The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

Police and incoherent COVID-19 war

By UnderTow

It is not only the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) that can sometimes be inconsistent in their battle against the deadly but somewhat overrated coronavirus disease (COVID-19) , the law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, are even less consistent. Late on Tuesday, the police suddenly countermanded the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that allows essential services workers free movement in the discharge of their duties.

For reasons not clearly stated, only a few state police commands, including Lagos and Ogun, implemented the new order by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu. Last Tuesday, essential services workers, particularly health workers and journalists, were either detained at checkpoints or arrested and detained in overcrowded police stations.

It was not until the following day, Wednesday, that the order was rescinded following public outcry. Virtually the whole country was united in condemning Mr Adamu’s effrontery. They wondered where he got the boldness to disregard the president’s directive or misinterpret it. In all his three nationwide addresses on the war against COVID-19, the president had been explicit on free movement for essential services workers during the regimen of restrictions put in place to help combat the pandemic.

The president’s order was reasonable and unambiguous. If health workers did not have free movement during national or state lockdowns, how could the disease be confronted effectively? And if media professionals did not enjoy free movement, how could they report the war or serve as intermediary and information disseminators between the government and the people? But even during the earlier lockdowns, the police had sometimes resisted the presidential order, though not as flagrantly as they did last Tuesday.

Indications that the police were uncomfortable with the presidential directive first emerged in Lagos when they defied the directive on the movement of essential workers as contained in the president’s speech when he imposed a nationwide curfew and interstate lockdown. The police in Lagos, probably acting on orders from above, detained media professionals on the incomprehensible pretext that curfew was not the same as lockdown, with curfew, in their view, interpreted to be more severe and total.

How they came to that conclusion is baffling. However, it required the intervention of the Lagos State government to enlighten the police that the president was clear in his speech about those who qualified for free movement during the curfew, and that in any case, essential services during a health crisis could not suddenly mean something else simply because lockdown had transmuted into a curfew. The police muttered some curious explanations and then backed down.

But given the enthusiasm with which the police defied or misinterpreted the president’s order on the free movement of essential services workers, barely three weeks after the first defiance, some analysts have suggested that there must be more to the second defiance than the excuse the police have given. The police had suggested that the presidential exemptions were abused, and that some of the so-called essential services workers were guilty of that abuse.

The police did not corroborate their accusations. In fact the IGP was clear on Tuesday when he held a virtual conference with top police officers that the implementation of the curfew was to be total. According to him, there would be no exemptions whatsoever. Why and how it did not occur to him that it amounted to insubordination to forbid exemptions in direct opposition to a presidential address that admitted exemptions is still unclear.

It took an outcry and threat of a sit-at-home protest by medical workers to jolt the police awake. Or perhaps top government officials waded into the matter. But whether the IGP was himself countermanded or he responded on his own volition to the protests, it is noted that he reversed himself barely a day later. Three disturbing facts, however, come out of the whole sordid controversy over essential workers’ movements. First, the IGP once again gave wing to the suspicion that his professionalism can sometimes lack surefootedness in moments of crisis. It was expected that he should ordinarily understand the president’s unambiguous directive about who qualifies for free movement during a crisis such as the one engendered by COVID-19. No one has disputed the clarity of the president’s directive. Therefore, what part of the president’s directive did the IGP not understand?

Second, the fiasco also raises apprehension about how the police are led. When the IGP issued his counter directive during the virtual conference with his top officers, could the Police Force not boast of a few officers who had read and digested the president’s speech to the point of remonstrating with Mr Adamu on the implications of his new directive on essential services workers? Was there no debate during the conference? Did the IGP simply and fiercely issue the directive, and then ended the teleconferencing without allowing any input? Or did the officers wholeheartedly agree with their boss because they were either afraid of him or harboured grudges against doctors and journalists? Surely, they cannot all say it never occurred to them that if doctors were barred from unhindered movement, it could cost some people/patients their lives. Nor can they say that they did not need reporters to cover how the police were giving effect to the presidential directives, assuming the directives were not so ingloriously misinterpreted.

Third, it is curious and shocking that state governments themselves did not immediately counter the police directive, especially because of the potential harmful impact the IGP’s new directive would have on the war against the disease. Lagos was the most affected by the aberrant police behaviour of last Tuesday, a fact that led the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in the state to react forcefully to the arrest and detention of doctors. States should never allow the police to complicate their efforts. They should immediately have reached out to the presidency and ensure that the misinterpretation of the president’s order was corrected barely a few hours later. More, they should have pushed for sanctions against the IGP.

The health crisis Nigeria is facing, not to say the attendant and disruptive economic effects, is too dire to be messed up by policemen unprofessionally interpreting or countermanding presidential directive. The misinterpretation was deliberate and offensive. The states should have denounced it openly, particularly resting their condemnation on the earlier presidential directive, or at least verbally defied it. It was an occasion that required the states to be forceful and unapologetic.

The police may do as they please, even in the face of clear presidential orders, unafraid of sanctions; and the states may be timid, as they often are when they confront federal meddlesomeness, but what of the federal government itself? Could they pretend not to be aware of the police misdeed, or did they think little of it? On some occasions in the past, the police and other security agencies had flouted presidential directives and the constitution, and had not been sanctioned.

Perhaps, this explains the levity with which the police, smarting from accusations of incompetent policing of the interstate lockdown, twisted the presidential directive. Yet, neither the federal and state governments nor the police are unaware of how other countries are responding to the COVID-19 threat, particularly how the media, health workers and law enforcement agencies in those countries are discharging their responsibilities. It is shameful that this momentary lapse of common sense ever occurred. The image of Nigeria is further sullied by a Police Force that finds it difficult to interpret who is an essential service worker.

It is not enough that the federal government put a task force together to supervise the country’s medical response to the disease. The task force and the government must be on top of the situation in every material particular. They must not allow the country to be ridiculed again, or give the impression to the rest of the world that in things as elementary as dealing with the administration of a lockdown or curfew, Nigeria and its security agencies wrestle with directives and interpretations. If the country can’t get little things right, how can it be trusted to get the bigger matter of a search for COVID-19 cure right? If heads of agencies, whether law enforcement or administrative, know that there would be consequences for egregious behaviour, especially one that borders on flouting presidential directive, they would be less lackadaisical or imperious.

May 23, 2020
Odemwingie blows the lid

Ade Ojeikere

I won’t join the motley crowd who would dismiss the tales of bribery in the Super Eagles on the altar of lack of evidence or the death of coaches. Those in this school of thought don’t mind some people proffer defences against the allegations, with many doing it to whip up sentiments against the accusers.

It doesn’t matter if such people played for the Super Eagles without offering cash, gifts or other incentives to any coach. Such regulars made the team based on their sterling contributions playing for several European clubs, many scoring goals with aplomb. In fact, some of these boys distinguished themselves by making teams of the leagues in top European countries, making their invitations a matter of necessity. No coach would ignore such players.

Last week, I discussed this issue here, but didn’t include the perspective which Osaze Odemwingie introduced. Odemwingie revealed what some of the coaches were doing which affected the team’s depth in strength, given the calibre of players selected. It is true that players are picked on coaches’ discretion. But is this how others pick their players? Shouldn’t club current form be the basis of picking players?

Before major competitions such as the World Cup, ardent European league followers could off the cough list of players who would make the top five countries to the Mundial. And their choices are usually 80 per cent correct, using the indices of club appearances. Therefore, why would any Nigerian coach not pick our best guys for the Mundial or Africa Cup of Nations. Strictly speaking, if the players available for such positions are more than three, those who finally make the cut would know why they were picked.

For instance, Kelechi Iheanacho won’t begrudge Gernot Rohr for dropping from the Nigerian side to the last Africa Cup of Nations for rookie star Victor Osimhen. Iheanacho had a bad season at Leicester City during that period, where Osimhen was literally the French word for scoring goals in the Ligue Un. Rohr could have opted for Iheanacho on grounds of experience. He didn’t. Apparently to kick Iheanacho on the bum to improve on his game and it worked. The biggest fillip from Rohr’s decision to drop the Foxes’ star was the emergence of Osimhen even Iheanacho would acknowledge the former Golden Eaglets’ scoring prowess. besides, Osimhen gained the required exposure just as he is easily Nigeria’s best striker in Europe.

In an Instagram live interview with the Eagles media team, Odemwingie admitted that some coaches would rather select a weaker footballer over a quality one — in an attempt to market their own player.

“Some of our coaches did get involved in a bit of player management, they had management companies. Shaibu Amodu for instance had a management company,” he said.

“Some picked a weaker player over a stronger one who played in a better club because they wanted to market their player. He was in and out as a coach and an agent, but he was a great man. I used to talk with him whenever I could about it. I loved Amodu.

“We used to fall out at times with him when they changed our hotels to a very poor one in Abuja. I would raise questions because it was disgusting and downgrading.”

In fact, top European countries have in the past filled their World Cup squad lists with their junior internationals, hence the smooth transmission of players from one cadre to the other, like we are experiencing with Osimhen. That is Odemwingie’s point without necessarily accusing any coach of receiving bribes.

Super Eagles squad should reflect our best stars anywhere in the world just as it should be used to show how our age-grade stars progress to the senior level. The young boys which European countries parade emerged from a structured nursery through grassroots competitions. Our domestic league clubs can only make a strong case for their sector if they religiously get the right kids to fill their junior squads. These clubs should forget about immediate results like winning trophies.

Youth teams are investments which would come with time. In fact, as many as six stars can emerge from a club, depending on the quality of coaching in the clubs. Interestingly, FIFA has allocated $100,000 (about N42 million) each for both the boys and girls teams, which means that the NFF should introduce a competition(s) where these talents can exhibit their skills. It has been a long time since schoolboys played for Nigeria like we had with Henry Nwosu, Thompson Usiyan, Adokie Amiesimaka and Felix Owolabi as undergraduates, Haruna Ilerika et al.

The beauty about organising youth competitions is that it enriches the NFF’s data bank on players and helps the federation track the good ones among them who make it to Europe. Besides, these good lads boost the revenue indexes of the federation and the clubs where they are engaged in inter and intra transfers yearly. Football playing nations who see the industry as a business rely on the revenue from the transfer markets among other sub-heads for making cash to keep the leagues in session.

Indeed, such marketing windows help the clubs and federation evaluate how much they are worth. Both entities could also use the figures to know when they ran at a loss or incurred more profits for the particular season. In fact, FIFA’s $100,000 should invigorate the boys and girls competitions. Such lucrative activities would encourage the youth to remain here and earn a living until they are of age to make it big in Europe.

This writer would rather the NFF effectively use the $100,000 to raise the bar on the youth competitions than allow the clubs run it. A few clubs may argue that they would misappropriate the cash. But the larger number would, especially those who are indebted to the coaches, officials and players running into years. Such new competitions throw up fresh talents who could be nurtured and exposed to the world.

If we truly want foreign coaches and our prominent local tacticians to look towards the home-based players, we must increase the nurseries where the new lads can be schooled on the rudiments of the game. NFF should streamline the nurseries to eliminate quacks. The federation should get trained coaches who would be retrained periodically on the modern tricks of the game at the grassroots. Super Eagles level isn’t where players should be taught the basics of the game. No.

This flaw predates this current federation which has tried to change the narrative with several youth football programmes anchored on support from the corporate world, especially the banks. We are being told that close to five players of one of NFF’s youth programmes are in the current Golden Eaglets. This isn’t the point. the difference is that most of the serious countries have theirs from different academies or programmes, yet they play the same system. Hence the cohesion when they play.

Academies which are nurseries for warehousing the game have been standardised to protect the sector and backed by law for effectiveness. It is at this level that countries’ playing patterns evolve depending on what the coaches feel could bring the best from their nationals. Standards are set for owning such academies including their curriculum to shut out quackery. These academies are registered by the country’s FA with the right synergy struck where players’ movement in and out of the country are documented.

The serious-minded soccer nations expose players from academies who also have the template to monitor those who did well and have juicy packages in big clubs in Europe, Americas and the Diaspora. These academies ensure that the players’ career path are cut to fit their ambitions. Those of them eager to combine playing soccer with going to school are enrolled to be educated. They also have drawn up training schedules to suit their schools’ curriculum, knowing the importance of education when their career as soccer players is over. Nothing happens in such countries like an accident.

May 23, 2020
Who is in charge in Oyo: GSM or GAC?

By Sentry

The political dimension in Oyo State is becoming interesting every day. The Omituntun Revolution is still trying to find its feet such that it is difficult to say exactly who is in charge.

Constitutionally, Governor Seyi Makinde (GSM) is the elected leader but he is now at the mercy of the Governor’s Advisory Committee (GAC) which he constituted to help his administration.

GAC is now operating as a parallel authority, to the extent that some of its members are now tin gods. They determine who gets any appointment in the state through their “strong recommendation.”

Also, those seeking political and business favours now sleep at the doorsteps of some GAC members.

Still undone, some ambitious GAC members are already working on the 2023 project without factoring GSM into their calculations.

Yet, the excesses of these reckless members have not been checked. The question in Oyo State is: Who is really in charge? GSM or GAC?

May 16, 2020
COVID-19: Governors give PTF headache

Sentry

For political exigency, some governors have defied the advisory from the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and went ahead to ease the lockdown in their states by reopening churches and mosques.

Their decisions have caused serious headache for PTF members because such recalcitrance is at variance with the facts and figures on coronavirus pandemic in their states.

One of the affected governors, according to records, does not regularly attend the meetings of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

May 16, 2020
Politics, diplomacy and desperation

Dayo Sobowale

In a turbulent, desperate   world, fear stricken by a murderous and rampaging pandemic, diplomacy can be a stabilizing factor.

That is very much at play in the way China and the US are still at each other’s throat over the source of the pandemic, without abandoning the all important   diplomacy and   trade talks which will aid their post pandemic recovery even though they do not know when that will be.

It explains why in the complex power play of Israeli politics the incumbent and powerful PM, Boonyamin Netanyahu    has negotiated, after several   deadlocked elections, to be Foreign Minister in 18 months time when his present rival power takes over as PM .

Even in Nigeria the appointment of a former Foreign Affairs Minister Prof   Ibrahim Gambari as   the new Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President is not only a tribute and acknowledgement of the importance of diplomacy.

It provides further proof that at home and abroad, a nation needs a stabilizing rod such that it does not descend into the type of murky partisan politics which is best typified   by the bitter pandemic and   presidential   election year politics , going on in the US   nowadays.

Today , charity begins at home and I am happy as a writer on Global Economy and Politics with the appointment of a distinguished Nigerian diplomat as the Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President.

Let me confess that at first I thought that the appointment was beneath the reputation and accomplishments of the new Chief of Staff,    who was almost a UN Secretary General next to   then UN boss Ban Ki Moon as Under Secretary General .

It was like asking Kofi Annan to be Chief of Staff to the Ghanaian President. That would have been unthinkable but here we are in Nigeria and the equivalent is happening and we are thanking our stars that it has happened.

Especially in a pandemic which I have promised never to call by its name again till it has passed. This appointment is not about ambition and politics alone, and you cannot   say rightly   that ‘ambition   should   be made of   sterner stuff ‘as in Shakespeare’s   Julius Caesar.

This is because the appointee brings impeccable diplomatic skills to enhance governance in the Nigerian presidency . Of course the confidence for the job matters   especially   to handle Nigeria’s very clever, smart and overreaching politicians and leaders and the new Chief of Staff has that and he knows it .

On his arrival at the Presidency he reportedly said the ‘ President   needs my loyalty, competence and support. ‘Those are the words of a time tested administrator and leader in his own right who knows his onions.

I wish the new Chief of Staff a successful tenure as he tries   first   to   manoeuvre from his   office,    to rein in the fear and panic with which we are managing this epidemic. Our strategy to contain it   so far makes   us look and speak like the doomed gladiators in Ancient Rome at the arena who saluted Caesar before facing their certain death with the salutation – ‘ Hail Caesar, we who are about to die, salute you ‘.

Definitely Nigerians as a people and a nation deserve a different and hugely better fate against this nasty pandemic and the new Chief of Staff should diplomatically help us out to survive and   outlive this viral scourge.

It is necessary to dwell on the strategies to contain this pandemic here at home and abroad even on a topic like today’s. In New York the governor said 10000 New Yorkers would die in50 days time but at the end of a month when the virus peaked and came down 18000 people had died.

Similarly a UNICEF report blared loudly that 171000 Nigerian Children risk death in 6 months. Such alarming and frightening forecasts must have led to why an African nation, Burundi just asked the visiting World Health Organisation   team   visiting his nation to just pack and leave their country.

It may explain why even Kogi State asked the Federal Pandemic experts to leave or be quarantined since it seemed they wanted to establish that the state has a case of the pandemic when that state had insisted it did not have any.

Really what is wrong in that ? Must every where be like Italy, UK or the US   in terms of huge daily deaths ? Definitely not. Our governments should focus on strict hygiene standards and social distancing , tracking and testing.

They should decide firmly on wearing of face masks. The recent parody of the number of those without face masks   in public noticeably outnumbering those wearing masks makes a mockery of government efforts.

It is not peculiar to Nigeria though   as those in buses and trains in England did the same when the lockdown was opened. In Nigeria the sheer number of those without face masks made those of us wearing them look like the really sick people.

It is as confusing as it is dangerous. Our governments should find a way to enforce   pandemic    laws without making an ass of   the law and without the police making a meal of it or the government losing unnecessarily,   the votes and confidence of the electorate that put it in power before the pandemic.

Let me now show that I understand very much Prof Ibrahim Gambari’s pledge of loyalty, competence and support to the Nigerian president.

First   I say that in an elective democracy that is how it should be. This terrain is unlike the professor’s main terrain of International Relations and Diplomacy where there are no permanent friends but permanent interests.

The Chief of Staff must do the president’s bidding and   protect his interests and the party that put him in power in two    presidential elections in 2015 and in 2019. Let me use an American illustration to make my point.

The US Department of Justice   recently   dropped a case of lying against former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who served as a General under former President Barak Obama who warned incoming President Donald Trump not to have anything to do with Flynn.

When a reporter asked US Attorney General William Barr how history will   judge him on the drop of the charges against   Flynn by the Department of Justice under his purview, AG Barr   replied that history is written by the winners.

By the way former President Obama’s grouse with Flynn was that the general was too harsh with Islamic Fundamentalism in his   recommendations. Indeed, in one of his write ups that I read, Flynn called Islam ‘a weaponised faith.’ But Obama’s aversion of Flynn made him a good attraction for Trump    who gave him the post of National Security Adviser.   Such   is American politics for now, made more bitter by this biting and killing pandemic   that Trump cannot control in his reelection bid this year.

That   also   is the nature   desperate   politics our consummate diplomat in the office of Chief of Staff of the Nigerian President must contend with, in a period of a killing pandemic, globally and in Nigeria   especially. Once again – From the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria. Amen.

May 16, 2020
J.P Clark, coronavirus and remains of a tide

Segun Ayobolu

DOES the renowned poet, playwright and scholar, Professor J.P. Clark’s latest and characteristically enthralling collection of poems have anything to do with the raging coronavirus pandemic? Not directly. But then, does the ongoing rage of this invisible but mighty viral enemy that has virtually grounded the world and humbled man’s fabled genius not give us cause to relate virtually everything to the ephemeral and fragile quality of human existence?

Published in 2018, this slim but powerful collection of 70 pages reveal once again why the great playwright and dramatist, Professor Femi Osofisan unequivocally declares that “…of all his contemporaries, JP Clark has arguably been the most protean, the most self-regenerating, and the most continuously experimental as much in terms of form and technique as theme”.

Although Clark, an octogenarian, offers this collection in the winter of a long, epic, productive and fulfilled life, his artistic talent and spirit remain as vigorous as ever. His style remains fascinatingly economical and enchanting even as there is a haunting sense of sadness that most of the poems evoke in the reader. Let us take his dedication of the collection to his wife, the no less illustrious Professor Ebun Clark, for instance. The poet simply and movingly writes:

“For

My wife

To the end”

Ah! Just six words. But what feelings they convey. Of lifelong love and partnership. Loyalty. Commitment. Fidelity. Of enduring love till death do us part. It is all too tempting to read this delightful offering by JP Clark titled ‘Remains of a tide’ as some sort of last testament even if he still surprises his admirers with another collection after this. It is perhaps not surprising that most of the poems have to do with death, dying and the anticipation of inevitable human transition.

In ‘This Place My Own’, for instance, Clark recounts a serious almost life-threatening accident he had in his home, presumably in his birthplace. In his graphic style, the poet writes:

“Alone, in this place, early one morning,

I slipped and fell on the top balcony,

Gone slimy from rain through days of disuse.

After three attempts, leaving blood spots

On the floor, I woke up to find a gash

On my forehead, just a hair short of

My left eye, and a left wrist, broken in two,

My staff, with no keys to come in, acting lost

Outside…”

The poet goes on to depict in vivid, gripping detail his feelings of pain, nausea, numbness, descent to unconsciousness and gradual return of sensation as a result of this accident. Obviously referring to his home where the accident occurred, Clark wonders,

“Why then do I still insist I have nowhere

Else to rest but this place of lore, which twice

Has given me a preview of my end?

Not one to follow guides blindfold, I was

Not surprised that, silent and dark beyond

Belief, the show held out for me no torch”.

Trees form a recurring motif in this collection with the poet depicting many of the departed friends and associates he pays tribute to as fallen timber reminding him poignantly of his own mortality. In ‘A Tree in a Grove’ dedicated to Dele Kasumu, Clark confesses that,

‘…I shake

To my roots, whenever I hear

A tree has fallen in one row,

Always wanting to know the time

And the way earth let go for it…’

Ruminating on this death and envisaging his own inevitable ultimate date with the grim reaper, the poet writes,

“…one day, no signs

And comets seen blazing above,

Nor quakes below, news too will spread:

J P Clark, poet, dramatist and mascot

For old masters at home, is dead”.

Yet beyond the themes of death and mortality, Clark also uses the symbol of the tree to reflect philosophically on the intricacies of life. For instance, in ‘A Tree Standing’, he writes of the mystery of

“A tree, though standing

Still, fixed for life to one place,

Sends out roots in a ring

Round its world; and with face

Not seen, silent and unknown,

Some actually move stone”.

No less philosophical and intriguing is the poem, ‘The Rings of a Tree’ in which the writer observes perceptively that:

“Roots countless, spread well underground,

One tapping the centre of the earth,

The wonder would be, if a tree,

With such ties, did not bear the print

Of the earth, spinning round the sun,

As both absorb the beams of light for life”.

In the poems ‘Anniversary 2012’ and ‘Devotion’, Clark expresses his undying love for his wife on the couple’s 48th and 52nd wedding commemorations respectively. The former is another philosophical introspection on the riddle of life and its paradoxes. In this poem, the wife asks:

“Why is it time strolls with the young

They only hear the laugh and song,

But goes at such a pace with the old

They creak and curse all the way?”

And the poet’s answer to the question;

“That’s because” her man replied,

“As it leads one into light,

It takes the other into night

With no view of a new day”.

Is there something that smacks of despair, haunting hopelessness in the poet’s depiction of creeping old age in these lines or is it just my imagination? Over all, it appears to me that the poet simply states the sometimes unpleasant facts of old age and the transience of life as an inescapable matter of fact and indeed with considerable courage and equanimity in coming to terms with the inevitable.

In its succinctness and cryptic quality, the poem, ‘Old Age’ reminds one of Clark’s magical early poem- ‘Ibadan’. He writes:

“Old age

At the top of the tree

Memories

And aches

Going to the root”.

And in ‘Note to my Publisher’, the poet encapsulates his philosophical view of life:

“Death

Alone, outside of faith,

Is final; all our acts on earth

Being, from birth,

By trial and error till that last breadth”.

Even when he seems to view human existence and its fragility and transience with despair, there is also often a glimmer of hope in many of these poems. In ‘Old Trees’, for instance, dedicated ‘to my older brother, on hearing the news of the death of a relation at home’, Clark writes:

“Old trees

Ourselves, it is of interest,

Personal, when another one

Falls, although, in silence, a million

Shoots spring up daily in the forest

Around us, swaying trees”.

May 16, 2020
Lagos and second COVID-19 lockdown debate

Undertow

WITH COVID-19 infection cases in excess of 1,400 out of a national total of a little more than 5,000, and 33 deaths out of over 160 for the entire country, Lagos State is reportedly weighing its options on whether to repeat the lockdown imposed on the state by the federal government on March 30 or simply continue with the regimen of relaxing the measure.

The lockdown lasted for two unbroken weeks in the first instance in April, was extended by another two unbroken weeks, and then extended by another unbroken week, before an indeterminate 8pm-6am curfew was imposed after the easing of lockdown began.

For as long as the lockdowns lasted, the rate of infection did not abate. Indeed, even with the imposition of curfew, infection has still not abated.

There is no significant statistical difference in infection rate between the lockdown period and post-lockdown/curfew period, but the Lagos State government still thinks there should be a re-imposition of lockdown.

It reasons that since Lagosians were not adhering to the rules and regulations guiding the easing of lockdown, they were making a second lockdown inevitable.

Though the state has not presented any statistical analysis to show that the rate of infection was gentler under lockdown than after, it has seemed to discount the fact that before the five-week lockdown the rate of infection was in fact slower than after the lockdown was imposed.

In particular, in March, some 71 Lagosians were infected. In April, some 920 Lagosians were infected. And in May, so far, some 1065 people have been infected.

These figures translate into 1,196 percent increase in infection rate for April under the lockdown (March 31, one day after lockdown began to April 30, four days before lockdown ended), and 16 percent rate of increase between the end of the lockdown, May 4, to May 13.

In other words, the rate of increase of infection between the beginning of lockdown and end of lockdown was 1,489 percent.

However, the fact is that the low rate of testing, both before and after lockdown ended, makes it difficult for statisticians to paint an accurate picture of the gentleness or steepness of the infection rate in the state.

Statisticians have managed to give a spatial picture of the infection, indicating which parts of the states suffer infections, but they have been unable to do precious little else.

It is, therefore, confusing what picture of COVID-19 infection rate the state is seizing upon to consider a second lockdown. It was a mistake in the first instance to impose a lockdown, because little or nothing was gained from it other than perhaps identifying with the global convention of making general lockdown look sexy.

Average infections in March in Lagos were 2.29 persons per day, and in April, the month of the lockdown, 30.67 persons.

To consider administering a second lockdown simply because Lagosians are believed to be remiss in adhering to rules and regulations guiding the easing of lockdown will, therefore, be a terrible mistake.

The Lagos State government has now inexplicably decided to pass the decision about a second lockdown to the public through online polling.

It is a decision that should normally be taken by a panel of the state’s scientists, medical experts, economists, law enforcement agencies and political leaders. Where the state got the brainwave to go online and subject the proposal to public opinion polling is hard to fathom.

Online polling is the wrongest place to go for such a grave decision regarding a pandemic that constitutes an existential threat to nearly all parts of the world.

Online pollsters are often concerned with a narrow range of options; they have no means of informing the public what factors to consider in coming to judgement about how to vote.

For the pandemic and the lockdown, there is little to suggest that the public is fixated on anything else but the deaths that accompany the COVID-19 infection.

In March, when the federal government first unilaterally imposed a lockdown, many Lagosians actually and sensibly believed it was disruptive of the original measures thoughtfully embarked upon by the state.

The state had embraced a gradual shutdown, significantly reduced traffic on the roads, banned religious gatherings and other forms of social entertainments, and encouraged companies to coax their workers, as much as practicable, to work from home.

These were necessary first steps; and they were applauded and thought to be fairly effective. In addition, these measures were thought to be cost-effective, not needing wide scale financial or material interventions in the existence of either the middle class or the vulnerable.

Unfortunately and heedlessly, the federal government, thinking itself to be decisive, barged in and ordered a lockdown, deigning only to inform the states affected by the rash decision.

Since then nothing has been the same. Not only did cases spike, the vulnerable nearly caused a socio-economic revolt. And still the federal government has still been unable and incompetent to administer palliative measures.

It is, therefore, shocking that rather than appreciate all the attendant problems triggered by the federal government’s abrasive measure, including correctly assessing the competence of lockdown to address the rise in COVID-19 infection cases, the state has merely looked at the COVID-19 infection curve that has refused to flatten, and felt the need to blame the public for not adhering to the rules and regulations guiding the easing of the lockdown.

Worse, it has felt that the best way to address the problem is either by threatening the people with a second lockdown, which they know is quite disruptive, or devolving the decision to the people themselves through online polling.

This is not only unfair, it is hard to understand how the state could come up with what is evidently a retrogressive measure in the face of global easing of lockdowns even as infection rates have not abated in many parts of the world after huge expansion in testing.

A lockdown is useful only when the authorities can do what they cannot otherwise do without a lockdown, such as widespread testing and expansion of facilities for isolation and treatment.

Second, it would be a gross dereliction of responsibility for a state imposing a lockdown not to competently distribute palliatives such as financial assistance to endangered companies and factories, and food and provisions to the people, especially, but not limited to, the vulnerable.

In the first lockdown ordered by the federal government, Lagos State was left to grapple with the issue of palliatives and all other attendant complications. The federal government’s palliative intervention was disruptive, tokenistic and controversially targeted.

Sadly, too, Lagos simply went along with the federal lockdown without looking at and addressing its local peculiarities like Ogun did.

That approach was uninspiring and unfair to Lagosians. The state allowed the good work it had started to be corrupted by an unthinking and panicky federal government.

Lagos State must begin to trust its instincts, rather than abdicate the responsibility of determining whether a second lockdown is required.

Another lockdown is not needed, and it will be to a considerable extent defied by a people whose lots have worsened abysmally with the first extended and unbroken five-week lockdown.

Ogun State gives three days break in one week in the implementation of its lockdown. It knows it cannot intervene significantly in terms of distributing palliatives to its people.

Indeed, it has since given up on that. Yes, Ogun people have more lockdown freedom than Lagosians, but its people have nevertheless become needlessly exposed to all sorts of privations. Yet, a significant number of Ogun people live in Ogun State but work in Lagos.

Denying them movement to their work places is counterproductive. Sadly, too, the state has unwisely inspired itself to consider going online to ask for permission to elongate the unproductive lockdown it has elevated as public policy.

How many tests have they done during the lockdown? And do they even need a lockdown to carry out extensive tests? Lagos has carried out a little less than 10,000 tests and found about 2057 infected people.

But the economy of Lagos is in dire straits, like the rest of the country, and the people are famished. Does the state need another lockdown to carry out more testing? And do the test kits even give accurate readings?

Online is not the place to seek validation for a policy that is clearly heedless and retrogressive. If the state wants to impose another lockdown, let it go ahead and please itself, instead of blaming the people for failure to adhere to rules that should be policed by the state in the first instance.

But it must find a better way than it has shambolically done in the past few weeks to ameliorate the dire conditions of the people. It must find ways to provide food and provisions to nearly all Lagosians and give financial succour to distressed companies.

The federal government will not do it; it is too distant and aloof. It is thus the responsibility of the states that have imposed lockdown. Those who are voting for lockdown online are not doing so competently.

They should instead ask the government to police the easing of lockdown or be prepared to face civil disobedience in case of a second lockdown.

Using mass deaths to alarm the people or extrapolating unverified and statistically unsubstantiated mass infections in the coming months is unhelpful.

The government has a responsibility to limit the rate of new infections using the most cost-effective means. Forecasting apocalypse or locking the state or country down is hardly the way to go.

It should do its work rationally and responsibly and leave scaremongering and simplistic online polling severely alone.

May 16, 2020
COS: How Buhari honoured one of the 14 aspirants

Sentry

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari kept many Nigerians in the dark in announcing the appointment of his new Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, for strategic reasons.

One of them was the need to honour one of the 14 aspirants for the office. While he had settled for Gambari by 8am on Tuesday at a breakfast meeting, he also decided to confide in one of the aspirants as a mark of honour before unveiling his choice.

By 11am, the President had another meeting with the aspirant on why he opted for Gambari. So, it was only the highly-rated aspirant who had the rare privilege but he kept it to himself.

All other aspirants, who were merely eavesdropping, withdrew to their shells as soon as the rumours of Gambari’s choice became deafening.

May 16, 2020
Fouled air

Ade Ojeikere

The air around our football teams in terms of how players are selected for competitions has been fouled by allegations which have not been substantiated, but pour odium on Nigeria.

The tales coming from former junior internationals are not pleasant. Many of these lads did well with the kindergarten categories.

We cannot pretend that such malicious utterances should be ignored on the altar that someone particularly involved is resting in the bosom of Our Lord. After all, coaching crew members should participate in the selection process.

It is true that coaches have the discretion of picking players who would fit into their tactical formations. And so many things are considered before picking anyone into the teams.

Of course, a bad mannered player shouldn’t be invited to infest the camp with bickering and break camp rules, even if he scores goals in the moon, like the late Amodu Shuaibu said in explaining why he didn’t pick a particular star player.

The death of the principal shouldn’t foreclose full disclosure of allegations, if we truly want to nip in the bud these tales of sharp practices in such sensitive areas of our lives.

What it simply means is that one man handled such critical areas of the team, making it absolutely impossible for his assistants to replace such an achieving boss. Little wonder the gradual dearth of talents in our age-grade teams.

Granted the principal of the team where allegations have been levelled is dead, but those who alleged must be made to substantiate their accusations by naming those who demanded for the bribes and/or those who took bribes, if such tales can be proven.

Central to the allegations are some unnamed Nigerian coaches who handled the national teams. Could this be the reason our teams have recently not performed?

Soccer used to be our Eldorado. It shouldn’t be smeared by spurious allegations of sharp practices. Not forgetting previous allegations against Nigerians coaches of using quota system to pick our soccer representatives in the past.

That is if it isn’t also a yardstick for such an exercise. Add when players who played in big European leagues decide to expose the rot in our system, we shouldn’t lose the chance to correct the flaws.

Taiye Taiwo in an interview with Face TV Africa said, “I am someone who don’t want dirty glory and in my life, I have never been involved in what is not clean and that was why I packed my bags and left the Super Eagles.

“I cannot work or stay where I see that is dirty because I am serving a clean God, and if I am in an area that is not clean, I will have to leave the place.

When they appointed Stephen Keshi as coach, he was acting somehow in which I told myself that it was time for me to leave the Super Eagles.

“I packed my bags and I told my wife and family that I cannot be involved in dirty deals,” Taiye Taiwo explained.

In the case of Taiye Taiwo, who was voted the third best player in the U-20 World Youth Championships held in Holland behind Mikel Obi and the winner Lionel Messi, he named the coach of the 2014 World Cup team, without accusing him.

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It meant then that we are dealing with a faceless cabal which must be investigated without sentiments. This is certainly a bad citation for Nigerian coaches, hence the honourable Sport Minister should institute a high-powered panel to call those alleged to prove their allegations or face the wrath of the law. Nigeria is bigger than anyone.

Ike Shorunmu isn’t a loose talker. A respected player whose conduct is an epitome of good upbringing. Shorunmu was quoted thus by an online medium: “It is unfortunate for Chinedu Obasi to mention this kind of a thing this period because how long now, it’s about six years ago.

“For him to come out right now to say he was forced to bribe for him to be with the team in 2014, it’s a pity that we lost Stephen Keshi because he’s the main man in the team, does it mean that his assistants don’t know what is going on?

“For Obasi to mention it now it is too late. Assuming it is six months or before the World Cup, everybody can testify, the NFF bosses can verify the allegations that he’s making now.

Probably due to the pressure he is passing through now, that’s why he mentioned they told him to bribe for him to come into the team,’’ Shorunmu stressed.

Interestingly, since the NFF employed Gernot Rohr, a German, we have not heard any tales of bribery in the national team. Sad about what happened to Salisu Yusuf. He was simply naive.

Yusuf had a bright future but risked it all when he was caught on tape taking cash to field players who were already in his team. Yusuf’s argument that he thought it was just a gift not meant to influence his choice of his regulars was weak and unacceptable.

He, therefore, lost the chance of becoming a great coach, having won the domestic league with Enymiba FC of Aba. This gaffe earned Yusuf a ban from FIFA. It is quiet starling that allegations of bribery are being levelled on our local coaches.

The players union and coaches body’s executive has accepted to mediate in this matter and get those who are talking to reveal the erring coaches who must be made to face their accusers to get to the roots of the matter.

The coaches’ body chief Ladan Bosso in a communiqué Thursday stated that: “We hereby request the accusers to mention the name of the coaches so as to stop the unnecessary backlash and bad blood that has continued to ravage the social media and some conventional media outfit.

“If the accusers see their actions as a means of bringing sanity into Nigeria football the association will only welcome it if the accuser are precise and open to back up such allegations with facts and evidence.

We shall subsequently ask our members to take legal action against anyone who may defame their character and reputation in the eyes of the public.’’

If we don’t stem these allegations, it would de-market future Nigerian coaches, especially those with the likelihood of coaching overseas.

Our players displace better exposed foreigners in their European clubs for starting shirt. It is only justifiable that our good coaches take their trade to Europe, like the European managers have done with many countries globally.

Those stars pointing accusing fingers at the coaches should realise that they are inadvertently reducing the chances of Nigerian coaches handling the Super Eagles – the country’s biggest football brand.

Of what use is their stay in Europe if they cannot aspire to handle the Eagles, especially those who opt to be coaches?

Great coaches set football targets and find ways to achieve them. Most times they inspire players with amazing psychological methods and sometimes incentives they can afford. However, lazy coaches think first of the money and make a mess of their career.

Perhaps, the Amaju Pinnick led NFF board should complete the signing of Gernot Rohr since the sports minister isn’t averse to retaining him for as long as he is a world class coach.

The internet never forgets. We need to use the expose from the internet to remind people who ruined our game in the past.

This is the only way to rid the system of self seekers in the industry. Those who previously served as assistants to foreign coaches now want us to jettison them? Interesting.

Those who accompanied a motley crowd to England to interview foreign coaches to replace a collection of Nigerian tacticians, are telling us they have repented as if we need it.

These people were part of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) which invited foreign coaches to Abuja for an interview to coach the Super Eagles; a position which wasn’t vacant. Please don’t remind us of the the Abacha one million-man march. I no know book o!

May 16, 2020
Enter IAG

Segun Ayobolu

Could the outpouring of encomiums and approval from diverse publics across the country following his appointment indicate that the entry of Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari (IAG) into President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as Chief of Staff (COS) potentially heralds a qualitative concrete and stylistic break with the past since 1999? I am unaware of any appointment of the President that has elicited so much positive response and huge expectations.

The emergence of his predecessor, the late Mallam Abba Kyari, as COS in 1999 hardly attracted a whimper.

In Professor Gambari’s choice for the much coveted position, Buhari broke with a rather predictable style. There was hardly any indication that the distinguished political scientist, diplomat, administrator, author and international civil servant would emerge as the number one functionary in Nigeria’s powerful presidency after Kyari’s demise.

All sorts of names were widely peddled, all believed to be privileged members to different degrees of the fabled cabal.

The royal prince from Ilorin, who incidentally was then Major-General Buhari’s External Affairs Minister in his first incarnation as military Head of State between 1984 and 1985, was not one of them to the best of my knowledge.

Following his surprise emergence, however, some have said that Gambari had all along been a member of the cabal and closet operative in the informal inner recesses of the Buhari presidency thus explaining his choice.

If so, he was a sober, unobtrusive, subtle and wise member of that much envied club who did not flaunt his alleged ‘cabal-hood’ with the often irritating hubris of some others much to the discredit of the administration.

It is said that one thing that gave him an edge was that Gambari did not indicate any interest in what turned out to be a fierce contest for who would step into Kyari’s shoes.

This diffidence, self effacement and aversion to the public klieg lights may be a pointer to a soberer, less imperial deployment of the powerful office.

Kyari brought high academic attainments in sociology and law as well as valuable experience in banking, journalism, administration and legal practice to the office.

Gambari hauls surpassingly high scholastic laurels, teaching experience in some of the best institutions in the world and a record of accomplished service at national and international levels spanning over four decades to the table. It is no wonder that his choice has hardly been faulted – credibly.

Yes, some lone voices advert to his Fulani ethnic affinity with Buhari. That line of argument has gained no traction. Not too many people consider it relevant.

A few point to his record of service under the General Sani Abacha regime and what they see as his opposition to the struggle to actualize the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential mandate of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

That has drawn scant attention in the contemporary complex politics of a plural society like Nigeria and for an event which, though of historic importance, has with the effluxion of time been drained of considerable emotional resonance in huge swathes of the country.

There have been one or two references to his age – 75 – insinuating this as a liability. But accomplished ‘old’ men and women have done remarkably well in public office across space and time while there are innumerable youths who have been remarkable failures.

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Writing of the great English jurist and legal reformer, Sir Edward Coke, the great Lord Denning wrote “He advocated the liberty of the subject with an energy which was surprising in a man of his age for he was seventy-six when he succeeded in carrying the famous Petition of Right in 1628”. Age is of no moment here.

Analysts will be eagerly waiting and watching to compare and contrast Gambari’s performance in office with his predecessor. There is great expectation in the air.

Professor Gambari has his work cut out for him. The change of baton in the office of the COS offers an opportunity to reflect once again on the performance of the Buhari administration so afr and its prospects for the remainder of its tenure.

Today the unanticipated Coronavirus crisis rocks the country just as it does the globe. Fear grips hearts both of the low and mighty. Economies lie prostrate and Nigeria is no exception. Governments are desperately striving to salvage lives without savaging livelihoods.

Governments in Nigeria have had to divert huge resources into erecting and equipping emergency medical facilities, procuring large stocks of vital medical equipment, boosting the hazard allowances of health workers on the frontlines of the Coronavirus war while also providing palliatives for millions of people rendered most vulnerable to the ravages of the pandemic.

Yes, the private sector is playing a yeoman’s role in helping government to meet its responsibilities in this regard. But there is no doubt that the Buhari administration has been able to respond reasonably effectively to the crisis partly because of its anti-corruption war that has led, according to Professor Itsay Sagay over a year ago, to recoveries of over N1 trillion of looted funds in the last 5 years and this excludes physical assets within and outside the country. The figure must be much higher now.

Only recently the US government released the sum of over $300 million of recovered Abacha loot to the country, obviously another big gain of the anti-graft war.

Could all this have been possible if the looting of the national patrimony had continued with the same rapaciousness witnessed pre-2015? It is unlikely. Presidential spokesman, Shehu Garba, cannot be faulted in this respect.

Again, following Coronavirus’s ruinous visitation, the country’s already badly faltering oil revenues dropped even more appallingly. The 2020 budget has been severely cut by N71.5 billion to N10.523 trillion.

Years of irresponsible oil dependency particularly since 1999 have come to haunt us. In all of this, Nigeria’s domestic agriculture sector has been able to respond as it has so far largely because of the painful but courageous measures that the Buhari administration has taken to diversify the economy, drastically reduce oil dependency and boost domestic agricultural productivity in key stable crops.

Even if these were the only accomplishments of the administration, it would be an exemplary legacy given where we are coming from.

Yet, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had to struggle hard to win a scrappy victory against a badly morally discredited Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections. Here, the administration has been its own greatest enemy.

The exceedingly powerful and influential Abba Kyari as COS certainly deserves a lot of plaudits for the positives recorded by the administration and must thus also take the bulk of the flak for its all too avoidable failings. Just one example.

Its massive Social Intervention Programmes (SIP) – Tradermoni, Farmermoni, Conditional Cash Transfers, School Feeding Programmes, N-power etc – all formerly under the auspices of the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is undoubtedly one of the most massive transfer of resources to the underprivileged in Nigeria’s post-colonial history.

Although not perfect, it is a monumental initiative to the credit of the administration. Yet, the Buhari presidency allowed avoidable ego clashes allegedly revolving round the person and office of Abba KYrai to distract attention from this achievement.

Thus, even the APC controlled Leadership of the National Assembly has impugned the credibility and integrity of the SIP creating the impression that it has been only an avenue for fraudulent funds diversion.

Yet, the Special Adviser formerly in charge of the project, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, with concrete facts and figures has demonstrated that the Social Welfare Register, the basis for distributing the palliatives, was carefully, systematically and scrupulously drawn up with the input and support of credible international development agencies. Why should any administration do this to itself?

Again, some human rights lawyers have pointed out that in his first coming as a military dictator, the Buhari regime did not disobey any court orders.

Furthermore, even some of its admittedly draconian measures were taken only after requisite enabling decrees had been enacted.

How come that as elected President a government headed by Buhari detained persons for unduly long periods despite clear court orders for their release and vehement public outcry? It was an entirely avoidable self-inflicted injury.

Also between 1984 and 1985 as military Head of State, Buhari’s Federal Executive Council made up of 18 ministers was reasonably evenly balanced between different zones of the country as well as the two major faiths.

How come that as elected President, the laudable achievements of his administration is unfortunately overshadowed by its perceived skewed and one-sided appointments that negate the country’s federal character especially as regards the key security services and agencies? These are totally avoidable unforced errors.

Professor Gambari has his job cut out for him. Can his immense intellect, experience, patience, tact, humility, diplomatic skills, cosmopolitan outlook and more help the administration finish with a flourish and bequeath a worthy legacy to posterity? May God help him.

May 16, 2020