There is something inherently unsettling about the 12 to 18 months preceding an election year, particularly when a sitting president is seeking re-election. It is a period of sure governance missteps. It is the period when even the strongest leaders slacken their political will, and allow politics rather than governance dominate their decision-making. It is the period when elective office holders — not just presidents — are desperate for campaign funds. Usually, executive office holders look no further than security; it’s a trick from the old book. With security, there is no explaining to do. There is a ready escape route because spending on security, being sensitive, are shrouded in secrecy.
Goodluck Jonathan did it before. In July 2014, a little under a year to the 2015 presidential election, he asked the National Assembly for approval to borrow $1billion for the “upgrade of security equipment and training and logistics of the military and other security officers.” To his credit, Jonathan, after securing the loan, trained, in Belarus, more than 700 soldiers dubbed the Armed Forces Special Force (AFSF) — a well-drilled group reputed to instill fear into the most rugged of insurgents. At the point of travel, they were paid $7,700, which was 30% of their Duty Travel Allowance (DTA). But till date, since returning to the country in December 2015, the outstanding 70% has not been paid.
Until his death in December 2016, Lieutenant-Colonel Muhammed Abu Ali was leading the Army’s takeover of lost territory with the T-72, a Soviet-made second-generation main battle tank that entered production in 1971. There have been at least three upgrades to the tank, the most popular being in 1988 and 1995, but they cannot be found anywhere in the northeast or the rest of Nigeria.
Jonathan himself would be shocked if he knew the number of soldiers who died in Borno from stepping on land mines. In this age, no soldier should be killed by mines. A simple mine sweeper is all that is needed. Sweepers detect mines from as far as 25metres away, and detonate them well ahead of advancing troops. Some climb on the mines and detonate them without consequences, the sweepers being very heavy. However, soldiers have always been left with a metal detector, the type available at fast-food joints and hotel entrances.
Even the basic needs of soldiers were not met. The Army found it extremely difficult to supply water, for example, to soldiers in the trenches. Once a group of soldiers waiting to advance to the enemy’s territory asked the Army for water; and when it got an aerial delivery of weapons instead of bottled water, it refused to move. A soldier once told of how in Damasak, Gubio area of Borno State, dehydrated soldiers urinated into their bottles and drank the contents to keep themselves alive. It also happened in Kareto, in April 2016.
These are the memories from Jonathan’s $1bn Boko Haram project, and they are enough to trigger concerns about last week’s approval of state governors for President Muhammadu Buhari to withdraw $1bn from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight the insurgents. The similarity of both circumstances is worrisome. Jonathan’s came eight months before the election, Buhari’s comes 14 months before. With intense election campaigns kicking off in a few months, there are no guarantees for judicious utilization of the funds. Interestingly, when Jonathan made the move in 20014, APC kicked, saying he sought the money “to buy the election and pay for the intimidation of the opposition and electorate” and ultimately “to build a casket for democracy”. Therefore, the APC cannot expect its own government’s move to be perceived in different light.
The source of the funding is another concern, a further indictment of the country’s already-poor savings culture. Before last week’s withdrawal, ECA had a balance of $2.3bn. In the 0.5% Stabilisation Fund was a paltry $29m. And in the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) was another paltry $1.5bn. That is a combined savings of $3.9bn, put away from approximately $1.09 trillion earned from 35 years of crude-oil exportation between 1980 and 2015. The mathematics of it all is that we’ve only ever saved 0.4% of all we earned from oil in 35 years. This means that were all of the country’s crude oil savings be evenly distributed to Nigerians, everyone would get $8 — some N2,888 at the black market.
Despite promising us change, Buhari joins all his predecessors in forgetting that oil is a finite resource, that our buyers are either discovering oil themselves or finding alternatives to the resource, and that our oil reserves have the shortest lifespan of any OPEC nation. By 2051 when our oil reserves are projected to have been depleted, our empty savings will come back to haunt us.
It would be forgivable if the latest ECA depletion would boost the war against insurgency in the same proportion as the amount involved. But to nurse that expectation is to overlook the scale of corruption in the Army. A very simple procedure as paying the operational allowance of soldiers has been abused for years, and continues to thrive under Buhari’s watch. Only last month, a soldier wrote an open letter to the President on “corruption in the Army” and its role in the “needless death of soldiers”. How is it possible that the Army that cannot spare soldiers’ allowances will handle billions of naira without siphoning some?
Finally, the $1bn counter-insurgency project is a contravention of repeated claims by this government that Boko Haram has been “technically degraded” or “really defeated”. Just last month, Buhari — speaking through Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture — said Boko Haram had been “massively degraded” and its surviving members “put on the run”. “What we are witnessing now are the last kicks of a dying horse,” he added.
Not exactly, Mr. Minister. What we are witnessing now is an enforced revelation of the real truth. It is either Boko Haram was never degraded, or the ECA deduction was never needed. Whichever it is, we will know in the fullness of time.
Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested Adeyemi Edun, a real estate agent who allegedly helped Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, to acquire properties worth millions of pounds in the United Kingdom.
Edun was arrested on Wednesday, shortly after he arrived in Nigeria, and is currently being held at the Ikoyi, Lagos office of the EFCC.
“He is being held as part of investigations into Diezani’s multiple corrupt schemes,” Wilson Uwajuren, EFCC spokesperson, told journalists when contacted.
“I can confirm the arrest but I am not able to give details at this stage,” he added.
According to court papers filed in the United States of America and obtained by journalists in Nigeria, Edun “assisted” various Nigerian businessmen with the purchase of £8.3 million of prime London real estate intended “for the use and benefit” of Mrs. Alison-Madueke in March 2011.
He, however, denied the allegations. In an interview he granted to The Mail, a UK-based newspaper, he insisted that “everything is done within the ambit of regulation”.
Alison-Madueke herself has been accused of a series of corrupt practices worth billions of doallars.
Many of her assets in Nigeria have been confiscated and forfeited to the Federal Government, but she remains adamant that she is innocent.
Several court cases are currently ongoing in various courts, involving her or some of her associates.
‘Out of service’ read the network signal on the Journalists’ phone at exactly 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday evening just as the driver, a young dark boy presumably 18 years of age swerved into the mud filled road.
After several twists and turns, the vehicle came to what seemed the end of the road. A river? That’s the first thing that comes to mind. Stretched at a distance of more than 70 meters, almost twice an Olympic-size swimming pool, the drench of the day’s rain formed a pool of flood water ahead. This is where the water is rushing to as there was no gutter on both sides of the road.
To the wonderment of the journalist-passenger, the youthful driver accelerated into the pool. The vehicle began to soak and abruptly stopped almost midway into the pool. It took the combined effort of the passengers who had alighted and some locals to push the vehicle over to the other side of dry land.
This is the only route in and out of Adikwu-Icho community in Apa Local Government Area of Benue State. A night’s rainfall means the flood pool will get as deep as 4 feet. However, if it rains more than a day, movement is completely grounded because you will need a boat to cross which is not handy.
Luckily, the car ignited again after some touches and the driver eventually pulled over by a structure “This is the place you are looking for”, a passenger pointed to an old building, “That’s the Primary Health centre.”
It could be hardly seen because it was already dark and it was still raining.
Though the journalist was given a warm welcome and a place to spend the night, there was a sense of urgency in the facility. Two women were in labour…
A look around the facility, however, showed the labour room is quite scanty with very few equipment at least to cover emergency obstetric care services. It also had no functional ambulance to aid referrals. Relatives of patients have to provide their own transport in the event of an emergency.
Incomplete PHC at Ubbe/Ogba, Akwanga LGA Nasarawa state filled with thick bushes.
A husband to one of the expectant mothers who identified himself simply as Basil recounted their ordeal in bringing his pregnant wife to the health centre.
“It was not easy, me and my brother had to carry my wife who is already in pains because of the pregnancy on our shoulders to cross that flood and get to this side. There was no car or motorcycle that can cross that place because of the water and it’s already night, I just hope and pray she delivers safely,” Basil narrated.
Clad in white apparel and gloves, a nurse, Grace Diashe was busy trying to start the standby small generator which powers the facility during deliveries or emergency at night as there was no electricity in the community.
Adikwu-Icho, a partial island is home to about 2500 people who are predominantly farmers with more than 200 small houses, a typical rural setting.
The silence of the morning was punctured by cries from the new born babies. Buckets were arranged under the roof edges of the building to collect rainwater. This is a tell-tale sign of no borehole and insufficient water supply.
About 30 feet away was another health centre some. This one a beautiful bungalow painted in lively yellow and ox-blood. It is a N22 million project contracted to Ogason Construction LTD in 2014 by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA. But since it was roofed about a year ago, it has been under lock and key and filled with bushes.
Such health facilities are meant to be the bedrock of public health services in the country. In 1978, Nigeria, along with other World Health Organisation, WHO, member countries adopted the declaration instituting the primary health centres as the basic structural and functional unit of public health delivery system.
There has being three major attempts at achieving people oriented PHC in Nigeria. The first attempt occurred between 1975 and 1980. A second attempt which was led by late Professor Olukoye Ransome-Kuti occurred between 1986 and 1992.
NPHCDA was established in 1992 and it heralded the third attempt.
Completed but abandoned health centre built by NPHCDA in Edikwu Icho community, Benue state.
Despite these attempts, Nigeria’s primary health care could not be mentioned without being associated with an array of challenges.
The health centre in Adikwu-Icho where Mrs. Diashe works is built but not yet accessible. There was no equipment and infrastructure inside.
Locals blame government and contractors for not involving locals in the project as well as not taking due consideration of the access road before starting the project.
Paul Adama, the community’s general secretary, said though the community provided land for the project, it was not carried along.
“We don’t even have the number of the contractor and I don’t think the work he did so far is commensurate with the contract amount,” Mr. Adama said.
“This our road has been like this since I was born. During dry season it can be manageable and motor-able but becomes waterlogged in raining seasons because there is no channel for the water to flow out or gutter. The community has been cut off because of this flood.
“We have complained severally but nothing has been done. We have two polling units here, the government only come during elections period. After their campaign promises, we vote them but they will not do anything.
“With this road, tell me how many qualified health workers will be willing to work here. We don’t have light, good school and other basic amenities,” he added.
The functional health centre, where Mrs. Diashe works, services the health needs of the community. It is a Millennium Development Goals, MDG project of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. This is where the reporter spent the night.
Here, one qualified nurse and three health workers struggle with the challenge of attending to thousands of residents with limited drug supply and no standard equipment.
Worse still, child delivery, pre and post-natal care remain the biggest challenge, health workers say.
Giving a rough mental statistics, Mrs. Diashe estimates deliveries taken in a month to be up to 25, although she was careful not to reveal fatalities.
“We don’t have a lot of things in our labour room which makes delivery difficult. We don’t have more qualified staff, we need a doctor.
PHC, Asata, Enugu State
“If am carrying out delivery and meet an issue I cannot handle, we normally refer the person to Aliade but it’s always a challenge because of this road. If we have a doctor here, he will handle all these and will save the life of the mother and child.
“Pregnant and nursing mothers in the community normally resort to traditional means due to these challenges,” Mrs. Diashe lamented.
LIKE BENUE, LIKE NIGER
Far away in Niger State, it took a combined effort of three men to open the rusted door of a PHC in Gbaye village in Shiroro LGA of the state only to be welcomed by a host of bats that have occupied the entire roof of the building. This comes after struggling to pass through tall bushes that have occupied the entire compound.
Adorned with blue paint on the outside and yellow on the inside, each room was well spaced to meet up the standard of a typical health centre; but it was left in the care of bats who seemed unhappy at the sight of unwelcome strangers at their humble abode.
In some rooms, the PVC ceilings fell apart giving way for the bats to have a clear access to every corner of the building.
Yakubu Soma, the gate keeper who is confident that nobody is coming to say ‘hi’ turned the entrance of the building to where he spreads seeds and food.
He complained of not being paid despite his efforts in trying to rid the place of bushes. “I was brought about two years ago by an Alhaji (contractor) and he gave me N40,000 to stay and take care of the place but since then, he has not come here or even paid me.
“I remove the bushes that fill this place up without being paid. I am tired of staying here. I don’t have money to buy chemical to remove these bushes again,” Mr. Soma said through an interpreter.
A member of the community, Ittah Dahiru, however, said the place was locked up by the contractor who told him he is being owed by the government despite completing almost 90 per cent of the project.
A 33minutes phone conversation with Musa Gwadebe, the contractor, gave a new perspective to the controversy.
Though the data on Budeshi, a public procurement data platform showed that the contract amount for the project is N37 million, Mr. Gwadebe said he only received N7.5 million.
PREMIUM TIMES further learnt that the contract was awarded by NPHCDA and sponsored by Abdullahi Rikko who was representing Shiroro constituency in the House of Representatives. The contract was awarded to one Ibrahim Abah.
It was further learnt that Mr. Abah who doesn’t have a construction company used his brother’s company’s name, Abamatu resources, to get the contract. Abamatu resources in turn contracted Mr. Gwadebe who did the job.
The laws guiding procurement however states that a contractor must own a company and show evidence of works done within the area of the project before he can be considered.
“We got the contract in November 2014 and we only received N7.5 million through Abamatu resources account. As the work progressed to 65 per cent we requested for more money and evaluation of work done but we were told by the person in charge to finish the job as quickly as possible so they can pay us the full balance (N30m).
“I then got a loan from the bank and used my house as collateral so I can complete the project on time. We completed the work in March 2015 before the general elections and since then we have been making requests for our money and up till now (more than 2 years) it’s yet to be paid.
“We have traced our file to the audit department of NPHCDA but all we were told is there is no money.
“The certificate of my house is in court and I’m about to lose it to the people I borrowed money to complete this project. We locked the building up,” Mr. Gwadebe said.
The head of audit department at NPHCDA who simply identified himself as Yemi said the board couldn’t pay because the money was returned to federal government’s account.
“At the end of every financial year, all the money for contracts that was not used will bounce back to FG’s till another budget is released and that is why we couldn’t pay the contractor, his money returned to the government.
“We have written to the government to release liabilities to us but they have not responded and that is the issue,” Yemi said.
In the midst of all these, however, the well-built PHC in Gbaye village keeps decaying while the people it was meant for are in dire need of its services.
A NATIONAL PROBLEM
The Gbaye case mirrors what is obtained in several Primary Health Centres, PHCs, built in the last three years across the country by the federal government. Incomplete or completed, many remain unused, in spite of huge need for them.
In most cases, this is because money was appropriated, contracts awarded and construction commenced without a laid out plan to track the project, its sustainability, due consideration of road network and its accessibility to the people as well as proper liaison and linkages with state and local governments where they are sited.
According to the data from Budeshi, the NPHCDA awarded 91 contracts for the construction of PHCs in 2014 and 2015.
The Budeshi data showed that the new PHCs were awarded mostly at the uniform sum of N21, 986.893.00 to different contractors in many states raising the red flag on whether NPHCDA carried out competitive bidding on the projects.
Adikwu-Icho PHC built during Jonathan administration.
WHO IS TO BLAME?
According to Utache Johnson, an official of NPHCDA, it is expected that the local government authorities periodically inform the board on the progress and challenges of PHC’s within their jurisdiction.
“We are working with contractors and House of Rep members representing each local government. The House members are the ones that normally initiate PHC projects in their various locations. Our job is to execute PHC projects, we now expect the local government authorities to inform us what is needed in these facilities in terms of drugs, staff and equipment so we can come in,” Mr. Johnson said.
On abandoned and incomplete projects, he said the agency has field monitors and project supervisors who go into the field to monitor and evaluate the work done on the sites and “if the work is abandoned, incomplete or not commensurate with the money released, then we now involve the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies to investigate the people responsible and they will be charged to court and made to pay.”
Henry Ewunonu, a pathology specialist and member of the Nigeria Medical Association however believes it is the responsibility of the health ministry and the state health commissioners to tackle the challenges bedevilling health centres across the nation.
Shattered roofs of Gbaye PHC already occupied by bats
“It is the duty of the honourable minister of health in conjunction with the commissioners of health to plan for human resources for health, distribution of equipment, drugs and consumables as well as maintenance of the facility. It is not just about building a PHC but making plans for its sustainability. In Gambia, some PHCs are mud houses but they are well equipped and functional.
“NPHCDA speaks through the ministry of health and the minister would not want to rock the boat with House of Representative members because he’s going to face them at the next budget defence. So it’s complex.”
The Commissioner for Health in Benue State, Cecelia Ojabo, in attempt to address the issue, blamed previous administrations for abandoned, incomplete and non-functional PHCs across the country.
“This is what we inherited from previous administrations, as soon as we bring PHC under one board we will take over those premises. We can’t leave them abandoned and habited by snakes and other reptile. We will take ownership of them and staff them.
“We will complete the uncompleted ones and opened the locked ones for public use. This government doesn’t believe in uncompleted projects,” Ms. Ojabo said.
NPHCDA Speaks
Faisal Shuaib, the Director-General of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES described the state of PHCs across the nation as sub optimal.
“As of today, there is no single person in Nigeria who would tell you he is happy with the status of primary healthcare in Nigeria, unless that person is not in touch with reality.
“Our primary healthcare services are sub optimal in most places and that is why we still have high maternal and child mortality indices globally”, Mr. Shuaib said.
Reacting to the first part of PREMIUM TIMES investigation which mirrored the terrible state of Primary Health Centres across the nation, Mr. Faisal said his agency is already taking stock of PHCs in bad condition across the nation.
“From the people we sent out to carry out a detailed assessment of all of these facilities across the nation.
To say, which are the poorly renovated health facilities, which are the dilapidated health facilities, which are the facilities started and completed and those started and not completed? So that we don’t keep having people year in year out, saying they want to start a health facility that will not be completed. Such unfinished projects are littered everywhere in the country.
“So we are taking stock of them all and prioritise each of them. If a National Assembly member comes to us to say, ‘I want to build a PHC’, we will tell them that next to your village is an uncompleted one, ‘can you complete that and probably share credit with your predecessor for ensuring that the health care facility becomes functional?’
“We also want to be able to sit here at NPHCDA with all the photos of the PHCs to be able to show people who want to see the state of health facilities in their villages. To tell them the number of staff there, the last time it was renovated, if it is a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PHC, or is it a five-star PHC? Such rankings will be available to them. That is the kind of assessment we are doing, so that we move away from a situation whereby we have PHCs that have not been taken over and equipped.
“We are like 50 percent of the way in terms of getting all the data that we need to know their locations and status,” he said.
In January, the federal government flagged-off of a scheme to revitalise about 10,000 healthcare centres across Nigeria, starting with 109, one in each senatorial district. But about 10 months later, all the eight primary health care centres PREMIUM TIMES visited in Niger, Benue and Nasarawa states in North Central Nigeria had no doctors, drugs or equipment.
Shattered roofs of a PHC in Maito village, Wushishi LGA where bats dwell.
On how far the government have gone in the implementation of the revitalisation of 10,000 PHCs, the NPHCDA director said his agency could not renovate 10,000 PHCs within one year. “What we did is in every senatorial district, we get one PHC and this brought us 109 PHCs so far.”
WOMEN, CHILDREN SUFFER FROM NON-FUNCTIONAL PHCS
A visit to a PHC in Ambana village in Lafia, Nasarawa State perhaps provides even a clearer picture of the rot in the primary healthcare system.
The PHC is occupied by mentally unstable people as their belongings are littered all over the abandoned building.
Contracted to Bright steel structures & co Ltd at N21,986,983.95, the PHC, which was meant to be the bedrock of health services in the community as there was no other, is in ruins. This has led to continued death of children and women especially during child bearing.
Two children died of unknown diseases in the morning of the visit, locals said.
According to the emir of the community, Abubakar Ambana, two women and four under-5 children died in the past week.
“We can only go to general hospital in Lafia which is not close and we cannot beat emergency situation, that is why we lose people,” Mr. Ambana said.
Though Ambana is just not far from Lafia, the state capital, its people still lack access to modern healthcare. Child delivery is often done the traditional way.
Aisha Mohammed, a mother of three, said all her children were delivered at home by ‘Ungozoma’ a traditional midwife. She said she doesn’t have any problem delivering in a hospital, only that none is in the community.
Musa Kabiru, an elder in the community, said efforts have been made to reach out to Meyan Ma, the House of Reps member representing the community who the contract was handed over to. But it was unyielding, he said.
“When we try to meet oga (Meyan Ma) they say he is in Abuja. We want the government to help us. Our children, mothers and elders are dying,” Mr. Kabiru said.
Nobody was found in Meyan Ma’s house in Lafia and his phone was unreachable.
According to a survey conducted by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), in Nigeria one in 13 women dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of health care services in Nigeria continue to fail women and children. At present, less than 20 per cent of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care and only 35 per cent of deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendants.
Apart from poverty and cultural practices, shortage of primary healthcare services are forcing women in Nigeria to seek the help of untrained traditional birth attendants, despite the serious risks involved.
Some 30 minutes’ drive from Ambana is another PHC in Ubbe/Ogba, Akwanga LGA of Nasarawa. It was like a recap of what obtained from the last PHC in Ambana, only that the building did not even get to roof stage.
The alternative health centre servicing the community is just some meters away. There are 11 health workers including nurses here, who are forced to use the old, small facility because the new one under construction has been abandoned. Contract for the abandoned PHC was given to Swaleys Nigeria LTD at N18,420,948.
“If they completed that clinic we would have moved in there because this one no longer contains us,” Grace Edero, the head nurse said.
She, however, complained that equipment and drugs brought for the abandoned project had been in the custody of the chief of the town who refused to hand it over to the health workers.
“When we approached him to give to us so we can use them to treat people, he said he don’t know us and can’t release them.
“They are there rusting away while many people are in need of those drugs and equipment,” Ms. Edero said.
It is even worse at Maito village, Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State. The stench oozing out from the nearly dilapidated health centre there can make a healthy person develop serious health challenges. Bats have taken over the roof of the building, though there are more dead bats on it than the ones alive, hence the offensive smell.
Directly opposite the almost decomposed centre stood forlorn two incomplete blocks of building adjacent to each other. The buildings are NPHCDA projects of PHC for Maito village which has been long abandoned. It has been fully occupied by goats, hence the use of an old dilapidated building as a health centre.
“What you are perceiving is coming from dead bats all over the roof,” Mariam Mohammed, the only health attendant at the facility explained covering her nose with a veil.
“It’s not proper to treat a sick person here, some people will come here and see the environment and go back and that is a challenge. The ceiling of our injection room fell down. As you can see, it’s wide open.
“I have to cover my nose almost throughout the day because of the smell. I don’t want to contact disease while treating people. We have complained about this condition and if nothing is done, I will leave.”
Apparently, residents shun the facility not wanting to add to their health challenges. Surprisingly, child delivery is done there according to the nurse.
‘STANDARD PHC’
About N96 million was awarded to rehabilitate a PHC in Muye, Lapai LGA of Niger State. It was quite well built with a large open ward, labour room, children and female wards, doctor’s office and staff quarters, an ambulance, solar power with a well-built gate post.
Of all the PHCs visited, this was the only one that could be rated as standard and open to the public to render health services.
The reporter who arrived at 3:30 p.m. met the centre wide open with no one in all the wards and rooms in the facility. It took further probe inside the village to meet the two health workers, a male semi-qualified nurse and an assistant manning such huge facility.
The facility does not have doctors, qualified midwives, pharmacists, nurses, security or labourers to keep the place clean or even a driver to drive the referral vehicle, Ibrahim Abdullahi, a local health attendant, said.
“We treat at least 15 people daily and we don’t have shifts that’s why we leave the place and go home and attend to certain needs because we cannot afford to be here every hour, it’s just two of us.
“We have meeting every month at the Lapai secretariat, we complain of the staff situation but nothing has been done,” Mr. Abdullahi said.
This begs the question why such well-built facility was not well staffed when N96 million was awarded for just rehabilitation.
This paper further learnt that the rehabilitation of the centre was awarded when a member of the community was the director of NPHCDA. However since the contract was completed, it has not been commissioned.
Meanwhile, locals faulted the state of the road leading to the community as part of the reasons why the facility lacked quality staff.
A storeroom of a Nigerian PHC
Muye is at the far end of Niger State and has a boundary with Kogi State. It will take a commuter N1000 to get to the Muye village from Lapai, the nearest town. Not because it’s far but due to the terrible state of the road.
“Most of the staff brought down here always leave, we have not being able to sustain a worker for long due to these challenges, the impact is that people with serious ailment can’t be treated here,” Mr. Abdullahi said.
HOPE?
There is a glimmer of hope for the country’s decaying primary health care. The federal government has initiated a N28 billion health fund that will target the revitalisation of at least one primary health Centre in each of the 774 local government areas.
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, inaugurated the special intervention which he said would be formally rolled out in 2018.
Patients and health workers in PHCs like Mrs. Diashe in the Adikwu-Icho health centre hope the government keeps its promise this time around
This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR.
Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, has penned a birthday message to President Muhammadu Buhari, who turned 75 on Sunday, but his message came with a rather unsolicited advice for the celebrant.
Fayose’s message for Buhari is that, at 75, he is too old to run again for the presidency, as the country needs a more vibrant, agile person to coordinate its affairs.
“This is to congratulate Mr President as he clocks 75. I want to thank God for his life and pray for good health in the service of our nation and that he continues to age with grace. I wish him the best,” read a statement signed by Idowu Adelusi, Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary.
“He represents us all and we owe him prayers and cooperation where necessary, just as we also need to criticise him where necessary.
“I am not a fan of an old man and this is not personal and peculiar to President Buhari. We need an agile president come 2019.
“We need somebody that is experienced and agile. He shouldn’t contest and the decision is his and his party. But that is not going to stop me and my party from taking over from him and his party come 2019.”
Though Buhari has not explicitly stated his intention to seek re-election, several factors suggest he may have another go at the presidency.
A team of staunch loyalists, known as ‘Buharists’, led by Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, has already declared that he must run again or in the contrary point out an anointed candidate to them.
But the clearest indication of his plans came during his visit to Kano last week, where he said that his reception by a mammoth crowd proved that if elections were held again right then, he would have won by a landslide.
Verily, verily, we should say it to President Muhammadu Buhari and the men and women who are assisting in running his government that this is not the best of time to say ‘silence is golden’. Surely, silence can’t be a strategy in Nigeria at this time when there are serious concerns and questions about the future of the most populous black nation on earth.
Before the president’s reputation managers start screaming blue murder and resume their blame game on the previous administration, the concerns raised today are not about them. They (concerns) are about the office of the president from the office of the citizen. The president and his men should note that before they begin to raise huge funds for the 2019, there are weightier matters of governance, especially about corruption that they should settle quickly, lest they will be the last in 2019.
Indications are daily emerging that politicking around 2019 is beginning to becloud sound judgment in the presidency. As I noted here last week, there is no need reading the president’s lips anymore: I advised us to read his leaps in Kano the other day.
Now, there is the need to draw attention of the president’s reputation managers to some lessons of history that should not be ignored at the moment. They are lessons that past leaders ignored and regretted. And the president and his undiscerning men are beginning to fall into the booby traps – of obsession with a second and more terms in office. Our amiable General Yakubu Gowon once listened to a strange voice that told him 1976 terminal date set “was no longer feasible”. He regretted it.
Even the coup speech that toppled the Buhari administration (1983-1985) appears fresh today as if it was written in 2017. I read it again last night and shook my head that not much has changed, after all. What is worse, the man who would have been our hero of democracy around June 12, 1993 presidential election organised a remarkable election result adjudged to be the best and the cleanest ever. But Professor Omo Omoruyi, the chronicler and a witness to that dark history said General Ibrahim Babangida decided to listen to a strange voice of one mystery Khalifa who asked him to tamper with his country’s destiny: He annulled the result and today we are still nursing the wounds. But no one would believe the report of IBB about June 12-23 1993.
And another man who advertised himself to us in 1998/1999 as “a man we can trust” again decided to plot a blighter called “third term” instead of paying attention to critical governance issues that would have made him a natural successor to Nelson Mandela, and the original icon of Nigeria’s democracy development. That was how General Olusegun Obasanjo too lost steam and Nigeria: He too ended up handing over his ailing presidency to an unhealthy good man who was being assisted by an unprepared deputy who later won election for a full four-year term- as we say here ‘with nothing to show for it’. Who today will believe the report of General Obasanjo on third term agenda?
Specifically, Obasanjo was warned. He had big dreams for Nigeria. His second term was full of exceptionally resourceful men and women who could have helped him to achieve greatness. He was restless. I was covering the presidency and Abuja then as a Bureau Chief for this newspaper.
I was well aware, for instance, that the workaholic called Obasanjo planned to disband the entire police force for reorganisation and operational efficiency that could well serve the world’s most remarkable black nation. I knew who he wanted then to head the police force in that strategic plan. I was also in the know then that Obasanjo the institution, was already aware that the judiciary was getting corruptible. His intelligence chiefs had confirmed to him that judges even at the apex court then were beginning to write two judgments on the same case, waiting for the higher bidder. And he was set to strike.
He wanted to nominate, for instance, Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a man he could trust even as Chief Justice of Nigeria. And some private lawyers were to be nominated to the apex court. The constitution allows the president to nominate a lawyer that has had a 15-year-post-call experience into even the Supreme Court or as Chief Justice of Nigeria. The man had other big dreams that the third-term hidden agenda destroyed inside Aso Villa where big dreams always die.
All these historic and historical contexts are to advise President Buhari about the danger of allowing his men to run away with fixation on a second term plans without clearing his name, specifically from serious allegations Abdulrasheed Maina has levelled against him and his men.
This is another time to remind Team Buhari that there are documented impurities in the anti-corruption crusade that will definitely affect his campaigns for a second term. The only reason people tolerated even electoral malpractices in key zones to get Buhari elected in 2015 was this firm belief in the former head of state’s integrity he could depend on to fight Nigeria’s Number One Enemy, rampaging corruption! It is that integrity that his aloofness, his poor attitude to governance is seriously threatening. That was why on 8th October, I asked a difficult question in this column, Is President Buhari’s integrity overrated?
I hope the president’s men are telling the president that the last straw has been the Mainagate, which has become what Awonoor Williams calls “the chameleon faeces” into which they have stepped and when they clean it cannot go!. Yes, Mainagate has become a big albatross from revelations that have affected almost all the president’s key men and the president himself. It is not too late to speak up. It is another truth in a grave. It will surely rise up before 2019.
Even the president’s wife who has been so frustrated, has defied the subculture in the far north and cried out against the husband’s poor attitude, presidential procrastination, especially in dealing with unspeakable impurities associated with the president’s men. It is getting more curious that the president who has only two-point agenda – fighting corruption and insecurity – continues to tolerate these corrosive impurities in his domain, already noted as a house of commotion.
It is still baffling that even at the weekend, there was no indication that the Presidency was ready to react to an allegation by the fleeing former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Maina, that President Buhari actually mandated his recent re-absorption into the civil service, despite being a fugitive.
Maina had earlier been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to explain his role in the alleged disappearance of over N10 billion worth of pensions funds. At the time he was to be tried during the last administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he reportedly escaped justice by going on self-exile.
But barely three months ago, the embattled Maina was sighted at the Ministry of Interior where he had been re-deployed as an acting director. Following revelation of this drama, President Buhari, apparently embarrassed, especially with the public outrage generated by the incident, ordered Maina’s sack.
But the former pensions task force’s boss, believed to be hiding from the long arm of the law, has been spilling the beans. He recently accused President Buhari of having foreknowledge of how he was re-employed, claiming that the President sent an emissary to him in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, led by the nation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).
This is not an ordinary allegation. Part of this serious allegation has been confirmed at the National Assembly where both the Attorney General of the Federation and the Director General, Department of State Services had confessed to contacts with Maina in Dubai.
Maina specifically revealed that the President’s delegation came to convey a message begging him to come back and take up his job as it had been realised that he was actually cleared of any wrongdoing by the law courts. Buhari, he claimed, had set the stage for his secret re-absorption into the civil service. He added that to reciprocate the gesture, he hinted the visiting minister of how to retrieve a missing N1.3 trillion. These are too grave to be silent about!
Meanwhile, there have been some dark spots on the anti-corruption war the president has to clean up before 2019 politicking begins. One is the issue of the EFCC boss who has been acting as Chairman since 2015. The Senate has refused to clear him. This followed two letters the Director General, DSS also wrote to the same Senate saying the president’s nominee was unfit to hold that office. Certainly, the status of the EFCC chairman will surface sooner than later when campaigns begin soon. Who will history record as the Chairman of the EFCC from 2015 to 2017/2019? The answer should not continue to blow in the wind in a serious country.
In the same vein, there are still unanswered questions about the authenticity of Ikoyi Osborn Towers Flat and NIA’s $43 million allegedly found. From testimony credited to the former DG, NIA, Ayodele Oke and even the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, was there really a whistle blower who was just paid more than N400 million? Who owns the flat? Who posted the NIA operatives reportedly found at the Flat when the EFCC operatives struck? Was there any missing money? What is the executive summary of the report of the presidential panel headed by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on the issue?
We the people should know to clear our doubts about the authenticity of the EFCC’s curious raid. The operation on the Osborn Tower is still shrouded in mystery especially as it was reported in the beginning that the NSA was aware of the N13 billion allegedly kept in the Flat for curious “covert operations”. This too is one other dark spot in the fight against corruption a newspaper editorial just described as “overhyped”. In the main, the president and his men should note that silence on the Mainagate, status of EFCC boss, Magu and the mystery whistle blower on Ikoyi Osborn Flat is not golden, after all. That silence should be broken so that we will not return to the question of whether the integrity of the president has been overrated, after all.
Martins Oloja was former Editor of The Guardian Newspaper from where this article is culled.
Shehu Sani, Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, says throwing money to counter-terrorists who are throwing bombs ill not work.
Sani was reacting to the decision of the National Economic Council (NEC) to pull $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to boost the fight against insurgency in the North East.
Airing his opinion in a post on his verified Twitter handle on Friday, Sani said the move signifies that the terrorists have not been technically defeated as the government always claimed.
Sani also wants the government to release a detailed breakdown of how it intends to utilize the money.
“One billion dollars to fight Boko Haram as approved by the FG officially means the insurgents are yet to be ‘technically’ defeated,” Sani wrote.
“The breakdown of the sum is necessary to make meaning out of it.Throwing money to counter those throwing bombs hasn’t worked in the past.”
One billion dollars to fight Boko Haram as approved by the FG officially means the insurgent are yet to be “technically” defeated.The breakdown of the sum is necessary to make meaning out of it.Throwing money to counter those throwing bombs hasn’t worked in the past.
Similarly, Ahmad Salkida, a journalist who is well known for his extensive coverage of the Boko Haram insurgency, weighed in on the issue, describing Nigeria as “a nation that doesn’t ask questions”.
One billion dollars to fight “remnants” that are “on the run” and are “willing to surrender?” Indeed, we are a nation that doesn’t ask questions. We take anything that is thrown at us by those we call leaders. #Nigeria
Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, had also expressed his reservations with the decision to withdraw money from the Excess Crude Account.
According to Fayose, the move is a ploy to illegally siphon funds to prosecute President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign.
“For posterity sake, I wish to place it on record that I was not among the governors, who approved the withdrawal of $1bn, almost half of our savings in the Excess Crude Account, which belongs to the three tiers of govt to fight an already defeated Boko Haram,” Fayose said.
“Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for; if not to fund President Buhari’s re-election in 2019?
“The APC promised to wipe out Boko Haram within six months, now it is 31 months and what the APC government is wiping out is the economy of Nigeria and the means of livelihood of the people.”
Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State, says it is highly likely that the leadership of the country will easily get to the Igbo after President Muhammadu Buhari must have completed his tenure in 2023.
Speaking to members of the Rochas Mandate Movement, who held a solidarity rally in support of his policies and projects, Okorocha maintained that his administration had recorded great achievements, especially by bringing heads of states of several African countries to Imo.
Okorocha also denied that his administration had been a family affair, explaining that the people who are now being referred to as members of his family are people who grew into prominence under his guidance.
“The people I see here are people who are committed. People that are following me not because of what they could gain from me, but because of what we have done for the world,” he said.
“My coming as a leader in Imo State was by your efforts. No big political bigwig supported me and in my stride, I have brought sitting heads of states of other countries to Imo State.
“As it stands, come 2019, I’m contesting for nothing. But in my heart, I have searched out and resolved that one man has good thoughts about Nigeria in his heart. Secondly, the possibility that leadership will easily get to the Igbo after him. That man is President Muhammadu Buhari.
“There are more than 4,000 children who have gone to University through Rochas Foundation and more than 15,000 of such children are also in the various colleges of the Foundation and when some of them graduate, they chose to be with me and I cannot afford to say no to them.
“If any of such children becomes anything under me, they would say he or she is a member of Rochas Family and I don’t deny that since my ambition in life is to see people grow through me.
“Uche Nwosu is from Nkwerre Local Government Area and Prince Eze Madumere (his deputy) is from Mbaitoli LGA, but they are all counted today as members of my family because they have grown to prominence, but when they took those steps of faith no one counted them as members of my family.”
The Imo State House of Assembly has already unanimously endorsed Uche Nwosu, who is married to Okorocha’s daughter, as the one to become Imo State Governor in 2019.
John Godwin, a Lance Corporal in the Nigerian army has been sentenced to death by a General Court Martial sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State for killing five civilians who were rescued from Boko Haram insurgents.
This was made known by Kingsley Samuel, a Lieutenant Colonel who is also the spokesman of 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
“The civilians were earlier rescued by troops of Godwin’s battalion and were taken for investigation at the time he shot and killed five of them,” Samuel told newsmen on Friday.
“Another soldier, Sergeant Innocent Ototo, was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter after torturing and killing a 13-year-old boy who he said stole his phone.
“The incident happened at Zamanbari area of Maiduguri in Borno State.”
Other soldiers punished by the court were Benjamin Osage, a Lance Corporal, and Sunday Onwe, a Private, who were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each for offences bordering on manslaughter and illegal possession of firearms.
Omarosé Manigault-Newman, the Nigerian-American lady who recently resigned from Donald Trump’s administration, says the world would be interested in her story as the only African-American Female in the Trump White House.
Speaking to ABCNews’ Good Morning America, Omarosé said she had witnessed “things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally.”
Her resignation takes effect from January 20, 2018.
Not many, especially in Nigeria, have heard about Omarosé Manigault-Newman, who was, until Wednesday, the only African-American female holding a top office in the Donald Trump-led United States government.
Omarosé, whose father is of Nigerian descent, resigned from her role as Director of Communication in the Public Liaison office at the US White House.
Before becoming a staff in the White House, Omarosé had worked as a broadcaster, a reality TV participant, an actress and even a preacher.
JOURNALIST
According to Wikipedia, Omarosé graduated with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism in 1996 from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. She later moved to Washington, DC, to attend Howard University, where she earned a master’s degree and worked toward a doctorate in communications but she did not finish.
REALITY TV STAR
Omarosé first became popular in 2004 following her participation in the first edition of ‘The Apprentice’, a reality TV programme sponsored by the NBC, starring Donald Trump, then a billionaire businessman.
She was described as a controversial, and sometimes, acrimonious character, and was ranked 45th in TV Guide’s ‘The 60 Nastiest TV Villains of All Time’.
Omarosé was the only participant in ‘The Apprentice’ to be re-invited for the sequel, ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ in 2008. She was eventually fired in the 10th episode, after serving as the project manager of the team.
ACTRESS
Omarosé had several roles as an actress but she is more widely known for appearing in Soul Sistahs (2006), Knock ’em Dead (2014) and We Are Family (2017).
She dated late American Actor, Michael Clarke Duncan, whom she met in 2010. Duncan later died of a heart-related ailment in 2012.
PREACHER
In August 2009, Omarosé enrolled at the United Theological Seminary in Ohio to pursue a Doctor of Ministry degree.
She received a preacher’s license in February 2011 from her church (Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California) and was formally ordained on February 27, 2012.
In February 2012, she was working on finishing her degree at Payne Theological Seminary.
Omarosé narrated how she came to the decision of becoming a preacher when she visited an orphanage in West Africa, where she encountered a little girl who “was dying of AIDS”.
She said: “It was at that moment, looking into the face, in the eyes of this dying child that I received my call to the ministry.
“Upon returning to the United States, I put reality television on hold. I put everything on hold and returned to seminary full-time.
“There were people who felt like because I had done the (Apprentice) show so many years ago that maybe that disqualified me from the ministry. I’m not really certain.
“But boy did I hear from the critics, and to them I have to say that they underestimate the power of God’s ability to transform a person’s life.”
SO WHY DID SHE RESIGN?
Though there are some reports saying she was fired, Omarosé maintained she voluntarily decided to quit. She however would not elaborate more as her resignation takes effect from January 20.
“I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Omarosé said.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump took to twitter to bid Omarosé farewell and wish her better times ahead.
Thank you Omarosa for your service! I wish you continued success.
