The Nation Newspaper

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  • Religion, government and the Southern Kaduna killings

    Southern Kaduna has for so long now been under siege by terrorists who are confirmed to be Fulani Herdsmen that are often well armed with sophisticated weapons. The attacks have been unrelenting, bloody, unprovoked, unwarranted and indeed unjustified on innocent and vulnerable peasant communities of our environment. As a result of this hundreds of people have been killed, several communities burnt with the inhabitants internally displaced, and in many cases, the remaining houses not burnt have been vandalised and stripped of roofs, windows and doors to discourage them from returning back to their homes. We wish to commend all people of good will who have stood in solidarity with the southern Kaduna people by their condemnation of these forms of unjustified aggression against a defenseless people. We are also grateful to all those who have given support to the victims materially and through their prayers in view of the very little attention received from Government at both the State and Federal levels or their agencies. The impact of the relevant agencies responsible for relieve services such as NEMA and SEMA have been minimal. And because of Government’s bias towards the people, there is no plan for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of the ruined environment as is the case with the North Eastern region of Nigeria, including parts of Plateau and Kano States. It is our considered position that if Government had wielded into this matter with sincerity and seriousness, in the way she responded to the menace of rustication in Zamfara State and Birnin Gwari area in Kaduna State, things would not have gotten to the messy state they are today. The federal government exhibited a spirit of nonchalance until recently when the Vice President made some pronouncements, warning that decisive action must be taken so that the crisis will not consume all of us in the nation. The attitude of the state government has been marred by lots of complicity and bias which exacerbated rather than ameliorate tensions. The Governor in most cases seemed to have abdicated his responsibility of being Governor to all us, and instead gave in to the luxury of waging an unrelenting media campaign against Southern Kaduna people. He unabashedly takes sides with the armed herdsmen (His kinsmen) thereby failing in his responsibility as a true statesman, becoming therefore a biased umpire who blames and criminalizes Southern Kaduna victims as the cause of the mayhem. The Governor has made several efforts in the media to discredit figure of casualties that were arrived at through painstaking research, and is known for trying to change the true narrative by presenting the victims as the villain and the aggressors as the prey. The Governor has the penchance of using state apparatus to insult, denigrate, intimidate, arrest and put in prison all voices of reason from Southern Kaduna who dare to challenge his handling of this crisis. Among those that have fallen victims of his tyranny are: traditional rulers, journalists, youths, political leaders, academics, while threatening our lawyers and other leaders (Religious and Unions) with arrest for daring to speak out against the genocide.

    The primary responsibility of government as enshrined in the constitution is the protection of life and property of citizens irrespective of ethnic and/or religious persuasion. Any breach of this fundamental principle of social contract contravenes the very reason for which Government exist ..for. Unfortunately, our government both at the Federal and State levels have failed woefully in this regard because of their inability to rise above ethnic and religious bias. If anything, government has shown outright partisanship in favor of the herdsmen to the disappointment of the majority Southern Kaduna indigenes and Christians. Because of Government’s inability to serve as an un-biased umpire in the face of these crises, we are sometimes tempted to belief that there is a well planned Jihad against the people of Southern Kaduna, and Christians generally in Northern Nigeria as this is amply demonstrated by the incessant attacks and atrocities committed against the aborigines of the Middle Belt region in Northern Nigeria. The sole aim of these attacks is to conquer our people and occupy their lush lands and turning same into grazing fields for the marauding nomads. The Governor of Kaduna State is pursuing this detestable policy by his plan to forcefully take over lands in Southern Kaduna and turn same to Grazing Reserves and Routes for his kinsmen. To show Government’s insensitivity on this volatile matter, there are ongoing expansionist plans to annex more land to the already existing grazing reserves at Ladduga in Ikulu Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government area and transmute that locality from being a district into an eimirate.

    The killings continue unabatedly in fields and bushes, thereby preventing farmers from visiting and cultivating their lands. This is happening today as the Military and other security forces mount road blocks in towns and major roads while bushes remain un-safe for farming. In the Godogodo and Pasakori attacks in Jemaá Local government area for example, the military merely watched and supervised the killings and burning of homes on the pretext that their mandate did not include fighting the herdsmen. When the youth mobilized themselves to repel the attackers, the soldiers deliberately blocked them from entering the town. The herdsmen and their collaborators turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover. The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either. This level of viciousness was never witnessed even in the brutal tyranny and regime of Adolf Hitler. What is most intriguing is the level of sophistication of weapons; Ak 47, Machine Guns and many other deadly instruments of death are being freely used by the Herdsmen, leaving many wondering how these weapons got to their hands.

    Those that divine providence have enstrusted with the chilling responsibility of governing the State politically must govern justly and in a manner that includes not one that excludes other segments of the State. We therefore ask for Good Governance in Kaduna State that will include the following: 1. That those who take up the mantle of leadership will see the whole state as their Constituency and so should devout themselves conscientiously to ensure Justice and fairness for all irrespective of Religious, ethnic and political considerations. 2. That they will work hard to ensure equitable distribution of political offices among adherents of the two main religions in the State. 3. That they will see to it that in the application and use of resources that had accrued to the State and the siting or locating of developmental projects and services for the improvement of the quality of life of the people, that due regard is given to the North/South divide in the State and that no part of the State is placed in a disadvantaged position. 4. That the delineation of constituencies and siting of polling units which was arbitrarily and fraudulently carried out in the past to ensure rigging from the source in favour of one section and religion in Kaduna State must be revisited and corrected using both the geographical and numeric data that were ignored when the current policy was foisted on the people. 5. We also demand that giving the destruction that has taken place in Southern Kaduna in terms of loss of lives and properties, that the policy of reconstruction and rehabilitation undertaken by the Federal Government in respect of the North East and some parts of Plateau and Kano State must be extended to Southern Kaduna not as a concession but an entitlement. We ask that a bill for this be presented at both State and National Legislative assemblies. 6. That they will see to it that the success achieved so far in the promotion of a culture of Religious and ethnic harmony in the State by the Makarfi and other past administrations in the State are not only sustained but further built upon and strengthened.

    Despite these imbalances in our Nation and in our State, here we are again celebrating another feast of the resurrection of Christ. The fact of our Lord’s resurrection revolutionized the lives of the disciples of Christ. It transformed them from being a timid and sometimes a seemingly clueless group of disciple, to a fearless and courageous team that turned Jerusalem at some point upside down. Our faith therefore in the risen Christ must so influence and transform our lives as it did to the lives of the disciples of Christ particularly at the times of persecution such as we are facing. The injustices in our Society not withstanding, we exhort believers not to be fainthearted but courageous in facing the challenges of our time. We are to renew our faith and commitment to the living and resurrected Jesus, who triumphed over death and evil as the way to surmounting all the abuses and discrimination that we suffer in Nigeria today.

     

    • Bagobiri is the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese and Chairman, Southern Kaduna Christian Elders’ Association and can be reached via bagobirijoe@gmail.com

  • Amnesty for murderers?

    The death penalty issue is again taking centre stage with the report that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State is about to take decision on probable clemency on  cases of those on death row.  The battle between death penalty abolitionists and those for retention of death penalty have been long drawn and is not about to abate. Death penalty is imposed generally to curb heinous crimes, such as murder, to preserve the sanctity of lives. It remains controversial. The basic argument by death penalty abolitionists is that it negates the very essence of sanctity of life when the state takes the life of a killer while those for death penalty insist that a killer, by his deliberate action of terminating another person’s life, forfeits his own right to live.

    A secondary issue is the number of offences which attract the death penalty. On this, even many supporters of death penalty believe that the crimes which attract the death sentence can be reduced to those involving killing. Of the 41 offences which attract the death penalty in the United States, 39 involve murder and only two – treason and espionage – may not involve murder. China, which carries out the highest number of death sentence at an average of 5,000 per year till 2012 reduced the number of crimes attracting death penalty from 68 to 55 by 2011. However, studies show that prevalence of violent crimes often predisposes countries to impose the capital punishment as a deterrent. An example is the imposition of death penalty for armed robbery, and recently for kidnapping in Nigeria in response to escalating violent robberies and kidnap cases. Death penalty abolitionists also stress that because a death penalty once carried out is irreversible should make countries abolish the punishment to prevent the killing of an innocent suspect. Many contend, however, that that probability argument is self serving and cannot be enough ground for complete abolition of death penalty, irrespective of incontrovertible evidence of the gravity of the murderous violence visited on the victim. Death penalty is not revenge but retribution – reaping what killers sow.

    The world today is engaged in a titanic battle:  authoritarian application of law vs. liberal interpretation and application of law.  The liberals, parading under the fraudulent tag of human rights organizations, are becoming more and more of advocates for killers and other violent criminals. The so-called human rights communities do not preach against murder by individuals but are most vociferous in defence murderers’ right to life, when convicted, while completely discounting the victims’ equal right to life.  It is a fraudulent campaign and the name – human rights community, a misnomer.  The authoritarians, as advocates of rule of law and for wanting the provisions of existing laws enforced, especially with regard to violent crimes, are being projected in the public arena as mean hearted.  It is a propaganda tactics at demonizing those who insist that persons must face the consequences of the choices they make in their disdainful violation of the law. Death penalty is federal law in the U.S and is also applicable in 31 of the 50 states. The U.S. has executed 15,269 persons under death penalty, as at 2002, including 16 clergy, 12 lawyers and 19 doctors and since 1977 granted clemencies to 273 convicts. A feature of the duality of federal-state laws on death penalty in the U.S. was on display where Dylan Roof, a racist, who killed 12 African-Americans at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 was sentenced to life jail in  state court but convicted  on federal hate crime charges by a federal jury and sentenced to death under federal law.  More than two-thirds of the world population live under jurisdictions with death penalty law, including Japan, contrary to the erroneous impression being created by human rights groups that only minority operate death penalty.

    Lagos, and particularly Lagos megapolis, faces tremendous security challenges with the influx of all kinds of people into the state, requiring courageous application of the law. One of such recent traumatic challenges was the rash of kidnappings that literally brought the state prostrate before daring criminals. It was this situation which apparently compelled the state to pass the law imposing death penalty on kidnappers. It was a situational response. While conceding that the death penalty could have applied only to kidnappers whose victims got killed, it nevertheless indicates the state government’s sensitivity to the intolerable siege the kidnappers were imposing on the state. Lagos is seemingly being blackmailed in its efforts to create a people-friendly, orderly city.  Skill-less, homeless  vagrants from other states cannot be evicted without a chorus of discrimination, its plan for a census to know those living within its borders was shut down on the charges of being divisive and its tax regime is vilified as being punitive even as people clamour for municipal infrastructure befitting a megacity.

    Governor Ambode and the Lagos State government must be resolute in their  law and order pursuit. Having sent a strong signal to criminals in its anti kidnapping law, the governor cannot allow himself to be stampeded into granting underserved clemency to vicious criminals.  The state Attorney General and Commissioner for  Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, at a press conference on Tuesday, April 18, was reported to have indicated the state government’s readiness to determine the fate of those on death row in the state. Among these is the General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly,  Chukwuemeka  Ezeugo  a.k.a  Rev. King, whose conviction for the  2006 killing of  one of his church members, a female, by dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire, was confirmed  by the Supreme Court last year. His case will be watched with keen interest as his die-hard adherents were already expressing confidence in his triumphant return. Kazeem was said to have recounted pressure from do-gooder persons and institutions, including the British High Commission, decrying some of the state’s legal stances and the notion among convicts “that even if we commit these infractions and they sentence us to death, they will never kill us”. That is the prize of indecisiveness in enforcing death sentences over the years by lily-livered governors.

    For the British High Commission, it is instructive to note that given the spate of repeat murders by convicted murderers let out on parole in liberal Britain, former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was compelled to back ‘whole life’ without parole but for the European Union’s stand against this. Justice Minister, Jeremy Wright, had lamented: ‘ Reoffending has been too high for too long and we are introducing significant reforms’ in 2015 including  GPS satellite tags on paroled convicts for better monitoring. It was a situational response to multiple repeat murders by released convicts, including those  by Andrew Dawson, a 1982 murder convict who stabbed a 91-year old man to death weeks after his release (parole) in 2010 ; George Johnson, jailed for murder in 1986, released in 2006 only to batter to death 89-year old widow, Florence Habesch ;  David Cook, a 1987 murder convict  who killed his neighbor in 2011 on release from jail;  Ernest Wright, a 2010 repeat murderer and Desmond Lee, a gay who killed his lover, Christopher Pratt in 2009 on release from jail for the 1989 murder of his landlady.

    The growing violent crimes in the country demand forceful response from governments at various levels and state legislatures should experiment with impeachment proceedings against governors failing in their constitutional responsibility in refusing to sign death warrants of convicted felons.  However, a case-by-case review process can be put in place for death row inmates to determine possible mitigating circumstances which may compel commuting some death sentences to life jail, especially for offences where no life was lost. But for the callous killers, there should be no compromise, the position of weepers in Amnesty International and their local surrogates, notwithstanding.

     

    • Dr. Olawunmi is Senior Lecturer, Bowen University, Iwo.

  • Tribute to Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

    Two years ago when I wrote a griping, moving and well published tribute on my late lecturer and university of Ibadan trained erudite Professor of Political Science, Kunle Amuwo, I had prayed fervently against death’s unkindest and untimely cut on our beloved ones. I had no premonition that in less than two years I would be compelled to render another epistemological dirge on one of Nigeria’s erudite scholars, thoroughbred journalist and humanist, Dr. Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba who was tragically killed by a reckless driver in a bizarre armed robbery scene along Akure road in Ondo State.

    I read the recent superlative tribute of the celebrated publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu which struck a similar chord in the triangulation of destinies of the late Dr. Onukaba and some of us during our academic and career sojourn. Keller Brown was the adopted school boy (alias or guy name) of the brilliant and swash buckling Adinoyi Shuaibu Ojo as he was then known at Ebira Anglican College, Okene (now Lennon Memorial College). He made a distinction in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in 1977, the very year I entered the same school. I never met him in school but his legendary academic prowess and mercurial leadership as the college head boy was a reference point for those of us who saw in Dr. Onukaba a shining star and role model.

    In 1979 after obtaining his advanced level certificate, the young Onukaba came back to Lennon Memorial College to teach us English Literature in our year two and our star novel was “Cry the Beloved Country” a chronicle of the tribulation and dehumanizing plight of the black people in the infamous apartheid regime in South Africa. He demystified the childish and fearful imagery of English Literature as a very difficult subject. Many of us began to show keen interest in the subject but our romance with English Literature was short-lived as Onukaba left for further studies at the University of Ibadan.

    In 1984 when I gained admission to study Political Science at the University of Ibadan the name Onukaba resonated again and the reverberation of his intellectual exploits found expression and anchorage at the Guardian Newspapers as one of its most prolific, investigative and interrogative journalists. I did not meet him again at the premier university but his academic footprint became my prismatic compass as a teenage undergraduate in search of a role model.

    Our path crossed again after my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in 1988 when I needed a job badly because my parents had advised me to abandon my M.Sc degree admission to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife in order to join hands with them in training my siblings in the universities.

    In my agonizing moment, I remembered Onukaba, the avant-garde journalist and headed for Lagos. I went to The Guardian to see Onukaba who was at the apogee of his journalism career. As for me, Onukaba was the Cicero and doyen of modern journalism in Ebiraland and I set out to mould myself in his genre. It was a busy period for him on that fateful day so we had a hurried discussion and he advised me to come on board as a freelance journalist for a start. It was a good counsel but not an economic option because my parents were waiting for me to supplement the family budget. Onukaba’s wise counsel however buoyed the confidence in my choice to make a career in Journalism and I immediately left Lagos to Kano to meet one of my aunties who helped me secure a reportorial job with Triumph newspapers under the tutelage of the brilliant and young Editor, Malam Garba Shehu (now Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity).

    I cut my journalism teeth at Triumph newspapers and in less than a year I was deployed to Ilorin as Kwara State Editor and before I could barely settle down, was again moved in 1991 to Lagos as Regional Correspondent with the primary responsibility of covering aviation sector. This was the same aviation beat where Onukaba loomed larger than life because of his reverential exploits as a ruthless, investigative journalist and combatant. Again I never met him on the beat because he had left few years back to pursue his PhD and subsequently a career as United Nations Information Officer but he remained a mirror image and edifying reflection of my struggle for excellence and dedicated service as a journalist.

    It was only four years ago that I became close to him when we met severally at the annual dinner of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. He later read in details the serialized newspapers interviews celebrating my 50th Birthday on how our academic and career paths crossed some years ago. In his characteristic humility, he telephoned me to congratulate me.

    Two weeks before his tragic death, some old school mates and myself put a call to Dr. Onukaba during one of our planning committee meetings for the forthcoming 50th Anniversary celebration of our Alma Mater (Lennon Memorial College) initially slated for April. He commended our efforts and gladly offered to meet with some executive members of the old boys association on Monday March 6,. A day before the appointed day tragedy struck and Dr. Onukaba was hurried out of this sinful world. His death like so many others has ignited the unresolved debate between the two schools of thoughts, the proponents of predestination and adherents of the free will.

    The school of predestination believe that whatever happens to a man from cradle to grave has been pre-ordained by God and he cannot change God’s agenda in his life. The free will school of thought however argues that man has the freewill to change his own destiny and believes that such fatalistic resignation to fate is untenable. Whatever may be our persuasion and belief between the two diametrically opposed schools of thought, there is no doubt that the omniscience and omnipotent God is the Architect of our destiny who determines the mode of our entrance and exit out of this world. Life is indeed a stage in which we are merely acting God’s scripts. How do we explain the fact that Dr. Onukaba alighted from his vehicle to take cover from the lethal bullets of the armed robbers only to be mowed down on the same spot by a reckless driver? Nobody knows who will be the next victim of the invincible spectre (death) haunting all of us. Dr. Onukaba had written a tearful and emotion – laden tribute on his late wife, Rachel two years ago and ruefully he is now the subject of a national mourning. The management of Lennon Memorial College has shifted its 50th anniversary celebration from this April to July as a mark of respect for its illustrious alumnus, Dr. Onukaba who is resting in perfect peace with God.

    It is with heavy heart that we mourn a rare gem, an accomplished scholar, consummate journalist and shinning role model.

     

    • Dr. Jimoh is Director, Special Duties at NAFDAC, Abuja.

  • Famakinwa, DAWN and S/West renaissance

    The death of Dipo Famakinwa is a very sad one. I have known the Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) for a few years now and I have come to respect not only his maturity, quiet personality, relational skills, solid professionalism, but also his sound credentials as a development expert with commendable entrepreneurial intelligence. Famakinwa did not become the DG of DAWN by some kind of lucky coincidence. On the contrary, he came to that multidisciplinary organisation in 2013 with a solid educational background, business acumen and an enviable professional experience at both the public and private sectors, as well as at home and abroad. He was a consummate administrator, able to motivate and inspire.

    We became very good friends because after my retirement in 2015 when it became clear to us that we share some commonalities that border on ideas about federalism, development in general, regionalism, but most especially the significance of the Southwest as a development signpost for Nigeria’s federal framework. Recently, Famakinwa’s DAWN and the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) have been looking for a unique joint project around which these shared ideas could translate to active proposals that would further the objectives of the two organisations. No one can doubt Famakinwa’s concern for the development of Nigeria through a constant reassessment of the mechanics for structurally recreating Nigeria’s federalism. A critical opponent of platitudinous rhetoric about reform, he was concerned with a deep and operationalized rehabilitation of the Nigerian project that goes beyond mere constitutional exercise. For instance, he was very critical of recent confabulation experiment like the National Conference of 2014 and all its internal inconsistencies, contradictions and lack of solid understanding of what ails Nigeria. For him, the renegotiation of Nigerian federal experiment must commence from an unbiased diagnosis of where we are presently. For instance, we will all be playing the ostrich and hiding our heads from our geopolitical reality if we think that, say, the creation of more states has the capacity to rejuvenate federalism.

    Now, Dipo Famakinwa has been snatched by death at the prime of his life. This ought to be the time when DAWN blueprint for strategic integration of the Southwest into a large context of good governance and infrastructural development should be going into implementation. He ought to have been present to add his administrative and coordinating skills to the complex implementation exercise simply because the blueprint was articulated by his team. It derives from a vision which he himself had carried for five years since he became the director general at DAWN. Death has been said to bring finality to all things, to aspirations and to dreams and to hope. For Malene Dietrich, “When you are dead, you are dead. That’s it.” Final. Finality.The end.

    But not this time. This is because even death does not have any power over any combustible idea. Death itself can be the route to immortality. “Between our birth and death,” says Christopher Fry, “we may touch understanding.” This is not an automatic achievement. Many came into the world and died without achieving significant understanding, especially of the roles they are expected to play and the duties they owe mankind. Dipo Famakinwa was not that kind of man. For 50 years of his life, he was a leader. But leading was not just enough for him; legacy was. With DAWN, he was read to take his credentials and reputation that regionalization for development is the path for Nigeria’s progress. How then can we make his death the platform for the establishment of his legacy, DAWN?

    DAWN has strategic reform significance. This is the understanding that Famakinwa committed his professionalism, intelligence and development expertise to. DAWN possesses the operational capability to conceptualise, negotiate and implement the renaissance of socio-economic well-being for Southwestern citizens of Nigeria. In fact, at a deeper level, through DAWN, we can achieve the ignition of a national revolution in development.The DAWN vision and mission is grand and beautiful. But far more significant are the five development pillars around which the vision and mission are woven—economic development (around agriculture, tourism, solid minerals and applied science and innovation), social and human development (health, wellness, education and workforce development), infrastructural development (transportation, power, energy, science and technology), building inclusive institutions (civil society, civil service), and homeland affairs (security, cultural preservation, promotion of excellence).

    This, for me, constitutes a complete reform agenda for the South-west. It is to the commendation of Famakinwa that there is in place already a strategic roadmapfor bringing to birth the blueprint for the regional development of the South-west. But this does not abate my professional fear. I have, in my short years as a reformer, seen the death of so many beautiful strategic plans and roadmaps. Ideas and ideals die easily on the platform of good intentions. And yet, even the readiness to implement is also fraught with terrible foreboding. However, Famakinwa was never afraid of implementing the roadmap. The challenges he faced went beyond just the roadmap itself. Would his death signal the end of his vision and his staunch belief in their implementability? Very soon, encomiums will start pouring in. Many people will reflect on his life time and achievements. Others will make many promises to his left behind family. Some portion of DAWN building may even be named after him. And a picture will remain at the DAWN headquarters as a memorial. Famakinwa will then be buried, and silence will threaten to obliterate his development efforts. The strategic roadmap will still be dogged by political and administrative impediments.

    The best memory we can inscribe to his legacy of courageous development thinking and administrative perspicacity is to commence the implementation of the roadmap he staked his professional credentials on. Specific issues are at stake in implementing the DAWN strategic roadmap. The most important, I think, is contained in the DAWN’s 10 operating principles. Underlying all these principles is a solid orientation towards policy implications of DAWN’s development pillars. Converting these pillars into significant policies in the South-west is the most important challenge DAWN has to face after the demise of Famakinwa.

    As things stand, Nigeria’s economic profile still ensures that state governments are held captive by a crippling fiscal framework, founded on what I have called the “bail-out” monthly allocation mentality, which limits governance responsibility. How then can implementation of the roadmap take off if the wherewithal to achieve its implementation and critical sustainability is missing? The most immediate challenge therefore is two-pronged. On the one hand, to significantly deal with the cost of governance issue by downsizing/rightsizing government institutional expenses in a way that will free up funds for efficient investment in infrastructural development. And on the other hand, there is the urgent need to invest in the active cultivation of internally generated revenue, beginning, for instance, with adequate tax payment enforcement matched with strong culture of performance and democratic accountability.

    There is no other way, therefore, to keep the legacies of Famakinwa alive than for the six governors of the Southwest states to not only renew their commitment to an operationally sound organisation they jointly set up, demonstrate shared ideological commitment that transcends party differences and dichotomies for the sake of the Southwest people, but to also use the former DG’s death as a clarion call to no longer waste development time through paying mere lip service to South-west agenda. This must be the time to bring the governance blueprint alive, together with the cultivation of critical synergies and partnership that could assist in bringing alive the blueprint for South-west strategic integration and governance thus reliving the great Awo legacy. That is what would make Dipo Famakinwa’s untimely death a timely intervention in the trajectory of what he stood for.

     

    • Olaopa is Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government & Public Policy (ISGPP).

  • Last ‘suicide’ note to the President

    By the time you will be reading this letter, we would be on our way out of Lagos for our last camp together for the greatest challenge of our lives: a suicide mission to a world record attempt.

    A group of 134 young Nigerians set to attempt one of the hardest world records ever: the longest marathon theatre performance by a team. By this, the team is expected to be on stage for 150 hours, non-stop, day and night, not sleeping, not resting, for seven days and seven nights, acting, dancing and singing. The highest that has ever been attempted was 76 hours. And they said it is suicidal to attempt 150 hours non-stop.

    Our bodies will tire out of fatigue. Our spirits will break out of sleeplessness. We were even told that we may die after the fourth day if we continue without rest and sleep. Our voices would crack from talking and singing non-stop for seven days. Our bones will hurt from acting non-stop for seven days. And we have been told that the only way out, to avoid anyone of us fainting and dying, is to quit. And that is the only thing each one of us has vowed never to do: QUIT.

    As we would raise high the Green-White-Green flag and fly it in honour and sing the country’s national anthem in pride and in respect to our fatherland, we want our President to know the few young Nigerians, who against all odds, have decided to stand in honour and put the country’s glory first before self-honour and uphold the honour and glory of the nation, Nigeria.

    We are 134. We could have chosen the gun but we chose dignity. We could have chosen fraud but we chose honour. We could have chosen the path of war and dishonour but we chose this noble hard path to honour our fatherland with the sacrifice of our courage and youthfulness.

    Exactly one year ago, over 160 of us were called from different streets, different hoods, different families and different states. We were told of the assignment before us and told of the huge responsibilities that we would be putting on our shoulders should we decide to attempt the Guinness world record challenge. We were told the glory would be for Nigeria and our names may never be mentioned nor remembered. The door was left open for anyone with a faint heart to leave. Only 134 stayed and I was picked to lead the team of the 134 young Nigerians that have chosen to put their lives at stake for a nation that may not have given them everything, but has given them hope.

    In the last one year of staying together as a team, preparing day and night for the world record challenge, we have each discovered the true essence of brotherhood and unity and realised the main reason why we were each selected from different states to discover ourselves and find a reason to stay together and battle the challenge before us as a united team, or go our separate ways and leave the task of the world record attempt undone but we chose not to be quitters.

    We fought. We argued. We settled. And we fought and argued more. Yet, not once, did we consider abandoning the common cause and challenge that brought all of us together. Soon, our differences became our strength and our strength became the united front through which today we stand together to confront the task that is ahead of us: the task of bringing the world record glory, for the longest marathon theatre performance by a team, to Nigeria.

    There were days we had enough to eat and share. There were days we had very few. And still, there were more days we had nothing. But through each day, we had abundant courage to stand together, to fight together and to confront the one enemy that stands before us: the world record challenge.

    Soon, the long wait would be over and we would say the last goodbyes to our families and friends, hold their hands one more time, feel the warmth of their embraces, touch their tears and hope in their prayers that we would return alive and trust in their kind memories of us should we never return to their embraces again.

    Soon, we would mount the world stage to face the greatest challenge of our young lives: four days of theatre performances, non-stop, day and night. In our hands would be our nation’s green-white-green flag and on our tongues would be our nation’s national anthem which we would sing in glory and honour as a reminder to all that the sacrifices and labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain.

    Soon, we would climb the world stage to attempt to set a new world record for Nigeria for the longest marathon theatre performance by a team. It is the first time ever in Nigeria that a team of young people came together of their own will, of their own desire and with their own resources, to attempt a world glory for Nigeria. It would be the first time ever that young Nigerians are putting aside their common differences and their self-interest and personal glories, to stand as a united team to win glory for Nigeria.

    We are 134 young people, and no doubt we are many, hence, our names may not be remembered, nor mentioned in articles and newspaper headlines, but one name that would be remembered, through ages and time, is the name Nigeria. And for this we are willing to die. For this we are willing to risk everything. For this we are willing to give everything for the one chance to stand in honour for this great country.

    We have done everything there is to do. Rehearsed our dances and songs and mastered our lines. We have done all required daily exercises and stayed off things that could affect our strength and stamina on the stage through the 150 hours. We have prayed, holding hands and putting all our hope on God. We have done everything required of us and though we should not be afraid, yet we are, because we do not know who amongst us will fall first, and who amongst us will stand through. We each look at each other closely everyday, afraid to take our eyes away for we are each afraid of whose face we would be seeing for the very last time.

    Dear President, we all wish we could have a handshake with you before we climb the world stage as this would be a great honour and a strong motivation for our young hearts as we dared this world record challenge, but we realise this may not be possible, so we write to seek your prayers and fatherly blessings as we stand in honour for the nation we strongly believe in.

    This we desire above all, that you pray for us, that every Nigerian pray for us, as we remind every Nigerian everywhere, that there is no greater glory and honour than standing for one’s country. And through this sacrifice, we sincerely pray that every young Nigerian will learn the honour of standing up for ones fatherland in sacrifice, in dignity, in glory.

  • Nigeria Police endangered

    The Nigeria Police Force is no doubt endangered species. And there is also no doubt that policing in Nigeria is the most dangerous job in the world. It is almost like if you enlist with the police you are signing your death sentence. It is not an exaggeration that the force’s personnel are the most uncared for in the country if not in the world. Their living conditions are appalling while their self-esteem arising from the shabby treatment meted to them is at its lowest ebb.

    I must have written about the Nigeria Police more than 20 times dating as far back as 1974, but more pointedly in 1976 when the then Ogun State Commissioner of Police Mr Chris Omeben lamented that the police personnel were abandoning the force in droves. Regrettably nothing seems to have changed since that era. The only difference is that due to mass unemployment, those in the force cannot afford to leave.

    The Nigeria Police cuts a sorry sight. Their pay is very poor. Their condition of service is nothing to write home about while their barracks and offices are derelict and suitable only for pigs. Some of the windows in their offices have fallen off while many of such offices have no toilet facilities. You can hardly get drinking water in most of the offices and even in the barracks.

    And yet these are officers and men whose quality of training and service is comparable with the best anywhere in the world. Many of the police personnel have more than one university degree while a good number have received professional training locally and abroad. I dare say that they work hard and come rain come sunshine they are usually found at their duty posts.

    Unfortunately because of the few bad eggs amongst them the Nigeria Police do not enjoy the appreciation that is due to them from the public. The Nigerian elite are amongst the most corrupt in the world, coming perhaps second to the political elite in the US, yet they expect the Nigeria Police to be angels in the midst of devils. The roguish politician who brings home tons of Ghana Must Go bags expects his Police aide to be amused.

    The thrust of this article is the serious danger the Nigeria Police are exposed to on daily basis. In neighbourhoods, on the streets, on the highways as well as at establishments and institutions they are assigned to guard, the police are always at serious risk. They are sometimes ambushed and murdered in cold blood.

    Any time I pass by the Nigeria Police on the highway, my heart is full of pity for them. I see them as sacrificial lambs tied to the post for gods to devour.  Sometimes ferocious armed bandits numbering about 30 in say two or three vehicles would simply overrun the police. This is more precarious at night when the police patrol the highways. And in this era of kidnapping and ritual murders the plight of the police has become more dangerous and life threatening.

    Even though the federal and state governments try to provide crime fighting equipment and gadgets, such provisions are not as sophisticated as the weapons and armoury of the criminals. To make matters worse, stiff necks in successive governments have turned deaf ears to the cry and clamour for police decentralisation. The Nigeria Police establishment is the only one of its type in the whole world. There is no other police force that is under single control. But for terrible political selfish considerations, those who have found themselves in the commanding heights of the country’s political leadership have refused to institutionalise community policing which has been the norm in all sane countries.

    Given the abnormally high level of mass unemployment, the unprecedented level of general poverty, and the high degree of restive and restless youths denied admission to higher institutions, and the reckless looting by the political elite it is strange, very strange that crime rate in Nigeria is this low. Credit for this low rate of crime must go to the efficiency and self-sacrifice of the Nigeria Police. If the injustice and deprivation currently enveloping Nigeria were to exist in some other countries, say UK or the US, crime rate would have been uncontrollable.

    There are two things that require immediate action if the serious predicament of the Nigeria Police is to be resolved. The first is the immediate decentralisation of the force. Every local government must have its police while the states also have the state police while retaining the federal police, in a truly federal setting. Living conditions of the force at all levels must be improved including provision of modern barracks and decent office accommodation across board.

    With the establishment of local, state and additional numbers for the federal police, the police-civilian police ratio would tremendously improve. Right now the total police strength put at around 370,000 is not sufficient for Lagos State alone! Nigeria with a population of 192 million, making her the seventh most populated country in the world requires police strength of at least one million.

    Salaries and other personal emoluments must be revised upwards immediately. Paying Sergeants a paltry N50,000 a month is grossly unacceptable. With the serious hazards attached to their job, no police man or woman should earn less than N80000 per month.

    The Nigerian public must be sensitised to show more appreciation for the herculean task of the police. Government itself must treat the police more nicely than it is doing at the moment. Everything should be done to boost the morale of the police while desisting from assigning ‘boy-boy’ jobs to them. Political office holders should be prevented from treating the police as errand boys and girls. I hope the NGO –  Police Friends Foundation PFF would lend its weight to dignifying our police personnel and its institution.

  • Reflections on women empowerment

    Today, the global movement to give meaningful improvement to the circumstances of the female sex has indeed gathered a most remarkable momentum! Thinking positively, it is definitely leading somewhere good. This well-defined and focused global movement seeks to get more women involved in politics and governance; create more avenues for women to be able to invest and thus establish their presence in business and commerce; demand for such legislation that will protect their fundamental rights, peculiar interests, welfare and freedom!
    It must be acknowledged that in public life, as well as in business and commerce, women have been able to strikingly make their marks in terms of personal industry, professional competence and business acumen. What we must remind ourselves of is that women are by no means inferior intellectually to their male counterparts. We have had female astronauts, neurosurgeons, cardiologists, and nuclear engineers etc. to confirm this point. And truly, what is primarily needed in all these professional and highly technical disciplines is the trained human intellect and in this connection, they have recorded splendid and remarkable achievements.
    However, when placard-carrying women now march, sometimes in inclement weather on the streets of New York, London or Abuja (and at other places) demanding for more opportunities in political and economic spheres, then the procession catches the “Eye” of their Creator. The question He will forthrightly ask is, how did they ever get themselves disempowered in the first place; and who was responsible? This is because if womanhood had remained faithfully aligned with the spiritual pathway of their Creator’s Will and His wise Providence, they will not be looking for empowerment in the wrong direction and hoping to achieve it in the wrong place. The awesome Creator of the Woman (who created the male sex as well) can justifiably ask these two questions! This is because in Providential perfection, He had bequeathed the being of every human-woman, with a prime spiritual-essence which eternally empowers her in multi-dimensional ways and no human hand and might, can ever dispossess her of this gracious gift, except herself.
    At the Hour of reckoning…outside and beyond this earth, her Creator will ask her to give account of what she did with the sacred gift which she had largely abused and misapplied; and not the “success” she had achieved in corporate bodies or in political governance. For the human-woman, prioritizing high corporate appointment as her goal in life actually amounts to looking in the wrong direction; and succeeding in getting key political appointment, is actually being in the wrong place. It will be insensitive and uncharitable however, not to acknowledge the many economic exigencies along the line, that have compelled women, having to justifiably fend for themselves and thereby activating, as it were, their natural self-preservative instincts in this connection. This is only natural.
    Woman, know thyself and unto thyself be true! This admonition of old was generally addressed to all human beings, but it is more apt for it to be addressed pointedly to the women of our times, in their present stance of unrelenting empowerment advocacy! Looking at it from the higher spiritual standpoint (i.e from above), it is inexplicably paradoxical and curious that this specially endowed creature, known and called WOMAN and who incidentally has superior and subtly domineering power (for good) within her being (which she is presently lost to) is plaintively advocating for more allotment of spaces in government cabinets and board rooms, where in real terms, she can only wield less incisive and pervading power. The long and short of this very important matter is that womankind on earth is already caught in the sticky web of a crippling spiritual disconnect.
    It is a saddening and sobering fact that the fateful spiritual disconnect which occurred with the well-known spiritual “Fall of Man” led womankind to being fatally exposed to such exhausting challenges, which were not pre-ordained for them to face and contend with, in the first place. Today, as earlier mentioned, economic exigencies in the family set-up have expediently compelled women to go out and earn a living; and having to experience all the abrasions, trauma, assaults and intense struggles that are unavoidable in this connection and literally tearing her apart. But all these earthly exigencies and compelling challenges do not and cannot obliterate or override the inexorable lawfulness that beautifully frame the very being of the woman, regarding her ordained spiritual responsibility. First of all, to the Will of her Maker; and then the human community on earth that they were ordained by the Creative Will to ceaselessly mediate uplifting strength to.
    Let us now ask the empowerment-seeking womankind; how do they see pornography or the nauseous phenomenon of prostitution in the human society? Pornography pictorially shreds into distinct pieces, the anatomy and physical frame of the woman; and presenting this pictorial dismemberment gleefully on magazine stands at city centres. All external parts of the woman’s body (which is sacred) are alluringly featured to feed the minds of those reading-consumers, whose minds have indeed become the cesspit of filthiest lust. The question – what kind of hunger really does the nakedness of the woman satisfy? And prostitution…often referred to as one of the oldest professions, pointedly mocks the inviolability of the God-endowed dignity and honour that should adorn the physical body of the woman! Sexual intercourse is the most intimate physical relationship between the two sexes. Meaningful and mutually enriching spiritual relationship is ideally to precede it! A prostitute invariably sleeps with men she has never seen or met before; charges a price that is subject to negotiations at times…and off they go! Most times they may never see or meet again, as it often happens with animals!
    Whether the generality of contemporary womankind agrees or not…Womanhood is haemorrhaging and badly too! No matter what they have achieved, either as a professor in Harvard, MIT or Oxford; or as a cabinet minister wherever; their offspring could easily get caught in pornography as a youth and later become a loyal customer to a practicing whore! This obviously makes a nullity of whatever parental pride they want to lay claim to!
    So long, as this twin social vices thrive before the eyes of womankind, and they cannot find the initiative and courage to face its eradication, so long would womankind score a neat zero before their Maker. It is when a human creature leaves the earth and steps into the other world that all the sins of omission and commission take-on a different form; and the consequences having to be experienced, in a completely different scenario, like the case of the biblical rich man and Lazarus, when they both got to the other side!
    A mass movement of womankind can eradicate pornography and prostitution, if they want to and millions of genuinely concerned men will join the crusade! It will not be easy but it is realizable if they can look upwards to their Creator; and ask for the backing of His Omnipotence in the necessary sanitizing and edifying drive!
    A divinely sanctioned spiritual purification is insidiously taking place and going on, on this lust-stricken earth! The end result is to have a clean and pure spiritual air which pornography and prostitution blatantly pollute! Womanhood should not get caught on the wrong side, in this cosmic purification, but should be knowingly proactive (through spiritual knowledge) not for any reason, but for their own sake!
    A women-empowerment drive, while pornography and prostitution thrives is self-delusion, when considered from the standpoint of the adamantine Laws of the Creative Will…to which all womankind will be answerable at the end of the day. First thing first!

    •Faboya, a social commentator, lives in Lagos

  • Ngige and Anambra politics

    Ngige and Anambra politics

    On Monday, April 17, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige featured on Odenigbo 99.5FM and took an unnecessary swipe at the Obiano administration. While one is not surprised at his position, during the programme because as an opposition figure, he must be seen to be living up to expectation, especially as an election is in sight, one must however point out the litany of half-truths which he spewed during that show to set the record straight and to properly guide public discourse.
    Dr. Ngige described Chief Willie Obiano as “Governor-do-nothing”; that the three magnificent flyovers in Awka are “bus culverts and monstrous obstructions” on a federal highway; that the state government has no right to put a barrier in the bridge. That the flyovers would soon collapse and that an APC state government would “pull them down”.
    It is unfortunate that he only succeeded in confirming the perception of many Nigerians that the APC government is a ‘pull down government’. He should be told that this is the time to build up and not to pull down.
    Ngige was only trying to be clever by half when he scored Obiano 50 percent only on security, saying that his administration between 2003 and 2006 had a “better and more efficacious security initiative”. But is he denying that today Anambra State is one of the most secure states one can think of? Is it not known to everyone that throughout the month of December during the yuletide, there was no single shot fired by armed robbers, and no single case of kidnapping and other crimes in the state?
    Ngige argued that Professor Soludo’s high rating of Obiano’s government is “politically motivated”. This is to say the least preposterous.
    Ngige said he was the one that first came up with the idea of an airport in the state at Igbariam. That Obi abandoned the idea and that the one Obiano wants to build at Umuleri is overpriced, and shouldn’t have been a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
    This is at best laughable! Because if he is asked why he did not build the airport, he would readily hide under the fact that he was removed from office. Then the next question should be: why was he removed from office?
    In describing Obiano as “Governor-do-nothing,” Ngige has again shown to the world that he is an unrepentant spoiler of good works. For it has been roundly acclaimed that Obiano has taken governance to another level in Anambra State with a plethora of viable and credible projects scattered across the state.
    Currently, there are 181 projects going on in each of the 181 communities in the state under the do it yourself scheme involving N20 million investments to each community. And by June this year, another N20million naira worth of projects would be awarded in each community under the second phase of the scheme.
    No doubt, in the next one or two months, the governor would be busy commissioning these 181 projects across the state. This is one major reason why the people are bent on re- electing Obiano to the chagrin of the likes of Dr. Ngige. But the good thing is that they cannot change the reality.
    Those who visit Anambra State easily see that things are working and the people are happy; workers are being paid as and when due, roads are being constructed and re-habilitated, security is being beefed up, health facilities are being provided, and bridges are being constructed.
    Last December, the Anambra State government paid the workers’ salaries on the 20th of the month, all leave allowances and pensions were paid on the 20th of the same month. So, there was no liability brought forward into 2017 and every civil servant in Anambra State received a bag of rice produced in the state.
    It is this local production of rice that Ngige is now trying to rubbish.
    Is ex-Governor Ngige blind to the fact that as at the time Governor Willie Obiano came into office, the production capacity of rice in the state was 78, 000metric tons, but that today, Anambra produces 230,000 metric tons of rice? The records are there for all to see! Is he also oblivious of the truth that in the next two to three years, Anambra will become a net exporter of rice?
    Ngige further argued that Obiano’s claims on foreign investments and vegetable exports are “bogus and over exaggerated”. Good enough, his expression of bogus and over exaggerated betrays the fact that he acknowledges some progress made in that regard, but instead of giving the administration kudos, he must try to attack it for puerile political reasons.
    Is he not aware that agriculture has received a major boost in Anambra State? Why is it difficult for Ngige to believe that Anambra now exports Ugwu leaf, Spinach and bitter-leaf to Europe which are now fetching Anambra solid foreign exchange?
    Anambra State capital, Awka, now wears a new look as three brand new flyovers have been constructed in the city and there is street lights everywhere, beautiful roads in the state capital and what used to be a local government headquarter has now become a real state capital, courtesy of the wisdom, ingenuity and integrity of Governor Obiano.
    Recently, the administration completed two long bridges at two different locations in the state. Despite the economic crunch, the government is still fulfilling its obligations to the people.
    It is also important to note that the Anambra State government has awarded contract for 111 roads that will be ready in the next few months, before serious rain sets in. These are apart from the ongoing existing roads projects across the state.
    Almost all the nooks and crannies have been lit up, all the major cities in Anambra are lit up at night that wherever you go, it’s like day break at night in Anambra State. This is courtesy of the wisdom and understanding of the governor.
    In the area of health, the state government has awarded contract for 326 health centres, one in each ward in the state. These are being done seamlessly as if there is no recession in the country.
    The governor had promised the people that they would glide through economic recession without any serious impact on their lives, and this is coming to pass. So what is the justification for the “Governor-do-nothing” sloganeering of Ngige?

    •Okpala, a political analyst, wrote in from Awka, Anambra State.

  • Presenting a united front to end malaria for good

    The United Nation’s call to “end malaria for good” resonates deeply with me – I have had malaria. I am encouraged by the progress that has been made to eliminate this terrible disease. The global mortality rate dropped by 47 per cent between 2000 and 2013 and the number of children killed by malaria has declined by two-thirds since 2000, with more than 6.8 million lives saved. I was reminded however of the deadly toll this disease continues to take when I saw a public service announcement on DSTV stating that every thirty seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria. Today, Global Anti-Malaria Day, is a time to reflect on what we have achieved and chart our way forward.
    Most of the progress has been attributed to improved deployment of malaria control interventions, including enhanced access to artemisinin based combination therapy and the proper use of insecticide treated mosquito nets. To consolidate these gains, World Health Organization member states agreed on a new global malaria strategy for 2016-2030, aimed at reducing the global disease burden by 40 per cent by 2020 and eliminating malaria in at least 35 new countries by 2030.
    Nigeria, which accounts for one-quarter of all the malaria cases in Africa, is a signatory to the bold new strategy, a clear signal that the government is determined to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality in the country. Nigeria has already made remarkable progress in the past 15 years, successfully reducing mortality rates among children under the age of five by 18 percent through an aggressive program to combat malaria.
    However, Nigeria faces a new challenge. The decimation of healthcare infrastructure across the country’s North-East at the height of Boko Haram’s insurgency has put millions of Nigerians at a high risk of malaria infection and malaria-related death. The majority of the estimated 2 million internally displaced people in the area, including vulnerable children under the age of five and pregnant women, no longer have easy access to the free tests and artemisinin based combination therapy drugs previously available at government funded healthcare centers.
    Medical professionals are also concerned about the possibility of increased resistance to anti-malaria drugs as mosquitos adapt to increasingly warmer temperatures across Sub-Saharan Africa. Resistance to malaria medicines and insecticides has been recorded in regions of Asia and may pose significant risks to Nigeria’s progress in malaria control.
    The government and people of Nigeria do not face these challenges alone. The U.S. government, through the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), is a steadfast partner in the global fight against malaria, working together with host country governments and partners to bring effective tools for the prevention and control of malaria to the people who need them the most.
    In Nigeria, PMI works with national partners such as the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Malaria Elimination Program. PMI also works with international partners such as the UK Department for International Development, the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund to reach and maintain universal coverage with long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets for all individuals living in malaria endemic areas.
    PMI has scaled up malaria control interventions in Nigeria and to date, has procured over 31.6 million bed nets, 20.9 million malaria diagnostic test kits, over 52.4 million malaria first line drugs, and 11 million doses of the drugs that prevent malaria in pregnancy
    As World Anti-Malaria Day rolls by each year, I wonder what needs to be done to rid the world of malaria for good. The good news is there are answers. We must recognize that we do not need to accept malaria as a normal part of life. If we sleep inside a treated net every night, if we seek treatment from a qualified health worker within 24 hours of the onset of a fever, we can drive down the presence of the malaria parasite in our environment and ultimately eliminate it.
    Together, we must improve the protection of expectant mothers and their newborns from malaria. During pregnancy, malaria can cause particularly serious, life-threatening risks for both the mother and her baby.
    We must also increase access to health services, especially for the poor. Community health workers must be able to provide reliable testing and treatment for malaria and other childhood illnesses.
    Success during the next three to five years will be crucial to attain the vision of this year’s World Anti-Malaria Day theme, “End Malaria for Good.” Ridding the world of this burden will have a long-term transformative impact across the globe, saving millions of lives and generating trillions in additional economic output.
    I am fully convinced that fighting malaria is one of the smartest investments to protect health, create opportunity, and foster growth and security. While the road ahead is complex, the narrative is not— it is about coming together as a global community because of our common humanity and each doing our part to protect families and children from a cruel disease.

    •Bray is U.S. Consul General, Lagos.

  • Governor Yari lied

    Governor Yari lied

    If we are to believe Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, the Gods are to blame for the meningitis ravaging his state and several parts of Nigeria. According to the governor who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, God sent the meningitis to punish the victims particularly for the sin of fornication. But to the governor’s shock, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, a better cultural icon, with a degree in Islamic studies, said the bumbling governor should rise up to the challenges of governance and stop talking balderdash.
    Of course, in the absence of any reasonable explanation for libelling the over 8,000 Nigerians infected by the disease, the governor has resorted to blackmailing the Emir over the type of car he rides. Unperturbed that about 340 out of the 745 deaths across the country as at April 17, from the epidemic occurred in his state, the governor is raising the spectre of fatwa on the Emir, by calling him anti-Islamic. Instead of living his constitutional responsibility by ensuring the availability of drugs for the infected persons, the governor rather sermonises: “There is no way fornication will be so rampant and God will not send a disease that cannot be cured.”
    While he lives at the expense of the state in a spacious, airy and well-maintained environment, the poor and the dying members of his state live in the squalor of ignorance, poorly ventilated houses and diseased environment. In the absence of effective leadership, there is media report that local council officials are diverting the vaccines meant for treatment. Sounding so incoherent, the governor had said: “People have turned away from God and he has promised that ‘if you do anyhow, you see anyhow’ that is just the cause of this outbreak as far as I am concerned.”
    If there is any person who has ‘done anyhow’ in the circumstance, it is the governor. Instead of accepting his error of judgment and apologising for the trash-talk, the governor has continued to justify the libellous statement, and without any iota of shame, has joined in the jamboree by some state governors to China in spite of the health emergency in his state. Considering that he originally spewed the trash within the precincts of Aso Rock after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, it would have been helpful if the presidency had released a statement to disassociate the President from the governor’s claptrap.
    If the governor and his ilk are interested in liberating the people entrusted to their care from ignorance and disease, they must engage with science and technology in search of answers to the ravaging meningitis and other challenges facing the region. Considering that his state and her neighbours fall within what is regarded as the meningitis belt, he can provide leadership for a concerted effort to find cure and preventive vaccines. Why must Nigeria, of which he is a leading elite, wait for a vaccine from the western countries for a disease that is not prevalent in their clime?
    Why should the governor and his colleagues not devote reasonable funds to research on meningitis instead of the bunkum that the mutation of the disease from the prevalent Type A to Type C is a punishment from God? Considering that the disease is prevalent in very hot environment, what sociological and environmental research has the governor and the governments in that part of the country commissioned to examine whether there are environmental and behavioural contributors to the cyclical disease that have killed several thousands in the region?
    If for instance, the prevalent building architecture or other cultural attributes are contributory factors to the disease, why not push for a cultural revolution to liberate the people? Must the people be allowed to wallow in a past that is becoming increasingly dangerous to their general wellbeing? While the Emir of Kano and the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar III, leading cultural and religious icons of the region, champion education, particularly girl-child education among other liberating factors, Governor Yari, elected under a secular constitution, is using religion to explain away his incompetence.
    With the increasing hot weather arising from the depletion of the ozone layer, desertification and other environmental challenges, particularly in that part of our country, are we not likely to experience more deadly meningitis and other socio-economic dislocations in the near future? Instead of feeding his people with false religious precepts to cover governmental inadequacies, should Governor Yari not have learnt a lesson from the damaging effects of such bigotry which is a contributory factor to the Boko Haram crisis?
    To prepare for the future, it will make sense if the states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kastina, Kebbi, Niger and Yobe, whose citizens have suffered so much from the current outbreak – nearly all the 745 deaths, from the 8,057 cases nationwide, pull resources together to fight the disease with the support of other states within the meningitis belt and the federal government. While working to stem the current epidemic, it will make sense to invite notable research institutes to show interest in the present and possible mutations of the meningitis disease in the area. The concerned states should also nurture research students and scholars in that field in and outside the country to seek solution to the disease.
    In his famous work: The gods are not to blame, the playwright, Ola Rotimi, regaled how the gods through a mouthpiece warned the mortals in advance before an impending calamity. In the play, in spite of the advance warning by the gods, Odewale eventually murdered his father, King Adetusa, and went ahead to gain the throne and unknowingly marry his mother, as predicted by the gods. Having warned the mortals in advance, it would be foolhardy to blame the gods for the resultant calamity.
    Of note, the Nigeria Medical Association, Zamfara State branch, has come out to blame the governor for not taking pre-emptive steps, despite warnings about the possible outbreak of the meningitis, and for doing little to contain the epidemic. With a mind encrusted by middle age type of religious fanaticism and superstition, especially to explain away glaring incompetence, is there any surprise that the bumbler did not heed the warning from medical officials?
    Instead of ganging up against the outspoken Emir as is speculated in the media, Governor Yari and other public officials from the zone should rise up to the challenge of modern governance. When the Emir rails against the ills buffeting his people, he acts in enlightened self-interest; other members of the northern elite should better take heed. Nothing short of revolutionary measures are urgently needed to awaken the potentials in the region, and save its people and the entire country. As the Boko Haram crisis has shown, Armageddon is the potential alternative.