Category: Dele Agekameh

At the twilight of his reign as governor of Lagos State, one of the projects commissioned by Babatunde Raji Fashola was the ultra-modern Cardiac and Renal Centre, located beside the General Hospital, Gbagada. The centre was built with the hindsight of providing qualitative healthcare delivery to the people. Besides, it was aimed at helping to stem the alarming rate of medical tourism outside the country, with particular regard to the growing problem of cardiac and renal diseases in Nigeria. It was designed to be manned by experienced health experts and sound human resource managers.

But barely one year after commissioning the more than N5 billion health facility, the centre is teetering on the brink of collapse. This is due to infrastructural defect and lack of working capital by the concessionaire to properly manage the facility. The concessionaire, Renescor Health LLP, a consortium of international health experts with varied experience in cardiac and renal management, have been finding it extremely difficult to properly run the centre. Problem started when many of the equipment and infrastructure handed over to the concessionaire by the Lagos State government were found not to be in perfect condition for use. In fact, some of them only lasted a period of six months and a chunk of the revenue generated within this period was used to service these equipments.

One of the major problems of the centre is low patronage which is as a result of the exorbitant charges the average patient visiting the centre cannot afford. In the last few months, the centre has increased the price of dialysis and other medical procedures more than three times. It only slightly reduced them lately after it had lost many patients to other dialysis centres operating in Lagos.

It is also important to note that most of the consultants, professionals and expatriates employed by Renescor Health LLP, left the employment of the centre not as a result of being redundant due to non-functional equipment as widely circulated by the management and the media, but due to the fact that the management is unable to meet their financial obligations to them. Most of these consultants and expatriates, who are mostly Indians, were being owed more than five months salaries before they decided to leave the employment of the concessionaire to join one of the foremost cardiac hospitals in Nigeria.

It is also instructive to mention that there has been internal acrimony and power play among members of the management staff of the centre. This has inadvertently taken the centre backward and also stands as a major setback for full operational efficiency as the management’s energy is needlessly dissipated trying to resolve the internal acrimony and schism within. The actions and inactions of these quarrelsome management staff have forced good hands to resign their appointments with the centre. Some other staff have also been single-handedly sacked by feuding senior management staff through emails, which is considered to be very unethical and a gross violation of labour laws. Even at that, a good number of the staff who, were either sacked or who resigned, are still being owed more than four months salaries.

In the true sense of it, the management of the centre has shown their incapacity to manage the medical facility. During the last fuel scarcity that preceded the current one, the centre was shut down for more than three days due to the management’s unpreparedness for such emergencies. The management practically shut down the facility with the lame excuse that they could not get fuel to power their machines. This is far from the truth. The truth of the matter is that the vendors who supply both medical and non-medical materials to the centre bluntly refused to supply anything to the hospital as a result of the huge indebtedness of the centre to them. Till date, several categories of vendors are being owed more than N15 million. The other ugly side of the centre’s huge indebtedness is that several support staff that were out-sourced, have also terminated their contracts with the centre. Lately, Halogen, a security outfit engaged to secure the facility, has terminated its contract with the centre even as it is being owed arrears of payment. This is even as others who are yet to terminate their contracts, are complaining bitterly about non-payment for services rendered.

However, the bottom-line is that it appears the management of the facility lacks the wherewithal to properly manage the facility. Though the centre is blessed with good manpower, the management has been lackadaisical with the welfare of its staff. This has resulted in incessant strike actions by the staff who, are being owed more than seven months salaries while their efforts to call management’s attention to their plight, have been largely ignored. The staff of the centre are currently on strike, the third time in six months. They had previously shut down the centre on two different occasions but were called back to work with the promise of paying, but these promises were never fulfilled. Whenever the workers embarked on strike actions, the management had always lied to the Lagos State Ministry Of Health and the state House of Assembly Committee on Health that the machines were faulty, to cover up, without actually opening up on the real problems confronting the centre.

Beyond the fact that workers are being owed seven months outstanding salaries, it was learnt that all deductions from workers’ salaries are not being remitted to the appropriate agencies. It is on record that since the commencement of operation, all pensions and PAYE (Pay-As-You-Earn tax) are not remitted accordingly. Efforts by the staff to get explanation for this inhumane action of the management have fallen on deaf ears.

Unfortunately, while the management finds it difficult to meet their financial obligations, they have equally shown a high propensity to unnecessarily overload the center’s workforce for no justifiable reasons. Recently, the management embarked on new employment and no fewer than 20 members of staff were employed for non-existing jobs. The employment was done without

due process and 70 per cent of those employed were said to be close relatives

and friends of a top official, whose attitude and behavior towards staff members and patients has been known to be irrational and out of place. The official is also said to have hijacked the duties of the procurement manager by singlehandedly bringing in her friends to be supplying medical consumables and other materials needed by the centre at cut-throat prices. So, there is a major racket going on at the centre.

Of particular worry is the quality of care provided to patients as most patients complain of the shabby way they are being attended to at the centre because the quality of care provided is not any different from that of a typical general hospital in Nigeria. As it is, the problems of the centre are enormous and the only solution is for the Lagos State government to quickly wade in as it is obvious that the concessionaire lacks the expertise and managerial skills to manage the multi-billion naira facility. The Lagos State government should not hesitate to do the needful to salvage this health facility from total collapse.

There is no doubt that there are so many issues competing for attention in the state, especially in the face of dwindling financial fortunes of the state. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, will do well to look passionately at the problem of this Cardiac and Renal Centre in view of the increasing number of cardiac and renal diseases all over the place. This is with a view to strengthening its operations to meet the exigencies of health care delivery in the state. The Cardiac and Renal Centre is a brilliant idea of a world-class hospital which must not be allowed to die.

Today, let us make a little digression from the serial rape of our common patrimony by those we entrusted with the governance of this country. Regardless of the ongoing war on corruption, it is not as if the pilfering and stealing going on in government, will come to an end pretty soon. From all indications, the looting mafia is still very much alive and kicking everywhere as the crooks are perfecting new methods to steal. And suddenly, a man many believe is a Chadian and a wheeler-dealer has emerged as the leader of a desperate party now on life support. Anyway, that is a matter for another day.

Recently, some national dailies featured an advertorial. Initially, I thought it was placed to advertise a brand of champagne that is commonly drunk and used at occasions in Nigeria for the Valentine season. The bottle had the tag: “I Love U”, emblazoned on its neck. The advert also had a headline that reads: “Wondering why our forex reserves are diminishing?” This was followed by the copy proper, beginning with a quote: “The seven Nigerian stores we already have sold Moet Champagne than all our South African stores combined.” The quote was attributed to Whitey Basson, Shoprite’s CEO (Sept., 2013).

The copy of the advert quickly offered an explanation for the headline and the 2013 quote from Basson. It stated thus: “He apparently did not mean it in a bad way. Indeed, he might have meant it as a compliment to the huge potential of the Nigerian market”. The copy then delivered the killer punch: “But the Shoprite CEO inadvertently revealed the problem with us; we waste our precious foreign exchange on luxury goods, putting undue pressure on the foreign reserves. Nigeria has been growing in the consumption of imports and not in the production of exports. We import poverty and export jobs in the process. We import all sort of goods: toothpicks, rice, eggs, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, apples e.t.c. What rocket science will it take to produce them in Nigeria?” The copy was not done yet: “Between 2005 and 2015, Nigeria’s monthly import bill went up from N148 billion to N917 billion, representing a 519% increase. The pressure on forex has become too much, with oil prices falling. Where would the country get the forex to meet these demands?” The copy ended with the payoff: “Think Nigeria. Act Nigeria. Buy Nigeria.” The advert was placed by The Policy Research Centre.

Good talk. Unfortunately, it is now that the chips are down that we are being inundated with this wake up call to look inwards. Is it not rather late? For many years, discussants at countless fora had hammered on the need to move our economy away from being dependent on oil, but nobody paid any attention. Instead, what we saw was the emergence of briefcase contractors. Everybody became an oil contractor. The country then became a huge dumping ground for all manner of goods. Ever since, our taste for foreign goods has continued on the upward swing. It is as if we are engaged in a rat race to outdo one another in terms of opulence and expensive lifestyle.

Till date, a lot of homes make use of foreign toothpastes, bathing soaps and even import drinking water. A customs officer at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport recently told me that Nigerians import drinking water from abroad on daily basis. At the moment, the country is confronted by a myriad of problems ranging from fiscal deficit, spiralling inflation, depleting foreign reserves, continuous weakening of the naira and many other ills, just because our consumption is higher than production.

With the type of arable land, rich vegetation and natural resources the country is blessed with, should we be importing tomatoes, rice, toothpick and others? Can’t we grow our own rice? We have good swamps for the cultivation of rice in states like Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Ondo, Imo, Edo and other places that can feed the nation, yet we waste a lot of resources importing this commodity at great cost to our foreign reserves.

It is true that Nigerians like good things and good life. I remember a few years back when I went shopping on the popular and busy Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, in the US – something close to Broad Street in Lagos. A friend and I had walked into one of the shops called MENSWEAR, where we met the shopkeeper, a black man from Kenya, who welcomed us with a broad smile. As we moved around in the shop located at one corner of the road, he asked to know where we came from in Africa. As soon as he heard Nigeria, you could see the changes on his face. He quickly responded: “Yes I know”. He was so excited that he started running diarrhoea in his mouth almost immediately: “I know Nigerians spend a lot of money on buying good things. They always come here when they come for the annual OTC (Oil Technical Conference) in Houston, Texas. Men, those guys spend money. Some often come here in Rolls Royce…”. At end of the shopping, he quickly handed over his complementary card to me and urged me to get in touch anytime I intend to come to town.

The shopkeeper’s emotional outburst was instructive. In a few, fleeting seconds, he had ran a commentary on how young Nigerian oil barons paint the city red each time they congregate there for the annual oil conference by scrambling for choice hotels, expensive luxury cars and throwing out-of-this-world parties that are held all through the conference days. This is what gives Nigeria that over-bloated image of a rich country where money flows on the streets. By the time you come back to the country, you are confronted with poverty and misery because the little money available for development is stolen by government officials. In short, the lifestyle of some Nigerians both within and outside the shores of the land is a big contradiction to the grinding poverty in the country.

The Houston experience reminded me of what transpired at the maiden edition of the Rev.(Engr) Ette I. I. Etteh annual distinguished lecture series held on December 16, 2015. The guest lecturer, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, had recounted an encounter he once had with a diplomat friend of his who said to him (Akinyemi): “You Nigerians achieve so little, but celebrate so much”. Of course, there is nothing bad in enjoying a good life if we work hard for what we spend. But in a situation where corruption is rampant, there is the urgent need to put enduring mechanisms in place to check this menace.

The country has a lot of statutes and laws that should naturally regulate our behaviour and other issues. But there seems to be problems with our judicial system. We need to look critically at our judicial system to make sure it actually supports a fair interpretation of the law in order to engender peace and sanity in the society.  In addition, we must look inward for what we need to consume. Let there be standard and this must be enforced to the letter to ensure that goods produced in Nigeria meet international standard. It is only then that we can export our goods to other countries and boost our foreign exchange earning if we must overcome the economic challenges now facing us.

When former US President, Bill Clinton, introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA, in the twilight of his administration, he had Nigeria in mind. But many years after, have we been able to rise up to the occasion? Certainly not. The time has now come to put our house in order and limit our ostentatious taste for “Owanbe”, a euphemism for merriment or high taste.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari got to office in May last year and declared a fierce war on corruption, it has been revelations galore on a daily basis. We all knew that things were very bad, quite well, but what we probably didn’t know was the degree of rot that had pervaded the system. In truth, from the revelations so far, which, I am sure, is still just a tip of the iceberg, the system reeks of an offensive odour that could make any sane person easily throw up. The figures being reeled out are frightening and the methodology employed by these crooks to fleece the treasury is cheap and unbelievable.

Companies are incorporated overnight, bank accounts are opened within the twinkle of an eye and before you can say Jack Robinson, the accounts begin to overflow with huge, mouth-watering cash. The implication is that the system appears too porous and vulnerable to abuse as if there are no safety nets. But safety nets or not, Nigerians are just incredibly criminally intelligent. From the messengers in the ministries to the small, medium and big “ogas at the top”, it is a close-knit web of conspiracy and bare-faced stealing all the way.

It is now clear to Nigerians that the real enemies of the country are the elite. It is the elite who have stolen the country blind that are responsible for our myriad of problems – economic backwardness, lack of infrastructure, appalling health care system, poor educational standard, terrorism, insecurity et al. The reason for this is that the money meant for sustainable development in the country has been embezzled by these smart alecs. This is not to say that it is everybody up there that is a thief, but the preponderance of our so-called elite is engaged in one shady deal or another. There are those who are involved in the actual stealing, while many more profit from the proceeds of crime and criminality in one way or another.

Now that it seems that there is no more hiding place for these thieves, quite a good number of them are getting increasingly uncomfortable because of the fear of the unknown. That brings us to the recent widely circulated statement credited to one of Nigeria’s former leaders, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was at the helm of affairs as President from 1999 to 2007. The former President recently accused the political class, especially the National Assembly members, of being very corrupt, self-centred and greedy. As usual, his assertion has not gone down well with many people. One of them is Bukola Saraki, the embattled Senate President who is currently enmeshed in a battle for his life at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. Only last Friday, his bid to stave off his trial over certain discrepancies in his assets declaration way back while he was a state governor, was rebuffed by the Supreme Court who ordered him to keep a date with the CCT.

After Obasanjo’s statement went viral, Saraki quickly replied that “all Nigerian leaders from 1999 were corrupt”. That insinuation means that Obasanjo was also corrupt and that he equally presided over one of the most corrupt governments the nation has ever had. Saraki’s words: “We’ve all been here since 1999 up to the recent past when things were not done right. We are all part of it. I was there, you were there, every other political office holder in different capacities were there as well”. Of course, many Nigerians cannot agree less with Saraki.

In the first instance, from what we all know now, it appears that the lure of public office in Nigeria is not to render anything close to selfless service, but an opportunity to dip one’s fingers into the public till. Perhaps, that is why it is almost impossible to see anybody who has passed through the corridors of power in Nigeria at whatever level and remained poor. If some exist, they may be too infinitesimal to make any difference in a country where people are aggressively desperate to make money even if it means that some other people  lose their limbs or lives altogether. Who cares?

After all, those who are involved in the scandalous bazaar now known as armsgate knew quite well that one of the direct consequences of their actions is death and destruction to lives and property in the North-east. But that was not enough to deter them from misappropriating the money meant for procuring arms and ammunition to confront the senseless terrorists and human butchers prowling the North-east. What those people have done is tantamount to committing grievous war crimes which could be visited with death by firing squad. Yet, you still find some people talking about human rights and all that.

Regrettably, the irony of the whole situation is that the human rights that so easily allow these people to steal and create untold hardship in the society, is the first thing they invoke as a defence mechanism when the chips are down. You now have a situation where somebody stole so much and he is manacled and some people are crying to the roofs about presumption of innocence until found guilty. Whereas a common man steals just pepper or some tubers of yam and he is chained hands and feet and dumped in jail. So, that one has no human right?

It is a good thing that Buhari and his team are desirous to get to the bottom of the rot in this country, but they should know that it is never going to be a tea party. Like the cliché: “When you fight corruption, corruption will certainly fight back”. A statement credited to the Presidency last week indicated that the government had been under severe pressure from some members of the Nigerian elite urging him to take it easy. These people, the statement added, “cut across all tribes and religious differences”. This is not strange at all. It is quite expected. In actual fact, the heat is certainly on and things cannot be the same again.

Unfortunately, Nigeria harbours many hypocrites parading as leaders. Tales abound at our police stations especially the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, and the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, formations, of how these same elite, including highly-placed traditional rulers, religious leaders, present and past political office holders and others in that bracket, mount pressure on officers and men of the formations every now and then to let go of hardened criminals in police net. These people shamelessly go to the stations with their regalia and paraphernalia of office to stand bail for armed robbers, murderers, rapists and all such dangerous felons. That is the depth of the rot in the society.

So, ordinarily it is no news that pressure is being mounted on the government to slow down the anti-corruption war. It is because more and more of these so-called elite who are nothing more than common criminals, are daily being dislodged from their comfort zones. The government should continue to appraise its strategy to rid the country of this endemic corruption while also ignoring those interceding on behalf of their thieving friends and relations because this war must be taken to its logical conclusion.

However, my fear is that those who are coming cap-in- hand now to beg for leniency could resort to some sinister plots if all their entreaties fail. In that case, there is need for eternal vigilance. The public too, must help the government to win this war. The bottom line is that Nigerians don’t want all these to end up as circuit shows. They want to see these white-collar thieves in jail. However, what is worrisome is: If Buhari cannot do this conclusively, who else will clean the Augean stables?

At many fora in the past, Nigerians had been inundated with staggering figures about the depth of corruption in the country. Alarming as the figures are, it only goes to show how deeply this monster has eaten into the fabric of the nation. These are monies that grew wings and disappeared without trace, from the nation’s treasury at all levels of government – be it local, state or federal government.

Just last week, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, added a new twist when he told a bewildered nation that 55 Nigerians had stolen over N1.34 trillion from the country’s treasury from 2006 to 2013. According to the minister, “between the period 2006 and 2013, just 55 people allegedly stole a total of 1.34 trillion Naira in Nigeria. That’s more than a quarter of last year’s national budget.”  Out of the stolen funds, the minister said, 15 former governors were alleged to have stolen N146.84 billion, while four former ministers stole N7 billion; 12 former public servants, both at federal and state levels, stole over N14 billion; eight people in the banking industry allegedly made away with N524 billion, while 11 businessmen allegedly stole N653 billion.

While giving reasons why Nigerians should “own” the war against corruption, the minister said using the World Bank rates and costs, one third of the stolen funds could have provided 635.18 kilometers of road; built 36 ultra modern hospitals, that is one hospital per state; built 183 schools; educated 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level at 25.24 million per child; and built 20,062 units of 2-bedroom houses. In his words: “This is the money that a few people, just 55 in number, allegedly stole within a period of just eight years. And instead of a national outrage, all we hear are these nonsensical statements that the government is fighting only the opposition, or that the government is engaging in vendetta.”

The minister was, however, silent on the amount of money stolen at the local government level which we all know is presided over mostly by rogues and thieves. Although, a greater percentage of the money meant for local government administration in the country is seriously tampered with by the chief executives of the states under a controversial and dubious arrangement called joint account, the little that gets to the local governments is mainly expended on white elephant projects that have little or no impact on the lives of the citizens they govern. They also indulge in reckless spending on sustaining frivolous and unfathomable personal luxuries to the detriment of the progress of their domain. This is, perhaps, why it appears that nothing tangible is happening at the local government level in Nigeria. All they do is to impose all manners of levies on motor parks, market places and other places of commercial ventures. And when they collect these levies, they simply embezzle them thereby complicating the corruption index of the country.

The minister was right when he said Nigerians should take ownership of the war on corruption. This is about the first time great efforts are being made by any government in Nigeria to deal a decisive blow on corruption. So far, the war has been applauded everywhere as the right step towards bringing sanity to bear on the finance and monetary system of the country. One of those who have commended the government on its anti-corruption drive is John Kerry, the United State Secretary of State. In his speech at the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kerry made reference to Buhari’s fight against corruption. He said that money that was meant for arms to fight Islamist sect, Boko Haram, was diverted into private pockets. According to him, “corruption costs global economy more than a trillion dollars a year and complicates every security, diplomatic, social priority.” He added that, “in far too many countries, plain rank corruption has generated such powerful headwinds that local economies just tread water. Today, corruption has grown at an alarming pace and threatens global growth, global stability, indeed the global future.”

Kerry admitted that the scourge of corruption had at one time or the other, ravaged even the so-called advanced nations of the world, but it took concerted efforts to fight it. This is what we are yet to witness in Nigeria. It is like corruption has become an inseparable part of our daily lives which is why getting rid of it is proving a herculean task. Whereas we all believe that corruption is bad and that it is killing the country,  majority of Nigerians, particularly the elites, are more inclined to turn a blind eye than join hands to fight it. Corruption, as it were, exists everywhere – in the homes, in places of worship, work places and all other facets of our national lives. Wherever people take undue advantage of others, corruption is evident – in admission issues, employment issues, promotions, among others.

Just last week, it was reported that, some top officials of the civil service were dismissed by the Federal Government for extorting money from applicants and offering them employment illegally. The scandal was said to have involved very senior officials up to Level 17 in a department under the Ministry of Information and Culture where about 400 people were illegally offered employment after N400, 000 was extorted from each applicants. The officials were said to have included the names of the applicants in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel System, IPPIS, before the fraud was uncovered. That was not all. They invited the applicants to go and be captured on the IPPIS and even took cameras to hotels to get them captured. However, the bubble finally burst when one of the victims told the officials, “you cannot take my money and still disengage me. I have a valid letter of employment.” That was how it was discovered that the syndicate had a dedicated account into which their victims paid money.

Obviously, there are so many ways corruption thrives in the country. It appears we are all involved at one level or another, which is the reason Nigerians naturally display apathy or lackadaisical attitude to the fight against corruption. For instance, relations, friends or the children of a corrupt officer or person may not be easily disposed to expose him or her simply because they benefit from the ill-gotten wealth. Even for some crumbs from thy master’s table, a lot of people will rather keep sealed lips than to squeal. We are all involved because of the rat race to acquire wealth by unfair and foul means. And once the long arm of the law catches up with a corrupt person, you find all manner of people fighting tooth and nail either to secure his release or to avoid prosecution altogether. We need a new mindset to get rid of corruption or reduce it to the barest minimum in the country.

The still-unfolding Dasukigate and all the theatrics involved shows that, as a country, we have a long way to go if we are really serious about fighting corruption and putting an end to the debilitating cankerworm that has seriously impeded our development and progress as a nation. I remember Olisa Metuh’s 50th birthday last November. It was celebrated with pomp and pageantry to the extent that the newspapers were bursting with congratulatory adverts. To crown it all, one of the national dailies carried a banner headline on its front page quoting him as saying in an interview: “No regrets being more successful in politics than law.” Today, as he hops from one Black Maria to another, with his bushy new looks and dangling handcuffs, we now know how successful in politics Metuh has been.