The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Timelines, not deadlines

    Timelines, not deadlines

    •It’s not whether the weather will delay war on terror, but whether we are on course

    The Nigeria Army surprised quite a few Nigerians when it indicated that the weather was an impediment to the war on terror. That shows that Mother Nature has given the militant sect Boko Haram some wriggle room and breath of fresh air.

    In a meeting with the President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, revealed this obstacle, as well as logistics challenges.

    Hear him: “Of course, the challenges we are looking at are the issues of probably the weather as it were and some other logistics that we feel we should have so that the mandate can be quickly delivered.”

    The matter raised a question in the minds of Nigerians. Is the weather challenge going to compromise the deadline of December for the elimination of the militant group? The defence chief replied, “We have not said that. The mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing.”

    More poignantly, he said, “it is a military operation and military operations have timelines and these timelines we are working on assiduously.”

    In spite of the clever turns of phrase, the general has shown that the December deadline may not be sacrosanct. There is nothing wrong with that. Wars are not historically fought on deadlines. During the Jonathan years, the top brass declared deadlines that were dead even on arrival. They became a matter of comedy.

    Wars cannot be fought on deadlines but on timelines. Too many imponderables occur in the course of hostilities to rely on any form of deadlines. Some of the major battles in the contemporary world were prosecuted on false presumption that they would end soon, including the First World War and the Second World War. The Nigerian Civil War began with a cynical phrase called “police action.” But it lasted thirty bloody months.

    If the military operates on timelines, it is acceptable. Timelines are adjustable. Deadlines reflect a sense of superior knowledge that replaces assumptions with certainties. That is not in the purview of war.

    On weather, we cannot underestimate the factor in war. Of course, we are in the rainy season, and rains can cause flood and gullies and various forms of topographical nightmares in battle. It can also compromise vision with fog. But for the army to list it as a factor holding the army back reflects strategic naivety or it might have figured it in its December deadline promise and that is a risk.

    Reckoning with the weather should always be crucial to any calculations of timelines and even assessment of tactical and strategic advantages. Historians have wondered what the world would look like today if a blizzard did not cripple German tanks near Moscow. Hitler with his generals misread the weather, and his mammoth military collapsed.

    In spite of this, the military on General Olonisakin’s watch has scored significant victories. The Nigeria Army seemed coy in the face of Boko Haram depredations and impunity. Now it has effectively reduced it to sporadic raids and suicide bombs.

    The Defence Chief also revealed that the president has assented to its demands for logistics support, which shows that the army’s strategies and tactics will enjoy greater resources and consequently more victory.

    While we want the war on militants to end even tomorrow, we are less interested in tantalising deadlines. All we want is steady extirpation of the radical death machines in reasonable time.

  • Frustration to innovation

    Frustration to innovation

    •As thinking outside the box creates the hospital in a box

    It is a classic tale of transforming frustration into inspiration for success; and turning daunting challenges into stepping stones towards great accomplishments.

    For many, the vicissitudes of life breed depression, loss of self-esteem and a debilitating sense of despondency.  But that is not the story of the Delta State born, Dr Steve Ayanruoh, who graduated from the University of Ibadan with a degree in medicine in 1984.

    After his youth service, Dr Ayanruoh worked as a medical officer at Warri Airport under the aegis of Aero Contractors Airline. Seeking a higher niche in life, he applied for a job as a medical officer at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Even though he was told of his success in the appointment process, he was never issued an appointment letter as promised. Rather the job was given to another Nigerian from a different part of the country.

    It was a bleak period for Steve Ayanruoh. He was naturally devastated and disappointed in his country, where it seemed to him merit counted for little or nothing. He thus decided to leave the shores of Nigeria to seek greener pastures and greater fulfilment in the United States. In that country, Steve bore the initial hardships with hope and fortitude. After passing his requisite qualifying examinations, he was admitted to the New York Medical College, Lincoln Hospital, where he did a residency in paediatrics. There he developed a deeper passion to render service to humanity through medicine.

    After rigorous mental exertions and thinking outside the confines of conventional wisdom, Anyanruo invented a unique device, which has been described as a magical hospital in a box machine. This veritable mobile hospital in a brief case has revolutionary implications for the practice of medicine particularly in poor African countries with underdeveloped health facilities.

    This hospital in a box can diagnose and facilitate the treatment of a wide array of health ailments. Its compactness and portability make it far more affordable and accessible than the services obtainable in conventional hospitals.

    Weighing approximately 26 pounds, the mobile health box requires only a minimal space of two rooms for the medical doctor to operate – one for taking care of patients and the other for patients waiting to be attended to. It has a battery life ranging from 12 to 24 hours and can be recharged using electricity, solar energy or a functioning ciggarete lighter in a motor vehicle.

    The device boasts several features including easier data collection on health statistics, greater accuracy of diagnosis, increase in doctors’ productivity, and higher life-saving potentials for patients in critical conditions such as cardiac, pulmonary or endocrine disease. The device will also prove useful at airports and on airlines, hotels and restaurants, battlefields and military installations, sporting events, offshore rigs as well as mining and drilling sites.

    It is instructive that Dr Ayanruoh has obtained a patent for his device in the United States and that it has been selected to be showcased at the 2015 Defence Innovation Summit taking place in Austria, Texas from December 1 to 3.

    Equally noteworthy is that Dr Ayanruoh had his educational foundation laid in Nigeria. This indicates that with the right environment and facilities, distinguished Nigerian professionals can perform as well at home as they often do abroad.

    However, the circumstances in which he left the country should provide further food for thought on the imperative for elevating merit above other considerations in all facets of our national life.

    We find it astonishing that Dr Ayanruoh has reportedly been trying to market his product to health and other authorities in Nigeria since 2007 without success.

    It is important that the Nigerian government urgently interact with Ayanruoh to verify his claims and find out how his invention can be utilised to strengthen the countries largely dysfunctional health care system.

     

  • Prison congestion: Lesson from S/Africa

    Prison congestion: Lesson from S/Africa

    SIR: In recent years, the need to decongest the Nigeria prisons due to overcrowding and overstretch of the facilities has remained a source of concern and worry to all stakeholders. Governments and corporate bodies have at one time or the other sought and proffered solutions and ways through which the Nigerian prison can be effectively decongested to pave a way for a smooth administration of criminal justice system in Nigeria. Some persons have advised that the Nigerian prison service which is currently under the Federal Ministry of Interior be transferred to the Ministry Of Justice as a way of ensuring proper supervision of trial and conviction. Others have called for the decentralization of the current prison system into federal, states and local prisons to cater for federal, states and local offences respectively like it is currently being practiced in countries like the United States of America, as against the maximum and minimum security system that is presently the case in this country.

    Going by the urgency and the need for Nigeria to brace up to the challenge of modern prison system, there is need for us as a country to borrow a leaf or learn from the prison model of South Africa. The country has effectively integrated and modified the parole system as it is being practiced in France, United Kingdom, United States of America and even India, in periodically decongesting their prisons. Parole is a provisional release of a prisoner on the completion of the minimum sentence period or jail term. Under this system, a parole board which is an independent body visits the prisons and monitor prison inmates from time to time and they are the ones who decide whether an offender should be released from prison on parole after serving at least a minimum portion of their sentence as pronounced by the sentencing judge.

    The parole board makes risk assessment about prisoners to be able to decide who may safely be released into the larger society on parole. The board takes into due cognizance the personal characteristics of inmates such as age, mental stability, marital status and previous criminal record, the nature or severity of the offense committed, the length of sentence served and the inmates degree of remorse for the offense committed, inmates ability to establish a permanent residence and obtain gainful employment upon release, among other parameters. The embarrassing and most worrisome state of the Nigeria prison in which over 60% of  inmates are awaiting  trial has made it imperative for the government to seek extra measures aimed at decongesting our prison and further strengthening the country’s criminal justice system.                                Ours is a society in which innocence until proven guilty has been thrown into the wind; Nigerians are made to spend months and years in incarceration even without being pronounced guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. We can no longer continue to live in the dark ages by locking people up for years without properly according them their right to fair hearing or being tried. The government should put a stop to this human right abuse and integrate the parole system into the Nigerian criminal justice system as our fellow African country, South Africa had already done. This is the only way sanity can be restored back into the Nigerian criminal justice system.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Ilorin, Kwara State                          

  • Challenge of mental health

    Challenge of mental health

    •Mental ill health is no crime. It needs treatment, not stigma

    In a message delivered at this year’s World Mental Health Day on October 10, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said  statistics showed one out of every six African suffers from mental disorder.

    The disclosure draws attention to the crucial need to ensure that the dignity of mental patients are preserved in all aspects, ranging from the care of patients, to the attitude of the general public to people suffering from mental disorder.

    Dr. Moeti is definitely not happy — and neither are we — with the mode of treatment of mental patients. According to him, it is unfortunate that “in the course of treatment, some patients are subjected to undignified treatment, such as being chained to trees or beds, locked in a cage, left without food for many hours, deprived of family support, and subjected inadequate personal hygiene”.

    On the basis of this inhuman treatment, he went on to say that mental health patients deserve respect and compassion, as they cope with their disease. However, he noted further that some African countries had implemented a range of measures “to improve awareness, restore dignity and access to mental health services at all levels of the health care system”.

    This, according to him, includes revision of their mental health legislation so as to protect the rights and dignity of the persons affected by the health condition. He noticed that in spite of these measures, the promotion of good mental health and understanding of its challenges, early detection, treatment and patients’ dignity, are still a concern in many African countries.

    Because of cultural hindrance to psychiatric treatment and care, we notice that there is the penchant to live in denial as mental illness appears to be more a thing of shame, even if treatable, as other health challenges.

    We also notice that here in Nigeria, for example, there is superstition and even spiritual belief in the treatment of mental illness, which probably explains the cruelty involved in the treatment regime, as noticed by Dr. Moeti, in the homes of traditional mental healers.

    The harsh traditional method of healing has fuelled the age-old stigmatization of patients with mental illness. That reinforces the discouragement of people to seek medical help, even in orthodox hospital like the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, which has been referred to, in the local parlance, as “Yaba apa osi” (literally meaning,”Yaba of the left side”), where some or right-thinking people should not go!

    Even, Yaba’s famous pioneer neuro-psychiatric facility at Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has developed a rather odd connotation, if not outright stigma.  If students bawl Aro! on some university campuses, they probably insinuate the person they hail needs to see a shrink — and fast!

    On mental health stigma, therefore,  there is an urgent need to further enlighten the people.  Mental illness is like any other: malaria, ear or eye problem, which can be treated and cured.  The patient should not be stigmatized.  Stigma only complicate things: the patient is depressed; the society is hostile and everyone loses.

    Be all these as they may, it is better to prevent cases of mental illness.  We, therefore, advise that African countries should put in place policies that would greatly reduce the day-to-day stress of people, as stress often triggers mental ill health.

    Poverty, however, is at the root of stress.  So, government policies should fundamentally aim at eliminating poverty.  With the basics taken care of, there is the probability of less general depression, which often leads to nervous breakdowns.

    Some churches and mosques are also involved in the care, if not treatment, of mental disorder. However, unlike what obtains in Europe and the United States of America, only a few of our priests involved in this area are trained as clinical counsellors; and thus tend to rely on prayers alone.

    But while prayers are okay, we advise the churches and mosques to persuade their affected members to seek proper medical care; and while getting treatment, these faith-based orgwnisations should render the patients full institutional support, oozing love, compassion and empathy — again stressing that a mental illness patient is no outcast that must be stigmatized and discriminated against.

    It is nothing to cheer that WHO statistics suggests mental health might just be becoming an epidemic in Africa.  But the statistics should hallmark a vigorous call to action.

    A stitch in time, saves nine.

  • Rice

    Rice

    •Time to resolve the conundrum

    He spoke so often and always with great flair and flourish about the near miraculous feat the country was achieving in the agricultural sector, particular with reference to self-sufficiency in rice, that has become one of Nigerians’ staple foods.

    Perhaps the former Minister of Agriculture in the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and now President of the African Development Bank, Dr Adewummi Adesina, had cause to be genuinely exultant about celebrating the purported successes recorded during his tenure in reducing rice importation dependency.

    After all, the government had granted approval for the setting up of 17 local rice mills in different parts of the country through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

    The aim was to boost local production in the commodity; as well as end rice importation dependency that drained the country of huge amounts of money in foreign currency. Beyond this, the Federal Government, through the Bank of Industry (BOI), invested about N800 million in the Ebonyi Agro Mill out of a total outlay of about N2.6 billion. It equally invested almost one billion Naira on the Tara Rice Mill, relocated to Adani in Enugu State from its original Taraba site, due to political unrest in the area.

    In spite of all of these, the country is clearly nowhere near the self-sufficiency in local rice production that was Dr Adesina’s ceaseless mantra. Of course, investors in the sector claim that they face serious hurdles in achieving requisite levels of local production because of such critical variables as poor power supply causing them to rely almost 100% on diesel, as well as lack of water and inability to access credit facilities at favourable rates.

    But by far, the most formidable obstacle crippling the local rice mills is the scarcity, or total unavailability of paddy. For instance, the Tara Agro Mill in Enugu State has an installed capacity of 42, 000 tons while the Ebony Agro Mill in Ebonyi State has a capacity of 30, 000 tons. Today, both Mills are grossly underutilised. Indeed, the section of the Ebony Agro Mill that produces local rice with a staff strength of 132 workers has reportedly not functioned since November last year because of paddy insufficiency.

    To reduce the gap between local demand and inadequate supply, the Federal Government in 2013 granted rice importation quotas to key players in the industry and marginal Nigerian rice millers to bridge the demand-supply gap. Rather than import unfinished rice and adhere to the requisite quota agreed to, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has accused the operators of bringing in finished products through the Lagos and Port Harcourt ports, which are then sold for a profit. Many of them have also been alleged to exceed the import quotas allocated to them. All of these defeat the ultimate objective of boosting local rice production capacity.

    This unfortunate scenario illustrates the tardiness in conceptualisation and implementation that incapacitates public policy in Nigeria. Why on earth would the requisite authorities embark on a policy of investing in the production of the local rice mills without adequate  paddy facilities? We agree with the industry operators’ on the need for policies deliberately aimed at encouraging local production as well as greater policy stability that will encourage more investment in local rice production.

    We do not understand why the NCS failed to prevent the entrance of the rice that violated the legal quotas into the country and is now crying foul after the deed is done. Even then, we urge a thorough investigation to identify the companies that defied the quotas and made illicit profit so that they can be made to remit whatever illegitimate gains they have made to the Nigerian government.

    If we have the requisite political will and a patriotic commitment to good governance by the political class, Nigeria has all it takes to be self-sufficient in food production not excluding rice.

  • Of tenure of public officers

    Of tenure of public officers

    SIR: In the last three weeks, Nigeria and Nigerians have been held spell-bound by the spectacle at the National Assembly, as the upper legislative chamber screened President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees. In all the fuss about the confirmation hearing, one issue appeared to have escaped the attention of the media: the tenure of the ministers being screened by the Senate. These questions are germane especially for a society such as ours which is highly sentimental about the tenure of public office holders.

    This is why I found media reports suggesting that the tenure of the incumbent chair of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, ends in November really shocking. I say so because, I was privileged to have witnessed the confirmation screening of Lamorde by the Senate on February 15, 2012. Even though he had been occupying the office of chairman of the EFCC, albeit in acting capacity before the confirmation, he became the substantive chairman of the EFCC on February 15, 2012, which invariably means that his four-year tenure terminates on February 15, 2016. Except, President Buhari renews his appointment for another term of four years, Lamorde should by February 15, 2016, be returning to the Nigeria Police to continue with his career as a senior police officer or retire.

    Until that happens, it does a section of the media no good to twist facts and confuse the people. I have never met the EFCC boss and have no incentive to speak for him but truth be told, the recent spate of media attacks on his person clearly indicate that there are people who are not comfortable with him as chairman of EFCC and have launched a media campaign to discredit and run him out of the place.

    It is important that persons with tenure appointments are accorded protection from mischief makers, with a clearly statement regarding their tenure. Of course, not many people bother when it comes to obscure agencies. In this country we have had not a few cases where public officers outstayed their tenures because public attention is not turned to such agencies. But when you head the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the EFCC, Nigeria Communications Commission or Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, people count every minute you spend and aspirants are let on the loose once they sense that a vacancy is imminent. It should not be so. Nigerians should cultivate the culture of not stampeding public office holders out of office, especially those who have diligently served the nation.

     

    • Alabi Evonney, 

    Abuja.

  • Licensing teachers

    Licensing teachers

    •This long-overdue policy should be expedited

    One of the major anomalies of the Nigerian education system is the profusion of unlicensed teachers working within it. An unlicensed teacher is a person working in an instructive capacity in a primary, secondary or tertiary institution, without a valid teaching licence from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

    There can be no doubt about the vital necessity of licensing Nigerian teachers. It enhances professionalism and helps to raise the standards of one of the most important professions. It serves as a form of quality control by ensuring that quackery is minimized. It facilitates the overall development of the education sector by explicitly promoting an adherence to the highest standards of teaching and learning.

    Licensing does not necessarily turn bad teachers into good ones, but it does offer a process through which poor teachers can improve. By contrast, not licensing teachers ensures that the education system will be full of individuals who have absolutely no right to be there.

    Nigeria is in the paradoxical situation of having very many teachers but relatively few effective ones. Teaching is the country’s pre-eminent all-comers’ profession, the last option to which desperate job-seekers resort when other employment opportunities are not available. It is thus full of poorly-motivated and apathetic personnel, whose lack of interest in teaching is reflected in the low quality of their output.

    The negative consequences for the country are obvious. In a nation where some 10.5 million children are already out of school, the excess of unlicensed teachers compounds the problem of guaranteeing educational quality.

    Unlicensed teachers are more likely to produce pupils and students who cannot meet the literacy and numeracy standards appropriate to their educational level, and who go on to perform woefully in public examinations like the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

    Teachers who are not licensed are less likely to embark on professional development programmes, since they see their stay in education as a temporary sojourn. They are not as aware of the ethics of teaching as they should be, and are consequently more prone to engage in unethical practices.

    The country’s poorly-regarded public schools ironically have a relatively high percentage of licensed teachers, but poor pay, overcrowded classes and inadequate infrastructure neutralize this advantage.

    Private schools, which are increasingly favoured by parents and guardians, often have better facilities, but the tendency to focus on profit means that many of their teaching personnel are unlicensed, even though they may have advanced degrees.

    As the government agency charged with the regulation of teaching practice in Nigeria, the TRCN has a comprehensive programme of registration and licensing teachers. It also accredits, monitors and supervises courses in teacher training institutions in the country.

    In December 2014, it introduced the teachers’ Professional Qualifying Examination Benchmarks to streamline the registration process. In addition to these roles, the council must now seek to emphasize its enforcement functions. It is empowered to compel ethical conduct among teachers and can prosecute unqualified teachers in accordance with its enabling act. Without the threat of sanctions, there will be little incentive for teachers to seek licences.

    The Federal Ministry of Education can aid this process by making the employment of licensed teachers a major criterion for the establishment of private schools. For their part, private schools must realize that the employment of unlicensed teachers is self-defeating in the long run. The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) must ensure that all its members are licensed and drop its opposition to teacher certification exercises aimed at improving teacher quality.

    Teaching is the mother of all professions. Ensuring that those who practice it are licensed in a manner similar to their counterparts in law, medicine and engineering, would restore dignity to a profession which it has lacked for a very long time.

  • My airport bigger than yours

    My airport bigger than yours

    •Airports have become prized items of political bragging rights in Nigeria.

    Previously, airports were built, equipped and operated by the Federal Government, from geopolitical and economic considerations.

    The oldest, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, lived up to their billing; as gateways to the outside world for the most part, though they could not boast and still cannot boast the sophisticated technology on which modern aviation depends.

    They were complemented by airports in Kaduna, Ibadan and Enugu, capitals of the three regions that made up the Nigerian Federation.

    Reconstruction, after the civil war, fuelled by oil revenues, witnessed a huge expansion in the air transportation network, with an airport in each of the 12 state capitals, configured from the former regions.

    Creation of more states led to the demand for airports in the new states.  Where the Federal Government was not forthcoming, the states took matters into their own hands.

    The result is today’s proliferation of airports across the country. Only a few states do not have one facility or another designated as an airport.  But no fewer than 17 such facilities have been declared redundant by the aviation industry.  Yet, more airports are being constructed or planned.

    Despite the grim economic outlook, Ekiti State has begun clearing a site for an airport.  Such is the frenzy with which Governor Ayo Fayose is pursuing the project that he did not even consult those who hold customary titles to the land; nor offer compensation for the economic trees on their farmlands before he sent in bulldozers to clear the site in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti.

    Even if Ekiti had abundant resources, it would still be hard to justify the project.  Akure airport, in neighbouring Ondo State, located less than an hour by road from Ado Ekiti, has been little more than a white elephant since it was built some two decades ago.

    The old regional airport in Ibadan, some two hours from Ado-Ekiti, is more a sentimental reminder of the glory days of former Western Nigeria than a functioning, thriving concern.

    Despite its contiguity with Kano, of which it used to be a part, and easy access to the Aminu Kano International Airport, Jigawa spent an estimated N6 billion to build its own airport.  Former Governor Sule Lamido was going to pass the cost on to the Federal Government, as a price for remaining in the fold after the defection of several PDP governors to the Opposition, and for supporting and Dr Jonathan Goodluck’s reelection bid.

    It is not clear whether the deal was ultimately consummated.  But there is no justification whatsoever for Lamido spending N6 billion on the airport, or for Dr Jonathan underwriting the cost. The airport is at best a monument to Lamido’s misplaced priorities.

    Building an airport, as the Federal Government has found and state governments are discovering, is the easy part.  Maintaining it is a different proposition.  Even where an airport serves commercial routes, the revenues it generates rarely offset maintenance costs.  The airports that lie idle most of the time are for all practical purposes financial sinkholes.

    They also pose security challenges, poorly manned and policed as they are. Even at the so-called Port Harcourt International Airport, one of the better facilities, herds of cattle have on several occasions breached the runway, resulting in accidents or near-misses.

    The more sensible thing is to raise the more viable and strategic of the existing airports to global standards, instead of dissipating scarce resources on vainglorious airfields that add no value to the economy or the well-being of the people.

  • Corrupt ouster

    Corrupt ouster

    • Econet Wireless paid the stiff price for refusing to play by rotten rules

    The gripping allegations of official corruption in Nigeria, by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Econet Wireless, Strive Masiyuwa, is numbing.

    Mr Masiyuwa resorted to his blog, to inform the public how his company was frustrated out of Nigeria, following alleged corrupt actions of the former Governor of Delta state, Chief James Ibori, in connivance with a slew of other state officials and smart lawyers in London, led by one Bhadresh Gohil, who acted as advisers.

    According to the CEO, hundreds of millions of dollars may have been stolen from the Nigerian state, through duplicitous dealings in the Econet shares by two state governments.

    The sad experience of Econet Wireless, the technical partner and operator of the first GSM company in Nigeria, requires a revisit by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, considering his government’s avowal to deal with corruption.

    Going down memory lane, Mr Masiyuwa recalled how his company rallied about 22 Nigerian investors, including banks, high net worth individuals, state governments, and other institutional investors to raise the cost of the licence, which stood at $285 million — the most expensive licence ever issued in Africa, as at 200.  The licence grant followed a spectacularly transparent bidding process by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), which afterwards auctioned two GSM licenses.

    Mr Masiyuwa claimed his travails started when he was asked to pay $9 million as bribes to senior state government officials that helped to raise money to buy the licence. He refused.

    He alleged that the former governor of Delta State specifically demanded  $4.5 million in his private capacity. After several meetings could not resolve the impasse, Mr Ibori allegedly threatened: “Pay or I will chase you and your people out of the country”.

    He apparently did — for  when Mr. Masiyuwa refused to pay, the shareholders met and voted Econet Wireless out as Manager of the licence. Mr Masiyuwa and his over 200 staff and family members were indeed “chased out of the country”!

    He alleged that later, he was invited to meet the former Governor of Akwa Ibom, Chief Victor Attah in London, who told him that he wanted to sell the 15% shares owned by the state government, claiming that he would use the proceeds to build an airport.

    The governor then introduced him to one “Mr Bhadresh Gobil, as our legal adviser here in London”, saying that “I have instructed him to handle all our negotiations with you”. Mr Masiyuwa claimed that when he subsequently met Mr Gohil in his office, he proposed that the proceeds of sale be paid into a Special Purpose Vehicle.

    When he questioned the rationale for such a process, Mr Gohil, told him that he was also the lawyer to Governor Ibori, offering that if he accepts the proposal, all the state shares would be sold to his company, to make him majority shareholder.

    Mr Masiyuwa’s reckoned that the sophisticated proposal by Mr Gohil could help the state officials siphon over $100 million dollars, in addition to the $13.5 million already paid by the company that took over the management of the licence, and changed the name to VConnect.

    He claimed to have carefully recorded the entire scenarios in his small note book, and subsequently petitioned the United States Justice Department. He claimed that his efforts to get the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate fell flat, under former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    If these allegations are true, they would be a sad commentary on the seedy business climate in Nigeria.  That is very sad, and should not be tolerated any longer.

    If a country always hankers after “foreign investment”, by that very logic it should not tolerate influential citizens and corrupt state officials making brazen victims out of those foreign investors.  Yet, that was what Strive Masiyuwa’s cup, for his heroic striving to do business in Nigeria.

    The Zimbabwean’s allegations are yet another set of pressing reasons President  Buhari should crack down on corrupt practices in every sphere of Nigerian life.

    Mr. Masiyuwa’s claim that the Yar’Adua Presidency turned cold on his complaints suggests some illicit influence may have blackmailed that government into culpable inaction. That, if true, was unfortunate.  It should never happen again.

    In institutional terms, however, the solution is clear, if not so simple, if there is no political will: agencies of state, particularly the ones saddled with corruption, should be structurally empowered to do their work as routine — no prompting, no discouragement, just clinical structural efficiency.

    If President Buhari can put such operative reforms in place, the anti-corruption war would not only be easier to fight, it would also become institutionalized, with little or no influence from the sitting government.

    That is the legal regime corrupt Nigeria needs.

     

  • Canal robberies

    Canal robberies

    •The Ambode government should find an effective solution to this fad

    Robbers in Lagos are embracing an old trick: storm your victims from the waterways and vanish after, on the same waterways.  The Lagos State government must find an antidote to this menace.

    In the latest of such, at a simultaneous raid on two banks in FESTAC Town, a suburb of Lagos, the robbers claimed the lives of an infant, Baby Nmesoma, 14 months old; and her mother, Jane Beluchukwu-Ndrika, a cleric’s wife, felled by stray bullets from the robbery operation.

    Though the police tried to put a spin to somewhat soften that tragedy, claiming the bandits fled leaving behind a trove of N27 million, the notorious fact still remains: a daylight robbery occurred in Lagos, from around 8 am on October 14; with robbers blazing away for no less than one hour, perhaps two!   Aside from stealing a yet undisclosed amount, the robbery also claimed the invaluable lives of mother and child.

    That is clearly unacceptable.  So, the government and every stakeholder must move fast to checkmate such brazen criminality  — after all, security is a collective business.

    Launching robberies from Lagos canals is not new.  It happened very early in the last administration of former Governor Babatunde Fashola.  It also happened very late in that administration, in the run-up to the March general elections, when some dare-devil robbers stormed a bank at Admiralty Way, Lekki, Lagos.  Mercifully, the Lekki felons were caught, with the former governor saying afterwards: Lagos never forgets; and will always catch you — or something to that effect.

    Interestingly, the Lekki scenario was replicated in Ikorodu, very early in the life of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration.  Also, the robbers were nabbed, thus reinforcing the Fashola sentiment; and restating that the Lagos security architecture remains strong, alive and well, even with a new government still settling in.

    Unfortunately however, the FESTAC robbery was a continuation of a trend around that area.  Before that robbery was the kidnap sage involving the wife of Daily Sun’s former editor, Steve Nwosu, at Okota, which shares the adjoining waterways with FESTAC Town.  The kidnappers launched from the canal and escaped on it.

    So, before this becomes another sickly fad, with hefty costs in human lives and limbs, Governor Ambode should recharge the security infrastructure that has kept Lagos reasonably safe, after the rash of daylight robberies, mainly  involving  banks, back in 2007 and 2008.

    The public-private security collaboration that sent these hoodlums scuttling from Lagos is still extant.  Indeed, driving or commuting on Third Mainland Bridge and other area shows evidence of stationed police patrol vehicles, at the ready.  But it would appear there is need to re-launch the Lagos Security Trust Fund (LSTF) to give it additional fillip.  Besides, it is time Governor Ambode started making some purposeful noise, matched with meticulous security offensive, to put the fear of God into these felons.

    We recognise, of course, the governor’s latest offensive of drafting the military to help in areas with grave security challenges: witness the Arepo/Ikorodu oil pipeline canal axis.  That is not bad, except that the army is always odd for internal security.  Even as they put a thing right, they are not unlikely to put 10 others awry.  It is simply because they are trained to kill and not much more.

    Perhaps a re-start would be a healthy mixture of army-police patrols, to give sharper teeth to the exercise.  An all-army patrol smacks too much of pacification and the inevitable citizen harassment and abuse.  That is hardly right, no matter the temptation to clamp down on a dire security situation, in a civil democratic setting.

    The long-term solution, no doubt, would be the legalisation of state police.  Governor Ambode, with other gubernatorial like minds, should forcefully push for that constitutional alternative to make Lagos more secure.  With a measly 30, 000 police personnel to a 20-million population, Lagos is definitely under-policed.