The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday Magazine

  • Cross River communities move to abolish betrothal of unborn baby girls to wealthy men

    Cross River communities move to abolish betrothal of unborn baby girls to wealthy men

    An end is finally in sight for the age-long practice of betrothing unborn baby girls to wealthy men in some Cross River communities, writes GRACE OBIKE.

    INHABITANTS of Obanliku Local Government Area and some other parts of Cross River State have for ages lived with the culture of a somewhat wealthy man walking up to a poor family to start paying the bride price of their unborn girl child.

    In the practice commonly known in the area as ‘money woman marriage’, the adult suitor would wait for the woman to have another baby if the one for which he had paid the bride price turns out to be a male child.

    When the family eventually gives birth to a baby girl, her suitor pays the bride price in bits and pieces with money and material things until he is deemed to have completed the sum required and the innocent girl child would be released to him as a wife once she clocks the age of six.

    Her elderly husband would now be left with the task of moulding her into the kind of wife he desires without any law as to when he could start to sleep with her or when she could start to have babies.

    The paramount ruler of Obanliku, HRM Uchua Item, said it is usually impossible for the parents of the baby girl to have a change of mind after giving their consent because they are usually poor and unable to return the sums already paid as bride price.

    Neither would the said bride dare reject the old man she is born to marry because the man in question could go as far as invoking spiritual powers to have his way if the girl or her parents begin to prove difficult.

    He added: “Before the supposed husband and family of the bride get into such an arrangement, they would have known everything about both families,  their behaviours, characteristics and what have you.

    “The man would have known that the family would keep their promise of giving him his bride before entering into the agreement.”

    Read Also: Activists seek improvement in sexual health for women, girls

    The tide however appears to be turning in recent years with victims of the practice and their offsprings speaking against the obnoxious practice that gives paedophiles easy access to underage girls who are in turn subjected to inhuman treatments and abuses.

    With contributions and support from the European Union and United Nations (UN) Women through the spotlight initiative, awareness is being created in such communities on the dangers inherent in such practices.

    The United Nations (UN) Women representative to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Beatrice Eyong, said: “We are seeing a shift in attitude and in some cases the total abandonment of these practices of money wife and other harmful practices.”

    Eyong added that It is imperative for Nigeria to accelerate efforts aimed at addressing the root causes of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and harmful practices (HP).

    She said the UN Women has invested in landmark research to highlight linkages between customary and formal law. The findings of this

    research,  she said, has provided a strong case for the elimination of violence whether in the formal or customary court, adding that there is no longer the excuse of ‘culture’ in defence of violence and harmful practices.

    On his part, the paramount ruler of Obanliku said as humans, once an opinion is formed, it is very difficult to remove it or change people’s minds about it.

    He said it had not been easy trying to create awareness and convince believers in the practice about its dangers.

    “Another challenge we have is the terrain of these communities. The communities are mountainous and places where this money woman marriage takes place is extremely rugged,” he said.

    Item, however, said that through awareness creation, the communities are beginning to accept to put and end to the practice.

    The royal father added: “In one of the communities that I visited, one of the youth leaders told me that as a product of the practice he understands the dangers.  Hence he has been advocating its ban in his community.

    The council of traditional rulers in Cross River State led by the Paramount ruler of Obanliku have taken the case a step further by securing a state legislation banning the practice while councilors in the state have started enacting the law in their domains.

    The state has since 2021 prohibited all forms of early child marriage, including the practice of money woman marriage. Anyone found wanting would be fined or jailed as the case may be.

    Offenders are also answerable to local laws that have been enacted by villages and communities where they are now made to pay fines in form of goats, pigs and sometimes cows.

  • Paternity leave: Win-win for mothers, fathers, new-borns

    Paternity leave: Win-win for mothers, fathers, new-borns

    The Federal Government has just commenced implementation of its 14-day paternity leave for male federal civil servants whose spouse delivers a baby. Male federal workers whose families adopt a child under four months are also included. ROBERT EGBE reports that greater clarity on some aspects of the laudable policy will make it even more beneficial to workers.

    More than a year after it approved the policy, the Federal Government has finally commenced implementation of its 14-day paternity leave policy for male federal civil servants whose spouses deliver a baby. Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, stated this in a November 27 circular titled, ‘Computation of Leave Based on Working Days and Approval of Paternity Leave in the Public Service.’ The leave is in line with the Public Service Rules, 2021 Edition, she said.

    According to the circular, a male worker whose wife gives birth to a new baby will be entitled to the leave. It reads: “Government has also approved paternity leave for serving male officers whose spouse delivers a baby. The period of the leave shall be 14 working days. The leave shall not be more than once in two years, and for a maximum of four children.”

    Similarly, a male worker whose family adopts a child under four months will be entitled to the leave. “Where the family of a male officer adopts a child under four months old, the officer will similarly enjoy paternity leave for 14 working days,” it added. Yemi-Esan also said the request for such leave must be accompanied by the Expected Date of Delivery’s (EDD) report of the officer’s wife or evidence of approval of the adoption of the child by the relevant government bodies.

     

    Paternity leave advantages

    In September last year, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a 14-day paternity leave for men in the federal civil service – a historic first. Yemi-Esan, who announced this on September 29, 2021, said: “Paternity leave is the leave that is approved for men when their spouses or wives have given birth to a new-born baby; or if the husband and wife have just adopted a baby of less than four months old, then the man is entitled to paternity leave of about 14 days.

    “So, that is what has been approved for men so that the men and their babies also can bond well together. It’s important because we want the young children and the youth to really bond properly with their fathers, just as they bond well with their mothers. So, this is the time that has been approved now, for men to bond at the early stages, especially at the early stages of a child’s life; that is when it’s very important for this bonding to take place.”

    The Federal Government’s consideration of bonding as one of the reasons for paternity leave is backed by credible research on heterosexual couples. For instance, a 2017 publication by Canadian researchers, Sarah Allen, and Kerry Daly, titled “The Effects of Father Involvement: An Updated Research Summary of the Evidence,” argued that better immersion of the father in the process of raising a child can lead to improved development outcomes for the child and a better relationship between the parents. Infants of highly involved fathers, as measured by the amount of interaction, including higher levels of play and caregiving activities, are more cognitively competent at six months and score higher on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. By one year, they continue to have higher cognitive functioning, are better problem solvers as toddlers and have higher IQs by age three,” the authors said.

     

    States lead, FG follows

    With the implementation, the Federal Government has joined several other countries around the world that also practice paternity leave. However, several states are already implementing the policy. Lagos State approved 10 days of paternity leave in 2014. A year later, Enugu State approved three weeks of paternity leave for the state civil servants. In August 2020, Oyo State unveiled plans to approve paternity leave. Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Faosat Sanni, stated this at a workshop on ‘Safe Motherhood,’ organised by Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Oyo State chapter, in Ibadan. On Monday, the Akwa Ibom State government announced that it had approved a 14-day paternity leave for its male civil servants.

    Globally, paternity leave, maternity leave and adoption leave are the three types of ‘parental leave’ commonly practised. Parental leave has been available as a legal right and/or governmental programme for many years, particularly in the form of maternity leave. In 2014, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reviewed parental leave policies in 185 countries and territories and found that all countries, except Papua New Guinea, have laws mandating some form of parental leave. A different study showed that of 186 countries examined, 96 per cent offered some pay to mothers during leave, but only 44 per cent of those countries offered the same for fathers.

    A more recent study showed that reforms on paid leave for fathers have gained popularity since 2011. In 2021, there were 114 countries with paid leave for fathers. In Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Gabon, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Togo offer men engaged by the government days or weeks off to support their wives at home after giving birth. Kenya approved two weeks, but the employer must recognise the wife. Mauritius gives five successive working days of leave. Paternity leave in the remaining countries is covered in family allowance leave or what is considered ‘family events concerning the worker’s home.’ Married men in these countries can take up to 10 days of paid leave. In Ethiopia, married men can take up to unpaid five-day leave.

    In South Africa, married men can take a 10-day unpaid leave. According to the OECD, the five countries with the best paternity leave policies are Lithuania – 30 days of paternity leave paid at a rate of 77.58 per cent of regular earnings. Additional shared parental leave of up to 36 months is also available. Japan offers one full year of paid parental leave exclusively for fathers. Sweden offers both parents access to 480 days of shared leave with partial pay. Estonia offers fathers two weeks of paid paternity leave at 100 per cent, plus an additional 435 days of shared parental leave. In Iceland, New 2021 legislation has extended the duration of combined maternity and paternity leave to a total of 12 months, split equally between the mother and father (six months each).

     

    Many grey areas in the new policy

    The Federal Government’s new policy on paternity leave is only applicable for the birth of four children. Some have argued that this is discriminatory against other children where they are more than four. However, a local government employee in Lagos, Bidemi Oyewale, disagreed. “Four children are okay,” he said. “Even the health insurance scheme I’m on covers only four children. I think it’s a way to discourage people from having too many children than they can take care of.”

    That is not all. What happens when a woman gives birth to more than one child at a go, for instance, twins or triplets? Will the employee be entitled to take separate paternity leaves for each child? It appears not, because under the current maternity leave policy of the federal and state governments, an employee is only entitled to one maternity leave per year, irrespective of whether the birth was multiple or not.

    Also, polygyny is acceptable practice in Nigeria, especially among Muslims, with men permitted to have up to four wives in Islam; while no law prohibits adherents of traditional religion from marrying an unspecified number of wives. This argument becomes more valid given the fact that Nigeria is a secular state that permits every Nigerian freedom of religion. However, the policy, by restricting the number of children to four, may shut out polygamous men, except perhaps where the four children are by separate wives.

    Can a worker take paternity leave and annual leave separately? Over the years, there has been some sort of confusion as to whether an employee can go on maternity and annual leave in the same year. In other words, does maternity leave consume annual leave? The question is sure to arise for paternity leave and this is one of the issues the Federal Government will have to address. The Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law Employment and Industrial Relations Committee, Oseinoma Okpeku, noted that in practice, many organisations have clauses in their handbook along the lines of “maternity leave is annual leave consuming.”

    In a report “Maternity Entitlements in Nigeria: Policies and practices,” jointly authored in 2019 by the Federal Ministry of Health, UNICEF and the NGO Thrive to Live, it was discovered that a lot of private establishments either had provisions that maternity leave was annual leave consuming or did not allow employees to take maternity and annual leave in the same calendar year. Okpeku, a Partner in Law Crest LLP, argued that from a legal point of view, both benefits are distinct and the conditions for applicability are different. “Annual leave/holiday is provided for in section 18 of the Labour Act and the basis of earning the holidays is tied to an employee’s length of service. Therefore, where an employee has worked for a continuous period of 12 months, such an employee is entitled to some time off with pay. The obligation is mandatory and the only proviso or exclusion is that the employer and employee may agree to defer the holidays but such deferment period must not exceed 24 months.

    “Maternity leave, on the other hand, is provided for under section 54 of the Labour Act and applies only to women who have submitted a medical report indicating their expected due date. The section is very clear that every woman who provides such medical evidence is entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave regardless of the length of service. It means that an employee can resume work and proceed on maternity leave the next month.”

    Distinguishing between maternity leave and maternity pay, he argued further that whereas maternity leave accrues to every employee, maternity pay applies to only employees that have completed at least six months of service. “By the wording of sections 18 and 54, there are no exclusion clauses meaning that the application of one does not lead to the exclusion of the other. Therefore, it is clear that the intention was for both benefits to run independently. Section 18 is strictly concerned with earned annual holidays with pay whereas section 54 is concerned with leave for employees who provide evidence of confinement and can be with or without pay,” he stated further. In the lawyer’s view, depriving women of earned annual leave because of maternity leave, quite apart from not being supported by statute, could also be termed a discriminatory practice. If Okpeku’s views are valid, then men could possibly enjoy both paternity leave and annual leave in the same year.

    Can husbands of nursing mothers close early? Another question the policy appears to be silent on is whether husbands of nursing mothers can leave work early. Nigeria’s current civil service rule allows for four months of maternity leave for new mothers. A month is given to pregnant mothers before birth and three months after birth. Nursing mothers are also permitted to close early upon resumption until the baby is six months old. Despite these questions, most Nigerians agree that the policy is a laudable one and addressing these issues will provide greater clarity for the beneficiaries.

  • Anxiety as fake drugs, vaccines flood market

    Anxiety as fake drugs, vaccines flood market

    •NAFDAC, others stretched to limit in battle

    The problem of fake drugs has become endemic in Nigeria, with agencies like the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) stretched to the limits in their battles against the menace. GBENGA ADERANTI writes on the danger the trend portends considering that many of the vaccines in circulation contain lethal substances.

    With two-year-old Shade Adetula down with excessive vomiting, her parents approached a pharmacist who prescribed a drug her parents promptly administered on her in the hope that the vomiting would stop. But rather than abate, her condition deteriorated and she eventually lost her life, leaving her parents shocked and confused that a seemingly innocuous ailment would sniff life out of their little girl.

    In 2009 more than 84 Nigerian children died from using a medicine called My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture. A batch of the medicine that went on sale was found to have contained diethylene glycol, an industrial solvent, and an ingredient in antifreeze and brake fluid.

    The report said the chemical looks, smells, and tastes like glycerin, a sweet syrup commonly used in a wide range of medicines, foods and toothpaste. Some mindless counterfeiters, therefore, sought to enhance their profits by substituting diethylene glycol for the more expensive but harmless glycerin.

    Diethylene glycol, according to medical experts, contains a chemical that causes kidney and liver damage and attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis that hampers breathing. Sadly, no one suspected that something was amiss until children began to get sick with unexplained fever and vomiting. Some stopped urinating while many others had diarrhea. Most of the children affected in Nigeria were those whose ages ranged between two months and seven years.

    According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), four out of 10 patients get ‘harmed’ while seeking medical treatment.

    The UN agency warned that the safety of patients during the period of providing them health services is something that should not be taken for granted, noting that most of them die avoidable deaths.

    WHO said medication errors alone cost an estimated $42 billion annually while unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25 percent of patients resulting in one million deaths during or immediately after surgery annually.

    On a daily basis, many Nigerians, infants, children, and adults, die while seeking solutions to their health challenges. But while attention is usually centered on medicines, some of the vaccines they use often worsen their health conditions. The trend is not limited to Nigeria, as many African countries face similar challenges, especially in the use of vaccines.

    In a recent report, the United Nations Children and Educational Fund (UNICEF) warned that Nigerian children risk death over poor vaccination. The UN agency revealed that only 36 percent of children aged between 12 and 23 months receive all recommended vaccines, adding that a substantial number of Nigerian children are at risk of death and disability from vaccine-preventable diseases.

    Early last year, NAFDAC warned Nigerians to be wary of the fake COVID-19 vaccines in circulation, adding that this could cause COVID-like illnesses and other serious diseases that could kill.

    NAFDAC also warned government establishments and agencies, as well as private companies and big corporations, against ordering the vaccines without its approval, noting that COVID-19 vaccines are new and the side effects or adverse events must be well monitored; hence should not be used by the public.

    “There are reports of fake vaccines in Nigeria and these vaccines can cause COVID-like illnesses or other serious diseases that could kill. No government establishment or agency, company, or corporation should order COVID-19 vaccines without confirming from NAFDAC if the vaccines have been approved.

    “COVID-19 vaccines are new and the side effects or adverse events must be well monitored. Therefore, if NAFDAC does not approve, the public should not use,” the agency said.

    Read Also: Nigeria ready to be global pharmaceuticals, vaccines’ production hub, says Buhari

    In 2016, Nigerian children received 450 million out of a total of 2.5 billion doses of vaccines procured by UNICEF for children in nearly 100 countries. Good as the vaccines may be, an environmental expert and a Professor of Health Physics and Environment at the Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof. Joshua Ojo, has warned of the dire consequences of the current practice where several frequently administered childhood vaccines are deliberately loaded with mercury used as a preservative in the multi-dose format. This format was banned 30 years ago in Europe and over 20 years ago in America.

    The 40% content of the mercuric compound known as thimerosal, translates to an incredible 50,000 times the recommended maximum limit for mercury in wastewater that can be used for agricultural (irrigation) purposes!

    This, the professor said, was based on recommendations stemming from risk assessment exercises carried out by foreign/global agencies. Vaccines so affected include Hepatitis B and Tetanus-Diphteria multidose vaccines. Mercury in all forms is known to be neurotoxic.

    “By switching to single-dose forms of the same vaccine, as is done in the developed countries, the need for the use of thimerosal (as a preservative) will be eliminated,” he opined.

    During the 7th National Conference on Environment and Health (organised by the LivingScience Foundation, Ile-Ife CAC/IT/91834) at The Redeemer University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria, with the theme: Environmental-Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Development in Nigeria, the stakeholders had recommended that thimerosal-containing vaccines packed in multi-dose vials should be phased out immediately. Government, it said, should facilitate this by providing a modest increase in budget that would enable their replacement with single-dose ampoules that do not require preservatives, as is the case in the developed nations of the world.

    Ojo said until people are bold enough, to tell the truth that is inconvenient for the ‘powers that be,’ many Nigerians would continue to die. He argued that many are afraid to challenge vaccines in the present dispensation in order not to be tagged as promoting ‘vaccine hesitancy.’

    In some quarters, it has been argued that most of the developing countries are too impoverished to afford safer single-dose vaccines, but Ojo dispelled this, saying “there’s actually no such nation.”

    According to him, “the vaccines are most certainly overpriced, sold to us (developing countries) at dubious discounts while every effort at local production was viciously frustrated by these foreign powers.”

    Unknown to many, Nigeria was producing its own vaccines before it was sabotaged and had to be stopped. There was the Federal Vaccine Production Laboratory in Yaba, Lagos which was locally producing vaccines in Nigeria until it was shut in 1991.

    All things being equal, Nigeria may resume production of its vaccines by 2024. In August this year, Indonesia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Usra Harahap, met with the top executive of Biovaccines Nigeria Limited, a Joint Venture (JV) between the Federal Government and May & Baker Nigeria Plc in Lagos, on the status of their existing partnership and the modality of scaling up the country’s vaccine production capability.

    Harahap said Indonesia “is willing to work with Nigeria to develop the needed local capacity” to achieve vaccine sovereignty in no distant time.

    The government had committed N10 billion ($26,315,789) to the project.

    Professor Ojo would not be categorical on why developed countries would continue to bring vaccines that contain some percentage of mercury into the developing world, but he was of the opinion that “on the surface, selling some of these vaccines in mercury-laden multi-dose format increases profits, as it brings down production costs. But I believe there might be other factors and interests.”

    He warned that this may be difficult to stop because it is more of international politics and economics.

    He said: “Key government officials (and professionals in the non-governmental sectors) are corrupted by one inducement or the other; others are blackmailed, and a few strong-headed ones could be threatened into keeping quiet.

    “Can you imagine NAFDAC writing their original article trying to defend mercury in childhood vaccines? And then they have been unable to respond to our article? And worst of all, no media house (apart from 1 or 2) among the nearly 40 that carried NAFDAC’s statement is showing any further interest in the matter and asking NAFDAC for a response!”

    According to the professor, the presence of mercury in vaccines could cause problems to the kidney and the liver.

    During World Kidney Day (WKD) in March, experts said more than 20 million Nigerians are living with kidney disease and no fewer than 20,000 of the number are coming down with End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) yearly requiring dialysis or/and transplant to stay alive, according to medical experts.

    As at 2016, According to a former President of the Nigerian Association of Nephrology (NAN), Dr. Ebun Bamgboye, 17,000 kidney failure cases were diagnosed annually in Nigeria. The country has one of the largest burdens of kidney disease in the world.

    Other negative impacts of vaccines with mercury in the human system, according to Ojo, include brain development, leading to a wide spectrum of effects including autism, issues with memory, and neurological issues including poor coordination between the brain and hands/feet (ataxia) among others.

     The way forward

    Proffering the way forward Ojo advised the Nigerian government to proscribe mercury-containing vaccines, insist on the single-dose format, and negotiate a realistic price.

    He said: “Vaccines are meant to prevent diseases. There are other options such as the provision of clean water and good sanitation. If the vaccine sellers insist on unreasonably hyped prices, we should shift our attention and money to other options, including local production of the vaccines.

    “Without a well-informed public, the government will not be able to resist external pressures.

    “A good example is the case of same-sex marriage. Despite enormous external pressure, it is a no-go area for governments because Nigerians are well aware of the issue, and are united in their strong opposition to it.”

     No mercury in children’s vaccines– NAFDAC

    Earlier, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control denied that children in Nigeria were given a vaccine containing 40% mercury, as prescribed by foreign organisations.

    According to a press statement by its former Director- General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, mercury is a metal and it is not used as an element or as a component of vaccines.

    “Thimerosal, a mercuric compound used as a preservative in multi-dose vaccines, contains a different form of mercury known as ethyl mercury,” according to the statement.

    “Thimerosal is used as a vaccine preservative in concentrations ranging from 0.003 per cent to 0.01 per cent” (for example, thimerosal content allowed in vaccines is between 30 parts and a maximum of 100 parts out of million parts of the vaccine formula).

    “Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that has been used in multi-dose vials (vials containing more than one dose) of medicines and vaccines in the United States for decades.

    “With the exception of minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site, there is no evidence of harm caused by low doses of thimerosal in vaccines.”

    However, in July 1999, the Public Health Service, the American Academy of Paediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal in vaccines should be reduced or eliminated as a precautionary measure.

    “Thimerosal is still used in some multi-dose vaccines in Nigeria, but at a safe level. However,  due to a lack of evidence that thimerosal poses a risk to human health, the World Health Organization has not prohibited its use as an inactivating agent and preservative in vaccines.”

    However, NAFDAC has failed to respond to Prof Ojo’s refutation of this press statement. Ojo had pointed out, from the agency’s website, that NAFDAC has zero-tolerance for any form of mercury in any product under its regulation.

    “Any product,  except, one – childhood vaccines! This is difficult to comprehend seeing that children constitute the most vulnerable segment of society and need to be more stringently protected,” Ojo said, quoting from NAFDAC website.

  • Fraud Allegations: D’banj freed after three days in custody

    Fraud Allegations: D’banj freed after three days in custody

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) yesterday released popular musician, Daniel Oladapo, also known as D’Banj.

    His lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, confirmed his release. He said the musician was freed on self-recognition.

    D’banj has been in custody since Tuesday when he was arrested on allegation bothering on diversion of N-Power funds.

    Olajengbesi said: “D’banj released on self-recognizance after ICPC could not find anything incriminating on him. He is clean.

    “It is an embarrassment to the entire country that such a huge allegation of 900m Naira without any evidence, yet made public unconfirmed.

    “The Chairman and entire officers of ICPC must be deeply sad and embarrassed also that their decent organization was used for such a shameful publicity against an innocent man. Only few organizations and persons stood and waited to verify the claims. Nigeria is evil.

    “The Minister that claimed to have instructed ICPC, when she only cashed into already ongoing investigation must now be ready to explain to world. We still demand, provide the details of the government authority he allegedly collaborated with, provide the account and amount allegedly traced to Dbanj’s account.

    “This is to say big thank you to Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN and my Learned Senior Barr. Babs for the leadership. Special thanks to all officers of ICPC for treating Dbanj kindly through his stay. Dbanj, chop life!”

    Trials of a pop star

    Trouble started for the embattled Afro Pop maestro, Oladapo Oyebanji, over his alleged involvement in diversion of millions of N-Power funds. This disturbing news which dominated the media space during the week, unsettled his fan base, especially unearthing public bashing.

    After the news about D’banj’s arrest littered on media outlets, he became the subject of discussion. His ordeals have since taken different dimensions, especially a ruthless media trial. He is faced with a difficult task sustaining the reputation he has built over the years in the face of the public.

    He was arrested and detained by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). While investigation is still ongoing according to the agency, the optics appeared embarrassing for the celebrated musician who has been fingered in the preliminary report released by the anti-graft body.

    The serious accusations of alleged fraud against D’banj, not only signpost an unending legal travail, but of larger and unpleasant implications for his personal reputation.

    Until the bubble burst, the 42-year-old artist with the sobriquet – Kokomaster or Bangalee – has won several music awards, including the awards for Best African Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007, Artist of the Year at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009, Best International Act: Africa at the 2011 BET Awards, and Best-selling African Artist at the 2014 World Music Awards, Evolution award at the 2015 MTV Africa Music awards.

    D’banj who has claimed to be the brand ambassador for N-Power scheme, has not only had his reputation dragged in the mud, he has also gotten unpleasant remarks from social media users.

    It was alleged that the singer colluded with some government officials to introduce ghost beneficiaries into the payroll of the scheme.

    The N-Power scheme, established by President Buhari on 8th June, 2016, was initiated to address the issues of youth unemployment and empowerment, and help increase social development.

    The N-Power, among other social investment programmes of the Federal Government, are under the control of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq.

    According to the Ministry, it has over the time involved other government MDA’s, Security Agencies and Civil Society Organisations in monitoring and compliance checks across the 36 states of the country and the FCT on its Social investment programmes including N-Power, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT).

    The Ministry, in a statement signed by its Permanent Secretary, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said it involved the ICPC when it noticed sharp practices by some personnel of the Payment Service Provider (PSP) involved in the payment processes to beneficiaries.

    Meanwhile, the ministry had said it never announced anyone as an ambassador of the National Social Investment Programme, but before now D’banj was pictured with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq at an event in 2021.

    “We cannot do enough to eradicate poverty, but as an ambassador, I’m dedicated to this vision and open for creative ideas and strategies to bring down the walls of poverty in Nigeria,” D’banj had said in 2021.

    “My heartfelt congratulations to the 500 000 beneficiaries of Stream 1 of Batch C. I also indulge them to make the most of this opportunity. Congratulations and God bless the honourable minister and each ministry fighting the good fight against poverty.” D’banj added.

    However, the spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Azuka Ogugua noted that investigation was ongoing into the matter. Ogugua noted that about 10 persons had been invited by the ICPC over the last few months in connection with the fraud and granted administrative bail.

    She said several invitations to Oyebanjo to appear before a team of investigators were ignored.

    But D’banj, through his lawyer, said his arrest and detention was misconceived, malicious and prejudicial to the justice system.

    Maryam El-yakub Musa, Assistant Team Head of Litigation, LAW CORRIDOR chamber said Dbanj was officially invited by the ICPC in respect of the investigation a month ago, however, he sent in letters through his Attorneys to the Commission in respect of his schedule in South Africa and promised to visit the Commission when he returned.

    She said: “D’banj has encouraged the commission to carry out its investigation thoroughly to ensure that characters attempting to bring him into such ridiculous activities are brought to book.

    “The general public is advised to resist the urge to buy into media sensationalism which is unsurprising but regardless harmful to the course of the truth which D’banj has willingly set himself on by honouring the ICPC’s summons.

    “We retain the hope that the thoroughness of the ICPC will in no time exonerate D’banj of all and every allegation levelled against his person…”

  • CBN cashless policy: Emefiele flexes his naira muscles

    CBN cashless policy: Emefiele flexes his naira muscles

    The dust generated by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) decision to redesign the naira had barely settled, when its latest guidelines on cash withdrawal set tongues wagging again.

    In the past few months, the apex bank’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has been under intense pressure, struggling to coordinate the naira’s unstable value to the dollar at the parallel markets. For him, it has been a tortuous and turbulent journey owing to the avalanche of criticisms faced over policies under his leadership.

    In this latest policy, the CBN informed banks and other financial institutions about new limits on cash withdrawals over the counter and via Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Point of Sale (PoS) and cheques with effect from January 9, 2023.

    This is just weeks before the 2023 election. There are fears that the possible economic and social disruptions from implementing the policy could manifest in a fragile transitional period.

    While this move may bring some positive effect, it appears it might minimise the influence of money on the country’s electoral process by discouraging vote-buying and inducement of electoral officers

    The CBN had directed all banks and other financial institutions to ensure that over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities do not exceed N100,000 and N500,000, respectively, per week. In the new development, CBN also directed that only N200 and lower denominations should be loaded into banks’ ATM machines.

    This latest decision is coming weeks after the CBN announced and unveiled the redesigning of some bank notes. The apex bank had said redesigning the notes will help check inflation, counterfeiting and corruption.

    Emefiele’s argument hinged on the statistics available to the apex bank which showed that “Over 80 percent of currency in circulation is outside the vaults of commercial banks.” He had expressed concerns over the high volume of cash outside the banking system.

    The move by the CBN appears to be a way to withdraw currency from circulation, which appears to be an unorthodox way of tightening the money supply since the country is battling high inflation.

    But is this latest policy a bold move or ill-timed? Or is this an attempt to reinvigorate the cashless policy which had raised a lot of eyebrows? Before now, many have been worried about the reliability of the exploring e-payment systems and its ability to sustain transactions.

    Read Also: Ohanaeze, Yoruba Youth Council back CBN’s withdrawal limit policy

    In 2011, CBN introduced the cashless policy, it was expected that the impact would lead to the modernisation of Nigerian payment system, reduction in the cost of banking services as well as reduction in high security and safety risks as well as curb bank frauds and foster transparency, but it has continued to struggle with the full implementation based on the complexities of the financial system.

    This latest policy decision came as a shocking move to Nigerians. It has continued to dominate socio-economic and political discourse. It equally generated different views from financial experts. Many offered criticism, for some it is commendable move, while monetary experts left some recommendations.

    Even National Assembly members had no inkling of the policy, they expressed dissatisfaction with it, and argued that if implemented, it would portend great consequences for the economy.

    Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, has controversially claimed that the new measures were Emefiele’s way of hitting back at politicians after his brief foray into politics came to an unceremonious end.

    Despite the uproar from the National Assembly and other quarters, the CBN boss says there’s no going back, but with a caveat that there would be a review from time to time. He appears to have the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    After his meeting with the president, Emefiele explained that the policy was not intended to hurt anybody but to strengthen the nation’s economy. He assured that the bank will not be rigid in implementing the policy but will revise it from time to time.

    Buhari’s affirmation and backing appears to have taken the debate far beyond the realm of speculation and conjectures to action points.

    Observers fear that this policy will leave Nigerians and the economy with more pains than the expected gains. But in the eyes of others, the CBN seems to have demonstrated enough strategies in defending the naira.

    One of the many arguments against this policy is how it would inadvertently affect small businesses, which are the major drivers of the economy, and also depend on cash for transactions. Many have argued that owners of these businesses are going to be negatively impacted by this policy.

    Nigeria’s economy, which is largely informal, has huge dependence on cash for many transactions. Many people are not conversant with using electronic channels. Holding cash is still very popular; in fact, it is not uncommon for traders within Nigeria to hold hundreds of millions of Naira in cash for their operations. There is no accurate data about the percentage of cash in circulation that is held in rural Nigeria.

    While this new policy may affect the consumers’ purchasing power, Nigerian consumers are still confronted with multiple challenges from naira depreciation to inflation.

    The bottom line is that Nigeria requires a functioning and productive economy to strengthen the naira. Several issues must be addressed to enhance the productive capacity of the economy. What matters now is providing a secured environment and improvement in the institutional environment for doing business to attract domestic and foreign investments.

    In all of these, Nigerians are lamenting about the necessity, timing and other issues on this policy. It is therefore advisable that the CBN should be cautious in the current exercise to ensure that the policy does not attract heavy, and more importantly, avoidable negative consequences.

  • Ruined from the womb: How environmental crisis induced by oil spillage causes miscarriages, stillbirths in Niger Delta

    Ruined from the womb: How environmental crisis induced by oil spillage causes miscarriages, stillbirths in Niger Delta

    •Our private parts swell, itch from contaminated water – Female victims

    •Oil workers s3xually exploiting poor community girls – Activist

    •Local, foreign studies validate claims

     

    Many women in the Niger Delta have had their hope of becoming proud mothers shattered following the pervasive environmental devastation in the region induced by the activities of multinational oil exploration companies which are making a fortune from the area. Miscarriage, stillbirth and other health challenges have become the lots of the people with many women in the area battling with itchy and swollen private parts which have refused to heal because they are being cleaned up with polluted water, INNOCENT DURU reports.

    MRS Timipri, a native of Sangana in Bayelsa State, and her extended family members recently launched into celebration as one of their sisters who had been childless for a long time became pregnant.

    It was a huge relief for the family whose love the young lady so much enjoyed as everyone had looked eagerly forward to when she would be delivered of a baby. From the very day the information got to the people that the young lady had become pregnant, preparations began in earnest for the day the family would welcome the baby.

    Unfortunately, the pregnancy did not grow to maturity. “My sister lost her pregnancy to environmental problem,” Timipri said, looking up as if recalling the sad day the incident occurred.

    “After losing that first pregnancy, she lost another one subsequently.  It has happened to her twice. She has not had any pregnancy after losing those two,” she added.

    Timipri said apart from her sister’s case, “I have also heard of other women suffering from similar problems before. But the one that I saw with my eyes was that of my sister.

    “It happened twice like I told you.  We have been crying all along but nobody cares.”

    Decrying the damage that oil spills are doing to their lives, she said:  “It is affecting us badly. It affects our eyes and makes it difficult to breathe.

    “As fisher women, we defecate around the waterside and we use the polluted water to wash our private parts. Once we wash with it, our private parts will start hurting seriously.

    “We don’t have clean water. We only depend on polluted water. It makes pregnant women to lose their pregnancies.

    “When our private parts hurt as a result of using the polluted water, we often use anti-fungal creams but they don’t cure the problem. The creams only reduce the itching for some time after which the problem resurfaces.

    “The itching makes our private parts to swell and water comes out from them. I have not gone to the hospital. I don’t have money to go there.”

    Besides the devastation to their health, Timipri is also worried about the damage that oil spillage has done to their means of livelihood.   She said: “I don’t go fishing again. I have not been killing fishes as I used to do in the river before because of the spillage.

    “I only go to  the farm but that also comes with its own challenges. The crops are badly affected by diseases  I don’t know who to cry to. The government does not show any concern about our plight,” she said in a tearful tone.

    Sharing her experience on how women get miscarriages in her community,  Dorcas Longlife, a native of Fish Town, was full of rage about how the health of women have been badly affected by polluted water and environment.

    She said: “We use the salt water here to clean up after defecating. There is no public toilet here.  If we use that water to clean up, it affects us. It gives us rashes because of the oil.

    “The problem affects a lot of us and some pregnant women among us are even having miscarriages.

    “One woman lost her pregnancy recently. Before she lost the pregnancy, she was falling sick and when she was taken to the hospital, they said it was the water she was taking that affected her.

    “She ended up losing the pregnancy, which was just about three months old.”

    Despite the water being horribly polluted, a good number of the people still depend on it for their daily use and consumption because they are so impoverished that they cannot afford to buy sachet water which is fairly better than the polluted groundwater they consume.

    “It is only those who have money that buy sachet water to drink, Dorcas said, adding: “We who are poor still consume the polluted water not minding the dangers they cause for us.

    “I live in Fish town. We go fishing in creeks and when you catch fish and take it home to eat, it is the smell of oil you will be perceiving. Even when you cook and eat it,  you will still be perceiving oil.”

    Igbagbalem, another native of Sangana, said some women whose pregnancies failed to develop well have always resorted to aborting the babies.

    He said: “I have also witnessed where some women lost their pregnancies because of the environmental challenges that oil spillage causes in our environment.

    “Aside from miscarriage, some pregnancies don’t grow. They would not form well and would not go down because of this problem. When the pregnancy is not growing again, some women will just go and wash it away (abort the baby).

    “Some women in my area have suffered this for many years. The air we breathe and the water we consume are all polluted. We are living a contaminated life.”

    The head of fisherwomen in Sangana, Mrs Betel,  felt highly disconcerted about the massive havoc that the activities of multinational oil companies are wreaking in the region.

    “Oil spillage is causing serious health problems for us and also affecting our business because it drives away the fishes,” she said.

    Like other female members of the area, she said: “We have our bath in the sea and after doing that there would be rashes all over our bodies. Our eyes also hurt us as a result of the problem.

    “The problem is so intense that it affects our breathing. People are complaining all the time about different types of sicknesses.”

    Mrs Betel said they have been engaging in self-medication to treat the challenges since they have no money to go to  the hospital. “When we have  some of these problems, we take anti- biotic, anti-malaria and other kinds of drugs,” she said.

    ‘We mistook our children’s deaths for witchcraft attacks’

    Prior to the discovery of the humongous damage that oil spills were doing to human lives and the environment in the Niger Delta, mysterious deaths of infants were attributed to witchcraft attacks.

    Comrade Princes Elizabeth Egbe, Coordinator of Global Care Rescue Mission and convener of Bayelsa Amazon Advocacy Campaign Group, a coalition of major women-led organisations in Bayelsa State, shared this much in a chat with our correspondent.

    Her words: “Talking about the oil spills and how it affects women in Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta, it cannot be over emphasised.

    “The truth of the matter is, growing up in that place, I got to understand that most women, even from your own family, you will see women that gave birth to 12 children and they would all die. Some gave birth to 12 and only one survived.

    “It varie d and it was attributed to witchcraft attacks and all that. But growing up into an adult coupled with the education and exposure that one has now, I got to realise that these oil spillages in the Niger Delta and Bayelsa were at the centre of the problem.

    “Why do we say so? People in Bayelsa State largely depend on water sources, the river, the seas, and the streams, for their drinking water, sanitation and whatever they want to do. That is the water they depend on.

    “There is a common saying that water is life. When these oil spills occur, the question is does it affect these sources of drinking water that the people have? The answer is yes.

    “Most times when oil spillage occurs, it affects the drinking water sources of the people, which is the life wire of any human being. Most times, it occurs in community A and about 10 to 20 communities are affected, depending on the  direction the water is going.”

    She continued: “As long as the river is flowing, the stream is flowing, the canal is flowing or the sea is flowing, it keeps moving this contamination round the waters.  That is how the water sources get contaminated.

    “The people have no other source; they depend on this water for potable drinking water, for sanitation and everything.

    “You just imagine a woman that is pregnant, for instance, going to that same water to have her bath and now goes to that same water that is contaminated with crude oil for her drinking needs.

    “For a baby in that circumstance to survive will be at God’s mercy and kindness.  But you know that the baby and the woman are at risk. That is why a lot of times,  our women get miscarriages.

    “The crude oil sometimes is very thick on top of the surfaces of the water and you hardly even get access to this water. If these were to be when we were using iron buckets, any mistake on the river that causes a spark would just light up everybody.”

    Speaking on the general effect of the despicable development on the people, she said: “Women are affected not in the area of infant mortality and maternal mortality. They are affected in terms of their health.

    “The women have to travel far away to get some of the water with less quantity of the crude oil in it. They have to work harder than before.”

     Oil workers s3xually exploiting poor community girls

    Following the widespread poverty among the people, Comrade Princes Elizabeth Egbe, said, many well to do oil workers have resorted to throwing crumbs at them and s3xually exploiting them.

    She said:“The occupation of the women is farming and fishing. They have been affected economically in the sense that their livelihood is being destroyed. Their farming and fishing activities are no longer productive.  They are just exposed like that because livelihood is tough. That also promotes  immorality in the sense that since there is no form of income and poverty has increased because of these incessant oil spills.  When the oil companies’ workers who have a lot of money throw even gala (sausage) to the at them, they have access to these girls that they can have s3x with them.  That increases the incidence of teenage pregnancy, and unwanted pregnancy. We have unwanted pregnancies. We have women that cannot say this is their children because the oil companies’ workers come, splash so much money around and impregnate so many girls and run away. The girls are left with the pregnancies to suffer with their parents.  The suffering that the oil spillages cause in the Niger Delta cannot be over emphasised because the burden is more on the women.”

    She added: “When  the children are sick as a result of the contaminated water, contaminated environment, as a result of not eating well,  because poverty has increased and they don’t have the quantity of protein they are supposed to have is no longer there because the aquatic life is being destroyed, when they are sick their mothers cannot go anywhere. She has to be  there to cater for those children.  So you are talking about wastage of manpower  by the women who at the same time have to try and provide for the family.  They are stressed up mentally, physically, financially, economically  and so on.

    “For fair play and justice, the oil companies in particular should begin to reason  this way.  They should look at it in terms of moral justice to see how they can set aside certain funds for  women’s healthcare in the Niger Delta, especially Bayelsa.  Also, women economic empowerment projects where women can have access to some form of grants  to help look at some other forms of livelihood because the oil spill has soiled major livelihood which the Ijaw women are known for.  You can imagine how the women have been adversely affected.  I also want to call on international organisations to help us.”

    She went on to lambast successive governments in the country for failing to carry out health audits of the people in the region. “We have been advocating for a long time  that there should be a health audit in the Niger Delta.  If they carry out a health audit in Bayelsa you will see that this oil spill has affected both children and women. Without these multinationals, some international organisations can also help us to carry out health audits in the Niger Delta. We have been told that our life span has been cut short to less than 50 years and nobody wants to do something about it. I don’t think it’s  fair. It’s not fair for everybody to keep quiet. Let there be a health audit carried out in the Niger Delta to ascertain all these things that we are advocating and claiming have happened to the women and to the generality of the Niger Delta people, especially Bayelsa State,  which is the heart of the Niger Delta.

    Infertility, diabetes, spread in Ogoni, Delta

    In Ogoni area of  Rivers State  the menace of oil spillage is said to have worsened the problem of infertility among the young and mature members of the axis.

    Chairperson of Coalition of Ogoni Women, Mrs Patience Osaroejiji  said the women are mostly affected because they are majorly involved in working on the farmlands that are ravaged by oil spillages.   “Women are mostly farmers in our environment.  All that women do is farming. The men mostly don’t go to farm.  In my own environment men don’t farm, it is women that go to farm.  When this oil spills, it spills on the land where women  farm and you know they step on it. A lot of problems erupt as a result of it.  It is causing a lot of infertility even among the young ones because as they match it, it goes through the pores into the body.

    “When a woman marries and she doesn’t have children they will say she is infertile but they will not know that this is one of the problems.  This does not only affect women, it also affects men.  Women are the people who suffer this crisis more than the men.”

    Also decrying the effects on the economic life of the women, she said:  “When the oil spills on the farmland, the land doesn’t yield as it used to yield before. The crude goes deeper into our water .  The underground water is polluted.  It also affects the aqua life of the women. Women used to go to the seaside to pick periwinkle, oysters, and other sea foods we used to get before  but we no longer get them because of the pollution.”

    In Delta State, many women in the oil rich state are said to have also been suffering from myriads of sicknesses caused by the spillages.

    Oil spillage has made our environment uninhabitable.  It has made life unbearable for our people.  The speaking with our correspondent on the predicament of the women, the Executive Director  Women Initiative for Values Empowerment  and Sustainability  International (WIVES Int’l)  Mrs Tonbra Kasikoro Kilopirite, said: “Many women are having miscarriages.  Their predicament is often worsened by absence of good facilities. Before some of them are rushed to the hospital when they have complications, it becomes a huge problem.  There are also challenges of stillbirth among the women.

    “Another issue among the women is hypertension. When a pregnant woman is hypertensive it is not good. The quality of our agricultural produce has been seriously affected by the  spillage and that has been spiking the challenge of diabetes among women.  We carried out a free medical test for our women recently and we found that the rate of diabetes is very high in the region  because  the quality of what they eat now is not healthy.

    The air we breathe in is toxic and it affects the lung and also affects the baby in the womb. The baby in the womb feeds from what the mother has inside her. If what the mother has inside her is not good  it will affect the development of the child.  These days  we have children who have one impairment or the other and this is as a result of the polluted substances we inhale.

    FG agency mum

    The federal government agency in charge of managing oil spills, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) was yet to provide an official response to our questions on what it is doing to alleviate the plight of the suffering women in the Niger Delta.

    Calls to the Director General, Idris Musa’s mobile line were not answered.

    He, however, responded to our correspondent’s text message asking for information on the agency’s activities in the embattled region.

    “If you know NOSDRA’s office in Abuja, please come. It’s not a phone matter,” he tersely replied.

    Our correspondent went on to give the NOSDRA boss his email requesting him to put his response in writing and forward it through the email provided.

    He was yet to reply as at the time of filing this report.

    NOSDRA was established in 2006 as an institutional framework to co-ordinate the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) for Nigeria in accordance with the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC 90) to which Nigeria is a signatory.

    A check through the agency’s website revealed that it recorded around 412 publicly available oil spill records in 2021.

    A post on the website reads: “There are around 412 publicly available oil spill records for the period selected.32 of these oil spill sites were not visited by a Joint Investigation team.

    “132 of these had no estimated quantity of oil spilled provided by the company.Based on reports available 23,611.578 barrels of oil (3,730,629.37 litres) were spilled. That’s around 118 oil tanker trucks full.

    “Two major oil spills (over 250 barrels spilled into inland waters, or over 2,500 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline and open sea).Six medium oil spills (25-250 barrels spilled into inland waters, or 250-2,500 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline and open sea).

    “261 minor oil spills (up to 25 barrels spilled into inland waters, or 250 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline and open sea). 187 of these were under 10 barrels in size.138 oil spills could not be categorised.”

    The post by the agency, even though it will  always be described as not being a true picture of what actually occurred, showed a pervasive trend of the spillages.

    Studies corroborate claims in Niger Delta

    Much as one may be quick to dismiss the claims of the embattled women in the Niger Delta as mere speculations,  various studies in the area and similar ones in oil producing communities outside the country show that exposure to environmental pollution caused by oil spillage could be harmful to pregnant women.

    One of such studies titled “Oil Spills, Gas Flaring and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: A Systematic Review undertaken by scholars from the University of Ibadan that was posted on Scientific Research, an academic publisher, in its conclusion said: “This work focused on peer-reviewed literature addressing various adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of exposure to oil pollutants in the environment. The review suggests that pregnant women in close proximity to oil polluted areas may be at higher risk of experiencing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, maternal depression, miscarriages amongst others and three major pathways of exposure were identified as through air, water and soil. Studies reviewed employed different types of methodologies and cut across different fields of study.”

    A similar study and report on a foreign website: www.momscleanairforce.org also made similar revelations.

    The report titled ‘How Oil and Gas Operations Impact Your Baby’s Health’ noted that “air pollutants associated with oil and gas operations are known to cause serious health impacts in pregnant women, babies, and children – as well as other adults.

    The report was broken down under the following headings: Low birth weight

    A Pennsylvania study found that living near natural gas wells was associated with having lower birth weight babies. Low birth weight babies are at increased risk of early death, infections, and learning disabilities.

    Congenital heart defects

    In a Colorado study, babies whose mothers had large numbers of natural gas wells within a 10-mile radius of their home had an increased risk of birth defects of the heart, compared to babies whose mothers had no wells within 10 miles of their home.

    Preterm birth

    In a Pennsylvania study, babies whose mothers lived close to natural gas wells were more likely to be born preterm (before 37 weeks gestation), compared to babies whose mothers lived farther away from gas wells.

    High-risk pregnancy

    Pregnancies in Pennsylvania among mothers who lived close to natural gas operations were more likely to be labeled “high-risk,” a designation that can include high blood pressure or excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

    What is happening to babies in oil and gas regions?

    Preliminary studies have found that living near pollution emitted from oil and gas operations may be harmful to your baby’s health.

  • Endless agony of Nigerian soldiers who turned guns on themselves

    Endless agony of Nigerian soldiers who turned guns on themselves

    Fatigue? Insomnia? Drug? Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Which of these could have been responsible for the recent spate of suspected suicide by soldiers while on duty? PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU, who has been monitoring the situation, reports.

    THE sky had just started brightening up on Monday,November 14,2022 in Jare, Borno State. The clock had just nicked 8 o clock.

    In ones and twos and threes,residents were trooping out to go about their business activities.And so were soldiers deployed in the town against ISWAP and Boko Haram terrorists.

    But  human traffic was soon interrupted at Latitude 11.782267° and Longitude 13.186818° by the  unexpected sight of the lifeless body of Lance Bombardier AbdulRasheed Ahmed in a pool of his own blood.Lying beside him was his rifle.

    Ahmed, an artillery soldier attached to 73 Battalion, was said to have opened fire on himself.

    Twenty months earlier,another soldier had  shot himself dead while having a discussion with his colleagues at the Nigerian Army School of Armour, Bauchi.

    Two similar cases were recorded in 2017 and 2020.

    In the 2017 incident,the victim hung  himself soon after killing his commanding officer in Chibok, Borno State, while the victim of the 2020 incident took his life  after leaving a note for his wife.

    Although cases of soldiers committing suicide, killing/harming their colleagues and superiors or even displaying irrational behaviour symptomatic of  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, somatization, substance abuse and other mental health related disorders are believed to be giving cause for concern in the military, studies over the years have shown that military deployments come with a  plethora of psychological challenges.

    Sounds of bombs and  other explosives used by own troops or enemy forces; blazing guns, deaths of colleaguaes, devastations and other pains of war to which soldiers are exposed  daily take a heavy toll on their mental health.

    Consultant Neuro- Psychiatrist and a Fellow of the National PostGraduate Medical College of Nigeria (FMCPsych), Dr. Maymunah Kadiri, says exposure to traumatic life events could have serious adverse psychological effects on people including PTSD which is characterized by interrelated symptoms such as “intrusive thoughts, recurrent dreams, flashbacks, distress and physiologic reactivity upon exposure to trauma cues; avoidance and emotional numbing symptoms including  avoidance of traumatic reminders, anhedonia, detachment from others, restricted emotional experiences, sense of foreshortened future; as well as hyper arousal symptoms like sleep difficulties, irritability and anger, concentration problems, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle.”

    Numerous studies have identified stronger association between deployment and PTSD.

    In Nigeria, available statistics indicate an astronomical increase in the rate of combat related PTSD among soldiers over  the last 15 years.

    Specifically, a study conducted last year by Ogbole James, a military doctor at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna, put  PTSD prevalence rate among soldiers in combat operations at 32 percent.This is against  the 22, 12 and 24 per cents recorded by previous studies.

    Participants at a post-traumatic seminar organised by the Army Headquarters’ Department of Transformation, in November 2021, raised concerns over rising PTSD among personnel.

    The army advocated that awareness be raised on  the issue in view of the  negative effects mental health challenges have on operational effectiveness and efficiency.

    The service also cited prolonged involvement in the fight against terrorists.

    However, prolonged combat exposures are not the only reasons for the rising cases of PTSD among soldiers. Issues of welfare, corruption and administrative high-handedness have also been identified as stressors.

    For instance, stories have been told of how some soldiers at the war front were denied permission by their commanders to attend their own  wedding even after receiving  clearance from the Army Headquarters.

    A Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Wale Folarin, attributes  the recent wave of PTSD to several factors including restricted emotional experiences and short temperament of the victims.

    He believes  that a lot of their experiences at  the war front, delay or non- payment  of their basic allowances, more so when they cannot complain aloud, combined with accumulated stress, are capable of altering their mood of behaviour.

    He advocates a deliberate and compulsory training by  the army for all soldiers returning  from the battle field.

    “This training will prepare their mind and give them the psychological therapy needed to live a normal life again. If this is not done as at when due, cases of PTSD may become rampant,” he says.

    According to Folarin, on no account should a soldier who has been on the battle field for a period of time be encouraged to go back into the society without a stop gap training which, in most cases, is nonexistence in the army today  “but a mere camouflage type of training which at the long run could be more frustrating than where the troops are coming from.”

    On her part,Dr. Kadiri says uncontrolled anger, restricted emotional experiences, irritability and inability  to sleep well could trigger PTSD.

    Like Folarin,she wants  a post war therapy and constant training to smoothen the integration of soldiers who have stayed long at the  war front  into normal life.

     

    Army’s psychotherapy course

    Although the army introduced a  three-week psychotherapy course at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry (NASI), Jaji, for de-induction of troops from combat operations, The Nation gathered  that lack of motivation, poor feeding and other issues seemed to have taken the shine off the programme. Sources  said the food arranged for the participants was not good enough,forcing some of them to make private arrangement for their feeding .

    Said  one of  the sources:  “the truth is that a lot of soldiers do not fancy going to Jaji for the psychotherapy course because it is like punishment. The food they provide is horrible.

    “They said feeding allowance is N1,000 per person per day but the food provided  cannot be  more than N200.. Imagine eating N200 food.

    “Besides, no one pays you any training allowance. We only get our salary and the N45,000 per month operations allowance is stopped during the three-month course.

    “Those who are inducted as a unit have no option as they must attend the course till completion.

    “For those posted as individuals, no one even cares whether you attend or not. No one monitors level of compliance.

    “There is nothing like periodic mental check though there is a department called psycho warfare but their office is never opened. Also, in the hospital at the theatre, you will never see a psychologist there.”

    The Nation also gathered that while some soldiers in the  theatres of operations  manage to live with their own stress others have taken to drug abuse while some have become depressed.

    A soldier said:”Sometimes, when I am taking a walk  and see a crack or bad spot, I just become paranoid and avoid it as though there is an explosive there. Not just in the Northeast, it happens to me everywhere and people will be looking at me strangely when they see me avoiding the crack or pothole.

    “I also have friends who suffer from insomnia. Some of them tell us how any loud sound makes them jump off their bed.  Go to any of the Army Reference hospitals, you will see  many soldiers suffering from drug addiction on admission. Most of them took to drugs to escape traumas.”

    The Defence and Police Officers Wives Association’s (DEPOWA) is one of the organisations seeking to assist depressed soldiers.

    Only last month DEPOWA  commenced construction of a PTSD centre in Abuja said to be the first of its kind in Africa.

    It will serve  as a one-stop shop to cater for  the mental, emotional and psychological wellbeing of members of the Armed Forces and their families.

    Dr. Kadiri told The Nation that  exposure to traumatic events were common and over two thirds of the general population were likely to be exposed to one  traumatic incident or the other in their lifetime.

    The  military ,according to her, has “been on operation fields from the troubled North Eastern part of Nigeria ravaged by Boko Haram to the South East troubled by IPOB secession group, to the South-South with the Niger Delta Avengers, the North Central troubled by nomads and farmers; these issues and many more have led to the deployment of our military to various combat grounds .”

    Prolonged exposure to  combats causes PTSD,she said.

    “Another factor that can be responsible is the problem of manpower and the pressure to optimize manpower; soldiers are often redeployed leading to increased intensity in trauma.’

    On the way out,she says: “Awareness and orientation should be carried out in the military to encourage soldiers in getting help and reducing stigmatization.

    “Government should look into increasing manpower to reduce burden on serving soldiers,provide appropriate care for soldiers and ensure they do not stay too long in combat areas.”

    In his report, Ogbole James warned   that the rise in PTSD prevalence among soldiers on combat operations could affect troops’ robustness and operational effectiveness because mental health was an effective force multiplier in military operations.

    His wrds:”In relation to the above, it becomes necessary to routinely screen military personnel on combat operations following trauma exposure for effective and timely psychological interventions.

    “As a result, further research is required to determine evidence-based service delivery strategies for management of combat related mental health problems among soldiers.

    “Therefore, military authorities should make it as a priority in all operations across the country to provide readily and timely mental health support for troops particularly in relation to the gradually increasing prevalence of PTSD.”

    The Army authorities could not reached to comment on the efforts to check PTSD among soldiers.

    Several telephone calls to the spokesman for the Army, Gen. Nwachukwu Onyema were not answered.

    Text and WhatsApp messages sent to him with reminders were also  not replied.

    Spokesman for the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Maj.-Gen. Akpor who was also contacted first said it was an administrative issue but later r referred the reporter to the Army since the research being referred to was carried out by a military doctor at the Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna.

    He said: “That’s an administrative issue. Is it rampant? Which type of research is that? Then, ask them (Army), since the research you talked about was done by them.

    “If you are to use the statistics you mentioned, it will put the Armed Forces in bad light. Also, you do not conclude based on one research, you should compare two or more.

    “We also have to know how they generated the sample size and interrogate the size before we move ahead. You already know what efforts are being made (referring to DEPOWA PTSD centre).

    “If you want to  interrogate the statistics further, you have to speak to the Army because the study mentioned is not Defence wide, it is just Army. If it involved the three services, then, I would be in a position to speak on it.”

  • Inside illegal oil bunkering business across borders

    Inside illegal oil bunkering business across borders

    • How pregnant, nursing mothers endanger selves, smuggle products in daylight

    • Top security operatives, high society people run night shift, smuggle fuel from 10pm to 5am

    • We’ve suppressed smuggling of petrol – Customs

    • There’s massive smuggling at the borders – IPMAN Chief  

    Mama Seme, a smuggler, strapped three sacks containing big nylon bags filled with petrol to her body like suicide bombers do IEDs as she moved around to negotiate with drivers that would help her transport her wares to Seme, the border point between Nigeria and Benin Republic.

    She had bought the petrol from one of the filling stations in Badagary. Hordes of other women smugglers who had also bought petrol from different filling stations sat on the road waiting for drivers that would take them to their destinations from Seme to Owode.

    Among the female smugglers were pregnant women and nursing mothers who intermittently tucked their breasts into their babies’ mouths each time they cried as if protesting their exposure to the scorching sun.

    “Oga come and carry me now. I will pay N3,500. Or how much do you want to collect?” one of the women said as she took our correspondent for one of the drivers aiding smugglers.

    After wandering for some time, Mama Seme and three other fellow smugglers reached an agreement with a driver to transport the goods for them.

    Our correspondent, who had been monitoring the activities of smugglers in the area, hopped into the car to commence the journey with the smugglers.

    “Why all this now?” a sixth passenger in the vehicle protested, seeing the driver stuff different parts of the vehicle with sacks and gallons containing petrol.

    The driver forced some of the smuggled products in front of the seat beside his, where Mama Seme and a pregnant woman sat. He kept some around where he sat and packed the rest inside the booth.

    At the back seat, two other women smugglers sat between our correspondent and the protesting passenger cuddling plastic bottles containing petrol to their chest.

    “Don’t you know that this can be disastrous? If there should be a single spark from anywhere on the way, none of us will survive,” the aggrieved passenger continued as he constantly wiped off sweat from his wrinkled face.

    “That will not be our portion,” Mama Seme retorted. “I  have been plying  this route for a long time and never had any problem.

    “Just have faith that we will get to where we are going in peace. Even people who did not carry petrol do have accidents and die.

    “It is what we are going to eat that we are looking for. God will not allow us to see what will consume us. So, Uncle, relax.”

    “It is God that protects,” the pregnant woman beside Mama Seme interjected. Baba (driver) does not carry as much fuel as other drivers do. Some will even stuff the roof of their cars with petrol.

    “Some who have raised their vehicles have a way of building a place where they hang petrol under the vehicle. God will lead us, so let your mind be at rest,” she said.

    Our correspondent took mental notes as arguments raged back and forth.

    “Hmmm, this indeed is a deadly ride with smugglers,” the reporter said to himself in-between fear and trying to coin a catchy headline for his report.

    Shortly after leaving Badagry roundabout, the vehicle ran into a road block mounted by a team of  armed policemen.  They had just one mission and that was just to check if the driver was carrying petrol so they could extort money from him.

    “Paaark!” one of the policemen screamed as the driver delayed giving him the amount requested. “Give me your driver’s licence and particulars!”

    Without wasting time, the driver hopped down from the vehicle to plead with the policemen. Within a few minutes, an agreement was reached and  the journey continued.

    Between Badagry and the Nigerian part of Seme border, there were more than 30 checkpoints mounted by policemen and customs officers. Some of the road blocks were just a pole away from each other and money was extorted from the drivers at each point.

    The sums paid differed from one checkpoint to another and often depended on the bargaining power of the driver or the disposition of the officer or officers as the case may be.

    The policemen’s  weapon of intimidation was demanding for the drivers’ particulars while that of the customs was to seize the smuggled petrol where the drivers fail to give a sum the officers considered reasonable.

    A driver whose documents had been seized by a team of policemen  told  our correspondent that “some of these police patrol teams were not really meant to work in this area but they have drafted themselves here because of the money they make on a daily basis. Imagine how much they collect from every vehicle that has passed through this place since morning.”

    Working with customs officials at some of the checkpoints were  some locals popularly called to as Kelebe. They are always quick to open car booths to confiscate smuggled petrol where the driver fails to meet their demands.

    After one of them bolted with a sack containing petrol from the vehicle boarded by our correspondent, a customs official walked towards the driver to issue him (driver) a stern warning.

    “You always don’t like to pay. If you prove stubborn I will seize all the other sacks and gallons in your car,”  he said while telling his colleague to carry out a fresh check on a vehicle he was searching before.

    “Hey! Please check that vehicle for me. I  was perceiving the smell of  petrol in his car but I was yet to locate where he hid it. Check round to see if he kept it under the car,”  he said as he haggled with our correspondent’s driver.

    Journey to Pau

    After arriving at the Nigerian side of the Seme border, the smugglers alighted to take a remote path to Benin Republic. Those whose goods were not too heavy carried them on their heads and walked down the dusty route to an area called Pau in Benin Republic.

    Those whose goods were heavier took motorcycles that conveyed them to the area. At Pau, buyers of the products were on standby. While some of them purchased to resell in Benin Republic, some others bought to resell in other neighbouring countries. Various Nigerian security personnel are daily stationed at Pau but  their presence in the area does not in any way stop the smuggling of the country’s resources across the border for pecuniary gains.

    Encounter with more female smugglers, drivers

    In the course of his numerous trips with the smugglers, our correspondent encountered more daring women smugglers, some of who were very proud of what they had achieved doing the business. One of them was eager to teach our correspondent how best to maximise his profits from the tainted business.

    “Are you just starting?” she asked as she watched our correspondent clumsily arranging the white nylon bags used in buying petrol. Three were sold for N50.

    Boasting about her success in the trade, the woman said:

    “I have been doing this for a long time. I buy in gallons at Mowo (before Badagry) and send them through some of our drivers. The payment includes the money they will use to settle customs and police on the road. They leave Mowo by 2 am and I go to Seme to carry my goods.

    “I sell at  Pau because going deep inside Cotonou will cost more money transporting the goods.

    It is a lucrative business. I have built a house doing it. The more money you invest, the more profit you make. I can put you through if you are interested.”

    Asked if the trade has any risk, she said: “Yes, it has its own risks, but there is no business without risks.

    “At times, a problem could arise that would make customs men not to collect settlements (bribe). When this happens, they will begin to seize people’s goods. We only pray that evil will not befall us.

    “I can make N3,000 on a gallon. If you multiply it by 10 gallons, it will give you N30,000. I ply the route about four times a week and sometimes more.”

    Another smuggler who happened to be new in the trade was met on another trip. She had just six plastic bottles containing petrol in her bag. For all the stress and danger she would face on the way, she told our correspondent that she would only make N1,100 at the end of the day.

    She said: “I was living at Agboju (Lagos) before moving to Badagry with my husband and children.

    “When we got to Badagry, the business that I was involved in collapsed and life became very difficult for my family.

    “I cried to a friend and she showed me the way- I mean she told me that I could start this business with as little as N5,000.

    “I spend about N4,000 buying petrol which I put in plastic bottles. When I get here at Pau, I sell it for N6,500. I pay drivers N900 or N1000 to bring me here and pay N500 to go back home. At the end of the day, I will be making about N1,000 or N1,100. I use that to support my husband at home.

    “I do this every day and it has been helping to solve some domestic problems.

    “As you can see, the buyers are on ground to take it. The market is there. You don’t need to go hawking it around before you sell it.”

    Some of the drivers are unhappy about the volume of extortion by security operatives on the road.

    The driver of one of the buses taken by our correspondent said: “I don’t carry much fuel again because at the end of the day, I will go home with little or nothing.

    “If I charge these women N15,000 from Badagry, I will only have N700 left at the end of the day because customs and police would have collected virtually everything.

    “Does it make sense that an old man like me will set out early in the morning to go and work and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it? It is a case of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.

    “You saw the number of checkpoints on the way. At every checkpoint, they will stop you and ask for money. If you don’t give them, they will seize people’s petrol that you are carrying.

    “If you carry a large quantity of petrol, you will part with between N1,000 and N1,500 at each checkpoint.”

    Top security officers, wives, others take over smuggling at night

    Findings along the route at night revealed that the large movement of petrol by the women during the day is a child’s play. From 10pm till about 5 am, the cars and motorcycles pave the way for vans, trucks and vehicles of different sizes to run the show. It was learnt that the late night smuggling is done by top security officials, their wives and other highly placed people in the society.

    “This is the real deal. What happens in the day is a child’s play,” a resident of Seme, who gave his name simply as Maye, said.

    “It is top security officials that are involved in this and nobody checks anything. Some security officials’ wives  have an association and they are seriously involved in this dirty business,” Maye added.

    Another resident who gave his name simply as Degbu  described the night activities as mega smuggling. Some of the smugglers have either expanded their tanks or removed the back seats and converted them to tanks with which they buy large quantities of fuel that they smuggle to Cotonou and neighbouring countries. “The quantity of petrol that comes to this area from what we see here is more than what they sell in the entire Lagos-Badagry axis.”

    Customs allegedly resell seized products to foreigners

    Aside from extorting money from smugglers, customs officials are also said to be deeply involved in selling petrol to Benin Republic people.

    A resident of Seme, Bayoku, said: “When customs men seize petrol from smugglers, they end up selling it to the Beninoise.

    “There is no difference between them and the smugglers. They only seize petrol from smugglers who refuse to pay the amount they are asking for as bribe.

    “If you meet their demands, they will allow you to go with any quantity of petrol you are carrying. Their actions are further encouraging more  people to go into smuggling of petrol because everybody knows that all you need to do to bring your smuggled products to Cotonou is to bribe the customs officials.

    “Once you are able to do that, you are good. It is when they want to do propaganda to show that they are working that they would call a press conference to tell Nigerians that they confiscated petrol from smugglers after a serious gun battle. It is all lies. If they have been doing that as they often claim, how come Cotonou is  daily flooded with petrol from Nigeria?”

    Bayoku also spoke about how failed agreements between customs men and smugglers have been posing serious threats to their community. “There have always been clashes between customs officials and smugglers who refuse to give them the exact amount they ask for as bribe.

    “Recently, a customs official here in Seme shot at one of such smugglers and in the process, two children were hit by bullets. The ugly development threw the whole area into serious crisis. “Eventually, customs authorities took responsibility for the treatment of those children.

    “They have always endangered our lives here and we are not finding it funny.”

     Petrol stations decline selling to non-smugglers

    Checks around the Lagos-Seme route showed that some of the filling stations give priority to smugglers, especially during scarcity.

    Some of them were seen selling to the women smugglers but refused to sell to other people.

    “They prefer to sell to the smugglers because they sell to them  above the price they would sell to other users.

    “Their actions and the extortion by security operatives have legitimised smuggling of PMS in this area.

    “The annoying thing is that children watch all this and see it as a way of life. I am very worried about the children because they have been exposed to criminal activities early in life,” Timothy, a Badagry resident, said.

    Smugglers burnt to death

    In the course of carrying out their nefarious activities, findings revealed that many smugglers have ended up losing their lives to fire incidents caused by sparks in the vehicles conveying them.

    Adje, a resident of Badagry said: “Not too long ago, there was an incident where a vehicle conveying smugglers and gallons of petrol to Benin Republic caught fire. The smart ones jumped out while the unlucky ones were burnt to death.

    “There was also a motorcyclist  who carried bags of petrol in front and at the back of his motorcycle. As he was speeding to go and deliver the goods, the petrol started leaking and ran down towards the plug area.

    “Before the guy knew it, the motorcycle caught fire and he was burnt to ashes.

    “It is a regular occurrence on this road. Many smugglers including innocent passengers who boarded vehicles with them have at various times lost their lives to fire incidents resulting from stuffing every part of vehicles with petrol which at times leaks.”

    We have been suppressing smuggling in Seme – Customs PRO

    Spokesperson of the Nigerian  Customs Service, Seme,  Hussaini Abdullahi, stoutly denied smuggling activities especially of petrol at the border when our correspondent contacted him.

    His words: “As far as I am concerned, customs as an agent of government has a responsibility of suppressing smuggling.  As far as I am concerned we are doing that with all our ability.  From January to date,  this is the only command in the whole country that  has seized over 19 tankers of fuel.

    “I don’t know how you got your own information that the petrol is being smuggled out of the border.  I don’t know which of the borders you are talking about.  But as far as I am concerned, in Seme here,  we are doing our best to  suppress smuggling, especially that of petroleum  products to the barest minimum.  We have seized  over 619, 000 litres of fuel from January to September.”

    When it was put to him that our investigations revealed that customs officials were demanding bribes along the Badagry-Seme axis and aiding smugglers, Hussaini replied:  “I don’t know where you are getting the information from but I am telling you we are here to suppress smuggling.  To the best of my knowledge we are doing that. I tell you that this is the command that from January Till September, I have not compiled my record for October and November  but I want to tell you the quantity of petroleum products that we seized. Go and verify.

    “All over the country, no command has the record of seizure that we have made on petroleum products.  Something like that is not even happening in our area.  It is not in Seme.”

    On allegations that seized petrol is sold to people across the border, he said: “How would somebody seize something and sell it across the border?  If we are here to suppress smuggling, how would we seize something and sell it again?   Just look at it. How would you seize something and sell it? Let me tell you, we have a standard procedure of auctioning perishable items and whenever we make such seizures, that procedure is being followed to the logical conclusion. That rumour or information  about selling seized petrol across the border or collecting bribes is totally false, untrue and uncalled for.”

    Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyi was yet to respond to calls and text message sent to him on the unholy activities of policemen on the  Seme border corridor.

     There’s massive smuggling at borders- IPMAN National Operations Controller, Mr Mike Osatuyi

    Corroborating our findings, the National Operations Controller of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN,  Mike Osatuyi, in a chat with our correspondent,  debunked the Seme Customs PRO’s claim. He emphatically said that petrol is being smuggled across all the borders in the country including Seme.  He said: “There is smuggling everywhere in the country. If anybody says there is no smuggling, he is not telling the truth. The problem is that we have security agencies at the border. They are the ones that are allowing this thing to go for income. That is just the truth.  Anybody claiming that there is no smuggling is not telling the truth to Nigerians.”

    The implication, he said,  is that ‘we are the ones financing many countries with subsidized products.  We are the ones financing countries like Chad, Cameroon,  Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali  Togo, Benin Republic and so on.  They are feeding on our fuel. The day we deregulate, it will stop.

    “We don’t have any figures of smuggling but there is mass smuggling.  The corruption is not only along the Seme border, It is across all the borders in Nigeria. Deregulation is the solution.

    “Do you see them smuggling kerosene and diesel?  The answer is no because those products have already been deregulated and not beneficial to smugglers.  It is when we deregulate that we would actually know the quantity of fuel we consume in Nigeria.  The figures that the NNPC is giving us are fake.”

    Asked what can be done about security men aiding smuggling along the border areas, he said:  “They cannot do anything because  the benefits are too much and the profits are too much.  The profit is threatening.  If you put anybody at the border, that is when you will know.  The benefits are much.”

    Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, had  last year admitted that petrol was being smuggled out to neighouring countries.

    He disclosed this  when he was asked by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to explain why smuggling activities had caused the local daily consumption of PMS to rise.

    Hameed said: “There is hardly anything we can do to stop the smuggling of fuel outside the country because they use the creeks, they use land borders, they use virtually everything possible, we cannot be everywhere, we must begin to think out of the box. We should extend our petrol stations into these countries. We should move these products there.

    “NNPC or Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) should establish petrol stations in our neighbouring countries, and move these products at the cost that we sell, and sell to this people, we will make money, we have the market and by so doing we will completely diminish the anxiety or the penchant for smuggling.

    “If a Beninese will get the fuel at the price we are getting and the cost of transportation, which is the minimum, there is no way he will wait for people to import to him at twice the price. We have made this proposal, we have made noise about it, no one seems to listen.

    Nigeria’s oil industry bleeds

    The oil industry which accounts for Nigeria’s 80 percent revenue has been hemorrhaging for  a very long time. From smuggling to brazen theft, economic saboteurs have relentlessly and unrepentantly been unleashing  enormous setbacks on the country’s economy.

    Dissecting the loss the country records daily following the  enormous smuggling of its petrol to neigbouring countries, Martin Onovo, a petroleum engineer, and rights activist,  told our correspondent that: “PMS (Petrol) is subsidised in Nigeria. Current subsidy is about N500 per litre. Therefore, if we lose 30 million litres a day to smuggling, then we are losing N15 billion  daily to smugglers, corrupt businesses and their sponsors in public office.

    “It is very difficult to commit any crime without the complicity of security officials. In this case, it is very easy to prevent the smuggling of PMS. However, since the smuggling is done by highly connected persons, they can keep the security officials complacent or complicit.

    “We have the current case of Superintendent of Customs, Mr. Segun Owombo who intercepted a tanker smuggling petroleum products but was directed by senior customs officials to release the truck. Instead of a promotion, he is now said to be facing disciplinary action. Therefore, it is clear that very senior government officials are definitely involved directly or indirectly.”

    In 2018, Deutche Wella, a German media organization reporting on theft of crude oil from Nigeria to Cameroon said the crime had cost the country(Nigeria)  €9 billion in the last two years (2016 -2018).

    Decrying the ugly development, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, recently said government was dealing with the menace. He revealed that between April and August 2022, the government deactivated 199 illegal refineries and arrested 122 persons; and $35.8m worth of crude oil was either recovered or destroyed.

    He said NNPC has created a centre to harness energy theft data and people can report theft and vandalism.

    “We are following the cash and I can confirm to you at this moment that you will see more things will happen. The 122 people that we have mentioned, they have names and at the right time we will disclose them,” he said.

    Kyari noted that the compromise cuts across board. “There are oil company workers, maybe even NNPC workers, government security workers, some of them have been arrested and some from the communities, some are elite and the government is after them, and we will get them.”

  • Ademola Adeleke: Dancing up a storm in Osun

    Ademola Adeleke: Dancing up a storm in Osun

    Not many Nigerians, especially close watchers of Nigeria’s political space, will be surprised with the recent actions of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, who was inaugurated on Sunday, November 27, 2022.

    While there may be more dramatic actions to come, all of his actions sum up that power must be exercised with caution, discipline and responsibility.

    As Adeleke settles into office, all eyes are on him with many stakeholders already spelling out their expectations of the new governor. His entry means the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now has two of the six governors in the Southwest geo-political zone.

    Indeed, Adeleke has an arduous task ahead, especially considering the lean resources of the state amid the issues that he inherited from his predecessor. Citizens of the state are earnestly looking up to him to fulfill the promises he made while campaigning.

    On his first day in office, videos of the governor dancing energetically and vigorously to Kizz Daniel’s popular song ‘Buga’ to the admiration of the people went viral.

    He was once called the ‘Dancing Senator’ but has now transformed into the ‘Dancing Governor.’ But beyond the energetic steps and unconventional style, he still has to prove to Osun citizens that he won’t entertain just them with just dancing skills but real governance.

    Read Also: VIDEO: Adeleke dances to Buga on First Day as Gov

    Adeleke had unveiled a five-point agenda that would drive his policy as governor to meet his people’s yearnings. The first on the list is to clear the state’s backlog of salaries and pensions. He also promised to boost the economy; a people-focused social policy through skill-based education, affordable health care, state security, and social security support; and agro-based industrialisation for wealth and job creation for youths and women.

    But his recent actions are nothing to gloat about. It is something to groan about. His actions indicates that he is walking an unfamiliar path. Indeed, Adeleke has stepped into big shoes, but did he put in the wrong foot?

    A day after he was sworn in as Osun governor, he issued six Executive Orders including sacking all the workers employed by his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola, after the latter lost his re-election.

    The orders signed by Adeleke covered chieftaincy matters, appointments issues, setting up of review panel, staff audit and employment matters.

    In his inaugural speech he accused Oyetola of taking actions that were detrimental to the interest of Osun, especially the recruitment of hundreds of workers into the civil service even when there was no budgetary provision for them.

    He also suspended three monarchs and allegedly ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return of local council chairmen elected under the APC in the October 15 local government elections conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission. He has since backtracked on some of these actions, claiming that he had only initiated a review of appointments.

    The governor abolished the ‘State of Osun’ appellation, which was promulgated by one of his predecessors, Rauf Aregbesola, froze the state accounts, reversed the appointment of 30 permanent secretaries by Oyetola, while promising to correct past injustices, corrupt acts, and bad policies of the immediate past administration.

    In the wake of Adeleke’s latest actions, pundits are divided along conflicting lines of thought. Some observers condemned the new governor for reversing appointments and job recruitments made by Oyetola, noting that he should draw the line between politics and real issues.

    Beyond the political issues, Adeleke appears to be putting up personal quirks, which may offend some and amuse others. Osun people should be worried by this. But does he even care? No, he does not, it appears. If politicians were to be impaled on the cross for their often outrageous behaviour, not many of them would be left standing.

    With Adeleke just beginning beginning his journey as governor of the state, he will certainly experience many political battles. But question then is: will he be consumed or hurt by self-induced controversies? Maybe, maybe not. All of that may yet be moot if the legal challenge of his predecessor succeeds at the tribunal and higher courts. If he emerges from it all unscathed, then the people of Osun should fasten their seat belts for a bumpy ride of controversies.

  • Yahaya, IGP Baba: Who arrests the arrester?

    Yahaya, IGP Baba: Who arrests the arrester?

    In the space of three weeks, the belching smoke and rumblings from the temple of justice caught up with some high-profile personalities namely the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba; Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa.

    The famous dictum that the law is no respecter of persons has been made evident with the recent rulings. Clearly, the orders are a signal that the institution must be insulated from unfair criticism and prevent a fall in the judiciary’s reputation in the public eye.

    Contempt of court is any action that disrespects the authority of the court and brings the judge into disrepute. All of the latest episodes have controversy and triggered different reactions. For some observers the outcomes could impact the legal profession one way or another.

    Some might be tempted to see contempt of court as a trivial matter. Lawyers understand the impact of disobedience to orders but many citizens may not. Contempt is a legal word that has existed for thousands of years, traceable to the Mosaic Law. Wherever judiciary exists this infraction must exist.

    The frank debate about the court’s decisions not only acts as a check on our judiciary, but also contributes to informed and vocal public scrutiny, which in turn can promote accessibility and effectiveness of the judiciary.

    For the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, he was sentenced to three months in prison by the Federal High Court in Abuja, for flouting a 2011 court order. The backstory hinges on the appeal made by Patrick Okoli, a former police officer who was forcefully retired from the Nigeria Police Force. He filed the suit to reverse the action.

    Read Also: Three high-profile contempt rulings in weeks

    The presiding judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon, said Baba should be committed to prison for a period of three months, or until his office implements an order made by the court since 21 October 2011. Olajuwon further said despite the Police Service Commission’s recommendation reinstating Okoli into the Force, the IGP flagrantly declined to obey the order.

    But Olumuyiwa Adejobi, spokesperson for the police explained that Okoli’s case dates back to 1992 after the IGP joined Force.

    “The most recent judgement on the matter was given in 2011 which should ordinarily not fall under the direct purview of the current administration of the Force. Thus, the news is strange and astonishing,” he said.

    In the case of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, a High Court sitting in Minna, Niger State, had issued a warrant of arrest and subsequent remand of the army boss and the Commandant, Training and Doctrine Command, Minna, Major Gen. Stevenson Olabanji, for alleged contempt.

    The case was said to between one Adamu Makama and 42 others, versus the governor of Niger State and seven others. Counsel for the plaintiffs, Mohammed Liman, had prayed the court to send the army chief and commandant to the custodial centre for disobeying an order made on October 12, 2022.

    Recently, the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama sentenced to jail the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa, over contempt.

    But days after, Judge Chizoba Oji of the Federal High Court, Abuja, vacated the committal order made against Bawa. In nullifying the ruling, the judge said the evidence before her showed Bawa had complied with the court’s order, directing the EFCC to return a Range Rover Sport vehicle valued at N40 million, which it confiscated from Ojuawo, a former Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force.

    Contempt of court is a very serious matter. Arguably, the courts can not only bark, they can also bite. While this appears to be true, the Judiciary cannot enforce its own judgments and orders. It relies on the Nigerian Police Force,which is controlled by the Executive arm of government.

    Many judges in the past has refrained from making rulings which they considered unenforceable. For instance, is it really conceivable that the some surbordinate would attempt to arrest either the Inspector-General or the Chief of Army Staff.

    The undeniable truth, however, is that contempt of court is not aimed at upholding the dignity of a court or a judge, but at enabling the administration of justice to operate without undue obstruction or interference.

    Nigeria needs courageous and incorruptible judges. The judiciary must assert its authority by ensuring that court orders are obeyed to the letter. After all, it can be really conforting to believe that no one is really above the law – even if they are police or army chiefs who in the normal scheme of things are the arresters – not targets of arrest.