In the Grandiose Parlor…

Alhaji Abubakar Rimi

Abubarkar Rimi, aged 70, a prominent and colorful politician from northern Nigeria died abruptly over the weekend.

The events pre-death were hazy and inconclusive.

Media reports relayed how Alhaji Rimi while on a journey back home from a neighboring state, was attacked by armed bandits. Rimi was not alone; his brother, a security aide and chauffer were there and all manhandled.

In fact, we were told, Rimi was not physically harmed; he was just disposed of some personal items. Somehow after the encounter, he became breathless and was taken to a hospital. Whether he died enroute, or at the hospital remains unclear.

The president asked the police to investigate the death Continue reading…

Data collected from a multisite survey conducted in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and six states, namely, Lagos, Anambra, Rivers, Borno, Plateau, and Kaduna found that motorcycle crashes accounted for majority (54%) of all road traffic injuries in Nigeria, according to data published in the Injury Prevention Journal.

Simple extrapolations from the survey highlight road traffic injury is a neglected public health problem in Nigeria: “Over 4 million people may be injured and as many as 200,000 potentially killed as the result of road traffic crashes annually in Nigeria“.

Title: The burden of road traffic injuries in Nigeria: results of a population-based survey
M Labinjo¹, C Juillard^2,3, O C Kobusingye, A A Hyder⁵.

1 World Health Organization, Abuja, Nigeria
2 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
3 UCLA Department of Surgery, Los Angeles, California, USA
4 World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo
5 International Injury Research Unit, Department of International Health, and Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Anti-shock garments saves lives…I wonder how many hospitals have this simple strap on device?

Watch movie

BBC reports: “Motorcyclists in Nigeria have been wearing dried pumpkin shells on their heads to dodge new laws forcing them to wear helmets…Road safety officials said calabash-wearers would be prosecuted.”

This brings mixed feelings — it’s hilarious on one hand and tragic on the other.

I wonder what needs to be done here: booking and charging the offenders to court, or hammering more on the public health benefits of helmets? Both.

At about 3,500 naira ($29, £20), the cost of helmet appears out of reach for most, and there is even some supernatural belief that impedes the use the helmets. Local papers have reported “passengers’ fears that the helmets could be used by motorcyclists to cast spells on their clients, making it easy for them to be robbed.”

These socioeconomic components of the helmet law must be addressed if the authorities hopes to see the helmet law obeyed. Public health interventions — the helmet law is one example — hardly succeed via executive fiat.

In line with some Nigerians, I’m not thrilled by the new assignment of Prof. Dora Akunyili, who is now the new Information and Communication Minister.

Before her new portfolio, Akunyili was head of Nigeria’s state food and drug administration, NAFDAC. A tough job, and a position she recorded unparalleled excellence.

[Dora] won praise from Nigerians in the past seven years for having cut down on counterfeit and dangerous medicines. Nigeria has been plagued by tainted, fake or untested drugs since it gained independence from Britain in 1960. When Akunyili took over her post in 2001, a staggering 80 percent of the medications sold in Nigeria were deficient in one way or another… – VOA.

In charge of information and communication, Dora Akunyili has become a “lame-duck bureaucrat” – a mouth-piece of the government who must put her opinions and sentiments aside and “fall in line” whatever the circumstance may be. Now she must operate under close supervision and direct authorization of Aso Rock.

This is a really a loss for Nigeria and great deviation from Akunyili’s days at NAFDAC — where “her tenure has been hailed as a huge success in a country plagued by tainted, fake or untested drugs”.

Dora Akunyuli is a tough gun who made several ground-breaking moves in the food and drug industry. She even survived several assassination attempts financed by ruthless, deep pocketed merchants of Onitsha and Aba markets — Nigeria’s ground zero of the fake drugs and medicine business.

Her remarkably successful seven-year stint at NAFDAC was made possible not only because she is committed and driven by excellence, but because she operated almost under 100% autonomy, away from the undue — and often corrupting — interference of the federal government.

Media reports informed that the medicine merchants at Aba and Onitsha markets erupted into jubilation when Akunyili’s removal was announced. They were seen with their guns shooting into the air to celebrate.

And I thought to myself, they have very reason to celebrate…Akunyili’s removal may very well mark the demise of NAFDAC.

AfricanLoft has a featured article on the Obama Nigeria Initiative being spearheaded by the legislator. Hon. Onibiyo Adelabu, the President Obama Nigeria Initiatives, is shown answering reporters’ questions at the press conference in Lagos.

If the Lagos State Legislators have assembled to pool and use their resources to advance a common social cause in their state, I would have been ecstatic. But they chose to gang together to support Obama, thousands of miles away from where the action is, and I’m confused!

I think those resourceful men of the parliament have found ways to deal with boredom by creating a website for Obama, going about recruiting volunteers and hosting press conferences. They are even asking for donations!

If you can come up with any logical reason why this initiative is necessary, or even reasonable, please have you say, here, or on AfricanLoft.

A section of the TINAPA complex

It’s interesting how some states have suddenly discovered the need to create “mega’ or “economic” cities all of a sudden.

Check one: Lagos. Where the governor has been all over pitch-selling his idea for a “Lagos Mega City” – a project expected to gulp several billion dollars and likely to not materialize for many decades given the way of doing things in that part of the world.

Check two: Kano. The state is proposing a “Kano Economic City” – smaller and less grandiose in concept and scope, but still expected to gulp some $2 billion of private funds.

Lagos and Kano are the two largest states in Nigeria and have very thriving metropolises. They also have one other trait in common – huge challenges keep their cities clean.

While Lagos has achieved a relative success – albeit low – rate of “garbage-fighting”, Kano appears clueless and does not have any viable plan of keeping the city clean.

“Our people have no culture of refuse disposal,” Hassam Musa Kari, the managing director of Kano’s Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB), the agency responsible for cleaning the city”, according to IRIN article. Excerpts:

He attributed the problem to illiteracy. “People don’t seem to know or care about the dangers refuse poses to life and the environment (photo left),” Kari told IRIN.

But residents more often blame REMASAB and the environment ministry. “The authorities have not provided us with adequate [dump] sites,” Salisu Ahmad, a resident, told IRIN.

Check three: Calabar. The capital city of Cross Rivers is an epitome of sanitized beauty. Yes, it’s a clean city by any standard and way ahead of the other two. Though smaller in size, the city also has fewer resources (particularly cash), and has somehow found ways to maintain the aesthetics of the city.

While neighbouring states in the Niger Delta are “far dirtier [and] have bloated budgets from state oil revenue” the budget in Calabar’s Cross River state government is relatively small”, according to IRIN report. Excerpts :

It allocates 12 million naira [US $102,209] a year for sanitation in Calabar, Edim said, which includes programs to plant trees and grass in the city and raising awareness on the environment with ‘Keep Calabar beautiful’ signs everywhere in the city…
But somehow the system works. Not only does the city look cleaner than most others in Nigeria, but it is also more hygienic. While cholera is common in nearby cities, Edim said it has not occurred in Calabar for years. Other water-borne diseases are also comparatively rare.

Note also that the Cross Rivers is the first in Nigeria to initiate and complete (to a reasonable extent) a “trade/entertainment/tourist city”- TINAPA, the drawing board-to-commission time (of the first phase of the complex) took about eight (8) years – a great accomplishment given the way “things are done” in that part of the world. Check out some great pictures of complex: http://www.showafrika.com/tinapa_commisioned.html

What Kano is proposing is similar to TINAPA it appears, maybe smaller. And certainly what Lagos wants is a multiple of TINAPAs.

I ask:

How can Lagos and Kano – states that grapple with basis sanitary tasks (i.e. garbage collection and disposal, unclogging blocked gutters, e.t.c.) and have yet to master the maintenance of city aesthetics and infrastructure – wrap its minds around and successfully execute a multifactedly sophisticated TINAPA-like project?

Well, while the Lagos governor seems to understand he needs to keep “doing the talk” with his audience (policy makers and investors) by saying “the priority areas of the Lagos Mega City are security, sanitation and transportation”, it will be delightful to see this talk translate to action. However, his Kano counterpart up north appears mute, and somewhat undisturbed by the pyramids of stinking garbage growing his backyard. May be he too should first raise some cash to keep his streets free of rubbish!