WAITING FOR A TSUNAMI

 

Waiting for a Tsunami
Though not in full swing, the rain is springing deadly surprises already. But climate change experts say that is just a foretaste of a greater tragedy hovering around more Nigerian communities and other developing countries of Africa

GBENGA OGUNDARE

There was no gathering cloud to forecast an impending rainfall on Monday, 5 May, 2014 in Ifo, Ogun State. So Abiodun Aregbesola and his teenage Computer Science students at Owode-Ota Grammar School could not have been prepared for the eddies of wind that crept in on them suddenly-lashing out violently and buffeting everything in sight. Soon the roofs of the classrooms caved in and the walls tore off their foundations and came crumbling on them.
That was the last they knew before the entire community fell flat under the gnawing jab of the whirlwind . Both teacher and his students woke up some days later at Hasjok Hospital in Ifo with large-size bandages swathed around their heads. The Computer Science teacher was lucky to cheat death after all, but not without a six-inch nail piercing his skull in the accident.
Never mind the superstitious sentiments of the Owode residents who blamed their woes on a spell that backfired after the rain had been held from falling over time. Kunle Olawoyin and a crowd of other climate change specialists-who have all the while been crying their voice hoax over the looming disaster of sustained environmental degradation and its spin-offs-are not exactly shocked by the tragedy. Nigeria, Olawoyin argued, is among those countries faced with the worst challenging environmental problems.
“We face all the acute environmental problems identified by World Wide Fund for Nature regarding species, forests, marine and fresh water ecosystems, toxics and climate change,’ the Media Advocacy Manager at the Nigeria Conservative Foundation told this magazine.

Olawoyin is spot-on. So Ban Ki-Moon could not agree any less. “Climate change is increasing risks in all cities, where the poorest people are hit the hardest. We are seeing daily disasters at unexpected times and places,’ the UN Secretary-General told a gathering of high-level representatives at the Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC] summit in New York on Tuesday, 27 May, 2014.
That is no false alarm. Already, Nigeria has lost a massive 1650 square kilometers of land to the ravages of desert encroachment in the 19 northern states, a recent study revealed. The worst hit being Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara, all of which are pummeled by the combined invasion of north-eastern trade wind from the Sahara Desert and winds originating from the local environment.
It’s no cheery tidings either. But The Nigeria Conservative Foundation-at the launch of its Living On The Edge [LOTE] initiative recently- would insist the Sahelian communities of Kaska, Kumaganam and Meori in the sand dune – prone area of Yobe State; Adiani, Baturiya and Maikongoli situated within and around the Hadejia- Nguru Wetlands Complex, and Rijiyan Dono in the Sokoto Rima Basin all present a spectrum of a once Northern paradise now lost to the worst effects of climate change.
Not that it is relenting though. There are also grave concerns on the rapid southern spread of the Sahara desert. The Sahara, environmentalists say, has been moving south at a rate of almost a square kilometer a year, chewing off villages and wiping out agricultural lands. Especially in the littoral state of Lagos, where Ocean surges and erosion have become the cancer eating up the lands and its vegetal cover. Now that the heat of global warming swells across the globe-vacillating at between 1.5°C-2°C -Nigeria, the African giant, and the other dwarfs on the continent are confronted with even a greater risk, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts in April.

“If we don’t reduce greenhouse gases soon, risks will get out of hand. And the risks have already risen,’ Maarten van Aalst, a member of the UN panel noted.

The Troubles Ahead
Twenty-first century disasters such as killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in the United States, droughts in Australia and deadly flooding in Mozambique, Thailand and Pakistan already provide a neon-bright indicators of how vulnerable humanity is to extreme weather conditions.
And the dangers are going to worsen as the climate changes even more, the UN panel warned.
Move over the April 2014 report of the UN, Sen. Grace Bent, erstwhile Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology had warned of a possible natural disaster in Nigeria since 2011. It was only a matter of time, she predicted. The ocean surge in Lagos, Bent surmised then, could just be the forerunner of a tsunami in the alluring commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria.
Sen. Bent must be reading the mind of Yevgeny Dolgmov, geology professor at the Russian University for People’s Friendship. Africa, especially Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria Dolgmov said, are now at the peril of a tsunami. Except that some marine geologists in Nigeria still like to think that only the Pacific coasts are cursed with such seismic disasters as earthquakes and volcanoes. “We don’t expect a tsunami in Nigeria,” said Ernest Afiesimama of the Nigeria Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research. He, however, agreed that “the only area where we could probably think of a natural disaster is the western boundary with Cameroon, where there is an active volcano.” There are two of such hotspots in Nigeria, really.

Geologists have discovered that a major crack, the Cameroonian Faultline, streaks across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, extending from Cameroon, through a number of islands, to the Lake Chad. The other fracture is that of the Ifewara-Zungeru now traced to the nexus of faultlines etched on the bottom of the Atlantic. So the scene may have been set for a tsunami after all— especially with the active volcano that can provide the trigger. Abraham Adekunle Adepetumi, professor of geology at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, was safe then to have warned that Nigeria is not in the earthquake-proof region.
That fact shouldn’t be hard to swallow seeing relevant data leap out of the country’s archives of subterranean quakes. Between 1933 and 1984 to 2006, Nigeria experienced some kind of tremor nine times, with their magnitude swinging between 4.3 and 4.5 on the seismic scale. That was an indicator bright enough to prompt the Nigeria National Space Research and Development Agency, in 2010, to pinch Nigerians to brace up for an earthquake. And for a tsunami—Chris King, director of earth science education, Keele University, UK, sounded similar alarm during a lecture organised by the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency, Abuja, in March 2011. “There could be a tsunami on one of the islands around the Atlantic, including the Niger Delta,” King said.

The Brutal Indicators
Africa is not exactly strange to tsunami eruption. Somali took the hit in December 2004. Hafun, one of its islands, was over-run by the coastal force, killing about 130 people. What only heightens the palpitations among oceanographers is the speed of coastal erosion in Lagos and the Niger Delta. Professor Larry Awosika, the NIOMR head of geophysics department, reveals, in one of his studies, that the Victoria Island is the fastest eroding beach in Nigeria, losing about 30 metres to the ocean annually. Ugborodo/Escravos loses around 24 metres yearly. And by the end of this century, he says, Lekki and the V.I will have lost 602 and 584 square kilometres respectively. The Niger Delta will be worse: about 15,000 square kilometres will have gone under.
Islands in Lagos are actually around five feet above the sea level. That’s not too auspicious as marine scientists claim the sea level is rising fast along African coasts. It is not even clear if there are monitoring stations to gauge how fast the waters find their level in Nigeria. But the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanography Commission confirms installations in Takoradi, Ghana; Pemba, Mozambique; Sonara, Cameroon; and the one in South Africa. In any case, Awosika is certain of a 3.68-metre rise by 2100.
Between now and then, ocean surges might not be friendly,Governor Babatunde Fashola confirmed in March 2011. The last surge on the V.I in 2007 is a proof. It rose up to 70 metres high—higher than, say, any five-storey building on the island. Ordinarily, that was enough to sink Ikoyi and the island, and some parts of the Lekki Peninsula lower than five feet above the ocean. He said it was the shoreline protection ridge being constructed by the South Energy Construction Company that caught the waves, thus staving off a disaster then.

And So What?
At the current growth rates, population experts predict that the population of Africa would have doubled in the next 50 to 60 years. About the same time that global warming is expected to ramp up to a scorching 4°C. that should cause some anxiety naturally, especially with its ability to predispose urban centres beyond Nigeria to great risks, including weak infrastructure, to unemployment and pollution.
Therefore the World Bank can only see the worst on the horizon-famine. According to its 2013 Scientific Report on global warming, food security will be the continent’s overarching challenge, with dangers from droughts, flooding, and shifts in rainfall.
“Between 1.5°C-2°C warming, drought and aridity, will contribute to farmers losing 40-80 percent of cropland conducive to growing maize, millet, and sorghum,’ the report said.
Yet, apart from about four geosciences research centres around the nation, there are no clear financial commitments to tackle climate change emergencies. And where the federal government shows a flicker of interest— like floating the Ecological Fund—state governments have come to see it as a windfall, a slush fund for oiling state political machinery. In 2005, former Plateau Governor Joseph Dariye had the gall to tell the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission he squandered N1.8 billion of the fund on the Peoples Democratic Party affairs.
Little wonder then that counter-measures such as the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel initiative have remained a curse than a remedy.
Well, maybe a Tsunami of some policy decision will stave off the looming disaster. Otherwise, both the rich and the poor will go under some day-like Owode-Ifo did last month…

Before The Coma Strikes!

Before The Coma Strikes!

Stem cells technology might hold the cure for glaucoma-induced blindness after all. Certainly not an alternative to sustained public enlightenment

Gbenga Ogundare

Pardon Tunde Muhammed if a snigger is all he has to offer the Glaucoma Research Foundation for announcing a potential cure for glaucoma-induced visual loss. Or each time you ask him to express how it would feel finding a cure for his childhood blindness.

“I am not expecting that to happen,’ he told National Standard.

The Lagos Vice-Chairman of the National Association of the Blind lost his sight at three, so his incurable pessimism about a medical breakthrough that would restore his sight at 45 is understandable.

“I was three years old when I lost my sight to measles. My father did all he could to no avail,’ Tunde narrates.

He ended up in a blind school in Ilorin, after medicine had failed to salvage his sight-both in Nigeria and abroad.

Not for the fun of it though. The Sight Savers, like Tunde, would not swoon on the possibility of a medical revolution in Nigeria too. According to the international health advocacy organization, a ratio of one ophthalmologist to a million patients is what the health system in Nigeria can boast of, at best, for the crowd of victims seeking a let off from their diverse eye conditions. So Okafor Stephen and the one million Nigerians who fumble about the streets now as a result of total visual loss and another three million who are visually impaired, according to the National Survey of Blindness and Low Vision in Nigeria, can only imagine how it will feel regaining their sight some day.

“Ah! I will be very happy. In fact, I will be the happiest person because I’ll get to see my parents and friends again,’ Okafor reveals to this magazine at the last International White Cane Day for the Blind.

‘I’ll also do those things I’m finding difficult to do now,’ he said.

But for the hundreds of thousand whose blindness is due to glaucoma, a devastating sight thief, they are not allowed to express such exaggerated hope like Okafor. They are rather forced to live with the brutal verdict that their condition is forever irreversible; that they will never be able to see again!  Well, maybe by some sheer divine miracles really.

Glaucoma is a disease condition of the eyes that stealthily attacks its victims without their knowledge and presents them with irreversible blindness after a while. And according to ophthalmologists, the fundamental problem with glaucoma therapy all over the world is that it treats the main risk factor — intra-ocular pressure [iop] or what is simply known as eye pressure — without addressing the underlying reason for vision loss, which is damage to the retinal ganglion cells and their axons, the organ responsible for carrying visual information through the optic nerve to the brain.

A glaucoma victim usually experiences raised pressure or ocular hypertension in the eyes as a result of blocked channel which prevents the water in the eyes or aqueous humour from flowing freely. The consequence is grave! According to Dr. Adeyinka Ashaye of the Ophthalmology Department at the University College Hospital, Ibadan,  the clogged waters begin to form  like balloons which in turn exert their weight on the several millions of optic nerves in the victim’s eyes until they completely snap them off one after another.

A Flicker of Flame

The Glaucoma Research Foundation in the United States of America is about to alter that vicious trend soon. A number of new therapies in glaucoma are finally beginning to give neon-bright indicators that blindness as a result of glaucoma could be reversed after all, the GRF reveals. And the clinical trials have begun in earnest too. Some of these are directed at preventing retinal ganglion cell and optic nerve degeneration, called neuro-protection, others at re-growing retinal ganglion cell axons down to the optic nerve towards the brain, termed regeneration. And still, others at replacing retinal ganglion cells altogether.

If current human clinical trials yield a success, then glaucoma-induced blindness might soon be reversed with regenerative medicines in the form of topical eye-drops, intravitreal injections, or surgical implants.

A caveat! “We cannot predict whether any of the current generation of new treatments being tested will prove protective, let alone restorative for patients’ vision. It is likely that therapies will have to cycle back and forth between the clinic and the laboratory. With every clinical trial, we will learn from the patients’ experiences and return to the lab to refine and improve candidate treatments, before testing in humans again,’ the research group warns.

In other words, a prophylactic option remains the best antidote against spiking the 90 out of the 100 percent cases of world visual impairment residing in developing nations like Nigeria or the over 80 percent of total visual loss domiciled in the country at the moment, Dr. Ogbonna Obiora of Maxi Vision told this magazine.

“Overall, two out of three Nigerians are blind from causes which could be avoided. It is therefore a sensible precaution to get your eyes tested regularly.”

 But health managers in Nigeria would not show interest in a less than lucrative venture such as arresting the glaucoma invasion among its mostly poor citizens. At best, a vast majority of Nigerians rely on the benevolence of a few international health advocacy groups like the Sight Savers International to get informed on debilitating disease conditions such as glaucoma and trachoma, another blinding disease which is mostly preponderant in the North of Nigeria.  That has never proved effective though. And that’s why the ignorance still prevails.

So, the odds against the unwary victims of glaucoma remain grave, since the threat they don’t know could dislocate and traumatize their lives fast.

Nevertheless, hope remains high for neuro-protection and regeneration in glaucoma. And perhaps soon, dead optic nerves shall rise again. And never shall blindness plague the world again.

ANARCHY INCORPORATED

Do you know where repression and injustice walk hand in hand with governance? It’s in Africa! And the plot by the African Union to shield its own from criminal prosecution can only aggravate the human rights abuse and violence against the vulnerable.

Gbenga Ogundare

President Goodluck Jonathan apparently did not envisage the renewed intensity and magnitude of murderous campaigns by the Boko Haram insurrectionist group in the North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe respectively  when he travelled to Addis Ababa last October to attend the extraordinary meeting of Heads of States under the African Union, AU.  Or perhaps the president, like most of his counterparts especially from South Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda, simply did not consider their vulnerable citizens as critically important as the immunity conspiracy that brought them to Ethiopia for the summit. But for human rights advocates and policy analysts, the agenda of the extraordinary summit smacks of nothing but a sickening continental betrayal. It merely set the stage for the AU leaders to unite against justice and vote in favour of repression and abuse by some powerful autocrats within the club. Rather than addressing some of the urgent human rights disasters plaguing the continent at the moment, displacing millions and forcing a huge number to flee abroad.

“No charges shall be commenced or continued before any international court or tribunal against any serving head of state or Government or anybody acting in such capacity during his/ her term of office,” the  AU Assembly announced.

Barrister Monday Ubani, lampooning the resolution, would rather be brutally Frank.

“It is sheer madness and illogical because that would be covering up the murders some of them have committed, ’ the Ikeja Branch Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association told this magazine.

For obvious reasons, many like Ubani might have expected that their leaders would emerge with some extraordinary resolutions, different from the shocker  they released after the Addis Ababa meeting. For instance, some development advocates might have expected that the spiraling poverty indices and hunger that maintain a stranglehold on millions of people across the continent- killing scores of children who lack access to clean water, nutrition, and health care-would be on the agenda. Or maybe it should have been the festering conflicts in  South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and  Somalia that have left several thousands dead and millions injured and  displaced. Perhaps the heat of the extraordinary session of the AU, in the estimation of foremost human rights activist, Joe Odumakin,   should have been turned on Nigeria, where a hawkish militia is holding the country by the jugular, killing hapless school children in their slumber and instigating sectarian tensions that are displacing scores of villagers every day.

Some might have even concluded in their emotive moments that the loss of hundreds of Eritreans, Somalians and other African citizens- escaping from conflict, repression and poverty-in a recent boat mishap off Lampedusa, Italy, would have moved the human rights crises in  those countries and the desperate need for development to stem economic and political migration onto the AU agenda.

But no. Any or all of these issues did not strike the African Heads of Government as requiring their extraordinary attention. The most urgent issue was to unite their voices to throw a clog in the work of the  International Criminal Court (ICC), which has over time become a bastion of hope for many Africans who have been victims of  atrocities commited by some of these very same leaders.

Although they promised to stamp out impunity on the continent,governance specialists however think the AU leaders are merely talking from both sides of the mouth. They might be spot on really. The central proposal out of Addis was that sitting heads of state or anybody acting or entitled to act in such a capacity should have immunity from prosecution.

‘That means the Sudanese President,  Omar al-Bashir should not appear for trial for genocide and war crimes hanging on his neck currently. or that Kenyan President,  Uhuru Kenyatta should not face the law for crimes against humanity,’ Barrister Adeyemi Adeyinka analysed.

President Al-Bashir is currently the only head of state aside from  Syria’s Bashar al-Assad who is indicted for bombing his own people on a daily basis.

According to its Charter and principles, the AU emphasizes support for the rule of law, respect for human rights and an end to impunity. But with the successful coup against its citizens in Addis Ababa, the immunity proposal would have directly undermine the AU’s very own rules of engagement in international affairs.  

 

Well, maybe the immunity proponents can afford to defend their stances indeed. Many AU members have all along accused the ICC of racism because of the apparent focus on Africa in the court’s investigations and prosecutions.

The ICC, many would argue,  is not exactly immuned from external political pushes  and bias-just like all other world systems , starting with the United Nations and the Security Council.

That is not exactly untrue.  The argument all along have been that the ICC has its inherent problems, and the cases that reach it are vulnerable to political influences and double standards. Some have also insisted that the ICC cannot yet ensure that justice is done to the gravest crimes regardless of where they are committed, and notwithstanding the powerful personalities behind those crimes.

Its inherent deficiencies, notwithstanding, human rights lawyers like Muhammed Arubayi insist that the ICC remains the most important institution and achievement of the world community to fight impunity for the most serious crimes against humanity.

Arubayi scored a ppoint. Over the past few years, significant progress has been made to hold even heads of states to account – such as former Liberian president,  Charles Taylor and former Yugoslav president,  Slobodan Milosevic. Apparently, the success of those prosecutions has been the recognition that official status is not a barrier to prosecution for the gravest crimes. But now that the AU leaders are turning around to kick the law in the teeth, it can only yield two dangerous spin-offs. It will provide a motivation  for sit-tights like old Robert Mugabe to cling on to power at all cost. And then the ambitious, too, now have the incentive to usurp power by whatever means—including murder, coup,

or fraudulent elections.

That is not a cheery news from Addis Ababa really. Especially for a continent stifled still in the throes of human rights violations and under-development…

BLIND BUT NOT BOUND

Solomon Elusoji writes about a physically challenged journalist with a life-long dream of going back to the university to teach Mass Communication. He recently made history to become the first blind journalist to win the highly coveted Nigerian Media Merit Award, in the category of the most innovative reporter of the year

When Gbenga Ogundare lost his sight in 2009, many would have thought that was the end of him. But three years later, he has proven that physical handicap is not necessarily a limitation in maximising one’s potentials. Recently, he was awarded the Nigerian Merit Award, sponsored by Etisalat, in the category of The Most Innovative Reporter of the year.

Asked about his winning streaks, Ogundare shrugs: “The same way an average journalist who is worth his salt win awards was the way I won mine. Firstly, you must have done something that is submitted as an entry to the body organising the award.

“The story that won me the award was about how young Nigerians have been coping with poverty. In this case, you go to an eatery in the guise of wanting to buy something and then you go to their restroom and write on the walls things like ‘are you looking for hot sex?’ or ‘are you looking for a babe or a sugar mummy or daddy’. Then you leave your number there. So, over time, since 2007, I started gathering the information from walls of restrooms across Lagos, Oyo and Ogun states.

“After compiling those information, I now began to call the numbers I got and eventually I did the story. Initially it was titled ‘How Nigerians Cope with Poverty’, then later I changed it to ‘Coping the Hard and Dangerous Way’. It was that particular story that attracted the panel of the Nigerian Merit Award, and they thought they should give it the Etisalat prize of the Most Innovative Reporter of the Year.”

At his office somewhere in Ikeja, Ogundare is seen working on his Laptop. His fingers move with sharp reflexes across the keyboard. His back is hunched. The computer keeps voicing out the commands entered into it. He is writing, and at the same time editing stories for compilation.

Despite without his sight, Ogundare does not see anything difficult in his job. He says: “Editing is not a difficult job if you know what you are in for in the first place. When you came in, you saw me writing and editing at the same time. The truth is that I have been a journalist for over a decade. I didn’t start as a blind reporter. I started as a sighted reporter. Between the time I started and the time I lost my sight, I had been able to foreground myself in my profession so well that even when I lost my sight, it was not a difficult thing for me to still carry on as a writer, a journalist, and above all, as an editor.

“What it only requires of me is that I use a laptop (just like every other person) but my own talks to me. You can hear it. When I am writing or editing, my Laptop is there to guide me. I go out if I need to cross-check facts or investigate anything. If it would require that I see that thing, I would take a reporter along with me, so that he or she can be my eyes. The reporter describes to me what he or she sees. The other aspect which deals with delivering the narrative falls on me. And after writing, I edit. The rule of concord is what any sophomore communication student should know, talk less of someone who has worked in the field for ten years as a reporter and editor. So, it is not in any way difficult.

However he says one challenge he has on the job is that people sometimes want to take advantage of him because he cannot see. “The challenge is the normal challenge that any physically challenged person in any part of the world would face: Abuse. People want to take advantage of you. That is what an average disabled person face. People want to abuse you, they want to disrespect you and say all manner of things because they feel that you should not exist at all, especially of you are competing with them. They feel threatened. How can a blind person be editing?

“People don’t appreciate that your physical challenges does not necessarily have to bring you down, and that you can still do wonderfully well in whatever career you choose. Apart from that, people rarely want to believe you. When you tell them that I can do this or that job, they always have second thoughts about your capability to deliver.”

Ogundare believes that the physically handicapped have been neglected by the government. He wants the Disabled Welfare Bill to be passed. He remarks: “Remember when the president was going to run for election in 2011, the women folks in Nigeria came up with the fact that they have been unequally represented in government. And at the end of the day, when President Goodluck Jonathan came into power, he was quick to appoint a sizeable number of women into his cabinet. I think that the first thing that any sensible government should do for the population of disabled persons in Nigeria is to pass the Disabled Welfare Bill pending before it, so that physically challenged persons in Nigeria would now have a document to demand for their rights, particularly rights of inclusion. They would be able to ask for economic security, political inclusion.

“If you look at statistics, physically challenged persons hardly vote in Nigeria because there is no concerted effort by the government to include them in the process. And this is what we keep talking about. The bill should be passed.”

Also, he talks about his own aspirations. “Personally, what I want, apart from knowing that there is a law that I can run to if my rights are breached, is a chance to teach. I have always liked teaching Mass Communication at a university or polytechnic. I like to teach budding journalists how to write, how to do what I am doing that have won me a lot of awards. So, my most immediate need is getting a scholarship or fellowship that would enable me do an academic masters and a PhD, so that if I decide journalism and teach budding journalists what I have learnt practically on the field.”

Still on the issue of his desire to further his education, Ogundare notes that lack of financial resources is the only stumbling block before him. He explains: “Coping with blindness is very expensive in terms of medicals and your own welfare. By the time you take care of the medicals, and a bit of your own welfare, you realise that you are left with little or nothing to want to do some other things that you would have loved to do, for example: applying for a masters degree in the university. I have an HND in Mass Communication, and the dichotomy in Nigeria is such that an HND student cannot do an academic masters.

“The only university that would allow you do an academic masters in Nigeria is the Pan-African University. And if you are going to go there, you are going to spend about 1.8 million naira. And that means doing a PhD would be much more expensive. That kind of fund is beyond me. I have also tried to apply at the University of Ibadan, but you would need about 350,000 naira to be able to cope with your tuition and materials. And don’t forget that journalism is not a lucrative profession. So, with the little that you earn, ad with all the gamut of demands before you, you find out that you are not able to certain things you would have liked to do. Even still, I have tried to do my masters three times, but had to jettison it because the fund is not just there.”

Ogundare’s blindness is as a result of Glaucoma. Glaucoma is a devastating disease condition of the eyes that inflicts the victims with irreversible blindness. In other words, when the victim loses his sight to glaucoma, he cannot regain it, medically. However, according to Ogundare, there a tree of hope is sprouting.

He says: “Recently, because I have been talking with doctors abroad, I learnt that there is hope for nerve regeneration. The reason why blindness as a result of glaucoma is irreversible is because it does irreversible damages to the retina glandular cells and that is the organ that is responsible for carrying visual information through the optic nerve to the brain. And because they are nerves, they cannot be regenerated. But now, there is hope of regeneration or actual replacement of the optic nerve. That means, for people like me, we can still see if one has the money to go for the treatment. There is hope. And also, every positive person should not overlook the fact that there could be a divine healing for him or her.”

Notwithstanding his blindness, Ogundare is a very busy man. “At the moment I live alone. Usually, I sleep around 1am every day, and I wake up by 6am. By then, I would begin with combing through all manner of news sites to get informed and update myself about the events of the day, locally and internationally. I would comb through Nigerian and foreign radio stations, then I go online and read stories. I normally do that for two hours after my prayer, before I have my bath and come back again to monitor events on radio.

“Don’t forget I am blind, so I don’t watch the television, it watches me. After then I come to the office and meet with my reporters. We discuss story ideas and progress of ongoing stories. We talk, argue, and agree on particular perspectives. I monitor them, don’t forget I am the editor of the magazine. If they are not in the office, I have to keep tabs on wherever they are. I would to that till about 8pm, pack my machine, leave for home, find something to eat and rest before I begin my work. Usually, I take a lot of work home because I have to constantly update them. Then I sleep by 1am again,” he enthuses.

For someone who has had little time to adjust to blindness, Ogundare’s attitude towards life is phenomenal. He laughs when people ask him how he maintains such high spirits. “Except if one is going to commit suicide or do something unthinkable to himself, your attitudinal disposition towards your condition must be positive. It is by so doing that you encourage yourself,” He says.

“Don’t forget that I mentioned that people around you discourage you. People desert you immediately they know your condition. The first thing that I experienced when I lost my sight was that people that thought I was useless; that I cannot be of any use again. As a result, some of my friends and people deserted me. The only thing that can really bolster my confidence is to remain positive and hopeful that despite my condition, I can do anything and everything through Christ who strengthens me.”

We must decongest the political space—Tony Momoh

Prince Tony Momoh, former minister of information, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is of the view that for Nigeria to move forward, there is the need to decongest the political space, arguing that followership in Nigeria is as guilty as leadership. He spoke to PETERCLAVER EGBOCHUE.

 

It’s argued that if Nigerians get the right leaders, followers will align themselves. Do you share this line of thought?

The problem of Nigeria is not only leadership but also followership. In every community on earth, you have the good, the bad and the ugly. And they are not looked at from the perspective of how you look-whether you are handsome, ugly or deformed and so forth.  It is what moves through you and manifests in you towards others. So you have the good in the case of, say, the godly, the bad in the sense of the evil ones, the ugly in the sense of those who undermine others and so on. In Nigeria, we are a people different from Americans, different from the Jews, different from, let’s say the Italians. These people in Nigeria are either politically conscious or not politically conscious in the sense of not being aware of what democracy is to the extent of the awareness of the Americans in respect of what democracy is. We just pounce on rights and don’t perform duties; and that is the issue with humans and the leadership we are talking about. In Nigeria today, we have reached a stage where 97,000 communities recognize you because of what you have done for your community.. But the fact is: what we have been doing with the political democracy we have in Nigeria is to enjoy rights without performing duties. We do not perform duties that should entitle us to rights. Chapter two of the constitution is clear on this; sovereignty belongs to the people and through the constitution the government derives its power and authority. We don’t even recognize chapter two of the constitution and yet any political association that wants to apply for registration must bring out the constitution and the manifestoes. The manifesto is based on what Nigerians want which is anchored on chapter two of the constitution-political, social, economic, environmental, educational, and foreign policy. So if you have not documented what you want to do as a political party in your manifesto, INEC will not register you. It has to do with leadership that must know what it has to do as reflected in the duties demanded of those who are given the mandate as contained in chapter two and followers who know what they are supposed to do. Followership has failed as well as leadership because where the follower does not know the worth of the voter’s card, and gives it out because they give him “pure water” or loaves of bread. What right means to him is slavery and not democracy.

 

You just raised a very fundamental question. What is exactly wrong with us as a people?

Look, greed is the problem. Anybody who is greedy will always be preoccupied with what he takes and not what he gives. We are a country of takers, not givers; and unless you give, you are denied access to God and his bounties. And the only thing which is yours is what you are given, everything you take is a debt which you must pay. How bad it is when you take it greedily, when you take it outside due process, when you take it corruptly, when you are so undisciplined that you do not know that you should take care of orphans, when you even take from them. You denied them access to their rights. Look at ASUU has been on strike and our children are at home and you are talking about N1billion as food allowance for the president’s household, you have N3billion you spend a day on security, how serious are you?

Given what you have enumerated here, what will you postulate as the panacea to this situation?  

Very simple. Decongest the political space and economic deregulations will be automatic. You have 774 local government areas in Nigeria, they are drain-pipe.  Cancel them. You have 36 states, and you know that no state will like to be collapsed: make them a parliamentary system and remove the executive governor position. Have regions — six regions — so all the states in the regions will be there as development areas to run as provincial assemblies that will project, promote and try to develop the natural resources in the regions. Every region can sustain the whole of Nigeria, develop the resources in co-operation with other regional governments in Nigeria — not in competition; and then pay about 50 per cent to the central government to run the government. The area of cooperation is the area like immigration, money, defence, foreign policy and the rest of them. What is the business of government with housing, primary education and the likes? Federal government takes at least 50 per cent of the resources of Nigeria and donates to the states that are supposed to have certain powers in federalism but they do not have powers. A commissioner of police will tell a governor not to enter his office, an elected governor. The president will decide who wins an election by sending the army and the police and anybody to start manipulating the processes for choosing people. What is our problem?

 

 

Again, given the attributes of true democracy you have listed, would you say that we have democracy in Nigeria?  

We have a civilian regime and a civilian regime is worse than a military regime. Because we have the impression that we have a democratic regime, we don’t have a democracy yet. We have a civilian regime and we must have a democratic regime because in the constitution, we say we anchor our dream on democracy and social justice. Democracy is democracy; you cannot say democracy is like democracy. And I just told you the procedures and what makes democracy what it is. Anything short of it is not democracy and that is why, for an instance, anybody under chapter two of the constitution specifically section 13, anybody who performs legislative, executive and judicial functions must abide by chapter two which deals with fundamental objectives and the principles of state policy-social, political, economic , environmental, educational and foreign policy. So all those who have the mandate to represent people swear to abide by the provisions of chapter two of the constitution and these are the elected people and they are supposed to come every four years to renew the mandate, if they abuse it, where is the democracy there? That is the first democracy’s leg. The second leg is social justice which is reflected in infrastructures-the economy, health institutions, educational institutions, roads and so on. More than 60 percent of our graduates are not employed. What is happening in Nigeria today is a revolution because Boko Haram, kidnapping, hostage-taking and armed robbery are all people’s perception of injustice and their reactions to it. What people think is happening is what is happening as far as they are concerned. If they think that government is unjust and they react based on that perception and as far as they are concerned government is unjust even if government is just. It has never been this bad even during war. The problem during the war was locatable in the Biafra and in the war front and not all over the country. Now all over the country, there is no peace. So 53 years of independence, we are worse off than any other time in our history yet we have earned more money than any other time in our history. What are we celebrating?

 

Are you favourably disposed to the clamour for a sovereign national conference?

What are you doing with sovereign national conference?

Where we should, perhaps, sit down and examine some of these issues you have raised here.

 

For instance, what I told you now about decongesting the political space can only happen when we sit down to talk; but it does not have to be in a sovereign national conference. You don’t talk about sovereign when you have a country.  We have a country already and the law-making processes. Although we are confronted with a very serious issue that can mar this country, this country will not break. We just have to sit down and say this is what we want and how we can get it settled. It is there in my book, “Echoes from the Past.” We have a lot of materials to make this country work. It is not for the want of materials. All we need is the political will.

 

How can you achieve that?

How it will be done is very easy: through due process. There is the council of state which is constituted by the president who is the chairman and the Vice President is the vice chairman; the president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the governors of the 36 states, ex-presidents of Nigeria, the former Chief Justices of Nigeria and the Attorney-General of the Federation are all members. We know what is wrong with the system. The president knows what is wrong. If he has the political will, all he needs to do is to tell the council: this is my problem; let us see what we can do to restructure Nigeria. And the attorney-general of the federation will be told to package this thing in form of a bill. Then he will call all the attorneys-general in the states and all the legal minds in the country. When this is done, he gives it to the President and during the council meeting, the president will present it to the President of the senate and the Speaker to take it to the National Assembly; the reading will be the same time-first, second and third-no debate, no discussion and within 48 hours, they will pass it into law and the next day, the state’s Houses of Assembly will do same and we have a brand new constitution, what is our problem? I am talking of how you can do it constitutionally. We all know what we want: first of all part-time legislature. For instance, we had it in the first republic — all the members of the House of Representatives should move to their regions to constitute the Regional Assembly there. So we have the Senate to constitute the law-making arm at the centre. If you like you can say let us have one member from each state plus Abuja so that we can have equal representation. Scrap all the local government councils because they are conduits: but any region that wants can set them up and fund them. The fact is that we do not need a sovereign national conference to do this. Now you have full time law-makers who earn much and they do not do as much as the part time law-makers in the first republic. They were doing their works and when there was need for them to look at any issue; they will come, do it and go.

 

Given the culture of fractionalization in Nigeria, your party appears vulnerable looking at how it came about. Are you not bothered?

 

How did it come about?

 

You have three political parties and a part of the All Progressive Grand Alliance coming together to form it.

What about the PDP? How did it come about 105 groupings?

 

But then they were not political parties yet

No! There is so much indiscipline and corruption that nobody is in control and that is because of the arrangement we have in the PDP which boasted that it will be there in the next 60 years. Yes, that may be true because they have compromised all the institutions — the judiciary, all the political institutions, the security and in fact, everybody.  And what happens is that when election comes, they sit down and compile results and push them through the court system.  That is what has been happening and continues to happen until we confront them. We have been having alliances, coalitions but they are broken on the eve of elections. But we sat down and said unless it is a merger, there has never been a merger in Nigeria. I was the national chairman of the CPC, Bisi Akande, national chairman of the ACN, and Ogbonnaya Onu, the national chairman of the ANPP, and of course you have a faction of the APGA and DPP.  We decided to sit down and anchor this merger — it has been on even before the last election but we only said let us bring it to fruition this time. I have two more years to go as the chairman of CPC but I had to forego it to tell you how serious it is.

Healthcare Access: Abuja Adopts Telemedicine To Bridge Inequality

Briefings

Healthcare Access: Abuja Adopts Telemedicine To Bridge Inequality

Gbenga Ogundare

At last, the benefits of the globalization trends are gradually becoming manifest in all facets of development  in Nigeria. And the latest is in the field of medicine where medical professionals and caregivers can now exploit the instruments of information communication technology to provide a coordinated, cheap and cost effective healthcare consultancy to a widely dispersed patients, particularly in rural communities where 70 percent of ordinary Nigerians are huddled.

The eHealth policy, initiated recently by the   Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Health and Human Services Secretariat, is an action plan to guide the implementation of an innovative healthcare delivery that is mainly driven by electronic processes and communication technology, including the use of health applications on mobile phones. 

“eHealth will also provide a useful platform for a more effective and efficient healthcare delivery system by increasing access to qualitative healthcare, reducing cost, enhancing health promotion and disease surveillance, and improving planning and decision making processes for health administrators,” Dr. Iniobong Ekong, Secretary of the FCT eHealth Committee said.

With technical support from the PLANNED-Health  initiative under the Management Sciences for Health’s Nigeria Programs,  the objective of the eHealth policy is to ensure that the FCT

health system uses information and communication technology (ICT) to address inequity in access to health services by rural and urban populations, thus ensuring effective and efficient service delivery.

To galvanise the process, the FCT Health Planning, Research and Statistics department have concluded a workshop where stakeholders analyzed challenges in the FCT healthcare system such as human resources shortages; lack of information systems or an ICT infrastructure;  and the inaccessibility and high cost of existing healthcare services.

To support its implementation in the FCT, therefore, Participants at the workshop recommended the Establishment of a leadership and governance structure led by the Steering Committee to implement the eHealth policy; enlist the active support and involvement of all major stakeholders at all levels (government, development partners and donors, academia, and professional bodies and associations); use different strategies for addressing human resources challenges.

For instance, one doctor can attend to many clients at the same time (such as, when clients log in to a web portal to consult with a doctor, and a doctor can attend to several clients online and still maintain confidentiality); bring ICT infrastructure and training to rural areas; since one doctor can attend to many patients, the cost is shared among these patients.

If the FCT experiment succeeds, stakeholders say it can be replicated in other states. And ultimately, better decisions will be made due to increased patient choice and improved data management.

 

USAID Gives Succour TO Nigerian Orphans

Gbenga Ogundare

Both for the purpose of national planning and the evaluation of advocacy intervention programmes  in Nigeria, the paucity of accurate data that will assist policy makers and development partners remains a painful challenge.  So it is no surprise that the PEPFAR-funded Community Based Support for Orphan and Vulnerable Children in the country (CUBS), has had difficulty obtaining accurate and timely data from health workers providing OVC services in the project-supported states. But technology is offering a breather for the USAID project now, and chances are that the innovation will prove useful to national planning efforts in Nigeria if adopted in the long run. The latest innovation that will assist the CUBS’ data gathering procedure uses the Dimagi Commcare, a simple, low cost, mobile phone and cloud-based application that facilitates accurate and real-time data reporting. CUBS’ customized Commcare to accommodate the project’s data collection tools and installed it onto smartphones. The project team then trained 25 community-based volunteers in the project State to use the phones to record data on OVC program enrollment, services rendered, and child health status. Once entered, this data populates a web-based platform that feeds into databases run by CUBS’ implementer. 

In Gombe State where the technology is being tested, to ensure data quality, CUBS provided the volunteers with regular supportive supervision and hands-on mentoring throughout a two-month pilot period.

At the end of the pilot phase, all of the trained volunteers were able to use the phones to submit data to the CUBS office and the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs, each time they provided a service. In addition to improved timeliness, the volunteers were also submitting more robust data, including details on each child’s health status and the specific services they received. Previously, volunteers had only submitted summary data, but the smartphone system now allows them to enter individual details on over 1500 children. 

Since its successful launch , more complete data now allows CUBS to assess its field interventions on a daily basis to ensure all volunteers are performing as expected and all OVC are receiving the services they need. 

“With this system, data can truly come in—even from our remote communities,” said the OVC desk officer at Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs. 

HIV /AIDS impacts millions in sub-Saharan Africa still, thus contributing to a steady growth in the population of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). In 2008, data from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs revealed that 25 percent of Nigerian children were orphans or considered vulnerable due to unmet needs for nutrition, education, shelter, care, or support.

Since the CUBS project kicked off   in 2009, Reporting efforts have been inhibited by paper-based data collection tools, poor internet access, frequent power failures, and Nigeria’s increasing insecurity and corresponding travel risks. As a result, field data arrives incomplete, late, or not at all, making it difficult for CUBS to measure the impact of its interventions and improve programming. To fill this gap, therefore, CUBS’ staff often travels through dangerous areas to collect the missing data and retrain staff on data collection procedures. 

 

But with the capability of the Dimagi Commcare technology to improve timely, quality data collection the CUBS intervention project can now be expanded across other states, thus providing orphans and vulnerable children a chance to survive.

If funded, Management Sciences for Health, CUBS’ implementing organization, estimates that this intervention will improve data collection and service delivery to over 6000 OVC within one year.

I can use job creation to package our youth — Obidigbo

In the glory days of Nigeria, Obidigbo enjoyed the best the nation offered its youth. Older now, the industrialist wonders how fast the tide has turned against that segment of Nigeria, especially in Anambra. With his Ph.D, and 30 years of experience in wealth creation, Obi wants to harness these wasting energies as he bids for Anambra’s mandate. Interview by John Peter

You have made good as an entrepreneur, and you apparently look comfortable. What else are you looking for in Nigeria’s murky politics?

I believe if you want to assist people, you need God’s help first. Then comes politics. It’s the only avenue to render service to mankind. But in Nigeria, honest people that have desire to help shy away from politics. I think if you know people need something you have, it’s a show of appreciation if you can help. I got into politics because I know I’ve got what my people need, and I’m ready to give them.

What do they need that you’ve got?

Anambrans are not interested in politics. They prefer to be independent. All they need is a government that understands this, and can help them excel. What do the youth need? They need employment and empowerment. The absence of these makes crime rates high, making people run away from the state. For 30 years, I’ve been learning to create jobs. It’s an area for which God has prepared me. And you know creating jobs is not for profit, not even when the government hasn’t been able to provide the infrastructure needed. We have the highest number of manufacturers in Nigeria. This makes me always think of how I can use jobs creation to fight crimes and package our youth. When I see these young ones today, they remind me of my youth when the government was forward-thinking.

Anambra has one of the lowest internally-generated revenues in Nigeria. How can you make the state more productive?

We should have had one of the highest IGRs in Nigeria, but for three things. And I want to address them. First, do Anambrans work hard enough to generate revenues/ Do the government misapply the IGR? Are we maximizing it? Like I said, Anambrans aren’t keen on politics. But they like to see what their government collects from them put to good use. If the government spends the revenues collected well, the people will support it by paying more.  Our civil servants are the only people bearing the brunt of taxes in the state. Yet they are the least paid. A commissioner collect N190,000 monthly here while in Enugu, adding everything up, a similar government official collects about N2 million in a month. We will address all that. As for me, I believe you use the little you have to generate more.

Looking at the kind of politics played in Anambra, how much do you worry about the integrity you’ve built over the years?

God allows everything that happens. And it appears there’s God’s hand in everything I do now. We don’t have godfathers; but we have followers, people who are disenchanted from what’s going on in Anambra. We have the good people of the state ready to help. It’s not imposed. Nobody has taken me to any shrine because I’m not desperate. So we have a clear view of what we want to do. I’m successful in what I do personally. I just need the instruments of government to enlarge it for the benefit of the masses.

With the internal wrangling going on in APGA, how much chance do you have?

I belong to the Maxi faction. All the same, we are one big family. All I’m saying is I’ve got rights to contest. And Anambrans have made sense of my campaign in the last 18 months. So if people are trying to sway things, I won’t take that. That’s why we are in court now – to decide it or to come back to discuss it. But I won’t take any consensus that will make me compromise the desire of Anambrans.

As a party, does APGA stand a chance?

A united APGA will clear the board in the election. Of all the parties contesting, APGA is the best established in the state. Ubah is doing well. Ngige is also an old hand. But APGA is more grounded.

How much do you think you can accomplish in four – or at most eight – years if you’re elected?

In Nigeria, we record a lot of success on the pages of newspapers. Most of our planners don’t get it. Planning itself takes about 80 percent of the resources allocated for development. Manufacturing, agriculture, the extractive industry, and tourism are the major drivers of all economies anywhere in the world. But how far has Nigeria pursued these? All we have are seven-point agendas, 20-point agendas, and others. When the whites were here, they had only one agenda: to use Nigeria’s raw material for their industrialization. So you either choose one or combinations of these four drivers to empower the productive sector. Not banking. Banks are not supposed to be declaring those billions in profit if they’re actually supporting the productive sector.

Some pan-Anambra groups have been throwing their weight around now. Are you popular among these?

We play crude politics here. Few people determine your chances even in a party. Elsewhere, the whole party hierarchy does, especially in developed countries. But here, you must emerge through a narrow traditional conspiracy. Nigeria should open up the system by allowing independent candidates to contest. The associations are okay for endorsement. It’s only that they play their roles much later.

Have you any plans for Anambrans in the Diaspora?

This has been one of my burdens. And that’s why I talk about opening up politics. Anambra produces the highest number of graduates in Nigeria. How many of them are employed? So they run away to China, Abuja, and other places. The economic meltdown has affected many of them. You know I meet them in my travels. But they can’t come home because the government hasn’t provided environment suitable for settling down. And what we’ve got in the state is enough to take care of these people. I feel sad I’m not in a position to help them.

So what’s the core of your message to Anambra as you campaign?

In the past 18 months I’ve gone round marketing my agenda. I told them we’re wasting energies – of youth and women. But we are going to create co-operatives that will help us to use these energies to fuel the state economy. I’ve also promised them a transparent government. So I want the religious and traditional leaders to come out and speak out. Anambrans should lose faith yet. God works in his own way.

10 Questions with Prof. Hope Eghagha

After chalking and talking in one of Nigeria’s best varsities, Eghagha, a well-travelled scholar, left UNILAG to push back the frontiers of tertiary education in Delta. He tells Segun Elijah how the ministry of higher education is rolling with the punch in the state.

How much has the ministry of higher education helped Deltan youth in easing the pains of tertiary education since its creation in 2005?

The ministry was created in 2005 and was terminated with the James Ibori government. It was re-created in 2009 to co-ordinate tertiary institutions in the state. As an implementing arm of the state government, it brings government policies like the scholarship scheme, welfare programmes, and others on higher education to the institutions in Delta. Other states like Kano and Edo have also taken a cue from that. I should be modest enough to let those watching us be the judge.

Aren’t there some graphic ways of describing how well the ministry has performed?

I could have scored myself 100 percent. It’s good we let others judge. We have challenges, really. There are seven institutions on 10 campuses across the state. And they have challenges of access, carrying capacity, quality, and all that. What we do is budget for them every year, and see how much we can handle.

The carrying capacity, currently, accommodates 25 percent of Delta’s youth population.  What improvement has the ministry recorded in terms of enrollment figures so far?

About 1.4 million candidates apply to higher institutions yearly. And the schools admit 350,000. In Delta State University, 40,000 candidates applied last year, when the carrying capacity was 3,500. The needs are there. It means the young people still need more space. The universities have to improve their infrastructure, and enlarge their programmes. The seven institutions aren’t really enough. But we are addressing this through certain policies.

Policies like?

Open access is one of them. We fund the institutions and pay teachers. On that, we spent N1 billion monthly. We also have the bursary and scholarship schemes. Every Deltan in higher institution is paid N20,000 every year. We have over 160,000 first-class students that we’ve sponsored for overseas studying. There are other intervention programmes, too.

The Edumarshal scheme is one good policy on basic education in the state. How many parents have you prosecuted for keeping their children out of school?

We can’t judge the compliance level now because it’s just three weeks old now. The project has three stages. First is sensitization of parents and advocacy campaign, for three months. Then we enlighten the parents on the right of children to education. Then we enlighten the parents on the right of the children to basic education. After this we can prosecute  any second-time offender. This is a European system we are trying to bring to the 21^st century Africa. We have a deeply entrenched culture of ‘my child can do anything I want”. But we are trying to make them know the state can decide for the children now.

Some statistics claims Delta has between 88.8 and 88.9 illiteracy level, the lowest in the south-south. Haven’t these policies affected school enrollment?

I reject that figure. We have been going to school around here for the past 200 years. It’s only out-of-school-children figure that could be higher in Delta. And we have been trying to create space for enrollment.

How much has the government committed to funding the higher education ministry – if it’s really passionate about tertiary education?

Since its recreation in 2009, the government has been allocating about N2.5 billion every year. Last year was N2.2 billion. And this year was N2.4 billion.  All of that on capital expenditure only. On personnel, Delta State University gets over N6 billion every year as recurrent expenditure. You can get clearer details in the annual budget.

About N24 billion was spent recently on infrastructure in over 40 secondary schools in Delta. Some were handed back to the missionaries. Is the government feeling the pains of funding education up to the secondary level?

It’s not about funding. The agitation to return these schools to the missionary owners has been there. And we have a governor that thinks. You can remember that when the schools were run by these missionaries, the system was good. It was the unitary federal government that handed the schools to the states who have not been able to manage them well. We also believe the missionaries should be part of training our kids because they impart moral values to the schoolchildren.

Do you consider the human capital development benefit of the first-class graduates you train abroad to Delta – or you’re helping them to make good for themselves only?

If they choose, they can come back to the state, but they aren’t bound to do that. There are ways they can contribute to the state development. Like you said, they can come back after their Ph.D studies abroad to work in Delta. Again, the training they get overseas can allow them compete anywhere in the world. And they can contribute to the state wherever they are. I had all my education outside of the state, for instance. But now I’m back working there.

As a former university teacher, what’s your position on the on-going ASUU agitation for better funding of education in Nigeria?

I speak from the government point of view now. Our children’s education should be handled with caution by the all the stakeholders. Our schools should be open 24 hours a day, 360 days a year. All those in position to do this should do so, and provide the best for our children so they can compete anywhere.

If I Were The President- Hadiza Abdullahi

For five years on the trot now, she has worked as a Technical Assistant on the Millennium Development Goals project at the Presidency. Her resume also drips with a rich international experience in development activism. Yet Hadiza is only 31. Now the young woman is raring for more. Imagine Hadiza Abdullahi as the first female president in Nigeria

Gbenga Ogundare

Take a look at Hadiza Abdullahi. And then another closer look. You might not need your eyes to be trained for aesthetics after all before you admit she is a stunning beauty and have passion leaping through her dilating eyeballs. But Hadiza is not about beauty alone. The Economics and Politics graduate of the University of Buckingham has got brains and ideas seeping through her essence too.

“My vision is of a Nigeria without poverty and injustice, one in which every woman, man, girl and boy enjoy the right to life with dignity.”

That is no cheap talk from a 31-year-old. She has walked the talk in many more daring and interesting ways, including at the Millennium Development Goals office in Aso Rock, where she had been a Technical Assistant on the MDGs programmes.

Once in the course of her assignments at the MDGs office, young Hadiza found herself in a village in Kwara State. To preach development of course.

“Part of the MDGs goals is Universal Basic Education. I visited nomad settlements to try to convince them to send their children especially the girl child to school.”

She made a huge success of that adventure. Hadiza charmed the nomads with her open display of intelligence, in addition to her infectious appeal as a young woman from the north.

“A girl and her father walked up to me and the girl said she wanted to be like me and I used the opportunity to tell them both that education was the only thing standing between her and that goal.”

Her passion is as incurable as her dreams. For instance, tell Hadiza education, competence building, transparency and accountability as well as merit are a mirage in Nigeria, and she will almost go on a street protest. 

“It may sound like a dream indeed, but dreams can come true. I’m sure there are many things you never thought you would see happen in Nigeria, yet they did. Did we not just see someone who had been declared winner by INEC refuse the victory? Did you ever think you would witness such a thing in Nigeria?”

Perhaps to that extent, Hadiza is a huge optimist. But remind her that the Millennium Development Goals which she had helped to drive for five years is a failure now, from all indications. And the other side of the social crusader will leap to the fore.

“I am sorry but I do not associate myself with failure,’ she fired back. ‘It will be hard for me to agree with you and call the programme a failure.  During the reign of the former Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals, Haj Amina Az- Zubair whom I worked under, the office had great programmes n projects. It would be unfair to say its a failure just because all 8 mdgs are not met. While I was at the office we had actually reversed some trends and lowered incidences. Collectively some successes may not be great, but when we take the individual targets and look at them, a lot has been achieved.”

Plausible as her defense sounds, Hadiza could not agree any less that Nigeria has got it wrong in many more ways at 53, as far as the drive for development is concerned. And she’s got ideas where the somersault began from. Successive managers of the economy have all along talked the talk; they rarely work their talk.

“If we are looking at it in the context in which we find ourselves now, I will say I am not shocked by Nigeria’s developmental pace because Nigeria does not have a consistent developmental policy.”

Regime changes really. And that might be one important reason for the policy inconsistency Hadiza is hammering on now. The wheels of governance in Nigeria is far from being a cyclic process, despite the numerous and extensive Needs Assessment exercises which successive regimes had carried out in the past. Otherwise, that should by now have enabled the production of a blueprint that will galvanise the nation on the path of socio-economic and democratic prosperity, many policy analysts say.

“That is what we require. The needs assessment let’s us know where we are now, and where we need to be by a certain time frame. If only successive governments would commit to execution of an action plan based upon the identified gaps, we would have significant progress by now.”   

Her views are far from being warped and parochial. Both the old and younger generation of leaders in Nigeria are guilty of the inherent deficiencies in the system, she told this magazine. And Hadiza will not tacitly exonerate the followership too.

“Its all about service, not what you can get. Selfless service. Citizens of other countries are patriotic. They are citizens first before they are either Muslim or Christian, or before identifying with a certain cultural background.” 

Unity in diversity, that appears to be what she is trying to preach. So would that be her panacea for bridging the development gap in Nigeria.

“Wow, you have asked me a question that I could speak on forever, but I will just sum it up to entrepreneurship. All over the world, small and medium scale businesses are driving the economy. “

For a young woman who has travelled extensively to contribute her technical know-how in the development agenda of other nations, empowerment would be a natural appeal.  But what meaningful empowerment can take place in a Nigeria where insecurity and infrastructure deficit thrive? And suddenly, the commander-in-chief in Hadiza leaps through her veil!

“Be that as it may, I will encourage people to be proficient in what they do. This way we can drive our local economy that will also drive the national economy.’

‘On the issue of insecurity, I will not want to be an armchair critic. I am not privy to the intelligence and security reports that the people in power have access to. Although it doesn’t take a genius to see that  unemployment and poverty are contributory factors. I believe if we are able to tackle unemployment through quality education, especially in technical skills, we would have gone a long way in solving the problem. We can then concentrate on developing our security agencies especially on intelligence gathering.”

She is damn smart and intelligent. And that is not unexpected. Just take a look at her library. It is a forest of books on economy and global development. “I am currently reading 2 books that I have seen both my Dad and husband read,’ she revealed to the reporter. “The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela and  From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew.”

Dreams don’t die after all. Especially for a dogged fighter like young Hadiza.