The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • The Coronavirus diaries (21)

    The Coronavirus diaries (21)

    Festus ERIYE

     

    WITH over 91,000 COVID-19 infections to date, Nigeria is in a state of war with the pandemic, according to the Alliance for Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) – a group of leading health workers’ unions.

    But they didn’t get the memo at Elegushi Beach, Lagos, where on New Year Day thousands of revellers who apparently never heard of coronavirus or how it is transmitted, gathered in their thousands to usher in 2021. One commentator described the people as massed like a colony of ants.

    Which is quite interesting because Lagos is again the epicentre in this latest wave. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) figures for Monday showed the state with 654 new cases out of a record national daily tally of 1,204.

    The state was one of several that banned the popular crossover services which many churches had planned for December 31, 2020, ostensibly because they are usually overcrowded affairs. It shut night clubs and cracked down on event centres that hosted massive parties towards the end of last year.

    That the beaches were left out of the restrictions may yet turn out to be a costly omission. It is common knowledge that crowds flock to them during public holidays. Many countries shut them for extended periods in the first wave.

    While our 1,204 new cases might be small compared with 12,601 in South Africa, 58,784 for the UK, or 208,530 in the US for the same day, they still represent a crisis given existing resources and our ability to cope.

    In mid-December 2020, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, warned of increasing demand for oxygen in isolation facilities that were spilling over with severe COVID-19 cases.

    What is going on in government hospitals only tells part of the story. Many who can afford it are receiving care in private health facilities where the total bill for COVID-19 treatment runs to a couple of millions. It’s not clear whether NCDC numbers capture those being treated under these arrangements.

    Just to underline the severity of the current surge, the last one week has seen high profile deaths like those of Augustine Ilodibe Jr, 42, scion of the famous Ekene Dili Chukwu transport company family, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe, to name a few.

    Celebrities who have contracted the virus have also been speaking out – among them singers Paul Okoye and Elvina Ibru.

    Comedian Ali Baba took to his Instagram page to share this message: “The second wave of COVID-19 is deadlier than the one before. People are dying – pastors, doctors, professors, billionaires, poor men, less privileged… people are dying every day. Those numbers you see are not fake” he said. “COVID-19 is real, don’t let anyone deceive you. Anyone who tells you COVID-19 is scam, don’t trust the person.”

    But the real story isn’t in what he had to say about his experiences at the isolation centre; it’s in the comment thread accompanying his story. While a sprinkling of commentators acknowledged the reality of the virus, the vast majority had truly ‘interesting’ things to say!

    One Ekajuk wrote: ‘Because people died, does that make it Covid? People moving around have their respective illnesses. Not every death is Covid mbok.’

    Drea Mth Uhg said: “Ogbeni whatever you believe works for you, no come de worry us for here. There are more serious issues to take up in this Goddamn country, people are striving to get by a single day, you are there now encouraging them to lockdown everywhere again abi?…

    Obilonu Patrick was even more creative and ‘considerate’. He said: “Too much oyibo wine and food have giving you sickness in your body, or your village oracle has remembered you and given you one sickness, oga leave us alone go take care of your sickness and leave us alone.”

    And on and on the snide and cynical comments went. It does appear from this thread that fear of lockdown is pushing many into denial. But, pretending the virus doesn’t exist is no antidote to the sickness and death it spreads.

    Unfortunately, as we saw on Monday countries are forced to resort to the hated lockdown not because it is palatable but because it becomes inevitable. Boris Johnson just plunged long suffering Brits into a fresh shutdown that would last till Mid-February.

    The measure is far from universally popular. But even the opposition Labour Party was calling for it with the country consistently breaching 50,000 new cases for several days.

    Are we likely to be subjected to this bitter pill again despite all the ominous signs? It’s unlikely according to Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. I suspect, however, that his is a political statement informed by strong pressure from private sector leaders and others who are warning of mass hunger, collapse of businesses and worsening recession if there’s another lockdown.

    The position of National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF), Dr. Sani Aliyu, is more direct. He warns that the only way to prevent a re-introduction of the restriction is by adhering to the advisories – something which many Nigerians are loath to do.

    Speaking on a television programme on Sunday, Aliyu said: “If you don’t want a lockdown, the only way is to make sure we use our facemasks, avoid mass gatherings, avoid people who have respiratory tract infections, sanitise our hands and follow those non-pharmaceutical interventions.

    “The very vaccines that we currently have are those non-pharmaceutical interventions. If numbers continue to go up, all options are on the table. There are countries in the world that have been able to control this pandemic simply by following these non-pharmaceutical interventions. They may be inconvenient, but they will not be as difficult as a lockdown.”

    That’s the bitter truth, if you ask me. If we don’t want another shut down let obey the protocols. Even the UK where shots are already going into arms is implementing a tough lockdown in the face of an alarming spike. In Nigeria, we only have a hazy promise of vaccination roll out sometime before the end of the first quarter. When will it get to the vast majority to ensure widespread immunity? Your guess!

     

  • 2021: Covid, Corruption, Expressway, Bridge

    By Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,850,000 deaths, 85,500,000 worldwide, Nigerian cases 90,000, and 1,310 deaths. Will Nigeria get the vaccine against Covid-2019 in 2020? Wear mask, wash hands, keep six feet apart to save a loved one being needlessly buried six feet under!

    Apology:  last week’s article had ‘commonwealth’ instead of ‘common wealth’ as deliberately separate weighted words, but they were printed together. I apologise.

    For 10 months of 2020, we have battled Covid-19 with a success that has surprised us and the international community. Of course, there have been many casualties and sad fatalities and much mourning. However, the actual levels remain inexplicably low despite inadequate attention to Nose and Mouth [not Mouth, Neck or/and Chin] Mask, Hand Washing, Social Distancing Regulations. Thankfully, morbidity did not explode under increased known health care lapses including corruption, few ordinary beds and fewer specialised dependent care personnel, equipment and scanty Intensive Care Units, ICUs. We must thank our Covid medical services and local and international donors and our parents giving us African DNA, the infections and infestations and injections from modern medical vaccination or from the thousand playtime mosquito and other mean vector bites provided by our particular health environment and a joint natural and acquired immunity. Then add the factor of the heat of the African sun burning the surfaces where a cold virus was roasted daily. With these and the new vaccines we should win the Covid War in the next 3-6months.

    Thieves face jail time and opportunities for repentance and change. Not all benefit from such opportunity. Unfortunately, when so-called pen-thieving or agbada or babanriga or bowler hat or fine-suit political and contractor crime/corruption occurs, there is almost total consequent disappearance of most of the common people’s wealth. And there is resultant poor or even negative economic and ‘peace of mind’ growth when compared to other countries with the same resources with transparent fund management. With too little to show for the money available, the perpetrators escape by Houdini disappearing tricks popularised by the media -mainstream and social. So, they smilingly enjoy television time during court manipulation and disgusting delaying tactics for many years. They may be identified as they feign ignorance or make outright denials, present perhaps imaginary medical diseases mysteriously backed up by qualified doctors, demand foreign treatment and perform painfully theatrical and even comical scenes like feigned fainting to the left or right and backwards or forwards during public hearings and court cases while sometimes feigning innocence or planning to flee to foreign countries with money that would have boosted our economy, job opportunities and foreign reserves.

    This corruption is similar to Covid. There is immunity to corruption among many millions of great and good, wonderful Nigerians. Are you one of them? Become one today. There are others, infected with corruption and thus falling with fake illnesses. We had thought that the ‘anti-corruption’ vaccination by local and intra-national organisations and NGOs, international press and incumbent government would cure ongoing corruption. But even after ENDSARS, corruption has infected the COVID Testing arena.

    Is your Ministry, Agency, Department, corporation, private practice de-corrupted? Have your leadership and followership taken the National Oath from 1-1-2021 to be ‘FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest’ and change. Murderers can stop murdering. Politicians can stop corrupt practices, cut Salaries and Perks by 75%, and introduce True Federalism, higher Health and Education and Road Transport Budgets, Part-time Sitting Allowance, one House-Representatives, cancel Constituency Projects. If not, will Nigeria survive 2021?

    Everyone ever stuck on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway knows the cost of corruption of policy and purpose on public confidence and the contribution of that corruption to failures personally, to family and friends, to business and time management. How can a 120km road be still under disruptive re-construction in 2021? We remember bitterly that the selfish NASS diverted most of a budgetary allocation of N150b in 2019 supposed to finish the road in 2020 after a 3-5 year delay. Instead, the money was mostly diverted to lesser value Constituency Projects.  The road work was paralysed while worldwide such roads were finished in months. Many other Nigerian roads also suffer. And in a terrible engineering mistake the 10km entrance into Lagos and the 5km entrance into Ibadan were left to last forcing thousands of vehicles into construction bottlenecks entering Lagos and to a lesser extent Ibadan. The Lagos entry 10km section should have been Phase 1. Since this mistake on Day One of the contract Nigerian road users paid the price as seen in tailbacks of 15 km to enter Lagos every Sunday afternoon and daily in the 6am dawn. Bottlenecks must be freed from the exit point first. It is Road Engineering Phases: Alleviate Suffering: Course 101’. We must heap the shame for our nationwide needless ‘Nigerian Traveller Pain’, in this case not on government but on NASS that could not see an urgent national project affecting the economy and Nigeria’s national image and pride.  The uncompleted road shames all Nigerians, except apparently NASS members. Will the excruciatingly painful Lagos-Ibadan road become an expressway again in 2021? Will the Second Niger Bridge be completed in 2021? Will the Abuja-Kaduna, Lokoja-Abuja, Maiduguri-Damataru, Ore-Benin Roads et cetera, be permanently cleared of terrorist killers and kidnappers for road users throughout 2021? Questions for a people’s NASS to ensure positive answers.

    ‘HNY2021. PRAY WE ARE INVISIBLE TO THE ENEMY’.

    Stay safe- cover your nose and mouth!!

  • Nigeria not a failed state

    Nigeria not a failed state

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    HONESTLY, it is beyond me how Nigeria’s political elite, especially politicians in power and those aspiring to grab power from them, interpret information, including critical advice. Ever since the Financial Times used the words “failed state” in its advice last week to the Nigerian leadership to reset priorities in order to avert failure, politicians have been rolling over themselves, either in condemning the FT or in supporting it over its statement on Nigeria.

    Unfortunately, however, neither side appears to have thoroughly grasped the full import of the FT statement. Defenders of the ruling All Progressives Congress have been quick in condemning the FT for describing Nigeria as a failed state. Members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party quickly jumped on the statement to declare that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government has failed.

    The truth really is that there is nothing to condemn in what the FT said about Nigeria in the statement, just as there is nothing there to make the opposition trigger-happy against Buhari.

    In fact, the FT does not describe Nigeria as a failed state. Not at all. Beginning with the title of the statement and running into what could be regarded as a subtitle, the focus is on advising the Nigerian government to avert failure.

    Here’s the title of the statement: “Nigeria is at risk of becoming a failed state”. This is not a categorical statement that Nigeria has failed.

    And here’s its subtitle, which appears directly below the title: “With kidnapping and insecurity rife, the government needs to restore trust”. This is an invitation to the government to reset the clock.

    The first half of the piece outlines the risk factors. One is insecurity, typified by kidnapping, banditry, extortion, and topped by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    A second risk factor is poverty. According to the FT, “Nigeria has more poor people, defined as those living on less than $1.90 a day, than any other country, including India”. It then goes on to add that “in non-Covid-19 years, one of every five children in the world out of school lives in Nigeria, many of them girls”. With a population now over 200 million, and “growing at a breakneck 3.2 per cent a year” to double at 400 million by 2050, the poverty and children-out-of-school rates are a ticking time bomb.

    A third risk factor is the economy, which, according to FT, “has stalled since 2015 and real living standards are declining”. It goes further to predict a shrinkage of 4 per cent in the economy after Covid-19 dealt a further blow to oil prices. This is a bad omen for an economy currently propped up by heavy borrowing.

    The second half of the statement, which most politicians have ignored is FT’s recommendations on how to avert failure. First, the FT suggests that the government “desperately needs to put its finances … on a sounder footing”.

    Second, it recommends that the Buhari-led administration must “redouble efforts to get a grip on security”. This has been the persistent cry of the Nigerian mainstream and social media for years, especially since 2014, following the abduction of the Chibok girls.

    Third, the FT advises the government to restore trust in key institutions, especially the judiciary, the security services and the electoral commission, which will preside over the 2023 elections. This recommendation must have been informed by the escalating security problems in the country and the possibility of using the 2023 election as cover to sew chaos.

    Fourth, the FT recommends the “R” and “D” words, but without overtly using them. I mean “restructuring” and “devolution” of powers . Here is how the FT puts it: “A new, slimmed-down state – ideally one with fewer, bankrupt regional assemblies – must concentrate on the basics: security, health, education, power and roads”.

    Finally, the FT draws the government’s attention to the youths. This is necessary because Nigeria has one of the youngest populations, with over 50 percent of the population below the age of 35. With the population doubling by 2050, those born today will only be about 30 years old by then and most of the present political elite, overfed on state resources, would have naturally bowed out.

    This is why the FT emphasises the need to put necessary public goods in place so that Nigeria’s young people can turn the country round. Here, the FT piggybacks its hope on the ray of optimism provided by the broad coalition that found political expression in the #EndSARS protest against police brutality.

    Against the above analysis, I doubt if Nigerian politicians crying foul over the FT statement actually read the statement critically enough. I also doubt if they have been reading Nigerian newspapers in the past five years in which numerous editorials and columns have highlighted even more than what the FT has said. More importantly, I wonder what Nigerian politicians would say when they study the recent report on Nigeria in the 2020 Fragile States Index (formerly Failed States Index).

    After ranking 178 countries on 13 factors, Nigeria emerged as the 14th most fragile country in the world. Nigeria shares this shameful bottom ranking alongside countries, such as Haiti, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan, not far from the bottom five of Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Whither the Giant of Africa!?

    A brief look at the factors considered shows that this ranking is not a fluke. They are grouped under four major indicators: COHESION (security apparatus, factionalized elite, group grievance); ECONOMY (economic decline, uneven economic development, human flight and brain drain); POLITICAL (state legitimacy, public services, human rights and rule of law); and SOCIAL (demographic pressures, refugees and IDPs, external intervention).

    An objective appraisal of Nigeria on these factors will have a hard time giving Nigeria a pass mark. This, however, does not mean that the country has failed. And it does not mean that the Buhari-led administration is doing nothing. The truth, however, is that the government is not doing enough and it appears overwhelmed.

    Nigeria, and any country in its present situation, can fail, if nothing is done to reverse the present trend. The trend cannot be reversed by word of mouth. Not by TV appearances. Not by rebuttals of the FT statement or the Fragile States Index in newspapers. But by political will, policies, relevant projects, and actionable implementation.

     

  • The Coronavirus diaries (20)

    The Coronavirus diaries (20)

    Festus ERIYE

     

    IF 2020 was the year of the coronavirus, then 2021 is already shaping to be more of the same. Less than twenty four hours into the New Year, the raging pandemic is showing little sign of slowing down and vaccines roll outs could take several months to reach most people.

    If you needed evidence these are not ordinary times, then look no further than the latest measures taken by several states to restrict what is one largest religious gatherings of the year – the so-called ‘Crossover’ services.

    Several states have expressly barred churches from holding the meetings which attract unusually large crowds as many put much store by entering a new year in the church environment. Many states hid under the 12.00 midnight to 4.00pm curfew imposed by the Federal Government to resist pressure from Christians who had been denied something they cherish so much. But as some have argued there would be other ‘Crossover’ nights for those who outlive this pandemic.

    With the numbers trending upwards, governments across the country are veering into panic mode, fearing that existing facilities could easily be overrun if the current spike spirals out of control.

    That is, of course, with the exception of Kogi State where Yahaya Bello, the famously denialist governor, continues with his insistence that COVID-19 is non-existent in his domain. He went on Channels Television on Sunday to repeat his controversial claim and boast about mass testing carried out by his administration.

    The trouble with his claims is that they don’t line up with facts provided by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Kogi has a population of 3.5 million people, but had tested only 425 samples as at December 11. So much for mass testing!

    Bello’s denial is the direct opposite of what’s going on in Rivers State where Governor Nyesom Wike, who at the height of the first wave famously bulldozed two hotels for violating lockdown measures, threatening a return to the harsh shutdown regime in the light of the deadly second wave.

    Speaking at a church service on Sunday, he hinted his hand might be forced beginning January because the state ends up picking the bill. “If you don’t comply, I have no choice, but to shut down the churches; Pentecostal, Catholic, Anglican. I have no choice because when you have it, who spends the money? It is the state that treats. So, we need to use the money for some other things, but not for this.”

    The governor’s threat has his people up in arms begging for mercy on every media platform. Rather than locking everyone up, they suggest he enforces existing regulations because the economic price would be too much for people to bear.

    Some even suggested that instead of the bitter lockdown pill, Wike should ban Nigerians returning from overseas from entering the state. While at it he should also shut the door against those coming from states with high number of infections.

    That would include states like Lagos, the original epicentre of the first wave. The number of infections is already rising here as it keeps pace with a similar trend in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    But the Lagos authorities has always been quick of mark and in the last few days they have shut a number of event centres which violated existing rules for operating in these times. The facilities include one where a monster party was held and the crowd was as packed as sand on the beach. On the bandstand was a famous Fuji musicians whose sonorous voice caressed the carousing crowd.

    It is not known if anyone picked up an infection at the event. But what is clear going by similar patterns from around the world, is this party met every yardstick for classification as a superspreader event. One post on social media identified an attendee who just passed on due to COVID-19 complications.

    The amazing thing is that the vast majority of those who crowded themselves into that party are the elite who by their education and exposure should know better.

    While the reckless rich are partying away like its 1999, the fraudulent and the desperate are making common cause with them. Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, on Monday raised the alarm over the sale of fake COVID-19 test certificates in the state.

    He said some people who just returned to the country were patronising crooks who sell these dodgy COVID-19 certificates. Abayomi says the government is working to apprehend those engaged in this criminal venture. Hopefully, they may nick a few of these characters. But when you consider that the fake drugs business is still thriving in these parts there’s very little room for optimism.

    One developments that has nations shivering in their boots is the mutation of the virus. Different highly infectious strains have been identified in the UK, US and South Africa. A similar mutation said to be of a separate lineage from those mentioned above has been found in Nigeria according to the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong.

    The good news is that while these mutations might be more infectious, they are not necessarily deadlier than earlier ones. They don’t appear to make you sicker than other strains currently in circulation. Even better news is the fact that the new vaccines seem to be effective against both old and new strains.

    Spare a thought for frontline workers like doctors and nurses who must be watching with envy as their colleagues in Europe and the US become the earliest recipients of the COVID-19 vaccines. In Nigeria, the best armour they have going into daily battle with this beastly virus are flimsy PPEs. Little wonder that last weekend the Nigerian Medical Association chairman in the FCT reported that 20 doctors had succumbed to coronavirus in one week.

    It has also emerged that 476 health workers, among them doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory staff, drivers and other auxiliary personnel were infected by the virus since the first case was recorded in the FCT. Figures are not yet available to paint a full picture of the toll on medical workers across the country.

    But whether you are a frontline worker or just an anonymous citizen struggling to outlast the pandemic, stay safe and don’t become another COVID statistic.

     

  • Needless 2020 Lessons: Solutions

    By Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,800,000 deaths,  81,000,000 infections, worldwide, Nigerian cases 84,000, and 1,250 deaths. Will Nigeria get the vaccine against Covid-2019 in 2020? Wear mask, wash hands, keep 6 feet apart!

    Look around post-2020 Christmas, during which there was a murderous Boko Haram church attack church and other terrorist attacks. Pre -2021 take stock. Unfortunately, past audits yielded no changes despite Nigeria’s abundant wealth since 1960 independence. This wealth includes gifts of “‘S-OIL’ – Sun, Soil, Oil’’ and generally good citizens just desiring to work in a country where peace, opportunity abounded. Unfortunately, the other two leg of sustainable development – infrastructure and a powerful currency- have been stolen by systemic corruption, bad economic and other policies like not saving foreign exchange ‘for a rainy day’ and having poor institutional antitheft devices and poor lending schemes. So far, our ‘Examination and Report Card or Assessment’ from Independence on Oct 1st, 1960 to Dec 31st, 2020 is that Nigeria has defied all positive predictions. Instead, the result favoured predictions of social unrest, doom and gloom and even a preposterous and insulting N500: $1 and now we face accusations of becoming a failing state.

    They, Fellow Nigerians, are denied that human right to Nigeria’s magnificently large mineral, manpower and other patrimony, while the greedy- politicians, contractors, civil servants and the private banking sector in particular – rape and plunder, using biros and contracts. They take all while deceptively insisting on being leaders and servants of the country’s poor children, jobless, hard workers and pensioners denied salaries. What arrogant deception?

    Our independence ‘Founding Father Federalism’ negotiated in the 1960s was lost by military intervention’s authoritarian ‘Unitary Governance’ under Ironsi. It mutated malignantly under subsequent coup leaders into an ethnic dominating agenda driving Nigeria into ‘master/servant’ attitudes. Today’s governance is unrecognisable as ‘True National Federalism’ and even ‘Federal Character’ is ignored. Witness the huge clamour for change by all not benefiting. The Military never restored ‘Federalism’ in its pre-military form and post 1999 overbearing militarist political influences made sure Federalism calls were suppressed and ridiculed and it was never restored even under this current ‘Restructuring Government’.

    Federal Level is supposed to be for the common good but repeatedly that outcome has been a wasted dream. Why? The political, economic and moral rapists, each come from a state which they have turned their backs on, in order to self-service themselves and their hangers-on at Federal Level. They exploit, instead of fight rights-abusing ‘Militarist Federal’ policies and refuse to evolve or dissolve the ‘Militarist Federalism’ which suited an ethnic agenda. A bloated, inefficient, corrupted, authoritarian, ethnised and politicised Federal system has failed at the level of sustainable infrastructure- power, roads, water, education, health and increasingly importantly security are in ruins. Even with the cumulative funds over years that it has selectively allocated to its zones, it has even woefully failed its own constituents. A few get rich while the citizens live in penury, now migrating cross-state in droves. All the problems need tackling at the local, state, LGA, Community and ward levels with Federal offering pre-emptive, timely and sufficient support and returning originally negotiated 1960 powers and funds to states. Much of Nigeria’s failures are collective failures. Border palaver, bad Port roads, poor movement schedules, poor Naira values, security demands all conspire to paralyses to cross-border business in Nigeria. But check ‘State Budgetary Allocations’. Since 1999 every state and LGA has had more than enough funds but locally greedy governors have denied citizens local solutions to development problems prolonging the ‘Corruption, Inefficiency, Negligence, and Selfishness’ CINS onslaught against Fellow Nigerians. Governments rejected the colonial ‘Seven Year Maintenance Cycle’ to have more to steal!! Hence our crumbling school, hospital and administrative buildings and roads.

    Also recall the ‘Okada Epidemic’ is also a local LGA and State crime against Nigeria and must be tacked locally. Common okada is now the favoured lethal weapon killing more than Covid and favourite transport weapon of terrorists, neighbourhood and bank customer thieves and city transport carrying out okada attacks at 80kph on every road against Fellow Nigerians wherever they live – farm, village, town or city. Uniforms with 6-inch size lettering for ‘Area Code Identification Numbers’ and ‘Serial Numbering by Neighbourhood Okada Stand’, FRSC education to keep them in the right lane or shoulder lane, limiting their numbers at each stand, insisting they be licenced with their phone and maybe BVN.

    How were Fellow Nigerian babies, youth, mothers, fathers and grandparents, denied rights to 60+ budgets- the ‘Commonwealth’ of the society distributed annually by a sometimes agenda-driven government. The Fellow Nigerian faces systemic rape of the international morals of governance, self-aggrandisement of an overwhelmingly greedy, consumptive and alienated political class, arrogant inadequate percentages of the budget to key areas of growth and survival e.g. health, education infrastructure defying UN guidelines.

    Almost 2021, and Leah Sharibu symbolises a nation at a crossroads. She is defiance and suffering – a ‘Fellow Nigerian’ abandoned by her nation.

    We need a vaccine against corruption. Religion is not enough!

    Politicians, most forebears failed Nigeria:

    From 1-1-2021 Be FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest and change. Murderers can stop murdering. Politicians can introduce True Federalism, higher Health and Education and Road Transport Budgets, Part-time Sitting Allowance, one House-Representatives, cancel Constituency Projects.   If not, will Nigeria survive?

    ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021 AND WE PRAY WE ARE INVISIBLE TO THE ENEMY’.

  • Lagos: Person of the Year 2020

    Lagos: Person of the Year 2020

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    An enduring tradition was born in 1927, when Time Magazine named Charles Lindbergh as Man of the Year for his historic trans-Atlantic flight in that year. The goal was to feature and profile a person, a group, an idea, or an object that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

    However, it was only twice in its 93-year old history that the Person of the Year was awarded to inanimate objects—The Computer (as the Machine of the Year) in 1982 and The Endangered Earth (as the Planet of the Year) in 1988. I follow this tradition today by naming Lagos as The Mega City of the Year 2020.

    The pre-eminence of Lagos has colonial origins. Following its annexation on August 6, 1861, it was declared a Colony on March 5, 1862. From Lagos, the colonial influence spread across the South, with Lagos as the capital. The Colony and the Southern Protectorate were merged in February 1906. By January 1914, when the Southern and Northern Protectorates were merged, Lagos emerged as the undisputed capital of the Protectorate of Nigeria and carried that status into independence in 1960 and beyond.

    Although Abuja was created as the new Federal Capital Territory in 1976, Lagos did not cease to be the nation’s capital until 1991. Today’s Lagos must be viewed against the backdrop of this rich history, which allows the City to house the first of most structures in the country—City Hall, High Court, Police Headquarters, Airport, Seaport, and so on. The movement of the capital to Abuja notwithstanding, Lagos remains the commercial, media, and social nerve centre of the nation.

    This award is not necessarily for the city’s sprawling and still growing size or its estimated population of between 23 and 25 million. Not for the abundance of options it offers for lodging, dining, shopping, and relaxation. Not even for its notorious traffic congestion that makes it difficult, if not impossible sometimes, to visit two places over five miles apart in the same day. And not for the notorious Area Boys, who claim to own open spaces from inside the overcrowded Ladipo market in Mushin to the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. And not for the bravery, courage, and persistence of the smart and energetic Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who shouldered the City’s difficulties throughout the year like a giant.

    Rather, the award is for the City’s incorporation of all these characteristics and much more into its role as the epicentre of three major problems, which beset the City in 2020.

    First, as the location of the first and busiest airport in the nation, Lagos became host to the index case of COVID-19 from Italy on February 28, 2020. The early adoption of mitigation measures notwithstanding, the City soon became the epicentre of the pandemic and remains so till today. At the time of writing, Lagos had recorded nearly 27,000 cases, accounting for about 34 percent of the national total, and 236 deaths, representing about 19 per cent of the national total.

    True, Governor Sanwo-Olu exhibited exemplary leadership in leading the state’s COVID-19 team, but the City could not escape its susceptibility to the pandemic, given the various open local markets; the garrulous gatherings at motor parks, and other crowded spaces; the myriad artisans, professing various skills; and the back and forth movement of people from other states and foreign lands. Among these groups are the “no koro” people and those who would wear their masks below the chin. For these and other reasons, COVID-19 found good hosts in Lagos.

    But Sanwo-Olu pushed on, imposing and lifting bans, issuing warnings upon warnings, distributing palliatives, and keeping the people informed. Isolation centres, with adequate bed spaces and necessary equipment sprang up all over the place, even in the middle of a stadium. To prevent running out of bed spaces, some private hospitals were equipped and approved as Isolation Centres. Even those who could isolate at home were assisted in doing so. Lagos soon became the model for combating COVID-19 in the country.

    Just as Sanwo-Olu’s efforts were turning into a huge success story, with infection rates going down significantly, the #EndSARS protests marched in to afflict the otherwise resilient City, occupying primarily Alausa, Lekki Toll Gate, and even express ways. The protests were well organized alright, but motorists suffered because roadways were blocked and businesses suffered because customers could not reach them. Lagos was in the middle of another nightmare.

    Sanwo-Olu stepped in again, mingling with the protesters and listening to their demands. In his T-shirt and boyish look, he could be confused with the protesters. He didn’t mind. They threw things at him. Yet, he trudged the crowd of protesters. He even volunteered to be their messenger, by taking their demands all the way to Abuja. He got a presidential nod for them. But things were about to turn uglier for Lagos.

    A miscue about the timing of the curfew imposed to ward off the continuation of the protest beyond October 20, 2020, led to the early arrival of the military at the Lekki Toll Gate. Although the event of that night remains controversial, its aftermath is not. Lagos was bombarded by hoodlums, miscreants, looters, and all. They burnt structures, looted stores, ruined businesses, killed police officers, and much more.

    Within 48 hours, many notable structures had been destroyed or looted, including the High Court, City Hall, the Palace of the Oba of Lagos, TVC, The Nation newspaper, Lekki Shopping Mall, 84 BRT buses, several bus terminals, LGA Secretariats, and at least 25 police stations.

    Remarkably, within hours, Governor Sanwo-Olu was at it again. He inspected all the sites of destruction and ordered the immediate cleanup of the City. Within days, Lagos opened its eyes again. The Old Fat Lady could not be prevented from singing.

    At the end of the day, having traversed and surmounted the City’s difficulties, Governor Sanwo-Olu became Lagos. Just as the infection rate in the City began to spike on the advent of the second wave of COVID-19, he tested positive for the virus and went into isolation. Like Lagos, he too will soon rise again to share this award with the City he so loves and serves so well.

  • The Coronavirus diaries (19)

    The Coronavirus diaries (19)

    By Festus Eriye

     

    It’s the Christmas that COVID stole. This year, what traditionally is a season of goodwill and celebration, has turned into a time of despair and trepidation as the four corners of the earth bow before a rampaging pandemic – the likes of which have not been seen for ages.

    Up till this week it had made its presence felt on every continent bar one. On Monday, Antarctica which had been the sole holdout succumbed: a Chilean research base there reported 36 new infections, among them 26 members of the country’s army.

    In the United States where a sulking President Donald Trump, fresh from his electoral trouncing at the hands of Joe Biden, doesn’t seem bothered if his countrymen drop dead like flies, 190,519 new cases were recorded on Monday – raising the national total to 18 million. As of Tuesday morning, there were 319,466 deaths, 1,696 of them on the day before.

    All over Europe countries are scrambling to shut down activities normally associated with this period. Some of the strictest measures have been put in place in the United Kingdom where a virulent new strain of the virus has been discovered.

    Yesterday, the country recorded another 36,804 cases with 691 deaths. Blame for the frightening spike has been placed on a mutated form of the virus thought to be up to 70% more infectious. At last count 40 countries have banned travel from the UK to keep the new threat out of their own domains.

    Nigeria isn’t one of those as the government weighs whether it should take the step. It was the same scenario at the beginning of the outbreak. While other nations acted swiftly to shut their borders, we dithered.

    Already, there are suspicions that this mutated virus may have entered the country. At least it’s been confirmed as being in South Africa. That leaves the possibility given our peoples’ travel history the new version has already breached our borders.

    The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have officially confirmed the Coronavirus second wave has made landfall here. Five days ago the highest ever daily tally of 1,145 positive cases was recorded.

    If anyone doubted the virus was still in the business of spreading misery, it symbolically forced PTF chair Boss Mustapha to self-isolate after four of his children were struck down with infections.

    In other high profile cases, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu whose leadership of the fight against the pandemic in the Lagos epicentre inspired the rest of the country himself caught the virus. His colleagues in Sokoto and Kaduna States, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai were also forced to go into isolation.

    The virus has shown time and again it’s not a respecter of power and position. Last week, the Nigerian Army’s Chief of Army Staff’s annual conference was thrown into disarray and swiftly cancelled after 26 generals in attendance tested positive. One of them, Major-General John Olu Irefin, GOC of the army’s 6th Division, unfortunately died from complications arising from the disease.

    Sufficiently terrified of the havoc the virus can potentially wreak, the authorities have restored some restrictions from earlier in the year. Night clubs and street parties have been banned in places like Lagos – just when revellers were warming up for a wave of such social events. Civil servants have been asked to stay home for the next five weeks. Worship and event centres have seen limits placed on the numbers who can attend their functions.

    Whether these measures are enough to stem what is shaping to be a more devastating second wave remains to be seen. What is clear is that even with evidence of community transmission the severe lockdowns of earlier this year will not be repeated.

    Sanwo-Olu and President Muhammadu Buhari have clearly stated that the Lagos and larger Nigerian economy already in recession cannot withstand such radical treatment.

    If the lockdown option is crossed out, what is left is strict adherence to protocols like hand-washing, use of sanitiser, wearing of face masks and physical distancing because mass roll out vaccines is still months away. Available evidence shows that level of compliance remains very low across the country.

    If the markets were choked previously, they are even more so now as the Christmas shopping frenzy takes hold. In many churches and mosques those who sport face masks are starred at like tourist attractions. Limits placed on capacity at most public places are breached at will.

    Unfortunately, much of what governments at federal and state levels have rolled out to stem the second wave are likely to be largely ignored without consequence because of a lack of will and capacity for enforcement. More so, when the population has grown Covid-weary and the police demotivated in the aftermath of the EndSARS protests.

    We saw in the last one week also how government agencies working at cross purposes are making a mess of what health authorities looking to accomplish.

    The Ministry of Digital Economy along with the National Communications Commission (NCC) had directed telecommunications companies to deactivate all telephone lines that were not linked with National Identity Number (NIN) by December 31, 2020. Cue a nationwide stampede as Nigerians in panic stormed National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) offices.

    Pictures of the packed and desperate crowds in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, most not wearing masks were embarrassing and suggest a measure of disorganisation and lack of synergy in government ranks. What security imperative was so pressing that such a narrow window had to be set for processing 170 million such phone lines?

    Was any consideration given to the fact no real framework existed for processing such huge numbers in so short a time? It was after setting an unrealistic deadline and causing avoidable panic, a long list of organisations approved for the processing was released. Why was this not done before?

    A government that has been preaching distancing was by its own deliberate actions undermining that very objective. After much outcry the ministry and NCC have approved an extension.

    But the damage has already been done. People may have been able to enrol for NIN, even connect same to their phone lines, but they may have just attended a superspreader event! How many picked up infections in the desperate rush? What a Christmas present they’ve been handed!

  • Give fellow Nigerians Christmas

    By Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,700,000 infections, 77,000,000 worldwide, Nigerian cases 79,000, and 1,230 deaths.

    It is Christmas, for Christians the celebration of Christ’s Birth, in 2 days. New Year in 9 days. Unfortunately, Christmas is submerged in the exploding ‘tradition’ of merchandising of Christmas- feferriti, food, feasting, fashion and ever more expensive presents often leading to parental financial lack in January. We need more emphasis on the memorial of the symbolism of Christmas- the joy, hope and faith in Christ as the Saviour for those who believe. Even as we rejoice in Christ’s Birth, almost every individual of every religious belief has been through some form of hell this year in the struggle to survive alive and not be dead, injured mentally or physically or dispossessed of farms, home, work or family.

    For many Nigerians this is the first Christmas in an IDP camp or without a family member killed as a civilian, soldier or policeman while defending Nigeria or particular Nigerian ‘big men’. This year’s murderous ravages of Covid, herders, other terrorism and the post-ENDSARS mayhem and murders cannot be forgotten or forgiven easily. We ask what danger faces us in our homes, neighbourhoods, roads, offices and even schools? Stories abound of friend, brother, employee, employer, husband, wife turning on each other, or being victims. This has ruined traditional trust in within families and in every domestic staff and driver. Most tragic is the loss of confidence to be nice to theirs. Few dare to stop to help on roads, when approached by strangers or answering door knocks. Will we even get through Christmas alive is a real question? We ask what terror tomorrow? Who will be ransomed, killed outright even after ransom paid, attacked in traffic, stuck for 7 hours on a 1 hour Lagos Ibadan journey – a ‘construction characterised by a lack of construction’ – a political terrorism crime against Nigeria? ‘Merry Christmas and pray we will all be INVISIBLE to the enemy. Amen’.

    Wonderfully, the over 333 Kankara Katsina students, youth wickedly abducted at gunpoint have been released. Their release does not erase the horrors of that traumatic incident in their own young impressionable minds and the minds of anguished family, friends and all true Fellow Nigerians. The impact of the attack is unimaginable with individual, community, government social, national and international negative ramifications. Nigeria will sadly climb higher on the list of ‘gangster, terrorist and terrorised’ nations with even more travel alerts than currently exist. Boarding schools will perhaps become extinct at this rate putting one more nail in the coffin of education as traditionally the education you get in a good boarding school is an extension of the education you get in a day school. I was in day school initially and boarding school in St Gregory’s College Lagos. Which parents dare risk a child to such insecure environments like schools? Imagine the terror among students and teachers as the attacking hoard on motorcycles using gunfire overcome the brave police. Nigeria has not yet thanked enough the brave police who returned fire allowing many to escape. Nigeria await the true story of the wicked attack and those behind the nefarious plan and the ‘rescue package negotiations’ agreement. Perhaps our President was not with his cows on his Daura farm, but secretly ‘leading the forest front’ negotiating directly with the criminals? How dare government initially claim the number was ‘only 10’? How dare they always say ‘only’ as if even one kidnapped or dead is acceptable? Do they think this is Lekki Toll Plaza shooting?

    Was there any or enough help from the unseen foreign and even Nigerian satellites covering every inch of sky over every country at one point in the day or night? Was there an emergency request for ‘concentrated satellite interrogation’ of the surrounding 200-300km areas from area military commander to GOC, COA, CDS, DHQ, MOD, to the Federal Government through the Nigerian Foreign Ministry to the Doyen of Ambassadors to Nigeria and even UN agencies to quickly produce satellite images of the area in the timeframe and subsequent tracking of the approach and escape with 330 children? A column of 330 children or a column of vehicles carrying 300 children even 30 or 50 to a vehicle would leave a heat trail easily followed and projected forward to destination or backward to origin by satellite observation.  Where is drone information? Community whistle blowers are suggesting involvement of local terrorist bands with or without connivance of the dreaded and seemingly unstoppable Boko Haram and ISISWA.

    Even though the Kankara children have been released, Kankara sadly in history joins the Chibok and Dapchi, both female schools, on the growing list of mass school abductions. Another school Mahatu had its abducted children thankfully freed after a military gun battle. Congratulations to our troops. Each of the previous abductions led to deaths and many missing. The imprisoned Leah Sharibu symbolises defiance and suffering – a ‘Fellow Nigeria’ abandoned by her nation failing to rescue by negotiation or force.

    Politicians, your forebears put Nigeria in this bloodthirsty mess:  Be FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest and change from this Christmas.

    Remember pray aloud ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS AND WE PRAY WE ARE INVISIBLE TO THE ENEMY’.  Feed and clothe others, not just your family this Christmas or next year we may all go hungry or be ‘not alive’ – a medically polite way of saying ‘dead’!

  • From Chibok girls to Kankara boys

    From Chibok girls to Kankara boys

    By Festus Eriye

    The initial impulse is to dismiss Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility for the abduction of over 300 students at Kankara Science Secondary School in Katsina State as merely opportunistic. But given the scope and audacity behind this incident, we shouldn’t be in a hurry to do so.

    Katsina is some way off the terrorists’ current stomping grounds of Borno and Yobe States, yet very obvious parallels with the kidnapping six years ago of 276 students at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, should give us cause for pause.

    On the night of April 14, 2014, insurgents came in trucks and calmly carted away close to three hundred girls. Last Friday, attackers who for want of a better name we will call bandits, raided the Kankara school, stealing hundreds of students. The official figure is 333 missing from a school population of 839.

    There hasn’t been much link in recent times between the Islamist insurgency in the Northeast and the violence perpetrated by criminals in the Northwest. For instance, in Zamfara much of it has been connected to illegal gold mining. Banditry in Katsina has equally been driven by economic factors.

    Still, we have seen over the years that despite its pious spouting of religious gobbledygook, Boko Haram has never been averse to engaging in armed robbery and kidnapping to finance its vision of a theocratic enclave in northern Nigeria.

    That’s why it’s not inconceivable that the insurgents may be invested in the vast and lucrative violent criminal enterprises sweeping across the north.

    We now know that in Kankara the abductors rode on motorcycles and spirited their victims away. This is amazing, because to be able to take away 300 students you not only require sufficient time, but also an armada of bikes.

    In other words, the criminals operated for as long as they desired – probably hours – without an alarm being raised in the age of the cell phone and social media!

    It’s all so mysterious – stuff that triggers a thousand questions and conspiracy theories. Six years ago when the Chibok girls’ story broke, the first few days were lost to denial. President Goodluck Jonathan was suspicious that it was another stunt by the opposition to embarrass his government. The reactions got more farcical when his wife Patience convened an inquiry that famously ended with her wailing before the cameras: ‘there is God ooo!’

    Defence spokesman, Major General John Enenche says the military didn’t immediately engage the bandits because they were using students as human shields and the concern was to preserve the lives of victims.

    The deed had been done and the military was being cautious in its rescue effort. But what happened before the incident? Just as it was in 2014, people want know how it is possible to pull off something this big without Intelligence having an inkling.

    The abduction of hundreds of students couldn’t have been carried out by a five-man gang. It would take a fairly large and well-coordinated criminal structure to execute it. If they had gotten that big, who was keeping an eye on them? After all, bandits have been in the news in Katsina for more than five years. Did the authorities come to accept their lesser outrages as something to live with?

    Just as Chibok became a negative turning point for the Jonathan administration, and provided the opposition ammunition to successfully define it as incompetent, Kankara is a defining moment for the Muhammadu Buhari administration regarding its handling of the nation’s security challenges.

    Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, says the bandits slapped the president and he’s right. The symbolism of his state becoming the hotbed for banditry is stark. Buhari is president of the whole nation, but the optics are awful when his home state is under siege.

    For so long, he was untouchable and beloved of the masses up north. But angry voices are now criticising him for unrelenting insecurity that won’t allow many access their farms.

    From Borno to Kaduna to Katsina to Zamfara, it is hard to think of one state where people can sleep with two eyes closed or travel without worrying about winding up in some kidnappers’ den.

    Again, the symbolism of Governor Aminu Masari weeping while addressing distraught parents of abducted students, speaks to his helplessness. At some point, he tried to dialogue with bandits and was famously photographed in 2019 with one openly brandishing an AK47.

    He has since reversed course after realising government should never put itself in a situation where it is seen as cosying up to criminals, or bending over to appease them. When desperate individuals and families pay ransom to rescue loved ones, it is barely acceptable.

    It’s a different matter when bandits get the impression they have the whip hand over the state. They become emboldened. Now, it appears the wrongheaded appeasement policy of many years has resulted in criminal enterprise becoming the sole growth industry in Katsina.

    In June this year, Masari swore his government would no longer pursue a peace agreement with criminals who he accused of breaching trust. How naïve can you get! Bandits are anything but honourable and it was wrong to have treated them as moral equals.

    With the Chibok abductions it was clear Boko Haram fighters were looking for sex slaves and women to sire offspring to beef up their ranks. The Kankara kidnappers have already contacted families to start putting ransom together. They could also be crudely recruiting to increase their numbers.

    Whatever their motive, this incident represents a graphic failure of the Buhari administration to crack the problem of insecurity – especially in the north. When he took over it was largely the issue of the insurgency. Today, the problem has metastasized.

    Current security threats are different from anything Nigeria knew in the 70s and 80s, therefore the president has to unlearn whatever methods worked for him in the past. Existing arrangements are not working period!

    Luckily for Buhari he, unlike Jonathan, doesn’t have to go before voters in search of another term. Still, unless something urgent is done his inability to secure the land would tarnish his legacy – overshadowing every other thing he achieved in his second coming to public office.

     

  • Insecurity and the death of tradition

    Insecurity and the death of tradition

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Say what you will about the British. They value, respect, and preserve their tradition—the customs, rituals, beliefs, legends, and so on, reproduced from generation to generation by word of mouth and/or written records and by practice. Perhaps the greatest hallmark of the British tradition is the monarchy.

    While some other European nations subdued or wiped off their monarchy, the British retained and glorified theirs. Today, the United Kingdom (Britain, Scotland, Whales, and Northern Island) is governed as a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch is the Head of State, while the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. Executive power is exercised by the government on behalf, and by the consent, of the monarch.

    Beside the role of the monarchy, another striking feature of British democracy is its unwritten constitution. Yet their democracy is reproduced from time to time without rancour, because, for them, conventions and precepts are as valid as a written constitution. And what is a written constitution anyway, if it is not respected and obeyed?

    Which brings me back home to two major institutions now under assault in Nigeria, namely, the monarchy and the constitution. My focus here is on the monarchy. I will visit the constitution some other day.

    The amalgamation of disparate nationalities with different traditional systems, typified by the kingdoms to the south and the emirates to the north, and the multiplicity of monarchs all over the place made a straightforward constitutional monarchy impossible.

    In their wisdom, the British colonialists established a parliamentary democracy with a President as Head of State and a Prime Minister as Head of Government. They also set up a House of Chiefs which gave the semblance of a role to the monarchs. In addition to being used as instruments of indirect rule, their chief role was to express historical or cultural perspectives on public policies.

    Everything was abandoned when the military took over power in 1966. Today, we have a presidential democracy with a written constitution, which borrowed heavily from the American constitution but skewed in favour of the centre and against true federalism. Today, the constitution exists more in its abuse than in its adoption. But that’s a subject for another day.

    Equally abused is the institution of the monarchy, which has been ravaged in recent years by widespread insecurity. Here, I focus on the denigration of the monarchy by kidnappers, bandits, and other perpetrators of violence.

    The present trend has been going on for quite some time but it reached a symbolic height over a year ago, on Friday, May 3, 2019, when Mallam Musa Umar, the District Head of Daura, the home town of President Muhammadu Buhari, was kidnapped right in front of his own house shortly after returning from the Mosque for evening prayers. Not a few residents of the town thought that the kidnap was staged to ridicule the President. Others thought it was meant to jolt the President into action against widespread insecurity.

    But the warning signs have been all over the place for some time. For example, over a year earlier, in January, 2018, the paramount ruler of Ikulu in Zango-Kataf Local Government Area of the state, Chief Yohanna Kukah, was kidnapped along with his guard right inside his own palace. The traditional ruler is a younger brother to the popular and vocal Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Kukah.

    About the same time, the District Head of Fadan Karshi, in Sanga Local Government Area of southern Kaduna State, Bala Makadi, was shot dead in his bedroom. His nephew, Emmanuel Tanko, was also killed by the same gunmen.

    Later in October of 2018, the paramount ruler of the Adara people in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna state, the Agwom Adara, Maiwada Raphael Galadima, was abducted with his wife. Although his wife was later released, he was killed by the abductors.

    Beyond the symbolism of the kidnap of the Daura District Head in 2019, the year 2020 has turned out to be a bad year for the monarchy in Nigeria. Much earlier in the year, on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, the Emir of Potiskum, Umar Bubaram, was amongst those who sustained severe injuries when gunmen opened fire on commuters along the Kaduna-Zaria Highway. At least 30 people, including four of his drivers, were reportedly killed, while about 100 were feared kidnapped during the attack.

    Now fast forward to the recent case of the invasion of the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu, by looters and bandits in broad daylight on October 21, 2020, following the forceful dispersal of the #EndSARS protesters the previous night. They looted the palace and made away with the Oba’s staff of office. They reportedly were about to set the palace ablaze when the military arrived to whisk the monarch away and the police from Lion Building kept the rampage at bay.

    But by far the most heinous crime against the monarchy was the murder of a first class Oba in Ondo state, the Olufon of lfon, Oba Israel Adewusi, who was returning home from a meeting in Akure, the state capital.

    The above cases indicate more than an assault on private individuals. The kidnapping or killing of monarchs is an assault on whole communities. They also signal the imminent death of tradition in the land as the custodians of culture and tradition are being eliminated before our eyes.

    If this situation does not give the present government cause for serious concern, I really don’t know what else can.