Category: Vincent Akanmode

By Vincent Akanmode

An age-long aphorism says it is man’s to propose but God’s to dispose. The timeless saying found expression in
the outgoing year as the much hyped Vision 20-2020 ended in anti-climax. Conceived in 2010 by the civilian administration of the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua, it was an agenda whose ultimate aim was to see Nigeria occupy a place among the 20 largest economies in the world before the end of this year, consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena.

Ironically, rather than being the country’s El Dorado year, 2020 turned out to be one in which Nigeria returned to the dark age, compounding the attrition of the COVID-19 pandemic with a protest that was hijacked by hoodlums and nearly brought the country to its knees. Considering their ugly experiences with the twin tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the lockdown of social and economic activities in the country for months, and the EndSARS, a supposed peaceful protest by the youth against police brutality which culminated in one of the greatest social upheavals in the country’s political history, the outgoing year is decidedly the worst ever for the average Nigerian.  Such has been the case that a friend asked me if Christmas could be postponed while another wondered if it was possible to remove 2020 from the years he has spent on earth.

In a supposed miracle year in which the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians would be fulfilled in 20 key areas of life, they have not only had to mourn the loss of their loved ones in the deadly riot that ended the EndSARS protest championed by the youth population, they have also had to contend with finding new means of livelihood with their shops, stores, warehouses and offices looted and burnt by mindless hoodlums masquerading as protesters. It is a year in which EndSARS protest killed its thousands and the COVID-19 pandemic killed its ten thousands, and there are two entities to blame for the tragic incidents—the Coronavirus and obstinate youths who failed to quit the stage when the ovation was loudest.

For two weeks between October 7 and 21, hundreds of thousands of youths gathered at different locations around the country’s major cities to express their disavowal of the callous and inhuman ways of the unit of the Nigeria Police Force called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). As the name suggests, the unit was created in 1992 to deal with crimes associated with robbery, car snatching, kidnapping, cattle rustling, gun running and illegal possession of firearms, among other crimes. But a mess was soon made of the noble initiative as some unguided policemen turned it into machinery for extortion, extra-judicial killing, rape, torture and even kidnapping and armed robbery.

The foregoing was the basis on which thousands of young men and women around the country mobilised themselves with the help of the social media for a protest demanding an end to SARS, and the widespread endorsement of the move by the young and the old, the rich and the poor. But like sheep without a shepherd, the protesters soon lost their bearings, turning an otherwise peaceful protest into a veritable threat to the public peace. In Lagos, Abuja and elsewhere, they blocked major roads with bonfire, preventing peace-loving and law abiding Nigerians from going about their legitimate businesses. They also added to the EndSARS mantra such rebellious and outrageous chants as #EndBuhari, #EndAPC and, wait for it, #EndNigeria!

At this point, concerned Nigerians started pleading with the youths to suspend the protest and wait for government’s response to their demand, warning that hoodlums could hijack the protest with dire consequences for everyone. But the wise counsel was dismissed by the youths as the ranting of an analogue generation. Even a dusk to dawn curfew imposed by the Lagos State Government was ignored by them as they gathered in different parts of the city to continue their protests. In the process, soldiers deployed to enforce the curfew imposed by the Lagos State Government to checkmate the protest ran into the protesting youths at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos and thus began the face-off the soldiers had with them, controversially described as a massacre.

While the Nigerian Army has insisted that there were no lives lost at Lekki Toll Gate, not to talk of a massacre, and there has not been much done yet to prove anything to the contrary, Nigerians who should condemn the failure of the youth to heed the wise counsel that the protest should be suspended have all blamed the arson, killing and looting that took place around the country on everyone else except the youths that started it all, apparently for fear that they could become victims of their mob mentality. Have we as parents now bred such monsters of children that we now have to speak tongue in cheek over their condemnable acts? Are we now at the mercy of a new brand of terrorism in which the youth threaten anyone who dare challenge their position with mob attack on the social media?

Of course, the protest has come and gone. But it is not one that can be ignored just yet because of its far reaching consequences and the conspiracy of acquiescence in the mayhem the youth unwittingly unleashed on the country because of their failure to heed the counsel of mature and experienced minds. Like every past deed, the EndSARS protest and the tragedy that attended it will forever cling to us like a cloak. And like every act of history, we have the choice of recognising its unwholesome outcome and dealing with it, or ignoring it and living in bondage to it.

By Vincent Akanmode

These are dreadful times for employers of labour as well as their employees. It is a case of different strokes for different foes as the latter are battling to ensure that their businesses stay afloat in the face of the economic challenges posed by the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, while the former have been at the receiving end of job loss, under-employment and working poverty.

Since the outbreak of the deadly pandemic in Nigeria towards the end of March, the federal government, borrowing from the responses of the US, the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany and other developed countries afflicted by the virus, resorted to locking down the economy and suspending all forms of social and religious activities at variance with the rules of social distancing, all in a bid to curtail or contain the virus.

It is the least that any government desirous of protecting the lives of its citizens would do, considering the astonishing rapidity with which the virus is terminating lives in the countries aforementioned. In the US, for instance, there have been no fewer than 103,344 deaths from 1.7 million confirmed cases since the virus manifested in God’s Own Country in January.

The statistics are hardly better in other countries like Italy where the virus has claimed more than 33,000 lives from its 231,732 cases at press time, or in Spain where more than 27,119 lives have been lost to the virus since it raised its ugly head towards the end of January.

Of course, Nigeria, like other countries around the world, is not spared of the virulent agony. At the last count, the country had recorded about 260 deaths while about 9,000 people have been infected.

Yet events have proved that the coronavirus outbreak is not just a health and social crisis, but also an economic one. Whether we know it or not, the pandemic could have more devastating effects than most people imagine because the lockdown it impelled could be far more enduring than many are willing to admit. Already, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that the outbreak of the virus could cause the loss of 25 million jobs worldwide unless there is an internationally coordinated policy response.

“This is no longer only a global health crisis, it is also a major labour market and economic crisis that is having a huge impact on people,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a release on March 18. “In 2008, the world presented a united front to address the consequences of the global financial crisis, and the worst was averted. We need that kind of leadership and resolve now,” he added.

In Nigeria, the authorities expect the rate of joblessness this year to hit one in every three, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that the economy will shrink by 3.4 per cent. As businesses begin to reopen across the country, workers are adjusting to the new reality created by the COVID-19 pandemic, including shorter work hours, pay cuts, and higher unemployment.

In the banking sector, for instance, commercial banks have resorted to closing some of their branches partly because of the need to reduce their wage bills, but most crucially because of the need to check the crowd of customers and curb the spread of the virus in high prone areas. The inevitable implication, of course, would be the emergence of a redundant army of workers who would invariably be eased out of the system.

Since companies now have to run twice as fast to remain on the same spot, they have now had to lean heavily on the relief they can get from technology to cut cost, enhance their operations and safeguard lives. The long-term consequence of these is that the altering of our sources of livelihood will inevitably result in the altering of the way we live. Not a few people innovative minds have turned the adversity brought about by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to advantage, raking in millions from the production of face masks and the production of hand sanitizers and toilet soaps, among other items designed to check the spread of the virus.

In the long run, the economy could profit from the adversity of coronavirus with more and more people realising the need to be less dependent on paid employment. Mercifully, the authorities appear to be appreciating more and more the need to develop the nation’s infrastructure in order to enhance the business environment.

By Vincent Akanmode

A mystery yet to be unravelled about the COVID-19 pandemic since Nigeria was hit by it about two months ago is the fact that Kogi and Cross River states are yet to record a single case while it ravages the remaining 34 states as well as the Federal Capital Territory. At the last count, the country had recorded more than 7,000 cases and no fewer than 211 deaths. But like a fleck of fresh yam flour in a morsel of amala, Kogi and Cross River states remain as clean as a hound’s tooth, untouched and undefiled by the deadly virus!

As a non-indigene of Cross River State and one who cannot boast more knowledge of the state than he can of Iceland, it is difficult to fathom the secret behind the apparent immunity of the inhabitants of the South-South state to the deadly virus. This is in spite of the speculations in some quarters that dog pepper soup, a delicacy known in local parlance as 404, is the strength behind the resistance so far exhibited by the residents.

I am also not in a position to agree or disagree with those who have attributed the state of affairs in The People’s Paradise to the pro-active steps taken by Governor Ben Ayade to stop the virus from gaining entry. It could well be that the state remains impregnable because coronavirus is not a candidate for Paradise. I can, however, claim to be in a position to speak fairly authoritatively in respect of Kogi, not only because I am an indigene of the state, but also because I cut my professional teeth with its beautiful newspaper, The Graphic, about two decades ago.

Last week, a mild drama played out between officials of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Governor Yahaya Bello, following a visit the former made to the state to determine the true state of things in respect of the COVID-19 virus. Like everyone else, officials of the NCDC could not help wondering why a state that should be most vulnerable to the pandemic because it shares boundaries with more states than any other is the one least affected. The North Central state is reputed for sharing boundaries with 10 others, namely Niger, Nasarawa, Kwara, Benue, Anambra, Enugu, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and the Federal Capital Territory.

The NCDC delegation, however, got the shock of their lives with Governor Bello’s insistence when they got to Lokoja, the state capital, that they would not only be quarantined, but also subjected to COVID-19 tests so that they would not be infecting the state with the deadly virus. It was a situation the delegation had not anticipated, much less prepared for. Perhaps aware of the governor’s desperation for the state to maintain its COVID-19-free status and suspecting that they stood a little chance of coming out clean after the governor had pointedly accused a member of the delegation of shaking hands with a Kogi State Government official in contravention of the social distancing rule, they hurriedly retraced their steps to Abuja.

The NCDC has since accused the governor and his administration of engaging in dangerous self-delusion with their claim that Kogi State is coronavirus-free as they have studiously prevented the carrying out of tests that would reveal the careers of the virus. The disease control agency says that Kogi State has only carried out a test since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country while Cross River has carried out only seven. This has led many to assert that the two states are sitting on a keg of gunpowder because by the time the suppressed cases explode, each of them could have worse scenarios that Lagos and Kano combined.

If only they know that there are peculiar factors that could make the Confluence State impregnable to the menace of COVID-19. To start with, it is not for nothing that it was felicitously named ‘Kogi’, a Yoruba adverbial allusion something or someone that is hard or tough. A state whose workers endured the hunger and starvation that attended the non-payment of salaries for 18 straight months certainly has more than enough capacity to resist a virus so weak that ordinary warm water can eliminate it.

It is not a mere coincidence that Kogi is the only state in the country that boasts an iron and steel industry. Forget that the Ajaokuta steel company has remained still born since its birth was ‘midwifed’ by the Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led civilian administration in the Second Republic. It detracts nothing from the ruggedness it symbolises for Kogi State.

In fact, a very reliable source informed that researchers drawn from Oxford, Cambridge and other world-renowned universities are already on their way to Kogi State. They will not only be establishing the relationship between the coronavirus-free status of the state and the aforementioned factors, they will also be digging for a clue into the inhibiting ability of the meeting point of Rivers Niger and Benue in the state with respect to the spread of the virus.

Vincent Akanmode

IN one of his famous books, inimitable literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe, wrote that proverb is the palm oil with which words are eaten. Incidentally, it is a maxim that was never lost on my late father. In settling quarrels among his subjects as a traditional ruler and in his interactions with people generally, he relied on witty adages and anecdotes to drive home his points.

One of the edifying allegories he regaled us with was the near hopeless assurance from a father who told his famished son that his hunger would soon be assuaged because the cow tied to a stake would soon be slaughtered. The question is how much longer the hungry child can endure, considering that it would have to be slaughtered, roasted, dismembered, washed and cooked before it becomes a meal.

That, unfortunately, has been the experience of millions of Nigerians who in the past five or six weeks have had to lock themselves up in their homes on the orders of the federal and state governments in the bid to curtail the spread of the deadly coronavirus, with a promise that food, money and other essential items would be made available to them as palliatives for the harsh economic conditions that would become their lot on account of the lockdown.

Not a few Nigerians had leapt for joy with the announcement by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouk that the Federal Government had resolved to distribute food and money to alleviate the economic effects of the stay-at-home order.  According to her, no fewer than 2.6 million vulnerable Nigerians would benefit from the federal government’s cash transfer intervention programme while 11 million households were identified in 35 states to benefit from the palliative measures.

Farouk, who fielded questions from newsmen during a presidential task force media briefing in Abuja, said it was assumed that each of the households identified contained an average of six vulnerable persons. She also said her ministry was working assiduously to cover additional one million households subsequently, assuring that there would be no favouritism in the distribution of the cash and other items.

Nigerians who had read about similar arrangements in the US, UK, China, Italy, Spain, France, Egypt and other saner climes where similar arrangements had ensured that the people kept themselves indoors and were lavishly fed and funded by their governments, felt there was no cause for alarm, and that became the basis for the eager and cheerful manner they complied with the stay-at-home order in Lagos, Ogun and other states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It was a unique opportunity for the government to prove for once that it is capable of responding to the plight of its citizens, but that which it blew.

As far as keeping promises is concerned, it is a monumental disaster. From Lagos to Abuja and Kano to Ogun, it has been cries of the money and food items purportedly released at the federal and state capitals not dispensed to the ordinary Nigerians they were meant for. As it is customary with us, the well intentioned programme was messed up by the avarice of its executors. From my enquiries, none of my mechanic, vulcaniser, barber or members of their households has got a whiff of the largesse. The cart pusher in my neighbourhood and his wife and children had no idea what I was talking about either when I asked about their own shares of the palliatives.

A leader of one of the communities in Ifo Local Government Area, Ogun State recalled in a radio programme how a truckload of food items meant for the community with a population of about 3,000 people was driven into a police station and looted by some individuals. In the end, only 50 packs of the items got to the community it was meant for! It is the expected outcome of a shoddy and sordid programme designed from the outset to turn a few people in government into emergency billionaires at the expense of poverty-stricken Nigerians in desperate need of redemption.

It is reminiscent of the Better Life for Rural Women programme of the Babangida administration between 1985 and 1994 whose beneficiaries were chubby-cheeked women in gold-plated necklaces, high-heeled shoes, satellite-modelled headgears and expensive sunglasses. Their class has again become the ultimate beneficiaries of the sunny side of a calamity that threatens to impoverish prosperous individuals and leave thriving businesses in ruins.

Very soon, our roads will be dominated by their limousines and Ferraris. With their ill-gotten wealth, they will take over the political space, loot the treasury dry and generally dictate how the rest of us must now live our lives. What a country.

Vincent Akanmode

THE above headline is bound to provoke curiousity, considering the damage that coronavirus has done to humanity since it first raised its ugly head in Wuhan, a highly developed community in China, in December last year. Since then, the virus has spread around the world like a wild fire, forcing a shutdown in virtually every country and compelling people to stay indoors for fear that they could become victims.

Both the rate of infection and the death toll have been on the upward swing with countries like the US, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and China among the worst hit. At press time, well over 2 million people have been infected worldwide.

For instance, the number of cases in the US was close to 700,000 at press time. Spain and Italy were close to the 200,000 mark while France and Germany were cruising towards the 150,000. Altogether, the number of deaths from the novel virus had reached about 150,000 worldwide. In Africa, South Africa is leading with more than 2,500 cases. Algeria and Morocco have close to 2,300 cases each. Of course, Nigeria has had its fair share of the rampaging virus with more than 400 cases and 12 of the close to 150,000 deaths already recorded worldwide.

Given the ugly picture, it would sound preposterous to insinuate beauty into the deadly COVID-19 in spite of its gorgeous physical appearance. As the nation battles like the rest of the world to contain the virus, we cannot lose sight of the silver linings behind its ominous cloud. It is a situation borne out by the saying that there is nothing in life without its own usefulness, no matter how bad it may look. Even a bad clock is correct two times in a day.

For instance, on account of the coronavirus pandemic, the age-long plea to our leaders to develop the health sector and upgrade the status of our hospitals from mere consulting clinics may now begin to sink into their skulls. The practice over the years has been that the people saddled with developing our healthcare structures only end up enriching themselves by diverting the funds meant for that purpose into their pockets. They believe that by so doing, they will be so comfortable financially that they can jet out to the US, the UK or Germany to treat even a headache.

Indeed, a lot of people believe that the hesitation of the powers that be to shut the nation’s international borders after the index case of COVID-19 in the country was informed by this selfish agenda.  A lot of them already had scheduled foreign trips which could translate to huge personal losses if they were cancelled. Others felt that their best option in the face of the outbreak of the deadly virus was to seek medical attention abroad because our local health system would have no way of coping with a pandemic that had stretched the facilities and personnel of the so called advanced countries to their limits. The reality, however, dawned on them when the countries they had planned to run to for salvation literally turned into graveyards.

It was gratifying to hear the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Mr. Boss Mustapha, admitting at the National Assembly on Thursday last week that his task as the leader of the PTF had made him to be fully aware of the state of the nation’s healthcare system, noting that the facilities in our so called hospitals, including the ones designated as specialists, are deficient.

Clarifying his view at the PTF’s media briefing in Abuja the following day, following alleged misrepresentation of his views by a section of the news media, he said: “Yesterday, I mentioned at the National Assembly that I became fully aware of the state of our medical system during the execution of this task force assignment. It has become clear that this has been taken out of context. I must clarify that I am aware and has indeed been a champion for the reform and transformation of the healthcare system. However, this PTF assignment has afforded me the opportunity to dig deeper, interrogate and x-ray the system better.”

He added: “Most of the things you see around as specialists, hospitals or clinics, you just see the buildings, you don’t know what is inside. But being in this committee has given the opportunity of walking into these facilities, looking at what they have in relation to what they ought to have. My conclusion on that is that they don’t have what they ought to have.”

With the foregoing admission by the SGF, well-meaning Nigerians would hope that the outbreak of coronavirus would act as a catalyst for the desired improvement in our healthcare facilities just like the outbreak of Ebola virus a few years ago spurred the Lagos State Government into building some medical infrastructure, which came handy in the battle to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Yet there is another sense in which the coronavirus has been a massive blessing to the human race. Reports quoting weather experts indicate that with the stay-at-home order impelled by the pandemic around the world, there has been a massive improvement in the condition of the ozone layer. For ages, scientists have warned about the collective threat to our lives from human activities consistently depleted the ozone layer, the region of the earth’s surface that protects us all from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

With most countries of the world asking their citizens to remain indoors and most factories shutting down operations, the ozone layer has suffered less destruction. Deadly emissions from vehicles, machines and other sources, which for ages have been the biggest destroyers of the ozone, have now reduced to the tolerable level.

On the light side, there has been massive improvement in the vocabularies of most of our countrymen since the advent of COVID-19. Such words and phrases as ‘lockdown’, ‘social distancing’, ‘sanitizer’, ‘ventilator’ and ‘quarantine’, which my elderly Yoruba neighbour pronounces as parantine (she pronounces the ‘p’ the way it is pronounced in the Yoruba word ‘pako’) are no longer strange even to the starkest of illiterate Nigerians.

Vincent Akanmode

IN the good old 1980s when music was an instrument of meaningful communication, Veno Marioghae captured the essence of Nigeria as a country of resilient people with a song she titled Nigeria Go Survive. Delivered in pidgin, the lyrics of the chart-busting song that ruled the airwaves for years were as bold as they were inspiring. “If they steal our oil, burn our oil or even drink it, Nigeria will survive. No matter how hard they try, our roots are strong, our ancestors will not yield ground and the gods of thunder and lightning will unite to shield Nigeria,” she sang.

The message of her timeless song re-echoed sometime in 1992 when the then military president of Nigeria, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, in an interview with the editors of government-owned Daily Times newspaper, shockingly declared that the nation’s economy had defied all logic, wondering why it had not collapsed in spite of all that had been done to it. He said: “Frankly, I have kept on asking my economists why the economy has not collapsed till now. What is it that is keeping it up? Surely it is not our knowledge, it is not our theories, it is not anything that we have read.” The then head of state had made the declaration a few weeks after his regime devalued the naira by 100 per cent after a reported secret meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Abuja.

Before then, Nigeria had survived a civil war that lasted more than two years between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970. A prosperous nation re-emerged from the ashes of the war in spite of the destruction of property and loss of millions of lives in the conflict. The nation has also survived no fewer than six coups since the first one occurred in 1966. In 2014, the nation survived the deadly Ebola virus after about 20 cases were recorded and eight lives lost, including those of the index case, Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American who flew into Lagos from Liberia on July 20, 2014, and Dr Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, the brave female physician credited with curbing a wider spread of the virus by placing Sawyer in quarantine in spite of pressures from the Liberian government .

The announcement of an index case of coronavirus in Nigeria by the Lagos State Government penultimate Thursday, weeks after the virus had ravaged China, Italy and other foreign countries, was essentially an announcement to Nigerians that their resilience was once again being put to test. Armed with celestial powers, a Nigerian pastor reportedly picked up the gauntlet and vowed to go to China, the hotbed of the deadly virus, confront it head on and destroy it completely.  The last that was heard of the audacious clergyman is that the virus gained the upper hand in the spiritual battle and left him bedridden in the hospital.

We are nonetheless proud of his Nigerian spirit, just like we are of an Italian-Nigerian footballer, King Paul Akpan Udoh, who is reportedly down with the virus. Udoh’s case would serve as a lesson for Diaspora Nigerians who for reasons best known to them are never proud of their Nigerian roots. Until he was bedridden by the virus, Italian newspapers advertised him as a thoroughbred Italian without any reference to his Nigerian roots. But reports from Italian press since he became a victim of coronavirus have consciously described him as a Nigerian footballer based in Italy. I have no doubts that the Italian media will once again embrace him as an Italian when he recovers from the illness, particularly if his football career flourishes once more and he becomes one of the country’s noticeable soccer stars.

Senator Shehu Sani had hinted at the hypocrisy of Europe in such matters in a tweet he sent out on his official Twitter handle on Monday, saying that it was nine days since an Italian was found as the index case of coronavirus in Nigeria but no one seemed to have the faintest idea as to what he looks like. But if it was a Nigerian that ‘exported’ the deadly virus to Italy the way the Italian brought it to Nigeria, the Italian government would have inundated their tabloids with the pictures of the Nigerian.

Be it as it may, life has not been the same in the country since the index case was announced penultimate Thursday. The merit or demerit of whatever we say or do now is weighed by how sensitive we are to the outbreak of coronavirus. Our normal ways of life have practically been altered by the presence of the virus. The culture of handshake is now an abomination in many parts of the country, and has even been replaced with ‘legshake’ in some areas. Nigerians, including highly enlightened ones, are reportedly avoiding the Chinese simply because the virus is believed to have originated from their country! There were reports during the week of operators of Chinese Nigerians, who are not necessarily Chinese, begging Nigerians to come back to them. It matters nothing to the fleeing Nigerians that most of the Chinese food outlets in the land are owned and run by Nigerians.

A manager of one of the restaurants was quoted as saying: “Nigerians are scared because of the average Nigerian mentality. Because of the name Chinese, they believe this is all Chinese stuff. To be honest with you, all the restaurants right now are complaining. I would like to make an appeal to Nigerians that we are all Nigerians. We don’t have a single Chinese person working here and most of the items used here are Nigerian-made goods. Rice is also not coming from China. I would like to appeal to Nigerians to continue patronising us in the interest of Nigerians that are working here.”

It is one of the great mysteries of life that a creature so infinitely tiny you cannot see it with unaided eye has subjected the human race to such fear and trepidation since it broke out in China.