The Nation Newspaper

Category: Barometer

  • Buhari, Osinbajo and asset forms

    ON Monday, the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Muhammed Isah, a professor, organised a ceremony around the mundane task of presenting asset declaration forms to both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The professor was in company with a few top CCB officials. It is possible the presidency wishes to publicise the issue of asset declaration as a demonstration of their commitment to honesty and probity in public service, perhaps unlike some top officials who were recently disgraced over the same issue. Even then, was a ceremony necessary to communicate that elementary business? Or was it just the customary obsession of Nigerians for ceremonies?

    Both the president and the vice president promised to fill the forms expeditiously, seeing that they would be sworn in some 36 or so hours later. For how many more state officials would the CCB organise a deferential ceremony to present them asset forms? And considering how deferential the CCB officials had become, was it surprising that the president asked them to jealously guard the forms once they were filled? Both the CCB enabling law and the Freedom of Information Act envisage the possibility of the public having access to the declared asset forms; it is strange that a president who advocates complete openness would almost swear the CCB to secrecy. What is he afraid of?

    Said the president to the CCB delegation: “I assure you I will quickly fill this form and dispatch it back to you so that at the end of 2023, I believe there are a lot of people that will like to get back at me. So, please, make sure you keep it safely because there are people who believe they shouldn’t be questioned, which they are being questioned and some of them are already in trouble. I expect them to fight back and this is one of the instruments. So, I hope you will keep it when I finish.”

    The president does not need to fear anyone getting back at him. He is after all honest and unimpeachable. If anyone would like to get back at him, would they not go through the courts? To banish any form of fear, let the president reform the judiciary to become truly independent, untainted and efficient. If sometime in the future he is dragged to court, or to get back at him, as he said, he should expect that for a man like him with clean hands, he would be easily exonerated. His admonition to the CCB is therefore as misplaced as the CCB grovelling before Aso Villa to present asset forms.

  • Insecurity and the blame game

    A FEW weeks after the Nigeria Air Force joined issues with Zamfara State council of chiefs over the alleged bombing of civilian targets, a new controversy has emerged about who overall is to blame for the rising cases of abduction, banditry and all other forms of criminality in the country. During a media chat last Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari had argued that community leaders and the police were to blame for the government’s ineffective response to crime. Of course, he didn’t quite say ‘government; he masked the word under Nigeria, or society. In other words, Nigeria’s poor response to banditry and criminality was, in his view, an indication of the failure of the police and community leaders.

    Said the president: “Those who are committing atrocities against communities, against the state and the country came from somewhere in Nigeria. Their neighbours know them; and we have politicians and rulers; the police are in the front line. We have the police in every major town and city in this country, and I said they were not given the uniform and rifles to impress anybody, but to secure the people. I think the community leadership and the police have failed this country.” If the police failed, it meant the government failed. But the president is unlikely to contemplate such parallels, let alone validate the conclusion that is rife suggesting government’s failure.

    In April, the Emir of Bungudu, Alhaji Hassan Attahiru, speaking on behalf of Zamfara emirs, accused the air force of striking targets in Gusau, Tsafe, Anka and Zurmi local government areas, targets that according to them did not indicate banditry or hosted bandit camps. The air force vigorously resisted the insinuation that it lacked the competence of hitting the right targets, and went on to extraordinary lengths to show that it always double-checked targets before approving air bombardment. The emirs stuck to their guns, leading to bad faith between the locals who had gone on to suffer additional bandit attacks, and the air force which had, according to some chiefs, spurned alerts warning them of bandit operations.

    It is not certain when confidence and trust between community leaders and the air force will be restored in the ongoing operations against bandits in Zamfara and other parts of the Northwest. What is clear, however, is that as the attacks drag on and the government demonstrates ineffective response, more loss of confidence and acrimony will be recorded. Indeed, community leaders, including emirs, will discover to their dismay that they are caught in the middle between the military and the bandits, as they would be blamed by the military for unnecessary criticisms, and by the bandits for squealing on them. Thus caught between a rock and a hard place, community leaders will naturally chafe at the president’s sweeping generalisations suggesting that they had failed in their responsibility of securing their villages and communities.

    The president’s allegations against community leaders were probably made without reflection. As everyone knows, community leaders are also victims of bandit activities, with a few of them getting abducted or even killed. Others have been intimidated into silence because the changing dynamics of traditional institutions have deprived them of the means of coercion, rendering them naked before criminal characters. When their domains are attacked and villagers killed, social and economic activities either stop altogether or are greatly reduced. No emir would sanction threats to communal livelihoods. But if indeed the president persists in his accusations that community leaders were guilty of dereliction of duty, he has the legal and military means to do something about it. The ball is in his court.

    However, the president was right to worry about the ineffectiveness of police response to banditry. He wondered whether their guns and uniforms were given to them for decoration or to impress the society. If he was worried, it is remarkable that he is just voicing it, having suggested a few weeks earlier that the police were doing their best to curb the ongoing madness in the Northwest and other parts of the country. And if they were doing their best and losing weight as an indication of their efforts, and yet the situation continues to worsen, it violates the next premise of his argument during the media chat when he suggested that he still had confidence in his security chiefs to tackle the security nightmare enveloping the country.

    The buck stops with the president. Rather than blame everyone else for the rising level of insecurity, let the president accept blame and find radical and novel ways of tackling the malaise. If he does not see or sense complacency in his security chiefs, he should also desist from blaming community leaders.

  • They are not done with the press

    WHEN the Director of Information of the National Assembly, Emmanuel Agada, notified Nigerians of the intention to institute a new and draconian regime of media accreditation and parliamentary coverage, it was natural to suspect the involvement of the leadership of the legislature. But both Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara have denied being privy to the new regulations, now since suspended. Both principal officers are likely to be telling the truth. If they did not permit such draconian rules for the 8th NASS, why would they countenance it now on the eve of their departure?

    Among the 20 new conditions to be fulfilled by a media establishment before accreditation is given are the following: (a) Evidence of certificate of incorporation of the media organisation and evidence of membership of professional bodies for media organisations.

    (b) Proof of membership of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) with registration number, code of certification from the National Library for the media organisation, functional bureau in Abuja (Staff Strength not less than 5 editorial staff and daily circulation of 40,000 copies for the print media with evidence to support the claimed circulation figure.

    (c) Media Houses must be publishing daily and on weekend (Applicable to Online Media).

    (d) Re-certification form must be signed and endorsed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Media organisation Bureau Chief, City Editor as the case may be.

    (e) The Media organisation concerned must have experience in covering proceedings of the National Assembly for at least two (2) years before applying for permanent accreditation.

    (f) All media organisations will submit a copy of their income tax return for the last two years.

    By quickly repudiating the draconian regulations, the outgoing leadership of the National Assembly has shown sensitivity to the grievous concoction designed to abridge press freedom and invariably circumscribe free speech. Furthermore, the legislative leaders have disclosed that the circumstances surrounding the formulation of the regulations, without any approval, would be investigated. It is not certain what investigations would unearth, or whether the legislative leaders would treat the matter with the severity it deserves and assign blames and sanctions for those involved in that unseemly and needless plot against free press. But whatever the final outcome of the investigations or punishment meted out to anyone, it has become abundantly clear that free speech and free press are still threatened.

    It is unlikely that Mr Agada would on his own volition embark on such fateful and deeply troubling and controversial measures to abridge press freedom. He probably has backers; or perhaps he was even instructed to adumbrate the new press restrictions. The decision to publish such nefarious regulations not only speaks to the dangers the press still faces, which threats it erroneously believed it had overcome after decades of bruising battles with mostly the executive branch, it also indicates the shambolic manner the National Assembly is administered. It should trouble Nigerians that their parliament, which is really the first symbol of democracy, harbours both fifth columnists and officials dedicated to negating the fundamentals of democracy and neutralising the principles and practice of lawmaking.

    Moreover, the suspended accreditation guidelines also imply that the key administrative figures who run the National Assembly are not fundamentally persuaded about the principles of democracy, let alone the advantages and uses of free speech. It is dangerous that such persons occupy key parliamentary offices. Even if the orchestra composing the draconian measures are alien to the legislature, it still speaks to the lack of conviction of NASS administrators that they easily acquiesced to those abominable guidelines. Those who work in the parliament, either as administrators or lawmakers, should be genuinely persuaded about the concept of democracy, how to safeguard its practice, and the threats that are capable of undermining it. Judging from the suspended accreditation guidelines, there was no indication at all of that conviction.

    The outgoing principal officers of the 8th NASS may be incapacitated from applying sanctions to those who inspired the articles of repression against the press, they should however not be intimidated from at least identifying them for the public to know where the problem is coming from. It will help to sustain democracy and press freedom when enemies of free speech are exposed and disgraced. The press may not always function with the highest degree of responsibility, sadly like all other arms of government, and the public may even be exasperated by the way the press has sometimes irresponsibly execute their mandate, but everyone knows, minus the denizens of NASS who wrote the objectionable regulations, that an imperfect press is still far better than a hamstrung and shackled press.

    The press itself must now be jolted out of its complacency, knowing that it has enemies within and without. Its administrators have often professed and regulated their industry cavalierly. The aborted NASS accreditation guidelines should serve as a wake-up call to retune their profession, regulate themselves far better than they have done, and prepare the media for the complex challenges of the future. The alternatives, not to say consequences of dithering, are too grim to even contemplate.

  • Ganduje and Kano Emirate

    AMONG the many reasons adduced by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for splitting Kano Emirate into five, two appear noteworthy. He says the emirate, as previously constituted and presided over by Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was too unwieldy; and secondly, that splitting the emirate will bring development. He swears that the reconstitution of Kano Emirate has come to stay, and that no judicial intervention could nullify it. It remains to be seen whether the courts can reverse the balkanisation. He has embarked on the changes in the emirates at the beginning of his second term. If he carries his second term to the end, no one can be sure that four years of running the new emirates would not prove impossible to reconstitute once again into one big emirate.

    Governor Ganduje’s argument about the size of the pre-split Kano Emirate is worthy of note. It is truly huge, constituting about 40 local governments. But if the people of Kano are content to keep it so big, who is the governor to complain? Did the people complain? Are they not psychologically satisfied that it is as big as the Sokoto Emirate, with which they have sometimes compared their emirate? If indeed the people of Kano Emirate want the emirate balkanised, then the split will endure. Otherwise, sometime in the future, the emirates could be reunited again, as indeed it was done under the Bakin Zuwo governorship in 1983 after a former governor, Abubakar Rimi, split it.

    The governor also premised the split on the need to hasten the development of the new emirates. This reason is of course puzzling. Emirates neither control nor execute developmental votes. That responsibility is the state’s and local government’s. If anything, and as they will soon find out, the new emirates will cost the system a pretty penny in terms of emirate upkeep. The governor has struggled to prove that the changes are not targeted at Emir Sanusi, with whom he has been at daggers drawn. Indeed, few are convinced that the governor has acted altruistically. And despite the emir’s protestations, fewer still are persuaded that he has himself not flagrantly courted disaster when he should have been more restrained and diplomatic in his interventions.

    If the courts can manage to act independently, the outcome may yet be different. The public will, however, have to wait and see. But if not, the final solution may yet revert to politics. But it will not be under Governor Ganduje.

  • Unemployment and time bombs

    IT is partially reassuring that the federal government recognises and fears the dangerous implications of unemployment. But such fears could very well turn into a nightmare in the next two years. The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige alluded to that looming catastrophe in a speech delivered during a workshop on breaking the resilience of high unemployment rate in Nigeria in Abuja. The current unemployment rate, he says, is already a hefty 23.1 percent, and it could rise to about 33.5 percent in two years time if nothing substantial is done to arrest and reverse the trend.

    As Dr Ngige put it:“It is a worrisome status as the global poverty capital (World Bank, 2018) and concomitant high prevalence rate of crimes and criminalities, including mass murders, insurgency, militancy, armed robbery, kidnappings, drug abuse, among others. As if this situation is not scary enough, it is projected that the unemployment rate for this country would reach 33.5 per cent by 2020, with consequences that are better imagined, if the trend is not urgently reversed. It is a thing of joy to note that Nigeria has not been resting on her oars over the years in terms of dedicated efforts to curb the unemployment problem.”

    The picture is truly dreary, far drearier and absolutely more urgent than the casualness of the government gives hope. Dr Ngige paints a brutal but frightening picture. How to mitigate that picture and render it more amenable should be the most pressing challenge for the government. There is undoubtedly some efforts being made to ameliorate the problem of unemployment; but to suggest that those measures are adequate, timely, focused and impactful is to put a sheen on what is clearly a terrifying problem. The measures are almost tokenistic, and the government’s urgency a far cry from what the situation demands.

    Dr Ngige is right to fear the worst, but he plays politics when he surrenders to his boundless optimism suggesting that the government appears quite up to the task. Well, time is running out, and youth restiveness, of a population that bears a disproportionate share of the malady, is simply staggering. Anyone who has observed deviancy trends in many parts of the country, particularly the Northwest and Northeast, must shudder to imagine what would be the impact of the long anticipated explosion.

    But if the Buhari presidency can hit the ground running in his second term, assemble the right and imaginative technocrats and aides, and put the right measures in place with full diligence and carefulness, perhaps the problem can be truly and finally mitigated. The alternative is too grim to contemplate.

  • Army and May 29 inauguration

    IT is not clear what the Nigerian Army wishes to achieve with the alarm it sounded over plans by alleged shadowy characters to stall the second inauguration of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency on May 29. On May 4, in a statement issued by army spokesman Col. Sagir Musa, the Nigerian Army alerted the public to what it believes is a subterranean plot by some disgruntled people working in collusion with foreigners to cause disaffection and engender chaos among Nigerians. The sole purpose of that plot, the army continues, is to ensure that the inauguration was disrupted.

    Col. Sagir puts it blithely: “Some of these mischievous elements thought that we would not have safe and successful general elections but were proved wrong, hence they want to derail the scheduled handing over later this month and to scuttle the democratic process in the country.  Their body language and unguarded utterances seem to be in tandem with the above and imply tacit support for the criminals. For example, credible source has shown that some individuals are hobnobbing with Boko Haram terrorists, while others are deliberately churning falsehood against the security agencies with a view to setting the military against the people and the government. They are also demoralising troops and security agencies through false accusations and fake news…We also noted that foreign interests are also working assiduously to cause disaffection and divide the coalition Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to give room for the so-called Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) and its defeated local franchise, Boko Haram terrorists group, to resurrect.”

    The attempt by the army to induce national paranoia is unlikely to work. It is possible that those who loath the Buhari presidency would want the government to come to grief one way or the other. But to suggest that such a malevolent objective could be procured by enemies of the government months after the conclusion of the election, and despite the pendency of a suit against the ruling party’s electoral victory, is to stretch credulity to its elastic limit. If, however, the government’s enemies are hard at work to scuttle democracy and rub the nose of the Buhari presidency in dirt, the army has done precious little to prove that point with the political statement they released two Saturdays ago.

    Very little has changed over the decades, despite the hesitant but salutary steps Nigerian democracy has taken to entrench progress. Past military regimes were accustomed to spreading bogey accounts of impending insurrections and coup plots. Some were true, others were concocted. Indeed, those military governments became so used to believing their accounts of plots that they learnt how to deploy those ghastly stories to subvert protests and opposition efforts, rein in perceived enemies, and sometimes deploy them deliberately to destroy specific people, institutions and other targets. Col. Sagir’s statement on the alleged plot against the May 29 inauguration should, in a democracy, come from the Defence ministry. Political and politicised statements have no business coming from the army directly. They tend to suck the military into politics and give the unwholesome impression that troops are for a faction of the political elite.

    The military should concentrate on winning the war against Boko Haram. It should not allow distractions such as reading “body language” and weighing “unguarded utterances”. They are unfit to make such assessments. Fake stories have become a global phenomenon. The army and everybody else must get used to dealing with them. But no matter how potent they are, fake stories and other sponsored stories have limited effects on the course of wars. Tactics and strategies, together with sophisticated military hardware and well-trained soldiers, often determine victory. In fact, critics may begin reading the army’s statement as a weak attempt to justify the troubles plaguing its troops at the war front.

    Government spokesmen see bogeys where there are non, and sometimes the secret service in developing countries also feel obligated to come up with reports of subversions that exist on paper. After painful transcending the destructive intrusion of politics into service discipline and camaraderie, the military must never allow that era to return, even subtly. It is sad that democracy in Nigeria is not growing as it should, with institutions strengthened and public officials subjecting themselves to the rule of law, but the military can help themselves and the country by sticking to a clear-sighted approach to relating with democratic institutions. After all, they must know that the military did not, and could never, vote as one man, in one direction. That is why they must be above suspicion. Let them stick to their job and let those saddled with writing security reports worry over the fidelity of what they write.

  • Southwest takes pragmatic steps

    WHEN leaders of the Houses of Assembly in the Southwest met recently, unifying the principles and practice of lawmaking in their region was on their minds. In accordance with the Development Agenda of the Western Region (DAWN), the lawmakers decided that they would set a benchmark for lawmaking. That benchmark would include how principal officers are elected and impeached, and the establishment of a legislative advisory council. They have done well to kick-start the process of fine-tuning, stabilising and maturing legislative activities in the region, especially in the face of declining legislative competence in Nigeria.

    Tagged the “Validation and adoption of harmonised standing orders for Southwest Houses of Assembly”, the meeting was undoubtedly inspired by their common destiny as Yoruba people and the need to register the most advanced and enviable practice of lawmaking in the country. The ambition is noble, and if they pull it through, it would be a major contribution to the general advancement of the region and the institutionalisation of common administrative principles. The region has declined in executive, legislative and judicial practices. If it is to reclaim its lost glory, some common steps would have to be taken.

    Compared with the stellar performance of regional leaders in the decade preceding independence up to the first few years of independence, few would argue against the conclusion that many of the region’s recent governors have not been what they were cracked up to be. The region has declined on all scores, including in education, and with that decline in a country on a free fall have come frustrations and loss of values and pride in the accomplishments of the Yoruba.

    If the region’s legislative leaders could put their minds to it, and if their governors are wise and foresighted enough, they would unite to forge a better and richer region. But that would presume that Abuja would not be a cog in the wheel of regional advancements, and the elected governors and lawmakers have the capacity and vision to produce a great region insulated from the rot around the Southwest.

  • Military undermined by attitudinal problem

    BARELY a week or two after the Nigerian military began their operations against bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers in Zamfara and other parts of the Northwest, reports of disagreement between troops and local communities have surfaced. In particular, the Zamfara Council of Chiefs, speaking through the Emir of Bungudu, Alhaji Hassan Attahiru, insisted that the air force in their execution of Operation Tsaftan Daji bombed civilian targets. The air force denied the accusations, arguing that no civilian targets were bombed. But days later, the emirs provided the names of 11 people they claimed died from the bombing, with many others injured. The army has also not escaped controversies and censure in their execution of Operation Harbin Kunama.

    Where the problem arises in all this is the military’s often instinctive denial of any accusation. Though they sometimes eventually agree to their errors, and even follow up with apologies, in the case of the Zamfara bombardments, the air force stood pat, denying that any civilian targets were hit. They provided lengthy theoretical proofs why it is generally impossible to commit the errors the locals in Zamfara accused them of. Historical experience does not bear them out, of course, but they have refused to shift ground. Rather than instinctive denial, however, it was expected of the air force, and the military in general, to respond more tentatively, more cautiously to such accusations. A better response would have been to promise investigations and a pledge to publicise the outcome.

    The controversy over the Zamfara killings may, however, not abate quickly, whether the military accept liability or not, or whether civilian victims are guilty of exaggeration or not. Last week, the Emir of Bungudu was once again displeased with the general response of the military to the Zamfara crisis. He complained to the media that when a group of bandits again invaded some communities in Zamfara last week, the locals and at least a local government chairman alerted the air force before and during the attack. The military did not respond, they alleged, and the bandits slaughtered some 15 people “in broad daylight”. The emir quoted the local government chairman as saying that when he alerted the air force, the officer at the other end said he was not supposed to pick calls from the communities because they had accused the airmen of unprofessional conduct.

    Curiously, in response to allegations of callousness, a military spokesman for Operation Harbin Kunama suggested that locals should call more than one officer to ensure that the military would act. It is not clear why he said so, or why one open communication channel should prove inadequate. Not only was this response misplaced, thereby suggesting some form of callousness among troops battling what is probably a small scale insurrection in Zamfara, should the Zamfara chiefs’ accusation be proved right, it would also be obvious that the country is in far worse trouble than the militia attacks indicate. Indeed, if Zamfara locals could not get the air force to own up to bombing errors, how could they force them to admit that the remarks of their spokesman were inappropriate for the occasion?

    Nigerian troops have made immense sacrifice to sustain the nation, paying with their blood for sins more likely inspired by irresponsible political leaders who impoverished their people and pushed them into open rebellion. For their sacrifice to be fully appreciated, and for troops to be honoured by the populace, the military, using psychological operations, must work on their interactions with civilians and guard against offensive statements and oppressive measures. But the ordinary soldier will not independently acquire this new patriotic identity and behaviour. They must be taught and conditioned to know and believe that they are just a subset of the larger population, and are someone’s uncles, fathers, children, husbands or wives.

    Only last week too, a member of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative suggested that one of the reasons the Nigerian military appears ineffective in battle is because they are paid a daily allowance of N1,000 compared with Boko Haram militants’ $3,000 daily allowance. The committee member got it wrong. Even if it is proved that Boko Haram militants get as much as that in dollars, what makes the difference in battle is commitment, and commitment is an indication of attitude. Troops should be well remunerated, no doubt, and evidence in fact suggests that Nigerian troops, who had been close to mutiny on many occasions, are probably not well remunerated, kitted and incentivised. Nevertheless, with a sense of pride in one’s nation, and a clear understanding of what the nation means to everyone, troops would gladly die for less than N1,000 daily allowance. After all, they are not mercenaries.

    But the problem is that Nigeria lacks a sense of identity, ethnic groups struggle for supremacy, religious groups are foolishly poised for war, either openly or secretly, and political leaders themselves are disloyal to the country and carry themselves arrogantly and unfeelingly. Why would anyone want to die for a country without social, political, legal or economic justice? Until what is fundamentally wrong with the country is addressed, the Zamfara mayhem, Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and herdsmen terrorism will continue. And the response from the security services and law enforcement agencies would remain incompetent, controversial and haphazard.

  • Firearms and the police

    NIGERIANS and their police are aghast at the misuse of firearms by errant policemen. It has become a scandal. The government is bothered, the police themselves are worried, and the government is squirming. All sorts of theories have been suggested to explain the misuse of firearms in these parts. Some put it down to pure wickedness and lack of supervision, others suggest it may be due to stress occasioned by understaffing, and others argue that extended shift system might be responsible. While panaceas may be disputed, no one is in doubt about the reality of firearms misuse.

    The main problems the new IGP, Mohammed Adamu, must contend with is not just the misuse of firearms, which is rising to epidemic proportions, but the need to reform the police entirely. In the face of national reluctance to restructure the country and decentralise the police, Mr Adamu can still propose some fundamental changes in the law enforcement agency’s approach to policing in order to make them more effective. What is not an option is tinkering with the present situation or ignoring it entirely. The problem of the police, he must by now have seen, is not just poor funding; it is also about structure, training, attitude and philosophy.

    Until Mr Adamu can propose measures to comprehensively reform the law enforcement philosophy of the police, integrate that new attitude into their training, and restructure the institution to make policemen more responsive and effective, platitudes, such as he and his predecessors have mouthed constantly, will not create the kind of police force the country needs. There is a limit to what Mr Adamu can do, seeing that the effectiveness of the police is contingent upon the country’s structure; but he can still do enough within the present structure and current realities to build a legacy of creative policing for himself.

  • Ukraine votes comedian as president

    IT was an astounding victory. Volodymyr Zelensky, a Ukrainian Jew, lawyer, actor and comedian, won the country’s 2019 presidential election by a landslide. Incredibly, he took more than 73 percent of the votes in the runoff election. In a country historically pockmarked by anti-Semitism, especially during World War II, it is remarkable that his Jewish ancestry and comedian identity were no impediments for a country on the throes of war with Russia, their powerful and unsmiling neighbour and foe, to vote him as president. Quite literally, everyone was left really gobsmacked. Some 39 candidates had participated in the first round of the poll. Mr Zelensky took a little over 30 percent of the votes. In the runoff, however, he beat the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, who took a measly 25 percent. The victory was definitive.

    Mr Zelensky, a popular comic, played president in a TV sitcom the “Servant of the People”, a television character who transformed from an ordinary teacher to a corruption-busting president. It is not clear whether his role play was so persuasive as to make him electable, but most analysts think that Mr Poroshenko lost the election, much more than the 41-year-old challenger won, because the 53-year-old president seemed powerless to do anything about the corruption that had bedevilled the system and made it inoperable and ineffective for years.

    Mr Zelensky is undoubtedly inexperienced. The mere fact that he was a comedian in a series that saw a nobody transformed into a corruption-fighting president makes it doubly amusing that voters would entrust their country, badly unnerved by Russian annexations, including the annexation of the well-known Eastern Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, to his hands. For a comedian with no political experience whatsoever, the issues he will have to contend with in the coming months will strain his acting skills and subject the myth his television carrier has woven around him to inordinate pressures. Many will scoff at his election, but as recent history has shown, it is really not unprecedented.

    In 2017, Emmanuel Macron, also 41-year-old, won election in a manner that upended political calculations in both France and Europe. He was thought to be inexperienced; but he has soldiered on admirably, despite the chequered yellow vests protest movement. In 2003, actor Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger spectacularly won the California recall governorship election despite widespread fears he might be unable to transcend the flimsiness and superficiality of Hollywood. He went on to serve two terms and performed creditably. In 1998, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a wrestler (WWF) and actor, also won the Minnesota governorship election to become the 38th governor despite being an entertainer. He, however, declined to seek re-election in 2003. With the exception of Mr Macron, all the rest were entertainers. But they won elections handsomely and were no pushovers in politics and governance.

    At bottom, there is of course nothing unusual about entertainers winning presidential polls. Some of them are well educated, as Mr Zelensky, a lawyer, shows. To focus exclusively on their entertainment  backgrounds, and to treat entertainment disdainfully, is to completely miss the point and draw inaccurate conclusions. The leitmotif of these electoral victories by entertainers is the supreme self-belief which they exuded. They dreamt it, believed it, and fought to bring it about. More importantly, who could fail to notice how quaintly Mr Zelensky reconciled playing a character on television and going on to assume that role in real life?

    The human mind is incredibly strong and inventive. When the great religions urge individuals to watch their thoughts and words, it is because they have long recognised the sheer transcendental quality and power of words and thoughts. Words are spirits, and they are life. They are harbingers or forerunners of physical realities. Mr Zelensky acted the role of a teacher turned by both political and historical sleight of hand into a president. Who could tell how intensely the Ukrainian president-elect believed and dreamt that transmutation? In any case, acting became, for him, a medium for transposing reality. He merely keyed into that reality.