Category: Editorial

It was moving to read Anthony Eze speak about how his son, five-year-old Chidera, passed on in a swimming pool in Ikeja recently. Our hearts bleed with him while noting that the circumstances of his son’s death is another rendition of the inefficiency and incompetence of those charged to do basic things.

The incident happened at the Ivory Health Club, Ogundana Street, Ikeja, where, according to reports and also confirmed by CCTV, 15 wards went for swimming lessons presumably under assured supervision. But the kids were not under the watchful eyes of caregivers, lifeguards and, therefore, the school management.

Chidera was with his fellow students at the adult end of the pool. They should be at the kid’s and shallow end. They were not only at the deep end, there was only one caregiver in sight. Even that person was not watching, but the camera showed her moving in and out of the pool area while the children were left to their own fancies.

When the boy slipped into the pool, no one was aware. In fact, another child fell into the pool and was rescued when Chidera had already sunk into the water. “My son was under the water for over 30 minutes and we were all shouting as we watched the video. Another pupil also fell into the water, but her colleagues raised the alarm and they pulled her out and while this was going on, nobody noticed my son was inside the water,” said Anthony Eze after watching the CCTV footage. We do not know if his fellow students raised the alarm when Chidera fell.

The father dropped off his son at the school, according to him, at 10:52 a.m. Later he received a call from the school headteacher Mrs. Adeola Aladipo that they had rushed his son to the Ikeja Medical Centre.

“I rushed down there, but what I saw was the lifeless body of my son. I asked the head teacher what happened and she said she did not know. I asked the doctor what happened and he said he was brought in dead. I asked the teachers, caregivers and workers at the club what happened and they gave no explanation.

“As I was crying, my wife came in; I was trying to manage the information, but the head teacher also informed her and as she ran into the hospital, I became totally confused. I went to the Area F Police Station and after the policemen took pictures of my son’s corpse, we went to the club,” said Mr. Eze.

To hear him relate the story, it was obvious that even if the caregiver was distracted and looked away when the child slid into water. She might have heard the boy struggle in the water. Hear the father:

“My son was at the tail end of the line when he slipped into the pool the first time but he was able to bring himself out of the pool. But the second time he slipped into the water, he could not come out. All these happened and none of the teachers, caregivers and lifeguards took notice of what was happening.”

The Lagos State Government promptly stepped into the matter with an investigation, and it revealed that the school, The Redeemers Nursery and Primary School, Ogba, on Acme Road, had not been registered. How did an illegal school operate in a city like Lagos, and bearing the name of a well-known religious organisation? This is a double tragedy. It lured believing parents with phony authenticity because of its name, and beguiled officials that it might be legal because there are quite of such schools in the state.

No amount of encouragement can save a child that a father dropped whole, only to return to him as a corpse.

Again, government has failed Nigerians. Insecurity reigns in the land, with the leadership showing incapacity to rein in the criminals. Within about a decade, what Nigerians derided in other countries has become commonplace at home. Kidnappers are on the prowl everywhere, killer-herders strike at homes and farms leaving a long trail of blood, bandits now posture as alternate governments, dictating taxes and levies and beheading those who fail to oblige them.

The Tuesday, July 5, vicious attack on Kuje custodial centre was a daring move to seize this country by the jugular. It was alarming because it reenacted similar attacks on custodial facilities in Owerri, Imo State, Kabba and Koton Karfe in Kogi, Benin in Edo and Abolongo in Oyo, among others. Each was followed with visits by federal and state officials who vowed there would never be a repeat. That the criminals were audacious to take the battle to the Federal Capital Territory illustrated the futility of that pledge. The Buhari administration has always been quick to point out how far the country has come from those days that terrorists attacked the United Nations and the Police Force headquarters under the former Jonathan administration. But despite warnings that such attack was coming, upon which security in and around the Kuje facility should have been fortified, terrorists had enough space to spring out 64  Boko Haram terrorists along with other inmates.

One of the indices of a failed state is inability to secure lives and property of citizens. When people are unsafe even in their homes, the state has failed them. When promises by political leaders, high officials of state and security officers amount to nothing, the state is steeped in serious crisis. It is no surprise that highly educated and skilled youths are voting with their feet, never intending to look back. Herein is the danger: we have a society in dire need of development but being deserted by professionals who hold the key to its future; a nation in need of investment, but unable to convince its men of means to invest locally.

The ramifications of that jailbreak and others before it have not been fully appreciated. Terrorists are on the loose. At Kuje, they achieved their full objective whereas the state was caught napping. As a result, Abuja the capital city, is no longer safe. Terrorists based in Niger and Nasarawa, as well as Kaduna might have found a way to upset the peace of Nigeria from the centre. Unless security forces step up their act, the emboldened terrorists could get more daring in taking on the state and further dampen citizens’ morale.

To check incessant attacks on custodial centres, urgent measures must be taken. And this is beyond the President paying a visit and asking questions ordinary citizens should. It is beyond security chiefs, legislators and ministers turning the Kuje centre to a tourist cite. Here the President should demonstrate that he is the Commander-in-Chief. He should wield the big stick. Officials guilty of dereliction of duty, whether deliberately or otherwise, should be brought to book. This is one jailbreak too many that should attract severe sanction.

Starting with Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola who has failed to secure custodial facilities, the President should call officials concerned to account. What happened to the budget for technology that should keep the facilities safe? What relationship obtains between the ministry and the military? What role has the National Security Adviser played in ensuring that proper action was taken to protect the facilities? Did the presidency take enough interest in ensuring safety of inmates and security of national assets under the ministry?  Why were those who committed grave crimes against the state kept at a medium security custodial centre when the country has maximum security facilities?

We hope the probe of this national embarrassment that has been ordered will be conducted swiftly and action taken to deter further jailbreaks.

The popular saying, ‘health is wealth’ is a fact. However, for a country like Nigeria, being the poverty capital of the world with dire economic statistics for the citizens means the health of the citizens has impaired productivity and the nation’s wealth. Hence many countries prioritise healthcare. Even the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) set health budget benchmarks that Nigeria has always kept in the breach.

Sadly, the highest ever health sector budget allocation was in 2020 at seven per cent (7%) and in 2021, but these fell short of 15 percent Abuja Declaration Commitment. So, the country is not yet considering the health sector as prime.

The low budgetary records harm the population, especially the productive sector, as young people too are victims. The ill-fortune of the sector is the nation’s poverty.

Primary and tertiary health institutions have returned to the proverbial ‘consulting clinics’ that military interventionists led by then Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 1984 lamented and cited as one of the reasons they struck to sack the civilian government of late Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Even now, hospitals cannot pass as consulting clinics given the number of healthcare workers that have left the country due to poor service conditions and welfare in the last ten years.

A recent report that the University College Hospital, Ibadan management contemplated imposing a thousand-Naira fee on patients for electricity did not come to many as a surprise, even though the hospital recently issued a statement denying the report, saying it was an internal memo that wasn’t implemented. Rumours, however, had it that patients had paid for some days in July. Internal memo is no less a policy even if fear of scandal restrains implementation.

That UCH spoke out on the issue does not mean it is the only hospital or company that has been affected by the astronomical cost of diesel used to power heavy-duty generators in big and medium-size organizations like hospitals. The deregulation in the diesel market had meant prizes are determined by market forces. So, at almost nine hundred naira per litter, the overheads being incurred by small, medium and big companies can only be imagined.

The health sector needs constant power supply because hospitals operate heavy-duty equipment and life-saving gadgets. We cannot ascertain the number of deaths across the country because of incessant power failure. Incubators, surgery, emergency services and other highly sensitive procedures in Nigerian hospitals must be in a terrible shape and the result is many loss of lives, which government could prevent if assistance were extended to hospitals.

Recently, the United States experienced a shortage of baby formulae due to domestic challenges in the manufacturing sector. The government had to quickly make contingency plans to import baby formulae from Europe to keep babies alive. We are shocked that no tier of government, not even the Federal Government, seems to have bothered with the emergency in the health sector given its prime place in the lives of people. Health must be a priority for any government. If citizens aren’t healthy, the country is not just be poor, there might be few left to govern when leaders return from medical tourism abroad.

We urge government to declare a state of emergency in the health sector. The cost of saving citizens cannot be compared with the consequences of losing them. Healthcare should be a priority for a nation at the edge of the precipice. The UCH scenario is a reflection of the experience of other hospitals across the country. There is urgent need to save the health sector.

After many months of some respite, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lately came under fresh attack by arsonists. The electoral body’s Igboeze North Local Government Area office in Enugu State was torched on Sunday, 03rd July, resulting in the destruction of no fewer than 748 ballot boxes and 240 voting cubicles besides office equipment and furniture.

The commission reported that the arsonists stormed its office at the council area headquarters in Ogurute at 11.48p.m. on the fateful day and overpowered security guards on duty, forced their way into the premises and set fire to the building. “Although no casualties were reported, 748 ballot boxes, 240 voting cubicles, office furniture and equipment were destroyed in spite of the best effort of the Enugu State Fire Service deployed from Nsukka,” INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said in a statement. According to him, the commission was working to ascertain the status of voter registration machines for ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) that were locked up in the fireproof cabinet. Meanwhile, the incident was reported to the Nigeria Police for investigation and further action.

Describing the attack as worrisome, Okoye noted that it was staged amidst ongoing registration of voters and other preparations for the 2023 general election. He recalled that gunmen had stormed INEC’s office at neighbouring Igboeze South council area of Enugu State on 23rd May, 2021, and set the place ablaze. And that was after attacks on the commission’s Udenu council area office on 13th May, and its state headquarters in Enugu on 16th May, 2021. Okoye said the electoral body had substantially recovered from the attacks and resumed normal activities, including undertaking the CVR and distribution of PVCs.

Enugu State isn’t the only place where INEC’s facilities have been under siege by arsonists. The commission’s council area offices in Ezza North and Izzi council areas of Ebonyi State were simultaneously attacked in May 2021, just few days after the attack on the Enugu head office. Besides the office structures, generating sets, voting cubicles and other vital items were raze in those attacks. Earlier, INEC’s office in Ohafia council area of Abia State was burnt, just as that in Essien Udim council area of Akwa Ibom State. Even before those incidents, sensitive materials were destroyed in an inferno at an INEC data processing centre in Kano. INEC offices in Anambra and Imo states were as well targeted and razed. It was reported that between February 2019 and May 2021, attacks on the commission’s offices include in Akwa Ibom (four), Abia (three), Anambra (two), Imo (two) and Enugu (two), and that wasn’t mentioning Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Ondo, Plateau and Rivers states as well as Abuja where its facilities had similarly been attacked.

Arson attacks on INEC offices constitute a concerted war on the ballot by agents of anarchy who need to be apprehended by security agencies and stopped from their exploits. Only there have been extremely few arrests of suspects, such that the deterrence effect has been feeble. Following the latest incident, the commission said it would continue to work with security agencies and the emergency services to protect its  facilities. But we must hope that wasn’t an empty rhetoric considering there have been few breakthroughs in investigations of past incidents and penalty for culprits. If intel cannot preempt attacks from taking place, the least that can be done is to relentlessly hunt down culprits so to dissuade emulators.

It is good that INEC has acquired fireproof cabinets for storage of strategic items like biometric machines and PVCs. But the commission yet needs to undertake comprehensive risk assessment of its facilities as could offer useful advisory to security services in providing it with protection. Our democracy was not easily won, and arsonists must not be allowed to disrupt it.

Whereas Nigerians may have in the past years vented their displeasure with the performance of the unbundled electricity entities, last week would serve as the final repudiation and indictment of the process that ushered in the class of players under which the sector hit the nadir. It was a final attestation to what Nigerians have always known and feared about the lack of capacity of the operators and the utter lack of transparency in the process that produced them.

It began when on Tuesday July 5 the federal government announced the takeover of Kano, Benin and Kaduna electricity distribution companies by Fidelity Bank.  The three entities, according to both the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), had, in addition to falling miserably short on their statutory responsibilities, neglected to repay the loans taken from the bank to acquire their asset during the 2013 privatisation as a result of which the bank had activated its right to take them over.

Recall that the BPE announced had similarly obtained approval from NERC to appoint an interim managing director for Ibadan Disco following its take-over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). By some uncanny coincidence, the federal government is said to have forwarded a notice to the management and board of Port Harcourt Disco on its restructuring plan to forestall the imminent insolvency of the utility. Yola and Abuja Discos had earlier lost their initial management to the government under the same circumstances.

While some might be tempted to call the moves as stealth, backdoor reacquisition of sorts, Nigerians deserve to be spared of such shibboleths given that the privatisation process itself was ab initio utterly flawed. It seems to us a reinforcement of the saying that what goes round comes around.

This is a sector in which the regulator has had to look away from serial infractions ranging from neglect of basic service parameters to such other fundamental obligations as would be expected in a service-oriented sector. Rather than the promises of investments, of overhaul of the business methods and practices under which Nigerians are exploited and denied value for their money’s worth, the sector continues to dip to the point that it even now threatens to drag the financial services sector down with it.

Of course, like in previous cases, the BPE is quite clear about the cause of the action in the latest case of Kano, Benin and Kaduna DisCos. It stated that the action was a contractual and commercial intervention between the core investors in the Discos and the lender and that it was involved because of the 40 per cent shareholding of government in the Discos. No matter the extraneous motives that may be attributed to the action by government, what is undeniable is the fact that the former investors, through unparalleled incompetence, supplied the noose for the hangmen to do them in.

After all, the same federal government has serially bent backwards to provide financial accommodation to them to aid the sector’s stabilisation when it mattered the most. As at the last count, the sector has gulped over N1.5 trillion in interventions and loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Put side by side with the $2.53 billion (a mere N404bn based on the exchange rate at the time) realised from the sale of the Discos and Gencos which is less than 30 percent, the picture of the scandal and the unmitigated disaster that the sector has become post-privatisation emerges.

The latest measure could therefore, not have come as a surprise. If anything, it is coming several years late. What it suggests is that the Federal Government has finally woken up to the recognition that the current crop of players, not only lacks the technical capacity, but also the financial acumen to move the sector forward.        The immediate task is to ensure that the out-of-favour investors are not allowed to hold the country down through frivolous judicial processes. Next is for the government to immediately come up with fresh roadmaps with clear timelines guided by a transparent and world class divestment programme to ensure that the repossessed shares are sold to entities with global track records.

Governor Samuel Ortom òf Benue State has once again restated the opposition of majority of Nigerians to the proposed Water Resources Bill. The controversial bill again found its way into the House of Representatives late last month, after at least two failed attempts to pass it into law. It was first introduced by the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2017. It was passed by the House of Representatives but roundly rejected by Nigerians. It resurfaced in 2020 when it was surreptitiously brought to the National Assembly. Again, it was dead on arrival because Nigerians rose against what they saw as a ploy by the Federal Government to take land vested in state governments for pastoralists through the back door.

Governor Ortom said: “Let me say emphatically that there will be no Water Resources Bill in Benue State; we will resist it if other states encourage it.”

Governor Ortom was reacting to the latest attempt to get the bill passed in the National Assembly by the same person who has been championing its cause, the chairman of the House Committee on Water Resources, Sada Soli. Soli said the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), as well as commissioners for justice and attorneys-general of the 36 states of the federation had been consulted and the opinions received from them would be attached to the bill and distributed to all members. He said he would voluntarily withdraw the bill whenever there is indication that it will negatively affect any section of the country.

Governor Ortom is not alone in rejecting the obnoxious bill. NLC’s President Ayuba Wabba had warned in 2020 when the bill was again sneaked into the National Assembly that: “We equally warn against legislative abuse or betrayal of Nigerians as this is what it will amount to if the bill is passed or caused to be passed without public engagement and scrutiny.”

The labour union’s warning came just as Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, criticised the attempt to “sneak” the bill into law.

Civil society groups across the country have also criticised the bill, saying it would breach citizens’ right to water. Niger-Delta-based group, Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade, CHURAC, for instance, also cautioned that the controversial National Water Resources Bill 2020, would trigger militancy in the Niger Delta.

Nigeria has several daunting challenges in the energy and power sectors as well as security problems. The agricultural sector is crying for attention even as students in our public universities have been out of school for months without sincere steps taken to return them to school. The health sector is in crisis. Indeed, the country, as things stand, is virtually on crutches, with the economy in a shambles.

Nigerians are wondering why Water Resources Bill has to become a do-or-die affair. As a matter of fact, the way the Federal Government has been going about the bill is enough to fuel ingrained federal suspicions about the real motive for the controversial bill.

Controversial parts of the law include the part that vests ownership of water bodies on the federal government and the part that mandates citizens to get federal permission to drill bore holes in their homes or businesses despite the inability of the government to provide potable water to majority of its citizens.

Society watched in amazement over the past week as adherents of a cult, called Whole Bible Believers Church in Ondo State, spurned rescue by the police from apparent captivity and dug in with their suspected captors. It was a state of hypnosis that bordered on the Stockholm Syndrome – that famous psychological condition whereby abused persons develop strong bond with their abusers and sympathise with them, which medics consider to be a coping mechanism.

No fewer than 77 persons comprising 26 children, eight teenagers and 43 adults were rescued penultimate Saturday, after being found locked up in the basement of the church located at Valentino area of Ondo township. The victims had allegedly abandoned their homes, with some having disowned parents and other family members to ally with the church. Young ones claimed their parents were not teaching them the way of God, while those who are students had abandoned schooling to hole up in the church basement. They were reportedly kept at the place for more than six months by the church pastor, David Anifowose, and his assistant, Peter Josiah, purportedly awaiting ‘rapture’ that the members were told had been rescheduled to September after an initial April date fell through. The victims were kept in the underground cellar to make them ‘rapturable.’

The police said initial efforts to probe ongoings at the church were met with physical assault by church members who resisted operatives that had gone there until reinforcements were deployed. Upon freeing the victims from captivity last weekend, the police took the pastor and his assistant into custody, pending their arraignment in court, after conclusion of investigation. The freed captives were restored to their families. But some of the rescued victims reportedly vowed not to leave their pastors behind in detention and insisted on staying behind at the police station until the pastors are let go or they would get raptured together. Ondo State Police Command spokesperson Funmilayo Odunlami confirmed that some of the victims refused to follow their parents after the police asked them to go. “Despite all our attempts and placation, some of the victims refused to go home, saying they were going to stay here. We have a child who said she would follow the Lord and not her parents. She said she was okay staying within the police compound since their pastor is still here,” the spokesperson told journalists.

Speaking along the same line, Ondo State women affairs commissioner Julianah Osadahun said the government was baffled by how resolute some of the children were. “We just interviewed some of the children who are between 11 and 17 years old. The way they spoke seems they have been hypnotised… What baffles me as a mother is that these children are already hardened, from the interview we conducted with them. They are indoctrinated,” she said inter alia, adding: “We want to have a database of the children through family tracing so that we can get to how they were hypnotised and indoctrinated. And if they need rehabilitation, then we would have to go legally by taking custody of (them).” Relations as well lamented the apparent hypnosis of their kin. A father based in Ilorin, Kwara State, said his son, a 400-level student of Federal University of Technology, Akure, had kept away from home since the thick of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and was discovered to be involved with the controversial church. Efforts to retrieve him failed as he returned to the church when schools resumed and never showed up again at home. Another parent who claimed to be a former member of the church said his 21-year-old daughter refused to eat since Saturday, insisting that the pastor be freed by the police. Another relation who is a sibling to one of the victims said his brother refused to return home since he was freed from captivity, saying he would not leave his pastor alone in detention.

The Ondo saga came to light barely three months after another professed clergyman in Ekiti State was busted for camping followers on remote premises in preparation for ‘rapture’ and charging them N310,000 as fare for trans-terrestrial flight. And it is apparently just the tip of an iceberg of personality cults of mass delusion incubating the society. The trend was thought peculiar to a religious persuasion under which ‘torture homes’ were operated as purported rehabilitation centres for deviants, but it is in reality cross-cutting. Besides, it darkly echoes the beginnings of Jim Jones-led Guyana Tragedy of 1978 and how outlaw groups like the Boko Haram took root. Nigeria has enough challenges without society being blown over by mystics and mad messiahs; so efforts should be redoubled by security agents to rout all phony cults.