The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Politicians: Give back now!

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,350,000, infections 54,700,000 worldwide, Nigerian cases 65,000 and 1,200 deaths.

    Today’s ingredients of the social crisis were sewn long ago when state salaries and pensions were withdrawn by many governors and MDAs, destroying the self-rising and self-esteem of millions of Nigerian families, when cut-off points dislocated many from an earned education, when scholarships and bursaries were cancelled thus limiting the education and employability of millions, when education and health budgets made rubbish of international organisations like WHO, UNESCO recommendations of 15% and 26%. To this mix of misery, we must add a self-centred political system, self-servicing, greed-driven and contractors and civil servants ignoring the minimal needs of the needy.

    The above earthquake missteps have created a disconnect in responsible governance with stifling of the trickle-down common wealth. Today anyone remotely seen as successful is classed as an oppressor.

    A lifetime of bad governance at state and national level has left a generation of resilient self-sufficient Nigerians. Remember that despite political and ideological the conflict over resources between North and South, and the abuse of federalism, each state had enough to make the citizenry great. Unfortunately, the political class has used the citizen’s self-sufficiency to take more of our inheritance.

    Nigeria, a wealthy nation by the trillions of dollars in earnings from oil and other commodities, is in a position of probably imminent penury, aided by political class greed. Nigeria has always had enough for the people’s needs but not enough for politicians’ greed. The political class, old and recent, including the military adventurists, must accept its responsibility for precipitating present failures, refusing to save, and make amends for politicians who abandoned their responsibility to a generation. The recovery is in the hands of today’s politicians. What must they do urgently to bring the societal temperature down? Politicians must stop wasting the citizens money.

    For example, stop making adverts celebrating political birthdays. They pay newspapers millions per advert for a birthday while millions cannot celebrate their own birthdays with one naira and remember them in silence. This tradition has cost many millions in the past with sometimes 30 pages of adverts in one newspaper. This insult must stop. A wise newspaper would reject such waste at least for now. Politicians must redirect such huge funds, in the name of the celebrant, if they like, to the numerous orphanages, hospitals, clinics and any of the thousands of empty classrooms nationwide begging and screaming to be made a good learning environment for poor Nigerian students.

    Imagine 10 orphanages being given N1m each in the name of so-and-so? The value of such adverts falls to zero the following day when the paper-face of the politician is used to hold yam, akara, yam and dodo, suya and in many cases have a worse fate in the improvised backyard toilet. From a N1million newspaper advert to rubbish zero-naira toilet paper in 24 hours!! What economics is that? Do we do it because of ego and ‘that is how we do it’ and ‘he will vex if we do not’? Is it not so shameful that each one of such ‘One Day N1million Wonder’ adverts could ‘Feed the 5,000’ at N200/child? Police College feeds recruits with N150/day. Shame!! The people at the ‘Free Readers Association Vendors’ see the adverts, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9,..20, 25..60 in one paper. Politicians, think and stop this insult to poverty. Nigerians spit on these adverts. Spend the money on people projects in honour of birthdays please. Such actions are evidence of crass thoughtlessness.

    Change must start with the politicians because they hold responsibility. The citizens feel their own pain, a pain no politician can say ‘I feel your pain’, because the political class inflicted the pain. Remember that the police were destroyed by the military which never wants a strong police force when in power. The politicians came and refused to reinstate the police to its position or supervise the police or other organs under the political class unleashing SARS, NNPC, electricity, roadblock police mentality which are just examples of widespread problems. Today the people are more critical and more volatile.

    As with anyone who inherits treasure and is cheated of that inheritance, Nigerians, grandparents and parents and children, are upset. Nigerians may forgive or ignore past politicians. But it is today’s political class that citizens will interrogate and condemn for allowing political torment to continue. Correction is easy. By masterful leadership at federal and state level, success seeds can today be sown if strong selfless, exemplary cost-cutting leadership from the Presidency, followed by NASS to MDAs, states, LGAs and wards. Today’s politicians must publicly cut political waste and extravagance, cut their Salaries and Perks SAPping Nigeria dry, and concentrate on road surfaces instead of costly 240km concrete median on a 120km Lagos Ibadan-Expressway. Medians can be built later. Nigeria faces a bleak future, politically, socially and financially! More tarred kilometres, less cement medians, please. Nigeria needs strong roads, medians are good, but not essential!!

    Everyone should note that it is a past and present joint governments’ failure to monitor, supervise and check security outfits caused our recent problem and they should apologize.

    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!

     

  • Intelligence and morality gaps in the nation

    Intelligence and morality gaps in the nation

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    THE #EndSARS protest should be distinguished from the destruction and looting of public and private property that followed and enveloped it. The protest was peaceful and civil, while the looting was downright violent and criminal. The majority of the protesters are well educated and come from middle and upper class families. Some of them even trained abroad.

    The looters were frustrated, largely unemployed or underemployed youths. Most of them have experienced no other world than the corrupt social and political space that Nigeria has become. Their rampage has left jaws ajar, with federal and state governments groping for answers and solutions.

    This is particularly the case in the Southwest, which suffered the most widespread destruction in the region’s history. Not even the three-year civil war brought anything close to the damage that occurred within the four dark days of destruction and mass looting during October 21-24, 2020.

    Two basic types of destruction took place during the short period. One type of destruction was carried out to provide access into certain facilities, such as the palliative warehouses, malls, stores, shops, police stations (to steal guns), and so on.

    The other type of destruction appeared calculated, perhaps to wreak vengeance or run some nefarious errand. This applies in particular to the destruction of personal and business assets associated with targeted members of the All Progressives Congress across the Southwest.

    Moreover, some destruction took place where there was little or nothing to loot. This was particularly the case in Lagos, where as many as 89 municipal buses; several local government structures; and historic monuments, such as Lagos City Hall and Igbosere High Court (Nigeria’s oldest judicial building) were destroyed.

    Clearly, huge gaps in the nation’s moral fabric and the intelligence architecture provided room for these horrendous activities to take place unhinged. But, first, we must not lose sight of the underlying causes of the discontent that made the looters lose their moral compass to engage in these criminal activities. They include the deep-rooted social, economic, educational, governance, and ethical lapses that have been allowed to fester for far too long. Even the Nigeria Governors Forum acknowledged some of these underlying causes in its communique after its virtual meeting on Wednesday, November 5, 2020. The NGF noted that the destruction and looting were “attributable to social and economic inequalities in the country”.

    Ironically, governors and other top federal, state, and local government officials are viewed as responsible for the inequalities, which they often showcase in public spaces, especially on the highway and in social gatherings. They are perceived as looters of public treasury, corruptly draining resources away from desirable political goods, such as good roads, adequate power and water supply, quality healthcare, and valuable education. These deficits have made it impossible to sustain industries and the enterprises needed to create employment opportunities for the teeming youth population.

    Development agencies have repeatedly warned that Nigeria sits on a keg of gunpowder due to a bulging youth population and a high poverty level. Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations in the world, with about 60 percent of her total population aged 0 to 35 years. It is also the poverty capital of the world with at least 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Yet, there is no realistic manpower planning that factors in this explosive demographic trend.

    History shows that any nation with high youth unemployment and rising food and rent costs sits on a ticking time bomb. The bomb exploded in France during the French revolution, which began in 1789, and eventually ended the monarchy. It also exploded in Egypt in 2011 and led to regime change. It only ticked aloud in Nigeria during the #EndSARS protest and nearly exploded with the destruction and looting that followed. The next explosion may be uncontrollable.

    However, Nigeria is not the only country in the modern world where these problems exist. They exist in Venezuela, where citizens had to scramble for food donations by foreign governments and agencies. Yet, the youths neither destroyed structures nor looted property.

    It takes a serious erosion of values to engage in such criminal activities. But such a morality gap has been evident for quite some time in Nigeria, and politicians are viewed as contributing to this gap, by promoting thuggery and violence; by looting the public treasury, thereby shortchanging the people of needed resources; and by neglecting the youths.

    The nation witnessed wanton destruction of lives and livelihoods, especially of political opponents in the Southwest in 1965 and 1983 as well as in the North in 2011. The arson was executed largely by youths operating as party thugs. Such post-election arson was often passed off as mob reaction to stolen mandate.

    However, arson has spread to higher institutions. For example, in April 2016, even in the middle of their examinations, students of Adekunle Ajasin University destroyed property within the university, blocked a major arterial highway, and looted shops outside the campus in reaction to the death of one of their colleagues due to a motorcycle accident outside the campus. Two months later, part-time students of Auchi Polytechnic destroyed various structures within the institution and numerous staff vehicles in reaction to the institution’s ‘no pay, no exam’ policy.

    The above shows that we’ve known for quite some time that some of our youths express anger and frustration, by destroying property. This is the crop of youths that has hardly known a better climate than one in which politicians, police officers, essential service providers, and gatekeepers everywhere are corrupt to the teeth.

    Nothing in the foregoing should be strange to an effective intelligence agency. Yet, at federal and state levels, the intelligence architecture collapsed in October. It could not foresee trouble, even as skirmishes of violence occurred in Osun on Saturday, October 17, 2020, when the governor’s convoy was attacked while addressing protesters, and in Edo on Monday, October 19, 2020, when hoodlums broke into the Correctional Facility to release prisoners.

    The Department of State Services has a lot to learn from the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. It will be recalled that the FBI arrested a right wing group accused of plotting to kidnap the Michigan state Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, following a barrage of attacks on her by President Donald Trump and his supporters over her strict measures to combat COVID in her state.

     

  • ‘Politicians: Save every ward’ 

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,300,000, infections 52,000,000, Nigerian confirmed cases 65,000 and 1,200 deaths.

    Good governance is easy. Bad governance is difficult. Serve the needy. No country failed from good governance. No county fails. Politicians fail countries. How many citizens are ‘True Nigerians’ when political power has been stolen, squandered and wasted due to ‘No Supervision’ over 50 years?

    Nigerians divert their attention from forcing politicians to be Faithful, Loyal and Honest [and Happy?]. Politicians must listen to the media. Are politicians acting quickly to save Nigeria, facing anarchy just two weeks ago? Only political sacrificial action can reverse the suffering. We must invest intellectually and financially. Freezing bank accounts and pursuing social media users is counterproductive. Face the issues raised.

    Nigerians precipitated a tsunami of infobites on elections 8,000km away distracting from needs at home. The vociferous interest by Nigeria in US politics, happily won by the Biden/Harris ticket [congrats worldwide creating a female presidential ticket in 2024], has lessons. Over 160m voters, many weapon-bearing, but no shooting, death, or injury. A bloodless voting victory. Words, wicked words, were US weapons of election war.

    Nigeria’s over-interest in ‘all things foreign’ is further manifested by Nigerian football fans’ costly interest in foreign football managers, players, policy, and predictions. Just as politicians abandon Nigerian citizens, Nigerian fans abandon Nigeria’s football teams at school neighbourhood, local and state level, fuelling youth anger and breeding anarchy. Nigerian fans of foreign football clubs should please act locally through local branches of foreign fan clubs or directly to spend 1-10% of funds and time on major support for local football activities, competitions, equipment, training and coaching, being physically present at under-bridge matches and buying local memorabilia including local team and footballer T-shirts, cups, stickers and scarves.

    Yes, many of Nigeria’s brightest sparkle abroad in the ‘America Dream’ where there are millions of scholarships, easy loans and 24/7 power, and nuclear physics! Nigerians are abandoned by politicians. Policies mostly only enrich politicians, contractors, and civil servant classes, cancelling education gains. Nigerian school practicals [sport, laboratory, library, technical], scholarships, bursaries and education were wickedly cancelled, the money evaporating into exploding political budgets forcing many into educational ‘exile’ or a resentful life of angry poverty and ignorance.

    Nigeria, an education profession leader, lost the ‘Politics over Professionalism’ war to politicians and bad policies, abandoned ‘Education: A Business Creator’ losing currency and human capital development. Education is a key world work creator, employer, innovator, revenue earner and creates pride in international competition, catalysing youth economic development. Nigeria’s perpetually myopic underfunded federal and even state education polices rubbish education, thus losing income, millions of jobs, youths future employment, all thrown into history’s dustbin.

    Nigeria’s human exports, economic or political refugees and ‘illegal migrants’ risking desert and drowning endure culture change and family-loss. Black-white racism substitutes for Nigeria’s tribalism, foreign development in place of Nigeria’s broken promises. They endure foreign police brutality duplicated by Nigeria’s SARS/‘kill-and-go’.

    Diaspora Nigerians unwillingly gave up sunshine, God’s gift to Africa, for winter because Nigeria stunted growth. Abroad, Nigerians promoted Nigeria’s international reputation, building on a foundation of Nigerians acquired knowledge but largely self-success due to effort with no Nigeria input. Even getting a passport remains an expensive hell. However Nigerian politicians claim laurels for successful Nigerian sportspersons or professionals as the same politicians under-educate Nigerians starving them of facilities and budgets. Businesses still demand 1-2 years rent, crazy bills and 25-30% interest loans. Here Fellow Nigerians faced, survive, or succumb struggling against political manipulation.

    Our Nigerian Dream died as we pledged FLH – Faith, Loyalty and Honesty, words crumbled to graveyard dust, in spite of efforts by Fellow Nigerians and due to Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence, Selfishness, ‘CINS’ of Nigerian politics manifest by electricity-less-ness, business difficult, naira-collapsing, bloated governance. This creates an underdeveloped lopsided society lacking in all SDGs and people-oriented political effort, even a 75% emolument cut. Powerful Nigerian groups always say ‘No’ to corrections for the lopsidedness -Nigeria’s most dangerous injustice!

    But life in Nigeria has layers of complicity – anti-people laws, legalised illegality, police or executive or political lawlessness. We have Federal, State, LGA so why do politicians ignore ‘The WARD’, the fundamental political unit for building a powerful nation, making citizens at home. Politicians set maximum, not minimum, standards for their living while rubbishing citizens. Politics and politicians are reminded of the ‘good things to do’ by all media.

    For 26 years at Educare Trust and here, we demanded ‘WARD Development’ to ‘Take the WARD Youth Out of Poverty’ as a good governance and youth anti-violence strategy. Politicians and budgets ignore the fundamental unit of politics ‘The WARD’ until during elections when cows, rice and okadas are distributed as stomach infrastructure. It is ‘THE WARD’ where the citizenry youth are living or ‘dying’. ‘WARDS’ must have Youth Empowerment Inspirational Centres in rented or donated space equipped with less than N1m supported by donations and youth budgets. Every state government must elevate ‘THE WARD’ to a government/community project -a socio-economic hub. Nigeria’s politics is primarily ‘greed’ not ‘need’ driven with false federalism, false accounting, census, legal systems, promises, murdering false hope in the Nigerian Dream’. Diaspora’s generous billions cannot compensate for Nigeria’s corruption.

    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 key to peace. ‘SAVE EVERY WARD: SAVE Nigeria!

  • Oyetola’s loot return amnesty

    Oyetola’s loot return amnesty

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    “THOSE who participated in looting should return the loot. Those machines that were stolen have serial numbers, which can be easily traced. So, I implored them to return them within 72-hour to the traditional rulers or the local government chairmen around them. If they do that on their own, they are pardoned, but if they fail to do so, we shall get them. It is an opportunity now to return them within 72 hours. We have enough evidence to track the looters.”

    Governor Gboyega Oyetola, at the Osun Garment Factory on October 25, 2020, issuing a 72-hour amnesty to looters of public and private property to return their loot or face prosecution.

    “This afternoon, I inspected looted items that have been recovered so far. I urge persons still in possession of stolen items to return them within the Amnesty period which expires in 24 hrs. Those who refuse to return looted items won’t be spared; they’ll be tracked and prosecuted.”

    Governor Gboyega Oyetola, at a press conference on October 27, 2020, after inspecting the loot returned so far, warning looters about the repercussion of not returning their loot within the 72-hour amnesty period.

    When Governor Gboyega Oyetola granted a 72-hour amnesty to looters of public and private goods in Osun state, following the chaos that enveloped the peaceful #EndSARS protest, some observers, especially on social media, laughed off the policy as a joke. “He won’t get anything”, a social media commentator wrote.

    The commentators were wrong, because they failed to appreciate the genius of Oyetola’s loot return amnesty. They failed to understand the victim-first orientation of the policy, rather than mere focus on prosecution, which may not bring back looted property. Don’t we know too well that prosecuting looters in this country is more of a mirage than real law enforcement? How many big time looters of our common patrimony have really been jailed for their offense?

    It is also important to gloss the Governor’s statement in the first quote more closely. “We have enough evidence to track the looters” and “…we shall get them” must be understood against the backdrop of various videos on various media outlet, especially TV and social media as well as the phones of citizens, who watched the looting in their neighbourhood.

    The looters must know that the government has tracked down these videos and that they might eventually be caught. Besides, some of the looters were actually caught and arrested during or shortly after they looted. The fear of being caught and punished became a motivation for many looters to comply with the governor’s amnesty policy.

    Some of the looters must have been surprised at the governor’s offer of amnesty, realising that he could still be angry at those who attacked him while addressing the #EndSARS protesters at Osogbo on Saturday, October 17, 2020. After all, there is hardly a distinction between the looters and those who attacked him during the preceding week.

    As the second opening quote shows, many goods had been returned 48 hours after amnesty was granted. I marvelled at the goods returned and the rate of return, when I visited the site of the returned goods on that day. They included expensive furniture, refrigerators, deep freezers, motorcycles, industrial machines, fertilizers, mattresses, television sets, generators, fertilizers, and so on.

    Interestingly, however, food items were hardly returned. They included chicken, pigs, cows, and various grains. Some items were stolen from government facilities, while others were stolen from private farms and shops. Particularly hit was Tuns Farms International, where pigs, chicken, and even equipment were looted. Worse still, a farm worker was killed in the process.

    To avoid showing their faces, some looters simply dropped off their loot by the roadside very early in the morning, instead of taking them to the nearby Oba’s palace or Local Government Chairman as the directive stated. Whatever was returned was picked up, no matter where they were dropped off. This was possible because the government enlisted the assistance of the army, police, Amotekun, and other government staff.

    Oyetola’s loot return policy is actually an echo of the federal government’s anti-corruption playbook. In response to poor or botched prosecution, President Muhammadu Buhari put the emphasis of his fight against corruption on asset recovery rather than mere prosecution and jailing of looters of public funds.

    There is, however, a clear distinction. Implicit in Oyetola’s loot return amnesty is the realization that many of the looters are victims of unemployment, poverty, and hunger. While none of these problems is justification for looting, it is also true that a hungry person is an angry person (I replaced “man” with “person” in this old adage, not just for gender sensitivity or political correctness but also because there were women among the looters).

    A major crisis like the looting spree, which occurred during the last week of October, 2020, across many states, especially in the Southwest, offers leaders the opportunity to demonstrate good leadership. Such demonstration need not be total. Good leadership may be demonstrated in a specific instance or in a specific way, where others are groping for solution.

    Oyetola’s loot return amnesty demonstrates compassion for the victims as well as an understanding of the plight of the looters. Leaders are often rewarded for understanding the context in which events happen and demonstrating compassion.

    Such was the case with Prime Minister Jacinda Adern of New Zealand. Before she won accolades for successfully controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in her country, her popularity rating rose beyond the 50 percent mark for the first time for her compassionate handling of the shooting, which killed 50 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch. Wearing a red head scarf, she quickly comforted Muslim families affected by the massacre and got a gun law passed, which banned semi-automatic weapons within a month of the shooting.

    Oyetola should build on the successful handling of looting in his state by getting an anti-looting legislation passed, which stipulates stiff punishment for future looters. At the same time, he should double up on his youth employment policy in order to get as many Osun youths as possible out of the street. It is as important to take care of the moment as it is to take care of the future. That’s the best way to ensure that Osun remains the showpiece of peace and social protection it always has been.

     

  • #EndSARS: A post mortem (2)

    #EndSARS: A post mortem (2)

    Festus ERIYE

     

    THE recent #EndSARS protests were supposedly about taking out a diseased limb of the Nigeria Police Force, but they may just have succeeded in almost taking down the institution.

    The police have a horrid image that is earned. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad was especially notorious, but the regular force were not much better in the misuse of their powers. It would be wrong to suggest that all policemen are bad, but the foul deeds of some effectively buried the heroic acts of the angels in their midst.

    The SARS bomb blew up in the face of the Muhammadu Buhari regime, but it’s not alone in doing nothing about the problem. Abuses by the unit have been on for years. All governments since 1984 – civilian and military – should take responsibility for the tragic results of their negligence.

    According to Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, 73 Nigerians died across the country while the protests raged. Of that number, 22 were cops. A total of 205 stations were also razed.

    The targeting of the force has wrought not just physical damage but psychological ones as well. Today, the police are damaged goods, a sulking shell of thousands on an unofficial strike.

    Before the protests, they were under-funded – lacking operational vehicles and arms. In some instances things as basic as stationery were not provided. Even more scandalous are reports of them having to pay for uniforms and boots from their own pockets. In terms of remuneration they were largely treated as the poorer cousins among the security agencies.

    It is hard for many to be sympathetic towards the police on account their many outrages. But in the end they are still humans; mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters to people. Many of those who were killed weren’t SARS officers towards whom ire was originally directed.

    For all its bad image the force is the only such institution we have for executing the critical function of policing. Every society needs one.

    But it cannot be the same again after such a humbling experience. So often the ones to dish out violence, here they were outnumbered by mobs asking for their heads. In times past they would have responded with this force.

    But the world has changed so much that even when reports started coming in of cops being attacked and stations being razed, the leadership couldn’t give its men freedom to react with force, knowing that a heavy death toll would attract global outrage. Perhaps that restraint is why casualty figures are as low as they are.

    We cannot waste the opportunity which the #EndSARS episode offers. What the crisis has shown is that the police structure bequeathed to Nigeria by the British 60 years ago is no longer adequate for today’s need.

    The country is crying out for policing arrangements that are closer to local communities. The government’s community policing initiative doesn’t go far enough as it still proceeds from that ineffective centralised structure.

    Beyond the obvious challenges of the police, the protests were revealing in many other ways that should frighten us. I can understand the anger of young people who feel let down by their leaders and country. But some of the rage cannot be explained away just on this ground: it is something that speaks of a total breakdown of values and loss of our humanity.

    SARS officers were noted for brutality, but in the course of the rioting that followed, we saw mobs of young people outdoing the hated squad. In one viral video, a bunch of them were captured clubbing a policeman to unconsciousness. They hit him with all sorts of items and as he staggered in blood-drenched circles, his attackers screamed with glee.

    I saw people casually setting vehicles and others property worth millions ablaze. The assumption was that the mobs were attacking government or the corrupt elite, in many cases they were not. Many small business owners had their assets devastated. In a suburb of Lagos, looters plundered two trucks full of goats and proceeded to set the vehicles ablaze.

    Even those who did so much for the poor at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were not spared. I watched a video of an elderly businessman in Osun State whose establishment employs thousands in that axis, weeping over the vandalisation of his factories. It was heartbreaking.

    The same people – young and not-so-young – who abuse thieving politicians, gleefully cleaned out privately-owned shopping malls and so-called palliatives-laden warehouses.

    The media lazily tagged all involved in the shameful activity ‘hoodlums’, but there were many ordinary people who are not involved in an everyday life of petty crime who took part.

    Many have not stopped rationalising the irrational, arguing that the looting was justified because of widespread hunger. But poverty alone doesn’t explain the massive stealing that just took place. Many weren’t clutching bags of rice or garri, they went after plasma TVs, washing machines and the like.

    The vast majority of our population – millions of them – are poor, but they didn’t participate in the looting and vandalisation. The crowds of looters tallied up would just number in the thousands nationwide. The poorest parts of Nigeria are in the north and yet it witnessed the least incidents of looting.

    I definitely agree that the level of poverty in Nigeria is criminal and something urgently needs to be done about it. We are in a state of emergency that requires an all-out national effort irrespective of political persuasion. Until these numbers are reduced to manageable levels, the swirling mass of the desperate cannot be contained by any force of arms. As we saw recently, even the army and police had to stand back before the baying mobs. After all, how many are you going to kill?

    Still, at family and other levels of society we all need to take responsibility for the collapse of values. An unforgettable photo I saw was of a middle-aged man clutching a little boy – most probably his son with one hand – while hanging on grimly to his bag of loot.

    The little boy is already being programmed to take whatever he likes – even when it’s not his property. Imagine what he would do in a position of responsibility and power!

     

  • Finecountry uniforms. True Nigerians 

    COVID-19 second wave brings deaths approaching 1,210,000, infections 47,500,000, Nigerian confirmed cases 63,500 and 1,200 deaths.

    Many feel cheated or traumatised by a largely greedy arrogant political class, a distant TV government and its unsupervised security agents. The aggrieved Nigerians took violent action. Will there be any Covid effect?

    Nigeria still underfunds health and education in the 2020 Budget and National Assembly, NASS refuses to cut its budget by 75%.

    The responsibility for abandoning responsibility towards the citizens lies exclusively with politicians, police, civil servants and contractors. No supervision! The effects of the good have been negated by the bad. No supervision! The failure of the good is remembered at every checkpoint in your memory. No supervision! Not to give a bribe may cost your life. Good cops are present. When my uncle was going to be shot by a smoke grenade gun, a good cop saved us from the drunken policeman demanding an original receipt for a toy.  The children were in the car. Why was he on duty, drunk, with a gun? He would have killed for a toy 33 years ago on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. No supervision! Can police high command explain to Nigeria’s traumatised public why we must pay a criminal checkpoint toll? Will better supervision and salary solve this?

    Most traffic abuse by uniformed officers is witnessed by Nigeria’s school children and youth who will remain traumatised adults with the scars burned into bodies and brains. Uniform corruption must stop, today. The station, headquarters and Abuja ogas must renounce ‘returns from the field, application forms, bail etc.’. Nigerians want to respect the uniform. It disrespected itself first. It must respect itself first again and restore the dignity I saw as a child going to school when Inspector Finecountry commanding the 1960s Apapa Road traffic. There are many ‘Finecountry’ personnel today. Did they speak for victims to their criminal colleagues? Are the good the minority?  At the Custom’s/ Secretariat Road Junction in Ibadan there has been a hardworking ‘traffic officer’ for years. Any commendation? The Awolowo Junction has two policewomen requiring supervision. Do police do surveillance of police?  Any reprimand?

    Fear and respect of a uniform are different.  Every Nigerian, including children has been a traumatised witness or victim of a Nigerian uniform and will draw an unflattering picture of a policeman-in-action. And do not forget the civil servant who delays everything. True Nigerians step forward!!

    Let the 200,000 good ‘Finecountry’ police proudly take back control of the police training, work ethic and supervision. Then all Nigerians will look up to the police and we will never experience the targeting of police and stations again. We want ‘Finecountry. Uniforms’ supervising uniforms.

    The tribunals probing the excesses of SARS must be credited to the victims, the years of struggle by the END.SARS Campaign and Amnesty International and the Nigerian Human Rights Commission and the legal profession. It remains a crime for the police to have shielded an organisation described by the victims. It should result in many prosecutions and resignations for dereliction of duty, a lack of reporting, no supervision and sheltering a criminal. Some retired people must answer why they did nothing. Action not taken in 2010, 2015 has led to blood on their hands indirectly by not controlling and curtailing the criminality of the members. There were many good people in SARS, now soiled by collective irresponsibility. Maybe they spoke, saving a few victims. But blood on one is blood stains on all hands -unless reported. Police say ‘Ignorance is no excuse before the law’. Several police ministers and IGPS must explain why they unleashed an unsupervised SARS on citizens. South Africa institutionalised ‘white on black’ violence. All Nigerians are black, so why are the crimes so similar to apartheid’s racial scourge? No supervision.

    Nigeria needs one type of Nigerian- ‘Nigeria loving’ Nigerians- be they politicians, police, professionals and people on the street – committed to repairing ‘Project Nigeria’.

    Apart from a lack of responsibility, how else dare we so be underachieving as to ‘loudly boast’ of 5,460Mw of power when South Africa provided 54,000Mw for its smaller population? No political will???

    How else can we witness a fantastic American Seal Rescue of a US citizen on our soil while thousands of fellow Nigerians similarly kidnapped face extortion and death. Many Nigerians have been rescued by gallant actions of forces, but many have died. Do we exploit military diplomacy, through the military attaché? Many countries have satellites crisscrossing Nigeria. Is Nigerian using 2020 military methodology. We sadly lost out at Chibok and Dapchi. Leah Shaibu is still kidnapped. Others are dead. All survivors are traumatised. Surely Nigerian super troops are doing similar rescues. Yes, we have helicopters and use triangulated cellphone signals to arrest CA-Covid palliative looters. I knew Lt Col Dr Onifade, kidnapped on the deadly Abuja-Kaduna road. Even after N10m was paid, he was killed. May he Rest in Perfect Peace and may God and the Nigerian Army comfort his family. He is not alone. Why is the heat track of 50 murderous motorcycles not traced after killing 30 people?

    Nigeria’s secrets can be spied on in bar and bukka. Ask Sean Connery about the bar in spy work. He is the 90-year old very great and first James Bond who died last week at 90. May he RIPP.

    Let every Fellow Nigerian, including uniforms: Be True -FLH -Faithful, Loyal & Honest.

  • #EndSARS: A post mortem (1)

    #EndSARS: A post mortem (1)

    By Festus Eriye

    In the sober light of day we are coming to terms with another dark moment in our history when there was no method to madness. The fallout is so embarrassing everyone is scrambling to distance themselves. Typically, no one wants to take responsibility.

    Let’s all – protest organisers, demonstrators, sympathisers, clerics, celebrities, human rights activists, traditional/social media, CSOs, hoodlums, politicians and the government – own our part in creating the catastrophic events of the past two weeks as we discuss immediate causes.

    Attempting to delink the #EndSARS protest from its violent denouement is futile. They are forever joined together at the hip because the extreme, inflexible strategy of its organisers created the environment which arsonists, vandals and looters took advantage of.

    If you say the protests weren’t initially violent, you can’t claim they weren’t disruptive. They were massively so, to the extent that many cities became ungovernable, shut down by unruly mobs, engendering an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.

    It’s not as if we didn’t know things would turn out this way. Anyone with slight familiarity with recent Nigerian history knows that the longer these sorts of street agitations last, the more likely they would spiral out of control.

    The activist, Segun Awosanya aka Segalink, who has been the face of the #EndSARS campaign since 2017, pulled out of the protests once government disbanded the notorious police unit, warning that those pressing ahead with the agitation were seeking youth insurrection.

    His voice was drowned out by power drunk agitators who thought they were in control. They may have controlled the Twittersphere, but not the streets and cities of Nigeria where youths had been roused with unpredictable consequences.

    Their tactic of bullying and intimidation forced many to embrace their cause. Celebrities and other public figures were pointedly warned to speak up or face the consequences of their silence later. Those who dared hold contrary views were vilified and quickly recanted.

    Phone numbers of office holders were shared for irate youths to call and hurl abuse, or send hateful messages. Notable figures who should have condemned what was developing, clammed up for fear of harassment.

    Suddenly, social media was free of every other narrative save that which painted the protesters as knights in shining armour come to deliver Nigeria from decades of bad governance. No lie was too small to share, no misinformation too evil to be magnified.

    Lies were told about CCTV cameras being spirited away from the Lekki Toll Gate by the authorities; it turned out they were just laser scanners used in reading vehicle license plates.

    On the night of the shooting, even without facts, pictures of Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, with the word ‘Murderer’ branded across his chest, were widely shared. Family photos of military officers were posted without evidence or confirmation of their involvement.

    People could have acted malevolently against them and their families on the basis of such claims.

    I shudder to think what people who promoted such sinister manipulation would be capable of if they wielded political power.

    People want to build heaven on earth by foul means. They want to establish an era of truth, justice and equity on a foundation of lies, manipulation and intimidation. You quickly become the very things you so self-righteously condemn.

    The shooting incident at Lekki certainly aggravated violence. Things exploded with reports that scores had been killed by soldiers. But suggesting the destruction only began thereafter doesn’t stand up to factual scrutiny or timelines.

    By early last week parts of the country had been grounded. Protesters blocked entry into Abuja via the airport road for several days. It was the same in Lagos where they barricaded the expressway to Ibadan at Berger Bus Stop and the Lekki Toll Gate, creating monster logjams. For commuters it was nightmarish entering or exiting many suburbs.

    The Benin-Lagos expressway in front of the University of Benin was cut off, with youths cooking on this major inter-state highway. Early last week airlines cancelled flights into Lagos.

    By Tuesday morning a major police station at Orile-Iganmu, Lagos was burnt down. The death toll across the country was already on the uptick by Monday, October 19, when Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, declared a 24-hour curfew after a correctional facility was attacked and inmates freed. Next day, Sanwo-Olu and some other governors announced his own restrictions.

    A few questions are germane at this point. Were protesters right to block major roads and inter-state highways? Is the right to protest superior to that which allows other Nigerians to freely move and access their homes and workplace? Did protesters in their holy anger consider that people with medical emergencies were endangered by the lockdown they created?

    Unfortunately, celebrities and activists turned a blind eye to such excesses.

    Some preachers, in their rush to be associated with a popular movement, ignored its warts. But the God of justice is not the author of confusion. Those who were quick to jump on the protest bandwagon and even administer Holy Communion at Lekki forgot to tell their new ‘congregants’ about scripture that enjoins obedience to constituted authority. Obviously, it wasn’t politically correct to do so.

    Days after the bloody cost of their hardline position had become clear, even the Feminist Coalition – a key financial backer of the protests – was advising people to obey the curfew. Talk of medicine after death!

    All over the world – including Western countries who are great defenders of civil liberties – once a curfew is declared you expect enforcement. Anyone found outside in violation risks arrest or confrontation with security agents. Protesters in Lekki and many others places were fired up on social media to defy the restrictions. Those who egged them on set the stage for violent confrontation.

    There’s a time for everything. The protesters and their backers didn’t know when they had won and didn’t know when to stop.

    All lives matter. We cannot cloak one set of casualties with the toga of martyrdom and dismiss others killed in anonymous corners of Nigeria as expendables.

    Those who pulled the trigger at Lekki should face justice, just as those whose acts of incitement on social media and elsewhere resulted in deaths of many and destruction of property. After all, the law on incitement is still on our books.

     

  • From #EndSARS to #EndLOOTING: It’s time to heal

    From #EndSARS to #EndLOOTING: It’s time to heal

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    My heart goes out to all the victims of the #EndSARS protest and the victims of the wanton destruction of lives and property that eventually enveloped the protest. I particularly mourn the vandalisation of Oba Rilwanu Akiolu’s palace, including the theft of his staff of office (eewo!); the loss of the maternal home of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who attended to the course of the protest, even at the risk of his own life; and former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who lost invaluable business assets serving the Southwest, the nation as a whole, and the global community, not only in disseminating information but also in providing employment and livelihood to others.

    Before our eyes, the protest started out well on Thursday, October 8, 2020, and ended up on another note, clearly out of the protesters’ control. The protests, per se, which lasted about two weeks, demand a separate analysis from the destruction, lasting about one week, which enveloped it.

    The protest had diverse participants and supporters, including various firms and startups, artistes, various professionals, Yahoo Boys, many well educated aje-butter and being-to kids, the Feminist Coalition, and Nigerians in the Diaspora.

    True, the protesters claimed there were no leaders, but the Feminist Coalition, which organised the fundraising, confirmed that N147.8 million was raised by the end of two weeks of the protest. The Coalition indicated that only about N60.4 million was disbursed on feasting and entertaining the protesters, providing first aid supplies, paying medical and legal bills, and even assisting needy protesters in other areas.

    A semiotic analysis reveals two interrelated meanings in the protest. On the denotative level, the protest was a call for and end to police brutality, specifically as exhibited by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, whose disbandment was the initial sole demand. This was the initial advertised, official, message of the protest.

    For the first time, President Muhammadu Buhari responded to this demand within 72 hours. SARS was disbanded. However, the communication of the government’s decision and the subsequent action of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, became understandably controversial.

    The IG and his immediate predecessor had on four previous occasions made unfulfilled promises to reform or disband SARS. To complicate matters, the IG announced the formation of SWAT as a replacement for SARS within 48 hours. The protesters viewed SWAT as SARS in new clothing and wanted the President to issue an executive order or speak directly to them about the dissolution of SARS.

    Although the President spoke on the matter on Monday, October 12, 2020, during the launch of the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme, the protesters went ahead to extend their demands to five, all relating to police reform. In further identifying with the protesters, Governor Sanwo-Olu took their extended demands directly to the President on October 13. The President agreed to meet those demands and set the process in motion. States began to set up Judicial Panels of Inquiry to look into the protesters’ grievances against the police and the victims of police brutality.

    This is where things started growing out of hand. No leaders came forward to negotiate on the protesters’ behalf. Instead, before the tollgate incident on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, more demands had appeared on posters, followed by verbal elaboration on same during protest rallies. The stage was set for the connotative message of the protest to emerge.

    It is difficult to dismiss the connotative message, which was covert at the beginning. However, as the protest went on, it became more and more evident. Salary reduction for legislators. Restructuring. Regime change, and more, had almost replaced police reform. Political thugs and other miscreants had started to infiltrate peaceful protesters.

    For example, they attacked protesters and the convoy of the Osun state Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, on Saturday, October 17, 2020, at the popular Ola-Iya junction in Osogbo, where he was addressing the protesters, after taking a peaceful walk with them. The weapons wielded by the attackers and the viciousness of the attack indicated a sinister motive.

    The Lekki tollgate incident on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, whose details remain shrouded in controversy, was turned into a launching pad for unleashing terror, first on Lagos, and then elsewhere in the country. Within minutes of the incident, social media became a platform for circulating, sometimes manufacturing, information about the incident. Some claimed they saw dead bodies being carted away by soldiers, who allegedly shot at them. A lady, who participated in the protests, displayed several bullets in a revisionist video of the incident. A woman in London claimed on social media that her son was killed in the incident. The same technology used to organize the protests was turned into a technology for fuelling destruction.

    Even mainstream media, including some TV stations and newspapers, used words, such as “massacre” to describe the incident. It even featured in the title of the Wikipedia entry on the incident. Yet, the official figure so far is one dead, and that the person died  a day later from head trauma, rather than from gunshot wound. Hopefully, parents will appear before the Judicial Panel, now sitting in Lagos, with claims on innocent protesters killed at the Lekki tollgate incident.

    It is now time for federal and state governments to work on plans for reconstruction and compensation. In Osun, looters have begun to return stolen goods to the Loots Recovery Committee, chaired by Abdullahi Binuyo, the Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, in response to the Governor’s 72-hour ultimatum.

    The protesters must have learned that protests and strikes against the government, calling for specific changes or entitlements, must end at a negotiation table. If a protest developed spontaneously, leaders quickly must be identified to follow up on the demands. In this particular case, protesters should have identified key leaders and demands at the beginning, rather than come up with a growing list of demands without leaders.

    But even more importantly, questions must be raised about the nation’s intelligence and security architecture. Why were the State Security Service and the Nigerian Security Organisation silent in the face of what the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, described as “the determination of some unscrupulous individuals and groups (set) to destabilise Nigeria by all means”?

  •  Please help ‘END.VIOLENCE’  

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    Life is something given by God and it should not be taken by anyone except Him. We must not let the gains of the #ENDSARS protest though incomplete, to be wiped away by stubbornness or being submerged in the massive upheaval, now at a dangerous level. Ministers and other government appointees have been sent back to their states to spread the word of peace. At local level we must also ‘spread the peace’ at every level we find ourselves as tempers are inflamed and restraint is seen as weakness.

    The two SARS – the police SARS and the political SARS -Senators And Reps Salaries are key components of the problem. Nothing has been heard positively from the senators and representatives on cutting their salaries by 75%, cancelling one House in the NASS, changing to Sitting Allowance only paid by the home state.

    The deliberately planned and executed razing of the media businesses The Nation and TVC among other structures in and outside Lagos are despicable targeted attacks, many just destroying services to citizens, like burning buses. Fortunately, both media are ‘back on line’ with no loss of lives but maximum damage to property of management, employees and morale. But the buses belong to the people, so the burning was strange and sinister, not just anger.

    After a good beginning, the ENDSARS protests were already nationwide when the now controversial ’20-10-2020 massacre at Lekki’ added a violent explosive and murderous side to the over three-year efforts to ENDSARS. What was an admired effort at protest was added to by those with various axes to grind with the police or the legal courts, or the Oba or the owner of particular outfits including personal, political, social, boredom and so-I -can- do-this-and-get- away-with -it. Now we all run the risk of becoming victims, accidental as collateral damage or targeted victims as shop owners or under other criteria know only to the attackers, sometimes maybe paid.

    It is the hope of the citizenry that the armed groups ‘spontaneously’ and ‘teleguided’ currently attacking homes, shops and warehouses in several states in the country heed the call for a return to normalcy before the economic and social cycles are irreversibly broken and the nation descends further and the country tips over the edge of reason.

    Urgently, we require greater security presence nationwide. We must each become our brother’s keeper. Appeals have to be made to everyone involved, at all strata in society to desist from contributing further to the situation by angry tweet, photo, word or deed. More than half of the inflammatory social media messages are wrongly dated and mis-interpreted or completely fake.  Daily, we are given new frightening revelations against the SARS. We wonder why it and other uniformed bodies were allowed to sink so far below the delivery of human rights while retaining their authority to act against the innocent, people they disliked and random pickups?

    The failure over many years to supervise, restrain, contain, correct, condemn and punish the SARS officers who abused their powers, has resulted in many deaths and much criminality. It is a monumental indictment on every IGP, subordinates in the senior police cadre and the irresponsibility of all ministers for police affairs in the last 20 years.

    It is a credit to many organisations which have spent many years trying to bring these terrible activities to the fore. No wonder there is such anguish and hatred in many within the community who unfortunately are targeting individual police, often innocent and also stations. The absence of the fear of ‘Supervision, Supervision, Supervision’ with power and penalties is the key reason why so many organisations sink to the corruption and impunity of human rights abuses, policy and financial corruption.

    We live in a daily paid income zone for 80% of the population. The escalating violence and vandalism are hindering the recovery of that economy. It is vicious cycle. Every person doing wrong to others in Nigeria, when caught and found guilty, is punished and expected to immediately stop whatever wrong was being done -with immediate effect. Stealing should not be seen as a drug in a drug addict requiring a period of time to stop. A thief has a personal ‘theft’ habit and when caught stealing a bag of rice or TV is not asked to reduce stealing slowly by stealing a half-bag and a radio next week and a cup or rice and radio battery the final week. A murderer is not asked to reduce the rate of murdering to one or two a year but to stop it immediately.

    Corruption is also a personal bad habit and can be stopped immediately. The non-corrupt renew and advertise their vow of ‘no corruption’ in every act they do. It is a second to second choice. At any time, the non-corrupt can join the corrupt ban so why is it so unexpected when the corrupt also join the non-corrupt ranks?

    I repeat that every day, every minute each and every one of us is given the exclusive and individual opportunity to repent particularly for stealing and to make restitution and restore normal honest activities.

    Every single Nigerian including a police person and politician can today decide going to work today, to no longer participate in any work-related corruption or other corrupt activity.

    We must step back from the precipice consuming Nigeria. Peace and safety are daily minute to minute decisions. END.VIOLENCE.

     

  • The danger of #ENDSARS prolonged protests

    The danger of #ENDSARS prolonged protests

    By Niyi Akinnaso

    The ongoing #ENDSARS protests started very well exactly two weeks ago and the protesters had legitimate demands. Their initial demand was simple enough: Dissolve the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, because of the highhandedness of its officers, who were notorious for profiling youths and arresting, molesting, maiming, and even killing them in the name of going after robbers and fraudsters, especially the so-called Yahoo-Yahoo Boys.

    Incidentally, it was General Muhammadu Buhari, as Military Head of State, who established SARS in 1984 to tackle the growing problem of armed robberies in the country. The human rights abuses of the police unit began in the 1990s. The abuses quickly attracted the attention of Amnesty International and other rights groups, which began documenting a series of grave allegations against the unit. These abuses have worsened in recent years, ironically since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power.

    The rise in abuses may have been due to three factors. One, SARS began to focus more and more on youths, partly because of the high incidence of cyber fraud committed by so-called Yahoo Boys and partly because of the teeming population of youths, many of whom move about with sleazy mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. SARS wrongly profiled many youths and arrested them. Typically, innocent youths often resist arrest and the payment of bribes to be let off scotfree. Many were wrongly arrested, molested, mailed, and killed in the process.

    Two, the lethargy with which the Buhari administration has responded to cases of kidnapping and herdsmen’s rampage must have emboldened SARS officers, who then took the law into their hands. Amnesty International alone documented at least 82 cases of torture, maltreatment, and extra-judicial killings by SARS between 2017 and 2020 alone.

    Three, the insatiable demand of police officers for bribe is a sore point for all Nigerians, especially the youths who have been the target of attack by SARS officers.

    In 2017, these excesses by SARS prompted youths and activists to take to the streets; to send out a tweet with the #ENDSARS hashtag, which went viral; and to send a petition to the National Assembly, signed by over 10,000 people. Ever since that year, successive failed attempts have been made to reform or disband SARS, one in 2017 by the then Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; one in 2018 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, when he was Acting President; and two by the present Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu in January 2019 and February 2020.

    It is against these backgrounds that the ongoing #ENDSARS protests took off on Thursday, October 8, 2020. Two separate killings by SARS officers within three days provided the immediate motivation. The victims were young men, who were shot dead on the spot, each in front of a hotel

    The spontaneity of the protest, its widening membership within 24 hours, and its lack of leadership were immediately noticeable. Within 72 hours, the Federal Government responded to the protesters’ primary demand. SARS was disbanded.

    Unfortunately, however, the announcement was made by the IG, who had made similar promises before and flouted them. The protesters insisted that they wanted the President to issue an executive order on the dissolution of SARS or speak to the nation about the dissolution. Just as the protesters were making this demand, the IG came around within 48 hours to announce the formation of Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (SWAT) as a replacement for SARS. More insensitive is the training of officers for the new unit even as the protests raged.

    In the meantime, hoodlums, miscreants, touts, and thugs had crept into the crowd of protesters. In Osun, for example, known political thugs of an opposition party were among the miscreants, who beat their way through peaceful protesters to attack Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his convoy as they hurried back into their vehicles after taking a long walk with the protesters and exchanging views them.

    In Lagos, Abeokuta, Benin, Abuja, Jos, and other cities, miscreants had turned the protests into bonfire, jailbreak, and wanton destruction of lives and property. The time to bring a halt to its continuation was heralded by the appeal of party leaders.

    By Tuesday night, various state governments, especially in the Southwest, had imposed a curfew and the IG had deployed the special anti-riot squad nation-wide.

    Various lessons abound for the protesters and the government. But let me address one issue outright. True, the #ENDSARS protests appear leaderless on the surface, but one wonders how a leaderless group of protesters was able to raise over N70 million within a few days and how the feeding of protesters was quickly arranged, especially in Lagos. Moreover, who coordinated the protesters’ demands? But these were only the easy tasks for the protesters.

    A major lesson for them or any group planning a prolonged nation-wide protest in Nigeria is the high possibility of having to contend with the infiltration of jobless youths, thugs, touts, and other miscreants, who would use protests as a cover to perpetrate various kinds of atrocities, while also looking for avenues to loot shops and markets as they did in Osogbo.

    This, of course, is not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a feature of widespread protests everywhere there is a high rate of poverty and unemployment or there is weak or biased leadership. This, for example, is the case in the United States, where the #Black Lives Matter protests were infiltrated by Trump supporters and others, who looted shops, burned buildings, and even killed some of the protesters.

    The government has far too many lessons to learn from the protests.

    One, the growing youth population is a ticking time bomb, as poverty and unemployment levels rise. Two, the intelligence architecture at the national and sub-national levels is weak. The direction of the protests, their infiltration by miscreants, and their fueling by opposition politicians were evident within hours. Decisive, rather than piecemeal, action should have been taken within a few days of the protests.

    All that was needed was the President to quickly meet with state governors, speak directly to the protesters, assure them of the dissolution of SARS, and announce the setting up of Judicial Panels of Inquiry in each state to which protesters should submit their grievances and demands. Fortunately, however, that’s where we are now, but it should not have taken two weeks to arrive there.