When Taliban forces overran Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago and swept unchallenged into Kabul, the capital on Sunday, 15th August, foreign nations got into scramble mode to evacuate their citizens in the troubled country to avert their becoming prey to the feral fundamentalists. Even the United States that had fought a 20-year-long war to defend Afghanistan against the Taliban voted with its feet and hurriedly bailed out, abandoning hundreds of fighting tanks and military field vehicles that were used by its troops; it barely managed to meet the deadline of 31st August to finish evacuating.

Lest you think the Kabul evacuation is some tale from other lands, we have a local Kabul scenario – no thanks to communal killings and reprisal killings in Jos, Plateau State, and the dread that state residents who are natives of other places could fall collateral casualty. Recall that the latest crisis was triggered by the killing on Saturday, 14th August, of some 20 persons travelling from Bauchi to Ikare, Ondo State, on Rukuba Road, Jos North council area. On the heels of those mindless killings, the Plateau government imposed and eventually relaxed a curfew it imposed, but that didn’t stop a suspected reprisal massacre carried out by gunmen late on Tuesday, 25th August, on Yelwan Zangam community close to the permanent site of the University of Jos, in which some 35 persons died and many houses burnt down. Those incidents have heightened tension on the plateau, with about four students of UniJos reported killed in allied violence and the university management calling off ongoing examinations and shutting down.

Following the university closure, governments of other states having students in UniJos hurriedly moved in to evacuate their indigenes. At the last count, states that have evacuated their students include Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The most ironic case perhaps was Kaduna State, which itself is an epicentre of insecurity, but has evacuated its students from Jos.

Plateau Governor Simon Lalong regretted those evacuations, which he considered hasty, arguing that the state remained safe for all Nigerians resident there. Speaking in Abuja after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, he said he advised states against evacuating their indigenes and gave a guarantee that they would be protected. But his assurances obviously fell off the credibility handle, and he himself acknowledged that those other states were on logical ground erring on the part of caution, especially as their students demanded to be evacuated. Lalong reaffirmed that government would apprehend and prosecute culprits of the violence; only that as we speak, there are yet no indications of that commitment materialising. Unless government decisively and earnestly brings confirmed fomentors of violence to justice, the apprehension over possible outbreak of further violence will persist and make evacuations inevitable.

The news ordinarily should be gladdening: Ondo’s great push at COVID-19 mass vaccination.

It’s about time every government in Nigeria followed that thrust, given the levity with which many Nigerians still hold the virus, even with the advent of the much more transmissible Delta strain.

But does the state have enough vaccines to back up its otherwise laudable push?

“All residents of the state must be vaccinated against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Donald Ojogo,” the Ondo State commissioner for Information announced, “in view of the ongoing efforts of the government to contain the spread of the Delta variant of the virus.”

The Nation of August 31 reported the commissioner saying that was the decision by the state’s  executive council, after its meeting of August 30.  After two weeks, residents of the state would need evidence of COVID-19 vaccination to enter hospitals, churches, mosques, government offices and other public places.

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The Delta strain of COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc all over the world.  The United States under Joe Biden, which thought it had got a hang on the virus, and at a time had rolled back on nose masks, found itself celebrating too soon.

America now buckles under COVID-19, despite having enough vaccines — three separate but equally effective brands: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — to protect its citizens.  Latest report, on CNN, talks of 240, 000 children having the virus.

Here, no thanks to Delta, more infections have been recorded too.  So, have more deaths of popular names and celebrities, in the so-called third wave.  Yet, many Nigerians still live in costly denial of the dangerous virus.

So, the Ondo decision is a sound one, to show strict commitment to compelling citizens to buckle up against this killer virus.  But unlike the United States, does Ondo have enough vaccine stock to match that otherwise laudable order?

Besides, two weeks?  And after that, no access to hospitals, without evidence of vaccination?  How sound can that possibly be: that the sick who belong to hospitals can’t access there, because they are unvaccinated?  Isn’t that rather far-fetched?

But apart from that, a two-week window, within which everyone must get the jab — isn’t that an open invite to a crush: a mass gathering (and possible panic) of the unvaccinated, during which the state risks even more infections, given how easily the Delta variant spreads?

For the umpteenth time: does Ondo have enough vaccines to walk its tough talk?

The intention here is excellent.  But the thinking would appear far less so; for it seems rushed.  That is why Ondo State must look at its tactics again.  As it stands, there is very little prospect of everyone getting vaccinated in two weeks.

That is why it must be much more flexible in pushing its goal, while not entirely jettisoning its mass vaccination plan.

When schools are unsafe, schoolchildren can’t be safe. Following the August 27 release of 91 students abducted by bandits from Salihu Tanko Islamiya School, Tegina, in Niger State, three months ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released shocking figures showing the danger schoolchildren face in the country.  Tragically, one of the abductees, six-year-old Hayatu Hashimu, died in captivity.

UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, in a statement by its Communication Specialist in Nigeria, Samuel Kaalu, highlighted the irony of the situation.  “Children who went in search of knowledge were abducted at their school, which is supposed to be a safe place for them, while exercising their fundamental right to an education,” UNICEF said.

According to the UN agency, no fewer than 1,000 schoolchildren were abducted by bandits between December 2020 and August 2021. UNICEF said an estimated 200 schoolchildren were still being held by bandits in the country.

Among them are students abducted from Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, in Kaduna State. Bandits had invaded the school on July 5 and abducted 121 students. On July 25, 28 of them were freed after 20 days in captivity. On August 19, 15 of them were released; and on August 27, 32 of them were released. This means that 46 of them are still in captivity.

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UNICEF rightly pointed out how wrong it is for kidnappers, bandits and terrorists to target schoolchildren. “Schools should not be a target. Children should not be a target. Education is a fundamental right of every child and any attack on an educational institution is a violation of that right,” the UN agency said.

But it’s obvious that abductors have different ideas and different values. According to a study, more than $18 million was paid as ransom to kidnappers in the country from 2011 to 2020, and the greater part of the payment was from 2016 to 2020 when about $11 million was paid.

In the local currency, these are huge figures indeed. It shows that kidnapping for ransom, also described as “economic kidnapping,” is a thriving business, albeit an evil one. Sadly, it is even regarded as a “growth industry.”

Some analysts forecast that kidnap-for-ransom cases will increase in the country as a result of increased unemployment.  This is a worrying scenario, considering that Nigeria already has one of the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases.

The authorities need to do more to ensure schools are safe for all students, and should urgently pursue improved socio-economic conditions to discourage kidnapping for ransom. There is no room for buck-passing.

The Federal Government recently made known it is planning to declare a special national day for senior citizens. Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq gave that indication when the management team of the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) led by its Director-General, Dr. Emem Omokaro, visited her in Abuja. “I want to commend Omokaro for the pace at which she is settling down to work. With the assemblage of the management team at her disposal, I am confident that the overall objectives of the NSCC will be realised soon,” she said, adding that she was resolved to follow-through on a request that Omokaro had made.

Earlier, Omokaro requested the declaration of a national day of older persons in Nigeria in either August or early September to forerun the International Day of Older Persons that the United Nations General Assembly, by resolution 45/106, declared in 1990 and has been holding yearly on 1st October. Among other things, she also solicited assistance for the NSCC to secure national registration of the Senior Citizens of Nigeria (SCN) scheme intended to cover persons 70 years and above. “The purpose is for their effective identification for public respect, age-friendly services a    concessions in banking services and facilities, road, air and rail transportation services as well as health and hospital services,” she said.

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The bill creating the NSCC was passed by the National Assembly late in 2017 and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2018, but it took off only in June, this year, when its board was constituted. The centre is designed to cater to the welfare of citizens aged 70 and above in areas like healthcare, pensions, income security, leisure, supplementary income and other social protection safety nets. The enabling law further outlines the centre’s functions to include keeping records and statistics concerning senior citizens in the country, and partnering with sub-national, national and international bodies in achieving its objectives.

Symbolisms have their place, and the whole point of the UN marking the International Day of Older Persons every year obviously is to raise global awareness on humanity’s responsibility for the welfare of the elderly. But it is of specious value addition to declare a separate commemorative day at the national level. Problems facing senior citizens in Nigeria are numerous, of which chief among them is the difficulty in getting their gratuity and pensions after years of service and at a time they can’t any longer fend for themselves. It is either these entitlements aren’t paid, and where paid, they have to go through repeated processes of ‘verification’ and hang out as for doles on long queues where many have had fainting spells before. Older persons also have challenges with the specialist medical care they need owing to paucity of geriatricians. And largely due to cultural sensibilities, there are no homes for the care of the elderly in Nigeria. Government and NSCC should forget symbolisms and concretely fix these challenges to provide them needed succour.

Comic strips, from the PDP leadership crisis — real or contrived — continue to hit the media by the day.

Which is why you would wonder why a PDP lobby would question the embattled national chairman’s right to the courts, to return the first fire, trained at him from the same courts.

The Nation of August 23 reported the PDP Women Caucus, in the Andoni local government area of Rivers State, had declared themselves piqued at not-so-total Chairman, Uche Secondus, for his alleged recourse to a Nasarawa State high court, in the ongoing battle for the national soul of PDP.

Total Chairman — remember that was how poor Secundus was hailed, in those halcyon days, before sweet, innocuous songs became deep, scathing riddles of abuse?

“We had expected Secondus, who had been suspended in his Ward in Andoni local government area of Rivers State, for anti-party activity, to defend himself here in Rivers State,”  they said in a release signed by Doris Owaji (caucus president) and Beauty Owaji (secretary).

“We have no doubt our mind that Mr. Secondus’ decision to file a suit in Nasarawa State proves that he must have entered into a conspiracy with the APC to thwart PDP’s quest to win the 2023 general elections,” they further claimed.

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On the surface, maybe this query makes some sense, as far as mutual bad faith and wild partisan allegations go; even if it doesn’t quite make any logical sense.  True, Secondus could enter defence in the Rivers court.  But does anything preclude him from seeking redress in other courts?

But while you wrap your head round the whole thing, the biting wit from the Secondus camp just sends you reeling and flailing.

Riposted Ike Abonyi, media adviser to the embattled Secondus: “People who went to court are now afraid of court — interesting!  This is another of their voyage” he charged.  “Discerning minds know who is destroying the party.    They have now divided Nigerian courts into APC and PDP.”

Meaning?  That if you “Rivers” me and I will “Nasarawa” you?  Are we approaching another high drama of ambitious and reckless politicians playing yo-yo with the court procedure, just to out-do one another?

However this tragi-comedy is resolved, both parties must ensure the judiciary is not ridiculed.  Indeed, the courts must make sure of that.  Though the courts are not perfect, they are, bar arbitration, the only avenue left for civil settlement of disputes.

So, the courts should frown — indeed, slam — any suspect forum-shopping, while both parties exercise their rights in whatever courts they choose, so long as that is within the law.

It is laughable to see Nigeria’s military leadership trying to show that it is on top of the situation following the invasion of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Afaka, Kaduna State, on August 24, by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

The institution’s spokesman, Major Bashir Jajira, said in a statement that its “security architecture was compromised by unknown gunmen who gained access into the residential area within the Academy in Afaka.”  “We lost two personnel and one was abducted,” he added.

He said security personnel had “commenced pursuit of the unknown gunmen within the general area to track them” and rescue the abductee, and assured the public that the invaders “would soon be apprehended” and the abductee rescued.

Also, the Director of Defence Information, Major General Benjamin Sawyer, said the gunmen “sneaked in after breaching the perimeter fence,” adding that they “went straight to the officers’ living quarters and started shooting sporadically.”

This is one attack that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. NDA is a military university that trains officer cadets for commissioning into the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. It is unclear what the security arrangement was in the institution and how the invaders were able to not only get into the institution but also kill and abduct people who were there.

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It is noteworthy that the Airport staff quarters and the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka had been attacked by gunmen in the past, which should have made the military authorities tighten security at NDA which is located in the same area. In the middle of the country’s security crisis, it is ridiculous that the military left its major training institution open to attack.

Increasingly, the military is showing that it is overwhelmed by the security crisis. This strike at NDA has further shown that the military needs fresh ideas to tackle insecurity.

It looked like a sign of desperation when the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Leo Iraboh, announced that the Army planned to collaborate with retired senior military officers to deal with the country’s security challenges.

During an interactive session with retired senior military officers from the Northeast at the 23 Armoured Brigade in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on August 24, Iraboh said he was looking for “holistic solutions about how to bring to an end the insecurity challenges in the region.” He added that he expected the retirees to “be ready to open up to us in areas that will enhance security, also be able to tell us areas of our mistakes and for us to make corrections.”

These are strong signs that the military is in a mess. Perhaps the military needs to be saved from itself.

Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari has become the latest exponent of the self-help doctrine. He has called on residents of areas prone to banditry in his state to acquire weapons and defend themselves against the outlaws. According to him, it is morally wrong for people to submit meekly to the bandits without any attempt to defend themselves because security is everybody’s business.

Speaking last Tuesday in Jibia when he visited to condole with families of 10 persons crushed to death by a Nigerian Customs Service vehicle, the governor said it was the people’s meek submission that had emboldened bandits to continue with their heinous acts with murderous frequency, and people must purge their minds of the mistaken notion that security is government’s sole responsibility. While noting that prayers are important, he argued that self-help also has its place: “We must intensify prayers with clean minds to seek God’s forgiveness and intervention. We must all rise up to counter the insecurity challenge, we must not sit and watch some people buying guns attacking our houses, we too should buy guns and protect ourselves,” he said. Earlier, Masari told Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant-Gen. Faruk Yahaya that Katsina was under siege by bandits and kidnappers, a situation that has left 10 out of the 34 council areas vulnerable.

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With his call last week, the Katsina governor joined the league of Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom who had serially canvassed that Benue people defend themselves against herdsmen militias killing residents across the state’s communities. At least twice last May, Ortom asked the people to acquire weapons not prohibited by law to defend themselves. “Rise up and defend yourselves with weapons not prohibited by law: bows and arrows, spears and knives. Get a licence for Dane guns from local government chairmen and use them to defend yourselves,” he said at an inter-denominational church service held at the Government House in Makurdi. “Our people have had enough of these killings and they should rise to defend themselves against any external attack. We need to live,” he said at another event in Adoka, Otukpo council area of the state.

Before you rule the doctrine utterly rouge, its proponents include Defence Minister Major-Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.), who last February was reported saying Nigerians should show they aren’t cowards by defending themselves against bandits. “It is the responsibility of everybody to keep alert and find safety when necessary. We shouldn’t be cowards. At times, the bandits will only come with about three rounds of ammunition, and when they fire shots, everybody runs. In our younger days, we stand to fight any aggression coming for us. I don’t know why people are running from minor things like that,” he told journalists.

Self-defence is a rule of the jungle necessitated by absence of state protection. When leading government figures espouse the option, they impliedly admit the failure of government.

It’s tough to brag with bona fides you hardly have.  But that seems the self cul-de-sac former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rammed himself.  Even if he tried, he appears honestly incapable of extricating himself from that hole.

Atiku’s umpteenth bluster, of course, flows neatly into PDP’s well-established bluff, in a classic case of the blustering man meet the posturing party.  Despite feasting on the current insecurity challenges, which have triggered heightened hysteria on the ethnic exit front, it’s not clear on what credible past records Atiku and party would campaign in 2023.

In a leaked memo, in which hope seemed to spring eternal in the Atiku presidential dreams, the former Vice President rhapsodized: “We are fully prepared to work in synergy to restore hope, pull Nigeria back from the brink and relive the patriotic spirit of our founding fathers!” Nice pitch!

“I believe that together we would rebuild our broken fences, mend our cracked walls, restore hope, and return Nigeria to the path of greatness again.  Surely, we can, and we must.”  Great!

But was Nigeria ever great when Atiku was Vice — pun absolutely unintended — to President Olusegun Obasanjo; and when the duo feuded, not to raise the lot of the common man under their charge, but to secure privileges each was creaming from the system?

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And if Nigeria was never great under the duo, on what past “greatness” is Atiku the dreamer bench-marking a future nirvana under Atiku and party?  Of course, the cunning politician knows this vacuous pitch would register with not a few among the starry-eyed, since Nigerians generally lack collective memory.  Still, it’s at best a mirage, the emptiness of which is exposed at the earliest opportunity!

The other day, Atiku rubbed it in, mocking that kidnappers and allied bandits could well go ahead and register their nefarious trade with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).  That was hook well connected, given the current plague of these criminals.

Besides, it was the sort of laconic, if devastating, wit Alhaji Lai Mohammed patented during his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)/APC days as national publicity secretary, from which poor, ruling PDP, back then, painfully reeled.

But since displacing PDP from power, Muhammed’s APC has gone ahead to chalk up some feats: Nigerian rice, for starters, as general metaphor for strides in local agriculture and path to food security; then, modern rail — again as general metaphor for renewed restoration in infrastructure: roads, bridges and airports.

Both appeared impossible in the Nigeria that Atiku and Obasanjo bossed, for the first eight years from 1999; and what their successors, mainly President Goodluck Jonathan, did in the succeeding eight years.

Why, a video just went viral, in which Doyin Okupe, who just declared he was Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s projected messiah for the 2023 presidency, lectured that modern rail was an absolute impossibility, in Africa’s biggest economy — even with much more earnings!  Yet, leaner times are here but better rail is debuting!  See?

Atiku can posture and bluster as he wishes — his democratic right!  But how to walk his flowery talk?  We’ll see!

Dr. Doyin Okupe, remember him?  Of course, everyone knows that great son of Iperu, Remo, Ogun State, as a stellar medic of many years standing, lifting the banner of the great Okupe clan to higher heights.

You can also trust Okupe, a core Yoruba political conservative, to follow his core conscience, even if his fellow conservatives falter.  That explains his involvement in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) movement during the hot years, under Gen. Sani Abacha, to revalidate the MKO Abiola June 12 mandate, which annulment had consumed the annuller-in-chief, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

But maybe not many would remember Okupe, though a medic, as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first presidential spin master, as special assistant on Media and Publicity –an apparent carry-over as publicity czar, of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC).

NRC was the “a little bit to the right” Siamese twin, to the “a little bit to the left” Social Democratic Party (SDP), in IBB’s glorious era of eternal political transition, which nevertheless birthed a cancelled election!  With IBB, therefore, Okupe would appear to have come a long way.

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Still, the excitable spin-master, as against the deliberative, clinical medic, seems to have violently seized Okupe.  In a rush, Okupe has claimed IBB had him in mind, when he told Arise TV that he had pencilled down at least three suitable candidates, in their 60s, who would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

IBB, visioner-in-chief, in the powerful IBB Selectorate 2023, had roared on Arise TV: “I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader.  That is, a person who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to, and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with.  That is a person,” he lectured, “who is very versed in economics, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on.  I have seen one, or two or three of such persons already in his sixties.  I believe so if we can get him,” he declared with oracular finality!

But IBB had hardly finished his selectorate lecture before Okupe rushed to Arise TV studios, and with bated breath, declared: “I am he!”  IBB, the triumphant Okupe enthused, “had me in mind.” More: “there’s no local government in this country that I’ve not visited five times.”  Even more: “I’m the most fairly well-prepared person to be president”.  Not forgetting: “I’m in my 60s”.  Ha!

Okupe is 69, vigorously knocking on the door of 70.

Well, Okupe is no stranger to spectacular goofs.  The other time, he told folks to call him a “bastard” if the newly formed APC lasted a year.  As it turned out, the same APC sacked him and his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan from power.

As to the selector-in-chief, need anyone remind Okupe the last time IBB was posturing on future presidents, even as powerful, self-declared “military president”, none qualified, beyond IBB himself — except that he, who was not only in office but also in power, lacked the guts to say so!

Moral?  Believe IBB and you can believe Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s three witches!

Still, Okupe has a democratic right to own airy delusions.  Even if it turns out no more than the bastard debacle, Okupe would carry his own cross.  He is burly, sturdy and hefty enough to do that with ease!