G·I
HIE GUARDIAN. Thursday, October 6, 2011
CpO lIon
MayhelTI at University of Calabar been withdrawn by the university aUlhorities, s uch that they would now have to pay absolutely nothing for their education, repUI <'.ti on [or grooming bright stu- they would still have had the right to dents as well as dark monsters. As it student protest the concession, absurd ilS the of the University of Calahar in the 19905,1 protest would seem. In effect, one has no made the acq'Jaintancc o f many such complaint about their h.ilvlng launched the bright students. Including one who broke protest, or the reaso n for the protest. a IS-yea r linx by graduating with it First One's grouse Is with the u11clvlllsed way Class from the !'ligerian law School. [was they conducted them selves during thE' also a witness as the activities of the dark protest, though they should know that monsters, mE'mbers of secret cults. nearly even the worthiest cause could lose its legrounded th e u niversity's primary busi- gitimacy, and public s}'fllpathy, if champiness o f educating its students (0 it halt, as oned In the so rdid way they carried out the they sometime! emerged by day, like wild protest. The right to dls.ilgree is fundabeasts from <llrbush, to attack some stu- menta l and inviolate, but itci"lnnotlnclude dentor olherlvilh deatllyweapolls, leaving the right to do unjustifiable violence to blood and deal h in their wake, and mo- people in the nameor expressing disagreementarllr freezing the entire university ment. And one would have understood If system With sl1(1ckwaves. the students were protesting the absence 1\ new shockw,we swept through the uni· of development even after having paid the \'erslty on August 26 and 27, 2011 arising new levy. TIlat way, the protest, as it apf"from the destnlClive activities of Its stu· tains to the levy, would have been a cal for dents protestlng the introduction of a "De· accountability, and so might have had velopment le\f o f NtO. 000 by [he some redeemmgquality. Does their protest univenity adm inistration. to be paid p~r of the levy before payment suggest that seHion by each ~ tudent. Also, they were ap· they are not Interested in development7 parently ilngen·d by th e killing of a final of course the stude nts ilfe righ t [0 be conyear law studelH of the univenity two cerned .ilbout their safetyon campus.ilnd to weeks e.ilrlier b) alleged cultists ;111U by an demand that the ullivenity administration incidence of arned roubery on ca mpus in improves on ens uring that In rh e lig ht of which seve ral students were attacked, and the murder and robbery incidents. Howdid not underst111d why the uni versity .ilU- ever, by taking the lilw into their hands In thorltles wo uld collect il MSecurity Fcc" of the expression this concern, they comproNI, 000 per ~e ;s io11 from each of them mised their m oral hig h ground, since one ~wi thout pro\'iding security~. About 300 should not justifiably seek to ensure one's vehicles belonging to the university and 61 sa fety by com promising the safety of othca rs belol1ging to its stilff members were ers as they did during the protest. reportedl y dam ~ged during the protest. The students, operating at night, and Indeed, even If th e students had learnt thereby literally m.ilking commo n cause that a ll the fees they had been paying bf'- with darkness, marched to the residence or fore the iT1trodn:tion of the new levy had some of their lecturers and attac ked them,
By Ikeogu Ok.
N
IGERIAN universities ha ve long had
it
wreaking destruction on thelrJH0r,erty, and in some cases Inmctl ng bo ily lann on them. Tradition has it when Alexander the Great invaded the ancient Greek city ofTIlebes, conquered it, and ordered his troops to burn down every house in it, he also Insisted that they spare the house of the gre.ilt lyric poet Pindar, and they did. So, for a symbolic interpretatio n, even that legendary so ldier, A[exandf'r, whose thirst for conquest and dominion arguably trumped thAt of Nilpoleon, had deep respect formen ofleamlng and talent - the same type of men that the students behind the mayhem at the University of Calabar evidelllly showed no respect for, Judging by the savage way they treated them during the protest. Teachers are to students whilt minders .ilre to dogs. It is considered extremely bad behaviour for a dog to turn on its minder. And conside ring that dogs do not have the benefltofform.ill educ.iltlon, It should be considered a far worse case of bad behaviour that the students of the University ofcalabar, who do, turned on their teacners. ~I have never been so terrified si nce Siafra; and many of us fee l traumatlsed by the experience, that our own students wou ld turn on us in this way," said one of the teachers. The authorities should fish out such srudents and impose ap proprl.ilte silnClions on them for their sacrilegious act. Not to do so might sign.ill ornclal toleriltion of such base condun and wrongly portray the university as a nurse? for such new· fan gled barb3rity. And can SilY with every sense of responsi bility that without such sanctions the deed will recur, and proliferate, and even spread to other universities across the country. wllh each
new episode becoming worse than the prevl· ous one. The culpable students ought to be taught through such sanctions, since they seem not to know, though they should know, that their right to protest a levy they consider excessive or unnecessary, should end where thr rights of their teachers to move around without broke n he.ilds and limbs bE'gin, and their right not to ha ve their pr0r,erty or th.il! of the universi tyvandalised. Suc I sanctions would therefore be corrective for those stude nts fou nd to be deserving of them, so they might eventually become deserving of degrees that ought to be awarded to them ~for character and learning." The s.ilnctions would be in their best Intf'ren, as the administration of some bitterpoUon can be loa sick penon, to purge them of the execrable symptoms of savagery which they have exhibited in the most Inap propriate of places -a universltyl A strong message ought to be sent to the students of the university, and all students across the country, about the Intolerableness of their embarking on a violent protest at night. One cannot lay fOO much emphas is on the importance of the message; for even by daya mob that engages in such protest Is regarded as facele ss, and when It operates at night, doublfng Its facel essness with the mask of darkness, it becomes practiCAlly imjlossible to identify any of its members, par· ticularly the leading.ilctors, as it might be by day, for Inves ti gativf' or othe r purposes. In short, thi s introduction of nocturnal studem r.ilmpage by student s of the Universityof Cal· abar is a periloU5 precedent th.il t must be pinched off In the bud, before it spreads to further end.ilnger the heJlth of our educa· tlonal system. • Oke, <I public policy <l11il1)'sr, writes (rom
Abu;a.
A new promise in agriculture By Paul Ojenagbon 'T1 IE agrlcultur,, 1"Transformation Ac tion Plan~ p..lckage of 1. N300 btllion unfolded recently by the minister, Mr. Akin\'{tmml AdeslnJ, ro li ft the sector gave much to cheer about but it r.lised sOrPe concern. Projects likf' thf'se ought to be celebrated but \lith the government getting directly involved and with (orruptlon pervasive In the public service, some cloud of ~ ' ss imism could dog the trail of success of the progr.lmme. In itself, the progr.lmme is ~ good initiative lhat has been delayed for too lo ng so there must be a way out In ord er not to have It marred In the official corruption th.ilt is eating the niltion like cancer. Agriculture is ti le m.ilinstay of manyeconomirs. nle technological strides re<:orded by the world·s leading econom ies had their b,uis 111 agriculture and although the sector has increasingly shn'nk in Its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GOP) of many na tio ns, the sector still provides the chunk of the GOP of mAny nations especially the developing ones. Besilles. the country should be able to feed its citizens.ilS o ne wily to reduce social tension and insecurity. The Industrialiu·d revolut1on of the 19th century which cat· apulted the agrarian economies of most countries of Europe g OI the Impetus ill agriculture. Truly, the importance of agriculture in any nation's economy cannot be overemphasised. In the United St.lles of Amenc", agriculture conlributes about 1.1 per ce n: of the country's GOP. It Is 13 per cent in China, 2.6 per ceFlI in South Africa. 2.'1 per cenlmlsraei, 12 per cent in Austr~1ia . nine percent in Argentina, 0.5 percent in Egypt .ilnd In tligeria it contributes 26.8 per cent of the country's GDP. Similarly, agriculture provides major source of employment ill any country, accounting for2 S per cent of th ~ work force in Brazil, 32 percenlln Egypt, 3.7 percent In Israel, 70 percrn ! in Nigeria and so on.-F'rom the statistics rf'e led out, It wou Id appear that the more developed a country is, the lower ltoe contribution of a~riculrure to GOP. Nigeria has a long journey ahead of it 111 the march towards industrialization .ilnd agriculture Is a key fa ctor that would determine how f?r It nn go. Not every coun try Is so well endowed in terms of arable land. butsomeh(,\'I, such coulltries have been to overcome the natural dlsa(lv.ilntages through Improved technology and modern fart<ling techniques In such a way that they have become net exporter of food and are feeding the rest or the world. nlU~. only20 percent ofl.ilnd is arable in Israel, IS percenlln Chi'1;),IO percent in thr fonnerSoviet Union, 61 per cent In Auitralla and In Nigeria over 80 per cent Is
arable land which is quite some blessing. Nigeri.il has the p0tential not on ly to feed herself but Africa and the restof the world in the production orcertilin foo<1 1temsand if the programme Is well managed,lt could lust be the roadm.ilp to the country's self-suffiCiency in food production, a boost to youth employment, sho ring up the nation's foreign ('..'(change reserve and would confer prosperity upon th e land. It is pertinent to note that these are Incldent.ilily some of the objectives tile government hopes to .ilchieve through the scheme_ It is e9ual1y important to note that we have never been lacking In agricultural progr.lmmes, the results were always the issue. We had ~Ope r.iltion Feed the Nation-between 1976 - 1979 under the OoosanJo militarydisperu.ation. During the civilian dispensation headed by Shellu Shagari ~tween 1979 -83, it was christened MGreen Revolution". TIlere were River Basin Authorities In some parts of rhe country established by the Federill Government to Implement imga tion fann Ing. Even theelght-yeargovernmenroflbrilhim Babangida 'Fproached agriculrure through the prism of Directorate o t-ood. Road and Rurallnfrastructure(DFRR1~ Even though these schemes were poorly managed, If we had been con· slstent,theywould have cre.ilted a better platfonn for the expected reVIval in ,lgriculrure. Nigeria W.ilS once a major producer of some food crops In th e world and.ilt.il llme, agriculture formed 6'1 per cent of the GOP. The country has no excuse not to be in the forefront of agriculture In the world, more so accounting to have been gifted 34 out of the 36 na tural resources given to man by God. Every country would .ilim at food sufficif'ncy not just to en· su re food security but also for pride, among other reasons. It is sad that the country now Imports most food items. For example, Nigeria spent St2 billion on food importation between 2009 and 2011. We even h.ild to import beans from Burkina F.ilsol It Is equally I.iludable that the Feder.ill Government is planning to Involve the National Youth Service Corps {NYSCj in the scheme. The military should .illso be Involved as It obta.ins in some parts of tile world especially at peace rimes like this when there is no major .....arthecountryls fight ing other than Internal security challenges posed by Boko Haramand the like. Theexampleorthe·Zimbabwean fanners In Kwara State offers a rich model for what the scheme should take aftf'r and shou ld form a pedest.ill that the government can build on.ill Individual, group, local, state and federa l levels. Farming
should be made 2ttractlve, not made lO look as.iln activity meant only forthe poor.l[ should be mechanised. computerised and comme rcia1ised on very large sC.ille to be meiln· ingful. At the local and state levels, f.ilnners should be encouraged to set upc()-()pera tlves among themselves within spednc locality and crop lypes and through such c()-()peratives access funds, modern farming eqUipment, new techniques, high yield seedli ngs, fertilizers, subsidies, etc. The model that micro nnance institutions employ could be explored. Every state government.should cha.nnel resources In the direction of cert.illn crops for which they have comparative advantages as It was In the good old times when certain regions of the countrywtre known for production of certa in crops. Geogra.phy taught us th.ilt the South West was known forcoco.il and rubbe.r, Eastern Nigeria for p.illm oil and The North for ground nutand cotton. There could be much fun III f,lnn ingiflt is done the easy way, with each process fully mechanised, com\,uterised as 111 the developed econom ies. The in itiative cou d bring some de· gree of comfort into the farms by having rest houses for farm workers, rest.ilurants, clubhouse with relallation facilities. Agriculture should be raised from that subsistence level of primitive implements tOOl level where it Is mechanised in most oper.ltiolls. The old farmers In the rural areas are not likelr to be able to embrace this change: all eres are on the ),out I because they have .ilge, energy and inte lects on their side. BeSides, they are much more ne xibleand able madopt newtechnlgues. High yleld1l1g \'.ilriety seeds should be introduced and the scheme being capital intensive must have constant Injc<tlon of fund s with value being cre.ilted. Government should also Intervene in other ways through organised rese.ilrch into crop lypes, regional suitability, subsid ies, price su pport and loan progr.ilmme. The jonathan administration must work hard to break the jinx that agriculture Is unilllracti\·e and unprofitable. On Its own, the Federal Government could col labor.lte with the private sector to set up iI holding comp.ilny to implement Its own agricultural programmes at the federal level. The dis· tinction would be that It would partner with the private sectoron.il I'PP platfl'nll so that the venture Is not reduced to another public venture that Is exposed to inefficiency and graft. The agency must be run commercially and profitably so as to sustain Itself and create weillth for the owners and food for the nation. • Ojenilgbon, an £Sr.ue SulVt'),or and Valuer, lives in ugos.