Category: Editorial

Sir: Despite the reported endorsement of Senator Godswill Akpabio, former Akwa-Ibom State governor, for Senate President by President-elect Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator-elect Abdul’Aziz Yari, ex-Zamfara State governor, is reported to be forging ahead with his aspiration to be the next Senate President.

 Stakeholders and observers say this could lead to another political upset and a repeat of the events of June 9, 2015 which produced former Kwara State governor, Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President, and Hon Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 9th National Assembly, against the choice of the then Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan from Yobe State, and Lagos lawmaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila as Senate President and Reps’ Speaker respectively.

Reports said that President Buhari had called for a meeting with all APC members in the Senate on that fateful morning to smooth out the contours ahead of inauguration, but Saraki and his “gang” who boycotted the meeting, had other plans.

Precisely, Saraki and his loyalists were at the national assembly complex. But Lawan and his “gang” were absent. They had gone for the meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC). The inauguration commenced even after news that it would not take place. Saraki was nominated, there was no challenger. He afterwards assumed the position of Senate President unopposed. It was at the closing of the event that some of Lawan’s supporters thronged in, in bewilderment and confusion. But the “deed” had been done.

Fast-forward to 2023 with a President-elect (Bola Tinubu) from the South and a Vice President-elect (Kashim Shettima) from the North — both of same faith — Tinubu and top party leaders have reportedly endorsed the Senator representing Akwa-Ibom North-West, Godswill Akpabio, for Senate President.

But what should have been a “done deal” or “consensus” with the withdrawal of the hitherto frontrunners in the race including Senators Ali Ndume (Borno), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) and Barau Jibrin (Kano) backing Akpabio, is becoming a tough nut to crack with Abdul’Aziz Yari refusing to step down.

Yari, a ranking Senator and former Zamfara governor, was reported saying “What is going to happen that day, it is going to happen based on the instructions of the Constitution and not for anyone. The election of the President of the National Assembly is the Senate’s business and not based on anyone’s instruction.”

The APC currently controls the incoming 10th Senate with 59 seats, PDP, 36; Labour Party, 8; New Nigeria Peoples Party, 2; All Progressives Grand Alliance, 1; Social Democratic Party, 2; and Young Peoples Party, 1.

Does Yari have the “political will” and “force” to stage a ‘Saraki 2.0’?

•Ogochukwu Isioma,

 ogochukwuisioma@gmail.com

• Nigerians should take NEMA’ s alert seriously

While Nigerians are used to annual forecasts of heavy rainfall and other weather emergencies by the requisite authorities over the years, there has been this year the unusual forecast of serious lightning in the country accompanying the heavy rains predicted for May, 2023. In a statement issued mid-April, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) advised Nigerians to be prepared to experience about 2.9 million lightning strikes in May, and the attendant consequences. According to the agency’s warning, “If you hear thunder, go indoors for your safety. Thunder and lightning are expected to spread across Nigeria in the month of May”. NEMA thus warned people to be prepared for possible fatalities and fire outbreaks this month.

This new sense of responsibility manifesting in the lightning advisory by NEMA may be a function of growing turbulent weather conditions involving floods, earthquakes, heat waves and fire occurrences around the globe and an indication that weather monitoring and emergency management agencies in the country are increasingly more alive to their institutional obligations.

This is commendable.

It is noteworthy that NEMA’s position has been corroborated by a lightning safety education and awareness non-governmental organisation, the Nigeria Lightning Safety and Research Centre (NLSRC), based in the United States. The NLSRC identifies states likely to be most affected by the intense lightning strikes to include Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Enugu, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Ebonyi, Edo, Osun, Bayelsa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Surprisingly, however, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) in a statement disowned the NLSRC on the lightning forecast while being curiously silent on the same advisory to Nigerians by NEMA. “NiMET wishes to inform the public that at no time did it authorise NLRSC to issue any such weather forecast to the public, as this is the statutory function of the Nigeria Meteorological Agency” the agency insisted.

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It is difficult to comprehend NiMET’s grouse here. We are already in May and being presumably aware of its statutory responsibilities, the agency ought to have issued the requisite lightning advisory to Nigerians long before now. Reacting to the obviously needless controversy, an expert based in the United States observed that “Safety and awareness of lightning needs just more than one organisation to lead the effort”. Public agencies and private organisations involved in diverse areas in this sector ought to cooperate and complement, rather than antagonise and controvert each other.

In any case, there is still a lot that the Nigerian public ought to know about lightning so as to be effectively protected from the dangers of the phenomenon and NiMET has a critical role to play in these public enlightenment efforts.

An acquaintance with the various manifestations of lightning will empower members of the public with the knowledge of how lightning strikes can affect them. For instance, there is the direct lightning strike when large quantities of energy pass through the individual’s body very swiftly resulting in internal burns, organ damage, nervous system damage or explosions of flesh and bone. In the case of contact injury, a person can be electrified as energy surges through an object he or she is holding. There are also situations in which victims of lightning strikes are hurled some distance and suffering blunt-force trauma or hearing damage from the sound of the accompanying thunders.

In countries with experiences in handling lightning strikes, the requisite authorities give the public practical steps to take when the phenomenon occurs. For instance, people who are in open spaces and unable to flee to safer, fully enclosed locations “are advised to assume the “lightning position”, which involves sitting or crouching with knees and feet close together to create only one point of contact with the ground”. If sitting, the feet must be off the ground while the feet must be touching when standing. Furthermore, people are enlightened to take shelter in a building or a vehicle as well as to avoid being near high objects like a tree or metal objects like poles and fences during lightning strikes. Those inside vehicles are warned to avoid touching anything metal or using electronic equipment while those inside a building should avoid electrical equipment and plumbing, including taking a shower.

These are the kinds of safety and protection strategies against lightning strikes that ought to preoccupy NiMET rather than quibbling with fellow agencies on unproductive turf wars. The agency should also be collaborating with other agencies in ensuring that critical public facilities are equipped with lightning-protection devices such as lightning rods, lightning arresters, lightning conductors and discharges as well as lightning monitoring and warning systems to alert people on the probability of a strike, deploying scientific risk assessment methods suitable to specific conditions and circumstances. Given the propensity for increase in fire incidents during intense lightning strikes, it is important to have efficient fire services at the corporate level, as well as training and equipping of individuals to respond to fire outbreaks.

• It’s exciting that the ministry is morphing into an active public sector player.  But let that not toll the knell for TSA

To the extent of the public sector evolving into active economic enablers, from their passive traditional receptacles, the news is good: that the (Federal) Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) is moving from a mere policy incubator, into some future money-spinner.

But to effectively play that new role, MOFI is asking — indeed, it just secured presidential nod for a ‘partial exclusion’ — from the Treasury Single Account (TSA).  TSA is a single account or a set of linked accounts ensuring all Federal Government transactions are through a Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA), domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

That news is not so good — but not because MOFI wants to start spinning cash.  It’s near-bad news because TSA was established to foil the hitherto near-routine multiple bank accounts by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), through which many smart Alecs, with itchy palms, corralled a good chunk of the common wealth, leaving the millions of commons in pervasive but avoidable poverty.

Indeed, under President Goodluck Jonathan, multiple accounts, as conduit for sundry sleaze, became such an epidemic that the Jonathan Presidency pondered the TSA to arrest the pestilence.  But it lacked the political will to fully consummate it, though the first rather limited experiments started in 2012.  TSA was, however, the first major policy President Muhammadu Buhari put in place, as doughty base for his anti-sleaze war.

Might this ‘partial exclusion’ that the president just granted MOFI then be the beginning of the end for TSA, since other ministries, cooking up sundry sweeteners, could begin to call for ‘partial exclusion’ too, until TSA becomes a policy joke?

This is fair and legitimate musing, given the sundry abuse of the common purse, by the old proliferation of accounts by ministries, departments and parastatals (MDAs).  After eight years, no one should forget, in a hurry, the sheer wastes of the previous 16 years.

Read Also: President approves partial exclusion of MOFI from TSA

Still, this is not a morbid fixation with TSA.  Every policy requires fine-tuning, given the dynamism of the environment.  Nothing is static.  Indeed, such dynamism called for a re-christening to Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, from its pristine name of Federal Ministry of Communications.  That re-brand appears self-explanatory.

However, might the communications ministry begin to demand ‘partial exclusion’ from TSA because it gets more active on its latest self-assigned portfolio of digital economy?  If it did — and got that leeway — could that motivate other ministries to jump on the bandwagon of economic sweeteners?  Isn’t the way to hell often paved with good intentions?

Again, these are legitimate posers to ponder as useful guides to fair and legitimate caution, not as cynical stone-walling to stall any credible and worthwhile innovations on the TSA.

Such caveat emptor should start with a full disclosure of ‘partial exclusion’.  What does that mean, in real terms?  In what and what transactions would MOFI be granted leeway to side-track TSA?  What are the checks and balances to fend off abuse?  What rigours must other ministries surmount to earn ‘partial exclusion’?

All of these must be put in black-and-white; and served the relevant and general publics.  In the best principle of openness, these publics have a democratic right to know.

Still, despite this fair dose of skepticism, it’s a thing of cheer that MOFI is embracing the changing times, and breaking out of the passive mode of traditional ministries and sundry government agencies.

By a statement put out by Femi Adesina, the “new” MOFI, launched on February 1 (that launch must have been drowned by the cacophony of the looming presidential election of February 25), would transform from “a registry of investment record to world-class asset and investment management company.”  That goal is impressive, even if the language is a tad flowery, suggestive of a marketer pitching for sales.

President Buhari was also upbeat in his assessment of the ministry’s new mandate: “MOFI’s mission is to generate strong risk-adjusted returns, contribute to the well-being of Nigerians, and be a trusted steward of our nation’s asset and investments.  With a vast portfolio and strategic investments that span across multiple sectors,” the president added, “MOFI has the potential to shape industries, spur innovation, and support economic growth.”

Good talk — particularly from a hitherto placid public sector, rippling with new-found private sector-like activism and putative dynamism.  But to walk that talk is a different ball game entirely.  So, doughty checks and balances must be put in place to ensure the new dream doesn’t tragically derail.

But whatever happens, everything must be done not to subvert the TSA.  Many MDAs, not leaving behind the university system, have complained against TSA and how it reportedly slows down their operations.  While those points are noted, TSA has ensured increasing stability in public sector accounting than hitherto, in the past eight years.  

It’s no time to junk that stability. That’s why whatever waivers granted MOFI must be rigorously and vigorously monitored.

• He was an author, a renowned historian and passionate promoter of History

He gave historians a positive image, and promoted the study of history. “No country ignores its history except at its own peril,” he said in an interview published in 2020, giving reasons Nigeria could not afford to exclude the study of History from its educational system.

Prof. Obaro Ikime, renowned historian, fellow and one-time president of the Historical Society of Nigeria, who died on April 25, aged 86, was a strong voice among protesters against the Federal Government’s decision to, in his words, “abolish History as a subject.”  He explained: “History is the memory of human growth. If it is forgotten, we cease in that measure to be human.” A native of present-day Delta State, he was also a retired priest of the Anglican Communion.

After his secondary education at the Government College, Ughelli, Delta State, where he was head boy, he studied History at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, and graduated with an upper second-class degree. “History was my best subject at Ughelli,” he said.

With a doctorate at 29, he became a professor of history at 37, and was a distinguished member of the famous Ibadan School of History, which originated at the University of Ibadan and flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. The school, characterised by its passionate Nigerian nationalism and rigorous examination of Africa’s colonial experience, was in its heyday the dominant intellectual tradition in the study of the history of Nigeria.

Ikime taught History at the University of Ibadan from 1964 to 1990, and served as Head of Department, and Dean of Arts. A productive scholar, he is credited with more than 20 books, including those he authored and edited.  His 1980 edited seminal book, Groundwork of Nigerian History, is regarded as “a comprehensive history of Nigeria’s diverse peoples,” and underlines the role of history and historians.

Importantly, he also focused on historiography, paying attention to the methods of historians in the writing of history. This aspect of his scholarship is highlighted by his books, History, The Historian, and The Nation (2006), and Can Anything Good Come Out of History? (2018).

The latter, according to the blurb, seeks “to demonstrate that History is not the useless discipline it is so often portrayed to be in our nation: that Nigeria and all her component entities, and the loyalties attached to them are products of History; that whether we realise it or not, it is History that provides that understanding of our country’s multifarious peoples and their cultures which is so crucial for peaceful co-existence.”

A striking incident ended his academic career prematurely. “I was retired in 1990 and I was not yet 70,” he said. He was 54 at the time. His narrative about what happened showed the despotism of the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida regime, but also showed his own sense of history and social consciousness.  

His account: “I was the chairman of the Chapel Committee. The Organisation of Islamic States met in Nigeria in 1990 and issued a communique after their meeting. My error was that I discussed that communique at the chapel in the presence of the whole committee members. I said at the meeting that the communique was the first step towards war. They were planning how they would dip the Quran into the sea, and that was how they were going to organise jihad and spread across the country… Therefore, I suggested that the Church should organise prayers so that Nigeria would never get involved in a religious war. That was my offence.

 ”I also said a few things about the looting by the Babangida government. That was my error. I didn’t know how it was published in the newspapers.”

He ended up spending about 90 days in detention, wearing the same clothes and sleeping on the bare floor. The powers that be then directed that he should be retired.

Ikime lived long enough to witness the reversal of the government’s anti-history policy. It was, ultimately, not only a victory for History but also the great historian. 

• Circumstances under which Inspector died allegedly in police cell deserve investigation

The allegation by Mrs Oluwabukola Atobiloye that her husband, Inspector Taiye Atobiloye, of the Oke-Onigbin Divisional Headquarters, Kwara State, was killed in police custody, while on special assignment at Zone 8 Headquarters, Lokoja, which covers Kogi and Kwara states, deserves thorough investigation. It is good that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) , Alkali Baba, has ordered an investigation, but a unit under the zonal headquarters, accused of complicity in the alleged killing cannot dispassionately investigate its command. So, we urge the IGP to send police investigators from another command or police headquarters to conduct the investigation.

According to Mrs Atobiloye, the late inspector was killed by his colleagues, after they had extorted him to vary the posting to the zonal headquarters which became his lot, after the person earlier posted allegedly bribed his way out of the posting. In an interview with a newspaper, the widow lamented: “I want the world to know what they did to my husband. They collected a lot of money from him and tortured him to death.” The police claim that Inspector Atobiloye was detained after he abandoned his new duty post for nine days, and returned drunk.

The command also claimed that the late inspector was picked up drunk, and was detained for dereliction of duty. That while in custody he became sick and was taken to hospital, where he died.

But the widow has a different story.

She alleged that her husband who had medical challenge with his legs because of an earlier accident, was posted as replacement for a colleague who had rejected the posting. That he presented medical reports to alter the posting, and that senior police officers extorted money from him to effect the change, but didn’t.

The widow also claimed that the police held her late husband incommunicado in custody for days, and her several efforts to reach him were rebuffed by those holding him. The brother of the deceased alleged that when the man fell ill in custody and was defecating on himself, those holding him failed to take him to the hospital, until he died. The police accepted that the men fell ill in custody, but added that he died in a hospital.

The allegation of bribing for posting, promotion and other forms of preferment is rampant in the police, and the case of Inspector Atobiloye provides an opportunity to investigate the causes of such indiscipline and crookedness. It is common practice that when policemen are sent on essential duty or quick intervention duty, they are not provided accommodation or allowances, which may explain the offer of bribe to avoid the posting. Inspector Atobiloye’s death provides an opportunity to find the cause for such neglect and maltreatment and recommendations made to forestall such.

We are concerned about the allegation of neglect of a sick person in police custody, by those holding him. Such maltreatment in custody is rampant across police offices. Police cells are also in such a decrepit condition that persons in detention easily fall sick. Many cells have no ventilation, toilets and beds. Most are in conditions that those arrested for one offence or the other do whatever they can to avoid being detained. And those who can detain persons use the threat of detention to extort even the innocent.

The lamentation of the widowed Mrs Atobiloye should not be ignored by the police authorities, in the state, zonal and national command. As she asked: “How could the police do this to one of their own?” Indeed, if a serving policeman can suffer indignities and death in the hands of his colleagues, as alleged, one imagines the fate of ordinary Nigerians, especially the indigent and ignorant.

Lagos State continues to play the role of trail blazer in the country, and sometimes in the sub-continent. While the state is still under the blaze of its new train display, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced the delivery of a batch of electric trains, the first not only in the country but also in West Africa.

“I am excited to announce the first set of electric buses in the Lagos Mass Transit Master Plan as part of our increased effort to modernise every sector of Lagos. Thanks to our partnership with @Oando PLC, Lagosians can expect a cleaner and greener public transportation in Lagos State,” said Governor Sanwo-Olu.

This is a 21st century innovation that will not only ply the road for comfort but also disrupt the way we look at mobility in this part of the world.

“Our new electric buses will not only reduce carbon emissions but will also increase efficiency. This means that Lagosians can say goodbye to high fuel costs and hello to cost-efficient transportation,” Governor Sanwo-Olu explained.

The buses are charged and belong to a different breed and generation from the ones with which Lagosians are familiar in their great appetite for carbon as it guzzles much fuel and gushes fumes into the atmosphere.

Each bus has the power at full charge to travel for 280 kilometres. This is a great real estate to cover since the normal travel distance for the bus a day is 200 kilometres. It is not only a triumph for movement but of technology.

It shows what happens when governments work with companies to bring democratic dividends to the people. Also involved is the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) that works with the Oando Clean Energy Limited to ensure its smooth running.

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The company that brought the buses saw it as a watershed moment. The chief executive of Yutong West Africa, Frank Lee stated: “This is a watershed moment for Yutong. It’s our first delivery of electric mass transit buses in Sub-Saharan Africa and the first step in the large-scale deployment of an electric powered public road transport system in Nigeria.

The partnership is part of a vision that includes the electric buses, charging stations and other support infrastructure. Public malls and gas stations will host the charging points.

The state hopes to establish an assembly plant for electric buses with its implication for economies of scale and accessibility.

Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, says “a key component of this strategy was identifying and developing a more robust mass transit system for Lagos that would include rail and waterways amongst others. Using electricity to power mass transit is a step in the right direction, and from there we would gradually transit to private cars.”

It also eyes a net zero regime by 2060. This is the first in the country, which makes it a guinea pig project. But other states in the country should borrow a leaf from the Lagos experiment. Lagos is the most industrialised in the country, and it is now conscious of the global trend to decarbonise. That means improved air quality, better health for its citizens, a potential to employ 3,000 drivers and 2,000 other workers for maintenance, to manage depot. It is expected to cut costs for as much as $2.6 billion, 3.6 percent of the state’s GDP.

Lagos will see this as a phasing out of the present fuel guzzling buses and normalising a green transportation era.

Governor sanwo-Olu said it is part of the move to make Lagos a smart city. We agree.

Sir: I wholeheartedly support the signing of the $15 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Public Private Partnership (PPP) by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and a US-based company, Atlanta Global Resources, to construct a rail link to all states in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The Niger Delta region is made up of nine states, namely Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, and Imo states.

NDDC was created by the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 with the sole mandate of developing the Niger Delta. Before NDDC, we had the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), which was established in 1993 under the chairmanship of Albert Horsfall. The defunct OMPADEC, and its successor agency, the NDDC, have been plagued by corruption and inefficiency.

 Several NDDC administrations have tried their best, but they still fell short of the core mission envisioned for the commission. The proposed rail project is a rare opportunity for the agency to redeem itself in the eyes of the public, live up to its mandate, and justify the trillions of naira that have been allocated to it over the last two decades.

Nigeria is largely dependent on the export of crude oil and needs stability in the oil-rich region. The rail project, if successfully executed, would be a major leap to development for the region. It would also create jobs for the teeming youths, thereby curbing militancy and agitations.

 The NDDC must do its utmost to ensure that the project becomes a reality. It must avoid the pitfalls of past projects which have become moribund. Strategic planning, commitment, functional roadmaps, and good management are a sine qua non if this project must be successful.

The NDDC must involve critical stakeholders across the nine Niger Delta states in this project. Political leaders, traditional leaders, youth leaders, union leaders, religious leaders, etc. must be carried along to avoid this project becoming a victim of the “Nigerian factor.”

The state houses of assembly and the national assembly should provide oversight functions and the legislative framework necessary to the success of the rail project.

•Peter Ovie Akus,

akuspeter@gmail.com

•Doctors’ threat of a strike two weeks to handover sucks

Resident doctors have again wielded the weapon of industrial engagement they seem most familiar with: the threat of a strike. They’ve just given government a two-week ultimatum to meet their demands or contend with industrial disharmony.

At the end of an extraordinary national executive council meeting of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in Abeokuta on April 29, the doctors gave government up till May 13 to address their demands or they would “not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the sector nationwide.” Those demands include that government take tangible steps to effect upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), pay all salary arrears owed NARD members since 2014, immediately disburse the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), and ensure withdrawal of a bill in the House of Representatives seeking to compel medical and dental graduates to practise for five years in Nigeria before being fully licensed, precedent to relocating abroad.

In a communiqué signed by NARD President Dr. Emeka Orji and other officials, the doctors asked for increment in CONMESS to the tune of 200 percent of the current gross salaries of doctors, besides new allowances itemised in a letter written last year to health minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire.  The communiqué read in part: “NEC demands commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed to our members, including 2014, 2015 and 2016 salary arrears as well as arrears of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage, (and) massive recruitment of clinical staff in hospitals and complete abolishment of bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors who leave the system.”

Read Also: Ngige: resident doctors demands absurd

The council also demanded immediate domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act and review of hazard allowance by all state governments and private tertiary health institutions where there is residency training, and as well “immediate commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed to our members by the various state governments, notorious amongst which is the Abia State Government.”

Health minister Ehanire was reported saying government was working at addressing the doctors’ demands before the deadline expires. But his labour and employment counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige, slammed the ultimatum as absurd and accused the doctors of suffering from entitlement mentality. Speaking on television early this week, he said: “We have been managing their matter and have given them everything they want, including the residency training programme funds. We’re paying them, even when in training, we pay them full salary, pay them all the allowances, and you decided that we’ve not done enough!” On the proposed legislation, the minister wondered how government could be held liable for a private bill in the House. “So you ask that a bill submitted by a member be removed as a condition not to commence strike? That is absurd,” he said, adding: “The entitlement syndrome, the sense of entitlement is too much in this country…”

The latest strike warning is the second wielded this year alone by resident doctors. In January, NARD threatened to kickstart processes that would result in industrial disharmony if lingering issues including immediate payment of new hazard allowance and arrears were not addressed before its NEC meeting billed for later that month. At the end of the said meeting, the council shelved the strike, commending government for moves made thus far in the mutual engagement. Some six months earlier, the association had issued similar ultimatum over unresolved issues affecting its members. In 2020, the doctors staged a nine-week-long strike that resulted in paralysis of healthcare service delivery and consequential death of some hapless patients. When that strike was being called off early in October, that year, the doctors said some of their grievances had been addressed though others, including salary arrears, remained outstanding.

It’s a shame that issues at stake have lingered this long, and government perhaps could have done more to effectively resolve the demands. Still, doctors are themselves overreaching in wielding the weapon of strike, which when carried through, incurs enormous distress on hapless citizens who are in no way complicit in matters that drove them to the trenches. This is inconsistent with the profession’s foundational code of practice, the Hippocratic Oath, that mandates sensitivity to sanctity of life. Besides, this latest threat is ill-timed because it is scheduled to take effect barely two weeks to the advent of a new administration. It is true that government is a continuum, but the least expected of the doctors at this time is to hold their fire and allow the incoming administration  to settle down and get properly apprised of the demands at issue. That is what civic responsibility dictates.