Comptroller Muhammed Uba Garba of the Seme Command of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS has unknowingly saved himself from the wrath of decision makers at customs headquarters in Abuja and what would have turned out his redeployment from the command, few months after he took charge.
Last week, the command announced the seizures worth millions of naira have and arrest of some notorious smugglers .
The comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali had in August this year effected a minor shake up leading to the redeployment of Comptroller Muhammed from FOU, Zone A, Ikeja.
The thinking among customs echelon at the time was that the lanky customs officer will replicate his anti-smuggling success at his new posting.
But after what seems like a long lull in anti-smuggling activities by Muhammed and his men, doubt had mounted about the ability of the controller to deliver on the Comptroller General of Customs mandate to block smugglers and their damaging economic activities from that end.
Seme Command is right in the heart of border between Nigeria and Benin Republic, one of the busiest border posts in the continent, very notorious for smuggling activities.
Those familiar with Comptroller Muhammed’s feat at the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja were beginning to think that he has lost the midas touch. His achievements at the FOU must have been overhyped, they contended. Who wouldn’t think along that line, because for more than two months it was as quiet, in the command as the thespian grave-yard, one observer said
At a point, the magazine learnt that those that have the ears of Hameed Ali, the CG at the NCS headquarters in Abuja were beginning to pile pressure on him” that his boy in Seme appears not to be getting things right.”
It was further learned that some controllers had seized the momentum to lobby those who can speak in their favor to lobby the CG” in case there’s any opening in Seme.”
Some said he was resting on his oars after what seemed like a good outing in FOU for close to two years that he was in charge of the unit.
While this was going on Comptroller Muhammed said he has been busy studying the new environment to come up with a workable strategy to deliver on his mandate.
One officer close to him told the magazine recently that” the controller has not necessarily been lackadaisical in his duty as being insinuated in some quarters. He has been meeting with stakeholders, including sister agencies, traditional rulers” on how to rid Seme and environs of smugglers.
The source also said that generating more revenue for the federal government has been uppermost in the mind of Comptroller Muhammed.
The magazine was told last Wednesday by a top customs’ source in Abuja that the CG does not have a special relationship with officers, that what matters to him “is that officers are helping him to deliver on the mandate given him by President Muhammed Buhari to rid the Service of corrupt officers, generate more revenue and reduce smuggling to the barest minimum. Any officer not ready to do this will be shipped out” the officer said.
“A controller was recently redeployed from a command barely two months after resuming office. That’s the CG for you, he would not determine the fate of any officer based any primordial sentiment, what matters to him is merit.
The source was referring to Comptroller Adetoye Francis who was redeployed from PTML barely two months after he was posted to the command. Other cases abound where controllers have been removed unceremoniously from their post, the source further said.
It remains unclear if the CG is considering redeployment of officers soon, but those that are very close to the former soldier told the magazine on Monday that the option cannot be totally ruled out at this time of the year when smuggling is expected to surge.
May be that’s enough to put all controllers on their feet to do more to justify their postings. Comptroller Muhammed too. The command has announced a haul of seizures in just two months.
Among the goods seized are 16, 729(50kg) bags of foreign rice, worth more than N300m, 115 cartons of poultry products, with value over N72m and 57 jerry cans of vegetable oil(50 litres each.
Apart from this, over 1000 used tires, 71 gerry cans of petroleum products, 378 bags of sugar(50kge each) were also seized by the eagle-eyed customs officers.
The seizures also include 40 bales of used clothing, 57 packs of tramadol 387 sacks of coconut and others. The duty paid value of the seizure within the two months period is put at N839.51 million.
Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the seizures and have been handed to the police, the command said.
The raid on smugglers’ hideouts also led to the seizure of 21 vehicles, which include a Toyota 2016 model, Toyota Sienna and others.
From all indications, Comptroller Muhammed is trying to prove one point” I’m up and doing in Seme.” May be the CG is listening.
Ondo state First Lady, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, talks about how some Churches are sending women to their early graves, her pride in the Yoruba culture, the girl-child, womanhood and, being an Igbo daughter. Excerpts:
Your Excellency, tell us about yourself
I’m from Emeabiam in the Owerri West Local Government of Imo state. My parents were teachers, but my mother at a point in time, left teaching and faced trading. I grew up in the rural areas. In those days, teachers were looked upon as number one citizens in every village. Many parents would like their wards to live with such family. I grew up in a household with dependants from relatives who just dumped their children with my parents, asking them to train their children for them.
Teachers were respected in those days and they didn’t take such respect for granted, being that they occupied a very important position in the society, trying to get people educated and waiting for their rewards in heaven. They were paid pittance and I think that was one of the reasons my mother left teaching. May be she felt she couldn’t cope with all the responsibilities at that time. And I can tell you that she was even making more money through trading; soap making, frying akara; people will come lining up to buy. It was like a mini industry in those days. So, at a very young age, I kind of realized that the girl-child had not much going for her. By the time I went to secondary school, in my village, I think I was the second child in secondary school. That was in the 60’s. Then, after the war, I was already a teenager during the war, it was time to go back to school. I went to Egbu Girls’ Secondary.School. We all were trekking from my village to Egbu, myself and my younger sister. At a point other girls withdrew, just myself and my sister were left. The reason why it turned out that, I became the first female graduate from my town.When I went to the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, I met those whose grandfather went to Oxford and Cambridge. I couldn’t understand, with my young mind, that I was the only girl coming from my village at the time. It was when I went to the university that I began to see the whole situation unraveled. I had to appreciate it, with the perception of our people, regarding the position of a woman in the society. When you grow up, you get married, make children and so on. There’s this wrong impression that when you train a female child, you are training her for the husband. You have wasted all your money for another family to inherit. It’s still there, but it’s gradually reducing. Until we begin to show that when you marry, your family has not lost out, it’s very, very important. And I can tell you that I have demonstrated it in no small way. You are saying that woman is nothing, but look at me, I have shown it in no small way that my family has not lost me. As the first female graduate in my community, it’s a lot of responsibility. People look upon you as their mother, and I take it seriously. I have been able to prove that after training a woman, you have not lost anything; your family is going to gain a lot by doing so.
I was raised to be a Child, Not a Girl
My father raised me as a child, he didn’t raise me as a girl-child, that’s the difference. I want to say I’m very bold, even though when you look at me, I look so fragile. My demeanor is deceitful. My father didn’t raise me as a girI, and I tell people that if you are a man, and I can’t talk to you, dem never born you. I’m very serious, and my husband knows that. When he came to the village to ask for my hand in marriage, my father told him, pointing to my room, that “if you maltreat her, her room is still there. She’s free to come back.” I’m not the type of woman a man will maltreat, and they will say remain there. My father never believed in that. They respected my choice.
The Yoruba, A Different Specie
But I have to say this of Yoruba people. I must confess, because when you see something good in a culture you embrace it, those that are not good you also say it. When it comes to giving a woman a chance, to grow and be herself, Yoruba men do it hundred per cent. And I say, if I had married an Igbo man, I don’t think that marriage would have lasted for a year. It’s so because, for instance, going to my village every December is not negotiable. I used to take my husband to my village every Christmas until after sometime he stopped; he will just say carry your children to your village. When a man loves his wife, what she likes and where she’s coming from, respects her views and opinions, God blesses the couple. To me, marriage is fifty/fifty. You are from different background, different personalities, you need to work it out, and that’s why there are broken marriages. We are still locked up in what marriages should be. You know, a man sitting there, the woman kneeling down to serve him.
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu with the Olowo of Owo.
But things are now changing because that man could have been your mate at the university. So, let’s begin to look at marriage in the context of the century that we are in now. Not in my mother’s time. We must see that it’s a relationship you keep working on, you keep building on it; you know when this love thing is happening, you don’t see anything, but by the time you come together you realize that it’s a lot of work to make a marriage work.Things are changing and we must change with time. You know, at times ,when a man is helping out at home, the mother in-law would come in and says, you are using my son as a slave; you know it happens. We, as mothers, need to go back to the drawing board to raise our sons differently, I keep telling mothers at different fora that we are the ones responsible for the harms done to marriages, because we have refused to let go of that archaic way of looking at marriages. When you marry a woman and you turn her to a slave, or you consider her a piece of furniture, and think that at your own whims and caprices you can discard, not any more, especially the educated ones. My experience when I was growing up fashioned the way I think and do things.
Philippines Opened My Eyes
My views to life right now concretized after I graduated, and got a civil service job. I was sent for training at the University of Philippines. And there, it’s a different world entirely. Though a third world, but the people have gone ahead of us. The lecturers in that institute, students were from all over the world – Africa, Japan, UK, America. It was a mixed grill of nationalities. And you know that will bring about different perspectives on different issues. the In that school, we were free with our lecturers unlike the experience at Nsukka. At Nsukka your lecturers, they were like gods.When you see them you run away. You can’t even have a conversation. When you want to see your lecturer, you are afraid, fidgeting, but that was not the case at the Philippines. We all had our meals in the same refectory, we sat around the same table, having discussions. And when your lecturer says something you don’t agree with, you say no, you want to put up your own arguments. That was the experience in the Philippines. I was exposed to world politics, under-development, hunger and so on.
The Book That Changed Me
And that was when I was exposed to a small book, ‘’Small is Beautiful’ written by Dr. Schumacher from Harvard University. It’s about developing countries swallowing technology hook, line and sinker without being prepared to use it. And after reading the book, my mind went straight to the Ajaokuta Steel Mill.
That book exposed me to many problems we are facing as a nation, we jump into things without being prepared. The Ajaokuta Steel Mill, for example, you don’t look at your human capacity, do you have it? How long will it take you to get people that will manage such a gigantic project? If you know you are not ready, you don’t go into it, you go into a smaller one then gradually, you scale up. That was the lesson I learnt from that book. And it has also guided me in the way I do things. I don’t go into things I have little knowledge of. Because along the way you might find out that it wouldn’t work. You hands off and your loses will be too little, not too much. I was so thrilled that I opened up a conversation with the professor. So, the Philippines also opened a new horizon for me as I began to be conscious of my environment, that I’m a black woman. When I left Nigeria, I didn’t quite know what would happen in the Philippines. But when I got there, I was beating those in my class academically, and I said, are you kidding me? There, you find yourselves in the same class with students from the western world and you are better them academically. But, when you come back here, you see how our people fidget when they see an Oyinbo. Oyinbo will bring a proposal, you won’t even look at it to know whether it is rubbish or not. Immediately it’s Oyinbo, you approve. When it comes to implementation nothing comes out of it.
That’s why when I participate in all these international conferences, and I come back home, I’m like, our people must be joking. You stay here, and allow these people to be taking you for a ride.
Many Nigerians over there are doing well, but when they come back, those that are in charge of decision -making are more pre-occupied with what they are going to gain,nobody looks at it critically. Like, how will my country benefit from this? They are all looking at the 10 per cent that will paid into their account abroad. It’s a mess. So I came back from the Philippine with so much political awareness, an entirely new person.
Madness Called Religion
And I also started talking about this madness practised here as religion. If you believe there’s a higher being, it should be between you and that higher being. This charade that we see in this country is abnormal. It’s about time we began to speak against it seriously. I saw the madness when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. After my diagnosis, I saw people’s ignorance. If I had wallowed in such ignorance, that lump would have manifested into something that would have now become incurable. Because they were saying there’s somebody that will pray for you to make this lump disappear. That’s what we are suffering in this country. Somebody will give you olive oil and tell you this lump will disappear, and people will believe.
And that’s why I’m mad at the so-called men and women of God. They are sending our women to their early graves, in terrible numbers. They lie to them that only prayers and olive oil and white handkerchief will cure them, and they believe. They are killing our women. They tell them somebody directed an arrow at them. It’s callous.
You have come a long way as a strong woman in the midst of this stereotype about raising a girl-child. With your experience, what conversation should we be having with parents on how to raise a girl child?
At a very young age, and I give the credit to my parents, I realized that the girl child has limited opportunities. That realization was so ingrained in me that I began to think how to make things better, even though at that time I didn’t have the capacity. But when I now found myself in a position, although I didn’t start today. I started long before I became the First Lady. I have long been involved in one NGO or the Civil Society. It was actually the breast cancer advocacy that threw me into it. And in this space, you have the opportunity to know the size of the gully in every development. When it came to the issue of health, I realised that women are the most endangered.
Women, Endangered Species
I will use the breast cancer issue as a case study. You find out that even when a woman has the desire to go to hospital to do mammogram, she may not have the money. She’s incapacitated. There are two diseases killing Nigerian women. They are ignorance and poverty. And I began to look at how to combat them, how to, at least, reduce them to the barest minimum. So it has to be education, creating a forum where you can talk to women and young girls. I have tried in the past with women, but women, you know, we have issues. And I’m also trying to address those issues with this platform I found myself. As an ordinary citizen, I didn’t make much progress. Because, you need a platform. So, even if they don’t respect you, they will respect the position, and this position of a First Lady is an amazing platform. And the good thing is that people were already hearing my voice before I became the First Lady. It’s an advantage. Like I said I tried with women, our cultural milieu in which we grow up is so unfair to women. You need to be educated and enlightened to realize this. There, in the village, the women don’t know much. The women will even be the ones to speak against what you are doing. Look at the issue of inheritance, widowhood, all those rituals they do, the women are the champions, but for me to have this platform to begin to educate them, yes. Like I said, I didn’t make much progress. But, I’m like my mother, years back, when I was born, my mother, though she’s old now, about 87 years, she will say nobody must circumcise a female child. My mother was at the forefront against female circumcision even in my own village. These women are still constrained by their environment, so if you have this platform, you can talk more, and, most probably, people will listen.
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu (middle) with some women during one of her breast cancer awareness programme.
This is The 21st Century, We Need to Change
When my husband’s people came for my hand in marriage, my people were angry with my father. They made a long list of items that mg husband’s people must provide. Not my father, he said no. I’m not selling my daughter. Taking such position like my father took could make an impact. For instance, when a family says we don’t want to sell our daughter, inch by inch, you begin to change the mindset of the people. But if you really want to change so many things, you need a higher pedestal. This is where this office has filled-in. Having said that, we cannot continue like this. I decided to look at our daughters, the younger ones, this isl where our emphasis is right now, the younger generation, and I can tell you we are making great impact, starting with Ondo state.
My ICT Solar Vision
Last year, I started the BEMORE Empowerment Foundation where we train girls in solar and ICT, because this is digital age, and they need to key into the digital era of the 21st century. They should not feel inferior before their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Is that the one you trained about 400 girls?
Yes. Last year, we trained 300 of them. This year, we had 400, making it 700 altogether. Now, we have extended it to where I come from, Emeabiam, Owerri West LGA. You know, I told you, I’m very tied to my root, so, we did 60 girls, we now have 760 girls altogether. And each girl went home with a laptop. If we continue at this pace, now, about 760 homes, their daughters just walked in with a laptop, they didn’t know me from Adam, and they don’t have to know me. So today, 760 families are feeling the impact of this administration. We don’t normally do petty, petty stuffs, we believe in life-changing skills. The first 300 girls came from very humble homes. Many of them had never been to Akure before, I kitted all of them. Two T-shirts for the day to day training, and at graduation each got a T-shirt, a pair of trousers and canvass. Majority of them never visited a doctor, all their lives, and I looked at it and said what are we doing in this country? They neither know their blood group nor genotype. Last year, we got excess. That now made us to get partnership. Knowing your genotype and the genotype of your partner, we taught them how important it is because they will soon get married. Many of them didn’t take fruits before this programme. My matron told me that when they are served fruit they push it aside. During their graduation, one of them said, we have not been eating fruit before, now that we are eating it, it’s good for us. It’s an eye opener, how we are unserious in this country.
Let’ talk about these children hawking in the streets. Whenever you drive along Ondo roads, do you see those children hawking on the streets and do you ask question?
They are there. But we are trying to raise the conversation about the issue of the girl-child and here they also have that culture of street trading. There are cultures that are ingrained in the society, you know they have a name for it-Omo-Odo- It has to be a gradual process because these things cannot be wiped out overnight. Like some of those girls that came from Ilaje side, you realize that they are not exposed to anything, because when some parents can no longer support them in school, they go out and start hawking or doing all these menial jobs that you are talking about. But when they are exposed to the other side of the world, especially those children that we trained, they can never go back. We have the M&E(Monitoring and Evaluation) department for all these programmes that we do, we check on them from time to time. Ninety per cent of those girls can never go back. During this year’s programme we brought some of them as ambassadors. We are still in touch with them. Somebody was joking recently that those students are prepared to vote for AKETI”s second tenure, because their orientation has changed completely.
We are having the first anniversary of FOWOSO in December, you will marvel, because they are also going to have their own exhibition time. Last year, I was just thinking that I must do something. These are the things that are burning in me, and I said I have to start small. The first batch, 105 girls and the transformation was amazing. I could not believe it. We were doing it like a jigsaw when we started. It’s not as if we know what was going to happen, but I said, if it doesn’t work, we will go back to the drawing board and re-strategize.
What Inter-tribal Marriage Has Taught Me
Inter-tribal marriage is a good thing if there’s love because, you start out with love and you now begin to work on it. That feeling is never the same. But that attraction will be there. It requires a lot of work. Any man that want inter-tribal or any marriage at all to work, like I keep saying, and you are a modern or career woman, the greatest mistake is when your husband is not giving you any space. Because even those that are in it are complaining already, they are not happy. All this younger generation, they keep calling me, asking what they are going to do. I said, I won’t tell you what to do, except that you need to sit down and work on it. If it doesn’t work, get out. Don’t die in a marriage. It’s a beautiful thing, yes, but you have to work it out. Your husband too has to.
Unlocking The Potentials of Women.
You know, this summit, we are going to have, the theme is “Unlocking Hidden Potentials in Women, A Task for All” This is because our husbands, sometimes,, they are the hindrance. 50 per cent of women make up Nigerian population, I don’t know how many are productive.
You are a woman stay in the house, in the kitchen.
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu distributing Sewing Machines during one of her Women Empowerment Programmes.
Many of us are illiterate, how are we going to contribute to national development. We can’t compare Nigeria and Dubai, but when I was in the university, I never heard of Dubai. I graduated in 1977, there was no place called Dubai. It’s my set that Nigeria had hoped would turn this country around. At that time, there were empowerment training to take care of these sectors, a lot of us went on federal government scholarship abroad. But before our very eyes, this country just went down. It’s our set actually, because we know when Nigeria was up there, and we thought Nigeria should be moving higher and tighter. I used to say that in our time, university admission was based on five credits at a sitting, not this combined NECO /WAEC results. You made it in one sitting. The younger generation didn’t experience Nigeria the way we did. That’s why it hurts really. How can this happen to us. But it’s not too late. I think there is some re-awakening here and there. People are saying we can’t continue this way.
How successful has BRECAN Foundation Been?
BRECAM has really come a long way. When I was diagnosed of cancer 21 years ago, nobody was talking about breast cancer. It was because people were so scared. People thought breast cancer was a foreign disease. I thought so too, even when we were at the university, we never thought it was real, until it comes to you and you now realize that we are all vulnerable. But like I said, I came back from Philippines a new person entirely. If I see a problem or situation I want to know why. Otherwise I won’t be sitting here with you people. People were saying go here, go there, all kinds of innuendoes, that would have taken me away from going to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, but I didn’t listen. I just rushed to the hospital and it was confirmed. I did my surgery, I did everything here. I didn’t go abroad. That’s why, sometimes, I said, how wicked are we to ourselves. You have human resources, but you don’t create an enabling environment for them to work with. I did everything here. People would have expected me to go to UK or US, but I didn’t. I know some times I can be very stubborn, you understand because I want to prove something. Even after my surgery, the normal treatment protocol is that you have chemotherapy, but because I was part of the management team of my disease, I found out that at the stage of my disease you didn’t need chemo. Mine was stage one, that’s why to be uneducated is a disease. Educated and enlightened, yes, there are also educated women, they will tell them to go to Prayer Mountain and they will go.
In my own case, people were saying some people wanted to take my place as my husband’s wife. You know, all kinds of rubbish, I did not listen, I did all my treatment. When I got to the hospital, that’s when I realized the magnitude of this scourge. People were not talking, women were hiding their problems. Enter UCH, if you are lucky, you survive, if you are not, you die. Nobody will even know. And I said God forbid. When I did my surgery, they said, you were brave, and I said yes, join me. Let’s talk about this thing. Now we know that this breast cancer is in stages. If you treat it early, you will survive. So, what stops you from talking? That’s why I put together the Foundation. And I had expected some of us at the UCH at that time to join me. But nobody, they said no, my husband will not agree. I have daughters, I want them to marry. That’s ridiculous. I also have two daughters, and I didn’t think doing this will reduce their chances of getting married. Some of my friends followed me after telling them what happened. If I had decided to keep quiet, nobody would have known. But I confided in my friends, and refused to keep quiet.
You recently spoke about the unavailability of functional breast cancer treatment centers in the country, what is BRECAN doing to change this? Are you planning to establish one in Ondo state?
If that’s the only achievement of my husband’s administration, we will establish a cancer centre. We have started, and like I said, this platform is an amazing platform. You know First Ladies don’t have a budget, but you can attract people, and once they see sincerity of purpose in what you are doing, people will come to you, even partnering with you. The vitamins we distributed was provided by an international body because they think my office can help them. The place we went yesterday, that’s why I had to personally give vitamins A to the children and pregnant women.
Like I said, it’s unfortunate that our people are suffering from cancer. It’s very expensive to treat. Secondly, we don’t have facilities; there are some who don’t even have the money. Radiotherapy is one the cancer treatment protocol. Most cancer patients must have Radiotherapy. But unfortunately, we don’t have functional centers. There are some here and there, in teaching hospitals about six or seven, but they have all broken down. Right now, I don’t think any is functioning. Now, I think that if cancer is taking a great toll on our people, government should be able to provide support in this area. Right now, the federal government is the one shouldering the responsibility, and apparently it’s breaking their back. Government is not good at managing anything, but if you have centres here and there taking care of people, the problem will reduce. So, as a way out, we are already on it anyway. A cancer advisory committee has been set up and I’m the chair. There are people whose area is oncology, chemotherapy, public health. We’ve kick-started it. We met last month and will be meeting in February next year, 2019.
You know I was able to get connected to the global oncology committee, I have a very strong connection there, and they believe in me. They are looking for somebody that has this sincerity of purpose. As the supervisor, if I don’t have it who would? I have the support of the International Atomic Energy in Paris. They were even here sometime ago. The University of Washington, Seattle, they are interested, I was there last month. I was in Harvard. Everybody is interested.
Some students who collected Laptops during one of Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu’s ICT Empowerment programmes.
How that centre will be managed, I have been drumming it to the ears of everybody, tripartite arrangement. The government yes, no matter how useless a government, people will know they are part of it, but management-wise, they are just hopeless. The private sector and NGO will manage it. NGO will serve as the watch-dog, so that we make sure that they don’t mess up the whole place. Much as we are saying that the government influence will be limited, it’s not a profit oriented venture. It’s patient-centred and sustainability will be the key watchword. The treatment centre will be managed in such a way that ordinary Nigerians experiencing cancer can get treatment. At the same time the centre will be managed in a sustainable manner. There’s a template we are working on. Seattle cancer centre which I mentioned, they have a beautiful template if we can adopt it. In this case, you cannot turn away anybody that has cancer, you must not, it would be like a rule guiding the centre when it’s eventually built. Those that can afford it, will sustain it. There are people carrying money looking for treatment everywhere. So, if we can have one functioning, it’s still better than going to Ghana, India and South Africa. Those are the three places Nigerians are going. And even in Ghana where we have some elements of efficiency, they are even saying that Nigerians are coming to spoil their own.
You have survived breast cancer, how would you advise women suffering from same disease, I mean survival tactics?
I was aware about cancer but I did not know it will come to me. Being educated and enlightened, helped, because you can be educated and not enlightened. That’s what I’m telling women in Ondo state, self awareness, being aware of what is going around you is very important.
Women should not be known only for cooking in the kitchen and making babies, because that’s what many Nigerian women’s life is all about. Apart from that, nothing. If you are driving around this area, you see children hawking. If you are concerned, you will ask, why are these children not in school. Most Nigerian women don’t even feel that way, especially the comfortable ones. Those that I refer to as “I better pass my neighbour,” They don’t care. But that self-awareness will open their eyes, change their attitude. That’s what we are doing in these outreaches, telling them to go into the neighborhood and fish out women that have issues. They’ve never done that before. Their own is that I’m the wife of the local government chairman, that’s all, but now we make them realize that there are people down there on the mat, you can do something to help them. Like I said, awareness is key. You know I wasn’t really checking my breast, but that morning I was checking my breast after taking my bath and I felt that lump. I can’t even describe how I felt, I had all these ideas in my head; my children still young, who will look after my children, the man may marry another wife, who will now maltreat my children. I did not understand it, may be the strongest word is that I was traumatized; I don’t think there’s any other word stronger than that. Within one week I was like a dry fish.
But I was determined to survive. The thought of my children, my husband and my family kept me on, and gave me the will to beat cancer. I was determined to survive.
I encourage other women to do the same. It’s tough. But they can.
Still battling to free itself from the noose of N1.04 trillion fine in 2015 for refusing to deactivate unregistered lines, later reduced to N330 billion, and which it yet to fully redeem, $8.1 billion fine for illegal repatriation of said amount between 2007 and 2015 and $2 billion in tax arrears, the decision of South Africa’s telecommunications giant and largest telecommunications operator in Nigeria to delve into the banking sector has raised gave concerns.
Under what basis does she want to go head to head with the traditional banks? What is its success story in Nigeria to qualify it for a banking license? For a foreign telecommunications firm noted for running battles with constituted authorities over shady operations, illegal activities and flouting the laws of the country, what actually is its target for embarking on this new venture, even after decrying poor business environment of Nigeria? Why has it stopped the banking services in South Africa for two years now?
The decision by MTN to delve into the banking sector followed that by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to drive financial inclusion by 2020 which would allow telecommunications firms to provide banking services and give millions of Nigerians without bank accounts access to the so-called mobile money services which has been successful in Kenya.
“We will be applying for a payment service banking licence in Nigeria in the next month or so, and if all goes according to plan, we will also be launching Mobile Money in Nigeria probably around Q2 of 2019,” Rob Shuter, the company Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said.
According to MTN, the company would launch the service in a country because over 60 percent of the 115 million Nigerian population, or 60 percent of the population, does not have a bank account, according to the World Bank.
“It’s a huge opportunity for MTN,” said Byron Lotter, fund manager at Vestact, which owns shares in MTN. “The problem is they are being held hostage by this $10.1 billion demand because their business is too big to leave.”
Shuter, who has led MTN since last year, also said the company would relaunch mobile money services in South Africa, two years after canning the service. However not giving details about its plans to re-launch mobile money in South Africa, he revealed that the South African market that has proved difficult to crack because around 80 percent of the population already have access to traditional bank accounts.
The CBN guidelines addressed to telcos, mobile money operators, banking agents, and the NCC for the payment service banks, as at October 2018, include a N2 million non-refundable license fee and N5 billion capital base. With MTN’s indication of interest in Payment Service Banks (PSB) it is believed that others operators in the country will follow.
Speaking to the Magazine in a chat, Finance expert, Peter Ojuks said: “ It is a pity that upon MTN’s challenges and face-off with government, including its complains about Nigeria’s discouraging business environment, the South African firm wants to start banking services which have not worked for it in its home town.
“ There are fears that it will continue with its rip-off policies of customers if granted the licence, just as it is notorious for poor telecommunications services, charging for unrendered services, unsolicited messages, frequent drop calls et cetera in the telecommunications sector.”
For Chisom Nnaemeka, a student, it further exposes the failure of the nations banking sector and its regulator. “ Though Personally, I don’t like how these networks, especially, MTN rip their subscribers off, the banks are no better in the customer rip-off syndicate whether with ‘Terms and Conditions Apply’ or not, he said.
Nnaemeka on the other hand believes that if the CBN handles it very well, it will be a good thing for the economy. “ It will encourage high level competition that will make the banks to sit up” he added.
However, Mrs. Bimbo Adesola, a petty trader expressed joy of the initiative, but had reservations on MTN’s involvement. “ How can they give lincense to MTN which everybody, including the government knows is stealing from the people? This is another license by government to MTN to kill Nigerians,” she lamented.
Akpan Udobong, a telecommunications expert opine that the business world is a free environment where one can engage in many legal businesses.“ For MTN, upon their many lapses and fraudulent activities, they are supposed to be banned from banking business. But which telecommunication network is better?
“ Truth be told, they have also impacted on the nation and can be allowed. The problem lies on the regulators of the sectors. Who are careless or connive with them to rip-off their customers. This will continue if something tangible is not done to block the loopholes, and this good idea become the nations albatross,” he stated.
History has uncannily been repeating itself in the political chessboard of Nigeria as Buhari was in Kano for political campaign forty eight hours after Boko Haram slaughter of the army working under the aegis of Operation Lafia Dole.
Recall that in the wake of the abduction of Chibok girls in 2014, President Jonathan did a misstep of going to campaign in Kano immediately after the abduction. This was capitalized on by the opposition party to highlight such as being insensitive.
Buhari only feebly tried to react to the death of over 100 soldiers massacred by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, by calling for security meeting about forty eight hours after the event. He was said to have sent a top-bras military officer to chad to find solutions to the massacre that reports indicate has been happening on daily basis but are being under reported.
Also recall that former President Jonathan traveled by himself to Chad then, where Ali Modu Sherif, who is said to have a lot of influence over the Chadian president, went before him in an advance party.
Buhari has, however, promised to visit the site of the massacre soon. Jonathan also belatedly visited Chibok.
Jonathan had employed a south African mercenary firm, Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection International (STTEP), to help combat the menace of Boko Haram. They gathered their intelligence and were making in routes in collaboration with the Nigerian military. Fifth columnists betrayed the mercenary group and they fell into an ambush by Boko Haram, allegedly based on tip off. One of them lost his life in the process, and they became suspicious of the Nigerian military. They were on the verge of defeating Boko Haram when Buhari took over and cancelled their contract.
But Eeben Barlow, STTEP chairman, said on sunday that Nigerian soldiers have been reaching out to them for help since the Buhari administration terminated his company’s services.
According to him, Buhari’s administration refused to allow his company to complete the “degrading and destroying” Boko Haram in Borno.
Below is the full text of the facebook post.
THE ONGOING CONFLICT IN NORTH-EASTERN NIGERIA
The recent spate of Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria have negated President Buhari’s claims when he assumed power in 2015 that the radical Islamist group (many being thugs who have hijacked the religion of Islam for their own purposes) had been ‘technically defeated’. His narrative that Boko Haram was ‘technically defeated’ was false as soon as he uttered those words.
There is, in a purely military sense, no such thing as a ‘technical defeat’—something the President, as an ex-military man ought to know. Sadly, he also chose to make the successes of 7 Infantry Division and 72 Mobile Strike Force (MSF) his own, when it wasn’t.
President Buhari and his team were, however, part of the political leader group that led the vocal charge about STTEP’s presence in Nigeria, making it a burning political issue even before they assumed office. Indeed, they made it known that the company’s presence would not be tolerated under his office.
The initial 3-phase campaign strategy (known as ‘Operational Anvil’) to degrade and destroy BH in Borno State, was rejected by his advisors. Instead, pressure forced only a small part of the campaign to be successfully implemented before we were ordered to pack up and leave.
They were, however, quite happy to allow the armed forces to receive both substandard training and the incorrect equipment provided by both foreign governments and their PMCs—along with the worst possible ‘military advice’. When this approach failed, the military could be blamed for any lack of success.
Whereas it remains a government’s prerogative to ‘hire-and-fire’ who they so wish, it is sad that the President preferred defeat above victory, as soldiers can only do what they are trained, equipped, and led to do.
Do it poorly, and they die—and the innocent and defenseless suffer.
Many of the men we trained as part of 72 Mobile Strike Force have remained in contact with us (STTEP), pleading for our return to Nigeria. They have also told us that they have been used to a point of exhaustion. But, rumors also bubble beneath the surface that President Buhari viewed Boko Haram as an instrument that could reduce the force and standing of the military and thereby protect him from a possible coup d’état.
Over the past few weeks, Boko Haram have executed numerous attacks on the Nigerian Army, causing numerous casualties and capturing massive amounts of equipment and ammunition. Raids on villages and the slaughter and kidnapping of the innocent and defenseless has continued—and in some instances intensified—under the reign of the President Buhari’s government. Sadly, the government has yet to issue a statement informing its citizens of what is really happening—and how a ‘technically defeated’ enemy can be so effective.
As Boko Haram’s activities and actions increased, so too did the silence about the increasing problems in Nigeria’s Borno State. Prior to, and following our departure from Nigeria, we issued numerous intelligence warnings to his government. These warnings covered the implications of not allowing the 72 MSF to annihilate BH in Borno province; the plans by Boko Haram to rearm and escalate their activities; the implications of regional spill-over, the impact on the armed forces; and so forth. These intelligence warnings were all rejected in favour of a false belief. Neighboring countries were advised not to listen to us as it was claimed to be a cheap attempt to ‘get a contract’. Chad, Cameroon and Niger are now also reaping the benefits of rejecting intelligence in favor of an agenda-driven narrative aimed at destabilizing an entire region—a region where Nigeria remains a prime target.
The reality is that these forces can be defeated. But victory requires more than a few soundbites. Soundbites do not—and never have—resulted in victory over an enemy.
Ultimately, the innocent suffer and soldiers die, and every tactical victory Boko Haram achieves merely incentivizes them to continue. This also gives impetus to the plans and actions of other radical terror groups across the continent.
North-eastern Nigeria is an example of what can happen when intelligence is rejected in favor of a false narrative.
Don’t blame the armed forces when poor political decisions result in the deaths of people.
More facts have emerged how the Federal Operations Unit. FOU, Zone A, Ikeja , officials, busted a N150 million bribe, going by the current exchange rate of N360.00 to a dollar, to facilitate the release of 40 suspected Containers of 40 ft each, loaded with cartons of tramadol and other brands of Pharmaceutical products allegedly shipped from the Asian country of India into Nigeria a fortnight ago.
The Magazine learnt that the importer with his agent may have succeeded in penetrating the ranks of the Customs and other security agencies personnel at the Apapa port by by giving them some bundles of $100,000 , equivalent of N100 million, going by the current exchange rate of N360.00 to a dollar to a dollar to facilitate the release of the cargoes at the port. But the importer’s problem was said to have started when she allegedly made available N50 million to bribe FOU, Zone A officials.
The importer’s contact person may have been told to reach out to the officials of the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team if she wants the Consignments to be delivered at the Importer’s warehouse without being intercepted on the road and transferred to the Command for examination which may result into seizure and subsequent destruction as allowed by the Customs and Excise Management Act,CEMA, cap204.
The importer was said to have made the money available in dollars for the bribe because of the risk of carrying huge amount of naira in a Ghana Must Go bags which may attract Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, officials. The contact person of the importer may have been told to get in touch with Riks Lura , a Chief Superintendent of Customs and Head of the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team to strike the deal. She got it wrong. This is because Riks was a wrong person to meet for such a dirty deals as he was ready expose the suspects and ensure their arrest, detention and subsequent prosecution.
He may have smelt a rat when he was contacted with the bribe offer of the N50 million to soften the ground for the importer to take delivery of the suspected 40 Containers of Pharmaceutical drugs of 40ft each without being disturbed by his officers on the road.It was gathered that Mohammed Aliyu, the Command Comptroller had asked him to play along with them and the Apapa Customs officials . The alleged N50 million bribe may have given the FOU officials ammunition to confront their counterpart at Apapa port to know the identity of the suspects for better interaction.
The Apapa Customs personnel may have played into the hand of the FOU , Zone A, no nonsense officials, by giving out the name of the suspects and where to locate them in Lagos, thus paving the way for their arrest and detention. They were said to have been transferred to Abuja for detention and further interrogation because it was a Headquarters assignment. Insiders told the Magazine that the importer had prepared his travel documments when information filtered out that the deal had leaked but was nabbed by the vigilant FOU officers before she could find her way out of the country.
Note that the Magazine had reported in one of its editions about the suspected Containers of Pharmaceutical drugs mostly tramadol, being shipped into Nigeria through the premier port,Apapa and how dollars in one hundred thousand bundles each was provided to bribe Customs officials to facilitate the release of the cargoes.Tthe Magazine had also reported how Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and the Customs Comptroller General, gave the nod to Mohammed, the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller, to deploy his officers to Apapa port in order to identify the suspected Containers tracked by the Customs Ruling Center officials at Abuja which were discharged at APM terminal.
Armed with the information, Riks was said to have mobilised his officers between Monday , November 12, 2018 and Friday, November 16,2018, to take over the terminal to start their work. They may have kept it a closely guided secret to avoid the information being leaked out which may give the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA and terminal officials including the security operatives at the port to resort to plan B of leaking the operation to the importer.The team was said to have examined 23 Containers out of the suspected 40 Containers, despite the non challant attitude of the Apapa Customs personnel.
Aliyu Mohammed: Given A Mandate To Auction the vehicles found Other Items Found In the WarehouseFriday, November 17, 2018. This was also captured in its report by The Source Magazine. Several cartons of the Indian manufactured tramadol drugs were said to have been found in the intercepted 40ft Container.
Ali, the Customs Comptroller General may not have wanted to rely soley on the FOU, Zone A, report to form his opinion about the pharmaceutical products imports but to see things himself at Apapa port and the FOU, Zone A premises.
He may have been convinced about the report of the tramadol and other Pharmaceutical drugs Shipment when he saw the suspected Containers at the port . ”Seeing is believing ”, he said.
Prior to his arrival at FOU, Zone A, premises at Ikeja, Mohammed , the Comptroller, was said to have made adequate preparation to receive him and also gurantee his safety. He may have taken a cue from the security arrangement at the Customs Headquarters where sand bags and machinegun was mounted at the gate to prepare sand bags close to the Command gate , where a machine gun, operated by a fierce looking officer to provide security for Comptroller General, seen by security experts as a gradual introduction of military culture into Customs operations . Mohammed may have set up the sand bags where the machine gun was mounted to show that he cares for the safety of the Bauchi state born Customs Comptroller General to win his heart.
Eye witness account disclosed that the suspects who were detained in Abuja, werr flown to Lagos on Thursday, November 22, 2018, under tight security and detained , awaiting the arrival of the Customs boss to the Command from Apapa, to make a public show of the tramadols drugs shipment and the bundles of dollars in one hundred thousands each offered to his men at the seaport and FOU, Zone A, as bribe to facilitate the release of the suspected 40 Containers of 40 fteach from the eaport .
The Comptroller General was said to have demanded to see one of thecartons of the alleged drugs when arrived at the Command premise. A carton was said which was said to have been brought down from the detained X 40ft Container and ripped open for him to see the contents by the officers. He was said to have taken out one of the packs in the carton as sample but looked calm , an indication that he was not happy how Nigerian importers could go to any extent to import such dangerous drugs into the country in the guise of doing business to make profit. Abubakar Bashir, Comptroller, Apapa Command, may have made the Customs Comptroller General to believe that his officers at the APM terminal blew the whistle open about the tramadol import and the thousands of dollars bribe scandal by the importer through the contact person, according to sources to distort the information.
The tramadol shipment could not have been much of a headache to the Customs Comptroller General than the rot he saw at the Command Mechanical workshop turned warehouse which was littered with several rickety vehicles and abandoned Containers which had been there over the years and thus, overgrown by weeds. officers on guard of the warehouse confirmed that the warehouse is a home of snakes of different types. The Comptroller General confirmed the Magazine story of plans by the Service to fast tract the auction of the abandoned seized vehicles and Containers that litter the warehouse. He was said to have directed Mohammed to set up a Committee to facilitate the auctioning of the vehicles and abadoned Containers in the warehouse to the public.
The FOU, Zone A, Customs boss was also said to have been given the mandate to auction the seized foreign parboiled rice , Vegetable Oil , Used Clothing, shoes and bags in the warehouse. It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed Ali, the Customs Comptroller General in 2016 to evacuate the the seized perishable items to the Internally Displaced Peoples Camps, IDPs, in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Edo states. The states, Ali disclosed were requested to bring their trucks to collect their allocations but were still finding it difficult to do so.
Investigation by the Magazine shows that the states may not be willing to provide trucks to evacuate the items from Customs warehouses across the country because of Buhari’s directive to the Customs Comptroller General to supply the perishable items to the IDP Camps.
The refusal of the states, where the IDP Camps were located to provide the trucks to evacuate their allocations of foreign parboiled rice and other items in Customs warehouses across the country may have angered the Customs Comptroller General to take up the matter with a higher Authority. Already, he was said to have ordered the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller to set up a Committee that would handle the auction of such perishable items, particular foreign parboiled rice and vegetable oil to the public including the vehicles found in the warehouse which had been there for years .
He has every reason to auction the perishable items to the public. According to him,”there are many Nigerians who are hungry and who needed the food items to feed in order to stay alive’ than waaiting for the state to provide the trucks to evacuate the items from Customs warehouses”. Ali fears that the items may no longer be good for human Consumption if it continues to remain the warehouse and therefore had to be disposed to the public as quickly as possible.
The directive to the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller, may be applicable to the other Customs Area Comptrollers where there are much much of such perishable items in their warehouses. Take for instance at Seme Command alone, there are about 17,000 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50Kg each , that had been seized in the last two months and kept in the Command warehouse by Muhammed Uba Garba, the Area ,Comptroller, begging for evacuation to creat additional space to keep other bags of seized rice Contrabands.
When Muhammed Uba Garba, former Comptroller Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, was redeployed to Seme Command, last August, nobody gave him opportunity to succeed. This is because of the difficult terrain and the age-long tradition between the indigenes of the Border Communities between Nigeria and Republic of Benin, who believed that whatever they do for a living, including smuggling of Contrabands was right.
More worrisome was the activities of the traditional rulers in the Border Communities who provide protection for smugglers found in their various areas of jurisdiction and the security operatives who indulge in smuggling operations, thus making it difficult for Customs personnel at the land border to do their work as expected.
but given his experience at FOU, Zone A, Muhammed, according to sources, was not ready to jump into the anti-smuggling operations in the Seme border axis without understanding the environment. He was said to have taken the month of August, to study the environment and pay courtesy calls on the traditional rulers and his counterparts in the other security agencies to rub minds with them and solicit for their support.
Based on his findings on why indigenes of the Border Communities take to smuggling , he was forced to go back to the drawing board to regig his tactics of crushing the foreign parboiled rice and vehicles smugglers in the area. This is because, these are the two major items that were mostly smuggled in the area. It would be recalled that foreign parboiled rice and vehicle imports , through the land border was banned by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 1, 2017, thus giving the Customs officials the mandate to implement it. This is not the case in Cotonou port, Republic of Benin and other ports in the West African sub-region, where importers are allowed to import such items into their country including poutry products, seecond hand bags, clothing and shoes and textiles.
As a prelude to carrying out a successful anti-smuggling Campaigns in the Seme axis, the Customs Comptroller was said to have made some changes in the Command Enforcement and Operations Unit. He was also said to have made some changes in the patrol team in readiness to take on the smugglers found on the land border area. He may have avoided encroaching on the marine environment because it is the responsibility of the Western Marine Command, the Customs Amphibitious Unit to do so.
Insiders told the Magazine that when he was satisfied that he had set up the necessary structure and with the pledge of the leadership of other security agencies to support him in the Customs anti-smuggling war , he quickly mobilised his men into action, forcing smugglers who could not penetrate the ranks of the officers and other security operatives to carry out their nefarious trade to describe him as the ”lion of Seme”.
only recently at the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, managed Seme-Krake, joint Border post building constructed by the European Union Commission, EUC, Conference Center, Dominic Asogwa, Comptroller , Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, was said to have showed up at a media event organised by the Customs Comptroller at the border.
Agents who witnessed the event said this is the first time a top official of another sister agency, particular, NIS, could honour an invit-
Muhammed Uba Garba: Comptroller Seme Command Addressing The Press.
ation from a Customs Comptroller at the Seme Command to join him at a media organised event, showing the spirit of a new working relationship between the Customs and other security agencies at the land border. This had never been the case over the years. In the past the other security agencies had ganged up against the Customs to sabotage the Service anti-smuggling efforts.
The Customs boss had disclosed that the Command could not have achieved much in its anti-smuggling war in the last two months in the Command without the support of his counterparts at the sister agencies, particular Immigration, because of the information supplied about smuggling activities in areas where Customs presence are not much noticeable.
That much was confirmed by Asoqwa, the NIS, who confirmed that there are several remote areas in the Seme axis where only Immigrations officials could be found , thus forcing his officers to serve the duo purpose of being informants to the Customs Authority at Seme and controlling the movement of persons , goods and services , across the border.
It was not surprising why Muhammed, the Seme Customs boss could beat his chest that in two mont, the Command seized 16,729 of 50Kg bags of foreign parboiled rice, equivalent of 27 trailer loads of rice, worth about N302.48 million, 115 cartons of poultry products , valued at about N728654.00and 57 Jerry cans of Vegetable Oil of 50 litres each. this is in addition to 1111 pieces of used tyres, 71 Jerry cans of petroleum Products and 378 bags of 50Kg each of Sugar.
One seizure which may have gladdened the Customs Authorities at Abuja was the seizure of 21 vehicles, both exotic and those used as means of Coveyance by smugglers. One of such , exotic vehices, was a Toyota 4 Wheel Drive, 2016 model. Another is a Toyota Sienna. Investigation shows that most of the seized vehicles have duly registered plate numbers. This may have forced the Customs Comptroller to take up the matter with the officials of the Federal Road Safety, FRSC, to fish out the suspects.
The Command was also said to have seized within the period 40 bales of used Clothing, 57 packs of tramadol, 387 sacks of Coconut and other general goods worth N52 million. Given an insider information, the Comptroller disclosed that the Duty Paid Value, DPV, of the seized items in the two months of operations in the Command alone was about N839.51 million.
Customs sources told the Magazine that seven persons who could not escape when the Customs anti-smuggling personnel swooped on them in their operations were arrested and detained. The Customs Authorities may be handicapped in dealing with the suspects the Customs ay as the law did not allow the Service to detain any suspect beyond 48 hours. It was not surprising why the most of the suspects were quickly handed over to the police which have the powers to prosecute such suspects. the Magazine learnt that some of the suspects were dragged to Court for prosecution by the police and subsequently jailed based on the evidence supplied by the Customs Command while some others were granted bail .
The renewed war against smugglers at the Seme Command may have forced many of them to relocate to Ogun state where the NIS confirmed that there are about 84 illegal routes that could be used by smugglers to carry out their nefarious trade. Others were said to have relocated to Oyo, Ekiti and the northern axis.
Many believe that Muhammed may have not allowed the anti-smuggling war in the Command to becloud his drive for revenue generation in the Command. He was said to have blocked all the possible areas of revenue leakages in the Command, particular in the, Baggage ECOWAS, Economic Trade Liberalisation Scheme and the Valuation Units. Over the years, the Command had lost billions of naira on under payment as the Valuation Unit had no standard Value forgoods and vehicles.
Most of the Valuation officers were said to have relied on goggles to give them the market price of dutiable goods and vehicle brands. The Customs Comptroller was said to have changed all that by getting the relevant duties that ouught to be paid on imported goods including vehicle brands at the FOU, Zone A. This may have forced the Seme Command Valuation officers to sit up. This is evident going by the revenue that was said to have been generated by the Command within the period. An elated Muhammed said, ” our resolute determination to succeed resulted in an impressive revenue generation of about N2billion”.
Until she died on Saturday, September 22, 2018, perhaps, not many Nigerians, outside the music industry, knew Efemena Okedi. She was the wife of late reggae music star, Ras Kimono. Popular within her circle as Efe, she also doubled as her husband’s manager. She died suddenly, barely three months after her husband, also, died suddenly on his way to the USA.
Efe was buried about a month ago. So why am I just talking about her provocative passing now? In fact, I asked myself the same question several times, just before I stared writing. And, each time, I drew blank. But within me, I know why.
It is because of the anger I have haboured against my country since her avoidable death. It is because of the anger I have haboured against the leadership of my country these past many years. It is because of the anger I habour against politicians who have ruined our lives by promising much, and doing barely little. These guys have collectively reduced our lives to nothing.
It is this anger that boiled over this last Sunday when the campaign for the 2019 general elections officially started. And, as I listened to their secular sermons which have started tumbling out of their mouths, I remembered Efe and the cruel circumstances which led to her death. I remembered others like Efe whose lives were cruelly cut short by an uncaring system. I weep at the helplessness of their families. I weep at opportunities squandered. And I weep at hope raised and dashed.
Ras Kimono and his wife, Efe: Died.
Following are the circumstances of Efe’s death as narrated by her elder sister, Mabel Okedi, who was with her on the tragic day.
According to Mabel, she and Efe had eaten what could now pass as the last super just before 9.00pm, on arrival from a party. But at about 3.00am when she woke up to use the rest room, Efe complained about some pains around her chest area.
Here are Mabel’s words as reported by the New Telegraph newspaper which I use here as a guide.
Mabel: “At about 3.00am, I woke up to go and ease myself. As I got back to the room, she called me ‘mummy’, and said that her chest was paining her. I thought it was a minor thing, so, I used Aboniki balm to massage her chest. Later, I asked her if she was getting better, and told her to lie down on her side. She said she was getting better.
“But later, all of a sudden, she held her chest, and was breathing with difficulty. I shouted, and called her son, Onome, and within five minutes, all of us, including my other sisters, rushed her to Anson Hospital.”
Nigeria is not a country where one would easily dial a number during such emergencies and get help from medical personnel. One is usually at one’s own.
Anyway, for Efe and her family, the Nigerian factor started at this hospital. The drama, the unseriousness, the irresponsibility, the callousness, were all on display here.
Mabel: “When we got to the hospital, the gate to the street was locked. So, we honked several times, and shouted that it was an emergency. But there was no response. ”
In Nigeria, we live in a big prison yard. Because of the scary security situation, most streets across the country have gates which, at times are locked as early as 10pm. When one has an emergency, and needs to rush out, it’s near impossible. Many times, the guards manning such gates either wander away, or simply refuse to open. When one angrily confronts them later, they explain they were not sure who were at the gate. You know, they could be armed robbers, kidnappers, or assassins. You shake your head and walk away. They are right.
Now, add the gated streets to our equally “gated houses” – main entrance, doors, windows, all the passages leading to the rooms and, our Kirikiri maximum prison is complete.
But, forgive me. I digressed. I was talking about Efe’s arrival at the Anson hospital where a locked gate denied her entry. From Anson, they decided to rush to another hospital, this time, County Hospital, in the Ogba area of Lagos.
Again, Mabel: “When we got there, it was the same thing. We knocked on the gate several times, while also honking, calling the attention of the doctors or nurses that we have an emergency. It took quite some time before some nurses eventually came out LEISURELY (emphasis, mine), and asked us to bring the patient in. We asked them to assist us”.
Dear Readers, I emphasised the word leisurely because in many hospitals, that is an everyday story. Many nurses, and even doctors, hardly understand what an emergency is. The state of a patient hardly bothers them. They take their time. They reluctantly attend to the patient. And imagine this: Efe’s family had to beg them to assist them bring her down from the car into the hospital. When they leisurely came out to answer them, they apparently walked back into the hospital, without appreciating the state of the patient. Perhaps, there was no wheel chair in the hospital, which may not be entirely surprising.
Many of our hospitals have no wheel chairs. They have no ambulance. No incubator. And I am not talking about oxygen yet. There are no mosquitoe nets, treated or untreated, A number of those who have are better off without them. They are tattered and dusty. Mosquitoes feed on patients. When one is admitted for Malaria, one’s condition worsens. In one of the hospitals in Owerri where a cousin of mine was admitted, I watched in shock as nurses handled patients without wearing gloves. Reason: The patients came in bringing no gloves with them. The nurses were not worried about their own safety. How much are disposable gloves? Why not buy and bill tbe patients? Some have no power generating set. When the public power supply goes off, especially in the night, such hospitals are enveloped in darkness. Patients stay in hospitals and develop bed sores. And finally, die of infection there in the hospitals.
So you ask, where is the ministry of health? What are its officials doing? Whatever happened to supervision? Why are hospitals with no wheel chair, no ambulance, and no mosquitoe nets allowed to operate? I thought those were basic things. But back to Efe.
After the nurses took their time before assisting them, they casually informed them there was no doctor in the hospital. Repeat: No doctor in the hospital. So, where were the doctors? They left the hospital for nurses who didn’t know they would assist a patient in an emergency down from the car into the hospital.
In desperation, Mabel’s daughter phoned Anson hospital’s doctor, remember, their first port of call. Apparently, they are familiar with the doctor and the hospital. She frantically told the doctor of Efe’s situation, emphasising that they had been there before, but that the gate was locked against them. The doctor asked them to go back to the hospital. His kind advice: knock harder, somebody will answer you.
Mabel: “So, we went back to Anson Hospital, and, after sometime, the security man came and opened the gate for us. We told them we have an emergency, only for them to tell us that there was no doctor around.”
Dear readers, please, understand that as this family desperately ran from one hospital to the other, Efe was reeling in pains, and gradually dying. If the Anson doctor knew he was not in the hospital, why ask them to go back there? Why didn’t he rush down to the hospital, or at least, given his nurses instructions on what to do?
Why does the ministry of health allow one-doctor hospitals to operate? But Mabel and family were not discouraged. They did not give up. Their mother and sister was in serious pains. They did not give up hope.
From the fruitless second missionary journey to Aston hospital, they proceeded to yet another hospital. This time, the Blue Cross Hospital.
Again. Mabel: “We then rushed to the Blue Cross Hospital where after eight minutes, the doctor came out, checked her, and told us that her pulse was dropping, and that what they needed to treat her was not available there. He then told us to go to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. So, we again rushed down to LASUTH, where eventually, the doctor came out to see her, and said she was dead on arrival. He said he suspected it was cardiac arrest.” And this conclusion, without any autopsy.
And so, Efe died. LASUTH served only as a mortuary for her. And why not? Life-saving hours had been lost while the family desperately ran from one hospital to the other.
Which country treats its citizen this callously?
Since Mabel’s story, there has been no outrage. Not from the Lagos State Hospitals Management Board, or the Ministry of Health. Not even from the industry where she and her husband belonged. It has only been lamentations. “Oh, if it is painful she died three months after her husband died. Oh, what a wicked world.”
I disagree. The world is not wicked. It is a beautiful gift from God to us. We made it wicked. And the family? They must have resigned itself to fate. You know, it’s God’s will. It’s destiny. So what can we do? Again, I disagree. It was neither destiny, nor God’s will.
The family can do plenty.
Unless Mabel is not telling the truth, the family should petition the Medical and Dental Board, and then sue all the hospitals, except LASUTH, for everything they have got.
In more civilized climes, a board of inquiry would have been set up since Mabel’s story. Not here. Nobody cares. We have all developed well-fortified shock-absorbers. So nothing shocks us any more.
For the records, Efe’s case is not an isolated one. Everyday, Nigerians die because of some irresponsible attitude of some medical personnel and an uncaring system. Many hospitals are worse than sick bays. While a number of their nurses are not trained, the doctors are too busy and/or over worked. A number of hospitals operate from two or three bedroom flats. Their environment is dirty and smelly. And nobody cares. They have no doctors. And the authorities ,allegedly, after a handshake, turn blind eyes and deaf ears.
Many of us were still quite young when a coup d’etat ushered in the late Major General Murtala Mohammed into office. One of the reasons for the coup was the state of our hospitals. Until he was killed in a bloody coup, nothing was done in that area. Since then, we have had other coups, and it is the same story. Once in office, it is business as usual.
Civilian regimes have fared even worse. It is the same secular sermon. They promise well equipped hospitals. Not true. Isn’t it a shame that the Federal government does not have the will to establish even one hospital which one can truly call EXCELLENT? We just mouth it. It is not that we don’t have the manpower, or the capacity. It is just that it is not our priority. We have brilliant men and women in the health sector. But there is nothing for them to work with. Those of them, who left the country in frustration to work elsewhere, are some of the best in the world. From nurses to doctors, they are some of the best in the world.
The other time when a stranger brought Ebola here, Nigeria had no laboratory to confirm what it was that entered our shores.
A small, less rich African country came to our rescue. Everyday, our leaders talk about good healthcare system. They are just talking. They budget large sums of money for it. We see nothing. They claim they have refurbished hospitals. We see nothing new. Not even our Teaching Hospitals are any better than the others. They are starved of funds. And so, can’t do much. Even at the National Hospital, Abuja, a baby of former First Lady, Mariam Abacha, it is the same story. It can hardly boast of adequate modern equipment.
The other day, it was our First Lady, Aisha Buhari, who, courageously, exposed the rot at the state house clinic, Aso Rock. There were not even consumables, she lamented.
Bayelsa is the only state one can confirm that, yes, there is ,at least, one good hospital, with all kinds of modern equipments, and it is efficiently ran too. The other day, former President Olusegun Obasanjo confirmed he went to Bayelsa for his annual physical instead of going to London. And, he didn’t spend even one third of what he would have spent if he had gone to London. He was excited that it was the same equipment, and the same procedure. No difference. Other states should replicate Bayelsa.
Now that all of them are out again asking for our votes, promising us paradise on earth, we should be bold enough to ask them questions. How can we avoid more Efes? How come our hospitals are the way they are? How come mortuary has become one of the most lucrative businesses we have? Many hospitals are making fortunes from it. Individuals are investing in the dead, instead of in the living.
While I lament Efe’s fate and ask questions, let me end with this quote, allegedly, from Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, sent to me by a friend of mine. It goes thus:
” – When an African becomes rich, his bank accounts are in Switzerland.
– He travels to France for medical check-up.
– He invests in Germany.
– He buys from Dubai.
-He consumes Chinese.
– He prays in Rome or Mecca.
– His children study in Europe.
– He travels to Canada, USA, Europe for tourism.
– If he dies, he will be buried in his native country of Africa.
– Africa is just a cemetery.
How could a cemetery be developed?”
Please, in place of Africa, read Nigeria.
A big brother who cannot take care of his siblings because of wrong priorities is big for nothing! It’s a shame!!
Recent events in the polity may be indicative of a jugular war between the Aso Rock Cabal- the de-facto Presidency, and a National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, A PC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has been embroiled in controversies majorly involving the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and many of the governors elected under the aegis of the All Progressives Congress, APC. The crisis was not unrelated to the primary elections organized by the party under the Party chairman, which was done under controversial circumstances. But insinuations were rife last week that Oshiomhole is just the hand of Esau to Tinubu’s voice of Jacob.
It is no longer news that Tinubu’s alleged presidential ambition drives him to sometimes unethical acts. In the political chess game, he is acknowledged a master-until the Aso Rock Cabal, hitherto referred to in hushed tones as the De facto presidency (remember Babachir Lawal and the “who is the presidency saga?) showed their manipulative hands.
Right from the onset, Tinubu had planned to control the National Assembly besides nominating the vice presidency. That was not to be: there was a Bukola Saraki to stop him via a national Assembly coup. The ambition never went well with former Chairman of the party, John Oyegun, who was said to be more loyal to President Buhari, or by extension, the Cabal. The cabal was said to be headed by the Chief of staff to the President, Mallam Aba Kyari. He was said to be the “Capo de Tuti” among the various factions that reared their heads taking advantage of President Buhari’s vulnerability due to illness to run the government by proxy. Sources indicate that other power blocks were effectively neutralized by the Abba Kyari group, including the secretary to the government. Now, it appears there is only one basic group.
This group, it was alleged, made it their business to neutralize Tinubu completely since they feel he is becoming too strong . Tinubu’s ambition has been said to be the presidency. He had toyed with the idea of replacing Osinbajo as the presidential candidate of the party if Buhari honors his initial promise to do only one term. To achieve this, he needed to strategize and enthrone only those loyal to him in the APC primaries. But he has since shifted focus to 2023.
The first thing was to effect a change at the helm of affairs. Knowing Adams Oshiomhole as one of his diehard loyalists, and knowing his lack of popularity, he insisted on voice vote during the convention. Oyegun was out, Oshiomhole in.
With the entrance of Oshiomhole, the new chairman was said to have started a war on all Tinubu’s detractors. In fact, Rochas Okorocha, Imo state governor was said to have alleged that Oshiomhole has been against him because he has refused Tinubu in-route into South east. According to him, Tinubu cannot be allowed to pocket South east politically as he has done in South west and a part of North Central.
Sources in the know indicate that all the states having crisis in their primaries are places where they want to place Tinubu loyalists. They are exploiting the political weakness of the man in Aso Rock. Recently, Senator Shehu Sanni was alleged to have said the governors have no respect for Buhari.
The game was preparations, this time for 2023 elections, when, according to Bukola Saraki, Senate President, Tinubu will be out in full force for the presidency. Then he will have his loyalists strategically placed nationwide.
Adams Oshiomhole
Tinubu’a antics have not gone unnoticed by the cabal. But they still need him for the South west vote. He has become a necessary evil that Oyegun was once quoted as saying that he planted Oshiomhole to destabilize APC. The resistance of his plan of planting his structures all over has resulted in crisis in the party in states where these overtures has been made. The cabal has the backing of the Security apparatus. Tinubu has the control of the press.Each party is deploying its own arsenal. And Oshiomhole acts like a bull in the China shop. The former union leader appears to make his own rules as he does his master’s bidding.
Recently the cabal struck via the Directorate of Security Services, DSS. Some of the aggrieved governors wrote to DSS, since they do not trust that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, will respond since Tinubu may be involved. In fact, EFCC has recently told an Abuja Court that they cannot prosecute oshiomhole because it will cause so much political crisis. They tried to force him to sign a resignation letter-a strange request from the DSS. This Magazine was told that Tinubu immediately flew to Abuja to intervene, and met the Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello. As expected, they carried out the task without the knowledge of the sitting president that many mischievously referred to as lame duck. Tinubu immediately left for London for “Medical checkup” and Oshiomhole jetted out to the United states. From the US he flew to London where he had a strategy conference with Tinubu before coming back home.s it is now, with the approval of his people by INEC, Tinubu appears to have won the first round. And he is waiting for the final onslaught during the elections, where he will test his willpower against the cabal.
He has already done his test run using the Ekiti and Osun elections.And latter Kwara. But how he will handle the judiciary, who may overturn his successes in those places, remains to be seen.
Abba Ukpai is an angry 9mobile subscriber. Why? The way the network bombards his mobile telephone on daily basis with unsolicited text messages has become a thing of worry. “ For some months now, the network has continued to steal N20 daily from my account for games I never subscribed to, which makes a total of N620 monthly.
“ Even after severally sending the 5510 stop code from 9mobile, the messages of nuisance have continued. Unfortunately also, since I sent the NCC 2442 stop code, the messages seem to have increased, even after assuring me that it would be effected after 24 hours. My situation has become so pathetic that these messages most times disturb my night sleep,” he lamented.
Alhaji SikiruAlamu, also a 9mobile subscriber lamented thus: “The network has encouraged the menace. I used to get messages I don’t want, even very early in the morning. For example, a particular message with 361 as Code showing: Hello your VideoStore subscription has been renewed. Service costs N20/day. To download videos click http://videostore.ng. To unsubscribe, text STOP to 6363. I sent STOP several times, but the message kept coming. I don’t know what to do again.”
Maggie Udoh, Airtel subsciber lamented that she was always receiving many text messages she never subscribed. She told the Magazine that each time these messages are sent to her phone, “ Airtel deducts N50 from my airtime which they claim is for the ring tune I subscribed to. When?
This is not only fraudulent but unjust because I never subscribed to any caller ring back tune,” she said.
MTN and Globacom are not exonerated from this as their customers are also lamenting this fraud. For instance, an MTN subscriber, Tunji Adenike said the problem is a planned one to rip-off the customers for years now.
“Almost everyday in 2016 I received the message: “MTN Gadget Care”. I called 180, they asked me to press some buttons, which I did, but the message kept coming and they kept deducting money from my account which is the sad thing. It is however pathetic that anytime they stopped one crazy text message, another one appears from them also,” he stated.
He further lamented that this problem has continued even with NCC’s 2441 stop code which he believes is faulty and not working, although a good move to stop it. “ Maybe, they are in league with NCC,” he added.
The Magazine’s findings reveal that following much complaints by subscribers on the menace of unsolicited text messages and voice calls from mobile operators, in pursuant of Section 53 of the Nigerian Communications Act, NCC, in May 2016, barred mobile number operators from sending out unsolicited text messages to subscribers. Consequently, the Commission gave the network operators up till June 30, 2016 to stop sending unsolicited text messages or calls to subscribers or face a N5 million fine if they failed to comply with the directive, and N500, 000 per day additional fine for as long as the operator continued to flout the directive.
A total of 13 MNOs were issued with the directive. They include MTN, Airtel, Smile, Etisalat, Globacom and Visafone.
Others are Starcomms, Megatech Engineering Limited, Gicell Wireless Limited, Danjay Telecoms, Gamjitel, Multilinks and Natcom. These operators were asked to set up the NCC short code of 2442 for subscribers to opt-in to the “Do Not Disturb” (DND) database restricting unsolicited marketing messages.
According to the commission, it shall be mandatory for mobile operators to create sufficient awareness to its subscribers on the existence of the DND on their networks. They shall also comply with the quarterly and reporting template prescribed by the NCC to ensure feedback and compliance.
Unfortunately, The Source found out that most mobile telecommunication subscribers are ignorant of NCC’s 2442 ‘ Do Not Disturb’ stop code. It also learnt that the operators have not created considerable awareness to their customers on the stop code, leading to the increased complaints by over 12 million subscribers on the issue to the NCC.
But James Egboh, a civil servant told the Magazine in a chat: “ There is the 2442 code, but the problem is that even after applying, it is not effected after the 24 hours time they said it will. So, who is fooling who? It is either NCC is involved in the operators scam or they should buckle up and make it effective. They should also create more awareness on the stop code to stop the rip-off of the overburdened subscribers.”
Having reached a dead end in their chase for the All Progressives Congress, APC gubernatorial ticket ,the stage now appears set for the outgoing governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha and his son -in-law, Uche Nwosu to activate a plan B in their determination to have the latter succeed the former as the next governor of the state.
What observers describe as “a final nail” having been driven into Nwosu’s governorship ambition by an Owerri High court presided over by Justice K.A Ojiako which on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 nullified the October 6 APC governorship primary which produced Nwosu as candidate, the duo of Okorocha and his Son-in-law have exhausted all available windows to reclaim the APC Imo guber ticket. With the High Court ruling, all legal encumbrance to Senator Hope Uzodinma’s guber candidature on the APC platform have been cleared.
An appeal against the High Court ruling is out of place as the national leadership of the party has threatened to expel aggrieved members who drag the party to court over the outcome of its primaries. Impeccable sources told this Magazine that Okorocha has resolved that Nwosu will not pursue the case any further by approaching the Appeal court in order not to risk expulsion from the APC which he (Okorocha) reasons will do incalculable damage to what remains of his reputation and political career.
Uche Nwosu:To contest under another platform
Rather than fight on behalf his son -in-law for the APC ticket, the out-going governor and his loyalists are said to be sieving through the numerous fringe parties to get the most viable one among them to yield its platform to Nwosu. The plan is to use the INEC substitution window which elapses first week of December to get a party on whose platform Nwosu will run. A number of fringe parties are said to have offered their platforms for this purpose. The parties, it was learnt, are ready to sacrifice their guber candidates for the factional APC candidate.
According to sources, Action Alliance, AA and Social Democratic Party, SDP are the two parties that strongly appeal to Okorocha’s fancy; however, while AA will be an easy ride, some SDP chieftains in the state are said to have asked the governor to perish the thought of substituting their party’s candidate with Nwosu.
It is not clear whether Okorocha is abandoning APC totally for the would-be-new party. He is reportedly torn between turning his back fully on APC and remaining in the party to campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election and at the same time work for the election of his son-in-law as governor on another party’s platform.
The hawks in the governor’s camp are however pressing for a clean break with the APC on the ground that the party has no reward system and has humiliated their principal beyond logic. They are angry that Okorocha suffered for the party in the South east and nurtured it at a time no meaningful politician from the zone wanted to have anything to do with it (APC) only to be rewarded with unmitigated humiliation. They are therefore, mounting pressure on the governor not only to ditch the party but inflict maximum injury on it before leaving.
Meanwhile, Senator Uzodinma’s camp has hailed the High court ruling, describing it as a further prove that the October 1, 2018 primaries which threw up the Senator representing Imo West in the upper chamber as the APC gubernatorial candidate was validly conducted while the repeat exercise on October 6 where Nwosu emerged after the national leadership of the party purportedly cancelled the first exercise, was a charade and brazen impunity. A loyalist of the APC candidate told The Source that “Okorocha and his son-in-law are bad losers because the October 1 primary was transparently conducted and Onwa (Senator Uzodinma) won fair and square prompting other contestants to unanimously concede defeat and pledged to work for him”
Senator Hope Uzodinma: Pundits tip him for victory
Before the Imo High Court laid the matter to rest, Senator Uzodinma and Nwosu had been embroiled in claim and counter claim for the APC ticket. The politicians also made a recourse to the courts to determine between them who rightly has a claim to the ticket. However, Uzodinma was late last month and early this month recognised as the rightly Imo APC guber flagbearer by the party and INEC respectively thus giving him an edge over Nwosu.
In his ruling, Justice Ojiako granted all the prayers sought by the plaintiff, Prince Eze Madumere, the Deputy Governor of Imo Sate who also contested for the guber ticket alongside Senator Uzodinma.The court held that the relevant primary election was held on October 1, 2013 and won by Senator Uzodinma.It went further to aver that with the order granted by an Abuja high court restraining fresh primaries it was illegal to purport a repeat of fresh primary election on October 6, 2018.
A legal luminary who spoke to The Sources on the court ruling was of the view that Nwosu has irredeemably lost out.”In the light of this final judgement, the foundation of any claim of guber ticket by Uche Nwosu has collapsed irretrievably”, said
Meanwhile, pundits and followers of Imo politics are tipping Uzodinma for victory based on certain indices that often shape governorship election outcome in the state. One of the factors that they say may swing it for the APC candidate is the Orlu zone’s (Imo West senatorial district) 12 local governments advantage over the other senatorial zones; Owerri and Okigwe,which between them have 15 local government areas.
Emeka Ihedioha: His loyalists dismiss Uzodinma’s victory projection
Analysts predict that the candidate of Peoples democratic party, PDP and former Deputy Speaker of the House Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha may claim the four LGAs in Mbaise kingdom leaving the rest LGAs in the zone for Uzodinma/Madumere ticket(Uzodinma is set to announce the incumbent Deputy Governor, Madumere as his running mate).In Okigwe zone, Uzodinma is likely to give Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, who hails from there, a good fight. Then in Orlu, Uche Nwosu’s Nwangele LGA and Okorocha’s Ideato South are most likely to boycott Uzodinma, leaving him with 10 out of Orlu zone’s 12 LGAs, a scenario observers say will be assure victory for Senator Uzodinma.
Besides the geographical edge over his opponents, Uzodinma is a staunch Roman Catholic and Imo is 95 percent Catholics. Pundits are saying that the Church may also sway victory to him. Added to this is the fact that the APC candidate has supported all Christian denominations in the state in equal measure, and has extended philanthropic gestures to the downtrodden in Imo more than all the candidates.
Some members of Ihedioha and Araraume’s campaign organisation who spoke to this magazine have however, pooh poohed suggestions that Uzodinma has edge over their principals. They were unanimous in insisting that Imo people are tired of APC and are waiting to vote the party out.”Hope and his gang are wallowing in utter delusion; the result of the forthcoming Imo governorship election will shock them beyond words, a member of Ihedioha’s camp told The Source
