Nigerian Newsday

By Usman Shuaibu

A professor of education with the University of Abuja, Professor Bade Adeniyi Agboola, has called on the federal government to allocate enough funds to the education sector in the country.

Professor Agboola made the call during the 6th inaugural lecture of the institution recently, saying that for Nigerians to compete favourably with the outside world, the government of the day should deem it necessary to inject more resources in the education of the citizenry.

He lamented that the education sector needed more reforms than any other sector in Nigeria and commended the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo for providing conducive environment for the stakeholders in education to operate.

The university tutor further urged governments at all levels to encourage researchers in Nigeria financially to enable them carryout their investigations effectively.

On cultism, the university don said that it was the responsibility of both the parents and teachers to fight the students against the criminal activities in the higher institutions.

He, however, explained that corruption, nepotism, tribalism and armed robbery were the major obstacles confronting the citizens of Nigeria and urged President Obasanjo to continue to fight corruption in the government circle throughout his administration.

Sunday, October 29, 2006, would for a very long time be remembered by Nigerians. In fact, for some, that day (Black Sunday) will never be forgotten. That was the day in which an ADC aircraft crashed barely two minutes after take-off from Abuja airport, killing 96 people out of the 104 on board.

Most notable person among those who perished in the plane accident was the Sultan of Sokoto and the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido. Others who lost their lives in the plane crash were Senators Sule Yari Gandi and Badamasi Maccido, son of the late Sultan, Alhaji Garba Mohammed Silame, the deputy governor of Sokoto State and Abdulrahman Shehu Shagari, who was until his death, the special adviser to the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani.

Regrettably, we will now have to do without the invaluable contributions of all those who have died in the ADC plane crash ass for as the development of our country is concerned. In this regard, the Sultan in particular, a very humble personality who was well known for his efforts at building and maintaining peace will be greatly missed.

The late Sultan of Sokoto, who until his death was the President-General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, laboured for the promotion and sustenance of understanding, co-operation and unity between the faithfuls of the two major religions in Nigeria - Islam and Christianity.

His effort at nation building and development was, without any doubt, legendary, according to President Obasanjo, who also called on Nigerians to emulate the late Sultan.

Recalling the efforts of the late Sultan in nation building, the president said: "We called on the late Sultan to mediate on the immunization of our children, and he played a pivotal role that really succeeded throughout the country, throughout Africa and the world at large … We called on him when we were looking for how to deal with the scourge of HIV/AIDS; the late Sultan was there for us".

It should also be remembered that when the country was looking for ways to end the controversy over the poliomyelitis vaccination, it was to the late Sultan that the government turned to ensure that children in especially the Northern part, were vaccinated against the dreaded disease. And, as it should be expected, the late Sultan "was there for us", appealing to parents to allow for the administration of the polio vaccination on their wards.

In fact, the contributions of the late Sultan to Nigeria’s quest for development are too numerous to mention thereby making his death along with 95 others a very big loss to the country and the North in particular.

However, while we note the death of the victims of the ill-fated ADC Boeing 737 aeroplane with complete surrender to the will of God, he commend the efforts of the Federal Government on its ongoing reform in the aviation industry with a view to improving the safety of lives and prevent avoidable plane crashes. Essentially, we wish to call on the government to do more in this respect considering the number of human lives lost in the past 13 months

For too long and for no just reasons or fault of the victims, our aviation industry has witnessed several disasters, especially within the last one year, leading to the death of 356 people.

Government must therefore intensify its search for means to end this series of unfortunate air mishaps. Essentially, we wish to call on the nation’s aviation authorities to ensure that the current reforms in the aviation industry are implemented to the letter. No stone should be left unturned in ensuring the success of the aviation reform programme and, no one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to go unpunished if found sabotaging the course of implementing the reform programme in any way.

On their part, the airline operators must cooperate with the government so as to ensure the successful implementation of the current reform programme in the aviation sector. Consequently, the airlines should make sure that they employ, and allow to fly the nation’s airspace, only competent and disciplined pilots. The pilots should be cautioned always by their employers to obey set-down weather warnings and other expert advices.

Certainly, a situation whereby a pilot may choose to disregard weather advice and opinion of the tower to exercise patience and allow the weather to clear before he takes-off as it happened in the case of the recent ADC plane crash does not speak well of the country’s aviation industry and the operators in particular.