The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Powerless police

    Powerless police

    Hardball

    Low morale has always been a major challenge facing the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). This worsened following the #EndSARS–related nationwide mayhem that culminated in the looting and burning of police stations, and killing of police officers.

    In Lagos State, which was the hardest-hit, for instance, 16 police stations were burnt by rampaging mobs across the state, and 13 police formations were vandalised as well as police posts in four areas. Law and order broke down.

    Now the police are reported to be reluctant to do their work, which is maintaining law and order. This is understandable but unacceptable.

    Police Service Commission (PSC) spokesman Ikechukwu Ani condemned “the killing of police officers on legitimate duties,” adding that the commission “can only plead with the officers to in the spirit of nationalism return to work while the government works out enough protective programmes for them.”

    This sounds like an admission that the police lacked adequate protection, which made them vulnerable to attacks during the #EndSARS protests. The losses suffered by the police may well be due to their lack of capacity.  They simply couldn’t fight back when the mobs struck. Why were they so powerless?

    Read Also: #EndSARS: House-to-house search illegal, unconstitutional

    It’s noteworthy that Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu listed the requirements of the police at a public hearing organised in February by the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs. The focus was ‘Repositioning the Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.’

    The IGP, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Abdulmajid Ali, said the Force needed more personnel, not less than 1,000 Armoured Personnel Carriers, and 250,000 assault rifles with corresponding ammunition, to effectively police the country.

    He also said the police needed 2,000,000 tear gas canisters and smoke grenades, 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, and 774 operational drones, among others.

    These requirements will cost money, almost N1tn, the police boss said. The police authorities had asked for N944, 856,416,800 to combat rising insecurity across the country.

    Also, there is no doubt that Nigeria needs more policemen. The United Nations (UN) standard of policing says one policeman to 400 citizens, but Nigeria is said to have one policeman to 600 citizens.

    An ill-equipped police force cannot be expected to effectively maintain law and order.  The police are licking their wounds, and it will take some time for them to get over their humiliation during the #EndSARS protests.

    It’s clear that the police need to be strengthened and well equipped to face the challenges of their work.  Powerless police are an aberration.

  • Rogue on the Airtel network

    Rogue on the Airtel network

    Hardball

     

    A ROGUE, 9001, roams on the Airtel network.  How complicit is the network in the roguery?  Is it unaware of the havoc 9001 daily causes?  Or it is part of the whole racket?

    That is what the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) should find out, to save innocent subscribers.

    Now and then, 9001 props up — at least on Airtel line 08023596231 — and pops the lie, in an annoying text: “Thank you for requesting for VERTO FUN GAMERS DAILY (capitalization its) at N20. 0.  Please reply: 1 Buy + auto renew. 2 Buy once. 3 Reject.”

    That was a blatant lie, for the subscriber never “requested” for any game, VERTO or no, not to talk of earning a marketers subversive “thank you”, prelude to clinching a willy-nilly deal.

    For the umpteenth time, subscriber 08023596231 would pick 3 (Reject); and each time 9001 would respond: “Congratulation, — [what the hell for?] — your reply has been taken successfully, soon you will receive a confirmation”.

    In a few hours on, the same e-harassment would repeat itself and the whole travesty is gone through all over again — tiring!

    The only saving grace is that the text is charged free — no deduction from your account.  But the not-so-graceful ordeal is that the same text soon comes back, harassing you, most annoyingly, to buy a service you never requested, but which 9001 insisted you did!  Some cheek!

    Time was when such phony marketing was routine — indeed, an epidemic — with most of the networks; with the Telcos proceeding to net off money for services neither requested nor used; or for products willy-nilly sold in the worst tradition of Hobson’s choice, in that golden age network rip-offs.

    Still, thanks to subscribers’ cries and NCC interventions, that racketeering-at-subscribers’-expense tapered off.  Is that old habit creeping back again?

    That is why the NCC, as the industry regulators, should probe this 9001 Airtel foray.  Subscribers cannot afford to be gamed by e-smart Alecs, on Telco networks, while the NCC looks on.

    Starting a sales pitch with brazen lies is bad enough.  Pestering subscribers, again and again, even after turning down the initial pitch, is the limit of corporate insensitivity, if not outright criminal obduracy.

    It’s high time NCC called Airtel to order.

  • Reckless stampede

    Reckless stampede

    Hardball

    With the way looters body-crushed and pressed on one another in the scramble for Covid-19 palliatives when government as well as private warehouses were raided across this country, you would think the pandemic itself is a myth. Not a scintilla of the prescribed protocols, namely the use of facemasks and social distancing among others, featured on the radar of the stampeding looters, as if the whole issue of Covid-19 never arose to begin with. That the looters were stampeding for ‘palliatives’ intended to mitigate the effects of a health challenge they showed scant acceptance of its reality was the height of irony.

    Warehouses have been looted in Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ogun states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – actually, perhaps in all the states of this federation – with tons of raw edibles and other items stolen by the looters who were reported saying they were appropriating what belonged to them ab initio. In a number of places, the materials seized by looters in opportunistic desperation were not fit for human consumption, such as in Ekiti where government raised the alarm that poisonous items including  single super phosphate and NPK fertilisers mistaken for cassava grain (‘garri’), and pre-fermented corns preserved with chemicals for planting had been spirited away.

    Although government had earlier declared that the Covid-19 curve is being flattened in Nigeria, the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chike Ihekweazu, early this week warned that the low case count in recent times could soon take a twist for the worse. Speaking on Monday at a media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 in Abuja, he said laboratories in Lagos, as in other places, had not been operating optimally lately amidst the #EndSars crisis. “As we move into the next two weeks, it will not take a rocket scientist to know that we have to watch the numbers very carefully. The reasons are obvious: we have gathered in our masses for whatever reason and for now, we have to keep our eyes open for the potential consequences. Those consequences are not inevitable; we can still do our part to prevent them,” he added.

    It requires no arcane insight to understand what Ihekweazu means to be that the Covid-19 pandemic, which seem on the verge of being defeated by Nigeria, could rebound courtesy of the indiscretion of some Nigerians such as looters involved in the reckless stampede for palliatives. As at last Wednesday, the NCDC reported 147 new infections, taking the total count to 62, 371 confirmed cases. When people conduct themselves in aggressive disregard of safety protocols the way looters have been doing, they risk incurring a second wave of the pandemic on this country. We surely don’t want that.

  • Delayed relief is no relief

    Delayed relief is no relief

    Hardball

     

    EXTREME poverty, extreme hunger and extreme anger – what a dangerous and combustible combination!  This combination triggered the widespread disorder and destruction that followed the #EndSARS protests against police brutality and abuse of power in the country.

    Hardship caused by the coronavirus crisis had compounded the combination. The extremely poor, extremely hungry and extremely angry took advantage of the protests to loot warehouses containing COVID-19 lockdown relief items. There was a lot to loot in several states, giving rise to the allegation that those who should have distributed the relief items hoarded them.

    There was a need to explain why relief items that should have been distributed to the needy were seen in abundance in warehouses. The looters demonstrated that those in charge of the distribution failed to grasp the depth of their deprivation, which required swift remedial action.

    Swiftness mattered. But it was lacking.  This is why the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have a lot of explaining to do.

    CACOVID spokesman Nwanosiobi Osita explained: “The very large size of the order, and the production cycle required to meet the demand caused delays in delivering the food items to the states in an expeditious manner; hence, the resultant delay in delivery of the food palliatives by the state governors.”

    NGF spokesman Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo said “no state has been involved in or has hoarded any palliatives,” explaining that about 10 states had delayed the distribution of the relief items because “the items meant for distribution in these states had not been completely received from CACOVID.”  But the concerned states should have distributed the items they had received.

    He added: “Some other states that still had palliatives in their warehouses chose to keep a strategic reserve ahead of a projected second wave of COVID-19.”  But the items should have been distributed.

    He also said “as of a couple of weeks ago, some states were still receiving palliatives from the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.” Received items should have been distributed.

    These efforts to rationalise the delay in distributing the relief items, and their abundance in warehouses in several states, suggest that CACOVID and several governors had failed to act with a sense of urgency. It is inexcusable that items meant to alleviate hardship were not supplied and distributed promptly.

    Those who were supposed to get the relief items needed immediate relief. They were faced with an emergency.  But those who were supposed to deal with the situation lacked a sense of urgency.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Morning after

    Morning after

    THE morning after, is always the mourning after.  At the brink, reason is leashed; but emotion gallops free.  It is disaster foretold.

    That is the long-and-short of the #ENDSARS protests which, though started peacefully with superb organization and efficiency that brought out the genius in the organizers, it still sunk low into chaos and near-anarchy.  Again, no need to reach that brink, or plumb that nadir.  But restraint or tactical withdrawal, for strategic triumph, doesn’t exist in the dictionary of street romantics.

    Still, it appears lose-lose all round.  The dead, on both sides, can’t live to fight another day.  Neither would assets destroyed make returns again, for decades of toil and sweat, that put those assets in place.  It’s the brutal illogic of summary destruction.  It’s far easier to pull down than to build.  So, in merry destruction, everyone is mutually imperiled and impoverished.

    Could there be iconic images of catastrophe?  Hardball doubts, for that would appear a contradiction in terms.

    Still, one of the most riveting images of the #ENDSARS protest degeneration was the lynching of that ill-fated policeman, with the torched, modern Orile-Iganmu police facility in the background.  The man reeled and staggered, as his lynchers struck him, savage blows after savage blows.  At last, he collapsed in a heap.  But his lynchers just dumped on him wooden products and allied fuel — perhaps to set him ablaze?

    It was the people roasting the state!

    But beyond all of the grim romance of hate and anger, the doomed policeman was another person’s son, husband, father, cousin, uncle, nephew — and if unmarried, fiancé or boyfriend.  In short, he was also a citizen before becoming an agent of the state; and definitely had a right to live and not to be lynched.

    Another riveting tragedy was what has come to be dubbed the “Lekki massacre” (since discredited) — of security agencies allegedly switching off the lights of the Ozumba Mbadiwe end of the Lekki toll gate, and firing at protesters, just to disband them and enforce the curfew.

    Read Also: #EndSARS violence: Panels begin work in states

     

    Rumours soon hit cyber-waves (mercifully false) that Eniola Badmus, the famous thespian and actor, was killed.  She has since refuted the grim rumour, stating she wasn’t anywhere near that spot that day, though she was fully in support of the protest.

    It was the state roasting the people!

    Still, those killed or injured in that fracas, famed or nameless, are citizens who have a right to life, and others’ children, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces, boyfriends and girlfriends!  They wouldn’t have died, had a bit of reason and moderation prevailed.  Yet, they ended up as tragic stats, who can’t live to fight another day.

    So, state or citizen, everyone must learn the merits of moderation, to escape the perils of catastrophe.  But now, after that tragic brink, it’s time to re-navigate mutual civility, to regain noble peace.

    The curfew is a good way to freeze the madness and re-introduce — mind you, not re-impose — order.  This needed not have cost lives.

    But with a modicum of order, if not outright peace, the government too should move fast to demonstrate genuine commitment to meeting protesters’ demands.

    With both the government and the governed knowing their mutual limits in a democracy, the government can govern and citizens protest, without avoidable tragedies, that fuel the mo(u)rning after.

     

     

     

  • Anyone seen Minister Nanono?

    Anyone seen Minister Nanono?

    Hardball

    From his oversight perch on matters of victuals in Nigeria, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Sabo Nanono must be wondering what sense to make of the looting spree going on across this country in the wake of #EndSars protests, especially regarding private interest and government warehouses for Covid-19 palliatives.

    Without doubt, many of those barnstorms for edibles were by hoodlums acting out of sheer criminal motivation. But you needed to see the desperation of vulnerable citizens, both underaged as well as the aged – a sizeable number of them, female – to appreciate that, for many, it goes beyond criminality to genuine challenge with basic necessities of life that needed to be desperately met; and that the people believed if these necessities were idly stacked by somewhere, they might as well help themselves to it. At the last count, every real and potential storehouse for food items anywhere was a target of raid by stampeding masses. Warehouses in Lagos, Osun, Plateau, Kwara, Cross River and Ondo, among others, have been overrun. In Ekiti State, government said poisonous items including single super phosphate and NPK fertilisers mistaken for cassava grain (‘garri’) as well as pre-fermented corns preserved for planting were looted away. Among the most terrifying visuals, perhaps, was the throng that besieged government Covid-19 palliatives warehouse in Jos, Plateau State, which incontrovertibly indexed hunger epidemic in the land.

    It would be nice to hear from Minister Nanono because he once said any claim that there’s hunger in Nigeria was fallacious. Speaking at a news conference to mark the World Food Day in October 2019, the minister argued that there is obesity rather than starvation in Nigeria, and that the country is not only food sufficient but is deploying its oversupply to exports. “When people talk about hunger, I laugh because they do not know hunger. If you go to other countries, you will see what hunger is. Food in Nigeria is fairly cheap compared to other countries,” he said, adding: “The policy of the present government for us to feed ourselves is key. In the process, value chains are being created to empower people and give out some jobs. I think we are producing enough now to feed ourselves and I think there is no hunger, but if you say ‘inconveniences,’ I would agree.”

    Well, unless the minister would now argue that circumstances have changed over the past year, it flies in the face of evidence to deny there is ruinous deprivation in this land – ruinous to individuals affected, but also to the collective safety of citizens as recent experiences have shown. If there’s no hunger in Nigeria, it must be the meaning of that word has changed from what we saw propelling the Covid-19 looting spree.

  • Needless moral burden

    Needless moral burden

    Hardball

     

     

    APPOINTMENTS under the executive presidential system is an often-flaunted prerogative of an incumbent, even where specific instances of the exercise of that prerogative may be controversial and obviously informed by self-serving considerations by the appointer. A classic case is the nomination of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, barely four weeks before the 3rd  November presidential poll in that country. Republican Trump nominated Barrett for congressional confirmation hearings to fill the opening created by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who recently died. Democrats prefer that he shelve the nomination until after the election, which opinion polls showed them highly favoured to win; but Trump had openly argued that he expects the electoral contest will eventually end up for adjudication by the Supreme Court, and he apparently aims at stacking up the Bench as could potentially strengthen sympathetic disposition towards him. In doing this, he insists on exercising his presidential prerogative of appointment.

    We operate the American model in Nigeria, hence President Muhammadu Buhari routinely exercises the executive prerogative of appointment. But as is inherent to that system, the prerogative isn’t always exercised to the satisfaction of all. Sometimes when exercised, you are left wondering if there was any consideration of potential legacy effects. That is the case with the president’s nomination, last week, of his Senior Special Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, for Senate confirmation as a National Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In a letter to the Senate, he named Onochie from Delta State alongside Prof. Muhammad Sani Kallah (National Electoral Commissioner), Katsina; Prof. Kunle Cornelius Ajayi (National Electoral Commissioner), Ekiti; and Saidu Babura Ahmad (Resident Electoral Commissioner), Jigawa.

    It is awkward that the two major political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – have pitched in to milk partisan capital from the ensuing debate; but we must objectively isolate the issues that make Onochie’s nomination for the INEC job inappropriate. The electoral body is a neutral national institution that must be held in trust by fiercely dispassionate individuals with a cold temperament able to insulate them against susceptibility to partisan disposition. That must be why the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides that members of the commission as well as resident electoral commissioners must be non-partisan and persons of unquestionable integrity. Onochie, by her antecedents and comportment, fall far short of these conditions and would be a heavy moral burden on the commission. She is not only a partisan, she functioned as an ‘attack dog’ of President Buhari – a temperament not suitable for the dispassion required in INEC.  As non-partisan civil society groups have strongly canvassed, her presence in the electoral body would be a moral burden and could reverse gains made in the electoral process. These should be avoided.

     

     

  • #EndSARS: More than meets the eye

    #EndSARS: More than meets the eye

    Hardball

    It started as a small fire. But it is growing into an inferno. The #EndSARS protests that started two weeks ago are showing no sign of abating.  The youthful protesters are continuing the protests with increased energy and enthusiasm.

    “From the five demands which were initially tabled and have been addressed, they are now including petrol price, national assembly salaries, and allowances, electricity tariff among others,” Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed was quoted as saying.

    Initially, it was a protest against police brutality and abuse of power. By October 11, the escalating intensity of the nationwide protests prompted the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), known as SARS, in all the 36 State Police Commands and the Federal Capital Territory. The unit was set up to tackle armed robbery and kidnapping

    Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu, who announced the scrapping of SARS, later introduced a new Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team to replace SARS.

    If the authorities thought this action was enough to end the protests, they were mistaken. Subsequent events have shown that the anti-SARS protests were just the tip of the iceberg.

    Importantly, the country was witnessing a move for change driven by youths. It is now clear that the protests have grown into a demand for good governance or a demand for an end to bad governance.

    The minister, suspecting “an ulterior motive,” was reported saying “you begin to ask yourself what exactly is the motive of the protests and who are those behind them.” Is he suggesting that the country is getting good governance, and there is no need for such protests? The people know governance could be better.  The protesters know this too.

    It was redeeming that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo apologised to Nigerians on behalf of the Federal Government. “Dear Nigerians,” he tweeted, “I know that many of you are angry, and understandably so. We could’ve moved faster and for this we are sorry…Many feel that we have been too silent and have simply not done enough. These feelings of frustration are justified…We also understand that the issues that you’re raising are bigger than just SARS.”

    In other words, this situation was avoidable. The presidency must go beyond acknowledging its shortcomings. Nigerians want good governance, which is more than dissolving SARS. The minister’s insinuation that the protesters are being sponsored to destabilise the President Muhammadu Buhari administration amounts to insulting the people and trying to impose inadequate governance standards on the country.

  • IE: eager to bill, tardy to serve

    IE: eager to bill, tardy to serve

    hardball

     

    On the September estimated bills, the creative billing accountants of Ikeja Electric (IE) have gone well and truly ga-ga!

    But since no one has a monopoly of madness, one of the crazily billed communities, the Okota Residents Association (ORA Zone A) are threatening drastic customer revolt.  They have told their unmetered members not to pay a dime until ORA got back to IE.

    Are we then near to mass #ENDIE protests, similar to the on-going #ENDSARS?  Time will tell!

    Meanwhile, at almost the same time IE was dropping its September wonder-bill, a section of the ORA Zone A community, Abayomi Adewale Street, was plunged into permanent darkness.

    Since the night of Saturday October 10, the street and surroundings, sharing same local transformer, have endured a total blackout.  It’s anyone’s guess, when that local fault would be fixed.  Again, typical IE: fast to bill, slow to work!

    But back to the billing uproar, feel the direct ire of a customer, on ORA’s Unmetered Residents Association WhatsApp platform: “Good morning, neighbours!!!  I woke up this morning to this outrageous bill and I wish to post in on the platform for the neighbours who are affected to discuss, and know how to handle this extortion (N51, 722. 23 Kobo for a two-bedroom flat!)”.

    Still, after perusing the bill, the actual “amount due” for September was N34, 724. 31.  The added “previous balance” of N14, 494.23 must have been voodoo bills, disputed by customers but which IE continues to roll over in its books.

    The breakdown of another customer’s case, with bill number 0100218678, is rather instructive.  He was slapped with “current charges” for September: N35, 584. 71 (almost double the N18, 255. 87 for August).  But after adding a so-called “previous balance” — again, past disputed bill for the supply of darkness — the magic accountants zoomed in with a cumulative N53, 746 as September due.

    How IE came about these figures is hard to fathom, given the clear Federal Government instruction, as part of agreements struck to suspend the Labour strike, that the new billing system be suspected for two weeks.

    After that, there was another government concession to pick part of the new bill for three months, to the tune of N10.20k/KW, for three months.  So, with all of these, how come IE’s bill will jump from N18, 255. 87 in August to N35, 584.71, for September?  Are IE’s accountants far too gone in their reckless bill-cooking they don’t bloody care if their DisCo now appears an unfazed outlaw?

    In any case, the ORA Zone A community would have no such rascality.  It told its members: “Good morning all.  We have made a definite statement that we reject the bill and cannot pay.  Already, we have engaged the services of a lawyer, to put our demands on paper; and this will be communicated to the committee set up by government on this matter and also to IE and NERC.

    “Our grouse is not even the increase in tariff but the allocated consumption which is outrageous and not acceptable.  Failure to address the issue, we will take a legal action to defend our residents.”

    Interesting clash ahead, as IE readies its disconnection gang, flashing October 18 as its disconnection deadline!

    Bottom line: the Federal Government must ensure the metering of ALL consumers, if this new tariff increase is not to lead to a fresh blow-out!

  • Theatre of the absurd

    Theatre of the absurd

    Hardball

     

    THE absurdist movement of the late 1950s was one in which notable playwrights depicted the ‘existentialism’ philosophy of human existence as lacking in meaning or purpose. Their plots were typically cyclical, with the finishing point looping back to the starting point and logic giving way to irrationality – making silence ultimately the best option. This was the undercurrent of the meaningless banter and vacuous waiting game by Vladimir and Estragon for an illusory figure named Godot in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

    Edo State House of Assembly is Nigeria’s contemporary theatre of the absurd; absurdity characterises its operations behind a fragile façade of normalcy. The legislative house early this week sacked Francis Okiye (Esan Northeast) as Speaker and replaced him with Marcus Onobun (Esan West).

    Absurdity lay in the fact that Okiye presided over 10 lawmakers who postured as the assembly since its controversial proclamation on June 17, 2019 by Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki. It was this proclamation that hardened battle-lines between Obaseki and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, resulting in Obaseki’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to run for a second term. Fourteen members-elect of the assembly who declined participation in that purported proclamation had their seats declared vacant by Okiye, allegedly for having failed the statutory requirement that they join up not later that 180 days after the House was inaugurated. There are pending litigations over the controversy, but the 24-member house has carried on with 10 members under the leadership of   Okiye who was widely seen as legislative man-Friday to Governor Obaseki. The purported house of assembly holds its regular sessions at the state Government House rather than at the statutory legislative complex.

    The latest absurdity is that barely three weeks after Obaseki won his re-election as Governor, and at a legislative session over which he presided last Monday, Okiye was kicked out by all nine other members of the assembly. His removal followed a petition in which he was accused of financial impropriety, upon which Majority Leader Henry Okhuarobo (Ikpoba Okha) moved an impeachment motion, seconded by Yekini Idiaye (Akoko-Edo 1) and adopted by unanimous voice vote. Addressing journalists, Okhuarobo said members had “compelling reasons” to do what they did and only waited till now for political considerations.

    There are suspicions Okiye’s impeachment index his estrangement with Obaseki, as it seems unlikely the measure would’ve carried through without Mr. Governor’s nod – not minding reports that Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu led truce mediation efforts that the lawmakers rebuffed. If that was the case, then Edo’s current legislature proves again it is a thoroughly spineless arm of government, in a state where it has functioned as a protectorate of the executive arm. Sad.