News

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Aisar Fagge

A Kano-based civil society, Kano Advocacy Organization (“Kungiyar Matasan Kano“) wrote a petition to the Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Kano State against the telecommunication companies operating in the state for abandoning their corporate social responsibility functions which they execute in the Southern part of the country.

The chairman of the organization, Comrade Alhassan Haruna Dambatta led the executive members of the organization from various local governments to the Anti-Corruption Commission where they dropped their six-page letter signed by their national legal adviser, Barrister Murtala Bala Abubakar Esq.

The reason for taking this action according to Barrister Murtala is “to ensure the telecommunication companies abide by laws on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as provided by various subsisting Acts passed by both the National Assembly and the Kano state House of Assembly.

They cited the Federal Government’s Local Content Act 2010 sponsored by Hon. Dr Abubarkar Amuda-Kannike and “An Act to establish the Corporate Social Responsibility Act and for other matters connected herewith’ sponsored by Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, which states that Corporate Social Responsibility means action taken by a company to address key social, economic and environmental problems of a particular area in which the company operates.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Act, in section 21, has identified the activities expected of these companies to engage in and not limited to;

(i) Contribution towards educational development of the people in the area, (ii) Provisions of infrastructural facilities, contribution towards rural electrification projects and road construction,

(iii) Collaboration in partnership projects with local governments,

(iv) Environmental stewardship and protection mechanism,

(v) Construction and improvement of healthcare delivery system.

(vi) Provisions of pipe-borne water, improvement of existing waterworks and construction of boreholes and public convenience.

Furthermore, the Kano State CSR law on Corporate Social Responsibility of 2011 has repeatedly exposed the need for multinationals and other companies operating in Kano state to uphold the provisions of the law as defined by both Acts of the National Assembly and the Kano state House of Assembly on Corporate Social Responsibilities.

According to Kano Advocacy Organization, “Many if not all of these companies [MTN, Airtel, 9Mobile] operating in the Southern and Western part of this country do provides these services to the people of that area, but the case is entirely in contrast to what is available and obtainable here in our state. Last year, the Ijaw Youths Council as reported in the mainstream media, among other campaigns, violently went and demobilized Ten (10) of the telecom’s mast in Bayelsa state and their reason as stated is that the contract for the supply of diesel was awarded to a non-Ijaw contractor, hence, the reason for their anger.”

“Because of the fear of threat of violence from these Southern and Western Youths, These companies operating there ensured that the Youths of the South-south, Southeast, and Southwest are assisted through Youths Empowerment programs, start-ups, vocational trainings, Hub creation, ICT Training, Digital marketing training, App development training, Computer trainings and many other concepts that are designed to empower and promotes the Youths and people of those states so that they can become productive and self-reliant. However, the case in the Northern part is entirely in contrast to what is obtainable in the Western or Southern part of this country and most especially and specifically in Kano state with the highest population of phone users where these telecommunication companies are making billions of naira without commitments to the provisions of the various laws that protected the right of the people and communities where they conduct their businesses.”

In view of the above, Kano Advocacy Organization calls for Kano State PCACC to investigate the following among others:

1. What are the records of MTN NIGERIA, AIRTEL, GLOBACOM, 9MOBILE in the provisions of social Amenities, like, building and refurbishing of schools, recreational centres, health care facilitates, Youths Empowerment programs among others in Kano state?
2. Record of Youths Empowerment programs conducted by these Telecoms in Kano state.
3. How much profit they made in our state and what part of it has been utilized on the people as provided by both CSR laws?
4. How many schools and health care facilities were refurbished or built from scratch by these Telecoms in Kano state?
5. How many youths in Kano state benefited from these Telecom’s scholarship programs widely celebrated in the Southern and Western parts of this country?
6. Record of permanent and pensionable employment of Kano indigenes by these Telecoms.
7. When and how did these TELECOMS partner with the Kano state government in the provisions of social Amenities in our state?
8. Find out what are the future plans and programs of these telecommunication companies operating in our state on community development, provisions of social Amenities, scholarship, etc.?
9. Provide evidence of the established and constituted Corporate Social Responsibility ‘policy committee’ referred in the act as ‘CSR Policy committee’.
10. A copy of their CSR performance report of the last five years as made under sections (3) and (9) of the Act.
11. Record of the unspent amount deducted for CSR in the last five years.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Nigerian soldiers working under the platform of Sector 5 of Exercise GOLDEN DAWN in Enugu have successfully neutralised three unknown gunmen who raided a police checkpoint on October 7.

This was announced today by Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director of Army Public Relations, via the Nigeria Army’s official Facebook page.

The soldiers engaged the gunmen in a shootout which forced the latter to flee the duel scene, and the soldiers recovered one vehicle and two motorcycles.

However, Mr Onyema regrettably stated that one soldier lost his life.

The southeastern region has been seeing a series of tensions and rampant attacks on government facilities by suspected IPOB members, which could not be unconnected with their secession agenda.

By Muhammad Sabiu

David Hundeyin, a self-styled investigative journalist who has in recent months become popular on social media, has come under fire over his about-a-year-old tweet condemning “Arewa” and its culture.

According to Mr. Hundeyin, the world would be a better place to live in without the “uncivilised” Arewa culture because he has“[n]ever seen a culture that hates outsiders and somehow detests its own women worse than it hates [the] said outsiders.”

“The world will be a significantly better place when Arewa culture completely dies off and is replaced with something fit for human civilisation,” he added.

The digging up of the tweet could not be unconnected with a recent, viral, controversial article he wrote titled “Cornflakes for Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story”, in which he tried to give the history of Boko Haram in Nigeria and presented what many described as “conspiracy theories” and “hasty conclusions.”

Airing their grievances against Mr. Hundeyin’s derogatory tweet, many Facebook users from the North took the issue to their timelines.

For instance, Dr. Ahmad Shehu suggested that legal action should be taken against people making such negative stereotyping.

“The north should make an example of these idiots. I hate it when we seem passive against these kinds of bigots. I enjoin our legal activists to take these kinds of people to court for stereotyping,”Dr. Shehu wrote.

Similarly, another user, who goes by the name Abubakar Sulaiman, sees him as somebody with a dangerous mindset. “The question that crosses my mind is simply why do they hate us? This is the dangerous kind of mindset David Hundeyin and his ilks use to delve into archives.

“So what was made to look like an investigative journalistic endeavour by the likes of David Hundeyin was simply a pre-conceived idea supported by witty though foolish biased selection of data while ignoring a significant portion of related data that may contradict that pre-conceived idea. A clear case of cherry picking,” he said.

Also, according to Adam Baba Yamani, Hundeyin is nothing but a bigot and hater of anything that has to do with the North and Muslims.

He wrote,“Hello my people of the North (Arewa), if you think David Hundeyin is not a bigot and a hater of anything North and Muslims, take your time and glance at what he wrote on his Twitter handle, don’t be deceived by the cloak of journalism he is wearing, his intent is to replace you, your culture and Way of life with the one of his choice, for those among us that are applauding David Hundeyin for his “Conflakes..”, please read, research and cogitate.”

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

Former Vice President, Arch. Namadi Sambo, Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Sabuwa, representing Governor Nasir El-Rufai among other dignitaries, are attending a public lecture in celebration of the one-year anniversary in office of HRH Ambassador Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli, the 19th Emir of Zazzau at Yaradua Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna.

By Muhammad Sabiu

A 23-year-old female student of Bayero University Kano (BUK) has on Tuesday afternoon been abducted around the Rijiyar Zaƙi area in Kano State.

The student identified as Sakina Bello is a botany student at the university.

Hours after the abduction, reports have it that the kidnappers of Sakina have demanded N100 million ransom from her family.

A source, who is in the know of the incident, was quoted by an online newspaper as saying, “She left home around 3 pm on Tuesday and could not come back until this moment. She was supposed to go to Janbulo from our house in Rjiyar Zaki.

“They called her elder brother around 9 pm and informed him that she was in their den and that they would call back on Wednesday. And the next they do is to demand N100million ransom,” the source added.

Unlike Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and other terrorised northwestern states, kidnappings and killings are not incessant in Kano.

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad

The Government of Kano State ordered the closure of no fewer than 1,581 premises used as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and patent medicine shops in 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

The government embarked on these measures following the growing menace of quack doctors, inexperienced pharmacists, and other health officials that use unlicensed premises for rendering health services across the state.

In this regard, the government’s action was said to have been prompted by reports that many unsuspecting residents had continued to fall victim to the nefarious activities of quack doctors and illegal clinic operators in the state.

The state, working in collaboration with the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), has since swung into action, shutting the fake centres and moving ahead with more measures to sanitize the state and save the lives of the citizens.

The Registrar of the PCN, Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed, represented by his Director of Enforcement, Stephen Esumobi, told the media that efforts to sanitize the state would continue until the place is safe and secure from unqualified persons to practice and render services.

Mohammed said: “A total of 1,581 premises comprising 657 pharmacies and 924 patent medicine shops were visited across 20 local government areas of the state. A total of 537 premises made up of 138 pharmacies, and 399 patent medicine shops were sealed for offences which include: operating without registration with the PCN, selling ethical medicines without the supervision of a pharmacist, poor documentation, poor storage conditions, unauthorized sale of substances of abuse, amongst others.

While 25 were issued with compliance directives. Many patent medicine shops and medicine dealers in Kano still operate without adequate storage facilities, while others have illegal warehouses scattered around the state, some of these warehouses have a large stock of ethical products and substances of abuse which could find their ways into the camps of criminal elements in the society thus contributing to the adverse security situation.”

Similarly, the Private Health Institutions Management Agency, PHIMA, has also closed down many illegal clinics actively rendering services as hospitals to unsuspecting persons in the state. The Agency’s Executive Secretary, Usman Tijjani Aliyu, said the agency shut a chemist operated by a low-level secondary school exciter as a ‘hospital,’ describing it as a case of ‘quackery’.

The Chairman of the Kano State Chapter of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Usman Ali, said that efforts were in been taken to checkmate activities of quack doctors in the state; “We are fighting this quackery, and it is because of this that a committee, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, (MDCN) monitoring team was set up in the 36 states including Federal Capital Territory.

“The committee comprises director of medical services of the Ministries of Health as chairman and the NMA chairman of each state as the secretary. About two years back, with the collaboration of the Kano Police Command, we have arrested two to three quack doctors in the state. Similarly, for all doctors in the state, we must make sure a doctor is qualified and certified to practice in Nigeria. That is why the same monitoring team is going round to help check these in hospitals.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah, the Archbishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, has again yesterday berated the Buhari-led administration, saying that the president isn’t ready to deal with terrorists.

The Bishop expressed concerns as to why the Federal Government isn’t ready to expose the elements financing terrorism in the country, stressing that “Nigeria is decomposing from within.”

Delivering a sermon at the Priestly Ordination of Five Deacons at the Holy Family Cathedral, the cleric vented his anger at the terrible condition the country is in.

He was quoted as saying, “Nigeria is a broken country. It is decomposing from within. Our heart is broken and lives are haemorrhaging by the day. We cannot go on like this. The country and people have become so traumatised and sedated by horrible news, that have now become comfortable in ‘this swamp of evil’.

“No number of horrific deaths, murders, sexual violence and kidnapping of children or adults can make us stop our life of debauchery.”

Mr Kukah has been one of the fiercest critics of the Buhari administration, and the Presidency doesn’t take it lightly in replying to the bishop, in what could be tagged as ‘a war of words.’

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad

MEP Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) Officer, Eunice Subair, disclose that 90,000 malaria deaths are recorded yearly in Nigeria at the quarterly meeting of the Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN), held in Abuja on October 3, 2021.

Subair noted that progress is being made to control malaria, with prevalence going down from 42% in 2010 to 27% in 2015, and 23% in 2018 (MIS 2010 and NDHS 2018).

She said malaria was still a significant burden in Nigeria, and that the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), was ongoing in all the eligible states.

She also requested the media to help in achieving the malaria elimination goal by making the disease a topmost topic of discourse to the public by including malaria issues in their programmes. And educating the public on the importance of sleeping inside ITNs every night to protect themselves against mosquito bites, among others.

Subair stressed the need for pregnant women to visit clinics at the earliest stage of pregnancy, to undergo antenatal care and admonished Nigerians to always go to the hospital whenever they suspect their systems to have malaria symptoms.

The Coordinator of the Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN), Ayo Ipinmoye, said more than three billion people, about half of the world’s population, are at risk of malaria, which is treatable and preventable.

He noted that the recently upgraded customised management information system would save the Federal Government about N293,700,000 in logistics cost, out of the N890m budgeted for the implementation of the malaria Intervention programme.

He further explained that the deployment of technology in data collection would help check malaria commodities, such as the ACT and insecticide-treated net.

He said with the latest upgrade of ACOMIS, data could be collected from the field on a real-time basis across all implementing states.