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Tag: blame

  • Doctors blame ignorance for medical tourism

    Doctors blame ignorance for medical tourism

    Some Nigerians travel abroad for treatment out of ignorance, some doctors have said.

    According to them, people do so not because of lack of well-equipped medical centres or indigenous expertise.

    Led by Dr Austin Okogun, Chief Executive Officer of Lily Hospital in Warri, Delta State, they said many of the delicate cases that Nigerians go abroad for can be handled in the country.

    The medics explained what they are doing to convince Nigerians and other West Africans that many of the medical needs that have cost them so much in terms of travelling long distances to Asia, Middle East, Europe and the Americas are available at comparatively lower costs.

    The services, according to the professionals, are qualitative as they could be obtained from any of the ‘strong’ health nations. Lily Hospital, because of the huge investment into technology and engagement of internationally reputed medical partners, has been granted teaching hospitals’status, they added.

    The hospital has become a centre for house officers and family medicine residents training, accredited by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria.

    Its Consultant Urologist, Dr. Achour, an Egyptian said: “We are able to remove kidney stones, stones of the ureter and all kinds of urinary tract stones, and treat renal complications, to sanitise human kidneys, liver or gall bladder conditions using minimally invasive or non-invasive (cut-less) methods of treatment where patients can be discharged within, as prompt as 24 hours of the procedure, and they return to work within a shorter period than if traditional surgery is performed.

    He added: “We are getting encouraging feedbacks. A patient from Bayelsa State, who had gone for an operation in India was due for another one recently but he got it done right here (Lily Hospital, Warri), at just a fraction of what it would have cost him to return to India. He regretted going to India for the first treatment.’’

    The hospital’s Pediatrics unit once  treated a 26-week-old baby. He weighed 0.59kg and had spent 16 days in one of the incubators, supported by ventilators and CPAPs.

    The consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr. Louis Alekwe said: “Nursing a 0.59kg to survive is a classic record. It means people do not have to get scared and think of distances to travel to save extreme premature babies. There are solutions so near.”

    Alekwe added that the hospital  offers embryo freezing services, adding that a couple can come for IVF and that it has up to four fertilised embryos or eggs. You do not want to put all in the woman, so the experts put one or two in her to grow and be delivered as babies and keep the remaining two in the freezer, he added.

    “In two or three years if the couple  has need for more babies, the stored eggs are implanted into the woman and we nurse the pregnancy to delivery again. An embryo, for the period frozen, experiences arrested development.We have an ongoing case,” Okogun said.

    ‘’At the Orthopaedic unit,’’ Okogun said, ‘’patients get joints replacement, such as the hip joint, and spine surgery, including delicate cases having to do with the neck. The hips can be removed and artificial joints. The eye centre is equipped for laser surgery for people with glaucoma, and so is cataract and retinal treatment.’’

    On the hospital’s target, the CEO said: “We are trying to achieve a reversed medical tourism where, instead of people travelling out at huge cost to seek medical treatment, our operating environment should be the medical tourism destination in-country. Ultimately, we are reshaping the story of Warri. There is strong impression among outsiders that the place is volatile and nothing good can come out of it. In the long run, we are helping to build confidence in prospective investors in diverse sectors to come in and assist development of the state.”

     

  • Buhari: why I will continue to blame Jonathan, Obasanjo, others

    Buhari: why I will continue to blame Jonathan, Obasanjo, others

    President Muhammadu Buhari is not about to stop blaming his predecessors in office for Nigeria’s current socio-economic crisis.

    He insists that blaming those who steered the affairs of the country  from 1999 to 2015  when he took over is inevitable if only to remind them that they ought not to have taken things for granted the way they did.

    “I know I’m being accused in the papers of passing the buck. But passing the buck is sometimes absolutely necessary to remind people who take things for granted,” Buhari  said at the  public presentation of a pictorial book Buhari: A New Beginning and Conversation themed: Creative Youth as Drivers of the Change Agenda, at the Presidential Villa on Thursday night.

    The conversation featured  seven youths exchange ideas and highlight challenges in the creative industry.

    Buhari said: “My dear countrymen especially the youth, you have a fantastic country. God has endowed Nigeria with  human and material resources.

    “I’m going to bore you with what we met. I know I’m being accused in the papers of passing the buck. But passing the buck is sometimes absolutely necessary to remind people who take things for granted.

    “When we came in by some unfortunate coincidence… I screamed to high heavens because I had promised a lot while seeking vote.

    “I said where are the savings? There were no savings. There was no infrastructure.Power, rails, roads, there was none. What did we spend the money on? I was told buying food and petrol…

    “Where were the billions going? We conducted a study and found out that the oil marketers were committing fraud on at least one third ‎of what they were importing, which is about 25 per cent of our foreign exchange.

    “The youths must watch our elite.The condition we found ourselves, it is unpatriotic for anybody to pretend that economically we have not had a problem.

    “We have gone into the farms, I congratulate some of the governors and by the grace of God by the end of this government we will be exporting rice and grains. So all the money alleged to have been used to import will be available to sustain development.

    “I have bored you with this long explanation because there are things that could be hidden from you by those that have  mismanaged the country in the last 16, 17 years.”

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruled the country in those  17 years starting with  Olusegun Obasanjo  (1999 – 2007), late Umoru Musa Yar’Adua (2007 – 2010), and Goodluck Jonathan (2010 – 2015).

    Buhari pledged that  his administration would set the ball rolling in terms of providing security, industrialization, manufacturing and food security.

    “I said it more than five years ago and I still mean it, we have no other country than Nigeria.We will stay here and salvage it together,” he said.

    Buhari also promised that his administration would  improve funding for creative industry in the 2017 budget with a view to creating employment opportunities.

    He said that the improved allocation will provide the requisite infrastructure for rapid transformation of the creative industry in the country.

    He asked  the youths to partner with the administration in its efforts to diversify the economy and ensure a corrupt-free society.

    The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju  Bola Tinubu harped on the need for Nigeria to leverage on its youths as the fulcrum for development.

    Tinubu, who was represented by Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, said that the youths were instrumental to the electoral victory of the APC in 2015.

    He said: “We must create opportunities for them, empower them and carry them along in the policies we formulate.

    “I am happy this government, through the office of the Vice-President, is involved in various programmes aimed at the youth,’’ he added.

    Tinubu bought 300 copies of the book written by Buhari’s personal photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo for distribution to youths at the presentation.

    During interactive session, selected youths highlighted contributions of creative industry to socio-cultural and economic development as well as challenges facing the sector.

    Cobham Asuquo, a multi talented Artist, spoke on the unifying strength of music amongst Nigerians while  Arts Curator, Aderele Shonarewo, identified the enormous potentials of the visual arts in addressing unemployment and ensuring wealth creation.

    Ishaq Sidi Ishaq, an Actor and Film Director stressed the need for Nigeria to give priority to the film industry.

    He said that Nigeria’s film industry has been rated second in the world.

    A fashion designer, Ms Lanre Da Silva-Ajayi identified poor electricity supply and inadequate infrastructure as some of the challenges frustrating the development of the nation’s fashion sub-sector.

    The event was attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, some governors, traditional rulers, business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and many other personalities.

  • Blame game in power supply

    Sir: In Kenya recently, there was a blackout across the nation for four hoursand people wondered what had happened, but not for long. The  power generating company   KenGen  issued  a statement  that a monkey  had  accidentally  tripped an equipment  in a  hydro  power  plant  which triggered  the nationwide  blackout. The  generation companyexplained that Kenya lost 183 MW  during  the  blackout and  apologized to  consumers and  promised  to secure its facilities from  future  power  hazards that  can  cause  unexpected  blackouts .

    In Nigeria however, theway blackouts are explainedis completely different. The  regular  culprit  in the  public  mind are  the discos – the distribution companies  that deliver electricity  to  our homes  and companies  and bring in the electricity  bills  for  consumers  to  pay. This has  been reinforced  by the   hostile  attitude  of  the trade unions  in the power  sector in the way  they  mobilized consumers  against  the discos  when  tariffs  for  electricity  approved  for  them  by the regulator, the Nigerian  Electricity  Regulatory  Commission,were announced early  this year. The  unions  went  all  the way to instigate even  the Senate  to stop  the tariff increase after which  NERC  went  to  court  charging the Senate  of usurping  its  function as the regulator  of electricity  sector. The unions did not stop there;they asked workers to go on strike on the new tariffs.

    As  the  Kenyan  example  has  shown, it was  a generating company (Genco)that explained  what  happened  and  not  a distribution company (Disco). It is a  well-known  fact  that  Discos don’t  generate or  transmit electricity  but  only  deliver  to  consumers as and  when  power is available  and  bill  such  consumers  for  electricity  supplied  and  utilized. How   come  then  that  the Nigerian  union  leaders are always  pointing accusing  fingers at  the  discos whenever  there is power  failure?

    In   Nigeria,pipeline vandalisation nationwide has drastically reduced  the generation and  transmission  of electricity  not  to  talk of  distribution of  electricity  which  is the responsibility  of the discos.  But  then  can  the  discos  distribute  what  they  don’t  have ? Definitely not? Similarly, the  gencos  cannot generate  when they don’t  have the  basic  ingredients to  generate  when  sources  of  such  generation  have  been rendered  inactive  by  vandals.  In  Kenya,  the  KenGen  was  lucky  that  it was a  monkey  that  cut  power  for four hours  only. In  Nigeria, it  is  an army  of vandals  that  are stalling electricity production  on a daily  and  consistent  basis and  they have  even  metamorphosed into  a virile  terrorist  group  called  the Avengers  of  the Niger  Delta who  are  daring and tasking the might  of  the  federal government.  That  really  is the core  of the matter  and  that  is what  the unions should  focus on as the cause  of irregular electricity  supply  and  not  the  discos  which  are  at  the receiving end  of the poor  electricity  supply  chain.

     

    • Ibrahim Aliu,

    Kano.

  • Don’t blame the devil, I did it –Pastor who raped JSS2 church member

    Don’t blame the devil, I did it –Pastor who raped JSS2 church member

    The Police in Rivers State have paraded a pastor of a church in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, for allegedly raping a JSS 2 girl. The young girl, said to be a member of the pastor’s church, was allegedly raped for three consecutive days.

    Opirite F. Amakiri, aged 50 years, a pastor of a Pentecostal Church, “Agape Baptist Church”, located along Aka Base in Rumuolumeni area of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state, allegedly lured his victim into the room to help massage his waist for a cure from a protracted waist pain.

    Amakiri allegedly claimed that his request was informed by divine revelation that if he could get a girl of between the ages of 12 and 18 years to massage the waist, the problem would be solved.

    To assist her pastor, the elder sister to the victim, a young widow, who is also a member of the choir in the church, offered to give out her little sister for the job.

    The pastor allegedly took undue advantage of the young girl to rape her.

    A father of four and husband to a medical official, the pastor confessed to the crime. Interestingly, instead of the usual practice of blaming such act on the devil, the pastor said, “count the devil out of this, he did not do anything, I did it by myself. But I now regret my actions. God decided to expose and chastise me.”

    The Police said he would be charged to court the moment the doctor’s reports/medical results are out.

    Narrating what happened to newsmen, the suspect said: “The reason I was arrested and being detained by the Police is because of a rape case I involved myself in. I am 50 years old and have been a Christian for 22 years. I am a pastor of Agape Baptist Church for seven years.

    “The older sister to the girl I raped is a choir member of my church. It was after choir practice one Thursday that I informed the sister that I would like to visit her house for a serious discussion, and she obliged me. The following day, I paid her the visit and requested that she allow her younger sister to massage my waist. I said that I have been having a terrible pain around my waist area for the past two years and every treatment, drugs and injection have failed.

    “She then went and discussed with the younger sister who accepted to help me. So we had the first massage treatment that day while the older sister was around. Nothing happened between me and the little girl.

    “On Saturday I called her to inform her that I was coming back for the treatment. I got there while she was about to leave for choir practice in the church. But while the massage was going on, I had an urge, so I had carnal knowledge of the girl. I have successfully raped her three times.

    “It was the fourth time that she locked the gates against me, so I had to call her sister on her cell phone and she rushed to the house from her shop and began to interrogate the girl on why she did not want to massage my waist again. That was when she disclosed what has been happening between us.”

    Asked if he was married, the suspect said he has a wife and four children, whose ages range between 6, 10, 12 and 14, adding that his wife is a health worker.

    “I did not ask my wife to massage my waist because she was at her work place at Old Bakana, in Degema LGA, as at the time I requested the girl to massage me. My wife comes back to Port Harcourt only when she is on off duties.

    “I felt that Deborah, being my spiritual daughter, would be of more help to me than my wife. That was why I went to her. I sincerely regret my actions. It is like the ground should open up and swallow me. I did a very wrong thing. I pray to my church members to forgive me and never follow my footsteps. If I have made a mistake, I don’t advise any of my members to also make the same mistake, because Heaven is real and hell fire is also real.” He pleaded.

    On why he sought for help for his waist pain problem from a young lady, in a church of over 200 congregation, he said: “Temptation can push anyone towards anybody, and when God wants to expose and chastise a person, anybody can be the victim.”

    Narrating her ordeal, the little girl said: “I was in the house when the Pastor came and asked me to massage his waist. On the first day I massaged him, nothing happened between us. But on the second day, while I was massaging him, he began to touch my breast and raped me. I tried to escape, but he held me down and warned me never to tell anybody what he did to me. He has raped me three times.”

    Addressing newsmen, the Spokesman of the state Police command, Ahmad Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said the suspect was arrested following a report from the victim’s family that “one Pastor Opirite Amakiri, of Agape Baptist Church in Aka road, in Rumuolumeni area of Port Harcourt was constantly raping a little girl that is less than 18 years. We quickly went after him and got him arrested.

    “Following our investigations, it was discovered that the elder sister to the victim is a member of the Pastor’s Church. According to her, the Pastor approached her and said that the Spirit of God revealed to him in the place of prayer that a young girl between the age bracket of 12 and 18 should massage his waist in order for his two-year waist pain to be healed.

    “So, the victim’s sister, either for fear of the pastor or love for him, or even as an act of conspiracy, because she is mature and married, asked her underage sister that was living with her to help massage the Pastor.

    “Each day the Pastor will sneak into the woman’s house when she must have left for her business to be doing the massaging with the girl. According to the victim, except for the first massage, which was done when her sister was around, the rest of the massaging sessions ended in rape. It was the last day that the girl, for whatever reason, tried to run away from the man by locking the gate when she heard the man was going to come.”

    The victim’s elder sister, Deborah Prince Elegba, who corroborated the police statement, said she agreed to allow her younger sibling help massage the pastor because he claimed that the Holy Spirit commanded him to do it.

    The father of the victim, Baate, also expressed anger over the incident, wondering how the Pastor of his family church could do such despicable thing to his daughter.

  • Relegation of teams: Fans blame poor mgt, inept technical crew

    Relegation of teams: Fans blame poor mgt, inept technical crew

    A lot has been said about what went wrong with the four teams that were relegated to the second tier of the domestic league at the end of 2014/2015 season.

    Some supporters of these teams hinged their relegation to poor management and ineptitude on the part of their technical crew.

    “But more importantly funding was the bane of some of these teams, like Sharks FC, Bayelsa united and FC Taraba, I would have included Kwara united but the players did not boycott training session or protest to the kwara state government house to demand for unpaid wages,” began soccer enthusiast, Ugonna Okechukwu

    According to Okechukwu, the relegation of the above teams did not get to him as a surprise because there was no amount of motivation that would have made players who boycotted training sessions and in some cases protested to government house, stay focused except a sincerity of purpose from management to fulfil its own part of the bargain.

    But should the Management alone be blamed for their teams relegation? “I beg to disagree with Okechukwu,”said another fan of one of the relegated sides.

    “What was the attitude of the players to their job since it is common knowledge that funding will not be regular,” he asked

    “I had complained about the commitment of the players of these teams when I watched them play sometime ago but what difference would my complain make since I’m not part of the management setup.

    “When Sharks lost to Abia Warriors, the players did not do enough to save their head as they blew away begging chances in the encounter so it is not just a management or funding problem, the playing personnel too should be blamed.

    “But come to think of it, what would the players have done when the tactical tips from their bench were not handy enough to save them from the drop to the lower league.”

    The incessant change in the technical crew of these teams did not help their fight against relegation for instance, Sharks former technical adviser, Gbenga Ogunbote was beaten to stupor and the development led to his resignation. His first assistant, Ere Dokubo took over from him and after a chain of home draws he was asked to step aside before Festus Allen took over.

    The case of the other clubs was not any different except that none of their coaches were beaten up by unidentified fans.

    FC Taraba and Kwara united had their head coach suspended and recalled back, Bayelsa united changed coaches like sanitary pad, so why won’t they go on relegation when the playing philosophy kept changing.

  • Sanusi rejects Saudi blame of African pilgrims

    Sanusi rejects Saudi blame of African pilgrims

    Nigeria’s Amir Ul Hajj, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, has disputed claims by the Saudi authorities that African pilgrims were largely responsible for the stampede that caused the death of 725 pilgrims in Mecca on Thursday.

    Sanusi who is also the Emir of Kano and a respected voice on Islamic affairs told the Saudi Arabia “not to apportion blame to the pilgrims” for the incident.

    The victims were crushed to death and more than 850 other injured when two groups of pilgrims arrived at crossroads on Street 204 at the tent city of Mina.

    Shortly after the incident, Saudi prince Khaled al-Faisal, head of the Central Hajj Committee, stirred outrage as he blamed African pilgrims for the deadly stampede.

    Al-Faial who is the Saudi Health Minister said:”The investigations into the incident of the stampede that took place today in Mina, which was perhaps because some pilgrims moved without following instructions by the relevant authorities, will be fast and will be announced as has happened in other incidents.”

    Emir Sanusi who attended the committee meeting said after the meeting that pilgrims who complete the ritual should not cross those who are approaching the holy site.

    “They should not cross each other. We are therefore urging the Saudi authorities not to apportion blame to the pilgrims for not obeying instruction,” he said in a statement.

    Iran,arch-enemy of the Saudi Royal Family,insisted that Riyadh “must accept responsibility for this.”

    “The unavoidable fact is that the Saudi government has been incompetent in this regard and with regard to the management of the Hajj pilgrimage, and Riyadh must accept responsibility for this,” spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Keyvan Khosravi, reportedly told the Iranian news agency,FARS.

    It said:“Sources revealed that the convoy of Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud caused panic among millions of pilgrims and started the stampede that has so far claimed the lives of 1,300 in Mina, near Mecca, on Thursday.

    “The large convoy of Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, the King’s son and deputy crown prince, that was escorted by over 3,500 security forces, including 200 army men and 150 policemen, sped up the road to go through the pilgrims that were moving towards the site of the ‘Stoning the Devil’ ritual, causing panic among millions of pilgrims who were on the move from the opposite direction and caused the stampede.”

    “That’s why the ruler of Mecca has distanced himself from the case, stressing that the issue should be studied and decided by the King.

    “No other source has yet confirmed the report, but observers said the revelation explains why two of the roads to the ‘Stoning the Devil’ site haves been closed.”

    The stampede was the worst incident to occur in Mecca during the hajj since 1990, when 1,426 pilgirms, many from Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia, were killed in a stampede in a pedestrian tunnel. Following another stampede in 2006, in which more than 300 people died, the Jamarat bridge and some pillars were demolished and reconstructed.

  • If our world is ruined, we are to blame

    We speak in several pitiful tongues. And every tongue reels a different story of identical loss and misery. And so one comes to callousness, a savage ruthlessness and culture of protest that drives us to ruin our world; dateline Boko Haram, MEND, Ombatse and the complex bigotry, avarice and bloodlust characteristic of all. Yet this page will not contain the genocide, amorality and grotesque body count we have learnt to perpetrate not because they are too horrendous and unwieldy to keep tab of but because there is neither wisdom nor tact in rehashing the consequences of our towering silliness and bloodlust.

    We blame the older generation for everything. We claim they created a very difficult world for us to live in; a world that is rigged to booby-trap our efforts to survive and that is why many of us fail. We also accuse the ruling class of keeping us unemployed, prone to corruption, exploitation, crime and the devastation of our economy and social infrastructure. We accuse them of denying us access and right to the Nigerian dream.

    What have we done with such world that they have given us? What are we doing to make it better for you and me and the generation that will succeed us? Nothing. Rather than evolve in thought and attitude, we choose to rant impotently and wallow in self-pity. And when we choose to productively engage our faculties, our conscious quest is marred by our inclinations to self-destruct.

    If our world is ruined, we are to blame for it. This is because we are major actors in every tragedy and perpetrators of every calamity that accentuates our ruin. We are the hoodlums causing chaos at random, according to the whims of benevolent godfathers. We are the policemen mounting road blocks to fleece hardworking compatriots of the little money they manage to make, everyday. When they refuse to cooperate, we simply shoot them to death.

    We are the bankers pilfering the lifesavings of the poor. We are the bank chiefs stripping Peter to pay Paul and robbing the downtrodden to feed our wantonness and greed. We are wives to the thieving governor, and gigolo to the rogue bank chief. We are the journalists who sold out, the watchdog who became lapdogs and then, dung-dogs. We are armed robbers and thieves. We are the activists exploiting the downtrodden to perpetuate our grand schemes of greed.

    No matter the ills visited upon our generation, we lost the right to howl and cry ‘foul!’ the moment we agreed to do everything and anything to make money, including serving as instruments for the attainment of the perverse goals of the criminal ruling class.

    Shame that we have to look unto the same generation that we accuse of ruining our world to take measures necessary to save our world. The current ruling class won’t save us. They can’t. And that is because like you and me, they are held captive by greed, irrationality and base immoralities.

    Every generation considers itself uniquely challenged like we do and each generation truly is, in different ways. But I don’t buy into over-generalizations and self pity. Like we accuse older generations before us, successive generations will accuse us of ruining their world claiming we had better chances to resolve our crises and recreate the world that they would inherit from us.

    Our sense of entitlement goads us to believe that we are entitled to a good, fair life but for the ruling class and older generation that continually thwart our dreams of bliss. When the older generation claim that we are ill-educated and unemployable, we respond in kind, claiming that they render us so with visionless leadership and substandard education. Truth is, school is a bore to many of us. And artisanship doesn’t quite do it for us. We breeze through school and apprenticeship unenthusiastically, thinking that somewhere or somehow, something would give and we would chance on bliss. Ill bliss to be precise.

    Notwithstanding, some of us enter the labour market thinking it wouldn’t hurt to be exploited a little. Having being raised on the mantra that “Slow and steady wins the race and tiny drops make an ocean,” we subject our will to the grindstone and stoically tread the path of obedience and honest labour. But the path of industry and honesty hardly ever pay off in the long run.

    Eventually, we realize that the system is designed to thwart our dreams while enabling the dreams of the exploitative one per cent at the top, and we get mad. We get mad because our leaders do not see us as human beings with cosmic value and rights anymore. But despite our dissatisfaction, we keep them in power and keep asking them for handouts. Our rage and rant hardly ever articulates our towering need for realistic opportunities.

    We do not choose to be treated with dignity. That is why the government and our employers become entitled to take away our dignity. That is why we are entitled to expect nothing from our politicians anymore. We should be ashamed of our sense of entitlement. We should be embarrassed by our failure as a generation. We should be ashamed that we go through life thinking the world’s a sweepstake.

    We believe the world is for the taking by a lottery; this is understandable as a carrot on a stick that the top one per cent – comprising government and big business – perpetually dangle before us. Thus the Nigerian dream has evolved from a promise and belief that every Nigerian will get to have a good life, a job they enjoy, a generous paycheck, affordable housing, healthcare and transportation and a secure retirement, into some reality show fantasy and a pipedream.

    Today, the Nigerian dream comprises a tall fantasy that every Nigerian will get to live a charmed life. It offers attractive fantasies of palatial residences in exclusive neighbourhoods home and abroad, fancy cars, easy money, consequence-free indolence, sex, fraudulence and violence to mention a few. The Nigerian youth consider these perks their birthright and they heartily pursue them on the streets and now ubiquitous reality TV shows where parents and their children from relatively humble backgrounds engage in funfest of foolishness and inordinate lust for unearned riches. The tragedy of this development resonates in the number of ‘has-beens’ and reality show runners-up still loitering the red carpets for the barest chance to hug the limelight for no justifiable reason or attainment.

    Each generation has a responsibility to wisely develop itself and become indispensable to the world despite all odds. It is the only way we could equip ourselves to take over the country’s leadership and use the resources and power available to us to provide this generation and the next, a secure, sustainable country that will be stronger than the one inherited.

    We need to stop whining and begin to take action now to reverse the rapid decline of our country. If we wait until we are older, it will be too late. Life in the future will be worse.

    Our hubris and sense of entitlement is sickening and truly mind boggling. It’s about time we seek our Nigerian dream not because we are ‘special’ but because we truly deserve it.

  • Artistes are to blame for their woes, says Alex Usifo

    Artistes are to blame for their woes, says Alex Usifo

    As entertainers continue to seek bailout from the public whenever they are ill, their colleague and veteran actor, Alex Usifo, has described the act as shameful.

    Usifo’s position is contrary to that of many who have made a case, especially for veteran artistes who have died in penury. Usifo noted that artistes’ wellbeing depends solely on the decisions they make in their glory days.

    Speaking with The Nation, the actor likened the entertainer to a businessman who either knows or doesn’t know what to do with the resources at his disposal.

    “A good businessman, even if he has N5, 000, will know what to do with it. Some of us are more excited about the show. We don’t remember the business. They are inseparable. I’m trying to say that if I don’t have enough money today, it is not the fault of the industry. It is not because I have not made money in the industry. I have made millions in the industry. That, I can also say concerning those who have such problems, because we have seen cases where somebody would tell you that he started small and then prospered. I think it actually depends on your vision and what you want to be,” he said.

    However, to Usifo, it is not a crime to seek help in times of need. “If you want to judge people by their mistakes, you won’t help anybody. When somebody is dying, it is not the time to blame the person. You heal the person first. Let him get well then you can begin to say whatever you want to say. But if you say because it is irresponsible, you won’t help the person, then you are actually wicked. And since the person has also contributed his quota in terms of making people happy and in terms of the GDP of the country, I think his case should be looked into,” he said.

  • Wikki blame ref for Cup defeat

    Wikki blame ref for Cup defeat

    The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, Wikki Tourists, have blamed the centre referee for their defeat to Tornadoes Feeders in the Federation Cup round of 32 clash in Gusau.

    The Bauchi outfit lost 5-6 on penalties to the Nigeria Nationwide League (NNWL) 2 side after full time scores stood at 1-1.

    Wikki Tourists captain and right back Mustapha Ibrahim said aside from the number disadvantage, the referee practically made it impossible for the side to play their game with endless bad calls.

    “The referee killed us and killed every move we made to win the match before the penalty shootouts.

    “It was a game we could have comfortably wrapped up within the regulation time but the referee aside reducing our numbers to 10 unjustly disallowed two good goals we scored.

    “The referee made it a point of duty to frustrate any positive moves by us with his endless bad calls.

    “We are not happy because we actually lost to the referee and not Tornadoes Feeders,” said Ibrahim to supersport.com.

    Ibrahim said his side have shifted their whole attention on the league especially on the weekend match day 17 clash against El Kanemi Warriors in Bauchi.

    “Right now we are facing the NPFL squarely especially the match day 17 game against El Kanemi Warriors on Sunday in Bauchi.

    “We are damn prepared to fight for the maximum three points at stake which will greatly boost our chase for the summit.

    “The three points is quite important more so as our next two matches will be on the road to Kano Pillars and Heartland.

    “We have no choice at the moment than to put all our energies in the league to ensure we get something at the end of the season,” said Ibrahim.

    Wikki Tourists are third on the 20-team elite league log on 29 points one point behind leaders, Sunshine Stars.

  • Piracy: Blame Nigerian Copyright Commission

    Recently, Kunle Afoloyan, Igwe Gab Okoye (Gabosky) and other artistes and film producers went on a rally to the office of former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, to protest against the scourge of piracy, which has seriously affected their business and fortunes. Watching from the sidelines, one wondered what the Lagos State Government can do on a subject which is on the exclusive list, that is, an issue which is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government.

    Having observed the Nigerian intellectual property terrain in the last two decades, one can categorically state that the problem of piracy is caused by official corruption, abuse of office and impunity by certain officials of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), the Federal Government agency regulating all matters relating to copyright in Nigeria.  Curiously, the type and volume of abuses which daily occur in the Nigerian copyright space do not occur in other intellectual property sectors such as Patents and Trade Mark and Designs.  Are we therefore saying that the creation of the agency is the root cause of the piracy menace? This cannot be the reason because there are other agencies created to assist in the regulation of various sectors which are enhancing the purpose and progress of the sectors.  We cite agencies like National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to mention a few,  which have made their sectors major economic hubs.

    If the creation of the NCC is not the problem, then certainly, the operators or the officials must be.  When the NCC was established in 1989, rather than taking stock of what were already on ground with a view to strengthening them for the efficient regulation and basis for standardization in the sector, the officials went on a mission aimed at wiping out existing institutions on copyright administration with the aim of creating their own structures.  One of those organizations was the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), which was established in 1984 and operating since then with an outstanding repertoire of copyright works. One discovered on inquiry that the NCC and certain of its top officials spent not less than 16 years following its establishment to antagonize and fight MCSN (which of course they are still doing till date), while doing virtually nothing to develop the NCC as an agency or advance the cause of copyright administration and enforcement or create any viable or democratic structure to assist copyright interest holders.  The only structure which the NCC can boast to have created is the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), purportedly established in 2009, but which investigation reveals was a mere transformation and change of name of the Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Nigeria (PMRS), which was allegedly formed and approved by members and top officials of the NCC in 1994!  Till date, NCC has not given a clear explanation as to why certain members of its Governing Board would form an organization, which they approved for themselves as a sole collecting society to the exclusion of other organizations, including MCSN.

    Indeed, the scourge of piracy began to escalate first, with the establishment and composition of the members of the board of the NCC who were fraternizing with major exploiters of copyright materials, mostly pirates and later with the unlawful refusal of the Commission to approve MCSN and other interested individuals and groups as collecting societies. This is in spite of the fact that MCSN and certain of these groups have been in existence and operating before the establishment of NCC and the law which gave the NCC powers to approve collecting societies.

    The refusal of NCC to approve MCSN as a collecting society led to protracted litigations, which held the entire copyright system down, and pirates and infringers of copyright had field days in their nefarious activities.  These are still going on till date and the NCC is virtually helpless or deliberately giving the pirates and rights’ abusers freedom to operate.  This naturally would be the case, because the NCC has tied the hands of the copyright owner/holder, mainly MCSN, behind its back through its powers to approve who can go to court as captured under Section 17 of the Copyright Act.

    As a matter of fact and law, it is only in the Copyright sector that you have a law which would require a property owner, be it in single or multiple form to first obtain the license or approval of a government agency before it can move to enjoy or enforce its property right or even approach the court for redress.  These are the serious implications of Sections 17 and 39 of the Copyright Act 2004. Certain officials of the NCC, particularly those in its enforcement and litigation departments have been exploiting these provisions to deny legitimate copyright holders of the benefits of their proprietary holdings while giving pirates immense room to operate. At the National Assembly Public Hearing on the activities of the NCC conducted by the House Joint Committees on Justice and Judiciary in May 2013, the Director General of the NCC, Afam Ezekude and his team could not defend any of the actions of the NCC or justify the forced monopoly they have engendered in the copyright environment.  The National Assembly at the plenary session of that day passed a series of resolutions directing the NCC to immediately approve MCSN as a collecting society among others. However, the officials of the NCC have continued in their impunity by refusing to carry out the directives of the National Assembly after the findings and recommendations of the Joint Committees of the House were unanimously adopted and passed as resolutions in December 2013.

    It is not the first time NCC would be flouting an order made by constituted authority.  As far back as 2006, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had directed that NCC be merged with the Offices of the Registrar of Trademark, Patents and Designs to be known as Nigeria Intellectual Property Commission (NIPCOM) with the erstwhile Director General of the NCC, Adebambo Adewopo, to serve as the pioneer Director General.  It was expected that such an establishment would catapult the Intellectual Property sector vis-à-vis NIPCOM into class “A” Agency in the Nigerian economy.  But sadly NCC dilly dallied until the tenure of the former president lapsed without the directive being obeyed. President Muhammadu Buhari must revisit this issue.

    Talking the about economy and the volume of income that can be generated from the intellectual property sector, the amount being lost daily due to the impunity, abuse of office and corruption in the NCC are mind-boggling. In the field of royalty collections by similar organizations like the MCSN in the United States of America among five major societies like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, HARRY FOX AGENCY and AMRA, have been in the region of US$15 billion annually. This does not include income from film, dramatic or literary organizations or societies.  French organizations which numbers are more than the ones in the USA collect far more.  The trend is the same in Canada, United Kingdom and other countries including those in South America.  In most of these countries, the entertainment industry contributes not less than 20% to their national GDP.  The question therefore remains why should the NCC force a single organization (COSON) to do what more than three organizations can effectively and efficiently do in Nigeria with a population of more than 170 million people?

    With a new government in place under President Mohammadu Buhari, which is determined to effect change in the polity and desirous of diversifying the economy, the Intellectual Property Sector, particularly, copyright, should be of prime importance in the expected shake up. It is not just about changing the present set up but also overhauling the entire structure.

    • Dr. Eyo is a copyright lawyer based in Lagos.