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  • In Suleja, tears still flowing after flood incident

    In Suleja, tears still flowing after flood incident

    SEVERAL days after the  flood incident that sacked several communities and killed no fewer than 19 people in Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State last weekend, floods of tears, anguish and pains have continued flowing from the eyes of many residents especially the bereaved families.

    The ugly incident remained the major subject of discussion among the people all through the week as the embattled residents were yet come to terms with the disaster which they described as unprecedented in the history of the area.

    From one part of the area to another, worried residents gathered in small groups discussing the incident in low voices with palpable fears written all over their faces.

    The flood which  started on Saturday night, according to the residents, did not stop until around 9:30 a.m on Sunday. Aside from the dead victims, properties worth several millions of Naira were also reportedly destroyed by the flood.

    Checks showed that there was hardly any community in the area that was not ravaged.

    However, the worst-hit areas  included Kaduna road through Bakin-Iku, Chanchania and Yaro College area, Kantoma, Kuspa, Angwa Gwari, and Angwa Juma. Some buildings collapsed during the downpour, resulting in the death of some of residents while many sustained various degrees of injury. Cars and vehicles parked on the waterways were also not spared as they were moved from their original positions.

    The major victim of the disaster was obviously a carpenter, Saiadu Abubakar, who lost his two wives and six children to the incident.

    According to him, the flood caught him unawares and trapped all his family members. His words:  “The flood led to the collapse of my house and it trapped some of my neighbours and before I could wake up to warn my family members who were fast asleep at the time, my house had already been submerged. When I realised that my 5-rooms apartment had been submerged, I started calling them to join me in getting out of the house before it was too late.

    “We were trapped in the house and there was no way we could escape and run outside because it was very dark and the flood came with full force . I was with one of the children and my two wives , one of my wives has a new born baby and she held tightly to the child and the older one. She was not feeling too well because  it was only a week that she put to bed.

    “Thereafter, the flood became too strong for me to continue to shield my family. Before I knew it, the house had collapsed and the roof fell on us and then came the flood. While this was happening, I held  one of my children in my hand but the flood swept the rest of my family members away.  I did not know the direction it swept them to.”

    In spite of his distressed condition and the sordid darkness that pervaded the environment, Abubakar said  he defied the flood and frantically searched for his missing family members  but to no avail, adding that he would have also have been killed by the flood as it carried him forcefully away from his house and he had to hold on a tree to save himself. He said that all distress calls made out to neighbours brought no help as everyone was busy trying to save members of their household.

    “After the rain had subsided help eventually came. We went to the riverside at about 3am with torch  but we could not find any of my family members . We beat a retreat and went for the first Muslim prayers in the morning. Thereafter, we went back and we found  dead bodies of two  of my family members when the day broke. They were the bodies of one of my sons and the body of his late mother. After that, we also saw additional two dead bodies of my family members, making four. But up till now we have not seen the remaining four.

    ” The names of my two late wives are Shueba and Hajara. While the names of the children Hikma, Musa, Yusuf, Zainab, Asmau and Nana Khadijat . The eldest of the children was a secondary school girl while three of the children were in primary school. Two of them were in pre-nursery class and the new born baby were also affected. I am a carpenter by profession while on the sideline, I also sell tea by the road side to augment my income.”

    One of the neighbours of Abubakar, Jibril Mohammed, confirmed that he heard when they were calling for help but everyone was busy trying to safe their lives and before they could get to them, the rain had wiped them away.

    “The rain started around 12midnight and after some hours, I heard shouts, but I didn’t pay attention. After sometime, I noticed water seeping into my house, so I had to go outside. It was dark but I heard shouts and before I  knew it, I heard the sounds of buildings collapsing everywhere. In the house behind me where the man has two wives and six children, they were all shouting that we should come and help them, we tried our best but we couldn’t because the water was much. After some time, we did not hear their shouts anymore.”

    Another survivor, Fatima Yahaya said that it was her neighbours who saved her. She said she was fast asleep, only for her to hear the sounds of shouting from her neighbours calling her to come out.

    “I think the rain started by 12am. By 2am, I heard my neighbours knocking my door and  calling me to come out because flood was sweeping houses and cars away. When I came out, I saw people swimming to safety. So we held ourselves and swam to safety. It wasn’t easy because I do not know how to swim before but with my neighbours’ help, I was saved.”

    The Nation learnt about two friends who lived in the same room, were also carried away by the flood. One of them was said to have died while the other survived and taken to hospital.

    When our correspondent visited him, he said: “When the flood became too much, we tried to swim to safety, but everywhere suddenly went blank. Later, I saw  myself lying on the ground where I was picked and brought to the hospital.”

    The Director General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency NSEMA, Ibrahim Inga, said out of the 11 people (official figure) who died in the flood disaster, eight bodies had been recovered .

    Inga said four areas in Suleja were badly affected by the  flood adding that the place is currently not habitable for people.

    According to him, 90 houses were destroyed with no fewer than 500 people displaced. The NSEMA boss added that there were possibility of using primary schools in the area as temporary camps for the victims.

    “Niger State government is doing its best to reach out to those affected. First of all, we must provide shelter immediately and other things will follow, ”  he said.

    The  Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Ketso, who visited the area expressed sadness over the disaster while expressing the condolences of the state government to the emirate council and the families of those who lost their loved ones.

    He called on the emirate and the local government council to carryout sensitization programmes that would enlighten the public about the negative consequences of building on waterways adding that by so doing, the negative effects of unforeseen flooding would be reduced drastically.

    Ketso stated that although God had destined the occurrence of the sad event, the victims were not totally innocent based on the reports he received.

    The deputy governor assured the people of the readiness of the state government to provide assistance and relief materials to them.

  • From Senate comes a relief from gunshot wounds

    AT the end of 2008, there was a tragic story in the newspapers about a young 8-year old boy that died from a single gunshot wound that could have been treated. The story was about a bank robbery that happened in Lagos, which culminated in the death of eight civilians. However, the death of the eighth casualty, the young boy — who was hit by a stray bullet — could have been easily avoided. This is because when the child was rushed to a nearby hospital by passersby, the staff of the hospital refused to treat him without a police report. Needless to say, in the time that it took for the police report to be requested for, written out, and transported back to the hospital, the 8-year old boy bled to death. Issues like the aforementioned story are rampant.

    We hear about them everyday; read about them in the news; and watch news reports about victims that could have been saved. However, based on current legal practices, many lives have been lost. This is why, this week, the Senate fast-tracked the passage of the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill. The Bill, which was sent to the Senate for concurrence by House of Representatives, seeks to ensure that all victims of gunshot wounds receive necessary treatment from medical workers and assistance from security agencies. The Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, was right when he stated after the passage of the Bill, that with the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, the Senate has moved to ensure that everyone is entitled to medical treatment — irrespective of the cause of the shooting.

    This is because so many lives have been lost in the absence of this law. As things stand, innocent victims who have been shot by robbers, must first be rushed to a police station to secure a police report, before they are rushed to the hospital for treatment. This situation, creates victims of people who would otherwise be survival. This is because having a system in place that forces both the good and the bad people who have been shot to first request police reports before going to the hospital, makes the innocent people among them victims of circumstance (i.e. robberies, or stray bullets); victims of the hospitals, who refuse to treat gunshot victims without police reports; victims of the police, who oftentimes do not process these requests in a speedy manner; and victims of Nigeria’s current laws that make police reports mandatory for both law-abiding citizens and criminals alike.

    By the passage of the Gunshot Victims Act, the Senate has moved Nigeria one step forward to saving tens of thousands of lives each year. This law has addressed several inadequacies — like ensuring that society has a burden placed on it to ensure that there will be no unnecessary loss of lives. Moving forward, based on certain provisions of the new law, every person, including security agents must render every possible assistance to any person with gunshot wounds. T

    his assistance includes ensuring that the person that has been shot is taken to the nearest hospital for treatment. Additionally, the Bill preserves the fundamental rights of gunshot victims by mandating that no person with a bullet wound shall be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and that no person with a gunshot wound shall be refused immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria — whether or not an initial deposit has been paid or not. Finally, the Bill takes the approach of several nations, that have a ‘treat first, ask questions later’ mindset.

    This is because it specifies that it shall be the duty of any hospital that receives any person with a gunshot wound to report the situation to the nearest police station. This amendment puts the horse back in front of the cart, because saving lives must always come before due process. Moving forward, Nigerians must commend the National Assembly for the passage of this Bill, and urge that it is signed into law by the Acting President. On top of this, the Presidency and the Executive arm must properly orient officers and men of security agencies to comply with the dictates of this law. Doing this, will show the world that we have society that values the lives of our citizens, more than we value the ‘perception of adherence’ to the rule of law. I rest my case. • Onemola is a Legislative Aide to the Senate President

  • The party is over

    This piece shares title with a 1960 Argentine drama film directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, which depicts the political corruption in Argentina in the 1930s, a period referred to as the “Infamous Decade”.  The decade, which began in 1930 with the coup against President Hipolito Yrigoyen by Jose Felix Uriburu, culminated in the ascension to power of Juan Peron after the military coup of 1943.

    The decade was marked by rural mass movements, worsened by the 1929 Great Depression, which had decimated rural landowners and pushed the country in the direction of import substitution industrialisation.  Another coup was executed in 1943 due to popular discontent in response to the poor economic results of the policy.

    Tagged the “Revolution of ’43″, the coup was masterminded by the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU), the nationalist faction of the Armed Forces, against the acting President Ramon Castilo, hence putting an end to the “Infamous Decade”.

    Electoral fraud, persecution of political opposition leaders and government corruption characterised the period, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, which was a severe global economic depression that lasted until 1941, presenting the longest, deepest and most pervasive depression in the 20th century.

    There is, indeed, a similitude between the Argentina’s debacle under reference and Nigeria’s current experience.  Nigeria slid into recession last year.  The All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled federal government is yet unable to get the country out of it.  A national leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, in March this year, advised the federal government to ease the monetary policy in order to stimulate the economy.

    In a paper to course participants at the National Defence College in Abuja, titled: “Strategic Leadership: My Personal Theory and Practice”, Tinubu explained that the monetary policy must be consistent with the environmental needs of our domestic requirements.  He had argued that too much is tied down and advised the federal government to spend itself out of this recession; and that it cannot do that by consistently starving the banks of liquidity.

    Has government heeded Tinubu’s advice?  How significantly has government intervened to push up market demand by undertaking public works?  Only N350 billion has reportedly been released for capital projects.  What is the percentage of that in the 2017 budget of N7.4 trillion?  And what is the level of performance of the N350b released vis-à-vis the implementation of the projects to which the release is tied?

    Besides, how many Nigerians have been employed or financially empowered through this intervention for capital projects development?  How many local companies which depend on locally-sourced raw materials are factored into this special intervention package? Or is it another opportunity for foreign construction companies to make easy money and repatriate the same to their home countries?

    I am not an economist.  I do not understand the plethora of economic concepts, principles and terminologies or jargons, which experts daily deploy to explain how our economy is working.  We are so easily bamboozled by statistics, especially from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).  The NBS’ verdict is that Nigeria is the largest economy on the Africa continent and the 26th in the world with its rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which, as of April 2014, stood at US$509.97 billion (N80.2 trillion).

    But my attitude towards economic development, which refers to the problems of under-developed countries, is very simple: let us see how well the masses are faring.  How has the rebased GDP transformed our economy and the various aspects of our nation, especially the lives of the individual citizens?  How has it attacked widespread absolute poverty?  How has it reduced inequalities and removed the sceptre of unemployment?  That, in spite of the “biggest economy’ status, Nigeria still slid into recession is evidence of how superficial and vulnerable the economy is to absorb shocks both at the micro and macro levels.

    Businesses are collapsing on daily basis.  Prices of goods and services are consistently going up.  Purchasing power of citizens is ebbing away.  Job losses have become daily occurrences.  The number of people earning money is decreasing.  The gap between the rich and the poor has grown much wider.  A vast majority of Nigerians are under financial pressure and unable to meet their basic needs.  There is pain on the faces of the people and anguish in their hearts.

    The scenario painted supra is symptomatic of leadership failure and economic upheaval.  In pre-1999 Nigeria, such a scenario would have provided an objective condition for leadership overthrow.  But post-1999 Nigeria is averse to that.  The democratic foundations have been laid and there is evident commitment by all to nurture the building of democratic structures in the land.

    Now, assuming, just for the purpose of argument, that coup has now become impossible in Nigeria, what is the APC-controlled federal government doing to avert the looming tsunami of people power in the 2019 general election?  The people are disenchanted.  The APC government has not been able to fulfil up to 10 percent of its campaign promises; and, instead of meaningfully engaging the people through cogent explanations, it is living in self-denial.

    I can safely vouchsafe that on the balance of probability, the Nigerian people should not expect anything spectacularly different from the current half-measure offerings before 2019, judging by the lingering lacklustre performance of the APC government.  The president, Muhammadu Buhari, is out of action due to ill-health.  The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, is on suspension due to a contract scam.  Two of the critical positions in government are, unfortunately, encumbered.

    Some cabals in the presidency, rather than support the acting President, to prudently set its priority right by focusing on “the economy, stupid” in this recession period so as to turn things round for the betterment of Nigerians, are fighting dirty to survive the cloak-and-dagger politics in furtherance of their enlightened self-interests.

    Why should the Presidency and the National Assembly, for instance, be flexing muscles on whether or not Ibrahim Magu would remain chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?  There is no harmony between the executive and the legislative arms.  The administration is on a free course to immolation.

    It is, indeed, inopportune that the APC government has, up until now, been its own opposition.  Its elected leaders can decide to shut down their government.  That is their problem.  As far as I am concerned, the APC party is over.  And this assertion is reinforced by the July 12, Supreme Court judgment resolving the leadership tussle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in favour of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi faction.

    I welcome resilient Nigerians to a robust and focused oppositional politics that we expect the PDP to play.  For us, the voter cards, the power to decide our destiny, are firmly in our hands. We should heed the lines of Willie Nelson’s song “The Party is over” to “Turn out the lights…” We should allow God to use us to save Nigeria-through our votes in 2019.

     

    • Ojeifo, is an Abuja-based journalist.

  • Reflections on suicide

    I did not steal, I did not kill anybody. I only wanted to take my life. This policeman (pointing at the Commissioner of Police) said I have committed a crime. Which crime? How is my attempt to kill myself anybody’s business? Is it not my life? Let me end it all.”

    In apt language that easily passes for first-grade movie scripting, Citizen Titilayo Taiwo Momoh, 58, whom the police in Lagos State charged before a magistrate court with attempted suicide, pursuant to Section 235 C.17, Vol. 3 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015, challenged the authority of the police to intervene in her private decision to end her life.

    The mammoth monetary misfortune that befell Citizen Momoh, leading right up to her final decision to take her own life, are quite unfortunate and complex, never once wished for, and certainly cannot be dismissed recklessly as light misfortune.

    The singular peculiarity of Miss Momoh’s matter is that it has become a national cause celebre, overnight, engendering and sustaining debate as the centerpiece of discourse in both orthodox and new media, on the propriety of legislating against self-annihilation.

    Well, the answer to that question, in my candid view, is philosophical in its very essence, but I am at once minded to begin this intervention from a legal point of view. First, I believe that life is God’s basic expression of love to man; a portion of His divine nature bestowed on man. Hence, a Giver and keeper relationship is to be expected between God and His creation. It should follow, therefore, that to deliberately destroy God’s life-gift is to desecrate the very essence of godhood that distinguishes man from baser nature.

    Then, moving on from that, follows the appropriation of this divine gift of God into a right for all men as auspiciously stipulates Article Three of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights effective December the 10, 1948, whereupon the philosophy of righthood will suggest that responsibility to protect that right, in the event of a breach, has been conceded to the state, within a social contract, so that not even an abuse by its primary custodian will recuse state oversight from redressing what is only logically a misdemeanour. Every society must have set principles for protecting rights from abuse. So, if the right to life is a justiceable right, then whoever attempts to take it away is guilty of wrongdoing including the owner of that life.

    By way of a quick analogy, the certified owner of a house who seeks to renew its architecture and painting cannot, by wilful action, set about the destruction of the existing structure by incendiary means, without drawing remonstration from his neighbours and -where applicable- necessary protestations by state authorities.

    With that in mind, it bears adding that any society that acquiesces in the liberty of any or all of its citizens to self-annihilate only so far as admits its deficit in what should naturally be its primary responsibility: the corporate survival and well-being of everyone. For, interestingly, felon de sa, the one who self-annihilates, often does so on the claim that there was no possibility of seeking a future within his surroundings. The family or immediate circle of such a person is then inescapably sentenced to perpetual self-recrimination/self- defence because the misdoing of one of its own has done something distasteful to the moral footing upon which the family once owned its voice in the world.

    Not even the fallacy of permanent rest associated with suicide’s aftermath can be justifiably advanced as good reason for this misjudgement. Not in African Traditional Religion where so-called spirits of the dead are frequently summoned for active involvement in the affairs of the mundane. Not in Christianity and Islam where the sacrilege guarantees a sure spot in hellfire’s lake of torment. Not in the faithless who have yet to advance completionist positions about what becomes of being in the cessation of present existence.

    We must realise, without exception, that, deep down within, something doesn’t quite celebrate suicide. We must give that a voice, the same way we give a voice to our dislike for murder, rape, burglary, armed robbery etc. since society can only speak through its laws as its best and easiest mechanism for eschewing anarchy.

    The purpose of such a law, as mentioned earlier, has essentially to be one that preserves the propriety of the state to prevent, by legitimate intervention, the misaction of one of its own. Upon apprehension, therefore, should such a citizen be due, immediately, for return to his/her immediate surroundings? Should not that citizen be brought back to his/her right mind that such action was more than a mere private issue because it had the capacity to do irreparable damage to the spirit of social fellowship and brotherhood? While it takes an entire village to raise a child, we may now add, it takes no less a village to make an adult. So, death of one is death to all. These are the values that our laws against suicide must target for deliberate protection.

    Assuming that one who so decided to take the person’s life and failed in the attempt is held to be in contempt of the customs of his locale, by what standard should he/she be treated? Mob intervention? Or what? I would recommend a law which, while prohibiting suicide also protects, automatically, such persons from non-state action with clearly spelt out, case-based, rehabilitation strategies.

    An inexhaustible range of well-known factors can give rise to the extremes of contemplations and I do not intend here to list them, but in no wise or guise can suicide be justified. It attempts to deprive us of the exemplary diligence that could be required in the exploration of ALL possible avenues for resolving distress, devoid of selfishness, ego and conceit. What I mean by that? I hope this suffices: U.S. soldier, Augustine “Og” Mandino, suffered so severe depression that, even after he had purchased a gun to take his life, he could not pull the trigger because all will for action had deserted him! He managed to pick up the remaining pieces of his life and went on to become one of the greatest self-help authors in history.

    I dare say that whoever brings himself to the point of taking his own life does retain sufficient courage, creativity and energy to not only carry on with life but to also succeed. Planning suicide must be a very complex adventure, I would imagine. I assume that after flirting with the thought for a while, the mind then goes on to decide on the best means possible (inhalation, pills, poison, injection, drowning, hanging, shooting in the head or heart, self-immolation, etc.) and then the best place possible and then the best time possible, and so on. Not to mention that the sighting of any unwelcome beast (in a bush, for instance) may well lead to an immediate escape from death!

    Everything happening in Nigeria today simply points to the fact that the nation is long overdue for a fresh, broad-based national mobilization policy. The national conscience, is distressed, desperately crying for bearing; in which case a thoroughgoing moral reawakening must come to the rescue.

    That an evil as ignominious as suicide is catching on even on our campuses cannot be waved off as mere casualism. The testimonies of fellow citizens who have been to the cliff of distress but shunned the dive into the waters of self-destruction, and are now home and dry, must today, more than ever before, adorn our headlines and social media. That may just signal our arrival at the threshold of a spirited campaign for a sweeping moral reawakening. The journey is more than a thousand miles.

     

    • Cyril is Senior Researcher, TVCNEWS, Lagos.

     

  • Coping with Lagos’ rains

    Now that the rains are fully here in Lagos, it is important to put certain things into proper perspective to enhance our understanding of related issues and most importantly intimate us with helpful safety tips. The first thing to consider is the topography of Lagos. A critical feature of Lagos topography is that it is essentially made up of low lying terrain up to 0.4 percent below the sea level. Naturally, this constitutes a huge drainage challenge for the state. If this is added to the volume of rain being experienced in the state lately, it might be really difficult to rule out flash flooding, especially in some areas.

    Second is the fact that experts across the world have made it clear, long before now, that the intensity of this year’s rains will be much more than what we had in the past. For instance, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) had earlier predicted “extended rains of three to eight days for areas in and around Adamawa, Ogun, Edo, Niger Delta and low-lying areas such as Lagos. Recent developments have, indeed, come to authenticate this position, especially with regards to the volume of rains being presently experienced across the country.

    Furthermore, it is important to emphasise that in-spite of government and other critical stakeholders’ preparedness at mitigating the effect of heavy downpour in the state, the impact might not be fully felt except the citizens totally shun negative practices that could promote flooding. For instance, some illegal waste agents being patronized by a few residents indiscriminately dump refuse in canals and large drainage channels.

    This often results in blockage of free flow of waste water, resulting in flash flooding whenever it rains. This is often rampant in markets and other commercial centres as well densely populated areas of the state. Often times, the effects of such poor sanitary habit on affected residents are unquantifiable and devastating. Some have been rendered homeless and miserable, no thanks to human induced environmental hazards. Thus, we all need to fully embrace the culture of proper waste disposal, comply with building regulations, tap into alternative energy use, and pay necessary attention to sanitation issues among others.

    In order to appropriately educate the citizens on proper means of coping during periods on intense rainfall, NGOs, Community Development Associations, the media, members of the Civil Society and all well-meaning individuals and groups in the state need to partner with the state government to achieve  the required attitudinal change towards the environment. At present, the state government is combining public enlightenment strategies to sensitize Lagosians on this development and had taken the time to proffer solutions so that the rains being currently experienced won’t have devastating effects on lives and property.

    Similarly, the state government has continued to vigorously pursue its policy on the environment in order to create and ensure a cleaner, healthier and sustainable environment that will promote economic growth and well-being of the citizenry. As always, the state government is committed to a cleaner environment and quality public health through implementation of community based solid waste management, flood control, vegetal control and high standard of home and personal hygiene, sanitation, control of environment pollution (air, water and noise), beautification and advertisement control. Consequently, its approach to tackling the issue of flooding in the state is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. It includes dredging, massive construction and expansion of drainage channels, desilting and excavation of silts to dumpsites, regular repair, clearing and cleaning of drainages, canals and collector drains across the state.

    Whenever it is observed that the intensity of the rains is much, it is essential that people, especially children stay indoors to reduce movement to the barest minimum.  In fact, if it could be avoided, it is better not to drive while it is raining heavily.  Similarly, we need to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene at all times to avoid being victims of water borne diseases. Also, to mitigate the effects of cold, we must ensure that children and the elderly are properly clothed with warm clothing during the rains. It is only when this is done that we will be able to curb the spread of rain induced health hazard such as cough, cold and other related ones.  Additionally, this is the time to embrace the culture of taking plenty of thoroughly washed fruits in order to boost the immune system. This is in addition to drinking water from only trusted and well tested safe sources.

    Since we now live in a hi-tech information age, it is also imperative that people listen to news reports and information on weather situation from various available credible mediums. This will really aid in planning movements and avoiding flood prone locations. Also, in view of likely destructive thunder strikes that usually accompany windy rainfall, Lagos residents are strongly advised to always disconnect all electrical appliances whenever they want to sleep or go out. This will go a long way in checkmating rain induced electrical debacles. Similarly, children should be discouraged from touching electrical equipment when wet.

    In as much as it is beyond human powers to stop rains, being a natural phenomenon, we should, at least, do things that are in our powers to lessen the negative consequences of rains. This includes regular clearing of gutters and drainages in our areas, making use of suitable services to dispose waste, reporting anyone dumping refuse in drains, gutters and canals to appropriate authorities. We should consider moving immediately to higher ground when flooding is imminent wherever we are, staying away from submerged electricity cables, cleaning and disinfecting everything that gets wet, staying away from canals and drainages evacuating or leaving danger zones immediately, calling 767 in case of emergency among others.

    On a final note, it is essential that the federal government, through its relevant agencies, collaborates with states that have peculiar flooding challenges to determine areas of assistance. This must be done as a regular preventive measure and not after the havoc has been done. In as much as it is true that we cannot stop rainfall, together we can mitigate its effects.

     

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Soyinka: Back to the cactus patch

    IBA- For Those Who Went Before”, the preamble to the memoir of Prof. Wole Soyinka, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, is a narration of the author’s sombre cogitations while aboard a Lufthansa Airlines destined to swing over the old city of Lagos after five years of exile imposed on the playwright by the late ghoul, Sanni Abacha.

    I had done a full review of the autobiography – which was an exulting experience – a decade ago. I am usually intrigued by a man that has expended the better part of his life on the crusade to see Nigeria emerge an egalitarian society. He is not alone on this road but has a slant to his activism – an intellectual of first magnitude and international figure.

    Soyinka is a fecund and profound writer. I confess, I love his political works. So, I have returned to the memoir, this time not with the eye of a reviewer but simply to appreciate this literary and political work and share the experience with the reading public.

    A poignant story of serial losses interspersed with brief but subdued hopes, this preamble chapter grips your soul on the burdens of grief, loneliness, empathy, vacation of natural habitat, of abandoned projects, orphanage, guilt, untimely death and forlorn hope that the author had carried in the five years of peripatetic existence in exile. And here was “The same white-haired monster, that same WANTED man with a price on his head, hunted the world over, who is headed home, steadily lubricated from the aircraft’s generous bar… Perhaps I am just a disembodied self usurping my body, strapped into a business-class seat in the plane, being borne to my designated burial ground – the cactus patch in the grounds of my home in Abeokuta.”

    A man locked in a conversation with himself, Soyinka’s heart sank as he recalled the parallel between this return from exile and that of his soul-mate twelve years earlier. It was that same Lufthansa flight that bore the still form of Femi Johnson from Wiesbaden, Germany accompanied by the author, on whose shoulder it unexpectedly but ultimately fell to end “the unfathomable conspiracy to leave him in that foreign land like a stray without ties of family and friends.”

    That remembrance also set in motion the pangs of other losses while the activist was abroad. His compeer, Ojetunde Aboyade – former VC of UNIFE, now OAU – had equally paid the debt of nature. “He was one of the breed of tireless intellectual sparring partners, cunning at fashioning theoretical propositions that were guaranteed to provoke you  and keep you in animated debate until lunch dissolved into dinner, and then, late supper… No doubt, the human landscape that I left behind had altered irreversibly.”

    Even more haunting was the murder of M.K.O. Abiola, the mystery which only the then United States’ officials, Thomas Pickering and Susan Rice could explain: your host – the object of your visit – was served a cup of tea before your very eyes and there and then collapsed in your presence! The murderous plot did reach Soyinka through their ever reliable Aso Rock source. “It was all too late however, Abiola was already dying, his organs weakened by a devilish regimen of slow poisoning.” That was no doubt a lamentable denouement. Gen Abacha, the ‘Butcher of Abuja’ had, allegedly, slumped in the arms of one of his Indian concubines  and the coast seemed clear for the imminent release of Abiola and resolution of the political crisis in which he was bound to play a major role. “Robbed of victory, imprisoned and isolated from human contact for nearly four years and then, on the eve of his second victory.. .- to end up – wasted!”  A ‘lingering cruelty’ that must be!

    The period of Soyinka’s exile also marked the epoch of repression only paralleled in history by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Serial murder and incarceration of the opponents of the Fuhrer including journalists by the regime’s Gestapo. The era also marked the beginning of guerrilla journalism, which began before the dissident’s vacation of his cactus patch in Abeokuta.

    As the homecomer’s mind went back and forth, he remembered some of those hit and run headlines and victims of their purveyors – TELL, THE NEWS, TEMPO, etc: SANNI ABACHA BARES HIS FANGS; WHO KILLED BAGAUDA KALTHO?; SCANDALS ROCK ASO ROCK; ABACHA AGENTS ON RAMPAGE: MOTHER KILLED, ELEVEN YEAR-OLD HELD HOSTAGE IN POLICE CELL…!

    Mr. Soyinka did not rule out the possibility of his being murdered abroad by the agents of Abacha. He might not have the fortunes of returning home to his hunting forays or his amateurish viniculture experience.  Femi is gone. Oje is gone. Essay – the author’s father – had died while in exile, avoiding the jackboots of Gowon. Wild Christian – his mother – was equally no more. Even the seed of Essay Foundation might never fructify and his uncompleted house might die a hovel. But one thing MUST NEVER HAPPEN. “Agitated by the thought that some misguided friends or family would take my remains to Nigeria, I announced publicly that, if the worst happened, I did not want Abacha’s triumphant feet galumphing over my body, and would settle for a surrogate earth of Jamaica. And I began preparations to buy a piece of land in Bekuta.”

    Bekuta was a settlement of slave descendants from Abeokuta. But the matriarch, the only survivor of the original settlers that kept Egba spirit alive in distant Jamaica had passed on in the course of time and so were the festivals and mores that would leave any visitor from home (Nigeria) with mixed feelings. The elements had taken a cruel toll on the out-of-the-way village – finally breaking the spirit of Bekuta – thus dashing the activist hope of sleeping with his ancestors in distant Jamaica if the worst did happen. “Since hoping to find another Bekuta outside Nigeria was stretching the law of probability beyond limits, my mission in exile became even more personalized – to explore every second towards the retrieval of my cactus patch, but purged definitely of a tyrant’s triumphalist tread.”

    The worst did not happen. Soyinka is back to his cactus patch in Abeokuta, and still kicking at 83. Congratulations sir.

     

    • Soyombo, author and public affairs commentator, sent this piece via densityshow@yahoo.com

  • The Etisalat debt debacle

    The surreal tale surrounding a $1.2 billion (about N541billion) loan given to a foreign-owned private company by a consortium of 13 Nigerian banks is staggering.

    The syndicated loan was given to Etisalat Nigeria in which Emirate Telecommunications Group Company (Etisalat Group) of United Arab Emirate (UAE) has the controlling shares of 45 per cent; followed by Mubadala Development Company also of UAE, which has 40 per cent; and a third firm, which represents the entire Nigerian shareholders and has only15 per cent. Etisalat Group secured the seven-year facility some time in 2013 to refinance a $650 million loan and fund the network expansion of its outpost, Etisalat Nigeria. Like others before it, the contractual relationship has gone awry and the N541 billion debt has become a subject of controversy.

    Following its inability to repay since 2016 and the failure of restructuring talks, the Abu Dhabi-based parent company of Etisalat Nigeria cleverly latched on takeover threats by the lender banks to repudiate its legal obligations. It promptly transferred its 45 per cent stake and 25 per cent preferential shares to a loan trustee. To make it more insulting, the foreign firm declared that it has no further obligations under the contract as its stake now has a zero value in its books. All seven directors of Etisalat Nigeria – the six representing Etisalat Group and Mubadala, all UAE nationals; as well as the chairman, Hakeem Belo-Osagie – have resigned.  An orphaned Etisalat Nigeria is now making frantic efforts to have the loan written off as non-performing.

    The question which this sordid transaction raises is: should our banks be subsidising the so-called foreign investors with depositor’s money? And what benefit accrues to the nation from such economic decisions? This is more so as the mission of these foreign firms is not social service but to make profits which get repatriated to their home countries soon after. At the end of the day, their economies receive a boost, ours shrinks.  Their local currencies get further strengthened against the Naira, and Nigeria continues to lose respect among the comity of nations.

    A N541billion credit for a foreign company is by all standards outrageous; particularly in an ailing economy like ours. That the transaction has become controversial is calamitous. It reflects the poor business decisions that have helped to crumble our economy and plunge the nation into recession. The broad consequences of this debacle are far reaching. Among these are its negative impact on the balance sheet of the affected banks, the bleak prospects of dividends to shareholders, and the uncertain future of the employees of the banks. Of course, the worst hit in event of bank failures are those who took their monies to these financial institutions for safe keeping.

    Granted that banks are into the business of lending funds, but should they not devote depositors’ money to grow local firms?  Several industries owned by our country men and women are in crying need of finances but no financial institution in Nigeria looks their way.  Workers in these local firms are being retrenched daily in the face of recession inflicted on the country by such poor business decisions. Indeed, many local companies have closed shop for want of funds, further worsening our situation as an import-dependent nation with the attendant negative impact on economic indices.

    For failing to properly weigh the costs and benefits of this decision, the lending banks and the arrangers have now found themselves in a deep mess. They have realised they have been taken for an unpleasant ride. And that Etisalat Nigeria merely served as a conduit for the foreign firm to skim off depositors’ money as there is no proof that the fund was applied to the desired end. The banks are said to be seeking to enlist the support of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) rather than considering how to get the International Police (Interpol) to investigate the trans-national crime. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also shares in the blame for failing to detect this rot early enough and nip it in the bud.

    Also difficult to fathom is, whether or not the loan to Etisalat Group was guaranteed. The lender banks should have insisted that such a huge credit be guaranteed by the government of UAE or that of Abu Dhabi State given their interests in the controversial firms. The UAE government owns 60 per cent of the shares of Etisalat Group while the rest were publicly traded.  Mubadala Development Company is an investment company of the Abu Dhabi State government. It is surprising that leaders of both UAE and Abu Dhabi State have done nothing to stop the management of these companies from defrauding Nigeria

    Our kith and kin out there in UAE are treated no better than criminals. They neither can own nor operate bank accounts following government’s fiat, let alone secure a bilateral loan. The excuse for precluding Nigerians from operating bank accounts there is the activities of a few unscrupulous elements.  But here, we literally shut down our banks to fund just one UAE company run by those that lack respect for a contract which they voluntarily entered. The N541 billion credit extended to Etisalat Group can set up well over 20 banks in Nigeria. The capital base of banks in Nigeria is still N25 billion.

    The Etisalat debt saga is only a microcosm of how foreign investors rip our nation off and leave our economy in distress. Rather than bring in the much sought after Foreign Direct Invest (FDI) to shore up the economy, the so-called foreign investors come with the intention of defrauding the country and exploiting its populace. They all arrive on the Nigerian scene with empty suitcases. Then, with the aid of a Nigerian arranger, who has a personal stake; they go cap in hand to our local banks asking for depositors’ money, which they readily get.

    The local deposit banks will hurriedly pool resources together to meet their outrageous demands as in the case of Etisalat. More often than not, the credit advanced to the foreign firms disappears without a trace. When the fund is applied here, the populace is exploited and the proceeds repatriated to the various home countries of the foreign investors.

    Indeed, this incident portrays the disservice the Nigerian financial institutions and CBN are doing to the country. These institutions have a penchant for turning foreign firms that are worth nothing in their respective countries into instant successes as soon as they step onto Nigerian soil using depositors’ funds. And with the billions of Naira or Dollars secured from the banks, juicy and inflated contracts get awarded to them by corrupt public officials entrusted with public procurements.

    Those dubbed celebrities fall over themselves to act as their ‘ambassadors’ or whatever they call them. The mass media will follow up and brand the companies ‘giants’. Most of the so-called telecoms giants, construction giants, and what have you were all pigmies before arriving here. They achieved greatness through local deposit banks and contracts in which due process is circumvented.  In turn, these foreign companies reward Nigeria by enslaving her people. Their contribution as corporate citizens of Nigeria does not go beyond turning the country into a nation of dancers, singers, and clowns through all manner of reality shows targeted at youths, who represent the future of our country.

    There is absolutely no reason those involved in this latest show of shame should not be arrested and tried for economic sabotage. The board and management of the 13 financial institutions as well as the arranger of the N541 billion credit   should be clamped into detention. In civilised societies, such characters will not be walking about as free men. They certainly will be in detention waiting to face the highest penalties for financial crime in the land.

    It is time Nigerian banking laws are strengthened to bring intellectual resources to bear in the management of these institutions. The credentials of those aspiring to run our banks or head certain departments of banks including Treasury, Foreign Exchange, Risk Management and Legal must meet internationally accepted standards to reverse the negative consequences of their decision on our economy. Otherwise, we will continue to grow other economies at our own peril.

     

    • Dr Nnadi, a former editor wrote from Owerri, Imo State.

  • Lagos APC primaries: Matters arising

    The All Progressives Congress conducted its primaries recently to elect candidates for the July 22 local government and councillorship elections. As it is natural in the contest of this nature, tempers were high and there were issues which arose from complaints by members of the party who did not agree with the party’s position of returning some candidates on the principle of consensus.

    This has continued to generate reactions till date.   Such aggrieved group called this principle imposition while the party based its argument on the principle of consensus and party supremacy. The fierce nature of the contest was not unexpected because Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in two years has opened up the economic potentials of the state through massive infrastructure that has made Lagos a very viable state economically with an improved annual Internally Generated Revenue of N302 billion which is more than that of 30 states put together. There are Local Council Areas in Lagos State that generate more revenue than many state governments.

    Before I am misunderstood of supporting imposition, I wish to make it clear that I am a believer in free choice in a democracy but at the same time, democracy comes with its own challenges and peculiarities depending on the political environment. I have read recently in the media the grievances of groups and individuals within the APC who allegedly felt short-changed during the conduct of the primaries and have been expressing their anger through newspaper advertorials and sponsored articles.

    The alleged main sponsor of this group is Dr. Muiz Banire, a former commissioner in the state, who was in government for an unbroken 12 years as special adviser and commissioner and presently, a national officer of the APC. If anybody should accuse APC leaders of imposition, it should not be Banire who himself was a beneficiary of the same system since 1999. Banire was a lecturer at the Lagos State University when he was picked by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a special adviser and later commissioner.

    Not a few people kicked over his  choice but he stood his ground because he saw in him qualities he always see in those he mentored who are today serving the nation in sensitive capacities. A good example is the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and many ministers and governors who cut their political teeth in the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu School of politics and leadership. It is therefore hypocritical of Banire, who was a prime beneficiary of party supremacy and consensus, to now turn against the same process and system that brought him to limelight and derisively call it imposition.

    We all still remember how the present Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Raji Fashola emerged as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC in the 2007 elections and later became governor after winning the general election. The fact of the matter is that, it is those within the party who because of their inordinate ambitions, create problems for the party by blowing simple disagreements out of proportion as they’re currently doing even though they’ve benefited from the same process in the past.

    The voters out there are not bothered about how the candidate of a party emerged in as much as the party does not breach the electoral act in the process. What they’re concerned with is the quality and eligibility of such candidate and this is why despite the hue and cry about the emergence of Fashola in 2007, during which as many as eight ACN aspirants including the then Deputy Governor, Femi Pedro and some commissioners left the party in annoyance and drew a battle line with Tinubu who was accused of imposing him, he went ahead to win the general election with a landslide.

    The electorate behaved that way because Asiwaju who presented Fashola to them as his successor performed as governor and they believed his successor who was his Chief of Staff would equally perform and they were right. Many of those who left came back after Fashola won.  It was the same system that produced the present governor, Ambode, who against all odds won the primaries of the APC because he was the preferred candidate of the APC leadership. Today, Lagosians are happy with what Ambode is doing to transform Lagos and make life better for them.

    Coming back to the Local Government elections, I don’t see how the matters arising from the conduct of  the last APC primaries would affect the fortunes of the party at the polls because the electorate out there are not unaware of the massive infrastructural transformation that is going on in all 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs in the state. About 181 roads covering over 800 kilometres are also being fixed in the second phase of the road rehabilitation programme. Primary and secondary schools have been built and renovated as well as healthcare centres and community halls even as many people in the grassroots have been empowered financially.

    I also learnt that party leaders have held series of meetings with the aggrieved aspirants to rally round the party’s choices so that they can sweep the polls while they will be adequately compensated with other positions in the Local Councils since politics is about give and take in making the tough decision of who gets what, how and when. For the avoidance of doubt, constitutionally, the power to present candidates for elections rests solely with a political party which can employ any method it deems fit to do so. This includes conduct of primary election to select its candidates or through consensus and affirmation. The APC had used a combination of the methods in picking its candidates. No court can query the power of a political party about this except if it breaches any of the laws in the process. The Lagos APC therefore has not breached any law.

    It is not as if the PDP which is the main opposition party does not have its own internal wrangling; in fact the PDP crisis is worse because there are two factions of the party, the one recognised by law as at today is the Sheriff faction while the Markafi faction is yet to know its fate at the Supreme Court. This means that the fate of any PDP candidate is not certain until the Supreme Court finally decides. The electorate would not likely gamble with their votes by leaving sure candidates for unsure ones more so when the party in government in the state is impacting their lives positively.

    My message to Muiz Banire and his group who are bent on making a mountain out of a molehill and trying to incite the ordinary voters who are not members of any political party is that if he feels he is that popular, he and his group should test his popularity in any other political party after all, a political party is  free entry and exit and there are many of them looking for new members.

     

    • Akintunde wrote from Iyana Ipaja Lagos.

  • Is Nigeria’s unity really not negotiable?

    It was a thing of joy to witness the Centenary celebration of Nigeria in 2014. And now, we’re a 103 old as one nation. However, within this period, there had been several agitations for self-determination by groups from different sections of the country. Notable among such groups are the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF) that was pioneered by late Major Isaac Adaka Boro; Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), pioneered by late Ken Saro-Wiwa; Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) of Western Nigeria, led by Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Arewa People’s Congress (APC), and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

    And the agitations have greatly intensified more than ever before. At present, the music that’s sung across the country on daily basis is that of restructuring! The sounds of the drums of restructuring emit very high decibels that are almost deafening! In fact, no time in the history of our country are we so divided as it is now.

    So, the drums of restructuring will continue to sound. In the face of glaring disenchantment with the present government, and the loss of sense of belonging by some sections of the country; some of our political leaders keep saying, “The unity of Nigeria is not negotiable.” The acting President, for example, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo has continued to harp that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable. He cited the preamble of 1999 Constitution as amended that says, “We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria… solemnly resolve, to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God…”

    Of course, that’s expected of him by virtue of his position. But is Nigeria’s unity really not negotiable?

    I’m not a proponent of secession or disintegration of Nigeria as a country. Far from it! I strongly believe in ONE Nigeria! And I believe there’s strength in diversity. This was lent credence to by the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria in an event recently held to mark the 246th Independence Anniversary of the United States. However, I’m of the opinion that we can still renegotiate how we want to live together as a nation. There’s need for the restructuring of the country to correct the disparity amongst the component geo-political zones or states.

    Restructuring, however, has been misunderstood by some people (especially from one section of the country) to mean secession. For instance, when one Alhaji TankoYakassai, an elder statesman from Kano State was asked his view about restructuring on a national radio live programme, he disdainfully responded: “Restructuring is selfishness.” According to him, those who’re clamouring for restructuring are looking for a way to diminish the power of their ‘God-given’ population. He rather advocated devolving power to the states. But when asked if devolution of power wasn’t the same thing as political restructuring; he said, “No.” Well, that to me is the same thing as calling half a dozen six.

    We claim to be a federal republic on paper, but in practice, it’s a unitary system –where, at the end of every month, governors go to Abuja (that controls the resources) to collect handouts or bailouts these days. But to every right-thinking Nigerian, this system can no longer be sustained! In this regard, the National Leader of the ruling party, Bola Tinubu, during the 91st Anniversary of Daily Times newspapers and the Times Heroes Awards in Abuja, affirmed: “Let us streamline governance; federalism in word and deed. Our constitution declares Nigeria a federation of 36 states. However, we still function like a unitary state despite the constitution. More power and resources need to devolve to the states. The Federal Government is taking on too much. We cannot flourish with over-concentration of powers at the centre…”

    Yes, the present structure encourages mental laziness, backwardness, mediocrity and gross imbalance amongst the states. A glaring instance is the provocative sharp disparity in the cut-off marks for entrance into the Unity Schools. An examination that was set for all candidates of the same age range, with the same curriculum, questions and the same time allotted to write the examination; but with DIFFERENT malicious cut-off marks! In the name of the so-called Federal Character, you give a cut-off mark of 139 for a boy from Anambra State, but an annoyingly infinitesimal mark of 2 for a boy from Yobe State! Again, a girl from Lagos State will have to score 133 to get admission, but a girl from Zamfara State is only required to score 2! This is unacceptable by all standards!

    In the light of the above and other reasons not mentioned here, there’s need to renegotiate the union in order to correct the imbalance amongst states and injustice suffered by some regions or states. We can’t afford to live 50 years backward just because one region (out of the selfishness of its elites) has refused to develop, then, the rest of the country should pay for it. That’s why restructuring should be considered, so that every region or state will freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, educational, social and cultural development at its own pace.

    However, while political restructuring should be considered, I believe the best form of restructuring is the RESTRUCTURING of our ATTITUDE! In my opinion, it’s the best solution to the myriad of the current ethnic, religious and political conflicts that are bedevilling our country. And the attitudinal restructuring must begin with our political leaders! They should think of what they’d do for Nigerians, and not what they’d do to enrich themselves. They should be reminded that “If a free society cannot help the poor who are many”, said John F. Kennedy, “It cannot save the few who are rich.”

    To this end, it is pertinent to remind the President of the immortal advice the just passed on elder statesman, Alhaji Maitama Sule gave him as President-elect in 2015 published by The Vanguard of July 7, “..With justice, you can rule Nigeria well. Justice is the key. If you do justice to all and sundry – and I say all and sundry – because Allah says if you are going to judge between people, do justice, irrespective of their tribe, religion or even political inclination; justice must be done to whosoever deserves it. Behind every crisis anywhere in the world is injustice and the solution to that crisis is justice…The weapons of governing the mind and conquering the spirit are justice and fair play. Justice! …Don’t change; don’t compromise justice with anything… I am not asking you – and I know you will not – to discriminate against any part of Nigeria. But I am asking you to do justice to all parts of Nigeria. Justice will bring about peace….

     

    • Macdonald is of Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.

     

  • Changing face of lottery and gaming

    Lottery is a legalised and regulated gaming that involves the drawing of numbers for a prize. While lotteries are outlawed by some governments, others endorse it. They even organise national and/or state lotteries.

    Unlike betting or gambling which can involve very high stakes, lottery (Lotto) is mostly a form of entertainment as it involves staking as low as N20 to N100 for very high rewards. It is fun, entertaining and can be very rewarding.  It goes without saying that gambling benefits only those directly involved, whereas the proceeds of regulated lottery have been used in many countries for developmental purposes.

    As far back as 20 BC when the barbarians attacked China and the Chinese government did not have enough money to build up their defence, they ran a lottery and raised enough money to build up their defences, including the Great Wall of China, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

    Lotteries in colonial America played a significant part in the financing of both private and public ventures. It has been recorded that more than 200 lotteries were sanctioned between 1744 and 1776, and played a major role in financing roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, bridges. In the 1740s, the foundation of Princeton and Columbia universities was financed by lotteries, as was the University of Pennsylvania by the Academy Lottery in 1755.

    In South Africa, for instance, 82 percent of the population play lottery, at least, once in a week. In 2012 alone, lottery share of funds to the country’s finances was put at about N141.3 billion.

    In Niger Republic, proceeds of lottery were used to build boreholes, fight against desert encroachment, while many of the lottery winners are sponsored to Mecca to perform the Holy Pilgrimage.

    Driven by the spirit of tapping into this viable social economic potential, the Nigerian government via the National Lottery Act of 2000, established the National Lottery Regulatory Commission [NLRC]. According to Section 57 of the Act, ‘’Lottery’’ or Lotteries’’ include any game, scheme, agreement, system, plan, promotional competition or device for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance , or as a result of the exercise of skill and chance or based on the outcome of sporting events, or any other game, scheme, agreement, system, plan, competition or device.

    Since its establishment, the Commission has issued licences and permits to lottery operators and promoters to grow the market and bring it closer to the people. Lottery is gaining wide acceptance and the huge followership as football in the country, and this has further widened its scope.

    This, in turn, has opened up series of market opportunities in the country for investors, individuals and government. Lottery and other gaming outfits have opened up business and employment opportunities especially for youths. Some open up shops as agents, while some are employed to work in these shops. Many unemployed youths who roam the streets see lottery and gaming shops as offices. Many of them survive on their little winnings with losers having hope of being winners in subsequent entries.

    The global lottery industry is estimated to worth $70 billion. In 2016, it was estimated that Nigerians spent an average of N154bn daily on betting with 7.5 million lottery, and 22 million sports betting players in the country. According to the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), projected profit from the promo lottery alone is N45 billion.  The SMS lottery can generate about N150 billion revenue, while the gaming industry is projected to bring over N300 billion to federal government coffers yearly. However, the prospect has not been fully exploited. The industry was only able to yield N7 billion as of last year.

    Today, Nigerians are being advised by the National Lottery regulatory Commission to invest and engage in regulated lottery, as it gives them a platform to contribute to national development while they stand a chance of having a life changing experience via a jackpot.

    In the recent past, several betting and lottery companies have acquired licences to operate in the country. One of such is Western Lotto which is entering the Nigerian market with a game changing lottery initiative that offer Nigerians the experience of two of the most exciting lottery brands, namely the Lotto Race and the 6/49, otherwise known as the UK Lotto, among others. Western Lotto is introducing these games as a means of offering adventurous platforms for the gaming public to participate and win big. While the Lotto Race offers daily winnings, the UK Lotto would have weekly jack pot winners of between N10million to N15million.

    Western Lotto’s unique offerings also come with the ease of play. Just pick your six (6) numbers correctly, and you are on your way to winning the jack pot. However, if you match three (3) numbers, you start winning. The games can played via USSD, mobile apps, online, shops and terminals.

    The Western Lotto gaming platform is targeted at positive, upbeat, optimistic people who although do not have a lot of money in the now, believe that they are just one game away from making it big.

    The increasing acceptance of gaming among Nigerians is an indication that the industry will be one of the major contributors to Nigeria’s economy in the nearest future. And as the government continues to encourage investment in the industry from local and foreign investors such as Western Lotto, the economic horizon will surely continue to broaden, thus providing a fertile ground for social growth and economic empowerment of Nigerians.

    Experts have argued that the development of a nation is not only tied to available human capital but equally on its social and economic resources. According to the experts, several developed countries have consolidated on these natural endowments through lotteries to re-write their history and establish sound economic footing worthy of emulation by the global community.

    Lottery, as it has been proved repeatedly, is a social culture that has positively changed the economic fortunes of several nations. These days, the lottery business has also gained acceptance as a growing source of special intervention fund for governments which continue to work out innovative sources of funding alternatives to raising taxes when there are needs to address perceived infrastructural deficits.

     

    • Akanni is of Citizens Advocacy for Social Emancipation (CASE), Abuja.