Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Sunday 1st December 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 01/12/19
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Bigamy: ASD Daughter’s Marriage, Mulan and Abubakar Musa Abubakar By Dr Muhammad Bashir Maru
‘Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” – Benjamin Franklin
From the very origins and cradle of humanity, injustice has always reared its ugly head to crush and oppress those perceived to be of less social standing and thus the fight for justice has raged on through the ages. Little wonder the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin remain as empirically practicable today as it was decades ago when he muttered them and even before the words found life from his oscillating tongue centuries back. These pricking words are the prods that guide us today as we cry out for impartial justice for Abubakar Musa Abubakar who is being persecuted consistently by Alhaji Sani Dauda (ASD), former Chairman of Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited.
In the Nigeria of yesteryears opulent individual like ASD lorded over others like a czar of a medieval fiefdom; having their wishes, whims and caprices foisted on the generality of the people. This was indeed a dark and gloomy period when he and his ilk had their words as laws and any attempt to challenge or oppose their ambition would be seen as a sacrilege with a resultant mobilization of their foot soldiers to bully, coarse, harass, intimidate and humiliate those who dared to oppose them. In these repugnant dark days, it was believed that some rogue law enforcement agents, compromised media influencers and corrupt judges were whispered to be on his payroll and always willing to do his bidding. It can thus be inferred that was the very reason his types got away with so much impunity.
Though the businessman still wallows in the euphoria of the past, but what he has failed to realize is that the ground has shifted beneath him, and that in the New Nigeria of today no one is above the law.
In the lines of the ancient adage; ”A leopard never changes its spots” and so true for ASD’s apparent impunity which has remerged in this recent episode hence the resort to contempt of Court and judicial abuse all in a bid to placate his daughter Nasiba Sani Dauda, shield his Son Shehu Sani Dauda, a sharia court Judge Alkali Murtala Nasir Al-Misiry and one Abdullahi Kaloma. Together, they jointly committed criminal conspiracy, abetment of an offence, criminal assault, wrongful confinement and restraint, false imprisonment, voluntary causing of harm, enticement of a married woman, bigamy, re-marriage with concealment of former marriage in defiance of an existing judgment of the Kawo Upper Sharia Court, Kaduna in a case between Abubakar Musa Abubakar Vs. Nasiba Sani Dauda contrary to sections 45, 46, 58, 217, 229, 230, 239, 365, 366 and 369 respectively of the panel code law of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
As one would expect that his recent entanglement with Abubakar Musa Abubakar a supposed son-in-law is nothing new and certainly he is not likely going to be the last person to undergo such a harrowing experience from irresponsible prying except the businessman is stopped in his tracks by the grilling mechanism of justice.
Now, the same scenario is being re-enacted with Abubakar Musa Abubakar, who married Nasiba Sani Dauda on the 24th December, 2016. It will be recalled that the marriage started on the foundation of love, peace and harmony until few months into the marriage when the father of Nasiba – Alhaji Sani Dauda – began undue interference in the family affairs of the couple on a daily basis and subsequently instructed his daughter against her will to abscond from the marriage for reasons not yet clear to discerning minds. All entreaties to ASD to return Nasiba to her matrimonial home fell on deaf ears, but he instead forced Nasiba to institute a case of Khul’ (request for divorce) before Grade 1 Sharia Court, Tudun Wada, Kaduna where a controversial judgment was obtained and a dissolution of the marriage was pronounced without recourse to principles of nemo iudex in causa sua and audi alteram partem to the concerned parties.
However, Abubakar Musa Abubakar not satisfied with the judgment of the lower court obtained a stay of execution order from the Upper Sharia Court, Kawo, Kaduna which was served on the respondent and subsequently appealed the travesty of justice of the lower court at the Upper Sharia Court which gave judgment in favour Abubakar Musa Abubakar by quashing and setting aside the judgment of the lower court for lacks of jurisdiction. Both the stay of execution order notice and the substantive judgment of the Upper Sharia Court were properly served on the respondent (Nasiba). It is the only prevailing judgment that exists till this day.
The arrest and detention of Alhaji Sani Dauda and others for abetment of an offence, remarriage with marriage concealment, criminal assault among other charges goes further to show that President Muhammadu Buhari’s next level agenda will not tolerate lawlessness from any quarters and that justice is truly blind but fair and balanced to all manner of people. The action of ASD is capable of triggering series of unpleasant events such breach to peace, chaos, turmoil etc. Above all it is an affront to the judiciary, rule of law and attempt to denigrate sharia law. How can anyone who called himself Muslim marry off another man’s wife?
In condemning the injustice and high handedness being propelled by ASD, let this turn of justice signal a warning knell to all that; gone are the days when individuals because of their economic powers can do as they wish by pocketing law enforcement officers and conniving with rogues members of the judiciary to do as they please. His arrest and detention has sent an unmistakable warning to unrepentant law breakers that there is now a new Sherriff in town and that their excesses will no longer be tolerated. All eyes are now on the judiciary on whether they will look the other way while the temple of justice is being desecrated through repeated abuse of judicial processes and contempt of Court proceedings.
Since the outbreak of this imbroglio and its escalation in the public domain, ASD albeit clandestinely has been sponsoring groups and individuals as face-saving measures to sell false narratives through media propaganda that portray him and his darling daughter as the victims rather than the perpetrators of this heinous crime against God and humanity. One of such groups is Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State Chapter, an organisation that should be neutral in a matter that involves two contending parties both of who are Muslims or at best side with the truth but instead they came out disgracefully to pitch tent with the culprits (ASD and Others) who intentionally and knowingly desecrate Islamic Sharia laid down tenets of marriage by abetting bigamy. By this act, MULAN Kaduna State chapter has shown that their conscience is available for auction to the highest bidder, how low can an organization sink that prides itself as noble?
Abubakar Musa Abubakar should be applauded by all and sundry for towing the path of honour in seeking redress and restraining his relations, associates and thousands of followers from taking laws into their hand and for his abiding faith in our country’s judicial system. Abubakar has never been accused of any wrong doing and he is well known as an honest, hardworking and unassuming gentleman who cannot even hurt a fly. In the face of provocation, intimidation, emotional hurt, blackmail, unwarranted media attack, defamation, criminal assault to relatives and threat to life among others, Abubakar Musa Abubakar has remained unmoved and consistently determined to get justice via the constitutionally guaranteed means.
Let’s hope that at the end of it all, justice will be served impartially, because anything other than that will be equal to encouraging self-help, stamping of lawlessness and an unequivocal invitation to disorderliness. A society that gives justice to only selected few is a fertile ground for anarchy. Let those who have ears take a heed.
We must not forget the reverberating cry of Ernesto Che Guevera to wit ”If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine” it is this that spur true patriots on an eternal vigil as the vanguards for justice and equity for all.
Dr Maru wites from Abuja, can be reached at dr.bash007@yahoo.com
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Nigerian Publications Give More Attention To APC, PDP, Relegate Others To Background
APC vs PDP cartoon
APC vs PDP cartoon
A new report by the International Press Centre has shown that most media publication focuses reportage on the ruling All Progressives Congress and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party.
The IPC noted that the report, which represents a part of the post-election coverage and reportage of the electoral process and democratic governance issues, has established that media reporting continues to be skewed in favour of the two leading political parties.
The report covers the outcome of the monitoring of 12 print and online newspapers in the said period.
The monitored newspapers include PUNCH, Guardian, Daily Sun, Vanguard, ThisDay, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, Leadership, Daily Trust, Blue Print (online version), TheCable (published online only) and the Premium Times (published online only).
Also monitored was the twitter handle and website of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
According to the IPC, the two major political parties were reported a combined 92.32 per cent of the total media coverage given all the political parties.
“While APC got 781 media mentions amounting to 48.39 per cent, PDP got 709 mentions which accounts for 43.93 per cent.
“Out of all the other 89 parties, only 27 parties, representing eight per cent, had media coverage and this showed a consistent pattern as had been witnessed in previous media monitoring that focus on the pre-elections and the election period.
“The two other political parties that came third and fourth in the scale of media coverage are much far behind in terms of the scope of media coverage they got.
“While the Social Democratic Party got 32 mentions or two per cent, the All Progressives Grand Alliance got 30 mentions at 1.86 per cent,” the report shows.
Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade, urged media owners and reporters to be sensitive in their reportage, abide by the ethics of the profession and also be inclusive in their report.
He said, “In dealing with these issues, it is our contention that the media must continue to be ethical and conflict sensitive in their reportage.
“Thus, the report serves as a reminder to the media on their role in preventing insecurity and violence during and after elections through fact-based, independent, transparent, accountable and impartial reporting.
“There is the need for INEC to conduct an administrative appraisal on its information dissemination strategies, both in the mainstream and on social media platforms.”
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530 Million Africans Risk Being Without Energy
IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol
IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol
City A.M
The International Energy Agency said in its 2019 African Energy Outlook that 530 million persons in Sub-Saharan Africa will be left without electricity if the continent’s leaders do not change their electricity strategy.
The agency said policy makers in the continent do not have a predetermined path towards providing power to all citizens.
IEA boss, Fatih Birol, said the continent had the opportunity to become the fastest growing energy producing hub as a result of the number of natural and renewable resources within its atmosphere.
He said the continent could achieve this with less carbon footprint than the developed world.
Birol said, “Africa has a unique opportunity to pursue a much less carbon-intensive development path than many other parts of the world.
“To achieve this, it has to take advantage of the huge potential that solar, wind, hydropower provide.”
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Maiduguri Prison Officials Bar Red Cross Team From Visiting Charles Okah
Charles Okah
Charles Okah
Officials of Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison (now Correctional Service) on Thursday turned back a foreign delegate sent from the International Committee of Red Cross to visit Charles Okah.
Okah, who is registered with the organisation as a political Prisoner and serving life sentence at the Maiduguri prison, had in March 2019 written a three-part article titled ‘Sodomy of Children in Maiduguri Prison and the ICRC Conspiracy of Silence’, which was exclusively reported by SaharaReporters.
The article, which exposed the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old mentally-challenged child detainee called Goni Ali Shettima and about 105 other children, didn’t go well with officials of the prison.
Before Okah’s incidence, the ICRC had a mandate to visit and follow up with political prisoners and detainees to ascertain their wellbeing and had been doing so unhindered.
The prison officials do not want Okah to further reveal their illegal activities.
“Fearing that Okah would reveal to the visiting Red Cross team the extortion of Boko Haram detainees by the Chief Warder, Adamu Potiskum, who rents to them the few government-provided beds on a rotational basis, the ICRC were then refused access to Okah which is against international best practices and a gross breach of his fundamental human rights.
“The ICRC may have made a formal complaint in Abuja against the Maiduguri Prison which led to a meeting at the office of the Controller, Borno State Command,” a source told SaharaReporters.
It was learnt that Okah had wanted to seek the intervention of the ICRC in prevailing on the Federal Government of Nigeria through its Attorney-General of the Federation to impress on the Court of Appeal, Abuja, to grant him a hearing date for his appeal application filled since 2018.
Okah’s deteriorating health and the refusal of the Court of Appeal, who had asked Okah’s lawyers for a bribe of N300,000 before a date can be arranged, is a source of grave concern to the ICRC.
A date for the suit with the appeal number CA/A/494c/2018 between Okah (appellant) and the Federal Republic of Nigeria (respondent) was initially given but was adjourned indefinitely under the excuse that the Court of Appeal was overwhelmed with election petition cases.
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Motorcycle Rider In Bayelsa Demands N150m Compensation From Army Over Assault
David Obebadol, a commercial motorcycle rider in Bayelsa State on Friday sent a protest letter to the authorities of the Nigerian Army over an assault on him by a military personnel identified as Lance Corporal John Efele attached to Shell Petroleum Development Company, Kolo Creek Flow Station. According to the letter written by counsel to the victim, Aluzu Augustine, the authorities of the Nigerian Army had been “dancing” over the plight of David Obebadol with the claim that the accused is suffering from mental instability. Augustine stated in the letter that the Nigerian Army had been given a one-month ultimatum to compensate the victim for his rights which was violated by Efele. In the letter, Obebadol is seeking a compensation of ?150m among other things.
The letter reads, “We are privy to the reply of the Nigerian Army herein referred to as “the Army” to our client through the National Human Rights Commission in Bayelsa State in a letter dated October 17, 2019 with reference number 16/BOE/EI/300/24 in which the Army acknowledged gross human rights violation of our client on June 13, 2019 by a soldier under its employ.
“The Army further states that the soldier had a history of mental instability. “It is clear from the said letter that the Army is dancing on the plight of our client in their bid to cover up the act of gross unprofessionalism by Lance Corporal John Efele under the blanket statement of “mental instability” with no specification as to the exact type of mental illness he is suffering from.
“It is based on the above that it is now pertinent to put certain facts in proper perspectives.”
Efele had violently assaulted the victim with a razor blade, cutting the scalp of his head and deliberately inflicting injuries on his head and other vital parts of his body. Before cutting the scalp of the victim’s head, Obebadol was ordered to sit on the floor by another Army officer at the SPDC Kolo Creek Flow station.
They were both alleged to have poured water all over the victim’s body and subjected him to severe flogging at the same time with a cable wire. The victim was admitted at FMC Yenagoa where he underwent medical treatment at his own expense. The Army, however, denied the involvement of the soldiers deployed to the SPDC facility at Kolo Creek Flow Station in the physical abuse.
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BREAKING: Bandits Kill Two Policemen, Kidnap Seven Persons In Adamawa
Suspected kidnappers have killed two policemen on patrol and kidnapped seven persons in Adamawa State.
Chairman of Mubi South Local Government Area, Ahmadu Dahiru, disclosed this on Saturday in Gyala, stressing that the area was under siege.
He called on the Nigerian Government to rise to the challenge of kidnapping and banditry around communities sharing common border with Cameroon.
Gyala town in Mubi South LGA, is five kilometres from Cameroon.
He said people of his area were living under constant threat from Kidnappers, stressing that kidnapping was almost a daily occurrence in Gyala.
He said, “Five people were kidnapped in Kwaja, while two others were picked in Sahuda all in the preceding week.
“Worst still, last Tuesday, two policemen were killed in Gyala.
“They (kidnappers) are hiding on top of these hills from where they launch attacks at will.
“We’re therefore pleading with the government to intervene and save our people from Kidnappers.”
The state police command through its spokesperson, DSP Suleiman Nguroje, confirmed the killing of the two policemen.
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E2%80%94husband I Told Diezani Not To Bring Money Home —Husband
Alison-Madueke and Diezani
Alison-Madueke and Diezani
A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, lost her ability to speak and subsequently fell into a coma due to the complications of the cancer she had, her husband has said.
According to a report by PUNCH, Diezani’s husband, Rear Admiral Alison Madueke (retd.), said this in his recently published book titled, ‘Riding the Storms with God on My Side’.
Madueke, who is a former Chief of Naval Staff, said towards the end of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2015, Diezani was diagnosed with cancer and had to be flown to London for treatment.
He said, “On Sunday, July 26, 2015, I stepped into my bedroom soon after our brunch to find that my phone was ringing. It was my mother-in-law, Mrs Beatrice Agama, who was staying with Diezani while she was undertaking treatment. She was sobbing and only managed to inform me that my wife was no longer talking.
“I was in London by 5.30am the following day, Monday, and went straight to see her. Diezani was in a coma. I called an ambulance that arrived 20 minutes later, the attendants bearing a stretcher. They had to get a wheelchair since the lift could not take the stretcher.
“In less than 10 minutes, we were at the emergency intensive care unit of the Harley Street Clinic. Her doctor, Prof Paul Ellis, a top oncologist, was out of town and had to be recalled.
“Three days later, when Diezani finally came out of the coma, she saw me by her bedside and asked what I was doing in London. She had reacted badly to her Friday chemotherapy treatment. Thank God she pulled through that nightmarish incident and is now fully recovered.”
The retired naval officer said unfortunately, while his wife was severely ill, her condition became an issue of politics.
Earlier in the book, Madueke said when Diezani accepted a ministerial appointment in 2007, he told her not to focus on money but maintain the good name of the family.
Madueke, who served as military governor of Imo and Anambra states in the 1980s, said he initially did not want his wife to take public office having only become the first female director of Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria and had a great career.
The former naval officer said, “When finally she was appointed Minister of Transportation, I took further time to advise her on the topic of self protection and self preservation in the bureaucracy.
“I finally recited the advice my father had given me upon my appointment as military governor. “Go do your best, don’t bring back money, but bring back my name.
“Later in that administration, she was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources, a position she held until the Peoples Democratic Party lost the 2015 Presidential election.”
On how his wife was appointed a minister, Madueke said shortly before the inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007, he was approached by the then Vice-President-elect, Goodluck Jonathan.
Madueke said Jonathan pleaded with him to allow Diezani to take up a job as minister as there were very few persons of Bayelsa origin who had her impressive resumé.
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Why The Blind Beg In Nigeria
Nigerians with visual disabilities on the street to mark the International White Cane and Safety Day 2019
Graphics of years Nigeria needs to rehabilitate its blind population at NFCB
Blessing showing off one of her bead work at the NFCB
Nigerians with visual disabilities on the street to mark the International White Cane and Safety Day 2019
A quick fact-check: Presenting the 2019 budget proposal to the state House of Assembly in November 2018, governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel, announced that his administration had spent a chunk of the N646.649bn budget for 2018 on training and resettlement of 20 visually impaired persons (the blind) in different skills at the Nigerian Farm Craft Centre, Lagos and subsequent empowerment for them to start up their businesses in the development trade they learnt.
Suppose the governor did exactly as he had told his legislature, that would have been 20 persons lifted out of a life of penury and street begging for which Nigerians living with disabilities are known.
Several SMS and Whatsapp messages sent to Charles Udoh, immediate-past Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information, requesting for information on the details of the trainees and the amount of the budget invested on them did not receive a reply.
To verify the governor’s claim, the reporter contacted the principal of the Nigeria Farmcraft Centre for the Blind, Mohammed Shuaibu Afegbua, who made it known that no student attended the centre in 2018, not even in 2017.
“This school has neither admitted nor trained a single visually challenged Nigerian since 2016, he stated, adding “the last set of students we admitted graduated in December 2016.
Also, it is not possible for a state to send twenty visually challenged persons to the NFCB at once in a given session, contrary to Emmanuel’s claim. This is because the centre is a federal institution that operates a quota system of admission.
In essence, only three visually impaired candidates from each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory may be admitted in a given academic session, the principal further disclosed.
“But as I speak, virtually all the states have candidates waiting on standby from six years back.”
Conclusion: It is not true that Mr Udom Emmanuel spent part of the budget passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in 2018 to train 20 blind citizens of the state at the NFCB.
IN THE THROES OF DARKNESS
The casualties of this kind of official deception are much more than those shortchanged by Governor Emmanuel. No less than a million persons living with blindness across the country are in dire need of some form of urgent rehabilitation to enable them live a productive and independent life again.
That is an estimate from an old study though. For over a decade now, just one national blindness and visual impairment survey has been carried out across the country.
The survey, at the instance of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, shows that well over four million Nigerians are visually impaired.
Visual impairment among those who cannot read and write, according to the survey, also stands at 5.8 per cent nationwide. This is against 1.5 per cent among those who can.
Ahmed Pindiga is one of such sore statistics of unlettered blind Nigerians analyzed in the now obsolete eye health survey. Every Friday afternoon, he joins a phalanx of itinerant street beggars who prime themselves around the Ikotun Central mosque, East of Alimosho Local Government Area in Lagos State.
The beggars have not come to observe the Jumat prayers. Rather they would wait patiently for the worship to end, and the scramble for the day’s Zakat, the Islamic form of religious alms-giving and show of benevolence to the needy, would begin.
He was at the same spot on September 6 this year when the reporter had a chat with him. Suddenly, Ahmed’s right hand disappeared into his pocket and brought back an old mobile phone. Soon he began to fumble with the keypad on the device as the phone rang and vibrated endlessly to signal an incoming call.
Unbeaten, he fiddled with the keypad again and again, glowering at the same time, until his restive finger finally found and hit the green button after several unsuccessful attempts.
It’s not exactly unusual to see frustration written on his face and many like him each time they try to receive calls on their mobile phones, Babatunde Mohammed, a rehabilitation expert and Chairman of the Nigeria Association of the Blind in Lagos State, told the reporter.
“It has to be so because the phone obviously is not designed to enable a visually impaired person receive calls or identify his callers,’ he explained.“
That aside, it is also apparent he has not been through a functional rehabilitation program necessary to enable him leverage assistive technology to be independent and enjoy his privacy as a blind.”
For an illiterate, non-speaker of the English Language who relies on a child guide to lead him around as he scrounges for a living amidst the bedlam of crazy traffic at the busy Ikotun intersection, functional rehabilitation, independence and privacy, as hinted by Mohammed, actually sound like some jargons from a Latin dictionary.
“Ban jiba walahi,’ Ahmed responded in his native Hausa dialect to inform the reporter he didn’t understand what the rehabilitation expert meant by assistive technology.
Ahmed is not alone in the dark about the option of rehabilitation and assistive technology available to enable him live an independent life. So is Isaac Olayinka, a blind clergyman at the Christ Apostolic Church in Ibadan who also relies on others every day to enable him navigate the crowded Ibadan roads and elsewhere he goes to preach.
Like Ahmed, Isaac has never learnt how to use a Braille machine or computer-assisted devices to enhance his duties as a preacher. The best he has done, he told the reporter, was to perfect a cumbersome method to enable him recall chapters and verses of the holy bible.
“For a long time, I have mastered how to cram the bible on a daily basis, after people must have read any particular portion to me,” he told the reporter.
“I have never heard that computer and phone can help one read the bible or other Christian books on one’s own as a blind. You are the first to tell me so.”
Graphics of years Nigeria needs to rehabilitate its blind population at NFCB
IGNORANCE EVERYWHERE
That kind of widespread information poverty is not exactly unusual in Nigeria. Eye health crises and the exact rehabilitation needs of those worse affected by visual impairment have been worsened by an apparent scarcity of public health education and accurate data.
That is in addition to a combination of depressing geographical, financial, and personal hurdles which constantly stand between this vulnerable community and the rehabilitation they need to be independent.
In other climes where inclusive education and rehabilitation are at the front burner of policy discourse, community-based rehabilitation initiatives are already eliminating those obstacles impeding the likes of Ahmed and Isaac.
For one, the innovation is less cumbersome because it provides rehabilitation programs to persons with visual disabilities right in the communities where they live.
“So they don’t have to travel long distance from their communities to attend a rehabilitation school, or be huddled together in one outskirt of the town, as though disability is infectious,” Dr Sheu Bukola Adebayo, Chairman of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities in Lagos, explained.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria is yet to come to term with this social model of rehabilitation. And that’s why the traditional model of rehabilitating the visually impaired continue to fail us.”
Blessing is a casualty of that failure—the inability of governments at all levels to launch a widespread and sustained public enlightenment campaigns about community-based rehabilitation options for the blind who scavenge for a living in street corners and those locked up in different homes by their families.
Blessing showing off one of her bead work at the NFCB
Struck with a sudden blindness at age of three, Blessing was simply abandoned to rot away in her Delta State hometown—denied of any formal education. She is 19 years old already, she told the reporter,after a Lagos-based television personality found out about her plight and offered to reform her.
Usman Ojo, now registered at Omoyeni Home School for the Blind in Ibadan, Oyo State, also suffered the same cruel fate as Blessing. Blind at birth, the boy spent the next 12 years of his life in a dinghy room with his mother, without nursery and primary education.
The father, a tailor before coming to Lagos to work for a fashion outfit in Lekki, told the reporter he got to know about the possibility of a school for the blind late.
“He was born blind, so I didn’t know anything could be done to get him an education. But by the time I heard about Pacelli School for the Blind in Lagos, they were not willing to take him again,’ he told the reporter.
“When I tried again the following year, and I couldn’t meet up with the financial obligations, I became frustrated,’ he lamented.
Sad, but real, a vast bulk of visually challenged Nigerians may never learn to be productive or independent after all, worried Dr Adebayo, if government fails to systematically implement the National Policy on Inclusive Education currently gathering dust in the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.
“We have a National Policy on Inclusive Education at the federal level, and about 15 states also have their own policies as well, but the problem has always been implementation,’ the JONAPWD chairman lamented.
Part of the implementation problems is the scanty number of rehabilitation centres for the blind, compared to the population of persons living with visual disabilities across Nigeria, explained Nicholas Obot, Principal of the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind in Oshodi, Lagos, and National Secretary of the Braille Advancement Organization of Nigeria.
Majority of these centres are mostly private initiatives and profit-driven too, the reporter discovered.
COLLAPSED INFRASTRUCTURE
Despite plunking down N25m in 2017 to revalidate the National Policy on Rehabilitation of Persons With Disabilities, only a few things would appear as normal for anyone visiting the Nigeria Farmcraft Centre for the Blind in Lagos for the first time.
Established in 1967, according to its Principal, Muhammed Shuaibu Afegbua, the centre bears the responsibility of rehabilitating visually impaired persons from across Nigeria—through developing their skills in mobility, Braille, computer/ICT and craft as well as farming.
Not many blind Nigerians and their families are aware the NFCB exists however. This is because the centre is neither advertised in the media nor in public enlightenment and rural outreaches.
At any rate, for two sessions back to back, the centre, with all of the hope it brings to the blind, was left to rot away.
NFCB did not admit or trained a single visually challenged Nigerian since 2016 until April 2019, the reporter who visited the centre in the guise of a blind person seeking rehabilitation found out.
And according to Afegbua, that is because of certain challenges he would not disclose to the reporter during their chat.
But at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs headquartres in Abuja, sources told the reporter the disruption was due to funding and seething tussling between the federal ministries of Education and Women Affairs and Social development over which controls the NFCB.
CORRUPTION UNLIMITED
The years of redundancy at the NFCB, however, did not stop civil servants in the centre from earning their monthly salaries and leave bonuses.
It also did not stop some corrupt officials at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, under which the NFCB is an agency, from creaming off a huge N40m from the 2017 approved budget, supposedly as upkeep for the trainees at the NFCB, even though no single person with visual disability was admitted into the centre that year.
The steady sleaze in the guise of rehabilitating the blind leaped through the 2018 budget as well, even though the gates of the NFCB remained shut to trainees. Another N150m was sneaked into the 2018 approved budget of the Women Affairs ministry, as “upkeep of the trainees and strengthening activities at the following social welfare, rehabilitation and other welfare centres.”
The Rotary Club of Egbeda, trying to do good in marking its 15th anniversary, also visited the NFCB on Saturday, March 31, 2018. The visitors did not suspect the centre had neither admitted nor trained any blind Nigerian for two years. So, they donated clothings and other items, supposedly to keep the blind trainees comfortable.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
Waiting endlessly on the queue is a torture any prospective blind must endure before he is considered for admissionat the NFCB, the reporter found out.
The centre can only admit three candidates from each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in any particular session, disclosed its Principal. And that is just 111 lucky few every year. The less than fortunate candidates are then made to wait on the lists until another year when the jostle for admission would begin again.
“Admission is competitive here because your state must have to recommend you to us for admission in any particular year,’ revealed Afegbua. ‘But as I speak, virtually all the states have candidates waiting on standby from six years back.”
Assume that the population of blind Nigerians will remain at one million as indicated in the 1998 national eye health survey, and the NFCB will only admit 111 persons out of this cluster in any given year, it will invariably mean that Nigeria will need some 9,009 years to rehabilitate and make its blind citizens independent and productive again.
But if the entire population of the blind and visually impaired, put at a little over four million in the survey, is to scramble for a space at the NFCB given the yearly admission benchmark, then Nigeria will require some 35,036 years or more before the entire visually challenged population would be fully rehabilitated.
To make matters worse, unlike in the past when trainees used to enjoy tuition-free rehabilitation,stipends and boarding at the centre, a prospective student is now expected to pay a huge N120,000 upon admission.
The conspiracy against the blind, the reporter found out, was reached at the 10th National Council on Women Affairs and Social Development held between August 5-10, 2019 in Lagos, with all Commissioners for Women Affairs from across the states in attendance.
Those who are not fortunate to be sponsored by their states, explained Afegbua, may then have to attend the school as self-sponsored students.
That financial burden is yielding a backlash already, the reporter found out.
When the NFCB finally resumed academic session in April this year, only 48 visually challenged students from across 15 states of the federation were fortunate to take up their slots.
Blessing didn’t get a sponsorship from her Delta State of origin though, but she is one of the two self-sponsored trainees from the state currently at the NFCB. And to be in class, a good Samaritan had to squeeze out the compulsory tuition fees of N120,000.
FAILED STATES
The other 21 states, Afegbua said , simply would not invest N360,000 on three of their blind citizens at the cost of N120,000 each for the entire session “due to lack of funds”.
Many of the defaulting states (Edo, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Cross-Rivers, Taraba, Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Plateau and the FCT) are from the North of Nigeria. This is followed by a few South eastern states and then two states—Oyo and Ekiti—from the South-West.
Akande O.M. of the Social Welfare Department at the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Oyo State revealed as much. The devil that sabotaged the efforts of candidates from the state in filling up their quotas at the NFCB this current session was a combination of bureaucracy and insensitivity, he told the reporter, who presented himself as a blind citizen seeking sponsorship from the state.
“We got the letter informing us of the new tuition fee at the NFCB late, but even after treating the request and sending it out for approval, the file never came back again because the government in power then was more concerned about the elections than anything else.
“Even as I speak, the file is yet to come back to the ministry. But I am optimistic something positive will happen next session, and you may be one of the lucky candidates to be selected,especially now that we have an Executive Assistant on Disability in the Governor’s Office.”
The same reception of shock was awaiting the reporter when he arrived at the Blind Centre in Ogbomosho, also in Oyo State, the following day. The school has no facility in place to teach computer skills, or the technology needed to make the blind navigate a computer independently, the instructors explained.
“We can’t teach you what you want to learn here, because there is no facility for that in the school. But you can learn how to Braille and use the typewriter.
“In fact, we don’t even admit older candidates like you, but because of the person that brought you, we may admit you into Primary 2, so you can learn any vocation that you like and still go ahead to do common entrance later,” the headteacher assured the reporter out of pity.
The vocational trainings on offer at the school are as odd as the proposal made to the reporter. They include weaving, both of chairs and ropes for tethering livestock, as well as bead making.
But they are not too offensive to dissuade Ibukun Ogundijo from getting registered at the Blind Centre after all.
Ogundijo is one perfect example of the setback that inadequate infrastructure can cause in schools for the blind in Nigeria.
Now 20, the young man lost his sight while preparing to graduate into the junior secondary school in 2008. In search of a panacea, his family rushed him to the Blind Centre in Ogbomosho, after an initial desperate move to have his sight restored in hospitals and spiritual homes failed.
Another shocker was waiting for the blind lad instead. Ibukun was made to start all over again from Primary 1.
“But when the school began to notice my performance, they offered me double promotion twice,’ he narrated to the reporter.
ALL TALK BUT SLOW INCLUSION IN LAGOS
In spite of the disability friendly initiatives and inclusive education policy in Lagos State, blind students are not learning anything in those inclusive schools, Adebayo insists. “
Lagos is not implementing inclusive education yet, griped the JONAPWD chairman, adding, “so I can’t score the government high. In fact it will be unfair on PLWDs living in Lagos to score the government 40 per cent for their effort so far.”
“It is one thing to have an inclusive education policy, it is another thing entirely to make it work. And that’s why we continue to insist government must design an operational guide for implementing inclusive education in Nigeria, in addition to supporting schools with the teachers, instructional materials and equipment needed to make disabled students learn.”
Those who lost their sight as adults are not learning anything in Lagos either. There are only just four rehabilitation centers that can provide training and assistive devices for the crowd of visually impaired in the state for instance, and all of these institutions are either private initiatives or run by civil society organizations.
The only state-controlled institution, the Lagos State Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Persons With Disabilities in Owutu, Ikorodu“is anything but a rehabilitation centre for persons with disabilities, if you compare it with international globa best practice”, Adebayo told the reporter.
He is right after all. The centre merely exists in structure and not in equipment and devices needed to effectively address the special needs of blind students especially,the reporter found out on his visit.
EXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE
From the schools for the blind in Lagos to Ibadan, down to Ogbomosho and back to Ijebu-Igbo where the reporter presented himself as a prospective student, the blind have an option though: to shun the empty and dysfunctional state-controlled special schools and patronize private institutions. That’s if they will ever be able to afford the cost.
According to Obot of the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind, “it costs nothing less than N750,000 about $2,100 to take a visually impaired through complete rehabilitation, and that includes rehabilitation fee, laptop and JAWS, typewriter, stylus and guide cane.”
The bargain is no less expensive at the Anglo-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind ANWAB, another rehabilitation centre for the blind in Yaba, Lagos, the reporter discovered.
According to CajetanDuru, an instructor in the school, Job Access With Speech JAWS, the software that enables a visually impaired navigate the computer and Internet, costs N300,000, while the market price of a new laptop computer varies between N180,000 and N250,000.
“Other than that, you will need a Android phone which can help you do the same thing a JAWS will enable you do on the laptop, and that will cost at least N50,000. However, we can allow you pay your rehabilitation fee in installments since the training is in three phases, beginning with mobility and typing training,’ Duru explained.
The rich and willing visually impaired also have an option of patronizing private home bound rehabilitation services, revealed Sunday Badejo, a visually challenged expert in education for the blind. At a more expensive charges, though.
“The least I charge is 100,000 and that is for a professional who suddenly lost his sight and requires an accelerated rehabilitation to go back to work in just six weeks, Badejo told the reporter, adding,“but my professional fee can be more than that, depending on a number of considerations such as location, distance and length of training required by the client.”
Badejo has travelled across several states in Nigeria, including in Kano, Niger and Jigawa, providing home-bound rehabilitation services to visually challenged persons who can pay his bill, but “it’s alright if the person wants to come and meet me in Lagos,” he said.
“I can help negotiate accommodation and factor the logistics into my final charges. That’s why I told you initially it depends on location, duration and such other factors,” the graduate of Federal College of Education Special in Oyo explained.
One scary consideration is the cost of the devices a visually impaired would have to procure to live a normal productive life again, he said. According to Badejo, aside from rehabilitation fees which can run into hundreds of thousand, students will be required to buy JAWS, Braille machine, Pearl scanner, typewriter, embosser, guide cane as well as stylus and mabourg.
“Now, a JAWS software is around N500,000, Braille machine is N300,000, Pearl scanner is N469,000, typewriter is N10,000, the least cane is N15,000 while stylus and slate cost N7000. So you are looking at well over one million naira as cost of devices needed to give you independence as a visually impaired person, aside from my own professional fee as a private instructor.”
For a disadvantaged community constantly frustrated by employment inequalities and other forms of negative stereotypes, raising no less than N1m to enable them go through coordinated rehabilitation programs has become a huge incentive for flushing on to the streets to beg for alms, lamented Mohammed.
“You can call them names for causing a nuisance on the streets if you want,’
Muhammed griped, ‘but the truth is that government institutions that should ordinarily rehabilitate them at little or no cost are dysfunctional, and that leaves them with no alternatives other than the few private rehabilitation centres which are expensive to attend already.”
GATEWAY TO INCLUSION, EQUALITY
Inside the Enabling Technology Room at the Southwest Resource Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, a revolution similar to the community-based rehabilitation strategy recommended by the World Blind Union (WBU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) is taking a steady foothold.
Sired in the twilight of the President Bill Clinton administration in 2004, narrated Emmanuel Akinola, the centre is an innovative ICT hub designed by the Americans to accelerate the globalization process in Nigeria through building the capacity of citizens in Information Communication Technology.
And, to give that intervention a fillip, similar centres were erected in other geopolitical zones, including Bauchi, Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna, Ogun and the FCT.
“That was how we got the idea of including persons living with disabilities in the wider program,’ Akinola, also a blind lawyer, and Consultant instructor in Basic ICT Education for the blind, explained.
Attendance is tuition-free for the blind here, the reporter found out after registering and attending classes as a blind in need of rehabilitation at the centre.
“That’s why this room is called the Enabling Technology Room, because its meant for PLWDs generally. The reason why only persons with visual disabilities are here now is because others can still see and read printed matter, unlike the blind who requires special skills in ICT to navigate the computer and internet,” said Akinola.
AGAIN THE CRIPPLING NIGERIAN FACTOR
That is some huge breather for inclusive education advocates like Adebayo and Mohammed really. But the excitement is not going to last long. For one, acceptance for blind trainees at the Southwest Resource Centre is difficult and low compared to the huge number of blind persons who need rehabilitation to enable them participate fully in public life again.
Blame the sustained employment inequality and harsh economic condition that frustrate the bid of many of them who indeed registered their interest in the training but could not make it to Abeokuta in the end.
The three weeks course is free –written off by the Ogun State Government. But not transportation logistics, accommodation and feeding.
Governors of other southwest states deserve much of the flak afterall, groaned Akinola. “Even though the Southwest Resource Centre is designed to serve all the states in the region, these governors just carry on as if they are not concerned”, the blind lawyer and rehabilitation expert lamented.
The low attendance could not have been otherwise then. More so that public enlightenment about the centre, and deliberate mobilization of blind persons, are not on the priority list of the governors. And that’s a violation of Article 26 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) to which Nigeria is a signatory.
The law imposes obligation on state parties to take effective and appropriate measures to provide comprehensive habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the areas of health, employment, education and social services for their citizens with disabilities.
The blind have little or no choice here really. Not even in a stranded economy where more than half of the population survive on less than $2 a day.
* This report was done with the support of Ford Foundation and International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR
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Security Operatives Repel Attack On Yobe Community
The Yobe State Police Command has said that security operatives repelled an attack on a community in the state and that the security situation remains volatile.
In a statement by its spokesperson, ASP Abdulmalik Abdulhafeez, the Yobe police said, “The security situation in Babbangida is relatively calm for now but remains volatile and unpredictable.
“On November 27, 2019 at about 1230hrs, suspected Boko Haram insurgents stormed into Babbangida under Tarmuwa LGA in nine hilux vehicles, heavily armed shooting sporadically into the air.
“They were successfully repelled by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, supported by the Nigerian Airforce, as well as police personnel attached to JTF.
“In this regard, Yobe State Police Command is calling on the good people of Yobe to report any suspicious movement(s), person(s) or object(s) to the nearest police, military, or any security formation nearest to them.”
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Update: Plot To Impeach Taraba Speaker Thickens, Lawmakers Moved To Wukari
Abel Diah
Abel Diah
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Moves to impeach the Speaker of Taraba State House of Assembly, Abel Diah, has gained momentum.
SaharaReporters has learnt that some lawmakers in the state were escorted Friday afternoon by heavily armed security men to Wukari town, about 200 kilometres from Jalingo, the capital.
The move, it was gathered, became necessary because supporters of the Speaker had besieged the House of Assembly premises to prevent the impeachment.
However, reports indicates that only nine members had allegedly signed to go to Wukari and that they had not formed the required 2/3 of 24 members to effect an impeachment.
Our correspondent also gathered that a delegation from Gembu, hometown of the embattled Speaker, was discussing with Governor Darius Ishaku hoping to avert the impeachment.
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