Incredible! That is the only way I can describe the latest scandal involving the Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Ambassador Sam Edem. The police arrested the man last Friday in Abuja for allegedly contracting the services of a native doctor with N510m. Edem even reportedly put the total amount at N800m. The allegation is that he hired the sorcerer to do a few things for him.

Nigeria is an interesting country. For a man of this standing to be associated with this dirty, mundane thing is outrageous. It confirms that ours, indeed, is a backward society. Recall that a few years ago, some political gladiators in the eastern part of the country made some allegations and counter allegations about their patronage of Okija shrine in Anambra State.

Every passing week, Nigerians contend with a menu of crisis. If it‘s not building collapse, it will be multiple accidents that will claim many lives. If it‘s not sad exploits of armed robbers, it may be some accidental discharge from a trigger-happy policeman. In all this, the Niger Delta remains the main hot spot.

People hardly sleep with their two eyes closed in many parts of that region, as kidnapping turns into a lucrative business. Last Tuesday, gunmen reportedly abducted some women returning from a political meeting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. The bandits demanded N100m ransom. In the same Port Harcourt, gang wars and cult clashes hold sway. Militants have blown and continue to blow oil pipelines. Soldiers and other security agents have a torrid time trying to contain the crisis in the region. Some of them die in the process. In revenge, they usually visit their anger on hapless, innocent citizens. Recall that last week, soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force on the Niger Delta razed Agge community in Bayelsa State.

That the Niger Delta crisis has persisted up until now is because of our inclination for monumental insincerity. The Henry Willink’s Commission of 1958 recommended that the Federal Government should pay special attention to the area. The government’s response then, perhaps, was to establish the Niger Delta Development Board to tackle issues of development in the region. By 1966 when this board died naturally, it could not achieve much for the region. After the Civil War, oil revenue boomed. But doom was another name for the lot of the people of the region.

To show some façade of concern, the Federal Government set up the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission in 1992. Allegations of corruption marred whatever plans the body had. The people of the area intensified their agitation for better life. Ogoni people became a thorn in the flesh of the government. To silence them, the government set up the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force. The climax of the madness then was the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Sani Abacha military junta. The administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo replaced OMPADEC with the Niger Delta Development Commission in 2001. The commission’s task, among others, is to facilitate rapid and sustainable development of the region. The NDDC may have built some infrastructural facilities here and there. But can we really say that it has justified its continued existence?

The current crisis in the region indicates otherwise. It is as if nothing has been done. Authorities of the commission claim the government is not funding it well. Managing Director, Timi Alaibe, said last year that the commission was being owed about N224bn spanning over seven years. Now we know where part of the money has gone to – spiritual consultations. Ironically, the same NDDC, whose chairman is embroiled in the voodoo dance, sponsored a prayer conference, which held in Port Harcourt last Friday. The initiative, according to the organisers, was to restore peace and sanity in the region.

Part of our problems in Nigeria is insincerity. People capitalise on crisis situations to make money. I will be surprised if some of the sponsors and organisers of this prayer conference did not make good money from the event. That was how the Federal Government embarked on a wild goose chase in 2005 with the setting up of the National Political Reform Conference. That conference ended abruptly when the northern delegates opposed demands by the South-South delegates for a 50 per cent increase in the derivation formula. Nothing came out of the conference even when huge amount of money had gone down the drain.

Following the same tradition of deceit, the Federal Government recently proposed a Niger Delta summit, but appointed an unpopular candidate, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to chair it. The overwhelming opposition against Gambari forced the FG to shelve the summit. Now, it rather prefers a ”discussion” (whatever that means).

Many individuals and organisations have made different suggestions on how to solve the Niger Delta problem. In 2006, 65 Nobel laureates visited the area. They suggested, among others, that oil companies should establish what they called a community investment fund. This is to take care of some developmental needs of the region. Some concerned citizens have proposed an amendment of the Petroleum Act of 1969. This Act gives ownership of petroleum products to the FG. The oil-bearing communities are left without any control over oil resources in their land.

In a piece he contributed to some national dailies last week, former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Victor Attah, said militancy and restiveness in the Niger Delta would end if there were massive infrastructural and human development, employment creation and restoration of human dignity. To start with, he proposed the development of four new towns in the Niger Delta: one each in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Delta states.

He stressed, ”The new towns would not only come with a certain euphoria, but would indeed provide employment during and after construction…I am convinced that the mere start of these projects would provide an alternative, and a much more dignified engagement for the militants, it would win the co-operation of all and bring about the much needed peace.” According to him, new towns bring about employment, roads, power, water, good communications, schools, hospitals and other amenities.

This is a good suggestion. But who will bring the initiative to fruition? It is unfortunate that a region that yearns for rapid development gets nothing, but doses of voodoo and conferences. Until we stop chasing shadows, we will never grow as a nation.

THE message was short and direct: ”When those in authority have pushed their people to the wall, what else do you expect? A revolution! Watch out!” This is one of the reactions to my piece last week. It came from an unknown group that calls itself the Nigerian Revolution Force. Though the group appears to be over-ambitious in its mission, there is no doubt that Nigerians are angry. They are bitter with our leaders, past and present. They are dejected by a life of squalor amid plenty. And they are confused as to how the nation will come out of this self-inflicted mess.

One of the topical issues in the country is the fleecing of our unemployed youths by some government agencies. A few days ago, we learnt that the authorities of the Nigerian Police Force made N2bn from job seekers. Each of the applicants bought a scratch card for N2,000 to enable them apply online. The Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, reportedly said they embarked on the e-recruitment system to generate funds for the smooth operations of the force. Incidentally, Okiro did not just make money for his force; he also empowered the consultant who designed the system. According to reports, the consultant received N1.2bn while the police got N800m. Recall that scores of youths died recently during the recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service. Have we learnt any lessons?

Just as Abia citizens are still mourning the loss of scores of people to what some have termed mystery fire after a prayer session in Isialangwa South, about 10 or more people perished last Thursday at Orile-Iganmu area of Lagos. A petrol tanker, which burst into flames, caused the tragedy. There were different accounts of what caused the accident. But it is either that the tanker fell into a ditch on the road or the driver was careless about the maintenance of his vehicle. Either way, we have not learnt any lessons.

Last week, I got a message from a potential student of the Lagos State University. He said he would write the post University Matriculation Examination for LASU on August 1. But by July 21, he had already seen the English and mathematics questions. ”Nigeria has truly degenerated,” the young man lamented.

The day I got this message, a relation of mine called from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Her own message was simple. ”Could you help me to write something?” she asked. She mentioned the topic and said it would be 30 pages. That is a term paper. Even as I advised her to do some research and do it herself, she reminded me that most of her colleagues got people to write it for them. What this means is that these people, who might have entered the university through the efforts of mercenaries, will continue to hire people to do some of their assignments. They graduate with little or no knowledge of the subject they studied. Ultimately, they swell the ranks of job seekers and, perhaps, claim that a particular company rejected them because they refused to sleep with the managing director.

In the larger society, the problems are just too many. As someone who discusses Nigeria‘s problems at different forums, I‘m beginning to have constant headache now. Year in, year out, the same problems keep recurring. Most comments and editorials in the media this year are a repetition of the issues discussed in previous years: Niger Delta crises, cement and fertiliser scam, water and electricity problems, poor and dilapidated roads, railway and aviation contract fraud, election manipulations, pipeline and tanker fires, etc. They only have different pegs and headlines. What then do we do?

Some people have resigned to fate, hoping that there will be divine intervention someday. This is currently the thinking of members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. They are currently on strike over welfare and salary issues. But since the Federal Government has not acceded to their request, they decided to embark on what they call prayer and fasting session. The prayer is for God to deal with their enemies and give them victory.

This only reminds me of a ”prayer for the salvation of Africa,” which was popular in the Catholic Church some years ago. It seems that that prayer has died naturally. I remember one morning in the early 90s, when we were saying our family prayers. My mother led the prayers that day. After about one hour of reciting the rosary and making other supplications, many of us were itching for an end to the prayers. It was then my mother started the prayer for the salvation of Africa. Now furious, my father shouted her down saying, ”My friend, salvage yourself first before salvaging Africa. Close this prayer!”

A few years ago, the Catholic Church produced another prayer called ”Prayer for Nigeria in distress.” Essentially, the prayer is for God to save this nation from anarchy and doom. That prayer seems to be going the way of African-salvation prayer, as I have not been hearing much of it these days.

In any case, our problems are man-made. And so, our salvation is in our hands. An adult who is in the habit of bed-wetting should not expect anybody but himself to wash his bedding.

We must all learn to change our value system. If the citizenry could behave themselves, then they can have the moral right to call their leaders to account. Some readers took me to task for not supporting a revolution in my piece last week. They contend that nothing short of a bloody revolution will sanitise the Nigerian system.

Revolution is prone to different interpretations. And how do you even rescue innocent people who may fall victim of a bloody insurrection? What we need is a peaceful revolution - a revolution that will change the mindset of our people from docility to action - citizen action.

Let me explain. At a recent meeting of my town union in Lagos, people complained bitterly about the current repair work on the Nnobi-Isuofia-Ekwulobia Road in Anambra State. The contractor handling the work, they alleged, abandoned the project at the Igbo-ukwu end of the road. From Isuofia down to Ekwulobia is still in a terrible state. The anger was largely directed at a prominent politician from the state, who is suspected to be handling the contract. The parent union had reportedly invited the legislator representing the area in the House of Representatives for explanations. The man did not honour the invitation. I understand they have sent another invitation to him.

Many towns in Igboland have unions. I believe other towns or villages in the other regions have similar groupings. Such groups should learn to confront their political leaders, and, perhaps, their relatives and those who work closely with them whenever they try to take people for a ride.

This should be the starting point. My fear is that this may not happen yet because some people are still profiting from the Nigerian crises. A country where a group of people, mainly students and market women, trooped to the streets ostensibly to protest the nullification of the election of a former governor Liyel Imoke may not be ready for this citizen action yet. But a time may come when the money we collect from politicians will be so worthless that it may not buy anything meaningful. That, perhaps, will be the time we will all be roused to action.

Bat is a strange mammal. It is ugly, mouse-like and nocturnal. But unlike other mammals, it can fly. Recently, the strangeness of this animal manifested in Norwich, England. Foreign media reports indicated that a 19-year-old lady felt some vibrations in her bra. For about five hours, she endured the thing, thinking it was the mobile phone in her jacket pocket. When the vibration persisted, Abbie Hawkins decided to check her 34FF underwear. Curiously, she found a baby bat taking a nap there. Apparently, this strange lover got to the bra the previous day when the underwear was on the washing line. As Hawkins reportedly put it, “I put my hand down my bra and pulled out a cuddly little bat. That shocked me very much at the time, but it scuttled off under the desk into the dark…It looked quite cosy and comfortable in there so it was quite rude of me to take it out.”

Like Hawkins, Nigeria has some bats in her belfry or bra if you like. To have bats in the belfry means to be crazy, eccentric or mad. There is no better way to describe what life is gradually turning into in this country than this. A few examples will suffice here.

Last Wednesday, some newspapers reported the tragic death of scores of people in Abia State after a deliverance prayer. The Nigerian Tribune headline says, “40 die after deliverance prayer.” The Daily Sun of the same day says, “Mystery fire consumes 30 family members.” Essentially, the story is that these people organised a prayer and deliverance session in their compound to arrest a series of spiritual problems purportedly hindering the progress of members of the family. Apparently, they belonged to the same extended family.

According to the Daily Sun account, after the prayer, came the deliverance session. This involved the exhumation of charms some enemies allegedly buried in the compound. As this was going on, a mysterious fire reportedly came like a wind and consumed everybody in sight. The Nigerian Tribune account says the dead were members of Deeper Life Church. And that a zonal coordinator of the church organised the prayer session in his newly built house, which he had not slept in because of perceived spiritual attacks. The incident occurred at Umuolihe village near Omoba in the Isialangwa South Local Government Area.

Almost the same period, the nation witnessed the demise of some youths, who had gone for immigration and prison service recruitment. Over a dozen applicants reportedly died during the exercise. Tens of thousands of job seekers had applied for these limited vacancies.

I was saddened the more when I read reports that over 64 million Nigerian youths are unemployed. The Minister of Youth Development, Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, who gave this grim report last week, said of the 16 million youths that were engaged, 1.6 million of them were underemployed. This means that more than 80 per cent of the 80 million Nigerian youths are unemployed.

Most of the few who are working go through hell taking care of siblings, relations and hangers-on. Teachers have been on strike because what they receive as salary barely lasts for one week. So far, they have not been able to get what they are asking for. And so, the Nigeria Union of Teachers enjoined its members to embark on a regular prayer session. This is to invoke nemesis to deal with their enemies. Happily, there is no mystery fire yet.

Tanker drivers have just called off their own strike. Even oil workers equally agitate for better conditions of service. Soldiers may not be able to organise themselves to go on strike. But the other day, they went on the rampage in Akure over peacekeeping allowances. Many workers see and read about profligacy in high places. Yet, their conditions keep deteriorating everyday.

This is partly why many of our compatriots will do anything possible to migrate abroad. Recently, scores of Nigerian illegal migrants drowned off the southern coast of Spain. Over 100 of them attempted to enter that country illegally. They had paid thousands of dollars to a syndicate that reportedly promised them safe entry to Spain. At various embassies in the country, thousands of Nigerians queue everyday to obtain visas to foreign countries. Last Wednesday, a middle-aged woman reportedly slumped and died while waiting to procure German visa in Lagos.

Life doesn’t seem to have any meaning here anymore. Millions of children are dying of preventable diseases every year. Some of those who survive have become articles of trade. The majority of the adult population are at the mercy of poverty-related diseases. The Niger Delta is boiling. The power situation is worsening rather than improving. Some major bridges are vibrating. Railways are comatose. The other name for roads here is gullies. Last Wednesday, a trailer truck with two full containers fell at Ijora, crushing a pick-up van. The country is moving dangerously from a failing state to a failed one. And native doctors and prophets are making fortunes from desperate citizens.

Nothing typifies this bedlam called Nigeria better than the confusion over President Umaru Yar’Adua’s birthday. His actual birthday is August 16. But some highly placed public officials thought his birthday was July 9. And so, they were beside themselves with congratulatory adverts. The President himself did not find it necessary to correct the mistake until THE PUNCH broke the story last Tuesday.

The desperate situation in Nigeria is largely a result of an insensitive leadership. The tragedy is that our leaders do not seem to appreciate this fact. Yar’Adua and his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, reportedly spent N655.97m on foreign trips in the first six months of the year. This, according to a report by THE PUNCH, is only N63.49m short of the N719,463,736 allocated for their international travels and transport in the 2008 budget. Perhaps, there will be a supplementary budget to take care of more foreign trips that will likely follow. The legislators, on their part, have taken good care of themselves through probes and capacity-building funds. The judiciary has its problems, as some judges are known to have compromised their position.

Some Nigerians have suggested a revolution. This may not solve the problem. But those in positions of authority should know that they are pushing their citizens to the wall. They should take a cue from what happened in Peru earlier this month. Thousands of protesters embarked on strikes and marches across that country to protest the life of squalor they are subjected to amid an economic boom. They accused President Alan Garcia of betraying his socialist roots.

Every mad situation demands eccentric solutions. This is where I tend to support the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, who suggested recently that those who wish to govern this country should be subjected to a psychiatric test before they go for any leadership position.

Before we all run mad, we need that psychiatric test desperately!

MOST honourable members of the National Assembly are very busy at the moment. They have probed and are still probing some past activities of government agencies and parastatals. Ndudi Elumelu and his committee investigated the embezzlement of the power sector funds. The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory examined Abuja land allocations and revocations. Currently, there is an enquiry into the mismanagement of the N19.5bn aviation intervention fund, etc. Last week, Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, hinted that more of these public hearings were in the offing. Not only has the wind of these probes exposed the rump of corruption involving past government functionaries, but has also revealed some lacunas surrounding the exercise.

Obviously, what Mark is saying is that those who allegedly attempted to bribe members of the Senate committee on aviation will go scot-free; that nothing will happen to those who allegedly inflated the N6.5bn safe tower rehabilitation contract by N5.5bn; and that Nigerians should forgive and forget the mindless looting of over $10bn power sector funds.

At least, Mark is sincere. He didn‘t want Nigerians to have any illusion about the outcome of the probes. Some past administrations, which also embarked on probes, made some noise about them. At the end, they all became an exercise in futility. There was Justice Obiora Nwazota Judicial Commission of Enquiry that investigated the mismanagement of Nigeria Airways. That commission toiled for about 12 months to gather facts. On May 8 2002, it submitted four volumes of report. This indicted some prominent citizens of this country and proposed some sanctions. Till date, nothing has come out of the report.

What of the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel? For about three years, that one traversed the length and breadth of the country, collecting information on how past military regimes abused the rights of Nigerians. Today, the report is still gathering dust somewhere. Nigerians had also witnessed the Christopher Kolade panel on contracts and licences; Pius Okigbo panel on the $12.4bn Gulf War oil windfall; and many other panels.

The question is, why does our National Assembly still fancy probe panels when their reports will virtually amount to nothing? I wish to hazard some answers. One, setting up investigative panels may be a way of settling scores with real and perceived opponents. For instance, the Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba Committee that investigated the mismanagement of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund last year gave the impression that the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar was the main target. Recall that the committee indicted Abubakar for diverting and mismanaging public funds. It recommended that he should be sanctioned. Curiously, the same committee did not prescribe any punishment for former President Olusegun Obasanjo who, it admitted, acted outside the law and did not follow due process. The report was generally seen as an extension of Obasanjo‘s personal war against Abubakar then. Even the probe of the Abuja land allocations under Nasir el-Rufai had the same vindictive undertone.

Two, probes are another avenue for committee members to make more money. Of course they cannot embark on such hectic national duties without collecting sitting allowances. We are familiar with the penchant of our lawmakers for agitation for allowances under different guises. A report in THE PUNCH last Friday indicated that the proposed probe of the oil sector by an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives would gulp about N273m. The money is to cover for consultancy charges, running the secretariat, publicity, and a capacity building retreat for members. Each member of the panel is also expected to go home with N20, 000 per day for the 90 days the investigation will last. This is not ruling out the temptation of bribery.

If the lawmakers had genuine intentions with regard to this avalanche of probes, why have they pussyfooted about the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill? This is a law that will help ease the workload of the lawmakers. It is a law that will ensure transparency in public office. With it in place, there may not be much need for probes. The 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives are accountable to the over 140 million Nigerians who are desirous of change. But most of these legislators who profess to be working for the interest of their constituents have continued to reject the FOI Bill.

But we need to let them know that while we appreciate their preoccupation with the activities of the past regime, we will appreciate it more if they devote more time to their major responsibility, which is to make law. Last May, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, admitted that they had not done well in lawmaking. The last legislative session, Bankole observed, passed 35 bills after one year. The incumbent legislators could only boast of passing 11 out of 65 bills after their own one year in office.

This low productivity is in spite of the lawmakers’ often-touted capacity-building trips abroad. The truth is that they build the capacity more in their bank accounts. They collect money from ministries and elsewhere for oversight functions. Yet, the cases of corruption they are now probing happened under their noses. Why couldn‘t the committees of the previous assembly discover the crimes then during their oversight functions? I will not be surprised if the next assembly spends time and money to probe how the Ministry of Health mismanaged the N300m unspent 2007 budget of the ministry.

As if to confirm that the probes are an exercise in abracadabra, the National Economic Council, last month, appointed three principal characters, who supervised the rot in the power ministry, to a committee that will monitor investments in the power sector. They are Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu; Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke; and Gombe State governor, Danjuma Goje.

Can there be a better circus show than this?

I was privy to a discussion of two young women recently. One told the other that her menses were causing her stomach upset. She last experienced this some years back when she had not started having children. The other asked her if she had been using contraceptives. She answered in the negative, saying her husband only used condoms. The other woman shrugged and noted, ”My husband does not like condom o!” Even, the two women do not fancy injectables. The assumption is that they have side effects and could make a woman look like an inflated balloon.

One, they may decide to keep them in the family and train them to the best of their ability. When the child grows to a certain level, they either give them out to relations as housemaids or houseboys or they release them to the larger society, where they grow to become social miscreants.

The kids may show some signs of mental retardation or sickness due largely to malnutrition and lack of adequate care. In this case, the parents will likely visit prayer houses or what passes for a church. There, they may label them witches or wizards. Prayer warriors will then start a series of exorcism. ”Holy Ghost fire! Die by fire!” they are wont to chant. They torture, machete, abandon and, sometimes, burn these kids alive.

This is exactly what is happening in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states. Courtesy of a United Kingdom registered charity organisation, Stepping Stone Nigeria, we got to know that over 15, 000 children are suffering this problem in the two states. Abandoned by those who gave birth to them, they roam the streets begging for alms and looking for where to retire at night. Some die off. Some fall into the hands of ritualists and rapists.

The problem is not peculiar to Nigeria. A particular family, which came to London from Congo to seek asylum, allegedly accused a little girl living with them of witchcraft. They tortured her, cut her with a knife, rubbed peppers in her eyes, tied her in a sack for days and finally threw her out of their house. The culprits were later reportedly convicted on cruelty charges.

Kids who escape allegations of witchcraft may end up as articles of trade. Recently, in Aba, Abia State, the police arrested some pregnant girls and their matron, Mrs Grace Erondu (80), for alleged involvement in the illicit trade of trading in babies. At Erondu‘s maternity, a baby boy reportedly goes for N250,000, while a baby girl goes for about N200,000. This woman, who claimed to be a prayer warrior, bathes her girls with alcoholic drinks to exorcise them of evil spirits.

A few days after the Aba arrest, security agents raided another home in Enugu and arrested 22 pregnant girls. Also arrested was the patron of the “maternity,” Dr. Kenneth Akune. The alleged crime blew open when a woman arrested with a day-old baby confessed that she bought it at the so-called maternity for N340, 000.

We are wont to blame poverty for this kind of mindless trade. This is true to an extent. But what kind of poverty will push a parent to sell his baby? Or move him to push her out of his house in the guise that she is a witch? Even wild animals don‘t behave this way. They cherish and protect their offspring against any predator.

Indeed, our society is becoming more conscienceless and savage. And we are the most religious country in the world. The truth is that many of the self-styled prophets and seers in our midst see religion as a big business venture. They trade on the ignorance and feeble-mindedness of people to make their money. You can never visit them without being told of a looming imaginary death, an accident that will soon happen or a child who flies in the night to attend a meeting of witches. Out of panic, the person concerned may offer money to obtain prayers that will seemingly avert the predicted calamity.

We will never progress as a nation if we continue this way. A newborn baby has his own right to life and decent living. Whoever denies him that right should face the full weight of the law. And this is where the government comes in. It must enforce the relevant laws that deal with illegal sale and trafficking in persons, even as it should endeavour to improve the economic condition of the citizens. It should also standardise and publicise the procedure for child adoption.

All the states of the federation should also endeavour to adopt the Child Rights Act of 2003. So far, only 14 states have adopted the law, which is an offshoot of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention urges countries to take appropriate measures to protect the child against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions or beliefs of the child‘s parents, guardians or family members.

On their part, couples should ensure they have the number of children they can adequately cater for. Those who cannot control their libido should sit down, like the woman with painful menstruation and her friend, and discuss the family planning method that best suits their belief and condition.

Feedback

Dear Casmir,

I have a confession to make – I love you… Though I am a 54-year-old lady, conservative and proper, I cannot contain myself. Every time I read your piece, I feel like embracing you and pecking your cheeks – Yes! You are “just too much.” I have been “in love” since you were in Cardiff. Your write-ups are incisive and very thorough. Sundays would be incomplete without them. In fact, I read the “last page” first. This goes to show the importance of finding one’s purpose in life. No doubt, Casmir, you were born to write. May your “well” never run dry. Amen.

Mrs. F. Martins, Ifako,

anjolam@yahoo.com.

Dear Casmir,

Thanks for your piece “MTN, free airtime and phone abusers.” It‘s superb. I wonder why our people behave strangely. As a radio and television presenter, I give out my phone number for reasonable clients to book advert appointments. Alas! What do I get in return? Endless flashing, terrible text messages like “are you married?” “Who are you?” “Send me credit” and lots more. They no longer understand simple instruction, “Please call for advert placement only”. It‘s a terrible trend. I think networks should charge for flashing, so that our people can find better things to do with their time instead of disturbing other people‘s peace!

Mrs. Bimpe Atofolaki,

Sango-Otta, 08072324558.

TO sell somebody down the river is an idiom. It means to betray somebody, especially to one’s own advantage. I find this expression very apt, especially against the background of some happenings in the country today. First, former Heads of State (Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar) openly exonerated their late colleague, Sani Abacha, from the allegations that he looted public treasury. Four days later, precisely on June 12, the erstwhile Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, came out with his own truth. At the launch of his book: Laying the Foundation for Nigeria’s Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its Annulment, Nwosu absolved Babangida of any blame in the annulment of that election. He blamed the annulment on senior military colleagues of Babangida.

Between Tuesday and Thursday last week, some prominent citizens of the state gave their testimonies in Abuja. They are the former governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili; the former Transport Minister, Dr. Abiye Sekibo; and former Governor Celestine Omehia.

In his testimony, Odili, in the name of God, denied all the allegations against him. Prodded on by aso-ebi wearing women and a band of clappers, the former governor noted, “At no time between 1999 and 2007 did Governor (Rotimi) Amaechi advise me against the use of cult groups for election because there was no need for such advice.” Recall that Amaechi, in his opening speech at the inauguration of the commission, said he spoke against using cult groups for elections during Odili’s tenure. As it is, between Odili and Amaechi, one person must be a liar. Hence, truth has not been established in this instance.

Odili said youth restiveness was common in the Niger Delta due to a feeling of frustration among jobless young people. He suggested creating jobs in the oil industry and its subsidiaries to tackle this problem. He spoke of the need for true leaders and elders of Rivers State to unite and plan for the future of the state. Unfortunately, he laid another foundation for mistrust and acrimony when he said he did not believe that the intention of those who set up the commission was to find genuine peace and reconciliation.

If Odili was a little suspicious of the real intentions behind the conception of the commission, Sekibo had no doubts at all. He said he had strong reservations about the nobility of the intent behind the setting up of the commission and its transparency and fairness.

Sekibo further told the commission, “You have been called a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but any fair minded observer who has listened to, and seen all that has been shown on television will wonder if the truth indeed is being told and if so, if it is possible to achieve reconciliation bearing in mind the utterances of the unelected Governor Amaechi and several others who have appeared before this panel.” He alleged that Amaechi had told him that he would destroy him, wondering if the commission was not one of the contraptions the governor intended to use to destroy him.

These are weighty words spoken out of extreme bitterness. And like Sekibo and Odili, Omehia made his own allegations, denied the ones levelled against him and added some drops of tears in the process.

What this indicates is that the reconciliatory part of the public hearing is heading for the rocks. In the first place, real truth has remained elusive. And in the absence of truth, reconciliation cannot take place. Many individuals and groups fingered Odili and Sekibo as the architect of the crises in the state. Yet, these former leaders of the state have denied all the allegations. Obviously, truth is on trial here.

The public hearing in Abuja also transmitted some troubling signals. One, why couldn’t Odili and Co. come to Port Harcourt to testify? What are they really scared of? What purpose did those who came to Abuja to clap intend to achieve? Is the public hearing a circus show or a moment for sober reflection? Though we do not know what the commission will recommend, the conduct and utterances of testifiers have unwittingly provided grounds for condemning its report.

Without internal peace in Rivers and the entire Niger Delta, there will not be peace in Nigeria. Just as the commission wound up its sitting in Abuja on Thursday, militants attacked the Bonga oilfield, which produces about 200,000 barrels of crude or 10 per cent of Nigeria’s current daily output of about 2m barrels. This forced Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to shut down production at the oilfield. Similar attacks on oil facilities have reduced about a quarter of the nation’s total oil production.

Some leaders of the Niger Delta had recommended provision of jobs as a way of rehabilitating gang leaders and dousing tension and restiveness in the region. Providing employment is only a step. It will not significantly change the situation. Or what type of job will satisfy somebody who, apparently, is making millions from kidnapping and some other illegal activities?

For a start, the Federal Government should increase the revenue allocation to Niger Delta states to at least 25 per cent. It is only after this that it could have the moral basis to attack criminality in that region.

I had commended Amaechi for setting up the TRC (SUNDAY PUNCH, 8 June 2008.) I had also advised him to be ready to pardon remorseful gang leaders since he modelled the commission after South Africa’s TRC. Similarly, I wish to plead with Odili, Sekibo, Omehia and all the characters in the Rivers crises to sheathe their swords and embrace genuine peace and reconciliation.

I GOT a queer text message from a reader of this column last Sunday. It reads: “I love you, from the Deputy Governor of Lagos State. Call me for further details. This is my number: 07057410198.” Knowing that the Deputy Governor of Lagos is a woman, I first alerted my wife about the suspicious message. Together, we agreed to call the number. We tried many times. But the owner permanently diverted all calls to voicemail, without giving any allowance to drop a message.

The incident happens to be the second I have experienced this year. The first time was in February on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway by Dopemu Bridge. It was along a traffic jam. This second one was at Orelope and Idimu Road intersection at Egbeda area of Lagos. The pattern was the same. A young man would emerge from nowhere and tap you, saying some senseless things to distract your attention. His partner in crime will stretch his hand from the passenger’s side and take your phone. I never ever imagined that I would fall a victim the second time. I became less security conscious because there was no hold-up since it was past 10pm. The incident happened just as I slowed down at Orelope end of the road intersection.

The irony of the situation is that after the incident, the journalist in me took over. Instead of mourning the loss of my phones, I started constructing a story in my mind, a story that will best illustrate my painful losses vis-à-vis the poor phone etiquette of Nigerians and the exciting free airtime noise that MTN Nigeria Communications Limited is making of recent.

Recall that MTN came out recently with an advert, which says, “MTN excites subscribers with free airtime.” The GSM giant said it was its own way of saying “thank you” to its customers’ friendship. In a text message sent to my MTN line on Friday, June 13, the mobile phone operator further noted, “You will receive free N175 airtime on 14th June. This is MTN’s way of showing appreciation for your support and loyalty. Do enjoy it at your leisure. Thank you!”

As a Nigerian, I know that there is nothing exciting about the so-called free airtime. It happens to be a penalty the National Communications Commission mandated MTN and Celtel Nigeria to pay customers for poor services. When NCC imposed this sanction, the cost of compensation was about N4bn.

The mobile phone operators first went to court to restrain the NCC from implementing the sanction. They lost at the court. Hence, it became compulsory for them to pay the penalty. Celtel was the first to set the timetable within which it intends to pay the compensation. Then came MTN with its exciting free airtime.

The Senate Committee on Communication sees this free airtime message as deceptive. The Chairman of the Committee, Sylvester Anyanwu, reportedly said the operators had presented the sanction on them as if they were doing Nigerians a favour whereas they should be remorseful for rendering poor services. He demanded that the operators should retract the messages to reflect the true position. He also noted that the sanctions would continue pending the time operators improved their services.

The relevant question to ask at this point is: is the NCC justified in meting out this punishment to the GSM operators? Yes is my simple answer. Personally, I have had to contend with calling people only to be told “error in network connection”, “the number you have dialled is not available at the moment, please try again later”, “the number you have dialled is incorrect, please check your number and dial again,” etc. These programmed voices will continue echoing these messages, even when the number you are dialling is just in front of you.

Everywhere you go, subscribers also complain of drop calls, non-delivery of text messages and inability to recharge their lines. On at least two occasions, I have had to visit MTN friendship centre at Akowonjo, Lagos, to complain of my inability to recharge. Even after their intervention, I still had to wait for about five days for my recharge to be credited.

In all fairness to the GSM operators, they have their teething problems. Poor infrastructure, especially erratic power supply, is a major headache. But they compound the problems by selling more lines that will further congest their networks.

Out of frustration, some people dump their old lines for new ones. A report in THE PUNCH of 2 June 2008 quoted statistics from the NCC as indicating that out of about 57.72million lines connected by the four GSM operators in the country, 43.79million were active while 13.87million were dormant as at March this year.

This, perhaps, is why MTN’s current customer-focus is geared at achieving what it terms “next generation customer care.” In a recent advertised message, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Farroukh, introduced his new Customer Relations Executive, Akin Braithwaite, and enthused that in the past nine months, the company had embarked on an aggressive network capacity expansion programme.

Since Farroukh expressed his desire to receive comments and suggestions, may I suggest that they do something about free midnight calls. I understand the free call is from 12.30am to 4.30am. Mainly students particularly find this free call very rewarding. A few days ago, a phone call from a close relation woke me up at 3.30am. Fear gripped me when I saw the call as I thought something terrible had happened. As it turned out, nothing happened. She just called to say hi. I was furious, but I later learnt that she only took advantage of MTN’s free calls.

In all, the NCC should continue to protect the interest of Nigerian consumers as it’s done in civilised societies. In India, for instance, telecom regulator, in 2001, ordered cell phone operators to compensate millions of subscribers for overcharging them. The United Kingdom’s industry’s watchdog also fined a mobile phone company, Moby Monkey, £50,000 in 2002 for sending misleading text messages to customers.

The NCC could engender more competition and better services if it could fulfil its promise to introduce number portability in the services of the GSM operators. With this service, customers can migrate from one network to another and still retain and use their numbers.

Nigerians should also learn some things about phone etiquette. What we call flashing contributes to the problems of the phone operators. If you don’t have money to call, send a text message. But not like the one who says she is Lagos Deputy Governor. If you wish to make a call, it should not be like the girl who called me last week and said, “Hello, I saw your number in the newspapers. I want to know if you have somebody who wishes to adopt a baby?” I saved her number with the name “baby seller” so that I can contact her for further details. Unfortunately, the number has gone with the thieves who stole my handsets.