By Nik Ogbulie

Sequel to the perceived anxieties that would arise from the semi final match between Nigeria and South Africa on Wednesday in Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire, the Nigerian High Commission has warned Nigerians to remain peaceful in other not to play into the hands of South Africans in the various cities who have been violent at any slight reason with their visitors.

In the text circulated across the region today, the Nigerian office wrote,…

1. The attention of the Nigeria High Commission Pretoria has been
   drawn to potentially inflammatory online comments made by a
   section of South African citizens against Nigerians living in host country,
   largely influenced by the upcoming 2024 African Cup of Nations
   (AFCON) semi-final match between the Super Eagles and the Bafana
   Bafana on Wednesday 7th February 2024.
2. Most of the comments consist of veiled threats against
   “Nigerians cooking jollof rice” before the match, and “showing
   pepper to Nigerians if the Bafana Bafana lose to the Super Eagles”
   among others.
3. In this regard, the High Commission hereby advises the Nigerian
   community to be watchful of their utterances, be mindful of where
   they choose to watch the match especially in public places, and
   refrain from engaging in loud, riotous or provocative celebrations
   should the Super Eagles win the match.
4. A dditionally, Nigerians should maintain the good conduct they
   are known for, and be law abiding before, during and after the
   match. Should any provocations arise, they should not be
   reciprocated but reported to the appropriate authorities.

Major (Barr) Aburime Ben, a Lagos based lawyer and retired Army Major, writes about his experiences in two different Magistrates’ Court at the Ikeja Magisterial District in Lagos.

WHEN ARROGANCE INTERFACES WITH IGNORANCE THE RESULT CAN BE HUMBLING: THE COURT SYSTEM IN NIGERIA TODAY.

For a very long time now, some learned colleagues who have read some experiences I shared on some common platforms have graciously request I write a book essentially sharing my experiences. Needless to say, I have been reluctant to do so before now. My experience before two separate magistrates today has set me thinking if I really shouldn’t author such a book.

I was before two separate magistrates today. One of my two cases was a pro bono case premised on small claims and the presiding magistrate was not only beautiful as a person, but very dutiful, humble and educative. Not only did she, yes she is a lady, and sits in court 6, sit at 9 am prompt, she also dealt with all persons and matters before her with noticeable respect. There was no case that she handled today that she didn’t guide and assist both parties and the competing counsel to conduct their cases properly. Fairness and empathy was in open play, and there was no room for parties or their counsel to go for each other’s jugulars. She was on top of her game.

I was sitting at the court in the floor before waiting for my case to be called when my client rushed down to inform me the case before this civilised and decent judex had been called, and I rushed upstairs, which occasion my panting for breath, and I struggled to announce my appearance. The trial magistrate stood down the case and she insisted on my first sitting down to regain my breath. She didn’t even bother allowing me apologise for not being before her at the time the case was called. Thereafter, we concluded the proceeding before that court.

The court and its proceedings reminded me of the days of very respectable Judges like the soft-spoken E F Longe, J, the workaholics like Kekere-Eku, J, and Dotun Adefope-Okojie, J, (as they both were), Oloronimbe, J, the one we elected to call the old school headmaster, because of his penchant for teaching. I shouldn’t forget the likes of H. Oshodi, J, and MA Lawal, J, who by their conduct and expertise, immediately let you know they had a good practise at the bar before their elevation to the bench.

One point I need to make here is that several anti-hypertensive and/or cardio-vascular drugs are targeted at not allowing excess fluid build up in one’s body, hence they induce frequent urination. To combat that issue most days, today inclusive, I needed not eat or take the medication, and the result is the strain on the heart, and that effect was visible today, and it is the uncharitable comment at the other court that has largely informed this writeup.

In contradistinction to the other court and claim, the business before court 2 (Ikeja) was a tenancy matter and though we had today for trial, as the defence counsel asked for a possible amicable resolution, the matter was adjourned to today for report of settlement or trial. That no trial commenced today isn’t the reason for this writeup either. Rather, as soon as I announced my appearance as Major O B. Aburime, the trial magistrate went on spree of what she considered to be impersonation.

To her understanding, I can be picked up for that. She even suggested that if a camera was functional in that court, I would be in a lot of trouble, and after my failed attempts at explaining anything to her understanding, I finally informed her that I’ve always announced my appearance at every level of court from the customary court to the Supreme Court, and except for magistrate Olanrewaju and herself of the same Ikeja district, no one has ever challenged the competence of my appearance as announced. Then, there was the fallacy that I was appearing from outside jurisdiction, because her very next statement betrayed her further ignorance when she impliedly said that Lagos State is different.

Finally, I was able to suggest she took a look at my stamp and seal, and the signature block on my process. Much as I tried to cover the court’s ignorance of certain facts, the tirade did not abate. Finally, she asked whether I was once in the military and when I retired, I reciprocated her arrogance at that stage and told her I was a regular combatant commissioned officer and that I have been in retirement since 1979. The way I said it was probably not different from saying I’ve been in retirement long before certain persons reached the age of puberty, but that will be returning insult for insult, which is uncalled for.

Aside the harsh word for everyone from sheriffs of court to litigants and counsel alike, I’m unable to pickout any case that went on today, of the 24 or so cases listed for the day. Even trying to inform that her learned sister or sister-magistrate slated the case for trial was another ground for agitation, as I learned in that court today that there are no learned brothers or sisters at the bench, but the other magistrate or judge ….

Just like the sister case that I have been able to list the like qualities, I shall also be quick to remember the likes of Akin-Fernandez, J, who granted possession to the landlord and signed the warrant of execution on an exparte application in a matter in which we were plaintiffs then. I also recall Kayode-Ogunmekan, J, who insisted I should go put the other party on notice in my exparte application for substituted service. Of course, I refused to appear before that court until she retired from the bench.

It is not as if my cases and experiences are unique. Unlike in the golden eras of the Supreme Court Justices like Karibi Whyte, Chukwudifu Oputa, Obaseki, Irikefe, Kayode Eso, Niki Tobi, etc, JJSC, we were not only sure of what principles were established by cases, but also how the law of precedents operates. Today, sadly, we have seen a CJN struggling to explain what technicality means. In an attempt to explain the distinction between judgment on the merit and judgment obtained on technical grounds, we heard the said esteemed CJN telling a bewildered nation about pilots driving aeroplanes and maybe Napep drivers sailing or flying their tricycles.

We also see a Supreme Court that could suo moto make a Hope Uzodinma a Governor in Imo State against the natural order of events and things. The same Supreme Court that will sadly tongue-lash the Court of Appeal on decisions where the Court of Appeal is the final court in those certain matters, and the matters were not even before the Supreme Court. Isn’t that what the Bible tagged the speck and log story?

Finally, for a magistrate to tell a senior counsel that if he isn’t healthy enough, he should quit practice speaks volumes of her nature. For one, I will remember today when certain persons apply for upliftment. I hinted at that when I made allusion to Barr Bayo Akinlade and his platform for the Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary, and the supporting role we played.

Two, notwithstanding running between two courtroom and pausing to catch my breath, I may be much more physically fit than those who think they’re healthier on account of their youth.

Three, I respect people, but can never be intimidated by anyone, no matter their status. I’m also ready and willing to expand my scope of persons I can say go and verify from.

Four, I will announce my appearance as I have always. Anyone who elects to be misguided into believing that I may still be in [military] service is solely responsible for their level of appreciation. In a similar vein, anyone is entitled to take up the perceived case of impersonation or even insult and I’m ready to meet them at any level.

Five, the likes the current Chief Judge of Lagos State and others before him, addressed me simply as Major. So does Justice Hakeem Oshodi and others, and that title neither diminished from their person and/or office nor did it mean they were ignorant and uninformed. Rather, it shows their superior level of intellect and understanding.

Finally, being a lawyer or being trained in law doesn’t make anyone a grandmaster, whether you operate from the bar or the bench. So, people should learn to function within the scope of their learning. For, you can’t use your limited knowledge to ground or establish universal principles. If not for arrogance or the unwarranted attempt at throwing weight around or flexing muscle, by what stretch of imagination will anyone think of impersonation or whether I implied I was still in service, when my process was before her.

Also, I do not recall adding or stating I was of the 2nd British Regiment or 14 West African Frontier Force or Infantry or Queen’s Regiment. It is intellectual laziness that will not let someone open a process before her, just so she can justify what she has purposed to do. Similarly, another problem I see is in some persons reading things not otherwise contained in a statement into those statements. It is called padding and distorts gravely. To conclude this passage, I’m a very sound and successful person by every reasonable standard and will have no cause for impersonation, and I shall proceed to state how and why briefly:

1. I had a flambouyant military career whereby in my 20’s I was already a Major and being a military police officer, I had direct contact with not less than three Heads of State. Two are still alive today. Still on military cum security affairs, the United Nation through its ICAO organ trained me in both Kenya (1980) and then West Germany (1982) as Aviation Security Officer, an anti-terrorism program aimed at preventing hijacking and other unlawful acts. This was my post-military calling.

2. I took interest in Theology and obtained my PGD under the RCCG after which I was zonal principal of the Bible College.

3. I have a successful law practice, practising to retard the aging process, not for the money.

4. I’m today a student of the School of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Ikeja, where my foundation course is in Web and Software Designing. Soon, I’ll proceed to learning to build robots and drones. When I’m not idle or indolent, who is there to envy or impersonate?

5. There’s a healthy spirit of competition between father (me) and his seven blessed children, whereby our emphasis is on achievements and not on money or wealth. That’s why every one of them has a minimum of a masters degree, in addition to some other professional courses, including aircraft pilot and engineering.

6. There are privileges that retired service officers are entitled to such as medicals or requesting assistance of a driver or an escort, and that has nothing to do with impersonation. The status of such a driver or escort is very much verifiable. If my learned magistrate Layinka (court 2, Ikeja) wants to engage me openly on this, then it’s game on. I shall be open for the engagement, not forgetting to add the fact that my next door neighbours are a serving High Court Judge, a sitting Chief Magistrate, and a senior counsel with the Lagos State Ministry of justice.

Sometimes, I wonder how we’re able to sleep at night when, as one kain people, we always act one kain, indiscreetly denying other people justice (apologies to Honourable Attorney General Emeritus, Boms Worgu). If some judges and magistrates spend half the time and energy in tongue-lashing everyone who appears before them, into conducting the cases before them, court and case congestion will be a thing of the past.

Concluding, not forgeting too that I’m also a member of Amnesty International, I’ll henceforth shine my eyes wider.

I remain Major (Barr) Aburime Ben.

Ps: If a Professor who retired as Dean of Law appears before you, dear respected magistrate, is he required to announce his appearance as Professor (rtd)? Need to know.

By Amarachi Okeh

AMARACHI OKEH writes about the low level of awareness of the rights of patients and how this puts females at risk of sexual harassment

Lola froze with shock on the examination bed in the consultation room when a male doctor who was examining her said, “See what you have done to me; you have made me ‘hard.’”

Not convinced that his 28-year-old patient heard him and unbothered about his action, the doctor pulled one of her hands towards his groin in a bid to make her touch his penis. Confused and wishing what was happening right before her eyes was not real, she swallowed saliva forming in her mouth as her heart raced.

Unable to bear the harassment and in a bid to avoid what could turn out to be rape, Lola jumped up and ran to the reception of the medical facility located in the Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State.

In the waiting area crowded with medical workers and patients, she was unable to utter a word. As she tried to put herself together, she could feel the fear coursing through her body.

While on a bus on her way home that day, the tears she tried hard to hold back began to pour. She could only feel helpless, having trusted the medical workers at the facility she had been using for the past two years.

She wondered why things suddenly went wrong and why the male doctor who had treated her for the same ailment for two years suddenly wanted to make her his sexual prey.

She had assumed she was in safe hands especially because her father’s friend, who is a medical doctor, had referred them (she and her father) to the facility and the doctor had managed her case so well that she became comfortable with his services until 2021.

“It felt like a scene from a movie,” she told Sunday PUNCH.

Narrating her ordeal to our correspondent, Lola said, “In May 2021, the issue (ailment) I was treating recurred. This time, I went with a male friend to see the doctor. The doctor was jovial with us, asking if we were dating and getting married soon.

“I told him that my male friend and I were dating and that was why I was running the tests and we all laughed. Later, he asked me to come back for another test to be sure I could proceed with the new medications he prescribed.

“Usually, if he wanted to run any test on me where he would have to examine my breasts, his nurse was usually there, but on that particular day, he gave some excuses as to why she was not available.

“I remember seeing his wife in the next room and that gave me the confidence that I was not alone. Besides it wasn’t the first time.”

However, Lola said what started as a medical examination gradually turned into a pervert’s attempt to satisfy his sexual urge.

“We began the usual procedure and he asked me to take off my top to examine my breasts. This time while he did it, I noticed he started touching my breast in some sort of sexual way, next thing he bent down and put my breast in his mouth.

“I was too shocked at first then I gathered myself and pushed him off me from the bed. He still came close again, insisting that he was not done checking me.

“I was in confusion as to what he wanted to check, and the next thing I knew was him forcefully taking my hand and putting it on his hardened penis and saying, ‘See what you have done to me; you have made me ‘hard’.’” I was shocked and honestly confused even more.

“I pushed him away, got up, and was about to leave when he unashamedly held me back in the examination room and asked him what I wanted him to do since he had an erection. I pushed him again and rushed to the reception. I was shaking so much that I had no other option but to sit at his reception for some time before I left,” she added.

She said it took a few months to find the courage to disclose what she described as a nightmare to her boyfriend, who later confronted the male doctor.

“My boyfriend asked him direct questions – whether he did it but he was just talking off-point. He didn’t deny it nor accept it,” she said.

Lola, now 30, told Sunday PUNCH that the incident had remained indelible in her memory. She told our correspondent that she could not report him at the time because she didn’t have enough evidence against him.

“A few days ago, I saw him on the road, this was after three years, and shame enveloped me. He will meet his match one day,” she said with a tone of defeat.

Male dominated medical profession

There are more male doctors than female doctors in Nigeria, according to Statista, an online platform that specialises in data gathering and visualisation, which also said that out of the about 25,000 doctors in Nigeria in 2019, 65 percent of them were men.

With the dearth of female doctors and the ever-increasing exodus of health workers leaving for greener pastures, the reality could be grimmer as a female patient is more likely to be attended to by a male doctor than his female counterpart.

This, experts, said could give room to sexual harassment.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, sexual harassment is the exploitation of the physician-patient relationship in a sexual way. It is also the use of the physician’s power and dominance to satisfy his or her sexual desires at the expense of the patient.

The shortage of medical professionals in Nigeria leaves many patients with little or no alternative to medical care.

Checks by Saturday PUNCH further showed that there is a lack of understanding of what sexual harassment means, leaving many patients unaware as to what passes as sexual harassment.

Also, many women who know they have been sexually harassed by male health professionals tend to leave judgment in the hands of fate as they understand the labyrinth of Nigeria’s legal system.

The AAOS explained that sexual harassment in the medical line takes several forms –  verbal or physical behaviours of a sexual nature including conversation, gestures, and inappropriate touching.

It said sexual misconduct could be categorised into two: sexual impropriety – behaviours, gestures, or expressions that are sexually suggestive, seductive, or disrespectful of a patient’s privacy or sexually demeaning to a patient and sexual violation – and physical sexual contact between a physician and a patient, whether or not it was consensual and, or initiated by the patient.

This, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, said would include any kind of sexual intercourse genital contact or masturbation, and touching of any sexualised body parts for purposes other than appropriate medical examination or treatment.

Sexual misconduct against patients, especially women, by male doctors, is considered a bane in the medical profession and does not align with the Hippocratic Oath sworn by medical doctors.

A part of the oath reads, “I will respect the autonomy and dignity of my patient… I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity in accordance with good medical practice.”

According to the AAOS, most sexual misconducts perpetrated by medical professionals are by men, and most victims are women.

A Spanish anti-sexual violence organisation, Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, on its website, stated that some actions could be considered inappropriate and a sign of sexual exploitation by a medical examiner.

This, it said, included examining private parts without gloves, refusing to tell patients what they are doing or why they are doing it, declining to have another person in the room with patients, insisting that patients undress parts of their body not examined, and asking questions about patients’ sexual activity that make them uncomfortable.

Harassed by family doctor

Like Lola, 20-year-old Fortune said she was sexually harassed twice by a medical practitioner she trusted.

The 20-year-old, who said recounting her experience was like reopening a healing wound, spoke to our correspondent in low whispers as though to reduce the trauma that weighed her down.

As she spoke to our correspondent, she paused at intervals to catch her breath.

“The first time was in July 2023. I had fibroadenoma and needed to remove it urgently. The hospital was owned by a family friend and my sister also worked there.

“On the day of the surgery, of course, I had to remove everything I was wearing so I asked my sister, who worked there, to stay with me while I removed all my clothes but he sent her out to get something.

“After I was given some injection and lay down there barely conscious, I just saw him bring his mouth to my breast. At that moment I couldn’t feel anything.

“I knew something wrong was happening but I just couldn’t say anything. After the surgery, I left the hospital the next day without saying anything to anybody.

“Later in September, I was rushed to the same hospital to have an urgent appendicitis surgery and because it was urgent, I didn’t have a say. My parents just took me there,” she said.

“Around 8 pm when the other doctor who was supposed to assist with the operation went to change and the nurses were busy preparing the things for the surgery. The same doctor asked me to undress and sent my sister, who was with me, to bring something; I signalled at her not to go but she didn’t understand and, again, since he was her boss, she obeyed him.

“Even after the nurse gave me an anaesthetic, I was not asleep, I was aware of my environment, and then I noticed he kissed my breast again. This time, I flinched but the effect of the drug was already kicking in, so I was weak.

“I was there for a week, and multiple times he came to my bed and said he wanted to kiss his wife, referring to me, on the mouth but I always told him respectfully not to do that because I was not his wife. I always flinched and tried keeping away from him so he wouldn’t come near me. I was helpless,” she added.

She said that even after she summoned the courage to report the incident to her mother, she (her mother) apologised on the doctor’s behalf.

“She told me not to be angry and that I wouldn’t go back there, but I expected her to do something more. I expected her to confront him. I wanted her to do more but she didn’t,” Fortune said.

Doctor said I acted like a child – 22-year-old victim

Before taking part in the National Youth Service Corps in 2019, Chidinma, 22, decided to have a routine health checkup at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia.

She said her problem started when one of the male doctors who attended to her advised her to undergo an X-ray outside the facility because the X-ray machine at the hospital was broken and then requested her phone number for follow-up.

“I like the red dress you wore to the hospital today. It brought out your shape,” his first text message to her read.

She said in subsequent messages, he tried to sexualise the conversation.

“I rebuffed him countless times but he didn’t stop. After the check-up at the FMC, he asked me to come to his privately owned clinic to run some more tests to rule out everything. I was puzzled because I knew I was fine but I still heeded because he was the doctor,” Chidinma said.

She added, “He told me to lock the door behind me on the day I went for the check-up, but I refused. He got up to do it and I threatened to scream if he locked it. That gave him some sense.

“But as soon as I sat down, he began asking some inappropriate questions. He asked me when last I had intercourse, who my first sexual partner was, and my favourite positions, but I tried to evade the questions politely while asking him what tests I needed to do.

“Later he brought out his phone saying he wanted to show me something about the test that I needed to run, but to my shock, it was a porn site. When I saw it, I threw the phone back at him and shouted at him but he told me that I was acting like a child.

“He said he wanted me to watch pornography so that I would be in the mood. Later, he stood up and started begging me that he was having an erection and that he needed me to help him with it.

“I became angry and stood up to leave. He held me back and was begging, but I warned him that I would raise the alarm if he refused to let me leave. That was when he let me leave. That was a married man with four children, as he told me earlier.

Doctors caught in the act

Some Nigerian male doctors have been accused of committing the crime outside the country. In 2016, a panel set up by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. Johns, Canada, found a Nigerian health worker, Dr Adekunle Williams-Owolabi, guilty of making sexual passes at a patient.

He was banned from medical practice for six months after making sexual comments to patients at his clinic in Labrador West.

In a report on the incident, a teacher, Arlene Johnson, who visited Owolabi’s clinic, was said to have testified that the doctor made some sexual comments during a pelvic examination.

Johnson was reported to have said that after a test, he (Owolabi) hugged her and whispered in her ear, “You have a beautiful clit, does your husband tell you that?”

In 2023, another Nigerian doctor in the United Kingdom, Ewere Onyekpe, was suspended for having sexual intercourse with a patient.

The UK’s medical regulatory body, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal of the General Medical Council, imposed a sanction of six months on his practising licence after he was found guilty by a tribunal that investigated the matter.

In February of 2022 also, a Canada-based Nigerian doctor, Efe Ovueni, was suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta after hugging a medical officer and blowing her a kiss without her consent.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a medical laboratory scientist in a teaching hospital in Enugu told our correspondent that it was not uncommon for some male medical experts to take advantage of their female patients.

“It is very common. A lot of medical personnel do that especially if they want to do a vaginal examination of the woman, they would then start stimulating the woman. Unfortunately, some women fall for it and right there in the examining room they have intercourse,” the medical worker said.

Medical examination without chaperone unethical

He further explained some male doctors take advantage of the fact that some female patients were not aware that they could request a chaperone before undergoing a medical examination.

A chaperone is a person who accompanies or looks after another person.

“Once the doctor has a smart lawyer he can always escape because he would deny it. They would tell the female patient to prove how he harassed her. She would be left struggling for words except the doctor had previously been accused of harassment. If a patient cannot establish a case of harassment, the matter will be closed.

“The conversation should be about how we handle such cases. Should we start having cameras in the consulting rooms? If they have cameras who should be responsible for the images so we don’t breach the confidentiality of the patient?

“The patient should be able to ask that the camera be put on or not when inside the consulting room. It is a kind of complex situation; it is not a simple issue,” the medical laboratory scientist added.

A former president of the Medical Women Association in Nigeria, Lagos chapter, Dr Dumebi Owa, said it was unethical for a male doctor to examine a female patient without a chaperone.

“If as a male doctor you do not know you are supposed to treat a female patient with a chaperone, something is wrong with that doctor. If you are a male doctor treating a female where you have to do an extensive examination and you don’t have a chaperone or relative of that patient then you are in trouble because it is your word against the patient’s word if it ever comes to that,” Owa said.

A consultant gynaecologist and former general secretary of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Phillip Ekpe, emphasised the importance of chaperones when treating patients irrespective of sex.

“The main thing is having a third party all the time. For instance, if I want to examine a patient’s breasts or private parts, my nurses are always around.”

The President of the Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria, Dr Austin Aipoh, explained that having third parties present while examining female patients not only prevents claims of inappropriate behaviour but also protects the reputation of the male doctor.

“Chaperones do not only protect the patient, they also protect the doctor as well because harassment could be either way. Also, for people to not tell lies that they were being harassed.”

Patients should know their rights

Speaking further, Owa said the level of enlightenment among patients about their rights is low, adding that patients must know their rights and not “just leave everything at the mercy of the doctor”.

“For a person to know their rights as a patient, they must be aware of the patient charter where the rights of a patient are stated. Despite this being plastered around hospitals, some barely glance at it or take it seriously.

“If you know that your body is your own and sacred to you, and you do not want anybody to touch it, they should not without your permission. When you tell a doctor you don’t want to be treated by them anymore, that is it. Your wish has to be obeyed.”

No sanction without evidence

Meanwhile, Ekpe said victims needed more than word-of-mouth accusations for action to be taken.

“Sexual harassment is not acceptable in any way so if a patient takes that accusation to the medical regulatory body, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the body will have to investigate the allegation and from there the appropriate sanctions will be given.

“The institution where the act occurred would also conduct its investigation and can also suspend, sack or warn the doctor depending on the extent of the act because it is not good at all for a doctor to have a relationship with the patient,” he added.

The MDCN is the regulatory body overseeing the practice of medicine and dentistry in Nigeria.

MDCN reacts

Responding to an enquiry by our correspondent on the matter, the secretary of MDCN’s investigation panel, Dr Enejo Abdu said, “The investigation panel is the statutory body with the mandate of investigating any allegations of misconduct in professional respect against registered medical practitioners or dental surgeons. The panel does not deal with allegations of crime.”

Abdu added that all doctors were expected, by the Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria to, among other things, maintain appropriate and decorous relationships with patients, including ensuring that patients of the opposite sex were examined in the presence of a chaperone of the same sex.

On reporting cases of allegations of misconduct, he said, “Patients are encouraged to report allegations of misconduct in professional respect against registered practitioners to the MDCN in the form of affidavits deposed to before a commissioner of oaths or a notary.

“The affidavit should be sent to: the Registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria plot 1102 Cadastral Zone B11 Kaura District Abuja. Scanned copies should be sent to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].”

The president of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Uche Ojimah, had yet to respond to calls, texts, and WhatsApp messages sent to him by our correspondent.

Story by PUNCH

By Festus Adedayo

The “Edan” is a Yoruba Ogboni cult insignia, an emblem of membership in the secret society. It is a cylindrical duality of male and female brass figures with iron stems attached to it. Mostly joined at the top by an iron chain, the edan is said to signify old age, experience, knowledge, and wisdom. The female edan also has a beard motif. It recreates the image of the goddess, Edan, a man-like woman, an “Obinrin bi okunrin” who possesses the wisdom of a Babalawo – diviner – and is the epicentre of human morality. This image is intermixed with the supernatural powers of a witch, an aje, reputed to have powers for the defence and protection of Ogboni cult initiates.

Ulli Beier, the German-Jew catalyst for modern African culture, stood in awe of the edan when he saw it. In his In a Colonial University (Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, 1993) Beier narrated his first encounter with the edan in 1950 and his overview of the Nigerian ritual art at the University of Ibadan, thus: “After dinner, liqueurs were served in the sitting room and …Professor Christopherson passed round his latest acquisition – a magnificent Ogboni (a secret association of Yoruba priests and chiefs invested with major judicial and political functions and devoted to the worship of the Earth) brass figure some 30cm long. I had never seen anything like it, had no idea what it meant or where it came from but was overwhelmed by a feeling of awe as I held in my hand the heavy object, emanating so much power and ancient wisdom.”

In Nigeria, corruption and religious trickery are like the edan, conjoined by an iron chain of culture, history and a sustained system of elite greed. Today in Nigeria, this Ogboni emblem is signposted by suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Beta Edu and late Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua. If Nigerians didn’t know anything else about their country, they know that these two evils – corruption and religion – are twin viruses that have eaten deep into the marrows and red cell corpuscles of Nigeria. They are also aware that the two evils have centuries-old existence. So when the BBC, last week, assumed it had hit an exclusive story in airing a documentary on the sordid life of charismatic pastor, unorthodox televangelist and founder of Synagogue of All Nations (SCOAN), TB Joshua, the British broadcasting outfit, it will seem, was merely playing to the gallery, no pun intended. BBC had alleged in the documentary, through interviews with alleged eyewitnesses, that Joshua’s pastoral life had been a potpourri of rape, shambolic miracles, torture and forced abortions. Whether in pre-, colonial or post-colonial Nigeria, Nigerians are/were genetically wired to believe in the supreme potency of achieving material success and healing by harnessing mystical powers.

As at 1922, the British colonial office was already worried by the traffic of patent medicine ordered by Nigerians from India, a country renowned to be a centre for mystical powers. By that time, literate Nigerians were already ordering, by postal service, literature on mysticism and homeopathic medicine from India. J. K. Magregor, a British resident in Nigeria and headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute in Calabar, was so disturbed by this trend among his pupils that he documented what he saw to the colonial office in England. He caught the pupils in possession of letters they sent abroad demanding from quack doctors methods of treating diseases and attaining success through spiritual powers.

The pupils also received catalogues of magical works and letters “from various societies that professed to give esoteric teaching that was sure to bring success and happiness.” In one mail delivery, Magregor found hundreds of such requests. One example the Briton found, which he documented to the colonial office, was a 12-year old boy who had ordered by post a “Mystic Charm” from India, “a piece of valueless metal containing some wax, enclosed in the heart of a newspaper.” Included with the metal was a message to the boy from India to send money back so that he could “receive blessings from the Hindu deity Siddheswari” and he would find the blessings by “watching the flow of his nasal mucus.”

The spate of charlatans promising to provide magical powers for a fee later transmuted into the fraud ring called 419, for which Nigeria has harvested unflattering renown throughout the world. This combines to form the benumbing orgy of corruption in high and low places, for which Betta Edu, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, was suspended from office last week. None of the two evils began today. On 18 December, 1920, Nigeria’s first 419 kingpin was arrested. He was Mr Crentil, a self-styled professor, an ex-employee of the Marine Department of the colonial office in Lagos. He had written to a victim in Gold Coast, now Ghana, describing the magical powers he possessed and could offer for a fee. He was charged in 1921 by the police on three counts under Section 419. He was however lucky as the charges were struck off, prompting “Prof Crentil” boasting that he got off through same magical powers.

The BBC documentary of last week merely fitted into what Nigerians already knew about themselves. As it has been notoriously recalled, TB Joshua’s tendency for sorcery, rather than Christianity, was first busted by Ibadan-based famous eerie-world-revealer and broadcaster, Kola Olawuyi. His Saturday morning programme on Radio Nigeria and OGBC was a crowd puller.

At this period in the life of Nigeria, there were itinerant native doctors who professed to connect people to their shrines that produced wealth. This, they claimed would be provided by the gods of wealth through spiritual forces. Virtually everywhere in Nigeria then, there were itinerant medicine sellers and magical spellers called Ajasco Boys, Money Doublers and the like, who offered a repertoire of techniques. With this, they claimed they could connect unsuspecting victims with the invisible world and engender fortunes for their victims. Over a century after, this spiritual vermin hasn’t died but its proboscis has gotten more lethal. It has changed, no doubt. Now clothed in modernity, it has gone visceral, sucking the blood of innocent Nigerians who seek remedies to existential crises.

The BBC documentary of last week merely fitted into what Nigerians already knew about themselves. As it has been notoriously recalled, TB Joshua’s tendency for sorcery, rather than Christianity, was first busted by Ibadan-based famous eerie-world-revealer and broadcaster, Kola Olawuyi. His Saturday morning programme on Radio Nigeria and OGBC was a crowd puller. On one of such, Olawuyi showed, with empirical evidence and through interview sessions, that Joshua had a spiritual liaison with an albino from his Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State native home. A few weeks after, another man appeared on Olawuyi’s programme claiming spiritual powers, while flaunting a black egg as his talisman. He claimed to be Jemijaiye Okuku. As I listened to the programme, something told me the Jemijaiye voice was familiar. As Olawuyi was lifting the veil off the face of this so-called powerful spiritualist, the police, who had been invited, emerged to arrest the charlatan. Immediately, I connected the dots. The fellow, a man with dreadlocks, was my close friend a decade earlier. I knew his mother and siblings. We both lived in the same Ayeso area of Ilesa, Osun State.

A coterie of mystical scammers, many wearing the garb of pastors and Imams, has succeeded in fleecing Nigerians based on the people’s longstanding abiding romance with fatalism and mysticism. Scholars have attributed this to the sustained link between the people and their traditional African heritage. Africans, and Nigerians particularly, grew up knowing that there is a causal link between the physical and the spiritual realms, and that nothing is or can be if it does not emanate from the spiritual realm. This has necessitated the rat race to penetrate the veneers of the spiritual. In the process, the people have been susceptible to the charlatanism of fakists and sorcerers who, wearing the visor of pastors/Imams, sweep them off their feet with fabulous claims. They also claim to be able to make penetrative gazes into the unseen world and are able to manipulate the corridors of the spirits to help their victims achieve unheard-of successes in the material world.

Why it becomes hard to distinguish sorcerers from miracle hawkers is that even the two prophets of Christianity and Islam – Jesus and Mohammed – equally got accused of sorcery while they were on earth. The truth is that the divide between sorcery and miracles is very thin. Both are united by their provinces as strange and uncanny. This is what Guru Maharaj Ji in Ibadan and Jesus of Oyingbo use/used as their fortes. At one time, a lively debate erupted as magicians and sorcerers too contended that the marvellous miracles wrought by of the prophets Moses and Jesus were themselves magical. In Christian teachings, we are told that Jesus was accused of performing miracles through Baʿal Zebub or Beelzebub. This god, in Joseph Conrad’s Lord of the Flies, was the devil. It was derived from a Philistine god that was hitherto worshipped in Ekron, and which was thereafter adopted by some Abrahamic religions. Beelzebub was a major demon linked to the Canaanite god, Baal, and which, in theological sources and predominantly Christian literature, is another name for Satan.

As a reporter who frequented his Lagos-Ibadan expressway shrine and who had, by so doing, gathered first-hand insights into his operations, I once compared Maharaj Ji with Russian mystic, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, who hypnotised his devotees. The Ibadan bearded spiritualist also claimed to be the world’s own version of Jesus Christ. In late 1906, Rasputin put himself forward as a faith healer, healing Nicholas II and his empress consort, Alexandra Feodorovna’s son, Alexei Nikolaevich who had been suffering from haemophilia. Rasputin was known to be a charlatan and was eventually assassinated in 1916. Having been friends with Maharaj Ji for years and observed the vacuous faces and absent faces of the men and women in trance-like looks in his shrine, it was easy to place the Ibadan self-styled god. That piece evoked attacks from his devotees spread across his ashrams, who pummelled me on all fronts.

By the way, let us give kudos to President Bola Tinubu for suspending Edu and his decision to cut the long numbers in his and the entourage of other government officials. I am sure what did the magic of the reduction was the persistent and unrelenting criticism of the president over the disgusting optics of his recent visit to Lagos Island. Muhammadu Buhari ran a government that was dead to such nudges for eight years…

People have asked what the motive of the BBC documentary is. To tell Nigerians what many already knew about TB Joshua? Why didn’t it come at a time when Joshua himself was alive and could rebut some of the claims? Lies were put to many strands of the BBC interviewees’ accounts of what went on in the Synagogue. Same goes for claims against Joshua by persons purporting to be what they were not. In totality, these cast a pall of doubt on the documentary. While alive, presidents of some African countries trooped to Joshua’s SCOAN for healing. One of such was then Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. In 2008, Ghanaian president, John Atta Mills was also at the Synagogue, “to seek the face of God during the election in his country.” So also was former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, as well as the late leader of Gabon, Omar Bongo. Could Joshua have been attracting all these personalities through sorceries? When it is realised that many of the white devotees of Joshua’s church, who allegedly wanted to take over the church at the pastor’s death were rebuffed, the BBC documentary may thus be viewed from the usual racial lens.

Having said this, many of the pastors/Imams who claimed to live lives of piety have been revealed to be opposites of what they claimed at their deaths. An example was Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias, an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian evangelical minister. He was the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), who for forty years was involved in Christian apologetics. At his death, however, some women came forward to claim that he sexually abused them. This prompted the hiring of the Miller & Martin law firm by the RZIM to investigate these allegations. At the end of the day, their veracity got confirmed. RZIM eventually underwent a name change and offered a public apology, subsequently excising every material pertaining to Zacharias from its books. In Nigeria, there are famous pastors who are known to be sexual predators, occultists and greedy elements thirsty for material acquisitions. So what did Joshua do differently?

While religious mesmerism results in the inability of a people to think straight, corruption stagnates a nation. In their amity like the cylindrical edan, they have wrecked incalculable havoc on Nigeria since its founding. Part of this havoc can be attributed to our history and culture, which make us easy prey to spiritual enchantment and corruptibility. Smart political charlatans invoke religion to sustain their hold on the political. A whiff of it got manifest last Thursday at the meeting of the Forum of Governors on the platform of APC. Asked what the fate of Betta Edu, the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs was, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, urged Nigerians not to pass a verdict of guilt on her yet as “the only perfect being we have observed and noticed is the Almighty God.” Anyone who knows the dalliance between corruption and theology and how politicians often invoke God to entrap the people will understand what effect Uzodinma was struggling to achieve.

By the way, let us give kudos to President Bola Tinubu for suspending Edu and his decision to cut the long numbers in his and the entourage of other government officials. I am sure what did the magic of the reduction was the persistent and unrelenting criticism of the president over the disgusting optics of his recent visit to Lagos Island. Muhammadu Buhari ran a government that was dead to such nudges for eight years, retaining such governmental recidivists, in spite of their visibly known crimes. Tinubu should go a step further by throwing every corrupt government official under the bus. The next person to sack is Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo because what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Edu, many government officials before her and several in this government have luxuriated for too long inside the sewers of over a century-old system of distribution of patrimonial wealth among selves and cronies. The time to break that chain is now.

Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist. 

While the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to probe the “allegations that $3.4 billion loan obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is missing, diverted or unaccounted for,” amidst reports of grand scale stealing and pillaging of public funds in the face of gross economic woes in Nigeria, a concerned citizen wrote: “Having broken the social ligaments that hold our nation together, by stealing monies meant for education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the elites have rendered Nigeria a classless nation…”

SERAP in a statement on Sunday wants the President to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi, (SAN), and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to promptly investigate the allegations.

Deputy Director of the group, Kolawole Oluwadare, said the request followed the 2020 annual audited report published last week by the Auditor-General of the Federation documents damning revelations including that there was no document to show the movement and spending of the IMF loan.

“Anyone suspected to be responsible should face prosecution as appropriate, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and any missing IMF loan should be fully recovered and returned to the public treasury,” Oluwadare said.

According to the group, there is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for these serious allegations, adding that taking appropriate measures would end the impunity of perpetrators.

SERAP said, “Servicing IMF loan that is allegedly missing, diverted or unaccounted for is double jeopardy for Nigerians—they can neither see nor benefit from the projects for which the loan was approved; yet, they are made to pay both the loan and accrued interests.”

“Any failure to investigate these grave allegations, bring suspected perpetrators to justice and recover any missing IMF loan would have serious resource allocation and exacerbate the country’s debt burden.

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”

However, an anonymous author captured the Nigerian situation in the piece below.

…. the almajiri, area Boys, MC Oluomo, and their likes are not the main threat to this beautiful country. The elites are.

Contentment is the grace to stand up from the dining table and look away from the food tray when your belly is full.*

But the Nigerian public official, although filled and belching with excess, would still hide stolen meat within the corners of his mouth at a dinner, stuff fried rice into his socks, and try to shuffle moinmoin into his shoes. Madness, you say.

But who else would steal 80 billion Naira except a mad fellow.

I am no longer numbed at the numbers stolen in Nigeria, but I am terribly saddened by the titles of the pen robbers.

Kemebradikumo Pondei, that dramatic NDDC acting Managing Director that fainted in the Senate, was a Professor of Medicine. A man trained to build, repair, and even possibly manufacture life. Yet, he too got to the table and scooped jollof rice into his boxers.

Do you know who Diezani Alison-Madueke was? No, you don’t. When ladies of her age were wishing and praying to be admitted to Shell Petroleum as typists or tea girls, she was already on the board of the company as an executive director. God gave her the bigger privilege of marrying Allison Madueke, a naval officer and former military Governor of two States. She was a trained architect who transformed to become Nigeria’s first female petroleum minister. Yet, despite these privileges, Diezani stole our barbequed fish, roasted yams, and hide them in her bra. Like a mad woman.

You recollect that JAMB/NECO ex Registrar, that Professor, the one that stole almost a billion. Just go through his CV, he had been eating from one educational agency to another non-stop since the military era. But at almost 70, a grandpa, he comes from a detention facility and goes to court to defend himself for stealing monies he would never need. At 70, a man is nearer to his grave, but in Nigeria, a 74 year old Minister would steal to buy a plot of land to build a new mansion. His sepulchre, of course.

Our leaders make you poke at your credentials and certificates. lf medical doctors, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Doctors of Philosophy, and Professors would be this bestial and mad, you wonder to what purpose is our education.

They say people steal government funds because they fear falling into the poverty trap. But how do you explain a Uzor Kalu, Rochas Okorocha, who rode on private billions before politics and still stole the community goats and chickens. Or Lucky Igbinedion, former Governor of Edo State, who had a golden spoon in his mouth and nevertheless seized the feeding bottles of milk from the mouths of Edo babies.

A billion has nine zeros. With ₦80 billion, you can build a brand new town, local government area, of 15, 000 low-cost housing units complete with roads, schools, and hospitals. ₦80 billion would build a new ten – Faculty University, that can accommodate 20,000 undergraduates and graduate students. But an accountant allegedly stole such a staggering sum. A fellow of ICAN. A distinguished member of a privileged elite group. Who else should know the cost implication of fraud better than a chartered accountant?

See, the almajiri, area boys, MC Oluomo, and their likes are not the main threat to this beautiful country. The elites are. The Directors, Permanent Secretary, vice chancellors, CEO, solicitor generals, Senators, Governors are the ones bleeding us. Not bandits, boko haram, or IPOB. The elites are the ones bombing and destroying the social architecture of our nation with their unbridled hedonism. They think the stolen billions would enamour them to the dangers ahead. “But stolen melons are the sweetest…they don’t know the former guests are now citizens of hell.” Everyone is today a victim.

Having broken the social ligaments that hold our nation together, by stealing monies meant for education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the elites have rendered Nigeria a classless nation.

Billionaires are now stolen, emirs are kidnapped, and attempts have been made in the recent past to abduct a serving governor. The elites had sowed wild thorns, and the harvest is fully here.

Politicians steal in Japan and Senators thief in America. A $50,000 bribe. A golden watch. Or a misappropriated flight ticket or inflated hotel bills. But in Nigeria, our leaders don’t embezzle. They haul. Why? Because they are mad.

Our politicians, despite their jejune certificates, lack the intellectual capacity to solve our economic problems, and worse, they lack the contemplation of the right philosophy of public service. They aren’t kingly, and neither are they philosophic.

Leaders are made to live for God, and their existence is for society’s sake. We are to use our gifts, spend our grace, and deploy our earthly terms and years to serve community, society, country, and mankind.

No man living personally needs a billion. What for? Dangote, Buhari, Bua, Otedola, OBJ, Elumelu, TY Danjuma, cannot spend fifteen thousand naira daily on Nigerian foods or meals. If they do, they would die sooner than their time. You would, too, because God didn’t create us to be excessive.

Every extra gift, talent, grace, money, and wealth we have is not totally for us but for society and state. We are to give, give, and give, for state, humanity, and posterity.

Although nature and law permit optimal material rewards and compensation for our efforts. That is why the Accountant General of the Federation, Minister, Governor, Senator, Rep, permanent Secretary is well remunerated above others, so he won’t run mad and go about stealing.

But all is not sad. Like Chief Micheal Adekunle Ajasin, there are a few saints in this country of sin. There are good examples despite the rot. Oby Ezekwesili was former minister of solid minerals and education. She does not have the look nor the body scent of a thief. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala handled our billions of dollars at the time Nigeria was awash with much. Her hands are not hypo clean. But she didn’t haul our billions into her truck. If she had, no one would call her higher into WTO.

We also have the like of Professor Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB, who started reporting and returning surplus to the treasury, unlike his predecessors as JAMB Registrars. Therefore, in this country, not all are crazy.

Prayer: God, open the eyes of our elites to see and know that they don’t need what they steal. For only a mad fellow gathers stones and pans that are needless…