tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663163372239823772024-03-14T15:31:30.761+01:00Nike's totsHopefully everything from the serious down to the sublime and to the outright hilarious!Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-73100809837982823612020-08-12T17:56:00.001+02:002020-08-12T17:56:15.923+02:00COVID-19 AND LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(5)<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NEW WAYS OF GREETING (Seriously, must we shake hands?):</em></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem;"> </span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif;">hand shaking has been a formal way of greeting and has reportedly been with us for over 2,000 years. However, findings that the virus can be contracted by us touching our mouth eyes and nose and with most people unable to long resist urges to touch their faces, has led to the advisory against shaking of hands as a form of greeting. In a 2014</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/after-reading-this-youll-never-shake-hands-again/g-17925709" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">article</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif;"> </span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif;">in DW Magazine, it was reported that several studies have shown that handshakes are a very common way of transmitting diseases. In the same article, it was reported that only about two-thirds of men wash their hands after using public restrooms. In Nigeria, where men frequently urinate on the sides of the road, which of course have no hand washing facilities, the figure will be significantly higher. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF96rsoW4nnMeLrNKHceEEHO2d_GuBy3i7j12az71npixPlnnf9vzP-A-7SrtAHYyf7ukjxGxAo3iZD4zkZNfqiE5P3q_yLkBoVWLKHztkAEErEp7OAqyEPNEapV1NHIYlj4V3KMSczUY/s720/IMG-20200324-WA0046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF96rsoW4nnMeLrNKHceEEHO2d_GuBy3i7j12az71npixPlnnf9vzP-A-7SrtAHYyf7ukjxGxAo3iZD4zkZNfqiE5P3q_yLkBoVWLKHztkAEErEp7OAqyEPNEapV1NHIYlj4V3KMSczUY/s640/IMG-20200324-WA0046.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>By the time this pandemic is finally over, some of us might have to reexamine the culture of hand shaking as a form of greeting.<p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IMPROVING THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM:</em></span><span style="text-align: justify;">successive governments both at the State and Federal levels, have paid scant attention to truly developing Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure and the manpower taking care of the health of the citizens. With most public officials flying out of the country at the merest hint of bodily discomfort, it is no wonder that the healthcare infrastructure and system have deteriorated till the hospitals became mere consulting clinics. Healthcare providers are underpaid, overworked and unappreciated and most of them have therefore left Nigeria for other shores where they are better paid and where facilities are much better provided for their work. </span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The need of most countries to contain the spread of Covid-19 has led to closure of borders and the airspace in most countries and perhaps for the first time in decades, some of those at the helms of the country’s affairs are now confronted with the decrepit healthcare system their criminally selfish neglect has ‘bequeathed’ to the country. More than any other thing in recent history, Covid-19 presents Nigeria’s leaders at all levels, with a chance to recalibrate and devote more funds and attention to the health sector. Nigeria has consistently fallen very short of the 2001 African Union Countries’ 15% of annual budget target and the 15% of annual budget recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) also of the same year.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Percentages allocated to health have not risen up to 6% of the total annual budgets in spite of Nigeria’s commitment to follow the African Union Countries’ declaration of 15% ironically made in the FCT in 2001. According to <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Budgit</em></span>, combined budgetary allocations to education and health in the 2020 Appropriation Act came to just about 11% of the total budget (and that was before the budget was revised with health and education suffering drastic cuts). And even of the dismal 4.14% which came to <del style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">N</del>427.3B allocated to health for the year, only about <del style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">N</del>46.48 Billion is for capital expenditure, the bigger chunk goes to recurrent expenditure. The Cable’s report of November 7, 2019 titled <a href="https://www.thecable.ng/critical-issues-on-fgs-2020-healthcare-budget" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Critical Issues on FG’s 2020 healthcare budget</em></span></a> written by Joshua Olufemi gives graphic details of the dire straits Nigeria’s healthcare sector is in.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSetNcIcsLGqHbaF3PMYHs-pYap-Zh_KXaJeTO8sHuGtaTUZGRiAB_TkoCcMkkSM-BbhHWEiXMI8nHfc5wGA1rh11t_i5Wl2-O2vu4WejxXnZzuwiEtCllPOHXa0nev5yKa2XyV7ByqTk/s1536/budget-2020-healthnewsng-visualization-tools.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSetNcIcsLGqHbaF3PMYHs-pYap-Zh_KXaJeTO8sHuGtaTUZGRiAB_TkoCcMkkSM-BbhHWEiXMI8nHfc5wGA1rh11t_i5Wl2-O2vu4WejxXnZzuwiEtCllPOHXa0nev5yKa2XyV7ByqTk/s640/budget-2020-healthnewsng-visualization-tools.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">If the account in the article does not give you pause on the importance or lack of importance, attached to the development of our health sector by successive governments in Nigeria, perhaps the fact that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS)’s annual budget according to Dr. Ola Brown in her book titled <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8a2m2n49wlavui/Fixing%20Nigeria%20(2).pdf?dl=0" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fixing Healthcare in Nigeria,</em></span></a> is equivalent to the Nigeria’s federal health budget for 200 years will. In case the significance of the multiple of years by which UK’s NHS budget size versus Nigeria’s budget size eluded you, UK has a population of 60 million people while Nigeria’s estimated population is at least 3 times that of the UK.</p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Though one wants to have the hope that the closure of airspaces and the consequent inability of Nigeria’s public officials to travel during this period will make them see the need to develop both the healthcare infrastructure and the workers in the healthcare sector in the country, the recent cut by 25% in the capital allocation to the Ministry of Health and the 42% cut in the allocation for primary health care in the 2020 revised budget indicate otherwise. </p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px;" /></p>Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-79640039948555786832020-08-04T13:34:00.000+02:002020-08-04T13:38:59.469+02:00COVID-19 AND LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(4)<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">NIMC,
DEVELOPING A STRUCTURE: IMPORTANCE OF FOR HELPING CITIZENS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"> The attempts by the
governments both at the State and Federal levels to provide some sorts of
palliatives to people who mostly live on their daily incomes during the
lockdown has laid very bare and brought into very sharp focus, the lack of any
real structure in the country which could be utilised to effectively get the
palliatives to people who were in dire need of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoT4WQjo6Jdsmp1YAjjsljj78DWecdt0nSrw3m_txcImccmM0cdbMseG7bB6vJLDCZAT8K9q9eZzW7huh3S6LF-btt4aYxc089j8FIdJf7apf4IBMIWDBloFRg8NzABl9sY9BgmI07x8/s283/NIMC+ID+Card.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoT4WQjo6Jdsmp1YAjjsljj78DWecdt0nSrw3m_txcImccmM0cdbMseG7bB6vJLDCZAT8K9q9eZzW7huh3S6LF-btt4aYxc089j8FIdJf7apf4IBMIWDBloFRg8NzABl9sY9BgmI07x8/s0/NIMC+ID+Card.jpeg" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Though
the Federal government claimed to have a register of about 2.6 million
households who have been benefitting from the monthly <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>5,000 stipend under the Nigerian Social Investment Program (NSIP)
previously supervised by the office of the Vice President and later transferred
to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, there have been a lot of questions of
how the beneficiaries of the NSIP were determined and the transparency of the
distribution. In any case, however those beneficiaries were determined, the
fact is that 2.6 million households or the increment by one million recently
directed by the president amount to very tiny drops in an ocean of poor
Nigerians, more than 40% of whom, according to the latest statistics from the
National Bureau of Statistics reportedly live in extreme poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The
importance of the role and tasks given to the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)</b> by the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NIMC Act</b> which was supposed to have
come into effect in July of 2007 comes into very sharp focus during this
period. The NIMC has as part of its functions:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The creation, management,
maintenance and operation of a national identity database created under <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 14 of the NIMC Act of 2007</b>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section
5(a)</i></b>;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The registration of all
Nigerian citizens into the National database: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section 5(b)</i></b>;
registration of non-Nigerian citizens lawfully resident in Nigeria: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section
5(c)</i></b>; <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The issuance of a general
multi-purpose card to persons registered under <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 5 (a) & (b)</b> above: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section 5(d)</i></b>; and <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The assignation of unique
National Identification Numbers (NIN) to persons registered: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Section
5(f)</i></b>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">By
the provision of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 1(1)(r)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the Mandatory Use of the National Identification
Number Regulations of 2017</b> made pursuant to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sections 27 & 31 of the NIMC Act of 2007</b>, the NIN is a
condition precedent to eligibility and documentation for social welfare
services by the government and other non-governmental agencies. However, though
as already mentioned, the NIMC Act was supposed to have come into effect since
May 2007 after it was signed into law, it was not launched until August 2014,
more than 7 years later, by then President Goodluck Jonathan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">According
to Guardian newspaper’s Saturday Magazine report of November 9, 2019, titled </span><a href="https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/national-identity-card-another-bumpy-road-to-building-national-database/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">National
Identity Card: Another bumpy road to building National Database</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">, as at 2016, less than 1% of
eligible Nigerians had been registered and even though the target of the NIMC
back in 2016 was to have had over 100 million unique records in its central
database in order to commence the enforcement of mandatory use of the NIN for
certain services and transactions, as at November 9, 2019, just about 38
million people or 19% had been enrolled, a figure, just over one third below
the target of the NIMC. Officials of the NIMC have, according to the earlier
mentioned Guardian report, blamed their failure to effectively carry out NIMC’s
mandates under the Act on paucity of funds. NIMC’s budget in the initial 2020
budget was <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>5.006Billion (<s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>5,006,294,500) out of which recurrent expenditure
is a whopping <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>4,662,530,146 while
capital expenditure is a mere <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>345,764,354,
whereas in an article on biometricupdate.com of September 5, 2019 titled </span><a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/nigeria-to-receive-433m-from-world-bank-for-biometric-national-id-registration"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Nigeria to receive $433M from
World Bank for biometric national ID registration,</span></a><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"> an estimate of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>50 Billion or $140 Million per annum was
given for registration of all Nigerians. Though the article did not state how
many Nigerians this amount is to register on an annual basis and what exactly
the <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>50M figure covers, the DG of NIMC
according to </span><a href="https://thenationonlineng.net/100m-nigerians-have-no-identity/"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">a recent report</span></a><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">, stated recently that the
Commission enrolls about 5.1 million people on an annual basis. This pandemic
and the inability to effectively distribute palliative materials to those who
really need them should tell this government how important it is for the
government to put the structure in place for it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Besides
using the National Identity database for social welfare programs, the database
when it starts running will also be of very great importance as it relates to
apprehending criminals in the country and in the determination of our
population. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can more accurately tell
us our number in the country and how many people live in the different parts of
the country. Of course when we know our numbers, we can plan better and know
which area needs what, rather than the haphazard planning and uneven
developments we currently have. The DG of NIMC, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mr Aliyu Aziz</i> was recently quoted to have said during a Zoom
meeting that over 100 million Nigerians, especially as can be guessed, the
poorest and most vulnerable; women and girls, do not have any form of identity
whatsoever. The importance of having these figures can never be
over-emphasised. As already mentioned, the NIN can also help to track
criminals. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 1(1)(x)</b> requires
the NIN for the purchase and registration of SIM cards and other communication
devices and since existing phone lines are also required to be linked with the
NIN in much the same way our Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) were linked to all
our bank accounts, however many they were, the proposal mulled recently by the
Communication Ministry of limiting SIM cards to three per person would be
unnecessary. The most important thing to be done for this to work is to ensure
no SIM card is sold or issued without registration and linking with the NIN.
Any telecommunication company that flouts this provision of the law should be
severely sanctioned. Once this is done, it will become so much easier to trace
the persons behind fraudulent activities and other criminal acts. Enrolment of
Nigerians and foreign residents should also be accelerated and both the
corruption and the paucity of funds that have stalled it should be tackled. It
is hoped that the liberalization of the registration process which will involve
other agencies and private sector participants to enroll Nigerians, and to be made
possible by the financial support from the World Bank with the sum of $433M will
aggressively scale up enrolment of people across the country as intended. The
Steering Committee for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nigeria
Digital Identity for Development Ecosystem</i>, also recently inaugurated and
to be chaired by the Secretary to the Federal government, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mr. Boss Mustapha</i>, which has among others, the task of
fast-tracking the implementation of the Strategic Roadmap for accelerating
digital identity development for Nigeria it is hoped, will contribute towards
actually accelerating enrollment of Nigerians and non-Nigerians resident in
Nigeria into the National database. It is time for us as a country and a people
to start prioritizing the truly important things. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-37882653567918482482020-07-21T12:03:00.001+02:002020-07-21T12:06:37.400+02:00CBN'S GLOBAL STANDING INSTRUCTION (GSI) AND LOAN RECOVERY IN NIGERIA<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
After the CBN in
July 2019, directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have a Loan to deposit ratio
(LDR) of 60% or risk the CBN retaining an amount equivalent to 50% of the shortfall
in the LDR, and even going a step further to, in the last quarter of 2019,
raise the LDR to 65%, I got worried about the safety of depositors’ funds given
the high rate of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the banking sector.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
The CBN had over
time, tried to put in place some safety measures against ballooning NPLs like
the establishment of the Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) or Credit Bureau,
given legal backing by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sections 28 &
52 of the CBN Act</b> (as amended). The CRMS, now web-enabled, allow banks and
other stakeholders to dial directly into the CRMS database for the purpose of
rendering statutory returns or conducting status enquiries on borrowers. The
CBN had also always consistently stressed to banks the importance of
strengthening their risk management practices. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
It can be argued
that banks’ obligation under the CBN Act to update their credits on a monthly
basis and to make status enquiry on any intending borrower to determine their
eligibility or otherwise has made some difference to the quantum of NPLs in the
industry. The CBN’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Financial Stability Report of 2018</span></i>
reported an improvement in NPLs of Domestic Systematically Important Banks
(D-SIBs), from 11.31% at end of June 2018 to 9.82% at end of December 2018. The
D-SIBs, which were 7 in number in 2018 accounted for 63.80% of the industry
total assets of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>35.10Tn, 65.23% of the
industry total deposit of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>21.75Tn and
66% of the industry total loans of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>15.34Tn.
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsvT1B2__jkmK1QZzBXQ0KUmgYSlI2SZ76VH2GWO97Q-qrCal3B3c1a8ZEdGUqHm4Bo7BwitKEkjdv0vu_X78i5ZhNX03ggAJGISXeKpeL_nh2TsjsyGo7mQKfxRcvF4YZhBQvlGZAWOs/s1600/NBS+NPL+FOR+2019.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1325" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsvT1B2__jkmK1QZzBXQ0KUmgYSlI2SZ76VH2GWO97Q-qrCal3B3c1a8ZEdGUqHm4Bo7BwitKEkjdv0vu_X78i5ZhNX03ggAJGISXeKpeL_nh2TsjsyGo7mQKfxRcvF4YZhBQvlGZAWOs/s320/NBS+NPL+FOR+2019.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
While NPLs as at Q4
of 2018 stood at <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>1.792Tn equal to
11.67% of gross loans (<s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>15,353,758,941,686.20),
at end of December 2019, the percentage of NPLs had reduced to 6.03% of gross
loans of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>17.563Tn according to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Selected
Banking Sector data</span></i> released by the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) in March 2020.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
Still in a bid to
ensure borrowers pay what they owe financial institutions in the country and
reduce NPLs, as recently as the 16<sup>th</sup> of June 2020, the CRC Credit
Bureau, one of the 3 licensed credit Bureaus in Nigeria, reportedly launched
its data submission platform to allow lenders to provide real time credit
information about borrowers.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
The Asset
Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) had initially been created in 2010 by the
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AMCON Act of 2010</b> which was amended
twice; in 2015 and 2019 in order to resolve the issue of NPLs in eligible
financial institutions. How successful AMCON has been over the years is a
subject of debate. According to the 2018 Financial Stability Report earlier
mentioned, the carrying value of AMCON’s liabilities increased from <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>4.53Tn at end of June 2018 to N5.43Tn at
end of December 2018 due to its investment of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>895.45Bn
in Polaris Bank. AMCON’s total recoveries from asset sales and credit
repayments at end of December came to <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>759.058Bn.
The 2019 amendments to the AMCON Act in fact contained several sections which
allows AMCON to obtain ex-parte Orders of Court to put debtors’ accounts under
surveillance, or to get access to devices which will reveal where a debtor
keeps his/her funds: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 6(1)(ua)</b>.
A newly inserted <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 6(6)</b>
mandates AMCON to furnish governments Ministries, Agencies and departments
(MDAs) with the name of recalcitrant debtors so as either to stop them from
being given government contracts or to stop them from being paid if they had
already been awarded contracts.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
On Tuesday the 14<sup>th</sup>
of July 2020, the CBN released <a href="https://www.proshareng.com/admin/upload/report/13705-Operational%20Guidelines%20on%20GSI%20-%20Individuals-proshare.pdf">Guidelines
on Global Standing Instructions (GSI) (Individuals)</a> targeted at enhancing
loan recovery in the banking sector. GSI will allow banks to debit debtors’
eligible accounts across different banks<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A debtor who has an overdue loan with Bank <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A</b> can thus with the aid of GSI, have his/her funded accounts in
Banks <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">B, C</b> & <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">D</b> debited with amount equivalent to
his/her indebtedness (principal sum and interest thereon) to Bank <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A</b>. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Article 2.0.</b> of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">GSI Guidelines</b> lists accounts which
qualify for GSI to include domiciliary accounts, investment/deposit accounts
and electronic wallets and joint accounts, apart from the traditional savings
and current accounts that most people have. By <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Article 3.2.1.,</b> borrowers are to execute GSI mandates (for their
banks or lenders) either in hard copy or digital form. All the borrowers’ accounts
are also expected to be linked to his/her Bank Verification Number (BVN) and
any of his/her account which qualifies for GSI found not to be so linked shall
be watch-listed.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
The mandate which
would have been signed by a borrower before being given loan by a Participating
Financial Institution (PFI) will enable a PFI to issue a GSI trigger which will
in turn allow the borrower’s eligible accounts across PFIs to debit the
borrower’s account(s) without recourse to the borrower.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
While it was stated
that the GSI is supposed to be used as a last resort to recover past due debts
inclusive of the principal sum and interest but excluding any penal charge
imposed by the PFI, it is my opinion that PFIs should still have been mandated
to apply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ex-parte</i> to the Courts
before the accounts are debited with the amounts owed by borrowers in order to
avoid situations where the process is abused by PFIs.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
The fact that joint
accounts are also included in the list of GSI eligible accounts may also pose
some problems and is likely to be challenged by persons (spouses, partners,
siblings etc) who may, for one reason or another, be operating joint accounts
with borrowers. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
Having been a bit
worried by the CBN’s 65% LDR policy as it concerns the safety of depositors’
funds, it is unlikely one will not support any policy that will improve loan
recovery and protect depositors’ funds from high toxic or non-performing loans.
My support for the GSI process in principle notwithstanding, I do not believe
anything could be lost if a borrower’s account is frozen and then debited upon
application and grant thereof by a court of Law. Much the same way the Courts
have held that anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC have no right to
request banks to freeze a customer’s account without first obtaining a court
order, so should the case be with the GSI process. The shift in a democratic
dispensation towards making Laws and Regulations that give too much power to
individuals or entities without first getting a go-ahead from the Court is a
bit uncomfortable.</div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-57669993185348397262020-07-13T14:55:00.001+02:002020-07-13T14:55:26.151+02:00COVID-19 AND LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(3)<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">WORK
FROM HOME & VIRTUAL MEETINGS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">
I guess we are all familiar with the denouncement of office meetings by a
sizable number of employees as a time waster and a hindrance to productivity at
work. The social media is awash with memes on this. Beyond office meetings
however, there are periodic meetings, seminars and conferences held by
international organizations where participants have to fly in from different
countries to attend. With this pandemic and the cancellation of flights plus
the need for social (I prefer physical) distancing, we have seen the likes of
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UN Security Council, United Nations
Human Rights Council and the G20 Health Ministers among others, holding
virtual/online meetings which are no less productive than the ones which were
in the past, held physically. Companies have also been holding shareholders’
meetings and AGMs online. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7FGV1wIgVLkOXJYaBP-m9p7CoWuL-wQ9isAkiKhBtbaoPbyH_2u3_55VQeK5Tp1Uat35QxmmG_5uKodm0IjquC_PyyPzSaO7uwqO0LGrLo26E2pkvgcMKU0jbzOAup9JMhINAORy_rU/s1600/60ea7567d0fa9edf288e83c9a98c86bf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="736" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7FGV1wIgVLkOXJYaBP-m9p7CoWuL-wQ9isAkiKhBtbaoPbyH_2u3_55VQeK5Tp1Uat35QxmmG_5uKodm0IjquC_PyyPzSaO7uwqO0LGrLo26E2pkvgcMKU0jbzOAup9JMhINAORy_rU/s320/60ea7567d0fa9edf288e83c9a98c86bf.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfaZADRhD1lz4bMtOwGApxh7IkyTcEWCBUfiW_c99_7KbR20O9uB_YevTQz2h9jlx034AkMZZ88xsAKSgecpIFjpd6tspq4JceDUVTn9T4z-cXUgQdt-c22rb4mhiHNfWhE23SIfpMo4/s1600/85b5ed0ca68edd5da8741eb7844e2336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfaZADRhD1lz4bMtOwGApxh7IkyTcEWCBUfiW_c99_7KbR20O9uB_YevTQz2h9jlx034AkMZZ88xsAKSgecpIFjpd6tspq4JceDUVTn9T4z-cXUgQdt-c22rb4mhiHNfWhE23SIfpMo4/s1600/85b5ed0ca68edd5da8741eb7844e2336.jpg" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Before
the pandemic and the lockdown imposed to curb its spread shut most people in
the world inside, employees in many organizations had been advocating to be allowed
to work from home, and to be fair, some organizations had started trying it out
on a limited basis to see whether productivity would remain the same or even
see some improvements. According to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard
Business Report</i>, roughly about 5% of the workers in the US and Europe were
working from home before the lockdown. With Covid-19 and the lockdown imposed
in many countries in the world however, many companies have had no choice but
to allow many of their staff to work from home and the number of workers who
will be allowed to work from home will likely increase significantly
post-Covid-19, whenever that is, since it appears Covid-19 will stick around
for some time to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">In
cities where commuters spend hours in traffic to and from work each day, more
companies might need to take more critical looks at the probable benefits of
having their staff work more frequently from home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">The
downsides of working from home in a country like Nigeria will of course revolve
more around the mirage that stable supply of electricity really is in most
areas, and good internet access that will be required for the work to be
comfortably done. However, a balance can be found between health and loss of
productive man hours that are daily experienced in traffic versus the
facilities that will be required for work to be effectively done from home.
Many are already saying work from home (WFH) is the future of work. Twitter in
fact, recently announced that its employees can work from home on a permanent
basis and not just till the end is seen of Covid-19. But while WFH waits to fully
take off in the nearest future, there is no doubt that with the persistence of
the pandemic, especially with some countries experiencing a second wave of
infections upon the ease of lockdown, more employers will have to content
themselves with the work being done (and hopefully not harass employees with
messages in a bid to monitor the work being done) as opposed to insistence on
the workers’ daily physical presence at work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">NIGERIAN<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>GOVERNMENT & ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">: in the 5 days of partial
lockdown in Lagos State before the Federal government imposed lockdown on
Lagos, FCT and Ogun State, the Lagos State government had requested that
members of the public refrain from going to the State Secretariat and any
transaction needed to be done be carried out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">via</i> telephone. The fact however is, precious few transactions with
government offices can be carried out online. And over the phone, only the most
basic of enquiries can mostly be made. I dare say, this is mostly true in other
States of the federation as well as at the FCT. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Ensuring
contact with members of the public has over the years and decades of Nigeria’s
existence, mostly served the corrupt tendencies of government workers. If
governments at all levels in the country should learn anything from this
pandemic, definitely, one of the key lessons, and there are many, is the long
overdue need, in the best interest of the government especially as regards
revenue generation, to take as much of the governance as possible online.
Phasing out physical interactions with government offices will not only
substantially reduce corruption endemic in the civil service, the government
will find its revenue generation greatly improved and expanded. This has become
even more important with the pandemic drastically shrinking government’s income
also from citizens’ inability to carry out normal business with the government.
In the decision to put infrastructure in place for electronic governance, the
government across all levels, have to put the economy and efficient service
delivery at the forefront. Perhaps government would not be losing quite as much
revenue as they presently are, if the government’s ease of doing business
campaign had not been restricted almost, to only the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC). While the measures quickly put in place by the National
Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) during the pandemic, for
entrepreneurs to apply online for registration of products with it is
commendable, much more still need to be done by other government agencies and
departments both at State and local government levels across all sectors of the
economy as much as practicable to enable citizens transact business with them
online. Perhaps government would not be losing so much revenue if some form of
electronic governance had been in place. As things stand, governments will
continue to lose revenue on a massive scale until the economy fully reopens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-16069796304615368432020-06-22T15:55:00.001+02:002020-06-22T15:55:22.195+02:00COVID-19 & LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(2)<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">VIROLOGISTS
& EPIDEMIOLOGISTS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">
while many of us may have before the Covid-19 Pandemic heard or known of the
existence of virologists and epidemiologists, it is more likely, few of us paid
any serious attention to who they are and what they do. With the global
devastation that Covid-19 is wrecking however, more of us are beginning to
realize their importance with regards to the study of the virus and how it can
be defeated. According to </span><a href="https://work.chron.com/responsibilities-virologist-7450.html"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">chron.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">, </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif";">Virologists are microbiologists who study
microorganisms that quickly duplicate, resulting in the rapid spreading of
viruses. Their primary work is to figure out how diseases like AIDS, SARS and
hepatitis spread (I guess you can now safely add Covid-19 to the list), in
order to prevent more rampant development and to assist in vaccine development.
Virologists’ core duties involve researching, preparing, conducting and
overseeing studies of microorganisms so as to better discern what contributes
to their growth and spread of the virus in the bacteria and thus better predict
the evolution of the virus in populations. Epidemiologists on the other hand,
are involved in the study of epidemics and their spread over a defined period
of time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif";">Because of Covid-19,
we are now seeing epidemiologists and virologists more often on our TVs and
paying attention to what they have to say about how to contain or stop the
spread. In a country like Nigeria where certain fields are not very valued,
some of us will, going forward, now learn to appreciate the importance of these
fields and the difference the work they do, can make to whether we live or die.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">VIRTUAL
CLASSROOMS:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">
one of the first things done in many countries was directing the closure of
schools in order to both protect the children and contain the spread of the
pandemic. The need to keep the children engaged and to ensure their education
does not suffer as a result of school closure, necessitated a move from the 4
walls of the school classroom to virtual classrooms enabled by the use of video
conferencing apps. Of course, online education and webinar classes were not
uncommon for tertiary level education pre-Covid-19. What may be relatively new
is the younger ones at the primary and secondary school levels receiving
educational instructions online. Many are even already considering taking the
virtual classroom for the younger ones beyond the Covid-19 era. It is of
course, a whole different thing whether parents, who have had to work extra
hard to keep their children engaged during this lockdown will be in support of
any such move.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXh5aI5r0QUljjSkkNzqhELQ8jTlRX5Pag_FRzMK6vmyHxtfkn_z-oCjiN4KiUqdJKF_a_9CX1JpMaqDVcjMKCewVjnk3i1mGAYfuNtaKpAhAsv6esPz6HrgZ5KgLHVxAFla5EZ3MWRQg/s1600/School+in+the+age+of+corona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="807" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXh5aI5r0QUljjSkkNzqhELQ8jTlRX5Pag_FRzMK6vmyHxtfkn_z-oCjiN4KiUqdJKF_a_9CX1JpMaqDVcjMKCewVjnk3i1mGAYfuNtaKpAhAsv6esPz6HrgZ5KgLHVxAFla5EZ3MWRQg/s320/School+in+the+age+of+corona.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">AREA
BOYS, UNEMPLOYED YOUTHS; LEGACY OF CIVIL RULE?:</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"> this is more peculiar to Lagos
State though it can also be found in other parts of the country to a smaller
extent. The Covid-19 induced lockdown brought along its security challenges.
While increase in domestic violence, cybercrimes and petty thefts had largely
been anticipated, it is doubtful that a resurgence in armed robbery operations
were expected. However, that was the situation some days before the end of the
initial 2 weeks Federal Government lockdown in both Ogun and Lagos States.
While officials of the Police Force tried to play down the resurgence of house
to house robbery attacks even after parading some 200 or so suspects they
arrested, the fact that most neighbourhoods drafted their men into some sort of
emergency vigilante to ward off the criminals added to the hardships foisted by
the lockdown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">There
is no doubt that hunger became even more of a problem with many who could
barely afford to feed well even at the best of times. However, it is my belief
that a good majority of the boys/young men who terrorized hapless people during
the period were guys who never had any real employment before the lockdown and
a number of them most likely form part of the army of young men armed by our
politicians during election periods and who afterwards use the weapons,
including guns, that they were given by politicians, to commit crimes against
ordinary folks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">If
the army of young unemployed men who spend most of their days doing nothing but
who have the desire to wear designer clothes and use expensive gadgets, did not
give people of the South-West and particularly those in Lagos, much cause for
concern before, what happened during the lockdown should make us sit down, or
perhaps stand up and take action on how this ticking time bomb should best be
safely defused. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-18948580640927242302020-06-10T16:57:00.002+02:002020-06-10T16:57:30.712+02:00COVID-19 PANDEMIC & THE MANY LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(1)<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Many
people have said, and I agree for the most part, that the world will, as a
matter of necessity make adjustments to the way many things are done
post-Covid-19. While people desperately long to get their lives back
post-Covid-19, those lives would have been greatly impacted in some ways by
this pandemic. There is no doubt that for many, both individuals and corporate
bodies, the return will be to a new normal. The fact that as at today, the 10th of June 2020, more than 7.26 million infections have been recorded and over 411,879 people have died across 188 countries and regions (according to data monitored by the <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">Center for Systems Science and Engineering [CCSE] at Johns Hopkins University</a>), and the near global restrictions of movement of people means that Covid-19 has wrought a lot of negatives. However, much as the pandemic has wreaked a lot of havocs globally, there are some positive changes that are already being made and will still need to be made in many countries of the world. The purpose of this article is to look at possible lessons to be learned and positive resultant changes that should be made both across the world and in Nigeria in the wake of this pandemic and its effects. Because
there are several aspects to consider, this article will run in a few series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">CHINA
AS THE WORLD FACTORY</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Long before Covid-19 started wrecking havoc in other countries of the world,
its economic impact was already being felt in many countries chiefly because
virtually everything that one can think of, are being either manufactured or
assembled in China. The Western countries in pursuit of the maximum profit they
can possibly make, decided the best thing was to tap into the huge population
that China has, to get cheap labour and in so doing, outsourced virtually
everything to China. This is the reason why when China started sneezing and
coughing literally, the whole world started shivering with the cold of a slow
in production of goods. It is time this trend is examined and tweaked to focus
a bit less on just profit making and more on each country going back to either
resuscitating or expanding its manufacturing capacity locally. The way many
companies in the wake of scarcity of medical equipments particularly PPEs,
redirected their focus towards local manufacture of this medical supplies, is a
positive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Beyond
the capitalists’ actions which caused the world to rely almost entirely on
China for most goods, the pandemic’s travel to other countries from China
caused many countries to place restrictions on pharmaceutical goods and food
supplies. The reason for the restrictions is not farfetched; each country
wanted to be sure it would have enough supplies to meet its own needs. A
country like Nigeria thus has to seriously work on producing many of tis needs for its large population. We have to go from a consuming country to a
manufacturing country. On this, the CBN’s determination to push the country
into local production of most the goods consumed in the country is a step in
the right direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Also, fact that Nigeria, while not having China’s population, is the most
populous Black Country in the world with an estimated population of about 200
million people at least 65% of whom have been said to be below 35 years old
should even be more of an incentive for us because what that means is that we
have a very active population, and engaging that population productively will
not only grow our economy, it will massively reduce our very high unemployment
rate, reduce, poverty level and our over-independence on imported goods while
also reducing crimes due to more people having opportunities to earn honest living.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsnTr7WlIFXL4fcNWulSfcst2UyG3FLcB3AvddVpQG4ehWgKFTohG5VOpHTn7qxbILzGv9yf3_lkZ5OlS49rR7bwza1JLfwnn_MAMnmxV7pi4Sqsen_iW2KDhyphenhyphen8jSYLrRk89PdMUCuJg/s1600/LaborQ32018+Unemployment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsnTr7WlIFXL4fcNWulSfcst2UyG3FLcB3AvddVpQG4ehWgKFTohG5VOpHTn7qxbILzGv9yf3_lkZ5OlS49rR7bwza1JLfwnn_MAMnmxV7pi4Sqsen_iW2KDhyphenhyphen8jSYLrRk89PdMUCuJg/s320/LaborQ32018+Unemployment.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Unemployment rate as at Q3 of 2018.<i> Source:</i> NBS</span></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">SOCIAL
INTERACTIONS</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">It was common pre-Covid-19 for people to assume that physical interactions
reduced drastically with the advent of smartphones because many people appeared
to prefer chatting than talking even when in physical proximity to each other.
The meme of a child wondering whether he was downloaded by his parents who were
always bent over their phones, I believe, is a very popular one and aptly
describes how smart phones have changed human interactions. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRtQ5URgilgcZnJxtWzblvUEjOmTZ0CoWBFG1tWl6lV9o_gzYL1oIuKGthXimp8N9ua61qtK3M1AF1-HZRB6aoYKHVzJ2G9YyEBwzOp_mrW-sQfKFFXjF6IvYwMUvkIpe1bbmT9fzhug/s1600/402490cd598a11a236834f335f5591b4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="166" data-original-width="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRtQ5URgilgcZnJxtWzblvUEjOmTZ0CoWBFG1tWl6lV9o_gzYL1oIuKGthXimp8N9ua61qtK3M1AF1-HZRB6aoYKHVzJ2G9YyEBwzOp_mrW-sQfKFFXjF6IvYwMUvkIpe1bbmT9fzhug/s1600/402490cd598a11a236834f335f5591b4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMC_bIgCsPZhMk2sobGVwUc-MYvYXdw5KLynAD_Y_vhxCULW5mZTaZogcYRZbYbfXvmJsCqdm4KSgKMhSJ3s6Y80ja3i-nSSdpHLrT7id-mH3VOSjaV9z7y65PEWTg4C0V3biHcmhYWk/s1600/e7b8b6723bbdca13e1e1781b6e9e6a38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMC_bIgCsPZhMk2sobGVwUc-MYvYXdw5KLynAD_Y_vhxCULW5mZTaZogcYRZbYbfXvmJsCqdm4KSgKMhSJ3s6Y80ja3i-nSSdpHLrT7id-mH3VOSjaV9z7y65PEWTg4C0V3biHcmhYWk/s1600/e7b8b6723bbdca13e1e1781b6e9e6a38.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif; font-size: x-small;"> Source of images: Pinterest</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">However, nothing
contradicts our seeming preference for interaction behind the comfort of our phones
more sharply than the speed with which this virus traveled, carried and
transferred by humans, from the city of Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China to
most of the countries of the world. The lockdown has more so, shown very
clearly that man truly is a social animal and even when virtual contacts seemed
to be taking over, and sometimes, even when we will rather chat when we are in
the same place instead of talk face to face, physical interactions have proved very important. I suspect that if only for a while, as the lockdown is being eased and after it eventually ends
everywhere, we shall learn to treasure more, the friendship and interactions of
the people in our lives. And perhaps, in countries in which so many died
because of the selfishness and irresponsibility of a few, people would have
learned to be a little less selfish and will be more open to acting in favour of the greater good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-34831670338850566702020-03-17T17:39:00.001+01:002020-03-17T17:43:02.935+01:00THE ABULE ADO EXPLOSION, DREAMS LOST AND HUMANITY REGAINED <br />
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The
first I heard about the explosion which happened on Sunday the 15<sup>th</sup>
of March in the Abule Ado area of Lagos State was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">via</i> a text message from a friend which had advised that the area
should be avoided because of a pipeline explosion. My first thought was, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oh
no! Not another explosion, when will the vandals learn?</i></b> To be honest, I
didn’t give too much thought to it again, I only hoped there wasn’t any
fatality of misguided people who risk their lives and die in the process of
scooping fuel. It wasn’t until very much later in the evening that I got to see
on the news, the magnitude of the explosion and I got to hear that this time,
the cause of the explosion might not have been pipeline vandalism that has come
to form part of our sad story in this country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxxnoJwKlEHFiUu2_JBiTKUe8hL__yyM9Qha57Ub3hxDLssGSrOXxU6ZPTObI8HgZBB1SjhfA7SgR6GsyP-K3DGsEjOFH41UnB8kAQfhngBqgx-n7PIvrDw8p_BhrTN30AKdGVuYuPrHQ/s1600/Emma+and+Chisom+Udoakanobi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxxnoJwKlEHFiUu2_JBiTKUe8hL__yyM9Qha57Ub3hxDLssGSrOXxU6ZPTObI8HgZBB1SjhfA7SgR6GsyP-K3DGsEjOFH41UnB8kAQfhngBqgx-n7PIvrDw8p_BhrTN30AKdGVuYuPrHQ/s1600/Emma+and+Chisom+Udoakanobi.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><i>Picture of Emmanuel & Chisom Udoakanobi, newly married couple courtesy of Vanguard Newspaper.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Since
Sunday when the explosion happened, different media outlets have come out with
different figures/numbers of casualties and fatalities. As at this morning, the
Guardian newspaper, reported that 23 fatalities have been recorded as a result
of the explosion. Many more people got injured and are being treated at a naval
hospital not too far from the area of the explosion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Something
I noticed though in the midst of the gloom and darkness of the aftermath of the
explosion, first in the much, (perhaps rightly?) vilified, social media, and
now in the traditional electronic media, is the fact names and faces are being
given to some of the victims of the explosion. The names we have heard and the
faces we have seen certainly are very few compared with the numbers of people
we have been told died from the explosion, but I definitely feel the fact we
have heard names and seen faces, and in fact have a story or two about a few of
the people killed in the explosion, is a starting point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqUAoI_DEdUUpndfqb4_2dfnWEhL0eyKFDfX_J68MdFSTejBgHDmSRcltZOJwM-9aBwkcHd_meOCqOZxebl4sW4JVLcPYwSLzgR6GaYoOWNKSOkhNzjb5YoKD44_zi_7L49gIUdzBnlE/s1600/Rev.+Sis+Henrietta+Alokha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqUAoI_DEdUUpndfqb4_2dfnWEhL0eyKFDfX_J68MdFSTejBgHDmSRcltZOJwM-9aBwkcHd_meOCqOZxebl4sW4JVLcPYwSLzgR6GaYoOWNKSOkhNzjb5YoKD44_zi_7L49gIUdzBnlE/s1600/Rev.+Sis+Henrietta+Alokha.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">You
might wonder why hearing the names of the people killed in the explosion and
hearing their stories is so important. If you have followed events since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boko Haram</i> started killing people <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en masse</i> in Nigeria, all we are ever
given are the numbers of people killed. We were never told the names of the
dead, whether they had dreams and aspirations, and if any of them did, what those
dreams and aspirations were, before their lives were brutally cut short by
unfeeling terrorists. The story is the same with deaths recorded from
accidents, from building collapses across the country, from deaths stemming
from farmers/herders clashes etc. We never got to hear how the lives of the
loved ones they left behind changed after these deaths. All we have always been
told are numbers. No more. Just numbers that took the humanity from the dead
and rendered them as no more than mere statistics, corpses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">To
be sure, as someone who is developing a huge interest in numbers and
statistics, numbers are very important. Studying numbers and analyzing them can
go a long way in detecting problems and in knowing the kind of solution that
can be employed. However, where people are killed either by deliberate or
negligent actions or omissions to do certain important things, it is of the
utmost importance that people killed by such actions or omissions to act are
given flesh by the telling of their stories. By making their names public and
through the telling of their stories including their dreams, aspirations and
hopes for the future, we are made to realize that they may not have been too
different from those of us still living. It is only through the telling of the
experiences of the dead while they lived, that we really get to feel their loss
much the same or at least similar to the sense of loss we would feel, had they
been personally known to us. It is also through hearing their stories that we
can make the decisions individually and collectively, to be better, to do
better and to demand better from those charged with tasks which affect our
lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">It
is in the light of the above that the celebration of the life of <b>Rev, Sis. Dr.
Henrietta Alokha</b>, the Principal/Administrator of <b>Bethlehem Girls College</b>, who
died in the process of ensuring the girls entrusted in her care by their
parents, lived, need to be commended and amplified. It is also for this reason
that we need to hear more about the newly married couple, <b>Emmanuel</b> and <b>Chisom
Udoakanobi</b> (the latter, reportedly, a first class graduate of accounting), who
were reportedly expecting their first child when they met with their untimely
deaths. It is because the people affected by the explosion are way more than
just numbers, that many of us rejoice upon hearing of the rescue of the 3 year
old <b>Favour</b> from beneath the rubble of buildings affected by the explosion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">It
is so we can properly mourn the loss of all those killed and sympathise and
pray for those who survived but probably lost properties and livelihoods and
for us to resolve and take action towards stopping recurrence of this kind of
tragedy that we need to hear the names, see the faces and listen to the stories
of all those killed in the explosion. We need to see the faces of the dead, so we can all appreciate that our individual actions and or inactions have consequences for ourselves as well as for others. At the end of the day, numbers are
important, but our humanity given flesh by the stories of the humans who perish
because of our actions or inactions, is way more important. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-11762779278353242092019-10-25T21:02:00.000+02:002019-10-25T21:03:42.299+02:00USSD CHARGES: BANKS & TELCOS' BACK AND FORTH AND NCC'S DIRECTIVE <br />
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">On
Sunday, 19<sup>th</sup> of October 2019, MTN sent a message to its subscribers
informing them that from the 21<sup>st</sup> of October, it would start
charging the sum of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>4 per every 20
seconds spent using the Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD)
platform. MTN concluded the message by directing its subscribers who wanted to
know more about the charge to contact their bankers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-uqe7ypY-fkUSxUTK91M1CkYKRKShdBSiTiE6TOMKHpQKxsGGHpDnSTTetRQ4T92tGrGBjW-7z30jFgieiwkoat0lthyphenhyphenopO-iN2qJOGNja02oRFuADmUrfBX1xLtZp3C3t-y4U89O94/s1600/BOBCEOs+Advertorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1118" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-uqe7ypY-fkUSxUTK91M1CkYKRKShdBSiTiE6TOMKHpQKxsGGHpDnSTTetRQ4T92tGrGBjW-7z30jFgieiwkoat0lthyphenhyphenopO-iN2qJOGNja02oRFuADmUrfBX1xLtZp3C3t-y4U89O94/s320/BOBCEOs+Advertorial.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The
following Tuesday, the Body of Bank CEOs published an advertorial in several
newspapers denying that they asked MTN to charge any fee and that it was within
the purview of telcos to decide whether to charge and what to charge for USSD
transactions. It would seem going by the advertorial of the Body of Bank CEOs
(BOBCEOs), other MNOs (Mobile Network Operators) namely Airtel, Globacom and
9Mobile had been secretly charging some fees (not sure how much) for a while
without alerting the subscribers to it. So, I guess when some of us complain
that our phone credits sometimes disappear without us making calls, we now have
a reasonable idea where the credit has been going.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">What
is also apparent is the fact that the issue of who should (continue to) bear
the burden of the customers’ use of the USSD platform has been on for quite a
while. For instance, the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) on 23<sup>rd</sup>
of July this year, signed a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pricing Plan</b>
for the USSD platform and the Plan which came into effect on 1<sup>st</sup>
September 2019, recommended the price of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>1.63K
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per</i> USSD session and determined a
session to be 20 seconds. The Plan also capped the price per USSD session at <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>4.89K.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">What
is however quite instructive is the fact that in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Paragraph 27</b> of the Plan, the NCC stated that the motivation for
the commissioning of a study to determine the right price for the USSD access
was the allegation of excessive charges by financial institutions against
telecommunications operators. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">paragraphs
28, 29, 32 and 37</b> of the Pricing Plan, NCC mentioned repeatedly the
complaints of the MNOs about the arbitrary and high charges of the Digital
Financial Services Providers (DFIs) really, namely Banks and proposed
engagements with the CBN towards a possible revenue sharing model which will
not defeat the financial inclusion goal of the Federal Government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-yFrXRB0i-QJVgsryEmTHjtGnMIdIKyzU6ZtwzwwTXQUuUOqiFyBRvn1yPkYS5MDOpjcccSEugC690ZvwbkKg98SqbjX4Y4GedyuaWTjsyNHdFBoZCprzvylAM-aDV0Xq74izpRVPvM/s1600/2019-10-25+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1360" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-yFrXRB0i-QJVgsryEmTHjtGnMIdIKyzU6ZtwzwwTXQUuUOqiFyBRvn1yPkYS5MDOpjcccSEugC690ZvwbkKg98SqbjX4Y4GedyuaWTjsyNHdFBoZCprzvylAM-aDV0Xq74izpRVPvM/s320/2019-10-25+%25288%2529.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">What
the NCC’s Pricing Plan, the BOBCEOs’ advertorial (which many have called a
denial of MTN’s claim that the new cost emanates from the banks but which I see
more as an admission of the claims sought to be denied) and the (leaked) memo
to ALTON, tell me are the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Customers’ use of the USSD
platform had always attracted charges<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The USSD charges were
previously borne by the Banks and other Financial institutions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">At some point, the Banks
complained about excessive charges by the Telecommunications companies (telcos)
for their customers’ access to the USSD platform,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The telcos/MNOs believe the
Banks are making too much money from USSD transactions and their arbitrary
charges are defeating the financial inclusion goal of the Federal government,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The Banks told the MNOs/Telcos
to commence operation of end-user billing much like they bill for calls and
SMSs for USSD transactions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The Telcos/MNOs complained
about being placed in a disadvantaged position with regards to remuneration for
USSD transactions to NCC and NCC commissioned a study on appropriate pricing
for USSD transactions, hence the Pricing Plan signed in July 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">The Pricing Plan which came
into effect on 1<sup>st</sup> September 2019 determined a USSD session to be 20
seconds and put the price between <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>1.63k
and maximum of <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>4.89k.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">NCC mulled the idea of engaging
CBN on a revenue sharing model which will be affordable to the customers and
further financial inclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Other Telcos apart from MTN
seem to have commenced the implementation of the end-user billing proposed by
the Banks without the subscribers’ knowledge (if Bullet No 2 of the BOBCEOs’
advertorial is believed).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">While
it is not clear whether NCC actually engaged the Banks and the CBN as proposed
in their Pricing Plan, it is however obvious from the above that the feigned
ignorance of the CBN, the Banks and the Ministry of Communications and Digital
Economy are just that; feigned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">In
the Nigerian government’s usual <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gra-gra</i>
style, the Ministry of Communication has ordered a halt to the charging of fees
by the Telcos for USSD transactions. The questions to be answered then are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">who
pays for USSD transactions during this period? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Who
is supposed to pay? What exactly is the <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>50
charged by Banks for electronic funds transfer for? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Were
the Banks previously paying for the USSD transactions out of the <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>50? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">Do
the CBN and the Banks truly believe that additional charge raised by the telcos
for USSD transactions will promote financial inclusion and help the cashless
policy? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">In
the revised <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Guidelines to Charges By
Banks and Other Financial Institutions</b>, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 10.2</b> allows the Banks to charge <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>50 for transfer of funds below and above <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>10,000. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 10.12</b>
however allows for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cost recovery</b>
where USSD transactions are concerned. The questions again are: who is entitled
to recover the cost of the transaction? And from whom?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , "serif";">There
is obviously no doubt that since the infrastructure of the Telcos are used in
carrying out USSD transactions, they are entitled to be paid for it. The Banks
who were paying however also had valid point in complaining about being charged
for failed or extended transaction time as a result of network issues of the
Telcos. It is thus my firm belief that for this issue to be resolved in a way
that will further financial inclusion, both the Banks and the Telcos must
explore the revenue sharing model proposed by the Telcos. No additional
financial burden should be placed on the customer if truly, the CBN is serious
about financial inclusion and the cashless policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-35269593655595775262019-05-22T18:52:00.000+02:002019-05-22T18:52:47.682+02:00SPERM DONATION AND THE URGENT NEED TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF BIRTHS PER DONOR<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">About
two weeks ago, I had read an article by an American woman who had, seven years
after her divorce, decided that she was ready to have children. Because of the
(infamous?) biological clock that women yet to have their own children are
never allowed to forget, the woman at 37, decided to take the plunge into
motherhood. This is normal enough. However, while it is also becoming quite
normal for some women to decide that they do not want to get married (again for
those who had married before, or at all for those who have not) and would
rather be single mothers, what I thought is not yet quite that prevalent but
which some research has proved otherwise (at least in Western countries), is
the decision for a woman to decide to approach sperm banks to get her eggs
fertilized and go the whole motherhood route without at least some man in the
background if not by her side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7nf00io_F3LcxZpI-dZwTrs4RKBxwwyMzat96dFjmVr3sGPvRAer2zi0kJJf7uFnjAnklEMDoy6KEG6650-3jff5YUZneqhuObHmwPeFBIBavqBqw7NILfF-vphEIS23JEOpF4ZKiJA/s1600/Sperm+Donor+with+children.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7nf00io_F3LcxZpI-dZwTrs4RKBxwwyMzat96dFjmVr3sGPvRAer2zi0kJJf7uFnjAnklEMDoy6KEG6650-3jff5YUZneqhuObHmwPeFBIBavqBqw7NILfF-vphEIS23JEOpF4ZKiJA/s320/Sperm+Donor+with+children.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
woman in the article I read, did it and now has two children she is raising
alone and without a father figure in those children’s lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Later
on last week as well, Wendy Williams during the Hot Topics segment of her Show,
mentioned the story of 25-year old unmarried Matteo<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
a Bachelorette contestant who, while a management consultant, also appeared to
have chosen being a sperm donor as a vocation. This guy, at 25, claimed that
his sperm has been used to produce 114 children! There doesn’t seem to be any
information yet on whether all these children were born to women resident in
the USA. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">A
number of countries particularly in Europe, have enacted laws with regards to
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). In Africa, South Africa seems to be at
the forefront in the enactment of a Law on ART. Kenya had a 2014 Bill on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In-vitro</i> Fertilzation (IVF) which
appeared not to have been passed<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">While
there are a number of aspects like surrogacy, IVF etc to ART, the main focus of
this write-up is the issue of how many offspring or live births a single
donor’s sperm<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
should be used to produce and how to effectively regulate same especially in
view of ART tourism by persons who for one reason or the other, including, but
of course, not limited to cost and restrictive laws in their own countries, go
outside their countries of residence to get sperms (or eggs, as the case may
be).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
the UK, the maximum number of families a single donor can endow is 10<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>;
six families in Spain and 12 families in Denmark, in the Netherlands one donor
can contribute to 25 families while Taiwan allows just one<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Though there is no law at present governing ART in Kenya, it’s been reported
that a donor can only be allowed to donate 3 times<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
in South Africa, sperm from a donor can only be used for 6 live births<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Whereas
a number of countries in Europe as already mentioned, have laws limiting the
number of families sperm from a single donor should be allowed to assist in
producing children, the United States of America has no such law. At best, what
the USA has is a voluntary guideline issued by the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), of no more than 25 births per sperm donor in a
population of 800,000 people. As has been mentioned however, this guideline is
voluntary and in the absence of strict laws to ensure compliance, sperm banks
can use a donor’s sperm to produce as many live births as they are able to<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
Nigeria, in spite of calls for regulation by medical practitioners and the
Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH), there is as yet no
law to regulate ART. The closest to what may be regarded as some kind of
regulation is the provision of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part VI</b>
of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">National Health Act of 2014</b>
which prohibits the procurement of human blood or tissue or any organ of a
living being for money except reimbursement of reasonable costs incurred<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and mandates the giving of consent by donors<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">ART
is however becoming quite popular in Nigeria and recruitment of sperm donors
are reportedly being done in our higher Institutions, meaning the majority of
sperm donors if reports available are correct, are undergraduates. And where
sperm donors are prohibited from receiving payment for their donations, they
are said to receive what is called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Inconvenience allowance</i></b> which, as at
the writing of an article in the Guardian in January of 2017<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
was between <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>10,000 to <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>25,000 per visit depending on the donor’s
personality, academic qualifications, physical attributes among other things. An
undergraduate interviewed in the Saturday Magazine of the Guardian Nigeria
article just mentioned, was in fact quoted to have claimed he was making up to
about <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>200,000 to <s style="text-line-through: double;">N</s>250,000 a month just from donating his sperm. How true this claim
is can only be wondered at.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Whether the claim
is true or not, is however not the focus here. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The real focus is, and rightly should be, as is being
expressed all over the world where the practice of ART particularly around
sperm (and egg) donations are concerned, how to regulate the number of live
births a donor’s sperm or egg should be allowed to produce in view of the very
real danger of incest an absence of regulation can cause. Besides the very real
danger of incest among siblings is the issue of genetic diseases that may be
passed on from the donors to the children especially in places where absence of
laws or regulations make genetic testing optional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
the United States and other Western countries, there already is a big outcry
over the huge number of children some popular donors are fathering. And except
for countries like Sweden, Australia, and the Netherlands which do not permit
anonymous donations, tracking donor-conceived children and ensuring they do not
meet and ignorantly have sexual relations with each other can be real
difficult. The need to track donor-conceived children is one of the reasons
some countries including the UK and Sweden prohibited anonymous donation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">But
while the laws prohibiting anonymous donations may work to a limited extent to
limit the number of children conceived by a single donor in those countries,
they reportedly also had the effect of reducing the numbers of donors willing
to come forward to donate. The laws also created fertility tourism with those
who can afford it, taking trips to countries with more liberal or no laws, to
purchase sperms and eggs. It was reported for instance that the Danish sperm
Bank, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cryos</i></b>, claims to have 1,400 active and real donors in Europe,
about 200 in the US and that it sells sperms to over 100 countries worldwide<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Denmark
is said to be about the most popular destination for ART tourism and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cryos</i></b>
mentioned earlier, is reported to have the largest bank of sperm in the world.
Indeed, research has indicated that about 90% of Danish sperm goes to other EU
countries. This is perhaps the reason Denmark in addition to pegging the number
of families one donor’s sperm can be used for to 12, also went further to limit
the number of conceptions such a donor’s sperm can be used to achieve
internationally. And so in addition to the 12 families in Denmark, a donor’s
sperm can only be used for 6 couples in Sweden and eight couples in Switzerland<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Just
as important as regulating the number of donor-conceived children per donor is,
so is creating a strong process of ensuring that donor-conceived children are
aware they were conceived through the assistance of donors, and that they have
means of knowing and identifying their half siblings and other members of their
biological fathers (or mothers as the case may be)’ families. Indeed, under the
United Nations (UN) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC),</b> the right of a child to know his parents was
given the status of a Fundamental Human Right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
some countries, donor conceived children are entitled to information on their
donor-fathers upon reaching the age of 18. In New Zealand for instance, a
Registry for the purpose of access to information by both donors and donor-conceived
children was established under the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Human
Assisted Reproductive Technology Act of 2004</b>. A donor-conceived child can
thus get access to information at the age of 18 or by Court Order at the age of
16<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Whereas
the countries that have laws and binding regulations restricting the number of
children that a single donor’s sperm should be allowed to produce can be said
to have taken some steps, albeit inadequate, to address the issue of the danger
of siblings ignorantly engaging in sexual relations, the major problem is with
countries with no law or regulations and virtually all the countries on the
African Continent because of the culture of stigma (or shame) surrounding the
issue of infertility will be guilty here. This may be the reason a country like
South Africa absolutely prohibits disclosure of both the donor and the
recipient’s identities in spite of the fact that donors are required to
register with the National Health Directorate and may choose to be informed
when their donation produces a pregnancy<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
a country like Nigeria where data gathering in most aspects of our national
lives is still a very big challenge, preventing incest among donor-conceived
children especially where there is an absence of regulation and or monitoring
will be impossible. Nigeria’s case will especially be difficult for a number of
reasons besides the absence of a law to regulate. Nigeria generally has a
history of regulatory agencies that focus more on revenue generation as opposed
to their primary tasks of regulation and monitoring. Most important however is
the stigma or shame around infertility which would mean that most couples will
keep not only the fact of the donor assistance from their donor-conceived
children, to forestall the possibility of the children ever finding out; they
will also keep it from their close relatives and friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, a lot of work will need to be done
in Africa generally, and Nigeria in particular, to remove the shame and feeling
that a woman or a man who for one reason or the other, is unable to have
children, is less than whole. This should be done by our religious
organizations and bodies who have a lot of influence on their followers. It may
be time to start using religion for purpose other than dividing the populace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">While
it at first appeared that Matteo’s boastful claim of having fathered 114
children through sperm donation, was far-fetched, some research on the subject
soon showed that his claim may well be true. The story of Cynthia Daly who in a
bid to connect her donor-conceived son to his half-siblings through a web-based
registry but found that her donor as at 2011 had fathered 149 other children is
a popular one<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
There are reports also of other donors each of whom have been found to be
biological fathers of hundreds of donor-conceived people. Some donors were reportedly
shocked to have learnt that their sperms were used to conceive so many children<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and one donor has an excel spreadsheet file to keep track of his offspring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
lack of regulation in many countries have made it difficult to track exactly
how many people globally were conceived using ART and more particularly, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Intracytoplasmic</i> Sperm Injection (ICSI).
While sperm banks ask recipients to report births of donor-conceived children,
only about 40% of births are for instance, reported in the US<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Countries with laws regulating ART while able to monitor births internally will
be missing figures of those who travel outside to get sperms or eggs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">This
writer’s recommendations for keeping near accurate track of births of
donor-conceived children to avoid accidental incest are first; as is already
the practice in most countries, each donor should be given a unique number through
which donor-conceived people can identify themselves as offspring of the same
donor. This should work even for countries like South Africa which prohibits
disclosure of both donors and recipients identities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">There
should also be a central registry much like the <a href="https://www.donorsiblingregistry.com/">Donor Sibling Registry</a> which
was founded in 2000 by Wendy Kramer while trying to look for her 10-year old
son’s half siblings. As at the 22<sup>nd</sup> of May 2019, DSR claims to have
64,186 members inclusive of donors, donor-conceived people and parents of
donor-conceived people. According to the figure on its website, the Registry
has also successfully connected more than 17,060 offspring with their half
siblings and or their donors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">While
DSR has done very well in facilitating these connections, it is obvious that a
Registry that will be supported by, if not all countries of the world, but
majority of the countries will be required especially in view of tourism
engaged in by persons either looking to evade their countries’ strict laws or
just looking for sperm banks in a country with better donor testing. And for
the Registry to work effectively, countries should have laws which compel
parents/recipients to disclose to their donor-conceived children their status
as having been so conceived. This is most important with respect to African
countries whose people seem to have a culture of shaming people with fertility
issues. And Sperm Banks will have to be regulated and mandated to keep records
of both donors and recipients and to monitor the results after purchases. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
Registry can still work very effectively with the identities of Donors
undisclosed for countries which are still uncomfortable with disclosure of
identities of the donors. Other information except the names of the donor can
be put in the registry. With his/her unique number, a donor can also track the
number of births that have been produced with his/her sperm or eggs. It should
then be the choice of the donor to reveal or keep undisclosed, his/her
identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">With
well over 5 million donor-conceived people<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
in the world today and with social media and technology shrinking the distance
between humans, the danger of accidental incest between half siblings cannot be
more real and the need for laws mandating Sperm Banks to drastically reduce the
number of conception a single donor’s sperm is used to achieve cannot be
over-emphasised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">An
interesting point to close this write-up is the fact that single women like the
woman in the first paragraph of this article, and gay couples make up a
considerable percentage of recipients of ART (at least in the more developed
countries even though countries like France does not allow donation to single
women and gay couples and hence ART tourism).</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: #0400;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> After getting
initial information which did not include the name and occupation of the
Bachelorette contestant on the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wendy Williams Show</i></b>, further
information in the course of research into this topic was obtained in an
article by Sarah Zhang published on May 13, 2019 in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Atlantic</b>. The article is titled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Trouble With Fathering 114
Kids</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">The 2014 Bill
was apparently not passed and there’s a report that a similar Bill was
reintroduced into the Kenyan Parliament in 2018. The fate of the re-introduced
Bill is not known.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">It should be
noted that there are couples and singles who received donations from people
they know. These people are called known donors, and in some countries with
laws governing ART, such known donors can be sued for child maintenance.
Conversely, known donors can also sue recipients to allow them have access to
the donor-conceived child. Though, there may have been written agreements
between the known donor and the recipients, Courts, particularly in the US will
usually disregard such agreements with respect to the paternity of a child.
This piece is however not focused on known donors but really on donors who
donate through sperm banks mostly anonymously, whether for pecuniary gains or
for altruistic purposes.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Human Fertilsation
and Embryology Act, 1990.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">A lack of Regulation has
created enormous genetic families. Now they are searching for one another</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> by Ariana Eunjung Cha
published in the washingtonpost.com on 12<sup>th</sup> September 2018.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">The number of
times a donor is allowed to donate does not however take care of the number of
live births the donated sperm can or will be used for. Since each sample
donated can still be divided and put into several vials, it means many live
births can be achieved even from a single donation.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">See: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Rising Debate – Anonymity of Gamete Donation in South Africa</i></b>. </span><a href="http://www.aevitasfertilityclinic.co.za/"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">www.aevitasfertilityclinic.co.za</span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> published on August 16,
2017. See also provisions of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">National
Health Act of South Africa</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> The American Fertility
Society (AFS)’s Guidelines also recommends 10 pregnancies per donor or under 10
if recipients are members of an isolated subgroups of the population:
www.scholarship.law.duke.edu<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Section 53(1)</b> of the National Health
Act 2014.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn10" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Section 48(1)(a), National Health Act 2014.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Sperm Donor’s Nightmare:
Have I fathered 500 Children Already?</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> Written by Franca Osakwe in www.guardian.ng
on 7<sup>th</sup> January 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn12" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
See the article published in theguardian.com/science/2018 titled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America’s
hottest export? Sperm,</i></b> written by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Soo
Youn</b> on August 15, 2018.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibid</i></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Regulated
Sperm Donation: Why requiring exposed donation is not the answer</i></b> by
Vanessa L. Pi. Published on March 8, 2009.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Rising Debate – Anonymity of Gamete Donation in South Africa</i></b>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Supra.</i></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
See publication in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">www.nytimes.com</a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One
Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring</i></b> written by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jacqueline Mroz</b> published on September 5, 2011. By the article
earlier cited and titled T<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he Trouble with Fathering 114 Kids</i></b>,
Cynthia Daly’s donor’s children had risen to 189!</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> One
Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring</i>. Jacqueline Mroz</b> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Supra</i>)</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn18" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Regulating
Sperm Donation: Why requiring exposed donation is not the answer</i>. Vanessa
L. Pi</b>.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/ADENAIKKE/Documents/Articles/SPERM%20DONORS%20AND%20THE%20LEGAL%20IMPLICATIONS.docx#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> ART
in Europe: Usage and Regulation in the context of Cross-Border Reproductive
Care</i></b> by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Patrick Praig &
Melinda C. Mills</b> published on 13<sup>th</sup> January 2017. https://www.link.springer.com.</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-73542874334142556692018-09-21T15:30:00.000+02:002018-09-21T15:30:06.657+02:00GIANT LEAPS IN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY<br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="en-US">A few weeks ago, I read a fairly long article, </span><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/09/face-transplant-katie-stubblefield-story-identity-surgery-science/"><span lang="en-US">How a Face Transplant transformed Katie Stubblefield's Life</span></a><span lang="en-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article is about face
transplants and some of its evolution and of course, more specifically, the
story of Katie Stubblefield who lost her face in a suicide attempt at the age
of 18 and was given a face transplant from the face of someone who had signed
up to be an organ donor. Katie is said to be the youngest person to have
undergone this experimental procedure.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Specialists
doctors in plastic surgery were able to successfully remove the face of the now
dead donor and give it to Katie so she can live a fairly normal life again.
While reading the article, I had several questions about the possible physical,
legal and psychological implications of a person being given the face of
another person. </div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1lBrSM0tJt7tmTmy_QW18YDj_BRXIIJhw-av3f1KkRckEPtUYW_MHunia-hSWzIQQIvG3I3s7J8YUessiYkMNJ2cGNtt3e5MQFcOz_S7jsk8BTi_xlVxG9nNiEs8AbXGH00lj9YHEpA/s1600/2faces+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1lBrSM0tJt7tmTmy_QW18YDj_BRXIIJhw-av3f1KkRckEPtUYW_MHunia-hSWzIQQIvG3I3s7J8YUessiYkMNJ2cGNtt3e5MQFcOz_S7jsk8BTi_xlVxG9nNiEs8AbXGH00lj9YHEpA/s320/2faces+%25282%2529.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="en-US">First,
the resourcefulness and genius of the doctors who have been involved in face
transplants generally and specifically those who worked tirelessly on giving
Katie the semblance of a normal life again is something to be </span><span lang="en-GB">marvelled</span><span lang="en-US"> at. Katie's story and the doctors'
work are very important reminders that plastic surgery is much more than just
boob reduction or face lifts. Sometimes, it may be for some people, the
difference between living and dying. This may sound a bit ironic especially in
Katie's case where she lost her face originally in a suicide attempt. However,
the writer of the article took pains to inform her reader that Katie's suicide
attempt was a spur of the moment thing and she ordinarily is not suicidal.
Anyway, I am sure the point is made that plastic surgery is not just about
satisfying some people's sense of vanity.</span></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Now to
the several questions that came to my mind while reading the article:</div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">Having taken another's face,
will the recipient look exactly like the donor? If so, will she have to go
through life being mistaken for someone else even though she and the donor
might not have been of the same height or shape?</span></li>
<li lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">How does someone like Katie
who from the time she could look in the mirror and recognise herself up to
the age of 18 when she lost her face, cope with looking in the mirror and
consistently seeing a face other than the one she had seen for almost 18
years?</span></li>
<li lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">What are the possible legal
implications of having a totally different face especially in a country
where records exist of the citizens? I'm thinking National passports and
other forms of identification.</span></li>
<li lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">Will DNA from the face still
be that of the donor?</span></li>
<li lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">How will Katie and other face
transplant recipients deal with the psychological effect of not only
seeing a face they may not be able to totally relate to and having to
explain who they are to friends and acquaintances who might not be aware
of what they had gone through?</span></li>
</ul>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
I'm sure
many other questions exist but for now, the above will do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the course of the article, my first
question on whether Katie or any other face transplant recipient will look
exactly like the donor was answered; while the recipient may initially look
like the donor, as time goes on and the new face adjust to the bones of the
recipient, features of both the old and new will merge into the new face</div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
I am not
sure the answers to my questions do not already exist, especially since
virtually everything I know about face transplants are drawn from the article I
read and I did not do any further research on it. But I have no doubt that
there may arise from this new procedure interesting legal and especially
psychological developments and issues that may need to be addressed. </div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
There is
also no doubt that new developments in science and technology will also bring
about new developments in our laws.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-69047175272031740802016-07-13T15:50:00.001+02:002016-07-13T15:50:34.149+02:00FAT CATS, IDPs AND A NIGERIAN TRAGEDY<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">A
few years ago, I attended a lecture at which the lecturer related a story of a
director of a big company who, in spite of receiving quite good salary, collected
on a monthly basis, 10% from the salaries of lowly-paid workers in the company.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">One
day, while the director was using the loo, one of the cleaners from whom the
director collected 10% every month was around the toilet area and started
cursing the director to the effect that he would use the money on some unnamed
calamity that would befall his family. The director upon hearing the curse was
so scared that he refused to collect the usual 10% from the woman’s salary that
month and in fact, every other month that followed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">The
director never really got to know whether at the time of issuing the curse upon
him and his family, the cleaner was aware that he was in the toilet and could
hear her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">Very
sadly, what this director was doing, collecting part of money meant for people
who had little, to add to the plenty that he already had, has become extremely
common place in our country today. From bank directors who outsource jobs from
their banks to their private entities, thereby making huge profits from the
outsourced jobs, to other company directors who deduct portions of salaries of
junior workers under the guise of helping those workers to save (Save As You
Earn [S.A.Y.E.] and later refuse to pay these hapless workers their very hard
earned money and sweat when these people become entitled to the money
purportedly saved for them, to the average Nigerian politician and public
office holder who, in spite of already appropriating obscenely high amount of
salaries and allowances to themselves, still divert the little money meant for
developmental projects and the likes to themselves and their cronies. It is at
once a very sad and infuriating story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">The
pictures I saw in the newspapers on Friday the 24<sup>th</sup> of June 2016 of
the starving Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and their children are truly
heartbreaking. There are also reports of death of several of these IDPs due to
starvation and probably some unattended-to diseases. Some of the reports on the
killing and starvation of the IDPs put daily deaths at an average of 30. Others
reported that over 1200 IDPs across the camps in Borno State, have so far been
killed by officials who feel the extra monies they would get from the
re-bagging of rice donated to these IDPs, the diversion of medicines,
toiletries, beddings and other relief materials is worth the starvation and
death of so many people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggONXNWM62LMyXunCU2rBmfx6On8_jg44CYFzKTIJyt1D69nentM4Q5z718AigQ96fDB0mibSyeCyUnls1a7aFeDRK8RnSjkKRpFX3eXLtz_DeZSenCSeW9UYcDsdbkslQUcZRe-N5eBk/s1600/IDPs+in+Sambisa+Camp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggONXNWM62LMyXunCU2rBmfx6On8_jg44CYFzKTIJyt1D69nentM4Q5z718AigQ96fDB0mibSyeCyUnls1a7aFeDRK8RnSjkKRpFX3eXLtz_DeZSenCSeW9UYcDsdbkslQUcZRe-N5eBk/s400/IDPs+in+Sambisa+Camp.png" width="397" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">The
people who divert all the food, medicines and other materials are of course,
people who already have more than enough to eat, drink and wear. But like the
director mentioned above, what they have just will never be enough for them. To
drive bigger cars, and live even larger than they already do, they probably
feel it to be their duty to finish off the job that the evil <i>boko haram</i> started and did not finish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">It
was reported that Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno directed the police and
State Security Service officials to go after the officials responsible for the
deaths and starvation of the IDPs. The most tragic thing about this would however
be that in spite of the governor’s reported directive, no one is likely to be
sanctioned for the murderous acts of the officials in charge of the camps. All
the greedy murderers will most likely get away with killing the hapless IDPs.
Like almost every crime committed by the Nigerian elites and public officials, these
people will get away with their greed-fueled killings of the IDPs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">Even
more tragic is the fact that we, as a people seem to have lost all sense of
outrage. The numbers of death and killings by <i>boko haram</i>, by Fulani herdsmen or people masquerading as Fulani
herdsmen, by deliberate acts or omission to act of people who swore to uphold
the provisions of the Constitution and serve the country and its people are
just that to us; numbers. We seem to have lost the capacity to connect the
numbers to our fellow humans, to know that the number of dead reported in the
various electronic and print media represent people who were actually breathing
and perhaps had dreams like some of us still living but whose dreams and lives
have been brutally killed by people who just have to drive bigger vehicles,
wear the most expensive designer clothes, shoes, watches etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Constantia","serif";">With
no punishment for their crimes, and deafening silence/complacency from the rest
of us, these kinds of criminal and murderous acts will continue and even
increase. Truly tragic…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-64716843652504914902016-06-06T18:57:00.003+02:002016-06-07T10:00:44.219+02:00NO IDEA<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeytZCUsYUypOQ_rkoNCvMTixzzM9ZmkTWJhxhl1BN8yoBGzDSdallx4sitl-IV9ldTAAWsv23FKKz1zedfFFptUyM1qHkllvEpGFpKBiBLXgH_bqShpnvWz4bkGxzoBO41MPuBiKJRU/s1600/deep-thought-1296377_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeytZCUsYUypOQ_rkoNCvMTixzzM9ZmkTWJhxhl1BN8yoBGzDSdallx4sitl-IV9ldTAAWsv23FKKz1zedfFFptUyM1qHkllvEpGFpKBiBLXgH_bqShpnvWz4bkGxzoBO41MPuBiKJRU/s320/deep-thought-1296377_1280.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I don’t know what I am writing<br />
I only know I should be typing<br />
What the content should be<br />
What theme I should pursue<br />
I am even now at a loss<br />
Sometimes, one feels lost<br />
Unable to get up<br />
Not unlike a sore thumb<br />
This surely feels like one of those days<br />
In which everything just seem to be too far away<br />
I am sure I ought to be doing something important<br />
Try as I have to locate it, I just can’t!<br />
Maybe I have too much on my mind<br />
Perhaps I have to search deep to find<br />
Oh yes, I am typing<br />
Yet I cannot say I am writing.<br />
<br />
- Adenike Oyalowo © 060616.Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-53688560408473105252015-11-20T16:11:00.000+01:002015-11-20T16:11:11.302+01:00FEW THOUGHTS ON DASUKII have two confessions that I want those who read this post to know before going on to read the rest of the article.<br />
<br />
My first confession is that though I am a legal practitioner, this post is not meant to be any deep legal critique of Sambo Dasuki's on-going travails at the hands of the Federal government of Nigeria. It is merely a casual observation of what is going on in the country and what it could possibly portend for the future of this country.<br />
<br />
My second confession is perhaps more serious than the first one and it is that I did not really have the time to go through most of the newspaper reports on the Sambo Dasuki case before writing this post. Yeah, I know, I know, but there it is...<br />
<br />
Having read my confessions, you are at liberty to stop reading at this point. If however you decide to venture further into this write-up and you have a violent disagreement with my observations, drink a cup of cool water and remind yourself that you were warned.<br />
<br />
For those who may not know who Sambo Dasuki is, he was the National Security Adviser under the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Sambo Dasuki was recently arraigned by the Federal government of Nigeria for illegal possession of firearms and money laundering. The presiding judge exercised his discretion and granted him bail on self-recognition at the time of the arraignment. However, ruling on Dasuki's application to travel out of the country for three weeks for medical reasons, the judge decided to vary his bail conditions by directing that he get a surety on certain terms and conditions.<br />
<br />
The judge went on to rule in favour of granting Dasuki's application to travel out of the country for medical check-up. The Department of State Security (DSS) however seem to disagree with the judge's ruling since on the heels of the judge's directive that Dasuki's passport should be returned to him and he should be allowed to travel as requested, DSS officials relocated part of their office to Dasuki's neighbourhood and effectively put him under some form of house arrest.<br />
<br />
The DSS claimed in justification of their seeming disobedience of the Court Order, that Dasuki had been invited to answer some questions before a panel on some other charges and he had refused or failed to honour the invitation. In their opinion, since the charges because of which they decided to set up camp around Dasuki's house did not relate to the ones already in Court, they were not flouting any Court Order.<br />
<br />
It would be recalled that before Dasuki was arrested and arraigned on the illegal possession of firearms charge, there was also some sort of siege on his house by the DSS. <br />
<br />
One of the complaints some people including yours truly, had against the immediate past government at the centre in Nigeria was the level of impunity and the geometric, if not astronomic rate at which it was growing. It is my opinion then that this government has to be extremely careful about the actions of its agencies and the messages those actions send both to those of us casual(?!) observers and to the global community. <br />
<br />
First off, I'm not sure what information Dasuki put before the judge which prompted the judge to exercise his discretion in favour of allowing Dasuki to travel out of the country. For instance, is the medical reason so grave that Dasuki <b>cannot</b> receive adequate attention/treatment in any of the hospitals in the country?<br />
<br />
It will also be important to know what information the prosecutors who opposed Dasuki's application to be allowed to travel out of the country put before the Court which the judge apparently did not consider weighty enough to warrant a refusal of Dasuki's prayer/request. It would for instance be pertinent whether the prosecution informed the Court that Dasuki is a flight risk especially considering the fact that he may already be aware of weightier charges coming against him. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx7Tm0hZjtqKDBYSnmjNwSEGxLe8LB-8pDrpDUyZtWaQQFrknfv02v6rNzc6KM6piD9vakHexB8bRalpqUapYgQ5fN795M-OIAd6eno-3BU9b0C8Q7WASwr5Uef5pnwE2yJOhgIH7nifE/s1600/Dasuki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx7Tm0hZjtqKDBYSnmjNwSEGxLe8LB-8pDrpDUyZtWaQQFrknfv02v6rNzc6KM6piD9vakHexB8bRalpqUapYgQ5fN795M-OIAd6eno-3BU9b0C8Q7WASwr5Uef5pnwE2yJOhgIH7nifE/s320/Dasuki.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The above questions are important because those of us who do not have all the information may make the mistake of condemning the judge while not realising that perhaps the fault in a Court's decision may lie with the prosecution. It is fairly common knowledge that prosecutions of high profile cases in this country are largely compromised at both the investigative level and in their actual prosecution in Court. This is not to completely absolve some judges of misdeeds however.<br />
<br />
Assuming that in spite of whatever relevant and important information that the prosecution might have put before the Court, the Court nevertheless wrongly ruled in favour of Dasuki's travel abroad, I believe that the DSS, having conducted their investigations and gathered sufficient evidence against Dasuki should just have gone ahead to arrest him on the new charges. The siege tactic first employed by the NDLEA against Buruji Kashamu and now employed repeatedly by the DSS in which not just Dasuki, but other people in his neighbourhood are terrorised is in my opinion, not the best way to go.<br />
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This government has to let its agencies imbibe the culture of doing things the right way. If we make exceptions for particular persons perhaps because of the supposed gravity of the offence committed by those persons, we might in future have the problem of the exceptions being used for the wrong reasons against innocent people. <br />
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The DSS should stop the siege tactic and make arrests where they have sufficient information and evidence to prefer charges against those who violate the Law. Where government and its agencies give the impression that they can determine when the rule of law should prevail, we may all have to pay dearly for it.<br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-57232512865538934682015-11-17T18:28:00.000+01:002015-11-17T18:31:53.140+01:00TERROR ATTACK IN FRANCE AND THE PRAYER FOR HUMANITY<br />
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<blockquote>a picture is worth a thousand words</blockquote><br />
The Friday 13th November 2015 multiple terror strikes in Paris and the resultant shows of solidarity with the French people all over the world on social media and elsewhere ignited a hot debate on social media in Nigeria. <br />
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While one group believed those changing their profile pictures on Facebook in Nigeria are hypocrites since terror attacks are a virtual daily affair in Nigeria and people do not change their profile pictures because of the terror attacks, another group felt they did nothing wrong by aligning themselves with the fight against terrorism through the change of their profile pictures.<br />
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This is of course not the first time this kind of debate will take place on social media in Nigeria. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack also in France early in the year, a lot of people showed their solidarity by using the <i>#IAmCharlie</i> hashtag on Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms.<br />
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Nigerian social media users are not the only ones engaged in the debate about the supposed hypocrisy of people showing their solidarity to the French people in the wake of the Friday the 13th’s terror attacks in France. People in the Middle East are also talking and protesting the apparently skewed coverage of terror attacks by Western media outfits like the CNN and BBC especially because a terror attack in Beirut at around the same time as those in France went unreported.<br />
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While it cannot be said that either of the two groups is wrong, it is a fact that the Western media downplays some news items while inundating us with everything that should or should not be known about others even while those they decide to downplay are equally if not even more important than some of those they decide to play to the hilt.<br />
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Much as we down here may want to be patriotic and feel for all those killed daily by <i>boko haram</i> (and others who hide under <i>boko haram</i> to carry out dastardly attacks), it may be a bit hard for us and the reasons are simple. Down here in Nigeria, the thousands of people whose lives have been cut brutally short by <i>boko haram</i> are mostly faceless and nameless. Our press, both those in the print and electronic media, perhaps does not know how to engage in investigative journalism. Perhaps they do but the cost is too prohibitive both in terms of finances and the danger to those who may seek to engage in it. <br />
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And because all we hear and read about almost daily is numbers of those killed without anybody making any serious attempt to find and interview family members of those killed or even to get pictures of them, a majority of us have, like people who work in the morgue, become “<i>de-sensitised</i>” to the killings carried out daily right in our backyard. I doubt very seriously that in spite of media outcry and global awareness about the Chibok girls and the on-going countdown of how many days the girls have been missing, we can find up to twenty Nigerians (outside of their former teachers and parents) who know the name of just ten of those girls. <br />
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If we don’t know the names of the girls, or have any idea how many of them dreamed of being doctors or engineers or astronauts, if we were never made to see what their lives really were before their abductions, how can we really feel a part of the pains their family and close friends have felt over the months they have been in captivity (assuming they are not the ones being used to carry out suicide bombings)?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGG5zIahnFgWbGOQoJ7NPmypDZI_aGJQ-YPAuAw1xoGcFUbWiZFduXME2o-fd4UWxGDOKo693jIXfoKieY-c7ngQialaS9cIm35p5v5Zq0V5GoGVKsqaL3MPP7D9n-0FBERq7DOTv4lY/s1600/Terror+in+France+and+prayer+for+humanity+%2528287x175%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGG5zIahnFgWbGOQoJ7NPmypDZI_aGJQ-YPAuAw1xoGcFUbWiZFduXME2o-fd4UWxGDOKo693jIXfoKieY-c7ngQialaS9cIm35p5v5Zq0V5GoGVKsqaL3MPP7D9n-0FBERq7DOTv4lY/s400/Terror+in+France+and+prayer+for+humanity+%2528287x175%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br />
This is however not the same for any news of terror attacks that the Western media choose to play up. For instance, it is almost certain that in the coming several days at the very least, a lot of people will get acquainted with the families and friends of most, if not all of the people that were killed and injured in the multiple terror attacks in France. We would almost certainly get to know where they grew up and what dreams they had that were cut short by the evil terror strikes. And we would get to see their faces so often that we would be forgiven if we swear we had seen them before. <br />
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It is in the light of the exposure given to tragedies like the November 13th one in France by the Western media including Facebook that encourages people to show support by changing their profile pictures that a lot of people changed their profile pictures. Those who did, I believe, would just as willingly change their profile pictures to show solidarity to those experiencing attacks in Nigeria if they are made to see that those killed are more than just numbers and were in fact people like them with dreams and aspirations even if those dreams were no more than just to wake up and go back to sleep at night peacefully every day.<br />
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Our journalists in Nigeria and indeed in Africa need to let the world know and keep its attention of the world on what goes on in this country and continent. With social media, this is not quite as difficult as it may seem. <br />
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Do we need to pray for France? Most certainly! And just as importantly, ne ween to pray for humanity and we need to pray for Nigeria to see the last of the insurgents and every single sponsor they have.Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-88064547566741540112015-11-12T13:40:00.001+01:002015-11-12T13:40:42.263+01:00 …NOT REALLY LIKE THE PIG <br />
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When a person is referred to as a pig, it usually would mean such a person is dirty, gluttonous and repulsive. There are quite a number of very uncomplimentary sayings and analogies around a pig. A few of them are listed below:<br />
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<i>When you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it.<br />
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…the place is like a pigsty (meaning the place is very messy and dirty).<br />
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The pig remains one of the most maligned animals in the world judging by how people (mostly wrongly) associate many things negative including immorality with the pig. Some religions in fact banned the eating of pork (pig meat) because of its perceived filthiness. <br />
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It is said that if something is repeated often enough, even when it is utter falsehood, it becomes the truth (sic), and so it is that I was one of those who believed the popular sayings about pigs being dirty. Indeed I was as surprised as some people might be after reading this when several years ago in my second year at the university I read in the general course textbook we were required to read, that pigs were (I believe still are) generally very clean animals if they are bred in a regulated environment. Articles I have read in recent times also point in this direction. The dirty pigs are said to be those in the wild or the stray pigs (like we have stray dogs) which have nobody rearing them. And even for the supposedly dirty stray pigs which seem to enjoy rolling around in the mud, a very good reason has been suggested for this behavior and it is that since pigs do not sweat, they usually roll in the mud in order to bring down their body temperature.<br />
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Humans are the highest of all God’s creatures. We are smart, we possess a very high level of reasoning that we may safely say most animals lack. To a very large extent then, we can say that we are in control of quite a number of things we engage in. For instance, the focus of this article is completely within our control as humans. We are fully in control of whether or not we want to litter our environment.<br />
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I visited Calabar twice last year on some land-related study and I was very impressed at how clean the place was. No pure-water sachets littering the streets or other such things that come together to make a place an eye-sore. One would in fact be forgiven if one assumes that the good and neat people of Calabar do not join those of us in the South-West in the consumption of pure-water (by the way, do they actually drink pure water in Calabar?). What is even more impressive is the fact that you don’t really see the city cleaners as they go about their duty like we see them here in Lagos. The cleaners come very early in the mornings to clean the city. It is not an all-day affair like it is here in the not-so-clean Lagos.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3kG6OuWIkKdn65cZebAAVBKX8AIkPwkiCTHCcP97BbeviEp3Pv8CM2mvmkVBQkZ41j7NPPKmCud0oQPp7OZnF3030-pS2hNHKgpNM-1nPtUYZ9KD3C7hrsBWxlVVeTUY2O3hbtcZ4JQ/s1600/Dirty+pig.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3kG6OuWIkKdn65cZebAAVBKX8AIkPwkiCTHCcP97BbeviEp3Pv8CM2mvmkVBQkZ41j7NPPKmCud0oQPp7OZnF3030-pS2hNHKgpNM-1nPtUYZ9KD3C7hrsBWxlVVeTUY2O3hbtcZ4JQ/s320/Dirty+pig.png" /></a></div>The fact that the people of Calabar were able to achieve the level of neatness they have, is a pointer to the fact that at least, that aspect of our lives is completely within our control as humans.<br />
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In spite of this however, it is a fairly common sight to see drivers and passengers in both private and commercial vehicles throwing all sorts of things on the road out of their vehicles. The first time I saw someone throw a plastic bag and the back of a watermelon out of a car, I was shell-shocked. I have since then seen very well dressed ladies and men driving very nice and expensive-looking cars calmly wind down their windows and throw all sorts of rubbish ranging from the very small to the biggest thing that one can imagine (and even the ones no rational person can imagine! )can be thrown out of a vehicle onto the road.<br />
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Where this sort of thing is done by the commercial bus drivers, one may somehow rationalize it by saying that the Indian hemp and kaikai they indulge in have taken their toll on their reasoning ability. But where you find otherwise respectable members of the society who should serve as beacons engaging in this dirty habit…<br />
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Some of the articles on pigs go so far as to say that some pigs sometime make themselves ill by holding their urine because they could not get to an acceptable place in which they could relieve themselves. It is in fact said that if a pig kept in a regulated and clean environment begins to defecate or urinate in its bedding, then that pig has a health problem.<br />
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Perhaps, one should by the same token conclude that a human who chooses to litter the environment might have some health challenges that makes him/her incapable of doing the right thing. <br />
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And so if you are one of the too many supposedly educated people who still litter the city, and you do not have any health challenge which makes you litter, then you are not really like the pig, it would in fact be an insult to the pig to compare you with it. <br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-87024704238471215982015-10-29T15:50:00.000+01:002015-10-29T15:54:48.798+01:00THAT HUGE $5.2 BILLION NCC FINE ON MTN <br />
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It was widely reported on Tuesday the 27th of October 2015 that NCC, the regulatory body for the telecommunication companies in Nigeria had slammed MTN with a huge fine of $5.2 Billion! The fine was to serve as punishment to MTN for failing, contrary to the directive of NCC, to disconnect about 5.1 million phone lines which were not registered as directed by NCC after the end of the August 2015 deadline set by the NCC.<br />
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While it is appropriate that MTN be sanctioned for violation of NCC’s directive, the fine levied, N200,000 for every line not disconnected by MTN is huge and could result in crippling the network’s operations.<br />
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Analysis of the fine according to AP (Associated Press), may provide some guidance. In the AP report, the $5.2 Billion fine imposed on MTN is equivalent to at least 2 years average profit for MTN and nearly three times the $1.83 (this figure might be a mistake as the figure on MTN's website differs) the telecommunications network has invested in Nigeria. Also, when looked at from the fact that MTN in 2001 paid what now seems like a mere $285 Million for the licence that enabled it to start operations in Nigeria, one can only conclude that the regulatory body has dealt a blow which while it may not result in death for the big telecommunications firm, may send a big part of its operations into a coma for quite a while.<br />
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Information available on MTN’s website show that MTN invested a total of $12 billion in the country from 2001 to 2013 and planned to invest additional $3 Billion between 2013 and 2015. The amount invested in the country by MTN was said to include what was spent on getting the largest digital (microwave) transmission backbone across the country, the investment in fibre optic service and the largest network switch centre in the country. <br />
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The above are mentioned to serve as a guide to what an amount as huge as $5.2 Billion can achieve.<br />
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Indeed, the NCC in imposing the fine on MTN must have borne in mind the provision of Section 2 of its <b>Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators</b>. <b>Paragraph (3)</b> under <b>Section 2</b> of the Draft (Not sure whether it’s still draft or now in force) Guidelines provides that one of the criteria which NCC should consider in deciding whether or not to grant approval for a network operator to be disconnected <b>shall include the public interest to observe the rule of Law and the need to entrench good corporate governance practices among operators<i></i></b>. <br />
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There is absolutely no doubt that the above guide is a very sound one. I am a firm believer in the fact that the major reason why our dear country has turned out the way it has is because no sanction attaches to wrongdoings. Where the wrong doer is particularly a “big” man or woman, not only is there no sanction, what the wrong doer gets is a reward. This will always have the effect of promoting wrongdoings while at the same time discouraging all those who always want to the right things.<br />
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Because of this, I believe very strongly that MTN should be sanctioned for disobeying the NCC directive especially in these days when the country is battling with terrorism and kidnappings and all sorts of other criminal activities. However, much as I support that MTN should be sanctioned, the sanction should not be such as would cripple the operations of the company unless that was the intent of the NCC in imposing such a debilitating fine.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCH8KNu91snVByWpWya-NJBEUSpfKlVtXeW29Y7NjFANVLW9ngnnumiRw3GGcvTwyoQP_M1zayUHAnfGbtXgsx2cTaopuT4EcnILIlJyMg4B6ioOIdiOcU8asqi-JIjvIh9BcyYOWEmGA/s1600/Hammer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCH8KNu91snVByWpWya-NJBEUSpfKlVtXeW29Y7NjFANVLW9ngnnumiRw3GGcvTwyoQP_M1zayUHAnfGbtXgsx2cTaopuT4EcnILIlJyMg4B6ioOIdiOcU8asqi-JIjvIh9BcyYOWEmGA/s320/Hammer.jpg" /></a></div><br />
A look through the provisions of NCC’s Guide on Interconnectivity earlier mentioned shows the reluctance by the drafters of that guide to approve the disconnection of any network operator mainly because of how this may affect subscribers. In the same vein, I believe NCC should also bear in mind the larger impact crippling a company as big as MTN may have on the economy. There is no doubt MTN should be sanctioned. But while the sanction should have an impact on the sanctioned in order to serve as deterrence to others, it should not be such that it could kill it. <br />
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NCC under <b>Sections 55 & 65(1) </b>of the <b>2003 Nigeria Communication Commission Act</b> that created it has the power to impose fines in such amounts by exercising its discretion. But just like judges, such discretions are not to be exercised arbitrarily.<br />
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As an aside, I wonder what NCC does with all the fines collected from licensees. I remember that NCC slammed huge fines a few years ago on the three major telecommunication networks for the bad services they were rendering. Since then however, the services of the network operators have consistently deteriorated. Perhaps, NCC has to think of another way to enforce provision of good services to consumers of telecommunication services. <br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-86610734808395387582015-10-13T19:29:00.000+02:002015-10-13T19:29:00.179+02:00SOMEWHERE IN THE LAW… Lagos State Traffic Management Authority Law 2004 <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAlzBQ7KESltBC66oJeDdBsGVcUB6piIdPdXFloaW0vTM4MaCwiRJJ-x1rKJhIEHPxWSSGeVR26UZT5lmaf_NbFTI0WmIWBVY9U74QlWrG3szYc8thzAv8Z_SDqd3lZUzJ7QdecuowJk/s1600/Somewhere+in+the+Law.kmz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAlzBQ7KESltBC66oJeDdBsGVcUB6piIdPdXFloaW0vTM4MaCwiRJJ-x1rKJhIEHPxWSSGeVR26UZT5lmaf_NbFTI0WmIWBVY9U74QlWrG3szYc8thzAv8Z_SDqd3lZUzJ7QdecuowJk/s400/Somewhere+in+the+Law.kmz.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Since LASTMA is a hot topic at the moment, it might be appropriate to start off this new segment (which I hope to continue diligently) with the Law which established the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority in 2004. The focus today in that Law is on Section 16 which provides:<br />
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<i>Section 16 (1): A person shall, before he is appointed as a member of the Authority, be required to declare his interest, if any, in any transport or other business organization undertaking transportation of passengers, or goods or engaged in the repairs and maintenance of vehicles or manufacturing or sale of any equipment used by the Authority.<br />
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Section 16(2): A member of the Authority who acquires any financial interest in any organization undertaking transportation of passengers or goods or engaged in the repairs and maintenance of vehicles in the production or sale of any equipment used by the Authority shall within one month of such acquisition give notice thereof in writing to the Authority specifying the interest so acquired and the Authority may, after taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case, decide whether—<br />
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(a) to retain him as a member of the Authority; or<br />
(b) to remove him from such membership; or<br />
(c) attach any condition to his membership.<br />
</i><br />
Section 16 was picked in view of the fact that a good number of the members of LASTMA either have interests or own quite a number of commercial vehicles now operating in the State. I in fact got to know once when I was at one of the LASTMA offices in the State that commercial buses arrested are not booked until LASTMA officials ascertain that such vehicles were not owned by one of them.<br />
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It is also not much of a secret that some LASTMA officials (or members as the Law refers to them) either own or have interests in private towing vehicles. <br />
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In view of the provision of Section 16, one wonders how many commercial bus-owning LASTMA officials declared their interests and how quite a number of them would be able to explain the acquisition of the buses and towing vehicles. Perhaps the really relevant question to ask is how many of them are aware of this provision of the Law.<br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-5628012303244914272015-10-13T15:07:00.001+02:002015-10-13T15:07:49.333+02:00LASTMA ON "STRIKE"Sometime in the early 90s, I represented my mum at the Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) meeting at one of my brothers’ school. One of the parents at the meeting in talking about getting the school back on track said it was important that the standards of education not be allowed to decline. He said that if there is a serious problem with the infrastructure in the school, that could be built within a short time once the funds were available but if pupils/students are not given the right foundation or education, it may take much more than just funds to get things right. I have never forgotten that statement and I will come back to the statement later in the course of this write-up.<br />
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In 2004, the then governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, who really achieved more for Lagos State than most people remember or are willing to give him credit for, established the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to ease the traffic bottlenecks in the State. <br />
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In spite of the fact that the Second Schedule to the Law under which LASTMA was established created some offences and listed the penalties therefor, I doubt that very many people would dispute the fact that LASTMA under Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu stuck to its mandate and indeed achieved the main objective of easing traffic bottlenecks in the State.<br />
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LASTMA continued in the direction under former governor Bola Tinubu in the first few years under the immediate past governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. And indeed, it should be said that the procurement for LASTMA under the administration of former governor Fashola of several towing vehicles, helped in no small measure to quickly clear the road either after a breakdown or an accident.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrGs-nja41NABu2Ix9v4PUJhJk819F92ncybNwhMt0rRmS73ICSnurC1nBhw7qb3VHuXkLKB5XSodLuP8nU9IFfYf_-b4UwsK8c7mMGE72IV38PoiF9n0Kx9U-2o0wpblHMhha5grQMQ/s1600/download+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzrGs-nja41NABu2Ix9v4PUJhJk819F92ncybNwhMt0rRmS73ICSnurC1nBhw7qb3VHuXkLKB5XSodLuP8nU9IFfYf_-b4UwsK8c7mMGE72IV38PoiF9n0Kx9U-2o0wpblHMhha5grQMQ/s320/download+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Trouble started in my opinion however when the State under the immediate past governor decided that slamming heavy fines on errant drivers was the ultimate solution to traffic lawlessness. It is no secret that most LASTMA officials make a lot of money daily by entering into negotiations with apprehended drivers and diverting fractions of the official fines to their own pockets. The heavy fines set by the State government turned most LASTMA officials into the monsters they later became. I don’t know if the State government was making a lot of money from the fines imposed on errant drivers, but I know that a lot of LASTMA officials made a lot of money because the fines set were so high.<br />
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LASTMA went from being a genuine traffic management outfit to a body which had as its priority, revenue generation; both for the State and (as it appeared), more importantly for individual officials. The lust for money became so great that quite a number of LASTMA officials would in fact deliberately mislead drivers into entering one-way roads in the absence of conspicuous signs which should have done the job, and have their colleagues waiting ahead to make arrests. Where LASTMA officials should have been proactive in preventing the commission of traffic offences, they wait (and perhaps even pray) for you to make sometimes, honest mistakes and then swoop on you because it puts money in their pockets.<br />
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It can then be imagined, how majority of these extremely dirty LASTMA officials would feel when the new governor told them to stop harassing motorists. Perhaps there was a meeting, perhaps there was a directive. But what followed after the governor’s directive was an open defiance or rebellion by LASTMA officials who then decided to report at their duty posts, but to lift no finger (or leg) in traffic management. <br />
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LASTMA officials, at least a good number of them, stopped working. In Lagos State where commercial bus drivers have an infinite capacity for lawlessness, LASTMA officials stopped working. In Lagos State where the average private vehicle driver has a near infinite capacity for lawlessness, LASTMA officials stopped working. The result is what most Lagosians have been experiencing in the past several weeks. Traffic gridlocks for no discernible reason. And of course, with these gridlocks come robberies in traffic.<br />
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Governor Akinwunmi Ambode should respond by sanctioning a number of LASTMA top officials. The last I checked, the governor retains the power under the 2004 law which established LASTMA. He can remove any official however high-ranking who openly defies his directive. Under Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, LASTMA did not need to harass motorists to be effective. And majority of people in Lagos and other States acknowledged LASTMA’s effectiveness.<br />
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Back to my earlier story about the fixing of decayed infrastructure versus the fixing of damaged humans. It is my belief, rightly or wrongly, that over-emphasis on too heavy fines and criminalization of every little infraction under the Fashola government did substantial damage to the psyche of LASTMA officials and turned them into monsters. The heaviness of the fines and the fact that it took average of a whole day to get it paid, was an effective bargaining chip for LASTMA officials who thus enriched themselves immensely and illegally at the expense of both the State and the people. <br />
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Governor Ambode should insist on LASTMA, VIO & KAI not harassing people. And this insistence should in no way stop them from performing their duties. If this open defiance continues, the governor should make examples of a few top officials to keep the underlings in line. The State cannot long afford to waste such long debilitating hours in traffic.<br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-40389549521017782962013-11-07T23:23:00.001+01:002013-11-07T23:25:56.732+01:00AIRLINES, FLIGHT DELAYS AND PASSENGER COMPENSATIONS<br />
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It is often said that time is money. Indeed, this holds really true because time squandered can never be regained. Sometimes, persons who fail or neglect to keep appointments or be on time for an appointment may thereby miss opportunities of a lifetime. Sometimes, the missed opportunity might not be the fault of that person. It might in fact be the fault of some other third parties who do not think that considerations for their customers/clients should form part of the service they are supposed to render. Let’s go the route of the airlines on this one today. <br />
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Airlines usually require passengers to check in for flights booked at least 50 minutes before departure and oftentimes, we have heard stories of passengers missing their flights not necessarily because the plane had taken off before they got to the airport, but because they came in several minutes after they were supposed to have checked in. There have in fact been stories of a particular airline in Nigeria which allows itself to be so over-booked online that sometimes when you turn up at 1 pm for a flight that is supposed to depart at 1.40 pm, you will be told that you have arrived too late!<br />
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In such situations, the missed flight and having to make arrangements for another flight are the passenger’s punishments for “late coming”. While the passenger however gets some form of punishment for coming late or even sometimes with an over-booked flight, for not coming early enough, the situation is very different with the airlines when they, for whatever reasons, cancel or delay their flights. We understand that airlines can sometimes be forced by reasons beyond their control such as really bad weather conditions to delay their flights or even totally cancel such flights until further notice. However, even in such situations, airlines owe their customers, the passengers, the duty of promptly informing them of their proposed action and the reason(s) for such actions.<br />
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Where however, the reasons for delaying or cancelling a flight has nothing to do with, say, the weather condition, then, it is only fair that the airline compensates the passengers who had booked and paid for such a flight. Compensation should come not just in form of refunding the money already paid where necessary, it should also come in form of paying back more than the passengers paid in an attempt to mitigate whatever inconveniences the delay or cancellation might cause to them. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5yrJpUDfR8fr6qOvtYvAeowSXV5EESk8TwsCHxDgdpTyxrOZ3RvNYAeYKf2dblzftnL5WD_2k-S1MhOzLz0xc1HdZ_Q9T2__lT3Hmkgx8DqYxbNg-ToVkRoRbRl6C-ax_i9AK_z9VgU/s1600/Airplane+take-off+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5yrJpUDfR8fr6qOvtYvAeowSXV5EESk8TwsCHxDgdpTyxrOZ3RvNYAeYKf2dblzftnL5WD_2k-S1MhOzLz0xc1HdZ_Q9T2__lT3Hmkgx8DqYxbNg-ToVkRoRbRl6C-ax_i9AK_z9VgU/s320/Airplane+take-off+2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
A responsible airline management, especially in climes where there the business is quite competitive will realise that offering some sort of compensations even without the existence of a law to compel them to do so, will keep the passengers returning to their airline. Of course it cannot be in the interest of any airline to make flight delays and cancellations a habit just because it provides some sort of compensations. <br />
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The Air Passengers Bill of Rights currently in the process of being passed in Nigeria while being a step in the right direction, has, in my view not yet adequately addressed the issue of compensation of passengers in the events of delays. For instance, the Bill is said to have provisions that passengers can demand for reimbursement of money paid where flights have been delayed for up to two hours or more. And where the delay is just an hour, the airline should make provisions for two free calls, emails and snacks for affected passengers. While admitting that this is better than nothing, it is nevertheless the case that some people cannot be adequately compensated in monetary terms for even a delay of one hour. It is therefore recommended that the provisions in the Bill should be more stringent and should make it mandatory for airlines to compensate passengers in cases of flights delayed for up to one hour or more and where cancelled, compensation should not just come in form of provision of accommodation and transport to and from the airport. The compensation should be much more than that. It could come in form of perhaps, a 30% discount and refund on the ticket already bought or the passengers’ future tickets. These measures will serve to keep the airlines on their toes and will definitely go a long way to reduce the frequency of flight delays and sometimes outright cancellations in many cases, with scant or non-existent regards for the convenience or situations of the passengers. <br />
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Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-4605808535876574262013-05-17T12:11:00.001+02:002013-05-17T12:11:04.243+02:00Diamond Bank workers protest<a href="http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/diamond-bank-workers-protest/">Diamond Bank workers protest</a>Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-88902053030070082632013-04-25T18:49:00.000+02:002013-04-25T18:49:01.392+02:00THREE MEN IN BLACK?<br />
I was doing a research for a matter on-line when I stumbled on the quote of Honore de Balzac below. I have decided to share the quote with everyone not because I agree with everything in it, I most certainly do not, but because it is nothing if not interesting. Some of the things in the quote are true, even in my short years of legal practice, I have seen quite a lot which always remind of the cliché that truth is always stranger than fiction. I have seen hitherto close siblings become bitter enemies because of their parents' inheritance, I have seen marriages break which had no business coming together in the first instance, I have seen people do things which make me wonder whether their brains were on sabbatical at the time of doing the deeds...<br />
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I do not agree with the author of the quote that priests, doctors and lawyers do not think well of the world, perhaps I am only speaking for myself in this wise, but I really haven't seen too much to make me agree with this part of the quote. While I agree that most priests and lawyers in most countries wear black robes, the only kind of doctors that my research tells me wear black robes are the academic doctors and not medical doctors that I think he means in his quote. I nevertheless think the quote is interesting enough to be shared with you.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwClFK5VmHWTsXD5mB3BYdPcJa0MnlixOC9ns1fspenbaO1o-MR4V3U5LE9YKPNqUI3IwPGdTFTL6qcFhdR9Iq0ddOjJUu2HX5ZZvPkhNucWO7UFtHH7eutQta6oRYDuJKD5NHEsKxlkI/s1600/black+robe.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwClFK5VmHWTsXD5mB3BYdPcJa0MnlixOC9ns1fspenbaO1o-MR4V3U5LE9YKPNqUI3IwPGdTFTL6qcFhdR9Iq0ddOjJUu2HX5ZZvPkhNucWO7UFtHH7eutQta6oRYDuJKD5NHEsKxlkI/s320/black+robe.jpg" /></a><br />
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<b>There are in modern society three men who can never think well of the world, the priest, the doctor and the man of law. And they wear black robes, perhaps because they are in mourning for every virtue and every illusion. The most hapless of these is the lawyer. He sees the same evil feelings repeated again and again. Nothing can correct them. Our offices are sewers which can never be cleansed. I have known wills burned. I have seen mothers robbing their children, wives kill their husbands. I could not tell you all I have seen for I have seen crimes against which justice is impotent. In short, all the horrors that romancers suppose they have invented are still below the truth.<br />
<blockquote></blockquote></b>Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850)Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-46053981626611386342013-03-21T13:52:00.000+01:002013-03-21T13:52:14.303+01:00RAMBLINGS OF A PERSON CONFUSED<br />
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<blockquote>...that which we call a Rose by any other name will smell as sweet</blockquote>- Juliet in ROMEO AND JULIET, William Shakespeare <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTR3dHqxjMo55zfcz_djA1l_H6Xk7ZbQXBEttTnaUOkb9fLtJMe85rdqu_0qOYT13cYywWXG1u9yDgCtO7UQqMt7mkSLkvS_IPnML1K87voYk1kfOKC8K0-G95K_vHH5i4iobxKT2C98I/s1600/Cartoon+confused.bmp" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTR3dHqxjMo55zfcz_djA1l_H6Xk7ZbQXBEttTnaUOkb9fLtJMe85rdqu_0qOYT13cYywWXG1u9yDgCtO7UQqMt7mkSLkvS_IPnML1K87voYk1kfOKC8K0-G95K_vHH5i4iobxKT2C98I/s320/Cartoon+confused.bmp" /></a><br />
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Since the Western world determines most of the things in the civilized world as we know it, allow me to lay the blame for my present confusion at their doorsteps. It started by them either being confused themselves, or deliberately trying to be mischievous by getting the rest of us confused. You probably are wondering by now what I’m going on about.<br />
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Well, it’s not just one thing, it’s a whole lot of things; from the disparity in the spellings of certain words and the way they are pronounced, to the differences in the pronunciation of certain similarly spelled words, from the way certain words appear on paper, chalk boards, computer, name it, and the way the words are rolled on the tongue, to the name given to certain animals, plants etc.<br />
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Let me start with two words that have already appeared in this piece, <i>pronounce<b></b></i> and <b>pronunciation<i></i></b>. You will think that since the word pronunciation is a derivative of the word pronounce, it will be spelled <b>prono<i>u</i>nciation</b>. But oh no, the English people in their wisdom decided that the spelling must be pronunciation though every other word related to the word pronounce is similarly spelled. For instance, <b>pronounce</b>able, <b>pronounce</b>dly, <b>pronounce</b>d, <b>pronounc</b>ing, <b>pronounce</b>r, <b>pronounce</b>ment. So, why on earth is pronunciation different from the rest? Why the sacrifice of the letter “u”?<br />
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Other sources of confusion are the words <i>know, knowledge, psychology, pseudonym, writ, write, wrung, wry</i>, the list goes on. And you of course guessed right! In none of these words are the first letters pronounced! So, again, I wonder, of what use are these first letters if we are supposed to ignore them in their pronunciations? Would the meaning of psychology have changed if it had been spelled as <b>sychology</b> from the beginning? Of course the same question applies to every other word on the list.<br />
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Still on spellings and pronunciations, you would think since the words <i>choose, chance, choice, charade, chain, chaff, chair, chalk</i> etc are all pronounced as if you are pronouncing words beginning with the letters <i>sh</i>, or <i>ch</i> in other words you pronounce the word chandelier as if it is spelled <i>shandelier, charade</i> as <i>sharaid</i>, you will of course naturally think words like <b>chameleon, chamelot, chaos, character, chiropractor</b>, all also commencing with the letters <i>ch</i> as the earlier-listed words will also be pronounced with ch or sh but oh no! These words are pronounced with the letter <b>k</b>! This is why the word character is pronounced <i>karaktar</i>, chamelot as <i>kamelot</i>, chaos as <i>kaos</i> and chirocpractor as <i>kairoprakto</i>! As a junior secondary school student 1, I made this very innocent but I dare say, understandable mistake in pronouncing chaos not with the letter k but with the letters ch! It was quite an embarrassing episode as I had made the mistake while reading a passage from one of the recommended texts out in front of the whole class! And talking of class, if it is going to be pronounced <i>klass</i>, why deprive <b>K</b> its rightful place? Why let <b>C</b> take the glory while <b>K</b> does all the work? What criteria were used in the decision of how a particular word was going to be spelled? And how many people actually know that the word choir is supposed to be pronounced with an invisible <b>w</b> as in <i>kwir</i>? Or that the word which is actually supposed to be pronounced with an invisible <b>k</b> commencing it? If you didn’t know, all I will say is, it serves them right that you decided to pronounce these words as spelled!<br />
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Did you know that the colour pink used to be called white? You didn’t? Well, that makes the two of us because neither did I! More to the point, I still do not know that it was ever called any other name different from Pink. But I am guessing it makes sense that it must have once upon a time been called white if the English people refer to their skin colour as white when we all can see it is actually pink. Of course, there is also confusion in the label they gave to the other different human race that populate the universe. While they refer to their own skin colour as white(?!), they call the Asians yellow and the dark-hued Africans black! Before I start on this, I have to confess that I can be quite dumb when it comes to telling colours. But even as dumb as I can be, I have managed over the years to be able to tell the most popular of the colours apart. Having been able to do this, I find it confusing, if not downright dishonest that Caucasians refer to themselves as the white race and thus the colour of their skin as white. I know the colour white, it is one of the perhaps not so many colours that I can tell in my sleep and even while unconscious. I have also seen these people and while I may not be so great with colours, I do know that the closest colour to that of the skin of the Caucasian is pink. Why then have these people chosen to call the colour of their skin white? Was pink once called white and they somehow neglected to effect the necessary correction when it was swapped with white or did they choose white because of all the positive attributes associated with that colour? <br />
They call my skin and those of other dark-skinned Africans black. Well, I am a very dark skinned person. But as dark as I am, the most accurate colour that describes my skin is a chocolate that has a very generous portion of cocoa. And I know unless my skin is mixed with other colours, no matter how dark it gets, it will never turn black. So, if the colour of the skin of people like me is brown, why did they decide we should be called blacks? Again, could it somehow be because being dark skinned, they feel our skin (and perhaps behavior) will be closer to black and its not-so-positive attributes?<br />
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The Asians are called yellow. The only thing I’ll say is that anyone who has ever seen an Asian will know that the colour of their skin is certainly not yellow, not at least if we are going by the shade of the colour we were brought up to call yellow.<br />
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When I was in my first year at the junior Secondary School level, I read a book titled <b>THE MADNESS OF DIDI</b> in which the Author whose name I do not recall, argued through the novel’s protagonist that if Caucasians knowing their skin colour is pink and not white insist on calling it white, then he was also at liberty to call his own skin colour green and not the black they chose to label it. The poor man was sent to the psychiatric ward on the ground that he must be off his senses to call his skin colour green! <br />
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Again, not done with either they themselves being confused or trying to confuse the rest of us, they decided to name a species of dolphin Killer Whale! If the mammal is a dolphin, why name it <b>Killer Whale</b>? Talk about giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it! And, talking of which, has anybody seen a hung dog? I don’t know how that phrase came about, but I hardly think anyone who decides to kill a dog will adopt hanging as the method of choice. What happened to just shooting the dog or poisoning it?<br />
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The above by no means represent all the ways the people in the Western world have either exhibited their own confusions or deliberately attempted to confuse the rest of us. Either way, I am convinced that I am not the only one confused!<br />
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Hey, did I remember to thank you for suffering my ramblings till the very end? Thank you! <br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-32706310529772997272013-02-28T21:52:00.000+01:002013-02-28T21:52:57.812+01:00MOCALITY CLOSES SHOP! <br />
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I think I first heard about mocality.com on the radio either early in 2012 or sometime in 2011, I’m not really not sure exactly when. What I do recall is that the advert of mocality that I heard on radio then cast it as a directory of sort for local businesses in every person’s locality. For instance, if memory serves me well, the first advert I heard about Mocality.com was about a lady who needed to buy good <i>Ofada</i> rice for her boss and who was directed by a friend to the website for the nearest place at which she could buy the rice. <br />
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That was before they came up with mocality deals. Mocality deals aroused my interest and I signed up to receive their daily deals directly to my mail and I have as a result bought a few products and services and got to meet new people and service providers. This is how the deals (from my corner as a consumer) work, the mocality team get some product sellers and or service providers to offer their products and or services at a reduced price for a particular period of time, may be a week, and consumers like me who are interested in any of the products or services click either to buy the product/service online or go to the office of mocality in Ikeja G.R.A. to pay for it and then collect a coupon which they take to the office or shop to get the product or service already paid for.<br />
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I don’t know how profitable this venture was for the mocality crew, but I do believe very strongly that while they were still on, they provided a very valuable service mostly for the Small businesses and enterprises which ordinarily have very little or no at all budget for advertisements. For instance, a consumer who purchased a deal on mocality.com and goes to redeem the coupon at a particular business outlet can thereby establishment a relationship with that outlet that goes way beyond just merely redeeming the coupon of the product/service purchased. The consumer can see other products of interest which he/she would buy quite apart from the deal already purchased.<br />
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When I got the text and email messages which informed me of Mocality’s intention to shut down on the 28th February 2013 and which invited me to redeem the coupon of any deal I might have purchased from them on or before 25th February 2013, my first reaction was; there goes yet another casualty of Nigeria’s horrible business environment. I nevertheless put a call through to one of their staff members and asked why they were closing down. The only response she gave me though was that it was management’s decision. In search of further insight into why the company was shutting down, I went online and read their blog, therein I learnt that the company was shutting down not only their Nigeria operations, but the Kenyan as well.<br />
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Deal Dey is still in place though to continue to give small businesses the much needed exposure, but I can't help thinking what happens now to all those that earned their living at mocality.Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-22742903521879075712013-02-20T15:28:00.001+01:002013-02-20T15:28:07.548+01:00HYPERTENSION, NOT DRUGS<br />
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The report of the autopsy done on Goldie came out yesterday and the result was that she died of hypertensive heart disease which in turn triggered intracerebellar haemorrhage. (Hypertension seems to have shifted from something associated with the old to a condition which does not discriminate based on age). This is of course contrary to the rumours being widely circulated even before Goldie’ s body got cold that she died from doping or drug use.<br />
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While the news of Goldie being married came as a huge surprise and left me wondering whether my perception of her was at all right, I am at least happy to see that my firm belief that she wasn’t the kind to be hooked on drugs is given some sort of validation. Of course this doesn’t mean that her dying of hypertension will make her death less sad, but it does mean that she died with her dignity virtually in place.<br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766316337223982377.post-70006788451974437872013-02-19T15:57:00.003+01:002013-02-19T15:57:45.436+01:00MARRIED GOLDIE!<br />
I, and I’m sure thousands of other Nigerians who knew Goldie were sure at the revelation after her death that she was married and had been since 2005! The name Harvey, which most of us thought was her family name, it emerged, was in fact her marital name. Her husband, Andrew Harvey has since circulated pictures of their wedding probably to further convince all that there was indeed a wedding and a marriage. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3eVUHYpdTtPVgfkak5JUUHoyhUiM0nacG1JEpv2SNl4eqcn50ZGrEMUs0hzqu4V6ScYieTuvoK2vZYtQ4hupfS241UTPXPj_LLOKlyjTxg5jThsow6M68Vn7j9VE3877ZGwuidcKRD44/s1600/Goldie-Andrew-Harvey-February-2013-BellaNaija048.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3eVUHYpdTtPVgfkak5JUUHoyhUiM0nacG1JEpv2SNl4eqcn50ZGrEMUs0hzqu4V6ScYieTuvoK2vZYtQ4hupfS241UTPXPj_LLOKlyjTxg5jThsow6M68Vn7j9VE3877ZGwuidcKRD44/s320/Goldie-Andrew-Harvey-February-2013-BellaNaija048.jpg" /></a><br />
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The news of Goldie’s marriage was all the more surprising because of Prezzo, her former Big Brother Africa housemate’s proposal of marriage to her. These revelations, may of course have no bearing whatever on Goldie as a hardworking and homely(?) person but they do raise a lot of questions on whether anybody really knew the real Susan Oluwabimpe Harvey. <br />
While her desire to probably keep her private life out of public scrutiny is of course, the total secrecy or at best confusion surrounding her marital status is probably the entertainment industry’s best kept secret. I had in fact earlier written that she would have, had she lived made a good wife to some lucky man, now Andrew Harvey who was she was married to for about eight years before her demise will be the best person to answer if she was.<br />
Adenaikkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02128894526526521824noreply@blogger.com0