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Politics / Senate Lied About Petition Against APC Member’s Nomination As INEC Commissioner by Shehuyinka: 12:17pm On Feb 09, 2022
THE Senate lied in its claim that it was not aware of a petition against the nomination of an alleged card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), checks by The ICIR have revealed.

Rhoda Gumus, who President Muhammadu Buhari nominated as INEC national commissioner (South-South), was confirmed by the Senate on February 2 despite protests by Nigerians over reports that she is a card-carrying APC member.

Gumus is alleged to be a member of the APC in Bayelsa State with APC Registration Form No: BAY/YEN/08/58315.

She, reportedly, was number 27 in her APC Ward Register.

A civil society organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), filed a petition against Gumus’ confirmation as INEC national commissioner.

The petition was titled ‘Petition against the confirmation of Prof. Rhoda H. Gumus’ nomination as national electoral commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the basis of political membership.’

The petition was dated January 26, 2022, and addressed to Senate President Ahmed Lawan.

Copies of the petition were also addressed to Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila.

The Senate said it was not aware of the petition against the confirmation of Gumus’ nomination when the upper legislative chamber confirmed her on February 2.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC Kabir Gaya said a petition was only received against another nominee – A. B. Alkali, from Taraba State.

Gaya claimed that after the committee had already submitted its report, it started hearing about Gumus’ links to the APC ‘through the media.’

But, contrary to the explanation, checks by The ICIR revealed that the Senate actually received HURIWA’s petition against the confirmation of Gumus’ nomination.

Acknowledgement copies seen by The ICIR show that the Senate received the petition on January 26, 2022.

On one of the copies, the stamp of the Office of the Senate President indicating ‘RECEIVED’ was signed by an official, and dated January 26, 2022, in acknowledgement of the receipt of the petition on the date.

The copies addressed to the deputy Senate president and the speaker of the House of Representatives were also stamped and signed to acknowledge receipt of the petition by the two offices on January 26.

The acknowledgement of the receipt of the petition suggests that the Senate deliberately ignored the petition against Gumus’ nomination as INEC national commissioner.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/senate-lied-about-petition-against-apc-members-nomination-as-inec-commissioner/

Education / Why There Will Be Lecture-free Day In Universities On Monday- ASUU Member by Shehuyinka: 1:19pm On Feb 06, 2022
A MEMBER of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU} says the reason for declaring Monday, February 7, 2022, lecture-free day in all universities is to sensitise the general public about the disagreement between the union and the Federal Government.

The senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, who chose to be anonymous because he is not the ASUU spokesperson, confirmed the development to The ICIR, saying the union was tired of endless meetings.

“Yes it is for sensitisation. We shall be having a lecture-free day tomorrow. After this sensitisation, the next thing is an indefinite strike; we are tired of endless meetings,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National President of ASUU Emmanuel Osodeke had disclosed to Sunday PUNCH that the directive to the chapters of ASUU came less than a week after President Muhammadu Buhari renewed his administration’s commitment to fulfilling the agreement with the union.

Buhari promised when members of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council visited him to discuss the lingering issues.

The President had pleaded with the union to exercise patience and consider current economic realities.

The last national strike by ASUU was in March 2020 and it lasted till December 2020 when a memorandum of action was signed.

Shortly after the agreement was signed, ASUU accused the government of failing to fulfil its side of the bargain and threatened to mobilise for another strike.

The government quickly moved to pay N55 billion as part-payment for the Earned Academic Allowance and Revitalisation Fund. However, the union was unmoved until the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council and other dignitaries intervened.

Osodeke clarified that the union had not yet declared a strike but would sensitise the public, including the media, on the state of affairs between the union and the Federal Government.

The ICIR reported that ASUU had, on Friday, vowed to embark on an indefinite strike, saying it was tired of holding fruitless meetings with the Federal Government.

Chairman of the ASUU chapter in the University of Jos Lazarus Maigoro made the union’s position known at a press briefing.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/why-there-will-be-lecture-free-day-in-universities-on-monday-ASUU-member/

Politics / Africa Records 21 Coup Attempts In Eight Years by Shehuyinka: 1:16pm On Feb 05, 2022
THE AFRICAN continent has recorded 21 coup attempts by the military to overthrow incumbent governments in eight years.

According to data sourced from the Global Instances of Coups, 38 per cent of such attempts have been successful since 2015.

Most of the coups in Africa have taken place in the west and central parts of the continent.

Recently, there were coup attempts in Mali, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau.

Less than two months into 2022, there have already been two attempts to overthrow the incumbent governments in Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso.

The Guinea-Bissau attempt was foiled but Burkina Faso was successful and the coup leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba has been appointed interim president.

Coup attempts in Africa since 2015

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In 2015 and 2016, there were five coup attempts in Africa, but none of them was successful.

In 2017, there were two coup attempts in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe. While the former failed, the latter was successful.

There was no coup in 2018, but in 2019, there were three coup attempts but only one succeeded.

From 2020, Africa recorded a sharp increase in coup attempts and successes with 11 attempts and six successes. There were two attempts in 2020, seven in 2021 and two in 2022.

Since 1950 till date, there have been a total of 494 coup attempts in the world, 222 of which took place in Africa.

Why coups are increasing in Africa

A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Chidi Odinkalu had blamed the recent rise in coups in African countries on the lack of credibility in elections on the continent.

Odinkalu said this during a Twitter Space hosted by The Punch on Monday to discuss the reasons behind the resurgence of coups in Africa.

“Increasingly, elections are becoming laughable processes by which authoritarian regimes and dictators procure their own continuance in power.

“Many of the outcomes of elections don’t reflect the will of the people and when they happen, the AU, ECOWAS and other bodies all sign off on them as okay. People have become scandalised as a result,” he said.

He noted that the situation was partly fuelled by the failure of the Economic Community of the West African States and the African Union to condemn recurrent corrupt elections on the continent.

“Because the regional economic communities have failed to condemn the bastardisation of elections, the people have made their own choices, saying if you are not going to condemn elections, then don’t disturb us if and when we get rid of these people by any means necessary,” he noted.

The AU and ECOWAS have both condemned the recent coups in the region and continent, while the former has called for an emergency meeting with some African nations leaders.

Also, the Commander of the United States of America African Command Stephen Townsend suggested that the increasing number of coups in some African countries resulted from a lack of good governance and corruption.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/africa-records-21-coup-attempts-in-eight-years/

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Politics / Nigerian Government Watches As Chinese Companies Violate Labour Laws, Workers’ R by Shehuyinka: 8:31am On Feb 04, 2022
IN Nigeria, neglect of workers, poor welfare and child labour have characterised the operation of Chinese-owned companies, which is contrary to labour laws, but the authorities often overlook such atrocities. Labour experts say the Nigerian government has been lenient with Chinese companies due to its financial relations with China, writes Lukman Abolade.

In October 2020, a casual worker identified as Femi died in an accident while working with a Chinese company, Xiyuan Quarry, in the Kobape area of Ogun State.

Workers in Xiyuan Quarry who knew Femi said his death could have been avoided if the company had provided him with protective equipment.

One year after his death, Xiyuan Quarry is still in operation, and other workers in the factory are without PPEs while the government looks away.

Femi was killed by one of the trucks used in conveying sand at the quarry company on a tragic Saturday of 3rd October, 2020.

He was crushed to death on his way from the residential building of the quarry when he hit his head on a stone at the quarry.

Workers of the quarry, including the Nigeria Union of Mine Workers in the state, have described Femi’s death as an avoidable accident.

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Many blamed the sudden death of Femi on the non-availability of a helmet that would have saved him during the accident.

Failure to provide PPEs to workers in Nigeria is contrary to the National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but no one is prosecuting perpetrators.

Section 5.3 (III) of the policy states that employers are to “Provide at no cost to the worker, occupational health protection and personal protective clothing and equipment, which are appropriate for the nature of the job.”

How Chinese-owned companies violate labour laws

In January 2021, 22-year-old John Nsika joined Ding Xing Quarry as an operator on a casual work basis. Four months after, several parts of his body had various degrees of injuries after an accident while working for the company.

He had an accident while operating a popular machine in the quarry known as crusher.

Ding Xing Quarry company is located at Obafemi-Owode area of Ogun State.

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According to Nsika, in May, while he was working on one of the machines at Ding Xing, a big stone fell on him.

“I did not know how it happened; the stone just fell on my head, now I have injuries everywhere,” Nsika said.

Nsika’s leg was broken and he sustained injuries in different parts of his body. He said the company left him to pay the hospital bills despite this.

Nsika told The ICIR that his wage for the day was deducted on the day of the accident, and it took the intervention of the Nigeria Union of Mine Workers before his medical bill was paid.

No allowance or remuneration was paid to Nsika after the Chinese company agreed to pay the medical bill of Nsika at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, in Abeokuta.

Weeks after Nsika had received treatment at the hospital, he is still writhing in pains. He is still unable to work properly as his leg is bandaged.

“I have been like this for weeks, and the company is not doing anything. In this place, you only earn when you work; if you don’t work, they won’t pay you,” he said.

The 22 year old blamed the accident and its severity on Ding Xing’s lack of protective equipment.

He told The ICIR that the injuries would have been minor if provided with safety equipment.

“They are not paying me anything. This accident would not have happened if we were provided with the personal protective equipment tools like a helmet,” he said.

Nsika and many Nigerians allegedly go through these challenges with Chinese operators who reportedly treat them as enslaved people.

The Nigerian law states that employers in the country are to “Provide compensations for work-related disabilities of workers and rehabilitation of such workers as reasonably practicable,” but these companies have failed to do so and no one is asking questions.

The ICIR learnt that many reported atrocities against Chinese-owned companies have been left unattended to by the authorities.

In Nigeria, workers at Chinese companies have made reports of exploitation, poor welfare, poor remuneration, and lack of provision of personal protective equipment.

Dada Adebanjo, a father of two, had been a casual worker with Ding Xing for more than two years until he had an accident in 2020 while on duty, which eventually led to losing one of his eyes.

Adebanjo said he spent over N300 000 on his left eye, but the company where he lost the sight looked unconcerned with his predicament.

Adebanjo told this reporter that the accident had occurred at the Chinese company. He claimed a small stone coming out of the crusher entered his eyes and he had since then been battling with it.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/nigerian-government-watches-as-chinese-companies-violate-labour-laws-workers-rights/

Travel / Lagos ₦800 Transport Levy Scheme Fails To Kick Off On February 1 by Shehuyinka: 8:20am On Feb 04, 2022
IT was a bright Tuesday morning when The ICIR met Omogbolahon Ganiu at the Ojodu Berger park.

He had just begun the day’s job and was running a routine check on his car. A tired bus conductor was sleeping on one of the four seats on his 16-seater long bus. An expression of surprise marked his face when The ICIR asked him if he had paid the new daily N800 levy the Lagos State government imposed on transporters in the state.

Collection of the levy was supposed to take off on February 1, 2022, but Ganiu had not even heard of the development.

Looking rather distraught at the news, Ganiu prayed the government to reconsider its stance.

He said, “Vehicle parts and oils are very expensive. A small keg of engine oil used to be N500, now it’s N1,000. The somewhat bigger one is N2000. If we want to do some servicing, that oil is N6,500. All these things don’t make Nigeria liveable.”

His prayer is not likely to be answered. The ICIR learnt that the levy collection, which did not start on February 1 as announced, is likely to commence next Monday.

The Lagos State government had, on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, introduced a daily ₦800 Consolidated Informal Transport Levy for transporters in the state. This levy is apart from the dues the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) forcefully collect daily from commercial vehicle drivers.

The government levy is expected to harmonise dues it collects from the drivers at parks and garages across the state. It is also expected to reduce multiple taxation.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Finance Rabiu Olowo was quoted as explaining that the levy, pegged at a flat rate of N800, covered money for not just the local government levy alone, but also that of clearing waste from motor parks, which was being paid to the Ministry of Transportation, Lagos State Waste Management Authority and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency. Olowo added that once a transporter paid the ₦800 at a point, they would not expected to pay at any other park or bus stop throughout the day.

The new levy is real bad news for commercial vehicle drivers. The ICIR conducted an investigation between January 31 and February 1, 2022 in parks at Ojodu Berger, Ogba, Agege and Ikeja, speaking to transporters on what they feared would be the effects of this levy on their business.

Another driver in the same park where Ganiu operates, Lukman Owoyemi, computed his daily earnings against the many dues he said he was compelled to pay.

“The union here collects N1,500. We carry 13 passengers, which translates to N7,800. The government wants to take N800. After buying petrol for the vehicle, how much is left? We buy fuel on a daily basis. We make N3,000 on a trip. So let’s add the whole thing: union dues, N1500; petrol, N2000; state levy, N800. That’s N4,300 as expenses.

“At Oshodi, there is always traffic jam. Some union guys are usually at Oshodi waiting for us. Then the vehicle can have any problem. It can break down; I was in such a dilemma yesterday. If I returned the passengers’ money, how much would be left? Sometimes, we have to settle the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and other officers. We could spend up to N15,000 on such illegal settlements. The state government needs to rethink this,” Owoyemi said.

Fares to increase

At Ogba, commercial tricycle (keke Marwa) riders posited that fares were likely to go up if the new levy stayed. An ICIR check around the axis revealed that NURTW enforcers, known in local parlance as ‘agbero,’ would collect the sum of N1,600 from each commercial tricycle operator.

An operator, Uche Odor, said, “That money is too much. When you pay agbero N1,600 and pay the government N800, how much do we take home? It is passengers who will suffer.”
https://www.icirnigeria.org/lagos-n800-transport-levy-scheme-fails-to-kick-off-on-february-1/

Crime / Lajolo Comunity Accuses Police Of Extrajudicial Killings, Seeks Intervention by Shehuyinka: 11:11am On Feb 01, 2022
Residents of Lajolo community in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State have accused the Police of extrajudicial killing of two teenagers while carrying out an operation in the community on Saturday, January 29, 2022.

The victims, Jamiu Fatai and Shaobana Abdulrasheed, both 18 year old, were natives of Lajolo community, a student-populated area, which is close to Kwara State Polytechnic.

The Mogaji ( community head) Isa Alao, while speaking to our reporter, said the activities of security operatives were becoming worrisome, saying that different security outfits in the guise of fighting crimes and criminalities often visited the community at intervals to make arrests.

They would release the suspects mostly students, after allegedly collecting money.

According to him, “The activities of the security agencies in this area have become worrisome in recent times. They have turned crime fighting into a weekly business venture, where people are arrested at random and released after collecting huge sums as bail,” he said.

Talking about Saturday incidents, the Mogaji said the community started hearing sporadic gunshots at about 6:00am, causing pandemonium.

He said he was later informed that it was the men of the Nigeria Police that stormed the community in an 18-seater Hummer bus gestapo style, breaking down doors of students and arresting seven of them.

He said Jamiu was recording the melee with his mobile phone in front of his house before he was shot in the shoulder and as he turned to run for his life, he was shot at the back.

Jamiu, a J SS 3 student who is also a carpenter apprentice, later died at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital where he was rushed to, but another person Shaobana Abdulrasheed was taken away after being shot by the operatives.

The Mogaji wondered why the security agencies found it difficult to inform the community head when such operations would be carried out, knowing full well that traditional and community heads knew the details of virtually every residents of their various communities.

“If any kind of operations is to be carried out, we believe the Police should inform the community heads, who actually know the area and can be of immense help to security agencies in fighting crime,”.

“The only reason I can say that made them not inform the community of the operation is because it is illegal job,” he concluded.

In his own account, a distraught family member of the victim Rasheed Imam, who claimed to be the elder brother of Jamiu, told our reporter that security operatives were in the community last week to arrest some students for crimes that were not known.

“They always come here every weekend to make arrests, but after two days, the students will resurface in the community, claiming to have paid huge sums of money to secure their release,” he said.

He also revealed that a student of the Kwara Polytechnic was shot in the arm and he was in the hospital receiving treatment.

Imam called on the government to fish out the killer security operatives and ensure that they were made to face the full wrath of the law.

The situation led to a chaotic situation at the entrance gate of the polytechnic, as students reportedly blocked the road in protest of the reported killings of the victim of the incident by the Police.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/kwara-community-accuses-police-of-extrajudicial-killings-seeks-government-intervention/

Politics / Electoral Reform: Buhari Gets 6th Chance As National Assembly Sends Bill To Him by Shehuyinka: 10:42am On Feb 01, 2022
NIGERIAN President Muhammadu Buhari has a sixth opportunity to implement electoral reforms in the country after the National Assembly transmitted the amended Electoral Act Amendment Bill to him for assent into law.

The National Assembly transmitted the bill to Buhari on January 31, according to a statement signed by Senior Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters Babajide Omoworare.

Transmission of the bill to the president by the National Assembly was in line with provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.

From the date of transmission, Buhari has 30 days to sign the bill into law, and in the event that he again refuses to do so, he will write the National Assembly to explain his reasons for withholding assent.

If Buhari again refuses to assent to the bill, the National Assembly can decide to override the presidential veto and pass the bill into law with two-thirds majority vote in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers failed to heed calls from Nigerians to override the president when Buhari refused to sign the electoral bill in December 2021.

Buhari said a clause which mandated political parties to adopt the direct primary model for election of candidates for elective positions was the reason he refused to sign the bill into law.

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Forcing political parties to adopt direct primaries “violates the spirit of democracy,” Buhari said.

According to him, direct primaries would hike the cost of elections and place huge financial burden on political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He also argued that compulsory adoption of direct primaries violated the rights of the political parties to decide the model through which they wish to elect their flagbearers especially as many parties already have constitutions which provide for different methods of primary elections.

Buhari also pointed to security implications of holding direct primaries in parts of the country as one of the factors that informed his refusal to assent to the bill.

To address Buhari’s concerns, the National Assembly upon resumption after its Yuletide recess moved quickly to amend the bill.

On January 25, the National Assembly passed the amended electoral bill which provided political parties with three models of primary elections – direct, indirect and consensus.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/electoral-reform-buhari-gets-6th-chance-as-national-assembly-transmits-amended-bill/

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Politics / Fire Service: Inactive Emergency Lines On FCTA's Website Put Residents At Risk by Shehuyinka: 9:15am On Feb 01, 2022
In October 2019, a section of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) building located in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was gutted by fire.

The news spread like wildfire on social media such that the former spokesperson Wahab Gbadamosi confirmed the incident with the assurance of providing details of losses incurred due to the inferno.

The fire outbreak was later subdued by officials of the fire service.

Similarly, in January 2021, the FCT witnessed another fire incident at the Kugbo Furniture and Timber Market. About 100 shops were engulfed by fire while goods worth N3billion were lost to the inferno.

It was not the first time the furniture market would experience such a disaster.

Around the same month in 2020, a similar incident had occurred where traders lost goods and huge sum of money .

By July 2021, the FCT recorded another fire incident in the Karmo market. According to one Toluwani Ajayi, who was an eyewitness, a generator explosion had caused the inferno.

It gradually spread, covering a larger part of the stalls. Goods worth millions were lost to the unfortunate incident.

But that was not all. About four months after, on November 5, 2021, another fire incident broke out in Kubwa, a different suburb area of FCT. It happened precisely at the Kubwa ultra-modern market, claiming five lives.

The Police later confirmed the incident.

The latest in the series of fire incidents in FCT was Abuja’s Next Cash & Carry inferno. It drew so much attention and public concern that the authorities promised to investigate the cause.

It is uncertain if any official outcome from the supposed probe has been made public.

The series of incidents simply implies that the FCT Administration must be proactive in addressing the recurring fire disasters.

Hence, it developed an online portal (www.myfctagov.ng) where members of the public could easily contact the FCT Fire Service should there be an urgent need.

The platform boldly has on it three phone numbers with large font sizes: 0814643440, 092006118, 092914089. That is, with a glance, the public could easily grab the numbers and put a call to the service.

The initiative, according to the FCT Administration, is the "Federal Capital Territory Residents Engagement Platform designed to connect the residents of FCT with the FCT Administration for interactions, communication, and collaboration between the government and the residents."

Emergency numbers of FCT Fire Service on the official portal of FCTA residents interactive platform. Source: Myfctagov.ng
https://www.icirnigeria.org/fire-service-inactive-emergency-lines-on-fctas-website-place-residents-at-risk/

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Politics / Behold Nigerian Presidential Hopefuls With Hanging Corruption Petitions, Cases by Shehuyinka: 4:59pm On Jan 28, 2022
SOME POLITICIANS who have declared their intention to contest the 2023 presidential election are linked to corruption cases or allegations, checks by The ICIR have shown.

Corruption cases tied to the presidential hopefuls include: asset declaration and money laundering charges that were dismissed in court, allegations of financial misappropriation that are being investigated by relevant agencies, and corruption-related petitions that are yet to be probed.

The politicians that have so far declared their intention to run for president in 2023 include: a former Senate President Pius Anyim, a former Governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu, another former Senate President and also former Governor of Kwara State Bukola Saraki, Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, a former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and a former Abia State Governor and current Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu.

* Anyim

Anyim declared his interest to contest the presidential election at a consultative meeting with South-East stakeholders in Enugu on January 6.

Anyim has not been charged to court but, on October 24, 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) interrogated him over a case of alleged corruption and diversion of public funds.

There were reports that the allegations over which the EFCC investigated Anyim were linked to the corruption and money laundering case involving a former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah.

It was reported that rehabilitation funds amounting to N780 million were allegedly traced to a company in which Anyim has interest.

Anyim was in the custody of the EFCC for two days – from October 24 to October 26.

After his release, Anyim issued a statement to “put the records straight,” explaining that he went to the EFCC on his own volition to clarify issues after he got information that some persons invited by the anti-graft agency in connection with some matters that were being investigated mentioned his (Anyim’s) name in a statement.

He said some media reports “deliberately distorted the facts just to call his integrity to question.”

Anyim added that he remained steadfast in his commitment to join hands with men and women of goodwill to move Nigeria forward, “notwithstanding the blackmail, falsehood, misinformation and misrepresentation that some opportunists will seek to make out of such episodes like his recent encounter with the EFCC.”

* Tinubu

Tinubu declared his intention to contest the election on January 10 when he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa. He informed Buhari that becoming Nigeria’s president was his lifelong ambition.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/behold-nigerian-presidential-hopefuls-with-hanging-corruption-petitions-cases/

Crime / Six Months After, PSC Rejects Igp's Investigative Report On Abba Kyari by Shehuyinka: 3:43pm On Jan 28, 2022
Six months after the indictment of a suspended Police chief Abba Kyari for allegedly receiving N8 million from a confessed fraudster Ramon Abbas (Hushpuppi), the Police Service Commission (PSC) has rejected a report from the panel set up to investigate the allegation.

Spokesperson for the PSC Ikechukwu Ani confirmed the rejection to The ICIR on Friday via a telephone interview.

However, he said he was unavailable to give further details on the case.

The Inspector-General of Police  (IGP) Alkali Usman Baba had set up a four-man panel to investigate Kyari's indictment.

The panel called the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) was headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Joseph Egbunike.

Kyari's indictment followed a warrant of arrest issued by Otis Wright, a judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, on July 26, to provide the accused to answer questions over the alleged bribery.

Kyari was allegedly bribed by Hushpuppi to have Chibuzo Vincent, one of his rivals, arrested and jailed in Nigeria following a dispute over a $1.1 million fraud against a Qatari businessperson.

Being a serving officer of the Nigeria Police Force at the time, Kyari was suspended and an investigation was ordered into the allegations levelled against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.

The Police Service Commission, which is saddled with the constitutional duty of promotion, dismissal and discipline of police officers, also constituted its own investigative panel into the allegation.

According to the PSC, the panel was set up to assist the commission to make an informed decision when the Police investigative panel's report would be submitted for consideration.

The PSC has been silent on its own independent investigation.

The report of the SPIP was said to have been rejected by the commission over lack of depth.

Six months down the lane, there has been no substantial headway into Kyari's case following the rejection of the report.

A Human Rights Lawyer Abdul Mahmud had told The ICIR in an interview that it was hard to say whether Nigerians should expect a substantial report from the SPIP to ‘review’ the allegations against Kyari.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/six-months-after-psc-rejects-igps-investigative-report-on-abba-kyari/

Politics / Under Buhari’s Watch, Nigeria's Corruption Perception Ranking Worsens by Shehuyinka: 3:15pm On Jan 25, 2022
NIGERIA’S corruption perception index ranking has worsened, dropping from 149th to 154th place among 180 countries.

This was revealed by Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2021) report released on Tuesday.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organisation working to end corruption worldwide, released its CPI, showing 25 countries improved their ranking while 23 worsened, of which Nigeria is among the countries where corruption got worse.

Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 index. The country had earlier scored 25 points to maintain the 149th position in the 2020 ranking.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari came on board in 2015, Nigeria has not fared better.

In 2015, Nigeria ranked 136th, 136th in 2016, 148th in 2017, 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019, and 149th in 2020.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Transparency International says the index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe.

“Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International’s flagship research product, has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption.”

The top countries on the index are Denmark (88), Finland (88) and New Zealand (88), while Somalia (13), Syria (13) and South Sudan (11) remain at the bottom of the CPI.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government is yet to react to this year’s ranking. The government had in the previous year described the rating as unfair and unacceptable.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/under-buharis-watch-nigerias-corruption-perception-ranking-worsens/

Crime / Insecurity: Parents Remove Children From Kaduna, Niger Schools by Shehuyinka: 2:55pm On Jan 25, 2022
Deteriorating insecurity in Niger and Kaduna states is taking a significant toll on education in the two states. Parents now withdraw their children from schools in the states to safer parts of the nation. The action, which places more burden on the parents’ finances, further shows the low capacity of the states to protect school children and education facilities. The ICIR’s Senior Investigative Reporter, Marcus Fatunmole, reports.

SENSING danger the kidnapping of schoolchildren by bandits portends for his child, Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai secretly withdrew his six-year-old son, Abubakar Al-Siddique, months after he enrolled him at the Kaduna Capital School in September 2019.

During the campaign for his election as governor, el-Rufai had promised to enrol the boy in a public school in the state to set an example for his counterparts in other states, and other public office holders who send their children to schools abroad or private schools in the country.

Siddique’s enrolment coincided with when bandits preyed on the state capital and other communities in the state – killing, abducting school children and other residents.

The bandits often demand that ransome be paid, or the victim is slaughtered in the forest.

The Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Rafi Local Government Area of the state is one of the facilities where the bandits have launched an attack.

Since they attacked the institution on February 17, 2021, and abducted 27 students, the school has remained a ghost of itself.

Only soldiers use the premises. Its teachers have not been deployed to other schools to work, according to The ICIR’s findings.

A number of the schoolchildren have moved to different communities in the state and other parts of the country.

Similarly, it took the Greenfield University in the state some time to relocate and resume teaching after gunmen attacked the school and whisked away 20 students and three staff on April 20 2021.

The kidnappers killed five of the students before releasing the others after collecting ransom.

Between January 2020 and the time the reports on the withdrawal of el-Rufai’s son from the school emerged, deaths from insecurity in the state were already three times higher than the North-East, enmeshed in decade-long terrorism conflict, recorded within the period.

According to the state quarterly security report, from January to September 2021, 888 people died while kidnappers held on to 2,353 persons in the state.

Chapter Two, sub-section 2b of the Nigerian constitution (1999 as amended), states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

With worsening security misfortunes in the state, parents like Governor el-Rufai are pulling their children out of schools to save them from terrorists, who operate under different guises, namely bandits, kidnappers and gunmen.

But the action comes with varying consequences.

How parents withdraw their children from schools in Kaduna State

Olola Akioye Seun is a journalist based in Abuja. In 2020, he pulled out his 11-year-old son from the Command Secondary School in the state capital and enrolled him in Abuja.

He said it was challenging for him to keep going with the child from Abuja to Kaduna and be checking on him because of insecurity.

Going to Kaduna by road from Abuja was risky, while using the train cost him more because many a time, he got the train tickets through the black market.

“When the issue of kidnapping in schools started happening, I didn’t have peace of mind. I kept thinking about where next the kidnapping would occur in the state. Every call from that school to me caused me fear.
https://www.icirnigeria.org/insecurity-parents-remove-children-from-kaduna-niger-schools/

Politics / How Kano Hisbah Oppresses And Brutalizes The Poor by Shehuyinka: 10:39am On Jan 25, 2022
IN Kano state, religious police known as Hisbah are violating the freedom of many Nigerians in the name of religion. The Hisbah operations have also been surrounded by hypocrisy and preference to persecute the low and middle-class residents of the state. The ICIR’s Lukman ABOLADE reports.

At around 11 p.m. one Sunday evening in June 2021, a student of Bayero University, Kano Racheal James* and her three other roommates, were having dinner in their sitting room when they began to hear loud knocks on the door and voices shouting ‘open this door’ in the Hausa language.

“They were banging the door like they wanted to break in, telling us to open the door. When they came in, I was scared because they held long machetes and big long sticks called (Gora). I felt they were going to kill me,” Racheal said.

She told The ICIR that it took a few minutes for her to recognise that the men who came into their house were the Hisbah religious police officers.

The Hisbah in Kano is religious police established by the State government to enforce Sharia laws among Muslims.

Racheal said one of the Hisbah officers pulled her by her hair when she refused to follow them into their patrol van.

“I did not want to follow them; one of them just pulled me by my hair and dragged me into their Peugeot van that midnight,” she narrated.

Racheal and her roommates inquired what offence they had committed; the Hisbah officers said she was cohabiting with male students.

A day in Hisbah cell

After their arrests, the Hisbah officers went to other houses in the community to enforce more arrests that night.

“When we eventually got to their office, they kept us in a room that night and took the guys elsewhere and early in the morning, they took us to another place where they kept other arrested persons,” Racheal said.

She told The ICIR that there were many young female children of about eight, ten and fifteen years old that the Hisbah Police arrested.

Racheal said a pregnant child of about 15 years was locked up with chains and padlock inside the cell.

They said she escaped from her husband’s house, so they beat her up tied her legs with heavy chains and padlock; even though she was pregnant, they still beat her up, and she was bleeding. It was terrible,” she said.

She noted that most of the children in the female custody of the Hisbah had spent about one month in their custody.

On Thursday evening, Racheal was asked to sign an undertaking that she would not stay with men anymore or be charged to court.

“They wrote it themselves and told me to sign under it, I was later released on Thursday evening around 8:30 p.m., and I already missed my test.
https://www.icirnigeria.org/report-how-nigerias-religious-police-hisbah-repress-freedom-in-kano/

Business / As Nigerian Government Fails, N144bn Aba Shoe Industry Crawls by Shehuyinka: 3:41pm On Jan 22, 2022
RESEARCHERS estimate the market size of Aba shoe industry at N144 billion ($350.364 million).

The estimate is predicated on the production of one million shoes each week and 48 million pairs annually at an average price of N3000 per pair.

The industry is reputed for high employment potential and multiplier effects on other aspects of the Nigerian economy.

Some markets leaders in Aba, the industrial hub of South-East Nigeria, say there are more than 100,000 entrepreneurs in the shoe/leather cluster.

But Secretary of the Association of Leather and Allied Industrialists of Nigeria (ALAIN) Ken Anyanwu estimates that there are over 200,000 entrepreneurs in the cluster.

The export potential is enormous as half of the entire production is shipped to West and Central Africa, Europe and the Americas, according to market leaders in Aba.

A shoemaker James Umenweke says that Aba shoes are found in supermarkets and hypermarkets abroad.

He says a pair of Aba shoes sells between $19 and $25 in the United States of America market and between €15 and €25 in European shops.

Shoemakers in Aba also produce designs for manufacturers in various parts of the world and they receive payment for such services, he adds.

But Aba shoe industry supplies only 0.00128 per cent of the $271.82 billion global shoe market.

The industry comprises 14 clusters, including Powerline, Imo Avenue, Bakassi, Aba North Shoe Plaza, Omemma Traders and Workers, ATE Bag, Nwogu Avenue, and Ochendo Industrial Market (comprising input suppliers), among others.

High potential, low outcomes

It is August 19, 2021 at Powerline, beside Cameroon Park in Aba. Ken Anyanwu is in his factory with two staff members designing, cutting, skiving and stitching pairs of shoes.

It is fun for him because he has been in the business for over 20 years. He produces and supplies to customers who place orders within and outside Aba.

He can produce 1,000 to 5,000 pairs of shoes in a month, and some of his products are found in markets beyond Nigeria.

He is the secretary of Association of Leather and Allied Industrialists of Nigeria (ALAIN) and represents shoemakers in many fora in Nigeria.

To produce a pair of shoes, Anyanwu needs 53 items which include nails, fibre, thread, and synthetic leather/ hides.

Most of the items are imported from various parts of the world and require foreign exchange transactions.

The official exchange rate of dollar to naira today is N414.9/$, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and shoemakers say they are unable to have access to the quantity they require.

They can only access five to 10 per cent of their dollar demands. Though some analysts blame the CBN for mismanaging the foreign exchange (FX) market, the major culprit is Nigeria’s inability to earn sufficient FX from export of products like shoes.

“Challenges with the exchange rate affect pricing of our raw materials and final products,” Anyanwu says.

He buys from importers of these items and bears the brunt of high exchange rates.

He is also operating with a generator as there is no sign of electricity from a public source in his factory. Whenever his two generators are fully on, he spends at least N8,000 on diesel to keep them running.

The implication of this is that his cost of producing a pair of shoes has nearly doubled since 2014 when Nigeria’s naira began to wane in the face of other stronger currencies.

He is not alone in this. Generator smokes and sounds are reverberating through the 14 administrative zones in the shoe cluster.

In 2019, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo commissioned the Ariaria Market Independent Power Plant, which was designed to power businesses at the Ariaria Market with clean, gas-powered electricity.

But Anyanwu says the power project only serves the traders in Ariaria Market, not shoemakers who are the real industrialists that create jobs for the country.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/as-nigerian-government-fails-n144bn-aba-shoe-industry-crawls/

Education / Student Slit Neck Of Junior Colleague Over Refusal To Run Errand In Maiduguri by Shehuyinka: 3:54pm On Jan 21, 2022
JUBRIL Sadi Mato (Ramadan), an 11-year-old Pre-Junior Student of Elkenemy College of Islamic Theology Maiduguri, woke up in the wee hours of Jan. 16, 2022, had his ablution and observed his prayers with the hope of a brighter day ahead. He went about the activities of the day, full of life. But by nightfall, when most students had begun to retire to bed, Ramadan had his life almost snuffed out of him by a senior colleague.

It was gathered that the senior student from the SS2 class had sent Ramadan on an errand, but he didn’t go. That fateful night, he came to pick him up, took him to a quiet place and used a razor blade to severely cut his neck, injuring most of his arteries, nerves and trachea.

The offender, whose name has been concealed by the school management, left the victim for dead with his body soaked in blood. After some minutes, Jubril struggled and took himself to the principal’s office before collapsing and becoming unconscious.

Jubril was rushed to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) as he laid critical at the Intensive Care Unit(ICU); the perpetrator, reportedly high on psychotropic substances, was subsequently arrested and handed over to police station for further investigations.

The victim was the son of Late Justice Sadi Mato of Federal High Court Kano State. His Mother, Hajiya Aisha, later married a Director with Yobe State Government ( name withheld).

However, to the chagrin of the victim’s family members, Aisha’s new husband (Jubril’s stepfather), who was called by the school management shortly after the incident, has been discouraging the victim and his mother from reporting the attack.

A family member who chose to be anonymous said that the husband has collaborated with the Principal of the school as well as the Director of the College, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris to conceal the report from going out, even as such cases had been reoccurring in the college.

He said the school director was said to be a very influential man, so he promised to do everything possible to ensure that the case was dead.

“Honestly, the case of Jubril has effectively been decriminalised as a result of a collapse in prosecutions that has allowed many offenders to escape justice and to go on to offend in the knowledge that they are unlikely to be held to account.

“The fact that their acts of violence are normalised, accepted or excused gives a feeling of power and impunity to these individuals and encourages such recurrent shameful predatory behaviour. This support system must be eradicated at all costs and in no uncertain terms.

“This is not the first case of armed violence in the college, there are several other cases relating to sexual abuse and armed violence, but the school management had swept it under the carpet. This is likely to mean we are creating more victims due to our failure to act.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-11-year-old-student-of-elkenemy-islamic-school-had-his-life-almost-snuffed-out-by-senior-colleague-in-maiduguri/

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Politics / How Sanwo-olu Purchased Trains Abandoned By US State by Shehuyinka: 5:21pm On Jan 20, 2022
THE Lagos State government has received commendation for signing a deal with Talgo, a US-based Spanish company, for the acquisition of two intra-city trains originally intended to connect Madison and Milwaukee in the United States, but which was later abandoned.

This is part of ongoing efforts by the administration to set up an intermodel transportation system that will ensure interconnectivity in different parts of the state, while reducing gridlock and creating jobs.

Governor of Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu said during the ceremony in Wisconsin on Tuesday that he was ‘irrevocably’ committed to completing the Red Line Metro Rail Project by the end of this year and bring a new lease of life to public transportation in Lagos.

“We have completed the acquisition of the trains and ramping up the completion of the ancillary infrastructure like the train stations. We hope that this will be the beginning of a mutually beneficial business relationship,” the governor stated.

Chief Executive Officer and President of Talgo Antonio Perez said: “For us, it is important that our trains are utilised. It doesn’t make any good that the trains that we built should be kept without passengers riding them.”

Abandoned for 11 years

The intra-city 10-coach metropolitan trains, newly acquired by Lagos State for its Red Line Metro Project, was manufactured in 2011 to run on Amtrak’s Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago, but the trains were never put into use after Wisconsin officials declined to build a maintenance facility to put them in operation.

In 2010, the newly elected Republican Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker revoked the $47.5 million rail project deal which his predecessor Jim Doyle signed with Talgo in 2009. Notwithstanding, Talgo continued working on building the train sets purchased by the state at a facility in Milwaukee throughout 2011.

Talgo, thereafter in January 2012, notified the state that the train sets were ready for delivery, but the Wisconsin Department of Transportation refused to accept them and 10 months later, Talgo canceled its purchase contract with the state and instituted a lawsuit against Wisconsin.

The claim alleges the state failed to live up to its purchase agreement and that Walker repeatedly acted in bad faith to frustrate the deal.

Talgo added its claim to include: insurance expenses, labour expenses, attorneys’ fees, transportation costs, and “loss of reputation associated with the state’s personnel continually defaming Talgo’s professional reputation in every conceivable forum.”

However, before instituting the lawsuit in 2012, Wisconsin taxpayers had spent $42 million on the rail project. A settlement was eventually reached in August 2015 where Wisconsin agreed to pay $9.7 million to Talgo and allow the manufacturer keep the trains.

Talgo, on its part, was required to refund 30 per cent of the net proceeds if the trains were sold within three years.

The difficulties with finding a buyer

Finding a buyer for the trainsets took another six years after both parties reached a settlement, costing the manufacturer huge amount in maintenance.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-sanwo-olu-purchased-trains-abandoned-by-us-state/

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Politics / Commissioner Claims Lagos Traffic Not As Bad As Reported by Shehuyinka: 4:39pm On Jan 18, 2022
COMMISSIONER for Information and Strategy in Lagos Gbenga Omotoso has claimed that the traffic in the state is not as serious as widely purported.

Omotoso said this during a stakeholder engagement organised by the Lagos Traffic Radio and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority on Tuesday tagged 'Repositioning of traffic information agencies for better performance.'

The commissioner argued that it was unfair to say that individuals or tourists lost significant man-hours while plying the state roads.

READ ALSO:

Gov’t power project fails to light Iponri Market in Lagos (Part two)


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Their pains, frustration in the hands of Lagos Okada riders (PART 2)


He said, "Let me say this loud and clear, I would not join the ranks of those who describe Lagos traffic as a nuisance, quoting all manner of figures. I saw one last week saying that an average Lagos tourist loses some incredible man-hours on the road. I felt it was unfair to the government or people that have been employed to manage traffic in Lagos.

"So I contacted some experts and they told me that the figure could not have been right even though it was from a reputable organisation. Some of the facts that they sent to me really showed that the situation is not as bad as people are making us believe."

In comparing Lagos to London, Omotoso said Lagos was not London which had become the most congested as the world recovered from COVID-19. Quoting figures from his keynote speech, he said that London drivers lost an average of 1,148 hours to congestion last year and the impact led to a loss of £1211 per driver.

"The 2021 global traffic scorecard shows that London tops the list, followed by Paris, Brussels, Moscow, Chicago and Rome. The others in the top 10 are Columbia, Instanbul in Turkey, among others. Lagos is not here, not even in the first 20. This shows that the Governor Babajide Sanwoolu administration is not joking with traffic management," he added.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/commissioner-claims-lagos-traffic-not-as-bad-as-reported/

Politics / Direct Primaries: Nigerians Suspect Conspiracy Against Electoral Reforms by Shehuyinka: 1:47pm On Jan 17, 2022
PARTICIPANTS at a town hall meeting on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, including the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), have raised concerns over a suspected conspiracy against electoral reforms in the country.

The Citizens Town Hall on the Electoral Bill 2021, organised by YIAGA Africa in Abuja on January 16, deliberated on the bill which Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign into law, citing the inclusion of a provision that mandated political parties to adopt direct primaries for selection of candidates for elections.

Speaking at the event, National Chairman of IPAC – the umbrella body of the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria – Yabagi Yusuf suggested that the introduction of direct primaries in the electoral bill was part of a conspiracy to ensure that the electoral bill was not signed into law.

Yusuf, who is equally chairman of the African Democratic Party (ADP), noted that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which controls both the executive and legislative arms of government, was not comfortable with electronic transmission of election results.

The IPAC chairman suggested that the alleged conspiracy against the bill was aimed at frustrating electoral reforms in the country by aborting the introduction of electronic transmission in the electoral act.

Yusuf pointed out that the controversy over direct primaries, which ultimately resulted in the rejection of the bill by the president, was not necessary as the issue (direct primaries) was never part of the electoral reform agenda before the National Assembly.

“I believe it (direct primaries) is just a dummy they sold to Nigerians for their own selfish interests, if truth must be told. Otherwise, this is not the first time that we have tried direct primaries. My party, as we speak today, we are still in court because in 2019 we tried to introduce direct primaries in one of the states.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/direct-primaries-nigerians-suspect-conspiracy-against-electoral-reforms/

Politics / How Budget Deficit, Loan Servicing Weaken Nigeria’s 2022 Budget by Shehuyinka: 2:53pm On Jan 15, 2022
NIGERIA’S 2022 budget is tainted with a huge deficit and loans whose repayment will, again, cost Africa’s most populous nation a fortune.

These, analysts say, puts the Nigerian economy under fiscal pressure.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has relied heavily on borrowing to sustain its budget cycle, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) serving as lenders of last resort to the Federal Government.

The 2022 budget is projected at N17.13 trillion, which is 18 percent higher than the 2021 budget.

Also, recurrent (non-debt) spending, which is estimated at N6. 91 trillion, is 40 per cent of total expenditure and 20 per cent higher than the 2021 budget.

At N3. 8 trillion, debt service is 22 per cent of total expenditure and 34 per cent of total revenue.

The 2022 budget has a deficit of about N6.25tn, approximately 3.39 percent of the country’s GDP.

The budget also set aside N59 billion for counterpart funding for railway projects including: Lagos-Calabar, Calabar-Lagos, Ajaokuta-Itakpe, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Kano-Katsina, Jibiya-Maradi in Nigeria Republic, and Abuja Itakpe and Aladja(Warri) – Port and Refinery/Warri New harbour.

Budget deficit is to be financed mainly by borrowings, with targets from domestic sources – N2. 57 trillion; foreign sources-N2. 57 trillion; multi-lateral/bi-lateral loan draw-down N1. 16tn; and privatisation proceeds, N90. 7 billion.

“We’re borrowing and have high level of budget deficits. When you jack up the budget from N16. 39 trillion to N17.127 trillion and you are borrowing with high level of deficit, it calls for concern,” Professor of Financial Economics and Director of Centre for Economic Analysis and Research at the University of Lagos Ndubuisi Nwokoma said in a monitored programme on Arise Television on Friday.

“Also, we are looking at N3. 8 trillion for debt servicing, which is close to N3. 16 trillion projected oil revenue. Remember, we still have the subsidy concerns to deal with. It shows the budget is ‘highly leveraged.’ This is not just for this year, this has been happening for sometime now.”

The economist noted that the projected revenue of N10.1 trillion from oil and non oil sector, which was often not met, left Nigeria with excessive borrowing.

“How do we finance the deficit? Fiscally, we have to borrow about N5.01 trillion, alongside other project-tied loans, in addition to proceeds from the sale of government assets.”

Following these concerns, those knowledgeable about the economy also expressed worry that the government was still paying lip service to cutting down cost of governance.

They noted that the government had a spending problem, not revenue issue.
https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-budget-deficit-loan-servicing-weaken-nigerias-2022-budget/

Travel / IELTS: UK Money-Spinning Venture Rips Off Nigerian Visa Applicants by Shehuyinka: 9:09am On Jan 15, 2022
THE photos of Tunde Omotoye, Fola Aina and Dipo Awojide are widely circulated on Twitter and LinkedIn as they were offered a one-year sponsorship deal with the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as brand ambassadors.

Their selection ticks off all the boxes for a model intellectual with a Gen Z fan base: Nigerian professionals in the diaspora with thousands of Twitter followers.

Awojide, a Senior Lecturer in Strategy at Nottingham Trent University, has over 900,000 followers on Twitter, while Aina is a Development Policy expert with over 113,000 followers.

And Omotoye, the co-founder of Humansquad, a Canada-based immigration tech startup, has over 327,000 followers on Twitter.

Brands and advertisers are attracted to influencers with high follower counts, especially on Twitter, because the more people influencers reach, the more money they make.

While Awojide and Omotoye had their contracts renewed from last year, Aina is a new entrant into the image-making enterprise of IELTS in Nigeria.

Their job description is simply to convince Nigerians seeking admission into universities or visa for jobs in European countries to take the IELTS tests and proffer strategies that project the brand in Nigeria.

While the brand ambassadors are paid to look at the positives of the IELTS, young Nigerians bear the brunt of its exorbitant charges.

The average cost of taking the IELTS test in Nigeria ranges from N83,000($200.5) for academic and general tests to N89,500 ($216.2) for UK Visas and Immigration tests.

This amount is twice the minimum wage of a worker in Nigeria, who earns N30,000 monthly.

Also, the shelflife of the IELTS test is two years.

IELTS is an English language proficiency test for non-native English speakers jointly managed by the British Council, IDP, IELTS Australia, and Cambridge Assessment English.

The tests are conducted multiple times a year and approved by United Kingdom Visas and Immigration(UKVI) for visa customers applying outside and inside the UK.

A Twitter user Olabayo Emmanuel who wrote the IELTS test in 2018, said he failed to gain admission into any of the schools as the validity of the test expired in 2020.

“I will never write that English language test again. I wrote in January 2018, and it expired (after two years) without having the opportunity to use it.

“English is our official language. I was taught in English right from primary school to university. These guys are cheats!!!” he said.

His reaction sums up the frustration of Nigerians who have made repeated calls faulting the IELTS test as being “exploitative” and “unfairly burdensome” for Nigerians.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/ielts-uk-money-spinning-venture-rips-off-nigerian-visa-applicants/

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Politics / 'malami’s Justice Ministry Spends N35m To Attend Virtual Conference In 2019' by Shehuyinka: 9:14am On Jan 11, 2022
THE Federal Ministry of Justice, under the supervision of the Attorney General Federation Abubakar Malami approved N35 million for officials to attend a virtual conference in 2019, documents from the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has shown.

According to the document, which was signed by the nation’s Auditor-General Aghughu Adolphus and seen by The ICIR, the money was raised in twelve vouchers ahead of the said conference.

One of the vouchers with No. Cap/014/19 dated 24/4/19 amounted to N30 million was raised as a cash advance to an unnamed officer of the Ministry of Justice. He stressed that the retirement particulars of the money revealed the conference was a virtual meeting, even in the 2019 financial year.

Adolphus noted that the remaining amount of the N35 million was raised to cover air tickets, boot camp registration, servicing of monthly meetings, workshop fees, and conferences.

He stated that the officers that attended the program were majorly from South-South states the country. Others were from different agencies and commands.

Adolphus noted further that receipts for retirement from hotels were altered at the date columns such as the Le Meridien Hotel and Golf Resort in Uyo for N13 million, Ogbolosing Transport Company Nig. Ltd. for car hiring amounting to N160 thousand with no destinations and MC Print Ventures for N60 thousand.

All of these, the Auditor-General said, raised doubts as to the authenticity of the retirement particulars.

Another sum of N11.9 million was paid to one hundred and eighty-four officers from the South-South State Commands as transportation subsidy.

An additional N8.3 million was paid to them as accommodation subsidy.

The Auditor-General said the payments “contravened extant rules on DTAs of public officers in the civil service, and the above payments were made as if all the officers are on the same grade levels to collect the same amounts in terms of distance and DTAs”.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/malamis-justice-ministry-spends-n35m-to-attend-virtual-conference-in-2019-auditor-general/

Crime / Special Report: Kwara Is New Kidnappers’ Haven by Shehuyinka: 9:01am On Jan 11, 2022
Kwara, the ‘state of harmony’ had lesser reports of insecurity ravaging the rest of the country, until recently when incidents of abduction and banditry became rife in the north-central state. Dare AKOGUN reports.

SEGUN Arowolo, a businessman, based in Lagos, was kidnapped, alongside six others in August on their way back from a wedding ceremony along Oke Onigbin – Omu Aran road, in Ekiti State.

Although four of them were rescued the following day, Arowolo and the other hostages were held for three weeks.

Speaking to our reporter, Arowolo who was still suffering from the trauma, said they walked about 80 kilometres from where they were Kidnapped at Oke Onigbin in Isin local government area of Kwara State to the forest in Ekiti.

He said they were fed once a day with yam their abductors stole from farms in the forest.

“We walked far distances in the forest during the day, and we are allowed to rest at night, to eat food that was never enough. We sleep on rocks and itchy grasses with mosquitoes, sometimes under heavy rain, as we changed locations daily until I was released,” he said.

Arowolo said his abductors tortured him daily as they grew impatient over the inability of his family to raise the ransom. He said the kidnappers initially requested a ransom of N10 million, but they eventually agreed to collect N3 million.

“My family was able to gather N3 million for my release with support and contributions from other members of my community,” he said.

In the last six months of 2021 alone, cases of kidnap for ransom in Kwara was rife, especially in the southern part of the state.

Thirteen persons, including seven wedding guests, a pastor and his wife, were abducted in two kidnapping incidents that occurred between the Kwara-Ekiti axis on the evening of Saturday, August 7, 2021.

The guests returning to Ilorin from a wedding in Ekiti State in a Sienna bus were kidnapped at a point between Oke-Onigbin and Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State about 5:35 pm.

On the same day, another incident was reported between Ekan-Meje in Oke-Ero Local Government Area of Kwara State and Ekiti State, which involved a pastor and his wife and four other persons.

However, the victims were rescued the following day in the forest in Ekiti state by local hunters and vigilantes.

A few days later, on August 18, 2021, a man in his forties, simply identified as Ishola, was kidnapped on his way to his farm near Rore, an adjoining community to Omu-Aran.

Ishola told our reporter in his Isolo Lagos residence that he has not returned to Omu Aran since the incident because he still suffers trauma.

According to him, on the first day, he drank Garri with dirty water, while on the second day, he and other victims were fed with leftover food, adding that they always trekked for hours and were moving around different areas.

“They blindfolded some of us and made us walk over a long distance sometimes we were hearing sounds of cars passing during the day and night, on the first day, they fed some of us with garri with unclean water, while some who refused the food were beaten,” he said.

Ishola said after four days with the kidnappers, he was abandoned in the forest with some other victims when one of them sighted police officers on a search-and-rescue operation.

25yrs old Mansurat Elega of Olupo farm settlement, Eruku, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, was abducted while sleeping in her room by unidentified gunmen on September 24, 2021. The Kwara state police command tactical teams in conjunction with local hunters and vigilantes were dispatched by the commissioner of police to the bushes for a search.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/special-report-kwara-is-new-kidnappers-haven/

Politics / Investigation: Air Force Officer In Baby Trafficking Scandal by Shehuyinka: 12:52pm On Jan 08, 2022
Nnam Joy (Ginika) has failed in her bid to sell her newborn child.

She was lured into the baby-selling business by a Nigerian Air Force officer who leads a ring that has successfully trafficked many children.

The officer, Joy Kelvin, currently serves in Enugu State after her re-deployment from Abuja by the Nigerian Air Force.

Kelvin, a mother of five from Kaduna State, had lived at the Air Force Base in the nation’s capital before her transfer.

She alleged that the Social Welfare Department in Gombe State is the hub and most accessible place to buy children in Nigeria.

Kelvin has helped many people to buy children at the department; she told The ICIR.

She said the department does not take prospective buyers through questionings and other rigours of child buying and adoption.

How the Air Force officer lured Joy into child selling

Joy is a university dropout. She attended the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, and studied Mass Communication. After leaving the school over claims her family could not afford her tuition fees, she returned to her parents in Amagunze, Nkanu Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The young mother said she had lived with a family in Anambra State as a salesgirl before the period. She worked with the family while she attended university.

She told our reporter that she had two boyfriends at Amagunze. Both slept with her, and neither took responsibility for the pregnancy.

In her attempt to abort the pregnancy, someone introduced her to the Air Force officer. The officer already had a waiting buyer for a child in Gombe.

The officer advised Joy to tell her parents she got a job in Abuja as a fuel attendant. The pregnancy was four months old then, and her parents did not know about it. The lady has eight siblings. None of them was aware of the pregnancy and her plan to leave Enugu for Abuja.

Joy came to Abuja in October 2021 and lived at the Nuwalege Village, behind the Air Force Base where the officer had lived while serving in Abuja.

She lived with the officer’s sister, whom neighbours claimed had sold her baby in 2020 and used the proceeds as part of the money to buy the house where she lives. The Air Force officer sold the house to her.

The host, identified as Godiya, works as a cook at the Air Force Comprehensive Girls Secondary School at the Air Force Base.

Joy was supposed to travel to Gombe in early January to put to bed, to enable the waiting buyer in the state to collect her baby. As her pregnancy scan shows, her Expected Date of Delivery (EDD) is January 24. But she gave birth on December 27.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-air-force-officer-in-baby-trafficking-scandal/

Politics / Heads Of Nigerian Mdas Can’t Account For N377bn, $100,000 – 2019 Audit by Shehuyinka: 11:52am On Jan 08, 2022
AT least four Nigerian ministries and their agencies could not account for N377 billion and over $100,000, the government's 2019 audit has revealed.

Infractions uncovered by the audit include unspent balances on capital votes not returned to the government coffers, payments for foreign travels without evidence of approvals, and payments made without vouchers.

There are also advances not retired, granted advances above statutory limit, irregularities in the award of contracts, payment of unapproved allowances, and payments made for contracts not executed.

Others are: unremitted internally-generated revenues, funds misappropriation/misapplication, payment vouchers not presented for examination, taxes not deducted and taxes not remitted.

Auditor-General for the Federation  Adolphus Aghughu signed the audit report titled: 'Auditor-General for the Federation's Annual Report on Non-compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the Year Ended 31 December 2019.'

The audit observed that N5.17 billion was the advances not retired in 23 MDAs during the year.

The House of Representatives has the highest advances not retired, amounting to N2.9 billion, while the Nigeria Ports Authority has the least amount of N17,000.00.

The audit observed that N6.18 billion was the unspent balances on capital votes not returned by four MDAs.

Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority, Owerri, has the highest amount of N2.5 billion in this area, while the Veterinary Council of Nigeria has the least amount of N36 million. 


READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/heads-of-nigerian-mdas-cant-account-for-n377bn-100000-2019-audit/

Business / Despite Fg’s Investment On Solar, Smes Spend Over N36m Yearly On Generator by Shehuyinka: 4:43pm On Jan 07, 2022
Sabon Gari: Despite FG’s multi-billion investment on solar project, SMEs spend over N36m yearly on generators (Part one)

The Federal Government through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) under the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) resolved to provide a cheap, stable, and efficient off-grid power to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) at the Sabon Gari Market, Kano. The market is among the top prominent commercial hubs in the state with over 13, 000 shops. Traders in similar markets such as Ariaria in Abia, Iponri in Lagos States were also listed as beneficiaries. The intent was to provide electricity to over 340 economic clusters in the country. Olugbenga ADANIKIN who visited the markets in three states report about gaps in the project implementation and how it is frustrating most small businesses four years after flag-off.

IT was on a Tuesday noon of November 30, at about 2:47 pm. Mrs. Safiya Bello, a middle-aged woman stands on the balcony of a salon complex within the Sabon Gari Market, Kano, scouting for potential customers.

Her shop is strategically located in the market ranked Nigeria’s largest with solar-based decentralised power grid.

“Oga! You wan make your hair?” Safiya queried in a seemingly customary phrase.

“No, I just came to find out if the Federal Government’s solar energy project is servings its purpose.”

Safiya spared no time expressing her disappointments. “No! It is a failure!!”

“It is not serving any purpose. It cannot power a simple hairdryer. In fact, most traders have shifted to Maja.”

‘Maja’, this reporter would later find out, is the high-capacity power generating sets serving shop owners in Abubakar Rimi Market. It has at least 13, 000 shops.

This is despite the ban on the use of generators and privately installed solar panels since the FG launched the Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

“How can you plug two customers’ phones and your power will just trip off…” Safiya who was obviously furious, asked.

“See my shop. I am no longer connected to it (solar) because the amount demanded from us before we can use our hairdryer is N10, 000 weekly. Where will I get the money?”

She belongs to the Igbo Road Hairdressers Association comprising over 250 members. This implies that if each salon operator contributes N10, 000 weekly for energy consumption, as demanded, it means each salon owner would require at least N40, 000 monthly to use their appliances.

The amount will cost N480, 000 in a year, per hairstylist and N120m annually for 250 hairdressers.

Mrs. Victoria George runs a salon at Shop PBA N/45 within the same market. Her story is similar to Safiya’s. All her tools such as dryer, hair stretchers, and the likes have become useless, except she uses her power generating set.

Victoria who subscribed to the N4, 000 monthly tier removed a device from its case.

“Look at this small hand dryer,” she said displaying it to this reporter.

The solar energy cannot power this equipment as little as it is, she adds, picking up a stretcher to re-emphasise her argument.

One of the customers was quick to ask, “what about your big hairdryer?”

She walked up to it, pulled the equipment hung on the wall with adjustable hinges, and tried switching the knob. It is now dusty due to irregular use.

“Even when we pay for the solar, we still have to switch on our generators and the governor of Kano has banned the use of generators in the market.”

Another shop owner, Mrs. Aishat Musa is subscribed to N2, 000 solar power weekly. That is, N8, 000 in a month, yet spends N12, 000 monthly on her private generator to meet the energy demand of her business.

She has also resolved to forgo the solar power source as it hurts her business.

How EEI came to play

During the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari, the FG through the REA energizing economies initiative rolled out the energy transition programme.

It is decarbonisation of the energy sector – the use of solar technology or clean energy to power businesses, majorly Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME). The project doubles as part of Nigeria’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) also known as the National Climate Action Plan designed to reduce climate change impacts including severe weather conditions such as flooding, desertification, rising sea level to mention but few.

Nigeria is a signatory to the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, and it pledged to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in the country unconditionally by 20 per cent and conditionally by 45 per cent. Emission of the GHG causes climate change.

The FG further submitted an updated INDC to the United Nations (UN) on 27 May 2021 to renew its commitment to clean energy.

Hence, launched in September 2017, the EEI was to increase energy access, provide clean, affordable energy and off-grid power solutions for traders. The solar power intervention, however, phases out the controversies around epileptic supply and estimated billings.

Specifically, over 340 economic clusters were identified, with an initial 16 clusters and these clusters were to enjoy constant, affordable, and reliable supply from clean energy.

Though it is in phases, part of the first phase was executed at Ariaria market in Abia State; Sabon Gari market in Kano; Sura in Lagos Island, Eti-Osa LGA, and Iponri market, Surulere LGA, both in Lagos State.

“We are now also implementing, a policy that no government before us committed to, developing energy through mini-grids. Iponri market is now being powered by solar,” Babatunde Fashola, the former Minister of Power, Works and Housing stated during the project inspection.

“This solution is also in Sabon Gari market, Kano state and it is coming up in many other markets.”

A firm recognised as Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was created to manage the solar facilities in each of the markets.

The SPV at the Sabon Gari market, Kano – Sabon Gari Market Energy Solutions Limited (SGESL), for instance, signed a 20-year renewable contract with the Kano State government. It was registered in August 2017 but listed as inactive because it has defaulted in its obligation to the CAC.

The Iponri market SPV is referred to as Iponri Market Energy Solution Limited (IMESL). The firms are managed by the parent company Resource Energy Limited with the company representatives across the markets as well as growing foreign investments.

Nevertheless, on-ground findings reveal most traders in the benefitting markets are dissatisfied with the high tariff.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/sabon-gari-despite-fgs-multi-billion-investment-on-solar-project-smes-spend-over-n36m-yearly-on-generators-part-1/

Politics / In Nigeria, Judicial Capture Gathers Pace by Shehuyinka: 11:52am On Jan 03, 2022
“If there is not a special place in hell for politically corrupt judges, there should at least be a Magnitsky list.” Geoffrey Robertson, QC, Bad People and How to be Rid of Them: A Plan for Human Rights, p. 228 (2021).

2021 ended on a frantic note in Nigeria. Despite heated developments politics, troubling trends in the economy and a deepening security outlook, the significant incidents with long term effects took place in the judiciary, where a raft of developments in the last quarter of the year appeared designed to lock in strategic leverage for various entrenched interests in Nigeria’s ruling classes.

Across the country, politicians and judges appear to have reached accommodation on the terms for dividing up the country and allocating it among themselves.

In the last quarter, senior judges and politicians were handing out judicial office to their spouses and children as end-of-year hampers.

One Senator had his young daughter sworn in as a judge. A former governor had one of his children sworn in as High Court judge in Abuja. Back in his home state, another of his children was sworn in as judge by a governor whose wife is also a judge, joining the mother, herself also a judge among the judicial figures who make the appointments. Not to be outdone, a serving governor swore in one of his serving wives as High Court judge. A presiding judge in one court had his wife sworn in as a judge in another. He was one of many judicial figures to benefit from what has become an allocation of judicial preferments among themselves.

As their families celebrated, their supporters took to the airwaves and the digital media to normalise these abnormalities, telling us that in Nigeria judicial skill and temperament naturally resides mostly in the bedrooms of politicians.

Nigeria’s judiciary appears deep in the throes of being reshaped as an estate defined by filial and genital relations to facilitate transactions for political power. This is called judicial capture.

As Judges now have the casting vote in Nigeria’s elections, ambitious politicians have decided they must own the judges.

Judicial Capture occurs through both decisions and omissions by and beyond the judiciary.

In the week following my article on “[T]he Court that Killed Accountability”, I have been deluged with hundreds of complaints, testimonies and mails which clearly indicate that the people have taken notice but have lost hope in the capacity of Nigeria’s judiciary to salvage itself. In the shadows of this despondency, the project of judicial capture has gathered pace.

If the quantity of the feedback was surprising, their variety in provenance was astonishing.

Among the respondents were judges (serving and retired), senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs), law teachers, court administrators and users, ordinary citizens. If these provide any evidence, Nigeria’s judiciary is in a profoundly dispiriting death spiral and the consequences for the country are incalculable.

Just as the proverbial fish rots from the head, the place where the most serious manifestations of the problem with Nigeria’s judiciary begins is the Supreme Court. It is the most powerful court in the land. It is also presided over by the most powerful judicial figure in the country, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). The CJN is not one job. It is a totem to judicial capture. S/he heads the judiciary; the Supreme Court; the National Judicial Council (NJC); the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC); the Board of the National Judicial Institute (NJI); and even the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), apart from being a life member of the National Council of State. Each of these is a statutory role and each is a different job.

The accretion of power and influence in the person occupying the office at any point in time is quite simply dangerous but this arrangement seems to serve well both the judges and the politicians who are best placed to change it.

When it did not serve the interests of the politicians well the last time, they contrived extra-constitutional means to terminate the penultimate occupant of the position and enlisted beneficiaries in the judiciary as allies.

The Supreme Court is now the judicial Purgatory of the Nigerian legal process.

Many of my respondents in the last week from the practicing Bar complained about interminable delays in getting their cases assigned for hearing.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/in-nigeria-judicial-capture-gathers-pace/

Business / Foreign Investments Into Nigeria Fall By N11.48bn In Six Months by Shehuyinka: 10:16am On Jan 03, 2022
NIGERIA’s foreign investment inflows dropped by N11.48 billion between January to June 2021.
This is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ‘Financial markets department 2021 half-year activity report.’

The report revealed that foreign inflows amounted to N105.24 billion, while the outflow was N116.72 billion at the end of June 2021, reflecting a net outflow of N11.48 billion.

It read, “Foreign investment inflow amounted to N105.24 billion, while outflow was N116.72 billion at end-June 2021, reflecting a net outflow of N11.48 billion.

“In the first half of 2020, foreign investment inflow was N129.95 billion, while outflow was 14266.68 billion, reflecting a net outflow of N136.73 billion.”

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/foreign-investments-into-nigeria-fall-by-n11-48bn-in-six-months/

Health / Sex traffickers target teenage girls in Nigeria’s IDP Camp by Shehuyinka: 10:03am On Jan 03, 2022
ON a breezy evening, January 6 2021, five young girls and one boy walked briskly behind Madame Joy as she led the way to a motor park to catch a night bus due to depart from Makurdi, the capital of the northern state of Benue, in Nigeria, for Kaima in Kwara state, in the western part of the country. Anyone observing the group could assume that they were off to school as each child clutched a backpack containing clothes and a few essentials.

Barely 72 hours earlier, Madame Joy hardly knew any of them by their names. She visited several camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Benue, selling the colorful tale of offering job opportunities to “pretty” girls in her grocery stores in Kwara state to assist their families financially. She found these six persons at an IDP camp3 in Daudu.

Her real name is Nguamo Joy. By day, she poses as the owner of a beer parlor in Kaima, which serves as the base of her sex trafficking business. Daudu camp officials were recruited by Madame Joy to convince the children’s families that they would be safe and would be able to start sending money home in a matter of months.

According to a 2017 report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), human trafficking earns roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers—a lucrative venture for people like Madame Joy. Women and girls in IDP camps are especially vulnerable, lured by the shiny assurances of lucrative employment as domestic workers, waitresses, or maids in hotels.

Five of the girls were being trafficked to work as prostitutes while the boy was supposed to serve as a barman in their new destination.

Cruel realities

On the day Aondohember Mneater, 20, left with Madame Joy, she recalls hauling her backpack onto the back of the bus with vigor and excitement, grateful to her new guardian for taking her out of the squalors in the camp.

Mneater was in secondary school when herdsmen invaded her village in 2018 in an attack that reportedly killed more than 83 people. She narrowly escaped death then and relocated to Daudu camp alongside the family members, who also survived.

“I was so happy that my goodbye to my mother was a brief one,” Mneater told me. She speaks barely-passable English and switches to her native Tiv to communicate effectively. “At the time, I felt I was signing up for a good life. I practically jumped out with my bag.”

But when she arrived in Kaima, there was no cashier job waiting for her. Instead, she was forced into a tiny room in what seemed like a hostel at the back of her benefactress’ beer parlour where other ladies also lived.

Mneater said madam Joy assigned them rooms and offered the new arrivals packs of spaghetti and cornflour meal to prepare and eat before she left to run errands at 3 pm that afternoon.

“A few hours later, when she came back, she called the girls together and handed us nylon sacks with g-string panties, bras, packs of condoms, and skimpy wears,” said Mneater. “She said to put it on and get ready for business.”

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/sex-traffickers-target-teenage-girls-in-nigerias-idp-camp/

Crime / Maiduguri: Troubled City In Darkness (PART ONE) by Shehuyinka: 4:17pm On Jan 01, 2022
For 11 months in 2021, Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria has been without electricity due to attacks on transmission lines by terrorist groups that have been waging war against the state for more than a decade. The attacks have impacted the government and businesses in a way that is more devastating to the residents than the havoc of the twelve-year insurgency. This report captures the deep-seated frustration of the war-weary Borno people, business owners, humanitarian organisations and government workers who used to depend on public electricity for daily operations. It is a riveting account of how hospitals, schools, courts and other public institutions struggle to deliver public service in the midst of endless human misery without electricity supply. Ajibola AMZAT reports.

Additional report by Zainab Yetunde ADAM (Maiduguri, Borno State)

‘Dead’ vaccines for patients

Hauwa Ahmad Dikwa, the deputy facility manager at Gamboru Primary Healthcare Centre in Maiduguri, Borno State, is a soft-spoken woman.

Yet the echo of her gentle voice was loud enough during an interview held in a small dingy room she uses as an office. The office is quiet and dark and has been without electricity for more than 11 months, except for an hour or two, a day.

In her 20 years of working as a midwife and nurse, Dikwa said she has never been so frustrated and helpless in a workplace. That is the situation the electricity outage in Borno has foisted on her since January 2021.

Though the federal and the state governments have invested billions of naira on electricity infrastructure in the North-East within the last six years, members of Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) have targeted especially those ones in Borno State and destroyed them.

On January 26, the terrorist group attacked a 330KVA power transmission line along Maiduguri-Damaturu road, plunging several communities in 22 local government areas among the 27 local councils in Borno State into darkness.

Though Yola Electricity Distribution Company YEDC responded quickly and restored electricity in certain parts of the state, the fix was short-lived.

On Saturday, March 27, the terrorists planted Improvised Explosive Devices and destroyed the two newly erected towers. Six months later, they blew up other transmission lines.

The attacks have paralysed operations in hospitals, schools, markets, government offices and business centres, making the lives of residents more difficult even beyond the imagination of the terrorists, who since 2009 have waged what many people have described as ‘unjust war’ against the state known as Home of Peace.

When The ICIR visited on December 7, Gamboru Primary Healthcare Centre already had used up its one hour of electricity supply per day and would have to operate without power till the next day when the weak batteries of its two solar panels would have been re-charged.

Till then, Dikwa said there would be no electricity to handle even basic procedures in the clinic, let alone undertake child delivery. And there are many child deliveries in that part of the town because of the displaced people who have sought refuge in Gamboru after the Nigerians soldiers had driven insurgents outside Maiduguri, the capital city in 2012.

The health facility manager, Hajiya Zainab Bulama, estimated the average monthly deliveries at the clinic to be 30. The clinic record showed that 358 women have delivered at the healthcare centre between January and December 2021. And most of the deliveries occurred in a poorly-lit labour room, with needless strains on midwives and women in labour.

During emergencies, nurses at Gamboru Healthcare Centre use torchlights and lanterns to find their way around the dark labour room. Many times, the nurses have to rummage through the drug shelves in the dark to fetch prescribed medicine for patients. And some of the drugs are already expired due to poor storage caused by a lack of electricity.

Sensitive drugs administered on women in labour, such as Oxytocin and Zytocin injections, are supposed to be kept between two to eight-degree temperatures, but that is practically impossible at Gamboru PHC. The drugs are stored in a refrigerator rather too stuffy due to the implacable hot weather of Maiduguri which was at 35 degrees Celsius in December. In April, the weather is more fierce, rising up to 45 degrees Celsius.

At corners of the room where Dikwa was seated lie disused scanning and suction machines, a film of dust has settled on them. She said the hospital has stopped using the equipment since the solar energy can no longer power them because the batteries are weak. Nurses, therefore, have instead resorted to using a manual suction machine which, according to her, may discomfort mother and child, or cause infection for both during delivery.

“But a manual suction machine is better than nothing,” she said with a sad smile.

Years back, a charity group donated generator to complement the solar power at the healthcare centre, but nobody bothers to switch it on because there is no imprest to buy fuel to operate the gen.

“Most times we are on our own,” Dikwa said.

Bulama and Dikwa are the only two qualified midwives at Gamboru health centre; the rest of the staff are unskilled community health workers and lab attendants. Though the government pays their salaries as at when due, but there is much less the staff could do without electricity, Bulama said.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/maiduguri-troubled-city-in-darkness-part-one/

Politics / FG's Neglect Deprives Children Of Education In FCT Disability Colonies by Shehuyinka: 9:41am On Dec 27, 2021
TUCKED behind the National Military Cemetery along Airport Road is Karon Majigi, a suburb in Nigeria’s capital city, where many low-income people in Abuja are residents.

In Karon Majigi, a colony for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) was established by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nasir El-Rufai to rid Abuja of beggars on the streets.

According to the Emir of the PWDs Suleiman Mohammed Katsina, about 520 PWDs live in the colonies with their families.

Most of the houses are built with zinc roofing sheets and wood. The streets are marked by rivulets of dirty water and accumulated debris.

The PWDs living in this colony face several difficulties, because they lack the financial capacity to cater to their daily needs.

They rely on charities from well-meaning individuals or organisations and the gift of able-bodied members of their families for survival.

Children bear the brunt

Children make up a large number of able-bodied occupants of the colony, and the basic amenities are luxury.

Many are out of school, since most families cannot afford tuition fees. In most cases, the children hawk food items around the community to augment the family income.

Seven-year-old Khadija Umar lives in the colony with her father, a PWD. She dropped out of school due to accumulated fees that her parents could not pay.

“They said I should stop coming to school because there is no money to pay my school fees,” she said.

She now sells ‘wara,’ a local chese consumed in northern Nigeria.

Mariya is a trader who lives in the colony with her husband, a PWD, and three children.

She told The ICIR that she could not afford to enrol any of her children in school, as feeding was already a daily struggle.

“We cannot even afford to eat or take care of ourselves. How can we afford an education if we cannot take care of feeding?” she asked.

The difficult conditions under which the PWDs live have pushed many of them into begging. Since they cannot afford education for their children, some families use them as guides when they go into the city to beg.

A seven-year-old who identified himself as Kabir was spotted leading an old blind man while begging for alms at Life Camp.

Kabir told The ICIR that he has never been in school but spends his days begging with his blind grandfather.

“I have never been to school. I come here with baba every morning to beg, and we go back to Karon Magiji in the evening,” he said.

Some children, especially the PWDs in the colony, are sent to beg for alms by their parents rather than go to school.

Hadiza Ismail is a sixteen-year-old PWD and the third of four children who live with their parents at the colony.
https://www.icirnigeria.org/government-neglect-deprives-children-of-education-in-fct-disability-colonies/

Business / Under Buhari, Nigeria’s Giant Industries Are Silently Disappearing (1) by Shehuyinka: 2:39pm On Dec 21, 2021
ONCE upon a time, a manufacturing company stood in the heart of Nnewi, the industrial hub of the south-eastern state of Anambra, Nigeria.

The company, known as Louis Carter Industries, produced plastic gallons, basins and other plastic products.

Customers visited Nnewi from different parts of Nigeria to buy these products. A lucrative company with tens of thousands customers, it had over 40 members of staff in different production lines.

In 2016, however, one year after President Muhammadu Buhari came to power, the compan, established in 1989, began to wobble. There was suddenly a foreign exchange (FX) crunch due to declining oil prices, and many manufacturers could not have access to dollars with which to import their raw materials.

In 2016, manufacturers imported 48 per cent of their raw materials using mostly dollars, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

Financial analysts had expected the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to float the FX market to boost dollar supplies, but the bank adopted exchange control measures by restricting access to domiciliary accounts and barring 41 items from having access to the official FX market.

Incidentally, one of the items excluded from the official FX market was polypropylene, which is commonly used for plastic mouldings.

By excluding the items from the official FX market, manufacturers could only import them using foreign exchange sourced from black or parallel markets.

In 2016 when the FX crunch began, one dollar exchanged for N197-N199 at the official market, but the black market rate was up to N20 to N40 higher. By sourcing the FX at the black market, several firms saw their production costs surge, according to the then President of MAN Frank Jacobs.

The exchange control happened with the support of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Even for items not restricted, it was difficult for manufacturers to get FX to import them.

Louis Carter struggled silently to access foreign exchange to import polyethene, ethylene, vinyl and chloride – other major raw materials for the production of plastics.

But that was not the only challenge. Energy cost was rising because the company was using alternative electricity sources due to the insufficient electricity supply to Nnewi by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).

In 2016, manufacturers spent N129.95 billion on alternative energy sources as against N58.82 billion in 2015, MAN said.

Due to a ballooning production cost, Louis Carter could no longer survive and was forced to shut down in 2017, with the staff rejoining an already crowded labour market.

“We had a major challenge with energy costs,” General Manager of Louis Carter Industries Ndubuisi Okoli told The ICIR with some air of bitterness.

“The EEDC was not giving us power. Also, we had issues with getting raw materials for production,” said Okoli.

A report in the Journal of Health and Pollution said about 14.2 million tons (nearly 510,000 20-foot containers) of plastics in primary form were imported into Nigeria between 1996 and 2014.

The ICIR’s investigation shows that many manufacturing companies are dying silently, and they blame their demise on President Buhari’s administration policies.

It took the reporter more than one month to find some of these companies and interview their former officials or those close to them, where possible.

Because the closures of the manufacturing companies are not always reported, government officials do not take notice or pretend not to.

Moak Enterprises was once one of the biggest bottled/sachet water companies in Sango-Ota, an industrial zone in Ogun State, South-West Nigeria. A producer of ‘Meridian Waters,’ the products were consumed by the young and the old. An ultramodern company, Moak produced several trucks of sachet water each month and supplied to wholesalers and retailers in Ogun State and beyond.

According to The ICIR‘s findings, the company broke even in 2014 -one year after its establishment. But seven years after, it was under lock and key.

“I struggled till July this year (2021) before I shut down the company,” Chief Executive Officer Olatunde Akintunde told The ICIR.

“The reason is that we could not buy raw materials again due to naira devaluation. We used to buy pre-forms ( used in forming sliced fibre threads) at N400,000 three to four years ago, but the price has risen four-fold to N1.6 million,” he said.

“The production cost is very high, and customers are not buying as we transfer these costs to them.

“Since 2015, when the present government came in, our company has been struggling due to bad policies.”

The story of Procter and Gamble (P&G) is hard to forget. Unlike the other two, the shut-down of P&G was reported by the media, though many of the reports did not provide clarity as to why the firm closed its production segment.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/under-buhari-nigerias-giant-industries-are-silently-disappearing-1/

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Crime / Osun Police Release SSS Operative Who Allegedly Killed 21-year-old Temitope by Shehuyinka: 11:58am On Dec 21, 2021
Without investigation, Osun Police release SSS operative who allegedly killed 21-year-old Temitope

THE Osun State Police Command has released an operative of the State Security Service (SSS) identified as Bamidele, also known as Aji, who is alleged to have killed 21-year-old Temitope Johnson without conducting an investigation.

During an interview with The ICIR, Temitope’s father, Segun Johnson, said Bamidele shot his son on October 6, when operatives of the SSS stormed a house in Owode-Ede.

“When they came to the house, Temitope was sleeping inside the room, they started shooting sporadically and one of them shot my son,” he said.

KEEP READING:

SSS illegally detains victim for 14 months without trial, allegedly defies AGF’s order

Gbajabiamila names officer accused of killing newspaper vendor, hands him over to DSS

SPECIAL REPORT: How Buhari’s govt detained Nigerian journalist for two years without trial


He said Temitope’s body was taken into the DSS vehicle, and his family had not seen him since then.

Johnson said he filed a complaint at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Osun State and Bamidele was arrested.

He told The ICIR that on November 26, Bamidele was arrested by the CID and he was invited to Osun State Police headquarters in Osogbo to identify him.

“They called me at the CID that they had arrested Bamidele, I left Ife and went to the Police headquarters in Osogbo to see if they had truly arrested him, I met him there and took his picture,” he said.

Johnson was told that investigation had commenced and the body of his son would soon be found.

But to his surprise, Temitope was released by the Police authorities the same day without proper investigation, and without informing Temitope’s family.

Johnson said he went back to the Police headquarters to find out why Bamidele was released without investigation, but he was told it was an order from above.

“The people I met at the CID told me it was their boss that asked them to release Bamidele and there was nothing they could do,” Johnson said.

When The ICIR contacted the Osun State Police Commissioner Wale Olokode, he said he had invited the officer in charge of the case to report to his office to explain why he released the SSS operative.

“I heard about the case and I have invited the officer in charge to come and explain why he released the accused, I would give you an update on the case,” Olokode said.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/without-investigation-osun-police-release-sss-operative-who-allegedly-killed-21-year-old-temitope/

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