SIR: The constitutional responsibility and duty of a lawmaker is to make laws and sponsor bills that would have a meaningful impact on their constituents. They are also saddled with the responsibility of contributing meaningfully well to the growth and development of their various constituencies and this is the main reason why each lawmaker is entitled to constituency allowances, either at the local level, state, or federal level. Although most times, these lawmakers often use these allowances for little or nothing for their constituency, they use the lion’s share of the money is useful to finance their ostentatious lifestyles.

Okeho and her environs in Kajola Local Government of Oyo State, under Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa Federal Constituency of Oyo state and Oyo North Senatorial District, can be referred to as a haven for many unutilized constituency projects. With or without the commissioning of these projects, they are yet to be beneficial to the people of the community as they remain under lock and key. There has been no value addition to the community.

Few examples will suffice. During the 7th Senate, 2011-2015, Okeho was a beneficiary of two gigantic health centers, facilitated by Senator Hosea Ayoola Agboola. Initially, these projects brought so much joy to the people of Okeho and her environs. One of the health centers is at Alaapa Area of Okeho, along Olowo-Ata, while the second one at Isale Alubo, area of Okeho.

Although these projects were completed, that of Alaapa was commissioned by the senator himself, but after the commissioning of the project, no single patient had accessed medicare at these locations till date. As such, it is neither viable in terms of the provision of healthcare services nor employment for healthcare practitioners. Although, it cannot be ascertained if that of Isale-Alubo was commissioned but it has been completed, with a Mikano Generator in the hospital’s compound and other medical equipment lying fallow within the premises. These two beautiful edifices are now surrounded by bushes and inhabited by lizards and wall geckos.

There is an urgent need for the government and our political leaders to help our community by recruiting and putting these projects to use.

We call on Governor Seyi Makinde to see these two healthcare facilities as low-hanging fruits for his administration to make the best out of the current situation, as Senator Ayoola is the head of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC). Equally, it will make the presence of the state government felt within the left few months of his first term in office.

On October 23, 2021, the current senator, AbdulFatai Buhari, laid the foundation of a 40-bed hospital in partnership with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This hospital is along Isemi-Ile Road, Okeho. Although this project was completed in April, it is yet to be equipped and commissioned. Our heart cry now is that this particular one shouldn’t turn into a shadow of itself like others, without having the desired impact on the constituents.

It is important to state that our community has contributed immensely to the development of Oyo State and the nation at large. If these facilities are put to use, there would be an end to rural-urban migration and the community would thrive. With the support of the royal father, the council of chiefs, erudite scholars and accomplished academics, private sector players, artisans, and residents of the community, there is an assurance that all these facilities would be properly and judiciously put to use for the overall development of the state.

• Kayode Awojobi, Okeho, Oyo State.

A third wave of defection of high-profile politicians has hit the polity. In the first and second waves, the decampees were directly and indirectly wooed to cross over to the All Progressives’ Congress, APC. In this third one, those cross-carpeting are the ones somehow, lobbying political parties to embrace them.

Moreover, the on-going gale cut across the two major parties. Recall that we witnessed the first mass decamping since 1999 return to civilian rule when a number of governors, senators and House of Representatives members turned their backs against their party, the then ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), to join the newly formed APC in 2014. That singular mass defection of PDP chieftains was considered a master stroke that upturned the political apple cart and changed the political equation. It was part of the reason why the new party, APC, defeated a ruling party that had been on the saddle for 16 years and why Muhammadu Buhari triumphed in his fourth attempt to become president.

The new party, APC, was an amalgamation of ANPP headed by Ogbonnaya Onu, ACN led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Buhari’s CPC and a faction of APGA headed by Rochas Okorocha, all of which are now defunct.

APC has been the ruling party for seven years now.  Its immediate past chairman, Governor Mai Mala Bunu has, as one of his singular achievements, the ‘capture’ of three sitting PDP governors for the party.  They are Zamfara State’s Bello Matawalle, Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Ebonyi State’s Dave Umahi. Interestingly, both Ayade and Umahi are now contesting for APC’s presidential ticket. However, the PDP was so irked by their defections that they prayed the courts to remove them from office for “trading off” the mandate that they got on PDP platform. An Appeal Court ruled otherwise.

For now, both governors Ayade and Umahi remain in office until end of their tenure on May 29, 2023 while Matawalle is seeking re-election as his new party’s governorship candidate. Of course, these governors defected en masse with their loyalists, to their new political home, the APC. That was the second gale of defections. There were even rumours of more governors jumping ship.  Remember too, that shortly before the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra State, the state deputy governor and many House of Assembly members decamped to the APC. Thus, again, APC was beneficiary of this second gale of carpet crossing that involved governors, a deputy governor and a host of others.

Now, the third wave of high-profile defections that even involves APC members. Significantly too, this third gale is coming just after parties’ primary elections; indeed, it is a fallout of the primaries. In the aforementioned first two waves, the decampees crossed over after being wooed like a beautiful bride. In the current third wave, the defectors are more or less forced to jump ship, having lost out in the primaries; it did not come from their heart, not totally their volition.

More significantly, unlike the first two gales, the decampees are the ones shopping for political parties to cross to rather than the parties lobbying them to come over. In fact, a party is said to have rejected one such defector who sought to join them. One-time deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu who was not favoured by the PDP governorship primary in Enugu State and so left the PDP, was allegedly turned back by APC when he sought shelter there. He was apparently still shopping for where to pitch his tent as at the time of writing this.

Obviously, there is no shortage of parties these later-day decampees can join given that there are no fewer than 18 political parties recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). But it appears these people are looking out for parties that already have some perceived electoral value to hitch on to. It matters not or matters little to these current defectors if their new party aligns with their political philosophy, ideology. Former Anambra governor, Peter Obi, a bourgeoisie to all intents and purpose, de-boarded the PDP for the Labour Party which should be a socialist party, at least on paper.

Truth however is that in Nigeria, we cannot identify any party with a particular ideology. We neither have wholly conservative nor wholly socialist parties because Nigeria is a mixed economy state. At best we can and should have political parties that are a little to the left or a little to the right, the two continuum. PDP (a seemingly conservative party) would belong to the latter and APC (perceived to be progressive) to the former. All our political parties are the same, the difference among them being same as six and half a dozen; which is why our politicians jump in and out of parties at the slightest mishap to pursue their personal interests. Only very few of them can be described as a ‘party man’ or ‘party woman’.  That is, one who sticks to the party or political ideology from cradle to grave…

Among the latter-day decampees is Senator Adamu Aliero. He resigned from the APC after a political fight with the man that succeeded him as governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who also doubles as chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum. That clash saw him edged out from that party’s senatorial primary.  Senate minority leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe also withdrew from the PDP Abia State gubernatorial primary at the 11th hour, decamped from it and is now frolicking with APGA. A one-time Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni had defected to SDP after he failed to clinch APC’s governorship ticket for the election slated for this June 18. The incumbent senator representing Edo North, Francis Asekhame Alimikhena, left the party after former APC chairman Adams Oshiomhole was declared winner of the primary. There are many other instances of cross carpeting. Those mentioned are just a sample.  There may be more high-profile defections, resignations from the APC itself after or just before its presidential primary election next week.

• Ikeano writes via Victoriangozii@gmail.com

‘Where are Africa’s Mackenzies?’

African feminist movements are some of the most dynamic drivers of social change on the continent, transforming lives at the community level, and leading policy change at national and regional levels.

In Nigeria for instance, we saw the tenor of the EndSars protest shift once feminist leaders stepped in to support the resistance; one result was the abolishing of the police unit that had been widely criticised for the terror they unleashed on Nigerian citizens.

Across Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Guinea, Nous Sommes La Solution (We are the Solution), a network of more than 500 rural women’s associations have created a movement to preserve traditional African knowledge and practices regarding farming and agroecology to provide sustainable solutions to hunger and landlessness.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) exists thanks to work done by networks of African women’s rights organisations.  In my opinion and that of many health and social activists, this is one of the strongest protocols on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the world.

The work of feminist movements leads to tangible, progressive social change yet this work is underfunded. As research by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development has shown, less than 1% of Official Development Aid and foundation grants reach women’s rights organisations. Black feminist movements receive even less — 0.1% and 0.35% of annual grant dollars from foundations.

If progressive social change on the African continent is to be accelerated, then it needs to be properly resourced. This means all players in the funding ecosystem need to come to the table, including wealthy Africans.

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African philanthropy has existed for generations. Who doesn’t know a relative, a colleague or friend who is paying school fees for unrelated children; contributing to funeral costs; or sending money from the diaspora to help cover medical bills? We know Africans give; give generously. Just think about that generation of grandmothers who lost their children to HIV/Aids and responded by taking on the care of their grandchildren, and of so many other children in their own and neighbouring towns and villages.

These were people who gave when they were struggling to put food on their tables … giving from the core, not from economic surplus.

Today though, I’m thinking about a different group of African philanthropists … our African multimillionaires and billionaires. Many wealthy Africans including  Mo Ibrahim and Tony Elemelu direct their large gifts through foundations they have established. Others such as Tsitsi Masiyiwa have contributed to pooled funds like The Gender Fund.

In South Africa, the Social Justice Initiative looked to pool funds from wealthy individuals and groups to better sponsor social justice work. Yet there are so many more wealthy people that could step up to fund social justice causes if they chose to do so. According to Forbes, “Africa’s billionaires are richer than they have been in years. As a group, the continent’s 18 billionaires are worth an estimated $84.9-billion.” At the same time the African Philanthropy Forum recently reported that African NGOs remain underfunded, while African philanthropists directed just 9% of their large gifts to these groups.

In 2020, American billionaire Mackenzie Scott began giving significant sums of money to social justice organisations. She did so in a way that feminist movements have long advocated for — in substantial amounts, without the clauses and conditions that tend to hamper innovation and the ability to pivot to the greatest needs. The speed, the size and the style of her giving has shaken the complacency that has dragged and limited some of the impact of global philanthropy.

Part of what Scott demonstrates is that you can give strategically — to feminist and social justice movements for instance — and also fund projects that are personal and dear to your heart. African philanthropists could choose to continue to give large gifts to their foundations — and give directly to a range of players in African feminist and social justice spaces.

It is possible to give to support business innovation for instance, while also supporting the organising work of young feminist activists or work to introduce more equitable legislation in social and political spheres.

Experience has shown us that philanthropy is at its best when it is innovative, risk taking, transformative. Wealthy Africans are uniquely placed to disrupt complacent philanthropic giving at scale. We need African philanthropists to play a leading role in funding transformative change in Africa.

It is in our collective interest to co-create a continent where everyone has the basics of life: nutritious food, clean air, a roof over one’s head, safe, decent work, physical, social, economic security and justice and the right to gather with those that we love.

To truly drive social justice we need people who have a love for humanity to fund this work. This radical transformation will not be created by an over reliance on foreign foundations and Overseas Development Aid. The revolution needs everybody to play their part, including people with wealth.

This month, Shake the Table and The Bridgespan Group published Lighting the Way: A Report for Philanthropy on the Power and Promise of Feminist Movements. In their report they “urge philanthropists to invest an additional $6-billion by 2026 [$1.5-billion annually] in feminist movements”.

We encourage African philanthropists to see this figure as the floor and not the ceiling. For too long African feminists and social justice movements have had to play small. We have been perennially underfunded. We have received funding on conditional terms, money that is limited to particular projects and is often short term. That has kept us playing small.

If we are to grow to be more effective, if we are to continue to produce women’s peace movements that drive a country towards solutions as we saw in Liberia or produce global movements for women’s rights and the environment as we saw with Wangari Mathai and the Greenbelt Movement, then we need to be meaningfully supported. It’s time for wealthy Africans to transform their giving, shake the table and boldly fund movements.

• Sowa is co-chairperson of the Equality Fund; member of the African Advisory Board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation; Patron of Evidence for Development; and board member of the UBS Optimus Foundation; the Graça Machel Trust; and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. This article is culled from Mail& Guardian.

Intrigues and misconceptions no doubt is already creeping into the demand made by President Muhammadu Buhari when he met with the All Progressive Congress (APC) governors to discuss the qualities the presidential candidate to fly the party flag come 2023 should have.

In his remarks, President Buhari urged the governors to look for a person who can win election even before the main election. Simply put, a man who is accepted beyond all divide – someone who is popular. He also charged them to look for someone who knows the ideology of the party.

Without sounding immodest, it will be deceitful for any person who has been following the trend of the aspirants’ consultative visits to delegates in the different states of the federation to say he does not know the person who possess the above qualities as expounded by the president.

First, it is a common fact that unless someone is at the very beginning of a development, such a person cannot proudly proclaim self as the proponent of the ideology or the basis for the development of the issue.

When APC was formed, it was an idea of one man: Ahmed Bola Tinubu. He initiated the idea and subsequently sold it is to Muhammadu Buhari who then was in Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as the founder.

President Buhari bought the idea and together the decision to determine the nature of the party was born. Therefore, going by the president’s demand, only Bola Tinubu and the likes of Chief Bisi Akande, Raji Fashola and the president can comfortably say they know the ideology behind the formation of APC.

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Among the hordes of aspirants that are today lined up for the presidential ticket of the APC, none of them were there when the ideology of the party was born, except for Tinubu who developed the ideology. Going by this, the APC governors need not belabor themselves in looking for who the president has in mind.

The president also hinted that the aspirant should be someone who can win election even before the main election itself. Of all the aspirants, who is most popular? Of all, who is most talked about, either negatively or positively? It is Bola Tinubu.

One can safely say that, the only candidate respected and feared by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), is Bola Tinubu. Any wonder so many of his detractors bandied the rumor of an imaginary death of Tinubu when he went for a knee treatment in the United Kingdom.

Put this way, PDP will pop champagne if tomorrow it is heard that someone else besides Bola Tinubu is the candidate of APC. When therefore the president spoke of someone who is popular, the governors cannot feign ignorance of who the president meant.

Beyond this, it is a fact that the president did not at the meeting ask to be allowed to determine who his successor would be; he simply asked the governors to look out for the most popular person among the aspirants. And to make it easy for them, he gave them insight as to the attributes the person should possess.

Even Abdullahi Adamu, the national chairman of the APC had stated clearly that consensus cannot work in choosing a presidential candidate. He had emphasized that using consensus in choosing a party chairman is not the same when it comes to determining a presidential candidate of a party.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the party will allow all aspirants to test their popularity in the field, but while doing so, the governors have been told the quality to look out for in the would be presidential candidate so as to guide their delegates aright.

Even the National Working Committee of the party, via a letter written by the APC National Vice Chairman (North-West), Mallam Salihu Lukeman has rejected all idea bothering on consensus. Instead, the NWC called for a free, fair and credible primary where all aspirants will test their popularity. Consensus is not only undemocratic, it amounts to imposition, which the camp of the frontline aspirant, Bola Tinubu has over times rejected.

Hence, it will be more reasonable that all aspirants be allowed to participate in the primary. This will give both the losers and winner a sense of belonging. Nobody will feel cheated. This will further unite the aspirants. Anything short of this may destroy the unity in the party.

Bola Tinubu no doubt is a thorough-bred democrat. He is not the type who will prefer to have the ticket of the party bequeathed to him as if it is a favour. Otherwise, he would not have bothered to traverse the length and breadth of this country canvassing for the votes of the delegates. Among the lineup of aspirants, he remains the most popular and the most favored to fly the APC flag if the party wants to retain power in the center.

APC governors should therefore do the party a great service by not looking for a consensus candidate which the president did not ask for, after all, the president himself was not a product of consensus.

• Okolo, writes from Asaba, Delta State.

To be 62 anywhere in the world, let alone in a clime where life expectancy is only slightly above 55 years, offers exciting memories. It offers lessons for the future. For Dapo Abiodun, the fifth democratically elected governor of Ogun, Nigeria’s Gateway State, May 29 isn’t just inauguration day; it is his birth date. He is a man of destiny, the man for this season when the business of governing Nigeria’s most educationally advanced and increasingly the most industrialized state (in large part due to his genius) demands a seasoned administrator and matchless manager of men and materials. Today, Prince Dapo Abiodun is marking his third anniversary as governor, and his 62nd birthday, and the celebrations have been richly deserved. Let the drums roll out, and let voices of praise be lifted up on high…

The celebrations are in order not just because they are inevitable; they are in order because of sheer grace, God’s grace. Because for the Iperu-born prince, it has been, as the motto of the Royal Air Force says, “through difficulty to the stars.” In particular, the last few months have been nothing but a re-creation of his pre-inauguration tribulation by  the mindless mob of political adversaries. He has been robed in the garb of a villain and tarred with the acerbic brush of naysayers. He has been labeled a fraudster, a jailbird, an illiterate, a drunkard and just any tag the evil imagination of the critics, many of them brandishing fake names and addresses to evade justice while perpetrating incitement to chaos, can conjure. Unable to withstand him on the political or mental turf, they have resorted to character assassination. They have mocked him for being bereaved of a son at a stage in his life—their vile politicking would not even let the dead rest in peace—and for refusing to trade off the Ogun patrimony for political patronage. But he has kept his pledge while being sworn-in as governor of Ogun State on May 29, 2019 in mind : “You will always find in me, the conduct of Omoluwabi expected of Omo Teacher! I will govern with character. I will serve you diligently and sincerely. I will make your interests the core of governance. I will neither personalize nor abuse the mandate. I will not betray your trust.”

Just like they did when he first signified interest in the Oke Mosan Government House race, political adversaries have wearied themselves hiring mercenary writers to denigrate him, thinking this is the only way they would stand any chance at the 2023 general election. They have published no manifesto: hate is all they purvey. They came up with all kinds of junk to distract him but he has remained undistracted, having passed through that thorny road before. He knows that with the help of God he will overcome. It will not be a bed of roses—the adversaries are still on the loose—but just as his name implies, God will continue to be glorified in whatever he does. In the last couple of months he has passed through fire. But it is fire that purges gold to make it more refined.  He has become more experienced, more enlightened and more prepared to wage war against poverty and all indices of underdevelopment in Ogun. In the face of mudslinging, he has remained focused. Believing that all power belongs to God, he has not gone out of his way to malign or attack anyone. He has demonstrated his Omoluabi qualities time and again.

This May 29 is therefore the stuff of legend. Prince Abiodun is on his way to a landslide win next year while the critics for whom mischief comes naturally keep themselves busy with vile abuse. That is actually a wonderful formula: you bellyache, I move forward.  Governor Abiodun has cause to be thankful for what God has done for Ogun State. Ogun is now Nigeria’s top investment destination. He has built more infrastructure than previous administrations put together. Evidence of strategic thinking targeted at lifting Ogun State into a development highway is massive, and by reason of space constraints we can here only provide snippets.

Take the Olokola Free Trade Zone which for many years was mere artifice. It is now a giant reality, and the Ogun State government’s recent signing of a $400m Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a foreign firm, Arise Integrated Industrial Platform, on the development of the Olokola Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and the Remo Agro Processing Zone could not have been more strategic. With about 25,000 jobs guaranteed willy-nilly, the project approaches a revolution in literally turning the corridor into an industrial hub: a power plant exists  through which gas can be accessed. It has been said that a free trade zone hosting property, automobile, agriculture and manufacturing industries and complemented by an agro-allied airport is an unbeatable economic prospect for Ogun State, and one cannot agree more.

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There’s no space to mention agriculture, a sector in which Prince Abiodun has been winning gongs back to back at the Nigeria Agricultural Award (NAA). The panel of assessors noted the integrated approach to production, processing and marketing through land provisions/inputs distribution, processing and marketing with individuals and corporate organizations; the support for 40,000 smallholder farmers  with inputs such as seeds, cassava cutting, insecticide and herbicide during the 2020 planting season, the fertilizers palliatives  given to10,000 farmers and continued support across the state; the support given to young farmers with over 900 hectares of land preparations in 17 locations, with some 2,500 unemployed youths and farmers engaging in cassava production; the setting up strategic partnerships with international development partners and farmers in large-scale cultivation of rice and cassava in 36 locations in 11 local government areas, among many other innovations, including the Ogun/Kebbi Joint Commission on Rice Production. They also noted technological innovations and support to farming and related activities, including technical backstopping, demonstration farms and enterprise development. Ogun is very competitive in arable crops like cassava, yam, maize, sweet potato, and cash crops like cocoa, oil palm, timbre, kolanut, cashew and rubber, and the agro-allied airport in Ilishan-Remo is nearing completion.

When President Muhammadu Buhari visited Ogun State in January, it was to inaugurate landmark projects, including the Ijebu-Ode-Epe road, an arterial road that, among other benefits, links the Lekki / Epe corridor of Lagos State to the eastern corridor of Ogun State at Ijebu-Ode and provides a ready alternative to the Lagos/Ibadan expressway for those going to Lekki and adjoining areas; the 42 km Sagamu Interchange-Abeokuta road, the main arterial road that leads to the state capital and comes with a dual carriageway with streetlights, median and other road furniture; the Gateway City Gate, an architectural masterpiece made of composite materials towering to a height of 27m and warmly welcoming visitors to the state; and the two Housing Estates for low, medium and high income earners at Kobape and Oke-Mosan. The president then promised to rehabilitate dilapidated federal roads in the state.

Governor Abiodun has done wonderful things in the health sector. He has built new hospitals and refurbished existing ones, making the state Teaching Hospitals world class with massive provision of facilities and the recruitment of specialists. Recall that while some governors slumbered in the thick of the  Covd-19 crisis, he worked hard, as affirmed by the Presidency. President Buhari turned down the request for N5 bn by the Kano State government, saying that he gave that sum to Ogun and Lagos because he saw their sincerity of purpose in tackling the scourge.

Ogun under Abiodun has become an industrial hub. Industries and estates are springing up everywhere. And the improvement in IGR is massive. With good road networks, enabling environment peace and stability, development is inevitable. And this is why the awards have trooped in. Only last week, Abiodun emerged the Vanguard Governor of the Year. Recall that Daily Independent gave him the ICT Governor of the Year gong. The New Telegraph previously honoured him. His life is one of achievements.

At 62, Prince Abiodun knows that people who do not want to be smeared don’t go into politics. He knows he will continue to be the victims of concocted and distorted information. But he has a very good story to tell about his first term in office, and he will have one to tell about the second. Happy Birthday to the people’s governor.

• Branco contributes this piece through funmibranco@naver.com

In international politics, as with many aspects of human society, perception matters—but narratives matter even more. For more than two decades now, the West has successfully constructed a narrative about the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism. It has relied on this narrative to justify the toppling of regimes, the destabilisation of regions, and in some instances, the violation of the very human rights it claims to be protecting. At the same time, it has paid scant attention to the threat of white supremacy that lurks within its borders. What that focus on Islamic fundamentalism has done is to shield attention from this virulent form of extremism that implicates the ‘liberators’ themselves. In 2017, the FBI reported that violence from white suprem­acists have caused more fatalities than any other category of domestic terror­ists since 2000, and that they continue to pose a “persist­ent threat of lethal viol­ence”.

The violent murder of 10 black individuals on May 14, 2022 in Buffalo by a white supremacist is only the latest episode in the long history of racially motivated violence against blacks and other minority ethnic groups. Just like Dylan Roof, who sat amongst a congregation of black worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina before killing nine of them, Gendron Payton, the Buffalo terrorist, wrote a manifesto detailing the motivations for his actions. In the manifesto posted online minutes before the attack, Payton advanced ideas about the “Great Replacement” of white Christians of European descent by Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Latinos.

The idea of a great replacement has become a prominent subject matter amongst white nationalists in western societies.  In 2017, neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville chanted “you will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us”. Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch terrorist who murdered 51 Muslims at the Al Noor mosque insisted in his manifesto that there is an ongoing attempt to ethnically cleanse the west of whites— so did Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Oslo in 2011.  These ideas have been repeated in the mass shootings of Pittsburgh, California, and El Paso. White supremacists speak about the threats of a white genocide and these mass murders are supposedly a call for political action and if necessary, to initiate violent change.

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In some conservative circles, the replacement theory has found political legitimacy. For instance, the New York Times has identified at least 400 instances where Fox news talk show host, Tucker Carlson, promoted tropes about a mass migration plan to change the demography of the United States and to replace dominant whites. A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that 6 out of every 10 Trump supporter believes the great replacement theory. Indeed, several republican elected officials, including members of the US congress have publicly advanced these claims.

What is most concerning is the mainstreaming of a racist, extremist, violent, and excluding philosophy and the unwillingness to appropriately confront or problematise it. In an op-ed published in the Washington Post a day after the Buffalo incident, James Densley and Jillian Peterson, two professors of criminology, argued against the tendency to see such mass killings as hate crimes. According to them, “it’s easy to focus on the hateful ideology…but…hate and “terrorism” as they are commonly understood are not what drive most mass shooters”. They suggested that early childhood trauma provide better explanations. “if they fail to achieve what they have been socialised to believe is their destiny—material wealth, success, power, happiness—as they age, they reach an existential crisis point…when they no longer feel connected to the people and places around them, this becomes a suicidal crisis—except the thought of merely taking their own lives leaves them unfulfilled”.

This is exactly the problem. The rationalisation of hate, of white rage, and white terrorism. Western societies have incorporated hate ideology into legitimate political discourse. They have given it a veneer of respectability, cloaked it in euphemistic language that shields attention from the political violence that such ideology instigates, but that also undergirds it.  Both authors have made decent humans out of mass murderers, recaptured their humanity by showing how they are victims of a society that has neglected, dismissed and ignored their presence.

Perhaps, none of these should be surprising. The west has always had a white supremacy problem. The United States was from its inception a highly racialised society that institutionalised and legalised white supremacy at every turn. The mass murder of Native Americans was so widespread that by the late 19th century, the indigenous population had reduced from 15 million people to 238,000. White supremacy was at the heart of the evils of slavery—on board the ships that transported 12.5 million Africans and callously threw hundreds of thousands of them overboard. It was present during colonialism. Present in the complete disregard of black bodies that allowed the mass murder of 10 million Congolese by Belgian King, Leopold II, who turned the Congo Free State into his personal fiefdom. White supremacy sets the narrative about which violence is threatening and which can be rationalised. It differentiates between the extremism that necessitates a global war on terror and the one that can be explained as a product of childhood trauma or a ‘legitimate’ political conversation about mass migration.

Gradually but steadily, the stage is being set for the Osun governorship election. As July 16, 2022, the date fixed for the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is drawing nearer, it is no longer news that political activities are on the increase and the atmosphere is being charged. The gladiators are already spoiling for war and the coveted trophy in sight is the Osun governorship seat, currently occupied by Gboyega Oyetola.

Only recently, Ademola Adeleke, the factional candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), bragged before a rather stunned audience that he was “loaded with enough money” and would be going into the election to spend ‘not only naira but dollars, pounds and Euro” and that, “this time around”, it would be “fire-for-fire.” And, in what looked like a swift response, Governor Oyetola of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said that he had no frivolous money to purchase private jets for traditional rulers or hard currencies to fritter. Rather, he would be bringing to the table his competence and imbued capacity to transform the state through good governance. Hear him: “as you all know, a state like Osun is too sophisticated for kindergarten politicians to govern. It is too costly to allow such people to experiment with Osun.”

To start with, Adeleke’s boastful gesture and attitudes remind one of a Yoruba saying: ‘oro t’owo ba se ti, ile lo maa gbe’ (money answereth all things). Till date, this aphorism sits squarely within the thoughts and social content of the Yoruba society. Perhaps, due to our level of development and the gnawing impact of poverty, it is unfortunately true and inviolable! The race may change it tomorrow; but, until that happens, this is the way it is! That’s why it will be foolhardy for anybody to ignore the role or impact of money in politics.

That said, the level of development in Nigeria – and Osun State in particular – must be brought to the fore to draw useful inferences from what Adeleke said concerning the state of his preparedness for the forthcoming election. Without being unnecessarily immodest, the significant import of the pronouncement can only find succour in the inner workings of the PDP gubernatorial hopeful: ‘voters’ consent in Osun has been commoditised’; ‘votes are for sale in Osun’; and ‘merchandise goes to the highest bidder’.  Apparently, Adeleke did not understand the socioeconomic-cum-political implications of his utterances. Of course, this is troubling!

That Nigeria has Americanized her politics by lacing it with money has created an erroneous impression that the influence of money is absolute. The interesting thing about this erroneous assertion that it is not true! For instance, the American society still puts high premium on justice and accountability. However, here in Nigeria, the native prebendal politics only ensures ‘poverty for the masses, riches for a few.’ Hence the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor, which is already tilting our society towards the precinct of an inevitable collapse. Yes, a man who has not eaten in the last two days is bound to despise his birth-right for ‘some bread and lentil stew.’ Such a soul would probably cower at the supplication of Ademola’s ‘dollars, pounds and Euro.’ But then, the society will end up being worse for it. Huge influx of money without tangible production of goods and services will likely trigger a running inflation and impact the domestic economy negatively.

Read Also: Adeleke: Dancing senator returns as moneybag

In fairness to posterity, Adeleke is one of the reasons Nigeria is lagging behind in development and innovative thinking. How do I mean? A country that wants to grow will neither breed governors whose priority is in buying private jets for traditional rulers nor contemplate a money-driven election that will end up being ‘fire-for-fire.’ Had the PDP governorship candidate worked for the money which he has been squandering upandan, history has shown that he most certainly would have behaved differently. The more reason he needs to be thoroughly rebuked for attempting to import a very toxic phenomenon into Osun politics.

By the way, let it be known that Adeleke started trekking this despicable political path some five years ago, during the immediate past administration in Osun. Remember his Year 2017 senatorial pursuit, following his elder brother’s demise! Remember the illogical premise that Osun West Senatorial bye-election ticket should be surrendered to Ademola, simply because Isiaka Adeleke, the man who held the office before his demise, was Ademola’s elder brother? Of course, consensus failed, and election was called as expected in a democracy. At the end of the day, a gullible electorate succumbed to the sweet melody of loaves of bread and wads of naira notes and PDP won in 9 out of the 10 Local Governments in the Senatorial District. Ejigbo Local Government, which reluctantly went to the ruling party, was won marginally.

Reports even had it that while Adeleke’s tenure lasted in the Upper Chamber, the ‘Dancing Senator’ neither attempted a good deed for his Senatorial District nor quenched the fire of a wrong move. He was just there! Tragically, the electorate couldn’t ask questions about his scorecard while he was in the Senate. Again, this is where the society is also culpable! If Adeleke didn’t do well at the Red Chamber, why then must he be considered for election as Osun State’s First Citizen? Unfortunately, it is because nobody has been asking that question that Ademola is now trying to insult our collective intelligence. The question, then, is: is this how our people will want to waste four years on pecuniary conveniences for which forty years won’t be able to revive?

Is the PDP governorship hopeful a sellable candidate? Well, all over the world, electability is a function of unimpeachable character profile and socially-prescribed benchmarks as they relate to an individual’s social class roles and expectations in the society. Yes, at the level of ‘Area Boys’, they can be found as willing tools. That is understandable! But it is a statement of fact that ‘Area Boys’ have no credible future. Besides, he who aspires to become Osun governor must be able to read a Budget. So, it will be unwise for the contestant to think that he can railroad a whole society into his compromised camp.

On a last note, it is a statement of fact that money has its own serious impact on the society. That’s a truth no one can run away from. To deny the fact that it has a serious impact in politics and our social existence is to be clever by half. However, even, if Adeleke parts with, say, £1000 for each voter, such a voter will surely finish spending it. Chances are that the money will go back to England because Nigerians will buy products that are not manufactured here. By the time we do that, it is simple Economics that we are already returning the money to its source. Impliedly, we are not only spending the money we didn’t work for but also indirectly sending the money to another country. In any case, that is the Nigerian society for us!

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Osun State!

• Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has already become definitive of the twenty-first century, and the Nigerian civil service system cannot afford to keep struggling to key into the fundamentals of a new age that has transformed human sensibilities and ethos in many radical ways, from the way we work to the ways we organize our lives and existence. The public service is one of the fundamental institutions, across the globe, that has been significantly affected by the massive and radical digital transformations of human administrative endeavors. The challenge, however, and especially with a public service in a difficult administrative environment like Africa, is how easy it is for the public service to be caught up in its bureaucratic rules and processes in ways that deeply circumscribed its efficiency and service delivery mandate. This is all the more so for the Nigerian public service and her struggle to reprofessionalise as a functional institution while undermining her bureaucratic credentials.

This is not a light assessment given the predilection for an institution like the public service to be taken in by administrative traditions, and be fixated on a procedural mindset that is firmly opposed to change. Such a mindset becomes trapped unfortunately in yesterday’s ways of thinking and is immune from exploring the new possibilities available for making the public service a better institution for complementing the capabilities of the state to improve the well-being of humans. The vocation of the public service—the administrative principles, codes of practice, ethical values and knowledge systems—constitute all that shapes the future of the profession. However, what happens if the professionals are not looking up, and defining the conditions and circumstances that make for the continuous transformation of the profession? What happens, that is, if we refuse to conduct regular environmental scanning, deploy scenario planning, follow global trends, or interrogate the intellectual assumptions and theories undergirding administrative practices? Thus, with the shifting demographics, constantly evolving technologies, and environmental sustainability challenges, the way we lead, the way we administer, the way we solve problems or manage change, etc., are changing so dramatically now that any institution not willing to key into the innovative sensibility will be left behind. And, of course, the Nigerian public service cannot afford to be left behind.

The way forward is straightforward: it involves investing in new thinking. The idea of new thinking speaks about the capacity of an individual, an organisation or a state to assess and reassess current situation and future possibilities through a strategic framework that will enable the individual, organization or state function better and more efficiently. The idea of new thinking is conditioned by a reform program that is strategic. In other words, new think for any organization or institution combines strategic thinking and strategic planning to be able to face the future. It is this strategic thinking that allows an institution like the public service to rethink and reengineer its modus operandi and business model to become better.

The notion of new thinking presupposes an old one. And with regard to the public service, this old thinking template is represented by the traditional, “I-am-directed” Weberian framework that defines administrative business before the advent of the managerial revolution. This Weberian structure required from civil servants the requisite characteristics of anonymity, neutrality and impartiality, and an overall profile circumscribed by efficiency, effectiveness, integrity, accountability, responsiveness, representativeness, loyalty, equity, fairness, and so on. However, it is a system that is essentially hierarchical, cumbersome and acutely bureaucratic to effectively fulfil the mandate of good governance. As a migrated structure, the Weberian system arrived Nigeria without its value foundation. This made it impossible for the Weberian structure to organizationally mature into fully formed and value-oriented institution. Thus, it eventually became a bureaucratic paradigm that became ultimately a bureaucratic culture that contributed to the underdevelopment narrative in Nigeria. This made it possible for the system to be hijacked by various personalities for selfish and short-term ends.

Transforming the public service in the grip of this old business model demands also that the reformer must put in mind that the transition into the fourth industrial revolution must also occur within what has been called the VUCA environment. The public service is immersed in a VUCA environment, characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. These are four elements that are defined by the state of the world, decisions of government, and national dynamics. The VUCA environment is one that confronts the functioning of the public service and demands an engagement that enables the public service to confront the challenges and achieve administrative excellence in the process. This implies that such a public manager who will steer the public service through the challenges of the VUCA environment cannot be merely transactional, and operating with a twentieth century administrative mindset. It also means that the public service must always aspire to become capacity ready in meeting the challenges of governance and administration that the social, political, cultural and economic environments might throw up.

The public service, within a VUCA environment, is faced with the challenge of transforming itself within what is called a scenario. In administrative reform, a scenario consists of a starting point (an initial or alpha state), a trajectory (chain of steps or events) and a future (omega) state. A reform agenda or scenario therefore takes a state from the alpha point though a trajectory to an omega point. Within a VUCA environment, therefore, the public service is always finding itself in an alpha point as the environment keeps getting complex and challenging, and is always oriented towards an omega that is better able to serve the needs of the citizens. The burden of the VUCA environment, together with the imperative of the fourth industrial revolution, requires that the public service in Nigeria must be constrained by the demand of strategic thinking and planning. While strategic thinking is conceptual and initiates the search for imaginative strategies, strategic planning is more programmatic in the ways it formalizes the steps involved in transforming the public service.

In thinking and planning strategically, therefore, care must be taken to distinguish between creating a strategy and being strategic. On the one hand, creating a strategy is a process of translating a plan into a set of results. On the other hand, the act of being strategic is a competence that involves critical thinking. The argument is that an institution, like the public service, requires strategic thinking to generate a reform strategy that will move the institution forward into more optimal functionality and productivity. Both must be channeled institutionally to the most central process of strategic decision making. This is what allows the institution to either think outside of the box or even without a box to structure institutional imagination. Strategic decision-making is ultimately tied to an institution’s capacity to maneuver through the VUCA environment in order to perform better. Thus, to move the Nigerian public service system forward to an omega point of cutting-edge optimality that creates performance, public value and productivity, there is the need to bring strategic thinking to bear on the institutional parameters, processes and values in ways that generate strategies for efficiency and effectiveness. Here, we survey the significant areas that constitute the locus of new thinking for the public service and the transformation of its efficiency and service delivery capacity.

Since strategic decision-making is key to the adoption and deployment of new thinking in Nigeria’s public service, then strategic policy intelligence emanating from the irreducible developments in contemporary decision science becomes inevitable. Decision science has become a critical field that has integrated cognate developments from artificial intelligence, organisational psychology, systems thinking, machine learning, probabilistic modeling, scenario analysis, big data analytics, and many more to become a key area that the public service must buy into to push forward its policy intelligence that strengthen decision-making. Modern policy making that has taken cognizance of decision science will most likely possess nine fundamental features: (i) forward-looking; (ii) outward-looking; (iii) innovative, flexible and creative; (iv) evidence-based; (v) evaluation; (vi) review; (vii) joined-up; (viii) inclusive; and (ix) learned lessons.

Strategic decision-making in turn demands that we rethink the nature of government and of the governance space where this strategy would be deployed. This is the occasion for the open government initiative to create a Public Service 2.0. Open government is founded on the principle that government—not just its laws and policies, but the reasons and processes of decisions that generated those policies and the flows of money that fund their implementation—should be open to the citizens and nongovernmental agents. The idea of open government aligns the public service with the necessity of (re)creating public value(s) that will transform the quality of life of the citizens. Indeed, the joint production of public value(s) by the government, nonstate actors and the citizens places the public service squarely within the ambit of the New Public Governance approach, the New Public Administration, and the New Public Service approaches that place the active citizens at the core of democratic governance, and the center of service delivery by the public service.

No public service can operate within the imperatives of the fourth industrial revolution without transforming its idea of human resources management and the dynamics of the workplace. For example, the idea of remote working and specialist contractors provide an institution like the public service the capacity to recruit a global workforce and create incentives that increase employee loyalty and commitment, and collaborations that generate productivity. This gives room for the achievement of a better work-life balance deriving from freer time and flexibility to work. And facilitates the acquisition of “twenty-first century literacies”: (a) interpersonal skills: facilitation, empathy, political skills; (b) synthesising skills: sorting evidence, analysis, making judgements, offering critique and being creative; (c) organising skills: group work, collaboration and peer review; and (d) communication skills: better use of new media and multi-media resources.

Thus, even though institutional reform is inevitable within the public service system in Nigeria, such a reform must be constrained by the imperatives of new thinking that arms the public service system with the wherewithal by which it must facilitate its own transformation. This is how the public service can become not only world-class, but compliant with the fourth industrial revolution and the challenge of national development in Nigeria.

• Olaopa is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary & Professor, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies  (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos – tolaopa2003@gmail.com. (Being Paper Presented at a Seminar held at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria – PSIN, Abuja, recently) 

Democracy thrives where people freely stand for election and vote during election; where there are periodic elections based on universal suffrage; where freedom of speech, publication and association is allowed; where the government and its agents adhere to the rule of law; where majoritarian rule is maintained; where there is acceptance of opposing views; where elections conducted are free, fair and credible; where defeated leaders accept defeat freely in an election; where succession process is smooth and not problematic; where the individual is allowed to freely make his/her choice; and where the process of election is competitive among the political parties. If all these tenets, elements, and parameters are adhered to, a government can be regarded as being democratic.

It is another season of general election in Nigeria and preparations are at fever-pitch level, as political parties organise primaries to select candidates for the various elective positions. Amendments to the electoral laws have been passed, and voter registration continues to capture new and more eligible voters.

Voting is the one activity that binds the individual to the political system and legitimizes the rest of the democratic process. Democratic ideals suggest that policy preferences of citizens will translate into the selection of representatives, who, in turn, produce policies. These ideals assume that a participatory electorate is crucial for the functioning of democracy. However, elections in Nigeria are characterised by low voter turnout.

Voting is a public duty and those who do not vote are “free riders” that benefit from the blessing of a democratic regime without contributing their fair share to its maintenance. Bad politicians are elected by good people who do not vote.

To increase voter turnout, other approaches are needed—ones intended not to inflame passions about what may be at stake in a particular election but instead to connect more voters to the process of voting and to the value of participating in our democracy.

Civil society can play an important role in areas where others are not incentivized to act. Parties and interest groups invariably focus on voters they think are going to turn out (and turn out for them). This leaves a lot of ground uncovered. Civil society could make a distinctive impact by helping better inform both voters and non-voters about policy issues, helping improve the representativeness of the electorate.

Alongside political and individual rights, free and fair elections are the main characteristic of a democracy. Through elections, citizens can choose their representatives, control their governments and make their preferences heard. In addition, high electoral participation can be a healthy repertoire of contention and a vent for citizens to express their discontent with the performance of politicians. In contrast, “low voter turnout can act as a signal that something is wrong – not with the voters who fail to turn out or with the society of which they are part, but with a political system.”

Widespread perceptions among the citizenry that the system is corrupt tend to decrease individuals’ willingness to engage in the political process.  Corruption undermines the faith of voters in the democratic process, and consequently, weakens their desire to participate in politics. I believe that citizens’ perceptions of the quality of government are in many ways a product of experiences of everyday life that for most people takes place right where they live in their town or region.  Citizens most often come into contact with street level bureaucrats in their dealings with agents of the state. Consequently, citizens in areas where corruption and partiality are widespread will be more likely to be confronted with officials asking for bribes or acting in a partial manner than citizens in areas with a higher quality of government. In turn, these perceptions ought to influence individuals’ choice to vote (or not) more than some national averages. There is a positive relationship between more transparency, impartiality and quality in government services and turnout.

To the surprise of many, making the act of voting easier hasn’t actually led to higher voter turnout. To increase turnout, we need to get more people interested in politics. More people would vote (and a more diverse group of people would vote) if they knew more about candidates’ fundamental policy positions. Unfortunately in Nigeria, the political parties suffer from ideological barrenness.

The poverty of political ideology that has come to envelop Nigerian parties over the years, coupled with its attendant crisis and contradictions, has been of dramatic effect not only on the parties, but also on the entire project of national rebirth, integration and sustainable democracy and development. Instead of parties contributing to the building of state structures and the consolidation of development, they have been reduced to tools for promoting sectionalism and opportunism. The dominant themes in Nigerian parties seem to be ethnicity, religion and money at the expense of a steadfast dedication to well-defined beliefs and principles of action. In the short and long run, it is the accompanying politics that suffers, crippling as it does, to midwife sustainable democracy. What we have encountered so far is the resort to the politics of “trial and error”, based on the manipulation of ethnicity and

religion and the dominance of money politics. Having proved to be very effective in mobilization and legitimization, the place of political ideology has been relegated to the background.

There must therefore first be an aggressive and sustained system of social mobilization at all levels of party organization and society, socializing and educating people of the ills of ideological barrenness to party politics, emphasizing the need for change. It should however be noted that political party reform cannot be done in isolation. It must be a part of a larger reform programme that addresses very decisively the crisis and contradictions of Nigeria’s political economy. This task certainly transcends the borderline of party activities. It is one that should embrace every segment of the Nigerian state and society. The civil society in particular has a responsibility for the socialization, education, conscientization and mobilization of the masses for the required reform. Then some ideological sanity can be returned to political party and party politics for sustainable democracy and development.

People must wonder why small pox was such a devastating killer of men. Why, of all the pestilences with which man has battled, has this one taken more lives than most of the others put together? The first reason that can be adduced for this property is the infectiousness of the organism responsible for small pox infections. Apart from the fact that it was directly transmissible from man to man, it was airborne and therefore needed only a favourable wind for it to be set on fire, ready to burn through any settlement, large or small into which it was introduced. This is why it was associated with the heat of the dry season in the tropics. It was easily carried on the dry harmattan winds which stir up the dust laden air which carry the pathogen. Once inhaled, the virus quickly moved from the lungs through virtually all parts of the body through the blood stream until it got to the skin where it erupted into the tell-tale pock marks which spread terror far and wide. Once a person was stricken with this infection, nothing could be done to effect a cure as with all viral infections, there was no cure and the infection must run its course and for many, this course ended in death. All that could be done for the victims of small pox was necessarily palliative and such measures could only be carried out by people who had survived the infection. It must have been a harrowing experience for relatives and friends who did not know what the outcome of a particular infection would be and must take their own lives out of danger by fleeing as far away from the stricken person as possible. This is of course impossible in populated areas unless of course the settlement could be abandoned in time but even this was futile since the disease would have been transmitted to others before it revealed itself in all its gruesome glory. It is not difficult to imagine why small pox was such an efficient harvester of souls.

Our bodies are equipped with sophisticated mechanisms for protecting us from the ravages of infections and these are triggered as soon as our outer defences, mainly the skin and mucous membranes are breached by any foreign bodies including those which carry the threat of life threatening conditions. These mechanisms are bundled into what we now recognise as the immunological system which produces large amounts of chemical agents which somehow attack any invasive agent and neutralise them. They also retain the memories of such encounters so that any future attack by the same pathogen is stopped dead in its tracks before the process of infection becomes apparent. In some cases, the body has to mobilise hunter-killer cells which literally eat up the invading cells to maintain the body’s integrity. Organisms which provoke this response include the viruses and because these cells are long lived and constantly alert, those who survive measles, chickenpox, small pox in its days and other viral infections became immune to these infection throughout their lives. On the other side of the coin, the immune system was dangerous in its overzealousness through the over production of chemicals and cells which reacted so vigorously to invaders that both the invaders and the invaded bodies were killed in a process that has been described as a cytokine storm! The immune system has also been implicated in autoimmune disease such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, to mention a few in which the immune system goes rogue and turns on healthy cells in the body and kills them to set up debilitating and sometimes, fatal conditions.

The existence of the immune system either for good or evil was not discovered until very recently but mankind has been exploiting its power for a very long time and this is how small pox was first responded to in any meaningful manner. Existing literature suggests that the Chinese invented the process of variolation in which they took material from the small pox lesions of people suffering from small pox and scratched it into the arm of non-sufferers to prevent them from being infected. Nobody knows exactly when the Chinese invented variolation but by the middle of the eighteenth century, it had been introduced to England by Lady Montague, wife of the English ambassador to the Ottoman empire who had witnessed the procedure in the course of her stay in the Ottoman capital. Unfortunately, the practice did not catch on in England and it was not until at the turn of the century when Edward Jenner revolutionised the world of public health by pointing out the way to the exciting and life-saving process of vaccination.

Being a well-trained scientist, Jenner had a keen and highly developed sense of observation which caused him to note that young girls who worked in close proximity with cows did not come down with small pox, which was why with small pox they had a rosy facial complexion, unmarked by the disfigurement associated with this infection. Instead they were infected with cow pox, an infection which was so mild that it caused nothing more uncomfortable than a brief, transient rise in temperature. He reasoned that there was a connection between cow pox and immunity from small pox, a hypothesis which he put to the test by harvesting the material from the small pustules which came with cowpox and injected it into the arm of a small boy. The boy soon showed signs of cow pox infection from which he recovered as expected after a few days. Thereafter, the poor boy received another inoculation, this time with material from an active small pox lesion. As confidently expected by Jenner, the boy recovered without too many ill effects from this daring experiment. This provided evidence that his bold hypothesis that cow pox indeed protected against small pox was not only correct but demonstrable. No scientist would dare to think of carrying out any such experiment in these enlightened times and this should be the case.

Jenner went on to carry out his experiment several times before informing the world of their success and expected that he would be given the recognition that he deserved. Unfortunately, he was met with a storm of protests much like would have happened today in a world awash with all kinds of unreflective conspiracy theorists. He was nothing if not determined however and in course of time, his views were accepted, clearing the way for the science of vaccination to take root some fifty years later when the studies of the French scientist, Louis Pasteur and his German counterpart, Robert Koch showed the world how to prepare effective vaccines against a range of pathogens. Honors in this field have been shared with the humble cow as the word for vaccination has been coined from the word vacca, the Latin word for cow.

The story of vaccination will however not be complete without taking a journey across the Atlantic to Boston, Massachusetts in 1721, long before Jenner came into the picture. In that year small pox came to Boston and as usual, provoked a great deal of panic as many inhabitants fled and in doing so must have spread the contagion farther afield. It was at the height of this panic that an African slave approached his owner, a reverend gentleman called Cotton Mather and informed him that he had an item of knowledge all the way from Africa which would save the city from further viral damage. What he described to his sceptical owner was the process of variolation which he assured him was common practice in his homeland across the sea. In the end, he convinced Mather of the effectiveness of this method of dealing with small pox and because he was an influential person in Boston, Mather was able to convince others to try out this method which brought a smart end to the small pox epidemic in the city. It has to be said that variolation was not without its risks but its effectiveness was demonstrated by the fact that only one in forty of those who underwent this procedure died, a figure that paled into insignificance to the three in ten who died of small pox infection. It is therefore clear that even in the dark circumstances of African slavery in America, knowledge of monumental proportion was transferred from Africa to the rest of the world. This occurred in many other instances so that today, although unsung and deliberately ignored, the American landscape would have been noticeably less rich without the sauce cooked up in Africa and brought over by those unfortunate reluctant migrants who arrived in chains.

Variolation was not the only thing that the Africans brought with them to the Americas on those awful goddamned slave ships. It was the slaves imported from Africa that taught the Americans how to plant tropical crops including rice, sugar-cane, yams, indigo groundnuts, cotton and other crops on which the American economy such as it was, was built. They brought their alcohol distillation skills with them and even today there is still Jack Daniels, a whiskey which was originally blended by an African slave. What would the world of entertainment be today without the constant injection of musical genres developed by Africans and African-Americans? The literary contribution of the African story to American letters, films and overall story and history is incalculable but painfully almost wholly unacknowledged in every particular genre. This conspiracy against Africa and Africans is so vast that it must be treated as a story on its own.

In my estimation, vaccination has been the single most important contribution to global public health in the history of mankind. By the nineteen-fifties, vaccines had become the mainstay of public health, especially through the sharp reduction of infant mortalities all over the world which is why when I was born in the middle of that century, I was one of the millions of children who were vaccinated against small pox and were saved from the fatal visitation of Olofin. Scientists, many of them immigrants from Europe worked in American laboratories to produce an array of vaccines which made sure that children all over the world lived long enough to produce children of their own. This is in turn has ensured that life expectancy in many countries but not in Africa is now as high as eighty years. Diseases like diphtheria, polio, measles, small pox, tetanus, whooping cough have been kicked so far into touch that many of them; small pox, diphtheria and whooping cough to mention a few are now extinct. But for pockets of intolerance and sheer bloody mindedness, polio would had become extinct years ago and as much as it pains me to, I must say that for many years the most senseless challenge to the administration of the polio vaccine was launched in certain parts of Nigeria where the Army, yes the Nigerian Army, had to be called out to ensure that innocent Nigerian children joined the rest of the world in receiving the polio vaccine which protected them from death and limb deformities.

The world has gone a very long way since Jenner showed that it was possible to stand up to the dreaded god of small pox and in doing so took the history of the world along a new and healthier path. It is galling to know that long before Jenner, Africans had devised a means of hobbling small pox but like knowledge in many other fields, those who had it chose to keep it to themselves. They went into their miserable graves carrying their knowledge with them and leaving their children to the far from tender mercies of Jenner’s descendants.