2007 has certainly not brought good tidings to the thousands of policemen caught up in the most recent downsizing of the force’s manpower strength. The retrenchment of over 10,000 police officers, many of whom are trained to bear arms and would struggle to find alternative employment, would always have security implications in any society as volatile as Nigeria. What concerns most people however is the timing of its announcement just a few months to the forthcoming general elections - at a time therefore when desperate politicians could be recruiting thugs to help them rig or mar the elections. Although many of the retrenched officers were reportedly found guilty by internal panels of serious indiscipline and misconduct, certificate forgery, declining productivity, continuous ill health or permanent physical incapacity such as blindness, etc. it is contended that some of their cases ought to have been reported to the Police Service Commission (PSC) for further necessary action since that commission alone, rather than the inspector general of police, is empowered by the Constitution and the Police Service Commission Act of 2001 to dismiss the officers from service. Government must remember that the democratic legitimacy of the institutions that exercise power in Nigeria derives not only from the fact that they are duly constituted, but also from their deference to the sovereignty of the Nigerian people. Such institutions are therefore duty bound to conduct their functions according to the specified codes and for the benefit of the whole society. The sophistry of the police spokesman who tersely described the retrenchment as “part of an ongoing rationalisation exercise” merely obscured the fact that the affected officers are bona fide Nigerian citizens. Alas, the worm in our social apple threatens to bring rot to the whole society and degrade its moral compass for lack of compassion. How does the government intend to rehabilitate the dignity of our growing army of unemployed and ensure that its members can continue to discharge their social responsibilities? Has government thought about the danger that retrenched policemen who have been trained to use weapons can constitute to the health of the nation? What lesson could we have learnt from the Libyan government’s offer to the four hundred thousand public servants it proposes to retrench of one-off payments of up to forty thousand US dollars each or the continued payment of their monthly salaries for up to three years? Nigerians should be sufficiently acquainted with the IMF/World Bank’s so-called structural reform programmes to realise that those institutions regard manpower as the major source of inefficiency and are therefore prone to shedding the workforce with vengeance at every drop of the hat. The “essential reforms” they usually impose as conditions for their questionable support are intended to create greater worker insecurity and keep workers from demanding living wages and benefits. Workers’ insecurity may be crucial to the prospects of the global capitalist economy, but experience has shown that no society remains healthy which does not exercise a significant measure of control over its own social and economic life. Our socioeconomic spaces will certainly not be well managed until we install accounting tools that measure the costs and benefits of labour from the standpoint of the society as a whole rather than its component parts and clearly indicate what proportion of the values generated from social activity remains in the society and what proportion flows out of it. The decision to lay off ten thousand police men might come to haunt Nigeria in the future; unfortunately it is the innocent citizen, not those who chose to over-zealously implement anti-people policies that end up suffering the tragic consequences of those hare-brained economic policies.
EDITORIAL
Police retrenchments
Weekly Trust Sunday Trust Email ©2007 Media Trust.Ltd
Monday, February 19, 2007
ITALY (OLLP. P for Patronizing)
Italy offers 2,500 job visa quota to Nigerians
Xinhua News Agency
LAGOS, Jan1, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Nigeria-Italy
The Italian government offered 2,500 employment visa allocation quota to Nigerians, the Nigerian Ministry of Labor and Productivity has said.
"The quota will be allocated to Nigerian migrants working illegally in that country," Minister of Labor and Productivity Hassan Lawal said at the weekend in Nigerian capital Abuja.
In order to fully utilize the visa allocation, a labor migration desk had been created in the ministry to facilitate applicants from Nigeria who intended to travel and work legitimately abroad, the minister added.
The Nigerian government would enter into bilateral agreements with other governments to create opportunities for overseas Nigerians to reduce the case of "blind" migration, he said, addingthat a regulatory approach that guaranteed humane, safe and orderly flow of migrant workers was needed.
Statistics released by the Nigerian government showed that thousands of Nigerians immigrated illegally to European countries to seek better lives there.
Copyright 2007 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
Xinhua News Agency
LAGOS, Jan1, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Nigeria-Italy
The Italian government offered 2,500 employment visa allocation quota to Nigerians, the Nigerian Ministry of Labor and Productivity has said.
"The quota will be allocated to Nigerian migrants working illegally in that country," Minister of Labor and Productivity Hassan Lawal said at the weekend in Nigerian capital Abuja.
In order to fully utilize the visa allocation, a labor migration desk had been created in the ministry to facilitate applicants from Nigeria who intended to travel and work legitimately abroad, the minister added.
The Nigerian government would enter into bilateral agreements with other governments to create opportunities for overseas Nigerians to reduce the case of "blind" migration, he said, addingthat a regulatory approach that guaranteed humane, safe and orderly flow of migrant workers was needed.
Statistics released by the Nigerian government showed that thousands of Nigerians immigrated illegally to European countries to seek better lives there.
Copyright 2007 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
GHANA OLLP.(P for PROGRESSIVE)
Mobile Africa - Ghana Recorded The Fastest African Teledensity Growth Rate In 2006
Home / Ghana / News / Ghana recorded the fastest African teledensity growth rate in 2006
News
Technologies
Ghana recorded the fastest African teledensity growth rate in 20062007
Ghana recorded the fastest teledensity growth rate in Africa last year, recording up to 22 per cent increase, as against the projected rate of 10 per cent by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The teledensity rate, which is the number of telephone subscribers as a percentage of the population, was the result of the drastic increase in the number of subscribers, including the provision of payphones, from 3,756,518 as of the end of the first quarter of 2006 to 5,581,409 by the last quarter of the same year
Home / Ghana / News / Ghana recorded the fastest African teledensity growth rate in 2006
News
Technologies
Ghana recorded the fastest African teledensity growth rate in 20062007
Ghana recorded the fastest teledensity growth rate in Africa last year, recording up to 22 per cent increase, as against the projected rate of 10 per cent by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The teledensity rate, which is the number of telephone subscribers as a percentage of the population, was the result of the drastic increase in the number of subscribers, including the provision of payphones, from 3,756,518 as of the end of the first quarter of 2006 to 5,581,409 by the last quarter of the same year
NIGERIA .(P.for Progressive)
Mobile Phone Airtime - A Virtual Currency in Nigeria by Olusola Oyewola >2007-01-11
We will continue to count our blessings as far as mobile telephony is concerned, this is because never has development been brought quickly by any previous technology-based product like the mobile phone is doing in Nigeria and equally the rest of Africa. Along side the introduction of mobile phone, came the use of airtime as an access for user to be able to get connected to the rest of the rest of word. Little did most people know that airtime would revolutionize the way they support their families. Airtime has now become one of the commonest means and secured ways of transferring money.
We will continue to count our blessings as far as mobile telephony is concerned, this is because never has development been brought quickly by any previous technology-based product like the mobile phone is doing in Nigeria and equally the rest of Africa. Along side the introduction of mobile phone, came the use of airtime as an access for user to be able to get connected to the rest of the rest of word. Little did most people know that airtime would revolutionize the way they support their families. Airtime has now become one of the commonest means and secured ways of transferring money.
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