Opinion I As Imo Launches 'Imo Air' Amid Recession

THE ‘IMO AIR’ AND OKOROCHA’S STRIDE IN AVIATION

        

The last time I checked, Imo State could proudly boast of an airline. The said aircraft tagged “Imo Air’ was launched by the state’s government ably led by Governor Rochas Okorocha penultimate week, precisely on Tuesday 24^th January 2017, after it successfully landed at the Sam Mbakwe Airport Owerri with passengers from Lagos State, at about 12:20pm.

        

It’s noteworthy that the aircraft has a capacity of one hundred and forty (140) passengers. Prior to its successful landing at the aforementioned airport, several Imolites and onlookers were of the notion that the awaited feat was likely to be a mirage. At last, their skepticism – which was natural and normal though – was proven wrong by the governor who was accompanied to the airport by various top government functionaries. It suffices to say that the above mentioned date ushered in a moment of ecstasy mixed with astonishment. The mixed feelings were obviously witnessed by anyone who could see through his/her eyes.

        

Therein, the governor made it known that the number of airlines the state had planned to kick-off with, regarding its interest in aviation business, was five. According to him, four additional aircrafts were on the way, and would soon be equally launched by the ‘Rescue Mission’ administration. The number one citizen went further to disclose that the airline business would temporarily be managed on behalf of the state by Dana Airline pending when the state would receive full license to run the business.

        

It would as well interest you to note that the governor reiterated his administration’s readiness towards ensuring that the Imo airport is fully transformed to an International Cargo Airport in no distant time. He said that the April 17, 2017, being the date the state was targeting toward meeting the lofty demand, would never be shortchanged or compromised. Based on his speech, the initiative which was supposedly a Federal Government (FG) project was at the moment duly funded by the Imo State government.

       

Stating that Governor Okorocha’s aim of investing in the aviation industry is a welcome development ought to be described as understatement. The governor has conspicuously  proven to the general public, particularly those who understand what it takes to run a venture in the said sector, that the business the FG had been afraid of going into could easily be initiated as well as managed by a state government. Actualization of such a feat has made Imo to be reckoned the first state across the federation to invest in aviation, especially at a period when every facet of the country is seemingly suffering from economic comatose.

        

This very accomplishment is strongly propelling my person to believe that one of the expensive statements made by the Imo governor during the launch of the ‘Imo Air’ was something to behold. Speaking at the event, Gov. Okorocha wholly told the members of the press, and of course the entire public, that Imo – the Eastern Heartland – wasn’t affected by the ongoing recession that is ostensibly nearing depression. That, to me, was indeed an overstatement.

        

How could the governor claim that Imo was not suffering from recession while the teeming workers in the state are being paid seventy per cent (70%) of their salaries, and there was recently a sixty per cent (60%) cut from the arrears of pension accruable to the state’s pensioners? We must be mindful of how we speak in any public domain, so that, we won’t end up generating crisis when the people are expected to rejoice. I must say unequivocally that such an utterance didn’t augur well for any civil servant or pensioner who was present at that epochal ceremony.

        

Though the government had really tried to pay the workers’ salaries till date as well as cleared the backlog of pensions owed the teeming senior citizens, it’s worth noting that these stewards and retirees, as the case may be, were not being paid as they were meant to. And the cut in the said payments was solely occasioned by the lingering economic mayhem that’s apparently ubiquitous. So, coming out to tell the public that the state was not negatively affected by the unbearable economic condition was not unlike creating a paradoxical scene.

        

Lest I digress, this critique is mainly informed by the need to let the Imo State government realize that aviation business is often characterized by several challenges and intrigues. Yes, a feat has obviously been recorded, but it’s imperative to acknowledge that sustaining it ought to be of paramount importance, both to the investor and the beneficiaries at large. It’s not anymore news that lack of maintenance culture remains one of the major factors bedevilling the contemporary Nigerian society, and Imo is no doubt not exceptional.

        

To this end, I would advise the government in question to take the day-to-day management of the venture very seriously with a view to ensuring that the basic motive of establishing it is duly actualized. Diversification is presently the only way out, and having thought it wise to include the aviation industry in the scheme of things, is arguably a laudable step; but it’s pertinent to comprehend that if we failed to do the needful in the long run, the lofty dream would definitely yield further crises rather than addressing the existing quagmire.

        

Hence, as much as I candidly commend the amiable governor for recording this rare feat, I equally advise His Excellency to ensure that the needed measure is taken as the odyssey progresses. So that at the end, we will all gather to celebrate his person. Think about it!

Follow me: @mediambassador              

http://facebook.com/fred4nwaozor           

Opinion I Commemmorating the 2017 Int'l Day in Memory of the Holocaust Victims

TAKING APT MEASURES TOWARD AVOIDNG SOCIETAL CRISES AS THE WORLD COMMEMORATE THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL DAY IN MEMORY OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS, ON FRIDAY JANUARY 27

       

          

Today, Friday January 27 is International Day in memory of Holocaust victims. Owing to the damaging effect of holocaust, on 1^st November 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly unanimously adopted January 27 of every year as International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The UN Outreach Programme seeks to remind the world of the lessons to be learnt from the Holocaust in order to help prevent future acts of genocide or any form of massacre.

         

The first commemoration of the Day took place in 2006 at the UN Headquarters situated in New York, U.S.A alongside all the UN offices across the globe. The ceremony drew over two thousand two hundred (2,200) people and was viewed by countless others globally via webcast and live television broadcast. During the commemoration, the then UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan unequivocally stated that, holocaust will forever warn all people across the globe of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice.

          

The term ‘Holocaust’ came from the Greek word Holokauston, referring to an animal sacrifice offered to a god in which the whole animal is completely burnt. Literary, holocaust which was formed from two distinct Greek words ‘Holos’ and ‘Kaustos’ meaning whole and burnt respectively, can be defined as a situation involving a very great destruction as well as loss of lives and property.

          

Destruction of lives and property, which could result from either natural or manmade circumstance such as war, inferno, earthquake, auto-crash, plane crash, genocide, or insurgency, is obviously a phenomenon that is as old as the world. It has indeed rendered several homes and communities incapacitated.

         

Considering the possible origins of holocaust, which include ethnicity, fanaticism, carelessness, envy, greed, hatred, tyranny, mutiny, and treason, there is no part of the world that is yet to experience tragedy. It suffices to say that, the ugly incidence has brought mankind in its entirety to a state of unending torture and unthinkable anguish.

        

War, which is usually a manmade crisis, subjects humanity to an untold hardship and subsequently creates parallel lines among the groups that constitute the affected community or nation, as the case may be. In consequence to the emergence of war in any society, distrust invariably becomes the order of the day amidst the citizenry, which often results to eternal enmity or lack of unity.

         

There is no gain reiterating the fact that disasters such as earthquake or plane crash that could be natural or manmade, have ended up making the mindset of every concerned individual to be preoccupied with a psychological cankerworm known as ‘fear of the unknown’. Inferno or fire outbreak for instance, which mainly takes place as a result of man’s carelessness or lackadaisical attitude, has succeeded in rendering many families homeless and stranded thereby making them constitute severe menace to the society they belong.      

         

Taking Nigeria that is currently salvaged by insurgency as a case study, you will agree that every right thinking individual in the country has been sleeping with one-eye open since the emergence of the terror, even though the incidence is peculiar to the people residing in the Northern part of the country – particularly the North-Eastern region – because nobody knows whose turn it would be the next day.

          

The economic mayhem caused by holocaust cannot be overemphasized. For instance, after the Biafran civil war in 1970 under the reign of General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria that used to be one of the major exporters of petroleum products prior to the said era abruptly became dependent on other countries for the aforementioned resources including oil, gas and fuel thereby ushering the economic status of the nation to a state of mockery.

          

As Nigeria joins the global community to mark the 2017 annual International Day for the Victims of the Holocaust, there is need for everyone to acknowledge that the occurrence of holocaust can be avoidable regardless of the locality involved. We can actualize this by ensuring that we maintain unalloyed peace, and endeavour to stay out of trouble at all times no matter the circumstance. Among all, we are required to always stick to the extant rules and laws by being patriotic at all cost.

         

There is equally need for the bereaved/affected families to be duly compensated in order to erase any form of agony from their minds. The civil society and religious bodies, on their part, are expected to bring succour to the victims or their relatives by conducting seminars, crusades, and disseminating radio cum television jingles, and what have you, as well as soliciting for appropriate compensation on behalf of the victims.

           

Above all, there’s a compelling need for everyone to live with the consciousness of holocaust with the aim of avoiding any irrational thought or attitude that could lead to the emergence of the forsaken incident. The truth is, any form of holocaust can be avoided if we jettison selfish interests in all our doings; and it’s imperative to realize that prevention remains far better than cure. Think about it!

Follow me: @mediambassador              

http://facebook.com/fred4nwaozor

TechOpinion I Growing Apathy Among Nigeria's Science Students

GROWING APATHY AMONG SCIENCE STUDENTS

        

Having taken a painstaking study lately, I acknowledged that there has been a tremendous decline in the rate of seriousness among most science students in various level of learning on the African continent, particularly Nigeria. Such a scenario has over the years served as a nuisance in the field of science and technology, that if drastic approach isn’t taken towards salvaging the lapse, it’s liable to degenerate into an unspeakable crisis in no distant time.

       

It’s noteworthy that development is required in every individual to every nation, in every aspect of human endeavour. And for development to take place, science and tech must go hand in hand. Science is fundamentally noted as the study of knowledge, which is made into a system, and depends on analyzing facts. Tech is the outright application of this scientific knowledge. In other words, tech transforms knowledge from science into reality.

        

The fact is, for any successful economy – especially in today’s quest for knowledge based economies – science and tech are the primary requisites. If any nation relegates the two recipes to the background, the chances of getting itself developed becomes far-fetched, thus stands to be classified as an undeveloped nation. A nation that’s not able to prosper on these grounds would not be able to sustain the lives in it, and might have to depend on other nations for survival alongside other life’s requirements.

        

Taking a close view of the above exegesis, it’s therefore needless to reiterate that any country is supposed to take sciences very seriously as if its whole life depends on it (science). It becomes so pathetic and mind-boggling when realized that Nigeria as a nation is taken aback regarding acquiring of science knowledge, or its implementation. The lingering anomaly, which calls for great concern, can be observed in virtually all existing citadels of learning across the federation regardless of level ranging from primary, secondary, to tertiary.

   

This piece is mainly interested in the level of apathy among the learners. In our primary schools, the pupils are now invariably preoccupied with the notion that science subjects, such as Mathematics and Basic Science, are very difficult to understand owing to the orientation they met in the system. Such a circumstance is usually occasioned by the mode of teaching of the class teacher. Sometimes, fear would be inculcated into the pupils’ mindset by their teacher who would, rather than participate in the teaching as expected, take much time to lay uncalled emphasis on why the pupils should see science subjects as tough and different from others. By so doing, the affected pupils would live to consider sciences as monster, thus would prefer to pay more attention to arts.

        

In the secondary schools, only a few students see subjects like Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry as friendly. Those who detest these subjects had nurtured their mentality with the view that sciences generally are only meant for a certain group of select individuals. Those who mistakenly chose to be in the science department, in the long run tend to lose interest in the field and would want to dissociate themselves from the circle.

        

Funnily enough, in most cases, students would choose to be in science department when they get to the senior section simply because some of their intimate friends or classmates had chosen to be in that field. This aspect of influence remains one of the major attributes of apathy noticed among various science students in most Nigerian secondary schools. This set of learners often becomes dropouts as a result of inability to cope with the studies.

        

Nowadays, virtually none pay good attention to the teachings of Pure Mathematics let alone Additional/Further Mathematics. And most existing science-oriented disciplines, such as Engineering, in the tertiary institutions, basically depend on the knowledge of Further Mathematics on their day-to-day thrive. This has caused enormous decline in the number of persons seeking to study engineering, and other related, courses. The few that managed to secure admission to read these courses, perhaps due to their background, usually fumble as the journey progresses.

        

The way out from this conundrum entails three prime approaches. One, the various primary and secondary schools ought to endeavour to engage qualified teachers that would imbibe the required mindset and knowledge into the pupils and students, as the case may be. Guidance and counselling that has almost gone into extinction should equally be revived in these schools. A functional and viable counselling mechanism would enable the learners to go for only the needful as well as what would be suitable for their future.

        

Parents and guardians, on their part, are expected to pay more attention to whatever their wards do as regards academics. Learning begins from home, thus the needed parental support mustn’t be overlooked. Among all, governments at all levels among other relevant stakeholders should endeavour to provide the required facilities that would enable the affected people to appreciate science’s teachings.

         

For this growing apathy to become a thing of the past, every concerned stakeholder as mentioned above must note that science is the only field that can enable the anticipated economic diversification. Think about it!

Follow: @mediambassador        

 http://facebook.com/fred4nwaozor