Amid legal tussles, uncertainties and tales of contract re-awards, the Oyo State Government recently re-awarded the Ibadan Circular Road (ICR) and named it after former governor Rashidi Ladoja. In this report, YINKA ADENIRAN chronicles the potential benefits of the ambitious road project and litigation disputes that may undermine the successful delivery of the much-needed the project.

Ibadan Circular Road is famous for been awarded and re-awarded by different governors in Oyo State. The peculiarity of the project makes it attractive to successive governments. However, Governor Seyi Makinde dared the impossible recently when he again re-awarded the project for the fifth time. Makinde went a bit further in his bid to ensure the project sees the light of the day by renaming it after a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja.

But re-flagging off the 110km Ibadan Circular Road came amid legal tussles between the government and a sacked contractor who was awarded the project by the immediate past administration of the late Abiola Ajimobi. It was on record that the road was first flagged off about six years ago.

History of Ibadan Circular Road and tales of controversy

There have been five awards for the execution of construction works on the project to date since 2017. The project had been terminated four out of the five times it was awarded. Two of the awards had been through Public-Private -Partnership on 35years concession basis. The late Ajimobi, on June 16, 2017, awarded the concession for the 32.2km South East Wing Phase 1, spanning between Ibadan-Lagos Expressway (E1) to Egbeda on Ibadan-Ife Expressway to ENL Consortium Limited, with delivery expected by June, 2020. It was however extended to 31st August 2020 to allow for the COVID-19 force majeure experienced for the most part of that year.

 But the concession was terminated in March 2021 by Governor Makinde due to what was described as non-performance and failure to deliver in three years as promised in the contract agreement. However, Makinde, again in June 2021, re-awarded the entire 110km road project to the SEL-Vydra Consortium via concession using Build-Operate-Transfer model, with the investment recoupment via tolling for up to 35years, but with the counterpart funding from the government.

 In March 2022, a phased approach was adopted when the government awarded the package of work for two interchange and four bridges work-scope within the South-East to Craneburg Limited. But, in July 2022, a federal high court in Abuja ordered Craneburg Construction Company to stop work on the project. The court order was part of the prayers it granted in a suit filed by ENL Consortium limited against the state government, Craneburg Construction Company, and three others. The controversy around the ICR began to fester after the Makinde-led administration terminated the contract for the construction of the multi-billion naira road project, which was awarded to ENL construction by his immediate predecessor.

Speaking at the re-flagging-off, Governor Makinde said his administration has identified some of the challenges that are related to the project and has been able to design a lot of safeguards to address the challenges and truly deliver on the project. Before the eventual award of the project, the government had cried out that politicians, especially members of the opposition, were using the contractor to frustrate the efforts of the government at seeing through the project. Makinde said: “They have flagged off this Circular Road before about six years ago. But what it had always ended up was that it was abandoned. So, we are re-flagging it off for real this time around. We have been able to identify some of the challenges that are related with the project and we have been able to design a lot of safeguards to take us away from those challenges and truly deliver this project. So we are re-flagging it off but also, we are naming the road Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja Circular Road.

“We choose to name this project after Senator Rashidi Ladoja because of his great contributions to the development of Oyo State. Of course, one of those contributions is conceiving the Ibadan Circular Road project and putting some monies aside for that road. The design, compensation was paid by him and his administration. There has always been a misconception about whose idea it was to build the Ibadan Circular Road. But, I can declare today because I have access to many files which had been put under the carpet for years and I can declare to you that the person who saw the future and thought of how to ease traffic congestion within the city of Ibadan is here with us and in a way, this event is about giving honour to whom it’s due.

 “The idea behind Ibadan Circular Road was based on proven economic realities. Almost 20 years down the line, we now live with those realities. And so, like all great ideas, if they tarry, they refuse to die. When we came in, we met an attempt at bringing the Ibadan Circular Road to life, and we commend the last administration for at least seeing the benefits of building this road. Unfortunately, the plan failed. But here we are today, giving a new life to this project.

 “The road construction has actually started and it is about 7.6 per cent progress and we are confident that in the next 12 months, the 32km East End wing of the project will be completed. They are fixing all the bridges and culverts right now and that is the most difficult portion of any road construction. Once that one is sorted, the asphalt and other parts become easier. The entire 110km project geographically situates within the Ibadan metropolis. It links Egbeda, Ona Ara, Lagelu, Akinyele, Iddo and Oluyole areas. Without any doubt, it will eliminate congestions along the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and it will also generate money for Oyo State because the road will be tolled.”

 In July 2021, when the plan to re-award the road was muted by Governor Makinde, ENL had through its Chairman, Clement Adesuyi Hastrrup, threatened not to leave the site until a sum of N10.6 billion was paid. The contractor said the governor has no right to re-award the contract until he received the money, but Makinde dared the contractor by re-awarding the project to a new firm. The award of the contract for the construction of the 110km ICR to a new concessionaire, named Messrs SEL-Vydra Consortium, was at a cost of N138.2 billion. The project, which is to be executed on a Build, Operate and Transfer concession arrangement, is also classified as a User-Pays toll road. But, it was gathered that the portions awarded to ENL at the cost of N67billion by the Ajimobi administration represented only a third of the entire 110km stretch of the all-important road now awarded at the cost of N138.2bn.

Scope and beauty of Ibadan Circular Road

The 110km ICR, now remained Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja Circular Road, is identified and assessed to provide a by-pass alternative route to traffic transmitting to other parts of Nigeria, instead of through Ibadan city which is already the third largest city in Nigeria. This means the ICR will complement the original Ring Road concept, which had been on the drawing board for many years till it was selected in 2002, route survey done in 2005 and detailed design concluded in 2007.

The road is expected to provide accessibility over 110km X 1km development corridor, enhance the social economic expansion, movement of goods, services and people across the state and other parts of the country. The road is segmented into four quadrants: South-East (32.2km), North-West (33.0km), South-West (24.0km) and North-East (20.8km). The 110km dual carriage way has 500m development corridor each way from centre line; each carriage way is expected to have centre median width of 3.0m, main lanes pavement width of 7.3m, shoulder width of 4.5m and set-back ranging from 60-100m.

Sacked contractor breaks silence on litigation

A source within ENL Consortium who is in the know of the situation in the sacked company said his company is not fighting the government for anything other than its right, noting that despite the volumes of work done so far at the site without collecting a dime, the government after revoking the contract still went as far as paying N28billion to an Egyptian company for a project that was supposed to be private sector driven. According to the source, the sacked contractor, ENL had spent over N3billion and disagreed with Governor Makinde who claimed to have sacked the company due to lack of capacity of ENL to deliver the project.

 The company also denied insinuations that it was being used by politicians or members of the opposition to stall the project, especially when it took the option of court to pursue its claims on what it described as “illegal revocation” of the contract, adding that the government should also be prepared for further arbitration in a London court as the clause was contained in the contract papers the last administration signed with the ENL when it was awarded the contract. The source also accused the governor of pursuing a different agenda that may not allow the project sail through especially as it relates to re-awarding the contract to a foreign firm against the spirit of developing home-grown companies.

 The source said: “The contract as you are aware is PPP; we didn’t collect one dime from the government. All we wanted was a letter from Oyo State government, reassuring our financiers that the project will be allowed to continue. Government is a continuum, but unfortunately the governor has his own agenda. We didn’t ask for a kobo from the governor; he now invited an Egyptian company and paid them N28billion of Oyo State money. Those ones are playing at the site. He now turned round to accuse our company of being sponsored by politicians to stall the project; meanwhile the project was stalled by the governor’s recklessness.

 “We are not fighting the government for anything. What we are fighting for is our rights. Our company has spent so much on the project. Common sense demands that we should be allowed to complete the project especially when we are not asking the Oyo state government to give us any money.” 

Former governor Ladoja, at the event, also put to rest the insinuations as to who initiated the project. In his remarks, Ladoja said he embraced the idea of the Circular road given the potential it has to ease traffic and generate income for the state while he was the governor in 2003. Ladoja lamented that despite allocating funds to kick-start the project, his illegal impeachment for 11 months affected the project as the fund he initially allocated for the project was diverted to other things by his successor in office. He said after commissioning the design, he paid compensation to all affected land owners and as of 2005, all were ready to start the project, with a determination to go ahead even if it will take up to 20 years to complete. However, with the seeming uncertainties around the ICR, only time will tell if the Makinde-led administration will be able to make true his promise by completing the project in record time.

Rising inflation has become a global phenomenon, prompting many central banks to cage the monster by increasing interest rates. But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) decision to toe a same line was not well received by real sector operators and financial market experts who warned that monetary policy rates are often insufficient to contain Nigeria’s largely ‘imported inflation. What is urgently needed to tame the scourge is a bouquet of robust policy measures and strategies that can address the underlying drivers of inflation in the country. Assistant Editors CHIKODI OKEREOCHA and OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE report

A spectre hunts the global economy, including Nigeria’s – the spectre of surging inflation.  It’s been manifesting in skyrocketing food and energy prices, which have reached levels unseen for decades, prompting swift response by many central banks across the world by way of increasing interest rates to crush the outbreak.

For instance, the European Central Bank (ECB) has raised interest rates across the eurozone by a record margin to combat soaring inflation that has reached double figures in some of the currency bloc’s 19-member countries. The ECB announced its first increase in rates in 11 years, raising its key benchmarks by an unprecedented 0.75 percentage point to 1.25 per cent, with ECB President Christine Lagarde indicating the Bank’s readiness to announce further rate hikes to tackle high inflation and bring it down to its 2 per cent target. This followed a similar increase by the United States Federal Reserve, which has been the most aggressive with its interest rate hikes, increasing from 0.08 per cent in January 2022 to 3.08 per cent at the end of September this year, for instance. In Africa, Ghana and South Africa have also increased rates.

But the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to borrow a leaf from other monetary authorities across the world and hike rates in a bid to push back inflation did not resonate well with private sector operators and financial market experts across diverse sectors. They argued that hike in rates were insufficient to contain inflation, pointing out that Nigeria’s depressing inflationary condition was the result of multiple factors, and that relying just on monetary policy to restrain its unabated growth may be ineffective as opposed to producing the desired outcome.

Nigerians and business operators across all sectors, particularly manufacturers, have been agonising over Nigeria’s soaring inflation rate and its attendant skyrocketing cost of living and running businesses.

Inflation in Africa’s largest and most populous economy has been on the upswing, rising from 20.52 per cent in August to 20.77 per cent in September, this year. This was 4.14 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in September 2021, which was 16.63 per cent. The Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Semiu Adeyemi, said the latest spike in inflation rate was driven by “interruption in the food supply chain, the influence of domestic currency depreciation on the cost of importation, and a general increase in the cost of production.”

Inflation also surged 17-year-high from 19.64 per cent in the month of July to 20.52 per cent in August, the highest since September 2005. It was also the seventh consecutive monthly increase since February this year, indicating a 3.52 per cent increase when compared to the August 2021 inflation rate of 17.01 per cent. It was actually in response to the August 2022 inflation report that the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised the benchmark interest rate from 14 to 15.5 per cent and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), which means the share of a bank’s total customer deposit kept with the central bank as cash, from 22.5 to 32.5 per cent, to mop up liquidity and tame inflationary pressure in Nigeria.

Justifying the move, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said inflation had exceeded the 20 per cent mark in August, fueling speculations that the CBN would further raise the rate. He also pointed out that the Bank’s research study has shown that once inflation trends above 13 per cent, it will retard growth. According to experts, inflation is the result of too much money chasing too few goods. Over the last several months, this has occurred amid a surge in demand and supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened by Russia/Ukraine war. This is so because of the global dependence on fuel, essential foodstuffs and other goods imported from the Russian Federation and Ukraine. And the barrage of sanctions on Russia by the United States and other European countries forced a spike in most commodities prices, including energy prices (diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene and gas).

However, in an effort to combat inflation, central banks will raise their policy rate, which is the rate they charge commercial banks for loans or pay commercial banks for deposits. Commercial banks pass on a portion of these higher rates to their customers, which reduce the purchasing power of businesses and consumers. For example, it becomes more expensive to borrow money to buy a house or a car. Ultimately, interest rate hikes act to slow spending and encourage saving. This motivates companies to increase prices at a slower rate, or lower prices, to stimulate demand. With inflation rates hitting multi-decade highs in some countries, many central banks have announced interest rate hikes in a bid to bring inflation under control.

Orgnaised Private

Sector members kick

However, the CBN’s decision to apply interest rate hikes as a tool to rein in inflation did not enjoy a smooth sail, as members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) refused to be swayed by the CBN governor’s explanations. While conceding that raising monetary policy rates was primarily a strategy to manage inflation, the OPS members argued, however, that it does not address the underlying causes of inflation. According to them, the underlying drivers of inflation include rising food costs caused by several variables, including the devaluation of the naira and the cost of energy, which has impacted production and transportation.

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) pushed this argument further when it said government’s excessive drive for internally generated revenue, increase in interest rate in the US; unsustainable and unpragmatic interventions in the forex market; the acute shortage of forex and unfriendly exchange rates were not only fueling inflation, but seriously depressing industrial production. MAN Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, in a statement made available to The Nation, expressed hope that the CBN will creatively go beyond the conventional monetary management system, “because global economic dynamics are changing and conventional measures may no longer be effective.”

In the light of the above, he recommended upscaling current efforts at improving the availability of development-oriented funds at single digit interest rate, prioritising industries, promoting a more robust production-centric forex management and intervention in official forex market. Ajayi-Kadir also pushed that priority attention be given to meeting forex requirement of the industries’ vital inputs that are not available locally to sustain and ramp up production, and intentionally promote monetary and fiscal policy fusion. “In other words, the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning should jointly put complementary measures in place in support of domestic manufacturing,” he said.

MAN also wants emplaced a framework that will facilitate harmonious implementation of relevant policy guidelines aimed at boosting productivity. “Undoubtedly, the implementation of these measures will enable industries to remain in business, increase aggregate output, improve contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and ensure inclusive and sustainable economic growth,” the association noted.

That is not all. Ajayi-Kadir also said the future course of action to cage rising inflation should begin with further reduction of Nigeria’s reliance on imported products and raw materials, by encouraging local sourcing through a comprehensive and integrated incentivized system. The MAN boss, who noted that “Nigeria is largely bearing the brunt of imported inflation,” pushed for government to sustain effort at improving infrastructural developments and ensure they are economically driven. This, according to him, is to reduce susceptibility to externally-induced inflation, as adequate provision of infrastructure in strategic hubs reduces operation and logistics cost and promote competitiveness.

He further advised on the need to accelerate the process of ensuring sustainable local refining of petroleum products by reactivating those currently inactive, and also support the coming on stream of Dangote Refinery and issue licenses for new refineries. “This will clearly reduce the pressure on the foreign reserve and mitigate the vulnerability of the economy to the external supply shock that has resulted in energy crisis,” he said, adding that the oil and gas industry should be strategically positioned to benefit maximally from future interruptions in global supply that triggers increase in price of crude oil. “It is appalling that an oil-producing country like Nigeria is at a disadvantage at a time when global oil prices are rising,” Ajayi-Kadir charged, urging government to “strive to always meet the oil production quota set by the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), increase oil revenue and reduce budget deficit that has worsened inflation.

The National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ide J. C. Udeagbala, feels no less embarrassed by Nigeria’s lack of capacity to refine petroleum products locally. He said the urgent need to fix the domestic refineries, which NACCIMA has continued to harp on at every press briefing, has never been this compelling. “We call on the government to renew focus on implementing policies that ensure that our country is energy sufficient, becomes a net exporter of petroleum products and eventually, electricity. We can start by taking a look at other developing countries in this space, such as Trinidad and Tobago, which has never had cause to carry out “turnaround maintenance” on their only refinery or revisiting crude oil to petroleum product swap arrangements,” Udeagbala said.

The NACCIMA chief told The Nation that the present global increase in fuel prices and the resultant increase in diesel prices have a direct impact on prices of goods produced with petroleum products. “Notably, increased transportation, manufacturing, and heating costs have indirect implications on the cost of goods. It is increasingly crucial for most manufacturing enterprises to consider energy cost efficiency and become more reliant on alternative energy for production,” he said.

Udeagbala noted that as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the worldwide inflation rate has spiked, leading to increase in the price of oil and food, and making it difficult to afford necessities. “Nigeria’s dependence on these countries (Russia and Ukraine) for agricultural commodities such as grains and wheat for direct consumption and industrial commodity production has had a significant effect on food prices,” he said.

While linking the increase in inflation rate to several factors, including the high cost of raw materials, the devaluation of the naira, and the disruption of the supply chain caused by insecurity, among others, Udeagbala said he believes that “Nigeria is currently suffering stagflation rather than inflation.” The way out of the quagmire, he suggested, is to urgently address the pervasive insecurity across the country that has continued to impede agricultural activities and deter investments in agriculture in Nigeria’s food-producing regions, resulting in a decline in agricultural output.

Increase in interest rates portends worrisome consequences, says MAN

For MAN, the need for Nigeria’s monetary authorities to look beyond rate hikes to rein in inflation was necessary because “increase in the two monetary parameters, MPR and CRR, portends worrisome negative consequences for the economy and the manufacturing sector.” Ajayi-Kadir said, for instance, that the increase in the rates will force increase in cost of borrowing by manufacturers, further beyond the extant double-digit rate, which dis-incentivises new investments in the sector. He also said it will lead to increased factor costs, which feed into high product prices, making the sector uncompetitive.

Besides, high product prices, he said, will make patronage to plummet and lead to huge inventory of unsold manufactured products in the sector. The MAN DG added that high inventory of manufactured products, consequent upon the rate hike, will trigger reverse effect in the sector as manufacturing capacity utilization, production, employment, profit and tax contribution to national building will decline. He was emphatic that in consideration of the prevailing scenario around increase in interest rate and access to funds, tougher times are ahead for the productive sector. “Clearly, the increase in rates will rub-off negatively on other rates and dash the hope for a single digit lending rate for the productive sector,” Ajayi-Kadir said.

He also said the observed continuous contractionary monetary policy posture without complementary fiscal support may not effectively reduce the prevailing inflationary pressure on the economy. “This is not unconnected with the fact that the current increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI) as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is not largely driven by monetary phenomenon, as self-inflicted weak foreign exchange rate management can be linked to the pressure,” Ajayi-Kadir averred.

According to him, an experiential x-ray of the prevailing economic stance revealed that domestic output gap due to the inefficiency of the macroeconomy, unguided industry development, inclement and high-cost operating environment, exploitative regulatory ecosystem and some externalities are predominantly responsible for the rising inflation that the nation is experiencing.

Policy will harm businesses, worsen hardship on Nigerians, says NACCIMA

NACCIMA is no less worried over the negative consequences of rate hikes. The association said the policy will harm businesses, as the majority of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) would begin to have less discretionary income because of increased interest payments, and this will reduce their capacity to invest, reinvest, and hire additional personnel. The NACCIMA Director-General, Olusola Obadimu, said due to higher interest rates, it would be more challenging for businesses to repay their loans, and the majority could be threatened with insolvency. “Consequently, the survival of most small and medium-sized businesses is threatened by the rising costs of capital and production, which result in an increase in the price of finished items,” he said.

According to him, the current state of the economy has severely diminished the production capability of majority of industries, with many enterprises already closing. He said the implementation of this new policy will severely harm small and medium-sized firms, which account for 91 per cent of all businesses in the country and employ about 60 per cent of the working population, since it would inevitably result in an increase in operating costs. His words: “As the cost of raw materials increases for firms, they are forced to raise prices regardless of demand as a result of inflation’s root causes. Attempts by the government to restrict the circulation of money would inevitably result in a rise in the price of products and consumables, as well as a decline in the standard of living.”

Obadimu said most employers of labour would continue to find it difficult to accede to the desires of their employees, as employees may request a raise. “If companies fail to maintain competitive salaries, they may face a labour shortage, which has been the case in the largest number of businesses in most industries in present Nigeria,” he stated.

NACCIMA also said the rate hike will increase the hardship of Nigerians. “In fact, and in a practical sense, the majority of the population has diminished purchasing power, while the percentage of individuals living at the base of the pyramid continues to rise,” Obadimu said. He, however, argued that CBN’s hike in policy rates was insufficient to contain inflation, pointing out that before voting on a policy, it was necessary for decision-makers to always study the policy’s dynamics from a holistic and contextual perspective.

While insisting that the persistent increase in interest rates may not be sufficient to reduce the inflation rate, NACCIMA said it was necessary to address the underlying cause of inflation, which is rising food costs caused by several variables, including the devaluation of the naira and the cost of energy. According to NACCIMA, the aforementioned variables have impacted production and transportation. Hence, attaining low inflation rates required that government must assure monetary stability, a continuous electricity supply, and security to promote inclusive economic growth. NACCIMA insisted that raising interest rates is never the best policy to contemplate in the current economic situation, as it is evident that there are other causes of the stunning levels of inflation. The encouraging approach to reduce the current rate of inflation, according to the association, was to conduct a comprehensive analysis of all the causes contributing to the inflation’s rising trend and to implement control measures that can halt their effects.

The  Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) also weighed into the matter, with its President, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, insisting that rate hikes will not curb inflationary pressures. Rather, addressing the supply side constraints to cushion rising production costs due to the high cost of raw materials and energy will push back inflation. He also said the need for well-coordinated fiscal and monetary policies in promoting growth-enhancing and confidence-building policies that would encourage private and foreign capital inflows into the economy has never been compelling.

Olawale-Cole, while noting that this was in view of the need for Nigeria to navigate through the growing uncertainties in the global economy, added that while the CBN embarks on monetary tightening to tame inflation, it should also ensure targeted concessionary credit to the private sector is sustained particularly for Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME’s).

“The CBN needs to gradually transition to a unified exchange rate system and allow for a market-reflective exchange rate. This is in addition to rolling out more friendly supply-side policies to boost productive sectors, bolster investor confidence and help attract foreign investment inflows into the economy,” the LCCI chief stated.

Sickle cell disease, which is almost synonymous with pain, is the most common cause of hospitalisation and possibly death if not well managed. In a recent summit, medical professionals itemised effective ways of managing pain in persons living with sickle cell disease. CHINYERE OKOROAFOR reports

It was a gathering of healthcare professionals – all united by the mission to help people with sickle cell disease live a life devoid of paralysing pains. That was the impression last week at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Lagos, as Sickle Cell Health Initiative (SCHI) and Sickle Cell Advocacy and Management Initiative (SAMI) organised a pain management summit in commemoration of the sickle-cell disease (SCD) awareness month.

The 2022 Pain Management Summit, with the theme, ‘Effective Pain Management for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD),’ was aimed at sensitising society about ways to improve pain management for people living with sickle cell disease so that they can live productive lives. At the summit, health providers were empowered on how to effectively provide care, prioritize attention and properly mitigate the barriers, myths and facts when treating the sickle cell crisis. Doing all that according to the experts is necessary because the lives of person living with SCD depends on how fast and effective their healthcare practitioners are in pain management.

One of the medical experts was the Chairman Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu. In his keynote speech, Olowojebutu called on the government to come up with policies and plans and work with advocates for implementation, adding that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are the ones picking up the slack for the government. Speaking about the pain associated with the disorder, Olowojebutu said that it could lead to mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety and depression.

“Living with sickle cell disease can be hard, especially for children. They may feel singled out or left out of things others enjoy because of their condition. These feelings can add to other problems the disease can cause,” Olowojebutu said.

He explained further that pain in persons living with SCD happens when the sickle-shaped red blood cells that cause the condition get stuck in small blood vessels and block blood flow, causing pain episodes to start suddenly in the lower back, arms, legs, chest and belly. According to him, sickle cell is the most prevalent genetic disease in the WHO African Region. In many countries, including Nigeria, 10 to 40 per cent of the population carries sickle cell gene, resulting in an estimated SCD prevalence of at least 2 per cent.

“Nigeria has about 25 per cent of its adult population carrying the defective sickle gene in a carrier state and WHO in 2015 estimated that two per cent of all new-borns in Nigeria are affected by sickle cell disease, giving a total of about 150,000 affected children born every year. About 50 per cent – 80 per cent of the estimated 150,000 infants born yearly with SCD in Nigeria die before the age of five years and those that manage to survive to suffer end organs damage, which shortens their lifespan including stroke,” Olowojebutu said.

The Director of Disease Control, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Agbolagorite Rotimi, said with continuous advancements in the medical field, innovations are springing up to effectively tackle pain in SCD. He restated the state’s commitment to improving the health of its citizens. “Lagos is the pioneer state to commence routine new-born screening for SCDs in Nigeria. This is, in consideration of its unwavering commitment to improving citizen’s health” and in tandem with the city’s status. “This genotype screening service, which commenced in the year 2021, is available in 25 General Hospitals and 40 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the state and at present over 5,000 babies have been screened with over 200 babies screened positive for SCD and have been referred to specialist sickle cell clinics in the state.”

For the convener and founder of Sickle Cell Health Initiative (SCHI), Ms Ibitayo Ayeni, a registered nurse based in the United States, the pain associated with sickle cell disease should not be generalised because it is not the same for everyone. For that reason, Ms Ayeni said it is always important to be empathetic when treating sickle cell patients.

“That is why we are training healthcare practitioners to understand how to treat and view sickle cell patients when in their care. Pain is different for all warriors of SCD, depending on how the person treats him or herself. It also depends on the person’s health care team, which is why we are empowering as many providers to know how to provide care and give them a longer life.” Ayeni said that it was important for persons living with SCD to remain resilient in all that they do, adding that they shouldn’t “be ashamed of who they are.”

The Executive Director, Sickle Cell Advocacy & Management Initiative (SAMI) and Chairperson, Coalition of Sickle Cell NGOs, MsToyin Adesola, noted that pain management in Nigeria can be difficult for medical practitioners as well as persons living with SCD because of poverty and poor facilities and health providers’ incompetence. Narrating how someone had died as a result of incompetence, Adesola said her NGO is partnering with some hospitals by educating them on how to understand and treat SCD sufferers.

“We are just having the first pain clinic in Nigeria at Igbobi. Before now, we don’t have pain clinics in Nigeria. We try to partner with hospitals in trying to help them understand sufferers. We have seen situations where people cannot handle it because they want to hold on to “finance” they don’t refer to, and we have lost a sufferer that way. It was painful to see a situation you can’t manage it, you don’t have the facility, capability and no oxygen in the hospital and how do you expect to be able to manage persons with sickle cell.

“Because they refused to refer, the parents decide to take the person from the hospital and they asked them for oxygen to manage him on the trip. They said they can’t give out their oxygen and the guy died on the way to the next hospital. So, you have situations where people don’t understand; it is not all about finances; not about your perception of what treatment should be done. When it gets to a particular level, refer them to a hospital that is equipped to do so and that is what we can give people access to that type of hospitals. Unfortunately, there is always the poverty angle; it is not everybody that can afford such hospitals. It is challenging but we are pushing it.”

Representing Nirvana Initiative, Bamidele Oyewumi, said that their initiative is ensuring an enabling environment and a fighting chance for people living with sickle cell disease. He said: “The Nirvana Initiative tries to ensure access of quality information about the disease and most importantly create enabling environment and safe space for all the warriors battling it.”

Consultant anaesthetist/pain physician, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, Dr Niyi Ogundipe, who attends to patients with mainly chronic pain, said SCD pain could be a short-term which is called acute or long-term which is called chronic. Explaining how SCD pain can be managed, Ogundipe said: “The ways we can manage them include the fact that we must recognise that they are prone to pain; we should be able to adequately access or measure that amount of pain and tailor our medications, dose, therapy and treatment strategies to that level of pain that they have. We should not put a stop to mobilizing all resources to achieve that aim.

“It is not easy for them to manage their pain. Every challenge we have in life we need resources to do and sometimes we need resources from others to be able to do it. It is not only medical; other challenges are psychological, and emotional among others. What we do is to support, look for resources to support them to be able to withstand that stress. We want them to know what is available, the pathway to ask for help and how to escalate their situation if they don’t get that particular help. There are still resources not optimally used by them,” he said.

He advised intending couples to always check their genotype compatibility to help limit incidents of giving birth to sickle cell persons. “Prevention is better than cure. It might be difficult but it is the step we should embrace more to avoid the incident of giving birth to sickle cell persons. But when it happens, we have to all roll up our trousers and get to work and find a way for the patient; parents and caregivers to mobilise resources to prevent sickness. We train and educate them on the things they can do to prevent triggers that cause crisis such as stress, how to adequately manage their pain at home, how to quickly recognise clear problems and be able to appropriately escalate it to the hospital. Those are the steps of prevention that we take.”

The Executive Director of Xcene Research, Adebukunola Telufusi, said that clinical research in pain management is important because it will help in treating persons living with SCD, adding that clinical trials should be conducted in Sub-Sahara Africa. “Due to the genetic make-up, medications borne from trials out of Africa are less effective, and this calls for clinical trials conducted closer to home – in Africa and for Africans.”

Despite the ban placed by the Lagos State Government on the activities of traffic officers and special traffic task forces and squads in the 57 local governments and development areas in the state, motorists are still subjected to harassment and extortion by recalcitrant council officials and operatives, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.

ALL that was on the mind of Vincent Akanmode on Wednesday, September 14, was to drop his daughter at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in Akoka, Yaba where she is a student. After navigating the ever-chaotic traffic in the Yaba axis of the state, Akanmode finally dropped his daughter off at her hostel and father and daughter bade themselves goodbye as the Lagos-based journalist zoomed off in his Toyota Highlander Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).

A few minutes after, Akanmode, a Deputy Editor of the weekend title of The Nation newspaper had reasons to return an urgent message via his phone and he pulled up on the street near the Atan cemetery, Yaba, to avoid infraction with traffic. Before he knew it, two fierce officials of the Somolu Local Government under which the area falls jumped into his vehicle and ordered him to head to their council secretariat where he was slammed with a N35,000 fine.

“I told the overzealous council workers that there was no sign around the spot suggesting that vehicles could not park on the roadside. Then one of them asked if I did not see that the spot where stopped to respond to a text message was close to a cemetery.

“They insisted on taking me to their boss at the council secretariat and I was left with no choice but ride with them to an old building on Humani Street whose rusty and weather-beaten gate bore the inscription of Shomolu Local Government.

“On getting into the compound, I saw some other motorists they had dragged to the place begging and negotiating with them on the fines they were asked to pay.

“Their boss told me that my fine was N35,000 but I told him that I had no such money to pay for breaking no traffic rule.

“He reduced the fine to N20,000 but I insisted that I would not pay a dime and opted to leave the vehicle on their premises.

“As I was making my way out of the gate, I was accosted by one of the men who tried to persuade me to negotiate the fine for further reduction.

“At that point, I placed a call to one of my colleagues on crime beat who confronted them on the phone and threatened to report them to the Chairman of Somolu Local Government Council. That was when they told me to go with my car.”

While Akanmode was lucky to avoid parting with his money for a contrived traffic offence the outlawed council officials had demanded, Sam Anokam, another journalist with The Nation newspaper, was forced to pay more than N6,500 for which only a receipt bearing N5,000 was issued.

Anokam, an entertainment reporter with the newspaper, said he had parked his car on his street in the neighbourhood of Mushin to carry out a transaction at a cyber café when his car was taken away by self-acclaimed transport taskforce operatives of Mushin Local Government in June this year.

According to the report published in The Nation on Saturday, June 11, 2022, the Mushin council’s illegal task force allegedly impounded a Toyota car belonging to Anokam and extorted money from him.

As the story goes, Anokam, who lives in the neighbourhood, had barely parked his Green Toyota Highlander car (LSR 789 DW) on Kekereowo Street in Ilasamaja when the unlawful local government officials towed his vehicle to Zone D area where he was asked to pay the sum of N40,000 before his car could be released.

He however ended up coughing out N6,500 before his car was released while only a receipt in the sum of N5,000 was issued.

He said: Around 1 pm on Friday, June 10, I parked my car on Kekereowo Street in Ilasamaja in front of a business centre where I was making photocopies of some documents.  But by the time I came out of the business centre, I discovered that my car had been towed away.

“Upon inquiry, I was directed to the Zone D area of Mushin Local Government where I saw my vehicle and I asked what was going on. I was taken to an office where I was told that my car was illegally parked on a street and I must pay the sum of N40,000 as a fine.

“I introduced myself as a journalist residing in the neigbourhood and also reminded them that the state government had disbanded and outlawed the operations of abandoned vehicle squads in all local government areas but the operatives turned deaf ears and collected in cash the sums of N5,000, N1,000 and N500 as fines, gate fees, and vulcanizer charges respectively.

“Interestingly, by the time my car was released, only a receipt of N5,000 was issued for all the money collected from me.

“Within the premises, there were lots of victims of these illegal operations lamenting various degrees of extortion.”

It was gathered from some people in the neighbourhood that the illegal operations have the backings of the top hierarchy of the local government.

The Lagos State Government had outlawed the activities of traffic officers, special taskforce and squads operating under the guise of traffic management across the 57 councils and development areas in the state, and reiterated that only the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) is created and empowered by law to oversee traffic management across the state.

However, like Akanmode and Anokam, Mathew Akinrefon was also cornered by traffic officers from Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area (LCDA) who extorted the sum of N12,000 from him.

The 74-year-old pensioner reportedly would have paid more than N12,000 before his car was released but for the intervention of a senior member of the staff of the LCDA.

Akinrefon said: “I was coming from Iyana Ipaja and going towards Ojo. At Igando, my wife alighted to look for plantain. As I tried to move forward to look for where to park my car, a man opened the car door and told me that I should move forward.

“The next thing he said was What do you have for us? I said I had nothing to give him as bribe but would pray for him if he wanted. He led me to Igando Health Centre and handed me over to another man who demanded the sum of N75,000, which he said was just half of the official fine I was supposed to pay.

“I pleaded with them that I am an army pensioner and a septuagenarian but they told me to pay the sum of N30,000 and insisted that I should pay before they would let me go.

“Since my plea fell on deaf ears, I had to give them the N12,000 I had on me while they insisted on collecting the balance of N18,000.

“I was still looking for the balance at Igando Health Centre where my vehicle was impounded when a senior council officer, who preferred anonymity, intervened and prevailed on them to let me go.

“They however did not return my N12,000.”

Dayo Badmus, a reporter with a Lagos-based media house, would not forget in a hurry how he was stopped on Isolo Road by traffic officers attached to Mushin Local Government, who took his car to one of the council’s offices around Zone D area, where he was asked to pay the sum of N50,000 as fine for an unnamed offence.

Badmus’s car was however released following the intervention of the Information Officer of the council area, Mrs. Funmi Muffler.

Arrest of perpetrators

Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos Police Command recently arrested four men for extorting N50,000 from a female motorist in Lagos.

The men were said to have posed as officials of the disbanded Lagos State Committee on the Removal of Abandoned Vehicles and impounded the vehicle of the motorist for “changing lanes” at Alausa, Lagos, on May 28, 2022.

A statement issued by the police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police (SP), explained that two of the suspects, Adedire and Osukoya, had in 2020, defrauded a professor at the Lagos State University (LASU).

The statement read in part: “The motorist stated that the suspects took her vehicle to a park in front of Elephant Cement House, where she was asked to pay N50,000 as fine. She, however, reached out to friends who contacted the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

“The RRS arrived at the scene promptly, arrested the suspects, and commenced preliminary investigations.

“While the investigation was ongoing, their leader, one Taiwo Falodun, came along with a government official identified as Olalekan Edu to solicit the release of the arrested suspects. They were both arrested too.

“RRS fingerprint records showed that Taiwo Falodun and Adedire Olaniyi were once arrested in 2020 for extorting a university professor while posing as local government officials on LASU-Igando Road.”

The statement added that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alabi, had directed the Commander, RRS, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, to charge the suspects to court at the conclusion of investigation.

It will be recalled that the Lagos State Government had banned local councils and their officials from carrying out traffic management and enforcement activities in January 2017, while the ban has been restated several times by the present administration in the state following complaints about the unending cases of extortion of motorists by local government traffic officials.

The then Acting Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Anofiu Elegushi, had said: “There are traffic units in all the 57 local councils and local council development areas (LCDAs). However, this is not the responsibility for the third tier of government. We have reported instances of illegal arrest, extortion, and general impunity on the part of the council operatives.

“It is then appropriate to disband all the units and outfits parading as Local Council Traffic Units. This has been communicated to all the agencies.

“For the avoidance of doubt, officials of the ministry will start monitoring and any infraction will be dealt with in full compliance with the law.”

He added: “Let me also reiterate that only the Nigerian Police, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Taskforce on Special Offences and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) can perform traffic duties.”

All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential standard bearer Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, will today unfold their manifestos for next year’s poll. Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU highlights the significance of the 80-page document, titled: Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan For A Better Nigeria.

No presidential candidate is more prepared for the challenges of leadership and governance in post-Buhari period than All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer,  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for obvious reasons.

It is evident in his action plan; a blueprint for consolidating past gains and transforming the country; a reassuring pact that rekindles hope about a brighter future; a treaty for uncanny prosperity.

Titled ‘Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan For A Better Nigeria,’ the 80-page programme of Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, encompasses solutions to complaints in critical sectors – national security, economy, agriculture, power, oil and gas, transportation, education, healthcare, and digital economy.

Others are sports, entertainment and culture; youth empowerment and entrepreneurship, women empowerment, social reforms, judicial reform, federalism/decentralisation of power, and foreign policy.

The manifesto is a product of collective effort. It is an outcome of deep needs analysis. It offers solutions to current problems. It anticipates future challenges. The document underscores the import and value of Tinubu as the main issue, more or less, in this electioneering; a realist, a total Nigerian endowed with the knowledge of Nigeria’s diversity, a deep thinker, a consistent strategist, a compassionate politician, a financial surgeon, an experienced administrator, and a national asset.

Twenty three years ago, Tinubu approached Lagosians with a master plan. He worked hard to lay a template that his worthy successors – Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Akinwunmi Ambode and Babajide Sanwo-Olu – have continued to follow. He developed institutions and policies that changed the face of the state.

The implementation has been a resounding success across the sectors. The justifiable fruit is the transformation of Lagos into a mega city.

What majority of Nigerians are clamouring for now is a Tinubu Presidency that will mobilise vital talents for the re-enactment of the feats that have made the Centre of Excellence a model and a reference point, not only in Nigeria, but in the sub-region. People believe that what Tinubu and his team achieved in Lagos can also be achieved for Nigeria and a new society can be built, based on “shared prosperity, tolerance, compassion and the unwavering commitment to treat each citizen with equal respect and due regard.”

The agenda for renewed hope stems from progressive philosophy of the ruling party and public expectation.  Putting this into perspective, Tinubu said he and Shettima have traversed the nooks and crannies of the country, listening to the concerns of Nigerians.

“Young and old, poor and rich, educated and uneducated, Christian and Muslim; all have expressed their views and concerns. People do not seek superficial answers to hard questions. Nor do they want the broken, unimaginative, failed promises repackaged and fed them again. They want true and innovative solutions, which address the challenging realities of today,” he said.

The eminent politician added: “Our party, APC, was founded on the premise that people of our beloved country are entitled to the benefits that only progressive, good governance can procure.”

The approach is logical. Problems are dissected. Then, solutions are proffered.

Building on the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s accomplishments, the new agenda seeks to achieve 10 objectives. These are job creation and decent wages for youths as baseline for creating a better life,  manufacturing and invention of goods and services, thereby transforming Nigeria from a country of mere consumers to creators, less importation and more exportation for the purpose of strengthening the naira, an agricultural policy that promotes productivity and guarantees decent income for farmers, modernisation and expansion of public infrastructure,  harnessing the energy of youths in digital economy, entertainment, culture and tourism, and abolition of poverty.

Others include the generation, transmission and distribution of sufficient, affordable electricity, accessible and affordable healthcare, education and housing; and “an adaptive national security architecture and action to obliterate terror, kidnapping, banditry and other forms of violent extremism.”

Security:

Apart from the economy that has become dilapidated, the greatest challenge is security. Insecurity is a threat to democracy. Prosperity is impossible in an atmosphere of crime and violence.

The Buhari administration has not been sleeping on guard. But, terror, banditry, kidnapping and violent agitations are overwhelming. It is not due to lack of efforts. Criminal elements hoisting strange flags and undermining sovereignty have been curtailed. Seized territories have been recovered and internally displaced people have returned home. In the last two months, the Federal Government has reinvigorated the anti-terror war. However, more still needs to be accomplished.

The Tinubu/Shettima ticket believes that the fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

Thus, it has promised to mobilise the totality of national security, military and law enforcement assets to protect all Nigerians from danger and from the fear of danger.

Reality has dawned on Nigeria that there must be a change of tactics. The watchword, according to Tinubu, is  technology.  It should be backed by the enhanced recruitment of personnel.

What is happening now is reminiscent of the grave security situation in Lagos when Tinubu assumed the reins as governor. The wisdom that permitted him to resolve the crisis has not deserted the genius.

The presidential candidate is now promising to bring the same determined, problem-solving spirit to solving insecurity at the national level. This, he said, will be done through a proactive and intelligence driven security approach.

The first step is to bolster the security forces through recruitment, training and procurement of equipment.

The second is the redefinition of military doctrine and practice. Tinubu is proposing “Anti-Terrorist Battalions,” highly trained and disciplined with special forces units. Their objective, Tinubu said,  is to seize the strategic and tactical initiative, giving terrorists, kidnappers and bandits no respite

Also, there is the need to upgrade tactical communications and transportation: Military units will be botter equipped with tactical communications to give the military a greater communications and mobility advantage over criminals, bandits and terrorists

If the weapons systems are to be upgraded, the recruitment of people who possess the technical skills required for today’s military is also essential. But, it is also important that Nigeria, in Tinubu’s view, should reduce its dependence on imported foreign military equipment. The way to go is ramping up domestic production of basic and essential military hardware and equipment, including small arms and ammunition. The result is gradual military self-sufficiency.

Those defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria deserve improved salaries and welfare package. Tinubu emphasised that since these soldiers are always absent from home, their families also deserve family allowances.

Read Also: APC presidential aspirants back Tinubu, says Adamu

How can youths be discouraged from enlisting in terror groups? Tinubu is of the opinion that disaffected youths should be assisted to overcome despair and alienation, which poverty can bring. This is the economic dimension of anti-terror war.

To stem attacks on critical national infrastructure,  a Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Plan has been proposed.

Integral to this effort, Tinubu said, is the deployment of modern technologies, tools and equipment to end crude oil theft, prevent vandalization of national assets, and reduce, to the barest minimum, environmental pollution of the Niger Delta.

He said: “We shall combine increased aerial surveillance over land and sea with other cutting-edge technology that will provide instant notification of intrusions or disruptions of all pipelines and related installations. Such technology will also be deployed to monitor power stations, transmission and distribution networks sea and airports, rail transportation, telecommunications and other vital infrastructure.”

Nigerian borders are porous. It is worrisome. Many foreigners enter and leave without let or hindrance. The solution is to strengthen the ability of Customs and Immigration Services to patrol and monitor the borders. Tinubu believes that the use of aerial and ground-based technology mechanisms and more mobile patrol units will checkmate the menace of illegal immigrants.

Besides, to prevent violent groups from using the forests and other public lands as hideouts,  Ranger or Forest Guard force will be revitalised, giving it the core mandate to monitor, identify, and track the use offorests by any violent or criminal groups.

International collaboration needs to be sustained in the course of fighting terror. Tinubu assured that the Multinational Joint Task Force should be sustained.

The focus of police reform, if elected, will be the setting up of community policing structure and maintaining law and order through crime fighting and prevention.

The role of police in intelligence gathering cannot be ignored. More policemen and high-tech equipment are required. But, the APC candidate is also  now proposing a reformed police where personnel will be freed from extraneous duties such as VIP security and guard duties. But, VIP Security and provision of security for government buildings, installations and other critical assets will be transferred to The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

Economy:

Currently, the Nigerian economy is on crutches. There is need for a paradigm shift from the exportation of raw materials and importation of increasingly expensive finished products. This is the point Tinubu is making in his action plan.

Besides, diversification has not been smooth. Nigeria remains a mono-product economy, with crude oil still providing foreign exchange and is the primary source of Federal Government’s revenues.

What happens if the sector is assailed by an unbearable crisis?

Agriculture is a veritable option. But, it has been neglected. A country that can feed itself resolves a major hurdle. Government should come up with incentives or impetus for farmers. Food security is as important as a successful anti-terror battle.

In Nigeria, many stakeholders have agitated for devolution. In their opinion, the Federal Government should shed its weight. The distant central government is not as close to the grassroots as the state governments. The states are in a vantage position to fully understand the problems confronting the localities. How can states grapple with these local concerns? To Tinubu, the allocation of revenue between the federal and state governments should be adjusted to give states greater flexibility to foster grassroots economic development.

He also seems to know the route to industrialisation. Under his leadership, he said Nigeria will savour an economy that produces more of the everyday items, both agricultural and manufactured goods, that define an individual’s and a nation’s standard of living.

Fiscal policy:

Dependence on oil is essentially limiting. So is the unrealistically artificial limits on government spending, particularly during this protracted moment of global economic turmoil exacerbated by domestic challenges in security.

Money should be spent on infrastructural renewal.

Roads should be built. Water should available, both for dam reticulation and agricultural purposes.

Tinubu’s promise to build small-scale Irrigation and water catchment systems in rural areas will boost agricultural production and employment while mitigating dangerous cycles of flood and drought in many areas

If investment is to thrive, a conducive atmosphere is non-negotiablle. To encourage the use of Public Private Partnerships, Tinubu said if given the mandate, he will work with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Finance and other relevant federal agencies to expand the availability and scope of credit guarantees to attract more private sector investment in needed infrastructure projects.

Import substitution

Nigerians have developed insatiable taste for imported goods. This has negative impact on home industries, which should be protected. To reduce the reliance on foreign products, luxury taxes, higher tariffs and high processing fees will be imposed.

Also, Tinubu said international brands will be incentivised with tax credits, rebates and other fiscal incentives to establish manufacturing plants in Nigeria, both for export and to meet the needs of the large population of consumers in Nigeria and the wider ECOWAS region.

He said his government will also enact new policies to exploit the framework provided by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AICTA) to further boost domestic manufacturing and production

Tax Reform

Tinubu, an accomplished accountant, is conscious of the undesirability of increasing  taxation, which can discourage the private sector. He has thus, proposed a progressive tax regime, characterisd by the removal of harmful loopholes and efficient collection.

Government must also fight corruption, inefficiency and wastage of resources. Tbe reform of the civil service is the key. This is necessary to fight corruption, reduce bureaucracy, streamline agencies and decrease inefficiency and waste.

Tinubu has indicated a determination to ensure value engineering. It is a creativity method and strategy geared towards cost reduction. He has promised to streamline the amount that government spends on itself. A cap will be placed on fiscal expenditures for the construction of government buildings and on the salaries and related compensation packages of elected officials and senior personnel in the executive branch of the Federal Government. Such expenditures will have a low priority in our administration.

Also, while hardworking civil servants will receive commendation, Tinubu sounded a note of warning to impostors in the civil service to flee, saying: “We will continue the process of weeding out ghost workers, as well as ghost projects and expenditures from the system.”

Optimisation of government revenue:

Tinubu is an expert in internally generated revenue. In Lagos, he jerked up the revenue from N600million monthly to N14 billion. But, this time around, apart from expanding the revenue base of the Federal Government, he will block the leakages in the financial system.

Monetary policy:

Monetary policy, Tinubu said,  must complement fiscal goals.

He added: “Monetary policy must focus on the exchange rate, interest rate and price levels. This trio must serve the objective of fiscal policy, which is broadly shared prosperity.

“In essence, money lends nominal economic value to anyone who owns it or anything to which a monetary price is attached. Idle people and resources are said to have scant economic purpose or value. They are wrongfully derided as “useless.” When money becomes attached to them either through a living wage or capital investment, what was once idle becomes valued and productive.

“Our fiscal strategy is to spend public money in a way that maximises employment of people and resources especially those financial institutions. By itself, good and previously idle.”

Exchange rate management

It is acknowledged that the recent dip in the country’s exchange rate is primarily due to global supply and production shortfalls caused by global factors well beyond control. The diminished levels of oil production and the modest capacity of the manufacturing sector to expand production both serve to compound the pressure on the naira.

Further compounding our difficulty is the fact that we are tied to an ineffective regime of multiple, somewhat arbitrary. exchange rates. This situation gives rise to financial dislocation, currency speculation and arbitrage. These practices divert much needed funds away from productive endeavours that could employ hundreds of thousands of people and create products that improve average living conditions.

To ensure that exchange rate policy harmonises with our goals of optimal growth and job creation driven by industrial, agricultural and infrastructural expansion, Tinubu plans to work with the Central Bank and the financial sector to carefully review and better optimise the exchange rate regime.

He stressed:” Our economic policies shall be guided by our desire for a stronger, more stable Naira founded upon a vibrant and productive real economy.”

Industrial Policy:

Nigeria needs a National Industrial Plan that will, in Tinubu’s words, make it to grow an industrial base to provide jobs to an expanding urban population.

Granting tax holiday and low tariff, reduction of interest rates on loans, and  extending credits to industrialists are meaningful incentives.

In appreciation of the relative strength and advantages which the geo-political regions can exploit, Tinubu proposed that “in the Northwest and Northeast, new industrial hubs will focus on textiles. In the South East and South South, a new hub and dry port will focus investment on labour intensive manufacturing.

“In the South West, fine quality sand will be turned into the highest-quality glass items.

“In areas with deposits of clay, household items such as dishes and pottery will be manufactured In the North Central, emphasis will be placed on solid mineral exploration and exploitation.

“In the Northwest and Northcentral, clandestine, environmentally harmful unlicensed gold mining activities will be ended. Regulated mining will be instituted such that environmental protection is maintained and local artisans and craftsmen can earn income turning raw gold into finished jewellery.”

The implication is that no region will be idle. There will be room for healthy competition. They can industrially grow according to their own pace. Unemployment will reduce and rural-urban drift will be minimised.

Housing:

There is housing deficit in Nigeria. Urban dwellers are worse hit. The solutions canvassed by the APC ticket include Mortgage and Consumer Credit Reform, home ownership, which is a source of prosperity, social stability and individual pride; the review of the Land Use Act, credits and incentives to developers of housing projects to set aside a significant portion of their projects to affordable housing.

Agriculture:

Before the advent of oil, which some commentators have described as a blessing and a curse, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy.

However, only 35 per cent  of arable land in Nigeria is presently cultivated. Tinubu/Shettima’s target is to increase the number to 65 per cent in four years.

Global uncertainties of recent years such as COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict further underscore the need to ensure substantial food security for our nation. Therefore, the priority is to grow more than what Nigeria needs so that it can export the excess and alter its balance of trade.

A Tinubu government will build on the foundation laid by the current administration. We vow to help the former and his community in new and significant ways that usher in a true and complete rebirth of Nigerian agriculture.

To achieve the goals of agriculturaldevelopment, Tinubu hopes to pursue the following initiatives: setting up of commodity boards to establish minimum prices for strategic crops such as cashew, cocoa, sesame, soya, cassava yam, rubber, okra, palm kernels, groundnut and okra; grain reserves and food storage, rural Infrastructural development, irrigation and water catchment, farm cooperatives where feasible, access to finance or low cost loans, large-scale land clearing and setting up of a Farm Nigeria Project, with a special focus on the river basins throughout the country.

Power:

Power has problematic sector. As governor of Lagos, Tinubu came up with the Eron Project, which was frustrated by the central government.

Currently, the nation has approximately 12,000MW of installed capacity, generates only 8.000MW and is only able to distribute a maximum of 4,500MW to consumers. Tinubu lamented that the economy is, accordingly, constrained by our inability to generate, transmit, and  distribute power efficiently.

The nation’s power problems, he admitted, cannot be solved overnight. What can be done, and what he has promised to do is to build on the foundation laid by President Buhari’s Presidential Power Initiative.

Increased generation, transmission and distribution is Tinubu’s cardinal goal. Apart from encouraging off-grid and renewable power generation options and solutions undertaken by willing private sector participants, he also promised to work with the private sector and interested state governments to provide access to low cost finance for power projects.

He also promised to eliminate estimated billing, an unpopular and harmful practice that has upset consumers.  and ensure that all electricity bills are meter-based.

Of importance is the plan to boost the domestic manufacturing of electricity meters, the Renewable Energy Plan, based on Nigeria’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060, and the push for rural electrification.

Also, the standard bearer said he will introduce  the first power policy,  whereby  gas resources shall be directed, as a #1 priority to Nigerian power generation.

Life, they say, is full of twists and turns. Some people relocated to Abuja primarily to earn a living in a big way, while others had the mission to seek menial jobs where the pay is low and the hours long.

Many in this category are majorly the meruwas who hawk water.

In the FCT, residents in almost all the satellite towns, and some places within the city centre are at the mercy of meruwas because of the lack of pipe-borne water. Many go through hell to get water.

Many Northern youths and a few elderly men have since decided to bridge the gap to help residents in various communities and many other parts of the country’s capital access clean water.

These youth earn a living and they are called meruwa. They sell water from door-to-door every day.

Somewhere in Kuje Street; with shops on both sides directly facing one another, sits a shop dealing in bread and egg. The shop, obviously owned by one of the Northerners, is where most of the meruwas come to unwind after the day’s work. Adamu, one of the Northern men providing residents with clean water, is not an exception.

Adamu, from Kaduna State, told Abuja Review that he ventured into the sale of water three years ago to make a living for his two wives and 10 children.

“I don’t have money,” Adamu said, after delivery in the blistering sun, looking wet from his own sweat.

“So, I sell water to make money. Out of the little money I make, I send it to my wives in Kaduna State” he said, chewing on a loaf of bread and complementing it with a soft drink.

“I sell to anyone who needs my water. Each of the containers goes for ?50 to ?80,” he further said.

Although Adamu said he makes from ?600 to ?1,000 daily, he lamented that delivering water to clients is stressful, as the market is dwindling.

“There is no money in the business because some residents have water in their houses. The business is tough. In four months, you can’t get up to ?20, 000, and when you want to go back home, there’s no money. If I find something else to do, I’ll quit this business,” he said.

But Adamu is not the only one who knows how to exploit humanity’s needs to improve his fortunes.

Nuru too, employed as a security worker for a resident in Kuje, picked up his garuwas two years ago, when he came to Abuja in search of greener pastures; leaving behind his two wives, seven children, and his farm in Jigawa State.

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The garuwas are metallic cylindrically shaped buckets used to fetch water. A rope is tied to the handles and further tied to both ends of a stick and carried on their shoulders to areas of need.

“I started selling water two years ago. I sell to those who are having a tough time getting access to clean water. Two of my garuwas go from ?50 to ?100. I make up to ?600 a day.

“But it’s not lucrative anymore because not everyone buys water. Some have boreholes in their homes,” he said.

Another youth, Ibrahim, who hails from Jigawa State, sleeps in his work clothes –a sky blue T-shirt and a pair of grey-black short jean trousers.

He picks up his container, hangs it on his shoulders, and sets out in search of water for his customers; some of whom may have placed orders.

Sometimes alone, or joined by his friends, Ibrahim goes to houses with boreholes where he buys water and resells it to his clients.

“I buy two garuwa for N20 and sell at N100,” he said, with a suspicious look on his face.

This routine is the basic operation of the two groups of meruwa. The difference, however, is that those who push carts earn more.

But, while others complained of the stress involved and the body aches they experience in the process of distributing water hung on their shoulders, Ibrahim seems to be doing fine.

“Since I started, business has been good. There hasn’t been any problem so far, and I get up to ?1,000 a day,” he said.

Asked if he experiences body pains as a result of carrying the garuwa to different areas, he said: “Carrying it on my shoulders is not a problem. I am strong,” he replied with an air of confidence.

Although these meruwas try to fill a huge gap created by the inability of the government at all levels; to provide pipe-borne water for the citizens, the source of the water they distribute sometimes creates health hazards for the consumers.

Two other people who find life difficult and trying to make ends meet are Adamu Alidu and Amisu Isaa. They also live in Kuje, one of the satellite towns in the FCT.

They also hawk water to survive. And, most times, they sleep in an uncompleted building because they could not afford to pay for housing accommodation which is on the high side. Adamu Alidu is not married while Amisu Issa is married and has three children.

They supply water to many homes in the morning and evening. Adamu, who is 35, relocated to Abuja five years ago from Niger State and has since been visiting his parents whenever he has enough money to give them and other members of his family. He told Abuja Review that he started hawking water when there was no other job to do.

He said: “I relocated to Abuja over five years ago. I am from Niger State and my parents are from Niger. I am 35 years old. My aim of coming to Abuja then was to start a business. But when I got here, there was no money to start the business. So, I went into pushing water for sale.

“I sell water in the morning and evening and, aside from that, I also do little work. Many people do call me to supply water to their homes regardless of the time but not at midnight. We are about 40 people here selling water and many of us who are married feed our families from the proceeds of this job.

“This is where we all converge and anyone that needs our services always calls us. This is the biggest place in Kuje where we converge.

“We make N1, 000 in a day. At times, we make like N2, 000. During the dry season, business looks brighter compared to what obtains during the rainy season.

“I always visit my parents and stay with them for about five days before coming back to Abuja. If I have money for marriage now, I will marry in Niger and leave my wife there. But I will still be shuttling between Niger and Abuja. My friend here is married and has children.

For Amisu Issa, life is more difficult because his wife and three children are in Katsina. They expect money from him monthly. He was optimistic that if he could raise enough capital, his life and that of his family would change for the better.

His words: “I am 34 years old. I am married and I have three children. I relocated to Abuja in 2003. Then I was into the dry-cleaning business. But when things were not moving as expected, the owner of the business was not paying me again.

“So, I started selling water to survive. My wife and my three children are in Katsina. I visit my family often and when I do, I stay with them for like a month before coming back to Abuja. And if I do not visit as planned, I do send money to them.

“There are a lot of businesses that one can get involved in but when there is no money, one has to make do with what one has. I still wish to get more money to do a more lucrative business to better my life and that of my family.”

The worst part of the story is that many of them sleep in an uncompleted building exposed to the dangers of the night. However, they hope that life will favour them someday.

Aliyu Musa is the security man that guards the area where those men sleep and earn their daily bread. He praised them for their courage and resilience in what they are doing.

He advised other people who are not engaged in any way to emulate them and start from little rather than involving themselves in criminal activities.

Musa said: “I am the security guard here. These people selling water are very helpful to the community. The government does not supply water to the community. All we rely on is the borehole and these guys are the ones saving people by delivering water to households. Most of them have their customers.

The government should also help in bringing pipe-borne water to Kuje. Youths should be encouraged to do something with their hands. Many of our youths want to make quick money. And many of these guys looking for quick money are not educated and they do not want to learn any skills. So, these boys, instead of involving themselves in criminal activities, sell water; even though they can do any type of job if available. These guys around me here are very hard-working.”

In Abuja, there are several homeless people. They stay on pedestrian bridges, under the bridges at Karu, Nyanya, Berger and Area 1, Garki. They also live in parks, gardens, abandoned cars and uncompleted buildings.

In most of the shopping complexes in town, the situation is almost similar as almost every shop in the place has people sleeping in them at night.

The majority of those who stay in such shops are men who come into the town to hustle for money. Other places where homeless people are found are Mabushi, Karu and Nyanya Market, among others.

In Abuja, the plights of the homeless are compounded by the high cost of rent, which runs into hundreds of thousands or millions. Such apartments stay empty for years until luck shines on the landlord and they are taken.

Since politics has a far-reaching impact on how health decisions are made, experts have urged all Nigerians, especially stakeholders in the healthcare delivery space, to interrogate political office seekers on the level of priority they intend to accord health. MOSES EMORINKEN reports that investment in health is a direct investment in the overall economic well-being of the country.

Statistics and other numbers for health have not been kind to Nigeria, as the country has one of the worst health indices in Africa and globally. The 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) showed that for every 100,000 women giving birth, approximately 512 will lose their lives due to sundry avoidable complications. Also, 1 in 8 children in Nigeria die before their 5th birthday.

With respect to nutritional status of children, 37 per cent of Nigerian children aged 6 to 59 months are stunted (short for their age), 7 per cent are wasted (thin for their height), 22 per cent are underweight (thin for their age), and 2 per cent are overweight (heavy for their height). Furthermore, the trends for communicable and non-communicable diseases like hepatitis, tuberculosis, diabetes, cancer, stroke, etc., are on the rise, placing millions of Nigerians at a very high risk of disabilities and deaths from one or more of the diseases.

All these, coupled with other socio-economic factors like poverty, insecurity, insurgency, flooding, inflation, etc., have further driven more Nigerians below the social security lines, such that they can hardly afford or access quality healthcare without catastrophic cost. All these unenviable health indices, coupled with a high fertility rate of 5.3, which is more than the economic growth rate of 3.2, further worsens the economic health of the country, reduces productivity and further reduces Nigeria’s overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Therefore, experts have posited that investment in health is a direct investment in the overall economic well-being of the country. Galvanising more public funds for the health sector was the center of conversation by critical stakeholders during this year’s Future of Health Conference, with the theme: “The political economy of health: investing in the future of Nigeria,” organised by the Nigeria Health Watch. The Managing Director of the Nigeria Health Watch, Mrs. Vivianne Ihekweazu, stated that politics has a far-reaching impact and implication on how health decisions are made. She noted that politics plays an overwhelming role in ensuring that health is prioritised, even with scarce available resources to go round all the sectors.

She further explained that as the country approaches an election year in 2023, it is pertinent that all stakeholders in the health space, and all Nigerians, interrogate the agendas of politicians, to ensure that they make health a priority – in words and actions. “We must ensure that when we engage our political aspirants, we tell them about what we want them to do if they are to win our votes. We must seize this opportunity to engage with our political leaders to ensure that health gets its priority,” Ihekweazu said.

Getting economic value by prioritising healthcare

Reports have it that since the Abuja Declaration in 2001, where African leaders, including the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, promised to allocate 15 per cent of their budgetary allocation to health, till date, the highest Nigeria has allocated to the health sector is about 7 per cent. It currently hovers around 4 per cent.

With this meagre allocation, health experts have argued that this will not only affect the health and well-being of the people, but will further exacerbate poverty and slow down the country’s economic growth and development. According to Dr. Olumide Okunnola, a World Bank Specialist on Health, “Nigeria has perhaps one of the highest out-of-pocket expenditures in the world. Also one of the lowest levels of public financing globally, considering the fact that Nigeria is a rich country. For livelihoods to increase, your economy needs to do much better. With what COVID-19 has done to this economy, for livelihoods to get to where it needs to be, you have to have extraordinary economic growth.”

Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe of the Lancet Commission in Nigeria noted that while the nexus between health and economic development is quite clear, the government needs to stop seeing health as a consumer, and start seeing the sector as a major contributor to economic development. He said: “One powerful thing we need to do going forward is linking the cost of action to the cost of inaction. We need to provide such estimates to show clearly what we are going to lose when we are not investing in health, and the loss is usually in terms of development and low GDP growth. “From the Lancet Commission, as we think about the future of health in Nigeria, if we don’t get the governance right, nothing will work. Therefore, governance and the prioritization of health are the first place to start.”

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A Senior Health Specialist with the World Bank, Dr. Onoriode Ezire, believes that aside the need for negotiation and political compromise, the country needs accurate and timely data on population size, sex and age profiling, and the degree on absolute poverty, in order to be able to prioritize health. He said: “In resource allocation, we must consider two things: if you want to allocate resources based on needs, it is very challenging because we need accurate data. There is no data available in the country in terms of quality and timeliness. Also, when we allocate resources by need, we must make sure that it does not dis-incentivize people from doing the right things. We must make sure Governors that are doing well in health like Kaduna state, are encouraged to do more and not dis-incentivise them.”

Private sector, government make case for healthcare investment

The impacts and contributions of the private sector to the health sector cannot be overemphasised. A shining example is during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private sector rode gallantly to save the already ailing health system from total collapse. Their roles in providing infrastructure, equipment and consumables, training of health workers, and a host of other functions saved the country from doomsday prophecies and projections during the heat of the pandemic.

Founder of Flying Doctors Investment Company, Dr. Ola Brown, is of the opinion that investment in health can actually solve not just Nigeria’s healthcare problems, but all of Nigeria’s problems. Highlighting the high migration rate, especially of young people, as a fall-out of the state of healthcare in the country, alongside other factors like insecurity, availability of opportunities for employment, inflation etc., she stressed that investing in health has a humongous potential to solve the issues.

She said: “The largest employer of skilled labour in the entire world is the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS). Also, if you look at every state in America and look for the employees, you see them in either healthcare or education. If you can employ people in a sector that has massive job creation potential, then you are able to solve security and unemployment problems.

“Healthcare has not been seen as essential to the economy. If we reposition healthcare at the level of the Presidency, House of Representatives, Senate, as not just solving a health problem, but as a solution to ‘all of Nigeria’s problems,’ then, we can get the government to focus on health like they do in other sectors.”

The Chairman of Metis Capital Partners, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, added: “We need to look at our health spending within the context of an overall economy of a government. We should not just be interested in health, but also how the economy is run as a whole. In the real sense, the amount of time, focus and resources that can be given to health is really dependent on whether the government is able in totality, and what it chooses to spend that money on.

“It is of crucial importance that all of us interested in health should be interested in ensuring that the spending rate of our government is one that allows a substantial part of that money to go into health. If the overall expenditure of a country drops for whatever reasons, whether it has to do with oil theft, insecurity, etc., it affects the expenditure for health.”

Speaking on behalf of the Federal Government, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, said: “Health is high on the development agenda of Nigeria. In lieu of the immense social and economic returns of healthcare investment, a key objective of the National Development Plan (NDP) for 2021 to 2025 is to enable a healthy populace.

“The budget office is of the view that we are yet to have a comprehensive data on the actual amount that we invest in health, one that takes into consideration the allocation to the Ministry of Health headquarters and its agencies, Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), allocation for immunisation, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); these different agencies from the Ministry of Health, and health-related spendings in other sectors. Critically too is other investments by partners – through multilateral and bilateral funding and grants.

“We also need to take into consideration the different fiscal systems. Sub-national governments are by-and-large fiscally independent. We will need to get data from the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the 36 States plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), so that we will be able to know how much exactly goes into health. The Federal Government budget for the health sector has more than doubled over the past five years. Allocation to the sector was increased by 170 per cent, from N305.1 billion in 2016, to N823.5 billion in 2022, and further by 33 per cent to N1.1 trillion in 2023. This figure is exclusive of health-related expenditure in other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and grants which are health-heavy.”

The Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy, Dr. Sarah Alade, added: “One of the four strategic objectives and pillars of the NDP is to enable a vibrant, educated and healthy populace. Healthcare is very important because if you are not healthy, you can get education or any other thing. So, the nexus between health and the economy is being amplified more than ever before, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we understand the importance more. In the words of Tedros – when health is at risk, then, everything is at risk.”

The National President of the Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Dr. Habib Sadauki, stressed that for the country to make meaningful progress in its health outcomes and reap economic dividends, it must take the issue of population growth very seriously. He said: “It is expected that by 2050, we will reach a population of half a billion people in this country. Our fertility rate is 4.6 from the last Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), but has been hovering around six to eight.

“Family Planning helps the whole family, empowers women, and gives them economic power to make decisions and take control of their lives. That is what we need to have a good workforce across the nation. What has happened in this country is that over the years, in family planning funding, it started growing from about 2011 and then went to the peak in 2018. Since then, for the last three years, we have been seeing a drop. In fact, this year 2022, there is no budget line for family planning. This is very important because if we are talking about economic development, and then we are not putting money for family planning, then we have a serious problem.”

Mrs Yosola Akinbi, the Coordinator of the Core Working Group on Human Capital Development across MDAs, said: “A strong political will is important, but it is also important that we as citizens also join forces with the government to actually monitor, track and see where we are in terms of health. We need to improve and work on the people; investment in the people is one that works for all of us in Nigeria and all over the world.”