My encounter with Ironsi on coup day – Rita-Lori

ON JANUARY 16, 20161:19 PMIN INTERVIEW, NEWS, POLITICS BY TONY CHINONSOBY CHARLES KUMOLU

Chief Mrs. Rita Lori-Ogbebor was one of the country’s leading broadcast journalists at the time of the January 15 coup and was the first Programme Director of the Nigerian Television Service, NTS. On the morning of the coup she encountered the General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Army, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi near the Parliament Building as he bustled to suppress the uprising.  Fifty years after the coup she asserts that the plotters were perhaps not motivated by the lust for power, being that they desired a better society.

As a witness to history, would you say the reasons given by the plotters were sufficient to provoke the coup?

CHIEF RITA LORI-OGBEBOR

They should come and see what is happening in the country now.  These were young people, who came out of the university and went into the army. They had been indoctrinated. They came out of school wanting to see an ideal society. They had their mindset on the right things they felt the country should do. Any other way would not be tolerated. And they swallowed all they read and learnt. They were looking for perfection. It is not that they came out wanting to kill because they wanted positions. They came out to do what they did because they were indoctrinated and they wanted a country that is perfect. But I think also that they may have been used by some greedy politicians.

In every society you must have greedy ones.  And they did not know that our country was very fragile, we were all in the process of learning. They themselves were in the process of learning and therefore should not have taken away what we did not have. At that time, we were all learning. From the permanent secretaries to the politicians, we were all learning. So, they may not have known that what they were doing was going to boomerang because they took away our founding fathers, who were just building a new nation.

These founding fathers had constitutional meetings in Europe, trying to have a country.  They did not put all that into consideration. So, the country did not quite settle before they struck.  Today, more provocative things are happening in the country as obtained during Jonathan’s administration but there was no coup because of our past experiences.  The country was saved by the prayers of Nigerians like the Roman Catholic Church that says the Prayer for Nigeria in Distress. They did not know what they were doing.

Looking at the ethnic composition of the principal actors in that putsch, would it be right to say that they were nudged to carry out the action by ethnic sentiments?

All these boys were young men propelled  by ideology. They had been tutored during their training in the army to ensure a disciplined society. They wanted a perfect situation through elimination of corruption in the country. If you look at all of them, some were the first set of our boys, who had university education. So their idea was to have a united perfect country. Before now soldiers didn’t believe whether you were Ibo, Hausa or Yoruba.

They believed in the oneness of the country. Soldiers are trained to be their brothers’ keepers and to believe in themselves. And I don’t think that any of those young soldiers had sectional ambition because none of them wanted to become Prime Minister. And you can see that if they wanted political power, they could have gone for Ironsi.  In those days, they had not become ambitious. Even the Ironsi, who took over did not know what to do. That was why he introduced the unitary system which is a system of the army with a chain of command.

As a journalist at that time can you recollect the early post-coup events in Lagos at that time?

I just came back from England after a television course.  I was supposed to report to my office to cover the parliament. I was to cover the parliament with the OB-Van (Outside Broadcast Van) and my thoughts then were to collect my OB-van and go to the Parliament the next day. But early in the morning around 6 am the late Cyprian Ekwensi drove to my house.  He said to me ‘’have you heard what is happening?’’ I said no.  He said ‘’I am sorry your uncle has been taken away.’’ I did not understand what he was talking about and I said ‘’who are you talking about?’’ He said ‘’your uncle,

Okotie Eboh has been taken away.’’ I did not understand, so asked where he was taken to? And he said there was a coup. That was when it dawned on me that there was trouble. But even then it was still not clear as to the full meaning. For me, my uncle was a great man and I was lost as to who could have taken away my uncle.  Immediately he said so to me, he went away. He also told me that the Prime Minister was taken away. As he was hurrying away, I too drove straight to my uncle’s house opposite the Island Club.

I drove straight to his house and I found that his gate had been flung open. And one of the housekeepers, whom I knew was crying. And I asked what had happened; he told me that my uncle was taken away by some soldiers. Even at that stage it did not dawn on me that I was not going to see him again neither did I know that they were going to kill him. I just thought that it’s all politics that he was going to come home sometime in the day. Then I moved to the Prime Minister’s house and found same situation.

The door was thrown open and his orderly was crying. It was then that it was getting clearer to me what a coup actually is. I then knew that it was a matter of life and death. So that is the way it was at time. I must say, however, that at the time I was driving to my uncle’s house, I saw vehicles of soldiers speeding in a manner I had never seen. I drove to my office and proceeded to the parliament. At the parliament we were told to pack up and start moving.

Who gave that order?

Ironsi was the person, who asked us to go. And not even all the ministers had heard about what happened then. So I saw this huge tall man, the late Aguiyi Ironsi, who came and asked us to go in an unusual manner. And this was a man, who used say to me:  ‘’hello, how are you my young director,’’ he used to joke with me. But this time, he was not joking. He commanded all of us to get out of the parliament. Had he assumed power as the Head of State at the time he was giving such in Lagos?

He was the most senior officer in the army. So he took control immediately and of course he was the one commanding everybody to get moving. And that was the first time everybody was seeing soldiers in action in the country. Even some flamboyantly dressed ministers, who came and were showing themselves to the camera quickly respected themselves and put themselves back in their cars. Those days our ministers were flamboyant in their dressing and carriage.  For instance, my uncle when going to present a budget dresses as if it was a Christmas Day.

So the ministers were flamboyant but not like the ones stealing today. Their flamboyance was not about stealing of public funds because they still had in them the idea of the founding fathers that their duty was to make Nigeria great. Everything that mattered to them then was Nigeria. And that was why Nigeria developed at a fast rate then. So, all the flamboyant ministers then chickened out of the presence of the soldiers who gave order for people to leave the parliament.  They entered their cars and went away.  The atmosphere was an unhappy and uncertain one because we did not expect what happened. But much later it started to dawn on us and the country has never known peace after then. It surprised us to know that the killings were not uniformed. And that of course led from one coup to the other.

So what happened after the dispersal?

They called us later to brief us about what had happened and why they took over the reins of government and what it means. Then the northerners started to feel differently because Abubakar and Sardauna were killed.  It was since that coup that Nigerians started looking at Nigeria differently. That was the beginning of the problems we are in. Again is the fact that the soldiers who planned the coup were very young. Even when I was in school (Saint Theresa’s College Ibadan) soldiers like Ifeajuna used to come and talk with the senior girls. So they used to come and brief us about the country. It was much later that I realized that they had something more than just talking to us about the country.

During those visits by Ifeajuna and other young officers, did someone like Ifeajuna sound revolutionary?

We were too busy trying to pass our exams, so we did not really understand that they had long felt different about happenings in the country. That was years before the coup.  These were restless people especially that Ifeajuna. They were just young and excited officers.

When the army took over it was a shock to all of us. But one thing we had in those days was freedom of speech which we inherited from Zik and Awolowo, who were journalists. It was a legacy we got from them because we did not fight any war to get our independence. It was a war of the pen. So, we enjoyed that. But that became a luxury when the army came. When I was a programme Director at the NTS , I did what I think I should do and before I knew, a soldier came to the control room and took me away. That was after the coup.

My offense was that I took a shot where Aguiyi-Ironsi was eating. In that picture, Ironsi was heaping food into his mouth. I was neither the one who took the shot nor edited it. I just ran it because it had been edited that way.  It was shocking when we saw soldiers in our place of work. When they started calling us to come we did not come, don’t forget that we were pretty young girls in our own world so we refused to come. But one of us was given a slap by the soldiers.  So, that experience marked the beginning of impunity that became the order of the day during military rule.  Things changed with the first coup.

Unitary government

Ironsi introduced unitary government but some part of the country did not like it. Ojukwu was part of the young officers who went to the university.  He was in the east and when the unitary government came some did not like it. And by that time some of us already felt bad. People like Peter Enahoro (Peter Pan) ran away after writing some articles. That was a bad period for us because people we trusted could not be trusted any more. Unitary system worsened the situation and perhaps led to the second coup. Again, I was in Ibadan to cover the event that Aguiyi Ironsi had come for.

I arrived in the evening. In the morning the news came to us that there was a coup. So, before we could get to the venue of the event, we started hearing that something had happened and for somebody like me, who saw the first one in Lagos, I took to my heels. When my uncle, the Prime Minister and Sardauna of Sokoto were killed, I had no faith again. At that time, the impression the north gave to us was that they had revenged and that they were going to join Niger Republic. In that coup, the governor of Western Region was also killed. The Yoruba were angry about that.

When Dimka pulled a gun at me — Mbazulike Amechi, Nigeria’s 1st aviation minister

ON JANUARY 18, 20169:09 AMIN NEWS, POLITICS BY ABIODUN ALADE
By Vincent Ujumadu

Amechi who is now among only about five ministers of the First Republic government still alive was also host for about six months to the young South African anti-apartheid fighter, Nelson Mandela having hosted him in his No 5 Okotie Eboh Street, Ikoyi , Lagos official residence.

Following the military intervention of January 15, 1966, Amechi relocated permanently to his home town in Ukpor, Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State.

Amechi now in his eighties in this interview speaks on issues relating to the military intervention in politics, his encounter with the late coup plotter, Col. Buka Suka Dimka among other national issues. Excerpts.

Did you expect the army to intervene into the governance of the country when they did on January 15, 1966?
It was something that was never expected. Nationalists who fought for the independence of the country through various conferences with the British colonial masters and the various political parties and sectional interests and fashioned out a country based on what the British colonialists did in 1914 by amalgamating the North and the South.

Great benefit to Nigerians

Having worked very hard, we believed that we would have a big country that will be of great benefit to Nigerians and their country and Africa generally.
During the series of conferences, there were compromises here and there and we eventually founded a big nation called Nigeria. In 1962 we revised the constitution and our relationship with the British government and eventually founded a big nation called Nigeria.

When we revised the relationship with the British government in 1962, they eventually left and we designed a Republican Constitution and became Federal Republic of Nigeria.

We ran government for six years and suddenly one bright morning in 1966, a most unpatriotic action was taken by the military. At independence, we created a military service – Army, Navy Air force- and the police which was already there and issued weapons to these armed forces to defend and protect the country against foreign aggression or any serious internal struggle.

We promoted the young ones who could never have got promotion under the colonial government, to encourage them to be patriotic.

Can you therefore assess the performance of the military within the period that they held forth in government?
Well, Gowon continued to rule after the civil war. Murtala Mohammed took over from Gowon and Murtala was killed by some soldiers in the Army.
One of them was Bukar Dimka who I had an encounter with in Onitsha when he was a major. The killing of Murtala Mohammed brought Obasanjo into the picture and Obasanjo needed to hand over to the civilians for his own safety.

He knew that the preponderance of the military interest was in the North and so he rushed and handed over to Shehu Shagari in 1979.
In 1983, the military struck again and took over. So if the intention of the military was to curb corruption as they claimed that politicians were corrupt, why was it necessary for one military to take over from another military?

Intention of the military

General Buhari taking over from Shagari was to make sure that an Igbo man did not take over from Shagari.
The NPN had an agreement that after Shagari, the next president would be Igbo and thereafter a Yoruba man. So these people don’t want to hear that an Igbo man will become the president of this country.

Again, if the intention of the military was that noble and honourable, why was it necessary for Babangida to take over from Buhari?
And why was it necessary for Abacha to take over from Babangida? Even Abacha wanted to be life president as he created five political parties and all of them were made to nominate him as their presidential candidate?
So the military in totality misruled Nigeria for a whole 38 years thereby destroying all the foundations the nationalists and the founding fathers laid.

Talking of founding fathers and nationalists, are there some of them still living like you that you relate with?

As far as I am concerned, there are only very few. Here in the South, I am aware that I am alone. Richard Akinjide came in at a stage, but as for those who were ministers from the beginning, I am the only survivor one here in the South.
In the North, we have Shehu Shagari, Maitama Sule and Shetima Ali Mungonu. There was another one, Inuwa Wada who died a few weeks ago. So as far as I can remember, there are only four or five of us still living.

Is the government taking care of the surviving nationalists?
I don’t know if any government is taking care of any of us anywhere, at least not in this part of the country. No government in Anambra State or in Igbo land has recognized somebody like me.

When Ngige was governor, he used to send Christmas gift to me. He did it once or twice. Peter Obi did it only once. He sent a cow and a bag of rice and some drinks.

Outside that, nothing else. The only governor that was treating me well was Theodore Orji. All others, nothing. Look at the road to my place. They only bring equipment here when election is coming. Once the election is over, they remove their equipment.
The other part of the road was done, but because this one passes through my compound, they don’t want to do it. I don’t know why they are doing it. After all I am not a politician anymore and I am not in competition with anybody. The only thing is  that when something is bad, I say it.

What was this your encounter with Dimka after the civil war?
When the war ended, I sent my brother in my Chevrolet car to purchase something and it got missing. I eventually traced the car to Onitsha Army Barracks where Dimka was a Brigade Major.
He had already removed the number and replaced it with a military plate number.

When I asked why he took my car, he pulled a gun and pointed it at me and asked why he should not kill me. I told him I did not have issues with him and asked why he should seize my car?  I walked away and petitioned the Army.

One day the then Provost-Marshal, Col Anthony Ochefu drove to my house and said there was an allegation that the car was used for armed robbery.  Three days later, he came back and said that somebody should follow him to bring my car back. When the car was brought, I saw three new tyres and three batteries in it. That was how my car was returned.

After about a year, I met Dimka at the Ikeja Airport. He was wearing mufti and he told me he was Col Dimka and I shouted. He said he was sorry for what he did to me. So after the killing of Murtala Mohammed, Dimka ran away.

One day, a Reverend Father, Vincent Madike came to my house and informed me that Chief Chukwurah, the proprietor of Africa College, Onitsha asked him to come and inform me that Dimka was hiding in his house in Abatete and he didn’t know what to do and needed my advice.

I advised him to go to police headquarters in Lagos to see AIG Ezekwem and to tell him that Dimka was in his house.

When he did, they delayed him and required him to make statements. When for two days he did not come back, Dimka became apprehensive and asked Chukwurah’s wife why her husband was not back.

On the second day, I went to Abatete and I told Chukwurah’s wife that I came to see Dimka. She was surprised that I knew that Dimka was there and I assured her that he was my friend. As we were talking, Dimka came down and I told him to be a man and be courageous as a soldier, I told him it was improper to be hiding in a man’s house. So he took off and stupidly, he was caught with girls at Itigidi in Cross River State.

You preferred Buhari to Jonathan during the last election, are you satisfied with his performance so far?
I did not campaign for any of them. I said the two presidential candidates should tell Ndigbo what they had for them in their programmes if they won.

Campaigning for Jonathan

Because they refused to do that, I advised Igbo people to vote according to their consciences and not to follow the recommendation of Ohaneze led by Enwo Igariewei who were campaigning for Jonathan.
I know that Jonathan was a child of circumstance. He was an imposition on Nigerians because Obasanjo picked him and Yar’Adua. When Yar’Adua could not make it, Jonathan became president of Nigeria.
Up to the time he became president, he never contested any election until 2011 and he eventually failed in his second term bid. He surrounded himself with people of questionable character. He failed to recognize those who voted massively for him.

Buhari has been in government for only few months. He’s trying to recover stolen funds but my grouse with him is that the war against corruption appears to be one sided.

Some of the heaviest looters are in his party and in his government. He shouldn’t concentrate on the opposition party alone.

As a matter of fact, when he is through with the looters at the federal level, he should go down to the states because there is more stealing in the states than at the federal level. Some of the state governors were just rogues. They did things that were unimaginable.

Would you say the military of today is meeting the aspiration of the military you established at independence?
Maybe the present military is trying to correct the mistakes of the past. The military of our era up to 10 years ago were nothing to write home about. The military should remain apolitical and I pray that they will continue to do the nation proud.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/when-dimka-pulled-a-gun-at-me-mbazulike-amechi-nigerias-1st-aviation-minister/

‘Biafra struggle a blackmail against Igbo’

Posted By: Our Reporteron: January 18, 2016In: NewsNo CommentsPresident of Igbo Question Movement Ben Onyechere, has described the agitation for an independent Biafra State as a blackmail against the Igbo.

Onyechere described it as “unacceptable the endangering of the lives of young Igbo boys in the guise of Biafra.”

The former Special Adviser to former Vice President Alex Ekwueme in a statement yesterday said:

“The struggle for Biafra is a deliberate blackmail and insult against the igbo and those behind it should desist from smearing the image of the Igbo.

“Endangering the lives of young Igbos in the guise that they are Biafra is not acceptable because we cannot watch while our children are deceived and misled by a few selfish ones.

“As activities marking the 50th anniversary of the first Nigerian coup  are ongoing, it has become increasingly important to let our people understand the difference between struggle against marginalisation and the struggle for Biafra.

“While Biafra is a proclamation  of a state within a state which is illegal, political emancipation is attracting support and sympathy for Igbo. It is eminently clear that the Igbo have been short-changed in past administrations, particularly that of Jonathan where out of fear, Jonathan could not do anything for the Igbo.

“It is important to let us remember that Igbo have provided a vice president on which pedestal we should seek to produce the president of this country. The Igbo held the most important positions in this country before, for which reason we must imbibe the spirit of oneness.”

Onyechere added that President Buhari has not been fair to the Igbo. “If Buhari chooses to undermine the Igbo, we cannot be discouraged because one day it will come to an end.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/biafra-struggle-blackmail-igbo/

Korede Bello begs school management to sit for upcoming exams

ON JANUARY 16, 20167:20 PMIN SHOWTIME PEOPLE BY FEMI AJASACOMMENTS
Everybody knows that Korede Bello is a student at Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and It is no longer news that a lecturer had threatened to resign if the Mavin Records fast-rising act, is allowed to write the forthcoming examinations after failing to meet up with the compulsory 70% class attendance set by the school.

But what is news is that after the music act was informed  of his ineligibility to take the exams he allegedly went to meet with top officials of the school to find a way out, using his star status as a leverage but it seems he has hit a stonewall as the lecturer on his case is hell-bent on making good his threats.

Report also has it that the singer came to school and was seen begging one of the school’s notable official to lean on the lecturer in question but Potpourri can tell you  that his situation is not looking particularly good.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/korede-bello-begs-school-management-to-sit-for-upcoming-exams/

Those Who Acted With Impunity Should Be Prosecuted – Ewuga

By Ruth Choji — Jan 16, 2016 6:00 am

Sen Solomon Ewuga represented Nasarawa North Senatorial Zone in the 7th Senate. In this interview with Ruth Choji, he says people should be made to account for their actions to serve as deterrent to others.

Are you surprised with the kind of money that was allegedly misappropriated by the former NSA and some politicians in the PDP?

I am very surprised because it is reckless but that they did is a sign of the impunity we have in our society. I think these are the things that have come out very clearly to indicate that it was a matter of weak leadership, it had nothing to do with party. Everybody takes a cue from the strength or weakness of the leadership. Once the leadership is weak, anybody can act anyhow and that has manifested. Nobody could call for order. If it wasn’t corruption, what is #1.2bn for special prayers? It is impunity. If we had a strong leadership, we wouldn’t have been having such reckless sub-head. The senate which I was a member approved a loan of one billion dollars ($1bn) for the purchase of arms that none of those arms were bought.

But don’t you think your session in the senate also fail on its part for not doing it oversight function that know whether the funds were put to proper use

That is a different matter, the point here is that, you can’t claim to do what you did not do. Oversight is based on activity of correct government and I was not a member of the committee on defense, so I wouldn’t know what happed. But clearly the money approved for the purchased of arms was not respected from what we are seeing, it shows that nothing was bought.

Nigerians are afraid that some of those indicted might use the ‘plea bargain’ to escape justice. What is your take on this?

Did the government said there was a plea bargain? I think people are jumping to conclusion, if someone is returning money willing, then it is an acceptance of guilt.it is when government action goes outside of Nigerian expectations that Nigerians can talk. I have not seen where government said anything on plea bargain.

Most of these people indicted are from the PDP, some see the fight against corruption as being selective…

When somebody has done wrong, it doesn’t matter where he comes from. People have a way of shifting blames, it is when it is wrong that you are putting sentiments. When they were taking those things, didn’t they know where they belong? If you jobs is to bring clarity and justice to the system, why did you engage in such things? I don’t want to create any coloration in this case. Impunity is impunity and corruption is corruption. Government should prosecute those who have done wrong.

The Federal government has said that it has started withdrawing subsidy, do you think Nigerian are ready for it

I have always felt that it is a very corrupt system that we have. Anything that is done that provides opportunity for someone to be indiscreet, indiscretion that is part of exploitation of the system enjoys protection, remove the protection and you find there is criminality. How much are people already paying for fuel? They are paying the same amount. If it is liberalized, fuel will not be selling for #130.it will be selling for lower price because process will be regulated according to the amount rates. Right now, oil is selling at about $30 at the international market, but you are still paying the price of when it was $120.so it means the issue of subsidy is no longer tenable. If we let it to float, who will be the beneficiary? The masses.

The 2016 budget is being describe by the APC as budget of change, do you think the it is feasible

The budget is the reflection of the thinking of government, the national assembly appropriate based on exigency and expediency as presented and agreed upon by the two arms of government. If the government has the capacity to generate that kind of funds, how can I question it? it will bring an aggregate valuable to the economy for the first time in the history of this country. In the last 20 years, this is the first time we are having a provision for capital budget, which is so much in the budget. The injection of so much money into the budget will mean more business activities and more participating governance. What it means is that it is going to allow people to exploit the opportunity that the budget will create.it is always been trite to know that budget is the prime source of physical discipline. We have so much that we can generate for the economy.

But do you think Nigeria the resources to fund the budget because they are now talking of borrowing

The government said they have the capacity to generate it. Even America borrow to funds its budget and it has the strongest economy. There is nothing wrong with that. What we need to do is increase our productive capacity so that we can pay for the debts we take. People take loans to fund their businesses, are they not making it? There is nothing wrong with loan, it shows the capacity of the government to get money from any source. If you are not credit worthy, nobody will take you.so instead of us to look at things from that kind of inverted approach, agriculture is a capacity that we can pursue with lots of energy. If we can have more stable power than government wants to pursue it, then it means that the economics of scale will work in favor of people who are doing small things like the grinding mills, salon and the rest will be generating more income to keep households In shape. If these is not done, everybody will go to one source, government which is imploding. We need to explore transportation. Sea, rail and vehicular transportation. If we improve our rail, the pressure on the road will reduce and our roads will last longer. The president has said he will activate the railroads, so let’s see what will happen. If he built more road, we should put toll gate because it is only in Nigeria that people have wide road without any kind of re-injection for these roads. Anywhere we go, there is toll gate so that the roads can be maintain. The best is not the ones people cry about, they are about those things that are maintain.

You mention power, the DISCOS has come out to say that, they will increase the tariff any time soon, do you think this will help the poor people of Nigeria

I don’t know the economics of scale in the power sector so I don’t want to say things that I don’t know much about. The most important thing is that they produce power so that the common man will enjoy the benefits.

The government policy that bar Nigerians from withdrawing more than a thousand dollars from their international account is being criticize by many Nigerians. Do you think it was a good one?

It is not economically wise for me to travel and not fund my activities. Nigeria has a large population, you can’t limit them by everything you do.it is understandable that the ATM card is being abused but you put a bar on abuses not the funds. The BVN thing is there to protect this things. If there is no ban on abuse and I am prevented from withdrawing money, then it is wrong. Initially they said it must not be more than $300.00 a day and now it is $1000 a month, how do I pay for my hotel bill? These are the issue that come up. Things must be judge based on how they come out, this will make people to withdraw their children and bring them back home.so it will have a multiplier value to the economy at home. But there are those who will still train heir children abroad, whether it is one thousand naira to the dollar because they have cumulative value abroad. The only thing I will say is that punitive action to reduce people freedom must be reduce to a point where there must be free will. Reducing the amount of dollars to one thousand a month is not good for business.

Going back to the senate, there has been an outcry over the amount they earmark for cars. As a former senator what do you think of this?

I was given a car when I was in the senate but I paid for it. The money was taking from my salary every month. But do you want your senator to come to the senate and be trekking to the chambers every day? If the senate have the capacity to do it, they should do it. These amount is reduce from their salaries, so it is not free. People want you to work but they don’t want to provide you with the tools you will need. Cars must be bought, even if you give them as a loan, it is the same thing.

Coming back to Nassarawa state, the governor is going to build an airport, but some seem to think the state doesn’t need it now

I want to reserve my comment on Nassarawa state.

House of Reps Passes Bill Seeking Increment of Corps Members Allowance

Discussion in 'Metro News' started by RemmyAlex, Yesterday at 4:12 PM

The House of Representatives, yesterday passed for third reading a Bill for an Act seeking to amend the National Youth Service Corps Act 2004 which will bring about an increment in the allowance earned by Corps members in the country, DailyPost gathered.

The Bill which also seeks to provide mandatory life insurance to Corps members was sponsored by Hon Joan Mrakpor, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Delta State. It was unanimously adopted by members.

Passage of the Bill would enable corps members who have acquired special business skill from the Service to have access to loan.



Mrakpor, while calling on his colleagues to support the passage of the bill, said the essence of the Bill’s amendment was to ensure that the aim of the NYSC scheme was not defeated and it would reduce the number of graduates relying on white collar jobs in the country.

Following its passage, the House referred the Bill to the adhoc committee on constitution review for further legislative input.

 

Biafran agitation borne out of ignorance, frustration — Obasanjo

Posted By: Jide Babalola, Assistant Editor and John Ofikhenua, Abujaon: January 16, 2016In: Featured, NewThe renewed agitation for Biafra yesterday came under attack from former President Olusegun Obasanjo who dismissed it as a product of error,ignorance and frustration.

Obasanjo who said he ‘very cautious’ in  getting involved in any debate or conversation with “the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), its many hydra-headed iterations and its resurgent Biafra agitation” said : “at best, the agitation was at regional level and that no inadvertent helping hand should be lent to it, to make it national.”

He spoke at a Development Discourse  organised by Nextier Limited on the Biafra issue Abuja.

Reading from his  prepared speech and speaking extempore at times,the former President said it is also wrong to say that the South East  is marginalised in the scheme of things.

He hailed  South-East leaders who,at a stakeholders’ meeting on December 17, 2015 dismissed the Biafra agenda and called for improvement in their region’s socio-economic situation.

He advised them  to ensure sanity among their youth.

 “No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror of war will ever agitate for more war… If the elders abdicate their responsibility to the immaturity, inadequate experience, unrealistic idealism and the frustration of the young, it will no doubt lead to disaster.

 “Biafra as a secession issue is dead and nobody should follow that way. It can again, only lead to disaster.

“The devil finds work for idle hands and fills empty minds; there is even some suspicion that the agitators embarked on the act in order   to extort   money from outsiders and to also extract financial support from the government.

“The commercialization and exploitation of Biafra agitation is obscene to the point of criminal fraudulence; or, how do you explain the issuance of Biafran passport that takes no one anywhere and for which unwary people are being charged exorbitant prices.

According to Obasanjo, Biafra agitation is “a hopeless and fruitless exercise on which nobody in seriousness should embark”.

“Proffering solutions, the ex-President stated that the resurgent Biafra agitation should be treated as “a cry for attention, amelioration and improvement of socio-economic conditions” of South East youth and their counterparts in other parts.

“Above all, good governance at all levels is the key solution. The welfare and well-being of the citizenry with equity, justice and fairness must be the main pre-occupation of government at all levels”, he added.

On alleged marginalization of the Igbos,he said: “When I became an elected President, an Igbo man was made the minister of finance;an Igbo man was made the governor of Central Bank;an Igbo man was made the minister of transport.

“One day some people came to me and said that the civil war is not over yet and I asked why. They said since the end of the civil war no Igbo man has been the minister of Defence and explained to them that what matters is the service chiefs and we have had Igbos in that position. And I appointed Thompson Aguiyi- Ironsi  (as Minister of State for Defence).”

Northern governors vow to reposition North

Posted By: Tony AKOWE and Abdulgafar ALABELEWE, Kadunaon: January 16, 2016In: News

Northern governors under the auspices of the Northern State Governors Forum said yesterday that they are working hard to restore and revive the legacies left behind by the late Premier of the north, Sir Ahmadu Bello.

Speaking on behalf of the Forum, during th 50th anniversary of the death of the premier, the  Chairman of the forum and governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, said while the late Sardauna did very well for the north, it was the responsibility of present day leaders in the region to invest on the people.

He said the present day leaders of the north would build on the legacies the late Sardauna left behind and  work on how to create jobs for the millions of people that are coming first in the North.

“Unemployment in the north is extremely high. Nigeria is a country of two nations, the South is much more stable and prosperous, the north on the other hand is in a poverty trap. In Nigeria, poverty wears a northern cap, if you are looking for a poor man, get somebody wearing a northern cap,” he said.

Shettima said that the governors would be holding discussions with the Islamic Developmental Bank to see how they can come in.

“Sardauna was a leader of his own generation and every generation come up with its own style of leader. Sardauna did remarkably well for the North and for the nation, our duty, especially for those of us in the North is in our interest to invest in the people.

“Nigeria’s population will double in the next 23 years. By 2020, Nigeria’s population will be around 210 million. By 2030, there will be about 270million Nigerians and by 2050, when old men like me might not be around, the population will be around 440million.

“By then, we will be the third most populous nation on earth and most importantly, 70% of the population will be living in Northern Nigeria. Deforestation, desertification, joblessness, hopelessness, illetracy, unemployment, low access to health facilities are all recepies for disaster.

“It is in our enlightened self interest as northern leaders to invest in the people, to invest in agriculture, to create jobs because, there is a direct correlation with endemic poverty and most of the crisis threatening the north,” he said.

He assured that the northern governors were working assiduously as a team to address the monumental challenges confronting the north.

Answering question on when north started to decline , he said, “I rather look forward than to be mourning about the past, the most important thing is how we can build on the legacies he has left behind and how to create jobs for the millions of people that are coming first in the North.

“The emergence of Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker, House of Representative and B.D Lawal as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, had a tremendous influence on inter-communary relationship in northern Nigeria such that we are now more united than before.

ALERT: If You See THIS Bug, Do NOT Let It Get Near You… Actually, Run the Other Way

A warning has just been issued by the Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention about the latest health scare – a bug called triatomine, or commonly referred to as the “kissing” bug. According to CDC, it can even kill a human.

This bug may seem harmless, but it actually transmits a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, which becomes deadly once it enters a human body. This parasite causes Chagas disease, which has affected over 8 million people worldwide.

This is what the “kissing” bug looks like.

Prevalent in Latin America, Chagas disease can cause heart problems and lead to death. The symptoms start two months upon contracting the infection and include fever, headaches, enlarged lymph glands, muscle pain, and difficulty breathing. As these symptoms resemble flu, they are quite difficult to identify.

When symptoms start to develop, the infected person can get skin lesions or a purplish swelling on the eyelids of one eye.

There are two phases of development in Chagas disease. The first phase has fewer symptoms than the second, which usually misguides people into believing they’ve got the flu.

10% of infected people report digestive problems, whereas 30% experience cardiac issues once the second phase develops.

There’s no available immunization for this disease; however Chagas disease is treatable. If the disease is detected early, the treatment is almost 100% effective.

In order to increase your protective measures, the WHO advises using insecticide to spray your house and maintaining proper personal hygiene, especially when near food.

If the host rubs the bite, there’s a higher risk of the disease being spread as the bug normally defecates into the bite, and the fecal matter infects the bite with the deadly parasite.

The northern regions are the only area of the United States which aren’t at risk, including New England and New York State.

- See more at: http://www.healthyfoodteam.com/alert-if-you-see-this-bug-do-not-let-it-get-near-you-actually-run-the-other-way/#sthash.j5kV1jTp.dpuf

NYSC Bars Posting Engineers To Teach In Secondary Schools

BY OUR REPORTER ON JANUARY 13, 2016

The National Youth Service Corps has concluded plans to halt the posting of engineers to secondary schools and other places of primary assignment different from Engineering Institutions. The agreement was reached by the Directorate of NYSC and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).

Speaking at the Pre-Inauguration stakeholders’ workshop of the 30th President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers held yesterday in Abuja, the President of COREN, Engineer Kashim A. Ali, disclosed that the Council has secured an agreement with the Director General of NYSC to what he referred to as prevention of wrong training of Engineers. He also said that the Director of Mobilization of NYSC has also been notified of the new development and they have fashioned modalities for its success.

Ali said “Posting engineers during their service year to places they will not benefit is depriving them the opportunity of training and by implication the country is losing. The DG of NYSC agreed with us and directed the Director of Mobilization to ensure that engineers are posted to only engineering institutions.

“To help him, the Director of Mobilization requested that we should assist to give them the names of engineering organizations in all the states of the federation so that when they are doing their posting they will send them to such places.”

(Peter Ogbonna Eze, SUN NEWS ONLINE)

For affordable, accessible healthcare embrace insurance’

Posted By: OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHAon: January 08, 2016In: HEALTH

•Dr Idahosa

 Aside non-accessibility of healthcare services, another obstacle many Nigerians complain of is non-affordability.  In this interview with OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA, the Director, Managed Healthcare Services Limited (MHS), Dr Gabriel Idahosa, speaks on how Health Maintanance Organisations (HMOs) are bridging the gap.

As  the director of an organisation that  is among those that were the earliest Health Maintanance Organisations (HMOs) registered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), how will you assess the sector?

The health care maintenance industry did not exist about 15 years ago and health care maintenance organisations do what is simply ‘pooling of resources’, because anytime an individual goes to the hospital he/she has to pay the bills if he does not have any other person to pay it. So, what health maintenance does is to bring a lot of people together who pay a fixed amount monthly or yearly with guarantee that if at anytime they need health care, they can walk to their healthcare provider and get services and whatever the bill is, it is the health maintenance organisation that pays. So, once you are subscribed to a plan of Managed Healthcare Services Limited (MHS), for instance, and you have paid your monthly or yearly subscription fee and you then need to see your doctor, you will get treated. All you need do is to present your NHIS card and thereafter get the treatment and go away. The doctor or hospital sends the bill to MHS to settle. It guarantees you access to healthcare and you don’t have to have the anxiety of having to pay each time you go because you already have a plan that covers you and your family. If your wife or child needs medical care and it is under your plan, you don’t have to worry about not being around the family, all they just need is to go to the hospital and get treated. It is something that has been done in other countries for a long time.

About 15 years ago, Nigeria didn’t have it, MHS and a few other organisations were the pioneers who worked with the government, convinced the government to set up a regulatory body called National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which regulates the industry and gives licences for operators.

There is the issue of ease of use of healthcare facilities by subscribers. What is your take on this?

MHS was one of the first HMO to get a licence and since then, has been one of the leading HMOs and it has, among its list, very large Federal Government and   private agencies. We have offices and staff in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). So, whenever our client is out of his state of residence, he only needs to identify our service provider in any of the states to access healthcare services. So, even if a member is travelling outside the country, he only needs to identify a provider by MHS in the neighbourhood and go there and show his or her card or NHIS number, the hospital will contact MHS to confirm if he or she is registered with it. So, even if your provider is in Lagos, you can get another provider in any part of the country to attend to you once you show your card or number and they are one of our listed provider. It guarantees you freedom of access where ever you are. It is not a case of I am resident in Lagos and it is only in Lagos I can get access to healthcare. If you have a health issue outside Lagos, you don’t have to take care of it by yourself.  MHS gives you access and freedom of choice of location. Another initiative MHS is doing as part of the accessibility and affordability reform to get results is that it helps the companies to have a fix on what they will spend in a year. So, if a company has 100 workers and agrees on an amount with MHS, that company will know it cannot get bills from different hospitals its members of staff go to when they access treatment. The bills do not go to the hospitals either, the bills go to MHS. MHS has foreknowledge of the company’s budget for the year and it is not shocked, but rather deep into the ‘pool’ and settles the hospitals based on how much the company will spend on staff treatment. And for the staff, it gives peace of mind that the employers have paid for his or her treatment with MHS and they can go to any clinic to get treated anytime.This is a service that has been perfected and has become reliable for a large number of federal agencies and private agencies.

Is it the same plan/policy for your clients who choose this?

No. There are several types of plans. We have the basic plan, which is for people who just want to go to the hospital. There are other levels of plans where you can go for admission; and very high level where you can be entitled to evacuation to any foreign country for treatment depending on your level and what type of plan you can afford, that covers a whole range of services you enjoy as a subscriber to an MHS plan. There are various levels or plans these are – Basic, Silver, Platinum and so on. For some plans, you are entitled to all the treatments things. When you pay for a plan that includes over-seas evacuation; for example, when you enrol for the plan, it will be clearly stated in what you get, that you are entitled to all these things so it is up to the individual registering to make that kind of choice.

How has the public embraced this initiative?

The evidence of that is that we have a very large number of people that are from members of the public that are not federal agencies and there are a very large number of companies that have enrolled with MHS. In addition, because of the benefits we offer through this initiative, individuals register themselves and their family, groups like cooperative societies, and communities subscribe to the health plan as well. It has an extra benefit of operating within one’s budget that is why a lot of associations are subscribing their members. And it is funny that based on this, many people are joining such associations to benefit from this plan.

Since the introduction of HMOs, how can you assess the state of wellness of Nigerians?

Wellness in terms of physical wellness or fitness, HMOs have not done much. HMOs really are to champion preventive healthcare, so that not much money will be spent on treatment. There is the need for HMOs to create this awareness. Awareness for people to be better informed about what you need to do to be healthy. The HMOs have to do more of health education, which is the major activity of the HMOs. They should organise health sessions with the companies who are their customers and organise for communities who are not even their customers as part of their CSRs (corporate Social Responsibilities).They should go to communities or associations to deliver health care education because a lot of illnesses occur because of ignorance based on the food you eat, lifestyles. If you have knowledge of those things, you will be safe. HMOs know what to eat, the kind of exercises people need to do, type of lifestyle to lead, how you sit down, the type and correct posture when you sit i.e when you have back or neck pain. The basic information on health must be given. In fairness to MHS, it does these all the time for its customers or be invited by groups who are not customers to come and give health education to staff.

Are you saying HMOs are principally after profits and are under serving Nigerians?

An HMO is a health maintenance organisation not a disease curing organisation. In maintenance, you already have good health but HMO wants to ensure that you continue to maintain that good health.  The last thing an HMO wants to do is to go to a hospital, it will prefer that your health is good. For instance, when some take insurance for a car, it is not that they want to have an accident with the car but you really don’t want to have an accident with the car. It is the same thing. An HMO really doesn’t want to go to the hospital. So, at MHS, we try to give you the education that you need to have your good health so you don’t have to go to the hospital, but if after all of that you still have to go to the hospital, then we are ready to make sure that you don’t have an unhealthy body.

In Nigeria, there is problem of compliance to an agreement. In 15 years, what has been the compliance level for individuals, associations and groups towards their subscriptions?

Like every other business, there is a level of performance; it will take about 100 activities to determine some things. Whether it is paying bills or people going to work, you find out that people will be late, it happens also in the industry. Some subscribers may delay in payment, some may come and negotiate with you and say this is when they want to pay, some even pay in advance before you ask them to pay. I will say in the industry the compliance level is very high. We have about 90 per cent enrolees who pay on time.  We still have that small percentage of people who delay payments and are owing but the compliance level is very high, because it is about your health not about something else like house rent, or a car.

President Muhammadu Buhari has presented a budget to the National Assembly. As an expert, which areas do you advise the Federal Government to look into so that the major health challenges can be tackled?

HMO as an organisation believes that preventive medicine reduces the number of people who attend the hospital. So that should take a lot of our budget allocation. This is because if people are not sick, the government will not need to maintain the hospital with a lot of money, in form of facilities. A chunk of previous budget goes to public health facilities and institutions in form of salaries and commodities. So, the minister should ensure that he reduced the rate at which people go to the hospital. A healthy community will give a clear view of what our budget is meant to address. Everything about health is about the well-being of the people. There are three things we need to do when we talk of medicine – access, adequate human resources, infrastructure and affordability.

Acessibility can be seen from three perspectives – the presence of a facility (physical structure) called a health care facility does not automatically mean a person has access to the health care facility. The healthcare industry means health care facilities from the primary, secondary and down to the tertiary/teaching hospitals that are functional and should have the necessary equipment and environment to ensure that they work. They must have the equipment in place, the manpower, and the environment to make them work effectively. You must put in place a budget to ensure that once you walk into an hospital, you get that treatment that is comparable with what we get in any other part of the world.

The issue of health care tourism is a problem. We have many Nigerians getting treatment abroad, not because they can’t get the treatment here but because they have the feeling that the facilities are not there.

The right healthcare personnel and availability of drugs are also important. If these things are addressed in such a way that people will have faith in our structures, that they will get the right treatment and the right personnel, then no one will go far.

But it is not everybody that is expected to walk into  a secondary or tertiary facility…

The primary health care level is where most Nigerians access care. The primary health care centres must be made to function. We know that it is the government that is meant to take care of the primary health care facilities but I will believe that the local government should take it from where the Federal Government reached. It should ensure that the primary healthcare facilities are well taken care of, while the Federal Government and even some states take care of the tertiary institutions and secondary health care facilities. Nigerians should get to a stage where they will feel comfortable that they will get that anticipated level of care.

Some things that are necessary are adequate water resources and infrastructure. We must work within the context of infrastructure and institute an efficient healthcare management system that will enable us measure the  industry. For instance, on a particular day, the number of deliveries that took place, or say, we had a number of people coming to access healthcare facility, determining the particular causes of illnesses and the number of people with that illness. That will help us plan and when planning, we can say, since we have so many people coming up with malaria, can we have an effective intervention to prevent malaria or since we are having these number of deliveries? Can we plan and say what the population of Nigeria is going to be using these basic important healthcare indices and statistics. Getting these proper healthcare statistics is important in planning and the development of any nation.

Many enrolees complain of not getting their cards. How are you resolving this at the MHS?

The essence of the card is for the provider to see that the person is an enrolee of MHS. Each card has a number. If you don’t have the card but has a number and you tell the hospital or the MHS,you will be attended to. Most people will copy that number and leave the card at home than leave the card at home without copying the number. Two things we look for in the card are the number and photograph but if you have the number and they access their system and identify you with that number, they will give you the treatment. Most people normally will carry their cards.