wasteful terms as Governor had ended. It triggered a vibrating laughter when during his speech, he asked the sworn governor to escort him for commissioning of projects the next day, what he never did in 8 years. Completely hilarious!. Ayade displayed reluctance in the handing over process to Prince Otu; he seemed to have been hustled out of office in the end. If Prince Otu wasn’t pauciloquent, he would have said plenty by now. Even at that, there is little or nothing to be said about Ayade’s prima-donna government that the people of Cross River State do not already know.

    To Ayade’s ardent supporters who may want to contest the extent of his decadence, let me help you. Ayade himself set the yardstick or indices for the evaluation of his administration when, in his first inaugural speech, he announced the Super Highway and Deep Sea Port as his signature projects which his administration wants to be remembered for; the flagship achievement. Eight years and several billions of naira after, the Super Highway remained a fictitious project used for jokes, and the Deep Seaport swallowed all the billions allegedly poured into the Bakassi swamps without a sign of any difference from the swamp it has always been. It became tempting to commend his food on the table initiative but barely 3 months after his government and with Prince Otu’s resolve to stem the tide of adorning just anyone, the title of government official, an entitled army of people accustomed to receiving salaries for no work done have started grumbling.

    Prince Otu is taking too much time to kickstart a people-centered administration and time is of the essence considering that, it is a misfortune for anyone to have taken over from Ayade. Otu needs to show some enthusiasm in these early days. It is expected that he expeditiously sweetens the State with the common services the people have missed these past years.
    1) Waterboard should have been effectively restored and already supplying portable water to residents even if it’s within a stipulated timeframe.
    2) People should no longer have to grumble about Waste evacuation. Calabar should return to the days where it is a way of life for residents to awake to a neat environment.
    3) House of Assembly should have been sent proposals for road Reconstruction/Rehabilitation in Calabar metropolis so that this raining season can be used to evaluate and consider the proposals and by the short dry season period of Calabar, work can commence.

    If Otu prioritizes these key areas for now, the State will be bubbling with the euphoria of a new government and Cross Riverians will support the administration, not the 5 billion naira loan for the renovation of government house I heard he has submitted to House of Assembly for approval.

    I am sharing my thoughts not to castigate Ayade as I have done many times while he was still Governor; it’s not necessary, the harm’s already done. But to draw the attention of those in power now; as governor or National Assembly members to learn from Ayade’s present travails so that they understand that, four or eight years is not enough time for incompetence, this opportunity they have should not be abused. The lesson is to act now, intentionally and consistently to the end, in the interest of the people so that at a time you have an interest, the people will stand by you too.

    PHYLO MODLIN ODU, is a Cross River journalist. She also sells all kinds of foodstuffs.

  • Your Position Is To Enable You Serve Others, Not Lord It Over Them. You Have Become A Father To Those In Your Care. Yours is a Privileged Position To Make Life Meaningful For Others And Not To Cause Them Pain BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    Your Position Is To Enable You Serve Others, Not Lord It Over Them. You Have Become A Father To Those In Your Care. Yours is a Privileged Position To Make Life Meaningful For Others And Not To Cause Them Pain BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    THE KEYS

    In ancient times, keys were very heavy and had to be carried on the shoulder. When a prime minister, for example, was to be crowned, the king would take the mantle and belt and put on him and then would place on his shoulder the key of his palace. To receive the keys meant to have full powers in the palace of the king and authority from him to administer his property, to decide who was to be received and who would be kept outside the palace. Such was the authority that was given to Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, as we read in Isaiah 22; 19-23.

    Worthy to note here is verse 21, which described Eliakim the new appointee in these words: “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah”. These same words were applied to Peter in the gospel of Mathew 16: 13-20, especially verses 18 and 19 where Jesus hands over the keys to him saying: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.

    The lesson(s) to be learnt here about leadership, power, and authority are very simple and instructive; to be in power is to possess keys from God. These keys are heavy; they are a burden, not a joy. You are burdened with other people’s problems, and so there is no reason for you as a leader to celebrate and call a party because you have been selected to a position. It is service, not an elevation, and you are appointed by a higher power (the king) to serve in his palace. It is not your palace. Whatever your position, IT IS NOT YOUR PALACE. It’s the kings palace.

    Secondly, your position is to enable you to serve others, not lord it over them. You have become a father to those in your care, not a Lord. Yours is a privileged position to make life meaningful for others and not to cause them pain and separation.

    At this stage in our history, we are looking for leaders at various levels; community leaders, church leaders, youth leaders, constituency leaders, ward leaders, etc. Recently, keys were handed to certain people. What would they make of their positions of authority? Whichever direction they may want to go, remember the words of Jesus to Peter: It is not flesh and blood that gave you that power, but my father in heaven” (Matt. 16: 17).

  • Mummy Eiler, The Lone Resident Who Is Mayor And Every Other Thing.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Mummy Eiler, The Lone Resident Who Is Mayor And Every Other Thing.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Five miles from the South Dakota border in the remote northern reaches of the US state of Nebraska, there is a small town called, Monowi, with only one resident and an abandoned church, whose empty pews are now filled with tractor tyres.

    84 years old, Elsie Eiler, became the only resident of Monowi, after her husband Rudy, passed away in 2004. Today, according to the US Census, Monowi is the only incorporated place in the US with just one resident, and Eiler is the mayor, clerk, treasurer, librarian, bartender and only person left in the US’ tiniest town.

    She pays taxes to herself, grants her own alcohol licence and runs a tavern where people come from neighbouring towns to patronize. As mayor, each year, she hangs up a notice in Monowi’s only business (her bar) advertising mayoral elections, and then votes for herself.

    She’s required to produce a municipal road plan every year to secure state funding, and then raises about $500 worth of taxes from herself annually to keep the town’s three lampposts flickering and its water flowing.

    Eiler explained to the BBC in 2020 that: “When I apply to the state for my liquor and tobacco licenses each year, they send them to the secretary of the village, which is me. So, I get them as the secretary, sign them as the clerk and give them to myself as the bar owner.”

    She walks a few feet from her home to the tavern each morning at 9am to open the bar, except Mondays, when she gives herself a day off. She sells alcohol and also cooks hamburgers ($3.50), hot dogs ($1.25) and gizzards ($4). Most of her regular customers live within 20 to 30 miles but others drive 200 miles from Lincoln and Omaha to patronize her and Eiler doesn’t usually close up until after 21:30 when things quieten down.

    Monowi is one of three incorporated towns in Boyd County, Nebraska, that has fewer than 10 residents. Monowi surpassed nearby Gross, Nebraska, with a population of 2 residents to become the only incorporated town in the US with just one resident.

    Do you have the resilience of Mummy Eiler Rudy? Can you live in a ghost town and make sense of it and derive all the happiness you wish for? Can you run even your street residents association and maintain the legendary orderliness of Mummy Eiler? Ponder!!!

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • APC NWL Vs Cross River : When The Voice Of Reason Is Ignored BY INYALI PETER

    APC NWL Vs Cross River : When The Voice Of Reason Is Ignored BY INYALI PETER

     

    Yesterday, August 23rd, 2023 the long awaited replacement of vacant National and Zonal Working Committee offices in the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC was filled and Cross River State which is the only South-South state governed by the APC is the biggest loser. Some of us had warned against the process and unevenness that depicted the choice of whom the leadership of the party in the state favoured to replace Dr. Betta Edu, the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation as National Woman Leader (NWL) but our good counsel as in many cases, hit the bricks wall. The consequences is starring at us all, today.

    It is traditional and constitutional in the APC that when a position becomes vacant, a replacement always comes from where the former occupant hails from. However, this time around, the National Executive Council of the party which has the power of the convention nullified the existing zoning and directed re-arrangement of positions.

    This meant that all vacant positions were thrown open for the best lobbiest to take. Unfortunately, Cross River State leadership didn’t take this into account because if it did, it wouldn’t have assumed erroneously that they can throw any name devoid of equity and simple logic and still retain the position simply because the last occupant hails from the state. Instead of deploying all its arsenals to lobby and negotiate to retain the position or least, press for higher or equivalent alternatives, some vested interests hijacked the process and decided to go about it surreptitiously.

    The right thing would have been to call an Extraordinary Stakeholders meeting where critical stakeholders of the party across the state would meet, discuss and agree on who to project. But this was thrown to the abyss and a certain powerful woman from Cross River South was allowed to impress her inordinate personal interest on the leadership who secretly forwarded her name to the national secretariat without proper consultation or consent of majority of the Stakeholders.

    But that wasn’t all. God created a second chance for them to correct their wrong when some overzealous page boys released the information and party members of good conscience protested. In limpid display of impunity, the leadership of the party in the state refused to listen to the voice of reason by pressing on with their plots. And now, the state has lost out completely. No Woman Leader. No alternative!

    Imagine for a moment the influence the candidate that had the support of majority of the stakeholders would have had in the national secretariat had they listened to the voice of reason! The truth is that majority of APC stalwarts in the state were unsatisfied with the choice of the candidate that was forwarded and the process that produced her but decided to maintain unholy silence to see how much influence those who brought her have in Abuja.

    When her name got to Abuja, the leadership of the party in South South consulted some leaders that were sidelined and they bluntly said she was not a product of collective decision. This empowered leaders from other states to unite against her interest and in the end, Edo won. Akwa Ibom even came closer at some point than Cross River because those with influence in the national that would have synergized with the state leadership to pursue her course decided to allow “them do their thing”.

    The bitter truth is that Governor Bassey Otu needs to re-consider those he listens to. It’s not normal that the only South-South Governor had failed to directly produce a Minister even when his state had two. He has failed again to retain the National Working Committee position he inherited or secured alternative to the state. These failures are largely due to pushing for candidates who emerge through a skewed process and with little acceptability amongst stakeholders. It’s still early but the signs we’re seeing are very dangerous for the State and the Governor. He needs to expand his team and consult more.

    As my friend Richie Romanus stated in his expository piece two days ago, the state has been so favoured in this administration. There’s need for urgent extraordinary stakeholders that should aim to achieve synergy and collaboration. Without mincing words, if all hands were on deck, Cross River wouldn’t have lost the National Woman Leader to another State. There are more to come, our leaders need collaboration to attract things to the state if not their advantage would amount to nothing.

    It’s hoped that going forward, this would serve as a lesson that would catalyst the needed adjustments in the interest of the party and state.

    Congratulations to Dr. Mary Alile Idele, the new National Woman Leader of APC. May her reign bring prosperity to our great party.

  • Betta Edu: The Meteoric Rise Of The Unexpected BY AGBA JALINGO

    Betta Edu: The Meteoric Rise Of The Unexpected BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    This life remains a mystery and no one can lay claim to knowing all, except God. But every culture has developed an acceptable method of societal organization that suits their nuances and attempts to settle their incongruities.

    Where I come from, in Obudu, “uñwå ushîé”, meaning (a child from the mother’s village), can never be rejected in the mother’s village. It’s a taboo. The child even has preferential rights than others in the village. The child is usually granted land ownership rights and communal protection. If that child even commits murder in another land, the only place he or she can be banished to, is the mother’s village. If any animal is killed in that village, the child is traditionally entitled to the ‘neck’ of the animal, be it chicken, pig, ram, goat, cow or even bush meat. The neck is reserved for the “bébūâ úshîé.” (Plural).

    However, one evident pent-up in this cool sounding narrative is the subtle discomfort and manifest bitterness that starts to mushroom once the “unwa-ushie” begins to rise and amass authority and power beyond expectations. That is when hush conspiracies coalesce to recall your nativity and sundry dust. Rising from grass threatens lower rungs naturally. It purveys the entrenched audacity of lower floors that never thought a high rise could emerge beside them. It is not their fault. It is a natural reaction to every such action.

    Rising, particularly at a meteoric speed, inherently attracts attention and publicity. You will be talked about in leaps and bounds. Many things will be said about you that are true and false. A lot will be attributed to you and much more will be detracted from you. In that light, I dare say that so much has been said about the new Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu.

    At 37, over a period of just eight years, from being a youth corper in government house, she has been Special Adviser on Health to governor, DG of Health Agency, Commissioner for Health, National Woman Leader, and now Minister of the Federal Republic. This couldn’t have come without a dent of competence and self drive. In my humble opinion, I think Dr Betta Edu is a young Cross Riverian that has presented herself as a handy example for other young women in our State and country wide, to understand that women have space at the top, if they can strive.

    I will rather stand with her and watch her get to work than vilify her. What can Betta do? How can Betta better the lives of poor Nigerians? How can she positively take the bull by the horn and maximize the space she has been given, no matter how little, to impact a good number of Nigerians? How can Betta create a reliable national social register and maximize technology that will ensure intervention programs get to the targeted sections of indigents?

    These are the parameters that will inform my judgment of her and not the cacophony of pelting has not been able to impede her velocity.

     

  • The Nigerian State Has Wiped Away The Middle Class BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    The Nigerian State Has Wiped Away The Middle Class BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    “The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles.”
    ~ Mahatma Gandhi

    For many years after I began working, some friends, family and community members regularly came to me for financial assistance and I obliged the ones I could, gladly, while appealing for more time to those whose requests I couldn’t handle immediately. In the end I was always able to touch elbows with most without necessarily undermining my own affairs.There was no money transfer by telephone then, so my personal assistant maintained a notebook of account details of many, many people. He was for a long time a regular visitor at many banks as a result of that.

    Today, whenever someone sends me their account details requesting for assistance, I find myself promptly irritated and even sad, because I am also looking for someone to send my account details to in the hope of getting a lifeline. And I know that I am not alone, because my colleagues, peer group and friends are going through the same pangs of want and social relegation to a lower, shameful class. Mid-level civil servants, assistants/advisers in state and local governments, lecturers, senior teachers, accomplished journalists and entrepreneurs were all members of the middle class who could take care of their immediate families and a few others besides.

    But the middle class has at last been wiped away by brainless politicians, unbridled corruption and the wrong headed advice from Breton woods institutions, the apostles of globalization whose eternal diagnosis, year in year out, is the devaluation of currency, removal of subsidies and slavish acceptance of foreign loans. The living conditions of Nigeria have plummeted in such a way that it has become a grim task for members of the deceased middle class to buy fuel for their second-hand cars and electric generators or feed their families adequately without requesting for help from the few big men and sending them their account details.

    In Nigeria today, there are two socio-economic classes – the very rich, who number about 1℅ and the very poor, about 99℅ and the two classes of people are mutually irreconcilable. They do not live on the same streets. Don’t drive the same type of vehicles. Don’t eat at the same restaurants. Don’t go to the same hospitals. Don’t share the same drinks. Ironically, most of the super rich have neither conscience, character, morality, nor principles or humanity. Mahatma Gandhi might indeed have been postulating about these ones, because they lack industry or high education and are quite simply pests on the nation’s life spring.

    In every state you have the minister, the governor, some members of the National Assembly, one or two federal appointees, a judge or two in courts of appellate jurisdiction and one or two “connected” portfolio businessmen. They are the nouveau riche, the new authors and givers of life itself, feasting on the patrimony of the people, government provides them free houses and cars, the Central Bank gives them differential foreign currency rates. Their children study overseas and they themselves treat their malaria overseas as well. Lazy, unintelligent, bereft of conscience and foresight, beholden only unto the god of money and power. They represent only themselves and their families and look at the miling 99℅ with disdain and scorn, while scoffing at the studious and brilliant who ‘waste’ so much time in school studying how to be poor and beggarly men.

    It’s a new world, a strange country, where intelligent people are silenced so that the stupid ones won’t be offended. Where those who attempted GCE without “winning” are presidents, governors and ministers while professors beg for their meagre earned income. And people who were in the middle class are only too happy to run errands for the stuffed turkeys with large torsos and little heads, and violent gang members who have ‘transformed’ into political leaders, driving the nation safely down to its knees. The bank executives rebuff creative ideas and innovations and the preachers cross the social Rubicon with their families in tow. Here is George Orwell all over again as ” the creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, and already, it was impossible to say which was which. ”

    The middle class, that great engine of production and growth has been replaced by “our party” and it’s jaded flock is perhaps too smitten even to say a word in protest. That is why I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. That vital buffer between the people and the wealthy has been demolished and one day, just one day, they will meet and the grapes of wrath may be unleashed.

    .

  • When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country…

    Amongst all the 13 member States of the, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC, Nigeria remains the only member that imports more than 90 to 95 percent of refined petroleum products to meet its domestic consumption. No other OPEC member, including other African members like Gabon and war torn Libya, are in the same mess.

    But workers at the three government-owned refineries were paid a total of N127bn in year 2021 and 2022 in salaries and wages, even as the plants generated zero revenue as they did not process a single barrel of crude oil.

    The plants, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have been in a state of disrepair for many years. Yet, they talk very little about how to fix the refineries. Even when they budget money for turn around maintenance, they still share it amongst themselves without retribution.

    The national oil company NNPC, in its monthly presentation to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2023, said they made zero contribution to the federation revenue account in the month under review. But the audited accounts of the company shows that they spent N788.7 billion in 2021 and N648.6bn the previous year on salaries, entertainment and other costs.

    And for so long as our refineries remain comatose and we continue to import petrol, nurse no hope that the pump price of fuel will ever come down. As the Dollar exchange rate continues to escalate, so shall the cost of petrol continue to rise and I predict N1000 per liter before year end.

    And as the cost of petrol continues to rise to the relish of the intrepid exploiters, rents, food prices, school fees, medicals, clothing, transport cost and all others will also sky rocket. So learn how to manage your finances.

    Nothing is about to change. Those who run our country have no interest whatsoever in building this country. If any one of them say they do, then they have lied to you. This set of politicians cannot even maintain the infrastructure that the military that we vilify so much, managed to build, not to talk of building new ones. They can’t even build their party headquarters in decades. Their interest is not nation building. They are rogues. Very mean rogues without any iota of goodness.

    So manage your meagre finances with frugality. Nothing is about to change. Since Nigerians have decided to only pray instead of fighting those who are making their lives miserable everyday, let us all keep praying for that elusive country that angels will come and build for us someday.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Respect Them: Those Girls From Poor Homes Who Jettison Transactional Sex For Legitimate Hustle! BY ADIE IKOR JR

    Respect Them: Those Girls From Poor Homes Who Jettison Transactional Sex For Legitimate Hustle! BY ADIE IKOR JR

    Respect them!

    Those girls from poor homes who jettison transactional sex for legitimate hustle!

    It has not being easy with them.

    With fine shapes and poor background

    They resist taking the easy route.

    Opting for legitimate hustle and decency

    At a time when glamour and grandeur have taken centre stage.

    A young girl, choosing to be a waiter at a hotel instead of a hooker at a motel.

    Earning about 50k in a month and watching her mates earn 7x that amount in a week.

    E not easy at all

    Watching a friend who you shared neighbourhood in the slums, moving into the heart of town courtesy of hooking up.

    Soon after she comes back with expensive toys and wears and rub them on your face

    In most cases, she comes and moves her parents and sibling out of poverty into the coziness of the city. And your parents will give you that look as if to say “see your mate”

    While you struggle and toil, they bubble and tour.

    And they will never stop taunting you. Some would say ” There is no difference between having sex with 36 men and having sex 36 times with one man”

    So they shade you for shunning transactional sex but sticking to a poor boyfriend and leaving you in deep thoughts.

    Most girls will throw in the towel. Others will trudge on and on.

    Then boom!!

    One day you scroll through Facebook and see her wedding pix going viral in the internet. She did hook up and hooked up a rich cute guy.

    You feel frustrated because you have stayed decent and true but no engagement ring in sight.

    You question yourself, and your creator.

    In your closet, you sob and whimper.

    My dear sister,

    Life no get manual

    But you have earned my respect. Whatever that means.

    You are a BRAVE girl.

    ©️Adie Ikor Jnr
    ✅ Pen Bandit
    🇳🇬🇳🇬 FCT

  • What If The Mirror Is Lying To You? BY AGBA JALINGO

    What If The Mirror Is Lying To You? BY AGBA JALINGO

    What If The Mirror Is Lying To You?

     

    The mirror has numerous uses but the most common use of a mirror is looking at it to view a reflection of our image while we are at personal grooming. So most human beings in the world including the remotest hamlets, possess mirrors. There are even other mammals that consciously enjoy and relish a reflection of their images in a mirror.

    Looking at our image in a mirror swells our confidence more than a perfect description of our look by someone looking at us. We trust the image in the mirror more than the one in another’s eye. That’s because we are erroneously used to thinking we are seeing ourselves in the mirror as others see us in real life.

    Human images are not exactly symmetrical and the mirror only serves the purpose of a surface for throwing back our image, being incapable of absorbing it. So our reflection from that surface has its left and right backwards. Our reflection from the mirror is inverted. Let me explain, if you stand in front of a mirror and carry up your right hand, it will appear on the left side in the mirror.

    Similarly, if you open a book now, you can read the prints just perfectly? Go stand in front of a mirror while holding that same book and let the pages reflect in the mirror; then it will become difficult to read the reflection of the prints fluently. That is how your reflection looks different from you.

    Technology has further empowered the will and means to tamper with reflection. With modern cameras, lenses and even AI, our reflection can be tampered with, to suit desire. These days, we hear statements like, “he or she does not look in real life like what I saw in the picture or video.”

    It is congenitally desirable for most humans to see ourselves through other eyes, be it a mirror, a camera lens or a human retina. We seek perpetually to know how we look and how we are perceived by others. Our panting about external opinion of us, is compulsive. Yet, not one person who ever lived was able to behold a true reflection of his or her image. At best, we have only approximated in order to satiate an innate desire. Seeing our true reflection will remain illusory and out of grasp, not because it is not attainable but because truly truly, we all are a reflection of one God, whose image none has ever or will ever see.

    In a nutshell, it is the mirrors, the lenses, the human eyes and all such surfaces that reflect us, that show us the differences, the divisions and the clefts in mankind. It is them that divide us. It is them that give us the “we and them” mentality. Yet we cannot abandon them. We cannot live without them. We cannot afford to be blind to the reflection in the mirror. No we can’t! But if only we look more keenly, we may see that the mirror has been lying to us. It has never shown us the full picture.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Prof Florence Obi Is The Reason More Women Should Given Higher Offices BY RAMSEY BASSEY

    Prof Florence Obi Is The Reason More Women Should Given Higher Offices BY RAMSEY BASSEY

     

    For years, managers of the University of Calabar continued to roll in their own putrescence, like pigs in a sty, luxiriating among the dirt very much in the manner of worms, while mixing illiterates in a cauldron of half baked broth which they served as graduates. No knock-need narrative can change this truth, because it is self evident. It is only now, after more than a decade, that the world is beginning to look at the institution with some measure of respect because quite a lot has changed since Professor Florence Obi became its Vice Chancellor. And I am in a position to know.

    Now things are beginning to look like old times again and students have returned to the classroom both to attend lectures and to study. It is always dreadful when I recall how examinations were written in hotel rooms and living quatres on Goldie Street and elsewhere in the city. Do we really forget so easily? To do so will be rank mischief. No, we have not forgotten. We are just prosecuting private wars for jaded kings, and dear old Unical will always be the worse for it.

    Are students required to register for courses, yes. Do they do so, most of the time, no. Before the last exams the portal for registration of courses was shutdown in good time, to enable departments plan for the exams with the correct numbers. The battle cry went, up. “Oh Professor Florence has no heart, how can she shut down the portal for registration”. And 24,000 many of who could not register sat for supplementary examinations. Yes, you read me right, 24,000 students!

    So this time she ordered that the portal be left open for a little longer to enable students register for all their courses, main, elective, et all. And until it is shut down as it was yesterday, no department will know the correct numbers and no concrete timetable could be drawn up. Boom, “exam timetables are not out and students have been made to stress too much.” Common now, who is ringing the bell and who is wagging the tail?

    For those whose minds are preset in a particular negative direction, Professor Florence Obi will always be guilty even before she is charged. But such is the way of the world. As a growing child in my village, I read an inscription on the tail board of the lorry ‘Gongoro’ that used to come on market days – SUCH IS LIFE. It was only when I grew up that I came to understand the true meaning of that cryptic phrase.

    Do you know that the integrity of the exams have been further enhanced by the addition of barcode on the answer sheets and the strict supervision of the process? Professor Florence Obi has done very well and because of her work ethic and achievements, many more women are likely to be given higher responsibilities in the coming days even if you eat your heart out or not.

    RAMSEY BASSEY writes from the University of Calabar.