Overloading is Going Extreme in Nigeria

Vehicle Overloading

Going by history, the first car had only one seat (for the driver). When cars were considered safe to use, the number of seats were increased to accommodate passengers. The number of seats vary according to the make and model of the car but typically; a car has just enough seats to accommodate five people (the driver and four passengers). 

Like has been discovered by studies, poverty influences the thinking and psychology of people. When the first cars came into Nigeria, they were used for just the purpose they were meant for and according to the manual, but gradually, things began to change. Whether blamed on poverty or greed, it was and still is pathetic.

The back seat of a typical car was made for a maximum of three people. In Nigeria, commercial motorists insisted and still insist on carrying four passengers at the back to maximize profit. If some passengers agree to carry other passengers on their laps, some drivers won’t bother carrying five and above in a space that was meant for just three.

The next phase of the madness saw the passenger seat (the seat by the side of the driver’s seat) which is meant for one person become a seat for two people no matter their body sizes.

The third phase of the madness was unprecedented but quite unfortunate. It showed how lowly man could think of his fellow man. It showed how deep poverty and greed has cut into the lives of some Nigerians. Motorists began to carry passengers in the boot (trunk) of their vehicles, a place that was meant for animals and lifeless objects.

Brothers and sisters, fellow and dear Nigerians we are witnessing now is what can (for now) be called the craziest madness yet. Even the driver’s seat has been compromised. We now have drivers sharing the driver’s seat with a passenger. 

A car that was meant for five people now carries as many as eight people and might even carry more.

I often run out of words as regards who to blame for this development; the motorists, the passengers or the government. Someone has to be blamed because this is highly deleterious and it is on the verge of becoming the paradigmatic arrangement in the Nigerian transport industry.

In northern Nigeria, it is normal for people to blame the repercussions of their stupidity on destiny hence, it is common to hear both drivers and passengers justifying this trend.

Experts and common observers have long identified overloading as a major cause of auto-crashes (even when the driver’s movements are not hindered). This new trend will only make our roads deadlier.

Now, we really need to answer this question; who is to blame?

The motorists: If we blame the motorist, some will argue that the motorists are just trying to make a living as the country’s economy continues to bite.

The passengers: Some blame the passengers pointing out the fact that the passengers agree with the arrangement since it enables them pay less. So the greed and ignorance of the passengers is a contributing factor. Passengers who refuse the arrangement are usually left standing alone by other passengers, they are forced to alight, and there is almost always another passenger to take his place.

The government: Majority have blamed it all on the financial hardship and poor leadership in the country stressing that if the country was focused, it would have invested in the transport industry (road, rail and air). This would have given commuters more options. 

Extortion of motorists by military and paramilitary outfits in the Nigeria is also a major factor behind motorists trying to maximize their profit by any means necessary. Also, motorists exceeding the loading limits ply roads with heavy law enforcement agents’ presence and obviously, all they do is ‘settle’ and pass.

What ever be the case, Northern Drivers Are Going Mad.

What Is Nasko Up to?

The only ‘Nasko’ most Nigerians knew was Nasko wafers (a type of soft biscuit). 

But, in the build-up to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, Nigerians; particularly those in Niger state, began to hear of a human Nasko. He was Umar Nasko. Umar Nasko is a son to Retired Major General Muhammad Gado Nasko who ruled Sokoto state as a military administrator from 1978 to 1979 and was FCT Minister from 1989 to 1993.

Prior to the election season of 2015, Nasko was the commissioner of Transport and Infrastructural Development; he was also the Chief of Staff Government House all under the administration of Muazu Babangida Aliyu.

Being a loyalist, Nasko was picked to replace Muazu Babangida Aliyu as the governor of Niger state. In the twinkle of an eye, the campaign posters of Nasko were all over the place across the biggest state in Nigeria. Nasko had virtually everything in his favour until tales began to emerge. Nasko was described as a drug user and a hardened adulterer, allegations even his supporters were reluctant to deny.

The people of Niger state; still being very religious, instantaneously developed strong aversion and apathy for Nasko fearing that his victory will spell doom for the future of Islam in the state. 

Nasko lost the election by a large margin to Abubakr Sani Bello who got 593,702 votes with Nasko getting 239,772.

In July of 2017, Umar Nasko declared that he was not going to run for the governorship of Niger state in 2019. In a statement titled: “My Position on the 2019 Elections”, Nasko said his foundation, the Umar Nasko Foundation, is meant to touch the lives of people and not to start any campaign.

In May 2017 however, Umar Nasko and his former boss, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, were summoned to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on charges bothering on the misappropriation of N4.5 billion. 

The pair was remanded in Minna Medium Security Prison, the bail conditions for Aliyu included N150 million and a surety with property valued at N200 million, while Nasko was granted bail of N100 million and a surety with landed property worth N150 million. 

On 22^nd January 2018, another round of corruption charges was leveled against Umar Nasko and his former boss Muazu Babangida Aliyu. The duo were slapped with 8 count charges of abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N2 billion. This case is still yet to be decided in court.

In recent months, a new trend is seemingly becoming the latest fashion. Dozens of vehicles (especially tricycles) are now seen branded with pictures of Umar Nasko in a way that shows approval. It is like a silent campaign waiting to explode at the ‘right time’. Most interesting of this trend are pictures of Nasko spotting a religious looking beard. In the pictures of Nasko on his campaign posters of 2015, he had no beard. 

Some people have been asking, ‘has Umar Nasko become a religious person now?’ Another question has been, ‘Is this just the usual religious politics of northern Nigeria?’

Whatever be the case, Nasko’s popularity seems to be building and is assisted by the alleged ‘gross under-performance’ of the incumbent Abu Lolo (Abubakar Sani Bello).

Will the pictures of nasko get Nigerlites on his side? 

The answer to that question greatly depends on three factors:

• The court verdict on the corruption charges against him from his days in government.
• His ability to allay the fears of Muslim Nigerlites by convincing them that he is neither a drug user nor a pathological adulterer who wants to institutionalize these traits and
• His ability to convince Nigerlites that he does not subscribe to the secularization agenda of Muazu Babangida Aliyu which was coupled with gross mismanagement of public funds.

Minna is Due for a Cholera Outbreak

Dirty tap water

Reports began to emerge in May 2018 of a new cholera epidemic in Northern Nigeria. The states that were affected initially were Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, but on June 18th, Niger state officially became one of the plagued states. Cholera is a deadly disease that thrives majorly on poor hygiene and is believed to have killed tens of millions of people since it surfaced on the Indian subcontinent in the 19^th century. 

Nigeria has witnessed several outbreaks of the disease prior to now. There have been outbreaks in Nigeria almost every year starting from 1991 with the most deadly one yet coming in 1995/96 in Kano state. In all Cholera outbreaks Nigeria has encountered, the northern states have been the most affected. This trend can be attributed to the high prevalence of poverty in the region which has continued to make most northern households unable to attain high hygiene standards. 

Nigeria’s biggest state by land mass, Niger state (a northern state) shares the same features as the other northern states in terms of life-style, culture and environmental and political outlook. Public water supply in many parts of Niger state is either totally non-existent or grossly inefficient. Bosso, a district in the state capital, Minna, is one place with a water supply system that can be called ‘sinister’.

For years, cutting through different administrations, the citizens in the suburb have been supplied sewage for water. As far as science is concerned, what comes out of taps in Bosso cannot be called water. Scientifically, water is a liquid substance that has no color, odor or taste. Water from taps in Bosso often looks like diluted feces and smell almost as bad. Don’t even ask me about the taste. 

The water is so polluted that it stains anything it comes in contact with; including the ground. Flushing the toilet with it seems to be its only manageable application even though that also causes problems with time as the water causes stains on toilet seats. However, unfortunately and pathetically, a lot of the locals drink this water and even use it for household chores including cooking and washing utensils. One must admit, it is only the Mercy of Allah that has kept the population alive. 

News had it on 20^th June that the Niger state government issued N25 million for the fight against the cholera outbreak but, any sincere and sensible person knows that this is a charade. For cholera to be put at bay for good, the water supply system must be standardized because right now; it is DEAD! In the first year of the tenure of Abubakar Sani Bello, he visited the water board at the Bosso suburb. It was believed that that visit would bring an end to the poisoning that the residents have endured for years, but they waited in forlorn hope.

Asides the poor water supply in Minna, poor waste disposal mechanisms also put Minna at a very high risk of a cholera outbreak. Virtually every street in Bosso has a refuse dump; this makes the environment physically and biologically unclean. Minna is also another place in Nigeria where open defecation is practiced VERY freely. If we really want our city, Minna, to avoid a massive epidemic, then, we must charge those at the helm of affairs to do their jobs by making the welfare and safety of the indigenes a top priority.

Salah Must Repent to Allah

Mohammed Salah Ghaly

Mohammed Salah Ghaly is already being dubbed one of the finest African footballers ever with some observers drawing a similitude between the Nagrig born player and living legends such as Lionel Messi.  Salah caught the eye of many by not just being a gifted Arab footballer but also as a gifted practicing Muslim footballer. The 25 year old has been seen in a number of pictures not just holding a copy of the Qur’an but also reading it.

His skills and humility on the pitch of play coupled with his apparent devotion to Islam earned him the love and respect of most Muslim football lovers

Muslims Who Criticize Buhari Risk Being Labelled 'Shiites'

Muhammadu Buhari

After 14 years of Southern/Christian rule that brought hardship, disunity and instability  to Nigeria; the Muslim north of Nigeria felt it was time to press hard for a change. 

Gaddafi Is Superior to Buhari

Gaddafi (Left) and Buhari (Right)

Like is the norm, guilty people always pass the blame onto something else. The killer herdsmen

menace came on board in Nigeria with the coming of the Buhari regime. The regime always wants to blame the backward state of the nation on largely non-existent forces.

After over three years of blaming the past PDP administration for the woes of the country, the Buhari administration has run out of people to blame and is now blaming dead people who had little or absolutely no business with Nigeria for the despicable state of the country.

On Thursday (11th April 2018), in a meeting with the Bishop of Canterbury in the UK, Buhari alleged that the killer herdsmen in Nigeria were trained by Late Libyan Leader, Muammar Gaddafi. President Buhari said in the meeting, “The problem is even older than us. It has always been there, but now made worse by the influx of armed gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region. These gunmen were trained and armed by Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms”.

Buhari became President of Nigeria on 29^th May 2015, Muammar Gaddafi was killed in Libya on 20^th October 2011 In other words, Gaddafi was killed 3 years, 7 months and 9 days before Buhari became President of Nigeria. How then can Buhari accuse late Gaddafi of trying to destabilize his government?

In Buhari's statement, he did not mention when these killer herdsmen were trained neither did he mention the intelligence sources that made the discorvery. He alleged that the arms being used by the killer herdsmen are part of the arms Gaddafi distributed to his supporters during his struggle to remain in power. Buhari was probably not briefed well enough to know that in June of 2011, France air-dropped around 40 tons of ammunition for the terrorists fighting Gaddafi's government. Part of this arms has gotten to countries such as Mali and Chad, it is very possible that terrorists in Nigeria have also gotten their hands on some of these arms but, it will be madness and injustice to put the blame on Gaddafi, a man who benefitted his people more than any other leader in the history of modern Africa.

Gaddafi's government was known for nothing but the advocating of the progress of Africa. Gaddafi led Libya from being one of the poorest countries in the world to a country with one of the best standards of living in the world, something the Buhari regime will never achieve with its set-up.

This allegation against Gaddafi is an insult to Muslims as outside politics; Gaddafi always showed his soft spot for Islam and Muslims even though he had certain views on Islam which were not generally accepted. Gaddafi built several Masajid (Mosques) in different countries in Africa and accepted migrants from different parts of the continent. What would the Late Gaddafi had intended to gain by arming terrorists in a country like Nigeria.

Gaddafi spoke out against the oppression of Palestinians, something Buhari has never done. Gaddafi rejected the secularist approach to Arab nationalism that had been pervasive in Syria, instead, he deemed Arabism and Islam to be inseparable, referring to them as "one and indivisible". Gaddafi insisted that Islamic law should be the basis for the law of the state; Buhari has never shown any form of inclination to Islamic law. 

Gaddafi desired unity across the Islamic world and encouraged the propagation of Islam elsewhere. On a 2010 visit to Italy, Gaddafi paid a modeling agency to get 200 young Italian women for a lecture he gave urging them to embrace Islam. Buhari has never initiated any effort to propagate Islam. 

Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi was born in 1943 in a tent outside the town of Sirte in the deserts of Tripolitania, western Libya. His family came from a small, tribe called the Qadhadhfa who were Arabized Berber in heritage. His mother, Aisha, died in 1978, and his father, Mohammad Abdul Salam bin Hamed bin Mohammad, was a poor goat and camel herder who died in 1985. 

Gaddafi became one of the founders of the African Union initiated in July 2002 to replace the OAU; at the opening ceremonies, he called for African states to reject conditional aid from the developed world; Buhari on the other hand has joined the group of African leaders enslaving their countries to the west by procuring senseless foreign loans. 

At the third AU summit held in Libya in July 2005, he called for greater integration, advocating a single AU passport, a common defence system, and a single currency, utilizing the slogan: "The United States of Africa is the hope." In August 2008 Gaddafi was proclaimed "King of Kings" by a committee of traditional African leaders. He was crowned in February 2009, in a ceremony held in Ethiopia; this coincided with Gaddafi's election as AU chairman for a year. With the ideology of Buhari, he will NEVER attain such a high status on the continent. 

Gaddafi's earliest education was religious, imparted by a local Islamic teacher. He moved to Sirte to attend elementary school where he progressed through six grades in four years. Education in Libya was not free, but his father thought it would greatly benefit his son despite the financial strain. During the week Gaddafi slept in a mosque and at weekends walked 20 miles to visit his parents. 

Gaddafi had flaws since he was human but Buhari’s flaws are far more significant than Gaddafi’s. Whether politically or spiritually-Muammar Gaddafi is a far more superior personality than Muhammadu Buhari.

Does NEPA Plan with Viewing Centers?

Football fans viewing

The 21st century came with a lot of frenzies in Nigeria, a notable one is the exposure of Nigerians to European club football. Millions of Nigerians (youths and elders alike) have become die-hard enthusiasts of clubs in the top European football leagues. This has brought to the country a new business; football viewing centers.

Owners of these viewing centers subscribe to the major cable networks available in Nigeria such as DSTV, GOtv and Arabsat earning them the capacity to show live matches from all over the globe; especially Europe. Football lovers religiously troop to the viewing centers to watch their ‘idols’ live.

The average fee nationwide for gaining entry into the centers staggered between N 40 and N 50, but today it is as high as N 150 in some parts of the country. The price also depends on the sophistication of the center.

Just like in every nation, there exists an agency responsible for the generation and distribution electric power in Nigeria. The power authority in Nigeria has been known by different names.

The first national power agencies in Nigeria were the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and the Niger Dam Authority (NDA). The ECN ordinance No.15 which was passed in 1950 brought about the merger of these two agencies to form a new entity called National Electric Power Authority popularly known by the acronym; NEPA. 

The merger was to take effect on April 1^st 1972 but was only fully settled on January 6^th 1973 when the first boss was appointed. People from earlier generations have asserted that the beginning of the power crisis in Nigeria started with the switch to this acronym (NEPA).

In 2005, during the privatization campaign of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Electric Power Sector Reform Act was formed which was the first official step towards the privatization of NEPA. In the late 2000s, NEPA got another name-change and became NEPA plc after which its name was completely changed to ‘Power Holding Company of Nigeria’ (PHCN). 

On September 30^th 2013, PHCN was privatized by then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and was broken down into different blocks owned by different moguls in the various regions of the country.

The transformation of the power agency from one entity to the other has seen an ever growing magnitude of corruption perpetrated by the holders. From over-charging the masses to the collection of money even when power is not supplied.

However, there seems to be a crime greater in magnitude to the aforementioned two. In some parts of Nigeria, theory has it that workers in the various power agencies connive with viewing centers to extort the masses. In some areas, there is almost always never power supply when football matches are being played. Football loving masses are therefore ‘forced’ to go to viewing centers to pay to watch the matches and the viewing centers ‘settle’ the power agency workers afterwards.

The city of Minna, the Niger state capital, is a place where this theory can be upheld as true. The slums of the city; particular Bosso (an area with a rich student population) are places where residents begin to panic whenever ‘star’ football matches are to be played because they (the residents) can almost swear that there will be a power cut. 

This is therefore a call to capable individuals to investigate this phenomenon and punish perpetrators if they exist or calm our nerves if proven otherwise.

Please, if you support the motion that says ‘NEPA and viewing centers are partners in crime’ leave your comment below stating the place(s) you think this practice is in place.

How to Identify a Fake Mobil Insecticide

Mobil started out as an oil company drilling and marketing oil products. Previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Mobil is an American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form the parent company now called ExxonMobil. It was previously one of the Seven Sisters which dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s until the 1970s. Mobil continues today as a major brand name within the combined company concomitantly being a gas station and pairing with its own store or On the Run. 

In 2013, it decided to diversify and started producing insecticides with Chemagro Nigeria getting the franchise to become its sole distributor in Nigeria in 2014. Mobil insecticide became very popular for its proficiency in exterminating insects of all kind. It gained acceptance particularly in the black-skin parts of Africa due to the preponderance of harmful insects like mosquitoes and cockroaches.

In Nigeria however, Mobil insecticide has become very scarce with almost no one knowing the reason for that. With this scarcity came the dawn of fakes, it is believed that adulterators collect exhausted cylinders from refuse dumps and refill them with adulterated fluids; it is not known if the authorities of the Mobil conglomerate are aware of this development. Even though these fakes are still scantily available in neighborhood stores, with experience I have come to master tactics for identifying them.

1. Multiple dents: The cylinder of a fake usually has dentations around its circumference possibly due to multiple impacts prior to collection from the refuse dump.
2. Scratches: A fake will have the paint on some sides scratched off. They will mostly like come from home use by the initial initial user or again; from impacts on the refuse dump.
3. Very liquid feel: When the cylinder of a fake is shaken, it feels more like a container of liquid rather than compressed air. In other words, the cylinder feels heavier.
4. Coldness: When the cylinder of a fake is agitated (shaken), it becomes very cold; almost like cold water from the refrigerator.
5. No packaging: Fakes are usually left standing naked on the shelf with no form of packaging, even though devout crooks would still find their way around that.

When a fake Mobil insecticide is in use, two major things are observed:

• The smell is very weak; some kinds of people might even stay in a room that has been sprayed without showing any significant allergies.
• You spray for longer periods before the room is saturated consequently, it takes just a few days before you run out of insecticide.

It should be noted that these fakes still work to some extent but are never as effective or economical as the original.