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Mainstream Media Coverage Of Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential Election – Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim

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Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim

 

 

Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim

A casual observation of media coverage of the 2023 general election since it became clear APC was set to win the presidential election, inexorably leads one to the conclusion that the mainstream media, particularly Channels and Arise TV, is committed to doing everything possible to delegitimize the election because it could not accept the victory of APC’s Muslim/Muslim ticket. The Muslim/Muslim ticket has confounded media pundits and flies in the face of a certain ideological-cum-sectarian worldview, deeply rooted in Nigeria’s mainstream media.

The media coverage of the presidential election continues to be terribly one-sided without any semblance of balance and objectivity. If one were to judge the quality of the election by what is reported in the mainstream media only and not by what is actually happening on the ground across the nation, one would think APC is the only party guilty of electoral offences and that the 2023 general election was the worst election ever in Nigeria, worse than Prof Maurice Iwu’s election of 2007. Yet, the truth is, APC appears to be the only party in the election that failed to benefit from its incumbency both at the national and sub-national levels. Fuel scarcity, the Naira redesign policy and internal friction between the federal centre and APC-controlled states in the middle of the elections extracted a heavy electoral price on the Party both at the Federal and State levels.

I have never witnessed an election in which the ruling party was so thoroughly trounced in its stronghold and in virtually all the areas it should have won hands down. It should have been obvious to those who continue to cling to the claim of election rigging that if a party can not rig an election in its stronghold, how is it possible that it is able to rig the election in other areas? It should also have been obvious that APC benefited from the splitting of ranks and, consequently, of fragmentation of votes within the opposition and among the other contending candidates and parties – LP, NNPP, PDP and its G-5 renegade governors. All these forces were on the same side in Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election. It would have been nothing short of a miracle for any of these fragmented forces to unseat a party in power at the centre and in about two-thirds of the States of the fedeation.

Here is an illustration of how the fragmented opposition helped APC win the presidential election: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of APC, won the election without leading in the two States with the highest number of registered voters in the federation – his home State of Lagos and Kano. However, these two States were won by two different parties in the opposition – LP and NNPP, respectively – whereas PDP won only a token percentage of the votes in both Lagos and Kano. Who then rigged PDP out of victory in Lagos and Kano? Was it Tinubu’s APC or was it LP and NNPP, respectively, that did the rigging? What would have been the outcome of the election in these two States if the PDP did not effectively break into smaller units?

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Objectively speaking, both LP and NNPP are breakaway parties that essentially ended up as provincial parties, without a chance in a thousand of winning the presidential election. The freak performance of LP in Plateau was purely due to the appeal of LP among Christian voters in Northern Nigeria, who innocently bought into the divisive campaign of those who lost the running mate contest to Sen Kashim Shettima. It is not accidental that the sectarian campaign did not take root in the neighbouring state of Benue, the only other State in Nothern Nigeria with a majority Christian population, because the leading opposition figure there, Governor Ortom, was caught in the G-5 quagmire and the APC flag bearer there is a leading Christian figure. The provincial nature of the parties made it possible for LP to carry a token percentage of the votes in Kano while NNPP carried another token in Lagos.

Outside Lagos, LP is strong only in the South Eastern Nigeria, where the presidential candiate of the party comes from, while NNPP is strong only in Kano, where the presidential candiate of the party comes from. This fragmentation of voting power can not be helpful to both parties or to the opposition. In hindsight, we can now only imagine what could have happened if Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankawso ran the contest on a joint ticket. On the other hand, Bola Tinubu came a close second in Lagos and harvested over half a million votes in Kano. The sum total of the performance of oppostion parties in the election supports the thesis of wilful fragmentation but it does not support the claim of rigging.

Then, there is the claim that INEC rigged the election for APC by its failure to upload the close to 200,000 polling unit results in real time on its IReV portal. Uploading the results of the election on the IReV portal is just one of close to 43 public activities INEC had to undertake to deliver a successful election. Admittedly, this is a critical failure on the part of INEC for which it has received disproportionate and unfair criticism. INEC made a claim that it ran into a technical glitch with this aspect of its operations. This claim is technically verifiable but little, if any attention was paid to it by the opposition and there was zero attempt to investigate it by the mainstream media. If an investigation by any media organisation took place, it has not been made public yet, to the best of my knowledge. Anyone remotely familiar with information technology must know that the larger the size of data, the slower the upload speed, simple. All the conspiracy theories have so far remained just that – conspiracy theories – unsupported by credible data.

The fact that INEC was able to successfully deliver on the IReV aspect of its operations during past, off-season elections, does not necessarily preclude the possibility of technical failure during the general elections, when all the results from all the polling units across the 36 States and FCT had to be uploaded at once, in real time. The only way to know for sure if this aspect of INEC’s operations was going to deliver as promised was during the general election, itself. Unfortunately, this did not materialise and INEC must take the responsibility and the blame for overpromising and for poor communication when it eventually ran into this technical failure. But, to date, there is no hard data to support the claim INEC rigged the presidential election in favour of the winner. The opposition must seize the opportunity to present such hard evidence at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, not on the streets or at INEC Headquaters, as it attempted to do, days after the results of the elections were made official.

Looking at the election numbers with an open mind, it is obvious APC won the election, fair and square, not in a landslide manner like other ruling parties do in Africa but by making a strong showing in areas with higher voter population and coming a close second in virtually every other area. Clearly, that was appears to be the strategy behind the Muslim/Muslim ticket and nothing more. Those who read other motives into it have either missed the point or are using it to push a worldview totally at odds with the intended purpose, which is to win the election, or else have used it to manipulate voters because they or their proxies have lost the contest for a slot on the APC presidential ticket

On its part, the mainstream media conveniently and deliberately refused to look at the numbers. It is just blindly committed to deligitimising the election so that APC’s Muslim/Muslim ticket continues to be untenable in Nigeria and its victory tainted by allegations of rigging. On the face of it, this blind and irrational ideological-cum-sectarian worldview, deeply rooted in Nigeria’s mainstream media, is deeply flawed. It is emotional and sentimental and is not in the best interest of Nigeria. Sectarian considerations are bad for elections anywhere and portend grave danger for the future of democracy in Nigeria.

Elections are not won by the powerful deployment of the media alone and, certainly, not won and lost on the basis of sentiment and emotion but, more fundamentally, on the basis of correct demographic combinations. A political party or candidate that misses this point and relies solely on sentiment, emotion and the power of the media alone, will continue to play second fiddle in Nigeria’s political arithmetic. If APC had been intimidated, browbitten, made to succumb to the sectarian blackmail that preceded the election and made to pick the wrong combinations, it may still not have outrightly lost the election but it would have been forced into a second ballot, with the potential of PDP, LP and, possibly, NNPP coming together. In such an event, the numbers suggest it would, in the final analysis, have lost the election. That would have defeated the purpose for which the party contested the election.

It is now for those who lost the election to learn a few lessons from it, not least of which are:

a. To dislodge a ruling party from power in a multi-party environment, the opposition needs to abandon petty internal squabbles and come together on the basis of a minimum common agenda like the Nigerian opposition did in 2013

b. Sentiment and emotion are effective tools in political mobilization but not enough to win a nation-wide election in a multi-cultural environment like Nigeria, a lesson General Buhari learnt in 2015.

c. The media is powerful but not as powerful as the voter, as we have now, hopefully, come to appreciate in the 2023 presidential election.

d. A tradition of concession of defeat may not be as rewarding as winning but it can snatch moral victory from the jaws of all-around defeat as former President Goodluck Jonathan has come to appreciate, after Godswill Orubebe almost ruined his post-election future. Today, Orubebe is in APC and Jonathan is basking in the glory of his wise and timely concession.

Thankfully, not all is lost for the parties that did not make it in the just concluded presidential election. The diversity of parties in the National Assembly is good for Nigeria’s democracy. To hold the ruling party accountable is a fundamental function of the opposition, a requirement for good governance and necessary for the proper functioning of democracy. Also, peparations to unseat the ruling party in the next election must begin from there but these tasks are only for those elements of the opposition truly committed to the nurturing and sustainance of our democracy, not for power mongers.

*Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim* was one-time National Secretary, Action Congress (AC), Chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) and Member, Editorial Board of Trust and Thisday Newspapers.

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Kano Women Battle for Bed Spaces at Major Hospitals, Leaving Many Stranded or Worse – Dead

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Baby Amina is yet to cry over a week after her birth, as no bed available at tertiary health facilities

Aisha Ahmad Ismail

It was a dark day for Malama Khadija, who despite heavy bleeding with no pads on has been on the road for almost 8 hours, seeking help for a baby that has not cried a day after birth even after visiting 9 hospitals in Kano.

The new mother was forced to ride in her husband’s tricycle, ignoring the dripping blood as they went to 9 hospitals, none accepted them for mainly reasons of bed space

Khadija birthed a girl on Monday, when health care workers at asibitin Bela noticed the child did not cry, and later referred them to Hasiya Bayero Pediatric Hospital for better access to professionals.

Here, a security guard asked them to ‘not waste their time’ as they do not care for children who did not cry at birth.

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Other hospitals, the new parents visited Murtala Muhammad specialist where the father said the child was first checked, and her legs pinched with ‘something’.
They were later asked to leave for lack of bed space, and referred to another hospital.

The worried mother held the little girl now named Aminatu as they headed to Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital. There, the doctors refused to attend to the child because they were on strike.

Malam Bala, the new father and a tricycle rider told this reporter that a police officer threatened to shoot a doctor for delayed attendance to his daughter born with similar condition to his. Doctors asked them to leave.

The brave new parents jostled the new born to another pediatric hospital; Sheikh Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu Pediatrics Hospital along Zoo Road, and their hopes were raised when a doctor started checking on her. A few minutes later, she came up with the same answer as the specialist hospital – no bed space.

Again, they left for Aminu Kano Teaching hospital with the help of a philanthropist they met on their long, hope dashing journey, Hajiya Binta and like before, there was no available bed space.

The parents, exhausted but not giving up on their child, went to a private health facility, where a bed space costs N10,000 per night, something the father said he could not afford if not for the charitable efforts of Hajiya Binta.

With her help, they paid for file N5,000, tests to be run on little Aminatu N6,000, drugs cost N15,000 and an injection N4,000.

He said they were able to spend just one night, as the expenses were much and he had to owe the hospital N21, 000.
Little Aminatu did not cry 7 days after her birth at which was the time of filing this report, and her parents are at home hoping one day, she would cry or stay quiet forever.

Khadija’s case is amongst the many maternal health related complications in the state; in Sept. 2022, a lady, Zainab lost her child and her life at Murtala Muhammad Specialist hospital; in February 2023, a woman now late Hajiya Shema’u Sani Labaran bled to death due to lack of cash at hand for treatments.
In 2024, an investigation by Solace base led to a whole community of women at Mazan Gudu community, Gabasawa LGA who survive pregnancy and childbirth on luck.

These are not isolated cases; but few of the many increasing preventable deaths at childbirth. According to UNICEF in 2018, Nigeria contributes 14% of global maternal deaths. The global body says at least 262, 000 babies die at birth, as the infant mortality rate stands at 69% per 1,000 births.

According to the National Health Care Development Agency 145 women die daily at childbirth in the country, with the highest figures coming from Northern Nigeria.

The staggering figures of maternal mortality and morbidity must have alarmed the Kano state government, leading to finding ways to ease the burden, amongst which is the creation of the Kano State Health Trust Fund created in 2017.
Women Die at Birth Despite Government’s Claimed Enhanced Funding
“I just returned from the burial of a woman who died from childbirth complications, the child is alive and hearty.”

This is the response of the Ja’en ward head, located at Sharada, Gwale LG, Isma’il Sa’ad Usman to the question of maternal mortality and morbidity is his domain.

He said he is not entirely sure why, but despite government’s interventions and NGOs, maternal deaths are not uncommon in many areas in Kano, including his.

Our trip to the primary health care in the area was really short, as health officers were ‘afraid’ of the media.

The Ja'en PHC was bustling with women hoping to get ante-natal care

The Ja’en PHC was bustling with women hoping to get ante-natal care

However, one officer who spoke briefly said women at the local level are wising up to accessing health facilities like theirs, adding that the state has trained officers enabling them to quickly refer to complicated births to higher facilities.
Interviews at some primary health care facilities reveal reduced death rates at the facilities.

A tour of Gwagwarwa primary health care showed women showing up for antenatal as health personnel move around to cater for their needs.

A health personnel at the facility who spoke on anonymously said though there are deaths at childbirth or after due to complications, they mostly occur at secondary and tertiary institutions or at home.

 

Image 3 . Women attending ante natal at Gwagwarwa PHC

Women attending ante natal at Gwagwarwa PHC

The health officer revealed that whenever a complication arises from birth, they are quick to refer to more qualified facilities, but lack of bed spaces of money for basic things make the patients return home, only to later die from preventable health complications.

According to the source, they have heard stories of deaths of either mother and child, or one of the two afterwards.

The village head of Gama, Malam Rabi’u Muhd Isyaku said people are poor, and have resorted to seeking help from Friday mosques or radio stations to treat maternal health problems.

He said there are reports of maternal mortality, but it hardly goes public as they are mostly recorded at home.

“I am always heart broken when I hear a plea for help to cater for a pregnant woman during or after birth,” he added.
Nurse Laments Maternal Mortality; Blames Shortage of Staff .

Nurse Maimuna works at one of the government hospitals in Kano, she said they have recorded deaths at different stages of childbirth.

She said they have recorded deaths due to obstructed labor and prolonged labor that comes late to the hospital.

The nurse added that some women labor (active labor) for 20-30 hours, contrary to the ‘normal’ hours, leading to eventual deaths of both mother and child, or just the child.

Nurse Maimuna lamented how they are overwhelmed with patients that they skip women who are in need in urgent help or C-section.

She has witnessed few women die due to work overload that distracts health personnel at tertiary some institutions.
KHETFUND: Improved Maternal Health Care Promises Fulfilled?

In 2017, the Kano government led by former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje championed the State Trust Fund to help augment the state budget on health, including maternal and newborn health.
Speaking with this reporter, the former state health commissioner, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa said the law mandates 5% of the fund’s money to the health sector.

He said from the time of Governors Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and Abdullahi Ganduje, there has been a free birth and post birth policy which all governments sustained irrespective of political ideologies.

Former health commissioner Kano, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa

Former health commissioner Kano, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa

However, there are times when the budget funds are not released on time, or the government is starved of cash, thus the 5% of the fund to ensure the maternal and childbirth ‘always’ gets the necessary attention and funds.
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Also speaking with this reporter, the director operations, KHETFUND, Dr. Muhamad Lawan Adamu said the 5% for maternal and children is on standing order and has never been delayed, unlike funds meant for hospitals- from primary to tertiary, institutions and others.

According to him, the 5% is handed over to the Kano Hospitals Management Board monthly.

According to another official of KHETFUND, Hamisu Abubakar who is the director admin and services, there has been constant cash flow into the fund from the mandatory 5% monthly IGR and 1% from LGAs allocation since the inception of the current Abba Kabir Yusuf administration, signaling that the fund is not starved of funds.
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KHETFUND Budget Performance
The Kano State Health Care Fund mandates that 50% of the budget be allocated to hospital (Pri, Secondary and Tertiary), 25% to health education institutions 2% to running of the fund, 2% to the vulnerable groups, 5% to maternal health care.

Kano budget performance shows low performance of the KHETFUND; however, this does not affect the 5% maternal health care fund as confirmed by officials of KHETFUND.

The 1st quarter of 2024 budget shows 0% performance of the budget despite the allocation of N800,000,000 to the fund as shown on page 7.

With a budget of N1,200,000,000 in 2023, the fund recorded only 2.1% budget performance, also as seen on page 7 of the document.

With a budget of N1,400,000,000 in 2022, KHETFUND had a 5% budget performance as seen on page 6 of the budget performance document.

YEAR
AMOUNT
PERFORMANCE %

2024
N800m
0%

2023
N1.2bn
2.1%

2022
N1.4bn
5%

Source: Kano budget performance documents

The low performance, according to a KHETFUND official, is not unconnected to the fact that hospitals and institutions do not write to the fund requesting for their needs.

Dr. Muhamad Lawan Adamu, director operations of the fund said they disburse funds only when requested and after due process – with the exception of the maternal health 5% of course.
Despite 5% KHETFUND Maternal Allocation, Why Maternal Health Crisis?
A trip to the Kano Hospital Management Board as directed by the Kano State Health Ministry through the spokesperson, Ibrahim Abdullahi led me to the office of the officer in charge KHETFUND at the board.

He however refused to speak for ‘lack of authorization’ to speak with the media on the issue.

Another trip to the board revealed that the 5% fund from KHETFUND was received regularly. Speaking anonymously, an official said there are many factors for persistent problems with maternal health in Kano.

The first issue the official raised was that the fund was only meant to ‘augment’ needs in the sector, and this will be based on request.

The second problem the official noted was lack of enough doctors/health personnel to man any additional bed or space at the hospitals thus the fund was used to purchase drugs and all other valuables/instruments, including for CS to care for pregnant women and the babies.

NGOs Worry Over Shortage of Bedspaces, underutilization of PHCs
Sanusi Hashim, is the contact person for Society for Child Support and Economic Empowerment, he said they are worried by widely reported maternal deaths despite increased funding and positive government policies.

According to him, many factors are responsible for the trend including
Under utilization of PHCs; According to the officer, they have come to understand that most pregant women would rather go to the ‘bigger’ hospitals that the Primary Health Cares within their locality. Though some PHCs are in terrible conditions, many have been improved to even carry out Cesarean Sections should the need arise. He said these could have eased pressure on the secondary and tertiary health facilities in the state, reduce mortality rate further and provide adequate health care to both mother and child – free of charge.

Lack of bed spaces: Due to the inflow of patients from all 44 LGAs in Kano, Mr. Hashim Sa’id there is congestion and lack of space. He revealed that a tour to one of the tertiary hospitals; Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital showed no bed space available to cater for more patients. This he said.

NGO Provides Additional Solutions to Maternal Mortality and Morbidity
Society for Child Support and Economic Empowerment said there is urgent need for government to equip, upgrade and provide adequate personnel at ‘all’ primary health care centers in the state.

The contact person, of the organization, Sanusi Hashim says this will take excellent health care to the doorstep of the masses in all LGA, thus reduce pressure on the secondary and tertiary institutions.

After that, he advocates for intensive campaign on the importance and need for pregnant women to patronize PHCs in their areas.

Sanusi also called on the Kano State Government to increase wards and bed spaces at all health facilities.
On their parts, traditional leaders at Sharada Ja’en and Gwagwarwa seek increased funding and special packages for the poor in the society.

 

 

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How Maryam Abacha Varsity Produced 5 Provosts of Nursing Colleges, 1,000 Lab Scientists, 100 Lawyers, Others in 12 Years

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Twelve years after its establishment, the Maryam Abacha American University of Niger (MAAUN), in Maradi, Niger Republic, has produced five Provosts of Nursing Colleges in Borno, Yobe, and Bauchi States.

Dr. Hadiza Sabo a graduate of Nursing from the University is the current Provost of Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery, in Damaturu, Yobe state.

Varsity Appoints Gombe Emir As Chancellor

Equally, Dr. Hadiza Yahya is serving as Provost, College of Nursing Sciences in Maiduguri, Borno state, while Dr. Rakiya Saleh is the Provost College of Nursing Sciences in Bauchi, Bauchi state. The trio of Rakiya and the two aforementioned Hadizas all bagged their first and postgraduate degrees from MAAUN.

In addition, Kiloh Nifor who is also the Provost, College of Nursing Sciences in Jalingo, Taraba state, and Dr. Yusuf Bello, the Provost, Kaduna State College of Nursing Sciences, are also alumni of the university.

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MAAUN, which was founded in 2013, is owned by Professor Adamu Abubakar Gwarzo, a philanthropist and French Linguistics scholar.

Politics Digest also reports that the Faculty of Law of the premier Ivory Tower, established only in 2015, has produced over 400 law graduates, with more than a hundred of them already called to the Nigerian Bar.

In addition, over 1,000 Medical Laboratory Scientists produced by MAAUN are presently working in Nigeria, while no fewer than 700 of them are practicing abroad.

It would be recalled that the institution was the first to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in Niger Republic, where thousands of nursing officers trooped for their university education from different countries.

“The Nursing Degree programme greatly increased the number of nursing graduates in Nigeria. The university started offering Nursing in 2012 and has so far graduated over 2,000 graduates who are rendering their services at different hospitals in Nigeria and abroad,” said the university’s President, Prof. Adamu Abubakar Gwarzo.

Barrister Umar Isa Sulaiman, a law lecturer at MAAUN, while informing Politics Digest that their Faculty commenced academic activities in 2013, said: “Our graduates are working in different government agencies and parastatals. Some are Sharia Court Judges, Magistrates, and some are working in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“Also, a high number of our graduates are in private practice. We do meet and appear before different courts. I can categorically tell you that they are doing wonderfully well as advocates.”

Furthermore, the Prof. Adamu Gwarzo-owned university has been positively impacting the lives of several Nigerians.

A MAAUN graduate of Nursing, Hamisu Iliyasu, who hailed from Sokoto State, told this newspaper how his alma mater produced many Directors and Heads of Nursing Colleges in Nigeria.

“You know universities in the North don’t offer Nursing; you either go to the South or you end up retiring at Level 14 as a civil servant. But our prestigious Maryam Abacha American University came to the rescue of so many of us, and we are grateful,” he said.

According to Dr. Kabiru Mahmud, a staff member of the Medical Laboratory Sciences Department of MAAUN, “Our great and pace-setting university has helped increase the number of Medical Laboratory Scientists, not only in Northern Nigeria but in the country at large. We have students from across the country.

“Some came from Lagos, Benin, and Ibadan. I can categorically tell you that Maryam Abacha American University of Niger has the highest number of young Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria.

“Before now, one could hardly find someone with a degree in this field, but only a Diploma. But MAAUN came and provided the opportunity to many undergraduates. Go to Federal Medical Centres across the country, and you will find it difficult counting the number of their staff who are our products.”

Checks by this newspaper further revealed that some MAAUN alumni are presently working at the National Hospital in Abuja and the Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, AKTH, in Kano state.

The university according to findings has the highest number of Nurses working in Canada, USA and other foreign countries from West Africa.

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Hotoro Residents Threaten to Vote Out Leaders in 2027 Over Dilapidated Road

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The untarred and dilapidated road

Residents of Hotoro in Kano State are voicing their growing frustration with local and state leaders over the deplorable condition of a key road in their community. In interviews with Nigerian Tracker, the residents expressed deep dissatisfaction and issued a warning that they may withhold their votes in the 2027 elections if their concerns continue to be ignored.

Shehu Usman, a long-time resident of Hotoro, articulated the sentiments of many in the area. “Our area is a vote bank, not just in Nassarawa Local Government but across the whole of Kano State,” Usman said. “Yet, the road is no longer passable in both the rainy and dry seasons, and those we elected—from the Governor to the Chairman and even the legislators—seem not to care about the deplorable state of this road.

The road in question, which remains untarred, stretches from the Ring Road around Nur Petroleum Junction, passes through Hotoro Primary and Secondary Schools, and ends at the Hotoro Police Division. The poor state of the road has been a long-standing issue, but despite repeated complaints, nothing has been done to address it.

Iliya Musa, another concerned resident, lamented that politicians only seem to care about the community during election season. “During election season, politicians flock to our area, making promises and shaking hands. But once they are in office, they turn a deaf ear to our problems,” Musa said. “This road could easily be constructed, but our leaders have ignored us, and now, it feels like the area is turning into a slum.”

As 2027 approaches, the residents of Hotoro are making it clear that their votes will not be taken for granted. If their elected leaders fail to address the worsening conditions in the community, they may face a harsh electoral backlash from a constituency that has had enough of broken promises.

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