The Nation Newspaper

Tag: lives

  • ‘The BLASTS that changed OUR LIVES’

    Olatunji Ololade, Associate Editor

    The fragrance of rain whiffs through the tent Muhammadu Idrissu shares with his family. As the cold draft seizes the shelter, the nine-year-old’s face breaks into a wince.

    “He feels ache in his legs whenever it rains. The cold breeze causes him great pains,” says his mother, Fatouma.

    Rubbing her hand on the stump where her son’s left knee used to be, the 33-yearold recounts how Muhammadu lost his leg to a blast from a landmine while fetching firewood with his older brother, Musa, in Biu.

    It happened in the twilight of 2015 thus casting the family in unexpected gloom. On the day he lost his leg, Muhammadu had wandered far from home with Musa and friends in their neighbourhood, because they intended to hunt for game (bush meat), at the end of their task.

    The boys worked at feverish pace so that they could have enough time to hunt for grass-cutters and squirrels.

    They would skin, roast and eat their kill before heading back home for a late supper. It was part of the thrill of running errands in a group.

    Although their mothers warned them against wandering too far from home, most parents knew of the kids’ escapades in the bush. It’s all part of the thrill of growing up.

    While they gathered firewood, Idris, then five at the period, saw his brother poke at something that looked like a steel plate. Instantly, there was a blast and that was the last thing the child remembered. When he came to, Idris had lost his left leg and his brother. The latter was violently torn apart by the bomb.

    The incident claimed Musa and two of their friends and rendered two others crippled including Muhammadu.

    In a voice laden with grief, Fatouma said: “Musa was a wonderful child. Always in high spirits. He wanted to become a doctor. Although he is gone, I am lucky I still have Muhammadu.” Fatouma has every reason to be thankful. Unlike Sekinatu Jayya, tragedy sauntered into Jayya’s life in common hours.

    News of doom intruded her home in Baga, while she made millet soup for supper and awaited her children’s return from a play date. Nuru, five, and Ayisatu, seven, had been gone since noon. But Jayya was assured of their safety. She knew they were secure playing with their friends in the neighbourhood. Then a loud noise intruded through her windows at a quarter past 4 pm. The shutters rattled at the hinges and Jayya’s heart sank with her spirit.

    The 28-year-old was suddenly assailed by a foreboding of evil. But she shook off the feeling and set out to look for her children.

    “People stared at me as I hurried towards their play zone, near a dry well two streets away. But I thought it was because of my appearance. I had rushed out of the house without my hijab and with one slipper on my left foot,” she said.

    Then she got to her destination. And her heart sunk lower as she sighted a large crowd. Jayya rifled through the mob, haphazardly, like bullets from a Dane gun, stopping for breath at the edge of an opening where puddles of flesh and bone fragments seethed in the sun.

    Some mothers bathed in the carnage. Others rolled and wailed in the bloodsoaked sand, amid the spatter of decapitated minors. In their grief, they fought off the firm grasps of their husbands and sympathetic neighbours.

    The loud blast that caused Jayya’s shutters to rattle had claimed the lives of her children and seven others.

    The minors had discovered an unexploded canister under a pile of dried bush. The bomb went off while they fiddled with its metal ring. Amid the heap of decapitated minors, Nuru’s head jutted dolefully with what’s left of his torso. Few metres away, Ayisatu’s innards spilled from her belly, even as her forelock streamed with blood. Such was the imagery at her children’s playground, and venue of their dismemberment. It’s all part of her grisly memory now but Jayya lives in dread of remembering.

    “Everytime I remember what my children looked like, torn apart, I shed tears uncontrollably. Most nights, I cry myself to sleep. My husband has been very strong and supportive. He consoles me. But he cries too. I have heard him cry during Salat (prayer). He cries in his sleep too. Together, we try not to remember. That is why we relocated from Baga to Maiduguri,” said Jayya. ‘They came to change our lives with bombs’ “BOKO Haram came and changed everything. They made this place unsafe.

    They came to change our lives with bombs. Our kids can’t go out to play in the sand. They can’t hunt for sport. We, their fathers have to be careful too, except we intend to die before our time and watch another man father our child, be a husband to our wives. There is bomb everywhere. The bomb ruins everything,” said, Ibrahim Koni, a crippled trader. Before his disability, Koni used to be a farmer. He worked through wet and dry spells to cater for his family and rebuild his ancestral home. But on a hot afternoon, the 41-year-old suffered a decapitation of both legs when he hit on an unexploded ordnance on his farm, with his hoe.

    It was like a scene from a horror movie. Koni admitted that he had heard of farmers dying from bomb blasts as they tilled their farms but he never imagined that he could be on the receiving end of such gruesomeness. “The blast flung me backwards belly down. I had no clothes on save a worn knicker and my face was buried in the sands. Two of my neighbours who farmed beside me could not come immediately to my rescue.

    They fled for safety as soon as they heard the explosion, thinking our village was been attacked by Boko Haram. It took them two good hours to get to me. I could have died. But Alhamdulillah, Allah spared my life. “When there is life, there is hope. Though I cannot farm anymore, I am trying to gather some money to start a small trade. Something I can manage on my own…Since my accident, I have been on my own.

    My wife fled with our only son. She couldn’t stand the fact that I had become useless to her and my son,” said Koni. The grim picture HUNDREDS of people have been killed or maimed by landmines in north-east Nigeria, according to research findings. Mines laid by Boko Haram terrorist group over the course of its deadly insurgency in the Lake Chad region, killed 162 people in two years and wounded 277 more, according to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a landmine clearance charity.

    Casualties rose from 12 per month in 2016 to 19 per month between 2017 and 2018, making Nigeria’s casualty rate from mines the eighth highest in the world. After a decade of the insurgency, locally produced landmines, unexploded bombs and improvised explosive devices are scattered across the north-east. MAG’s Avishek Banskota, who is based in Maiduguri, said: “Everyone I have met in Borno State has been affected in one way or the other, whether losing a family member, a friend or a house. People can’t move around freely in most of the region and much of the land can’t be used to farm or collect firewood, so the impact on communities is huge.” According to the police, insurgents use pipes, pots and other items to make their own munitions and harvest explosives from undetonated ordnance.

    ICRC to the rescue

    Most victims of Boko Haram assaults make it to a health facility. Many die in the heat of the attack. Some die few weeks after due to inappropriate medical care. Others live with disabilities for life. They are forced to move on with their lives without the necessary facilities, like physiotherapy and prosthetic limbs, that could make their lives easier. Some very few amputees, however, enjoy the rare boon of support, courtesy a healthcare programme devised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in partnership with the Borno’s State Specialist Hospital.

    The ICRC runs a medical, rehabilitation programme courtesy a Mobile Surgical Team (MST) at the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri. Over the duration of the protracted insurgency in the northeast, the surgical team has treated hundreds of people wounded in bomb blasts in Borno. For instance, in 2016, the team together with surgeons from Michika Hospital, treated 76 victims of the blast in Madagali market, while another ICRC surgical team treated 15 people injured in Maiduguri. Recently, the health organisation introduced of a rehabilitation programme, whereby it facilitates the acquisition of prosthetic limbs to victims of bomb blasts with amputated limbs. The primary focus of the project is to cater for amputees from the conflict, women and children, according to Claudia Soares, Head Nurse of the ICRC’s Mobile Surgical Team (MST). Soares shuttles through wards and the operation theatre, daily, at the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.

    “The majority of our patients are weapon-wounded patients and internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing the conflict. We receive patients from across Borno State. Some of them are referred to us by other humanitarian organisations and some of them come to us by their own volition.

    They are all treated for free. We treat them all free of charge,” she said. The Boko Haram conflict has destroyed the livelihoods of millions of people in the highly impoverished region, where many live on less than $2 a day thus making prosthetic limbs – which cost on average nearly $700 – prohibitively expensive to them.

    Amputees are first assessed in Maiduguri, where the ICRC runs a medical clinic that caters specifically for victims of Boko Haram attacks. The clinic complements services provided by a handful of state-run hospitals in the city which have been overstretched by the sharp rise in emergency cases from occasional violence. Once potential beneficiaries of artificial limbs are screened, they are then sent for a fitting in Kano, nearly 600 kilometres away. Medical personnel work on an average of five amputees per week, which is just a fraction of the number of those seeking his services. One of the many beneficiaries of the initiative is Musa, a soccer-lover, who lost his left limb in a bomb attack.

    The incident happened when a boy walked into his school with a bag despite the fact that bags were banned in his school, Government Science Secondary School, Potiskum, with a bag. “We kept asking him why he was carrying a bag,” Musa recalled. “Then we heard a beeping sound, but we thought it was his phone.” Unknown to Musa, his teachers and mates at the school assembly, the intruder concealed a bomb in his bag. The ensuing blast was huge, killing two dozen students and injuring more than 40.

    When Alhaji Musa, Musa’s father, who lived in the staff quarters near the school, heard the bomb go off, he ran into the school. “ I saw dead bodies everywhere and everyone running around confused. I started looking for my son,” he said, recalling the November 2014 attack. “I eventually found Musa in the emergency ward of Potiskum General Hospital.” Musa’s left leg had been blown off by the blast.

    The football-loving teen faced a gruelling recovery. However, three days after the blast, Musa’s family learned about ICRC’s programme to fit victims of violence with a prosthesis free of charge. Musa was fitted with a prosthetic limb three months afterwards at the National Orthopedic Hospital, Dala-Kano in Kano. The youngest person in the programme at the time, Musa was trained by the orthopaedic staff on how to use his new limb. Like Musa, Njidda Maidugu, a fuel station attendant, never thought he would walk again on two legs after he lost his right limb in a Boko Haram suicide bomb attack at a checkpoint in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, in 2016. Maidugu has been fitted with a free artificial limb in the project run by the ICRC. Modu Yaganami, a native of Dikwa, Borno State, is another beneficiary of the initiative. He said: “I used to be a trader going to several markets. I was very strong and energetic, until this happened to me.

    I was brought to the hospital and my limbs were fixed and treated for free by ICRC. “I was also given an artificial limb. Now, I can move around and do my normal business…I have peace of mind. I thought I was never going to walk again. It was after I was fitted with artificial limb that I felt normal.” Ali Suleiman, 35, said he had been on admission for a month as a patient at the mobile surgical ward of the health facility. “I am a victim of a bomb attack in Bama. Thank God, out of 13 of us that got injured, only three of us survived. I am recuperating gradually and receiving the best care from this people,” he said.

    Tending the maimed is, however, no walk in the park. It requires a great degree of commitment and cooperative efforts Nikolai Dmitriev, an ICRC Surgeon with the MST, stated that he has to frequently operate weapon-wounded people from the very old to the young. “Our patients are really broken. And it is not enough to heal their bodies, there is also need to heal their minds,” said Dmitriev. Daniel Madembo, Chief Physiotherapist with the MST, stated that it is the job of his unit to help amputees get accustomed to the use of the new artificial limbs provided for them by the ICRC.

    “We help them learn to fit the limbs and walk properly on it. We help them reintegrate into their new lives and their communities,” said Madembo. Living under the bomb ABOUT 565 people might have been killed by the explosive remnants of the militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria’s restive northeast region in 2018, according to a recent report by the United Nations anti-mine agency. Lionel Pechera, a programme coordinator of the United Nations Mines Action Service (UNMAS), disclosed this at a campaign to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. Pechera said the presence of explosive hazards was a barrier to accessing the majority of land for agricultural activities, which in turn increased food insecurity in the northeast area.

    A November 2015 assessment in Adamawa and Borno states by international de-mining organisation Danish De-mining Group (DDG) had noted local community reports of a number of local government areas in Borno state they thought needed clearance, including Bama, Dikwa, Gwoza, Kala-Balge, Kukawa, Marte, and Ngala. In 2015, the Nigerian army warned civilians of the threat of improvised devices using adapted submunitions. Caches of French-made air-delivered BLG-66 “Beluga” cluster munitions were reportedly found in Adamawa state. Also identified were anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines resembling Chinese No. 4 anti-personnel mines and Type 72 anti-vehicle mines; a variety of body-borne, vehicle-borne, and remotely controlled devices; as well as cluster munition remnants, mortars, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, and Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS).

    Going forward…

    Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people since 2009 and left over 2.6 million people homeless. Contamination from mines and other explosive devices has had a serious humanitarian impact, impeding the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and exacerbating the crisis in the region. In October 2016, the governor of Adamawa State confirmed that many IDPs were unable to return to their farms due to a fear of landmines. Roads were closed to civilian traffic by the military due to the presence of mines or other explosive devices and there were numerous reports of civilian casualties and farmers who feared returning to work their fields, contributing to sharply worsening food shortages. At the moment, there is no structured mine action programme in Nigeria.

    Both Nigeria’s armed forces and its police carry out explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) activities and explosive remnants of war (ERW) clearance. The army’s ERW clearances are primarily focused on facilitating military operations and clearing roads and areas to facilitate access for troops to carry out attacks on Boko Haram and keep military supply routes open.

    The 2016 Buhari Plan for Rebuilding the North East from the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI) includes a plan for de-mining as part of clean-up operations in reclaimed communities before resettlement of IDPs. It assigns responsibility for clearance to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Nigerian military and paramilitary agencies. In early 2018, it was reported that some de-mining was taking place to facilitate the safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs). In September 2018, it was announced that the federal government was planning to spend $6.7 billion to deliver the PCNI. Yet, hidden explosives constitute a major challenge to IDPs to Boko Haram survivors. According to MAG, mine action should be prioritised as a core protection activity within the humanitarian response in the northeast.

    It also emphasises attention on coordinated strategies for safe, voluntary and informed returns to areas where there is risk posed by landmines and other explosives. Bounded by the Ottawa convention also known as the Mines Ban Treaty, Nigeria is obligated to destroy stockpiles, clear mined areas and assist affected communities. Majority of landmine victims are civilians who step on a mine after armed conflicts has ceased in their areas. In most instances, over one-third of all casualties due to landmines are women and children.

    There is no disputing the perils of landmines as indiscriminate weapons that lie dormant until triggered, be it by a soldier, or a civilian, a friend or a foe, an adult or a child. Jonathan Gambo is one such child. In a widely advocacy and award-winning report, Temitope Kalejaiye, a Commonwealth staff, narrated Gambo’s ordeal. At age 12, Gambo lost his arms, while fetching firewood in his village, Uba, where his parents worked as farmers.

    While gathering firewood, his elder brother, who had been curious to unearth a chunk of metal, unwittingly passed him the object, a bomb, before instructing him to throw it away. The device blasted off Jonathan’s hand and right arm up to the elbow. Like Gambo, Muhammadu lost a limb, his left leg, while fetching firewood with his brother in Biu. Then there is the sad case of Jayya, who lost her two children, Nuru, five and Ayisatu, seven to an unexploded canister.

  • How INTELS’ CSR touches lives, impacts communities in Niger Delta

    INTELS is a known leader in Nigeria’s oil and gas services sector. In its 35 years of operation in Nigeria, the company has built an enviable reputation as a competent, responsible and trusted investor in the country’s economy.

    The epitome of the company’s competence has been the manner it manages the multi-billion dollar investments in the Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone in Rivers state, one of the largest of its kind in the world.

    In more ways than one, the company has demonstrated in practice that public-private partnership is possible in the management of Nigeria’s port facilities.

    The Onne Port has been transformed into a model and reference point for port management in Nigeria going by the commendable and exemplary way INTELS has managed the facility.

    Many have recommended the INTELS example as the model for PPP in port management in particular and other sectors of the country’s economy at large.

    Worthy of note is that the company is not only competent in technical operations, but equally a leader in community relations and people’s engagement. The company touches lives positively and impacts development in unique ways.

    Many focus on the company’s giant strides in the oil and gas services industry, particularly in ports management in Nigeria. But, its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) philosophy should actually be a model for companies operating in the Niger Delta region.

    Others seeking to institutionalise a conflict-free relationship with its host communities also have an invaluable lesson to learn.

    Being a result-oriented company focused on real impact, by utilising its resources, human and material, to execute beneficial and life-changing projects, not many would read about INTELS CSR initiatives on the pages of newspapers, but on the faces of the people and communities the company has impacted.

    INTELS’ achievements in various communities in the Niger Delta it operates are real and verifiable. They point to one fact: INTELS superior CSR philosophy brings real meaning worthy of emulation by others.

    In over 35 years of its existence in the Niger Delta, INTELS has not encountered any community action or protest against its operations. This, more than anything else, confers a significant validation of the positive impact of its CSR philosophy.

    In their reciprocal gesture, the host communities, which cut across Rivers, Delta, and Cross River States where INTELS has its indelible footprints, have equally adopted the company as a full-fledged worthy corporate citizen.

    The company’s sincere and open CSR approach has given the people a sense of trust and ownership in its operations.

    The company’s Integrated Partnership Approach (IPA) to CSR is predicated on three objective planks.

    First, to empower, in a sustainable way, the indigenes of INTELS’ host communities, through the provision of employment and improved welfare to the people.

    Second, to plan and execute integrated community development programmes with full community inputs and participation.

    Third, to adopt best practices that guarantee community friendly relationship and peaceful co-existence.

    In order to function properly, the model categorises stakeholders into three: company, government, and communities.

    Each of these stakeholders has respective roles and expectations in the overall success of the IPA strategy.

    This helps the communities to have a clear understanding of a sense of mutual expectation I from the people and communities, on the one hand, and the company on the other.

    One of the major benefits of the IPA is the opportunity it provides for the communities to determine and own executed projects.

    Unlike other linear CSR practices that allow the company to decide a project for the community, regardless of its relevance to the people, the IPA allows communities to decide what will deliver the maximum benefits for the greatest number of people.

    To provide a fair understanding INTELS’ IPA, let’s attempt an assessment of its success based on the three thematic areas of its underlining philosophy earlier outlined.

    In empowerment of indigenes of host communities, INTELS probably holds the aces for the best performing company in local content compliance among other players in the industry.

    Over 40% of all INTELS’ employees are from Rivers State, which hosts its operations headquarters, while over 60% of all its employees are from the Niger Delta region, with immense contributions to the development of the various communities.

    In this regard, the King of Onne, His Royal Highness, Hon. (Dr.) J.D Osaronu, in a letter to INTELS commended the company for transforming the community into a modern metropolis.

    In another instance, HRH further declared “the community told their young men and women to utilise their earnings from INTELS in a judicious manner to support the development of the community.”

    Perhaps, heeding the words of their elders, many of the indigenes of the host communities have built houses and initiated viable businesses through the income they earn from INTELS Nigeria Limited.

    As much as the company would love to employ all qualified and interested indigenes of the host communities, its biggest challenge has been availability of space to accommodate all at the same time.

    Hence, INTELS devised other sustainable means of creating employment for the unemployed in the communities.

    Three well-resourced empowerment programmes have been packaged to deliver the intended purpose.

    The Youth Skill Acquisition Programme (YSAP) is the company’s flagship initiative to assist in training indigenes and prepare them for possible employment with INTELS or any other company operating within the Onne Oil & Gas Free Trade Zone.

    This way, INTELS has contributed to the employability of the young minds in the communities.

    A similar programme is the Host Community Graduate Trainee Scheme (HCGTS) dedicated to training graduates undergoing internship with INTELS, with a possibility of the permanent employment after the programme.

    The trainings are specially tailored to empower participants in different areas of oil and gas services, including pipe welding, structural welding, marine engineering, mud engineering, AutoCad and other relevant specialisations.

    For those who may not be retained at the end of their programme, INTELS would equip them sufficiently to enable them start a business, or prepare them to become employable by other employers in the industry.

    In economic empowerment, INTELS has wholly embraced the local content philosophy of the federal government in a manner that truly empowers the people.

    The company continually improves the lives of locals by awarding contracts to capable members of the communities to support their personal businesses.

    As a matter of policy, INTELS reserves some community developmental projects to qualified contractors in the communities.

    A typical example is the road project at Rumuokwurusi where the Landlord families registered a company with elected members of the various families as directors, specifically to execute the project.

    So far, apart from a large number of employees, 40% of whom are from the host communities, INTELS has created over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in various communities across the Niger Delta.

    The ultimate mission is to ensure that noemployable indigene stays without job.

     

     

    INTELS has also contributed greatly to the academic progress of the host communities through scholarship schemes that have benefited many deserving young and bright minds.

    Often, it is said that an educated mind is empowered to think for himself and equipped to make rational and informed decisions.

    INTELS’ scholarship programmes are also merged with social activities for the youth in the communities in order to channel the energy of the young ones into positive causes.

    Such activities include sporting events, traditional festivals and carnivals and other activities that encourage togetherness, peace and unity.

    Besides, INTELS also has a well-funded football academy to provide the requisite training for aspiring footballers from the host communities.

    In the area of project execution, INTELS has delivered top quality projects in communities where it operates.

    Projects are products of consultation, communication and partnership. They are agreed upon and selected based not only on their capacity to deliver immediate and long-term benefits, but also provide collective succour for the whole community rather than few individuals.

    Such projects must hold the potentials to bring multiplier effect on not only the community, but also its economy.

    Likewise, the sustainability of a project is also a major consideration. The company’s CSR philosophy discourages execution of projects that would be difficult to maintain and sustain years down the line, and eventually become a burden to the community.

    Some projects executed by INTELS in various communities across three States in Niger Delta include construction and furnishing of primary and secondary school blocks; provision of befitting civic centres, town halls and palaces; and construction of roads and drainage projects.

    Other projects are water boreholes, ultra-modern markets, provision of electricity transformers and generators, and construction of public conveniences to support the hygiene in the communities.

    In response to the healthcare challenges of the communities, INTELS in partnership with Rivers State government introduced the Mobile Clinic, to take healthcare services to the people’s doorsteps.

    In 2013 alone, after four years of its establishment, the Mobile Clinic had provided consultations for over 70,000 individuals across Niger-Delta communities.

    Finally, people aspiring for greatness are often advised to identify giants and ride on their shoulders, because it is a wiser strategy to emulate those who have weathered the storm and are still standing as giants.

    In CSR practice in Nigeria, and especially the Niger Delta, INTELS stands out as a colossus and giant all other companies should emulate.

    The company has shown it is possible to do business in any society, excel and maintain a trustworthy and sincere relationship with members of the community.

    In all, INTELS is not just a leader, but heads and shoulders above others in Nigeria. INTELS’ CSR feat cannot be captured in a single publication of this nature. It’s a phenomenon that can only be appreciated by experience.

  • Does your business improve lives of the poor?

    A father gave his little boy 50 cents and told him he could use it any way he wanted. Later, when the father asked the boy what he had decided to do with the money, the boy told him he had lent it to someone. Who did you lend it to? His father asked. I gave it to a poor man on the street corner because he looked hungry. The boy responded.

    Oh, that was foolish. You will never get it back. The father chastised his son. But, daddy, the Bible says that people who give to the poor lend to the Lord. The boy fired back. His father was so pleased with his son’s reply that he gave the boy another 50 cents. “You see,” the son retorted, “I told you I would get it back. Only I did not think it would be so soon”.

    Giving in itself can seem foolish at first whenever it is done. But the dividends usually outweigh the investment. However, not only is the act noble, it can be done in a variety of ways. For instance, you can give your time, talent and treasures. Whenever and whatever you have chosen to give does not matter. What matters is your intent.

    That boy gave what he had. But it was invested, and such investment usually reaps bountiful harvest. However, giving transcends personal level. Organisations get involve too. As a company does your business gives to the poor or takes from them? Let us examine two companies that have taken giving back to another height recently.

    In Nigeria, the level of unemployment is more than 60 per cent as over 1.8 million graduates are joining the labour market yearly. The National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) data showed that the unemployment rate was at 14.2 per cent in the last quarter of last year, up from 13.9 per cent in the preceding quarter.

    It’s the ninth consecutive quarter that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has increased. The government agency reported that the rate rose from 13.9 per cent in the third quarter to 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.  So, what is the way out of this logjam?

    Inlaks, a specialist organisation that deploys dynamic and highly scalable IT infrastructure, established ATM Academy to train youths. It focuses on giving the youths the right skillsets and capacity to become self-reliant and thus curb the rising unemployment rate. Located in the belly of Ikeja, Lagos, ATM Academy trains several Nigerian youths on how to build, repair and service ATM, power solutions, printed circuit board and software installation.

    To encourage the youth recruited from different parts of Nigeria, Inlaks chose to pay the trainees monthly stipend to attend classes for six months. After graduation, Inlaks absolved the youth into its workforce where they continue their learning and development. One of the standout students told me he had earlier thought the programme was a scam.

    Now, this graduate is one of the ambassadors propagating the good works of Inlaks ATM Academy. As a leader of his class, he and his course-mates are now proficient, and can conveniently install, repair and service an ATM, even when blindfolded.  Inlaks ATM Academy is a multi-million naira, multi-class project that has become an avenue for removing restive, unemployed youths off the streets. Another class is in session. Ring my bell if you are interested.

    As if that is not enough, Airtel Nigeria is also into the act of uplifting the downtrodden and the less privileged Nigerians through its corpoprate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, Airtel Touching Lives, aimed at promoting the culture of giving among Nigerians.

    Airtel Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Segun Ogunsanya, said the company is committed to helping the poor in line with its vision of creating empowerment opportunities and making life better for Nigerians. To demonstrate this, it has touched the lives of Olusegun Aina’s family.

    The family lost three children and their belongings in an inferno. They were homeless. Through Airtel’s platform, the family now owns a multi-million naira, ultra-modern two-bedroom apartment. Airtel paid outstanding medical bills incurred by the surviving family members.

    Your business can improve the lives of the poor by training or drying the tears of bereaved Nigerians. As Ogunsanya said: “We can make our society a better place if we join hands and collaborate to uplift the downtrodden around us.” Like the boy, you would get it back.

  • Transforming lives through nutrition-sensitive agric

    Transforming lives through nutrition-sensitive agric

    Efforts to enhance smallholder farmers’ involvement in profitable food production have led to a variety of nutrition-sensitive farming activities. Following this, a national campaign to promote healthy, attractive and sustainable food options in farming is gathering momentum. It’s success across Nigeria is pushing the campaign to West Africa. DANIEL ESSIET, reports.

    Executive Director, Development Dynamics, Aladimma, Owerri, Imo State, Dr. Jude Ohanele works to increase crop yields for farmers.

    He helps farmers to grow and  expand nationally. Not only is he is determined to empower farmers to   ensure food security. He believes transformation of agriculture to business is one way to get enterprising farmers practice profitable agriculture.

    He helps farmers in bankable project proposal preparation, integrated farming system, low cost production techniques, and as well provides training.

    He said there are opportunities in agriculture, such as processing, value addition, warehousing packaging and producing consumer friendly products.

    He is very happy with the service he is providing to farmers and  is bringing livelihood and improvement in the farming community.

    One area he has recorded success is in promoting bio-fortified maize and cassava.

    Bio fortification is a process by which crops are bred in a way that increase their nutritional value. With Harvest Plus’s support and continued encouragement, he is able to serve farmers in the State.

    Ohanele has been part of Harvest Plus team championing farmers’ change of mind-set to embrace nutrition focused farming.

    As a result, some of his farmers in Imo State have established farms and are producing bio fortified maize and cassava.

    Many of these farmers are growing varieties of maize and potatoes enriched with vitamin A through bio fortification.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN food agency, considers malnutrition—caused by a lack of essential micronutrients such as iodine, iron, zinc and vitamin A in diets—a threat to millions of African lives.

    He goes to farmers and do field demonstration, educate them about bio fortified maize and cassava. Though farmers were initially hesitant to go for new practices, educated farmers slowly started adopting it.

    For  Harvest plus Nigeria , the  idea behind bio fortification is to breed nutritious plants, a process which experts consider much cheaper than adding micronutrients to already processed foods.

    It is a smart method to fight malnutrition, say agriculturists and nutritionists. The campaign so far has been successful.

    Buoyed by this, Harvest plus Nigeria has taken the campaign  to the Sub region.

    It is partnersing Ashoka, a global organization that identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs — individuals with innovative and practical ideas for solving social problems to execute the campaign.

    Ohanele, is among leading social entrepreneurs, who make up Ashoka Nutrient Value Chain network.

    The focus destination  was Ashoka Workshop on Cluster Nutrition in West Africa which held in Ouaga, Burkina Faso.

    The quest for more nutritious foods for Africans was the subject of the conference.

    At that conference, Ashoka fellows   discussed ways to start a sub-regional-wide adoption of bio fortification.

    Introducing the campaign, at the event, the HarvestPlus Nigeria Country  Manager, Dr  Paul Ilona  said reaching a billion people with bio fortified crops is an ambitious target, but the success of bio fortification programmes in target countries proves that it is feasible.

    That success,  according to him, has been built with key actors locally. The partnerships, encompassing public and non-governmental organizations as well as the private sector, are driving the adoption and mainstreaming of bio fortified crops. Ilona said his organisation partnership with Ashoka network fellows across West Africa  was meant to support  social entrepreneurs working on nutrition based farming and food production.

    According to him, the potential for introducing micronutrient and bio fortified foods is immense because smallholder farmers are challenged by micronutrient deficiencies and solicited the support of social entrepreneurs,to help in promoting bio fortification to tackle challenges in food and nutrition security, saying  that the benefits of bio fortification in crops are obvious.

    He explained that  HarvestPlus  plans to develop more varieties of crops that will provide adequate vitamin A, zinc or iron.

    In Nigeria, Harvest Plus has been  able to create an online platform where consumers buy a range of cassava products from various convenient locations.

    This facilitates the efficiency benefits of larger scale for distribution and consumption of biofortified  food  products, the nutritional benefits of eating locally produced foods, and the social and economic benefits of trust-building between buyers and sellers.

    Driven by positive outcomes of the local campaign , Ilona said  extending the enlightenment campaign to the sub region is necessary to boost regional public knowledge of nutrition based farming and food production.

    A total of 10 countries were represented including Gambia, Senegal, Belgium, Benin Republic, Switzerland, France, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and the host country Burkina Faso.

  • TCAO celebrates a decade of touching lives

    After a decade of offering hope to the hopeless and uplifting the downtrodden, The Counselling Ambassadors Organisation (TCAO), a faith-based Non- Governmental Organisation(NGO) last Sunday rolled out the drums to thank God.

    Its founder and President, Pastor (Mrs.) Regina Obasa, said only God allowed the organisation to take off and affect so many lives within a short time.

    She said TCAO has been able to offer timely counseling to hundreds of people that have saved from the precipice of despair.

    Obasa said:”We have been able to touch lives by His grace. We have saved many from death and the lure of the world.

    ‘God has helped us and we have nothing to give in return but praises.”

    On what has made the group so successful, she said: “The essence of the counsel we give to people is to remind them that one day we will stand before our maker to give report of what we have done on earth and we would always want you to remember that.

    “Whatever we do on earth, let us remember that one day we won’t be able to wear the clothes we are wearing again.

    “We won’t be able to wear the shoes we are wearing again and somebody will wear it for us and if we were there in the Spirit, we still won’t be able to do those things.”

    The celebration coincided with the 10th edition of its annual praise concert tagged Berachah.

    The concert with the theme praising the ancient of days attracted hundreds with Evangelist Bola Are leading other gospel artistes for the thanksgiving service.

  • Iyabo Obasanjo lives it up in US

    Thursday April 27 was a landmark for Senator Iyabo Obasanjo. That was the day she joined the league of golden age, having turned 50. The eldest daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been scarce on the local scene since her infamous bust-up with her father, which culminated in her widely circulated open letter in which she blasted him for craving power at the nation’s expense, vowing never to speak with him again.

    With reconciliation between father and daughter nowhere in sight, the former Ogun State Commissioner for Health has maintained a very low profile. In fact, she is said to be permanently resident overseas these days, having abandoned local politics to pursue a professional teaching career in global health.

    Iyabo studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan, with a master’s degree in Preventive Veterinary Medicine from the University of California and a PhD in Epidemiology at Cornell University. She is currently a visiting professor of Global Health and Contemporary African Politics at the Virginia Military Institute in the US.

  • We pray these birds change our lives, say widows

    We pray these birds change our lives, say widows

    Some of the 500 widows empowered to become poultry farmers by wife of Governor Godwin Obaseki, Betsy, have expressed optimism that the 20, 000 birds given to them would make them become millionaires.

    Mrs. Obaseki, as part of activities to mark the International Women’s Day celebration, launched the “Edo Women for Agricultue Programme” in which she doled out 40 birds each to 500 widows after training them on how to rear birds. The 40 birds made up of 20 layers and 20 boilers.

    The beneficiaries described the gesture as a good omen in their lives as it would make them self sufficient as feeds were also given to them.

    One of the widows who gave her name as Juliet Aibangbee said she preferred the birds to money as she would now be engaged in productive venture. She said they were promised during the training programme that a ready market would be provided for their products.

    Another beneficiary, who simply gave her name as Mrs. Glory, said they were told the High breed birds do not die easily and were capable of laying five to six eggs daily.

    Plans to empower widows in the state began during the electioneering campaign of Obaseki when he promised to pay monthly stipend to 100 widows at the first instance. However, there was a change of plan to rather make the widows income earners by making them key into various agricultural initiatives of his administration.

    Speaking at the launch of the “Edo Women for Agricultue Programme”, Mrs. Obaseki said she observed that giving out monthly stipend would just be pocket money for the beneficiaries and such she advised that the money be invested on productive ventures for the widows with a view to ensuring food security.

    Mrs. Obaseki promised that any widow that successfully managed the 40 birds would be further empowered as the initiative was to boost the production capacity of rural women, tackle food shortages and poverty.

    She said the birds were special breed capable of laying five to six eggs daily and would ensure steady income for the widows.

    Her words: “I am not surprised my husband is seeking to collaborate with the church because when we were campaigning, my husband promised to select 100 widows for the next four years, and give them monthly stipend.

    “But I think it is better to empower the widows than to give them money. Therefore, we have developed an empowerment project for the widows by collaborating with Bank of Industry and Edo state will be lucky to be the pilot scheme.

    “We will create a revolution in rural poultry production that will increase productivity and income for rural women and empower them to transform access of poor households to source animal protein.

    “I brought the best company in poultry business to ensure food security. The demand for chicken and eggs is very high. We will create market for the widows to sell the birds.

    “After we succeed with this, we will extend it to thousands of women. I will churn out initiatives for women to have opportunities to be rich.

    “We are not doing politics, we are doing governance. Edo indigenes are allowed to join this administration. We will not behave like people with small minds. This is no time for politics.”

    Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu said the widows might have been expecting to go home with sewing machines, motorcycles and hair dressing machines, but the governor’s wife, working in line with All Progressives Congress (APC) change mantra gave them chickens, which they could rear and make money.

  • Help, our lives in danger!

    Back from communities in Shagamu, Ogun State, Medinat Kanabe and Dorcas Egede report on how emissions from the activities of steel companies and black oil manufacturing companies are gradually snuffing life out of the people and causing the dwellers to desert their homes.

    Kamalo Labori, Ogijo, Shagamu, Ogun State houses three communities – Jagun Kamalo, Erefun Kamalo and Erefun Family. Although they all have their Baales (community heads), there is a Baale that oversees all entire Kamalo environ. He is from the Erefun family.

    About eight years ago, the Baale began the sale of parcels of land in the communities to companies that showed interest in setting up industries in the community; but little did he know that some of the factories that would be set up would be the type that would emit dangerous fumes and smoke and constitute danger to healthy living.

    Although their joy initially new no bounds, considering the employment opportunities and CSR benefits they thought would follow, it soon gave way to sadness and trepidation, when the factories came alive.

    Among the companies is one which deals in the production of steel – Iron rods; while another deals in the production of black oil, a kind of oil called Low Pour Fuel Oil, LPFO used by the steel factory to fire their furnace.

    With operations in full gear, the situation got so bad that it led to the closure of a new school even before it commenced teaching. Teachers and pupils abandoned school, while dwellers abandoned their houses out of fear for their health and life.

    When The Nation visited the community recently, the houses located close to the factories looked like a scene from a horror movie. Roofs had gone black with soot; smoke was everywhere, houses were left uncompleted while those completed had been deserted. Fortunately for these reporters, one of the companies – Metafric Steel was producing at the time of their visit, so they were able to observe the situation first-hand.

    As one approaches the heart of the community, there is an obvious mist, so thick that one could hardly get a glimpse of the sky. For a brief moment, it looked like it was about to rain; and after about three minutes everything came down on the community, pouring on houses, people, plants and live stocks. These reporters couldn’t help but scurry for cover, while searching frantically for handkerchief to cover their noses.

    We’re endangered species- residents

    The residents welcomed the opportunity to speak to these reporters and eagerly recounted their woes. Mr Alabi Ganiu, an elder in the community who took these reporters round the three communities on foot explained how the people have suffered in the hands of the companies.

    “In the morning, we dare not walk past the factory that produces black oil because it can be really scary. The sand on the road that leads to the factory has turned black; the fence that borders the factory has also gone black and the place looks quite haunted.”

    Another resident, who sells food close to the factory, showed the reporters her blackened shop and house. She spoke of how on several occasions, she had fallen sick and gone to the hospital, only for the doctor to ask if she smoked. “Each time I said no, they hardly believed me; rather they advised me to stop smoking, if I don’t want to die young. I hope the government will come to our rescue soon. I don’t have anywhere else to go; besides I cannot leave here for people who came to meet me here.” She said.

    Not too long ago, she said, a man who lived close to the company that makes black oil – Tec High Profile reportedly died of poisonous smoke.

    Abbey, a popular young man in the community, is however not optimistic of any solution because, according to him, everyone that is supposed to come to their aide has been bribed. “We have written letters to the different ministries but when they come, they collect bribe and disappear. Sometimes they would say they were coming but would not show up. The Baale, it appears, has also been bribed. That is why he doesn’t listen when we make reports to him.”

    A mother of four who lives at the back of Real Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, a company that produces steel, said “The smell alone can make someone sick. If you come here during Harmattan, you will not be able to stay a minute.”

    Even a young man, who works with Tec High Profile, said the smoke is really disturbing. He even advised these reporters not to buy a land in the area. “You see that pipe where the smoke dey pass, if you come for early morning you no go fit pass there.”

    Another Tec High Profile worker revealed that they mostly work as casual workers and that one can only make as much money as he can put in. He also said “The job is not for lazy people. Some people work 24 hours, and we make a lot of money.”

    Asked if he is aware of the danger he may be exposing himself to, working in such a place, he said, “I don’t know if there is any danger, I am just working to put food on my table.”

    More factories on the way – LCDA Chairman

    LCDA Chairman of Jagun Labori, Mr Michael Ayeni, seems to have resigned to fate. Since he cannot do anything about the pollution, he confessed that he regularly drinks ginger and garlic tea to purify his system.

    He said; “When they are producing, they release the smoke into the air; then in a few minutes, the whole thing comes down. You will not be able to sit here when it does, and then after a while it goes away. We have written a lot of letters to the factories but they keep saying they are working on it. We cannot help ourselves except the government comes to our aid.

    “There are about four factories around here and more are still coming up. When we approach them, it is either they tell us that they are working on putting their exhaust underground or they say that the smoke is just for 20 minutes. They also try to claim their right by telling us that they are also land owners; and that as neighbours and landlords, we shouldn’t be fighting.”

    So far, Ayeni said, he is not aware of any casualties in Jagun Kamalo but he has heard of one in Erefun Kamalo. Notably, he said each time the people visit the hospital, doctors ask if they smoke, insisting that there are visible evidences of poisonous substances in their blood.

    He revealed that the community is planning on going on a protest, to intimate the government of what they are going through.

    On the allegation of bribery, Ayeni confirmed that officials from Shagamu Local Government have indeed visited the community. This much was corroborated by Mrs Gbemo, a Health officer; but nothing has come out of the visits. This, he said, is why he cannot rule out the allegation.

    No factory without smoke – Real Infrastructure

    Speaking with The Nation, the Human Resources Manager, Real Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, Mr Rahmon Olanrewaju said they are working in collaboration with the Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency OSEPA and National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA to reduce the smoke.

    He said, “They are aware that we are working towards it and anytime people come to complain to us, we let them know what we are doing. Not too long ago, I wrote our environmental audit report stating the details of our action plan on control of the pollution. If not for the challenge of Forex, we would have brought in all the equipment that is required to complete the process of eradicating smoke during production; however, some of the major equipment are here already.”

    He promised that by the third quarter of the year everything should be ready. ”In our time table, we wanted to complete it in June and commission it in October, of which I have informed the community people. It is not as if smoke will not come out but it will be very limited and controlled and the smoke would not be black but clean.”

    Olanrewaju however said he is not aware that anybody has deserted their homes or died on account of the companies’ activities. He said the man who allegedly died didn’t even live close to the factory.

    “The man relocated not because of the smoke but because he wanted to relocate and he died years after relocating.”

    When these reporters told him that workers in Tec High Profile said most of the smoke comes from his factory, he laughed and said smoke comes from his factory and other factories. “I cannot deny the fact that smoke comes from my factory and I am yet to see any factory that will produce without smoke.

    “I don’t want to exchange words with people who are not stating the obvious. If you visit their factory, you will see that smoke is also coming out; and that’s aside other poisinous emissions that I wouldn’t want to mention, so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to get back at them. But, if you ask me, smoke is even minor.”

    He said his organisation has been in existence in the community for long and that it was after the company that produces black oil  came on that the issue of poisonous odour started. “Government agencies are aware and I think at a point, they came to shut down the company and gave them time to work on it, which I believe they are doing.”

    To further prove his organisation’s innocence and efforts, Olanrewaju took these reporters round the Tec High Profile factory to show them the corrective equipment already procured for installation.

    Our smoke is non toxic – Tec High Profile

    A representative of Tec High Profile, Mr Rasaq Toyin also confirmed that they are working on getting rid of the smoke. He explained that his company, Minimas Investment and Consulting Limited, Ikeja is an industrial consultant to Tec High. “They manufacture black oil and they have licence to operate. They don’t use any form of chemical; all what they do is put scrapped tyres in the oven, which they burn until they become liquid and the oil is extracted.”

    He explained that the oil is known as Low Pour Fuel Oil and is used by small and medium companies that cannot afford gas to power their furnace.

    He could not confirm if the smoke is poisonous, but admitted that no smoke is good for the health. From their research, he also affirmed that the smoke the company emit is non toxic.

    “Normally officials of the Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency, OSEPA, come to investigate what is going on in the factory. We also have external body that comes to check the air pollution and even recommend that we continue to look for ways of reducing the pollution.”

    So far, he said the company is working towards the recommendations, but declared that getting the device or machine to reduce the pollution is another thing. Most of the time, he said they’re looking inward for immediate and effective solutions. At a time, they were told to construct pipes;”that is why if you enter the company, you will see a long pipe where smoke passes through. All the smoke is supposed to be coming out of the pipe but because they have two ovens, they could not achieve this. Aside the pipe, they were also encouraged to continue exploring solution efforts.”

    Toyin however, could not give a date of time in which a final and lasting solution would be found to the emission, “because according to him, there is a difference between work in progress and production stage.

    Asked if the community has ever written to his company on the matter, he said he is just an industrial consultant; but insisted that the smoke from a neighbouring factory is more than that emitted by Tec High Profile.

    “Thank God we have not recorded any death but go to other area where companies that manufacture steel are located and ask if they have recorded victims or not. Even this black oil that we are talking about is not used by generators but these factories. It is not a primary product; it is not even something you can see in the markets” he said.

    On why there is no sign post to show the name of the company, he said most of the companies don’t write their names on the gates except the ones that have not started producing.

    Another Tec High Profile worker, a supervisor, explained that they do tyre recycling to produce black oil which “Iron companies like this company opposite us (Real Infrastructure Nigeria Limited) use in their furnace pot to make it work perfectly. It helps waste to be minimal. The oil is used to melt scrap before they process it into iron.

    Mum’s the word at the local government office

    When these reporters paid a visit to the Shagamu South Local Government Development Area, Annex, Ogijo, the health officer who gave her name as Mrs Gbenro A.Y, refused to divulge any information but said she along with her colleagues have visited the community before and will visit again.

    After the fourth visit to the community, these reporters came down with skin rash and chronic cough. A sputum test conducted on one of them showed that she has been exposed to some harmful emission.

    Visits to the Baale

    On the four occasions these reporters visited the community, the baale was absent, with his place doors locked, even though they had prior appointments with him. On putting calls through to him, he would indicate that he was on his way but never showed up.

    Inhaling smoke can cause lung disease, sudden death- expert

    In this interview, Dr Ndudi Raymond Nzekwe, a medical officer at Dominion Care Medical Centre, Agbor Delta State explains the health implications of being exposed to pollution from burning.

    He said there are different kinds of emissions, noting that the type that comes from burning tyres is carbon and carbon-monoxide. For the company that burns metals to produce steel, he said they emit carbonIVoxide.

    “Where we have carbon monoxide being released, we call it carbon monoxide poisoning. Here, when breathing takes place, you inhale oxygen which binds with the red blood cells; in the same vein, when you inhale carbon monoxide, it also goes ahead and binds with the red blood cells.” The doctor said.

    “Now, there’s a complex red blood cell called haemoglobin. This carbon monoxide now binds with the haemoglobin and forms what we call, carboxic haemoglobin. That compound doesn’t leave for oxygen to stay. It binds for a longer time than oxygen does. This has killed some people. When a person inhales a lot of carbon monoxide, it displaces all the oxygen in the haemoglobin, and such person eventually dies from deprivation of oxygen. And such people die without a prior warning. We’ve had cases of people using generators in places not properly ventilated while they slept and a whole family wiped out. None of them woke up the following morning because all their oxygen was depleted and they died in their sleep without prior warning. The issue with the carbon that comes from all kinds of burning is that it goes into the lungs and is deposited there.” Nzekwe said.

    Explaining what happened to the reporter that came down with cough, Dr Nzekwe said what she suffered on her visit was possibly the development of an allergic reaction to the carbon she inhaled.

    “Now, her body didn’t like the carbon that had been deposited in it, so the body put up a resistance against the foreign substance by producing mucous secretion. By so doing, the body tried to expel the carbon that had been deposited in the lungs. There are times when the body may not succeed in expelling it all; some of the particles may go down and deposit gradually in the alveolar, where oxygen exchange takes place, and then as they keep depositing over time, they cause chronic lung problems.

    “Then, there is one that’s of major health concern. As carbon is being daily inhaled, the cell layer of the respiratory tract environmental hardens, what we call metaplasia. The continuous and prolonged exposure to carbon being emitted into the air in such environments, changes the epiterial lining. And that continual change eventually triggers a lung cancer. For a one time visitor, there’s just the allergic reaction to be worried about, but for someone who inhales it every day, the body will find a way to adjust to it and eventually, that corrosiveness will metamorphose into lung cancer.”

    Workers at risk

    Of course, the people working in such factories are more at risk, Nzekwe said. We call it occupational lung disease. People who work there are likely to come down with the lung disease. You know, cancer being triggered depends on a person’s constitution. For some, it takes a longer time. Some people can be exposed for up to twenty years before they come down with the disease, while it may take up to 60 years in others. It all depends on the genetic formation of individuals, and the extent of their resistance.

    Tyre burning process must be controlled – Chemist

    Dr Abayomi Akeem, a specialist in Environmental Chemistry and lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, University of Lagos speaks on the health hazards of tyre burning and insists that the process must be controlled.

    What are the harmful substances produced during burning activities factories?

    First, what goes on is the tyrolysis of tyre. A lot of tyres are produced all over the world and the ones that ends up in our country, especially now that we have this biting recession are the second hand tyres; so we generate a lot of waste tyres. And because of its bulk, it is not easy to just dump them anywhere in the landfill waste receiving units. So, what could be done is to either shred the tyres before using it as landfill or burn it like the company is doing.

    Usually, tyrolysis or burning of materials to produce carbon is not a bad process, but the process has to be controlled. It must be done in a closed environment where you have absence of oxygen, so that emission could be controlled without going into the environment. But what happens is that people burn in open places or buildings that have no emission control and as such smoke leaks out and goes into the environment.

    What you basically have as the materials being emitted are remnants of tyres coming out as coal, particulate carbon, nauseous gasses, such as hydrogen sulphide and C02 are also generated. These could be very injurious to people staying there; but the danger is not limited to only those in the immediate environment, because the direction of the wind will also aid the dispersion of the emission to travel far beyond even where it is being emitted. If you will recall, Port Harcourt residents had an issue like that recently and the government went around to some of these tyre burning places to close them down.

    Whether we like it or not, we have to take care of our waste, but how we do it is another thing entirely. Tyres have to be recycled, or else everywhere will be filled up with waste tyres and it will be suffocating.  Again, there are modern processes of recycling such wastes that it will not generate this sort of problem.

    What are the health risks?

    First, the cloudy situation you witnessed when you visited is called particulates. They are very small particles which are by-products of that process. These particulates, because of their sizes, go far and wide and settle in people’s homes; and when people breathe them in, because of their sizes, they go into defined places in the lungs and start causing respiratory problems like asthma. Some even create more terrible problems in the lungs. The effect of the carbon monoxide is just like when someone puts a generator in a room and sleeps overnight, because of the affinity of CO to haemoglobin, before you know what is happening, the person would have passed on.

    Even aromatic hydrocarbon that causes cancer could be released into the atmosphere; but because we are ignorant of these things, people tend to overlook them. You can now link some of these activities to the high rate of cancer that we have in our country now.

    No response from  govt

    When The Nation contacted the Ogun State government on the issue, Mr Bolaji Oyeleye, the Ogun State Commissioner for Environment promised to check out the communities and get back to these reporters; but as at the time of filing in this report, he was yet to get back.

  • Defeating Boko Haram: We must act now to save lives and build peace

    We are delighted to be visiting Nigeria this week, especially during the UK’s Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

    We agree with new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the UNSC must prioritise preventing conflict and sustaining peace. That is why we are focusing our Presidency on conflict prevention in Africa, starting with a UNSC visit to the Lake Chad Basin. Nigeria itself has long played a major role in international efforts to tackle conflict and build peace. Many Nigerians will be familiar with images of the famous blue helmets and berets worn by UN peacekeepers. But they may not know that more than 2,100 Nigeria military and civilian personnel are currently deployed on UN peacekeeping missions in countries including Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    We applaud Nigeria’s contributions to UN, ECOWAS and AU efforts in support of peace. The world saw the value of Nigerian leadership in this respect again in January, when President Buhari played a leading role in brokering a peaceful resolution to the political crisis in The Gambia.

    Of course, Nigeria also faces its own threats to national and regional peace and stability. The UK strongly supports Nigeria’s campaign to tackle the scourge of Boko Haram’s violent extremism and terrorism, and its cooperation in this fight with neighbouring Lake Chad Basin countries.  We are very proud that the UK is training Nigerian troops fighting Boko Haram. The UK is also providing life-saving assistance for those affected by the conflict. In 2016, £70 million in UK aid for North-East Nigeria provided food to more than 1 million people, treatment for 34,000 children at risk of dying from malnutrition, and access to clean water and sanitation for more than 135,000 people.

    Nigeria and its neighbours must maintain their military efforts to defeat Boko Haram, and do all they can to ensure that aid reaches those in need. But lasting security and stability will require a broader approach. As the UN Secretary General said in his first address to the UNSC this year, we cannot take peace for granted – it requires difficult decisions, hard work and compromise.

    Communities and governments will need to find ways of working better together to address a range of underlying causes of conflict: countering extremism; addressing the effects of climate change; protecting and promoting human rights; tackling corruption, and creating economic and educational opportunities. Nigeria’s recent pledge at the Nigeria and Lake Chad region conference in Oslo to spend US$1 billion dollars supporting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and reconstruction in the Northeast of Nigeria is welcome. Such leadership is required from Nigeria to help address the urgent and longer term needs the North-East faces.

    Building peace also requires wide participation, starting at the grassroots and engaging civil society, faith leaders, youth and minorities. The involvement and empowerment of woman and girls at every level will be indispensable.

    All too often, women and girls suffer most in conflict, and are not represented in the pursuit of peace. But we know that when they are involved in negotiations, the chances of peace increase by 20% to 35%.

    The UK will continue supporting Nigerian-led efforts to counter violent extremism and terrorism and build peace, just as we support Nigerian initiatives to tackle corruption and achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth.  The UK is committed to standing by Nigeria’s side as a friend and partner in difficult times, because a more secure, stable and prosperous Nigeria is good for Nigeria’s citizens, good for the UK and good for the world.

  • When will Nigerian lives begin to matter?

    It is becoming clearer that no one would take the dignity of the Nigerian seriously until such a time when we collectively stop rating ourselves from the prisms of tribe, religion and social class. We are too bigoted to these things to the point that our revulsion or otherwise to the decimation of our citizens is propelled by those factors. Is it not sad that you rarely get that feeling of general angst or spirit of communality in our reaction to issues that touch on the wellbeing of the collective? Take, for example, the xenophobic attacks unleashed on Nigerians and other settlers in South Africa by black indigenes. At a time when you expect a united front and one voice raised against a dangerous trend that could spell the doom for the African Union, it is a national shame that certain persons still feel unconcerned on the pretext that those that were affected come from a certain part of the country. Some even question why this set of Nigerians always travel to other lands to presumably, take over the local business ventures from the original indigenes. That is how frivolously tactless we have become as a people. It is this kind of attitude that oils the mutual feeling of suspicions and hatred in our land.

    We miss the point when we reduce the madness going on in South Africa to the banal mentality that defines our interpersonal relationship over here. We need to bond if we must conquer.  But we rarely do, Those suffering xenophobic attacks in South Africa and mind blowing discrimination in Libya and other places are not just Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa; they are Nigerians! It is when we stop this social and ethnic stereotyping of our humanity – an odious thing that our black tormentors in South Africa have taken a step further – that we can positively tackle the enemy within and without. We rarely pay serious attention to the vilest monstrosities visited on our fellow citizens if they had the misfortune of coming from a different socio-political zone. Worse still, we easily perceive that subjective enemy gene in those born outside our ethnic cum religious backgrounds such that it defines our adversarial temperament. And, if we must say the truth, the xenophobic attacks in faraway South Africa are merely a rehash of the local violence that has permeated our quotidian living as a people from time immemorial. That explains the revulsion we nurse against that Hausa Fulani, that Igbo man, that noisy Yoruba man or that Ijaw minority who is always asking for self-determination.

     

    The point is that the Nigerian nation has wasted too much time wringing its hands in submission and watching helplessly as its citizens get whacked with the wrong end of the stick even from countries with population that is not up to that of a local government in any of our states. Before we blame the leadership of those countries, we should first tell the truth to the powers that be in our own backyard. Perhaps, if we put the nation first in all that we do, our citizens wouldn’t be traveling from Sao Tome and Principe to the Gambia, from Kenya to Zambia, from Mozambique to the Congo in search of greener pastures. If we had provided the pastures in abundance here, there is that possibility that less Nigerians would have fallen victims to the misfortunes confronting them across the globe. Of course, we cannot rule out the greed and criminality that push many to the edge of idiocy. We cannot rule that out. But that does not in any way justify the condescending attitude the governments of most of these countries have shown in addressing the matter. Maybe they know we would do nothing other than lamely condemn the act, And then, life continues while relatives of the dead mourn their loss!

    Ordinarily, it should not take the affirmative action of the National Assembly to reawaken the consciousness of a sleeping executive to be decisive about the nonsense going on South Africa. By the way, what message was the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Khadijah Abba Ibrahim, attempting to pass when she told the lawmakers that no Nigerian was killed in the latest attacks by those hate vendors in South Africa? It is this kind of laid back foreign affairs policy and cocky patronizing messages that give venom to the kind of madness unveiling in that country. This is not helped by the statement credited to Jacob Zuma who offhandedly dismissed the allegations of xenophobia against his cudgel-wielding citizens unleashing terror on other nationals. Sometimes, you wonder if the Nigerian government is waiting for the mass killings of its citizens living in these countries before it would have believable evidence to roar back from its usual position of weakness.

    I may not support the rash decision by some persons calling for a mass boycott of investments linked to South African-owned firms in Nigeria. That is another sore point in our development as a nation. Those investors exploited our inadequacies as a nation to set up companies that have become monopolies. However, I really don’t understand why this government cannot, for once, take a firm position on the matter. As usual, the national assembly has resorted to the silly idea of sending a high-powered delegation to South Africa on a fact-finding mission. We always relish this kind of opportunity to make extra cash in the name official assignment. Do these guys thinks any member of the South African parliament would freely give out information that would damage the image of the country where xenophobia thrives? What other facts would they get when the country’s leader has made a veiled reference to the impossibility of such a tag on the mean faces of the attackers, who happen to be his people?

    In fact, the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led fact-finding delegation to South Africa is nothing but another drainpipe to our economy. That also includes the ‘powerful’ delegation set up by the Senate to be led by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. To the best of my knowledge, Nigeria has a functional embassy in South Africa with professional staff that should furnish the home office with adequate information on the true state of things as they affect our citizens in that country. With this information, a serious-minded government should make public its next line of action instead of blowing cold water on a burning furnace. Well, that is if we take the lives of every citizen seriously rather than reducing it to just a number as we often do with that of thousands that had been lost here. If the lawmakers are interested in tourism, they could as well do that outside the context of this excuse that they were going on a fact-finding mission. I just don’t get it.

    Having expressed their dissatisfaction with how the Federal Government has handled the attacks on Nigerians, it would have been more ennobling if the lawmakers take the backseat and focus on the things that ‘kill’ us as a nation. By this, I mean those ignoble things they do at the top that push some of these hapless citizens to seek better life in far flung places. Has it ever occurred to them that they kill us by installment when we read about how they allocate millions of naira to themselves as salaries and emoluments when all they do is fight over constituency projects and use a large part of the legislative calendar year on endless recess, Do they know how we die silently when they connive with the executive to pad the budget and share the loot through the backdoors? Do they even know how we feel when all their huffing and puffing against the executive end up as another inconsequential fretting of legislative paper tigers?

    Back to the matter, we cannot forever play the ostrich while minnow countries take advantage of our seeming reluctance to defend our citizens with the clarity of purpose that is needed. We cannot pretend that we don’t know when and how to grab South Africa by the balls. No one is saying that the laws of that land should not be applied if some criminal elements who happen to be Nigerians are found wanting. For now, the footages we have seen on credible Nigerian news channels point to the herd mentality of painting every Nigerian living in that country as drug barons, fraudsters and evil-minded stealers of jobs meant for South African citizens. That picture is totally unacceptable and the mob mentality on display is abhorrent. The time for long speeches and cautious diplomatese ought to be over long before now. What ought to be today are strong, explicit messages coming from Nigeria to those South African officials offering silly excuses for a clear case of bloody xenophobia that has unjustifiably turned many of our citizens in Mandela’s country into walking corpses and rotten cadavers. Former President Olsegun Obasanjo has set the right tone by blaming the South African leadership for its crying incompetence in stemming the tide while calling on the government here to create an Eldorado at home so that the rush for Greener Pastures elsewhere will drastically reduce. Now, don’t ask me what Obasanjo did in his time, Is there someone out there in the corridors of power ready to truly change the narrative that Nigerian lives matter, no matter where they live?