Category: Editorial

On an E-flier on Twitter, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) threw a warning to landlords. If anyone rents a home to partisans of the advance fee fraud community, often called Yahoo Boys, they will risk 15 years in jail.

The EFCC is serious about this, and its language is crisp in its portent: “‘Give Your House To Yahoo Boys, Spend 15 Years In Jail.”

The agency followed this with an online engagement to Nigerians and made its point even in pidgin English to relate its message to the grassroots. “Okay, now! What a juicy topic! E go, sweet wella! Landlord way yahoo-boy dey stay for him house, my people, na 15 years imprisonment for the landlord o! E don set!”

In making its case, the EFCC adverts to the law. It is section 3 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 which stipulates thus: “A person who, being the occupier or is concerned in the management of any premises, causes or knowingly permits the premises to be used for any purpose which constitutes an offence under this Act is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years without the option of a fine.”

The heart of the agency may be in the right place, and so is the law. But it is tricky to execute.

It is not as easy for a landlord to know if a prospective tenant is a Yahoo Boy simply by following due process. EFCC’s deputy director, legal and prosecution, Sylvanus Tahir, and assistant director, legal and prosecution, Cosmos Ugwu,  have harped on the exigency of landlords to rise up to the challenge. They insist it is in the collective interest of landlords, caretakers to do due diligence or else they would fall guilty of extant laws.

Tahir said: “It is in the collective interest of landlords, caretakers. The menace faced from activities of Yahoo boys cannot be overstated. If you have not fallen a victim, you will not understand.”

We do not believe many landlords want to nest criminals under their roofs. But they will need help from law enforcement. The young men who indulge in this criminality often are adept at disguise. They may claim to have legitimate businesses and even work in well-established corporations. With such proofs, they could easily con their way into tenancy.

What we need from government is data. Background checks in Nigeria do not always work in a society without clear data about people’s background, criminal labour, parentage, schools, and other associations.

We appreciate EFCC’s zeal, especially when it takes the path of public enlightenment.

Ugwu said: “The commission is mindful of what breach of this entails hence we are going out to sensitise. It is left for landlords to make an effort to educate themselves. Ignorance is not an excuse. The National Assembly has passed the law. People would make an effort to know what the law is and advise accordingly. The menace of ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ and other crimes deals a deadly blow to this country.”

We fear that innocent citizens may be mixed up with felons, and that may complicate the matter.

We agree with Tahir that “there are things we do ignorantly. Those who have heard should pass the information to others. The law criminalises the use of premises for wrong reasons or to cause somebody to use your premises for cybercrimes and other crimes.”

It is better pontificated than executed.

Nothing perhaps better illustrates his passion for thespianism, and devotion to its promotion, than his ongoing  building project. Jimi Solanke, veteran actor, composer, singer, dancer, folklorist and storyteller, gave an insight into this endeavour in an interview just before turning 80 on July 4.

The place he is building in Ipara, Ogun State, he said, “is a centre for creative and performing arts enhancement.”  It is called Ibudo Asa. He explained: “If you’re a graduate and you are still looking for how to step in and stamp your feet on the ground of performances, come, you will get your skills enhanced. We will through a practical approach take you through the rudiments of stage presence, voice mastery, acting, and total theatre experience for continuity of live stage performance…We will be having a lot of people coming for workshops on different areas of thespian life.”

On how much work has been done, and what still needs to be done, Solanke provided information showing that the centre could do with assistance. He said: “Well, we have put up a structure in place with rooms each having its own toilet, the ceiling is done and the whole place wired by an electrician…My hall contains at least 50-60 people. We have hosted a lot of artistes and visitors already. We have done book readings, and that is still testing, testing the microphone. It is the outside hall, the stage, and the sitting area that we are facing now.”

Support from government bodies, cultural organisations, culture-friendly companies and individuals,  for instance, can help get the centre completed. As he struggles to realise his dream, which is a way to give back to society, there is a lesson for those in the arts sector on the need to embrace business-like approaches to project funding.

His creative life started early. As a student at Odogbolu Grammar School, in present-day Ogun State, he formed a music group called Koroba. The band performed folk songs using iron buckets as musical instruments.  He wrote songs in secondary school, including Onilegogoro, Ore Titan, Na Today You Come, and Khaki No Be Leather, for Highlife star Roy Chicago. He also worked with Highlife greats Eddy Okonta and Chris Ajilo.

He was among the first diploma students in Nigeria’s first school of drama, which became the Department of Theatre Arts in the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. It was there his voice was trained and his spoken English polished. He was, in his words, “trained in all the ramifications of theatre” and “arrested by the spirit of drama.”

By this time, he was already known as a singer and his songs were being played on radio. He began his professional acting career in the early 1960s, in Ibadan, and was one of the pioneer members of the Orisun Theatre Company founded by Wole Soyinka, the prominent playwright who became a Nobelist.  He later joined the Ori Olokun Centre in Ile-Ife.

When he moved to America, he formed a performing group called The Africa Review, which promoted African culture. The group performed mainly in schools, and was well known in Los Angeles, California, for dancing and storytelling.  ”That was where I actually started telling stories,” Solanke recalled. He used folk tales to demonstrate the value of African culture.

Described as a “master storyteller” by CNN, he created two popular children’s television shows based on storytelling, Storyland and African Stories, after he returned to Nigeria in 1986.

He has acted in films by Wole Soyinka, Ola Balogun and Tunde Kelani, all big names, which says a lot about his worth. On stage, he has played Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, Kurunmi, Elesin Oba, and Sizwe, in well-known plays.  “But my own interest is not in film making,” he declared. “I’m made for stage roles.”

He takes his profession seriously.  Whether he is playing a role, making music, dancing, or telling a story, there is no question about his creativity, professionalism and enthusiasm. Ever conscious of his Yoruba and African roots, he remains a true cultural ambassador.

Edo State is in the news for the wrong reasons once again. The state is one in which jail break is so frequent; one known for political rascality and one where kidnap is so rampant and Catholic priests have become endangered. This time, it’s with regard to neglect of primary and secondary school pupils. In contemporary times, it is preposterous that pupils would be made to receive instructions and write on the floor.

But that is the situation in the popular Okada Junction in Edo State where parents and residents have cried out about the state of the school in the community. The classrooms whose photographs were freely shared in the media last week are decrepit- ceilings broken, windows non-existent and doors not available. When it rains, both pupils and teachers have to relocate to where they could hide to avoid the fury of water. The community contends that it had cried out to the state government for years to come to their aid, all to no avail.

It is unfortunate that the only answer the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) has is that the government is waiting for such a time when it would be able to address concerns of all the schools at once. Before then, what happens to the health and quality of education received by pupils in such schools? It is unfortunate that those in charge of governance in the state are people who had access to good quality education in a good environment. Yet, Edo State is regarded as one of the leading states in terms of education. The National Bureau of Statistics rates it as having the least number of children out of school.

This is a reputation we expect the state, not only to maintain, but improve on. Early this year, the state government announced that it would start a new system of education for the primary and secondary schools in the state. In place of the 6-3-3-4 system presumably in operation nation-wide, the new policy would have Basic-Junior Basic and Senior Basic mode. While it is expected to take off in the 2022/2023 session, the stakeholders are yet to fully understand how it will operate and what it requires of proprietors of private schools. It is likely to lead to some disruption and discomfort for the students, too, who are expected to adjust to the sudden change.

The current National Policy on Education enunciated in 2013 and adjusted in 2018 is still being studied by many schools. Many state governments, including Edo, are yet to ensure that conducive environment is created for teaching and learning. Audio-visuals are not provided, recreational facilities are absent and workshops as well as laboratories are strange to the students. These are meant to be the central concerns of the Edo State government. Parents and pupils have indicated that there are many schools in the state where pupils are made to sit and learn on the floor.

Good environment is a key indicator of quality education in the 21st century. The classrooms are expected to be decongested, teachers continually undergoing training and retraining to be equipped for imparting education, the curriculum constantly reviewed by experts to conform to national goals and there is a need for a reinvigorated inspectorate unit of the education ministry. We expect Edo State to take the lead in this so that educationally disadvantaged states could take a cue. Rather than pay attention to the plight of the people, Governor Godwin Obaseki and other political leaders of the state are more interested in squabbles to establish who has control of the turf.

Any society, state or central government that fails to locate the children and youth at the centre of its development plan is doomed to fail. One sure way of ensuring that Nigeria escapes from the poverty and squalor bind is to pay special attention to elementary and secondary education.

One non-communicable disease that is giving Africa’s medical experts serious concern is stroke. And the reason is not far-fetched: the continent is now about the global capital of the disease. This was the submission of Dr Rufus Akinyemi, a medical expert. Akinyemi told the audience at a two-day African Stroke Leaders’ Summit with the theme “Operationalising a Roadmap for Reducing the Burden of Stroke in Africa: Vision 2030”, that there was the urgent need to tackle the challenge from the womb to the tomb. The summit was organised by the African Stroke Organisation (ASO) in partnership with Africa-UK Stroke Partnership Project (AUKSPP) in Ibadan.

Some statistics put the annual incidence rate of stroke in Africa at about 316 per 100,000 individuals, which is within the highest incidence rates in the world, and the prevalence rate of 1,460 per 100,000 reported in one region of Nigeria, claiming that this is among the highest in the world.

Similarly, Ekenze, O.S. et al in a profile of neurological admissions at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, in 2010 say that ‘’Stroke is the leading cause of medical coma in Nigeria. It is also the leading cause of admissions from hypertension-related complications, accounting for 40% of hypertensive complications in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. In several studies from the West African sub-region, it emerged as the leading cause of adult neurological admissions, constituting up to 65% of such admissions.’’

This statistics are too grim to be ignored.

Yet, some years ago, it was thought that stroke was not an African issue. “About some decades ago, it was thought that hypertension and stroke are rare in Africa. But we know that stroke is a big problem on the African continent today. In fact, we like to describe Africa as the global stroke capital based on its huge burden because factors that drive it affect us from the womb to the tomb”, the medical expert said.

According to Akinyemi, factors that drive stroke in the continent affect individuals through their lifetime, hence, the need for such a talkshop to examine the issue holistically, with a view to examining the burden of the disease, to enable them draw up an action plan which the ASO, national societies and countries could plug into to reduce the prevalence of stroke in Africa.

Indeed, the essence of ASO that was formed about 20 months ago is to see to a reduction in the prevalence of stroke on the continent. “We are doing this by focusing on four key pillars of promoting stroke research; promoting and enhancing stroke services; advocacy, building capacity and training of the work force to combat the burden of stroke”, Akinyemi said.

This distressing disclosure is another low for a continent that is battling all sorts of challenges, both self-inflicted and natural. The continent is home to several jobless youths, it suffers huge infrastructural deficits: inadequate power supply, poor medical facilities, bad road networks; Africa is bogged down by political instability and internecine conflicts. It is a continent where most comforts of life that are taken for granted elsewhere hardly work. Indeed, it t is a continent where life could be so brutish and short. All of these are enough to give people stroke.

So, any effort by those who know about the disease to reduce its prevalence on the continent should be welcome.

Here, we cannot discountenance the observations of Dr Augustina Charway-Felli, President, African Academy of Neurology (AFAN) who dwelt on the inadequate specialist care for stroke and the very few neurologists in many African countries to handle the many cases. African governments must do everything possible to meet the WHO recommended 1 to five per 100,000 neurological experts as against the present 0.12 per 100,000.

Nigeria, specifically must check the brain drain in this regard as well as train more personnel to enable them cope with the cases. There is also need for increased public awareness on stroke prevention, de-stigmatisation of people with stroke, as well as education on the advantage of seeking medical attention early, and differences between what is normal and abnormal with ageing.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, last week, revisited the 2014 National Conference that was staged by his administration and gave reasons why recommendations by the conference couldn’t be implemented before he left office. Broadly, he adduced a sudden shift in the partisan balance of the National Assembly by which the government of the day lost control of the legislature, the constraint of time before the 2015 general election and the failure of his own bid for another term of office in 2015 as the major reasons.

Jonathan said his government lost control of the House of Representatives not long after the conference’s report was submitted. He recalled the defection by then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, that heralded mass defection by other house members from then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying it was politically impossible to work with a hostile legislature in implementing recommendations that would require extensive alteration to the 1999 Constitution and other extant laws. Tambuwal, who is currently Sokoto State Governor, had dumped the PDP in October 2014 for then newly-formed APC, with a number of other representatives following his trail. He has since rejoined the PDP, though. On the heels of the defections, the then Speaker adjourned House sitting to December 2014. Jonathan, who was President from 2010 to 2015, inaugurated the National Conference with 492 delegates in March 2014 under the chairmanship of late former Chief Justice Idris Kutigi. It was originally projected to be a three-month conference, but the body didn’t submit its report until August 2014.

Speaking in Abuja at the public presentation of a book titled ‘The National Conversation: Interests and Intrigues that Shaped the 2014 National Conference’, the ex-President, who was represented by  former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Pius Anyim said there was also a challenge with the time factor. According to him, besides the legislative defections, the extensive review of existing statutes required to implement the conference report posed a challenge because, by the time the report was submitted, the country was close to a general election. “We were aware that for the segment of our population that was already suspicious of the action of government, our actions could have been misread, especially against the backdrop of the ECOWAS protocol on constitution reforms which states that there should be no substantial alteration to electoral laws of member-states in the last six months before elections,” he explained.

Then there was, according to Jonathan, his failed re-election bid in 2015. “When I contested the 2015 election, my expectation was that I would win a second term within which period I would have worked for the implementation of that report. I felt that within the four-year mandate, the first two years would have been dedicated to implementing a reasonable part of the recommendations,” he said.

We hold, however, that the conference on which the Jonathan administration splashed some N7billion of Nigeria’s scarce resources was a gamble ab initio designed to fail. There was, from indications, a cynical motive for the conference. With its convocation in the thick of an electioneering year, there were valid suspicions of an ulterior motive on the ex-President’s part to oil the machinery of his re-election bid at the expense of the national treasury. In other words, the conference was blatantly ill-timed, and Jonathan acknowledged that much in his post-facto argument about the time prescribed for substantial alteration to a member-country’s electoral laws before an election under ECOWAS good governance protocols. March 2014 when the ex-President inaugurated the conference was less than 12 months to the time scheduled for 2015 poll, and it was obvious to many even at that period that it was a futile race against time.

The huge sum that the former President committed to the conference despite the obvious odds was one act of fiscal recklessness for which he owes this country an apology.

The phrase – the rich also cry – perhaps best describes the crunch faced by the nation’s telecommunications operators as captured in the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) 2021 Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report. The report puts the operating costs of telecommunication companies in 2021 at N1.66tn from the 2020 figure of N1.4tn – a surge of 18.74 per cent.

The report, a sort of testimonial about the intolerable cost of doing business in the country, seems to have validated an earlier sectoral report by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) on the basis of which the body had, in a letter, made a case to the NCC for tariff review.

ALTON had in the letter specifically alluded to the economic recession in 2020 and the ongoing Ukraine/Russia crisis, both of which have resulted in significant increase in energy costs. From N225 per litre of diesel in January, it noted that the price rose to over N750 per litre in March – a staggering 233 per cent. And the fact that diesel actually accounts for about 35 per cent of operators’ costs, and also that the telecommunications companies have had to struggle with issues of its availability and the logistics of delivering it to sites.

On the basis of the above, the body had suggested a 40 per cent upward review in the cost of calls, SMS, and data.

That was two months ago. Presently, diesel price has since hit N900 per litre, with no signs of a let up.

These are of course difficult times for businesses generally. Nigerians, it also needs to be said, cannot be said to be in the dark about the state of the economy, the fuel supply hiccups and the concomitant price hikes, not to talk of the biting inflation, all of which currently threaten to pull the economy to the abyss.

For the telecommunications sector in particular, there can be no exaggerating the impact of the trajectory of diesel prices, given the sheer number of the cell-sites to be powered amidst other issues of network expansion and the imperative of securing vital equipment to preserve service quality. These are certainly hard facts – difficult to paper over.

But then, these factors are neither exclusive to the industry nor their impacts could be said to be localised in any particular sense. Whether it is in manufacturing, logistics and services or even aviation, such have been the direct impact of the current crisis, not just on scale of operations but also on corporate bottom-lines to justify the call for one intervention or the other.

We do agree – in a general sense – that industry-wide palliatives might be necessary to enable the different sectors to tide over the current storm. In any case, the same government, that has abdicated its sacred responsibility of guaranteeing macro-economic stability cannot, at a time of dire emergency, justifiably wash its hands off the consequences of one of its major policy failures. Measures to restore stability to the fuel supply chain and to address the rising cost of diesel have therefore become necessary if only to ensure that jobs are not needlessly lost to the current crisis. In the end, the nation is led back to the old but nonetheless pertinent question of why a leading crude oil producer would continue to rely on fuel imports and with it the many vagaries of supply and foreign exchange fluctuations.

On the other hand, an upward review of charges, far from being an answer to the crisis, might in the end prove counter-productive, both in terms of its potential to further pour fuel into the current inflationary spiral, and in further shrinking the industry’s revenue. If we may dare to make the point: the sector didn’t come this far by opportunistic adjustment of tariffs but by innovation. Exploring such additional innovations to drive down costs would certainly be one fitting way to reward the loyal Nigerian telecommunications subscriber at this difficult time.