The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Corruption everywhere

    Corruption everywhere

    “All the sectors have been found culpable and found to be highly corrupt, the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, all of them have been found to be corrupt,” according to the Provost of the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), Prof. Tunde Babawale, who made the observation at the recent validation meeting of the Nigeria Corruption Index (NCI) Survey in Abuja. 

    ACAN is the research and training arm of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The validation meeting was for a national survey carried out in 2022, which was called the Nigerian Corruption Index (NCI), and focused on corruption in high places.

    Babawale explained: “The difference in what we are doing is that we are surveying the impact of the effect of grand corruption and we are also looking at it from the perspective of different sectors of society, the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, as well as the sub-national government.” He added that the ultimate objective was to be able to advise the government on policies that should be put in place in order to develop anti-corruption initiatives and interventions.

    The NCI findings showed high levels of corruption, not only across the three arms of government but also in the private sector. For instance, he said the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) had been used “to disguise corruption, to also disguise the perpetration of corruption between the private and public sector.” According to him, private companies sometimes actually perpetrated corruption by giving government officials “bribes and even equipment,” and “some get cars bought for them.”

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    He also drew attention to “legislative oversight sometimes used as a tool and channel for corruption,” saying some people “use it to take money from both the private and public sectors.” He noted that some in the survey “claimed that they sponsored trips for legislative oversight, which should not be, because the government made provision for that. That has to be addressed.”

    It was a disturbing message. It was also a wake-up call.  The ACAN boss said: “The overall thing that was observed is that corruption has become so pervasive that we need to embark on a change of attitude, change of mindset and change of behaviour.”

    Babawale lamented that “there is a high level of tolerance for corruption in the country,” saying, “people must begin to develop a high intolerance level for corruption,” and see it as “very scandalous.”

     The situation calls for a renewed fight against corruption, with greater focus, determination, zeal and energy. This is a fight the country cannot afford to lose.

  • Ball game in Kaduna

    Ball game in Kaduna

    Authorities in Kaduna State have hit on a terminal cure for errant libido of rapists. Male rapists in the state will have their balls cut off, while female rapists will be de-fertilised by having both of their fallopian tubes removed.

    State Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Salisu, recently said male rapists would be subjected to surgical castration as punishment, while female rapists would be made to undergo bilateral salpingectomy. These penalties, according to her, are stipulated in the state’s Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPPL), 2018, implying they have been in the statute books and will now be enforced.

    Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna after a parley with stakeholders organised in collaboration with the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP), Hajiya Salisu said the law was enacted following a lengthy process of advocacy, lobbying and awareness campaign by civil society groups in the state working with relevant government agencies. Rape cases in Nigeria are notoriously under-reported, but the commissioner said  there had been more reported cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Kaduna State since the passage of the VAPPL in December 2018. This, according to her, is attributable to increased awareness about VAWG campaign and availability of the castration law.

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    Those penalties stipulated by the Kaduna codebook may ordinarily appear harsh, but rape is such a monstrous offence against hapless victims that perpetrators deserve the worst that they get. Surgical castration for a male rapist will involve emasculating the offender by excising his testicles. Chemical castration that involves using pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes could be tidier, but apparently would be less painful to the rapist. Similarly for the female rapist, bilateral salpingectomy will involve removal of both fallopian tubes, translating to terminal birth control for the offender. Unilateral salpingectomy, which is the removal of only one fallopian tube, would be more benign since medical authorities say a person can get pregnant with only one fallopian tube.  But the Kaduna law stipulates taking out both tubes, which is female equivalent of male castration.

    And you really can’t blame the Kaduna government for going for the rapist’s procreative jugular. The offence is highly dastardly because it not only affrontingly violates the victim, it as well leaves many victims in a psychological prison of forced silence out of fear of social stigma should the violation be reported. The offence is therefore sufficiently grievous that it isn’t asking for too much if other states borrow a leaf from the Kaduna law. Cut off the rapist’s balls!

  • The right thing to do

    The right thing to do

    It is a significant development that the Federal High Court, Abuja, recently ordered the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, to release details of how N535.8m was spent on feeding school children, under her predecessor, during COVID-19 lockdown.

    Justice Nkeonye Maha ordered Edu and the ministry to provide a civil society group, Incorporated Trustees of Kingdom Human Rights Foundation International, with parts of the information sought, in line with Section 25(1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011. She also ordered the minister to comply with the orders of the court within 21 days upon receipt of the orders.

    The group had sued the minister, the ministry and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. Also joined in the suit were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).  

    According to the group, independent investigation and information available to it “revealed that the so-called modified and implemented school feeding programme during lockdown against coronavirus pandemic was a scam, cover-up and well-articulated fiction to embezzle public funds.”

    Based on this, the group sought “Details, accompanied with documentary evidence of how the N523,273,800 million was spent on school feeding programme during the COVID-19 lockdown in three states following presidential directive as disclosed to Nigerians by the 1st defendant during the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19 briefing of Monday, 3rd August, 2020 in Abuja,” among others.

    The suit followed alleged refusal of the former minister, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and her ministry to respond to the group’s request for information. Umar-Farouq was the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    Justice Maha held that her failure to respond to the group’s letter, dated August 6, 2020, or even give reason for not responding to the request, as prescribed under the FOI Act, contravened the provisions of Section 4(a) and (b) of the Act.

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    It remains to be seen whether the current minister, who has been ordered to provide the information requested by the group, would obey the order. Obeying the court order is about respect for the law.  

     The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), launched in 2016, is one of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) introduced by the Buhari administration. The aim of the intervention programme is to encourage school enrollment and improve pupils’ general wellbeing by providing one meal per pupil on school days in selected public primary schools.

    Edu should demonstrate a sense of transparency, accountability, and propriety by releasing the requested information, particularly now that the request has been reinforced by a court order.

  • It’s raining quacks

    It’s raining quacks

    Remember the reported experience of Mrs. Kehinde Kamal at the hands of self-professed medical practitioner, ‘Dr.’ Noah Kekere? She is the woman who, some years back, went in for a surgery on purported ruptured appendicitis at Kekere’s Murna Clinic and Maternity in Jos, only to later discover her right kidney was harvested without her knowledge. While the scandal raged last September, it was reported that Kekere ran a private medical practice for some 25 years without certification as a medical doctor and was registered with the professional body, namely the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). The fella was allegedly a quack and was arrested by the police upon a petition by Kehinde’s husband, Busari Kamal.

    Well, it’s raining quacks at the Plateau State capital. The National  Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently uncovered and shuttered a pharmacy where expired drugs were being fraudulently revalidated and sold to the public by pharmacy operators. The agency said it seized the pharmaceuticals comprising oral drugs and injectables worth N15million from the Jos-based pharmacy. It also seized unregistered alcoholic beverages worth more than N30million from shops in the Plateau capital and in nearby Bukuru township.

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    NAFDAC Northcentral Zone Director Shaba Mohammed said the agency had earlier received reports that the pharmacy sold expired drugs after rubbing off expiry date markings and revalidating their shelf life. According to him, during a raid, NAFDAC agents “discovered that the pharmacy has a room where expired dates were cleaned off and the drugs revalidated.” He said the agency sealed off the pharmacy and arrested the pharmacist who failed to produce his current licence to practice as a pharmacist and current operational licence of the pharmacy itself. Mohammed assured that raids on pharmacies and shops in Plateau would continue until the state is rid of unwholesome products, but also cautioned the public against, among others, buying drugs from unregistered pharmacies.

    Kudos to NAFCDAC for uncovering and shuttering the offending pharmacy, and its promise to sustain such raids. The pharmacist had mind only for profit, without the slightest thought for lethal effects expired drugs could have on the purchasing public. This was a particularly deadly racket of deception because the revalidated drugs were likely sold cheaper than non-expired ones, and hence would attract hapless citizens seeking to maximise scarce funds amidst inflationary swings of the economy. The pharmacist should relentlessly be brought to justice and his case not kept in limbo like ‘Dr.’ Kekere’s. But it must be said that the onus for sustained redress lies with NAFDAC and not by the public avoiding procuring drugs from unregistered pharmacies. Or how does a distressed average citizen seeking medication for a pressing health challenge first identify unregistered pharmacies to be avoided?

  • A bombshell

    A bombshell

    This is a serious issue,” the Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, was reported to have told the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, when he appeared before the committee to defend his ministry’s 2024 budget proposal. “I have it on good authority that prisoners from foreign lands are working in Nigeria as construction workers,” he said.

     He alleged that such foreign prisoners “were shipped to our country to serve their prison terms.” He added that they were being paid according to their country’s minimum wage by the construction company that brought them, saying, “I don’t want to mention the company’s name but if I am provoked, I will mention them.”

    Apart from his silence on the company’s name, he was also silent on the name of the country the company is based. He said the alleged foreign prisoners “are more from a particular country.”

    On the identity of the “particular country,” he provided a clue, saying even if the country had lent Nigeria money, “they should not take away our sovereignty and they must not distort our commitment to creating jobs at home.”

    He also said: “There are many who come here as tourists. They don’t have a work permit and they are working completely illegally while Nigerians are being harassed in their country.”

    Oshiomhole’s allegations are disturbing. Are they true? The crux of the matter is that the alleged foreign prisoners are doing work that can be done by Nigerians, and are thereby contributing to unemployment among Nigerians, particularly youths.

    Under Nigeria’s expatriate quota policy, companies operating in the country can employ only the number of foreigners allowed by the authorities, and companies that need to hire expatriates are required to show that their skills are unavailable locally.

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    If foreign prisoners are truly working as construction workers in the country, does it mean locals cannot do the work? How did they get into the country? Oshiomhole said to the minister: “Your ministry needs to regulate issuance of the quotas very well.”

    According to the regulations, expatriate quota, granted for an initial period of three years, has “a cap of 10 years within which time the relevant skills in the position ought to have been transferred to qualified Nigerian understudies.”

    The Minister of Interior should take the senator’s allegations seriously, and investigate his claims. He must promptly address the anomaly, if confirmed.  Apart from working against Nigerians in the labour market, if there are indeed foreign prisoners working in Nigeria, they must be considered a security risk.   

  • Rethinking leadership succession paradigm

    Rethinking leadership succession paradigm

    Part of the beauty of democracy is that it provides for how leaders should be chosen. Yet, leadership succession has remained a difficult subject in Nigeria. It matters little whether the political system is one-party, multiparty, or presidential or parliamentary. Succession everywhere, even in the best of democracies, has been difficult to manage. Monarchy narrows succession to a few families, but it seldom guarantees the best choice; and some dictatorships, like that of North Korea, have functioned like monarchies. Regardless of the political system, however, some countries, like France, have attempted to ensure that the available pool of successors is populated by brilliant and highly-trained politicians and technocrats. It is perhaps time Nigeria stopped leaving the politics of succession to chance. The United States, whose political system Nigeria copied, appears to leave succession to chance, to all-comers. But in reality, and despite the emergence of misfits like Donald Trump, the system, national institutions, and enlightened electorate ensure that on average, the US tends to produce fairly competent presidents, particularly at moments of national and existential challenges.

    Nigerians have focused almost exclusively on remaking their constitution when in fact their problem goes beyond their constitution or political system. They must start to acknowledge that the world has always experienced crisis of leadership. Nature, so to speak, produces rare and excellent leaders, and sometimes conspires to create the conditions that would help their emergence. But sometimes, for decades, some nations are unable to produce even one great leader. Since 1952, Nigeria has only managed to produce a few great regional leaders. But from independence till 2023, no great leader has emerged. Both democracy and the political systems fail to guarantee success in electing a great leader. Even the military, which for decades kept shooting their way into office, never managed to produce one imaginative and effective leader. It, therefore, came as a shock when in the midst of controversies that riddled Poll 2023 many top politicians and commentators reposed hope in a coup d’etat.

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    The problem of poor and incompetent succession is urgent at both the national and state levels. Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo attempted in 1979 and 2007 to tailor his successors. He failed on both occasions because his criteria were weak and faulty, and the politics he orchestrated to produce those successors were brazen, offensive and even criminal. In the end, his successor in 1979, Shehu Shagari, did not pass muster. Alhaji Shagari was indecisive and out of his depth. Unwilling and obviously unable to learn any lesson from past mistakes, Chief Obasanjo also foisted Umaru Yar’Adua on the country as his successor in 2007. But not only did he die before it was determined he had the capacity to rule or not, he was also too languid to preside over the country. The same mistakes were repeated in some states at different times, to wit, Enugu, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, Kwara and a host of others. Clearly, faulty paradigms have been deployed to guide leadership succession. Rivers and Ondo, as analysed in this place two weeks ago, are the latest examples of the deployment of poor and faulty leadership succession paradigms. Edo is gung-ho about repeating the same mistake. Ondo’s ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has discovered too late that he was backing the wrong horse. It is not certain, given the state of his health, that he can correct the error.

    President Bola Tinubu knows a thing or two about leadership succession, though he was himself not too successful at orchestrating it. He should, therefore, commission a study of the world’s best leadership recruitment models from which he could distil a Nigerian paradigm to institute and guide the training of competent and reflective leaders in all strata and sectors of the society. His Lagos model, still probably the best so far, is nevertheless inadequate for the nation. But if the president is reluctant to create a model, willing states should seize the initiative in the interim by developing a leadership recruitment and succession paradigm capable of inspiring other countries and competent enough to help populate their civil services, agencies, political leadership and international agencies. It can be done. Indeed, it should be done.

  • The problem with Budget 2024

    The problem with Budget 2024

    Commentators have excoriated some provisions of the 2024 budgetary estimates. They are right to identify a mismatch between some provisions in the budget, such as the vice president’s lodge, and the prudence the administration claims to be pursuing at an awful period of global economic distress. They are also right to fear that the philosophy underpinning the administration seems to be at variance with the liberalism of the budget. The National Assembly may in the end put a leash on some of the jarring inconsistencies in the budget and thus help shore up the image of the administration.

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    It is uncertain the president sat through the conception of the entire budget nor digested its provisions, particularly the breakdown. Had he resolved the inconsistencies in his kitchen cabinet and assigned a brilliant and trusted aides philosophically equipped to oversee delicate matters, they would have spotted the budgetary anomalies and reduced them to the barest minimum. President Tinubu has tried to give the impression that his administration would be transcendental in many respects. He must acknowledge that his budget has not done substantial justice to his stratospheric dreams.   

  • Floggers in varsities

    Floggers in varsities

    What are Nigerian universities becoming? The university community, commonly called the Ivory Tower, ideally should be a bastion of civility where members live in a mental bubble of sorts that cocoons them from the harsh and aggressive reality of the wider society – almost to the point of Utopian illusion. But there are lately bursts of corporal aggression indicating that the harsh mode is diluting the debonair insularity of the academic community.

    A recent incident was at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, where a lecturer assaulted a male student who strayed into his lecture room. Reports said the 200-level student, identified as Gift, strayed into a lecture room where the lecturer, Dr. K. F. Ariyo, was conducting a class, in apparent mistaken notion it was a class he ought to be attending. Upon realising his error, Gift assayed to exit the class but the lecturer called him back for harsh interrogation. Eyewitnesses said the lecturer called in university security personnel to drag the student out, and a video that circulated online showed Gift tussling with the security personnel. He was also seen attempting to use his phone when the lecturer barked at him: “Don’t call anybody! Switch off that phone! You can’t be more than me. Even if you’re the VC’s son, I won’t take this from you. Switch off the phone!” The student could be heard grumbling: “What did I do?” Then, the lecturer made to grab the phone from Gift whose back was to the wall while the two tussled. Ariyo also threw a punch at Gift as other students looked on, scandalised.

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    OAU management expressed displeasure and apologised to the public, assuring that it was probing the incident. A statement by Public Relations Officer Abiodun Olanrewaju said the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebayo Bamire, had waded in the matter and raised a committee to unravel its circumstances “What happened in the viral video is not in our character. We are a decent and diligent set of people who will not tolerate any form of abuse or maltreatment from anyone,” he added.

    Only in October, a lecturer at the University of Calabar (UniCal) was caught on video whipping students with a belt at the entrance to a lecture room. UniCal Vice-Chancellor Professor Florence Obi said reports she got indicated the students were from the Department of Microbiology and were waiting for their practicals when the incident occurred. She added the incident was being probed.

    It is more two months on and there’s no update on the UniCal incident. OAU authorities likewise promised a probe, and all eyes are on them to make the findings public soonest. The rage of corporal assault in varsities is a gross anomaly and psychological or, indeed, psychiatric evaluation of members is recommended.    

  • Lame solutions

    Lame solutions

    Clearly, the escalating exodus of medical doctors from the country, and the resultant shortage of such professionals, demand urgent government intervention.

    Public hospitals across the country are reported to be facing a serious shortage of health workers. For instance, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Dr Amos Mogaji, recently observed that not less than five wards, with about 150 beds, had been closed down at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, due to a shortage of health workers.

    The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), in January, said its survey indicated that more than 2,000 of its members left the country in 2022. It is estimated that more than 1,000 doctors had moved to the United Kingdom since May.

    A statement issued recently by the Vice Chancellor (VC), Nile University, Abuja, Prof. Dili Dogo, showed how the government was responding to the matter. The VC said: “We graduated the first set of medical students this year and the Federal Government has requested an increase in the number of medical students to cater for the migration of doctors due to the ‘Japa’ syndrome. To that effect, we are admitting 195 students into our medical programme, representing an increase of 100 percent over that of last year.”

    How will increasing the number of medical students in Nigerian universities address the exodus of medical professionals from the country due to unfavourable working conditions, or the consequent shortage of such professionals?  Producing more doctors when the working conditions are unchanged will likely lead to a greater exodus.  

    Also, in October, responding to the same issue, the Federal Government approved the appointment of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers as contract staff in public hospitals after their statutory retirement.  

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    A circular from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) said the National Council on Establishment had rejected the request to review the current retirement age of Medical/Dental Consultants and other health professionals from 60 to 70 and 75 respectively.

    According to the communication, the council rejected the request, saying, “Professionals in the health sector were leaving the country because of pecuniary consideration and unfavourable conditions of service and not as a result of retirement age.”

     Also, the council noted that “Some state governments had already increased the retirement age of medical doctors and other health workers and this has not addressed the spate of brain drain.”

    This shows awareness of the causes of the medical brain drain. Boosting admission of medical students, and approving the employment of retired healthcare workers as contract staff, cannot tackle the consequences.  The authorities should provide effective solutions.

  • Shaibu in purgatory

    Shaibu in purgatory

    They are beating me and I am crying and I am buying handkerchiefs to clear the tears,” Philip Shaibu, embattled Edo State deputy governor wailed from his self-induced political purgatory.  “People say we are fighting, but I’m not fighting.  I’m being beaten.”

     That was him, at his declaration for Governor, in the Edo 2024 off-season election. But  he could well have been screeching, in divine pains and chains, as Satan and hosts in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, who would reign in hell than serve in heaven. 

    Let him endure his purgatory — as any good Catholic!  If you combine perfidy with ingratitude — as Shaibu and Governor Godwin Obaseki treated their joint benefactor, Adams Oshiomhole, you deserve all that and more.

     How far Shaibu will go in his gubernatorial push is in the womb of time.  Obaseki too probably heads for chilly post-power days, with his ruthless, take-no-prisoners attitude to power.  Whatever their personal comeuppance, no tears from here!

     Hardball’s umpteenth concern is strengthening the Deputy Governor’s Office — as well as the Vice President’s — as institutions of the democratic state, worthy of respect and honour, from its present scorn, especially when No. 1 and 2 pounce on each other. 

     Though both governor and deputy run a joint ticket, in power, the deputy becomes some democratic serf: his political life at the pleasure of the governor, and some of his most reckless hirelings.

     That’s why a Chris Nehikhare, Obaseki’s mere hireling as Edo commissioner for Communication and (Dis)Orientation, would talk down on the Deputy Governor — a constitutional creation — and look smug he had done his job.  

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    No, he hasn’t.  Even in the Bible, there’s nothing noble about the voice of Isaac and hands of Esaw, en route to stolen blessings.  Both the governor and loud hireling here stay condemned for crass anti-democratic conduct.

     Yes, Shaibu’s conduct — as Obaseki’s — has betrayed a scandalous lack of character.  Yet, not even that should rob him of his constitution-guaranteed right to declare for Governor.

     Obaseki too, though he is governor, has no power to play God over the rights of a co-citizen.  He can endorse or demur — that’s within his choice. 

     But to use Shaibu’s legitimate aspiration, as excuse to defund his office (as Shaibu alleges, these past six months), is arrant subversion bordering on a high constitutional crime.   The irony though is that there is absolutely no guarantee that, were places to be traded, Shaibu himself wouldn’t behave exactly that way.

     That’s the point: many of those who occupy high office, in our democracy, are dwarf-like, set against their towering offices.  That explains why a governor often develops the funny hubris that his deputy is his office toy, with which he can do anything. 

    It’s not the letters of the law.  It’s rather the spirit.  Political office holders must operate with mutual respect.  That’s the only way our democracy can grow and deepen.