The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

  • Again on State of Emergency

    When President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in May last year, he had justified that decision on the overriding need to decisively quell the rebellion of the insurgents. Security agencies involved in the operations were ordered to “take all necessary action, within the ambit of their rules of engagement to put an end to the impunity of the insurgents and terrorists”.

    Jonathan said the actions of the insurgents amounted to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten its territorial integrity.

    Then, many of those who had been fed up with the recalcitrance and murderous impunity of the insurgents had wanted full-scale state of emergency such that would involve the dissolution of all democratic structures in the three states. For such category of people, the measure fell short of actions needed to bring the insurgency to a conclusive end.

    Apparently, Jonathan had avoided that option to stave off the obvious political motive that was bound to be ascribed to it. Many had hoped that the measure would decisively tame the monster and return peace to the three troubled states in no distant time.

    But this has not been quick in coming as many intervening variables brought in a lot of complications into the battle. Matters were not helped by the renewed escapades and sophistication in the operations of the insurgents such that have questioned the value and continued relevance of the state of emergency measure. With the complications in the activities of the insurgents and the inability of our security agencies to end the rebellion, the president has had to approach the national assembly twice for a further extension of the measure. Though the second request was very contentions as it was debated by the National Assembly, it was eventually approved.

    The second extension expired last month and not much has changed. Jonathan has approached the assembly for the third time for a further extension. This time around, the request has run into troubled waters. Those opposed to further extension contend that if previous ones failed to achieve the desired objective, it is needless approving another one. They further argue that there are enough provisions in the constitution for the deployment of troops to troubled areas which the president should take advantage of to deal with the situation. These views cannot be discounted.

    For now, the House of Representatives has spurned the request. But the Senate acted differently by inviting security chiefs to brief it on the desirability and continued relevance of a further extension. After grilling the security chiefs for about eight hours, the senate through its committee chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe said security heads insisted further extension was necessary for a quick resolution of the insurgency in the affected states. He said the interactions were frank and detailed as they looked into the constraints of the military in dealing with the insurgency and also their budgetary provisions.

    Abaribe said the senate was “very impressed with the response from the military and the military has shown itself to be capable of dealing with the insurgency”. The senate also found out there were some problems which had to do with troop levels and the level of equipment as well as other ancillary problems of fighting an asymmetrical warfare as opposed to a conventional one.

    It is clear from the impressions of the senators that they are very sympathetic to the case of the security heads. Abaribe gave this conclusion out when he said the senate will do all within its powers to support the Nigerian military bring this insurgency to a quick resolution. It is not expected to do less. But he was quick to add that the question of state of emergency was not tabled at that meeting.

    The senate acted very responsibly by engaging the security heads on this very sensitive matter. The security of a nation especially one faced with the onslaught of religious insurgents must be considered with utmost sense of responsibility. This is more so with the daring moves of the insurgents to take over as many villages as possible in the affected states.

    It is true the government has not been very decisive in confronting this uprising. It is also no less correct that fighting an asymmetrical war can be that difficult. There are equally challenges arising from the fact that this is the first time our military are coming to terms with fighting terrorism. There are therefore bound to be some teething problems. These can be admitted.

    It would appear mistakes were made in handling the phenomenon at its initial stages. Jonathan was not properly guided by allowing the matter fester and degenerate. Obasanjo made this point then when he recommended his draconian approach to the killing of policemen in Odi, Bayelsa State to Jonathan though he later prevaricated on the matter. But his message was clear. Events seem to have borne it out.

    If Jonathan had decisively crushed that rebellion then, he would have saved himself and the nation the trouble of these endless requests for state of emergency extension. But we have gone beyond these now. The issue is what to make of the request before the National Assembly for a further extension. The military heads who interfaced with the senate said they needed the extension to bring a quick resolution to the insurgency. Fine! But what do they really mean by a quick resolution within that time frame? Does it mean within the period, they would definitely conclude the war against the insurgents? If that is the case, what is there that has changed between now and the time the previous approval subsisted that makes them feel this way?

    We may not have answers to these posers as they are serious security issues the public cannot be let into. But they should serve as serious challenge to the military if and when the National Assembly approves the request for further extension.

    The poser is whether the National Assembly should approve the request or not given the issues that have been canvassed? There are two options: approve or disapprove. Decision theorists are concerned with the rational choice open to the National Assembly especially now the military heads said they need the extension to conclude the war. If the extension is granted, chances are the military could conclude the war within the time frame. If on the other hand they are denied approval, there is every thing to suggest that the war may have no end.

    Rational calculations demand that the choice available to the National Assembly is to approve the request for further extension despite whatever reservations there are. It also instructs we minimize our losses in the event of the worst outcome. The nation will lose nothing by further extension. But it stands to lose immeasurably if extension is denied and the war degenerates. It is in the overriding national interest that the military should be given all the powers they need to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Anything less, is an obvious invitation to anarchy.

  • Okonjo-Iweala’s austerity measures

    Okonjo-Iweala’s austerity measures

    Fiscal policies to cut down spending on wastages, luxury goods and conspicuous consumption are not entirely new to this country. They were very familiar slogans when the military held sway in our politics. In the early 80s or thereabout, the word ‘austerity’ was such a household name that even the illiterate had to add their own accent to it. That was the time all manner of goods including the ones we had comparative advantage to produce flooded the shores of the country.

    It became a regular feature of every national budget then to either ban or impose high tariffs on these goods to discourage the unbridled thirst for things that are foreign and encourage domestic production. This was the period tooth picks and all manner of materials with local substitutes were dumped on the country.

    The adoption of some form of autarky as a model for economic development has before now, been realized in this country. What has been lacking is policy consistency in this regard. Overtime, the country has vacillated from one policy direction to the other. From import restrictions and bans, we are now left with trade liberalization as a result of the globalization of the world economy. Ironically, this is a country where economic principles have oftentimes not been able to follow predictable patterns ether on account of pervading corruption or the ‘Nigerian factor’.

    When last week therefore, minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala rolled out measures to stave off the effects of the falling oil price, she was only re-enacting the very familiar era of austerity measures. According to her, the measures were a response to events in the international oil market because of the importance of the commodity to the country’s economy.

    They among others included, the freezing of foreign travels for civil servants, slashing of the budget oil benchmark and drop in capital projects financing. She said the decline had given additional impetus to the federal government to focus on non-oil revenue generation. “This economy has to stop talking about oil”, she said. The collection target for the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS has therefore been upped from its current N75 billion this year to N160 billion in 2015.

    Investment in infrastructure, job creation and security will not change, but there will be prioritized investment in those with significant economic impact such as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Second Niger Bridge and rail projects. Okonjo-Iweala said she was not sure the direction to take with taxes but a key initiative on the revenue side is a surcharge on luxury items.

    There will be surcharges on such luxury goods as champagne, private jets and yachts so that the wealthy can contribute more to the national treasury.

    Ordinarily, the new measures announced by the minister would have qualified as a veritable step in a right direction. But they cannot be so ascribed. This is so for the simple fact that the reasons adduced to support their introduction at this point in time, are nothing new. Neither are the issues raised entirely novel. That we can no longer afford to solely depend on oil revenue for our national survival is a trite statement. So also is the realization of the need to diversify our national revenue base.

    When therefore the minister came out to rehearse these well known facts, not many a Nigerian heard anything anew. Rather, it was more of self indictment since the impression conveyed was that the minister was either coming to terms with that reality so belatedly or failed to address the matter until the current decline in oil price compelled her. Did we really have to wait for the current fall in oil price before realizing the imperative of the measures? That is the moot issue that has arisen from the pontification of Okonjo-Iweala on the matter of cutting spending on luxury goods and exploring alternative sources of revenue generation.

    Moreover, it is obvious from the panicky measures that there have been lapses and tardiness in plugging some of the drain pipes in our national revenue drive. Must it take the decline in oil price to detect some of unwholesome practices that go on within the civil service in the name of foreign training and sundry foreign travels? I do not think it should be so.  Neither can it be reasonably argued that it is the fall in price that opened the eyes of the government to the abuse such travels has been subjected to overtime. There could be more of such abuses within the public service which the government should identify and plug without waiting for another slide in the price of oil.

    It is still heart-refreshing that our government is seriously concerned about the danger posed to the nation’s economy by our sole dependence on oil revenue. Much of the current political problems facing the nation have their roots in the unbridled quest to control this sole revenue source for the purposes of what erudite scholar, Richard Joseph called prebendalism. The desire to stave off the omnipotence of the central authority in revenue control and diversify its base has been the strongest case for devolution of powers and fiscal autonomy for the states.

    It is good a thing that government is now worried at the yawning gap between the rich and the poor through its decision to impose higher taxes on goods and services consumed by the former. Ironically, many of those flaunting their wealth through the acquisition of private jets and yachts came about their current positions through the inefficiencies in the management of our oil wealth. We cannot forget in a hurry, the monumental fraud that had gone on in the system in the name of payments for oil subsidy when no fuel was supplied by sundry unscrupulous persons and contactors. It is a credit to this administration that some level of sanity has been restored to the subsidy payment regime. There are more of such leakages that have to be plugged if this country is to make real progress.

    The stupendous wealth paraded by some Nigerians in the face of want by a majority of the people has become a big scandal that cannot be allowed to continue.  Ironically, the glaring inefficiencies in our tax system have left many of such people paying little or no taxes at all. Ways have to be devised to ensure that this category of people pay taxes commensurate with the wealth they parade aside from the taxes on private jets, champagne and yachts.

    However, the decision to increase internal revenue generation from N75 billion in the current year to N160 billion in 2015 is too ambitious. It is only hoped that the poor will not be worse for it through the imposition of a multiplicity of taxes and rates by the various levels of government. Good a thing, the cut in capital projects will not affect investments in infrastructure, job creation, the second Niger Bridge and the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

    The government is worried about the nation’s sole reliance on oil revenue for its development projects. Ironically, our leaders’ financial conduct has failed to take into account the fact that this commodity is exhaustible. The current slide in oil price should serve a sufficient signal that the days of oil boom are fast running out. The choice is either to deploy our current earnings to lift the country in the development matrix or live in penury for ever when oil is gone.

  • Schools as terror targets

    It has since been recognized that the driving force for terrorists in their selection of targets is the desire to achieve maximum impact and instill fear in the society. The objective is to swell public anger and disenchantment with the government for its inability to live up to its primary function of securing lives and property.

    That accounted for the selective suicide bomb attacks on churches and other places of worship during the early days of the Boko Haram insurgency. The attack on the United Nations building in Abuja had similar motivation.

    The objective then was to precipitate a state of panic among Christians and the international community by instilling fear on them. And with their weird avowal to install an Islamic state in the north, the simmering fear was further reinforced.

    The thirst of the media for the absurd also came handy in guaranteeing such events easy and generous mention. With such generous mention in both local and foreign media, their sponsors coast home happily that they are achieving their objective. That has been the pattern.

    But with the stringent security measures mounted by churches and other vulnerable institutions, it became difficult for these agents of shock and awe to continue with their dastardly acts in places of worship.

    They now came up with a change in tactics with schools as targets. That was how the secondary school in Buni Ladi was razed down burning to death and massacring about 60 innocent school children. As if that was not enough to ruffle public sensibilities and precipitate public anger against the government of the day, they now hatched out the very devious and confounding plan of abducting over 200 secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno state.

    The circumstances of that abduction, the heat and wide attention it generated and its unresolved nature still remain a sore point in the fight against terrorism. Apparently unhappy that the wide attention generated by the Chibok girls’ abduction was dying down, the terrorists were at it again last week. This time around, they wired a young suicide bomber disguised in school uniform with lethal explosives and directed him to mingle with school children during early morning assembly for the bombs to detonate. And it came to pass sending over 50 school children to their early graves and scores of others seriously wounded. As should be expected, the latest attack has attracted ire against the federal government. Coming a day before the advertised programme of President Jonathan to make a public declaration of his intention to run for a second term, the opposition has sought to castigate him for going ahead with the declaration even with the killings of the previous day. They see the declaration as callous and insensitive. Some other groups have equally picked holes with the declaration in the face of the devastations wrought by the suicide bomb attack.

    The feelings of those who pick holes with the president’s declaration given events of the previous day can be understood especially given the intractable nature of the Boko Haram insurgency. But that is where there is no partisanship in such views or rather where they are not propelled by the desire to score political points.

    The impression that comes from all these criticisms is that once such killings (which at any rate have become very common) take place, the president must put off any scheduled programme. We saw such views when Jonathan went to Kano state during the sensitization rallies of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP. He was heavily lampooned for daring visit that state when scores of innocent people were killed by suicide bombers at Nyanya near Abuja. He was also heavily berated for not visiting Chibok and the parents of the abducted girls.

    He is our president and must take responsibility for the inability of the government to protect lives and property of the ordinary citizens. That is embodied in the nature of the social contract he has with the people. Again, he has come under heavy fire for going ahead to declare his intention to run for another term when school children were moved down in their prime the previous day. All the sentiments on the deaths can be understood.

    But the coincidence of these killings with key scheduled events involving the president cannot continue to pass unnoticed. It is becoming a pattern for these suicide attacks to occur each time Jonathan has a key political engagement. And when this happens, what you get is the trading of blames on Jonathan for going ahead with the scheduled event.

    It may well be a coincidence. But their recurring frequency is now suggestive that there is more to them than ordinarily meets the eyes. Matters are not remedied by the frequency of criticisms that follow such events. Ironically, as these criticisms are freely traded, the impression they conjure is that the attacks were planned to prevent those events from going on.

    Not unexpectedly, such coincidences have tended to reinforce the notion that the current spate of insurgency in the country is politically deterministic. Not long ago, leaders from the north under the aegis of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) went bizarre when they demanded that Jonathan should not present himself for another term until he has resolved the insurgency in the country and freed the abducted Chibok school girls.

    When this kind of posturing is weighed against the recurring bomb attacks each time the president is about to undertake a major political activity and the avalanche of criticisms that follow, the value of such criticisms cannot but be heavily diminished.

    The inevitable impression one gets each time these bomb attacks occur before Jonathan’s scheduled engagement is that they are primed to discredit him. It also conveys the feeling that some people are afraid of Jonathan running the election and are prepared to throw up all manner of subterfuge to stop him. That is my reading of the demand by northern elders that he should forget his 2015 ambition if he fails to stop Boko Haram and free the Chibok girls at the end of last month.

    October has come and gone. Boko Haram is still with us and nothing positive has been heard of the abducted girls. But Jonathan has gone ahead to make good his intention to run for that office. So of what value is such ultimatum and criticisms that are solely directed at stopping him from going on with his ambition? That is the issue here.

    Instead of dissipating valuable energy trying to stop Jonathan, those opposed to him should direct their attention on how to win him at the polls. Bad as the security situation in the north-east is, it has not stopped politicians of different political parties from positioning for advantage to win the coming elections.

    The uncanny irony thrown up by this was brought to the fore last week when Christian leaders in Adamawa state issued a communiqué urging all political parties to suspend all political activities until the heightened insecurity in the state has been brought down. The message of the clerics is clear. Its import is also not in doubt. If insecurity should debar anyone from running for the coming elections, then the entire process can as well wait. But there is no cogent reason for that now.

  • PDP ward congresses

    It is increasingly getting clearer that democracy on these shores is in very dire straits. As one political event comes and goes, indications are that our politicians have neither learnt any lessons nor are they prepared to learn any in their dispositions and attitudes to the rules of the game. This may seem a damning assertion but it has become a sad reality of the politics of this country.

    Each time such infractions occur, our political actors are quick to rationalize them on the dubious grounds that we are still in the learning process. We may continue this learning process ad infinitum if conscious efforts are not made by both the political parties and politicians to guarantee the participation of the ordinary people in the electoral process.

    Before now, the greatest challenge has been how to guarantee free and fair elections by eliminating those unwholesome practices that mar our electoral process. We had in the past been treated with rigging, falsification and outright writing of election results in hotel rooms and sundry hidden places. The brazen subversion of the electoral process had been such that the electorate had started loosing confidence in it. It took copious assurances from the government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for some modicum of confidence to be restored as elections began to reflect the collective will of the people as expressed in the ballot box.

    But even as this little progress can be admitted, increasing signals point to the direction that politicians are relapsing to their decadent political practices through their disregard to extant rules and regulations. And if care is not taken, the little gains so far recorded by way of the electorate having their way in electoral matters, may be completely wiped off.

    Or, how else do we explain the embarrassment that was the outcome of the ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP conducted last weekend? Reports emanating from a congress that was meant to elect three ad-hoc delegates were a huge embarrassment to all lovers of democracy. From Rivers to Cross River, Imo to Benue states, the outcome was a litany of woes as voting materials were hijacked by politicians and results written without any input from party members who had thronged their various wards to elect their delegates. Ever since, the party has been inundated with complaints as key leaders and stakeholders have been very vocal in passing a damning verdict on the outcome of that congress.

    A member of the Board of Trustees BOT of the party from Akwa Ibom State, Chief Donald Etiebet came out strongly to lampoon the electoral panel sent to the state and the outcome of that congress. Hear him: “I want to tell you that I am not satisfied with the conduct of the ward congress in the state on Saturday. It was a farce and there was no congress conducted in the state”.

    He accused the chairman of the PDP electoral committee of bias.

    The views expressed by Etiebet mirror very vividly the outcome of that congress. It is not surprising that since then, the PDP national secretariat has been inundated with complaints from aggrieved members from across the country. Some of the complainants want the congresses cancelled and a repeat conducted. But the PDP national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu was reported to have said that the complaints were normal in such political activities. According to him, such complaints arise as politicians positioned themselves to take advantage and undo others. He would want to attribute these to rivalry among politicians.

    Mu’azu’s views appear an oversimplification of the matter. He could also be accused of trivializing the very serious infractions that marred those congresses. It is not a matter of politicians positioning themselves to take advantage. It is not just a matter of rivalry among politicians. They go far beyond these and are at the very heart of the real essence of democracy.

    Complainants are saying that there were no congresses in any of those states or where there were, they did not conform to the rules of free and fair conduct. They are angry that no voting took place at all in many of the wards and that election results were written in hidden places and submitted as the verdict of party members. They are piqued that ordinary party members were denied participation at that rung of party organization where politicians should have demonstrated their popularity by allowing the rules of the game to run their full course.

    Politicians who are at home with their people have no business subverting such rudimentary engagements as the ward congresses of their parties. They ought to have submitted themselves to the rules of that game. That is the real issue here.

    Moreover, if ward congresses and party primaries which are internal affairs of political parties are that rancorous, can those thrown up from that fraudulent process be trusted to play by the rules of free and fair elections? That is the poser that has been elevated to the front burner by the outcome of that congress. Ironically also, it is the same PDP government that is being looked upon to superintend over the conduct of free and fair elections. The minimum expectation given the foregoing was for that party to position itself as a shinning example in internal democracy. Sadly, this basic expectation was only observed in its breach during that ward congress. It is sad that we are at this point once again. Given events of our recent past culminating in the implosion in that party, the minimum expectation was that the party should have learnt from some of its mistakes by now. One of the issues which its members who defected to the All Progressives Congress APC had against the party hinged on its scant regard for internal democracy. And with the coming on board of the APC, it had been the hope of all lovers of democracy to see the PDP a reformed party.

    That has failed to happen as the ward congresses have vividly shown. Even before the formation of the APC, most of those who left the party cited the absence of internal democracy as their main grouse. Many of them have even had to go back to the party when their initial grouse had not been addressed. At the heart of all this, is the obnoxious notion that the party is the surest route to political ascendancy.

    The PDP must purge itself of this ruinous notion that it will continue to disregard the sensibilities of its members at the grassroots without dire repercussions. It is no longer business as usual now there is a strong opposition party. But it is a matter of choice for that party.

    The main opposition is there to take advantage of this lapse. But the activities of one of its governors Rochas Okorocha may turn out a negation of this optimism. Okorocha is reputed to be running for the presidency under the APC. Till now, no person has indicated interest to run for his current seat in his party and you dare not. The impression is that he reserves that position for himself should presidential ticket elude him. If and when this happens, we would be left with the same issue.

  • Still on Ebola

    When recently the World Health Organization (WHO) gave Nigeria a clean bill of health on the Ebola pandemic, it left no one in doubt that the clearance was largely provisional. WHO country director in Abuja, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz while full of praises for the country for its efforts in checking the spread, had then warned “we have only won a battle; the war will end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola”. And if one may add, the war will be completely won when the world has been declared free of Ebola.

    The warning became necessary with the ravaging of the disease in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. But it has also reared its ugly head in some western countries of the world including the United States of America. Since the world has become a global community, there is still every possibility for someone else to bring the disease into our shores. And the chances are very high. After all, the disease was brought into the country in the first instance, by a Liberian.

    It therefore calls for the stepping up of all those precautionary measures that were put in place as the disease lived with us. The warning became more compelling given the prevailing high level of illiteracy and ignorance in the country. Even as the disease was being battled, there were those opposed to some of the temporary precautionary measures put in place to contain its spread. We saw this opposition in some churches that introduced measures to limit body contact as their contribution to checking the spread. There were even spurious claims of capacity to cure the disease by so-called faith healers even with the efforts of the federal and Lagos State governments to engage them not to admit Ebola patients.

    There were others against the advice to shun certain practices including the consumption of bush meat. Such people may go haywire if it is not sufficiently drummed into their ears that danger still lurks in the air. That was the aim of the advisory from the WHO chief and it goes without saying.

    Expectedly, our governments have stepped up the screening of travelers at the airports and all entry points into the country. Good as these measures are, they may not be adequate given the very porous nature of our borders. This is especially so in the northern parts of the country where the authorities do not even seem to have a correct idea of the number of entry points. And without the necessary records as to the nation’s porous and unmanned borders, the risk of further spread is better imagined. Added to this risk is the inability to differentiate between citizens of neighbouring countries especially in the north-east flank and our citizens because of cultural, religious and language similarities. If therefore there is an outbreak of the virus in those neighbouring countries, chances are that it will spread very fast into this country. Our leaders need to pay special attention to this else we may have to pay very dearly for it.   The current battle against the Boko Haram insurgents has revealed the glaring security loopholes that exist in that part of the country. There is a compelling need to take a more serious view of such illegal entry points from Chad, Niger and Cameroon. We should still count ourselves lucky there has been no reported incident of the virus in those countries especially as they may not possess the necessary capacity to track down the disease the same way Nigeria did.

    That the danger is not yet over was vividly illustrate by the pandemonium at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport last week when a suspected Ebola patient arrived the country. Reports had that the Nigerian who had been cured of the disease arrived in company of a Nigerian diplomat to underscore the point that he has a clean bill of health and should not be stigmatized. But that was not to be. The realization that he had suffered the disease threw those at the airport into panic despite the fact that he was accompanied by a Nigerian diplomat as evidence he was Ebola free.

    Such is the level of fear which the virus has inflicted on the psyche of our people. This should not surprise anyone given its lethality and mortality rate.

    It is thus instructive that there must be concerted efforts from the various levels of government and citizens alike to ensure that neither foreigners nor our citizens are again allowed to come into the country with the disease undetected. In this regard, the federal government has more roles to play given its constitutional responsibilities. That is why the undue politicization of which level of government should take credit for the success that was the outcome of the battle against Ebola was unnecessary.

    The WHO country director and the former minister of health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu captured the issues involved very succinctly the very day Nigeria was declared Ebola free after 42 days or double the incubation period of 21 days with no new case.

    For Vaz, the credit should go the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through President Jonathan, the people of Nigeria and all stakeholders and development partners.

    Chukwu’s list was more inclusive. Apparently responding to claims and counter claims on who should take the credit for the success, he said the feat was recorded because of the distinctive leadership of President Jonathan. He then went on to acknowledge the roles played by the federal ministry of health and its agencies- the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Port Health Service, the ministries of health of Lagos, Enugu and Rivers, WHO, UNICEF, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners who were part of the team. But he left nobody in doubt that he considered it the greatest achievement of his ministry as he was resigning to pursue his governorship ambition in Ebonyi State. How this success will count in his new endeavour will be borne out with time. But there is no doubt Chukwu did very well in the management of the Ebola crisis and left when the ovation was loudest. Whether it was by a stroke of luck or through painstaking efforts, he will live to take the credit for successfully waging a decisive war against Ebola on these shores.

    Beyond the matter of chest-beating, the war is not yet over. Those who want to savour the credit for the Ebola battle still have much to do by the way they prepare to wage a conclusive war against it. Reports from surviving victims of the virus speak of the absence of facilities on the part of governments to take on the scourge. The temporary relief period from the WHO clearance should now enable the various governments put in place sufficient facilities to take on the scourge if and when the need arises.

    More fundamentally, effective screening at our entry points and aggressive enlightenment programmes are all in dire need to keep the virus off our shores.

  • APGA: Obi and Bianca

    Bianca Ojukwu, widow of late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka  Odumegwu-Ojukwu, is grieving. She had cause last week to bare her current state of mind. Though the issue has little to do with the demise of her husband but it is not entirely unrelated.

    She is grieving because the most trusted confidant of her late husband and former governor of Anambra State; a man trusted to uphold the ideals of the late Ikemba, Peter Obi dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Obi rode on the shoulders of APGA to become the governor of Anambra State twice and was seen as the political son of the late Ojukwu. The minimum expectation from such a person is to keep the flag of APGA, a party dear to the heart of Ojukwu flying. But all that hope has now been dashed.

    Not just that. Obi decamped without the courtesy of confiding in Bianca. She granted an interview last week expressing deep shock and disappointment at the development.

    According to her, up to the last moment, Obi continued to reassure her that “this will never happen; that it would be over his dead body; that the day he leaves APGA would be the day he quits politics; and most importantly, that he would keep the promise he made to Ojukwu”.

    Bianca feels greatly pained and deeply betrayed because Obi swore in his honour before her late husband that he would never leave APGA; that he would do everything within his powers to sustain and advance APGA, that he would ‘sink and swim’ with the party.

    All these promises appear to have come to naught with his recent defection to the PDP. Bianca fears that his action could rob off negatively on the fortunes and ideals for which APGA has continued to attract large following in the south-east geo-political zone.

    Given the weight of issues raised by Bianca, Obi could not but join issues with her. He said ‘loyalty to a cause does not change with a change of platform’ and there has not been any change of principles on his own part. Admitting that Bianca gave accurate account of his exchanges with the late Ikemba, Obi said he is “still loyal to our great leader (Ojukwu) in terms of what serves the interests of our people and the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

    He was quick to add however, that APGA today is no longer what it used to be and his assurance to Ojukwu did not imply he will remain loyal to a platform some people have turned into an empty shell without an inner core of shared values.

    In his words “time would reveal whether the APGA of today is still propagating the late leader’s core principles”. He said he had seen enough violation of what APGA stood for and therefore cannot continue to stay in a place which has departed from the original course and where clearly he was not wanted.

    The issues raised by both personages are as touchy as they are weighty. This is very evident from the manifest caution on the part of both parties in handling the subject matter. Bianca had very pleasant words for Obi both in terms of his sterling performances in office, his principles, loyalty and commitment to the APGA cause. Her expectation is that Obi ought to remain the lynchpin on which the APGA spirit revolves.

    Unfortunately, that hope has been betrayed such that a big vacuum that may adversely affect the party’s fortunes has now been created. Matters are not remedied by what amounts to her loss of confidence in Chief Victor Umeh, APGA national chairman.

    For Umeh, Bianca had this to say: “the bitter truth and sad reality is that every vice, offence and transgression his predecessor, Chekwas Okorie was accused of, which prompted his removal as national chairman of APGA has been committed a hundred times over with impunity by Umeh”.

    With these, one can then appreciate why Bianca is scared about the fortunes of the party. We can understand why Obi’s defection jolted her in such a devastating manner. This is more so when the dwindling fortunes of the party in neighbouring Imo State is brought into focus. The governor there, Rochas Okorocha also rode on the platform of APGA but has had to dump it for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    If Bianca takes a total picture of the party in the two states that are considered its stronghold, she will indeed have great cause to worry. Her feelings should be understood.

    For now, Obi’s contention that loyalty to a cause does not change with a change of platform is puerile. The reverse should really be the case if party politics is conceived in its pure form. Each platform (political party) comes with its shared values, expectations and loyalty patterns. That is why parties are registered as distinct entities. They ought to offer alternative choices to the electorate through their different ideologies and programmes. You cannot serve two masters loyally at the same time. It is an exercise in wishful thinking for Obi to nurse the feeling that he can still serve the overall interest of APGA from his current platform. He cannot.

    But more importantly, Obi raised further contradictions in his reasons for leaving the party. He had sought to justify his position on the grounds that APGA has deviated from the spirits of its founding fathers. If APGA is no longer propagating the leader’s core principles, Obi should share in the blame.

    In his positions as the former governor elected on its platform and lately the chairman of its Board of Trustees (BOT), Obi had critical and pivotal roles to play to redirect the party to its original ideals rather than present himself as someone helpless in the circumstance. The impression we get is that there is a behemoth in the party that determines everything. And who could that have been except Umeh who has survived many battles to shove him aside. May be Umeh has become the greatest obstacle to the survival of the party. Or could it have been governor Obiano who is just learning the ropes?

    So when Obi made the allusion that he is no longer wanted in the party, one begins to wonder who those frustrating him are.

    Bianca corroborated the point that Obi should have done more to reinvigorate the party when she said many of the members victimized by Umeh for demanding internal democracy were disappointed that he could not help them.

    Beyond these, it did not come as a surprise that Obi defected to the PDP. All along his body and soul have been there. Bianca should also be consoled by her current ambassadorial appointment courtesy of the PDP government. APGA has not really behaved as an opposition party and this is bound to affect its fortunes. The current fate of the party is partly self-inflicted and partly a response to the dynamics of party politics in this country. With the formation of the APC, the political landscape has substantially altered. Parties without national spread are bound to suffer reverses. It is trite that APGA has become a franchise exploited by desperate politicians to climb to power in Imo and Anambra states only to dump it as soon as their interests have been served. Is anybody listening?

  • Boko Haram: The US angle

    James Entwistle, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, spoke very extensively last week on the raging insurgency in the north-east of the country and his home government’s perception of the matter. Apparently reacting to reports that the US was undermining Nigeria’s efforts in the war, he debunked such a notion contending they are heavily involved in supporting Nigeria’s response to terrorism through training of soldiers and information sharing.

    Even as some of the issues he raised were quite illuminating, others threw up contradictions that question his proper understanding of the complex issues involved in this war. These were evident not only from his responses to why the US government has been blocking the sale of certain military equipment to Nigeria, but also in his assessment of the propelling motivation of the Boko Haram insurgents.

    Before now, there have been reports that the US has been blocking efforts by the Nigerian government to procure military equipment, especially Cobra helicopters from Israel on grounds of human rights abuses. Entwistle corroborated this when he said that human rights abuses by Nigerian soldiers in the north-east had stood as a sore thumb when the US considers requests from Nigeria for arms.

    According to him, “before we share equipment with any country, we look at a couple of things. Does it make sense in terms of that country’s needs? The second thing we look at is the human rights situation in that country. As you all know, there have been instances. I’m not saying across the board, of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the north-east”.

    He said the kind of questions his country is interested in is the use to which such equipment will be deployed. If it is such that can adversely affect human rights situation, they will have to take responsibility for its proper use or lack of it, he further explained.

    The US government is within its rights to determine which country it sells its arms. It is also within its rights to withhold such sales where in her calculations human rights will be adversely affected by their use. It may as well have information on cases of human rights infractions since the war against terrorism commenced in this country. Neither can genuine concerns on human rights issues be discounted.

    But there is a huge moral question raised by blocking the Nigerian government from buying arms even as the same envoy admitted that Boko Haram had “gone beyond a small insurgent group, with a couple of guns to a very effective collection of conventional force”. If that is the case, the net effect of barring Nigeria from purchasing the needed arms to effectively contain this upsurge, is for the insurgency to get out of control. And when this happens, human rights abuses will further escalate to unimaginable proportions. So also will the killing and maiming of defenceless people especially given the murderous records of the insurgents. What then will be the position of the US: to begin arms sales to the government or allow the war get out of hands? This poser has been raised to underscore some of the contradictions in the current posturing of the US.

    Without prejudice to the reported cases of human rights abuses either by the insurgents or the military, it will not serve the interest of this country to allow the war be prolonged because our military lack the needed equipment to bring it to a conclusion.

    Even now, a lot of Nigerians hold the view that Boko Haram would have been history if President Jonathan had been very decisive in dealing with the menace when it reared its ugly head. Terrorism is a very complex war that does not permit of some of the calculations of conventional warfare. The US has no doubt about this as it has been waging wars against it in many countries. It would therefore appear cloudy for the same government to allow the Nigerian situation degenerate because of perceived human rights abuses. The right approach is to support the government to acquire the necessary and sufficient equipment to halt the killing and maiming of innocent souls by the insurgents while not losing sight of human rights issues.

    The ambassador appeared more controversial when he made his prescriptions on how Nigeria can end the current challenges facing it. According to him, “a genuine change through democratic process is the most precious and powerful tool to bring the desired change in a nation like Nigeria”. This statement is very loaded especially when it is considered that the current government came into power through the type of change Entwistle is canvassing. There is therefore the question of what a genuine change through a democratic process would imply in this case and how it will solve our current security challenges. In other words, to what extent can we regard a sitting government that wins another mandate through democratic process as qualifying for the kind of change process envisaged by the ambassador? And if this happens, what impact will it make on the current challenges in the absence of the needed arms to confront the scourge frontally? Or are we looking at change in terms of a departure from the status quo? If it is so, we needed to be told how that will play out in our current circumstance.

    These are the posers for the envoy to clarify further.

    This has become necessary given his further assertion that the war now has more political than religious undertone. Hear him, “a year ago, I would have said they are religiously motivated. But as they killed more and more Muslims, it’s hard for me to believe they were motivated by religion”.

    This appears an oversimplification of the matter as it casts the sponsors of the insurgency in the mould of people incapable of enacting complex strategies to obfuscate their real intentions and prolong the war. Boko Haram has never hidden their intention to install a theocratic state in this country. It is true they have in the last one year or so been killing Muslims and Christians alike. But that cannot in any manner whittle down the ideological basis of the movement which is deeply rooted in religion.

    It may well be that its sponsors, facing increasing challenges from their warped ideological promptings, had to change tactics to bring about the current situation that has left Entwistle seemingly confused. As a tactic, it has worked out well for strategists of the insurgency group. But nobody should be deceived by that.

    If the insurgents are no longer solely targeting Christians, it is not a matter of choice. Having been confined to states where the phenomenon is most prevalent, it has become difficult for them to penetrate the abode of Christians. This should not be misconstrued as benevolence or loss of direction. For, at the slightest chance, they will definitely show their true colours.

    What Nigeria needs now is support both at home and beyond to wrestle the terrorists to the ground. That the terrorists are now also killing Muslims does not in any way mask the potent danger which they pose to human lives and property.

  • Adamawa’s botched by-election

    The feverish preparations for last Saturday’s governorship bye-election in Adamawa state came to an abrupt end with the swearing-in of former deputy governor, Bala James Ngilari as the new substantive governor.

    An Abuja Federal High Court had in a suit between Ngilari, the speaker of the state House of Assembly and five others ruled that the former deputy governor did not resign properly from his office following the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako a few months ago. The court therefore ordered the acting governor, Umar Ahmadu Fintiri to quit the seat while Ngilari be sworn-in immediately.

    The court further ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to halt last Saturday’s bye-election in that state. With these ruling, that election was put off even as Fintiri reportedly appealed the judgment.

    Expectedly, the turn of events has jolted many especially stakeholders in Adamawa politics. This is more so as it came barely three days to the conduct of the bye-election which the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and the All Progressives Congress APC would have used to test their strength. The development has come to mean so many things for so many people depending on the prism from which it is being viewed.  Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and presidential aspirant of the APC saw the verdict as a temporary delay of the overwhelming desire of the people of the state to vote out the PDP government. While accepting the verdict, he saw it as nothing than postponing the doomsday for the PDP.

    Even within the PDP, the development has come with some discomfort. This is palpable from the reaction of the party through its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh. He had urged the new governor to maintain the balance in the party. Fintiri is equally uncomfortable with the situation and has vowed through his lawyer to press on to reverse the swearing-in of Ngilari. The PDP is also not certain of Ngilari’s direction given the turn of events and their earlier preferences for Fintiri.

    In spite of all this, the PDP is not worse off following Ngilari’s ascendancy since he remains a member of that party. In a way therefore, the party has turned out as the eventual beneficiary of the verdict even as Fintiri is one of theirs. The party is the eventual beneficiary because the outcome of the bye-election could have gone in either direction. Since nobody could say for certain which party was going to emerge victorious, a situation that brought back the former deputy governor is still of advantage to the PDP despite their differences with him.

    One other moot issue arising from the verdict is the hurried swearing-in of the beneficiary even when the judgment has been appealed. This is bound to raise questions. Issues could be raised as to why the swearing-in could not wait for the appeal to run its full course. Fintiri’s counsel Bayo Ojo has faulted the swearing-in arguing that the “implication of the appeal is that the order of the court cannot be complied with until the appeal process is disposed of. This is to forestall a situation where a fait accompli will be foisted on the appeal court”

    At things stand, we are yet to hear the last on the matter unless the PDP persuades Fintiri to drop the appeal.

    No doubt, the verdict took the people of Adamawa by surprise and made a mess of all the preparations and investments the various contenders ploughed into their campaign. It must have shattered dreams; dashed ambitions and left with it, trails of woes.  The larger effects on political calculations in the state will linger for sometime to come.

    Above all, it has saved INEC the burden of conducting election in one of the states that has been the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency; a state that has for the third time been under a state of emergency. It has denied the commission the relevant experience it would have called into action in managing elections in the more volatile Borno and Yobe states. That experience has been lost at least for now.

    The commission had come out last week with the information that elections would not hold in two local governments most susceptible to terrorism attacks. It would have been a worthy experience seeing how that will play out. It would have also been rewarding to witness the responses of the insurgents on the election day. Even for the areas where the election was billed to hold, it would have been a test case for the impact of the insecurity on voters’ turn-out. All these have been lost with the cancellation of Saturday’s bye-election.

    Adamawa is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society where adroit political balances play a major role in determining who occupies what office. We saw this at play prior to the ascendancy of Fintiri as the acting governor. We are also witnesses to the zoning arrangements the ruling party put in place for the 2015 elections. These are bound to be altered by the court verdict and Ngilari’s triumph.

    The controversy surrounding the purported resignation of Ngilari was all part of the complex dynamics of the plural politics of that state. The main issue then was his religion. He had to be traded off in a controversial or stage managed resignation to garner the support of the assembly men to impeach Nyako.

    But all that have come to naught following his victory at the court and eventual swearing-in.  Apparently conscious of the political coloration of that state, Ngilari has promised an open and transparent government. He has called on the people of the state to “rise above primordial differences of religion, ethnicity and political affiliation” pledging to “address our challenges which are not limited to general security, poverty, hunger, reconciliation and disease”

    One thing that appears certain is that he will have to contend with the task of reconciling the contending tendencies in the state. The state is sharply divided now and his ascendancy may not go down well with some bigots. He must work hard to prove that primordial predilections are only veritable tools exploited by the elite to exploit the masses.

    For a great majority of the people, it matters little who is there provided they are made to benefit from the mandate which leaders exercise. He would have made a big difference by the way the benefits of governance are felt in all the nooks and crannies of the state. Time is not in his favour as he will be saddled with events leading to the 2015 elections.

    He can still make his mark even with the limited time he has. The way he perceives his assignment which he has attributed to God will make the difference. For now, his triumph has diffused the political heat which last Saturday’s election was bound to generate.

  • Enugu’s troubled consensus

    A contradiction is playing out in Enugu State following the adoption of a serving member of the House of Representatives, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as the governorship consensus candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming elections. Reports had it that Ugwuanyi’s emergence was the outcome of a stakeholders meeting convened by Governor Sullivan Chime for all governorship aspirants from Enugu North senatorial district where the governorship was zoned. In that meeting, many of the aspirants were said to have stepped down for Ugwuanyi culminating in the adoption of a motion to have him as the sole candidate of the party in the 2015 elections.

    But the matter did not go down well with one of the leading aspirants and Senate’s works committee chairman, Ayogu Eze who was also at the meeting where the consensus was purportedly arrived at. Eze has alleged that he was invited to the meeting without being privy of its agenda and questioned the process that threw up the so-called consensus candidate. He had contended that the meeting was arranged to produce a pre-determined outcome leaving other aspirants without any choice and vowed to pursue his governorship ambition to its logical conclusion.

    Eze further questioned the democratic credentials of such a kangaroo arrangement that did not seek the views of all the aspirants before the final decision was taken.

    Since then, accusations have been levied from the camps of those opposed to the consensus arrangement and its supporters. A pressure group in the state condemned it on the grounds that it is a “desecration of democratic norms and internal democracy”.

    But some others have sought to fault Eze arguing that the process was democratic as it is in tandem with the PDP constitution 2012, as amended. One of such persons was Justina Eze, a member of the Board of Trustees BOT of the party. The BOT member feared that the chances of the zone producing the governor could be imperiled if Senator Eze continues to vilify the process leading to the consensus.

    As things stand, the Enugu East caucus of the party has also in a meeting at Government House endorsed Ugwuanyi as the consensus candidate with the West senatorial zone about to cue in. Despite the issues raised by Eze, all indications are that Ugwuanyi’s adoption is a fait accompli. It does not appear there is much Eze can do as Chime who is driving the process will likely have his way given the much abused incumbency factor. Soon, we may begin to see all manner of hurdles placed on the road to the ambition of Eze for daring to challenge the decision of the incumbent.

    But the issues that have been thrown up by this singular exercise cannot be wished away despite whatever merits there is in the consensus option.

    Inherent in them are posers as to the justification for a consensus contrivance that does not really offer any choice to other candidates because the processes leading to it were shrouded in secrecy. To what extent then can we rightly argue that such an option approximates the pristine tenets of representative democracy when it is deliberately manipulated to produce a known outcome?

    It would appear that is the point Eze is making. He does not seem to be against consensus as a policy. He is not particularly against Ugwuanyi as a person. He is against the absence of rigorous negotiations before the meeting where Ugwuanyi was adopted was convened. Had such discussions been in motion and invitees to the meeting told its agenda, the current controversy would have been minimized.

    It would appear to me that the senator reacted the way he did because the decision took him unawares. He may have put in so much in the pursuit of his ambition with high hopes to sail through. He may also have made plans the next day for the same purpose. For such an aspirant to attend a seemingly innocuous meeting, only to have his ambition dashed in one fell swoop is definitely bound to ruffle shoulders. His predicament should be appreciated. What it has brought to the fore, is the conflict we trigger off when we abridge that freedom of choice that stands out democracy as the most admired form of governance framework. It is for the same reason that some people constantly pick holes with the issue of zoning.

    Before now, we have been told of the array of choices which democracy promotes. If it is executed in its pure form, it will have no room for the contrived consensus that was the outcome of the Enugu North caucus meeting. It will also not admit the zoning of the governorship position to that zone. Zoning and the consensus option have their limitations when democracy is conceived in its pure form. But they are not entirely out of place within the democratic process. The issue is not just a rejection of consensus or zoning, but the logic, fairness and equity of the processes that produce them.

    The raging controversy in the Enugu case should be seen in this light. It is not a vote of no confidence in those options but a demand for them not to be turned into a tool by those in authority to subvert the collective will of the people. After all, Eze accepted the zoning of the governorship slot to the north without raising eyebrows. His opponents may finger a contradiction in his accepting zoning with one hand and rejecting consensus with the other. They may also raise questions regarding his silence when the two other zones were shunted out of the governorship race just to allow the north which has not had a shot at it take their turn. That issue can be raised. And the argument can go on and on. But the fact that the zoning of the governorship post to the north commanded general acceptance showed it was considered fair and equitable. There was sufficient evidence to support such a proposition. Same was not the case with the consensus option. The process ought to have been preceded by weeks of negotiations among the aspirants and their leaders. Apart from preparing their minds that primaries are likely to be streamlined, it will save them the energy and huge expenditure that have become part and parcel of electioneering campaigns on these shores.

    Moreover, if all of them had been taken into confidence, those who considered their chances slim, may have chickened out of the race leaving the most serious ones who can then be engaged in the consensus discussions.

    It is true that consensus may not satisfy all, just as direct primaries will leave a lot of casualties in its trail. But serious efforts must be made to build such consensus in both word and deed. We cannot build consensus when a behemoth somewhere sits in his bedroom and decrees his anointed person as the candidate. That is the issue that played out in the Enugu case. And that is why it is generating so much heat. Chime may have his way after all. But those whose ambitions he dashed in that abrupt manner are also within their rights to impugn the process.

  • Death at the synagogue

    Apart from the festering insurgency, two other recent events have combined to constantly keep the nation in the prying eyes of the international community. These are the outbreak of the Ebola disease and collapse of a five-storey building at the Synagogue church in Lagos. Though not essentially related, both have had the net effect of taking heavy tolls on human lives and will continue to dominate public discourse for quite sometime.

    This is more so as those who lost their lives in the two incidents were both Nigerians and foreigners.

    Not unexpectedly, world attention has for the greater part of the last two months been primed within our shores. And for a country that has not been rated high in managing crisis situations, it is to be imagined the avalanche of negative reportage these would have generated.

    Surprisingly however, our leaders were able to effectively and efficiently manage the first such that no less a body than the World Health Organization (WHO) came out to score us very high.

    Though the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer who imported the deadly virus into the country concealed information on his lethal ailment thus exposing others to mortal danger, our health professionals moved in quickly to arrest further spread. The efficiency with which they worked, posted positive results through minimal deaths such that today, the country has been adjudged free of the virus. This is something to cheer.

    But if the handling of the Ebola outbreak was an instant success, that of the collapse of a five-storey building at the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, left much to be desired. Ironically, the synagogue was the first place of worship visited by a medical team from both the Lagos State, the federal government and the WHO to solicit the cooperation of its general overseer, Prophet T.B. Joshua not to admit Ebola patients into his premises. They had then politely told him that the virus spreads very fast and is not one of such ailments that could succumb to faith healing.

    Joshua promised to work with the team to ensure that the virus does not spread by not admitting people from the affected countries and suspending some of his healing programmes. So he was part of the story that turned out as the successful management of the Ebola outbreak in this country.

    Ironically, the same church was to turn out the theatre of a monumental calamity some weeks after through the collapse of one of its buildings. Reports had it that the building collapsed while many visitors, mainly foreigners were having their lunch. Initial reports on the suspected cause of the collapse were sketchy, but there was some convergence that the building went down while construction workers were busy adding additional structures on it.

    While many were said to have been trapped at the various floors, rescue work could not commence early as the church officials and worshippers were alleged to have prevented rescuers access to the place. Even those who would have been saved had quick response arrived, lost their lives through delays arising from the inexplicable hostility of the church officials and worshippers.

    The church was to come out some days later to allege that the collapse was as a result of terror attack by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents. In a video clip it showed to the public, Joshua claimed a plane had hovered around the building before it finally went down. Both Lagos State and the federal governments are investigating the incident. But Lagos has had to suspend action or further comments on the incident to avoid jeopardizing the inquisition of the federal authorities.

    Before now however, the state government had made it clear that the ill-fated building was originally approved as a two-storey building. It also said it had no records that approval was given for the additional three floors which were being added when the calamity occurred.

    From all indications, the Lagos State government has clear ideas of the issue at stake being the approving authority. Without prejudice to whatever the federal government panel is doing, it is certain that its job will be incomplete without the cooperation of the host government. It is not clear how that panel intends to work. But much of the information it requires to determine the cause of the collapse are with the Lagos State government.

    It would therefore have been more rewarding to build a synergy with the host government on the matter. The way things stand, the state government does not feel it should continue with its own inquisition to avoid conflict of interests. That is why it has suspended all activities on the matter. But that is where the problem arises. At what point will the state government come into the matter again? Or will it come out with its findings after the federal panel would have unveiled its results? These are some of the posers that seem to suggest there should have been collaboration between the two levels of government.

    The type of synergy that was called into action to curtail the immediate spread of the Ebola virus ought to have formed the plank for the investigations. With such collaborative efforts, all issues relating to the unfortunate incident would be fully examined and recommendations to forestall future occurrences made.

    It is still not late for the federal authorities to expand the panel to include relevant authorities of the Lagos State government. A situation in which the state government has now been forced to stall action on the matter awaiting the federal panel is not the best approach to it.

    The issue is of immense public interest and it will be counter productive if the two governments come out with different versions.  The right thing therefore is for both parties to work together, harmonize positions and come out with a common position.

    Joshua had introduced the terrorism theory. It should be investigated. But even before its outcome is known, it would appear such a theory will definitely lack in scientific validity. This writer will stand to be proved wrong.

    Beyond these, the nation must have been heavily embarrassed that as we were still giving out the casualty figure as 44, the South African President, Jacob Zuma went public to announce that 67 of their citizens had died in the incident. That really opened up public eyes that if one single country could lose 67 people, the fatality would have been much higher. And it came to pass. That country alone lost 84 citizens.

    The blame has been placed at the door steps of the church for its hostility to rescuers. The panel must get at the root of it. Those found culpable should be made to face the full weight of the law. The South African people are so piqued by this singular incident that their youths have vowed not to allow Joshua into their country until he has accounted for their dead compatriots. They also vowed to sue him. That is a measure of the outrage the incident has generated. The world is awaiting the outcome of the findings. We must demonstrate very unambiguously that the law is no respecter of persons through appropriate punishment to identifiable culprits.