By Dayo Sobowale

This week the Nigerian Senate approved the appointment of a young security operative as Chairman of the EFCC. The new man himself  Mr  Abdurasheed  Bawa   was  confident he can deliver on the job  as he has the requisite training and  experience  and the Nigerian senate agreed and  reportedly  confirmed  him    in   just two  hours. Really,  I have  no problem  with that as the taste of the pudding is in the eating and time will  tell,  as the new helmsman lives up to his billing as he has promised. What  baffles me however was a statement credited to the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption PACAC Professor Itse Sagay  that  the Attorney  General of the Federation Abubakar Malami will  not allow the new Chairman of the EFCC to perform just  as he had not allowed the former Chairman Magu to deliver  ostensibly  because  both are from Kebbi State. This  shows  clearly  that there  is  some serious  disturbance  in Nigeria’s  anticorruption sector and since anticorruption was  one of the factors that made Nigerians elect our president twice  now, then  something needs to be done urgently to assure Nigerians that the anticorruption war  has not derailed altogether for the simple reason that a house  divided against itself  cannot stand .

I   have  used this Sagay  outburst or alarm to show  that something is rotten in the state of Nigeria  and not only on corruption but on security but    our  attitude ,  politics and  democracy  generally  and I will  give good examples  to illustrate  this. I will also highlight an emerging trend of media connivance and silence on issues of corruption especially when such media have vested interest or is politically aligned to such media or technology provider or supplier. In addition I will also show that misinformation on issues can be deliberate, orchestrated or manipulated to favor political parties or alienate or close down opposing views decisively and intentionally. We  shall  look at these issues at  times from a political  or historical  perspective but  we  shall  be cautious  in highlighting the political  culture or  contemporary  trend  that have given rise to these  developments.

In Nigeria of course one can say that we run a one party state because the APC has the majority in both Houses of the National Assembly. That explains the break neck speed at which all presidential appointments are approved in the senate. Especially those of the new Service Chiefs now Ambassadors. Yet in the Nigerian media there is some restraint, quite astonishing   though. A Lagos  state   government PRO once told me he does not read the Nation because it is for government and APC  and I  told him he was misinformed because there  are many columns in the Nation  that are  highly critical  of government  and the APC. Indeed the APC does inadvertently its own self-censorship or restraint.  I remember when it was rumoured that former Aviation Minister Femi Fani Kayode was to join the  APC it was  a DG of the governors forum who   said or  lamented that  the APC  should  not lose its values  in taking on new members . Similarly a former Governor of Osun State while commenting on the APC registration of new members lamented that the party was admitting killers into its fold, although he later explained that he had no particular person in mind but whoever the cap fits should mend his ways.

Let me use the US and UK too to show part of what I have in mind on this topic. I will use two issues namely migration in the US and the bringing down of statues as a protest against racism and   colonialism in the UK. The  two  personalities  involved are new US President Joe Biden  who is opening US borders to illegal  aliens  that  former President Donald Trump  built  a wall  against   and  UK Business  Secretary Kwasi   Kwarteng

In   the US   a Republican senator who went to the Mexican border was shown gaping holes in the Trump walls that Biden Administration has refused to fill because its new policy is for open borders and pro-immigration. As this is the new US policy on immigration then it is not much different from ISIS terrorist policy of a borderless world. Indeed that seems to be the policy of the herdsmen and abductors terrorizing our porous vast borders in the North East and the marauders in Kaduna state, the NW and North Central. Indeed we have been told that the gun totting armed Fulani herdsmen are not bona fide Nigerians but aliens from neighbouring   Niger and Chad   who   have infiltrated our borders with   impunity. The  import here is that if the US  is opening its borders to Mexicans legally or  not, we can expect no help  from the Americans in policing our borders in the open assault  we face from terrorists like Boko Haram  who preach No  to the Nigerian  state  or armed  herdsmen who roam  about without respect for our borders . That is the harsh reality on security that Nigeria must face nowadays diplomatically and militarily. It is indeed a daunting security task

In  the case  of  the UK   I  watched  an  interview  on BBC by  the  UK  Business  Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng ,whose  parents came from Ghana   to  the  UK in the sixties. He asked people in Britain not to throw away the history and lessons of colonialism but to study and understand its   context as it lasted over 400 years and cannot just be wished away or brought down by pulling down historical figures all over Britain because of Black Lives Matter protests. Which to me makes sense and showed a   useful    and profound benefit of Colonialism in that the UK Business Secretary has been both a victim and beneficiary of colonialism   and knows where the shoe pinches on both counts. His  advice  or admonition should also  discourage those who want to turn Black Lives Matter into a racism weapon to shut up critics or those with dissenting views. As in the cancel  culture where new rules   and   words on what is politically correct are being drawn  up daily and incessantly by  liberals  promoting acceptability of LGBT   culture  by all means in the EU, the  US  and western civilization generally.  I  think  the UK is lucky  indeed  to have  someone with the pedigree  of   a former  colonial   subject  as its Business Secretary , at this point in time.

Let us now round up with the rumpus or rumbling in our anti-corruption brigade here at home. The  AGN and Professor Sagay  must  mend fences in the national  interest which is to  get  the anti-corruption strategy working  to  plan,  such that it  does not allow corruption to fight back  and defeat it and thus this government and nation. That is  a  task  that must be done so that the new EFCC  helmsman can  focus  on his new task  with  the  ample  fresh  blood he has brought into his new assignment. We wish him well. Once again – From the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

Nations and their leaders, and even the followers, love a certain rosy  future. Nobody  loves a dicey and uncertain  tomorrow. Indeed that is how religion comes to be important and got labelled as the opium of the masses. Most people want to know what tomorrow offers, if possible before it comes or dawns. This is the   kernel of our discussion in cultural and political terms today.

Let me first of all line up the various issues and events before we proceed to analyse each in the appropriate context   and ethnocentricity. In Nigeria the Service chiefs who were relieved of their positions because of a failure of security in the nation showed up at the Senate to be confirmed as Ambassadors appointed by the President for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the same Nigeria a former Head of State and Chairman of the National Peace organ of the nation warned Governors to watch their utterances on Fulani herdsmen whose cows he insists are being slaughtered nationwide or Nigeria would relapse into civil war like it did in the sixties. In Russia the President Vladmir Putin signed into law a legislation that would make former presidents of Russia immune from prosecution for past crimes or lapses committed while in office while making them members of the National Assembly  for life. In Poland the Minister of Justice is proposing legislation that would curtail the power of big tech companies while noting that EU nations are making legislations that attack conservative and traditional European values while advancing human rights and LGBT culture all over Europe.  Finally,   it is an open secret that in the US the new President Joe Biden is busy  reversing the clock as it were on all  what his predecessor Donald  Trump  did in his  one term  office  from 2016 to  2020 . He has the support  of the US blacks who  put him in office at  the polls and is  supported by the big Tech and   big   media  like CNN  while   making racism the big  yardstick  to measure correct  political  opinion in American society and political system, in the Joe Biden presidency as the 46th president of the USA .

What all these issues have in common is the fear of the unknown and uncertainty. This has led to a cycle of rewards, the postponement of penalties for violations of laws and values and stockpiling or cushioning  of sorts,  against present,  expected  and future assaults on use , misuse or even outright abuse  of office . Let us now look at them serially

We start with Nigeria where service chiefs have metamorphosed into Ambassadors. This looks like a reward and that is strange because the clamour for their removal was because of failure to secure the nation or defeat Boko Haram. They may well do well as Ambassadors but that is like a second chance. Indeed,   this is a novel   military   culture. The service   chiefs      may well excel like   successful military diplomats such as Ike Nwachukwu of the Economic Diplomacy fame or the flamboyant Joe  Garba but as service  chiefs they  gave us more concern on our security and safety than  succor and   confidence . Perhaps the President saw some element of diplomacy in the way they dealt with Boko Haram that made that terrorist group undefeatable on their watch. We urge their successors to ignore such misplaced   diplomatic disposition and proceed to make Nigerians safe and happy by defeating Boko Haram and making Nigeria safe and secure for all Nigerians where ever they live. That really is what Nigerians expect of our service chiefs always and no less.

On  the call  by former  Head of State General  Abdulsalami  Abubakar by  Governors to watch  their  utterances I think that has  come a bit too late . It is like closing the stable doors after the horses have bolted. Now  the governors have taken  sides and  yet they know they  are responsible  for  security but they also  know that the bulk  stops on their table because they  have the security vote but security is worsening . So it is alright for the Peace General to invoke the spectre of civil war but those responsible for security must be made to secure their states and protect its citizens from those destroying their means of livelihood. In some states herdsmen are the problems. In some it is marauders and kidnappers and rapists.  The governors must climb down from their high horses and secure their states. That is the message from the center which obviously is overstretched and is telling the states that heaven helps only those who help themselves. That is a clear language of a federation and it is the first time we are reading that handwriting on the wall. To me it is a call to action in our collective interest and   not an alarm for another civil war.

The immunity granted himself by the Russian President Vladmir Putin is to be expected. He is just following the footpath of his Chinese counterpart President Xi Ping of China who was made president for life by the Chinese Communist Party a few years ago. That is just plain tenacity of office as dictators want to be in office for ever if possible. Even former President Donald Trump wondered aloud if what happened in China would not be good for the US when Xi became life president in China. Trump is not so lucky as he faces an uncertain future as an ex -president in the US even after surviving his second impeachment conviction . Trump ha learnt the hard way that technology can make and unmake leaders . Twitter made Trump powerful but at election time Big Tech like Amazon. Google Face Book  teamed up with his opponents  and silenced  him till  now ,  even out of office .This was because Trump  wanted to curtail  the powers of Big Tech  but left it for too late .

This takes us to Poland which is trying to prevent what happened to Donald Trump to happen in Poland. The Deputy Poland Justice Minister Sebastan Kaleta is trying to make a law to check Big Tech. According to Kaleta ‘ social media companies  have for too long  been targeting  conservatives  Christianity and traditional values  by banning them and removing posts and the Polish government is saying enough is enough ‘He  went  on – ‘we  see that when Big Tech  decides to remove content for political   purposes its mostly content which   praises  traditional   values  or praises conservatism , and it is deleted under their’ hate speech  policy’ . Under this new Polish legislation any big tech that bans a user would face a fine of13.5m dollars unless the content is also illegal under Polish Law.

Again we end up with the US and   EU and the use of racism to stifle dissent and public opinion. Any statement branded as racist makes the speaker an outcast as in the cancel culture.  But again that pitches Democrats against the Conservatives and it is an open secret that Democrats are more at home with Blacks who traditionally vote for them than the Conservatives. But what of we Africans who suffer no discrimination against ourselves in our various nations. Except perhaps tribalism and ethnic discrimination. It is my view that the Democrats or even the EU have weaponised or criminalized racism and it will make the black man the scapegoat as usual or ultimately. This is because this is not a black or white issue. It is political and since the whites are in their environment and society they are in the majority. They should not be allowed to use colored people as ammunition in furthering their cultural agenda or LGBT agenda and politics. That is what Africans should see, assess and react strongly against. That  is what Poland and the other  members of the EU like Hungary , Czech and Slovak Republics  are  reacting against. Cultural  values and politics  must  be respected not necessarily in terms of ethnocentricity   but  because at the end of the day,  culture  matters – which  incidentally  is the title  of a book. Once again From the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

Nigeria and the USA have a lot in common this week in connection with my new column’ New Cultures and Politics’. Just  look at  ‘the pound of flesh’  impeachment of an ex-president going on in the US Congress and  compare that with the daily news of   armed Fulani  herdsmen  and  bandits , wreaking havoc on the rest of the Nigeria ,  even as some governors bargain with the bandits and you see  that Mobocracy  has to  be well  appraised such  that it does not become the norm rather than  the exception in both nations . Yet it is difficult in both nations to point out this danger without being accused of sabotage or even treason or ultimately being branded as an enemy of the people. In the US and  Europe they use the cancel  culture to  silence ‘ politically  incorrect’  protest that   does  not understand , appreciate , or go along with new cultures and ways of life such as  LGBT  or  Me Too , the sexual harassment vogue of the west where women dig up past Romeos and roast them and their careers in broad daylight for affairs they  had  ages     ago   with  these  women. Even women who raise their voices to ask for some measure of justice for the men have been attacked and their works and writings boycotted, threatened or sanctioned.

Nothing illustrates the dilemma and or fear of speaking out against the injustice or plain  danger of speaking out about the scourge  of a new culture more  than a story I read this  week by one Ayaan Hirsi Ali a Somali Dutch  citizen and a lady .AHA as she was called had run out of a forced marriage arranged by her parents and had   lived in a refugee camp before she became a citizen of the Netherland. Yet  her concern was not about the sufferings of former or existing refugees like  herself  both in Somalia or in diaspora,  but about the safety and rights of European women in the face of sexual harassment by the new influx of migrants and refugees from the Middle East,   men  who  have refused to integrate into European society and are now making life difficult for European women with    their   hard earned freedom in  their own environment and society. Indeed AHA lamented that European women have made tremendous progress in getting their freedom   in the past, and that it will  be a  tragedy if they  now lose   it   as they have done since 2015  when German Chancellor Angela  Merkel allowed  one million   refugees purportedly fleeing war   in the Middle   East  into Europe. The tragedy  of the situation is that the liberal press  and the so called progressives in the west are keeping mum on the issue  so that they do not play into  the hands of the Nationalists who  see nothing good in refugees and migrants coming into their  neighborhood or environment in the first place. As  such  European  women watch where they go, when and how with their  children and are    losing,  as it were the security and comfort they  had before the influx of  these  male  refugees. Remember the story teller is a former refugee speaking the truth to power no matter whose ox is gored.

With regard to what is going on in the US and  Nigeria   what  we see however is   that the   two  governments     are  indeed  looking the other  way in  facing the problems starring them  in the face so  as not  to play into the hands  of real  or imagined enemies. Just  like the Somali Dutch AHA pointed  out  so lucidly  with the  liberal  authorities and  the Nationalists’  fear  in Europe. In  the US in this Trump 2 Impeachment  saga it is obvious  like part One  that the figures don’t add  up  to  convict him in the senate so  why  all the rhetorics?. Especially now that the figures   and     majority have been used to make the impeachment of an ex-president legal and constitutional. Which itself is a new culture in American politics. In political science it is a vintage example of showing that the minority may have its say but the majority will have its way. It is in clear terms the tyranny of the majority. Indeed the mob of January 6 while condemnable and unruly has been replaced by Impeachment Managers that have nothing but murder in their heart for their 45th president while making the video of Jan 6 the Armageddon of American politics. It is now unpatriotic to say the last election won by the Democrats was rigged. That is the cancel culture of America’s new government. Yet the new Biden government called on the generals who staged a coup in Burma recently, because they said the election there was rigged even though it was landslide,   to return to the barracks. Is  this not  a case of the pot calling  the kettle  black? Surely  credibility  must be earned in governance and politics in any democracy  for political  institutions to   thrive and for new cultures to take  root in transparency  and fair play as expected in any democracy. That includes God’s own country, as the Americans love to call their nation. Surely  the Burmese generals are  well  placed to tell  the American government  to  let  charity begin at  home  and to paddle its own canoe.

In  Nigeria the issue  and new culture is that the fear of the  armed and roaming Fulani herdsmen and bandits is the beginning of wisdom  in terms of security and  the safety of lives and property of all  Nigerians .Before this fear rose  to its present crescendo and pervasiveness, the dominant political  clamour was for restructuring. Which in my view was a secessionist disposition or culture clothed in the borrowed robes of restructuring. Either way,  both words are birds of the same feather and are  more apposite now  given the enlargement of the coast and invasion of both Fulani herdsmen and bandits within the Nigerian nation.  Yet in a way  it seems the government is looking the other  way while the Fulani herdsmen and bandits  and even  the kidnappers  get away ,  not only literally with  murder but with the real, bloody  gruesome murder  of   Nigerians, the destruction   farms, the   looting   of properties and  the rape and killing of Nigerians.

It is necessary  to mention again that Nigeria is a federation and  our  motto is Unity In Diversity. We have stayed long enough since Independence in1960  to  understand  each other as a people. If even  old nations like the US still behave as if they  are heading to a civil war over an election , we should thank  our stars that even in our Fulant -bandit security predicament and hegemony  we can  still appeal  to the government  to come  to  our  aid. Which really is what the majority  of Nigerians  are  clamouring for. They  want government to defeat these armed Fulani  and bandits because that is what the government  was elected to do  and it  has our mandates for two  terms in this regard. If people ignore government and look up to self –  protection and  policing to secure their lives and property, that can create centres of power that will be against the constitution  and the government will have to invoke constitutionalism then  to  assert its  own  authority. In my view prevention   is better than cure. Local  policing or vigilante or even regional  policing is desirable in a vast federation like  ours. But  it should  be  by choice as it is becoming desirable  nationwide,  given  the  invincible  menace of the armed bandits and Fulani herdsmen. It  should not  be through  failure of government as the  new   culture   of  pervasive lawlessness  of those living  above the law,  in  broad   daylight,   in  our midst, clearly indicate. A  stitch in time saves nine.  Once again From  the  fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

It  is a well  known  maxim in journalism  that when’ a dog  bites a man it is no  news  but when a man  bites a dog it is news’ . This is the running rule of our discussion of today’s topic and the issues involved. The main news this week was the impeachment of Donald Trump for a second time by the US House of Representatives but given our rule that is no news, because it has happened before. Even the reason given for this second impeachment which is fostering an insurrection in the US capitol was more a political decision than a democratic one. This is because the   core grievance of the insurrection was the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and that seemed swept under the carpet by the impeachment executioners. And that really  is great news , the sort of news that will  not go away for some time but will  keep on sticking out like a sore thumb,  whether, the Republicans or Democrats like it  or  even  if Trump  is again tried in the senate after he had quit office. Which again would be great news because of the novelty of being unprecedented just as Trump has claimed a record of being America’s first president to be impeached twice. Which again is great news regardless of whether you like Trump or not.

What     I  want  to highlight today   is the power of the unexpected and unintended consequences  in the drama leading to Trump’s second  impeachment  and the import  of that  for global  democracy, technology  and its new  found power of silencing world  leaders as well as political opponents   generally. This  phenomenon which showed monopoly of power in the absence of competition  in a democracy  was so clear  as naked raw political  power that even German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU leaders who should be celebrating Trump’s exit because he gave them a rough ride in his one term tenure , raised  alarm of concern at the way and manner the Tech  giants Amazon, Google, Apple and  Facebook blocked out Trumps’  tweets and his power or freedom of speech  just  in the twinkle of an eye. More  amazingly  when Trump’s supporters  went to another platform, the Monopolist Tech  giants  simply  removed the software  they  sold  the midget company  to further silence  those  in the aggrieved corner of the US president. How  the over 70m voters that voted for Trump  can be silenced for the four years  of the Biden  presidency is going to  be real  test of  the US’ commitment  to its core democratic values of  free speech,  competition and the economic strategy  of laissez   faire capitalism.

It  is obvious that in tackling  the big   tech   giants Trump  did  not let  charity  begin at home and he literally put a fire on his thatched  roof  and went  to sleep,  with predictable consequences. Trump  was busy  chasing China and Huawei the Chinese  tech  giant  on security issues and G5 delivery, shouting that American companies should not deal with Huawei because it is being financed by the ruling Chinese Communist  Party in China, which is just a way of flexing US technology muscle extravagantly and unjustly. This is because it is an open secret that China funds its  state  companies amply  to face global  trade and industrial  competition and  is using technology massively  to police its citizenry  and maintain its brand of democracy which  West and the US   deride but  which  has given China  an enviable level  of stability   while Western democracies suffer  from incessant protests and mobocracy  of the type that led to  Trump’s  second  impeachment. Now Trump has been technologically silenced and politically castrated and dumbfounded indeed by America’s top four tech giants who decided on their own that his tweets in protesting what he called a stolen election could lead to further violence and cut his tweets off. Yet  these tech  giants donated massively  to   the   campaign of  the presidential  candidate who  defeated Trump  and would  be sworn  in on January  20, an  event Trump  has sworn  not to attend  because  he feels the election  rigged  him out  of office.

It is my candid view that the Democratic Party and the House of Representatives in the US are bent on criminalizing any opinion that the election was rigged. Which to me is bad news indeed because people are entitled to their opinion on the matter. The fact that the Capitol   was mobbed on account of this does not make it a lie or make anyone making such claims a mobster or a liar. . That  was what the Democrat Chairman on House  Rules  was trying to establish with Republican Rep Joe Jordan when he asked him  to accept that Joe Biden won the election ‘ fair  and square  ‘and Jordan  replied evasively  that  Joe Biden is president elect  and  would be sworn in on January 20.  Of  course  the news is abroad  amongst  Trump’s  supporters that   the election was rigged and that is their  belief and there  is no way  you  can ask  them  to   believe  otherwise. For  now the news media against Trump always  say such  charges of a stolen election lack evidence since the courts  have turned them down but  still  people can  hold their opinions without being canceled  out as being violent  because of that.  The fact  that the Tech   giants have silenced Trump  can only  fuel  the suspicions of his 70m supporters  that he has been given a raw deal at the polling boots which this time in the pandemic encouraged mail in voting which Trump all along said  would   make  the  election  rigged  against  him. Definitely his  second impeachment  wont  silence  him  on this just  as his silencing  by the tech giants  wont make him silent either.

It  is great  news however  to  note that another Tech giant Microsoft has stopped  political  donations and  asked  Americans to accept  the decision of the Electoral  College. This  is  instructive  although  it is like  closing the stable  doors after  the horses have bolted  But  again  I do  not take anything said by Microsoft seriously  since Bill  Gates, the founder wondered callously  aloud   why  Africans have not died  massively  from the pandemic according  to  projections which can  only  be satanic projections. One conclusive issue on the powers of big tech giants is   that they need to be controlled as they are unhinged for now to derail and disrupt global democracy. In this last US presidential   election   the pandemic certainly played a grim part in terms of American deaths which rose tragically while Nigerian deaths are under 1500. Which  shows  God is Great regardless of the foreboding of the Bill Gates of this world  and the powers of tech companies to deal with elected leaders  and silence  them insolently  and  powerfully as they did to  Donald Trump, once the most  powerful  man in the world as America’s one term 45th president. Once again from the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

The  storming of the American Congress by the supporters of President Trump to overturn his electoral loss in the  2020  presidential election in my view   is similar  to the storming of the Bastille  that  heralded    the French Revolution of   1789. Again   I  see  it as  similar to the fight  that erupted in the   legislature   of   the former Western Region during the action Group  crisis of 1962  that  eventually led to military  intervention and  the Nigerian Civil War  much  later. In   this attack  on the US Congress the master mind  was the US president  who  felt the election was rigged and was ready  to go to any   length  to overturn it. But    he has failed woefully  in that regard because the legislators and senators did not flee and abandon their  mission  to  confirm  the winner of the election,  but returned bravely  to do what their president did not want them to do. How  the Americans take care of the actions  of their  government   and   president    consequently  is their cup  of tea.

What  we are concerned about  the matter   today   are the issues  that led to this clear Mobocracy in an American political   system that  has always prided itself  on its political  maturity and stability and  good management of  issues and  its institutions in a unique  presidential system that  is based on  well stated norms of separation of powers. Obviously Nigeria and many nations of the world  have adopted and emulated the American separation of powers and the spectacle of the American executive   setting the legislature on fire literally after the judiciary  has turned a blind eye to the petition of the executive on what  the executive called a rigged election is the kernel of our  discussion. We  also  examine    the import of that for our own version of the presidential system that we have adopted  from the  US  hook  line and sinker in the Nigerian  political system.

To  have a clear perspective of the revolution carried to the floor of the US Congress by  a violent  pro  Trump   mob,  one must  look at the issues in the campaign as well as the major  events that marked the one term of Donald Trump, the  45th US president. Calling  the  anti Trump   media   like CNN ,’  Fake  News, Black Lives Matter  protests, Police Brutality, appointment  of three conservative  judges to  the US Supreme Court , the Impeachment of the US president by the House of Representatives are issues  that hung over  the neck  of   the 2020 US presidential elections like a sword of Damocles. That sword  fell    tragically      for Trump  when  the pandemic struck  in an election year  to make a mess  of  his economic achievements in the last three  years. It    however,  unwittingly   provided good political  ammunition for the media and the Democrats to attack  Trump  and make in- mail  voting he inevitable  way to vote in a pandemic characterized  by  lockdowns  and the prevention of deaths by asking people not to come out to vote,  but to mail  such votes  This   was  a ploy Trump saw early  as his waterloo in the  election but  refused to accept  when he lost  as he has loudly  forecast  that  the election would be rigged on that  account.

Let  us now look at  the issues in the campaign and  how they  turned up  in the election results .Trump’s  attitude on police brutality and contempt for the BLM affected his electoral  fortunes as it turned out that in the major swing states as well as the decisive   two senate  seats in Georgia, the massive turn out of black  voters especially with mail in voting put Joe Biden in power . However  the ease with which the   irate  mob  was able to penetrate and enter the Congress after the prodding of Trump could be attributed to the  police  looking the other way while their champion  tried to claim  power through  the back door. Again  Trump  childishly  believed the Supreme Court would be partial to him with  regard to election petitions  but  he learnt  a   hard  political  lesson that things don’t  work   that way.  And that   the  three  Supreme Court   Judges he  put  his power and reputation  on the line to get  confirmed in the senate, can look  the other way  and not even listen or look at his election petitions   as he fought  for  his political life  and reelection. In  addition calling CNN and other media giants fake   news  and trying  to pass laws  that limit the powers and clout  of  the Tech  giants like Face Book,  You   Tube, Google and Twitter meant  that Trump  had  bitten  more than  he can  chew in an election year and he had to face  the retaliatory strategies  of these tech  experts to black  out bad  news  about Biden during the campaigns  till the election was over and Biden had  become president elect.

Let us now  look at our  own  presidential  system and the separation of powers  in  our  polity. Nigeria  right now is in the political situation that the US  will  be when Biden is sworn in as President and Kamala Harris becomes the  Vice  President in January   2021,   and  that  is a one party state in which the same party  controls  the legislature and executive. In  Nigeria  the  APC effectively  controls both the National Assembly and the executive arm of government and the PDP  can  just  make noise  from the outside. The two Georgia seats  that Democrats won   this week  makes them at par  at   50  senate   seats with the Republicans in the US   senate  with the Vice President having a  casting vote and that would be Kamala Harris  a Democrat .When  Senator Bukola  Saraki    defected  to the PDP in the last  senate the Buhari  Government  did  not have it easy. But  before  this,  Saraki  had stunned  the APC  his   party then ,  in the manner he became Senate President by teaming up with the PDP  to  be elected senate  president while his colleagues were waiting  to see the Nigerian president  who  nevertheless was the first  person  to  congratulate Saraki as the new senate president then.

In  terms of the handling  of  the pandemic  which derailed the Trump  presidency  and made him lose  the election in November 2020 one  can say  the management of the pandemic has been on an even keel in Nigeria. We  have had less than 1500  deaths  so far but  I  read recently that the Federal Government is planning  to spend 2.4tn naira to vaccinate 165m Nigerians and  the SGF and Minister of Health are to  take the vaccine first. I  however ask  them  to make haste slowly  because some Nigerian experts  have said that Nigerians  seem  to have a herd immunity that  protects them against  the pandemic  naturally,  hence the low  number of deaths. Such  experts  have cautioned  against  the rush  to vaccinate Nigerians. I honestly ask our health management leaders  on this pandemic   not to commit suicide in broad  daylight  and with their eyes  wide  open. This  is because life  has no duplicate,  pandemic or no pandemic. Once again From the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

It  is easy to say good riddance to bad rubbish to a bad year any, day,  anytime. A year that is gone is gone by the
first day of January of the following year. But only a suicidal person would say  good riddance to bad rubbish to a raging pandemic that  knows no borders or time and bestrode 2020  like a colossus or a raging   bull, in terms of the lives it took away globally. 2020  is gone but the pandemic is still raging globally.

Some one once said –‘time,  you  old gypsy man; will you not stay, put up your caravan,  just for  one day‘ Surely that can be said of both time and 2020 but the year is gone, but time, like a gypsy keeps marching on. This  time however, both, time and the gypsy are  embedded in the pandemic that has refused to go and is escalating  when it is expected to subside. It is even more angry and  murderous on the discovery of a vaccine to tackle it while those fighting it quarrel  over who should get the vaccine panacea, first and last.

Today I pay a most reluctant homage to a  pandemic that I wrongly thought  would not last long when it broke by promising not to call it by its name until it has disappeared as speedily and miraculously as it reared  its ugly head in far away China. I wrote  on this column then that I would not call the pandemic by its name in the spirit of denying terrorists the publicity they crave for in killing innocent people, by not mentioning their names thereafter. I later however started ending this column with the rider – From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria. Well, now in 2021 I still continue  my attitude  on both scores, but  in  addition, I beg this raging pandemic  to leave humanity alone  quickly in 2021, and let us continue our lives without the shadow of death hanging over everything, as it did so  mercilessly in 2020. Amen.

Today’s title speaks for itself. The only mystery  is the  wonder of what  can be good in  a  bad  pandemic year like 2020. But God is merciful and I will show that later. But  the strange events that characterized the year speak volumes on how bad it was. I will  illustrate some events with my personal   experiences. I will also see how the pandemic intruded into many political and socio economc systems in a way not foreseen till the pandemic shaped and reshaped events  with such malleability that simply beggars  description.

Let me start  with the good side and that is about Nigeria and the third world or the so called developing nations. Even Bill Gates had the cheeky impudence to wonder why the pandemic has not killed more people in Africa and the developing nations as projected.  To  me that is his funeral and it shows that he and the World Health Organisation–WHO-which made the projection are not God and cannot see  properly even though they have good specialist, scientific eyes and minds. The  good thing, unknown to these specialists   and agents of doom, is that Nigerians have been accustomed to the symptoms of respiratory  diseases  for  long and this gave them immense cover and confidence and that explains the low deaths and the preponderant reluctance to wear masks. That is very apparent in most Nigerian capitals, the SW as I said last  week and in Lagos and  many parts of the North where people crowd together in very  unhygienic circumstances and have not contracted the dreaded disease so far. That  to me is the good side of 2020 for Nigeria far above anything else and I hope that continues and prevails till 2021 because it is not science that  has saved us but the Grace of the Almighty God. So if you say loudly that God  was a Nigerian in 2020 because of the low deaths against all the odds, I readily  agree, and pray fervently that God  continues to be a Nigerian in 2021 and beyond till the ugly pandemic disappears.

Surely a look at events in the US and  the UK  show  clearly  that God is not a sleeping God. The  two  nations think they own the world in terms of democracy, politics and science.  But the pandemic has no respect  for all these. The two powerful leaders in the two  nations almost  died from the pandemic. Here in Nigeria our president who was sick before the pandemic  is hale and hearty and does not always wear mask. However  two events in the UK and US show that the pandemic affected the political systems and their regional diplomacy and trade quite unexpectedly.

In  the US the incumbent President Donald Trump  lost  power to the pandemic and not the Democrats. He  is crying foul but the Democrats  are waiting for the next president, their  own Joe Biden to be sworn in by January 20, 2021. An aggrieved Republican lamented that Democrats played up the Pandemic not necessarily to protect Americans but to win the election through  mail–in  balloting. But  the results  have been certified and Democrats are telling the Republicans to be sportsmen and accept  the results and let the train of power which derailed  the Trump  presidency move  on, pandemic or no pandemic .

In  the UK the EUand UK struck a last  minute  Brexit deal galvanized by the fear of the pandemic which escalated in Europe as both sided diddled over a trade deal. To  show that all is not well on the deal or that many people are upset with the idea of Brexit  which is now  a reality , even  the PM’s  father is urgently seeking French nationality to protest. More than anything the pandemic made the post Brexit deal a possibility as the deadline of December 31 approached and the death rates soared in both the EU and the UK and  health facilities were  taxed  to their  limits on both sides involved in getting a deal done. As the Labour leader said in moving his party to support, any deal  is better  than no deal. But  both sides  face a pandemic that will not go away even  though a vaccine has been discovered and the nations are rich enough to protect their people unlike  Nigeria and others who  have only God as their protector from the raging pandemic.

On the bad and ugly  side again, the Chinese experience is worth looking at  especially as the pandemic started from there. The Chinese will be glad that President Trump is leaving as that will give them relief on three fronts. He  cannot call the pandemic a Chinese virus from political obscurity.  Trumps trade  tariffs wars  are likely to come  to an abrupt end with his presidency. Thirdly  given Joe Buden’s son, Hunter’s entanglement with Chinese businessmen, the new president will be very  careful  on how to react to China in both Trade and diplomacy. The Hunter Biden corruption scandal so often dismissed as black mail by his dad, was one of the best ignored and    protected stories of the US  2020  presidential  elections. CNN and  others of the anti Trump  media ignored a story which would have influenced the presidential elections massively against Biden and instead magnified the coverage of the pandemic and its mishandling by Trump. This paid handsomely for Joe Biden’s election and he will be sworn in as America’s 46th president this January 2021. Once  again From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

It is common nowadays to say that technology has made the world a global village. But it is becoming apparent that this ongoing killing pandemic has made our world more of a global  village. This is because we know on a daily basis how many people die in nations which have been the destinations of our rich and mighty  for health care as well as pleasure because the facilities for our well being generally are tragically lacking at home. The welfare  state was the highest stage of human care and development after the Second  World War when ideologies of the left moved a bit to the center and those of the right moved closer to the left. That was pragmatic politics that started in Western Europe  and was transported somewhat, and some how by Colonialism to the colonies of the Colonial powers and nations like our Nigeria are beneficiaries of such fusion of socialist and capitalist values. How well we have managed them for the welfare of our people is another matter for another time. Today we look at  the welfare state in this era of a pandemic that has killed more people in the prosperous, well known welfare states of the world We compare their battles to survive the pandemic which threatens their prosperity, and which has been projected  to kill more people in the less developed world like ours. Instead the pandemic, mercifully,  and unbelievably has spared our lives more than that of our former colonial masters.

It  is easy to see that I am talking of nations like Britain in the throes of Brexit bluff and No Deal exit prospect; France, battling two extreme ideologies of the left and right like secularity  and assimilation; the USA in a volatile and  combustible transition as well as pandemic stimulus execution; and Nigeria in which the  pandemic deaths have been meager comparatively, yet the economy is being run as if the death toll is similar to that of the three nations mentioned before,  where the death tolls have been  massive on a daily basis. Certainly  we shall  look at the  comparative history of these nations to  see how it has influenced their  politics   in this  pandemic as well as their relative economic progress and development.

We start with Britain which has a high death toll but it is finding it difficult  to close its industries in sports, entertainment as well as its schools. Britain has been saved to a large extent by  its efficient National Health Service the-NHS. Even the PM Boris Johnson who barely escaped  the pandemic with his life named a child  born  after the NHS nurses who treated him. But Britain’s woes nowadays stem  from its successful  running of the welfare state after the Second World War. But  the cost  of that  and the influx of people from the colonies has overstretched British  finance of the welfare state. It has been said in terms of history and prosperity,  that Britain and the Allies defeated Germany in the WW2 but Germany became the winner in terms economic development after the war. Bereft of any army or Navy, Germany turned to the race of economic development and prosperity and made  a success of it while Britain still maintained its war time army and naval  fleet which  has been a drain on its resources. It thought the EU was dragging it down and it could go it alone but Brexit has been compounded with  the paralyzing effect of an unexpected pandemic  and  the British for now are  wondering if they did not make a mistake in voting Brexit, but it is too late to change that decision.

We go next to France where the death toll of the pandemic is still soaring but which has other ideological problems of the left  and  right even though after the French Revolution of 1789, France apart from the might of Napoleon Bonaparte, can be said to be more left  than right. France’s problems have been compounded by radical Islam  and the national effort to make France’s Muslim  population which is the largest in Europe more French than their ethnicity which is proving difficult. Macron called the problem Islamic Separatism and he wants to fight that to maintain French cherished values of Secularity and Freedom of expression. But  France  also  has a large migrant population who are badly  camped and not well  looked after in a prosperous nation like France. So France is facing its past of colonial assimilation of French Arabs and Black  men from the former colonies who are expected to be French first and respect French values of secularity and freedom of expression but President  Emmanuel Macron has seen that that is an uphill task and the effect of it is global.  Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan  has  branded Macron mad for defending freedom of expression in endorsing the  depiction of the Holy Prophet in a cartoon in France. The  rigors of integrating French Muslims is taking a toll on France’s  economic  resources and that has created the strong menace of Yellow Vests protesters who are ready  to exploit any social issues or problems to attack the government and destroy public properties and utilities.

The  US   and  the end of the Trump  presidency  has thrown up some ideological conflicts of its own. During the  presidential campaigns Trump raised the spectre that a Biden presidency will move in the direction of  socialism which in a way is true because the Democratic Party that Biden represents is more liberal and to the left than the Republican Party of Trump. Indeed in terms of capitalism and socialism compared, Republicans can said to more laissez faire than the Democrats. Big  government  has  been the flagship of  Democrats while less  government and tax cuts have been  the road  signs of the Republicans. So one can say Democrats have been more sympathetic with the welfare state than the Republicans. But the pandemic  has changed the ideological  sign posts significantly. This week  it was President Trump, a Republican President  asking that the stimulus package to assuage the suffering of Americans should be raised to 2000 dollars from the 600 dollars proposed by the legislature. This is an ideological climb down  and  it shows  the extent   of  division  and  hate in US politics. Again  it  is clear  that if the vaccine had been approved before the election that would have boosted the reelection prospects of the American  president but that is now history.

We  now come to Nigeria where the pandemic deaths are under 2000 but where insecurity has made life brutal and short with Islamic terrorists, kidnappers, herdsmen and marauders dominate  the Northern landscape of the nation. The  Governor of Borno State  lamented bitterly openly  recently that the military has not justified the huge expenditure of the Nigerian state on security with its inability to secure the nation’s territory. He was lamenting on a visit to a village 20 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. According to reports the Governor said that  if the military  cannot  secure 20  kilometres from a state capital  then it is not  up  to the task of defeating Boko  Haram. He  said  he did not see any check point or military presence in his journey of 20km from Maiduguri

With regard to the pandemic it is clear that  most  Nigerians especially in the South west  don’t  believe it is real. Indeed they mock those wearing the masks religiously. But one thing is clear Nigerians know where the pandemic palliatives are stored and that was where hoodlums and thugs raided during the Stop SARS riots. Palliatives should  be given to people at the time of need. That is the government objective of making state money available for those losing  income and earnings  in the pandemic. It is a lofty welfare strategy for cushioning the economic effect of the pandemic. To  store them in known places to be looted during unrests and protests  defeats government welfare objectives  of making life easy for its citizens during this pandemic. Once again From  the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.