The Nation Newspaper

Category: Online Special

  • Maternal and Child Health Care: Is Lagos Winning the Battle?

     

     It was the first pregnancy of 25-year-old Nafisat (not real name). Like any expectant mother, she was excited and hopeful. In fact, she was always willing to help new mums in the prenatal clinic she visited, seeing her own future child in those little babies. On her due date, she had gone into labour. She didn’t labour for long – after about three pushes, her baby was born. Unfortunately, the child only lived for a few minutes. The reason for its death was not known and no information was given.

    The joy of pregnancy and childbirth is the hope and desire of many families. Sadly, in many parts of Nigeria, this is not quite the case. In such places, keeping babies – and, sometimes, their mothers – alive in the first five years is a perennial battle. Newborn, under-5 and even under-10 mortalities are still a nightmare for parents and health workers.

    A Dire Situation

    In the past few years alone, money and expertise have been invested in altering Nigeria’s position as the second largest contributor to maternal mortality worldwide through initiatives such as the World Bank-supported Saving One Million Lives Initiative and the UK government-funded Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Programme (MNCH2). The reason for these interventions is clear: more than 80 percent of newborn deaths are the result of premature birth, complications during labour and delivery, and infections such as sepsis, meningitis and pneumonia. Even more devastating is the knowledge that, according to recent research, essential interventions reaching women and babies on time would have prevented most of these deaths.

    As at 2003, over 50 per cent of the births in Nigeria still occurred at home; the women would rather go to traditional birth attendants most of whom are unqualified. In addition, only slightly more than one-third of births are attended by doctors, nurses, or midwives while children keep dying from a variety of ailments from haemorrhage to malaria. The lack of personal hygiene, malnutrition and inadequate preparedness of mothers also contribute to their vulnerability and the eventual surrender of their babies to the cold hands of death.

    Underneath the statistics of child mortality lies the pain of human tragedy for thousands of families that have lost their loved ones. Is there an end in sight?

    A Glimmer of Hope?

    Today, on a daily basis, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age. Although analyses of recent trends show that Nigeria has made some progress in cutting down infant and under-five mortality rates, the pace remains too slow to achieve the target of ending preventable deaths of newborns and children before 2030. Yet, while the nation, as a whole, scrambles to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), there appears to be a glimmer of hope in some parts.

    Among other States in the country, Lagos appears to be the one that has recorded some successes in ensuring that maternal mortality is at one of the lowest in recent times. Indeed, there have been suggestions that previously high under-5 mortality rates have been put under control. Perhaps, this is not unrelated to the recent purchase of important equipment such as delivery kits, apparatus for neonatal services and a variety of drugs for obstetric and post-natal care.

    Recently, the Lagos government outlined some of its achievements in the health sector including the acquisition of an electronic health records system to reduce patients’ waiting time “to the barest minimum”. The last few years also saw the development of health infrastructure and the procurement of various facilities from power generators to x-ray machines at some of its General Hospitals.

    While new equipment and facilities may support claims about the positive situation of health in Lagos, actual confirmation of progress can only emerge from available data on its health sector.

     

    An Uneven and Unhealthy Trend

     

     

     

    Comprehensive information on public services in Lagos is a very scarce commodity. However, errors made using inadequate data are often much less than those using no data at all because they can help unearth critical, hitherto unknown, facts.

    For example, data on child health received from the Lagos State government in 2018 reveals some curious patterns: isolated spikes in the mortality of children aged 1-10 in 2011 and 2015 after declining in the two years before. It raises key questions about why so many children die in that period. While the reason may not immediately clear, it is relevant to the analyses that both were years in which general elections took place across the country, including Lagos State. Although there are no studies establishing a correlation between election years and aggravated rates of infant mortality, the data draws attention to the possibility of a connection.

    If a theory could be put forward about the surge in 2015, it would point to the prolonged period it took the Akinwunmi Ambode administration to appoint its commissioners, as well as those of the State’s ministry of health under whose leadership the primary health sector was to operate. As is well-known, election periods in Nigeria are characterised by a frenzied and heated polity. Apparently, this takes attention away from the implementation of public projects and puts far more focus on electoral campaigns than public governance. Ambode may have been distracted by the euphoria that trailed his election victory. A case in point: just before the 2015 elections, there was no Commissioner for Health in Lagos until towards the end of 2015 when Dr Jide Idris was reappointed.

    In addition to the election year of 2015, the seeds of the nationwide economic recession in 2016, which were sown between 2014 and 2015 with the crash in oil prices, may have also had early consequences of increased infant mortality in Lagos. However, this cannot account for the high rate experienced in 2011. In any case, the real problem is likely to lie deeper. Whether in an election year or recession, the health structures in a place like Lagos should function properly and depend less on external forces. To be described as a top-class destination for health in the country, Lagos should boast of a well-oiled system that can withstand the strains of wider political or economic situations. But does Lagos actually have such a system?

     

     

    The Structure of Healthcare Services in Lagos

    Since access to private healthcare is expensive, facilities provided by the government are the most visited in Lagos. It is perhaps for this reason that the healthcare system in Lagos is one of the most sophisticated in the country. Yet, with its teeming population, what is available may actually be grossly inadequate for the more than 21 million people who reside there.

    The public health care system in Lagos comprises one tertiary health facility, about 26 General Hospitals, seven Maternal and Child Care Centres (MCCs), and 250 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) spread across the state’s twenty local government areas.

    PHCs, like in other parts of the country, are sited in such a way as to ensure that residents can access basic healthcare services within their immediate localities without the need to travel long distances. The expectation is that only cases that cannot be handled at the primary level would be referred to the secondary and tertiary facilities. Routine services like checking blood pressure, immunization and the treatment of boils, sprains and other minor injuries are first to be checked at a PHC. Likewise, the Maternal and Child Care Centres were not designed to be the first port of call for attending to pregnant women except in situations of high-risk pregnancies. They are emergency referral centres for cases of complications that arise during labour.

    In 2012, the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola launched the Lagos State Maternal Child Mortality Reduction (MCMR) program involving the upgrade of some PHCs with more equipment to make them flagship centres. Accordingly, 2013 and 2014 recorded the lowest mortality figures. But even then, the rates were still high enough to warrant concern about the healthcare delivery architecture in the state.

     

    A Sad Report

    In spite of the government’s efforts, the MCMR program did not do enough to tackle the dilapidation of PHC facilities that had begun during the run-up to the 2011 elections. The results of an independent assessment by the Lagos State Civil Society Partnership (LASCOP) and Innovation Matters on the state of the Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Lagos State in 2013 did not bode well for mothers and their children.

    That assessment found that seven PHCs were found to be lacking in basic emergency delivery and care equipment. Of the 29 PHCs inspected, seven did not have laboratory equipment with functional malaria and HIV test kits. Eleven out of 30 PHCs did not have ambulance services, while fifteen of them lacked power supply in the labour rooms. Only six PHCs had potable water supply, with twenty-four relying on wells and boreholes. The report also noted that ‘the water at Apapa PHC for example, was not clean for drinking because of the colour and there was no water purifying instrument’. At other centres surveyed, bad drainage systems caused flooding in raining seasons, creating difficulties in movement in addition to making them unsanitary for healthcare delivery.

    Furthermore, no PHC had a disability health specialist and none had inclusive facilities like ramps for wheelchair users. Only four out of 29 PHCs claimed they had Special Care Givers and counsellors but these staff were not specialized in disability affairs. It is a situation that has discouraged persons with disabilities from visiting PHCs in Lagos. Only four out of 24 PHCs claimed to have language interpreters, another crucial point for the lack of inclusiveness at these facilities. A woman had complained: ‘We don’t go to hospital! What for? If we go, we will see the nurse, [and] how do we tell the nurse what is paining us? Even when the nurses are talking they cannot let us know what they are saying unless I have an interpreter with me … (my daughter) … I cannot always have her with me. By the time I don’t talk, the nurses are impatient and will tell me to get out. Many of us don’t go because it is of no use.’ It is no surprise then that half of the women who made their monthly visits to PHCs for antenatal care reported being unhappy with staff attitudes.

    Admittedly, the survey was conducted five years ago. But the outcome of those decrepit conditions is still being felt today: fewer and fewer women are patronising PHCs; pregnant women are shunning health care centres for Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) or going directly to tertiary facilities like the MCCs for routine preliminary services. Unfortunately, most TBAs are not expertly trained to handle childbirth and some of its complications while the MCCs have quickly overrun their capacity.

    During this story, one of the writers paid regular visits to the Maternal and Child Care Centre at Amuwo-Odofin and saw things for herself. On each of those days, the spectacle was the same: delicate pregnant women, babies crying, people standing, the electrical power going on and off, making the environment not only stuffy but uncomfortably noisy with the sound of the generator. The hospital was usually under-staffed, yet many women would rather use its services than walk into less busy PHCs. “It is easier to have access to a Consultant Gynaecologist or Obstetrician”, one woman mentioned. Many women also had a lot to say about the (lack of) quality of customer service by the medical staff. The waiting time is often long because of the crowd. On some days, there are a hundred people or more. The writer had to wait for five hours to see a doctor. But this was nothing compared with the agony of the woman who had given birth through a caesarean section just a few days before and complained of pain and swelling on the surgery spot. Although she had arrived at the Centre by 8am after dropping off her other children at school, she was still left unattended to by 5pm. It took the intervention of other women appealing to the matron for her to be allowed to see the doctor. At that point, the nursing mother was already walking away frustrated and in tears. Health centres like this one are overwhelmed principally because they continue to attract people who should be visiting PHCs closest to them. The PHCs were built to attend to many of the cases for which people stream to secondary and tertiary centres but, ultimately, they are still deemed not to be in satisfactory condition to cater for even the basic services required by expecting mothers or their newborn children.

     

     

    Problems Have Their Solutions

    Despite the apparent facelift given to PHCs in 2012 (through the MCMR program) as well as recent claims of progress by the present administration, the Lagos health care system still has some way to go to significantly attenuate the plight of mothers and their children in Lagos.

    Possible reasons for the sorry situation of PHCs can be condensed into two:

    The first lies in the trend earlier identified, namely, the neglect of public health facilities in election season. From available data, one can tell that Lagos State is approaching that time when many lives could be lost. On the cusp of another election year, it is imperative that the trend noticed in 2011 and 2015 be curtailed in order to forestall a recurrence. With the anxieties of electoral campaigns and political manoeuvrings heating up, the lives of mothers and children are at stake and another upward spike in the mortality rates is definitely undesirable.

    The second reason for the poor state of PHCs today is based on the assumption that the Lagos State government is actually doing enough, within the limits of available resources, to upgrade the facilities available in the various health centres including the PHCs. In this case, the problem would point to the lack of sufficient and effective communication to the public about new developments in the Lagos health sector.

    The solution to this problem does not lie in the occasional publications released by the government on its web channel or through carefully-worded press releases sent to newspapers. (Unfortunately, the information released through those outlets often lack substance because they are filled with questionable claims that cannot be publicly verified.) Rather, the problem can and should be overcome by the proactive and systematic publication of data related to the provision of health in the State: infrastructure, healthcare and policy.

     

    Better Data Will Lead to Better Health Services

    By 2050, it is projected that there will be three times as many people in Lagos as there are today, a possibility that should lead to concerted, sustainable and data-driven measures to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for the future population.

    The lack of awareness, the lack of data from the State government impacts on other public services. The availability of public health data can make life-altering changes in patient education, treatment and more. Data also serves the government in policy and budgetary planning to improve services and for better planning. The Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme, for example, needs quality data to work effectively.

    The benefits of data cannot be overstated. When they are publicly disclosed, government processes can be constructively scrutinised and ameliorated. With data, citizens can collaborate with the government in tackling the challenges they face. Although examples of data-driven enhancements to the health sector exist in Nigeria and other countries, Lagos can take the lead in creating a culture of data disclosure or risk losing its position as an exemplar of international cooperation and public development for its benefactors.

    Families need these interventions. Nigeria needs this kind of leadership and initiative. And Lagos can show how to truly win the battle against maternal and child mortality if its government pays more attention to data and proactively shares it with the public. If it did, perhaps Nafisat would have also experienced the joy of those mothers to whom she had offered her selfless help.

     

    This story is an output of the open contracting workshop for journalists

     

    This article was written as part of the Open Contracting Programme for Journalists workshop organised by the Open Data Research Centre of the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Drowning: The Need for Nigeria to Look for a More Effective Way to Combat a Leading Killer

    April 2018 is a day that the Musa family will never forget, the mother of Abdulaziz, Halima Musa is still shocked as to how her eight-month-old baby would have managed to get drowned in a drum of water just few minutes after she left him to ease herself in the bathroom which is outside their room, even the operatives of the Edo state Command are still investigating how an eight-month-old baby boy would have drowned in the house.

    The incident which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at number 53, Obakhavbaye Street in Benin City, the Edo State capital still had neighbours puzzled as to how such incident could have occurred.
    Some months back, a famous Nigerian Celebrity lost his son to drowning, the son who was left unattended to fell into the swimming pool and before he was discovered, he was already dead.

    Also in April 2018, a final year computer science student of the Isfop-Benin University, Cotonou, Aliyu Abubakar was reported to have drowned in a beach in Cotonou just few weeks to his graduation while another report revealed a public administration student of the Federal Polytrechnic, Ekowe, Bayelsa state identified as Adekunle drowned in a river close to the school when he went to fetch water due to lack of water in the campus.

    In August 2018, seven members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) drowned in a river southeast of Taraba State when they went on a swimming expedition in River Mayo-Selbe, a major tributary of the Benue River.

    In 2007, a famous Nigeria television survival show was suspended after a contestant drowned in preparation for the programme; Anthony Ogadje who was 25 and nine other contestants had gone to Shere Hills Lake in Nigeria’s hilly Plateau State to prepare for the show when he drowned in a river he was supposed to cross, all attempts to revive him by the attendant medical team and the life-guards, including his fellow contestants, failed.

    While in Niger state, thousands drown yearly from flood which occurs between April to October yearly; this and many more deaths result from drowning, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 372,000 people die yearly from drowning out of which over half of all the drowning deaths occur among young people under 25 years and have become one of the 10 leading causes of death for people under this age group.

    Drowning has been said to be the third leading cause of unintentional injury death and the drowning death rates in the African region is 20 times higher than those of other continents.

    WHO reports that 135,585 children under 15 years lose their lives each year globally from drowning and drowning has been rated the leading cause of death and disability adjusted years among children under 15.

    Drowning accounts for 75 per cent of deaths in flood disasters which is becoming more frequent especially in low and middle income countries where people live in flood prone areas and the ability to warn, evacuate or protect the communities from flood is weak.

    However, WHO has posited that drowning is preventable only if the government of all nations can develop a national water safety plan which would provide strategic direction and a framework to guide multisectoral efforts to prevent drowning.

    The Coordinator, Department of Management, Non Communicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization, Dr. David Meddings during the Merit Maker Field Trip which was part of the activities of the 13th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Thailand said that governments world over need to take a clue from the Thailand government in bringing down the high rate of drowning among its populace.

    He said that there are various strategies of preventing child drowning pointing out that one of the most effective strategies is installing barriers controlling access to water which include covering wells, using doorway barriers and play pens, fencing swimming pools and having a community based supervised day care centers for preschool children.

    For children older than four years and above, there is the need to teach them basic swimming, water safety and safe rescue skills which can go a long way to preventing drowning, “with these skills, the children and youths can survive for hours in water and this would go a long way in reducing drowning”, Meddings said.

    He further stated that effective policies and legislation are also important for drowning prevention pointing out that setting and enforcing safe boating, shipping ad ferrying regulations, building resilience to flooding and managing flood risks through better disaster preparedness planning and early warning systems can go a long way in preventing drowning.

    Meddings urged governments across the world to emulate the Thailand government’s strategy which had succeeded in reducing drowning incidents rate by 50 per cent through its national drowning prevention strategy called ‘Merit Maker’ which was taken from the implementation guide of preventing drowning by WHO which covers six measures and four strategies on drowning prevention for government to review and implement.

    Giving an explanation about the Merit Maker program, the Vice Governor of Surat Thani Province in Thailand, Mrs. Jamjit Poolsawadee said Thailand had a record 9,547 children dying from drowning in the last ten years adding that the high rate of death recorded by drowning led the government of Thailand to develop a the Merit Maker drowning prevention strategy program.

    She disclosed that the Merit Maker drowning prevention covers all ten elements that are important measures for preventing drowning which include policy, management, situation and date, risky water body management, child development center operations, knowledge dissemination, survival swimming training, CPR training, public communications and research/evaluation adding that children as little as three to four years are being tuaght basic drowning prevention skills.

    The Vice Governor also said with the introduction of the drowning prevention program, drowning incidents rate had decreased to more than 50 per cent as 708 incidents were recorded in 2017 as against the 957 deaths experienced yearly in the past.

    A recent survey carried out indicated that several children tend to drown because they lack the knowledge of water safety and correct rescue procedures which the Merit Maker program seek to address. Drowning prevention measures should cover risk factors related to both personal and environmental aspects as only one measure or action cannot properly deal with the problem.

    If Nigeria can take a cue from these program, it will go a long way in reducing tgebrate of drowning across the Nation.

    Dr. Olakunle Alonge, an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health in John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is of the opinion that Nigeria will not pay serious focus on drowning when the Nation still deals with maternal mortality, communicable diseases, infant mortality and other deaths lamenting that there is no data regarding the rate of drowning in the country.

    “There are so many issues in Nigeria and drowning does not come on the top. Nigeria is still dealing with maternal mortality, communicable diseases, infant mortality and so on. There is a huge burden of drowning in Nigeria and I think the first step is to get data that speaks to the burden, to first characterize the size of the problem.

    “The next step is to discover what are the underlined factors for this burden before we begin to talk about solutions.”

    Alonge urged leaders in Nigeria to take examples from practices nations have implemented that have reduced the rate of drowning, “There are solutions that are already in play in some countries like Thailand and Bangadash but there is need to do a thorough job of understanding the probkem and risks of the burden that is associated with this factor. We run the risk of going for the wrong solutions to solve the problem if this understanding is not made.”

    Advancing some solutions, he said the less cost intensive solution to drowning in the country will be to set up daycare centers, initiate survival swimming for children six years and above and incorporating swimming into school curriculum.

    “Nigeria can take cue from nations where people are beginning to embed swimming within the school curriculum. It can be put in as physical education that is being done in Nigeria. There are so many schools doing physical education in Nigeria and I encourage the government to put in survival swimming, it will go a long way to reduce drowning casualties across the country. ”

    Currently, schools, especially public schools in the country have not incorporated swimming into its curriculum due to the absence of swimming pools, only few private schools have swimming pools which had made it possible for the students to learn how to swim but the ratio is to minute.

    A study of the Physical and Health Education (PHE) curriculum in Nigeria for primary schools shows various subjects like fundamental movements, basic movements, athletics, games and sports, health education, pathogens, diseases and prevention, drug eradication and responsible parenthood while in the Junior Secondary School (JSS) has sub-topics like basic human movement, sports and games, health education, moving our body parts, athletics and contact and non-contact games.

    Although there are subjects where swimming can easily be incorporated, it is still not being taught in public schools. The purpose of the swimming lesson is to equip the children with skills of surviving in water and teach the younger ones the dangers of water, either still or moving.

    “This story was made possible with support from the ICFJ-WHO Safety 2018 Reporting Fellowship Program and Bloomberg Philanthropies”

  • World Cancer Day: 10 prevention tips

    The recent alarm on rising global incidence of cancer by the World Health Organisation (WHO) should worry African countries, especially Nigeria, where the disease is most prevalent.

    According to WHO, about 10,000 cancer deaths are recorded annually while 250,000 new cases are recorded yearly in Nigeria owing to the shortage of functional cancer control plans.

    There are different kinds of cancers that affect different parts of the body and they have varying root causes. While not all cancers can be prevented, living a healthy lifestyle may help to avoid it.

    You make choices every day that affect your health, follow our Ten Preventive Methods of Cancer to reduce your risk.

    1. Stop using tobacco products 

    Smoking or chewing tobacco are leading causes of several different types of cancer including lung, colorectal, breast, throat, cervical, bladder, mouth and esophageal.

    It’s never too late to quit if you have started smoking. If you don’t smoke, stay away from second-hand smoke.

    2. Avoid potentially carcinogenic personal hygiene products

    Many cosmetic products contain ingredients that could weaken your immune system, thus, increasing the risk of cancer. Some of these products includes – Talcum powder, antiperspirants and deodorants.

    3. Conduct self-exams monthly

     Check for skin cancer by examining the skin over your entire body. Look for changes in appearance, especially around moles. For a breast examination, use your fingers to feel your breast to look for lumps and for a testicular examination, look for changes in your testicles.

    It is advisable to check for signs in the breast after a week of your menstrual period.

    4. Maintain a healthy weight

    Obesity is a common risk factor for cancer. Consult your doctor or use a Body Mass Index (BMI) chart to determine an appropriate weight for your height, age, and body type.

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    • You can maintain your weight by eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising daily.

    • If you’re struggling to lose weight, you might work with a licensed dietitian to create a diet plan that will work for you.

    Additionally, you can hire a trainer to help you build a fitness plan that you enjoy.

    5. Avoid exposure to known carcinogens in your environment
    You can check lists of carcinogens maintained by The National Toxicology Program, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the Environmental Protection Agency. You can also check the American Cancer Society’s website.

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    Drinking unsafe water or breathing polluted air can also put you at greater risk of developing cancer and other health problems. Check air and water conditions in your area and take health precautions (such as drinking bottled water or wearing a mask) if necessary.

    6. Ask your doctor about the hepatitis B and HPV vaccines
    Hepatitis B can contribute to liver cancer, and HPV may cause cervical or other genital cancers. Fortunately, you can get vaccinated against these illnesses.

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    • The hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for people who are at high risk for hepatitis B. This includes people who are sexually active with multiple partners, people who have STDs, men who have sex with men, health workers who may contract the illness, and intravenous drug users.

    • The HPV vaccine is recommended for girls and boys between the ages of 11 and 12, but it can be administered until age 26.

    Read Also: World Cancer Day: Popular Nigerians who died of the disease

    7. Minimize your cell phone use
    It is possible that radio frequency fields from cell phones can increase your risk of brain cancer and other types of cancer.
    You can minimize this potential risk by keeping your calls short to no more than 30 minutes per day and using your phone only when you really need it.

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    You could also –

    • Try to limit direct ear-to-phone contact to no more than 30 minutes per day. You can also limit contact between your phone and other parts of your body by keeping it in a bag instead of in your pocket.

    • If you need to make a long phone call, minimize direct contact with your phone by turning on the speaker or using a headset.

    8. Avoid sharing needles
    STDs also spread through sharing needles, as the illness is present in bodily fluids. For example, you can get HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C by sharing needles. Don’t ever reuse needles or use someone else’s needle.

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    9. Protect your skin from sun exposure
    Spending a small amount of time in the sun, such as 15 minutes a day, can be healthy for you because it helps your body make vitamin D. However, too much sun can damage your skin and even lead to skin cancer. You can prevent skin cancer by always wearing a sunscreen with at least SPF 30, covering your body with clothing, and staying in the shade.

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    It’s best to avoid the sun during the hottest part of the day, which is between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

    10. Practice safe sex and avoid risky behaviours

    Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can weaken the immune system and contribute greatly to cancer. You can avoid STDs by always using a condom when you have sex. Since condoms can fail, discuss sexual health with your potential partners and get tested regularly.

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    Sources: WikiHow

  • Pay more to flare less? Calculating the costs of flaring gas in the oil and gas sector

    It’s been 60 years since Nigeria joined the World Oil Producers and reaped riches from its oil production. It made its first oil discovery at Oloibiri, Bayelsa in 1956. In 1958, its first oil field came on stream, producing 5,100 barrels per day. By the late sixties and early seventies, Nigeria had attained a production level of over 2 million barrels of crude oil a day.  In 2016, the country could boast of 37 billion barrels oil and gas reserve as reported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the State’s oil company. Today, Nigeria’s crude oil production is at 2.2 million barrels per day.

    Since 1956, a good number of oil and gas companies (foreign and local) have set up shop in Nigeria. Shell Petroleum Development Company (formerly known as Shell BP) was the first oil and gas company in the country. It drilled 12,008 feet at Olobirin Well No.1 (now dried up). Today, Chevron Nigeria Ltd, ExxonMobil, Nigeria Total, Nigerian Agip Oil Company are some of the other key players in the Nigerian oil market.

    What we got from oil and gas in 15 years

    Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that companies in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria paid about $347 trillion revenue from 1999 to 2014. This amount was paid to government agencies through a variety of revenue streams such as extraordinary taxes on income, profits, and capital gains, royalties, bonuses, emission and pollution taxes, and general tax on goods and services etc.

    While extraordinary taxes on income, profits, and capital gains are paid for the sale of assets like land and properties, general taxes on goods and services are indirect taxes paid on consumption of goods and services by private individuals. Royalties, on the other hand, are paid for the exploitation of natural resources connected with land and minerals. In the oil and gas industry, royalties are pay for oil produced from a concession. he rates are set based on the location of the field. Therefore, the deeper the concession area is, the lower the applicable rate.

    Bonuses in the oil and gas industry are paid at a specific time within a project timeline. A very important one is the signature bonus. A signature bonus is paid by a concessionaire at the time an oil prospecting licence or oil mining lease is granted. Finally, emission and pollution taxes are paid for the emission of toxic particles that are devastating to our environment and harmful to health.  Oil and gas companies pay a certain amount for gas flared and oil spilled.

    In this article, because of their direct impact on host communities and the environment, we focus on the latter: emission and pollution taxes.

     

    The charts above help to identify the sources of gas flaring in Nigeria. If the assumption that the more gas an organization flares, the more emission and pollution taxes it pays is correct, the first set of companies to hold responsible for air pollution and environmental degradation in Nigeria would, of course, be Shell Petroleum Development Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited. These companies paid the highest taxes ($44,787,000 and $44,570,000) in 15 years. Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Ltd (ADDAX/APDNL), Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), and Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited (MPNU) follow. How much volume of gas have these top emission and pollution taxpayers flared in 15 years? Let’s dig into data. A little arithmetic might also be needed.

    Charts E-I shows the top emission taxpayers, the amount paid in dollars and the exchange rates applicable in years covered by the data. Chart J shows the naira equivalent of the sum total of each company’s payments in those years. From the charts, it can be seen that Chevron appears to pay a little higher than Shell in naira while the converse is the case in dollars. It might therefore seem that one of these companies flares the most gas in Nigeria. However, a little more insight is required to draw any useful conclusions.

    In Nigeria, there are regulations governing gas flaring. Over time, there have been different penalty rates per 1,000 Standard Cubic Foot (scf). For example, N10 per 1,000scf was applicable in 1998-2008 while in 2009 – 2017, the government set $3.5 for every 1,000scf gas flared (although, a report by NEITI states that, up until now, the penalty hasn’t been enforced and adhered to). Going by the N10 per 1,000scf rate which was paid until 2018 when the rate was reviewed and set at $2 for 1,000scf, Shell Petroleum Development Company paid about N5.2 billion between 1999-2014. At N10 per 1,000scf rate, the company had flared a total of 520,392,266,400 scf gas. Using the same calculation model, Chevron Nigeria Limited flared 550,007,562,600 scf gas, Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Ltd flared 317,890,191,000 scf gas, Nigerian Agip Oil Company 261,554,792,800 scf and Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited flared 249,794,641,300 scf gas.

    For those not familiar with SCF, the oil equivalent of the volume of gas flared might be easier to follow: If gas were to be oil, it simply means the five top companies had spilled more than 92 million, 97 million, 56 million, 46 million, and 44 million barrels of oil from 1999 – 2014 respectively. The chart below presents a clearer picture of this data.

    Making Amends

    The facts have not gone unnoticed. In 2015, the NNPC and Chevron Nigeria Limited (NNPC/CNL) Joint Venture revealed its plan to reduce gas flaring by 98 percent and it announced the completion and load-out of the topside module of the SONAM Non-Associated Gas, NAG, Wellhead Platform project in 2016. Unfortunately, the positive effect of this has not really been felt nor seen.

    It was also reported that the Federal Government’s plan to end gas flaring by 2020. It also planned to introduce the “National Gas Flaring Commercialisation Programme”, an initiative that would generate about 36,000 direct jobs, 200,000 indirect jobs in the Niger Delta and ensure the redirection of the utility of gas for cooking, electricity and other industrial purposes.

    In the meantime, Nigerians continue to suffer from the health hazards of gas flaring. The ordeal and agony of residents of Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, (especially the host and neighboring communities of the oil and gas companies) are better imagined. Media reports have it that satellite images provided by the tracker located 222 of gas flaring incidents happening around 65 onshore oil wells these states.

    Respiratory problems, cardiac diseases, bronchitis (inflammation of the lungs), silicosis (lung disease contracted by inhaling impure air) skin rashes, insomnia (sleeplessness), and eye irritations are some of the frequent ailments in such communities. The residents are exposed to all kinds of airborne diseases.  Egbema and Mgbede  and many more cases were reported in the media.

    With the new law of $2 for 1000 scf gas flared, the oil companies are likely to flare less. The new penalty is aimed at discouraging gas flaring, to encourage the redirection of gas flared from waste to wealth and preserve the environment and the lives of the residents in such environments. The government might also call back the debt of companies who defaulted when the rate was at N10 and make them pay at the current rate. If this is done, the organisations involved would be made to pay heavily and as such, gas flaring would not be considered an alternative anymore.

     

  • From son of a newspaper vendor to award-winning journalist

    Innocent Duru has an unbreakable bond with newspapers. As a child, his father would give him local and international newspapers before going to sell on the streets of Ibadan.

    “I developed interest in news writing and even before I went to school, I knew how to write news,” he said.

    The more he read the stories, the clearer it becomes to him he should be a news writer, not just consumer. When it was time for higher education, he couldn’t think of any other course other than Mass Communication.

    As an undergraduate, he studied hard to learn the practice of journalism. He so much wanted to never have to sell newspapers again but to write news.

    He considered journalists as role model worthy and would read, in awe, the structure and manner in which they weaved words into stories.

    He believed a good news story should be compendious. Feature stories were his favourite and he took no one by surprise when he bagged the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA) Feature Writer of the Year 2017.

    Shortly after his graduation from the University of Lagos, he worked as a freelance reporter at The Sun Newspaper. Owing to his journalistic prowess, he moved on to The National Life Newspaper before they went out of existence and got merged with The Nation’s Newspaper.

    When he got a job in 2012 as a reporter with The Nation Newspaper, Nigeria’s widest circulating paper, his joy knew no bound. Life as a son of a vendor had taught him to treasure such an opportunity.

    It was one he was willing to take with both hands. He started out as a feature reporter in the Saturday desk and worked his way to being an award winning journalist in NMMA 2017/2018.

    His entry in the award category ‘We’ll rather perish in the desert’, was borne out of the need to uncover the mystery behind Libyan returnees.

    He felt that their stories were not given justice as many reporters just tell the tale of their escapades without unraveling the actual truth about their sufferings.

    He went a step further by going to Edo state where most of them came from to scout for news about their illegal travel through the desert.

    The entry ‘Pedophile on the prowl’, on the other hand, came from a report he got about the abuse of children in Yobe states by pedophiles.

    He decided to extend research by reaching out to the people involved and gathered enough information to make a captivating story which earned him a nomination.

    He mentioned he faced stiff opposition from government officials that were involved in the pedophiles’ case and also from the refugees but he was able to overcome the challenges with his experience as an investigative journalist.

    His ability to weave words into captivating stories allowed his entry stand out from the rest in the category.

  • ‘How Nigeria can become top export-nation’

    President of Koinonia Global Services Inc., Canada, Olufemi Boyede, is a certified International Trade Professional with over 30 years of professional experience in international trade and strategy with bias for export business.

    He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on how Nigeria can maximise export opportunities. Excerpts:

    What in concrete terms do you think should be done to effectively promote non-oil sector?

    Non-oil export development is a direct function of a broad-based consultative and generally agreed and adopted National Export Strategy.  Such a strategy will have a National Strategy Team driving it.  This does not imply a vote of no confidence in the National Agency charged with responsibility for non-oil export promotion.

    Rather, it helps first and foremost to establish collective ownership (and therefore, collective responsibility for success or failure).  It establishes synergy (of all MDAs and the Private Sector Associations and sub-groups with stake in the growth of the country’s exports.

    Of course, a perfect strategy will also contain an action plan, a monitoring and evaluation mechanism and be flexible enough to be subjected to regular, if not continuous modification.  Resources for its implementation will have to be budgeted for (and must be outside the usual running budget of the NEPC.

    Above all, the team as a whole must be made to report to an authority higher than the Nigerian Export Promotion Council.  In the case of the United States of America that I am so fond of citing, the team was actually of Cabinet status and reported directly to President Obama.

    The lowest ranking member was the Secretary (Minister) in charge of the relevant agency and Heads of the Private sector players.

    Until we understand the National Export Strategy team must be unique, deliberate and vibrant (more like a task force) we are very unlikely to get any results.

    Looking at our non-oil sector and the global trend of doing business do you think as a country we have a chance in making a statement in the global front?

    Based on what is on ground now, my answer is a categorical no.  International Trade (exports) thrives on competitiveness.  There is no way an average Nigerian exporter can favourably compete as of today in the international market.

    Apart from the myriad of challenges back home that culminate in unduly high unit cost of exports, our reluctance to sign some agreements that bestow zero or preferential tariffs on our products has also negatively impacted our ability to compete globally.

    Ask a Nigerian exporter of Cocoa. The EU remains Nigeria’s biggest importer of Cocoa and other agricultural products.  Since we out-rightly rejected (in whole) the Economic Partnership Agreement proposed by the EU, Cocoa, (beans and other value-added derivatives) now attract as high as 7% import duty in the huge EU market.

    Worse still, the Export Expansion Grant, the only one of 18 existing (by law) export incentives in Nigeria, has never really worked smoothly.  I can tell you categorically right now that the last time any Nigerian exporter enjoyed the EEG was in 2014.

    Commendably, the NEPC succeeded in getting the backlog of unpaid grants (2007-2016) incorporated into the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile.  The Council has pushed for this to be paid via promissory notes but despite promises that exporters would receive these PNs before the end of 2018, access remains a mirage.

    Along the line, the NEPC modified the scheme, reducing the grant rate from a possible 30% of repatriated proceeds to 15% (with exporters required to pay a 2% Administrative fee (before collection, mind you).

    The grant was to be paid via a newly introduced instrument tagged the Export Credit Certificate.  Again, despite all the motions we have seen, no movement has been achieved.  We are gradually approaching a third export year now (another set of backlogs) and yet, no one has seen the colour of the Export Credit Certificate.

     

    How do you assess the current administration’s policies in the sector?

    For an administration that came in when Nigeria was just clawing herself out of the throes of economic depression, it was expected that more serious attention would be paid to non-oil exports.

    Unfortunately, the administration seemed to immediately distance itself from non-oil export orientation by basing its diversification agenda on non-oil revenues, particularly tax thereby trivializing the non-oil export sector.

    I am not playing on language and connotations here.  There is a clear distinction between non-oil revenues and revenues from non-oil exports.

    Mr. President recently presented the 2019 Budget to the National Assembly.  In the breakdown subsequently released by the Minister of National Planning, only 5.2 billion was earmarked for payment of export incentives, particularly the Export Expansion Grant.

    Going by the trend of EEG paid-outs over the past ten years, I am shocked that government by this singular action seems to be establishing a threshold beyond which Nigerian exporters are not allowed to go.

    Ironically, a whopping N305bn has been earmarked for payment of subsidy on imported petroleum products. The ERGP is a 142-page document.  The first time the word “non-oil export comes up in the entire document is on page 73 and it was just a passing mention of the government’s commitment to pursuing the NEPC’s zero-oil plan.

    The zero-oil plan itself has been evaluated by the International Trade Centre and this United Nations Global Agency for (Export) Trade Development has told NEPC categorically that it does not qualify as an export strategy.

    That is why Nigerians have been saved the noisome cacophony of zero-oil- that was nearly all over the place for two full years.  So as it stands, we really still do not have a National Strategy on Export Development and Promotion.

    You have been part of some state’s summit on non-oil export. What from your view is stopping states and even individuals from invading the world with their products? The Ogun State adire industry readily comes to mind?

    Let me start by stating emphatically it is not only Ogun State that has an exportable product in the adire you referred to.  The 36 states and FCT have at least 2 products that can make waves in the global market.

    Niger State is the world’s largest producer of shea nuts butter.  Paradoxically, 95% of this product grows in the wild.  Why is Niger State not the world’s largest exporter of shea butter?  Ondo State produces 65% of Nigeria’s Cocoa and Nigeria is rated as the world’s sixth largest exporter of Cocoa.

    What is the ranking of Ondo State in World Cocoa deliveries?  Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers States between them have the capacity to catch up with Malaysia on Palm Oil.  What is the share of these states in world trade in palm oil?  Lagos State has the longest/largest natural beach along West Africa.

    Cocoanut grows in the wild and even with its Coconut Development Agency Lagos State is yet to feature officially as a world exporter of Coconut (and derivatives).  I could go on and on.

    The Nigeria Export Promotion Council, one of its presentations, listed at least twenty products where Nigeria is top-five largest producer in the world.  But in not a single one of these does the country feature even on the top-fifty list of exporters.

    The answer is simply where there is no plan, there cannot be results.  And plans will come as a result of the leadership’s understanding and prioritization of non-oil exports as an economic roadmap.

    Talking about incentives for exporters what is the current situation?

    As I had stated in answer to one of your questions earlier, the situation is dim and gloomy. Again let me reiterate that this situation is sad.  Check the world’s largest players in export trade.  The USA, Australia, China, Malaysia, India and Ghana next door, all have very fantastic and functional support instruments, programmes and incentives to push their products into the world markets.

    South Africa, the last time I checked, had thirty-four separate Export Promotion Councils, each dedicated to a sector where the country deems herself to have high potential.  Nigeria has only one.

    Australia incentivizes exports to the level of refunding a telephone call made by an exporter, or the cost of visit of a potential importer, once these lead to actual export sales.  Australia and USA have a yearly Presidential Exports Awards instituted over fifty years ago.

    Recently, Nigeria, through the NEPC, decided to activate the never-started Export Development Fund.  I am not sure if the Fund has been endowed and how much the Federal Government is dedicating to this only pre-shipment catalyst for export growth.  Permit me to say in pidgin English – our road still far.

     

  • How often workers have sex at work

    How often workers have sex at work

    There is no denying the fact that the relationship among workers sometimes exceeds the surface. As time passes by and intimacy sets in, something even deeper is introduced, it is office romance.

    While some co-workers enjoy mere workplace friendship, some take it a step forward to add romance to theirs. For these click of people, it could be outside the work environment, night clubs, relaxation joints, hotels or even homes.

    However, a new survey from Yellow Octopus has revealed that one in 10 co-workers have sex at work and the frequency might shock you.

    If you noticed that your co-workers book out a meeting room for an unspecified chat on a regular basis, chances are that they are doing every other thing but official meeting!

    The survey was conducted on 1,000 people about their in-office behaviour and found that sex at work is, indeed happening, perhaps with more frequency than one might envisage.

    This trend is on the rise among skilled labours during the day and even more among unskilled labours who run night shifts.

    Of the people surveyed, 11 percent said they had had sex in the office with a co-worker, while four percent said they had done it with a non-employee — meaning, they had brought someone into the building unofficially.

    The majority did it after office hours, but around a third managed to get away with sex in office during work hours. Technically, they were getting paid to enjoy sex.

    Unfortunately, before you start conceiving an idea to try this out, be informed that the researchers also disclose that 14 percent of those who had sex at work were caught and the consequences are better imagined.

    The moral of this report is: Don’t try sex at work.

    [poll id=”25″]

  • 8 things you should know about new IGP Adamu

    President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Abubakar Adamu Mohammed as the Acting Inspector General of police to replace Ibrahim Idris who retired on Tuesday.

    Adamu officially, stepped in as acting IGP today.

    Read Also: Adamu steps in as acting IGP

    Here are things you should know about him: 

    1. Adamu was born on November 9, 1961
    2.  He was born in Nasarawa State
    3.  He has a bachelor Degree in Geography
    4. He was a director of peacekeeping operations
    5.  He was a deputy commissioner of police in Ekiti state and enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force in 1986
    6.  He was the Assistant Inspector General of Police zone 5 in Benin, Edo State
    7. He has served with the United Nation and INTERPOL for over a decade.
    8. He served as the Commissioner of Police in Enugu State.

  • JCI Victoria Island launches IpledgeNigeria

    The Victoria Island chapter of Junior Chamber International ( JCI ) has launched IpledgeNigeria campaign, an initiative to re-awaken the consciousness of Nigerians to be more committed to nation-building.

    The campaign launched on January 1st 2019, will sensitise Nigerians on various activities that will make them to be more positively responsible to the cause of a greater Nigeria.

    JCI chapter President, Olamipo Adeola explained the intention of the campaign is to ignite love, passion and responsibility every citizen of Nigeria should be exhibiting.

    “I know Nigeria is not where we all want it to be but it’s our Nigeria and we must consciously get involved, else nothing would change,” she charged.

    She believes that Nigerians all over the world should join the movement and hold the government accountable.

    She reaffirmed the responsibilities and involvement of youths in affairs of the state and politics were very crucial to national development.

    “We would be advocating for active youths participation in government at various levels,” she said.

    She added “IpledgeNigeria” campaign is taking off strategically at this time the nation is preparing for general elections.

    “Citizens will be voting to elect their leaders into various offices and Nigerians must be aware, that with our PVCs, we are responsible for the candidate we elect and how our nation would be for the next four years.

    “Citizens will be sensitised on their duties before, during and after the election, as we will be advocating for zero tolerance against violence, vote buying or selling and any act that may hinder a free and fair election.

    Adeola noted stakeholders, both in private and public sectors, celebrities, entertainers, passionate citizens will be encouraged and engaged to endorse the initiative and also propagate the agenda of the programme.

  • Talk show to tackle widowhood, depression in women holds Saturday

    She-EO (Executive Officer), a talk show style event for women is set to tackle issues around widowhood, career success, depression, and money anxiety disorders among women.

    To achieve this, the Founder of She-EO, Temitope Fajingbesi-Balogun said the evolving issues will be addressed at the fourth edition of She-EO tomorrow, Saturday, January 12 at the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island, Lagos state, from 9 to 5pm.

    According to her, She-EO is an interactive and socially engaging female-only platform which provides a veritable avenue for women to discuss and share ideas on gender-sensitive issues and proffer solutions to help participants deal with such problems.

    The seminar, she said aims to be a talking point for women to share their real life experiences with other women who might be going through similar rough patches, with a view to inspiring them to excellence in spite of challenges.

    “She-EO is a talk show style event for only 100 women in a room, discussing issues that matters to African women which they do not like to discuss in the open but which must be discussed because they matter.

    “We will discuss relationships, love, finances, investments, business, fashion and health among other things. We will also address issues of personal growth and community engagement, with specific emphasis on financial, mental and societal barriers that inhibit the growth and progress of the African woman in a male-dominated society.”

    She urged women to view themselves in the right perspectives.

    “Our biggest problem as women is perspective. Women are created to be emotional. How you feel of yourself as a woman drives a man and this is what She EO is here to solve. As a woman, you must perceive yourself as worthy of whatever you have achieved and not be moved by your challenge because your success comes from how you perceive yourself,” she said.

    According to her, the discussions at the seminar will focus on getting Nigerian women equipped with tools to survive mental traumas and stress, spotlight on the male perspectives on issues that affect women in the African society. Fajingbesi-Balogun noted that the ultimate mission of the initiative is to motivate women in Nigeria to become change agents in their families, organisations and communities, and to make them passionate about leaving a better world for future generations.

    “The event is expected to host an assembly of key personalities, including women professionals and Chief Executive Officers of notable companies, corporate executives, human resource professionals, media personalities, mental health experts, civil society organisations and diplomats,” she said.

    She noted that SheEO started in 2017 and it holds every second Saturday of the year to enable women begin the year with set goals.

    “What will be unique about this year’s edition is that we will asides the women who will speak, also have four men in the room who will talk to the women, we will ask questions and get the male perspective about women.

    “Women who need business partners, career coach and mentors will have their needs met. This talk show will make the year different for all participants and enable them accomplish their New Year resolutions, knowing that women are disadvantaged globally. ”

    She said She EO will help develop Nigeria because women have the potential to develop the nation. “Women own most of the small businesses in the country today and this is why we are set out to develop women because they have a link to economic growth,” she said.