Despite the remarkable milestone, there is still need to be committed to the fight against the crippling disease

Polio, that debilitating illness that has crippled thousands of Nigerian children, is on its way to being confined to history in the country. This July, Nigeria attained the milestone of two years without polio, one of the key steps towards finally getting rid of the virus before the certification as a polio-free country. This progress dates back to July 24, 2014, exactly two years ago today, when the last case of polio was reported in a 16 months old boy from Sumaila Local Government in Kano State. It is a no mean achievement because stopping polio will save hundreds of thousands of children in our country from lifelong paralysis or death.

From the bitter experience of 2012 when the country appeared to be losing the battle against the virus, there has been a steady progress which climaxed with the stoppage of transmission of the wild polio virus. This important milestone in the polio programme is therefore a signal toward eradication. And the heroes of these achievements are the ‘armies’ of vaccinators, community mobilisers, traditional and religious leaders, parents and caregivers who have supported polio and other immunisation efforts for more than a decade, despite the challenges in implementation. We must salute their doggedness.

Specifically, the achievements can be linked with a number of strategic approaches in healthcare delivery as well as strong investment by the Nigerian government to increase domestic funding for the programme which hitherto had been mainly supported by donors. Other approaches include establishment of health camps in high risk and underserved areas to help build trust and deliver other health services alongside polio vaccination; engagement of about 14,000 female voluntary community mobilisers (VCMs), who are delivering the polio vaccine and other critical health interventions to mothers and children in some of the hardest-to-reach areas of the country.

Equally important is the improvement in surveillance by health workers, traditional healers, teachers and other community members who have been trained to identify potential cases of the virus and make sure any suspected polio cases are reported. Surveillance officers conduct regular surveillance of sewage and other samples to test for the presence of the virus in the environment.

Despite this progress, Nigeria cannot afford to relent. The country still require continued commitment from the government and its international partners including United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), Rotary International, United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) as well as key funders like the Bill Gates Foundation and the Dangote Foundation, among others. There is also need for sustained accountability at the national, state and local government levels to ensure the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) reaches every eligible child in the country.

Besides, the authorities need to address the remaining challenges that may roll back the gains so far. Primary health care services should be available in every ward with full complement of staff. Also, continued improvement in routine immunisation would have a far reaching impact on prevention of vaccine preventable diseases in the country. Overall, our health care service should be able to reach every citizen wherever they may be and provide quality service even in remotest parts of the nation. The health ministry and the agency in charge of the mandate for routine immunisation should ensure that the current milestone is not taken for granted.

The final steps to eradicating polio for good require commitment at all levels. The programme should not be starved of funds and all partners and government should live up to their promise. If we do all this, we will join other countries where polio is a disease of the past.
pix: Adewole- Health Minister.jpg

QUOTE: The authorities need to address the remaining challenges that may roll back the gains so far. Primary health care services should be available in every ward with full complement of staff. Also, continued improvement in routine immunisation would have a far reaching impact on prevention of vaccine preventable diseases in the country

The authorities could help secure the people as well as the economy by fixing the roads

South Sudan politicians should sink their differences in the interest of their long suffering people

Barely three months after the United Nations forced a delicate peace pact between first Vice-President Riek Manchar and President Salva Kiir, bullets have started flying again in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. And following a few days of fighting that broke out on July 8, 2016, over 300 persons were reported to have been killed even as the UN and world leaders have urged an immediate cessation of hostilities to pave way for a peaceful resolution of the violent conflict that dates back to December 2013. We believe that this is a hugely unfortunate development.

South Sudan earned its independence in July 2011 after 25 years of guerrilla warfare, breaking away from the Moslem-dominated northern part of Sudan. Now the south, which is essentially Christian that had complained about domination and marginalisation by its Moslem brothers from the north, has been unable to hold together for three of its five years of independence. Meanwhile, Sudan that it left has been in peace.

The descent to strife began in May 2013 following political conflicts within the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. With President Kiir and the now replaced first Vice- President Manchar leading antagonistic sides of the divide, the political struggle for power soon took ethic dimensions. Kiir had dissolved his cabinet, effectively sacking Manchar. The tension generated by that action erupted into violence in December of that year when the president, of Dinka tribe, alleged a coup plot and proceeded to disarm and target soldiers of Nuer’s ethnic origin, forcing Manchar and his pre-independence forces to flee to the country side. From there, they waged war.

The civil war has deepened the misery of the people who had practically known no peace, following a 25-year war for independence most of which was fought on South Sudan soil with its attendant destruction of the minimal infrastructure that Khartoum grudgingly provided. This internal strife has also displaced about two million people with 720,000 of them forced to seek refuge outside the country. Tens of thousands have been killed and many more thousands risk death from famine.

Needless to say that the country’s economy has nose-dived with its national currency taking a severe bashing while prices of foods and goods have soared, completely out of the reach of many citizens. In three years, South Sudan has become a pathetic humanitarian disaster, with the UN seeking a whopping sum of $1.6 billion to assist 4.6 million people in need in 2015. But the effort was only 62 per cent funded.

Now a burden to the world, the international community brought pressure on Kiir to make peace with Manchar. The first pact in August, 2015 collapsed so was the second in January, 2016. Further pressures brought Manchar back to resume his position in Juba in April, paving the way for the peace deal signed in May in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The deal smoothened the ground for a permanent ceasefire followed by the formation of a transitional government, the drafting of a new constitution and, eventually, fresh elections. This was the situation before the fresh outbreak of hostility on July 8, a day to the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence.

While the cause of the breakdown of the latest accord is still unclear, we can only urge South Sudan politicians to move away from the battle fields and return to the negotiating table for reasoned discussions on the way forward for their country in the interest of their long suffering people. It is obvious that the conflicts arose from politics and could only be resolved through politics. To achieve this, the African Union needs to do more to rein in the combatants and free the people of South Sudan from the pangs of sufferings, poverty and want that their political elites have forced on them.

Government’s indifference to the case will haunt the anti-corruption war

The controversy surrounding the alleged offshore investments of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has refused to go away, despite being swept under a growing mound of unresolved eyebrow-raising developments in government circles. Yet, to the extent that the issue is being viewed by a section of the public that the federal government is habouring some sacred cows in its much-vaunted anti-corruption war, it is one scandal that needs to be properly addressed.

We note, for the record, that Buratai has been a good commander for the army whose valiant efforts to rid the nation of the Boko Haram insurgency must be acknowledged. We must also state that being a serving military officer does not preclude Buratai from having business interests, especially when those interests are seen to be driven by members of his immediate family. We also affirm that, notwithstanding the fact that those who make damaging allegations against serving public officers have a duty to prove same, institutions of state must investigate every weighty allegation and help clear the good name of any affected public officer. The duty of a responsible government in such circumstances is to protect all parties and maintain the rule of law.

However, the same law that allows Buratai certain rights as a free citizen also puts him under obligation to fully clarify any questions that may arise in connection with his enjoyment of those rights as a public officer. In the instant case, the military chief must be seen to have satisfactorily answered the questions raised by his accusers, whatever may be their motivations. “We have defeated the terrorists on the land and they have now migrated to the cyberspace. But I want to assure that we will follow these Boko Haram that migrated to the cyberspace to wherever they are. We will follow them and clear their doubts,” said Buratai recently in response to the allegations.

It is true that the Defence Minister, Mr. Mansur Dan Ali, himself a retired military officer, spoke in Buratai’s defence, albeit in a rather inelegant language and not very coherently. Even at that, it is not within Ali’s purview to speak on behalf of any serving officer in such circumstances. The minister therefore overreached himself and may actually have worsened the case both for the Chief of Army Staff and the federal government. Besides, not one of the official reactions on this matter, so far, has addressed the substantive issue of integrity being raised.

It should be clear by now that not only have the belated, poorly crafted and self-serving defence of Buratai from several quarters been most unhelpful to him, they have done incalculable damage to the image of the Nigerian Army. As things stand, the federal government is also looking increasingly less than sincere in its anti-corruption fight. In addition to the Buratai case and several others, there is now a brewing controversy over the expanded investigation into allegations of fraud connected with arms purchase over a period of eight years (2007 to 2015) by the military.

Beyond the question of guilt or innocence is the matter of state probity in the conduct of public business. Therefore, we fully support the government’s anti-corruption war and the sustained probe of military procurements, as this will lead to the recovery of stolen funds and create new standards of transparency in the public service. What we do not support are actions and inactions that may summarily undermine the intended gains of such efforts by creating the impression that the war against corruption is targeted at only some people while it excludes others.

The new Inspector General of Police should get his facts right

That the relationship between Ibrahim Idris, the acting Inspector General of Police and his immediate predecessor, Solomon Arase is not cordial is most unfortunate. Idris recently accused his former boss of carting away 24 vehicles, including two bullet-proof BMW cars, belonging to the Nigeria Police. He also alleged that the deputy Inspector Generals who retired alongside Arase left with between seven and eight cars each.

However, the former IGP has dismissed the claims, arguing that Idris was up to some mischief. Arase claimed that every information about the vehicles and perhaps on other issues were in his handover notes. “It’s unfortunate that this matter is being made a media issue because my successor has my telephone number and could have called me for any clarification or even sent me a text message rather than addressing the media on an issue well documented in my handover notes,” said Arase.

Anyone in Idris’ position would be angry if the allegations were true. But in no sense was the accusation right as the vehicles reportedly had been found; which means the new police boss has to be more circumspect in his actions since getting his decisions right will ultimately rest on complete information. He may be in a hurry to put the police house in order but it would be wise for him to always crosscheck his facts. It will save him and the police force from making unnecessary enemies of the people who could be of immense assistance to them.

Instructively, when he assumed office barely a month ago, Idris had pledged to leave a legacy of efficiency and transparency in the Nigeria Police Force. Apparently embarrassed that despite the efforts of his predecessors, corruption is still rife and has indeed eroded the image and confidence of the public in the police, Idris had vowed to address the issue of integrity and accountability in the force. “We will make sure that our police officers are accountable to the people,” he said. “I am assuring you that every police officer from my rank to the assistant superintendent of police must declare their assets”.

True to his declaration, one of his major acts on assuming office was to order the audit of police investment bodies and subsidiaries to ascertain the true position of assets, finances and liabilities of the Nigeria Police. The exercise is in line with the federal government’s agenda to institutionalise fiscal discipline, probity and accountability in the management of public funds. These actions are entirely justifiable as Idris recognises the need to restore the trust and confidence of Nigerians in the police.

The police, whose officers and men are supposed to be at the epicentre of restoring law and order, will have to be disciplined to perform their onerous constitutional responsibility. A police force that cannot deal with its financial problems will eventually go broke and unable to perform its duties. But as we stated in a recent editorial, Nigerians are not only concerned about indiscipline and corruption in the force, they are worried about the string of crimes in their everyday life.

As many Nigerians have observed, after the Nigerian civil war, never has the security of the nation degenerated in this manner, almost to the point in which Nigeria is now practically at the edge of the abyss. Everywhere in the country today, there is the pervasive sense of fear and insecurity. Armed robberies, kidnappings and other allied crimes have conspired to paint a picture of a country practically at war with itself.
It is evident that the months ahead will not be calm, particularly because of the deteriorating economy. Therefore, Idris needs the cooperation of all, including his predecessors, to make an enormous difference in the battle ahead.

Budget padding is just one of the haunting scandals of a troubled National Assembly

The presidential system of government that we practice in Nigeria today comes with a constitutional provision that no expenditure shall be incurred except authorised by the legislative arm. This provision also gives the lawmakers, in our present circumstance, the National Assembly, what is usually described as the power of the purse. But that power is coming under increasing scrutiny, especially given recent revelations from the House of Representatives where there were allegations and counter-allegations that monumental corruption may have been institutionalised in the budgeting process.

Already, the House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has issued Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin (whose removal as House Committee on Appropriation chairman started the war of words), a seven-day ultimatum to retract allegations that linked him (Dogara) with illegally inserting projects into the budget after passage. Meanwhile, Jibrin has also countered that he would neither withdraw his allegations nor back down in his bid to have the three principal officers he accused of corruption removed from their offices. In fact, Jibrin has released more damning allegations against the speaker in recent days.

We believe the whole controversy is unfortunate as it has further dented the image of the National Assembly while creating confusion in the minds of Nigerians about the power of the legislature to appropriate money for public expenditure.

Although the 2016 appropriation bill (now act) – mismanaged by both the executive and the legislative arm – may have caused the latest controversy, there has always been a contentious issue that borders on the meaning and essence of separation of powers that is yet to be resolved.

Although the power of the legislature to initiate projects through appropriation has over the years been challenged by the executive, we believe the lawmakers indeed can. What the legislature cannot do is to be executing projects. But the real problem in Nigeria is that our lawmakers, in most cases, have also become contractors with “constituency projects” now effectively another byword for corruption.

Indeed, the misconduct of many past and present legislators has tended to justify public resentment of their role in the budget process. While there might be nothing wrong with the appropriation of money for projects in their constituencies, the way and manner several of them harass the executive to award the contracts for such projects to their proxy companies is unethical. This is at the heart of the current crisis in the House of Representatives.

Whenever the National Assembly resumes from its current recess, the House must quickly rise above the controversy by using its internal conflict resolution mechanism to deal with the situation and move on to its primary job of lawmaking and oversight of the executive to ensure good governance. But if there are criminal issues in the investigations being conducted into the sundry allegations being traded by the parties to the crisis, the relevant authorities will have to deal with them.

Unfortunately, as sordid as the “budget padding” brouhaha may be, we should not look at it in isolation but as a symptom of a bigger malaise. For instance, section 63 of the constitution requires the Senate and House of Representatives to sit for not less than 181 days in a year. But they hardly meet that requirement.

In fact, there are reports that the Senate actually sat for 96 days while the House sat for 104 days during the first legislative year which ended on June 9, 2016. Padding of budgets, purported execution of constituency projects and collection of money to pay “ghost” staff are a drain on the lean resources of the nation. If you add that to the 21 ex-governors and deputy governors on pension for life who are also collecting salaries and allowances in the Senate, you get a picture of an institution that is mostly self-serving.

Quote: As sordid as the ‘budget padding’ brouhaha may be, it is a symptom of a bigger malaise. Section 63 of the constitution requires the Senate and House of Representatives to sit for not less than 181 days in a year. But that requirement is often breached

The authorities must do more to protect the Nigerian child

The growing rate of reported rape cases of minors in Nigeria is becoming unacceptable. What is more dreadful and unacceptable is that those involved in these criminal activities are usually treated with levity whenever they were arrested by the law enforcement agents. This disposition must change if we are ever going to deal with a situation that puts the lives and future of many of our children at great physical, emotional and psychological risk.

A recent investigation by an organisation involved in conducting public opinion polls within the country, NOIPolls, revealed that almost seven in 10 adult Nigerians (67 per cent) decried the high incidence of teenage rape in the country, while three in 10 (31 per cent) personally know of a victim of child rape in their local communities. The findings of the organisation further revealed that almost four in 10 (36 per cent) of adult Nigerians claimed that most often the alleged offenders involved in child rape were close family relatives and neighbours (33 per cent). And almost half (49 per cent) of those that personally know a victim claimed they were usually children aged between seven and 12 years. Some 78 per cent of these respondents claimed also that cases were reported without any serious effort by the police to investigate and/or prosecute the alleged offenders.

Given the foregoing statistics, the crucial questions are: Why is child rape on the increase in Nigeria? And what should be done to control this social malaise? We will be putting it mildly to say that rape is one of the most traumatising forms of violence against children. It is even more damaging when carried out by a person in a position of power and trust in a child’s life. Against the background that the effect of rape is enormous, even for adults, specialists believe that a child who has faced that kind of ordeal could grow up believing everyone is going to hurt him or her and may have little or no self-confidence. Such a child could also be dreadful, inaccessible and lack respect for, and trust in, authority.

Besides, all this will be compounded if the child has no support, is met with doubt or simply cannot tell anyone. If there is family breakdown and a lack of solid nurturing, such children are known to do less well at school because they are either not there or when they are there, they can’t concentrate. The abused child may also feel no relationship to the rest of the society. And like specialists in social studies have consistently argued, a person who feels unloved will surely not give love while those who feel disrespected would respect nobody. All these have a way of impacting negatively on the larger society.

However, it is more worrisome that majority of rape cases involving children go unreported principally because parents want to protect their children from probable stigmatisation. But perhaps the main challenge is that most people also realise that the victims may not get justice. Therefore, there is need for the authorities to do more in protecting Nigerian children. First, the perpetrators should receive a sentence commensurate with their offences. Most Nigerians have suggested a stiffer punishment of at least 14 years imprisonment against the few months that currently exist in the statutes of most jurisdictions.

Beyond the issue of commensurate punishment for offenders, there should also be institutions to help these vulnerable victims on how to handle the trauma arising from such crimes. We must work to protect our children from unconscionable predators who are messing up innocent lives and getting away with it.

The country must pay attention to the environment

From Ibadan, Oyo State, where a family lost its bread winner and two children to Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, where no fewer than a thousand people were rendered homeless, floods are again wreaking havoc in our country. In several parts of Nigeria within the past one month, villages and farmlands had been submerged and more people are swelling the population of the internally displaced. This perennial challenge should not be allowed to continue.

Unfortunately, the situation was also avoidable in many instances. Just recently, the federal government requested Nigerians, particularly those living along the banks of the River Niger, to immediately relocate to safer places. The report indicated that the flood path traversing the Republics of Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria would remain dangerous, warning that an estimated 105,000 Nigerians may be affected. Not many people heeded the warning. Now floods are occurring with a vengeance, endangering many people and bringing down everything on its path.

Instructively, while Nigeria has many challenges, the environment is not often listed as one of them. It highlights a national malaise and our lackadaisical attitude to serious issues. It is therefore time Nigeria became part of the global trend of putting issues of the environment on the front burner while the relevant authorities should be proactive in preventing disasters. And when they inevitably occur, governments at all tiers, complemented by private sector organisations and well-endowed individuals, should come to the aid of the victims as we see in other parts of the world.

Elementary science teaches that as global temperatures rise, oceans get warmer. When water heats up, it expands, leading to a rise in sea levels as we have been witnessing in several countries in recent times. It is therefore no surprise that in several coastal cities across the world today, climate change is creating a situation where too much water comes at an unexpected time, or in unexpected places causing serious problems. It is little wonder that the densely populated, low-lying cities and towns in our country have also become environmental nightmares for most of their inhabitants on account of flooding.

However, beyond the intervention of the government at all levels is the need for Nigerians to begin to imbibe the right attitude to waste disposal because flooding in some of our major cities cannot be solely attributed to the quirks of nature. The habits of the people indeed play a crucial role in what has been happening over the years anytime it rains. Most drains are blocked due to the indiscriminate dumping of waste on the roads and drainages.
This unsanitary attitude quite naturally leads to blockages of canals and man-holes resulting in the type of floods that have been witnessed in recent weeks. There are also several buildings that have been erected on drainage channels. This ugly trend must stop while the state government must ensure that all those buildings are pulled down for free flow of water into the canals.

However, it is not enough for the government to just ask citizens to leave flood paths without providing any measures for their relocation. There is need therefore to resettle those living close to flood-prone areas. There will be resistance from some people, but they must be made to realise the consequences of whatever choice they make: between accepting to be resettled and staying back in their endangered communities.

The unintended cost of child abuse is high on the country

The arrest last week of Mr. Francis Taiwo, a Celestial Church of Christ pastor who starved and kept his nine-year-old son, Korede, in chains for months, in an attempt to “cast out the evil spirit” testifies to the fact of poor parenting and dysfunctional families in our country. But while the law must take its course on the abusive parents who nearly murdered Korede by their action, questions must be asked as to what happens to other Koredes since child abuse is a common phenomenon in Nigeria.

“It is true that I stole a pot of soup and a bowl of eba in our house,” said Korede. “My father’s inability to give money to my stepmother for the upkeep of the family caused it. When I was chained, my father and stepmother fed me twice a day. Some days, I was not given any food. I want to go back to school because I want to be a doctor in future. I do not want to go back to my father’s house.” But the father, in his police statement wrote: “I chained Korede because he is possessed. An evil spirit makes him to steal. He needs deliverance.”

The irresponsible father could not understand that there is no “evil spirit” greater than hunger for a child but he is not alone in this kind of delusion. That is why we must look beyond this particular case to recognise the challenge that we face. Nigeria has ratified the United Nations child’s rights convention and enacted the Child Rights Act. But 16 states have not adopted the act while child abuse is rampart even in states that have adopted the law and criminalise child rights abuse. To compound the crisis the authorities have failed to censor films that project children who are physically challenged as witches and wizards in a society that glorifies the supernatural.

Child marriage, child trafficking, child labour, genital mutilation and rape of underage boys and girls are on the increase in many parts of the country. That perhaps also explains why we have no fewer than 15 million children of the poor roaming the streets, the highest figure in the world!

Indeed, that Nigerian children are becoming endangered in the hands of those who should protect them was yet again reinforced with the recent rape of a seven-year old girl who was reportedly chased out by her parents for losing the recharge card they sent her to buy. The case is now before an Apapa Magistrate Court, Lagos, where the culprit has been charged with “unlawfully defiling a seven-year old girl, thereby committing an offence under Section 138 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”

Besides, the social disharmony in many Nigerian homes has become a veritable threat to the survival of the family institution in Nigeria. Ostensibly bowing to pressure of work and social activities, many of the working parents in big Nigerian cities have practically outsourced their parental responsibilities and by so doing abandon the training of their children and wards to their housemaids. The damaging effects of this gross neglect have unsurprisingly been colossal. Without proper parental love and upbringing, many of these abandoned children end up as societal delinquents and never-do-wells.

It is a notorious fact that many street children in Nigeria today come from families uprooted in rural areas and implanted in urban cities with the prospect, or mirage, of a better life. That perhaps explains why many Nigerian children are increasingly becoming victims of child trafficking, child labour, child prostitution and modern child slavery. Worst still, several cases of cruelties against children are being uncovered in many Nigerian families. The authorities must find a way to deal with this growing challenge.

Security agencies need the cooperation of the people to tame the criminals

Last week, the military joined forces with other security agencies and invaded the creeks of Ikorodu, a crime infested area of Lagos. The operation, backed by the police, navy and air force fighter jets, was mainly targeted at Arepo and Ibafo in Ogun State, two other areas notorious for violent crimes, particularly pipeline vandalism. Indeed, for five days, Arepo, said to be the base of many of the hardened criminals, came under intense bombardment. “The Nigerian military and policemen from Lagos and Ogun commands are part of the operation,” said Dolapo Badmos, Lagos State police spokesperson. “We are sweeping through the waterways where we share boundaries to end the activities of criminals. It is a continuous exercise.”

The military offensive was not unexpected. For several months now, some riverine and border communities of Lagos and Ogun States have been grabbing the headlines for the wrong reasons. Only recently, about 20 persons were reportedly killed after a gang of criminals invaded some villages in Imushin, a border community between Lagos and Ogun States.

It is noteworthy that Ikorodu, a sprawling Lagos suburb, has for several months been under the vice-grip of all manner of crimes – from armed robbery, rape, cult wars to pipeline vandalism. Communities like Isawo and Majidun have become notorious for illegal oil bunkering while the industrial estate of Odogunyan was turned the headquarters of bank robberies and violent cult wars. On a Sunday morning two weeks ago, Pastor Kayode Bajomo of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, was kidnapped from his church in the Lagos suburb. His whereabouts remains unknown with his captors reportedly asking for N100 million as ransom.

In the past the communities had initiated efforts to impose order through a band of vigilantes. But they made little or no impression. Last Friday, the Lagos State Government’s monthly interactive session themed: “Securing our Communities,” devoted special attention to Ikorodu. “Lagos State Government has established a Rapid Response Squad Marine Police and is now working with the naval authority to ensure that the creeks are taken care of,” said Kehinde Bamigbetan, Special Adviser to the Governor on Communities and Communication. “Monitoring and surveillance of these areas has increased and Lagos State is contributing its own quota to ensure that both the marine police and naval authority are able to respond to the challenges facing our creeks.”

For many people living in these communities, they have little or no faith in such assurance of security and safety. Given the scale of the problem, many frustrated inhabitants are fleeing in droves while others are putting up their property for sale. What’s more, the criminals are extending the cancer of violence to other areas within the Lagos suburb.

In the last few weeks, places like Igando, a community in Alimosho Local Government Area that abuts the creeks, and Iba in Ojo Local Government Area, have come under intense attacks by the marauding criminals, thus increasing the misery of the people. A fortnight ago, Oba Goriola Oseni, the Oniba of Ibaland, was kidnapped right inside his palace in a commando-like style and ferried into the creeks. His whereabouts is yet to be established as the criminals are asking for a N500 million in ransom payment.

However, as Bamigbetan emphasised last week, information gathering is an integral part of securing the environment “as it is the fuel on which both offensive and defensive operations are based”. We urge the people to feed the security agencies with intelligence that could lead to the arrest of criminals in their midst. Given the scale of the problem, we also urge the security agencies to sustain their vigilance in these communities. Perhaps by so doing, Ikorodu and other affected communities could be dragged back from the brink.

The government’s decision is perplexing, as it carries a big economic cost

Everyone understands that the country’s economy is being squeezed by falling revenue as a result of the sharp decline in oil prices. Everyone also understands that with the destruction of pipelines and other oil installations in the Niger Delta, oil and electricity output have slumped considerably in recent months. What is difficult to understand is the response of President Muhammadu Buhari to these challenges that threaten the livelihoods of many of our citizens.

At a time most Nigerians expected that the government would begin to take decisions to strengthen the economy, what obtains today are whimsical and politically motivated decisions that can worsen an already bad situation. Pegging the dollar at N197 for intending pilgrims at a time the currency is selling for about N400 on the black market is one of such decisions.

That all the defence is coming from the presidency rather than the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is in itself very telling about the management of our economy today. A public commentator, Mr Kayode Samuel, perhaps captured it rather aptly on his Facebook page: “Why does a government that daily claims to be fighting corruption always seem to leave a window open for the burglar?”

Like most Nigerians have already done, we want to register our displeasure and disapproval of this political decision. The clarification by the presidency that Muslims and Christians enjoy the largesse in equal measure begs the issue. This is not about one religion over another but rather about economic sabotage. It is all the more unfortunate that this subsidy-for-pilgrims is coming just when investors were getting to believe sanity had returned following the introduction of the flexible foreign exchange policy which literally removed all such rent-seeking arrangements that were depleting the foreign reserves.

The idea that pilgrims (whether Christians or Muslims) could purchase between $750 and $1000 per person at N197 per dollar at another window opened for that purpose when the administration would not do that for the education or the health care of its citizens is beyond belief. First, how did the government come about the rate which does not exist anywhere? It could only have been arbitrary.

Why would a government in dire straits be giving away over N200 to the dollar to those who do not need it or deserve it since pilgrimage is a private affair? Definitely, anyone who can afford the trip to the holyland does not need the subsidy. Why is the government deliberately encouraging round tripping considering that, given our experience, the same dollars will find their way back to the black market at N400 and above?

There are just too many questions begging for answers. But while it is important that this administration should stop sending conflicting signals to Nigerians and the investing public, we call on CBN to stand up to its responsibility by speaking the truth to power. Being dictated to by the presidency on issues within its remit erodes the credibility of the central bank. And that also erodes the confidence of prospective investors in our economy.

It is in the same light that we must condemn states, some of which cannot pay workers’ salaries, but expend humongous sums of money annually on pilgrimages. What this means is a diversion of public funds to serve what is essentially a private affair. It is indeed very sad that for too long, our leaders at federal and state levels have violated the secular essence of the constitution to meet political exigencies and sometimes to cobble their dodgy legitimacy. Until we return religion to the private domain of individual life by separating the Church/Mosque from the state, we are not likely to develop as a nation.

The ghosts of the past once again embrace the preparations for the games

In one of those extraordinary stories for which Nigeria has become familiar, especially in the football world, the Under-23 national team, popularly called the Dream Team, last Friday defeated the Japanese side five goals to four at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil. Typically, the team had been stranded in the United States for days, following flights cancellation over money matters, before eventually taking off on the morning of the game. The squad landed in Brazil less than seven hours before the match which they went on to win. Last Sunday night, the team qualified for the quarterfinals by defeating Sweden in their second match.

Like the previous competitions, the preparation of our country for the 2016 Rio Olympics which opened last Friday amid pomp was to say the least, lousy. Former athlete, Mary Onyali, summed up the situation last month when she said: “We have failed to plan to win: we want to win and then plan, and it is not possible. When other nations are planning to win, we are praying. It is going to be a tough battle because you don’t pick a medal.” Table tennis player, Segun Toriola, who is making history with his seventh Olympics in Brazil, also added his voice at the time: “I don’t think we have ever had it so bad.”

However, the competitions have started and we can only wish Team Nigeria well. In this age of global economic turmoil, it is comforting that sports still provide that elixir and entertainment for the whole world to come together as a community of human family. Indeed, the spirit of the Olympics dates back to ancient Greece when wars were suspended so that the city states could come together and compete. That is what is now being recreated as thousands of athletes from all over the world aspire to win gold, silver and bronze medals in a ritual that happens every four years.
Since the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland, Nigeria has been taking part in the Olympic Games with mixed results. In the 15 games our country has participated in (it would have been 16, but Nigeria pulled out of the 1976 Montreal Games in protest over New Zealand’s hobnobbing with then apartheid South Africa), Nigeria has won a total of 23 medals, mostly in athletics and boxing. The nation’s most successful Olympics participation to date remains Atlanta’96 in the United States where we won two gold medals, one by the football team and the other by Chioma Ajunwa, now a respected senior police officer.

However, while we hope for a successful outing for our athletes, the fact that their build up to the 16-day sporting fiesta in Brazil was shoddy once again brings to the fore the recurring issue of funding whenever the nation is preparing for a major tournament. For the Rio Olympics, money was released when the games were months away. If the money was released much earlier, perhaps as early as last year, it would have gone a long way in properly preparing Team Nigeria athletes for the current Olympic Games. With that also, the athletes would have left for Brazil confident that they would do well.

Notwithstanding this anomaly which we hope government will address in future competitions, we urge Team Nigeria to do their best, while comporting themselves in such a manner that will not expose the country to ridicule and scandal as has been the case in some previous games. We wish all the Nigerian athletes and their officials a successful outing at the Rio Olympics.

The back to land policy for civil servants has further exposed the government’s dilemma

Unable to work out a more coherent strategy for shoring up the economy of his state, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has proposed a three-day working week and a two-day off for the state’s work force. The bizarre idea, which he said took effect from August 1, 2016, is based on a new policy called “Back to Land for Agriculture”. But this weird idea cannot be supported either by law or common sense.

According to Okorocha, who unveiled the policy at an interactive session with traditional rulers in the state last month, government workers would henceforth work from Monday to Wednesday while Thursday and Friday would be free for them to till the land on their farms. Workers on essential duties and those involved in internally generated revenue (IGR) drive, as well as political appointees are exempted from the policy, which the governor said arose because the state could no longer depend on monthly allocations from the Federation Account for survival.

A similar policy had been enunciated by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, who declared one-day off for public servants in the state to engage in farming, though he pegged his policy to just two months.

But public servants in Imo State are already kicking, contending that it is unconstitutional and violates International Labour Organisation (ILO) laws. The state chairman of the Ni­geria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Austin Chilakpu, said Okorocha does not have the constitutional power to determine working days in the state, adding that the ILO also prescribed 40 working hours from Monday to Friday while public holidays rec­ognised by the federal govern­ment are listed in the calendar.

Without a doubt, the current economic recession has tasked the wits of the managers of the nation’s economy and the evidence before our eyes is that they do not have a grip on what to do. If the cause of the prevailing hardship could be traced to past years of profligacy, the incompetent handling of the economy in the last 15 months has compounded the woes of many Nigerians, wrestling them to the ground.

There is no better evidence of a dearth of thinking than the failure to take responsibility, as most of our political leaders have persisted in not only blaming the past for the nation’s current troubles but have also continued to take wrong-headed options. One of such is this new three days a week policy of the Imo State Government.

Anyone who has an elementary knowledge of the dynamics of the nation’s economy would find little difficulty in understanding that one of the fundamental causes of the economic downturn is extreme low productivity in the public and private sectors. Was this not why in spite of spending about 75 per cent of our income on recurrent expenditure, we have failed woefully to generate enough to close the huge gap in social infrastructure? How then could a reduction in work days in aid of a nebulous policy to boost agriculture raise the state’s abysmal productivity level, especially where financial aid and the implements to boost agricultural activities are not made available to the civil servants-turned-farmers?

Clearly, apart from its deficient legal and constitutional standing, the Imo State Government’s three-day a week working policy is an embarrassingly lazy approach to resolving a nagging economic problem that requires more reflective and intellectual thinking. We therefore say without reservation that the governments of Imo and Benue States should reverse without further ado this wrong-headed policy. Although there is no doubt that agriculture is one of the key options in the national efforts to diversify our economy, much more thoughtful policies than the one under consideration is required to move the nation in the direction of that noble path.

Government must do more for the endangered communities

Government must get serious about containing the trafficking in hard drugs

Three Nigerians were among the four convicted drug traffickers recently executed in Indonesia. The execution of 10 others was reportedly delayed to “avoid any mistake”. While we do not know the identities of those 10 given temporary reprieve, it is important for the Nigerian authorities to find out if our nationals are among them and to offer help, especially since doubts have already been created about their culpability by the Indonesian authorities.

However, this latest execution came against the backdrop that the Senate, only recently, debated a motion entitled: “Nigerians’ involvement in illicit global drugs trade and increase in domestic drug abuse by Nigerian youth.” According to Senator Gbenga Ashafa, some 153 Nigerians would soon be executed in some Asian countries for trafficking in illicit drugs. The senator representing Lagos East rightly observed that “our nationals are viewed with suspicion and subjected to demeaning treatment at airports across the world as a result of this negative perception”.

It is indeed noteworthy that late last year, a human rights organisation, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), announced that about 300 Nigerians were on death row in prisons across Asian countries. According to LEPAD, about 16,500 Nigerians were being held abroad while most of those on death row were convicted of drug-related crimes.

Even if there are discrepancies in the figures, the revelations highlighted the increasing desperation of some Nigerians in the narcotic trade. In spite of frequent arrests and stiff punishment as well as sophistication in technology to combat the illegal business, many Nigerians are still not willing to let go. It has been revealed that many of these Nigerians usually paraded themselves as university students to undermine the visa system in the bid to enter Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other drug traffic routes. Over 30 out of 80 foreign students arrested in Malaysia in 2015 were reportedly Nigerians.

That perhaps explains why across the world today, several Nigerians are on death row or serving prison terms and creating an enormous image problem for the country. In many countries, especially in Asia, it is public knowledge that trafficking in hard drugs carries the ultimate sentence. In June 2008, two Nigerians were executed in Indonesia for trafficking in illegal drugs. The same fate befell one Chibuzor Vituz in China in 2009.

In a sensational outing in April 2015, four Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were executed along with other nationals by Indonesian authorities via firing squad. The Public Communications Division of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the names of the executed Nigerians as Martin Anderson, Okwudili Oyatanze, Jaminu Abashin and Sylvester Obiekwe. Pleas for leniency by Nigeria, the United Nations and Amnesty International were reportedly downplayed by the Indonesian government partly because “at that point, seven fresh cases of drug trafficking involving Nigerians had just emerged in Indonesia”.

Yet the huge numbers of drug mules still jetting out of the country means the enforcement agencies still have a lot work on their hands. This is in addition to the fact that Nigeria is increasingly becoming a destination for narcotics in its own right. In the past few years, the use of illicit drugs has been widespread and many of our young citizens are increasingly getting addicted.

The Senate specifically has called for the restructuring and repositioning of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the agency saddled with curbing the crime, to be more effective. Indeed, some of its staff were reportedly compromised in the past while the agency has long argued that it is understaffed and ill-equipped. But the scale of the problem and the consequences for our image, national security and public health are so severe that something must be done urgently.

The country needs the petroleum industry act for better management of the oil and gas sector of the economy

Even with all the anticipated positive impact of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the oil and gas sector of the economy, it has remained mired in inexplicable stalemate, unable to find its way back to the legislature from the executive to which it was returned in 2014. In contrast, Ghana last week passed the Petroleum Production and Exploration Bill into law to replace the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 1984, an indication of the seriousness the country attaches to it.

First introduced in December, 2008 by the late President Musa Umaru Yar’Adua to the sixth National Assembly, the PIB aims to re-position the oil and gas industry for greater efficiency, openness and competition. Designed to strengthen the capacity of indigenous Nigerian companies so they can compete with international oil companies in the search for, and acquisition of, hydrocarbons, the legislation also proposes to reduce exploitation in the sector and limit, to the barest minimum, government exposure to oil and gas production through joint venture operations.

However, the bill has never been well received by the IOCs operating in Nigeria most of whose officials fear that some provisions therein may be inimical to their investment interests. There were other contentious issues of environmental concerns and community rights that stakeholders have also bickered over, necessitating a review and its withdrawal in 2011. The dusts of controversy had not settled when President Goodluck Jonathan reintroduced the bill in 2012 and several attempts to revise it in order to arrive at a consensus led to its proliferation. With many versions of the proposed legislation in circulation, the seventh National Assembly stood it down in 2014 and requested the executive to produce a fresh bill for its consideration.

Hopes that the advent of a new government would bring a sense of urgency to the review, presentation and passage of the all important piece of legislation would appear to be evaporating. More than a year after ascending power, the Buhari administration does not seem to have a grip on the way forward, forcing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, to lash out at the executive recently, saying that the legislature would no longer wait for the presidency to send it a fresh version of the bill for deliberation and passage.

According to Dogara, the National Assembly would go ahead to consider and pass the existing version of the bill in its possession. “I have at least three different occasions publicly requested the executive to as a matter of urgency send an executive bill on its intended reforms in the petroleum sector. We had hoped to avoid the situation in the past two assemblies (sixth and seventh) where the PIB was sent to the National Assembly very late thereby guaranteeing failure to pass the bill,” he said.

While the executive deterred, the uncertainties created by the stalemate has confused investors and weakened their confidence, leading to massive divestment in the sector. This situation could only worsen with the restiveness in the Niger Delta region, where militants are up in arms against several years of environmental degradation and chronic underdevelopment. Yet investors now have alternative destinations in new emerging sub-Sahara oil states of Ghana, Angola, Sao-Tome and Principe.

For this reason, we could not agree less with Dogara and support his proposition, which appears to be in tandem with the position of the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who had proposed that the bill be broken down into sectors to make it more manageable for consideration and passage. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has also been similarly inclined in recent pronouncements. If the executive persists in delaying the bill, the legislature should proceed with what it has.

Prison staff who connive with the inmates should be prosecuted

At a time our country is facing serious security challenges, it should worry those in authority that we have experienced, within a period of five weeks, three jailbreaks. The latest of such jailbreaks, at the Enugu prisons, came barely a week after that of Koton Karfe where many of the prisoners who escaped are still on the loose. And that itself was just three weeks after another jailbreak at the Kuje Maximum Prison in Abuja, in the course of which two notorious suspects escaped!

Last Tuesday, the federal government responded by dismissing 23 prison officers for alleged complicity in the three jailbreaks and the escape of prisoners. The officer in charge of Nsukka Prison, Mr. Okonkwo Lawrence and 10 others were also suspended following the escape of 15 inmates from the prison last week. However, from every indication so far, it would take more than suspension or dismissal of some bad eggs to contain this dangerous trend.

Across the country, the prisons where convicts and suspects are sent for punishment or custody have over the years become sources of internal security threat thanks to fire incidents, jailbreaks and armed terrorist attacks. While jailbreaks are not new phenomenon in Nigeria, the rate at which they now occur is becoming disturbing. In one particular incident three years ago, gunmen invaded Oko Prisons in Benin City, Edo State and reportedly freed about 12 inmates many of whom are still at large, thereby constituting grave security risk to the country. At about the same period, some armed hoodlums invaded Koton Karfe Prisons, Kogi State, and freed 119 inmates. Only 43 of the lot reportedly were re-arrested.

As we have repeatedly argued on this page, the rise in prison attacks could be traced to the increasing wave of crime in our country—from armed robbery to kidnappings and of course the Boko Haram insurgency. The prisons which have been neglected over the years are now in a sorry state as they are congested and with little or no infrastructural development.

However, the most dangerous development is the complacency or connivance of some prison staff in aiding these criminals to execute their evil acts with military precision. That is why we believe that dismissal or suspension of some officials cannot serve as enough deterrence. Anybody found to have colluded with prisoners to escape should face criminal prosecution. Indeed, what the dismissal of 23 officials last Tuesday has proved very conclusively is that jailbreaks are difficult without some form of internal collusion.

Incidentally, a former Interior Minister, Comrade Abba Moro, had alluded to this ugly trend when he warned after the Koton Karfe’s prison break three years ago that comptrollers of prison would henceforth be held responsible for jailbreaks in their respective commands. Moro observed that the officers were not doing enough to safeguard the prisons, and pointed out that the ease with which inmates in Enugu, Bauchi, Port Harcourt and Koton Karfe were set free by hoodlums posed serious challenge to the service.

However, the sophistication with which some of these armed groups carry out their attacks also seems to overwhelm the prison guards who might not have been well trained in intelligence gathering and weapon handling. To that extent, we call on the authorities to equip and retrain those who man our prisons. Since most of the jailbreaks are both a reflection of the growing sophistication of criminals and the apparent inefficiency of prison officials, it is time to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Everyone is endangered, unless the authorities move fast to stem the trend
If anyone was in doubt about the danger posed to national security by the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) in the country, such doubt must have been cleared by the recent announcement that the Nigerian Army lost 11 personnel, including an officer to an attack by some bandits at Kopa, Dagma and Gagaw villages of Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State. The troops were on a cordon and search operation to recover suspected cache of weapons and arrest their owners when they were downed in an ambush by the bandits.

That tragedy has signposted the urgent need to address the menace of arms proliferation that has posed a clear and present danger to the security of the nation, especially against the background that available statistics paint a grim picture of a disaster waiting to happen. And the pity is that the response from the authorities is too lackadaisical to inspire hope that gun-running would be effectively brought under control soonest.

A recent research showed that out of the 857 million small arms and light weapons in the world, 500 million are illegal with 100 million found in sub- Saharan Africa. About 7.5 per cent of that is in Nigeria. This damning figure was confirmed by the findings at a National Consultation on Physical Security and Stockpile Management in Abuja. Organised by the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament and the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons, it was found that 350 million of the 500 million SALWs in West Africa are in Nigeria.

With a whopping 7.5 per cent of Africa’s illegal arms and 70 per cent of the West African sub-region’s SALWs, 90 per cent of which are in the hands of non-state actors, any wonder why there is so much strife in the country? Yet the situation only promises to grow worse with the influx of weapons from the residue of the conflicts in Libya and Mali. Indeed the Nigerian Customs Services said recently that it had seized arms and ammunition imported into the country from the United States and Europe on 17 different occasions at various points of entry between 2012 and 2016.

What this has revealed clearly is that there is a growing market for SALWs in the country and government ought to intervene more decisively to stem the ugly tide. The insurgency in the North-East, the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, the menace of herdsmen in the North-Central and the rising wave of violent crimes, including armed robbery and kidnappings, particularly in the South-East and the South-West of the country are directly linked to the upsurge in SALWs even as they demonstrate the concrete negative impact on national efforts at integration and development.

To deal with these challenges, government needs to be more serious. For instance, in spite of the fact that Nigeria is a signatory to the ECOWAS protocols, the National Assembly is yet to pass the National Commission against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons Bill. Indeed, Nigeria is the only West African country that does not have the commission that is saddled with the responsibility of tracking the spread of SALWs. Also loitering in the federal legislature is a bill to amend the archaic 1959 Firearms Act that regulates the use of firearms in the country.

The executive needs to fast track the passage of these remedial legislations in order to provide a more practicable and efficient legal framework to tackle the problem. To this, we must add the compelling necessity to upgrade the operational capacity of the security agencies to man the nation’s boarders as well as overhaul our arms stockpile management structure to make it less prone to the abuse.