The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niyi Akinnaso

  • The Northern question in Nigeria

    The Northern question in Nigeria

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    WE have the largest number of poor people in the world, most of them in Northern Nigeria. Nigeria also has the largest number of out of school children, virtually all of them in Northern Nigeria.

    —Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, at the Northern Youth Summit on Saturday, July 6, 2019

    In the North-western and North-eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty … the 19 Northern states, which accounts for over 54 per cent of Nigeria’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generate, only 21 per cent of the total sub-national IGR in the year 2017.

    —Aliko Dangote, speaking at the Kaduna Investment Summit on Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

     

    From time immemorial, regional problems have been central to the formation and development of kingdoms, empires, and modern states.  However, the nature and effects of regional problems vary across time and space. In some cases, the problems are complicated by religion. In other cases, ethnicity is a key factor.

    There are also cases where social and economic divisions loom large just as there are others where the desire to preserve people’s rights and liberty is foregrounded.  Sometimes, one or the other of these factors could be highlighted to mask the others. Any of these factors could derail the unity or development of a kingdom, empire, or state. A convergence of two or more factors could pose even more serious challenges.

    For example, in the Southern United States, the desire to preserve slavery for economic reasons led the 13 Confederate states in the South to fight a bitter civil war, although apologists of the war often couch the reasons in terms of the preservation of liberty and independence. Residues of the division between the South and the rest of the United States loom large today, especially in race relations and democratic politics.

    The regional problem is even more pronounced in contemporary Italy. It was Antonio Gramsci, who problematized the regional issue in that country in his now famous The Southern Question, published in 1926.

    In the essay, Gramsci not only highlighted the social problems of Southern Italy, where he came from, he also outlined a theory by which class-regional alliances were employed by the Fascist government to maintain a hegemonic hold on power. The alliances involved creating a bridge between the Northern proletariat and the Southern peasantry.

    Yet, despite the Italian government’s investment in the South to pull up the region, its backwardness relative to Northern Italy continues to stand out.  As indicated below, many factors are responsible for the fate of Southern Italy, making it one of the less developed areas in Europe.

    If Northern Nigeria and Southern Italy were flipped, then the Italian situation would provide an instructive analogy to the regional problem in Nigeria, where the focus has been on the Northern question. To be sure, certain features are unique to each of the two regions in their respective countries, but there are interesting shared features to justify such an analogy. Correspondingly, Northern Italy compares to Southern Nigeria in developmental strides, including industrial growth, per capita income, contribution to GDP, and so on.

    First, both Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria share higher unemployment and poverty rates than other regions in their respective countries. On the one hand, the unemployment rate in Southern Italy has ranged between 15  and 20 percent in the last five years, while the average unemployment rate in the country as a whole is about 9 percent.

    On the other hand, the average unemployment rate of over 35 percent across Northern Nigeria has been consistently higher than the rest of the country at about 27 percent. When underemployment figures are factored in, over 30 percent of Southern Italians have little or no employment, while over 50 percent of Northern Nigerians are in a similar category.

    It is not surprising, therefore, that the poverty rate in Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria is much higher than the rest of their respective countries. Furthermore, the risk of poverty is also considerably higher in both regions than the rest of the country. That risk is accentuated by relative lack of education.

    Second, both Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria are more educationally backward than the rest of the country. They contain the majority of out-of-school children and school dropouts in their countries. Unfortunately, the situation has been getting worse, rather than better, in Northern Nigeria, as indicated in the opening quotes.

    A recent letter by legendary Civil Servant, Ahmed Joda, to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, shows that the situation in Northern Nigeria is rooted in history as it is in Southern Italy. According to Joda, who was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in 1971, only 250 candidates from the North were found qualified and were awarded Federal Government Scholarship in that year, whereas 2,750 candidates from the South got the same award.

    Of course, Northern leaders cried lopsidedness then and the Federal Government, controlled by Northerners most of the time since then, has used several methods to “compensate” the North. Almost 50 years later, the change has been for the worse, rather than for the better.

    Again, el-Rafai sums it all up in his speech to the Northern Youth Forum: “Northern Nigeria has become the centre of drug abuse, gender violence, banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism. We have also been associated with a high divorce rate and breakdown of families.” The situation compares to some extent with Southern Italy noted for organized crime, drug abuse, and “underground” economy, often controlled by the Mafia.

    Yet another feature shared by Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria is a state-dependency mentality by which the people wait for government largesse—government jobs or share of government funds. The result is unbridled corruption and appalling lack of transparency. The almajiri image of begging for food with bowl-in-hand is symbolic of the state-dependency mentality of the region. While the Governors and Emirs distribute the largesse in Northern Nigeria, the Mafia does the same in Southern Italy. The result at the end of the day is little or no development of the region.

    Dangote’s injunction to Northern leaders is now more urgent than ever: “Northern Nigeria will continue to fall behind if the respective states governments do not move to close the development gap”.

     

     

  • Speculations on the Coronavirus toll on Africa

    Speculations on the Coronavirus toll on Africa

     Niyi Akinnaso

     

    Did the scientists cry wolf, who spelled doom for Africa as the scourge of the COVID-19 infections ravaged the world? A random look at the predictions reveals a scary outcome. For example, the regional World Health Organisation for Africa predicted in April 2020 that the coronavirus cases in Africa could increase exponentially from mere thousands in mid April to as high as 10 million within three to six months.

    The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa postulated a more dire prediction. According to its own modelling, Africa could see 1.2 billion infections and 3.3 million deaths under the worst-case scenario. Modelling by the Imperial College London completed the picture with 300,000 deaths under the best-case scenario.

    Well, it’s been over 8 months since the virus was discovered and over six months since it first landed in Africa, via Egypt on February 14, 2020 and followed by the second case in Algeria on February 25. Nigeria recorded its first case two days later. As in Algeria, the patient was an Italian, returning to the country from Italy, where infections were already growing. Although the global outlook is scary at over 27 million cases as of September 7, 2020, only just over one million of them have occurred in Africa, instead of the predicted 10 million.

    Whatever happened to the predictions? We should not be cavalier in answering this question. Rather, a two-prong approach is needed in order to have an balanced answer.

    First, what factors led to the dire predictions? There are three major ones. One, there are far too many crowded spaces all over Africa, which could accelerate the rate of infection. Cities, towns, and villages promote crowds because of inadequate housing, poverty, and the pressure of communal culture. Besides, Africans by and large are communal, rather than individualistic, people. They congregate in small spaces in the cities, towns, villages, and even at home.

    In Nigeria’s depressed communities, for example, many low-income workers congregate in Face-Me-I-Face-You type of accommodation, where single rooms facing each other house different families, each of which may contain as many as six or more occupants. There could be up to ten such rooms, five on either side of a shared narrow hallway. Occupants share a common kitchen and one or two bathrooms behind the house.

    Beyond living spaces, shopping malls, local markets, neighbourhood stores, motor parks, and other crowd-pooling spaces are also potential  super-spreading sites for the coronavirus disease.

    Two, the health infrastructure in Africa is generally weak in several ways. The few good hospitals are inaccessible to the public, while the so-called General Hospitals and Primary Health Care Centres lack necessary equipment, health workers, necessary staff, and medical supplies. The WHO, which monitors global health systems, was rightly concerned that Africa’s health infrastructure might be unable to handle a pandemic as ravaging as COVID-19. But the continents with stronger health infrastructure have succumbed to the virus at much higher rates than Africa.

    Factor number three is the combination of poor leadership, weak institutions, and rampant governance failure across the continent. It was feared that many African leaders may not be able to rise to the COVID-19 challenge and that those who could muster the political will might be hampered by weak institutions, corruption, and poor implementation.

    It must be emphasised, however, that the dire predictions of high infection rate on the continent was somehow hedged. Michel Yao, Head of Emergency Operations for WHO Africa, indicated that the high figures predicted for Africa resulted from a provisional modelling. Therefore, the resulting projection could change, if the people changed their behaviour in  time. That was the case during the Ebola outbreak, leading to a crash of worst-case scenarios.

    This leads to the second perspective on the predictions. Why have they not come true so far?

    One popular explanation is the role of cross-protective immunity based on the exposure of Africans to a variety of infections to which they have developed some immunity. However, in the absence of any scientific study, cross-protective immunity lacks explanatory power as protection against COVID-19. From what we know so far,, this virus respects only a scientific approach rather than mere speculation.

    Another explanation is based on Africa’s demography. It is argued that Africa’s large young population, that is, people aged below 25, who constitute about 60 percent of the total population, has prevented the explosion of infections. Besides, it is also true that fewer Africans enter the old age bracket of eighty-something years, which has been proven to succumb readily to the virus. Africa’s average life expectancy of about 62 years is lower by 10-20 years than in other continents. Healthy life expectancy is even shorter as over 10 percent of living years in Africa is spent in poor health.

    Viewed from this perspective, demography is actually a double bag for Africa. On the one hand, the predicted youth advantage for the continent has yet to be fully tested as much of the continent has been on lockdown or one type of restriction or the other. Let’s see what happens when schools and universities reopen in the last quarter of this year. The ongoing experiences in Europe and North America already show that youths not only get infected, they stage or attend super-spreading events. The greatest fear is that they may go back home to infect the elderly.

    On the other hand, Africa has held its head up with its weak health infrastructure and crowded spaces. Although more deaths are recorded among the elderly, the younger population manifests the highest rate of infection on the continent. This may get worse when schools reopen fully and all restrictions are removed.

    In the meantime, credit should be given to African leaders at federal and state levels for quickly enforcing lockdowns and enforcing relative compliance with risk-mitigation measures in the urban areas. Surely, these measures have kept infections down. It is also important to continue to shield rural farming communities from the virus, by keeping city dwellers away in the meantime.

    True, we have learned a lot about COVID-19, but so much still remains unknown. The dire predictions must be kept in the bag, rather than completely discarded, until a safe and effective vaccine is available.

  • Lessons from the U.S. on reopening tertiary institutions

    Lessons from the U.S. on reopening tertiary institutions

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    I HAVE had over 50 years of continuous relationship with universities at home and abroad. True, my role in the university system has changed over the years, the university still remains my world. I am, therefore, anxious to see universities reopen as soon as possible. The question is how soon will that be?

    Although the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 admitted that consultations with major stakeholders in higher education are ongoing, it still could not pronounce a definitive date for reopening universities. Accordingly, last Friday, August 28, 2020, I argued during a virtual meeting in favour of delaying reopening universities in Nigeria until January, 2021.

    Since that time, however, the global trend seems to favour reopening universities this September, for in-class learning, some for online learning, and yet others for a hybrid of the two. Indeed, some universities in the United States and elsewhere have reopened already. Here in Nigeria, some states, including Lagos and Osun, have set reopening dates for this September. It is clear, therefore, that the reopening of universities nation-wide is imminent.

    Accordingly, it is important to emphasize the factors that must be taken into account in addition to whatever guidelines the Federal Government may provide.

    The key factor to consider is the behaviour of the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, which led to the closure of universities in March in the first place. Within the last six months, the virus has infected about 55,000 people in Nigeria and killed over 1000, male and female, young and old. The global picture is even more disturbing. Over 25 million people have been infected and over 850,000 have died of the coronavirus disease. True, those with pre-existing conditions, such as heart, kidney, or lung disease, are predisposed to death once infected, the fact is that the virus has killed just about anyone, young or old.

    Although the figures in Nigeria seem to be going down, the reality is that the number of tests conducted so far in Nigeria is far too few, compared to the total population. After six full months of testing, less than 404,000 samples have been tested among a population of about 200 million! This translates to an average of about 67,000 tests per month or just over 2,000 tests per day.

    What is even more worrisome is the apparent dereliction of many states in the collection of samples, despite attempts by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the PTF to ramp up testing by expanding collection centres to various Local Government Areas and increasing the number of testing centres.

    The immediate consequence of this dereliction of duty is that there will be vectors of the coronavirus disease in various communities, who are spreading the disease. This is a very serious problem because quite a number of those infected may be asymptomatic, that is, they may not readily manifest signs of the disease and, therefore, transmit it unknowingly.

    The real danger of reopening in this situation is the variety of opportunities that university campuses offer for the spread of the virus. First, classrooms, dormitories, dining rooms, sports arenas, and parks provide spaces for the virus to spread, partly because they offer opportunities for close contact and partly because students are difficult to control once left by themselves. They belong to the care-free group, typically between 15 and 25 years old.

    This is where we can learn from the experiences of universities in the United States, which have reopened. Within two weeks of resuming classes, American Colleges and Universities reported over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in 36 states. For example, as of August 30, 2020, the University of Alabama reported 1,368 cases among faculty, staff, and students since August 19, 2020.

    These figures should be understood within the context of 26,000 coronavirus cases and 64 deaths reported by The New York Times in a survey of about 1,500 American Colleges and Universities since the pandemic began.

    The recent infections since the universities reopened in August occurred because faculty, staff, and students converged on their institutions from various destinations across the country, bringing along with them the coronavirus infection and infecting others around them on campus. Classrooms, hostel common rooms, dining halls, and party venues provided super-spreading spaces for the infection.

    In order to avoid this problem altogether or in reaction to it, some universities called off in-person classes for undergraduates alone, while others called off in-person classes across the board. Yet other universities decided to provide only online classes for the entire 2020/2021 academic session, taking the lead of Cambridge University in England and the California State University System in the United States.

    What must be borne in mind here is that these American Universities have sufficient resources for testing, tracing, isolating, and treating infected students. For example, the University of Alabama offered return-to-campus COVID-19 test for its entire population of 38,563. Another university designated one of its off-campus structures as Isolation Centre for positive cases. Most Nigerian universities lack these resources.

    The probability of the coronavirus following some faculty, staff, or student to some university campus in Nigeria is very high, regardless of the negative test certificates they may bring. The focus, therefore, should be on enforcing the risk-mitigation measures and early detection of infection cases within the campus.

    A key risk-mitigation measure that may pose a serious challenge is social distancing in hostels, classrooms, and dining halls. One way of ensuring compliance with this measure is to reopen the universities in phases. The problem, though, is that a number of university courses are interconnected such that a 400-level student may need a 200-level course. On the other hand, some faculty may not be able to carry their full load of teaching if all classes are not running. Yet, some phasing is necessary as many universities may not be able to accommodate all their students at once and still be able to maintain social distancing.

    Perhaps the greatest challenge for Nigerian universities is how to detect, track, isolate, and treat infected members of the university community. In order to meet this challenge, the NCDC should make each university a sample collection centre. Each university should, in turn, identify the nearest testing centre and plan a relationship with it ahead of resumption.

     

  • How Osun prepared for school reopening

    How Osun prepared for school reopening

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    ONE of the hallmarks of the Gboyega Oyetola administration is proactivity—a concerted effort to anticipate problems and proffer solutions before they occur. For example, long before Nigeria’s index case of COVID-19 was identified on February 28, 2020, the Osun state government had set up a COVID-19 Committee to make adequate preparations for fighting the pandemic in case it extended to the state.

    Holding and Isolation Centres were identified and necessary modifications were set in motion. At one of the Committee’s briefings, which I attended, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Siji Olamiju, even talked about procuring face masks and Personal Protective Equipment, long before they became popular usage.

    These initial preparations notwithstanding, COVID-19 is a lousy and defiant virus that infects at the slightest opportunity, creeping into its host, sometimes without symptoms. Nevertheless, the preparations allowed the state to effectively manage the influx of cases from Cote d’Ivoire and Lagos as well as infiltrations through the neighbouring states of Kwara, Ogun and Ondo.

    A similar proactive approach was adopted in the preparations for school reopening for exit classes. While the Federal Government’s indecision about the date of reopening kept states in the dark, Osun started planning. As soon as a date was arrived at after a virtual consultative meeting between the Federal Government and relevant state and private stakeholders as well as representatives of Unions and Examination Bodies, the Osun Ministries of Education and Health escalated their preparations.

    Parents and teachers were alerted and classrooms were fumigated throughout the state prior to resumption. Of course, the fumigation was not so much to ward off COVID-19 as of disinfecting spaces that have been left unused for as long as five months and maintaining good environmental hygiene.

    Altogether, 5,500 teachers and 13,177 students were involved in the preparations for the West African School Certificate Examinations. They were distributed across 195 public secondary schools in order to ensure adequate social distancing in compliance with Federal guidelines. The state also made adequate provisions for hand washing and hand sanitizers; distributed 50,000 face masks; and provided Vitamin C tablets to the students to boost their immune system.

    Class wardens were appointed to monitor compliance with all COVID-19 guidelines. In addition, parents were enjoined to equip their wards against infection by providing additional face masks and ensuring they were used once the children left home.

    These guidelines were also extended to proprietors of 346 private secondary schools throughout the state and measures were put in place to ensure compliance: Supervisors from the Ministry of Education visit selected private schools from time to time.

    Similar elaborate preparations were made by the State Universal Education Board, led by its Executive Chairman, Hon. Jibola Famurewa in preparation for exit students in Primary and JSS classes, which resumed on Monday, August 24, 2020.

    What was particularly useful for teachers, students, and all stakeholders was the information-loaded webinar arranged for Principals and stakeholders in secondary schools in late July and a similar webinar for Head Teachers of Primary and JSS schools last week. It was a collaborative venture between the Ministry of Education, led by its Commissioner, Hon. Folorunso Bamisayemi, and the Executive Chairman of SUBEB. Each webinar lasted two days. Both webinars were powered by DDI Consult, led by its Executive Director, Segun Oduyebo. I provided advice on content and direction.

    The webinars focused on the social, psychological, and economic implications of COVID-19 for education; acquainted school leaders with the Federal and state guidelines on risk-mitigation measures; discussed necessary leadership qualities expected of school leaders; provided suggestions on how they could incorporate appropriate technology into teaching and learning practices; and examined the long-term effects of COVID-19 on schools and how to move forward post COVID-19.

    Lest the teachers be deceived into believing that COVID-19 had come and gone, focus was given to the global, national, and state infection figures and deaths arising from the infections. The point was to emphasize the continued rage of the deadly pandemic.

    Head Teachers were particularly alerted to signs of mental health problems that might affect teachers and students alike. For example, domestic or drug abuse during the long absence from school and loss of family members or friends to COVID-19 could lead to various mental health issues, including depression and suicidal thoughts.

    A major drawback of the webinars was the level and standard of technology. This country is operating way below the expected standard. Besides, teachers and students alike need to be trained on how to use technology for teaching and learning. During the webinars, most teachers were unable to log on to ZOOM. As a result, the vast majority connected via Facebook. Even quite a number of those who did had connectivity problems. If teachers had this problem, then one can imagine the problem with students of secondary schools, not to speak of pupils of primary schools.

    It is in this context that the attempts by the Federal Ministry of Education to provide online, radio, and TV learning, without adequate infrastructure, facilities, and prior preparations in the schools, failed woefully during the ongoing COVID-19 era. In a random survey of public primary school pupils and secondary school students in Ondo and Osun, only a negligible fraction claimed that they learned anything online, on radio, or on TV. However, the vast majority of pupils and students in private schools claimed they were actively engaged in learning, especially online.

    It is high time, therefore, that Governors invested appropriately in technology for teaching and learning post COVID-19. Teachers and students need special training in the use of technology. In the State of Osun in particular, special attention should be paid to the state’s Internet infrastructure. Furthermore, it is high time to refocus on Opon Imo in order to make it an independent Teacher-at-home for the students.

    However, when it comes to administrative matters, it is noteworthy that the WAEC examinations have been going on without a hitch. Clearly, the state’s preparedness in this regard has paid off.

     

     

    babaidanre@gmail.com

     

  • Walter Charles Carrington (1930-2020)

    Walter Charles Carrington (1930-2020)

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    When Ambassador Walter Charles Carrington died on Tuesday, August 11, 2020, various actors embodied in him died simultaneously—the Lawyer; the Activist; the Africanist; the Democrat; the Diplomat; and the Humanist. All of these actors were at work when Carrington was the United States Ambassador to Nigeria between 1993 and 1997, a position to which he was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

    Carrington’s ambassadorial tenure in Nigeria coincided with two significant turning points, one in his own life and the other in the life of the nation. On a personal note, it was during the very first diplomatic function, which he attended as ambassador, that he met Dr. Arese Ukpoma, an intelligent and impressive physician and public health consultant, who later became his wife. Of Arese, Carrington wrote: “Many Black Americans go to African to find their heritage. I went and found my destiny, when a few weeks after arriving in Nigeria I met my wife, Arese, a medical doctor. Through all those traumatic times, she was at my side in spite of the potential risks to her and to her family.”

    However, while Carrington’s personal fortune was being enriched by getting married to Arese, Nigeria’s democratic fortune was being diminished as Carrington assumed duties just as the most democratic presidential election recently held in the country was being annulled by the military government. The ensuing military dictatorship of the late General Sanni Abacha would coincide with, and indeed subsume, Carrington’s entire 4-year ambassadorial tenure in Nigeria.

    It was a trying period, which brought out the worst in Abacha, who not only stifled democracy but also killed and maimed its advocates. The same period, however, simultaneously brought out the very best in Carrington: It was not only his diplomatic expertise that glowed; his Africanist, activist, democratic, civil right, and humanist credentials were also on display (see Ayo Olukotun, Carrington and the unfinished task of democratisation in Nigeria, The Punch, August 14, 2020).

    In this brief tribute, I provide an outline of how Carrington became who he was, focusing on his Civil Rights and Africanist roots, and how he turned out to be a gift to Nigeria at a crucial time in her history.

    Carrington’s African roots are not in doubt. His mother, Marjorie Irene Hayes, was an African-American, while his father, Walter R. Carrington, was a Black immigrant from Barbados. As a youth, Ambassador Carrington’s activism was honed by his mother, who became an activist as she worked as a waitress. So did his sister, Marilyn, who advocated equitable health care for minorities, notably, Blacks and women. Carrington himself once recalled that even in their mother’s final years, she still had the presence of mind to encourage him to make picket signs for an ongoing protest by waitresses.

    Another source of inspiration for him was the group of friends he kept, including Martin Luther King, Junior, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and our own Wole Soyinka. Although Carrington was drafted into the Army and was serving in far away Germany, he kept in touch with King and supported his non-violent civil rights protest. Such a protest, he wrote to King, “gives more people a sense of participating in a cause than any other technique I know of.

    Yet another source of inspiration for his activism was the plight of Blacks not only in the United States but also in their homeland in Africa to which his career took him. Although Carrington was truly a sociological anomaly in all the schools he attended, including Harvard University, because he was one of a handful of Black kids, he neither assimilated nor was he assimilated. His fascination with his African roots won’t let him. As an undergraduate, he founded the Harvard chapter of the leading Civil Rights movement, the National Association for the Advancement Coloured People, and became its Youth delegate.

    Moreover, while practicing law in Boston, he served on the three-member Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and became, at age 27, the youngest person to be appointed a Commissioner in the state’s history.

    It was his activism with the NAACP that first brought him in 1952 to Africa, which he referred to variously as “the land of my fathers” and “the continent of my ancestors”. He would visit Africa again in 1959 on a cross-cultural exchange programme. That visit allowed him his first taste of multicultural Nigeria as he lived with families in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna.

    However, it was Carrington’s appointment as one of the first overseas Country Directors of the Peace Corps in 1961 that cemented his historic relationship with the continent of Africa. He served 10 years in the Corps, directing programs in Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Senegal and rising to the position of Regional Director for Africa. It was his distinguished service in the Peace Corps that later earned him a place as executive vice president of the Africa-American Institute and as a member of Africare.

    His relationship with Africa also prepared the way for his appointment as Ambassador, first to Senegal under President Jimmy Carter and later to Nigeria under President Bill Clinton. It was in Nigeria that his ambassadorial contributions were most memorable, because he chose not to sit on the fence or cozy up to the military dictatorship.

    Carrington made it clear that he was on a mission to help achieve the fulfillment of America’s expectation of a return to democratic rule. Accordingly, he worked alongside Nigerians to fight the annulment of the presidential election, won by MKO Abiola; military dictatorship; and human rights abuses. He offered the American Embassy as a sanctuary for victimized activists and even visited MKO Abiola in prison alongside Jesse Jackson, another Civil Rights leader.

    It is not the case, however, that Carrington overlooked Nigeria’s deficiencies. Just as he spoke truth to power, so did he to the people. In a lecture he gave in Lagos in 2017, titled Nigeria and Africa in a Changing World, Carrington decried the failure of Nigerian and other African leaders to fully realize their countries’ potentials. This failure, he emphasized, has earned Africa scorn, rather than respect, on the international stage. He expressed disappointment in the leaders’ inability to advance their peoples’ life chances, despite enormous human and material resources.

    As many actors during the struggle have suggested, Carrington’s heroic intervention in Nigeria’s democracy and sociopolitical development deserves more than naming a street after him.

  • PaxHerbal Cugzin: An oral herbal vaccine against COVID-19

    PaxHerbal Cugzin: An oral herbal vaccine against COVID-19

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    Toward the end of my article on this column last week (see Nigeria and the Coronavirus vaccine race, The Nation, July 5, 2020), one of the questions I raised was about the contribution of Nigerian scientists toward the cure of the coronavirus or of a vaccine against it in the light of the Federal Government’s investment in same through special funds being dispensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    I have not heard from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, to whom I addressed the questions. Fortunately, however, after a tip-off by a friend, I learned about a privately funded indigenous company, Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories, founded by Father Anselm Adodo and located in Ewu-Esan, Edo state. The Lab has been in operation for about 25 years and has been producing and distributing indigenous herbs across the country.

    On the advent of the novel coronavirus, code-named COVID-19, the Lab scientists went to work and arrived at a combination of three major herbs, namely, bitter kola (orogbo in Yoruba); ginger (ata-ile or ata’le in Yoruba) and tumeric. Each of these herbs has been used from time immemorial across the globe to control or treat one infection/disease or the other or merely used as spice.

    The combination of herbs contains, various ingredients, including 6-paradol, gingerol, kolaflavanone, kolanone, curcumene, á- and â-turmerone and notable vitamins and minerals, such as Copper, Zinc, Calcium, Iron and Magnesium.

    The blend of phyto-medicinal constituents of the drug exhibits potent anti-infective, immune-modulatory, anti-inflammatory effects. The constituents synergistically inhibit autoimmune diseases by regulating inflammatory cytokines and triggering the immune system to combat and overwhelm any invader. It is in this sense that the herb combination acts as an oral vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

    The anti-inflammatory property of the herbal drug is particularly significant, given the high incidence of blot clots found in the late stages of treatment in many patients, who contracted COVID-19. This herbal drug is expected to prevent such clots from forming in the first place. What is even more interesting about the drug is the lack of side effects. Of course, none is expected since the herbs have been in use from time immemorial.

    The herbal drug has been packaged in 290mg Capsules, encapsulated in gelatin shells. The Capsule is characterized by a green-yellow colour blend, has a slightly bitter taste and pungent smell. The recommended dosage is two Capsules taken with a glass of water twice daily.

    The drug’s use is not limited to the treatment of patients with COVID-19 alone. It is also useful in the treatment and management of compromised immunity and symptoms caused by viral infections. Moreover, it is a powerful anti-oxidant. During a pandemic, such as the one posed by COVID-19, the drug’s full “vaccine” effect lies in its continuous use as a prophylaxis.

    Already, the drug has passed through preclinical trials and has been approved for human trials by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control with NAFDAC REG. NO. A7-4358L. It was this approval that some overzealous bloggers and social media enthusiasts misunderstood. Yet, neither Pax Herbals nor NAFDAC ever presented the drug as a cure for COVID-19.

    In the meantime, those who have taken part in the preliminary human trials, including COVID-19 patients, have expressed satisfaction with the drug.

    However, promising as this drug may be, the bureaucratic red tape on human trials remains a serious challenge, especially for cash-strapped Labs like Pax Herbals. What is more, the red tape is even much thicker with accessing funds, which the Presidential Task Force repeatedly confirmed that the Federal Government had set aside to be administered by the Central Bank. Yet, the Central Bank’s website provides no clear path for accessing the fund.

    In a telephone conversation with Father Adodo as recently as yesterday, August 11, 2020, he expressed frustration with the bureaucracies of human trials and funding access in the country. To further complicate matters, the government has yet to provide the necessary protocols for conducting human trials for herbal drugs. Yet, it would not accept the adaptation of the existing protocols for pharmaceutical drugs.

    However, Pax Herbals is not alone. Even the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), located at Redeemer University in Ede, Osun State, is already at a disadvantage in its collaboration with Cambridge University in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. In all probability the clinical trials for the vaccine will be based in Cambridge, rather than in Ede or both owing to rampant shortcomings and inadequacies for which Nigeria is noted.

    As Professor Oyewale Tomori, Nigeria’s foremost virologist and infectious diseases expert, rightly observed, Nigeria lacks the necessary laboratories for clinical trials and does not have the basic infrastructure (electricity, water, and adequate facilities) essential for vaccine production. He concluded with a poignant suggestion, if not indictment: “The government has to put all of the infrastructure in place. It is not the duty of citizens or private practices to do so”.

    However, unlike ACEGID, Pax Herbals has no foreign partner. Nor does it even need one if its product were to be truly indigenous. Nevertheless, the hurdles highlighted above may well explain why laudable efforts at developing local herbs, such as Pax Herbals’, often die at the clinical trial stage.

    Given the promise shown by PaxHerbal Cugzin, it will be very unfortunate if Father Adodo’s efforts were not properly nurtured, despite NAFDAC’s encouragement for the drug to proceed to human trials.

    It will be even more unfortunate if the drug were sold to a foreign pharmaceutical company and re-marketed to Nigeria. Federal and state governments will then be ready to purchase it at an exorbitant price for use in government hospitals. Why not invest in the effort now and make PaxHerbal Cugzin an authentic Nigerian product?

  • Nigeria and the Coronavirus vaccine race

    Nigeria and the Coronavirus vaccine race

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    As of today, Wednesday, August 5, 2020, there is still neither a cure for the coronavirus, code-named COVID-19, nor a vaccine against the virus. Our only weapon against the spread of the virus for now is the range of non-pharmaceutical measures, including the use of face masks to cover both the mouth and the nose; maintaining a physical distance of 2 meters (about six feet) from other persons around us; washing our hands frequently with soap under running water or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer; and maintaining overall safe hygiene habits.

    There is moderate to high hope, however, that a vaccine might be available soon. How soon may be several months, a year, or even longer. This hope is based on the keen competition among researchers all over the world to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus. At the time of writing, there are over 165 ongoing attempts to produce one.

    True, it normally takes years to produce a vaccine, but 27 of the vaccines are already in human trials, some already in the third and final phase. This feat is possible due to advances in technology, biotech, and pharmaceutical research in recent years. Besides, the unprecedented speed with which the virus is infecting and killing people across the globe invites a sense of urgency among scientists and politicians alike to produce a vaccine that could halt its devastating effects.

    Researchers are using a variety of approaches to arrive at a vaccine against the coronavirus. These approaches would yield five major types of vaccines, each using a distinctive method to provoke an immune response to the virus. Some use the virus’s own genes, while others use a coronavirus protein or protein fragment. Yet others use a weakened or inactivated version of the coronavirus itself. The two other approaches involve either the use of a virus to deliver coronavirus genes into cells or the repurposing of an existing vaccine for other diseases that may also protect one from the coronavirus. The hope is that one or the other or even all of these approaches may yield an effective vaccine.

    What is even more important, from a safety point of view, is that leading scientists from major universities around the globe are partnering with all known major pharmaceutical companies in the race to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus.

    The keenness of the race between leading universities is almost as keen as the race between nations in getting a vaccine to the clinic. This explains why nations are investing heavily in pharmaceutical companies and scientists within their borders. The United States alone has invested over $2 billion in coronavirus vaccine research and production, over $1 billion of it in Moderna, a US-based biotech company.

    So have China, India, Russia, UK, France, and even the European Union as a bloc invested heavily in home-grown vaccine research and production. The race among the US, UK, Russia, and China has become very keen as each has a company or two that has reached Phase III, the final stage of human trials. Already, the UK has accused Russia of stealing her coronavirus research data, while the US has accused China of the same thing.

    Nations are investing not only in research and production of a coronavirus vaccine, they are also cornering for their citizens millions of doses of the vaccines that are found to be effective.

    Against the above backgrounds, three important questions need be raised with the Presidential Task Force for COVID-19. First, with at least 27 coronavirus vaccines in human trials, why is Nigeria not involved in any phase of the ongoing trials?

    This question is very important for at least three reasons. One, Nigeria is the largest country in Africa with an estimated population of about 200 million. Two, Nigeria is the third most infected country in Africa after South Africa and Egypt, both of which are already involved in such trials. Three, how can Nigeria maximize its purchase of the vaccine, when it is not involved in the development of the vaccines on trial and is not even participating in any of the trials?

    Second, given Nigeria’s non-participation in vaccine trials, what effort has the PTF made in securing enough doses of a successful vaccine whenever it is available? Again, there is a strong reason why this question is important. Way back in April, our own Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as Chair of the Board of GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, repeatedly advocated a Vaccine Bond for Africa, while also recommending economic restructuring for African governments. Should Nigeria be the country not to take heed of this reasonable vaccine bond advocacy?

    Third, assuming that Nigeria is relying on a home-grown vaccine in which, according to the PTF, the government has invested through the Central Bank of Nigeria, what is the state of coronavirus vaccine research in Nigeria? Which Nigeria-based pharmaceutical or biotech company are our scientists working with toward the production of a coronavirus vaccine?

    These questions are all the more important given the widespread and rampant violations of the risk-mitigation guidelines provided by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and emphasised over and over again by the PTF.

    Another reason these questions are important is Nigeria’s very low testing capacity vis-a-vis its population. After over five months, less than 30,000 samples have been tested among a population of about 200 million! Yet, we are already in the community transmission cycle. Mark you, we are still only in the first phase of the virus. What happens if and when we are hit by a second phase? Wouldn’t it be safer to be able to easily access a vaccine in case one is out by then?

    As indicated at the beginning, our best protection for now is to take the risk-mitigation measures seriously in the absence of a cure or vaccine for the coronavirus. A national mandate is now necessary, with appropriate enforcement guidelines and punitive measures across the country. It can no longer be left to states to do as they wish with these measures. The security of lives and property may be on the concurrent list. Nevertheless, the Federal Government bears the brunt of the blame as we are now witnessing with the United States government under President Donald Trump.

  • Schools, children, and Coronavirus

    Schools, children, and Coronavirus

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    There are several strong reasons why I will not send my 10-year old girl back to school this year.

    First, there is an ongoing spike in positivity and hospitalization or home isolation rates in my state, where the number of confirmed cases jumped from 292 on June 30, 2020, to 1,103 by July 27, 2020. Within the month of July alone, many high profile citizens of the state, from the Governor and his aides to legislators, contracted the virus, while high profile deaths also occurred, including the former Commissioner of Health, who was in charge of the state’s fight against COVID-19.

    Yet, there is an abysmally low level of compliance with the Nigeria Center for Disease Control risk-mitigation measures throughout the state. Yes, you could find one or two persons among 100 wearing a mask, but there is neither physical distancing nor frequent hand washing in crowded spaces. Stores, shops, markets, motor parks, and religious houses are operating more or less as normal, as if there is no coronavirus in town.

    To complicate matters, the testing level is very low in the state and it is done only on suspected cases, unlike a neighbouring state where testing is being done, community by community, to detect cases, rather than wait for cases to come for testing. The strategy of taking the test to the people allows for early detection, isolation, contact tracing, and treating confirmed cases.

    Second, the state headquarters, where I am currently in hibernation, is the epicentre of the virus. Yet, this is where many parents live, who patronise my daughter’s school. My fear, therefore, is that coronavirus may accompany some parents, teachers, or pupils to the school and spread the infection. I don’t want my daughter to bring it home.

    Third, the outlook of the virus in Nigeria is dire at the moment, with the positivity, hospitalization, and death rates still rising, crossing the 40,000 mark on Monday, July 27, 2020. True, according to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, more and more tests are being carried out, but if the virus is not present, there will be no positive cases. What the test results are revealing is the prevalence of community spread, especially within the top ten most infected states, where the positivity numbers are in the thousands.

    Not only is my state among the top ten, people have been moving in and out of the state since border closures were removed. I, therefore, fear that some of the parents, teachers, and pupils in my daughter’s school may have visited other hot zones of the virus and may bring the infection to school were the school to reopen in these circumstances.

    Fortunately, however, my daughter’s school has never stopped teaching their students by collaborating with parents to advance their curriculum online. I hope the school authorities carry on with this arrangement till the end of the year or until the pandemic is either in remission or over.

    Unfortunately, fourth, the global outlook of the virus shows that there is yet no light at then end of the tunnel and nobody even knows how long the tunnel is. As of Monday, July 27, 2020, there were 16,301,736 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 650,069 deaths reported to the World Health Organization.

    Worse still, most countries in which restrictions were relaxed are now struggling with new cases. In some countries, such as the United States, the surge in positivity, hospitalization, and death rates has reached alarming proportions in a number of states.

    The story is similar with countries, which rushed to reopen schools. From Israel and Iran to France and Germany, schools have had to be shut down again as in China and South Korea. What is troubling about these cases is the spread of the virus among schoolchildren.

    A recent study of nearly 65,000 kids by the South Korean Center for Disease Control showed that all children could spread COVID-19. Although children younger than 10 years old tend to spread the virus at a much lower rate, those in the 10- to 19-year-old age range could spread the virus within households just as effectively as adults. Young adults in their twenties could spread the virus even faster.

    Fifth, the initial assumption that children may not die of the virus has been dispelled. On June 18, the BBC reported that a 13-day-old baby with no underlying health conditions died of COVID-19 at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in England. In the same report, a 13-year-old with no pre-existing conditions also died from the virus in another hospital.

    Equally pathetic is the recent case of 9-year-old Kimora  Lynum, who died from Covid-19 complications in Floriday, USA, on July 18, 2020. Kimmie, as she was fondly called, had no known pre-existing conditions. Two days earlier, Bloomberg reported that at least 66 children younger than 20 had died of COVID-19 in the United States since mid-March.

    The above examples are from countries with established democracies and strong health systems, unlike Nigeria, where the health system is weak and the cultural attitude to government-run projects is negative due to perceived corruption and weak governance. This may well explain the high rate of disregard for the NCDC risk-mitigation guidelines and even disbelief in the existence of coronavirus.

    Against the above backgrounds, it remains unsafe in Nigeria to send schoolchildren back to school. This is particularly true of millions of public primary schools throughout the country, which lack the necessary infrastructure to comply with the PTF guidelines on school reopening.

    Clearly, the Federal Ministry of Education took the right decision not to reopen primary schools at this time. However, the decision to allow SSS3 students to resume for the purpose of the WAEC exams in August is much too soon. Moreover, the time frame given to schools to comply with the PTF guidelines is insufficient and it is unclear how compliance will be ensured throughout the country.

    To be sure, many schoolchildren are losing out by being locked out of school for months. Nevertheless, they can only be educated if they are alive. So long as the coronavirus stands between them and their classrooms, they should be kept at home.

  • Why COVID-19 may not go away soon

    Why COVID-19 may not go away soon

    Niyi Akinnaso

    It is a foolish man, they say, who does the same thing over and over again, and expects a different result. True, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 have repeatedly emphasized the need for personal responsibility in containing the coronavirus pandemic, but they have been locked into a cycle of repetitions. In briefing after briefing, the message is the same, save for information about new confirmed cases and deaths. As a result, the few reporters in the briefing room, who happen to be the same faces, keep repeating the same questions. The admonitions and reporters’ questions notwithstanding, the positivity and mortality rates keep going up.

    At the same time, citizens, most of whom are not even privy to the briefings, are like the proverbial foolish man: They keep flouting the non-pharmaceutical measures of containing the virus, and expecting that either they will not contract it or that it will simply go away. Many still do not believe that the virus exists at all, while others, especially in the rural areas, have little or no idea about its existence. Yet others, who know about it, believe that it is not “their portion”.

    One of them, another Wild Christian (apologies to Professor Wole Soyinka) even told me that coronavirus was God’s punishment for our sins. However, she continued, God has heard our supplications, led by her deeply religious Church, and He would make the virus disappear on July 14, 2020. She told me a few days before the due date. I nearly lost my cool, as I scolded her profusely for believing in the pastor, who told her such an anti-science lie.

    July 14 came and passed. The following morning, I sent the NDDC data of new infections and deaths to her. There were 463 new cases nationwide and 14 in her own state. I added the following caveat: “Let’s give today to God and expect zero cases tomorrow. It is possible your church leaders didn’t hear Him well”.

    The following morning, July 15, 2020, I sent her another message: “Seriously, please tell me what God says we should expect today so I can plan my day accordingly.” Her response is a further demonstration of her faith in God’s ability to stop the virus. Hear her: “What I can say is that God has taken us over this pandemic”.

    Needless to say, the infection rate keeps rising. So are the positivity and death rates. As of the time of writing, Nigeria had recorded 37,225 cases, that is, 3,609 more cases than the 33,616 cases of July 14, when the virus was predicted to disappear. Yet, neither the NCDC nor the PTF has shied away from emphasising that Nigeria has yet to reach the peak of infection.

    Unfortunately, the distance to the peak will get longer and longer with the so-called partial relaxation of restrictions and the opening up of religious houses, where some pastors and imams are deceiving their followers about the virus. Unfortunately, churches and mosques are getting fuller and fuller. Engagements, weddings, birthday parties, and funerals are returning to normal scale.

    With the increase in scale came the collapse of social distancing. Face masks, once worn by a few are now completely jettisoned. Last weekend was particularly troubling for me. Governor Yahaya Bello came to Akure, where I have been hibernating since March. He came to supervise the Ondo state governorship primary election for the All Progressives Congress. He lodged in a hotel within 300 meters of my residence. One of the aspirants lives about 100 meters away from me. Along our street was a teeming population of Bello’s aides and the aspirant’s supporters for two days running. My gateman kept reporting that he did not see anyone wearing a face mask! I told him to locked our gate with key!

    Ondo, of course, is a special case. There was never a lockdown. Only a temporary curfew, which was breached more than it was observed. The Commissioner for Health in charge of coordinating the state’s response died of the virus. So did a former Chairman of the state branch of the Nigeria Medical Association, who owned a vibrant hospital in Akure. The Chief Medical Officer of the University of Medicine Hospital Complex also contracted the virus. So did the state Governor, his wife, and some members of the State House of Assembly.

    Nevertheless, if you go through Akure today, all you see is business as usual. No face masks. No physical distancing. Some stores, which initially mandated face masks and hand washing before entry have since given up.  Yet, the infection curve in the state is on a steep rise. But that is the subject of another day.

    Against the above backgrounds, the NCDC and the PTF have more work to do. I commend the tact with which they dealt with the recalcitrant governors of Kogi and Cross River states. All governors have to work with their local governments and wards as well as community leaders in those units to organize coordinated responses to the pandemic. I had earlier provided some guidelines (see Community transmission: Individual and community responsibility, The Nation, May 20, 2020).

    This is essential because Nigeria will be in deep trouble, if this pandemic were to spread into the hinterland in the Southern states, where over 60 percent of infections have so far taken place. By hinterland, I mean the rural villages of which there are millions in the seventeen Southern states, which are used primarily as farming outposts. The consequences of the virus spreading into the villages for agricultural production will be incalculable.

    It is good to increase bed capacity for Covid patients, by building more isolation centres, especially in states experiencing unusual spikes. It is also good to ramp up testing. But these moves will be meaningless without the adequate supply of PPEs, testing kits, and reagents. State after state bemoans the shortage of these necessary supplies.

    Finally, the NCDC has done a good job of providing detailed information on testing figures and results per state on its microsite. State coordinators of the pandemic should be encouraged to publish all necessary figures in their state on a daily basis in order to further educate an incredulous public about the reality of the virus.

     

  • As Akinkugbe goes to sleep

    As Akinkugbe goes to sleep

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    ‘The name Akinkugbe itself connotes ‘the warrior that does not die in vain’, either as vanquished or as victor. But that spirit of rugged determination to succeed even against major odds is richly reflected in the Akinkugbe mantra’

    Ladipo Akinkugbe (2010), Footprints and Footnotes, An Autobiography, p. 263.

    When people go to sleep, they normally are expected to wake up and be up and running thereafter, all things being equal. However, when sleep is used as a euphemism for death, it is understood that the sleeper is gone forever. In such a case, sleep is eternal. Christians have a language for the situation. The person is said to have slept in the Lord.

    However, in the case of Professor Oladipo Olujimi Akinkugbe, he not only slept in the Lord on Monday, June 15, 2020 (about a month shy of his 87th birthday), he will wake up everyday and talk to us through the records of his medical prodigy; legendary teachings; clinical practices; and research findings, which will continue to guide doctors on how to treat various ailments, notably heart disease and kidney problems.

    As I point out below, these records exist in books, journals, and conference proceedings. The records derive from a variety of experiences in the medical field, including his elevation as the first Black African Professor of Medicine at age 35; Head, Department of Medicine; Dean, Faculty of Medicine; Chairman of the Board of the University College Hospital, Ibadan; and founder of three specialty clinics—one on hypertension and another on renal disorders, both at UCH—and the third, the Ibadan Hypertension Clinic, which he ran for 20 years.

    Similarly, as the founding Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, the fourth Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and an exemplary manager of clinical practices, records and tales of Akinkugbe’s services as a pioneering and astute administrator will also continue to mentor administrators on how to manage universities, colleges of medicine, hospitals, and specialty clinics. His invaluable contributions to the establishment of the University of Ilorin were not lost on the Federal Government, which seconded him in 1978 to strengthen Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria as its fourth Vice-Chancellor. This was at a time of great upheaval in university administration in the country, leading the Olusegun Obasanjo-led military government to reshuffle university Vice-Chancellors, by moving them out of their ethnic enclaves. Nigeria’s religious diversity and ethnic politics made it an unfortunate experiment.

    But, even more importantly, Professor Akinkugbe’s legacies continue to thrive in the medical students he had trained over the last half century, many of whom have since become Professors and Vice-Chancellors of various universities and produced students of their own.

    As indicated earlier, these enviable legacies abound in a dozen books he (co)authored or edited; numerous book chapters; innumerable articles in refereed academic journals; and many conference proceedings.  They also exist in recorded lectures and numerous press interviews.

    Above all, in lucid tell-tale manner and in fascinating details, Footprints and Footnotes, an Autobiography, published in 2010 when he was 77, chronicles his life, education, career development, professional achievements, and challenges up to that time. Three years later, at 80, he also published two slim volumes, titled Strands from the Fabric of Mind.

    The two volumes of Strands are collections of excerpts from nearly five decades of lectures on health and higher education. The lectures amplify the illustrious professional experiences narrated in Footprints. They also demonstrate a mastery of scholarship beyond medical education as they cite or re-echo leading philosophers, economists, political scientists, social theorists, and world leaders.

    At this juncture, I must confess that it is with a heavy heart that I write this, my fourth column, on or about Professor Akinkugbe, because I will forever miss face-to-face meetings and telephone conversations with him. Unlike the first two columns, which were celebratory, being appraisals of his works and achievements, the present one is only a sombre tribute, containing only a sketch of his achievements and legacies.

    I was always invited to his Little Summit residence at the Iyaganku GRA, Ibadan, in a reflective chit-chat with him over sumptuous snacks and choice drinks, either about my past columns or about the subjects of the columns I was going to write about him. One was on the occasion of his 80th birthday (Akinkugbe: 80 years of footprints and still going, The Punch, November 5, 2013) and another on the occasion of hanging his stethoscope after half a century of medical education and services (As Akinkugbe hangs his stethoscope, The Punch, October 23, 2018).

    The third piece resulted from a joint request by him and the late Dr. Lekan Are, his close friend, and patriarch of The Punch family, on their concern with the declining fortunes of Government College, Ibadan. Instead of being lured into snacks on arrival at his residence, Professor Akinkugbe took me through his gardens, where he pointed to a tree, booming with moderately wide green leaves. “That’s cocoa”, I said. “You’re right. Governor Mimiko was once here and he suggested that it would nice to have a cocoa tree in the garden to represent Ondo state”.

    We thereafter drove to Kakanfo Inn to meet with Dr. Are, who was waiting for us. They both related their experiences as students at GCI and their recent efforts to restore the quality of education they received there. The meeting was conducted partly over a feast of pounded yam, ila alasepo, efo elegusi, fish, and protein varieties.

    I shared their concerns with late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, then Governor of Oyo State, and his Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbade Ojo, when we met at Osogbo. The governor confirmed that they read my article and that the matter was under consideration. Months later, I received an email from Dr. Ojo with an attachment, detailing the government’s efforts to involve the GCI Old Boys Association in the management of the college. This was precisely what Akinkugbe and Are had been advocating.

    On January 19 this year, I sent this message to Professor Akinkugbe: “I’ve just returned from the US to the sad news of Dr. Lekan Are’s eternal rest. Please accept my heartfelt condolences.” Little did I realise that Professor Akinkugbe himself would leave five months later. He may be gone. But his legacies will live on.

    Truly, this warrior did not die in vain.