Many Nigerians invested hopes in the Dangote Refinery and thought it would bring stability to Nigeria’s chaotic petroleum industry. But on the cusp of its coming on stream, it began to be dogged by regulatory and other kinds of puzzling troubles from the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. 

Why is a refinery that is supposed to be a shining light of domestic investment stymied by needless state-sanctioned controversies?

We sought answers to our question on August 31 during an impassioned and insightful two-hour discussion in the third edition of the Diaspora Dialogues, a monthly discussion show organized by Dr. Osmund Agbo, Professor Moses Ochonu, and I, which attracted scores of attendees.

My colleagues and I are by no means experts in the oil industry. That was why Professor Ochonu, who anchored the discussion, first did extensive documentary research to establish the background to the issue and later invited contributions from the audience. Although more than 10,000 people watched the discussion from my Facebook livestream, our Zoom could only contain 100 people at a time.

In response to multiple requests from people who missed the show, I offer a summary of the conversation in this week’s column in light of the continuing centrality of the issues we discussed, especially as Nigeria grapples with yet any steep petrol price hike amid availability struggles in spite of the coming on stream of the Dangote Refinery.

The Dangote Refinery began test production this week and was, according to Aliko Dangote, ready to roll out its petrol right way, but it still faced the challenge of securing enough crude locally to feed its 650,000-barrels-per-day-capacity refinery.

Prof. Ochonu, in his background to the issues, pointed out that one or more possibilities could explain why the Dangote Refinery was stuck in prolonged gestation:  the NNPC and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) wanted to withhold crude from Dangote to sabotage the refinery, or they wanted to punish him on behalf of the present administration for allegedly supporting Tinubu’s rival during the 2023 presidential election, or they didn’t have the crude to supply to Dangote and wanted to use the ludicrous and false excuses and propaganda of “substandard products,” “no license,” and non-completion to cover the fact that they were not able to supply crude to Dangote.

It also seemed, Prof. Ochonu added, that the NNPC and International Oil Companies (IOCs), NNPC’s joint venture partners, are not able to guarantee supply of crude to Dangote for even more tragic reasons.

 He pointed to the fact that two successive APC governments have mortgaged much of Nigeria’s 1.5 million bpd production to secure so-called crude-backed loans running into billions of dollars, which have to be repaid with future crude production. It started with Buhari and continues with Tinubu.

Ochonu’s research revealed that the NNPC and the NUPRC wanted to continue exporting crude because such transactions are done in dollars and are shady dealings involving middlemen, bribes, cuts, and layers of profiteering.

 Even though the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) mandates the NUPRC to ensure the supply of crude to local refinery as a priority over export, the NUPRC claimed that they could not compel the IOCs to supply Dangote because the IOC’s had signed prior crude supply contracts with buyers overseas, some of whom financed their crude extraction operations in Nigeria. The IOCs, the NUPRC claimed, would be in violation of those contracts if they supplied Dangote with crude.

 Mr. Dan Kunle, a respected oil industry expert and former Senior Technical Adviser to a past Minister of Petroleum Resources, in his contribution, said perhaps the reluctance of the NNPC and NUPRC to supply Dangote crude stemmed from their hope that it would derail the refinery because if Dangote started production, they’d no longer have a reason to export the 450, 000 bpd set aside for local refineries, which has been exported since the local state refineries stopped functioning over a decade ago.

Tinubu’s directive to the NNPC to sell crude to Dangote in naira is a welcome development if implemented, but the key questions are: 1) Where is the crude (650,000 needed by Dangote) going to come from when export contracts and crude-backed loan obligations have already been signed by government and its oil industry entities? 2) Will the NNPC comply with the directive, which reduces its lucrative crude export business?

The show raised several pertinent questions that arise from the accusations and counter-accusations between Dangote and government entities trying to sabotage his refinery:

One, how much of Nigeria’s daily crude production has been committed to creditors who loaned the Buhari and Tinubu administrations billions?

Two, how has the 450,000 crude set aside for domestic refining been handled over the years? According to Mr. Kunle, the NNPC exports these 450,000 barrels because local refineries are currently comatose. 

In what they call crude swap deals, the crude is then refined abroad and resold to Nigeria as petrol. But as Kunle asked during the show, apart from the petrol derived from it, what’s been happening to the other derivatives from the refining process—diesel, kerosene, etc.? The NNPC has never given Nigerians an account of these derivatives. If they’re sold, to whom are they sold and how much has been realized over these decades?

Three, how much fuel do Nigerians consume daily? The NNPC and its subsidiaries bandy around outlandish figures that are disputed by industry experts. Kunle said during the show that one of the potential benefits of Dangote’s refinery is that it will reveal the true, accurate numbers regarding Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption/demand, which will potentially expose one layer of fraud in the fuel importation regime, where many industry experts have long suspected that the importation cabal have been inflating Nigeria’s daily fuel needs to submit false invoices that rely on the bogus consumption claims.

Four, why would Nigeria’s oil law, the PIA, not trump and supersede whatever other contracts and laws NNPC and IOCS have entered into? The PIA clearly authorizes the NNPC to prioritize the crude needs of local refineries such as Dangote and other smaller ones, whose combined daily crude need is put at 597,700 barrels per day (bpd)?

Five, when will the allegedly refurbished Port Harcourt and Warri refineries commence operations (the NNPC has postponed the commencement of operations three times now, with the last postponement done to the end of August), and where will the crude come from and at what price (dollar or naira, subsidized or prevailing international price?)

Professor Ochonu pivoted to the possible motives and identities of people who might have a personal or business investment in killing the Dangote Refinery. He named three.

 The first, he said, are the honchos at the NNPC and oil regulating agencies. Their motive, he pointed out, is to maintain the status quo of lucrative and fraudulent fuel importation and crude export businesses.

The second, he pointed out, is the Tinubu government. The motive might be to sabotage a businessman who allegedly funded Tinubu’s opponent during last year’s presidential election. 

Another motive, Prof. Ochonu added, might be to protect the rapidly expanding midstream and downstream dominance of Tinubu family-owned OANDO in the Nigerian oil industry. Dangote would be a direct and massive competitor.

The third entities Prof. Ochonu identified were a conspiracy of international oil refineries and a crude-buying and fuel-marketing cabal. He called attention to a report by investigative journalist David Hundeyin that blew the lid on a campaign by a Western oil cabal against Dangote refinery.

The oil company offered to pay Hundeyin and perhaps local journalists to write stories against Dangote using a prepared script of environmentalism and environmental protection, which is a clear ruse to hide their true motive of wanting to maintain the status quo of their purchase of Nigerian crude, refining it poorly below European standards, and re-exporting it to Nigeria at massive profits.

 A US-based Nigerian engineer and industry expert by the name of Dr. Muhammad Kabir Hassan, corroborated Hundeyin’s claims during the show. 

The final issue tackled in the show had to do with the scandal of NNPC retail (NNPCL) purportedly purchasing a company named OVH (OANDO, Velar, Helios)

The OVH scandal is related to what is happening to Dangote because, after allegedly purchasing OVH (for how much, no one knows and commenters on the show said NNPC owes Nigerians an explanation and the transaction numbers), the NNPC then turned around and inexplicably asked a judge to dissolve its retail arm (NNPCL-Retail) and then, in a move that should be a first in history, turned over all of its retail operations (fuel stations and depots all over the country) to OVH to run. 

This means that OVH staff and managers have replaced NNPCL staff at all NNPC fuel stations, which have now been rebranded as OVH. OVH, of course, emerged only a few years ago as a result of a merger involving OANDO, Velar, and Helios (hence the acronym). All three were small players in the retail (downstream) sector of the Nigerian oil industry, but with tentacles in fuel importation.

Dr. Hassan enjoined Nigerian journalists to investigate the true ownership of OVH at the Corporate Affairs Commission, the amount NNPC paid for OVH, the terms of the sale, and what, if any, benefits are accruing to OANDO, Tinubu’s family business, from NNPC’s purchase of OVH and its surrender of its sprawling retail business to the acquired entity.

The show is curated on my Facebook page for people who want to watch it.

But wait: Do Nigerians really know the demands they ought to make of their governors, local governments chairmen, state Houses of Assembly, etc.? As thraldom and misery have taken up permanent residence in our subnational governments, do we all really care what people who are supposed to be dealing with leadership at subnational levels are doing with our money and with themselves? I think not. And that is because everyone has been living with barely-performing subnational governments.

Scenario number one: A local government chairman receives the sum of 150 million Naira in one month on behalf of his local government and nothing happens. Yes, nothing happens; and no one can see or tell what he did with it. The month before, the same local government chairman received the sum of 180 million and no one asked him what happened to is, or what he did with it. Since he became local government chairman, less than two years ago, his fleet of cars has increased. So has the size, and cost, of his residence. He even now has a hotel, as well as a big house, in the state capital.

Scenario number two: There are Ward and Council Chairmen in the local government. All of them carry on either as if they owe no one any responsibilities, or as if the schedules assigned to them by law do not even exist. Yet they are all on the organogram designed by the framers of our constitution for effective leadership and good governance. No questions are asked by the people. And that includes mostly traditional rulers, religious leaders, town unions, district and village heads in the local government; who ought to be custodiams of propriety.

Scenario number three: The entire supply of truckloads of bags of rice, (read palliatives) sent to a particular state of the federation from the centre was sold off, stock, lock and barrel by the governor, along with very people who are supposed to help him act as custodians of service delivery and defenders of the people’s well being. In short, the goods did not get to the people in whose name it was sent to the state because of the “subversive patriotism” or elected leaders.

And then this noisy talk, allegedly true, that the thousands of tons of fertilizer meant for farmers in some parts of northern Nigeria got sold off to our Cameroonian neighbours? Just saying.

Scenario number four: A state governor pulls out billions of Naira every month as security vote. Every month security worsens in the very state wherein these billions are being routinely pulled out from. No one asks questions about the increasing size of governors’ security votes and the increasing levels of insecurity in the states.

Truth be told, the problems of Federal republic of Nigeria today are not all about the Federal Government. Subnational governments are all lying flat on its stomach, bereft of all dignity and unwilling to take responsibility in many respects. Unable to present a cohesive leadership front, state and local governments, Counsellors and Ward Chairmen are part of the furniture in their respective neighbourhoods. It has been thus for a long time now, and it is as if we are all enveloped in an incubus of snarling befuddlement that rules out any inclination to question what is wrong.

That is why we are dragging towards a benighted terminus, because Nigeria’s subnational governments are mostly now a metaphor for how to exist without really living. We are told that the governors are in charge everywhere, and in that the local governments are emasculated and even underfunded. We are further told that the Chairmen are all twisting and turning piteously in subdued pain and near-asphyxiation. But are they really?  

We are told that the local governments are ridiculed, swindled and roundly scandalised on all fronts by an elaborate scheme of the governors to maintain a stranglehold on them, in order to drain and use their resources. That, we hear, is the reason why there is not even a shadow of accountability and responsible service delivery at that level of government. It is all said to be a grand text for nominal and fraudulent leadership and service delivery, we are told.

True, many local government chairmen have found themselves in a system that excludes them from the very powers they are supposed to exercise. But that was before the Supreme Court judgment. What their equivalents all over the world are doing as a matter of course they cannot even contemplate. There is, for most of them, a strange identity crisis and an uncertain groping for validation, despite that landmark judgment. That level of government seems to be under a strange spell, with the denuding assaults of governors that seemed determined to annihilate them, until a few months ago.

The failure of constitutional provisions, the failure of reforms, and the decades of aggravated misconduct have all combined to almost make plain nonsense of our local government system. It is a matter of fact, and record, that the nation has lived with this reality for very long before the current government That is why the land and the people now bleed from all pores. Local government administration lacks relevance in every sense of the word. It is mocked by the wretched profile of its most visible political actions and actors. It crawls about in recondite and narrow corners, scandalized by everything it ought to stand for.

Look around you calmly and you must conclude that there is really nothing happening in our local governments. It boasts the most disregarded clan of political leaders. It is the least considered in many ways, notwithstanding the Supreme Court judgment. For decades now, its misfortune has lingered; until it became the norm. A massive industry of fraud sprung up, and now still thrives, around our local government system.

Much of the insecurity in the land remains a matter that intel from local governments can help with. The Airforce has been bombing and destroying illegal refineries for years now. This year alone several hundreds have been “destroyed”. Really?

Recall that some three years ago Nyesom Wike directed all 23 Local Government Chairmen in his state to hire bulldozers and destroy the illegal refineries in their respective local government areas. Four days before the directive, he said to the LG bosses, as mentioned in an article titled, “Governors, Just Look at Wike”: “Now, every council Chairman must go and identify illegal refineries … and you’re given 48 hours to go and identify all illegal refineries sites, and those who are in charge of them. … Our people are dying and we owe our people the responsibility to protect them, to save them from death”.

A few weeks before this directive, Wike went about commissioning several completed, and well-executed, projects. Concerning where the huge sums of money came from, the then governor announced that it was from massive tranches of cash he received in arrears from the Federal Government. Not quite done, he went ahead to tell Nigerians that all other oil-producing states in Nigeria received their shares of the same arrears. Then, he challenged the governors concerned. He asked them to explain what they did with their own share of the windfall. “Then, his colleague oil-producing governors started speaking in tongues”.

But that is not the point here. Wike is also not the point. It is all about tying the fortunes of the people to the tenure and continuity of subnational governments and their confirmed relevance in their respective domains. Wike’s handling of local government officials at the time pointed to what is possible; even if it was coming from an unlikely source. It was a pointer to what demands could and should be made on some subnational governments as elected leaders who should be part of the nation’s cohesive national leadership, service delivery and security architecture.

As was said back then, “That Wike called on the 23 Local Government Chairmen in Rivers State out was his way of putting responsibility for some aspects of environmental awareness and security squarely at the door step of those who are supposed to be closest to the people: and who should therefore know what is going on at any point in time”.

Will all our LG bosses, where they exist in real terms, not be forced to take their jobs seriously, if their governors are breathing down their necks? Will these chairmen not, in turn, descend on their largely idle Ward and Council Chairmen? Will this then not eventually bury the thriving expectation that we should all continue pretending that it is the business of the Federal Government in Abuja to address all local issues that a passing knowledge of one’s living environment should enable us to deal with?

As said then, regarding Wike’s Riot Act to LG Chairmen: “The beauty of Wike’s intervention … lies in the fact that he is calling out politicians who are in office as servants of the people to do their work. He is also, metaphorically speaking, asking his fellow governors and their LG Chairmen to do their jobs. They are being told that they have a duty to identify criminality and propose ways of dealing with same, in their largely closely-knit communities where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. He is saying that it is not right that people should carry official titles/cars and have their names on the government payroll, without actually being on the job”.

With the intervention of the Supreme Court, the days of our governors being sole administrators are over, and the reason is simple: “Being a governor, or a local Government Chairmen, has job description and role expectations in other climes. Enough of everyone pretending that we don’t know what’s going on and who is doing what”. The six months moratorium will soon be up. We suspect that this is a “political’ ploy, to enable the governors plug in their stooges and continue the old merry-g-round. But for how long?

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But wait: Do Nigerians really know the demands they ought to make of their governors, local governments chairmen, state Houses of Assembly, etc.? As thraldom and misery have taken up permanent residence in our subnational governments, do we all really care what people who are supposed to be dealing with leadership at subnational levels are doing with our money and with themselves? I think not. And that is because everyone has been living with barely-performing subnational governments.

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has declared that the decision his administration would take on the recent fuel price-hike in the country will be people-oriented.

He said such a decision would also put into consideration the interest of the economy of the state.

The governor who stated this in his monthly newsletter titled “The Business of Governance”, said he is refreshed, adding that “My four-week vacation ends this Friday, so I’m back on the grind on Monday.

“Let me start this email by thanking our acting governor, His Excellency, Barrister Bayo Lawal, for holding the fort in my absence and ensuring that the wheel of governance continued moving.

“I also thank all those who sent prayers, responding to my last two emails. I am indeed returning refreshed and ready to continue to do the work you elected me to do.

“I know that there are some pending decisions that need to be taken, especially with the recent increase in the price of fuel.

“You can rest assured that whatever decisions we take will be in the best interests of our people and the Oyo State economy.”

The governor also stated that he would be back to flag off some new projects and commission some others.

He, however, said he would be keeping the projects to his chest.

“I am looking forward to a few projects we will be flagging off and commissioning this October in the agribusiness and tourism space.

“I am not about to let the cat completely out of the bag, but I can assure you that they are projects that we all will be proud of,” he stated.

Makinde, who talked about the book he said he started reading for the month said, “I started reading a book this month and I will be leaving you with it.

“The book is titled, ‘The Situation Room – The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis,’ written by George Stephanopoulos. As usual, I will be sharing my thoughts on it in the coming weeks.

“I always like to close my emails on a high note these days. May we never lose real hope.”

[Leadership]

As Nigerians lament the latest increase in the price of petrol, there is also an ongoing tango between the federal government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the turn of events, which has added to the hardship in the country.

The NLC, in an immediate reaction, asked the federal government to reverse the price to the N617 it was before the current hike, according to a statement by its president, Comrade Joe Ajaero.  It also stated that the government’s recent action runs contrary to the agreement it reached with the union.

But this does not appear likely, as days after, the government is yet to reverse the hike in fuel price, just as it has failed to provide any explanation on the situation.

Twenty-four hours to when the Dangote Group indicated it was set to roll out products after years of wait, the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) was adjusted upwards by the retailers, effectively putting pump prices at around N950 to as much as N1,400 in some parts of the country.

From that point onwards, the entire country was thrown into a cesspool of confusion as fuel queues, which have lasted over six weeks, worsened with many filling stations shut down.

With neither the NNPCL nor the regulatory agencies willing to offer Nigerians any meaningful explanation, prices have remained high amidst denial by the NNPCL that it had ordered an upward price review.

The NLC, which has always led the protests against arbitrary fuel price increases, further described the development as tantamount to an act of betrayal by the federal government.

It said this is because, during negotiations for wage increase, the government had agreed not to tamper with the price of petrol if Labour would come down on its demand.

The spokesman of the NLC, Mr Benson Upah, in an interview with Weekend Trust, explained that the NLC was betrayed by the current increase in the pump price of petroleum products because the president called for negotiations when their demand got stuck at N62,000.

“He made two offers which were to agree on the N250,000 we recommended while the price of PMS will rise to N1,500 to N2,000 or he will pay N62,000 and the status quo remains,” he said.

“At the end of that one week, the Presidency met again, and the Labour leaders, who are forthright, unambiguously said we would not accept the offer of N250,000.

“They rejected that and this was out of consideration for the well-being of the average Nigerian because we looked and said what would be the effect of this on the ordinary person.

“To keep this brief, the president acted in breach of his promise to Labour leaders and he knows the truth.”

Special Assistant to the President on Print Media, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, however, countered Labour saying that was not the true representation of what transpired.

“I sat through the two meetings President Tinubu had with Labour leaders on minimum wage. At neither of the meetings was an offer made in exchange of fuel price hike. Ajaero is once again playing his dirty politics with the emotions of Nigerians,” he said.

NNPCL as sole buyer

The directive that only the NNPCL will be the sole buyer of the Dangote products when it begins to roll out refined products has not helped to calm the situation as it implies that independent marketers, with all their stations, would not be getting the products directly.

This has thrown up the issue of how much products would be sold to consumers in the end.

The Chairman of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi, said members of his association were surprised at the directive as there was no indication of that arrangement before the commencement of petrol production by Dangote Refinery.

But the two major deciders in the industry have been shifting blame while leaving Nigerians to bear the burden of the price increase.

With the consequent hike in the cost of education, transportation and food, many view the numerous responses as unhelpful. Checks by our correspondents revealed that people no longer drive their cars as they should as they are confronted by both by the price increase and non-availability of the commodity.

While initial reports indicate that the federal government is considering granting the Dangote refinery the authority to fix petrol prices, the issue has now been thrown to market forces to determine.

The Dangote Group has, however, expressed reservations about such thoughts.

A statement by the group explained that the company can neither influence nor set prices of petrol from its refinery, stating that only the federal government’s regulatory authorities could do so.

It also stated that NNPCL had not started lifting petrol from the Dangote refinery as the issue of pricing is yet to be concluded.

“The issue of fixing the price of petrol lifted from our refinery does not arise, as we are yet to finalise our contract with the NNPC.

“The PMS market is strictly regulated, which is known to all oil marketers and stakeholders in the sector, hence we cannot determine, fix, or influence the product price, which falls under the purview of relevant government authorities,” it stated.

The reaction from Dangote refinery has continued to generate divergent reactions among stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri said: “What is important is for us to convey to Nigerians that the president is empathetic about what is going on in the country.

“What is important is that products are available in the country, and we believe that between now and the weekend, there will be availability of products across the length and breadth of the country.

“The price could be high in some other areas, much higher in some other locations, and in some locations, much more than you know in other areas.”

According to experts, the issue around pricing shouldn’t be difficult to address in order to stabilise the industry and restore confidence in the system. They also noted that plans by the government to continue the subsidy regime are responsible for the confusion.

An industry expert who spoke with our correspondent in confidence said, “What is happening is like a game plan, and we are waiting to see the end of the script being acted on.

“It is not just a coincidence that the day Dangote rolled out its product was when the NNPC adjusted the pump price, and I can tell you it is to prepare the people for the new price of PMS even from the stable of Dangote refinery.”

The debate has continued unabated both online and offline and it is generating anxiety in the industry as Nigerians continue to experience scarcity of the product and spend hours at petrol stations.

Another industry expert and analyst, Adetunji A. Oyebanji, confirmed this development while speaking with our correspondent.

He said, “There is so much confusion. All these are supposed to be normal contractual relationships that are dealt with privately. Now, everyone is issuing press statements.

“It should not be so. The ideal situation is a free and competitive market with many buyers and sellers. The role of the regulator should be that of a mediator, moderator, arbiter and enforcer.”

Another oil industry player and chief executive officer of CITA, Dr Thomas Ogungbangbe, stated that the rollout of petroleum products from Dangote refinery would not bring about any price reduction but product availability.

He called for full deregulation of the industry in a way that would bring in more players which would deepen competition and ultimately price reduction.

He said, “Dangote will only ensure availability, it does not translate to any magical price reduction because the refinery is a for-profit-venture and it is also logging to the protocols of other refineries in the world.

The NNPCL has confirmed that it will start lifting product from the Dangote refinery on September 15, but outlined factors that would determine its price.

It said foreign exchange rates and market forces would influence the cost of petrol, stressing that the market had been deregulated.

NNPCL said foreign exchange illiquidity had been a significant factor influencing the fluctuation in prices of petrol, which are governed by unrestricted free market forces, as provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act.

The Executive Vice President, Downstream, NNPCL, Adedapo Segun, said on Thursday during a live television programme that the current fuel scarcity was expected to “subside in a few days as more stations recalibrate and begin selling PMS.”

With each side approaching the issue from different perspectives, it is still not clear if the burden occasioned by the price increase will be remedied soon.

[DailyTrust]

The Police Force headquarters in Abuja has clarified that what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved for the IGP Kayode Egbetokun’s regarding his appointment “is not an extension of tenure, but rather the proper application of the law governing the tenure of the office of the IGP.

The Force headquarters made the clarification in response “to various misleading reports and misinterpretations concerning the tenure of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun”

A statement signed by ACP Muyiwa Adejobi said, “Contrary to the misinformation being circulated on social media and in the news, an appointment letter in circulation was issued to the IGP shortly after his appointment was confirmed by the Police Council.

“This letter, dated 3rd November 2023, clearly stated that the President had approved a four-year tenure for the IGP in accordance with the provisions of Section 215(a) and Section 28(c) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“It is important to emphasize that the IGP does not need to lobby for any tenure extension as his appointment letter explicitly grants him a four-year tenure from the date of his appointment.

“The ongoing circulation of false information is clearly the handiwork of pessimists and mischief makers who are determined to spread baseless narratives against the office and the personality of the IGP for obvious reasons and pecuniary gains.

“Furthermore, the IGP has since been issued with another letter in accordance with the provisions of the Police Act, 2020 (as amended), which supersedes the earlier correspondence.

“This clarification is necessary to put an end to the speculations and falsehoods being spread.

“We urge the public to disregard the unfounded reports and to trust that the tenure of the IGP is in full compliance with the laws governing the Nigeria Police Force.

“In clear terms, IGP’s tenure of office is not subject to unnecessary debate and should not be a source of perennial distraction to policing system in Nigeria. The law is sacrosanct.”

[BluePrint]

Enugu-born Kevin Abonyi got the shock of his life when a medical laboratory test he underwent in preparation to take a wife turned out positive. Mr. Abonyi had walked into a medical laboratory centre in Obollo Afor, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State to find out his blood group, genotype and HIV status, having resolved to settle down as a married man.

A Mass communication graduate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Mr. Abonyi could not understand what the lab attendant was talking about.

He literally and technically became deaf. He saw his world caving in but as a devout catholic with a strong faith in God, and knowing that he had lived a morally-upright life all his youthful age, he immediately regained his consciousness, remained calm, cool and collected, courageously approached his would-be wife and broke the sad news to her.

He also assured the girl that he did not believe the result and promised to conduct further tests in Lagos for a proper diagnosis.

However, after he visited a laboratory in Lagos, his HIV turned out negative. This sharply contradicted the earlier result and at the same time rekindled his hope of getting married to the woman of his choice.

Satisfied and highly elated at the turn of events, he travelled back to his village to break the good news to the lady, who also tumbled with joy. Together, they visited Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka, as well as the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, for further medical examinations and the result was the same – HIV negative.

Today, Mr Abonyi and the woman live together as husband and wife, and the marriage has produced four lovely children, two boys and two girls.

Narrating how she felt when she got the first news about her husband’s HIV status, his wife said: “When he told me that the laboratory test result from Obollo-Afor said he was HIV positive, I was devastated.

“Although he remained calm, promising to visit a better facility in Lagos, I was confused.

“When I told my elder brother, he plainly asked me if I loved him. When I answered in affirmative, he told me to go ahead with the marriage, despite his HIV status.

“I had already made up my mind to take my brother’s advice when he came back with the news that the result from the Lagos lab had pronounced him HIV negative.

“Although I did not doubt him, he insisted that we should visit Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka and UNTH for further examinations. Both hospitals’ results confirmed that he was actually negative contrary to what the first result from Obollo-Afor said.

“My joy knew no bound and I give God all the glory because many people would have done some terrible things as soon as they were told that they were HIV positive, but in his own case, he took it with maturity, calmness and absolute faith in God, and at the end of the day, it turned out to be a case of wrong diagnosis. So, I thank God for his life.”

Kevin was lucky but the same cannot be said of a 42-year-old young man, simply identified as George whose unfortunate and sad death recently, according to his younger brother, was as a result of wrong medical diagnosis.

The father of three from Enugu State was said to have been diagnosed of ulcer and he had all along been treating ulcer until his condition became too critical.

According to the deceased’s younger brother, when he was taken to a specialist hospital for a proper medical check, it was discovered that he had been suffering from Hepatitis B, which had already eaten deep into his liver.

All efforts to save the young, ebullient George by doctors proved abortive as he painfully gave up the ghost, leaving behind a young wife and three kids; no thanks to wrong medical diagnosis.

Also, Mr James Kayode and his wife went for medical checks to know their blood group, genotype and HIV status as usual before they got married and every result turned positive.

They got married and had their first child. But trouble started after the baby kept falling ill quite often, barely one year after he was born.

During one of their many visits to the hospital, a test was carried out on the child and it turned out that the baby has Sickle Cell Anaemia, meaning that the baby’s genotype is SS.

The parents were confused, because while they had all along believed that they were both AA as the lab result showed before they got married, the reality is that they were both AS.

They ran a fresh test which confirmed that they were both AS, meaning that the test they had before marriage was wrong. That was how the Kayode family was thrown into medical troubles that they did everything to prevent.

Much as the incompetence and carelessness of some lab scientists have sent many to early graves, nullified potential marriages, caused wastage of financial resources and psychological torture, it is also dismantling a lot of marriages.

In Africa, it is common knowledge that special attachment is given to male children. It is believed that male children will continue with the family lineage when their fathers are dead, and as such, male children are highly prized.

In Nigeria, the Igbo people of South East attach very great importance to male children because of the above reason.

A woman who is unable to give birth to a male child is most likely going to have marital problems. It is either her husband considers taking a second wife or he makes life miserable for the woman by continually reminding her that she could not perform the simplest duty of bearing a male child like other women.

Sometimes, the woman is mocked by society because she did not have a male child.

At some other time, she is stigmatized depending on the kind of family she is married to. Such is the gravity of importance attached to male children in Igbo land.

Some men have taken second and even third wives in the quest for a male child, while others have terminated their marriages because of their wives’ inability to have male children.

Mrs. Chioma Ezeadi was told by her doctor in a private clinic in Ago area of Lagos State that she would bear a female child during her first pregnancy.

According to her, she was worried because her husband had already told her that he would want a male child first. It did not matter if she would have female children subsequently. What mattered was that her husband wanted their first child to be a male.

She said she could not tell her husband what the doctor told her because she was not sure what his action could be, even though it was her first pregnancy.

But, contrary to the scan result as was pronounced by her doctor, she was delivered of a baby boy eventually to her surprise. Today, she has three male children.

A similar incident happened to Mrs. Gloria Ibe from Abia State. She has had three children already, two girls and a boy. The scan result of her fourth pregnancy said she would give birth to a baby girl.

The medical prognosis was corroborated with a prophetic pronouncement. She said a pastor in her church equally told her that she was carrying a baby girl.

So, with the mouthpiece of God corroborating what the medical science had said, she was left with no iota of doubt as to what the sex of her unborn baby would be.

She went ahead to buy baby clothes and other things in advance bearing in mind that a baby girl was on the way.

However, she ended up giving birth to a male child but unfortunately; her husband did not live to see the baby. He died a month before the baby was born.

The negative effects of wrong medical diagnosis, ranging from suicide to cancelled marriages, broken homes, economic wastage, emotional and psychological torture among others, are catholic and of grave concern to many Nigerians.

Lab scientist speaks

Throwing more light on the subject, a Medical Laboratory Scientist, with one of the medical diagnostic centres in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, Abuchi Kingsley, said wrong medical diagnosis is a product of many factors.

He said such factors as personnel, equipment as well as reagents could lead to wrong outcomes.

He told DAILY POST that: “Like the person that had Hepatitis B and was told he had ulcer, it is possible he actually had ulcer but it depends on what test that was sent to the lab to be done.

“In other words, if you come to run a test for ulcer, a laboratory scientist will not go further to check if you have Hepatitis or any other ailment. He will only do the ulcer test, which you requested for.

“For patients who go for Genotype tests, I can say that some labs do not employ qualified personnel. They often engage the services of quacks and they go about giving wrong results to people.”

He also attributed the ugly trend to the inability of some lab diagnostic centres to carry out what he termed quality control.

He said: “Some labs do not have what we call quality control. A quality control is what you do before you start a patient’s test. It will tell you whether the kit you want to use is good or not.

“Simply put, it means using known positive and known negative samples to run your reagent.

“For instance, if your reagent gives you a known positive sample to be negative, then you know that the reagent or the equipment is not good to function that day.

“Again, for those tests that don’t give positive or negative but a value like blood sugar, before you use your equipment to run a blood sugar test, there are some pathological samples that have high sugar level, normal sugar level and low sugar level.

“You run all these on your equipment and if they show that these controls are what they are, you know that you are good to go and you will have confidence in any result you are releasing.

“But some labs do not carry out this quality control, either because they want to minimise cost or they don’t know they are supposed to do it.

“Another factor has to do with the sample or specimen. If you collect the wrong sample for a particular test or you put the sample in the wrong bottle, it will definitely give you a wrong result because in the collection of these samples, we have different bottles and different containers.

“Some tests require collecting the specimen at a particular time. Some tests require that you collect the specimen before the patient eats in the morning.

“A patient that wants to do a Fasting Blood Sugar test should not eat in the morning before coming because if the person eats before his/her specimen is taken for the test, it will give a wrong result.

“The same thing applies to a patient that wants to do a Fasting Lipid Profile. It is also the same process for culture tests, like blood culture or urine culture. The samples should be collected in a sterile bottle.

“If the sample is collected with bottles that are not sterile, you will already be getting something that is not from the patient. So, sample collection and the time of such sample collection is very important in determining the accuracy or otherwise of a lab test.”

He summed up his submission, saying, “In summary, the factors that lead to wrong diagnosis are categorised into pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical errors. There are errors that happen prior to analysis.

“There are some that happen during the analysis while others happen after the analysis. After analysis occurrences have to do with reporting.

“A lab scientist can do a proper test but a typist can mess everything up. It can also be during transmission of the result.

“That is why professionalism and training for anybody that works in the lab is very important. Everybody needs to be trained and retrained regularly.”

Gynaecologist speaks

Also, sharing his experiences as a gynaecologist of many years standing, Dr. Chikodi Onyemkpa of The Healthcare Hospital, THH, Festac, Lagos, said he has seen so many of such cases; some of them actually creating very difficult social issues to manage.

“In our culture, we have a tendency towards male gender preference and that is related again to some economic considerations, and so, these two standing together, tend to mount enormous pressures on the pregnant woman.

“There is often a tendency to want to know the gender of the baby in the womb. Sometimes, it comes off very well; sometimes that prediction might be wrongly done. So we see them often,” he told our correspondent.

Asked to give an instance, Dr. Onyemkpa, who also doubles as a sonologist, continued: “I have come across a situation where a woman was expecting a female child because the scan had told her so, but eventually when we did a surgery and brought out the child, it was a male child.

“It was a good disappointment in the sense that she was hoping that that would be her last surgery.

“But if it was a female child like the scan had said, that meant that she would go for another surgery again because she usually gave birth by surgery. But it turned out a male child; so that was a good disappointment to her.

“I remember another young girl, who became a second wife because her husband was looking for a male child. She did a scan and she was told she was carrying a male child.

“Her husband started treating her like a queen. Eventually, the baby was born and it was a female child. It was such a disappointment that the father was not interested in even allowing the woman to go for the immunisation of the new born baby.

“The disappointment was so devastating because they were anticipating a male child and they had already prepared for the ceremony that would follow.”

Considering what follows when the anticipation turns the other way round, many would argue that it will be advisable not to reveal the sex of the unborn baby to the pregnant mother after the scan, but, Dr. Onyemkpa would not toe that line of argument.

He gave reasons the practice would continue, particularly in certain parts of Nigeria.

He said: “In some jurisdictions, it is unlawful to reveal the gender of an unborn child. I easily remember India, where a doctor’s licence was seized for six months because he did gender determination by scanning for a pregnant woman.

“Some cultures are that strict but in Nigeria, we have no such law. You can do gender determination and state it clearly here in Nigeria.

“Interestingly, some persons will come for a scan basically because they want to determine the sex of the baby and if you want to exchange shoes with them, you will see why it is very important for them to know.

“Until the very landmark judgement by the Supreme Court recently, a female child had no right to inherit property from her parents in Igbo land; she is married off in life and whatever she gets during her wedding is what accrues to her.

“If the parents die, whatever they left cannot be accessed by the female child and so, you see that if a woman is married into an average Igbo family, until she has a male child, she likens her marriage to a temporary residency permit because in the demise of her husband, whatever she laboured for with her husband, will be passed on to the relations of her husband, who are males, since her own female children are forbidden by culture to access their father’s inheritance.

“However, the Supreme Court’s judgement has put paid to all that because by that judgement, it has to be noted that the constitution of Nigeria is superior to the customary law which is almost followed to the letter.

“So, there is always the eagerness for a wife from that environment to know what the gender of her unborn baby is. If you give birth to a male child, people will say that you have now firmed up your position in your husband’s house.

“Until then, the woman has not really legitimised her permanence in her husband’s house. So, if she is pregnant, you will see why she wants to know the gender.

“If she has the first, second and even the third one all girls, you understand why some of us in the hospital will see a woman who has had a baby but she is not happy because much as she has had a safe delivery, the baby can still not firm up her marriage.”

On what could be responsible for the wrong outcome of scan results, he said: “One of the fundamentals in scientific inquiry is to learn about measurement.

“Why you need to learn about measurement is that there can be errors. In fact, in any human designs, there is a margin of error that is allowable.

“That is why in scientific research, you say that something is significant or not because it is actually about making provisions for those errors.

“So, we know that there can be a false positive result or false negative result. For instance, if you come into this room and there is a pin on this floor and you looked around and didn’t see the pin and you declare that there is no pin in this room, you have made an error; you have declared a false negative result or a false absence of pin, but there is a pin.

“In another situation, if there is no pin on the floor and for whatever that is happening to your eyes, you looked very well and declared that there is a pin, you have just declared a false positive result because you said there is a pin, whereas there is no pin.

“So, in every measurement, provision is made for that possibility. By the same token, you find that if you do a scan and you say it is this while what you are saying is not there, it is actually in that false positive result declaration because you have stated what is not there.

“So, scientific measurements and enquiries know that this is a possibility. And when you make a measurement, you bring a lot of things together such as the person taking the measurement, the instrument with which the measurement is taken and the environment determining finally what happens.”

He went further to draw an analogy of what could lead to wrong medical diagnosis with a motor accident.

He said: “When there is an auto accident, the investigator will try to establish whether it was a human error, mechanical error or environmental error.

“You want to find out what actually went wrong. In like manner, when there has been a result that is not expected or that has tended to have deceived everybody, there is the need to go back and check what could have been the cause.

“Easily, we will place the blame on the shoulders of the observer but in fairness, it just may not always be the case because the machine and other sundry issues are also involved. That is why the person that did the test, and what the clarity of picture quality is, are important.

“There are some pictures you see in two dimensions, but if you can see such pictures in three dimensions, it will be better.

“So, even in scan machines now, there are 2D machines, there are those that are said to be 3D and you even have the 4D scan machine. So, apart from the depth, you see action.

“Occasionally, I have been scanning and the baby in the womb urinates and I showed the mother and she is excited because it is not just that her tummy is swollen; what is inside her is living and she is seeing the action it is performing.

“If you use a certain machine, you will see clearly; it is not just that you are seeing the flash of the urine, you will even see the place that the urine is coming from.

“Every party can relate to that. Those that are in the industry will know about the scan machine that creates baby face; the scan machine that can create picture in 3D format; even colour picture, so that parents are able to see the face of the baby in the womb or even look at the pelvic region and be able to see the gender.

“So, it will not be what the scanner said. If for any reason in future, we have a different outcome, it is what I saw that you saw; that is actually how I report.

“Errors can come from the observer if you are using a 2D machine because you may not see the female genital as well as you could see if it is a 3D machine.

“There are chances of error if you read the lines wrongly, and of course, the issue of machine is generally going to reduce or enhance the result accuracy.”

[DailyPost]

The Patriots led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku recently visited President Tinubu. The group declaring that “what we have now does not make for effective internal security measures,   does not make for rapid economic development and does not make for satisfactory social development, say, in education and health” made two demands on the president. First is “The convening of a National Constituent Assembly of directly elected individuals, on a non-political basis, from the 36 states of the federation, possibly three individuals per state, and one from the FCT with the mandate to produce a draft people’s democratic constitution”.  And “The draft constitution produced by the Constituent Assembly, to be put to a national referendum and if approved, should then be signed by the president as the genuine Nigerian people’s constitution.” 

The president while assuring them of “listening to their two major requests on the path to referendum which should lead to constitutional measures that will fit our diversity and governance so that we avoid conflicts and break-ups”, however added that he is “currently preoccupied with economic reform, his first priority after which he would look at other options, including constitutional review as recommended along other options, as soon as possible”. Having emerged from the trenches, President Tinubu understands the yearnings of Nigerians and the imperative of identifying with those aspirations.

Before the current intervention by the Patriots, there had been calls for constitutional reform by other concerned groups including the late Enahoro’s ‘Movement for National Reformation’ (MNR), Pro-national Conference Organisation (PRONACO),  National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), foremost socio-cultural  ethnic groups such as Afenifere, Ohanaze, Pan-Niger Deltal Forum (PANDEF) and Middle Belt Forum, (MDF) for whom periodic agitation for restructuring of the country is a crusade. Other leading lights and stakeholders in the Nigerian project across the country have also actively supported the crusade for a return to the federal arrangement, the basis for the coming together of the country’s different multi-ethnic nationalities at independence.

Most of the above groups also believe resolving our crisis of nation building should be a crusade that must necessarily precede the quest for economic prosperity. In fact, many believe the failure to first resolve our political problem is responsible for all other socio-economic problems including massive corruption, crisis of legitimacy, participation and penetration, sabotage of the economy by groups fighting for distributive justice in the Niger Delta as well as those unpatriotic groups undermining the economy of the country through importation of the labour of other societies.

As proof of failure of successive leaders to address our political problems, they also pointed out the zero-sum struggle for power by leaders of ethnic nationalities, election rigging and electoral violence as well as massive corruption. All these they added found expression in the collapse of government economic initiatives including Obasanjo’s ‘Operation Feed the Nation’ the various ‘River Basin Authorities’ projects, Shehu  Shagari’s “ Green revolution” (Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua’s 7-Point Agenda where he identified seven sectors of the economy as the engine room to the transformation of the entire economy, and Goodluck Jonathan  “Transformation Agenda” including  unbundling of PHCN and its sales to incompetent political stalwarts.

President Tinubu who said no one should sympathize with him because he asked for the job is no doubt aware of the effects of putting the cart before the horse or attempting to sweep the political crisis under the carpet. This is why he today has a Hobbesian choice to make.

But he is a risk taker who attained power thorough grit and wit. He challenged his APC party’s oligarchs including President Buhari, VP Osinbajo, Abdullahi Adamu, his former party chairman who tried to outwit him by imposing a consensus candidate on the eve of the primary and his ever disloyal Southwest governors, with bravery and tenacity. And that turned out  a rehearsal for his final battle which he fought with great perseverance and unyielding determination against warring PDP and its surrogate, the Labour Party, crowded by crude, rude, unthinking mob called ‘obidients’ whose only commodity is intimidation of rivals.

And also working in his favour was the fact that as the only 2023 presidential candidate that emerged without the endorsement of the ‘owners of Nigeria’, the powers and principalities, he could afford taking risks.

In his Yoruba base, where electorate are often described as discriminatory voters, he lost two of the six states, Osun and Lagos where he had reigned supreme for over 20 years. He lost all the southeast states, won two in South-south and shared the northern states with Atiku Abubakar.

If with his frightful experience while navigating the mine-invested route to the Nigerian presidency, threat to a possible second term bid because of punishing effects of his harsh economic policies on Nigerians who believe they are being punished for the sins of untouchable parasitic elites that stole the country blind, he stubbornly insists on first solving economic problem before addressing the political problems he admits threaten our very survival, we can see in President Tinubu a politician who promises hope while praying for a miracle. And that is what separates the real politician from a venal man of many words.

And this is why  President Tinubu alone knows how he intends to win the war on an economy under daily  assault of crude oil thieves, importers of fake products and where manufacturing firms like Nestle and PZ are declaring loses of between N262.5b and  N76 billion while some parasitic banks are targeting  N1 trilion pre-tax profit for a year.

I guess Tinubu is not afraid of failure because unlike his errant predecessors, he sees himself as providing selfless service to a country that has been serially  betrayed by self-serving overbearing leaders interested only in exploiting, for political gains, the innermost fears of the poor electorate that look up to them for leadership.

For instance, the health of Nigeria could never have been the concern of Aguiyi Ironsi who whimsically promulgated his Decree 34 of 1966 that turned the country from a federal state to a unitary state or the succeeding military adventurers that splintered the country to 36 states and 774 local government areas to consolidate Ironsi’s initiative.

Babangida could not have been serving anyone but self by foisting Structural Adjustment programme (SAP) on Nigeria despite its wide rejection by Nigerians and his imposition of an interim contraption on the country after Nigerians had expressed their preference for MKO Abiola’s presidency by giving him a landslide victory in the 1993 election. A leader who sets out to truly serve Nigeria wouldn’t have waged five years’ war against Nigerians as Abacha did. And only Obasanjo’s political children who crowned him ‘the father of New Nigeria’ after presiding over the sale of Nigerian total government investment of $100 billion for a paltry $1.5 billion and sharing of Nigeria physical properties including national monuments among political cronies and civil servants are deceived  and not Nigerians.

Buhari couldn’t have been serving Nigeria by presiding over the total collapse of the nation’s economy and the pacification of the North including his Katsina State by bandits and herdsmen.

I am sure Tinubu the politician knows his survival and credibility is anchored on finding accommodation for the demands of the Patriots and the faithful implementation of his “three-year economic revival plan targeted at addressing Nigeria’s socioeconomic challenges, prevailing adversity, unemployment, insecurity, and poverty whose highlights, are food security; poverty eradication; growth, job creation; access to capital; inclusion; rule of law; and fighting corruption.”

 And if he is voted out in 2027 by the electorate for either not turning the fortune of Nigerians around or for failing to instituionalise a federal system that liberates individuals and groups from the tyranny of the state, he will return home a fulfilled man having tried his best.

And as a founding director of Transparency International and  a former vice president of the World Bank (Africa region), Oby unarguably remains a pacesetter and the best example of what educated African woman can become as against ‘feminization of poverty’ (UN) by those African societies that refuse to educate their womenfolk. Above all, Oby is passionate about the Nigerian project and often speaks with passion on issues that are connected to our crisis of nation-building.

But like many of us, her vision is sometimes blurred by her political prejudices. Ezekwesili sees only the things she wants to see. ““If you are a Nigerian, you should be vexed at this government. All we have seen from this government since it came into office is fiscal profligacy”. Although many of the economic policies designed to set our nation on the path of modernization and sustainable growth are yet to start yielding dividends, not many of those familiar with Nigeria’s years of the locusts when ill-equipped leaders declare unabashedly that ‘money was not Nigeria problem but how to spend it’ and when in recent years, weak leaders turned themselves to ATM without password, will agree with Ezekwesili.

But we understand where Ezekwesili, an unapologetic supporter of candidate Peter Obi, and a silent admirer of the ‘obidients’, is coming from. For her, Peter Obi, a sell-confessed importer of wine among other items that killed our budding industries thereby forcing our youths out in search for greener pasture elsewhere in the world,  is the best hope for turning the Nigeria economy around.  She has a mind-set that both Atiku and Tinubu, the eventual winner of the election, are no match for Obi.

And her crooked syllogism was that youths who make up 60 per cent of the voting population along with women which make up about 51 per cent of the voting population are more inclined towards the presidency of Peter Obi. And based on two premises that may be invalid, Oby on  December 10, 2022  told Channels TV’s Hard Copy “So after I have done my rating, there is absolutely no way I would leave a Peter Obi and vote for any of the other two candidates”.

Now trapped in Obi’s illusory presidency, she still describes the 2023 election as  “not an election, but snatch it grab it and run away with it” while discrediting both the INEC and the Supreme Court, praised by many for the share profundity of its judgment. She dismisses both the executive and legislature as ‘bandits’ and ‘rascals’. All she wants by accusing those in power of starting class war is the collapse of the government.

But if one may ask, what are the causes of Oby’s current emotional anguish?

First, beyond removal of fuel subsidy, she wants total deregulation, where market forces will reign supreme. No one expects anything different from former director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic project. The problem however is that no one has told us where in the world market forces only has brought prosperity to the people beyond making the poor  live to support the system while the rich get richer.

At least we already have a template in Nigeria. Okpara’s ‘Pragmatic Socialism’, where public enterprises played a leading role repositioned the old Eastern Region as the fastest growing economy in the world in the sixties. In the West, Awolowo’s home grown capitalism where public enterprises joined forces with the private sector to create a more egalitarian society, was the reason the old Western Region became ‘the most educated part of Africa’. Of course Ahmadu Bello built the biggest business conglomerate in Africa in the sixties without consulting Oby’s World Bank.

Ezekwesili also considers government’s acquisition of aircraft –Airbus A330 to replace the 19-year old Boeing, economic recklessness. While uninformed victims of the president’s economic policies could be incensed, the same reaction from opinion leaders who understand need for safety and the fact that old aircrafts have been put on sale to offset the cost of the new one could only have been designed to whip up public sentiments against the government.

As for Oby’s grief over N20b to build the vice president’s house, she was being economical with the truth. FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed the contract for the building was first awarded in 2010, at a cost of N7 billion. It became one of the abandoned projects until leadership of the FCT in January 2024 sought for and obtained approval for a review of the contract to the sum of N22 billion, leading to its completion 14 years after commencement. The president praised Wike for his ‘dynamic and focused leadership’ saying it was the 9th in the series of (mostly abandoned projects) Wike had completed.  Oby would have preferred the property already taken over by reptiles to continue to rot away like the abandoned National Assembly whose contract was awarded in March 11, 2006 to Reynolds Construction Company, (RCC), to the tune of N8.5 billion naira.

Unlike the National Mosque and the Ecumenical Centre started the same time but completed by those who think God can be deceived, it was abandoned and today TETFUND is projecting a cost of N200b. Meanwhile, Ezekwesili has not called those who abandoned the projects only to raise N7billion from serving governors and government contractors to build their own personal presidential library bandits.

 As for Oby’s other heartache, the National Assembly’s decision to buy toys or what she described as ‘funny looking cars’, even while the governed should be naturally  such  insensitive decision, Oby understands that the  National Assembly runs its own budget independent of the executive arm of government.  She knows it was this reason, neither Obasanjo, her political father, who has at various times described the assembly members as ‘pen thieves’, Jonathan who according to Okonjo-Iweala had to part with about N15b bribe to have his budget passed nor Buhari who for eight years complained about the padding of his budget by the legislature, could not rein in the National Assembly members.

Oby also knows that this was part of the reasons Nigerian stakeholders have since 1999 called for the review of the 1999 constitution. But as against joining this crusade, what we have on record is Ezekwesili’s pursuits of her Igbo ethnic group agenda-citizenship of Nigerians wherever they stay without obligations of settlers to host communities, ignoring the sociological reality of Nigeria, which unlike America, is a federation of ethnic nationalities.

I am not sure many Nigerians have an axe to grind with Oby’s characterization of many Nigerian politicians as bandits. She is best placed to confirm this fact.  I think they just believe charity must start from the home. She was part of PDP when Obasanjo  and Atiku in the guise of privatization sold Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b for  a paltry $1.5b to party stalwarts, when in the name of monetization policy they shared physical structures dating back to the pre-colonial period, kept in their temporary care for our children among themselves with David Mark, as Senate President and Dimeji Bankole as House Speaker,  buying their official residences at give-away prices among other government  buildings including the  NITEL building in Ikoyi.

She was there when in 1999 when lawmakers who claimed to have sold house to fight election set up an instrument which according to a National Assembly probe report, they deployed to steal billions. She cannot also deny the claim by Audu Ogbe, one time PDP chairman, corroborated by National Assembly report, that siblings of PDP stalwarts forged papers under the nose of Okonjo-Iweala, as Minister for Finance, to defraud the nation to the tune of NI.6 trillion under the dubious subsidy regime, “without importing a pint of fuel”.

Finally, Oby is a former vice president of the World Bank whose policies she wants to force down our throats. But we do know the World Bank is the greatest bandit the world has ever known. It is the instrument Europe effectively deployed to defraud and impoverish Africa nations from where over $58b is siphoned from annually. What other name besides ’bandit’ do we have for a continent  that has nothing but depends on our  priceless resources including silver, gold, crude oil among others, and declare without shame that a unit of their coloured papers, must exchange for between 1,500  and 5,000 units of the currency of African nations that own their resources?

Between the Federal Ministry of Education and some states, we are hearing pronouncements on educational policies that give us citizens some concern especially parents and those who are seized with the question of the education of our children and grandchildren and about the educational trajectory of the country. The Federal Ministry of Education shocked the whole country, by issuing a decree, as if we were in a military regime, that children under 18 should not be allowed to take JAMB university entrance examination and those below certain age should not be allowed to take the Senior School examination. Also Lagos State suddenly announced it was converting the College of Medicine in its university into a University of Medicine. These two developments gave me worry and if some of us don’t speak out, these two authorities will think they are doing the right thing.

The federal minister of education who made one of these announcements is totally wrong. First of all, education is still on the concurrent constitutional list on which both the federal and the state governments have jurisdiction. I am waiting for any state government to challenge this federal announcement because it is wrong. No government should be able to tell parents whether their fast learning children should be arbitrarily restrained from entering a university because a minister says so, or should a minister be able to restrain a child from taking senior school leaving examination which is a prerequisite for sitting for JAMB examination. If this policy holds, parents would be forced to asking their children to take Ordinary and Advanced level examinations of external examination bodies in order to give their children opportunity to enter universities. In this way, the minister would have found a market for external examination bodies to the detriment of the local ones.

In places like Canada and the United States, children enter universities with different state qualifications not a unified homogenized qualification like in Nigeria. There are smart children who get first degrees in Harvard and Oxford universities in their teenage years because they are gifted children and it doesn’t seem as if our own regimes make allowance for such gifted children because everyone is brought down to the lowest pedestal of the average and dullest people in the country.

I pray that this action of the federal minister of education would be challenged in the courts for clarification and also in order to protect the interest of smart and precocious children who have no voice in what amounts to abridgment of their educational progress.

The idea of University of Medicine began in Ondo State where a so-called university of medicine domiciled in a rented section of the Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo State for years before apparently having its own campus. When this unique institution was established, I asked then in this paper what this university of medicine was all about. Can medical students be trained without knowledge of basic sciences like Physics, Biology and Chemistry? Certainly these medical students would  be expected to go through basic sciences in which case the university of medicine would have to have departments of basic sciences and also Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy, knowledge of which are critical to the study of medicine. In modern medical schools, students are expected to have knowledge of the sociology of the country within which their knowledge will be practiced. Education nowadays tries to widen the knowledge of students outside the narrow confines of the specialized fields of study. This is why a university of medicine should be part of a developed comprehensive university, not an isolated university of medicine. Even if there are universities of medicine in the developed countries, must we blindly copy them without their level of development and the resources available in such countries? Since the Ondo example, the federal government has in the last few years established such universities of medicine in Oturpo, in Benue State and another one in Ila-Orangun , Osun State presumably to honour Brigadier-Gen. David Mark and Chief  Bisi Akande  who are political bigwigs in the country without counting the cost of such establishment even when other old dilapidating federal institutions are collapsing.

One also wonders where medical teachers are going to be found for these universities of medicine. There is no surplus of such teachers in Nigeria or anywhere as far as I know. In the case of Ondo State, it is not even able to fund its universities of technology in Okitipupa, Owo and its premier university in Akungba. The technical equipment and structure for such a highly specialized university of medicine can only be purchased in forex-denominated currency. Is it with the billions of naira that will fetch a mere million dollars that they would use to fund this so-called university of medicine?

A poorly trained doctor armed with the scalpel to perform surgery will be a licensed murderer. By the way, what happened to Muhammadu Buhari’s University of Transportation in Daura? Recently the Customs Director-General announced his department was about to announce a university of Customs and the Department of Immigration is ready to roll! Not to talk about different arms of the military! The university idea has become a joke in Nigeria.

When Lagos State announced that it was setting up a university of medicine this October, I said to myself here we go again. The reasons adduced for it were shortage of doctors in state hospitals because of resignation of their doctors for foreign appointments. The state did not say people went elsewhere because of poor remuneration but we the people know this is what happened. We all know the reason why doctors are fleeing the country is poor wages and emoluments. The announcement by the Lagos State governor went further to state that the new university of medicine would graduate 1500 doctors per year.

I asked myself whether the institution would just be told to go and graduate 1500 doctors as if it were a factory. What will be the size of 1500 graduating medical university? Where are the teachers that would graduate 1500 doctors? This is simply impossible and if it is possible, these brand new doctors would be poorly trained physicians. None of the old medical schools in the country can graduate a third of such figures annually. This is not a solution to the problem of resignation.

For the sake of argument, would the new doctors be tied down by shackles to the hospitals? I have not heard of universities being set up like this before. Was there any study done about the feasibility of this enterprise? Even with the acclaimed resource endowment of Lagos State, it will not be able to fund adequately its new university of medicine along with recently established universities of technology, of education and the old LASU which is not adequately funded.

State governments should not just jump into the running stream of establishing universities on the whim of the chief executive. States concerned with the health of their people should provide potable clean water and embark on programs of preventive medicine rather than poorly conceived establishments of universities of medicine. Universities that are universities are serious enterprises. The federal and state governments should have deep thoughts about  establishing new universities when it can hardly fund the current ones. It is indeed time for the federal and state governments to roll back some of the mushroom universities that they have established in recent times.

Federal Ministry of Education has clarified that it  has not stopped students who are not up to 18 years old from writing the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) exams.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, made the clarification in Abuja yesterday while fielding questions from journalists at an event to mark the 2024 International Literacy Day (ILD).

Sununu said that the public misconception and misinterpretation of what was said by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, was highly disappointing.

He said that the minister was actually speaking on the 18 years entry age into the tertiary institutions as was practiced in the 6:3:3:4 system of education.

“We have agreed that we are going to consider it as a work-in-progress. The National Assembly is working and we are also working.

“It was shocking to say that a university in this country gave admission to children at ages 10, 11 and 12 years. This is totally wrong.

“We are not saying that there are no exceptions, we know we can have talented students that have the IQ of an adult even at age 6 and 7, but these are very few.

“There must be a rule, and the ministry is looking at developing a guideline on how to identify a talented child, so that parents don’t say we are blocking their children’s chances.

“Nobody said no child will write WAEC, NECO or any other examination unless at age 18. This is a misconception and misrepresentation of what we have said,” he said.

Speaking on the International Literacy Day, Sununu underscored the critical role of literacy in fostering mutual understanding, peace and socio-economic development.

He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to addressing literacy challenges through the Education for Renewed Hope roadmap (2024-2027).

He highlighted youth and adult literacy as key components, while emphasising the importance of using learners’ mother tongues as a medium of instruction.

[TheNation]