Let subsidy removal start from the top



President Goodluck Jonathan



PAUL ARHEWE

 Published (27/12/2011)

The huge wave of discordant divisiveness that the intended removal of fuel subsidy has garnered is unprecedented in regards to issues invoking public opinion. The tempo at which proponents and antagonists are trying to outmanoeuvre each other to attract public sympathy to their stance on the issue is really startling. The raison d’être of federal government’s oil subsidy removal thrust is to accumulate more funds for capital projects and relax the ‘pampering’ of the oil sector. While, this writer takes a neutral stance on oil subsidy removal, it is believed that most Nigerians opposing the proposed policy have lost trust on government.

The intension of saving billions of naira for other capital intensive projects to them is another phantom venture that may end up worsening the plight of the people, as huge funds may end up again to fatten the private bank accounts of few at the expense of the masses. Government expects to recoup N1.2 trillion annually if the subsidy is eventually discarded. While this is admirable, Nigerians would no doubt want to enjoy expanded social infrastructure, good healthcare facilities and many public utilities that are available to advance countries, but the fear is what percentage of these will actually go into capital projects? The mistrust of the people on government boils down to the many years of thriving corruption and lip service paying in the war against it.

That unrealistic LASU fees hike



Governor Fashola



Disapprovals and indignations have greeted the recent hike in school fees for students of Lagos State University (LASU). Nevertheless, the Babatunde Raji Fashola government has shown no indication it is ready to shift grounds on this ill-advised policy. Governor Fashola is depopularising education and thus making it exclusive for the children of the rich. Hiking fees from N25, 000 to between N195,000 and N350,000 per session for fresh students smacks of insensitivity of the highest order. With the existence of diverse regimes of taxes which already are seen as huge burdens to Lagosians, it is unwise for a government that is reluctant to implement a meagre N18, 000 minimum wage to even contemplate a 750 percent hike in school fees. This indeed is an expensive joke; a caricature of its highest magnitude.

One can’t help but wonder if government now wakes up from its slumber and announces a new policy without carrying out an elaborate assessment of its impact on the society? Lagosians would like to know the background and antecedents of the members of the Visitation Panel that recommended these new fees. Is their decision inclined towards self-seeking; a reversal of the gains of liberalised education policy for which Lagos was known with an aristocratic one?

David Cameron’s dangerous recolonising gambit

UK PM, David Cameron

Paul Arhewe,

(Published 2nd December, 2011)

When the Common Wealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) wound off in Perth, Australia last October, the British Prime, Minister David Cameron, left with a parting shot: zero tolerance to gay life style is now a prerequisite for African nations seeking aid from the United Kingdom. This decision ought to and should be a conscience assault on a continent that is reeling in hunger and famine and the crippling effects of corruption and bad governance.

The position of the self acclaimed ‘lord of our civilisation’ is nothing but a recolonisation of our consciences and values.

Mario Monti: Daunting task to revamp Italy’s shaky financial market

Paul Arhewe 
(Published November 21st, 2011)

Italians last week took to the street in jubilation over the ouster of their former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. No doubt the vacuum and pitiable financial market situation this European country is left with during Berlusconi’s regime needs someone that is vast in economics and one who gathers political might; who can weather the storm. The person Italy has laid solace on is no one else but a technocrat and former European Commissioner, Mario Monti. He has since taken over from Berlusconi as Italy’s Prime Minister.

He accepted the monumental task penultimate Sunday and has expressed confidence that the nation can beat the crisis if its people pull together.

Gaddafi: Life and times of a dictator

Muammar Gaddafi

By Paul Arhewe

(Published October 21st, 2011)

The long awaited drama surrounding the hunt of Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddafi finally drew to a close, as the National Transitional Council (NTC) forces successfully drew the curtain, where he was hunted down, captured and killed from his burrowed hideout in Sirte, in his hometown yesterday.

The 42 –year rule of this proponent of a ‘United States for Africa’, and fondly referred to as ‘Brother Leader’ by some is no doubt one that has colourised the continuation and presence of tight-sitting leaders in the African continent. Unfortunately, Gaddafi had failed to learn where his tight-sitting predecessors had failed. The story trailing the demise of Idi-Amin of Uganda, Samuel Kanyon Doe of Liberia, Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, Omar Albert Bernard Bongo of Gabon, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, among others have failed to deter those still clinging on to power.

Wangari Maathai: Environmentalist, even after death

By Paul Arhewe

Maathai (C), with President Barack Obama (L) and his wife

The demise of African first woman Nobel Peace laureate last Sunday indeed has left behind a huge lacuna in the continent, especially in advocacy for the protection of environment. Professor Wangari Maathai was not only a forerunner and a courageous environmentalist but one that has invested beyond her life; even in death to propagate this interest. She had projected and made arrangements that would continue the struggle in keeping the course alive in environmental protection.

Maathai’s last wish was to be buried not in a wooden coffin; this she told her Green Belt Movement after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She is of the belief that with the high rate of death from Aids, an alternative to stop the traditional felling of trees to build coffin is needed in order to protect forests.

“She was one of those who did say that we better think of something else besides cutting down trees for caskets” Professor Vertistine Mbaya, who is a treasurer of the Green Movement, told Kenya’s Daily Nation.

The movement is putting effort to make her last wish of remaining green to the grave fulfilled.

Ironies trailing executions of American murderers

Paul Arhewe, WITH AGENCY REPORTS
 Published 23/09/2011



Troy Davis



As US President Barack Obama, including other world leaders was busy with the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York, at the wee hours of yesterday, executions of condemned murderers were enforced in two other American states.

The irony in these two murder cases has to do with differences in race, colour, and the personalities of the villians and the victims. One of the convicted persons was a white American who along other two whites killed an African-American, while the other case involved the murdering of a white police officer by a black American. While, the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer in Texas neither went with any remorse from the murderer nor clamour to halt it, the other involving Troy Davis in Georgia, indeed, posed a tough task and challenging moments for the US judicial system.


Lawrence Russell Brewer



Davis not only reiterated his innocence, even at the point when the needle transmitting lethal fluid was fixed into his body, but the US judicial system went ahead to execute him despite protests from millions of people across the world because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he actually killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989. Prominent world figures like Pope Benedict XVI, former American President Jimmy Carter and a former FBI Director intervened but to no avail. This case, that drew international attentions, is one that is full of white spots and the decision in carrying out the execution order is termed as half-baked by some people. Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill a police officer before being executed yesterday, while outside the prison a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. “I am innocent, all I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth.

9/11 attacks: Decade of terrorism at its peak

Paul Arhewe

Published 08/09/2011

The first tower of the World Trade Centre collapses after being hit by a hijacked plane How time flies! It was just like yesterday when the world was shocked by the terrorist attacks on the New York Twin Towers and the Pentagon where nearly 3,000 lives were lost. Sunday would make it a decade since that gory experience, which shock Americans in no small measure and tore a once serene environment to one of fear and suspicions.

Two fuel loaded planes were crashed straight into World Trade Centre- housing the two tallest buildings in U.S. within interval of 17 minutes, third plane after about one hour plunged into Pentagon in Virginia (destroying a wing of government’s military headquarters) and a fourth one heading to Washington D.C. about 30 minutes later was prevented from carrying out the suicide mission, as it crashed half way in Pennsylvania, following the interventions of passengers that rushed the terrorists after hearing of previous attack through their cell phones. The attacks killed 2,977 people. The vast majority, 2,753, died in New York, while 184 people were killed at the Pentagon and another 40 at Shanksville. Those figures exclude the 19 terrorists.

Unaddressed issues in the Lagos tenancy bill

 

PAUL ARHEWE 29/08/2011

 

The witty saying that “it is not difficult to come to Lagos, but to return to one’s hometown is very difficult” maybe hilarious but it makes some sense. The cost of living in the state is high and adjudged to be one of the most expensive cities in the world.

 In 2009, the Mercer’s Cost of Living Index ranked The Centre of Excellence as the 32nd most expensive city in the world and the 5th most expensive in Africa/ Middle East continents. According to the rankings, it is costlier to reside in Lagos than to live in advance western cities like Barcelona, Berlin and Brussels, and even U.S. locations such as Washington and Los Angeles!

The Lagos States new Rent Bill introduced by the State Assembly and awaiting the signature of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola is indeed a welcome development. The plight of Lagosians under the compulsory two or three-year advance rents collected by many landlords in the state have really become a burden to many families. Many workers whose wages are not adequate for feeding their families are at disadvantage with the existing practice of advance payment.

I believe no worker in the state is paid one year salaries or more in advance, so why should Lagos landlords request residential tenants for advance rents in multiple years? Even, small scale businesses that should titivate the economy of the country are stifled and rendered passive due to the burden of advance payments and high rents.
I tend to disagree with those who see this bill as anti-landlords. Lacunas and some provisions in the bill have tilted to the favour of properties owner.

Helen Keller and passion for the physically-challenged

By Paul Arhewe (12-8-11)

In this part of the world, people with deformities of any kind are usually seen as those with ill-fated destinies that are subjected to destitution and, most times, regarded as societal nonentities.

You see mendicants on our streets subjecting themselves to begging and having pessimistic attitudes to life due to defects in parts of their body. Most times these categories of people are not given the chance to showcase their relevance in society; where competitions among the able-bodied are intense, leaving no room for the feeble. Hence, their survival depends on the meagre droplets they could garner from sympathetic fellows. Our society has not really helped physically- challenged people to develop those inherent talents and untapped potentials lying fallow in them.


Recently, after reading the profile and life history of Helen Keller (1880 –1968), an American, who got blind and deaf after an illness at the age of 19-months, my perception was changed, and I am made to believe truly no situation in life is doomed to a state which cannot be salvaged. With determination and support from willing hands, that situation we think is irredeemable would become a success story. I may sound here a little like motivational speaker, but really, I am baffled how this American became the first blind-deaf human to get a Bachelor of Arts Degree and move on to become a renowned lecturer, world- famous speaker and author of 12 published books and several articles.