Category: Editorial

Some eight weeks after an attack by terrorists that grounded its services on the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is set to resume operation, having successfully completed repairs on the damaged portion of the rail track.

The attack by terrorists on March 28 resulted in the killing of nine persons and kidnap of more than a hundred others, most of whom yet remain in the hold of the terrorists. Of two expectant mothers among the victims, one was reported freed on compassionate grounds this past weekend while the other has given birth in captivity. Other hostages include an 85-year-old great grandmother, women, men and children – some as young as three years of age.

In a recent statement, the NRC said repairs of the blasted rail track had been concluded and resumption of operations on the corridor imminent. “The reconnection of the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service, AKTS, line has been achieved. This implies that the major track components (concrete sleepers and rails) have been completely laid…Track access between Abuja and Kaduna is now restored,” the statement on behalf of the corporation’s managing director, Fidet Okhiria, said inter alia, adding: “As we have mentioned in our earlier releases, the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service will resume soon with additional security measures put in place. Passengers will be required to provide their NIN registration for verification prior to purchasing train tickets. This is for improved passenger profiling and safety on-board.”

Relations of the hostages in captivity are, however, objecting to resumption of rail service on the corridor until their family members are rescued. For the umpteenth time, they addressed a press conference last week where they demanded prioritisation of hostage rescue above resumption of rail services. Their argument anchored on imaginable ordeals of the hostages, which are compounded with every extra day spent in captivity, and the likelihood that resumption of rail services would sideline the urgency of rescuing them. The family members noted that even without the restoration of services yet, key role players like Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, who superintended the transport ministry at the time of the terrorist attack, had gone on with their political aspirations. They also regretted that the NRC was yet to set up a situation room to provide the hostages’ families with regular updates on rescue efforts, contrary to a recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari. Besides, there is the question of whether there will be public confidence in future safety of the rail service if the hostage crisis is left unresolved.

From indications, there is a disposition to get on to other things in the leadership ranks – including the NRC management – which the hostages’ families are resisting as inimical to early rescue of their relations. And we think they are right. As with other tragic events in recent history, the vibes from the leadership class since shortly after the train attack has been to carry on with life, regardless that the hostages remain in captivity. Mr. President recently explained why the rescue effort is extremely delicate, saying the hostages were being used as human shields by their captors and government’s aim is to get them out alive without any falling collateral casualty of the rescue operations. Plausible as that argument is, however, the onus remains that the hostages must be earnestly rescued by whatever means – especially as they fell into harm owing to government’s failure to protect them in the first place.

Meanwhile, the preoccupation of key officials with other aspirations hasn’t helped the optics of government attention to the hostages’ predicament. And by the way, is there sufficient guarantee in place already against a recurrence of such incident in the future?

Much as it is important for NRC to get back to business, no effort should be spared to reassure relations and the entire nation that the hostages’ freedom is nigh.

Going by the monthly reports on intercepted smuggled rice and other assorted contraband items by men of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigerians must increasingly wonder whether the unprecedented measure of border closure ordered by the Federal Government nearly three years back actually achieved much in terms of curbing the menace advertised as one of its main goals.

Only last week, the Area Controller in charge of Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, of the NCS, Hussein Ejebunu, informed Nigerians that the unit intercepted 7,259 bags of 50kg rice – an equivalent of some 12 trucks load of the commodity – in April. In all, some 12 suspects were reportedly arrested in connection with some of the seizures, and for committing various customs offences.

Alerting Nigerians to the negative economic impact of importing foreign rice into the country, the customs top gun also warned on the unwholesomeness of a good chunk of the smuggled rice – as according to him, a laboratory test analysis on some of the previously seized foreign parboiled rice by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), “indicated some contents of lead, a soft heavy toxic malleable metallic element in the tested rice, making it unfit for human consumption.”

Earlier in the preceding month – that is, March, the unit reported the seizure of smuggled items with duty value of N767,633,458.50 and the arrest of 23 persons. In February, it reported the seizure of 6,749 bags of smuggled parboiled rice at 50kg – equivalent to 11 trailers load; 36,575 litres of premium motor spirit; 599 bales of second-hand clothing; 906 cartons of frozen poultry products; 2,001 pieces of used tyres; 175 pieces of used compressors and 180 cartons of foreign soap.

And these are seizures covering only one zone – the southwest area – alone.

It certainly helps that NCS routinely avails Nigerians with regular updates on its activities. Yet, much as that regular information affords Nigerians a general sense of what is going on, the real issue is whether the reports – particularly of the seizures – reflect the effectiveness of the NCS as a body. This obviously bears highlighting in an environment where the so-called foreign parboiled rice, not only contends for space with the locally produced rice in our vast sprawling domestic markets despite the so-called import curbs and restrictions, but has remained the dominant partner with the men of the customs left with occasional mock shows to prove relevance.

In this, Nigerians would require no hard lessons to appreciate why smuggling thrives – and it does not matter whether the item in question is the basic staple, rice, or some fancy luxury items that the Nigerian loves to show off with. It is precisely because the demand exists in the domestic market for which it currently lacks the capacity to produce either in sufficient numbers or in any competitive quality/price bases. This is what unscrupulous Nigerians have continued to take advantage of.

In the specific case of rice, the country, it must be stated, is still far from producing enough of the staple and certainly not in price/quality competitive terms; and this is in spite of the heroic efforts mounted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government – efforts unfortunately undermined by the pervasive insecurity across the country, the limited processing capacity and the combination of other factors that continue to render the country’s operating environment such a nightmare to entrepreneurs. The situation is what has made the customs job such an impossible one. By focusing on and mitigating those identified factors underlying the huge gap – none of which is within the capacity of the 15,000 strong personnel NCS to solve – the Federal Government would certainly be on course to a better, more sustainable and potentially winning strategy to curb the menace.

Reports that no public school student in Sokoto and Zamfara states will participate in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), which begins today, should worry Nigerians who know the implication for education, development and national security. This is an examination which about 1.6million students from 20,221 schools are expected to sit for. About 800,055 (49.76 per cent)of them are males and 800,724 (50.24 per cent) are females. Head of Nigeria’s National Office (HNO), WAEC, Patrick Aneghan, who disclosed these in Lagos added that: “The candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, made up of 197 papers, while about 30,000 teachers would be participating in the examinations as supervisors.” He also confirmed the participation of private school students from the two states in the examination which is to last from May 16 to June 23.

Although Areghan did not advance reasons for the non-participation of students of public institutions in the two states in the examination, it was discovered that one of them is heavily indebtedness to the examination body while the second state said it was exercising its right of choice to participate or not to participate in the examination by WAEC, since it had other options.

Specifically, Zamfara State is said to be in arrears of payment for the state government-sponsored students in the examinations, a thing which started during the administration of the Abdulaziz Yari administration. The state commissioner for education, Zainab Gummi, said the issue was being addressed in the interest of the students in particular and the country as a whole. She added that insecurity was a major reason for the difficulty in presenting candidates before the deadline, promising that the state government was desirous of resolving all the issues. “We have an agreement with the examination body and we are committed to fulfilling it. Our major challenge is insecurity because most students are not even in the right frame of mind to sit for examinations. But I can tell you that Governor Matawalle is committed to rebuilding Zamfara State and education is a key component of the drive,” Mrs Gummi said.

We agree with the government that insecurity could truly be an issue. People have to be secure for them to be in the right frame of mind to perform any task, not in the least write an examination. But this alone cannot justify the government’s position for not presenting candidates in public schools for the all-important examination, especially on the basis of indebtedness. It is a question of priority. Borno as well as some other states in the north are also having serious security issues. They, nonetheless, are managing the crisis without much disruption to education in their respective states. As a matter of fact, Borno has made giant strides in the education sector, making people to wonder where the state government is getting the funds to finance the gigantic projects it has executed or is executing from.

We hope the indebtedness to WAEC is not due to the practice in the country where succeeding administrations repudiate the debts owed by their predecessors for political or other trivial considerations. We hope too that the Zamfara State government would live to its promise of seeing to an early resolution of the issues.

Sokoto State on its part, which has not presented candidates for WASSCE in two consecutive years, 2021 and 2022, said it was exercising its right of choice over which examination body the government should patronise and that it was not owing WAEC a dime. The state’s commissioner for education, Guiwa Bello, said “it is not mandatory for students to take WASSCE conducted by WAEC” adding that “It is our choice to make and we have opted for both NECO and NBTE which are our own duly accredited examination bodies. If anyone tells you that Sokoto is owing WAEC, such a person is just being mischievous. We are not owing WAEC a dime. We decided to choose which examination our students will take part in because it is not mandatory to take the WASSCE conducted by WAEC.”

Whilst we do not begrudge the state government for exercising its right in the matter, we want it to be mindful of the fact that it is better to leave the students open to all the possible opportunities to advance their educational career. That is the beauty in the plurality of the examination bodies. Moreover, there is nothing wrong in the state government taking advantage of the pan-regional structure of WAEC and its wider reach and acceptability of its certificates.

We hope the state government’s decision to dump WAEC is not related to the regional examination body’s stringent conditions. For example, Premium Times claimed that WAEC rejected public school candidates from Sokoto State last year because the education ministry failed to upload the mandatory continuous assessment score (CASS) for its candidates. CASS is a mandatory requirement for enrollment of candidates for WASSCE , to know the capacity and records of each candidate. Could this have prompted the state government’s decision to dump its examination?

We want to caution the states in the northern part of the country in particular against taking decisions based on sentiment, particularly on educational matters. We all know how much the country has lost to insurgency, which illiteracy is largely instrumental to. That is why decisions and policy options, especially on education, must be well informed, taking  into consideration the peculiar nature of the region educationally and the future of the students.

Malaria vaccine offers life-changing prospects for African children.  But where were African governments and scientists in the breakthrough?

It is refreshing to hear an African voice boom, in triumph, at the prospect of the wide deployment of the RTS,S malaria vaccine in malaria-endemic Africa.

“As a malaria researcher in my early career, I dreamed of the day we would have an effective vaccine against this devastating disease,” Ethiopia’s Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general crowed. “This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it’s life-changing for families across Africa.”

“It demonstrates,” he insisted, “the power of science and innovation for health.  Even so, there is an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world.”

The malaria vaccine, marketed as Mosquirix, has just completed successful pilot trials in three countries: Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.  The trials that started in April 2019, according to a WHO news bulletin, has been found to be “safe and feasible to deliver; and that it substantially reduces deadly severe malaria.”

Indeed, the field pilot experience has been near-excellent, reporting a high level of vaccine penetration across those three countries: Ghana (71 per cent in 2020 to 76 per cent in 2021); Kenya (69 per cent in 2020 to 83 per cent in 2021); Malawi (88 per cent in 2020 to 93 per cent in 2021).  This trend shows a steady acceptance of Mosquirix, by African governments, as a pivotal part of their anti-malarial public health policy.  The pilots applied the vaccine to no less than one million African children.

So, based on these pilots, the vaccine is set to be deployed to the quad of Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia.  The Nigerian government has written an official request.  Also, the Federal Government and the Prince Ned Nwoko Foundation for Malaria Eradication, a charitable NGO, have offered to buy the first batch of the vaccine for Nigeria.

By payment terms, Gavi, the vaccine alliance, will pick 80 per cent of the bill while Nigeria and other beneficiary governments will pay the balance of 20 per cent.  To ease supply and minimise costs, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the manufacturers and patent owner of RTS,S would hand the patent to Bharat Biotech in India to mass produce, under a special arrangement.

The malaria vaccine breakthrough is a function of 30 years of research and development by GSK, in a partnership with Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH): global entities rooted in United States/Europe, though supported by a network of African research centres.

The pilot tests were collaboration among health ministries of Kenya, Ghana and Malawi, in-country evaluation partners, PATH and UNICEF.  Funding came from Gavi, the vaccine alliance, the Global Fund and Unitaid.

Inasmuch as the vaccine breakthrough made pleasant news, the real news is that the vaccine may have opened an exciting season in other anti-malarial vaccines and allied treatment regimes.  That seems to reinforce the WHO director-general’s call for “an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world.”

Indeed, it’s a busy turf.  In the works are R21/Matrix-M and other malaria vaccines undergoing clinical tests.  BioNTech, manufacturer of the Pfzer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, is also developing a malaria vaccine using the mRNA technology.

Aside, there are a rash of new tools and technologies in vector control, to eliminate malaria-bearing Anopheles mosquitos: insecticide-treated nets, spatial mosquito repellents, gene-drive approaches and sugar baits to lure and kill malaria vectors.

On the treatment front, there are some exciting and promising drugs.  The Australian

Therapeutic Goods Administration boasts Tafenoquine, a single dose drug to prevent P. vivax, a strain of malaria among children.  The US Federal Drug Administration has approved its use in the United States.  So have Brazil, Peru and Thailand, in their territories.

Aside Tafenoquine, there is Genaplacide-Lumefantrine, already in Phase 2 clinical trials, as non-artemisinin therapy that could rein in drug-resistant malaria in Africa.  This would appear a big deal because every year malaria kills more than 400, 000 Africans, most of them children.

To introduce, procure and deliver Mosquirix to more “Gavi-eligible” sub-Sahara African countries, Gavi, the vaccine alliance, has secured US$ 155 million in funding.  Mass Mosquirix deployment could further save between 40, 000 and 80, 000 from the malaria plague.

The vaccine’s demand is projected to rise from the present 15 million doses to 80 million doses in the medium term. Such could be a massive boost for public health.  Sound public health is good news for the economy, other things being equal.

Still, funding worries remain.  By 2020, malaria research and development (R & D) tipped just over US$ 619 million.  But in the 10-year period from 2021 to 2030, it is projected to rise to US$ 851 million.  This is more so when the research trend is moving from a global one-shoe-fits-all to varied localised approaches to the malaria challenge.

The worrisome thing though is that in funding, research and development of anti-malarial drugs and strategies, malaria-endemic Africa remains — proudly? — the backwater.  Proudly, because both African governments and African scientists appear comfy at parasitising on other governments and scientific thinkers, and even funding charities, to tackle their malaria challenge.

True, the GSK RTS,S vaccine research spoke of a retinue of collaborating African research centres over the 30-year effort that birthed the vaccine.  Still, there is little to suggest that these centres were no more than mere end receptacles, taking directions from foreign bodies, which countries have far less malaria challenge, if any.

The scandal for Africa — and glory for Australia — is that an Australian public health authority is midwifing Tafenoquine, while African public health jurisdictions appear just comfy to consume.

There is no indication that Australia has more malaria challenge than Africa.  Yet, its government and scientists clearly give it more thoughts, invested their brains, time and money, and therefore make economic capital out of the drug, aside from the pleasing feeling of saving global children from malaria.

Africa must do better in turning its challenges into assets.  Malaria has been a long-standing challenge.  COVID-19 is another.  On both, Africa has been found wanting.  It’s time, therefore, to change tack — and malaria research, at this juncture, offers the chance for Africa to solve a basic African problem.  Nigeria must take a definite lead in this malaria challenge.

 

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has announced the Federal Government’s intention to  decentralise the national grid as part of the Federal Government’s measures to deal with its persistent collapse. The Vice President also announced other policy measures, including tackling the lingering security situation, improving broadband connectivity, reducing the incidence of multiple taxation, over-regulation of business as well as establishment of a technology economy, to make life more meaningful for Nigerians. Vice President Osinbajo who spoke in a speech he delivered to mark this year’s International Workers Day in Abuja on May 1 seized the occasion to appeal to the Leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to embrace dialogue with the government in resolving the crisis that led to the disruption of academic activities in the country’s public universities.

“We will crack the power conundrum, (the “up NEPA” thing will stop) by decentralising the national grid system, and by providing alternative grids with private sector investments”, the Vice President said.

This is a welcome development. Even if coming late, it is better late than never. This year alone, the country had witnessed four major grid collapses. Indeed, it is on record that the country’s power sector witnessed about 219 grid collapses between 2010 and 2019. According to TheCable, these included 146 total and about 73 partial collapses. These disruptions to power supply takes a heavy toll on industries and small scale businesses.

Decentralisation of the grid is not an entirely new idea. Prof Barth Nnaji, a former Minister of Power had mooted the idea as far back as November 2019. Nnaji, in a lecture titled “Let there be light: Solving Nigeria’s Electricity Puzzle for Sustainability” at the Second Distinguished Guest Lecture of Dominican University, Ibadan, recommended decentralisation of the grid as a way out of its frequent breakdowns in order to improve electricity supply in the country. According to Nnaji, the chairman of Geometric Power Limited, the national grid should be made into smaller chops for regional supply of electricity with each being “autonomous for better control and invested in by different groups and not one national grid, although there will still be national control that aggregates power and gets power supply from one end of the country to another. With this, each grid will be able to control itself and there will not be system collapse as we always have it now,” he said.

Also, the House of Representatives at its plenary on March 1 passed a bill to allow states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid, and for related matters. The bill was voted for 298 to 2.

It is heartwarming that the idea of decentralising the national grid is gaining currency in the country, as some other persons had indicated that it is unwise for Nigeria to put all its eggs in one basket, which is what the present arrangement with the grid is. The whole country does not have to be grounded when the grid collapses, with all the attendant consequences for both the economy and human comfort. Power, as we know, is pivotal to nearly all we do.

However, decentralisation of the grid is only one of the options we have to attain stable power supply. There are other areas of energy that we can explore to achieve this objective. The Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba, only last week hinted that the Federal Government was also ramping up solar energy supply to serve as backup during national grid collapses. The minister who spoke at a Rural Electrification Agency (REA) Stakeholders’ Workshop in Abuja urged industry stakeholders to come up with innovative ideas to deal with the power conundrum. Ours is a typical tropical climate with sufficient sunshine to power some electrical appliances without recourse to the national grid. Lagos has initiated the process, with some government’s establishments, including schools, operating outside the grid. If replicated in many parts of the country, the idea would be of immense benefits, especially to schools where teaching and learning can be done with or without the national grid.

The country should also explore other sources of power supply like wind power, especially in the farms.

Whilst the present national grid subsists, it is important for the government to pay attention to the other factors responsible for the spastic power supply. It is not all about generation or the inability of the distribution companies (DisCos) to absorb the energy generated alone, it is also about insufficient gas supply, old and dilapidated transmission lines that are too weak to carry even the inadequate power generated. It is about the reluctance of DisCos to provide prepaid meters to enable them bill consumers only for power consumed, a thing fuelling estimated or crazy billing that has no bearing with actual consumption.

The idea of a central national grid is reflective of the structure of governance in the country. But decentralisation is key in that it is the commonsensical thing to do. Even then, this must not be at the level of government policy alone; it is something that should be backed by law. Antiquated laws that need to be expunged must be expunged to give way to the new reality.

After years of being dropped from subjects taught in schools, History is back in the Nigerian education curriculum. The Oyo State Government has reportedly directed all public primary schools in the state to re-introduce the teaching of History as an independent subject, starting from the just-commenced third term of the 2021/2022 session.

Reports cited the Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (OyoSUBEB), Dr. Nureni Adeniran, saying the re-introduction of History was in line with the new education policy of the state government. Speaking last Monday while monitoring the resumption of schools in Ibadan, he said the new curriculum would enable pupils to appreciate the subject as an instrument of national integration, and also afford them deeper knowledge of their native country. Stressing the importance of History to nation-building, promotion of patriotism and human development, he was optimistic that teaching it to pupils as a subject would equip the younger generation with vital information on their past.

To facilitate the teaching of the re-introduced subject, Adeniran said Oyo State government was distributing more than 4,950 History textbooks to public primary schools statewide. He applauded the Universal Basic Education Commission in Abuja for supply of the textbooks and other technical support received.

The restoration of History as a taught subject in Nigerian school curriculum is one of the best things to have happened to the education system, in our view. History was discontinued as a taught subject under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo for purported irrelevance to the drive for science and technology of the modern age. That was a bad policy in the utmost, because it left this nation with an educational system that produced a rootless generation of learners. Common experience has shown that a people would hardly know where they are headed and the appropriate travel path towards the desired destination without adequate knowledge of where they were coming from – including past missteps on the way that needed to be guided against into the future. It is arguable, for instance, that much of the divisive tendencies we currently experience can be linked to lack of formal historical education on the part of agitators. So is the perpetration of unjust tendencies that fuel nationhood disequilibrium a function of willful connivance at history in some parts and lack of historical education in others. Moreover, the founding vision of nation-building endeavours like the National Youth Service Corps scheme is lost on most contemporary participants who have distorted notion of its value and objectives owing to lack of historical education. The restoration of History as a taught subject by the Oyo State government promises to be a catalyst for revival of historical consciousness.

The downgrade of history in Nigerian national curriculum shifted the burden of historical documentation to biographers. But these could only scratch at the potential corpus of knowledge, especially with many participants in nationhood history yet alive and untapped. Meanwhile, it isn’t for nothing that all progressive societies as well as spheres of human endeavour preserve their respective history as a vital component of their body politic. Most developed nations set great store by routine transmission of the knowledge of their history. Actually, the knowledge and enterprise of even science would be incomplete without awareness of the history of science by practitioners.

So, the Oyo State government has done well by re-introducing the teaching of history in public primary schools, but it can do even better by extending this to private schools as well, and higher up the education ladder to the secondary level. Besides, if being ‘an independent subject’ means learning of history by pupils is optional, the subject should rather be made compulsory for all. Most importantly, other states should hasten to emulate the lead by Oyo in restoring the teaching of History in their respective school curriculum.