What has been on the lips of every Nigerian and those genuinely interested in governance for the past few days is the president Buhari’s failure to assent “The Electoral Act Amendment bill”. The bill in summary seeks to resolve issues regarding the use and adoption of modern technologies in the electoral process; the use of electronic voting technologies and the transmission of election results from polling units and the bill also prescribes a particular mode of primary election which is direct primaries for political parties to choose candidates seeking elective offices from their political parties.

Everyone has been asking constitutional lawyers and students of Nigerian law the one million dollar question “if the president has the constitutional power to not assent every bill sent to him after the bill has gone through the rigorous legislative process and what’s the next line of action after the bill has been vetoed”. 

This is what the law says:

After the bill was passed by the law makers, the bill was sent to the Mr. President for assent. The bill was sent to the presidency for assent  on the 19th of November, 2021 and this opens the president’s 30 days window to either assent the bill or decline his assent ie, the president had up till 19th of the December to either assent the bill and pass it into law or reject the bill. Mr. President failed to do so and the one month window (30 days) the president had to pass the bill has closed.

The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) provides in s.58(4) that the president of Nigeria has the period of 30 days to either assent or decline a bill sent to him by the legislative house. When the president declines to assent the bill he should communicate his reason(s) for refusal to assent the bill to the law makers.

Section 58 went further to provide in (5) that when the president fails to exercise this constitutional power of assenting a bill and passing a bill sent to him by the law makers into law for the period of 30 days as granted him the power by s.58(4), the National Assembly can and shall override that power of the president by passing the bill into law by themselves but by passing the bill again by two-third (2/3) majority.

Now, as you can see that the Mr. President has the power or either assent a bill or decline his assent to a bill and that power was granted him constitutionally in section 58(4) and the lawmakers also have the power to pass a bill into law when the president fails to assent a bill within 30 days and this power was constitutionally granted to the law makers by s.58(5).

The excerpts of s.58(4&5) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is hereby reproduced here for your perusal:

S.58(4. Where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within thirty days thereof signify that he assents or that he withholds assent.

S.58(5. Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.

Oracle has announced the acquisition of Cerner, a leading provider of digital information systems used to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities, in an all-cash tender offer worth about $28.3 billion.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in calendar year 2022, as Cerner stockholders are expected to tender a majority of Cerner’s outstanding shares in the tender offer.

Oracle said the $28.3 billion is immediately accretive to Oracle’s earnings and will continue on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year. It is expected to contribute substantially more to earning in the second fiscal year and thereafter, the company said, adding that Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for Oracle for years to come as Oracle expands Cerner’s business into many more countries throughout the world.

“Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes,” said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle.

Oracle is a leader in cloud technology, driving digital modernization that has helped to lower the cost of cloud infrastructure and IT in many sectors.

Before venturing into the health sector with the acquisition of Cerner, Oracle covered industries such as Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, Retail, Food & Beverage, Construction & Engineering, Manufacturing and Government. Oracle provides industry solutions that run the core operations for customers in the world’s largest industries.

On the other hand, Cerner is a leader in the healthcare IT industry with over four decades of experience in modernizing electronic health records, improving the caregiver experience, and streamlining and automating clinical and administrative workflows.

Both companies believe they complement each other and will work together to protect customer investments, transform healthcare and accelerate revenue growth.

“Healthcare is the largest and most important vertical market in the world—$3.8 trillion last year in the United States alone. Oracle’s revenue growth rate has already been increasing this year—Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for years to come as we expand its business into many more countries throughout the world. That’s exactly the growth strategy we adopted when we bought NetSuite—except the Cerner revenue opportunity is even larger,” said Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle.

Growing frictions in the healthcare industry present huge challenges to speed and efficiency of medical practitioners. A Mayo Clinic1 study quoted by Oracle says that physicians spend 1 to 2 hours on EHRs and desk work for every hour spent in face-to-face contact with patients, as well as an additional 1 to 2 hours of personal time on EHR related activities.

These companies believe, among other challenges, they work together.

“Oracle’s Autonomous Database, low-code development tools, and Voice Digital Assistant user interface enables us to rapidly modernize Cerner’s systems and move them to our Gen2 Cloud,” said Mike Sicilia, Executive Vice President, Vertical Industries, Oracle.

“This can be done very quickly because Cerner’s largest business and most important clinical system already runs on the Oracle Database. No change required there. What will change is the user interface. We will make Cerner’s systems much easier to learn and use by making Oracle’s hands-free Voice Digital Assistant the primary interface to Cerner’s clinical systems. This will allow medical professionals to spend less time typing on computer keyboards and more time caring for patients.”

Cerner’s acquisition is Oracle’s biggest transaction in 40 years. It also marks its ground-breaking move into healthcare.

FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), the investing arm of FSD Africa, has announced a £3 million ($3.9m) investment into IMFact, to provide working capital to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

IMFact was established in 2019 by Cardano Development (CD), an incubator and fund manager based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with financing from KfW on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).  It received initial capital from Rockefeller Foundation and Convergence. IMFact Kenya is the first regional hub to become operational and was developed by CD with funding support from Total Impact Capital Advisors (TIC).

As a “pooled receivables” factoring business, IMFact purchases bulk invoices from MSMEs for a mix of upfront cash and deferred payments. This gives the sellers access to cash without the need to follow up or wait for invoices to be paid, freeing up capital to buy new inventory, pay suppliers, and grow the business.

IMFact’s “pooled receivables” model differs from the pre-existing invoice discounting practice where the best receivables or invoices are cherry-picked by the financing company meaning the rest of the receivables pool cannot be used as collateral. It also provides faster access to working capital than the invoice discounting usually offered by banks because it does not require an upfront deposit or guarantees.

FSDAi’s funding, the first external equity investment in IMFact, comes at a critical time, with Covid-19 having placed undue pressure on MSMEs in many sectors, most notably in the healthcare sector. IMFact’s innovative solution is particularly timely owing to its ability to release additional cash flow that hitherto was locked up.

“Building back from COVID-19, boosting Kenya’s status as a hub for financial services, and creating jobs, are at the core of the UK’s Strategic Partnership with Kenya. We’re pleased to support this investment by FSDAi into IMFact, which will support SMEs in Kenya to build back from the challenges of the pandemic,” Jane Marriott, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, said

Under current plans, and subject to further fundraising, IMFact is projected to provide funding totaling £475m to around 570 businesses over the next five years and support around 5,600 jobs.

Many of the MSMEs expected to benefit are family-owned businesses including those that distribute medical equipment and pharmaceuticals to public and private organizations. However, IMFact will also be working with supply chain businesses in other industries.

Among the first to partner with IMFact is ABC Pharmacy Ltd, which supplies pharmaceutical products to pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics across the country but had faced challenges due to inadequate working capital.

Through IMFact’s financing, ABC Pharmacy is now making a transition in its business model by extending its credit terms to clients. With the increase in capital available, the company has been able to increase sales and grow its business. Dr. John Muturi, CEO of ABC Pharmacy said: “The financing from IMFact will be a game-changer for our future business operations.”

FSDAi’s ultimate objective in making the investment is to encourage the development of technology-enabled, “pooled receivables” financing across Africa. Our analysis shows Africa lags behind global averages for this kind of financing representing less than 1% of global volumes. On the continent, only South Africa has a markedly developed factoring model while the penetration in Kenya stands at less than 2%.

Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa Investments, said: “We are pleased to be working with IMFact to support the rapid financing of MSMEs in Kenya at a time when many are struggling to get access to working capital from traditional lending institutions.  We particularly look forward to seeing the impact the investment has on Kenya’s medical and pharmaceutical sector and hope to encourage further scaling of fintech solutions to solve the funding gap among smaller businesses.”

Peter Fiala, Chief Investment Officer, IMFact said the deal will open further opportunities for investment.

“IMFact is extremely pleased to have passed the extensive scrutiny of FSDAi’s due diligence process which has paved the way for them to become a cornerstone investor in IMFact following the successful financial close of our third-round capital raise. This investment paves the way for further capital investors, including debt, which will support the further deployment of capital to our fast-growing list of clients.”

From November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to December 10 being the Human Rights Day is the sixteen days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. It is a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world.

Undoubtedly, no society in existence can be said to be complete if a woman is yet to be found in it, regardless of its nature or size. We can testify to this fact by considering how a woman came into the world.

Of course it is no longer news that having created man, God the creator thought it wise to form a woman from the rib of a man. This was so because God realized what benefit a woman could be to a man in any society/arena he finds himself.

A family for instance – a nuclear family precisely, which remains the smallest society on earth, can never strive successfully or attain to its anticipated height if a woman is missing. Realistically, a family cannot be formed in the first place if a woman is nowhere to be found.

Having formed a family with the help of a woman, if she eventually dies, the affected family will live to suffer the vacuum her eternal demise has created. This implies that, psychologically, no widower can boast of being a happy man, especially a situation where the late wife left some kids behind.

Sometimes, even when the widower has gotten married to another woman, provided the late wife left some indelible footprints on the sand of time, he shall remain in an unending emotional trauma, perhaps for eternity. In such a situation, it is only his creator that can provide a lasting succour.

Ab initio, the womenfolk has been considered to constitute the integral part of the wider society. It is obvious that a social union cannot achieve an effective goal if the female members aren’t carried along. It might sound a bit controversial but the truth remains that nature has ordained a woman to be the most attractive being in any society she belongs to.

This is the reason whenever a social group of people intends to pay a courtesy visit to a certain office holder, if they fail to include at least a female member among the delegates, the said outing might end up fruitless. This is so, because the presence of a woman has a natural tendency of arresting the heart of any man irrespective of who he is.

The political terrain is not left out. Any man occupying a political position could boldly testify that his beloved wife is the reason he is thriving assiduously and successfully. This implies a woman is in charge of any leadership position, though her impact might seem invisible.

The advisory role, both morally and otherwise, a woman plays in the life of her spouse who occupies a political post supersedes whatever counsel he receives from his appointees, friends, or well-wishers.

Considering the church, which is an institution as well as one of the oldest societies across the globe, there’s no need reiterating that its sustainability from the outset has been possible owing to the effort of the womenfolk.

Noting that women are closer to the church, the easiest way to conscientize a married man, or any man whatsoever, toward the uplift of a church project is through the woman in his life, since it is obvious a woman has the key to a man’s heart.

Similarly, a woman has been proven to be more pious than a man. This is the reason she remains the engine room towards the uplift of the children’s spiritual lives. It is worth noting that someone or a family whose spiritual life is porous is apparently living like a tree without roots.

Frankly, the role of a woman both in her immediate and wider society cannot be overemphasized. From the aforementioned facts, it can be pinpointed that without a woman, the children cannot be properly raised, be it morally, academically, religiously, and what have you; a man’s social, political and emotional life shall remain incapacitated and in shambles; above all, the affected society would remain seemingly stagnant and retrogressive in its day-to-day activity.

In view of the above analysis, as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is our civic responsibility to ensure that women or girls whom are ubiquitously vulnerable owing to their nature are duly respected and safeguarded at all cost, with a view to strengthening our respective societies and the nation at large.

We can contribute our quotas, either individually or collectively, by acknowledging that women are the backbone of any society in existence. We can showcase our respective supports in all fora we find ourselves.

It is estimated that about 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence by a non-partner at some points in their lives. On the other hand, some studies show that up to 70% has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner.

It’s noteworthy that, either domestic or not, such form of violence has lingered in various countries, particularly Nigeria, thus making people insinuate that it is an acceptable tradition.

Violence against women/girls is a human rights violation. It’s a consequence of discrimination against women both in law and in practice, and of persisting inequalities between men and women. It arguably impedes progress in many areas of human endeavour including poverty eradication, curbing contagious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, strengthening peace and security, thereby crippling nation building.

The monster, which continued to be a global pandemic, is not inevitable. Prevention is possible and essential too. Everyone has a responsibility to prevent and end violence against women and girl children, starting by challenging the culture of discrimination that allows it to exist.

Legislation also has a vital role to play. There ought to be a stiff law to ensure that anyone at all levels found guilty of any violence against women/girls to include rape, battering, female genital mutilation, subjection into prostitution, or what have you, is duly brought to book. Violence like rape deserves life imprisonment, or any other form of capital punishment, because such ruthless act can lead to murder.

Parents and guardians on their part should equally cough up reasonable time for their wards, particularly the female folks, to enable them know their left from right when they grow up.

The various schools should as well revive their guidance and counselling unit towards providing the needed guideline and caution for both the male and female students. The schools can create a strong impact via this measure.

The religious bodies are not left out in this crusade. They are expected to devote much time in letting the worshippers realize the dangers inherent in the menace. They ought to equally create enough time to preach salvation rather than material prosperity as it is presently the case.

Women and society are interwoven. If you remove either of them, the other one would be ostensibly meaningless. Needless to say that the former is as crucial as the latter, thus must be treated as such at all times.