On Malaria and Nigeria’s Mafia, Mele and another Melee
The week has witnessed reports of Nigerians helplessly preyed on by menacing mosquitoes and played by Nigeria’s elections mafia, who operate openly but meet clandestinely from Abuja to Portharcourt, from Paris to London, and from Abeokuta to Minna.
They are also puzzled by the NNPC Limited Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari’s exposition on the extractive sector - his expostulation of every criminal gang and oil sector saboteur, including faith-based organisations like churches and mosques, except his own widely suspected NNPC holy oil parish, where he presides as Nigeria’s crude chief priest.
However, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd.), thinks the reverse is the case. Speaking before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, he argued that Mr Mele Kyari and his NNPC league of priests are the chief saboteurs and greatest looters of the public treasury through their phoney petrol subsidy deductions.
Top of these, Nigerian university students are perplexed by the commotion between ASUU and the federal government, the leadership of some state Universities, the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), and even the Congress of Nigeria University Academics (CONUA), an intending competitive body with ASUU.
The 2022 Environment: Mosquitoes winning, Man losing
The Mosquito is celebrated on August 20th worldwide but mainly for the wrong reasons. No one celebrates the mosquito for all the bedtime lullaby it sings in their ears or appreciates its blood-curdling cuddle of those without a teddy bear to clutch at.
In short, people celebrate the mosquito every August because they hate it.
They observe World Mosquito Day as a memorial to all human beings, old and young, that have perished by the bite of this world’s most ferocious predator. They mark the day to measure how far they have gone in their resolve to wipe out the mosquito race from the face of the earth.
In short, humans mark Mosquito Day in the hope that one day they would all be delivered from its physical oppressions and the huge cost of prosecuting centuries-old wars with its malefic race.
Thinking on these hopes, Azeez Olaniyan, a professor of environmental politics, said “Part of research is also to know how to eliminate anopheles mosquito by neutralising its potency to transfer the disease to human beings.
Although the continent is the most impacted by mosquito-induced maladies, Professor Olaniyan regretted that “Most of the research that is being done to treat and control mosquitoes are not carried out in Africa. African governments have not really invested, they have not shown enough concern”.
According to the WHO:
In 2020, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide.
The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 627,000 in 2020.
The WHO African Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden.
In 2020, the region was home to 95% of malaria cases and 96% of malaria deaths. Children under 5 accounted for about 80% of all malaria deaths in the Region.
Twenty-nine countries accounted for 96% of malaria cases globally, and six countries – Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%), Angola (3.4%) and Burkina Faso (3.4%) – accounted for about 55% of all cases globally.
About 96% of malaria deaths globally were in 29 countries. Six countries – Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%), Angola (3%) and Burkina Faso (3%) – accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths globally in 2020.
However, Ebuta Agbo, the Vice President of Medical Initiative for Africa, links this high prevalence of malaria in Africa to inadequate funding for healthcare services. On the prevailing malaria scourge in Africa, he said:
“This is not surprising when you look at the contribution to health spending per capita in Africa the percentage of health spending is between $8 to $29 per capita as opposed to other developed countries where we have as much $4000 per capita, this goes to show that it is a challenge.
While Nigeria records the highest number of malaria infections and deaths in the world, most of the funds to combat the disease are borne by foreign donors (42.4%) and individuals who pay out of their pockets (37.8%). The government commits the least proportion of money, 19.2% of Nigeria’s spending, to combat Malaria.
To eliminate the malaria scourge in Nigeria by 2030, President Muhammadu Buhari, on August 16, inaugurated the Nigeria End Malaria Council (NEMC), a 16-member committee chaired by Aliko Dangote the president of Dangote Group.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable though.
The 2023 Election: The Mafia meeting, The Masses watching
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, during a visit to former military Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar in Minna, said he has no preferred candidate among those contesting in the 2023 presidential election but rather a national agenda.
This came a few days after the former President met with Labour Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi and other top politicians in London.
Recall that President Obasanjo, on Thursday, had a meeting with Rivers State Governor Nyesome Wike and Peter Obi in London, in a move suspected of increasing the chance of Mr Obi becoming Nigeria’s next president.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, Governor Okeazu Ipeazu of Abia State and former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke were all at the London meeting with Obasanjo.
Obasanjo's support for Peter Obi was hinged on the need for the South-East to produce Nigeria's next president. But associates of Nyesome Wike preferred APC Presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu over Peter Obi.
The PUNCH, citing sources in Wike’s camp, explained that Tinubu has a political structure and wider national base than Obi, and that Obi's candidacy may only rub off on some PDP strongholds.
Meanwhile, PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar also met with Wike in London hours after Obasanjo led Peter Obi to meet with Wike and others.
Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had once set up a panel to reconcile the fissure between Wike and Atiku but the meeting in Port Harcourt ended in deadlock as Wike's requests were not met.
Wike had requested the removal of the Party's national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu and that the PDP presidential candidate should serve one term if elected. But Atiku has on Thursday, in London, agreed to meet all Wike's demands. He will sign an undertaking on all agreements. Once he can meet them, the Wike group will work with him.
In the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike's camp has proposed that Taofeek Arapaja be appointed acting national chairman of the party.
APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had also met with Governor Wike in London on Monday. Ibrahim Masari, Tinubu's running mate confirmed the meeting and promised they would continue to meet at other times.
On his own part, President Muhammadu Buhari has sworn that his government will not interfere in the 2023 elections. He made this known during a visit by APC governors in Abuja on Tuesday and details of the meeting were contained in a statement released by the president's spokesperson, Femi Adesina.
According to the president’s spokesperson, President Buhari told the governors that non-interference in elections gives credence to the political process, ensures participation and inclusiveness, and shows that governing party respects the electorates.
Mr Buhari said he was impressed with the transparency achieved in the recent gubernatorial elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun, where he affirms he did not interfere. Although the President’s party, APC lost in Anambra and Osun but won Ekiti.
The Extractives Sector Melee: Mele vs Ali vs Faith vs Facts
The Nigerian Government, through Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, said it has high hopes the Dangote Refinery will solve its petroleum importation challenge. So, the government has decided to lock a right-of-first-refusal agreement with Dangote Refinery, with Nigeria owning 20% of the firm.
However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) through its Group Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, during the 49th session of the weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja, lamented that some mosques, churches, others are now storage centres for stolen crude.
The Nigerian government on Tuesday described its award of the multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract to a former Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, as the right choice.
Mele Kyari, the Chief Executive Office of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, during 49th session of the state house briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, said the decision was necessitated by the need for Nigeria to hire private contractors to protect its oil pipeline network nationwide due to massive oil theft.
Mr. Kyari argues that it was not the first time individuals within the Niger Delta region have been awarded contracts for pipeline surveillance.
According to a report by THE NATION, the surveillance contract is reportedly worth N48 billion annually (N4 billion monthly).
Several militant groups in the region are not pleased with the federal government for leaving them out of such a juicy contract, promising to make the surveillance contract unworkable.
Meanwhile, The Vanguard reported that the Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali, retd, has queried why the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, would allow the release of 98 million litres of petrol per day for local consumption instead of 60 million litres admitted by its own computation.
He raised this concern during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on considering the Meduim Term Expenditure Framework MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper FSP from 2023 to 2025.
"I remember that last year, we spoke about this but unfortunately, this year, we are talking about subsidy again. The over N11 trillion we are going to take as debt, more than half of it is going for subsidy.
"The issue is not about smuggling of petroleum products. I have always argued this with NNPC. If we are consuming 60 million litres per day by their own computation, why would you allow the release of 98 million litres per day?
"If you know this is our consumption, why would you allow that release? Scientifically, you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow, I will fill the same tank with the same quantity of fuel. If I am operating a fuel station and I go to Minna depot, lift petrol and take it to Kaduna, I may get to Kaduna in the evening and offload that fuel.
"There is no way I would have sold off that petrol immediately to warrant another load. So, how did you get to 60 million litres per day? That is my problem. The issue of smuggling, if you release 98 million litre in actual, and 60 million litres is used, the balance should be 38 million litres.
"How many trucks will carry 38 million litres every day? Which road are they following and where are they carrying this thing to?”, he querried.
In its response, The NNPC maintained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Garba-Deen Muhammad, the oil firm stated that between January and August 2022, “the total volume of PMS imported into the country was 16.46 billion litres, which translates to an average supply of 68 million litres per day”, The Punch reported.
It added, “Similarly, import in the year 2021 was 22.35 billion litres, which translated to an average supply of 61 million litres per day.”
The company said the average daily evacuation (depot truck out) from January to August 2022 stood at 67 million litres per day as reported by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
It said daily evacuation (depot loadouts) records of the NMDPRA do carry daily oscillation ranging from as low as four million litres to as high as 100 million litres per day.
The Education Sector Melee: ASUU vs FG vs NAPTAN vs CONUA
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its lingering strike. The decision was reached after the National Executive Council meeting at ASUU’s headquarters in the University of Abuja on Monday morning.
ASUU had blamed the government for failing to meet its demands which led to the suspension of its strike in 2020. The government was faulted for not releasing revitalization funds for universities, not releasing the white paper report of the visitation panel to universities and its failure to deploy the University Transparency Accountability System to pay salaries and allowances of lecturers.
Their demands also covered renegotiating the ASUU-FG 2009 agreement and ending the proliferation of universities by the state government and lawmakers.
A member of NEC who pleaded anonymity disclosed that the strike has been extended and communication has been decentralized. Mandates have been received to engage more with the media and the public to educate them in the struggles.
As a result of the prolonged strike witnessed across the country, some institutions have decided to disobey ASUU by resuming academic activities.
The Management of the Ekiti State University at Ado Ekiti has decided to reopen the institution for academic activities, defying the ongoing strike prescribed by ASUU. Students of Ekiti State University were directed to resume academic activities on Monday, 29th August 2022. However, the ASUU chapter of EKSU said the management is on its own.
The EKSU chapter of ASUU had joined the six-month-old strike following the demand by the union for adequate funding of the universities and the implementation of other reforms contained in an earlier agreement with the federal government.
The National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has, however, proposed the payment of a minimum of N10,000 per parent in every academic section to end the strike but ASUU outrightly rejected the proposal, urging them to put pressure on the federal government to fulfil the terms in the agreement.
The NAPTAN’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Ademola Ekundayo, in a recent interview, decried the unending closure of universities in Nigeria, lamenting that parents are the ones suffering from the disagreements between ASUU and the federal government.
Responding to the proposal, ASUU, through its national president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, rejected the offer during an interview on Arise Television on August 24, 2022, urging NAPTAN to rather mount pressure on the federal government.
The Federal Government of Nigeria scheduled a compulsory interactive meeting with Pro-Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors and Chairmen of the Council of Federal Universities on September 5, 2022.
On the other hand, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has asked the federal government to wrap up its registration.
CONUA was formed as a parallel academic staff union at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in February 2018, following a leadership crisis that rocked ASUU at the time, and since then has been seeking formal recognition.
Lamenting the cost of ASUU’s strikes, CONUA’s first chairman, Niyi Sunmonu, said, “Between 1999 and 2021, Nigerian public universities had experienced strikes for 1,417 days which translated to over 5 years! The ongoing strike is in its sixth month now! This has caused damage in no small measure to teaching and research”.
“We cannot be doing the same thing the same way for many years and expect different results. As a union, we are committed to the entrenchment of quality ideas that will stand the test of time in Nigerian universities,” he said.
He promised that, “It will be the dawn of a new era when CONUA is handed the legal recognition by the Federal Government. It will provide alternative perspectives for the achievement of constructive engagement with stakeholders, thereby making hitch-free academic calendars possible.”