Mali has for some while been a sore thumb in the West African sub-region, owing to an armed uprising since 2012 that has left swaths of the country outside government control. The situation is compounded, however, by its restive military, which periodically butts in to hijack power from civilian leadership. Mali’s military has usurped power since 2020 and has shown an unwillingness to restore control to democratically elected leaders.

But the sub-regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has vehemently objected to this, signposting a new paradigm in our clime regarding international engagement with internal affairs of member-nations.

ECOWAS leaders rose from an extraordinary meeting in Ghana last Sunday, slamming an unprecedented slew of sanctions on Mali because of the reluctance of its military junta to steer the country back to civil rule. Army officers led by Colonel Assimi Goita had in August 2020 toppled elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita amid street protests against his unpopular rule. Under threat of sanctions, Goita installed an interim government led by civilians and promised holding presidential and legislative elections in February 2022 to restore full civil rule.

But he staged a de facto second coup in May 2021 by dismantling the interim government – a move that disrupted the transition timetable and was met with diplomatic condemnation. Following the second coup, ECOWAS insisted on Mali holding elections this month. But Goita, who declared himself interim president, said he would only set a new date after a nationwide parley, arguing that a peaceful vote was more important than speed. At the end of the parley last December, the junta said it envisaged a four-year transition period beginning from January 1, 2022. Despite persuasions by ECOWAS mediator, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, to the contrary, it announced plans to hold elections in December 2025 instead of February 2022 as originally agreed.

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ECOWAS didn’t buy the dallying and unleashed sanctions with immediate effect against Mali, saying the plan “simply means that an illegitimate military transition government will take the Malian people hostage.” The new sanctions unveiled last Sunday in Accra include closure of member-nations’ land and air borders with Mali and recall of ambassadors from Bamako; suspension of non-essential financial transactions, among them ban on all exports except pharmaceuticals and other humanitarian items; activation of the bloc’s standby force to be “ready for any eventuality;” and freezing of Malian state assets in ECOWAS central and commercial banks. In line with the sanctions regime, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) instructed all financial institutions under its ambit to suspend Mali with immediate effect, severing the country’s access to regional financial markets. The 15-member bloc had, following Goita’s first coup in 2020, shuttered Mali’s borders, imposed trade restrictions and suspended the country from its decision-making bodies, but when the junta installed a civilian-led interim government and pledged to hold elections February 2022, the economic sanctions were lifted although Mali remained suspended from the bloc’s main bodies.

The new slate of sanctions by ECOWAS marked the toughest ever by the regional body and signalled an unprecedented resolve to beat back military intervention in power, which seemed to be festering in the sub-region and beyond. Both the toughness and regional consensus behind the sanctions were as well unprecedented, and punctured the notion of insular sovereignty of member-states so as to regulate political behaviour. Mali being a landlocked country, the sanctions are certain to bite, hence the junta in Bamako is rattled. In response, it condemned the sanctions as “illegal and illegitimate,” and applied the principle of reciprocity to recall its own ambassadors as well as counter-shutter its borders with “all affected countries.” But while the sanctions may hurt ordinary Malians, they will also worsen the challenge of internal legitimacy for the junta given that Malian opposition parties had rejected the timetable proposed by it.

The new sanctions would have received endorsement from the global community but for Russia and China which, on Tuesday, blocked a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution drafted by France supporting ECOWAS. France, Mali’s former colonial power, and the United States expressed support for the sanctions; but China argued that Mali is amidst a critical transition period and outside forces must refrain from exerting excess pressure, while Russia rejected the proposed UNSC statement as unbalanced and expressed sympathy for the Mali junta. But it wasn’t ‘Uhuru’ for Mali as Algeria, with which it shares a long border, has objected to the Malian army perpetuating itself in power and urged negotiations with ECOWAS to “reach a plan to end the crisis, taking into account international demands and the legitimate demands of the Malian people.”

The courage of ECOWAS deserves commendation. But the bloc should extend its swagger to leaders of member-states who perpetuate themselves in power through sham elections and arbitrary review of existing constitutional provisions. The aversion for illegitimacy in power must be comprehensive.

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) just released an advisory and update on the umpteenth breakout of Lassa fever.  That development should worry everyone.

Since 1969 when the illness was named for Lassa, a town in Borno State where it first broke out and claimed the lives of two foreign missionary nurses, it is sad that our local epidemiologists have done little to curtail the disease.  It’s time for all of that to stop.

Since that initial outbreak, Lassa fever had spread to Liberia, Benin Republic, Mali, Guinea, Ghana and Sierra Leone, thus becoming a sub-regional health pest.  The viral illness is spread by infested rats that contaminate food items, in dirty homes, with their urine and faeces.

This latest nationwide breakout, according to the NCDC, involves 4, 632 cases — and still counting; and 102 deaths so far.  The states worse hit by deaths include Ondo (47), Edo (15), Bauchi (12), Taraba (12), Ebonyi (9), Kaduna (4), Nasarawa (2) and Enugu (1).

As the Lassa fever fatal count cut across states North or South, East or West, so have the number of cases, starting with the most affected states: Edo (2, 725), Ondo (1, 006), Bauchi (164), Ebonyi (143), Nasarawa (79), Taraba (72), FCT (59), Kaduna (53), Delta (50), Plateau (42), Benue (34), Kano (24), Gombe (22), Kogi (17), Lagos (16), Borno (15) and Enugu (14).

That almost every state is hit by this latest outbreak again stresses the imperative to strengthen Nigeria’s primary health care (PHC) system.  Since the bulk of Lassa fever crisis appears rural, it makes sense that PHC facilities, the nearest to the populace, are strengthened nationwide.  Even in urban areas, these health centres are the nearest to the many communities and poor folks, who may be in distress.

But beyond revamping these facilities, the government needs a renewed beam on them and services they can provide, at little or no costs, compared to struggling private hospitals that charge the world.

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Many of these PHCs, often tucked away in quiet neighbourhoods, are under-utilised; simply because the folks they are built to serve have near-zero knowledge of their use.  Better utilised, PHCs could offer effective treatment for Lassa fever, especially when reported early enough.  They could also offer the vigorous base of a sound referral system, from which serious Lassa fever cases are pushed up to secondary, and maybe tertiary hospitals in rare cases.

Still on massive enlightenment — but this time in prevention.  Prevention, goes the age-old aphorism, is better than cure.  The primary driver of Lassa fever, in rural areas at least, appears ignorance: starting with the very basics of clean and potable water.  A sustained public education blitz on this basic fount of hygiene and sanitation is imperative.

Such a blitz should also integrate how to shut out Lassa fever and other viral and water-borne diseases by rigorous basic hygiene and sanitation. A neater and tidier environment would breed less rats, for instance.  Rats are the vector for Lassa fever.  With less rats, the spread is logically curtailed.

Local and municipal authorities, in urban centres and the suburbs, should also do much more on refuse clearing and waste management.  Piles of refuse breed rats.  That Lagos State has so far recorded 16 Lassa fever cases, despite its comparatively better health care facilities than many Nigerian states’, could be a signal that it should work harder on its refuse disposal system.

The urban and suburban local governments nationwide should also do more serious work on routine health inspections of homes, markets, motor parks and even work places.  Not long ago, the concept of the “wole-wole” (Yoruba for government health inspectors and sanitation enforcers) was pervasive.  Now, it has all but vanished!

But only routine, yet systematic health checks can keep epidemics like Lassa fever and other illnesses at bay.  So, there is an urgent need for a strong and vibrant health and environmental police.

Meanwhile, citizens should follow the NCDC Lassa fever advisory: if you develop malaria symptoms and it persists after routine treatment, dash to the nearest PHC or hospital.  That “malaria” could well be Lassa fever; and it needs to be de-fanged before it develops needless complications.

Very few persons anywhere turn 80 years with the pedigree and accomplishments of Professor Bolaji Akinyemi. With his bow-tie and methodical speech, Prof. Akinyemi is a familiar persona in the Nigerian mind.

He turned 80 January 4, a diplomat, teacher, professor, politician, human rights advocate, pro-democracy crusader, public intellectual, public speaker, polemicist, author and administrator. He is best noted as Nigeria’s face to the outside world when he was appointed the country’s external affairs minister. He occupied that position during the military era of General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB). Indeed, Babangida recently paid tribute to him as a sort of unwitting intellectual mentor in that he visited as a soldier the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) when Professor Akinyemi was the director-general.

He impressed the general with his rigour and candour. When he became head of state, it was not difficult for him to appoint Professor Akinyemi to serve as the nation’s premier diplomat. Invisible mentee became boss who would still be learning at the table of his teacher-appointee.

In that capacity, Akinyemi brought flair, imagination and audacity to the task, and he is perhaps the most consequential figure we have had at that desk.

Okoi Arikpo is probably a second position to him. Arikpo was a cerebral fellow who dealt with the pangs of a post-colonial nation that also grappled with the stress at home. But it was a relatively calmer time for foreign relations.

Akinyemi came with a vision for a country and continent in search for identity. His ideas of a ‘black bomb’ and Concert of Medium Powers were part of his attitude towards a country and continent still seen by the west as the backwaters of civilisation.

He did not flinch to assert the instinct of a black race and a proud nation in spite of the democratic deficit and woes of underdevelopment.

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It was an optimistic face he gave to the world and the continent. His Concert of Medium Powers was an original idea following on the coalescence of countries in the world to assert their position and influence.

With the concert, he wanted to place Nigeria in the centre of global power games, and by that throw our weight on issues. His was not a rhetoric like that of General Murtala Muhammed who said “Africa has come of age.” That was never fledged out into a system. It turned out to be no more than a bluster, even though well-intentioned.

The idea of a ‘black bomb’ was sometimes thought as comical but it was a clever counterblast to a western military triumphalism, and a rallying cry to self-defence. “Nigeria has a sacred responsibility,” he said, “to challenge the racial monopoly of nuclear weapons.” In the words of a seasoned diplomat and Nigeria’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Dapo Fafowora, “Neither the country nor the military who appointed him was ready for such visionary ideas. He was ahead of his time.” The west chafed at it and intervened. Northern leaders persuaded IBB to fire his mentor. That was one of the paradoxes of Nigerian diplomatic history.

Akinyemi’s time as Nigeria’s chief diplomat synthesised his ideas over decades of scholarship around the world, beginning in Nigeria where he attended Igbobi College in Lagos and Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti. He travelled to the United States where he studied at Temple University, Pennsylvania, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and Trinity College, Oxford. He was also lecturer and visiting professor at Graduate Institute of International Studies, the University of Nairobi, Kenya, the University of California at Los Angeles and, of course, at the University of Lagos. He capped that sterling scholarship at the NIIA.

In the febrile period of democracy struggle after IBB stanched M.K.O. Abiola’s June 12, 1993 victory, Akinyemi was a staunch member of the struggle to restore democracy.

Until his name appeared on the ballot paper for the June 12, 1993 election, not many Nigerians outside the Kano metropolis knew Alhaji Bashir Tofa. It will however be unfair to say he was nobody before that momentous occasion. He had actually been involved in politics since he was 29 in 1976. He got elected as a councillor in the Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State when the military regime decided to reform the local governance structure of the country. A year later, when the Obasanjo military administration decided to give impetus to its transition programme by setting up a Constituent Assembly under the legendary Supreme Court Justice Udo Udoma to fine-tune the constitution for the Second Republic, Tofa was one of the young men who found their way into the rank of the elders in the forum. He mingled with the high and mighty and was an active participant in the meetings that gave birth to the National Movement that metamorphosed into the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

At the time, it appeared that he was set to continue the movement to the very last rung of the ladder. It was no surprise when, on return of power to civilians in 1979, Tofa was elected secretary of the Kano branch of the NPN. And, given the place of Kano in the politics of the North, he was able to catch the attention of the party leaders such that within the four short years of the Second Republic, the Kanuri Muslim from Kano was catapulted to the national scene as financial secretary of the ruling political party. One could safely say that, had the military not again intervened in the nation’s political system, Tofa would likely have commanded a key position in the government of Nigeria. However, apart from holding a party office, he only managed to be appointed a member of the committee set up to oversee the Federal Government’s Green Revolution Programme.

At the collapse of the republic in December 1983, barely three months after the re-election of the Shehu Shagari NPN administration at the centre, and Alhaji Barkin Zuwo’s take-over of Kano State, Alhaji Tofa had to move into private business. His area of interest was publishing. He started by writing articles for prominent newspapers of the day, such as the Daily Times, New Nigerian, Daily Sketch and Nigerian Tribune. He used that as an opportunity to prepare himself for entry into the publishing space, as well as broaden his knowledge or announce his arrival. He thereafter came up with the Hausa newspaper Alkalami. Then came Pen, published in English. The Hausa paper was popular in Kano and it goaded him into book writing and publishing. In his lifetime, Alhaji Tofa published eight books in Hausa language which he probably saw as a means of communication with, and mobilising the people.

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In 1990, the man who was later to become the presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) teamed up with men and women of like minds to found the party. And, he soon emerged a major pillar of the party in his Kano base. This helped him defeat the likes of John Nwodo, Dalhatu Tafida and Pere Ajunwa at the primaries that threw up the presidential candidate.

At his death, one event that stands out in the life and times of Alhaji Bashir Tofa is that he contested the June 12, 1993 presidential election against Chief Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). There is no doubt that he was roundly defeated at that poll, as he even lost in his Kano homestead. Abiola won the polls in the North and showed that a Nigerian could actually command the support of Nigerians across the country, despite the country’s diversity. But the test of Tofa’s principles and philosophy came when the military decided to annul that election by halting declaration of its result. Rather than write his name in the nation’s history books in gold by conceding defeat and join in resisting the government’s divide and rule tactics, the NRC candidate missed that opportunity.

This might have contributed to the silence from his end since then. Even when he criticised the Buhari administration’s declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and conferment of the highest national honour, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on Chief Abiola posthumously, Tofa protested but his efforts were too feeble to be noticed.

The man has gone the way of all flesh. All to note is that he played his part the best way he could, but younger politicians should learn to stand for the country at critical moments in history.

Minister of education Mallam  Adamu Adamu has sent out a notice informing all qualified Nigerians to apply for the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) scholarship for both undergraduate and post-graduate studies in countries like Russia, Morocco, Hungary and Egypt for undergraduate degrees and Russia, China, Hungary, Serbia and Romania for post-graduate studies mainly for those who had done their undergraduate degrees in those countries. Qualified candidates were advised to apply through the ministry’s website.

We welcome the idea of Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) with these countries as ideas and knowledge belong to our common humanity and we, as part of the global community, must key into the wider opportunities such moves present.

However, we are concerned about the seeming silence over indigenous government scholarships that ironically availed most of the people in leadership positions today the opportunity to get quality education. There has been some seemingly opaque narratives about some scholarship schemes. There have been reports about some schemes being riddled with nepotism and qualified applicants being losers in the game.

Education is the bedrock of any form of development and scholarships are given to encourage brilliant citizens to study without worrying about funding. Scholarships are not seen as favours done recipients but as investment in human capital which in turn makes the individuals assets for national development. Scholarships serve multiple purposes, especially for national development and individual growths.

Scholarship grants are ways of encouraging not just academic scholarship but also as an incentive to talented and academically gifted students. They also promote a sense of patriotism and gratitude in cases where individual foundations or corporate bodies offer the scholarships based on their chosen career paths.

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The BEA under review has guidelines and is almost contractual in the sense that we assume that the named countries would ask for reciprocity in education or can choose other modes of gaining from the agreement. Did the ministry of education evaluate the value of the scholarships vis-a-vis education in a reciprocal level for citizens of the countries involved? If no, why and what are we gaining and how does the country prevent any deficit in value?

While such agreements are good, we believe that the whole scholarship schemes for Nigerians must be re-evaluated. Why do we always jump to foreign universities with the economic and social implications. It costs a lot to train one individual abroad in a country with the highest out-of-school children in the world. Would it not be better to spread such funds in the country and get more students in the scholarship net and expand the literacy rate? Sending citizens abroad for undergraduate education often displaces them socially and most of them lose interest in coming back to develop the country.

The handling of some federal scholarships to other countries has been notoriously badly handled, forcing the students to march in protest on the streets in their countries of study because their tuitions and living allowances are left unpaid. This is particularly true of the beneficiaries from the Niger Delta Amnesty Scholarships. The chaos being experienced says something about our education sector. They must be seen to be in charge of setting the rules and monitoring compliance.

Beyond putting out the notice for this BEA, we expect the ministry to generally be more responsive to the needs of the education sector in the country. Scholarship schemes must not continue to be the cash cow for some civil servants who allegedly manipulate the schemes for personal gains. Education is one of the most important ingredients of development and must be handled with the diligence and commitment of a country in dire need of development. Again, we advise that the agreements in this type of cases must be such that benefits the country because there is no free lunch anywhere. We pray there are no grey areas that tilt the scale in favour of some of the countries in question. That would be shooting ourselves on the foot.

What we are saying, in essence, is that scholarships must not be targeted at foreign lands only. We must interrogate why our universities are not good enough. Money pumped into foreign scholarships could be saved and used to develop the infrastructure in our schools and colleges. We must say no to second self-enslavement that shortchanges us as a nation. We can do better than jump at dangling scholarship carrots.

An accident was narrowly averted at the airside of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, when a speeding airside operations car by slim chance missed colliding with a Dana Air plane taxiing for take-off. Reports said the Dana Air MD 83 aircraft with 157 passengers and seven crew members on board was departing Lagos airport for Enugu on December 21, 2021, and was taxiing to join Runway 18L when the speeding vehicle nearly rammed into it. The car reportedly belonged to the Nigeria Customs Service and was driven by one of its personnel.

According to sources close to the incident, an angry pilot of the Dana Air plane put in a call to the airport control tower to report the incident. Upon receiving the report, officials of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) at the control tower alerted Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) airside personnel who chased after and apprehended the car and its driver. “The pilot of Dana Air flight 0371 complained angrily about a ‘military’ vehicle that drove dangerously past his (aircraft) nose, prompting him to apply the brakes unexpectedly,” a FAAN source was quoted saying. “The vehicle was apprehended by MM123. It was reported to the control tower that it was a Customs vehicle. They were immediately taken to AVSEC for further questioning. The Dana plane was later airborne at 11:27am,” said another source who gave the name and operation number of the Customs driver involved.

FAAN General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs. Henrieta Yakubu, confirmed the incident, saying the agency had since improved security at the airside of the airport. Other officers of FAAN who spoke anonymously because they weren’t official spokespersons explained that the Customs driver was probably not even trained in airside driving. “Agencies deploy new officers to the airport from time to time, but I am not sure if FAAN ensures these officers are trained in airside driving. I suspect this driver was not properly trained in airside driving because it is unlikely someone trained in airside driving will behave in such a very dangerous manner,” one officer said.

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The Dana Air incident occurred barely one week after a Max Air jet that was about to land nearly ploughed into a malfunctioning vehicle being tested on  Runway 18L, following which FAAN suspended some officials. It was not certain if a similar step was taken in the wake of the latest incident, but the trend raises a question concerning airside security at the Lagos airport. FAAN was involved in some major runway and airside breaches in the past. In December 2019, there was a stir when an unidentified man mysteriously found his way into the airside and mounted a moving Air Peace plane. The man was later arrested by security operatives who were alerted by the pilot of a private jet coming behind the Air Peace plane. That incident occurred just six months after another man gained access into the Lagos airport and climbed aboard a Port Harcourt-bound Azman Airlines flight. The man, suspected to be mentally ill, was later identified as a Nigerien named Usman Adamu and could not speak or understand English according to the police. Authorities indicated at the time they were looking into how Adamu got inside a restricted area.

Nigeria has been quite lucky with the safety of public aviation in recent years, but porosity of airport facilities could compromise that safety and there is need to do all that is necessary to secure those airports. In light of the recent near-mishaps, the biggest onus falls on FAAN to strengthen airside security. But the issue goes beyond FAAN alone. It is incumbent on all airport operating agencies to ensure due diligence, including up-to-grade training of their personnel. Actually, sanctions shouldn’t be spared against defaulters to keep air travellers safe.