WORLD LITERACY DAY: Is education for all feasible by 2015?

EVER heard the saying that Illiteracy is a disease? Perhaps, that informed the setting aside of September 8 every year as the International Literacy Day by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO; an agency of the United Nations whose purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture.
It is a day set aside by UNESCO to raise global awareness and concern for literacy problems within communities.  So come Saturday, September 8, Nigeria will join the rest of the world to mark the 2012 edition of the International Literacy Day which was first celebrated in 1966 after its proclamation on  November 17, 1965.
According to UNESCO, literacy is a human right because it is a tool of personal empowerment and a means of social and human development. Also, because educational opportunities depend on literacy, literacy is at the heart of basic education for all (EFA) and is essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.
As the world celebrates International Literacy Day 2012, it is pertinent to note that though the international community has pledged to improve adult literacy levels by 50 per cent between 2000 and 2015, about 800 million adults – 64 per cent of whom are women – still lack basic reading and writing skills.

literacy class

Themed: Literacy and Peace, the 2012 International Literacy Day is aimed at showing how literacy contributes to peace by bringing people closer to attaining individual freedom and better understanding the world, as well as preventing or resolving conflicts. The connection between literacy and peace is that it is harder to establish or sustain a literate environment in unstable democracies or conflict-affected countries.

Activities lined up to celebrate the day include high-level international round table on literacy – Reaching the 2015 Literacy Target: Delivering on the Promise, and the 2012 UNESCO literacy prize winners’ ceremony.
There is no denying the fact that quality basic education equips people with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development, according to UNESCO.
But despite numerous efforts, global literacy rate looks alarmingly low. According to UN analysis, one in five adults (800 million) is illiterate; 75 million children don’t attend school and many more attend irregularly or are drop outs. In Nigeria, the literacy rate of males between 15-24 years is 78 per cent, while that of females within the same age bracket is 65 per cent.
Speaking in Abuja at a meeting of Education ministers and senior officials from nine highly populated developing countries (E9 countries) of Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan, Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqquayatu Rufa’i said E9 countries were still short of their targets years after committing resources to achieve universal literacy by 2015.
“In spite of accelerated impetus to achieve Education for All (EFA) goals by 2015, we still lag behind. One goal is to reduce illiteracy by 50 per cent,” she said.
At least, two in every three illiterate adults or young persons reside in an E9 country, which account for 535 million illiterate people out of the estimated 800 million considered illiterate globally.
EFA’s six goals that countries should target against the 2015 deadline are: expand early childhood care and education; provide free and compulsory education for all; learning and life skills for young people and adults; increase adult literacy by 50 per cent; achieve gender equality in education; and improve quality of education.
With nearly 3.5 billion inhabitants in 2005 – more than half of the world population, E9 countries represent tremendous challenges that weigh heavily on global education trends as most of them are yet to achieve universal primary education and all face major quality deficits.
Of the world’s 800 million adults who lack the basic learning tools to make informed decisions and participate fully in the development of their societies, nearly 70 per cent live in E9 countries.
Tackling the literacy gap is both a moral and development imperative for E9 governments and donor countries. It requires strengthening efforts to expand education and to significantly improve its quality.
This, Rufa’i agrees with, as she pointed out that for E9 countries to achieve the level of literacy required, there is need to reach out further to those living in remote and rural areas and very difficult terrains, women, youth and the marginalised.
Bringing it closer home, she said one of the programmes through which Nigeria can up her literacy rates is being implemented in collaboration with UNESCO through a self-benefiting Funds-in-Trust valued at over N1bn.
“We are now in a better position to address the challenge of illiteracy with a renewed commitment and a sense of urgency and we expect that the programme will yield remarkable outcomes before 2015,” she enthused.
Though some considerable successes have been recorded since efforts were first made in 1944 to address the issues of illiteracy in the country, but the challenges are quite daunting. Nigeria, presently, has over 50 million illiterate citizens which, to a large extent, has impacted negatively on all facets of national development and has led to civil unrest in some parts of the country.
As it stands, Nigeria might still miss the 2015 target date of reducing its illiteracy rate by 50 per cent under the EFA declaration made in Jomtien, Thailand in March 1990.

FG approves contract on Benin-Sagamu Phase 3

The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved the reconstruction of outstanding sections of Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Shagamu expressway phase 111.
The contract which was awarded in the sum of N65,223,155,642.34 with a completion period of 36 months, according to Minister of Information Labaran Maku “will not only improve the socio-economic activities of the area, but will also reduce vehicle operating costs, travel time and accidents on the road”.
The Minister who was flanked by his colleagues, the Minister of Works, Mike Onomelemen and Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, said the “outstanding sections of the road are in disrepair’ there is need to reconstruct them to ease traffic flow along the road.
He said when completed, the project will generate employment for Nigerians as well as impact positively on the informal sector of the economy.
Speaking on the project, Mr Onolememen said the scope of work would include the complete reconstruction of Km 9 to Km 18 and Km 75 to Km 162 of the road, adding that it would have three lanes on both carriage ways at the completion of the project.
Other approvals granted by the Council include the purchase of various search and rescue operation items for the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.
Some of the items include a GSSI life locator, in the sum of N161,406,388.00; rapid intervention vehichles, in the sum of N400,551,272.00; fully equiped emergency rescue vehicles in the sum of N251,680,000.00; and 328 sets of helmets, harness, lanyards and absorbers, descenders, fall arrestors, ascenders, aluminium and steel carabineers in the sum of N120,227,377.64.
Maku said “the rampant increase in the spate of disasters in the country has continued to stretch the resources of NEMA in terms of equipment and logistics” necessitating the contract.
Others include the construction of Southern Parkway in the Federal Capital Territory in the sum of N10.901,23 billion thereby bringing the total contract sum to N16.235 billion.  The Minister said as part of the efforts to reduce the heavy traffic being experienced in the city, the FCTA has embarked upon the construction of the Southern Parkway from the Christian Centre S8/S9 to ring road 1 comprising10 lanes, to complement the existing Northern Parkway. When completed, the Southern Parkway would undoubtedly ease the increasing heavy traffic situation in the Southern parts of the FCT within the corridors of already developed and fast developing districts like Central Area, Garki, Gudu and Durumi.
Council also approved the sum of N2.835 billion for phase II contract for the provision of infrastructure to Apo Estate layout, thereby bringing the total sum of phase I and II to N5.755billion.
The council also ratified the president’s anticipatory approval for the Sagbama erosion control rehabilitation works in Bayelsa State in favour of Messrs Nigerian Westminister Dredging and Marine Limited in the sum of N1.501billion, with completion period of 12 months.
In another development, Council also approved the Good Governance Tour, a non-partisan tour being put together by the Ministry of Information in conjunction with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to showcase on-going and completed projects across the country.
According to the Minister of Information, the inspection tour will cover the federal and state projects. He announced that it will kick-off on September 20th from the North-Central region, starting from the FCT.

Nigerian's in New York celebrates Indipendence Day in a grand style!

i hope to be there.......cause its gonna rock!.......really fun!!!

Terrorists bomb telecom firms’ offices, masts in Bauchi, Borno

TERRORISTS have struck at unusual targets in Bauchi and Borno states as the raging violence in Maiduguri escalates.
They torched the regional office and equipment of five Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) firms in the state.
The incident, which occurred at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, has disrupted telecommunications services in the metropolis.
Prior to the attacks on the GSM firms, gunmen operating in the state and other parts of the North had made worship centres, markets, banks, military and police facilities and personnel their main targets.
Three hours after the Borno attacks, the terrorists bombed masts of some GSM firms and injured one person in Bauchi town. The blast occurred at 11p.m. on Tuesday.  Their attempt to bomb a mosque in Kofar Idi near Bauchi was foiled by the police anti-bomb squad, which arrived the area and diffused the device.
A resident of Kumshe Ward in Maiduguri, said the attack on the GSM firms was one of the “desperate attempts” of the Boko Haram sect to disrupt communication services used in providing information to the military Joint Task Force (JTF) and police on the hideouts and modus operandi of the terrorists.
The masts destroyed in the attacks, according to Borno Police Commissioner, Yuguda Abdullahi, belonged to Airtel, Visafone, Etisalat and Glo.The regional office of MTN at the West End Roundabout was torched by the terrorists.
Abdullahi said he was yet to get the details of the attacks on the GSM firms’ facilities and office.
He said: “Suspected armed hoodlums launched attacks on the regional office of MTN at the West End Roundabout. Other GSM services providers, which masts were attacked are Airtel, Glo, Visafone, and Etisalat that dot the various areas and wards of the Maiduguri metropolis.”
The police chief said as soon as the Police Commander of Operations, briefed him on the incidents, the media would be briefed on the casualties and the exact number of masts and offices of torched.
An eyewitness however told The Guardian that eight GSM masts were torched in nine areas of Maiduguri metropolis.
The affected areas, according to him, are Dala-Almadiri, Kumshe, Adam-Kolo, Bolori, Gwange, Limanti, Railway Quarters and Sulueimanti Ward on Damboa Road.
A top security source in Bauchi told journalists that “as far as we are concerned the incident was a failed attempt because we have information about plan by hoodlums to attack some places. We have taken adequate security measures and deployed soldiers and policemen and other security personnel to guard every identified flash point to ensure that they did not give them chance to attack even the one targeted at the mast was exploded outside the gate because the hoodlums dropped it and it was exploded. A security man guarding the place was on red alert. Everything inside the mast was intact except the metal door, which injured the security guard and he was treated and discharged.”
Another security source said:  “We have foiled an attempt to bomb a target on Gombe Road. They (hoodlums) dropped explosives there, but we are happy it did not explode before we diffused it.”
A resident said late on Tuesday night that they heard a loud sound of explosives and when we got there, they found that a metal door was affected while there was fire near the expulsion but the air-condition and generating set inside the mast building were working.
The increasing damage to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure across the country has been described as a great disincentive to investment in the sector.
At present, the sector has attracted about $25 billion Foreign Direct Investments in the last 11 years.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, affirmed this, when he said the FDIs increased from $18 billion in 2009 to $25 billion by 2012, which put the growth rate at 39 per cent within the last three years.
At a roundtable yesterday in Lagos on the need to protect telecoms infrastructure to ensure quality of service and safeguard investments, the Chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, said it had become imperative for the Federal Government to protect ICT infrastructure, stressing that the state of insecurity in the country has remained appalling.
While the meeting was going on, Adebayo informed that the news reaching him, revealed that some telecommunications infrastructure in the North Central zone were under serious attack.
“Information just filtered in now that series of bombings early this morning (yesterday) in some North Central states of the country have reduced to rubbles, about 25 base stations,” he said.
The representative of the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, Ishaku Barau, said the police or other security operatives lack equipment to fight crimes in the country.
Barau described the increasing damages to ICT infrastructure as very unfortunate, stressing that government must do more in providing jobs for the teeming Nigerians.
The Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke has described security as an important tool in the promotion of tourism in Nigeria. Receiving the new Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) for Zone 6, Mr. Muktari Ibrahim in Calabar, Imoke said security is seen all over the world as a veritable tool for growth in the tourism sector.
He explained that Calabar, which is the headquarters of Zone 6, is peaceful and urged the new AIG to sustain it.
Earlier, Ibrahim, who described his posting to Calabar as home-coming, praised the state government for ensuring that Cross River is safe and serene.
To address security challenges, abject poverty and unemployment in the North, its governors must revive its ruined economy through “re-thinking and multi-dimensional approaches,” instead of their clamour for a review of the current revenue sharing formula, the Head of Economics Department of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Prof. Dahiru Balami, has said.
In an interview with journalists yesterday in Maiduguri on the collapse of the North’s economy due to three years of Boko Haram insurgency, the don said the destruction and the systemic collapse of the economy in the 19 northern states, could only be reversed through the implementation of multi-dimensional approaches towards reviving the textile, agricultural and livestock sectors.
He said even before the Boko Haram insurgency, job creation and revenue earning sectors were dumped, as the governors continued to rely on the oil revenue collected monthly from the Federation Account.
Balami asserted that the calls by the governors for increased revenue sharing from oil and natural gas would not address security challenges in the region.

No roads to anywhere in the Mambilla

WHEN the people of Mambilla Plateau in what is today Sardauna, Kurmi, Gashaka and some other local councils of present day Taraba State voted in a plebiscite to be part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria rather than join Cameroun, they thought it was a sound choice.
After all, they had been promised good roads, potable water, hospitals, higher institutions, industries and other good things of life.
That was in 1961, now 51 years after, the people are no longer sure joining Nigeria was a wise choice.
Among those now almost regretting that choice is the village head of Mbamnga, in Sardauna Local Council, Alhaji Abubakar Sale who told The Guardian none of the promises has been kept.
“Year in year out, we continue to wallow deeper and deeper in poverty.
“The Federal Government, whether in Lagos or Abuja, has not showed it cares for us?
“None of the promises it made because of which we agreed and voted to be part of Nigeria has been kept.
“We have nothing to show as Federal Government presence, particularly in the area of roads, which we are paying dearly for.
“Every Mambilla man is not only hard working but peace-loving, but the bad condition of these communities, in spite of the plebiscite agreement with the Federal Government, is giving us serious concern,” he said.
A first-hand experience of what Alhaji Sule was talking about came when The Guardian made a trip to Cameroun from Gembu; the administrative headquarter of Sardauna Local Council.
The distance of about 75 kilometres took almost eight hours by bus due to the deplorable condition of the roads.
Somewhere during the trip, many passengers, including The Guardian had to abandon the bus, which kept being trapped in the muddy roads, and continued on commercial motorcycles.
That was not any easier as, too often, the passenger had to get down and push along with the rider to free the motorcycle, which was also entrapped in the muddy road.
A not-too-happy Alhaji Sule told The Guardian their plight ought not to be as sorry as it is because “there are enough natural resources here that can be exploited and the revenue used to better our lot.
“Why is the government looking only at oil when there are so many other minerals here that can improve revenue accruing to the Federal purse as well as create much-needed employment?
“Because they do not care in Abuja since they are not spending money here, no one has noticed that our neighbour, Cameroun has started encroaching massively into Nigeria’s territory and before we know it, what happened to Bakassi may repeat itself here.”
The motorcyclist that conveyed The Guardian, Mr. Ngandi Sale, was unhappy that the only available infrastructural facilities in some of the communities were self-help projects initiated and executed by some of the sons of the communities
He mentioned the State Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General, Gebon Timothy Kataps and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Abel Peter Diah, who had tried to uplift their communities.
The only cottage hospital and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) lodge in one of the communities was donated to them by Kataps while Diah has been behind the Millennium Development Goals projects.
Both men are said to have been at the forefront of drawing Federal Government’s attention to the 1961 agreement and the deplorable condition of roads in the area.
In separate comments to The Guardian, Diah and Kataps said the abundant natural resource in the area were enough to entice the Federal Government.
“All that is needed is just for the Federal Government to construct roads, open a free trade zone between Nigeria and Cameroun.
“If done, the Federal Government would derive more revenue here than from Seme or any other borders in this country” said Kataps
He continued: “Our governor, Danbaba Suntai would have built the roads but for the lack of resources and of course, these impassable roads are owned by the Federal Government.”
An Immigration Officer who bared his mind at one of the border outposts blamed the Federal Government for the deplorable condition in the communities
“I do not know the Deputy Speaker or the Commissioner of Justice, but for them, these people would have been thinking of seceding.

“I am not from this part of the country, but I must admit that the Federal Government is unfair to the Mambilla people.”

EFCC to NGOs: You ‘re money laundering outfits

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, descended on non-governmental organisations in the country, describing some of them as vehicles for money laundering.
Head of the agency’s Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML, Angela Nworgu, who made the allegation at a seminar for non-financial institutions in Abuja, also accused some of the organisations of serving as a conduit for money laundering and criminal activities.
Nworgu said that research by the Financial Action Task Force had indicated that money launderers use NGOs to carry out layering of stolen wealth through several countries to disguise the actual origin of the money.
She said it was discovered that “such elements did not mind losing 40 per cent  of the total amount in the process, because it is money gotten from illegitimate means”.
But many NGOs in Nigeria have kicked against the labeling by the EFCC, asking it to name the particular groups involved in money laundering.
One of them, the Programme and Advocacy Coordinator of Network on Police Reform in Nigeria, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, described the allegation as reckless and unfounded, since there was no proof that any NGO had been indicted for money laundering by the anti-graft agency.
Nwanguma said in the absence of any arrest of either an NGO or an international development partner by the commission, it was wrong to blackmail the organisations.
He, however, called on EFCC to work towards checking rising corruption in the country and justify its existence.
Nwanguma said, “let the EFCC give us one specific case of money laundering that any NGO has been involved in Nigeria and what they have done about it.”

N34bn ID card scam: French court fines coy for bribing Nigerian officials

A French firm, Safran, has been fined about N100 million (500,000 euros) by a court in Paris for bribing public officials in Nigeria to secure the  N33.5 billion contract for the printing of more than 70 million identity cards between 2000 and 2003.
Safran, a French aeronautics and defence group, was found guilty by the investigating magistrates, of giving bribes to Nigerian officials that helped it win the contract.
The company is partly owned by France,which owns a 30 per cent stake.
The court found that SAGEM (Société d’Applications Générales de l’Électricité et de la Mécanique, translated to mean Company of General Applications of Electricity and Mechanics, a company that merged with SNECMA to form Safran in 2005, paid bribes worth between N4.8 million ($30,000) to N80 million ($500,000) to Nigerian officials between 2000 and 2003 to secure a 171 million euro contract.
The court condemned the company for endorsing the payments, but dropped charges against two former SAGEM executives: Jean-Pierre Delarue, then a sales manager in Nigeria, and François Perrachon, the former director for identification systems.
Prosecutors had sought a suspended sentence of up to 18 months and fines of 15,000 euros each for the two officials.
The prosecution alleged that Sagem paid millions of dollars as bribes to high-ranking Nigerian officials including the former Minister of Internal Affairs, late Chief Sunday Afolabi.
In reaction to the fine, Safran said it would appeal, and further reiterated its commitment to anti-corruption rules.
The company said, “Safran would like to point out that it is deeply attached to the strict respect of anti-corruption rules.”
Prosecutors had originally sought to have the Safran case dismissed, but did not lodge any formal request at the trial in June. The case came to global focus in 2005, when former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said Sagem paid bribes and presented gifts, including Rolex watches to Nigerian officials to secure the contract.
Afolabi, who was appointed Minister of the Interior in 1999, was in charge of the Identity Card project. He had noted that the cards, to be issued to Nigerians would be used for the 2003 Federal and State elections. Afolabi was arrested on December 5, 2003, by the  Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, on allegations of corruption.
In December 2003 Afolabi stood trial with his successor in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Shata, former Labour Minister, Hussain Akwanga and others on charges that they had sought bribes worth about N320 million ($2million) from the French firm, Sagem in connection with the $214million contract to produce identity cards.
All the accused persons were granted bail on December 31, 2003.
Afolabi died of cancer in London in May 2004. In June 2004, the court dropped all charges against him.
Like all members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, France is part of the convention against the bribery of foreign officials, which requires that the practice be a criminal offence.
A report by Reuters said foreign corruption rulings against big French companies are rare in France.
It said a report from the OECD that was leaked in July said French authorities lacked the resources to fight possible corruption in big export contracts.