Category: Nigerian Tribune

The Edo State Tourism Agency (EDSTA) has identified technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and the creative economy, as key to the future of tourism in Nigeria.

The agency’s Director-General, Lady Vivian Elabor, made this known as the state marked the 2026 World Tourism Day, observed last Monday under the theme, ‘Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism.’

As part of the celebration, EDSTA organised a road walk from the gate of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), followed by a symposium at the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA).

Governor Monday Okpebholo hosted the event, while Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa and the Coordinator of the Office of the Edo State First Lady, Mrs Edesili Okpebholo Anani, attended as special guests of honor.

Elabor said the celebration provided an opportunity for the agency to explore how Edo State could use technology to showcase its rich culture, heritage, and tourist attractions to a wider global audience.

She said the focus was on how digital tools could help the state tell its story more effectively and create new opportunities through tourism and the creative economy.

The agency emphasized the importance of embracing technological innovation to promote Edo’s tourism potential and expand its reach.

No fewer than 500 residents, including children, young adults and the elderly, on Tuesday benefited from free cardiovascular and other health screenings organised in an Ibadan community to commemorate the 2026 World Heart Day.

The beneficiaries of the programme are Agbo Ile Faola, Yemetu, Ibadan and IMG Primary School, Oje Igosun, Ibadan, which was designed to take cardiovascular care beyond the hospital and into the community.

The exercise, organised by the Stroke Free Society International in collaboration with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, and the World Heart Federation, raised concerns over undiagnosed cardiovascular conditions after some residents who appeared healthy were found to have elevated blood pressure.

The development, according to medical experts at the outreach, underscores the need for regular health checks, as cardiovascular diseases could remain undetected until they result in serious complications such as stroke, heart attack or heart failure.

Medical professionals screened participants for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors.

Children were also screened for congenital and rheumatic heart diseases, while vision screening was introduced to identify eye problems that could affect pupils’ learning.

Speaking on the significance of the exercise, a cardiologist and one of the organisers, Professor Moshood Adeoye, said the programme had a personal meaning for him because the community was where he was born more than six decades ago.

Adeoye said returning to the community to provide medical services offered him an opportunity to give back while raising awareness about cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors.

‘Cardiovascular diseases are on the increase. We have people developing stroke, having heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

‘Some of the risk factors are more common in the community, but people may not come to the hospital because of financial reasons or ignorance.

‘That is why we are here in the community to educate them about the symptoms and risk factors,’ he said.

Adeoye expressed concern over the increasing cases of stroke among young people, stressing the importance of early detection and intervention.

According to him, some children already show signs of conditions that could predispose them to cardiovascular diseases later in life, while others may have hypertension or diabetes without knowing it.

‘We have started seeing strokes in young people. So, the earlier we identify these problems, the better,’ he said.

He explained that they also included vision screening for pupils because some children who appeared inattentive or struggled academically might not necessarily have learning difficulties but could be experiencing visual impairment.

He said the eye examinations would help identify such problems early and enable affected children to receive appropriate attention.

Also speaking, a consultant cardiologist at UCH and the University of Ibadan College of Medicine, Dr Olanike Orimolade, said the major message of World Heart Day was the need to prevent cardiovascular diseases rather than wait until complications develop.

Orimolade said cardiovascular health was closely linked to conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, noting that many of them could remain silent for years.

‘The world is moving towards prevention rather than the cure of cardiovascular disease,’ she said.

She explained that hypertension, often described as a silent killer, might not produce obvious symptoms until significant damage had occurred.

The consultant cardiologist therefore urged residents to adopt healthy lifestyles and make regular medical checks part of their routine, particularly for conditions that could develop without noticeable symptoms.

At I.M.G. School 2, the Headmistress, Mrs Adenike Oyedeji, described the outreach as a welcome development, saying it provided an opportunity for pupils and staff to access medical services without having to travel far.

Oyedeji expressed appreciation to the organisers for bringing the programme to the school and community, saying the initiative would help promote the early detection of health conditions among residents and schoolchildren.

A nongovernmental organisation, the Frederick Foundation, a nongovernmental organization, in partnership with the University of Ibadan (UI) and the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, has launched a major initiative to strengthen stroke care, research, and medical education in Nigeria.

The partnership, formally inaugurated in Ibadan, aims to improve stroke treatment and outcomes, strengthen the capacity of healthcare professionals, and promote research into the prevention and management of the disease.

Established in December 2023 by Oxford Emeritus Professor of Neuropathology Margaret Esiri in memory of her late husband, Dr Frederick Esiri, the foundation also aims to strengthen academic collaboration between the University of Ibadan and the University of Oxford.

Speaking at the inauguration, Professor Esiri said the initiative was inspired by her late husband’s commitment to improving healthcare in Nigeria.

Dr Esiri, a Nigerian and Oxford medical graduate, returned to Nigeria in 1981 and operated a health clinic in Taraba State for more than 20 years.

Professor Esiri stated that the foundation would collaborate with UI, UCH, and Oxford University to strengthen stroke services and reduce mortality, while creating opportunities for medical students through a reciprocal exchange programme.

She said the foundation’s immediate priority was to improve stroke care outcomes in Ibadan and build a sustainable academic partnership between the medical schools of UI and Oxford.

As part of its early interventions, she disclosed that a seven-member clinical team from Ibadan had visited the Stroke Unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the United Kingdom to observe its operations and learn from its approach to stroke management.

The visit, she said, was supported by educational webinars designed to assess how improved nursing and therapy practices could influence patient survival and recovery.

Building on this initiative, Professor Esiri stated that the foundation had introduced a reciprocal clinical neuroscience student exchange programme, with two medical students each from UI and Oxford participating to advance education and research.

She also stressed the importance of prevention, calling for increased attention to healthy lifestyles, stronger government support for stroke services, and broader access to quality treatment, particularly in low-resource settings.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and chairman of the occasion, Professor Kayode Adebowale, described the initiative as a transformation of personal loss into a legacy of hope.

Adebowale stated that stroke care in Africa continues to face serious challenges, including limited access to neuroimaging, restricted availability of specialised therapies, delayed patient presentation, and inadequate standardised treatment protocols.

He said the collaboration would aim to address these gaps and develop practical interventions that could be replicated throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to him, the decision to make UI the anchor institution reflects its longstanding contributions to medical education and research in West Africa.

The Vice-Chancellor disclosed that a clinical neurosciences medical student exchange programme between UI and Oxford had been approved, with Professors Godwin Ogbole and Rufus Akinyemi playing key roles in establishing the academic partnership.

He said the collaboration would extend beyond student exchange to strengthening acute stroke services at UCH, developing standardised clinical workflows, and supporting research aimed at producing solutions applicable to resource-limited healthcare systems.

Also speaking, the Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Professor Taiwo Lawal, who represented the Provost of the College of Medicine, Professor Temidayo Ogundiran, stated that the partnership would provide opportunities for academic collaboration, clinical training, and research.

The foundation has awarded four travel grants to medical students from UI and Oxford to date.

Plans are also underway to establish an acute stroke unit at UCH, Ibadan, as part of efforts to enhance the hospital’s capacity to provide specialised stroke care.

NIGERIA’s oil industry has generated enormous revenue for the country, but it has also left behind a difficult environmental question: what happens when an oil well or petroleum facility reaches the end of its productive life? The answer should not be that the well is simply abandoned and forgotten. Proper decommissioning is an essential part of responsible petroleum production. When an oil well, pipeline, installation or associated facility is no longer economically viable, it must be safely closed, the site properly restored and measures put in place to prevent pollution long after production has stopped. Where this is poorly done, the consequences can extend far beyond the immediate oilfield. Contaminants can enter surrounding soil, groundwater, creeks, rivers and wetlands. In oil-producing communities, where freshwater systems are closely connected to fishing, farming and everyday life, the consequences can be particularly severe. A threat to aquatic life, flora and fauna.

The environmental consequences of poor decommissioning are not merely theoretical. An inadequately plugged or abandoned well can create pathways through which hydrocarbons and other contaminants migrate into the environment. Improperly dismantled infrastructure can leave contaminated materials, pipelines, tanks and equipment behind. Disturbed and polluted land can also affect vegetation and wildlife habitats. Once pollutants reach waterways, the damage can move through the ecosystem. Fish and other aquatic organisms may be exposed to harmful substances. Vegetation along riverbanks and wetlands may be degraded, while contamination of breeding and feeding grounds can affect aquatic populations. The result is a chain of environmental harm: *polluted soil can affect groundwater; groundwater can feed streams and wetlands; waterways can carry contaminants downstream; and those contaminants can eventually reach coastal and marine ecosystems.*

For communities whose livelihoods depend on fishing and agriculture, environmental degradation can therefore become an economic and social crisis as well. There is an important international-law dimension that Nigeria cannot afford to overlook. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) places significant obligations on states concerning protection of the marine environment. Article 192 provides that states have an obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment. Article 194 requires states to take measures to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment from various sources. Most importantly for the issue of abandoned petroleum infrastructure, Article 207 addresses pollution from land-based sources. It requires states to adopt laws and regulations to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment from land-based sources, including pollution that can enter the marine environment through rivers and other pathways.

Article 208 is also relevant where pollution arises from seabed activities under national jurisdiction and from installations and structures associated with those activities. Therefore, where poor decommissioning of petroleum facilities results in pollution that reaches the marine environment, the issue is no longer merely a local environmental-management failure. It can raise questions concerning Nigeria’s obligations under international law. That does not mean that every instance of poor decommissioning automatically constitutes a proven violation of UNCLOS. The facts, source of pollution, environmental pathway, applicable Nigerian law and nature of the resulting harm would have to be established. But the obligations under UNCLOS provide a clear international environmental framework within which Nigeria’s decommissioning practices must be assessed.

Nigeria is not without laws and institutions to address the problem. The Petroleum Industry Act 2021 contains provisions dealing with decommissioning and abandonment. Among other things, the Act provides for decommissioning and abandonment plans and establishes a financial mechanism intended to meet decommissioning costs. It also provides mechanisms for addressing unfulfilled decommissioning obligations. Nigeria subsequently issued the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning and Abandonment Regulations 2023, which provide a regulatory framework covering issues such as decommissioning plans, permanent plugging and abandonment of wells, decommissioning of installations, public consultation, post-completion activities and decommissioning funds. The framework has since been updated. The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning and Abandonment Regulations 2026 provide that decommissioning and abandonment of upstream petroleum wells, installations, structures, utilities, plants and pipelines on land and offshore are to be conducted in accordance with good international petroleum industry practice.

The Federal Ministry of Environment also identifies monitoring and certification of facility decommissioning and oil-well closure among the functions of its Oil and Gas Division. The challenge, therefore, is not simply the absence of legislation. The real question is enforcement. The danger of treating abandonment as an afterthought. For decades, Nigeria’s petroleum debate has concentrated heavily on exploration, production and revenue. Decommissioning has often received far less public attention.

Indeed, the period after production may be one of the most environmentally sensitive stages in the life of a petroleum asset.

A responsible decommissioning programme should establish, among other things, how wells will be permanently plugged, how contaminated soil and materials will be managed, how infrastructure will be removed or safely retained, how affected ecosystems will be restored, and how the site will be monitored after closure. There must also be transparency about who bears the cost.

The Petroleum Industry Act provides for decommissioning and abandonment funds, including circumstances in which the regulator may access the fund to have outstanding obligations performed where a licensee fails to comply with its decommissioning plan.

This principle is important: the environmental cost of petroleum production should not ultimately be transferred to taxpayers and host communities.

Host communities must not be left behind. There is another dimension that deserves urgent attention: the people who live around these facilities.

Host communities should not learn about the closure of an oil facility only after the operator has left. Meaningful consultation, disclosure of decommissioning plans, environmental monitoring and access to information should be central to the process. Communities should know what is being removed, what is being left behind, what risks remain and who is responsible for remediation.

Where contamination has occurred, affected communities should have accessible mechanisms for reporting pollution and seeking remediation.

Environmental restoration should also be measurable. It is not enough for an operator to declare that a site has been restored. Independent monitoring should determine whether water quality, soil quality, vegetation and ecological conditions have actually recovered to legally and scientifically acceptable standards.

Nigeria cannot continue to measure the success of its petroleum industry only by barrels produced and revenues generated.

The true measure of a responsible petroleum industry must also include what happens after the last barrel has been extracted.

If an oil well is properly decommissioned, it can mark the beginning of environmental recovery. If it is abandoned carelessly, it can become a permanent source of pollution.

Nigeria must enforce its decommissioning laws and regulations, require adequate financial provisioning, strengthen environmental monitoring, involve host communities, ensure transparent reporting of abandoned petroleum assets and hold operators accountable for environmental liabilities.

The country must also ensure that its petroleum policies and practices remain consistent with its international obligations, including its duty under UNCLOS to protect and preserve the marine environment.

Oil may have an end date. Environmental responsibility does not.

When an oil well dies, Nigeria must ensure that the environment does not die with it.

Dr. Oyeleke is Honourable Commissioner for Special Duties, Oyo State.

The Federal Government has called for an overhaul of general hospitals across the states to close gaps in Nigeria’s healthcare system and reduce the pressure on tertiary health facilities.

The Director, Reproductive Health Division, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Samuel Oyeniyi, made the call on Thursday at a special webinar, organised by the Doctors Medical Aid Foundation (DMAF), with the theme, ‘Nigeria’s Health Workforce at a Crossroads: Rethinking How We Deliver Care.’

Oyeniyi identified weak state-level general hospitals as a major gap in the country’s healthcare delivery system, noting that many patients bypass secondary healthcare facilities and travel long distances to tertiary hospitals in state capitals.

He said the situation had placed additional pressure on tertiary facilities, with some patients travelling between 120 and 300 kilometres in search of care that could have been provided at general hospitals closer to their communities.

According to him, state governments must take greater responsibility for strengthening general hospitals, particularly in areas of infrastructure, staffing, equipment and service delivery.

‘We have a challenge with our general hospitals in the states. That is one area where we need to look at what we can do differently because people bypass these hospitals and go straight to the tertiary centres,’ he said.

Oyeniyi said the Federal Government was considering ways of supporting the strengthening of secondary healthcare, while also engaging state governments and relevant stakeholders to address the gaps.

He said the issue had been raised in a memorandum to the National Council on Health, stressing that improving healthcare delivery required a holistic approach to workforce planning, infrastructure, commodities, coordination and partnerships.

The director also disclosed that the government was expanding the health workforce through the recruitment of 4,000 nurses and midwives under the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and Basic Health Care Provision Fund arrangements, particularly for facilities with significant workforce gaps and high disease burden.

He added that the government was expanding medical training capacity, with universities increasing admission capacity, while infrastructure was being supported through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

Oyeniyi said simulation and training centres were also being developed in Kano and Ekiti to strengthen practical training for health workers.

He further disclosed that the government was reviewing its task-shifting and task-sharing policy in collaboration with professional bodies, including the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, community health workers and local government authorities.

On the role of private healthcare providers, Oyeniyi said private facilities remained an important component of the health system but noted that their regulation largely fell under state governments, while the Federal Government provided policy direction and oversight.

Also speaking, a health systems and financing expert, Dapo Odulana, said addressing Nigeria’s health workforce challenges required looking beyond the number of health workers to the broader health system.

Odulana identified medicines and human resources as two critical inputs in healthcare delivery, warning that innovations such as task shifting would have limited impact where health workers lacked adequate infrastructure, medicines and other essential commodities.

He called for greater investment across the health workforce value chain, covering production, deployment, welfare and retention, while urging stronger engagement with the private sector.

The Health Systems Strengthening Expert at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Ruth Adetokunbo, identified four critical areas requiring attention: production, absorption, deployment and retention of health workers.

Adetokunbo said workforce distribution remained heavily skewed towards urban areas, citing an assessment which found that fewer than four per cent of doctors were practising in rural areas, with similar patterns observed among pharmacists and laboratory scientists.

She also raised concerns about the capacity of training institutions, noting that more than 80 per cent of qualified nursing candidates were being directed to other courses because of limited training capacity.

Adetokunbo said efforts to address health workforce shortages must therefore go beyond recruitment to include equitable deployment, retention and provision of the equipment and infrastructure required for health workers to function effectively.

The Head of Training, Primary Healthcare Division, NPHCDA, Dr Gilbert Uwadia, said a functional primary healthcare system required not only the right number and mix of health workers but also adequate infrastructure, medicines and essential commodities.

He said the minimum workforce team for a functional primary healthcare facility should comprise four to five appropriately skilled frontline workers, adding that the agency had revitalised 3,504 primary healthcare centres since 2023.

Uwadia said the agency was also providing job aids and standard operating procedures to improve service delivery, while introducing incentives aimed at encouraging health workers to serve in rural areas.

He listed rural allowances, flexible duty rosters, accommodation, solarisation and other non-financial incentives among measures being used to improve rural deployment and retention.

He stressed that task shifting must be properly supervised and supported with essential commodities, clear referral pathways and appropriate regulation.

Chairman, Board of Trustees, DMAF, Prof Bala Audu, said the webinar provided an opportunity for stakeholders to examine the interconnected challenges of training, deployment and retention of health workers.

Audu said the foundation would sustain conversations around health workforce development and support efforts aimed at improving the country’s healthcare system.

In its closing remarks, DMAF said Nigeria’s health workforce challenge could not be resolved through numbers alone, stressing the need for equitable distribution, retention, conducive working environments and deliberate utilisation of available skills.

The foundation also cautioned that task shifting should complement, rather than substitute, investment in health workforce development and must be based on competence, clear roles, collaboration, supervision, referral systems, regulation and accountability.

The Country Director, Doctors Medical Aid, Dr Hameed Adediran, said an earlier poll among participants showed that 66 per cent identified poor remuneration as the biggest health workforce challenge.

Adediran said 23 per cent cited poor working conditions, while 21 per cent identified inadequate workforce numbers.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has urged Nigerians to renew their commitment to unity, love and the country’s future as Nigeria marks its 66th Independence Anniversary.

Akpabio, in a goodwill message issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, described Nigeria as ‘our destiny, our duty, our future.’ He congratulated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigerians, saying the anniversary was an opportunity to celebrate ‘the gift of nationhood and the enduring promise of our beloved country.’

He said, ‘Sixty-six years ago, our national flag rose to proclaim the birth of an independent Nigeria. With it rose the hopes of millions: the hope of freedom, the dignity of self-government and the conviction that we could shape our own destiny. That flag still flies, and that promise still calls us forward.’

The Senate President honoured the country’s founding fathers and generations of Nigerians whose courage, labour and sacrifice contributed to nation-building.

He said Nigeria’s ‘journey has known triumphs and trials, seasons of confidence and moments of uncertainty,’ but added: ‘Yet through them all, Nigerians have continued to strive, create, serve and believe. We celebrate that resilience today: the strength of a people whose hopes have survived every storm.’

Akpabio said the Nigerian spirit was reflected in the contributions of citizens across different sectors, noting that ‘Nigeria lives in the farmer tending the soil, the teacher shaping a mind, the entrepreneur creating opportunity and the young person daring to dream.’ He added that the country’s music, enterprise, hospitality and achievements by Nigerians across the world were ‘daily expressions of the spirit we celebrate.’

The Senate President urged Nigerians to draw strength from the country’s diversity, saying, ‘Across languages, cultures and faiths, we belong to one national family. Let this anniversary renew our affection for one another and remind us that the green-white-green shelters us all. The peace we preserve together is the foundation of the future we seek.’

He also saluted the Armed Forces and security agencies, particularly those who lost their lives in service to the nation.

Akpabio assured Nigerians that ‘as President Tinubu leads our country through this chapter, the National Assembly remains committed to supporting efforts that strengthen our nation and improve our people’s lives.’ He prayed that the anniversary would renew Nigerians’ resolve to serve the country ‘with integrity, compassion and devotion.’

He added, ‘Fellow Nigerians, independence is an inheritance renewed by every generation. Let us celebrate with grateful hearts, extend hands of friendship and keep faith with the possibilities before us. Our past gives us perspective, our present gives us responsibility, and our future gives us purpose.

Akpabio’s message came just as the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, called on political parties and candidates to conduct peaceful campaigns in line with the Electoral Act, 2026 and the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Bamidele, who is also Chairman of the South-West Caucus in the National Assembly, said peaceful and orderly political campaigns were consistent with the vision of Nigeria’s founding fathers to build a united, democratic and prosperous federation that would serve as a leading voice for Black people and the African continent.

According to his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, the leader made the call on Thursday to commemorate Nigeria’s 66th independence anniversary, urging political actors to shun incendiary comments and hate speech capable of undermining the seamless conduct of the 2027 general elections.

Bamidele acknowledged the right of every political actor to exercise their political rights, but stressed that such rights must be exercised within the confines of extant laws.

He noted that the exercise of such rights did not extend to hate speech or inflammatory statements capable of triggering political unrest and ethno-religious violence before, during and after the electoral process.

He further noted that the exercise of political rights ‘at this defining moment should be guided by the rules of the electoral contest and not by the rules of the jungle. While every aspiration is legitimate in a democracy, it should be pursued with decorum, patriotism and utmost restraint.’

The Leader added, ‘No ambition is worth setting the nation ablaze. As we mark our 66th anniversary of political freedom and prepare for the 2027 elections, political parties and their candidates must conduct their activities within the ambit of the law.

‘This is consistent with the vision of our founding fathers to build a united, democratic and prosperous federation that would serve as a leading voice for Black people and the African continent globally. This vision must not be sacrificed on the altar of pedestrian politics.

‘Nigeria is our collective heritage. She is greater than the political ambition of any party or candidate. Our activities must be conducted to preserve our collective heritage and not destroy what we have sustainably built.

‘As political parties and their candidates campaign across the states of the federation and unveil their agenda for the future of our fatherland, such agenda must align with the wishes and aspirations of our founding fathers.’

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Wednesday commenced preparations for the 2026 basic training programme for new recruits with a retreat for trainers drawn from various training disciplines.

The retreat, held in Lagos, brought together trainers responsible for areas including drill, medicals, security, sports and other aspects of the Service’s training programme.

Speaking at the event, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, represented by the Assistant Comptroller-General in charge of Human Resource Development, Frank Onyeka, said the initiative was part of the innovations introduced by the Service to bring trainers together under one platform rather than having them operate in separate segments.

Adeniyi urged the trainers to work as a team and review the training modules with a view to producing officers the Service and the society would be proud of.

He said working in silos could undermine the desired results, stressing the need for collaboration and knowledge sharing among the trainers.

‘If you don’t work like a team, you will not get the desired results. Working in silos will not give us what we want, but if you come together as a team, it is a natural answer,’ he said.

The Customs boss also urged heads of the various training units to take full responsibility for their areas while remaining open to contributions from others.

He said nobody had a monopoly of knowledge and advised the trainers not to dismiss or condemn the views of their colleagues.

‘To deliver this process and to get the desired results, all of us must work as one,’ Adeniyi said.

He recalled his experience as a trainer in 2008 and 2009, saying the officers trained during that period had risen through the ranks, with some serving as Assistant Controllers.

According to him, the success recorded by those trainees was partly attributable to the collaborative efforts of the trainers at the time.

Explaining the rationale behind the retreat, Adeniyi said the Service had previously trained its trainers in segments, with different resource persons and instructors meeting them at different times.

He said the new approach was designed to bring all the trainers under one roof to promote a common understanding and ensure that everyone worked towards the same objective.

‘You bring a resource person, talk to them. You bring the drill instructors, talk to them. It was taking time. So, instead of breaking these segments, we brought everybody under one roof for the same purpose, to get the same results and drive towards the same purpose,’ he said.

He added that the approach would save time and promote greater coordination among the trainers ahead of the commencement of the basic training programme.

On what he expects from the new recruits, Adeniyi urged them to demonstrate discipline, perseverance, and calmness throughout their training.

‘They should be calm, they should be gentle, they should have perseverance, and they should exhibit a very high level of discipline,’ he said.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Commandant of the Ikeja Training College, Deputy Comptroller Precious Atah, described the retreat as the first of its kind.

Atah said the retreat was important to set the pace for the training programme and urged the trainers to approach the exercise with an open mind.

The Coordinator of the retreat, Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs Greg Itotoh (rtd.), also addressed participants at he event.

He charged the trainers to be free to discuss anything without holding back, noting that in such a way, grey areas will be exposed and solutions will not be far-fetched.

Over the past few months, news of Nigerians dying from cancer has arrived with disturbing regularity. In May, Nollywood actor Alexx Ekubo died at only 40. His family said the cause was complications from advanced metastatic kidney cancer. Then, in August, came the death of veteran Yoruba actor Taiwo Hassan, popularly known as Ogogo, at 66 after a battle with stage-four cancer.

These are prominent names, and prominence can distort perception. For every public figure whose diagnosis becomes news, there are countless Nigerians whose stories remain within families: the colleague who suddenly disappears from work, the relative for whom an urgent fundraising appeal begins to circulate, the friend diagnosed when there is already little that medicine can do.

Ogogo’s case was particularly sobering. His daughters said he had been diagnosed only about three weeks before they made an emotional public appeal for help on 17 August. His condition had initially been treated as an ulcer. By the time further examinations revealed the severity of his illness, the cancer was at stage four. His daughters were desperately searching for treatment options. Six days after the public appeal, their father was dead.

Nobody can say that an earlier diagnosis would necessarily have produced a different outcome. Cancer offers no such guarantees. But there is something deeply unsettling about discovering a disease at stage four and, within weeks, confronting death.

It is tempting, confronted with stories like these, to ask the obvious question: is cancer increasing in Nigeria?

The responsible answer is that we do not know nearly as well as we should.

That is not the same thing as saying there is no problem. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s GLOBOCAN 2022 estimates, Nigeria recorded 127,763 new cancer cases and 79,542 cancer deaths that year. Breast cancer accounted for the largest number of new cases, followed by prostate and cervical cancers.

These figures are sobering, but they are estimates. Therein lies part of the story.

For a country of more than 200 million people, Nigeria’s capacity to count cancer remains inadequate. Cancer registries are indispensable because they tell us not simply how many patients arrive at particular hospitals, but how disease is distributed across populations and how that distribution changes over time.

Before asking whether cancer is increasing, therefore, perhaps we should ask something even more basic: would we know if it were?

There are reasons to take the question seriously. On 31 August, *Nigerian Tribune* reported the concerns of clinical oncologist Dr Omolola Salako, who said oncologists were seeing increasing numbers of cancers among Nigerians aged between 18 and 39. Younger patients present a particular difficulty because they often fall below the age at which routine cancer screening would normally be recommended.

Clinical experience is not population-level evidence. But when doctors begin noticing something, a functioning surveillance system should be capable of telling us whether they are seeing an aberration or the beginning of a trend.

Then comes another question. What are Nigerians being exposed to?

I returned to the UK in the first week of September after spending about three weeks in Nigeria in August. Food was, as always, one of the pleasures of the visit: eating in restaurants, enjoying familiar dishes and occasionally buying something by the roadside. One particular favourite of mine is roasted corn. I ate it while I was there. Boiled corn too.

Until recently, I cannot remember looking at a cob of corn and thinking about a risk register.

Perhaps nobody should.

Food is sustenance, culture, memory and pleasure. Nigerians should not approach every meal with suspicion. But a 2025 systematic review published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis examined 1,627 Nigerian maize samples drawn from 25 studies across different agroecological zones. Aflatoxins and fumonisins were among the most prevalent mycotoxins identified, with contamination varying considerably by season and location.

That does not mean roadside corn causes cancer. It would be irresponsible to make that leap. Aflatoxin exposure is associated with increased liver cancer risk, but whether any particular cob of corn presents a hazard depends on circumstances extending from cultivation through harvesting, drying and storage.

And therein lies the problem. The person buying roasted corn beside a Nigerian road cannot possibly know its history.

The same applies to much of what we eat.

In March, a systematic review published in Food Science and Nutrition brought together 41 Nigerian food-contamination studies conducted between 2015 and 2025. Across those studies, researchers found microbial hazards, heavy metals, pesticides, mycotoxins and other pollutants. More than four-fifths of the studies examining heavy metals reported concentrations above international regulatory limits, while some assessments produced estimated cancer risks above conventional safety thresholds.

The point is not to frighten Nigerians away from markets, street food or home cooking. It is precisely the opposite. Consumers cannot laboratory-test everything they eat. Food safety is therefore not primarily an exercise in individual vigilance. It is a function of systems.

And the concern does not end at the dinner table.

Recent Nigerian research has raised questions about contaminants in drinking water and food chains in pollution-prone communities. These are local studies and cannot simply be converted into a national diagnosis. But they add to a question that becomes increasingly difficult to avoid.

Who is measuring the cumulative environment in which Nigerians eat, drink, breathe and work?

Think about how much Nigeria has changed in 30 or 40 years. The population has expanded dramatically. Cities have sprawled. Traffic has multiplied. Millions of generators have filled gaps in electricity supply. Plastic consumption and waste have increased. Mining, industrial activity, pesticide use and complex food-distribution networks have expanded. Open burning remains commonplace.

The Nigeria of 2026 is not the physical environment of 1986.

The question is whether our capacity to monitor the health consequences of that transformation has advanced at anything approaching the same speed.

I hasten to say that Nigeria is not starting from zero. The Federal Government’s National Cancer Control Plan 2026-2030 addresses prevention, screening, early detection, treatment, research and cancer surveillance. Eight preventive oncology clinics are now operational in federal tertiary institutions. These are important steps.

But cancer policy cannot begin and end at the hospital door.

It begins much further upstream: with the water people drink, the integrity of food supply chains, the chemicals applied to crops, industrial emissions, mining contamination, petroleum pollution, occupational exposure and the air entering people’s lungs. It requires laboratories that test routinely, regulators that enforce standards, cancer registries capable of detecting changes and researchers able to follow environmental exposure and health outcomes over time.

There is danger at both extremes of this conversation. One is complacency: cancer is complicated, so no connection should be investigated until perfect evidence arrives. The other is alarmism: somebody ate this food, lived in this city or drank this water and later developed cancer, therefore one caused the other.

Neither serves the public interest.

A cluster of heartbreaking deaths is not, by itself, an epidemic. Finding contaminants in particular foods or communities does not establish the cause of an individual’s cancer.

But uncertainty is not ignorance either.

Nigeria already knows enough to know that it needs to know much more.

Perhaps that is the question raised by the recent procession of sad news. Not simply whether more Nigerians are dying from cancer, but whether the country sufficiently understands the changing risks among which its citizens are living.

There is an old management maxim that what gets measured gets managed. The reverse deserves greater attention. What a country fails to measure can quietly accumulate until the consequences become impossible to ignore.

Cancer is too complex for easy explanations. Complexity, however, must never become an excuse for incuriosity.

Before Nigeria can answer the frightening question, ‘What is killing us?’, it must become much better at knowing what is happening to us, what surrounds us, and what is entering our bodies every day.

The 15th Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, has condemned the destruction of banners bearing the images of Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and directed their immediate replacement.

However, the Emir appealed to the Emir’s supporters and well-wishers to refrain from bringing partisan political activities into the affairs of the traditional institution.

The Emir’s Chief Councillor, Alhaji Aminu Babba Dan’agundi, Sarkin Dawaki Babba, disclosed this while addressing journalists, saying the monarch had expressed displeasure over the incident and ordered that the damaged banners be repaired.

According to him, the 15th Emir emphasised that the traditional institution must remain above partisan politics and should not be used for political activities.

‘We are fathers of the people, not politicians,’ Dan’agundi quoted the Emir as saying.

He therefore appealed to the Emir’s supporters and well-wishers to refrain from bringing partisan political activities into the affairs of the traditional institution.

The Sarkin Dawaki Babba also conveyed the Emir’s appreciation to thousands of supporters, including men, women, youths and elders, who demonstrated their loyalty by accompanying him on foot to his residence at the Nassarawa Palace despite heavy rainfall and strong winds.

He said the Emir was deeply grateful for the show of love, patience and solidarity by the people, adding that His Highness prayed that Almighty Allah would reward them abundantly.

The Emir further urged his supporters to continue praying for peace, stability and progress in Kano State and Nigeria.

He also called for prayers for abundant blessings and prosperity for the people of the state and the country.

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has again justified his firm resolve to continue with his bold economic reforms, which he acknowledged are tough on Nigerians, but necessary.

Tinubu made the remarks in his 66th Independence Anniversary nationwide broadcast titled ‘From Reform to Prosperity’.

On the inception of his administration on May 29,2023, President Tinubu had scrapped the fuel subsidy regime and equally removed the multiple foreign exchange rates.

Tinubu declared that previous administrations before him deliberately avoided tough economic decisions, necessary to retrieve the nation from the path of economic regression to enduring growth.

He likened the nation’s economic predicament to an individual suffering from cancer but administered with morphine to mitigate the pains while the cancer spreads.

He said: ‘For too long, the promise of Nigeria was undermined by choices that postponed difficult decisions and allowed deep economic distortions to grow.

‘By 2023, poverty was rising, and hope was nearly gone. The country’s situation was darker than ever. We had no choice but to act.

‘Nigeria was like a sick patient who receives the terrible news that he has cancer. His doctor explains that the treatment will be difficult and painful, but that it offers a strong prospect of recovery. The patient has a choice. He can begin treatment, endure its discomfort and fight the disease. Or he can ask only for morphine, dull the pain and leave the cancer to spread.

‘For too long, Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came.

‘They focused on symptoms while allowing the disease to take hold deep within the fabric of our society. We spent enormous sums sustaining inefficient arrangements that were never intended to last. We hid from difficult truths and passed the consequences from one generation to the next.

‘When this administration assumed office, we resolved to do things differently. We chose to excise the cancer. The reforms that followed were difficult. The side effects were real. Yet, we must never confuse the medicine with the disease.’

Listing the gains of his reforms three years after, President Tinubu cautioned Nigerians, particularly those who will cast the ballots in the forthcoming general elections, not to be swayed by the rhetoric of certain presidential candidates who have vowed to tamper with his ongoing policy reforms.

He enumerated the gains to include growth in oil and non-oil sectors, soaring external reserves, reduction in inflation and a surge in Foreign Direct Investments.

An excited Tinubu noted that the appreciable growth in the economy had earned the acclamation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multilateral financial institutions.

He said: ‘Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them. Now, as certain influential but regressive voices would have us abandon the treatment and return ourselves to the abuse of addictive subsidies, we must resist their siren song. We must remember why we began this journey and how far we have already come.

‘Three and a half years later, the evidence that Nigeria’s economic outlook has improved is undeniable. Our economy has grown by over 4 per cent this year. Both oil and non-oil sectors have contributed to the renewed period of stable growth.

‘Oil theft is down. Inflation has fallen substantially from its peak. Our foreign reserves have been rebuilt, our foreign exchange market has stabilised, and in 2025 this country recorded its highest revenue from non-oil exports in its history, exceeding $6 billion. This is real money being made by real Nigerian businesses.

‘These are not idle claims. International observers, journalists, NGOs and multilateral institutions can see the change. Each has concluded that our reforms have strengthened Nigeria’s economic stability and resilience. The private sector has long since delivered its verdict, and foreign direct investment continues to rise each year.’

While stressing the success story of the economy under his watch which he attributed to needed structural reforms, President Tinubu declared that Nigerian economy has ‘reached a turning point’ on the course to what he later described as the phase of ‘shared and widespread prosperity’.

He declared that under his leadership the peasant would be guaranteed access to land and earn a decent living; factories will have seamless access to stable electricity; transportation will be affordable while education will be within the reach of the indigent.

Aside from the cost of living, President Tinubu acknowledged the need to engage multitudes of Nigerian youths, whom he described as the engine of production.

This, he noted, can be achieved through placing jobs, enterprise, and industrial growth at the heart of our government’s policies.

Giving a list of his initiatives, such as NELFUND, CREDICORP, amongst others, to sustain the vulnerable, he admitted that ‘these programmes are not substitutes for prosperity. They are a bridge to aid our nation’s citizens on their path towards it. Our objective is not to manage poverty more efficiently.’

President Tinubu vowed that the phase of shared prosperity would not be derailed.

‘The age of reform has done its work. Now begins the age of prosperity. An age in which the promise of this great nation must finally become the lived experience of Nigerians from all walks of life.

‘We have travelled through difficult years together. We have made hard decisions together. And now, still together, we must build the country those decisions have made possible.

‘I believe deeply in what lies ahead. I believe in the millions of ordinary men and women whose work, courage and determination have always been the true strength of our country.

‘The road ahead will still demand much from us. But we travel it now with firm footing, a clear direction and renewed hope in our collective future.

‘Nigeria has corrected its course. We have passed through our own Red Sea. This is not the time to look back. Let us go forward together, with faith in ourselves, faith in our country, and faith that the sacrifices we have made will yield their reward.

‘The Promised Land before us is a Nigeria of abundance and opportunity; a nation where prosperity is broadly shared, where every child can dream beyond the circumstances of his birth, and where our country’s immense promise is finally reflected in the lives of our people.

‘Our destination is in sight. Our foundations are strong. Our direction is clear. So let us go forward. No looking back.’