FORMER Central Bank of Nigeria deputy president, Professor Kingsley Moghalu who contested against President Mohammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election has criticised the ban on forex for the importation of food into the country by the president.
On Wednesday during an interview, Moghalu said that the apex bank does not require the formal and explicit approval of the president in order to carry out its duties.
“That is another way of saying that the president himself or any political authority outside the bank should not be giving the bank direct instructions.”
The professor’s assertion came on the wake of President Buhari’s order to the Apex bank on Tuesday in Daura, Katsina State, where he hosted the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to Eid-el-Kabir lunch.
The president said the foreign reserve will be conserved and utilized strictly for diversification of the economy, and not for encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills considering the “steady improvement” in agricultural production and attainment of “full food security” in Nigeria.
But Moghalu, who cited Article 1 of the CBN Act (2007), –In order to facilitate the achievement of its mandate under this Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, and in line with the objective of promoting stability and continuity in economic management, the Bank shall be an independent body in the discharge of its functions.
He maintained that “the issue here is not whether or not CBN should allow access to forex for food imports. It is about whether such an economic policy of a central bank should be imposed by a political authority.”
Nigeria’s entire economy appears to have been sub-contracted to our central bank, including industrial and trade policy. In the process the economy has fared poorly and the Bank has lost its independence. This is sad!
However, he noted that the President can exercise his powers by approving on three key areas of the financial institution.
“This is a fundamental principle of central banking around the world over the last four decades. There are only three instances in the operations of the Central Bank where the Central Bank requires the direct approval of the president.
“First is the approval of the annual account of the Central Bank. The president must approve it. Second is the approval of currency designs.”
“For the Central Bank to issue the coin of the realm as we say (naira notes), the president has to approve those designs and proposals.
“Thirdly, any external investment by the Central Bank itself as an institution has to be approved by the president. Outside of these three specific instances, the Central Bank does not require the approval of the president in order to perform its job.”
SHEIKH Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and his wife, Zeenat are expected to return to Nigeria tonight from a medical trip they took to India.
Spokesperson of the Islamic sect, Ibrahim Musa disclosed this on Thursday stressing that El-Zakzaky was leaving the Madena Hospital back to the country.
“Following lack of a breakthrough in the impasse that ensued in the treatment of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky in New Delhi, it is now confirmed that the Sheikh is on his way back to Abuja, Nigeria. He is scheduled to leave 17hrs Nigerian time,” says Musa.
“In a video message sent by the Sheikh himself, he said that they were given two alternatives; either to commence the treatment on their own terms i.e the government terms or they will be sent back. And that it has been announced to them that they will be sent back and he is praying to Allah that may it be the best option for him and for everybody.
“It is clear to us that the Nigerian government’s interference and the scuttling of the whole process rather than supervision as ordered by the court is the direct course of the impasse.”
The leader of the Islamic group had earlier decried poor treatment meted out to them while at the Indian hospital.
In a report, a top member of the sect, Yahaya Soje also identified threats from the security operatives.
“The security officials refused to allow the doctors he requested to treat him and his wife. As I am speaking with you now they are preparing to return to Nigeria this night.”
The couple left the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja to arrive in India last Tuesday with their relatives, security operatives and government officials.
On Monday, 186 doctors from seven countries petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari, expressing their concerns over the poor health condition of the Islamic cleric and why he should get urgent medical treatment. They claimed the clergy is suffering from severe medical problems including lead deposit in his system.
Few of the other ailments include glaucoma, symptoms of Ischemic heart disease, which could lead to Myocardial infarction, severe cervical spondylosis which has resulted in nerve root compression and causing insomnia.
The Kaduna State Magistrate Court on 5th August granted El-Zakzaky temporary approval to seek medical treatment in India after several attempts by his counsel, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and his followers demanding his release.
ON Wednesday, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, urged the Nigerian government to desist from its agreement with the Russian owned company, Rosatom, to build nuclear power stations, citing safety concerns.
The group’s Head of media, Philip Jakpor, who disclosed this in a statement in Lagos cautioned the Nigerian government that building nuclear power plants to boost power generation might result in likely mishaps difficult to control similar to the Arkhangelsk region nuclear explosion in Russia.
“We restate our aversion to throwing nuclear plants into the energy mix in Nigeria. The explosion in Russia even with their expertise is enough indication that it is not the path to go,” the statement read.
On August 8, Russian scientists were working on miniaturised sources of nuclear energy when a rocket engine exploded which led to a spike in radiation levels and mass evacuation of communities near the facility.
The explosion had killed five people and caused radiation readings in neighbouring cities which was over 20 times above their normal level in half an hour
“The details are scary enough. We reject the nuclear option for power generation because they are dangerous and we do not have the capacity to manage the potential disaster a nuclear breach may cause, “it states.
In 2017, Russia’s state-owned Rosatom and Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, for the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant and research centre in Kogi, Akwa Ibom, and Abuja.
The decision and the process involved in choosing the sites has been criticized by civil society groups and communities in Itu, Akwa Ibom State warning that siting the nuclear plant in their community does not have their endorsement.
The agreement provides for the construction of a centre with the two-circuit pool-type reactor of the Russian design and a nominal power rating of 10 MW in Sheba-Abuja.
Four nuclear plants that Rosatom will build will cost about $80billion, with the first plant expected to be ready by 2025, while the others are due to be completed by 2035.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Deputy Executive Director of the group, advised the authorities to thread with caution by taking the host communities along in its decision.
“Once again we have another reason to ask the Nigeria government to halt the nuclear misadventure spearheaded by the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, NAEC, without the consent of Nigerians,” he said.
Oluwafemi explained that with the global community’s drive to pursue clean and safe energy options including wind and solar technologies, Nigeria was still stuck with nuclear power that neither clean nor safe nor cheap.
“We have not shown sufficient capacity to manage our hydro and gas-fired plants, yet we are plunging into the uncharted waters of nuclear power. This plan should stop immediately,” he affirmed.
The 23 Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) designed and built to service small and medium scale enterprises (SMES) in Nigeria are derelict and abandoned despite Federal Government’s plan to use the facilities to boost small scale local business in the country. YEKEEN Akinwale who visited centres in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano reports about the dilapidated condition of the multi-million infrastructure built across the country.
Edited by Ajibola AMZAT
THE Nigeria’s Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Kano have been taken over by miscreants, farmers and herders, and the supervisory agency, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is not unaware of this, but could only do little or nothing, The ICIR can report.
Though the Federal Government made repeated promises to rehabilitate the moribund 23 industrial centres across the states after admitting in 2016 that they have been abandoned and dilapidated for too long.
Abandoned: One of the administrative blocks at Port Harcourt IDC Photo. Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
The 23 industrial centres established by past government were to serve as a support system for Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (SMEs) in the country but none of them functions currently.
The first IDC was established in Owerri in 1965 by the former Eastern Nigeria government, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and was taken over in 1970 by the Federal Government including the one in Zaria, Northern Nigeria, which was established in 1969.
The emergence of the centres followed the Nigerian government’s yearning to strengthen SMEs in the country. The centres were established and located where the country has a comparative advantage of natural resources.
Experts who carried out feasibility studies recommended that the government should concentrate on five areas namely; woodwork, metalwork, automobile repair, textiles, and leatherwork.
When establishing the centres, the Federal Government spent huge funds providing workshops, machines, offices, and vehicles.
Though the centres were previously under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, they were later handed over to the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in 2011.
However, due to years of neglect by the government, the centres are currently wasting away.
The current administration under President Muhammadu Buharilaunched an MSMEs clinic across the states to fast-track development of SMEs but did not articulate any action plan in the clinic for the revival of the supporting centres.
Visits to the centres in 2017 by the Senate Committee on Industry did not yield any results despite lamentations by members of the committee about the sorry state of the centres.
The IDCs wereestablished to provide extension services to the SMEs in such areas as project appraisal for loan application, training of entrepreneurs, managerial assistance, product development, production planning and control, as well as other extension services.
In 2017 and 2018 budgets, SMEDAN allocated N600 million to rehabilitate 12 centres. The amount was spent to construct fences around some of the facilities and to complete other renovation works.
SMEDAN has spent N600million on the rehabilitation of the IDCs between 2017 and 2018. Some of the works include erection of perimeter fences around the centres. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
According to Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed, the Head Corporate Affairs Department at SMEDAN, the agency inherited the dilapidated centres from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
“When we inherited these IDCs, that’s how almost all of them were, dilapidated,” Mohammed told The ICIR in an interview.
On why the agency has failed to revive the centres and allowed them to deteriorate, Mohammed, said, “We didn’t receive any kobo at this agency for IDCs in terms of budgetary allocation until 2017. Any improvement you see on any IDC is only from 2017 and 2018.”
The agency, in 2017, fenced the premises of IDC Benin, Katsina, Ikorodu, Owerri and Abuja. In Zaria it did a general renovation of the 3-in-1 workshop. At the IDC Idu, Abuja the roof was renovated.
In 2018, he said the agency bought complete automotive component of waste to wealth equipment in Idu, Zaria and fenced Kano, Makurdi, Jos and Abeokuta centres.
Despite all this spending, he said the IDCs would be demolished any time soon. A viability study has shown that despite the rehabilitation —they will be replaced with what is now known as industrial clusters.
SMEDAN and Africa Development Bank (AfDB) carried out a study of all the IDCs, which comes in two stages: Outline Business Case (OBC) and Full Business Case (FBC).
The ICIR gathered that the OBC has been completed and submitted to the AfDB which has the final say to go ahead with the second stage, FBC.
He said the management would engage auditors to examine the work.
“That is what is remaining and we have done procurement in that respect. An auditor has been selected. It is now for AFDB to agree with what we have done. Once AfDB is satisfied with all the processes, we would now sign a contract with the auditor,” he added.
For the second part of the AfDB case, the FBC is going to demolish all those workshops (even those rehabilitated) because that is what the consultant who carried out the study proposed.
Renovated staff quarter at Lagos IDC, but will be demolished under the proposed industrial cluster. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
Based on the proposal, there would be a vertical cluster that would accommodate more SMEs.
The spokesperson said the concept all over the world is an industrial cluster— a group of interrelated business in one place making use of a common facility and infrastructure.
Six centres—Abuja, Lagos, Sokoto, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri are said to be in the pilot stage of the proposed industrial clusters.
Mohammed said all the 23 IDCs are viable, according to the study.
“But we cannot start with the whole 23, we have assigned the cluster type to each of the six. The selection is based on the competitive advantage of each of the states,” he said.
Lagos will focus on Fast Moving Goods (FMGs), while Port Harcourt will focus on chemicals and oil products because of the availability of petroleum there.
In Nigeria, small scale businesses constitute 85 per cent of all firms operating in the economy, Hassan Ayinde and Olaniran Olawale wrote in “Developing Small Business Entrepreneurs through
Assistance Institutions: The Role of Industrial Development Centre, Osogbo, Nigeria,” published in the journal of the Canadian Center of Science and Education.
Like in most other developing countries, small scale businesses employ the largest number of workers. It is the official policy of the government to develop the economy and fight poverty through the development of small scale businesses.
Four times SMEDAN promised to rehabilitate the industrial centres and failed
A file picture of Dikko Radda, DG of SMEDAN
In January 2016, a former Director-General of SMEDAN, Bature Masari, said the agency was working towards theupgrade and conversion of its IDCs to enterprise centres and MSME cluster parks in an effort to facilitate the speedy development of MSMEs to enhance economic empowerment and employment generation.
He gave the names of the IDCs slated for conversion to include those in Ogun, Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Kano, Borno, Niger, Cross Rivers, Osun, Rivers, Sokoto, Adamawa State, and Kaduna states.
Bature also disclosed that IDCs in Enugu, Abuja, Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Katsina, Imo, Akwa Ibom, and Taraba States would be converted into Enterprise Zones because of their size to offer common facilities and workspaces to MSMEs in those states.
He said SMEDAN was into partnership with Osun and Kano state governments for the redevelopment and upgrade of IDCs in Oshogbo and Tiga respectively where huge funds were being committed by the two state governments on the upgrade and conversion of the facilities.
Though when this reporter visited Kano IDC there was no sign of any redevelopment. Like other centres, it was deserted and dilapidated.
Bature pointed out that while the Tiga IDC was in the process of being converted to a world-class leather cluster park, more than N200 million has so far been expended on the improvement of facilities and rehabilitation of the Oshogbo IDC by the Osun State government under an MOU with SMEDAN.
Since then, nothing has happened to the centres; but the empty promises by the government did not stop.
This was despite Nigeria’s growingunemployment rate which stood at 23.1 per cent of the workforce in the third quarter of 2018, up from 18.1 per cent a year earlier, according to the National Bureu of Statistics, NBS.
“As of Q3 2018, the calculated unemployment rate was 23.1 per cent, the underemployment rate was 20.1 per cent, and the combined unemployment and underemployment rate was 43.3 per cent,” the NBS report stated.
In his message at the opening ceremony of the Lagos Leather Fair, the new DG of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, like his predecessor said the agency wascollaborating with Kano State Government to redevelop a N12 billion IDC in Tiga town of the state into a world-class leather cluster park and training centre, but with Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with stakeholders of the leather industry, including potential investors to embrace the project.
He spoke through the agency’s Director of Engineering, Technology, Innovation and Infrastructure, David Abu Ozigi. That was in June 2017.
Ironically, Kano IDC in Tiga town is currently a grazing field to herders’ cattle. There are no signs of any new investment at the centre when it was visited by The ICIR.
A year after— precisely, June 2018, Radda, again, announced that the Federal Government had put in motion the process of rehabilitating all the IDCs across the country.
Radda whose office supervises all the 23 IDCs in Nigeria said the government had plans totransform the centres into world-class enterprise clusters for rapid economic development geared towards job and wealth creation.
He disclosed that SMEDAN in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) carried out a study of the viability of the centres. The bank, according to him, sponsored the study at a cost of more than $600,000 for the six months period; the report of which he disclosed had been submitted to the government.
While nothing has been done since then, Radda would also in November of the same year re-echo that the Federal Government had put in motion the process of rehabilitating all the IDCs.
He was leading members of the Senate Committee on Industries on an oversight function to the Owerri Centre, and said the agency hadcommissioned a study in collaboration with the AfDB) on how to rehabilitate the centres.
“I believe that by the end of June, the project with the bank will come to a conclusion. What we are waiting for is the submission of the full business scale for six out of the 23 centres,’’ he said.
Kano IDC—receives only empty promises—now a cattle grazing field
Faded signpost of Kano IDC at Tiga. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
Kano Industrial Development Centre in Tiga town off Kano, Zaria road collapsed in 1999, says Ahmad Yaro, an Administrative Staff at the centre.
Yaro is one of the remaining six workers at the IDC as it is called by people of Tiga. The centre was established in 1982 but suffered a great setback when the Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered a downsizing of the civil service.
Inside its wide expanse of land were cattle grazing on dried grasses while structures with blown roof stood derelict. Offices were covered in dust, ceiling, doors and windows were broken. There were no signs of life on the premises.
A dilapidated structure at the Kano IDC, no activities taking place at the centre. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
“At the initial stage of my appointment, here was booming but all of a sudden, everything crumbled during 1999 rightsizing and downsizing activities of the Federal Government,” Yaro recalled with nostalgia.
“No activity has taken place here since 1999,” he added.
Asked about the machines at the centre, Yaro said, there were machines but they were not functioning because they were all obsolete.
According to him, six employees are currently working at the centre, including its Coordinator whose office is in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Due to the peculiarities of Kano for leather production, the IDC was intended to be a hub for leatherwork, but Yaro said the centre which also ought to carry out business appraisal has not witnessed any productive activities for years.
This is despite claims by SMEDAN that the Tiga IDC was in the process of being converted to a world-class leather cluster park.
That’s not the only thing that is wrong with the centre, its location is also part of the reasons for its abandonment. The Centre is located the outskirts of Kano, making it difficult to access. the location is hundreds of kilometres away from the heart of Kano city.
After spending more than two hours searching for the industrial centre, this reporter got help from an official of the Kano State Chambers of Commerce and Industry who gave a hint of its location. He simply said the IDC is located in Tiga town —but without giving a specific address or a landmark.
Before then, officials of Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in the city could not even make sense of the name Industrial Development Centre when asked. None among those asked had heard of it before, likewise artisans along Hadeija road in the city.
Situated on Kilometre 1 along Tiga Hydro Electric Power Project, Kano IDC stood forsaken by the roadside. It is a shadow of its old self.
The signpost that welcomes visitors has long faded. Only eagle-eyed visitors could see it from afar.
At Port Harcourt —Farmers now resident in the industrial complex
Hidden signpost of Port Harcourt IDC. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
Farmers are the ones tending the abandoned Rivers State IDC located in Port Harcourt. While the Federal Government continue to sloganeer about rehabilitation without taking action, those interested in crop production are not allowing its fertile soil to waste away.
The centre has been long abandoned, overtaken by weeds and parts of it already converted to farms by some people who tend the facility.
The reporter saw four farmers taking rest in one of the workshops after the day’s work. It had just rained that afternoon, and the farmers were snacking on pawpaw.
Apparently, the centre has not worked or used for any industrial purpose in a long while. The ICIR was reliably informed that equipment—mostly fabricating machines— installed at the centre were never used up till most of them were vandalised, stolen, or became obsolete.
A farmer peeling pawpaw at the Port Harcourt IDC. Photo Credit: YEKEEN Akinwale
The roof of the workshops is partly blown off by storm while an old Volkswagen car sits in the middle of the hall. The large workshop is littered with remnants of obsolete wooden and metal works equipment. The entire premises is covered with overgrown grasses.
Tired of idleness, staff at the centre, it was learnt, have stopped coming to work. When there is training to be organised, trainees are usually taken elsewhere due to lack of appropriate machines for practical work, The ICIR learnt.
Asked about the procedure to secure a space allocation by an entrepreneur, one of the men taking shelter in the large workshop responded that no one has been given any space in a long time.
“We have not received any information from Abuja about the allocation of space to anybody,” he said.
He insisted that order must come from Abuja before anything can be done.
“Here, we cannot do anything, we don’t have that power to do anything and nobody has been given any allocation here as you can see,” he says.
The Centre has been abandoned for so long that no local seems to know its location in Port Harcourt, including those who live around or operate businesses along NTA Road, Ozuoba where it is located. Nobody could say the type of activities that take place within the large premises.
“The place is called ‘Industrial Gate’,” says a middle-aged woman who roasts ripe plantain adjacent the centre, though there are no signs of any industrial activities taking place there at the time.
Only a few locals know it as ‘Industrial Gate’—the large almost faded signpost rests somewhere on the fence near the pedestrian gate, covered by trees nearby which make it hardly noticeable for passers-by.
Sam Egwu, a former Chairman Senate Committee, once likened the centre to a mechanic workshop when he led members of the committee on an oversight function visit. He said the visit showed that the IDC only exists in name.
This investigation was supported by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) and the Ford Foundation.
For the Nigerian Left, the strongest lesson of what may now be called Nigeria’s #RevolutionNow—that is, the August 5 mass protests organized by some young fragments of the movement—may be formulated as a warning: If Nigeria survives long enough from the current battering of the country’s ruling class, variants of what was attempted on August 5 may be attempted again and again until a spark leads to a national conflagration or a successful popular revolution resulting from a better conceived, planned and executed strategy.
Such a successful popular revolution will present to every Left entity—organization or individual—the choice of joining the revolution as an active participant, thereby ending this long stalemate. An implicit premise of this proposition is that Nigeria’s present ruling class has refused to, or indeed cannot mobilise the social forces necessary to pull the nation out of its ever-expanding crisis.
One may start the story of #RevolutionNow by recalling the 2019 general elections conducted earlier this year. The official result of the presidential contest showed that President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC won while the other presidential candidates, including Omoyele Sowore of the Leftist AAC, lost. This point should be conceded.
However: It is a long-established and tested principle of political strategy that in a non-democratic setting such as Nigeria, a Left-wing formation or a formation with a Leftwing leadership may organize itself, its programmes and its activities in distinct but connected levels, or in concentric circles.
This simple principle “prima facie” explains and justifies, ideologically and historically, the link between Sowore’s presidential contest and his “involvement in” or “leadership of” #RevolutionNow. Sowore himself may not be acutely aware of this. But Sowore’s lawyer, radical human-rights lawyer, Femi Falana, should theoretically be aware of the principle. In any case I have seen that Falana endorses its application in the present case if the term “revolution”, as used in #RevolutionNow, is demystified and given its factual, true and contextual meaning.
We may briefly go to some background: Omoyele Sowore was the president of the students’ union of the University of Lagos for a period during the long military dictatorship of mid-1980s to late 1990s. He was a radical, Left wing and popular students’ leader. He also commanded attention in the national students’ movement. He was however ideologically and organizationally outside the Marxist core that maintained and exercised hegemony in the national students’ movement during that period. It was a measure of its success in strategy and tactics that on several campuses, this Marxist core managed to strongly “influence” students’ politics without insisting that the official leaderships be revolutionary Marxists.
Now, how do we assess #RevolutionNow? We may begin by asserting that proclamations of revolutions are not new. In fact, in certain circumstances, a proclamation is necessary, if not mandatory—if it is a “people’s revolution” or a “revolution of the people.” But this proclamation is made not to herald a revolution-in-general (which the masses ought to have known) but to announce the start of a new stage, such as armed struggle.
For historically tested reasons, a proclamation is made not before the commencement of the new stage. On the other hand, in order not to confuse the people and put them in prolonged suspense, a proclamation is not delayed for too long after the commencement. The proclamation of the start of a new stage is made after the first definitive acts—if these are deemed successful.
It is this tradition of proclamation of people’s revolution that right-wing coup makers copy and bastardise. The content, tone and language of a revolutionary proclamation make the statement indelible in the history of the liberation of the people. Finally, it should be obvious that at the point of making a proclamation, the leadership should be unreachable.
Does #RevolutionNow, in its broad ideological and political amateurishness, have precedents in Nigeria? Yes, it has precedents in Nigeria. Have I taken part in the organization and leadership of any? Yes, I have taken part in more than one. Which one is the freshest in my memory? The “revolution” of January 1975 in Lagos: that is in pre-internet and pre-social media Nigeria. Were mistakes committed in it? Yes, grave mistakes were committed—although these were not the fundamental reasons the “revolution” did not succeed in its illusory ultimate objective!
Those old enough may remember that between late 1974 and early 1975 there was a wave of strikes and mass protests throughout the country—but especially in Lagos which was then the federal capital of Nigeria. The general issues included corruption, “bad governance” and the shifting of the promised date for disengagement of the military from governance. But the particular national issue was the long-awaited wage reviews. Among the radical groups which participated in the struggle was Anti-Poverty Movement of Nigeria (APMON), a revolutionary Marxist formation, a mass mobiliser with an unknown operational base and a shadowy leadership.
At the start of the struggle I was transiting from being a graduate student to being a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Lagos. Comrade Bene was a graduate student of Botany in the same university. Bene and I were both in the leadership of APMON. In addition, I was the Secretary of APMON and my office in the department was APMON’s coordinating centre—unknown to anyone outside the leadership. I was 28 and Bene was 27. In crisis periods, the link between this coordinating centre and members of APMON’s leadership outside the campus and outside Lagos was provided by the late Comrade Tony Engurube, a revolutionary Marxist of Ijaw parentage but very fluent in Yoruba, French and a certain Swedish language—in addition to English, of course.
One evening, during the particular struggle under reference, we stumbled on a rough document carrying what was claimed by the author or authors to be a proposed wage structure for the army. The figures were scandalously high. An emergency meeting of APMON’s leadership was called the next day. The unanimous decision of this fateful meeting was that the production of an agitational publication in support of striking dock workers and medical doctors should be stopped for the “uncovered” military wage structure to be added as an appendix.
About 400 copies of the revised publication were to be produced and distributed covertly at strategic locations in Lagos. The decision was carried out immediately. That was it! The publication, to use a modern language, became “viral” within 72 hours. The effect was electrifying. My banker-senior brother with whom I was squatting in Lagos came back from work to show me a paper “some people” were distributing in Lagos Island! We both shouted!
Security agents poured out in search of “subversive” and “unpatriotic” people, “enemies of the nation”. Another emergency meeting of APMON’s leadership was called. However, the decision this time was not unanimous. But the majority opinion—which was supposed to be binding—was that the organization had achieved its realizable maximum objective and should suspend all public and private agitation, with or without the “document”.
As the meeting was dispersing, it could be observed that some comrades were still not happy with the decision. They believed that the “revolution” was nearing victory and required only a final push! In fact, earlier that day, a particular comrade, with some APMON cadres, had gone to Nigeria’s land border with Benin Republic at Idi-Iroko to urge border guards not to allow certain senior state functionaries to escape from the country!
Three days later, soldiers swooped on him as he was agitating at Lawanson Bus Stop! And two days later, two comrades, one from a well-known Ondo family, and myself, not knowing that we had been uncovered and were just being lured and trailed, drove into the military police headquarters at Apapa. We went there in a prestigious Volvo car to secure the release of our detained comrade! The gates closed behind us for six months.
Madunagu, mathematician and journalist, writes from Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
THE Federal High Court has granted bail to Abdullahi Babalele, the son-in-law to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice-president of Nigeria.
Babalele was granted bail in the sum of N20 million with one surety in like sum on Thursday.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned him on two-count charges bordering on money laundering of $140,000 (more than N50m) during the 2019 general elections.
The anti-graft agency alleged that he aided the cash payment of the sum of $140,000 in February 2019 without going through a financial institution.
Besides Babalele, a former associate of Atiku, Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie who is also a lawyerwas sued on a similar case. He was alleged of laundering a sum of $2million in the build-up to the general elections.
Both had pleaded not guilty to the charges before Justice Nicholas Oweibo at the high court.
Speaking on the bail conditions at the hearing on Thursday, the judge ruled that Babalele should provide N20 million with one surety in like sum. He added that the surety must be a resident of Lagos with evidence of means through an affidavit.
The court also directed him to deposit his passport, which had been with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with the court.
Also, Giwa-Osagie was directed to provide N20 million naira with one surety as his bail condition.
The two defendants were ordered to remain in the custody of the EFCC pending the fulfillment of the bail terms.
The trial of both cases was adjourned to October 8.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that it has changed the name of its handle on Twitter.
On the verified Twitter handle, the government made it known in a tweet on Thursday, noting that the handle now has the name @NigeriaGov and is no longer @AsoRock.
The government in the tweet said that the change of name was necessary to reflect the fact that the handle represents the Federal Government of Nigeria and exists on its behalf.
The tweet read, “NOTIFICATION: Twitter Handle Change | From @AsoRock to @NigeriaGov, to more accurately reflect the fact that this handle represents, and exists on behalf of, the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
NOTIFICATION:
Twitter Handle Change | From @AsoRock to @NigeriaGov, to more accurately reflect the fact that this handle represents, and exists on behalf of, the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It will be recalled that few days ago, there were several attempts to hack Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s official Twitter account @ProfOsinbajo which resulted into the account losing its verification.
Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity on Saturday had tweeted about a failed attempt to hack into the Vice President’s Twitter account.
“Yesterday, there were failed external attempts to gain unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account. Since, we have been in contact with Twitter, securing the account, and forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will continue to actively communicate with our citizens,” Akande said in the post.
Yesterday, there were failed external attempts to gain unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account. Since, we have been in contact with Twitter, securing the account, and forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will continue to actively communicate with our citizens.
OBINNA Amaefula, the businessman who allegedly swindled his girlfriend of N4.5 million and also terminated her five-month pregnancy was on Thursday, remanded by the Ogudu Magistrate Court, Lagos.
He was remanded by the presiding magistrate Ejiro Kubeinje after the accused pleaded not guilty on charges brought against him which border on assault, stealing and obtaining money under false pretence, an offence which violates Sections 171, 236, 287 and 314 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Insp. Lucky Ihiele, the prosecuting counsel for the Police, told the court how Amaefula committed the atrocity on 20th May, at Atunrase Estate, Gbagada, Lagos.
He said the accused repeatedly lied over the ‘tokunbo’ vehicles he promised to import on behalf of his girlfriend, slapped the victim and also drugged her which led to her losing the said pregnant.
“The defendant collected the sum of N4, 550, 000 from his girlfriend and the complainant, Ese Odobo, on the pretence of purchasing three `tokunbo’ cars for her business, a representation he knew to be false.
“He fraudulently obtained the money and kept lying to her and giving excuses why the said cars had not arrived,” he said in a report by Punch.
According to him, “The complainant suspected a foul play and demanded her money but she was assaulted by the defendant with a series of slaps, and he knew she was pregnant for him.
“The defendant went further, after some days of assaulting the complainant, to drug her and unlawfully aborted her five months pregnancy”.
However, the magistrate adjourned the case until August 28 for substantive hearing.
BRITISH police have frozen eight bank accounts containing a total of more than 100 million pounds ($121 million), which is suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption overseas.
Reuters reported that the National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday a London court had approved the Account Freezing Orders (AFOs), the largest granted to date, and that police would recover the funds if investigators proved it had been intended for unlawful use.
The NCA said it could not provide any details that could identify individuals related to the accounts.
AFOs and Unexplained Wealth Orders, that allow police to freeze assets until property owners account for their wealth, are part of a toolbox introduced last year to help stem a tide of suspected corrupt cash washing through the country.
London has long attracted corrupt foreign money, especially from Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, former Soviet states and Asia, and the NCA estimates that around 100 billion pounds of dirty money are moved through or into Britain each year.
“The NCA is … seeking to … convince the NCA’s foreign counterparts that even if they cannot prosecute untouchable oligarchs at home, if they have assets here, these can be attacked,” said David Corker, a partner at law firm Corker Binning.
NOT LESS than six states across the Federation recorded 93 per cent of all confirmed cases of Lassa fever in the country, the Federal Government has disclosed.
This casualty figure (93 per cent) accounts for 241 persons in Edo State representing 37 per cent, followed by 192 casualties in Ondo representing 30 per cent and Ebonyi state with eight per cent, directly placed on the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) with 50 confirmed cases.
While Edo and Ondo states shot-up far beyond the acceptable CFR margin, Bauchi, Taraba and Plateau fall below the fatality rate. However, the three states have so far recorded 46, 40 and 35 confirmed casualties representing seven, six and five per cent respectively.
According to the latest Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Situation Report on the Lassa fever outbreak, most recent among the casualties were 11 confirmed cases reported from Edo (7), Ondo (3) and Bauchi (1) between 29th July and 4th August.
The report also notes that since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, 145 deaths have been recorded from the confirmed cases.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes Lassa fever as a viral haemorrhagic fever transmittable to human through contacts with household items already contaminated with rodents urine or faeces.
“Person-to-person infections and laboratory transmission can also occur…early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment improves survival,” it states.
Confirmed Cases of Lassa Fever in Six States in Nigeria as at 4th August 2019. Infograph by Olugbenga Adanikin, The ICIR
Since the outbreak, the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, NCDC, WHO and other international organisations have deployed awareness creation measures to sensitise the public on how best to prevent the infection.
Moreover, from 1st January to 4th August, the federal government noted that 3,303 suspected cases were reported from the 22 states placed under surveillance by the NCDC. “Of these, 651 were confirmed positive, 18 probable and 2,634 negatives,” the report states.
The states are Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Taraba, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna and Kwara.
Others include Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, Oyo, Kebbi, Cross River and Zamfara States.
The affected pre-dominant age-group according to the report is between 21-40 years.
“In the reporting week 31, no new health care worker was affected. A total of eighteen health care workers have been infected since the onset of the outbreak in ten States – Edo (6), Ondo (4), Ebonyi (1), Enugu (1), Rivers (1), Bauchi (1), Benue (1), Delta (1), Plateau (1) and Kebbi (1) with two deaths in Enugu and Edo States
“Sixteen (16) patients are currently being managed at various treatment centres across the country: Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) treatment Centre (9), Federal Medical Centre, Owo (6) and Bauchi (1).
“A total of 8121 contacts have been identified from the nine states. Of these 745 (9.2%) are currently being followed up, 7,299 (89.9%) have completed 21 days follow up, while 12 (0.1%) were lost to follow up. 127 symptomatic contacts have been identified, of which 65 (51.2%) have tested positive”. It states further.
On May, WHO, development partners and the NCDC announced the end of the emergency phase of the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria since it broke in 2018 killing 129 persons.
The incident led the Federal Government to activate Emergency Operation Centres (EOC) across the 21 states, recording 578 confirmed cases as at 26th May.
