PAGE 14
PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2012
Dankwambo’s pragmatic youth empowerment agenda (I) By M. L. Ismail
I
t is as certain as daylight that the youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow. But how individuals fit into this maxim is a function of upbringing and the environment in which they are raised, as managed by the government of the day, most especially. The 2006 population census figures reveal that youths constitute the largest chunk of the country’s population. Thus a failure in proper governance spells doom for the society. It is in view of this that successive administrations across the country have made frantic efforts to better the socioeconomic wellbeing of the youths. But the strides so far taken by Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo in that direction over the last 15 months in office stand out. Guided by his resolve to uplift the youths, the Governor, since taking the reins of power, has never looked back in rolling out different youth development programmes to the joy of the populace. Speaking with newsmen during one of his triumphant entries into Gombe in the
electioneering period, precisely the Dankwambo immediately set up sufficiency, the state government day he visited the state to obtain four vocational training centres has designed a programme for the his ticket for the race, Dankwambo, across the three senatorial districts training of 1,100 youths on then the Accountant General of the of the state where 320 youths were various agricultural activities. Federation recalled with bitterness enrolled into seven different trades. Government under the how a certain young man in They have since graduated and programme plans to source 1,100 celebration of that homecoming ran were resettled with the tools of their hectres of arable land to facilitate side-by-side with the venture, his car all the way especially as it from Gombe affects crop Airport to the state production. Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, text capital (about 35 “Grandaunts kilometres). would be messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written It was there and resettled with contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters - 150 then he vowed to implements words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your name and give his best and a soft loan a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be addressed t o w a r d s to enable to: brightening the them take-off future of youths in on their own The Editor, the state. “How with a strong Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, would it sound that monitoring 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. after four years I team to Email: let ters@peoplesdaily-online.com did not do anything ensure that that will give the purpose is SMS: 07037756364 people like that not defeated,” young man a hope said the state for tomorrow? I am who I am today trades and an interest-free loan of Commissioner of Youth Affairs because someone gave me a chance N200,000 to enable them stand on and poverty Alleviation, by providing the necessary their own. In the same vein, Mijinyawa Sani Labaran. atmosphere,” said thegGovernor. government has planned to scale Recently, 110 graduates from Therefore, in consonance with up the programme so that it can tertiary institutions went the recommendations of the train520 beneficiaries in 13 trades. through intensive training on committee he constituted to look Similarly, as part of the efforts renewable energy. The intension into the issue of Youth to boost agriculture in Gombe state is to resettle them with tools of the Empowerment and Poverty as well as key into the Millennium trade after training with a Alleviation earlier, Governor Development Goal (MGD) on food proposal for take-off grant loan of
WRITE TO US
N200,000 in the pipeline. And before the present general security situation in the country and the installation of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo’s administration was the yan kalare horror, a security challenge known to Gombe state alone. The hitherto dastardly and bloodthirstiness this group knew no bounds. But their reign of terror was brought to an abrupt end with a proscription by the present administration. But with the realization of the need to meaningfully engage them comes big and ground breaking programme tagged ‘Talba Youth Reorientation and Rehabilitation Programme’. Under it, 1,200 youths were camped at the NYSC Orientation Camp for a three weeks rehabilitation and reorientation. There they were grouped into Ward Marshals, Traffic Marshals and Environmental Marshals, put on salary and have been working appropriately. Their responsibility is to complement the efforts of the existing structures in the areas of security, crowd/traffic management and sanitary issues among other things. M. L. Ismail writes from Bolari Quarters in Gombe metropolis.
Mark: Between service and opportunism T By Babatunde Ajibade
he wave of insecurity across Nigeria has today reached a level where the nation is not only wobbly but its image in the international community is fast nose-diving. Locally, the dangers of insecurity have driven the preponderant population in the country into despair. A foreboding that the whole country may disintegrate is looming and the governing clique appears illprepared with solutions. The deadly Boko Haram attacks, which were expected to subside during the Muslim period of fasting have instead increased due largely to the failure of the country’s leadership to respond appropriately to the new security challenge. Thus, Boko Haram has not only sustained its deadly attacks in its traditional enclave of Borno, Yobe, Kano, Gombe, and to a lesser extent Kaduna, it has also opened new front lines-Sokoto and Kogi states. And while the lethal campaign of the Boko Haram sect is yet to peter out, the insecurity situation in the country is taking a much more frightening dimension with the high spate of kidnapping in Delta state as well as the gradual return of militants to the creeks in the Niger Delta region. Going by President Jonathan’s admission crude oil theft has today reached an unprecedented and embarrassing level. What is most surprising about the current developments in our country however, is the manner in which most keen observers have heaped the blame for the glaring failure to address the country’s numerous challenges only on President Jonathan. The National Assembly in any society governed under democratic rules is the
fortress of democracy, and is expected to light the way for the two other arms of government as well as the populace to follow. However, the current National Assembly in our country under the leadership of David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark is not leading by example in many respects. On national security matters the current Senate President has at best paid lip service to the desperate need for a lasting solution. In fact, Mark, from what is obvious, has been playing the ostrich, typical of his opportunistic attitude. Whenever and wherever he gets the opportunity, he climbs the hill and either hectors all of us on what we’re not doing right, or singles out a scapegoat for his punches. David Mark’s (in)famous Uyo Declaration of 25th of June this year is still reverberating in the polity. Tactfully promoting his 2015 political agenda, Mark made the indefinable “Northern elders” his victims for that period. “If the elders in the North cannot speak out and stop this menace let them tell us. Let them come out and say so boldly, because the belief out there is that some elders know about these people and decide to keep quite. If care is not taken, the way things are going, if the Boko Haram menace is not halted, it can lead to break up of Nigeria. Because there is an extent to which the people can take it,” Mark stated. To his greatest disappointment, however, it was quite obvious to even his admirers that he merely sought to make a huge political capital out of the whole show of the gathering. Beyond giving him the opportunity to refer to the Sultan of Sokoto “My fellow comrade in arms”, it is safe to say the retreat has not achieved anything. Beyond the issue of insecurity there are other critical matters on
which the current Senate under Mark has not lived up to expectations. These include the concerns over poor implementation of the 2012 budget, the national pension crisis and the resultant scandal dogging the Senate leadership, the fuel subsidy saga, etc. The Senate leadership, perhaps in a spirited attempt to counter the popular belief today that the House of Representatives is the conscience of the nation, set up a probe into the poor implementation of the budget. At the opening of that budget probe Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu made a heroic show of courage on the part of the Senate leadership to confront the executive over the obvious failure to faithfully implement the 2012 budget. But all of Ekweremadu’s show ended for what it was-a mere pretence- when Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala appeared at the hearing. And thus, the hopes he (Ekweremadu) had raised that the Senate would join the House of Reps to confront the executive over the budget implementation riddle were swiftly dashed. Similarly, the Senate probe of the huge fraud in the management of the nation’s pension funds lost steam shortly after a scandal broke about an alleged N2 billion bribery involving the leadership of the Senate. Today, it will appear, the entire probe of the pensions fraud has been swept under the carpet. One would therefore be excused to conclude here that with the monumental fraud that has been going on in the petroleum sector, the rudderless state of our economy and the inefficient power supply in the country all under the supervision of the ministers that were confirmed by the Senate, the upper chamber did not do a good job of clearing the right people for the jobs.
The Senate President was also quick to take credit on behalf of his colleagues for the resolution of the dispute, at the beginning of the year, between the organised Labour and the presidency over the fuel price increase when it was clear the senate only seized the initiative from the House of Representatives. We all recall that it was members of the House who cut short their recess and convened an emergency session where they took sides with hapless Nigerians who took to the streets in protest by demanding the immediate reversal of the obnoxious increase. But for the efforts of Labour, civil society groups and ordinary Nigerians with the support of the House of Reps, the Senate would have conveniently let the presidency have its way. Nigerians will recall that even after the reduction of the fuel price, Mark, using his cohorts in the Senate, sponsored a bill under the “contract act” to curtail the powers of labour unions by amending the Trade Union Act. The Act which was passed in 2005 guaranteed the rights of workers to form unions to protect their interests. That bill was only jettisoned after it became clear that it would not get the required support. This sort of opportunism by the Senate under Mark’s leadership was also at play during the succession crisis that ensued over the ill health of late President Umaru Yar’adua. The Senate took credit for its resolution when in fact it was the Northern state governors who met in Kaduna and resolved that the “doctrine of necessity” be invoked which the Senate President seized upon that to pave way for then Vice-President Jonathan to take over as Acting President. Again in tackling the security challenges facing the nation, the
House of Representatives has taken the lead by going beyond the routine condemnations that the Senate leadership is known for and summoned President Jonathan to explain what actions he is taking to secure the lives of Nigerians and their property. Like the presidency, the Senate has yet to articulate a workable plan of action to help surmount this challenge that seriously threatens our existence as a nation. Perhaps this sort of opportunism is not unexpected from a man who has over the years become adept at seizing such moments to ride to the top. His huge investments outside the country such as the Golf Club in which he has an enormous stake in Ireland and bulging foreign bank accounts mainly from the windfall of the Gulf War are pointers to a man whose only interests in Nigeria are for opportunities to further his own. A closer look at how he has been piloting the affairs of the upper chamber puts this in proper perspective. The shrewd manner, for example, he constituted standing committees has not gone unnoticed to discerning Nigerians. It is not in doubt that the Senate President turned it into a political tool with which he rewarded his cronies and loyalists. That Mark was willing to sacrifice merit to the detriment of good governance in pursuit of his self serving interests says a great deal about his capability to lead a complex and diverse nation as Nigeria. He may not be aware of it yet – being consumed in the enormous power he wields but surely his very poor quality of leadership is without doubt telling on not only the Senate but on Nigeria as a whole. Babatunde Ajibade, a public affairs commentator, wrote fin rom Surulere, Lagos.