The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Corona conquest

    Corona conquest

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    The world is at war. It is a war like no other because its enemy is not bearing a gun or any other related weapon. What kind of war is that you are wont to ask. How can such an enemy take on the whole world for over 86 days now without capitulating? The world is reeling on its knees under the super power of this fearful enemy

    This enemy is not a sovereign nation like Hilter’s Germany which along with Italy and Japan took on the world in 1939 and lost. It is a tiny thing, but powerful enough to kill within days or weeks. It is so minute that it can be crushed between two fingers. The thing is it cannot be seen with the naked eyes; it can only be seen under the microscope. It is none other than the new Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19.

    It exploded on the world via Wuhan in Hubei District of China last October. Being a closed country, China did not want the development to draw the world’s attention to it. It quickly quashed all local complaints over the matter. But the virulent virus could not be stopped by armoured tanks. China’s leaders watched in awe as the virus killed many of their infected compatriots just as it spread around the world.

    It spread at an alarming rate, waking up the world, which initially thought that it will be limited to China, from its slumber. The world’s greatest mistake was to have initially ignored the potential of the virus to cause calamity. By the time the world decided to act, the virus had spread far and wide. It got to Europe, which was just coming to terms with Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU). Italy was the hardest hit and as at today its number of casualties exceeds that of China which is the index country.

    As the world closes ranks to deal with a common enemy,  the United States (US) and China are flexing muscles over the Coronavirus outbreak, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has since declared a pandemic. Many countries were slow to react to the outbreak of the pandemic. To them, it was a China thing which could not be imported into their countries. When it dawned on them that it was highly contagious, it was rather too late to stop the virus from entering their soil as their citizens who were returning home from high risk nations had become infected.

    In most cases, the infected did not know their status because the symptom takes weeks to manifest. By the time they knew they had already infected others, widening the spread of the pandemic. In some cases, those who returned home from high risk countries did not self isolate for two weeks in line with WHO protocols.  They just returned to their normal life as if everything was alright,  forgetting that these are unusual times.

    We have witnessed two of such cases in high places in Nigeria. Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s son Mohammed returned from abroad and went back to their normal schedule without taking the precautionary step of self isolation. It has since been confirmed that Mohammed tested positive to Coronavirus. There are reports that Kyari may also have tested positive. The duo may have infected some of those they came in contact with or travelled with. Mohammed has infected Bauchi State Governor Bala Muhammed, one of those he met on his arrival in the country.  He met many others who are now being contact traced. So also for Kyari, who met with many people including the President,  his deputy, and many other top government officials

    Mercifully, the President has tested negative for the virus. But will others that Kyari also met after his arrival in the country be that lucky? Only a test, which many of them may be reluctant to take, can determine that. But the Federal Ministry of Health and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which hold a daily briefing on COVID-19 are maintaining sealed lips on Kyari’s case in violation of WHO’s regulations. They did not hold that briefing on Tuesday despite widespread report of Kyari testing positive. Elsewhere in the world, it is not so, the public is duly informed of those infected no matter their status.

    With the seat of government – Aso Rock in Abuja – on lock down over the Coronavirus scourge, it is crystal clear that the place may be out of bounds until it is made safe healthwise for use again. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, which holds there every week, has been postponed indefinitely.

    The figures from the pandemic are really, really frightening. To  WHO, the over 300,000 cases reported from almost every country of the world is “heartbreaking”.

    It added: “The pandemic is accelerating.  It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and just four days for the third 100,000 cases… we can change the trajectory of this pandemic. To win, we must attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics, testing every suspected case,  isolating and caring for confirmed cases and tracing and quarantining every close contact”. Nigeria will do well to play by  this WHO rule rather than circumvent it when powerful people are involved.

    Is there any treatment yet for Coronavirus? According to WHO, “there is currently no treatment that has been proven to be effective against COVID-19”. Not even the much-touted chloroquine by US President Donald Trump?

    Milord at 90

    I first got to know Justice Ishola Olorunnimbe, formerly of the Lagos State High Court from afar. I was a reporter covering the judiciary and his court at the Old Secretatiat, Ikeja GRA, was always a port of call for reporters.

    He was a no-nonsense judge who did not hesitate to draw the line whenever a lawyer wanted to prove difficult. But behind his steely demeanour is a soft and amiable man who loves to crack jokes a lot. He was a father figure who treated lawyers that appeared before him like his children. Some 25 years ago he retired.  His lordship is, however, not tired and he has proved that time and again.

    In 2003, he served on the Lagos State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board. It was then I got to know that he is also an old boy of Ahmadiyya College (now Anwar-ul Islam) College,  Agege. He was a member of the pioneer 1948 Set. They were long gone from the school when my own set came in 25 years later in January 1973 . Despite the huge age gap between him and many members of Anwar-ul Islam College Agege Old Students Association (ACAOSA), he continues to play a vital role in the body.   This old boy of old boys turned 90 on Tuesday, six days after the 93rd birthday of our Principal Emeritus Alhaji J. A. Gbadamosi. Milord, happy birthday. May you wear your new age with grace.

  • Coronavirus: How prepared are we?

    Coronavirus: How prepared are we?

    By Jide Osuntokun

    It is not if the coronavirus will hit us hard like some of the European countries it is when. We are being told by our governments that they are prepared when it is obvious, we are not. The truth is that we do not have the medical infrastructure necessary to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The emphasis should be containment and not treatment because we don’t have enough doctors to go round and enough hospitals. I tried to guess the number of hospitals we have in Nigeria and one will be shocked that we do not have up to one thousand hospitals. I am not talking about consulting clinics masquerading as hospitals.

    Many of our general hospitals are legacies of colonial rule. Some have remained puny institutions without expansion since the British left Nigeria.  Our neglect of the health sector for perhaps half a century has caught up with us. The city of Ibadan, where I live, does not have more than four hospitals including the old University College Hospital which too has been underfunded for years to the point that the lifts don’t work and water does not flow in most parts of the hospital. It will be a miracle if we have hospitals that have ventilators critical in the management of those struck down with coronavirus.

    Paradoxically, we have qualified doctors who cannot be certified because they have not found hospitals to hire them for the one-year mandatory housemanship. The health sector is totally unorganized like one will find in other countries. There has been attempts by private people to organize a health insurance scheme and general practitioners (GP) system by which everybody is registered with his or her own doctor so that when they fall sick, their GP will be the first line of defence. But in the disorganized medical practice in Nigeria, the teaching hospitals appear to be the only hospitals people trust to treat them, thus overwhelming their facilities and thereby bringing the teaching hospitals to their knees and to the pedestrian levels of general hospitals.

    If we make it through this coronavirus pandemic, Nigerians will have to force their government to institute a health insurance scheme for the whole country. If it cannot be done countrywide, we must begin at state levels with each state having its insurance scheme funded by contribution from all employed and those in self-employment. This is not rocket science. Each province in Canada has its own health insurance scheme which is transferable when one moves from one province to another. The simplest way to explain this to Nigerians is to look at vehicle insurance scheme where vehicles cannot go on the roads unless the vehicles carry insurance. In this way we will have an organized medical system if not for this present pandemic at least for the next one if we survive the present pandemic. With this GP based health scheme we will have data on the various maladies afflicting Nigerians and our underfunded teaching hospitals will be in the best positions to treat patients referred to them and to train future doctors.

    The present situation where trained doctors cannot find jobs will be obviated. But perhaps at the end of the road we will need to discuss budgetary allocations of funds for the health and education sectors and how to fund them. We must commend the state governments like those of Lagos, Oyo, Kaduna, Ogun and Ekiti that have domesticated the preventive measures in their states by suggesting that some none essential workers should stay and work from homes. What in Nigeria constitutes “essential workers”? How does anybody work from home in Nigeria where there is no electricity?

    Are the states wired for internet connection? Do civil servants have laptops or IPAD or IPHONES or phones that can connect to their bosses? These questions may simply be academic because cynics will dismiss most of the bureaucrats as not doing anything anyway, and that when they are in office, they are busy doing nothing because the capital budgets that should engage their attention are not there. Many civil servants are just there earning salaries for doing nothing. Whether this is true or not remains a moot question. Civil servants are engaged to keep the unemployment down. There are just too many duplications of jobs in the unwieldy 36-state structure and Abuja FCT that operates as a state and 774 local governments and the federal leviathan in Abuja, all consuming money that could well have been used for physical development.

    These are not the best of times for the entire world. Our people should be told that we do not know the level of our exposure to the coronavirus instead of being told we only have a few people infected by the virus. Just say we don’t know. That will be the honest thing to say. Then our people can be asked to follow the medical regime established by the WHO. Whatever the hospitals we have can be expanded and refurbished to cope for any eventuality. Ventilators and such sophisticated equipment are not even available in the numbers needed in advanced countries in the world not to talk about us here. One can only say “Amen “to people who are saying substantial numbers of people globally will develop immunity to the coronavirus after infection. This is where lies our hope in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

    Looking at the global spread of the pandemic, it seems the tropical areas of the world are for the moment spared of the coronavirus infection. The number of people suffering in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean is relatively small. Perhaps the unseasonably high temperature in recent times and the unbearable and unbelievably hot weather make survival of the coronavirus impossible.  That probably accounts for the low level of infection in those hot areas of the world. This also gives some hope that by the time high temperatures in the summer kicks in, in the northern hemisphere, coronavirus pandemic will taper off. I must say this is the hope and not the science of virology. Curiously, Russia claims just a few hundreds of sufferers, that is if the claim of the Putin regime can be trusted. Japan for some time was apparently suppressing the figures of sufferers in order to persuade people that the Olympics games scheduled to begin in July in Japan can go on. But it is now crystal clear that the games will have to be postponed till next summer to give all athletes a chance of adequate preparation.

    The good news however is that at least China has been able to contain the coronavirus. But our cheer is dampened by the phenomenal death rate in Italy and the rising mortality in Spain, France and Europe generally and the United States. If the prognosis of self-immunity pans out, the world may be able to breathe easier in a few months to come.

    Then will come the main job of economic recovery after the pandemic. The services industries of aviation, hotels, tourism, housing, and insurance would have been severely affected. This is also going to be severe in Nigeria and particularly in a place like Lagos which in recent times depend on services than on direct taxation and allocation from Abuja. The national revenue itself will have to rebound so that money can be available for revamping the economy. The current global price of commodities particularly oil and gas will have to move up for the Nigerian economy to go back to a relatively stable and sustainable level. The economy was already suffering from spending too much of national resources on the war against Boko Haram and other security problems all over the country to the detriment of health and education sectors. If we make it through the coronavirus tragedy without much damage, we should take the opportunity to sit down and map out the way forward. We cannot in this modern world, behave as if we were in antediluvian times. We must march in tandem with the rest of the world. We must take a holistic perspective on our structure of governance and on our health and education sectors. We must find out why some people are so mad with the government and the society that they would take up arms against both society and government. If we do not do this, our insecurity problems will like cancer, metastasize beyond surgical treatment that it will be too late to save this unhappy country and the question of having an organized health sector will become irrelevant.

  • Plague justice and 2023

    Plague justice and 2023

    Olatunji Ololade

     

    WHEN the coronavirus eventually afflicts Nigeria’s most senior public officers, and hurls them to life’s precipice, let’s hope they understand the poetry of their flirtation with demise. Let’s hope they appreciate the justice of it.

    In that moment, their “Excellencies” would rue their refusal to build world class health facilities in the country. They will regret the paltry funds they doled out to the health sector, leaving the citizenry to die of misdiagnosis and malaria, while they jetted out to pop a pimple and trim a wart, or treat a minor case of migraine in specialist hospitals abroad.

    Let’s hope the afflicted governor, lawmaker, minister, among others, appreciate how the billions of public fund wildly misappropriated in the purchase of their official cars, their children’s weddings and wives’ shopping sprees abroad, could save lives and guarantee public confidence in the time of coronavirus.

    Nigeria hasn’t mustered a convincing response to the virus; following the brute awakening posed by the Italian patient, about five new cases have reportedly being identified, thus society can no longer dominate the disease psychologically or dismiss it as urban legend.

    Each surge of rumour or news report about fresh quarantine of “suspected cases” booms as a relapse to reason or hypnotic startling to sentience, still. Is Nigeria truly ready to contain the scourge?

    After the Ebola crisis, one would think that every state would build a containment centre with at least 250 beds as a proactive measure against future pandemic – it is noteworthy that besides the containment facility built by the Lagos State government, no other state initiated such a measure.

    Today, every fresh case of coronavirus must be transferred to Lagos to avail the patient of appropriate medical care; in the case of an emergency, the fate of the patient is better imagined.

    As Nigeria grapples with the frenzy for nasal masks, gloves, antibiotics, hand sanitizers and ‘anointing-miracle oil,’ all barely available at prohibitive prices, and lawmakers plan a two-week recess in order to allow management of the National Assembly provide screening and detention facilities at the complex, the presidency has pronounced a ban on foreign trips by public officers.

    Who would believe that there would come a day, when public officers shied from foreign trips?

    Apparently, the incumbent ruling class, faced by its vulnerability alongside 190-million citizenry, or thereabouts, has suddenly stirred to the demands of public office. Struck by morbid fear of the eruption of the virus beyond their gated paradise, they commit to reactionary measures against a plague that has now been pronounced by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as a pandemic. Simply put, public officers only seem to care about their own fate.

    While they fail in several crucial aspects of governance, they allot the lion’s share of public wealth to the fulfillment of their vanities. They prey on the weak and helpless citizenry, deploying the agents and machinery of state – at the backdrop of the situation, certain public officers, governors to be precise, are embroiled in a bitter, war to perpetuate themselves in power beyond the 2023 general elections.

    While they obsess about the 2023 polls, Nigeria reels from the ravage of terrorism, armed banditry and the onset of a pandemic.

    In light of the hardships foisted upon all by inefficient leadership, the onus rests on the citizenry to liberate themselves and the country from their clutches.

    The relationship between a predatory leadership and the citizenry could be likened to that between a property owner and an intruder. There can be no compromise between both; offering the intruder a single teaspoon of the property owner’s silverware would not be a compromise, but a total surrender as Rand would say – the recognition of the burglar’s right to one’s property.

    And if I may retell in Rand-speak, the Nigerian conundrum, I would say, that, there can be no compromise, however exquisitely couched, between the citizenry and an insensitive leadership.

    Whether we like it or not, there can be no concession or sophistry acceptable on basic principles and fundamental issues. There can be no compromise between truth and falsehood, reason and irrationality.

    Nothing corrupts and disintegrates culture and character like the principle of moral agnosticism; that is, the idea that one must be morally tolerant of anything and everything. And that ingenuity consists in never distinguishing good from evil and taking sides. It is obvious who profits and loses by such precept.

    Even as so many of us indulge in the propagation of hatred, for and against the interests, of our preferred politicians and public officers, it wouldn’t hurt to heed the subtle warnings of reason and the caveat of objectivity.

    Given that we put ourselves on trial every time we think and speak, it is only fair that we shun the amoral cynicism and hooliganism that has become the plague of the political space.

    The next general elections is in 2023 but desperate actors in the political class have begun plotting, 36 months early. Governors with presidential ambition, for instance, desert their states and primary duty while shuttling covens where they hatch their frantic plots.

    Such characters conveniently forget that the best plot towards relevance and staying in power is good governance. Rather than institute a sterling culture of governance, they embark on a delirious quest to grab power, outside the considerations of merit and performance.

    As states groan under the burden of infrastructure lapses, education, regulatory and health systems collapse, the citizenry must understand that they are on the receiving end.

    This is certainly not the time to defend unjust privileges of ethnicity, religion, benefactors and godfathers, even as the latter make their world less happy, less compassionate, less peaceful, more full of greed and compatriots whose growth is continually stunted by oppression.

    A spectre is haunting the country. Wide-eyed, the electorate entered an unholy alliance with the ruling class. They do not constitute formidable opposition to keep leadership on its toes neither do they offer invaluable support to keep our leaders in check.

    As we endure familiar and unfamiliar crisis of citizenship and governance, let us pay good mind to the 2023 electoral march. Come 2023, the citizenry must seek out candidates on the basis of their antecedents in governance and outside it.

    If we did not indulge in such abject perversions and pitiable evasions as the argument that some contemptible liar “means well” – that a mooching bum “can’t help it” – that an unrepentant murderer “needs understanding” or that a desperate, power-thirsty politician is driven by concern “for the public good,” the history of our past few decades would have been different.

    Do we know the candidate who could guarantee the provision and sustenance of good roads and electricity, standard and affordable health care, security, a stable economy and quality education among others?

    Shall we now identify and root for the candidate capable of resolving the conflicting characteristics of our tribal mentality? Can we identify the candidate who can validate and attain a worthy equilibrium between the expediency of wiping off our slums vis-à-vis the affordability of beautiful cities and suburbs?

    Can we identify the candidate who can evaluate and project our given concretes by an abstract principle while exacting the most probable if not practicable outcomes? In peace or war, pestilence or health, that would be a leader for all climes.

     

     

  • Fayemi at war with his fathers

    Fayemi at war with his fathers

    By Jide Oluwajuyitan

     

    The Alafin of Oyo who prides himself as the custodian of Yoruba tradition was last week on behalf of other revered Yoruba monarchs including the Ooni of Ife, the Awujale of Ijebuland, and the Alake of Egbaland, compelled to write a letter to His excellency Governor Kayode Fayemi because of ‘the treatment being meted to the Ekiti traditional institution and its overall effects on the Yoruba culture’.

    The Obas expressed sadness over the governor’s query to‘the 17 Ekiti traditional rulers of high esteem in Yorubaland”, for no other offence than their refusal “to bow their heads under their subordinate”.

    It was in their view ironic that while his (fayemi) predecessors in office and ancestors of thesecrowned Obas and their subjects displayed uncommon patriotism,courage and commitment to confront the intimidating military prowess of Ibadan army for 16 years (1870-1886), Fayemi as a beneficiary of the legacy bequeathed by these kings of Yoruba history is now embarking on an exercise that will rubbish the contributions of his ancestors”

    Although governor Fayemi, like the rest of us is not without some of his own character flaws, but that undoubtedly couldn’t have been his intention when he set out on his ego trip that led to last week’s unnecessary and avoidable confrontation with his fathers.

    This perhaps explains why his picture in full prostration before the Alafin like a Yoruba true born during his damage control visit adorned the front pages of some Nigerian newspapers last Sunday.

    The visit was made more urgent because the embattled Alawe who Fayemi was trying to please by all means including proving he is greater than his fathers,had sent an ill-advised letter in his capacity as governmentrecognised chairmanto Governor Makinde of Oyo state asking him to”stop the Alafin from his meddlesomeness in the internal affairs of Ekiti Obas”.

    Butthe position of both Fayemi and Alawe remains unassailable.  We are a Republic. The age of divine rights of kings or monarchical absolutism died  with King James of England (1603-25)and buried with the Glorious Revolution (1688—89)..

    By the virtue of our constitution, the Obas’ traditional oath is to the subordination to modern political authority. Obas’ fear of governors is therefore the beginning of wisdom as Lamido Sanusi, the recently deposed 24thEmir of Kano discovered too late.

    But just as our elder statesman, and the Nobel Laureate, prof. Wole Soyinka, a man of culture himself said of Dr Ganduje of Kano after his deposition of Emir of Kano two weeks back, Fayemi’scurrent war with his fathers seems to indicate “he has no friends that could have saved him from himself.”

    You don’t prove you are greater than your father because it is settled in Yoruba philosophy ‘that a child brought to the world who does not strive to be greater than his father is brought to the world in vain’.And by our tradition, it doesn’t matter whether you are right or wrong, we don’t disrobe our fathers in the public.

    Or as the Holy Bible put it “Whoever honours his father will be gladdened by his own children. O son, help your father in his old age and do not grief him even if he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance and not despise him. For a kindness to a father will not be forgotten” Book of Sirach 3: 12-14.

    Read Also: Ooni reconciles Fayemi, aggrieved monarchs

     

    And what are the facts? 17 of the 22 Obas in Ekiti had rejected Fayemi’s appointment of Alawe of Ilawe-Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Alabi, as the new chairman of Ekiti Traditional Council claiming he was politically promoted.

    They  on August 9 instituted litigation asking the court to reverse Fayemi’s action on the premise that Alawe was not recognised by statute to chair the council adding that, they,as members of (pelupelu) had the exclusive rights to head the council, among the 22 members, in line with the extant tradition and the State Chieftaincy Laws.

    However, five out of the 17- Onisan of Isan Ekiti ; Attah of Ayede-Ekiti,; Onitaji of Itaji-; Owa of Oke-Imesi, and Arinjale of Ise-Ekiti,  back-pedaled. The remaining 11 including Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oloye of Oye  Elekole of Ikole Elemure of Emure Ajero of Ijero; Alara of Aramoko,. Ogoga of Ikere-Ekiti,; Olomuo of Omuo, Alaaye of Efon; Ologotun of Ogotun and Olujudo of Ido-Faboro, however sticked to their resolution to shun the council meetings and government functions chaired by Alawe.

    But Governor Fayemi, a beneficiary of judicial due process was unwilling to let due process run its course. Accusing the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti of  “holding illegal meeting of dissident Obas in his place and plotting against the government”, on his directive , his state attorney General , Fapounda  directed a query dated March 11, be issued to the 11 aggrieved monarchs “demanding explanation for their prolonged absence from monthly meeting and state official function for the past six months”. From the above, it is apparent Fayemiwill pay a political price even he wins the argument.

    Besides lack of friends to safe him from himself, it is also possible Fayemi assigns too much weight to his prodigious intellect and supreme confidence in his ability to make friends in high places while taking the loyalty of close friends and those who fought in the trenches with him for granted.

    If this as his political opponents say was his greatest undoing during his first coming, his current ill-advised muscle flexing with his fathers seem to confirm little lesson was learnt from  his  2014 election debacle.

    People in and out of Ekiti attested to his outstanding performance. Wole Soyinka who doesn’t suffer fools gladly was in Ado to identify with his people-oriented policies.

    Week after week informed Ekitiindigenes sensitiseEkiti voters on why Ayo Fayose must not be allowed to prolong our nightmare. This column even went further to argue Fayemi did not need to campaign because of his self-evident achievements.

    That other variables outside performance determine outcome of elections was brought home vividly when, a well-informed former editor of a national  newspaper  called from Ekiti on the eve of the election declaring with troubling finality that “Fayemi would lose tomorrow’s election”, adding for effect that “neither you nor Dr Olatunji Dareresides in Ekiti”.

    Shocked and confused I had asked “if not Fayemi, must it be Fayose?” His disconcerting answer delivered with an unforgiving tone was “anyone but Fayemi, if only to teach him a lesson in humility”.

    Nigerians now know Fayemi did not lose the 2014 election fairly. But that there was not a whimper from Ekiti people who had in 1983 joined others in the old Ondo state to chase their own son, the late Omoboriowo, the major beneficiary of what was then described by Walter Ofonagoro, as NPN ‘landslide and seaslide’in opposition strongholds was evidence enough that the people he served selflessly for four years were dissatisfied with him.I think Fayemi’s air of ‘I am in charge” simply puts people off.

    More than a prodigious intellect and ability to cultivate friendship of the powerful,a politician needs to earn the trust and confidence of the lowly in societyand more especially among the Yoruba people where ordinary greetings have meanings and the led know their true leaders.

  • Odia Ofeimun and Awo

    Odia Ofeimun and Awo

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    TO work for a man like Chief Obafemi Awolowo is no mean feat. That person must be ready to put up with a lot of things because of the kind of life Awo led. Writer, poet, author, artiste Odia Ofeimun fitted the bill well as he served Awo as private secretary.

    As Awo’s private secretary much was expected of him and he discharged his duty creditably. Then something happened. It is a story well known by people of my own generation.

    If Ofeimun, a big uncle to people like me, was not well known then, that incident shot him into limelight. It was the heady days of politics in 1979.

    Awo had written a confidential letter to Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe over that year’s presidential election. Somehow, the letter got leaked to the media before it got to Zik. The first suspect was of course Ofeimun since he was Awo’s secretary. But he was not the one that leaked the letter.

    Read Also: Odia Ofeimun at 70: The poet ages

     

    He knew who leaked it and Awo himself got to know later who that person was, but Ofeimun took everything in his strides as he was sanctioned for something he did not do.

    He lost his job with Awo, but his fame grew and has continued to grow. Ofeimun, who turned 70 on Monday, is unassuming. He is in love with the arts and writing.

    The Awo letter may have brought Ofeimun to the notice of many Nigerians because that was an unforgettable incident. He became known to many who did not know him before, with some wondering what kind of man is that, that will take the blame for what he did not do.

    Ofeimun has come a long way in life. He has paid his dues and he deserves all the accolades he is getting on the celebration of his 70th birthday.

    Edionwan, as your name implies, you have shown no fear even in the face of adversity. May you continue to enjoy good health as you age gracefully.

  • Not too big to fall

    Not too big to fall

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    ‘Developed countries may have weapons of mass destruction, but what will that profit humanity which needs protection from pestilences, such as Coronavirus which can explode at any time without notice’

     

    TO say that the Coronavirus aka COVID-19 has dealt a big blow to the whole world will be an understatement. The virus is ravaging the globe. Hardly does a day passes without reports of fresh cases and casualities. The world is benumbed by what has hit it.

    From China to Canada, United States (US) to United Kingdom (UK), Poland to Portugal, Iraq to Iran, Sweden to Slovenia, the virus has left no nation out of its deadly sting.

    The big countries which people hitherto thought had answers to every problem on earth have been made to look ordinary by COVID-19. They are the hardest hit by Coronavirus which the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a pandemic on March 12.

    A pandemic is a disease that is spreading in multiple countries around the world at the same time. Since the virus hit China last December 31, there has been no stopping it as it spread around the world.

    While declaring Coronavirus a pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that as at that date, there were 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths, adding that the virus has found a foothold on every continent except Antarctica.

    He went on: ‘’we have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a Coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled at the same time.’’

    The virus has become a big challenge to the developed countries and their scientists. The scientists have been in and out of their laboratories looking for a vaccine to tame the pestilence. The world has seen a pandemic before but it was not in the mould of Coronavirus.

    The last pandemic to hit the world occurred in 2009. The novel Influenza A (H1N1) virus was first detected in the US and it quickly spread through that country and the world. But the rate at which the Coronavirus is spreading is alarming.

    Each day comes with news of how the virus is wreaking havoc globally. In three months, the virus has taken a huge toll on the world. The global economy is threatened as countries take measures to contain its spread. The Coronavirus is more dangerous than many other viruses because it is an airborne disease.

    Read Also: Nigeria records five new cases of coronavirus

     

    Person to person infection is easy from even a casual contact if necessary precautions are not taking. Football, the most followed sport in the world, has lost its shine to Coronavirus.

    The world’s best leagues in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France have put the football season on hold because of COVID-19. Some footballers and the manager of Arsenal Mikel Arteta have tested positive for Coronavirus.

    The global economy is haemorraging, with many countries on lock down because of the pandemic. There are fears that if a vaccine is not found for the virus in good time, there may be a global economic crisis. How soon can a vaccine be found for COVID-19 in order to save the world from its scourge?

    Countries that should concentrate on researching for the vaccine are in a battle of sorts with the pandemic. The US, UK, France, Germany and Canada are being ravaged by the pandemic, slowing down the search for the vaccine.

    Cheery news however came from the US on Tuesday that an experimental Coronavirus vaccine had been administered on four volunteers in Seattle.

    It is the first known vaccine to be tested on healthy human beings. Their reaction to the vaccine will determine whether it should be administered on those with Coronavirus.

    It is amazing how a virus can bring down a world, especially countries which think they have all it takes to face whatever comes their way.

    The Coronavirus pandemic has shown that there are some unforeseen forces greater than the so-called world powers. These countries may be powerful, but their power has been curtailed in the face of Coronavirus.

    Even, if eventually, a vaccine is found for the pandemic, the point would have been made that the virus shook the globe before it was contained.

    Developed countries may have weapons of mass destruction which they can deploy at the press of a button in the event of a war, but what will that profit humanity, which needs to be protected from pestilences, such as Coronavirus which can explode at any time without notice. Just as COVID-19 did in China in 2019 and humbled the developed countries.

  • Celebrating gender equality

    Celebrating gender equality

    Jide Osuntokun

     

    Sunday March 8 was international women’s day. The day is devoted to celebrating the role of women in national and international lives of the world as well as interrogating reasons for discrimination against women in politics,  religion ,the professions and the quest for equality across all the facets of our lives .

    Women have made remarkable progress in their struggle for equality in modern times . But there are still mountains to climb .

    Until 1918 women in England could not vote in elections . The suffrage was extended to them due to the agitation of the suffragettes led by  the Manchester born political activist Emmeline Pankhurst.

    Apart from the activities of the ladies , the role of women as munitions makers and factory workers to relieve their men folks for  active service in the war fronts during the First World War convinced political leaders of the usefulness of women when  fully engaged in the domestic front during the war which required total mobilization of all people , men and women .

    The example of Britain in conceding voting rights to women was followed all over the civilized world , even then,  they still had to fight for it in every country . Voting right  was not  a mean achievement because with voting right came representation in parliament.

    With representation came the chance for women to ask difficult questions which broke down political and economic traditions and dogmas  established over thousands of years .

    Men used to say the good Lord created Eve only to be a helpmate for Adam and a helpmate cannot be equal to her boss .The judeo – Christian traditions confined women to the role of second fiddle. God was not the God of Abraham and Sarah but of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob .

    Saint Paul said specifically that women shouldn’t head a church and that whenever they had something to say they should tell their husbands who will apparently say it for them . Of course the position of Mary the mother of Jesus was highly venerated in the  Roman Catholic Church which elevated  her to a level of an intercessor  between man and God.

    Muslims regard women almost as property of men . Men can have as many as four  of them at at any given time and to divorce them ,men just have to tell them  four times that they have been divorced and give them letters of divorce just like in  Judaism.Even in cases of rape the evidence of four women is equal to that of a man which makes convictions almost impossible .

    Women had absolutely no political or property right. What was true of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism , Christianity and Islam was true of the Far East polytheistic religions of Hinduism ,Buddhism and Shintoism .

    Religion was the greatest cultural obstacle women had to overcome to be recognized as equal to men . The men were of course not ready to give up their vested and privileged interests and advantages .

    Here in Africa the position of women was precarious.Men could marry as many as their energy could cope with . They provided the children who were needed to help their fathers on the farms and they also  provided additional Labour if needed .

    In rural agricultural communities the role of women was limited to production and procreation . They had no political rights whatsoever. Of course in sophisticated societies of organized kingdoms ,there were lines of female chiefs and there were aberrant instances where women became” kings “.

    Where that happened the women ceased being women they became men in dressing and behavior .Modern women have therefore had to frontally tackle all the cultural prejudices against them .

    The struggle for equal rights intensified in the 1960s and came under the rubric of what was called the feminist movement. This refers to series of political campaigns and agitations demanding reproductive rights , end to domestic violence against women, granting of maternity leave, voting rights , equal pay ,  end to sexual violence and harassment.

    Betty Friedan first published a book called the “ Feminine Mystique “ in which he demolished the myths of the 1950s that a woman found happiness and contentment in being housewives.

    She said the idea that woman’s role in life was to attend church , cook the man’s food and take care of the children was a man’s idea popularized without any input from women and that women like men want to have fulfilled lives In careers and to have independent source of wealth as well as own property .

    She said that women want the same things as men and have the same desires and that these could be realized without derogation of what men already enjoy .

    Read Also: Gender equality by 2030: dream or reality?

     

    The feminist movement in the United States in the 1960s took a much more radical tone through the activities of their most well known leaders who through magazine articles and books enunciated the beliefs and ideologies of the movement.

    Much more radical books particularly by Germaine Greer  their philosopher who wrote the book “ the female Eunuch “  and the article by the much more politically savvy Gloria Marie Steinem  who wrote an article titled “After black power ,female liberation “gave direction to the movement. Not all female supporters were feminists in the sense of wanting to be rid of men  .They only wanted equality .

    Others challenged established traditions and even way of dress . Some went to the extent of dramatically burning their braziers  and letting their breasts all hang out as an act of liberation. Some even resorted to violence like the “ burn baby burn” of the urban black revolution of the contemporaneous black power movement of the 1960s when young black peoples forcefully demanded for equality or death .

    The radicalization of the movement drove away many women who would have ordinarily supported it . There is however no doubt that the publicity and the direct action of many of their supporters forced men to have a rethink about the place of women in society.

    Many of the demands of the women have been conceded by the male dominated society . But there are still areas where final victory still remains to be won particularly in the area of parity in emolument.

    America’s example in all these things have been followed in most parts of the world with the exception of the Muslim world where the status of women still leaves much to be desired. In Nigeria there are no constitutional restrictions against how far a woman can go .

    The restrictions against them are cultural . Politically,  women are relegated to the background by such practices such as holding  political caucuses in the night and no self respecting women would leave their husbands’ homes to go to political meetings at night .

    In Nigeria ,women have  however been members of state and federal legislatures . We have had a female Chief Justice , head of service, vice chancellors and so on but not governors or presidents yet ,but the time for these will come.

    I personally have always supported women’s rights . I remember with fondness the late professor Jadesola Akande second  Nigerian female vice chancellor  through my nomination when I was in Lagos State University Council . She chose me as one of the trustees of Nigeria’s women party sometimes in the 1980s .

    I told her “ Jade I am not a woman “ in her characteristic way she said “ is your mother not a woman ?” I quickly agreed to her demand .I end this article with a poem by my 9 year old grand son Finn oluwasijibomi  Lyon celebrating gender equality in his innocent but deeply thought poem.

     

    “The man of poetry couldn’t think of a poem

    It was hard to think it would seem

    But he could think of anything

    But may be now nothing

    So he called all the smartest men

    Men entering his house every day

    But going then , away

    If only he could open his mind

    Then he might find

    Years had passed then eureka

    The perfect poem he had found

    So surely it would bound

    It was written right away

    A girl then came

    This girl will get the fame

    She read her poem , the opposite of fame

  • Shooting pebbles at bandit storms

    Shooting pebbles at bandit storms

    By Olatunji Ololade

    The sun still rises and sets over Nigeria’s blinders and ruined stones. Above the rubble, visages of the world we dream diminish and fade, but we have learnt to romp over the corpses we make.

    We bellow just to hear our voices return from the hills. We watch our lives cascade bloodied ravines, sprawled and littering, where everything morphs to nothing.

    What is it that we seek? To shriek our fears hoarse or inter them beneath the capers of our tragedies and open secrets?

    Perhaps we simply need the landscape to repeat us and replenish every rind of logic that absolves us of blame.

    Who do we blame as our fortune hangs askew? Some have fingered the oligarchs. They say the latter do not believe in self-sacrifice for Nigeria and the common good. Of course, they never have and they never will.

    Their leadership is assured by their full control of the economy and the media. They control the legislature, executive and judiciary; little wonder they wield power as a sharp instrument for personal enrichment and domination.

    Nonetheless, we attack their ocean surge with catapults, hoping pebbles repel their bandit storms. The Nigerian crisis is a human crisis thus the failure of the law, precepts and structures at addressing the country’s major afflictions.

    The foundation for progress is non-existent and that is because the human elements that are meant to erect such monument are spiritless and corrupt. Consequently, we suffer the affliction of a predatory ruling class and a citizenry inclined to fulfill the role of unforgivably docile, self-flagellating lower elements.

    The imprudence of the latter reasserts in the upward mobility of certain crucial members of the divide across class boundaries. Increasing wealth, higher status and social affiliations often alienate this band of circumstantial leaders from the self-confessed values and politics that stood them out as vanguards of rights of the under-privileged.

    Just recently, the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), a coalition of supposedly brilliant, youthful revolutionaries emerged to challenge the dominance of the ruling party, the fast-dissembling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its clownish rival, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2019 general elections.

    Sadly, these new kids on the block failed to earn Nigerians’ mandate due to their banal theory of rage and aggression.

    Having failed to connect with the grassroots, they embarked on a fool’s gambit, seeking to match the predatory oligarchs, filth for filth, rhetoric for rhetoric, while belting righteous indignation.

    To establish and sustain its integrity, PACT suspended itself in ideological voyeurism and fault-finding, a tactic of assault and defence that eventually became its crucifix and tomb.

    As PACT buried itself in bitter mummiform, Nigerians, the youth especially, consigned the platform and hopes it stoked in them beneath the country’s political thrash pile.

    The PACT disaster is hardly astonishing; the platform and its members, if elected, would eventually play into a stereotype – better they dashed our hopes at the 2019 polls than later.

    Such pitiful waste of potential leaders and emancipators of the masses should never be overlooked. Even so, they are considered as the lucky few who made it to the spotlight. Politically, they are the smarty pants who dared the system and acquired the title of “Former Presidential Aspirant.” They are the nouveau riche, who inspire anecdotes for attaining success and deep pockets despite all odds.

    How many Nigerians succeed so in real life? How many definitions of “success” aren’t deductive from “cheating the system” or defrauding it at all cost?

    Money changes everything. An obsession for it corrupts the elderly and youth alike. While loving it could be practical, an inordinate lust for it drives the covetous to the brink. It shows the oligarchs upside-down and inside-out as men of vulpine souls and intellect, eternally forsworn against statesmanship and the collective good.

    For the love of money, several armed robbers, kidnappers, and terrorists, in their youth, have wasted innocent lives. Many “woke” youths and misguided millenials have equally justified taking bribes, and playing ruinous muscle to the ruling class, claiming its their “share of the collective wealth that they steal from us.”

    Whatever justification they choose to give to it, a bribe is a bribe. And it often changes relations. Once accepted, it reduces the recipient, making him inferior, like the proverbial impotent, who pays to be sodomized by a horse, thinking it would cure his impotence and aid him to sire by his woman, a blessed child.

    The folly of our ways have dawned on us. The oligarchs we enabled with power have evolved some of the worst tyrannies across the 36 states of the federation. A brilliant tyrant could be trusted to a certain degree of depth and capacity to lead but a dimwitted tyrant is infinitely dangerous; as he cannot be trusted beyond his mental handicaps and the devious plots of his associates and kitchen cabinet.

    Sadly, in the corrupted currents of our world, such characters are making frantic gestures to perpetuate themselves in power beyond 2023. It’s 2020, and some governors have spent more time in Abuja than their domains; they are embroiled in desperate plots to beguile and forcibly seize power in 2023 even as they fail to fulfill the duties of their incumbent offices.

    Ongoing political liaisons enable a system in which the youth are psychologically confined and broken by inducements, dubious segregation and manipulative politics.

    Many argue that the major problem afflicting Nigeria is the dearth of inspired leadership drawn from the nation’s youth. A converse view advances the presence of eminently capable youth, potential heroes who have learnt to keep quiet and tactfully ignore our romanticized wish to abolish the status quo. They know, that, as usual, we would always settle for an opportunistic contract between our exploiters (the government) and a part of the exploited (labour and youth leadership), at the expense of the rest of the exploited (you, me and everyone) – something Noel Ignatin aptly identifies as “the original sweetheart agreement.”

    It is about time we actualized a culture of true ideals against petty passions and sordid objectives. Let us begin to build that proverbial bulwark of citizenship whose ideal of patriotism is held untainted by wantonness, ill-bliss and the temptations of power.

    Let us begin from the grassroots. Let us desensitize ourselves of toxic prejudices and conceit.

    Let us begin to court and patronise the usual objects of our apathy and disdain – like the “inconsequential” park urchin, “hooligan” and muscles for hire in the boondocks, university campuses, the media and law enforcement agencies.

    It is time to connect with the park urchin, neighbourhood thug and militia to channel the inestimable benefits accruable by identifying with them in psyche, electoral will and numbers.

    In 2019, candidates of the PACT collective thrashed blindly about the nation’s political swamp, inciting rhetorical levels with witty abruptness. Eventually, their language did not make sense.

    They could begin to make sense by speaking truths amenable to the miseries of the electorate outside the perimeters of the general elections. For the latter, better tomorrow has passed, today is stricken and yesterday has withered with her ridged fundaments at last.

    Now that fractured ‘Change’ in which they trusted, has drifted down shifting waters to the darkest deep, let the PACT “disrupters” strap torn will to broken resolve and furiously row before we sink.

     

  • Sanusi: The road to exile

    Sanusi: The road to exile

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    It was a matter of time before they got him. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, until Monday, March 9, the emir of Kano, knew that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was after him and that he would do anything to get rid of him at the least opportunity. The cat-and-mouse game between them had been on for long. Ganduje would have since deposed Sanusi if not for the emir’s connections.

    His friends always came to his aid before the governor could dethrone him. If they had their way, the emir’s friends would have stopped his dethronement last Monday, but it seemed the governor, who could not get over his Sanusi complex, caught them unawares. Sanusi is brash and rash, no doubt. He takes no quarters as he is ever ready to speak his mind no matter whose ox is gored.

    He has always been like that. He loves controversy. In fact, Sanusi thrives on controversy. As Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, a post in which he should be seen and not  heard often, he became a thorn in the flesh of the government of the day despite knowing the consequences of such action. He lost his job because of his outspokenness when former President Goodluck Jonathan could no longer tolerate him.

    That was six years ago and you would say that he should have learnt his lesson and as such be mindful of his utterances in future, especially after he became emir shortly after that. To expect Sanusi to do that means the public does not know who the real Sanusi is. He is royalty but in his blue blood is the gene of a social crusader. Sanusi wants a just and egalitarian society. A society where things work; where the boy- and girl-child are given equal opportunity; where parents do not send their children out to beg in order to survive.

    He saw everything wrong in his immediate environment where the Almajiri culture thrives like an industry. The more he looks at what is happening in the North, the more he is embittered. Sanusi did not like what he saw. He believed that those boys who roamed the streets with begging bowls could live a better life if educated. Why would a man sire a child and virtually abandon the boy? Why would a father give away his daughter in marriage at an early age all because of money? Why would such parents not send their children to school?

    Nigeria has over 13 million out-of-school kids, with the North having the highest percentage. This is the kind of statistics that makes the stomachs of people like Sanusi churn because of its inherent danger. The North can do better for itself and that is what Sanusi is clamouring for. Those in leadership position tend to misunderstand him because of his open way of doing things. They want him to come to them in private and talk things over instead of going public. The question is: if he panders to their wish will they listen to him?

    It is good to advise leaders in secret, if and only if, such leaders will take to the advice. If they will not, it is better to go public with such comments. I have heard people ask: ‘’is Sanusi not part of the problems he claims he is trying to solve?’’ In his little way, he acted practically to address some of the problems facing the region. He instituted  a N100 million fund for small scale entrepreneurs and also invested in the education of his people.

    He may not have played his politics right, but that is not to say he did not mean well. Sanusi meant well, but he was misunderstood not only by Ganduje but also by many who called themselves his friends. When the time for Ganduje to exact his pound of flesh came on Monday, March 9, he swiftly did so before Sanusi’s friends could move in again and save him. That fateful day, the Kano State Executive Council held an emergency meeting, with only the dethronement and banishment of Sanusi on the agenda. The reason for Sanusi’s dethronement still seems hazy. The House of Assembly had yet to take action on the petitions against him before it when Ganduje deposed him.

    The governor accused Sanusi of insubordination and of breaching Part 3, Section 13 (a-e) of the Kano State Emirate Law 2019. Ganduje may have had his way in deposing Sanusi, but the dethronement and banishment may end up making the emir more popular. Someone like Sanusi cannot be silenced because whether on or out of exile he will always remain in public conscience.  When things go wrong, they will pine for him and for his interventions on burning issues.

    Should any leader be talking of banishing people in this era when we are no longer under colonial rule? Can a governor just wake up, depose a monarch and send him on exile in flagrant violation of the Constitution, which provides for freedom of movement, freedom of association and right to personal liberty? Many of our governors are like Ganduje. They do not want anybody to challenge their authority. Consequently, they have become overlords, with their Houses of Assembly and local government chairmen under their beck and call.

    Our governors are the major threat to our democracy. They want to be treated with respect, but they do not accord others such respect. They have forgotten that being a governor does not mean that they are better than those they govern. May they realise their mistakes sooner than later and retrace their steps before it is too late.

  • Old men are coming: American Presidential election

    Old men are coming: American Presidential election

    By Jide Osuntokun

    The exit of Elizabeth Warren from the Democratic Party primaries has narrowed the competition to two elderly gentlemen, former Vice President, Joe Biden, a professional politician who represented the  small state of Delaware  in the US Senate from 1973 to 2009 and  was vice president from 2009 to 2017  and who has spent 44 years in electoral offices in Congress and the vice presidency of the United States, and, Senator Bernie Sanders an independent, representing the state of Vermont in the House of Representatives for 16 years before being elected into the Senate in 2012 and 2018. He caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate.

    Joe Biden would be 78 and Sanders would be 79 by the time of the election in November. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination would face the incumbent Republican President Donald J. Trump who will be 73. The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is 79. Happily Vice President Mike Pence is a young man of 60 years.  The United States has not paraded this kind of elderly leaders in recent times. From the realignment of forces in the Democratic Party, Joe Biden is likely to emerge the Democratic nominee to face Trump. The age issue will definitely be raised in the debates and in the press and whoever wins the Democratic nomination had better be prepared to face the issue by nominating a healthy young man or lady as running mate. The name of Kamala Harris, black senator from the state of California and erstwhile presidential candidate has been mentioned as possible running mate to Biden.

    Senator Harris has recently endorsed Joe Biden and it is rumoured she is a sure banker for vice president’s slot. In an ideal world this would have been a formidable partnership. The senator is young and very beautiful. But this is not an ideal world and some may be afraid that she may become president, were Biden to die in office of old age and this would amount to two black presidents within 12 years. Biden would do his electability a favour if he chooses a white man or perhaps Senator Elizabeth Warren but she is going to be 71.

    If I was a betting man, I would put my wager on Joe Biden to emerge the Democratic nominee. This is not because he is a better man than Bernie Sanders. In fact Sanders has a better progressive pedigree and programs than Joe Biden. He did not vote for any of the ruinous foreign wars which the United States for almost one and a half decades has not been able to extricate itself from. He also did not vote for the continental free trade that yoked together the United States, Canada and Mexico which was the signature policy of President Bill Clinton which has resulted in loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the American rust belt of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania which were traditional Democratic states but which have changed allegiance from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

    Joe Biden’s commitment to universal health coverage for all Americans is doubtful whereas Sanders commitment is unequivocal on the grounds that the US is the only major industrial state in the West where there is no national health service that is universal. Sanders is not ashamed to call himself a socialist which to me is a kiss of death for his chance of winning the nomination. In America, communism and socialism are almost perceived as original sin . If Sanders had declared he was a socialist in the 1950’s America, he might have been arrested for “Un- American “activities. During the time of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin, no one in public office could have called himself a socialist without consequences. The McCarthy era of hounding communists in the US was a period that has gone down into history as McCarthyism, a period of intense anti-communist suspicion in the US that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the middle 1950s otherwise known as the “Red Scare”. Not only did Bernie Sanders call himself a socialist, he went further to celebrate the life of Fidel Castro of Cuba as having revolutionized the health of his people by bringing health care and health facilities to all Cubans. This statement could have been made by any professor in any university in the US and gotten away with it but this is not expected of a politician who wants to win the votes of millions of Cuban émigrés who tended, like all Latinos and blacks, to vote for Democrats. But with eulogy on Fidel Castro, Bernie Sanders would lose Florida and perhaps Texas where there are large Cuban concentrations. America by and large is an immigrant and tolerant country but there are hard pockets of hard core racists and intolerant people.

    I remember a long-serving Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, who while speaking publicly in the Senate said something was against “Christian tradition” and somebody cut in and said  you mean “Judeo- Christian tradition “ and the senator said he meant Christian tradition and did not want it linked with anything “ judeo”.  Among some fundamental Christians, Jews are blamed for killing Jesus and they cannot reconcile themselves to the continuity of Judaic tradition with that of followers of Jesus.

    I am saying this because there are people in all of Europe and the Americas – north and south -who would find it difficult to trust the presidency of their country to a Jew. Since Britain’s Benjamin Disraeli in 1875, I don’t know of a European country where a Jew has headed the state or the government. In the case of Disraeli, he was a baptized Jew anyway. In one of the rallies of Senator Bernie Sanders, somebody waived a large Nazi swastika flag thus bringing up his Jewish race and religion as an issue. Yet this is still at the Democratic nomination campaign. Only God knows what will happen when he faces Trump who even though his daughter is married to a Jew has said a few things as president that were regarded is anti-Semitic and improper.

    The question facing Democrats is who can beat Trump? Bernie Sanders or Biden? I think each of them can in issues-based contest defeat Trump. I even think on issues Sanders will be a more formidable foe than the clumsy Biden. But to be on the safe side, the Democrats will probably opt for Biden.

    The election proper will be dirty. Trump will label Biden’s family as having benefited from the corruption in Ukraine and China where Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has unscrupulously benefited from business deals, riding on the name of his father as vice president during the eight years of Obama-Biden presidency. Biden of course would dig out the sharp practices of Trump in developing properties in New York and New Jersey without paying taxes and his casino business in Atlantic City in New Jersey and in Las Vegas and his so-called Trump University where he sold degrees and the various sexual peccadilloes in which Trump paid off ladies with whom he had had romantic escapades in the past.  However, it will be very difficult to beat an incumbent president during a period of a strong economy that is if, the Coronavirus or Covid-19 does not plunge the US into recession as may happen in many countries including Nigeria. It used to be said that “when one sneezes in Washington, the world catches cold; now it is when one sneezes in Wuhan, China that the whole world catches coronavirus.

    We in Nigeria are going to be in serious trouble because of this Covid-19 pandemic. The price of crude oil has collapsed by almost 35%. This means we cannot implement the current budget. The collapse of the price of hydrocarbons, unless it is urgently reversed, will have effect on the value of the Naira. There is no way the CBN will be able to maintain the current rate of exchange. This will affect the price of all inputs into the local industries as well as the price of all imported goods. This will bring unheard of hardship and unemployment to Nigerians. Even the current loans being expected and most of the current projects under construction with Chinese loans will become unrealistic. This is because there is currently little production going on in China. This is not only affecting China but the whole world.

    Adding to this is the uncertainty of the American election which is only eight months away in November. It is not without exaggeration to say as the Chinese would say that we are entering “interesting times”. What is most important is sustainability of life in the face of this viral attack whose trajectory is unknown and whose cure is in the hands of God and those to whom He reveals the way forward, medically speaking.