The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Sheikh Gumi and the politics of dialogue

    By Festus Eriye

    Two words often used to describe Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, are respected and controversial. The adjectives – especially the latter – are well-earned.

    He’s had a lot to say about the violence ravaging the Northwest. His positions often verge on the outrageous and illogical. Sometimes, he’s just one breath away from sounding like an advocate for the bandits.

    His latest intervention denounces the military offensive against criminal elements terrorising Zamfara and surrounding states. He argues it’s akin to pouring petrol on the flames.

    In a statement titled ‘Zamfara: The Flaring of Crisis,’ he said in part: “Let us face the reality, these herdsmen are going nowhere, and they are already in battle gear, and we know our military very well, so before things get messy, we need cold brains to handle this delicate situation. It’s common sense that if you allow your neighbours to be your enemy you are already conquered. Because they can easily be used against you by other forces.

    “Military actions in the past have worsen(ed) the situation stimulating herdsmen resistance. Any more action will push them closer to religious fanaticism. It gives them protection from discrediting them as thieves and also reinforce their mobilization of gullible young unemployed youth as we saw with BH (Boko Haram).”

    He suggested that unless an amnesty programme like that given militants in the Niger Delta is instituted, bandits are “going nowhere.” Sadly, the immediate victims of those “going nowhere” are Gumi’s fellow northerners.

    His amnesty envy is another way of saying “give us our own handouts or the killing and the maiming will continue.” It’s prescribing the same medication for different ailments just because the symptoms are similar. It’s an approach that’s not only ignorant but dishonest.

    The uprising in the Niger Delta was the result of decades of environmental degradation of the land and creeks – denying the people of their livelihood; worsening poverty in a region whose oil is the mainstay of the economy.

    Read Also: A quiet man at work

    The militants targeted economic assets of the Federal Government and foreign oil companies. They were not engaged in indiscriminate killings, or abduction of women and school children for ransom. They didn’t invade rural communities, burning scores of homes for no just cause.

    When the attacks on oil facilities was almost grounding the economy, government quickly worked out interventions to address the region’s issues. In addition to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) created by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, a ministry and amnesty programme were unveiled by the successor Yar’Adua government.

    The amnesty was to wean the fighters from illegal bunkering and other criminal acts. It was only a part of a larger package that reached out to other ordinary citizens.

    But let’s not forget that the Nigerian military and security agencies fought the militants for several years because they took up arms against the state and its interests.

    Any solution to what’s happening in the Northwest must honestly address its roots. Why have these people resorted to violence? There’s widespread consensus that lack of economic opportunities flowing from failure to develop the region is to blame.

    Bandits in Zamfara are in the forests because crime pays huge dividends. Ransoms are in the multimillions. Illegal mining is lucrative, while cattle rustling is another route to quick riches.

    The Boko Haram insurgency, on the other hand, was driven by the radical religious teachings of the late Mohammed Yusuf summarised in the proposition ‘Western education is evil.’ They didn’t become fundamentalist because government dealt harshly with the sect; they were that way from the get-go.

    But Gumi now argues that the bandits, who are just thieves with AK-47s, could be driven to embrace religious extremism by the military offensive. That’s laughable; it’s manufacturing a raison d’etre on the go, one that fits the moment.

    He says dialogue is the only way out because the military don’t have a monopoly on violence. Ridiculous! There are many other violent criminals confronting security agencies across the country. Why not apply the same solution to them so we can experience total peace in our time? Why make a special arrangement for bandits?

    Have we lost all sense of what constitutes a crime, good and bad? How should the state react when errant citizens violently attack others, dispossessing them of their properties or denying them liberty?

    There’s a time for everything and the time for negotiations will come. But to suggest there should be no military intervention even when killings and abductions are occurring daily; when bandits have built capacity to bring down an Air Force jet and strike within the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), is truly shocking!

    With certain enemies dialogue isn’t an option because they aren’t amenable to reason. Bandits are neither honourable nor reasonable. The only option is to defeat them by force of arms, while intervening socially and economically in their operational environment to deny them a recruitment pool.

    Perhaps Gumi needs to have a quiet chat with Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, who came to office with the dialogue singsong. Where has it gotten him? Not long ago he was moaning about how his efforts haven’t yielded fruit and the situation was deteriorating.

    There’s also Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, another one-time advocate of dialogue who famously posed for photos with an AK-47-totting bandit, but has since forsworn the option. He has acknowledged with exasperation that the word of a criminal is worthless.

    In all the time Gumi has been preaching to bandits how many have repented and renounced violence? The conversion rate could help convince cynics that his way is best.

    Unfortunately, even after his well-publicised interventions in major abductions in Zamfara and Niger States, the gunmen blew a lot of hot air but still collected their ransom. Dialogue stopped nothing because kidnapping has become a meal ticket in the region.

    The ongoing military action may not be a perfect solution but it puts pressure on the gunmen and deflates their momentum. There’s an urgent need to beat back the threat they represent and create a level of stability that allows for other governmental action.

    If the military don’t substantially degrade their capabilities they would come to any dialogue with a strong hand and guns pointed at our collective heads.

    Bandits are bullies hiding behind big guns to perpetrate atrocities. Psychologists will tell you appeasement empowers the bully, while confrontation stops him dead in his track. Resisting the evil in the Northwest is long overdue. Gumi can preach the rest of his sermon to the marines!

  • 2023: Making sense of the power calculus

    2023: Making sense of the power calculus

    Turmoil in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and intricate scheming within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should surprise no one. They are portents of the titanic battle ahead as political interests jockey to determine who succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Central to rising tension is deciding how flagbearers would emerge. Some have suggested they be chosen on merit. But no system known to man has been able to devise a means for measuring suitability of individuals for high office. We are left with good old horse-trading and creative formulas like rotation or zoning.

    As is to be expected the battle is fiercest in the PDP whose members are horrified by the prospect of another four years in the power wilderness.

    Its aspirants are emboldened because, unlike in 2019, they wouldn’t be going against an incumbent – so they fancy their chances.

    The ruling party’s record is a patchwork of hits and misses with regards to the economy and security. While APC might have done relatively well with rail, roads and bridges, its abysmal record on the larger economy and insecurity can be exploited by a competent opposition.

    However, Nigerian politics is anything but straightforward. In spite of the gloom and doom, the traffic of defectors is largely headed towards the doors of the ruling party. Fleeing PDP members sense where the wind vane is pointing and are jumping ship early.

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    For those who have elected to remain, the calculations are clear. When they were last in power the president was from the South-south zone. So internal logic suggests they go north – even if that runs against fairness in the larger national context considering that Buhari – a Northerner – would have held office for eight uninterrupted years come 2023.

    Some of the party’s stakeholders casually brush this aside, arguing that rotation or zoning isn’t written into the constitution. Never mind that it’s the very contrivance by which the political elite have shared power since the Second Republic.

    So barring seismic developments, the North will produce the next PDP candidate. The ambitions of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, former Senate President Bukola Saraki and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, are well advertised. Southern politicians are lining up to run for the chairmanship, confirming the unofficial zoning formula.

    For Atiku especially, it’s the last roll of the dice. If he doesn’t get the ticket and go on to become president, it would be an underwhelming end to a long political career which at some point promised great things.

    Driving the desire to look North within PDP is received wisdom that the region, despite Buhari serving two terms, would gladly vote one of their own again in a North-South match-up. Even if that were the case, how would another Northern candidate resonate with the rest of Nigeria?

    In 2007 and 2011 Buhari’s massive vote haul in his region didn’t deliver the presidency, until the APC platform gave him a base of significant support in a southern zone in 2015.

    The phenomenon where one man’s appeal consistently delivers ten million votes per electoral cycle may not be repeated. We have seen that Atiku is not Buhari, neither do Saraki and Kwankwaso have the same grassroots pull as the president. After the last six years it’s unlikely that the three northern zones would line up lamb-like behind one individual again. But for PDP, the northern card seems like the only viable option.

    For APC, things are more straightforward. The presidency will rotate south – most likely the Southwest whose alliance with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) resulted in the historic 2015 victory.

    The Southeast isn’t going to get the prize on the sentimental argument that it has never produced a president. The cold calculation would be how zoning the ticket there helps the ruling party retain power.

    How strong are its structures in the east? Would the ticket motivate a region that’s been historically repulsed by the ruling political tendency to suddenly execute a U-turn?

    Perhaps, this realisation is why there’s a dearth of interested aspirants from the zone. The same cannot be said for the Southwest where you can readily identify three leaders whose presidential ambitions are well known.

    Handling the Southeast and South-South is potentially tricky for PDP. How does it explain not giving a chance to its long term allies in these strategic strongholds after a Northerner has held office for eight years? It’s the most difficult of conundrums.

    Governors would be key in determining who gets what in either party. But they won’t do so as a bloc because of diverging interests. PDP governors in Port Harcourt in 2018 didn’t act as one in the contest between Atiku and Tambuwal. It would be the same with their ruling party colleagues when push comes to shove.

    Intriguingly, the 2023 race could be reminiscent of the famous 1993 contest in terms of departure from conventional wisdom. Many would say the early frontrunner in APC is former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu. In 2015 he was a shoo-in for the vice presidency until virulent opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket with Buhari scuttled the proposition.

    Already, some influential northern voices have suggested that they would back him if he runs with another Muslim. Would this fly when it didn’t six years ago? Possibly.

    Twenty eight years ago, then Social Democratic Party (SDP) threw up a Southern Muslim flagbearer who had to run with a Northern Muslim out of strategic interest.

    The pairing was anathema politically but it was the condition late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, leader of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), gave as condition for backing Chief M. K. O. Abiola’s candidacy. The businessman was asked to go and sell the Muslim-Muslim ticket down South and he did a masterful job.

    The National Republican Convention’s (NRC) northern candidate, Bashir Tofa, went for the more politically correct option – pairing with the Christian Dr. Sylvester Ugoh from the Southeast.

    But by polling day on June 12, 1993, the ‘taboo’ pairing had become a non-issue – clearing the way for a sweeping SDP landslide across the country. Abiola achieved electoral breakthroughs in the three northern zones – even defeating Tofa on his home turf – because his party delivered for him.

    While the APC and PDP may not presently have an overarching godfather in the mould of Yar’Adua or a dominant, well-oiled political machine like the PDM, watch out for the role of governors and local leaders of large delegate-rich states as the parties get down to making their choice.

     

  • A dagger in the heart

    A dagger in the heart

    Perhaps no metaphor is strong enough to capture the implications of the terrorist attack on the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna on August 24, 2021. Given the real and symbolic role of the Academy in the training and retraining of army officers, the attack on the institution could hardly be regarded as anything but a dagger in the heart of our national defense.

    Indeed, the dagger literally hit two officers, fatally wounding them, while one was kidnapped, who has yet to be released. May their souls of the departed rest in peace and may their families, colleagues, and friends find the fortitude to bear the loss. And may the Army be smart enough to defend itself as it seeks to defend the country.

    Much too often, we talk past the immediate victims of terrorist attacks and focus on attacking the government. These fallen officers and their families deserve our attention in the hours following the incident. There will be time enough to blame the government. In particular, the press must be careful not to appear as chorusing the opposition rhetoric of the Peoples Democratic Party, which is always eager to pounce on the ruling party at the slightest opportunity.

    That said, the implications of the attack on the quality of the nation’s intelligence architecture; military preparedness; and Nigeria’s image cannot be ignored.

    Clearly, the quality and role of military intelligence are questionable, if it cannot foresee or prepare against imminent attack, even on its own institution. This cannot but make observers recall several lapses in military intelligence in recent times. In April this year, over 30 soldiers in a military convoy were killed in Mainok near Maiduguri in an ambush by fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province. Yet, we had known for some time that this terrorist group was on the prowl for targets in Nigeria.

    Even worse for military intelligence was the abduction of over 30 students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization within the same neighbourhood as the NDA. Yet, accounts by various students allegedly indicated that soldiers arrived only after the bandits had escaped with the students. Similar stories or worse have been told about other school abductions and attacks.

    Read Also: 2023: Making sense of the power calculus

    This recent attack cannot but call into question the integrity and preparedness of the military to secure the nation and protect the citizens against external aggression. That’s why the question is rightly raised as to whether a military that cannot protect itself, and has failed to protect others in the past, is reliable.

    The expression of disapproval of military integrity and preparedness by ex-military officers in the wake of the brazen attack on the NDA should be considered within the foregoing context (see Retired military officers rail against attack on NDA, Vanguard, August 26, 2021).

    In this regard, the revelations by Commodore Kunle Olawunmi on Channels TV (see Ayo Olukotun, Attack on the NDA and Olawunmi’s theory of colluding insiders, The Punch, August 27, 2021) and General Ishola Williams (see SHOCKING NDA ATTACK: Political leaders culpable – General Ishola Williams, ex-Defense chief, Vanguard, August 29, 2021) are particularly far-reaching. Their concerns cannot be dismissed, because Olawunmi was an intelligence officer for the military for over 20 years and Williams a former Chief of Training, Operations and Plans at the Defense Headquarters.

    Among other problems, they highlighted neglect of recommendations by previous administrations; the alleged participation of unnamed politicians in terrorist activities; and the lack of correspondence between the huge investment in military equipment by the present administration and military performance.

    Unfortunately, the administration has been very weak in self defense and in sharing necessary information. Neither of the two statements emanating from Aso Rock leaves much to be desired. In one, by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, it was time for conspiracy theories: “So many scenarios are being painted though. Could this be truly a criminal attempt to violate the sanctity of that military institution? Was this an opportunistic crime? Is it political? Does somebody want to embarrass the government by doing this?” Such theories belong to the era of former President Donald Trump of the United States, who attracted national and global condemnation for them during his tenure.

    In the other statement, by the President’s Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adesina, we are told that the President holds the view that the attack on the NDA would provide the stimulus for the army to wipe out banditry and all forms of criminality. Hear the President’s spokesperson: “Noting that the attack, which led to loss of lives, came at a time that the military had put insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, and other types of criminals on the retreat, the President says the heinous action would accelerate the total uprooting of evil in the polity, which members of the Armed Forces are solidly resolved to accomplish in the shortest possible time”.

    There is some questionable logic here. How are “insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, and other types of criminals on the retreat” still able to attack the NDA of all places? And how short is “the shortest possible time”? Besides, must the army wait for an attack on its own institution for motivation?

    However, the President may have been up to something here. For one thing, there are documents in circulation, confirming the huge investment of the administration in various arms and ammunition, which could accelerate the pace and quality of military intervention. However, we are told, time is needed for the complete orders to come in. Moreover, it is true that Boko Haram appears to be on the retreat as many members have reportedly surrendered. It is suspected, however, that it may only have morphed into banditry for the ransom money.

    While one may question the veracity of these sources, the President’s reticence in revealing such information is understandable, as it may reveal the types of strategies to be employed. This, however, should not preclude periodic information, say from the Defense Headquarters or the Defense Minister, about the steps being taken to adequately prepare the military for its tasks.

    After all is said and done, it cannot be denied that the attack on the NDA has dented the image of the country, solidified the perceived weakness of the President, and heightened the perception of the nation’s armed forces as a lackluster institution. It’s job is well cut out now, if it is to fulfill the President’s mandate of restoring security and peace “in the shortest possible time”.

  • V. Agha, V. Uwaifo, RIPP; Reporters- Don’t empower terrorists

    NNPC  declared N287b 2020 profit. Hurray. No profit declared before???? Meanwhile refurbishment of Port Harcourt Refinery $1.5b = N600b [2+ years profit]. Do the mathematics.

    Excuse me…Medical doctors must look after their families by any means necessary including travelling abroad. Doctors pass their own difficult examinations. No bribery or mercenaries. Unfortunately, when you point out the bad in Nigeria, you who are labelled and mistreated as ‘bad’. The bad continues unabated and the perpetrators of the bad go unpunished. Higher medical budgets, better employment prospects, better medical equipment maintenance, poor currency value, hateful attitude to all professionals especially medicine, by politicians claiming to rule all professions.

    This month Nigeria and St Gregory’s College lost two icons. We mourn the multitalented, Sir Victor Uwaifo who died at 80 after a stellar career starting with a home-made guitar and nurtured in St Gregory’s College in the school band in the early 60s. We all still love ‘Joromi’, ‘Guitar Boy’, etc. May the Melody Maestro’s’ leader and non-smoking, nondrinking and respected actual Professor of academic music, Rest in Perfect Peace. Pls. Google his full life history. Inspirational!!!

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    In our rush to create entrepreneurs and jobs, remember that entrepreneurship is age-old, existing before the name was invented. In our parents and grandparents’ time there were many opening their own practices in all the different professions instead of taking government employment. Among key entrepreneurs at the time was Mr. Vincent Agha, ‘Senior V’ to me, who passed to glory at 86 this month after a splendid life of quantity surveying service to the nation in the three domains of public, private and church under the banner of the widely respected quantity surveying firm QU-ESS Partnership which he was Senior Partner with Partners Mr. Olusola Macgregor and Mr. Raymond Kotey. Mr. Agha was a keen sportsman playing particularly squash with the very best of players and often with his junior by one day the respected Mr. Ogie Alakija at the Recreation Club for many years. Even when he could no longer play, he changing to walking long distances for exercise. He is a distinguished alumnus of St Gregory’s College, Ikoyi, Lagos – a link he held dear to his heart and he and Aunty C extended fellowship to the youngest old boys and the few old girls he encountered in Ibadan. I met him for the first time at a St Gregory’s Old Students Meeting on his expansive veranda in Ibadan with Peter Binitie and later I visited frequently with Cyril Etomi, who both later distinguished themselves in medicine. Mr. Agha became the Western Coordinator of the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, and he and his young team of acolytes  energetically, often with his own professional and corporate resources documented and created a detailed ‘Schools Needs List’ with pictures [before cellphone cameras] as a huge reference library of every single one of thousands of schools which were to Benefit from the PTF. The fruits of that labour were neatly bound in hardbacked files filled the office space of the bright-eyed young staff members as they looked forward with high hopes of great achievements in project execution. Always a mentor and youth promoter, Mr. Agha encouraged them with regular discussions around the project and, being vastly knowledgeable, in literature and other areas. He broadened their young minds in a wide range of social areas. He was always interested in my writing. The PTF staff glow turned disappointment by the consistent lack of and non-release of approved funds for the schools. Finally, great expectations turned to bitter reality as the PTF top management, full of sound and reform fury, sadly, lived up to the name I gave PTF in my column,  ‘Pampering The Few’ at the expense of the many, failing to deliver in several parts of Nigeria.

    Snr V and I interacted, to my benefit in many areas for over 50 years and covered creative, social commentary and Educare Trust NGO levels. He also gave a talks Dr. patient relationships at the Medical school

    Mr. Agha took his religion seriously and placed his professional expertise at the service of the church culmination in later life when he became probably the oldest mass server worldwide as late into his 70s, he still served at Holy Mass on Sunday evenings. No doubt this was building on his mass-serving days in St Gregory’s College exemplifying ultimate humility. May Mr. Vincent Agha, an exemplary professional, mentor, leader, motivator, sportsman, mass server and family man to Aunty C and their children R,Ek,Eka and grandchildren, Rest In Perfect Peace. Amen. A respectful ‘Up Greg’s!

    Why do governments announce war plans on BBC, CNN etc., informing their enemies, giving time for a reaction or counterreaction or even giving them bad ideas? Media announced moving 3,000 US troops back to Afghanistan probably motivated the Taliban to get to Kabul overnight before any re-enforcements could arrive. Here we announce planned anti-terrorist activities in one state, allowing time for escape to safer states. On BBC a reporter carelessly posed dangerous questions to an uncomfortable Afghan female MP just as Taliban penetrated Kabul, the answers to which could become an execution excuse by the Taliban. Also, the post-Taliban takeover journalist projections are actually useful war strategies. Film crews interviewing secretive guests deliberately or mistakenly and showing identifiable marks to enemies compromise their safety. Reporters must not compromise on safety first.

  • Haiti in the throes of political, economic, and natural disasters

    Haiti in the throes of political, economic, and natural disasters

    If you think that the problems of Haiti do not concern you, I am afraid, you may be mistaken. Haitian’s are descendants of slaves mostly from West Africa, including Nigeria. Some of these slaves might well have shared the same lineage with your ancestors hundreds of years ago.

    Besides, as a country of Blacks in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti offers a reference point for evaluating Africans at home and in the Diaspora. Former President Donald Trump saw Haiti and African countries as one, referring to them as “shithole” countries. That’s why Haitian poverty, illiteracy, corruption, insecurity, and underdevelopment should be sore points for Africa and Africans.

    Nobody seems to care anymore about how Haiti came to be and why it remains a troubled nation. The contemporary focus is on one crisis or the other. In the last 20 years or so, these crises seem to have reached boiling point.

    Haiti has been boiling since inception. What eventually became Haiti was originally born out of conflict between the Spanish and the French over the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, all of which was a Spanish colony. In resolving the dispute, the western part of the island, where the French had settled by 1625, was ceded to France in 1697.

    For nearly two centuries (1625-1804), the French colonists extracted the last drop of labour from African slaves brought in to work on the sugar cane and coffee plantations. The slaves died young under harsh labour and unfamiliar diseases but the slave masters kept replenishing them with newly imported slaves from West Africa. By the time of the French Revolution in 1789, the colony had emerged as France’s richest colonial possession and one of the richest colonies in the world.

    However, the economic boom would perish under recurrent conflicts, heavy debts, corruption, and political instability.

    It all started with the struggle for independence. Piggybacking on the French Revolution, the slaves mounted their own revolution against the French. After 12 years of conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte’s army was defeated and the French territory was renamed Haiti on independence on January 1, 1804. By this feat, Haiti became the only nation in history that was established by a successful slave revolt; the first country to abolish slavery; and the first independent nation of the Caribbean and Latin America.

    Read Also: Haiti earthquake death toll rises to 2,189

    These feats notwithstanding, Haiti would know no peace. First, fearful of the spread of independence revolt to American slaves, the American government pursued international isolation of the newly independent nation.

    Second, the French returned with warships to demand compensation for the loss of their colony and the plantations. By today’s standards, the agreed sum would be well over a trillion dollars. This would further seriously undercut Haiti’s economic activities. By the time the compensation was fully paid in 1947, Haiti was already sinking under political turmoil.

    For a century after independence, Haiti struggled but made no progress. Continued political instability in the early 1900s led to American fears of foreign intervention. As a result, the United States occupied the country for 19 years between 1915 and 1934.

    Although the Americans tried to stabilize the economy during their occupation, their exit was followed by even more political instability. True, power did not change hands as frequently or violently as before when the Duvalier family (Papa and Baby Doc) took over for 20 years (1956-1986). However, instead of stabilizing the country, the Duvalier dynasty was marked by state-sponsored violence, corruption, and economic stagnation. Worse still, the dynasty incurred additional debts. Although the debts were eventually forgiven, political instability and corruption would prevent national development.

    Haiti has never been able to sustain democracy. Neither America’s Operation Uphold Democracy nor the United Nation’s Stabilization Mission has been able to salvage democracy in the country. It’s leaders were either ousted in a military coup, forced to resign and flee the country, or assassinated. At least five Haitian leaders have been assassinated since independence, the most recent being Jovenel Moïse, who was killed in his bedroom on July 7, 2021.

    What is worse, nature has not been kind to Haitians. In 1994, Hurricane Gordon killed between 1,122 and 2,200 people. In 2004, over 3,000 people were killed in flooding and mudslides by Tropical Storm Jeanne. Again, in 2008, a series of Tropical storms killed over 300 people and left as many as 800,000 in dire need of humanitarian aid. Two years later, in 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck, killing as many as 300,000 and displacing over 1.6 million people. The death toll is still being counted in the most recent natural disaster. It was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on August 14, 2021.

    Images of the devastation from these disasters show helpless people and grossly inadequate or weak structures, obviously a result of poverty and government neglect. The contrast between the United States and Haiti in clearing disaster debris could not be more obvious. Cranes were going up and down, clearing the debris from a fallen apartment in Florida, while Haitians were picking debris with bare hands. Some were looking for loved ones still buried beneath the rubble. Others were scavenging for food or something of value.

    Yet, genuine efforts to deliver food and medical aid to thousands of victims of the earthquake are being disrupted by criminal gangs and mob violence. Of course, insecurity has been a standard feature of Haitian streets virtually throughout the nation’s existence. In the late 1990s, one of my PhD students at Temple University wrote his dissertation on the subject. The dissertation gave rise to an award winning book, whose title speaks volumes: Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in Haiti.

    Haitians fought for 12 years for self determination and attained independence 217 years ago. Today, they are the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere, struggling for survival. On several occasions, the international community, led by the United States, has come to Haiti’s aid. President Joe Biden for one quickly dispatched human and material assistance to Haiti in the wake of the recent disaster. But for how long will Haiti continue to depend on food assistance and Band-aid?

    True, African countries are facing their own internal problems. Nevertheless, it is high time they came together to rescue Haiti. Given Haiti’s enduring historical and cultural ties to Africa and the expressed desire (though denied) to join the African Union, the time to acknowledge Haiti’s problems as Africa’s problems is now.

  • The Coronavirus diaries (23)

    The Coronavirus diaries (23)

    Everything about COVID-19 is a pain. Like every nuisance, or that awkward guest who plumps himself down on your sofa uninvited, this pandemic isn’t in a hurry to go away.

    First, there was the outbreak as the ‘novel coronavirus,’ then a second wave and now countries around the world are grappling with a potentially deadlier third wave. What next? The fourth, fifth or even permanent residency?

    Nigeria confirmed late in July that we have officially entered the third wave with a scary spike in daily infection rates after a period of steady decline. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) figures show that on August 21 the country recorded 1,064 cases – the highest daily figure in six months. The last time there was a higher figure was on January 18, at the peak of the second wave, with 877 cases.

    The new strain has so far popped up in the FCT, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos and Oyo States.

    In every wave, Lagos has been the epicentre. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu confirmed the upward trend Monday saying test positivity rate currently stands at 12.1% compared to 1.1% at the end of June 2021.

    But whatever danger he sees in the statistics is lost on most of his compatriots. The so-called Delta variant is supposed the deadliest of the coronavirus strains so far and spreads faster. The killer is back, reinforced, ready for a rematch, but Nigerians are unimpressed.

    We’ve become so hardened we’re not moved by evidence. About 506 people have died in Lagos over the course of the pandemic – a period of one and half years. Significantly, 135 of that number are those who lost their lives in the last one month. Osun just announced 13 deaths in one week.

    Read Also: Insurgency: 10% of Borno residents missing, says Zulum

    High profile casualties abound: from former Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye to Mohammed Fawehinmi, to former First Lady, Hadiza Shehu Shagari – just to name a few.

    One reason for cynicism might be that other diseases are doing an equally impressive job of decimating the population. Take the recent cholera outbreak across the country which has claimed close to 1,000 lives in just a couple of months. For all its fearsome reputation the coronavirus death toll in 18 months is 2,260.

    COVID-19 is the great unmasker of hypocrites – and we see this all the time around the world. In the UK, ministers and other high officials tasked with enforcing tough lockdown rules, have been caught breaching same to secretly visit their families or lovers.

    Last weekend, despite preachments about the danger of large gatherings at this time, a huge crowd of movers and shakers shook Kano as President Muhammadu Buhari led his son Yusuf to take Zahra, daughter of the Emir of Bichi, Nasiru Ado Bayero, as wife.

    Many at the event were unmasked: it wasn’t the only COVID-19 protocol they trampled underfoot on their way in and out.

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) warned Sunday that events such as the wedding where precautions were openly flouted, can fuel infections.

    But this isn’t just a Nigerian thing. Such is the desire for people to return to unrestrained living that they would sooner or later run afoul of what is now considered acceptable conduct. Just like the Buhari’s, former US President Barack Obama wasn’t going to let a little virus stand in the way of a grand celebration of his landmark 60th birthday earlier this month.

    Amidst an outcry over how unseemly it was to host such a mass gathering in a pandemic, he announced a scaling down – which still made room for a couple of hundreds to attend. Those who defended him argued that most of the attendees were already double-vaccinated so there’s was very little danger posed to guests.

    Really? In recent times the news has been awash with reports of people who had received two jabs testing positive. Popular singer Mike Okri is one such example. So much for vaccine protection. COVID-19 is not only a pain, it’s clearly very confusing.

    So if the Obama guests trusted in the efficacy of their jabs, on what did the Buhari crowd base their confidence? How many at that party had been vaccinated once when the country has only received a little over four million vaccine doses to cater for over 112 million eligible people?

    This isn’t to suggest that there’s been a mad rush to take advantage of the limited quantity of vaccines available. Far from it. A combination of hesitancy and just sheer indifference has ensured that there hasn’t been a crisis arising from the limited supply of doses.

    However, one state that cannot be accused of taking the third wave lightly is Edo. Governor Godwin Obaseki just unveiled a set of tough new measures that the unvaccinated won’t find amusing.

    Beginning from the second week of September 2021, people who haven’t been vaccinated at least once would be denied access to banks, churches, mosques and large public gatherings.

    The governor says the measures are to protect citizens and will remain until the pandemic passes away. His zeal is admirable but may just be overdone. People would be raising questions about the legality and fairness of an order that denies them access to banks and churches just because they’ve not been vaccinated. May be the Edo State government has provided sufficient vaccines doses and people didn’t take advantage. The facts don’t support that suggestion.

    The trouble with the new measures is that they will suffer the fate of most Nigerian laws – death by unenthusiastic enforcement.

    Even worse, they won’t amount to much because the state isn’t an island. It is surrounded by others who are less gung-ho about dishing out the bitter medicine to combat COVID-19 – meaning Obaseki’s actions alone can’t tame transmission if similar measures are not in place in surrounding states.

    Then you have the remarkable penchant of Nigerians to break rules. Governor Sanwo-Olu was just moaning over 1,049 returnee travellers who absconded from Lagos’ isolation facilities. Security in the facilities must have been quite lax for them to break out in such numbers in less than three months.

    If truly the purpose of isolation was to prevent spread to the larger population, such centres should have been like mini medical prisons. But I guess the governor expected people to be reasonable and do the right thing. Unfortunately, that’s an attitude that’s been as scarce as people wearing masks – even in the midst of a supposedly more deadly new wave.

  • Pay Salaries/Pensions – Entrepreneurial strategy

    Paying salaries and pensions is morally responsible and good entrepreneurial support strategy.

    Authorities in Nigeria quickly threaten ‘No work, No Pay’. What is pay? It is the in-controvertible right of a worker to pre-agreed cash for work and it is paid by agreement on a daily, weekly or monthly or other contractually agreed time and the responsibility is passed to the next government in case of any wage lapses. But why should there be workers wage lapses in the first place? Do your governments and ultimately Governors have a bad track record of ‘No Pay for Correct Work’? – be it salaries for work recently done or for past work like pensions. Most political figures want to accumulate money as ‘Salaries And Perks ‘-SAP and ‘Life Perks and Pensions’ and also for cronies, political hangers-on, ‘The Party Machinery’ and ‘Election/Re-election War Chests’. However, they deprive workers of salaries and pensions for 3 months to 10+yrs. Calculate your losses: emotional, medical, social, educational, business start-ups and situational  if you were denied a pension for 10 years!

    Authorities must take responsibility, as actions have an earthquake effect immediately but also may make the future of millions of families unliveable. Certainly, exclude ghost and dead workers but pay the real living ones promptly. One person’s salary is like an octopus with many tentacles or a centipede with 100 legs or a flower with many petals and keeps many alive. Non-payment of salary in a family’s monthly lifecycle causes much of the population unrest. It is the oil to fuel the family-life to success. A salary’s absence is petrol to burn down the family structure and the community beyond.  Youth  become delinquent at home and lawless.

    Everything revolves around that salary. Salaries provide essentials -food, water, shelter, power, security, health, transportation and education and seed money for businesses even to extended family. Each impacts the neighbourhood entrepreneurial business through supporting market vendors, lesson teachers, transporters, distant farmers, tanker drivers, clothes makers etcetera -all important salary beneficiaries.

    Similarly, a pension may fund start-up business for children/grandchildren or guarantee further education. With no salary or pension there is breakdown in child-parent respect destroying the family hierarchical structure. Bitter youth deprived of lesson teachers and educational opportunity, fall below targeted earning power and life-expectation, have grudges and no respect for non-providing parents and grandparents who only deliver words of wisdom. Remember, even the poorest grandparent has a coin, currency note, sweet or biscuit for visiting grandchildren.

    Future social and political and economic scientists, researching causes of our nation’s failings, will eventually trace the bitter youth backlash at the tail-end of the SARS Campaign and the seething rage pervading young society today, to a systemic government’s sometime institutionalised failure to pay-as-and-when-due salary and pension to their parents and -even the police! The salary and pension must be seen by governments, not as ‘Hurray, the Governor has paid salaries or pensions’ or political favours but actual essential legally binding, obligatory tools or weapons in the war against poverty of mind and body, required to prevent unrest and troubling socio-political turbulence.

    No governor or government official should sleep knowing that somewhere a single worker has not been paid because that person, the dependent family and owed vendors are not sleeping and the children are deprived of a better education.  Ditto the pension is used by one retiree, but sometimes for an entire village of dependents.

    Nigerian contracts are often found to be quagmires of corruption. However, government debts for bona fide contracts, especially transferred from previous governments has also created huge family upheaval and economic disastrous losses for disengaged workers.

    Each unpaid  salary or pension seems only one person to a politician, a drop collectively amounting to a tsunami of potential good economic progress. No salary and pension scenario amount to a tsunami of bad faith, poor performance and poor achievement of a generation of youth denied their education and business goals because their parents and grandparents were broke. The mathematical equation for a nation’s failure will show that past wage payment failures are a big part of the national social failure puzzle.

    The world will die if climate change measures are not quickly taken but Nigeria spends $1b+ on previously failed Turn Around Maintenance on 40yr old refineries. Nigerian Governors now use diesel powered street corner generators to provide welcome electricity while scavenger contractors rip up past government’s climate friendly solar lighting systems merely in need of bulbs, batteries and solar panel cleaning. Similarly, Nigeria may face serious threats if Governments, Governors and influential politicians do not face the task of promptly paying not just themselves, who they always manage to pay first but their armies of employees and therefore indirectly millions of dependents and beneficiary industries.

    Do you hear of developed countries not paying salaries equitable to their currency value?  No one flees those countries to come to Nigeria. Ask why so many thousands of Africans are fleeing,  risking death by drowning or thirst or murder for possessions or body parts for organ transplant, kidnapping and slavery and prostitution. Our governments should be ashamed that leaving the country is now a strategic survival strategy for rich and poor alike. This began for economic and social reasons  occurred long before the terrorist wars of today.  Pay Salaries and Pensions please! Any delay fuels the smouldering flames of current social upheaval!

  • The test and the search

    The test and the search

    Two recent events got me thinking seriously about Nigeria and its image abroad. One was the COVID-19 PCR test I had at the Philadelphia International Airport, hours before my return flight to Lagos. The other event was the search for dollars in my hand luggage by six police officers inside the jetway after passing through the boarding gate in Detroit.

    The PCR Test

    The nose swab Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 is now required of all passengers for entry or re-entry into Nigeria, even after completing two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. After paying online for the same test within seven days of arrival in Nigeria, travellers must also obtain a QR Code to show at check-in. I did my PCR test at the Philadelphia International Airport. The Test Centre was set up by a consortium of the Airport, Jefferson Hospital, and Ambulnz, a mobile medical services company. Appropriate equipment, technology, and staff were deployed to facilitate rapid testing.

    First, I scanned into my phone a QR Code pasted on the wall. It took me to the application form, which I immediately completed online. The information required included my flight information and the destination country in order to accurately determine the country’s test requirement. Once I emailed the form to the provided address, I was called in and sent to Room 3, which was dedicated to PCR test. The technician collected the sample and told me to wait for about 15 minutes for the result.

    Read Also: COVID-19: Nigeria’s fourth place ranking not ours, says WHO rep

    I took time to ask her about the processes involved. She told me that the swab would be sent to the lab across the hall in a sealed tube. A technologist would extract genetic material from the sample. Whatever is extracted would be subjected to special chemicals using a PCR machine. Special software is then used to read the signals that indicate the presence or otherwise of COVID-19.

    When my negative result was ready within 30 minutes of the initial application, my mind went straight to Nigeria. I recalled a time when I did the COVID-19 test and waited in vain for the result. None was ever provided.

    There was yet another time I did the test and the result was ready the same day. The first test was done in a government-related facility, while the second was done in a private hospital approved by the NCDC for overseas travellers. By the Philadelphia Airport standard, even the second test I had in Nigeria was still slow.

    The delay in Nigeria is due to multiple factors, including poor infrastructure, inadequate materials, inefficient bureaucracy and lack of proper coordination between states and the NCDC, which releases the official results. The involvement of the NCDC illustrates Nigeria’s over-centralization and lack of trust of state authorities. Some states, such as Kogi, prevented testing, while others did so haphazardly. There is also the problem of lack of commitment of civil servants to ise Ijoba (government work), leading to delays, evasion, and sometimes controversial results. These factors are responsible for the abysmal scale of testing in Nigeria. After nearly 18 months, only about 2.6 million out of over 200 million people have been tested.

    To be sure, a profit-making venture, such as the Airport Test Centre, is in the business for profit. The workers maximise their contributions, knowing full well that the company’s continued profit making is in their interest as it guarantees job security and adequate rewards. If government test centres in Nigeria could not aim at the efficiency level of the Philadelphia Test Centre, at least the private test centres in Nigeria should.

    Searching for dollar

    While the PCR test was an educational experience, the second event was a humiliating one. It happened on the second leg of my flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Although the flight was almost full of passengers, I was the second Black person and the only one whose final destination was Nigeria. After passing through the boarding gate into the jetway, I encountered six police officers, who told me to step aside. Other passengers walked by, looking at me suspiciously.

    I was asked to disclose the dollar amount on me, which I did. “Are you aware it is an offense to carry more than $10,000 on you?” The lead police officer asked me. I answered in the affirmative but added that I was also aware that one should fill out a form if the amount was over $10,000. “Do you have more than $10,000 now”. “No”, I responded with confidence. He and one other officer proceeded to search my hand luggage and handbag. All the money they found was put on a table they had brought into the jetway, apparently to ease the counting. They separated the dollar from other currencies they found and proceeded to count the dollar.

    At the end of the day, they discovered that I did not have up to $10,000 in my luggage and handbag. They did a second search, opening all possible pockets in the bags. They opened all envelopes and packages, looking for more money. I also brought out everything in my pockets and opened the entrails of the pockets.

    They thereafter proceeded to interview me about what I do for a living. I told them I was a Professor in various American universities and retired from one of them. I encouraged them to google my name to find out more about me. One of the officers looking on did so and smiled. The others then began to engage in a banter, which gave me the opportunity to ask them why I was isolated for the dollar search. They looked at each other and said nothing. As they were walking away, one of them said “Safe journey to Nigeria”.

    Nigeria. That’s the problem. From the perspective of law enforcement in the US, it is the country of fraudsters-of Ramon Abass, alias Hushpuppy, the notorious Internet fraudster; of Abidemi Rufai, alias Ruffy, a US employment fund fraudster; and of Kingsley Kuku, who allegedly was arrested at the Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam within hours of my passing through the same airport last week.

    With continuous news about corruption, Yahoo Boys, and other fraudulent activities within the country, Nigeria’s image is dented at home and abroad. Mine could have been a random search in Detroit. But every Nigerian travelling abroad must be prepared for such an encounter. That is the legacy Nigerian leaders, past and present, have bequeathed on us.

  • Anti-doctor disease- PHD syndrome?

    Nobody asks why ‘Government Owing for Work Done and Breach of Contract’ are not crimes?

    Resident Doctors Strike ‘No Pay, No Work, Better Working Facilities and Conditions’ yet Nigeria spends over $1b on ancient refineries failing treatment of ‘Turn Around Maintenance’, even as earth overheats from fossil fuels. Wrong strategy!

    Medicine is about caring for the sick. I was a House Officer in Lagos State during the NMA strike in 1975 when doctors were thrown out of quarters and jobs. Doctors are not the health services problem. They are government’ whipping boy. In late 60s-early 70s, celebrated neurosurgeon Prof E Latunde Odeku lamented falling UCH standards.

    Doctors have delivered humanitarian service in mostly inadequate facilities with rubbish toilets, mimicking abysmal war conditions. But there was no war. I have operated with torchlight, without glove, delivered women in agony because someone withdrew pethilorphan narcotic and watched cancer patients die because someone arbitrarily increased the radiation isotopes like Caesium tax from N200,00 to N2,000,000, and watched Nigerians being amputated or die from the preventable Okada Epidemic, mostly in disgraceful conditions breaching medical codes.

    Most doctors pay poor patient bills to help. Meanwhile politicians, especially NASS, wallow in disgusting seven-star luxury, generators, jeeps and avaricious 1st world SAPs -Salaries and Perks and wrongly use our money for self-glorifying ‘Medical Outreach Programmes!

    What is 419?

    I wrote in 1989 – ‘DOCTORS LOVE THEIR COUNTRY’. Sketch newspaper

    ‘’To clarify points raised in Daily Sketch, November 28, 1988.

    Confrontation in Lagos State in 1975 by the NMA, confrontation with Gowon leading to ‘give in or get out’ order showed doctors were powerless, penniless, propertyless and pitiable in a society that overnight put money [power and milito-politicians welfare] above professionalism, probity and the people.

    Government and media stigmatise such NMA fights as ‘selfish’, but item one is ‘Improved Health Services’ from which everyone benefits.

    Remember ‘hospitals became mere consulting rooms and mortuaries. In 1985 NMA was proscribed. Our members were incarcerated [and ostracised] – elderly doctors and women – not just the ‘young radicals’.

    No patients crying out for their release. NMA [merely] wanted 5% budget [for health and still a problem].

    We live in escapism – lavish parties amidst abject poverty, (people eating out of dustbins), of N120,000 Peugeot 505s and N600 bicycles but N100 salaries and N6,000 air fares. The real world is out there. We need the hospital [but would rather fund absolutely valueless political lifestyles and foreign medical trips]. Money misspent and stolen.

    As responsible adults, our duty is family, self and nation [in that order]. Professionals have done more [to keep Nigeria going] than many [questionably] given official honours. Doctors have fought, been injured [and died, attacked e.g., Dr Stella Adadevoh, others and NMA Covid Casualties] to improve health care. When an abandoned prophet is paid adequately abroad for the same service, people should not complain [as they encourage criminal malpractice short cuts in a defective medical system.]

    The professional does not love Nigeria less but loves family more. [Medics are not mumu! When you die, the family is alone]. Nigeria is not a welfare state [except for retired governors, politicians and high civil servants]. The people get crumbs.

    The system has squandered funds and driven workers to frustration or abroad and then accuses them of not being patriotic. [How patriotic is the political class?]

    Today it is the doctor. Tomorrow, media men or politicians – then noise will stop about ‘selfish ends’. Dr. A.O. Marinho, Ibadan Sketch 1989’’.

    The citizens are already dying and drowning in illegal migration, but no fat-salary politician asks why?

    Little change since 1989. WHO HEALTH RANKING 2020/1 has Nigeria 189/191, Transparency International 149/183, and poor in SDGs. Amazingly Nigeria is ranked 4th in Covid-19 response. Redemption? More please! ‘Professional Standards’ are political casualties across all professions which have suffered because politicians take precedence. Historically medical school is difficult and sometimes hostile – getting and staying in, exams, finishing. Medical practice is difficult to progress in. Hierarchy is traditional, rigid and demeaning allowing ‘Junior’ as an identity. The public translate ‘junior’ to mean ‘know nothing’ when a ‘junior’ doctor actually knows and delivers a lot of professionalism to patients. Medicine is on-the-job-while-working-very-hard training.

    We contaminate all good. Ongoing typically Nigerian PHD-Pull Him/Her Down’ tactics appear to be needless anti-doctor activities. Orchestrated objections to ‘Doctors’ even being called ‘Doctors’, rubbish salary scale adjustments and defunding a standard 120-hour-a-week house job appear as signs of ‘Chronic Anti-Doctor Disease’ perhaps even ‘Medical Jealousy’, machete cuts to Nigerian medical values. Many poor Nigerians become doctors, many sponsored by doctors. A non-paid house officer year may be politics but it is malicious slave labour and Machiavellian ‘Man’s Inhumanity to Man’ prosecutable before The World Court/ILO!

    House jobs are coming. Editors, organise journalists to embed with new House officers for, not a day or week, but a year 24/7x52wks, including family visits if any. Do not judge what you know nothing about yet.

    When the PHDs finish with doctors -who next?

    Solution: Cut politician numbers and stupendous ‘Salaries And Perks, SAP, by 75%. If politics is claimed    to be ‘a profession’ then pay them like other professionals in Nigeria are paid, not a penny more, not a penny less. Time for all professionals to be heard or the professions, except politics, will become roads less travelled by our youth. Then who will treat our sick?

  • Maradona’s latest dribble

    Maradona’s latest dribble

    By Festus Eriye

    Anyone born in the 1990s cannot understand why for those slightly older, former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida aka IBB aka Maradona remains an object of enduring fascination. They were probably in the womb or were too young to notice when, at the peak of his powers, the general played Nigerians like the piano.

    They would struggle to understand the context in which he was nicknamed after the late Argentinian football great Diego Amando Maradona who was noted for his silky dribbling skills. Despite being so prodigiously talented he wasn’t averse to deploying the occasional underhand tactic to determine the outcome of a match – as he infamously did with the ‘Hand of God’ goal in the World Cup quarter-final match against England in 1986.

    To them, the larger-than-life Chief M. K. O. Abiola – one of the most colourful business moguls and politicians – to have ever traversed these parts is someone they can only relate to from a perspective of history.

    Today, Abiola’s main claim to fame is not the fact that he was one of the richest Nigerians that ever lived, but that he won an election widely adjudged as one of the freest and fairest ever conducted in this country, but never got to occupy office. He wasn’t denied by death neither did he renounce the victory: it was snatched from him by Babangida – his one-time friend turned deadly foe.

    Twenty-eight years after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election results IBB is still explaining why he and his junta subverted the will of the Nigerian people.

    Read Also: Nigeria must learn from history, or remain stagnant, says don

    His latest rationalisation in an interview with Arise TV doesn’t come any closer to offering a remotely acceptable justification for the heinous heist that denied a duly elected president his prize. It was a classic act of treason but in a land where anything goes, he and his co-conspirators have gone on to enjoy cushy retirement while deigning to lecture us about what’s in our best interests. In some other lands he would be spending his final days behind bars.

    But punishment comes in different ways. God has blessed him with long life to witness that his legacy would forever be defined and tarnished by the singular act of the annulment. Whatever he accomplished by liberalising the economy and polity is overshadowed by one gross miscalculation. He will spend the rest of his days feeling the need to unburden over what has become a dead weight around his shoulders.

    In the recent interview Babangida revealed that there would have been a violent coup d’état had Abiola become president. He’d like us to believe that the annulment was an act of love towards the winner of the poll and the country.

    I would argue that the reverse was the case. The cynical cancellation was the arrogant action of a bunch of politicians in fatigues who had become addicted to power; they became so used to the perks and spoils of office and were loath to withdraw from the honeycomb.

    It was supreme arrogance for a bunch of officers to think that their desires were superior to the will of the country expressed through millions of voters.

    The truth is IBB was never really keen on transferring power to civilians. He kept manipulating and subverting the transition programme he’d put place – arbitrarily altering handover dates.

    That’s when he wasn’t whimsically circumscribing the right of people to participate in the process. Some were banned after being classified as “old breed politicians.” Others anointed as “new breed” were cleared to forge ahead in two artificially created political parties which were assigned names and government-built offices across the country.

    Politicians were herded into them like cattle depending on whether they were ideologically “a little to the left or a little to the right.” It was a Nigerian original that could only have been conjured by Babangida’s fertile imagination.

    It was farcical but so determined was the country for a return to democratic rule that the people made it work – turning out in droves for peaceful polling. They even overlooked what remains a political taboo today – electing the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Abiola and Babagana Kingibe.

    Imagine what could have been had those results stood? Imagine how that outcome could have affected political development and national cohesion in the nearly three decades since then? But Babangida pulled a heavy rug over Nigeria’s brief moment in the sun; he snuffed out the two artificial babies he created. It was a criminal act of historical proportions.

    IBB is no paragon. He lost the right to pontificate on democracy the day he annulled the June 12 results. The best he could do would be to get out of our faces. But he’s not content to sit quietly on the side lines.

    In the new interview he’s back at doing what he does best – scheming and intriguing, trying to shape the direction and outcome of the pivotal 2023 presidential elections.

    Take, for instance, his prescription of an age cap. He says the next president should be somebody in his 60s. This suggests there’s something magical about this demographic that will make Nigeria’s troubles disappear.

    But the age argument is intellectually fraudulent. The mess that’s been made of this nation isn’t just down to the age of whoever is president. Goodluck Jonathan was in his early 50s when he took office.

    The vast majority of governors, ministers, local government chairmen, federal and state legislators are in the band between 30 and 70 years – yet their domains are in such a sorry state. Clearly something other than age is responsible for their failure.

    Incumbent US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump are in their 70s. Even at 75 the latter is plotting a return to office in 2024 when he would be 78 – and there are millions of Americans of all ages urging him on.

    Our problem isn’t just about the age of the president: it’s about creating a system that works, recreating a society based on laws – one that has the right values, one where the people from diverse backgrounds feel they are getting a fair shake.

    The next president should be a person with vision, capacity, skill sets to handle current challenges with regards to the economy, insecurity and national cohesion. He shouldn’t be parochial or blinded by a provincial mind set.

    Nigeria needs presidential candidates with character to lead us into that bright future we dream of – not some flaky individual who’s the product of the scheming of individuals whose grievous errors brought us to this sorry pass.