The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Who the cap fits

    Who the cap fits

    Ade Ojeikere

     

    Today’s headline is a line taken from one of the late Robert Nesta Marley’s (Bob Marley) songs titled ‘who the cap fits’. I can almost hear you, dear reader, complete the lyric by singing ‘let them wear it.’ Did I hear say which crown is at stake this time when the dreaded Coronavirus is gradually becoming a plague. God forbid.

    Coronavirus should please remain in the crisis stage where it is – a pandemic. If you noticed, dear reader, I have also refused to discuss the Coronavirus scourge believing that God would intervene through the discovery of the appropriate medication to stop its spread.

    Many would be wondering why any discussion should start with the leagues across the world in abeyance. This writer feels strongly that the European leagues would surely end, especially the Barclays English Premier league.

    Please don’t choke while reading this. I can hear many say ‘there he goes again, Liverpool fan.’ Not exactly please. The English League like others are run as businesses and it is this platform that would force out a formula to decide the eventual winners of the leagues.

    Something must give. And indications are rife with the purported secret meetings of the clubs where it was decided that the English game comes alive from July 1, with a six weeks schedule. Different postulations have been offered by pundits, lovers of the game and players, with each group suggesting reasonable plans towards ensuring that the EPL ends.

    Of course, the laughable ones are there, especially those from rival clubs against the current league leaders. And it is expected since victory for the Reds means the team has won its 19th league title, one short of the Red Devils’ 20 EPL titles.

    The jokes are not lost on what the comical ones offer to a sulking Liverpool as these mischievous ones delight themselves with such outrageous teasers as Reds’ first EPL title win bring in its wake the deadly Coronavirus.

    What won’t we hear when the discuss is football. These are the reasons the game is the King of sports and an unpredictable game, even though it is exciting to watch.

    On a daily basis, there are different perspectives to the EPL’s likely end, with every party in making the league exciting knowing its predicaments and roles, ahead of the imminent resumption date, no thanks to the coronavirus.

    In fact the deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries raised the alarm over the likely consequences of rushing the players through the remaining nine games insisting that: ”England could remain in varying degrees of lockdown for up to six months.”

    Interestingly, Daily Mail in its reports launched the angle of what the lockdown could cost the television rights, whose cash is the lubricant to make the game, one is which the world standstill when the matches are being played.

    According to the Daily Mail report on Tuesday: ”A restart in May is seen as vital as that is when the clubs are due to receive their final tranche of television money for the season, without which many will struggle to pay the players’ wages.

    The £762m of combined income under threat is not divided equally and would range from £57m for the Premier League winners to £20m for the team which finishes bottom.

    ”Ironically, the bigger clubs stand to lose more than usual this season if those payments are withheld following last year’s changes to the distribution of the overseas television deal, which, unlike the domestic deal, is no longer divided equally but determined by league position.”

    One trending scenario in the bid to fix the puzzles that have arisen from the coronavirus pandemic is that the government has the final decision on whether to continue the EPL, yet, the English organisers, unlike ours have taken proactive steps, having suspended the competition twice. They have proposed two dates first on April 4 and then on April 30, looking at the medical indices from around the country.

    However, one of the problems the league will face is convincing players to return to action after it emerged that they are not insured for coronavirus as it is not listed as a critical illness. A number have sought clarification but are being advised they are not covered.

    The postulations towards ending the EPL are many just as they are intriguing, with indications rife that clubs, including those eyeing promotion from the lower cadre.

    What it means is that there is the possibility of the matter heading for the courts, for those who would be holding the wrong end of the stick when the chips are down.

    Would increasing the EPL’s squad sizes from 25 to 29 help strengthen those clubs that are presently depleted due to varying degrees of players’ illnesses? Would the organisers allow these depleted sides parade their youth teams like Liverpool did against Aston Villa in an away game during the Carabao Cup, with Villa whipping the Reds scandalously 5-0?

    I almost choked reading the option of ending the EPL without promotion or demotion of teams for fear that the integrity of the competitions would be threatened, especially as there isn’t any guarantee this 2019/2020 season won’t come to an end.

    The  suggestion reminded me of the Nigerian league organisers except that they didn’t talk about abridged leagues like ours, knowing that Championships team who are almost through to the elite class would head for the courts, if they are denied promotion.

    What is clear in the EPL cancellation scenario, if it gets to that is that the rules would be followed to the letter, leaving all the parties agreeing on what to do for the good of the game. Happily, Premier League clubs have all agreed to discuss their players taking wage cuts or deferrals of up to 30 per cent wage after their latest round of talks Friday.

    ”The Premier League have also voted to hand the EFL and National League £125m as they continue to battle the effects of the coronavirus. And the top flight clubs have also agreed to make a £20m donation to the NHS, local communities, families and groups who have been affected by the coronavirus crisis.

    ”The future of the league season was also high on the agenda, and it was decided that the Premier League and Football League will not return ‘until it is safe to do so”, according to Daily Mail on Friday.

    Indeed, sports lawyer, David Seligman of Brandsmiths, told Sports Mail, Wednesday when asked the solution to contracts involving businesses in the EPL that: ”options generally have to be activated by the third Saturday in May.

    But if the season ends today, players might be able to terminate their agreements and sign for another club immediately. That’s an issue – clubs would say they didn’t have a chance to decide on whether to activate the option, especially when there is no visibility as to when the next season may commence.

    ”How could you extend a contract when you don’t know when next season is or ends either? When would it start and finish? How can you negotiate performance-related bonuses? There’s so much uncertainty and that always brings disputes,” Seligman said.

    Would Nigerian administrators take a cue from the EPL’s handling of this matter? Those ones, I doubt. In fact, one of them is moaning the loss of revenue anchored on nothing. A league that has no television rights is dead and those in charge, beginning from the leader should quietly resign. Would they heed this call? Never. Not in the Nigerian character.

    The domestic league is an apology, beginning with the sharp practices around the grounds before, during and after matches. Nothing to stimulate the interests of the spectators to sit patiently at the stands.

    The essence of organising league matches isn’t for both teams to benefit from the gates takings, but to allow Nigerians watch the country’s future representatives at CAF inter-club competitions.

    The matches ensure that the owners of the clubs (mostly state governments) get the facilities ready for the players to battle for honours. But with visionless organisers, anything goes, even if it means playing games with empty terraces.

    Our administrators are merchants for excuses. They bask in embarking on white elephant projects. My problem with our administrators is that they are hasty to make sweeping comparisons despite their exposure to what is right. A fellow who officiates at international matches does not have to offer reasons for not replicating what obtains at international level.

  • Lagos on lockdown

    Lagos on lockdown

    Ogochukwu Ikeje

     

    LAGOS has always held a fascination for me. The sculpture masterpiece by Ben Ekanem of the warrior Queen Amina of Zazzau straddling a horse, sword in hand, at the National Theatre, Iganmu had quite a hold on the visiting schoolboy back in the 80s. So did the iconic theatre itself. And so too did the awesome waves that ceaselessly pounded the Bar Beach, attracting enchanted visitors as well as small-time pickpockets and budding magicians. And what about the intricate colonial architectures overlooking the marina, and the stocked libraries where you momentarily got lost in the world of books before it hit you that you were very far from home?

    Lagos was bold and loud, buzzing with its teeming crowd. In those days the molue was not just a mass carrier; it had a life of its own, complete with all manner of hawkers selling everything from shaving sticks to medicine for all ailments.

    In the daytime the city was a wonder. At night it was another world crawling with seekers of bodily and sensual pleasures, at Ojuelegba and at Obalende and elsewhere.

    Since Monday night it has been another Lagos, one locked down by a presidential announcement owing to the onslaught of the coronavirus or Covid-19. No movement in the city except you are a medical worker, media person, food seller, military personnel or you are in law enforcement. And you had better be on duty otherwise you’d be treated like any other person flouting the stay-at-home order.

    As this piece was written on Friday, there were 190 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country, 98 of them in Lagos, 38 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

    Because your columnist falls into one of the exempt categories, he saw Lagos in broad daylight not quite looking like the good old Lagos. The roads were all but deserted especially on Tuesday. It was a rare reality. Nothing of the sort has happened in the city for decades. BRT lanes under construction, and even streets, became makeshift football pitches. The cacophony of car horns was absent. What you saw from time to time was a roadblock mounted by various uniformed persons. At one checkpoint, three soldiers, one a woman, sat on a bench so close to one another that I wondered if they did not care about social distancing, one of the measures we are asked to strictly observe in order to keep the coronavirus at bay.

    Truth be told, not everyone stayed home. Quite a few women displayed sundry edibles by the roadside. Even some hardy commercial bus drivers hit the road with their conductors and seemed to know how to get past the guarded checkpoints. Still, they were few and far between. 

    By Wednesday and Thursday more people were on the road, among them commercial motorists, their buses filled with passengers. There were also foodstuff sellers. Again, it wasn’t the typical business day. But there was one intriguing development. On Thursday night, the roadblocks vanished on one particular stretch.

    I thought about ladies who offer bodily pleasures and feed therefrom. As the lockdown lasts they will either fall back on their savings or starve. Or their patrons might smuggle themselves to their districts and abide there till the storm blows over.

    I equally thought about the street urchins or area boys who are part of us and seem to get by from what they can grab every day. With the rest of Lagosians at home, how are the boys coping? Do they observe social distancing or keep their faces away from their colleagues when they sneeze or cough? Do they wear face masks or check into hospital when their temperatures do not feel right?

    For the rest of us, hand washing has become a way of life, so much that someone joked the other day that by the time this whole thing is over our hands would have sufficiently whitened. We greet with the elbows now, smile from afar and bow. These days everyone knows that they are permitted to cough perhaps just once. Any prolonged business will be rewarded with rebukes. Every sneeze is suspect.

    But we are Lagosians and Nigerians, tough as a nail. We have seen tough times before and we overcame. This time we will also overcome.

     

     

     

  • COVID-19: Obla yet to meet bail terms, becomes expensive lockdown detainee

    COVID-19: Obla yet to meet bail terms, becomes expensive lockdown detainee

    Sentry

     

    THIS is not the best of time for the former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, who was arrested a, week ago by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC). It is a reversal of roles for a man, who commandeered a huge team of policemen to arrest suspects some years ago.

    The latest news is that Obla has not been able to meet the bail terms offered by a court. While he is battling to ask the court to vary the bail terms, his case is worsened by the lockdown in the country.

    To comply with due process, ICPC secured a 14-day extension of the order for his detention. But Obla has taken to social media to protest against the “legal quarantine.”

    Read Also: COVID-19: Kebbi CP laments hike in prices of petrol, food items

     

    He has alleged maltreatment, he complained of being hypertensive and he said he has been overwhelmed by fears of COVID-19.

    Unknown to many, ICPC has been giving him egg treatment. Apart from a cosy detention cell, the anti-graft agency assigned operatives to pick up his wife twice a day from home to bring his meals. He was also taken to the nearby National Hospital, Abuja for health check.

    But Obla does not care about the comfort in ICPC cell. He wants to be released despite a subsisting court order and without meeting bail terms.

  • Covid-19, contact tracing and social distancing

    Covid-19, contact tracing and social distancing

    Emmanuel Oladosun

     

    SIX thousand contacts were on ‘Covid-19 Wanted List,’ as it were, at the beginning of the week. That was the figure given by the health authorities on Monday. It is huge and frightening. If one quarter of the number are carriers, the gravity of the situation is better imagined.

    Yesterday there was a relief as the media reported that 3,550 had been traced. The remaining 2,450 still underscore an awful figure. The apprehension can hardly subside.

    Where are they now? How can they be traced, or motivated to voluntary submit themselves for medical test?

    Is it even in their own interest to deliberately disappear and intensify the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic?

    Definitely, the number would have increased since then. It could even double within few weeks, to the detriment of the bewildered  country. Not finding them in time has negative multiplier effects.

    The present gloom; the daily rise in the number of infected persons; experts warn, may  be the baseline for unmitigated doom, unless reason prevails. Prevention is better than cure.

    Had Nigeria learned from the Ebola challenge, perhaps, it would have prepared better for the current  problem. During the Ebola outbreak, states were asked to set up isolation centres. Where are they now?

    Coronavirus fills the consciousness of humanity. It is a global disaster; the greatest public health concern at the moment, The rich and poor are not insulated. It appears no country has any time for another as it fights to conquer the disease, or limit the horrors it unleashes on citizens, the economy and the entire social order.

    The least countries can do is to compare notes on the degrees of devastation and learn from management, or bad management, of their intervention strategies.

    It is relatively easier for the government and its agencies to learn fast now and mount interventions. But, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people who are targets of the interventions to give maximum cooperation.

    In a largely subsistent country, where people have to struggle to get their daily bread, they misunderstand the stay-at-home appeal and the ‘strange’ directive on social distancing. Thus, many Nigerians still ignore the preventive measures to their peril.

    The government is rising to the occasion in tackling three challenges-containment, treatment or care and prevention. If precautionary steps were taken when the virus was still exclusively domiciled in Asia, perhaps, the story would have been different. But, there was a shortfall in scenario building.

    There is a relationship between the herculean contact tracing and spread of the virus. Statistics is now difficult to arrive at. Nigerians boarded aircrafts to their country. Unlike Europeans, Americans and Asians who demonstrated patriotism by submitting themselves for testing, they started dodging the authorities after they were requested to come for the initial medical check up.

    To the consternation of the authorities, they submitted fake addresses and phone numbers, making it difficult for the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Centre for Disease Control to track them. They went home, or other locations to continue with their normal businesses in an abnormal way. Not all of them would be carriers of the virus.  But, their refusal to show up for medical scrutiny is a great disservice to the anti-covid war. It has sparked national anxiety.

    Similar to this scenario are cases of big men, who after returning from Europe, decided to self-isolate, without prior information to the Ministry of Health, NCDC and other relevant agencies.

    Self-isolation, which is the first critical stage in assessment, is for 14 days. It is challenging. Do these categories of people have the training and skills required for self-isolation? Would it have been out of place for these laymen in medics to inform the relevant authorities about their travel history before embarking on “self-hiding,” which they have uncritically confused with “self-isolation?”

    What is the assurance that they will not infect few aides and family members who minister to their needs in the corners of their rooms where they are self-isolating? Don’t they need medical advice in their self-imposed solitary confinement?

    Also, despite concerted efforts by governments at disseminating information to the populace about social distancing, many have continued to flout the directive.

    On the first day of temporary lockdown in Lagos, many youths converted the expressway into free football fields, shouting, hailing one another and sweating. Markets in rural areas remained opened and traders and customers carried on trading activities as if all was well.

    In Katsina State, there were reports about restless youths who burnt down police stations and other public buildings. They were protesting that they were not allowed access to mosques by security agents.

    Also, at Agege Central Mosque, some worshippers attacked officials of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and Lagos State Safety Commission, who were monitoring and enforcing the lockdown order.

    Some lawyers and rights activists, grossly demonstrated the curious ignorance of the wise  as they criticised the federal and state governments for imposing lockdown, or curfew, without consulting with lawmakers, some of who are in self-isolation. They know the law, which cannot translate into vaccines to halt the spread of the disease  or drugs that can cure the ailment. They were playing to the gallery.

    Read Also: COVID-19: Supermarkets ‘ban couples’ from shopping together

     

    Many Nigerians have continued to trivialise the pandemic. It is because the mortality rate is still low in Nigeria, unlike United Kingdom, United States,  Italy, Iran and China, the cradle of the disease.

    In the social media, there is an information overdose that is counter-productive. Quacks are prescribing self-medication without test. Many jesters have turned themselves into emergency medical experts and analysts.

    In their ignorance, they spread falsehood, saying that Coronavirus cannot withstand the African or Nigerian weather, and that the black man has a thick skin, and hence, a natural immunity, to conquer the dreaded virus.

    Despite government’s concerted efforts in this moment of emergency, the rot in the health sector has remained a major obstacle. If the viruses hit the communities, as Information Minister Lai Mohammed had warned, the primary health centres can hardly play any supportive role. They are in shambles.

    To underscore the challenge in the health sector, the President of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Francis Faduyile, lamented that 80 percent of General Hospitals in the country lacked pipe borne water.

    Senate President Ahmad Lawan broke into tears when he saw the condition of patients in Gwagwalada Hospital, Abuja. Government is planning about 2,000 daily test capacity. How far can it go in a country of almost 200 million?

    The onus is on government and other stakeholders to sustain the enlightenment and sensitisation programme. It is because prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately, despite the awareness programmes, the distance between the information and people is still wide, unlike what happened during the global anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns and the Ebola epidemic. There is need for more pamphlets and billboards, radio and television jingles in local languages.

    In the rural areas, traditional and community leaders can spread the message in the languages and dialects understood by locals. The various Community Development Associations (CDAs) can also assist in disseminating the information about prevention.

    The long term measure should also be considered. The surveillance system should be sustained, particularly at the primary health centres.

    Social distancing is hard, but possible. Lockdown is burdensome,  but t could be temporary. So far, there is no known cure for coronavirus. Nigerians have two choices; follow the ‘stay safe’ directive and prevent it, or ignore the advice and face the consequence. To embrace the latter is greater wisdom.

  • What a shame!

    What a shame!

    Ade Ojeikere

    Do we really value human life in this part of the world?  Indications to this effect are negative. Otherwise, how could we be talking about the death of two Enugu Rangers FC’s players, and their friend who drove their car on Sunday morning, on the Abudu/Agbor Road? The vehicle they rode in was reported to have gone under an abandoned trailer, with many suggesting they could  have been on top speed – irrelevant if the trailer wasn’t abandoned there for God knows how long.

    The trio would have been in Lagos today looking after their family members in the wake of the Coronavirus that has shut down the world, not forgetting those who have died and those hospitalised. Coronavirus is now aptly tagged a pandemic, which explains why the players tried to utilise the 10-day break which their club granted them. Ifeanyi George, for instance, once played for MFM FC of Lagos and would have preferred to leave his family here, considering the nomadic movement of players globally.

    It is difficult to blame the players because no one can say if indeed they were over speeding. The logical question to ask is where were the Road Safety Marshals on that ill-fated morning? If they were on duty, they would have flagged down the vehicle as it approached from Enugu, assuming they had the right equipment to perform such duties.

    Of course, we may need to ask whose duty it is to alert the government on the menace constituted by broken-down vehicles and trucks on the highway, which has killed many people till date. It is important to ask; if those who man the checkpoints on the highways shouldn’t draw attention to those vehicles and trucks, which are also black spots for criminals to perfect their clandestine activities?

    In other climes, such abnormalities are not found on the roads. Special units are charged with  ensuring that such vehicles and trucks are removed at short notice. These monitoring agencies have offices along the highways who could be contacted by road users about the potential hazards such things pose to unsuspecting motorists, even when the owners are recalcitrant. In fact, in developed countries, you notice Road Marshals on constant patrol and once they spot these vehicles and trucks, they immediately radio the agency responsible for clearing them off the tracks; remaining on the scene until the assignment is completed. Need I ask what the sanctions are for those who break such highway rules?

    George and his friends’ exit via an auto crash in such manner, signposts many others in the  past, and sadly some that happened around the country. Do we just throw up our hands and  allow people to die because some people are negligent in their jobs? However, drivers  should be more careful when driving. Car owners should ensure their vehicles have the recommended system to peg their car’s speed limit at 100 km per hour or even less. Where are we running to? If you need to keep appointments, leave your houses early.

     

    Thank you Enugu Rangers

    The late Ifeanyi George would cherish the day he signed for Enugu Rangers wherever he may be.  Even in death, he is being remembered without prompting by the public. This is a remarkable feat, which goes a long way to explain why I crave for credible administrators to run the domestic game. I hope Nasarawa FC’s owners and officials can learn from the Enugu Rangers’ example. Chiemene Martins died without an insurance policy, with the way his club has handled the matter.

    Take a bow, Davidson Owumi, General Manager, Enugu Rangers FC for instituting good insurance schemes for your players, unlike a few others who don’t know what to do and have refused to quit. 24 hours after George died in a ghastly car accident, Rangers’ management told the world the package they had for the departed soul.

    Owumi needs no introduction, having played soccer in the country, scoring goals with aplomb before volunteering to be a sports administrator. He was once the chairman of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) until he was eased off the seat by those enemies of the beautiful game in the guise of politics.

    “The insurance brokers, Premier Brokers Ltd, have been informed about the untimely death of our player, Ifeanyi George, who died in a ghastly motor accident, Sunday, March 22, 2020, along the Asaba-Benin Express Road, and they have begun the process to have the life insurance compensation process activated to have the family of Ifeanyi George fully compensated,” stated the former NPL boss in the soothing Rangers FC’s communiqué on  George’s death.

    Owumi further said, “What we have here in Rangers International FC is the solid display of  pro-activeness on the part of Enugu State governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who graciously  approved the insurance policy for all players and officials of the club on request by the management. We sincerely appreciate our sports-loving governor and number one supporter for this gesture that comes handy in this time of great need.”

     

    Ndidi for Barcelona

     

    Wilfred Ndidi is easily one of the best defensive players in the world – no hyperbole. And  with the European season on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic, clubs are taking stock  with many announcing players to be sacked and those to be recruited. It is good to know that  Nigerians would dominate the summer transfer window as Odion Ighalo did with the January  mid-season shopping spree.

    Ndidi is being considered by the two top Spanish sides, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid  among a few others who are likely to qualify for the 2020/2021 UEFA Champions League.  Playing in the elite leagues such as the Champions League ought to be the reason Ndidi  should be tempted to take the big leap to stardom by joining one of the big teams.

    Curiously, Ndidi’s Barclays English Premier League side, Leicester City FC is a contender for one of the four Champions league tickets, given their placing on the table. Not a few pundits have described the Foxes as one of the few English sides which have played exciting soccer this season. Bookmakers are tipping Foxes to nick one of the tickets, making the lure of playing in Europe’s big-league a no brainer to persuade Ndidi to join any of the big chasing teams.

    Ndidi should remain with the Foxes since they would be willing to increase his wages knowing that it is the only way to keep the Nigerian in their fold, with series of suitors for his signature next season. The Super Eagles’ midfielder should learn from other big central midfielders who joined Barca in the past. Most of them went to Barcelona with the same or even better pedigree than Ndidi, yet flattered to deceive in Barca’s matches because everything about the Spanish club’s style of play rests with Lionel Messi.

    Pundits thought Phillipe Coutinho would break the duck-like Yaya Toure did until he fell out with the manager, Pep Guardiola. It didn’t happen for the Brazilian despite Coutinho’s huge talent and exploits with Liverpool FC in the Barclays English Premier League. Ndidi’s style suits Real Madrid but I doubt if Zidane can bring the best out of the Nigerian.

    Ndidi would walk into the Spanish side and play regularly, yet what becomes of his career if he sustains an injury, could define his stay at Real Madrid. Should Ndidi pick another English side with a bigger platform than Leicester City? I’m tempted to say yes, except that I cannot put a finger to one club that would bring the best out of Ndidi like he is currently enjoying at the Foxes.

    A team like Manchester United craves a workaholic like Ndidi in the midfield and the Nigerian will be exceptional there if a deal could be worked out for him but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seems to be looking at other options, especially in the attacking midfield and a striker.

    This speaks volume of how much Ndidi is underrated. A point of view also shared by his  current club manager, Brendan Rodgers. “Ndidi is key to our team, but for any team, you need a good defensive midfield player who could do a lot of the dirty work as they say,” Rodgers told Leicester City Mercury.

    “He is improving all the time. His defensive qualities, he has a great brain to read the game. He smells danger when it’s lurking. He can cover the ground so fast, he can press up to the ball, and he can cover in.

    “Tactically he is improving and playing better but underrated. He is playing in a specific  position we haven’t played before where he can run and he has got a clear role to sit and protect and be that link player.

    “With the ball, he is getting better. His game is simple. He just needs to serve the players in front of him and be an option to play off the centre-halves and full-backs and continuity in the game. So yeah, it has been great to see his development and he is only going to get better.”

  • Oyo governor as GSM without network

    Oyo governor as GSM without network

    By Sentry

    The youthful and bubbling governor of Oyo State, Mr. Seyi Makinde, has a new name: GSM, meaning Governor Seyi Makinde.

    Prior to his election, he took much pleasure in his professional appellation as an engineer to add pep to his campaign. He was so much obsessed with the Engineer title.

    Read Also: SEYI MAKINDE: An apology or a political grapple to save face

    His sudden change to GSM means he adopts as his name the acronym for ‘global system of mobile communication’. The only difference, however, is that his own GSM has no mobile network.

    Time will tell on the full import of this change of name. What is certain for now is that he is not alone, considering that one of his colleagues in the North has ATM as his acronym. It is different strokes for different folks.

  • Coronavirus and speculations on paradigm shifts

    Coronavirus and speculations on paradigm shifts

    By UnderTow

    Even before the outbreak and intensification of coronavirus, the modern plague currently wasting hundreds of cities and whole countries; even before its cause and course had been properly understood and mapped, many analysts had leisurely begun to theorise about its long-term effects, particularly the revolutionary shifts the disease was bound to trigger in the global economy and national social and political structures. For now, much of their theorising is a little far-fetched; but at least the theories have drawn the attention of many critical thinkers to the fact that things are going to change, and that those changes, some of them fundamental, are bound to be upsetting in some respects. However, some of those conjectured changes are not complicated or controversial.

    Chief among the non-controversial changes suspected to be one of the aftermaths of coronavirus is how society celebrates itself in weddings and entertainments such as musical jamborees and sporting fiestas. All three social pastimes had until now been celebrated with profligate excesses. Not only has it now been shown that a wedding can be celebrated cheap, perhaps it is also an eye-opener to many who had been deterred by its costs that indeed it can be done without printed invitation cards, feeding hundreds of people at one sitting, with all the attendant decorations, and paying for a large retinue of musical artistes and masters of ceremonies. After the virus is caged, there will of course be some form of restoration of old habits, but like the place of radio in mass communications before the advent of television, the dominance of one over the other will likely become indisputable. Many weddings are often anchored on financial lockdown of some kind; celebrators will see a fresh and affordable angle to the whole exercise.

    Even though it is still jarring to the senses, the world is beginning to see that musical jamborees are overrated and sporting events are neither the oxygen of life, which they are thought to be, nor the indispensable leisure unthinkingly romanticised and accepted. Again, like weddings, there will also be some restoration, with perhaps coronavirus even becoming policy fodder for enterprising entertainers. Then, again, there is sports, long thought to be a sine qua none to modern living. Coronavirus has rendered many sportsmen idle, and stakeholders as well as spectators have begun to query whether funding that sector and paying outlandish wages are not after all so unrealistic as to be even offensive. Sports, in large measure, is a weekly fix for many people without which they can’t imagine any other existence. For weeks on end, they will now have to contend with an existence shorn of sports. After the virus has dissipated, managers and spectators of sports will likely take a second look at the undergirding paradigms, including the endless bidding for players and payment of huge wages, upon which their sporting traditions are built.

    The world may in fact be witnessing changes that are fundamental to existence, changes very disproportionate to the size and inanimateness of the causative virus. No one can claim an accurate measurement of the impending changes, but the changes seem ineluctable. Sports, weddings and entertainments — but even these three are likely to be unable to hold the candle to the changes afoot in religion. Faiths of all kind, perhaps without exception, looked on in disbelief as a tiny, non-living virus sacked their congregations with disdain and annoying brusqueness. Faiths upon which slaughter of whole communities and races had for millenniums been predicated have proved impotent in raising a finger against coronavirus. The virus will eventually abate, perhaps in a few months, for even at its ferocious worst, it will not match the scale of other pandemics in human history. But religious organisations, many of which have meted extreme brutality to one another in the name of God, have shown how powerless they are in their confrontation with a virus that stole in on them while they snoozed in complacency.

    But no paradigm shift attributable  to the virus is likely to match that which is likely to take place in politics. Having massed weapons of all grades and capabilities, and still threatening to wipe one another off the map, developed countries and superpowers have not only been embarrassed by the march of the disease, they have also been shown to be helpless and, for brief tantalising moments, hopeless. Those powerful countries may possess great economies and indomitable militaries, but they have lost thousands of their citizens to the virus, have panicked, and their leaders, when they are not infected, have scurried for cover. They have discovered not only the limits of their own powers as vouchsafed them by their constitutions, they have also discovered the limits of their national power, particularly as projected by their national militaries. Italy has been humbled, Britain has groaned under the virus, with its prime minister, Boris Johnson now afflicted, France is croaking, Russia incandescent, and the United States foaming with rage and prostrate with horror and anxiety. The helplessness of the great powers is accentuated by the fact that they must be wondering what other pathogen lies hidden somewhere that may eventually take down their civilisations, as the Inca Empire was terminated by disease, civil war and Spanish conquest in the 15th Century.

    The great powers are likely to engage in deep reflections on their vulnerabilities, particularly spurred by coronavirus. Even if their economies do not cave in to the disease, they are unlikely to stick adamantly to their underlying and propelling paradigms. Technology had before now triggered deep and sometimes disturbing changes in the way businesses are done and offices run. Before the advance of great technologies, much of it developed in the 20th Century, pandemics were unable to inspire revolutionary changes in economies. The story is bound to change, spurring further development in technology and birthing new principles and practices in office cultures. Huge office complexes are likely to give way to virtual offices, and companies may embrace radically redefined working relations. All said, changes are afoot.

    For those not averse to a little science, here is a definition of coronovirus, as contained in a medical microbiology book by David A.J. Tyrrell and Steven H. Myint: “Coronoviruses  are spherical or pleomorphic enveloped particles containing single-stranded (positive-sense) RNA associated with a nucleoprotein within a capsid comprised of matrix protein. The envelope bears club-shaped glycoprotein projections. Coronaviruses (and toroviruses) are classified together on the basis of the crown or halo-like appearance of the envelope glycoproteins, and on characteristic features of chemistry and replication. Most human coronaviruses fall into one of two serotypes: OC43-like and 229E-like. The virus enters the host cell, and the uncoated genome is transcribed and translated. The mRNAs form a unique “nested set” sharing a common 3′ end. New virions form by budding from host cell membranes. Transmission is usually via airborne droplets to the nasal mucosa. Virus replicates locally in cells of the ciliated epithelium, causing cell damage and inflammation.”

    It is this small virus that is threatening civilisations, locking down whole cities and countries, and paralysing economies, religions, social interactions, and many more. The world will eventually find a way to deal with it, but the virus and its rampage open up a whole range of possibilities for global power contests and domination. Weakening societies may eventually proceed beyond deploying weapons and technological innovations. As many conspiracy theorists are beginning to imagine, and far beyond the capabilities of cyber warfare specialists, just one virus may be all it takes to master the enemy or influence his behaviour, or even, in worst case scenarios, provoke a civil war. At least this generation will remember that nothing has so paralysed them in the past 70 or 80 years as coronavirus. The virus has had the capacity of concentrating their minds and consternating them. More than before, this generation will rue the fragility of human existence and ponder whether anything at all makes sense, especially seeing how one virus has levelled everybody, from kings to presidents, and from the rich to the poor.

  • Fear, leadership and authority

    Fear, leadership and authority

    Dayo Sobowale

    Panic Leadership is abroad globally in the deathly wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Its  effect  has been pronounced in the way politicians and powerful leaders suspect each other  and  fret  in the quest    to  keep power  and authority,  in the face of the urgent need for self and total  quarantine,  once any of them is tested positive  for the deadly disease. This    is testing the established ,  though informal corridors of power in Nigeria’s mighty Aso  Rock. American president Donald Trump has accused the press  of trying to prolong the lock down to contain the virus in order to ruin the economy and prevent his reelection in the 2020 election in November. In Brazil the president has said the virus pandemic is exaggerated and some observers in the nations of Latin America have cynically  said that the virus is a class disease,  affecting  the rich  who  have travelled abroad and imported the disease on the poor  people serving them,  especially  in Brazil.  Which also  may likely  be the case in Nigeria where it is obvious the lock down has  dilly dallied   because poor  Nigerians who  have not travelled abroad must earn a living to survive in spite of the virus  and  just  must   go out to fend  for their families in the usual   desperate  ,  daily  do or die manner ,  before the emergence of the virus .We  shall  look  at the  actions of the Lagos  and Rivers state governments on the containment  of the virus in these two  crucial port cities .

    In  effect then what I am  saying is that   the  deadly   effect of the virus should not be politicized to  castrate political  opponents through its handling and challenges by the  opposing actors  in the   political  class . It  is no exaggeration that Asian and Western nations are more  afflicted than the nations of the so  called third world  ,some  of which    recently   and unashamedly   called for debt relief from the rich nations  of the world whose economies will  certainly take a critical  blow  from the pandemic . This  is because  of  the way   these rich nations   are trying to cushion  the    negative economic   effect    of the pandemic by paying  for workers laid off or working from home and funding factories closed from production of goods and services ,  due to lock down over the virus .  Indeed these rich nations are bound to be offended by the call for relief from the poor nations but in International Relations there are no permanent friends but permanent interests and both sides certainly know what  to do on the pandemic .

    Undoubtedly,   world leaders have shown candor   if   not   outright brutality in exposing the danger in the spread of the virus and its high mortality rate to their   people. But telling people that they will die if they don’t obey lock down instructions can only exacerbate the fear of the virus   in the minds of the citizenry ,   whose welfare  and health is the goal  of governments in this pandemic. Such fears  have led to panic buying and stock piling   which  are signs of a distressed and  sick society economically and is bound to  multiply   the deadly effects of the economy on both  the citizens and the collapsing economy held  by the jugular  by the virus. It  is with this outlook that  I want  to  comment today on issues I have  raised on Aso  Rock, the US President, Lagos   and   Rivers   state   which   have   port   cities   and   are the goose that lays  the golden egg    in the Nigerian econ.

    In Nigeria some governors returning from abroad have gone on self-quarantine after testing positive or negative to the coronavirus tests. In the presidency the Chief of Staff of the president has tested positive after returning from   a foreign trip and has gone into self-quarantine.  They all have my sincere wish for a quick recovery and healthy return to their duties. This is especially   in spite of the rumour    on the   Chief of Staff   and the NSA who was widely reported to have usurped the powers of the president and was meeting directly with the security and military chiefs. This is not a time to gloat over anybody’s illness or incapacitation on account of power rivalry or tussle in the presence and danger of a pandemic. Indeed tests should be monitored seriously to ensure that they are not manipulated to sideline political opponents or rivals .Certainly  there is urgent  need for  vigilance by our ,   leaders  in  all  works of life that  virus tests are not used to put some of them  in or  out of power in this  pandemic and  I say this in very  good faith .   All the same politicians and legislators should know that this is a dangerous time for foreign engagements as their favorite destinations outside Dubai are the US and Europe which have  now   become the epicenter of the Corona virus . The warning,   buyer beware, is very apt in this instance.

    The  out burst of US  president  Donald  Trump  that the media and Democrats are using the prolonged lock down to  get him is not inappropriate  given the daily antagonistic questions that    he and  his team  have  faced since he started his press briefing . The briefings have shown that too much of anything is bad. This    definitely applies to expectations on political transparency and accountability provided by the US Federal government and the state governors and the questioning media on this pandemic.  The    question and answer   sessions have been fierce and hostile. It is as if either side is programmed to get the other, pants down on these two key democratic components   of  transparency  and accountability on the challenges of the pandemic and their containment . Any democracy that does not allow dissent is a bad democracy. But a democracy that enshrines dissent to the detriment of governmental action by elected officials is anarchy and that is where the US is headed on its handling of this corona virus and its containment in the last week.

    We now come back to Nigeria.   In Rivers state the Governor has closed its borders with neighboring states and have banned vehicles from entering till further notice to contain the effect of the virus. This is Nigeria’s major oil port and that means oil tankers will be affected. That was a bold move by a governor out to protect his people. In Lagos state the governor seemed even more concerned and asked for a partial lock down   later,  even though his press conference sounded like a total  one . But  can the Lagos state governor close the  state  to  oil  tankers and  trailers  who traverse  Lagos roads  with lawless abandon and impunity on their way  to the Apapa and Tin Can Ports which are the major commercial arteries of the Nigerian economy?   Who   will   test the tanker drivers and their handlers as they take over Lagos during the lock down or are they taken to be immune to the virus? Are they subject to any laws on lock down, partial or total? I presume this was the challenge the Governor was alluding to when he said that Lagos is a sub set of a sovereign and not a sovereign. He should clarify and take control of Lagos and call the menace of the tankers the oil barons and their drivers  to order. In a Federal state   like Nigeria, Lagos is not a sub set of any sovereign according to our law. The governor should not cede Lagos to the Federal government like Dosumu did in 1861.  This is 2020 , the year of the Corona virus and Lagos must  be protected not  only  against  corona virus but the trailers and oil tankers who do not respect its authority . Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Senators sneak into private hospitals for COVID-19 tests

    Senators sneak into private hospitals for COVID-19 tests

    By Sentry

    The last executive session of the Senate before sitting was suspended for two weeks was with a drama over COVID-19. About 35 Senators who recently came back from London after a seminar on Petroleum Industry Governance Bill were isolated by their colleagues at the session because they refused to subject themselves to Coronavirus test.

    All the remaining senators refused to either shake hands or engage them in discussions. The usual camaraderie was absent as many senators wanted a snappy session.

    Read Also: UPDATED: COVID-19: Senate suspends plenary for two weeks

    Findings at press time revealed that most of the senators opted for COVID-19 test only in private hospitals because they feared that their health status might leak from government clinics. All of them are keeping the results to themselves.

    The challenge at hand is that the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, does not know who is positive or negative among his colleagues. The Senate remains at a higher risk.

  • Reps stir outrage with acquisition of exotic cars

    Reps stir outrage with acquisition of exotic cars

    By Sentry

    In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the House of Representatives have started getting some of the 400 Toyota Camry 2020 as earlier decided by the lower legislative chamber.

    Although the decision to buy the vehicles was taken on February 5, 2020, the timing of distribution of the cars has attracted criticisms from different quarters.

    Apart from keeping the cost secret, the angst against the lawmakers was fuelled by the complacent display of the cars at the parking lots of the National Assembly.

    Read Also: We are not distributing cars yet – Reps

    An angry critic, Frederick Odorige, said: “These legislators finalised plans to buy these vehicles during a closed door session on 5 February 2020 when COVID-19 was already spreading and other countries were planning and taking concrete actions against the deadly virus.

    “Nigerian politicians are very wicked and insensitive. Does it mean that they were trekking to the legislature or they had no personal vehicles before now? Did they swear an oath never to make a sacrifice for Nigerians?

    “They just approved N50 billion to be given to some Nigerians as loans because of Covid-19, which will attract interest. Not palliative measures. It means that Nigerians who are not in government can never enjoy from the country.

    “Sensible parliamentarians are currently donating their salaries in other countries. The ones in Nigeria receive the highest in the world and will continue to receive the same amount even as they stay at home because of the virus.”