Category: Dayo Sobowale

By Dayo Sobowale

Violence is an act of force and defiance against a perceived oppressor, aggressor or irritant to make that entity stop an imposition or forced act of coercion. In politics it is either against a government or its agents by refusing to obey such government known policies or setting up a resistance that may be reflected in the use of force of arms or ammunition. Yet  government is expected to have a monopoly  of violence in maintaining its rule within a given territorial area. If   government cannot  have a monopoly of power it is soon overthrown in what is called in political parlance  a military coup,  where  and when  soldiers subvert democracy. Such  coups  are no longer fashionable as we have seen with the recent one in Mali where the international  community asked the soldiers to have a date for restoring democracy and retreating into the barracks  there after. But democracy,  when it lacks legitimacy in terms of rigged  elections is also  an invitation to violence  as the  1962 Action Group crisis in the former Western Region of  Nigeria has shown in being the precursor of the military coup of 1966,  subsequent  military interventions and the Nigerian  civil war thereafter.

Today we look at events in Nigeria and  the widespread insecurity in the North  with  which  Northern leaders have agreed is beyond the capacity and strength of the Nigerian army, and mercenaries should be brought in to redress the situation. Even the army  has conceded that outside forces bent on destroying  Nigeria, are behind Boko Haram and the failure of the army to defeat the insurgency.  In  doing this  analysis  we bear  in mind the immense diversity of the Nigerian nation which has resulted in the adoption of the national motto – Unity in Diversity.

We examine also the rigging charges of US President Donald on the legitimacy of the November 3 2020  elections and consequences of that for the Biden presidency. We  also  take a peep at Ethiopia  where a civilian PM  has  used the army  decisively  and successfully to defeat a regional insurgency in the Northern part of Ethiopia and  wonder why that cannot be replicated with the Nigerian army  which  has been fighting the Boko Haram  insurgency with the terrorists waxing stronger over  the years and expending their scope instead.

Let  us now go back to Nigeria and  the issue of pervasive violence and insecurity   especially  in the North. Without mincing words Northern  leaders have  themselves to blame for the simple reason that the North has  been in power far  more than any part of the nation and efforts and institutions and structures   have been put in place for the Northern populace and masses to benefit from that power. It  is a clear case of abdication of responsibility and the Northern leadership losing touch with the peasants and the masses  hence the Northern people  see  Boko Haram, bandits and terrorists like Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Like a  Northern leader said, the bandits buy  food in the market and get change and the people know them as they move freely with their   rifles dangling on their shoulders.

Unfortunately the last  genuine Northern leaders that the Northern  masses loved were the Sardauna of Sokoto the  late  Ahmadu Bello,  Premier of the Northern Region then, Aminu Kano, leader of the Takalawas of Kano. Since then Northern youths have become pauperized and uneducated while their leaders ruled the entire nation  most of the time either as military generals and civilian leaders while metamorphosing into senators and legislators  in flowing brocades and long caps while their people suffered  in huge misery  and poverty. These youths became food for fodder for recruitment  by Boko  Haram bandits and other  insurgents    who   gave them shelter  food and arms when  government failed them on both accounts.  It  is like a friend in need   is a friend   indeed. It  is  similar  to  the return of the Mafia in the recent pandemic lockdown when the Mafia  got food and supplies to hungry Italians before their government and the Mafia  which  is still banned resuscitated and gained  unexpected acceptance and recognition from beneficiaries of its  largesse  and magnanimity. Government  really  is about a social  contract which requires the government to secure the lives and properties of its citizens and be prepared lose  such obligation and loyalty leading to the destruction of such social  contract if it fails to fulfill the terms and conditions  of  such social  contract. That  is  the onerous  responsibility of  government to  earn  the legitimacy that  a free and fair  election confers  on it. In a Nigerian political culture characterized by rigging and in which  the masses were mobilized to get power, the neglect of such masses by those it got into power is bound to galvanise a violent backlash which  is the spectacle that is at play in the marauders, terrorists and bandits that have turned Northern Nigeria into a veritable bloody   killing field right before  our eyes. The  ball  is in the court of Northern Nigerian leaders to play ball and  arrest the situation or  pass the ball to those who have the balls to redeem the suffering masses of Northern Nigeria. The alternative is a  leadership    hara-kiri or sheer political   suicide.

On the American  election that the American president  insists is rigged, one should not be surprised by his insistence. During the campaigns for 2016  presidential  elections  that he won  and in which he lambasted Hillary Clinton as Crooked Hillary, he said  the election would  be rigged but he won and shut  up. He has said the same thing after the November 3 election although this time he seems  to have lost  the  election. On  legitimacy, Trump is like  the boy who  shouted wolf while there was none and he cannot destroy Joe Biden’s  legitimacy because he  had shot his  own legitimacy in the leg in the way and manner he claimed his presidency in 2016 after declaiming the election as rigged. As the lawyers  would say’ he who comes to equity  must  come with  clean  hands’. This  however  should  be separated from his legitimacy  war with the anti Trump media like CNN and New York  Times  which  never  gave him legitimacy  claiming from the day  he was sworn in that he was helped  by the Russians, and that  riled him  no end and he branded them  fake news which led to the war of verbal attrition and mutual  destruction that  has  now made him a one term president after an election he claimed was  controversially rigged. Obviously Trump underestimated the power of the media and that   has  cost  him the election  and   destroyed   his  legitimacy in their  eyes. While they  now  switch  loyalty, love and attention to  magnify a Biden Legitimacy with the same zeal  with which they mowed down furiously for four years, a Trump legitimacy of office.

The quelling of a rebellion in Ethiopia by a civilian , democratic president  is  a recipe for security and responsive and responsible  governance that   I would recommend  for any political system especially  Nigeria. And really  that was like  the Nigerian civil war although that was prosecuted by a military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon the favourite military ruler of my generation. The slogan was – To make Nigeria one is   a task  that must be done   and that task was achieved after all. The  Nigerian army also  intervened at  the head of ECOMOG in Liberia and this was something Nigerians recall with pride. Actually  this was  the pedigree of our army and explained why we thought Boko Haram  would be vaporized like Maitasine  only  to  be embarrassed  by an  undefeatable Boko  Haram . Yet  Government  must  achieve  this task   with its army and the sooner the better. That is the lesson from Ethiopia  and  that  is  a task  that the Nigerian government and army  must  achieve now to  save its reputation and legitimacy. Once  again – From the fury of this raging pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

 Dayo Sobowale

Undoubtedly  America’s presumed President elect  Joe Biden  is  a leader who feels very  strongly about legacies that president’s or  people in power  leave behind for posterity. In the ongoing turmoil of refusal of incumbent President Donald Trump at first refusing to concede to Biden and even calling the 2020 presidential election a rigged election, Biden cautioned that Trump  should be bothered by his legacy. Long  before this election that  he won on paper for now, Biden had told the world in the presence of  his boss President Barak Obama who  literally forced Biden to stay out of the way so  Hillary Clinton could contest as presidential candidate in the 2016  presidential  election,  that who ever would contest on the platform of the Democratic Party must  contest on the Obama legacy. At  that  time I  wrote then that Biden  never wanted Clinton  to win and the albatross  was the insistence on the Obama legacy which I trust the wily Biden knew would cost Clinton  the election which  she lost to Donald Trump. It is now clear with the help of hindsight that Biden  was prescient and knew his time would come. Destiny has  dealt Biden a good card  and he is the president elect of the 2020  election even though Donald Trump  has gone  to court to contest an election he blatantly described as rigged.

But  again  the shadow  of Barak  Obama  hangs  like a bad omen  over  Joe  Biden just as it did in 2016 only this time Biden has to call the bluff and interference of his  former  boss as he takes charge of the leadership of the American  government come January 2021. The  reason for  this is not far fetched. Former President Barak Obama, a Nobel Prize Peace laureate was in the news recently   chiding Latinos for  voting for Donald Trump  in the 2020 presidential election because  they believe that his views on gay rights and abortion  tallied with their  religion and culture and that this was more important for Latinos than the rights of gay people. To  me Obama’s observation was clearly  racist  but since he is a liberal  politician  and leader not much will  be made of this. I will  look at this observation closely today together  with Obama’s view in the same interview that  Trump created cages in which illegal   immigrants were kept before deportation. I will  also take issues with another Nobel Laureate  like Obama,   Ethiopia ‘s PM Abiy Ahmed  who  is pursuing a war he insists is for rule of law and against rebellion in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. I will compare the  merit  of the  Nobel  Peace prizes of both Obama and Abiy Ahmed to show how  wise indeed the  wise  men of Oslo who award these  prizes  could be, when  in fact they  are  at times in undignified and unexpected haste in  awarding  some of the peace prizes.

Let  me state clearly that what Obama said of Latinos could  be  said  of  many races the world over especially Africans generally  and Nigerians  in particular and such people and races have no apology on the matter. Even CNN as anti Trump and pro gay rights as it is has punctured Obama’s observation as hypocritical and naïve if not outright wrong and in bad taste. CNN noted that Obama campaigned against gay rights and abortion before and only changed his mind in 2012. In addition CNN noted that the cages for the illegal  immigrants in the Trump  presidency were indeed built during the Obama Administration. Indeed the new President elect Joe  Biden is a Catholic even though some Catholics have disowned   him  for supporting gay rights and being pro abortion. Really, Biden should  keep Obama at  arm’s length if he is truly  interested in unifying Americans  in his era as  he has branded Trump  the most   divisive president the US  ever  had.

Again,  Biden should be wary  not to adopt  the Obama legacy he forced on Hillary in 2016  because Trump  has done his best to reverse literally every achievement of  the Obama era. Biden should beat  out his own path after all he has more experience in American  politics than even Obama  himself and especially the man  he defeated but who claimed the election was rigged – Donald  Trump.

In the case of the Ethipian leader Abiy Ahmed he is  desperately using force to achieve peace and establish  the rule of law. I  am  ambivalent  about his strategy.  Somewhat,  I  have a grudging admiration for him and wish  he was a Nigerian leader so  he could help us wipe out Boko Haram and the kidnappers, arsonists and marauders making insecurity the bane of Nigeria’s democracy. Obviously he was too  quickly or mistakenly  given the Nobel  Orize for peace for stopping the war with Eritrea  but  he has not listened to anybody in prosecuting the war  he called treason in his nation. Not even the AU which is fast becoming a toothless bulldog  could stay  his hand  in quashing  what  he perceived as an insolent  rebellion against  the rule of law in his nation and he is using his army effectively in this regard. I doff  my hat  to him regardless of his Nobel  Prize for peace  which  has not in any  way  deterred  him  from calling rebels to order to  maintain the rule of law in Ethiopia.

Barak Obama too was given the Nobel Prize  for peace for the speech  he made in Cairo  Egypt  in  2009  a  year  after he became   president,  calling for peace in the Middle East. But  this was before he had lifted any hand  for peace. When it mattered when  the Arab Spring of 2011  was on and   the  Syrian  leader Bashar Assad was killing his people with  chemical  weapons and the US saw proof and Obama drew a line in the sand to deter the Syrian  leader  Bashar  Haffez Assad,  but  nothing happened and the war in the Middle East escalated with the Russians coming in on the Syrian  side and propping up a blood thirsty leader who killed his people with chemical  weapons.  While the  Obama Administration bellowed and bullied with Secretary of State John Kerry while the Syrian leader defied US might very easily and so nonchalantly during the Obama presidency. That  is a legacy  that  Joe  Biden  must  never   contemplate  or adopt  as he promotes his own policy  that  says America Is Back against Trump’s very aggressive  trumpet’ MAGA – Make America great again.

MAGA of course is Trump’s legacy even   though Biden has chided him for not caring about his legacy in not conceding early which Biden said he found embarrassing. But clearly Trump is trying to make electoral  integrity part of his  legacy. He  has gone to the courts while anti Trump media block airing of his efforts and brand his legal  battles futile. Which to me makes such media look like the proverbial ostrich with  its head buried in the sand. A very apt analogy, now history, was Trump’s highly publicized Impeachment in the House of Representatives where the Democrats held sway  and the upturning of that decision in the Senate where the Republicans have a majority. To  say Trump  has no case to prove in court can only  be decided by  the courts in the US right  up to the Supreme Court  where  the Republicans have 6 conservative judges to the liberal democrats 3. It is not impossible for the six  judges to vote against rigging and affirm Trump as winner or order an unprecedented new election altogether. America is divided on beliefs and values and  the prospect of a new world that is anti conservative stares American Republicans in the face in the Biden era. Obama’s    admonition of  Latinos   for  voting for Trump is a  sign of    things to  come under the Democrats   and Biden’s    presidency. The  courts  may  well  be the   last   straw  that a sinking man may  grasp  for the Republicans and   certainly, the election is not over until it is over at the temple of justice  in the US. Once again From  the fury of this raging pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

Dayo Sobowale

It  was a mere  coincidence that Nigeria’s anti SARS protests happened about the same time as the American presidential elections of November 3 2020. The aftermath of  both  in   this   era  of a deadly pandemic with the attendant lockdowns and the  effect  of that    on the security and stability     of  both  nations,  form  a  part  of our discussion today. The anti SARS protests ended in arson and looting in Nigeria and the ensuing insecurity has been sadly on such massive scale,  all over the nation in a way that makes Nigeria look a lot like a failed state. In the US there is what  one can easily  refer as a ‘failed election’ in that the loser on paper for now, has refused to concede which is  not only a strange  thing in American politics, but President Donald Trump  has  also   blatantly shouted from the rooftops as it were, that the 2020 US  presidential elections were rigged and that was why he lost. Nevertheless there is an institution celebrating the loss of the American president and pressuring him to concede  by all  means and that is CNN. It is the role of the CNN in the coverage of the US presidential election as well as its documentaries on the anti SARS  protests in Nigeria especially with the alleged killings at Lekki Toll Gate   on  October  20 that  we shall also examine today to assess the credibility of CNN as an impartial  or objective  news  outlet. We shall also  see the import of that for the security and stability  of both Nigeria and the nation where CNN is  domiciled, which is the USA.

Let  me state clearly that prior  to the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016 I have always had the greatest respect for  CNN as  an  objective news medium  and institution. That  changed because  CNN could  not contain its disappointment that Trump won the 2016  presidential election just as it could  not contain its glee that Trump has lost the 2020 election even though he has gone to court to contest what he called a rigged election. Similarly CNN coverage of the Lekki alleged killings  showed such recklessness in promoting discord and violence in Nigeria that  only accentuates my distrust and disrespect for CNN as a  credible news outlet. I expect the Nigerian government  to make its views known on the matter. But as a patriotic Nigerian proud of the anti SARS movement and the guts of its leaders, CNN simply used the Lekki alleged killings which the Army has denied saying it fired rubber bullets into the air, to portray Nigeria in bad light. It was a coverage whose  aim is to set Nigerian youths against their  nation and its leaders. Surely this is a sign of things to come in the Biden Administration which  the CNN  proudly  supports  but whose cultural  and value orientation are at odds  with  African values culture, customs and dignity. As I have always written the Biden Administration will promote LGBT and  homophobia and will try to influence Nigeria and its youths in that regard. This anti SARS Lekki  killings documentary is a Greek gift  to Nigerian youths that they have overseas  support and our youths should learn from history. The same Americans of the liberal ilk promoted the Arab Spring of 2011 which overthrew despots in North Africa like Muammar Gaddafi  of Libya     and Housni Mubarak  of Egypt. Today many of the youths in the Egyptian uprising are in Egyptian jails  under a quasi military  dictatorship and Libya is in ruins and Nigerian youths  who fled there enroute Europe on the false excuse of being discriminated against in Nigeria as gays, are being sold as slaves in Libya and are running back home with tales of woe. Nigerian  youths  should use  their resources and  intellect which are good enough to challenge the authorities for  a more humane leadership that appreciates youth development, justice, and advancement of equity within the ambits of the law. That is where a rosy future beckons not on the mischief and antics of a media institution like CNN that has contributed to the division of the USA such  that  some people  refer to that nation as the  UDSA – the Union of Divided States of America.

This  is not to say that CNN needlessly  picked an ax to grind with Donald Trump who  drew the ire of the media giant when he branded them dangerously as ‘fake news’, which  has stuck ever since. To  any news media worth  its name that  was an unmitigated assault on their credibility and CNN has  never forgiven Trump  on this. But then CNN threw caution and objectivity to the winds in attacking Trump on any  issue whatso ever. They used the pandemic to portray  their president as wicked, uncaring and careless with the pandemic. They  assailed any measure he was optimistic on with regard  to the pandemic and only admitted he was right that the pandemic vaccine was on the way this year only when they  saw  he had lost the election.  As  at now CNN and the anti Trump  media have led the US to the brink of insecurity and horror of political instability with their handling of the hatred of Trump both since  his election and now the unbridled gloating over  his  purported reelection failure. It  is no wonder then that a senior Republican senator  has raised the alarm that if the Republicans accept the results of the mail box election without ascertaining its integrity, the Republicans will  never taste power in the US again. That  shows real desperation and it says a lot on how far the Republicans will go to make Donald  Trump win a  second term. That, certainly, will be over the dead bodies of media giants  like CNN who already are celebrating Donald Trump’s  electoral  funeral in the 2020 presidential elections.

Whilst  the US is reeling from the prospect of political confusion arising from alleged electoral  fraud by its incumbent president the main after math of  the anti SARS protests in Nigeria is pervasive insecurity and lawlessness. In Katsina state, home state of the president, bandits reportedly kidnapped six Assistant Superintendent of Police –ASPs–and are demanding a ransom of 100m naira. The  owners of luxury buses on Lagos North routes have threatened to boycott such routes because of incessant robberies and kidnapping on such routes. In Lagos the government is trying to bring sanity  to the roads where okada drivers have been banned and danfos drive against traffic rules but these drivers and riders attacked the government team trying to enforce the law. One grim consequence of the anti SARS protests was the burning of police stations and the killing of policemen and that  has created a security  vacuum  and lukewarm police presence in areas where the protests  were  held as well as areas where bandits and hoodlums hold sway normally nation wide. It  is an issue that government should arrest urgently. A government in a democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people. That  is the essence of political stability where people feel safe during the day or  night. It  is the guarantee that is the mandate of government, that  the state must  not lose control of violence in its territorial area, which is the meaning of territorial integrity. The alternative is the usurpation of government power by bandits, hoodlums and miscreants which seem the order of the day nowadays. Government  must  nip that  in the bud urgently in our collective interest. Once  again. From the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

Dayo Sobowale

The  American presidential elections of November 3 2020 has magnetized  the attention of the world in the last
few days  and the suspense  of the close and  unexpected results in  a pandemic that ironically saw one of the greatest voter turn out in US election history makes, the entire political episode look like a thriller film  or an unbelievable fairy tale. The specter of a loss for Donald Trump was always there given,  the advent of the pandemic  which squandered or evaporated his achievements on the economy on the eve of the election. It  was the belief of the Democrats that  they only needed patience till  the election to shoo out a president weakened by the pandemic and their strategy of building political capital and support from his  perceived and much  vilified,  reckless handling of it. But  the result was close, so close that a top CNN anti Trump  commentator  lamented that it hurts that it was that close, because they were expecting a repudiation of the American  president and a moral  victory  which he said was different  from a political  one quite at hand as at the end of the   tightly competitive  and  close  election results. The results showed  clearly  that the US president,  win or lose, had enormous support nation wide and his opponents vastly underrated his popularity and political  prowess even though both in the US  and the world at large, the world  must now willy nilly contemplate a world without Donald Trump as the US president. It is that world, post November 3 2020  and before the swearing in of the winner of the US presidential election of January 2021  that  is  our  task at hand today.

We  shall  look at a world without Donald Trump in regional  geopolitical terms and  with the spectacles of comparative politics.  We  shall examine  some  global institutions and agreements that Donald Trump  has rocked to their foundation since he took office in 2016. We  shall  also  look at Nigeria  in this era of the pandemic  to see whether we should celebrate or breathe a sigh of relief at  the exit  of America’s 45th president.

If  we start with the most  powerful nations of the world, it is not difficult to know  how  they will feel in a Trump-less world. Russia will be unhappy  because its President Vladmir Putin had rapport with Trump who  thought Russia  should not be an American enemy  forever and should be brought in from the cold. Indeed Trump’s predecessor Barak Obama  never got on well with Putin and  the election  of his Vice President, Joe  Biden will  be viewed with suspicion at the Kremlin. China will breathe a sigh of relief over trade tariffs, copy   right  violations  challenges, and the US aggressive politics and diplomacy  to keep China at  bay both in the Pacific and in military  terms and checks globally. The  EU will  easily  celebrate because under Trump the US  was  uncharacteristically  critical  of EU nations not paying their national  financial   dues to the common purse and Trump  made a meal of that to the embarrassment of rich nations like Germany and France. Indeed Trump is in  a different posture on the handling of the pandemic from the EU nations who are entering a second phase of lock down whereas Trump insisted   all   along  that life must  go on in spite of the pandemic and   the huge voter turn out  seem to bear out the fact that  people bought his argument  even though  not all of them voted for   him.

In   the Middle  East there will  be celebration galore  in the Palestinian territories and in the PLO  while  Israel’s  PM Benjamin Netanyahu  will  mourn  the loss of a friend in Donald  Trump,  while he is preparing to face corruption  charges even as a sitting PM in Israel, which  is quite unusual. Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan  will  be unhappy because he too got  on well with the American president just   as Turkey  took issues with the EU and  was buying planes and missiles  from Russia  that the EU  regarded as an implacable enemy while  Turkey  was also seeking EU membership. In  Iran  I  am  sure that the Ayatollahs  will hold a  special prayer of thanksgiving on Trump’s  electoral  loss  mostly  because of sanctions and the scuttled agreement of the Obama era that Trump called a most stupid  agreement on nuclear development in Iran.

Champions  of Climate Change and care of the environment  will  certainly breathe  a sigh of relief on the contempt with which Trump  treated science and scientists on the topic  and  will be praying  that the US  returns quickly  to the global agreement on climate   change that Trump  scuttled  and which took  effect while the US presidential  ballots were being counted. The World Trade Organisation too will  be relieved and Nigeria’s candidate for the Director General position, Okonjo Iweala will  be more hopeful under a Biden Administration than the Trump  one that threw spanner  in the works on her nomination by majority  members of the WTO.

Whether Trump gets elected  or  not  after his legal battles and the endless vote  counting favoring his opponents, it  is necessary  to appraise his tenure  so far. He  certainly  improved  the American economy until the pandemic struck and he panicked and refused to lock  down the economy on account of this and when he did, he did not favor a long lock down. He was certainly trying not to create too  much fear on the pandemic which almost  took his life but for his bravery  in taking all or any medicine thrown  to him by his doctors   and he survived to mount a blitzkrieg of a late hour presidential campaign  that yielded  massive political  dividend that even his critics  admired, albeit  belatedly and very grudgingly. Undoubtedly  the anti Trump  media showed such hostility and hatred never seen before to this American  president but  the fact that he almost  won in spite of this should make such media bow their head in shame. If  Trump  has lost because of such hatred the result has shown that his supporters are as many as those against  him. That   then  is the post election security danger that America faces in terms of high  prospects of post election violence which seems inevitable  given the grim situation that for the first  time in US Politics,  no candidate in this election has a clear mandate to claim the presidency on account of this last November 3 presidential election.

For  us in Nigeria we really  do  not know whether to laugh or cry over a Donald Trump defeat. For one he has much respect  for  our president and has received  him at the White House once or twice. But  in terms of  feminism, gay rights and homophobia Trump is more pro Nigeria than Joe Biden who is a Catholic but supports gay rights. A Joe Biden Administration like an Obama one before him and in which he was VP,  would  put pressure on Nigeria to relinquish its  14 year punishment on homosexuality and that will provoke a backlash from Nigerians who whether Christian or Muslim  accept  culturally   and  religiously agree  and acknowledge that  marriage is between a man and a woman. It was the  Obama Administration that legalized gay rights and Biden will follow  suit, inevitably in spite of his claimed Catholicism.  A  Biden Administration will  put pressure on Nigeria in respecting  human  rights and right of protests but will not  bother about the aftermath in terms of loss and destruction of  public property and the violence of hijacked protests as  many US  Democratic Party leaders,  both past and present,  did during the last Anti SARS  protests  that rocked Nigeria recently  with the burning and killing of protesters and policemen alike. Once again, From  the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale 

There is a saying that religion is the opium of the masses. Nowadays, however, the prosperity pastors have made religion a very  lucrative  business. The French Emperor Napoleon  Bonaparte is  on record  as saying  that  ‘Religion   is excellent stuff for keeping  the   common  people  quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich’. Secularity or freedom of worship or religion  was what modern democracy used to curtail the fervor and  fanaticism of religion in the hope that such relegation will lead to a more reasonable and manageable polity. Nowadays however religion has crept out of where it was supposed to be stored safely or manacled,  to rear its head, ugly or not,  in global  politics in the last few weeks. Today we look at religious  differences and  tolerance in  the world at large while noting for starters that Nigeria and France, which especially holds our attention today, are secular states.

Just look at the situation in France where an Islamist  terrorist  decapitated a teacher who was teaching  freedom of expression in France , land of the  French Revolution of 1789 whose motto  is Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. For supporting the  decapitated  teacher and making him a National  hero , Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan   asked the French president  Emmanuel Macron  to see a psychiatrist literally  and Erdogan said truculently  that the French  want  to start another Crusade . In  the US a woman was sworn in as a  judge of the US Supreme Court who  is known as a born again Christian and a judge against abortion. In  the Vatican in Rome  Pope  Francis  shocked  Catholics  world wide  when he  called gay  couples children of God who are entitled to civic marriages to secure their union. Again in the US American  Jews and their Rabbis in  an   unprecedented   move  endorsed Donald Trump as their presidential  candidate for the November 3 presidential elections. And  in Catholic Poland the Supreme  Court banned abortion literally by making it difficult  to facilitate.

While all these religious rumbles were going on abroad,  Nigerians woke up from the curfew of the violent anti SARS protests on police brutality to  see the grim spectacle of the ancient Igbosere High Court and police stations razed  to the ground by hoodlums and miscreants who hijacked the protests from the youths. Indeed one does not know whether to mourn silently or cry  and wail,  the way the anti SARS protest went and ended so calamitously in terms of wanton destruction. Protests  are part of democracy and I do not think that there is anywhere in the world where people protest  more  regularly than France. But  such protests do not disturb  those who  have other things to do as the Anti SARS protests did and it was hijacked by thugs and hooligans. I think the lesson here is that a well  fed dog does  not play with an angry, hungry dog. The  miscreants  and hoodlums misread the music and food  and dancing of the youths as a slap  in the face of their own    miserable  and abject  hunger and poverty and they vented their spleen on our public buildings and police stations,  while the police already   handicapped or vilified no end  by,  and with the youth  protests, could only wring their hands   to   turn  a blind eye  to the   destruction of their police stations. One way or the other state governments must  coax or make  the police return to their duty of the maintenance of law and order, the absence of which led to the anarchy of looting and burning of police stations. The police must be encouraged, not discouraged by the ghost or specter  of brutality,  because the  police  needs   to have deterrence and the control of misuse of violence in our society so that we  all,  including the youths, can live safely in our society,  both day and night.

The dispute between France and Turkey over the decapitated teacher shows vividly the fault line between Islam and Christianity. Erdogan  enjoys  this because he has an ax to grind with Christian Europe which is finding it difficult to ratify Turkey’s membership of the EU. Granted that France is stubbornly secular  France is historically Christian or Catholic. But  Erdogan  too is trying to live  like an Ottoman  Emperor of the former Ottoman Empire that crumbled after WW 1 to  be replaced by a secular  Turkey  under Kemal Ataturk  who  made Turkey a secular, albeit in Muslim state. Indeed Ataturk was credited with saying there is only one civilization and that is western civilization and Turkey was going west. Erdogan having survived a coup sometime and having won three back to back elections  has pitted Turkey  against the west and is using the threat of unleashing migrants through  its borders to flood Europe. The EU has paid turkey handsomely for holding the migrants  at bay in Turkey but Erdogan is an Oliver Twist  in diplomacy  and is using the cartoon issue again to blackmail not only France but indeed the whole of the EU on  the unsettled issue of Turkey’s  membership  of the EU.

In  the US the swearing  in of Amy Coney Barrett  as  a judge of the US Supreme  Court on October 27 2020, a few days to the presidential election  of  November 3 2020  is  very  significant, culturally and in terms of religion in the US. If Donald Trump wins reelection it will be because of this appointment and if he loses it will  be because of  it. Win or lose however Trump  has changed the American cultural  and political  land scape  for a long time to come. There  are nine judges on the US Supreme Court and in just  one term Donald  Trump  has been able to appoint  3 conservative judges effectively  tilting the balance towards  conservativism in the American judiciary. The  balance now is 6 conservative judges to 3 liberal  judges. Conservative judges are anti abortion and anti gay rights. On gay  rights such  judges are on the same fence with secular Nigeria which has anti  gay laws  punishing homophobia with a 14 year prison term. The  Democrats which many Nigerians see as their shining heroes,  to be copied shamelessly, are pro abortion and prop gay rights. That is the party of the Obamas, Clintons and Kennedys  and  they will be looking forward to Joe Biden to win and redress the imbalance which has been so eloquently God-given for Donald Trump to do in just one term.  So  you  can  decide who is more desperate  to win this November 3 presidential  election between the   Democrats    of   Joe  Biden   and the GOP, the Republican Party of the US conservatives. Incidentally the US is not, strictly speaking  a  secular state  even though it practices freedom  of  worship. This is because America’s  motto is  ‘In  God  we Trust’, just  like the motto of my school, Eko Boys High School – In Domino Confidimus.

Let  me round up with  the issues involving  Pope Francis  and his new  found love for gay  couples  which  is bound to embarrass even his cardinals, not to talk of devout  Catholics. In doing this I will  compare the present Catholic pontiff  with  his predecessors. These  are John Paul 11  and Pope Benedict  XV1, who  is still alive. Pope John Paul 11  was a Polish  Pope  and it is instructive  that his countrymen are faithful  to his memory  and are  mostly  anti gay and anti abortion . They  have likened gay rights to communism and have made it clear that such rights will  not be taught to their children or students in their schools. Pope  Benedict XV1 was the think tank and disciplinarian in  the  Papacy  of John Paul 11 and  was blamed by liberals  of the west  for glossing over the child  abuse  era of the  Catholic  Church in the past ,  hence his bowing out in retirement,  which  had  not happened to any pope for a long time. Pope  Francis came second to Benedict XVI  at  his election and was the natural  choice  to take over as Pope  Francis. Now  the Pope is pandering  to ‘ the fashion of the times’  which  his   predecessor  so ably resisted. Popes used to be infallible but  such  times are past. Pope Francis needs to reassure  his flock globally or else his papacy will  be dented with his liberal tendencies in a volatile world. Once again – From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

I confess that I write as it were under the duress of patriotism and as a lover of the Nigerian nation who  cannot go  to sleep  while there is fire on the roof of our fatherland . Nigeria is on fire with the End SARS protests which  have been taken over by hoodlums and thugs and which has brought carnage and looting  to our major cities and state capitals   with the security forces intervening and killing innocent protesters while the hoodlums burn state   buildings  and cart away government properties  in broad  day light . One  after the other the state governors  have reacted in panic and ordered 24 hour curfews which  have only exacerbated the looting and insecurity and burning of more police stations .  The   police are  being blamed and asked to  maintain  law  and  order while their stations are incinerating and the looters are having a field  day after hijacking the protests from the genuine youths many  of whom  have now   paid the supreme price and sacrifice for demanding  an end to police brutality  in our nation . It  is a pathetic situation and I  tremble as  I  write  and really I do so with a heavy heart and please bear with  me , because honestly , I think Nigeria is on fire .

If  it  is at all possible let  us look  at the issues involved dispassionately  and unlike the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand in the hope that we will  see  our way through  to a solution which we should agree at the onset ,  is to have a return of peace and normality to our roads and cities  .So that Nigerians can  come out   and earn their living as before and not under the uncertainty and paralysis of  lock downs and 24 hour  curfews    by  our   state  governors  . Having  agreed this ,  we  need to remind  our selves of the meaning of government and governance , in  our democracy as in  any democracy so that we do not slide into the anarchy  which the End SARS protests  have inadvertently thrust on us most regrettably and so tragically in  the last  few days . Under  the circumstances  we shall  make observations  and offer  advice and  make comparisons with  other nations and their experience with police brutality and  protests to   obtain justice and make presidents and tyrants follow the path of the rule of law as required in  a democracy as our youths have done before it was hijacked  from them .

It  is important to start with the youths because  they  are the catalysts  of  the situation  we are in . The  youths meant well    and  they acted within their rights and I am  sure they will  never have done what the  hoodlums who  hijacked the protests did  so violently  and so destructively . But  while we concede that it is the prerogative  of youths to be impatient   they should be told that the hood does not make the  monk and an actor quits when the ovation is loudest .  When  the government kowtowed  to their demands and banned SARS so obsequiously     they  should   have applauded themselves   and gone home . Instead  they interpreted this as a sign of weakness   and  started organizing discos and parties at our traffic interjections and waylaying commuters and workers going and  returning from their daily labour . The  youths  should know  or  be told  that a revolution or protest is not a tea party or an event  management production . With their parties and carnival they cast  opprobrium on their lofty and public spirited goal  of End SARS . What  has entertainment  got to do with  police  brutality and killing of innocent youths ? . Absolutely NOTHING . Our    youths  should  go home now because they  should be told , if  they   do not know as they may  not ,that  he who runs  today  lives to fight another day . The  moral  for them  here in the  End SARS tragedy is that life has no duplicate . Sam .

In  terms of government  and governance over this End SARS  protests ,   I   take issues with  the governors over the imposition of 24 hour curfew .  The   protest  is not a curfew issue but one of   opportunity    of creation of assurance that government  is in  control of security of its citizens and their lives and property  ,  both at night and during the day . A 24 hour curfew creates more   insecurity  and while the fear of the lockdown of the pandemic still  persists  , with social distancing and  masks , the 24 hour   curfew can only compound the fear of the pandemic or even aggravate our sense of insecurity   the more,  when  hoodlums use the curfew to  attack government  properties and burn police stations . It  appears the 24 hour curfew is the governors’ hang over from the pandemic lockdowns . The  problems are different and the solutions cannot be the same . The  essence of governance is to control violence and protect the lives and properties of those who elected  the governors  , who  are the chief security officers  of their respective states . That  is  what governance and democracy  is all about . Not  asking people  to hide and quiver  in their homes day and night while hoodlums take  to the streets to  loot and cause pandemonium in a   raging  pandemic .

Let  us now look at global reactions to the  killing of our gallant  youths  and   genuine protesters on the End SARS  saga  as well   as a comparative  analysis on  this .Of  course our  government  has called for calm which  is assuring but not enough . Also  the news that the FEC met this week and  nothing on the End SARS was discussed is un believable .  If  true , it is the height  of  aloofness  and lack  of empathy for the youths killed in these protests . Let  us now  look at messages of solidarity with  the youths on End SARS  and  the issue of  police brutality in the US .

From  the US former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and   2020  Presidential   candidate  Joe Biden  both  of  the Democratic  Party,  have  come calls on our government to stop the killing  of innocent Nigerian youths by the security forces . For   this  we should   be thankful . I  do  not   however expect the US President Donald Trump   a  Republican  to say something like that because he is a law and order person  who  believes Police  should be supported when  looters hijack  protests  and attack policemen  as he did over the Black Lives Matter protests in the US . Indeed  Trump  is putting  his  political  life on the line over this law and under issue and it is the flagship of his  reelection campaign  for this November 3 presidential  election  . Trump  is against looting and the hijacking of protests by looters and hoodlums such as happened in our cities and state capitals in the last  few days . Nigerian  governors are well advised to borrow a leaf from the American president’s book on law and order . They  will  learn that it is not safe nor  is it good  governance to flee with the hunted and hunt with the hunter . Once  again From the fury of this pandemic  God Lord Deliver Nigeria .

Dayo Sobowale

Leaders come in various shapes  and sizes, have their values and idiosyncrasies, their strengths  and weaknesses  and have strategies  in  place most  times to confront threats to their leadership  and utilize to their advantage as well as that  of their  followers, the opportunities  that  come up during their constitutional tenure of office . Elections give birth to leadership tenures limited by the constitution. Elections are expected to be free and fair because  that is the litmus test  of political and leadership legitimacy.  After an election the security   of the electorate    becomes   the major responsibility and purview of the  elected  leader  whether they  voted for him or her  or not.

A rigged election violates the rule of law  and should have no legitimacy and  such leadership   is  suspect and undeserving of the respect of the electorate whose mandate has been stolen. Such  elections do not have the respect that  the rule of law,  which   as  a component of  constitutionalism,  confers    automatically on  free and fair  elections. A rigged election makes leaders look like impostors or usurpers dressed in borrowed  robes because the electorate  knows  that leaders who have emerged  from such elections  can  be derided, taunted and  belittled with the contemptuous saying that the ‘hood  does  not make the monk‘. A  well  known,   global     ongoing example of a rigged election is the recent presidential election in Belarus where the long serving incumbent president who has  been ruling with a rigging fiat for decades,     underestimated the  long wounded indignation of his people,  who  this time have been on the streets in   protests  in their thousands , to  say that they  have had enough of this  leader and his rigging strategies and he  cannot  get away with murder this time around, and just must go.

It  is with this in mind that  we look at the Ondo  state guber elections  today and  the new found proclivity of our president to  insist on free and fair elections,  regardless of his party affiliation and loyalty, as he did so eloquently  in the last   Edo  State guber   election  when he  was the first to congratulate the reelected incumbent  who  defeated a candidate from the president’s  party. We  shall  comment on the Ondo  State election today in  that  free and fair election mantra that our president has adopted. We  shall  also  take a look at the US presidential  election and the news that US President  Donald  Trump  has tested positive to the pandemic but has survived somewhat  and attributed his affliction to the ‘blessing  of God‘ while  all  the same telling Americans  not to allow their lives to  be dominated by the pandemic. We  shall  end up by looking at  how the American legal  and  security   system  looks after the security of Americans   globally  with the news that  two   terrorists  belonging  to a group called’ the Beatles‘  are to be tried   in the US for  beheading  American citizens in Syria years ago   and the way the American justice system in this Trump  era protects American  citizens  globally.

The  promotion of free and fair  elections in a Nigeria   characteristically  and historically riddle with  rigged presidential and governorship  elections   is a novelty and the President must  be commended  for this  even  though his party leaders will  find that a bitter pill to swallow. But this president has a track  record of not caring whose ox  is gored on such  matters and he is in control.  The  body  language of the president  is similar  to the fight to death scene in the famous  film ‘Gladiator‘ when the poisoned hero Maximus fought the Cesar Commodus  at the arena. Caesar’s sword   fell  from his hand and he looked  to the Centurion to give the order to the encircling soldiers to give him a sword. But  the centurion gave the historic order ‘ ‘Sheath your sword‘ and that  meant  that Caesar was on his own and thus on the way to his death which  was  what  then  happened. In  Edo State  last  guber  election,  the president     literally said  ‘Sheath your sword‘ to federal  might and his party lost and he congratulated the   winner.  I  see him adopting the same attitude today in Ondo  state  even though he has pledged support for  his  party’s  candidate and  I  see him  congratulating his party’s candidate in victory . I  however pity Lagos Governor Jide Sanwoolu  who  took to twitter to campaign for his party’s candidate as Chairman of Ondo State  Campaign for the Ondo  state election. Twitter or social media  to me  is a very  decadent media  for serious issues like a state governor’s  election and I was horrified  by the abuses  and insults  some sent in the direction of the legitimate campaign  effort of the Lagos state governor. It was horrible  and serious  campaign issues in my view should  not  be brought  to  twitter in this nation. However given  the expectation of a free and fair election,  I  wish  the good people of Ondo state a   truly free and fair  election  today   given the fact that ‘ Big Brother’ is watching from Abuja with  the slogan’ Sheath your sword ‘to the security  forces   now  heavily  on the ground in Ondo State for today’s election.

In the US presidential  campaigns  and November  3   elections it appears that  President  Trump  has cheated  death  with the way he has contracted the virus,  got hospitalized ,  ordered  to be given what cocktails of medicine was made available to him and emerged stronger from the ordeal that has killed thousands of  his country men. He  has gone on to refuse virtual campaign debates and is organizing rallies instead. He  could  be said to be belittling the gravity of the pandemic but  he has, like a veritable   cat with nine lives survived and he has my admiration,  albeit   grudgingly  for his  volatile,  bold and idiosyncratic leadership. To  his supporters Trump  has become  a charismatic  leader, almost  messianic  and that is why his accusation   that  the  coming   presidential  election  may be rigged is a threat to American  democracy and himself, if he wins  because he has already thrown his legitimacy  under the bus with his rigging  mongering  on the eve of this November 3 elections. Given  the way he has defied the virus  in his unique   manner, there is no  way  one could rule out  his chances  of winning or  write  him off because  from the way  he saw his survival  of the pandemic as a ‘blessing of God‘,  God  indeed  may not be finished with him yet  just  like Jesse Jackson said  of himself  some time ago.

We  go now to how the Americans and the British  have cooperated on trying  the terrorists who beheaded their citizens some time ago in Syria. The terrorists  are  being tried on American  soil because the two legal  and   security  systems cooperated on this. According to the American Attorney General Office the UK agreed to allow the trial of the UK citizens and  terrorists because the Americans agreed to a life sentence instead of the death penalty  the US wanted. The Americans agreed on the ground that given such concession the British would give all evidence for a successful American prosecution on American soil. The  British had argued that the life sentence would enable the terrorists  to live out their punishment and suffer long for their crime of beheading citizens of the two nations. It  was the way the American attorney  spoke about the long arms of American justice that fascinated me immensely. He  said the trial would show America’s  enemy  anywhere that if they hurt Americans they  would be fought and tracked with American arms ,  tried in American    courts, and live and die in American jails. Which  in a way is what Nigeria too should do with those killing our citizens in the North East , the North West and North Central and other parts of the nation. More  importantly the American resolve on the Beatles as these terrorists were bizarrely  called resonated  firmly with the resolve of the American President George Bush Jnr  when he addressed the American Congress after 9/11 in 2001. The  American  president resolutely  assured his nation thus – ‘Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our  enemies,   justice will  be served’. That  is   the type of  protective, vintage leadership that electorates at election  time vote for in free and fair elections  in all  democracies including Nigeria. Once again, From the fury of this raging pandemic, God Lord Deliver Nigeria.