Hardball

There is something about hindsight that positively reshapes the ugly realities of things experienced in the past. In hindsight, even the devil could look like a misunderstood benevolent angel. That must be why the Yoruba (maybe other tribes too) have a maxim which translates to saying a woman who divorces one husband she considered to be evil and gets another husband would sooner regret the virtues traded off in the old husband. Such is the reformative – you could say distortive – effect of hindsight on perception.

But it gets a bit shocking that even hindsight could whitewash a totally blackened entity barely six months after it was taken down for its blackishness, and while the effects of its evil exploits are yet being reckoned before ad hoc tribunals. That is the import of a recent claim by Acting Police Inspector-General Usman Alkali Baba that the former Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the police was such a critical pillar in the fight against insecurity that its disbandment has left a vacuum that partly explains the high rate of criminality across the country.

Speaking last Thursday at the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Baba said the disbandment of SARS demoralised police personnel and somewhat weakened the hand of the force in fighting insecurity. According to him, regular police operatives have not been able to fill the vacuum created by SARS’ scrapping, but efforts are ongoing to train them for the new role. “With the proscription of SARS and the establishment of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) which has not been able to take off fully, we had a vacuum in tackling most of the violent crimes from a position of strength in terms of having a strike force that is dedicated for that, rather than having our conventional police doing the policing in a conventional way,” the Acting IG said, adding: “So, we try to marshal back this courage of our personnel who have been involved in violent crimes,  lecture them and post them to the anti-robbery sections, for anti-robbery patrols and the investigation of violent related crimes which involved of course robbery, kidnapping, banditry, cultism and so forth.”

But is it a different SARS the police chief was talking about? Because by the time that controversial squad was taken down on 11th October, 2020, it had nearly completely gone off the track of fighting violent crimes, with its operatives preoccupied with intercepting mostly innocent Nigerians for purported traffic offences and suspicions of cyber-crimes among other low-level tasks. In any event, when the squad was disbanded, its operatives weren’t sacked from the police force but reassigned to other duties. Why can’t the skills and discipline inculcated in them for SARS be applied now for policing tasks outside of SARS? This nostalgia for SARS ‘get as e be.’

Hardball

Chelsea FC of London, England, just clinched the 2020/2021 European Champions League (UCL) — but that’s no news.  Even the stone-deaf can’t claim not to have heard the whoop and roar of victory, from Chelsea’s notoriously uproarious fans.

Give it to them, Chelsea fans and embattled but now victorious manager, the German Thomas Tuchel; not to talk of owner, Roman Abrahomovich.  Losing at the final of the English FA Cup (to Leicester), being drubbed 4:0 (by Barcelona) at the final of the ladies UCL, but coming back to land the big one, against English Champions, Manchester City FC, is nothing short of plucky and gutsy.

Still, this is less about Chelsea but more about another Englishman, Fred Martin, of Brentford FC.  Brent-what?

Well, Brentford FC, a west London club, after getting relegated from the old English Division 1 in the 1946/47 season, are back in the English Premiership — 74 years later!  Sixty-eight, out of that 74-year odyssey, Martin was with Brentford all of the way.  Talk of rare passion and near-absolute loyalty!

Martin was not quite at the stands, when Brentford had the 1946 drop, that virtually took it to the nadir of English football.  But his grandfather was — his grandfather who had been loyally at the stands, on Brentford home match days, since 1904, as a 21-year old.

Though Martin was conscious of the Brentford drop in 1946 — his football-loving grandfather shared the pains with him — it wasn’t until 1952, as a nine-year old, that he started watching Brentford home matches.

Now, he is 78 — and with a mild stroke to boot!  But not even that health challenge would stop him, at the famous Wembley, watch Brentford triumph 2-0 over Swansea, in the English championship play-off, to qualify for the English Premier League (EPL).

Now, the old man is busy fishing for season-long tickets, to watch Brentford’s first season in the EPL!  “Next week,” he gushed, “we’re going to the Reservation Centre to sort out season tickets for the new ground … I suffered a stroke last year,” he explained, “which has left me with a few mobility problems but as long as I’m near the end of a row, I should be fine.”

What a story!  His grandpa was at the dale of Brentford in 1946.  But grandson Martin was also right there, at the Brentford hill, in 2021!  What is more?  He is even handing the Brentford tradition onto his own children and grandchildren!

This seems a captivating sports story, underscoring unstinting love and solid loyalty.  But it’s nothing if it doesn’t serve as thoughtful metaphor for nation-building, despite what might seem long, endless and thankless challenges.

Read newspapers here, listen to radio, view TV and surf the social media, and you’ll see journalists, real or fake, report their country with contemptuous finger-pointing, thinking the worst of everything, and suffering the delusion that though their country can go to seeds, they would always be all right, because they can screech and condemn.  Not so!

The heroics of Brentford supporters, and to a little extent, Chelsea’s grit in the face of possible rout, shows support — even if critical — is crucial; even when things appear not going well.

Remember the late Ernest Okonkwo, ace radio football commentator and his famous quip?  “If you cheer a goal, you’re only reacting to an impulse.  But if you cheer moves that lead to a goal, you were an integral part of the success story.”

For club and for country; like football, like nation-building; the basics are the same.

Hardball

When opportunism begets opportunism, it is misery guaranteed — and there’s absolutely no mystery about it all.  If you doubt, just step into Edo State, and savour cross-opportunism gone sour.

Godwin Obaseki, after falling out with the “powers and principalities” of his own party, sought refuge for second term, in the opposition Edo PDP.  Though not a few would side with the governor that he had little choice in the matter, if he was to smell second term, the whole enterprise was rooted in rank opportunism.

The Edo PDP too, not without its own power and principalities, drooled at that sweet, magnetizing aroma  — to grab the governorship for itself, while the rival APC duelled  to the death.  The war cry: disgrace Adams Oshiomhole, and everything would be added onto it!

Well, the war was gloriously won: Oshiomhole was defeated and disgraced, though he wasn’t on the ballot.  Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu was.  Still, winning the peace, after the crow of victory, is proving very Herculean.

Between Obaseki and his welcoming PDP, the honeymoon appears well and truly over. Obaseki wants to stamp his imprimatur on his new party.  “To be thus is nothing, but to be truly thus,” crowed the tragic Lady Macbeth, as she goaded her husband to doom.

Unfortunately, the Edo PDP screeches, more or less, the same cry: it wants to be “truly thus”; and therefore wants Deputy Governor, Philip Shuaibu, to resign, on the basis of some reported pre-poll agreement, to be replaced by one of PDP’s own!

Again, that would appear as easy and as productive as shooting the breeze, because for Obaseki’s sake, Shuaibu turned proud Judas to Oshiomhole’s cause; and threw his old benefactor and long-time guardian under the bus!  Besides, D-G Shuaibu does have gubernatorial ambitions of his own!

Yet, the Edo PDP would probably not rest until it claims what it feels is legitimately its, starting with poor Shuaibu’s scalp!  Boy o boy, it never gets more roiling, as the Edo revolution is set to consume its own children!

No tears from this corner, as the factions would rub themselves out.  But Obaseki should count himself lucky: had the House of Representatives passed its cabinet-deadline Bill (pushing that the president or governor be impeached if, by 30 days after assuming office,  he fails to push his cabinet list to parliament), he’ll probably be facing an impeachment threat by now!

But again, no tears from here.  Betrayal always has spiritual implications, and both Obaseki and Shuaibu are not exactly saints on that front — and the Oshiomhole “ghost” would continue to plague both.

Still, beyond the spiritual: the Edo opportunism-gone-awry is again umpteenth lesson to evolve a strong and robust party system, fair to all.  That is one sure way to deepen and strengthen democracy.

Hardball

When is a law not a law? When it exists but is unenforced. The tragic case of Odiri Onosigho, a 32-year-old accountant, illustrates the anomaly.  He recently died from gunshot wounds after he was attacked by a gang of armed robbers on his way to work. The robbery was said to have happened “around 6am.”  He was waiting for a bus, with a friend, at First Gate bus stop, Festac, Lagos.

His sister said sympathetic passersby had put him in a tricycle and rushed him to the Mother and Child Hospital, a public health facility where he was allegedly rejected on the excuse that the case was outside its remit.    “So, they left the government hospital and rushed him to a hospital, but they rejected him there too; they also took him to two other hospitals, but he was similarly rejected. All these hospitals were asking for a police report,” she said.

This multiple rejection by hospitals may explain why he died. It was perhaps yet another avoidable death of a gunshot victim who was refused treatment on unlawful grounds.

The hospitals that rejected him showed disrespect for the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017. The law stipulates that all hospitals in Nigeria shall accept and treat without a police clearance any person with a gunshot wound.  The law also provides that all victims with gunshot wounds shall be treated without a request for initial monetary deposits and such persons shall not be victims of any inhuman or degrading treatment.

Under the law, hospitals have the responsibility of informing the nearest police station whenever a gunshot victim is brought in and the police are mandated to immediately investigate and ascertain the cause of the gunshot wound.

Also, any person who fails to carry out a duty as stated in the Act, which leads to the death of a person with gunshot wounds, is liable to imprisonment for five years and/or a fine of N500, 000. In addition, the court may also order that restitution be made to the victim.

Sadly, the law is crying for enforcement.  A lack of enforcement encourages violation of the law, which happened in the Festac tragedy.  Apart from the lack of empathy exhibited by the concerned hospitals, they broke the law by rejecting the unfortunate gunshot victim. There is no excuse for rejecting a gunshot victim, particularly when such a rejection is unlawful under the law.

What about the hospitals that disregarded the law in this case?  Should they be allowed to continue business as usual as if they didn’t break any law?

Hardball

There seems to be a concerted war being waged against the ballot in Nigeria. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is under siege of arsonists and unless the trend is urgently arrested, the commission has warned that it is dangerous for the country’s electoral process.

Local government area offices of the electoral body in Ezza North and Izzi council areas of Ebonyi State were simultaneously attacked in the early hours of last Wednesday. Office structures, generating sets, voting cubicles and other vital items were reported razed in those fires. That was only a few days after the commission’s Enugu State head office was lit into by hoodlums, causing extensive damage to some movable assets within the premises. The Enugu head office fire itself was barely four days after the commission’s office in Obollo-Afor, Udenu council area of same state was likewise torched by arsonists. Not long before then, INEC’s office in Ohafia council area of Abia State was burnt, just as that in Essien Udim council area of Akwa Ibom State. Earlier, sensitive materials were destroyed in an inferno at an INEC data processing centre in Kano. INEC offices in Anambra and Imo states have as well been targeted and razed. It was reported that between February 2019 and now, the number of incidents recorded regarding the commission’s offices include in Akwa Ibom (four), Abia (three), Anambra (two), Imo (two) and Enugu (two), not to mention Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Ondo, Plateau and Rivers states as well as the federal capital city of Abuja where its facilities have similarly been attacked.

The consistency and rapid recurrence of arsonist attacks on the commission indexed a grand plot to weaken its capacity to conduct elections and thereby overthrow the ballot as a political system in this country. The curious thing is that no one has been apprehended and brought to justice by security operatives for any of those serial attacks.

In a statement on the Enugu State head office fire, INEC spokesperson, National Commissioner Festus Okoye explained that unidentified persons overpowered the commission’s security personnel on duty in a bid to set the entire building ablaze. “The attention of the security agencies as well as the Federal and State Fire Services in Enugu was drawn to the unfolding situation and they responded swiftly. The attackers set the foyer ablaze, vandalised some offices in the main building and caused extensive damage to some of the commission’s movable assets within the premises. Six (6) utility pick up vehicles (Toyota Hilux) were burnt down while two (2) more were smashed and damaged,” he said, adding: “As we categorically mentioned in our earlier statements, the spate of attacks on the commission’s facilities portends danger to national electoral activities.”

It is high time both INEC and the security establishment moved from responding to, and investigating incidents after-the-fact to preempting the arsonists. If they are not stopped now, they could stop the ballot.

hardball

It was in 1984, at the first coming of Major-Gen. Muhammadu Bihari as military head of state, the popular TV clip hit the public consciousness,  about a parabolic Andrew who was ‘checking out’ of Nigeria because he could no longer forebear difficulties in the country despite its oil wealth and other natural endowments.

That clip dramatized the wave of mass emigration that was new then and the message was to deprecate the escape sentiment and admonish Nigerians to stay back to salvage their country. To be called ‘Andrew’ under that dispensation was almost denigrating.

Now, we have the new Andrew, but this time celebrating and stoking the escape sentiment. And the message resonates because the protagonist is a prominent personality with large following, and to whom many look for counsel on life’s directions.

He is typically regarded as coming from the ‘deep’ cosmos – not just mentally but also spiritually. Senior pastor and founder of House on the Rock church, Pastor Paul Adefarasin, recently admonished his members, and by extension other Nigerians, to have escape plans in the event – which seemed highly likely to him – that the Nigerian nationhood fails.

In his sermon penultimate Sunday, the cleric lamented that past and present administrations have failed to address the country’s challenges and encouraged his audience to have a plan B, which he indicated he already has for himself.

He told his members: “I bring you greetings from Pastor Ifeanyi (his wife) who is busy taking care of the frontier of our world and preparing our escape route. If you don’t have a plan B…I know you have faith, I have faith too, but I have a plan B. With technology, I can speak to you from anywhere in the world. Get yourself a plan B. Whether that’s an Okada to Cameroon or flying boat to Seme Border, a hole in the ground, a bunker as we call it. Just get yourself a plan B because these people are crazy, they are nutters, the whole bunch of them. And watch the signs because it can happen just like this (snaps fingers). God forbid!”

The preacher, who previously said Nigeria was a scam considering its constitutional document, revisited the foundational issues. “Unless the truth is unveiled concerning our foundation years, amalgamation, independence, and our first constitution, we will not get it right in Nigeria. No country in the world has survived two civil wars,” he warned.

Having made clear he’s on his way relocating out of Nigeria, it was some marching order for devotees to equally disperse, almost in reversal of the familiar pattern of God gathering His people under His wings in times of crisis.

Adefarasin has his reasons and is fully entitled to them. But contrary to the admonition of emigrating by hook or by crook, it might just help to advise intending Andrews to shun those deadly illegal migration routes and stick with the legal routes. Godspeed!