Category: Editorial

•Public enlightenment rather than outright ban will help in the circumstance

Sequel to the deaths of 66 persons in Rivers State, and 18 in Ondo State from consumption of the popular local gin, Ogogoro, the Federal Government on Monday banned the consumption of unregistered locally made spirits and other unregistered biters. Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii, said that it has become imperative to ”warn the public to desist from the consumption of unregistered locally made spirits (Ogogoro) and other unregistered bitters.” He added that the government “would confiscate all illegally brewed alcoholic beverages” across the country.

The symptoms suffered by victims –    vomiting, abdominal pain, blurred vision, headache, dizziness and loss of consciousness – according to the NAFDAC boss are the hallmark signs of methanol poisoning. Indeed, “the results of the laboratory investigation revealed methanol toxicity. Five samples were found to contain high concentration of methanol in them. Blood methanol concentration above 1500-2000mg/L will certainly lead to death in untreated patients,” the NAFDAC director-general added.

In view of these findings and the number of deaths so far recorded in the Ogogoro saga, we understand the government’s concern but we are worried that NAFDAC does not have the capacity to enforce the ban or even confiscate all illegally brewed alcoholic beverages in the country. Our law enforcement agencies have been threatening for years to enforce the ban on alcoholic drinks at our motor parks without success. As a matter of fact, some law enforcement agents too consume the drinks at the parks even while in uniform.

What to do, in our view, is intensification of enlightenment campaign on the dangers of consuming the unregistered brands of these spirits. In the first instance, it should be understood that Ogogoro has become more or less a popular drink in many parts of the country. Indeed, it is a part and parcel of the culture in almost all parts of Nigeria and some social or cultural activities, including naming, marriage ceremonies, town festivals, etc. are incomplete without the pouring of libation or using of the local gin for prayers.

Perhaps to show how passionate those who consume Ogogoro can be about it, media reports had it that even as angry youths were setting ablaze a popular joint in one of the states where people who consumed the local gin sold there had died, some other people were only some metres away entertaining themselves with the same Ogogoro which they claimed to be ‘original’ and therefore safe for consumption!

The point they were making, probably, is that Ogogoro has been with us for a long time, how come it is now that it is killing people? There is a point here though. And that is why it would be a herculean task dissuading people addicted to it from drinking it. Something must have gone wrong somewhere that is now making people to die after drinking the spirit.

So, the message that the authorities, including NAFDAC, should focus on in their enlightenment programme should be the dangers of consuming non-registered brands of the drink and what to do when the symptoms are noticed in people. For effect, the messages should be done in the local languages, first in the affected areas, and later in other parts of the country.

It is gratifying that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have ruled out any infectious diseases. NAFDAC would therefore do well to heed their advice to conduct further investigation into the deaths. Moreover, people in the affected areas and Nigerians in general must ensure that victims with the symptoms of methanol poisoning are rushed to the nearest tertiary institution for proper diagnosis and treatment since quick intervention can still save lives. They should not embark on  self-medication or submit themselves for  treatment by quack doctors.

SIR: President Buhari is yet to settle down, yet, we are beginning to see just where his administration will concentrate as a matter of urgency. With a two-day visit to Niger and Chad Republics, and most recently the G-7 summit in Bavaria, the foundation for squashing Boko Haram (for good) has been laid. And the President is right to make securing the lives of Nigerians and the country’s territory as his foremost engagement. After all, we all need to be alive if we are to witness the ‘change’ the party have in store. Corruption and the economy (job creation) are said to be the next targets and should be treated simultaneously. These, according to President Buhari and APC are the three fundamental issues Nigeria needs to address. Where then does the housing deficit fall in the pecking order?

A closer look at the APC manifesto will show that this along with other pressing issues has been captured. However, not including the housing needs among the three fundamental problems is clearly underestimating the deficit on some 170 million people. Judging by the President’s prioritizing of the now popular issues during his campaign, one will be quick to assume the President doesn’t want to bite off more than he can chew.

Don’t get me wrong, eliminating corruption, creating 8 to 10 million jobs and destroying Boko Haram in four years will be nothing short of a miracle, and will keep the APC government busy all through their tenure.

But then, why can’t there be more priorities like housing and access to safe drinking water for all? Electricity should not even be a question (thank God President Buhari knows too). Mass and affordable housing for all will always be a winner. When housing is relatively abundant and affordable, stealing will be made less attractive, if only by a little. As if to mock the thousands of staff working in the Federal Capital who cannot afford homes in the city and will have to travel from neighboring states, aesthetically designed and unoccupied estates of different sizes, stare on at them. They are almost certain they will not occupy these houses lying in the landscaped streets of the beautiful city. Inequity staring them right in the face!

The freest and equally very important advice the President Buhari-led Federal Government can get is to give priority to the very huge and underrated housing deficit, rest assured that if they do, their names will be written in gold. The poor masses took the risk and made this change possible. They need homes. No doubt about it.

• Sulaiman Aliyu,

Jalingo Taraba State

•With a new dispensation kicking off under the gale of an economic crunch, governors must do things differently

Regardless that some candidates had to literally climb over the mountain to become governors during the last election, it does not seem this is the best of times to hold that position. The reasons are plain for all to see and indeed, one common manifestation of the dire times we are in is huge arrears of wage bills in about half the states of the federation.

What this shows clearly is that the nation’s economy has dipped to its nadir. The federal allocation which remains the main source of revenue for states has dropped to about half its size since same time last year. The crash in crude oil price late last year has triggered a sharp drop in Nigeria’s earnings and with all the attendant negative up-thrusts.

Sadly, and as nearly everyone knows, there is no end in sight. In other words, oil prices are not going to shoot up anywhere near the $100 per barrel level of the past couple of years in a hurry. First, the world has found alternatives to crude oil fuels. Second, the US has built up so much reserve she now has a glut. In fact, she will soon become a major exporter of crude oil. Finally, Nigeria mismanaged successive oil booms over the years, including that of the last four years.

She never diversified her economy despite enormous petro-dollar revenues. She did not even build refineries and petro-chemical complexes as other major oil producers did. Today, the cost of importing various petroleum products is a major crippler of her economy. Today, both the federal and state governments are really in a quandary as to how to meet such immediate needs as staff salaries.

The situation is indeed dire but it is also a time that calls for quick-minded leaders, especially governors in the driving seats of states.

It is trite to begin to admonish about prudence and diversification of revenue bases. State governors must think out of the box now. They must first cut the fat and strategically trim their bloated workforce. Nearly all ministries and agencies of government down to the local councils are always brimming with ‘ghost workers’. They must bring in the exorcist immediately. In fact they must punish the culprits and accomplices to sound a warning that ‘ghosts’ must remain where they belong – the tombs.

While at the civil service secretariat, they must make the workers work. Many government agencies and departments like transport companies, land registries, commerce and tourism departments really should be money spinners but for leakages and graft. These holes must be blocked and these areas revamped to run more efficiently and yield more revenues.

So much waste goes on around the executive offices and the political appointees. A governor’s convoy can actually be shorter, travels can be fewer and frivolous but expensive ceremonies must be discouraged. Government must begin to be more business-like or better still, run like business. No serious governor engages hundreds (some thousands) of aides and turns around to bemoan large wage bills. Budgeting must be the serious business it is meant to be and that is at the heart of planning.

How many state governments truly plan their finances and stick to it even on an annual basis? So many projects and programmes with little economic value to states litter the country.

Lastly, a concerted effort must be made by governors to extract an urgent review of the constitution to free up some matters on the exclusive list such as mining and value-added taxes (VAT) so that states can earn more revenues from these areas. We wager that it is not exactly correct that some states are not viable.

It is basic economics that every state has its areas of comparative advantage. Besides, wealth is always in the mind of leaders and their people and not under the ground. The viability of any economic entity lies first in the ingenuity of the leader. It is a time like this that we know those who can truly govern and the pretenders.

•It’s time to devise new strategy that eliminates waste and boosts supply and preservation

In the run-up to the last general elections, the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan claimed it had performed superlatively in the implementation of its much-touted national Transformational Agenda. That the majority of the electorate was not wrong in rejecting this claim and voting out the government was demonstrated not only by the near-total crippling of the country’s power supply as the new President Muhammadu Buhari administration was being sworn in, but the paralysis in fuel supply that still subsists across the country.

But it was not only in these two critical sectors that reality has trumped rhetoric. The story has been no different in the agricultural sector, which the former administration consistently trumpeted as perhaps the most successful manifestation of its Transformation Agenda.

It was claimed that the fraud previously associated with fertiliser subsidy had been eliminated. Beyond this, the food supply input chain had reportedly become more transparent and efficient, with positive impact on national food productivity and sufficiency. It remained inexplicable to most observers that the country remained chronically food dependent in many spheres despite these purported triumphs. Indeed, the Farm Inputs Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FISAN) has now revealed that the country may in reality be in the throes of a severe food crisis. According to the association, the immediate past administration created a crisis in the sector by its failure to pay about N52 billion outstanding fertiliser subsidy debts.

FISAN has alleged that this amount represents about 50 percent of government’s fertiliser subsidy owed to farmers since 2014 and that if urgent steps are not taken to clear the obligation, the country may experience food shortage in the 2015 farming season, as suppliers will be unable to supply farmers with critical farm inputs. In the chilling words of FISAN, “The harrowing experience of these fertiliser suppliers in the hands of their financiers (bankers) is better imagined, coupled with the devaluation of the Naira. This is not the best of times for the suppliers, who embraced government’s call to ensure the successful implementation of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda”.

The failure to clear the backlog of fertiliser subsidies may not be disconnected from the disdain of Bretton Woods’ economic institutions that have long controlled the country’s economic policies for subsidies in general, no matter how essential. In this case, the implications, as itemised by FISAN, have been monumental. Fertiliser stock inventory has reduced drastically, members’ financial lines for implementation have been blocked while the little available stock inevitably get into the hands of middlemen who sell at exorbitant prices to small-scale farmers. We consider it inexplicable that only 11.5 per cent of farmers reportedly receive farm inputs such as fertilisers, despite increasing allocation of funds for fertiliser subsidy over the years.

Of course, the Buhari administration must urgently tackle this problem. It simply must find a way of clearing the fertiliser subsidy debts and averting a dangerous food crisis. More importantly, the administration must devise strategies not only to ensure food sufficiency, reduce food wastage through better storage facilities and methods but also make Nigeria a net exporter of export crops in which it enjoys comparative advantage.

Beyond this, a vibrant agriculture sector will also strengthen the economy by boosting agro-allied industrialisation as well as generating millions of jobs for the youth. In the pertinent words of FISAN, “Footing a bill well over $12.5 billion per annum for import of food items like rice, wheat and fish is no longer acceptable; rural economies need to be revamped, youth unemployment has to be tackled headlong”. It is time for fundamental change in the country’s agricultural policy direction.

‘The Buhari administration … simply must find a way of clearing the fertiliser subsidy debts and averting a dangerous food crisis. More importantly, the administration must devise strategies not only to ensure food sufficiency, reduce food wastage through better storage facilities and methods but also make Nigeria a net exporter of export crops’ 

Dana Air and victims’ relations should cooperate to sort out the issue of compensation for the 2012 crash

The pains and anguish of some of the victims of the Dana Air crash of June 2012 re-echoed last week to mark the third anniversary of the crash that claimed the lives of 153 passengers and crew members. The dependants had tales of woes to tell. Some were quite young and attributed their ability to pull through to divine help. They decried the inability of the airline to fully pay the compensation due them after three years.

We agree with them that the failure of Dana Air to ensure that all dependants of the victims have been settled is not good enough. Every airline is expected to have full insurance cover for victims, whether passengers or crew members. Nigerian laws provide that beneficiaries of each victim should be paid $100,000 each. The essence of the provision is to enable dependants meet up with responsibilities that could fail as a result of such incidents.

Many of the dependants claimed the insurance firm engaged by Dana Air has only paid 30 per cent of the due sum. They regard this as fraud, calling on the aviation authorities to step in and get the matter fully sorted out.

However, Dana Air has rejected the suggestion that it was out to deny the dependants their due. The airline said full payment had been made in respect of most of them, attributing the delay in settling the claims of others to pending litigation at the Federal High Court, Lagos, and United States of America. Dana Air’s spokesman failed to supply necessary statistics to back its claim, pleading it could not do so in order to protect the interest of the victims’ families. Much as this might be the case, we find it difficult to accept that the airline could not have given figures in respect of those settled and those pending. This should be done forthwith to assure the public that it is not playing games. How many cases are pending in court and what percentage of the victims is affected by the orders given?

The airline has also claimed that some victims’ beneficiaries could not access the balance of 70 per cent of the claims because of family rancour. This is an issue in the country as many insurance firms would attest. In many cases, even where companies have to pay death benefits to families of relations of dead workers, the widows have always been engaged in grim battles by other family members. Where such relations succeed in obtaining the money, the immediate family members are ignored and neglected. This calls for scrutiny by legal authorities in the country. The African culture is sympathetic to the cause of widows and children of the deceased; it is thus difficult to fathom where the cruelty crept in.

Nigerians should learn from these experiences to tidy up documentation on next-of-kin. Years after marriage, many fail to change the next-of-kin filed with company registries and government establishments, thus paving the way for wolves to reap where they did not sow.

We call on the aviation authorities to step in immediately to wipe the tears of the new victims- families of the original victims. Where deemed necessary, insurance firms should be invited to advise on what to do to ensure that the beneficiaries get their due; that their children could return to school, have access to good medication and, where the widows are unemployed, could invest in making life comfortable for the immediate families of the victims. All those concerned should work towards getting the end of justice served. Every decent society protects the weak and vulnerable. Ours cannot be an exception.

‘We call on the aviation authorities to step in immediately to wipe the tears of the new victims-families of the original victims … All those concerned should work towards getting the end of justice served. Every decent society protects the weak and vulnerable. Ours cannot be an exception’