The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Makinde and the Ibarapa conundrum

    Makinde and the Ibarapa conundrum

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    WHAT is happening in Oyo State should be of concen to every well-meaning person. The government, it seems, does not appreciate the enormity of the problem. If it does, it will be more serious in tackling the issue. As it is, it believes it is one of those problems over which you make some noise here and there and it blows away. It is more than that. What we are seeing in the Ibarapa communities of Oyo State is a crisis of monumental proportion which must be tackled frontally and the rootcause removed.

    A war is brewing in Ibarapa. That war can be averted if the government is tactful in its handling of the feud between the villagers, who are mostly farmers, and the herders. The herders are settlers in Ibarapa, where they have lived for hundreds of years. Many of them know only that place as home and they have lived peacefully with the villagers until something broke. What broke? Is it trust? Is it a business deal gone awry? What is not in doubt is that peace has since broken down in that area.

    The absence of peace has led to a breakdown of law and order, resulting in killings, maiming, raping and kidnapping. All these are said to be perpetrated by herders. Why would herders take to kidnapping? That’s the question. Is it that it is more lucrative than cattle rearing? Is kidnapping such an easy task that people can just take to and start making money from it to the knowledge of those who know them well? Something just does not add up about what is happening in Ibarapa, especially in Igangan where Sunday Adeyemo aka SundayIgboho had to come in for a rescue job on January 22.

    Since he stormed Igangan to flush out those he described as “criminal herders who have been killing my people” the town has not been the same again. Igangan has since become a reference point in the farmers/herders clash in the southwest. What the nation is experiencing in Oyo is similar to what happened in Makurdi, Benue  State, not too long ago. Then, almost on a daily basis, herders were invading farms with their cattle,  destroying crops and killing people. Governor Samuel Ortom moved swiftly to check the herders’ atrocities. Lawmakers in the House of Assembly, who saw the clear and present danger in what was happening were on the same page with him. They quickly passed the anti-open grazing law.

    Under the law, it is an offence to take cattle about to graze on people’s farms. Although, the herders are not comfortable with the law, they have no choice than to comply  with it. Most often, they do so in the breach,  but the law is being applied to put them in check. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Oyo State, where Governor Seyi Makinde keeps talking, without acting with the utmost dispatch required to address the problem. His soft touch approach is not helping matters. He needs to be tough because a drastic situation requires a drastic action. Being tough does not mean that he hates the herders or does not want them in Oyo. That would be missing the point.

    He needs to be tough so that they would know that what they are doing is not good. It has been said times without number that not all the herders are bad. What he needs do is to sift the bad from the good for there to be peace in Ibarapa. If he continues to hold to its postulation that you do not resolve criminality with criminality,  which is a way of saying the problem is beyond him, he would leave the people with no choice than to resort to self help. This has already happened, with the emergence of Sunday Igboho. The problem in that is that the crisis may snowball into an ethnic war, which some of the herders are secretly wishing for. By his action, Igboho has woken the government from its slumber. The government should take things up from where he stopped and bring back the herders and farmers in Ibarapa as brothers.

    It can still be done. But first,  the government must check the growing menace of an herder, described as Iskilu Wakili, who is said to be making life difficult for Ibarapa people. The government cannot be talking of peace and people like him will be involved in quite the opposite. Wakili, according to a report in this paper on Monday, has mounted a ‘no-cross zone’ on some farms in Ibarapa. Consequently, people can no longer go to their farms. Those who dare to do so know the consequences of their action. Two brothers were said to have been shot when they attempted to cross the forbidden zone, which is designated with a red flag. How can an individual become so powerful as to stop others from going about their lawful businesses.

    This is the same area that Makinde visited last weekend in the search for peace. No individual can be more powerful than government. No matter how connected an individual may be, his friends in power should let him know that government is for all and that they would do everything to protect the country and uphold the right of everyone to life and peaceful assembly. Makinde wants peace, but the way he is going about it is not helping matters. The herders are cashing in on his meekness to wreak havoc, but presenting a peaceful face to him. What is happening in Ibarapa does not show that the herders are sincere in their desire for peaceful co-existence with others.

    Wakili or whoever he is, is overstepping his boundary and he should be called to other. He should stop his inciting actions which could lead to a war of attrition. Enough of bloodshed in Ibarapa. If the community,  with the help of Igboho, drove the Sarkin Fulani out of the place because of these same atrocities, why should Wakili be allowed to engage in such evils? The earlier Makinde steps in to stop Wakili’s excesses, the better for the community. How can a settler become an overlord in another man’s land? This is the question on the lips of Ibarapa people.

    Tony Momoh (1939 – 2021)

     

    Tony Momoh
    Tony Momoh

    IT was at Anthony Village, Lagos, in 1990 that I first met Prince Tony Momoh. Then, he had just completed his tenure as Minister of Information in the Babaginda regime. I was in the law office of the late Chief Fola Akinrinsola when Momoh sauntered in. He was also a lawyer. Right from the reception,  we knew that “Chief” as I called the late Akinrinsola had an important visitor. His booming voice rang into Chief’s office as he demanded from the secretary: “is your oga around?” Without waiting for an answer, he moved on. Chief met him at the door and taunted him: “you this Auchi man you don come be that. Meet your boy, Lawal”. Good afternoon, sir, I greeted him and he looked at me for a long time before responding. Momoh was a journalist’s journalist, who went through the whole gamut of journalism. Subediting, reporting,  feature writing, proofreading, production and editing. He was also a trainer of journalists as pioneer head of the Times Newspaper training school. His death, last Monday, is a huge loss to journalism. May he find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

     

  • Unkind cut

    Unkind cut

    By Lawal  Ogienagbon

     

    The past two weeks have been tense, very tense in the country. From Kaduna to Katsina, Benue to Borno, Kano to Kwara, Ondo to Oyo, Edo to Enugu, it is tension all the way. The reason for these tensions remain the banditry, killings, kidnapping, herders/farmers clashes going on in many states of the federation. Although, it seems that the herders/farmers clashes have abated, the same cannot be said of the atrocities being perpetrated in some places by herders.

    These herders invade farms and houses to kidnap, rape and loot. They collect ransom before releasing their victims. In some cases, they kill their victims even after collecting huge ransoms. The story of a victim, Dr Fatai Aborode, a farmer who was killed on his 300-acre farm, which led to the Igangan, Oyo crisis and the rise of Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, is bloodchilling. People are no longer safe in their own homes, farms and lands. All of a sudden, settlers have become the lords of the manor. There is nothing bad in settling in a place, but as a settler one must conform with the socio-cultural values of that environment.

    A settler must not attempt to displace owners of the land. Frankly speaking, this is what the nation has been experiencing in the past few years, with the government doing nothing to stem the tide. Banditry, kidnapping, killings, raping and other crimes are growing because of the failure of government. The perpetrators of these evils have been allowed a free rein in a country where there is law and order. But where is the law when criminals loot, maim, kill and go scot free? Where is the law when herders invade farms, destroy the crops, kidnap the owners and demand ransom before they are released? Where is the law when bandits or insurgents storm a school, abduct the pupils and their teachers and ask for ransom to release them?

    As a country, we have never had it this bad. We have a government as if there is no government. What is the government doing about all these, especially herders invasion of farms to kidnap, rape and loot? The answer, from officialdom, will be things are better than they were about six years ago! Really? Much as the government would like to sing its praise, the people do not believe that. They cannot be blamed for their scepticism because he who feels it knows it. If the government was really up and doing what happened in Igangan and Ondo last week would not have occurred. A serious government would have moved swiftly to nip the brewing crisis in the bud.

    It chose to do nothing about Igangan, leaving Governor Seyi Makinde to handle it the way he liked. But the problem is beyond the governor. This was why Igboho came into the picture. The fact is where the government fails in its duty, some strong men will emerge to fill the vacuum. Agreed that you do not tackle criminality with criminality, but what has the government done to apply the law in such cases to restore people’s confidence in their country. Nothing, at all.  Instead of being the father of all, the central government seems to be on the side of those fomenting trouble in the land. What happened in Ondo is a case in point.

    Worried by the development in his state, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu ordered herdsmen to leave the state’s forest reserves within one week. He also banned night grazing. These measures, the governor said, were taking to curb banditry and kidnapping. All the papers, except the Daily Trust, reflected that statement in their headlines. The Trust said he ordered the herders out of Ondo. That is not correct and the paper itself knows. It probably used that headline because of its northern sentiments. The Federal Government, in its reaction, unbelievably toed the paper’s line. The government’s action did not portray it as an impartial arbiter seeking a lasting solution to the crisis. It showed that it is more interested in protecting certain Nigerians at the expense of others.

    That is not how to govern a country. The government must treat all its citizens equally, no matter where they come from or their religion. If the Trust can be pardoned for such mischief,  which could lead to a chain of unpleasant reactions across the country, the same cannot apply to the  government, which should know better than to set the nation ablaze. Akeredolu did not ask herders to leave Ondo; he only ordered them to quit the forest reserves. And that only applies to the unregistered herders. Perhaps, if only Akeredolu and other governors facing similar challenge had acted earlier, the problem would have been solved long ago. Akeredolu could not have ordered anybody, whether herder or not, out of his state because he has no such power. He, however, has the power to ask unregistered herders to leave the forest reserves so as to sift the wheat from the chaff.

    By so doing, the rogue herders will be unveiled. Unfortunately, some governors do not want this matter resolved amicably. They are mouthing peace, but indirectly promoting war, like the national government. At their meeting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Monday, they tried to hide behind one finger in their search for peace. Rather than commend the media for its accurate portrayal of Akeredolu’s statement, they found fault with it. What did the media do wrong? The media was not wrong to have reported that Akeredolu ordered herders out of forest reserves. To prove the rightness in those reports,  the governor gave it back to the national government which tried to make it look as if he ordered the herders out of the state. Commissioner for Information and Orientation Donald Ojogo said the Presidency’s statement showed unambiguously the central government’s position.

    “The Ondo State Government did not ask Fulani to leave the state. The governor said herdsmen who are unregistered should leave our forests. The statement from Garba Shehu is a brazen display of emotional attachments and it is inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria…”, Ojogo said. Apparently out of fear, the governors’ captain, Dr Kayode Fayemi, could not berate the Presidency for stoking the fire of disunity, at a time, it should be binding the country together. The next best thing for him was to take it out on the media, which had once again, put the country first in its handling of the Akeredolu report. It is unfair of him to have accused the media of misquoting the governor. Akeredolu should have said that if it was so and not him.

    Our leaders should stop politicising every issue. Fayemi, who is much loved by the media, should know better than to have spoken the way he did. The media, as a whole, has done no wrong in this matter, the Presidency and the Trust, which is a section of the media, did. He should put things in context next time and not resort to a blanket condemnation of the media because it is a easy target. It will not be too much if he apologises for his faux pas. But will he?

     

     

    Uneasy lies the head…

     

    ON Tuesday,  after much footdragging, President Muhammadu Buhari named new Service Chiefs. The four military brass – Maj Gen L.E.O Irabor (Chief of Defence Staff), Maj Gen Ibrahim Attahiru (Chief of Army Staff), Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo (Chief of Naval Staff) and Air Vice Marshal l.O Amao (Chief of Air Staff) – are expected to hit the ground running. Their jobs are cut out for them and they know that, at the end of the day, they will be assessed by their success in the insurgency war. What are their plans for ending this war and the nightmares of people, especially in the Northeast, who have been at the mercy of Boko Haram for over 10 years? I do not envy them as they have taken up an enormous assignment, which will define how they will be remembered long after they are gone. Congrats and all the best.

     

  • A war in reverse

    A war in reverse

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    WE have a time bomb in our hands. We have to be careful so that it does not explode and blow the nation into smithereens. This bomb is the COVID-19 pandemic which second wave is coursing through the country in an alarming rate. The infections and deaths from the disease within a short time between December and now are quite disturbing. Things were not this bad during the first wave of the  pandemic between January and September last year.

    The second wave which started around November appears to be something else in its viciousness,  vileness and virulence. People catch the virus quicker now than before and it kills within a short time, according to reports. The reason for this, we are told, is because of the emergence of a new variant of the virus, which is said to be deadlier than the old. Viruses are known to mutate. So, it is likely that this new variant may also mutate into another variant and on and on like that until it runs its course and slips away the way it came. Before that happens, this ticking bomb is being carried all over the country by some actions of the government.

    The government, which should warn of the consequences of certain things, is the one encouraging them. How sad. Elsewhere,  governments are taking steps to protect their citizens, even from themselves, but here the reverse is the case. The government, in one breath,  tells the public to follow the safety protocols of mask wearing, hand washing or sanitising and social distancing, and in another breath, unwittingly encourages them not to observe these measures. All it is good at doing is talk, talk and talk in the face of this serious health issue. It is not ready to walk the talk.

    It is difficult to comprehend why the government engages in the antithesis of the same things it is asking the population to do in order not to spread the virus. It is the duty of government to ensure the welfare and safety of its citizens through laws, policies and actions that promote orderliness and smooth running of society. In a pandemic as the world is in now, the responsibility becomes multiplied because extra measures must be taking to undergird the wellbeing of the people and the safety and security of the nation. COVID-19 has shown that it kills fast. In some cases, those infected die within three days. At times,  it takes weeks, depending on the immune system of the individual to withstand the attack.

    To be safe, according to science,  people must follow the non-pharmaceutical protocols of masking up, social distancing and hand washing/sanitising. By some of its actions, the government is allowing the citizens to break these protocols. Under the guise of creating a security data base, it has directed that people’s National Identity Number (NIN) be linked to their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card. The time for those with NIN to do so expired on Tuesday. For those without NIN, the deadline is February 19. Which government embarks on such exercise at a time like this when COVID-19 is killing the rich, the poor, the young and the old with venom? In the best of times when we were not in  a pandemic, it was not easy to get the NIN. How then can things be otherwise in a pandemic? People daily pounded the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) offices across the country just to register for the NIN without success.

    In the past, the people would have simply ignored the government and moved on with their lives. But they cannot do so because their telephones have become part of their lives. They are thronging NIMC offices in large number despite the risk of contracting COVID-19 because of the fear of losing their lines. The government is encouraging such a suicidal act by paying lip service to the enforcement of the safety protocols. Why the hurry in asking people to get their NIN linked to their SIM when the NIN registration process is so difficult? There is nothing spectacular in this policy, which was born in the aftermath of the #ENDSARS Protests.

    It came into being because of some lawmakers experience during the protests. They said they were called by people whose numbers they did not know. Because of that, they had to initiate the NIN thing to get back at the people, the same people whose votes got them into office. Pray, what is bad in being called by your constituents to protest that you are not serving them well? To them, the people are only good for their votes and not the good things of life which the lawmakers solely enjoy for holding public office. The lawmakers should remember that they are to legislate for the good of the people. They are not to punish them with laws or resolutions that  demand that the citizens virtually go through hell in order to get their NIN. Gathering at NIMC offices for NIN is a superspreader for COVID-19. So, also is the reopening of schools. One is not against schooling. We should, however,  consider the cost of reopening the schools now in the midst of the ravaging virus.

    Many states are more interested in the political consideration of that decision than the health implications. Reopening of schools goes beyond just taking the three vital non – pharmaceutical safety steps of masking,  hand washing/sanitising and social distancing; it involves more than that. As children will always be children, for how long can they be kept away from one another? Will their teachers be able to devote 100 percent attention to them all the time? How many private schools can meet all these safety requirements for the  reopening of schools?

    The situation reports from some states are scary. Is it advisable to still keep kids in school, with such revelations? Yet, the same states are the ones insisting on reopening schools despite the spike in COVID cases in their domains. What will they lose if schools remain shut until COVID-19 is no longer a threat? Will reality only dawn on them when schools start recording fatalities? Remember, this was the same mistake they made during the first wave when they hurriedly threw everywhere open after it appeared the COVID curve was flattening. That ill-advised step led to this second wave. After being once bitten, they should be twice shy. But here we are, our governors did not learn from that experience.

    All they want is for things to go on as normal when the times are not normal. Rather than put its foot down, the central government is looking the other way, trying to apply reason, in a matter that requires compulsion. The danger in that is that it is allowing them to toy with the lives of the people, the commoner, especially,  which are hooked on their belief that COVID-19 is not real, and that “it is a big man disease”. Coronavirus does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. It infects all, no matter their station in life. If this is not so, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Imo counterpart Hope Uzodinma won’t raise the alarm over what is happening in their territories. Sanwo-Olu is asking that any malaria-like symptoms be treated as COVID-19 going forward.

    As the Incident Commander for his state, who should know all that is happening about the disease, he said the daily requirement for oxygen by patients battling for their lives has risen from 70 to 350 6-litre cylinders at the Yaba Mainland Hospital alone. “This is projected to more than double to 750 6-litre cylinders before the end of January 2021”, he added. Uzodinma said the disease was spreading like wildfire in Imo, adding that his state can no longer cope with the problem. “The number is growing daily and those testing positive are also on the increase…we need to prepare more grounds; build more isolation centres, get more medications,  get oxygen and respiratory support equipment for those who have difficulty in breathing. We have seen how people are dying every day, everywhere, even in Imo because of this ugly monster called COVID-19”.

    Yet, what matters most to some of their colleagues and the Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Pantami are the reopening of schools and the linking of  NIN to SIM. These are exercises which are superspreader for  COVID-19. What will it profit the nation to reopen schools and link people’s NIN to their SIM, but get many killed by COVID-19 in the process? There is still time to do what is right before the worst happens.

  • The last straw

    The last straw

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    IN HIS characteristic manner, he threw everything into the fight. Once it dawned on him that he would lose the November 3 election, outgoing President Donald Trump resorted to playing rough, as we say in this part of the world. He weaved conspiracy theories upon  conspiracy theories over the outcome of the election. He claimed that he was on his way to winning before the United States (US) presidential election was stolen from him.

    It all started before the election. But nobody paid attention to his shenanigans then when he said he would not concede if he lost the election. That was vintage Trump. He loves winning all the time. He is a well known bad loser. Whether in the field of sport, in business or in politics, he hates to lose. The fear of losing gnaws at his heart. So, he anticipates it before it happens. In preparing the ground for such eventuality, Trump builds things up to a crescendo, so that when what he fears most happens, he can say: “Didn’t I say so”.

    The election was, in a way, a referendum on Trump and his continued stay in power after his four-year tenure during which he gave America a bad name around the world. When he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, the election was free and fair because he won. If he had lost, he would have behaved the same way that he is doing today. But, the world would have been spared the agony of seeing him desecrate the most powerful office on earth with his irrational and erratic behaviours. He gloated four years ago: “we won with a landslide”. He won by 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232.

    He lost by the same margin to Joseph Robinette Biden (Jnr) four years later. Trump did not like the way history repeated itself and put him on the losing line. He claimed that the election was marred by fraud, questioning the processes in Georgia,  Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. He asked for and got a recount in each of the states because he met the percentage point for the requirements. He still lost with the recount,  yet he was not satisfied.  He went to court  and also lost. Trump lost up to the Supreme Court. In all, he filed 62 cases and the outcome was 62 – 0.

    His kind of president is rare in the annals of US. Trump tried to manipulate the Electoral College when it met last December 14 in order to have his way. He threw his weight round within his Republican Party in a bid to get pliable people from its controlled states into the  College that will upturn the will of the people. Again, he failed. But he was not done yet. The Congress, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives,  is the last stop in the electoral process. The Congress’ duty is to ratify what the College did. Trump threw his last card there,  hoping to finally have his way. It was a big miscalculation.

    He was counting on his man, Vice President Mike Pence, who constitutionally is the Senate president,  to bend the law for him. Long before the Congress convened on January 6, Trump resorted to sweet talking him, saying at a rally in Georgia where he went to campaign for his party’s two candidates in the Senate run-off elections: “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. Of course,  if he doesn’t come through,  I won’t like him quite as much. Nah, Mike is a great guy”. Pence sided with the constitution instead of a deluded president.  Hours before the Congress’ session began, he issued a statement, saying that he has no power to do what his boss is asking him to do: upturn the election and ask the states to reevaluate the votes.

    Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Trump swiftly rallied his supporters against his country that same day, all in his desperation to remain in office. For the first time in the over 200-year democracy of the US, a sitting president instigated violence against the state. The Commander-in-Chief became the Instigator-in-Chief. It was unimaginable seeing the president, with just 14 days to go as at then, inspiring a putsch against his own administration. All over the world, people watched on television as his supporters converged on the capital in Washington,  demanding his retention as president despite losing his reelection bid. He goaded them on, every inch of the way, giving them directives on what to do and what not to do.

    Was this happening in America? Not a few asked as they beheld the mob’s invasion of the Capitol Hill, which houses the Congress. The mob forced its way into the hallowed chambers of the Congress, demanding the heads of Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Where’s Pence?” They asked no one in particular as they broke into the Capitol. Trump lapped it all up on Twitter as America unravelled before the eyes of the world. Instead of condemnation,  he was full of commendation for the mob that he called ‘patriots’. “These are things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long”.

    Politicians of the Democratic and Republican hue were livid.  The Democrats led by Pelosi and incoming Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer  called on Pence to invoke the 25th amendment for Trump’s removal as he can no longer discharge the functions of his office. Where Pence demurs, the House, Pelosi said,  would impeach Trump. That may have been done by the time you are reading this. If that happens, weep not for him for that is something he invited upon himself. Besides, he will go down in history as the first American president to be impeached twice. Why did Trump, who now has six days left in office before the January 20 inauguration of Biden, take the election outcome so badly? Where is it written that he must win? Or did he take to heart the predictions of some prophets in America and Africa that he would win? Their so-called ‘angels from Africa’ did not sanction their false prophecies.

    With his futile challenge of the election having come to a bitter end, there is need for him to ponder what the future holds for him after office. Trump would be escaping with the bare skin of his teeth if he escapes impeachment by the House. Not a few will say serves him right if he is impeached because his last act in office was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Yet, he is not remorseful. He still has the temerity to defend his role in the invasion of the Capitol. According to him, his statements on that fateful January 6 were “totally appropriate”. Were they? May his tribe decrease.

  • Death and the mutating virus

    Death and the mutating virus

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    It was a second wave waiting to happen. Those who should know knew the danger ahead. Yet, they were unprepared when the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world. Call it carelessness, call it laxity, call it complacency and you will not be wrong. From historical and scientific facts, the first wave is always accompanied by a second, which is deadlier, more vicious and virulent. It kills at a lightening speed, leaving the infected, especially the elderly, with no chance of survival.

    In the last few days, we have seen from reports across the globe the truth in this claim. The world has been caught virtually napping as COVID-19 wreaks havoc from country to country. No nation has been spared. The only region known to have escaped the virulence of the pandemic is the Antarctica and that is because only a few people can be found there because of its icy weather. The strong nations of the world are at the mercy of COVID-19, despite having found one or two vaccines for it.  The popular vaccines in circulation are the ones by Pfizer/Biontech and AstraZeneca/Oxford University.

    Getting the vaccines to go round at the same rate that the disease is spreading is a big problem.  The vaccines are not enough to go round, for now. They were not produced in large quantities because of the exigency of time.  They were produced, in the first instance, to meet an emergency so as to ascertain their efficacy before their large scale production. The vaccines may have given the world hope, but the global management of the pandemic is worrisome. The United States (US) and countries in Europe have been gutted by the pandemic because of the mishandling of the crisis. A pandemic is a global health crisis and the World Health Organisation (WHO) so warned when it declared the Coronavirus Disease a pandemic in March 2020.

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said then:  “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity,  and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to be used lightly or carelessly”. The warning was not heeded. The world treated and has continued to treat the matter ‘lightly and carelessly’. World leaders seem to believe that people will just wake up one day and see that COVID-19 is gone. It will eventually happen that way, but only after it has run its course.

    It happened like that over 100 years ago during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Then medicine was just evolving, and after several trial-and-error, science was able to save the day – though at a huge cost. The virus infected 500 million people and killed almost 50 million, a figure more than all the soldiers and civilians killed during World War 1. Most of the deaths were recorded during what was described as “the three cruel months in the fall of 1918”. According to historians, the fatal severity of the flu’s  second wave was caused by a mutated virus spread by wartime  troop movement. As it was in 1918, so it is in 2019,  a variant of COVID-19 has emerged in its second wave, which is said to be easily transmissible than that of the first.

    The fast rate at which people are now either dying or getting infected makes this claim plausible. The mutated COVID-19 has thrown the world off balance. Almighty Europe is back in one form of lockdown or the other. For the United Kingdom (UK), which just left the European Union (EU), it is back to total lockdown, while the US keeps losing its citizens at an alarming rate daily because of the selfishness of  outgoing President Donald Trump, who has shown the world that human superiority does not lie in the pigmentation of our skin. Whether black, brown or white, the true test of a man lies in his integrity and character. Thanks Trump, for debunking a myth. In the past few days, Nigeria has lost some of its eminent citizens to COVID-19. Prof Femi Odekunle and Prof Oye Ibidapo-Obe are in this category.

    From the isolation centres, we have heard tales of those who survived the gruelling COVID-19 experience. Two entertainers Atunyota Akpobome aka Ali Baba and Paul Okoye aka Rude Boy, while recounting their experience,  warned those  still saying COVID-19 is not real to stop living in fantasy. Ali Baba, who did Christmas and New Year in quarantine, said many died in his isolation centre and urged Nigerians to keep safe by wearing a mask, washing or sanitising their hands and watching their distance. Rude Boy, on his Instagram page, said: “Attention!!! COVID is real!!! It is not funny, worst sickness ever!!! You all be careful out there…”

    Ali Baba and Rude Boy are among the lucky ones, as many others did not live to tell their stories. The government is the cause of all this. Its enforcement of the COVID-19 safety protocols is shoddy. It left people to their devices because it did not want to step on some big toes, especially in the religious world, forgetting that it is the living that serve God. A government with the love of its citizens at heart must always do everything to protect them from themselves in times of an emergency, like this, whether they like it or not. It is not too late to cut the human losses by enforcing compliance with the safety guidelines.

  • What a New Year gift!

    What a New Year gift!

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    Nigerians got a New Year gift from the regulatory agency on Tuesday, with the hike in electricity tariff. The hike has been a contentious issue for sometime. When it was first effected last year, labour kicked,  and the government applied the brakes, while talks began on how to manage the matter.

    Without being told the outcome of the talks, the people were hit, with what was called a “slightly adjusted hike”. Some say the tariff was hiked by 50 percent, that is half of the initial 100 percent increase, but the agency claims that it was only raised from N2 to N4 per kilowatt per hour. No matter the margin, is this what the people need now, in an economy that is in recession?

  • 2020: The year of the breach

    2020: The year of the breach

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    It was a year that even the clairvoyant could not see what it held before its coming. Usually, at the end of each year,  seers try to outdo themselves, predicting what the incoming year has in store for the world. The predictions, most times, centre around people, who are usually men of means and are in power. The practice is a carry over from  past years. The prophets were at it again last year. As 2019 rounded the corner, the world heard all sorts of predictions.

    Some of their prophecies went thus:  So and so will die in 2020. There will be earthquake in so and so place. The president of so and so country should beware to avoid losing election. They forgot that being prescient is one thing, getting it right is another.  Whether by clairvoyance, star gazing, crystal ball or divine inspiration, predicting what will happen tomorrow is a tough act.

    This is why prophets who hear from God are not too fast with their mouths. They weigh their words. They do not speak until the situation warrants it – and that to warn a stiff-necked people, as the Bible puts it.  Prophesying is a gift which does not come cheap. Unfortunately, it has been cheapened by those who see it as business. They prophesy when they have not heard from God and yet swear on the Lord’s name that it is from above. God opens our eyes and ears in different ways. We do not see and hear alike because we are differently gifted. But what one sees and hears, another may not see and hear with his eyes and ears wide open.

    The thing is those who see and hear from God or claim to do so, should  be honest and truthful in their interactions with the public. God, the Bible says, is Spirit and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and truth. But what do we have today? Liars in cassock. They deceive people and take the Lord’s name in vain. It does not end there. When they are beaten in their own game, rather than accept defeat, they try to find a way round it by colouring things to make up for their mistake. They forget that a prophet, a seer, a clairvoyant, a star gazer,  a crystal baller or whatever name they prefer to go by is human and can fail because he is not God. Only God is omniscient.

    The failure to see that 2020 will be marred by the noisome pestilence called Coronavirus should not have bothered any true man of God. A prophet can only see what the Lord shows him. Just as it happened to Elisha in the Bible. Let her alone, Elisha said to his servant, Gehazi. For her soul is vexed within her : and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me (2 Kings 4:27). For reasons best known to the Almighty, He did not show the seers what 2020 had in store for the world. 2020, which ends today, is a year that has proved once again that there is a Super Being that rules the affairs of men and whose ways are not our ways.

    The year has shown that no matter how much man plays God, he can never be God. That Super Being will always do whatever He likes and at whatever time He chooses. 2020 is one year that the world will never forget.  Even at the passage of this generation, 2020 will still be remembered by those who come after. Most of  us were not alive during the 1918 Flu pandemic which killed 50 million people worldwide, but that year is forever etched in history. Like 1918, 2020 will remain a reference year. It will always be remembered for what it did to the world with Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19. The virus dominated the year and it was certain that after the first wave which wreaked havoc everywhere, resulting in a global lockdown, there will be a second cycle.

    Yet, the world was still caught flatfooted when it happened. In 1918, the deaths recorded in the second wave of the Flu pandemic were far more than those in the first cycle. This fact is known to scientists and political leaders. But what did they do to stop this deadly second wave that such pandemic is known for from hitting hard home as the world is now experiencing with COVID-19? From historical and scientific facts,  it was given that there will be a second wave. Why did the world not prepare adequately for it? It was taking for granted in many countries that there would be no second wave. That what happened between 1918 and 1920 will not happeen in 2020. It has turned out to be a costly assumption.

    So, political leaders who should support scientists in finding solution to the problem went to sleep, despite the cries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the looming danger. The second wave has now come, driving countries, especially in Europe and the United States (US) back to the measures they took during the first cycle to contain the spread of the virus. Why did they relax when they knew that a second wave was inevitable? Was it because less and less people were becoming infected? One thing about this pandemic is that it can be deceptive. It would appear to have lost its potency and to be on the downward spiral, only for it to make a 360 degrees turning and start attacking people with virulence all over again.

    Perhaps, the consideration for the economy and life and living is responsible for this laxity. Could the world have kept the economy locked down for eternity because of the virus? The answer, is of course,  no. But it could have got people to comply, by all means,  with the safety protocols to minimise the danger. People were allowed a free rein to do whatever they liked as governments became less serious about taming the COVID-19 monster. In the process, there was a spike in infection rate. In Nigeria, everywhere was opened up. Schools, places of worship, event centres, cinema houses and offices resumed business in the usual manner, all in the bid to recover lost ground during the lockdown. We are now seeing the consequences of putting money before life. The only voice in the wilderness became the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Even at a point, they too became tired as nobody was prepared to listen to them again.

    Then states started shutting down isolation and treatment centres, one after the other, giving the people false hope that the worst is over. It is not. They are now in a hurry to reopen those centres. COVID-19 has returned with its virulence, plucking more people at will. It is on this sad note that 2020 is ending. Why dwell on an outgoing year instead of looking at the prospects of the incoming year? One is doing this because of the kind of year 2020 is. It has been a year from the beginning to the ending that tasked humanity. Rather than learn from what happened in 1918 to address the 2020 case, the world still allowed itself to be beaten by another pandemic.

    There will be another pandemic, perhaps in another 100 years. This is not a curse. This exercise, is therefore, a call on the world to prepare for it in good time because most us alive now will no longer be around then. The world has been beaten not once, but twice by a pandemic. It should not be allowed to happen the third time.

    The ending of a thing is expected to be better than its beginning thereof. Unfortunately, this is not the case with 2020. The year has breached everything the world stands for. There is no sector that it did not touch. It left its sordid trade mark on medical, religious,  social and economic life. It is the kind of year that the world would never wish for again if it has its way. It is a year we all want to go in a hurry. If a year could be declared the year of its own year, 2020 would have won hands down. No doubt about that. May 2021 be the restorer of the breach.

    A happy and prosperous New Year to you, dear reader. We will get there by the grace of God.

  • Deaths in the house

    Deaths in the house

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    THE Year 2020 is a year probably comparable to only one other year, 1918, in human history. They are comparable because of what they have in common. The pandemic, one caused by the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the other brought about by the Coronavirus, (or is it Chinese Virus?), binds both years. Shun of the pandemic, the years have their distinctive features. 2020 has been an extraordinary year for many around the globe. There is no country, group, profession or individual that does not have one thing or the other to remember the year by.

    It was an unusual year; a year of deaths, destruction, disasters, kidnapping, devastation and the other such words which the ears do not always wish to hear. The media had its own fair share of these maladies. It lost some titans of the profession in the outgoing year. With how to battle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the central focus globally, the death of these topnotch journalists came like a bolt out of the blue. It was the last thing those of us they left behind was expecting.

    We had thought that along with them, we will tell the story of COVID-19 long after it is gone. Here, we are, they are no more, and COVID-19 is still ravaging the world. These journalists were among the best in the profession. They made their names at different times in a trade where no one, especially those who seek your favour while still doing the job, remembers you once you are no longer useful to them. Journalism is a thankless job and this reality is harshly brought home when you no longer occupy an office that can be of benefit to people.

    Those who died might have experienced this even before their passage. They would have seen how those they thought were friends who were always knocking at their doors for one favour or the other turned their backs on them at the hour of need. Journalism is all about people, whether big or small, and their activities. A big man makes news when caught in an awkward position and a small man makes news when he does something great. These are the people journalists devote their time and energy to, day in, day out. In this regard, Bisi Lawrence aka Biz Law, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Sam Nda-Isaiah, Muyiwa Daniel and Soni Ehi-Asuelimen did their bit.

    Biz Law and Ogunsanwo were far, far ahead of my own generation. Uncle Biz Law was in a class of his own. He was a broadcasting czar who was at home writing for newspapers. Long after he left the Lagos State Broadcasting Corporation as General Manager, he maintained a column in the Vanguard Newspaper in which he wrote on sports and other issues. Biz Law was a sports enthusiast. He loved writing and talking sports. He also taught those younger to him one or two things about sports writing. Little wonder young sports writers were always found in his company, willing and ready to drink from the fountain of his wisdom. He was a father figure and mentor to the end.

    Ogunsanwo was a wordsmith. The Editor of editors, he used and coined words with ease. He was no longer with theDaily Times when my generation joined that great media citadel, but we were regaled with stories of his exploits. He was larger than life, according to the tales we heard. Nothing escaped his eyes. He read everything that came before him. He was a hands on Editor who did his work with eyes for the minutest detail. Ogunsanwo was the record-breaking Editor of the Sunday Times, which circulation figure hit over 500,000 copies weekly in the early seventies. That record still stands. As a columnist, he wrote with class and panache. His column:Life with Gbolabo Ogunsanwo was a must read for the high and low.

    Another journalism great and Daily Times alumnus, writing under the pseudonym of Abdu Rauf, in a tribute, said of Editor Ogunsanwo: ”He was a celebrated columnist with a huge following. Readers waited with bated breath for his column. He was fearless; he was fierce, he was severe, yet full of wit and humour. He was impressionistic in his writings, masterly weaving words and sentences , painting pictures and employing imageries…” The writer should know because he was a witness to that  history. In this day and time that the circulation figures of newspapers have dipped, it was no mean feat that Ogunsanwo took the Sunday Times to greater heights, shooting its circulation figure to 532,916 copies from 165,000.

    My friend and brother Tunde Rahman, in his own tribute, painted the picture of Ogunsanwo as a wordsmith, recalling how the ace Editor coined the famous ”if you Daboh me, I will Tarka you” headline during the altercation between the late Joseph Tarka and the late Godwin Daboh and ”cement armada” during the congestion at the ports under the Gowon administration. Ogunsanwo was an Editor like no other and it is to his eternal credit that the doyen of modern Nigeran journalism, the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose singled him, Vanguard Publisher Mr Sam Amuka-Pemu aka Uncle Sam and the late El-Hadj Alade Odunewu, out for mention in his memoirs: ”Walking a tightrope” for meeting his expectations of setting up the Sunday Times. There goes Gbolabo Ogunsanwo. When comes another in the world of the media?

    Nda-Isaiah just happened on the media scene and wrote his name in gold. He trained as a pharmacist, but shone like a thousand stars as a publisher. His paper, Leadership, which motto is: ”For God and country” was a paper that gave those in authority the goosebumps. He came into journalism as a columnist with another great paper from the north, DailyTrust. His writings were acerbic, but Nda-Isaiah was ever ready for the fallout. It is amazing that as a pharmacist he could write that well. At a time the world was beginning to appreciate his worth, death came knocking and took him away at the age of 58. What a loss!

    Like Nda-Isaiah, Daniel and Ehi-Asuelimen were of my generation. Daniel and Ehi-Asuelimen died in their early 60s. Daniel was a sports reporter of repute. Like virtually all sports reporter, he was a lover of football and was at home with Stationery Stores Football Club of Lagos. Did I hear you say ‘Up Super’ as the club was fondly known among its supporters? That did not stop him from covering other sports though. He died during an illness and has since been buried. He was an easy going guy.

    Ehi-Asuelimen was down-to-earth and unassuming. He spoke frankly and was always ready to stand by the truth. He was a reporter who knew his onions. When he was news editor with the  National Concord, we used to exchange notes about happenings on the news scene. Ehi-Asuelimen knew the media inside out, having plied his trade with some of the best newspapers and magazines around. He worked withConcord, Newswatch, The Punch and National Mirror, among other publications. He was a man-about-town. No wonder, he was a great newsman.

    For the media, these deaths hit close home. May they all find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

    • WISHING YOU, DEAR READER, A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

  • PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR: CACOVID

    PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR: CACOVID

    The Coronavirus pandemic disrupted not only businesses,  but also life and living. To cushion its effect on the nation, the Central Bank and some public spirited individuals and organisations formed the Coalition of Private Sector Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), reports Lawal Ogienagbon.                 

    Their nation’s keeper

    I is a child of circumstance. The Coalition of Private Sector Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) was created to fight the deadly virus, cater to the needs of the sick and provide succour for the poor and vulnerable. The private sector driven initiative enjoys the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO). CACOVID was formed to meet the exigencies of the time. As the novel Coronavirus disrupted lives and businesses globally, it became the body to ensure normalcy in the midst of the ensuing confusion at home.

    CACOVID went the extra mile to meet public needs. As scores of people caught the virus in the early stages of the pandemic, it fell on the coalition to help out. It had enormous resources at its disposal, but the challenges were daunting. There were no well equipped hospitals or isolation centres for the sick so as to avoid the spreading of the virus. With the financial muscle of its members, putting these structures in place was its first major assignment. It ran against time to get them ready, just as  people were testing positive for COVID-19 at a fast rate

    CACOVID pooled resources across industries to provide technical and operational support for the fight against the virus. Announcing the birth of CACOVID early in April, the CBN Govermor Godwin Emefiele said it was set up after a series of consultation and engagement with stakeholders in the private sector on the need to support government to whittle down the impact of the virus on the economy. He added: “The Federal Government has made giant strides in the fight but it is clear that the private sector needs to step in, and support efforts already being made”. The giants of industry backed CACOVID. Aliko Dangote, Rabiu Samad, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu, Herbert Wigwe, among others,  all gave to the cause.

    Read Also: CACOVID plans to empower youths, businesses

    CACOVID spent N4.2billion on building 39 fully equipped isolation centres in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It procured medical equipment such as polymerise chain reaction (PCR) test kits for N9billion. In all, it realised N39,646,100,039 in donations and spent N43,272,562,831, overshooting its accounts by N3,626,462,792.

    The most tasking of its duty was the provision of palliative for the poor and vulnerable during the lockdown when businesses and offices were shut. CACOVID worked with the states and FCT to get food across to these people. The lockdown was a harsh period in the life of the downtrodden, but respite came from CACOVID, which spent N28,767,590,517 to provide food for 1.7million households, which is equivalent to eight million Nigerians. Many of these food items, which were yet to be shared during the #ENDSARS Protests in October, were looted from warehouses across the country by hoodlums who hijacked the demonstrations.

    CACOVID plans to spend N100billion on renovating and equipping police stations and formations that were also destroyed by the hoodlums.

  • The Kankara 333

    The Kankara 333

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    The number sticks out like a sore thumb. This is the number by which many people in the world have come to know the kids who were abducted from their school in Kankara, in the Katsina home state of President Muhammadu Buhari by Boko Haram. Incidentally, the incident happened on the same day that the President arrived home for the first time, this year, on a private visit. It was not the way to welcome the President. But does Boko Haram care?

    Last Friday night as the President settled down at home in Daura, some 200 kilometres or so away in Kankara, Boko Haram, the sect he was famously quoted as saying had been “technically defeated”, was again wreaking havoc on the country. Rather than becoming extinct, Boko Haram keeps coming back to attack, kill, rape, maim and abduct as it likes. The government wants the people to believe that Boko Haram is dead, but the group has shown on several occasions that it would take more than words of mouth to kill it.

    The Kankara abduction should not have happened, at least, not after the two previous similar attacks on two girls’ schools in Borno and Yobe states in 2014 and 2018. Unfortunately, those who lead us are always wiser after the fact. Instead of acting before the deed, they do so after the harm has been done. We saw it happen under the Jonathan administration in 2014 when Boko Haram struck at Chibok Girls Secondary School in Borno State and carted away over 200 pupils. Sadly, we saw it happen again under this administration in 2018 at the Government Girls Secondary School (GSSS), Dapchi, Yobe State,  where over 100 pupils were kidnapped. One of those girls, Leah Sharibu, is still in captivity.

    Now, it is a boys’ only school in Kankara. The school, according to Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari, houses 839 pupils. All of them were said to be in school that fateful Friday. By Sunday, the governor told a bewildered nation that 333 pupils were abducted. As it is always the case in situations like this, the figure is in the realm of conjecture, as other numbers keep popping up.  There is no strong data to back Masari’s figure up. Though, as the official figure, it has been taken at its face value. If 839 pupils were in their dormitories, how did the governor arrive at the figure of 333 as those unaccounted for? Where are the remaining 506? At home? Or still in the bush where they ran to when the insurgents arrived?

    Kankara has, like the other incidents, exposed the underbelly of the porous security arrangements in schools susceptible to Boko Haram attacks. Boko Haram chooses schools to invade carefully and carries out its mission with deadly precision. It goes without saying that a government, which cares about the welfare and security of its citizens, especially children in schools in the line of Boko Haram’s attack, will do everything within its power to protect them. Boko Haram insurgents are not spirits that can operate stealthily without trace as they have been doing. Something must be wrong somewhere for the group to always catch troops prosecuting the insurgency war on the wrong foot.

    Is it possible for a soldier who is ready to lay down his life for his country to engage in a war, whether conventional or otherwise, like this? It appears the soldiers believe that there is nothing at stake in this their so-called “asymmetrical warfare” and as such, Boko Haram is being to run riot all over the place. Are the soldiers war weary? What about their commanders? Are they tired too? Is this a sabotage? Are the Service Chiefs still in charge? If they are, it is not reflecting in the performance of their men on the battlefield.

    Where were security operatives when the boys were being taken away on motorcycles? It is not easy to convey hundreds of boys on motorcycles in the dead of night to an unknown place. It will take 100 or more motorcycles to do that. Can that number of motorcycles move about in that community that night without attracting suspicion? What happened was, again, the failure of intelligence and the seeming reluctance to pursue the insurgency war aggressively. Must the military acquire 10 Super Tucanoes, as we are being told, at billions of naira before it defeats Boko Haram?

    The public keeps hearing of air strikes against Boko Haram in some places, with the killing of some of the insurgents and the destruction of their weapons.  Are these reports backed up with aerial pictures of those sorties real? If they are, where then does Boko Haram get the strength with which to unleash the kind of  attacks it carried out in Zabarmari,  Borno State, where 43 rice farmers were killed on November 28, and in Kankara, the relatively unknown community shot into limelight by the abduction of innocent kids six days ago.

    The casualty figure will always remain a thorny issue. Masari has given 333. Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu gave 10 and the lie in this number was seen, with the reported escape of 17 of the boys from their captors. A media report on Monday put the figure at over 600, quoting the school register. The families affected feel the heat. Only God knows the condition in which many of these kids’ parents will be. The trauma can be killing. Can you imagine sending your kids to school only to hear the shattering news that they have been abducted in their hostels? If things were this way when many of us were growing up, our parents would not have sent us to boarding schools. It is a big shame that due to no fault of parents and their children,  schools have become unsafe. What is the government doing about this? As usual, it is just to condemn the development as if that will bring back the abducted kids.

    The  purpose of government is to guarantee the safety of life and property by putting in place measures to prevent the kind of atrocities the nation has witnessed in Chibok, Bunu Yadi, Dapchi, Zabarmari and Kankara in the last six years.  One only hopes that Kankara will be the last of these unfortunate incidents.