Address Nigeria’s structural issues, Oloyede Tells FG

The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, has said that for the country to make any meaningful progress, there is need to address the structural issues that continue to retard the country’s growth. In his opening remarks at the 7TH Annual Conference of the Guild Of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) on Thursday in Abuja, Oloyede insisted that authorities must show leadership in the drive to put the country on the path of sustainable growth and development. The GOCOP conference has as its theme: “Nigeria: Roadmap for Socio-economic Recovery and Sustainability.” The JAMB registrar noted that with the country undergoing tremendous pressure from numerous socio-economic challenges, it was obvious that the new administration and newly elected and appointed persons at various levels have their jobs cut out for them. According to him, these economic phenomena have further put pressure on the well-being of Nigerians. He noted that the foreign exchange market volatility, insecurity, kidnapping and a host of other vices and crises have conspired to rob the country of realising its potentials in productivity and economic growth and development and have contributed significantly to the rising level of poverty.  “The issues confronting us as a nation have resulted in loss of earning assets, decline in the capacity to earn and curtailment of purchasing power,” he said.   The Professor of Islamic Studies explained that in planning a roadmap for economic recovery and sustainable development, “we need to address some issues that have confronted us as a nation which have contributed to negative and slow growth, overtime. Some of these factors have contributed in not small measures to high levels of corruption and low productivity in the public sector. While noting that the removal of fuel subsidy, managed float of the naira among other policies by the new administration has further worsened the living conditions of Nigerians, he was however hopeful that the new policies will help in turning around the economy and put the country on the path of sustainable growth and prosperity. Oloyede, also called on the government to overhaul the wages and compensation structure in the public service to discourage deep- rooted corruption in the society. “Unless we are pretenders, we all know that some things do not just add up in the compensation of public servants and most of the public office holders. These phenomena encourage corruption and lack of accountability. It gives room for malpractices, financial impropriety, and malfeasance.  When officers and executives are not well paid and they are entrusted with huge resources of the state, some may resort to helping themselves. “I recommend that the code of corporate governance be extended to all major actors in the Nigerian economy. Specifically, the government should come out, without further delay, with a code of corporate governance and make it mandatory for public sector institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and small and medium enterprises that represent over 97% of businesses operating in Nigeria. “When this is done, I believe there would be improvement in governance of government, non-governmental and private entities in Nigeria which would help to unlock their values for prosperity of Nigerians and sustainable development of the country. “It is important that our economists should not shut their eyes to the many alternatives to the template of Bretton Woods’s institutions. Not a few people believe that some austerity measures and curtailment of our high taste for foreign products are absolutely necessary in view of the current realities,” he explained. He therefore urged the media to partner with the government in order to “attain the socio-economic and political progress we badly need as we cannot treat the media as adversaries and as entities whose health or ill-health shouldn’t concern us.”

Concrete Roads More Durable, Cheap, Umahi Insists

The Minister of Works, David Umahi has reiterated that concrete has been discovered to be more durable and cost effective in the construction of roads in some parts of the country. A statement by the Director of Press FMW, Mrs Blessing Lere-Adams, disclosed that the minister said this during a meeting with Directors of the Ministry in Abuja. The meeting was held for the purposes of clarification on pavements built with concrete and asphalt. Umahi said there were a lot of advantages in using concrete in road construction, stressing that roads built with concrete could last for 50 years without having issues of portholes or washout. “Concrete roads have a longer lifespan, it can withstand heavy traffic loads, low maintenance, less affected by temperature fluctuations. “A lot of advantages accrue to the use of concrete to construct roads, concrete roads last longer, compared to asphalt roads, reducing the need for frequent repairs and maintenance. “It is stronger and can withstand heavy traffic loads, it also has low maintenance,” Umahi said. Umahi, however, stated that nobody was insisting that all ongoing road construction in the nation should be changed to concrete. He said such could happen under some conditions, including roads constructed with asphalt pavement must be on concrete shoulder, with an alternative design on the road shoulder. He added that some of the contractors were still working with obsolete and old machines. He encouraged the directors to come to him for any suggestion or logical argument, saying that the mission of Tinubu’s administration was to improve on the road infrastructure across the nation for the good of all. “I am appealing to our consciences to see ourselves as people going to the same direction and pursuing the same agenda for the betterment of all. “All those in the field are the same with people in the office. Services in the office is what is keeping the services in the site,” Umahi said.