The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • NNPC’s reckless comments against Amosun

    NNPC’s reckless comments against Amosun

    SIR: It amounts to sacrilege and gross misconduct for an official of a government agency to insult or disparage elected public office holders. It is even worse when the object of such reckless comments is an elected governor.

    This is a serious matter as it touches on the fundamentals of our democracy. The NNPC officials could only get away with such insults against a man who holds the mandate of the electorate with their letters of resignation accompanying their reckless comments.

    In its reaction to the comments made by Governor Amosun that the negligence of the corporation was responsible for the regular pipeline vandalism at Arepo, the NNPC through Ms Tumini Green, acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the corporation was quoted to have said: “It is sad that the governor of Ogun State who should know the importance of national assets like pipelines and do everything in his power to protect them is engaging in a blame game when every responsible Nigerian citizen is wondering why Arepo which is in his domain has become such an attractive spot for oil thieves and pipeline vandals.”

    The meaning of this comment is that the governor of about five million people of Ogun State, according to Ms Green, is “irresponsible”, for if he was a “responsible Nigerian citizen” he should have been “wondering why Arepo which is in his domain has become such an attractive spot for oil thieves and pipeline vandals.”

    Green was not done with her insults as she urged Amosun “to protect the pipelines in his domain to sustain product supply to the state rather than engage in unnecessary rhetoric.”

    For a government worker to declare that an “elected” Governor of a federating state in Nigeria is engaging in “unnecessary rhetoric” is the height of infamy, worse from a corporation that is noted in Nigeria as the epicentre of monumental corruption and inefficiency.

    This really goes against the grain in a democracy, for public servants to disparage “elected” office holders, worse of the status of a governor.

    I do hope the unguarded comments of officials of the NNPC will attract appropriate sanctions from the appropriate quarters.

    • James Ikechukwu

    Owerri

  • Health in interest of the public

     

    Conclusion of text of the Inaugural Lecture delivered by the Provost, College of Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Prof Olumuyiwa Odusanya, at the college.

    • Continued from last week Thursday

    Universal health coverage

    Universal Health Coverage (UHC) refers to a system in which everyone in a society can get health-care services they need without incurring financial hardship. The concept implies that each one is able to get required health service when needed without suffering or having to sell personal belongings. Equity of access to health services of all types is key to a universal health coverage policy. The current Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan asserts that universal health coverage is “the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer”.

    The three dimensions of universal health coverage are the proportion or types of persons in a population enrolled, the services available and what proportion of costs are covered. Health issues, especially emergencies, do not give advance warning yet they must be attended to.

    In this audience, if any of the well-to-do persons has a son requiring appendectomy in the middle of the night, where will she/he readily find the money to pay or buy required drugs without cash at home, especially in this era of cashless policy? Would not it be easier if the person has prepaid insurance or other forms of advance payments in order to readily access the required services? May I ask: how many of us here have a health insurance?

    The inability of having a ready source of payment often delays presentation to hospital or delays payment for services and hinders timely interventions among the poor. Evidence suggests that broader health coverage generally leads to better access to health and improved population health, particularly for poor people. The relationship between prepaid health financing, health coverage and health outcomes is shown in Figure 10.

    Figure 10. Causal pathway between pooled prepaid health financing, health coverage and outcomes.

    At the heart of UHC is health financing. The funds may be raised from a variety of sources; direct and indirect taxes, social insurance and community funds. Available funds must be raised and pooled in a way that allows cross-subsidization across the income groups and financial risks of illness to be shared between the sick and the healthy. In the absence of universal health coverage, the various forms of paying for health include out of pocket payment and selling of property. A review of coping strategies for health care services in 15 African countries revealed that borrowing and selling of assets ranged from 23% of households in Zambia to 68% in Burkina Faso, and that the highest income groups were less likely to borrow.81 Selling of assets and borrowing were more profound for households with higher inpatient expenses than those with outpatient care or outpatient medical expenses. Payment of user fees is often a critical obstacle to access to health care.

    Sixty-nine (69%) percent of government employees in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State relied on out-of-pocket payment to pay for health services, 28% claimed to use the Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and 2.6% borrowed money.82 The use of out-of-pocket mechanism was associated with difficulty in accessing quality health care services and most of the employees resorted to self medication, delayed seeking health care, patronized herbalists or ignored the illness.82 The state of health of such a population can be best imagined.

    Another group of researchers from the same area found that the poorest households were more likely to utilize informal care providers such as traditional healers, whereas the higher socio-economic groups used out of pocket payments. Decreasing socio-economic status was associated with sale of livelihood assets while exemptions and subsidies were non-existent.83 in many countries, removing or reducing user fees was found to increase the utilization of curative services and perhaps preventive services as well but may have negatively impacted service quality.

    The Nigeria Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)

    The NHIS was launched on 6th June, 2005 and commenced services in September 2005. It is a voluntary insurance scheme and has focused on the formal sector. It covers mainly employees of the Federal Government and only a few states Enugu and Cross River States have enrolled. The contributions are earnings-related, fixed currently at 15% of basic salary. The employer pays 10% while the employee contributes 5% of basic salary.

    Health benefits under the NHIS include out-patient care, prescribed drugs in the NHIS essential drug list, antenatal, postnatal and maternity care for up to four (4) live births for every insured woman to mention a few. The scheme does not cover special treatments including occupational injuries. The system works through appointment of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) who receive capitation fees, and health care providers who receive fee for service from the HMOs.

    One of the major challenges faced by the NHIS is the low coverage; thus, it has not been the path to UHC for Nigeria. In addition, other problems include conflict of interests about financial payment among the many stakeholders, long waiting period to access service, bureaucracy, antagonism of labour unions and the voluntary nature of the scheme with workers in many states and private sector not enrolling. The impact of the NHIS will improve if it expands its scope to cater for the informal sector (being piloted in a few places), facilitates integration of the private sector as well as aggressive advocacy and education of the populace.

    Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

    There is no one common pathway to achieving UHC. The trajectory towards UHC has three common features; a political process driven by a variety of social forces to create public programmes or regulations that expand access to care, improve equity and pool financial risk; growth in incomes and a concomitant rise in health spending which buys more health services for more people; and an increase in the share of health spending that is pooled rather than paid out-of pocket by households.86 All countries that have achieved universal health coverage have done so with extensive government involvement (policy) in the financing, regulation and sometimes direct provision of health services.87 The key health financing options at different stages of the evolution of UHC is shown in Figure 11.

    The political will to exercise stewardship for UHC must exist. A decision must be made on the type of health insurance whether it would be tax-based or social health insurance. There is also the place of external funding at least at the initial phase. A systematic review of the impact of health insurance in Africa and Asia showed that community-based health insurance and social health insurance improved service utilization, protected members financially by reducing their out-of-pocket expenditure but weakly impacted on quality of care and social inclusion. A study from southeast Nigeria revealed that respondents in rural areas and those in the lower socio-economic classes wanted comprehensive benefits from community based health insurance whereas those in urban areas and the richer showed a preference for basic disease control interventions.89

    The structure of health financing in nine developing countries. In most of them risk pooling is through multiple sources and service delivery is through a variety of sources. The dimensions of UHC in those countries is high. The coverage in Nigeria remains low. Whatever the form of payment, mechanisms for exemption and subsidies must be put in place to protect the poor.

    In Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania, health-care financing was progressive (groups with higher income contributed a higher percentage of income) but the overall distribution of service benefits favoured richer people more than the lower-income groups suggesting the need for equity.

    THE=total health expenditure, NHIS=National Health Insurance Scheme, BPJS=Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (Social Security Administrative Body). PhilHealth=Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. Mutuelles=Community-Based Health-Insurance Schemes. RAMA= La Rwandaise d’Assurance Maladie (Rwanda Health Insurance Scheme). MMI=Military Medical Insurance. VSS=Vietnam Social Security. RSBY=Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (National Health Insurance Programme). NHIF=National Hospita l Insurance Fund. RAMED=Regime d’Assistance Medicale (Non-Contribution Medical Assistance System). AMO=Assurance Maladie Obligatoir (Mandatory Health Insurance). *Data retrieved from World Bank world development indicators database. †Data retrieved from WHO global health expenditure database. ‡Legislation to create the programmes in Indonesia and Mali has recently been passed and implementation is at an early stage.

    Private sector health provision for public financing may be thought of as the best way to achieving universal health coverage. However, there are some caveats to be noted: the issues of profit, the orientation of services for the middle class and the challenge of providing services that show benefit only if large enough proportions of the community are covered e.g. immunization. Undoubtedly, the private sector has a role to play in achieving UHC.

    Evidence suggests that increases in funding especially through donor aid, has helped to reduce mortality from malaria, maternal mortality and child mortality, especially in developing countries. Political commitment through sustainable public funding is the preferred option. It is argued that addition to aid for health could bring the world to universal coverage whereas cuts in aid at the present time could undo the great progress of the past decade. “Universal coverage for health” is within our reach if we persist.

    Conclusion

    Public health medicine and public health actions hold the key to improving the complete physical, mental and social well being of individuals, communities and nations. Health actions and services should be customer (public) focused. Key areas for action include social determinants of health, immunization, quality of health services, rational use of drugs and universal health coverage.

    The way forward to improving the health of the public

    If indeed the health of the public would improve, a paradigm shift is inevitable. The health system and services must stop to focus on themselves but make the public the centre of all its activities. There is the need to actively engage the community through community participation. The health workers must become advocates of healthy public policy and put the health agenda on the front burner of government decisions. There is the need to increase awareness on the social determinants of health and adoption of healthy behaviours by the community. We all need to advocate better funding for education.

    Immunization coverage must be vigorously sustained, especially to ensure that poliomyelitis is eradicated from Nigeria. Government funding for immunization must increase, routine immunization services strengthened and complimentary control measures e.g. improved sanitation need to be aggressively pursued.

    The health system in the country should be strengthened especially with regards to quality of service. Rational use of drugs remains a challenge but continuous training holds the best promise of improving drug use. The issue of universal health coverage must be properly addressed. Perhaps, now is the time for Nigeria to move into some form of compulsory insurance. Universal health coverage is one of the most important determinants of health status. The present coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme cannot lead to improvement in the health indices of the Nigerian public.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Football: A potent symbol of unity

    Football: A potent symbol of unity

    SIR: There was nothing the international community did not do to stop the fighting during the Nigerian civil war. But with the arrival in 1969 of the Brazilian football legend Pele to Nigeria there was a three-day ceasefire. The Nigerian government and the Republic of Biafra agreed a truce so that Pele’s team Santos could play two exhibition matches against teams in Nigeria. Such is the power of football. And now, another football fiesta beckons.

    From January 19 to February 10, attention will be shifted to South Africa where the 29th edition of the African Cup of Nations will be played. Libya was earlier billed to host it, but it was moved because of the civil war in that country. Sixteen countries will be competing. And there will be only one winner. After missing out on the last Nation’s Cup, the Super Eagles will be present to stake a claim to the trophy they last won in Tunisia about 20 years ago, their first ever triumph being in 1980 on home soil. They have come so close to winning a third time, notably that heart breaking final against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun in Lagos in 2000. Nigeria has won many bronze medals and the joke is that Nigeria has rested that medal. For gold-starved Nigerians, only the best will do. But more than what will be won, the game reminds us all of our oneness.

    Nothing unites like football. While the football fiesta lasts our differences will be forgotten. Sworn enemies will hug themselves in celebration of goals. Chinua Achebe’s book There was a country which has generated a lot of controversy will not matter anymore. Even our disdain for our leaders will be pushed to a corner. Even those who throw bombs may not remember where their cache is. That is the power of football.

    It is not only in Nigeria that this game unites. We will recall that in Ivory Coast there was a civil war that wracked the once stable country following a military coup in 1999, and the power tussle that followed reawaked ethnic divisions. Before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the country was already divided in two – one part was controlled by rebel army, another half was controlled by government forces. With the qualification of the Ivorian team to the competition, the Elephants became a symbol that united all the warring parties.

    The ball is round, so is our world. Indeed our world can be a better place. Let us enjoy this beautiful game, a game with the power like no other to unite¯and still hope the Super Eagles do us proud by bringing the elusive trophy home. And however it turns out, in all we do, let the thought of the round leader game always nudge us to treat our fellow humans well, let us always make sure the mantle of love remains worn in our churches, our mosques, our offices, our market places and everywhere we meet. And let the games begin!

    Dr Cosmas Odoemena

    Lagos

  • Nigerian farmers and 10 million phones

    Nigerian farmers and 10 million phones

    SIR: The Federal Ministry of Agriculture is reported to have earmarked a whopping sum of N60 bllion for the purchase of about 10 million GSM phones to be distributed to farmers all over the country.It is undoubtedly trite to assert that for the first time in the post-military life of our country, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is being superintended by a World Class Nigerian Scholar, Dr.Adewunmi Adesina. However, what bothers one is how the same ministry headed by this outstanding Nigerian, would be associated with a kindergarten policy of this nature.

    No matter how hard the ministry may shop to repair the situation, Nigerians are left wondering again where this sort of thing is coming from.

    Is this the best the technocrats in the ministry can come up with in the 21st century where ground-breaking ideas daily contest amongst themselves to win the attention of an enlightened world? Do we excuse them as simply part of the Nigerian majority already burdened by the near total collapse of infrastructure, so much so that this collapsed state can only sustain shallow policies of this nature as against long-lasting institutional reforms?

    The solution to our agricultural challenges does not lie in a cosmetic approach anchored on buying and distributing GSM Phones to rural farmers. What has happened to our very many faculties of agriculture, which today only exist in form but definitely not in substance, simply occupying space without the required funding and facilities to power it to produce 21st Century driven ideas and innovations that has taken the foreign universities that our leaders all troop to for advice and intellectual salvation to where they are today?

    What has also happened to the many agricultural research institutes annexed to our universities, which ordinarily were established years back with billions of naira, to serve as Centres of Excellence in terms of scientific researches and agricultural revolution, but which today has all been run aground by decades of serious underfunding and neglect?

    What has happened to the research section of the very many government agricultural agencies that at a time used to have the best of hands, even some trained in some of the best institutions in the world? What has happened to the many university farms spread all over the country once equipped with some of the best implements, that if well run would have just been enough to feed the states in which they are located and even beyond?

    But can anyone of us be surprised, in a country where government is known for buying books for primary school pupils instead of empowering their parents by creating jobs, why won’t the same government also think of buying phones for farmers. Maybe tomorrow, we would again be jolted from our sleep with the news that the federal government has set aside another N30Billion to help recharge these farmer’s phones.

    Suffice to say that it’s only around here that government’s policies continue to run as a stream of unending of jokes, rather than as matters of national importance.

    Nigerian farmers need not be given fish as handouts from the government; rather focus should frontally be to teach them on how best to fish. If only the faculties of agriculture in federal universities will get just half of this N60 billion, they would achieve in one year what these 10 million China Phones will not achieve in 10years.

    • Olusola Adegbite, Esq.

    Kubwa,

    Abuja.

     

  • Jonathan’s code of conduct

    Jonathan’s code of conduct

    President Goodluck Jonathan is allowed to grade his priorities as the first citizen of Nigeria. But that priority, while being his prerogative, gives the Nigerian public an insight into how he weighs matters and opportunity to assess how they rank in the hierarchy for the man who steers the affairs of state.

    Barely two weeks into the new year, it seems the priority of this president does not chime in with the values that we should hold dear as a country. On the same day, when the President should have appeared with the police to launch code of conduct outlines for the men who defend the civil society against the worst ravages of immorality, President Jonathan decided to look elsewhere. On January 10, he was not there to lend presidential weight to the code of conduct meeting.

    Rather he thought his presence in a political meeting was superior in urgency to that of the code of conduct. He weighed politics over values. So he sent Vice President Namadi Sambo to the police scene while he, the President, paddled away on the murky shoal of politics where his future – meaning 2015 – was putatively at stake.

    It is all right for the President to attend a political meeting. That is the mother’s milk of all governance. He has to take care of politics, and to ignore it is to be pharisaic about his interests. But this is January 2013, and the Adamawa crisis, though serious and potentially seismic, cannot be more serious than the moral health and security challenges of Nigeria today. As a writer once said, a statesman thinks of the future stakes, but a politician is obsessed with the insular interest of now.

    That was what Jonathan did. He did not only abandon the police meeting, he also flew to Lagos to receive Ndigbo leaders. Clearly he is playing politics at the expense of governance.

    What the code of conduct means is large and far-reaching. It is about professionalism in the police, and how the men and women in uniform can act in accordance to the highest esteem of its citizens in morality. It also means tackling Boko Haram that has intimidated President Jonathan from celebrating national days in the open. He coils inside Aso Rock to do his salutes and pop champagne.

    Obviously, Jonathan’s code of conduct is to pooh-pooh code of conduct. It means this is a president who conducts himself without respect to the standards of the highest codes. If at this stage he places so important a matter below the heres and nows of development, we can say that Jonathan’s priority for 2013 is not governance but politics. That is his code of conduct for this year, and if this is true, it will be tragic. It means as a nation, we have lost 2013 even before it began. Instead of fixing power, he will fix political power. Instead of roads, he will pursue his way ahead of his governors to win the ticket. Instead of people’s welfare, he will empower his acolytes. Welcome, 2013.

  • Lawmakers’ death warrant on homosexuals

    SIR: In most African countries, homosexuals are endangered by the Christo-Islamic rulers who are now the majority landlords. They limit God to what they find in their Holy Books, whereas for traditional Africa, God is mostly indecipherable and unpredictable; He does whatever He wills however He wills it.

    I am aware that Christian theology describes God as the Mysterium Tremendum. Yet, Christians and Muslims cannot phantom that He can make or has made some people to be sexually attracted to same sex by natural orientation! They quote their Holy Books as if God were limited-to or by those Holy Books. They think that God will lock only what they lock, and unlock only what they unlock. God is thus limited to what they know of Him from their written traditions. They have robbed Him of His attributes as the Unlimited and Infinite Self-will.

    That way, God has ceded His almightiness to powerful Christians and Muslims in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial arms of government in Nigeria, nay Africa. Hence in Nigeria, for instance, the Senate President, David Mark, could speak with final authority on the fate of homosexuals and same sex marriage. University dons? Well, conservatism, dogmatism, the effect of indoctrination, and religious prejudice have no boundary. Even the university scientist is afraid to speak on human genes and their homosexual potentialities or possibilities.

    Epistemologically, when a phenomenon, such as homosexuality, is universally known throughout the whole world, and has existed from time immemorial (long, long ago before the first most popular Holy Book – the Jewish Scripture was assembled), denial of its divine origin is hypocrisy, prejudice, or ignorance. Anthropologists tell us that two to three percent of every human population is homosexual. The low percentage may explain why they are oppressed in human history.

    With only about two to three percent of the entire human population, don’t the homosexuals indeed appear odd? It is not surprising, therefore, that the prejudice against them has been widespread and reflects also in some Holy Scriptures. Evidently, every Holy Scripture came to human beings through some human beings, and only God can tell us that they are all free of all prejudice.

    Phenomenologically, God shines in the variety of the things He has made, as epitomized in day and night, light and darkness, fruitful and fruitless pawpaw trees, sweet and sour oranges, etc. Some rare individuals are said to have both male and female sexual organs in their private parts. Even if you call it organic or biological variables, are the homosexuals responsible for (or had a choice in) how they were formed in their mothers’ wombs? Yes, some non-human animals are also said to be homosexual!

    Nigeria, nay Africa, should protect also prostitutes as a blessing to human society; their existence mortgages rape and provides for homeless harsh sexual desperation. Legal and constitutional protection of homosexuals strengthens human freedom as designed by God.

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • Obasanjo’s call for ‘stick and carrot’ approach to Boko Haram

    SIR: The ‘carrot and stick’ approach advocated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the solution of the Boko Haram insurgency should be taken seriously by President Goodluck Jonathan. Among past leaders, Obasanjo has continuously shown concern, worry and proffered solution to this lingering crisis. Like all of us, he has his faults which many of us have at one time or the other kicked against both while he was in or out of power. Yet, it is often said that, messages are considered while, the messenger can be ignored. Obasanjo as a former president and military chief in this country has a lot to offer in terms of experience and tactics in security matters. We cannot for very obvious reasons sideline him when he speaks on similar issues just because we differ with his political moves. We should and must take him seriously because of our interest in building and achieving peace and unity in this great country.

    For years now, the Boko Haram group has shown the capacity to harm Nigeria; it is desirable for the government of the day to look for the solution without minding where it is gotten from. Again, the argument by the government that members of this dreaded group are faceless is far from the truth. With this argument, they are simply providing for the security agencies excuses to look the other way while, innocent Nigerians are killed daily by this group. The Boko Haram sect are organized group of terrorists; they meet, discuss, money exchange hands, acquire weapons, in fact, no doubt, they must have sponsors. The truth remains that our security agencies are not doing enough to arrest this ugly situation. It is worrisome that till date this sect has not been infiltrated by our security agents while, the Boko Haram group has infiltrated the Police, SSS, Military and Presidency.

    There is no doubt that past leaders would come in handy in dealing with this crisis. They have great wealth of experience that could be relevant in tackling this problem. President Jonathan should tap from their experience and professionalism. It is also important for the president to rejig his security chiefs, perhaps to make them aware of their duty. All the intelligence units of the security agencies ought to, by now, be working in unison to be able to break into the camps of these unrepentant Islamic militants.

    Our past leaders must invest their wealth of experience in resolving this crisis. It is not President Jonathan the Boko Haram elements are fighting but Nigeria, which may spell doom for all if left unchecked. If these militants are left to gather powerful, wicked and satanic local or foreign support, we may be saying bye-bye to Nigeria.

    • Uzodinma Nwaogbe

    Maitama – Abuja.

  • Memo to National Assembly on constitutional review

    SIR: We say no to autonomy for local councils. We also wonder at the apparent zeal to create more states despite prevailing realities. If our distinguished senators insist on autonomy for local councils as a third tier of government, let the states be abolished.

    Enlightened opinion has rejected attempts by our legislators to amend a fundamental document guiding their operation. Such exercise should be more appropriately handled by an independent ad-hoc body so constituted. Only such a detached assembly can produce a thorough, dispassionate and enduring constitution. The Nigerian state glaringly slides downwards as it now exhausts 70% of its annual budget on recurrent expenditure, a clearly unsustainable profligacy. For a nation dangerously tottering on the brink, autonomy for local councils, creation of additional states, should only be treated as incidentals after much more critical and urgent agenda. Our distinguished senators need to rise above narrow partisan interests to produce a befitting document.

    The only genuine reason for constitutional review now is to redefine our nationhood, so that a proper nation-state can evolve to give Nigerians hope. We want devolution of power back to the regions, or zones, as it was in the First Republic. We want to control our own resources, insignificant as they may be. We want to determine our own future within the context of a properly structured federation. In short, we want a truly peoples’ constitution, so that the Nigerian project can stand. Only our elite who earn their living directly from government may be pretending all is well, when the house has all but collapsed.

    A properly structured federation cannot tolerate the six-zone imposition which the committee has assumed as sacrosanct. Nigeria consists of over 250 ethnic nationalities. The southern minorities herded into the so-called South-south zone number over 100, with as many distinct cultures and languages. If, for example, Izon land were geographically contiguous, nothing prevents Nigeria’s fourth largest ethnic group from having its zone. The Mid-West Region stood on its own in the First Republic. It can do so now. So also can the minorities of the former Eastern Region. Your amendment should therefore incorporate a minimum of five regions from southern Nigeria alone, please.

    The argument between indigene and resident should never arise. The distinction between them is clear and should be left as already constitutionally provided for. Our worry is that abrogating one for the other suggests a subtle attempt to impose unitary government through the back door. A multiethnic secular state should forever abhor and reject the unitary system of government. Please, let the authentic wish of the people prevail, so that Nigeria can celebrate her centenary in one piece, and in peace.

    •John Ingwu,

    Calabar.

  • Mali is no joke: God save our soldiers; NASS and SAP: Renounce, resign or be sacked by 2015

    Our 700+ fellow Nigerian soldiers, inexperienced and underequipped for desert warfare, will soon be thrown into Mali to fight and die – at their country’s orders and for pittance. When the body bags start returning from Goa, how will Aso Rock and NASS receive the dead Nigerians and compensate the weeping widows and half-orphaned children? Empty promises, neglect and abandonment? Will someone steal these soldiers’ allowances and court-martial them for complaining as in the past? Death is no joke and Mali will be no joke. God save our soldiers! While our gallant soldiers, guardians of the nation, ‘prepare to die for their country and a financial pittance’, other political Nigerians, including NASS members, bring Nigeria into disrepute by their ‘salarymania’ and should be sacked by 2015. Time up. Assessment zero/11!

    Nigerians are too forgiving, satisfied by too low government standards. ‘God will do it if politicians do not’ allows mediocre political acumen to fool them with ‘photo-trick’ and political doublespeak! Nigeria’s treasuries are robbed by a quantum of official corruption, thievery that would leave the mafia envious and ready for a ‘Mafia- Politician Exchange Learning Programme’. Nigerians elevate politicians to God-like status -‘honourable‘, ‘distinguished’ and ‘excellent’ for no job done praising each politician as if an angel or mini-God has appeared. Since the angel often wears the wings of an agbada or babanriga, the comparison is not far-fetched. Unfortunately the Nigerians, politically myopic, fail to check the price tag of such ‘dividends of democracy’ which is uniformly outrageous because every contract has a huge 30-70-100% deducted for the political party and politicians and civil servants in power. This must stop! If Ibori can get N50-60m as a past convicted governor, sit with your children and calculate what all past governors, state, LGA and national politicians are getting for past services in secret payments. Use the Freedom of Information Act to find out the truth. The Nigerian fails to remember that is the same ‘angels’ who contributed to the impoverishment of the national social services and life expectancy in every good thing.

    Nigerians must not be forced to express huge gratitude out of all proportion to every petty attempt by politicians to meet sworn obligations to provide governance and reverse the deviousness and delay of past politicians over 50 years. Government has been so bad for so long that much more needs to be done by the politicians than they are doing now in order to pull us out of this unnecessary quagmire created by past failed politics and a continuously failing political class. This political class, cross-party, is solely centred on acquisition of the nation’s wealth and diversion. As usual politicians cannot see this huge cloud of corruption above their heads which shrouds every single one of them in ‘fat Salary And Perks, SAP, legally illegal thieving’, darkness and stains their agbada and babanriga and women’s attire, by their huge untaxed salaries alone if nothing else and there is a lot else. We the people can see it and are telling them that the end of political financial rascality is near. Let every political party and every politician and political office holder, in NASS and everywhere from the Presidency to LGA, know now that Nigerians are sick of them. We will not invite the armed forces to rescue us because Nigerians know that the armed forces always fail in governance abandoning development plan precipitating ‘dark NEPAless Ages, waterlessness, roadlessness, educationlessness and corruption. If there is no political party or individual to renounce and change these SAP immediately, Nigeria cannot survive to 2015 with this financial stranglehold. Have you seen a Kenyan Masai bleeding a cow to get blood for breakfast? He does not kill the cow. He stabs the jugular vein lovingly, takes a little blood and stops the bleeding and the cow goes about its business. Nigeria is bleeding to death and the holder of the knife is the Nigerian politician. But even politicians can be advised. There will be change. The people may or may not take your Greek gifts and your bribes but they will never vote for you again. The current politicians have outlived their usefulness to the Nigerian society. The politician is one item that is too expensive to maintain and is now priced out of the market, unaffordable by Nigeria and the Nigerians. New cheaper versions are required. Political vacancy, vacancy!! You are a costly limousine getting stuck in the mud at every turn when Nigerians need to get to the promised land. Nigerians do have an alternative to a greedy multiparty political class. A new generation, old and young, is coming and if it is not allowed to come, only God will be able to save Nigeria from this greed killing the Nigerian cow! But God may be tired of saving Nigeria. He gave us oil a million years ago, fertile land, an able bodied population, waterways and solar power. We have refused to be saved. God even gave us some good politicians but they have been suffocated, corrupted, disenfranchised, murdered or otherwise silenced.

    The change can come now or in 2015 when every single NASS and political office holder nationwide who does not renounce the fat SAPing Salaries And Perks, will be replaced by new politicians of all ages sworn to reduce their SAP. Politicians must find love for Nigeria and remember Mali and the blood of fellow Nigerians that will be spilt.

  • Oshiomhole Vs the Police

    Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the governor of Edo State, may mean different things to different people. But one thing is constant and sacrosanct: his small frame notwithstanding, he is a man who is not afraid to do ‘battle’ with whoever crosses his path. He is an expert in verbal assault. He does not carry any weapon or missile but his tongue is his own “ballistic missile”. He uses this so effectively that he has become so well known for this art of deploying his tongue as ‘weapon of mass destruction.’

    In his days as president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, the teeming Nigerian workers were his troops. These were the men he unleashed at recalcitrant employers who would always short-change their employees. He led them in many ‘picketing’ assaults on many companies, corporations and even government establishments. Several times, he came out victorious as he was able to extract a better condition of service for the workers.

    As governor, Oshiomhole has gone to battle with the vampires of Edo politics who nearly strangulated the state politically and economically by holding on to the jugular of past governors of the state. In the last four and a half years, he has succeeded in caging the so-called godfathers, many of whom have been forced to vote with their feet. Those who dared to confront him have met in him, a formidable foe not easy to overrun. Consequently, they have either beaten a retreat into their cocoons or put a permanent adhesive on their lips.

    Even though he has conveniently secured a second term in office as governor, Oshiomhole is a bitter person at the moment. He is bitter that he is yet to get justice for the gruesome murder of Olaitan Oyerinde, his former private secretary. Oyerinde was callously mowed down by heartless hoodlums in his residence in Benin City, the state capital, on May 4, 2012.

    Since then, it has been a cat and mouse game between the security agencies and his killers on the one hand, and the police and the State Security Service, SSS, on the other. In fact, the situation can be best described as a potpourri of confusion for short. It is so bad that while the police paraded some people who they told the public were responsible for Oyerinde’s death, the SSS also paraded another set of people as the real culprits.

    And if the public is confused on which of the storyline to believe, the police and SSS are even more confused than the public. Yet they have continuously denied that there is any rift between the two agencies who should be working for the same goal. Right now, the two set of suspects are in different courts charged with the murder of one and the same person.

    Perhaps, Nigerians may have gone to sleep too soon while the security agencies continue to blunder, as it were, over Oyerinde’s case. If that is true, that seeming stupor was truncated last Thursday in Abuja at the formal launch of the new Police Code of Conduct. The event had in attendance, Vice President Namadi Sambo, state governors, ministers, top brass of the Police and other dignitaries.

    Trust Oshiomhole. He will not allow such an opportunity to slip away. So the setting that afternoon provided him a good platform to vent his anger on the police hierarchy over the alleged shoddy investigation conducted by the police officer who investigated Oyerinde’s death.

    The warrior-governor caused a stir during the course of his speech at the occasion, when he called for the immediate dismissal of Peter Gana, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, in charge of Criminal Investigation Department at the Force Headquarters, for allegedly bungling the investigation of the murder. The governor demanded that Gana be charged with murder or conspiracy after the fact of murder.

    In the wake of the dastardly killing of Oyerinde, Gana was detailed by the Inspector General of Police, IG, Mohammed Abubakar, to investigate the murder. But Oshiomhole alleged that instead of going after Oyerinde’s murderers, the DIG seized Oyerinde’s friend, Rev. David Ugolor, and clamped him into detention. He also accused the DIG of presenting a gun which was recovered from a previous crime scene as the one used in the murder.

    Turning his face to the IG, Oshiomhole said: “The DIG frustrated the investigation using another senior police officer to thwart investigation. As I am talking now, that police officer has just been promoted by the police authorities. I demand that the DIG and that police officer be dismissed immediately…I am aggrieved over the murder of my private secretary and the way in which it was trivialized. I am saying it knowing that the Vice President is here.” According to him, “I feel terrible that as a governor, I can’t get justice. If I can’t get justice, then an average Nigerian cannot expect justice, and we can’t have justice if we can’t tell the truth… The country cannot be reduced to a banana republic. When the stick and carrot game is appropriately applied, the message of discipline would be clear to all.”

    Giving an example of such culture of impunity, Oshiomhole cited a case. He said: “I want to be specific. In Edo State, a policeman manned an illegal roadblock, contrary to the orders of the IG. Members of the public complained and the fact of the illegal block was established. It was discovered that a soldier was recruited illegally by an ASP to man this illegal roadblock, extorting money from motorists. In my view, that borders on armed robbery because the man carries arms…Having arrested him, the Army proceeded to do what a responsible force should do by dismissing the soldier. IG, you will be shocked to know, and this is not 10 years ago that your men in Benin decided to shield this officer and, recently, I learnt that one of them was even promoted. While the military dismissed the soldier, the police promoted their own. How can you have discipline in such an environment?”

    Last Friday, a day after Oshiomhole made his vitriolic attack, the IG dismissed as unfounded the allegation by the governor that the police was shielding the killers of his private secretary. The IG said that he would respond to the governor’s allegation at the appropriate time and in “due course”.

    Yes, the IG is right to have refrained from delving into the details of that investigation and the role played by Gana. But this is surely one very hard nut that Abubaker would have to crack during his tenure as IG, otherwise he could plunge the entire service more and more into the abyss of public odium. For instance, how will the police explain the allegation that those it paraded are known armed robbers who had earlier been in police custody long before Oyerinde was killed? How will they explain the allegation that the gun allegedly used for the crime had been in police exhibit room long before the murder?

    The public is aware that the police is usually inclined to shielding his officers from public ridicule. But in this present circumstance, the IG should not put his image or job on the line by defending the indefensible. He should come out and tell the public the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

    Even if the conspiracy theory as propounded by the governor might be regarded as overkill, the way and manner the security agencies went about their investigations without harmonizing their findings, leaves much room for suspicion and condemnation. It is true that the job of internal security as regards crime prevention, detection and prosecution is solely the concern of the police, but the refusal by the sister agencies to cooperate on the Oyerinde issue has further exposed the unhealthy rivalry within the nation’s security apparatuses. Instead of a synergy, they seem to be working at cross-purposes for God knows what!