Buhari’s medical trip to the UK
Between March and August, the entire landscape was gripped in anxiety over President Muhammadu Buhari’s health, following his medical vacation in the United Kingdom for 103 days. The uncertainty over the exact nature of his illness led to all manner of speculations with some people claiming that he was incapacitated while the more reckless ones even said he was dead.
It was the second time in the year that the President would visit the UK for medical checks, having previously visited the same hospital in March. The situation nearly resulted in political crisis as some Nigerians demanded his resignation. Mercifully, the President had avoided any form of constitutional crisis with his absence by duly transmitting power to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, before leaving the country on the two occasions.
President Buhari would later reveal how sick he was in the period he was away from the country, saying that he even had to undergo blood transfusion. But he returned to the country a much healthier man as his physical condition has continued to improve since he returned to the country.
Abandoned N13bn in Lagos apartment and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced that it had uncovered foreign currencies and naira notes to the tune of $43.4 million, £27,800 and N23.2 million (N13 billion in total) in a four-bedroom apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos. The Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr. Ayodele Oke, claimed that the said money was kept in the apartment by his agency for “covert operation”. Oke was later relieved of his post over his alleged complicity in the matter, while the money was forfeited to the federal government following a court order.
However, the five per cent of the money which was supposed to go to the whistleblower was enmeshed in controversy after the whistleblower alleged that he was being short-changed by government. The informant was finally paid a sum of N421 million a few days ago after an eight-month delay and has reportedly left the shores of the country.
Earlier on February 3, the EFCC, following a tip-off, recovered $9.8 million from a building owned by a former Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Andrew Yakubu, in a building located in the slums of Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna.
Paris Club refund
The refund of money over deducted by the Federal Government to the owner 36 state governments is still causing ripples. The refund is in respect of over-deductions on Paris Club loans and multilateral debts between 1995 and 2002.
Before disbursing the first and second tranches of the money the FG has asked the state governments to use the money to defray workers’ salary arrears. However, it turned out that the money was reportedly diverted and misappropriated by some state governors, leading to calls by civil society groups and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that the Federal Government should stop further disbursement of the fund.
It will be recalled that the federal government had on May 4 released the second tranche of Paris Club refund totaling N243. 795 billion to states. At a meeting with some traditional rulers at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on September 11, President Buhari expressed his disappointment with the inability of the affected state governments to pay the retirement benefits and outstanding salaries of workers with the payment of the refund.
Buhari said: “We have to digress this much because I would like to convince you that I’m living with the problems of this country day-by-day, and mostly those of the ordinary people. There are Nigerians that haven’t been paid for six months; there are Nigerians that have not been paid their retirement benefits for years. I’m appealing to the governors, (that was why we voted money, we borrowed money), please make sure anybody under you, pay them because most of them depend on that salary to pay rent, school fees.”
Herdsmen-farmers clashes
The perennial confrontation between Fulani herdsmen and local farmers continued to fester during the year. On October 30, no fewer than six people were reportedly killed in separate clashes between farmers and herdsmen in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State. A few days earlier, some herdsmen had damaged a farm in Sangere, a suburb of Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
Another clash on November 7 between herdsmen and farmers in Ugaga community, Yala Local Government Area of Cross River left one person dead with several others injured. No fewer than 10 people battled for their lives in a private hospital at Igangan, Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, following the injuries they sustained in a clash between farmers and herdsmen in the area on November 22.
Quit notice to Igbo in the North
On June 6, Northern youths under the aegis of the Coalition of Northern Youth Groups (CNYG) issued a three-month ultimatum to the Igbo living in the northern part of the country to quit the region not later than October 1. The group hinged the reason for the ultimatum on the activities of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu, who it alleged was sponsoring ”the threat of war, violence and anarchy, and the evidence that such threats are not just rhetorical, is a situation we are now faced with from the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB). Every day comes with a new dimension that poses an impending danger of throwing the country into turmoil. This leads to the uncertainty as well as the question on whether IPOB intends to allow a united Nigeria.” The group however withdrew its ultimatum on August 24, following intervention by the Presidency and well-meaning Nigerians.
Agitation for Biafra Republic
The pro-Biafra movement, led mainly by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, gained a lot of momentum during the year. The activities of the group peaked after it called for the boycott of the November governorship election in Anambra State, threatening to deal with anyone who failed to heed the order. Subsequently, IPOB was declared a terrorist group by the Army while its activities were proscribed by Southeast governors. Kanu and his lieutenants have since gone into hiding after security forces invaded his country home in Afaraukwu in Umuahia, Abia State.
Suicide cases
The outgoing year witnessed not a few suicide cases. In most of the cases recorded, frustration, depression, financial challenges, psychological dysfunction and spiritual problems featured prominently as reasons for the act.
In one of the cases, one Edward Soje, a top civil servant with the Kogi State Government, took his own life a few days after his wife was delivered of a set of triplets at an Abuja-based private hospital after 17 years of childlessness. He reportedly hung himself on a tree behind a mammy market at the Maigumeri Barracks of the Nigeria Army Record Command, Lokoja, Kogi State.
The 54-year-old Director in the Kogi State Teaching Service Commission was said to have taken his own life on October 16, 2017, as a result of being owed 11 months’ salary by the state government and the financial implication of catering to the needs of his new babies.
On October 1, 2017, a motorcycle spare parts dealer in Auchi, Estako West Local Government Area identified simply as Muhammed reportedly committed suicide. His body was found dangling in his apartment where he hung himself.
body was reportedly found dangling from the ceiling of his room.
Early in the year, a 35-year-old medical doctor with the Papa Ajao branch of Mount Sinai Hospital, Allwell Orji, decided to take his own life by jumping into the lagoon in Lagos. That was on Sunday, March 19, 2017. Six days later, two women, Titilayo Momoh, a textile merchant, and Abigael Ogunyinka, were rescued by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command, after they attempted to jump into the lagoon from the Third Mainland and Carter bridges respectively.
Kidnapping
The gale of kidnappings the country had witnessed in previous years continued into the outgoing year. A number of Nigerians were abducted and released only after ransoms had been paid. Of note, six schoolboys at the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, were abducted from their hostel by a group of militants. It took the intervention of Ondo State Government to negotiate the boys’ freedom from their abductors who had taken them to their hideout in the creeks of Ilaje in Ondo State.
On June 10, an alleged notorious kidnap kingpin Chukwudubem Onwuamadike a.k.a. Evans was arrested by the police in Lagos after five years of trailing him. He was arrested at his Magodo residence around 1 pm by operatives of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
Economic recession
The parlous state of the country’s economy worsted by crash in price of crude oil, which plunged it into recession, continued to bite hard on people. However, on September 5, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the end of the country’s worst economic recession in more than two decades, notching up a 0.55 per cent growth in the second quarter of 2017. In its report, NBS’ data showed that the economic recovery was driven by improved performance of oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade sectors of the economy.
PDP convention
The hoopla generated by the controversial National Convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to subside. Contenders for the office of the National Chairman of the party from the Southwest berated the leadership of the party led by former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Markarfi, of jettisoning the idea of micro-zoning of the National Chairman to the zone. former Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; Prof. Taoreed Adedoja; Prof. Tunde Adeniran and former governor of Oyo State, Chief Rasheed Ladoja. Others included media mogul Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Uche Secondus from the South-south zone.
Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike was accused by the aggrieved Southwest contestants of scheming for the emergence of Secondus as National Chairman of the party. In the end, Secondus emerged the new National Chairman of the party. A new faction of the party known as Fresh PDP has, however, emerged from the crisis that followed the controversial convention.
Anambra governorship election
In November, Governor Willie Obiano was re-elected as the governor of Anambra State via a landslide victory despite the gang up against his re-election, especially by his former political godfather and former governor of the State, Peter Obi, who has since defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and backed a former Secretary to the State Government, Oseloka Obaze, as the candidate of the PDP in the election.
Thirty-six candidates contested the election but Obiano won in all the 21 local government areas of the State. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obiano, who flew the flag of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), polled 234, 071 votes to defeat his closest rival, Tony Nwoye of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 98, 752 votes, while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, came third with 70,293 votes. Obaze has since rejected the result.
Trafficking of Nigerian girls
In November, 26 trafficked women and girls, believed to be Nigerians, were allegedly killed while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. The bodies of the women were brought to the southern Italian port of Salerno by the Spanish ship Cantabria on November 5. Investigation into the incident revealed children as young as 14, among the victims were sexually abused and killed. Reports also emerged of how hundreds of Nigerian girls trafficked as sex slaves were stranded in Libya on their way to Europe. The incident led to the return of 1,317 stranded Nigerians from Libya to the country with heart-rending stories of sexual abuse, assault and killings.
Diezani’s mansions
The anti-graft war of the federal government continued with venom in the outgoing year. In February, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recorded another breakthrough after it discovered a Lagos mansion worth N11.75bn said to belong to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The property, a 15-storey mansion consisting 18 flats and six penthouses, is located in upscale Banana Island, Lagos. According to the EFCC, the property was acquired by the former minister between 2011 and 2012 at a total cost of $37.5m from the developers, YF Construction Development and Real Estate.
Calls for restructuring
A fallout of the agitation by pro-Biafra organisations like IPOB resulted in calls by other zones, particularly the Southwest and the North-central, for the restructuring of the country. Leaders of the agitated geo-political zones at different gatherings drummed support for a total overhaul of the country’s political and economic structures, saying it is the only way out of the myriad of socio-political and economic problems facing the country. participants in a communiqué issued after its 2nd Consultative Summit in Abuja, noted that Nigeria is not a proper federation as it is currently constituted. They called for the implementation of the report of the Confab held during the Jonathan administration in 2014.
At a similar meeting held on September 7 at the Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan, Oyo State, prominent Yoruba leaders and South-West governors demanded a restructured Nigeria and return to regional government as practised under the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions.
Accidental bombing of IDP camp in Borno
About 236 people reportedly died while many others were injured on January 17, after a military jet “erroneously” bombed the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government Area of Borno State. The camp caters for thousands of persons displaced by Boko Haram insurgents. Authorities of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) however apologised for the tragic killing of the refugees saying: “The loss occasioned by this unfortunate incident is deeply regretted. NAF commiserates with those affected and their families and would update the public as soon as detailed facts emerge from the investigation.”
Southern Kaduna violence
About 37 persons were reportedly killed in a renewed violence between farmers and herdsmen in Kajuru, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State on July 19.
The violent confrontation started after some youths in the area allegedly killed a herdsman they said had been terrorising the area, prompting a reprisal attack from the victim’s fellow herdsmen, who allegedly stormed Ungwan Uka and went on a killing spree.
Ponzi schemes (MMM)
Despite losing about N18 billion to the popular Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM) in December 2016, millions of Nigerians were found to still be taking part in about 109 different Ponzi schemes, among which are Get Help Worldwide (GHW), Ultimate Cycler, iCharity and Swiss Gold, to mention a few.
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC) had declared in March 2017 that Nigerians lost N18 billion to MMM in 2016.
Fuel scarcity
The fuel scarcity that marred the yuletide started almost like a joke. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), which had been involved in negotiation with the Federal Government, over some trade union issues, had served notice to embark on strike from Monday December 18, 2017 following a breakdown of negotiation. However, on Sunday December 17, a day preceding the PENGASSAN strike, Nigerians woke up to observe queues in major filling stations across the country.
By the following day when the PENGASSAN strike started, the scarcity had worsened. Ironically, by Tuesday when PENGASSAN called off the strike, the crisis rather than abate grew worse. The queues got lengthier and the scarcity spread from city to city.
One of the hallmarks of the crisis is the blame game between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and marketers as to the source of the scarcity. As the crisis persisted, black marketers that had been consigned to the pit of incertia, bounced back and fuel price rose. By press time, while a few stations that had the fuel sold at the official price of N145per litre, some others sold for between N200 and N250. At the black market, the price was between N300 to N400.
As expected, President Muhammadu Buhari decried the scarcity and empathized with Nigerians. He ordered the relevant agencies to deal with hoarders, assuring that the scarcity would end in a matter of days. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo too sympathized with Nigerians over the crisis. He even went round filling stations to monitor things.
Monkey pox
On the 22nd of September, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was notified of a case of suspected Monkey pox in an 11-year-old male patient who presented to the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Subsequently, 11 other cases were identified. All the cases received appropriate medical care. All the patients improved clinically and there were no deaths. As at 1st October 20, 32 close contacts of the cases were identified, advised appropriately and monitored.
A Rapid Response Team from NCDC was deployed to support the Bayelsa State Government in the investigations and public health response to the outbreak. The team supported the Bayelsa State Department of Public Health and the State Epidemiologist to respond to the outbreak.
Unlike Ebola outbreak, information on Monkey pox was well managed. There was adequate use of Social Media (SM). The CEO of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu told Nigerians to remain calm, avoid self-medication and report any suspected case to the nearest health facility. He confirmed that Public health authorities across the country have been well informed on what to do when a suspected case arises.
As the outbreak investigation and response continued, the Bayelsa State Government started an aggressive public enlightenment campaign to advise clinicians and the public on the symptoms of the disease and the steps required to manage the cases and to prevent further spread. NCDC also collected appropriate clinical samples from the cases and these were analysed through the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja.
This index case on the 22nd of September 2017, which the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) received a report of a suspected case of Monkey pox virus disease from the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri, Bayelsa State was well managed. The Bayelsa State Ministry of Health initiated an outbreak investigation and response, supported by a team from NCDC, which was immediately deployed to the state.
As at 13th of October 2017, there were 17 suspected cases reported from Yenagoa LGA in Bayelsa State. NCDC have received laboratory confirmation for Monkey pox virus from three of these cases from the WHO Regional Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal. Samples from 12 others from Bayelsa were negative, and it awaited two results.
With these results, the Monkey pox outbreak in Yenagoa was confirmed with laboratory evidence. The most likely source of infection is a primary zoonotic transmission, from an animal, with secondary person-to-person transmission, according to NCDC.
The Federal Ministry of Health, through the NCDC was in close contact with all State Epidemiology Teams, as well as the health facilities providing clinical care to both suspected and confirmed cases. State Commissioners of Health were advised to place all health care facilities and Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers on alert, to ensure early case detection, reporting and effective treatment.
A National-level Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) led by the NCDC with support from our development partners was coordinating outbreak, investigation and response across affected States. The EOC included the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as experts from partner agencies. The EOC provided daily support to State Ministries of Health in active case finding, epidemiological investigation, contact tracing, case management, psychosocial support and risk communication.
The NCDC also deployed Rapid Response Teams to the four states with confirmed cases. Measures have been put in place to ensure proper investigation of all reported cases, effective sample collection and testing, as well as case management of all suspected and confirmed cases. Risk communication activities have been heightened to advise the public as well as healthcare workers on preventive measures. A nationwide communications campaign has begun, to inform Nigerians of key preventive measures to take to curtail the further spread of monkey pox.
The NCDC worked with poxvirus experts from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that every available step was taken to trace how the Monkey pox outbreak may be spreading, and in understanding the links between case clusters, in order to prevent further spread.
