The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Femi Esho (1946 – 2024)

    Femi Esho (1946 – 2024)

    • Nigeria will miss this custodian and producer of yesteryears music

    An anecdote about Femi Esho demonstrated the value of his efforts to preserve and promote yesteryear music. According to the story, when he visited Ghana in 2008 to seek permission rights to release the works of some old Ghanaian Highlife stars, the late Jerry Hansen of the Ramblers Dance Band, who was then 86, “could not hold back his tears as he exclaimed that it was a great shame that Esho came all the way from Nigeria to present to him all his lost works.” The drama underlined his significance as a music collector. He died on June 17, aged 77.  

    As Chairman/CEO of Lagos-based Evergreen Musical Company Ltd, described as “Africa’s greatest custodian and producer of music of yesteryears,” he was a music collector extraordinaire based on his extraordinary music collection. “I started collecting music at the age of 12,” he said at an event organised by his company in Lagos, in 2017, which celebrated “10 Music Legends of Lagos Evolution.” It was a celebration of indigenous music genres, including Apala, Sakara, Juju, Highlife, Fuji, Waka, Folk, Agidigbo, Afrobeat and Were.

    Born in Ilesa, in present-day Osun State, he was described as “the undisputed largest collector of music of yesteryears with over 150,000 vinyl plates made up of 78rpm breakable plates, 45rpm and 33rpm, hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes, thousands of cassette tapes of various music along with archival materials such as His Master’s Voice (HMV), various reel-to-reel machines, various turntables with the oldest 100 years old, books and newspaper articles on Nigerian music, video recordings of early Nigerian music icons.”

    Before he formed his musical company, he had worked for the Lagos State government, and was a secretary to the state’s first military governor, Mobolaji Johnson. He had a stint at a big architectural firm. He had also set up an Advertising/PR agency, and ran a printing consultancy.

    His social life equipped him for his musical role. He had frequented popular clubs in Ibadan and Lagos before he eventually decided to devote his life to music preservation and promotion in the early 1990s.

    He formed a band in 1993, known for its rich Highlife repertoire, which was patronised by high-profile figures and various corporate giants. He presented radio and television programmes promoting evergreen music, particularly Highlife. He presented “Highlife Renaissance” weekly on Raypower, the first private radio station in Nigeria, for about three years.  To mark Nigeria’s centenary celebration in 2014, he reviewed Nigerian music from 1914 to 2014 in a programme on the network service of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

    His musical company revived the works of music greats such as Bobby Benson, Eddy Okonta, Rex Jim Lawson, E.T. Mensah, Joe Mensah, Haruna Ishola, Victor Olaiya and I.K. Dairo through a repackaging project involving music from the 1920s. He also released the complete works of Fela Kuti and Ebenezer Obey.

    Read Also: Femi Esho (1946 – 2024) 

    According to him, “Highlife and some of its variants originated from Nigeria, Ghana and a few other African countries; hence it can be described as our gift to the world.” He said: “In terms of the reign of Highlife, you can hardly find more than three or four recreation spots where the music is still enjoyed by patrons of musical bands. We feel that the situation portends a great danger to our indigenous contribution to the world of music, something that has the potential of being a major income earner for Nigeria if properly harnessed.’’

    He launched the Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation, “to preserve and safeguard musical heritage.”  It is “a one-stop place for research and documentation’’ of a significant number of Nigerian musicians, designed to “help to create a world-class archival institution to cater for the needs of researchers, anthropologists and sociologists the world over.”

    A gigantic multi-purpose centre for the activities of the Foundation is under construction in Lagos, fulfilling his 25-year dream. This stands as a monument to his vision and energy as a music collector, preserver and promoter. He was a significant cultural figure.

  • Damnable abdication

    Damnable abdication

    • Niger leaders’ pilgrimage amidst pressing issues in the state sucks

    Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago, Deputy Governor Yakubu Garba and House of Assembly Speaker Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji are reported to be presently out of station on a trip to Saudi Arabia for hajj rites. So are many commissioners in the state executive council and members of the state legislature.

    It is by all means within their rights to go on pilgrimage whenever they choose. The question is who holds forth in the absence of the top line officials on pilgrimage, and whether power was duly delegated in line with statutory provisions. Reports suggested that Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Abubakar Usman alongside Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor Abdullahi Gbatamagi are the ones oversighting the state under the circumstance.

    Section 190(1) of the 1999 Constitution prescribes that: “Whenever the Governor transmits to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a written declaration to the contrary, such functions shall be discharged by the Deputy Governor as Acting Governor.” Sub-section (2) of section 191 further provides inter alia: “Where any vacancy occurs in the circumstances mentioned in subsection(1) of this section during a period when the office of Deputy Governor of the state is also vacant, the Speaker of the House of Assembly of the state shall hold the office of Governor of the state…”

    In Niger State, all officials in line of custody of power are away. It could be argued that it’s of no issue because the governor remains in charge while on pilgrimage. But that begs the question of leadership responsibility in a state requiring hands-on; and not remote oversight given that it is beset by recurring security breaches occasioned by terrorist attacks. Few days before the governor and the top leadership travelled out, some 20 people were reported killed in attacks by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in Shiroro local council area. There were also attacks reported in Tegina, Rafi local council area and others like Munya and Mariga.

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    Besides, the state is in mourning. The trip came at a time the fate of scores of labourers trapped in a mining pit that collapsed in Galkogo community, Shiroro local council area, is still unknown. The labourers working at the site owned by African Minerals and Logistics Limited were on June 6 trapped inside the 400-metre-deep pit that caved in while they were underground, following a heavy rainfall the previous day. Three weeks on, the miners remain buried underground and relations have conducted funeral prayers in resignation to the apparent reality that they are dead, even though many still wish to have the bodies recovered for proper burial. Meanwhile, there has been another pit collapse at Adunu village, Kafin-Koro ward in Paikoro local council area, in which three artisanal miners were confirmed dead by the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

    Political actors in typical style have sought to milk partisan capital from the leadership abeyance in Niger State, but neither has the government helped matters with its arrogant indisposition to being accountable to the public. SSG Usman and Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Governor Bologi Ibrahim reportedly refused to respond when journalists called them up to seek official explanation on the situation; Ibrahim indeed told a frontline media outlet, “Go and write anything you want to write. No problem,” and hung up the call. Such response signposts gross impunity in government.

    Whether the Niger State government likes it or not, it owes an explanation on how the state is being administered in the absence of the top line officials who exercised their right to go on pilgrimage. But the people also have the right to know how they are being watched over by people to whom they entrusted power. The only thing that has been heard from the governor in Mecca is his criticism of the activities of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and its administration of the N90billion Federal Government subsidy for hajj operations. We wonder whether that should be of keener interest to him than the tardy rescue operation being conducted on the Niger mine collapse.

    Examples from other climes leave much to be desired about the way the Niger State rescue operation has gone. When 33 miners were trapped in a San José copper-gold mine in northern Chile in August 2010, the leadership elite kept vigil at the mouth of the collapsed tunnel and devised ways of getting victuals and air to the trapped miners for 69 days until the last of them was dug out in a rescue operation estimated to cost between $10million and $20million. But in Niger State, their excellencies embarked on pilgrimage. Different strokes!

  • Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at 70

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at 70

    •We salute her courage and congratulate her on joining the septuagenarian club

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), turned the proverbial three score and ten years on June 13, 2024. She made history by becoming the first woman and first African to serve in that very exalted  global institution. A renowned global finance professional, international development expert and economist, she is an alumnus of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

    She was born in Ogwashi Ukwu, Delta State, to late Prof. Chukwuka Okonjo, the former Obi of the Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu and his wife, Prof. Kamene Okonjo. She had her early education at Queens School, Enugu; St. Ann’s School, Molete, Ibadan, as well as the International School, Ibadan, Oyo state.

    Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had a 25-year career at the World Bank where she rose to the number two position of Managing Director, Operations. In 2003, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo head-hunted her to come take up the position of the Nigerian finance minister (2003-2006) and later appointed her foreign affairs minister. She made history as the first woman in Nigeria to occupy both positions. Her efforts, amongst other things, included her intervention as the chief negotiator of the team that appealed to the Paris Club for Nigeria’s debt cancellation at the time.

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    She tried to improve Nigeria’s macro-economic management system that included the implementation of the oil price-based fiscal rule that meant saving excess crude revenue in a special account geared towards the rainy days. She helped Nigeria obtain her first ever sovereign credit rating (a BB minus) from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor in 2006.

    She returned to the World Bank in 2007 as Managing Director.

    In 2011, she was reappointed finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy by the Goodluck Jonathan government, a position she held till 2015. The economy experienced growth and a level of economic transparency under her.

    She is on the board of numerous global institutions and corporate bodies in the fields of finance, development, health, climate change, technology and peace initiatives.

    Her nomination by the Buhari administration to vie for the Director- General of the WTO is testament to her dedication, not just to Nigeria but the global family. The European Union backed her candidacy, helping her clinch the highly coveted post. Today, as DG of WTO, her impact and influence reverberates globally.

    We join in celebrating the gift that she has been as a Nigerian whose patriotic zeal is admirable and an inspiration to younger Nigerians.

    Her life is testament to the value of educating every child and giving every child, irrespective of gender, the opportunity to flourish. Today, she is a shining example of what comes out when opportunity meets preparedness. Kudos to her parents that invested heavily in educating her at a time girl- child education was not very popular. Her sterling global achievements are a vindication of the trust they had in investing in her development.

    She has been a beacon to many families, putting a lie to the flawed assumption that career women do not often keep their family lives. She is happily married, has four very well educated and individually successful children; one of who is the Harvard-educated medical doctor and author of the very successful, ‘Beasts of No Nation’ novel that centred on the ills of child-soldiers in Africa.

    She proudly owns and protects her Nigerian heritage with not just her professional inputs but in advancing the culture through her now unique dressing that promotes the Nigerian Ankara clothes. She seems to be different from many diaspora Nigerians that see no value in coming back to contribute to the development of the country or even continent. She is very involved in most cultural and economic events in Nigeria and Africa.

    However, we regret that her coming home to serve had attracted a lot of attacks and betrayals from those who felt she was setting a barricade to their systemic corruption. In her book, ‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous’, she had documented her sour experiences serving in Nigeria as finance minister. Her mother was kidnapped as a bait for her to resign over her uncompromising stance on corruption but she stood her ground and served out her tenure. Some other individuals in her position would have buckled under the threat, thereby making the criminals triumphant. Her stoicism was classic.

    We join in celebrating her 70th birthday while wishing her the best in all her future endeavours.

  • Mission overdue

    Mission overdue

    •Proposed custodial system upgrade is welcome, but should reach further

    Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo lately affirmed plans by the Federal Government to upgrade Nigeria’s correctional centres and improve living standards of inmates. He said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was committed to creating a world-class correctional system that would be reformatory and transformational, and that the president had great plans for the long neglected system that had become hallmarked by dysfunction.

    Speaking after an assessment tour of the maximum security custodial centre at Janguza, Kano State, the minister expressed satisfaction with the work being done, saying his ministry would “upgrade the system in line with the agenda of Renewed Hope of Mr. President as well as relocation programmes of government towards redefining the correctional system in Nigeria.” He added: “The correctional centres would be a place where people learn, their lives will be transformed in national interest and the rate of recidivism will be zero, and the national security architecture can be better enhanced.”

    Earlier this month, the minister indicated plans by government to relocate some correctional facilities from urban centres to more suitable areas. Speaking on a television programme, he noted that urbanisation had eaten into setbacks that ought to be around correctional centres, thereby constituting safety hazards. He also said the current administration had beefed up security at the centres to avert jail attacks. “Under this administration, we’ve not had any jail attack; what we’ve had was a force majeure, which was at Suleja because that particular correctional centre was built in 1914. It’s about 110 years old. President Tinubu inherited 256 correctional centres that needed attention. There is no way he would have completely overhauled the system in one year,” he stated.

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    The minister’s observations about the correctional centres are apt, and the upgrade plans welcome. But it must be said that the challenge with Nigeria’s custodial system isn’t just about structural misalignments but more about facility misorientation. During the defence of the 2024 budget of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) before the National Assembly in December, last year, NCoS Controller-General Haliru Nababa made known that the service spends N750 daily to feed an inmate as against N800 on feeding a security dog. “We feed each inmate with N750 daily and they are fed three times daily ( at N250 per meal). We have 900 security dogs and to feed a dog each day, we spend N800,” he said in response to a question by the chair of Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole. Nababa clarified in the course of his budget defence that the effective daily feeding allowance for each inmate is indeed N720 after VAT and tax deductions.

    The NCoS boss further said the service was holding 81,354 inmates nationwide, out of which 53,352 inmates were Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs) – inmates who’ve not been confirmed to have committed any offence and, in the eye of the law, are deemed innocent until adjudged guilty by a court.

    Minister Tunji-Ojo had since November said government was working to decongest the custodial centres by facilitating the release of 4,066 inmates, on which he reported back last week that more than N1billion had been saved on inmates’ feeding. Still, recent statistics showed that the population of inmates swelled to 81,647 as at the end of May 2024 in the 256 custodial centres the NCoS operates across the country.

    Shocked by Nababa’s disclosure at the budget defence, Oshiomhole had wondered how inmates could be fed with such pittance. “One thing that has come out is that an unconvicted Nigerian is being fed with N750, and you feed each of the dogs under your care with N800 per day. So, a dog is better fed in the Nigerian prison than an innocent Nigerian in your custody,” he observed.

    Official data indicate that the combined carrying capacity of the country’s custodial centres is 50,153 persons, but it is in those spaces that nearly 82,000 inmates are currently cramped. No upgrade of the custodial system will be adequate if the challenge of over-population isn’t further addressed. It is over-population that accounts for the misery ration inmates are being subjected to, because the feeding budget is stretched thin, even when many of the ATPs have been held for longer periods than maximum sentences they would face if formally convicted of offences they are accused of. Meanwhile, Section 35(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) prescribes: “Any person who is arrested or detained in accordance with subsection (1)(c) of this section shall be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time, and if he is not tried within a period of (a) two months from the date of his arrest or detention in the case of a person who is in custody or is not entitled to bail; or (b) three months from the date of his arrest or detention in the case of a person who has been released on bail, he shall (without prejudice to any further proceedings that may be brought against him) be released either unconditionally or upon such conditions as are reasonably necessary to ensure that he appears for trial at a later date.”

    Prison decongestion is a task that will take close collaboration between ministries of Interior and Justice to tackle, but it is a task that must be done.

  • Rivers’ descent into violence

    Rivers’ descent into violence

    • Gladiators have to reconsider their hardline positions in the interest of the state

    The two main protagonists in the Rivers State political dispute must not allow their disputations to descend into anarchy, as the majority of the Rivers people are more concerned about their daily drudgery, instead of the ongoing political egoism.

    While former Governor Nyesom Wike may be receiving his karmic desert, as some argue, Governor Similayi Fubara seems tactless. He has not exhibited the emotional intelligence expected of a governor.

    The latest drama is over the tenure of local government chairmen and councillors. At the last count, two persons lost their lives in avoidable circumstances, linked to the forceful ejection of the chairman, whose tenure had expired. Since the dispute was sub- judice, the governor and his supporters should have allowed the courts determine the fate of the officials. Even when he may have a case against the attempt to extend the tenure of the chairmen and councillors, patience for a few days, for the courts to decide, would have done no incalculable harm.

    Rather, persons purporting to represent the governor’s interests were encouraged to enforce the end of tenure by themselves. But for the intervention of the police, the state would have descended into an orgy of violence and blood-letting. Sadly, a police officer and a vigilante official were sacrificed to appease the ego trip of the misguided political gladiators. We urge Governor Fubara to realise that his main responsibility is to protect the lives and properties of the people of River State, and not to sacrifice them. 

    While his opponents may be prodding him to make judgmental errors, he is not under a spell to take the bait and make mistakes at every turn. The gravest error that will haunt his political career was his tacit support of the destruction of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The price for that is a handsome N19.6 billion, now earmarked for its reconstruction. Without doubt, the governor could have achieved his desired political goals, without sending bulldozers to pull down the state assembly complex, after the building was torched by his alleged partisans.

    Read Also: Rivers caretaker committee chairmen warn against planned protest

    As if to confirm the alleged motive to govern without the legislature, Governor Fubara moved the venue for sitting of the state House of Assembly to the government house, and a three-man state assembly has been sitting there, as the duly constituted assembly, when section 91 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) clearly provides for a minimum of 24 members. No doubt, the so-called Victor Oko Jumbo-led faction of the House of Assembly clearly operates outside that provision.

    Even more unfortunate is the partisanship of the elders in Rivers State, who, instead of quenching the fire, are stoking it by their actions. The nonagenarian, Chief Edwin Clarks, a Minister of Information in the First Republic, who should call the disputants to order, took sides with Fubara, as his kinsman. Peter Odili, who was part of the team that brokered peace with President Bola Tinubu, abandoned the peace deal, and joined Fubara to threaten fire and brimstone, against the opposing camp.   

    In the ensuing melee, Rivers is slowly burning, while the political leaders fiddle over irrelevancies.

    We urge the gladiators to pull the brakes before it is too late. Having submitted their disputes to the courts, the parties should await the final decision of the courts. The governor, whose powers are derived from the laws of the land, cannot pick and choose when to obey the laws. Let the courts and not the streets determine the fate of everybody.

    We urge Governor Fubara and Minister Wike to rein in their supporters so that peace can reign in Rivers State.   

  • A good report

    A good report

    • Cheery news on money laundering, terrorism finance fight, but…

    The attestation, by the inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa – GIABA – that Nigeria recorded significant achievements in its war against money laundering and terrorism in 2023 can only mean that the fight against the twin scourges is on course.

    Said GIABA in its 2023 annual report, “Nigeria made progress in addressing the technical compliance identified in the agency’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in relation to various recommendations made to the country. It found – and remarkably too – that she has taken several measures to promote transparency and accountability in the administration and management of non-profit organisations (NPOs), and also in raising awareness in the financial sector about the vulnerabilities to Terrorist Financing (TF). Also noteworthy is the finding that Nigeria has developed and refined best practices in collaboration with the NPO sector to address the deficiencies and challenge information on NPOs suspected to be at risk in terrorism abuse.”

    It noted in particular that: “Nigeria demonstrated that it has mechanisms for international cooperation and procedures to respond to international requests for information on NPOs suspected of terrorist financing or involved in other forms of support for terrorists”.

    In the same vein, the report found that the country still has a lot of ground to cover in terms of the requirements for application of simplified due diligence measures, which it noted, were not consistent with the country’s assessment of money laundering and terrorism financing risks. In all, it found that the country did not demonstrate compliance with its internal procedures to designate target pursuit to United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR).

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    The body’s report could be deemed to be work in progress, more so that it referenced an earlier observation which it noted had been acted upon. We expect the various agencies involved to act swiftly in respect of the other observations on which GIABA has deemed them to be inadequate, particularly with the next enhanced follow-up report due in November.

    It has been a long journey from when the international non-profit, Basel Institute of Governance, ranked the country 17th worse performing country out of 128 countries – dubbing her as “not doing enough to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing”.

    What the GIABA report suggests is that Nigeria, particularly the agencies involved, have not been resting on their oars; in other words, a number of things was being done right by the Nigerian government.

    Thanks to the work of the agencies involved, a lot has certainly been done to push issues of money laundering and terrorism financing to the front burner, particularly with relevant legislations in place and number of ancillary institutions created to crack down on the scourge. GIABA’s work therefore is not just important in the context of getting the country to continually push for global best practices but also in terms of the enhancement of international framework for collaboration, given the global dimension of the scourge.

    Having stated that, the issue, to us, goes beyond the development of relevant procedures and protocols. It comes to the brass tack of whether local financial operators could be deemed to be in substantial compliance with those mandatory protocols, and whether the institutions are actually on top of their game.

    Today, Nigerians still read about billions of dollars being laundered annually. And these come through various ways and means, and these more often than not, are through the financial services system. They read of craven abuses of financial regulations perpetrated by operators as indeed countless instances of attempted cash haulage across the borders, all in brazen defiance of the law. And of course, the lingering onslaught by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups which could only have been sustained by the terrorists’ complex financial architecture; and the fact that the so-called terrorism financiers are never found, let alone being prosecuted. And then of course the kidnap menace and the mind-boggling ransoms involved without a decipherable strategy to cut it off from the roots. Such reports make citizens to doubt the efficacy of measures said to be in place.

    Deserving as the plaudit is, there is still, a long way to go in the area of financial intelligence and the deployment of sophisticated technology to prevent the crimes before they occur. That should be the next phase of the fight if Nigerians are to take their fight against money laundering and terrorism very seriously. 

  • Environment as elixir

    Environment as elixir

    With an improved environment, recurrent outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis should diminish

    The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics was sad — every avoidable death should be worrisome — but not dire in real terms: 65 confirmed cases with 30 deaths from January 1 to June 11.

    That almost a half (30) of the 65 confirmed cholera cases died was alarming, for it shows Nigeria’s public health system, in the third decade of the 21st century, is lax in both prevention and treatment. 

    By the way, those figures cannot tell the entire tale, as they just recorded the reported cases in official statistics. Who knows of others who just died quietly at home; or even survivors, now spent and frail, helplessly awaiting the next cholera breakout?

    But the truly dire and damning part of the stats is that the cases were — and still are — spread over 96 local governments in 30 states. That shows the entire states, bar six, share the environmental blight that spawns water-borne diseases as cholera.

    That’s the unassailable link to tuberculosis (TB), though it is air-borne. If you tweak the environment — better treatment and supply of water to make it potable and safe; better ventilated housing systems, urban and rural; solid daily municipal services in terms of clearing blocked drains; and effective refuse and waste disposal — then there are chances that we would score a thumping victory over cholera, diarrhea and dysentery, malaria and TB. 

    TB comes with own dire stats: 26, 278 patients battling for survival, according to the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP). On the public health policy front, the danger of TB is well recognised, so much so that its treatment is free countrywide in public hospitals, and in specially designated private ones.

    But even that policy is seriously challenged by a gap — a 70 per cent funding gap — basically made up of local counterpart funding which, by the funding arrangements, the local health agencies ought to add to global donor funding.

    Dr. Bassey Akpan, programme manager of the Akwa Ibom State Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, as reported by ‘The Nation’ of June 17, just sounded an alarm: the lag in local funding threatens Nigeria’s 2025 TB control target. If that fails, then even more people are at danger of contracting TB, particularly among the urban and rural poor, who live in crowded and badly ventilated homes. 

    That should be a grim public health report that should make everyone sober; an advisory that should make ministries of heath, at federal and state levels, to spring to life; and address the funding crisis with the urgency it deserves.

    Besides, this renewed cholera outbreak should even challenge anew the primary health centres, the core duties of the local governments, but bastion of the health philosophy that prevention is better than cure.

    More, on the funding gap, from Dr. Akpan: “The government set a 50 per cent target for domestic funding for TB by 2023, against baseline of eight per cent in 2019. Currently, we are below 20 per cent as at the end of 2023, showing that we are far from target, with only one year left.”

    The basis for the funding lag include, according to Dr. Akpan, treating TB as low priority in budgetary appropriations, non-inclusion of the TB Programme in both the Basic Health Care Provisions Fund (BHCPF) and the National Health Insurance (NHIS), and general over-dependence on foreign donors.

    While the free treatment policy for TB might explain not including TB in NHIS — which, by the way must be more vigorously driven to mainstream it and

    mutants under it, as the “Ilera Eko” scheme in Lagos State, to push health insurance as vibrant and sustainable funding for public health — general over-dependence on foreign donors (if that allegation is true) deserves a ringing condemnation. 

    That would amount to a clear abandonment of duty. Since public health — with mass education and shelter — remains the very basis of a caring government, the federal and state governments must make immediate adjustments to their spending profiles to give TB prevention and treatment adequate recognition. Most impacted by TB are the very poor. They need the caring touch of the government more than any part of the Nigerian demographics.

    Still, all the issues about a funding lag only make the case for prevention — always better than cure. The latest outbreak of cholera in Lagos alone had recorded 401 cases, as at June 20. In Ogun, it is one death from 14 cases, according to Dr. Tomi Coker, the Ogun State Commissioner for Health.

    Even without going through details of the other 28 states, it’s logical to infer that those states won’t be far different from Lagos and Ogun. Many of them can even be far worse, for Lagos and Ogun are in the South West, which boasts far better human development indices (HDI) than the other five geo-political zones.

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    But tweak the situation: how might it have been, were these states to have evolved less hazardous environments, which had progressively become less triggers for TB, cholera and allied ailments, that healthier environments could prevent?

    Clean drains with swift waters, with absolutely no clogs or dregs? Municipal services that boast almost a daily spraying of drains and gutters to get rid of vectors? Sanitary inspectors — the “wole-wole” of yore — that made town and city dwellers take responsibility for their own health by keeping a sanitised environment, failing which they faced stiff repercussions from the state? 

    Running water, well-treated and potable, which not only ran in homes but was also available at public fountains, which served as communal fetching spots, in poorer neighbourhoods? Then, of course, decent and well-ventilated housing units — and the more the poor have access to these units, the better?

    The more our governments spend on these environmental uplift, the less would be the common bill on health. It’s classic thinking that prevention is better than cure.

    Besides, there must be rigorous production standards, in cottage industries that produce ‘zobo’, ‘kunu:, lollipop and sundry popular drinks and beverages, hugely popular among children, youths and many adults. Some of these products, under sloppy conditions, are known to have triggered the perennial cholera outbreaks.

    So, while the government should ramp up public spending on counterpart funding, to match local and international donors in the face-off against TB, a greatly improved environment would ward off constant outbreaks of cholera, aside from diarrhea and dysentery, malaria, small pox, chicken pox and allied water- and air-borne diseases.

    Here then is a renewed call for better and more solid public investment in social infrastructure. While that could appear costly in the very short run, it’s paying tomorrow’s health bills today.  

  • Femi Esho (1946 – 2024) 

    Femi Esho (1946 – 2024) 

    • Nigeria will miss this custodian and producer of yesteryears music

    An anecdote about Femi Esho demonstrated the value of his efforts to preserve and promote yesteryear music. According to the story, when he visited Ghana in 2008 to seek permission rights to release the works of some old Ghanaian Highlife stars, the late Jerry Hansen of the Ramblers Dance Band, who was then 86, “could not hold back his tears as he exclaimed that it was a great shame that Esho came all the way from Nigeria to present to him all his lost works.” The drama underlined his significance as a music collector. He died on June 17, aged 77.   

    As Chairman/CEO of Lagos-based Evergreen Musical Company Ltd, described as “Africa’s greatest custodian and producer of music of yesteryears,” he was a music collector extraordinaire based on his extraordinary music collection. “I started collecting music at the age of 12,” he said at an event organised by his company in Lagos, in 2017, which celebrated “10 Music Legends of Lagos Evolution.” It was a celebration of indigenous music genres, including Apala, Sakara, Juju, Highlife, Fuji, Waka, Folk, Agidigbo, Afrobeat and Were.

    Born in Ilesa, in present-day Osun State, he was described as “the undisputed largest collector of music of yesteryears with over 150,000 vinyl plates made up of 78rpm breakable plates, 45rpm and 33rpm, hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes, thousands of cassette tapes of various music along with archival materials such as Hi Breaking the cycle of national trauma

    By Temitope Omoakhalen

    Abiodun was raised by an alcoholic father while his mother was the subservient punching bag who could not stand up to her husband. Abiodun grew up watching his father batter his mother under the influence of alcohol, and he could not do a single thing about it, especially since his mother always defended her abusive husband. Imagine seeing your father develop a dependency on alcohol without which he could not function. How do you think you would feel every time you set your eyes on him? It was a traumatic childhood for the young boy. Perhaps he could have found solace in the company of friends, but his father never allowed him to visit friends out of fear that he might reveal what happened at home. Abiodun felt his life was like a prison. He was not allowed to spend an extra minute in school once the closing bell rang because being late immediately translated to being beaten blue-black. He was really bitter towards his father.

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    When Abiodun eventually had his own family, he prevented his only son, Dare, from ever visiting his grandfather. Alcohol was also banned in the Abiodun household. But Dare was a youngster surrounded by friends who drank and rolled with the ideology that drinking was a sign of maturity, so he began to secretly drink. By this time, though, Abiodun’s father had outgrown his terrible ways. He had seen how his lifestyle negatively impacted his family and hated that his only son, Abiodun, was not on speaking terms with him. He checked himself into a rehabilitation centre and had been clean for over a decade, but Abiodun had sworn never to have anything to do with his father.

    Dare, on the other hand, was always curious as to why his grandfather was a no-go area. He had sneaked out many times to see his grandfather and, by his own analysis, found him pretty chill. He would pay his grandfather secret visits to complain about his father’s domineering attitude. Abiodun was too blinded by his rage towards his own father to realize that he was suffocating his son. In trying to protect Dare, he made the home a psychologically toxic place for his son. Dare eventually snapped and ran away from home as soon as he could. He took to alcohol as a coping mechanism and before long became alcohol dependent.

    By the time Dare began his own family, he tried to keep his children away from his “bitter” father, Abiodun, but a cycle had been established. Unless someone deliberately tries to stop this pattern, there will be a perpetual disconnect between generations, a trend we already see playing out in our dear nation, Nigeria. Perhaps, this is the root cause of our disunity as a nation. The psychological impact of bitterness and resentment can be profound. Abiodun’s

  • Killer-daughter  

    Killer-daughter  

    • It is incredible that a 45-year-old daughter would kill her 86-year-old mum just because some people told her to do so.

    But for the fact that the story was reported with real names and addresses, the report could easily pass for one of those improbable fictions. Or, how could a 45-year-old woman kill her 86-year-old mother simply because a prophet and someone else told her that the mother was the source of her predicaments in life, and she could only get out of the situation if she killed her?

    So, armed with the ‘prophecies’, the lady, simply identified as Abiodun, headed for her mother’s home on June 14 to kill her.

     “I went to my mother’s house at 4.00am and sat outside. When it was 5.00 am, I called her out from the house. Immediately she came out, not knowing what was happening, I poured petrol on her body and set her on fire.

    According to the suspect, “I went to one pastor for prayer, and he told me that my mother was behind what is happening to me. I did not believe it at first. My mother also took me somewhere to see one woman. After my mother left, the woman also said the same thing.

    “I burnt my mother because of what I heard from the pastor and the woman – that I can only be free from bondage when my mother is dead,” she explained.

    The incident occurred at Surulere, opposite the Anglican Cathedral Church, Ondo, in the Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State.

    The incident is not only gory, it is saddening as well. If the aged woman, simply identified as Iya Biodun, had the premonition that her daughter came with evil intention, she probably would not have opened the door for her. The worst she could have imagined was that what brought her daughter to her place so early in the morning must have been serious enough, especially if she had not been visiting her at such hours before.

    At any rate, how could she ever have imagined that her own daughter that she had even been involved in trying to seek spiritual solution to her problem could have come with the evil desire to brutally terminate her life? We can imagine how she would have felt when, after opening the door all she was confronted with was her daughter dousing her with petrol before setting her ablaze. We can only continue to imagine what would have been going on in the victim’s mind until she eventually died at the Trauma Centre of the School of Medical Sciences in Ondo, where she was rushed to for treatment.

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    Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said that the suspect would soon have her day in court.

    We could have said the earlier, the better. But then, we would want to suggest that the suspect be examined to see if she is mentally stable. If it is confirmed that she is, then she should be promptly prosecuted. Incidents like this should not be treated with levity. At the heart of it all is pervasive illiteracy and ignorance in our society. But ignorance is no excuse in law. It would be interesting to hear from those she claimed made her kill her mother.

    Even then, did the suspect not know the implications of her action? Or, did she think she would have escaped from the scene after the dastardly act?

    Anyway, now that she has been arrested, she has to answer the charges all alone. How that would now lead to her escape from the so-called predicaments is yet to be seen. Unless those who allegedly made her commit the crime were speaking metaphorically. Or, what other predicament would someone convicted for murder or manslaughter think of beyond that of imprisonment?

    The suspect deserves to be served her due comeuppance if she is mentally balanced, to serve as deterrent to others who might be similarly inclined. We seemed to have lost our moral compass in the country; hence, we continue to debase humanity by the day. We must arrest the trend.

  • Justice for justices

    Justice for justices

    •The quantum leap in their earnings should impact positively on their judgments

    The Senate, on Wednesday last week passed a bill seeking an upward review of salaries, allowances and other fringe benefits for judicial officers in the country. This followed the adoption of the report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters presented by the chairman of the committee,  Senator Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno North).

    The bill is significant because it not only addressed the basic salaries of the judges, it also took into cognisance certain peculiarities of the administrative structure and operational mechanism of the judiciary.

    If the bill, earlier passed by the House of Representatives, is assented to by the President, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) will get an annual gross salary of N64m. The President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) will be entitled to N62.4m, while Justices of the Supreme Court will earn the sum of N61.4m each.

    All heads of the various courts, such as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, President of the National Industrial Court, among others, would earn the same basic salary of N7.9 million annually.

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    This is a quantum leap, considering the miserable extant pay structure for these people who sit in judgment. For instance, according to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission’s (RMAFC) document on Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders, the CJN is presently entitled to annual gross salary of N6.7m, excluding provisions for domestic staff, entertainment allowance, utilities, security, etc. that are provided by the government. The CJN presently takes home about N560,662.16 monthly. Other Supreme Court justices and President of the Court of Appeal similarly take home about the same amount monthly, but provisions for other allowances that the government takes direct care of for the CJN, excluding them, push up their present gross annual pay to about N10.89m. It is this ridiculous for other judges down the line.

    It is gratifying, as the Borno State lawmaker told his colleagues, that stakeholders at the public hearing of the bill unanimously supported its passage. This is because they saw through the lie that the extant wage structure for judicial officers, as with the generality of Nigerians, represents. The present pay structure in the country across board, cannot take many of the workers home, even before the present economic challenges that have made nonsense of workers’ salaries.

    This is why we agree with Senator Monguno that “The proposed legislation is apt and timely as the increase in remuneration of judicial office holders is long overdue in the light of the present economic realities and high inflation in the country.

    If we expect justice from the courts, then those in their hallowed chambers must be well remunerated. This, to some extent, should insulate them against temptations, particularly from politicians who are ready to pay any price to cling political trophies, or even criminals seeking to pervert the course of justice.

    As Monguno rightly observed, “Fair compensation for judicial officers is crucial for maintaining public trust in the judiciary’s impartiality and integrity. When judges are adequately compensated, it demonstrates a commitment by society towards the important role they play in upholding justice.”

    Judges need to drive good cars, they should be able to send their children to good schools, dress moderately well. It is also good that they get compensated for their freedoms that are curtailed due to the peculiar nature of their job.

    The proposed pay structure may not address all of these needs; but it is a major improvement on what they currently earn.

    We implore President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to assent to the bill as soon as possible.