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  • PDP’s vicious war

    PDP’s vicious war

    The on-going war of attrition among PDP leading light in the face of massive unemployment of our youths, infrastructural decay, 13 years of unfulfilled promises and monumental corruption by its members, is one more evidence that the party doesn’t give a damn about Nigeria. For the greed of its members, PDP that has continued to act as if it is answerable to no one is prepared to drag the nation down along with itself.

    A distinguishing characteristic of any political party is a consensus of members on identified values and principles. But as we have seen in the last few years, there is nothing PDP ever agreed upon. Its leaders, like warlords fight vicious wars over everything, including sharing of our common wealth, but never on behalf of helpless Nigerians.

    In case we have forgotten, it was their members that told us how, under the guise of privatization and commercialization, they shared the nation’s once thriving blue-chip companies among PDP members and its sympathisers using the BPE. They waged a vicious battle over the sharing of prime lands and properties the nation inherited from her colonial masters.

    Lest we forget, it was Senator Bukola Saraki who became the whistle blower over the fuel subsidy scam of about N2 trillion for fuel neither imported nor delivered to Nigeria. The Farouk Lawal whose committee uncovered the scam was found to be like other many PDP men, a man with feet of clay.

    While we have been christened as one of the most corrupt nations on earth, PDP leaders, because of greed cannot even agree on what constitutes a corrupt practice. Leading members of PDP openly accept gifts from contractors. Our lawmakers attribute allocating unmerited salary packages to their members in a nation that cannot pay a minimum wage of N18, 000 to the ‘Nigeria factor’.

    While ex-President Obasanjo, who PDP leading members swore spent close to N10billion on his failed third term bid, claimed during a CNN interview programme last week that “the level of corruption in the country was rising, and Jonathan’s government was not doing enough to stem the tide”, President Jonathan claimed, “…most of these things we talk about corruption are not even corruption”. For him if there is corruption, since “Nigeria has more institutions that fight corruption than most other countries”, the government is also fighting corruption.”

    It is obvious that the removal of Olagunsoye Oyinlola as PDP national secretary which has deepened the current crisis was self-inflicted. His removal was the outcome of a suit filed by a faction of the party’s Ogun State chapter. The court agreed with the faction that the former governor was not fit to hold the post of secretary of the party. Justice Abdul Kafarati also gave a helping hand when he declared “The plaintiff’s suit is not based on an intra-party dispute; rather it seeks to enforce the decision of the Lagos Federal High Court on the grounds that it violated an earlier FHC order of February 16, 2012.”

    Then the question you ask yourself is why has South-west PDP opted to bite its nose in order to spite its face? Now while Oyinlola who has already told an appellate court in Abuja that Justice Abdul Kafarati who removed him from office erred in law by assuming ‘ jurisdiction over an intra party dispute’, Bamanga Tukur, the PDP chairman who like the South-west PDP saw the departure of Oyinlola as a way to get even with his tormenting PDP governors, has quickly planted his only loyalist in the National Working Committee, NWC, Solomon Onwe as acting national secretary leaving both the victorious and the vanquished South west PDP factions to lick their wounds.

    The South-west PDP decision to throw away the baby with the bathwater which is no doubt a clear evidence of a house divided against itself, is a mere reflection of the war of attrition of a party embroiled in a web of intrigues at the national level.

    Meanwhile, there is an alleged subtle threat by about 21 governors elected on the platform of PDP to quit the party unless its national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, resigns.

    Tukur himself carries a moral burden as his son, along with other sons of leading lights of PDP are facing criminal charges for allegedly defrauding of government of billions of naira for fuel neither imported nor delivered to Nigeria.

    President Jonathan and his godfather, Chief Obasanjo, are also said to be embroiled in a crisis of confidence over the choice of Tony Anenih, the master ‘fixer’ of 2003 and 2007 elections, and Ahmadu Alli former PDP chairman who as chairman of PPPRA presided over the appointment of about 140 independent petroleum marketers, some of whom are standing trial for alleged theft of about N2trillion, as BOT chairman. What more indignity can a people be subjected to?

    And as the de facto leader of an embattled party, President Jonathan was alleged to have personally identified Bode George as member of those to reform the Board of Trustees (BOT) of PDP. Those close to him are saying the choice was informed by a desire to recoup some of the South-west goodwill the president squandered through some of his anti-South-west policies.

    The choice has been widely criticized not just by South-west PDP faction opposed to the politics of Bode George, but also by legal practitioners, civil rights groups, Anti-Corruption Network and Coalition against Corrupt Leaders, all blaming PDP for its disrespect for the public.

    While Dino Melaye, who became an anti-corruption crusader after falling out with PDP, claims Bode George’s choice was because “almost everybody in the party (PDP) is an ex-convict”, while, Debo Adeniran the Chairman of CACOL, said the “PDP’s decision was akin to legalising corruption”. Bode George, he said, “would infest others with criminal virus because he exemplifies corruption”.

    Except that we are all victims, no one would have wept for PDP and the selection of George as a key player in the final lap of its war of self destruction. I however sympathise with President Jonathan principally because of his penchant for sticking out his neck for indicted South-west PDP leaders. I want to believe his choice is often borne out of lack of sufficient understanding of the culture of the Yoruba, his over-reliance on advice of self-serving advisers, or informed by what his political enemies describe as his “politics of perfidy”.

    Jonathan who rose to become the president of Nigeria ought to have known that those who used constitutional means to dislodge Obasanjo from his stolen empire following the massively rigged 2007 election are products of a culture that produced those that ensured those who sowed the wind during the rigged 1965 western regional election, reaped the whirlwind. Their PDP kinsmen may share PDP world view, but are products of a culture that celebrates dissent in the face of arbitrariness and fraud.

    In Yorubaland, it is said that Eniti o jale lerekan, ti o da aran bori, aso ole ni oda bora’ (literarily meaning that a man who had been indicted for stealing, who later turn out in expensive damask dress is wearing a stolen dress). In case the president doesn’t know, the dissent among the Yoruba when it comes to dealing with intra-cultural conflicts that borders on fraud and arbitrariness is more vicious than when PDP engages in squabbles over sharing of our resources

     

  • On Buhari at 70 and Govt College, Bida at 100

    On Buhari at 70 and Govt College, Bida at 100

    Last week, I promised to reproduce today some of the responses I got to my columns of the previous two weeks. The tribute to General Muhammadu Buhari elicited 43 texts while the subsequent one on the centenary of Government College, Bida, my alma mater, got 53. Both also elicited a few emails.

    My usual approach whenever I decide to publish readers’ reactions to a previous piece is to write on my topic of the day first, and end with the feedback. This time I started out with copying and pasting the reactions I’d promised before writing the week’s piece. By the time I’d copied and pasted the more interesting and insightful responses, 11 on Buhari, 15 on my old school, they added up to nearly 2,200 words; about 700 more than the word limit for the column.

    So I was left with a choice between devoting the entire page to the readers and writing still. I chose the former because, besides giving me a week’s break, the reactions, as the reader would probably agree, were germane to the crises of political leadership and education that have bedevilled this country, what with the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, for instance, threatening to implode over jockeying for vantage positions by its heavyweights ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    In choosing to devote the entire page to the responses, I had, of course, to reduce the number from the original 26 and edit several of those left to fit the column space and spell out the text spellings and jargons. I hope you find the reactions as insightful as they are interesting.

    First, on Gen Muhammadu Buhari at 70…

    Sir,

    I am an admirer of Gen Buhari. He represents the ideal of humanity and our collective hope to rebuild a new Nigeria. But Buhari’s greatest obstacles are the Northern elites that have been manipulating and skewing electoral processes to favour their candidate whom they trust would protect their interests. Buhari, to them, would pursue policies that are likely to send them to the gallows. The North betrayed Buhari in 2011 through the governors elected on the platform of PDP. If the North supports Buhari in 2015 most southerners will queue behind him just because we are tired of this inept and corrupt leadership.

    The question is, is the North ready to queue behind Buhari?

    Kolade Ilesanmi, Ise Ekiti. +2348030640311

     

    Sir

    The ‘MORTAL’ fear of my people is that Buhari will ISLAMISE Nigeria. I strongly doubt this because he can’t play God. I need information on how to join his party.

    +2348030968000

     

    Sir,

    Gen. Buhari remains the darling of many Nigerians. The media war against Buhari was symbolic of the cynicism of the other parts of the country towards Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he was alive. His respite only came after his passage. In the case of Buhari I hope we will not count our loss much later. Tunde Esan +2348033109878

    Sir,

    You are speaking for Gen Buhari as if he is a saint. We have not forgotten history when he chose to cancel bridge construction in Lagos. Most of the PTF roads he constructed were done in the North on a ratio of 4:1 against the South. This same man refused pardon after backdating the sin of Bartholomew et-al. Shagari (the president) was under house arrest while Ekwueme (the vice-president) was jailed by Buhari for years. Several southerners were also jailed while few Northerners like Rimi were jailed because they talked.

    Peter +2348187896640

     

    Sir,

    I never loved this man, Buhari. In fact in 2011, I not only did not vote for him but vigorously campaigned against him. But if he comes out today, I will not only vote but will campaign for him because I have come to realise that he is the only man neat enough to clean our beloved country from its excreta of corruption. GEJ, who has lost the capacity to lead, has failed us and any attempt to give him a second chance will be catastrophic for our nation. We need nationalistic leaders now and not presidential ethnic champions.

    Comrade Chris E. Onuoha +2348033423615

     

    Sir,

    Northerners feel the media is against Northern leaders. Not true. Tell me which Nigerian leader, from the colonialists to President Jonathan that has not come under the fierce and relentless fire of the Nigerian press. I have come to see that it’s God’s democratic way to ensure that Nigeria never ends up with a Mobutu or a Gaddafi. Notice that no Nigerian leader, military or civilian, no matter the scheming, has been granted by the Almighty to reign up to 10 years. The media hounds them out.

    Anthony +2348032913085

     

    … and the GCB Centenary

    Sir,

    I refer to your article of January 2nd 2013, extolling the college and singing the praises of our heroes and shining stars. But here I come again. In paying tribute to the fallen GCB heroes you omitted Capt. Haruna A. Auna. He was the one quoted by you in an earlier article on Magaji Danbatta’s autobiography “Pull of Fate” and erroneously referred to therein as Capt. Abdu Auna. Capt. Haruna Auna was in the same class as Gen. Wushishi. He was killed during the July 1st 1966 riots in Kano because he tried to stop the mutinying soldiers from doing as they pleased.

    Buhari A. Auna. Gwarimpa, Abuja.

     

    Sir,

    Your piece on Government College Bida’s centenary was quite revealing except for your omission of some notable old boys like late Ambassador lsa Koto (1920), renown educationist, late Alhaji Abdurrahman Okene and His Royal Highness OHIMEGE Igu Kotonkarfe (1922).

    Secondly in your mention of outstanding premier secondary schools in the north you left out Okene College, now Abdul Aziz Memorial College, renamed after the former federal super permanent secretary who was a prince of Okene.

    Please next time you are writing a piece like this you should be fair and generous because some of the ones omitted also made sacrifices just as those mentioned. You should not concentrate on military products alone as you appear to have done.

    Rufai +2347058339096

     

    Sir,

    Your write up as an alma mater of G.C. Bida on its one hundred years of establishment is commendable! But one missing old boy worthy of note is the late Alh Idrisu Alhassan Kpaki (1956-1961), Chief Imam of Kpaki, Niger State, and one time Minister of State, FCT. He became the first old student to serve as its principal.

    A.M.YAKATUN +2348037001954

     

    Sir,

    A slight correction, if you will, on your take regarding GCB as, “the only secondary school to have produced two military leaders of this country…” Barewa College, Zaria, had Generals Gowon and Murtala. Also then Rumfa College, Kano, too had General Murtala Mohammed and General Sani Abacha.

    +2348035901911

     

    Sir,

    Military School, Zaria, has produced the highest number of generals in the armed forces.

    +2348033110112

     

    Sir,

    Except for your mention of late Col Taiwo, I would have accused you of beaming your searchlight on Northerners only! I became a friend of the College in 1955 through Ladiji Gbadamosi, my age mate and bosom friend. He was of 1958 set, an all-round athlete who represented the school in many competitions and one of the first boy-scouts to visit Britain with my own classmate, late Gen Martin Adamu. Ladiji was a bank manager who travelled all over this country before retiring to become a world class businessman.

    Deacon Fehintola, +2348033835939

     

    Sir,

    In your write up on Govt College Bida Centenary you mentioned Col Garba Dada Paiko as late. We belong to the family of the late Col Abogo Largema who was killed in the 1966 coup in Ikoyi Hotel. Col Dada served as his ADC. We lost contact with him for some time until I read your write up. May his soul rest in peace.

    Alhaji Ali, Maiduguri. +2348033141078

     

    Sir,

    This is wishing your old boys’ association the best of luck as you set about redeeming its lost glory. However, like Caesar the poet, the school deserves a few knocks on the head for producing the highest number of dictators and feudal lords.

    Ogacheko Opaluwa, Abuja +234806709090

     

    Sir,

    Your column on Government College Bida Centenary makes interesting but shocking revelation i.e. the dismal failure of its last WAEC result – less than half a dozen of 200 students had four credits and above. We came to GSSB (then) in 1966 as the first batch of HSC students, about 21 of us. At the end three of us were withdrawn due to inadequacies in WAEC, 15 were directly admitted to universities while the remaining three came in through back-up preliminary studies. That was the Bida we knew and cherished. Alhaji Yunoos F. Oyeyemi, the principal at the time, is very much alive and active. May be BOSA may need to change strategy now to qualitative HUMAN RESOURCE SUPPORT. For me it was a very remarkable two-year sojourn.

    Mohammed A. Ahmadu. +2348032103986

     

    Sir,

     

    Please why have you not mentioned the Sokoto Middle School, now Nagarta College, among the older Northern schools? I think it is older than the Bida. Sardauna himself went to the college. So also did former president Shehu Shagari, late Sultan Abubakar III, Sultan Dasuki and host of others.

     

    Mohammed Augie. +2348039660007

     

    Sir,

    Note Alhudahuda College, Zaria City, established in 1910, has been outstanding too.

    Bulus Saliyuk. +2348055125945

    Sir,

    Ambassador J.T. Kolo was never SSG in Niger State. He was Head of Civil Service.

    Baba Akote +2347083581112

     

     

  • One bad term …

    One bad term …

    Clearly the most damning irony about the controversial Goodluck Jonathan 2015 campaign poster, which copies flooded Abuja, is its claim that “One good term deserves another”. But even the most rabid of Jonathan supporters would concede his has been a bad, nay, terrible term.

    So, what does a bad term deserve? A re-sit, as Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin, reportedly quipped in pleading the case of his son, Lucky? Lucky’s 2003 “re-sit” and the subsequent 2007 vote-fiddling meant to block positive change, only made Edo a near-total paralysis before the redemption of the Adams Oshiomhole era. Lucky for Lucky. But absolutely terrible for Edo.

    Yet the Edo paralysis was nowhere near the chaos and gridlock that is the Federal Republic under Goodluck Jonathan. Yet, the good luck president ogles a second term!

    If free and fair election were guaranteed, it would have been electoral suicide for President Jonathan to seek a second term; and supreme electoral folly for his party to present him.

    Indeed, so sure would have been the electoral rout to come that the opposition would have flocked into churches, mosques and traditional shrines for pre-election thanksgiving, doubly assured that the sitting president was a lamb being led to the slaughter, by virtue of his woeful performance.

    But alas! Nothing is assured, not the least free elections, in Nigeria’s peculiar politics. That is why a personage that logs the record of perhaps the most incompetent president Nigeria has ever had would deem to flex muscles and yearn for a second term! It is a salute to the contempt with which the ruling racket holds the Nigerian people, as well as the electoral process.

    Still, to be fair to the president, he has denied authorship of those posters – fair enough.

    The snag, however, is there is a feeling of déjà vu over the incident: a very vivid sense that we have seen all this dissembling before.

    Under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the self-made “military president” would say something and his alter ego, the trinity of Dr. Aitkins, Arthur Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies’ Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) would canvass the exact opposite, with sickening patriotic piety.

    Under Gen. Sani Abacha, Daniel Kanu’s phantom Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA!) urged a thoroughly hated iron dictator and power usurper to go ahead and transmute, prompting The Economist, the London weekly, to write, in its 23 April 1998 issue, a tongue-in-the-cheek article it entitled, “Abacha, for ever, and ever”. Only “divine intervention” put paid to the Goggled One’s inordinate dreams.

    President Olusegun Obasanjo, after hiding behind a finger over a botched term elongation gambit, invoked Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” cheeky nonsense; declaring that if he really wanted a third term, and had asked his God, his God would have given it to him. In Nigeria’s political jungle, Obasanjo had found his own variant of Maradona’s Hand of God!

    And even Goodluck Jonathan, in his caretaker presidency days, was asked whether he would run for president, during the raging zoning controversy. Instead of a simple and straight answer, he lurched into a long and winding story of how he could run for president, or team up with someone as vice president, and how, in mid-sentence, he suddenly realised he was not even thinking of such things!

    Can someone please compare and contrast Jonathan’s answer back then to his current refrain that he is too busy on his job right now to be messing around with 2015 posters?

    Of course, the unsure caretaker president later became absolutely sure he would be real president for only one term – the one term he is making a hash of. Though now he disowns these satanic alter egos pasting Abuja with his campaign posters, he is now even more unsure whether to stop them or tell them to continue, because he is too busy with state duties! It is the making of Goodluck Jonathan as a presidential dissembler!

    It is clear therefore that, despite the empty anti-corruption posturing of the Obasanjo years, little has changed in Nigeria’s sick power chamber. And President Jonathan: his might have been a shifty, parlous and near-hopeless tenure. But the president has been clear-eyed and sure-footed in the power lessons he has allowed himself to learn. To the chagrin of long suffering Nigerians, he is no different from his far-from-illustrious predecessors.

    That is why Jonathan’s pre-election dissembling could well have been from a manual straight out of the Obasanjo, or Abacha or Babangida years. When IBB was swearing for the sanctity of this so-called transition programme, state money was being funnelled to his alter ego trinity to create so much chaos that, at the end of the day, a brow-beaten nation would “beg” the military president to please exchange his uniform for baba riga and continue his good work. Fortunately for Nigerians, the IBB scheme collapsed on his head.

    Everyone, of course, knew state money was responsible for Kanu’s thunderous YEAA for Abacha; and also behind the cacophonous racket by the musical soldiers of fortune that were part of the gravy. Goodluck Jonathan spawned his own musical mercenaries with his Eagle Square Abuja Goodluck Nigeria concert, which has turned nothing but bad luck for Nigerians. Obasanjo, to this day, denies the alleged hefty money that changed hands for his term elongation gambit. He can tell that to the marines!

    Not surprising, therefore, pre-election manoeuvring are afoot – again, straight from the IBB/Abacha/Obasanjo-era ignoble books.

    Up, from nowhere, has popped a 10 million cell phone-purchase programme for farmers. Ibukun Odusote, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, disclosed N60 billion (about US $384 million) would be blown on this sweetheart deal. Akinwunmi Adesina, Agriculture minister, claimed otherwise after a public uproar.

    The making of another scam? Might this sudden quixotic love for Nigerian farmers be to 2015 what the oil subsidy voodoo payment was to 2011?

    Inside the PDP, a civil war has broken out – and not unconnected with 2015, even if the theatre of war is the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). President Jonathan wants his man to head the BOT and help storm-troop delegates; and harvest nomination. Obasanjo, doomed to life-long political hustling when he could have earned post-presidency authoritative influence is, Don Quixote-wise, throwing his hat into the ring for a laughable candidate. To these party bosses, intra-party manoeuvres to skew the nomination process are even more vital than the long-suffering electorate!

    And outside, the cement cartel, unfazed poster children of Nigerian crony capitalism that reached its zenith during Obasanjo’s era of transparent corruption, is staging its own civil war! Might this high-stake manoeuvre be a bid to extract concession from a government whose party would soon come, cap in hand, for election donations?

    These bewildering dramas, not what the incumbent has done or not done, are why Jonathan could deign to dream of an encore, when his present tenure is nothing but disaster. But it is also left for Nigerians to counter: one bad term begets absolute electoral rejection.

    But will they? The day they do, all this rascality will stop.

     

  • Yet another pipeline fire

    Yet another pipeline fire

    Given the dearth of accurate statistics in Nigeria, the number of lives lost to oil pipeline explosion/fire can only be estimated in hundreds considering the number of such disasters in the country in recent times, yet we don’t seem to be ready or in a haste to end this self inflicted tragedies.

    For the umpteenth time oil thieves burst a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline at Arepo village in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, just a stone throw from Lagos State to scoop fuel for sale at the black market.

    But since every day is for the thief and one day for the owner of the house, the seemingly unforgiving spirit of the petrol flowing in the pipeline decided enough was enough and fought back, blowing up in a loud explosion causing a huge ball of fire that consumed no fewer than 30 lives, according to initial reports in the media, with hundreds of others badly injured. The criminals and accomplices were believed to constitute the bulk of the dead while some innocent bystanders/villagers were also affected.

    Another round of fuel shortage is expected in Lagos and surrounding states as a result as the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, the arm of NNPC in charge of the pipelines has expectedly turned the tap off to stop the flow of petrol through the Arepo pipelines.

    A day after the Arepo incident oil thieves struck at another NNPC pipeline at Oviadge, Oghara in Delta State and were lucky to escape with their lives as no fire was reported. As it is often the case among thieves, quarrel always occur not during the operation but during sharing of loot. The Arepo thieves were reportedly arguing over whom among them should scoop the fuel first after they had successfully burst the pipeline when suddenly one of them shot into the crowd and the bullet ignited the fire that consumed them.

    The questions begging for answer here is why is it so easy to vandalise our oil pipelines and why are they so vulnerable to such attacks? What are the security agencies and the NNPC doing to safeguard this all important oil facility? I remember in the 70s, when these pipelines were being laid, as school children we were wondering what the engineers and technicians were doing, but when we were told they were laying pipes to take fuel to different parts of the country, we just accepted as one of those things government do, even when we couldn’t comprehend the import of that. But since they were located far away from human habitation and buried deep in the soil, we were always on the look out for danger (keep off) signs put up by NNPC near the pipelines on our way to school and tried to avoid igniting any fire or lit a match around the area so as not to cause explosion, as if the petrol was flowing on the ground. That was our mentality then as school children and we grew up as adults to respect and appreciate the economic importance of the pipelines to Nigeria. Call it economic patriotism if you like but we were proud of it, to us it was a great achievement.

    I am sure those pipeline vandals are mostly youths and young adults and I wonder what they think of these pipelines; a passport or gateway to quick and easy wealth or what? What on earth would drive some one to burst a pipeline to scoop fuel illegally knowing the dangers involved; not even the possibility of arrest but the likelihood of losing his/her life to an explosion? Well it could be argued that a hungry and jobless person could do anything to put food on his/her table, but then at what cost both to himself and the larger society? Now these people because they wanted quick money went to burst these pipelines and now they are dead, putting their families in sorrow and anguish and the society at the risk of another harrowing fuel shortage. This is the kind of selfishness that is killing this country; nobody thinks about the interest of the other person it is self first and self alone and always. The oil thieves/pipeline vandals don’t care what happen to the rest of us as long as they make their money, and we also encourage them by buying the stolen fuel from them even when we know they don’t own or work in a filling station. Go to any of our villages and even suburbs of our towns and cities and you see people, Okada riders, grinding machine operators and owners of ‘I better pass my neighbour’ generators buying fuel from hawkers selling by roadside or even in front of their house, at home. Where do you think they get the fuel from?

    Government must begin to think about our welfare as a people, how we get the fuel that we use. If the fuel is available everywhere at the right price, nobody will patronize the hawkers and the pipeline vandals will be put out of business. It is not as if they sell this fuel for cheap.

    Again the argument over joblessness is not a justification to go into criminality. And to worsen the matter, some of these vandals and their collaborators could be gainfully employed if they so wish and live comfortably within their means. A medical doctor was arrested in Kogi State sometime ago for being a member of a syndicate that specialise in pipeline vandalisation and sale of stolen fuel. His argument was that the money he gets monthly from medical practice (N100, 000 or so) is too small to maintain himself, his aged parents and siblings. What a load of rubbish. It is true a lot of our professionals out there are just roaming the streets with nothing to do. It is also true that an idle hand is a devil’s workshop, but, these idle hands should not allow the devil to use them as the consequences are grave. The society, especially the government should also not push them into the hand of the devil.

    Government owes it as a duty to the governed not only to provide employment but also create a conducive atmosphere for job creation. Most of our graduates are unemployable because they went to school to learn the wrong or old things that are not in tune with the demands of a modern economy. Government should look into that area and make our graduates not only employable but also competitive internationally.

    Back to the issue of security of the pipelines; who protects them? Oil pipelines in the Niger Delta were recently farmed out to ex militants in the area to protect against vandalisation; who protects the pipelines here (Arepo et al) and other parts of the country? Should we engage OPC to do it since the government, going by the Niger Delta example has shown it is incapable of protecting this important economic facility?

    On a more serious note, shouldn’t we revisit the issue of the setting up of a National Guard in this country as mooted by the Babangida administration then? May be it wasn’t a bad idea after all.

     

  • The vandals of Arepo

    The vandals of Arepo

    It is no accident that the casualty figures from the vandalisation of the so-called System 2B pipelines in Arepo, Ogun State have been somewhat indeterminate – days after. How about a nation that has had very limited success counting itself taking so much trouble counting the hordes of the expendables blown into the creeks as a result of greed? But then, what does it matter – that scores of Nigerians have swelled the legion of the nation’s expendables?

    One thing that cannot be suggested of the weekend pipeline disaster in Arepo Ogun State is that it was entirely unexpected. However, it seems to me that we are at the turning point – the terminal stage of the pathology described as the Acquired Institutional Delinquency Syndrome (AIDS), a measure of how far the culture of self-help has metastasized.

    Let’s go back a bit. In August last year, the same System 2B pipeline – the main artery for fuel distribution in the South-West was destroyed by the vandals. For weeks running, the nation could not put out the fires. Or, rather, the security agencies had much trouble putting out the fire as a result of the difficult terrain. It also emerged that they had to contend with the intrepid vandals who could not sit by and watch their criminal enterprise ruined. Why should they not fight since their very lives depended on it?

    We know the rest of the story. A group of NNPC engineers called in to repair the broken pipelines were gruesomely murdered; so was the attempt to retrieve their bodies from the creeks resisted by the goons. The vandals of Arepo obviously thought little of the security agencies and perhaps far less of the authority of the federal government. It took weeks before the goons were dislodged from their gangland republic and only after did the NNPC move in to fix the pipelines.

    That was in September. And the pipeline was not even put into use until December 2012. The entire affair is best described as pathetic.

    So, who is feigning surprise at last week’s disaster? The security agencies lulled into sleep after claiming premature victory August 2012? The national oil corporation yet to figure out how to secure its pipelines and make them safe? Or the federal government that is as good as clueless when matters about evolving strategies to secure vital national assets pops up? How about a nation rendered complicit by fact of indifference?

    I do not know where the idea came from that the derring-do vandals have suddenly become less daring or perhaps born-again because the security agencies managed to arrest a few persons.

    Should it surprise anyone that the NNPC does not seem to have learnt anything from the previous incident which claimed the lives of three of their top engineers and disrupted of the fuel supply chain in the South-West? Isn’t it the way the business of governance is conducted in these parts?

    I watched Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State on TV as he bemoaned the complicity of the national oil corporation in the tragedy. So unsparing was the governor as he charged that: “NNPC with their inaction, they are part of this problem. I want to believe that they are part of the people aiding and abetting this pipeline vandalisation”. That obviously was an understatement. The corporation seems to me the root and branch of the problem.

    I do not think anyone can deny the criminal complicity of a good many of our institutions in the countless instances of mass murders in the country. Do we begin with the death traps described as highways? Or the health-care system that dispenses deaths in their thousands? Or the educational system as purveyors of tradition, ignorance and superstition? Are these institutions not part of the making of the criminal state called Nigeria?

    The question of course is why anyone would expect the NNPC to be different.

    There is however, another way to view last week’s development. There are those who will argue that the Arepo incident is only a tiny dot in the nation’s slow regression to the famed Hobbesian jungle. No doubt, they are right to the extent that what we see is actually no more than the extension of the elaborate, individualized self-help scheme that governance has become in the country.

    Of course, what we call governance is actually no more than an institution in the service of a few oligarchs, a two-way affair between beneficiaries of unearned wealth: the contractors, fuel merchants, beneficiaries of all manners of duty waivers and their cohorts and the dispensers of patronage. It is between the two that the wealth of the nation is shared. We are here talking of wealth running into trillions of naira annually. So what could be wrong with some hoodlums taking their turn?

    So much for our collective outrage at what the vandals have done to themselves and the society. The question is; are they more culpable or even more rapacious in the despoliation of the nation than those whitewashed criminals in public service? Between those public servants who routinely help themselves to the public till while denying service to the public and the pipeline vandal, which is there to choose from? Howe about the high net-worth businessman whose worth is actually no more than access to the nation’s marble palaces? Are they not of the same class, the same species? Do they not represent the symptoms of the same disease of self-help, of impunity?

    I do not think that anyone should suffer the illusion that they are different. They are not. That is what makes the future so frightening.

  • Unequal justice as state policy

    Unequal justice as state policy

    As trials of drug offenders before his court drew to a close, the late Justice Muri Okunola usually prefaced the sentencing with a lament that the drug law enforcement authorities were always arraigning the minions, the cat’s paw as it were, never the cat not the kitten.

    Even when splendidly visible, the baron or baroness was untouchable.

    I was reminded of Justice Okunola’s pained lament the other day by a news story with the giddy headline “Oil Theft: Two Women Bag Three-year Jail Term” (Saharareporters, January 9, 2013) detailing the conviction of two women by the Federal High Court, Asaba, Delta State, on a two-count charge of illegal dealing in petroleum products and conspiracy. The sentence came with a N300,000-fine option.

    Back in May 2009, the women were, according to the story, caught trucking 136 plastic drums of petroleum products somewhere in the Isoko country without a licence by operatives of the Delta State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who then handed them to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for investigation and prosecution.

    In a sense, justice was not only done; it was seen to be done. Prosecution was swift and diligent. No indulgent adjournments were sought or granted. The judge was punctilious, and the court process worked as it was designed to do.

    The women broke the law, and fully deserved their punishment. Some might even say that they should consider themselves lucky that they got off so lightly. After all, in some parts of the country, people have been sent to jail for up to seven years for stealing a goat.

    But if this is indeed justice, it is justice most unequal.

    Although the capacity of the plastic drums was not specified, let us make the very generous allowance that each has a volume of 400 litres. That would make the volume of petroleum products they were trucking illegally 50, 400 litres. In absolute terms, that might seem substantial. It could fuel a small fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs for a year.

    But in relative terms – relative, that is, to the thieving that goes on in the oil industry every day and even as you read this piece — it is less than piddling.

    No fair comparison can be made even between the volume at issue and the volume of gasoline products ferried to neighbouring countries daily in tankers. These are registered vehicles that drive on paved highways and across checkpoints manned by officials of immigration, customs, and national security, as well as the police, and finally through international frontiers to their destinations.

    A Nigerian international civil servant told me several years ago that he counted 18 such tankers in one day in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, waiting to discharge, and that he had it on good authoritythat this was not a chance occurrence.

    These tankers are never intercepted. Their cargo is never confiscated. The drivers and their mates are never arrested. If anything, they are guaranteed unimpeded passage.

    Only those who can afford to own or hire the oil tankers, those who have access to oil, and those whom the law-enforcement authorities would be crazy to mess with—in short, only the well-connected – can play in this league.It is therefore no surprise that they are never brought to justice. Even their minions are untouchable.

    I once told in this space the story of how a Nigerian diplomat in Latin America travelled to a city hundreds of miles from his base to check on the welfare of some Nigerian sailors who had been detained in the local jail for mutiny on the seas. The half-starved sailors, it turned out had committed no greater crime than demanding their wages for working the ships that ferried oil from Nigeria across the south Atlantic.

    His investigations uncovered an elaborate smuggling operation. Refined diesel was loaded on to the ships, which were then escorted to safety by the Nigeria Navy vessels that were supposed to be protecting the nation’s territorial waters. It had been going on for years

    The diplomat sent a detailed account of his findings to the Abuja and waited for instructions. None came. He forwarded a reminder. Weeks later, he was invited home, for what he thought would be a full debriefing. After waiting for weeks in Abuja without getting to see any person of consequence, he returned to base.

    Waiting on his desk was a letter brimming with contrived indignation from the Latino boss of the syndicate smuggling refined diesel oil from Nigeria. Attached to the boss’s letter was a copy of the diplomat’s cable, courtesy of those he called “his friends” in Nigeria.

    Thankful that neither the syndicate nor Abuja demanded his scalp, the diplomat learned to mind his own business. It is a fair guess that the smuggling continues. Didn’t a detained ship laden with smuggled oil vanish just like that from Nigeria’s waters the other day?

    The still-unfolding “subsidy” racket shows just how mired in sleaze is Nigeria’s oil industry. Trillions of Naira has gone from the nation’s coffers to reimburse oil marketers for petroleum products that were never delivered.

    The only qualifications a good many of the partakers in the feeding frenzy is closeness to power as exercised by the Federal Government and the ruling PDP. If the public had not risen in sustained indignation against the so-called subsidy the government said it was set to end, the freeloading would have continued.

    Prosecution of the suspects in the racket has been perfunctory at best. The suspects continue to live like the potentates that easy money has transformed them into. They are free to travel, and to carry on as they please.

    These are not the kinds of people that prosecutors strive with might and main to deny bail on the grounds that leaving them in circulation would fatally undermine investigations. That recourse applies only to ordinary suspects.

    We should even be thankful that they have not procured the best attorneys and judges that money can buy to block the investigation that led to their arraignment, although that is no guarantee that they will face trial and be punished if found guilty.

    The women convicted by the Federal High Court, Asaba, had neither the sophistication nor the resources to employ such tactics; hence the asymmetry between them and the subsidy freeloaders on the hallowed scale of justice.

    He probably wanted it celebrated as another “breakthrough,” but it is nothing if not pathetic that the Minister of Trade and Investments, Olusegun Aganga, announced with breathless excitement only three weeks ago that. “for the first time,” the Federal Government had authorised measures to stem the leakages in the oil and gas industry arising from meters that are not working, or that were installed in the wrong places.

    These measures are coming more than 30 years after it came to light that the bucket being used to lift crude from Nigeria’s oil fields was four gallons bigger than the standard international barrel. Taking the intent for the deed as is the habit of the Goodluck Jonathan Administration, Aganga said the measures would this year alone result in savings of $3 million and add N1.74 billion to the government’s receipts from oil and gas.

    And yet, the public was bombarded incessantly with the infantile propaganda that government “subsidy” of gasoline was the problem with the Nigerian oil industry and that the industry would die if the subsidy was not terminated.

    It is an index of the asymmetry of justice in Nigeria that, whereas two women were shafted with a three-year jail sentence for illegally trucking petroleum products, supervisors of an industry in which vital meters were not installed, were installed in the wrong places or not installed at all, have never been charged – not with dereliction nor even culpable negligence, much less criminal collusion.

     

  • One bad term …

    One bad term …

    Clearly the most damning irony about the controversial Goodluck Jonathan 2015 campaign poster, which copies flooded Abuja, is its claim that “One good term deserves another”. But even the most rabid of Jonathan supporters would concede his has been a bad, nay, terrible term.

    So, what does a bad term deserve? A re-sit, as Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin, reportedly quipped in pleading the case of his son, Lucky? Lucky’s 2003 “re-sit” and the subsequent 2007 vote-fiddling meant to block positive change, only made Edo a near-total paralysis before the redemption of the Adams Oshiomhole era. Lucky for Lucky. But absolutely terrible for Edo.

    Yet the Edo paralysis was nowhere near the chaos and gridlock that is the Federal Republic under Goodluck Jonathan. Yet, the good luck president ogles a second term!

    If free and fair election were guaranteed, it would have been electoral suicide for President Jonathan to seek a second term; and supreme electoral folly for his party to present him.

    Indeed, so sure would have been the electoral rout to come that the opposition would have flocked into churches, mosques and traditional shrines for pre-election thanksgiving, doubly assured that the sitting president was a lamb being led to the slaughter, by virtue of his woeful performance.

    But alas! Nothing is assured, not the least free elections, in Nigeria’s peculiar politics. That is why a personage that logs the record of perhaps the most incompetent president Nigeria has ever had would deem to flex muscles and yearn for a second term! It is a salute to the contempt with which the ruling racket holds the Nigerian people, as well as the electoral process.

    Still, to be fair to the president, he has denied authorship of those posters – fair enough.

    The snag, however, is there is a feeling of déjà vu over the incident: a very vivid sense that we have seen all this dissembling before.

    Under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the self-made “military president” would say something and his alter ego, the trinity of Dr. Aitkins, Arthur Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies’ Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) would canvass the exact opposite, with sickening patriotic piety.

    Under Gen. Sani Abacha, Daniel Kanu’s phantom Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA!) urged a thoroughly hated iron dictator and power usurper to go ahead and transmute, prompting The Economist, the London weekly, to write, in its 23 April 1998 issue, a tongue-in-the-cheek article it entitled, “Abacha, for ever, and ever”. Only “divine intervention” put paid to the Goggled One’s inordinate dreams.

    President Olusegun Obasanjo, after hiding behind a finger over a botched term elongation gambit, invoked Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” cheeky nonsense; declaring that if he really wanted a third term, and had asked his God, his God would have given it to him. In Nigeria’s political jungle, Obasanjo had found his own variant of Maradona’s Hand of God!

    And even Goodluck Jonathan, in his caretaker presidency days, was asked whether he would run for president, during the raging zoning controversy. Instead of a simple and straight answer, he lurched into a long and winding story of how he could run for president, or team up with someone as vice president, and how, in mid-sentence, he suddenly realised he was not even thinking of such things!

    Can someone please compare and contrast Jonathan’s answer back then to his current refrain that he is too busy on his job right now to be messing around with 2015 posters?

    Of course, the unsure caretaker president later became absolutely sure he would be real president for only one term – the one term he is making a hash of. Though now he disowns these satanic alter egos pasting Abuja with his campaign posters, he is now even more unsure whether to stop them or tell them to continue, because he is too busy with state duties! It is the making of Goodluck Jonathan as a presidential dissembler!

    It is clear therefore that, despite the empty anti-corruption posturing of the Obasanjo years, little has changed in Nigeria’s sick power chamber. And President Jonathan: his might have been a shifty, parlous and near-hopeless tenure. But the president has been clear-eyed and sure-footed in the power lessons he has allowed himself to learn. To the chagrin of long suffering Nigerians, he is no different from his far-from-illustrious predecessors.

    That is why Jonathan’s pre-election dissembling could well have been from a manual straight out of the Obasanjo, or Abacha or Babangida years. When IBB was swearing for the sanctity of this so-called transition programme, state money was being funnelled to his alter ego trinity to create so much chaos that, at the end of the day, a brow-beaten nation would “beg” the military president to please exchange his uniform for baba riga and continue his good work. Fortunately for Nigerians, the IBB scheme collapsed on his head.

    Everyone, of course, knew state money was responsible for Kanu’s thunderous YEAA for Abacha; and also behind the cacophonous racket by the musical soldiers of fortune that were part of the gravy. Goodluck Jonathan spawned his own musical mercenaries with his Eagle Square Abuja Goodluck Nigeria concert, which has turned nothing but bad luck for Nigerians. Obasanjo, to this day, denies the alleged hefty money that changed hands for his term elongation gambit. He can tell that to the marines!

    Not surprising, therefore, pre-election manoeuvring are afoot – again, straight from the IBB/Abacha/Obasanjo-era ignoble books.

    Up, from nowhere, has popped a 10 million cell phone-purchase programme for farmers. Ibukun Odusote, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, disclosed N60 billion (about US $384 million) would be blown on this sweetheart deal. Akinwunmi Adesina, Agriculture minister, claimed otherwise after a public uproar.

    The making of another scam? Might this sudden quixotic love for Nigerian farmers be to 2015 what the oil subsidy voodoo payment was to 2011?

    Inside the PDP, a civil war has broken out – and not unconnected with 2015, even if the theatre of war is the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). President Jonathan wants his man to head the BOT and help storm-troop delegates; and harvest nomination. Obasanjo, doomed to life-long political hustling when he could have earned post-presidency authoritative influence is, Don Quixote-wise, throwing his hat into the ring for a laughable candidate. To these party bosses, intra-party manoeuvres to skew the nomination process are even more vital than the long-suffering electorate!

    And outside, the cement cartel, unfazed poster children of Nigerian crony capitalism that reached its zenith during Obasanjo’s era of transparent corruption, is staging its own civil war! Might this high-stake manoeuvre be a bid to extract concession from a government whose party would soon come, cap in hand, for election donations?

    These bewildering dramas, not what the incumbent has done or not done, are why Jonathan could deign to dream of an encore, when his present tenure is nothing but disaster. But it is also left for Nigerians to counter: one bad term begets absolute electoral rejection.

    But will they? The day they do, all this rascality will stop.

  • Regular water intake vital to ‘sound’ health

     Nigerians have been urged to improve the quality of water they drink for effective function of their body organs.

    According to Dr Raymond Akinlade of Royal Hospital, Lagos, water is a medium for chemical reactions in the body.

    “It moves nutrients, hormones, antibodies and oxygen through the blood stream and lymphatic system,” he said.

    He said drinking water is vital to health because it makes up about 60 per cent of the body weight. “Every system in the body depends on water. Taking enough and quality water reduces the risks of some diseases in the body, the energy level is greatly affected by the amount of water we drink,” he said.

    Akinlade said inadequate supply of water to the body would prevent the brain from performing optimally, adding that it may also trigger headache. “Lack of water can lead to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don’t have enough water in your body to carry on normal functions.

    “Dehydration is very risky to the health of the old and the young,” he added.

    Akinlade identified the symptoms of dehydration as excessive thirst and fatigue.

    Others are headache, dry skin, dry mouth, little or no urination, dark colour or strong smell urine, hunger, muscle weakness and dizziness.

    On benefits of water to the body, Akinlade said drinking enough water helps to regulate the body temperature through perspiration which dissipates excess heat and cools the body. He said we lose about two pints of water daily by just exhaling, so it is crucial that we take water so our lungs would be moistened as we take in oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide.

    He said some diseases are reduced by having enough water in the body.

    “Asthma is frequently relieved when water intake is increased. When there is sufficient water, wastes are effectively removed, which results in improved kidneys. Water also lubricates the joints as joint pain frequently decreases with increased water intake,” he said.

    He noted that nothing can take the place of water. “Fruit juice, soft drinks, coffee and others may contain substances that are not healthy, and may actually contradict some of the positive effects of the added water.

    To improve water intake, Akinlade said, people should drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and first thing before, during and after meals. “Drinking a glass of water will help you to stay in control of your eating, and therefore help to keep your weight in a healthy range. Drinking water during the meals helps in digestion of the food,” he added.

     

  • Boosting education in Lagos State

    Boosting education in Lagos State

    Presently, the education sector in Lagos State is receiving an unprecedented boost from the Lagos State government. When Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) took over from the Asiwaju, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he made a pledge to the people of the state that he would continue the policy of free education in both primary and secondary schools in the state. This pledge has been carried many steps further since more than five years he has been in the saddle.

    Not only has the free education policy for which the state has been known for years been intensified and improved upon in many respects, Lagos State has come to occupy an enviable position in the annals of West African School Certificate Examination (WAESC) and National Examination Council (NECO) in present times. To cap it all, the government has just established what it rightly tagged Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project, a project that is being assisted by the World Bank.

    This idea, in the reasoning of Ms Ronke Azeez, Special Adviser to Governor Fashola on the project, is to ensure that this World – Bank assisted initiative provides the required grants to schools to improve on students’ welfare, teachers’ training and ICT exposure and provision.

    The retraining of teachers and principals of schools have since attracted the priority attention of the Lagos State government. The reason for this is to help refocus attention on teachers’ welfare so that they can impact meaningful and quality knowledge to the students. Essentially, Governor Fashola believes strongly that if teachers are in the right frame of mind and are equally given what is due to them, they can perform better.

    This is why the Lagos Eko Education project as initiated by the government has come handy to solve a lot of knotty problems in the sector. Until recently, the students of the state were not performing as was expected in WASC and NECO exams. But according to Azeez, the project was able to encourage the students to have an improved rating last year in the WAEC examination. Given the general porous results of WAEC in 2012 throughout the nation, the Lagos State over all result, nonetheless, stood out. This is highly commendable.

    In public funded secondary schools, the state recorded 38.5 percent. The interesting thing here is that many students, even above the expectations of many, recorded credits in both English and Mathematics. This is a total improvement from previous results and Azeez believes that the students can do much more in subsequent years if more teachers are exposed and retrained. In other words, this exercise is an on-going one.

    Mrs. Elizabeth Omolaoye, a principal in the state, reacted to the issue like this: “You must have heard about the Eko Project. It helped many students because we were able to purchase all that we needed to teach the children. Teachers are being trained. And we principals were also trained. I am a beneficiary of the training.” Omolaoye’s enthusiasm has also rubbed off on other such principals and teachers in the state who feel much more at home now to teach with more dedication and care.

    The Eko Project, in the thinking of Governor Fashola, is to completely overhaul education. It is established to improve education tremendously in terms of upgrading ICT and other infrastructural facilities in the sector. As the students become more exposed to the modern forms of education, so do their level of intellectual acumen and sense of reasoning.

    In its third year now, the Lagos Eko Project has overcome its initial teething problems. It is now totally embedded in the principle of impacting on the students, expanding and improving the lot of teachers and making them more responsible and responsive to the needs of their students. In addition to providing grants for equipments and other learning facilities, the primary focus of the project revolves around manpower empowerment and training. This, being the core area of its focus, has been wholesomely pursued in the past three years.

    Part of the focus of the project is also to grade schools and give them awards. It is a sort of an encouraging exercise so as to keep the standard high and competitive. Azeez said: “Schools are rewarded based on their average performance. This has helped the teachers and principals to be more interested in enhancing the overall performance of the students. Indeed, the unique thing about this is that we looked at the whole schools and then rewarded those whose students made up more on the average performance” In the process of doing this, schools that did well got more funds to perform more feats.

    For a government that is serious, the training of teachers is number one step towards improving the standard of education. This is what Governor Fashola has promptly done given that students cannot get anything good if they are not getting the best from both the government and their teachers. It is equally great to learn that Lagos State has re-introduced Saturday extra-murral classes to help students with low acumen and learning process.

    In this regard, a lot of teachers are being encouraged to take heed so that their students can benefit from this benevolence. Tagged Mathematical tonic and English clinic, it is formatted to impact more in these two key subjects where students have shown poor ratings in recent past.

    Based on all these modalities already in place in the education sector in the state, it behoves on both the students and teachers to capitalise on them to make education prosper. The state government has demonstrated its love for the people. It has shown that leaders of tomorrow should be guided well for the responsibilities of tomorrow. Therefore, Governor Fashola needs to be commended for his foresight and direction in all spheres in the state. Eko oni baje .

    • Udoka, lives Ikeja.

     

     

  • Three patients

    Three patients

    On New Year’s Day, I paid a visit to the hospital to show empathy to those not privileged to say happy new year to their fellow humans. Even if they said it, they did so without the cheer of an optimist but out of a ritual necessity.

    They were not at the place of vanity where beer frothed and the glutton had his feast. They did not enjoy the spiritual luxury of grand services ushering in a new year.

    I decided to visit the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and see the fragile clinging to life. LASUTH is growing into the hospital of choice of many, not only in Lagos, but across the country.

    For a government-run institution, we see the preponderance of facilities and eager zeal of doctors and nurses as far as we can see it in our society where competence and zest for work are replaced with the fervency of self-interest and casual attention to duty.

    I visited the pediatric complex. After the wary staff allowed me in, I was able to meet three patients with whom I could show some attention.

    The nurses identified a few others, but picked Marvelous, Mubarak and Idris.

    The first sense that assailed me at the sight of the three was helplessness. They were in the hospital but had no choice. A few days earlier, Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State had just declared, in a pose of boastful vanity, that he did not want treatment abroad. He was involved in an accident.

    The three I saw were even privileged to be in that hospital because the Lagos State Government had put in place a system where they did not pay for surgery, or bed or some of the services rendered free by LASUTH. In other places abroad, they could have paid the equivalent of millions of Naira.

    Yet they would have wanted better services, and they could have flown abroad if they had the resources at Governor Wada’s disposal, or Governor Chime’s or Suntai’s.

    Marvelous had a network of plasters that robbed her pretty face of its cherubic charm. She had been born over a month, and the parents had found it difficult to string together hours of sleep. Her problem was a little similar to that of Idris in that they were born without anuses and the doctors had to construct apertures to let out their body wastes.

    Idris had had two surgeries, and the parents were hopeful. The nurses, who spoke with intimate knowledge of their situations, also expressed pathos as she narrated little Marvelous’ troubles. A tube was passing blood away from her face. What was that? It had just occurred signifying that the second surgery also was a dud. The staff said it was not fresh blood, but until the doctors came the following day, no one would say the source of the crimson flow.

    But father and mother had given up, and they complained of money. The father, a fellow who could mask his despair more than mother who was a bundle of doldrums, said they wanted to go home. To what? They didn’t know. Father was worried that mother had lost all hope, and did not want to lose mother. Mother, moved to tears, choked whenever she wanted to utter any words. Meanwhile, the eyes of Marvelous seemed sharp, almost pleading. The nurse expressed more hope than father and mother.

    In Idris’ case, he was much older, about seven years, with a look of indifference to the world around him. But he had deceptive energy.

    Father and mother were also beside them but they could not utter any words as the visitor stood beside them. They looked more despondent than the sick. He had surgery but it did not resolve the matter, and he was now sore. He would have to heal before any corrective surgery. How long? No one knows. It could take months. The parents also complained of money, to buy some medication to keep the boy afloat. They complained that it cost them N1,000 a day, and it was too much. Idris did not look as healthy as Marvelous, precarious as the little girl looked. Like Marvelous, the doctors opened apertures for the release of their human wastes.

    Mubarak had a different story, but father was not there at the time. Mubarak’s case was desperate, and the mother, who has abandoned a business as a petty trader, gave an expression of one fighting against surrender.

    Mubarak is about four years old, and his case is that of abscess. He suffered a hole in the heart and it pumped pus into his brain. An operation was successfully done to rid the head of the pus. Thanks to the LASUTH doctors. But that is not the end of the story. He needs surgery that has to happen abroad, in India. Money. She needs about N2 million to fly the boy abroad and apply treatment. The boy’s limbs are weak and he struggles to eat. A bandage crowns his innocent face and gleaming skin.

    As I walked out of the hospital, I had overdosed on concern. It occurred to me that there are a good number of people who splurge on meaningless habits when just a fraction of what they have can help the needy like Marvelous, Idris and Mubarak. But we seem not to care about the affectionate society.

    Why can we not have a few of the rich go to hospitals like LASUTH and complement government efforts by adopting a patient? Some can adopt a ward, and others a section, others an ailment, some a particular brand of drugs, and others still can do equipment or sponsor doctors for update training. It would depend on the fatness of their wallets.

    It is also true that what in the United States is called MEDICAID is absent here. In the Nordic countries as well as in Canada, the states provide a form of backup for the vulnerable. But the state can only go so much. Those societies have developed elaborate tax systems upon which they draw for the very sick. But I think that a sort of insurance programme is necessary, that will need the contribution of those who work.

    I see how many fritter away minutes on recharge cards, almost as an addiction for some frivolous calls. I wonder if we cannot start a scheme in which the ordinary worker donates between N50 and 100 a month, and that is put in a medical trust fund. With this, we can rake in billions of Naira every year, and that will go to upgrading medical infrastructure and helping the Marvelouses and Idrises and Mubaraks of this world.

    Maybe Marvelous who reportedly died the night of my visit would still be alive today. Such a programme will enhance the medical welfare already in Lagos with the free services especially for children and the elderly, which is also available in Delta State. Osun State has initiated a programme aimed at the vulnerable, including home care.

    The narrative of LASUTH unveils positive government efforts but also the institutional limitation in a society in which self trumps others.

    There are many little children seeking help. No one is praying for them like Chime and Suntai. These guys have resources but not health. They have neither health nor resources , but only prayers. Their state is like patients in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel Cancer Ward where, like the Soviet society, the inmates depend only on inner joy to survive. What the patients suffer the society imposes.

    The problem is not medical but moral. If everyone joins in, we can heal this society. And as Tolstoy, another Russian novelist, says in War and Peace, “how can one be well… when one suffers morally?”