The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Innocent casualties

    Innocent casualties

    •Military authorities need to review air operations 

    According to a report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), three separate military airstrikes killed at least 70 innocent Nigerians in 2024. Military response to insecurity in the country had resulted in yet another case of innocent deaths on Christmas Day 2024 in Silame Local Government Area of Sokoto State. About 10 civilians and residents of Gildan Sama and Rumtuwa villages were reported killed when a fighter jet bombed the communities around 7am that day. 

    The report said in April 2024 “at least 40 innocent people were killed” in Kukawa village, Maradun Local Government Area, Zamfara State “during a mistargeted airstrike by the Nigerian military.”  The military had said the attack was based on “credible intelligence from multiple reliable sources.”

     The report also listed a military airstrike in September 2024 that killed “at least 23 residents of Jika da Kolo village of Yadin Kidandan in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State,” including farmers and children who had gathered around a mosque and a marketplace on that day.  The military had claimed that the airstrike “only rained on the logistics base of terrorists.”

    In the latest case in Sokoto State, Nigerian military authorities said the targets were Lakurawa terrorists operating in the area. The military explained that the operation was based on credible intelligence, adding that the area was a hideout for the terrorists, who were infiltrating the country’s northwest region from neighbouring Niger and Mali.  Defence Headquarters spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edward Buba said in a statement: “The air strike on the terrorist arms cache and logistics dump led to other secondary explosions causing hoarded munitions to explode in different directions that resulted in 10 deaths.”

    This was not only a defence of the military attack but also a subtle suggestion that the villagers had accommodated the insurgents. Indeed, he said efforts were ongoing to determine whether there was collaboration between them. He also said “troops will continue to take painstaking measures to avoid civilian casualties.” Evidently, the loss of innocent lives showed that the claimed precautionary measures were of no effect in this instance.

    The chairman of Silame local government, Abubakar Daftarana, was reported saying the villagers “were sitting peacefully when the bombs started dropping on the communities. They were innocent and peace-loving people who had no criminal record.” He did not confirm the number of people killed or injured.

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    Vice President Kashim Shettima, who made a public apology on behalf of the Federal Government, said in a statement that the administration was “sorry and dismayed at the civilian casualties incurred.” Also, the Governor of Sokoto State, Ahmed Aliyu, called for “a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to this tragedy,” adding that he would “engage with the relevant authorities to prevent such occurrences in the future.” He directed a donation of N20m and 100 bags of assorted food items to the families of the deceased “to alleviate their suffering and cover the medical bills of those hospitalised due to their injuries from the bombardment.”

    The Sokoto incident further underscored the need for a review of air attacks in the counter-insurgency effort. Amnesty International’s country director Isa Sanusi observed that the military “have to review their procedures, they have to investigate these incidents thoroughly, and they have to find a way to end this reckless deadly use of force.”

     The military’s regular response that there were innocent casualties because the targeted insurgents had mixed with the resident population does not justify the loss of innocent lives. The military ought to have learned some operational lessons from previous airstrikes that killed innocent civilians.  Notably, a report said accidental airstrikes by the Nigerian military resulted in the deaths of no fewer than 528 civilians between 2017 and December 2024. This is unacceptable.

  • Bayelsa’s ‘human shields’

    Bayelsa’s ‘human shields’

    • The authorities must outwit oil thieves

    Governor of Bayelsa State Douye Diri was reported saying he recently received a report that “at illegal bunkering sites, they now have children and women, which is a dimension I have never heard of before.” According to him, “Sometimes, when the military are authorised to destroy those camps and they get there on reconnaissance, they discover that children and women are used to shield those places… There was a situation where the military moved in and discovered that children and women were there and had to withdraw.” In recent times, security forces have intensified their fight against oil theft in the Niger Delta, resulting in the destruction of many illegal refineries.

    The governor made this known during a meeting with local government chairmen and traditional rulers at the Government House, Yenagoa. He noted that the trend was noticeable in riverine communities such as Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe, and Southern Ijaw local government areas. He urged them to educate the people on the health and environmental dangers of oil thieves and their illegal business.

     This account by the governor indicates that the bunkerers see attempts by the Nigerian military to stop their activities as a declaration of war. Also, they use the children and women as human shields to thwart the military’s efforts and seem to have achieved some level of success.

    This raises a number of questions. Are the children and women voluntary shields who are sufficiently self-motivated to act as collaborators with the bunkerers? This question arises since acting as shields under such circumstances could result in financial and other forms of reward for the voluntary shields. Alternatively, are they involuntary shields who were in those high-risk locations in order to forestall punitive action from the bunkerers?

    Federica Marsi, in a November 2023 edition of Al Jazeera, defines human shields as “civilians or other protected persons whose presence is used to render military targets immune from military operations.” He identifies three kinds of human shields: “Voluntary shields are people who willfully choose to stand in front of a legitimate target as a means of protection; Involuntary shields are people who are coercively deployed as bargaining chips or as a means to thwart an attack; and proximate shields are civilians or civilian sites that become shields or are cast as shields due to their proximity to the fighting.”

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     Importantly, he also notes, “The use of human shields is forbidden by Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and is considered a war crime as well as a violation of humanitarian law.” This means that the bunkerers using human shields against state actors are in violation of law.

    The expression “human shields” is part of the language of war or war-like situations. According to Brian Michael Jenkins, in a November 2023 issue of Rand.org, “terrorists, and increasingly rogue states, take hostages to free imprisoned comrades, extort ransoms and protection payments, demand political concessions, end sanctions, prevent peace, and create crises… Hostages are sometimes held as human shields.”

    The use of human shields by bunkerers to prevent attacks on illegal oil sites should be countered with the sophisticated use of human intelligence, and the engagement of members of the local community who often have invaluable local knowledge, and therefore know when, where and even how to strike for optimum effect. It is noteworthy that the state government had directed local government chairmen to establish vigilante groups to tackle oil theft in their areas.

    Considering the very deleterious effect of illegal oil bunkering on the economic health of the nation, the effective deployment of these and other strategies is essential towards ameliorating the effect of the activities of oil thieves.

  • Sikorsky helicopter crash

    Sikorsky helicopter crash

    •Anomalies demand more attention to aviation safety

    For aviation safety, a number of demands are made of airline operators. These include ensuring that requisite air navigation aids are in top form. The Nation newspaper’s story of December 18, 2024 brought the value of these aviation aids into bold relief. The paper reported that the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) “said the Sikorsky S76C helicopter with nationality and registration marks 5N-BQG, which ditched into the Atlantic Ocean in October, did not have a Flight Data Recorder (FDR). The Sikorsky helicopter was operated by Eastwind Aviation Logistics Services Limited.”

     The story also quoted the NSIB’s Director-General, Capt. Alex Badeh Jr., as saying, “The helicopter was not fitted with a Flight Data Recorder (FDR), although Part 7.8.2.2(q) of Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) 2023 requires that FDR shall be fitted on the helicopter.”

    Moreover, he said: “The flight crew used non- standard phraseology throughout the flight and there were no standard callouts for the various phases of the flight.” According to him, “the helicopter Radio Altimeter (Rad alt) was snagged and deferred on October 18, six days before the accident.”

    He also said “Five bodies identified as the passengers were recovered, while the remaining three occupants of the helicopter, including the flight crew, are yet to be found.”

    About altimeters, according to JxJ Aviation, “An altimeter is one of the 6 basic instruments in an aircraft. … Altimeters provide altitude and height information to the pilots and onboard computers. This is important because normally, an aircraft would be asked to maintain a particular altitude. … This is crucial for safe operations since there could be other aircraft flying at different altitudes. … This is required during takeoff or landing, especially in poor weather conditions where visibility is low. The readings make it easy to understand whether the aircraft is climbing or descending at the correct rate.” For an altimeter not to be in top form is therefore highly potentially hazardous.

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    The Director of Aerodrome and Airspace, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Godwin Balang, was reported saying, “FDR is not an active component for safe operation directly, but it is used to investigate accidents; it is used to help you understand what happened. The black box has two components: a cockpit voice, where you record the voice, and then the data. FDR helps to recreate the incident. So, if you don’t have it, then you are limited in terms of what you will be able to recreate.” Unfortunately, the Eastwind Aviation Logistics Services Limited helicopter accident occurred with the aircraft having no FDR. The NSIB’s capacity to recreate the crash was therefore curtailed.

    Also, according to a document titled, “ICAO Standard Phraseology: A Quick Reference Guide for Commercial Air Transport Pilots,” and published in Skybrary.Aero, “Communication error is the biggest causal factor in both level busts and runway incursions in Europe. … The need for clear and unambiguous communication between pilots and Air Traffic Control (ATC) is vital in assisting the safe and expeditious operation of aircraft. It is important, therefore, that due regard is given to the use of standard words and phrases and that all involved ensure that they maintain the highest professional standards when using RTF (radiotelephony). This is especially important when operating within busy sectors with congested frequencies where any time wasted with verbosity and non-standard, ambiguous phrases could lead to flight safety incidents.” Unfortunately, from the NSIB report, this critical requirement was not met by the helicopter company.

    What all of the foregoing indicates is that there was serious laxity on the part of the company with respect to critical equipment and requisite training. This situation underscores the urgent need for the Nigerian aviation authorities to undertake a comprehensive safety audit of all aircraft operating within the country’s airspace to ensure aviation safety.

  • Two million bank accounts

    Two million bank accounts

    •Kaduna State Governor should turn this experiment into a model for the poor

    Financial outlay by the governor of Kaduna State is not about making them flush with money, although that may be the ultimate goal. When Governor Uba Sani announced that his government was opening bank accounts for two million of its citizens, he was tapping into a very important impulse of the poor. He was advancing, among other things, a measure of financial literacy. But here is how the chief executive of Kaduna State put it: “Through our financial inclusion programme, we have opened over two million bank accounts for poor, vulnerable, and underserved persons to enable them to benefit from state and Federal Government social intervention programmes.”

    It is significant on two fronts. One, it is happening in a state that was a flashpoint of the EndGovernance protests that led to some tragedies, and it turned out that the boys who caused pockets of mayhem may have been marionettes at the hands of some powerful persons who were at odds with democracy and peace, not only in that state but also across northern Nigeria.

    The opening of bank accounts is an act of sensitivity to that episode, and also a signal that his government had heard all the cries of the poor. He himself described the policy as “pro-poor and people-centred.”

    Opening bank accounts would be a vacuous policy if the people have no ongoing activity, or else the accounts fall in danger of going dormant. It must therefore be seen in the context of the slew of efforts to soothe the effects of the hardships in the country against the background of the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the Nigerian currency.  Policies such as the handing out of palliatives are important, but the areas that would encourage these account holders will include the government’s soft loans to farmers and small-scale enterprises as well as the distribution of agricultural inputs that include fertilisers and implements. They have to monitor how the “largesse” is being used.

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    Two, the northern poor has been an especial pain in the social hierarchy in the country. Statistic after statistic and survey after survey have marked out the northern underclass as vulnerable because most of its poor, especially known as almajiris, have been wasted every year because they do not go to school, and so do not have the ability to move up the social ladder. They grow old as dependents rather than able contributors to society. Rather than use them as tools for progress, they have turned to become cynical levers from a manipulating elite who scramble for more wealth and power. Governor Sani engaged the north a number of times in the course of last year, nudging his colleagues and the somnolent north to pivot its feudal eyes to the benefit of its underclass.

    One other factor that can help is the tamping down of violence by bandits. Governor Sani exhaled, “Kaduna has bounced back,” apparently referring to the return of the perennial flashpoint of violence, Birnin Gwari, to peace and commerce.

    We expect that those who will get the bank accounts will be from every aspect of the state, so no one makes any hoopla about unfairness. Since the very poor tend to be illiterate, it means the government must work out modality for the beneficiaries to learn financial, at least banking literacy, at a workable level.

    There is no way the poor can be part of the economy without banking of sorts. We run a largely informal economy in Nigeria, but the imperative of formalising activities is ever stronger, particularly if the players must benefit from government programmes.

    Since this is new at this scale, we look forward to seeing how this experiment will work out as a model for other states.

  • Edo’s non-compliance

    Edo’s non-compliance

    • States must respect local government autonomy 

    It appears as if some state governors are yet to come to terms with the Supreme Court judgment that granted financial autonomy to local government councils. And, sadly, the inefficient electoral process at the local councils has become an albatross for state governors who succeed antagonistic predecessors.

    This is the context in which the newly elected Governor of Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, is situated. After a hard-fought electoral battle with Asue Ighodolo, the preferred candidate of the immediate past governor, Godwin Obaseki, the new governor has chairmen, vice chairmen and councilors handpicked by his predecessor to work with at the local government level. 

    Both a State High Court, sitting in Benin, and a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, have granted interim injunction restraining the State House of Assembly and the governor of the state from suspending the chairmen, vice chairmen and councilors from office pending the determination of the substantive suits.

     The suits were filed by 18 affected local council officials and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, following a motion ex parte, ordered parties to maintain status quo while the substantive suit was adjourned to January 20, 2025.  Also, Justice Efe Ikponmwonba of Edo State High Court made a similar order and adjourned to February 17, 2025, for hearing the substantive suit.

    While Governor Okpebholo is a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the former governor belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). As has become the sad practice in this political era, every state governor has the undemocratic right to choose the chairmen and councilors of the local councils, while the various State Independent Electoral Commissions have the shameful responsibility to return all the nominated candidates as duly elected. The Edo State Independent Electoral Commission had returned all the handpicked contestants waving the flag of PDP, even though judging from the gubernatorial election the APC was clearly the preferred party in the state.

    But for the era of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), approached the Supreme Court for the interpretation of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the new governor of Edo State would have gotten away with whimsically sacking the elected local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councilors without any consequences. But not anymore.

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    After the House of Assembly passed a resolution for the suspension of the local council officials, Fagbemi declared unequivocally that the state officials lack the constitutional right to do so. The federal chief law officer observed that only the local council councilors have the power to impeach the local council chairmen or the deputies, further validating the Tinubu administration’s determination to pursue the freedom of the local government council from the strangulating chokehold of state governors.

    That sad reality was what made the Supreme Court apply the Purposive Rule of interpretation in interpreting section 7 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to grant independence to local governments, and also nullify the joint accounts, which have been serially abused by state governors.  

    Section 7 provides: “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every state shall, subject to section 8 of this constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.”

    The affected officials, emboldened by the judgment of the Supreme Court, approached the High Courts which promptly made an Order of Injunction invalidating the purported suspension pending the determination of the substantive suit. While awaiting the judgments of the High Courts, the judgment of the apex court is unequivocal as to the status of the local councils.

    That independence would become hollow if they can be suspended by the state officials who cannot sack them. But having secured independence, we hope the local council officials would advance the local government area economies, many of which are weak.

    To achieve that, the first step is to ensure democracy thrives at the local council elections. The state electoral commissions, either by commission or omission, have shown themselves incapable of conducting substantially free and fair elections. Whether because they lack autonomy from the state governments, or because they lack the human and material requirements, the state electoral commissions remain an albatross for our democracy.

    We hope the federal and state legislators would collaborate to bring credibility to the local council elections as quickly as possible. Governors should be contented with the constitutional powers to govern the states, without also being overlords of the local government councils. State governance should be enough pie for them while they collaborate with the local councils to develop the remote parts of their states.

    When there is credibility in the elections at the local government level, credible and qualified individuals would begin to show interest in that level of governance, and the result would be grassroots development for the people.

  • Banks hoarding cash

    Banks hoarding cash

    •Stricter penalties necessary

    We are puzzled by the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to withhold the name of the deposit money bank it claimed to have fined N150m for failing to dispense cash through its Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

    Aside from the fact that the issue is one on which Nigerians had shouted themselves hoarse but which those in charge had ignored, we expected the CBN to have used this particular case to send a strong signal that it meant business by publicly naming the offender. For while a fine of N150m might seem adequate to the CBN, it is difficult to see how the naming, and perhaps shaming, of the offender would constitute an overkill, given the gravity of the offence.

    The CBN claimed that the action it took followed an unannounced inspection during which it uncovered deliberate cash hoarding and ATM manipulation by the erring bank. The sanctioned bank, it said, was caught disabling its ATMs, thereby denying customers access to their funds while prioritising cash disbursements to select VIP clients.

    We would ordinarily consider the charges weighty enough as to warrant the officials involved being called in for questioning. Who are the officials? Don’t they have names? What is the name of the bank? How much of this racket does the management know about? In short, if the implied breach by the erring bank of its fiduciary responsibility to their clients is deemed as deeply concerning, what of CBN’s lamentable and certainly unhelpful shielding of the offenders with the cloak of officialdom? Isn’t that itself defeatist?

    We note in this regard the CBN’s most recent circular of November 13, 2024, announcing measures to ensure efficient and transparent cash disbursement. Then, it had reminded the banks of its ongoing mystery shopping exercises and spot checks aimed at discouraging the abuse of naira notes and ensuring responsible distribution of cash, especially as the festive season approached.

    The circular was as clear as it was unequivocal: any deposit money bank traced to seized cash from unauthorised hawkers would face financial penalties. Such banks will be fined 10 per cent of the total value of cash withdrawn from the CBN on the day the offence was committed. Repeat offenders, it said, will incur an additional five per cent penalty for each subsequent breach.

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    The bank, in this instance, appeared to have thought little of the N150m fine. We consider CBN’s failure to name the bank unacceptable. This point is particularly pertinent to the extent that we are dealing with a problem that has not only festered but has brought with it new variants.

    For if it seems that a part of the malignancy is the current situation in which the same cash being rationed in banks to customers on grounds of alleged scarcity are ever so available to Point-of-Sale (PoS) vendors to be sold at premium, the other part, found in the open display for sale of freshly minted notes on the streets and highways by hordes of ubiquitous cash traders, is just as disruptive.

    Surely, if we understand the apex bank’s frantic push for financial inclusion under which the PoS and its allied infrastructure continue to thrive, we are also of the opinion that their presence should not be at the cost of rendering banks’ value-adding ATM operations redundant, not to speak of the statutorily recognised cash management services of the banks as it is currently the case.

    We acknowledge the CBN’s duty to promote a cashless economy through the use of alternative channels.  Our point of divergence is the stifling curbs in cash withdrawals from the traditional channels in favour of PoS, being unwittingly promoted through the unscrupulous activities of some bankers. To say that this is not the way to go is to merely state the obvious.

    In these circumstances, the challenge for the apex bank is how to maintain that delicate balance between citizens’ daily need for cash with the existing curbs on cash takings through the ATM and all other existing channels.

    In a nutshell, we believe that the apex bank has a greater burden to ensure that bankers comply with its cash management regulations. It is not sufficient for the CBN to direct banks to implement internal controls to ensure accountability and transparency in handling cash disbursement, and also to prioritise the disbursement of cash to ATMs to enhance public access. It has to put mechanisms in place to ensure full compliance.

    In the same vein, the Bankers Committee needs to step in to ensure that its members obey the rules going forward. Presently, the widely held opinion among Nigerians is that the bulk of the PoS machines are owned by their members, hence the ease with which they are able to access the limited cash which they in turn sell to Nigerians at premium. Both the CBN and the Bankers Committee need to look seriously into this.

    We are of the view that the solution is neither rocket science nor is such that calls for a reinvention of the wheel. It comes down to making sure that banks’ ATMs have enough cash to dispense even as the PoS operators are also enabled to play on their designated turfs. It calls for stricter and perhaps more pervasive oversight to ensure that infractions are not only minimised but made an exception as against the present situation in which it is the rule; to ensure that the overarching goal of a cashless economy is not imperilled in the end.

  • Water violations in Lagos

    Water violations in Lagos

    • Enforcement necessary for public safety

    Following allegations by the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO) that they had violated regulatory stipulations guiding the large-scale abstraction of groundwater for commercial purposes in the state, the agency, on December 24, 2024, sealed the premises of three major companies and gave them a deadline to pay the requisite fees for infractions against water abstraction regulations.

    The three companies accused of extracting large quantities of groundwater for commercial purposes without authorisation and regulatory compliance are the Nigerian Bottling Company, producers of Coca-Cola, FrieslandCampina, which produces Peak Milk, and Guinness Nigeria Plc.

    Shortly before LASWARCO took the drastic step of enforcing the law and shutting the factories, the Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, had addressed the press on unregulated groundwater abstraction in the state, stressing that the Environmental Management Protection Law enacted in 2017 empowered the Commission to regulate groundwater activities and impose penalties for illegal extraction or mining of groundwater.

    It was towards this end, he said, that the Commission had issued letters to non-compliant organisations with a 72-hour ultimatum to comply or face sanctions. He also said the government had in 2020 offered a 75 percent waiver on groundwater abstraction fees but compliance was still low.

    Explaining the rationale for LASWARCO’s action, the Commission’s Director, Technical Services, Olowu Babatunde, said: “We operate a law that empowers us to regulate most of these heavy abstractors in Lagos State. Abstractors are individuals or entities that extract large quantities of groundwater for commercial purposes…We’ve been engaging these companies for more than seven years now. Some, either they do partial compliance or some don’t comply at all.” He added that with the commencement of the enforcement of its regulations, the affected companies are being compelled to fulfill their regulatory obligations. 

    LASWARCO laments its inability to enforce the law in fulfillment of its mandate for over seven years. Commencing operations in 2012, LASWARCO was established to ensure proper, efficient water supply and waste water management services to protect residents from unhygienic water consumption as well as enforce stipulated standards to curb unwholesome water production and indiscriminate drilling of boreholes in the state.

    With the Lagos State Water Sector Law of 2004 and the Lagos State Environmental Management Protection Law, 2017, as its legal framework, LASWARCO has the responsibility of protecting the long- term interests of consumers by regulating the activities of individuals, businesses, and companies involved in the production, treatment, packaging, distribution, sales and use of water in Lagos State.

    We can point to LASWARCO’s seeming complacency and laxity in discharging its responsibility to bring non-compliant entities to book for such a prolonged period. It becomes even more difficult to understand given the negative implications of unregulated groundwater extraction for public safety.  Yet, it is cynical that companies can flout laws of the land for long in spite of what the agency describes as its pressure on them to comply. Wahab had noted that such illegalities have serious environmental consequences, including land subsidence and groundwater contamination.

    Experts have found that excessive groundwater pumping can lead to the undesirable lowering of the water table below which the ground is saturated with water. It can also result in the depletion of aquifers, which are natural reservoirs of water and take long periods to be refilled adequately, causing irreversible damage to the underground water. Companies should never privilege profit over society’s safety as these firms have done.

    Other identified dangers of excessive groundwater extraction or mining include potential long-term water shortages in the affected areas, possible compromise of water quality, drying up of wells as a result of dropping of the water table level thus forcing people to drill increasingly deeper and deeper wells as well as serious health risks associated with drinking contaminated water such as hepatitis and dysentery.

    Had the Commission started the enforcement of its regulations from inception over 12 years ago, there would most likely be a higher level of compliance by now and the fees to be imposed for violation of the law far lower than what the affected companies have to pay now. The companies should have known that this day was going to come. If there is no violation, there is no enforcement or fines. It was the companies that first did wrong.

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    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) described the closures as “unwarranted and ill-timed,” and called for the reopening of the sealed factories. These three major companies have been sealed at a time of excruciating economic hardships when the manufacturing sector in particular is plagued with several existential challenges. That is a sentiment they should have avoided if they obeyed the law.

    MAN, in a statement by its Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadiri, had painted a vivid picture of the inclement business environment in which companies are currently operating, noting that “To date, manufacturers across the country are saddled with more than N1.2 billion of unsold inventory, borrowing at more than 30 per cent and struggling under a debilitating 250 per cent increase in the cost of power.”

    However, the concerns raised by the MAN must also be weighed against the large-scale environmental devastation that a state like Lagos, located below sea level, can be vulnerable to through the unregulated extraction of its underground water. Besides, the point made by the association about the undesirability of LASWARCO enforcing the law during the Christmas festivities is not particularly tenable as there are no legal exemptions to when the Commission can discharge its mandate, a matter over which it has discretionary powers. But a more pertinent issue raised by MAN is that negotiations and discussions among the affected parties and other stakeholders were in progress when the companies were sealed.

    Ajayi-Kadir stated that “Only three weeks ago, another round of negotiations took place between LASWARCO and representatives of MAN including affected member companies, which led to ongoing discussions in the companies as to the most viable option for addressing the alleged outstanding payments from earlier contested fees. It is while these discussions were going on and during the Yuletide that the Commission decided to cause this major and unwise shutdown of the companies.”

    If this is correct, it certainly makes sense for the negotiations to resume urgently so that areas of contention can be addressed and a consensus arrived at to resolve the crisis. It is, however, important that such discussions are not exploited as time-wasting mechanisms to frustrate the enforcement of the law.

    Beyond the closure of these companies, however, questions must also be raised regarding whether or not LASWARCO is sufficiently funded, equipped and staffed to effectively discharge its mandate. It is curious, for instance, that only three companies are found culpable of infringing the stipulated regulations among the thousands of business entities in a commercial nerve centre and economic hub like Lagos. If other culpable companies are identified and made to pay the necessary fees, the burden of payment will not fall on a few companies, which are perceived as viable enough to comply.

    Also, the Commission should do more in pursuit of its mandate to curb indiscriminate drilling of boreholes in the state. Access to formal pipe borne water is still marginal as the majority of the state’s residents rely on informal water supply sources such as wells, boreholes, rivers and rain water. Yet, unregulated drilling of boreholes compounds the depletion of groundwater resources, crop failures and loss of balance in biodiversity. 

  • Jimmy Carter (1924 – 2024)

    Jimmy Carter (1924 – 2024)

    Described as the longest-lived former US president, Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29, 2024 was perhaps more remarkable for his post-presidential years. He was 100. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was the first American president to visit Nigeria, from March 31 to April 3, 1978.

    Strikingly, more than 20 years after his presidency, in December 2002 he received the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” This underlined his post-presidency efforts.

    His path to America’s highest political office and, by extension, arguably the most powerful political position in the world, included military service and farming.  After graduating from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1946, he became a submariner and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He was involved in the navy’s nuclear submarine programme.

    His father’s death in 1953 led to his resignation from the navy to take over the family peanut business in Plains, Georgia. The transition from naval officer to farmer was challenging. He studied agriculture to equip himself for his new role and succeeded in expanding the family’s peanut-growing business. 

    He became a community leader and served on county boards, supervising education, the hospital authority, and the library. He won election to the Georgia Senate in 1962, and also won the gubernatorial election in 1971 to become Georgia’s 76th governor. In his inaugural speech as governor, he declared that “the time for racial discrimination is over.”  He prioritised civil rights, and discouraged racism.

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    When in December 1974 he announced his presidential aspiration, his name recognition was quite low. He was, however, elected president in November 1976. His campaign focused on inequality, optimism and change. His victory over Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in the presidential election was attributed partly to his significant support among black voters in states decided by close margins.

    Domestically, his administration was credited with a comprehensive energy programme, deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance, major educational programmes and important environmental protection legislation, among others. 

    Internationally, his administration’s achievements included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of US diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. He also championed human rights across the world.

    Carter’s presidency was marked by “an economic malaise.” However, the Iran hostage crisis contributed mainly to his landslide loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. In November 1979, 53 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage by a group of Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy in Tehran. They supported the Iranian Revolution and were hostilely opposed to America’s perceived attempts to undermine it. Carter described the incident as an act of “blackmail,” and the hostages as “victims of terrorism and anarchy.”  The hostages were released in January 1981, after he had left office. 

    After his exit from power, he created in 1982 another power platform in the form of The Carter Center, which he founded with his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University.  Also, he became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.  

    A “nonpartisan and nonprofit” organisation, the Center “addresses national and international issues of public policy.” In its words, it is involved in global “efforts to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. The Center has spearheaded the international effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which is poised to be the second human disease in history to be eradicated.” It has positively affected the lives of people in more than 80 countries.

    Carter and the Center notably engaged in conflict mediation in Ethiopia and Eritrea (1989), North Korea (1994), Liberia (1994), Haiti (1994), Bosnia (1994), Sudan (1995), the Great Lakes region of Africa (1995-96), Sudan and Uganda (1999), Venezuela (2002-2003), Nepal (2004-2008), Ecuador and Colombia (2008), the Middle East (from 2003), and Mali (from 2018). Under him, the Center sent 114 election-observation missions to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, including Nigeria (1998).

    As a politician, he declared that he was a born-again Christian. Indeed, he was a man of faith, which may well have influenced his political life.  He taught Sunday school in the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains.  He authored 32 books, including A Government as Good as Its People (1977), Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith (1997), Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (2005), Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope (2007), We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (2009), White House Diary (2010), Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President (2011), and A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety (2015). 

    In a posthumous tribute, US President Joe Biden called him a “man of principle, faith, and humility.”  He was reported to have told journalists, after losing reelection, that he would not pursue personal enrichment in his subsequent public life. He kept his word. He was non-materialistic and demonstrated a sense of a higher purpose. Those were life lessons.   

  • Uncollected PVCs

    Uncollected PVCs

    •Wholesale destruction not solution

    Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is reported contemplating destroying more than six million permanent voter cards (PVCs) that have remained uncollected by designated holders – many of them as far back as 2015. The cards cluttering the commission’s various offices across the country will be gathered up and destroyed if the electoral umpire carries through with the recommendation, which is one of 208 proposals that emerged from a stakeholder review of the 2023 general election.

    Voting in Nigerian elections, by law, is through the instrumentality of the voter card. Section 16(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 mandates INEC to “design, cause to be printed and control the issuance of voters’ cards to voters whose names appear in the register”; and Section 47(1) stipulates that an intending voter at an election “shall present himself with his voter’s card to a presiding officer for accreditation at the polling unit in the constituency in which his name is registered.”

     But the reality is that millions of voter cards have not been picked up by eligible registered voters. Stakeholders in the post-2023 election review recommended that INEC do away with the backlog by withdrawing and destroying PVCs that have remained uncollected for extended periods. The basis for the proposal is that the cards are unlikely to ever get claimed and their retention clogs the voter management system.

    The electoral body was reported saying in a statement that the uncollected PVCs, among other related issues, illustrated challenges being encountered in voter processing in Nigeria. It outlined efforts made to get those cards collected before the 2023 poll, but with little success achieved. The commission made available the PVCs for collection by voters on December 12, 2022, INEC explained. The fact that a huge number of registered voters had yet to collect their PVCs forced the commission to extend the deadline from January 22, 2023 to February 5, 2023 “after devolving the collection to the ward level between January 6 to 15, 2023 to ease the process.”

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    The commission further explained that despite efforts made, including deploying an online tracking tool and partnering with civil society organisations (CSOs) to boost collection drive, millions of PVCs remained unclaimed.

    The frustration of INEC with uncollected PVCs can be understood in the light of the cumbersome and expensive logistics of getting those cards into the hands of voters. For instance, the commission has had to procure cost-intensive facilities like fire-proof cabinets for many of its offices nationwide to store PVCs along with other sensitive electoral materials.

     Also, whereas it has regular staff at its council offices to handle distribution of PVCs at that level, it must engage ad hoc personnel at huge costs every time the cards are taken out to the ward level – sometimes to the polling unit level – just so to ease access to collecting them by registrants for whom the cards were printed. Meanwhile, when the cards are not picked up and they get returned to INEC’s offices for storage, costs incurred in taking them out is money down the drain.

    However, it is debatable whether wholesale destruction of uncollected PVCs is the best remedy short of willful disenfranchisement of prospective voters. Media reports cited analysts saying the cards were likely products of double registration by some persons. But anyone familiar with INEC’s system knows that under ideal conditions, it eliminates double/multiple records of registrants before sending out data for cards to be printed. Thus, uncollected cards are those for eligible voters who simply have refused to pick them up, or registrants who are dead, or persons who managed to beat INEC’s official processes to make bogus registrations.

    The first category are prospective voters who can yet be cultivated through intensified enlightenment, while INEC carries out a clinical audit of its processes to isolate and weed out the latter two categories and PVCs printed for them. It will be a more rigorous and taxing undertaking, but one that would be a worthwhile investment in the development of our young democracy pending when PVCs are altogether dumped as sine qua non for voting as INEC also already envisages.

  • Recalled antibiotics

    Recalled antibiotics

    •A positive response to fakery

    This year “will be tough for the people that prioritise money over the wellbeing of their fellow human beings by compromising the quality of medicines and food products in the country,” the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said in a New Year message to Nigerians.

    The agency’s recall of fake antibiotics and investigation of the marketer and manufacturer made the headlines recently when the NAFDAC boss told journalists at a press briefing in Abuja that the case would be communicated to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Surveillance and Monitoring System (GSMS) as the drug might have gone beyond the Nigerian borders. This would alert international stakeholders to the risks posed by the fake medication, she added.

    The recall of the antibiotics, Deekins Amoxycillin 500mg capsules, batch number 4C639001, suspected to be substandard, followed reports of serious adverse reactions linked to their use.  Allegedly produced by Ecomed Pharma Ltd and marketed by Divine Kings Pharmaceutical Ltd, the medicine has a manufacturing date of March 2024 and an expiry date of February 2027.

    Adeyeye said the agency’s investigation and recall of the drug was prompted by a complaint from a hospital that had documented three cases of severe adverse reactions associated with the batch. According to her, the Marketing Authorisation Holder (MAH), capsule, Divine King Pharmaceutical Ltd, had stated that the medication was manufactured by Ecomed Pharma Ltd.

    She said: “The manufacturer Ecomed Pharma Ltd in his statement claimed to have produced only twenty packets (20) of the affected batch number 4C639001 for the purposes of renewal of his registration.

    “He also claimed to have manufactured One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Sixty-One (1,961) packets, Batch No 4C639002.

    “However, Seven Hundred and Ninety (790) packs of Batch 4C639001 with manufacturing 03/2024 and Expiry Date 02/2027 were recalled, which he did not manufacture.”

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    So, who manufactured the suspected fake antibiotics and how did they enter the market? She said “The analysis is currently pending determination while the investigation is ongoing,” adding that the Quality Control and Production Managers had been invited for questioning. Also, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, which issues site licences, and the pharmacist in charge, have been notified. The agency should get to the bottom of the matter quickly.

     Adeyeye warned the public to avoid the suspected batch of Deekins Amoxycillin 500mg capsules. In particular, this warning should guide people who engage in self-medication.

    It is reassuring that she declared that NAFDAC has Prevent, Detect and Respond mechanisms, including WHO-certified methods to prevent fake, falsified and substandard medicines from flooding the market. However, the agency must intensify its efforts to prevent the circulation of such medicines.

    Obviously, such medicines pose a serious danger to public health, and should not be allowed to be in circulation in the country.  Furthermore, those who are involved in manufacturing and marketing  them should not only be tracked and arrested but also prosecuted and punished for a deterrent effect.  

    It is very concerning that there are people who unscrupulously make such medicines, and those who perhaps knowingly market them, reflecting low ethical standards and the desire for money. 

    Notably, Adeyeye highlighted the agency’s recent enforcement actions across the country in her New Year message to Nigerians. Among them, she said, the agency, on December 11, 2024 “destroyed expired, unregistered drugs worth N11 billion in Ibadan, Oyo State.” Also, in November 2024, the agency “seized N300m worth of fake medicines during a raid of Tyre Village, Trade Fair Complex, Lagos State.”

    According to her, the agency destroyed “over N120b” worth of seized products in six months, July to December 2024, in the country’s six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. These included fake drugs and unwholesome foods.

    Ultimately, the situation demands greater vigilance on the part of the agency. The recall of the antibiotics is a positive action. The agency should ensure that available medications are safe and effective.