Femi Kuti Exclusive: “Why I agreed to judge on Nigerian Idol” (plus his favourite Nigerian artiste!)

by Isi Esene

by Chi Ibe
Femi Kuti was on hand recently to speak with Y! on his life, reason for agreeing to be a Nigerian Idol judge and other things you might not know about him.
Read through to know what the saxophone wielding Afrobeat legend has to say.

YNaija: Why did you agree to be a judge?
Femi: To help the youths understand it is not just about glamour, and that music is a difficult and serious profession and hopefully people will understand we have to create academies to groom our so obvious talent.
YNaija: But you are very TV shy and barely ever leave the Shrine for performances in the country, what touched you really?
Femi: This is because over the years the press in many sectors decide to pick on me to write negative stories that were not true. Some tried to blackmail me into giving them money or writing bad stories, I saw I couldn’t win so I decided to concentrate on my foreign tours, my albums, family and the Shrine.
I was saddened by the obvious bad state of our country and music industry that for me there was no point in traveling round facing too many difficulties with unreliable promoters and the Sharia law in most northern states.
With the Nigerian Idol I see a platform to take the struggle to new heights cause I see a positive and vibrant new generation that wants to excel positively and I hope I can contribute my small quota to this great course.
YNaija: What was it like being on TV as a judge for the first time?
Femi: It was exciting and very funny. I found many contestants have the wrong impression about the entertainment world which made me laugh, it brought new life to me too.
YNaija: Do you think the mediocre music on the airwaves this days will not corrupt good music in this country?
Femi: I don’t think so. First of all, we need to appreciate that our youths are trying to do positives things with their lives instead of becoming criminals or drug barons and we need to encourage them.
The bad will fall by the way side and the good will forge ahead. Like my father, see his music still lives long even after him.
YNaija: Do you think too much attention is being paid to talent these days. Every young person thinks they are D’banj giving them excuses to abandon education?
Femi: I don’t think too much attention is given, but the same amount of attention should be given to encourage them to study music and play musical instruments.
YNaija: What would you say you are most proud of with the young musicians of today and which one of them do you admire?
Femi: That they are trying to do positive things with their lives despite the hardship in the world today. After our last Felabration festival I noticed a lot of groups are now trying to play with bands which is another positive development. Well, I like Wizkid and Davido.
YNaija: What advise do you have for them?
Femi: That would be to learn at least one musical instrument.
YNaija.com

Panel asks FG to prosecute top management of PHCN

The Federal Government has been asked to investigate the status of the pension funds of employees of state-owned power utility company, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
A report submitted by the probe panel, headed by former Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Joseph Ajiboye also pushed for the prosecution of the board, various management team and culpable personnel for misleading the company.
The panel had in September submitted its report to the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Darius Ishaku, discovered that the finances of PHCN were recklessly managed by its managers, thus affecting the status of its in-house pension scheme, the PHCN Superannuation Pension Fund.
In a 45-page report, the committee noted that the financial books of PHCN had records of inconsistent figures in financial statements of the Superannuation Fund that ran contrary to the figures submitted to the panel by the market operator.
It also discovered that investments of the fund was poorly managed while total disregard for standard financial regulation was indulged by the company thus, leading to financial differences in the auditor’s report on the Superannuation Fund.
Excerpts of the report reads: “The PHCN failed to conduct audit of the Superannuation Fund accounts since 2007 and pensions were being paid from the monthly imprests released by the market Operator to the Distribution Companies and units which did not render returns to the Market Operator on the payments made as acquittals for expenditures made during the month.
“The board of directors of PHCN who approved the payment of 25 percent of total emolument of employees’ salaries as opposed to 25 percent of basic pay without provision of adequate funds should be held liable for their negligence in committing the PHCN to additional financial burden that could not be sustained.
“The PHCN management, which approved the practice of disbursing monthly pension payments through imprests while sidelining direct payment into the Superannuation Fund should be held responsible for lack of probity in the management of the fund and an audit of all pension payments made between January 2004 and July 2012 should be carried out by the government as the reliability and accuracy of the figures in the financial statements and records of the fund and records submitted to the panel are seriously in doubt,” it stated

DailyPost

International Condemnation Mounts, Six Death Row Inmates Sue Oshiomhole, Two Get Reprieve

Gov Adams Oshiomhole

By Peter Nkanga

A third death row inmate facing the gallows had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment as international condemnation mounts against Governor Adams Oshiomhole who signed the extraordinary death warrants.
Olu Fatogun was moved out of death row to a regular cell at about 4:30pm on Oct. 22. Fatogun, being held at the Benin prison, was told he would no longer have to wait for the hangman. Two other death row prisoners - Monday Olu and Calistus Ike - were granted amnesty.

Mr. Fatogun had been one of six to sue the Edo State governor and the Comptroller-General of Prisons on Oct. 19 following the revelation that Gov. Oshiomhole had begun fast-tracking the death warrants of the condemned prisoners.  Gov. Oshiomhole initially claimed that he took the stop because the prisoners were causing trouble in the detention facility.

In their suit, filed suit at the Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, the six asked the court to stop the planned executions and order Gov. Oshiomhole to commute their death sentences to terms of imprisonment.

In addition to Fatogun, the applicants making the suit were Calistus Ike, Daniel Nsofor, Osarenmwinda Aiguokhan, Chima Ejiofor and Agbonmware Omoregie.  The suit was filed by the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) and the Human Rights, Social Development and Environmental Foundation (HURSDEF). The applicants argued that executing them after undergoing “over 16 years trauma of suspense of imminent death” would amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

“We think it is because of all the pressure that his [Fatogun] sentence was commuted. But it is only him the warders told to change cell,” said a prison source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Local and international rights groups including Amnesty International, Lawyers without Borders and others, faulted the Edo State government for moving against the inmates while an appeal of the death penalty filed by LEDAP in April 2012 was still underway.

There has been a de facto moratorium in Nigeria on death row executions since 2002.

Gov. Oshiomhole, at a ceremony over the weekend in Edo State, granted amnesty to Monday Olu (sentenced to death for conspiracy and murder) and Calistus Ike (convicted for conspiracy and armed robbery). Mr. Ike and Mr. Fatogun are the only two of the six applicants named in the suit to have had their sentences reviewed.

 Osagie Obayuwana, Edo State Attorney General, in an SMS confirmed Fatogun’s sentence had being commuted. He however refused to comment on the remaining applicants in the law suit.

Indications are their fate will be decided sooner than later.

“The gallows are being repaired and this morning seven senior prison officials led by the officer in charge of welfare inspected the gallows,” the source from the Benin prison said. “Two prisoners by name Richardson and Osamudieme were ordered to take water and wash the gallows. It seems the executions will be any time very soon.”

Kayode Odeyemi, the Nigerian Prisons Service spokesman in a phone interview said: “It’s not for us to tell the public when they’ll be executed. I cannot answer if it is open to the public or when the last executions in the country were held. These facts you want are sacred”.

In fact, Mr. Oshiomhole made it clear at the weekend that two of the remaining four in the suit – Osarenmwinda Aiguokhian and Daniel Nsofor, both presently at the Benin prison – should die in the interest of justice. He had signed their death warrant following the Supreme Court sentencing the duo to death by hanging for murder.

“We must be seen to carry out justice in all fairness,” said Mr. Oshiomhole, pointing out that Mr. Nsofor had gruesomely tortured his female victim before killing her. Mr. Aiguokhian had robbed, dismembered and hid his victim’s body parts in a premeditated act of wickedness which prompted the Supreme Court in its judgment to say the likes of Mr. Aiguokhian “belong to Hades”.

But Justine Ijeomah, HURSDEF’s executive director, who has been investigating cases of death row prisoners in Nigeria, said the circumstances surrounding Mr. Nsofor’s conviction raise serious concerns about Nigeria’s criminal justice system “where more than 97 per cent of all condemned criminals in the country are the poor”.

Mr. Ijeomah said Nsofor, 39, was arrested Dec. 13, 1992 and severely tortured into confessing to a murder he claimed to know nothing about while at the State Criminal Investigations Department in Benin. He was thereafter convicted June 19, 1996 by Justice Cromwell Idahosa, the present Chief Justice of Edo State, Mr. Ijeomah said.

“He was hanged and mercilessly tortured by a police officer nicknamed Akwa Ibom,” Mr. Ijeomah said. “While the rich who commit crimes are released right from the police station, it is the poor like Nsofor who don’t have money to settle their way who are made scapegoats. Where is the justice?”

 Mr. Ijeomah said the circumstances around the conviction of Mr. Aiguokhian, 49, under Charge No: B/12c/95 were at best curious following the disappearance of evidence which would have solved the murder for which he was arrested July 7, 1993 and convicted January 18, 1996 by Justice Edokpayi of High Court 3, Benin City.

 The controversy over Mr. Oshiomhole’s decision to resume executions comes amidst recommendations to outlaw the death penalty based on findings by the 2004 National Study Group on Death Penalty and the 2007 Presidential Commission on the Administration of Justice both stressing that Nigeria’s criminal justice system cannot guarantee a fair trial.

According to statistics compiled by LEDAP from 2006 – 2011, some 39 per cent of death sentences by trial courts were quashed on appeal with the period, indicating a high risk of wrongful convictions and sentences. A total number of 113 death sentences passed by the various divisions of High Court of state were appealed between 2006 to 2011.

Analysis shows that 69 out of the 113 appeal cases got to Supreme Court while 44 rested with the various divisions of Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court quashed 26 out of the 69 appeals that got before it while confirming 43 of them. While the Court of Appeal on the other hand quashed the death sentences of 22 out of the 44 appeal cases that got before it.

From the LEDAP website: “LEDAP’s campaign for the abolition of the death penalty is borne out of the conviction that the Nigerian government cannot continue to ignore the dire need for reform of our criminal justice system. ‘A system that must take life must first give justice’.

In 2008, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights called on States Parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to “observe a moratorium on the execution of death sentences with a view to abolishing the death penalty”. On April 19, 2012, the Working Group on the Death Penalty of the African Commission reaffirmed the necessity of the abolition of capital punishment.
 
Saharareporters

All in the Name of the Poor

Kayode.Komolafe@thisdaylive.com

There  is so much politics being played in the land, yet there is not enough policy debate. With the presidential election still three years away you would expect that this is  the time for those in power to be busy with policy articulation while those wishing to defeat them in future elections should be offering alternative strategies. It should be the business of  all political parties that governance should take place between now and the next election.

From a clear ideological standpoint, each political party ought  to be presenting to the public  its definition of the problem and the proposed solution. After all, parties should not come alive only on the eve of elections. Political mobilsation and policy education of the people should be a continous task to be performed by all  political parties.  In the Second Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo's  Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was the  first to alert the public of imminent economic crisis based on its policy engagement.

President Shehu Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN)  first denied that the health of the nation's economy was impaired. Few months later,  Shagari sent a bill to the National Assembly  which was passed as the  Economic Stabilsation Act. Since then the story of Nigeria's economy has been  that of one mutation of adjustment or another. The point at issue here is that an opposition party was so efficient in policy engagement that it could see danger in the economy even before the party in power.

In other other words, this is  the time for a vigorous debate on the path to be taken to development. Unfortunately, such a debate is not conspicous  in the national horizon today. The  quality of what passes for discussion of policy is suspect, the discussion itself is hardly enlightening. The discussion  generates more heat than light. The focus is where the president should come from and not what strategy of development does he prefer to adopt. Little surprise, therefore, that  2015 is more of headline news than poverty indices.

Yet those making the geo-political permutations claim they want power in the name of the people who get pooer with every election. An offcial statement is never complete without phrase-monging about  "poverty eradication", "poverty reduction" or "poverty alleviation". Many policies have been named after poverty and several acronyms  feature in tons of reports on poverty and what to do about it. There are agencies and departments with poverty reduction as a central item of their briefs. 

Indeed, if official pronouncements alone could solve a problem, poverty would be history by now as many genuine anti-poverty actvists have advocated. The slogans have not been sufficiently translated  into policies.  There is no sufficient evidence  of anti-poverty  politics  in Nigeria today. And that should  worry the politicians  as well  the people in whose name every policy is proclaimed.

Earlier in the year  the National Bureau of Statistics released  a wake-up call that about 112 million Nigerians  (almost 70%) are poor.  With the report, the paradox of an economy recording impressive growth rates while more of the people get poorer was, once again, brought into a sharp focus.Of course, the figures  have been disputed. The World Bank, for instance, noted subsequently that  reliable data are lacking to measure poverty rate in this country. Recently on this page,  former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor  Chukwuma Soludo, observed that the nation generally lacks credible statistics for policy formulation. The importance of  accurate data cannot be over-emphasised.

However, beyond the queries raised about the precision of the poverty figures, there has  hardly been  a qualitative appreciation of the problem. While experts are preoccupied with actual  poverty rate, the evidence of mass poverty abounds in the Nigeria envionment of hunger, disease and ignorance. It is vividy illustrated in the over 10 miillion children (official estimates)  of school age who are out of school. Further illustration is to be found in the poor quality of the education available those who are lucky to be in school.

The proof can be found in the scandalous infant and maternal morality rates due to  lack of decent healthcare. While the accurate figures  are being computed decent housing and sanitaion are not within the reach of the majority of the people. No matter the accurate figures that the experts may agree upon those who lack these and other basic needs are indisputably  in the category of the poor.

Take education as an example of how much policies are tailored towards genuine poverty alleviation in that sector. It should be acknowledged that some states are investing productively in building  of standard schools  with equipment. Some others are embarking on massive refurbishment of dilapitated classrrooms. This trend should be encouraged and shown as examples to  other states that are yet to see the  wisdom in the productive investment in education. In the states where fantastic infrastructure has been provided, the challenge is how to ensure that quality teaching and curriculum  are in place. Hence teachers should be paid decently and the schools should be efficiently managed.

It is only an informed and honest discussion of the problem that could bring into the fore the relative progress recorded in that sector and the huge challenge that lies ahead in country with a huge youth population.  Incidentally, education has the highest allocation in the budget being processed by the National Assembly. In a clime of informed policy debates a lot of issues would be interrogated about the allocation to that key sector and what steps to take in order to achieve the budget objective. Not so here.

The issue  is yet to generate a spirited discussion even when the experts and laymen alike acknowledge that the education sector is in a serious crisis. Many other sectors are also in crisis, you would probably say. As the National Assembly scrutinises the budget, it is important to have public discussions on  how much improvement can  the proposals  make  in the lives of the people if  efficiently executed.

Now, Senate President David Mark rightly said the other day that what the President has laid before the National Assembly "are mere estimates" for the legislators to examine. But it  is another case  of playing politics to the detriment of policy that the contoversies that arose after the President Goodluck Jonathan made the budget proposals is not about the anti-poverty content of the budget.

The controversy  is about the working relationship between the executive and the legislature even when both arms of government are firmly controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party.  Mark is certainly right in his assertion, otherwise the President would not  be constitutionally obliged to make the proposals to the National Assembly in the first place. But the discussion should move beyond ego trips.

The National Assembly should get down to the business of considering the estimates with its eyes on  how policies in every sector could reduce poverty. After all, the President and the legislators alike invoked the name of the poor  people when they were seeking power. So if there will be disputes  let it be based on divergent prespectives on how a diligent implementation of this  budget can at least reduce  the scourge of poverty in this land.    

ThisDay

The Return of Port Harcourt

ENGAGEMENTS By Chidi Amuta.

The 2012 meeting of the Nigeria-US Bi-National Commission took place in Port Harcourt last week. In the same week, the annual week long Garden City Literary Festival dominated the cultural landscape of the city and arguably the nation. It was easily the most serious cultural event taking place in Nigeria in October and has become year-on-year, a constant feature of our scanty cultural calendar. The literary festival was crowned by the formal launch of Port Harcourt as the UNESCO World Book City for 2014.  These events saw a high turnout of diplomatic and international visitors to the Garden City.

In particular, the UNESCO World Book City event acquires more significance when it is realised that Port Harcourt emerged as the city of choice from an impressive list of major cities of the world that vied for the status. I believe Port Harcourt was chosen on account of its sustained active engagement with a reading culture since the advent of the current administration in the state. The administration under Governor Chibuike Amaechi has made commitment to the written word a major plank of its social democratic agenda. Himself a student of literature and great lover of books, the governor has relentlessly promoted and supported literature as well as the drive for a reading culture in the last five years.

Amaechi has gone out routinely to read with school children in schools around the state. He has dedicated some of his own birthdays to reading sessions in lowly schools. Through these acts, the governor has symbolically reconnected with his own humble social background through identification with education, a factor to which he has frequently ascribed his own success in life.

I believe Port Harcourt was chosen by UNESCO as a symbol of the healing power of enlightened governance in mending places destroyed by bad leadership and mindless criminality. The emergence of Port Harcourt in recent times as a major national investment and cultural destination requires celebration. The background is of course the recent history of violence in Nigeria’s Niger Delta and the fast deterioration of our national security architecture in general.

Liberation is a word that for many decades was dear to the hearts of the people of Port Harcourt and Rivers State.  Liberation from Biafran occupation and its unfortunate ethnic connotation in the context of the Nigerian Civil War was until lately a passionate linguistic departure in parts of Rivers State. In its recent meaning, however, liberation would seem to refer more to the freeing of the state and Port Harcourt city from the grips of bad politics and home grown criminality and self inflicted insecurity. Freed from the latter burden, Port Harcourt is literally bursting at the seams with throngs of local and international visitors as economic and social activities have returned. 

Here is a city that was virtually a theatre of war a little over four years ago. By 2008, the streets of Port Harcourt were unsafe both in the day and at night. The city was largely deserted, decrepit and dangerous. Heavily armed criminal bands roamed and reigned freely and unchallenged. Point-blank executions of innocent by-standers at bus stops, markets and other public spaces was common. Nightclubs shut down as criminal gangs looking for choice expatriates to abduct or kidnap for ransom frequently raided them.

Investors fled in droves led by expatriate operatives of oil companies and a literal state of emergency was in place without being formally declared. As business people fled, they left behind numerous uncompleted buildings, vacant shops and residential spaces. International airlines suspended flights into and out of Port Harcourt. Combat ready troops in armoured personnel carriers and light tanks paraded the major streets in the day and manned roadblocks at night.  Innocent people could only move about the city with both hands raised and sometimes waving white handkerchiefs to indicate that they were peaceful and not dangerous.  Important government visitors were escorted around the state by truckloads of combined police and military personnel.  A dusk to dawn curfew remained in place for months.

Today, the picture is markedly different.  When you want to gauge the state of security in a place, start from the little things. The ordinary fruit seller, the woman who roasts corn, plantains and fish at the street side, the Suya man have all since returned as features of city life.  Street drinking and pepper soup joints are all in place on a regular basis.  On one of his numerous project inspection rounds a year ago, Governor Amaechi broke protocol as he is frequently wont to do to buy some roasted corn from a roadside vendor. The old lady sold him the corn and asked him to take a few more cobs if he wanted.  He looked the governor straight in the eyes and said simply: ‘thank you my son’.

Nightclubs have remained open all night all over the city for the better part of the last three and a half years without major mishaps. Gas stations now open till well after almost mid night. Happy days are back. Almost.

There are no checkpoints now. No hard eyed soldiers in combat gear. There are of course normal patrols of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and other security personnel.  It is not just the little things that have returned. Some big things are also happening. Major roads in and around the city have either been reconstructed or are in the process of being rebuilt. Streetlights along major arteries do work at night. Bridges and flyovers are going up at strategic points.

But Port Harcourt is not yet paradise, nor has it regained its pre-Civil War swing. The battle to wean Port Harcourt of the remnants of its recent history is by far not over yet. By all means let us celebrate the return of a city that many agree is nearly as strategic as Lagos if not more so in real economic terms. But let us also point to the real problems that remain unresolved. It is tragically ironic that in the week that the world gathered in Port Harcourt to celebrate literature and the written word, the nation woke to the awe and shock of the gruesome lynching of four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt by an irate mob of barbaric and foolish villagers.  That is more a statement on the state of security in the nation than in Rivers State alone.

The road network in the old city is hardly adequate to take the weight of the traffic of the renewed interest in Port Harcourt as a destination favourable for business. The rate of decay of the old roads is beginning to overwhelm the feverish construction rate of new ones. You get this impression when you visit during the rains that road maintenance here needs to be a hands-on-round-the-clock affair. Vital junctions in the city need the help of traffic lights to lessen dependence on manual control.

For a city that is proud in its old name of Garden City, one looks almost in vain for the gardens. In a hurry to reconstruct this city, the Amaechi administration seems to have spared scant attention to the beautification of the city or the restoration of whatever is left of the old gardens if any. In a state that needs to create many jobs quickly, the greening of the city would seem to be a low hanging fruit of opportunity for massive employment of unskilled and semi skilled labour.

In many ways, the overwhelming centrality of Port Harcourt in the life of Rivers State makes the state almost a city-state. Fix Port Harcourt and you fix Rivers State. Bungle Port Harcourt and you unsettle not only the state but also the Nigerian federation.  Just as quickly as new double track roads are being inaugurated all over the city, the old network is falling apart, thereby rendering the valiant efforts of the state administration problematic on the surface.  Old Port Harcourt is literally at war with the new spirit of the city.

The old city is fighting back, furiously. In Nigeria, old things never pass away. They persist and even sometimes return to haunt the new.  That is possibly a metaphor for the contradiction now dogging the silent revolution that has taken place in Rivers State and Port Harcourt in the last five years.

The stresses and strains of an over burdened city are everywhere in evidence. Once security and peace were restored to Port Harcourt, the city was overwhelmed by its strategic importance and location. Corporations that fled in the days of carnage have gradually begun to return. A new confidence on the part of the oil and gas industry is witnessed by the renewed influx of oil and gas operatives, mainly expatriates, flocking into the city.  Port Harcourt bound local and international flights are almost always fully booked. Hotel occupancy has risen from near empty to almost always fully booked.

In the wake of crises in other parts of the country especially the North, a good number of returnees to the South-east and South-south head straight for Port Harcourt. Only recently, when kidnapping literally sacked the neighbouring states of Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and parts of Anambra, the daily influx of persons either coming to transact business or set up shop in Port Harcourt was clearly visible.

The recent plight of Port Harcourt is multiply significant. Its decent into anarchy and violence shows how bad politics and abysmal leadership can bedevil good places and imperil cherished memories. Its resurgence and recovery indicates the opposite: strong leadership and pragmatic visionary leadership can transform even a nightmare. In the renaissance of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, there are the germs of Nigeria’s own possibilities of collective self-retrieval and true transformation.

ThisDay

A Lepers’ Colony Where Children Want to be Medical Doctors

Lepers’ children  at Amanawa Lepers’ settlement in Sokoto

Mohammed Aminu writes about the aspiration of Lepers’ children  at Amanawa Lepers’ settlement in Sokoto and the support of Leprosy Mission, a non-governmental organisation to help them actualise their dreams

It is a far distance from Sokoto metropolis. About 30 kilometres away from modern civilisation. They are shunned by the others. They are lepers in their own colony.

At   Amanawa Leprosy Hospital housing a population of over 1000 people, there is a different life of the lepers. The lepers at Amanawa live with their children who are not lepers.

“I want to be a medical doctor in the future so that I will be able to treat sick patients in our settlement and cater for my disabled parents and siblings. And that is why I have shown serious commitment to my studies and with the support of the Leprosy Mission of Nigeria, I hope my dream shall come to pass.”

These are the words of a 14- year old boy, Mukhtari Umaru, a JSS 2 student of Government Day Junior Secondary School, Shuni in Dangeshuni local government area of the state. Mukhtari is the son of a leprosy patient at Amanawa Leprosy Hospital, Sokoto that was established by the missionary over eighty years ago.

Mukhtari, just like other children of leprosy patients at the Amanawa settlement, are being supported in their academic pursuits by the Leprosy Mission Sokoto Project. They aspire to be great in life in order to live a better life much more than the squalid existence and abode they are being raised  today.

In Amanawa there are three settlements within the vicinity of the Leprosy Hospital with a population of over 1000 people. The Amanawa settlements are inhabited by persons affected by leprosy, who came to the hospital for treatment thirty years ago but decided not to return to their various communities for fear of stigmatisation and social isolation.

Indeed, the missionaries, who were managing the hospital then, allowed the leprosy patients to live within the vicinity of the hospital and as such provided them with farmlands and accommodation within the settlements. Thus, the persons affected by leprosy engaged in farming activities by planting millet, maize and beans as well as rearing of animals for livelihood while the women move from house to house trading household items like plates and wrappers within the settlement and surrounding villages to help their families.

For the lepers, now there is a friend. The Leprosy Mission’s Education Support Scheme is assisting the children of leprosy patients residing in such settlements to be able to go to school so that they would be able to overcome poverty and be in better position to live a meaningful life devoid of begging on the streets.

The intervention of the Leprosy Mission had impacted on the lives of the persons affected by leprosy and their children. In fact, one of the beneficiaries of the Education Support Scheme, Malam Rabiu Yahya is currently married with a job as a staff of Sokoto State Health Management Board. He got the job two years ago, after graduating from School of Health Technology, Gwadabawa. Yahya now supports his leprosy parents and siblings. This was made possible as a result of the support by the Leprosy Mission.

Leprosy has ravaged humanity for several centuries and was recognized in the civilisations of ancient China, Egypt, and India.  The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that between 2 and 3 million people have been permanently disabled because of leprosy globally. In the last two decades, over 15 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy.

The age-old social stigma associated with the advanced form of leprosy lingers in many areas, and remains a major obstacle to  early treatment. Effective treatment for leprosy appeared in the late 1930s with the introduction of dapsone and its derivatives. Leprosy bacilli resistant to dapsone soon evolved and, due to overuse of dapsone, became widespread. It was not until the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s that the disease could be diagnosed and treated successfully within the community.

Leprosy patients in Sokoto face discrimination and were being stigmatised by the community where they live. They are not accepted and accorded the respect and regard of their peers as a result of their physical deformities.

The Leprosy Mission through its focal officers, had been offering medical assistance to the lepers in Sokoto state. They had trained several persons affected by leprosy on various vocational skills like production of soap, cream, detergent, among others to enable them become self reliant and fend for their families. The Leprosy Mission also provided financial assistance to the lepers to enable them start a small business after they had undergone the vocational programme.

In the last 12 years, the Mission had been offering education support to children of persons affected by leprosy in the state to enable them have sense of belonging and concentrate on their studies. Thus, many beneficiaries of the programme have finished primary education  and are now in secondary school while some of the students are currently studying in Sokoto State Polytechnic.

The idea behind the education support scheme of the Leprosy Mission is  to empower the children of the leprosy patients to acquire education up to tertiary level so that they could be able to assist their parents when they are through with their studies. Thus, when the children acquire jobs after their studies, they are able to assist their parents, who are predominantly poor.

It was against this backdrop that the Leprosy Mission provided education materials free to the children which include text books, dictionary, calculators, notebooks, bags, sandals, uniform, writing materials among others recently.

Speaking during the presentation of the educational materials to 54 children of leprosy patients at Sani Dingyadi Primary School, Amanawa,  Sokoto state,  Control Programme Officer of Leprosy Mission in the state, Alhaji Shehu Mohammed Tureta, urged residents of the state to stop stigmatisation against persons affected by leprosy in their communities. He maintained that persons affected by leprosy are human beings who need support of the people rather than discrimination.

Mohammed said the provision of educational materials to 54 children of persons affected by leprosy is part of the Mission’s efforts to assist the less privileged to acquire education. He maintained that the Leprosy Mission provided education support to the children of leprosy patients to enable them become useful to the society.

“We decided to support 54 children of persons affected by leprosy to enable them acquire education. “ We believe that if they acquire training and education, they will be able to support and assist their aged parents, who are deformed,” he said.

He explained that the Leprosy Education Support Scheme was initiated 12 years ago in the state, adding that some of its beneficiaries are currently in tertiary institutions.  According to him, the Mission would continue to support the children through primary, secondary and tertiary institution. He emphasized that the Leprosy Mission also embarked on various programmes aimed at enabling leprosy patients in the state feel sense of belonging.

He added that many persons affected by leprosy had been trained on various vocational skills to enable them become self reliant. Mohammed pointed out that some of the beneficiaries now produce creams, detergents, soap among others for sale in the market. He therefore restated the determination of the Mission to continue to assist persons affected by leprosy in the state.

In a remark, the Socioeconomic Development Officer of the Leprosy Mission, Sokoto Project,  Mr. Steven Okpanachi, said the provision of educational support to the children of lepers was meant to enable them concentrate in school and become useful to the society. He said beneficiaries of this year’s education support include 24 secondary school students, 28 pupils in primary school and two students in Sokoto State Polytechnic. 0kpanachi expressed happiness with the modest achievements recorded by the programme, saying many children of persons affected by leprosy were able to acquire education through the assistance being provided by the Leprosy Mission.

Also speaking, the Chairman of Dangeshuni local government area in the state, Alhaji Aminu Bodai, expressed gratitude to the Leprosy Mission for the assistance. He appealed to persons affected by leprosy at the Amanawa Leprosy Hospital, to monitor their wards to ensure that they are always in school. Bodai stated that the Education Support Scheme had gone a long way in providing succour to children of lepers, who may not be able to get such materials due to the poor financial state and physical deformity of their parents. He called on well to do individuals to continue to assist the less privileged in the society.

The Chairman, Parents Teachers Association of Sani Dingyadi Primary School, Malam Aliyu Dantasalla, described the donation made by the Leprosy Mission to less privileged children as a right step in the right direction. He appealed to wealthy individuals in the state to support the school, pointing out that most of the pupils at Sani Dingyadi Primary School  are children of persons affected by leprosy.

Also speaking, Sokoto State Chairman of Association of persons Affected by Leprosy, Malam Sani Adamu, emphasized that education is the bedrock of development of any society. He commended the Leprosy Mission for providing education support to their children. He pledged the Association’s support  to the Mission in order to achieve the desired objectives. “We are indeed grateful to the Leprosy Mission, as the donation has brought succour to our families. This is because when our kids acquire education, they would be in a better position to help us in future,”he said.

Commenting on the gesture, the Village Head of Amanawa, Alhaji Altine Dankiri, also lauded the Mission for the donation made to the children of lepers in the state. He called on parents in the area to send their wards to school to acquire western education. Dankiri harped on the need for residents of the area to send their female children to school, saying this will bring about progress and development in the society. “I am appealing to parents to send their girl-child to school because no society can make progress and attain development by neglecting education. This is based on the fact that girls who go to school become economically empowered in future and are in better position to assist and support their husbands and children, Dankiri stressed.

However, speaking with THISDAY at the Amanawa settlement, the mother of one of the beneficiaries of the education support, Lubabatu Umar expressed happiness for the kind gesture. She disclosed that most of them had been living at the Amanawa settlement since 1970. “I came to the Amanawa Leprosy Hospital 22 years ago but refused to go back to her village because of stigmatization. I really commend the Mission for the education support to  my son and I hope after his secondary education,  he will go to university and be able to assist us because we are poor,”Lubabatu said.

ThisDay

Ondo PDP berates national leaders for congratulating Mimiko

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From TUNDE RAHEEM, Akure
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State yesterday berated some of its national leaders for congratulating Governor Olusegun Mimiko over his re-election victory.
The PDP said it took serious exception to the obvious lack of camaraderie in the attitudes of the national leaders of party and the indecent haste of certain functionaries to fall on each other in congratulating Governor Mimiko. In a press statement signed by the state Director of Media and Publicity of the party,
Ayo Fadaka, he described the attitude of the national leaders as not only being ridiculous but undermining the integrity of the party in the state. “Our attention has been drawn to various comments and congratulatory messages sent by the National Publicity Secretary of the party and even some leaders of the party to Dr. Olusegun Mimiko over his victory in the last election that is fraught with irregularities.
This flurry of messages, particularly by our kith and kin in the PDP without due consultation with us at the state level to discover what actually went wrong has the potent tendency to misconstrue our position and the actions we intend to take on this matter. “We take serious exception to the obvious lack of camaraderie in our party and the indecent haste of certain functionaries to fall on each other in congratulating a man who essentially is a beneficiary of a compromised election.
It is important to place on record that the avalanche of the security provided for the election was lethargic and absolutely in contrast to what obtained in Edo State. The posted security men were only visible and present in the urban areas and the rural areas and villages unpoliced, thereby allowing Mimiko and his goons to compromise the election.
“We are still gathering evidences of malpractices perpetrated in this election and what we have gathered so far will shock every apostle of one-man-one-vote to their marrows, therefore we declare most irrevocably that we will contest the result of this election and we assure our people, we will get victory and Mimiko will leave government the same way he came.
“As far as the PDP in Ondo State is concerned, the battle is just beginning and victory is certain, let whoever so desire continue to congratulate Mimiko but we will battle him legally. We call on our members to remain undaunted in the face of this abandonment by those who ordinarily should show understanding and care at a time like this.”
TheSun