The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Tomato troubles

    •Nigeria must develop the enormous potential of its agro-allied industry

    A recent declaration that Nigeria is losing an estimated US$ 1 billion annually due to the importation of processed tomato products underlines the tragedy of a nation that has consistently refused to wean itself off its unwholesome dependence on crude oil for its foreign exchange earnings.

    This utterly unnecessary situation is compounded by allegations that most of the imported tomato products are unfit for human consumption because they are either fake or substandard. Foreign businessmen are said to go to Asia, where cheap tomato products are produced through the addition of starch and colouring, and then smuggled into Nigeria.

    Why does Nigeria waste so much of its own agricultural produce, only to import much of it in processed form at great cost in foreign exchange? The answer lies in the inability of the nation to develop a fully integrated agricultural sector encompassing cultivation, transportation, storage, processing and export.

    In the instance of tomato production, for example, the country is said to waste up to 70 per cent of its annual crop mainly due to post-harvest wastage emanating from inadequate storage and the absence of processing facilities. Such wastage is all the more alarming given the huge potential: Nigeria is ranked the second largest producer of tomatoes in Africa, and 13th in the world. Tomato production is said to take up an estimated one million hectares producing 1.701 million tonnes per annum at an average of between 20 and 30 tonnes per hectare.

    Tomatoes are just one of a whole range of agricultural products the country is fully or potentially self-sufficient in, but which are imported in processed form from other nations. They include rice, oranges and other fruits. Even yam and cassava, where Nigeria’s comparative advantage is outstanding, and whose processed products are in demand globally, are vulnerable to this situation.

    The consequences for Nigeria are obvious. Although the country’s food import bill dropped from U.S. $7 billion to U.S. $ 4.3 billion in 2014, the reduced amount is still far too large for a nation that was an agricultural superpower at independence in 1960. In addition, national economic development is stunted due to a consistent inability to build up a thriving agro-allied industrial base; thriving economies like Malaysia, South Africa, Israel and Brazil all got their initial economic boost in this way.

    If Nigeria is to resolve the related issues of post-harvest waste and the development of agro-allied industry, it must first look at the crucial issue of crop storage. No matter how bounteous the nation’s harvest is, such productivity will count for little if the crops cannot be stored. During the Babangida era, there was a renewed emphasis on the construction of a network of storage silos across the nation, but it appears that successive administrations have not displayed a similar zeal. This must change.

    Another strategy is to fast-track the construction of food-processing plants as part of the overall agricultural expansion strategy, and to promulgate legislation that would reduce the importation of processed food items. Many companies in the food-processing sub-sector continually complain about the way in which cheap imports have devastated their business. Unless uncontrolled importation and smuggling are fought to a standstill, there can be no sense in setting up indigenous food-processing firms.

    It might also be necessary for the country’s politicians to lead by example, by emphasising the use of locally-processed food products at state occasions. It is the height of hypocrisy to make all the right noises about the agro-allied industry, only to waste scarce resources on food imported from other nations. The sales of processed palm wine are negligible in Nigeria, but the country is one of the world’s top consumers of French champagne.

    Ultimately, the drive to develop a robust agro-allied industry and substantially reduce post-harvest waste will require determination, consistency and patriotism.

     

  • Buhari’s international relations

    SIR: With the victory of President Mohammadu Buhari in the 2015 general elections, Nigeria has become the beautiful bride in the choppy waters of international politics and diplomatic relations. However, there is a growing perception that the renewed relationship and friendship between the United States and Nigeria is being driven solely by America’s need for trade relations in the face of the growing influence and dominance of China in African affairs.

    President Buhari’s ambitious pronouncements represent the keystone of his administration’s foreign policy direction, at least in the short- term, when he pledged to world leaders his uncommon commitment to fighting terrorism, insecurity and corruption. This perhaps underscores his shuttle and summit diplomacy to the G7 summit, and indeed the most recent visit to the global seat of power– the White House.

    Certainly, President Buhari’s recent state visit to the White House and his various town hall engagements with the business and Diaspora community is a welcome start, given President Obama’s and America’s interests and desire for sustainable peace and good governance in Nigeria after the elections. It has become necessary to explore one of the strategic pillars of former President Clinton’s foreign policy doctrine towards Africa -AGOA – on export to the United States, which is also being echoed by the Obama administration to our economic advantage.

    The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) enacted in 2000 and the subsequent AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004 under the President Bush administration gives preferential trade access to African nations that open their economies and are willing to build free markets. This window of opportunity must be engaged for the development of small and medium enterprises and its attendant benefits of job creation.

    At this moment, another promising way for Nigeria in the new excitement of international relations with the G7 is to engage more meaningfully with the European Union (EU) in more practical ways by rejecting the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) proposals. The EPA is trade agreement between the EU and African countries and indeed Nigeria. The EPA as it currently stands portends negative effects for industrial development. Sadly, the insistence of the EU on the elimination of tariffs for 80% of trade would undermine Nigeria’s ability to industrialise and we would remain a perpetual supplier of raw materials.

    Furthermore, the European Union’s unwillingness to abolish agricultural subsidies will continue to sustain the unfair competition against our products and the tight intellectual property rules will make access to knowledge skills and technology more difficult for Nigerians and indeed Africans.

    Therefore, the government should maintain diplomatic stance at African regional level of not being a part of the loathsome EPA between EU and African countries in order not to mortgage our collective future in the selective game of international politics and diplomacy in the name of globalisation and free markets.

     

    • Samuel Akpobome Orovwuje

     Orovwuje@yahoo.com

  • PAC against corruption

    PAC against corruption

    The Sagay committee should not only work at better perception for President Buhari’s anti-corruption war, it should push for speedier procedures without sacrificing justice 

    The national mood, which clearly favours a consensus against corruption, paints the Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) Against Corruption as the proverbial man come to meet the moment.

    The Sagay team appears peopled by names that boost public confidence.  Prof Sagay himself, vocal silk and human rights activist, needs no introduction.  Prof. Femi Odekunle, professor of criminology, was victim of raw impunity — a grim corruption of power — under the Sani Abacha military dictatorship, when he was roped into an alleged coup.

    Other members, by academic discipline, technical competence or activist temper, appear well positioned to take a holistic look at corruption; and offer fitting response to it by Nigeria’s often slow and dodgy criminal justice system: Dr. Benedicta Daudu, associate professor of International Law, Prof. E. Alemika, a professor of Sociology, Prof. Sadiq Radda, another professor of Criminology, and Hadiza Bala Usman, a civil society organisation activist.  Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, is the committee’s executive secretary.

    If Nigerians seem largely agreed on the imperative to root out corruption in their national life, the international community too appears trenchant in support.  The Sagay committee, therefore, is supported by a US $5million Anti-Corruption and Criminal Justice Reform Fund, courtesy of the trio of the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Foundation.  The independent funding would shield the committee from government meddlesomeness, which is good; even if the Buhari Presidency appears in tune with the people’s outrage against corruption, and would appear determined to lead the charge.

    The support fund is to be managed by Trust Africa, a non-government reform body, with presence in more than 25 countries in Africa, with the gospel of reforms to make governance cleaner; by keeping sleaze out of government business, and channelling resources into growth and development triggers.

    So, by local and international anti-corruption consensus, the Sagay committee would appear in good company.  Even the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, under whose charge have come humongous allegations of corruption and mind-boggling sleaze, had ironically weighed in, in support of the Sagay committee, even before the committee was created.

    Just before leaving power, President Jonathan signed into law the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015.  Aside from repealing the Criminal Procedure Act and the Criminal Procedure Code, the 495-section law, sponsored by Dr. Ali Ahmad, a lawyer and member of the House of Representatives in the 7th National Assembly, made other far-reaching provisions (former CJN, Justice Aloma Muktar, called the law “revolutionary”), all aimed at fastening procedures, without jeopardising justice.

    So, all appears set for the committee to tackle its brief: develop comprehensive interventions for achieving recommended reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system; and advise the president on prosecuting the anti-corruption war.

    So, with the balance of sentiments, is the Sagay committee home and dry?  No.  Media spinning has all but eliminated the concept of manifest goodness in the public space.  Therefore, even the most hideous and morally repugnant of behaviours now claim their equal-opportunity right to be tabled and heard.  Besides, it is trite in British common law, which is the basis for Nigeria’s criminal laws, that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  So, in the infrastructure of public opinion and procedure of the courts, the PAC enjoys no especial advantage: Corruption would not go down without a fight.

    Yet, a rigorous and focused membership, and the mood of the public, can help the committee  to turn the structural disinterestedness into strengths.  Since its mission deemed it worthy and its job well cut out, it must leverage public opinion to further attract and retain public support.  It should therefore project its activity such that the public is doubly convinced that its mission is total elimination of corruption, without prejudice to any vested interest.  If it wins the perception war, and it retains its integrity, the mission would have been half-accomplished.

    On the more technical aspect, however, it should focus on how fast the country can implement the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice law.  The bane of rooting out corruption here is the subversion of the criminal justice system through bungled investigation, cynical stalling of the judicial process by subversive injunctions and outright brazen bribery of judicial officers.  The new law has made provisions for how these anomalies can be tackled.  So, the committee’s starting point would be to recommend how best to implement these sections, as fast as possible.

    Proceeding from these basics, it can then advise the president on whether to set up special tribunals to try corruption cases, with a special bent on judicial procedures with zero tolerance for delay; or designate some courts to solely handle corruption cases.

    The Sagay committee has a historic responsibility.  Its membership has the intellectual and technical competence for the job at hand.  President Buhari, so far from words and action, appears ready.  The people — except, of course, the potentially guilty graft barons — are also eager.

    The committee must, therefore, match its intellectual capacity with clear passion for the job.  It must always remember: Nigeria must kill corruption to prevent corruption from killing it.

  • Cleansing the sleaze-dom

    •It’s double whammy as NPA corrals billions of earned revenues while grossly under-declaring imported cargo

    It may be most apt now to introduce a new word – sleaze-dom – into Nigeria’s lexicon of graft. Each day, fresh tales of fraudulent activities break out in the media just in the manner of viral diseases. No ministry, department or agency (MDA) of government seems to be free or exempt from corrupt practices. Those not yet on the front page of infamy are only those not yet placed under the spotlight.

    Since the advent of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has literally turned out to be an era of confounding sleaze and malfeasances. Never in Nigeria’s history of nationhood has there been such widespread and wholesale plundering of her common wealth as it has turned out in these last five years.

    Among the current heart-breaking missives is the story of the Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA). It is a double whammy at the NPA where it has been revealed that last year alone, revenue amounting to N162 billion was realised and only a paltry N2 billion was remitted to the treasury.

    Still at the NPA, it was reported last week that 80 per cent of cargo imports into Nigeria was under-declared by the managers of Nigeria’s ports. This revelation was made by the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC).

    These two pieces of information though seemingly disparate, are tied by the underlying billions of naira which ought to have accrued into Nigeria’s treasury but which ended up misappropriated or in private pockets.

    It isn’t that there would not be underhand practices in environments imbued with a constant streaming of large volume of cash. What rankles is the degree of greed and the rapacious hunger to loot it all. It is bad enough that the NPA management declared merely N162 billion (even though it could have been double that amount), there seems to be a troubling reluctance to remit funds into the national treasury.

    In the same manner, in-coming cargoes had to be under-declared not even by 50 per cent, but a numbing 80 per cent! In simple terms, it means that additional revenues could have been lost by a whopping 80 per cent. These incidences only epitomise the level of financial and administrative recklessness bordering on impunity that characterised the running of most MDAs, especially in the last 16 years.

    It may not come as a surprise that the NPA, not unlike most other honey pot agencies (like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), has turned out to be a probable house of sleaze as has been reported. Recall that in the last one and half decades, NPA had been chaired by the bigwigs of the now-discredited former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including Chief Bode George. What this suggests is that the highly liquid agency could easily have served as conduit pipe for political slush funds.

    Worse, such huge funds were generated and simply siphoned with no attempt to plough back into the system or develop the ports. The known improvements that have taken place in some of the sea ports over this period were the result of private participation and concessioning of portions of the major ports to private operators. Other than these, the ports under the NPA have become dilapidated and bereft of basic facilities.

    At the premier Apapa ports for instance, the rail line running through it for easy evacuation of cargo have been long moribund. The major roads round about the ports have been in a state of disrepair for over a decade, with attendant bottlenecks and crippling traffic for port users.

    We urge the Buhari administration to hasten to sweep out all the bad eggs in this crucial sub-sector of the nation’s economy and revamp it for the good of the economy. We also demand that those who have ravenously raped this institution must not go unpunished; they must face the law to serve as deterrence. Government must vanquish impunity which has become pervasive in the system; it must cleanse this sleaze-dom.

  • New VP’s residence

    •The plan to build a N16billion edifice for the VP is unacceptable and should be urgently reviewed by the Buhari administration

    The proposed new residence for the Vice President within the Aso Villa has generated angry response from the public and calls for a quick decision by the Buhari administration.  The Jonathan administration had planned to expend N16 billion of the scarce federal resources on building and equipping the house. Already, N7 billion has been reportedly spent on the white elephant project and the contractors are demanding another N9 billion if they are to return to site.

    The house is a reminder of the profligacy of that administration that abandoned so many areas of national life to pursue such luxury projects at a time the same government was commending austerity to the people.

    When the project was conceived, the Jonathan administration’s response to the outrage it generated was that it was not out of place as the country required a befitting edifice for the second citizen and that it would enhance the country’s image. Officials of the Federal Capital Territory that were  saddled with the task of executing it were quick to point out that the American Vice President’s residence is even more grandiose. They were however unable to relate such plans with a comparison of the relative sizes of the Nigerian and American economies and the levels of development.

    We recognise the dilemma of a more serious government in deciding what to do with the house which is said to be almost 80 per cent completed. Should it simply be abandoned; scaled down or converted to a more purposeful use? The onus is on President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to decide within their plans to turn around the national fortunes, what to do with the project. It is our view that abandoning it is not a viable option. It is unacceptable that any project on which N7 billion has been expended should be shelved.

    We recommend that a review of the design, contract procedure and construction so far be instituted immediately. Second, the terms of the contract should be scrutinised by legal experts with a view to determining if the national interest was put in jeopardy.

    A Federal Government that won the hearts and votes of Nigerians on the promise to transform the country and revamp values within the shortest possible time frame cannot afford to spend another N9 billion on a house for the vice president.

    The Aguda House which officially houses the second citizen is adequate for the purpose. None of Mr. Namadi Sambo’s predecessors, military or civilian, ever complained about the residence. It is even more outrageous that the new plan was put in place after the former vice president had got the administration to spend more than N2 billion on his residence. In 2011, about N900 million was committed to refurbishing and furnishing the house to meet the taste of Mr. Sambo, an architect.  Such profligacy should have no place in our national life, and officials who have shown such proclivity should be shut out of high offices by a more discerning electorate. Since former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, made the unfortunate comment that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it, no government had given practical effect to the statement as the Jonathan administration.

    In a few months, the Buhari administration would be presenting its first budget to the National Assembly. The government owes it a duty to walk its talk. We want to see a drastic reduction in estimates for feeding by the presidency which in the past years gulped an average N1 billion yearly, furnishing the official residences of the president, the vice president and other Federal Government officials. This would give the government the moral right to query any attempt by the National Assembly to ignore public opinion on its spending.

    Millions of Nigerians who live below the poverty line, deprecate the ostentatious lifestyle of many of our public officials. The time to effect a change of attitude is now.

  • Corruption: Before the prosecution starts

    SIR:  A few weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians that the prosecution of those who have short-changed the country and have stolen our collective wealth will soon commence.

    In the past, there have been attempts at prosecuting persons perceived to be corrupt. Sadly, most of those trials achieved little results. Very few of them were diligently prosecuted to a logical conclusion, while the convicted criminals were usually given a pat on the back through the judgment of the courts. Otherwise, how does one explain the short prison sentences handed down by the courts, or the amounts the courts ask corrupt convicts to pay in lieu of a prison term, which is usually a far cry from what was  embezzled or stolen?

    The general feeling among Nigerians is that the current administration will be different in its fight against corruption.  In fact, the anti-corruption posture of the president was what endeared him to Nigerians during the elections. Their expectations are therefore are very high. What then can the administration do to sustain and maintain the goodwill it currently enjoys?

    In order to maintain and sustain the confidence of Nigerians, the fight against corruption should be total. In prosecuting corrupt individuals, the searchlight must go beyond the immediate past administration. From May 29th 1999 to May 29th 2015, there has been monumental embezzlement and the circulation of our collective patrimony by and among a selfish and greedy few. From 1960 to 1999, Nigeria reportedly lost $400 billion to corruption. Although there is no accurate figure, the country must have lost about $300 billion or more within the last 16 years.

    The prosecution of corrupt individuals should also not be limited to political office holders alone. The system is in dire need of a complete overhaul.  Anybody who has illegally eaten our yams must return them. Every institution of government should be cleansed.

    However, we will be merely scratching the surface if we are focused on fighting corruption by prosecuting corrupt individuals alone without tackling the root causes. There are multiple reasons why corruption thrives in Nigeria. These are (but not limited to): poverty, poor remuneration, nepotism, lack of openness and transparency in government, the mentality of Nigerians that an opportunity to serve is an opportunity to grab their share of the national cake, weak institutions to fight corruption, slow determination of corrupt cases. To curb corruption, we must cut it from its roots.

     

    • Frank Ijege

     frankijege@yahoo.com

  • Drug of injustice

    •We want justice, not drugs, on our streets

    Anambra State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has raised a serious concern about the war against illicit drugs. The state commander of the agency, Mr Sule Momodu, accused some judges of handling drug-related cases with levity. According to him, most drug offences are punishable by 15 to 25 years imprisonment jail terms upon conviction, but some judges often give convicts far below these jail terms.

    This is a serious indictment of the judiciary that should be of interest to the National Judicial Council (NJC), considering the deleterious effects of illicit drugs on the society. Indeed, it is one of the most serious indictments of people who should be helping the country to get rid of criminals. Not long ago, it was reported that some convicted drug peddlers and barons were seen walking freely on the streets when they should be serving their respective jail terms.

    The issue of judges passing light sentences on various kinds of criminals is not peculiar to drug convicts alone. Indeed, it is an issue that has been bothering many Nigerians, especially when people who stole billions are given not more than a pat on the wrist upon conviction.  In the immediate past dispensation, we were regaled with stories of judges who made a fortune from electoral cases. Without doubt, the judiciary, like any other sector in the country has its own challenges and, perhaps, bad eggs. We have had cases of judges who perverted the cause of justice one way or the other. While it is true that some of them have been sanctioned by the appropriate authorities, especially in recent times, it is not unlikely that some are still left in the system. At any rate, it has to be established whether the light sentences granted some of the drug convicts was a mistake of the head or the heart, or whether it is exploitation of loopholes in our judicial system. Whatever it is, though, light sentence for drug peddling is dangerous for the society.

    Although Mr Momodu did not mention any particular judge or judges, and although we know that judges have the right to exercise their discretion in deciding the fate of accused in their courts within the ambits of the law, we want to urge that the courts see the crime of drug pushing as a serious one and give the convicts the appropriate sentences that would serve as a deterrent to other criminally-minded individuals. The society is at risk when people who should be in jail are roaming the streets. Not only that, such criminals are a bad influence on innocent youths who could easily fall for their antics in their bid to make them join criminal gangs.

    We seize this opportunity to appeal to the NDLEA and indeed other agencies handling serious state assignments to ensure that their legal teams develop the competence to handle their cases with the uttermost professionalism required so as to be able to prosecute successfully their cases against the suspects. They must realise that they need forensic evidence to secure conviction. Some judges have accused the legal teams of agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among others, of shoddy handling of cases, thereby leaving them (judges) with no option but to free the suspects for want of diligent prosecution. The prosecutors must realise that cases must be proved beyond reasonable doubt and the judge is at liberty to decide any matter that is not proven beyond reasonable doubt in favour of the accused. So, these agencies must avoid shoddy handling of cases if they are to succeed in their mandate of ridding the country of illicit drugs and other crimes for which they were established.

  • Sultan’s salvo

    •The call to prosecute corrupt persons was a brilliant intervention from the monarch

    It was a strong, emphatic and resonant voice from the throne. The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, came out swinging against a corrupt political, business and bureaucratic class. He asked the president to be unsparing in his fight against corruption, and all those who are found culpable should suffer for their explosion of the people’s trust and violation of our patrimony.

    Hear him: “Mr. President, we are 100 percent in support of you and your fight against corruption in this country and it is our belief that all those found guilty should not only have their entire assets seized and forfeited to government but also face jail sentences.”

    He made this assertion and call at a summit on security in Abuja on August 17. What he said is in sync with the reverberations going on in the country as President Muhammadu Buhari has initiated moves seen to be targeted at those who have made short work of our resources in the past few years.

    Particular attention has been focused on the Jonathan regime, and the nation is witness to a flurry of unsavoury news about sleaze and impunity. The oil industry reflects the scum. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been seen as the fulcrum of the dip into dirt. For instance, we do not know how much oil we sell, we do not know how much money we earn. The idea of fuel subsidy has been revived in national conversations across the land. How much have they stolen, and how much can we recover?

    President Buhari has shown that he can stand against the tide of vermin in the system. But we are learning that the fight on corruption does not stay in the oil alone. It is all over the system. The federal civil service has unearthed its own underside of maggoty proportion. Investigations are on over the sum of $2.1m raw cash that one top civil servant is believed to be carrying, so as to put it in furtive safe keeping. That is a carryover from the Jonathan era where dollars dwarfed the local currency of Naira as the means of exchange and the instrument of reward.

    In the heat of the election cycle, the then president reportedly swung his campaign to the southwest where he made the rounds in traditional palaces and churches, and the scandal heaved the nation from a sense of predictable to unpredictable scandals. Some of the church sources of news said they received dollars from the president as well as the traditional rulers.

    It was unbelievable, and many Nigerians for their own good sense did not want to believe that our patrimony was subjected to such brazen abuse.

    But the Buhari administration has found, too, that the situation is not restricted to oil. The firing of the NIMASA boss, the reversal of the appointment of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) boss, the dissolution of federal boards and parastatals, etc. reflect a sense that the full gamut of public life suffers from wholesale infection of the absurd called corruption.

    At the time of writing, the revelations that the NPA made N162 billion last year but remitted only N2 billion is mind-boggling. Other bodies like the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Nigerian Railway Corporation are under investigation for colossal thieving.

    The point must be made though that a bandwagon on the fight for corruption must be carried out without a sense of witch hunt or the vanity of applause. A professional work must be done. It is possible that at this time many persons would seek revenge, and want to score points either for partisan and ethnic reasons.

    Caving to such impulses can easily undermine the trust in the process and turn the whole campaign into a revanchist failure.

  • Unending ATM conundrum     

    SIR: My last trip to Abuja – the Federal Capital Territory ushered in a scene which I thought only existed in my home state, Imo. In fact, that of Abuja is even more alarming and worrisome. Initially, I was of the view that I was only viewing a mirage, not until I walked closer to the exact spot of the scene.

    Having parked my car at the designated spot in front of one of the commercial banks situated at Maitama, Abuja, I was majestically taking a walk towards the location of the bank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), till my panoramic view disclosed a scene which was not unlike the Independence Day parade that took place penultimate year at the Eagle’s Square, Abuja. My intention was to access some cash via the ATM, but the unthinkable crowd I encountered or sighted from afar brought in an instant deterrent.

    Yes, my morale was instantly dampened because the fathomless number of persons, which formed an unending queue that seemed like an Independence parade, was meant to use the machines before me. Honestly, I calmly walked back to my car and drove off because I knew there was no how I could use any of the machines in less than three hours time. I thank God for the shock absorber He imposed in my system; if not, I would have fainted at the moment I sighted that deceptive parade. Afterwards, I managed to visit other neighbouring banks for same transaction; all to no avail.

    Let’s face the reality squarely. It is no longer news that the use of the Automated Teller Machine, which is popularly recognized by its acronym ‘ATM’, is really giving the contemporary Nigerian society an unbearable nightmare.

    Frankly, a lot needs to be done regarding the use of ATM in Nigeria. The country requires more accurate and efficient technical know-how in its banking industry as regards ATM operations. Of course if we must tell ourselves the gospel truth, you will agree with me that so many challenges are currently faced by the users of the said machine.

    Technical irregularities or hitches such as out of service, temporarily unable to dispense cash, issuer or switch inoperative, unreasonable seizing/withholding of transaction cards, among others, which are often encountered while using the ATM must be addressed in earnest. The ridiculous technical anomalies which include debiting an account without any withdrawal made by the owner, is the most devastating aspect of the ongoing ATM conundrum in Nigeria.

     

    • COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

    (The Media Ambassador)

    Public Affairs Analyst & Civil Rights Activist

    [Owerri, Imo State]

  • Law-breaking in jail

    Law-breaking in jail

    • Prison walls may be thick and foreboding, but they would appear nevertheless porous

    In a demonstration of contemptuous disregard for the law and its structures, a daring courier successfully delivered 60 wraps of hemp to a robbery suspect in a mini-cell, at the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court in Lagos. The illegal substance was concealed in a Viju Milk bottle, and the messenger escaped arrest.

    As if these were not amazing enough, the suspect, Olalekan  Bayo,  was quoted as saying: “The person just came and said Lekan, this is for you from your friend at Ikoyi Prisons and I said okay.”  It is unclear whether the alleged sender was also behind bars, which would make the incident even more scandalous and troubling.  The suspect sounded unbelievable: “I do not know the courier or the source, and I did not know that the bottle was stuffed with hemp.”

    Police persecutors reportedly found the wraps of hemp in the suspect’s possession. According to Sergeant Andohemba Koti, “I was standing in front of the court this morning when I saw this young man with a bottle of Viju Milk. When he entered the court premises at first, he was looking in the left and right directions and I thought there was something fishy about his mission.”

    There can be no excuse for the security breach; it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.  Ideally, if there were appropriate and effective security measures, the courier shouldn’t have been able to deliver the hemp to the suspect. An additional point:  he shouldn’t have been able to escape arrest.

    It would appear that what happened at the court’s mini-cell was a reflection of what goes on in the prisons. It is a complication of criminality when drugs, and even dangerous weapons, find their way into spaces designed for the punishment of crime. It is an undesirable situation and full of dangers. Apart from other possibilities, access to drugs and weapons can inspire rebellion among inmates and lead to violent disorder.

    The prison security system needs to be tightened, no doubt. The reality that prisons are not out of bounds to the public does heighten the security challenge, but it is definitely not insurmountable.  In a way, the incident at the Tinubu court was a replay of a reported occurrence at the Kirikiri Prison last year.

    A 35-year-old caterer, Oyinyechi Ezirim, was arrested by prison officials as she attempted to smuggle hemp to her boyfriend in jail. “The compressed dried weeds concealed inside noodles tested positive for cannabis and weighed 4.1kg,” the authorities said.

    Ezirim’s story is instructive. She was quoted as saying:  “I used to buy noodles for my boyfriend who has been in prison custody for one year. Last week, he told me that a former inmate promised to send him two cartons of noodles. Unfortunately, when I got to the prison, 20 packs of the noodles were found to contain hemp.”

    It is food for thought that food is considered useful as a vehicle for smuggling drugs into prison for inmates. It is also a point to ponder that the two instances implicated people who had prison experience.

    A stunning riot at Kirikiri that had the appearance of an attempted jailbreak last year also highlighted lax prison security. In the aftermath of the incident, there were shocking revelations that the inmates had rebelled against a move by prison officials to deny them access to creature comforts such as mobile phones, generators, hemp and cigarettes.

    Inasmuch as prison is not isolated from the larger community, it is understandable that people would think up ways of breaching security for their own ends. However, the onus is on the authorities to ensure that the place of punishment for crime does not become a place for perpetration and perpetuation of crime.

    ‘It would appear that what happened at the court’s mini-cell was a reflection of what goes on in the prisons. It is a complication of criminality when drugs, and even dangerous weapons, find their way into spaces designed for the punishment of crime. It is an undesirable situation and full of dangers’