Tony Marinho
WHY should SERAP be forced to do the work of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation who should investigate directly all serving politicians and others receiving double salary or salary and pensions? The AGF has unlimited access and powers; SERAP does not. Information will not be released by the banks, the states and National Assembly (NASS) and by the accused ex-governors/current NASS members themselves. This is passing the buck, expecting SERAP to fail due to official obstruction.
The Coronavirus COVID-19 is currently running at deaths around 4,000, infections 120,000+ and growing. COVID-19 is causing mounting losses estimated to possibly eventually amount to $1-3trillion in worldwide losses. The airline Flybe is in administration as will be many companies and corporations. There will be millions in job losses. The Olympics are threatened by virus terrorism and know that 100million events, private and public, small and large, have been cancelled with multidimensional damage to economic, social and personal life. International football matches are played behind closed doors. Even educational institutions are being closed in different regions across the world. Closures paralyse and pauperize the coffeemaker, the food vendor, the transport driver and conductor and the security official. Remember canteen and kitchen contractors are locked into food supply chains in advance. All voided by coronavirus.
All governments have got to take serious financial decisions on how to support the citizenry at this time. Will they cut citizens’ taxes, provide business support, put a moratorium on rents? Nigeria particularly will face serious problems if Coronavirus takes hold, although to date, and to Nigeria’s credit and preparations, we appear to have prevented any serious inroads of the virus. Remember Nigeria has no economic safety net or monthly dole money for when not at work. That was taken away from us by the political class which provides extravagantly for itself from the budgets across the land allocating nothing for the voting public with such support. Remember also that Nigerian parliamentarians are paid among the top-3 or 4 salaries and perks (SAP) in the world? Google if you do not believe. Why has greed-driven NASS not cut its stupendous incomes? The Brent oil price is falling from $51, hovering around $30 but predicted to fall to around $20 with the Russian/ Saudi price war flooding the market. NASS’s SAP is no longer sustainable. NASS should agree to a 75% SAP cut. A fall in the price of oil will be a double-edged sword in Nigeria. It will drastically reduce Nigeria’s dollars earnings from oil. It will also drastically reduce the cost of doing business as petroleum reimported for our pumps as the ‘so-called subsidy’ will be reduced while waiting for Dangote Refinery to replace the perpetually sabotaged NNPC refineries.
As predicted in this column, many Chinese-led infrastructure projects have ‘lost heads, arms and legs’ because too few Nigerians are trained to continue. Minister Rotimi Amaechi announced a delay in the Lagos-Ibadan Rail. Nigeria will not punish China. But if the shoe had been on the other foot, would China have forgiven??
The world is now a ‘Global Viral Village’. Remember ‘WASH’ preventive advice. WASH= Water, Soap/Sanitise and ‘Avoid Handshakes/Hugs/Hand-Head-touching/Hisses/Kisses’. Rehearse ‘Coronavirus Preventive Measures Today’. Call ‘Coronavirus Prevention Response’ meetings in your family, workplace and community and at gatherings for friendship, worship, scholarship and ‘work-ship’. Washing hands reduces typhoid, vomiting, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis? Keep your hands away from your face – one of the reasons for wearing a mask. Do not cough into other people’s faces. Drink enough fluid to make the colour of your urine colourless or lightly yellow.
Remember Nigeria’s face more visible ‘killer viruses’ than corona. They include Boko Haram, terrorist marauding herders most recently and repeatedly at Azagba in Delta State, trigger happy and extortionist uniformed road officers and ‘one-chance’ commercial vehicles. The whole area of traditional ritualists killing females for body parts is highlighted by the arrest of Ogun State ritual murderers. Who buys parts? Proper investigation and registration of herbalists are key.
The International Women’s Day theme ‘I am Generation Equality’ reminds us that ‘Gender Equality’ is strangely not yet in place in homes, communities, political groupings, jobs, sport, due to religious, ethnic or traditional excuses. Sometime the women themselves perpetuate the practices. The perpetuation of ‘bullying’ is a key factor in gender equality. Harvey Weinstein and Nigerian lecturers have been jailed for bullying and gender terrorism/abuse. Unfortunately, the traditional bullying accepted in schools, same sex or between the sexes, is incubated as a toughening-up strategy and ‘ok’. The bad behaviour mutates into accepted bad practices in traditional clubs and cults and gangs, in tertiary institutions and also in families and in the workplace. We perpetuate stupid traditions, sometimes dangerous or deadly like Female Genital Mutilation, forced marriage, honour killing, traditional murder practices targeting females for body parts, wife battering and economic obstructions like pay differentials, the glass ceiling and the ‘put down’ anti-female nasty comments couched as ‘harmless jokes’. Remember that ‘Sticks and stone may break my bones, AND names will always hurt me’ is the true version of the old adage! The tongue is for ‘War and Peace’ anywhere and can cause depression, suicidal thoughts and actions, violent reactions like stabbings and murder. Having performed over 3,000 Caesarean Sections and delivered thousands of babies and seeing thousands with problems in and out of pregnancy – I can only say to arrogant men – Up women! Abi na man born you?
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