₦airaland Forum

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

At a time when representing the people at the legislative chambers has become a business of self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement, Engr. John Ibrahim Ocheje has decided to answer the call to represent his people effectively as a gesture of his commitment to serving humanity and empowering the common people by bringing them out of poverty and hardship and launching them onto the good and easy life.

Effective representation is the hallmark of Ocheje’s political standing, and he has not failed to exemplify this in every gesture he puts out, whether big or small.
His selflessness and altruism have singled him out as the darling of the common people – a fact that can be seen in the love and adulation that greet him whenever he visits home and his constituents.

The son of an ordinary farmer from Ojiala Village, in Ayah Ward of Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State, Ocheje sauntered into prominence and stardom through the dint of hardwork, dedicatedness, discipline, and forthrightness. Ocheje’s career as an excellent and distinguished Petroleum Engineer wouldn’t have reached its enviable heights if not for his strong will and determination to excel in all that he ventures into.

Ocheje’s days as an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan were marked with excellent performances, a feat that stood him out as the best graduating student in his department; little wonder he was rewarded with a Shell scholarship. He then went on to build an exquisite 30-year-career in Chevron, stringing amazing 17 years in management. His expertise in Oil and Gas is not in doubt, and his memberships of both the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) are a testament to his reputation as a thorough-bred professional and egghead.

Ocheje is a born leader whose watchwords are integrity, uprightness, forthrightness, dedication and discipline. His calm and collected mien could give him away as overly simple, until he is met in his serious mood. Everyone who has been privileged to spend time with this Man of Character will attest to the fact that his approach to life is simple yet firm, easy yet unbending, and flexible yet uncompromising.

It is his discipline and excellent character that fetched him the top job of Executive Director at Oceangate Oil & Gas, upon completing his rewarding stay at Chevron. At Oceangate, he was saddled with the task of overseeing asset development and management. Currently, he sits as the Chairman of Fourth Edge Ltd., Fourth Edge Aluminium Ltd., and Ravenstream Properties Ltd., and undertakes his many tasks with the precision of a goal getter and without losing focus of his goals and objectives.

It will not go without mentioning that Ocheje is big in philanthropy. In fact, his most-cherished activity is to put smiles on the faces of ordinary people. He goes out of his way to undertake tasks that are thought to be impossible. For instance, it was never heard of or expected that any politician or aspirant from Idah, Ofu, Ibaji, or Igalamela-Odolu would empower delegates with brand new motorcycles; but that was the feat Ocheje singlehandedly accomplished, and without making any pump and pageantry out of it. Up till today, his praise is still on the lips of the said delegates and his party executives.

He achieves his goals with ease and takes no glory for his accomplishments. One of his most talked-about community projects is the building and furnishing of the palace of the King of Ojiala Village, and the sinking of three boreholes for the community’s use. He single-handedly built a community health centre in his locality, and has maintained a widows’ and less-privileged support program which holds three times every year. In addition to this laudable feat, he runs a scholarship scheme for indigent students in his community.

It may seem usual the feats that Ocheje has accomplished, but when it is considered that he declined a commissionership appointment under former Governor Idris Wada, just to be able to stay focused on the very important job of becoming a legislative representative of his people, then it will be clearer what truly drives this agent of transformative leadership. He bagged a second position at the 2014/15 PDP primaries for the Idah/Ofu/Ibaji/Igalamela-Odolu Federal Constituency, whose purported winner was a government-sponsored candidate, and contested the 2018/19 Kogi East Senatorial primaries.

He won the PDP ticket for the House of Representatives in 2022/23, but was deprived of his victory – a development that prompted him to seek redress at the court of law, even up to the Supreme Court which eventually gave judgment to the party by affirming its (the party’s) supremacy. His pursuit of his mandate up to the Supreme Court was seen by his supporters as a show of doggedness, resilience and a ‘never-say-never’ spirit, qualities that endear him to his admirers and his people.

Ocheje’s exposure and loads of experience in world affairs is top notch, having visited over 20 countries in the last 5 years alone, and lived in all the 7 continents of the world. His work and training were largely instrumental to his many sojourns and interactions with great minds and personalities from all over the world. He also loves to travel and meet people as a major hobby. His vast experience in global politics and world affairs will greatly aid him in being a very effective and resourceful leader and representative of his people.

As Ocheje stands on the threshold of history to answer the call of his people to represent them at the Lower Legislative Chamber in 2027, he is ably armed with the goodwill of his people, his antecedents as a through-bred leader, and his many years of experience as a professional, a manager and a goal getter.

His 2027 ambition is been driven by his passion for infrastructure development, equitable resource development, delivery of qualitative services, and empowerment of the indigent and less-privileged. He hopes to leverage on his overall experience as an administrator and a manager to render excellent leadership by way of effective representation and the betterment of the lives of his people.

For clarity’s and emphasis’ sakes, Ocheje is going to leverage on his experience in Oil & Gas to develop structures for the equitable exploitation of the rich and abundant natural resources inherent in his locality, for the benefit of his state and constituency. He will consciously and deliberately provide quality representation for his people through thorough and knowledge-based engagements with the electorates and with other representatives towards addressing the needs of his people.

He hopes to leverage on his position as a legislator to interface with the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and relevant Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) towards bridging the infrastructural gaps that may exist in his constituency – in this case, gaps such as educational, agricultural, road-related, e.t.c. He also hopes to explore other avenues through which he can effectively expand his widows’ empowerment program so that every widow that crosses his path can experience the better life.

One primary goal that Ocheje holds very dear to his heart is the empowerment of youths through a robust and impactful program that will change their lives for good. The said program would include scholarships for indigent students, skill acquisition for everyone, medicare, provision of seed capital for start-ups, and provision of food for the less-privileged. His plans and prospects are sure to meet the people at the points of their needs.

As Nigeria’s politics is currently at a defining moment, it will need young, vibrant, resourceful and regenerative leaders like Ocheje to infuse the revolution needed to launch the Nigerian State on the pedestal of growth, stability and excellence.

May Ocheje succeed!
May Nigeria succeed!!
And may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!

It’s Time To Free Nnamdi Kanu And Pacify The Igbos

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been in the custody of the Department of States Service (DSS) since June 29th, 2021, following his arrest in Kenya and eventual repatriation to Nigeria. Upon his arrest, news emanated of how he was apprehended in the East-African country, and it was reported that the 56-year-old separatist and political activist was actually kidnapped, blindfolded and bundled into a waiting aircraft, and flown to Nigeria.

During his first few days in the DSS custody, Kanu narrated to his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, the entire event that culminated in his arrest and repatriation to Nigeria. He stated that the people who “kidnapped” him had no connections with the Kenyan government, but were merely hired by the Nigerian government to do the shoddy job of “catching him” and handing him over to the Nigerian authorities. He also stated that he was subjected to excruciating torture for eight days, during which he was made to sit on the bare floor. He added that his captors later became gentle towards him after they had verified his identity and discovered that he was not the “Al-Shabaab terrorist leader” he was said to be.

The Nigerian guys handling the kidnap stunt had told Kanu’s captors that he was an Al-Shabaab terrorist leader so that they would show no mercy in dealing with him. Kenya has long been terrorized by Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization that mainly operates in East Africa, so, it was easy for the sponsors of the abduction to convince some overzealous Kenyan mercenaries to apprehend Kanu and torture him ruthlessly before handing him over to them.

For the record, this is not the first time that the Nigerian government would kidnap or attempt to kidnap a Nigerian citizen from a foreign country. Umaru Dikko’s kidnap of 1984 clearly comes to mind.

Over the past three years, Nnamdi Kanu has been in and out of court countless times in a bid to secure his freedom, but the Nigerian government has vehemently refused to let him off the hook. The charges brought against him were majorly treasonable felony, terrorism, unlawful possession of firearms, and management of an unlawful society.

And to sound the death knell to the legitimacy of Kanu’s IPOB, the Buhari-led administration labeled the group a terrorist organization and proscribed it in 2017, setting the tone for its eventual ostracism and rejection by Nigerians and even Igbos for whom it was supposedly fighting.

It didn’t come to many as a surprise that the Igbo elite and some indifferent Igbos outrightly rejected Kanu and his IPOB. The elites, particularly the politicians, felt that IPOB was established to attenuate their political grip on their constituencies and to undermine their efforts at forging an unbreakable hegemony around their political enclaves, while the indifferent Igbos felt that the IPOB phenomenon only served to destabilize the South-East as it would be used as a vehicle to foment trouble and instill disorderliness in the once peaceful region.

So, Kanu struggled for his freedom alone and only enjoyed the sympathy of his IPOB members and some few insignificant persons from around the country. Even Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who stood for him as surety when he was first granted bail in 2017 was not as vocal in calling for his release this time as he was then. We noticed how the chain of lawyers who first represented Kanu in court after his arrest in 2021 gradually reduced to one or two, for reasons that are not unconnected with the perceived hopelessness and complexity of his case.

Before our very eyes, some persons who were also labeled separatists and trouble-makers were completely exonerated and allowed to go scot free. Repentant Boko Haram insurgents were easily pardoned and reintegrated into the society, despite the gravity of their crimes. But there was Kanu, languishing in the confines of the DSS detention facility even though there aren’t any real crimes linked to his person.

Kanu never bore arms nor did he physically assault or harm anyone. There is still no clear evidence that the criminals who go about causing trouble in the South-East are doing so on Kanu’s behest. Kanu only voiced out his dissatisfaction and disgust with the way Igbos are being treated in Nigeria, and then went on to call for the secession of the South-Eastern region from Nigeria.

So, by what ethos should Kanu be labeled a criminal and treated like one? We have recalcitrant clergy men and women in Nigeria who have incessantly incited rebellion and violence against Nigeria and Nigerians through their words and actions, but none of them has been invited for questioning, not to talk of having them jailed. Is that not glaringly the double standards that Kanu himself has often spoken against?

It was very worrisome and heartbreaking when on the 29th of June, 2021, Nigerians (particularly the Northerners) broke into joyful celebrations following the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu. On that day, it was as though the man who was responsible for Nigeria’s woes and failings had been apprehended, and that his capture would bring an end to all of Nigeria’s troubles.

Up till today, no one has been able to prove the rationale behind such meaningless celebration as the arrest of Kanu did not in any way change the fortunes of Nigerians, nor did it bring an end to all the perennial problems that have intractably bedeviled the Nigerian nation. Insecurity is still rife in Nigeria and is even worst in the Northern region which celebrated Kanu’s apprehension the most. The people of the South-West who also celebrated Kanu’s capture have since seen that their most-disturbing problems had nothing to do with Kanu. If anything, the troubles of that region even escalated after Kanu’s arrest. So, what exactly was the celebration about?

The LEADERSHIP newspaper’s editorial of 8th July, 2024 couldn’t have captured the call for the release of Nnamdi Kanu better. Part of the editorial’s thought-provoking observation reads;

“It is pertinent to stress that very few wars end on the battlefield. Kanu’s case can explore the wider precincts of natural justice and good conscience while the courts are on it.

“We disagree with the views of the Attorney-General of the Federation based on the fact that Sunday Igboho, his co-separatist agitator from the South-West, has since been forgiven his offence.

“Furthermore, other terrorists, many of whom killed Nigerians in their numbers as part of the agitation for a caliphate, have been ‘deradicalised’ and re-integrated into the civil society even as the loved ones of their victims, including soldiers, are left to mourn their loss in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps.”

The above submission by LEADERSHIP newspaper is the most objective position I have read in a long while on the issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s unjust incarceration.

Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation whose leaders should be very careful with how they handle the issues of ethnicity and religion. All the ethnic nationalities that together make up this large country have at one time or the other, agitated for equality and equity as part of the requirements for their comfortable stay in Nigeria. This goes to show that the handlers of the country have not done well in keeping its constituent nationalities satisfied.

Part of the problems elicited by Kanu’s unjust treatment is the unrest in the South-East which has had a very devastating impact on the economy of that region. The sit-at-home order imposed on the South-East by the leadership of IPOB is a form of protest against the unwarranted incarceration of Kanu, the highly-revered leader of the group. So, it will make common sense to say that the unconditional release of Kanu will definitely put an end to the hiccup in the South-East.

Aside from the call for Kanu’s unconditional release, there is also the agitation for the “de-marginalization” of the Igbos by Nigeria. The Igbos have been confined to the basest part of Nigeria’s stratification and treated like second-class citizens. This condemnable trend became the reality of the Igbos since after the civil war which was fought between 1967 and 1970.

It still baffles the Igbos and many other ethnic nationalities that despite their being a majority ethnic group in Nigeria, they are yet to produce a president through popular vote. The closest the Igbos have come to wielding real political power was the appointment of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as President at the wake of independence. Even at that, he was merely a ceremonial head of state as the then prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was the de facto leader of the country.

The next big thing that has ever happened to the Igbos politically was the appointment of Alex Ekwueme as Shehu Shagari’s vice president in 1979. Since then, the Igbos have only been wallowing in political wilderness as all their efforts to attain political dominance have been met with stiff resistance from the other majority ethnic nationalities in the country.

Perhaps, it is only an Igbo presidency that can redeem Nigeria as has been severally alluded to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Igbos’ love for Nigeria cannot be denied, and it is for this reason that they will continue to work for the betterment of Nigeria.

Nwachukwu is a freelance journalist and media consultant. He can be reached through email on cmatencore86@gmail.com and on X (formerly Twitter) @Cmatencore

immortalcrown:
So, closing the plaza and disturbing people in the area are the only ways they can fight back? What happens to their so-called military intelligence?

You can imagine the country we find ourselves in! Cargo mentality is what reigns supreme here. There is no tact whatsoever in the way things are done here. It's a shame!!

It’s Time For The Army To Vacate Banex Plaza

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

On Tuesday this week, a Nigerian soldier reportedly assaulted an innocent harmless woman at Banex Plaza, simply because she crossed over a barricade while trying to make her way to her destination. Daily Trust reported that the assaulted woman collapsed into a coma after being slapped heavily by the soldier, indicating that she may have been unwell or seriously ill at the time of the assault.

She was immediately rushed to the hospital, and the last has not yet been heard of her or her condition. This is not the first time that the personnel of the Nigerian Army or other security agencies have assaulted unarmed innocent citizens without consequences. We witness these sorts of distasteful occurrences every day, and there seems to be no end in sight to the manner of high-handedness and show of force that is being exhibited by military personnel and their co-security agents against civilians.

This is exactly a week since the Army has been occupying Banex Plaza in Abuja, locking it up and preventing hardworking Nigerians from going about their normal businesses. Many of the business men and women whose shops have been under lock and key for a week now, have expressed their disgruntlement with the way the Army is handling the earlier attack of its personnel at the plaza.

Reports have it that at least two soldiers were assaulted at Banex Plaza on Saturday, the 18th of May, following a misunderstanding that ensued from the sale of a phone to a dissatisfied customer. It is still not very clear how the altercation erupted, but eyewitnesses claim that the soldiers who were invited by the dissatisfied phone buyer (to probably force the phone seller to either refund her money or replace the phone she had bought from him), tried to intimidate the phone seller and force him to do their biddings, but were attacked by some hoodlums who would not have their colleague victimized by soldiers.

Many observers who have commented on the Banex fracas largely blamed the soldiers for allowing themselves to be dragged into what they described as “a purely civil affair.” While these sets of people blamed the soldiers and hailed their manhandling and assault, others felt it was totally wrong and unacceptable for thugs and hoodlums to pounce on uniformed men and beat them up in the manner that was seen in a video that has since gone viral on the internet.

During the course of the altercation, the Police quickly arrived at the scene to quell the situation and prevent the soldiers from being mobbed. It was not long after peace had been restored that soldiers in military trucks reportedly invaded the entire Banex Plaza and descended on the people there. The invasion by the soldiers caused serious pandemonium at the ever-busy plaza as people ran helter-skelter to avoid being beaten up by the visibly-angry military men. Some persons who were not too fortunate were apprehended by the soldiers and severely punished, while many who managed to escape from the scene lost some of their valuables such as phones, laptops and some accessories.

It is not to be overlooked that this very issue that has caused a lot of embarrassment to the Nigerian Army is one that would have completely been avoided. There was no reason for a soldier in khaki to accompany a civilian to the market to settle a civil dispute. That was the soldier denigrating himself and the entire Army which he represents. Civil matters are best handled by the Police. The Army has never been known to resolve civil matters without using brute force and violating people’s rights.

So, while we condemn the manhandling of the soldiers by hoodlums who took their self-help measures to the extreme, we will however not turn a blind eye to the soldiers’ folly which was demonstrated by their meddling in a purely civil affair.

It was to my dismay and consternation that General Onyema Nwachukwu, the Army spokesperson, did not address the issue of the soldiers’ meddling in a “purely civil affair” in his official response to the Army’s takeover of Banex Plaza. He merely window-dressed the matter and put all the blame on the hoodlums whose reactions to the entire situation were instigated by the soldiers’ actions.

Phone sellers and other traders who usually carry out their businesses at Banex Plaza and other popular spots in the FCT are often united when it comes to staving off external aggressions and threats from bellicose customers, and that was exactly what played out at Banex last Saturday. The aggrieved customer went overboard in seeking redress by inviting soldiers to harass the person or persons who sold a ‘bad’ phone to her, and the phone sellers who mainly are hoodlums and seasoned law-breakers, did not care at all that the persons who were invited to ‘resolve’ the problem on ground were kitted in military fatigues. What then ensued afterwards was largely expected as the situation was clearly mismanaged by the megalomaniac soldiers.

This once again brings us to the question of why the military has found a favourite pastime in meddling in civil affairs. Since when did the laws of Nigeria empower the military and other uniform security outfits to handle civil issues or meddle in matters that are clearly under the jurisdiction of the Police? Is the military high command in support of the misconducts of its personnel, especially the ones that border on their meddlesomeness and unwarranted interference in matters that are off their concern?

The language of General Nwachukwu’s official statement on the Army’s takeover of Banex was indicative of the Army’s approval of the misconducts and irrational behaviours of its personnel, particularly in their dealings with civilians. It clearly showed that the Army is far disconnected from the realities of the times that we are in. It did not in any way portray the Army as a respecter of the democratic system that is in force in Nigeria. The Army and the Armed Forces are constitutionally the defenders of the country’s democracy and must therefore put up behaviours and conducts that portray them as such.

While we continue to blame any civilian who dares to raise his hand against a uniformed person or an agent of state, we also call on members of the Armed Forces to be well-guided in their dealings with members of the civilian public. It is not proper for military men to be seen regularly in public spaces. They should ordinarily be in their barracks and in the confines of their bases except when there is need for them to be present on the streets.

In civilized climes, soldiers are rarely seen in public spaces spotting their military fatigues. They spend most of their time in their barracks or at the warfronts. But in countries like Nigeria where anything goes, soldiers are found all over the place and in some cases, engaging in unwholesome practices such as drinking and smoking in public. This does not say well of the highly-revered and well-regimented military career that we know.

Civilians are not under any obligation to live regimented lives or act decorously, but members of the military are required to always behave in ways that portray them as good ambassadors of the Armed Forces they represent and their country by extension.

Today, about a battalion of soldiers is laying siege at the Banex Plaza, preventing hardworking citizens from undertaking their productive businesses and wasting taxpayers' money. This conduct of the Army constitutes great nuisance to the masses and must be addressed forthwith. Soldiers who should be at their duty posts tending to Nigeria’s many daunting security issues are idling away in the name of “laying siege.”

As it stands now, Nigeria is under-militarized as there aren’t enough soldiers to man the hundreds of terror flashpoints in the country; yet there are hundreds of soldiers presently occupying a very important business hub in Abuja where thousands of productive citizens engage in quality businesses that contribute to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). This is not the way to address issues such as this, and the government should as a matter of urgency, call the Army off from Banex Plaza and ensure that the place is reopened for business.

Legal luminary, Chief Femi Falana, SAN, has lent his voice to the cacophonous call for the reopening of the Banex Plaza. He has recommended the best ways to resolve the pending dispute and douse the already-brewing tension. His advice that the assaulted soldiers should press criminal charges against their attackers is a wise one and should be considered by the Army.

Falana further emphasized that neither the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria nor the Armed Forces Act empowers the Army to investigate criminal offences involving citizens who are not subject to service laws. That is exactly how the entire issue should be viewed. Nigeria operates under the principle of the Rule of Law and must be seen to be a law-abiding nation, not some anarchical entity where some people are above the law.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, must as a matter of expediency, order the Army to immediately vacate Banex Plaza and allow hardworking Nigerians to continue their productive businesses. As it stands now, billions of naira have been lost by the business community in Banex, and this is not a good thing.

At a time when the economy of the country is on a constant downward trajectory, businesses and other endeavours that contribute to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) should be buttressed rather than hampered. It will do Nigeria no good that the legitimate businesses of its citizens are subjected to jeopardy just in a bid to prove a point and massage the ego of a megalomaniac unit of the Nigerian society whose existence is hinged on funding and supplies from the state purse.

The Army must realize that it exists to serve Nigeria and not the other way round. Therefore, it must sheathe its sword and toe the path of honour by vacating the Banex Plaza and reopening it for business. General Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, is said to be a man of honour who always demonstrates a high level of professionalism and tact. I believe that he will hearken to the voice of reason and do the needful.

May Nigeria succeed!

Nwachukwu is a freelance journalist and media consultant. He can be reached by email at cmatencore86@gmail.com and on X (formerly Twitter) @Cmatencore

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

The chairman of the FCT chapter of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, APCN, Mr. Enejo Amade, has said that the pharmaceutical body in Nigeria is winning the war against tuberculosis. He made the disclosure in Abuja during this year’s celebration of World Tuberculosis Day which holds globally on the 25th of March.

He stated that between last year and now, the number of adherents to tuberculosis prevention measures in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has increased by over a hundred thousand, adding that the figures were computed through the Association’s monthly outreaches in the communities where its members practice.

“Our monthly outreaches in the communities where we practice are having real impact on the people as they now report more cases of tuberculosis than they were doing before now. This is a clear sign that we are winning the war against tuberculosis. In our clime, there is little or no information about tuberculosis, but we are hopeful that as we continue to reach out to the people and sensitize them on the disease, we will record a lot more reduction in the cases of tuberculosis,” said Amade.

Amade also warned against lifestyles that promote tuberculosis such as smoking and living in crowded and unventilated areas.

Also speaking at the event was the vice chairman of APCN, FCT, Mr. Aloba Olatunji who stated that the public perception about tuberculosis is very erroneous as many people tend to attribute tuberculosis-related symptoms to spiritual problems. He therefore advised that people should always report health-related issues to hospitals and not assume them to be spiritual problems. He added that APCN is intensifying its sensitization campaigns to create more awareness and ensure that the people are rightly guided on issues such as this.

“You will see a lot of deaths that are caused by tuberculosis infection that are attributed to spiritual problems. They will notice that somebody is fine and well, and within two or three days that they start coughing and coughing out sputum with clots of blood, they will quickly attribute it to spiritual attack because they are not aware of the symptoms of tuberculosis. This is the reason why we are intensifying our sensitization campaigns,” said Olatunji.

Olatunji further hinted that tuberculosis has different variants such as tuberculosis of the blood and tuberculosis of the skin which are equally as dangerous as the tuberculosis of the lungs that is more common, and warned that people who have been coughing for more than a month should quickly go for tuberculosis tests and ensure to get medical aid.

“Tuberculosis is so deadly that we have tuberculosis of the blood, tuberculosis of the skin. It is not only in the lungs that you can have tuberculosis. People should always go for a check when they begin to cough for a long time and adhere to the medications prescribed by medical experts. If you adhere to your medication for the first three months, the micro-bacteria that cause tuberculosis would have been enervated and dead, and you wouldn’t be able to transmit it to somebody else. The remaining medication is just for you to complete the dosage,” stated Olatunji.

Judgementa1:
Show us where they did not approve of it.

Imagine sanity coming from people that has their brothers in prison worldwide for different drug related crimes.
Condemn your people destroying the country image first. I spit.

Guy, go and look for what to eat. The hunger in your stomach is causing you to type rubbish here. Don't waste your data because you won't be able to afford another one if you exhaust this one.
I don't have time for idle talks and unfounded allegations.

Judgementa1:
Am a successful and hardworking person.

You choose to be lazy in life that why u stay online and wail.

Better start something doing with ur life.

Lastly fight for ur people selling their babies to eat and ur brothers doing drugs worldwide.

tell your people to stop tarnishing the country image.

You are sick! You are demented!! Where have you seen my people selling their babies to eat? You, where are you from? Tell me, if you are proud of your lineage.
Tell me one of my people who has ever been caught trafficking drugs! You come here and make empty allegations and expect me to respond to such hullabaloo!
Yeye dey smell!!!

Judgementa1:
This is pure hatred and tribalism at display.

Your tribesman Maurice Iwu conducted the worst election ever seen in this country.
Yet u people never seen anything wrong because he is ur brother.

If Mahmood deserve 10 curses Maurice Iwu deserve 1 million.

You people should purge urselves from hate.

So because Maurice Iwu committed a blunder 17 years ago, we should continue to have a repeat of such misfortune? So we should not move ahead from Iwu's error and make real progress in our democratic journey? Kai!! Your myopia is epic and of enormous proportion. And let me remind you, the Igbos did not approve of Iwu's disgraceful act. The Igbos clearly distanced themselves from that unfortunate incident. The Igbos are objective, logical and always on the right side of the divide. If you believe Iwu was right to have conducted a very bad election and that INEC should never move past their lapses and start conducting credible elections, then your brain needs psychiatric examination.

UncleAyo:
Confused set of people.

Election was not rigged in Lagos, it was not rigged in Abuja, It was not rigged in all the five southeast states because their candidate win in those places.

This is how Batists and supporters of evil talk. You don't need to look too far to identify an unfortunate fellow who thinks he has a point to contribute when reasonable people are talking. I will not dignify you with a detailed response because I'm not going to school you on the facts you do not know. Keep wallowing in your stupidity and please don't ever stop supporting BAT. Keep on supporting him and the hunger that sleeps and lives with you will embrace you forever! Odè!!

Judgementa1:
Election is over u people should rest.

Nobi only obedient vote for that election.

I have never heard where a minority party, a party of 7 senators and 1 governor won an election anywhere in the world.

If it not delusion I don't know anyother name we can call it.

We will not rest! It is not your strength or energy that we are using to agitate against injustice. Your myopic perception of things is the reason your life has continued to be on the ground. You want us to rest when Nigeria has gone 200 miles backward from where it was when these crooks and rogues took power? You want us to rest when hunger lives and sleeps with poor Nigerians like yourself? The irony of this whole matter is that the people we are even fighting for do not realize that we are trying to save them from dying. The poorest people in Nigeria are the most opposed to the fight against injustice, and that leaves you wondering why poor people are like this. They are the ones that are the worst victims of bad governance, yet they are the first to defend bad government. Suffer no dey taya una?

Abeg make una shift make we see road fight against injustice. Nigeria is ours, and we must reclaim it by the power of God!

Dalohad:
Yakubu is corrupt criminal. The BVAS and electronic transmission only achieved the exposure of the rot in the system..

Just look at the Rivers presidential election results and have a good laugh at Yakubu's foolery. It was televised daylight robbery.

Exactly! Mahmood ticks all the characteristics and attributes of a roguish character. It is only Nigerians who are not disposed to speaking the truth that will defend the sham election of 2023. Sometimes, it's better to ignore foolish people when they come with their gutter arguments. Some of them cannot brag of one meal a day, yet they can defend nonsense all their lives. If what Mahmood did to Nigerians is okay with you, then may you also partake in the curses rained on him!

Mahmood Yakubu And The Rain Of Curses

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

Few days into the month of February, the Obidient Movement (supporters of Mr. Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 presidential election) reached a consensus on the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform to rain curses on Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ‘for conspiring with political desperadoes and power-grabbers to steal their mandate.’

The said Rain Of Curses which was scheduled for February 25th, was also to commemorate what the Obidients believed would have been the rebirth of Nigeria. Nigerians, many of whom were fed up with the situation of their country and yearned desperately for a breath of fresh air, reposed their hope on INEC and trusted it to conduct a free, fair and credible election that would throw up a quality leader for their country, but were greatly disappointed when it ended up conducting what turned out to be the worst election in Nigeria’s history.

The Obidient Movement was not going to allow the man who spearheaded such a sham of an election to go scot free. They were going to show the world how very disgruntled they were with the way and manner their mandate was stolen. They were going to destroy Mahmood Yakubu and his future generations with curses, and invalidate the argument that curses do not have effect. If they could not mete out physical punishment on Yakubu for robbing them of their inheritance, they could at least invoke spiritual powers on him, to deal with him according to the weight of his transgressions.

When the day of the cursing eventually came, Obidients all complied with the agreement. On that 25th of February, 2024, “Cursed be Mahmood” trended heavily on the X social media platform. The cursers implored all the powers and forces that they know to destroy Mahmood Yakubu. Some Obidients who were not contented with cursing Mahmood alone, added to the mix names such as those of the Justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court who presided over Peter Obi’s election petition cases, and the names of other prominent Nigerians (such as Nyesom Wike) who worked to install Bola Tinubu as president.

One Obidient who goes by the name Revolutionary Youth on X, and has the handle @torty_mercy posted: “The elements curse you! The land works against you. A smooth land will grow turns (sic) under your bare feet. The air will take your breath away. The waters will turn to blood in your mouth and acid on your body. As surely as the Lord lives Mahmoud Yakubu is marked for destruction.”

Another Obidient who goes by the handle @DRREAL01, added a clause to his own curse. This is what he had to say to Mahmood Yakubu: “Mahmood Yakubu, if you are innocent let no evil come near you. But if you actually rigged the 2023 election, today is judgment day for you. The air you breath (sic) shall be rigged away from your life, the soil you live on shall be a curse to you and your third and fourth generations…the water you take shall be death…you took away joy and celebration from millions of young people, may celebration depart from your life and that of your generation together with your accomplice….you shall never know peace….iseeee!!” And the curses poured in in torrents.

Now, in the light of all these, one may want to question the rationale behind this sort of act which many disinterested observers and opinionists have tagged ‘irrational.’ There were those who took the religious standpoint to disapprove of laying curses on people. Many Christians and Muslims on the X platform jointly condemned the cursing of the INEC chairman and tried to talk the Obidients out of embarking on “a futile activity that does not conform with the will of God.”

Now, the arguments on whether or not curses are potent and can work against the 'cursed' person have actually taken a lot of dimensions. Some people believe strongly that curses can be effective under certain circumstances, while some others do not subscribe to the school of thought that ascribes potency to curses; but whatever the arguments, there is one very crucial point of view that I consider as germane to this entire discourse, and it is the perspective of whether or not Mahmood Yakubu actually robbed Nigerians of their mandate. If Mahmood stole Nigerians’ mandate and sold it to the highest bidder, then it will only be proper to say Amen to all the curses heaped on him.

Going by all that transpired before, during and after the 2023 presidential election, one may be forced to agree with the Obidients that the election was compromised and that Mahmood deliberately bungled it to make sure that his preferred candidate won. It doesn’t matter that the courts awarded victory to Mahmood’s candidate, and it also doesn’t matter that Mahmood’s candidate has already taken power and has started to exercise it; what matters is that the people felt and still feel robbed by Mahmood and that their perception of INEC is flawed, tainted and very negative.

Nigerians have never really believed in INEC’s ability to conduct a free, fair and credible election, but the events of the 2023 presidential election further cast a dark shadow on INEC'S chances of ever redeeming its image and winning the trust of Nigerians. The 2023 presidential election which was supposed to be INEC’s golden opportunity to prove to the world that it is capable of conducting a flawless election, turned out to be its most-damning undoing. As it stands now, INEC has no reputation to its credit. While other countries are making tangible progress in the consolidation of their democracies through the effective workings of their electoral institutions, Nigeria is retrogressing against all the parameters and indices of democratic ratings, no thanks to its electoral institution that has sworn to never do the right thing. It is because INEC has incorrigibly and invariably failed to improve on its performance that our courts are always inundated with election-related cases.

Barrister Patrick Okereke Nwajah, while examining the implication of inundating the courts with election-related cases, stated that the courts do not really have any business with deciding the outcome of an election, adding that it is the electoral umpire that is saddled with the sole responsibility of conducting an election and deciding its winner. He emphasized that it is only when the electoral body fails to conduct a credible election that the contestants are forced to seek redress in court. He cited an example with the United States's presidential elections which are hardly ever contested in court as the Electoral College's verdict is always perfect and incontrovertible. He compared Nigeria’s election to Kenya’s, and praised the effort made by the country’s electoral body to bestow Kenyans with the leader of their choice.

So, by Barrister Nwajah’s submission, the inundation of the courts with election-related cases only shows that the electoral body is not doing its work well, and when the courts are overwhelmed with election-related cases, the judges are hardly ever able to attend to the several other cases that are equally begging for their attention. Nwajah concluded by asking, “Do you now see how the electoral body’s indiscretion can unsettle a nation’s entire architecture?” Indeed, the indiscretion of a country’s electoral body can destabilize the country’s smooth sail, and that is clearly the case with Nigeria at the moment.

In conclusion, Obidients may be seen by many as noisemakers and fascists, but that does not negate the fact that they love Nigeria and mean well for it, their radical views and modus operandi notwithstanding. If you must blame the Obidients for whatever actions they have taken in expressing their dissatisfaction with Nigeria's current situation, then you must also blame the persons, parties and institutions that have conspired together to bring the country to its knees, because if things were working as they ought to, there wouldn't have been this much discontentment among our highly energetic youths. If anything, the Obidients should be apologized to for being misunderstood, misjudged and mischaracterized.

Nwachukwu is an Abuja-based journalist and media consultant, and can be reached on X @Cmatencore. His email is cmatencore86@gmail.com

creativehubb:
What's victim to fall here, stop talking nonsense...you either subscribe to it or not. People have been saying passport comes out quickly these days... nobody force you to do racketeering.

You can actually make your point without being insolent. It doesn't cost anything to be civil and reasonable. If you do not subscribe to my point of thought, then just walk away. I am not here to convince you to accept my opinions.

creativehubb:
It's express service, it's everywhere.

It doesn't matter how you perceive this story, what is there to know is that passport racketeering has become a norm at the Nigerian Immigrattion Service and it should be condemned. You obviously trivialize the fact of passport racketeering being an obvious crime. Just pray to your god that you don't fall victim of passport racketeering.

FuckingMachine:
How do I apply for a job in Immigration??

I am not an Immigration staff. My story does not relate to job application at the Immigration. If you want to work in the Immigrations Service, check their official website.

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

On the 11th of September, 2023, I applied for a new international passport through the Nigerian Immigrations Service’s (NIS) official website, and I was scheduled for biometric enrolment and capturing on the 18th of September, 2023. On the date for the capturing, I reported at the NIS headquarters at about 8:15am, 45 minutes to the scheduled time. I was accosted at the gate by men of the Immigration Service who asked to know my purpose for visit. I was initially adamant about disclosing any information to them, but I later decided to oblige them after I had been persuaded and convinced that I might need their help to conclude my application process.

Upon discovering that I was a fresh applicant, one of the men took me to a corner and asked me if I wanted the passport produced immediately or later. I told him that I wanted the passport produced later as I was not in immediate need of it.

The Immigration man whose rank is ‘Inspector’ and whose nominal initials are “Oz,” urged me to opt for the immediate production of my passport as that would save me time and stress, but I declined because it was clear to me that the Inspector was only persuading me for selfish reasons, not necessarily because he cared. It is normal for Immigration staff to persuade passport applicants to opt for quick production of their passports so that they can charge them for “express production.” Many returnees from abroad who want their passports produced very quickly, usually pay huge sums of money for this “express production.”

At this point, the Inspector became frustrated and asked me how much I was willing to pay to have my application filed and sent to the production department of the NIS, and I told him that I had no money to offer him as I had already been warned by the Immigration helpline attendant whom I had earlier called to obtain information on the passport application procedures, not to pay money to any Immigration staff for the filing process.

The Inspector, seeing that I was not willing to part with any money, decided to reduce his service charge to N5,000 from N20,000 so that he wouldn’t lose out completely on the deal. I later agreed to pay the N5,000 because the Inspector told me that there were some little charges involved in the process of coupling and submitting application files such as the file purchase and file submission costs.

So, the Inspector led me into the NIS premises for the opening and coupling of the file, and while we walked to a nearby business centre, he disclosed to me that the applicants who apply for passport through the NIS online portal are usually their biggest headache. When I enquired to know why he had made such a remark, he angrily said: “Na people like una wey dey apply for passport online dey spoil our show. Na una dey spoil market for us. Una no want make we see food chop.”

I was somewhat shocked at those remarks because I didn’t expect that a staff of the Immigration Service who was ordinarily supposed to encourage people to take advantage of the opportunity provided by government to apply for passports, would turn around and disparage those who are doing the right thing. His grouse was simply that when people go online to apply for passport, they wittingly avoid paying passport racketeers the huge sums of money that they normally charge applicants. For instance, it is normal for an Immigration staff to charge between N50,000 to even a million naira for the production of a passport, depending on the type of passport and how soon the applicant wants it. The applicants who return from abroad to renew their passports are usually in so much hurry that they don’t mind paying any amount charged them. But on the Immigration passport application portal, the official cost of obtaining a passport is only N25,000 (for 32 pages, 5 years) and N70,000 (for 64 pages, 10 years), but these charges exclude the service charges and value-added taxes (VAT) which are usually not more than N1,000.

So, I paid the Inspector the N5,000 in cash, and he quickly walked into a nearby business centre and asked for a file opening form and a new file. The form was filled by the Inspector himself and all the required documents were selected from the hordes of documents I had brought for the application process. He then wrote some inscriptions on the file and stapled the documents to it, and asked me to follow him to the capturing centre. He then asked me to sit down among the other applicants who were waiting for their names to be called for capturing.

After about 10 minutes, my name was called and I went to collect my file which had been added to the capturing list. I was quickly shown the way to the capturing centre and I was soon seated in the queue.

The capturing queue was very organized as some strict Immigration officers manned it and ensured that no one went into the capturing room out of turn.

After about 1 hour, it was my turn to be captured and the process was completed in about 15 minutes. I was handed a tiny piece of paper on which was written my enrolment number and I was strictly warned not to misplace the paper. In fact, I was advised to quickly take a snapshot of the enrolment number and save it somewhere special so that even if I mistakenly misplaced the tiny paper, I would still have access to my enrolment number. It is important to note that if a passport applicant loses their enrolment number, they will have some difficulty sorting out and obtaining their passport because the enrolment number is the only means through which a newly-produced passport can be traced to its owner.

When leaving the capturing room, I was asked to return after 6 weeks to collect my passport. I hurriedly went back to the Immigration officer who had assisted me and gave him a copy of my enrolment number. We both agreed that he would keep a close tab on my passport’s production and inform me when the passport is out.

On my own, I was also tracking my passport production process through the NIS tracking portal. The NIS official website has a special tracking system through which applicants can track the progress of their passport production. I tracked the entire process from when I paid for the passport to when it was finally issued.

Now, while waiting for my passport to be produced, I maintained close communication with the Inspector. I expected the Inspector to inform me when the passport was ready so that I would go to the collection centre to pick it up, but that did not happen as the Inspector never called me. I was the one doing all the calling. Most times when I called, he would not pick up, and even when he picked up, he would talk incoherently or feign busy.

It was at this point that I decided to visit the collection centre myself. When I submitted my enrolment number for a quick check, I was told that the passport was not yet ready, and I was asked to return in a week or two’s time. I called the Inspector to give him the feedback, and he told me to relax and not get walked up over the delay.

After two weeks, I called the Inspector again to check if the passport was ready, and he told me point-blank that the passport wasn’t ready, that it was undergoing an “encoding process.” I asked why the passport (which I was told by the Collection Centre staff would definitely be ready in two weeks) was not yet ready, and he told me to either wait for another two weeks or give him some money to recouple another file and use it to force out my passport. He claimed that he would be able to do some backyard runs and produce the passport in 2 days if I paid him N10,000.

Unsatisfied with the feedback I had received, I visited the Immigration Office on Friday, the 3rd of November, 2023, and upon my arrival, I met the Inspector and he still blatantly told me that my passport was not yet ready. He still suggested that I pay him N10,000 to couple another file and push for the immediate production of my passport. Seeing no sense in his suggestion, I decided to go to the collection centre to find out things for myself. While I was walking away, the Inspector said to me, “If you like go report for Servicom or go anywhere wey you like, you no go still get your passport.” He was clearly jeering at me with those words.

When I entered the collection centre, I quickly scribbled down my enrolment number on a piece of paper and handed it over to the checking officer. I waited for 3 minutes and the checking officer returned with my passport and asked me to confirm its ownership. I confirmed that the passport was mine, and the checking officer quickly made an entry of my passport and handed it over to me.

Awed by what had just happened, I asked the checking officer why the Inspector had lied to me about my passport status, and the gentle officer whose first name is Jumbo, told me that lying about passport status or deceiving applicants was a common practice among many Immigration staff. Instead of telling an applicant that their passport was ready, they would lie just to extort money from the applicant. They would tell the applicant that their passport was undergoing an “encoding process” and ask them to pay for express production, and once the applicant makes the payment, they go to the collection centre and get the passport.

Jumbo further disclosed to me that there had been cases where an applicant was tossed about by an Immigration officer because the applicant’s passport had been misplaced and the Immigration officer could not account for it. In such a case, the applicant would be asked to check from one office to another to find out what was up with their passport. Jumbo decried such practice amongst his colleagues and warned applicants to be wary of such dubious Immigration staff.

And while I was still hanging around the Immigration premises, I noticed a young man of about 25 years trying to get physical with an Immigration officer. When I drew closer to snoop out the possible cause of the outburst, I figured out that the Immigration officer had been lying to the young man about his passport’s status. When I later engaged the young man in a tete-a-tete, I discovered that he had allegedly paid N150,000 to the officer to “expressly” produce a 10-year passport for him, and that for over 3 months, the officer had continued to tell him “cock-and-bull” stories about the passport. The young man was insisting on getting his passport that day or causing a big trouble for the Immigration officer.

These and many more are the kinds of stories that people have shared about their encounter with Immigration officers while applying for international passports. The manner of stories shared point to one thing: passport racketeering. There are many kinds of racketeering viz: land racketeering, property racketeering, crude oil racketeering, and just name it, and they are all fraudulent practices that contravene the law. Passport racketeering simply becomes an addition to the list of shady deals that happen daily in Nigeria; and this is even more worrisome considering the fact that the current Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mrs. Wura-Ola Caroline Adepoju, has openly declared a full-blown war against passport racketeering.

But Zara Olumide, a contract staff consulting for the Nigerian Immigration Service, thinks that passport racketeering is common amongst the staff of the Immigration because their actual salaries are nothing to write home about. She therefore called on the Immigration Service to upwardly review their staff welfare package as that, according to her, would help to curb the spate of passport racketeering amongst the staff of the NIS.



Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu is an Abuja-based journalist and a private media consultant. He is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cmatencore Media Consults Ltd., and he can be reached through email at cmatencore86@gmail.com. The above story is his personal experience when he went to the NIS Headquarters in Abuja to apply for his international passport.

Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

The Abuja branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, has stated its stance on the conviction of its member, Dr. Abubakar Danraka, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Asmau Akanbi-Yusuf of the FCT High Court, on the 18th of September, 2023 on grounds of sodomy.
In a press statement signed by the chairman, Pharm. Ifeanyi Ikebudu, the professional body stated that their colleague and friend, Dr. Danraka, is a man of impeccable character who has carved a niche for himself in the noble profession of Pharmacy, and was therefore not capable of such an abominable act, adding that he was undeservedly jailed and would soon prove his innocence and be vindicated.

“Dr. Abubakar Dankara is one of our finest, a Pharmacist of no mean repute, an astute professional who has carved a niche for himself and the pharmacy profession everywhere he has worked as testified by his subordinates, peers and superiors.

“He was undeservedly jailed for an alleged act of sodomy which every one of us doubted that he could be involved in an abominable act of that nature,” reads the statement.

The society further stated that it was totally unbelievable and untenable that their colleague would be handed a sentence as grievous as life imprisonment for a crime he had consistently and vehemently denied, adding that they have studied the judgment and have come to the conclusion that the sentence was a travesty of justice.

“It is unbelievable and untenable that he could be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment as pronounced by the FCT High Court Judge on Monday, 18th September 2023, for a crime he has consistently and vehemently denied committing.

“We have obtained and read through the judgment and the processes leading to it. We have consulted his legal representative and that of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, and there is a consensus that the judgment of life imprisonment delivered against him was a travesty of justice,” declared the society.

PSN further disclosed that Danraka did not by any chance commit the crime for which he was sentenced and that his predicament is linked to the rancour between him and the father of the alleged victim, a pharmacy technician at the National Hospital, Abuja, who had threatened to destroy him.

“We know that Pharm (Dr) Abubakar Danraka did not commit the offence. We know him to be a man committed to his words and stand always for what is true and just. We were aware of the rancour between him and the father of the purported victim, a pharmacy technician at National Hospital, Abuja, where Danraka is still on the nominal roll as an Assistant Director Pharmacist but is currently on secondment to NIPRD in Idu, Abuja. The pharmacy technician had threatened to destroy Danraka and this conviction could have been the outcome of a well-executed threat,” reads the statement.

Further affirming Danraka’s innocence, PSN stated that the investigating police officers did not do due diligence in their prosecution as they did not consider the alibi in favour of Danraka which proved that he was not present at the scene of the crime when the crime was allegedly committed, adding that the presiding judge must have been under tremendous pressure from the involvement of NAPTIP in the case, to have glossed over the evidence of innocence submitted and handing him such a fatal sentence.

“We hold that the investigating police officers did not do a good job of considering Danraka’s alibi of his engagements at the time the crime was purportedly committed. We also hold that the judge must have been under tremendous pressure with the involvement of NAPTIP to gloss over the evidence of innocence submitted and to award the maximum sentence possible to a first offender,” stated the professional body.

And as a way of showing solidarity with their colleague, the society resolved to rally around Danraka and his family in these trying times and support in appealing his sentence to the end that his innocence is proven and he is unconditionally discharged and acquitted.

“Consequently, we have decided to rally around our colleague, Dr. Abubakar Danraka, in this serious hour of need. We will support him and his family to appeal the judgment with the very strong belief that his innocence will be proven and the judgment be upturned and Pharm (Dr) Abubakar Danraka will be unconditionally discharged and acquitted,” reads the statement.

WHY NCC SHOULD SANCTION AIRTEL NIGERIA FOR SHORTCHANGING NIGERIANS

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

I believe strongly that to a large extent, Nigerians are the enablers of the backwardness that their country has been enmeshed in since the return to democratic rule in 1999. Democracy is driven by the rule of law and that is why the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the primary law that decides the terms for the corporate existence and operations of the country. Any practice that does not conform with the provisions of the Constitution is illegal and must be eschewed and condemned in its totality.

Aside the Constitution, there are other extant acts and laws that also determine the working arrangement of the organs of the Nigerian entity. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for instance, being an organ of government, was established by an act of parliament (the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003) and thus operates under the provisions of the act that established it. Part of the stipulated tasks of the NCC is to hold network service providers to account for their service delivery to Nigerians. Network service providers in Nigeria include MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9Mobile. These service providers were given license to supply telecommunication services to Nigerians, and the said services essentially include phone call and data network services. Their network services enable Nigerians to make phone calls and use the internet, thereby putting them in the sphere of “very important service providers.”

Without their services, so much will go wrong with the operations of the country’s various organs. Government organizations and the general public use the internet for all kinds of operations, and this means that a shutdown of the internet network can spell doom for all its users. The importance of the internet cannot be over-emphasized as all aspects of contemporary human engagements depend on it.

Now, Nigeria has been grappling with erratic supply of internet network since the introduction of telecom services in the country, and this seems to have become a perennial problem that has defied all known solutions. A lot of questions have been raised as to why internet network services cannot be stable in Nigeria, especially as other African countries have attained stability in that regard.
There has been so much outcry against the poor delivery of internet services in Nigeria, but the government seems less-concerned about this major problem. Many concerned Nigerians have voiced out their grievance against this same issue, yet nothing serious appears to have been done about it. I want to use this medium to share my own experience with Airtel Nigeria’s devastatingly abysmal internet network over the last few weeks.

I subscribed to Airtel data service on the 9th of September, 2023 through my GTBank mobile app. I opted for the N5,000 data bundle which was supposed to be 20 gigabyte’s worth. After the debit transaction had occurred on my bank account, I quickly checked my data balance to see if the payment had reflected, but was shocked to discover that the data had not been added to my router line. I became uneasy because I was supposed to get a particular job done on that fateful day. I waited for a while to see if the router line would be recharged, but there was still nothing even after some hours had gone by. I began to fume at this point, and quickly rushed to Twitter to call them out. I sent a direct message to @AirtelNigeria and got a rather taciturn response from the customer care agent who simply gave his name as Michael. After waiting for almost 4 hours, my router line was eventually recharged after I had incessantly bombarded their DM with threatening messages. I was shocked however, to discover that my router line was recharged with 15 gigabytes, rather than the 20 gigabyte I had subscribed for. I went back to their DM to ask why I was recharged with lesser data than I was supposed to get, and I was again told taciturnly that Airtel had dropped the data subscription for N5,000 to 15 gigabytes from the initial 20 gigabytes that it was worth. I became livid because I felt shortchanged. I felt it was a great disservice to me and to other teeming Airtel subscribers to reduce the value of data subscription without notifying us. I asked the customer care attendant why @AirtelNigeria would arbitrarily reduce the value of data subscriptions without notifying their customers, but would put out elaborate adverts whenever they are introducing new goods and services to their customers, but he didn’t even respond to the question. I then threatened to drag Airtel Company to court for breach of contract.

Now, I was challenging a mere reduction in the value of data not knowing that an even worse disservice was about to be dished out. On the 9th of September, 2023 at about 1:30am, I was awake trying to finish a client’s job when the Airtel data network suddenly went off. At first, I thought it was data shortage. So I checked my data balance and saw that I still had 15 gigabytes remaining. I then turned off the router and turned it on again, hoping that the network would return, but it never returned. I became more frustrated because I didn’t have any other source of data to work with. I thought about subscribing to the MTN data service but it was not possible because I would need some data to open my bank app. I didn’t have much airtime on my MTN line, so it was impossible to even subscribe from my airtime. I waited for some hours and continued to switch off and on the router while waiting, but the network refused to return. At this point, I was already very frustrated. I then went to bed with the hope that by morning, the data network would have been restored. But by morning, I still switched on the router and noticed that the red indicator light that signaled the absence of data network was still showing brightly on the router. I became even more frustrated, angry and restless. In a bid to ultimately finish off my client’s job, I ran to a nearby Point Of Sale (POS) operator and paid her N2,000 to recharge my small modem MTN line, and that was how I was able to get data to complete my client’s job.

After I had completed my client’s job, I went back to the router to see if the network had returned, but it still wasn’t back. I continued to wait for the return of the network but alas, I waited for 3 more days and there was nothing. The red indicator light continued to shine brightly. I checked my Airtel personal line and discovered that it had full call and data network. I went to Twitter to complain to the customer care attendants about the poor network, and I was asked to drop my router line. I dropped the line and after a while, I got a response. They told me that the router line had been worked on, and that I should just switched off and switch on the router and watch it pick up again. I did as I was told but the network was still absent. I then hurried off to the Airtel office at Wuse 2 in Abuja to have them check my line for the possible cause of the problem. On arriving at the Airtel office, I noticed that people were coming in and going out with their routers in their hands, then I knew that the network challenge my router was having was a general problem. Even the Airtel staff that spoke to me at the office confirmed my presumption. I also found out that the Airtel MiFi (the small pocket WiFi device) was having a perfect network. It was only the router network that had a fault. Upon asking some salient questions, I was made to understand that the router line could not function in any other device except the router. That was how the router line was configured. While I was interacting with some staff of the company, I turned on my router again, and this time, the network was back. I was then asked to go home with my router, that the network problem had been rectified.

When I got home, the router network continued to work, so I thought the problem had actually been sorted out. But few hours after the router had been working, the network went out again. I called the members of staff I had earlier interacted with at the Airtel office, and none of them took their calls. I was frustrated again.

I want to state categorically that ever since the router network failure started, it had continued that way without any improvement. The network fluctuation has continued to frustrate my work, and I’ve been losing money from this challenge. I thought about writing to the NCC to complain about this anomaly, but something in me kept telling me to save myself of the stress as nothing tangible will come out from such a move.

I am here today to rant and call on my fellow Nairalanders to join me in calling out @AirtelNigeria for frustrating their customers and subjecting them to severe inconveniences. @AirtelNigeria has not apologized even once for failing their customers, and this is very bad and unacceptable. The kind of terrible behaviours that some of these foreign companies put up in Nigeria will never be tolerated in other countries where the governments are serious.

Nigeria’s governments have continued to connive with companies such as MTN, Airtel, MultiChoice and their likes to frustrate Nigerians and shortchange them, and this must have to stop.

If you want the Nigerian government agencies that are responsible for overseeing the adequate delivery of services to Nigerians to sit up and do their jobs effectively, kindly come under this post and drop your comments. Thanks in anticipation.

Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu is an Abuja-based journalist and media consultant. He can be reached on cmatencore86@gmail.com

By Chidi Matthew Nwachukwu

Aliyu Sadiq’s effort at ridding the Nigerian environment of plastic wastes may well be edging towards an auspicious denouement, since the young innovative entrepreneur has in the meantime, accomplished what he didn’t envisage was possible at the time he kick-started his pet project.

Sadiq, a 26 years old graduate of Geography and Environmental Management from the prestigious University of Abuja in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, is the founder of Ecocykle Development Foundation, an initiative that seeks to provide solutions to the problems of waste, climate change and environmental pollution.

Sadiq graduated in 2019 and founded Ecocykle in 2020. He founded the Ecocykle Foundation in a bid to contribute his quota to the curbing of environmental degradation in his immediate and extended environment. He thinks that plastic waste is a huge threat to the Nigerian ecosystem, and that its further spread could endanger the lives of humans and the country’s biodiversity.

A major scope of his operation is the collection of plastics from around the rural communities in which he is undertaking his project. He chose the rural communities for his project because they are more prone to plastic waste proliferation than the urban areas, since they do not have the means for proper waste disposal.

Karu local government area of Nasarawa State is the location where the project is being anchored, and it is the fastest-growing locality in the state. There are primary and secondary schools within the community, and it is in one of these schools that Sadiq is carrying out his project. The pet toilet project is supposed to provide comfort for pupils of the schools where it would be situated.

Sadiq intends to build at least 200 toilets for the community schools in 2 years’ time, and he intends for the project to spread to all nooks and crannies in Nigeria where lack of decent toilet facilities is a major glitch.

The most interesting part of Sadiq’s story is that he is simply using one problem to solve another equally disturbing problem. The spread of plastic waste in Karu, a densely-populated town in Nasarawa State, is one problem that has been described by environmentalists as “choking.” It is almost impossible to find settlements and communities in the town where there aren’t tons of plastic wastes. It was this huge production of plastic waste that inspired Sadiq to initiate a waste eradication system that will alternatively tackle another major problem – open defecation.

Open defecation is very widespread in Nigeria, and the successive governments of the country have had tough times tackling the menace. This problem is unfortunately rife in northern Nigeria, and even the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria which was once touted to be the fastest developing city in Africa, has now fallen to the scourge. Infiltration of the FCT by beggars and vagrants is the major cause of the geometric increase in open defecation. Under the bridges, along the express ways, inside the drainages and canals, and even open spaces could be seen littered with excrements. This anomalous trend has continued unabated, and is now threatening the normalcy of the ecosystem of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Environmental experts have often wondered what the situation in the constituent states of Nigeria would be, given that even the FCT which is supposed to be a model of excellence cannot brag of a neater environment.

Aliyu’s projection is that in a very short time from now, his project would have taken care of open defecation in Nasarawa with the positive trend spilling over to the FCT and other states of the country that are gravely affected by open defecation.

Another attractive side to Aliyu’s project is that it also incorporates the production of interlocking bricks which are fabricated from plastics. This interesting innovation helps in no small measure to extract plastic waste from the environment. Aliyu engages hundreds of youths in the interlock production business, and they get trained and empowered through the project.

The pet toilet project was conceived by Aliyu when on one fateful morning, he saw a number of school pupils defecating in the bushes around their school. It then occurred to him to set up toilets for the school. While he wondered how to finance the project and effectively drive it to a logical conclusion, the thought of building toilets using plastic bricks flashed through his mind, and without wasting time, launched into the process of building the toilets. He considered the idea of building toilets with plastic bricks as very practicable and remedial since it would help in reducing the volume of plastic wastes in the environment. In constructing the pioneer toilet edifice, Aliyu used up 6,500 pet bottles. He believes that with such volumes of plastic removed from the environment through their reuse in the construction of bricks for the toilet, there will come a time when plastics would be totally absent from the environment.

He thinks that the Nigerian government can take a cue from its Rwandan and South African counterparts in ridding the country of plastics by banning the production of plastics and insisting on the use of eco-friendly materials such as wood, in the production of bag packs and other household items.

The construction of the toilets was carried out as a collaborative work of the pupils, some young members of the community where the school is located, women from the community, and Aliyu and his team members. The women went around the community to pick up the pet bottle, while the children happily filled them up with sand. The youths engaged in the construction and mason works under the supervision of Aliyu and his team, and before long, the project took shape. The women who gathered the pet bottles and the youths who took part in the mason work were duly rewarded for their efforts. Aliyu ensured that each of the women got at least 2,000 naira ($2.6) per day, and the masons daily got 2,500 ($3.2) naira each.

During the construction of the toilet, Aliyu and his team seized the opportunity to interact with the women, youths and children on the importance of waste management. He made them realize the gains of waste recycling, and opened their eyes to the advantages of waste monetization. The motive was to familiarize the young children with the fundamentals of waste management, and empower the women and youths with the knowledge and skills needed for waste monetization.

The toilets, according to Aliyu, were properly built and can stand the test of time. It was constructed with sufficient cement and concrete so that its surface cannot be washed away by water. The pupils of the school helped in digging the soak-away pits for the toilets, and it was from there that the sand needed for filling the bottles was obtained. Each of the toilets measures 6feet by 7feet, and has one stooling point. Since the construction of the toilets, the pupils now have where to ease themselves comfortably, and the young girls also have where to go, to take care of their hygiene needs when seeing their menses.

“I can’t express how satisfied I am, knowing that I have been able to solve a major problem for the pupils of my community,” disclosed Aliyu while speaking about the importance of his project.

The toilets are connected to a water source which enables them to be properly flushed after use. The school management dug a well that supplies the water, and overhead tanks were set in place to serve as water reservoir.

During the launching of the project, representatives of the Nasarawa State government and other stakeholders in the health and environment sectors were in attendance to register their satisfaction with the beautiful projects.

Aliyu disclosed that since launching his project, he had received calls from two other northern states to come and replicate his project in their communities. They want Aliyu to come to their aid as their own cases of open defecation were getting out of hand.

“I have received calls from Bauchi and Gombe states, asking for a replication of my project in their communities. They are prepared to sponsor the project on a large scale, and they are also willing to rid their environments of plastics and curb open defecation in their living space,” stated Aliyu.

Aliyu has as his sponsors as the Lift Humanity Foundation, the Global Recycling Foundation (an international donor agency), the African Environmental Awareness Initiative and the Step-Up Green Climate Warriors Initiative.

The toilets are expected to serve at least 400 to 500 pupils, and there are already plans to collect the wastes from the toilet for the production of methane cooking gas. This was disclosed by Aliyu when asked about his plans regarding the evacuation of the toilets.

The Ecocykle Development Foundation currently boasts of 20 regular staff and over 100 volunteers, and it is with efforts of these people that Aliyu runs his projects and pursue his goals.

He has stated that in the next two or three years, he would have spread his project to every nook and cranny of Nigeria.
His major challenge in the meantime is the lack of funds to undertake the various tasks he has cut out for himself. He disclosed that a single unit of the toilet cost about 800,000 naira ($1,778), and that his funds are not enough to take care of all the projects he holds in view.

Aliyu is very keen about climate change, and he thus attended the COP-27 climate change conference in Egypt last year. He talks very passionately about putting an end to the proliferation of plastic wastes in Africa, particularly Nigeria, and working towards preventing a further damage of our global ecosystem.

“The truth is, the climate is already irreversibly damaged, but whatever solutions we are proffering is for the earth not to become more damaged than it already is,” averred Aliyu when asked if the effort being made to curb climate change can be impactful in any way.
He further stated that Nigeria’s waste management score is generally very poor, even as the country’s population is overwhelmingly massive – a major reason why the country’s government is not making any headway to that end.

He further suggested that the adoption of a circular economic model which will ensure that more plastics are not produced and added to the already-existing ones, is key to managing the proliferation of plastic wastes in the Nigerian ecosystem. He suggested that the already-existing plastic wastes be recycled and energy and resources saved for more important projects.