Another tale of two female ministers

Victoria Hammah

Victoria Hammah, Deputy Minister of Communications in Ghana has been fired by her boss for allegedly planning to make one million dollar from politics.

Her girly conversation over the phone inside the comfort of her car was allegedly taped by her driver last Thursday. He put it online and it went viral. The presidency got wind of it today and sent her packing in a one-paragraph release.

Over here a female minister has openly confessed to approving a transaction well over her powers and against budgetary allocation, among other infractions and she is still sitting pretty, all because we have a clueless, dithering president.

To Victoria Hammah, sorry babe. You were serving the wrong boss. You should have been in GEJ’s cabinet.

Police Affairs Minister got that right

Navy Capt. (Rtd) Caleb Olubolade,
Police Affairs Minister

Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade canvassed a point of view I have always reiterated on this blog: You need the public to fight crime.  

Hear the minister in Vanguard’s exclusive Front Page lead report on security challenge in the country today.

“Nobody can secure any community without intelligence. Without information, security agencies cannot succeed because they will be making wrong deployments and will be acting in different directions which will not help. Giving information is all that is needed and the security agencies will overcome.”

The minister should know. He was a Navy Captain.

The question is, 'what is being done to make information available to the forces? What is being done about inter-force cooperation and sharing of resources for crime-fighting?'

A key tool is the Emergency Number. Elsewhere in the world, it is the very first thing the government puts in place for efficient security. When a citizen sees something strange, the next thing is to whip out his phone and alert the police effortlessly and without spending a dime of his phone credit. 

More than a decade after access to phones has been liberalised by the GSM operators, and two years into GEJ’s govt, we still await a national, toll-free emergency number.

Lagos State has had to take its fate in its own hands by flagging off its own Emergency Numbers: 112 and 767. A more universally known number, 911 was apparently added quietly, recently.

But this is a project that is better managed by the Federal Government for uniformity. A single toll-free number should be used across the country. That way, promoting it will be easy, and recall will be much better.

A more serious federal government needs only a few months to make this functional. But a clueless one like we currently have will pussy-foot forever, while precious lives are lost to terrorism and other forms of crime.

Policeman who killed man in front of his family says ‘Sorry, I did it’

Corporal Gabriel Credit: OnlineNews

 

This must be the first time this is happening in Nigeria. The police corporal, Corporal Gabriel, who shot a man in front of his daughter last Saturday, has admitted to The Guardian that he did it. 

The victim was reportedly taking his wife and daughter home when he saw policemen around the car of his friend on their street. He alighted in front of his house and walked to the police even though his wife protested. Next thing was that he was shot twice.

In reaction, some police image maker had told the press that the policeman was attacked by hoodlums who wanted to take his gun. How does that sit with the statement of the man in the centre of it all now.

Interestingly too, the police corporal is not labelling the unfortunate man a robber.

He said: “I actually killed Azeez Omotosho, aka Panel. It was the Devil’s work; Please, forgive me. I was not myself. I WAS DRUNK when I perpetrated the act.

For being truthful, does he deserve leniency? And what should happen to the leader of his team who knew he was drunk and allowed him to wield a gun?

 

BlackBerry Abandons Sell-Off Plans - CEO Resigns

 

Latest news from ­BlackBerry is that the planned sale of the company has been ditched. The company now will seek an additional $1 billion in funding. Its CEO, Thorsten Heins, has resigned.

According to CellularNews, the company's largest single shareholder, Fairfax Holdings, which proposed a US$4.7 billion buyout of the company was unable to secure the necessary funding for its highly conditional offer.

Other rumoured bidders also failed to materialise by the Monday deadline.

Instead, the company will raise $1 billion in fresh funding, of which a quarter will be provided by Fairfax Holdings.

Former Sybase CEO, John Chen will serve as interim chief executive while a long term replacement is found.

Another company director, David Kerr has also resigned.

BlackBerry currently has a market value of around US$5 billion and also has some US$3 billion in cash and equivalents. The fresh funding will lift its cash to around $4 billion, giving whoever takes on the role of CEO more time to try and turn the company around.

 

That Uke vigil tragedy

Venue of the ill-fated vigil, Uke, Anambra.
Credit: Informationng

 

Warning to APGA and APC warlords: I belong to neither. So save your bullets.

Did anyone else see the irony in the promise of Governor Obi to send 20 people to Jerusalem while speaking at the ill-fated Uke Vigil? A couple of hours later over 20 people were dead.

With the benefit of hindsight, a pertinent question for the governor should have been: “Bros, is it the Jerusalem here on earth you want to send people to or the one in heaven?” May the souls of the dead rest in peace.

In my opinion, there are two key take-away lessons from this incident:

1) Church leaders should discourage politicians from mounting the pulpit. They can attend and worship quietly like anyone else, but no speech-making. Naija politicians cannot pass up an opportunity to play politics, and the church is meant to accommodate all shades of political opinions.

2.) Not all venues are suitable for worship sessions that draw thousands of people. For safety reasons, some venues are simply unsuitable because of access issues. Some years ago, we read in the British press how Pastor Ashimolowo’s church in London was denied a permit to build a worship centre in a particular area.

It was easy to dismiss the affected council as anti-Gospel, but they actually knew what they were doing. Their explanation was simply that the area was built to accommodate a certain number of vehicular traffic per day and that the proposed church would draw higher vehicular traffic and upset the council’s plans.

We need to reach that level of sophistication where we can dimension the number of human and vehicular traffic for a particular area and use that to determine suitability for huge gatherings, religious or not.

Even though we do it all the time here, it is never a good safety practice to host hundreds of people in a space that has only one entry and exit or narrow access.    

Beware of uniformed hustlers at Berger

If you drive through Ojodu Berger Bus Stop on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, take special precaution not to pick up or drop people on either side of the bus stop.

If you must, go further away from the bus stop and ‘shine your eyes’ very well.

LASTMA officials and policemen have of late turned the bus stop to ‘work-chop’. Remember the year is drawing to a close. People are getting desperate for money for the Yuletide. 

Actually, there are ‘No Parking’ signs on either side of the road, but if you reason that they are only meant for commercial drivers who park indiscriminately and not private car owners who drop off people in seconds and zoom off, you will be making a mistake.

They will pounce on you and quote Lagos State Traffic law that specifies a fine of N35, 000 for such an offence.  It will then be up to you to offer something impressive enough as a bribe for them to let you run along to meet your appointments.  

A police van blocked me yesterday as I tried to pick my wife. The waiting could not have been up to a second, because she had not even opened the door when they came from their hiding.

One of the boys rudely told me I had committed a traffic obstruction offence by picking someone at Berger. I was to follow them to their office somewhere to pay my fine. At his command, one of them got into my car and was piloting me to the location.

I got off by demanding to see their most senior officer, to whom I introduced myself and explained that I did not park, but was to pick my wife for less than a minute.

He sent me off with a warning in espirit de corp. (I spent some of my early years in journalism on the police/judicial beat.)

 

Hundreds queue as iPad Air hits the stores today

iPad Mini and iPad Air  Credit: Daily Mail

Your iPad just got a generation older!

Apple's new iPad Air becomes available in 41 countries today, pulling hundreds of fans to the front doors of Apple Stores, jostling to be among the first to get their hands on the high-end device.

Customers in Australia and Japan were among the first to get their hands on the 9.7-inch tablet as stores opened at 8am in each country.

Philip W. Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, unveiled the newly named iPad Air earlier this month.

It is the fifth 9.7-inch model to be sold by the Californian firm and is 20 per cent thinner than the iPad 4, with a 5MP camera.

Schiller also unveiled the new iPad mini which has a 7.9-inch Retina display for the first time, plus 10 hours battery life.

The iPad Air also went on sale on Apple's website in various regions at midnight local time, although reports claim only the Hong Kong store has sold out.

The release is part of a double-launch strategy in which the iPad Air is released today followed by the iPad mini 'sometime in November.'

Apple has not officially announced when the new 7.9-inch model goes on sale, although rumours claim it could launch on 21 November in time for Thanksgiving in the U.S and ahead of Christmas.

Reports suggest the new iPad Mini is delayed because of production problems surrounding the device's new Retina Display.

Apple shipped around 8.9 million of its first-generation iPads earlier this year, and even this wasn't enough to satisfy demand.

If Apple does ship only 3 million new devices - around a third of the old amount - it could leave at least two thirds of customers disappointed as the IHS iSuppli report predicts demand for the new tablet will exceed 9 million.

BlackBerry records 20 Million BBM Downloads in First Week

 

BlackBerry has announced that it added over 20 million new BBM users during the first week of the official launch of its Android and iPhone apps.

I have joined the list, even though I have not been able to log in. I can’t seem to remember the email and password I used to register my Blackberry.  That’s the trouble with having several email accounts.

Consequently, I can’t share any experience as to how good or bad it is, or whether it’s worth your time to get it too.

But judging by the way people are rushing the app, it must be working well. According to the information the company release, 10 million users downloaded the app in the first day. There are now over 80 million users of the company’s  OTT platform.

 
BBM was the top free overall app in 35 countries in Google Play and in 107 countries in the App Store, and continues to maintain a strong position in key markets such as Canada, the US, the UK, Indonesia and much of the Middle East, the company says.

In addition, this past weekend, BlackBerry was able to remove the waiting list so that Android and iPhone users can now immediately download, sign in and start using BBM without having to wait.

In the coming months, BlackBerry will deliver BBM Video calling, BBM Voice calling and BBM Channels - a new community building service to connect BBM users even more broadly - to Android and iPhone users.

Oduah-gate: Scandal that won't go away

Stella Oduah

Weeks after the scandal was blown open, the N255m bullet-proof scandal rocking the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah has refused to go away.

It is not for want of trying. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that this minister is one hell of a strong, connected Naija babe. She’tanda gidigba’ and has thrown virtually everything, including the kitchen sink, into the fray. But the scandal has simply rebounded every day.

She has foot soldiers to aggressively engage with everyone at all possible battle fronts: Street protest level, Facebook, Twitter, Chat forums, listservs; just name it. Intimidations, insult-hauling, ethnic cards, all are fair game to her apologists.

As a result of her efforts, this has become one of the most divisive battles that the civil society has fought in recent times. For instance, the FOI listserv wherein members are typically unanimous in agitation for justice in such cases is visibly polarised along ethnic lines.

People who have made name fighting official corruption are curiously firing emails to colleagues to take things easy with Madam Minister.

In spite of all, as of this morning, Oduah-gate is still the lead of The Punch. Kudos to all who have remained vociferous in insisting that this case is not brushed under the carpet.

And to Madam Minister and her apologists who can’t simply fathom why this case won’t go away in spite of their best efforts, there is a reason:

‘When your problem is bullet-proof, assassinating it is always extremely difficult.’

- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Hehehehe!

Related Stories

It's not a fair world
Oduah-gate: More rot revealed

911 emergency number active in Lagos?

 

I’m cheered this morning by the experience of a colleague yesterday in Lagos. Area boys seeking to collect ‘rent’ (owo ile) from the owner of a 20 feet container unleashed terror on their Ketu neighbourhood, maiming people and vandalising parked vehicles.

In the heat of the mayhem, he couldn’t remember any emergency number other than the 911 ingrained in his brain from watching American films, and he dialled it just for the sheer hell of it.

Surprisingly, a dispatcher picked it, got the particulars of the area, including the nearest bus stop, promised that the nearest police station would be contacted immediately and, wait for this, thanked him for remembering to dial 911. About an hour later, the police stepped in to rein in the miscreants and restore order.

Forget that it took roughly an hour for the police to arrive, enough time for many lives to have been lost; but the interesting thing to me is he dialled 911 and anybody picked it at all here in Nigeria.

That number has not been listed anywhere in Nigeria as an emergency number to the best of my knowledge. I was in so much disbelief that I asked him to show me his call log, and there it was.

I know of 767 and 112 for Lagos and recall that another colleague experienced a fire incident years ago and dialled 112 and nothing happened. The call was picked but there was no emergency response. Even though the Alausa Fire Station was just about four minutes away to their residence, they very wisely continued to battle the fire themselves till they triumphed.  

Another interesting part of this 911 story is that the call was not billed. My colleague said he checked his balance after the roughly five minutes’ call and it remained the same. Is that cool or what?

I’m keen to know who is behind this 911 number thingy. Is it the much awaited national emergency number project that has gulped billions is yet to fly or is this the baby of Lagos State government?

Kudos to whoever is behind this. At least we are getting somewhere.

Security is the job of everybody, not the armed forces alone. The major hindrance to the war against terror in Nigeria is that the government thinks the armed forces alone can win it. Nowhere in the world is such a war won without the collaboration of the public.

When people are able to give information instantaneously, conveniently and without worrying about depletion of their phone airtime, we will begin to record giant strides against all forms of criminality in Nigeria. 

Additional info

Readers on Facebook and other platforms have confirmed that this 911 is actually working in Lagos. You may wish to save it and put it on speed-dial on your phone. You may never know when you will need it.

I may post some of the feedback from the other platforms later.

Related Stories

Where is our emergency number?
National Emergency Number 112 Not Ready 7 Years Later  

Oduah-gate: More rot revealed

Nigeria we hail thee!

According to Thisday this morning, Contract papers with Coscharis Motors listed the two armoured cars as costing N225 million on the Goods Received Note dated August 14. However, on NCAA’s side, the sum of N255 million was approved.  A whopping N30 million no get fixed address o!

It's not a fair world!

Princess Stella Oduah

It is not a fair world, people.

I recall today how a world class professor and renowned paediatrician was disgraced out of office as Health Minister in 2008 because her ministry shared unspent part of their 2007 budget as bonus.

The moment the news filtered out, the late President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered EFCC to arrest and investigate her.  She and her deputy were relieved of their posts three weeks later upon conclusion of investigations. All senior members of the ministry from the Perm. Sec down were suspended pending full investigation.

The minister was later arraigned in court like a common criminal, {over what?}. Imagine the shame. I personally felt for the woman who was described by some analysts as a victim of political naivety.

Fast forward to Oduah-gate. Another female minister is accused of corruption. For the first two weeks or so, President Jonathan Goodluck pretended not to know what was going on.

When the noise became deafening, he set up a committee to investigate, while the woman jets out to Israel to be by his side as he signs some docs. EFCC has not been disbanded o.  Of course, we realise that GEJ needs to allow EFCC to focus on chasing down and visiting cruel justice on corrupt landlords and tenants in every nook and cranny of Nigeria at this point in time!

And they say GEJ is not a joke!  

I told you so!

President Goodluck Jonathan

 

To my beautiful friends who had faith in GEJ’s national confab, I hate to tell you this, but I will tell you nonetheless: ‘I told you so!’

Oga Jona has come out to say that the recommendations of the Confab will be subject to the approval of the NASS.

 

In essence, if the Confab looks at the profligacy at the NASS and decides to give its members a take-it-or-leave-it salary of N250k per month and ...no other allowance, this and other recommendations will then be passed on to Fat Cat Aminu Tambuwal and Super Fat Cat David Mark, and their colleagues at the NASS.

 

They will then critically look at these recommendations and graciously and unanimously approve them without any reservations because they have miraculously met with God on the way to Damascus and are now born again!

He he he he!

Losing souls for Christ!

 

Xtian wristbands

Colourful, plastic Christian wristbands worn these days by Christians, old and young, esp. of the RCCG fold are becoming more acceptable especially in the urban centres. It is originally a good idea. It enables people identify publicly with their faith and possibly win a soul or two for Christ.

I understand people have given testimonies at the Redemption Camp as to how the bracelets were used as a reinforcer  of faith in challenging times and they overcame. It’s all very good.

However, of late, I’m wondering if the bracelets are a bright idea after all. Two quick incidents:

Less than a month ago, I was at The Guardian to see someone. Parking space was a problem, as usual, so I waited for a while until a man was ready to go out. I positioned myself to take his space. The gentleman was however having difficulties driving out, so the guards asked me to move further away to let him through. The moment he drove out and I was backing to enter the space, a lady who was just coming rushed in, and tried to enter, but the guards blocked her way and explained to her somebody else had been waiting for the space.

From where I sat, I was hearing her noise, asking the guards to move away as she was determined to take the space whatever they said. After holding out a little more, the guards gave in to her because she practically made it impossible for everyone else to move in or out and had some part of her car on the road. The guards appealed to me to let her go in and promised to look for another space for me. Lucky for me, somebody else moved out and I parked.

At the reception, I saw the lady, signing the visitor’s register, and prominently on her left hand was the colourful Christian wristband. Were I not a Christian, what would I have thought?

Some two weeks ago, I was at LASUTH when a patient who had been long in a ward was discussing with a new arrival and said: “All the nurses in this ward are really nice, except two. In no time, the two nurses she referenced showed up for their duties. In a few hours they had claimed their title of being the most unfeeling, most impersonal and rude nurses in the ward.

By some weird coincidence, they each wore a plastic bracelet which had Christian messages emblazoned on them.

Lest you jump to conclusions, it was all very simply a coincidence.  This is not about RCCG or any church. But the point is, people who elect to publicly advertise God need to be extra careful the way they conduct themselves in public. What many of them end up doing unknowingly is demarketing the faith they are so very willing to publicly profess . It’s just like when you have a Winner’s sticker on your windscreen and you are driving like a maniac, running people off the road and giving them fuck you sign when they complain. You are not winning souls. You are losing them.

Cleveland kidnapper died while seeking sexual satisfaction

Ariel Castro

Ever heard of auto-erotic asphyxiation? I didn’t think you had.

Well, apparently in the western world, there are some people who achieve sexual satisfaction from briefly choking themselves into unconsciousness. They later come round and resume their daily activities as if nothing has happened.

Latest indications, according to Daily Mail, are that the Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro did not willingly kill himself. In the absence of a woman, he was merely trying to amuse himself before things went fatally wrong.

A report from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction says Castro's pants and underwear were pulled down to his ankles when he was found.

It also says Castro did not leave a suicide note and 'multiple levels of assessment' did not find tendency toward suicide.

When you think you have heard it all, something else pops up. There is no end to the disorders that afflict these ‘oyinbos’, sha.

In our part of the world, when is any choking, it usually involves an enemy, and it is not so that the enemy would be sexually stimulated. It is usually so that the enemy will be dead!

Fear of flying in Nigeria

The gentleman who sat by my side on an Arik flight from Abuja to Lagos  on Monday registered himself with me as a grouchy old man.

He would not respond to greetings. Even when I offered to help him reach up to the baggage hold to keep his suit holder (he is short), he just looked at me as if I was not there, and continued to struggle. I concluded he was a frustrated fellow and left him alone.

For the entire flight he looked like one fed up with life, even though he accepted the inflight snack and ate it with aplomb.

The moment our flight touched down, this same gentleman turned to me and shared a joke, smiling broadly. I had to look around to be sure I was the one he was talking to. I was.

I took another look at this man, and he was literally lit up with smiles all over. Then, it hit me. He had nothing against me. His grouchy behaviour of the previous 40 minutes was his own way of dealing with the terror of flying in a Nigerian commercial plane post Associated Airlines crash.

Blackerry Agrees to $4.7 Billion Buyout from Major Shareholder

Oh dear! Blackberry top guns could not pull the company out of the woods. They are selling it to a shareholder. Fairfax Financial Holdings, which has the largest share in the company has made an offer and is seeking to take it private in a deal that values the smartphone manufacturer at just US$4.7 billion -- a far cry from its peak in 2009 when the company was worth US$84 billion. How art the mighty fallen!

BlackBerry confirmed the deal. The directors of the company are recommending the offer.

The consortium is offering US$9 per share to buy the company - a premium on the share price earlier today, but below the average of US$10.60 per share the company was trading at before it announced last week's billion dollar loss and 4,500 redundancies.

At the end of the second quarter, Blackberry had around US$2.6 billion in cash and equivalents in the bank -- so the net cost to the buyers of the company comes in at just US$2.1 billion.

Fairfax, which owns approximately 10 percent of BlackBerry's shares, intends to contribute its stake into the transaction.

Prem Watsa, Chairman and CEO of Fairfax, said: "We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees. We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."

The due diligence on the company is expected to be completed in early November, and the company is free to seek out competing offers from other buyers. Considering the patent pool owned by the company, and its large BBM consumer base, other handset and service providers may be keen to launch a hostile counter bid.

BlackBerry Introduces the New BlackBerry Z30 Smartphone

Blackberry Z30

For all of you gadgets gatherers, a new toy is in town: BlackBerry Z30, which the company says is its fastest ever model.

Featuring BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2, the new smartphone comes with a 5" display and the largest battery yet on a BlackBerry smartphone.

"The new BlackBerry Z30 smartphone builds on the solid foundation and engaging user experience of the BlackBerry 10 platform with features like the powerful BlackBerry Hub, its exceptional touchscreen keyboard and industry leading browser," said Carlo Chiarello, Executive Vice President for Products at BlackBerry.

The hardware comes with a 1.7 GHz processor with quadcore graphics and new antenna technology that dynamically tunes reception to give users better connectivity in low signal areas.

The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone will roll out from select carriers and retailers around the world beginning next week in the UK and Middle East, and all other regions going into the holiday season. Specific pricing and availability will be announced by partners at the time of their respective launches.

Subject to mobile network approvals, BlackBerry OS version 10.2 is expected to be available beginning mid-October.

 

How transparent are we, really?

Just saw a vacancy advert for a driver at the British Council. Employer's expectations were clearly spelt out and what the would-be employee would be entitled to from salary to working hours and deductible tax were spelt out. With that level of transparency, there'll be no surprise for either party. Plus the recruitment process is not complicated by people who already enjoy far more enhanced conditions of service with their current employers, but are blindly fighting to get what they don't need.

In Nigeria, many blindly fight for a post and displace people who genuinely need it only to receive letters of appointment with offers far below what they are enjoying with their subsisting employers. Why do we do that stupid thing?

Why is it that Nigerian employers advertise vacancies full of their own expectations and not a word of what the employee should expect? In some societies you cannot advertise a position without stating the starting basic salary range. You cannot advertise a product without putting its price, even if it is asking price.

What's wrong with us? Is this to do with some intrinsic deviousness in us or some inherent tendency of a typical Nigerian to cheat, short-change or 419 his fellow men and women? Isn’t this some form of corruption we fail to recognise? Can we as a country be a little more transparent and fair to ourselves?

How my mother sold my baby

The suspects. Inset: baby and mother. Credit: Punch

 Seventeen-year-old Blessing Godspower,  on Wednesday narrated how her mother sold her (Godspower) eight-month-old baby.

The mother, Onyinyechi Nwabueze, 38, was paraded by the police at the  ‘A’ Division of the Plateau State Police Command.

Policemen from the division, led by the Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Victor Dimkpa, a Chief Superintendent of Police, had rescued the baby, Chiamaka, in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The story was exclusively reported by PUNCH Metro on Friday.

Blessing, who was staying with her mother at Rukuba Road area of Jos North, was allegedly put in the family way by her boyfriend.

After Chiamaka was delivered, Godspower’s mother, who was not comfortable with the development, allegedly decided to get rid of the baby.

According to Blessing, on July 19, her mother sent her on a phony errand in order to effect the “diabolical” act.

She said, “My mother sent me on an errand, but when I came back I asked for my baby and my mother asked, ‘which baby?’ She feigned ignorance and at that point I started crying and reported the incident to the Police.”

Police Commissioner, Mr. Chris Olakpe said, “After the mother sent her daughter away, she (Nwabueze) stopped a tricycle and took the baby to the first receiver, one Eucharia Anyaegbu. Anyaegbu transferred the baby to the second receiver, Rita Maduako, who finally sold the baby to 53-year-old unmarried woman, Grace Nnadozie.”

Nnadozie, however, told our correspondent that after she applied to an orphanage home for a child without any result for the past two years, she sought Anyaegbu’s help.

She said  she gave N500,000 to Anyaegbu for the baby. Anyaegbu gave N350, 000 to Maduako.  Maduako was to give N200,000 to the baby’s grandmother.

 

But Nwabueze denied that she sold the baby.  She said her daughter was very wayward, so she decided to give the baby out to somebody else who would take proper care of her.

She said, “How can I sell my granddaughter. My daughter is not capable of taking care of the baby and I decided to give her to somebody who will take proper care of her.”

Nwabueze explained that she lost her husband in 2007 and since then, she and the six children she had with him, had been finding things difficult.

- Punch