By Dayo Sobowale

Nothing  illustrates the break down of law  and order more  than  the kidnapping of students in parts of Nigeria and   the  contribution of frightened   parents  to pay ransom for  their  release . I see  this  first  as breakdown of  the mores and norms  of civilized  society   and  clear  sign of cultural  depravity and    decay  . Yet  education is the key  to the economic development  and future   of any  nation . But  then  the world  is in a state of cultural   upheaval  in which  strange  notions are  being floated  by mischief makers  not satisfied with the political and socio- economic systems  they  live in and   who  would do anything   to  disrupt  the status  quo  to gain their own selfish   goals  and dubious   objectives . It  is such  strange  and bizarre  notions  especially  in  the pandemic  that we are in  that  we focus  our attention on today .

It  is an open secret that banditry ,  kidnapping and armed  herdsmen or cattle  men are  posing great danger to the authority of the Nigerian state . But  the government is not resting on its oars , although  at times  it   is handicapped by situations  beyond  its  control . Just  like the excuse given  by an Education spokesman  that  the military  cannot  just  bomb kidnappers because they  will invariably  kill  the kidnapped students  that  the kidnappers are using  as human  shield    in their    custody  and that would be counter  productive . Which  really  is a fact . Let  me now  highlight some of the situations  arising from such  dilemmas  that  we can use  to  show that cultural  values are changing  globally and some such changes  have been driven by or in spite  of the pandemic and  that  is a way  of life    that we have to live with –  willy  nilly  – regardless  of   the  way  of life we  have lived so far  before  the pandemic .

In  Nigeria there is the notion being peddled by secessionists in the East  that  the Igbos  are Jews  from Israel . In  the US  the  Biden Administration is using Climate Change to stifle  the Oil Industry,  yet  it is  asking  OPEC  to supply  more oil . The same Administration is  asking Americans to get vaccinated and still wear  masks   but is allowing  migrants  to enter  the country without vetting their  health  condition in any way .In  Britain the  hometown  of monogamy ,  the PM  ,  Boris   Johnson  is living  ,   unmarried with a lady  and    a baby   born   in 10 Downing  Street  ,  the   official    residence   of the British  PM  . That  would  have been  unthinkable some years  back . Again  in the US an athlete who  wanted   to represent  the US in the Tokyo  Olympics said  he would have burnt  the American Flag  if  he had  been selected . Which  is  a real  shame in terms patriotism   and  respect  for  one’s  nation  at whatever level . We  shall  now look at these issues  serially  to  find  out  if the changes are  for the benefit  of the societies involved  or  just like Shakespeare  said tales  ‘  told by an idiot   full  of sound and fury  signifying  Nothing ‘

First ,  let  us examine  the kidnapping  of students for huge  ransoms .Could  the kidnappers  be allies of Boko  Haram and supporters of its ‘ No To Western Education ‘ slogan ? Since they target both Christian   and   Muslim  schools they  could  be allies of Boko  Haram  in that regard . But  how do they know that parents of the students  would be able  to  afford the ransoms . ? Perhaps  they  look at the school  fees and use that as an index to strike .Do  they see themselves as Robin Hoods robbing the rich to help  the poor .? That  cannot  be –  as they disappear once the ransoms  have been paid and Government  has said  it is not comfortable with  people negotiating  with   these  hard  hearted and wicked kidnappers . Government should   speed  up the  gathering  of information and intelligence  to  catch   these kidnappers who are sadly and certainly  destroying   our educational system  as well as the future of our youths .

With  regard  to the claim that  the Igbos  are Jews I  see no sense in which  that should be allowed to disturb the peace and stability  of the Nigerian  nation . Any Igbo that feels  like a Jew should just see them at the Israeli  Embassy  and migrate to Israel . To  link secessionist   bid with Jewry is  to arouse Israeli  sentiments  on persecution of Igbos in Nigeria and  perhaps   to seek  the help  and use of the MASSOB the highly  efficient Israeli Intelligence against  the Nigerian nation . This should not be allowed and should not happen because  the Igbos  have contributed immensely to the development of the Nigerian nation where they are important stakeholders  and I do not   see  them  in  any way  colluding with anybody  to bring down the  house  they  have helped  to build  so energetically . Surely  the  Igbo Jewry    kite   cannot fly in Nigeria . Another  misnomer is the fact  that the Igbos are mainly  Christians  and  most Jews  are  not as they are still  expecting  their own Messiah .

With  regard  to the issues of porous  borders in the US ,  risk  of incoming and infected migrants ,   the  strident calls on Americans to  get vaccinated and wear masks even when vaccinated   and  the call on OPEC to  increase  oil supply overseas while America is collapsing it oil  industry in the name of Climate Change  at  home  ,  simply  show  that the Biden Administration  ha bitten  more  than  it  can  chew .It  is about to choke and cost  itself  the 2022 Mid term elections . It   should  regurgitate  , if it can politically,  but  it seems to  be  acknowledging    most  reluctantly  that the fear of   Donald Trump  may  be the beginning of  wisdom and    it has  gone  too far to uproot the Trump  legacy on most issues that it  is  now difficult   to accept Trump  could be right at least on the open  borders and the attendant importation of epidemic at the borders at which Trump built walls  to  cut  off  illegal  migration . Again  killing the oil industry without alternative climate friendly  energy  source is  like committing economic  suicide  as the Biden Administration will  surely see, sooner  than   later .With   regard  to the hatred of the American flag by its athletes the new Administration is turning a blind  eye  because  it is using racism as its flagship  to redress racism  in the US and  it is doing its best  to rewrite American history along black  sympathy  lines because it believes it got to power through Black Lives Matter .For  now no one is allowed  to say anything  that  is in any way opposite  to the view that Black  Lives Matter which  is  its ideology of the moment . Whether that  will  be rewarded at subsequent elections  will  be clear in the coming 2022 Mid term elections or the 2024  presidential elections.

With  regard  to  the tumbling  of  monogamy  like Humpty Dumpty at 10 Downing Street this  is no surprise in an era when LGBT and  gay rights  have taken deep roots in British Culture. Marriage  has become an after thought and partnering  is the vogue . It is  the era of   Meghan Merkle  and a time when a high prince of royal blood , a  son  of the Queen  has been  taken  to court for benefitting from pimping and  some  sexually  pervert  acts in recent past  . Certainly the Church  of England knows that its control over traditional  marriages is gone like Henry V111 sacked  the Pope  and started the Church of England  over his  many divorces ,  ages  ago . . Again  the Church  has realigned itself  to the new cultures as gay  priests and bishops  abound in the British   culture  and  Church   while  the teachings   of the Holy  Book   are kept in abeyance in the  face of a new culture that  has relegated  traditional  marriage  into  the background  ,  if not into total  oblivion . Once  again From the  Fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria .

By Dayo Sobowale

 

 

A  bill board advertising a beer in Igbo language  at a busy  junction around  Festac  in Lagos set the tone for this piece today . Lagos is a highly  cosmopolitan city but it  is a Yoruba town and I have never seen any  street advert in  vernacular in Lagos  before  . Not  even  in  Yoruba ,  the language of the Yorubas who believe Lagos  rightly  belongs to them . But  then  that is the reality of the situation , as only a   blind  man would contend that that  part of Lagos is   not  more populated by  the  Igbos   than   any  other   ethnic group  and  a census  should  confirm that ,  if it is free and fair . Undoubtedly  the Igbos  are  not the only people  who  have migrated  to Lagos  to eke out a living but they  are a good  example for the story I am  about  to tell  today  albeit  on a national  and global  setting . Another  good  example are the Sabo Communities in Sagamu  and Ibadan  and  I  confess  here  that  there is nothing that thrills  and fascinates me  more       than  the sound and sight of   a Sagamu or Ibadan Hausa  man  having a discussion  in perfect Ijebu or Ibadan  dialect   , that those of us  Yorubas born in Lagos cannot  ever  dare  to speak   or  master  as eloquently  as   these  well  integrated Yoruba Hausas who  are  indeed migrants  in every  sense of the word . But  as I said  before  these are  good examples   and unless we want to behave like  the proverbial  ostrich with  its head buried in the sand  , we  must  admit that not all  migrations are seemly     and  integrative ; and that  indeed the problems of Nigeria and most ECOWAS state members as well as that of Europe and the USA  nowadays ,  revolve  around  the issue  and management or  mismanagement  of Migration .

The  first  hard fact that we have  to  admit with Nigerian  migration is   that  the flow of migration which is North South and with Lagos  as the target  destination and  magnet ,   is not reflected in the census  figures  for the many censuses  conducted since  independence .  Geography , Ecology  and Climate do not support  the huge population given the North  compared with the South  especially  the South West  states through which migration takes  place  to  Lagos  . A  census in the seventies under military  rule  gave then North East  a population of 15m  from which  six states were  carved out namely Borno  , Adamawa , Bauchi , Yobe , Gombe and Taraba . But  it  is an open secret that the North East is in the Sahel the creeping desert that makes vegetation to disappear  and  humans  to  keep  leaving their present abode to look for food and water and herdsmen  especially   to look down south and move to get water and food for their  cattle . This  explains the present menace of the armed Fulani  herdsmen desperate to feed their cattle  by migrating  to the Middle Belt states which  have fertile  farmlands  and now  the SW and SE  . Yet  in Nigeria  ,  where power , politics and sharing of the national cake  revolve  around the strength  and size of state  populations and the number of voting centres  and expected  voters .  the Sahel states have even more voters than  the southern  states to which  their people  and  supposed  voters and citizens have flocked  or migrated  for  sheer economic  survival . Still   even though the  people  are fleeing the North East because of climate and ecology which are hostile  to  human existence they usually  manage  huge  votes that  sum   up    at   elections   for the North to always  be the ruling part of the Nigerian nation largely  for a long time now .

I  have   mentioned a census during military  rule , let  me now say  that colonialism set  the tone for the subsequent power structure  of  Nigeria after Independence in               1960 . There  was the story  that the  English colonialsts loved  the Northern royalties love of horses and their durbars and decided to give them Indirect Rule while using Direct Rule  for the restive and educated Southerners like  the early Nationalists who studied in England and came back  to challenge  the realities of Colonial  life which made the  Nigerian  people servants of the Colonial  masters . It  was rumoured that the Colonialists taught  the North that power or politics , post- Independence , would  be a game of numbers and population ,  and the North must  make sure censuses reflect that the  North always  outnumbers  the South   at  censuses. And that  has been the case ever since ,  regardless of climate change , the Sahel  or even  the   terrorism    of  the Boko  Haram insurgency  .

We   shall  now  look  at three  world  locations   where the good , the bad  and the ugly  of  migration are  well  illustrated in terms of today’s topic .  These  are the USA ,  the EU and  the Middle  East . We  start with the US where  a new  government that replaced  the one before it in the 2020  presidential  election simply changed  the policy on migration  in opposite  direction to that of its predecessor . Without mentioning  names the US new policy since 2020  has been to open its borders to incoming migrants  especially from Latin America . Opponents  of this open border policy suspect  that it is because the party in power wants the population of migrants to swell  because migrants , black , brown or yellow  , traditionally  vote for it . Some  American  whites even believe  the goal  is to  make migrants population more than white Americans so  that  the demography of the US   would change  for  ever. The reality on migration in the US is  that migrants are welcome  and there is really  no illegal  migrant  in the vocabulary  of the new government  to the horror  and consternation of the last party in power whose president built walls  at the borders to deter illegal migrants .

With  regard to migration to Europe  since the Syrian war that  saw  huge numbers of refugees  fleeing into Europe ,  it  has been a ding dong ,  do or die game of diplomatic and political  survival  between  one nation  Turkey  ,  and  the  entire EU  .  Refugees fleeing the Syrian war ,   go through Turkey   which  is  the remnant  of the once powerful Ottoman Empire that  was initially Arabic  but became Turkish  because it became totally  militarized and the Turks  dominated its military . Even now , Turkey’s  President Tayyip Erdogan who built a 1000 room presidential palace in the capital  still sees himself in the borrowed robes of an Ottoman Emperor of modern times . But  the times  have changed and  Turkey is an applicant  for EU membership which  is not forthcoming any soon for several  reasons . The EU has given money to Turkey  to keep  migrants at the borders of Europe notably Greece but Erdogan  is using the migrant issue to blackmail the EU that he would flood Europe with migrants . But  the EU too is not united on the issue of migrants . It  has given quotas for member nations to adopt but some have refused and have built border barb wires and have raised the alarm that migration  is an attempt to Islamise  Christian  Europe .  But  then the migrants  have changed the face of Europe and the danger of lack of integration of migrants in EU nations is rising . Some Nordic nations seem determined  to return some Middle East migrants to their mother nations after  giving them temporary  citizenship by saying the wars  have  ended  in such nations  and they could return . This  is a sharp  departure from  the  humane policy  of a Christian Europe that  has values  that say  those fleeing wars should be given political  asylum . But that is the reality of the situation . Just  a   way  of showing pragmatically  that in International Relations there are no permanent  enemies  but permanent  interests .Once  again From the Fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver  Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

 

 

Giving marching orders expected to be obeyed is a disposition of military institutions essentially. It is not the way of democracies where dialogue, persuasion, freedom of expression hold sway and are held as fundamental   human rights. The  pandemic terrorizing   our  world at large   however   is literally turning our world from a largely  democratic world  to one of a garrison mentality where marching orders are the vogue and  our health and science   are  the political  rationale for  making decisions that we all  must  obey in the overall  interest  of  our collective health . Today  we look at how politicians  , those in power and those seeking it are viewing  the new powers of enforcement  and control   of the   pandemic   have  given those in power  at the expense  of those who are not . We also examine the perspective of  the electorates globally  to a curtailment  of their freedom of movement , businesses  and  even their faces by pandemic protocols  and   masks  that seem not overall,  to deter a wicked  pandemic that seems to be expanding even in the face of vaccines quickly  created to stem its tide or eliminate  it  altogether.

Undoubtedly   and globally , governments  have spent a lot of money to  contain the  pandemic and  save the precious  lives  of their citizens . Before the pandemic  corruption has been a way of life in many democracies except  those in Utopia and that is not in this world . The explosive pandemic expenditure    however has  been treated like an emergency because life  has no duplicate . But money  is the root of all evil as usual  and the frantic pandemic funding is not immune to this . A news headline screamed that the Nigerian government is spending 36bn naira to fight the   third wave of the pandemic as 4261 cases have been recorded in 30 days. So   government and state officials are scheduled to meet dutifully  in the coming weeks to discuss how to disburse pandemic  funds . Yet Nigeria has   one of the lowest death  rate  on the pandemic and people in the commercial  capital of Lagos literally  don’t  wear  masks and don’t have any respect for social distancing .But such is the power of governance in a pandemic that funds have to be dispensed first to save lives and accountability for disbursement may come later , if ever .

Having  hit the bull’s eye  from the home turf on the powers of control and funding  of the pandemic and the attendant  politics ,  we shall  look at how this plays out in some nations of  the world .In  the US there is a division along party lines on observing the pandemic  protocols  and   some people   are  lamenting that   they voted   for politicians to rule   them   and not  all   knowing  pandemic scientists    . In  the EU naughty nations like Hungary  and  Poland are being threatened with stoppage  of money  voted to    collectively  fight the pandemic unless they play ball  by subverting their sovereignty ,and kow tow to European values that respect LGBT rights and gender  identity . In  S Africa where the pandemic is raging like in the US and Europe and the protocols are in place ,  looters  took to the streets to raid shops and steal  brazenly while police looked powerless   with rubber  bullets just  because the former president , found guilty of corruption  has been jailed and taken into custody for contempt  of court .In  Cuba protests  have erupted at lockdowns and government inability to make ends meet especially  in this pandemic and the US which is   traditionally   against communism  can not find a way yet  to help the protesters  in its backyard dating back to  the times of the two  Castro brothers , Fidel an Raul .

Let  me now elaborate on  the situations in these  identified nations starting with the US where it  is now  clear  that Republicans  don’t like wearing masks and Democrats who are in power  endorse it  fully . Indeed the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi called the leader of the Republicans in the same House  ‘ a   moron ‘for saying he doubts the efficacy of masks  in  tackling the  virus  successfully .  Similarly more Republicans are reluctant to take the vaccine than Democrats and the reason is not far-fetched. Republicans think that the Democrats in power don’t really want the virus to go away so that they can replicate the pandemic strategy first the 2022 mid-term elections as well as the next presidential election in 2024. Actually  President Joe  Biden has proposed  a huge Infrastructure  budget that hides many pro Democrats projects in the name of taking good care of the American  people during this pandemic .The  Republicans have cried foul  but  they  too should know that power corrupts and absolute  power  corrupts absolutely , especially  in a life threatening pandemic such as this.

In  the EU  some leaders have called for Hungary and Poland to leave the Union or forfeit  their share  of the  Union’s  funding of the pandemic because  they  do not respect EU  values on gender and LGBT Rights . The two nations have refused to leave and are asking for the funding as a matter of right. Indeed Poland  has accused the EU of  having a colonial  mentality that does not respect  Poland’s  sovereignty and  has gone on to challenge the authority of the EU supreme judicial institution as superior  to Poland’s  highest court on some issues .So  while the EU thinks it holds Poland by the balls on pandemic funds Poland seem prepared for the worst  to save what  it perceives as European  values which do not include LGBT rights and pedophilia . This is a litmus test of what   are really European values in a Europe that is inherently Christian and has absolute support for the rule of law and respect for human rights. It is really a ding dong battle of wits   and   revolving   values and a spectacle worth watching as it evolves, right   before our eyes.

In S Africa  where the pandemic is raging fiercely  the lockdown  has not prevented  supporters of former President Jacob Zuma from rioting and looting  stores to protest his incarceration .To  such  looters the pandemic is no hindrance  to  show support for a corrupt  leader and the S African  government  which is the same party  –  the ANC – of the corrupt leader must stand firm and show that nobody is above the rule of law in S Africa. Unfortunately  since the defunding the police in some US states the rate of stealing openly in broad  daylight  has risen rapidly  in   some major cities  such that even some shop attendants   reportedly  just shrug  when looting is taking place in front  of them  in their   shops  .This   is a phenomenon  that should  not be exported  to  Africa. This is a serious development in this pandemic which is similar to the End SARS protests in Lagos when hoodlums hijacked the protests and burnt and looted police stations and public buildings. Police presence in Lagos has dwindled since and Police morale has not recovered significantly. Of course our collective security is at stake and lockdowns should be a thing of the past as it contributed to the fast way hoodlums hijacked the SARS protests in Lagos some time ago.

In the ongoing protests in Cuba one would expect any American government in power to support the protesters but this is  not forthcoming . Instead it is the Republicans urging the US government to voice support for the Cubans calling for liberty and an end to Cuban Communist dictatorship. Again, the reason is not far fetched. The Democrats in power  in the US have been decried  as socialists and  communists by the opposition because of their curtailment of freedom of movement and lockdown protocols as well as  their state welfare funding strategy ,  so it appears the hands  of the Biden Administration are tied in coming  readily to the aid  of the Cuban  protesters .Yet  the US government  cannot turn a blind  eye when the Cuban government mows down  the protesters  as is common in  dictatorships .For  now the Republicans in  the US  are making merry  with  the embarrassment of the Biden Government  on the unusual Cuban protests in this pandemic. But really the Republicans know how the shoe pinches on this matter, regardless of the huge pandemic divide in American politics. Once again – From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

By Dayo Sobowale

 

I was 70 on July 15 and celebrated with my friends at my two favourite clubs , the Island Club and the prestigious Yoruba Tennis Club where I am the Allocutus . Given the way I feel and in spite of the biblical  injunction that life should end at 70 , I  think life for me begins at 70 . I  remember a cliché  that says at 40 people judge their  parents and rarely if ever do they  forgive them .It  is this kind of judgement   that  I want  to examine today with regard  to nations of  the world especially at this time when mighty cultural , climatic . and gender changes in society at large are rocking the world  today   and   seem    to be accelerating , more importantly with the advent of the presidency of the 46th US president  Joe  Biden .It  is crucial  to refer to  the Biden  presidency because it is the product of a pandemic whose  emergence  triggered the demise of the Trump presidency   given   the   electoral     changes put in place    because    of the  pandemic , to ensure the electorate  could vote mainly in absentia as   it were   and that  literally  sounded the death knell of  the president that  Biden  displaced at the  polls  who  however  is still shouting foul  that  the election was rigged even as he prepared to take  Biden on again in 2024  presidential  elections .

The  pandemic changed  the face of American politics for ever and showed  that technology  is in the driving seat  of the  American political system and not the much vaunted  presidential  system  with its well  known system of checks and balances  which    technology   castrated   in the   2020  presidential election in the US . . Indeed the president was silenced by the prevailing powerful  technology and that  pervading powerful technology has now teamed  up with the Biden  presidency to  silence dissent especially with regard to racism  which  it has weaponised   in silencing dissenting    opinion   literally . Indeed   America  is in  in the process  of    seeking vengeance for the origin, growth  and history  of slavery which  was perpetrated mainly  by Europeans who  were mainly white until  colonialism created a new population of hyphenated  European  and American   citizens who suffered  brutal  discrimination   over  the age  in all  aspects of life and are now seeking redress with  the crusade  of Black Lives  Matter – BLM .

That  ,  then ,   is the theme of today’s  topic . We  shall  remember   how colonialism  created slavery , built new   nations,   destroyed  native , local  cultures and established democracy , the rule  of law and freedom  of expression but  is at a loss  on how to establish political  stability because rigging in elections to  win power  has become  the rule  rather than  the exception  globally .Even   the USA  , the beacon of democracy  and freedom of expression  is not immune  to the cancer of rigging as the last president who  lost  the 2020  presidential election  has been shouting foul  before  and since       he lost  the election . The  victorious Democratic Party  which won the election is a party which  supports  open borders instead  of  building  walls  to deter  illegal  migration and is a party believes  it is progressive and that  the momentum of Black Lives Matter  catapulted into  power in a pandemic election and is trying to rewrite American  history from the perspective that slavery  was an offence against blacks for which White America , including the founding  fathers who wrote the famous US Constitution , should  be held accountable in 2020  and beyond .Such  approach  to me lacks a  sense  of history  and respect  for technology and  the true  meaning , use and misuse  of  power . Which  is pathetic , as history  is repeating itself and that  is not lost in plain sight given the way that technology is changing our world today and creating new avenues of power that  makes it possible for  even  nations  to influence elections in other  nations they  deem  as adversaries or whose  interests  do not tally with theirs . That  is seen  in  the way that the Trump  presidency was dogged by the unproven Russian election meddling  saga ‘ the burial   of the Hunter Biden laptop story during  the election by liberal Big Media and Technology  during the  presidential election in 2020     as  well as the origin  of the pandemic via a lab leak in Wuhan  China which was blacked  out of the news  in   Big   Media   and  the   Tech  giants because Trump said it and is now being investigated with Trump  out of the way  and in the cold .

It  is often said  that failure is an orphan but success has many fathers  . Such  is the fate of colonialsm and slavery  with regard   to  the use  of   racism  to  silence  opposition in Europe   and   the  US   nowadays especially  during this pandemic . We  should    look at ways that colonialism   has shaped our world politically and economically and how democracy  has performed  since the collapse or eclipse of colonialism  and the emergence of globalization  during  which technology made the world a virtual  global  village . History  will  certainly show  us the path to follow   even  though we acknowledge   that  history always has a way  of repeating itself .

The  British , Dutch , the French , Portugal  and Spain  were  the main  European  drivers  of colonialism They  used   transportation   technology   , the steam    engine   and ships    to   cover  the world   and guns   and rockets    to  cower  ,   bully   and subdue   colonial    kings and   natives .Now  , either out  of compunction which  is surely belated , or  the pragmatism    of failure of integration of the migrants or colonial  subjects   into a Christian Europe  , and    are   now   using racism  as it were   to purge  themselves  of the ugly  face of discrimination of hundreds        of years  against  blacks  by  literally   turning racism into a taboo     and  almost  criminalizing it . But that is better said than done as the racial  assault that black England players who  did not score their penalties   at  the Euro  Finals  against  Italy     at   Wembly  faced  on the  internet   revealed  most  painfully   after  the   England loss at the final   . That  clearly showed  that the hood does  not make a monk and the  kneeling  by European  teams  which was booed  by a section of the crowd showed  that the anti  racism profile  is just  a façade that  would soon recede  into  its shell to show that  racism  is well and kicking  in both the US and Europe at  large ,  in spite  of BLM .

In  Nigeria’s  case the nation  has always had  a free press that  reports  objectively  even during  colonialism         and   under  several  military   rule  when democracy   was  interrupted . That  is why one  was  surprised that the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission was  attacking media houses and asking  them to stop glamorizing terrorists and  kidnappers  by reporting their criminal  activities .   That NBC could label journalists  asfriends of  terrorists  because they report what is on the ground is a fallacy . Both  the government and  the media should be partners in exposing threats  to our collective security so   that the security agencies could  follow up and nip such threats in the bud . Journalists are no less patriotic  than other Nigerians when  they report cases of banditry , arson , kidnapping and terrorism . It is their legal  duty and the NBC  should  not censure that .Once  the media at large is objective it should be commended and encouraged not censured , blackmailed as  the NBC is  doing . Nigeria is not China yet  and is not a communist nation where state terrorism is the government of the day . The NBC should  not tow  the path of the US media in their   coverage  of daily  events and issues like in the US where  the Fox  News is decidedly  pro Trump  and  anti  the teaching   of the  Critical  Race   Theory    in US schools   and CNN which   most Nigerians view  and believe is decidedly  anti  Trump  and   does  not even  report  on the   influx   of illegal  migrants   or  the CRT  which   are  non issues   for  the Democrats  or progressives   in power   but  are  vexing issues to the Republicans who  lost power    in the last  presidential election of  2020  . Such   biased  reporting  should  not  be replicated  here   as it id an anathema     to   good  governance   which  needs   objective   reporting   always  especially  on security  such as kidnapping , banditry  and kidnapping   now  suffocating the Nigerian political  system .   Objective reporting is the key    word here and as long as the Nigerian media does this religiously   government should commend it and not tell  it to turn a blind eye  to security threats in our  midst . Eternal  vigilance  is the price of liberty .Once  again From     the fury  of this pandemic  Good Lord Deliver Nigeria .

By Dayo Sobowale

 

I dedicate this piece to the slain Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen lbrahim  Attahiru, who  died in an air crash together with some of his colleagues in Kaduna recently .

I never met any of these gallant soldiers before, but my heart goes out to them and their families. May their souls rest in perfect peace Amen.

To  the rest of us still living I urge a look at Shakespeare’s admonition of life in the play Macbeth. It  goes thus:‘Out, out, brief candle, life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets its time upon the stage and then is  heard no more. It is like a tale told by an idiot, full of  sound and  fury, signifying   nothing’. Really I cannot vouch that this mood of grief  has not affected the  choice of the topic of the day, but  life must go on, and as those perennial  protesters used to say in those days – ‘A luta  Continua’ meaning –the struggle continues .

I will build  today’s  topic around  some   personalities , institutions and  events  and will try to show  how misinformation can  bring  about   or stop events and make or mar personalities, institutions and leaders generally. In Nigeria, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives lamented the poor state of security in the nation. The Speaker reportedly said Nigeria’s house is on fire and we are under attack. That surely is from the horse’s mouth and you know, both know, what they are talking about. In  the UK a  religion editor of the BBC was condemned by  the  findings of an Inquiry headed  by a judge for  faking documents to lure the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales  to arrange  an  interview   with  Diana, which  turned out to be the Waterloo of the  much  loved Princess culminating in her death two  years later.

In  the Sahel  where Boko  Haram holds sway  against  the Nigerian military in the North East, the Head of the French Army lamented that a UN report on the fight against Islamic fundamentalism is  attempting to query  the legitimacy of the fight against  terrorism,  in which France is the arrow  head of helping its former colonies like Mali , Niger , Chad and many others in the Sahel.

We  shall also  look at the new  turnaround of the Biden Administration on the origin  of the pandemic,  when the new enterprise or inquiry will most likely confirm what his predecessor had highlighted but was not given any  credibility because he was the one crying wolf on China.

We  go back  to the issue  of insecurity in Nigeria and  affirm  that  the issue is a well flogged one and that the SGF  recently   assured Nigerians that  the government is on top of the situation which should be  believable,  except  that the statistics on disturbances and attacks  nationally is not abating . The new consolation now is the appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff, Major Gen Farouk Yahaya .  We welcome him on board and wish   him the best of luck. For now we keep our   fingers crossed and expect very soon,   a   huge reduction in the spate of kidnaps, herdsmen attacks and pillaging, all  over the nation .

We go to France where the French army has reportedly 5100 troops across the Sahel fighting Al Quada and the Islamic state group all of which are affiliated to Boko Haram. A UN  report  just published blamed the French army for killing 19 civilians at a wedding during an air raid. The head of the French, army General  Francois Lecointre   who has been to the Sahel  several   times , told  the French  newspaper Le  Figaro  that the UN reports ‘contained errors and signs of bias and were designed to turn local people against the French army’.The  general said  the report was an attack on the legitimacy of French  military  presence in the region . It is not difficult to see the similarity between this UN report and those of Amnesty International on the Nigerian Army and Police many times portraying those fighting terrorism on behalf of Nigeria as violating international humanitarian law when the terrorists use civilians as human shield to attack the Nigerian army. That is what this French general is pointing  out and the UN should  find out the ethnicity or religion of the writers  of such a report and ensure they are not biased in  favor  of the fundamentalist terrorists.

Read Also: Why Buhari did not attend late COAS Attahiru’s funeral, by Presidency

 

Religion matters in the war against terrorism and is a huge factor in our inability to defeat Boko Haram so far. Israel was able to survive the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza in the last 11days war because it has technology called Iron Dome to deflect the rockets or put them out. But Israel also has technology to detect the source of rockets and bomb it, regardless of whether it is a hospital or a wedding party . That may be decried as inhumane   but it is equally as bad as using civilians as human shields.

The French general warned that Europe will still be fighting in the Sahel in the next 10 years and European forces will have to be more involved. Otherwise, he concluded, “the Sahel would  become a zone  of chaos with destabilizing  illegal migration to Europe out  of control.” So the Europeans have come to nip destructive migration in the bud in the heat of the Sahel. Nigeria  should  borrow a leaf from their security book and carry  the fight to Boko Haram  in the deep  Sahel  and  not be waiting in Maiduguri  for Boko Haram to detonate bombs with  suicide  bombers .

The BBC should equally have taken more care in giving the job of Religion Editor to Martin Bashir  who  used fake documents to incite Diana that the royal  family was trailing her and she turned on the family in the Panorama interview of 1995 . Even though Bashir is  a British citizen and educated in England he is of  Pakistani origin and a  Muslim. It is a clear case of the failure of Multiculturalism in Britain and a good example of a deep lack of integration of Muslims into Europe. This has led to women in Europe being careful  of where they go and when, as they fear attacks  from prowling men roaming the streets of Europe in the name of migration without acculturation and integration .

Again, one must question the decision of the BBC hierarchy to make a Muslim a religion editor in a largely Christian nation. It  was a huge risk that has literally torn the royal family apart and  the British monarchy  is the gem of British democracy,take it or live it .  By now the BBC must have known that the hood does not make the monk.

I round off with the new interest of the Biden Administration and of course the CNN in the possibility that the pandemic crept out of a lab in Wuhan China . This was a view  rubbished throughout Trump’s  tenure by the CNN and the anti-Trump  media simply because  Trump  said  that  was the origin .To  me it does not matter how the  pandemic started either in a lab or a market. It has certainly done its worst and killed 3.5  million  people globally. Of what use is it blaming China  for it now like Trump did and he was silenced and voted out ? I think  the phrase that ‘ the devil  findeth  work for idle  minds’ is at  play  with this new Biden Administration. But  care should be taken that China does not panic and do something nasty as it has already  accused the Americans of trying to take power from the ruling Chinese Communist Party of China by discrediting it as the source of the pandemic in the quest  for a biological weapon. Surely,  the pandemic has wrought enough havoc and we should not allow an all-out war on pandemic source, to be its aftermath . That  would be a fatal  mistake and costly  military  misadventure  for  the    post  pandemic  world.

Once  again,  from  the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord deliver Nigeria.

By  Dayo Sobowale

 

 

To  those  of us living in Lagos, okada riders have become part and parcel of the living pain that Lagos  has become for not only those of us born and bred in Lagos but also the daily throng of migrants that enter Lagos in their thousands daily, to eke out a  living .

Globally, people move around or are shifted from their abode by force, disasters, pestilence and famine. The Climate Change proponents have blamed this on a warming world and fossil fuel and are looking forward to a cleaner world as if they are gods or as if   science has mastered the forces of nature.

In fact,  the   pandemic still  raging  has  taught all of us a violent  lesson that   a  viral disease can change  our world dramatically  and I did not include  diseases in the many things  that can make migration happen by force perhaps  because I am yet  to recover or believe that in my life time, an unexpected pandemic can cripple one’s  life  so  fiercely   and so  forcefully .

Today, I want to  see the topic of the day in the light of human migration   and   ideas and with the theme  that ‘nobody  can stop an idea whose time has come.’

In  Nigeria, the massive  state of insecurity revolve  around  migration either  with regard to okada traffic violence and intransigence  in Lagos and beyond,   or the herdsmen incursion  into  the south and middle belt and even the east and south  east  in  search  of food for their cattle and in the process destroying   the farms of farmers whose harvests  provide the bone of our food supply , availability , nutrition and security.

In the US, immigration management has descended into a political abyss in which the current president is simply cancelling the immigration policies of his predecessor and new ideas are flowing based on racism, Black Lives Matter and White Supremacy.

In Israel,  the fight between Hamas  and Israel  has its origin in the forceful  acquisition of  Palestinian lands in the 1967 Six Days  war  that Israel  won  and Israel too has  forgotten that its  existence is rooted in migration as it was injected into Palestine in 1948  by  the European powers as a compensation  for the pogrom it suffered  in the  Holocaust, under Germany’s   Hitler  during  the Second  World War.

These are the issues we shall discuss starting with the okada traffic menace. Let  me  state clearly that  the okada  problem is a nationwide one but  since Lagos remains the centre of attraction  for Nigerians it is its impact in Lagos  that  we shall  consider in terms of public safety and security .

Let  me again concede at the onset that  okada has invaded a lacuna in transportation in Lagos  created by a  successive  governmental incompetence in providing commensurate transportation   for  the teeming and ever growing population  and  migration into Lagos . As  such,  a ban of okada as a means of transportation  may be viewed  by the larger population of Lagos   as  an  act  of apathy and insensitivity to the plight and transportation needs  of such  people in spite of the danger that  okada  constitutes  both   to  the public  and even to  those it carries,  as an available and ready means of  transport in the sprawling mega city of Lagos .

Still ,  okada  riders  are mostly   illiterates, aliens and  strangers  in the Lagos  environment who  exhibit  such  hostility to anybody  in their way either human or  locomotive and who  are ready  to fight at the drop of a hat and are  ready to take on even the last passenger  they  have just  dropped , once they  have received their pay  for the ride.

I  am  sure  that we have more okadas in Lagos right  now  than cars and they  unlike cars are unregistered,  have no numbers, ride  rudely against   the traffic  and  at  night deliberately have  lamps that  make driving hell for other  vehicles  as they  blind them  with their flares as they race against  the direction  of traffic with impunity .

With such hostile attitude, one  can  imagine the okada riders under arms. That  makes them a potential  armed  militia  already  embedded in the heart of Lagos against  an unwary population mostly surrounded  by a hostile okada armada  that it thinks is providing much  needed transportation need . Yet  it is the duty of the Lagos State  government  to  see this  danger of encirclement by a hostile  mob of okada riders and nip  it in the bud .

Okadas have been banned in the past but mostly unsuccessfully. The Lagos State government should ban okada and see that its order or law on the ban is executed  to the letter in the public interest . Otherwise the government will be mocked as treating the okada issue   as an idea whose time has come and which no one can stop. That  surely is  a mockery  of governance  and not in the public interest or the safety and security of all  those living  in Lagos and expecting so much  from  a government they  voted to power with their  eyes wide open .

On the US,  I want to use two  developments  to illustrate the pattern  of our theme of the day . These   are the utterances of a former president on migration and a city mayor on racism. Former US president George Bush  spoke  on the open and close border war between the Republicans who  built walls  to keep  migrants out and the Democrats who asked people  to feel  free to come to the US any time , from anywhere and  stopped building border walls . Bush  who launched a book  he wrote in 2020  said his nation’s  ‘ immigration system  is broken’  because Congress  has failed to act  and that the US , ‘can both be welcoming and insistent on border enforcement ‘ Which  is an  indictment  of the opposing and uncompromising stance of the two  major parties in the US especially  the Biden government which  is for open, uncontrolled borders . But then one must remember that Bush was a Republican president. All   the same, I     side   with   George  Bush   that  the Biden open  border issue can  still  not   be  seen as  an  idea  whose time has come  because  it can still be remedied  and  improved  if not changed altogether .

While celebrating two years in office the Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot announced that she would not grant personal interviews to white journalists but to brown and black ones. Her reason was what she called the ‘overwhelming whiteness and maleness’ of the city media .  The mayor is the first black and openly gay mayor of Chicago. She seems to have forgotten that two wrongs do not make a right and like Senator Tim Scott said in response to cancel culture you do not replace one discrimination with another.

Of course, the city of Chicago deserves the mayor they elected of their own free will and exhibition of their democratic rights. But I really wish them luck as a city as I do not think this mayor knows what she is doing. Certainly new colour discrimination is as  bad  as any colour discrimination and  that cannot be said  to be an unchangeable idea  whose time has come .

With Israel, it     has been difficult so far  for  the US Biden Administration to rein in the PM of  Israel Benjamin Nethanyahu  and stop the bombing of Gaza . I mentioned my fear of that last week. But who will rein in Hamas launching rockets into Israel incessantly? Definitely not  Iran  which   is an implacable enemy  of  Israel   and the  patron  of Hamas nor Saudi  Arabia which is an American  ally and  so, the people of Gaza bear the brunt of the daily killings . The US must find a way of ending the unfair war and spare the civilized world the sight of daily deadly bombings and deaths. It does not matter how, but the shooting of rockets into Israel and the bombing of a hapless and helpless Gaza must stop immediately.

Once again- From the fury  of this raging pandemic Good Lord deliver Nigeria .