SINCE the administration of Governor Simon Lalong came into being in Plateau State in May 2015, the midnight attacks suffered by residents of various communities in the state between 2010 and 2015 have become a thing of the past. The Lalong administration made deliberate efforts to halt the trend as soon as he became the state’s chief executive. Last week’s incident in which 20 people were killed, however, came as an exception that punctured the long period of peace.
But the humanitarian problems posed by previous conflicts in the state are still posing serious humanitarian challenges to the government and the people. The grave conditions of the people displaced by the conflictswere worsened by the prevailing economic situation in the country on account of which the government cannot meet up with its responsibility with respect to providing the necessary aids to victims.
However, one humanitarian organisation that has never relented in providing succour for humanity in conflict situations globally is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The humanitarian body has rendered its services to victims of conflicts in Plateau, Benue, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.
But for the work done by ICRC to save lives since the beginning of the conflicts, the humanitarian situations in the affected states could have been worse than was experienced during the Nigerian civil war. According to a recent facts and figures compiled by ICRC, the humanitarian challenges facing the country could be the worst in its history.
The media officer of ICRC in Nigeria, Eleojo Esther Akpa, who authored the figures, noted that “more than five million people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states were in dire need of food, while an estimated two million persons have been displaced from their homes in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe and Yobe states.”
Akpa said: “The situation is further compounded by the steady flow of returnees from neighbouring countries of the Lake Chad Basin who took refuge there at the peak of the armed conflict in Nigeria. In the places they are returning to, the scale of devastation is astounding and implies continued hardship for those heading home. People’s sources of income have been decimated. Their fields have been left uncultivated, pastoralism has been disrupted and trading opportunities cut off. The conflict has separated families and destroyed access to food, water, education, shelter, and health care.”
She said to help mitigate the conflict’s humanitarian consequences, “the ICRC has been delivering emergency aid, as well as supporting health-care services and livelihoods, particularly in remote areas where few other humanitarian organisations are able to operate.
“Together with Red Cross societies in the Lake Chad Basin, the ICRC is searching for more than 10,000 persons who have been separated from their families as a result of the conflict.
“Apart from the conflict in the North-East, communal clashes in the Middle Belt and urban violence in the Niger Delta have led to forced displacement, disruption of health services and long-term psychological trauma.
“In these conflict-prone states, the economic base and sources of livelihood of residents, especially farming and trading, have been inconsistent, and lack of food remains one of the most urgent humanitarian needs. People are bracing themselves for a prolonged lean season due to the sporadic rainfall and several missed planting seasons.
“The situations of the most vulnerable groups such as children, women and the elderly, is of particular concern. They will remain dependent on aid for some time, and sustained food assistance will be necessary to prevent further malnutrition and death.
“The ICRC, in partnership with the NRCS, aims at meeting the immediate needs of the most vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach areas through the distribution of food and essential household items to the displaced, returnees and vulnerable residents.
“Those returning to homes that they had abandoned in search of security are apprehensive about rebuilding livelihoods. The ICRC has started, whenever feasible, to move from emergency food relief to greater support to livelihood initiatives for these affected communities, identifying with ways and avenues to provide more durable and sustained solutions centered around resilience and self-reliance.
“We seek to support sustained livelihoods through the provision of improved seed for farming activities as well as cash and vouchers in areas with active markets. In particular, households where women and particularly widows are the main breadwinners receive cash for the purchase of items that they consider the most important.”
According to ICRC, in all, almost 398,380 people in the North-East and the Middle Belt regions received food for three months or longer. It also noted that in the area of the health of the victims of the conflicts, the period of conflicts exacerbated the already difficult access to health care in the North-East, whose development had lagged behind the rest of the country. Many clinics and health care centres were destroyed while the health personnel fled for safety.
However, the ICRC continues to support primary health care centres of the Ministry of Health in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states with medicine and technical support for the identification and treatment of diseases. Two ICRC surgical teams provide care for the wounded in need of emergency surgical care in the North-East while the ICRC trains the staff of Nigerian hospitals nationwide to enhance their skills in the treatment and management of wounded patients.
The ICRC also provides psycho-social support for trauma-affected victims of the armed conflict and the NRCS volunteers working to assist them. The ICRC first aid training programme spans over 15 states and includes the North-East, the Middle Belt and Niger Delta states.
According to the data provided by ICRC, “Close to 255,300 patients attended 23 ICRC- supported centres for primary health care and three mobile clinics serving the displaced, returnees and residents in North-East Nigeria and the Middle Belt; over 13,050 children were delivered in ICRC supported clinics; around 6,520 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition were treated in ICRC- supported clinics in North-East Nigeria, including 170 children with medical complications from Borno South treated in Biu stabilization centre; over 990 patients benefited from free surgical care with 720 of them treated as out-patients while 360 patients were admitted to the ICRC surgical ward and a total of 820 surgeries were performed; 33 NRCS and community volunteers were trained and supported by the ICRC to provide basic mental health and psychosocial support.”
The data added that “almost 106,000 displaced persons in North-East Nigeria improved their sanitation and hygiene conditions. Almost 10,000 returnees and persons affected by communal clashes in Michika (Adamawa), Barkin Ladi, Riyom and Bokkos (Plateau) received ICRC support to rebuild 860 houses. Over 40,000 displaced persons in camps in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, live in 120 family tents built by the ICRC. In Borno, the ICRC improved access to health services for 310 people through the construction and rehabilitation of health care facilities.”
The most pathetic aspects of the conflicts are cases where a father or mother could not locate their children after escaping from fire. While running for his life, a father would find himself in Jos but does not know the whereabouts of his wife and children. Some children who found themselves in one camp in Jos were restless because they did not know the whereabouts of their parents. Some who found themselves in Cameroon had no contact with other members of their immediate families.
But the ICRC says it has come to the rescue of many in this regard, working with the NRCS and other Red Cross societies in the Lake Chad region to locate and where possible reunite families. With the use of Red Cross messages and free phone calls, “separated family members have been able to get back in touch with their displaced relatives. About 4,590 new tracing requests were opened by persons looking for relatives with the ICRC or the NRCS. For instance, a victim named Falmata was overcome with emotion when she was reunited with her grandson, her only surviving relative, after two years of separation.
“No fewer than 180 Red Cross messages containing family news were exchanged among separated family members; 730 free phone calls were made available by the Red Cross to persons searching for their family members. Over 47,770 people in the North-East and the Middle Belt received essential household items such as cooking pots and water containers, as well as clothes, hygiene products, and sleeping and shelter materials, while 76,460 people received agricultural inputs including seeds, fertilizers, machinery and tools to start farming or to increase their farming production through donations in-kind and vouchers, and more than a dozen villages like Egba in Agatu LGA Benue State, devastated by several years of communal violence, receiving assistance to rebuild homes and livelihoods.
“About 26,150 people including widows received cash and basic training on small businesses to help them start a sustainable livelihood. In addition, 17, 620 persons received repeated multi-purpose cash assistance. Over 100 sensitization sessions to raise awareness of mental health issues stemming from conflict and violence were organised with a total of 5,060 community members and 14 health staff in attendance.
“Almost 5,510 displaced persons benefitted from ICRC’s mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programme. 260 victims of violence received group counselling support while 60 hospitalised wounded patients benefited from individual counselling support. In all, 1,030 group and 90 individual MPHSS sessions were conducted. Around 6,000 casualties were treated and evacuated by the NRCS emergency first aid teams, while 660 community first aid responders in 15 states covered by the ICRC-supported first aid programme were trained.
“The high number of the displaced in the North-East put a strain on basic resources, such as water and sanitation installations. The ICRC creates or upgrades water points and sanitation facilities in the camps for the displaced and affected host communities. We also build tents and emergency shelters. To promote hygiene in the camps, the ICRC works with the NRCS and displaced persons on cleaning the environment. In areas where returns are possible, the ICRC has stepped up its work to repair or construct water systems benefitting both host communities and returnees.
We have built over 6,700 emergency shelters to house the displaced across North-East Nigeria.”
Among the household items used for cooking, firewood remains one of the oldest commonly used across the country. From the Stone Age till date, it has been consistently in use across rural and urban areas. In recent times, however, the practice has come under serious condemnation from environment-related organisations at local and international levels who are advocating the use of stove to mitigate the perceived danger that firewood constitutes to the lives of its users as well as the environment. Is this a genuine concern or another attempt at foisting western ideologies on Nigerians? INNOCENT DURU reports.
DOES cooking with firewood really expose the users to health challenges? The World Health Organisation (WHO) and many non-governmental organisations working on environmental issues believe it does. But not so for many locals who engage in the practice.
According to WHO, more than 93,000 Nigerian women and children die annually from firewood smoke. Globally, the organisation said that no fewer than 4.3 million people die annually from illnesses attributable to the air pollution caused by inefficient use of solid fuels for cooking. According to WHO, 12 per cent of the figure is due to pneumonia, 34 per cent from stroke, 26 per cent from ischaemic heart disease, 22 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 6 per cent from lung cancer.
Corroborating WHO’s position, Techno Oil, a Nigerian organisation that markets a wide range of petroleum products, said: “The smoke contains complex gases and fine particles, which affects both the lungs and the heart. Firewood smoke is a great source of what scientists term fine particle pollution. The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. Small particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest problems, because they can get deep into the lungs, and some may even get into the bloodstream. Among these particles are “fine particles,” which are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller.
Numerous scientific studies have linked fine particle pollution exposure to a variety of problems, including increased respiratory symptoms such as irritation of the airways, coughing or difficulty in breathing; decreased lung function; aggravated asthma; development of chronic bronchitis; irregular heartbeat; non-fatal heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
Convincing as the above analysis are, many people who spoke to The Nation said aside from their eyes emitting tears, they had never experienced any health challenges using firewood to cook. A respondent, who identified himself simply as Amina, wondered how WHO and other non-governmental organisations come about the figure of people that die annually cooking with firewood.
“This is totally strange and can never be true. How did they know the number of people killed? Is it that they were going from one community to another or from one state to another to get the figures? How many people have died so far this year? They should show us their pictures, tell us their names, and the communities they came from.
“If this were true, all the people in the rural areas would have died because that is what they use all the time. If you conduct a test on the people in the rural areas who are using firewood, you would find that they are healthier than many of the people using gas and stove to cook.”
Apparently trying to justify the use of firewood, Amina said: “Since people have been using firewood, have you heard of firewood explosion? But you have heard of gas and kerosene explosions. So, which one is better? They should perish the idea. If my parents and forefathers used firewood and it neither gave them health problems nor killed them, it can never happen to me.”
A food vendor, who gave her name as Mrs Agnes Abraham, said: “I have been using firewood for donkey’s years and I have never had any health problems. Before I came to Lagos, it was the same firewood we were using in the village and nothing happened to anybody.
“Unlike here in the city where you see all manner of ailments, especially on the television, people in the village who use firewood don’t have such sicknesses and they don’t die early like we have it here. Is it not this same firewood that our forefathers also used and lived above 100 years?
“Please tell those people to go and sit down if they have noting tangible to talk about. Cooking with firewood may be causing health problems for non-Africans because you know that they are not as strong. But for us here in Africa, especially Nigeria, firewood is very much okay. The common challenge with cooking with firewood is that the smoke it emits could be hurting the eyes and cause it to become red. But once you use yeast, the eyes will become clear again.”
The information about the health hazards of cooking with firewood was also strange to Mrs Bisade Oni, a fufu (local delicacy) seller.
Surprised by the information, she asked rhetorically:” When did that start? I have been using firewood for ages and nothing has happened to me. In fact, I would say that I have been using it from childhood because that was what our parents used back in the village. How do you think it is possible for me to make fufu on a stove?
“I find it convenient doing it with firewood. Many people do complain that their eyes emit tears when they cook with firewood, but I don’t experience that. It depends on how good you are at using it. It is only if you don’t use dry wood that you have smoke hurting your eyes. But if you use dry wood and put them in place properly, you will not have any problem.”
The same view was expressed by Ernest Obabiyi who said he had never heard that anybody suffered complications or died from cooking with firewood.
He said: “It is true that the smoke can hurt your eyes or disturb you when you inhale it. But I have never heard that people suffered chronic ailments or died from using firewood, though I also know that using firewood could lead to domestic accident. One of such happened back then in Ondo State when a boy that had epilepsy went to cook, and in the course of doing that, his health problem started and he had part of his body burnt by fire. That is the most that I have seen.”
Environmentalists knock users
Experts on environmental issues have described the attitude of the users as gross ignorance. The Communications Officer for International Centre for Energy Environment and Development (ICEED), Adewale Ajibade, said that firewood is a silent killer but a lot of people are not aware of it.
He said: “It has nothing to do with capitalism. A lot of wrong things have been done by our parents which we didn’t know, but with the help of science, they have been brought to the fore. For example, the killing of twins was a norm until Mary Slessor stepped in to say it is a health condition and that a woman can have more than one child. If technology brings this kind of issue to the fore, I don’t think we should shy away from it and say it is the western world that is trying to foist their capitalist tendencies on us.
“It has been proven that globally that over 4 million deaths occur annually due to cooking with open fire. It is not only in Nigeria; it is an epidemic that is happening in a lot of countries in the world. This smoke that is released comes with harmful toxic gases. According to a report by WHO, inhaling this toxic is like burning 400 cigarettes in one hour. Just imagine somebody cooking for the family inhaling smoke that is up to consuming 400 cigarettes in one hour.
“In Nigeria, if I want to be precise, there are about 95, 300 deaths that occur annually, all tied to smoke-related diseases. This happens unconsciously. When the woman is cooking, she inhales it. Sometimes, it causes low weight of babies. Apart from that, it also causes lung disease and pneumonia in some children. From this statistics that I gave you, it makes this practice the third highest killer after malaria and HIV/AIDS.”
Ajibade added: “There are also the issues of environmental degradation. Nigeria loses about 3 per cent of its forest annually. Deforestation is happening at an alarming rate. This is one of our projects in Katsina where we are providing 35,000 energy-efficient wood stoves to checkmate the deforestation menace and also the smoke inhalation menace.
“Even though this stove we are providing uses firewood. It reduces the quantity of firewood that they use. The clean cooking stove could make them use a quantity of firewood they would have used in one day for about five days or more. It reduces the continuous cutting down of trees.
“The project we are handling in Katsina is twofold. Oxfam is handling the tree planting aspect. They are supposed to plant about 5.5 million trees in four years, but if we don’t provide an alternative for these people. After the trees are planted, they go back to cut them for firewood.
“These people cannot afford the expensive clean fuel. We are trying as much as possible to discourage people from using kerosene because it is a dirty fuel and it is expensive in the long run. “
Asked if tests were conducted on victims to reach the conclusion that they became sick from cooking with firewood, Ajibade said: “The tests that were conducted were on the stoves and their emissions. But in a few cases, several people complained of severe respiratory problems.
“There was a cook in a school in Ebonyi State where we went to install institutional stove. Prior to that time, the woman said that she used to have reddish eyes bringing out water and that she used to feel drowsy as if she smoked Indian hemp. After the installation, she said she felt relived.
“Another thing she didn’t notice before then was that her temperature was always high in the evening after using firewood. But all that stopped after we installed the stove. The prices of the stoves vary because there are different producers.
“But we are not even the one selling them. We are training local artisans to build these stoves and become entrepreneurs themselves. The thermal efficiency is about 60 per cent.”
The Executive Director of Sustainable Waste Recycling Community of Nigeria, Adewole Taiwo, also differed with the users. According to him: “During the Stone Age, the volume of firewood used was not the same as is being used now. The environment was greener with less population and less carbon monoxide emission than we have now. There are many alternatives to burning firewood: the clean stoves, briquettes which can replace firewood/charcoal, electric cooker, among others.
“Where these alternatives are not available, every single tree fell must be replaced with a minimum of five new ones to save the environment. And health wise, it must not be used indoor at all because it causes eye and throat irritation while the long-term effects is respiratory disease and cancer.”
Like Adewale, Taiwo said: “It has a great impact on the environment because people fell tree indiscriminately all in the name of firewood without planting new ones. The same tree fell provided us with oxygen and consumed all the excess carbon monoxide pollution within the environment. So, cutting more wood for firewood without replacing it means reduction in oxygen and increase in carbon monoxide pollution within our environment.
“Health wise, it is very dangerous because it greatly affects indoor air quality. The smoke from the burning of firewood is very dangerous to those that use firewood, especially indoor. It has great health implication in terms of the quality of air inhaled. And most of the firewood used are not fully dried. They contain little moisture. It takes time to burn and release more carbon monoxide into the environment.”
Crisis in clean cooking stoves sector
Adewale denied that ICEED and other members that formed the coalition known as Nigeria Alliance for Clean Cooking Stove was not carried along when ex-President Goodluck Jonathan approved the contract of N5 billion for the Ministry of Environment to provide 20 million units of the stove for rural women.
Ajibade said: “As a matter of fact, we didn’t know anything about the process and the contract until it was in the news and people started calling us because we are the secretariat. People believed that if there should be anything happening in the clean stove sector in Nigeria, we should know. We were as shocked as anybody else.
“We are going to ensure that we get to the roots of the matter because this is a very young sector that there is a bit of resistance for people to switch to. We don’t want to be marred by corruption or scandal. From our end, we know nothing about it and we are not into partnership with them in anyway.”
Earlier in the year, precisely January, the House of Representatives, gave its committees on Anti-Corruption, Environment and Habitat six weeks to investigate the former president’s “Clean Stove for Rural Women scheme” contract of about N9.287 billion.
The resolution followed a motion by Abiodun Faleke (APC-Lagos), which was unanimously adopted by members through a voice vote.
Faleke noted that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved a contract for the supply of 20 million units of clean stove and wonder bags under the clean stove scheme for rural women.
He added that the contract was at a unit cost of N464.00, amounting to about N9.287 billion. The lawmaker said that following the approval of FEC, the Federal Ministry of Finance released the sum of N5 billion to the Federal Ministry of Environment for the execution of the project.
The lawmaker expressed concern that less than 750,000 units were said to have been assembled and delivered at the velodrome of the National Stadium, Abuja, which was commissioned by former Vice President, Namadi Sambo.
He noted that there was no beneficiary present at the commissioning nor was anyone later given the stove to achieve its intended purpose.
The mandate of the committee saddled with the investigation was to find out details of the contract, number of units supplied, their mode of distribution and names of beneficiaries on state by state basis.
EARLY last month, two warring communities -Ababene in Adun and Iyamitit in Okum, both in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State – decided to bury the hatchet and live in peace after several years of hostilities.
Lives had been lost and property wasted on both sides.
The cause of the feud was a piece of land which both communities were laying claim to.
The peace process was facilitated by Mr. Chris Agara Agan, leading to the constitution of a seven-man peace and reconciliation committee.
The committee was able to settle the differences between both sides and thus began a new dawn that formally commenced at an elaborate ceremony in Apiapum community in Obubra.
Witnesses to the ceremony included the paramount ruler of Obubra, HRM Ovarr Clement Ewona; HRH Ovarr Patrick Erong Edom, the Kudidem (Clan Head) of Adun; and HRH Ovarr Robert Mbina Mbina Ajom III, Ohorodo I of Okum and Clan Head of Apiapum, as well as numerous chiefs, and other stakeholders from the area.
Both communities agreed that there would no longer be any skirmish between them as they await the government, through the Surveyor General of the state, to carry out a proper delineation of their boundaries especially the disputed area.
The disputed land is expected to be taken over by the state government.
Residents have expressed appreciation for the return of peace.
Some of them told The Nation that their lives are much better off now following the peace agreement, as they could move freely amongst themselves without any fear.
Commercial and farming activities, according to them, have also improved.
They pray and hope that the new found peace will endure, even as they promise to keep working hard to sustain it.
Ovarr Robert Mbina Mbina Ajom III, Ohorodo I of Okum and Clan Head of Apiapum, said: “We are so happy. Since the accord, we have been living fine. We now visit each other’s communities without any harassment.
“Recently, there were burial ceremonies in my kingdom and many of those people who died, their relations came from the Adun side and performed the burial ceremonies successfully and then paid me a courtesy call. We entertained them and they slept for two nights before they went home.
“During this period too, I have recorded about six weddings involving both communities. Of the six marriages, four were women from my side married to their people while two were women from their side marrying my people. That has been the cordial relationship we are enjoying.
“Farming activities have also improved except in the area in dispute; a small area about half kilometre, which our governor has done very well by setting up that panel and asking us to stay away from there until a proper demarcation line is mapped out. That is where we are now.
“I am happy because it has always been my cry that if I step into this office, I pray to God to bring back the peace between my people and Adun people; a lasting peace which even if I leave the world, our children will not come and suffer what we had suffered in the last 500 years.
“Let it go into the records that it was during my reign that I brought about this peace. That is why during the fracas, the thing would have escalated to Apiapum and beyond, but I stuck my neck out and worked tirelessly to see that it did not escalate. I cried to the governor and to every arm of security to come to my rescue.”
He expressed gratitude to Governor Ben Ayade and Barrister Chris Agara who initiated this peace.
He advised the governor to “create development centres in Cross River State, because the state is so vast in terms of land mass.”
He added: “In the whole of former Eastern Region, it is the largest land. The centres would help to stop this kind of infighting.”
Also speaking, Chief Philip Ikpan from Adun, said except for minor issues with some hooligans who had been reported to the security agencies, the people are now living in peace.
His words: “Farming activities have improved. Our people are beginning to return to their areas. I would advise that the people of both communities should accept the peace accord we have gone into.”
Chairman of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee, Chief Ernest Irek, gave a recap of how peace was achieved: “What led to the agreement were the skirmishes we had been having between the two communities.
“We were uncomfortable with what was going on, which spread to other areas. It was creating a friction among other communities in the two areas.
“These were people who spoke the same language and shared the same culture. There is nothing for them to fight over. There is enough land for all of us and we thought we should look at the root cause of the problem, stop the battle and talk to them peacefully.
“Mercifully, one of our Mbembe sons, Chris Agara, provided the logistics for us to discuss under very wonderful circumstances. We were brought together and I was made the chairman of the committee. And over a period of a month and a half, we had a dialogue with them.
“We dialogued with everyone and brought them all together and we made sure all the villages that were in the forefront of this battle were brought together. We spoke to them and we got a commitment from them that they were ready to make peace.
“What you saw on that day was the culmination of the efforts we had put in for about a month.
“Right now, we are at the stage of implementing that peace, the state government has come in mercifully to sort out matters. The state government is going do something.
“They have asked us to get all the documents and relevant papers together which we have done. We are monitoring the peace. Here and there, we have had some people trying to bend the rules, but we make sure they do not break them.
“Right now, everything is going on normally. We keep trying to see that nobody breaks that agreement. The next stage we want to get into is the stage of supervising visitations. We intend that this September, which is a joyful period, the new yam festival, we want to get together again. We have a programme where we must make sure that all of them come together.
“I am happy that their elites too have surrendered to the idea that there must be peace in that area. They are doing very well. On a daily basis, they are interacting with themselves, moving around.
“Everywhere is peaceful. The markets are being revived. People are going back. Initially, this crisis was affecting trade. If you recall, even the cost of food items shot up very astronomically. But that has gone down now because we have been able to sort out the problem.
“The skirmishes made it such that there was no food to eat. The people were not going to their farms. Even the ones they planted, they could not go to harvest. That had a direct impact on the economy of the local government and even the state because that is a garri producing area.
“At one point, the price of garri rose to as much as N15, 000 for one basin, because cassava was no longer coming from that area. So many foodstuffs could not come out because of the crisis.
“With this peace now, everything is going on well. We hope that we would be able to get a road from Ababene through Iyamitit. We are appealing to the state government to do that.
“We are also talking about a police post. All of this we have put down in a memo to the governor. He told us that once he has settled down, he would approve all those.
“Now, with the way things are going, they are harvesting what they planted the previous year. The price of garri has fallen, and I think it is reasonable now. The last time I went to the market, I heard it was N6,000 or so, and it would fall further. That has forced other people across the state to bring their prices down too because these are market forces.
“Once that boundary is demarcated and the area that should be given to the government is done, that would provide succour to the people. A proper demarcation of the area is what would help resolve the problems.
“Government would have to come in here. They have set up a committee of inquiry headed by a former deputy governor. We pray that with what we have achieved now, they can bring out their own report where a white paper can be brought out from.
“Once they bring the white paper out, we hope that we can work with government, because we are the ones on the ground. We know the people. So we can now use that and see how we can project a situation where we can be having friendly visitations, festivals, and so on.
“There are festivals for the various communities and there is a calendar for all of these and commit them. We would never get tired.
“We would like to talk to our benefactor too; the man who started this. Let it not be like a political thing. Let it be a humanitarian thing; something he did from the volition that he is an Mbembe man, so we can now make sure that we can let them grow and remove our hands. It should not be too long.
“The governor has directed that the team from the Surveyor General’s office should move in there and begin to demarcate the boundary, and once it is demarcated, it is okay.
“The two communities had said long ago, they want that portion to be donated to government. We pray that while this is going on, we will continue to talk with the people that we don’t want any skirmishes anymore. They have seen the folly of it. There is no victor or vanquished.”
In this concluding part of our investigative story on the conditions of different brands of sachet water sold to unsuspecting consumers in Lagos as ‘pure’, HANNAH OJO reports on the result of the second batch of 15 laboratory-tested samples randomly selected in the five divisions of Lagos. With six of the samples revealing acidic content beyond the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, environmental factors and acute water shortage appear to be prime reasons for the contamination of water sources in the state.
LAGOS residents who drink ‘pure water’ would have to be more discerning in their choice as six out of another set of 15 laboratory-tested sachet water revealed high acidic content. The pH level of the six acidic water ranged from 4.64 to 6.22, falling below the WHO minimum requirement of 6.50 for potable water. Last week, The Nation had published results from the first 15 samples out of which nine samples recorded the presence of contaminants such as coliform, microbial count, acidity and pathogenic bacteria.
The test also revealed LASPOTECH water has a slightly low pH at 6.22, with the analyst recommending treatment. The samples were selected in the month of August.
The result of the second batch brings to 15 the number of contaminated brands out of the 30 samples taken to the laboratory. The water samples, selected between May and August, were contracted to the University of Lagos Consult Limited for a laboratory test. The physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of each sample were examined.
A registered public analyst and chartered chemist from the Chemistry Department of the University of Lagos issued an analyst’s certificate on each sample, in accordance with the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN). The brands were coded at the time they were tested in order to conceal their brand names.
A Consultant Public Health Physician/Epidemiologist, Prof Akin Osibogun, in an interview with The Nation, said the main danger from low pH of water (acidity) is that such water is corrosive and dissolves metal pipings, which may lead to high level of metals in the consumed water, in addition to the economic costs.
“High pH of water, on the other hand, renders chlorination less effective and therefore increases the likelihood that bacterial agents of disease may persist in such water and when consumed, may result in diarrhoeal diseases,” Prof. Osibogun added.
He also said that some chemical contaminants may have acute or relatively immediate toxic effects, while other chemicals may have long term carcinogenic effects.
“There are over 10,000 chemicals now being used in industries, and careless disposal of industrial wastes is one source of pollution of water sources,” he said.
His views were corroborated by a medical practitioner, Dr Shola Oguntona, who explained that when the pH of water is less than 7, it can be considered acidic, adding that a range of 6.5-8.5 is considered safe.
Oguntona, formerly of the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Lagos State University College of Medicine, averred that although there are not enough scientific data to conclude that acidic water has a direct impact on health, he affirmed that there might be indirect effects causing kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
“Accumulation of lead in children can occur faster and this can affect their growth and memory. Other effects of water contaminated by metals can be stomach upset, vomiting, dehydration from vomiting and kidney diseases,” he told The Nation.
Acidic sachet water; long time coming
The prevalence of acidic contents in some Lagos sachet water appears not to have been a sudden occurrence. Five years ago, a team of researchers at the Lagos State University College of Medicine carried out a study on contamination of sachet water produced within the industrial area of Ikeja in Lagos. Six sachet water samples were selected. The study, led by Dr Shola Ogunbona, showed that all the sachet water samples were acidic. It also showed high level of heavy metals (chromium, lead and zinc), which would accumulate in the body after long term consumption. Two other samples showed high level of chloride which was traced to industrial activities in the region where the water was produced.
Human cost of sketchy sachet water
In July 23 this year, a cholera outbreak was announced in the city of Lagos. At least two persons were reported dead, while 25 others were said to be quarantined. Another report recorded six casualties in Shomolu among whom was a five-year-old Hannah Obi, an 18-year-old simply identified as Clement and a 66-year-old woman, Risikat Okubena Majolagbe. In a space of one month, there were 26 cases and six deaths, according to records obtained from a government official, who pleaded anonymity.
Also, data The Nation exclusively obtained from the Lagos State Ministry of Health revealed places like Epe, Ijede, Harvey Road (Yaba) and Shomolu as hotspots for cholera between 2014 and 2015. However, there are usually many unreported cases of deaths and illnesses arising from water-borne diseases as majority of Lagos residents are cut off from potable water supply.
The Lagos State Water Corporation only produces 215 million gallons of water per day for a population of 24 million people, leaving a deficit of over 500 million gallons per day (MGD).
The sketchy alternative citizens are faced with in the quest for potable water has resulted in the death of children. Most grievous was the death of 25 children from Otodo Gbame, a slum in Ikate Eti Osa Local Government Area in February 2016. The children died after drinking the community’s pathogen-infected water.
Again, in March this year, there was another ‘water tragedy’ at Queens College, a government secondary school in the Yaba area of Lagos where three students died and scores of others were hospitalised as a result of a gastroenteritis epidemic contracted through contaminated water sources within the school environment.
Unenviable romance with waste, effluents
With 13, 000 metric tonnes of waste generated in the state per day, Lagos has always had an unenviable romance with waste. Sadly, there are also many industries who flout environment rules by discharging untreated effluents into waste water. This invariably has affected the quality of water aquifers in the state, leading to contamination from source in most cases.
A geologist, Mr Olawale Alo, stated that while earth materials on the surface of water are supposed to act as filters, that may not be the case with Lagos, going by its high population density and the amount of generated waste which may infiltrate the sub-surface.
He counselled: “With Lagos being a coastal city, toxic materials produced from waste can easily infiltrate down, thereby polluting the water aquifers. The shallower water is more susceptible to pollution. Even the deep aquifers can have the issue of marine incursion such that the water would be salty. What that means is that if people must drill boreholes, it is better to do a geo-physical survey so that the deeper aquifers are targeted.”
The Lagos State Water Corporation is responsible for water supply across the state. Bedevilled by continuous population increase, failed public-private partnerships, inadequate budgetry allocation, poor labour practices and unstable power supply, the corporation falls short, hence leading to indiscriminate drilling of boreholes in the state. The indiscriminate drilling can send vibrations down into the soft surface of the earth, thereby paving way for environmental disasters.
Eyewitness accounts
Following the publication of the first part of this report two weeks ago, two Lagos residents reached out to the reporter to report cases of faulty water sachet samples and indiscreet packaging sighted in Lagos. Seye Joseph had no iota of doubt on August 21 when he gulped down the content of a sachet of pure water he bought from a location in Ikeja.
He said: “I took the water in my mouth but could not swallow it. The liquid had an abhorrent taste and I quickly spat it out. I later called the number on the sachet water and all they offered were apologies. I shuddered on the ills that would have caused people because this same company also produces bottled water.”
Another response came from Mr Femi Salawu, a communications specialist who photographed an image where a gravel truck was loaded with bags of sachet water with a man lying over them. The water did not only stand the risk of being contaminated through exposure to the sun but also from the body fluids of the person who made a bed space on top of the pile.
Mr Salawu, who captured the image, tweeted at the reporter’s handle with the caption: “From earth moving vehicle to a sachet water carrying “motor”. Is water still life?” The image was captured at 8:51 am on 22 August tweet with the angle @citizen_gavel.
It has been said that when sachet water is exposed to the sun and other harsh elements from the environment, they stand the risk of exposure to carcinogenic agents. According to Prof Oluwole Adedeji, a consultant with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, this happens when the polythene bag used to package the water is of low quality whilst being exposed to sunlight or stored under an unwholesome condition.
“Most of these bags have pores. They have holes which may not be visible to the human eye, which allow some elements in the environment to diffuse gradually into the water. The chemicals can be very carcinogenic,” Prof Adedeji intoned as he connects poorly packaged sachet water with cancer and other terminal illnesses associated with the lungs, liver and the heart.
Advising on best practices, Mr Oluwole Toye , the Vice President of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, who took the reporter through various purifying process of producing potable sachet water, said citizens have a responsibility to report sachet water producers that are not doing the right thing.
He said: “Some people are actually just using water from the well, while others use public water system without purification. I am sure NAFDAC is also worried about the proliferation of sachet water companies.
What NAFDAC needs to do is to ensure effective control. NAFDAC is a corporate member of our institute, so we are always engaging them on how we can be of assistance.”
Safety valves
As a safety measure, citizens can boil their water and allow it to cool before drinking, The Nation learnt.
“Whenever one is unsure of one’s water source, it is better to boil. However, this takes care of only the biological agents that could cause disease. If you have also sunk a borehole in your premises, it will be useful to subject samples of the water to biological and chemical analysis. There are different types of filters in the market to address different iron pollutants,” Osibogun advised.
Our stories, by faulted sachet water producers, ATWAP President
Aminat Akanji, the manager of Fizco Water, one of the water samples indicted by the laboratory report, told The Nation that executive members of the Association of Table Water Producers (ATWAP) actually came to the factory to take samples of its water for laboratory test and it was certified okay, wondering what could have gone wrong while she was away on maternity leave.
She said: “Our water is okay. I called for treatment and the pH level was checked as well. I don’t know what happened with the samples reported in the newspaper. I was away on maternity leave. But things are okay now. We have called in a chemist to maintain the treatment and things have been certified okay,” she said.
When his reaction was sought on the acidic content of his sachet water, the producer of Two Ways Water, Mr Gafaru Wahud, said that people had not been complaining about the brand. He said: “NAFDAC inspected our factory before we got registered and we have been maintaining the standards. We always back-flush our cylinder and we change the filters from time to time.”
Asked how often public analysts get to test the water, Wahud said the water factory, which sources its water from a borehole, had just opened. So, tests had not yet been conducted.
On his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Polytechnic, the producers of LASPOTECH Water, Mr. Lanrewaju Kuye, said the school would not produce substandard water, considering that it produces for the consumption of both the students of the institution and members of the public.
“We cannot produce bad water and we always follow the standard,” he said. “We are a tertiary institution and we are also producing for the public.
“Regarding the issue (low pH), I will ask the consultant in charge of our water factory to cross-check. If the result is true, it will be corrected immediately.”
Also, Mr Afolabi Oluwaseyi, the producer of Jim Dee Water, which recorded a pH level of 5.65 against the W.H.O’s minimum standard of 6.50, discountenanced the test result obtained by The Nation.
“We are doing our renewal with NAFDAC. We have taken our samples to the lab, though we have not collected the result. If there is any issue with the pH, we would have been alerted.”
Oluwaseyi, however, promised that the water treatment plant would be recharged to boast its pH if per chance the hydrolyte has stopped working.
Sem-Sem Water, produced in Epe, also recorded a case of low pH pegged at 6.21. Mariam Morafa, the production manager of the water factory, said a water engineer would be called to access the treatment plant.
“This is the first complaint we have received. We would do something about it. We are supposed to do the water treatment every three months”, Morafa said, adding that the factory started production less than a year ago.
Med Oaeses sachet water sample produced in Ikeja Military Cantonment also tested positive to high acidic content at 4.64. When The Nation visited the premises on Friday, workers at the plant declined to comment as the manager was said not to be available.
Explaining why there is proliferation of substandard sachet water brands in Lagos and other parts of the country, the President of the Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria (ATWAP), Dame Clementina Ativie, attributed the problem to the increasingly high cost of doing business on account of which some producers are trying to cut cost by using substandard products.
One of the problems, she said, is excess taxation. “Too much of taxes on the industry by various government agencies results in the use of cheap production materials by some producers to meet up with government tax demands,” she said.
She also fingered loopholes in the regulatory and supervisory mechanisms of government as part of the problem.
Dame Ativie said: “If the industry is currently being supervised by NAFDAC, SON, Ministry of Health and Environment, Lagos State Water Regulatory Council (LSWRC), and these problems of contamination still manifest, then it means there is a missing gap somewhere. ATWAP should therefore be authorised by government to regulate and supervise the industry in conjunction with NAFDAC”.
She also tasked government to put an end to the indiscriminate siting of water factories. “A number of factories should be determined in each geographical location. Boreholes in high density areas should be regulated due to waste water, soak-aways and the volume of contaminants in groundwater in such locations,” she said.
“Our members are law-abiding. Most of our members in Lagos had paid for the LSWRC (Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission) borehole permit and licence.
“We have well above 2,000 water producers in Lagos alone. We checkmate our members to make sure they adhere to the standard of operation set out by NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies.
“We insist on our members having mini-testing kits for water to check for some basic parameters before, during and after production.
“We from time to time organise training for our members on safety standards of production, storage and distribution of our products, considering their sensitivity to human life.”
On measures the association is taking to combat counterfeited brands of sachet water, she said: “We are presently working on coded symbol and number to differentiate our water from any sachet or bottled water in circulation. That will be launched very soon.”
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to pursue availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, it appears dry tapes and unwholesome production of alternative source of potable water are prime factors exposing citizens to water-borne diseases.
Log onto www.staging.thenationonlineng.net to watch video.
Reporting for this story was supported by Code for Africa’s impactAFRICA fund and the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation
In spite of successive governments’ promises and programmes aimed at providing mass and affordable houses for Nigerians, the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) early in the year said that out of the 170 million people in the country, 108 million are technically homeless. This ugly development is no doubt responsible for the self- help the poor masses seem to have adopted to provide shelter for themselves. The result is the proliferation of ramshackle buildings in many parts of the country. INNOCENT DURU, who visited some suburbs of Lagos and Ogun states, examines the health, environmental and security risks that owners and occupants of these makeshift structures are exposed to.
SHELTER is conventionally regarded as one of the basic necessities of life. But for several landlords in the suburbs of Lagos and Ogun states, living in their own houses comes with enormous pains. Many of the houses are without doors, windows, toilets or bathrooms. Some others are tucked inside bushes where they are forced to mix with reptiles, rodents and other dangerous animals invading their homes on a daily basis.
A landlord at Odogunyan area of Ikorodu, Lagos, who identified himself simply as Samuel, said: “Life for most of us who live in this kind of structure is an emergency. We became landlords by emergency and also turned into emergency hunters because of the unsolicited visitors we have to entertain from time to time, especially reptiles and rodents. Soldier ants are our doctors and nurses because they come from time to time to inject us. In fact, we do emergency defecation and bathing because you don’t want people to catch you doing it openly, but it is the norm here.
“Many of us are living the kind of lifestyles we never lived as tenants because we had everything in the rented houses. We are only consoled by the fact that we own the buildings. But how long would one continue to live in the Stone Age because the money is not there to perfect the building? That is the problem,”
Investigation conducted by our correspondent showed that a good number of the landlords were forced into building shanty one- room houses because they couldn’t cope with rent in the cities.
Ayobami, who owns one of such houses at Mowo on the Lagos/Badagry Expressway, said: “Most of us built these houses on emergency because rent was always rising and landlords would not listen to excuses. Flood, family problems and other forms of crises also force some people to quit their rented apartments.
“Some of us begin by living in ordinary tents because there is no money to start building immediately. Some others who could not live in tents constructed wooden houses, while some lived in containers (cubicles made with iron and pan) until they are able to get money to start building the one-room apartment you described with contempt.
“If you look at my building and some others very well, you will find that they have different shades of blocks. This is because the blocks were set at different intervals. In my own case, the foundation blocks stayed for more than two years before I raised the building to some point. After some time, I raised and roofed it, using tarpaulin and old roofing sheets to block some open places.
“Cold and rain dealt with my family seriously while we were living in the tent. On many occasions, wind would blow part of it away in the night and we would have to stand in the rain to mend it.”
Afolabi, a proud owner of a shanty one-room building located in Okoafon also on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, is not bothered about what you think about his derelict house. What is important to him is that he has joined the league of landlords and now attends meetings with other landlords who have the best of houses in the area.
“I am happy to have this building even though it is still at this level,” he said. “I am now a landlord and eternally delivered from the harassment of shylock house owners. It was a nightmare being a tenant, especially in the last house I lived in. The landlord was a thorn in my flesh. He was always complaining about everything and would seize every opportunity to extort money from his tenants.
“He has three wives, and the moment any of them got pregnant, he would come and tell you he needed money to pay the hospital bills. After the wife puts to bed, he would come again and ask for money to help him take care of the baby and the mother. He does this not minding whether you owe him or not. If you are not owing, he would tell you to deduct it from the next rent. In short, his tenants were his ATM cards.
“The annoying thing was that he never bothered to repair anything that got spoilt in the house. We always used our own resources to fix it.”
But glad as he might be to be called a landlord, Afolabi said he had not been allowing his friends and relations to visit him for fear that they would mock him if they come.
“How do you want me to bring them to this kind of place?” he queried. “I can’t do that because they will turn me to an object of ridicule. I don’t have a toilet yet. My family members and I do what is popularly called ‘short put’. We defecate in old newspapers or nylon bags and throw it into the bush. Is that what I will ask a friend or relation who visits to do? I will rather not invite them until I have a presentable house.
A widow, Mrs Mojeed, who owns a room and a parlour in Ogijo, a suburb of Ogun State, savours the joy of being called a landlady. But the condition of the building in which she and her children live is not too different from that of a refugee camp. The rooms, like other hastily built houses, are without doors, causing the poor woman and her children to be exposed to harsh weather conditions.
Her words: “I was living in Pedro area of Bariga (Lagos) before I moved to this place. I left Bariga after my landlord threw my family out of the house because we could not pay the high rent of N5, 000 per room.
“When the landlord sent us out, we felt it was unwise to go and pay another rent with agency fee and commission. That was why we hurriedly came and erected a room and parlour here.
“As you can see, we have no door or window. When rain falls, it comes into the house and messes up the whole place. If it is the type that comes with flood, we would have to stand on the bed for the rain to subside before coming down to drain the flood. The same thing happens during harmattan season. The cold wind comes in unhindered. All we do is to cover ourselves with wrappers.
“We don’t have any form of security. We are daily exposed to all manner of dangers, but we always rely on God for protection. We didn’t really wish to have it this way but that is what the challenges of life have dropped on our laps.”
The story of Oyerinde Mudasiru’s movement from Surulere, a highbrow part of Lagos, to Okeoko, a sleepy community in Ogijo, is simply befuddling.
He said: “I moved from Surulere to Ikorodu because the rent became too much for me. After some time in Ikorodu, the rent also skyrocketed and I felt it was not wise to continue to labour all the year round only to pay a landlord. It was at this point that I decided to build a room on half a plot of land I had already acquired here in Okeoko.
“I used sack and net to cover my door and window after constructing my one-room building. Mosquitoes, soldier ants and reptiles freely invaded my room. At a point, health officers came and gave us mosquito nets to save us from the menace of mosquitoes.
“My neighbours and I have also been clearing the bush in the surrounding to prevent reptiles from coming into the house. We have been living in darkness all along as there is no electricity supply. We have contributed N60, 000 each for us to get power supply, but it was to no avail.
“The government does not care about us except it is time for election. The road leading to this place wasn’t passable for vehicles until the Redeemed Christian Church of God headquarters, which is not far from us, took it upon themselves to fix it.”
It was also a rough beginning for Najeem, who said he was forced out of his rented apartment by incessant flood.
“When the menace of flood in my rented apartment at Ketu\Ikorodu Road became too much, I tried getting another apartment. But when I checked out the cost, I changed my mind and decided to use it to start something on my land here in Odogunyan.
“We started with a wooden house and later began to build the house. It has been pretty challenging coping in this kind of condition. We don’t have a toilet. What we do from time to time is to dig holes and dump excreta in them. When that one is full, we dig another one.
“We wake very early to bathe because we don’t have a bathroom. It is meaningless putting a bathroom in an open place where everybody passing will see us bathing. That is why we prefer to bathe early or late at night.
“It is unfortunate that the government does not have plans for the poor to get loan to build houses. If they were providing loans, most of us would not suffer this much to have accommodation.”
Challenging as their conditions are, the story of Mrs. Lateefat Fatai and others who moved from a one-room apartment to completing their houses offers some hope of a better tomorrow for the embattled landlords.
She said: “My family was living at Ketu Alapere before we moved here. It was the same landlord palaver that drove us here. When our rent was increased to N7, 000 a room, we felt it was not worth it to continue to pay such when there are other bills. We decided to build a room and covered the door and window with sack. We managed like that until we added more rooms. Many people who started like that now have great buildings that one would never believe was like a rehabilitation home at the beginning.”
In spite of her success story, she said: “Living in a remote area like this comes with a lot of challenges because it is we the residents that use our resources to develop the whole place. As we speak, there is no water supply. We go to long distances on a daily basis to buy water. Apart from that, living in this place has affected my business adversely. I sell soft drinks and sachet water but there is no power supply to make them cold. This makes people not to buy things the way they should.”
Security, building, environmental experts speak
In a telephone chat with our correspondent, the First Vice President of the Nigeria Institute of Building and the President of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, expressed concern about the rate at which derelict buildings are mushrooming.
“This question has been boggling our minds for long,” he said. “When you get to the suburbs of Lagos, you would see how ramshackle buildings are developing. Eventually, they will become a burden and an eyesore in future. So why can’t we get it right from the beginning? We have seen where a family slept in a ramshackle building overnight and the thing collapsed and killed them.
“It is a complex social problem the government has not been able to find a solution to. When Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) was the governor of Lagos State, we advised him that the mortgage system that is operating in advanced countries should be introduced here, but the problem is how do we recover the money?
“Our system has deficiency in seeing such facilities through. There is this programme by LAPO and Lafarge to help low income earners with money at low interest rate to build their own houses. It is called Ile Irorun. But how those people will pay back is another issue.”
Awobodu further remarked that it is a contradiction to say that the government cannot build houses for people “when you hear that an individual who happened to be in government owns so many houses.
“In advanced countries, especially the socialist countries, individuals don’t own houses, it is the government that builds for them. But Nigeria does not even have a data on who is who. So it is very complex to say you want to build for the people.”
Explaining the security challenges associated with living in such structures, an expert on security matters, Ken Oziegbe, said: “People living in such structures are often soft targets for criminals. If you look critically at the people that were killed by the Badoo cult group in Ikorodu, you will find that the majority were people living in places like the picture you have painted.
“There was this report published by your paper sometime last year about a community in Ijora where hoodlums were always raping and robbing people living in tents and other places that were not covered. That is what happens when people live in such places.
“Criminals also like to do their operations with ease. We should also bear it in mind that criminals could use such suburbs as their hideouts. They wouldn’t want to spend so much on such building so that they could easily abandon it when the chips are down.”
He added: “The government needs to up its game by providing befitting houses for the people. And where they cannot, they should be able to provide an enabling environment for the people to own houses.”
An environmentalist, MrTaiwo Adewole, said people building houses without toilet and bathroom facilities are calling for serious epidemics within the society. “Unhealthy environment can easily lead to outbreaks of diseases,” he said, adding: “The government has a great role to play because they are the ones giving approval for the construction of buildings. Secondly, the local government, through its sanitation and health department, also has vital roles to play.
“There is a need for massive awareness among people living in such areas. The best remedy from the government is to embark on building more public toilets and bathrooms which should be completely free of charge. The government also needs to start penalising the landlords of such facilities because the epidemic will be a major one which no one can escape from. Henceforth no building approval must be given without adequate toilets and bathrooms.”
He added: “Some weeks back, I was at a community called Ajowa in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Area, and it was a real eyesore seeing people going to defecate in an open water body. And it was not even for free. ‘Area boys’ are the ones managing the open defecation place.
“We can imagine the environmental and health impact because some people drink from the same water (where we have well and boreholes) closer to the water body and at the same time people still fish in the same water.
“Finally, the owners of such buildings must be penalised for not following the building rules and regulations by erecting structures that lack toilets and bathroom facilities, which are basic sanitation requirements for every building.”
Government moves to end menace
The Federal Government during the week initiated the Nigeria Housing Fund Programme (NHFP), which is under the Social Investment Fund of the Federal Government. A sum of N100 billion was said to have been set aside for its take off.
President of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria, and Managing Director, Trustbank Mortgage Ltd, Mr. Niyi Akinlusi, said the scheme was a departure from other housing schemes in Nigeria, adding: “The Housing Micro Finance Scheme is meant to stimulate increased lending to low-income earners in the formal and informal sectors in Nigeria through micro finance banks for incremental housing construction or housing improvement, while the technical assistance for the scheme shall ensure the protection of all the parties involved in the scheme.”
IN Kogi, the shrill taunt of death afflicts the natives like a bad dream. The wild cries of deaths at home and the fields, haunt indigent folk of Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa in Yagba West local council. It torments them in their sleep and as they go about their daily chores.
It started as a ‘strange disease.’ Six weeks after it berthed in Okoloke village, a settlement predominantly inhabited by Fulani herdsmen, gastroenteritis, a diarrheic ailment caused by zoonotic bacteria, has been identified as the cause of 62 deaths in Yagba West.
The State Commissioner for Health, Saka Audu, revealed that those so far diagnosed were found to be suffering from gastroenteritis and malaria.
“The disease actually started six weeks ago in Okoloke village in Yagba West, which is a settlement that is predominantly inhabited by Fulani herdsmen. There have been cases of reported deaths following abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhoea, but the patients who showed signs of illness had since been evacuated and transported to Kogi State Specialist Hospital Lokoja, for better treatment,” said Audu.
Gastroenteritis, according to health experts, is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines that manifests in the form of vomiting or diarrhoea. Bleeding may occur in stools and in severe cases, the victim dies. Acute gastroenteritis manifests as diarrhoea and vomiting, and fever occasionally. The disease is a major global health problem, causing about two million deaths annually among children under five years of age. The greatest burden of the disease, however, impacts in developing countries, often devastatingly, due to poor sanitation, lack of safe drinking water, and unsanitary food processing culture, argued Kola Atunbi, a medical doctor.
Atunbi stated that the most common cause of gastroenteritis is a viral infection. “It is often caused by food poisoning or contaminated water supply,” he said.
The disease’s outbreak in Okoloke, an area predominantly inhabited by herdsmen, substantiates fears across medical circuits that its transmission route in Kogi can be traced from cattle to man. The most common cause of the viral infection however, has been identified as food ingested by its human victims.
“Food infected with Salmonella, Brucella and Escherichia Coli (E. coli) can cause gastroenteritis. Meat and other poultry products, dairy milk, shellfish and parboiled rice are also common vectors of the disease. It is most likely that the disease spread faster across the affected areas as a food borne virus,” said Isabella Momodu, a public health consultant.
Momodu’s summation may not be too far from the truth. Previous outbreaks of gastroenteritis and other zoonoses have been traced beyond slaughterhouses, to neighbourhood food canteens, stalls of itinerant food hawkers and presumably standard, decent eateries and restaurants.
The fact that the current outbreak in Kogi has been traced to local cattle herds, further substantiates established medical and scientific discoveries of food-borne hazards along Nigeria’s meat value chain.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that illness due to contaminated food is the most widespread health problem in the world and an important cause of reduced socio-economic productivity.
In Nigeria, there is no organised system for monitoring outbreaks of food-borne infections in humans, which explains the inability to ascertain the true nature of the crisis in Kogi, soon after the first casualty.
For six weeks, the government dithered for lack of essential and policy provisions guiding responses to an outbreak of such fatal consequences. Thus the coinage of ‘strange disease’ in describing the diarrheic outbreak that claimed 62 lives in three local governments in the state.
Reason for Kogi’s death toll
Most food-borne diseases in Nigeria appear to occur predominantly as isolated sporadic cases rather than taking the form of outbreaks and many, if not most, cases of food-borne infections are unrecognised, uninvestigated and undocumented, lamented Bodunde Hakeem, a medical lab scientist.
Corroborating him, Thelma Soaga, a public health officer, stated: “Many patients do not seek help from hospitals but rather engage in self-medication or use of medicinal herbs. It is, therefore, difficult to determine the actual incidence of food-borne infections. However, diarrhoea is a good indicator of food-borne disease and better data exist for the prevalence and impact of diarrhoea in Nigeria.”
In developing countries, typically 50 to 60 percent of diarrhoea cases are bacterial in origin. In Nigeria, the proportion may be higher at 65 to 80 per cent, according to health experts.
“Most of the bacterial causes of diarrhoea are zoonotic, that is, transmissible between animals and humans, and the most notable bacterial zoonoses are toxigenic E. coli infection, campylobacteriosis, brucellosis, cryptosporidiosis, Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) infection, salmonellosis, listeriosis, toxoplasmosis, and Bacillus cereus infection.
“Important non-zoonotic bacterial causes of diarrhoea include typhoid and cholera. Others such as B. cereus may be environmental contaminants as well as zoonoses. This complexity makes it difficult to estimate the relative importance of infected animals, polluted environments and infected people as sources of infection.
“Even if food-borne zoonotic pathogens are detected in humans, they are often not traced back to the likely animal source due to inadequate medical diagnostic facilities in most hospitals across the country,” explained Funmilayo Osuntuyi, a medical doctor.
A large number of studies examining food-borne hazards have established that besides Brucella, E. coli and Salmonella are two popular meat-borne hazards in the country. The E. coli strains are important food-borne pathogens responsible for gastroenteritis with manifestations of abdominal pains, bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure, especially in children. Cattle are important reservoirs of E.coli virus and contaminated meat is a major vehicle for its transmission from animals to humans.
Local fast-food restaurants commonly referred to as “bukas” are regarded as likely sources of infection. In Akwa Ibom, bloody, diarrheic E. coli accounted for 31 per cent of all cases of diarrhoea in humans, according to recent scientific findings.
A significantly higher prevalence of the virus was observed in Lagos (35.0%) with greater rate of meat consumption and more eateries than in Zaria (23.7%) which had a lower rate of meat consumption and fewer eateries.
In southeastern Nigeria, seven E. coli strains were isolated from 520 diarrhoeic stool samples from patients with acute diarrhoea in Enugu and Anambra States recently.
Food-borne viruses
Contamination can occur at multiple steps along the food chain. A previous outbreak of Salmonella food-poisoning in Ibadan, Oyo State, resulted in the death of 20 people. The outbreak was attributed to the consumption of improperly preserved sandwiches contaminated with the Salmonella virus (typhimurium phage type U282).
And just recently, 10 duplicate (20) samples of fresh meat (beef) were randomly sampled from two major markets, the Watt and Marian markets in Calabar, Cross River State by researchers Iheanyi Okonkwo, Udeze Augustine, Ani Nkang and peer across six universities including University of Port Harcourt, University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin and Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.
The meat samples were analysed microbiologically to establish rates of contamination by bacteria. Fresh meat samples from both locations, Watt and Marian markets, showed marked growth of bacteria and a total of 36 isolates comprising eight different classes of bacteria were isolated with an average incidence rate of 50% in each market.
The viruses include Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, and Salmonella, and their presence in the fresh meat samples is alarming.
A series of unfortunate findings
Besides, Salmonella, E. coli and Brucella, Giardia, a diarrheic virus, has manifested in parts of the country. In a six- month scientific study of Giardia parasites among patients that attended the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri, Borno State, of the 256 patients examined, 85 (33.2%) haboured Giardia species. Of the 156 diarrhoeic patients examined, 64 (41.0%) tested positive to the disease, while 100 non-diarrhoeic patients, 21 (21.0%) were also infected. The even spread of infection among patients has been described as endemic in Maiduguri.
Giardiasis is usually associated with contaminated water supplies, poor personal hygiene, ignorance and poverty. The diarrheic virus is also transferrable by vectors such as housefly and it is responsible for over three million deaths annually, mostly in children. However, despite the danger constituted by the disease, there is still dearth of information and proactive campaign against Giardiasis and other zoonoses in Maiduguri.
Leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease also manifests in the country with debilitating and life threatening consequences on its human hosts. The disease’s prevalence rate in Abuja, Benue, Plateau and Nassarawa States excites worry as recent screening of 263 blood samples from male and female abattoir workers in the four states showed 87.7% (male) and 81.0% (female) prevalence rates respectively.
Nassarawa State had the highest prevalence rate of 94.3%, while the least rate was found in Plateau State with 82.8%. Like Brucella and Salmonella, symptoms of Leptospira infection closely mimic those of many febrile illnesses and accurate diagnosis may be missed due to its similarities to other fever.
Human leptospirosis manifests as a wide spectrum of clinical illnesses, ranging from mild infections to severe multi-organ failure associated with high mortality and morbidity in different countries. It is transmitted to humans via direct or indirect contact with water, food or soil containing blood, urine and tissue from an infected animal.
It infects the body through mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and mouth, or abraded skin by bathing or accidental immersion in fresh water lakes, rivers or canals contaminated with the urine of the infected livestock. Livestock often contract the disease from rats.
The disease has also been reported in Enugu, Oyo and Bauchi among cattle, abattoir workers and volunteer blood donors. Despite its significance as a public health threat, leptospirosis is rarely diagnosed in most health care facilities in the country.
Antibiotic-resistant viruses
Listeria and E. coli isolates from muscle tissues of slaughtered cattle at a Bodija municipal abattoir in Ibadan, Oyo State revealed that meat is prone to contamination by antibiotic-resistant strains of the viruses, during slaughter and processing, due to unhygienic practices by abattoir workers.
A research team including Victoria Adetunji and Tajudeen Isola of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan (U.I) “found that the muscle tissues from the slaughtered cattle were highly contaminated, with the total aerobic, coliform and Listeria counts being higher than the acceptable international standards. Isolated E. coli and Listeria demonstrated 100 per cent resistance to all tested antibiotics,” according to the team.
Apparently, majority of the viruses responsible for diarrhoea in Nigeria are zoonotic and cattle are important reservoirs for many. In recent hospital studies, 33 out of 116 patients examined, had a history of meat consumption shortly before the onset of symptoms.
Worried by high incidences of zoonotic infections in humans, the Federal Department of Livestock, four Nigerian universities teaching veterinary medicine, the Directorate of Research of the National Veterinary Research Institute, the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis (and Onchocerciasis) Research and Chief Veterinary Officers from selected states, and representatives of the private sector, met with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Oyo State, to deliberate and address the country’s zoonoses burden.
The forum identified food as a gendered commodity, with men and women typically playing different roles in livestock production and processing, with implications for food safety.
The health experts warned that the general public is at high risk of contracting food-borne viruses through the consumption of contaminated food and abattoir workers are at greater risk of exposure.
However, because the number of consumers of meat is greater than the number of people working closely with animals and their products, the greatest burden of infection is borne by consumers.
There is no gainsaying that beef is the most commonly consumed meat in Nigeria thus increasing its potential contribution to the food-borne diarrhoea burden. The cost of illnesses associated with food-borne and beef-borne diarrhoea in the country was estimated by the Nigerian and ILRI scientific think-thank as follows: 173 million episodes of diarrhoea in the country is attributable to food and 35 million episodes of diarrheic ailments are attributable to beef.
The cost of diarrhoea are US$ 3.6 billion (about N1.3 trillion) and the cost of food-borne diarrhoea are US$ 2.0 billion (about N724 billion). The cost of beef-borne diarrhoea from treatment and lost income is US$156 million (about N57 billion), according to the forum.
Public health officers identify a higher prevalence of zoonoses in food sellers and handlers due to the crucial role they play in the preparation and sale of food in public and the nation’s abattoirs.
Biological contaminants, largely bacteria and other parasites, constitute the major causes of food-borne diseases often transmitted through food, water, nails, and fingers of food sellers and handlers contaminated with faeces. A recent study in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), established the prevalence of bacteria and intestinal parasites among food handlers in the FCT. Stool, urine and fingernail analysis of 168 food handlers revealed worrisome truths about their food processing culture.
Staphylococcus and E. coli viruses were found in their fingernails. The subjects’ stool samples also tested positive to Salmonella (42.3%) and Shigella (15.5%) viruses. A high prevalence of intestinal parasites (38.1%) and bacteria (62.6%) was also discovered in the stools of the food-handlers.
Is livestock business and policy review the answer?
The use of retention ponds for pre-treatment of abattoir effluents has been suggested as an effective physical treatment method in reducing contamination levels of communal waters. Health experts also advised that entrepreneurs dealing in animal wastes such as bones, manure and blood should be encouraged through government policies to convert abattoir wastes to useful products.
Abattoir operators should be trained on hygiene methods and enlightened by the government and NGOs, on impacts of abattoir effluents on public health and the environment.
Public health practitioners also suggested that the country’s policy on livestock business and ownership should be reviewed to meet the challenges of present realities.
“Government should ban public hawking of livestock and the use of residential houses as poultry farms. These portend great health hazard to human population and could snow-ball to a deadly epidemic. It will be difficult to contain any such pandemic given the poor state of the nation’s health sector and lethargic emergency response facilities,” warned Bidemi Kalejaiye, a veterinary doctor.
Kalejaiye advised that the government and regulatory authorities should ensure that the policy regulating abattoir operations and poultry farms are strictly adhered to. The government must institute policy that outlaws the location of new abattoirs, meat markets and poultry in residential areas,” she said.
Ruth Onoshe, a food seller and resident of New Oko Oba, Agege, Lagos, however, argued that, besides the occasional stench of slurry and other animal waste that emanates from the abattoir, “No one could possibly die or fall sick by living close to an abattoir.”
She described complaints about food-borne viruses and food poisoning as exaggerated claims and false alarms. The mother of four said that she has been selling food in the Oko-Oba abattoir for four years and none of her customers had ever complained of stomach ache or food poisoning.
“See how enticing the aroma is. See how it sizzles in the pot. Taste it. It is very delicious. My food is always delicious,” said the food seller, who also believes that adding ‘curry and ginger’ to beef meal rids it of every infection.
A recent report by the United Nations World Water Council (WWC) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that by 2050, water supplies will dwindle in parts of the world, threatening food security and livelihoods.
The report noted that having less available water risks catastrophe on many fronts as crops could fail, ecosystems could break down, industries could collapse, disease and poverty could worsen, and violent conflicts over access to water could become more frequent.
While the projected year is still more than three decades away, Nigeria appears to have begun to experience signs of the calamities predicted by the report. The Secretary General of a herdsmen group known as Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GADFAN), Alhaji Sale Bayari, told our correspondent that the change weather conditions was already taking a toll on their members’ businesses.
Bayari said: “It is going to be a very big disaster because already, the effect of global warming is catching up with the rest of the world and it has started wreaking a lot of havoc in the far north. Livestock have been moving from the north to the south in search of water and pasture, and this is the thing that has brought so much crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the country.
“Desertification is on the increase as water is becoming very scarce on a daily basis. The amount of water available is becoming less as we move northward. People are forced to move southwards, resulting in a sort of congestion for farmers and herdsmen in areas that are blessed with rainfall. Coupled with the prediction that we are going to have less rain as we approach the next five to 10 years, one becomes frightened, because if care is not taken, we are going to have a lot of crisis in the agricultural sector, as demand for water by crop farmers and livestock farmers will be nationwide.”
Obviously saddened by the plight of his people, Bayari, whose voice was laden with emotion, said: “In the history of the livestock farming, 2016/2017 season has been the worst. We have lost livestock running into hundreds of thousands, especially in states like Kaduna, Plateau, Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi and Bornu, because of the congestion caused by keeping livestock in one place and the fact that water has become very scarce. Nobody needs to predict what is coming, because we are already seeing it.
“In the dry season, water sustains animals more than grass. Once you have water, your animals can feed on very little food. Once they have a lot of water in their bodies, the animals can live on small quantities of food. But if they don’t have water, no matter the quantity of food they eat, they will die.”
He also noted that GADFAN members had many of their livestock during clashes with famers. “In monetary terms, the cows we have lost this year are worth more than N5 billion,” he lamented. “Herdsmen now operate in places where you would ordinarily not find animals at all in the dry season. In the dry season, all of them would move southward for pastures. But these movements have become impossible because the national and international cattle routes have been blocked by farmers.
“Apart from blocking the routes, farmers would not allow herdsmen access through their farms. The hostility has become so much, and people who have lost their loved ones are not ready to forgive. And if they are ready to forgive, it is often on the condition that they don’t want to see the herdsmen anymore. But then, there is no way they would not see the herdsmen because the quest for survival forces herdsmen to risk their lives going into places they are not sure to survive.”
GADFAN’s fears were also shared by another group of herdsmen known as Miyetti Allah. The Assistant Secretary of the group, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said: “The report gives us a lot of worries because we know that we are in a more disadvantaged position than all other arable farmers, because they have access to dams and irrigation for dry season farming while we don’t have that luxury. We depend on rivers and streams, but when it comes to dry season, most of these rivers dry up in the north. We are very concerned about this climate change because of the side effects on our animals and their productivity.
“There is this desertification that affects the entire north. There is also drought and scarcity of water in the far north. The drought affects our animals and, of course, the health of our animals is affected. Because without nutritious food, the animals fall sick easily.
“The pastoralists themselves are also affected because they have to keep moving from one place to another and sometimes, they run into danger. At times you move into places where there are conflicts and it affects you. Climate change has affected pastoralists more than any other sector of the society.”
Abdullahi added: “We are having problems with fodders because of inadequate rainfall in some areas. I am talking about the entire far nort—Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, parts of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and even Yobe and Borno states. Those areas cannot sustain animals, especially during the dry season. This is why most of the pastoralists move to the south in order to get greener pastures.
“The quest for survival will keep making herdsmen to go to areas where they are prohibited. There is no political will to tackle these problems through articulated policies and programmes. Actually, the problem between farmers and herdsmen will have to go on because people must survive. People must move in order to earn a living.”
Common tune
Like their counterparts in livestock farming, crop farmers are also living in fear of the worsening climate challenge. The chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Kano, Abdurasheed Rimigado, said he and his members were worried about the change in weather, particularly because Kano is close to the Sahara Desert. Rimigado said: “The Sahara is approaching us more than it was in 2014. Although it is not prevalent now, we are seeing signs that it could get worse.
“Naturally, as a farmer, one should have fears about climate change. It affects farming activities from all angles because our business depends on rainfall and weather in general. It doesn’t matter whether you are a crop farmer, livestock or poultry farmer. The amount of rainfall we used to get has dwindled greatly and this affects our farming activities.”
Speaking with The Nation correspondent, a prominent farmer in Gwagwalada area of Abuja, Alhaji Alkali Ibrahim said: “Inadequate rainfall has made the crops planted by many farmers to dry up. The few ones that germinated were eaten up by insects and worms. This is part of the challenges because there is no enough rainfall.
“The problem affected many other farmers in other communities too. At the end of the day, the yield will be very poor. I planted melon, yam and maize but there was no sufficient rain to make them grow. We have replanted and yet have no sufficient rainfall for them to develop well.
“To make matters worse, we have no means of irrigating our farms. In our own area, there is River Osuma, which is very big. Its waters can be channelled into our farms, but it cannot be done by individual farmers. It can only be done by the government.
“We have associations, but when they apply for things, they don’t often get positive response. I doubt if there will be bumper harvest this year except there is an improvement in rainfall. If the same pattern of rainfall continues this manner, there will surely be problems.”
To avert scarcity of food, Alkali urged the government to encourage irrigation farming, saying: “If there are ways that water can be diverted for that purpose, it will greatly help. Constant and adequate supply of fertiliser and farm implements will also be very helpful. “
His counterpart in Benue State, Hon Bawa Haruna, said there would be crisis if the predictions in the UN report came to pass.
His words: “It will mean that farmers in the affected areas will no longer farm in such places. The food supply will greatly reduce and that will affect the masses.
“We have irrigation here in Agatu but it was done by individuals and not the government. We connected pipes to the river to bring water to our farms. This is where we have problems with the Fulani herdsmen during dry season. They always destroy our crops when they come here with their animals.”
Early in the year, in May to be precise, hundreds of irrigation farmers using water from Musawa Dam in Katsina State recorded huge losses following the sudden drying up of the dam. Crops at various stages of maturity reportedly wilted, forcing some of the farmers to commence early harvest to salvage what they could of the crops.
Alhaji Idris Abdullahi, the Chairman of Musawa Irrigation Farmers Association, said more than 150 farmers were affected. Abdullahi put the estimated losses incurred by the farmers at about N30 million, and loss of jobs at about 1,000 farm hands. He said about 150 hectares of tomato, potato, wheat, maize, onion and other vegetables were damaged.”
Implications
Examining the implications of the challenge, Bayari said: “Very seriously, there will be scarcity of beef in the future. A kilo of beef as at yesterday when I went to the market was N1,100, and that of intestine was N900\950. Before now, a kilo sold for N500. Nigeria has been feeding its citizens with beef from local cows reared by herdsmen. The government cannot claim to have spent N100 million importing beef as it does fish and poultry.
“Most of our herdsmen are now moving into other West African countries. This simply means that sooner or later, we will be importing beef from those countries. Definitely, we are going to have scarcity of beef, and that has already started. Check your market and ask what the position was this time last year and you will understand what I am talking about.”
Bayari believes there ought to be a mutually beneficial relationship between farmers and herdsmen, saying: “There is no way herdsmen would have challenges and farmers would not. When herdsmen stay in a place for two to three weeks, that place becomes one of the best places you can plant any type of crop and have good harvest. The usefulness of animal dung can be there for the next five years or more before the quality of the manure begins to decline. But chemicalised fertilizer does not last like that.
“If you apply fertilizer now and there is heavy rainfall, you have to re-apply. That is why in the north, you will find that the states that have more animals often have the best crop production. It has always been like that, especially now that chemical fertilizers are becoming more and more unaffordable.”
Buttressing Bayari’s remark, Abdullahi of Miyetti Allah said: “In fact, as I am talking to you, I have relatives moving to places as far as Ethiopia, Cameroon and Central Africa Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea. Some of our people are moving to some of the West African countries. You know what implications this would have in the near future? Ninety-eight per cent of the protein being consumed in the country comes from this set of people.
“Don’t forget the socio-economic contributions they make in the country in terms of hides and skin. The health of the people in the country will also be affected because you need protein on a daily basis to build your body’s resistance to diseases. It is going to affect us if proper steps are not taken by the government.”
Lamentations over failure to conserve water
In the face of the UN’s clarion call to governments to rise to the challenge of climate change by making policies that will avert the impending water scarcity, the farmers pilloried the federal government for not living up to its responsibilities in this regard.
Bayari said: “So far, Nigeria has not been conserving water. If you go to Katsina State, when there is rain, you find rivers overflowing their bounds. The same thing happens when you go to Bauchi. Before the Yankari Grazing Reserve, there is a big river there that overflows between June and September. But between December and January, you will not find a drop of water. You will not even find drinking water there. Women will have to use their hands to dig the ground before they can scoop water.
“There is no water conserved by any of the three tiers of government. When there is heavy rainfall, water always comes to destroy our farmlands and houses, and shortly after that, you don’t get a drop to drink because the water has not been conserved.
“I am beginning to wonder why we have a ministry for water resources and one for the environment. What are they doing? When this water is flowing from stream into rivers and from rivers into oceans, why can’t we have earth dams along these rivers? You don’t have to block the entire river; just make an outlet for the water so that instead of flowing into the sea, it flows into the hinterland and then a small dam where this water will accumulate and will be used for the six months of dry season for both irrigation and animals.
“Nigeria will be better for this. Libya takes water from the Mediterranean Sea and make the entire desert a green pasture. If we can take oil from the Niger Delta to Kaduna refinery, if care is not taken, a time will come when we would have to take water from Bayelsa or from Lagos up to Maiduguri. If we are still blessed with water in the Lake Chad Basin, we may have to take water from there up to Sokoto. I am just wondering the kind of government that we have. God gave us so much but we lack so much.”
He added: “We are calling on government at all levels to for once face the challenge of water. Look at Kano State, the irrigation facilities provided by the late Audu Bako about 20 years ago has made it possible for hundreds of cows to mingle with the farmers there. Some of the farmers’ crops that are not needed are sold to the herdsmen to feed their cows. This is how ranches would have started gradually.
“There is no how you can keep cows in a place and at the end of the day, there is no food for them. We don’t have mechanised farming here in Nigeria. In mechanised farming, a farmer can feed 5,000 cows all year round through his crop residues.
“The federal and state governments must go all out to make sure that provisions are made for preservation of water resources.”
On his part, Abdullahi said: “There is water everywhere but there is no conservation to help us during dry season. Aside from the programme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture targeted at some of the gazetted grazing reserve that we have in the country called water conservation, which is insufficient, I can tell you that there is no effort by the federal government to try to conserve water. Given the volume of rain that we normally record in the country, with good policies, we can conserve it and even give to our neighbours.”
Abdullahi hinted that as part of their efforts to address some of the problems faced by their members, Miyyeti Allah “is sensitising our people, because not even everybody in the society actually knows what climate change is. Some people in the government don’t even know this. You see the politics going on between America and other countries about global warming.
“Definitely, we have to reach out to the government for them to understand and appreciate the enormity of the problem at hand so that they can sensitize the people to start taking steps, especially on the need for people to introduce new animal husbandry techniques rather than depending on nature.
“People should be educated to start producing the fodder that they need throughout the season by fodder bank development, planting grasses of high nutritional value. As an association, we have started this enlightenment programme and advocacy to relevant authorities for them to appreciate the problems that we have and start mapping out strategies to curtail it.”
Last year, the Federal Government admitted that agriculture was in desperate need of water when it unfolded plans to commence the construction of about 10 new dams in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The construction of the projects known as PROJECT 10/37, it said, would begin in 2017.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, disclosed this during a public presentation of the water sector roadmap with the theme: “Immediate and Long Term Strategies for the Water Sector 2016-2030,” organised by the Ministry of Water Resources in Abuja.
Ogbeh had said: “We hope to create, in the next few years, 10 dams in each state of the federation. We have a project coming up next year called PROJECT 10/37. We are looking at a minimum of 10 dams in each state, including the FCT. It is said that if the world is unfortunate to witness another world war, the cause of that war will be either food or water. Agriculture is in desperate need of water, particularly because we know that we can no longer continue to rely on rainfall to sustain our agriculture.
“We need the Ministry of Water Resources more desperately than the ministry needs its self. We need to irrigate the land. We need to keep the animals. We need water for other reasons. We are looking at a future where, whether it rains or it does not rain, we can continue to produce food. Because if we don’t, as our population is ballooning towards 450 million by 2050, we may face serious problems with food production.”
Laudable as the plan appeared, the plight of the farmers showed that the project may not have taken off and may be just another political statement.
Efforts made to get the position of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on the matter yielded no result as calls and text message sent to the mobile number of Dr Kayode Oyeleye, the Special Adviser to Ogbeh on media, were neither answered nor replied to.
•Herd boys rush a sickly cow to the slaughter slab at the Oko-Oba Abattoir and Lairage
ON Monday, at 10.00 am, a lanky butcher picks his teeth in a stream of blood. His name is Taofeeq and he reeks of dung. His brown shirt drips with the blood of over 50 cows and his boots are smeared in gore and fecal mess of cow cadavers. The spatter of red masks his frame like splattered timestamps; grisly reminder of his vocation’s gothic rites.
“This morning, I have killed 50 cows. I am very fast. I can slit a cow’s throat and hack it to pieces in 10 minutes; limbs, offal and meat,” he says, kicking languidly at a rat nibbling on his merchandise: a bloody heap of cow tail, chopped brain and intestines.
The rat falls into an open sewer beside his slab; visibly rattled, it darts into a hole in the wall of the sewer, just in time to escape Taofeeq’s second strike.
Butchers wash cow meat in fetid gutter at the Ikpoba slope abattoir in Edo PHOTO: Jefferson UWOGHIREN
“Were yii ma ba oja je fun mi, meaning: This mad rodent will ruin my merchandise,” he says, skimming the expanse for prospective customers.
It is Taofeeq’s eighth year as a butcher and meat dealer at the Oko-Oba Abattoir and Lairage, Agege, Lagos; and “very few butchers here understand the business and lay of the land. I do,” he says, wading through animal gore and filth to the centre of his slaughter slab.
The blood on Taofeeq’s frame would elicit gasps and sharp yelps in another part of town. But amid the killing fields of the Oko Oba abattoir, his chilling frame pales to grislier forms.
“You get bloodier while cutting up cows. But you get used to it. My target is a 100 cows today,” he enthuses, in a tenor that suggests he dreads that the hours may pass quicker than before. If he falls behind his target, his day’s exploits may resound like failure.
“Every hour counts. When you’ve been here for a long while, you will understand that,” says Taofeeq, drawing the horn of an obstinate cow with equivalent force.
He thrusts his knife into the cow’s neck, slitting its throat in a deft stir that swishes like a stab. The dying animal kicks and wheezes in a final, gasp, beneath the stern glare and grasp of its slaughterer.
In a moment, the slab is caked in silence. Then with astonishing fierceness, Taofeeq hacks into the cow cadaver, like a street brawler decapitating fearsome adversary. The aggression from butcher to cow, man to animal, and the acquiescence of lifeless beast to sharp axe, resonates beyond the slab, melding with the din of the blood-clad slaughterhouse.
•At Yanyan abattoir in Abuja, FCT, butchers wash cattle meat in a stream of blood and mucky water
Across the expanse of the abattoir, men decapitate cattle with consummate ferocity. Nothing is spared: horns, bone, offal, skin, animal blood and dung, are destined for distinct uses.
In the racket of heavy axes, machetes and knives, precision is key. A rhythm arises.
The slaughter house mists with heat, animal gore and dung; and the air swarms with stench and missiles of flying bone fragments, innards and blood spatter.
None of the butchers and other abattoir workers adhere to slaughterhouse rules. None of them are putting on gloves, dedicated uniform or overall to distinguish and protect them according to task. They do not care about protecting the meat either. Thus cows are slaughtered and processed in the blood, intestinal waste and dung of previous slaughters.
Very few of the workers have rubber boots on their feet, many of them are in bathroom slippers and other flimsy soles while an even more daring breed wade barefoot in the sea of blood, dung and bone fragments.
Butchers bathe on cattle parts at Oko-Oba abattoir
Besides the insanitary meat processing culture, butchers carry meat on their backs and head from the slaughter slabs to the meat counters or point of sale in the abattoir’s retail section.
Butchers bathing on meat
Few paces from the slaughter slabs, several butchers and herd boys take their bath in the open, with water spilling from an overhead tank. As they do, spatters of grime, soap, animal blood and dung cleansed from their bodies, splash on displayed merchandise of cow tail, hide and intestines placed two paces from their open bath.
The women tending the wares are hardly bothered that the goods meant for human consumption are being bathed upon and polluted by bad soap wash.
•Rat scurries back into its hole to escape Butcher Taofeeq’s assault after ribbling on his meat merchandise at the Oko-Oba abattoir
Within the expanse, Adenike inhales the dank, putrid air, as the sun douses in an early drizzle. She is expecting retailers, the ones with deep pockets. “Three of my customers have called me. They will be here soon. They are food sellers in Orile and Dopemu Agege. They have been patronising me since I started work here seven years ago,” she says.
The meat seller sees nothing wrong with goings-on in the abattoir. “Nobody can just change it for us just like that (change the way business is done)…Things are better this way. It’s faster to kill animals in the open slabs. The customers can come and pick their choice. They can also see the transparent way we do business here,” she says.
•Employees of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Francis town abattoir process cow meat in a standard processing plant
Dangerous trade in sick and dead cattle
Amid the bustle of blood and frantic commerce, three herd boys wheel a sickly cow at frenzied pace, towards the abattoir’s crowded slabs. They dodge teeming human traffic as they hasten to beat two other carts bearing very sick cows ahead, to the slabs.
They do not wish to wait turns after the two crews in front, lest their cow dies before it is fed to the knife. They would like to pronounce ‘Bismillah’ on the sickly animal before its throat is slit. “It must not die before it gets to the slabs. If it dies before it is killed, it’s processed meat will never be considered halal (approved or sanctified meat). It becomes haram (forbidden) meat,” says Mahmud, a butcher.
Statistics shows that about 6,000 cattle are slaughtered across Lagos daily. About 1, 200 of the figure are slaughtered in the Oko Oba Abattoir and Lairage, which is arguably the biggest slaughter house in the country and one of the biggest in Africa.
•In flagrant disregard of global best practices, butchers slaughter deceased calf in Maiduguri abattoir, Borno State
However, of the 1, 200 cows killed and processed in the abattoir, about 200 are wheeled to the slab severely bruised, diseased or dead. Thus about 150 sickly cows and 50 dead cows are killed daily in the abattoir. Findings revealed that at least 15 out of every 100 cows slaughtered at the abattoir are unhealthy while five of every 100 cows are wheeled to the slabs as cadaver.
At the Oko Oba abattoir, dead cattle are sold at paltry price. “The price often ranges between N10, 000 and N28, 000 depending on its size. On the other hand, sick cattle may be sold to unsuspecting consumers at normal price.
“That is why some customers come to the market with intermediaries conversant with the business. The latter are able to identify sick or diseased cows and guide their clients to make the right choice,” says Rasheeda, who processes “saki” and other cow innards at the abattoir.
But streetwise customers purchase such diseased animals at a steal. They could purchase a cow that should sell between N250, 000 and N350, 000 for as low as N30, 000 to N80, 000, depending on the severity of its ailment and their bargaining skills. Ignorant buyers however, suffer the misfortune of buying a sick cow at the price of a healthy cow, says Akinde, a butcher and meat dealer.
“Usually, the suya sellers purchase the dead cows. This is because it’s cheaper to acquire. Many of them also look out for the sick cows. Sometimes, four of five of them may contribute to purchase an unhealthy cow at cheaper rate. They buy it and divide it among themselves. Many of such dead or diseased cows are used to make the suya that Lagosians eat,” he reveals.
Notwithstanding the burgeoning trade in dead and unhealthy cows, the rule at the abattoir is that such cattle should be cut and burnt, according to the butchers.
With an estimated 19 million cattle heads, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development revealed that Nigerians consume about 360,000 tonnes of beef yearly. This conservative figure is projected to rise to 1.3 million tonnes per year by 2050, some 260 per cent increase. But how safe is the meat we eat?
The Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) has warned that many Nigerians might be consuming meat that could be dangerous to their health, given the unhealthy state of abattoirs in the country.
•A healthy cow is usually obstinate, violent and uneasy to tame on the slaughter slab
The Registrar of the council, Dr. Marcus Avong, recently disclosed that there were only three standard abattoirs in Nigeria, located in Lagos, Borno and Nassarawa states thus implying that only three standard abattoirs serve over 170 million Nigerians.
According to a recent media report that Lagos has a population of about 21 million, according to the National Population Commission (NPC) 2014 figures, about four million in Borno State and two million in Nassarawa State, the addition of these figures give 27 million, which implies that only 27 million Nigerians (about 16 per cent of the total population) have access to standard meat, while about 143 million Nigerians (representing about 84 per cent) access meat that may be injurious to their health.
The Nation’s investigations in Lagos, Calabar, Abuja, Enugu and other parts of the country however, reveal that meat accessed in the states’ presumably decent abattoirs might not be safe for consumption after all.
•Lagos Commissioner for Health, Oluwatoyin Suarau, faces an uphill task enforcing global best practices at the Oko-Oba abattoir and other slaughter houses in Lagos State
Despite Lagos government’s spirited efforts to institute a culture of hygiene and enforce standard regulations across the state’s abattoirs, the Oko Oba slaughterhouse which is the biggest in the state and the country, pulses in extreme lack of standards in operations, poor hygiene and lack of necessary tools and equipment for butchers and health workers.
Successive visits to the abattoir revealed unethical practices. There were no health officers on site to conduct ante-mortem and postmortem checks on cattle to ascertain if they were fit for human consumption.
Findings at the abattoir revealed a daily routine that fosters harmful practices that medical practitioners fear could endanger lives in Lagos city.
At the Nkonib-Unity Slaughter Market, Ndidem Usang Ext. Nkonib (Ikot Ansa) in Calabar, Cross River State, the situation isn’t different. Although the number of cows slaughtered daily in the abattoir is markedly smaller than what is obtainable in the Lagos abattoir, cattle are slaughtered and processed in filthy conditions at the slaughterhouse.
While some consumers stroll in to the abattoir’s decrepit expanse to purchase meat from wooden counters, many more troop to the slaughter slabs to have their pick of the processed cattle meat.
Prince Charles Etim, chairman of the butchers and abattoir workers, has been in the business for 20 years. But the slaughter house and market where he presides is two years old. “I run the abattoir in partnership with owners of the land, the Nkonib Ikot Ansa. My company, Unity Slaughter does business with them,” he says.
Etim bemoans the poor facilities in the abattoir and dearth of investment opportunities and support from the government. “We want greater access to loans so we can travel out and get more cattle. We can also use such loans to improve the facilities in this place,” he says.
Far from the Nkonib-Unity Slaughter Market, Nasarrawa Abattoir deals with similar problems. Emmanuel Umoh, chairman of the abattoir’s butcher’s union, laments declining business and the dearth of standard facilities in the slaughterhouse. He says business has become more fragmented leading to dwindling returns because the number of abattoirs in Calabar has grown from three big abattoirs to 15 substandard abattoirs.
“About 20, years ago, during my first tenure as chairman of this abattoir, we bought cows between N10, 000 and N20, 000; now, we buy one cow at the price of 15 or 20 cows, with each cow selling between N250, 000 and N350, 000,” he says.
•Old Kwatta Abattoir, Anambra
Umoh worries about the abattoirs’ inadequate facilities and he is particularly bothered by the widening gorge, caused by erosion, eating into the expanse of the abattoir. “We need government intervention here in order to improve the condition of this place,” says Umoh.
The Nation’s visit to Yanyan Abattoir in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) also reveals unsanitary meat processing activities by the abattoir workers. Cattle are slaughtered on dirty, crowded slabs and cow innards and skin are dragged through filth and blood pools to sale blocks after being washed in mucky water.
At the Ikpoba slope abattoir in Edo state, animals are slaughtered on foul slabs and washed in fetid open drainage. The Owerri Municipal abattoirs in Imo state also constitutes a health hazard. At the modern abattoir in the city, widely known as Somachi Slaughter House, an average of 30 cattle are killed daily. There are no health inspectors or vet doctors to conduct ante-mortem and postmortem examination on slaughtered cattle. Animals are decapitated and eviscerated on grimy slabs and burning and skinning commences immediately afterwards.
At the Maiduguri Main Abattoir in Borno state, most butchers and prospective buyers walk barefoot within the slaughter slabs. Only a small fraction of the abattoir workers and visitors wear slippers and rubber shoes.
Those who sustain injuries from knife wounds or bruises while struggling with obstinate cattle on the slabs, use torn polythene or nylon strips as bandage on their wounds, and they are often seen carrying meat on their backs and heads instead of using pans. Their work clothes are dirty and unwashed with accumulated debris from daily slaughtering activities. Besides, butchers wash their hands in dirty water, in the crevices on the killing floor of the abattoir.
PHOTOS: Olatunji OLOLADE Abayomi FAYESE and Library
There is no gainsaying that the country’s abattoir operations contravene best practices and global health standards. Besides poor meat processing methods, many of the abattoirs operate with open drainages that are often clogged with debris and maggots.
Most butchers are poor and have not received occupational training and because there is usually no compensation if bad meat is condemned, butchers react strongly and aggressively resist condemnation of diseased cattle and unwholesome meat, according to vets and health inspectors.
Several abattoir workers engage in unhygienic practices which directly put consumers of meat at risk. For example, it is common practice among butchers in Ibadan, Oyo state, to sprinkle fresh blood on old meat or dip large chunks of stale meat in fresh blood to make it appear fresh.
Also, in desperate bid to pass off diseased cattle as healthy animals, butchers puncture small holes in the body of the cattle and pump water into them thus making them look bloated and well fed.
Slaughterhouses in the country are also major sources of water and air pollution as they often discharge their effluent directly into streams or land which drains into surface and underground water.
The Nation’s findings in the country’s major abattoirs reveal gross and unchecked discharge of entire blood and gastrointestinal contents of slaughtered animals into nearby streams, rivers clogged, open drainages and surface soil.
For instance, residents of Ladoje and Oko Oba neighbourhoods of Agege, host to Nigeria’s largest abattoir, complain of polluted waters and a powerful stench.
“We find it difficult to breathe most times. Imagine waking up to a foul morning air and knowing the stench will stay with you throughout the day. Life here is hellish for most of us,” said Bisi Akamo, a retired civil servant.
Besides the stench emanating from the abattoir, ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections are hardly carried out on slaughtered cattle even as they are slaughtered and eviscerated in the open with carcasses processed on bare floor. Abattoir workers drag slaughtered cattle viscera through pooled blood, dung and intestinal wastes on the floor and animal innards are washed in abattoir drainages.
Butchers also slaughter calves and pregnant cows in flagrant disregard for regulations banning such practice.
Too much beef, unfit for export
According to the Director of Veterinary Services in the Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Emmanuel Onyeka, Nigeria has not been able to export its meat to other countries because the World Trade Organisation is not satisfied with the standard of meat processed in Nigeria.
Onyeka, who is also a veterinary doctor, has however called for a national meat law, which he said would make the WTO to allow Nigeria to export processed meat. He noted that such law, if enacted, would promote meat inspection and hygiene.
“I feel we need to have a national law on meat inspection and hygiene, which would improve ours to international standard so that our meat will qualify and the WTO will allow us to export our meats to foreign countries because with the standards we have in Nigeria now, we cannot export our meat. So, we need to upgrade the level of meat inspection and meat hygiene by having a national law.”
He also described abattoirs in the country as an eyesore, saying the way the meat is also being conveyed to the market is unhygienic as it exposes the meat to flies and other insects within the markets.
Public health expert, Dr. Babatunde Odusolu, argues that the current state of Nigerian abattoirs are unacceptable. “Contamination of meat from the slaughtered animal by microorganisms can occur when the meat gets contact with contents of the gastro-intestinal tract, equipment and utensils, workers garments and hands, the abattoir itself (e.g. air, floor drains, water drip from ceiling),” he says.
At the backdrop of the unpalatable situation, very few state governments across the country are making efforts to improve facilities in state abattoirs and reinvent their meat processing culture. For instance, the Anambra state governor, Willie Obiano, recently directed the State Commissioner for Health, Josephat Akabuike, to embark on comprehensive rehabilitation and standardisation of the state’s abattoirs soon after the latter renounced meat diet claiming: “It is suicidal to eat meat coming out from the dirty abattoirs.”
And while Nasarrawa State embarks upon similar renovation and standardisation drive, the Lagos state government ups its ante of similar enterprise. While Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, spokesperson of the state’s Ministry of Agriculture declines comment on the parlous state of the Oko Oba abattoir
Recently, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Oluwatoyin Suarau, inaugurated an enforcement unit, in order to “develop, restructure and sanitise abattoirs and slaughter slabs in the state for improved operations and promote a healthy environment for red meat business.”
In February, the unit commenced its operation with the clampdown on illegal abattoirs, slaughter slabs and cattle markets in Ikorodu and Badagry areas, with the arrest of 24 butchers and cattle marketers. Processed meat and live cattle were also impounded during the raid.
According to the commissioner; “Ten butchers were arrested from illegal abattoirs by the enforcement team in Owutu, Ikorodu, while 14 butchers and marketers were arrested in the Badagry axis. The operation in the Badagry axis, affected illegal slaughter slabs at Seme J5 Zongo, Iya Afin and Ajara; and illegal animal markets at Iberekodo, Limka and tollgate.”
And in bid to guarantee effective abattoir management, Lagos state “trained over 400 butchers and live cattle dealers, drawn from various parts of the state in February on current trends in abattoir management.”
In the wake of these efforts, the state claims that beef sourced from state-accredited abattoirs, like the Oko Oba Abattoir and Lairage, are safe for food.
However, The Nation’s investigation reveals otherwise. Findings from successive visits to the state’s largest abattoir reveals that Lagosians consuming beef may be at risk of zoonotic infections. These are deadly diseases transmissible from animals to man through consumption.
The state government has exhibited great resolve to renovate the structure no doubt. But despite the new machines and slaughter slabs, filth remains a recurrent feature of the expansive slaughter house.
Filth remains a permanent feature of Lagos’ biggest slaughter house. Within its expanse, cultures clash on several fronts: hygiene against muck, butchers against animals, meat traders against consumers, who spill across its expanse every morning.
Spatially, and in outward simulation of a theatre round, butchers huddle per task; each cluster immersing in specificity of craft that unfolds like vistas of an eerie theatre.
Cattle cadaver simmer in cauldrons of fetid water atop open grates, knives hiss noisily against whetstones and skin of shaved animals. The muscles of young, veteran butchers ripple through sullied clothes as they hack through bones and horns of fresh slaughter, decorating the expanse like the gory scene of a battlefield massacre.
The clutter of motions and dissonance of noises render Africa’s biggest abattoir perhaps, visually encrusted and aurally dense, like a painter’s intricate collage of Nigeria’s food chain dystopia.
NOBODY remembers the three-year-old, or thereabouts, who sucked hungrily on a shisha pipe. Few people commit to memory, footage of the girl-child, that incited awe and contempt as she expertly smoked tobacco, aided by her male guardian. Judging by the video, it wasn’t her first time.
Soon after her video went viral on the internet, Nigeria forgot her chatter and animated laughter. Government and child rights groups ignored the toddler and the cloud of smoke that tarnished her beauty like corroded steel. It hardly matters that she sucked on tobacco and chemicals while kids her age sucked on toffees and candy sticks. Yet imagery of the minor incites foreboding, pallid and stark, like a moment’s apparition meant to be an everlasting tragedy.
Ask Aderoju Abolore. “That video and that child depict all that is wrong with modern society and all that is wrong with Nigeria. Only a criminal would give an under-five girl, shisha to smoke,” said the 51-year-old preschool psychologist.
As Nigeria recovered from the shock of the child smoker, another spectre crept on the internet in common hours. It was the picture of a five-year-old boy smoking shisha while staring at an Apple iPhone device. A Nigerian man, Falex Oluwagbotemi, shared pictures of the minor replying critics that “He’s over five years; he knows what is good for him.” But soon after the post went viral, attracting condemnations, he took to his Facebook page to deny the child claiming his post was all a joke.
The lust for shisha is hardly a joke in modern Nigeria. Shisha is a glass-bottomed water pipe in which fruit-flavoured tobacco is coated with foil and heated with charcoal. The tobacco fume travels through a water cavity and is inhaled deeply and leisurely. Smokers claim it tastes silky and smells sweet, making it a pleasurable, unhurried treat.
The age of indulgence plummets as young adults, underage teens and minors descend into the cesspool of shisha addiction. For instance, Lana, 22, is addicted to shisha because it transports her to “seventh heaven.” Thus every day is party hour to her.
On a stormy evening in April, Lana’s voice cracked through her still balcony in Maiduguri, Borno State. It pirouetted across the terrace, like worn boots rifling through dry stalks on a grassy plain. “Hurry, before he closes,” she said, in a parched, dead beat voice.
The 22-year-old slapped crisp Naira notes into teenage underling, Awaal’s outstretched palm and the latter bolted away, sprinting through the gates and across the city to purchase fruit-flavoured tobacco for Lana’s shisha pot.
Besides Awaal’s desperate need to return early, she must get home in time, to beat Borno’s 10 pm curfew and before her husband returns. Her home is a 15-minute drive from her mentor, Lana’s apartment, on University Road, opposite the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Maiduguri, Borno State.
Soon after Awaal’s departure, Lana, a volunteer of a Borno-based United Nations’ multilateral agency, invited the reporter and one of her male colleagues into her room from their perch on the balcony. The invitation was too juicy to ignore.
Inside, the five teenage girls who arrived separately at Lana’s doorstep earlier in the day, had ditched their long, flowing apparels for skimpy clothing. Three of them wore flimsy camisoles and bum shorts. One had stripped to a bathing suit and the last girl was in purple pant and brassiere.
The latter lay supine on their hostess’ bed while her four scantily clad mates hovered around a glass table bearing shisha paraphernalia: charcoal and pot, coal and pipe, marijuana (Indian hemp) and shisha. They sent Awaal to get more flavours to mask the scent of marijuana they intended to smoke with shisha. In the interval, they engaged in loud banter and swayed to music thumping from Lana’s giant woofers.
“The neighbours talk too much. If they smell marijuana, they will start another crazy rumour about me. But they are a bunch of hypocrites. The men make love overtures to me in private and their wives sneak in to smoke with me, soon after their husbands depart for work,” said Lana.
On Awaal’s arrival, she deposited peach, chocolate, mint, strawberry and apple flavours on the table, grinning awkwardly and apologising for her lateness. Swiftly, she prepared the fruit- flavoured tobacco with marijuana and stepped back from the table in an exaggerated display of modesty. Lana, being the hostess and leader of the crew, took the first drag. Then to the displeasure of her guests, she invited Awaal to take a puff. The 15-year-old hurried to the pipe and drew on it with relish. She sucked repeatedly while Lana cheered her on, complimenting her for being a ‘hard girl.’
“Now, you can go home and deal with the man,” Lana said jocularly and handed Awaal some money. Awaal accepted the tip with profuse thanks and hurried home. At her departure, Lana and friends converged on the pipe. They passed it round and each girl took a deep puff. They brought out two bottles of dry gin from the fridge, spiced each bottle heavily with an assortment of cough syrup containing codeine. Then they sucked deeply on the pipe and drank straight from the bottle.
They were high and the ecstasy on their faces told manic stories of addiction and subdued grief; they claimed to drown their sorrows by “tripping” (getting high). When a member of the crew requested for a cup, they ridiculed her for being too soft. “You no hard at all!” Lana chided her. As the effect of the drugs dawned on them, two members of the crew leapt to their feet, gyrating to a raunchy club mix blaring from their hostess’ music box . They sang out loud to the tune, in a rendition laced with strong Kanuri accent. Soon, they began to hump against each other, their eyes glazed over, in blatant simulation of kinky sex.
Few minutes into their act, they were tugging on their bum shorts and tops teasingly, to reveal glimpses of flesh. Their mates egged them on maniacally. None of them cared that they had male company. They simply basked in the thrill that caused their pretty friends to unclothe their hidden graces, to the nudge and weird buzz of shisha and marijuana, codeine and dry gin.
“See as dem dey trip (They are high),” said Lana with a knowing grin.
‘High’ way to the grave
If there was a tragedy in getting high, Lana and friends were unperturbed by its likelihood. Unforeseen tragedies are part of life, Lana would eagerly tell you. The 22-year-old revealed that Layi, a childhood friend died recently, in a car crash. “On that fateful day, she was high on shisha and marijuana. She drank too much too. But she ignored my plea to sober up before driving home. She ran into a ditch on Damboa road. She was rushing to get home before her father. If she had listened to me, she would be alive today. She was too scared of her father, an ordinary man. Now she is dead,” said Lana.
“Yes, Layi’s death was tragic. I am yet to recover from the shock. I miss her. We used to have fun. Layi danced really well. We used to go clubbing at Hotbites (a nightclub) until government shut the club,” said 19-year-old Sandra, a jewellery sales apprentice and native of Askira Uba, Borno State.
Corroborating her, Sonia, 17, stated that the government ruined everything with the curfew. “At first, we sneaked out to have fun. We know most of the vigilantes and officers manning the checkpoints, hence they let us move about without hindrance. But when the government outlawed and shut down Hotbites, life deserted this town.”
The divorcee and mother of two revealed that she wasn’t sure she would quit ‘using.’ She is not sure she would remarry either. “My last suitor backed out because of my smoking habit. Any man who would marry me must accept me for who I am ,” she said.
Awaal’s story
A subsequent encounter with Awaal revealed that she started smoking at age 13. “My late boyfriend taught me to smoke cigarette and Indian hemp. He was a tricycle driver and he died in a suicide bomb blast at the market,” she said.
Awaal was forcibly married to her uncle’s friend in 2015; because she “didn’t love him,” she devised a means of sleeping with him. “I smoked hemp and drank alcohol laced with codeine. If I don’t get alcohol, I take two bottles of codeine. The euphoria I feel from the drug dulls my brain to the act,” she said.
Now 15, Awaal is unperturbed that she lost her first pregnancy. “I wanted to lose that baby. I ate a lot of bad roots to abort it. I smoked and drank heavily too,” she said, adding that she eats a lot of mint leaves and blackseeds to hide the smell of marijuana and codeine.
“I will stop using drugs when I marry the man I love. I will remarry when my husband dies. He will die very soon. He is old and sickly,” she said confidently.
Shisha and hemp, soft drink and codeine…
Underage girls like Awaal comprise the bulk of Nigeria’s teeming shisha addicts. Many of them resort to hard drugs to escape their lives’ harsh realities. “There wouldn’t be much cause for alarm if they smoked shisha alone. But they don’t. Many of them mix it with hard drugs, like marijuana, cocaine, adulterated street crack and so on,” said Hadiza Abdullahi, a Borno-based ‘youth counsellor and anti-drug campaigner.’
Abdullahi, 23, admitted that she was hooked on alcohol and codeine, until she understood the dangers of her addiction and agreed to check into a rehab in Lagos at her family’s intervention.
But while Abdullahi regained sanity and rediscovered purpose in Lagos, several youths of the coastal city, most of them, underage, are lost in a fog of shisha and hemp fumes.
Modupeola Odunlami, 18, sold her mother’s necklace and pendant (valued at N387, 000) at N18, 000, to purchase three cartons of codeine and expensive gin. The drug stash was her passport to eminence and acceptance by peer in her posh, private school.
Luck however, ran out on the teenager in school as she was caught smoking marijuana with shisha and drinking carbonated drinks with codeine syrup. Immediately, the school authorities contacted her mom.
“I was advised to take her to rehab but she threatened to kill herself if I did. I was too scared, I felt her addiction had spiritual roots so I took her to church. But she ended up running away from the church. We found her six days later, at a family friend’s house. She was famished and looked underfed. Luckily, she agreed to go home with us. From there, we bundled her to a rehab centre,” said Kikelomo, the teenager’s mom.
There is no gainsaying that shisha addiction is a trending pop culture among the youth, teenagers in particular. Further findings revealed that many high school kids have devised several methods of “tripping” (getting high).
“We spiced Coca Cola with codeine to get high. The dark colour of the drink hides the presence of codeine. We used to sneak out of the hostel to smoke shisha and hemp too,” revealed Yinka Ogae-Henshaw. The 17-year-old was expelled from her school’s hostel in Benin, after being caught cooking noodles with marijuana.
“I was expelled and my mother sent me to Lagos to live with my father,” she said.
A troubling trend
Recent findings in Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, Sokoto, Benue, Borno, Plateau, Lagos and Ogun states reveal high incidence of addiction among the youth. The relative cheapness and accessibility to the drugs makes it easy for the youth to acquire them.
For instance, a small pack of fruit-flavoured tobacco sells at N300 or more depending on the point of purchase, while the cost of smoking shisha at a bar ranges from N2,000 to N50,000 depending on the location and associative drugs used to spice the stash.
A mixture of shisha and skunk or shisha and cocaine would normally cost higher than ordinary shisha. “But nobody smokes ordinary shisha, not even those small boys and girls (high school teenagers),” revealed Chiedu Okpara, deputy manager of a Lagos nightclub.
The prices of shisha pots range from N10, 000 to N75, 000 depending on the source. “The imported pots are more expensive. This is because they depict class and sophistication of the user,” said Okpara. Okpara claims he does not supply clients with skunk or cocaine.
“I only import and supply shisha paraphernalia to users in Lagos and other parts of the country,” he said.
So rampant is the addiction that users have graduated from visiting nightclubs and shisha cafes to ownership of shisha paraphernalia in their homes. Medical experts however, fret over the dangerous dimensions of the burgeoning addiction.
“Users tend to expose themselves to dangerous diseases. It’s a common trend in most nightclubs and shisha joints to see youth sharing shisha pots and pipes. The smoking equipment are rarely cleaned before being passed from one user to the other. That is very dangerous, users may contract deadly diseases in that manner,” said Tunde Agboluaje, a medical doctor.
Why you are addicted to shisha
“It is sad that many shisha users are ignorant of its dangers. The flavours of shisha simply hide the harmful effects of the main ingredient that makes the user an addict in the long run. Shisha smokers have the misconception that the smoke in shisha is safe because the water absorbs the amount of nicotine present in the smoke, making it completely harmless. It’s a wrong notion,” said Mabel Onu, a clinical lab scientist.
The tobacco used for a shisha pipe, she said, is not the same as cigarette tobacco. “It’s fresh tobacco leaves that haven’t been doctored or cut with any chemicals to make people get addicted to it. This doesn’t make it safer than cigarettes because it’s still smoking tobacco, and it has all the tars and nicotine of a cigarette, with up to 100 times the amount of smoke passing through the lips,” she said.
Medical, scientific findings revealed that the active substance in shisha tobacco is administered by burning the leaves and inhaling the vaporised gas that results. This quickly and effectively delivers substances into the bloodstream by absorption in the lungs. The inhaled substances trigger chemical reactions in nerve endings, this release of dopamine; which is associated with the feeling of pleasure. When tobacco is smoked, most of the nicotine is pyrolyzed or decomposed through high heat.
However, a dose sufficient to cause mild somatic dependency and mild to strong psychological dependency remains. This seems to play an important role in nicotine addiction—probably by facilitating a dopamine release, as a response to nicotine stimuli. Thus a shisha smoker is still smoking tobacco and the nicotine in it causes dependence after using it several times.
Perils of shisha addiction
According to research carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the volume of smoke inhaled in an hour-long shisha session is estimated to be the equivalent of smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes. The estimated findings go on to show that, on average, a smoker will inhale half a litre of smoke per cigarette, while a shisha smoker can take in anything from just under a sixth of a litre to a litre of smoke per inhale.
“Many smokers argue that shisha is less harmful than cigarettes because the tobacco is flavoured and vapourised. This is a great lie. The carcinogens and nicotine are still there. Hence shisha smokers like cigarette smokers are at risk of developing respiratory problems, heart disease or cancer,” noted Fidelis Akinmolayan, a medical lab scientist.
Study confirms prevalence of drug abuse among youths
A recent study carried out by a team of scientists and researchers from the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, sought to determine the prevalence of drug abuse by Nigerian youths by comparing the pattern of substance use in two cities, Uyo and Kiru, Kano State respectively.
The study was carried out at two Rehabilitation Centres: Uyo and Kiru Rehabilitation Centres. The study revealed that while alcohol is used commonly in Uyo, inhalants such as glue, petrol, formalin and shoe polish are consumed in large quantities in Kiru. Also in the study, about 35% of inmates from Uyo and 43% from Kiru used Indian hemp, 7% and 15% used cocaine, while 5% and 12% used heroin respectively. This according to the researchers, is a very dangerous trend in view of the associated health hazards.
At the backdrop of their findings looms a troubling shisha-marijuana and codeine addiction even as medical experts argue that smoking is harmful to health, be it shisha or cigarette smoke. According to the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Eko Hospital, Olusegun Odukoya, “Smoking is a leading cause of cancer and death from cancer. It causes cancer of the lungs lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon and rectum, as well as acute myeloid leukemia.”
There is need for people to be educated on dangers of smoking especially smokers at motor parks and market places, he said, at the Stop Smoking Programme, held in Ikeja, Lagos recently.
‘Shisha sale and smoking should be regulated’
Rekiya Adamu, a social worker and child psychologist, suggested that government regulates shisha joints. “Let government impose strict regulation of shisha smoking in indoor public places. Operators of nightclubs shouldn’t be allowed to offer shisha on their menu unless they have license to do so. And government should be unsparing in scrutiny of individuals allowed to operate shisha joints. Wherever they are found to spice shisha with marijuana, cocaine or other hard drugs, they should be arrested and prosecuted,” she said.
It would be recalled that wife of Nigeria’s President, Aisha Buhari, raised an alarm early this year when she visited Kano State. She said northern youth, including women, were wasting their lives with drug abuse. She urged political and religious leaders in the region to urgently find solution to the menace.
Tobacco use kills more than seven million people annually and costs over 1.4 trillion dollars in healthcare expenditure and lost productivity, according to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Chan warned that tobacco’s killer toxins also wreak havoc on the environment and
called on governments to ban tobacco marketing and advertising, promote plain product packaging, raise excise taxes and make indoor public places and workplaces smoke-free.
While such measures may be effective in combating the scourge of cigarette smoking, they fall flat on the face in checking shisha sale and addiction.
Shisha enthusiasts contend that its smoke is harmless even as medical experts argue otherwise.
“It poses greater danger when laced with marijuana, skunk, cocaine and other hard drugs. Gradually, it rids the smoker of control and sanity, leaving them dependent and at the mercy of hard drugs,” said Ngozi Edet, a clinical health psychiatrist.
“Drug addicts are the same all over. It doesn’t matter if they smoke skunk, cocaine or marijuana through shisha. Their addiction is no different than the user who injects heroin or cocaine directly into the vein. They all need help, very urgent intervention,” stated Olu Akintunde, a counsellor and addiction therapist.
Addicts have been known to commit grievous acts of recklessness driven by lust for a quick fix. Just recently, a teenage drug addict sold two of his father’s Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV), valued at N7.5 million, for N350, 000 in Umuahia, Abia State, to buy hard drugs, revealed Akingbade Bamidele , the Commander, NDLEA, Abia State. Bamidele said the teenager was later brought to the agency’s facility for counseling and rehabilitation.
Many teen addicts, while in their addiction’s dependent stage are desperate to do anything and sell any valuable to get hard drugs. “You notice when things begin to miss at home that something is wrong,” said Bamidele.
But no one knows when ‘something is wrong’ with drug addicts like Lana, her late friend, Layi, and her crew of surviving smokers. As they ‘trip’ away in plain sight, a more dangerous culture ensues, challenging the mores of modern society. It is the emergence of child smokers, like the three-year-old or thereabouts, whose lust for shisha awakened Nigeria to forebodings of yet another addiction plague.
Nobody knows the name of the child but her innocent chatter and laughter whets the brain like a hunter’s knife. Through the haze of tobacco fumes, you could see her puff and chant: “Shisha! Shisha!” in the tenor of a child grappling with the yoke of an adult lust. Child, video and shisha incite a muddle of awe and quiet rage.
As workers celebrate yet another May Day, labour and the private sector are not on the same page on the calls for a review of the minimum wage from N18,000 to N56,000, TOBA AGBOOLA reports
Massive depreciation of workers’ purchasing power. Job losses. Unpaid salaries. And general high cost of living. These are issues on the top burner as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the May Day. For the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), there must be an upward review of the N18,000 minimum wage. The organisation believes increasing the wage to N56,000 will cushion the effects of a struggling economy.
The Technical Committee for Palliatives and Minimum Wage submitted its report a few days ago. The tripartite committee has representatives of the Federal Government, the state governments, labour and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige said the Federal Government was working towards a new minimum wage for workers to enhance workers’ welfare and comply with the Minimum Wage Act.
NLC President Ayuba Wabba Wabba told The Nation that in pushing for N56, 000 minimum wage, labour looked at all the issues.
He said: ‘’Our opinion is also that workers have been pushed to the wall; so, it’s time for the minimum wage to be reviewed both in law and practice because the cycle is due and inflation is biting very hard, high cost of goods and services is affecting workers seriously.’’
“What is the value of N18, 000, when it was signed, looking at inflation, purchasing power and ability to pay?”
“We have been reasonable in making such demand and we hope that other social partners will look at it from the perspective of us being very committed and nationalistic in putting up those demands.”
Wabba said while those dismissing N56, 000 minimum wage as unreasonable were entitled to their opinions, the reality was that workers could not feed themselves because of the high cost of goods and services.
He said: “The essence of the new minimum wage is to make sure that the poor or the poorest of the worker is protected against exploitation; that the minimum is within which no employer of labour can go below. Many workers are being exploited. Many workers are being paid below N10, 000 and those are the issues we want to address.
“Everybody has the right to his or her opinion, but the opinion of the workers is that a review of the minimum wage is legitimate both by law and practice. Five years cycle is legitimate. Many workers cannot send their children to school, many cannot pay their rent and many cannot even go to work regularly.”
Wabba added that an upward review was imperative in view of the fight against corruption.
He warned that workers should not be treated as slaves, as companies are still making profit.
He said it is necessary for the Technical Committee for Palliatives and Minimum Wage to negotiate a comprehensive minimum wage to avoid hitches.
According to him, despite the opposition by NECA, NLC is sure that stakeholders would all support a new wage for workers who had all along been treated as slaves.
He said: “We need to be very forthcoming in doing what is right. In other quarters, if you listen very carefully, they are talking about ability to pay. I thought what labour did was to be very calculative. Not only that, to look at the feasibility, because it doesn’t make sense that at the end of the day we will have difficulties.
‘’So, we have looked at the totality of the issues, including the challenges we are going through at the moment and we thought that what we have done is reasonable because what we have done is to look at what is the value of N18, 000 when it was signed looking at the inflation, looking at the purchasing power and looking at the ability to pay.
“I think we have been reasonable in making such demand and we hope also that other social partners will look at it from the perspective of us being very nationalistic in putting up those demands. I still want you to understand that workers presently cannot feed themselves because of the high cost of goods and services.
‘’As I said everybody has the right to his or her opinion, but the opinion of the workers is that it is legitimate by law and practice.
“Many workers cannot send their children to school, many cannot pay their rent, and many cannot even go to work regularly. Side by side with fighting corruption, if you don’t pay me to meet up with my bills we can’t fight corruption.”
The national leadership of Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU) also expressed its commitment to actualise the review for all workers.
RATTAWU National President Kabir Garba believes the clamour for the increase is as a result of the purchasing power parity of the naira against the dollar.
According to him, the new minimum wage will serve as a benchmark for the union to ask for the enhanced Media Salary Scheme.
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) condemned the call for the removal of the national minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list by the House of Representatives.
TUC, in a press statement by its President, Bobboi Bala Kaigama, described the bill as a calculated attempt to alter the constitution from the back door.
“Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has strongly condemned the call for the removal of the minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list by the House of Representatives, in a bill being sponsored by one of its members.
“Congress sees this in a bad light and an attempt to alter the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from the back door. For the umpteenth time, it needs to be emphasized that labour rather than politicians have held this country together even from colonial days,” Kaigama said.
The congress warned that any attempt to openly or surreptitiously undermine workers or the labour movement would be resisted with all arsenals in their control.
As for the United Labour Congress (ULC), it is N96,000 or nothing. The Northern Coordinator of ULC, John Gimbason reiterated the union’s demand for N96,000 minimum wage for workers in the country.
Gimbason said the proposal was realistic considering the current inflation in the nation’s economy and in view of workers’ contributions to nation’s building.
He said the new Labour Centre had opened negotiations with the Federal Government on the proposed N96, 000 minimum wage, assuring members that the proposal would soon yield fruits.
According to him, while workers are over burdened with lots of responsibilities, they receive stipends as monthly salaries, even as some others do not receive their wages for months.
He appealed to the 25 unions under the ULC to give their maximum cooperation to ensure that workers in both public and private sectors were treated well.
The Lagos State Chairman of the ULC, Ephriam James, in his inaugural speech, said the council would ensure that workers in the state were liberated to earn salaries they deserve.
He said the Union would engage the state government and other employers of labour in dialogue to ensure they arrived at agreements to improve welfare of workers.
James assured that whatever decision taken at the national level would be replicated in the state, especially with regard to wages.
He called for support from members and 25 affiliated unions that formed the ULC not to compromise on the issue of minimum Wage.
Some of the affiliated members of ULC included Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Nigeria Union of Mine Workers, National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Employees (NUBIFIE), Nigeria Union of Rail Workers (NUR), National Union of Lottery Agents and Employees, (NULAE), Association of Nigeria Aviation, Professionals (ANAP) and National Association Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Welfare, Ali Wakili, urged the Federal Government to increase minimum wage to enable workers cope with prevailing economic situation in the country.
He said that while minimum wage had remained at N18, 000, prices of goods and services had continued to rise. According to him, the development has made life unbearable for many Nigerians, particularly workers.
Although the lawmaker commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s effort at repositioning the economy, he said the government had not fared well in workers’ welfare.
He, therefore, called on the government to make tackling challenges facing workers a priority. He added that the government should endeavor to create an enabling environment for the workers to feel the impact of any increment in wages.
“We need to address underlining issues to make the increase felt by the workers. Without an enabling environment, the increment will be an exercise in futility because they will not feel it. Prices of goods in the market are very high; healthcare facilities are not available and where they are available, workers pay through their noses.
“Once we are able to address these things, the wage increase will be meaningful to everybody. We can do the two side-by-side; while we are addressing the wage issue, there should also be an enabling environment,’’ he said.
President, National Union of Chemical Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Methallic Products Employees (NUCFRLMPE), Goke Olatunji, said workers were finding it hard to survive, saying Buhari should make the payment of new minimum wage a priority.
According to Olatunji, government should implement the wage without allowing it to cause inflation in order for it not to lose its relevance.
“The present N18, 000 minimum wage is not able to buy anything from the market. We want the government to increase it but it should not lead to inflation.
“Federal Government should ensure that the states and private sector should be able to implement the policy when an agreement is being reached,” the union president said.
He said the workers have borne a lot of pain because of the economic recession and needed to be compensated.
Olatunji said business activities during recession made the economy unpleasant for workers and employers.
“Before, companies such as Unilever Plc will give workers products, provide transportation and send at least 100 people to the stadium for the celebration of May Day.
“But now, the company will give money to hire a bus and send 25 to 50 workers to the rally; that is the reason for celebrating workers day this year in a low key,” Olatunji said.
He said if the economy does not improve, workers welfare will be retarded and urged the government to formulate policies that will bring relief to workers and ensure that it is well-implemented.
However, against the backdrop of the economic hardship in the country, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has urged the Nigerian workers to wait till 2018 before pushing for the review of the Minimum Wage.
Speaking with The Nation, NECA President Larry Ettah said the state of the economy cannot support any increase in wages.
He notes that though it is quite clear that there is need to increase the minimum wage, but he says the timing is wrong.
“Given the depreciation in the value of the Naira as well as inflation currently at 18.6 per cent, a strong case can be made for raising Nigeria’s minimum wage. Not an issue of whether, but when?” he said.
He says most state governments find it difficult to pay the N18,000 minimum wage while several private companies have closed down in the last one year.
He said: “Given that such restructuring may not be expedient in this period of recession and rising unemployment, our recommendation is that a review of the minimum wage should be deferred until the economy has resumed strong growth and public sector finances have improved.”
For the workers, however, there is no retreat, no surrender. Until they get their dues, they say the struggle continues.
