The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • The tyranny of television

    The tyranny of television

    There is a growing paradox in the relationship between practitioners in the television (sub) media, and their clients; which is that whereas the television provides optimal exposure and glamour for both, shouting bouts are gradually creeping into our television screens.

    Time was when television programme anchors, hosts, presenters, newscasters, reporters etc, were a rare breed, greatly admired and sought after by members of the elite who long to savor in the glamour of the klieg light. The prestige is still there but the increasing incidents of apparent hostilities between television show hosts and their guests is gradually diminishing this attraction.

    Two factors are principally responsible for this state of affairs. One, there is a growing similarity between the television – in the Nigerian context, at least – and the social media. One, both are electronic and preponderantly visual. Two, and perhaps as a corollary, there is a temptation, in several quarters, to believe that, like in the social media, there are no (longer) editors in the television media.

    While the argument maybe obvious in respect of the social media, that of the television is still debatable. But because television show hosts tend to generally give the impression that they are entirely on their own, there is the temptation to think that the television – in the Nigerian context, still – no longer has gate keepers,  just like the social media. For example, television show hosts seem unrestrained on the type of questions they could ask their guests. Quite often, they interrupt the guest in the middle of giving an answer to a question with clearly opinionated interjections.

    The other principal factor is the fading attraction and influence of the print media, arising from the revolutionary advent of the social media. Before the television became ubiquitous in our clime and the coming of the social media, the print media was the main arena for discussions and debates. Opinion articles, features and no-holds-barred interviews were the most formidable avenues for interrogating critical issues. Media handlers of politicians and public office holders fell on each other to get reputable newspapers and magazines to interview their principals; and newspaper and magazine editors on their own would also run after prominent public figures to get their views on important matters.

    Indeed, going on television was not quite popular because, aside that televisions outfits were few – television in Nigeria was a state monopoly until the mid 1990s – people did not bother since the newspapers and magazines gave them what they wanted.

    Not anymore. While newspapers and magazines have lost much of the attraction they held yesterday, the television is everywhere; and even though appearances are mostly commercialized, the elite – the political elite mostly – has no option except, perhaps, to go to the social media.

    Enter the practitioners, the impeccably dressed young men and women on our television screens and the toasts of every political actor and his handler. Now, the big question: Are these TV boys and girls too conscious of their status as beautiful brides? You’d wait forever if you want a plain yes or no answer but suffice it to say, in the time being, that the ladies and gentlemen we see on our screens appear too sophisticated to fit into such an insinuation. I have known and associated with some of them personally since I also once savored in the ‘stardom’ of television appearances.

    That was the period I used to appear on AIT’s Kakaaki for newspaper reviews every Monday. I did it for about two years but after the first three months, I discovered that I could hardly walk around in Abuja, especially, without being recognized as “AIT Man” and with great admiration. Many would call me by name as if they knew me from Adam.

    Being a shy fellow, I was at unease most of the time but the benefits were there. One fellow that was completely unknown to me paid for my buffet breakfast at the Bukka restaurant at the Hilton Hotel, Abuja, one morning. Another paid for my plate of fresh fish pepper soup at a joint in Jabbi even though I stopped going there after that day.

    The incident I cannot forget was the day I was ‘accosted’ at Mama Ada’s place in Wuse 2, a make shift eatery where I used to go for white rice with Ofe Akwu, complete with my faviourite Kpomo (cow skin), cow tail and cow leg. As I approached the entrance of the eatery one morning, I was greeted with “See Oga AIT”. I retreated immediately and never went there again. But before you say “you too like food”, see this also: A top politician once refunded me my return ticket to Owerri at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport, Abuja with the remark, “we are proud of you”.

    At a point, I was forced to ask my friend, Utibe Umoren, one of the regular anchors of the Kakaaki show, if those of them whose faces appear on television everyday ever walk the streets; if I, who appears only once in a week, could have the type of experience I have just related. But I was just asking to fulfill all righteousness since I knew the answer to my question: television men and women are celebrities, greatly admired and even adored.

    That being the case, methinks that such a status goes with a lot of expectations. To be sure, our television hosts in Nigeria show a lot of brilliance and an amazing grasp of issues but that on itself requires that they need to be more comported and less emotive than their guests. The reason is simple. The slightest display of emotion by the host may be mistaken for bias. While that cannot be ruled out completely, I believe that it is incumbent upon the television show host to deliberately ensure that he or she is not perceived as such. But this deliberateness or caution does not seem to hold much attraction for many of them. More often than not, the host is so persistent over a particular issue or point or line of argument to the point of being seen as bullying his guest; the overall result being that the guest may walk away with the impression that his host suffers a mind set.

    Agreed, the host or presenter maybe an epitome of classroom knowledge of his or her trade but the point is that in practical terms, the growing incidence of  near shouting bouts between television hosts and their guests is creating an impression – falsely, I hope – that something is missing.

    In a bid to show mastery of the subject, many a hosts ask unnecessarily windy questions, thus taking up the time that should have been allowed the guest. Then the next thing you will hear is, “we are running out of time but tell me in thirty seconds how you will solve the security problem in the country if elected?” Haba! Thirty seconds? At other times, the hosts would ask questions whose answers are given but which they pose, nonetheless.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, may have escaped the harassment from some elements in his party who queried him for parrying a question as to which of the presidential candidates he will vote for in 2023 during a recent appearance on the popular Politics Today show on Channels television hosted by Seun okinbaloye  but as far as I am concerned, the question was uncalled for, what lawyers describe as “trite”.

    More recently, a guest on the popular breakfast show, Sunrise, on the same Channels, had to ask one of his hosts, Chamberline Usor: “…I hope you are not an interested party in this matter?”. It is possible that the guest might have read the situation wrongly but whatever, my view is that television hosts should not give room for such (mis) interpretations or insinuations in the first place.

    We also have had instances where television hosts or anchors spend time replying to allegations of bias, uncouth language or outright display of hostility to their guests. A couple of months ago, my friend, Reuben Abati, of  Arise Television, had to take time during his Morning Show, of which he is a co-host, to respond to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state who had earlier taken him on over a certain matter. His colleague, Rauf Oseni, also had an issue to settle with another top politician. Just a few days ago, a show host on another station hauled at his guest: “will you allow me to ask you a question?”!

    It would, of course, be preposterous to argue that television show hosts should be patronizing to their guests but I am of the candid opinion that there is need for a reappraisal of the modus operandi and general conduct during television shows in order to make them less combative as currently seems to be the case.

  • Will America’s midterms in 2022 replicate 1866?

    Will America’s midterms in 2022 replicate 1866?

    Midterm elections are usually not history-making stuff. Few have been memorable. But in the 2022 midterms, as in the 1866 elections, the fate of American democracy hangs in the balance. If there is a moment from history that our current political moment most resembles, it is the 1866 midterm elections, held a year after the end of the Civil War.

    The party in power has historically lost midterm elections with a few exceptions. Political pundits have repeated this conventional wisdom this year, with predictions of a November debacle for Democrats.

    Things looked a bit different recently. The Biden administration’s considerable legislative successes, the tamping down of gas prices until the slowdown of oil production by Russia and OPEC countries, and the forgiveness of some student loans, combined with the Supreme Court’s unprecedented Dobbs decision, the never-ending saga of Trump’s legal troubles and extremists running on the Republican ticket have leveled the playing field somewhat despite Republicans blaming global inflation on the Biden-Harris administration and playing to fears about crime.

    Though predictions of doom have been tempered, professional pollsters still give the GOP control of the House of Representatives in the midterms and now predict that the Republicans might yet take the Senate. A massive Democratic wave would also be needed to combat furious gerrymandering, proposed election meddling procedures and voter suppression laws in red states.

    We must hope that the midterm elections of 2022 might engender that unusual political wave and resemble the 1866 midterms, when the party in power, the Republicans in this instance, won decisive majorities in both houses of Congress. (The two political parties have long since flipped political and ideological roles.)

    In 1866, as now, the nation faced a rogue President, who incited and condoned political violence. Though in the present case, Trump, unlike Andrew Johnson, is no longer in office. While complaining of persecution, Trump recently signaled support for paranoid QAnon conspiracies.

    Johnson called abolitionists and congressional Republicans rather than ex-Confederates “enemies” and “traitors” in his infamous “swing around the circle” midterm campaign tour in 1866. Republican Carl Schurz noted that he had “stimulated the most dangerous reactionary tendencies to more reckless and baneful activity.” These words ring true today.

    Then, as now, armed paramilitary groups threatened the country. The Ku Klux Klan was founded after the Civil War and during the bloody summer of 1866, racists and ex-Confederates attacked freed people and Unionists in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans. The January 6 insurrection by a violent mob of Trump supporters was as much a wake-up call for the nation as the Memphis and New Orleans massacres. Congressional investigations of these two riots — like the January 6 commission’s hearings — were eye-opening for many Americans.

    During Reconstruction, the period when Congress tried to establish an interracial democracy in the South, the Democratic Party developed an armed wing for its campaign of domestic political terror. President Joe Biden has called out the philosophy of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party as “semi-fascism.” Sycophantic GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has predicted bloodshed in the streets if Trump is held accountable for taking top secret national security documents. A fellow South Carolinian and Graham predecessor in the US Senate, Ben Tillman (who served from 1895 to 1918) went as far as personally committing acts of violence against Black people and his political opponents.

    Then as now, the American republic had been saved from grave danger, the slaveholders’ rebellion in 1865 and Trump’s dangerous efforts to keep power in 2020. But instead of conceding defeat, both former Confederates then and Trump’s loyalists now doubled down on their folly. Some Republican candidates still aspire to overturn the results of the presidential election of 2020, just as unrepentant Confederates wanted to undo the results of the Civil War. A stolen election is the new lost cause mythology for many Republicans.

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    During 1865-1866, ex-Confederate states passed “Black Codes” that sought to put former slaves to as close a state to slavery as possible, kidnapping Black children for their labor, denying African Americans the due process of the law and restricting their mobility and employment. In 2022, GOP state legislatures are passing draconian laws against abortion, at times with no exceptions for rape, incest or the mother’s life. To most Northerners, the Black Codes made a mockery of emancipation and challenged the results of a hard-fought war, just as anti-abortion laws are criminalizing women’s long held right to bodily autonomy.

    For Democrats to win, Biden must answer a question FDR and Trump both aced

    It is highly likely that the massive reaction the Black Codes engendered in the North in 1866 will be replicated in 2022, especially among women voters who are out-registering men this election. It is an irony of history that the 14th Amendment ratified in 1868 to protect the rights of former slaves is the amendment from which we derive our modern rights, including the right to privacy that legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and the outlawing of gender-based discrimination.

    Will 2022 replicate 1866? As a historian, as a woman and as a citizen, I can only hope that it does. On emancipation, Southern elites threatened that freed people would swarm the North. Today, Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas are using migrants as human pawns by transporting them to blue states in a sick political stunt.

    Americans need history not just to understand the present but also as a guide to the future. In 1866, congressional Republicans passed the first federal civil rights law. A similar victory in 2022 could lead to federal laws protecting the right to vote and abortion if the Democrats can hold the House against all odds and a slightly bigger Democratic majority could get rid of the filibuster in the Senate. Then as now democracy is at stake.

    •This article was originally published in www.cnn.com with the title ‘Why I hope 2022 will be another 1866’

  • Weak institutions are recipe for bad governance

    Weak institutions are recipe for bad governance

    It should be noted that democracy generally is predicated on the establishment and existence of strong institutions—the executive, legislature, judiciary, political parties, police, press, anti-graft institutions, and so forth—to drive the process. Invariably, democratization as a process enthrones structures that were hitherto not in existence in the state particularly during military rule. The strength or otherwise of any democratic governance is, therefore, a function of the extent to which actors are able to internalize democratic etiquettes and also foster political institutionalization. In this connection, political institutionalization can only be guaranteed when democratic regimes are sustained. By and large, weak institutions are recipe for bad governance.

    Political parties in Nigeria are institutionally weak, structurally defective and operationally fragile, and have failed to grow both vertically and horizontally to assume that enviable position of an institution with capacity to uphold the tenets of democracy. Anti-party activities are the order of the day as politicians jostle for power and prepare for the 2023 general elections. The peculiar flaw of Nigeria political parties is lack of ideologies. So, it’s easy to wobble around the various political parties, switching side whenever convenient. You can even stay in one party and be campaigning for candidates of other parties, after all what matters is your personal preferences and not what serves your party. If these politicians cannot abide by party rules, they will never abide by the tenets of good governance.

    It’s time we strengthened our parties, enunciating ideological bases to be imbibed by members and followers; administering disciplinary measures to assert party supremacy. Party discipline is one sure way of strengthening the parties, and it is a win-win for all. From the perspective of voters, party discipline makes these organizations more predictable and, in a way, accountable. If the party is playing the role of a broker in political life, it must also be able to ensure that this social function is performed by its members in government. From the perspective of the government, party discipline is one of the major organizational factors that help the administration to manage its work. From the perspective of political parties, internal discipline is one of the central premises of their effectiveness. Finally, from the perspective of an individual political office holder, party discipline may be seen as a reassuring factor, offering a feeling of safety associated with being a part of the influential team.

    The ability of any democratic government to deliver the concrete benefits of good governance to the citizens is determined by the smooth functioning of the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government. However, the quest for good governance in Nigeria has been threatened more by the unending conflicts between the legislature and executive who are often entangled in a constant battle for supremacy and control of the policy making and implementation process, thereby jettisoning the tenets of the principles of separation of powers which clearly states that the three arms of government namely, legislature, executive and judiciary shall be independent of the control of each other.

    The legislature in Nigeria has been confronted with the challenge of independence. Since its re-introduction in 1999, the executive has overtly and consistently been interested in who leads both chambers of the National Assembly and state Assemblies. The executive contemplated the need to control the parliament early in the day by imposing their surrogates in the leadership.

    There is also the challenge of funding, or put differently, the financial autonomy of the legislature. The financial autonomy of the legislature requires that the funding of this branch of government should be placed on first line charge, to enable the legislature carry out its activities without let or hindrance. In this connection, the legislature would not have to depend on the executive arm for funding as has been the case in most states. The situation where the legislature depends entirely on the executive branch for the execution of its own programmes is not healthy for political institutionalization of this arm of government.

    Achieving good governance requires the existence of a strong, effective and efficient parliament. The establishment of state Assemblies Service Commission as stipulated in sections 51 and 96 of the 1999 Constitution is very fundamental since the independence of the legislature cannot be discussed outside the framework of having an effective Assembly Service Commission. The Assembly Service Commission guarantees security of tenure for staff of the legislature and insulates them from the unwarranted postings of trained work force from the legislature to the executive, where the skills already acquired are not required. Unfortunately, only NASS and a very few states have been able to achieve this feet. In some states where this bill has been passed into law, such Commissions are yet to be established by the executive.

    It must be established that the judiciary in Nigeria and elsewhere is the third branch of government saddled with the responsibility of defending and upholding the constitution, while providing sanctity to the rule of law.  Constitutionalism and sanctity of the rule of law principle is germane to effective governance, and security of life and property. The rule of law, underpinned by an independent judicial system, implies a functional legal framework that helps to ensure settlement of conflicts between the state and individuals on the one hand and among individuals or groups on the other. It also helps to ensure respect for property rights and contracts, while preventing the government and influential individuals from acting capriciously.

    The scourge of corruption has overtime been described as one of the most discussed causes of under-development in Nigeria. But much cause for concern, is the weakness of the justice sector delivery system, the pervading low integrity of the judiciary, which is only an aspect of the justice system, has suffered greatly due to the alleged despicable acts of some members of the bench who most times collude with the bar to weaken the law thereby allowing corruption to grow on fertile ground.

    The Nigerian Bar Association should establish a monitoring mechanism to check abuse of court process by legal practitioners. The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee should be empowered to discipline even those considered as the sacred cows.

    Beyond the tripartite division of powers among the executive, legislature and judiciary checks and balances is the need to engender a reliable, consistent and transparent civil society. The power of the citizenry to checkmate the preponderance of the executive and legislators lies primarily in a unifying public opinion.

     

    • Onovo writes from Plot 18 Whitesand Avenue, Lekki, Lagos. Tel: 08184553078, Email: jekwuonovo@gmail.com
  • What are you destined for in this political space?

    What are you destined for in this political space?

    Strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others. – Suzy Kassem

     

    Humans tend to be attracted to what suits their bias and favors their narrative more than seeking the truth at all times. When this happens, lies and alternative facts tend to triumph.

    Like President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu and other political leaders in our clime, people will assume and say what is not true about them just for the purpose of their own bias and to add flavour to their own stories. It is not impossible that people will in their own imagination create a story and make themselves believe in it and even live in that lie turned reality.

    In the last one year in the Osun political space, a lot has been said both the truth and lies which have led to some sort of deep thinking and critical analysis of what the issues really are.

    Let’s play with our imaginary abilities for a minute, assume that you are elected on a platform of the party and given benefits because of your affiliation with the said party which also enables you to have your aspirations based on the prospects of the said party. Will your aim and purpose be for the destruction of the same party? Will you be working towards the failure of the party knowing that if the party fails, there will be little or no chances for those behind you to benefit from the party? What will be your gain if you rock the boat that promoted you?

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) isn’t a special purpose vehicle where individuals can come, win party tickets, win elections and then wreck the ship for others, if this was done for those before us would we have any platform to contest today? Will ACN have anything to present at a merger to become APC?

    So you expect a sitting senator to join forces with others against the political party that gave him a ticket to be Senator and also made him a Senate spokesperson over issues that have nothing to do with him? The same Senator who as a Commissioner supported every decision and process to ensure the stability of the party will now turn around to destabilize the same party he worked for and ensure that it was stable even by deploying legal and every other available resource? Do you want to till the land with your own hands and then destroy your plants before harvest by yourself?

    What are the exact issues against Ajibola Basiru? Did anyone even try to ask the leaders of the party like Baba Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and even Governor Oyetola, what Basiru’s interventions were before going on social media to attack him? Are you privy to the mails exchanged between both Ogbeni and SRJ? Was any of you present when Basiru was moving from pillar to post to make sure that Osun APC remains one? You sit down; let people who have little or no stake in the stability of your state lie to you for whatever reasons and then you run to town with half-baked truths?  It is highly unfortunate because to those who think they are defending Ogbeni against SRJ, Ogbeni is a Muslim and the same is SRJ, can anyone boldly say while holding the Holy Quran that Basiru didn’t try to intervene in the Presence of Diran Ayekooto?

    For how long is this pull-them-down syndrome going to stop? When you are all displaced and can no longer find your feet in the party you labored for? For every party member who has benefitted from the party there are a thousand of them outside that have not benefited a kobo yet they have spent their resources instead. What should those ones do? Hang themselves to death? Are you going to look back in 10 years’ time and be happy that you supported the destruction of what you laboured for? You want to labour and also destroy your handiwork and you are angry that others like Basiru are not joining you to do so?

    What is the hullabaloo about arrogance for? It is even funny that APC members can bring a video out to discredit and call Basiru arrogant, was it not with the same arrogance he was going on TV stations to defend the policies and plans of the Ogbeni Aregbesola’s administration? Or when he was moving from Osogbo to Lagos and to Ibadan to defend the administration he had not bought this “arrogance” from the market then?  Where was this arrogance when as a lawyer he was going from one tribunal to another tribunal and even travelled abroad for forensics on the bill of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to make sure that Ogbeni reclaimed his mandate? Now you have an issue with his arrogance because his arrogance isn’t for your own benefit, you can now throw away a baby with the baby water after all you no longer need both.

    If this arrogance isn’t stemmed from envy and hatred we should have more of the party leaders and elders saying he is arrogant and chastising him for his actions but such as not happened in 10 years either in public or in private and anyone who has a proof of even Ogbeni or Baba Akande or Governor Oyetola calling him arrogant should produce it.

    If you think that the destruction of the APC is where you are going to succeed by all means, pursue it but don’t drag others along with you. The one who engages you in the destruction of others will never remember you for anything other than destruction, it is not rocket science.

    One time at a political gathering in Ibadan, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had an event and some people were singing and dancing so much that the audience and those on the high table could barely hear anything else when it was raised that they should be cautioned, a politician replied that they should allow them because that is what they were destined for.

    My dear brothers and sisters, what are you destined for in this political space?

    • Dawood, a legal practitioner writes from Osogbo, Osun State.
  • Towards decent political advertisement campaign

    Towards decent political advertisement campaign

    Following the recent green light given by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for start of campaigns for the 2023 general elections, our mass media – radio, television, newspapers, etc., — will soon be inundated with political advertisements. And the question is, will the parties, candidates and supporters conduct a decent advertisement campaign or will it be characterised by what we see in the social media (a no holds barred platform) where mockery, ridicule and even bare-faced hatred are the defining features?

    With cutting edge technology, it is relatively easy in this digital era to manipulate, distort and misrepresent an image to achieve a certain objective. Admittedly, the stakes are seemingly high for especially the two main political parties, namely, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP); not least for their presidential candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Waziri Atiku Abubakar for whom 2023 is apparently the last chance to clinch the coveted prize of Nigeria’s number one citizen.

    Much as the elections present a fierce battle, it is by no means a do-or-die battle as it is now generally considered in some quarters. Rather, it should be viewed as a healthy competition in which the goal is the progress and general well-being of the populace and where at end of it all, individual interests are subjugated to national interest; whereby opponents are viewed not as enemies, the eventual winner seen rather as a fellow Nigerian that should be lovingly supported in every way possible in the great task of nation-building that awaits him. Therein lies patriotism, service to fellow men.

    An important step towards this ideal position is in the conduct of political campaigns by the actors, a key aspect of which is advertisements. Flipping through the social media, you would be forgiven to conclude that there are no regulations guiding advertisements in general in Nigeria. It turns out however, that there are quite a number of regulators whose statutory functions impinge in one way or other on political advertisements being put out for public consumption to ensure that they meet minimum standard of decency. Chief among these is the erstwhile Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), now known as Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON). The new ARCON came into effect in August of this year. The organisation’s hands have been strengthened with the recent law that simultaneously changed its name to conform to its new powers.

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    A pointer to this is the legal action it instituted against Meta (owners of Facebook) for the various advertisements it is carrying on its platform without first sending them to the relevant authority (ARCON) for necessary approval. It has also frowned at use of foreign models and foreign production of advertisements meant for the Nigerian audience, outlining penalty fees for infringements.

    In recent times ARCON has been holding interactive sessions with stakeholders on the theme, ‘Managing political advertising campaign’. According to its director in charge of northern region, Ralph Anyacho, because of the inclinations of political actors to use advertising for negative ends by straying off to non-issue-based campaign messages such as personality attacks, ethnic innuendos, etc., ARCON has rolled out a set of regulations to control negative advertisement as such adverts if allowed could destabilize the country. Consequently, all advertisements are required to be truthful, honest, decent, legal and socially responsible. The latter is defined as being respectful and mindful of Nigeria’s culture, avoiding misinformation and disinformation.

    In truth there are a number of regulations that stakeholders should acquaint themselves with, that is politicians, advertising agencies and the media majorly. They are ARCON Act 23 of 2022, the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice, Nigeria’s ground norm, that is, the 1999 constitution (as amended); the Electoral Act 2022; INEC’s (2014) Guidelines for political rallies and campaigns by political parties, candidates, aspirants and their supporters; Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act of 2004; NBC Code 2020 and the Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO) Code of Ethics.

    The Code of Advertising Practice on political advertisements stipulate in its Article 76, that, “advertisements for political activities, political advertisement, advertising and marketing communication shall be issue oriented and devoid of abusive statement or reference. It shall not employ false, distorted or unsubstantiated claim or contain misrepresentation’’.

    Article 77 says, “Every political advertisement, advertising and marketing communication shall clearly identify sponsoring organization or individual, verifiable contact details including: names, physical address, telephone numbers, etc., shall be submitted. In Article 78, it  states that ‘’Political advertisement, advertising and marketing communication shall not explicitly or implicitly  adversely exploit matters relating to ethnicity, religion or any other sectional interest’’.

    In addition to complying with the Advertising Code of Practice, all concerned parties are also mandated to comply with the Nigerian Broadcasting Code, the NPO Code of and the Electoral laws ‘’in all matters relating to political advertising’’. Furthermore, the regulation for political advertisement require that it must not contain ‘’any description, claim or illustration which can convey erroneous or misleading impression about the person or service advertised or about the suitability of the idea or agenda recommended.  Any description, claim or illustration made in any political advertisement shall be subject to empirical proof or capable of substantiation if demanded. Evidence shall be required in respect of superlative or comparative claims. Testimonials or endorsements made in any political advertisement shall be subject to proof’’

    More importantly, all advertisements according to ARCON must be approved by the Advertising Standard Panel (ASP) and a certificate issued to that effect after vetting. To wit, it is stipulated that copies of the certificate must be attached to all media orders. In effect, ‘’no political advertisement should be exposed or published unless a certificate of approval has been received by the applicant or media house’’.  There are minimum stipulated penalties for any media house, advertiser, advertising practitioner and advertising agency that publishes, aid, abet, authorise, causes or places for publication a political advertisement without an ASP certificate. The aforementioned requirements rolled out by the transformed ARCON, supported by its new 2022 Act/law are sufficient to make us have a clean, decent political advertisements and campaigns if they can be followed through to the letter and enforced accordingly.

    • Ikeano, a journalist, writes from Lafia via victoriangozii@gmail.com 

  • Rules, sacrifice and cohesion in party politics

    Rules, sacrifice and cohesion in party politics

    It is no news that the well-orchestrated concession of the presidential slot to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP at their primaries without regard to the party’s enshrined policy of zoning and rotation in electable and appointive offices in the party has put a spanner in the works of a once vibrant and cohesive party.

    The bone of contention is, who and where the next presidential candidates of parties come from, leading to the forthcoming general elections. This contention became fierce even before the party primaries of the two dominant parties, PDP and APC. In fact, it assumed bitter and frightening storm across the country. It was a   whirlpool of some sort. The controversy took the form of tribal, ethnic, regional and religious colouration. While the southern political block laid claim to the presidential ticket, rightly so, as the north in truth, has had its fair share, having served almost two straight four-year term at ASO ROCK, the north countered that demand of the south as infringing on their constitutional right to contest the presidency.

    This stand point, though constitutionally tenable, is seen by the southerners as self-seeking, greedy and clearly a move that runs on the head of natural justice. This stand by the northern block in the PDP may not be unconnected with the power of the presidency, and its utility value in dispensing the overwhelming advantages. This is true, as politics play a major role in the acquisition of economic and financial wealth in the region as opposed to the south where commerce and industry play a major role in the economy of the region, with politics as a complementary part of the whole gamut for socio-economic and material well-being of her citizens.

    But this should not be so in a sane and civil society where equity and justice and balance should be the yardsticks for electable and appointive offices for good governance in a pluralistic society, such as Nigeria.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) at its party primaries gave hope to Nigerians in the direction of equity and justice and inclusivity in the choice of the presidential candidate, having voted for a southerner, though a Muslim, from the Yoruba stock. Even before the applause for the pretended choice died down, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu opted for a northern Muslim pair as vice presidential candidate.

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    For the APC, the rumblings are still on, particularly from southern elements and the large Christian following on what they describe as controversially divisive politics at play in these choices.

    For the PDP, the roof is almost being pulled off the umbrella house as a southern group led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is bent on seeing that justice prevails in the allocation, elective and appointive offices in the party.

    The group, comprising Wike as the chieftain, together with his governor counterparts, namely, Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and lately Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State are in a battle of wits for the control of the party, leading to the general elections in February 2023.

    Series of consultations in and out of the country have gone on and still going on, yet both sides of the divide appear not to shift grounds. All the public is fed with are speculations that lead the party and her followers to nowhere near victory at the hotly contested general elections, whose campaigns are in swing.

    Only last Monday October 17, Wike’s group on yet another series of consultations in faraway Spain came back to Nigeria to see to the end of the battle of do-or-die for party leadership and supremacy. In the same breath, a new group within the PDP comprising four governors have threatened to withdraw their support for Atiku if he gives into Wike’s demands. They are governors Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Douye Diri (Bayelsa) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba). They are reported to be backed by several notable members of the party in the evolving stand-off, reported The Nation newspaper of Sunday, October 16.

    In fact, reports say, Obaseki’s group has threatened to dump Atiku’s campaign train should Wike and his group be allowed to have their way on Ayu’s exit. Their stand, sources disclosed, is strongly supported by prominent members of PDP, BoT and National Working Committee of the party. The group has, in an unmistaken terms, stated that the PDP should not allow Wike to hold the party to ransom, even as the G.5 of Wike have continued to insist that it is unfair for the party to have the national chairman and presidential candidate from the northern extraction ahead of the 2023 polls.

    So, where do all these lead the PDP in the electoral process and chances for victory at the polls? What are the chances of a house divided against itself clinching victory, especially the presidential slot in the general elections in view?

    In all of these, Atiku, the presidential flag bearer is undecided in acting swiftly to douse the on-going flames in the party. He is bewildered and shocked at his own calculated attempt to shoot himself on the foot by encouraging the jettisoning of rotation and zoning as enshrined in the party’s constitution.

    For the records, the founding fathers of the PDP, in their wisdom, introduced rotation and zoning as a means of cementing political inclusivity and strengthening the bonds of unity in the party and by extension, the Nigerian nation state. The PDP in good faith had introduced the concept of rotation and zoning into Nigerian politics to promote national unity, peace, sacrifice, and to giving a sense of belonging to members in the affairs of the party.

    Section 7(2)(c) of the umbrella party’s constitution states thus: “…In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the  party shall adhere to the policy of ‘rotation and zoning’ of party and public elective offices”.

    Why then has the PDP decided to jettison this clause in their constitution? Or has that section been amended?

    Discerning minds believe that this castration of the constitutional provisions of the party with regard to rotation and zoning is responsible for the wobbling structures of the PDP. To think that the party can go into the elections with such faulty steps on a path loaded with explosives leaves much to be desired. Is it that, whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad or hard of hearing, to do what is right?

    The PDP as a party should not deceive itself that all is well in their present dislocation and aggressive opposition to shifting grounds to secure a peaceful and enduring solution to the challenges before the party by the contending parties. The truth is that the party cannot stand the other well prepared and organized parties at the polls with a weak and wobbling foundation, further being fractured daily.

    And guess what? What played out in 2015 when the then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was abandoned by some of his credible and powerful supporters, leading to the presidential election is playing out now. How history repeats itself! Atiku and his team should therefore think deep and make a sharp U-turn to restore its party to its honour and dignity and to its respect for constitutional provisions in birthing a virile and inclusive party that can compete favourably with other political parties in the elections ahead.

    • Ekiye writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • Chibok kidnappings: Why it’s important to listen to the survivors of Boko Haram terrorism

    Chibok kidnappings: Why it’s important to listen to the survivors of Boko Haram terrorism

    In 2009, a once quiet local Salafi group called Boko Haram became increasingly violent in northeast Nigeria and border communities of Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Its quest to forbid western education in the heavily Islamic region has led to the kidnapping of many school children, the slaughter of an estimated 2,200 teachers and the burning down of 1,400 schools. But the terrorist group was largely unknown on the world stage until the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014.

    The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, used in the international calls for the girls to be rescued, garnered over 3.3 million tweets in less than a month. It became Twitter’s most used hashtag at the time, reaching 6.1 million tweets in 2016. It inspired protests around the world demanding the immediate release of the girls.

    Some of these girls are still in captivity today; others have been rescued or have escaped. But some of the rescued girls returned to their abductors. It was a sign that there was more to know about Boko Haram terrorism.

    In a recent study, I argue that the global popularity of the Chibok girls’ case is due to the hard work of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Its framing of the case, however, failed to offer a nuanced picture of realities in Nigeria.

    The violence of Boko Haram in the northeast is much more complex than the gendered divisions (female victims versus male perpetrators) that emerged. I turned to the testimonial stories that emerged after the kidnapping to offer more insights.

    Creative responses

    Writers, journalists and artists responded strongly to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The kidnapping has been taken up in novels (Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree), films (Nollywood’s Boko Haram and a scene in Hollywood’s Black Panther), documentaries (Stolen Daughters and Daughters of Chibok), poems (The Book of Chibok), literary memoirs (A Gift From Darkness), literary reportage (The Chibok Girls and Beneath the Tamarind Tree), visual art and songs – to mention just a few.

    I consider these creative works as testimonial narratives, as they are based on survivors’ testimonies. In my analysis, these representations must be read as part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

    Testimonial narratives

    Reading these texts, I began to notice a story much more complex than what is available in public media and even academic scholarship. For one thing, the Chibok case is neither exemplary nor singular. By focusing exclusively on this case, the movement missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced and complex response to Boko Haram.

    This is why one of the movement’s foremost writers, Nigerian novelist and journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, claims that the excessive focus on the Chibok girls, to the detriment of other stories from children, men and women, was “a mistake”. As she argues, it is only through a robust engagement with the tragedy of terrorism in northern Nigeria that we can learn how best to confront it meaningfully.

    Read Also: Okada as the ogre of terrorism

    Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree

    Nwaubani strives to achieve this complexity in her acclaimed novel, Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree. The text is a literary testimonial narrated through the perspective of an unnamed teenage girl survivor, affectionately called Yaa Taa by her parents. Nwaubani affirms and also moves beyond the Chibok case by making Yaa Taa representative of all women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram – not just the Chibok girls.

    The novel also undoes the easy gender binary constructed by the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners. Boko Haram has also murdered boys and men while kidnapping girls and women. When Boko Haram invades her village and almost annihilates all men and boys, Yaa Taa mourns:

    I thank God that I am a girl … it was the boys and men that got called to one side of the building when the Boko Haram men gathered all the villagers … It was the boys who were lying in shallow puddles of red, while the girls and women and toddlers were marched into trucks.

    Italian journalist Viviana Mazza’s afterword in Nwaubani’s novel supports Yaa Taa’s experience. It mirrors what she heard from other witnesses she interviewed.

    The women also allude to the trauma of witnessing such gruesome murders and the challenge of survival in the absence of their fathers, husbands, brothers, teachers and community leaders in their patriarchal society. Yet this has been scarcely acknowledged. #BringBackOurGirls shows a need for a better understanding of the delicate situation in these communities.

    Multiple experiences

    We find similar testimonies in other narratives published in the aftermath of the Chibok girls’ kidnapping. For example, A Gift from Darkness: How I Escaped with My Daughter from Boko Haram is a memoir written by a German journalist, Andrea Hoffmann. She interviews a survivor, Patience Ibrahim, whose husband was murdered by Boko Haram. None of the male members of her family survived and she was left without any family support.

    Even a Wall Street Journal article showing that Boko Haram had kidnapped over 10,000 boys by 2016 was largely ignored in the face of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

    What this shows is that witness accounts and testimonial narratives have the potential to offer deeper insights into historical events. But we need to listen carefully to the stories of survivors who may not be telling us exactly what we want to hear.

    Testimonial narratives have also enabled other stories, experiences and voices to emerge. The violence inflicted by Boko Haram terrorism cuts beyond the Chibok case and crosses gender lines.

    Without understanding the nuances of this violence, we cannot begin to solve it. Nor can we understand why some of those who have been rescued are returning to their captors. Only they will be able to tell us.

  • Wike and his 50,000 special advisers 

    Wike and his 50,000 special advisers 

    For weeks now, Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike has positioned himself to be the most-talked about politician. Every day, he gladly graces the front pages and grabs the headlines of major newspapers and it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.

    Digressing from the prolonged feud between him and his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the dust raised by Wike over the appointment of 50,000 special assistants for various political units in the state is yet to settle.

    This bizarre development comes a few months to the end of Wike’s tenure as Rivers Governor. According to Wike’s media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, the governor had first appointed 28,000 aides, and then he reviewed it to the appointment of 50,000 aides in total. There are even indications that the governor is planning to increase it to 100,000.

    In Wike’s usual expeditious manner, the advisers, who were not named, are to resume immediately, and are expected to play ‘pivotal’ roles in the administration.

    Many observers are indeed bewildered with the many political intrigues happening in the state. It is believed that Wike’s latest antics is to smartly secure his home base where he appears to be very much in control at this time especially for his governorship candidate, Sim Fubara.

    For many political watchers, the appointment of a retinue of aides at a time the administration is winding down, signals a fresh start of a new round of campaign for the electioneering season. Many of these ‘ghost aides’ are just hangers-on as their assignments are not even clearly spelt out.

    Read Also: Wike upgrades appointment of Special Assistants to 50,000

    While some observers believe these appointments smack of insensitivity, as well as breeds corruption and will clearly overburden the state’s treasury, others, however, think it is a way to create employment.

    Wike’s appointments, however, melts to nothing when compared to Cross River’s Ben Ayade, who appointed 38,000 aides last year. Zamfara governor, Bello Matawalle earlier this year, approved the appointment of additional 169 top government officials and aides.

    Defending his decision, Ayade had said it was part of efforts to improve on sustainable development in the state.

    The examples above, captures the unthinkable and near bizarre in government, especially at federal, state levels, where presidents, governors and lawmakers elected into public offices appoint legions of aides.

    Most of the aides do not even operate from government houses. Some have other businesses or employment, but they are called governor’s aides for their role as ‘attack dogs’ for governors or maybe they are interested in adding it to their curriculum vitae. Wherever and whenever the work of the state government is being criticised, they attack the critic, no matter how objective such criticism is.

    What is more shocking is that some governors do not even know some of their so-called aides as such persons were recruited by other aides and given identification cards. Their names are included in the state payroll. When elections approach, they become foot soldiers singing the praise of the politician.

    One may contend that Rivers State is buoyant but the critics have argued that the system of government being practiced in Nigeria is very costly, and indeed reduction in cost of governance is the way to go.

    Wike is not done yet, and the question on the lips of many is what Wike’s endgame is? No matter how one keeps up with Wike’s melodrama, one cannot predict what happens in the next event or episode.

    • Alao Abiodun, Lagos.

  • Tompolo’s exploits

    Tompolo’s exploits

    From being hunted by security agents few years ago, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, is today the hottest act in Nigeria’s crackdown against oil thieves and, in effect, the country’s economic survival. By reason of the Federal Government’s enlistment of a security surveillance firm to which he is linked, the ex-militant is the new czar of the war to tackle down a menace that is bringing the country close to her knees. And the country appears benefitting from the deal.

    Within eight weeks of being signed up by government in a multi-billion naira contract involving oil pipeline surveillance in the Niger Delta region, Tompolo’s Tantita Security Services Limited has uncovered a slew of illegal oil tapping points in Delta and Bayelsa states through which crude oil is being stolen by economic leeches. The former leader of militant Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) lately confirmed that the crackdown also unearthed a four-kilometre long illegal oil pipeline in the Forcados area of Delta State. Government, in August, awarded the pipeline surveillance contract reportedly worth N48billion per year – @N4billion per month – to Tantita Security Services with the aim of stemming massive oil theft in the Niger Delta. The contract had elicited intense public criticism of government’s decision to engage a non-state actor for such critical operation. But Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari, in justifying the contract, argued that it wasn’t the first time private operators were being engaged to fight the menace of oil stealing in the creeks. And he was right. Former President Goodluck Jonathan farmed out pipeline security contracts to non-state actors including non-Niger Delta based groups like the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) during his tenure, which was widely perceived as a ploy to harvest support for his re-election bid of 2015 that eventually fell through. In the present case concerning government’s patronage of Tompolo, who previously championed Niger Delta insurgency against the Nigerian state and thereby became a security quarry, Kyari had said government was not dealing directly with him but with a private security firm in which he has stake. Whatever, Tompolo is now a contractor playing in government’s behalf on the same terrain where he had once played in conflict with government: same turf but substituted loyalty.

    Since they came on board, operatives of Tantita Security Services have reported the discovery of major tapping points on the Trans-Forcados/Ramos Pipeline in Delta State through which oil thieves suspected to include International Oil Companies (IOCs), security officials, freelance bunkerers and locals had colluded over the years to bleed this country pale. Among others, surveillance operations by the firm unearthed no fewer than 16 breaches on a pipeline operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) at Yokri community and its environs in Delta State. The pipeline in question runs from Otumara and ends at Forcados Terminal; with locals, oil companies and security personnel as well reportedly found to have been siphoning crude oil from the line over the years. Tantita said it had reported its findings to military authorities and the NNPCL management, which was the ostensible reason Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Lucky Irabor and NNPCL’s Mele Kyari flew in from Abuja a couple of weeks back to get first-hand view of the several breaches. Speaking to journalists after inspecting the breaches, General Irabor vowed that Defence authorities would spare no effort to fish out the culprits. For his part, Kyari noted that the illegal attachments to Trans-Forcados/Ramos pipeline were “professionally done.” On next line of action, he stated: “The CDS has said clearly that he would investigate and anyone involved in this racket, whether from community members, community contractors, government security agencies, workers of the oil companies including NNPCL and Shell will be dealt with.”

    Read Also: Creek war brews in Niger Delta as Asari Dokubo opposes Tompolo’s N4.5bn pipeline contract

    The operations of Tompolo’s security firm have also blown the cover off an illegal loading port attached to the Trans Escravos pipeline at Yokri flow station in the Ogulagha oil field in Burutu council area of Delta. So also did Tantita operatives penultimate week intercept a 1,500 metric ton-capacity oil vessel with eight crew members loaded with stolen crude on Escravos river in Warri Southwest council area of Delta State. Between 600 to 650 cubic metres of illegally lifted crude were said to be on board the vessel at the time of its apprehension. Existing records reportedly showed that the vessel has been in use over many years to lift stolen crude to Tema port in Ghana; it was indeed apprehended for oil bunkering in September 2021 but got released in curious circumstances before the latest re-arrest.

    During an interactive session with Senate’s joint committee on the petroleum sector penultimate week, Kyari again bemoaned the resource haemorrhage constituted by oil stealing and confirmed breakthroughs in the new security crackdown. “As a result of oil theft, Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels per day, which is not healthy for the nation’s economy and in particular the legal operators in the field, which had led to closedown of some of their operational facilities. But in rising up to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPCL has in recent time in collaboration with relevant security agencies clamped down on the economic saboteurs,” he said. Kyari highlighted the successes recorded as follows: “In the course of the clampdown within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1,561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized, and the most striking of all is the four-kilometer illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation undetected for nine solid years.” In stating the magnitude of the challenge, he said aerial surveillance of affected areas revealed the economic saboteurs carrying on their activities “unchallenged and unperturbed.” He added that the problem at hand was “not only (about) security but also social, as locals in most areas where the illegal refiners operate unknowingly serve as their employees by mistaking them for operatives of licensed companies.”

    Before Tompolo’s firm came into the play, oil stealing had gone on in the Niger Delta with government seemingly helpless. Actually, Kyari at the Senate joint committee session acknowledged that oil theft has been ongoing in the country for over 22 years, “but the dimension and the rate it assumed in recent time is unprecedented.” Truth, however, is that the challenge until now is not just lack of containment capacity but insufficient will in government to fight the menace. It was like there was an assumption Nigeria could live with it, until existential economic difficulties of recent years proved otherwise. Some members of security agencies of government who should have led the charge against oil thieves have always been suspected of being among the leeches. And not that it is an idle suspicion. Last January, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike accused a police chief in the state of operating an illegal refinery and demanded his immediate redeployment. “He must leave this state. I can’t be governor here and the security man owns an illegal refinery. No, it’s not possible. Take him to wherever they allow bunkering,” Wike had said. Meanwhile, government is yet to bring indicted actors among the security personnel to book. This has fuelled insinuation that there is state complicity in the racket, and it is government’s onus to prove this insinuation wrong if it is wrong.

    Besides Tantita, there are said to be two other private security firms engaged by NNPCL. And if what Tompolo’s firm is reported to be getting offers any guide, we could well do the math as to what the arrangement costs this country. But, of course, the cost is negligible compared to what is being lost to oil thieves. Still, the game changer does not lie in the hands of the private security contractors. Government must walk its talk about bringing oil thieves and their colluders to justice, whether they be from the security services, the government’s bureaucracy or indeed officials of the oil companies. Besides, the edge that Tompolo brings to the task apparently is that he is hunting oil thieves on a turf familiar to him – more than to state security agents who would only be on ad hoc posting on unfamiliar terrain. The modest successes recorded again proves the sense in the advocacy for state police.

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • World Food Day 2022

    World Food Day 2022

    SIR: “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread”—Mahatma Gandhi

    Yesterday was World Food Day, an annual observance to highlight the precarious situation of millions around the world who cannot afford a healthy meal and the importance of regular access to nutritious food. It also commemorates the founding, in 1945, of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

    This year’s theme is “Leaving no one behind” but my recent visits to some IDP camps in the Northeast saddened me considering that “many people are still left behind”. Thousands of people in these camps lack access to nutritious food and a large number of them go to bed hungry. Sadly, the most affected of the aforementioned are children and infants.

    In the face of a looming global food crisis, several farmlands are left unattended to no thanks to insurgency and conflict. The agriculture sector is faced with unprecedented skirmishes and food insecurity more glaring. Most agriculture interventions are not value-addition inclined and the school feeding programme has turned out to be a façade coupled with the fact that change in climatic conditions has had its toll on farmers who are majorly rural dwellers. Soaring prices of food have made it unaffordable for the majority of the populace and high inflation facing the economy has made the situation worrisome.

    Then a question comes to mind: How do we eradicate poverty (SDG 1), or end hunger and malnutrition (SDG 2) with all the aforementioned issues?

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were to ensure no one is left behind. With the disturbingly flood in several communities across the country in recent time, particularly in Benue and Kogi states which produce most of the country’s food, ths situation becomes more grim.

    Read Also; World food prices drop for sixth month, says FAO

    A large number of Nigerians are already behind in their bid to access healthy and nutritious meals. The flooded food baskets of the nation might compound the woes of having access to healthy and nutritious meals.

    Winston Churchill once said that ‘healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.’ I fear the country’s assets may pitiably depreciate should people continue to face these food and feeding challenges.

    As numerous reports have captured it, the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war has largely contributed to the global food crisis. While Al-Jazeera reported, “Russia’s war in Ukraine is preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, threatening to worsen shortages, hunger, and political instability in developing countries,” The Economics Observatory affirmed that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is raising food prices across the world. Developing and emerging economies are being hit hardest due to their reliance on the region for fuel and grain imports. Price hikes in these countries could spur further political turbulence and even violence.”

    The World Food Programme estimates that 690 million people across the world are hungry even as 8.9 percent of the world’s population are yet to come out of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Amidst this global security food crisis, collective solidarity is urgently required to mitigate the deteriorating situations and issues affecting global food security.

    State governments in the Northeast must develop and integrate strategies that tackle hunger and malnutrition in the IDP camps. More efforts should be focused on supporting smallholder farmers and improving existing agrifood systems across the region. The federal government should initiate support systems for small-scale farmers. FAO has reported that it produces a third of the world’s food systems, equally representing 80 percent of food producers across the globe. They are the foundation of food stability for human sustenance.

    John Whedon says that humour keeps us alive. We should not forget food because we can go a week or more without laughing. We all should be involved in the food chain as inferred by Mike Johanns. In any way we can we should contribute towards food security; food is very important to humanity likewise air and humour.

    • Olasoji Fagbola, olasojifagbola@gmail.com