Chinedu Ak


Chinedu Akubueze 


By Abba Onyekachukwu


For applicants seeking admission  to  Seminaries, their fears over  high cost of attending such school may soon be a thing of the past, as the President, Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria, OSAN,  Chinedu Akubueze, who doubles as the Clerk of the Senate in the National Assembly has promised that the Association under his watch would encourage them.


Akubueze made the disclosure at an interaction with journalists during the Association's convention in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)  on Friday, with the theme: "Building our Fraternity for Prosperity." 


In his welcome address, Akubueze  noted with dismay that the Nigerian society was bedeviled by self-Imposed ills, occasioned by lack of collective sense of patriotism, which according to him, ordinarily, should emphasize love for the nation, rather than undue recourse to ethno-religious cleavages and clannish leanings.


In his key note address at the convention,  Nze Ozichukwu F. Chukwu, observed with concern that the situation in Nigeria presently, going by myriad of problems confronting it, is that of hopelessness and citizens helplessness .


According to him, as worrisome as the situation is, it didn't happen in a vacuum as alarm bells signalling the situation, rang for several years without required proactive measures taken by relevant authorities.


"The theme for this convention which is is good, but must extended to the Nigeria society that is in a state of hopelessness and citizens helplessness 


"In doing that , we need to add more values to the society and serve as role models in whatever positions we find ourselves," he said.


Similarly at an interview with journalists, one of the old Seminarians and former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, tasked the Federal Government (FG), to as a matter of seriousness, fight crime with technology and not just manpower, saying many of the criminals are ahead of the security measures mapped out against them by the various security agencies.


Okiro said the worsening security situation in the country made the key note speaker to describe the situation generally as that of hopelessness.

He however said if the problem of security was well tackled by government through technology, the story would change for better in no distant time .


"When you talk of the hopelessness in the country, talk of the grey areas and one of them is security. There is gross insecurity in the country. You know Nigeria is part of the world. Insecurity is a global issue, but every country sits down to plan and to devise methods to check insecurity.


"In  Nigeria, the government is equally trying to check insecurity. You cannot get 100%, but you can be sure you have done your best and leave the rest to God. The government should ensure that security agencies are well equipped and trained. Police is short of manpower, they should recruit more people and give them equipment to solve the problem. 


"You cannot solve the problem of insecurity with bare hand. We are in a modern, digitalized world. So, you fight insecurity with technology. The government should do something to ensure that security agencies are well equipped to confront these criminals, because the criminals go to the internet, they read. So, they are ahead of the security agencies. For you to succeed, the security agencies should be ahead of them and tackle them before they do what they want to do," he said.


When asked, the former IGP treated with a wave of hand, the demand for state police by some. On his reason, he wondered how can some states that can't pay their staff be able to pay the police. Okiro however added that it could only work, if the FG would be the one to pay the State police.