Former Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State was conspicuously absent when Bello, his eldest son, got married to his second wife, Aisha Habibu Shuaibu, on Saturday.

Daily Trust had reported how El-Rufai jetted out of the country after he pulled out of the ministerial race.

The senate had last week confirmed 45 out of the 48 ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu.

But El-Rufai and two other nominees – Stella Okotete (Delta) and Danladi Abubakar (Taraba) – were not confirmed as the senate said they were awaiting security clearance.

The former governor met with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja, on Tuesday, after which he flew abroad, with sources saying he was off to Europe, but would be in Egypt first.

Bello, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Banking Regulations, had a private Nikah with the daughter of a former Military Administrator for Plateau and Niger States, Col. Habibu Shuaibu, in Abuja on Saturday.

Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna, whom Bello served as legislative aide when the governor was a senator, stood in as the father of the day.

In Hausa tradition, the Wakili (representative) of the groom’s father receives the bride at a wedding, while the waliyyi, representative of the bride’s family at a wedding, gives out the bride.

However, this tradition does not stop the parents of the couple from witnessing their children’s wedding as Hajia Hadiza Isma El-Rufai was on ground.

Expressing delight over being the father of the day at the wedding, Governor took to his verified X account (formerly known as Twitter) to share some pictures of the ceremony with caption: “On Saturday, August 12th, 2023, I had the honour of standing in as the father of the groom at the wedding ceremony of my former Senior Legislative Aide, and House of Representatives Member (Kaduna North Fed. Constituency), Hon. Bello El-Rufai and his beautiful wife, Aisha Shuaibu. I wish them a happy married life and I pray that Allah makes theirs among the best. Ameen.”

See some pictures below:

If it were not for the timely intervention of the elderly Islamic cleric at Kizara Village in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Garba Umar would have ended his 15-year-old marriage to his wife, Halima.

Her offence was allowing a male doctor attend to her in the labour room.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that when efforts by other women in the compound failed to help when she went into labour, she was rushed to the Tsafe General Hospital following noticeable complications that often accompany childbirth.

On getting to the hospital, there were no female doctors or nurses on the ground to attend to her. Thus, they were constrained to allow a male doctor on duty attend to her, at which time her health seemed to be failing.

Reluctant to embrace the option, the women said they had no choice but to allow the doctor (names withheld for security reasons) attend to her.

After three days of being in a coma, Halima survived, but she lost the baby. However, her family and friends were consoled that she made it out alive.

But unknown to the distraught mother, the consequences of allowing a male doctor attend to her awaited her at home. Her husband, it was learnt, had become livid, hurled insults at her and even threatened a divorce for allowing a male doctor to attend to her.

Those privy to the drama said Halima was on her way out of the marriage, but for the swift intervention of the cleric, who counselled and cautioned her husband against such a move.

“The cleric told him it wasn’t prohibitive in Islam for a male doctor to attend to a female patient in the absence of female medical personnel,” one of the witnesses told Saturday PUNCH.

Sadly, such an experience is not new, neither is it exclusive to Halima.

The same fate befell Hafsat, a resident of Talata Mafara in Zamfara State, in which case her husband warned that on no account should she seek medical attention from a male doctor in his absence, no matter the gravity of the ailment.

The vicissitudes of life would, however, compel Hafsat to flout the instruction. Like Hafisat, she was delivered of a baby girl by a male doctor when the husband was unavailable. It took the intervention of family and friends that the marriage didn’t end in a divorce.


Double loss for Mukhtar

Unlike Halima and Hafsat, who were both lucky to have their marriages intact despite flouting the ‘golden rule’ set by their husbands, a 14-year-old mother in Zango Local Government Area of Katsina State, Aminat Mukhtar, wasn’t as lucky. Hers ended in a divorce despite aborting her education because of the marriage.

She said her husband divorced her for allowing a male doctor attend to her when she had complications during childbirth. Sadly, she had a stillbirth. Thus, she lost the baby and her marriage.

Mukhtar, who was a JSS 3 student at a government secondary school in 2022, said she was out of school for a year due to the development, noting that her suitor pressured her for the marriage, a situation that made her drop out of school for one year before the outcome of the short-lived marriage compelled her to return to school.

According to her, the school principal, Fatima Muhammed, was impressed with her courage and allowed her to return to the school. However, she could only return to JSS 3 instead of SS1 as her former classmates were already ahead of her academically.

Mukhtar revealed that her ambition in life was to become a school teacher.

She told one of our correspondents in an interview, “I am 14 years old and the eldest in my family. We are three in the family. The other two are a boy and a girl. I am in JSS3.

“‘I was initially attending school here (Government Girls Secondary School, Baure) when I met a man who said he wanted to marry me. He promised me several things and lured me to drop out of school. After I left school, I kept on seeing my schoolmates, and they told me that some programmes were being implemented at the school to assist students who were from poor homes like me. I made inquiries and confirmed that it was true.

“I subsequently called off the marriage proposal, and I returned to the school. Our school principal assisted me a lot, and up till now, she keeps on encouraging me. I have no regrets for my decision to return to school. my ambition is to become a schoolteacher and contribute to the development of my community.”

As heartbreaking as these are, such cases are prevalent in some northern states like Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa, and others.

In some of the states, male doctors are reluctant to attend to female patients, especially in public hospitals, without their husbands present, for their own safety or the possible consequences for the woman.

A staff nurse at the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, Zamfara State, Mohammed Sani, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH said male doctors had stopped attending to female patients, except with the permission of the husband or the guardian, as the case might be.

Sani told one of our correspondents that over the years, there had been marital quarrels, which often led to separation or outright divorce over the issue of male doctors attending to female patients, especially pregnant women.

He stated, “We (male medical personnel) are no longer attending to pregnant women in labour unless we get the written agreement from their husbands or relations. There are so many incidents where pregnant women who are in labour were attended to by male doctors and the issue became unpleasant in the end.

“You know that we have shortage of female doctors, as such, male doctors must be assigned to attend to female patients, especially those in labour.”

On the religious implication, a renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Liman Musa-Kura, told Saturday PUNCH that in Islam, male doctors are not allowed to see the anatomy of a married woman except with the consent of her husband or blood relatives.

Kura warned that male doctors should stay off from attending to a woman during labour unless it became absolutely necessary.

The cleric stressed that in the absence of female medical personnel, it was only if the female patient was in grave danger that a male doctor could be called upon to save her life.

Musa-Kura stated, “In Islam, everything is fully explained. It is forbidden for a man to see a female private parts if he is neither her husband nor her blood relation.

“So, in case there is no female doctor around, a male doctor could be assigned to treat a woman in the presence of either her husband or her relatives.”

Meanwhile, Kura lamented the shortage of female doctors in the state, urging the authorities to do something in order to avert the “ugly trend”. He cited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “where only female health personnel can treat their fellow women.”

Interestingly, the opinion of the District Head of Gagi community in Sokoto State, Alhaji Sani Umar Jabbi, was different.

According to him, it was unconstitutional to ask housewives not to seek medical attention from male medical doctors, adding that it had nothing to do with religion.

He described as “heartless” the attitude of some men in the northern part of the country, who punish their wives or deny them the right to seek medical attention from the hospital because they do not want them to be attended to by male doctors.

As a way out, the monarch called for more protection for women, especially housewives whom he said deserved the same protection as the men in the society.

He stressed the need to invest in girl-child education, noting that “the consequence of not investing in girl-child education by our people in this part of the country is what causes men to dominate every strategic part, including the health sector.”

Umar Jabbi noted, “The problem with our men in the North is that they have conservative mindset for not supporting women’s education, and unless we provide the opportunity for girl-child education and their empowerment, we will continue to have a gap.

“We must henceforth realise that education of the female children too is part of human rights and should be given priority. The issue of health care is also a guaranteed right of everyone, irrespective of their gender or status.

“I pray we change our perspectives so that in future we can have more human resources to take care of those areas, such as nurses, doctors, gynaecologists, among others, so as to meet our demands.”

Indeed, like Umar Jabbi noted, while it is inexcusable for men to deprive their wives of medical care because of the absence of female doctors and nurses, the menace also highlights the consequences of depriving female children of education, a danger more common in northern Nigeria.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in 2022, Nigeria had about 20 million out-of-school children, especially those aged between six and 18. Even though the Universal Basic Education Commission believed the real figure was about 10 million, Nigeria is said to have one of the highest figure in the world.

According to UBEC, the out-of-school children mainly comprise of the girl-child in northern Nigeria, boy-child in the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones, internally-displaced children, and the Almajiri Qur’anic and itinerant children “who are predominantly found in Northern Nigeria”.

The Department of Special Programmes at UBEC was however mandated to coordinate and implement all special interventions to address the out-of-school children challenge.

Equally contributory to the travails of the girl child, especially in northern Nigeria, is the issue of child marriage. The United Nations Population Fund revealed late last year that no fewer than 20,000 girls were saved from child marriage.

The United Nations Children’s Fund also revealed in a 2021 report that 40 per cent of girls in the country were married before they clocked 18 years. The report said the act of forcing girls into marriage with creditors to offset a loan contributed to the rate of child marriage.

Also emphasising the importance of girl-child education, the Country Representative of UNFPA, Ms Ulla Mueller, said in 2022 at an event, “Education is crucial in realising the potential of women and children. As such, we must ensure that every girl has access to quality education that equips her with knowledge and skills.

“Quality education will also enable girls to have the confidence to pursue their ambitions. When women have equal access to education, they are better able to enhance their own lives and contribute to the growth of their communities. Achieving gender equality is not only essential for its social and economic benefits but also because it is the right thing to do.”

Thus, like Jabbi noted, there cannot be female doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to treat pregnant women, much to the desire of some men in northern Nigeria, when the girl-child is deprived of education.

The poor access to healthcare underscores Nigeria’s high rate of maternal mortality, which is said to be the second-highest in the world. India is said to have the highest. A report by the World Health Organisation revealed that in 2020 alone, 540 women and children died per thousand in Nigeria, while the country accounted for 12 per cent of global maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths in the world.

Findings revealed that apart from the low access to proper healthcare, practices like this deprive women of the medical care that could have saved their lives.

Narrating his subjects’ ordeal, the community leader narrated, “Sometimes here in Sokoto, there was this housewife who was about to go into labour and her mother-in-law prevented her from visiting the hospital.

“We did all kinds of advocacy, but the woman refused to allow her go to the hospital. We later took the expectant mother to the hospital after being in labour for about three weeks. After her delivery, unfortunately she needed blood transfusion and the same woman placed a curse on her son if he donated blood to his wife.

“It took several interventions, and it was not until we told her that if she (the pregnant woman) died, she would be held responsible before she allowed her son to donate blood to the wife. We have so many stories related to this but the most important thing is to continue to create awareness to our people on the importance of education to our girl-child.”

On the religious beliefs attached to this, the community leader noted that ignorance and not religion was responsible for the belief that only a female doctor should attend to women in need of medical attention.

He stated, “It is unfortunate that some ignorant persons among our people link their actions to teachings of Islam, which is a lie. Allah never told us to deny our wives what can make them happy or well.

“The ultimate goal of religion is to save lives. Every aspect of human endeavour is there in the Holy Quran, even that of women, from delivery up to adulthood, and how they should be treated. You cannot deny women the right to quality health. It is there in the Holy Quran. People should ask what they don’t know.”

Judasmedia:
my Thoughts: Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) verse Foreign Trained Doctors (FTD) By Faith Obianuju

I have read with growing interest the series of events that followed the recently conducted MDCN assessment examination in University of Illorin Teaching Hospital. Of 680 candidates only 243 were said to have passed the assessment test. That is 35% overall. The doctors reacted and called on Nigerians to look into their plight. Well, the last time I checked, I was still a Nigerian. So I looked into their plight and below are my findings.

The exams as I have found out has a lot of inconsistencies and in the most case was poorly organized. First was the rather unnecessary increment in the examination fee from N76,200 to N131,000. Second was the fact that there was a grand design from the onset regarding who those, “who must pass”, those who “may pass” and “others”. The class captain and his assistants made the first list. Other group of candidates who made the “must pass” list, where those whom the registrar himself called to see him during his short session with the class on the 6th of November, 2017. The names of these students were publicly mentioned by him. He had a brief meeting with them and voila! They passed! I listened to the recorded meeting and confirmed it myself! Also in this list are names of those whose parents are renowned in politics and/or elsewhere.

Under the category of “those who may pass” was a list circulating at the onset for a particular group of students meeting particular requirements, some paid anything between N300k to N500k. Well, according to verified reports these group of candidates also passed.

“Others” are further classified into:

Those that made moves and
Those that studied.

Those that made moves mostly didn't go far in their moves as all efforts to get leakages were successful however, the timely change of uploaded questions dashed their hopes. Report also has it that some of them were swindled by University of Illorin Medical Students with one, Toba, a 500L or 600L student tagged as the leader and orchestrator of the fraud group. The GTBank account of his girlfriend Uddi Nora was used as a tool in their nefarious scheme. They made over N3M from their victims.

Those that studied didn't have pleasant stories either. This is because after changing the questions at the last minute, the new questions were found to be outside the coverage of the lectures. Even at that, according to verified sources, 91% of candidates passed the multiple choice questions which was computer based. “It doesn't matter where the questions were taken from as long as it is medicine, we are fine,” one on the foreign trained doctors wrote in their WhatsApp group, “Movement for Justice”, “my only concern is why then was there a need to have a remedial with a compulsory 70% attendance? We could as well have stayed at our respective abodes and study, then show for the exams!”

On the day of their Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), most candidates confirmed that the coordinator for the remedial courses informed them that the passing score for the CBT was reassuring and that over 90% passed. However, events observed during the OSCE created a tinge of fear in the hearts of the candidates as the examiners appeared to be too distracted, exhausted or just uninterested. One candidate said, “While I was examining the precordium of the simulator, the examiner answered a phone call! I was stupefied!” Another said, “my own examiner appeared to have a lot of things on his mind. He was restless, and for some reason the candy that was given to prevent hypoglycemia held his attention for the better part of the time I took examining the simulator. At a point he stood up to charge his cell phone!”

After the examination, the candidates went home to pray in hopeful anticipation. At about 2pm on Saturday, the results were published on the MDCN website and 437 hearts were broken. Only 243 candidates made it representing 35% of the entire class. Reliable sources revealed that 500 names were submitted to the acting registrar by the UITH coordinator however only 243 were published, making the candidates wonder if there was a possibility of a second pass list. If we are to minus the “must pass” and “may pass” group the list of honorable candidates who passed the exams could have been anything between 100 to 150. And true to that, as at the time of writing my thoughts, information filtered through the rumor mills that only 148 initially scaled through after whatever vetting the MDCN did to the 500 submitted names. Either ways, in advanced countries when less than 40% fails an exam, the fault is with the students, but when more than 40% fails the exam, the teachers and examiners are questioned because either the teachers did not lecture well, or the examination was above the level of the candidates. Hence, countries like US, Australia, UK, etc use standardized questions. Presently, UITH refers worried candidates to MDCN while upon getting to the MDCN office in Abuja, they are referred right back to UITH!

From what many candidates have reported, the new failing trend commenced after the acting registrar Dr. Tajudeen Sanusi took office last November, 2017. It would appear that the MDCN number one has not been debriefed by his predecessor, Dr. Ibrahim regarding the purpose for the assessment. Statements credited to Dr. Sanusi in News dailies has shown he has some form of prejudice with foreign trained doctors and has not hesitated to verbalize same at every given opportunity. According to him, “Nigerian medical schools teach clinical medicine and clinical dentistry, but elsewhere they teach diagnostic medicine. They train Nigerians for export purposes only,” (Tribune). Well, as pleasant as that sounds to the ears, let us not quickly forget that Ghana, Sudan and Egypt are becoming a cynosure of attraction to foreign students. Same cannot be said of Nigeria. Our President also went to U.K. to diagnose and treat an ear infection. We are trying to be self reliant, but we are in a fragile glass house, it is not wise to start throwing stones. As a matter of fact, a good number of medical schools in Nigeria has not made it to the list of World Health Organization accredited schools. A special report by the Daily Trust Newspaper, not so long ago, also presented the number of colleges of medicine in the six geopolitical zones vis-a-vis the number of applicants as summarized thus:

South West: 12 Colleges, 34938 applicants, 910 slots available
South South: 9 Colleges, 35828 applicants, 760 slots available
South East: 9 Colleges, 25103 applicants, 590 slots available
North Central: 5 Colleges, 21992 applicants, 400 slots available
North West: 4 Colleges, 25062 applicants, 330 slots available
North East: 3 Colleges, 9970 applicants, 265 slots available
FCT: 2 Colleges, 3320 applicants, zero slot available.


With the above set up, one wonders if Dr. Sanusi’s claims are grounded on facts or mere assumptions. In a fragile discussion as this one, caution should be considered when selecting words to express oneself. And Dr. Sanusi should know better.

With regards to the statement credited to Dr. Sanusi that Nigerian doctors trained abroad were trained for export purposes, one couldn't help but wonder where he gets these ideas from. Most of these doctors I have verified myself, are trained in the U.K., Canada, US etc. and are duly licensed thereafter. That the love for country brought them back to Nigeria should cause them to be celebrated and not castigated. In fact, Prof. Adedoyin, the coordinator for the remedial course was heard on tape saying his son, currently schooling in a Nigerian Medical college has plans for the USMLE already! A simple search on the internet reveals startling headlines! 80% Nigerian doctors seek jobs abroad (Vanguard Newspaper August, 2017); Crisis looms as 50,000 out of 87,000 registered Nigerian doctors are unaccounted for (Business Day Newspaper, Mar. 12, 2017); Over 40,000 out of 75, 000 Registered Nigerian Doctors are Practising Abroad - NMA Raises Alarm (deereporters.com; Nov. 17, 2017); 700 medical doctors leave Nigeria annually - MDCAN (Daily Post Nigeria; 2017/10/03); ALERT! 2,500 doctors WILL leave Nigeria between August and September (www.icirnigeria.org). The list continues. So one question Dr. Sanusi must answer…who are training doctors for export purposes? Your guess is as good as mine!

Let us proceed. Based on the supra mentioned, it is apparent that the one focus of Dr. Sanusi’s tenure so far has been the foreign trained doctors. In the light of this, two exams he has overseen has had catastrophic outcomes, making one wonder what could be the reason for this change. Under the watch of the past registrar, Dr. Ibrahim, many candidates passed the exams and are doing well, and now under the watch of Dr. Sanusi, the reverse has become the case. So something must be amiss between the approach of Dr. Ibrahim and that of Dr. Sanusi. What could that be? Who among these two is incompetent? Although, not a good argument, one can't be blamed if the mind concentrates on the fact that while Dr. Ibrahim is a medical doctor, his counter part is a dentist. Could this factor in? I leave that question open for further thoughts.

Now let’s shift our focus a bit to look at what Nigerians feel: feed back from Nigerians has never had it that foreign trained doctors are the reason for our failing health system. I haven't read yet of an incidence resulting in gross mortality or deformity due to a foreign trained doctor’s incompetency. for one, medicine is an art and most skills are learned in the field of practice. Wether you are trained in Nigeria or overseas, you still have a lot to learn. In fact, a collaboration between the Nigerian trained and the foreign trained would do our citizens more good than harm. The MDCN requirements for foreign trained doctors are already steep enough. First, School must be on the accredited WHO list, secondly, they must be verified by ECFMG/EPIC, the same body that verifies credentials of those applying to sit for the USMLE. And this cost a minimum of $240! If a foreign trained doctor can meet with these requirements, then there is no need making examination criteria stiff for them. The rules should be straight. A set average should be used, instead of saying, “since many passed OSCE but failed MCQ, let us use MCQ as a basis.” As was seen in LUTH last April, 2017 or “Since most candidates passed MCQ but failed OSCE, let’s use OSCE as a basis.” As was now seen in UITH center this November, 2017. Another candidate express the entire situation as, “under Sanusi’s tenure, consider yourself failed until proven otherwise. The way he is going, it is quite obvious he ain't going to pass more than thirty to forty percent of foreign trained doctors per exam. They are going to frustrate us man, delete the phrase ‘no place like home’ from our medulla and replace it with ‘any place but home’…he is got evil plans up his sleeve man.”

Another candidate, who attempted the exams in both LUTH and UITH said, “honestly, this has caused me serious shifting dullness. What do they really want from us? A passing rate of 50% overall or what? Prof. Adedoyin told us that in the MCQ, which has questions that were not covered in the remedial lectures, we had a 91% pass rate! Highest score was 90% and class average was 58%! The OSCE was not as good because of mostly human factors on the aspect of the examiners, not to mention the obscure marking scheme. But if an average of 50% was followed then the 500 candidates who made the original list would reflect the results more appropriately!”

The November examination has proven to be too big a blow for the young professionals as they have decided to reach out to Nigerians to seek for help. Sadly, majority of responders are Nigerian medical students, House Officers and registrars, most of which are riled with hate speeches as I have seen from screen grabs made available at my disposal. It would appear, honestly, that the wave of targeted hate speeches against these Foreign trained Nigerian doctors has spread far and wide among their supposed professional colleagues. With one doctor who claimed to have played supervisory role with them describing them as, “borderline incompetent”. Another exclaimed, “why are they coming back to Nigeria? Why not practice in the country where you trained?” Reacting to the same thread on Facebook, a foreign trained doctor said, “it is expected. 99.9% of those making those hate speeches wish they had the opportunities we have. Heck! The son of the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Rasheed graduated from University of Aberdeen. That in itself speaks volume!” Another FTD I chatted with online, simply said, “I think they misunderstood the word “competent”. All through my medical career abroad (yes, I am a licensed doctor elsewhere!) I have never seen the ‘pinnard’ stethoscope physically. I only saw a picture of it in my textbook, I think second year med school? I mean whoever use that! I have my own Doppler. It is battery operated, so you can't say you got electricity problems. If you say I am incompetent because I cannot use your pinnard thing, then you got to have your head examined. I have seen the diagnostic kit of the medical students, and house officers, I have never seen anything so incomplete. Medicine has evolved. We can learn from them and they can learn from us and the benefit will be on them, really,” She went ahead to add, “That someone keeps mute, humbles herself to learn a thing or two should not be misconstrued as incompetent. No one came here to compete with anyone else. If you really want to know what incompetency truly is, ask the patients. They are at the receiving end of whatever skills we got. Ask them…then you will know who between us and them is incompetent.”

The foreign trained doctors have now formed an association to enable them fight what they perceive as ‘discrimination against foreign trained doctors in Nigeria’. Series of interviews have been granted to news media, and letters have been written to senators. Their parents are also picking interest in their plight. Regardless of what anyone might think, we all know the situation of health care in Nigeria, and we do know the problem is not with foreign trained doctors. The sooner we realize the value of what we have, the better for all of us.

Recently, it was revealed that the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo has received a group of expatriates, mostly from India with a view of establishing partnership projects that would promote medical tourism in Nigeria. Worthy of note here, is that some of the foreign trained doctors also schooled in India. These doctors are already contemplating practicing elsewhere. Let us make a stitch in time to save nine.

No fewer than four governors yesterday attended the memorial service organised by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, for her son, Parker Shepnaan Dongban who passed on last year.

Some of the governors who attended the event held at Demshin in Plateau State still have cases at the election petitions courts where the Appeal Court President would have a major role to play.

However, there was no evidence that the Appeal Court president invited the governors to the event.

According to analysts, the governors might have attended the event in a typical Nigerian gesture, and perhaps, to curry favour.

Speaking at the service held at St. Peters Clever Church, Demshin in Plateau State, the Governor of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who said he was speaking on behalf of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), sympathised with Justice Dongban-Mensem, saying the governors identified with the family at the memorial service.

He said though the loss was painful, the governors recognised the impact made to humanity by the late Parker Shepnaan Dongban within the short period of his sojourn on earth, adding that his goodwill would be greatly missed.

He said: “Even though we remember our son today, we acknowledge that he lived an impactful life.”

Also speaking, the Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Caleb Mutfwang, who sympathised with the bereaved family, prayed to God to continue to comfort them.

He noted that no one can feel what the family has gone through since the untimely demise of the Parker.

He said: “There isn’t much to say on an occasion like this other than to say, may the good Lord continue to comfort you and the family because there is nothing we can do and the only thing is to pray for you.

“Even though one year has passed and we know you have enjoyed the comfort of the Lord, may you continue to enjoy the comfort of the Lord all the way. We will continue to pray that God will teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Also at the memorial service were Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia; his Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun; former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Jonah Jang, and former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike.

In his message, the Bishop of Shendam Catholic Diocese, Most Rev. Philip Dung admonished the congregation and also prayed for the repose of the soul of Parker.

He asked God to continue to comfort the family.

He appealed to the Nigerian leaders not to abandon the people, particularly those in rural communities who voted them into power but to come up with programmes and actions that would cushion the effects of the present hardships being experienced in the country.

Bishop Dung drew the attention of governments at various levels to the lack of social amenities such as drinking water, roads, schools, and hospitals in most communities and called for urgent steps to be taken to give the people a sense of hope and belonging.

He applauded the President of the Court of Appeal for her investments in education which, he said, has enabled the less-privileged children to have access to schooling.

As part of the event, a Multipurpose Hall built at Ngoottuguut in memory of Parker was commissioned by the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh alongside Mutfwang, and other dignitaries.