Prologue to Baba Akande’s book review

I owe Chief Bisi Akande this opening paragraph, although this particular column does not belong to him. First, I want to thank him for getting a copy of his book, My Participations, to me just before I left the country, knowing full well that I was not going to be around for its launch. I have known Baba for nearly 70 years but never as intimately as I do now. The objective subjectivity of his celebrated book, launched on Thursday, December 9, 2021; its elucidating dimensions as the author waded through Nigerian political space for over four decades; and the consuming intersections between personal,  group, and national narratives, all begin with the well chosen and apt title, My Participations. It is a book in which some rose and remained standing, while others rose and tumbled, and kept tumbling. A book in which Truth never tumbled but grew additional legs to stand on. It is a book like no other. It’s author, Mr. Integrity, has no duplicate. Although I have read the entire book, its full review must await deserving treatment.

Now over to LASUTH

In a previous contribution, I focused on the implications of the cash and carry practice at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for patient care. Apart from delaying, and sometimes deferring, care, the requirement that you must pay on the go for everything as treatment progresses imposes a heavy burden on patients and their caregivers in locating and reaching points of payment and in handling medical samples and lab reports. Besides, this cash and carry practice is an avoidable dent on the image of a Teaching Hospital, aspiring to attain world standard. I suggested that the management of the hospital should devise a more efficient way of paying for care and services as well as transmitting and sharing medical records.

The hospital should consider the possibility of advance billing for patients. This implies that an estimate of cost of treatment should be made on arrival in the hospital and the patient should be required to pay a reasonable percentage of the estimate immediately. Additional lump sum should be paid as treatment progresses. This is the method used by various private hospitals across the nation.

Nevertheless, if cash and carry must continue, then the hospital must device more effective methods. To start with, it must go digital all the way. In addition to the digitization of medical records for ease of transmission, digital platforms should be set up for payments. In addition to POS, it should be possible to pay online, using Debit or Credit card as well as transfer funds.

Green Africa, a new airline based in Lagos, is particularly impressive in this regard as it includes online transfer as a mode of payment. Just click on the Transfer button and the Bank name and account number will show up. Make the transfer and you instantly get a “payment successful” message once the transfer is completed. Better still, LASUTH could employ a software engineer to create an App that includes a payment interface and a digital receipt, complete with QR code, which could then be tendered at the point of service. This will require full disclosure of the costs of various services, including lab requests, and basic purchases, such as registration card, file folder, admission kit, and so on.

Pending full digitization, payment kiosks, with functioning POS machines and money transfer possibilities, could be established all over the hospital, especially near the wards, specialty clinics, and institutes, if not on every street corner. To aid payment, lab requests could be redesigned and coded to include the cost of each lab test. Each kiosk also should be furnished with a list of various lab tests and their costs. This will reduce the congestion and frustration frequently encountered in the hospital’s labs.

Similarly, arrangements should be made to have medication supplied directly to the patient’s bedside, once payment has been made. In addition to these measures, the various pharmacies within the hospital premises should establish relationships with bigger pharmacies around the hospital to quickly supply on demand any medication they do not have in store.

Besides, there is no reason why medical consumables, such as cotton wool, alcohol, bandages, syringes, cannulas, catheters, and so on should not be available for free all over the hospital. In line with global standards, cotton wool and alcohol should be replaced with alcohol swabs, which are better packaged and, therefore, safer to use.

True, these medical consumables are frequently used, but they are low cost supplies. Yet, delay in their supply often translates to delay in treatment and occasional fatality. Besides, their acquisition and supply by the hospital could save patients from purchasing fake varieties from corner chemists out to make quick money. If the cost of these consumables is too much to bear for the hospital, they could be factored into the cost of treatment. It brings shame to a Teaching Hospital aspiring to world standard for its patients or caregivers to keep running around to purchase these essential medical consumables every now and then.

Yes, the hospital needs funds to function effectively. There are, however, better ways of raising funds than the current cash and carry practice.

Cash and carry is not the only problem standing in the way of LASUTH’s march to world standard. Another serious problem is inadequate staffing. At the moment, there are only about 350 doctors and 900 nurses in the hospital, which boasts a daily turnover of thousands of patients. This has sometimes resulted in delayed service and occasional negligence.

To be sure, there is widespread doctor shortage across Nigeria. According to The Global Health Observatory of the World Health Organization, there were only 3.81 doctors per 10,000 population in Nigeria as of 2018, when data were available for the country. This means that there is only one doctor to attend to over 2,600 patients! The irony about these statistics is that Nigerian doctors leave the country in droves to provide services in countries with higher doctor-patient ratios, such as Britain and the United States. The reason is obvious and need not be belaboured here.

This implies that LASUTH must hire more doctors and encourage them to stay, by providing financial incentives and capacity building opportunities. The few who get the opportunity to train abroad should be appropriately assisted and encouraged to return on the completion of training.

It was in 1955 or so. We all marched into class after morning devotion to the school band’s tune of jenti-jenti. We had hardly settled down in class when mothers rushed to school, some with drooping breasts flapping their bare chest, shouting: Dokita doridori. O ma ti wa ooo (The doctor that injects the head has come!). With the doors crowded up by children, screaming to get out, some of us headed for the windows, climbing over benches and desks and flipping over to the grounds below. It took years before some of us found out that we were all running away from smallpox vaccination.

The truth is that vaccine hesitancy has been with us ever since the smallpox vaccine was first developed from cowpox virus in 1796. It was the modern version of the vaccine, developed in the mid 20th century, that created a big scare in schools in the old Western Region in the 1950s.

Our problem then was ignorance, buoyed by lack of information about what we were being protected against and how safe and effective the vaccine was. Once we were persuaded by the authorities (teachers and local dispensary staff) that we were being protected from untimely death, we all lined up for the vaccine.

Today, vaccine hesitancy started as a combination of ignorance and misinformation spread on social media about the vaccine. It has now developed into full blown vaccine resistance. What is worse, it has blended with ultra-right nationalist ideology. In the United States, it is an extension of former President Donald Trump’s misinformation about COVID-19 and the resistance against face masks. Today, it is a component of the Big Lie created by Trump over the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, but which he claimed was fraught with fraud.

The American press dubbed it the Big Lie because the “massive” fraud alleged by Trump and his lawyers did not exist. Over 60 so-called election fraud cases were thrown out by the courts for lack of evidence. And after two, three, or even four recounts in some states, no such fraud was detected. As a result, the election was duly certified in all 50 states and by Congress as having been won fair and square by President Joe Biden.

The irony about Trump is that he encouraged and promoted investment in vaccine production, secretly got the jab early in January, 2021, but will not call out his supporters, who are leading the vaccine resistance campaign.

The activities of the antivaxxers heightened with the recent reopening of schools. In the USA and Europe, antivaxxers crowded school gates and school compounds, threatening school staff, insulting parents, and scaring the kids they are supposed to protect. The details of what they say and do need no glorification by being reproduced.

What needs debate is the long-term implication of the present trend of resistance to erstwhile normative practices. Antivaxxers appear not to be bothered by the psychological effects of their actions of young children, who are being confused about the vaccine intended to save their lives. Some kids cried as their parents were heckled by antivaxxers at their school gates. Nor are some conservative politicians bothered by the actions of their supporters, who continue to push the BIG LIE and vaccine resistance.

It is rightly argued that it is their right to protest government policies or actions they do not agree with. The question is the substance of the disagreement and how it is being expressed. The issue here is about public health. COVID-19 is a viral infection that travels from person to person. The longer the virus stays in a community, the higher the probability of infecting more persons and even of developing resistant variants.

We now know that if a high proportion (at least 70 percent) of the population is vaccinated, then fewer and fewer people will be infected. That’s what is known as herd immunity. That’s why wealthier countries, which produced the vaccines, engaged in vaccine nationalism, that is, the practice of getting a high proportion of their population vaccinated before selling or giving out vaccines to low income countries. It is the airplane philosophy of giving yourself the oxygen mask first before assisting others.

Against this background, antivaxxers are disrupting the health of the entire community, by preventing those who want to get vaccinated from doing so. If they don’t want the vaccine for themselves, that’s fine. But why heckle others, who want to protect their children by getting them vaccinated? It is this public health angle that has given scientists and some public officials the most concern.

A bigger question is how to stop the present trend of resistance before it snowballs into a movement that cannot be controlled. Perhaps a starting point is to appeal to the antivaxxers’ sense of reason. They need to know that many contagions, such as smallpox and chicken pox, were eradicated or at least severely limited by vaccination.

Even more importantly, they need to know that in countries, such as the United States and Britain, the unvaccinated currently carry the brunt of COVID-19 infections in their communities. In other words, COVID-19 is fast becoming the disease of the unvaccinated.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the linkage between face masks, vaccination, and politics. The linkage of the resistance to face masks and vaccination with the politics of the right in the United States portents serious danger for the future of democracy in that country, because the same crowd is also the conveyor of the BIG LIE.

Nigeria is lucky that the virus has not been as devastating as previously predicted. The category of antivaxxers still does not exist less than 4 percent of the population is so far vaccinated. It is when a high percentage of the population is vaccinated and critical health measures have to be taken to protect others that antivaxxers show up in reasonable numbers. That’s what’s going on now in the United States and Britain.

The closest to the antivaxxers in Nigeria is the “No Koro” crowd, that is, those who deny the existence of COVID-19. So far, such people have been lucky, because the virus has not been as contagious as it could be or as it has been Brazil with comparable population and climate. There is, therefore, no reason at this point to take drastic measures to contain their denial. Let’s hope it will never come to that.

By Niyi Akinnaso

Azuka Onwuka’s article, How Nigerians are being tactically de-Nigerianized (The Punch, August 10, 2021) drew wide readership for various reasons. First, it was timely, coming right after the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics. By analyzing the role of participants with Nigerian heritage, who competed for other countries, it allowed readers to elongate memories of the Olympics games they just watched.

Second, the article drew attention to the spread of the Nigerian Diaspora across the globe. Many athletes with Nigerian heritage competed for countries in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and even Oceania.

Third, by arguing that these Nigerians were being de-Nigerianized for competing for other countries, because Nigeria could not nurture their athletic aspirations, Onwuka provided social media game for perpetual critics of President Muhammadu Buhari as if the declining performance of Nigerian athletes in global competitions started with his administration.

Fourth, Onwuka linked the plight of these athletes with that of other Nigerians who have escaped, or are trying to escape, from Nigeria’s harsh social, political, and economic conditions. This linkage resonated with readers familiar with the repatriations of stranded Nigerians from Libya, Lebanon, and other places in the last few years.

These athletes and desperate escapees are not in the same category, however, and they should not be painted with the same brush. Besides, the athletes with Nigerian heritage, who competed for other countries, are not Nigerians for the purpose of the competition. They competed as nationals of the countries they represented at the Olympics. It is a naïve view of nationality that sees them as Nigerians. To insist that such athletes are Nigerians is to insist that former President Barrack Obama of the United States is Kenyan because of his Kenyan heritage.

There are two broad groups of athletes with Nigerian heritage overseas. The first group consists of those who were born overseas and automatically assumed the citizenship of their country of birth. In some cases, such athletes have one Nigerian parent, while the other is a citizen of the athlete’s country of birth. Some of them have never been to Nigeria and don’t even have immediate plans to do so. It is their prerogative to compete for the country that allowed them to hone their skills.

The second group consists of young Nigerians, who went overseas to study, took to athletics in the course of their studies, and eventually nationalized. Some of them, especially footballers and basketball players, even went to the university on athletic scholarship.

The truth is that, outside of Nigeria, athletes are nurtured as professionals, and they are treated specially for their talent and for their business value. Some of these athletes are identified early and nurtured, sometimes by their parents but often by coaches in their schools or community playing grounds.

Such is the case with the Onitsha-born Ebelechukwu Agbapuounwu, whose mother migrated to Bahrain and married a Bahraini. In no time, Ebele converted to Islam and took on a new name, Salwa Eid Naser. She got a couch, a scholarship, and other incentives to nurture her sprinting career to gold standard. She went on to win the 2019 World Championship in the 400 metres, with the third fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds. Unfortunately, she could not compete in the Tokyo Olympics, because she was suspended owing to three whereabouts failures as well as failure to show up for competition one time or the other.

Naser’s case illustrates three interesting factors in the making of great athletes. One is the combination of talent, interest, and appropriate skills, which could then be improved upon by a good coach and trainer.

A second major factor in the making of a great athlete is the combination of self-discipline, determination, and consistency in following through on necessary practice routines and competitions.

The third factor is the assistance of family, friends, coaches and the government in preparing athletes for competition. Countries also offer rewards to victorious athletes. For example, the United States, which has an abundance of talents, awards $37,500 for Olympic gold, whereas Singapore, which is hungry for good athletes, awards a whopping 1 million dollars for Olympic gold. Nigeria’s reward for medals is still too small to get her on the international rewards table.

An even more lucrative reward for athletes is an endorsement or sponsorship, which can pay them huge sums for promoting a product, a service, a programme, or a project. Sports heroes, such as Jay Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu, continue to benefit from such endorsements even after retirement.

There’s no denying the fact that the Nigerian government continues to fail our athletes. Perhaps no one makes this point better than Sunday Oliseh, former Eagles captain and coach, who was Nigeria’s defensive midfielder on the team that won soccer Olympic Gold in the 1996 games. In his autobiography, Audacity to Refuse, Oliseh recalled the failures of the then National Football Association and the Nigerian government in their preparations for the 1996 games: “Believe me, in my whole career as a soccer player, I think we’ve never had it so difficult to prepare for a tournament … We lacked in equipment, infrastructure, we lacked even in things as little as medical facilities … we lacked in food, we lacked in everything, so we were just like abandoned children”. That was 25 years ago!

Against this backdrop, Onwuka really was not saying anything new. What is really needed now is not the perpetuation of the complaint tradition but concrete proposals on how to improve on the present regime of government failure in sports. The starting point is for the government to recognize sports as some capital-intensive business and not simply as recreation.

This implies that the government must invest in sports as business, by including it in its annual budget and funding it as it funds education and health. It must provide the necessary infrastructure for sports. Finally, the government must offer appropriate incentives to the athletes, whose talents and skills are needed to sustain the business.

Fortunately, the current Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, has been in the forefront of needed changes. In addition to setting up a 14-member Committee to reposition sports and attract investment to the industry, he led the revival of abandoned Surulere and Abuja national stadia. Realising the financial limitations of the government, Dare’s ultimate goal is to attract both public and private investment to the sports industry.

Perhaps no metaphor is strong enough to capture the implications of the terrorist attack on the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna on August 24, 2021. Given the real and symbolic role of the Academy in the training and retraining of army officers, the attack on the institution could hardly be regarded as anything but a dagger in the heart of our national defense.

Indeed, the dagger literally hit two officers, fatally wounding them, while one was kidnapped, who has yet to be released. May their souls of the departed rest in peace and may their families, colleagues, and friends find the fortitude to bear the loss. And may the Army be smart enough to defend itself as it seeks to defend the country.

Much too often, we talk past the immediate victims of terrorist attacks and focus on attacking the government. These fallen officers and their families deserve our attention in the hours following the incident. There will be time enough to blame the government. In particular, the press must be careful not to appear as chorusing the opposition rhetoric of the Peoples Democratic Party, which is always eager to pounce on the ruling party at the slightest opportunity.

That said, the implications of the attack on the quality of the nation’s intelligence architecture; military preparedness; and Nigeria’s image cannot be ignored.

Clearly, the quality and role of military intelligence are questionable, if it cannot foresee or prepare against imminent attack, even on its own institution. This cannot but make observers recall several lapses in military intelligence in recent times. In April this year, over 30 soldiers in a military convoy were killed in Mainok near Maiduguri in an ambush by fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province. Yet, we had known for some time that this terrorist group was on the prowl for targets in Nigeria.

Even worse for military intelligence was the abduction of over 30 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization within the same neighbourhood as the NDA. Yet, accounts by various students allegedly indicated that soldiers arrived only after the bandits had escaped with the students. Similar stories or worse have been told about other school abductions and attacks.

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This recent attack cannot but call into question the integrity and preparedness of the military to secure the nation and protect the citizens against external aggression. That’s why the question is rightly raised as to whether a military that cannot protect itself, and has failed to protect others in the past, is reliable.

The expression of disapproval of military integrity and preparedness by ex-military officers in the wake of the brazen attack on the NDA should be considered within the foregoing context (see Retired military officers rail against attack on NDA, Vanguard, August 26, 2021).

In this regard, the revelations by Commodore Kunle Olawunmi on Channels TV (see Ayo Olukotun, Attack on the NDA and Olawunmi’s theory of colluding insiders, The Punch, August 27, 2021) and General Ishola Williams (see SHOCKING NDA ATTACK: Political leaders culpable – General Ishola Williams, ex-Defense chief, Vanguard, August 29, 2021) are particularly far-reaching. Their concerns cannot be dismissed, because Olawunmi was an intelligence officer for the military for over 20 years and Williams a former Chief of Training, Operations and Plans at the Defense Headquarters.

Among other problems, they highlighted neglect of recommendations by previous administrations; the alleged participation of unnamed politicians in terrorist activities; and the lack of correspondence between the huge investment in military equipment by the present administration and military performance.

Unfortunately, the administration has been very weak in self defense and in sharing necessary information. Neither of the two statements emanating from Aso Rock leaves much to be desired. In one, by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, it was time for conspiracy theories: “So many scenarios are being painted though. Could this be truly a criminal attempt to violate the sanctity of that military institution? Was this an opportunistic crime? Is it political? Does somebody want to embarrass the government by doing this?” Such theories belong to the era of former President Donald Trump of the United States, who attracted national and global condemnation for them during his tenure.

In the other statement, by the President’s Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adesina, we are told that the President holds the view that the attack on the NDA would provide the stimulus for the army to wipe out banditry and all forms of criminality. Hear the President’s spokesperson: “Noting that the attack, which led to loss of lives, came at a time that the military had put insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, and other types of criminals on the retreat, the President says the heinous action would accelerate the total uprooting of evil in the polity, which members of the Armed Forces are solidly resolved to accomplish in the shortest possible time”.

There is some questionable logic here. How are “insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, and other types of criminals on the retreat” still able to attack the NDA of all places? And how short is “the shortest possible time”? Besides, must the army wait for an attack on its own institution for motivation?

However, the President may have been up to something here. For one thing, there are documents in circulation, confirming the huge investment of the administration in various arms and ammunition, which could accelerate the pace and quality of military intervention. However, we are told, time is needed for the complete orders to come in. Moreover, it is true that Boko Haram appears to be on the retreat as many members have reportedly surrendered. It is suspected, however, that it may only have morphed into banditry for the ransom money.

While one may question the veracity of these sources, the President’s reticence in revealing such information is understandable, as it may reveal the types of strategies to be employed. This, however, should not preclude periodic information, say from the Defense Headquarters or the Defense Minister, about the steps being taken to adequately prepare the military for its tasks.

After all is said and done, it cannot be denied that the attack on the NDA has dented the image of the country, solidified the perceived weakness of the President, and heightened the perception of the nation’s armed forces as a lackluster institution. It’s job is well cut out now, if it is to fulfill the President’s mandate of restoring security and peace “in the shortest possible time”.

If you think that the problems of Haiti do not concern you, I am afraid, you may be mistaken. Haitian’s are descendants of slaves mostly from West Africa, including Nigeria. Some of these slaves might well have shared the same lineage with your ancestors hundreds of years ago.

Besides, as a country of Blacks in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti offers a reference point for evaluating Africans at home and in the Diaspora. Former President Donald Trump saw Haiti and African countries as one, referring to them as “shithole” countries. That’s why Haitian poverty, illiteracy, corruption, insecurity, and underdevelopment should be sore points for Africa and Africans.

Nobody seems to care anymore about how Haiti came to be and why it remains a troubled nation. The contemporary focus is on one crisis or the other. In the last 20 years or so, these crises seem to have reached boiling point.

Haiti has been boiling since inception. What eventually became Haiti was originally born out of conflict between the Spanish and the French over the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, all of which was a Spanish colony. In resolving the dispute, the western part of the island, where the French had settled by 1625, was ceded to France in 1697.

For nearly two centuries (1625-1804), the French colonists extracted the last drop of labour from African slaves brought in to work on the sugar cane and coffee plantations. The slaves died young under harsh labour and unfamiliar diseases but the slave masters kept replenishing them with newly imported slaves from West Africa. By the time of the French Revolution in 1789, the colony had emerged as France’s richest colonial possession and one of the richest colonies in the world.

However, the economic boom would perish under recurrent conflicts, heavy debts, corruption, and political instability.

It all started with the struggle for independence. Piggybacking on the French Revolution, the slaves mounted their own revolution against the French. After 12 years of conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte’s army was defeated and the French territory was renamed Haiti on independence on January 1, 1804. By this feat, Haiti became the only nation in history that was established by a successful slave revolt; the first country to abolish slavery; and the first independent nation of the Caribbean and Latin America.

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These feats notwithstanding, Haiti would know no peace. First, fearful of the spread of independence revolt to American slaves, the American government pursued international isolation of the newly independent nation.

Second, the French returned with warships to demand compensation for the loss of their colony and the plantations. By today’s standards, the agreed sum would be well over a trillion dollars. This would further seriously undercut Haiti’s economic activities. By the time the compensation was fully paid in 1947, Haiti was already sinking under political turmoil.

For a century after independence, Haiti struggled but made no progress. Continued political instability in the early 1900s led to American fears of foreign intervention. As a result, the United States occupied the country for 19 years between 1915 and 1934.

Although the Americans tried to stabilize the economy during their occupation, their exit was followed by even more political instability. True, power did not change hands as frequently or violently as before when the Duvalier family (Papa and Baby Doc) took over for 20 years (1956-1986). However, instead of stabilizing the country, the Duvalier dynasty was marked by state-sponsored violence, corruption, and economic stagnation. Worse still, the dynasty incurred additional debts. Although the debts were eventually forgiven, political instability and corruption would prevent national development.

Haiti has never been able to sustain democracy. Neither America’s Operation Uphold Democracy nor the United Nation’s Stabilization Mission has been able to salvage democracy in the country. It’s leaders were either ousted in a military coup, forced to resign and flee the country, or assassinated. At least five Haitian leaders have been assassinated since independence, the most recent being Jovenel Moïse, who was killed in his bedroom on July 7, 2021.

What is worse, nature has not been kind to Haitians. In 1994, Hurricane Gordon killed between 1,122 and 2,200 people. In 2004, over 3,000 people were killed in flooding and mudslides by Tropical Storm Jeanne. Again, in 2008, a series of Tropical storms killed over 300 people and left as many as 800,000 in dire need of humanitarian aid. Two years later, in 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck, killing as many as 300,000 and displacing over 1.6 million people. The death toll is still being counted in the most recent natural disaster. It was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on August 14, 2021.

Images of the devastation from these disasters show helpless people and grossly inadequate or weak structures, obviously a result of poverty and government neglect. The contrast between the United States and Haiti in clearing disaster debris could not be more obvious. Cranes were going up and down, clearing the debris from a fallen apartment in Florida, while Haitians were picking debris with bare hands. Some were looking for loved ones still buried beneath the rubble. Others were scavenging for food or something of value.

Yet, genuine efforts to deliver food and medical aid to thousands of victims of the earthquake are being disrupted by criminal gangs and mob violence. Of course, insecurity has been a standard feature of Haitian streets virtually throughout the nation’s existence. In the late 1990s, one of my PhD students at Temple University wrote his dissertation on the subject. The dissertation gave rise to an award winning book, whose title speaks volumes: Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in Haiti.

Haitians fought for 12 years for self determination and attained independence 217 years ago. Today, they are the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere, struggling for survival. On several occasions, the international community, led by the United States, has come to Haiti’s aid. President Joe Biden for one quickly dispatched human and material assistance to Haiti in the wake of the recent disaster. But for how long will Haiti continue to depend on food assistance and Band-aid?

True, African countries are facing their own internal problems. Nevertheless, it is high time they came together to rescue Haiti. Given Haiti’s enduring historical and cultural ties to Africa and the expressed desire (though denied) to join the African Union, the time to acknowledge Haiti’s problems as Africa’s problems is now.

Two recent events got me thinking seriously about Nigeria and its image abroad. One was the COVID-19 PCR test I had at the Philadelphia International Airport, hours before my return flight to Lagos. The other event was the search for dollars in my hand luggage by six police officers inside the jetway after passing through the boarding gate in Detroit.

The PCR Test

The nose swab Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 is now required of all passengers for entry or re-entry into Nigeria, even after completing two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. After paying online for the same test within seven days of arrival in Nigeria, travellers must also obtain a QR Code to show at check-in. I did my PCR test at the Philadelphia International Airport. The Test Centre was set up by a consortium of the Airport, Jefferson Hospital, and Ambulnz, a mobile medical services company. Appropriate equipment, technology, and staff were deployed to facilitate rapid testing.

First, I scanned into my phone a QR Code pasted on the wall. It took me to the application form, which I immediately completed online. The information required included my flight information and the destination country in order to accurately determine the country’s test requirement. Once I emailed the form to the provided address, I was called in and sent to Room 3, which was dedicated to PCR test. The technician collected the sample and told me to wait for about 15 minutes for the result.

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I took time to ask her about the processes involved. She told me that the swab would be sent to the lab across the hall in a sealed tube. A technologist would extract genetic material from the sample. Whatever is extracted would be subjected to special chemicals using a PCR machine. Special software is then used to read the signals that indicate the presence or otherwise of COVID-19.

When my negative result was ready within 30 minutes of the initial application, my mind went straight to Nigeria. I recalled a time when I did the COVID-19 test and waited in vain for the result. None was ever provided.

There was yet another time I did the test and the result was ready the same day. The first test was done in a government-related facility, while the second was done in a private hospital approved by the NCDC for overseas travellers. By the Philadelphia Airport standard, even the second test I had in Nigeria was still slow.

The delay in Nigeria is due to multiple factors, including poor infrastructure, inadequate materials, inefficient bureaucracy and lack of proper coordination between states and the NCDC, which releases the official results. The involvement of the NCDC illustrates Nigeria’s over-centralization and lack of trust of state authorities. Some states, such as Kogi, prevented testing, while others did so haphazardly. There is also the problem of lack of commitment of civil servants to ise Ijoba (government work), leading to delays, evasion, and sometimes controversial results. These factors are responsible for the abysmal scale of testing in Nigeria. After nearly 18 months, only about 2.6 million out of over 200 million people have been tested.

To be sure, a profit-making venture, such as the Airport Test Centre, is in the business for profit. The workers maximise their contributions, knowing full well that the company’s continued profit making is in their interest as it guarantees job security and adequate rewards. If government test centres in Nigeria could not aim at the efficiency level of the Philadelphia Test Centre, at least the private test centres in Nigeria should.

Searching for dollar

While the PCR test was an educational experience, the second event was a humiliating one. It happened on the second leg of my flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Although the flight was almost full of passengers, I was the second Black person and the only one whose final destination was Nigeria. After passing through the boarding gate into the jetway, I encountered six police officers, who told me to step aside. Other passengers walked by, looking at me suspiciously.

I was asked to disclose the dollar amount on me, which I did. “Are you aware it is an offense to carry more than $10,000 on you?” The lead police officer asked me. I answered in the affirmative but added that I was also aware that one should fill out a form if the amount was over $10,000. “Do you have more than $10,000 now”. “No”, I responded with confidence. He and one other officer proceeded to search my hand luggage and handbag. All the money they found was put on a table they had brought into the jetway, apparently to ease the counting. They separated the dollar from other currencies they found and proceeded to count the dollar.

At the end of the day, they discovered that I did not have up to $10,000 in my luggage and handbag. They did a second search, opening all possible pockets in the bags. They opened all envelopes and packages, looking for more money. I also brought out everything in my pockets and opened the entrails of the pockets.

They thereafter proceeded to interview me about what I do for a living. I told them I was a Professor in various American universities and retired from one of them. I encouraged them to google my name to find out more about me. One of the officers looking on did so and smiled. The others then began to engage in a banter, which gave me the opportunity to ask them why I was isolated for the dollar search. They looked at each other and said nothing. As they were walking away, one of them said “Safe journey to Nigeria”.

Nigeria. That’s the problem. From the perspective of law enforcement in the US, it is the country of fraudsters-of Ramon Abass, alias Hushpuppy, the notorious Internet fraudster; of Abidemi Rufai, alias Ruffy, a US employment fund fraudster; and of Kingsley Kuku, who allegedly was arrested at the Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam within hours of my passing through the same airport last week.

With continuous news about corruption, Yahoo Boys, and other fraudulent activities within the country, Nigeria’s image is dented at home and abroad. Mine could have been a random search in Detroit. But every Nigerian travelling abroad must be prepared for such an encounter. That is the legacy Nigerian leaders, past and present, have bequeathed on us.

By Niyi Akinnaso

They are a nuisance. And all the network providers are involved. I have encountered at least 20 distinct senders from a single network provider alone, each one sending multiple messages. You delete them. But they keep coming, occupying significant real estate on your phone. They are unsolicited messages directly from the network providers or their associates.

Particularly vexing are those from MTN. For the avoidance of doubt, here are the different types of MTN senders I encountered within the past few months: MTNFreeData; MTNDataDeal; MTNSpecial; MTNShare; MTN Topit; MyMTNAPP or myMTN App; MTNXTRATIME; MTN12XBONUS; MTNOnDemand; MTN; MTN4ME; MyMTN; MTNN or MTN N; MTN4G; MTN SIMSwap; MTNBACKUP; DATA4ME; and AYOBA

I once allowed the different messages from these MTN senders to accumulate on my phone and, within a few days, the number hit 100! I have received over 60 in the month of August alone, and today is only the 11th. And all these messages hit my phone line while I was out of the country. A strange one joined the ranks recently. It is AYOBA, which implores me to click a link for national and international news. I never did and I never will.

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The most recent addition to the MTN senders is MTN AT 20. Here’s what it says: “Let’s celebrate 20 years together. Today Your 1st call is FREE for up to 5 mins & 200 MB data bonus. Thanks for being part of the Y’ello family. #TogetherAt20”.

Congratulations to MTN. But I don’t want this celebratory message on my phone. It belongs to the TV screen or a radio commercial. Pay TVC, Channels, or Arise to air it for you, rather than freely occupy space on my phone. No network provider in civilized nations would bombard subscribers’ text inbox with this kind of unsolicited message and the other promotional messages for that matter. It will be regarded as a violation of their privacy. True, promotional messages are not uncommon in such nations, but the option to opt out often accompanies such messages. You can even decide while setting up your phone not to receive such messages at all.

I am aware, of course, that the Nigerian Communication Commission established a Do Not Disturb (DND) protocol to protect network subscribers from receiving unsolicited text messages. The service is meant to provide subscribers the freedom to choose what messages they want to receive from a given telephone network or not to receive promotional messages at all. All the networks are mandated to set aside a common short-code for the service. It is 2442.

I first checked the DND status on my MTN line, by sending STATUS to 2442, as stipulated by the protocol. The message did not go through. I also sent STOP to 2442 on my MTN line, again following the protocol, in order to opt out of receiving their promotional messages. The message failed to “send”. I have made numerous attempts without success.

Just for comparative purposes, I tried the status message on my Airtel line. It immediately went through, with an instant response: “The Full DND service is active on your line”. In fairness to Airtel, I have received only essential messages from them, all dealing with mutual transactions, such as data purchase and data balance check. From their perspective, the DND service works.

Not so, however, with MTN. Out of frustration, I once approached three of their major offices in three different state capitals. The agents at all the offices told me the same thing. One said, “Delete them sir, if you don’t like them”. The other said, “You have a choice, sir. Just delete the ones you don’t like”. I responded, “That’s not the kind of choice I mean. I want to be able to choose whether to receive them or not. I really don’t like any of them and I don’t want to receive them any longer”. Her instant response was discouraging, “Ah, that’s not possible, sir. Just keep deleting them”.

The critical question now is: Why is MTN so recalcitrant? It will be recalled that only four years ago (see The Punch, June 5, 2017, for the full story), the Court of Appeal in Abuja unanimously ruled against the network for violating a subscriber’s right to privacy guaranteed under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, which states, among others, that “The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic conversations is hereby guaranteed and protected”.

The Court further held that MTN violated Rule 14(1)(b), (2) and (3) of the General Consumer Code of Practice Rules as well as the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations 2007. Both regulations derive their potency from of section 70 of the Communications Act. At the end of the day, MTN was fined N3 million.

However, this hardly compares to the whopping N5.2 billion judgment against MTN two years earlier, in 2015, for non-compliance with a deadline set by the same NCC to disconnect all non-registered SIM cards on its network. It eventually settled out of court but still paid a substantial sum.

If MTN could violate NCC’s regulations, leading to payment of fines, two years apart, there is no reason to believe that it would not relapse into the same habit a few years later. This, at least, is my own finding about its non-compliance with the DND protocol as stipulated by the NCC.

This means that the NCC should not relax in its oversight functions. And that leads me to a much wider problem-the poor quality of network connectivity in Nigeria. To be sure, all networks suffer from the nation’s infrastructural deficit. However, a more critical problem on their part is greed, typified by over-subscription. For example, a given network provider could issue 10,000 subscriptions on a node that was meant to carry a maximum of 5,000.

When the node is full, the pre-recorded message in line at the time of your call will answer the call. That’s why the response may vary from “the number is unreachable” to “the number does not exist”, even if your call was through to that same number moments earlier.

This then is yet another area where the NCC needs to enforce compliance. No network provider should subscribe consumers beyond extant capacity. Similarly, NCC should look into problems of inter-network connectivity. Again, in this regard, the MTN line is often the most difficult to connect, when calling from another network provider. In the meantime, however, the compliance with the DND protocol should be fully enforced with MTN.