The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • What are air passengers’ rights during COVID-19?

    What are air passengers’ rights during COVID-19?

    In this article, Osaze Ogbomo examines the rights available to stranded passengers and other air passengers who are dissatisfied with the services of their airline operators during the COVID-19 pandemic

     

    IT is no longer a surprise that the effect of the coronavirus pandemic has permeated almost all sectors of the global economy. The aviation sector for instance, is among those hard done by the virus partly because it is airborne. It has led various government around the world to issue policies such as air travel restrictions, thereby prohibiting movement of individuals in and around its jurisdiction. Until the successful try out of vaccines on patients or a cure is found, the lockdown imposed by various countries has been accepted as the best measure to curb the spread of the disease.

    However, it cannot be denied that the pandemic has created a lot of problems which has left some air passengers stranded in various cities around the world. Some passengers prior to the restriction on air travel never expected that they will have to deal with an extended stay when planning their trip abroad while others are being faced with the challenge of expired passports or visas. No one can be blamed for some of these challenges as the infamous COVID-19 as it is often called is widely regarded as an Act of God. Due to the fact that the cause of it which gives the disease substance is relatively unknown.

    The precarious situation which many stranded air passengers now find themselves has made it necessary to enlighten the public regarding their rights under applicable extant laws and regulations. In Nigeria, aviation matters are placed within the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Assembly in its constitution. In exercise of that power the National Assembly, enacted the Civil Aviation Act 2006 (CAA) as the principal law governing the rights of air passengers in the Nigerian aviation industry. The law in section 48(2) of the CAA 2006, integrates some of the resolutions of the Montreal Convention 1999 which protects air passengers’ rights from liability of airline operators in cases of delay, injuries, loss or damage to luggages and cargo. It is the Civil Aviation Act 2006 which establishes and empowers the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as the regulatory agency responsible for supervising the Nigerian aviation industry. In section 27 of the Act, the NCAA is authorised to protect the rights of air passengers by investigating, imposing fines on culprits and ensuring compliance with the Act. More so, the Act empowers the NCAA to enact relevant regulatory bodies and guidelines to protect air passengers, that is why it implemented the Consumer Protection Department (CPD). The CPD is responsible for enlightening and protecting consumers while ensuring that quality services within the aviation industry is not munted.

    The Consumer Protection Regulation was introduced under Part 19 of the Civil Aviation Regulations to enable the CPD to regulate and enforce the rights of airline passengers. The regulation governs passenger rights and airlines’ obligations to passengers. Also, it addresses consumer protection complaints and sets out the mode of compensation for instances such as flight delays, cancellations, overbooking and denied boarding on airplanes. Moreover, its scope is limited to air passengers travelling from an airport outside Nigeria to a Nigerian airport; or an airport to an airport outside Nigeria and one airport to another.

    In addition, the aviation regime under Part 19, of the Civil Aviation Regulations 2015 and the NCAA Consumer Protection Guidelines stipulates the procedure for enforcing air passengers’ rights. It is a mandatory requirement of the NCAA for all service providers in the aviation industry to set up a customer service desk where complaints from airline customers will be received. Customers who are dissatisfied with the service have the option to lodge further complaints to the NCAA by completing a consumer protection complaint form or write a letter of complaint addressed to the director general of the NCAA. The NCAA, through the CPD, will investigate all complaints and notify affected airline operators of its findings requiring them to respond within a specified time. If a particular complaint cannot be resolved, it will be transferred to the Administrative Hearing Panel in which the affected parties will have to provide the panel with statements on which they will be heard. Depending on the veracity of each complaint, the panel in its discretion may decide that compensation be paid to the complainant or if not satisfied direct that further criminal prosecution be made if required.

    Furthermore, the NCAA allows customers the opportunity to refer a complaint to the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), a body established to redress consumer complaints across all sectors in Nigeria. It is expected that the complainant using this option have attempted an initial resolution with the affected airline operator before approaching the CPC. A dissatisfied customer who decides to approach the CPC may lodge a complaint stating the following; the name and address of the alleged party who breached the aviation regulations by conduct, the disputed amount which was lost as a result of the airline operator’s conduct and the expected remedy. It is necessary to provide supporting documents to aid the CPC’s investigation so it can establish a valid complaint. However, if these measures fail to resolve the underlying issues complained about, any dissatisfied complainant can resort to taking legal action in a Nigerian court for final redress of the matter.

    In a situation where an aggrieved party decides to take legal action against an airline operator or a regulatory body in the Nigerian aviation industry, the law with reference to section 251(k) of the Constitution and section 63 of the CAA 2006, grants the Federal High Court exclusive jurisdiction to hear civil and criminal suits on aviation disputes except where the matter in dispute is a labour matter, then the National Industrial Court becomes the court with appropriate jurisdiction to hear the suit. The service of court processes is guided by the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, the Sheriff and Civil Processes Act and the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (Civil Procedure) Rules 2017.

    Finally, the pandemic has brought about unpredictable circumstances for air passengers, so far, we have seen the international aviation community, take initiatives over safety concerns to secure the health of millions of passengers which would otherwise be compromised by continuous movement and gathering. It is evident that individuals and businesses have been affected by the pandemic because of the disruption it has caused. However, stranded passengers who are dissatisfied with the service from their airline operators should adopt a cautious approach and seek legal advice from a legal practitioner about their situation to find out possible options such as whether a compensation is possible before taking further action.

     

    • Ogbomo is an Associate with Perchstone & Graeys, Benin Office.

     

  • Stimulating the economy for global competitiveness

    Stimulating the economy for global competitiveness

    By Kenneth O. Eze

     

    EVERY country that desires to keep pace with the world by being globally competitive, must constantly measure themselves against the best, to identify and strive to bridge the gaps. Nigeria cannot be an exception. Nigeria must consider this approach, if she is to get out the economic woods to which several nations have been thrown by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    With attention gradually shifting from the Covid-19 pandemic to business recovery, focus must be on the private sector, particularly the fruits that the economy can reap from public-private cooperation. Unity is strength and if there is a time that all hands must be on the deck to ensure economic prosperity, that time is now.

    Kudos to the organized private sector for standing by the government in efforts to manage and mitigate the pandemic in Nigeria. It does appear that more can be done, especially if coordinated strategy is applied to this. Applying strategy instead of contingency, would save money for the donor-businesses and government, enthrone accountability and even create employment.

    This is why I commend the dream that gave birth to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, an independent, non-sectarian organization, committed to fostering open and continuous dialogue on Nigeria’s economic development, and the passion that has kept it alive since 1993.

    Intervention by the private sector should not and cannot be one-off, neither can it be disjointed, else it would be difficult to measure impact and stay focused. A proactively sustained cooperation would aid both private and public sector deliver to the masses the much-desired prosperity.

    This partnership must be dialogue-led, else, it would be running into constant brick walls. It is pertinent that each business segment must be regulated and effective regulation must stem from a sound knowledge of the business being regulated.

    The Nigerian experience has taught us that while government is big, it is probably too big to be swift. Every business needs good speed to keep pace in today’s economic environment, irrespective of country of operations. This is why government should concentrate on governance, good governance, while operators can devote their time to management, translating policies into tangible results and being accountable to investors, the government and the public. An adage has it that no dog, no matter how smart, can watch two gates at the same time. Nigeria should look to reaping from specialization.

    Now that minds are contemplating life and business post-pandemic, Nigeria must brace-up to get things right. Even the most well managed economies fear that the devastating effects of the pandemic can lead to a recession. Weaker economies can brace-up for depression or something worse.

    But Nigeria can gain more from its collaboration with the NESG, particularly under its annual public economic advocacy platform, The Nigerian Economic Summit, which the government and the private sector can use to review the progress made in economic reform efforts and agree on practical ways to manage issues which may have constrained effective execution.

    This year’s summit is important, as the pandemic means that the way humans knew how to live has been altered for good. So, one can ask, ‘are there policies that the new normal has consigned to the dustbin? Are there policies that businesses have found unbearable or un-implementable?’ The 2020 summit would not just present a platform for issues of regulation or policies affecting businesses to be ironed out amicably, it would be a common ground to lay solid foundations for stimulating the economy for resilience, with the building blocks of public-private sector partnerships.

    Applying the tool of dialogue would be a win-win for all stakeholders, comprising government, businesses and the citizenry, even external investors. While this will help the NESG live up to its mission of promoting and championing the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, globally competitive economy, it will also strengthen the bond holding businesses and regulators, and encourage external investment in Nigeria.

    Some of the recent strides of the NESG in this direction can be readily recalled.

    Part of the beauty of the annual summit of the NESG is the review of outcomes of previous summits. This ensures focus, so that participants are guided by facts of history in arriving at the best of decisions.

    The NESG has facilitated international cooperation and donation to support research for the domestic economy, but the most striking partnerships that the NESG has brokered, is the partnership with the Nigerian Governors Forum and the National Universities Commission.

    The NGF-NESG Economic Roundtable, a collaboration of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group birthed since October 2017. This has as part of its objectives to promote sub-national competitiveness and provide platforms for robust engagements that build state governments’ capability to develop institutions and policies that they need to drive higher levels of productivity and economic growth. Part of the things that helped Nigeria attain rapid growth after independence was regional competitiveness.

    Another laudable area where NESG can use to stimulate national economic growth and development is in its cooperation with the National Universities Commission, (NUC). The NESG has an agreement with the National Universities Commission (NUC) for collaboration on the development of solutions to strategically drive effective development of a productive university system to guaranty quality and relevant education for national development, and a globally competitive economy. Hopefully, this improves the employability of graduates as it aims to bridge the gap between business and the academia.

    To this end, the NESG assembled a team of stakeholders to identify the gaps with a view to developing a strategy that would make the products (graduates) of higher institutions in Nigeria globally competitive.

    As stakeholders prepare to assemble at the 2020 edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit, the 26th in the series, it would be great opportunity to participate and contribute to national discourse. The NES #26 will be a gathering of national and global policy makers, business leaders, development partners and scholars to lead and participate in sessions with attention on ‘Building strategic partnerships’ and cooperation between governments, businesses and civil society for resilience.

    • Eze, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Ikeja, Lagos State.

  • #EndSARS: Power returns to the people

    #EndSARS: Power returns to the people

    By Fredrick Nwabufo

    SIR: Power has returned to its rightful repository – the people. Our liberators did not come from the north, the south or the east and west of Nigeria. They emerged from the ruins of the country; they broke free from the noxious culture of silence and shattered the substructure of generational complicity and conspiracy. They are the youth of Nigeria; the deliverer of the colony of slaves – from the fowler’s snare and deadly pestilence.

    The #EndSARS protests did not only end a ferocious unit of the police and constrained the capricious hands of the government into making pledges of initiating reforms in the force; it also galvanised Nigerians, particularly the young, across religions and ethnic groups to put the government to task. Government should be in the service of the people and not the other way around. Really, there is no mortar that can crush a people forged into a fist; when the people kill fear, the government becomes afraid.

    #EndSARS could be the beginning of the end of all Nigeria’s maladies. Citizens – of all ages — have realised their voice counts. They have seen the government tremble in trepidation of a united assemblage of people. Just like Xerxes, the god-king, bled from the spear of King Leonidas, they have seen the very intransigent regime bleed. Nigerians have been unplugged from the matrix by a legion of young resistance. It may never be the same again. Power has returned to the people. The government should be afraid.

    The youth have pointed us to a path out of darkness, state repression and oppression. They have given us hope in the possibility of a new country where possibilities are not impossible.  They have seized the baton on the relay race to a contemporary Nigeria. It could be a dawn of new beginnings.

    I have seen arguments on the need to be cautiously optimistic about the fruits of the recent agitation. Some say the old order of things could return as soon as the #EndSARS protests peter out. Well, I do not want to be cautiously optimistic. I am very optimistic about the far-reaching and indelible impact of this movement. It may never be the same.  A new precedent has been set upon which other exemplars will follow.

    I do not think there has been anything of this magnitude in our recent history. When any government becomes insouciant about the plight of citizens, the #EndSARS protest will be an aide-memoire – to remind that government of citizens’ wrath. No sane government will want to be on the testy side of the people.

    Really, Nigerians are on a fight for survival, and nothing else matters. By the time this night is over, I believe a dawn of healthy government-citizen relationship will set in.

    • Fredrick Nwabufo, <fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com> 
  • Northern governors and #EndSARS protests 

    Northern governors and #EndSARS protests 

    By Erasmus Ikhide

    SIR: It’s mind-numbing that Middle Belt governor, Simon Lalong – whose part of the country is baying for restructuring is the one leading a pack designated as axis of terror. It was his lot to pass on the rejection of the Special Anti-robbery Squad SARS disbandment by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    How well has the SARS been providing security in the northern region in the midst of virtual bloodbath that’s almost consuming the entire region daily? Bandits and herdsmen have routed and razed Plateau State cities and villages over a dozen times under Lalong’s governorship; killing innocent citizens in their thousands without resistance from SARS and the military!

    Why is the North still entrapped at the ocean of bloodbath if the lose-lose strategy of the security apparatus has yielded positive results? What strides have the current northern governors made toward eradicating poverty, reducing childhood mortality, increasing life expectancy, infant marriages, or expanding literacy at all levels in the North?

    By the way, how do we expect a Governor Simon Lalong with such an outdated worldview and the other northern governors to know that the only acceptable response to #EndSARS protests is to pursue a “Great Reset” of the nation’s economy, politics, all-inclusive education and job creation?

    It’s obvious with the on-going protests tagged #EndSARS that we have placed too much premium of our democratic functionality on the presidency, neglecting the power of the people ‘freely’ given to the legislators to exercise on their behalf. nNow, Nigerian youths are determined to take that power back from legislators through protests for their rights, since it is useless to the legislators.

    Now, this is the moment of truth. Our legislators must be made accountable to people. We’re obliged to educate the legislators that they’re more empowered by the constitution than the president to restructure, if the nation’s democracy must yield fruit.

    The weakness of the legislative governance is the reason the proponents of restructuring have been dancing on the same spot for years without any significant achievement. The nation’s legislative majority on the basis of geopolitics are not working on the same page with the aspiration of the people they are representing. Rather, they have been operating on the basis of parochial party affiliations.

    How can the Southwest, Southeast, South-south and Middle Belts been clamouring for restructuring over the years for two geopolitical zones to hold them down to chasm?

    People like Governor Lalong can’t learn to be right-handed at old age. That was evident in his timid press briefing at the presidential villa last Thursday evening, on behalf of his northern governors’ colleagues. It’s clear they can’t learn new things. You can’t do away with the basic engine of growth and expect results.

    The answer to the collapse of the present national government, both at the states and local governments levels is either auto restructuring or referendum. It’s only a retarded generation of leadership that does the same thing over and over again and expects different results.

    The ‘Great Reset’ is here and it is being driven by the unexpected voices – the youths – those who have been abandoned and left to waste away. They have found escape route and have been misusing technology for criminal purposes. They’re set to “co-shape” the future of their own country, after clashing with criminal minded police authorities.

    The reset is about pragmatic step toward a more resilient, cohesive, and sustainable Nigeria where the government of the day would be responsive to its social contract with the citizens. In the process, some of the pillars of the state architecture have to be replaced, and others repaired or strengthened. To achieve these, modern statecraft is required. Nothing more – or less.

    • Erasmus Ikhide, 

     ikhideerasmus@gmail.com 

  • To end police brutality, reform is a desideratum

    To end police brutality, reform is a desideratum

    By Asikason Jonathan

    SIR: SARS was established in 1992 to nip armed robbery, kidnapping and other related crimes in their buds. Unfortunately, its operatives went about this mandate in a diametrically opposite way, in the process, routinely perpetrating acts of extrajudicial killing, torture and cruel, inhuman acts against citizens in their custody.

    But, can the disbandment of SARS end police brutality? Will the defunct SARS operatives, now redeployed to other units of the police, change overnight? The SARS menace must be seen as a just a part of the rot in the Nigeria police. The security agency simply needs overhauling.

    To understand why wanton brutality and violence have become the modus operandi of the Nigeria police in general, one needs to understand the psychological makeup of the personnel of the security apparatus.

    In a recent study on the violent and aggressive tendencies of Nigeria police, Nwankwo et al (2020) investigated the role of empathy, psychological wellbeing and emotional intelligence on the aggressive tendencies of the personnel of Nigeria police. Relying on extant literature and data elicited from 230 respondents from the Force, selected through cluster and incidental sampling, the study concluded that the low empathy, psychological wellbeing, emotional intelligence of the Nigeria police personnel significantly leads to the personnel’s high aggressive tendencies.

    Correspondingly, Ahmad Lateef noted in his Walden Ph.D thesis that “Over 90 percent of police officers in Nigeria are confronted with psychological illness and injuries as a result of occupational stress, which is compounded by a lack of attention to police officer welfare by government, insufficient annual leave, and poor salaries that contribute to poor performance.”

    What all these imply is simple: Nigeria police is in dire need of reform. Thank goodness, the agitation in the streets has moved from #EndSARS to #ReformPolice. But one important caveat that Nigerians should bear in mind is that reformation cannot be a day project. It can only take an incremental process.

    Before now, the Nigeria police had undergone many reformations. From the days of Musiliu Smith to the present leadership of Muhammad Adamu, many inspectors general of police introduced one reform or another to ensure seamless operation of the security agency. Tafa Balogun pursued 8-point agenda when he assumed office after the compulsory retirement of his predecessor, Musiliu Smith, who, in his time, offered a blueprint for reform designed to address the legacy of military rule when he assumed office in 1999. Sunday Ehindero talked about community policing and secured international support from countries. The United Kingdom, UK, funded a programme of community policing, the United States of America, USA, donated anti-riot equipment while Spain offered anti-terrorism and forensic science training, and Ukraine.

    Needless to say, all these reforms, despite their usefulness at the time, could not end the endemic corruption within the Nigeria police nor were they able to foresee the monster that SARS transmogrified into.

    One suggests that recruitment into the Nigeria police, for now, should be limited to graduates. Graduates who intend to join the Force should first undergo a one-year compulsory training at the Police Training Institute where only those that distinguish themselves should be employed.

    Furthermore, community-police relations should, as well, be encouraged. Today’s idea is democratic policing, essentially implying police that is publicly accountable, subject to rule of law, respectful of human dignity and that intrudes into citizen’s lives only under certain limited circumstances as established by the law.

    Another critical area to consider in the ongoing agitation for reform is the issue of state police. SARS operatives were able to perpetrate many heinous crimes with impunity because of the federal hierarchical structure of the Nigerian Police. In many occasions, commissioners of police were unable to rein in the excesses of SARS officers on the ground that the SARS personnel only take orders from Abuja and not the state command of the police.

    Definitely, state police when emplaced will, amongst other things, enhance swift and effective policing which will negate the resort to “order from Abuja,” a situation that makes nonsense of the concept of the state governor being the chief security officer of his state.

    #EndSARS will not solve the problem of police brutality if we do not overhaul the whole system. Police reform is a desideratum.

    • Asikason Jonathan, Enugwu-ukwu, Anambra State.
  • #EndSARS: Strictly speaking…

    #EndSARS: Strictly speaking…

    By Tiko Okoye

    The #EndSARS  protesters have a point –  but we tend to focus on the symptoms rather than the disease in this country. The tragedy of most reforms, lamented American essayist and poet Henry Thoreau, is that “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root”!

    In a quick response to the nationwide protests, the Presidency gave the Inspector General of Police (IGP) the green light to disband SARS. But already protesters are saying that it is not enough. They have now formed a new hash-tag group called #EndSWAT aimed at rendering the IGP’s plan to build a completely new unit to fight violent crimes dead on arrival! I believe that after so many years of appearing powerless, the victory of the #EndSARS protests is making our youths giddy and ready to solve all the problems of the nation overnight in one fell swoop.

    The youths have hopefully clearly demonstrated to our political leaders that power truly belongs to the people and it will no longer be business as usual going forward. But we must be guided by the cautionary advice of the 26th US President, Theodore Roosevelt, to the effect that “The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable in the wellbeing of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck”!

    Police brutality and extra-judicial killings are real and must be condemned in the strongest possible language. Some of my relatives, associates and I have been victims of brutal and inhumane treatment in the hands of SARS operatives, but it would be very ungodly of me to deny that there have equally not been circumstances when the timely interventions of SARS operatives nipped major tragedies in the bud. My principle in life is to never throw away the baby with the bathwater. There is no character blight that cannot be reformed if the will and a conducive environment are enjoined.

    As usual, politicians are making maximum capital out of the sad situation. Funds are being established in a rapid-fire manner by state governors, ostensibly to compensate victims of police brutality in a little-disguised gambit to play to the gallery. How would the victims be determined? How long would the process – investigations, assessment, approvals and payments – take? Do not be surprised if this just provides another opportunity for government officials to enrich themselves! Would it not have been better to equally set up funds to dramatically raise the remuneration packages and living conditions of members of the Nigeria Police?

    “Unless the reformer,” bellowed revered American journalist Walter Lippmann, “can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail”! Just imagine a sergeant earning N53,000 per month, out which he/she pays transport fares and buys food for the family; and we are not talking of school fees, clothes, utility bills and emergencies. And you hand a lethal weapon to such an obviously disgruntled and frustrated individual and expect him/her to be a saint?

    Now this: let the government enlist the protesters in both existing and new police formations under the prevailing circumstances and let the public assess their scorecards after just 12months! That’s when it would be clear to all and sundry that “khaki no be leather.”

    “All reformism,” read a graffiti on a wall during the 1968 French Student Revolt, “is characterised by utopian strategy and tactical opportunism” – and we very well know how that one ended. An American adage says that when you pay peanuts (groundnuts) as salaries, you can only attract monkeys, so we must be ready to fund the police formations of our collective dream. But then, government revenues are not unlimited and the police is not the only development priority of the government. It therefore means that a proper balance has to be struck.

    “Experience,” paradoxically posited French painter Ferdinand Delacroix, “has two things to teach: the first is that we must correct a great deal; the second, that we must not correct too much.” Perhaps, one way to strike this balance is by decentralising the police and rejigging the revenue sharing formula to empower the states to do much more. Police staff should also be made to live among the people rather than in dehumanising, squalid barracks. They can then be given housing allowances would overcompensate them for the loss of corporate housing estates enjoyed as part of conditions of service in other public sectors.

    And since the American policing architecture unanimously appears to be the model we want, then let us also, as is done in America, introduce the shift system/duty rotation and allow police employees to take up part-time jobs as private security personnel as a way of augmenting their disposable incomes.

    The police may be the object of ridicule right now as we tend to make a caricature of the motto that says “The police is your friend;” but as a counter adage posits, “If you say the police is your enemy, approach the armed robber for assistance or resort to self-help when next you have a serious challenge.”

    Police morale is very low right now and if nothing is quickly done to reverse the trend, and police men and women start hiding their uniforms in order not to be targeted for harassment and intimidation by protesters, you can be sure that we are well on a one-way ride to the Hobbesian State. My fellow compatriots, we have succeeded in proving that power truly belongs to the people, but rationality must not be allowed to yield the right of way to illogicality.

    Let us now vacate the streets as the lack of productivity dangerously threatens the recoverability of an economy already wobbling from cascading crude oil prices and the deleterious effects of the rampaging coronavirus pandemic.

    Blocking major streets and city centres also prevents innocent Nigerians from freely exercising their inalienable right to freedom of movement. “Whoever fights monsters,” warned German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, “should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” The best course to pursue henceforth is to allow the government to flesh-out its reform programmes while we closely monitor their progress within an agreed reasonable period of time.

    Let me reiterate that the protesters are fighting a just cause that requires every reasonable Nigerian to be onboard. But having said that, it is also imperative to know where and when to draw a line in order to prevent the protests from bring hijacked by criminals and malevolent politicians ready and willing to inflict more havoc than is necessary on the entire police organisation in an environment of lawlessness and widespread civil disorder, as there would be a far heavier price to pay by the citizenry.

    Still, there would be many who would see whatever they want to see in this piece and come at me with guns blazing. But that is equally okay as I fully concur with the stance of French dramatist and philosopher Voltaire when he observed that “In any clime and time where and when it is given to worship the sun, it is a high crime to even attempt to examine the laws of heat”!

    God bless Nigeria!

     

     

    • Okoye is Public Affairs Analyst Abuja, 08054103648

  • My relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari

    My relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari

    By Salihu Tanko Yakasai

    IN light of recent events that transpired over my recent comments about the government of President Buhari, I think it is absolutely necessary to shed more light on my decades of relationship with the President, and how I am not doing anybody’s bidding with my remarks but simply reacting to issues that are happening in my country. What is more, my comments were not aimed at casting aspersion against the person or government of Mr. President. Far from that!

    I joined partisan politics in December 2000 at the age of 24, when I officially became a member of the defunct APP at my ward, Kawaji in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State. At that time, Kano State was PDP-controlled under the then governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. So, I entered politics as an opposition member in my state. As at that time, I was contesting for the position of a councilor at my ward, which ended with my losing the primary election in 2004.

    In 2002, I was in All Progressives Party (APP) when President Buhari picked the membership card of the party and officially joined politics to run for the presidency in the 2003 elections. At that time, I and millions of people particularly from the north welcomed this decision by the President with enthusiasm and zeal and we supported him 100%. We were basically the 1st set of the so-called ‘cult-like followership ‘ of the President, simply because we believed in him to deliver and lead this country to prosperity. He came into politics as someone people trusted and whom they see as an upright person that they can vouch for, earning him the nickname ‘Mai Gaskiya’.

    We campaigned for him through thick and thin, street to street, the young and the old, and when it was election time, I was assigned by my party leaders at my ward to be the returning officer of our party, APP, for the presidential election which Buhari was contesting for. We fought PDP hard at my ward to ensure that we delivered the ward to him in the election. I did not sleep for almost 48 hours then, because I had to accompany the results to the local government collation centre to ensure that the results were not altered.

    President Buhari did not win the 2003 general elections, but our party, the defunct APP won the governorship election in Kano State, which ushered in Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau as the new governor of the state. But soon after that, there was friction between his camp and that of President Buhari, which later on after the 2007 elections led to the creation of a new political party formed by Buhari, that is Congress for Progressive Change, (CPC). I, and my political leader at that time, Hon. Balarabe Wakili, a former member representing Nasarawa Local Government in the House of Reps (2003 to 2007) decided to pitch our camp with the President and not with Mallam Shekarau, and it was through Hon. Wakili that I first visited the President on a solidarity visit back in the early stages. It is still in CPC that I contested for the State Assembly, which we suffered a lot because of the factionalization of the party that led to a lot of bickerings. Ultimately, I neither got the ticket nor did our party win the election. May I use this medium to thank the current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajia Sadiya for the role she played in my election back then when she was the National Treasurer of CPC.

    The President, also served as my wife’s guardian during our wedding in 2006 on behalf of her late uncle, AVM Mukhtar Mohammed who was a very close associate of the President. May I use this opportunity to tell my wife’s guardian that 14 years after he gave her hand in marriage to me, we are still living peacefully and blessed with 3 children. We thank him for his fatherly role during the nuptial rites.

    Back to politics, at the presidential level, I served as a member of the Welfare Committee of the Presidential Election of Muhammadu Buhari, with the current Minister of Water Resources, Hon. Sulaiman Adamu Kazaure as the chairman of the committee, during the 2011 presidential election. After the formation of APC, I also served as a member of the Youth Committee during the 2015 elections, crisscrossing this country to campaign for the President which we eventually won and Buhari was ushered into government with popular national support.

    Now having given the background of the long-term relationship between me and the President spanning 18 years to be precise, I have never known a political leader throughout my political career other than Buhari, even though I can count the number of times I’ve met him. I did not only wish for his success but I equally worked hard with everything that I’ve got for almost two decades to see his dream become a reality, and I will continue to stand by him. When I see things that are going not the way they are supposed to, I naturally have that urge to try and express my concern about them, because I want things to work right. I can understand, if by virtue of my position as an aide to a governor in the same party as the President’s that I have limitations and somehow the spotlight is always on me. But occasionally, despite suppressing my opinions, I find the NEPU blood in me triggering me to react. This is in no way, meant to undermine the President or my dear party, APC.

    To my boss, His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, OFR, I want to use this opportunity to apologise for putting Your Excellency in an uncomfortable position due to my personal opinions. It is indeed something that I never intended to happen, and I am not happy about it a bit. I do not have a boss-and-aide relationship with Your Excellency; I rather have a father-and-son relationship with Your Excellency. Indeed, I appreciate the support Your Excellency have been according me in the last five years, and I will continue to remain loyal to you and serve my state and my country through your government and in whatever other capacity.

    At the end of the day, our prayer is for Nigeria to be great.  In the words of Barack Obama “Do we participate  in a politics of cynicism, or in a politics of hope?” I am an optimist, and it’s our ardent HOPE that we will have the Nigeria of our dreams in which development and prosperity will be the norm rather than the exception; a country we can build a secured future for our children and generations yet unborn. May we continue to do our best in ensuring this is the Nigeria that our forefathers sacrificed their lives for to lay a solid foundation. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    • Yakassai is Media Adviser to Governor Ganduje.
  • Yussuf Olatunji sings for the “owners” of Nigeria

    Yussuf Olatunji sings for the “owners” of Nigeria

    By Olumuyiwa Runsewe

     

    Ampewon l’omo Eran, Won hu’wa Omo Eshin
    Ampe won l’omo Eshin, Won hu’wa Omo Garawa
    Awon Eniyan Yepere, Ko to Siruwa lati se Gada
    F’eniyan Yepere Yussuf Olatunji in the 70s

     

    THROWING banters, direct abuses that are often times laden with deep rooted and stinging sarcarsms, were hallmarks of Apala, Sakara and Juju Musicians “Ode to nso Eledumare, Ori Egun lo ma ku si” was thought to be a warning shot from Ebenezer Obey to Sunny Ade, in 1969.

    Oro ija emi pelu Sunny Ade o, o ti pari, ko s’ogun mo…” also by Obey, was a proof of that trend. Abuses amongst Sakara and Apala Musicians were even more frequent and more direct. The listening Public was more interested in the relevance and applicability of the Proverbs and Philosophical Contents of those banters and abuses. Let us take this Evergreen piece by Baba L’egba Alhaji Yussuf Olatunji against S. Aka, Baba Waidi, who was a foremost competitor to Yusuff Olatunji. The Masterpiece above was widely believed to have been a response to some earlier abuses from S. Aka. In response, Baba L’egba released the above which when translated, goes as follows “we initially called you “Omo Eran” – Son of a Goat, but your attitudes and utterances have made us promote you in our minds from the “Son of a Goat” to something worse, “Son of a Horse”. As if that our perception of you was not indicating of you enough, you have graduated from behaving and talking like the “Son of a Horse” to a level much worse, more rascally and most dysfunctional to people around you – you have graduated and turned to “Omo Garawa” – somebody to resent and avoid completely!

    October 1st has come and gone; 60 years after Independence, most of Nigerian’s Professional and Business Class and increasingly, the Youths, both at home and worldwide are certainly burdened by some nagging and embarassing questions adroitly crafted by 3 Musicians in the past. In the words of Sunny Okusuns” Which Way Nigeria, Which Way to Go?” I love my Fatherland, I want to knoow; which Way Nigeria, is heading to?”

    The second recording that reflects the mood of the moment was that one by Shefiu Ayan, the foremost and most threatening competitor to Baba Haruna Ishola in the late 50s and early 60s before his life was abruptly cut short. It goes like this: “Kinikan nbe’nugbo ton dun mawuru, mawuru…Eru nba mi, Ominu nko mi, Shefiu Ayan, ki lon ko e lominu? “A Tiri cannoti make a Foresti…. Simply translated. “There is loud and threatening danger, coming from the direction of the forest, sounding “Mawuru Mawuru”, threatening and dangerous. If it is going to kill us, I don’t know. It it will harm us, I don’t know, but I am suspecting a Lurking Danger ahead. All I know is that this lurking danger cannot be confronted by only one Man…A tree cannot make a forest.

    As a Social Scientist, Development Economist, Engineering Contractor who 60 years ago, at the age of 12 years, was priviledged to line up in a March Past, representing Victory Primary School, Oke-Ado, Ibadan at the Liberty Stadium Independence Day Parade and witnessed all those dashed expectations;  of the last 60 years. I have opted to analyse the Journey so far throught the Proverbial Lamentations of Baba L’Egba, Yussuf Olatunji’s Famous Volume 17 CD…”Ampe won lo mo Eran, Won hu’wa Omo Eshin, ampe won lomo Eshiwon huwa Omo Garawa”.

    The major attraction in this Yussuf Olatunji’s masterpiece is that he despicts a scenario that graduates from a bad Situation (Omo Eran) and then mores on to a wose situation (Omo Eshin and eventually, to the worst possible scenario (Omo Garawa).

    To ease our understanding, let us compart-mentalise our analytical scenarios into 3 periods 1960-1966, 1966-1999; 1999-2020. Great Britain, the Real owners of Nigeria from 1914 to 1960 … (and sadly, uptill today) who forcibly, selfishly and mischievously merged hundreds of Incompatible tribes, Cultures and Religions into an Unholy and unworkable whole from 1914 to 1960 knew what they wanted. The Northern Peoples Congress was deliberatly arranged to dominate Nigeria, so Britain could continue to influence resource control and commercial decisions after 1960 made no pretension about their long term intentions to impose their culture, religion and model administration over every other tribes and religion. That probably explains why, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Leader of the Action Group and the Leader of Opposition in the House of Parliament was invited to the Eve of Independence Handover Ceremony at Tafawa Balewa Square but was not allocared a Seat! A well wisher had to look for a seat for him in an area allocated to Ex-Service Man! What a shame!

    Looking back now, Tafawa Balewa Government seemed to have made the decimation of the Action Group and showing the leader, Chief Awolowo, the gravity of his Political smallness and irrelevance in a future Nigeria.

    If we are not going to be economical with the Truth, most of Prime Minister Balewa and his NPC/NCNC coalition were directed against Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his Action Group. Let us recall the sponsored crisis inside of the Western House of Assembly? Remember the Mischievous appointment of Dr. Koye Majekodunmi as Sole Administrator of Western Region? Remember the Restrictions of Action Group Leading Lights? Remember to Coker Commission of Enquiry? The Remeber the alleged coup by Awolowo and Enahoro and their subsequent imprisonment? Remember the outrageous rigging of the Western Regional Elections of 1964, which resulted in a deliberate onslaught against common sense by defiantly imposing Chief S. L. Akintola’s NNDP on the Western Region.

    Remember the sensible but badly timed creation of the Midwest out of the Western Region? How much more sensible would it have been if the Northern behemoth had been broken into those components crying for seperation from the suffocating hold of the Caliphate.

    Simply put, the first 6 years of independence, 1960 – 1966, were mainly devoted to cutting Chief Obafemi Awolowo to size and showing him the gravity of his smallness in their own vision of a future Nigeria. It can be sakely argued that the January coup and the July counter coups were Manifest consequences of Mischief in high places.

    If we hold on to the Yussuf Olatunji’s Narrative, the 2nd phase, 1966-1999, was worse than what the Rulers and Owners of Nigeria could offer to the people of Nigeria between 1960 – 1966. Let us take a look. The January Coup, the July Counter Coup, the Killing fields in most Northern Nigerian cities, the ill-fated Abuni Accord, which, if the truth most be told was the most sensible and most intelligently crafted summary of the way out into a future Nigeria. But it was dead on arrival. The war against Ojukwu and Biafra, the end of the Civil War and the famous Gowon’s declaration of “No Victor, No Vanquished”.

    Of course, there was a Victor. The Federal Forces were the Victors. Who were those in the Federal Forces? Who were those in the Officer Corps and in the Top echelonof the Various Armed Forces? If we take a very close look, they were members of what the erudite Patrick Utomi refers to as “The Class of 66”. From 1966 to date, they have ruled Nigeria, either directly or through their proxies. All their laws, all their rules, all their regulations, all their constitutions, all their state creations have all been imposed on all of us with an I BEFORE OTHER mindset.

    1966 – 1999 were largely dominated by General Yakubu Gowon, General Muritala Mohammed, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Sheu Shagari, the NPN, UPN and GNPP. It was the  era of General Mohamadu Buhari, President – General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the imfamous and self-serving entry into Organization of Islamic Countries, of Commercialisation and Privatisation, of massive devaluation of the value of the naira against major currencies of the World. 1996 – 1999 was the Era of Infamous Gideon Orka Coup and his ill-advised plan to extricate the Fulani States from the Map of Nigeria. The Bible says “there is an appropriatement of God’s Timing”!

    1966-199 were years of General Sani Abacha’s, sadistic and horrendous Assault on our Collective Psyche.

    1966 – 1999 were the years General Babagida lured and encouraged all Presidental Aspirants into an All-Commers Market, funded them and assured everyone of becoming President but, at the last minute, disappointed and disqualified them all. The most famous date since Independence. June 12th, 1993 and its sour consequences was a part of this era. The infamous emergence of Chief Earnest Shonekan as the Interim President and the subsequent but predicative entry of General Abacha and his agonising, suffocating and Cruel Military Rule over us, and sometimes extending his make-believe Empire to Liberia and Siera Leone. The arrest imprisonment and shocking death of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, sequel to that of Abacha who had died a month earlier were vital contributions to the shape and content of the 3rd phase and the Mindsets that galvanished together to dictate what the future should be and would be. The Owners of Nigeria were at work!

    Welcome to the 1999-2020. After enduring all the paius, shocks and embarrassments of 1960 – 1999 Nigerians had justifiable reasons to be optimistic about the future of peace, progress, in fact, if possible, “plus, including National Unity. The emergence of General Obasanjo and the PDP 1999, in a nutshell a benefit of the doubt by Nigerians.

    However, Things began to Fall Apart as soon as the new democratic Government started to wade through the Troubled Waters of Governance The “Made-In-Kano” 1999 Constitution, seems to be a deliberate brick wall, specially constructed by the Owners of Nigeria against the manifest destiny of 200 to divide Tribes against Tribes, Cultures against Cultures and worst of all, Islamic Worshippers against Christian Worshippers. That 1999 Constitution was a major reason President Obasanjo could not perform more than 30 percent of his potential. It is the reason all the Armed and Uniformed Agencies of Government have been so structured to favour only the owners of Nigeria. It is the reason why the Army and the Police are made to determine who wins any Presidential or Governorship and National Assembly Elections. Nigeria is the only country where President Umaru Y’adua would stand on the podium of inauguration and declare that he knew that the Election that brought him to office was rigged and was still allowed to continue in office. 1999 – 2020 was the era of “Doctrine of Necessity” whereby a Vice President to be manipulated out of reckoning, so that a real and unadulterated member of the shareholders in the Nigerian Project, could emerge as President. 1999 – 2020 was the era of the Niger Delta Presidency! What did Dr. Goodluck Jonathan make of it? Hmmmm!… No Comments! 1999 – 2020 marked the various attempts and the eventual emergence of “Baba Himself”, Major General and President Muhammadu Buhari. What has he and his people done with ? Hmmm…also no Comment! Let is conveniently hide under the Canopy of Fela’s hit song, “oro se humnn, oro p’esi je o, oro she hunmmm (the issues at hand are so glaringly obvious that it has swallowed whatever questions that would arise).

    If the truth must be brutally exposed, the Future of Nigeria will depend on Presidnet Muhammadu Buhari’s definition and perception of how he wants History and History Books to record his Life and Times. Sunny Okosuns has said his own and asked, Which Way Nigeria?

    Yussuf Olatunji’s heavy duty Proverbial exposition should be enough Food for Thought for our Leaders to reflect on the past and decide if doing the same things the same way can produce different results as we step into the future.

    • Runsewe wrote from Ibadan via Olumuyiwa @ gmail.com.

     

  • EndSARS: A protest and a concert

    EndSARS: A protest and a concert

    Emmanuel Oladesu

     

    IS Arab Spring here? Not yet. But, is the ground not been prepared?

    Government now has a big issue to tackle urgently. Delay could be dangerous. The country is enveloped in anxiety and confusion.

    A miniature agitation has progressed into a full blown nationwide protest against the unruly behaviour of a section of the police, the Special Anti-Robbery Squard(SARS).

    The consensus is that the squard has been maiming, killing, intimidating and oppressing innocent Nigerians, instead of going after armed robbers, cultists and other criminal elements.

    Definitely, not all SARS operatives are bad. But, the bad eggs, according to protesters, appear to be in the majority. The bone of contention is that those who were drafted to curtail crime are indulging  in crimes and other vices; they threaten people with guns, extort money and make illegal arrests. To underscore their lack of remorse, they even had the effontry to shoot at protesters in Lagos during the week. Is that not terrorism by the police?

    The protests are being sustained, amid the ravaging pandemic. Protesters are shunning the required protocols. Yet, fears are rife about a likely upsurge in cases. It is like SARS is now bigger and more challenging than Covid-19 in Nigeria.

    The protesters are also defiant. They are unwilling to dialogue with the authorities. The movement appears leaderless.  But, they have motivators and sponsors who foot the bills for food, drinks, medicine and musical bands.

    The young protesters eat, drink, smoke, socialise, sing the National Anthem and pray as they intensify the march. They even sleep on the road. The bond of unity, commitment and resilience are confounding to the government. When will the apprehension fizzle out? Their five-point demands capture their yearnings. But, how can they be met quickly, judging by the time frame required for implementation? Would reform not have a gestation period?

    As the protesters exercise their rights, the nation is counting its loss, the rights of other people are violated. Economic activities are disrupted. Free movement of vehicles is hampered.

    To an extent, there is panic. No country can joke with a situation where its youths, who constitute 65 percent of its population, are ventilating their collective grievances against the government.

    But, is there no basis for the protest? Was government sensitive to the plight of Nigerians when during Covid-19 and its attendant hardship it increased electricity tariff and the price of petroleum?

    Are many youths not idle too? Even, if they are not joining protests, why would they not constitute theselves into a devil’s workshop?

    The genesis of the reaction is police brutality. Like the Army, the Nigerian Police is a colonial creation dedicated to regime protection. The  police is meant to serve the political class, top businessmen and government officials. The police is not for the masses. Policemen are not friends of the common man.

    The entire ‘Police Force’ is on trial. The name is even old fashioned and outdated. What Nigeria needs is a ‘Police Service,’ and not the rebranded ‘Kill and Go’ of Sunday Adewusi era.

    The reality has dawned on the hierarchy. Police Inspector-General Muhammadu Adamu has responded to the massive protests by attempting to withdraw the notorious SARS boys from the streets. But, they are still in the police with their guns. They may be redeployed to other units. But, their orientation has not changed.

    Adamu has announced a new unit, the Special Weapon and Tactics (SWAT) team, to replace the discredited and disbanded unit. The vacuum has to be filled for security reasons. Armed robbers and cultists can capitalise on the loopholes to wreck havoc. But, the measure has further infuriated the protesters. What do they really want now?

    Although President Muhammadu Buhari has also given hints about police reforms, the protesters are still adamant. They are not eager to halt the peaceful and carnival-like protest. Musicians and veteran artists are spicing it with light performance. Then, vocal right activists give mobilisation speeches that energise the protesters. In a way, the protest is fun.

    The youth networks speak volumes about a determined movement for social change. The reactions are spontaneous and surprising to the authorities. But, it is not ideological.

    A unique feature of the of the protest is that the  nature of sensitisation is not premised on ethnicity and religion. The demonstrations and the motive behind the efforts seem to have national outlook, although some protesters in the North appears to the refocusing the demonstrations as dictated by regional security challenges.

    The tonic is the decadence in the society. Pent-up energies are being released in aid of the fight for justice and change. The youths who are speaking with one voice know that they face a difficult future. The older generation has failed them due to their ineptitude, graft and nepotism.

    Five categories of youths are answering the “EndSARS call.” The first comprise of vibrant, healthy jobless and frustrated graduates who face a bleak future in a fragile country that is almost a failed state.

    The second are students of pauperised universities, polytechnics and colleges who are engulfed with the fear of the future. Their teachers are locked in a protacted battle with the government over funding and welfare.

    For almost one year, academic activities have been suspended. Hope of an end to the protracted Academic Staff of Union of Universities (ASUU) strike is still dim. If the ASUU strike is called off today, one quarter of the protesters will leave for campuses.

    The third category is made up of artisans and peasants. Ordinarily, they should be occupied in their shops. Power outage is their greatest problem. They rely on petroleum and diesel to power their noisy generators. The hike in the price of petrol is infuriating. They are venting their anger.

    The fourth are the real societal liabilities; miscreants and hoodlums who have lost hope. They have been rejected by the society; homeless, hungry, angry and ready to always take a pound of flesh. They are threats to law and order. Some of them live under the Lagos bridges.

    The fifth category is the most controversial and fearful bloc of criminals. This is the real target of SARS. The group, which may be fighting back, is  divided into four sub-groups.

    The first sub-group is called the dupers’ group, the Advance Free Fraudsters. The familiar appellation is ‘419.’ They are innocent looking, well dressed, and dubious. Their victims have bitter tales to tell. They are supporting the protest against SARS to protect their nefarious trade.

    The second sub-group is made of internet fraudsters. Usually, it is a gang operation. They opted for crime to make ends meet. They indulge in cyber crime or Yahoo-Yahoo business. They are manipulators of technology. They are brilliant rascals who are in a hurry to hit gold. They operate without mercy. They give Nigeria a bad name in the comity of nations.

    The third sub-group is made up of the men of the underworld. In the past, armed robbers even dared the regular policemen by writing letters to their victims, informing them about their plans to rob and kill in the nrighbourhood. When they come for their operations, they subject many households to agony.

    The fourth sub-group is made up of cultists. They were previously domiciled on the campus. Now, cultism is a common feature of most streets in towns and cities. When rival cult groups clash, it is always disastrous.

    The fifth sub-group is made up of ordinary Nigerians; family members and friends, who take advantage of familiarity or close relationship to cheat their loved ones by obtaining money through dubious means, stealing valuables, including jewelries, and depriving them of their property. SARS was set up to tackle these endless crimes.

    It is unfortunate that SARS derailed from it’s original operational mandate. On account of its excess behaviour, the baby is being thrown away with the bath water.

    It is because Nigerians are assailed by a sort of collective amnesia. The circumstances that led to the setting up of the special unit are been erased from memory. Those realities still State the nation in the face.

    Is Nigeria not playing into the hands of robbery kingpins who, fundamentally, are targets of SARS? Are cultists not been invited to be on the prowl? Are the licences of criminals not been inadvertently renewed in collective ignorance?

    Can Nigerians cope without an alternative unit that will continue to checkmake criminal tendencies in the society?

    President Muhammadu Buhari should make a broadcast to the bewildered nation on his plans for comprehensive police reforms. May be, that will assuage the grief of the protesters.

    Nigeria cannot exist without an efficient policing system. Policemen are few, judging by the huge  population. The countries needs more dedicated officers.

    Policemen suffer from poor salary package and they visit their frustration on citizens. It has also been alleged that top officers direct the boys to convert the roads into a sort of toll gates.

    Multi-level policing is not a bad idea. But, government is not ready to decentralise the police. Yet, Nigeria is a federal state.

    Nigeria is beset by a problematic policing system. The solution lies in manpower, proper recruitment, sound training, good logistics, welfare for policemen, punishment for bad egs, re-orientation and adequate funding.

    A country gets the type of policemen it deserves.

  • Protests, slogans and reforms

    Protests, slogans and reforms

    Dayo Sobowale

     

    WE  are in a season of unrests and protests globally and  Nigeria has not been an exception as   had  often been   the case in our   peculiar   history of marked indifference to bad  leadership and docility in the face of rampant and crass injustice  with impunity. Our  youths are on fire over police violence typified by killings of youths by SARS which    has been disbanded  by a responsive government but our youths are still at the barricades.  Like those before them did in those unusual days of Ali Must Go, the protests on Kunle Adepeju’s death and June 12. This  time our youths refuse to be placated by the banning of SARS  but  want police reforms   to     nail  the coffin of police violence and extra judicial   killings once and for all. It   is the call for   police reforms and the continuation of protests after the ban of SARS that  form the kernel  of our discussion and the topic  of the day.

    As  I noted before protests abound globally against injustice, police violence, racism generally amongst  the populace against  their rulers and political  leadership  generally. In diplomacy too protests exist amongst  nations and sovereign states  leading to threats of war and retaliations if certain actions are carried  out by friendly nations or hostile one depending on the history and diplomatic relations amongst such  nations.  Although  Nigerian youths are just getting militant against police violence there are parts of the world where  police violence is the vogue rather  than the exception namely the US  and its close  continental cousin , the nations of Latin America  where police throw protesters into rivers , and are notorious for  killing them in scores of deaths.

    Today  aside  from Nigeria we look at protests in the US, Latin America , Thailand  as well  as the appeal of the Chinese leader for his troops to prepare for war  if the US  sells war planes to Taiwan which China regards as part of its territory even though Taiwan rejects such  notion  or presumption  in its entirety. With  Nigeria  we  shall look at past  police efforts to improve police public relations and the effect of that leading to the SARS protests . In  the  US we shall examine how police violence has shaped the presidential  campaign and   presidential election slated for November 3. In Thailand  we  look at how protesters  are  fairing in a nation where there  is a law that bans public abuse of the Thai King and monarchy and yet people  are still on the streets  asking for reform  of the Thai  monarchy.  In  Latin America we  examine how drug trafficking and  drug  wars  have evolved a pattern of  police violence and cruelty to the populace  peculiar  to that part of the world.

    Let  us go back to our  nation Nigeria. I  remember seeing a poster at a police headquarters  sometime that  says. ‘If  you do not like the police,  hire a thug‘  I  have also  seen  another poster that says – ‘The  Police is your friend‘ I think  the vexed issue of police killings leading to the ban of SARS exists  between these  two contrasting messages and slogans. The police  should be a friend of the Nigerian public but it is not. Inherent in the other defiant message of calling a thug  is police frustration   that  the   public is unappreciative    and ungrateful  of its crucial  role  of policing and the importance of that for public security  and maintenance of law and order in the pursuit of the rule of law in any democracy such as a multiethnic  nation like Nigeria.  Both  the police and the aggrieved Nigerian  youths calling for reforms need  to be shown a few facts that should facilitate a more friendly  relation between the two.

    The  first is that the Nigerian  youths  of today have  been empowered by  technology to earn far better than  their  seniors in their youth. It  is not a matter of yahoo yahoo. Nigerian youths in sports, entertainment, music,  drama soccer are earning far  more than any earlier generation and they spend a lot on their hairstyles  which all youths emulate starting with Nwankwo Kanu‘s hairstyle when at Arsenal  and thereafter. Some of them are legitimate and hard working millionaires in  their own right and  by  their  earnings  in  their various  callings. The police  have to be reoriented to live with this fact. Such  youths deserve respect for their earnings and  life style, not suspicion, opprobrium and arrests  for their looks and appearance in  their  own nation  and country. That is the true reform the police needs  to understand  the youths and move the nation forward.

    In  the US  the Black Lives Matter Campaign  marred by  violence  by those  who  hijacked it has become an election issue together  with President  Donald  Trump’s  handling of the pandemic. In  my view the American  president  has sided with the police and has abandoned the Black Lives Matter movement and is going to pay a huge price politically because I do not see majority blacks  voting for him. Instead Trump has turned police violence  on  blacks which is institutionalized into a law and order issue with  which he has been wooing American whites by playing on their insecurity in case his opponent Joe Biden wins the November 3 elections. That  is a  calculated  risk Trump has taken with his eyes wide open and he has no one to blame if he loses on account of his unhidden support for police violence on blacks.

    With  regard to his attitude on the pandemic which the Democrats find irresponsible and careless I think  he has been proactive in down playing the pandemic  so as not to destroy the American economy whose  growth in his first term of office he regards as his greatest achievement. In doing  this, he almost paid  with his life and his supporters  admire  his bravery and guts in literally  taking on the pandemic almost  fatally  and coming back  from the dead as it were. I am  sure they will troop out en masse  for  him on November 3. Whether  that will be enough to secure  him the  reelection driving his life is another matter entirely.

    In  Thailand the protesters  are asking for reforms  guardedly   because  they  love their monarchy. Even  though they  demonstrated on a route the royal entourage  was  plying in the capital they  did  not block the royal  entourage as they promised. Thailand is as such a different democracy and monarchy  that  I  find difficult  to understand but then it will be ethnocentric as  a  Nigerian to  question their way  of life. One man’s food is another man’s  poison.

    While ordinary  citizens protest against  police  violence globally,  China  is protesting against what it views as American interference in its internal affairs. Chinese Foreign Office spokesman  has protested against American sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong where there have been endless protests over China’s security postures on the island. In addition US  Secretary of State Pompeo has trumped  up charges that China was  confronting the  US in its military  build  up globally. China on the other  hand  through its   President Xi  Jinping  has asked its troops  to  prepare for war  over  sale  of war planes to  Taiwan   by the US. Whether the  war will  happen before or after the US  election  of  November 3  is a matter of conjecture.  One  cannot however  dismiss this lightly because a war during the US elections will  in my view catch  the US   pants down literally and diplomatically.  That will  certainly  be to China’s advantage especially  during this pandemic that  the American president has notoriously  and   undiplomatically    called  a Chinese virus,   to the vexation of the ambitious Chinese. Once  again – From the fury of this raging pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.