Dayo Akintobi Examines How Emotions, False Lab Results Worsen Sickle Cell Epidemic + More

[00:00:06]All right, welcome back. So that's Nigeria's governor's forum. Uh Governor Dakodu speaking on their behalf. We know there will be titting problem. We're expecting all of that. Uh one of the things Nigerians should expect beside the good part is that policing will now be closer to the people. That is the bigger picture. So we respect more effectiveness uh you know of policing across communities across state. Uh but we also know that it will be abused by some persons. So that's why the legislation in framing uh these laws it's going to be in the constitution and then the details will be maybe in an act establishing state police. will be able to know exactly how far they can go because even with the ones they have like local government and state house state houses of assembly some of these governors make a mess of what democracy really is they are the ones that some of them will shout about federalism that within their states is nothing close to federalism uh so but we we cannot really the baby and the bath water all in one but let's bring in our guest Mr. to be joins us right here in our Lagos city.

[00:01:13]Thank God it's Friday. [laughter] >> Some of us don't like Fridays, some of us prefer Mondays, [laughter] >> but thank God it's Friday's weekend.

[00:01:22]It's time for rest and rejuvenation.

[00:01:24]>> Well, we work, we work, we work, we work, we always work. By the way, tomorrow is a election. So, >> uh, everyone literally is is is going to be watching what's playing out. In fact election the the the troubles permit me to use that word the troubles in the country has overshadowed whatever election sometime people don't even know there's an election tomorrow we have to remind them there's an election even maybe people in IT some may not even be conscious because of the economic situation security situation that has taken the shine but for information June the 20th kit people will be deciding whether they'll keep the job of the governor or they will look for someone else uh some candidates I've already indicated interest but let's go to this Nigeria if this Nigeria is ready. This Nigeria is where we start off from. Uh Ekkit Ekiti gladiators go to war tomorrow 1.03 million voters to decide others fate as assures of free poll. So that's um the last time we had over it is a small state in terms of the numbers of registered voters, the population and even accredited voters. So I have some of the data uh the last time we saw over a million people register to vote in an election was in 1999 actually and voter turnout was averaging around 40 something%. If you do the analytics you see that voter turnout in the kit is 30 something let's just say 40 plus% the highest was in 2010 during the second coming of which was about 73 or 74% in terms of outliers but the total people that came out to vote in that election were still less than 500,000 what do you make of this tomorrow >> well I think the the reg the fact that they have 1 million plus registered voters is a plus I think that's quite an impressive number for a state as small I don't quite know what the population is, but 1 million registered >> about 3 something million.

[00:03:23]>> Well, 1 million registered voters is not bad considering that quite a number of the citizens are underage are not eligible to vote anyway. So, um I saw the runup the preparations. I saw the materials being delivered. I saw the security presence. I listen to the Ink people talking about their preparations.

[00:03:43]And um this election might actually kind of be a barometer for 2027 that will help us begin to see how 27 elections might play out. So this might be a test run of sorts. Um in terms of the contestants, um the incumbent governor is very quiet, you know, introspective, um seriously focused type of politician and feelers from the population, people seem to think he's done quite well. um if anything is going to affect his candidacy at all, it's the general malaise that affects the entire country in terms of the fact that the economy is tough, you know, insecurity is rife.

[00:04:32]Nobody is exempt from that in any corner of Nigeria at the moment. So if he's got any drawbacks is that general perception of the fact that the country is not in a good place at this point in time. But in terms of him individually, there seems to be a claim No, today is Friday, so let's not campaign for him.

[00:04:52]>> No, no, no. It seems to be a claim. No, we are not campaigning for him. We are telling the truth as the people of Ikit see it. However, his contestants, the other people contending against him don't seem to have wide public acclaim. I mean the PDP candidate for example came was interviewed by Aon yesterday and I listened to him and even though he he spoke a good game but the people in Ikiti don't seem to know him that well and you're wondering he seems to be somebody just parachuted in from somewhere perhaps out of the country. My sense is that he's probably a diaspora Nigerian and um you know he he's talking a good game about change >> you know because NBC rule I try to avoid being specific so please have NBC rule let's keep it general those issues are just as as general enough to determine the outcome of the election but let's let's get to you know another uh paper this morning and I'm interested on what is seen on the front page of the Guardian newspaper. Uh take a look at this. [snorts] International Day 40% inaccurate false laboratory results worsen cell epidemic uh pains and there is an interesting spread here you know uh giving insight into the challenge of uh cle cell disease in the country to be precise. uh you see 150,000 annual cle cell uh disease births. Nigeria accounts for half of the world's annual cle cell births causing immense family pain. There is the price of ignorance of course uh that's a no-brainer for those seeking to get married and do not you know find out what their uh genotype is. Families face psychological trauma, financial exhaustion. Uh there's also shift to earlier screening mandatory lab verification. There's another one here, Mr. Kitoi. 80% of broken marriages, genotype incompatibility frequently cited as the root cause of irreconcilable differences in divorce.

[00:07:06]And there's there there's more information on this on the front page, but talk to us about uh this expose the Guardian is giving us and in 2026, why is still, you know, why is research still uh slow in in democratizing cures that have been found for cle cell disease? What that report is basically saying is indicting a lot of laboratories in terms of the testing procedure to be able to properly identify carriers of this trait. And um I think there's enough awareness out there now to wear pre-marital counseling. One of the things they particularly prescribe is go and know your genotype because if two carriers uh get married or come together, the chances of them producing a a child with cle cell disease is quite high. And it's unconscionable to bring a child, an innocent child into the world to come and suffer and probably even have a very short life expectancy because that's what this disease does. it essentially um inhibits the production of red blood cells which are necessary for life. So what that report is saying is that um investigations have shown that quite a lot of the misinformation is coming from um wrong diagnosis um corrupt >> it's true that I've had to do my genotype twice and have had two different result >> two different results. So this is what is happening is that the inconsistencies and inefficiencies of laboratory testing is inadvertently causing people to give birth to children or offspring with cle cell trait. Not because they did it intentionally. In the past parents used to say well uh God will protect um it's not my portion. But as people have become more aware and more enlightened, they've made taken it upon themselves to be aware of the genotype of of their partners and if if the they're both carriers, both as or as an SS, they will go their separate ways and go and marry other people because they recognize the fact that the suffering behind carrying the cle cell disease is one that is really quite traumatic both for the child and for the parent who has to care for the child. So people will sacrifice love to be able to avoid having to go through that trauma. But now despite the efforts, what this report is saying, despite the efforts of individuals to avoid this kind of thing happening, labs are making it happen because of negligence and in some cases because of corruption. there there are places where you know you are AS but you're given an AA um result which will lead you to falsely believe you are clear and go ahead and and and marry somebody who might have the AS gene as well. So [snorts] it all goes down to to um a lacadasical work ethic you know corruption as always there are some people who for various reasons uh prefer to shield their status and are ready to pay to get a false report. So I think regulation is important at the end of the day. So much of what we do on a daily basis requires government intervention and oversight. I mean who regulates the labs, who monitors them, who um assures that they maintain the standards that are necessary for um accurate uh testing and reporting. So um who do we blame at the end of the day? I know that there are government agencies that should be monitoring these kind of things but um government itself is a bit distracted at the moment with issues of insecurity and issues of how um to rejig the economy in such a way as to better the lives of Nigerians. So who is looking at these things? But at the end of the day, it's our future that's affected because if we continue to bring children into the world that have this problem. First of all, it creates a burden on the healthcare um system. It also is very expensive.

[00:11:20]And if you've seen the suffering of a cle cell carrier, it'll break your heart when they are in a crisis. It'll break your heart to see that this could have been avoided. So we need to do everything we can to make sure that these lapses do not occur. These are the lives of human beings we're talking about. Both the carrier and the carer both of them are traumatized by this.

[00:11:42]>> Okay. Uh before we leave the Guardian, I think we have some more time. So let's look at that story above the name place uh somewhere around uh that talked about import surge. Nigeria pays 1.9 trillion naira on petrol in May and May dip in oil prices. So uh importation of I just wanted to read some items some part of the story. According to the Guardian newspaper importation of PMS surged in May by 59.5%.

[00:12:12]As Nigerians spent 1.9 on petrol or despite a slide in oil prices. Uh I don't need to read that first header. So what do you make of this story?

[00:12:24]>> Well um look this Iran Israel US um altercation has had a global impact on the entire >> this one is beyond of altercation. This is a conflict. [laughter] Okay. So maybe I'm being euphemistic here so that NBC doesn't come down on us this [laughter] morning. Anyway, um, look, as you were saying earlier, bottom line is they've come to an agreement.

[00:12:51]There's a ceasefire. They're going to sign it today in Switzerland and oil prices will immediately react. In fact, it already started sliding really and we expect it to reduce further. Question for us on this end of the pond of this end of the big pond is how will it affect us? Will we immediately begin to see changes in the pump price? Look, you know the penchant of our marketers to say, "Well, we are still selling old stock and we pay for the old stock at high prices, so we can't take a loss. We will liquidate all of the old stock before prices can adjust." Well, issue is Dangote Refinery claims he can supply enough to meet our daily demand.

[00:13:32]Nonetheless, marketers still insist on importing. Government is still giving import licenses. Dangote is exporting refined fuel despite the fact that Nigeria needs much more from him because his particular supply can be price controlled. It doesn't incure transport cost. It doesn't incure so many other things. So I still think >> itures everything. I think that's the >> it doesn't incure international shipping fee >> but there's still premium on whatever is happening in the local you know it incures. Jeffrey can afford to buy petrol even if it were 1,500.

[00:14:08]No, >> it's for the sake of facts. For the sake of fact, he has a not defending or whatever. Just for facts reason and people understand how the system works.

[00:14:16]>> Is it 650,000 barrel >> Yes.

[00:14:18]>> production capacity per day.

[00:14:20]>> Yes.

[00:14:20]>> The NNPCL is not able to give him even up to half. In fact, recently they increased it. So he has to go and buy from somewhere. Yes. So even at some point greater percentage of what he refineses come from maybe WTI from Western Texas intermediate crude and every other place he buys. So that's a cost component. Yes. Then the one from Nigeria.

[00:14:40]>> Exactly. The one he gets from Nigeria doesn't incur transport.

[00:14:43]>> Well the Nigerian government hasn't given him subsidy from what we know which is what they chared for in the fiscal element. So >> it's not subsidy that is being is the component of the one he gets from Nigeria. Now that's not subsidy. We're talking about getting crude oil from Nigeria. Part of the crude oil works. It doesn't it doesn't have it doesn't own a ship. He doesn't own the crude.

[00:15:03]>> He has to buy from doesn't come from the Atlantic unlike the other.

[00:15:06]>> It doesn't matter. There's a premium.

[00:15:08]There's a premium of that. That's what I'm explaining to you.

[00:15:11]>> You're looking at it straight like that.

[00:15:12]It doesn't work like that. There's a there's still a premium because the >> is it the same value?

[00:15:17]>> Because the commodities for shipping from um you know countries outside the world. the same value.

[00:15:24]>> You can put the logistics in terms of differentials, but what we're saying is that crude is priced in dollars.

[00:15:30]>> Yes.

[00:15:32]>> Let me say it again. Crude is priced in dollars.

[00:15:34]>> So, he's not going to buy differently except the government use fiscal measures to cut down his own price.

[00:15:39]>> Yes. But our point is that the one that he gets from MNPC in Nigeria does not incure international shipping cost. So, however small that quantum, no, however small that quantum of crude that he's getting locally, that quantum >> should have less production cost than the one he's bringing from overseas because he's not incuring international shipping fees. That's all I'm saying.

[00:16:05]>> No, go ahead. I think I've explained myself. I don't know what else to explain. [laughter] >> I get you that it amortizes by the time you basically I I get what you're saying. I understand. But the larger issue is how do we bring soccer to Nigerian consumer >> which is the more important question.

[00:16:21]>> Absolutely. And so you know we will we begin to see Brent continue to slide as you know the agreement uh comes into place and so we will hope that >> hope >> people have we want to buy it lesser but let's see how it go.

[00:16:37]>> You think I don't want to buy lesser too and every Nigerian watching us today.

[00:16:40]>> It's super expensive. So when we put out these facts, it's not as if we're backing just to put the facts out so that people can know what the details are.

[00:16:49]>> Yes, indeed.

[00:16:49]>> Uh but I don't think anybody's even the government wants to buy it for cheaper.

[00:16:53]>> Absolutely.

[00:16:53]>> Uh >> we have other papers this morning, right?

[00:16:56]>> No, I think we we we Okay. Yeah. Bola, you can go to the next one.

[00:16:59]>> Yes. And the Vanguard ideally is next this morning. Of course, at the top of the name plate, I see that it also covers the oil conversation. But the big story from the vanguard is where we actually, you know, built upon at the start of the program this morning. The challenge of insecurity and the intervention that now seems to have, you know, gained a ground swell of support from 36 state governors uh for which they briefed the press yesterday. Uh look at the big story. in security.

[00:17:32]Governors seek swift establishment of state police. And there are some writers here say there's a need for state police to be constitutionally sound and align with federalism and citizens rights.

[00:17:46]State attorneys general to review proposed constitutional amendments frameworks for state police reiterate commitments to ongoing power sector reforms. Of course, that's another outcome of that meeting yesterday. But uh so much um alignments and conversations around state police. Uh but does that take us to where we actually need in terms of you know the out the outcomes, the results um quicker response time, the issue of welfare, uh the issue of you know faster quicker recruitment into the force uh at at the state level. now this time around and better management of crime the you know all important agelong conversation of um ratio of police to people will all of these be solved after you know we get round this constitutional uh debate on state police >> well clearly state police is an idea whose time has come and um one of the things I was pleased about yesterday from the governor's um report in terms of after the meeting was that they seem to be rather concerned about protecting the rights of citizens which to me has always been the bogey in the room in terms of state police has been concerns about abuses and if anyone is going to abuse it at all it will be the state governor. So the fact that they themselves are talking about ensuring that there's a constitutional framework that protects the rights of citizens that tells me that we are on the right track. Now the benefits of state policing are are you know you know the the the numerous too numerous to count.

[00:19:32]You mentioned a few in terms of the the the quickness of response. You know the fact that command and control is localized and most of the recruits are local people. There something else I also heard yesterday. I don't know if it was the IGP who said that um the establishment of state police will not lead to loss of jobs in the federal police cuz that was another big concern was that the rank and file of the Nigerian police force were getting concerned that if the state police the the the the um personnel ranks of the federal police will shrink and so there might be uh job losses but there was assurances yesterday that that's not going to happen. Um I'm also happy that attorneys generals of the 36 states are also coming together to look at the way to do the legal framework that will enable efficient operations while at the same time um not only just achieving the objective but minimizing abuse or or you know inhibiting intentional use of the state police for either political purposes, personal agendas, you know things as frivolous as um you know um VIP escorts and things like that which were abuses we saw with the federal police. I think by and large there will be a teething period when you do things like this that are completely radical changes from the norm. You go through a teething or a gestation period where there will be little bumps in the road.

[00:21:00]But we will learn as we go. That's not a reason not to do it out of a fear of the fact that you know there could be lapses here and there. So I think after the teething period is over for me the concerns are issues of training issues of funding issues of recruitment you know standardization of recruitment because we don't want a situation where you know the people being brought into state police are relatives of the political elite of the state or you know party favorites cuz we've seen that in some of the recruitment within the paramilitary you know the vigilant groups set up by the various states. We've seen it as a reward for those who um worked for the party in elections. As part of their reward, they allow them to nominate five or six people to be employed by you know the um vigilante you know um for forces.

[00:22:00]So that should not happen within state police to where it becomes a reward system for political um you know affiliation. It should be based on merit. It should be people who are screened properly, who are trained properly, who have no criminal record, who um have a background that can pass some type of screening. So um I look forward to it happening. I think it will help in this fight against insecurity. I think um when you have people who are recruited from your m from your ranks your neighbors you are more comfortable to go and tell them things.

[00:22:36]>> Wouldn't this constitutional debate and you know the eventual plans for recruitment of fresh hands into what will now be a stateless structure become tantamount to reinventing the wheel when we already have an outlook. There's the civil defense corps there's neighborhood watch. There's amote you know. So can't that now form a state police structure because there's already a template for that addresses the all important matter of funding at least for these institutions.

[00:23:08]>> I imagine that in many of the states that have these vigilante groups like you said amortagu those kind of things I imagine that they will form the foundation for the state police. You don't need to go and start from scratch again when you already have a pseudo um force that is structured for the exact same purpose. So I I see them subsuming. I see Amateoteco becoming the starting point for state police in the southwest. And so like you said, there's no need to go reinvent the wheel if you already have a semblance of something similar to what you're trying to achieve. You just more or less scale it up. You know, um places like things like Amote, for example, they can't really carry weapons. They're not constitutionally um [clears throat] authorized [music] to carry weapons. and people like Abbeoya that kind of group I think they allowed only Dane guns. So um it's a whole different perspective because for you to be allowed to carry arms you have to have some type of psychological grounding. So um the recruiting process will be totally different because state police have a lot more responsibility. They need to to um be more grounded. They need to know the law to some extent which perhaps Amote might not need to do. They need to know the law. They need to know the rights of every citizen so that they cannot just only protect them but not even be the one to violate those rights. You know like what's the probable cause for me to want to arrest you. I need to know what the law states in terms of me apprehending a suspect.

[00:24:43]So it's a different level. I wouldn't want us to conflate, you know, the informal paramilitary sector with the state police that is constitutionally mandated, you know. Um, so yes, we have the the underpinnings and we just build on that.

[00:25:01]>> So, let's go to New Telegraph as we wrap up. uh the name below the picture on the front page of the new telegraph FG to evacuate over 720 42 Nigerians in South Africa before June the 30th not much on match now we had a conversation with the South African yesterday sometime I'm trying to understand what exactly is the problem here because on one hand South Africa is more of a capitalist oriented economy which is free market uh when you talk about the jobs I don't know whether it's other Africans that take over their maybe public service jobs. I doubt because that is you know they are public service private sector some of these people that they are trying to chase around we we can talk about the issue of undocumented immigrants that's that's an issue but citizens being enforcers of undocumentation is a red flag on the second part is for instance Nigerians the typical Nigerian is not necessarily looking for a job it's going to create jobs >> so I don't know who is taking what is taking jobs from uh as far as this argument uh by some of these South Africans is concerned but you know politics has messed up a lot of these things because there's an election coming but what do you make of this June the 30th this is not a deadline set by government and when I listen to serapon it doesn't look like the president is talking like a president >> so what do you think is going on >> that that's exactly what I was going to say is that the government is complicit in this a South African government because they've not fought against this they've not uh uh put they let their feet down. They've not put the the hammer down and said this is illegal.

[00:26:38]You can't do it. You have to stop. And apart from the fact that it's illegal, it's immoral as well. I mean um in this global age that we live, everybody's migrating. Migration is a global uh uh who really comes from anywhere in particular. We all came from somewhere and if by virtue of birth or by whatever we happen to be able to claim a particular place, that doesn't mean we can exclude or we should exclude other people from elsewhere. Um, there's general xenophobic tension all over the world. I've said this before. You see, uh, places like the UK and the US tightening immigration rules. Even Canada has recently tightened its rules, but not to the point of, you know, the citizens, you know, breaking all laws and going out. I saw a video yesterday of I believe it was an African I don't know if it's a Nigerian but I saw a video on social media yesterday where they had the man on the floor and they were beating him with plastic chairs and they were actually trying to harm him and ma him to where I truly believe that lives are endangered in South Africa now if you're a foreigner your life is really under threat and so it behooves you to to protect yourself if it means leaving the country at this time um there's anti- There's there's anti-forigner sentiment that is rife in South Africa right now. The ostensible reason is they said we're taking their jobs, especially Nigerians. And as Jeffrey correctly said, we don't go there to seek jobs particularly. They won't employ us in the civil service anyway. And I doubt that we would go and be seeking jobs in the private marketplace. We are entrepreneurs by nature. And most Nigerians who are there generally are traders and and running various types of businesses that's contributing to their economy and employing their people as well. So for them to now give a deadline, I haven't heard the government speak up and say you can't do that and that that deadline is false is not enforcable and we will stand against it. I've not heard the government's been too quiet. So I appreciate the Nigerian government saying anybody who wants to leave, >> we will make it possible for you to do so. We've got 7 700 something people coming before the end of the month.

[00:28:42]>> Yeah. On this one, we give a lot of commendation to the Nigerian government who are not waiting for our people to be harmed and we we >> chase us out of your country. You're the one that loses. I'm sorry because we you can't hold us down.

[00:28:55]>> But brothers, we know what we did for South Africa. Uh but it's a generational gap problem and more importantly it's a political problem.

[00:29:02]>> It's a bit more than that Jeffrey. Have you listened to some of the sound bites?

[00:29:06]It's you know tantamount more towards hatred especially for Nigerians that you know and they're painting all Nigerians in South Africa with the same brush you know as being responsible for some of the social vices and it's it's a bit unnatural for Africans. Africans are really hospitable people. I've been to a number of other African countries although I haven't been to South Africa but this is really concerning and at the African Union level the leadership level it really should be addressed >> does the African Union still exist I didn't even hear hear his voice in this Iran >> with the greatest respect so that they will not deny me visa for the [laughter] >> I see African elders forum >> they just go gather and drink tea and go there [laughter] >> they don't have a bite they themselves are criticizing this R they need a total dismantling of that union and reorganizing it from scratch. In fact sometime I feel that AE equas sometimes more effective than AU >> than even AU.

[00:30:07]Thank you sir.

[00:30:09]Good morning Nigeria.