The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Leaderless? Elderly: Exercise muscles

    Leaderless? Elderly: Exercise muscles

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,640,000, infections 72,600,000 worldwide, Nigerian cases 72,300, and 1,200 deaths.

    The cycle of evil continues. Over 333 Kankara Katsina students abducted but no presidential visit. Are we not leaderless? Nigeria thanks the brave police who returned fire allowing many to escape and pray our troops will successfully free them all. Any help from foreign satellites?  It is another school, like Chibok and Dapchi, with disgracefully little visible practical science content. Just theory, abi???Are we not sorry for this sad disgraceful science learning environment in 2020?

    Congrats to Anthony Joshua.

    Approximately ‘Sixty, 60, years ago’, I was 10, many countries were ending the colonial era with transition to self-determination. Anyone who says slavery, racism, is dead should see the police brutality meted out to black and Asians, precipitating Black Lives Matter and other platforms while looking at police brutality precipitating ENDSARS. Slavery and colonialism fall into the world history category of ‘It should never have happened in the first place.’ Where are they, the conquerors and colonialists, now. Certainly, they aim for the stratosphere, Mars and beyond.  But where are we, Nigeria, even among 1-30 newly independent countries? We are not an unfortunate nation as we have good material to work with – ‘SOIL -Soil -above and below, Sun, Oil’,  and self-sacrificial leaders and followers many of whom have suffered, died or been murdered. The record of their wise words to move Nigeria forward are recorded in every article, report, committee, newspaper and research document and in every political, business, education, health, infrastructure and MGG/now SDG discussion covered in the media by government and private industries and educational institutions since recorded time. Nigeria does not lack ideas, vision, solutions and sacrifice. Nigerians lacks the political sagacity and leadership to harvest them for Nigeria’s development.

    We live in a Nigeria troubled by bad persons who lie, buy and subtly or violently manipulate to get control often by criminal means. They put personal ambition above general good, stunting Nigeria. Not every nationalist is an honest nationalist. Our immediate national travails are due to our lack of positive political leadership action, long term financial depth and concern for the common good. We can no longer blame foreign powers and colonialism, or even those which helped to hide the stolen hoard, estimated at $1trillion seized by ‘Hoodlums in Government’ disguised as ‘saviours’, their garb hiding a monetary and moral assaults on the ‘Nigerian Body’. And accomplices in the public and private sector, be they contractors, bankers, civil servants, middlemen and women, in and out of families.

    To more health issues: Politics yes but do not push health knowledge aside. Last week we discussed ‘Monthly Breast Examination’, ‘Monthly Total Body Examination’ and the FD-LMP – the ‘First Day’ of their ‘Last Menstrual Period LMP’.

    Today, we will add ‘Daily Exercise’. Many people are suffering ‘loss of muscle mass’ with resulting weak leg, arm and back muscles. They complain of ‘body weakness’ and ‘difficulty getting up or getting out of bed’ without holding a table, chair-arm, stick or ‘any child nearby’. We may blame Covid lockdown -sitting too long. But remember the ‘armchair lockdown’, ‘computer lockdown’ and ‘work lockdown’-siting too long at home, at the computer or at work desk.

    Historically, the daily farm and village and manual city work kept our forefathers strong into old age. Now sitting activities reduce muscle activity. Even walking to school or work, a good exercise for the legs, buttocks, back, blood circulation and lungs, has been replaced by the commonplace okada motorcycle- a blessing and a curse against exercise and for okada-crash victims. The ‘Exercise deficiency’, has led to ‘workout’ gym visits, jogging and home exercises promoted during Covid lockdown with exercises shared by citizens and even gold winning athletes. Muscle mass deteriorates especially after 60 years of age. The sick and elderly person shrinks before our eyes as muscle mass reduces from reduced food and exercise.  You can stop some of that happening.

    Exercise your body muscles at home, work and on the way to work. Do not throw away that bottle. Fill it with water. Hold a bottle of water in each hand and carry out all the arm and hand exercises, forward, upward, outward x 10-100 times and more all while sitting watching TV at home and even at work.

    Exercise your leg muscles at home, the compound, the community by walking, jogging, running-on-the-spot, up the stairs or even on one single step, up-down-up, repeatedly, increasing time and goals daily. Exercise intermittently for a total 15-30-60-120-minute total depending on your medical condition and how busy your body is at work. If you exercise, add weights like water bottles for arm and shoulder, or a back-pack bag filled with your books as weights for leg muscles. You accomplish more, quicker, with extra weights. Ask your doctor before vigorous exercise. Do not hyper-exercise. Deaths occur from lack of exercise or lack of movement during long travel and being bedridden, with for example DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis, a leg clot spreading to body and lungs. Deaths occur also from excess exercise. The inventor of jogging died while jogging- Google him! Exercise helps you live a long active life, not harm you. Build your muscle mass even in old age.  Your health is yours to monitor and evaluate.

    Politicians: Be FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest.  The ‘WARD’ is a key to peace. ‘SAVE EVERY WARD: SAVE Nigeria!

  • Three reflections

    Three reflections

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    OCCASIONAL pause is always necessary to give room for reflection. Today, I reflect on three issues on which I have commented in order to have some clarity for tomorrow.

    COVID-19 on the rise again

    There are many Nigerians who ignorantly insist that there is “no coro” in the country. Others who know full well that the virus is real and has infected nearly 70,000 and killed nearly 1,200 Nigerians may now think that the pandemic era has ended, following the sharp decline in infections in October. For example, there were only 48 infections in 5 states and the Federal Capital Territory on October 24, 2020. That was toward the tail end of the #EndSARS protest and the looting that followed.

    However, the figures started trending upwards from November 24, 2020, exactly one month after the dip, hitting the 200s several times before the end of the month.  By December 3, 2000, the infection figure was over 300 and it stayed that way for five days in a row, hitting 390 on December 7, 2020. Today, the infection rate is trending toward the 400 mark.

    This upward trend can be attributed to four factors. One, the mostly maskless #EndSARS protesters and the maskless looters that followed may have aided the spread of the virus, leading to a spike three to four weeks later.

    Second, the relaxation of major prevention guidelines by the general population, partly due to negligence or ignorance and partly due to COVID-19 fatigue, may also have aided the spread of the virus.

    Third, the winter (cold weather), which keeps people longer indoors in Western countries has led to a major spike in Europe and North America. This has serious implications for Nigeria as some returnees from these countries have been found to be positive for the virus after their 7-day quarantine period. Such people may have infected others, given the finding that the virus is transmitted even before symptoms are detected.

    Fourth, the negligence of several state governments in following through on testing is another contributory factor. Several vectors of the virus might have been left untested and, therefore, undetected, thereby infecting others.

    #EndSARS in the news again

    The government’s doublespeak on the #EndSARS protest is directly responsible for the attempted resurgence of the protest this week. The protesters are demanding the release of suspected promoters and the unfreezing of their accounts.

    The government’s initial actions of looking into the protesters’ demands and setting up judicial panels of inquiry into their grievances as well as President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent statement that the youths have the right to protest have been hailed as responsive actions. However, they do not square with the arrests of suspected promoters of the protests and the freezing of their accounts.

    If the suspected promoters of the protest were arrested and their accounts frozen in order to find out the big movers behind their action, the government is mistaken as such information (if it existed) could still be obtained without arrests and without freezing accounts. Only a government that lacks a proper intelligence architecture would go that rout. The method of arresting to obtain information, rather than letting information lead to arrests, is not the best way to uphold the rule of law.

    Besides, the government may be mistaken in concluding that the youths could not raise about N150 million Naira within two weeks in this digital age, especially given the globalization of their protest. The government’s action demonstrates its disbelief in the ability of today’s youths to raise funds for a good course. Yet, the government is happy to be bailed out of financial conundrum over COVID-19, by relying on the Coalition Alliance Against COVID-19, which had raised nearly N40 billion from about 200 donors by then end of November, 2020.

    The government would do well to release those arrested and unfreeze their accounts, while moving forward with its investigations. Otherwise, the government would continue to undercut the genuineness of its initial response to the #EndSARS protest.

    UNILAG, Mumuni, and Bad optics

    It is unfortunate that Mikail Mumuni chose to deliver a slave message like a true slave, rather than delivering it like a freeborn. He strayed from the omoluabi ethos in his response to my article, UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat (The Nation, November 18, 2020).

    In his response, wrongly titled UNILAG: Akinnaso’s contempt for facts (The Nation, November 25, 2020), Mumuni echoed his master’s voice like the needle of an old gramophone. Rather than contest the facts in my essay, he played up other facts, which he claimed I ignored, by echoing the allegations made against the reinstated Vice Chancellor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe, by his paymaster, the then Chairman of the dissolved Governing Council, Dr. Wale Babalakin.

    Mumuni missed the point completely. The ad hoc Visitation Panel did exactly what it was set up to do, namely, to look into (a) the procedure by which Ogundipe was removed as Vice Chancellor and (b) the procedure by which the Acting Vice Chancellor was appointed. The other terms of reference revolve around these two.

    In both cases, Babalakin’s Council flouted the procedure. It failed to set up a Joint Committee of Council and Senate to give Ogundipe the opportunity to defend himself. It also failed to involve the University Senate in the appointment of the Acting Vice Chancellor. Worse still, it was alleged that Council did not vote to remove the Vice Chancellor after all, but that the votes were reportedly manipulated to achieve removal.

    The Panel made the right recommendations, which the Visitor to the University, President Muhammadu Buhari, upheld. In addition to dissolving the Governing Council and reinstating the Vice Chancellor, the Panel also recommended the setting up of a full Visitation Panel to look into how the university had been run.

    This is where the Nation Editorial, Bad optics (The Nation, November 23, 2020) got it wrong. The Vice Chancellor need not step aside for the University Visitation Panel to do its job. That is never the practice. Ideally, a Visitation Panel should be set up every five years to investigate every aspect of university life over the past five years or more. Such a Panel often meets for months, rather than for a few weeks as the recent ad hoc Panel did. The Vice Chancellor is needed to provide critical information to the Panel. This does not preclude his being a casualty of the Panel’s findings.

     

  • Boko Haram, security chiefs and mercenaries

    Boko Haram, security chiefs and mercenaries

    By Festus Eriye

    As far as atrocities by the terrorist Boko Haram sect go, there’s little that’s shocking any more. From strapping explosives to hapless teenagers to exploding bombs in mosques full of worshippers, we all thought they had plumbed the depths.

    That was until the mindless massacre of 43 unarmed rice farmers in Zabarmari village, 25 kilometres from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Saturday.

    It wasn’t just the numbers, it was the barbaric manner of their execution that provoked global outrage. First, they were tied up by their captors who then proceeded to slit their throats.

    As the nation reeled from the latest assault on unarmed civilians by the Islamists, the recurring clamour for the sacking of security chiefs quickly followed.

    We are told in regular bulletins by the Nigerian Army and Air Force how scores of terrorists have been neutralised, or their logistics facilities destroyed, in bombing raids. But the best of these efforts don’t appear to be weakening them.

    For a group the authorities repeatedly claim to have degraded or technically defeated, Boko Haram or ISWAP, retains a remarkable capacity to carry out attacks that embarrass the authorities.

    The latest atrocity has been met not with the usual defensiveness or finger-pointing on the part of government, but a collective resort to handwringing.

    While Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, boasts about not allowing terrorists hold an inch of Nigerian territory, maniacal insurgents seem content to not hold ground – preferring instead the sort of headline-grabbing bloodbath that can demoralise the military, government and people.

    Before our very eyes, whatever gains the President Muhammadu Buhari administration made over the last four years in the war in the Northeast, is being rolled back as Boko Haram roams freely through ungoverned spaces and terrorises isolated rural communities.

    Now, the confused populace are demanding answers.

    It’s not as if many have better ideas how the insurgents can be defeated. What has been promoted over the last year and a half as a sure fire fix is the sacking of security chiefs. The National Assembly just reiterated its position that they be kicked out.

    Buhari who has the power to fire them is in no hurry to do so. The Presidency argues he’s keeping them because he’s satisfied with their application. Unfortunately, war like many professional sports is a results business. You are rewarded for results, sanctioned for failure.

    Throughout history commanders have been sacked when they were not delivering victories. During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln fired a succession of underperforming commanding generals, as Confederate forces inched ever closer to Washington D. C. He kept stripping them of command until he found Ulysses S. Grant under whose leadership the tide of the war began to turn.

    Many are at a loss why the president is resistant to trying new hands and a fresh approach when everything the current crop of commanders have thrown at the conflict doesn’t appear to be working.

    It’s Buhari’s choice to cling to the current commanders. But in doing so he alone bears responsibility if they are unable to rein in the insurgents or contain the myriad security threats across Nigeria. The pressure is on him to deliver on an electoral promise to end insecurity in the land – using the ideas and methods of this same underwhelming team.

    But a word of caution here. A mere change of faces may not necessarily alter the course of the war if fundamental problems hobbling the government’s efforts are not addressed.

    That the situation is dire is driven home by the fact Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, is calling on the Federal Government to hire mercenaries to prosecute the war! His call has been backed other governors from the geopolitical zone.

    The very suggestion is an unflattering assessment of the ability of the Nigerian military to defeat the insurgency.

    Zulum’s proposal isn’t exactly strange or novel. From the Nigerian Civil War to similar conflicts across Africa, such contractors have fought side by side with the local military – albeit with a patchy record of success.

    It’s an open secret that the Goodluck Jonathan administration patronised these dogs of war – especially during the six-week window the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government procured ostensibly to drive back insurgents so the 2015 general elections could hold in relative peace across the Northeast.

    So much for progress if five years after dispensing with the likes of South Africa’s Executive Outcomes we are again dreaming of hiring mercenaries.

    Mercenaries are a quick, but not-so-sure fix given that their motivation is mainly pecuniary, whereas our own troops would be driven by patriotism to defend and die for their country.

    I doubt whether Buhari, a proud product of the Nigerian military establishment, would buy into such a dicey scheme – given its potential to damage the image and morale of the armed forces.

    What Zulum and his colleagues should be doing is pushing the government to address those issues that are sapping the will of our forces to conclusively defeat the insurgents.

    These issues are not hidden. They include welfare and properly equipping troops with what is needed to prevail in the war. In the aftermath of the Zabarmari killings, Minister of Information and Culture, moaned about the unwillingness of certain world powers to sell Nigeria the arms needed to defeat the terrorists.

    This, again, isn’t a new. Back in October 2014, a private jet carry two Nigerians and an Israeli was arrested in South Africa with $9.3 million cash meant to procure arms in a shadowy deal.

    In the past the United States and other Western countries have been reluctant to sell arms to Nigeria because government soldiers were accused by human rights groups of torture and extrajudicial execution of suspects. US laws ban sale of lethal weapons to countries whose military are accused of such abuses.

    It is for our government to engage these countries and clear any misunderstanding. Alternatively, we can buy weapons from Eastern European and Asian countries who are too finicky about such issues.

    But Boko Haram will never the defeated without collaboration with neighbours like Chad and Cameroun. For as long as these fighters can flit in and out of surrounding countries our own efforts will never be enough to destroy them.

     

  • Oyetola: Two years gone, 2 more plus 4

    Oyetola: Two years gone, 2 more plus 4

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    I write to congratulate you on the second anniversary of your administration. I look back with pride and nostalgia to the hard-fought battle of your election and the continuation of progressive administration in the State of Osun.

    There have been challenges along the line—the inclement national financial weather, the COVID-19 pandemic and others not so significant. But you have weathered the storm admirably and steadied the ship of state.”

    — Excerpts from the congratulatory letter to the Governor of the State of Osun, Gboyega Oyetola, on his second year anniversary, from his immediate predecessor in office, now the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.

    Not all anniversaries are worth celebrating and some are worth celebrating more than others. The opening quote from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior and Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s immediate predecessor in office, advanced at least three reasons why Oyetola’s second year anniversary was worth celebrating. They are: the harsh national financial situation; the raging COVID-19 pandemic; and what Aregbesola categorized as “others not so significant”. I will elaborate on these reasons and even advance others equally significant.

    Technically, Oyetola may have spent two years in office. Pragmatically, however, he has been able to do only about a year’s worth of work. First, his government was literally in limbo as his tenure was not sure for nearly eight months until the Supreme Court validated his election on July 5, 2019. He had barely worked for 8 months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation in February, 2020.

    By March, 2020, Osun was badly hit by 127 returnees to Ejigbo from Ivory Coast, among whom were those who carried a high viral load of the virus. But for advance preparations and effective management, Osun easily could have been the epicenter of the pandemic in Nigeria. Nevertheless, it put the state on guard and stringent measures had to be employed, including the closure of schools and businesses. A significant portion of the government’s bureaucratic machinery was shut down for months.

    It would have been easy to quickly bounce back, if sufficient resources were available. But blaming the harsh national financial situation, which cut the state’s federal allocation virtually in half, is only part of the story. The late take-off, due to the protracted litigation, and the equally protracted pandemic also had negative effects on the state’s ability to generate sufficient revenue on its own.

    To complicate these adverse financial conditions, Oyetola also inherited a debt burden to settle, including arrears of salaries and pensions. The saving grace for him derives from three sources. One, he was Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff for eight years. He knew where the roof leaked and where to start mending. Two, as a finance expert, who managed a successful Insurance business on his own, he knows how to walk the financial terrain. Three, he seeks and listens to advice; he seeks the consent of the governed; and he carefully, but deliberatively, implements his agenda.

    True, he modified some of the policies he inherited, such as those in education, as demanded by the people, but he never departed from the template left behind by Aregbesola. Rather, he continued to elaborate on it in keeping with the continuity pledge he made during the campaign. This is quite evident in all sectors, especially health, infrastructure, education, the economy, agriculture, mineral resources (notably gold), culture and tourism, and citizens’ welfare.

    Let me use the health sector as a point of reference, because there is no Local Government Area that has been left untouched in the massive investment in the sector. Look at it this way: There are 332 wards in the state. Oyetola has built or remodelled 332 Primary Health Centres on a one-per-ward basis. He also made sure that each was supplied with necessary medical equipment and appropriate disposables. In addition, each was equipped with a motorized borehole and an overhead tank.

    The effect on patronage has been dramatic. This is particularly true of neonatal and maternal care. For example, there were 50,500 successful deliveries between November 2018 and July 2020 in the different PHCs since the modifications began, compared to 30,599 deliveries between March 2017 and October 2018.

    Similarly, those who needed secondary or tertiary healthcare are getting the benefit of their money or insurance premium at the General Hospitals, Mercyland Hospital, and the State Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro, where value was added in various categories. For example, the General Hospital in Ejigbo was completely rebuilt and equipped. Additional wards and Intensive Care Units were built or revitalized in Mercyland Hospital and the Specialist Hospital.

    These developments are separate from the various Isolation Centres constructed throughout the state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic for which the state proactively began to prepare even before Nigeria had her index case. It was this advance preparation that enabled the state to cope with the 127 returnees and has continued to put the state in good stead in fighting the pandemic. These physical advances were supplemented with medical supplies for which the OHIS Drug Distribution Centre was purposefully established.

    The capstone of the healthcare strides is the establishment of the Osun Health Insurance Scheme for which seed money was provided by the state government. In addition, nearly 500 million Naira was paid to purchase the OHIS premiums for vulnerable citizens.

    What Oyetola was able to achieve in the health sector is even less than the advances in infrastructure, which is being capped by a flyover at the famous Olaiya intersection in Osogbo, where major roads from different parts of the state and beyond intersect right in the heart of the city.

    A less visible, but quite effective, achievement is the regular payment of salaries. He lifted the embargo placed on promotion. He is paying the revised salary structure for medical and allied health workers. And he is implementing the new minimum wage.

    It was not only the weight and spread of Oyetola’s impact within a very short time that endeared him to Osun citizens. His demeanour and style—let my action speak for me—has met with high approval. That’s why he successfully waded through the “not so significant” problems.

    It’s no wonder then that the grand finale of the weeklong celebration of his second year in office last Friday was converted into a second term endorsement by a cross-section of the state. Hence the title of this piece.

  • Oba, farmers’ murders; ASUU

    By Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 1,460,000, infections 62,700,000 worldwide, Nigerian cases 67,600 and 1,180 deaths. Stay safe!

    Why were 43 or more heroic rice Nigerian farmers murdered in Borno and eight in Kaduna? And the Olufon of Ifon, Adegoke Adeusi, last week? If this is not war, what is? Can no farming this year = famine next year? Is this a roadmap, a plot? Nigerian needs 500,000 strong armed forces and 500,000 police force urgently!

    Nigeria has often had one strike or protest. Remember struggles of your parents when young like the 1971 student protests in which Kunle Adepeju was shot dead. ASUU strikes are not about ASUU but fighting ‘education decay’ and a protest against the inaction/negative policies of governments to punish educators and students or ‘put them in their place’ – below and beholden to politicians.

    ASUU strikes were ‘survival struggles and dirges for the death of Nigeria’s tormented education system. Credit ASUU with the END.EDUCATION.NEGLECT protest since the late 80s with two proscriptions and about 15-16 strikes totalling about 4+ years of lost time. Beyond emoluments, many issues were involved to get government to provide a standard ‘Conducive Academic Learning Environment’ for staff and students and accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution UTAS versus the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System- IPPIS. The IPPIS ignored university earning peculiarities. Has ASUU recommenced UTAS be changed to Universal TAS to replace IPPAS nationwide? Why demonise everything Nigerian? Government missed publicly embracing UTAS and offering it to Africa with conferment of CFR on the patriotic ASUU developers. Did the annual accountants meeting comment professionally on the UTAS struggle? The TSA, Treasury Single Account is also a huge obstacle for the progress of the university system.

    ASUU has been maligned with ‘All they want is undeserved money’ advertised by governments. Cutting edge university progress is paralysed by a vicious cycle of ‘Delay, Decay, Near Death, ASUU Strike, Marginal Catch-up Agreement, Government Failure As-And-When-Due, Failed Agreement, More Delay … Restrike etc. This has paralysed growth of departments requiring practical material, freezer specimens or expensive equipment, training and research. How many 3D printers, drones, 2020 computers are in Nigerian universities? Arts subjects can also be costly to fund like expensive theatre and film, music and video productions, orchestras but generally are less costly than even running costs for a lab with disposable science chemicals and equipment and $250,000-$2.5m for a telescope, electron microscope, DNA and nanotech Chemistry analyser or a robotic surgery system.

    Are art-inclined VCs, Ministers and Directors of Education and a NASS [hungry for vehicles] willing to allocate higher science education budgets suitable for a 2020 university system. Every university department needs a key item, e.g. an electron microscope, to attract research grants. Government, ASUU, NASU and students must unite to propel Nigeria in a ‘Great Education Leap Forward’.  This settlement must not be another empty promise by government with zero result further rubbishing our education failure.

    Blame our politicians not our professors!   Successive governments neglected education, police, armed forces, health, road networks, and ignoring education as an investment producing human resource products. This administrative fear of education, even by educated politicians, rubbished its economic value, dragged down higher education quality and Nigeria’s international standing.

    Alumni groups and private sector CSR activities ‘saved’ some universities from total decay but cannot fill the stolen/missing/lost multibillion government funding gap. In science more funds equal more equipment. Money differentiates the mundane experiment from a Mars experiment.  The result is a student and lecturer brain drain, costlier than the health brain drain and medical tourism. Medical tourists return but education brain drain is often permanent. The participants, lecturers and students, often never return. Zero foreign student fees inflows! Students travelling abroad export foreign exchange while lecturers as ‘economic refugees abroad’, send a few dollars back into Nigeria. Nigeria’s government failure has truncated the ‘Nigerian Dream’ common when I was in school and at the University of Ibadan, UI, in the 1960s-70s. The Nigerian Dream died for millions in underfunded strike-torn institutions, following the fate of poorly-funded public primary and secondary schools that fail to support their needy students.

    Imagine Nigeria’s saving if government supported education as the huge confidence, national pride and revenue generator through the businesses  and taxes paid by graduates later and immediately from foreign students and lecturers, hosting international conferences, international research grants, travel, collateral profits from eating daily, using accommodation and IT facilities.

    Strangely, governments, ignoring their responsibility to grow ‘education as a national asset’, recognise private schools and universities for their own children,  but fail to build up Nigeria’s education assets by providing adequate support for Nigeria’s public primary, secondary or tertiary education.

    Citizens must thank ASUU for its 30 year END.EDUCATION.NEGLECT struggle! We thank government but blame it for the needless damage to students and staff and Nigeria caused by the eight month delay. This adds to stolen years from our students and ruined lecturer job satisfaction and promotions. Government should apologise to the ‘Educationally Wasted Generation’. It is a waste because many students have lost many years of education with prolonged years in university. Government must get the Nigerian university train back on high speed track. ASUU requires a University Research and Development 2030 Strategy using technology to leapfrog into the IT/nanotech/robotic/drone/biofuel/non-fossil 2030 University world. Fortunately, many conferences will be virtual and cheaper with ZOOM.

    Meanwhile NASS, cut Salaries and Perks SAPping Nigeria dry by 75 % or take Sitting Allowances.

    ‘Aluta continua victoria non-acerta’.

  • #EndSARS protest as metaphor

    #EndSARS protest as metaphor

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Each time I reflect on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermath, the twin subject of despair and futility comes to mind. And I remember once again Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus, a Greek legend used by Camus to theorize the meaninglessness of human existence in a hostile and orderless world.

    In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned for his trickery by the gods to repeatedly roll a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down again once he got to the top. He would repeat the same process over and over again for eternity.

    Sisyphus’s condition is an apt metaphor for the human condition in contemporary Nigeria, where everything undesirable in life has become routine; where the worthlessness of existence is dramatized on a daily basis; and where the same mistakes are made over and over again. Which is why advertised change hardly happens. And if change happens at all, it is often for the worse. So it is with the fight against corruption. So it is with the security of lives and property. And so it is with the economy as Nigeria slips into the worst recession in 36 years, according to the World Bank.

    The government borrows and then borrows more to pay back previous loans. Some government officials steal and steal and steal again, and then hand the baton to the next set of officials,who do the same thing. The more the government seeks to alleviate poverty, the more the poor population increases. The more tokens the government throws out as employment opportunities, the longer the unemployment and underemployment lines grow.

    Infrastructure is crumbling. Public waterworks have been reduced to private boreholes and deep wells. The government breaks its promises, denies reality, and then goes on to chastise critics. Yet, we know that different results cannot be expected from making the same mistakes over and over again.

    The #EndSARS protest, organized largely by youths, sought to bring an end to one major cycle of hostility and suffering, namely, police brutality, especially as perpetrated by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Disbelieving that change would come from the same Inspector General of Police, who had broken an earlier promise to end the SARS, the youths increased their list of demands but remained focused on police reform. The announcement by the IG within 48 hours of an alternative police unit further confounded the youths’ disbelief and contributed to their persistence.

    Then hoodlums infiltrated the Nigeria-flag-carrying protesters. And the Army came in. An otherwise peaceful protest ended violently, opening the door to more violence in the form of massive looting and destruction of lives and property. And the nation is back not just to Square One, but almost to Ground Zero, as the government scrambles to heal self-inflicted wounds.

    The #EndSARS protest thus becomes a metaphor of the Nigerian condition. The protesters and the looters reflect the hopelessness of the Nigerian condition. The bungled intervention by the government, which set up the orgy of violence, is itself a metaphor of failed governance in the country.

    At federal and state levels, most new administrations start out with lofty ideas and ideals but fail to deliver. This is particularly true of the present federal government, which campaigned on change and promised to be for all people. Today, the government is perceived as being largely for a section of the country.

    After five years in government, more aspects of our national life have changed for the worse than for the better. It was the lack of change in one sector that initially led to the #EndSARS protest. The change that followed the protest was for the worst show of violent looting. The deepening recession can only make it much more difficult for the government to dig the nation out of the hole into which it has been plunged.

    Of particular significance is the juxtaposition of peace and violence, which marked the two ends of the protest. The protest’s peaceful outlook suddenly became eclipsed by violent looting and destruction. These contradictory tendencies are typical of the dualities of existence in Nigeria.

    On the political plane, political campaigns often start out peacefully. As election approaches, thugs are released on opponents, maiming some and killing others. Hence the need for so-called peace agreements between opposing candidates, an unnecessary step in a normal democracy.

    On the social plane, the opulence of the few is juxtaposed with the poverty and squalour of the many. While the few are holding lavish parties, where food and wine are served into the middle of the night, many are scavenging for food and livelihood. The cycle of hopelessness gets wider and wider in circumference.

    The handling of the #EndSARS protest by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is also a metaphor of his governance approach: Sit back and watch matters get out hand before intervening. In the case of the  recent protest, the youths were confused by the inchoate signals. Such an approach ushered in the Buhari administration in 2015, which led to undesirable leadership election outcome in the National Assembly. We saw it in the herdsmen-farmers clashes, in kidnapping for ransom, and now in banditry in the North.

    The administration’s contradictory signals are also part of the dualities that typify Buhari’s governance style: Yes, to the protesters’ demands. But forcefully stop the protest, arrest their leaders, and freeze their accounts. Typically, this government arrests suspects in order to fish for evidence, instead of piling up evidence before going on to arrest. This arm-twisting approach by the government only illustrates the failure of the nation’s intelligence architecture.

    If it was alive to its duty, the Department of State Services should have been tracking the donations organized largely by the newly formed (July 2020) Feminist Coalition, using various verifiable platforms. At the end of the protest, the Coalition published the total donations collected (N147,855,788.28), how much was spent (N60,403,235.00), and how much was leftover (N87,452,553.28)

    So long as the government’s futile governance style persists, Nigerians will keep groping for order in an orderless and hopeless world. This should never have been our plight. That was the message of the young protesters last October. If we learned anything at all from them, it was their cry for change. Arresting and harassing them is not the best way to respond to their cry.

  • The Coronavirus diaries (18)

    The Coronavirus diaries (18)

    Festus Eriye

     

    It’s getting on three months since the last of these diaries was done. Suspending them was tied to the sense that COVID-19 appeared on the wane in Nigeria and across Africa, and all the worst case scenarios had not come to pass.

    It is still not clear how a continent where the pandemic was expected to hit hardest because of poverty and rudimentary healthcare systems managed to escape with minimal damage. Scientists are scratching their heads trying to stitch together an explanation, while clerics put it down to the mercy of God.

    As it was in the beginning when the Coronavirus first hit these shores, so it is now. Back then it seemed like distant trouble, until travellers from China, Europe and the Americas began arriving the country with the virus in tow.

    Today, the United States, United Kingdom and much of Europe are in the grip of a scary second wave, with infection rates and fatalities outstripping summer highs.

    The US alone has had over 12 million cases and more than 260,000 deaths. The entire Africa continent has recorded a little over two million infections. The Nigerian contribution to that tally is 66,439 cases, with 1,168 casualties.

    Those numbers have encouraged denial. People sneer and suggest that ‘scaremongers’ are overdoing things. You see that attitude in worship centres, markets and even offices. Very few wear the face mask anymore and even when they do it’s more of a facial adornment than a protective device. Protocols like hand-washing have long been abandoned in many locations, while social distancing is now a distant memory.

    But while we are not recording the numbers of a few months ago when cases were in the hundreds daily, there is evidence that infections have grown where there are dense clusters of people.

    The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 revealed that since National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps were reopened, about 138 participants have been infected. In October a private secondary school in Lekki, Lagos reported that 181 of its 414 students had contracted coronavirus. The daily tally from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that infection is on the rise again.

    Despite that, evidence abounds many are not taking the threat the virus poses seriously. Rather than do what they should to protect themselves, their families and communities, they are doing their level best to circumvent rules.

    The PTF just reported that many travellers returning to the country have been presenting fake COVID-19 test results. As many as 39,000 haven’t paid for mandatory tests, while those who have paid as much N270 million collectively to private laboratories as cost of tests, chose not to show up for screening.

    Unfortunately, Coronavirus has a diabolical sense of humour; it has a way of messing up those who make light of its deadliness or deny its reality. Just ask Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro or US President Donald Trump who often dismissed it as nothing more than a common cold, only to be laid low by it. They lived to share their survival stories, but more than 1,407,893 people across the globe have not been so lucky.

    For Trump, it’s been double trouble. First the virus deflated his macho man act and then cost him his job. His cavalier approach to fighting the pandemic was compounded by concerted efforts to undermine whatever steps his political rivals had put in place.

    He encouraged citizens to disobey restrictions in states governed by the opposition, while threatening to withhold funding from others. The politicisation of the COVID-19 response ensured that at a time when Americans voted on his stewardship, the country was battling an unprecedented health challenge made worse by Trump’s indifference and contempt for scientists. The upshot is in two months he would be an ex-president.

    The strange thing about this pandemic is that even with overwhelming evidence of its deadliness many cling to conspiracy theories, or just choose to be sceptical about it in a bloody-minded way. I read an account by a nurse who said that even on his death bed one of her patients refused to accept he had contracted the virus.

    COVID-19 is a prolific terminator not just because it takes lives but because it also destroys careers. The wave of job losses that followed lockdowns across the world are continuing – especially with the return to such measures in countries that had exited them months ago.

    Nigeria just slipped into the second recession in four years; the worst such slump since 1987. A major cause is the pandemic that shut down major sectors of the economy for almost six months.

    At the beginning of the crisis, scientists warned that lockdowns could trigger serious mental health issues. Now, in Japan, interesting statistics are showing that the side effect is killing more people than coronavirus itself.

    A recent CBS News report stated: “Far more Japanese people are dying of suicide, likely exacerbated by the economic and social repercussions of the pandemic, than of the COVID-19 disease itself.”

    “While Japan has managed its coronavirus epidemic far better than many nations, keeping deaths below 2,000 nationwide, provisional statistics from the National Police Agency show suicides surged to 2,153 in October alone, marking the fourth straight month of increase.”

    Even as the world nears the grim landmark of 60 million cases, deliverance seems within reach with all the breakthroughs on the vaccine front. First it was Pfizer, then Moderna, then AstraZeneca and now the Russians, all claiming that their jabs have over 90% effectiveness against the virus.

    The reports even have local flavour because one of the leaders of the Pfizer vaccine research team is Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, a Nigerian and an associate professor of Medicine at Yale University. Everyone loves a success story and his countrymen would be quick to embrace one of their own in his moment in the sun.

    But while the vaccine news is encouraging, it is unlikely that they would be widely available in the next couple of months. That leaves us, in the short term, with the only known remedies for containing the pandemic – the existing protocols of hand washing, use of sanitisers, face masks and social distancing – however burdensome we may find them to be.

     

     

     

  • Billionaires, politicians: Increase reserves

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,400,000, infections 59,500,000 worldwide; Nigerian cases 67,000 and 1,200 deaths. Hurry, if government and ASUU have really agreed. But education and health budget must be tripled in 2021 budget.

    Government must stop thinking that Nigerians swallow its attempt to blame our raging political and insecurity problems on the ENDSARS campaign. Government must blame its many years of neglect of the poor for the violence in the aftermath of that campaign and also accept blame for not clamping down on SARS through political, ministerial, police service commission and NASS oversight committees and police officials. They did not act on information or supervise correctly available facts. Revelations before the judicial panels show government agents ‘heard and saw something’ horrendous during the last 10 years. It is because they refused to do their ‘Duty To Report A Crime -in or Outside The Force and the Presidency’s refused to act on reports from Human Rights Organisations, that the protest occurred in the first place. Government cannot deny culpability by neglect and is ‘Guilty as charged’.

    The assertion by the president of senate that NASS ‘Salaries and Perks’ are ‘inadequate for the job they are doing’ is noted. NASS must resign or go on strike under the ‘No Work-No Pay Rule’. As Nigeria suffers another recession, it must shed the useless burden of political Salaries and Perks SAPping Nigeria dry, including vehicles for ingrates and Constituency Projects (CPs). These contentious CPs valued by ICPC in its 2019 Constituency Projects Tracking Group Report at N1trillion between 2009 and 2018/9 have been reported by ICPC as conduits for embezzlement of funds through duplication, non-completion and questionable when labelled  ‘Capacity Building and Empowerment’ so difficult to track. The whole constituency project scam, I mean scheme, is economic suicide in a depression. The NASS must voluntarily or by executive order, follow popular demand cut out both Constituency Projects and Salaries Allowances and Perks, SAP, by at least 75%.

    Nigeria bears the often-fruitless burden of the huge financial cost of an unproductive and parasitic bloated political class, with an added huge multibillion annual electoral budget, for so long. A recession is an economic war. That political class should offer itself, ‘sacrifice themselves’, as willing soldiers in the current battles of the ‘Economic War of Recovery’ and offer up past financial gains to help Nigeria fight the recession. Take a 75% cut for one year to realise you can. It will be a win-win situation.  Nigeria demands sacrificial loyalty from its political class, like Nigeria’s gallant soldiers, police and citizens killed on farms and in markets.

     

    The call by a leading billionaire [in dollars] to lead other billionaires to rescue the health sector is sadly inadequate for a terminally sick Nigeria diagnosed with the ‘Deadly Economic Disease of Recurrent Recession’, the second time in five years. Billionaires and multimillionaires play at the banks and CBN tables.

    Hundreds of Nigerian police have been killed serving Nigeria. Tens of thousands of soldiers have given their lives at home, in ECOMOG and worldwide defending Nigeria. It is time politicians gave up their salaries and perks for Nigeria. It is time for banks and big business people to give their dollars and naira to save Nigeria.

    The sickest industry in Nigeria is CBN and its Foreign Reserves. Nigeria’s politicians rejected advice to save when we earned billions weekly.  A weak CBN means toilet-paper naira. The dollar billionaires of the world under the banner of the Giving Pledge and led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet has convinced many billionaires to give most of their wealth away at death or while alive. Nigerian billionaires have neglected responsibilities pre- ‘Recurrent Recession’.

    So the ‘Nigerian Dollar/Naira Billionaires Club/Committee’ should organise to resuscitate the CBN’s Foreign Reserves. This is the season of loans. So known and the ‘Unknown General and Politician’ billionaires have a redemption opportunity time to lead Nigerian billionaires in organising a ‘Gift to Nigeria’ or ‘Soft Long Term Zero Interest Loan’ to a sick CBN add N10-20billion dollars. If not, their investments may go down the drain of Nigeria’s irreversible violent poverty.  This ‘Billionaire CBN Rescue Team’ could get GCON awards. Nigeria should have $100b as ‘Fixed Foreign Reserve’ now but politicians failed in their national duty. Can Nigeria’s and Africa’s billionaires rise to the task at home by improving Foreign Exchange Reserves? Strengthening the foreign reserves will immediately strengthen the currency and improve the value of naira in every citizen’s pocket. Central banks devalue currency, the unit of poverty worldwide. Politicians failed to save and build Foreign Reserves for Nigeria. Billionaires, known and unknown must step forward and save a sinking sick Nigeria before we drown in a sea of social unrest from poverty and cheap naira not worth toilet paper.

    Note that it is a past and present joint governments’ failure to monitor, supervise and check security outfits caused both our recent SARS problem and our lack of foreign reserves. All governments should apologize for unleashing an unregulated SARS on us and for not saving when Nigeria had money. Government must cut the cost of governance with immediate effect.

    This is a hungry and angry Nigeria -a ‘hangry’ Nigeria. Urgently implemented ‘EVERY WARD’ Youth activities will make Nigeria safer. Politicians: Be FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest.  The ‘WARD’ is a key to peace. ‘SAVE EVERY WARD: SAVE Nigeria!

     

  • UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat

    UNILAG: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    Each time I receive a message from two of my friends with whom I communicate frequently, the subject of power tickles my mind, because each of them has a maxim about power in the signature section of their message box. One of them, “Power is transient”, focuses on the temporariness of power. This applies in particular to rotational positions, such as that of the Governor of a state or the Chairman of a committee. The other maxim, “Power is responsibility”, draws attention to the burden of accountability on the shoulders of anyone in a position of power.

    Put simply, power is the ability or potential of a person or group of persons to dominate or control another person or group of persons. This is why Michel Foucault, a renowned French philosopher and social theorist, focused on the exercise of power. Indeed, for him, power exists only in its exercise as a form of social control through societal institutions.

    We know from various examples of leadership roles that there are two basic ways in which leaders exercise power. One way is to use power to facilitate access to resources by empowering institutions and their agents. Those who exercise power this way are often interested in providing the greatest good for the largest number of people. This is what I admired in Rauf Aregbesola as Governor of the State of Osun.

    Another way is to use power as a form of control of limited resources by bypassing institutions and even necessary agents, including diverting resources away from some stakeholders in order to benefit others, usually a small minority or even to benefit the power-holder him/herself. As we have discovered, such power-holders tend to be authoritarian. The outgoing President of the United States, Donald Trump, is a living example.

    The key here lies in “bypassing institutions” and laid down rules as in the case of Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), the erstwhile Chairman of the University of Lagos Governing Council. As he often claimed, he did not use power to benefit himself. However, it was alleged that he empowered the University Registrar to disregard the Vice Chancellor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe to the point that the VC’s situation report allegedly did not even make it to the agenda of Council meetings.

    Babalakin’s attitude to, and treatment of, the VC attracted the attention of the university community and beyond. Various individuals and groups, including former and serving VCs and Pro-Chancellors, appealed to Babalakin but to no avail. Matters seemed to have come to a head with the postponement of the UNILAG convocation in March this year, which Babalakin engineered. It was later alleged that the convocation date conflicted with a personal engagement he had outside the country.

    I called Babalakin before my first article on the postponement (see UNILAG convocation: Hanging between Council and Management, The Nation, March 25, 2010) but I could not reach him. I later learned he was out of the country. As soon as I learned that he had returned, I called again to have his perspective on the same matter before writing my second article (Clarifications on the postponement of UNILAG convocation, The Nation, April 1, 2020). He picked my call and spent most of the time harassing me over the earlier article and threatening to sue me if I wrote nonsense.

    When I first learned about the zealotry with which Babalakin went afterOgundipe, the analogy that came to mind was the excessive hatred Nwibe had for the madman in the lead story, titled The Madman, in Chinua Achebe’s collection of short stories, Girls at War. When Dr. Babalakin eventually got Ogundipe removed as Vice Chancellor, I suspected that he might have given himself the Nwibe treatment.

    Nwibe was a wealthy man, who was on the path to joining the hierarchy of titled men in his village. But there was a madman who walked through the village on market days, and Nwibe hated his guts. His children would throw stones at the madman. Nwibe himself once joined other men to bundle the madman out of a market stall. He also joined other passengers to assault the madman on the highway the madman had come to call his own.

    The madman’s revenge came one morning on a market day as Nwibe was bathing himself in the stream. On identifying Nwibe as the man in the stream, the madman packed his clothes and ran with them toward the market. Nwibe, now naked, pursued the madman for his clothes, shouting obscenities and threatening to kill him. Blinded by anger and revenge, he kept pursuing the madman, who by now had vanished into the market crowd. Anger drew Nwibe to the market square, naked from head to toe. Villagers, including relatives, wasted no time in concluding that Nwibe had gone mad.

    Babalakin’s “madness” matured when he took the meeting of UNILAG Governing Council all the way to Abuja just to get Ogundipe removed from office. The problem, of course, was not the location of the meeting but the process Babalakin chose to follow, without regard to the standard procedure of removing a Vice Chancellor, as laid out in the UNILAG Act. Some members of Council at the meeting even questioned the vote tally on Ogundipe’s removal.

    Babalakin did not stop there. He also disregarded proper procedure in appointing an Acting Vice Chancellor. Furthermore, he questioned the composition of the Visitation Panel set up to examine the steps taken on the removal of the VC and the appointment of the Acting VC. If you wondered why Babalakin, a lawyer, would set the law aside like he did and castigate a Federal Government panel, just remember how anger drove Nwibe to the market square, all naked.

    It was not clear whether Babalakin was advised to resign; but he he did so, hours after the Visitation Panel submitted its report. As the Panel recommended, the Governing Council was dissolved and Ogundipe was reinstated as Vice Chancellor. Jim Mackay’s famous opening of ABC’s Wide World of Sports now rings true: The joy of victory and the agony of defeat.

    There is a great lesson here about power and its exercise. The two maxims about power cited earlier provide a good guide. Anyone in a position of power must always remember the enormous burden of responsibility it entails. Its transience requires that power holders must be wary of the legacy they will leave behind.

  • Will security demystify Buhari?

    Will security demystify Buhari?

    By Festus Eriye

    Five weeks into President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office, I wrote a column wondering whether Boko Haram would demystify him.

    He had swept into office as the tested general projecting an air of confidence that he would quickly bring the insurgents to heel. But the terrorists welcomed him with an intense burst of bloodletting for which the new administration had no solution.

    Five years after, his government is confronted with security challenges that have metastasized beyond the insurgency. Things have been exacerbated by the #EndSARS protests which grounded large parts of the country for the better part of two weeks.

    One lingering fallout is the collapse of policing across the country. The Nigerian Police Force for so long used to acting ‘forcefully,’ found themselves in strange straits with the authorities restraining them – even when their lives were threatened and their facilities destroyed.

    Long before matters came to a head with parts of the country dissolving into massive orgies of looting, the police had disappeared from the streets. Only a fraction have returned and those ones showing little zeal for work.

    Several accounts speak of disillusionment within the ranks. One recent report revealed hundreds of cops had turned in their resignation in the aftermath of the humiliation they suffered during the protests.

    Government officials have made a show of reaching out to the force in encouragement, but it appears the trauma struck deep and it would take a while for things to return to normal.

    In the interim, a certain tension hangs over the land. Take two key flashpoints of the recent violence – Lagos and Benin-City. The latter has been the scene of bloody clashes between rival cult groups that have left close to 30 persons dead. Among the casualties was an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

    As though this was not bad enough, close to 2,000 inmates who escaped in jailbreaks are still on the loose. Some are said to be threatening the lives of police prosecutors who sent them to prison, the others definitely returning to the only life they know.

    It may not be as dramatic as what’s going on in Edo, but similar violence has been recorded in Lagos suburbs of Ketu and Mushin where criminal gangs emboldened by the continued absence of the police, have resorted to violence and damaging of private property.

    What should worry us is how easily internal security arrangements have been overrun and compromised.

    The violence exposed how undermanned the police are. They were easily overwhelmed by the massive mobs that embraced the riots. It was what pushed Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to run to the military for help to stabilise the city.

    So far, not many are talking about the giant elephant in the room – the failure of intelligence. The government was clearly caught unawares and wrong-footed at every turn. Even if it was aware something was afoot, its security reports understated the threats and didn’t understand what was about to explode. Intelligence agencies with all manner of fancy names simply fell down on the job.

    Even the military which is the last resort where internal security arrangements fail, are themselves overstretched with commitments to joint operations in several states and the continuing fight against insurgents in the Northeast.

    That leaves us with a dangerous and unstable security situation that cannot be sustained for long. Things could definitely get worse quickly, if this boycott of duties by the police is not swiftly addressed before the onset of the festive season – a time when traditionally there’s a spike in criminal activity.

    For the short term, we must admit we have a serious problem with violent crime that’s only going to get worse given that lots of firearms were plundered by hoodlums who vandalised and torched over 200 police stations. They are not holding these items as keepsakes; they would be deployed for something nefarious sooner or later.

    Aside the weapons stolen from the police, gunrunners also had a field day in the window of violence during the protests that saw them overrunning the land border posts and smuggling in whatever they wanted. At some point their deadly merchandise would get into the hands of criminals.

    To address the situation, the authorities have to move swiftly beyond the speechmaking. Concrete steps should be taken to restore the damaged infrastructure and erase constant reminders of a traumatic chapter.

    The force has to be managed psychologically to restore their sense of worth. They should be made to understand that the #EndSARS protest was not a rejection of the police as an institution, but a repudiation of the model of policing that saw nothing wrong in violating human rights and dehumanising those they are meant to protect. After all, the protesters demanded, among other things, an improvement in service conditions for the police.

    For the long term, the protests – especially the continuing controversy over what actually happened at the Lekki toll gate – make it imperative for the nation to revisit the idea of a force we can run to when the police is outgunned, so as to insulate the army as much as possible from getting sucked into internal security issues. The National Guard idea floated by former President Ibrahim Babangida is well worth another look in the circumstance.

    This is in addition to taking firm legislative steps on the state police proposal to make it a reality. All these structures would help to raise the numbers available for policing our exploding population.

    There can be no progress – economic or otherwise – if the country isn’t secure. Potential investors would look at what just played out and the ease with which Lagos was burnt down and wonder whether it is wise to put resources in such a volatile environment.

    As he winds down his time in office, President Buhari needs to take a cold hard look at what his legacy in the area of security would be. The image of the swashbuckling general who crushed Maitatsine fundamentalists in the 80s and chased their remnants all the way into Chad, helped propel him into office.

    Unless he quickly stabilises the country by embracing fresh ideas, the current multifaceted security challenges would quickly demystify him as no better than his widely-derided predecessor.”