It was like throwing a pebble into a placid lake in a corner of Zamfara.  Yet, the violent ripples were all over Nigeria.  It’s the federal question, stupid! — to parody that famous quip, from the campaign jaunt of Bill Clinton, then US Democratic Party presidential candidate.

By announcing a policy that purportedly directs the Zamfara State Commissioner of Police (CP) to license as many Zamfara citizens as are willing to be licensed to carry arms against marauding bandits in self defence, Governor Bello Matawalle has raised the stakes in citizen security, in Nigeria’s 36 states, under the general rubrics of federalism.

In a clash of the de jure with the de facto, it is doubtful if the Zamfara CP would even humour, not to talk of honour, the governor’s directive.  That is one aspect of the dirty underbelly of Nigeria’s so-called “federalism” where governors, the so-called “chief security officers” of their states, cannot give legal directives to state CPs, without the CPs first clearing with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), an appointee of the President of the Federal Republic.

In a reflex reaction, Lt-Gen. Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and highest ranking administrative officer in the military hierarchy, even loudly doubted if the Zamfara State governor could validly direct the Zamfara CP to license arms since such power, he claimed, was exclusively the president’s.  If that were true, then it’s another pointer to the artificiality of Nigeria’s “federalism”.

That means that on security — or its flip side, massive insecurity, which Zamfara has faced for quite a while now; and which has forced Governor Matawalle to announce this controversial policy — only far-away Abuja can raise a finger, while locals routinely reel, wilt and die from bandits’ bullets.  Despite the unitary practices bossing a territory that is federal by law, that reality is hardly sustainable without something terrible giving!  That is the Zamfara development.

Read Also: Matawalle’s curious gospel of self-defense

Still, before you roast the CDS, remember his was only a frank and honest commentary on the grim reality.  Besides, when the chips are down, the CDS would provide troops to face the fire.  You can just say it’s the military informally having their legitimate say, in matters in which they are involved, in the best tradition of democracy, before lulling into diplomatic quiet.

Aside from the CDS, controversy in civil society has trailed the Zamfara freely-arm-the-locals policy.  While one governor or two has hailed the move (Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, for one), others have considered it unnecessary. Other influential Nigerians have branded it recklessly emotive or hare-brained — which it could well be.

Other citizens are questioning the sanity of Zamfara locals wielding simple arms against military-grade, sophisticated AK-47 and allied small arms; concluding that such match-up would be a tragic travesty.  It would not only prove a tragic delusion, after the initial rush of costly emotions, it could create a grievous, long-term security crisis, even after banditry and allied immediate security challenges had become history.  They reference the seeming uncontrollable gun violence in the United States.  All these are valid fears.

Still, Governor Matawalle appears unruffled and undeterred in his new path, in defence of his long-suffering people.  The ink had hardly dried on his controversial directive when he launched some follow-up actions, which bear closer interrogations.

As part of his new Zamfara security package, he inaugurated four bodies: the Committee on Intelligence Gathering on Banditry, Community Protection Guards (CPG), a committee on Banditry-Related Offences and the State Security Standing Panel.  To walk his new talk in logistics and operational hardware, the governor donated 20 new Toyota Hilux vans and 1, 500 motorbikes to get the new bodies cracking.

The next day, he signed into law the Anti-Banditry and Other Related Offences Bill.  That came into force immediately; and prescribed death penalty for anyone found guilty of banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling.  Earlier, he had let fly a directive to security agencies to shoot, on sight, anyone riding a bike, to underscore the ban on Okada-riding in Zamfara.  Though bikes are bandits’ favourable choice of transport, this was another controversial call that could well end in grief.

Still, take a close look at the newly structured security components: the Committee on Intelligence Gathering on Banditry, the Community Protection Guards (CPG), and the State Security Standing Panel could be harmonised under a single body — state police — if state police were to be legalised.  The fourth, Committee on Banditry-Related Offences, could be a cross-agency liaison body linking the Zamfara State Police, the Zamfara State Ministry of Justice and the Zamfara judiciary.

That should provide another layer, in vibrant state security infrastructure, to the present central arrangement.  Formalising these new structures in the Zamfara State frame can only complement the central police; and reach further mileage and better penetration into those wide and wild ungovernable forests that are now safe haven for bandits, from where these criminals troop out to plague, kill, maim and rob defenceless rural folks.

In other words, with all the excitability provoked by the Zamfara new arms policy, the simple antidote might well be legalising state police.  That way, instead of citizens licensed to bear near-unrestrained small arms, the arms are limited to a corps of trained (wo)men, drilled and paid to protect the rest.

That would not only be pragmatic federalism on the security front, it would also be a throwback to the classic Social Contract, when the majority voluntarily gave up part of their freedom (to carry arms, for instance), in return for the central protection of the Leviathan, the pristine state.  What the Zamfara excitement calls for, therefore, is for Nigeria to federalise that “Leviathan” in state police, to fend off the other extreme, of free access to arms.

Governor Matawalle has thrown the present dire security situation into the public space.  Let the Federal Government be less paranoid about state police.  It’s an idea whose time has come.  Let the states too be less delusional, on the ethno-regional front: insecurity is not North versus South; or East versus West.  It is rather a common threat to all.

As Zamfara is readying its CPG, and Lagos its Neighbourhood Watch Corps, let other areas ready their Amotekun, their Ebubeagu, their Civilian Joint Task Forces and sundry quasi-formal security bulwarks.  They could well be ready frames for state police.

Let the Federal Government seize the times and show leadership.  Delay could be dangerous!

Former Nigerian Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, might never have envisaged their making global headlines for an alleged crime in the United Kingdom. Like all such news in an internet age, it had all the qualities of sensationalism; rumours, half-truths, permutations, facts and fallacies. The news had come through the London Metropolitan Police that the couple had been arrested at London Heathrow for alleged illegal facilitation of travel of a minor, with an intention of organ harvesting.

The moment it was confirmed that the couple in question was a Nigerian politician, it seemed all hell was let loose. Analyses and counter-analyses by Nigerians both home and abroad went viral. The couple was accused of various crimes in the social media, including allegation of ritual killing and wanting to kill another child to save theirs. Matters got worse when the London court denied the couple bail and adjourned the case to July 7 for further hearing.

Steadily but surely, more information have surfaced since the arrest. It has been established that their daughter had been battling a kidney ailment and, like most parents, they were trying options to get a donor for a transplant. The allegation that the supposed organ donor that the couple took to London for tests to confirm his suitability as a donor  was a homeless 15-year-old orphan has been countered by the published documents of his visa  and passport applications.

We sympathise with the couple, the alleged expected donor and the daughter of the Ekweremadus who, in addition to her health ordeal, has had to deal with the sad news of her parents’ arrest.  However, while we expect the law to take its course in determining areas of guilt and innocence of all parties, we expect that justice must be done and be seen to be done to everyone involved in this case, including the ailing daughter who has the right to live. We beg that her health must not be lost on the altar of judicial processes in Nigeria or the United Kingdom.

We must however state that incidents happening to a man of the political visibility of an Ekweremadu send mixed signals to the world. How is it that such a man that has been at the apex of the legislative body, and who started off from his state as a political office holder down to the Senate trusts the health facilities of a foreign country for the health of his daughter? Granted he has the right to seek such, but how has he helped to improve the health sector in Nigeria? How is it that he trusts the UK health sector better, even when we know there are hospitals in Nigeria that could easily have conducted the tests for the expected donor?

What has the Senate done to address the health sector disaster in Nigeria where tertiary health institutions that were earlier reputed for excellence have become mere consulting clinics? What is the status of teaching hospitals like University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, in the senator’s home state? What of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, and many other teaching hospitals? As a lawyer and an academic, what voice has he raised for these institutions?

However, while we await the justice system of both countries, we don’t want the legalese of the situation to blind our humanity. The couple was desperate to save their child and might have erred. The supposed donor might still have to be interrogated, given revelations about his declared and actual ages, and contradictions of his status as a homeless orphan, given allegations and documents being presented by the Nigerian Immigration Services that issued him a passport.

We wish to plead for caution with the society’s lynch mob in dabbling into such matters and drawing conclusions based on rumours and other human variables. But the National Assembly should not in an attempt to protect a member present the country as a lawless institution. If truly a delegation of senators was sent to London for this case, we consider that as trivialising the case in an internet and communication age. Communication with embassies and governments is very easy if the intention is to plead that justice be done. We expect that they understand that justice neither sees faces nor statuses.

What we all plead for is a fair trial but a compassionate reminder that a life is at stake and everything legally possible must be done to save and protect the innocent child.

Few speak of it, but it haunts our health system, and the desperate among us. Yet, blood transfusion is an important part of health policy anywhere health is taken seriously.

Nigeria ranks as one of the lowest in the world in donating blood to the needy among us.

“Of the 179 countries, only 79 have become 100 per cent compliant with the WHO standards in blood transfusion. Nigeria is not part of the countries that are compliant,” said Prof. Vincent Osunkalu, consultant haematologist and blood transfusionist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos.

This is a dismal fact.

He said further that “whereas Americans donate about seven pints of million types of blood yearly, in Nigeria, data gathering is a challenge. The National Blood Transfusion Act has just been approved. From available information, Nigerians could only generate about 500, 000 pints of blood in the last few years, which represents a 3.3 per cent shortfall in the volume of blood collected from voluntary blood donors.”

In spite of that, 95 per cent of donor blood units in Nigeria are not safe because they could infect the beneficiaries with such diseases as HIV, syphilis, hepatitis A and C. This is also because the blood donors tend to be mercantile, and they are desperate people who need to feed themselves. That also means they do not have the best quality of blood even if they do not carry any ailments.

“Commercial blood donation is not considered as a good source of safe blood. This means we are left with 25,000 units of safe blood yearly in Nigeria, which is grossly inadequate and a huge challenge to the provision of quality healthcare to the people,” said committee Chairman, Blood Transfusion and Haematological Services of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Attah J. Ahmed, last year.

The best value often comes from volunteers and family members, and these people provide it by subjecting themselves to the rigour of standards. They account for a fraction of donations. Experts say blood donation may lower your risk of suffering a heart attack, reduce your risk of developing cancer, afford better emotional balance, less risk of depression, reduction in harmful iron stored in the body, among other physical gifts.

Many people lose blood and need them in emergency wards. But most Nigerian hospitals operate without blood at the ready. This leads to many avoidable fatalities. One of the areas of major challenges is in maternal health. Many deaths occur because the mothers have lost blood, and they happen mainly post-partum, according to experts.

The lack of blood often comes in the form of haemorrhage, sepsis, eclampsia, complications from abortion and also bad labour.

The problem with blood donors is a reflection of the general malaise of the healthcare system in the country. Many citizens cannot even get properly tested in the country because many hospitals lack the essential facilities. It was reported recently, for instance, that most Nigerians who suffer from high blood pressure do not know it, and the silent killer snatches away many persons like a thief in the night.

Part of the problem is that our elite go abroad for treatment, and when they need blood, they would not have to depend on the poverty of our blood banks for succour. Whether in the United Kingdom, or the United States, the answer is not far-fetched. We are still witnessing the unfolding story of former deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who was held by the U.K. with his wife, over efforts to secure kidney to save his daughter.

It is a parable of the state of neglect, and lack of faith in what we have.

Hit-and-run accident victim Omotola Akinsanya, 31, was said to have begged her relations to take her away from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), where she was receiving treatment. Perhaps, she feared that she would die if she remained there.

Sadly, she died at the hospital on June 9, which raised serious questions about the quality of care she had received there, the competence of its personnel, and its operational and professional standards, among others.

She was, on May 4, hit by a vehicle driven by a Lebanese, John Greg, who was allegedly speeding and driving against the traffic on Sanusi Fafunwa Road, Victoria Island, Lagos. The alleged hit-and-run driver was reported to have been rearrested after Omotola died. He was initially granted bail by a court, and will now face amended charges. The public expects justice.

A graduate of Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, Omotola was said to have been preparing to travel to the UK to start a job. The head of her family, Venerable Folarin Shobo, who accused LASUTH of unprofessionalism, alleged that she was neglected in the course of her treatment at the hospital. He said: “After 11 days in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), she was moved to orthopaedic ward where the injury was exposed to infections due to lack of diligent medical treatment. The girl was appealing to us to move her out of LASUTH because she had been neglected.”

After her leg was amputated on June 4, he added, there was a plan to raise funds and fly her abroad. He said her treatment at LASUTH had cost “over N11m,” arguing that the high cost was abnormal at a public hospital. He observed that the medical bill could be likened to that of private hospitals, “whereas we were not enjoying the services.”

It is alarming that people regularly accuse LASUTH of negligence and exploitation. For instance, about seven months ago, in December 2021, a Lagos-based businesswoman, Mrs Agatha Aso, had alleged that the hospital’s negligence led to the death of her husband who was shot by robbers.

In the same month, Nollywood actress Dorcas Fapson had criticised the hospital after her mother, step-sister and uncle died there.  She posted on social media: “Only go to LASUTH, Ikeja, if you want to die.”

It is a positive move that LASUTH launched ‘Project Eagle’ in March to improve its services. Its Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, listed the facets of the project, including active space/bed management policies, commencement of an adverse report register and management system, more intensive and regular staff training and retraining, and advocacy to reduce the influx of non-tertiary patients into LASUTH.  The hospital faces regular public criticism on these issues.

Other aspects of the project are automation, international accreditation, and formalising collaboration with highbrow private hospitals in Lagos.

Importantly, he said efforts were on-going to improve on the hospital’s adverse report register to enhance processes and systems for immediate and long-term solutions to minimise recurrence of adverse events.

This pursuit of improvement suggests that the hospital is conscious of its negative public image, and wants to change it.

But there are other encouraging stories about LASUTH that give the impression that the hospital could be overwhelmed by all manner of people desirous of its services. This is why we commend its decision to reduce the influx of non-tertiary patients into the hospital. As a teaching hospital, it is a tertiary hospital which should cater to the needs of people in dire need of such services. Minor ailments should be handled at the lower level hospitals in the state.

It is however reassuring that the hospital management has set up a panel to investigate the death. Lagos State Commissioner for Health Prof. Akin Abayomi is also reported to be interested in the probe.  Was Omotola’s death preventable?  Did the conditions she faced at LASUTH contribute to her death? These are clear questions that demand clear answers.

At a ceremony to mark the first purchase of artisanally-mined gold in Nigeria in July 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari hinted of the several benefits the country stands to gain when it develops its potential in the sector: generation of about 250,000 jobs and over $500 million in monetary value annually through the payment of royalties and taxes to government coffers. A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) titled ‘Trade in Goods Statistics,’ shows that Nigeria realised a paltry N10.3bn from the sale of the commodity classified as ‘Gold unwrought or in semi-mfr. forms, or in powder form’ exported to Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates in the first quarter of 2022. This is not much; but it is a good beginning.

However, for a commodity that is found in at least 14 states of the federation namely: Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Kogi, Ogun, Osun, Bauchi, Cross River, Edo, Sokoto, Oyo, Ebonyi, Kwara, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, it is unfortunate that the country still lacks the capacity to produce it into consumable products like jewellery.

Sadly, this is the fate of several other commodities that Nigeria has comparative advantage over. Here, we are talking about crude oil which the country is a major producer of but is also a net importer of finished products like petrol. This is despite the fact that the country has four refineries which have largely remained moribund despite the infusion of several billions of dollars into their Turn Around maintenance (TAM). The same thing applies to the agricultural sector where we export raw agricultural produce at cheap prices only to import finished products from the same produce at exorbitant prices.

Why we continue along this trajectory is baffling because the country’s major foreign exchange earner, crude oil, is susceptible to the vagaries of the international market over which the country has no control. The resultant unpredictability has also led to unpredictable revenue and budgetary expectations. For a country willing to learn, we have had a lot of shocks to make us pay diversification of the economy the desired attention. That we have not is not only saddening, it is equally regrettable.

About two years ago, precisely in June 2020, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had, at the inauguration, via a Zoom virtual meeting, of Nigeria’s first Gold and precious Metals Refining Conglomerate, an operation of Dukia Gold a Precious Metals Raw Materials Buying Programme, in collaboration with Heritage Bank disclosed that ‘’Nigeria has potential reserves of 200 million ounces of gold and the launch of this expansive project, Dukia Gold, creates new opportunities for us to mine these reserves properly, trade responsibly and refine locally.’’ An optimistic Osinbajo added, rather enthusiastically that ‘’what we are looking at here is an extremely valuable new source of trade, jobs and foreign exchange.’’

So, what has happened to this seemingly promising project? Two years down the line, Nigeria is yet to take concrete steps at modernising mining of the commodity as it is still mostly extracted by artisan miners who use the crude form to extract them, unlike some other West African countries like Ghana and Burkina Faso that have fully developed their mining potential.

To reverse the trend, the Federal Government must tackle headlong, the problems of illegal mining and smuggling that President Buhari said Nigeria lost $3 billion to between 2012 and 2018. Not only is the country losing revenue through these illegal activities in the gold subsector of the mining sector, the activities of the illegal miners and smugglers have also compounded insecurity in Zamfara State.

It is high time the government activated its Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI), an artisanal and small-scale gold mining that would enable the miners send refined gold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, in accordance with the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) standards. This is the only way by which the country can realise its full potential in the sector, boost foreign earnings, create jobs as well as enjoy other multiplier effects that the sector holds for those doing the business according to international best practices.