The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • A virtual anniversary

    A virtual anniversary

    Lawal  Ogienagbon

     

    HINGS will never be the same again. Life after the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will be unlike what it was before the pandemic.

    The pandemic has upturned everything in the world. Businesses are in shred,  economies are in a shambles and nations are in tatters. The virus has dealt the world a blow that nobody foresaw.

    Powerful nationshave been rendered weak in the face of a tiny but invisible  virus. The super powers are tottering like a ship buffeted at sea, while the not so super ones are at a loss over what to do.

    The latter are looking up to the former, which are also in a quandary for help. The situation is precarious as people continue to die from the virus which seems not in a hurry to go.

    The developing countries have been copying all they do in the developed world to tackle the scourge without taking into consideration the peculiarities of their own nations.  Of course,  some solutions remain constant and these are the guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus.

    To avoid the spread of the disease, many meetings and social events have either been postponed or cancelled. In the wake of the virulent virus, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) suspended its weekly meetings held at the State House, Abuja, for four weeks in the first instance last March 23.

    The top class felt the fury of COVID-19 when the President’s Chief of Staff (CoS), Mallam Abba Kyari, caught the virus and died last month.

    FEC resumed sitting on May 13, adopting the social distancing rule. The meeting was conducted via Zoom, the online application which allows people to meet without everybody being physically present at the venue.

    All around the world, Zoom is now the way to go. This was something hitherto unheard of. In the past, meetings were postponed because all the participants could not make it to the venue.

    It never crossed anybody’s mind that such meetings could be held online using  Zoom or Skype.

    Coronavirus has  opened our eyes to a technological wonder which is at our fingertips but which we never knew existed until circumstances beyond our control forced it on us.

    Gathered at the Council Chamber for the first virtual meeting, were President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha, the new CoS, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, and ministers who had memo to present.

    Gambari whose appointment was subject of media speculation that same May 13 was formally “unveiled” at the meeting. His appointment was the first business of the day at the meeting.

    Gambari is coming on board as the Buhari administration marks the first anniversary of its second and final term of four years.

    The anniversary comes up tomorrow. All in all, the administration is marking its fifth year in office,  having been reelected for another four-year term last year.

    Despite the discontent against it, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government won the 2019 election. It was not an easy fight as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tried to cash in on the nation’s mood then to return to power.

    The Buhari administration may not have been outstanding in its first term,  its second term which first anniversary comes up tomorrow presents it with a great opportunity to redeem itself before the people.

    Read Also: How the booming demand for Zoom is changing our virtual world

     

    Nigerians have been denied an opportunity to assess the administration based on its performance in the past year because ministers did not present their scorecard.

    Virtually,  all the ministers seem to be busy today at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. If they are not featuring at the PTF daily briefing in Abuja, they are busy talking to people at their respective ministries, on the dangers posed by COVID-19 or commissioning projects such as walk-through disinfection machines.

    It is as if the world must wait for us because we are battling COVID-19. In other words, the business of government today begins and ends with the COVID-19 campaign.

    Since there is a committee on COVID-19 led by the SGF, ministers, at least those not on the PTF, should face their job squarely.

    Governance should not grind to a halt because the government is fighting COVID-19. Nigeria is not the only country in the world doing that.

    In the past, when anniversaries like this were at hand, the respective ministries lined up to brief the media on their achievements in the year under review.

    The event was usually coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Information. With that  ministry now busy with the PTF, nothing stops the other ministries from taking up this job on their own, especially as they have press and public affairs units.

    For none of the ministers to have showcased their achievements in the past year shows how much regard they have for the people.

    The war against COVID-19 should not be an excuse for not giving an account of stewardship by those who hold public office.

    If FEC could hold virtual meetings, nothing stops the ministries from doing same in order to let the people know what they have done in the past year.

    For now, we can only hazard a guess on what some of the ministries are doing or have done.

    The government cannot earn the people’s trust for keeping quiet under the guise of fighting COVID-19. It will rather distance itself from them by its action.

    To the people, it might have kept quiet because it has nothing to say or show as its achievements in the last 12 months.

    Sooner or later, COVID-19 will go, but the issues of governance will remain. What then will the government showcase as its achievements?

  • When comes the cure?

    When comes the cure?

    Lawal Ogienagbon

    IN the search for the ravaging Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic cure,  the world seems to have put all its eggs in one basket. It is focusing on only one part of the globe to  get the yet elusive cure. Thus, people from Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East have come to see it as their divine right to proffer solution to the problem.

    They conveniently forget that the pigmentation of one’s skin has nothing to do with his mental capability.  We were created with different gifts, notwithstanding the complexion of our skin. Though seen as inferior by many of their White counterparts, Blacks are no pushovers in the world of knowledge.

    Pride is at stake in the search for COVID-19 cure. It is because of this pride that the developed countries believe that the cure can only come from them. Europe and America have been doing all they can, but so far their efforts have not yielded result. The cheery news though, is that some 120 drugs are undergoing clinical trials.

    While foreign scientists  are still battling to find the magic COVID-19 drug, some countries in Africa appear to be ahead of them. Although these African made drugs might not have undergone the kind of elaborate clinical tests approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), they have been administered on patients and  some of them got well.

    The most popular of these drugs is the Madagascan therapy known as Covid-Organics (CVO). This reporter has always believed that the race for COVID-19 cure will not be for the swift nor the most intelligent. Many other factors, such as the continent you come from,  your country’s per capita income and its role in international affairs will come into play. This is unfolding already, with the way WHO has been bellowing that no known cure has been found for COVID-19

    This reporter warned in this space last April 9 in an article titled: Human guinea pigs! that our scientists should make their voices heard in this raging debate for COVID-19 cure.

    In the olden days,  our forefathers had their own way of treating themselves.  They passed down the roots and herbs they used to us, but what have we done with them? We discarded them and embraced civilisation. We became addicted to western ways of doing things and forswore the roots and herbs that we inherited.

    In their time, our forebears would have used these God given leaves, herbs and roots that abound in Africa to fight the virus. These herbs and roots which we now so much disdain because of foreign influence will eventually form the bedrock of the eventual magic cure for COVID-19.

    No matter how WHO perceives the claims from Madagascar and other African nations, they are worth looking into. Something good may yet come out of them despite the single fatality just recorded  in Madagascar. With a population of nearly 200 million,  Nigeria has the human capital to develop a cure for the virus. Is it not a shame that Madagascar, a country of only over 27 million people, is sending us its home-made COVID-19 cure at only a asking price of €170,000 (about N78.2million)?

    As I mentioned last month, even though, many have lived to tell their COVID-19 stories, how they overcame the disease seems to be shrouded in secrecy. It is still so today, except for Bauchi State Governor Bala Muhammed  and former presidential aide Dr Doyin Okupe, among a few, who opened up on how they were treated. They also told the world some of the drugs they took. Before them, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde and University College Hospital (UCH) Chief Medical Director Prof Jesse Otegbayo relived how they used herbs, chloroquine, among other drugs, while undergoing treatment for the virus.

    The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 is not happy that these survivors have been talking about the drugs that cured them. The task force is worried that this may encourage people to embark on self medication. Really? Many Nigerians did not start self medication today and it is not what they hear from these survivors that will push them into it now. Let’s be frank, how many of the PTF members can thump their chests and say they never tried self medication before?

    What should be of paramount interest to PTF is how to use what worked for these survivors to get a local cure for COVID-19. It should not wait for WHO to do that, but that is not to say it should not carry the global watchdog along in whatever it does. It is not enough for PTF to be parroting WHO’s refrain that “no specific cure” has been found for COVID-19. It may take time to get a specific one-drug cure-all for the virus. And the reason is not farfetched.

    The scare-mongering, mostly from official and related quarters, is troubling. All we are bombarded with is “it has no cure”. Then, how come some people are surviving it? WHO is more interested in looking for a “specific cure” because the disease is not like say Ebola, SARS (Severe Accute Respiratory Syndrome) or MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), other strains of Coronavirus which predated COVID-19,  that doctors know exactly what to look for when treating a patient.

    COVID-19 has overwhelmed the world. WHO is at its wit’s end. Nothing best captures its concerns than its statement  that COVID-19 may never abate. WHO’s Executive Director, Emergencies Programme Michael Ryan declared unequivocally: “it is important to put this on the table; this virus may become another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away… I think it is important that we are realistic. I do not think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear. This disease may settle into a long problem or it may not”.

    With that coming from WHO, we should be prepared for a long drawn battle.  While Nigeria joins the world in the search for the cure, we should also look inwards in seeking a local therapy for the virus. Nigeria should be spearheading such campaigns in Africa, but we have allowed smaller nations to seize that initiative. We have been following the WHO template blindly that we forgot to rally our scientists and traditional and complementary health practitioners to look for the cure.

    What next for Nigeria after taking the stock from Madagascar? This batch is said to be a gift. Despite what has happened in Madagascar, we should not look the gift horse (read as drugs) in the mouth. What this shows is that we should not wait on anyone for the solutions to every problem, whether economic, social or medical. If herbs can work for our forebears in the past, they can still do the same trick today.

    If our scientists do not make their voices heard now, their foreign counterparts will come up with series of experimental drugs on COVID-19, using our herbs, leaves and roots as formula. In that circumstance, our continent becomes the ultimate loser because we pointed to our father’s house with the wrong finger.

  • Executive (dis)order

    Executive (dis)order

    Lawal  Ogienagbon

     

    ON Sunday, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike demolished two hotels in Port Harcourt for allegedly flouting his executive order on lockdown.

    The state like many others is on a lockdown to contain the virulent Coronavirus. Of course, every rational person will support the states for the measures they have taken to protect lives in the wake of the virus.

    People have been breaking this lockdown order across the country.  This is not a good thing to do because the violators are endangering not only their lives but also those of others.

    As the governor of his state,  Wike has powers to take steps to protect the lives of the people; it is a constitutional responsibility for which he will be held accountable after his tenure.

    But he has to discharge this responsibility with a cool temperament. A governor is the father of his state; so he should act fatherly always even in the face of anger.

    Demolishing an hotel at a time like this when businesses have been crippled by Coronavirus  does not portray the governor as a father indeed.

    A true father will not kill his son for disobeying him, which is akin to what Wike has done by demolishing an hotel which flouted just an “executive order”.

    The hotelier broke no law, he merely disobeyed the governor’s order and his excellency, a lawyer for that matter, reacted disorderly. May God save us from these emperor governors. The day they get state police, we are all done for.

  • Acts of ignorance

    Acts of ignorance

    Lawal  Ogienagbon

     

    LONG before the lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states were relaxed, many people had started complaining.  Their complaint was over hunger. Their hunger was fueled by their anger.

    They were angry because they were expected to hunker down without provisions made for them on how to feed during the lockdown which was informed by the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These are people who normally do not wait on government before they eat.

    They go out daily to fend for themselves, but after the lockdown was first introduced for two weeks on March 31, following the President’s broadcast on March 29, doing that became a problem.

    They could no longer go out as they used to because doing so will be a breach of the lockdown order. Government foresaw the problem.

    It knew that these people who populate the informal  economy would suffer. To ameliorate their suffering, it introduced palliative measures.

    Under the palliative regime, government provided foodstuff and cooking ingredients for the poorest of the poor described as the vulnerable.

    The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) under which the old and vulnerable were paid N5000 monthly was also stepped up. Beneficiaries of the TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni were also given some funds upfront to enable them stock up on their needs.

    These measures were to make these people stay at home during the lockdown for their own safety and that of others to avoid spreading the deadly virus.

    The truth is the palliatives did not go far. Even as I write this on Monday night, complaints are stiff rife on the distribution of the food items which are expected to ensure that the poor do not die of hunger before the world conquers Coronavirus.

    The inequitable distribution of the food made people angry. Their anger may be justified because they are people who naturally take pride in their abilities to look after themselves.  They do not need a handout to live. To them, that is demeaning.

    But in a situation where they have been handicapped from going out to look for what to eat, they expected the government, which put them in that position,  to come to their aid.

    To them, it is better to go out to hustle than wait for a handout that may never come. “This food they are sharing will never get to people like us.

    They know the people they are going to give. These are their party people and others close to their leaders. It is only by luck that it will get to the suffering masses”, a Lagos artisan said when asked why he took the risk of  mingling with the crowd when the lockdown was relaxed on May 4, following the President’s April 27 broadcast.

    Many are like this artisan. Even among the educated and the well-heeled, we have those who think like this. I always tell them that we are asked to stay at home not only for our own good but also that of others.

    Public interest demands that at a time like this, we should all be thinking of the well-being of  others; we should not do anything to jeopardise the health of those close and not close to us.

    Whether we like it or not, Coronavirus is real. We have seen the havoc it can cause in countries far more developed than ours.

    The easing of the lockdown should not be a licence for people to put the lives of others at risk. It is one thing for somebody not to believe that COVID-19 is real, but it is another thing for him not to allow that to affect the lives of others.

    As I watched people trooping out on the streets last Monday in search of what they described as what to eat, I shook my head at their ignorance.

    Then, something struck me, can one really describe what was happening as ignorance? People just chose to believe what they wanted to believe because Coronavirus is far from them. As the saying goes, he who feels it knows it. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.

    Some people can show lackadaisical attitude to the virus because they are not infected. Even at that, have they not seen some of those infected? Have they not heard their stories? Are these not enough to bring home to them the realness of the virus? Everyday for the past two months, the Boss Mustapha-led Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has been shouting itself hoarse over this matter.

    Being hardhearted over Coronavirus cannot help anybody. What can help us is to keep all the safety guidelines wholeheartedly. Hardheartedness can only lead to needless deaths.

    We have been lucky so far that the number of confirmed cases and casualty figures are not too high. This is not of our making, but the grace of the Almighty.

    What do we have to contain the virus if there is an explosion in the number of infected people? With the little figures we presently have, we are complaining of shortage of bed spaces. This is why I was troubled when I saw the huge number of people who flocked the banks and other business places last May 4 in their desire to make ends meet.

    How much did they go to withdraw from their banks? What is the worth of the businesses they went for? Are these worth more than their lives? Can the money they went to look for take care of them if they catch the virus?

    Many are playing ludo with their lives because they know that it will cost them nothing to treat themselves if they come down with the virus. The bill will be on government. But this should not be the reason for anybody to jeopardise public health.

  • In the valley of Coronavirus

    In the valley of Coronavirus

    Lawal Ogienagbon

    ONE thing has held the world down in the past five months and that thing is Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19. They have been months of agony as countries of the world run from pillar to post in their desperate search for a cure for the highly contagious novel Coronavirus. For the past four months,  the world has been on lockdown to avoid the spread of the deadly disease.

    But the virus keeps spreading and killing people all over the world. The virus; the invisible virus, which leaders in some parts of the world have described as an unseen enemy has become so virulent that even powerful nations are stunned by its deadliness. Those of us in the third world have watched in awe as the virus tears the developed countries apart leaving them wondering what has befallen them.

    Yet, it is a virus; a virus which strains were conquered in the past. Why is this different? What strain of it is COVID-19 that has made it so difficult to fight? Why have renowned scientists suddenly become incapable in the face of this virus? What chance do we stand against it in Africa going by the havoc it is wreaking in Europe and America? So far, Africa has been lucky as the virus has not been ravaging the continent the way it has done in Europe and America. But for how long will our luck last?

    Soon, they will find a way round the problem, leaving the poor states of Africa to sort themselves out. In all of these, I fear for Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent. By virtue of our population, we tend to see Nigeria as the giant of Africa. No doubt, we have the human and capital resources to be the numero uno in Africa, but our inability to husband these resources remains our greatest challenge. We simply believe in throwing money at every problem without sitting down to look at the cost-benefit. Once, the national government goes that way, the states will without wasting time take a cue from that.

    From what we have seen globally, it will cost money to combat Coronavirus,  but the battle can still be won without spending a fortune, if our leaders get their acts right. After the government gave Lagos State N10billion and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) N5billion, other states began agitating for what they believe is their share of the national cake even when as at then, they had no cases of Coronavirus.  Rivers State began the agitation when at every turn Governor Nyesom Wike kept on complaining about the money given to Lagos to the exclusion of other states. He conveniently forgot that the money was given to Lagos to augment the expenses it incurred in setting up isolation centres for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at a time the other states had no such cases.

    Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje toed the same path shortly after his state recorded its Coronavirus case. Without putting any structure in place in case the virus lands in the state despite having all the time to do so, he went cap in hand to the government begging for money. To do what? You will ask.   Lagos had spent N4billion of its own money before the government gave it N10billion. So, what the state got was N6billion. Rather than set to work to stop the virus from ravaging his state, Ganduje was interested in the money he would get from the government.

    When people, including eminent personalties, started dropping dead in the state, he was quick to say that their deaths had nothing to do with COVID-19. According to him, the cause of death was unknown. How can it be known when the deceased were hurriedly buried without autopsy.  Investigation has since shown that they died of Coronavirus. What does Ganduje have to say to this after his slip? “Kano is in trouble with the COVID-19 pandemic”. Ask him, who put the state in that trouble, he will not answer. But the public knows the answer. The governor got to know how big the problem is when it was too late. When many lives, including those of two emirs, had been lost.

    To him, he did not see anything wrong in what he did. No remorse or whatsoever.  He just explained it away casually, blaming what happened on the challenges faced by the state in testing for the disease. Whose fault? Is he not the governor? Is he not expected to provide the testing facilities? Unfortunately,  the matter will end there without Ganduje paying for what he did. What a country!

    The poor handling of COVID-19 cases in Kano is a source of worry. If there should be an explosion in cases there, we will be in trouble as a nation. It is good that the government is taking more interest in what is happening there. The Federal Ministry of Health and the NCDC should be mandated to take over the management of cases in order to stem the rising incidence of deaths. Ganduje has toyed with the matter for too long that he can no longer be trusted to be in charge as incident commander. Let him step aside and his place let another take  until this Coronavirus storm blows over.

     

     

     

    Adieu Dele Odebiyi

    I knew Baba Dele Odebiyi some years before I joined Daily Times. I met him through my friend Tajudeen Folami, who was his student at Ebenezer Comprehensive High School, Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos.  Taju had wanted to start a soft sell loose sheet paper sometime in 1989 and invited me to help out. Me? A cub reporter then in The Punch. I simply told him to look for a more senior person in the profession if he did not want to throw his money away. That was when he told me about Baba Odebiyi and I advised him to seek the erudite journalist out and he did.

    Two years later when I joined Daily Times, Baba Odebiyi took me under his wings and encouraged me to contribute to other titles in the stable and not limit myself to writing for Daily Times. Odebiyi, a former chairman of Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)  was a prolific writer, who wrote for all the Daily Times titles. He derived joy in writing and the teacher in him showed in his writings. Pa Odebiyi died on April 28 at the age of 78. He began his final journey home yesterday during a wake at his Lagos-Badagry Expressway residence.  His remains will be interred there today at 11am. Go in peace, teacher,  activist, journalist.

  • From lockdown to curfew

    From lockdown to curfew

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    Left to many Nigerians, they would not have voted for a lockdown of some states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the war against COVID-19.

    They would have preferred that life continued as usual, with people moving up and down. Going to work, worshipping in their churches and mosques and attending parties and other social gathering. With COVID-19 came a big challenge which government cannot ignore.

    The milling of people aids the spread of Coronavirus.  To avert that, President Muhammadu Buhari on March 29 ordered a lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and FCT for 14 days in the first instance. He extended the lockdown on April 13 for another 14 days.

    Read Also: FCT residents hail Buhari’s decision to ease lockdown

    The extension ended on Monday and mercifully, the President relaxed the lockdown from May 4. But there will be a dusk-to-dawn (8pm-6am) curfew nationwide until the COVID-19 curve is flattened.

    Many wanted the lockdown lifted in the economic interest of the downtrodden who live from hand to mouth daily.

    In whatever we do, let us consider the health risk involved because viruses like COVID-19 strike in waves. We have seen the first wave with low casualty figures so far.

    Will people be cautious enough to follow the guidelines for avoiding catching and spreading the disease following the lifting of the lockdown to prevent an explosion in casualties? This is where the government must be firm and decisive before people start dying on the streets.

     

  • The next Villa Chief

    The next Villa Chief

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    THERE are so many things weighing on President Muhammadu Buhari’s mind at the moment. As the leader of the most populous nation in Africa, he carries an enormous task on his lean shoulders.

    Two things are of immediate concern to him and these are the war against the Coronavirus pandemic and the appointment of a new Chief of Staff (CoS) following the death of Mallam Abba Kyari on April 17.

    Kyari died of complications from Coronavirus aka COVID-19 after over three weeks battle with the disease.

    To the President and others in government close to Kyari, the COVID-19 battle may have become a personal thing following the death of a friend and an associate.

    If not for any other thing, they will like to be seen doing all in their power to curtail the COVID-19 threat for the sake of ‘a good man’ as one eulogist put it. Whether Kyari was a ‘good man’ or not, posterity will say, no matter what anybody writes today.

    Who wears the shoes he left behind? If not for COVID-19, this ordinarily should be the President’s main focus now. But, no matter how important the COVID-19 battle is, he cannot afford to lose concentration on the CoS matter too.

    Through the making of our leaders,  the CoS has become central to the running of government that it seems they cannot do without having such an appointee around.

    The CoS has his job cut out for him; he is to manage the President, his office and affairs. In the light of what the nation experienced with Kyari, how should the next CoS run that office?

    The CoS, by my own little understanding, is the agent of the President,  who is his principal. He acts in that behalf and performs duties assigned to him by his principal.

    It is expected that in delegating authority to the CoS, the President will not abdicate his own constitutional responsibilities.  The President should not under the guise of delegation, allow his CoS to become the lord of the manor at the Villa.

    There is only one captain at the Villa and that person is the President who steers the ship of the nation  and does not share his power with anyone not even the CoS.

    The President must reflect deeply before choosing Kyari’s successor. He must be careful not to pick an overly ambitious person. He needs a CoS who is firm, friendly and frugal; not a CoS who will contest for power with other members of the cabinet.

    The CoS should at best be a sit-in member of the cabinet since he has no constitutional recognition like the appointed ministers.

    Since by convention, the CoS is deemed a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), he should not see that as an opportunity to become an overlord to the ministers.

    How powerful the CoS becomes lies with the President. If the President takes his job the way he should,  the CoS will not overstep his bounds, but where he is allowed a free rein, he will run riot over the whole place. The point must be made that the CoS is not an alternate president.

    He is not a substitute for the President at whose pleasure he holds office. So, he can easily be fired by the President who hired him in the first place. The CoS should know his limits within Aso Villa.

    He should not allow being the President’s aide to get to his head. We are told that the Presidency is one. That being the case, he should give the Vice President the respect that office deserves.

    In the President’s absence, the Vice President is the next in line and not the CoS, who may want to see himself as the alternate president. Section 145 of the Constitution is clear on this.

    No matter how power-hungry a CoS may be, he cannot usurp the constitutional role of the Vice President and the President should not give him the impression that he can do that in his absence.

    What happened under Kyari should not be allowed to rear its head in the new dispensation that is able to unfold at the Presidency.

    Read Also: Kingibe, wrong choice to replace Abba Kyari

     

    The nation does not want a CoS who will become a monster that cannot be tamed. A lot has been written about how  Kyari ran the Presidency.

    He was said to have left no one in doubt that he was in charge of Aso Villa. That is how it should be because among  Villa staff he is primus interpares (first among equals). But he must remember that the Vice President does not fall into that category; so, he cannnot be bigger than the Vice President who also has an office in the Villa.

    He may have control over the Vice President’s staff since the Presidency is one but that does not put the Vice President under him. The CoS should learn to live with the fact that the Vice President is his boss.

    If we do not want another power tussle at the Villa, the CoS should be mindful of the circumstances of his appointment and learn to live within the dictates of his office.

    He should not dabble into extraneous matters which may call to question his integrity. We saw things like these happen in the immediate past in the pension chief Abdulrashid Maina’s case, the MTN $5.2billion fine, and the usurpation of the functions of some ministries,  departments and agencies (MDAs).

    In the Maina case, the nation watched the altercation between Kyari and former Head of Service (HoS) Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita on national television.

    Oyo-Ita accused Kyari of bringing Maina, a sacked and wanted top civil servant,  back into Service without her knowledge,  claiming that she warned against the consequences of such action.

    Should a CoS be involved in such matters? Your guess is as good as mine. Shortly after the television drama, Oyo-Ita was accused of corruption and removed as HoS. I wonder what she would write if asked to say something about the Kyari she knew.

    Some names are being mentioned for the CoS’ job. By now, there will be lobbying in high places for the plum job. The President holds the joker in picking who he prefers. He needs divine guidance in making his choice. May he choose right.

  • Kyari: A postmortem

    Kyari: A postmortem

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    From the outset, everything about his battle with Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19, which eventually claimed his life last Friday, was shrouded in secrecy.  When the President’s late Chief of Staff (CoS), Mallam Abba Kyari, caught the virus, the media ran the story at its own risk because officialdom was not ready to confirm the report. The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) only mustered the courage to talk after his death and burial.

    The omnibus Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in which the FMoH and NCDC serve, holds a daily briefing in Abuja, but it never mentioned Kyari’s name until he died. Why? One can only surmise that the PTF decided to tread gingerly where it concerned Kyari because of unknown consequences. The task force was being careful not to offend Kyari or those close to him because it did not know how they would take the report.

    What the PTF did not realise is that Kyari was never the issue. What is at stake is bigger than Kyari and any other person for that matter. Coronavirus is a highly dangerous disease which can wipe away the earth if information about it and those infeçted is not properly shared. This is why other countries are not hiding information about persons who catch the virus, no matter their status. When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came down with the disease,  the authorities spoke out, telling the nation about the status of its leader.

    Britons prayed for their leader while he was in intensive care in a public hospital until he was discharged and returned to the ward. The PTF missed a golden chance to use the Kyari case to drum home the enormity of the danger of COVID-19 to human existence. Rather than keep sealed lips on Kyari, it should have used him as a poster case on the need for all to imbibe the World Health Organisation (WHO) Protocols on how to avoid getting or spreading the disease. Those on the PTF find it convenient to talk down on Nigerians because they are small fries but lack the courage to cite the case of a big fish like Kyari to drive home the point about how deadly the virus is.

    It was only after Kyari’s death that PTF Chairman Boss Mustapha found his voice to tell the public that the unfortunate incident shows that COVID-19 is real. With due respect to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, that is not true. COVID-19 had long shown that it is real by striking many eminent persons around the world,  including presidents,  kings, princes, prime ministers and their spouses. By striking Kyari too sometime last month, it brought that realness closer home, but the PTF failed in its duty to use the CoS’ case to strengthen the campaign against the deadly virus. The PTF was set up to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the country and not to deliberately keep quiet when a big gun catches the virus. To do so, amounts to shirking its responsibility and a disservice to the nation.

    There can be no two sets of rules in the anti-COVID-19 war. Let no one be deceived, this virus knows no status, office, super or no super power. It does not differentiate between the rich and the poor nor look at skin pigmentation. Let me refresh our memories with a quote from the March 5, 2020 piece on this page: “Coronavirus is no respecter of status, age or nationality. Top government officials, including a vice president,  and some footballers, among others, have fallen victims of the pandemic”.

    This was long before Kyari tested positive for the virus as reported by the media on March 25. What happened in other parts of the world before then and how those countries handled their cases should have prepared us for what to do when the nation finds itself in the same quagmire. The PTF saw what was happening in all those places, but it learnt nothing from them. It saw how those countries handled high calibre cases. They did not give anybody, whether king or serf,  preferential treatment. Once you had COVID-19, off you go to the isolation/treatment centre. The PTF has been shouting itself hoarse that private hospitals are not allowed to treat COVID-19, with the Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire, warning “my professional colleagues” not to treat such cases “secretly or in private”.

    One cannot say when the FMoH accredited some private facilities to start handling COVID-19 cases, but what is known is that Kyari went into such a facility on March 29 when he issued a statement on his status. But as recently as last week, Ehanire was still saying that private hospitals had not been approved to take those cases. Well, to every rule, there is an exception.  Kyari might have been exempted because of his high office, but the public should have been informed because of any eventuality as none of us has power over life and death. Let me emphasise that the PTF badly handled information surrounding Kyari’s case right from when he contracted the virus last month until he died last week. Even after his death, the double standards it displayed in matters concerning him are still there for all to see.

    Just last week,  it said victims’ remains would not be released to their families for burial as the bodies are still contagious. But that same week, it allowed Kyari’s remains to be buried on Saturday in a public cemetery with a large number of people in attendance, who flouted all known safety measures for preventing the spread of the virus. Reacting to this development on Monday, it apologised for what happened on Saturday, claiming that there is no known WHO Protocol that says COVID-19 victims’ bodies are contagious. Why then did it wait till Kyari’s death to make that clarification?

    So, will families, henceforth, be allowed to collect their relations’ bodies for interment? What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. May Kyari find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

    Akinjide’s 12 2/3 moniker

    How did Chief Richard Osuolale Akinjide (SAN), who died on Tuesday, come about the nickname 12 2/3? It all happened in 1979 during the legal battle over that year’s presidential election. The electoral dispute was a litmus test for the Supreme Court. Everything hanged on its pronouncement which was being awaited on September 26, 1979. Sixteen days earlier, the Court of Appeal, which served as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, had dismissed the claim of Unity Party of Nigeria’s Chief Obafemi Awolowo that President Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria did not win the election as he did not score 25 percent of the votes cast in two-third of the then 19 states of the federation. The Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) had declared Shagari winner on the basis that he scored 25 percent of the votes cast in 12 2/3 states, which it interpreted as two-third of 19 states.

    Awo disagreed, insisting that two-third of 19 states was 13 and not 12 2/3 as there cannot be a fraction of a state. So, the issue before the Supreme Court, the Presidential Election Appeal Tribunal, was as clear as daylight: what is two-third of 19 states? Awo, through G.O.K Ajayi (SAN) argued that it was 13. Shagari, through Akinjide submitted that it was 12 2/3. All waited with bated breath as the seven-man panel of justices comprising Atanda Fatai-Williams (CJN), Ayo Irikefe, Chukwuweike Idigbe, Mohammed Bello, Andrews Otutu-Obaseki, Kayode Eso and Muhammadu Uwais read its judgement,  just  five days to the Presidential Inauguration on October 1, 1979. In a 6 – 1 decision, the court upheld Akinjide’s submission of 12 2/3  and validated Shagari’s election.

    In a minority verdict, Eso disagreed with his colleagues, upholding Awo’s claim that two-third of 19 states is 13. The majority decision, which the court said would not be cited as authority in future, paved the way for Shagari’s inauguration and his subsequent appointment of Akinjide, who has earned himself the 12 2/3 moniker, as attorney-general and minister of justice. Akinjide was among the best in his profession, attaining the prestigious rank of SAN with Awo, G.O.K Ajayi, Kehinde Sofola, Remi Fani-Kayode, Augustine Nnamani, Ben Nwabueze, P.O. Balonwu, Mudiaga Odje, Nwakanma Okoro, Olisa Chukwura, E.A. Molajo and T.A. Bankole-Oki in 1978. Akinjide ran a good race. Rest well, chief.

  • The hands have it

    The hands have it

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    WE were not here in 1918, so we cannot say how that year’s Spanish flu pandemic which killed 50 million people worldwide was reported. No fewer than 500,000 were said to have died in Nigeria.

    Not only that, schools, mosques, churches, among others, were also shut then. In short,  there was a lockdown, as we have it in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states today. So, there is nothing new under the sun, just as Solomon said in the Bible.

    How was it like then covering the most devastating disease of the 20th century? What were the measures taken to stop the spread of the flu? Were people asked to pay attention to their hands every second of the day as we are being told today to avoid catching the Coronavirus otherwise known as  COVID-19? These were some of the questions that crossed my mind as I pondered over the measures prescribed by experts to keep us safe from the virus.

    Whether we will or will not catch the virus, we have been told, lies in our hands. Our fate,  from time immemorial,  has always been in our hands. While growing up, our parents never missed any opportunity to tell us that. “You this child, it remains in your hands if you wish to become somebody in life”, goes the raw translation of the Yoruba version of that admonition. Indeed, our hands have a lot to do with our life. We use our hands for so many things. We use them, whether you are right handed or a Southpaw, to write.

    With our hands, we choose our leaders through voting; we use our hands to bath and to dress up; we use them to eat. We do all these and more with our hands except if  we are so deprived. Nobody prays to lose any member of his body because they are all important in their own small way.

    Our hands, which are an offshoot of our arms,  beginning  from the shoulder, are the major focus in this season of Coronavirus. Everything people say today begins and ends with the hands, especially how they should be kept clean at a time like this.

    It is all about being hygienic. Maintaining proper hygiene is the only way people can avoid being infected with the virus. There has been no other time than now that the importance of our hands is being emphasised.

    It is now that many of us are  realising the truth in what our teachers were telling us then in primary school about hygiene and the regular washing of our hands. I still remember how we were lined up in the assembly and asked to stretch out our hands, with our teachers going round to check them.

    Woe betide the pupil whose nails were dirty. He would be beaten with the edge of a ruler on the back of his hands. It was the days when teachers were teachers and acted as true disciplinarians without any thought of defiling their female pupils.

    These teachers led by example. They not only told us what to do but showed us how to do it. They showed us practically how to be hygienic through the constant cleaning of our hands.

    Read Also: Lockdown: Residents defy government’s directive in Ilorin

     

    There was hardly a classroom that did not have a bowl of water kept on a wooden stand.  At the end of their class and right before our eyes, our teachers will wash their hands with that water and wipe them with a napkin attached to the bowl.

    Seeing our teachers doing that, we did not need anybody to tell us the importance of this simple task of washing our hands after engaging in any chore. It has taken the explosion of Coronavirus around the world to remind us of the importance of hand washing.

    Perhaps, if we had imbibed the culture of hand washing long before now, the virus would not have ravaged the world the way it has done. Well, it is better late than never. After being dealt with by Coronavirus, we have all woken up to the truth in the aphorism that a child would only learn from earthly lessons.

    We have learnt our hygiene lesson the hard way. This is why today hand washing with soap or to apply alcohol based sanitiser on our hands as part of measures to keep COVID-19 at bay has become a singsong.

    Presidents have become ambassadors of good hygiene as they go on air to appeal to their people to wash their hands with soap regularly or apply alcohol based sanitiser on them, maintain social/physical distance, cover their mouths while coughing or sneezing with a tissue paper or bent elbows, all to avoid catching or spreading the virus.

    If nothing, one thing Coronavirus has done is it has made us to take serious certain basic hygienic measures which we hitherto took for granted. One that readily comes to mind is the washing of hands after using the loo.

    The hands again. Yes, the hands. Our continued existence revolves around our hands. And it will always be so. Do we wish to live to tell the story of Coronavirus? I am sure I know what your answer is. If I am right, then it lies in your hands.

     

  • ‘You dropped the ball there’

    ‘You dropped the ball there’

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    ONE of the big revelations in this present administration is Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who did not hide his interest in occupying that office from the word go. If truth must be told, he has not disappointed so far. We got a taste of what to expect from him shortly after he was elected to lead the House of Representatives last June.

    Without mincing words, he said he would step on toes, if need be, adding: “we will shake the table”. The Number 4 Citizen has been doing just that. Through his acts and omissions, he has shown that being in government does not mean that you should not do what is right by the people.

    Thus,  we should not shy away from saying so, if he is doing what is right. Not many in his position can do what he is doing. We have seen how Speakers before him acted.

    To say that Gbajabiamila has brought a breath of fresh air to that office will be an understatement. Less than a year in office, he has shown that the Speaker must speak for the people and not the government of which he is a part.

    He does not spare top government officials who appear before the lawmakers. He asks them the hard questions, thereby putting them on the spot. Check: Hajia Sadiya Farouk and Dr Osagie Ehanire, ministers of Humanitarian Affairs,  Disaster Management & Social Development,  and Health, respectively. Farouk and Ehanire had no answers to the questions he asked them.

    Farouk could not give details about the social integration programme,  just as Ehanire could not say if health workers who are in the frontline of the Coronavirus war were being paid hazard allowance.

    The minister, who claimed that the health workers were only taking temperature and all that,  said: “I don’t know if they are being paid hazard allowance”. The Speaker retorted: “How can that be when you say the Coronavirus is novel. You dropped the ball there, honestly”.