The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Loko, NIWA, Evans, NNPC

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 860,000, infections 26,000,000, with around 54,000 recognised cases and 1,100 deaths in Nigeria.

    Government contracts are too long and slow, killing business. Six-months Third Mainland Bridge closure?? The 1.8 or 2.2km Loko Oweto Bridge connecting Nassarawa and Benue and North to South, is 93% complete. This is another long-delayed project awarded in 2011 for ‘48’ months in 2015, well within the capacity of the hugely wealthy government of the day with huge amounts of oil and other money available. Shamefully the contract was stretched and changed later to ‘84’ months and claimed to have been 93% completed in 2019. Do the Niger Bridge and the Lagos Ibadan Expressway contracts sound similar? Yes!!!! Anyway, the Loko Oweto Bridge is now stated to be 97% complete with surrounding roads still under construction- till when? We need more strategic bridges across more rivers.

    Nigeria does not need reintroduction of the authoritarian oppressive Nigerian Inland Waterways Bill by anybody, president or NASS. This is a time for devolution of powers to the regions and states. No 1914 consolidation by a unitary loving government mistakenly elected on its restructuring agenda.   

    Evans notorious kidnapper and accused killer, has finally been jailed. Now that he is in jail, the many other cases against him can also be prosecuted. There should be no escape during transfer to court for those trials. He was arraigned first in late 2017 and convicted in August. He changed his legal team five times in order to delay the trial and then claimed he could not pay lawyers. This is just as President Buhari calls for faster court trials but what has been done to upgrade the Information Technology (IT) of courts and the judges themselves? To quote lawyers, stenographers are ‘alien to the Nigerian judicial system’ though used in all modern countries to record and put on computer the proceedings of the court instead of making judges write longhand. While some court registries are IT-compliant many are still archaic. Are we serious????

    There seems to be systemic undying, living corruption in too many Ministries, Departments and Agencies of governance even under the second term of this same government. NDDC, NSITF are just current cases in point. Easily preventable by daily policing and forensic monitoring. The way government shouted about restructuring and anti-corruption as the cornerstones of  the election, why were government corrupt organs not overwhelmed in 2015 with EFCC/ Police and ICPC spring cleaning with adequate whistleblowing and safety measures put in place to actually obey the rule of law, and moral necessity and oath office in terms of the government General Orders (GO)? This would include filling annual accounts within three months at the end of the year and paying dues and taxes as and when due and federal executive initiating forensic auditing of every single MDA. This would have warned contractors, civil servants, and politicians to play honest and keep a safe distance from the major plague and epidemic on financial integrity of Nigeria. Something but not enough happened. This government claims a fall in the corruption levels. However, there are still too many examples of corruption under this government’s watch, if not active participation e.g. police checkpoints. This is collusion by government or negligence of government to control its own agencies.

    Surely every government official especially in the Ministry of Finance and Budget and Planning would be looking forward to scrutinising NNPC income to plan the budgets and development country plans not based on fiction but facts and figures. Is the budget conjured up blindly? The NNPC unaudited account for 2018 is case in point. There is corruption in the ethnically biased appointment policy at NNPC. Why no audit??? Where is the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)??  Who can knock this country’s organs into economically advantageous shape??

    The ineffectiveness of the government to enforce its own federal character in its institutions is disgraceful. When it does enforce federal character, it disadvantages good students in favour of students who after 50 years of targeted national education policy at primary and secondary school still do not qualify to enter any school. The fault, however, is not with the failed students themselves as they have been victims of serial bad education systems. Their failure is due to those educational institutions they came from – understaffed, underequipped, under-motivated and often employing a poorly motivated and poorly rewarded quality of sometimes under-qualified teacher over the last 50 years. One or two students will survive a rubbish school and still shine forth, but the majority will not rise above the input from teachers often discouraged by their circumstances and surroundings. This especially applies to Maths, English, and a lack of scientific practical science exposure. A country with an education system which fails it, will itself fail as a country.

    Good private education is not a substitute but complementary to the public education system. Good government public school education cannot refuse and must actively encourage ‘Primary and Secondary Old Students Associations’, community participation and above all parental interest in the education of their children. Government is fond of saying ‘government cannot do it alone’. That is often an excuse for corruption and failure. However, it is true in the case of education.

    Politicians must reach beyond politics and party propaganda to invite all hands-on board the education train. Only the best for our children.

  • Nigeria’s greatest security threat

    Nigeria’s greatest security threat

    Festus Eriye

    What is the greatest threat to Nigeria’s internal security today? A few of the usual suspects quickly spring to mind. The insurgency in the Northeast, rash of bandit attacks across the Northwest, farmer-herder conflicts, separatism in the Southeast and kidnapping as enterprise across the country.

    But there is something missing in this list that suggests security agencies have different parameters for grading which is more dangerous.

    Under military rule, expression of critical views or any display of independent thought was often viewed as near treasonable. Perhaps, because where such views captured the mood of the people they sometimes provided justification for a fresh set of coup plotters to move against the sitting junta.

    That was why militant unionists, student leaders, university lecturers and journalists were always in and out of detention not because they were armed, but because the ideas they projected were considered just as dangerous.

    Despite the fact that the country under civil rule has largely relaxed and permitted greater liberties, sections of the security agencies don’t look like they are about to “calm down” any time soon.

    We have seen this recently in the travails of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Obadiah Mailafia, who made the explosive claim that an unnamed governor of a northern state was a major sponsor of Boko Haram.

    As far as sensational allegations against public officials go, it ranks up there with claim made in the 80s by the late social critic, Tai Solarin, that $2.8billion oil money had been pinched from government coffers. When the old man was pressed to reveal his source he said he picked up the tale in a bus.

    Mailafia, for his part, has said he received his information from some equally unnamed traders. Intelligence can be gleaned from the most unlikely of sources – drivers, cleaners, housemaids, street urchins etc. However, this rather vague attribution of such a grave allegation to sources whose credibility cannot be vouched for was quite underwhelming.

    For making his, as yet unproven claim, the ex-CBN chief has visited Department of State Services (DSS) offices a couple of times to clarify what he said.

    Not satisfied with the job the DSS had done, the Nigeria Police has jumped in on the act with a summons for the man to appear before them. Although, they didn’t expressly state why they wanted to interview him, it was evident it had to do with the Boko Haram statement. It is a point his lawyer has made to justify his spurning the invitation.

    A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of activists rallying under the so-called ‘Revolution Now’ banner made the grand announcement of ‘massive’ protests across the country. Anyone familiar with their antecedents would know that their bark is worse than their bite. But not so the police and other agencies.

    They reacted as if another civil war was upon us. In the end a handful of protesters showed up at one or two spots in Lagos and Abuja – chanting slogans – just words – no Molotov cocktails in sight.

    They were largely ignored by the milling citizenry who just walked by, more concerned with getting meals on their family table for the day.

    But overzealous police chased them down with guns and teargas. In Abuja, some who were apprehended were made to lie face down in the grass. The episode produced images that were less than flattering for the authorities.

    I am yet to understand how a few rabblerousing protesters constitute a threat to the might of the Nigerian state.

    There’s a point to be made that certain utterances can inflame passions in a country that is forever seething with ethnic, religious and social tensions. But what is a democracy if people cannot hold contrary views – no matter how radical, or protest down the street however sensational their cause may be?

    A protest is feedback of sorts. It shouldn’t always be viewed as adversarial activity.

    In any event, these protests are nowhere near what the world has seen with the Black Lives Matter movement to be considered a threat to national security!

    While security agencies are busy chasing after gadflies and attention-seekers, there is a greater security threat staring us in the face. It is one that unless creatively and urgently addressed cannot the contained using DSS or police guns, neither would there be enough prison space to house the offenders produced by the crisis.

    The threat is economic. Lately, it’s been a rain of bad news. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) just reported that due to the crash in oil prices and the COVID-19 crisis, the economy would contract by 6.2% in the second quarter – the worst such performance in a decade.

    According to the agency, unemployment rate has climbed to 27.1% – up from 23.1% in the third quarter of 2018.

    Put differently, 27 million people out a national workforce of 80 million are unemployed. Among young people aged between 25 and 34, the rate is even higher at 30.7%. Is it any wonder that the devil is finding work for so many in this most active segment of the population?

    It doesn’t get any better with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s Economic Sustainability Committee estimating that due to lockdown and social distancing measures put in place to stem the pandemic, more than 40 million Nigerians could lose their jobs by the end of 2020. More are expected to slide into extreme poverty unless pre-emptive measures are put in place.

    With many sections of the economy yet to reopen, the gloomy picture isn’t about to change any time soon. Even areas that have returned to life are not seeing the same level of activity as pre-lockdown. The result has been the sort of retrenchment by some airlines of highly trained professionals like pilots. It’s the same story playing out in most sectors.

    It doesn’t take clairvoyance to understand that with the unprecedented loss of livelihood by millions, the desperate may become a recruiting pool for all sorts of unsavoury activity – everything from illegal cyber activities to violent crime.

    That is the greatest threat to internal security facing the country today and not some opinionated individual waving an anti-government placard at the bus-stop.

    08116759748 (sms only)   Email: festus.eriye@gmail.com

  • How Osun prepared for school reopening

    How Osun prepared for school reopening

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

     

    babaidanre@gmail.com

     

  • ‘Gutter, Yellow Line’ politics!

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 840,000, infections 25,000,000, with around 54,000 recognised cases and 1,100 deaths in Nigeria.

    The escaped suspected serial killer in the Akinyele LG Area of Ibadan has been rearrested. Kudos to the police.

    ‘Gutter politics’ is just that, about governments making maximum money from minimum projects like ‘grass-cutting’, ‘farm-clearing’ and ‘gutters’! Unfortunately, applause greets the ‘construction’ of a petty ‘culvert’ by a LGA chairman as millions disappear!! We begged the federal government to ‘grass-cut’ the overgrown Lagos-Ibadan Expressway where boulder-throwing armed robbers are killing citizens. The ‘gutter’ symbolises a bottomless pit for fraud. The gutter is a shameful ‘dividend of democracy’, but a politically marketable ‘achievement’ to citizens used to nothing but 30-day tax demands notices and corruption from government orders and governments officials! We have sunk to ‘gutter’ level.

    Check with governments embarking on publicised ‘drainage clearance’ as ‘a revolutionary sustainable development tool’. Which plan did they use? 1] ‘Clear’ with no plan to remove the rubbish -the criminal norm for bad governments. 2] ‘Clear and Remove’ in one contract- best. 3]‘Clear’ and ‘Remove’ in two contracts running concurrently, needs coordinated transport [second best. 3] ‘Clear’ and ‘Remove’ in two successive contracts one after the other [third best]. Any serious government will stop doing pothole filling, gutter clearing, as ‘spectacular projects’ and promote them to essential ‘day-to-day’ activities. Project ‘supervision’ fails because of powerful politicians or people behind contracts. Only citizens are desperately interested in project execution.

    Governments are paining unbroken ‘Yellow Lines’ along 50+ kilometres of wide ‘easy-to-use-and-park-on-without-obstructing-anyone’ city roads in Ibadan and elsewhere. These all kill social and business life and create corruption. Unfortunately, citizens are targeted, suffer mental torture, pay ridiculous fines, turned into criminals and face wilful vehicular damage just for doing daily chores. But when government officials visit, or attend political rallies, ‘Yellow Lines’ are ignored. Why do government officials make life more difficult for citizens? Just keep traffic moving! ‘Yellow Lines’ kill businesses. Only thriving businesses and social life of satisfied citizens create the environment which allows governors to boast of cities as ‘commercial hubs’ for IGR. Business owners work to receive more customers supported by ‘Ease of Doing Business Parking’-a good advert. Ibadan is not Lagos – in traffic or incomes. Governors, Lagos traffic models will kill Ibadan, Akure and Ilorin! Lagos’s BRT lane, No Parking anywhere and huge three-six months minimum wage traffic fines and now daylight traffic robbery have made traffic a fearful misery. Lagos got it wrong. Most Nigerians have no driver.

    Ibadan business is person-to-person. Stopping parking even on easy-to-park roads and traffic-free areas will turn Ibadan and other cities into ‘Drive Through “Ghost Cities” with zero business growth’. Driving through Ibadan in 15 minutes is fantastic but a city is not an expressway. It must be business-friendly. Be aware. The soon-to-be-busy Dugbe Railway Station has no parking. The nearby taxi rank always causes a traffic jam.  Instead of yellow lines, traffic officials should be asking the governor to facilitate the opposite NIPOST building car park- ‘Fee For Parking’ and construct a walkway over the busy road. That is governor-led traffic planning, not traffic tow-trucks pouncing on tired train travellers -the next traffic trap.

    Mr Governor, please rework and re-consult citizens to redo the  ‘Yellow Line’ strategy in Ibadan to avoid negative economic and emotional impacts inflicted by these ‘Yellow Lines’ also abused in the previous regime. Yellow Lines do not stop NURTW paralysing traffic to demand commercial vehicle fees or Ojaoba area boys taking money from private vehicles or relieve the narrowing of the Ojaoba road by the wheelbarrows of tatase sellers. Why draw Yellow Lines from Secretariat to Orita Mefa where parking will disturb no one? And what are No Parking hours???

    Can Ibadan remain a commercial city when its officials pounce on visitors for ‘illegal parking’ with not one single ‘No Parking’ sign or one ‘Parking’ area even near shops your tax officials demand ‘Tax on Generators’ the life blood of Nigerian business? Is government now a vampire or vulture – sucking the blood of businesses which do not have Government Secretariat and Shoprite Parking!

    The last administration did untold damage directly to vehicles and businesses with ‘No Parking Regulations’ which became ‘No Business’ premises because customers could not park anywhere. But these traffic officials refuse to control traffic in the rains or evenings at blocked Ibadan roundabouts at 4-9pm. Governors, be aware that Yellow Lines, arrests and extortion with exorbitant penalties [N25,000 in Ibadan????] reverse ‘ease-of-doing-business’. Call these people before they again close Ibadan. They get monthly pay unlike the people they stop from parking who must earn salaries daily in shops the Yellow Lines paralyse with No Parking.

    All Mr Governors, ask ‘Why is there a Yellow Line there hindering my people from parking?’ before officials turn your cities into commercial coffins. Citizens will remember at election-time! Reduce the ‘Yellow Line’ now!

    National Lottery Trust Fund delivers equipment to Onikan Health Centre. Great! But the betting culture is bad for the youth of a poor country. Too few winners.

    Nigerians are tired of ‘legislative’ politicians muscling into ‘federal and state’ projects demanding allocations but forgetting to reduce by 75% their stupendous Salaries And Perks, SAPing Nigeria dry! The shared glory of employing 774,000= 1,000 jobs /LGA using Nigeria’s money, allocated by President Buhari should be enough. Most Nigerians have one party – Nigeria but it seems most politicians do not belong to that party.

  • Walter Charles Carrington (1930-2020)

    Walter Charles Carrington (1930-2020)

    By Niyi Akinnaso

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Killer-fines disgrace; Ombudspersons?

    Killer-fines disgrace; Ombudspersons?

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 790,000, infections 22,000,000, with around 50,000 recognised cases and 1,000 deaths in Nigeria. Stay safe!!

    Hurray, Lagos-Ibadan rail to ‘resurrect’ service mid Sept 2020!! It requires rail-line and onboard security! What is the journey time? Congratulations. There was mass suffering from road crashes during 40+years of federal political policy of railway abandonment, even refusing state intervention or new rail services. Federal government was ‘possessed’ by the inherited military unitary government ‘Exclusive List’ right over railways. The Lagos-Ibadan railway ran from colonial times into early civilian rule before being killed in the 1970s under military unitary rule. In 1970, I was in the University of Ibadan Team on a one-and-a-half-day train-trip to the ABU, Zaria, NUGA Games. Begun in 1896, the train ran from 1901/2 to mid-1970s with increasing dilapidation as trailer transport ‘private business’ political pressure won over ‘not my father’s business’, ‘public’ run railways. There is a bitter ‘ruin the rail for road transportation business to grow policy.

    As we make a descent into the abyss of fear and a N5,000,000 business killer-fine enforces financially driven terrified silence, we must work to restore the free speech that existed since 1999. It was abused by most parties including those in ‘Permanent Opposition’. All their political words are in the news headlines in public record. Who censored them? Caution in speaking is good-for-all but unsupervised censorship is bad. Who will save Nigeria from more Un-excellent kleptomaniacal presidents and governors, un-distinguished senators, dishonourable representatives and assemblymen?? The people speaking out, of course!

    And if fines are important, what is done with the money, honey? And why not ‘a fine of up to N500,000’ and not ‘a fine of N500,000’? Citizens must not be at the mercy of officials’ mischief-making wrong-into-right. Nigeria needs Ombudsmen especially as LGAs flex unbridled muscles to bleed their citizens dry with disgracefully creative new market and gutter taxes. Will there be ‘A Tax on The Air You Breathe’. Millions of Nigerians are facing the George Floyd ‘I can’t breathe’, oppressed by government and its agents and the corruption of the uniform placing a ‘Knee of Necks’ on the road.

    Why is the ‘Hate Speech Fine’ so high and why is one body, the NBC the accuser, judge and executioner?  Did the minister unilaterally hike the fine from N500,000 to N5,0000,000, a 900% increase even as media Covid-era revenues fall? What are the fines for perpetrators of ‘Hate actions’ like assault, rape, kidnapping, killings of human beings and election stealing? Did he override NBC members and concerned-citizen groups? If government officials perform according to the oath and pledge of Nigeria ‘TO BE FAITHFUL, LOYAL AND HONEST’, most complaints will die down.

    Do Nigerians count for nothing with this fast becoming ‘Un-progressive and even Retrogressive government’? This fine is a massive insult and injustice inflicted on the rights of the voting supporters of the party and citizens in general. The president should reverse it. The declaration of ‘Guilty’ on the media must urgently be taken away from NBC which should report such cases, including fee hike disputes, for neutral adjudication to a third non-political, nonpartisan Media Arbitration Group, including distinguished members of the media, past or serving.

    The government is using the distinguished Justice Ayo Salami in the EFCC Magu enquiry. Similarly, Ombudspersons must become acceptable honest brokers nationwide in tax and fines and other matters between citizens and the often-unsupervised godlike government officials. Enough of elected and appointed politicians and civil servants exceeding their authority. Reprimand is insufficient. These strange taxes, including 5% content tax by the Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board, LSFVCB, bring hard-working ‘Governments into Disrepute’. The perpetrators may require to be examined to exclude abuse of office, lacking empathy and when found normal then should be censored, demoted and sign clearly an apology for wrongful tax and apparently lying that they talked to the stakeholders. In Ibadan we have a new ‘Generator Emissions Tax’. Can anyone run a generator-free Nigerian business due to failure of government and mostly retired General-headed DISCO/GENCOs proxies to provide power. Is running a generator now a crime??

    Nigeria should not retrogress, but progress beyond being a ravaged war trophy land for every microscopic authority with its citizens like akara or smallchop -medimedi food for unsupervised arrogant impunity.

    Nigeria needs ‘Ombudspersons’, of integrity, saving officials from ‘Bringing Government into Disrepute’ and saving Nigerians from wicked taxes, wicked laws and ‘Demand Notices’ calculated beyond reality. These misguided or mischievous unsupervised ‘imported and innovative’ taxes are accompanied by Gestapo-style terrorist, destabilising ’30 Day Demand Notices’ with penalties of double-fine and/or jailtime. They flood Nigeria’s Covid-lockdown cash-strapped homes and four-month shut offices. Why such taxes and paid in just ‘30 days’ or face Armageddon? Why are fines low N50-200,000 or nothing in rich/expensive election-fraud guilty political cases requiring expensive reruns but high in ‘accused-only’ traffic offences of N50-200,000 or 1.6 – 6.4 times monthly minimum wage?

    Oxford Street fines are 2-3days minimum wage -affordable to deter citizens, increase state income to help run governance, but not extortionist to bankrupt pensioners or kill citizen-victims’ business. The advertised traffic and ground rent fines in Lagos, are extortionist and though, thankfully reduced recently, are a heavy burden on the citizenry suffering 60-100% unrecoverable loss. Punish officials exceeding authority. Nigeria needs 1,000 Ombudsmen saving citizens from government excesses! And O Yes 1,000 ‘Forensic Accountants’ for university and MDAs to root out evolving corruption.

  • The Coronavirus diaries (16)

    The Coronavirus diaries (16)

    Festus Eriye

     

     

    PNot since the demise of former Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, has so much controversy attended the death from COVID-19 of a high-profile personality. In death, Senator Buruji Kashamu stirred up as much dust as he did in life.

    Given the many emotional tributes and outpouring of grief at his funeral last Sunday, it’s obvious he was loved by his people – perhaps for his philanthropy.

    Such was their fondness for him that a heaving mass of humanity descended on his Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State home. They jostled each other in a desperate bid to lay hands on the bier on which his body was being transported for burial.

    It was as if many wanted to follow him into the grave. Everything that has been preached about social distancing was cast aside in the emotion-laden atmosphere.

    But amidst the grieving there was one condolence message that bucked the trend. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo after dispensing with the bit about receiving “sad news” of the senator’s passing, proceeded to talk about the lessons of his death.

    He wrote: “The life and history of the departed have lessons for those of us on this side of the veil. Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashamu) in his lifetime used the manoeuvre of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

    “But no legal, political, cultural, social or even medical manoeuver could stop the cold hand of death when the creator of all of us decides that the time is up.”

    It was a condolence message that dispensed with social graces observed in times of mourning in a Nigerian setting and it quickly drew angry ripostes.

    He was repeatedly reminded you don’t ‘speak ill of the dead.’ Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, assured the old soldier many were waiting for him to expire to vent their spleen.

    But the battle-hardened Obasanjo always has a fitting comeback. He told salivating critics to go right ahead and have a field day whenever he kicked the bucket as he didn’t care what they had to say.

    More importantly, he stated he wasn’t gloating over Kashamu’s death, but was rather put off by the praise-singing and near-deification of the departed which he felt was uncalled for.

    Some were quick to accuse the former president of hypocrisy as he had a hand in the rise of the senator politically. They even pointed out instances when he had engaged in his own share of eulogising a man he now appeared to deride.

    In a video uploaded sometime in 2015, Obasanjo was captured praising an empowerment programme of Kashamu’s Omo-Ilu Foundation. “The work you have done in the past, we appreciate it. God will reward you for that. God will not take away those things you do that makes you happy,” he said in the clip that has resurfaced in recent days.

    If COVID-19 protocols were being trampled aground in celebration of the dead, so they were also in matters political last week. The All Progressives Congress (APC) flagged-off its governorship campaigns in Edo State with a mammoth crowd in Benin-City. Eleven governors and a motley collection of office holders were present, social distancing absent.

    All of this in a state where Governor Godwin Obaseki, sensing his foes were determined to deny him the APC gubernatorial ticket through the agency of direct primaries, rolled out and gazetted emergency COVID-19 regulations that banned political gatherings of more than 20 persons.

    The APC rally therefore breached that numerical limit hundreds of times. The governor’s media aides quickly rushed out statements saying their opponents should be held responsible for any spike in coronavirus infections.

    Perhaps these opponents learnt disobedience from government officials who have been flouting their own law long before Saturday’s rally.

    On the day, Obaseki travelled to the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) headquarters to pick up a membership card, he was accompanied by a crowd of supporters who clearly never heard of his COVID-19 gazette. He, too, has been holding rallies of more than 20 persons.

    Last week when the governor and his deputy, Phillip Shuaibu, went to deliver sand and gravel for ‘renovation’ of the House of Assembly, the crowd that accompanied them were more concerned with preventing majority lawmakers from sneaking into the facility to inflict legislative harm on him, than in being infected with coronavirus.

    Despite their preaching and posturing it is becoming evident that governors and the governed no longer take coronavirus and the miseries it has to deliver seriously. They are not about to let a little thing like the threat of resurgence stand in the way of social and political events.

    On Monday, members of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 were challenged about the huge crowds at the rallies and at Kashamu’s burial. All that the National Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, could do was express dismay that those who should be leading enforcement had become chief violators of the protocols.

    The ‘good news’ is that the number of infections seems to be trending downwards despite the insistence of authorities that the pandemic hasn’t peaked.

    Of course, these figures may be the result of low level of tests conducted nationwide. It is also possible that many infected persons are seeing their cases resolved without becoming part of official statistics.

    The numbers have encouraged the epicentre of Lagos to reopen churches and mosques partially. It’s an offer that not all have embraced. They insist that the same government which projected the virus would peak in August had no business reopening worship centres when that hadn’t happened.

    But one in particular, Reverend Chris Okotie’s Household of God, has issues with the ‘no face mask, no entry’ condition, which it says reintroduces the veil in the place of worship after God had ripped it away.

    In reply, others say fussing over the flimsy facial adornment is an overreaction. After all, debate over what is appropriate apparel to wear in the place of worship has gone on through the ages and never led to closure of the church.

    Clearly, the authorities have plenty to do to deliver regulations that would please all manner of men while the pandemic lasts!

     

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

    PaxHerbal Cugzin: An oral herbal vaccine against COVID-19

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Olutunde Oni@80; Killings; NMA

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 records deaths approaching 740,000, infections 20,500,000, with around 48,000 recognised cases and 960 deaths in Nigeria. Stay safe!!

    Dr Olutunde Oni, a distinguished product of Government College, Ibadan and distinguished medical professional and doyen of the private medical practice, fluent in German, having attained his medical professional training in Germany, and still in active practice, was 80, Sunday August 9. He is a Past District Governor of Rotary International and foundation member and the current chairman of Educare Trust, a youth targeted NGO and was Oyo State chairman, of the NMA, and also chairman of Ibadan Dining Club which was founded by late Chief Simeon Adebo. Happy Birthday, Sir, and many more healthy years. O, and Yes, he taught us briefly in St Gregory’s College in the 1960s.

    Our hearts go out to all people of Lebanon as they struggle with the trauma of the huge blast in Beirut port taking at least 200 dead and 5000 injured with thousands of homes and workplaces destroyed.

    Killings in Southern Kaduna’-police arrest protesters. Why are Nigeria’s presidents silent, or are they noisy in private? Don’t ‘Black Lives Matter’ to them??? The torrent of tears shed for the dead have bled like their blood into the red earth around their angry graves. Has government arrested anyone or prevented attacks? It is impossible to protect one’s family if disarmed by security before attacks -an intelligence breach or spies. Are security agencies Unavailable? Motorcycles have heat trails trackable by drone, Nigasat or UNsat to their lair. When one reports assault to police one risks becoming accused.  The dead paid the price of life. Why is Southern Kaduna lethal? The authorities claim it is not religious but inter-community clashes. Locals claim government complicity. If only the dead could announce their killers!! The president and governor speak differently from the survivors.

    ‘Armed Fulani killed 33 in Southern Kaduna Attack -SOKAPU’, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union. New victims were killed with names released but no murderers held. So, a protest should highlight government failure to preserve life, peace and security. Our mothers marched ‘naked’ recently to protest these constant murders. The #RevolutionNow protest led to arrests. Are they not the wrong people to arrest for mourning and holding government to its neglected but sworn oath to protect the vulnerable? Many asked if there is complicity in killings. It is an insult to Nigeria for government official spokesmen to denigrate the protest as an ‘irritation’. Are the dead an ‘irritation’ too?? No!!! They did not kill themselves.  Will that same presidential spokesman dare to go, without guards, to the ‘irritated’ families of dead ‘irritated’ victims in Atyap Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf LGA?  Since I was a child, Zango Kataf has been under onslaught. How they survive is a testimony to resilience under adversity, foreign and local. Government should support the citizenry with closely monitored security, who are not extortionist but supportive to ensure peace. The happenings in Southern Kaduna demonstrate inadequacy of any anti-bandit war. The governor and the president are failing the country and Zango Kataf in particular. They must eschew religious and ethnic branding to achieve the award of true leadership. Anything less is failure.

    The thirst for power, political and financial, exists in everyone. Some professions, including medicine, are supposed to be like Caesar’s wife, above accusation and reproach, more-so because of the humanitarian aspects of the calling– ‘Do no harm’!! Unfortunately, the use of NMA office at state level on the CV as a stepping stone to Commissioner of Health, NMA President and then perhaps federal minister is a strategy irresistible to politicalised doctors, mimicking the NBA. Governments interfere in professional body elections presumable to muzzle intellectual middleclass opposition to their political neglect of citizens.  The stakes seem high enough for a few doctors to use violence and mischief to rig or ruin good elections to disenfranchise colleague voters. The ‘Medical Thuggery’ or ‘Doctors Violent Voting’ witnessed in Enugu NMA is disheartening because successful elections have been held silently across the country mostly using e-voting with around 1000 voters in each election with no Covid-19 and no violence. The few instigators of the Enugu debacle are an NMA disgrace. They should face charges, pay all medical, structural and clean-up costs and be suspended from work and the NMA and face an NMA/MDCN Disciplinary Committee Hearing and risk being struck off the Medical Register for ‘Practices unbecoming of a doctor’ and breaking the Hippocratic Oath. But ‘No Knowledge is Wasted’ even negative results. From this ‘Clinical Case’ a few Enugu NMA renegades have confirmed that ‘Political Corruption of Mind and Body’ is a dangerous ‘Communicable Disease’ as it has crossed from pure politics into Medicine. Fortunately experiments across Nigeria by the NMA prove it is treatable by compulsory e-voting. So, it will not be the ‘Next Pandemic’.

    Calculate the lives destroyed by one person in an NNDC/MDAs, NASS believing wrongly that ‘Commission’ means not ‘A Body to Serve’ but ‘A Percentage (20-100%) of Every Budget or Contract’.  Every state has always had enough to ‘Make Their State Great’ but the leaders have, without other tribes, crippled their own flesh and blood enriching five or six relatives  but the extended family suffers, like the rest, neglect of good sustainable developments and scholarship opportunities. Personal stolen wealth is no substitute for collective economic and social satisfaction and must be forcibly removed from ‘The Nigerian Political Leadership Handbook’.

  • The 2023 zoning controversy

    The 2023 zoning controversy

    By Festus Eriye

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor would not be elected for another three years, yet the air is already thick with intrigue. Given the immense powers of the Nigerian presidency the scheming is understandable.

    Such is the clout of our presidents and governors that the cycle of politicking never really breaks to provide a breather for governance.

    The recent upheavals in the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been linked to succession politics. So like it or not, there’s intense jockeying going on within the ruling party as well as the main opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) with key players moving their pieces around on some unseen chess board.

    It is against this backdrop that we must view the recent intervention by Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura, on the issue of zoning. It was a bolt out of the blue that called for jettisoning of the concept. In its place merit and competence should be used to pick presidents.

    “This turn-by-turn, it was done once, it was done twice, and it was done thrice… It is better for this country to be one…it should be for the most competent and not for someone who comes from somewhere,” he told the BBC Hausa Service in an interview.

    Choosing the best man for any job is a reasonable proposition, but Daura’s proposal has been meet with a raucous chorus of disapproval and suspicion. Even the presidency felt it necessary to distance Buhari from the comments – arguing that they were personal and the author old enough to hold whatever views he espoused.

    But Daura is no ordinary voice. His blood ties to Buhari and role in his kitchen cabinet are well advertised. In fact, they are so close that he moved into Aso Villa with the president. So at a time of uncertainty and suspicion within APC it is to be expected people would assume he was uttering what cannot be said officially.

    Again, his remarks have come when a certain strand within the northern political establishment was sending out signals they were actively scheming for retention of presidential power in the region come the next election cycle. This is after Buhari would have held power for eight unbroken years.

    It is a thought that should make anyone with the slightest familiarity with Nigeria’s political history recoil in horror.

    For all their flaws and failings, zoning is one thing the political class have got right as a way of reducing heat in the polity and fostering a sense of belonging in a culturally and ethnically-diverse country as ours.

    It is a device which, despite its imperfections, provides hope that at national level even minorities – outside of the big three ethnic groups – can ascend the highest heights of political power with time. The same holds true at state level.

    Before the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) pioneered zoning in the Second Republic, ‘merit’ and ‘competence’ were the yardstick for picking leaders. But did we ever get the ‘best’? No way!

    Instead, the power structure was tilted in such a way that the dominance of the old North was total. It was always easy for the region to divide the two southern blocs and rule.

    When the late Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, visited the home of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to condole with the family on his death, he wrote these famous lines in the register: “The best president Nigeria never had.”

    Many shared that sentiment – especially in the Southwest – but elsewhere in the North and East people couldn’t be bothered about his abilities and he never became president.

    Over time frustration with this lopsided arrangement triggered the agitation for ‘power shift’ to the south. Zoning was a by-product of that political evolution.

    But for the military intervention of 1983 the concept might have become an unshakable article of faith of our politics – never to be tampered with.

    In the Fourth Republic it worked seamlessly with the President Olusegun Obasanjo handing over to Umaru Yar’Adua. It would have gone on and on but for the unscripted death of Yar’Adua which handed PDP the dilemma of denying then President Goodluck Jonathan the right to seek re-election when the breach of the rotational arrangement wasn’t his making.

    Without manipulation and with the cooperation of men of goodwill, it would equally work in producing a successor to Buhari from any of the three southern zones.

    Daura’s argument that zoning hasn’t delivered the best for Nigeria is disingenuous. At what point did he make the discovery? As many have pointed out he didn’t hold this position when zoning favoured the emergence of Buhari in 2015.

    It’s not as if there’s any system known to man that throws up the ‘best’ candidate for a political position.

    The office of president wasn’t made to be filled by a conclave of wise and influential courtiers. Constitution writers through the ages left that important assignment to ‘ordinary’ voters – many of whom we would dismiss as lacking the sophistication to choose the ‘best’ man for the job. In the end everyone is left to determine who is ‘best,’ not based on any objective parameters but subjective ones.

    No country ever elected ‘the best’ leader. Many who have been lauded through history also had truckloads of detractors. Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Winston Churchill, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Nelson Mandela…weren’t without critics.

    Nigerians aren’t looking for a superman. They just want an honest, competent and empathetic individual who may not necessarily be the ‘best’ of his generation. He would do his bit and step aside for a successor to continue the task of nation-building.

    Such competent hands abound in the north, south, east and west of this country. Many would come to the office underrated only to be transformed into giants by the office and the challenges they overcame while serving there.

    Leaders of Daura’s generation keep saying Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable. But it can only be sustained if political actors don’t destroy trust. Zoning is a glue that enhances accommodation and sense of belonging. Dismantling it does the opposite and perpetuates the belief that some are born to rule while others are mere spectators.