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INEC Fixes All Pending By-Elections For Oct. 31

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INEC Fixes All Pending By-Elections For Oct. 31

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has fixed Oct. 31 for the conduct of the 12 pending constituencies by-elections in the country.


The commission disclosed this in a statement by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, in Abuja on Tuesday.


He said that the commission would have long conducted the by-elections but for the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since then, the commission has developed a policy on the conduct of elections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.


“It also revised its regulations and guidelines and engaged with health authorities and stakeholders on conducting elections in an environment that guarantees both credibility and public safety.


“The commission has also successfully conducted the bye-election to fill the vacancy in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency and is going ahead with the conduct of governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states on the 19th Sept. 19 and Oct. 10, respectively,” he said.


The pending by-elections are Bayelsa Central Senatorial District; Bayelsa West Senatorial District; Nganzai and Bayo Constituencies in Borno State; Cross River North Senatorial District; Obudu Constituency in Cross River.


Others are Imo North Senatorial District; Lagos East Senatorial District; Kosofe II Constituency in Lagos State; Plateau South Senatorial District; Bakura Constituency in Zamfara; and Ibaji Constituency in Kogi.


Okoye said that the decision was taken after reviewing preparations for Edo and Ondo states’ governorship elections as well as all outstanding by-elections.


Okoye said that the by-elections in the federal and state legislative houses were due to resignation or death of members in eight states of the federation.


“By the harmonized timetable, the commission will give the notice of election on Aug. 17 while political parties will conduct their primaries to nominate candidates between Aug. 24 and Sept. 8.

Submission of forms and personal particulars of candidates will commence on Sept. 9 and close at 6p.m. on Sept. 13,” he said.


Okoye added that the timetable and schedule of activities for the by-elections had been uploaded on the commission’s website and social media platforms.
He added that INEC’s attention had also been drawn to the existence of vacancies in Isi-Uzo Constituency in Enugu State and Bakori Constituency in Katsina State.


He, however, said vacancies had not been formally declared by the Speakers of the affected state assemblies.
He implored concerned stakeholders, particularly political parties, to take note of the timelines in the schedule and strictly adhere to them. (NAN

FG Commissions 11 ICT Projects Across The Country

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FG Commissions 11 ICT Projects Across The Country

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) and three other agencies under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy have stepped up implementation of people-oriented projects in view of the digital economy agenda of President Muhammad Buhari.

Other agencies in the league include the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Galaxy Backbone and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).

Their commitment in this direction was, once again, demonstrated during the virtual commissioning of 11 new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects implemented by the agencies under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy by the Minister, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, in Abuja at the Digital Economy Complex on Tuesday, August 11, 2020.

The projects, which were commissioned virtually across the country by the Minister include the Emergency Communication Centres (ECC’s) in Ilorin, Kwara State and Calabar, Cross River. Other projects commissioned include the e-Health/Data Sharing Centre, Medical College, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; and Virtual Examination Centre, University of Maiduguri, Borno State, all implemented by the NCC.

Two projects executed by the USPF were also commissioned; they include, the Tertiary Institution Knowledge Centre (TIKC), Delta State and School Knowledge Centre (SKC) located at Government Day Secondary School, Hassan Central, Gombe State. NITDA implemented three projects: the Information Technology (IT) and Incubation Park, University of Ayangba, Kogi State, ICT Capacity Building Centres at the College of Education, Gumel, Jigawa State and Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.

Also commissioned were the new Neighborhood Post Office/NIRSAL Microfinance bank branch, Delta State and the Remodeled National Mail Exchange Centre (Mbiama), Ahoada West Local Government Area of River State executed by NIPOST.

Speaking at the commissioning, Pantami, who noted that over 500 projects have been executed by agencies under the ministry in the past five years, said the projects are connected to the tripartite agenda of the President focusing on enhancing national security, diversification of the economy and curbing corruption.

Pantami stated that the 11 projects are in sync with seven of the eight pillars of the country’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) unveiled by the President last year. He thanked the President for being supportive of the Ministry’s initiative towards addressing extant challenges of vandalism of telecom infrastructure, Right of Way (RoW) issues, among others in order to accelerate broadband penetration to 70 per cent as envisaged by the National Broadband Plan (2020-2025).

The event was well attended by governors and ministers, who were special guests among whom were the Governor of Imo, who was Chairman of the occasion, Governor of Gombe State, Minister of Interior, Minister of State for Education, Minister of State for Mines and Power, as well as the staff of the Ministry, board members and heads of agencies under the ministry, among others. The special guests commended the Minister for commissioning the important projects and for enhancing synergy between the Ministry and its agencies.

Nigeria’s declining COVID-19 daily infections: Cause for hope or worry?

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Nigeria’s declining COVID-19 daily infections: Cause for hope or worry?

Suddenly, Nigerians have started noticing a sharp decline in the figures of daily occurrence of the COVID-19 infections across the country.

In the last three or four days, there has been a steady receding of the figures posted by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and of course, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 with a record lowest figure reeled out for Monday, August 3, 2020. Monday’s figure was 288 infections across Nigeria.

While this development is giving many people hope of a gradual disappearance of the deadly virus on the shores of Nigeria, many others are uncomfortable with this situation primarily because, juxtaposed with other countries of the world where the figures out there are spiking with daily occurrences breaking records and fatalities showing no respite, the Nigerian case is sheer wonder.

Nigerians are torn between two contrasting possibilities; either the figures are going down because people are no longer contracting the virus and so, the virus is in its final phase of exit from the country or Nigerians are not coming forward for testing even when they find themselves experiencing any of the notable COVID-19 symptoms.

Going by what medical experts have postulated, the coronavirus is not expected to suddenly vanish from the face of the earth, humanity is sadly, fated to live with the virus for a long time to come. At best, a vaccine or vaccines will be developed to eliminate the virus’ potential to destroy people’s immunity and cause death. At the moment, there is no known vaccine and several touted medications used to treat patients of the infection have remained subjects of controversies.

One thing must be agreed among Nigerians; the country has not been conducting testing of citizens to any appreciable level. At the last count, the country, has managed to test about 200,000 after about five months since the first infection was recorded in Nigeria. This is about 0.1% of the country’s 200 million population. One could be justified to say that the country has not been conducting any testing of its citizens.

Most countries that have recorded very high figures of infections are said to have conducted extensive testing of its citizens. Some countries have tested more than 50% of its population. South Africa for instance, is reported to have conducted testing running into millions of its population and so, presently has the highest infection figures in Africa. Same thing applies to many other African countries. Lagos and Kano States purported to have populations of over 20 million each are still hovering around less than 30,000 testing for Lagos and far less for Kano.  Nigeria with the largest population in Africa, is recording very low testing and accompanying low infections figures in comparison to its population.

The other factors one may ponder to consider whether the infection is actually dying out in Nigeria will be the enforcement and compliance with the COVID-19 protocols; including social distancing, wearing of face mask, and hygienic practices such as regular washing of hands, use of hand sanitisers and disinfection of contaminated surfaces.

In terms of propaganda and publicity of the COVID-19 protocols, the NCDC and the PTF could be said to have carried out a sizable publicity, thanks to the huge sum made available for that purpose which, by the way, needs accounting for. But propaganda and publicity alone cannot, on their own, do the miracle of winning the coronavirus war. This could have gone a long way to alert Nigerians of the presence and dangers of the virus. The truth, however, is that after money has done the publicity, the personnel employed or deployed for the enforcement of the protocol must be mobilized to enforce and ensure that the citizens do not flout the rules. In other words, after the publicity was carried out the enforcers did not do their jobs. They went to sleep expecting the citizens who had seen and heard the publicity to naturally fall in line.

It would be recalled that the government imposed a one-month lockdown during which they were expected to provide palliatives, both in kind and cash to the citizenry in order to cushion the effect of the lockdown in a country where majority of the citizens are wallowing in abject poverty. The funds were made available but were they deployed to address the needs of the people?

It is a general perception that people decided to take their destiny in their hands after they waited for the government’s palliatives which did not come. They hit the roads looking for their livelihood and in the process, broke all the lockdown rules. The various markets were brimming with people who were busy buying and selling in clear defiance of the lockdown rules. At the various markets, wearing of mask became the exception rather than the rules.

After the first phase of the lockdown, the figures spiked and the government’s agencies handling the pandemic admitted that the people had not strictly complied with the lockdown regulations. Notwithstanding this, however, the federal government eased the lockdown and ordered partial reopening of worship centers. Non compliance of the COVID-19 protocol became so pronounced as more people jettisoned the face mask thereby increasing the chances of further spread of the coronavirus.

The fault of lack of compliance with the COVID-19 protocols falls squarely on the desk of the NCDC, the PTF and the government of the day. There is an urgent need to probe the use of the funds raised for enforcement and mobilization. As it is now Nigerians may be seeing the declining figures of the infections and assuming that the virus is finding its way out of the country. Nigerians must, however, know that those tasked with the responsibility of monitoring closely the pandemic in Nigeria, never released any graph or chart showing when the country will reach its peak in occurrence and when the country is expected to begin to see a decline in the infection. The publicity has not stopped but the enforcement seems to have faded. The coming days and weeks will give the country a clearer picture of the actual situation.

End age limit for employment in Nigeria

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End age limit for employment in Nigeria

The Federal Government has shut the doors of employment or self-employment financial assistance against a large number of Nigerians for the simple reason that they have gone past a certain age bracket.

The age bracket set by the government for beneficiaries of its planned employment creation programmes is between 18 and 35 years. This development is quite disturbing to EducationTell and the large army of Nigeria’s unemployed outside the government set age of 18 to 35 years.

At the moment, Nigeria is said to have over 100 million of its citizens living far below the United Nations accepted poverty level and roaming about the streets of urban cities and rural villages without the faintest idea of where their next meal will come from. A cursory survey of these citizens shows that the majority of them fall out the age bracket of 35. The government’s plan to sideline them in their planned employment programme has compounded their woes.

In so many parts of the world, the government of the day provides some forms of palliative for its unemployed citizens. They are given some stipends which enables them to pay their bills as well as feed themselves. This is apart from creating the environment and infrastructure for a robust private sector with capacity to absolve a large percent of their physically capable citizens with employment challenges. In those countries their government have little hand in employment of citizens other than creating the laws and regulations to ensure that employers of labor do not shortchange their employees either by not paying them salaries as at when due or under paying them.

In Nigeria, the government is the highest employer of labour and the employment space becomes so narrow as government cannot absorb its teeming employable citizens. Put under pressure the government is compelled to employ far more than its agencies can accommodate many of whom do nothing other than collect salaries at the end of every month. This situation gave rise to fictitious employees, derisively dubbed ghost workers, on the payroll of government.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and one of the largest worldwide, giving rise to the appellation of ‘giant of Africa’ spuriously ascribed to her. However, unlike in many countries where their large population is an advantage, Nigeria’s large population has become of immense disadvantage to the country largely because most of that population is not engaged in any form of production or rendering of services thereby adding no value to the country. They also do not pay any taxes.

Most of these Nigerians who have been shut out of the federal government employment age bracket are people who are energetic and active and could be highly productive if given the opportunity. Out of frustration, a good number or these people have taken to a life of crime and deployed their energy in plunging the country into a state of anarchy due to social and economic insecurity. In the north, many have found ready employment by joining the terrorist Boko Haram,

Many of these unemployed men and women are asking the government what crimes they committed to find themselves in this perilous situation. According to them, when they graduated from secondary schools or the universities, long before they clocked 35 years, the country had no jobs for them, now that the government claims to have created jobs, they are shutting out a large chunk of its population; men and women with enough physical and intellectual capacity to contribute to the nation’s productivity.

Nigeria has a very large number of tertiary schools from which thousands of graduates are churned out every year into the over crowed labour market. However, after they have graduated there are no openings where they could practice their disciplines. As noted earlier, the governments, at both federal and state levels are the biggest employers of labour yet, they have failed woefully to initiate policies for job creation for its skilled population. The nation claims to toe the line of the United States of America in its governance development policies and ethics, however, they have not known that in the US, even at 80 years, a citizen can still contribute to production and earn an honest living. If men in their 70s and 80s in Nigeria can still be appointed into offices or appointed into positions of authority, what is therefore, the rationale for imposing age limit to employment?

Nigerians have criticized so many corruption related practices associated with getting employment in government establishments. For instance, there have been allegations of government officials and top civil servants demanding for huge amount of money from job seekers to give them jobs. These allegations have become recurring but no government has deemed it necessary to probe them. Also, it is common knowledge that top government officials and politicians use their positions of influences to secure jobs for their children, wards and relatives, even when those children and relatives have little or no qualification or expertise for such positions. This is primarily responsible for the level of mediocrity noticed in the public sector among civil servants.

Nigerians are now demanding that the government must create the right environment with infrastructure to empower the private sector to take the lead at job creation and also initiate the policies and regulations to ensure that private sector employers are continuously assisted with funds while prevented from shortchanging employees through underpayment or no payment at all. Unless this is done the country will remain a breeding ground for terrorists, kidnappers, bandits, armed robbers, internet fraudsters rapists and suicidal persons who presently have taken an unenviable space in the scheme of things. The age bracket for employment must be halted out rightly.

Defamation: Westerhof floors Bonfrere in court

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Defamation: Westerhof floors Bonfrere in court

The Rechtbank Gelderland High Court in Arnhem, Holland has found former Nigeria coach, Johannes Bonfrere guilty of defamation in a case brought before it by, yet another former Nigeria coach, Clemens Westerhof.

Westerhof who guided Nigeria to her first World Cup appearance in 1994 took Bonfrere to court after the latter told Sports Radio, Brila FM in an interview, that Nigeria lost the round of 16 match against Italy because Westerhof sold the match for $100,000.

Westerhof prayed the court to compel Bonfrere to prove his allegation against him or go to jail and pay a heavy fine as damages for defaming his good name.

The case was first heard a fortnight ago.

Today, Justice Bonnekamp who presided over the case found Bonfrere guilty as charged and asked him to apologise to Westerhof in a paid advert to be published in a Nigerian national daily, stating that his statements on Westerhof were incorrect.

In a reaction to the judgment, Westerhof’s lawyer, Timon Boer said, “Westerhof won the case and the court has asked Bonfrere to place an advert in a national daily in Nigeria stating that his statements against Westerhof were incorrect.

More damages to be paid by Bonfrere will be determined next week when the judge meets us and Bonfrere’s lawyers.

That is the much I can react on behalf of Westerhof who is my client. Kind regards.”

On his part, an elated Westerhof said: “This is justice for truth. It’s justice to me because I needed to clear my name and the court has done so. I am the happiest man on earth today.”

UNILAG Battle: Ogundipe Dares Babalakin

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UNILAG Battle: Ogundipe Dares Babalakin

Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe has issued a statement deriding the announcement of his removal as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) at an extraordinary meeting held in Abuja by members of the governing council headed by Dr Wale Babalakin.

The statement says, Re: Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice-Chancellor, the University of Lagos by Oladejo Azeez, Esq
The attention of the University of Lagos (Unilag) management has been drawn to the ‘Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos’; dated August 12, 2020, and signed by Oladejo Azeez, Esq, Registrar and Secretary to Council, stating that the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS  has been removed from office with immediate effect… 

“This is untrue and a figment of his imagination. Therefore, stakeholders of Unilag and the general public are advised to disregard this mischievous disinformation about the sitting Vice-Chancellor of Unilag, contained in that notice. Professor Ogundipe still remains Unilag’s Vice-Chancellor.  
Thank you. 

Signed

Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS  

Vice Chancellor, UNILAG

Prof. Ogundipe’s reaction

Court Awards $500m Against Apple Over 4G Patent Infringements

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Court Awards $500m Against Apple Over 4G Patent Infringements

Apple must pay more than $500 million in damages and interest for 4G patent infringements held by intellectual property company PanOptis, a Texas court has ruled.

The US tech giant — now worth almost $2 trillion — will appeal Tuesday’s decision, local media said. PanOptis, which specializes in licensing patents, took Apple to court in February last year, claiming it refused to pay for the use of 4G LTE technologies in its smartphones, tablets and watches.

“The plaintiffs have repeatedly negotiated with Apple to reach an agreement for a FRAND license to the Plaintiff’s patent portfolios which Apple is infringing,” the court filing read. FRAND refers to terms that are “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” and is the IT industry standard for technology use.

“The negotiations have been unsuccessful because Apple refuses to pay a FRAND royalty to the Plaintiff’s license.” Apple argued unsuccessfully that the patents were invalid, according to legal publications.

“Lawsuits like this by companies who accumulate patents simply to harass the industry only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers,” Apple said in a statement reported by media outlets.

The case is one of many patent suits from licensing firms that make no products but hold rights to certain technologies. Critics call these firms “patent trolls.”

The Texas court has twice ruled against Apple in the past, demanding it pays hundreds of millions of dollars to VirnetX — another company specializing in patent litigation.

On its website, PanOptis offers to manage its clients’ patents, allowing them to concentrate on “innovation and new development.”

Data Privacy: NGO Sues CBN Over Directive to Banks on Customers’ Data

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Data Privacy: NGO Sues CBN Over Directive to Banks on Customers’ Data

On the heels of the Central Bank’s directive to commercial banks to share customers’ data with fintech companies, the Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative has approached the Federal High Court challenging the directive as a violation of bank customers data privacy.

In Suit No. FHC/AB/CS/76/2020 between the Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative and the Central Bank of Nigeria, filed by the law firm of Olumide Babalola LP, the Plaintiff seeks the following reliefs:

1. A DECLARATION that by virtue of article 1.1(a) of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019, data protection is included under right to privacy guaranteed by section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended).
2. A DECLARATION that the Respondent’s directive to commercial banks to share their customers’ data with financial technology companies violated and/or is likely to violate Olasunkanmi Bello’s right to privacy as guaranteed under article 1.1(a) of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 and section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

3. A DECLARATION that the Respondent’s directive to commercial banks to share their customers’ data with financial technology companies is unconstitutional, null and void.
4. AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Respondent and anyone acting through its directive from compelling commercial banks to share the Applicant’s data with financial technology companies.

It would be recalled that, during First Bank’s Virtual Fintech Summit on the 6th day of August 2020, CBN’s Director for Payment System Management, Musa Jimoh, informed the participants that the apex bank had directed commercial banks to share customers’ data with fintech companies.

The announcement led to the filing of this case which is yet to be assigned to any judge in the division.

CAC MOVES THE CHEEZE: LAWYERS MUST MOVE AND NOT SULK

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CAC MOVES THE CHEEZE: LAWYERS MUST MOVE AND NOT SULK

In the famous 1998 motivational business fable, Who Moved My Cheeze?, the concept of the inevitability of change was beautifully presented. We learnt of change at work and in life generally, and reactions to it. When change occurs, people tend to react differently. Some will either move with the times while others will remain stagnant, grieving over the event leading to the change. There are others, too, who are always prepared for change while there those who refuse to prepare as evidence of their acute resistance to change. When change occurs, there are those who see it as a dream. This group never accepts the reality of change.

In times past, the whole idea and system of company registration and registration of business names and incorporated trustees were known to lawyers alone, given their legal training to better interpret statutory provisions and processes. But recent developments are changing the narrative, gradually.

CAC

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is an agency of the Federal Government charged with the authority to oversee corporate matters as provided under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

As part of its numerous functions, the CAC oversees the registration of companies, business names and incorporated trustees and have been interfacing with lawyers who assist members of the public with these registration processes for many years.

For lawyers, this is one aspect of legal practice and in fact, a branch of their business as lawyers. By statutory enablement (as provided under CAMA), a lawyer is required to execute a form known as Statutory Declaration of Compliance. This form is part of the incorporation documents needed in company registration only but not business names. By the Declaration, a legal practitioner simply confirms that there has been due compliance with the provisions of CAMA in making the application for company incorporation. The significance of this compliance requirement is better understood when one considers the jurisprudence surrounding the concept of company formation. By law, a company is an artificial person enjoying all the incidents of incorporation such as the capacity to sue and be sued, capacity to own properties in its own name, perpetual succession (meaning it can exist forever even if there is change in membership), etc. The process of statutory creation called a company (by way of incorporation) has a web of interconnected issues including the contents of a Memorandum of Association (which spells out the objectives of the company, subscribers and other details), Articles of Association (which contains essentially, the contract between the subscribers and the contract between the subscribers and the company itself), the shareholding structure of the company, etc. More so, there are legal issues relating to directorship of a company. Thus, a lawyer who is vast in all these issues is in a better position to vouch for compliance, hence the provision for Statutory Declaration of Compliance to be signed by a lawyer.

The relevance of lawyers in company incorporation, registration of business names and incorporated trustees is appreciated in view of the complexities involved especially in the case of companies. But given the approach by CAC to use standard forms and templates for most of these incorporation documents, the Commission tends to de-emphasize the relevance of legal practitioners in the process of incorporation. Furthermore, due to the Federal Government’s policy of gearing towards ease of doing business, the need arose to simplify the processes of business/company registrations (at least as a starting point) while also working to remove other obstacles including administrative bottlenecks on the way. By upholding the ease of doing business policy, the Government wishes to encourage many unregistered businesses to come on board to enjoy the statutory benefits of registration and also submit to the yoke of taxes as loyal and responsible business outfits. Part of the initiative gave birth to CAC’s current online platform where registrations and other incorporation matters take place.

While the ease of doing business campaign is on, the CAC appears to see lawyers as the most unneeded “elements” in company incorporation and especially, registration of business names. The Commission expressly attempts to demarket lawyers in the move to encourage the public to come forward. The mischief in the express demarketing of lawyers is that CAC can actually carry on with its mandate to ease up the process of registrations and be more efficient without necessarily seeing lawyers as the problem. Even if the process becomes as easy as ABC, there are many who would rather instruct lawyers to get it done. Currently, there are reports that CAC is moving for amendment of CAMA to do away with the need for Statutory Declaration of Compliance by a legal practitioner. This is aside the alleged system by the Commission of dealing with the Statutory Declaration internally by lawyers engaged by the Commission for that purpose, in less than transparent manner.

These developments in addition to the not-too-cordial relationship currently existing between lawyers and the Commission are evidences of the fact that CAC has moved and is moving the Cheeze.

What should lawyers do?

Lawyers may move through their association, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), to stop the proposed amendment that seeks to do away with the Statutory Declaration of Compliance by a legal practitioner in company registration. CAC must be made to stop demarketing lawyers and simply focus on their mandate to ease up registration processes and be more efficient. Is it not displeasing to note that in this era of Covid-19, the CAC that ought to show leadership by ensuring that their online service was in top form failed to rise up to the occasion.

More importantly, lawyers, especially young lawyers who benefit from the basic practice of business registration, incorporation of companies and incorporated trustees should build more capacity in post incorporation affairs such as filing of statutory notices, returns – annual returns and returns of certain significant changes in business (like shareholding structure, company officials, etc), increase and decrease in share capital, winding up, mergers and acquisition and a host of other complex transactions. These are matters that lawyers are best equipped to tackle and the CAC understands this too. Thus, only accredited lawyers can be allowed to deal with them.

Instead of sulking over registration matters, lawyers should brace up and move with the Cheeze. The Cheeze will keep moving.

“Doctor, do I abort this pregnancy or leave it? Or, do I tell my celebrating husband it is not his seed, but that of one of six rapists

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“Doctor, do I abort this pregnancy or leave it? Or, do I tell my celebrating husband it is not his seed, but that of one of six rapists

By Adesida Adewumi MD

I beseech you, dear readers, let me know your wise counsel to this puzzling situation, after reading.

Mrs Tolu ( not the real name) in tears of confusion was asking me the two questions above and also gave me her permission to ask all the readers of this story. She would like to know their opinion on the way forward. Let me tell you what happened to Mrs Tolu and leave you to give your own advice on the two questions she was asking.

Mrs Tolu and the husband got married six years ago. For the period, they had no child. They had been to various hospitals and saw various gynecologists, no solution yet. All they were told after various tests was they were both okay and should keep trying.

I met them three years ago with three years of infertility. They told me their ordeal. They brought to me all their tests results . Everything was truly okay. Their case was a case of what we called UNEXPLAINED INFERTILITY.

Medically in case of infertility between couples, 20- 30% of times the husband may be responsible for the infertility and 20- 35% of times also the wife may be responsible. In 25 – 40% of times two of them may have issues, but there is the 10 to 20 % of times where none of the couple is responsible. Both are okay. The baby is not just coming. This is what we call unexplained infertility.

This was the case of Mrs Tolu and her husband. What is the solution to this type of infertility? The couple can do things that will improve their conception chance. A good lifestyle like no drinking of alcohol or smoking if one of or both the couple do drink or smoke . They can use ovulation drugs like clomiphene. Depending on how long the wait has been, they can even go for all these assisted fertility procedures like IVF.

I educated them on this three years ago and counselled them to consider one of such options but Mrs Tolu and her husband refused, insisting they trusted God to come throughfor them. They would not allow medical doctors to take the glory that belonged to God. After so much persuasion with no response from them, I smiled and rested my case.

The second time they came to see me was two years ago, no child still. But that day one event happened in my consulting room that made me to probe further on the marital problem Mrs Tolu was going through. She told me her husband didn’t trust her. I wondered why. She said when they were in courtship, she made a mistake and had an affair with another man which she kept to herself and confessed to him after the wedding ceremony.

Since that day he had been bitter against her in the marriage. So many times she would be ovulating but her husband would refuse to meet with her. She had begged to no avail. Could this betrayal of trust and retaliatory unforgiveness explain the unexplained infertility in their marriage? Another life lesson I picked up in this marriage.

This had been the fragile nature of trust in this marriage despite the fact that they were now “good Christians”.

To fast forward the story,the couple did come to see me from time to time but something happened to Mrs Tolu few weeks ago on her way to a 2-weeks conference in another state. She travelled alone by a night bus . Eight of them in a bus. Six of them were women and two were men. Unknown to her, the two men in the bus were working with kidnappers. When they got to the middle of nowhere where the road passed through a thick forest, they were attacked by gun men after some suspicious calls received by the two men in the bus with them.

They were ordered down and taken deeper into the forest. They collected all their belongings. The men were six in number. She equally discovered that when they got to their destination in the forest, those two passengers were no longer with them. The kidnappers took time to rape them over and again. They collected her ATM and withdrew all her money. They demanded and collected N3million from the husband.

They spent three days in the bush before they were released. She was closer to the venue of the of the conference. So she just proceeded to the conference venue and explained what had happened to her to the organisers but she kept the part that she was raped because she did not want her husband to know. Her husband came to meet her at the conference centre.
She was taken to hospital but she also refused to tell the doctor at the hospital she was raped. Her husband took her back home.

Two weeks after this event she discovered she was vomiting and having nausea. The husband was excited may be what they were waiting for was finally here. Pregnancy test was done. It came back POSITIVE. The husband was overjoyed and it was celebration galore. She too pretended to be very happy but within her she knew what happened. Much more confusion now was that a day before the conference she ‘met’ with her husband before her ovulation the following day. The following day on the very day of the ovulation, she was then gang-raped by six armed kidnappers.

So she came to see me alone in the hospital after all the excitement of the husband at home had died down. She told me everything and the whole truth about the gang rape.

So this was when the two questions arose. ” Doctor do I abort this pregnancy or keep it? Do I tell my husband what actually happened or not?”.

Seriously, I am a Christian medical doctor and would not support abortion and I would equally not support a couple keeping secrets in marriage. That was my stand, but what were the issues at stake here now? Firstly, there was rape which put paternity of the child at stake. Secondly, there was husband who was not aware of the rape.Thirdly, there was issue of the lack of trust on ground already affecting the marriage. Fourthly, here also was the bundle of joy they had been waiting for years.

May be this time around this would just end the marriage. The husband you told nobody touched you two weeks ago, now you want to tell him six men actually raped you and this was after discovering you were pregnant. These issues call for caution and wisdom to handle and this is the reason why you are reading this write up this morning. What do you think Mrs Tolu should do? Tell me your answers to her question, she will read it in comments section or it will be forwarded to her. So this is the dilemma we are still now waiting for way forward….

Meanwhile I learnt so many lessons from Mrs Tolu’s life encounters and these were the lessons I personally learnt from this true life story:

Lesson number 1:
When you are in a relationship or courtship to be married, be faithful to one another so that your marriage is not built on wrong foundation.

Lesson number 2:
Learn to tell your husband or wife-to-be, any secret they need to know before your wedding so the other party does not feel trapped after marrying you, leading to unforgiveness and bitterness from the partner.

Lesson number 3:
I don’t know how easy this lesson number 3 is, but please try and find a place in your heart to forgive your spouse after knowing some secrets they confessed to you after the wedding, or else the unforgiveness and bitterness will render the marriage sour, difficult and turbulent for the rest of both of your lives.

Lesson number 4:
Don’t ever repeat the mistake of keeping another secret in the marriage after first forgiveness. The spouse may forgive the first one, he or she may not have the strength to forgive the second one.

Lesson number 5:
Truth always sets you free and gives you peace of mind. If Mrs Tolu had told her husband all what happened on her way to conference the two weeks ago, may be the two questions above may not have arisen.

Lesson number 6:
My heart goes out to couples out there who are battling infertility for years, but please, by doing IVF or following the advice of your doctor to get pregnant does not mean the doctor is taking the place or glory of God. God and doctor may be partners in progress to help you get your heart’s desire; doctors may be God-sent to help you reproduce.

Lesson number 7:
Please, as much as possible, avoid taking night buses now given the present security situation in this country. This is to avoid agony stories like this from bandits, insurgents or kidnappers. I pray God heal our nation and give it everlasting peace. Amen.

Meanwhile, Mrs Tolu awaits all of you responses. Thank you.

(You can equally add other lessons you have personally learnt from the story)

▪︎ Dr. Adewumi works in the Department of Family Medicine, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, AKTH, Kano, Nigeria. Follow him
on Facebook at “FROM INSIDE MY CONSULTING ROOM “; his health page on YOUTUBE and INSTAGRAM @doctorhealtheducation; on Twitter @doctorhealthed1; and on WhatsApp at: +2348068649694. He gives daily education on health plus free daily consultation.

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