By Dayo Sobowale
It will be an understatement to say that the world is held by the throat and in throes of the deadly coronavirus. This deadly pandemic is redrawing human culture, diplomacy, business and politics in a way that no one could have foreseen, even as early as the start of 2020, the year that it has chosen to scare the human race and make it scamper like a wet chicken in its wake. Coronavirus is a disease with no known cure yet, according to the World Health Organisation. I pray a cure is found for the virus urgently. Today however, I want to dwell on situations that are man- made and have always been with us as a modern society, globally. These are situations which we have ignored and allowed to fester and rot such that at the end of the day, they are having the same lethal and murderous effect on our civilization and culture. Just like the coronavirus that has sneaked in on us, like a thief in the night, against an unsuspecting and unprepared world.
Let me start with the major news items of last week aside from the coronavirus which has shut down nations like Italy and is threatening the US and world economy. It has rattled the US President Donald Trump on his reelection chances which hitherto has hung on the performing economy he liked to boast so much about .In Nigeria the famous and outspoken Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi was dethroned by the Governor of Kano State and banished to exile in a town in Nassarawa State. In Russia a modern communist state, President Vladmir Putin is tinkering with the constitution to prolong his power and tenure. He has weaponised marriage between a man and a woman as the basis of human existence and Russian culture and is using it as a political tool to revamp the Russian constitution. He is backed to the hilt in this ploy by the Russian Orthodox Church which had been in the cold since the Russian Communist Revolution of 1917. In the EU there is a clear clash between lucrative sports competitions like football and health, over the containment of the coronavirus. Just like a European commentator noted grimly this week that before coronavirus, the migrant was the enemy but now the corona infected migrant is the enemy of xenophobic Europeans. Which really is a dangerous development but which we shall look at in the way some EU governments are handling the pandemic so feverishly for now.
We go back again to the rise and fall of the Sanusi Emirship in Kano. History has just repeated itself because the grandfather of the dethroned Emir was dethroned by the first Premier of the northern region, the irreplaceable leader of the North the Sardauna of Sokoto Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. Sanusi’s grandfather dared the democratic power of the Sardauna, himself a prince who really should have been the Sultan and the Sardauna used his legitimate democratic power to remove him and send him to exile. The Sardauna who was killed in the 1966 coup remains the darling leader of the suffering masses of the North till today because he was a school teacher and political leader who used education to accelerate the development of the North to catch up with the South. Since his demise Northern leaders have largely feathered their own nest at the expense of the Northern poor masses, hence the suffering, anger, violence and insurgency all over the North nowadays.
In a way it is as if the former CBN governor now former Emir of Kano, was dancing to the tune of banishment and disgrace from office, given the way he lambasted both traditiona and democratic institutions which have political authority over him during his reign. He reminded me of the Icarus trajectory in ancient mythology Icarus was a famed engineer in ancient times who built flying objects and was revered for his genius. This got into his head and he decided to build a machine made of wax and strapped himself to it for a flight to the sun, which of course melted the wax and he plunged to his death. The former Emir forgot that we live in a democracy governed by elected officials and not royal blood. He perfected the friendship of the cocoyam in the midst of goats with those who put him in office and he got consumed and lost his throne. To me this was a clear sighted case of political suicide or regicide, as you like, and I wish him happy rest as a private citizen of Kano in Nassarawa.
We move on to say that it is now possible to compare the political culture in the west with that of Russia a nation that was the arch enemy of the US during the Cold War. Russia was communist and atheist during the Cold War and the Russian Orthodox Church was to be seen and not heard. But either under the Marxists or the Soviet Union, Russia had no sympathy for gay rights till today, just like Nigeria which has anti gay laws in place. Now a Russian leader is using culture and religion which he knows are popular with his people to elongate his hold on power and you cannot blame him since he has carried his people along so far.
Compare that with the west where you cannot publicly criticize gay people and where the feminist movements have ruined the careers of men who had affairs with them or helped them in the past. President Vladmir Putin is trying to reform the social life in Russia in terms of criminalizing gay rights while at the same time putting that in a package of political reform to amend the Russian constitution to stay longer in office after his present tenure expires in 2024. He plans to stay in power till 2036 when he is expected to be 83 years old. It is a plan that is Machiavellian in nature but it is a move popular in Russia and much supported by the Orthodox Church of which 70 per cent of Russians are devoted worshippers. Putin has somewhat managed to put Russia on a higher moral pedestal than the west on marriage and gay rights and as a Nigerian whose people and government share such values he has my admiration, albeit grudgingly for his brand of democracy. Democracies worth their salt should be governments of the people by the people and for the people. Not the near anarchist type in the US and EU where the laws on hate speech have literally silenced dissent and is now fuelling xenophobia because people cannot say their inner feelings in public anymore. That really is the type of situation that breeds resentment against society and its mores and culture. It is a sure recipe for disorder and societal disequilibrium and I do not envy the future of Western culture and civilization for now.
We move on to the coronavirus menace and Europe where empty stadia have become more common nowadays because of the corona virus in Europe, the seat of world sports. What started as a simple warning by the young Chinese owner of a Milan club that his directors should not place sports above health is now the vogue in the fight to stem the spread of the corona virus in world sports. It is even feared that the 2020 Olympics in Japan may be affected or postponed.
I expect both fans and footballers who earn fantastic weekly salaries should understand and know that life has no duplicate. The only solution is to pray for a cure very fast and I hope that happens soon. But the ways different nations have tackled the virus show t a lot about governance and the peculiar types of democracies. In the US the anti Trump media and opposition Democrats are busy discrediting all their governments efforts to contain the virus. In Italy where it has killed over one thousand people, the PM has ordered regions and cities closed and sports suspended nationally and everybody is obeying and playing ball. In Germany, a true Federation, the Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot just issue national instructions on the virus but must leave it to the states or consult them before acting. In Nigeria even though some states are taking actions we know that when it comes to funding they will go cap in hand to Aso Rock to ask for money over a matter that revolves around life and death and which the states should handle in a true federation and not the unitary system perfected by military intervention in our politics. Sincerely I pray this corona contagion will soon go away for us to live our normal life. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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