The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Revealed: How Akpabio, Omo-Agege fell out over NDDC board appointments

    By Sentry

    It has been revealed that the SMS war between the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as reported by this column last Saturday, was provoked by the manner the members of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were picked.

    An impeccable Presidency source told Sentry that contrary to popular belief, Senator Akpabio actually made an input into the appointment of the board members but was irked that the member he nominated was not made the chairman or managing director of the commission, hence his decision to constitute a three-man interim management committee to manage the board’s affairs.

    As the story goes, President Muhammadu Buhari had told Senator Omo-Agege, who is said to be very close to the Villa, that he needed upright and competent people to run the affairs of NDDC because he believed that the huge sums hitherto pumped into the commission had not been well utilised by its managers. This was the basis upon which Buhari told some Niger Delta leaders who visited him in Aso Rock recently that a forensic audit would be carried out on the commission.

    Omo-Agege, however, felt that it would not be fair for him to nominate the commission’s members without inputs from other Niger Delta leaders. He therefore contacted the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; former Bayelsa State governor, Chief Timipre Silver as well as Akpabio and some other Niger Delta leaders who nominated a name each. But it was Oshiomhole’s nominee, Dr. Pius Odubu, who became the commission’s new chairman, while Omo-Agege’s nominee, Bernard Okumagba, became the managing director.

    Irked by the development, Akpabio constituted an interim management committee, even though he knew that the board would be cleared and there was even somebody already acting as MD. Few days ago, the House of Representatives  ordered Akpabio’s interim management to quit because there is a board in place and the MD is part of it. Everybody is now awaiting President Buhari’s arrival from his trip abroad to inaugurate the new board.

    Akpabio’s bid to take charge because he did not choose the chairman or the MD of NDDC led to the angry text he exchanged with Omo-Agege which SENTRY reported last week

  • Embattled Oshiomhole speaks uncharacteristically on devolution

    NIGERIANS know that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is Janus-faced on the subject of devolution of power, and are astounded by how brazenly the party flaunts that vice. Even though the ruling party included it as one of their objectives should they attain office in 2015, it was unusually easy for them to renege on that promise barely a few months after their president, Muhammadu Buhari, was sworn in. First the party was silent on it, then after much prodding, they hemmed and hawed. But finally, after the public had assailed them with unprintable epithets, they damned the consequences and declared that the grouching public had first to define what they meant by restructuring, a term often used interchangeably with devolution.

    Afraid that the controversial issue of restructuring might condemn them to defeat in the 2019 elections, the party pusillanimously accented to the need to do something peripheral to restructuring and devolution. They therefore set up a panel headed by their Kaduna stormy petrel, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who flamboyantly concocted a devolution pastiche worthy of the best of Fabians, a pastiche designed not to be implemented knowing full well where their party panjandrums stand on the many controversial provisions of the 1999 Constitution. Yes, the panel recommended some form of devolution, but beyond that, every other thing was imprecise, muffled and dispensable. Neither the party nor the presidency has said a word on the recommendations of the devolution committee work. The fault, of course, is not that of the committee; the problem is that the presidency simply does not want to hear anything about changing the present obese and unworkable structure, for, in their vaunted opinion, it would be next door to secession or balkanisation.

    So, the country has up till now neither heard of the much tamer devolution, should that be the less offensive of the people’s political fancies, nor caught a glimpse anywhere of the highly hated restructuring, the veritable bugaboo that gives the Buhari presidency sleepless nights. Imagine the surprise, therefore, when on Channels, according to this newspaper’s account, the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday propounded a thesis, as it were, on devolution, describing the federal government as ungainly large, the powers and influence it wields as unprepossessingly obese, and the other levels of government as stifled and famished. He advocated some measure of devolution to free funds and resources for the states, and for the federal government to shed some weight.

    According to him: “We must restructure our revenue allocation, the Concurrent and the Exclusive lists. The power at the centre is too huge to the extent that it is easier to clampdown on governors than the President. No President of our country has been interrogated for corruption. Are we saying they were all saints?…Those who shout restructuring have no suggestions on the table to let us understand their idea of restructuring. We need to be more constructive in tackling our challenges. They are coming up with all sorts of artificial devices. The future generation should be the ones discussing restructuring because they are going to live with the outcome in the future…Ethnic champions approached everything with ethnic colouration. We have lost our dignified ways of doing things. We can do a lot more to revisit our core values. We should avoid introducing politics into crime-fighting.”

    Mr Oshiomhole knows in his heart of hearts that the federal government cannot continue to operate the way it is structured now to the detriment of the states, nor can it even be called to question over their perennial misappropriation of the huge funds the constitution put at their disposal. The APC chairman knows the truth, but he is not above the dissembling that has hobbled the party he leads. By throwing barbs at advocates of restructuring, he may simply be throwing a sop to the devil, metaphorically speaking. But no one is fooled. His party has disgracefully abjured restructuring, one of the central and ennobling goals many Nigerians naively read into their manifestos and indeed their existence as a political party. They voted for them in 2015 believing they were capable of making a difference not only in the lives of the people but also in the way things should run. In 2019, thoroughly flummoxed, they again voted for the party seemingly assured that the party would stumble into the inspired role of transforming the country. On both counts, the country has been sorely disappointed.

    Mr Oshiomhole may not have a thorough grounding of the issues pertaining to nationhood, but he has at least gone farthest than most APC leaders, including their highly conservative president, in challenging the orthodoxies by which Nigeria is governed. It is clear he sees the problem of states in terms only of the resources available to them vis-a-vis the excessively large funds needlessly deposited on the undeserving laps of the federal government, nay the presidency. He was also right in puzzling over the national obsession with corruption at the states level instead of the huger and richer federal government which, he insinuates, is kept unfairly and conspiratorially above censure. His friends in government and those in the presidency who have shielded him from the ravenous wolves intent on deposing him may get angry at his pointed barbs, but it is hard to fault his simple logic regarding where to place the bigger blame in a country inundated with blame games.

    However, as sensible as his ideas about devolution might be, even though a little restrained and convoluted, they are nevertheless fairly nugatory. In addition, his thesis on how to reorganise and run this country efficiently is still offensively pedestrian. He has admittedly gone further than anyone in the APC to enunciate the structural crisis and dilemma Nigeria faces, but like his party in their misguided pontification of nationhood, he has gone off on a tangent and is therefore of little use in addressing the main issues constraining growth, development and stability. Like his party, he also needs to reassess his theses and find the right coordinates if he and his party are not to shipwreck.

    Has Mr Oshiomhole asked himself why competition for the presidency and state government houses are so fierce, disruptive and counterproductive? Every election is war, and lives are inescapably lost. As intense as the anti-graft war is, corruption at the federal, state and local government levels have also not abated. It is time Mr Oshiomhole and his party began to interrogate the real factors responsible for the constant administrative stasis and paroxysm of electoral rage retarding the country’s progress. The problem is not a misbegotten revenue allocation formula, as palpable as this is; the problem is the abnormal federal structure operated by Nigeria and bequeathed by past military governments, a structure that fails to emphasise independent and competitive revenue mobilisation. States, or regions, as some have advocated, must generate their own funds and deploy them as they deem fit within the ambits of the law and the structures and cultures that best suit and serve them.

    His party is dishonest about many things, including its expectations and self-identification, but Mr Oshiomhole must be honest  enough to let his party know, perhaps in private, that like its predecessors did, the APC is running the country into a cul-de-sac. They should forget the nonsense about the fractal politics of revenue allocation that has diseased the country’s amorphous federal structure, and must find ways of shedding the terrible and unbearable weight that has made its movement into the 21st century ponderous and nightmarish. Running a diseased federal structure has alarmingly predisposed the country to unhealthy ethnic and religious rivalry, and rendered it vulnerable. If Mr Oshiomhole’s admission forms the first tentative step in helping the ruling party and sceptical Nigerians to see the light, then his views, despite their inchoateness, are worth it.

    There is, however, nothing to suggest that the APC chairman’s views are not spontaneous and the product of a desultory philosophy anchored on propaganda and flimsy expositions. This is a great pity. Nigeria needs brave men and women of ideas; so far, neither the APC nor its great rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has produced such people. The only hope is that President Buhari should represent the last of the conservative and militaristic titans who have kept the country ideologically stagnant. Perhaps the politics of 2023 will produce a tectonic shit in ideas and brave politicians who would dare to think and act for Nigeria. Perhaps.

  • Security vote turns defiant deputy governor into praise singer

    AFTER years of confrontation with his boss, a deputy governor in one of the states has turned into a submissive footman of the governor, following the decision of the latter to yield to his deputy the state’s security vote for one month.

    It was said that there had been no love lost between the governor and his deputy since they assumed the leadership of the state because the deputy governor kept complaining that he was not given any specific responsibility in the government. The petulant deputy governor was said to have written various petitions to the powers – that – be against the governor and even tried on various occasions to undermine the governor’s authority.

    All that however changed when the governor decided to proceed on leave and transmitted a letter to the state’s House of Assembly asking his deputy to act as governor in his absence.

    The governor returned from leave and found that his deputy had  barely touched the security vote for the month he was away. He called his deputy and asked why he left the security vote for the month he (governor) was on leave untouched, and the deputy said he felt that the money belonged to the governor and should not be tampered with.

    “No,” replied the governor, “the money is all yours.”

    The Deputy Governor could not believe his ears. “I alone?!” he exclaimed and went dumb for a minute or so before he could muster the words to thank the governor and sing his praises.

    Since then, he has become the governor’s praise singer, telling whoever cares to listen that his boss is the best governor that ever lived.

  • Professor Tam David West and the examined life

    Segun Ayobolu

     

    It was the great Greek philosopher, Socrates, who is quoted as famously declaring that the unexamined life is not worth living. I take the profound thinker as implying that man cannot be truly human when he exists only at the level of the instinctual and reflexive, living thoughtlessly without reflection on the meaning and purpose of life – if any. This was also probably what the immortal philosopher meant when he urged his fellow men to pursue self-knowledge through his famous phrase, ‘Man, know thyself’. But the challenge of living the examined life or coming to true knowledge of the self is certainly no easy task and only a minority of men across time and space even bother to make the effort.

    For example, the philosopher, Cornel West, in an interview with Astra Taylor, in her collection of dialogues with eight contemporary thinkers published in 2009, declares, “How do we examine ourselves in a Socratic manner? How do you examine yourself? What happens when you interrogate yourself? What happens when you begin calling into question your tacit assumptions and unarticulated presuppositions and begin then to become a different kind of person? You know, Plato says philosophy’s a meditation on and a preparation for death. By death, what he means is not an event, but a death in life because there’s no rebirth, there’s no change, there’s no transformation without death, and therefore the question becomes: How do you learn how to die”?

    Professor Tamunoemi Sokari David-West, whose phenomenal life came to an end on November 11, 2019, at the age of 83, was surely one of those rare human beings who was able to look life squarely in the eye, ask himself uncomfortable questions about his mission this side of eternity and derive motivating values and ethical standards that as much as humanly possible he guided his life by. My interactions with the late Professor were from a distance. I never met him in person but his views and values had a significant impact on my attitudes to and perspectives on life.

    Ever before he began reading my columns in The Nation newspaper and calling me fairly regularly to express either his consent or disagreements with some of the views and ideas I espoused, Prof. had made a deep impact on my young mind through his book, ‘Philosophical Essays’, which I had acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan in the early 1980s. During one of our discussions on telephone, I had casually mentioned that his book as well as two others, ‘Philosophical Essays’ by the late Professor Sanya Onabamiro, the biologist and educationist also of the University of Ibadan as well as ‘Popular Fallacies in the Nigerian Social Sciences’ by Dr. Patrick Heinecke who taught Public Administration at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the 1980s, had been of tremendous impact on me as an undergraduate. Unfortunately, I said, I had since lost my copy of his book and had sought in vain in various bookshops over the years to obtain another copy without success.

    Read Also: Tam David-West (1936 – 2019)

    To my utter surprise, within a short period, on 19th April, 2012, a beautifully bound copy of Professor Tam David West’s ‘Philosophical Essays’ was delivered to my address in Lagos in blue hard cover and my named inscribed in bold letters on the cover page. Inside, Prof. had written, “Mr. Segun Ayobolu; my compliments as promised. Out of print since 1980. A veritable periscope to situate the ME. Hope you find it worth your while”. Although Prof. was a scientist and not a trained philosopher, it is impossible for anyone of any age but particularly those of a young and impressionable mind not to be thoroughly informed and impacted by the strong ethical values as well as passionate, patriotic and humanistic sentiments, obviously a product of rigorous and honest self-examination, expressed in the book.

    In his characteristic honesty and modesty, Professor David-West, in his acknowledgements in the book paid fulsome tribute to the then Head of Department of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Dr. P.O. Bodunrin, for reading through the essays and offering constructive criticisms as an academic philosopher. He equally acknowledged the roles of the editors of the various newspapers – The Daily Sketch in Ibadan, The Sunday Tide and Nigerian Tide in Port Harcourt as well as the Sunday Times in Lagos – in which the compilation of essays had first been serialized at various times between 1974 and 1978. The philosophical essays take the form of dialogues between the author and his son over diverse issues of life raised as questions by the son and the thoughtful responses of the wise and reflective father.

    Prof. explains his choice of the dialogic form with his ‘son’ thus, “…although I have a number of options open to me in this exercise, I have, however, decided to adopt the Dialogue Method, in which I am going to attempt providing answers to a number of questions about Life put to me by “My Son”, and crystalising thereby my personal, ethical, moral or philosophical views or positions on these subjects”. There are 80 chapters comprising diverse topics on various issues of vital importance to life, living, justice, religion and spirituality, morality, greed and acquisitiveness, politics, patriotism, ethnicity, the godfather syndrome and much more in this book that runs into 224 pages.

    Professor David-West writes with a simplicity and vividness of style that does not in any way detract from the profundity and vigor of his thought.  Let us just consider one or two of Prof’s responses to his son’s questions just as an appetizer to those who may want to get a copy of the book either for themselves or their children. For instance, the author’s son asks ‘What constitutes the Good Life, Dad’? After first discussing the ethical implications of Bertrand Russell’s definition of ‘Good’ as the “satisfaction of desire”, David-West advises his son, “Therefore, son, my advice is that you must first of all decide what you want out of life. But I must caution that whatever your desires, you must always ensure that you do not “destroy” or hurt your fellow man in the pursuit of these desires”.

    Continuing, the author advises his son further on the essentials of the ‘Good Life’ saying “Son, Happiness, the philosophers (e.g. Aristotle) maintain, is an end in itself. And the good life is the one that gives you happiness: “Good” being defined by Aristotle in his ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ as that “which everything aims”. You can achieve this by studying your options and alternatives, and then selecting your priorities. Once you have done this, son, faithfully work towards the goal, being guided all the way by the “Three Treasures” of the Chinese Taoist, namely, Love, Moderation and Humility”.

    And in our excessively acquisitive society where money has become the ‘be all and end all’ of existence, the philosopher earnestly admonishes his son that “Finally, son, I must tell you that the greatest legacy I would leave behind for you is a generous investment in your education- a SOUND EDUCATION – which I firmly believe would equip you with the necessary tools kit for the battle of life…Son, I must warn you that you should not expect me to hand over to you impressive Bank Passbooks of Savings or Keys to this or to that estate or landed property. I do not believe that my happiness and thus, my Good Life, is inextricably tied to the massive acquisition of such material advantages. However, Son, I guarantee you a comfortable living before you are weaned enough to independently face the challenges of life”.

    How about the idea of God and belief in His existence? The elder David-West advises his son after extensive philosophical excursions: “Furthermore, although it is fashionable among some scientists to grow to doubt the existence of God, I must tell you that as a medical scientist, and specializing in the study of sub-microscopic “lives” and their pathological manifestations,  I have come across nothing in my professional discipline that argues against the existence of God, and so render otiose my belief in God, or also in my name “TAMUNOEMI” meaning “There is God”. Thus, I identify myself with the Psalmist when he concluded, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1) – Bible.

    However, on the possibility of life after death, David-West’s scientific cast of mind comes to the fore although he extensively discusses the concept of death and the afterlife across space, time, cultures and religions. But the experimental scientist in him cautions his son, “In conclusion, Son, logically, the only person who can be definite and dogmatic about life after death is one who had crossed the barrier and come back to us, as we saw him cross the said Life-Death barrier. Just like an astronaut successfully rocketed to the moon and back, can feed us with authentic account of the moon. Anything short of this empirical approach is at best mere romanticism and speculations”. My personal conviction is that the Lord Jesus, in his death and resurrection, met David-West’s standard of proof in this regard.

    It is a pity that Professor Tam David-West’s book is out of print. He lived the examined life and shared his life affirming values with readers as his imperishable legacy. There can be no better way of honouring him than making this book available in schools and bookshops nationwide especially for the benefit of thinking Nigerian youth. May Prof’s soul rest in peace.

  • Information management, strategic communication and the emergent greater Lagos (2019-2023)

     Segun Ayobolu

     

    Continued from last week

    In Canada, the experience is no different. Carla Gilders, Director-General of the Communication and Consultation Directorate of Health in that country, in a paper ‘Government Communications in Canada’ notes that “Since the introduction of the 1988 Communications policy, communication planning has been, in theory at least, an integral part of the policy-making process in Canada. Communications advisors should be part of the policy-making teams in Departments. However, the full integration of policy and communications remains elusive, with communications advice sometimes being sought as an “add on” at the end of the policy process. To ensure that Cabinet Ministers consider the communications dimensions of an issue before making decisions on policy, every memorandum to the Cabinet must include a communications plan. Departments prepare a yearly strategic plan, supported by a strategic communications plan to lay out the major goals, objectives and strategies for the year”.

    Carla Gilders continues most insightfully when she states that “With the growing emphasis on public consultation and the influence of special interest groups, policy development has moved from behind government doors and into the public domain. For communicators, this has meant trying to help shape the debate about policy proposals, rather than “selling” the policy change after a decision has been taken. These changes have meant that government communicators must spend more time studying the public environment and developing strategies than on the operational tasks of the past, like writing pamphlets or preparing videos. Communications as a career in the public service today is not for the faint of heart”.

    Professors Magnus Frederickson and Josef Pallas also shed more light on the management function of communicators in their paper on Public Sector Communication. They write that “Communication is expected to illustrate, explain and support the core practices and responsibilities of public sector organizations. The ambitions to integrate communication in other activities have repositioned the role of communicators and today more communicators than ever before have gained senior management positions within their organizations. Here they encounter expanding demands and expectations to provide insights and suggestions in situations with strategic significance for organizations. This in turn has reinforced expectations regarding communication processes to be planned, executed and evaluated in relation to preset goals and priorities. Ad hoc communication or communicating for its own sake is then disqualified as unprofessional”.

    I have cited all these examples to help highlight the significance of Mr. Adeyemi’s achievement in helping to enhance the image, prestige and organizational status of Public Affairs Officers within the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Of course, it is unfortunate that his memo proposing that Units of Public Affairs in all MDAs service-wide be upgraded to Directorate status as is the case in the Ministry of the Environment is still awaiting approval. But at least a step has been taken. It will be to the eternal credit of his successor.

    I am aware that over the last two decades, Lagos State has placed premium on recruiting young, brilliant and dynamic Public Affairs Officers into the public service. This young men and women do not only learn on the job, they have the opportunity of being mentored by experienced and accomplished senior officers in the various MDAs. As the generation of Mr. Adeyemi thus gradually exits the service, therefore, there is already a cadre of officers with the acumen, skills and requisite ethical values to step into their shoes.

    Naturally, as he formally steps down from the leadership apex of the Lagos State Public Service after attaining the statutory age for doing so, Mr. Adeyemi casts his gaze to the future and emphasizes the urgent need for a new focus on scientific based research in the entire gamut of the communication process. In his words, “There is an urgent need to embrace research. It is a well known fact that no successful government programme happens by chance. Rather, it is a product of careful planning nurtured by thorough research. If Information Managers must advise the government on means of passing out information to the public, they must have the nose to sniff out the feeling of the public on the administration’s programmes. This can only be done through constant researches”. But achieving this goal in my view would require the elevation of Strategic Communication planning into a full-fledged Department in the Ministry in order to truly reflect its nomenclature of Ministry of Information and Strategy.

    To quote Professors Magnus Frederickson and Josef Pallas, once again, with reference to the pertinent point made by Mr. Adeyemi on the imperative of research-based communication strategies, “For a long time, public sector communication remained the same regarding its form, functions, patterns and content. It was the state – via its administration- that communicated with its citizenry. It was very much top-down communication – a form of issuing orders – and if citizens were given any chance to take an active part, it was often in terms of reporting their attitudes or behaviours to make communication more effective. Mass Communication was then the predominant form of communication and the overall ambition was to govern society. These ambitions are still important in many contexts, but it is evident that public sector communications has become a much more diverse and multi-purpose activity that is based on and mobilized by a wider set of principles”. This is the research function in communication planning that Mr. Adeyemi refers to in my view.

    Wikipedia, in its entry on Strategic Communications with particular reference to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), notes that “It is important to underline that Strategic Communication is first and foremost a process that supports and underpins all efforts to achieve the Alliance’s objectives; an enabler that guides and informs our decisions, and not an organization in itself. It is for this reason that Strategic Communication considerations should be integrated into the earliest planning phases – communication activities being a consequence of that planning”. It continues: “There is a shift in communications approaches among public sector organizations. In particular, moving away from the traditional “tell and sell” model to a more participatory and inclusive approach of fostering meaningful two-way communication and engagement”. Implicit in these submissions is the need, as Mr. Adeyemi advocates, for more research-based and citizen-centric communication strategies.

    For instance, the performance of the various administrations in Lagos State since 1999 has been widely acknowledged as well as the professional competence and technical versatility of its information dissemination machinery. However, the successive ruling parties in Lagos State (AD, AC, ACN and now APC) have had to struggle hard to win electoral victories in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 with the margin of victory in most cases not reflecting the widely acknowledged performance of the administrations. And voter turnout in the elections consistently failed to demonstrate popular enthusiasm for policies and programmes of administrations from which millions of people are benefitting.

    Between 1999 and 2007, the information dissemination machinery apart from its routine responsibilities was also bogged down with managing a succession of crises deliberately instigated to destabilize the Tinubu administration. It also had to cope at the time with responding to the antics of an obstructive federal government that actively tried to impede the progress and smooth governance of the state.

    After 2007, information dissemination under the Fashola and Ambode administrations was preoccupied with propagating the achievements of the various administrations with little or no effort to situate the specific policies and programmes of each administration within the overarching framework of the Lagos State Development Master Plan (1999-2024). Thus, most citizens are unable to connect the achievements of each administration to the ongoing evolution of a carefully crafted Master Plan thus empowering them with the knowledge and insight to buy into the imperative of policy and party continuity in the best interest of Lagos State.

    This is why there must be a decisive move more in the direction of research-based Strategic Communication over the next four years. All too often, the ‘top-down’ information dissemination model is difficult to differentiate from propaganda. Unfortunately, partisan propaganda is often a matter of preaching to the converted rather than continuously bringing in new converts through credible and consultative policy communication.

    In restructuring the former Ministry of Information and Culture to become the current Ministry of Information and Strategy as from 1999, the Tinubu administration had realized the critical role of strategy in information management. Strategic Communication Planning appreciates that the public information highway is not a one way thoroughfare dominated by government generated informational messages but a market place of competing communications from diverse sources including competing political parties, interest groups, business organizations, professional associations, non-governmental organizations and civil society actors among others.

    Strategic Communication Planning for effective governance must thus entail continuous and rigorous target audience segmentation and analysis, continuous stakeholder engagement and interaction, continuous policy impact evaluation as well as feedback analysis and overall coordination of the messages of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to fit into and feed an overarching coherent theme, which government as a whole consistently and vigorously communicates to the public. Strategic Communication implies the capacity to effectively monitor, analyze and respond to counter messages from diverse interests while also being able to set information dissemination and public communication agenda through preemptive thinking and proactive planning.

    During the 2015 and 2019 general elections, for instance,, unscrupulous politicians tried to instigate ethnic disharmony in Lagos by portraying the state government as discriminating against non-Yoruba ethnic groups particularly the Igbo. This spurred ethnic bloc voting that had some impact on electoral outcomes in areas dominated by certain ethnic groups. Yet, Lagos remains one state where residents irrespective of ethnic origins or religious belief benefit from the investment of the state government in infrastructure, social services such as subsidized education and health care, security as well as employment opportunities in the public service. This is one lacuna that research-based communication planning and information dissemination can help fill.

    Most traditional information dissemination machineries suffer from the playwright, George Bernard Shaw’s perceptive observation that “The single biggest problem with communications is the illusion that it has taken place”. This is particularly so with respect to utilizing communication as a tool to bring about positive behavioral change. Simply bombarding the target audience with information on the need to exhibit change in different areas such as traffic behavior, drink-driving, refuse disposal etc, does not guarantee that the message will be heeded by the supposed beneficiaries. Strategic Communication must therefore devise strategies to ensure that information dissemination actually achieves as much as possible the desired behavioural change envisaged. Communication Strategies designed to influence desired behavioural changes will become particularly important over the coming years as Lagos continues to succumb increasingly to youth gangsterism in our communities, chronic drug abuse, teen-age prostitution, cultism, traffic irresponsibility and other ills.

    In focusing on achieving positive behavioural change as one of its central objectives, the Ministry of Information and Strategy can borrow a leaf from the UK Government Communication Service (GCS), which is considered as one of the most innovative and effective globally in the field. In this regard, the UK government has come up with its OASIS behavioural change communication model, which entails setting Objectives, gaining Audience insight, devising Strategy/Idea, effecting Implementation and undertaking Scoring/Evaluation. This model enables communicators to identify the barriers to a desired policy outcome being achieved and then devise ways that communication can be utilized to overcome a number of these barriers so that the behavioural change can be achieved.

    Interestingly, the UK Government Communication Service came up with specific and measurable ways of determining the impact and effectiveness of its various behavioural change communication campaigns. For the 2018/2019 season , for instance, it recorded 1.5 million fewer prescriptions as a direct result of explaining the dangers of overusing antibiotics; Its THINK campaign led to an 11% increase in young men saying it was unacceptable to let a friend drive after drinking; Nearly 10% of UK adults said they learnt something new from coverage generated on the First World War Centenary and 40% were inspired to research their family links to the war; 94% of customers filed their tax returns by the deadline as a result of the Self-Assessment campaign. Its #Knifefree campaign, for instance, used realistic stories to confront addictive and antisocial behaviour such as knife carrying by young people. This improved positively young people’s emotional response to such habits that predispose those who indulge in them to violence.

    Mr. Adeyemi’s joining the Lagos State Public Service was not by happenstance. As he tells the story in his book, “It must be emphasized that applying into the Civil Service was my father’s desire as he wanted me to use the platform to offer quality service to humanity. He had always seen the Civil Service as the ‘Conscience of the Nation’ and often told me that the Civil Service has its own peculiarity, culture and challenges, but that it could really mould one into a better person. My father wanted me to join the Civil Service and make a mark by helping to build a just and fair society. That was the genesis of my journey into the Lagos State Civil Service”.

    It is thus no wonder that Mr. Fola Adeyemi had a high sense of self-esteem and attached appropriate value both to his person and his profession as a government policy communicator. That which is not valued, it is often said, tends to be abused and squandered. All those who have known Mr. Adeyemi over the years will readily testify to his unassuming humility, uncompromising dedication to his duties, strong sense of focus and high moral integrity. It is no doubt a great honour and privilege to be a member of a 100,000 strong public service in a megacity population of more than 20 million residents. It is even a greater pride to belong to the elite cadre of Government Communicators in the Lagos State Public Service. But this privilege should, like the case of Mr Adeyemi, lead not to hubris, but genuine humility and a commitment to selfless service.

    As Mr. Adeyemi puts it in his book evoking strong emotions on me as I read it, “You must have an identity before institutions and professionalism will back you to become an authority. If I can come from nowhere and make a mark, then the over 400 Public Affairs Officers in the Lagos State Public Service can do it. I cherish the “Can do Spirit a lot”.

    There are two immortalities every human being must aim at according to the political economist, Professor Pat. Utomi. The first immortality is that of leaving an indelible legacy here on earth before one’s transition through a life of selfless service to humanity no matter how humble one’s station in life. The second immortality is that of after this ephemeral, transitory and fleeting life, to meet God face to face and dwell with him forever in eternity. I pray that this may be the fate of each and every one of us by His grace.

    Mr. Adeyemi retires formally today but he is in no way tired. He still bubbles with physical energy, mental acuteness and moral fervor. It is for this great son of Nigeria certainly morning yet on creation day and the best, for him, is yet to come.

     

    Concluded

  • Elections, interference and diplomacy

    GIVEN  the spate of protests in many nations nowadays,  one  can almost say  that  there is a backlash  against not only the  concept of democracy  globally  but  also a great  dissatisfaction with expectations of governance  arising from the elections  with   which those  who  run governments  got  to power  in the first  instance. Nothing  illustrates  this viewpoint  more  vividly than the  political  situation in Bolivia this week  where the President who claimed to have won a recent election fled into Mexico  for  political  asylum, as well  as the start of the Impeachment process in the US House of Reps  where Donald Trump is being held accountable  for  purportedly  using diplomacy and foreign aid to get his political opponent discredited with  corruption on the eve of  the 2020 presidential elections. Interestingly, the person Donald  Trump  defeated in the 2016  elections Hillary  Clinton  on a visit to Britain this week castigated  the British  government for  not  revealing  a government report that   purportedly revealed that there  was foreign interference in past UK elections  before the coming December  elections.

    These three  events in Bolivia, Washington   and London capture the  essence of the global  pressure that democracy  is  going through especially  with regard to the legitimacy  that clean elections are supposed to bestow on the leadership of those who  win or claim to have won such  elections. This is because democracy becomes a sham if elections are  not   transparent, free and fair.  In  addition technology  has turned the world  into a global  village and anyone who thinks interference from abroad or other nations in elections in any part of the world can  just  be shut out,  is behaving like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand.  Globalisation and information technology have made the world borderless more or less and  have  turned the concept of Big Brother is Watching  you into  a real  political engine   that  makes the world a stage in our small  phones and sitting rooms,   without us travelling out to the places we relate with on a daily basis.  Indeed  that explains why the issues we raise today  have universal  application not only for Bolivians,   Americans  or  Britons  but any citizen of the world in any democracy in any part of the world including our own Nigeria.

    There  was a time during the Cold War  when the policy of Non Inteference in the internal  affairs of other nations was the vogue in foreign policy  and   diplomacy. That era is   now gone forever, no thanks to technology and telecommunications. But  the business of governance  in  any  democracy   cannot  be totally be divested of  state  secrets,  confidentiality,   loyalty and patriotism . That  really is the difference between what is happening in the US Congress where the president  is being impeached and what Hillary  Clinton could not  understand in calling for the release of  an  election  interference  report on the eve  of the Brexit  election . Political  values in the US are different from those of the UK. Confidentiality is a well-developed and respected value in British democracy and its bureaucratic  establishment. It  is  not the same in US politics where the whistleblower is  celebrated  and  given  protection at the expense of state security and diplomacy. Hillary  Clinton herself was branded  reckless by the CIA  boss before the 2016   elections  for  using her  personal   phone  for state  matters  and would have been disqualified in Britain  from  contesting that  election . Similarly  the grim and treacherous spectacle  of American  diplomats and ambassadors revealing state   secrets and tele conversations between  heads of states still in office  would  not  have happened  in any decent nation but the US over the Trump- Biden Ukraine affair.  Obviously  the American  system  of checks  and balances in the Trump  presidency has become weaponised  and politicized to serve partisan political ends at  the expense of democratic values it is put in place  to cherish  and protect.  Even  if the House impeaches Trump  as it  is proceeding, the Senate which is controlled by his  party  will never play ball and  vote   to impeach him.  That  leaves the issue in the hands  of the electorate for the 2020  elections  which  is going to be about the way and manner of this impeachment  saga.  Which  is almost  the same script that has turned the UK  election   on December 12 in Britain into  a Brexit  election that has turned the electorate against Parliament  which  hitherto was  presumed to  be supreme  but  now has feet of clay for most  politicians in this Brexit  election.

    In  Bolivia  from  where President  Evo  Morales fled to  Mexico  one  can  see clear frustrations with democracy and  the electoral system as well as the electoral  monitoring  process which  has  been  internationalized  for election monitoring. Morales claimed he won the election but opposition claimed he rigged it.  The international monitoring body said  he rigged but a neutral body  warned the election monitors  not to politicize the election monitoring system. Who  then is telling the truth?   While  the army came in to create order and stability, the two leaders in line of succession in Bolivia  resigned  and  paved the way for a lady senator next in rank to claim  the presidency. The truth however is that democracy in Bolivia  has  been  badly  battered and it will  take sometime for it  to regain its credibility  and    legitimacy.  For now both the army  and diplomacy   seem    to  have rescued Bolivian democracy and   given that nation peace and stability  after   the post election  violence   and protests.  Mexico  gave asylum and the army pressured  the election rigger  to flee for his life and take refuge in Mexico. But  the army  has  never been a trusted ally of democracy  in any part of the world and the world will  be watching  when, if  and how the elections promised, will  hold in Bolivia.

    Let  us remember the saying that charity should begin at home  and take a peep  at the Kogi State election today. There is no doubt that state governor  Yahaya Bello has done a lot for his people.  But  that will be seen in the way the electorate votes today.  Already the President has called for a free  and fair election. This again is the only way to guarantee legitimacy for the winner of the election.  But  the Kaduna state governor  Nasr  El  Rufai  has taken   political   accountability to a new level  by reportedly prostrating before the people of the state and asking them  to forgive the governor for any lapses during his tenure That  may seem like  state cross border   election interference, but it is good  for democracy, transparency and accountability in Nigeria  and Kogi  state. It   also shows that in a democracy power is not  absolute  and is renewable at election time   and that  makes elections the time of reckoning for performing or non performing politicians.  The Kaduna state  governor  should know what power  is  about and how to  claim it as he was quite  hostile to some election monitors in his state  elections  who  wanted to politicize the election monitoring in his state.  Anyway prostrations may  be symbolic and even humbling but at  the end of the day  the ball is in the court of the electorate in Kogi state and it is them  who will decide the next occupant of the state  house in Lokoja. That  is the essence of  elections and that is the beauty of democracy   provided  such elections are free  and fair .Once  again long live  the Federal Republic  of Nigeria.

     

  • Akpabio, Omo-Agege in text war over NDDC board

    By Sentry

    The forensic audit of the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari when some Niger Delta leaders visited him at the Presidential Villa recently has left the regions leaders divided. While the move did not go down well with certain interests in the region, others see it as one that is long overdue.

    Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, for instance, is firmly in support of the move because he believes that the Commission is nothing but a conduit pipe for siphoning funds. As far as he is concerned, there is nothing on the ground to justify the huge sums that have been invested in the Commission over the years. But some members of the National Assembly are opposed to it and are making all the moves they can to frustrate it.

    While Sentry will keep readers posted on the issue, what is of utmost concern at the moment is the SMS war that has erupted between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. Recall that Akpabio had constituted a three-man interim management committee to manage the affairs of the NDDC. But the National Assembly wondered the essence of a three-man committee when the board of the Commission could be constituted to take over its running.

    However, it is one thing to constitute a committee but another thing to inaugurate it. Unhappy with the composition of the board of the Commission because he had no input in it and was not consulted before it was constituted, Akpabio sent a text message to Omo-Agege to register his displeasure. Rather than placate Akpabio, Omo-Agege responded angrily with another text, pointedly telling Akpabio that the board had come to stay “whether anybody likes it or not,” and now that it has been cleared, it must be allowed to work.

    A distraught Akpabio has since dismissed the composition of the board as an exclusive show of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, describing it as an Edo/Delta affair.

  • Jonathan keeps PDP guessing one week to Kogi, Bayelsa elections

    By Sentry

    It is only seven days to the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, but members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are confused over the stand of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Their anxiety further heightened on Wednesday when the party flagged off its campaign rally with Jonathan conspicuously absent.

    Also absent at the rally was a governorship aspirant and former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe, whose candidacy Jonathan was believed to have supported in the party’s governorship primary in Bayelsa State, which was won by Senator Douye Diri. Both Jonathan and Alaibe are said to have been very bitter since the latter lost out in the primary election. They believe that the process was manipulated against Alaibe.

    Efforts made by the party and the Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, to placate them have yielded no fruit. Governor Dickson said he had made efforts on 15 different occasions to get Jonathan to support Diri’s candidacy but all his efforts have been fruitless. With the elections now only one week away, party members in Bayelsa State are concerned that Jonathan’s attitude has been lukewarm.

    Their fears are compounded by the absence of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, also from the campaigns flag-off on account of the cold war between him and Governor Dickson, which dates back to the election of national officers for PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general elections. Wike had supported the candidacy of the party’s current national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus while Dickson preferred Chief Bode George because he believed that the Southwest needed to be brought into the mainstream.

    In the presidential primary of the party also, the two governors had deferred in their choice of candidates. Wike wanted Hon. Aminu Tambuwal as the party’s presidential candidate while Dickson wanted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. But right there in Port Harcourt, Wike’s candidate was trounced, setting the stage for the peace of the graveyard that currently prevails between them.

    Wike’s absence at Wednesday’s rally, observers say, could be an indication that he cares less about the outcome of the elections.

  • Our league organisers are wrong again

    I’ve no grudge against anyone organising the domestic league matches. I’m just a stickler to doing things properly. Footballers aren’t the kids of the rich; they are mainly the sons and daughters of the downtrodden who look forward to their wards doing well to change their status. Today, the Okochas, Kanus, Ayegbenis et al have gained international prominence due to the exploits of their wards in football. These families’ living conditions have changed for good.

    This writer’s angst against the system rests with the dearth of talents in the 774 Local Government Areas, arising from the lack of facilities and absence of competitions to discover new players. The popular thinking is that without coaches, kids can’t do well in the game. Not exactly so. All you need to get kids to play soccer is to bounce the ball on the pitch. In fact, soccer is the cheapest game to run. It is one where even the fans will be willing to contribute their cash to satisfy their passion. Surprisingly, playgrounds which produced stars in the past have been built up as schools, such that many of the educational structures have no playgrounds for the kids to recreate.

    It seems to me most strangely that Nigeria Professional Football League organisers could begin the new season with postponed matches for our representatives (Enugu Rangers International and Enyimba FC of Aba) in the CAF inter-club competitions. If there was a clash in dates, wouldn’t it have been better to shift the games to either midweek or by one week so that all matches are held  same weekend? After all, the fixtures of the continental competitions had been known since the draws were made.

    For instance, during the European Champions League or Europa competition, clubs travel with the senior and junior teams. The youth teams play earlier in another UEFA competition before the main event, which features the big boys. Now, that is what proper planning looks like. It must be deliberate and systematic. It is not something you achieve overnight. Can we boast of having a league for the U19 or U21’s like we see with the Premier League youth league and across Europe? This is sad.

    What it simply shows is that the organisers don’t watch how other soccer-crazy countries begin theirs with pomp and ceremony. How then would they expect corporate support when they lack the vision of packaging a product which they will showcase to the world on such an opening day. It is sickening to note that the league could commence without a sponsor and a television rights holder, in a country where there are many public and privately owned television and radio stations.

    At the beginning of the Barclays English Premier League for this season, the league board published the new rules with vivid explanations, knowing that they were going to introduce the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). They also interpreted the new laws as they concern everyone. There were reviews well documented  at a press conference. This exercise ensured that nobody claimed ignorance of the new developments to infringe on the rules.

    Nigerian league organisers have toiled to get the take-off cash for this competition but they should ensure that they package the competition in such a way that it will attract sponsors.  They should showcase the league on all media platforms, stating what sponsors can benefit from tying their products and services to the league. They should replicate what the Europeans have in place, beginning with recognising outstanding performers every week with prizes, where sponsors’ insignia are placed at the background while the media engage them. Such pictures downloaded in the media will raise the awareness of soccer lovers to troop to the stadia to watch games.

    The organisers should tell Nigerians the type of competition they are playing. Subjecting teams to long haul trips round the country over 38 weeks is the standard practice. However, it doesn’t make sense for the four top teams to be asked to play another round robin series under the guise of Super Four. It makes a mockery of the entire process, if another competition is still required to determine the eventual winner of the league.

    Read Also: Don’t delay election into Nigerian league boards, member tells NFF

    The organisers know that the 38-match league format is fraught with sharp practices. This rubs off on the type of champions it produces. Instead of hiding behind one finger, which is what the Super Four contraption indicates, the organisers should correct the flaws by putting the right personnel in such critical aspects of the competition. The level of officiating should be top notch. Erring referees should face sanctions, including being stopped from handling games in the elite class.

    The organisers should never allow the clubs pay for the referees’ indemnities and allowances. Club owners engineer the touts to intimidate the officials when things are not in their favour. Hoodlums and urchins are no spirits. They are known supporters of the home teams, who think it is their birthright to win – no matter how poorly their team plays. The organisers should visit all state police headquarters to get security operatives who will to man match venues. This system ensures that the referees are safe and can do their jobs without fear or favour. The organisers should not give the responsibility of protecting match officials to the home teams whose fans could go wild if they don’t win.

    Referees will officiate well if they know that their safety is guaranteed. Yoyos who constitute themselves into nuisance and become security risks should be arrested and prosecuted to deter others.

    Growing up in Benin City in those days, it was the fad to listen to our domestic league games’ commentaries on radio, even if you were watching a game live inside the Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium. Let me not waste space to dwell on these commentators’ prowess. I also won’t name them since their past contributions speak for them. For those who have gone to rest, may their souls find peace.

    Without live broadcast of matches and radio commentaries, only God will save match officials, if the clubs are allowed to pay the referees’ match indemnities. That organisers may have quietly told  clubs to foot this bill raises the alarm over the quality of officiating since the referees know that the only way they can be treated fairly by some unscrupulous club owners is for them to ensure that such teams win their matches.

    The world is technologically driven, such that things that the human eye cannot capture are caught on camera and used to enhance the quality of the game. It is a shame that our match venues have no CCTV to pick out people who break the laws of the game. It isn’t enough to task the two clubs to come with their video cameras. We have seen instances where the home side’s fans destroy the video recording of the away teams. If our stadia have CCTV, touts will think twice before attacking officials since they will easily be fished out for punishment.

    There is also insurance of match officials. What insurance cover do match officials get? When a referee senses danger, he is forced to do the bidding of the home side. Indeed, the confidence that match officials in European leagues exhibit cannot be separated from the fact that they are insured.

    Importantly, the economic status of those chosen as match officials needs to be considered. Will a well paid engineer who chooses refereeing as a hobby sell his integrity? This, to a large extent, assures us of the integrity of the referee because such officials see themselves as ambassadors of their professions. They are also aware that any embarrassment they bring to their profession will attract sanctions and other disciplinary measures. Such don’t exist here.

    Perhaps we have also failed to examine the emotional stability of the referee. What is the psyche of the referee before the start of the match? What is his affinity to the opposition club who’s fortune may affect that of his own football club in relation to position and standing on the league table?

     

  • Persistent corruption and Boss Mustapha’s wrong diagnosis

    By UnderTow

    On Tuesday, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, enthused over the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war, insisting that it had recorded feats. But in the same breath he acknowledged that the war was far from over.

    As he put it cagily, “Nonetheless, we should not rest on our oars with the illusion that the war has been won despite the level of the successes…enumerated.” He then added that “While the fight has been very successful in tackling monumental corruption, less grandiose cases are perceived and even reported.” To some extent, despite his exaggerations, Mr Mustapha is right in suggesting that the Buhari administration has recorded some achievements. But he is even more right in admitting that the war has not been won.

    However, it is not Mr Mustapha’s prognostication about the anti-corruption war that has agitated reflective Nigerians. What puts a dampener on his claims are his suggestions on how to reinvigorate and win the war. Those suggestions are not only vitiated by their gross limitations, they are also rendered ineffective by their inappropriateness. “I should like to see the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation come up with innovative policies and measures to empower auditors to halt any payment that is clearly in breach of Public Procurement Act, Financial Regulations, Public Service Rules in particular, and other laws, in general,” he had said. In other words, more administrative and even legal measures would help tackle a cancer that has defied solutions for decades.

    Mr Mustapha may pull his punches regarding the ubiquitousness of corruption, just as he describes the disease as partially treated but responsive to medications; it seems evident, however, that corruption in Nigeria is grossly misunderstood both by the government and the people, making them susceptible to propaganda and disinformation regarding the course and treatment of the disease.

    Starting from the Olsuegun Obasanjo presidency and up to the Buhari presidency, Nigerian governments have misdiagnosed corruption and applied the wrong remedies. This is why it has remained untreatable and is now looking incurable. Nigerians are baffled by the stubbornness of the disease, and have sought harsher legalistic and administrative treatments in the hope that naming and shaming suspects would deter new offenders and concurrently mitigate the disease.

    But just as the diagnosis is misplaced, the solution is also misdirected. Indeed, any solution must begin with the right diagnosis. It is of course not out of order for the government to seek more stringent laws to regulate financial practices both in the public and private sectors, nor is it bad, as Mr Mustapha has sensibly suggested, to isolate and refit weak institutions directly or indirectly concerned with the fight against corruption.

    Auditing controls are indeed not misplaced, and harsher punishments on their own are not out of order, but these will not solve a disease that is fundamentally caused by problems substantially contraindicative of the treatments relied on for decades by the government and the people. It is time to shift paradigms and set Nigerians and their governments free from mistaken beliefs.

    No society is completely free of corruption, and indeed, in many developed societies, corruption is even more insidious and ramifying throughout their systems. Endemic corruption in Nigeria is neither caused nor encouraged by weak laws, but by weak and leprous social, political and economic structures. Nigeria’s unitary political system alienates most of the people, thus severing their ties with the country.

    A defectively centralised economic arrangement produces inefficiency and stifles productivity, thereby encouraging a monocultural economic structure that inspires rent seeking, father a rentier culture, and enables a few oligarchs to perpetually leach on the system. And a weak and unethical social arrangement promotes obscene values that channel the country and even its sanctimonious government in a reprehensible direction.

    The consequence of these bastardised structures is that Nigeria has not built a proper foundation for itself, whether socialist, capitalist, communist, or even welfarist. The Nigerian economic system is sometimes mischaracterised as a mixed economy, a nebulous system that floats in the atmosphere, hung on nothing but invisible and tenuous magnetic forces.

    It is hard to see how harsher laws  and stricter administrative controls can get very far in treating diseases that emanate from this sinewy, variegated system. Perhaps the most crucial question Nigerians must ask is what should be their role in a complex world, following which they must determine how to enter into and embrace that role. Without an understanding of their place in the world, they will continue to grope and roam around aimlessly. Fighting corruption is not just about freeing funds for development, it is also about ambition, about achieving great national goals and aspirations.

    At the centre of that national goal is the question of how ethically the country plays its politics, runs its economy and organises the society. Adequately answering these questions will in turn help the formulation of policies that would place the people far above bare existence in terms of remuneration, respect for individual and collective rights, and, like the old Roman Empire, ensure that certain inalienable rights and privileges must be vouchsafed to the Nigerian.

    A well structured economy conceived and operated under the aegis of lofty national goals inspires fair and living wage, offers house ownership structured around sound and affordable mortgage policies, enables vehicle acquisition that takes advantage of hire purchase and instalment payment plans, provides social benefit system that gives succour to the disadvantaged, and produces health and education policies that do not leave anybody behind. It is impossible to give Nigeria a great push forward or upward without learning from and copying other systems that have made a success of running themselves along modern, civilised and ethical standards.

    Mr Mustapha reasons that tightening and refining auditing laws, among similar administrative and legal responses, may prove advantageous in the anti-corruption war. Perhaps; but it will not be sufficient, not even when a plethora of other administrative rules and legal provisions are added. The corruption cankerworm runs far deeper than what such laws can handle. Merely tackling symptoms of systemic disarticulations and breakdowns will never be enough, nor is that even significant in a crisis fostered by a disease that has taken hold of the very foundations of the society.

    The policemen, and now soldiers, on checkpoint duties will always be susceptible to inducements because of their miserable wages. Ensnaring law enforcement lawbreakers and punishing them, as the police and military periodically do to errant staff, will not make a dent on the problem. Arresting and disgracing public officials, as the EFCC and ICPC also do often with flourish, will not substantially discourage other potential offenders from soiling their hands. As long as millions of Nigerians face unrelenting existential crisis occasioned by unfairness and inequities in the system, the fear of personal catastrophe will always weigh far higher in their minds than the spectre of disgrace and imprisonment.