Wednesday briefing: A schoolboy's abuse, Aisha Buhari's whereabouts and rise of the Nigerian Stock Exchange
What you need to know.
Good morning.
We are focusing on a mother’s struggle for justice, Aisha Buhari’s disappearance from public view and the meteoric rise of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
A schoolboy’s abuse
For almost two weeks, Deborah Okezie, through Facebook Live, has broadcast details of her 11-year-old son’s abuse at a Christian boarding school in Akwa Ibom. According to Okezie, her son, a JSS 1 student, was sexually abused by his seniors, beaten for bedwetting and forced to starve for days.
“They will remove his boxer and push their legs and hands into his anus,” Ms. Okezie said in one of her videos. “Look at a child I sent to school, he came back with a broken anus.”
The story has generated massive interest on social media, prompting many Nigerians to call for justice in the matter.
Ms. Okezie has also documented efforts, both by the Deeper Life High School authorities and the Akwa Ibom state government, to frustrate her from broadcasting the sordid details of her son’s abuse. She claims she has received anonymous threats to drop the case.
Response: The Akwa Ibom state government says it has concluded an investigation into the matter and will soon make a public statement.
School defence: In a video released on Tuesday, the school said it will not cover up the issue and that it will ensure justice is served. “We reiterate that we will be transparent and that justice will not only be served, but it will also be seen by all that it has been served,” the school’s Education Secretary, Mrs Thelma Malaka, said.
Context: Abuse of children, partly rooted in society’s normalisation of violent discipline, is rife in Nigerian society. According to UNICEF, six out of every 10 children experience some form of violence, mostly without post-trauma support.
Where is Aisha Buhari?
There are reports suggesting that the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has relocated from Nigeria to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates over security concerns.
On Tuesday, one of her aides, Mr Aliyu Abdullahi, declined to speak on her whereabouts during an interview on live television.
According to Mr. Abdullahi, the First Lady “although married to the President . . . is a citizen of this country who is entitled to her own right to privacy.”
Question: The Office of the First Lady isn’t recognised by the Nigerian constitution, although successive past administrations have recognised it. So is it in the public interest to know the whereabouts of Ms. Buhari?
Context: President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015, downplayed the significance of the office. “The office of the first lady is not in the constitution, so there’s no official role for them,” Buhari said. But Ms Buhari has built a reputation for being vocal, even contrarian, on important issues, including accusing a Presidential spokesman of disloyalty.
Nigeria’s gross failure to test for Covid
In April, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control set a target for testing two million people within the next three months. But eight months later, the country is yet to test up to a million people. As of Tuesday, the country had tested only 937,712 samples.
In contrast, South Africa, with a population just higher than a quarter of Nigeria’s, has conducted over six million tests.
The failure of testing has, no doubt, contributed to the government’s inability to properly understand how the virus is spreading across communities. And, with the second wave in full force, the absence of mass testing - and contact tracing - will inflict further damage.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Task Force on Covid has put the blame on state governments who have been unable to optimally operate testing laboratories.
Chikwe Ihekweazu: The NCDC boss on Tuesday bemoaned Nigerians’ failure to obey Covid protocols and warned that January will be a tough month for the country.
Quote: “Events centres are full, social activities are full and so it is no surprises that cases are rising. January will be a tough month, no doubt about it. So, we have to brace ourselves for the consequences of the activities that we have decided to carry out in December,” Ihekweazu said.
NCDC: The disease agency reported 749 new cases and three deaths on Tuesday.
What else is happening?
Buhari: The President is doubling down on his policy of not providing foreign exchange for the importation of food items. “Already, about seven states are producing all the rice we need,” Buhari said. “We must eat what we produce.”
NIMC: In defiance of Covid protocols, Large crowds have continued to gather at the identity commission offices as Nigerians struggle to register for the National Identification Number, in order not to lose access to their phone lines.
Obituary: Femi Odekunle, who was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), and was Nigeria’s first professor of criminology has succumbed to Covid.
NSE: The country’s stock exchange has outperformed its peers across the world, according to Bloomberg. In 2020, the market rose by 45.7%, the highest since 2013.
Covid: The United States has reported its first case of the UK variant. The patient, a man in his 20s with no recent travel history, is currently in isolation.
Wuhan: A group of Chinese researchers have concluded that about 500,000 people may have been infected with Covid in the Chinese city where the virus was first reported. If true, that is almost 10 times higher than Wuhan's officially recorded number of 50,354 cases.
Germany: A German officer is facing trial on terrorism charges after he disguised himself as a Syrian refugee to sow discord. This is an incredible story of the growth of far-right extremism in Europe’s largest economy.
And that’s our briefing for today. See you tomorrow.
P.S. Apologies for missing yesterday’s briefing. Had a heavy dinner and lost focus.
And a big thank you to Carl Terver for giving me a heads-up on the Deeper Life High School abuse story.