The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • ‘Faithists’ and the pandemic

    ‘Faithists’ and the pandemic

    By Kayode Robert Idowu

    Faithists’ are spiritual warriors across religious divides pushing the debate whether the raging Coronavirus pandemic is a manifestation of some supernatural diabolism requiring spiritual counter-attack arrowheaded by them, or a natural emergency to be met with humanistic counteraction where health workers and political leaders lead the charge.

    This is the crux of the contention whereby the prescription of social distancing that has necessitated the shutdown of churches and mosques, among other public spaces including workplaces and markets, has been viewed as an affront by secular authorities. To those motivated ostensibly by religious concerns, it is an affront to the essential tenets of association and fellowship involved in worship rites. But there are another kind faithists – economic faithists – whose concern is for basic survival hinged strictly on their daily income, hence they defy the stay-at-home directive by government to promote social distancing with fatalist confession that Coronavirus is ‘not their portion.’

    Faithists have questioned why worship centres are being ordered shut by secular authorities, when what is really needed is to confront the viral invasion with ‘the power of the anointing.’ Some have doubted that the virus has potency of infection on ‘believers’ as is being alarmistly touted. They have prescribed spiritual means of tackling the pandemic rather than the physicality of contact-curtailing rule of social distancing. They predict that the pandemic will vanish on its accord, or at best by providential intervention, and not by human efforts being made to arrest it. Largely, however, many faith leaders have complied with government directive that worship assemblies harbour  no more than 20 congregants at a time, though there are a few who defied that directive.

    If we take the words of some faith leaders literally, the Coronavirus pandemic ought to be history by now. But maybe we should second-guess that they had other connotations from what their words ordinarily denote, since they could argue that spiritual things are not literally decoded. For instance, prominent cleric and founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Pastor T.B. Joshua, recently said the panic over the health scourge should fizzle out soonest because the disease itself has abated, with mere aftereffects now posturing as the substantive threat.

    “The noise (about) Coronavirus would be silenced before the end of March 2020,” the cleric wrote on his official Facebook page while answering questions related to the virus infection, adding: “I say again, it is the remnants we are seeing. The real Coronavirus is gone. But what the Coronavirus has caused – economic backlash, fear – will linger until the end of the year.” He described the whole crisis as a “test of faith” that Jesus Christ forewarned His followers about, saying he saw nothing to panic about as God’s promise to believers is that they will overcome.

    Well, this is now the end of March and we truly wish the pandemic were indeed history by now, even if trailed by lingering aftereffects. But that does not seem to be the case, given the ballooning cases of confirmed infections in Nigeria that were inching higher as at the weekend.

    Another faith leader is the Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, who was reported saying the viral pandemic would “die off” like past health challenges such as the Ebola and bird flu epidemics. “Ebola came, it died off. This one will also die off. It is like the bird flu disease, it has come and it will go. I know that the whole world is waiting to hear the message that will come out from this place, but the message I have is that this disease will soon go,” he said at a recent special prayer session for the elimination of the pandemic.

    We believe with Father Mbaka that the viral scourge will abate shortly. But will it be by fatalistic expectation that the siege will lift, which it must sooner or later since no human condition lasts forever, or do we have roles to play in hastening it off on its way? It would’ve helped if the clergyman detailed his followers more on this.

    Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy, also known as the Believers’ Love World, sees diabolic shenanigans of spiritual forces in the Coronavirus pandemic. He denounced the outbreak as ‘demonic work’ in a video on his social media page where he was binding and casting the disease. Affirming that Christians have been given power over unclean spirits and diseases, the cleric declared: “In the name of Jesus, we come against Coronavirus from the very cores of it, from the very roots of it, and we come against the devils, the demons of darkness that spearheaded this project.” He further commanded the disease to stop its operations over the governments of the world.

    I am a Christian and do not have the slightest doubt about ‘spiritual wickedness in high places,’ which is invariably subject to the potency of divine power and supernatural deliverance. But satanic agents do exploit human indiscretions to perpetuate their evil work. Ask Italians and they would tell you it was open to them to have avoided taking the road that has now led to recording some 87,000 Coronavirus cases and more than 9,000 deaths as at the weekend, but they unwisely chose to spurn that avoidance path until it was too late. It is incumbent on faith leaders to underscore the importance of discretion and civic obedience on the part of their followers in impeding the devil from doing his work.

    Thankfully, none of these faith leaders have encouraged their followers to defy government curb on congregational worship aimed at promoting social distancing. Prominent religious leader, Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church, who was widely reported as defying the directive penultimate Sunday has since explained that it was no defiance. He said the assembly held was rather a fallback arrangement to educate the church’s members who were until then unaware of the government’s directive on the new order of things, and to encourage them on the imperative of civic compliance.

    But there are other faithists for whom the discretion of compliance with the stay-at-home directive is for real an ill-affordable luxury. They live on daily rake-ins from their businesses, and failure to ‘hustle’ on any day could truly mean lack of food to eat for them and their dependents on that particular day. For them, even the rallying cry of ‘life first’ is hollow and hypocritical. Some of these that I had occasion to speak with in the few days past argued with amazing forthrightness but ill-informed conviction that they were no candidates for Coronavirus infection. One of them pointedly said it is a disease of the bourgeoisie, especially as most of the confirmed cases are people in the upper class who are beyond subsistence living and have enough to globe trot.

    These are a segment of the population the government and endowed private sector interests need to succour as tighter curbs are being contemplated to enforce a lockdown aimed at arresting the spread of Coronavirus. They pose a volatile point in the architecture against the viral pandemic because they aren’t just highly vulnerable – they do not have the funds to kit up with face masks, gloves and sanitisers and might not even care to report early symptoms of infection – they are to boot irrepressible owing to existential motivation.

    Combating the Coronavirus pandemic without taking care of the subsistence population is like a team manning its goalmouth with one flank left widely open. That isn’t a winning plan, is it?

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.
  • Nigerians barking up the wrong tree

    Nigerians barking up the wrong tree

    By Ademola Adesola

    Since the rise in the spread of the novel coronavirus in Nigeria, especially among the high and mighty, my mind has been repeatedly wandering back to one of the country’s cerebral writers’ seminal thoughts. I speak here of Chinua Achebe’s pivotal essay, “The Trouble With Nigeria.” One of the reasons for that repeated journey into the heart of that relevant Achebe’s thought on what ails Nigeria, I now know, has to do with the numerous social media posts authored by some Nigerian netizens that I have gorged on lately. The summary of those dark pieces choking the artery of communication platforms is that several Nigerians want the pitiless COVID-19 to kill and ravage many of their rulers beyond repair! These Nigerians seek the cessation of breath for their rulers because of the manifold dysfunctions in the polity and because of the little or no investment made into the healthcare system, a reality the reign of the raging virus has further foregrounded.

    To be sure, when you look at the sheer mercilessness and incredible insensitivity of the average Nigerian public office holders, you will be tempted to wish them such afflictions comparable only to those of biblical ones. But only minds given to the escapism and accustomed to easy answers would revel in wishing Nigerian rulers and their families pains of biblical proportion. Sadly, most Nigerians meet the qualifications and have succumbed irreversibly, perhaps, to that temptation. I am of the view that the death wish and other allied negative wishes for the oppressive tyrants and atrocious “constituted authorities” in Nigeria by those negatively impacted are a glaring demonstration of the befuddling spinelessness and disabling ignorance that characterize the behaviour of most Nigerian sufferers.

    Most Nigerians always expect that in one clean sweep all their woes would be gone and the goodies of good governance they have long been deprived of would just become a reality. They expect that without lifting a finger, the Bastille of disempowering governance and the fortress of illiberal power will collapse. They strongly believe that by their mere wishes, some external forces will come to their aid and bring about a new glorious era of good living condition. These Nigerians are strangers to the Shakespearean wisdom – beggars have nothing to ride because their wishes are not horses! It is the reason they find comfort in incessant supplications to some gods and stain the social medial space with such dreary wishes for their tormentors that Lucifer himself would shudder to ponder.

    This lazy approach to seeking change, this outsourcing of civic responsibilities, and this bloated sense of false expectations are what Achebe in that critical essay explicates as “cargo cult mentality,” a term he acknowledges came from anthropologists. Although he submits that this disease afflicts “the ruling elite,” I would argue the inadequately ruled in Nigeria are more under its disturbing influence. Here is how Achebe piquantly describes this unhelpful tendency: “One of the commonest manifestations of underdevelopment is a tendency [of most Nigerians] to live in a world of make-believe and unrealistic expectations. This is the cargo cult mentality […] – a believe by backward people that someday, without any exertion whatsoever on their own part, a fairy ship will dock in their harbour laden with every goody they have always dreamed of possessing”.

    That cargo cult mentality is the inspiration behind the death wish that most Nigerians have for their oppressive and sociopathic rulers. But like they have always been before now, these Nigerians are wrong to expect that COVID-19 will do for them what they have for many decades shied away from doing by themselves. Even if the virus leaves many deaths in its subterraneous sweep across the villas of power in the country, there will still be more narrow minds to lay hold of the levers of power and deliver more noxious leadership to the continuous unhappiness of those who are expert at death wish.

    Although some think Abacha expired under the toxic influence of an apple in the company of some venomous strumpets, some Nigerian prayer warriors are convinced it was their prayers that dispatched the despot to the Aso Rock of no return. Abacha has been out of Nigeria and Nigerian affairs for about two decades, still there is no significant break in the cycle of bad leaders and poor governance Nigerians strangely endure. The salvation and change Nigerians need will never come from wishing that COVID-19 shrink the fold of the visionless badass in leadership positions cheapening lives in the country. It is the apt example of what it means to balk up the wrong tree.

    Like a few Nigerians, I have an abiding detestation for all myopic and illiberal rulers in the states across Nigeria and beyond. Their objectionable leadership philosophies (if we can deign to see them as such) irritate and give me goosepimples. I am too often disturbed by the harvest of deaths their reign eventuates. However, not once have some of us deceived ourselves that wishing these persons dead would give Nigeria a breath of fresh air or a passage out of the woods of necro-politics (being Achille Mbembe’s concept describing the use of sociopolitical power to determine who lives and how and who dies). I am convinced that the liberation of the Nigerian state from the clutches of blind minds will only come from suffering Nigerians. They will need to look to themselves in their bid to dislodge these insensate and wicked beings from power. The death wish that the cargo cult mentality necessitates will not help Nigerians, neither would mere prayers tip the scale in their favour. Nigeria as has been constituted requires a comprehensive reform. Its structures are unviable and its grundnorm is too weak to support a people in need of the paradise human thinking can make possible.

    Accordingly, Nigerians must toss off their animosity against the lessons of history. The changes that different peoples of our world have recorded and continue to achieve against destructive leadership have not come from merely wishing the enemies of the people dead or hoping on some gods to suddenly birth a transformation. Nigerians must heed the words of the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglas. With the force of unmitigated terrible experience of slavery and its heartless dehumanization, Douglas enjoins all suffering people to take charge of the struggle for their own freedom and wellbeing. “Those who will be free,” he exhorts, “must themselves strike the first blow.” They must act. They must insist pay attention to the leadership recruitment process; they must favour debate; they must insist on accountability and transparency, they must unceasingly clamour for investment in human-capacity building ventures like education. They must organize and protest when the occasions call for it. They must conscientize and educate the less informed. They must remain vigilant and call out unseemly leadership. These are the blows they must strike. The cargo cult mentality will keep them more in pains and servitude to satanic leaders.

    • Adesola writes from University of Manitoba, Canada.
  • The round table

    The round table

    Nnedinso Ogaziechi

     

    Today, we are starting a conversation. We would look into our souls, we would look away from ourselves to the next person on the metaphoric round table. A circle encloses, it does not exclude.  So, if the image of the global community is a circular symbol, it then means that inclusivity has something to do with our existence, has something to do with global sustainability for our human race. The human community in all its diversity thrives on the uniformity of our desires, hopes and happiness irrespective of race, gender or creed.

    How each nation structures its conversations via political engagements with all its citizens often signpost the level of development and its sustainability. Divisiveness or exclusion at any level of political superstructure often redirects the flow of conversations and invariably puts much pressure on those wielding political power in ways that are as disorienting as they can be equally dysfunctional leading to lack of progress.

    The pristine history of the African continent recorded the leadership roles played by women not just as mothers, home-makers and nurturers but as politically active and vibrant humans that were involved in policy formulations, execution and even as warriors that not only defended their communities and regions but equally successfully prosecuted expansionist wars.

    The legendary Amazon soldiers in then Dahomey that metamorphosed from Queen Hangbe’s female bodyguards played ver\y crucial policy and political roles. They proved their mettle and helped in checkmating the excesses of French colonialists. The queen was privy to negotiating for the swapping of sales of humans with that of Palm oil. Today, the Amazons, known in Fon language as “our mothers” have become the global metaphor  for valiant and successful women across all human fields. Queen Amina of Zaria and Moremi of Ile Ife, Queen Idia of Benin and other women are legends today for their leadership qualities.

    During the colonial period in Nigeria, late Margaret Ekpo, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Janet Mokelu pioneered female political activism in historic ways that have made them reference points. Their leadership skills had no taint from their gender qualities.

    So even though women were integrated into leadership positions in a pre-colonial  Africa, the colonial system of administration that was largely divide-and rule pitched some of the women against the colonial administrators who then surreptitiously commercially empowered the men to the utter disadvantage of the women in Africa.   The colonialists equally came with Christianity that when made into a cocktail with the traditional cultural patriarchy, relegated women to the background. The African man was then empowered with education, financial power from sale of cash crops like palm iol, cocoa, rubber, coal etc.

    The women of Nigeria for instance started to lose their presence in leadership with the growth of socio-political repressive colonial administrative styles. Moreover, the paradoxical outcome of Margarett Ekpo’s representation of her ‘errant’ husband at a political gathering was like an introductory rite to her life of political activism. She had represented her husband at the meeting because being a civil setvant at the time, her was barred from attending such meetings. However, her attendance marked the beginning of clear advocacy for the inclusion of women in policy discussions. She and Janet Mokelu were both elected to the Eastern House of chiefs while Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti was eleacted to the Western house.

    The political participation of these women continued to grow in influence from the colonial to the post-colonial era.

  • Gender parity: Beyond talkshops

    Gender parity: Beyond talkshops

    Nnedinso Ogaziechi

     

    Available statistics paint a disturbing picture of the development index in Nigeria.  We are rated the poverty capital of the world and   maternal and child mortality is one of the worst globally, there are about 13 million out of school children, under five deaths is very high, there are millions of stunted and malnourished children whose brain development would affect their productivity in future, Nigeria has one of the highest child brides and Viscos Vaginal Fistula (VVF) in the world, high unemployment rate, poor infrastructure base that can support a virile economy, and a healthcare delivery system that falls short of global standards to list but a few.

    The prevalence of these statistics clearly underscores leadership and planning gaps in our development programming. The above observations come from global bodies like the UN, IMF and World Bank in the past decade. We cannot continue to live in denial and pretend that all is well and there is no need for improvement and engagements that can birth a paradigm shift in ways that can engender better development for Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth.

    The politics of exclusion that is played in Nigeria seems to promote a deliberate field-clearing to promote the interest of a privileged few that may not really be endowed with the leadership qualities that promote positive growth. The implication, the country has had to contend with the unfortunate fate of being run by people who ordinarily have nothing to bring to the table of governance. Whereas the principle of learning curve experience tries to encourage leveraging experience garnered over the years, ours is muddled up wherein people who were failures at the lower rungs of government continue to infest the system with poor leadership just because they can effortlessly access power.

    It is fashionable in Nigeria for a failed local government chairman to rise to become a failed House of Assembly member, House of Reps. Member, Senator, governor and even aspire to be the President just because he is male.

    Closing of the political space to women and youths has become part of the albatross of our political development and by extension, economic and social developments. Africa has some of the fastest growing economies in the world but this has not translated to economic prosperity that can lift some of the countries including Nigeria out of poverty. This is because even though gender disparity seems a global problem, the African story is very pathetic and this invariably means that gender disparity is a root cause of nations’ underdevelopment.

    Nigeria will celebrate its diamond jubilee in a few months. The economic and political environments  has been male dominated and  there has been no structured and sustained gender inclusiveness by successive governments since 1960. Now the chicken seems to have come home to roost.

    However, the unfolding daily realities show that economies that are doing well globally seem to have achieved some form of gender parity. Education, the greatest tool for mental and social development is the major contributory factor to nation building. The illiteracy and lack of financial power of women make it nearly impossible for most to fully participate in politics or contribute in other meaningful economic activities in the nation. So the realistic result of this oversight by policy makers and sometimes socio-cultural and religious leaders is underdevelopment.

    In a recent research by  Mckinsey Global Institute’s  business and economics research arm, there were dire prognosis of a deepening poverty index in Africa if the continent does not as matter of urgency accelerate gender parity by being deliberate in policy steps that can break the glass ceiling of socio-religious and cultural attitudes that inhibit female growth educationally, economically and politically.

    The grim prognosis that gender parity may be achieved in Africa in about 104 years is too dire to ignore if Africa must leap out of the tag of the weeping continent dependent on others for aides and charity for survival. Already, even with the human and material resources and the relatively stable climate, the continent’s potentials have not been optimized for growth.

    The gender disparity in all spheres of life speaks to the situation of the continent.  While we agree that women and girls have always had challenges across the globe, it is a known fact that African women had always stood out in leadership before and during the colonial periods. There were queens of African descent that their legends are historical reference points in leadership, economic ingenuity and valour. The colonial and post-colonial periods seem to have exacerbated the exclusion of women from the political economy of the continent.

    The use of socio-religious prejudices against women logically snowballed into their disempowerment from accessing education and being financially confident  to challenge the men politically. Being reduced to chorus singers at campaigns and mobilizing other women to vote for sometimes incompetent men even against better qualified women has empowered the men and denied the country of an inclusive growth streak that can spur development.

    A post-civil war Liberia elected and re-elected the first female President in Africa, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf . Liberia did not turn to an Eldorado because a woman became president  but  she significantly won the 2018 Mo Ibrahim prize for Leadership in Africa.  However, she brought in the female ingenuity and nurture that helped heal the wounds in one of the most traumatized nations on earth at the time. She combined her essence and good education to stabilize the country. If there was no space for her as a woman, the world might have just had a more divided and chaotic Liberia. She put the country back to stability heralding development.

    Make no mistake about it, there have been and still exist women in politics, corporate world, industries and businesses. But truth be told, most African and Nigerian women that have excelled in leadership at all levels have had good education most times outside Africa. So basic and compulsory education for girls and women and the socio-religious review of cultures that exclude or stereotype certain aspirational behavior of girls is a journey that must start immediately.

    Nigeria must key into the UN 2030 development goals that are all targeted at inclusivity for a better shot at development.  These were fashioned out to eradicating poverty, increase food security and financial inclusivity etc. The empowerment of women and their being given a fair chance to compete is the only way for the much needed development to happen.

    This journey needs a total re-orientation. Every Nigerian and African must be involved. Corporate bodies must be willing to key in and develop a great percentage of their consumers. Local, state and federal governments, religious and traditional institutions must be ready to re-orientate their followers. All hands must be on deck as we try to re-engineer the development streak to uplift our people. Nigeria must retake its place as the giant of Africa.

    It is disturbing that smaller countries like South Africa and Rwanda have increased women representation in middle management roles by 27% and 15% respectively. Algeria has cut maternal mortality by 9%, Egypt has tripled that score, Guinea and Liberia have tripled legal protection for women according to Mckinsey Global Institute. These happened due to deliberate policy choices.

    In the light of the unedifying development graph in Nigeria even with very huge human and material resources, time seems very ripe for us to begin to ask the necessary questions which  perhaps might change the narrative. Could it be in our leadership architecture or the character of participatory democracy in Nigeria or a system that has been primed to fail because it favours a few?  How has the country grown with a male dominated leadership? Are there no qualified and willing women? We all must have a deep introspection because flying with one faulty engine when an aircraft has an extra new engine can only lead to a fatal crash.

    Let’s talk…

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • COVID-19: Almajiris’, IDPs’ fate in limbo

    COVID-19: Almajiris’, IDPs’ fate in limbo

    BY Mohammed Yakubu

    Since the outbreak of  Coronavirus, countries all over the world are putting mechanism in place as preventive measures to curtail the spread. Nigeria too has joined the bandwagon having recorded her first case in Lagos earlier in the month. As at the last count, more 40 cases of Covid-19 has since been recorded in the country.

    Lagos State remains Nigeria’s commercial heartbeat. She remains the most influx as indicated by index, then followed by the sister states in the Southwest and then to the far northern states.

    The threat of Covid-19 is forcing many states in the country to adopt certain strict measures to curtail its spread; such as a ban on some high index countries, closure of schools, public gatherings, religious congregations (in some state) to the expansion of isolation centres for possible victims, among others. Nonetheless, our various markets that draw large gatherings daily still remain open.

    So, the one million naira question is: ‘Should we allow coronavirus spread beyond our walls?  Has the country also given thought to the vulnerable-almajiri who are a huge burden to the entire North, as well as the victims of social jeopardy still crowded at various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) nationwide?

    Thankfully, the media has been carrying out lots of enlightenment as part of their social responsibility role since Covid-19, amid lots of misinformation and ‘fake news’ bandied particularly on social media.

    The recently dethroned Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, has repeatedly advocated the proper education for the almajiri in the north. Had illiteracy not been an encumberance, the almajiri too could have also joined other literate Nigerians to read precautions either on pamphlets, television, billboards and other handy platforms.

    Their population alone if infected could fill up the isolation centres in the entire northern states.

    For those forced out of their homes (IDPs) as a result of insurgency in the country, they may have access to information, relate and act upon them. Nonetheless, the feat to build more isolation centres in IDPs camps should, henceforth, be part of the government priority.

    Provision of hand sanitisers to these sites is as well paramount. Even though they are incidentally ‘quarantined’ before the outbreak of Covid-19, the government must revisit how infected persons among them can be isolated.

    More intriguing is the question surrounding our naira notes. Could the outbreak of this virus be a period to bid farewell to the era of cash transactions? In recent times, the banking system has worn a new outlook by migrating online. Customers now need not walk down to their various banks to make the transactions; only a tap of computer button does the magic.

    •Mohammed Yakubu, is a final year student of Mass Communication, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Universit, Lapai, Niger State.

  • Breaking ASUU’s generational curse

    Breaking ASUU’s generational curse

    Praise-God Paul Smart, University of Uyo

    Reverend Uma Ukpai came under fire late last year when he announced the theme of its annual end of the year church program- ‘Breaking generational curses’. Akwa Ibom Facebook community criticised the clergyman for attempting to de-market the state where they claimed his businesses have flourished for decades.

    A certain facebook poster labelled the clergyman a ‘veteran curse breaker’ and even wrote an open letter that questioned the validity of the annual breaking generational curses programme. Following the backlash from the Akwa Ibom facebook community, one would expect a boycott of the event but the programme held and even had a large turnout of people, mostly Akwa Ibom indigenes.

    Akwa Ibom is probably the most religiously commercialised state in Nigeria, which is partly the reason for the perpetuation of such aforementioned religious programmes. More so, Nigerians are generally superstitious; hence our attempt to often attribute a lot to providence, even the things within our control.

    Notwithstanding, will it be considered superstitious if we begin to question whether the incessant industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a generational curse that needs to be broken? Otherwise, how does one explain industrial actions that have defied military rule, continued throughout democratically elected governments?

    Since its formation in 1978, ASUU has been active in the struggle against the military regime. The union even organised a national strike to obtain fair wages and university autonomy in the 1980s until the military proscribed it in 1988. In 1990, ASUU resumed union activities that were short-lived, organising another strike which the military government banned in 1992. However, the union reached an agreement with the military government on September 3 of same year that met several of the union’s demands including the right of workers to collective bargaining.

    Similarly, when the late Gen. Sani Abacha military regime dismissed some university staff, ASUU organised another strikes in 1994 and 1996 respectively to protest against their colleagues’ dismissal. From precedent, it does seem the only avenue through which ASUU have their demands met is through strikes. Could it be because the military government rules by force and therefore the union also had to force the hands of the government to meet the demands of its members?

    In 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo came into power as the first civilian president of Nigeria during the fourth republic. A few months after the Obasanjo’s administration, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike that dragged for almost half the year. This only marked the first in the series of strikes by the union under the first civilian government of Nigeria.

    In 2001, following the University of Ilorin sack of 49 lecturers for engaging in union activities, ASUU, again, declared a strike demanding the reinstatement of the sacked colleagues. The union called off the strike after three months. Shortly after, in 2002, ASUU embarked on another two-week strike. This time, their demand was for the Federal  Government to implement the terms of their agreement during the previous strike.

    In 2003, Nigerian university undergraduates had to stay at home again for six months as ASUU began an industrial action due to the non-implementation of previous agreements, which covers poor university funding and disparity in salary and retirement age. Within a four-year tenure (1999 and 2003), ASUU had embarked on strike for approximately 14 months and two weeks, which is almost one and half year of the four years.

    The next four years did not fare any better!

    From 2005 and 2008 ASUU embarked on strikes four different times, each strike lasted for one week. In 2009, lecturers in public universities across the country began yet another industrial action that lasted for half a year. Before ASUU called-off the strike, the Federal Government and the union had a a compromise- the 2009 ASUU/FG Agreement, which  would later become the cause for subsequent industrial actions.

    In 2010, ASUU, again, commenced a five-month strike over the non-implementation of the 2009 Fed Govt-ASUU agreement. Its reason was hinged on the Federal Government’s failure to honour certain component of the 2009 Agreement, particularly the aspects that bordered on adequate funding of universities as well as the implementation of the 70-year retirement age limit for members at professorial cadre. The strike again, paralysed academic activities nationwide. The following year, another strike by the union lasted for 59 days until ASUU called it off in 2012. In June 2013, ASUU started a national strike, which lasted up to nine months on the ground that Federal Government did not fulfill the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement and revitalisation of universities with N1.3 trillion over a period of six years.

    The past Industrial actions by ASUU had been under the 16-year rule of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from 1999 to 2015. Therefore, when Nigerians elected another political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) into office, the expectation was that things would change, at least in the education sector. However, this expectation was cut short when on August 17, 2017 ASUU again declared an indefinite strike over unresolved and contentious issues with the Federal Government. The strike was called off in September.

    Again, due to the Federal Government’s failure to meet its demands, the union declared an indefinite strike on Sunday, November 4, 2018, after their National Executive Council meeting held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.

    Now, ASUU, two weeka ago, embarked on a warning strike, complimenting it with an indefinite  strike on Monday.  This time, ASUU is protesting the decision of the Federal Government to stop the salaries of lecturers who have not enrolled in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

    From history and like the generational curse, the conflict between the Federal Government and ASUU seems unending. In my opinion, historical, economic and political factors are the propellants of these disagreements, which have become institutionalised and embedded in the Nigerian polity so that the disputes will continue drag, albeit for years.

     

    • Written by Praise-God Paul Smart A 300level student of Communication Arts University of Uyo
  • Fact-checking fake news on coronavirus 

    Fact-checking fake news on coronavirus 

    By Wole Elegbede

    More than three months after the first reported case of coronavirus in China, Nigeria and the rest of the world continue to grapple with how to tackle the disease. The challenge is not limited to saving people from death and stopping the spread of the disease, but dealing with fallouts, one of which is the spread of fake contents and misinformation about the disease, especially in the social media.

    In my searches across the social media channels during the period, I found out that the misinformation appears more on Facebook and WhatsApp. These fake contents border on the unimaginable to the ridiculous, myths and misconceptions. Some fake stories may indeed be amusing to the reader, but the danger that they pose to health and society could be enormous; they could be counterproductive and result in more deaths.

    In Nigeria, the fake news definitely are out of place with the press releases and the information on the websites of local and international organisations charged with the responsibilities of controlling the disease and providing credible information on its outbreak. I had checked the fake stories against the backdrop of the information on the websites of such organisations as the Nigerian Centre For Disease Control (NCDC), the Nigerian office of World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the fake news didn’t add up.

    The Nigeria office of WHO is not unaware of this misinformation in the country and has launched a media campaign against it. On March 23, the organisation used its twitter handle to alert Nigerians on the distribution of wrong information and fake contents in the media about the pandemic. It urged people to visit the official website and social media pages of WHO, the Federal Ministry of Health and NCDC for “credible information.”

    One such fake news that has circulated on media channels in Nigeria originates from a man who introduced himself as Laila Ahmadi from China. The news goes thus: “Hello, I’m Laila Ahmadi from China, student at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Zanjan University.

    The Corona virus or COVD-19 will reach any country sooner or later, and there is no doubt that many countries do not have any sophisticated diagnostic kits or equipment…..It is important to have greater knowledge of the disease: Professor Chen Horin, CEO of Beijing Military Hospital, said: “Sliced   lemon in a glass of warm water can save your life.”

    Fact is that “lemon” has never been recommended as a cure for coronavirus by all the organisations officially involved in fighting the disease in Nigeria.

    Yet another fake news is credited to a supposed Master’s Degree holder said to have recently worked in Shenzhen Hospital and later transferred to Wuhan the epic center of the disease to study the new pneumonia virus. Calling his relatives to pass this useful information to all relatives and friends, he was further quoted to have told them: “Drink plenty of hot water to prevent the virus. As long as the body maintains heat, eat more ginger and do more exercise, you will not be infected with the virus.”

    This sort of news should be taken with pinch of salt. First, the source of information was not named. Secondly, using the Master’s degree card as the authority to back up the news is deceptive because the field of authority of the degree holder may be required to give quality to the source. Thirdly, the measures recommended in the fake story do not tally with the preventive measures circulated worldwide by WHO and partner agencies. For the purpose of providing the correct and accurate information to the people, I checked WHO’s official communication website where the “basic protective measures against the new coronavirus” are listed out as:

    • Wash your hands frequently; maintain social distancing; avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth; practice respiratory hygiene. If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care early, and stay informed and follow advice given by your healthcare provider.

    There is yet another news that has ended up as a piece of misinformation. It read thus: “China officially announced, just a few hours ago, the success of the Senegalese serum that Diouf Sar, the Senegalese Minister of Health, presented to the Chinese Ministry of Health to treat the Corona virus, which turned out to be 100% effective on more than seven cases….” As at the time of going to the press, no single vaccine exists against coronavirus, though information has filtered out that the international drug manufacturer, Roche, is on the verge of launching a vaccine.

    The news that the Nigerian government will pay N8,500 naira (approx: $25 dollar) to Nigerians to stay at home is false. The appearance of the slogan, “Sai Baba” in the piece of misinformation shows propagandists taking advantage of coronavirus for sloganeering and politics. Up till now, there has not been a formal proclamation by the Nigerian government to the citizens to stay at home, neither has there been any declaration to pay any sum of money for staying at home.

    I have come across some efforts or read stories in the Nigerian media aimed at debunking the fake coronavirus news just like in this piece. The online edition of Nigerian Tribune, had fact-checked the following information on the disease on March 15:

    “Coronavirus before it reaches the lungs, it remains in the throat for four days and at this time, the person begins to cough and have throat pains. If he drinks water a lot and gargling with warm water and salt or vinegar eliminates the virus. Spread this information because you can save someone with this information.”

    The verdict of the newspaper: False. 

    Likewise, the online edition of The Guardian, did a fact check on a Facebook photo published by AIT News Nigeria claiming that the man who drove the first person who tested positive to the  coronavirus in Nigeria from the airport to Ogun State, one Adewale Isaac Olorogun, escaped from a hospital where he was receiving treatment after he also tested positive to the virus. After its investigations, The Guardian published this result: “The post contains claims that are untrue. AIT Nigeria News is a clone of the African Independent Television’s page that passes itself across as the actual AIT Facebook page.

    To stem the rising tide of fake and disruptive news, Facebook and WhatsApp have geared up collaborations with WHO and NCDC. Facebook says that “Our global network of third-party fact-checkers are continuing their work in reviewing content and debunking false claims that are spreading related to the coronavirus. In Nigeria this includes AFP and AfricaCheck, with the latter supporting local languages including Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.”

    The Coronavirus debacle will surely provide a lesson on how to be more effective coping with such aggravations in the future. Journalists should be ready to continue to provide truthful and accurate information as well as collaborate with experts who work directly in the epicentre of the emerging crisis for the purpose of dishing out reliable contents.

    • Elegbede, Project Director of Press Attack Monitor, an online platform that exposes press freedom abuses, writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State. 
  • Between the cosmic and viral void

    Between the cosmic and viral void

    By Mohammed Adamu

    In cosmic ‘space and time’, even the seven-planetary ‘Solar System’ (in which our puny, less than base-ball-sized ‘earth’ microscopically clings to a virtual inconspicuous existence) is itself a teeny, less than corona-virus-sized affair compared to the terrifying vastness of the un-ending yet ever-expanding cosmic realm, – the universe. In fact a space-bound rocket would not be too far travelled on its way, even say, to the earth’s nearest satellite, namely the moon, before the entire ‘Earth’ itself, for all its oceanic and geophysical vastness, recedes and vanishes into unobtrusive nothingness.

    From the earliest view of the most insignificant haze of the cosmos, the earth soon pales into a terrifying nothingness. And the rancorous Babel of humanity in it is now muted into such cosmic quietude you’d agree that ‘deafening silence’, after all is the universal constant and not ‘boisterous noise’. In fact at the point of its ephemeral vanishing, even the least powerful laboratory microscope may sooner grasp the dimensions of a ‘corona virus’ (20 nanometre in size or twenty-billionth-part of a metre), than the most sophisticated space telescope may, the glimpse of a vanished earth in which proud, arrogant and power-mongering mortal man holds a laughable sway. Yet this is not the most graphic in revealing how infinitesimally insignificant the ‘Earth’ –in spite of its uniquely life sustaining capacity- can be, especially in relation to the ever-expanding cosmic supper web.

    If humans on this measly earth together will scream all at once for help, at the highest possible decibel (units of loudness), which experts say is about 130dB, it may only constitute a faintly discernable piece of whimper even within the first and most immediate of earth’s five gaseous atmospheric layers –in this case the troposphere- which is just a 12-miles-high layer that the earth is oxygenated by. And this is just how potentially futile even a united Save-Our-Soul (SOS) call by a distressed humanity can be, especially if the efficacy of that call will depend on its being audibly heard by a cosmic power, the like of Whom possibly a tearful Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte allegedly pointed to as Italy’s –nay humanity’s- last hope for salvation against an invincibly invisible enemy, the Corona virus.

    By the way, even after the first 12-miles-high troposphere, any cosmic SOS call of humanity in distress, will still require also to traverse the earth’s remaining four atmospheric layers, namely a 31-miles-high stratosphere, a 58-miles-high mesosphere, a 300-miles-high thermosphere and a 6,000-miles-high exosphere, before it can hope to amplify and possibly be heard within the nine planets of the very solar system that we have said the entire ‘Earth’ itself is merely a third most minuscular member of. If divine help truly comes from on-high as most of humanity believes, and if, humans too, just like beasts, must practically moo –rather than spiritually woo- to send distress calls to heaven, then our cry –from the elusive behaviour I see of this virus- has many cosmic heavens to scale.

    The solar system alone consists of a weak-burning ‘star’ called the ‘Sun’, with its eight orbiting planets, their various moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids of varying sizes. The distances between and among these solar objects can only be described as awesomely mind-numbing. In fact beyond the solar system they say, the nearest star, namely ‘Proxima Centauri’, is more than 30 trillion kilometres from the earth and will require not less than 40 years to be reached even by the most sophisticated unmanned craft. Meaning that if, perchance, humanity’s distress call survives the Earth’s five atmospheric layers –among and between which there is a total of about 6,500 miles- and if, perchance the ‘Call’ still remains audible enough to be heard all around our multi-planetary solar system; and if, perchance again it retains the stamina to climb further up 30 trillion kilometres to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, you bet, our distress call will still be like the proverbial traveller of a journey of one thousand steps, who has not moved as yet, a single step.

    Because merely reaching ‘Proxima Centauri’, some 30 trillion kilometres from the earth our distress call cannot be said to have sufficiently explored even one-millionth-part of the first Galaxy and inside of which –you can say- even our nine-planet-solar system is now an infinitesimally inconspicuous microscopic speck of rummage-reject, -the like of which, if you will, the most powerful telescope may strain in vain to grasp. Not only are there hundreds of billions of stars and other cosmic bodies in a single galaxy, there are in fact hundreds of billions of galaxies too, and each of which also has hundreds of billions of stars and other cosmic bodies. Plus there is also the ‘Milky Way’ Galaxy located some 30,000 light years away or approximately at six million miles per each light year, creating what scientists call the Cosmic web, and at the realm of which galaxies are now the infinitesimal corona-virus-sized objects that must swim tail-tucked, meek and humble.

    Besides, science has not ruled out the possibility of the existence also, of hundreds of billions of cosmic webs hopefully from several billions of milky way galaxies too, so that, who knows, someday, if we live tell, may be even milky way galaxies can be miniaturized into insignificant ‘nothings’ by stronger and more powerful telescopes, -making our poor, puny little ‘Earth’ even far lesser than a ‘Corona virus’ (at the size of a twenty-billionth-part of a metre), in relation to its humongously nanometred place in the cosmic realm.

    And so the question is asked: ’just how much does proud and arrogant man know even about his physiologically fragile, mortal self-first, let  alone how much he should know about his most immediate earthly environment with all the zoological, botanical, chemical and geo-physical mysteries that it presents? And if a pathogen as microscopically teeny as the corona virus, will bring ‘technological’ man, soon, to his arrogant knees even before he finds the proverbial elixir –as a cure-all, what then will happen to the more ludicrously ambitious project of freeing man from the albatross of ‘death’? Or how much by the way, does man know merely in relation to how much he is mentally equipped to know? Next to nothing, now we can say.

    And so now that proud man has been humbled, at last, what then, if we ever get out of this, henceforth, should humanity keenly take cover from, -for self-preservation? Is it to prepare always, to dodge from some possibly mis-orbited, smouldering, loose asteroid a hundred times the size of the earth, from a cosmic distance some light years away, and traveling at the speed of light threatening to knock us out of existence, or is it to take cover from the creepy, morbidly pathological grip of an invincibly invisible viral enemy threatening to wipe us all?

    Between the threat from a continuously expanding cosmos and that from the ‘smallest indivisible particle’, humanity, it seems, has no hiding place.

  • Nigeria’s children, its image abroad

    Nigeria’s children, its image abroad

    Ademola Adesola

    You know a country by the stories its children tell. You want an unadulterated story of the human condition in a country? Ask its children, those growing souls unaccustomed to the embroidered narratives of the adult world.

    In my son’s school the above point became further reinforced for me. March is the “I Love to Read” month in the school. From the first to the last day of the month there are different activities aimed at promoting a strong reading culture in the students. I got the school’s invitation to read to Alfred and his fellow students. In the letter of invitation, I was encouraged to, in addition to the reading; prepare to share some interesting things about Nigeria. Yes, even though the country is largely a kitchen of Byzantine dysfunction and is a common reference in the discourse of how not to be a nation, I accepted to share some interesting pieces of information about the country with the class. Thus, I combed through the storied maze of “Nigeriana” and found some mind-blowing gems there. I was going to sell Nigeria’s bright side to these kids from different so-called developed parts of our world. After all, as the late president Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia rightly observed, there is a degree of good in every bad thing.

    On Thursday morning I gaily strolled into the class to the expansive welcome of the students and their diligent teachers. All protocols invoked and taken care of, we settled down for the business of reading, a reading punctuated with heartful laughs and other responses I would need to be a child again to make out. In other words, the reading went on like a newly manufactured car on a carefully macadamized road. Thereafter, the students inundated me with what stood out for them in the story entitled “My Family Loves Me.”

    We moved to the second segment of the event. Nigeria. Even though I’m heavily invested in Nigeria and I’m deeply concerned about how it ruins its people every minute of a year, I felt no discomfort reeling out the few notable positives about the country. Then came question time. I still didn’t feel any troubled. These are children who are developing their capacity for the business of critical discourse. If they would pose questions about the condition of life in Nigeria, it wouldn’t be uneasy ones – I reasoned. The sweat questions came and I joyously provided the chocolate answers. Then the fat balloons of sweet answers met the piercing pin prick of stubborn facts.

    “Electricity is a problem in Nigeria,” a girl declared in a smooth voice. Before the voice in my head completed it “You see, Nigeria always happens anywhere,” another boy hollered “NEPA always took light […] no light all the time.” But before I recovered from my temporary “shock,” two of the teachers had gently asked the boy to hold his horses (Canadians and their incurable overdose of politeness!). Those Nigerian kids wanted to go on to “open book” for me, as Fela would say, about the country their parents loved so much that they found a way to escape from it. But their teachers are Canadians …

    For me there was nothing embarrassing in the unadorned memory of Nigeria those children still have. They are in kindergarten, between ages five and six, and so must have left Nigeria when they were younger. Yet, in their smallish houses of memory the worrisome condition of Nigeria occupies a big place. They have the living condition and quality of life in their new country of sojourn to contrast with the one of their birth. And this is the case with most kids in Nigeria; the Nigeria they inhabit terrifies them more than it adores them. It’s no exaggeration that most Nigerian children have known the colour of suffering since they were in their mother’s wombs. They were conceived in biblical suffering, born into a human hell, and grew up in a space of unmitigated precocity. Yet, in spite of the unbelievable horror and tragedy of being born in and living in Nigeria that many Nigerian kids are so well familiar with, the odiously fat hyenas of power at different levels want these kids and their adult parents to doctor positive narratives about Nigeria.

    To insist and expect Nigerians abroad to tell stories of a Nigeria they didn’t experience or loudly point to Nigerians doing well with themselves abroad as examples of what being Nigerian means is one sure way to keep the tragic human condition in Nigeria unchanged. The fact that Nigeria is not well has to be minded seriously. You must first agree there is a problem and not pretend about the degree of the problem. That’s how, to borrow the title of a collection of essays by Odia Ofeimun, to take Nigeria seriously. Doing so enables the mind to be attuned to the relevant solutions. We have in Nigeria today an Islamist insurgent group (Boko Haram) waging a coordinated war against the country in its Northern flank and destroying the lives of many a child and adult. Yet, the 11th-century rulers and the jaded minds that are their supporters keep saying that they have vanquished the terrorist group. Unemployment is creaming off the vitality of many people in the country and underemployment is eroding the human dignity of many families, but the insular president in Abuja and the self-serving governors across the states are daily rhapsodizing about a strong economy that only exists in their myopic minds.

    You can’t solve a problem you have not duly acknowledged its existence. And for as long as Nigeria continues to pretend that all is well with it and sketches positive narratives about its worsening human condition, its children who are able to make it to functional and thriving polities would play no game in speaking the bard, hard facts of their lived childhood experiences in Nigeria. When Nigeria begins to be liveable, the lives of its people and the experiences of its children – not the vuvuzelas of paid, unfeeling image makers of the abominably ballooning “amotekun” of power – will tell the story aptly. That’s what those children in my son’s class underscored.

     

    • Adesola is a PhD candidate and researcher at the Department of English, Theatre, Film and Media, University of Manitoba, Canada.
  • Now that the pandemic is here

    Now that the pandemic is here

    Igboeli Arinze

     

    LIKE play, like play, the Corona Virus is here as I write this. piece, we are already counting five cases with another suspected case in Akure.

    What started as an epidemic in China has now become a global pandemic; we have seen the virus threaten the globe. From China to South Korea, Italy and then to Spain and Great Britain as well as the mighty United States of America, the novel virus has soughtto intimidate nations causing these nations to take drastic measures in order to reduce the rate of community infection, thus stemming the number of infections as well as deaths.

    Recent findings have for now nullified the conspiracy theories that the virus was bioengineered by either the Chinese or the United States. I much find the argument that the virus was developed by the United States and deployed by the US military in China as laughable, why? Imagine the US developed such, in order to disrupt the.Chinese soceity, so that it can also experience similar disruptions does not add up!

    For reasons beyond my thinking, perhaps I may cast my bets with Providence, the Nigerian nation has much been spared the burdens of experiencing what the nations earlier mentioned here have been experiencing. I do not like speaking ill of this country, but calling a spade a spade, I am worried about the consequences should we experience what other nations seriously hit by the virus are experiencing. First of all we all know how the Nigerian Healthcare system operates, this I was told used to be the jewelof Africa that it was once said that the Saudi Royal Family used to visit University Hospital Ibadan for treatment. How we moved from this glorious state to mere consulting clinics as Sani Abacha described our hospitals then in his announcing the overthrow of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and then to it’s present state should not amaze anyone. Lack of funding, massive corruption, lack of quality education, nepotism ,medical tourism as well as poor pay packages has plunged the Nigerian Healthcare system to an all time low. Patients now have to come early and take numbers to get treated in some cases, in other situations government clinics lack drugs and refer you to privately run pharmacies to purchase these drugs. That is not to say that it is a government problem alone, sometimes they do provide these hospitals with the drugs, it mysteriously finds its way into these privately run pharmacies.

    Yet as a patriot, I do not want to beleive that it is all gloom. This country, despite it’s parlous state still posseses men and women capable fo teaching even the clan of developed nations a thing or two in medical greatness as in all fields. We defeated Ebola and we only have to look at a nation like Cuba and understand that where there is a will, the people will find a way.

    Now that the virus is with us, the Nigerian government should not be found wanting, the Buhari administration in progressive collaboration with state governments should begin to deploy measures that would help prevent community infection. For example,why do we have only three testing centres(Lagos, Irrua and Abuja) ? Why can’t we have two testing centres per zone, given our inadequacies in road infrastructure and the need for immediacy in handling the cases, now that the possibility of a breakout lookslikely.

    What about the isolation centres? How effective are they? Do we have the commensurate manpower to take care of those infected?

    Again, measures have been taken to curtail the spread of the virus but these measures seem not to be enough. For example what economic measures are we going to size up tye possibility of a pandemic? How do we ensure that businesses and workers do not suffer from such. Are these businesses likely to benefit from bailouts from the Federal Government? How do we channel essential services to the ordinary man or woman hit by the virus? How do we keep such essential services going?

    It is also very clear that the economy might go into a recession after this – the scale depending on the extent the virus hits us as a nation. The government should begin to plan for two kinds of scenarios which are based on the present situation and should we experience what nation’s like China, Italy or the United States of America.

    Lastly, the.govetnment should take measures to ensure that the citizenry are adequately informed, failure to do this will give fake news and misinformation the upper hand. This in turn will spark fear and panic and lead to a much worse situation, that we cannot afford.

    In times like this, mankind must look to hope and resilience, Nigeria cannot afford to do otherwise, for as the Persian adage did say, “This too, shall pass!”